Public Dog (17)

First, I'm rereading "When Pigs Fly" by Jane Killion.  I wanted to review some of her excellent ideas.  I was fascinated to realize how often she talks about Gimme in her book, which was written in 2007, many years before my girlie was born.  At one point she says of pigs-fly dogs, "You are not going to get a Gimme when it comes to attention."  How did she know that Gimme would have such good attention skills (well, most of the time).  She mentions her many times in the book, but this one really stood out to me.  <g>

Today in Public Dog class Gimme did so well - the best she's done since we started this ten week round of classes.  I was careful with management - especially so after going in the training room to set up and having Max (giant Schnauzer) go off on me.  He's unpredictably reactive and his owner just corrects him for it, but isn't really working on the issues that set  him off.  So I made sure there was a good visual barrier between where we were setting up and where his owner was sitting with him.  I absolutely wasn't going to risk him going off when Gimme was near.

Our exercises were interesting and challenging.  First we were to walk a figure 8 with a dish of french fries for one pole and a person in a wheelchair for the other AND we were not supposed to cue "leave it".  One of the goals for this class is to get such things on an auto-leave-it when the dogs are working.  We were supposed to body block any attempt to engage either.  Obviously we want the dogs to be friendly and comfortable with people in wheelchairs, but we also don't want them to assume they are free to greet any person they see.   As it was set up, there was also the man with the creepy shepherd sitting nearby to observe, so Gimme had to walk between them and the person in the wheelchair.

I was very pleased with how she did.  It took a couple reminders to start with to get her into LLW mode, but then she was really very good.  As we went back in the building, they remote rang the doorbell - which was of no interest to Gimme, unlike two other dogs that had a barking fit.

After that we did a session in a cordoned off section of the room with Ursula for "join up".  I'm not totally sold on the concept of this, but still it can't hurt and Gimme enjoys the treats.  Once she realized I was going to pay with peanut butter, she was almost unable to be distracted from me.  That is no small feat given that Ursula was using a whole jar of peanut butter (opened) to distract her.  After that we went out to repeat the exercise in the fenced in play yard.  By then Gimme realized Ursula was back to her old tricks of trying to distract her but never paying up... so she did really well and didn't fall for it (well hardly ever).

Then we did a session with Elizabeth and her dog as one post and the food as the other post, again with the man and creepy shepherd observers.  So LLW between Elizabeth and her dog and the man and the shepherd was a significant task.  I cut the space in half and paid well the moment after we passed between them, so the second time Gimme never even looked at them.

Then Elizabeth had us stop and she cued her dog to bark for us.  That's a special trigger for Gimme and I didn't expect it to go well.  However, it was a single controlled bark and she barely took notice of it.  We were able to get within about 6 feet and she was still able to "whazzat" for a treat.  Then we lined up for down stays and rewarded the dogs heavily for staying put as Elizabeth heeled by with her dog.  Gimme did great.  She did not do as well when she went behind us.  In her defense the poop bucket was between us and the wall and when they detoured around it, their their line of motion changed so it was headed more toward us.  I made sure when I reset her in the down that I moved her a couple feet forward and the next time she did great.

Then Elizabeth cued her dog to get crazy with active play and barking.  That was almost too much for Gimme and I had to move her a little further away.  With a little more distance she was able to work through it nicely - about ten feet away.  Given that kind of thing is very difficult for her, it was a huge achievement.  We ended with a short session of all the dogs LLW around randomly in the play yard.  After all the other exercises, this was pretty easy for Gimme.

All in all it was a very challenging class and I was totally happy with how Gimme did.  She got stuck once or twice, but her recovery was excellent.  She was quiet and content up until I had to leave to meet friends at the Freedom Shootout.  I left her loose in the house for what turned out to be 4.5 hours (the longest time I've done this) and she was a good girl (she likes having light classical music playing on the TV).  I think she is showing that she has fully recovered from our earlier discombobulation and is ready to work on some of the bigger challenges.

An interesting note from the Freedom Shootout -- where we got to shoot trap, which I hadn't done in 20 years and have a major bruise already coloring up.  We got to shoot some practice rounds with an instructor to coach us and the one I got was very good.  He figured out right away that I am left-eye-dominant, so was able to tell me what to do to correct for it.  As he talked I was reminded of stuff Lanny Bassham says in his book "With Winning in Mind".

Its not at all easy to keep your mind out of the way and to go with your unconscious mind.  I was thinking as my instructor was talking about how easy it is for us to go on a sort of auto-pilot when we are free-shaping a behavior.  If you wait to consciously note the behavior, your click is always too late.  So, I found if I treated pulling the trigger like clicking a clicker, that it went much better.  After that, for my round I hit 17 out of 25.

I understand that is considered very good and people who shoot a lot don't do that well much of the time.  One guy at our table had shot 23 the first round and 3 the next... so I beat him percentage-wise and he shoots all the time (I was uncharacteristically gracious and didn't say anything).  Still the word got around and a few people came up and congratulated me on doing so well.  I don't know of any other sport where a 68% success rate is considered good - I've gotten so used to dog sports where the standard for success even at the lowest level is much higher.

Puppy Class & NW (1/14)

After our talk on Monday, I changed Gimme to a different, less chaotic class.  Originally I put her in a different Thursday class, but someone else needed that slot, so I changed to puppy class yesterday.  I took our milk crate to work on that trick and we worked on some other behaviors.

There were supposed to be three puppies, but only two showed up.  Gimme did better with that quieter class.  She paid no attention to Ursula dropping a crutch nearby - noticed, but unconcerned.  Everyone wears funny hats and a boy wheeled around the room in a wheelchair, so she got to practice sitting politely while he pet her.   She enjoyed walking over and through all the different things that were on the floor (this class is about puppies exploring different experiences).  I can't say that she enjoyed walking down the metal grate see-through stairs, but she did it.  She's clearly not afraid of it, but the stairs are uncomfortable on the feet (Ursula tried it barefoot herself).

We also played "pass the puppy".  The puppies actually stay put and the humans rotate.  Gimme thoroughly enjoyed all the people who came to see her - she can never get enough attention from people and is just sure that a stranger is simply someone who has not yet had the blessing of meeting her.  Interestingly, after that she was clearly tired.  I was pleased to see that, as I expected, she wasn't overly concerned about me leaving her with strangers - though she was happy to have me come back.

