Playing and Training

Update:  The Puppy is now called The Monster.   Yes he’s an adolescent, and I love him to pieces!

I’ve been taking some online classes since I’m not particularly thrilled with the obedience classes offered locally.  The only competition classes are more force based than I want to be.  So…  I’ve audited several from Denise Fenzi and am currently auditing her “heeling games” class and trying to work The Monster with the many play-based moves that are presented.  One problem I’ve had is that sometimes he doesn’t seem to want to play.  He’ll engage with me for a little while, but then flop down on the floor (if we are in the basement) or retreat to a crate (if we are in the kitchen area) to chew on whatever toy we were using.  He did this several times the other day with his rope-and-ball combination toy.  It seems like I’m the one doing all the work.

But… this morning he came running into the bedroom with the rope-and-ball toy in his mouth and actually asked me to play!  (Of course this does means he counter-surfed to steal that toy…. but… I gleefully ignored that :-).  Perhaps we made progress?  I didn’t ask for any “formal” obedience, I just rolled around on the floor with him and played.

My goals:

1. Increase the value of playing with me
2. Work=Play
3. Specific “fun” moves are a reward for work/engagement

The Monster says: I might be confident, but I can still be over-faced!  Short and Fun should be your goal!

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stopped and started

I’ve changed my mind on this post at least 6 times.  wavering between “I’m going to stop doing obedience with this dog” and “I’m going to work harder at this”.

I’ve been trying to make this blog a real diary of training, so I have to include the negatives and self-doubt that goes along with it all.

After the Princess got two more  RAE legs I was very depressed.  Partially because I was so unhappy about our performance, but mostly for other (non dog) reasons.   I’m seriously talking depressed too, not just a little sad.

So, I was going to quit.  She is so unhappy in the ring situation.  Why should I make her do it just for me?  Am I that vain? (probably yes:-).  What is the point?

But then I argue with myself.  Is this just because I’m a quitter and the going got tough?  Shouldn’t I be able to figure out something that will improve the training and trialing?

This has gone on for quite a few weeks, and since I couldn’t decide, I didn’t post anything.

However, I do want to finish the RAE, even if we never go on for the Open obedience title.  So the other day I went to a club run through.  I actually mis-read the information on this, and thought I needed to go before 10am in order to register for Rally.  Actually, Rally was running in the afternoon, not the morning.  So I got there at 9am and would have to wait until 1pm to run a rally course.  Er…. no.  My other option was enter Utility or Open instead. So I entered Open.

Luckily, the person calling commands was relaxed and supportive – letting everyone have “do overs” and not worrying about the amount of time we took up.  whew!  Of course rewards were also allowed.

So I kept the heeling really simple – just tried to reward her when she came up into position.  She improved and actually was pretty good on the figure 8.  But still essentially stressed.

DOR – not stressed for the drop (we used our target), and only missed the second call in when the judge walked up behind her to  helpfully pick up the target.  We tried it again without that distraction and she was fine.  She’s dropping a little past the target, but I’m consciously letting that slide.

Retrieves – did not go out on the first command.  But I forgot my trick of just saying “OK” instead of “get it”.  Brought it back nicely once she got it.  My throw needed a lot of work <g>.  I’d like a LOT more drive on the way out.

BJ – great – still tossing food.

Stays – YES, I DID STAYS.  The main reason I probably will never show her in Open is the stays.  She’s stressed in then environment in general and I can’t, in good conscience, leave her when she’s that stressed.  But, I do want the RAE without losing 10 points for breaking the honor, so I figured this was a good chance to stay with her for a nice 3 minute sit.  She was the BEST she has ever been on a stay. Yes, she did try to lie down at about 1.5  minutes, but that was because she was relaxed!  Her down stay (5 minutes) was perfect.

So why was she so relaxed in the stays?  Was it because I took her mat (instead of a crate) in the building and had just spent an hour rewarding her for lying down on it?  Was it because she had a play meeting with a friendly dog? (other dogs always make her feel better).  Was it because I know we aren’t ever going to do them “for real” so I was more relaxed?

