I left home at 4:15, just fifteen minutes later than last week. Last week the drive was 1:10, which left us 45 minutes to wait for class to start. Starting 15 minutes later made it an 1:55 drive, so we were late, not to mention how tired I was from spending nearly 2 hours in rush hour traffic. Clearly I'll have to find something to do for 45 minutes each week.
Gimme did well in class despite being so close to being in full false pregnancy. We worked on various things and I was able to get some videos.
I have two short clips of Gimme working on a narrow balance board (a 2x4) over a short distance. This is the narrowest she's done and the best she's done. I think it made a difference having such a short distance. She did better going toward Jo, we think because Jo's foot steadying the board was a little bit in the way and made her slow down, so Gimme didn't try putting two feet on and then hopping to the end. Balance board 1 video I thought she did better overall during the first session, but she never stops trying. She was definitely cheating to hop to the end during the second session. We chose to end her on a pass where she was going toward Jo and not cheating. Balance board 2 video
We did a session on the ladder, where Jo turned it over and the dogs only had the narrow side of a 2x4 to step on. The other side is the wide edge of a 2x6. Going from right-to-left, the dogs could only see the narrow side of the 2x4. Going from left-to-right they could see the underside of the wide edge of the 2x6 and the 2x4 and Jo thinks they may not fully comprehend the visual. Ladder video You'll notice a distinct difference in how well Gimme did it based on which way she is going.
Then we had some course work to do. I was able to set the tripod and camera up on a bar stool and get a pretty good view of the entire course. Sequence 1 video Gimme was ignoring the box at the corner after the ladder, so I had to work to get her in there and she normally loves "box" as her favorite parkour behavior. I had her show off a partial "Dumbo" on the corner bucket. Its a bit small, so hard for her to keep all her feet on it.
For the second sequence, it was the same course. Sequence 2 video Gimme did better about getting into the "box". The delay for the reward was because she had her foot up on the side and I wanted to make sure I only rewarded a proper box behavior (all feet in). Gimme didn't think I had any business asking her to go "below" the board, but handled it very well when she bumped it and it moved. She was very distracted by noises coming from the other side of the wall (a private agility lesson), so it took her a few moments to focus and do "hands" on the chair.
For the last five minutes of class, we were able to work on whatever we wanted. I focused on "hands", where she has the most stimulus control difficulty. Many things I ask her to do "hands" on are also props she could do "table" with and she just assumes if she can she should get on with all four. So for our little session, we started doing "hands" to things she couldn't/wouldn't do "table". Then when she was in "hands" mode, we did it on a couple props where she could do table. Then when she was successfully just doing "hands", I had her do "table". Then back to "hands" again. This worked well and I need to make sure I do it more often until she understands to listen and do the behavior I'm actually cuing.
She was tired after ending with this brain work and slept all the way home.
Thursday, June 30, 2016
Tuesday, June 28, 2016
RFE Practice (20)
We had scheduled an extra practice in case we needed it for videoing. It wasn't needed, so we just practiced. Gimme is well on her way into her false pregnancy. For over a week she's been woofing in the evening at noises I can't hear. Over the last few days, I'd noticed when I was sewing, she would go curl up under the desk in the office. I thought she was sulking, but then realized she's nesting. If I sit on the couch, no matter how hot it is, she has to be next to me under the covers. When we got to Pawsabilities yesterday, she whined and fussed the whole time. Even after her first session she whined and fussed. I gave her a toy for a baby, so she whined a little quieter. She still doesn't have a baby, but she is pretty needy.
Session 1 video - Since she was acting like the beginning of Mommy-brain, I started with just taking our time to train reorienting in the doorway. The garage door is open, but has wire panels secured across it (sorry about the glare). It initially is a distraction, but she gets over it pretty quickly. We did a few reps of up-touch. Because Gimme tends to be more emotional during her false pregnancies, I tried to stick with a lot of movement and doing things where I could keep a high rate of reinforcement. When she gets distracted, you'll see me reach my hand to touch her - I'm tickling her neck to help her refocus. I'm too slow to change direction when she gets distracted. At about 7:30 you'll see Gimme get really distracted toward the open door - then you hear the voice. A man came over to see what we were doing. I was too slow to get into training-through-distraction mindset, but when I did, Gimme did well. Men are a big distraction for her, since she has no standards and loves them all. We did just a few spins/turns and the like and she basically had to be reminded for all of them. I really shouldn't have tried to do the "side" and "heel" shifts. She got it finally, but I don't think we got any benefit there. Overall she did well, even though I had to scale it down a bit for her (but not nearly as much as in the past). Time will tell how this works out, but I'm feeling encouraged.