I researched different natural and alternative approaches to false pregnancy symptoms.  Before class that day I made sure I got her out to run off leash for a three mile walk, so I'm sure that helped.  Today after nosework class Mary with Grafton and me with Gimme went to walk around the Capitol Campus.  Gimme was THRILLED to see her Grafton and they had fun taking every opportunity to get their leashes tangled.  There are rarely dogs there, so it was a nice chance to get in 1.5 miles.  Her loose leash walking is absent; she claims she's never heard of it.  We'll probably go tomorrow as well. Today I was able to get some of the other natural/alternative remedies, one of which made a DRAMATIC difference.  I am thrilled with how much it has helped her - she got her single pellet 7 hours ago and is still a happy relaxed camper.  She's also getting Raspberry Leaf Tea in her drinking water and Evening Primrose Oil.

For class tonight we met at a park and did three exterior hides.  Gimme did a great job on two of them, finding them very quickly.  On the third one she blew by it and just gave a nose tilt (which I missed, but Joyce saw it) and then spent all her time having fun searching every other spot she could.  We also did an interior hide in one of the bathrooms and she found that very quickly.

Now we are going to camp out on the couch, watch a movie and I'm gonna massage my foot for about 2 hours. 

Nosework (6/13)

We met at Diane's house tonight for class.  We did two exterior searches and one indoors.  I honestly had no idea of what to expect from my little "expectant mother".  I figure she is "due" any day now - caught her examining the floor of the closet this morning and she's getting more emotional by the moment.  She's been very needy and has to be with me every moment.  Usually she naps on the couch while I'm on the computer, but tonight she is right here with me.

Despite my concerns, she did really well.  Her first search she was a bit less focused than normal, but still did great finding both hides in the exterior very quickly.  One was in a garden hose caddy, tucked under the edge of the hose.  The other was in a pen cap stuck into the ground and covered with bark dust. 

The second search was in Diane's tiny garage - good thing she has a sports car or you couldn't get in or out of the car.  A couple of the dogs found this space disturbing - it was really crowded and the lighting was very dark at one end.  Gimme didn't have any problem with that.  She found where the NW1 level hide had been, but had difficulty finding the inaccessible hide in a drawer, which was a hard one.  She tried to tell me the lingering odor was it, but I didn't fall for it and so she persisted and found the real deal.  We would not be faced with that kind of lingering odor at a trial - they won't even reuse a room on the next day.

The last search was around a fountain.  Gimme just had me running around behind her and found those very quickly.  I was sure glad to see that she does this well at nosework even in her "condition".

Last night in agility class - she was not very focused, so for her first run we just focused on teaching her to do the chute without curling toward me as she finishes it.  We probably did the chute 25 times...  Gimme thought that was very fun.  We also did the weaves.  She missed the entry, but when I put her in again she did them nicely.

For our second run, we did do the course until we found a spot that challenged us... It was a two jump straightaway with a big distance between them and in a place where she'd easily get ahead of me.  She curled toward me and missed the second jump.  I did it again and used a forward hand signal to send to the second jump.  Then Blynn had me do it again using my hand to push out to the side.  She said the problem was that she was collapsing in on my line and that I needed to push out to the side not thrust forward.  It worked beautifully.  I love APHS handling because its so intuitive to the dogs.

We've been doing a little bit of free-shaping of two new tricks for use in RallyFrEe.  One is to send her out to run through an upright hoop - which took her all of three clicks to figure out.  I wanted it to teach her to go out to the dogwalk up-ramp and have her mount the end, not the side, without me being there.  Of course Gimme wanted to embellish it... so once we are done using it for its intended purpose I'll retool it using her idea -- which is, to back to it and through it...  She's so clever.

I bought her a cute little stool for our other trick - which is to get on the stool with all four feet and spin around.  She's happy to get on it, but not yet comfortable enough to offer turning around.  If I'm right there moving around her she will to keep facing me.  The stool is small - 8x11 top and ten inches high.  Its not too small for her to do that, but enough that she's not yet completely comfortable.  I think I'll use a milk crate to shape the intended behavior (with something to make the bottom comfortable on her feeties) and then will transfer it to the stool.

Dead "Bug"

My back is all screwed up right now, so I wanted to give Gimme a training session without having to move from the couch.  I thought free-shaping a "bug" behavior, as in "what does a dead 'bug' look like?" would do it. I had some specifics that I wanted to be part of the new behavior.

First, I don't want to start by cuing "down" because I don't want there to be any vagueness of what the behavior means; i.e. I don't want her to get the idea that she can use it as a transition to other behaviors.  The last thing I need is to be in the obedience ring some day and have her show her dead "bug" behavior during a drop on recall, or to "grape" during stays.

Second, I wanted her to roll the other direction.  For "grape" she rolls onto her right hip and then rolls over.  So for "bug" I wanted her to roll onto her left hip and then stop on her back and hold the position.  She almost always rolls onto the right hip when relaxed and curls in that direction when napping, so I also wanted this specificity for her flexibility.

I thought I'd free-shape it all the way through, but hadn't counted on how really challenging it would be to overcome the pre-existing motor pattern.  Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!  I was able to shape a down with ever so slight of a lean toward the left hip, but that was as far as we could get.  She just couldn't seem to wrap her mind around the idea of actually rolling onto her left hip and she was getting very frustrated and basically yelling at me.

So I resorted to luring her from there to get that roll and then from there onto her back.  I clicked any time she was on her back with all four feet upward.  She's so muscular that she tended to continue the roll on over and that wasn't what I wanted.  So a couple of times, I didn't click, instead just feeding her treat-after-treat-after-treat in position.  She'd use my hands to steady herself, otherwise she'd just flop on over.  Then she figured out on her own that if she curved her body in a c-shape, that it would steady her in position and she got more treats that way.

Then she leapt up and had to show me that she could do "bug" by rolling onto her right hip.  You may well imagine how frustrated she got and how much doggie yelling ensued when I didn't reward her version.  After she calmed down, I lured her the way I wanted it twice more - rewarding a lot in position.

