And another clip of the big circus monkey working minus the comments from the peanut gallery:
Monday, October 31, 2011
A three year old toddler....
Steel is a wonderful working dog, he is capable of excellent drive, persistent problem solving and technical accuracy. However....all that is sometimes overlooked because of his sheer enthusiasm and joy. As I have mentioned before, his attitude towards life is: EVERY DAY IS MY BIRTHDAY!!" He can see the potential fun in anything and everything - I wish I could be like him. Here is a clip of him working in the training yard. There is a canvas bag with drugs in it amongst all the toys and other distractions. There is nothing unusual about the performance; the commentary while he is working is pretty funny though and oh so true:
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
It is cliche - but it is still true....
Life is short....
A very good friend found out that she was seriously sick two weeks ago. She died two days ago. Given her personality, it is no surprise to find that she left specific instructions about how she wanted her death handled. It is the way she lived her life - quality was everything. Even when you are very good, there is still room to be better if you think about it hard enough. We had a lot in common in that respect. Some people admire that trait; others cannot seem to understand that level of passion towards an endeavor.
Words that have been used to describe her include: creative, driven and altruistic. The last seems like an understatement when used in reference to this person....
In one of our long philosophical conversations about dogs, when we were talking about what we would have done different or figured out sooner regarding our past beloved dogs (with each of us pretending that the other was not tearing up), she told me about a quote in a book "Eminent Dogs Dangerous Men". The author makes an expedition to Scotland to purchase the perfect border collie. In his travels the author has a conversation with a shepherd/dog trainer and is told "You can't be a dog trainer until you have some regrets." She later loaned me this book, it was set aside to be returned but managed to make the trip with me to MS instead. I pulled it out last night, remembering the quote, and I noticed she had highlighted a portion of that conversation in the book:
A very good friend found out that she was seriously sick two weeks ago. She died two days ago. Given her personality, it is no surprise to find that she left specific instructions about how she wanted her death handled. It is the way she lived her life - quality was everything. Even when you are very good, there is still room to be better if you think about it hard enough. We had a lot in common in that respect. Some people admire that trait; others cannot seem to understand that level of passion towards an endeavor.
Words that have been used to describe her include: creative, driven and altruistic. The last seems like an understatement when used in reference to this person....
In one of our long philosophical conversations about dogs, when we were talking about what we would have done different or figured out sooner regarding our past beloved dogs (with each of us pretending that the other was not tearing up), she told me about a quote in a book "Eminent Dogs Dangerous Men". The author makes an expedition to Scotland to purchase the perfect border collie. In his travels the author has a conversation with a shepherd/dog trainer and is told "You can't be a dog trainer until you have some regrets." She later loaned me this book, it was set aside to be returned but managed to make the trip with me to MS instead. I pulled it out last night, remembering the quote, and I noticed she had highlighted a portion of that conversation in the book:
"I sometimes think....when I'm on my deathbed....they'll come back. All the dogs I've trained will come filing by..."
I sure hope they did - that must have been a very very long line of extremely happy dogs......
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Rewards - what do dogs really want??
People get way too obsessed about the right thing to give the dog as a "reward" - special toys, homemade treats, etc. Walk into any pet supply store and you will see a mind boggling display of food and toy items. However the best rewards will fall flat if not used properly. Just because a dog takes a treat or is willing to play with a toy does not necessarily mean that they consider it sufficient motivation to modify a behavior or perform an action.
One of the criterias we look at in our detection dogs is their "fight drive" , we arent meaning aggression but rather how strong is their desire for an object and, most important, how willing are they to engage us in a game with that object. While not every dog is cut out to be a detection dog, the selection process weeds out most, a lesson can be learned whether you are training a pet, a sport dog or a working dog. If we look at the dogs they will tell us how important that engagement and interaction is, otherwise the toy is meaningless.
Here are a few pics of a dog being trained to detect human remains. It is an excellent example of how the toy is only important when they know that a fight/game is involved. And not coincidently we have conditioned them to believe that the fight/game only happens right at the source of odor! This allows them to manipulate us and to get what they REALLY want.
One of the criterias we look at in our detection dogs is their "fight drive" , we arent meaning aggression but rather how strong is their desire for an object and, most important, how willing are they to engage us in a game with that object. While not every dog is cut out to be a detection dog, the selection process weeds out most, a lesson can be learned whether you are training a pet, a sport dog or a working dog. If we look at the dogs they will tell us how important that engagement and interaction is, otherwise the toy is meaningless.
Here are a few pics of a dog being trained to detect human remains. It is an excellent example of how the toy is only important when they know that a fight/game is involved. And not coincidently we have conditioned them to believe that the fight/game only happens right at the source of odor! This allows them to manipulate us and to get what they REALLY want.
The dog below clearly has access to the toy. So why is he ignoring it and going to the box containing the odor?
Because he wants not just the toy but the fight as well.
He will even take the toy TO the odor box to make that game happen.
It's the game not just the toy.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
The Superstars....