Session 2 video - The training reorienting at the door during the first session didn't completely transfer into the second session, though I did miss clicking a head turn. When I am clicking, I'm terribly late. Gimme really enjoyed my treat-spitting practice. She's such a giving person. I notice she seems to lean further away the more of these I do in a row, so in the future will limit it to just five at a time. My treat-spitting in motion is still a disaster. I thought her heeling this session was even better than the first session, more duration with attention. J'Anna had her pivot prop out so I was going to let Gimme "pivot" on it. Instead she wanted to do "Dumbo" (on with all 4 feet and spin in place), so I went with it. Its a little smaller than our usual "Dumbo" prop, so she had a challenge staying on during the spin. We did some finding position and she did well. At one point she sort of stalled in front of me, until I realized I was saying "setup" and not telling her which position. Dumb handler. At one point around 12:20 she just suddenly couldn't remember how to find "side". I think her brain was just used up. We got through it, did one more very similar rep and then quit. Honestly, it was a lot of work for her condition.
One of the things I really loved seeing was having the second session be better than the first. This has never happened before. It wasn't a big-Big difference, but noticeable. Most particularly I noticed she was able to do heeling with more duration and attention than the first session. Overall I was very pleased with how this went.
Session 1 video - Since she was acting like the beginning of Mommy-brain, I started with just taking our time to train reorienting in the doorway. The garage door is open, but has wire panels secured across it (sorry about the glare). It initially is a distraction, but she gets over it pretty quickly. We did a few reps of up-touch. Because Gimme tends to be more emotional during her false pregnancies, I tried to stick with a lot of movement and doing things where I could keep a high rate of reinforcement. When she gets distracted, you'll see me reach my hand to touch her - I'm tickling her neck to help her refocus. I'm too slow to change direction when she gets distracted. At about 7:30 you'll see Gimme get really distracted toward the open door - then you hear the voice. A man came over to see what we were doing. I was too slow to get into training-through-distraction mindset, but when I did, Gimme did well. Men are a big distraction for her, since she has no standards and loves them all. We did just a few spins/turns and the like and she basically had to be reminded for all of them. I really shouldn't have tried to do the "side" and "heel" shifts. She got it finally, but I don't think we got any benefit there. Overall she did well, even though I had to scale it down a bit for her (but not nearly as much as in the past). Time will tell how this works out, but I'm feeling encouraged.
Session 2 video - The training reorienting at the door during the first session didn't completely transfer into the second session, though I did miss clicking a head turn. When I am clicking, I'm terribly late. Gimme really enjoyed my treat-spitting practice. She's such a giving person. I notice she seems to lean further away the more of these I do in a row, so in the future will limit it to just five at a time. My treat-spitting in motion is still a disaster. I thought her heeling this session was even better than the first session, more duration with attention. J'Anna had her pivot prop out so I was going to let Gimme "pivot" on it. Instead she wanted to do "Dumbo" (on with all 4 feet and spin in place), so I went with it. Its a little smaller than our usual "Dumbo" prop, so she had a challenge staying on during the spin. We did some finding position and she did well. At one point she sort of stalled in front of me, until I realized I was saying "setup" and not telling her which position. Dumb handler. At one point around 12:20 she just suddenly couldn't remember how to find "side". I think her brain was just used up. We got through it, did one more very similar rep and then quit. Honestly, it was a lot of work for her condition.
One of the things I really loved seeing was having the second session be better than the first. This has never happened before. It wasn't a big-Big difference, but noticeable. Most particularly I noticed she was able to do heeling with more duration and attention than the first session. Overall I was very pleased with how this went.
Sunday, June 26, 2016
Practice List (1)
Despite my best intentions to make a TicTac board, I had to abandon the plan. I'm trying very hard to have a migraine. I woke up with one in the middle of the night, but then it went away. I did well on our walk and such. But then when I tried to work outside this afternoon, the glare did me in. I think the sun is too low in the sky and I can't avoid it hitting me in the eye. I was getting decidedly nauseous, so thought indoor practice was in order. Doing the list from the other day seemed a good start.
more door reorientation
I did door reorientation in the house, 30 reps. In my small hallway I have four doors, so was able to get a LOT of repetitions in a very short time. I learned I needed to just tell her "g'won" and not motion with my hand since she thought I might be tossing a treat. We did another 5 reps in the doorway to the kitchen and 5 reps at the door to the front porch. I found I could send her through the door and reward, then pivot into place beside her and send her through the same door in the other direction. So our 40 reps total, took less than 3 minutes. We'll see how she does tomorrow at Pawsabilities.
treat spitting
As predicted, Gimme enjoys helping me with this. I want to get good enough so she doesn't have to pop out of position to catch the treat. This must be much easier for flat chested people - I can't believe how many of the treats hit my boob and bounce into the outer atmosphere. I have to lean my head over so I can half-spit-half-drop the treat to her with just a little puff. Gimme thinks I could perfect my technique with 50 reps a day for a month. Its a sacrifice she's willing to make.