After that she demo'd her way again.  Then she stood there talking to me - I'm sure if I could speak dog that she made a eloquent case for her approach.  Naturally I let her speak her mind, after which she just stood there staring at me as if I was bereft of any understanding regarding her plight.  Then, to humor me, she dropped and gave me "bug" the way I wanted it and got at least twenty treats in position.  After which we ended the training session.

I'm sure she finds my insistence on doing things my way, to be my most annoying and frustrating character flaw.  Fortunately I have redeeming qualities - like believing that the sun rises and sets in her shadow.  Not to mention that I pay well...

Nails

Gimme and I are doing a lot of free-shaping lately.  I am working on tightening up her spin.   I'm also trying to get her to go in the other direction.  She prefers counter-clockwise (left turning) turns/spins/pivots, so I want to get her going the other way to keep her body balanced.  Not to mention that we'll need spins in both directions. 

I'm also teaching her to file her own nails.  I have to confess, I really hate doing nails, but have done them all my dog-owning life because its a necessity.  Now though, its gotten to where doing them really makes my back hurt.  There is something about the posture that just does me in.  So I read on line about making a nail board and free-shaping the dog to scratch (front feet) and kick (back feet) to do their own nails.  

So I made a board and thought I'd put it in a spot where she walks through several times a day... wouldn't you know she neatly steps around it every time.  For now I'm placing it right inside the dog door, where she goes through about ten times a day.  Since she doesn't really see/notice it, she doesn't try to avoid it.

Plus we've had two free-shaping sessions where I prop the board up and shape her to scratch at it.  I tried it laying flat, but she kept thinking it was a platform that she should stand on.  Last night I was able to easily get her to scratch with the left front foot.  At the time I thought it was the location of the board relative to where I was sitting and planned to reverse that tonight to do her right foot.  However, it turns out that isn't the issue at all.  Gimme is decidedly left-pawed.  It took longer, but I did get her scratching with the right foot. 

I was pleasantly surprised how well the nail board works and could really see where it had filed her nails.  Come summer I will video tape her coming and going on the front and back stairs to identify where she steps.  I'm guessing it will be toward the leading edge.  Then I'll put that stuff on on the stairs and she can do her own nails for life, eh...   I don't actually know if that will be enough, but usually her back nails stay reasonable length, so it should keep them down enough.  And if it doesn't keep the front nails down, it won't take anything to just spend ten minutes a week clicking and treating her for doing them herself. 

BTW the "stuff" I'm talking about is that adhesive backed "outdoor tread" made by 3M.  I bought a roll of it from Home Depot in the paint department; its 4" wide by 180" long for $20.  Most people put it on stairs for added traction and safety.  It'll stick to wood or cement, can be used outdoors and lasts a long time. 

Dilemma Solved

I've been trying to teach Gimme to do repeat/alternating lifts of her front feet, for a freestyle move that I will call "tap".

I tried doing this in class the way Ursula suggested but ran into difficulty.  Her method was to use the "paw" that we'd taught, cue it and then as the dog reached for it, to pull the hand away and click/treat.  What I discovered was that Gimme found that punishing and quit trying after 2-3 repetitions.  I believe this comes from my snatching my hand away when she muggs me for food. 

So I've been trying to free-shape it with minimal success.  I got lots of repetitions, but not much height.  We've done several sessions and just seemed to be stuck.  Tonight I decided to try it on the grooming table.  Then I could stand back far enough that Gimme really had to reach for it - and click before she whacked my hand and not have to pull back.  We made some amazing progress very quickly - probably a three minute training session.

I realized that my hands could be the signal for the move, and that I could make them kind of dance like.  So I tried to tape this little video of the hand signal I envision to see what it was going to look like from a different angle.  Clearly this signal needs to be refined.

I only share this with you because the moment Gimme saw me doing it, she tried to get into the act.  I can hardly believe that my brilliant little girl picked it up so quickly.  Though why it should surprise me after so many instances of brilliance, doesn't make sense.  I guess I'm just a slow learner...

Shaping "tap"

The other day I knew Gimme needed a bit of training and also knew I wasn't really in the mood to review our training notebook and work out a plan of what to train.  So decided to just free shape for creativity and see what came up.

The way I do that is to basically click/treat whatever Gimme offers me.  Of course, she likes to run the show, so tends to settle into repeating things she knows, to MAKE me click/treat.  When that happens I stop clicking whatever behavior she is repeating.  She quickly offers something else.

We got to a behavior where she was sitting in front of me and moving her front feet, up and down, basically tap dancing in place.  Because she was sitting in front of me, I had some concern that free shaping a sitting tap dance might pollute our obedience front.  So I turned it into a standing tap dance.

The behavior I want is for her to stand in one place and lift her feet up, noticeably high, alternating feet.  I don't want side-to-side or forward or back motion.  A little bit of side-to-side is just going to happen, but I want the main action to be up and down.  For the final "tap" behavior, I want it either in "hip" (standing heel), "thigh" (standing off-side heel), or "center" (standing front) position.

I was having real difficulty getting her to not lift and step backward.  She'd have the backward motion in mind, so even though I was clicking the lift, the treat was coming after the motion.   Thus it was getting rewarded too.  If I could see her whole body, I could predict when a lift would involve forward/back motion and not click, but I'm concentrating on her feet to click the best lifts, so can't see the motion tip offs.

During one of Gimme's bark fests - which happen whenever she thinks I'm missing good clicking opportunities... while I was taking a break to wait out her yelling, it occurred to me to use jackpots to strengthen the behaviors I DO want and the behaviors that are rewarded with a single treat will diminish.  That way I can click anything that is close to what I want and use the treat to give her qualitative information.  I know the big names in dog training say that jackpots don't work, but I think they've never worked with a really smart dog.  Gimme totally understands the jackpot concept and when she gets them, she works very hard to figure out what behavior pays better. 