I’ll probably never know.

At the moment, I’m still not going to ever show her in Open.  But I do plan to keep training.   Maybe my goal should be “perfect at a match”.

Currently we are still “started”.

The Princess comments: let it go mom, smell the roses.

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Rewarding in the ring

I’m still trying to wrap my head around using cues as rewards for a behavior and how that can be practical for me.   One thing I’ve been trying with The Princess is always adding a fun trick after she’s responded appropriately to a finish cue.  Then I always mark and reward the trick (not the finish).  To make this work, she can’t get the trick cue if she has not done the finish to the criteria I have set.  Admittedly, my criteria for “finish” is pretty low, I really just want it fast and happy and, at this point anyway, I’m not working on straight.  This all becomes part of a long behavior chain.

The great thing about this is the “trick” (she jumps up and touches my hand) is that its legal in the obedience ring (in between exercises of course:-).  So, if the trick in itself is rewarding, I’m rewarding her in the ring.  And that is a very good thing.

Yesterday I re-read the book In Focus by Deb Jones and Judy Keller.  I attended a seminar from them years ago and it really helped me understand the role of stress in a performing dog and some strategies for relieving that  stress.   The book is agility focused, but I think the principles apply to the obedience ring as well.

One of their key strategies is playing a game or using a trick to increase the arousal level of the dog.   You do this by jazzing the dog up with a game or play or a favorite trick, and then classically conditioning a phrase that you’ll use just as you start the FUN (something like are you ready?????).   You want the dog getting excited just on the verbal cue.  Once that is happening, you sandwich other cued behaviors in between the are you ready???? and the actual game.  So the play/game becomes a reward for the correctly executed behavior, but the dog is already in an excited state state when you ask for the cued behavior.  They say it better than me:

“Once your dog reliably responds with animation and excitement to your arousal cues, you can start adding in a work requirement.  First, give your arousal cues, and then ask your dog for a well known and practiced behavior.  When your dog responds correctly you can use a verbal marker (such as yes!) then play with your dog or let him chase after some treats you toss” (p. 57)

What a perfect way to increase motivation in the obedience ring too!  And a little of this (discretely of course) can certainly be used between exercises.  Not just as a reward for behavior, but as a motivation exercise, because if she’s happy and not stressed, she’s at least going to try to do what I ask.

The Princess Comments:  Barking, I like barking. Killing squirrels would be a motivating game too… think about it!

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Cues

I’ve been thinking a lot about cues this last week. Its one of the areas where I have not followed clicker training procedures. That wasn’t intentional, I just didn’t realized what I was (not) doing.

When you add the cue, you are then NOT to reward the behavior UNLESS you have cued it. This is where I have not been consistent. After all, The Princess is awfully cute when she throws herself into a down (her default behavior).  So I reward it, even with just a smile and a “good girl”, but often with a treat.  So really, I don’t think she’s learned the cue the way she should.

The other thing about cues, is that they can be rewards for the behavior that immediately precedes it.   I admit, it took a bit for me to get my head around that concept.  I understand the concept, but I have a hard time using it.  So what I think that means is that if you have a behavior chain (say front then finish), and the finish is rewarding to the dog, then the cue to finish is rewarding to the dog.  This then means, if the front is not good, don’t give the cue to finish.  If the front is good, then the cue to finish is the reward for it.  If the front is not good, break off and try again.  I think this can be used in the ring (which is great :-).  If my dog finds jumping up to touch my hand rewarding, I can give the cue for that after she’s done a finish.  Especially if its a good finish :-).  Of course, for dogs that find all cued behavior rewarding, the agility and/or obedience ring performance is one long behavior chain continuously rewarded by the cue for the next behavior.

So, two more training rules:

• Once you are “putting the behavior on cue”, don’t reward the behavior unless you have cued it
• If the dog finds a behavior (that is on cue) rewarding, don’t ask for it unless they met the current criteria for the previous behavior

The Princess comments: My cue to the Court Jester is to sit and look cute, then she’ll perform the arm swinging behavior, I’ll reward that by getting in heel position, which is the cue to her to hold her hand above my head.   If she does that correctly, I’ll bump her hand, which she clearly likes because she smiles, and its my cue to her to dispense the FUD!