As I got a little better in accuracy, Gimme got a LOT better at catching without popping out of position. I think she learned she didn't have to leap for each one and was able to just stretch her neck out to catch it. She must've realized staying put made them come faster when she didn't have to re-find position. No doubt being better focused on my face helped too.
up "touch"
We did 10 reps on each side. For awhile I was getting nice strong up-touches, but then they started getting weaker. I belatedly realized this must take a lot of thigh and core strength. Next time we'll only do 5 reps each side.
with her in "heel" or "side", I step away sideways and then re-cue it, so she moves back into position without me luring her -combined this with- finding "side"
I had to take much smaller steps than I started with. With bigger steps she moved a bit behind me then into position. When I took smaller steps, she figured out to shift sideways into position. I needed to make the steps even smaller when she was on the right "side". This will help us with our side-passes, which have been unsuccessful in the past, probably because I was taking larger steps. We did extra reps on the right "side", counting them as finding "side".
backing up in "heel" or "side" and remaining standing
I noticed earlier I have a tendency to practice things first on the left, then on the right. No wonder her left position behaviors are stronger. So for this I started with right "side". Taking a lesson from what we did with shifting sideways (above), I made sure to start with small steps. If Gimme shifted back, she got a click/treat, if she reset herself in a big way, then she got nothing but another opportunity. It went well and it took her no time to figure this out.
"heel" or "side" stops
I started in "side" position and alternated every second rep. I started with normal speed movement and then got more abrupt in my stops. Its hard to be unpredictable since my indoor space is limited to an 8' line of travel. In order to get more speed I had to start in one direction, make a sharp u-turn and then stop abruptly. I couldn't believe how hard it was for me to click her stop - I kept clicking too early when she was still moving. Of course, this got her to stop sharply with me to get her treat, so she still learned from it. I really only caught her once, by taking a large running step into a stop. Which is something I'd never do in real heeling. She figured out this game really quickly and thoroughly enjoyed it.
finding "center"
She used to be really good at this and then it got weak, but tonight she was on fire. I've never tried spitting treats at her in center, thinking it would make her sit. I didn't see this and the beauty was, it quickly got her off hand hunting. She found the optimal treat catching spot was about 8 inches from my knees. I think she didn't sit because I kept it moving. Besides when she did, there was a delay before the treat came, since she had to respond to a "stand" cue first. She magically got right back into doing our center-front-pivot, which used to be her star performance.
my footwork on front cross - handler
This turned out to have two factors. One was clarifying my body language, since Gimme takes any backward shift/twitch of my shoulder to indicate she is supposed to back around me in that direction. I learned I needed to step in front of her, pivot in place and then step back into my new position. I was able to do this smoothly, but decided I needed to teach her to take more responsibility for staying put.
So part two was getting her to hold a standing "wait". I probably need to work on this in all positions, but tonight just stuck with the front-cross-handler requirement. It started well, but when I tried spacing out the treats, she got fidgety. So I brought out the standing platform to clarify her job. This went very well and we got several good reps before moving on to other things.
a tighter "turn" (right position spin without a step forward before turning)
I started with a couple of really early clicks and then it proceeded nicely. I did see her stopping this spin at an angle, so cued her to "side" to finish it. After a couple reps with the extra cue she was doing the full spin on her own. Smart girl.
more duration on right side "take-a" bow
She has better duration in heel position because this is where she is when she bows for her tracking article indication. There's no reason we couldn't do the article indication with her on my right except the times I've tried it, she keeps pivoting to get back on the heel side. Rather than risk messing up her article indication, I decided to work on this elsewhere and then introduce it with a couple of article circles where tracking isn't the main thing. We did 2 reps, 10 treats each, with her between me and the couch. She thought this was heaps of fun.
and of course, "cane" and "orbit"
We did ten reps on both sides. She did well here at home. I need to find opportunities to practice this during our walks and while waiting in other environments so it gels for her.
This whole training session took a long time and we used up about 250 treats. And this my friends, is the beauty of a Gimme's false pregnancies (at least early on). She will work for food, endless quantities of food. Babies are arriving any day now and she KNOWS she needs to be prepared to feed all of the little munchkins.
more door reorientation
I did door reorientation in the house, 30 reps. In my small hallway I have four doors, so was able to get a LOT of repetitions in a very short time. I learned I needed to just tell her "g'won" and not motion with my hand since she thought I might be tossing a treat. We did another 5 reps in the doorway to the kitchen and 5 reps at the door to the front porch. I found I could send her through the door and reward, then pivot into place beside her and send her through the same door in the other direction. So our 40 reps total, took less than 3 minutes. We'll see how she does tomorrow at Pawsabilities.
treat spitting
As predicted, Gimme enjoys helping me with this. I want to get good enough so she doesn't have to pop out of position to catch the treat. This must be much easier for flat chested people - I can't believe how many of the treats hit my boob and bounce into the outer atmosphere. I have to lean my head over so I can half-spit-half-drop the treat to her with just a little puff. Gimme thinks I could perfect my technique with 50 reps a day for a month. Its a sacrifice she's willing to make.