Toward the end of our session, I was starting to be more selective about the height of lift I would reward with a jackpot.  Its tricky, because I don't want it to look like she is pawing forward - rather more like a hackney trot in place.  She actually started lifting and holding it there ever so briefly on her own.  Then when she thought I wasn't paying well enough (cuz I didn't jackpot a couple), she'd hold and sort of jiggle her foot.  It was so damn cute, I captured that with a couple super jackpots and ran out of treats.  If I can get that consistently, it would be perfect.

Next time we'll work on getting that with the left foot too.  She will do alternate lifts, left and right several times for a click.  But the best action was coming with her right foot. 

She's sound asleep now.

Adjusting

Gimme and I are still adjusting to the changes following losing Meaggi.  I'm depressed and she is uncertain, probably because of my sadness and the changes in our routine.  I think she likes having me all to herself... she just wishes it was a happier me.  I've been trying to keep up with outings, but it doesn't help that Mary had gallbladder surgery during the same time.  So, what walks we have had, have been shorter.  Gimme and Grafton literally shriek for joy when they see each other and run around with crazy wild abandon.  I've also been puttering with some training.

Yesterday Gimme and I joined our cat-person friend Carol at the Thurston County Republicans picnic.  We weren't there two seconds before Andrew Barkis made a beeline to see Gimme.  Lots of people came over to see her and admire what a good girl she was.  While I ate, Gimme lay beside me on the grass and I tossed her treats for being good.  She really stayed put, except when people came a visiting -- she is after all, the Official Worldwide Dalmatian Greeter.  There were even the occasional dogs passing by, that she'd look at and then turn back to me for treats.  All the time we've put into chillin' paid off.  Here's a couple pictures...

Today I thought I better get serious about some agility training, since we have class in two days.  Haven't actually done any weave poles since our last class.  Gimme did such a great job at it, that I set a jump up in front of them, since that was an issue at the last class.  She missed doing the poles a couple times, either the entry or didn't finish.  Since I haven't yet put the poles on a verbal cue, I'm completely okay with that.  Right now I am just aiming her at them -- won't put it on a verbal cue until its closer to what I want.  She was doing so nicely that I went and got the camera and made this little bit of video...  You can see she is going to be speedy.

 
Of course, watching that clip to edit it makes it painfully clear how late my clicking is...  Good grief!  She really does learn in spite of me.

After that we did a little session on the chute.  This is about the third time we've done it since our last class.  I decided to attach the chute firmly, instead of draping it over the edge.  Smartly I tipped it up on its end, but really should have put Gimme in the house while I set it up.  She tried to go through it while I was laying out the chute and got all tangled up and finally managed to get out the way she came in.  Naturally after that, she didn't want to go in again.

So I basically stood at the far end of the chute and free shaped her to leave me and go to the barrel opening and enter on her own.  Since I was holding the chute end open, a couple times she went in the chute end and turned around to get treats.  She got clicked and treated for doing that - in the sense of priming the pump.  It took a little while, about ten minutes (including distractions), but she figured it out.  I was holding the chute completely open and dropping it a little earlier each time as she came through.  After about five times coming all the way through and since I'd already dropped it right after she entered the chute part,  I went with her to the other end and sent her.  She raced through it no problem - for which she got a mega jackpot and we quit.  I'll let her percolate on that now...

I just love the way free shaping helps a dog get over what might otherwise provoke anxiety.  Of course, Gimme always likes things that she "invents".  And it certainly helps to start with the smartest dog on the planet.

Nosework (6/7)

Before class today we did a quick weaves session.  A couple times Gimme sped up and lo and behold - did the two step footwork after the entry.  Mostly with her on my right, but once on my left too.  Nice to see that, since I was thinking I might have to get out my weave-o-matics to teach her some footwork.  I like the two step footwork, since I think its a lot less stress on their joints than single-foot.  

I also think I'm being boring.  Because weaves is largely mental work, I have a tendency to go slow and methodical.  When I jazz it up a bit, while she makes more mistakes, she's more enthusiastic overall.  So I need to find a happy medium between them.  I'm sure it'll be more fun for her when we start adding other obstacles.  I am considering putting in one jump and then one tunnel to do the around the clock with four poles before adding the third 2x2.  I could also play with starting her from the table.  The last thing I want is for Gimme to see weaves as drudgery.

Class was good as always.   We were outside the garden center at Lowe's.  Had planned to work inside the garden center, but they closed the outer gates early.

We had two searches, five hides the first time and four the second.  The first search Joyce set out each hide individually as we were rewarding the one just found.  The second search they were all set out at once.  All were paired.  Gimme found all of them fairly quickly, if not directly.  We were all sitting on the edge of this tall planter to watch the other dogs and after our first search, I went out around the planter to leave the area so the other dog could start sooner.  Got halfway down the side and Gimme just hopped up there, like the light footed gazelle that she is, and trotted down that makeshift dogwalk.  This girl's mind is always thinking up something.

The hides were a bit challenging, not because they were hard locations, but rather because of the direction of the breeze.  So the hides that were on the gate/fence surface, the odor was blown away from us to an area that was inaccessible.  Occasionally there were little swirls and that would give some lingering scent near the odor, but it didn't seem to be enough to tell the dogs exactly where it was.  They all found those hides both times, it just wasn't easy for them. 

Twice there were hides in the little sheds and for some reason a couple dogs found that intimidating, but obviously not Miss Gimme.  She was all over the inside of those sheds in no time.  The sheds were odd, since they were mock-ups and only about 2.5 feet deep and I think for some reason the dogs found that weird - since they had no problem with the normal depth sheds at Home Depot last month.  I don't agree with Joyce's method to pick the little dogs up and put them in the shed, certainly not how I'd do it and those dogs were in quite a hurry to get back out again.

On Monday I met family at the Woodland Park Zoo for my Mom's birthday surprise.  Since she'd been cooped up all day, that night Gimme just couldn't settle down.  She was driving me a bit nuts and needed to do more.  Apparently the short weaves training session when I got home wasn't enough to make up for spending the day crated.

So I did a free shaping session with her, goofing off with some odd objects to no purpose, then decided to put her dumbbell down and see what she'd do.  In no time she was retrieving it from a 6 foot toss.  By the end of the session, she would sit and hold it briefly for me.  Holding has been a real problem for us.  The first couple times I asked her to sit when she brought it to me, she dropped it.  I cued her to pick it up again and paused a little before taking it from her.  She quickly learned to hold it until after she was sitting and that my hand would then come to take it.  Clearly we have a ways to go, but this is a big step forward for us.  