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Seriously

I overheard a conversation the other day. One instructor to another about a pupil… “she clearly hasn’t done what I’ve asked her to do, so she obviously isn’t “serious” about this.”

No, this wasn’t about *me* but it got me thinking. What is being “serious” about dog training? Does this mean if I don’t do something with the same intensity/obsessiveness as an OTCH or MACH trainer, that I’m not “serious”? Does this somehow make my trials and training issues unimportant? (after all, I’m not *serious*).

I think its great that there are folks out there who spend their lives training their dogs. Or find the time to train extensively. These are the folks I look to for innovations, understanding, expertise and instruction.

I just think those that do, need to realize that many other folks choose to do other things, or have lives and obligations that circumvent our best laid plans.

And just because we are not “serious” does not mean that the training we do is unimportant.  We want to have fun with our dogs.  Maybe we have a small competitive spirit, but no aspirations to be at an invitational or on the world team.  But we do want to improve.  Even if we can’t (or choose not to) act on every one of your suggestions, please don’t marginalize our experience.

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Classical conditioning

I’m thinking now that where I “went wrong” in my positive training is not giving enough consideration to Classical Conditioning. The Clickcompobed email list discussed this recently and I’ve been thinking about it since.

Its not that I’ve corrected the dog, its just that she has negatively associated the ring environment with, I don’t know, stress?

I kind of feel like this is an “AH HA!” moment. Not that I’ll be able to fix this in one easy step (haha), but at least I feel like I know what went wrong.

Clearly I need to go to a lot of matches just to train (classically condition) the attitude. Unfortunately, the likelihood of that happening is slim. I’ll have to try and figure out what I can do in the everyday training.

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Punishers are reinforced by their behavior

One last piece of insight from “Don’t Shoot the Dog“.  Its a great explanation of a currently popular dog trainer.  p. 107.  “When a punishment does effectively halt a behavior, that sequence of events is very reinforcing for the punisher….Their own punishing behavior may be maintained by a meager handful of successes in a morass of not so good results and can persist despite logical evidence to the contrary..”

Does that not explain all the heavy handed trainers out there?  Especially the famous ones?

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The Dog Decides

I’m coming up with  my own, personal, rules of dog training.  They are not NEW rules, they are other peoples rules/ideas that I’m internalizing.

The first is … The dog decides.  The dog decides if the food you are using is reinforcing.  More importantly, the dog decides if your actions/words are a correction.  Dog A (aka The Wise One) might love to repeat the weavepoles after you messed up the entrance.  Dog B (aka, The Princess) sees that as a correction.  I think many “traditional” obedience breeds thrive on repetition – they actually LIKE it.  Hence, they are easily trained by repetitive methods.  Many other dogs find that to be a correction – hence they get worse and worse as they are drilled.

Is the dog getting happier, more focused, more correct?  Then she is telling you she is being reinforced.

Is the dog getting stressed, losing focus, making more mistakes?  Then she is telling you she is being corrected.  Even if you didn’t KNOW that was what you were doing.

The dog decides.

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Conditioned Negative Reinforcers

To get started back on my training, I’m re-reading  the classic “Don’t Shoot the Dog“.  Some phrases are striking me as more important than ever…. tonight it was

“Conventional cues or commands are, in fact, conditioned negative reinforcers” (p.70)

The dog “obeys” the command in order to avoid the discomfort of what follows the command.  This is a reinforcer because it increases the behavior that follows.  Its negative because something is removed/avoided by that behavior.  The example in the book is saying sit, then pushing on the dog’s butt to get it to sit.  The dog wants to avoid the pushing, so learns to sit early.  Sitting is increased (reinforced)  because pushing is removed (negative).

yea yea, I knew that before – so why did it strike me as so interesting now?  I think its the *conditioned* aspect of the statement.  The word “sit” isn’t a primary negative reinforcer, its a conditioned one.  It has become a poisoned cue.

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