As I got a little better in accuracy, Gimme got a LOT better at catching without popping out of position. I think she learned she didn't have to leap for each one and was able to just stretch her neck out to catch it. She must've realized staying put made them come faster when she didn't have to re-find position. No doubt being better focused on my face helped too.
up "touch"
We did 10 reps on each side. For awhile I was getting nice strong up-touches, but then they started getting weaker. I belatedly realized this must take a lot of thigh and core strength. Next time we'll only do 5 reps each side.
with her in "heel" or "side", I step away sideways and then re-cue it, so she moves back into position without me luring her -combined this with- finding "side"
I had to take much smaller steps than I started with. With bigger steps she moved a bit behind me then into position. When I took smaller steps, she figured out to shift sideways into position. I needed to make the steps even smaller when she was on the right "side". This will help us with our side-passes, which have been unsuccessful in the past, probably because I was taking larger steps. We did extra reps on the right "side", counting them as finding "side".
backing up in "heel" or "side" and remaining standing
I noticed earlier I have a tendency to practice things first on the left, then on the right. No wonder her left position behaviors are stronger. So for this I started with right "side". Taking a lesson from what we did with shifting sideways (above), I made sure to start with small steps. If Gimme shifted back, she got a click/treat, if she reset herself in a big way, then she got nothing but another opportunity. It went well and it took her no time to figure this out.
"heel" or "side" stops
I started in "side" position and alternated every second rep. I started with normal speed movement and then got more abrupt in my stops. Its hard to be unpredictable since my indoor space is limited to an 8' line of travel. In order to get more speed I had to start in one direction, make a sharp u-turn and then stop abruptly. I couldn't believe how hard it was for me to click her stop - I kept clicking too early when she was still moving. Of course, this got her to stop sharply with me to get her treat, so she still learned from it. I really only caught her once, by taking a large running step into a stop. Which is something I'd never do in real heeling. She figured out this game really quickly and thoroughly enjoyed it.
finding "center"
She used to be really good at this and then it got weak, but tonight she was on fire. I've never tried spitting treats at her in center, thinking it would make her sit. I didn't see this and the beauty was, it quickly got her off hand hunting. She found the optimal treat catching spot was about 8 inches from my knees. I think she didn't sit because I kept it moving. Besides when she did, there was a delay before the treat came, since she had to respond to a "stand" cue first. She magically got right back into doing our center-front-pivot, which used to be her star performance.
my footwork on front cross - handler
This turned out to have two factors. One was clarifying my body language, since Gimme takes any backward shift/twitch of my shoulder to indicate she is supposed to back around me in that direction. I learned I needed to step in front of her, pivot in place and then step back into my new position. I was able to do this smoothly, but decided I needed to teach her to take more responsibility for staying put.
So part two was getting her to hold a standing "wait". I probably need to work on this in all positions, but tonight just stuck with the front-cross-handler requirement. It started well, but when I tried spacing out the treats, she got fidgety. So I brought out the standing platform to clarify her job. This went very well and we got several good reps before moving on to other things.
a tighter "turn" (right position spin without a step forward before turning)
I started with a couple of really early clicks and then it proceeded nicely. I did see her stopping this spin at an angle, so cued her to "side" to finish it. After a couple reps with the extra cue she was doing the full spin on her own. Smart girl.
more duration on right side "take-a" bow
She has better duration in heel position because this is where she is when she bows for her tracking article indication. There's no reason we couldn't do the article indication with her on my right except the times I've tried it, she keeps pivoting to get back on the heel side. Rather than risk messing up her article indication, I decided to work on this elsewhere and then introduce it with a couple of article circles where tracking isn't the main thing. We did 2 reps, 10 treats each, with her between me and the couch. She thought this was heaps of fun.
and of course, "cane" and "orbit"
We did ten reps on both sides. She did well here at home. I need to find opportunities to practice this during our walks and while waiting in other environments so it gels for her.
This whole training session took a long time and we used up about 250 treats. And this my friends, is the beauty of a Gimme's false pregnancies (at least early on). She will work for food, endless quantities of food. Babies are arriving any day now and she KNOWS she needs to be prepared to feed all of the little munchkins.
Keeping Busy
I haven't talked about our walks or Gimme's reactivity for awhile, so thought I should catch up on it.
