Re: Choc Charlie's training log [quote author=heidrun link=topic=9533.msg144352#msg144352 date=1424271298] Well, the solution is simple. Use your 24 new dummies until they have lost whatever it is that Charlie finds so irresistible, then donate them to your trainer to be used in group training. [/quote] Genius ;D I may not quite have reached the heady heights of 24 dummies but I've probably bought at least 15 in an attempt to get over the I'll only bring one rabbit skin dummy back. If you count tennis balls I'm easily up past 24 too ;D
Re: Choc Charlie's training log No bulk orders here.....a couple of these, one of those......it all adds up scarily quickly ;D I basically have a bucketful in the back of my car. Someone came to training and forgot their dummies so I offered them the bucket to choose from. Their eyes nearly popped out of their heads LOL!!!!
Re: Choc Charlie's training log Phew, thanks for confessing Barbara! I easily have over 30 "things" - dummies and variations of dummies and strange balls - for Charlie to retrieve (without the new 24). Indeed, there are 33 items on my spreadsheet now...
Re: Choc Charlie's training log Rather than keep buying new dummies, get different people to put their scent on the dummies you have, as other peoples dummies you encounter in classes will have the hand scent of their owners on them. Get friends to rub their hands round the dummies
Re: Choc Charlie's training log hmmm....I'll try. I'm not sure it's quite that though. It's more like a puppy : going crazy over a new toy, then getting a bit bored with it.
Re: Choc Charlie's training log He should learn concentration ;D More seriously though, you don't want to teach him that novelty is the thing as he will swap and never be focused! INMHO
Re: Choc Charlie's training log I very, very much agree that my dog needs to learn to concentrate! ;D ;D ;D Am I teaching him novelty is the thing? (genuine question for avoidance of doubt) I think I'm teaching him he has still got to give a dummy to me when it's new and he's never touched it before. I guess this is standard (although maybe not necessary for all dogs) point of proofing really?
Re: Choc Charlie's training log I think you could be teaching him that novelty is the thing and rewarding him for thinking it! Is it that he will not give you a dummy that belongs to someone else?
Re: Choc Charlie's training log He doesn't bring back new dummies - and I want him to do so (despite Heidrun's brill suggestion of only using Charlie used dummies at training, that is a bit exposed to failure over time). So I'm trying to get him to do that. I've tried long retrieves, short retrieves, memory retrieves, blind retrieves, clicker trained it to death - really I have killed the clicker retrieve - constructed corridors, tried over obstacles.... What seems to be working is to give him a new dummy for returning a new dummy. It's just matching the reward with the value of the action (in his eyes) - so long as I'm not bribing him (and I'm putting the reward dummy back in my bag so he can't see the swap), and I gradually reduce the reward (asking for more before he gets it, or slowly introducing a less valuable dummy as a reward), why wouldn't it work?
Re: Choc Charlie's training log I will be interested in the outcome Does it have to be a new dummy everytime, can you introduce yesterday's dummies today, or do they all have to be pristine new to Charlie? Do you know what he has agin a new dummy?
Re: Choc Charlie's training log Well, that's the problem with measuring the results without always using pristine dummies. If I start with 2 pristine dummies, and he won't bring them back, but over a couple of days my "retrieve for a retrieve" works...how do I know whether the "retrieve for a retrieve" works, or it's just because the dummies are no longer pristine? The only way to test that is to always use pristine dummies....hence me becoming Sporting Saint's customer of the year... ;D ;D ;D
Re: Choc Charlie's training log How often do you, or rather Charlie, have to retrieve a pristine dummy? Is it a real problem in Charlie's life? I could count on half a hand when my dog has had to retrieve a pristine dummy. Or have a I got the wrong end of the stick! You could put a new dummy down in the kitchen, prepare Charlie's dinner and to get his dinner, Charlie has to pick up the dummy and give it to you. I bet he would do it within 5 minutes You have to let him work it out for himself though.
Re: Choc Charlie's training log Do the dummies become 'new' again in Charlie's eyes (nose?!) if you wash them? A guy I know says he puts canvas dummies through the washing machine. I think I'd be paranoid about them splitting and wrecking the machine, but certainly the bucket-of-soapy-water-and-scrubbing-brush routine may have merit
Re: Choc Charlie's training log [quote author=Merla link=topic=9533.msg144440#msg144440 date=1424297269] Do the dummies become 'new' again in Charlie's eyes (nose?!) if you wash them? A guy I know says he puts canvas dummies through the washing machine. I think I'd be paranoid about them splitting and wrecking the machine, but certainly the bucket-of-soapy-water-and-scrubbing-brush routine may have merit [/quote] I have never cleaned a canvas dummy. I keep them in my training vest in which I also carry game so the scent on the dummies is even stronger and more distinctive and hopefully enticing to the dogs.
Re: Choc Charlie's training log [quote author=heidrun link=topic=9533.msg144441#msg144441 date=1424297556] so the scent on the dummies is even stronger and more distinctive and hopefully enticing to the dogs. [/quote] I live in a different world. I live in a world where I try to make a scent free canvas dummy the most boring thing imaginable. Where I tell people "please don't say brrrup! when you throw it". Please do not make dummies any more enticing or exciting than they already are. [quote author=Stacia link=topic=9533.msg144438#msg144438 date=1424296789] You could put a new dummy down in the kitchen, prepare Charlie's dinner and to get his dinner, Charlie has to pick up the dummy and give it to you. I bet he would do it within 5 minutes You have to let him work it out for himself though. [/quote] He does this every night! You have NO IDEA how expensive it is in new dummies! But does not translate outside? No! Sorry to sound so frustrated about that! ;D ;D ;D It's the same point as the clicker retrieve - yes, bl**dy clicker retrieve in the kitchen is fine but it does not withstand the excitement of being outside. He retrieved a £8.99 pristine rabbit skin dummy in the kitchen tonight. Much good that will do me though, I need to proof him retrieving a rabbit skin dummy in a new, exciting field when I don't have his dinner bowl on the kitchen work surface! ;D ;D ;D Can I repeat the same exercise in the garden? Yes! In the park, at the Common, at a different place at the Common, again, again...at training...how many bloomin' £8.99 dummies do I need? ;D ;D ;D [quote author=Stacia link=topic=9533.msg144438#msg144438 date=1424296789] How often do you, or rather Charlie, have to retrieve a pristine dummy? Is it a real problem in Charlie's life? I could count on half a hand when my dog has had to retrieve a pristine dummy. [/quote] Yes, it's a problem. New dummies are all around us - if we are doing an exercise with 10 other dogs at training I really can't say "can I sort out all the dummies you've just scattered across that field to identify the one Charlie is able to bring back?". And, what if I want him to bring back a "new" pheasant? What then? Am I going to play switch retrieve with warm game? I honestly thing it's a concept I have to crack in order to move on in any meaningful way. ;D ;D ;D
Re: Choc Charlie's training log Mmm, a new dummy is definitely NOT scent free. It will smell, faintly, of everyone who was part of its manufacture, packing and delivery, as well as lots of strange materials and places he wouldn't be able to identify. It would be an exotic smorgasbord of faint intriguing smells- much more so than a dummy which had a single overriding scent of him, you, another dog or even game. So I can see his point
Re: Choc Charlie's training log [quote author=Merla link=topic=9533.msg144444#msg144444 date=1424298474] So I can see his point [/quote] Charlie says " thank you, he rests his case ". ;D ;D ;D
