Private Lesson & Target Stick

I wanted to do one of the exercises we did in our private lesson, but needed to attach the cue to the target stick behavior first.  Silly me, I thought Gimme would remember how to do her target stick behavior, even if we haven't done it for at least six months.  Whereas Gimme thought it was really nice of me to bring a stick in for her to chew on. 

So I quickly dropped the idea of attaching a cue to the biting-the-stick behavior.  I basically had to free-shape it from the start.  By the time we finished she was doing really nice nose touches on the end.  So if she does that again next time from the start, I will attach a cue to it.

PRIVATE LESSON...

We started with some discussions, based on some questions I had been thinking about. 

Q1a.  Are we complicating the wait-for-the-cue process by using her two default behaviors (sit and down) in the mixed sets?   When we did so much work on her relaxation protocol in classes, the down turned into a second default.

• Maybe we shouldn't use them in the mixed sets for wait for the cue training.  Its possible we'd get better stimulus control, but lose them as default behaviors.
• However, just because they are defaults, doesn't mean we shouldn't expect some level of stimulus control, we just may not get all four elements.
• If I cue sit or down, she only gets click/treat/reward if she does what I cued.
• If she offers either default I don't have to click/treat it, but could do so randomly.  I can also reward in other ways.
• If she offers a default in place of the behavior I cued, no reward.

Q1b.  (based on the last question) What are the four elements for stimulus control?

• If I cue X, you do X
• If I cue X, you don't do Z (or others)
• If I cue Z (or others), you don't do X
• If I don't cue X, you don't do X (doesn't apply to defaults or naturally occurring behaviors)

Q2.  Are there times when we should change the training order for the last three of the six stages of learning?

• Yes, there are times when we would.  Actually the last four stages are what makes up stimulus control. 
• Those last four are usually on a circular cycle where they are each being taught over and over, or in random order, as understanding and difficulty of behavior increase.  Its important to specify, that when I say random here... that doesn't mean within one training session.  It merely means that between different sessions, these don't have to be in a specific order.
• Different behaviors have a different logical order for teaching.
• Plus, some dogs do better with a different order.  For instance, a dog as smart and active as Gimme will be bored with most duration work, so it works better to teach her distraction and/or distance first.  Then the duration develops along the way without boring her.
• And, which "stage" you are working on may depend on the environment in which you are working at any given moment.  IE. What I train and expect in the living room will be different than what I can train and expect in a parking lot.  I would be more likely to train for distance or duration in a familiar environment, while distraction is present in a strange environment, so initially that is what you are training for.

Q3.  In classes we discovered that stopping after 5 good repetitions gave us the best results. Am I doing too many reps at a time and is that undermining the process?

• Probably yes – even though the sessions are still relatively short, 3-5 minutes, there may be too many reps in a set.  It's better to focus on repetitions rather than time.
• We did a plan for this private lesson, where for the most part, after 5 reps we'd break off that set and let Gimme relax and refresh.  Then after a minute come back for another set. In this way Gimme was able to stay with us for a session that lasted 30 minutes, even despite the distraction of a new location (never been in that room before), despite her knowing that nosework was happening elsewhere in the building, despite the brain intensive nature of some of the work and despite the fact of her being in season.  Woohoo Gimme…

Q4.  Does Gimme know the behaviors (peach and orange), does she simply believe she should do whatever prop she is looking at, or is it still a listening skills issue?

• We didn't really address this issue in depth, rather went into training and working on listening skills.  We initially found she couldn't do a number of well known behaviors, as well as the two fruit behaviors, in that distracting environment, so we had to show her that it still applied there too.  Then she did much better.
• When we set up a different chair (folding no less), after just a moment of attaching the cue to that chair, Gimme went right to work, if slowly, so she does know the cue.  Initially the quality was lower, nose under instead of head under.  Then as the lesson progressed she went back to putting her whole head under the chair.

In other blog entries I'll talk more about the exercises we did.  There is much to do and it has become quite a fascinating process.  Gimme always keeps me on my toes.