So, for September, I have a 15 x 15 matrix! Across the top are levels of distraction – from the ones Charlie finds easiest, to the hardest. I’m sure there are levels harder than this, but that’s the limit of what I’m thinking about for now - normally, I guess, harder levels would involve wildlife, but we've never had much problem with that to the extent it barely counts as a distraction for us. A lesson in the benefit of being consistent with required behaviour from 8 weeks! 1 In house 2 In garden 3 In street/pub/café (as appropriate) 4 On the Common 5 In familiar smelly field 6 In strange smelly field 7 Around lots of people 8 With other dogs 9 Near water 10 With other dogs playing 11 With other dogs and balls 12 With other dogs and tennis ball launchers 13 Other dogs retrieving dummies 14 With other dogs, balls and water 15 With other dogs, dummies and water And the 15 behaviours I’m working on this month (and the level of distraction where the behaviour is “complete”) is down the other side. The behaviour "complete" means just that - it's finished. So I have a good recall at level 10, for example, but it's not to a stage where I don't need to do more work: 1 Walking nicely - on lead (7/8) 2 Walking to heel - off lead (2/4) 3 Passive observer of exciting things (3/4) 4 Settle (2/3) 5 Recall (9) 6 Change direction whistle (9) 7 Stop whistle (10) 8 Sit on left (1) 9 Sit and wait (5) 10 Bring back dummy (too complicated to describe in a number!) 11 Target stick (1) 12 Placeboard (1) 13 Tug (2) 14 Whipit (2) 15 Left, right, back cones (0) I have the best progress on recall, change direction, stop – this be because they are so very important to me. But further progress in these areas (into distraction levels of 11 and above) first depends on me tackling Charlie’s nuttiness around balls and things. It also depends on me making progress on things like Whipit that will help Charlie increase his threshold to concentrate when excited. So I’m not trying now to increase any distraction level where I already have a 9 or 10 – instead I’m first working on desensitising Charlie to the next distraction level without asking him to do anything. For the rest of the tasks, I’m trying to move up the distraction level – for as many as possible, and as far as possible. Some tasks, like target cones, I haven’t even really started. Bring back the dummy is a subject in itself, and we found out some interesting things at training yesterday. Like if Charlie can reduce the level of his arousal, he brings back the dummy. I learned all sorts of things, like a barrier he jumps over, makes him think what route he is going to use to get back. This slows him down, makes him think, and he brings back the dummy. But a huge push is just going to be calming him down around dummies. So, another busy training month in September….
Re: September training Like your matrix....is this your typical approach or something suggested in class?
Re: September training I'm genuinely very impressed with your organisation and level of commitment. In your other thread you talk about the importance of consistency and I think I need to take this to heart. I seem to have recall sorted (famous last words!) because I saw it as vitally important but I've been messing around with sit to the whistle for ages because I don't really do it frequently enough. You've inspired me
Re: September training [quote author=bbrown link=topic=7616.msg106327#msg106327 date=1409603024] Like your matrix....is this your typical approach or something suggested in class? [/quote] I made it up myself! Am quite proud of it - it's coloured coded an' everything - I can't get a screen shot of it onto flickr, unfortunately, but might take a photo. ;D ;D ;D It has a "work hard this month and you'll see your gold stars fill up" feel about it. ;D ;D ;D [quote author=Joy link=topic=7616.msg106331#msg106331 date=1409603804] You've inspired me [/quote] Hey! Wow! That's so kind of you.
Re: September training Liking it!!! You've given me a bit of a kick too. I've been walking brods on his own this week as Cuilli has been resting up a niggle, and the progress we have made on his Stop Whistle is fab, been upping distractions properly at last....because I had him on his own it seemed to give me more focus for Planning, Preparation, Delivery, Review etc....your matrix is a great idea. I love a clear plan with outcomes.... very motivational! Cuilli can have her own too for her stuff
Re: September training Oh that's fab! I'm really pleased. Fill in your matrix, and get going on September! ;D ;D ;D
Re: September training oh oh Im geeking away now. Adding a column that describes what ' success '' or ' 'complete' looks like, as some of Cuilli's end outcomes are more subjectively measurable things like 'relaxing in a pub with a strange dog in it'...that will need defining....But she has a few intermediate or shorter term outcomes to get her there , like ' not barking in a pub with a strange dog in it' ..Must not continue to do this at work tomorrow ;D
Re: September training I have been concentrating on 3 things over the last couple of days. 8 Sit on left (1) 10 Bring back dummy (too complicated to describe in a number!) 14 Whipit (2) Sit on left Sit on left is a strange one. Charlie thinks the cue "heel" means "spin round on the spot". I know! How crazy is that? What happened was I was luring him to go round my back to sit on my left, or turn around from in front of me to align himself on my left. When he was waiting for a retrieve, he was asked to come to heel. It was too much for him to actually move away from the dummy, so he just did the turn action without returning to my side! At some point this got reinforced, and now "heel" means "spin". It's a nice spin though, lovely and level, and very, very, fast. Anyway, so I'm putting this right with a new cue. : Making ok progress, but he is not quite straight. It was pointed out to me at my 121 that I'm not straight either, and he is mirroring my stance exactly so we are stood in a slight V. So much looking forward and walking along walls before we sit... Bring back dummy My biggest step forward here is to get a helper to throw dummies. I honestly had no-one to do this on