Tonight when we got home, I did three quick retrieves.  This time I introduced the sit at my side and by the third time Gimme understood she had to wait until I sent her for the dumbbell.  She races out and prances back with it in her mouth.  We are still working on the sit and hold, but the third time was the best.  

Gimme says she's been thinking about inventing this for quite awhile and is glad to have finally taught it to me...

Timmy in the Well (NW 4/6)

Tonight we played a training game called "Timmy in the Well".  Results were interesting.  Dogs that usually aren't the best in class seemed to do better; while a couple of the best  dogs (Gimme included) had difficulty.  Her problem had a unique cause.

The set up is that we use barriers to make a smaller than usual search area - ours was an oval about 9 x 20 feet.  The size of the area is intentionally small to reduce distraction and reduce inhibition caused by the handler's lack of movement.  In our class all the dogs did well moving to the far end, except Kia, a Pomeranian.  There is nothing in the area other than 9 boxes (1 with odor) and one chair. 

You walk in with your dog, get your treats ready in your hand and let the dog smell them, then give the search cue and let the dog go.  While the dog searches, you sit in the chair, remaining silent and still.  When the dog finds the right box you get up and walk toward the dog as long as they stay at the box.  If they leave the box, then you stop and wait for the dog to return to the right box and then walk toward them again, treating when you get all the way there.

The dog is considered to have left the box if they turn away from it or take steps away, except they can take one step toward the handler.  The idea is for the dog to be shaped by your movement toward them into sticking with odor.  Movement closer is reinforcing; stopping is not.

Gimme had a problem because she really wanted the treats (sugar-braised beef heart) and when I sat down she turned to me and mugged my hand, which I lifted up.  Then Joyce told me to put both hands on my knees and wait.  That posture is similar to one I use when I shape from sitting down and Gimme decided that's what we were doing, so naturally she threw every behavior she could think of at me, along with a lot of barking.  I didn't expect that there, because its where we always do nosework and the boxes should have been a big clue for her.  On the other hand, we are in the Targeting and Shaping class in that same room (once or twice a week).  Often I've been on my feet all day, so I've probably sat for shaping before.

I tried after our turn (which seemed to take forever) to explain my thinking to Joyce... but she just thinks the boxes should take precedence over everything.  I honestly didn't think that Gimme had really processed the "wherezit" cue before she saw what she thought was a visual cue for shaping (my posture) and visual cues take precedence over verbal cues.  Also I'm not certain she'd really noticed the boxes.  While she was throwing behaviors at me, she had her back turned to them as well.  It wasn't until she'd worn out her entire repertoire that she finally turned and looked at the boxes and went to check them out.  From the time when she went to check out the boxes until she got her treat, she was about average in time for our class.

The second time I purposely did it different, to make it clearer to her.  I took her leash off and put my hand in her harness, then got the treats in the other hand and let her check them out, but not get any.  Then I just paused holding her by the harness and waited until she really looked in the direction of the boxes and then I gave her the cue.  She started toward the boxes, but my movement to sit in the chair caught her attention and she came back.  This time she only threw a couple behaviors at me and barked a few times and then went back to the boxes and had it very quickly.  So she did a lot better the second time and I think my changes had a lot to do with making the task clearer.

Our third session was a simple exterior search with odor stuck in a pinecone, placed under the common pee bush.  I brought Gimme from the car with leash in her collar and let her potty nearby.  Then I switched her to the line attached to her harness, walked her straight to the start line and sent her to find odor.  She moved off the start so quickly that she went past it, but then quickly doubled back to the cone.  Only one dog was faster than her.

Switching the leashes is a little cumbersome, but I want a real clear distinction for her.  BTW on our last walk on a cement trail near the house (a nice 4.5 mile round trip), I really studied Gimme's marking behavior and precursors.  I noticed she tends to find a spot where she wants to mark then side steps her heiney over it before squatting.  So I'm hoping I'll be able to see that side-stepping in time to use it to interrupt any marking during nosework.

Also during that walk I saw the biggest raccoon on the planet.  I swear he was 35 pounds - simply huge.  I was sooooo thankful that I had Gimme on leash, so I was able to make some noise until he noticed us and moved off.  I wouldn't have wanted Gimme to tangle with him.  Raccoons normally retreat if they have the chance, but if they have to fight they are pretty nasty.  Gimme surely would have won, but could still have gotten badly hurt.

Nosework (5/5)

Gimme and I have been verrrrry busy this week.

We've been down to walk around Capitol Lake twice.  I timed it to hit the quieter times, so we saw less dogs and that has interesting results.  Gimme has more time to settle down between sightings, but on the other hand, seeing less dogs makes it more like sudden environmental change - so it concerns her more.  Still she is doing very well with it.  And incidentally we are getting some good loose leash walking practice.

Last night we had our first Targeting & Shaping class with Ursula - starting the first of ten weeks of class.  We'll be hitting that class every Tuesday and then the 7:00 p.m. class on Thursdays.  Plus she has nosework class on Wednesday.   We also try to get out to the fort two or three times a week.  Plus I train about five days a week... sometimes only three minutes and other times more.  As you can see, Gimme is a very busy girl.  She really thrives on having a lot to do. 

Ursula has a different approach to targeting than I've seen before and I really like it.  I was always taught that each targeting prop had a different cue and if you wanted a different behavior, then the props needed to be somewhat different.  The way Ursula teaches it, there are only two targeting behaviors - nose touch and paw touch - so, only two cues (touch and paw).  The goal being that if I point at something and say "touch", Gimme is supposed to touch it with her nose and if I say "paw" then she should paw at it or put her paws on it.  So then its a simple matter of transferring the behavior to different items, making slight changes and putting a new cue on it.  Its very versatile.  Since Gimme already has a lot of targeting experience, she picked up this new way of doing it verrrrrry quickly.  I am focusing on nose "touch" first through all the skill levels, because she's so paw oriented that I want that skill to be solid first. 