I decided several months ago to use classical conditioning when we passed other dogs during our walks. It went very well, and I soon noticed Gimme would see other dogs and then look at me with her "well?" expression. Its very much like what she does when she sees bicycles. On occasion when we had room to get off the trail for more space, I've had her play the eye contact game (Chris Bach style) with me.
Yesterday early on our walk she did the best ever playing eye contact when we were at the little park off the trail. So later when we were walking on the trail with only 10' space, I saw calm dog coming and I got her started playing the eye contact game. She did beautifully. Then a bit later I saw another seemingly calm dog and set up for eye contact. She did well and the other dog stayed calm until he got within 20' of us. Suddenly he was up on his back legs pulling and growling with the low guttural "I wanna kill you" growl (thank God his owner was strong enough to control him). It was too late for me to pull out the PB toob and there was no room to create more distance, so I just switched to constant feeding mode and when he was just past us, I threw a handful of treats on the ground for her. Gimme was brilliant and this with a snarling dog at just 10 feet! She really focused on me, then the treats, then more treats. When she finished them she looked back at him, but totally calm. I've never been more proud.
Today we walked again and did some more of this. We stopped for eye contact while we were passed by a lady who was actually training her reactive dog, giving it treats and being calm and positive. I think its a sad state when seeing someone training their dog makes me want to do the happy dance. I want to see this so often I'm blasé about it. Later as we were coming back I met her again, she had a different dog, and we stopped to talk awhile. This dog was much calmer and laid back. We shared the history of our dogs, meanwhile Gimme got treats for remaining calm. Between then and getting back to the park we passed two more dogs. Thinking Gimme might have accumulated some stress during the prolonged exposure, I switched back to classical conditioning for these.
When we got back to the little park, I set up my camera on a tripod and Gimme and I made four short Parkour videos. I think I have enough for the Training Level title and I have a couple which should be suitable for Novice. This afternoon while its hot I'm going to edit the Training Level videos into one and post it on the Parkour list to see if anyone notices anything I missed. If I submit it and one of them fails, I can resubmit all of them with the failed behavior fixed, but have to pay the fee again.
On my way home from church I stopped by Home Depot to get the things I need to turn a Go-Go Dancer platform into two TicTac boards. I'm making one normal width and the other narrower. I think it makes sense to have a narrower one to train on before I ask her to do it on a tree or something.
The Go-Go Dancer platforms I got for free and didn't have any idea what I'd use them for. So I'm making a pair of TicTac boards for myself out of one and will see if Pawsabilities wants the other to make a set for the classes I'll be teaching there. I keep telling myself I need to stop bringing home "free junk", but then I find a really good use for something and my junk collecting behavior is reinforced. Its on a variable schedule of reinforcement, which we all know creates the strongest, most resistant to extinction, behaviors. ☺
Gimme will be happily surprised to see Parkour toys appear in her very own yard.
I decided several months ago to use classical conditioning when we passed other dogs during our walks. It went very well, and I soon noticed Gimme would see other dogs and then look at me with her "well?" expression. Its very much like what she does when she sees bicycles. On occasion when we had room to get off the trail for more space, I've had her play the eye contact game (Chris Bach style) with me.
Yesterday early on our walk she did the best ever playing eye contact when we were at the little park off the trail. So later when we were walking on the trail with only 10' space, I saw calm dog coming and I got her started playing the eye contact game. She did beautifully. Then a bit later I saw another seemingly calm dog and set up for eye contact. She did well and the other dog stayed calm until he got within 20' of us. Suddenly he was up on his back legs pulling and growling with the low guttural "I wanna kill you" growl (thank God his owner was strong enough to control him). It was too late for me to pull out the PB toob and there was no room to create more distance, so I just switched to constant feeding mode and when he was just past us, I threw a handful of treats on the ground for her. Gimme was brilliant and this with a snarling dog at just 10 feet! She really focused on me, then the treats, then more treats. When she finished them she looked back at him, but totally calm. I've never been more proud.
Today we walked again and did some more of this. We stopped for eye contact while we were passed by a lady who was actually training her reactive dog, giving it treats and being calm and positive. I think its a sad state when seeing someone training their dog makes me want to do the happy dance. I want to see this so often I'm blasé about it. Later as we were coming back I met her again, she had a different dog, and we stopped to talk awhile. This dog was much calmer and laid back. We shared the history of our dogs, meanwhile Gimme got treats for remaining calm. Between then and getting back to the park we passed two more dogs. Thinking Gimme might have accumulated some stress during the prolonged exposure, I switched back to classical conditioning for these.
When we got back to the little park, I set up my camera on a tripod and Gimme and I made four short Parkour videos. I think I have enough for the Training Level title and I have a couple which should be suitable for Novice. This afternoon while its hot I'm going to edit the Training Level videos into one and post it on the Parkour list to see if anyone notices anything I missed. If I submit it and one of them fails, I can resubmit all of them with the failed behavior fixed, but have to pay the fee again.