a day to day basis but solved it by asking my dog walker to help. She doesn't have any extra time, so we have to use Charlie's dog walking time. Which means I have to shift my work, and do the walks she doesn't do. : I can't do this for very long, but will try for a week or so. So first I've been doing a lot of walking holds and Charlie handing me the dummy. http://totallygundogs.com/the-walking-hold-a-gundog-delivery-exercise/ He does these in the house, and in the garden every time I get up to go to the loo or make a cup of tea etc. And we do them before he retrieves anything outside. He no longer needs to be on a lead to do this, so that helps as I'm a clumsy person and find handling dummies with my dog on a lead tricky. We do 3 walking holds with everything in the dummy bag before each set of retrieves (so 9). This will sound excessive to some people, but it's not for Charlie. His enthusiasm for the dummy does not diminish even if I do walking holds all day. Then we do a few fetches with the dummies between me and Charlie over a very short distance (like you would for a clicker retrieve). And then we do the same but with the dummies placed in front of me, so he rehearses turning to give me the dummy. All of this does reduce his excitement levels around the dummy a little bit, and does seem to help. We don't have corridors, but we do our best with what we can find. Tonight at first we were placing the dummies into cover, which was nice and high - they were blinds, really, but the dummy placer was a big marker obviously - and since he tended to return down a little bit of a path in the cover, I was standing at the end of that. We had only one brief swerve off, and he came back on his recall. Then we tried down a path, that wasn't really a corridor but at least was defined, we threw the dummy into cover again, and he brought everything back ok. We moved to another path, which was a bit more open at one end, but that was pushing it too much, I think he was also getting tired, otherwise would have run off with it, so we stopped. Whipit Is really good fun. He is supposed to get stupidly excited about it, so I can manage his excitement levels going over his threshold and back down. And work on him following cues when excited. But he doesn't seem to get all that excited. He enjoys playing it just fine but has no trouble bringing me the toy when he catches it, or sitting and waiting and so on. It's good fun though, so we'll push on with it. Tempted to tie a bloomin' dummy on the string though!
Re: September training So after working on our reward games, I felt confident to head out to the Common today at midday. With the aim of using them to reward Charlie's stop whistle and recall. This is a moderately big deal, because the kids are back at school, which makes the Common busier (there are lots of schools around here, that do nature walks and various activities during the day). Sure enough, moderately busy (not as bad as a Saturday morning) - a couple of classes of kids, yoga people lying on the floor waving limbs around then running up the hill, and lots of other dogs - about 20 or so. We did really well. On my side I had: a mongoose toy on bungy for tug, a football on a rope for "run around", a new crunchy purple ball, and a new green monkey on my whipit stick. And a treat bag full to the brim of chopped up chicken frankfurters. Hurrah! I won! Even against a tennis ball launcher! I was sort of bribing him really, but I think that's ok for now. So we'd play a game, then I'd give him free time. As we played the game, we'd edge closer to the distractions. He sniffed around a bit in his free time, but he was really just waiting for the next game to start. Towards the end, I was properly using the games as rewards though. I definitely got a good stop when he took off towards the dogs and tennis ball launcher. Rewarded with a game of whipit. Tomorrow, I have a helper who is bringing a bucketful of footballs and rugby balls to add to the chaos, so we'll see how we do with that too.
Re: September training Very well done! I don't think my dogs could have resisted a yoga person waiving legs in the air! I admire your tenacity, puts me to shame but gives me something to aim for, your tenacity and commitment that is ;D
Re: September training People on the floor are really, really, tricky. And the kids sit on the floor in groups of 30+, chattering, and shouting, with food and plastic bottles, and brightly coloured bags. Very difficult for Charlie.
Re: September training That would be difficult for any dog :'( Well done Charlie to be making such forward steps.
Re: September training Whipit is just fab - he is getting a bit addicted to it. I think that's ok though, so long as I don't have to compete with rocket propelled stuffed green monkeys, I can cope with that. He gives me the toy to reastart the game, so I think it's good "giving me things while excited" training. Makes me think I've been over estimating the value of food as a reward for him, actually. My big strides forward have been rewards he can chase.
Re: September training with all these games are you allowed to attract his attention verbally or by shaking toys etc or are you looking for his focus to be on you already waiting for the game as it were?
Re: September training I was just working on the games, so the only thing I was doing was trying to use the games as a reward. That's all. To get him to play the games with distractions around (it's easy to get a dog interested in tug when there is nothing else whatsoever to do). I do getting his attention as a separate exercise (that's the one that's like free shaping but with loads of distractions) but we are really quite far on with that now. So I could have done anything I wanted, but I just said my starting cue "ready Charlie?". I was pretty interesting, with half of pets at home attached to elastic and whips hung about my person, so it worked even though he was saying hello to two dogs when I said it once. Was pretty thrilled with that (also might have been somewhat over confident, looking back on it).
Re: September training so you used them as reward for recall etc not in isolation as "just" games? LOVE that image ;D