At home I am also teaching her (free shaping) to pick up things and bring them to me.  So far we've worked with a slipper, tug toy, tiny rubber cone and a stapler.  I want her to understand the concept of pick it up and "bring" it to me.  Then later I'll just attach names to things and she will be able to bring me specific things.  After the first item, each time she got faster and faster at going from a click to sniff it through to putting it in my hand.  The stapler proved to be the hardest for her, because she didn't know how to pick it up; I think because it moves some.  We didn't get that to my hand, but she was actually picking it up and I jackpotted with all the treats I had left, since it concerned her.   Then ended the session, leaving her to percolate on how rewarding it was to do that hard thing.

Nosework class tonight was very interesting.  We had two sessions of hides.  For the first session, we had basically four piles of weird stuff and the room was made smaller by using the dividers to cordon off part of the room.  There would be one hide out at a time and when the dog found it, we rewarded at source.  Then we'd take them back to the start line and while we were doing that, Joyce was putting out another hide, so we used each of the four piles.  The goal was to watch the dog for "tells" that show when they are in odor.  Gimme tends to air scent and then when she's on it, her travel becomes very direct and her head comes down more.  Of course, that change in head carriage may be a bit different when the hides are up higher.

The second session we moved most of the stuff away and had three lines of six things... with a fair number of tall things.  Joyce put out two hides and they never changed.  We brought the dog in and sent them to search.  After they found the second hide, we took them to the other end of the room and sent them again.  I was just sure the dogs would all go right back to where they'd already found the odor, but Joyce said they wouldn't and she was right.  She said they are searching based on scent and don't really focus in on a particular sight picture in one try - though they might if we repeated it several times.  The goal was to watch and see how the dog uses odor pooling and bouncing off tall things to hone in on source odor.  Gimme didn't do that much the first round because she just found them too quickly.  The second time coming from the other end of the room she did it more on one of them.  Joyce had said it would be a very different search for them just changing our starting point and that proved to be true as well.

Gimme has been sound asleep ever since I put her back in the car the second time and is now asleep under the desk.  Its interesting she can train and have activities before nosework and still have enough energy and focus to do nosework, but never the reverse.  I never try to come home from class and train anymore.  I did once and it was clear there was just no one home.  So she'll get rest for the rest of the day and all of tomorrow so she can be fresh for class tomorrow night.

Sdao Seminar

What a great day today. The seminar was just full of information... Much of which I knew, but presented in a new way or using new examples, so I am seeing different ways to apply it. Cool stuff.

The best part was the working slot I had with Gimme. Since today was basics (& more), and since there were a number of people who were less experienced, the structure of today's working sessions worked out just perfectly for us. The first session was all about the mechanics of clean clicker training. First we practiced without the dogs. Three one minute sets: how fast can you deliver treats, how fast can you click and deliver treats and then what affect do subtle changes in delivery have on your rate of delivery. Then we repeated the process with the dogs. So Gimme started by getting 26 treats for being cute. It is a system she really likes. Getting clicked and treated for really nothing suited her well too. Then the third set was clicked and treated for any head movement. Despite the distraction of all the other dogs, Gimme really was getting into this easy stuff.

Our second session was to shape a simple touch of our training partner's hand. Since Gimme already knows a hand touch, learning to do the same with someone else was very easy for her to figure out. So essentially two sessions early in the day -- easy, fun and with a very high rate of reward. During lunch we did a lot of CU look at that. That really set her up well, since I spent a lot of time on it and basically satisfied all her need to look.

By the time we started the afternoon sessions, Gimme was really primed to have fun. She had all the focus I could ever have wanted. She did really well and barely even noticed all the other dogs working on the floor at the same time (12 teams at a time). I was so proud of her. This was a huge jump in ability from last weekend. Her understanding and ability to focus despite distraction, is really just growing all the time.

BTW Gimme was a very popular photo subject. I think there are about 200 more pictures of her floating around the universe now. A man from Shanghai took at least half of them and has promised to email me copies. I got to hear how beautiful she is at least two dozen times. You know I really get tired of hearing that, not...

So, really looking forward to tomorrow with Michelle Pouliot. Gimme is clearly the cutest puppy on the planet -- I sure enjoy showing that this beauty comes with brains. Yah baby...

Gimme Chooses Mom

Today we went to a morning workshop on agility foundation with Andrea Dexter.  Didn't know what to expect from the instructor or from Gimme.  Andrea has some really great ideas about foundation work and I highly recommend her foundation seminar to anyone starting a dog in agility.

There were 8 working teams, three with were teenage dogs and the rest younger.  The first exercise was on transitions and I was sure happy that we'd already done some CU work.  The other teams were mostly learning about making the transition and how to get their dog into a thinking brain.  Gimme and I started at the car with reorienting as she got out of her crate, then again out of the car, then again entering the arena.  We walked a few steps which was enough for her to be distracted by the environment, so then I waited for her to choose to focus on me.  This happened a few times and then she was all about her Mom. 

So we did some run away games and Gimme was really wanting to stick with me.  Andrea stepped on her leash and distracted her once, Gimme chose me.  Andrea used my regular treats and distracted her, Gimme chose me.  Andrea took a bit of my peanut butter to distract her, Gimme chose me.  Then Andrea took my whole freakin' jar of peanut butter to distract her and my sweet darling baby girl still chose ME! 

I am misty eyed with the memory of this experience.  I mean, I love this dog crazy-like and I believe we have a great relationship.  But Holy Criminy... GIMME CHOSE ME OVER PEANUT BUTTER!!!!  And that was even knowing I didn't have any at all cuz she saw the transfer of the jar!

Andrea had a lot of nice things to say about Gimme and I was sooooo happy with all the foundation work we've done and what learning CU has brought to the table.  It adds a whole new element to Gimme's abilities.  By then I had so much attention from Gimme that we were able to heel out of the arena and to the car - whilst hearing Andrea pointing out our "lovely heeling". 

For our second working session, Gimme was really ready to go... with just a tiny bit of distraction.  I didn't have anything in particular that I wanted to work on, since we are really just starting agility.  I told Andrea where we are and what we are doing and then said, "feel free to chose something yourself,"  so she jumped at the chance to demonstrate something the other dogs weren't really up for.