On my way home from church I stopped by Home Depot to get the things I need to turn a Go-Go Dancer platform into two TicTac boards. I'm making one normal width and the other narrower. I think it makes sense to have a narrower one to train on before I ask her to do it on a tree or something.
The Go-Go Dancer platforms I got for free and didn't have any idea what I'd use them for. So I'm making a pair of TicTac boards for myself out of one and will see if Pawsabilities wants the other to make a set for the classes I'll be teaching there. I keep telling myself I need to stop bringing home "free junk", but then I find a really good use for something and my junk collecting behavior is reinforced. Its on a variable schedule of reinforcement, which we all know creates the strongest, most resistant to extinction, behaviors. ☺
Gimme will be happily surprised to see Parkour toys appear in her very own yard.
Friday, June 24, 2016
RFE Practice (19)
Yesterday I met J'Anna at Pawsabilities for RallyFrEe practice. We set up the West1 Regional Novice course and got a good video of Glory doing the course. I didn't enter, preferring to stick with the coaching process (with Kathy) toward better focus and foundation. We are scheduled for more videoing on Monday. Gimme and I will practice again. J'Anna is going to bring one of her other dogs to video - since she has a lot of difficulty getting good video's at home with the neighbor dog running the fence, barking like a maniac.
Session 1 video - Gimme did really well for her first session... I still had a little difficulty with reorienting at the door, but she did better than last week, getting it on the second try and then once more for good measure. This is the first time I've seen her break a "wait" (stay) in a very long time. Methinks I've gotten complacent and need to put some money in the wait bank account. Clearly my treat spitting technique needs a lot of work - Gimme said she's willing to help me practice any time I want. I'm not telling her, but I'm planning to practice this without her, using successively smaller pans on the floor. I doubt I'm fooling her by turning my face away to reload the treat-spitter, but humor me, eh. I like the look of the up-"touch" for the first step of heel, need to practice it some more. I was trying to focus on making sure she was looking up at me when I marked and then treated heeling and I think I did do a better job there. She is still drawn to corners, even when I am not heading into them (and thus not slowing down, 4:26 & 4:35). After a bit of heeling, we practiced our corners using Kathy's idea. The plan is to walk directly toward corners, then make a sharp 180º turn and reward when she gets into heel. Once she got the idea I found I had to clean up my footwork so she didn't have to go around an outstretched leg, i.e. I had to make the turn with my feet under me. I know how to do it, just had to focus on it. We actually have a cue for an emergency 180º turn ("let's go), but I didn't want to use it until I talked to Kathy about it. Once when Gimme did it especially well, I stopped and let her enjoy a jackpot. Overall, I thought this went very well. Next we practiced finding "heel" and "side" after a thrown treat. She's still much better at "heel" than "side".
I think the reason this went better was because I was more organized. I realized after our last session I still didn't have a mental big-picture of what to do. Kathy has put all this effort into coaching me, but I hadn't really assimilated it in an organized way. I have a particular learning style and I hadn't applied it yet. So I went back through all the emails we've exchanged since we started this project and I dumped them into one big 18 page Word file. Then I read and reread it, deleting duplication. Now I'm in the phase of breaking it into sections/categories. I'm even color-coding the file, so I can quickly identify instructions vs discussion. I'm only about a third of the way through the information, but its already starting to gel better and this was reflected in how much better Gimme did. She can only do as well as I can.
Session 2 video - Another good session, though not quite as well focused as the first session. I think I need to have a minimum brain warm-up routine for us. I think the next step in treat spitting might be not letting Gimme get the ones she doesn't catch mid-air, and then she has to heel past them later as a distraction. Ooooh mean Mommy. I am debating whether I should continue to reward finding "heel" or "side" when Gimme goes around me before coming into the cued position. I'm thinking it muddies the water, since we have a separate cue for that ("behind" for circling/coming into "side" and "around" for circling/coming into "heel"). It leads to her thinking its okay to overshoot when I pivot 90º, since she can just continue around me and come up into position. Saw this a couple of times and I rewarded each one - bad trainer. I did see the reason for the period toward the end where I thought she did a bunch of lagging. I basically took off and never cued her to "side". Video is our friend - even if it does show me doing a lot of stuff wrong, eh.
