That's what he thinks all the time anyway! He doesn't find food reinforcing really. It's not a bribe if it's in your pocket, out of sight. Your hand on your pocket, or anything that 'promises' her the ball/bottle though, makes it a bribe.
If you paired treats and a ball, the treats would become a marker for the ball (for Charlie who finds the ball massively more reinforcing than the treats). Like treats and a clicker. It would rapidly wear off if the ball didn't directly follow the treat. Like the meaning of a clicker would wear off if a treat didn't follow a click.
True. My brain isn't really switched on today So, I wonder if just the use of pattern would be enough to keep him interested. I know you've said Charlie is really quick at picking up patterns in your training, probably moreso than many other dogs. But even for others, who just become excited from their owners putting a different pair of shoes on because it's the first step in a series of actions that may take several minutes but ends with a walk - the dog is "thinking ahead" in some way to know he's going to get a good reward. The treats do a job in telling him he's on the right path, but if he learns the pattern that walking to heel is the first step to the ultimate reward of the ball, could that be useful? I'm probably being zero help at all, sorry, just lots of brain-farts!
https://www.dropbox.com/s/68e2u58tr1n4x17/Video 26-10-2016, 16 53 37.mov?dl=0 Just trying to see if this works (struggling with iPad)
I think that link works. This was last week when I was using my hand to direct her, but keeping treats in my pocket. As you can see we had to start again a few times but basic movement in place. Since then we've moved on to pivoting without the board and yesterday evening at our class we managed some quite good turns as part of heelwork. The trainer says I now need to get rid of the extravagant arm movements.
Ah, now that I've seen the video I understand what all the talk of "pivots" was about! That was lovely to watch, Molly's tail just wagged the whole time.
We're continuing to work at walking to heel but I've also been doing trick training as a bit of light relief. We're doing put the object in the box. She's not got this one quite off pat yet, but thought you might like to see where we are so far. https://www.dropbox.com/s/z9yz3bxnxejnk2l/File 28-11-2016, 13 28 55.mov?dl=0
We're continuing to practise heelwork for competition with a focus on getting sharp turns. Molly's still not glued to my leg but not sure how to move forward.
Looks lovely! We are beginners compared to you but I can tell you what we're being taught in case it helps. Yep, faster is good as it keeps their interest more and we had a trainer that suggested more, smaller steps as it gives the impression that you're going faster without changing pace too much (as you'll still want a clear slow and fast pace for trials).