So there we are free-shaping a completely new behavior in a strange place with 15 people watching and dogs in crates nearby.  At one point Gimme did notice one of the dogs and started to drift in that direction, yet she came perfectly when called.  After that I tossed her reward cookies in a different direction.  Twice Gimme made a leap in understanding and twice Andrea pointed it out, saying it was "accidental".  I just smiled as Gimme repeated the accidental behavior three or four more times.  After the second time, Andrea didn't say that again.  Gimme loves free-shaping and is verrrrry good at it. 

So it was a very fun day and even if I hadn't learned things, I'd still be very happy with the day because I could really see how far Gimme has come in a relatively short time.  It really is cool living with the smartest and the cutest puppy on the planet.

My Ahah Moment

Tonight I suddenly figured out something that had escaped me before.  I've been wondering why it is that Gimme is so good about stimulus control on some things and so awful on others.  There are things that I've put a cue on that she never questions and sticks with me and then there are the others...

It occurred to me tonight that the behaviors which Gimme has difficulty ceding control are all behaviors we created through free-shaping.  Every last one of them.  I suspect that in her mind, part of the picture of that behavior is the offering of it.  I'm definitely going to talk to Ursula about that.  I've been diligently working on the things she and I discussed in that private, but we are only making a smidgen of progress. 

Any behavior we created through luring, targeting or guides - those she generally is good with.  Though if she gets frustrated during a training session, all listening goes out the window.  Boy I'd sure hate to have to give up free-shaping.  Gimme is so good at it and so creative.  She's also mighty creative in coming up with clever embellishments on any behavior I'm teaching through other means as well.

We've been working on backing up using the guides.  She figured it out so quickly.  Now though she's in embellishment mode.  Who knew there were so many ways to move backward.  I swear she just sprinkles a little pixie dust around and that's why she is so bewitching.

Another project we have going is teaching her to close the door - after all, she is the one that keeps leaving it open.  We are on day two and she already has a strong idea of what to do.  What a character...

Ya Gotta Love It

I've been remiss about keeping notes since before letting Michael go and decided tonight to get a baseline on behaviors I'd been tracking in my journal.  There are other behaviors we've worked on, but this was enough for now.  So averaging 10 click/treats per behavior and 12 behaviors... that was an hour long session as it was.  I'm happy to report that even without focus on my part, the plinking around to keep Gimme from getting too bored has still produced credible progress.  Some of her behaviors are coming along very nicely.

Gimme clearly wanted more and so we did a quick shaping session of 25 click/treats to get a very nice bow (which we call "take-a", short for "take a bow - I don't use "bow" because it sounds too much like down).  I had to really fine tune my timing, because her start of the grape behavior is very much like a bow - she goes down in front and then rolls on one shoulder and its QUICK.  So I had to catch the very beginnings of the head and shoulder duck to isolate it and keep the grape from happening.  Once I got my timing right, she figured it out pretty quickly.

NOTE:  During the plinking, one day last week Gimme suddenly "got" the cue for Grape.  That has been one of the slowest cue attachments we have had.  There is something about that behavior that seemed to use all her focus.  I've tested it a couple times since then, outside training sessions, and while slow, she is doing the behavior.

So why do I say "Ya Gotta Love It".... because at the end of all that, while I was mentally wiped, Gimme didn't want to quit.  She again went into this whole glued to my side in heel, "you can't get rid of me" routine.  I had to lean down and encourage her to climb into my arms - that was the only way to get her out of heel position.  Then I carried her into the office and she knows we don't train in here, so now she is sound asleep.   I think the little booger was more tired than she realized - a bit like a kid that doesn't want to quit playing.  Granted I don't normally train that long, but its interesting that by going from one behavior to another to another, I can. 

The other reason to say "Ya Gotta Love It" is that I've somehow created a dog that simply loves to heel.  Given how little I know about formal obedience and not having a positive trainer in the area to rely on - I'm verrrrrry pleased with that outcome. 

Gimme is really quite happy to train a LOT and would train a lot more if I would.  By her way of thinking, its all play, she's got my undivided attention and I'm giving her treats for playing...  What better deal could a little spotted girl have?  I suspect, especially given her control issues, that she thinks she has trained me and is verrrrrry pleased with the results.

BTW Gimme is not convinced that the bathroom couldn't be a training space - especially once I'm a captive audience in the tub.  What a kid!!!

And just so you know... we are out and about now, even despite the snow.  Got out the first time on Saturday.  Between Saturday and Sunday I serviced all of my accounts.  Also did some shopping, so I never actually had to resort to drinking water.  Thank God. 

Sadly Snowy disappeared the very next day.  Gimme ran out first thing in the morning to check on her, sniffing all over where she had been.  She was disappointed to see that Snowy was gone, leaving only a snowball to remember her by.  Its probably just as well that she didn't have more time to get attached to her.  Most of my friends and family have their power, internet and TV back.  One friend and maybe my brother are still among those without power.  Hopefully they will rejoin us in the 21st century real soon.

Busy Girl

I've come to the realization that I'm just going to have to keep a separate calendar for Gimme's schedule.  I keep running into conflicts between what I have planned and what I want to do.  I feel like a soccer mom who is desperately trying to keep up.  All Gimme wants to know is whether her new purple leash is in the car and do I have enough cheese.

We've been keeping busy lately with a little bit of plinking here and there on different training things.  A lot of focus is going into nosework... which is how I discovered the calendar double booking.  The trial I planned to go to in April is on the same weekend as the Sdao/Pouliot seminar we are signed up for.  So now am looking at a couple others - March or June, both in Oregon.

We are playing with the Project behaviors again - which we haven't done since October.  I have been working off and on with the target stick "wait for the cue" and its coming along.   I still haven't fixed the "apple" box, so that will have to wait. 