Things I want to practice before our next session on Monday (or at least soon):
Session 1 video - Gimme did really well for her first session... I still had a little difficulty with reorienting at the door, but she did better than last week, getting it on the second try and then once more for good measure. This is the first time I've seen her break a "wait" (stay) in a very long time. Methinks I've gotten complacent and need to put some money in the wait bank account. Clearly my treat spitting technique needs a lot of work - Gimme said she's willing to help me practice any time I want. I'm not telling her, but I'm planning to practice this without her, using successively smaller pans on the floor. I doubt I'm fooling her by turning my face away to reload the treat-spitter, but humor me, eh. I like the look of the up-"touch" for the first step of heel, need to practice it some more. I was trying to focus on making sure she was looking up at me when I marked and then treated heeling and I think I did do a better job there. She is still drawn to corners, even when I am not heading into them (and thus not slowing down, 4:26 & 4:35). After a bit of heeling, we practiced our corners using Kathy's idea. The plan is to walk directly toward corners, then make a sharp 180º turn and reward when she gets into heel. Once she got the idea I found I had to clean up my footwork so she didn't have to go around an outstretched leg, i.e. I had to make the turn with my feet under me. I know how to do it, just had to focus on it. We actually have a cue for an emergency 180º turn ("let's go), but I didn't want to use it until I talked to Kathy about it. Once when Gimme did it especially well, I stopped and let her enjoy a jackpot. Overall, I thought this went very well. Next we practiced finding "heel" and "side" after a thrown treat. She's still much better at "heel" than "side".
I think the reason this went better was because I was more organized. I realized after our last session I still didn't have a mental big-picture of what to do. Kathy has put all this effort into coaching me, but I hadn't really assimilated it in an organized way. I have a particular learning style and I hadn't applied it yet. So I went back through all the emails we've exchanged since we started this project and I dumped them into one big 18 page Word file. Then I read and reread it, deleting duplication. Now I'm in the phase of breaking it into sections/categories. I'm even color-coding the file, so I can quickly identify instructions vs discussion. I'm only about a third of the way through the information, but its already starting to gel better and this was reflected in how much better Gimme did. She can only do as well as I can.
Session 2 video - Another good session, though not quite as well focused as the first session. I think I need to have a minimum brain warm-up routine for us. I think the next step in treat spitting might be not letting Gimme get the ones she doesn't catch mid-air, and then she has to heel past them later as a distraction. Ooooh mean Mommy. I am debating whether I should continue to reward finding "heel" or "side" when Gimme goes around me before coming into the cued position. I'm thinking it muddies the water, since we have a separate cue for that ("behind" for circling/coming into "side" and "around" for circling/coming into "heel"). It leads to her thinking its okay to overshoot when I pivot 90º, since she can just continue around me and come up into position. Saw this a couple of times and I rewarded each one - bad trainer. I did see the reason for the period toward the end where I thought she did a bunch of lagging. I basically took off and never cued her to "side". Video is our friend - even if it does show me doing a lot of stuff wrong, eh.
Things I want to practice before our next session on Monday (or at least soon):
- more door reorientation
- treat spitting
- up "touch"
- with her in "heel" or "side", I step away sideways and then re-cue it, so she moves back into position without me luring her
- finding "side"
- backing up in "heel" or "side" and remaining standing
- "heel" or "side" stops
- finding "center"
- my footwork on front cross - handler
- a tighter "turn" (where she doesn't take a step forward before starting it)
- more duration on right side "take-a" bow
- and of course, "cane" and "orbit"
News Flash
This morning Gimme brought SuperCow to me while I was in the tub. She apparently has forgiven my recent transgression. It only took 36 hours...
Thursday, June 23, 2016
Parkour (make-up & 1/3)
I have two parkour classes to talk about. We had the last of our Sunday evening classes this weekend and then switched to a 6:00 class on Wednesday night. I should be able to make almost all classes on Wednesdays and when I can't, I can select a Sunday to do a make-up. There won't be any advanced classes on Sunday, but we can still come and train on stuff she knows with strange dogs. Its all good.
I don't know yet what the drive time is going to look like for Wednesdays. This week I left here at 4:00 and arrived at 5:10. I'd like to leave later and arrive closer to class start. But the problem is getting through all the rush hour traffic between here and there. I'll try 4:15 and see what happens. But based on what happens coming and going from my Mom's house (which goes through the same area), 15 minutes can make a big difference. The no-traffic drive time to Mom's takes 55 minutes. The some traffic drive is 1:10, which is what I usually get coming home provided I leave at 3:00. Today I was 15 minutes late getting out of there and so it took 2:30 to get home. Ouch!
Sunday
We did a lot of sequence work, which I can't really video since I don't have a wide angle. This First video clip is a short sequence practicing a send to the table. Sadly I set the camera down wrong and didn't get the table in the clip. Still you can see she did it readily. We continue to have difficulty reinstalling "cane" and "orbit" (going around the cone) since we lost them to the late March seizure. I had already done some individual warm-up of them before this exercise, so was surprised she didn't know at all what I wanted.
