Sunday, November 23, 2008
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Don't miss these videos of Marcy
The video immediately below (in the next post) has been viewed over 100 times but I can see that many of you are missing the other videos of Marcy.
Please scroll WAAAAAAAAAY down, and you'll find lots of additional videos. They are so cute! She is adorable!
Please scroll WAAAAAAAAAY down, and you'll find lots of additional videos. They are so cute! She is adorable!
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Marcy learning to "down"
Today Marcy is building her basic obedience using clicker training. The click tells her "what you did when I made that noise was really good, and now you'll get a treat for it". The timing of the click is important because it signals to her exactly what behavior earned the treat. I use my tongue to click, I usually don't have a clicker in my hand (though she does understand both the tongue-click and the clicker device).
The way we do this is to "get" the behavior we want through shaping it, and by using the timing of click and treat carefully, we get her to understand that "if you sit and look at me, I will click and treat". Once she understands that, then we add a verbal word to it "sit". Once we have enough repetitions for her to have the word association (usually a minimum of 50, and more like 100), then we start only rewarding when we have ASKED for the behavior, not just when she offers it. And then we fade out the frequent food rewards. We are not through that entire process here, this is just the beginning. But I wanted you to understand the longer term path.
Get it? View this video, and then SCROLL DOWN FURTHER FOR MORE VIDEOS!!
A common question is, "Why wait to add the verbal cue?" The reason we wait is a good one. We want her to associate the cue "sit" with the right behavior. If we use the cue in the early teaching stage (as was traditionally done in most dog training classes), she may be hearing the word "sit" when in fact she is standing up and moving around and is not in the sit position at all. It's important to "glue" the word sit to the actual correct behavior. "Sit" means sit, not "wiggle your butt around while I position you in a way that can get you ready to sit". Not "we're going to go through this little dance while I try to position you into a sit". See the difference?
This is why we start our clicker training process with a "new" dog by first teaching them what the click means-- that what she was doing at the moment of my click earned the reward. There is a short process for that I'm not describing here, it's called "loading the clicker". Once they understand that, then we catch the dog performing the desired behavior (or something close to the desired behavior, that we can shape INTO the desired behavior). So most dogs will sit on their own at some point. Our job is to catch that in the moment it happens, click, and treat. Aha! After that happens a few times, they're offering you the "sit" over and over.
Usually, we like to have short, 2-3 minute training sessions 5-6 times a day, and we like to work on just one behavior in each one. We'll do "sit" for a few minutes, and later we'll do "down". This allows the dog to know which behavior we're working on, because they'll start offering you ALL Their behaviors if you try to work on them in the same session without some clear "breaking point" from one behavior to another. This is more of a problem in dogs that are new to clicker training-- once they are "clicker savvy" they move more quickly with everything. But you will see in this video that because we started working on "down", later when I try to show you how well she sits she also melts into a down because she thinks that's what I'm asking her to work on. You'll also notice that she is reluctant to stop the training session. This is great, it means she's having fun.
Marcy is available through Rover Rescue, at
www.roverrescue.com. Please help her find a great home and donate to support our efforts.
The way we do this is to "get" the behavior we want through shaping it, and by using the timing of click and treat carefully, we get her to understand that "if you sit and look at me, I will click and treat". Once she understands that, then we add a verbal word to it "sit". Once we have enough repetitions for her to have the word association (usually a minimum of 50, and more like 100), then we start only rewarding when we have ASKED for the behavior, not just when she offers it. And then we fade out the frequent food rewards. We are not through that entire process here, this is just the beginning. But I wanted you to understand the longer term path.
Get it? View this video, and then SCROLL DOWN FURTHER FOR MORE VIDEOS!!
A common question is, "Why wait to add the verbal cue?" The reason we wait is a good one. We want her to associate the cue "sit" with the right behavior. If we use the cue in the early teaching stage (as was traditionally done in most dog training classes), she may be hearing the word "sit" when in fact she is standing up and moving around and is not in the sit position at all. It's important to "glue" the word sit to the actual correct behavior. "Sit" means sit, not "wiggle your butt around while I position you in a way that can get you ready to sit". Not "we're going to go through this little dance while I try to position you into a sit". See the difference?
This is why we start our clicker training process with a "new" dog by first teaching them what the click means-- that what she was doing at the moment of my click earned the reward. There is a short process for that I'm not describing here, it's called "loading the clicker". Once they understand that, then we catch the dog performing the desired behavior (or something close to the desired behavior, that we can shape INTO the desired behavior). So most dogs will sit on their own at some point. Our job is to catch that in the moment it happens, click, and treat. Aha! After that happens a few times, they're offering you the "sit" over and over.
Usually, we like to have short, 2-3 minute training sessions 5-6 times a day, and we like to work on just one behavior in each one. We'll do "sit" for a few minutes, and later we'll do "down". This allows the dog to know which behavior we're working on, because they'll start offering you ALL Their behaviors if you try to work on them in the same session without some clear "breaking point" from one behavior to another. This is more of a problem in dogs that are new to clicker training-- once they are "clicker savvy" they move more quickly with everything. But you will see in this video that because we started working on "down", later when I try to show you how well she sits she also melts into a down because she thinks that's what I'm asking her to work on. You'll also notice that she is reluctant to stop the training session. This is great, it means she's having fun.
Marcy is available through Rover Rescue, at
www.roverrescue.com. Please help her find a great home and donate to support our efforts.
Monday, November 3, 2008
She's a genius!
Marcy is catching on to clicker training beautifully, and quickly learned that if she sits and looks me in the face (giving me her full attention) it makes me click and give her a treat.
I decided to teach her "down". So tonight I leashed her to the piano and sat 4 feet away, and waited. She was puzzled. She sat and stared at me, and I did not respond. Hmmmm. Not knowing what else to do, she lay down. I immediately clicked and tossed a treat to her about a foot away (causing her to stand up to get it). She caught on immediately, and started offering me the "down" again and again, getting a click and treat each time. After about 12 successful repetitions, I started putting the word to it, saying "down" AS she was doing it.
We did this for about 4 minutes, and quit. 2 hours later, we did it again in a different room, with me sitting nearby, standing up, on her left side, on her right side, in front of her, etc.-- changing my body position relative to hers. No problem. She gets it.
She's a very quick learner, and is loving this positive method of training.
Marcy is available through Rover Rescue, at
www.roverrescue.com. Please help her find a great home and donate to support our efforts.
I decided to teach her "down". So tonight I leashed her to the piano and sat 4 feet away, and waited. She was puzzled. She sat and stared at me, and I did not respond. Hmmmm. Not knowing what else to do, she lay down. I immediately clicked and tossed a treat to her about a foot away (causing her to stand up to get it). She caught on immediately, and started offering me the "down" again and again, getting a click and treat each time. After about 12 successful repetitions, I started putting the word to it, saying "down" AS she was doing it.
We did this for about 4 minutes, and quit. 2 hours later, we did it again in a different room, with me sitting nearby, standing up, on her left side, on her right side, in front of her, etc.-- changing my body position relative to hers. No problem. She gets it.
She's a very quick learner, and is loving this positive method of training.
Marcy is available through Rover Rescue, at
www.roverrescue.com. Please help her find a great home and donate to support our efforts.
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