Grape - dead bug (on back, feet in the air)

I wanted to do this since I now have interlocking floor matting to cushion Gimme from the hard floor (and provide better traction for other things). Since we haven’t trained this for three months and since it wasn’t on cue when we left off, it took awhile to get Gimme back to offering it. Even though she has been doing the Grape in my lap when she wants attention (which started 4 days after we let Michael go). She offered me a lot of "pretty" instead (we’ve been free shaping this), got frustrated and barked some. I kept clicking a "down" and when she was solid on that, I started clicking for movement while she was down. Finally in frustration she did a movement that was almost a grape and she got two treats. Next thing I knew she was throwing a LOT of  grape behaviors at me. I started putting it on cue and will continue in the next session. She sure is cute.

Melon - push cube with nose

Again a project behavior we haven’t done in three months. Gimme knew what to do the moment she saw her cube. There was a short bit of skiing on the cube and batting it, but she settled down to using her nose very quickly.  I started putting it on cue and following our earlier Grape session, she seemed to understand what I meant. She was even pushing it with her paw or using her mouth to get it out of corners and away from the walls so she could then push it with her nose AFTER I’d cued "melon". Smart cookie.

My friend loves to alter pictures and such and add sayings and stuff... so I usually get things from her that have pictures of Gimme that she's taken before.  Just got this one...

Because Talent Knows No Bounds

Awhile back I talked about Gimme's forehand pivot behavior... don't recall if there was a video or not.  I don't have one on file, so probably not.  Here is a video composite of two short sessions.  I was trying to get her to both start and end with her front feet on the brick and I do think we are getting there.  I want this to be a true pivot on the forehand and especially don't want it to to devolve into a spin in place.  I started by withholding the click until she got her feet back on the brick after the pivot... very quickly she figured out to keep them on to get the click and treat faster.  I also talked before about holding off putting a cue on this behavior, since I'd planned to name it "get in" and realized there was a conflict with another cue, "get it".  I was going to rename the "get it" behavior to "yours".  However, in the meantime, I've discovered that that cue is too entrenched, so decided to go with "pivot" for this behavior.  In editing this I was doing some slow forward and noticed there are places where she is actually crossing her back feet.  I never expected to see that.  Enjoy my cutie...

As much training as I do with her, she's still bored.  I've just learned that hunting season goes through the end of the year.  Arrrrrgh.  So will have to use the local walkway until then.  We are having a really wet spell locally - landed over an inch of rain in last twelve hours.  It rains a lot here, but often it doesn't really get going until afternoon.  Of course, that doesn't apply to the last 48 hours where it hasn't let up.

I've also just started working on teaching her a rear pivot, which I'll call "twist".  It takes her a bit to drop the insistence on a forehand pivot.  That will probably go away once its on cue.   It may be a bit too soon to start this since I don't have the forehand on cue yet, but I figure she needs a bit of a challenge to puzzle through. 

She goes through several interesting concepts here - what she believes I may want vs. what I actually want.  First there was – pivot then walk your back feet onto the brick. Then the same behavior with a barking embellishment. We had a few times when she thought it was put the back feet on, then back up until the front feet are on the brick. You can’t always clearly see what I’m clicking – in addition to back feet on, any sideways movement from the front feet. Often there was a backward component to that – so I tried to click where the sideways was the more prominent movement. She moves so dang fast, its like clicking a chicken and unfortunately that means I miss good opportunities or am late. Gimme holds strong opinions (boy I totally get that, doncha know) and she gets frustrated when I don’t click when she thinks I should. Barking is her default expression for frustration during free-shaping only (for which I’m eternally thankful).

BTW have emptied and washed up 6 Altoid tins.  There have also been some interesting follow-up posts about the method.  I'm eager to get back to it.

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.

Free Shaping a Silly Trick

There's a contest for a picture of a dog sitting in the most unusual place.  Has to be safe and the dog has to get up there by themselves.  The prize is a book I want from Australia, that I wouldn't be likely to pay for.

So knowing Gimme loves to free-shape, I decided to set her on it.  My goal is a picture of her sitting on the copier while its cranking out a picture of her lovely tushy.  It took 22 treats to get her to get into a chair and from there to the copier stand and then on top of the copier and sitting.  Then I turned it on and off a couple times while giving her treats to get her used to the noises.  Even did a copy while she was sitting on it. She wasn't bothered in the least.  At one point she looked down at the copier bed in the cutest way - if I can catch that moment on film its a sure thing.

Naturally she found that so rewarding that as soon as I was done she leaped from the floor to the top of the copier, just in case I wanted to give her more treats.  I'll have to get that picture and then never reward that behavior again!  Its going to take longer to clean up around the copier so the picture has an uncluttered background that it took to get her up there.  Have I mentioned that she is part monkey?

Not Sure Who's Winning

Peach - head under a chair
We just did another session.

While Gimme's listening is improving (her accuracy in actually giving me what I asked for is up quite a bit from before our private lesson), she is still unwilling to give up offering.  I want to give her more cues to do things and earn rewards, but she won't stop offering long enough for me to get in a cue.  The idea of stop-do-nothing is just not in her plan of action.  With her its all about a plan of ACTION.  We got four shorter extinction bursts, but they were still there - two to five minutes each.

Upon Ursula's suggestion I tried clicking any time she was still for even the tiniest moment.  And for a couple of minutes I thought I was getting somewhere, until I realized what little Miss Smarty Pants was doing.  Every time after getting a treat, she was returning to exactly where she was when I last clicked.  She was trying to turn it into a free-shaping game.  I probably wouldn't have caught on, except one time she happened to be under the table when I clicked, so when she returned to that spot under the table, it was pretty obvious what she was up to.  

Makes me wonder if I should put free shaping on some kind of cue.  Maybe that would make it clearer to her when we are and when we aren't playing that game.  She loves free-shaping with a passion and I'm happy to do it with her, but we need to get over this hump in understanding as well.

While I'm fiddling with some projects tonight, I'm going to try something with her.  I'm going to put a bowl of treats where I can reach to it on the kitchen counter, so its not where I am and thus not an obvious cue for training time.  Then occasionally will give her a cue and if she does it, she'll get click/treat. 

I can also give her the occasional click/treat when she isn't doing anything.  That doesn't happen very often if I'm up and about, she's either trying to work me or laying on the couch waiting and watching for an opportunity to start working me.  (good Lord, I think I just described a Border Collie!)  If she thinks I'm working on a project, she may settle in a bit more.

She's a pistol...