The second time we had both "table" and "box" options at the end of the board, so we could practice sending to either. Second video clip Gimme did well sending to the table, but wasn't so sure about the box which is normally her favorite. It was very close to and in a direct line to where I'd set up her matt, so she may have been confused.
Wednesday
Again we were doing a lot of sequencing using the whole room, which I can't really video. This First video clip presented a bit of a challenge, which I didn't understand at the time, since she's done it before. But in watching it, the first time through she was looking down at all the stuff underfoot and then suddenly BAM! into the strap thingy, meanwhile from camera view you can see I'd probably disappeared from view. And coming back, I think I again disappeared on her. I think the solution is to talk to her throughout, so she will know where I am.
This Second video clip shows Gimme walking the ladder. The first time she was distracted by Jo walking by - who she really likes. Gimme does very well with the ladder and you can see she is very thoughtful about her foot placement.
When we were doing the sequences, Gimme and I stationed ourselves at the other end of the room and we were right next to a big toy bucket. Gimme snooped in it, but was only a little bit interested and didn't want to play with any of them. Later another handler used a toy from the bucket to motivate his dog on the TicTac board. Suddenly Gimme was VERY interested in those toys. For our next turn on the TicTac board, Gimme just had to have a toy and not just any toy, but the same toy. Suddenly she was a toy maniac and did a couple of nice repetitions, but then got too over the top. Jo was impressed that she could switch back to food and still work.
Gimme was just sure she was going to get to take the toy home - made more-better because she had effectively stolen it from the other dog. When I made her leave it in the bucket, she was quite peeved. She turned her nose up at SkinnySquirrel which was in the car. She sulked for much of the ride home.
All last night she wouldn't play with any of her toys and any attempt on my part to interest her in one of her toys was met with utter disdain. Apparently I violated a significant cosmic edict and who better to point out my gross failing than the Empress of the Cosmos. Just sayin...
I don't know yet what the drive time is going to look like for Wednesdays. This week I left here at 4:00 and arrived at 5:10. I'd like to leave later and arrive closer to class start. But the problem is getting through all the rush hour traffic between here and there. I'll try 4:15 and see what happens. But based on what happens coming and going from my Mom's house (which goes through the same area), 15 minutes can make a big difference. The no-traffic drive time to Mom's takes 55 minutes. The some traffic drive is 1:10, which is what I usually get coming home provided I leave at 3:00. Today I was 15 minutes late getting out of there and so it took 2:30 to get home. Ouch!
Sunday
We did a lot of sequence work, which I can't really video since I don't have a wide angle. This First video clip is a short sequence practicing a send to the table. Sadly I set the camera down wrong and didn't get the table in the clip. Still you can see she did it readily. We continue to have difficulty reinstalling "cane" and "orbit" (going around the cone) since we lost them to the late March seizure. I had already done some individual warm-up of them before this exercise, so was surprised she didn't know at all what I wanted.
The second time we had both "table" and "box" options at the end of the board, so we could practice sending to either. Second video clip Gimme did well sending to the table, but wasn't so sure about the box which is normally her favorite. It was very close to and in a direct line to where I'd set up her matt, so she may have been confused.
Wednesday
Again we were doing a lot of sequencing using the whole room, which I can't really video. This First video clip presented a bit of a challenge, which I didn't understand at the time, since she's done it before. But in watching it, the first time through she was looking down at all the stuff underfoot and then suddenly BAM! into the strap thingy, meanwhile from camera view you can see I'd probably disappeared from view. And coming back, I think I again disappeared on her. I think the solution is to talk to her throughout, so she will know where I am.
This Second video clip shows Gimme walking the ladder. The first time she was distracted by Jo walking by - who she really likes. Gimme does very well with the ladder and you can see she is very thoughtful about her foot placement.
When we were doing the sequences, Gimme and I stationed ourselves at the other end of the room and we were right next to a big toy bucket. Gimme snooped in it, but was only a little bit interested and didn't want to play with any of them. Later another handler used a toy from the bucket to motivate his dog on the TicTac board. Suddenly Gimme was VERY interested in those toys. For our next turn on the TicTac board, Gimme just had to have a toy and not just any toy, but the same toy. Suddenly she was a toy maniac and did a couple of nice repetitions, but then got too over the top. Jo was impressed that she could switch back to food and still work.
Gimme was just sure she was going to get to take the toy home - made more-better because she had effectively stolen it from the other dog. When I made her leave it in the bucket, she was quite peeved. She turned her nose up at SkinnySquirrel which was in the car. She sulked for much of the ride home.
All last night she wouldn't play with any of her toys and any attempt on my part to interest her in one of her toys was met with utter disdain. Apparently I violated a significant cosmic edict and who better to point out my gross failing than the Empress of the Cosmos. Just sayin...
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