A quick update on classes this week and then, yet another confession. Gimme continues to progress. Monday was class at a park in a tennis court. We did some LLW and then practiced a cued turn. I don't have a reason to use a cued turn and really don't think dogs need them. So I just used the time to strengthen "ready", which is Gimme's cue that its time to focus on me (and look at me). By using that cue, she'd look up and then couldn't miss which direction I was turning.
Yesterday it turned out that Susan (with Harley) and me (with Gimme) were the only ones in class. We ended up teaching our dogs something new. It wasn't really new for us, since Gimme already knows "hip" and "thigh" (left/right heel w/ automatic sit). Still I went along with the exercise and worked on teaching it the way Ursula recommended, based on luring. I don't find luring very effective for Gimme the vast majority of the time. She gets stuck on the lure and has difficulty letting go of it. This exercise was no exception.
Now the confession...
I have discovered that Gimme's understanding of "heel" has really deteriorated - temporarily nonexistent. At first I thought it was the distraction of the class location, but quickly discovered it pretty much applies to any situation. I realized that when we first attended Public Dog, Gimme was really distracted and couldn't do LLW. Since her heel behavior was stronger, I used my non-verbal cue (hand at my waist) to get her to walk with me on a loose leash. That would have been okay, except I didn't think it through. Even though it was okay to c/t for any loose leash walking in that distracting environment, I should have shaped back to the precise standard for heel and I didn't. So Gimme's understanding is that previous cues to "heel" (non-verbal and sometimes verbal when I'd get caught up because Ursula calls her precision walking "heel") now mean LLW. I can't blame that on Gimme or the Public Dog classes -- its all mine to own up to.
I've also lost her attentiveness. In Public Dog classes I've been focusing on teaching her to chill out
and just be calm - more like Relaxation Protocol. That's not her normal state
-- she'd rather be working the whole time. In rewarding calm-looking behaviors
and relaxed looking around, I'm also not-rewarding attention -
thus I'm getting more looking around and less attention. She's not misbehaving, just inattentive to me, disconnected and calmly waiting. So, in thinking it
over, it makes sense that she believes that is what I want when we are out and
about, because that is what I've been rewarding all summer. Duh...
I need both from Gimme. Heeling and loose leash walking. Working attention and ability to be calm in distracting/challenging environments. I have no doubt Gimme can learn each of these
different criteria - I just have to be clear and consistent. She can only learn
what I am clearly teaching and consistently rewarding.
I tried in classes to work on this, to no avail. I tried a quick session before class, with no luck. I tried in a parking lot (not connected to class), no success. Since those frustrating experiences, I realized I would have to start over naming the position... beginning in the seclusion of my living room.
And likewise, I'll have to go back and regain the beautiful attention I had. I did a session this morning with about 20
treats. And halfway through I had to remind her to "wait" before I'd move from
one position to another (heel, front, side) or she'd try to maintain it. So it
looks like we'll get heel back reasonably fast.
You have to be smarter than a dog to train one...
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