Well....maybe not stars but they were VERY good. Today I took Jill and Steel to an AKC obedience competition clinic west of Jackson. I wasn't so concerned about the clinic (although the instructor is a judge so it was very helpful to have her point out common and very avoidable errors that people tend to make when competing). My primary goal was to work Steel and Jill in that kind of environment since it is very foreign to them. The training, like many trials, was indoor in a crowded space with people who are not particularly careful about their dogs invading the space of other dogs. It always amazes me when people stand around talking, oblivious to the fact that their dog is "throwing gang signs" at all the other dogs around them. I didn't see much of that today, thank heavens, because even though he loves his momma Steel is not above reminding others that he IS a police dog, should the need arise. However his only interest today was heeling and heeling and more heeling. Jill the worrier threw concerned looks at a few dogs and then realized that even though we were not in the training yard, we were doing OBEDIENCE - yippee! yahoo! She got many compliments for her attentiveness as well as being "smiley". My only real goals today were for the dogs to be in drive, as high as they are at home, and for them to choose to work and be interested in me rather than the environment. I was very pleased to get both from each dog (I left the loudmouth home, he would be one of those dogs flashing gang signs....) and their skills weren't half bad either!
Monday, October 17, 2011
More on Jilly Bean....
I have been helping to teach a detection class the past week so I am behind on my posts. However this is part 2 of my posts on Jill's current training. For now we are working on competition obedience. Do I have any plans or thoughts on competing? Not really, we will see what happens. It is more to focus on another avenue of training and currently works with my schedule. It also doesnt conflict with her full time job as my official running partner. She ran 5 miles with me yesterday and that girl can run forever!! She gets in a groove and has a smooth efficient ground eating trot. Must be all that running with the german shepherd....
Anyway...back to obedience....
I mentioned last time that Jill is very toy crazy. The sight of a toy creates spins and jumps and overall craziness. Good for drive but potentially challenging to get precision when it come to working. What has worked very well with Jill is an extremely effective technique of defining the reinforcement zone(s) before any learning occurs. We do this when we train our detection dogs. There is no reason for the dog to think that a certain odor has any significance. We pair the reward and the odor in the dog's mind prior to setting the dog up to actually do anything. We put the dog in a position to smell the odor AND get a high value reward. This is done through shaping the environment, NOT just letting the dog wander into a place where they smell the odor. Once the reinforcement zone has been established (the place where the odor is) we then get out of their way and let the dog self teach themselves how to get the reward. It is very effective and exactly how I am training Jill's obedience.
In her case the reinforcement zones are heel position and front position. Using both food and toys I have created these places where she can expect reinforcement. This was done BEFORE I actually asked her to do anything - or actually to be more accurate before I asked her to actually think while doing something. In this manner I can let her get crazy drive, just like we do with our drug dogs, and she knows where to go to get that reinforcement/reward that she so badly wants. As a result I dont have a decrease in drive caused either by her uncertainty or my having to show her something or direct her. It also makes the work a lot more fun for her and she is more confident and she does not need help or information from me.
Is she perfect? Well no not yet. But I am very happy with her progress and even more happy that she is keeping all the drive and personality that I love about her as she develops skill.
Hopefully within the next few days I will be able to put together a few training videos....
Anyway...back to obedience....
I mentioned last time that Jill is very toy crazy. The sight of a toy creates spins and jumps and overall craziness. Good for drive but potentially challenging to get precision when it come to working. What has worked very well with Jill is an extremely effective technique of defining the reinforcement zone(s) before any learning occurs. We do this when we train our detection dogs. There is no reason for the dog to think that a certain odor has any significance. We pair the reward and the odor in the dog's mind prior to setting the dog up to actually do anything. We put the dog in a position to smell the odor AND get a high value reward. This is done through shaping the environment, NOT just letting the dog wander into a place where they smell the odor. Once the reinforcement zone has been established (the place where the odor is) we then get out of their way and let the dog self teach themselves how to get the reward. It is very effective and exactly how I am training Jill's obedience.
In her case the reinforcement zones are heel position and front position. Using both food and toys I have created these places where she can expect reinforcement. This was done BEFORE I actually asked her to do anything - or actually to be more accurate before I asked her to actually think while doing something. In this manner I can let her get crazy drive, just like we do with our drug dogs, and she knows where to go to get that reinforcement/reward that she so badly wants. As a result I dont have a decrease in drive caused either by her uncertainty or my having to show her something or direct her. It also makes the work a lot more fun for her and she is more confident and she does not need help or information from me.
Is she perfect? Well no not yet. But I am very happy with her progress and even more happy that she is keeping all the drive and personality that I love about her as she develops skill.
Hopefully within the next few days I will be able to put together a few training videos....
Friday, October 14, 2011
Monday, October 10, 2011
Jill(y Bean)'s Training - Part One
This is in response to several questions regarding Jill's training. Currently we are still getting settled in Mississippi. We have been working primarily on competition obedience training, mostly because it requires no traveling and can be done in short sessions between my other work and it keeps Jill busy and happy.
First a little bit on Jill. She is interesting because she has very very high toy drive, she grabs toys and she will bite hard if your hands accidentally get in the way. She will fetch for hours but when I first got her (in January of this year) she didn't have any interest in tugging, all she wanted to do was retrieve. I like having a tug drive because it easier to reward at the place of reinforcement than a throw. So I used the principles of "reward transfer" to teach her to like tugging as well as retrieving. I did this by engaging her in a tug, then pulling an identical toy from a pocket and throwing it while she was tugging. She learned that to get the throw she had to tug first. When utilizing reward transfer the higher value thing (the retrieve) has to occur after the lower value thing (the tug). I was also careful not to give her the throw after she let go of the tug. She had to be actively tugging but I wasn't concerned about how long or how hard. Once the new game had value both intensity and duration can increase. A reminder for any type of training - if you don't have value then don't expect intensity!
An example of toy drive - Jill did this little arrangement while Mike was sleeping. I can just picture her whispering quietly, "when mike wakes up we are going to have a really fun time!"
In spite of crazy toy drive Jill is also VERY easy to please and extremely sensitive. Any information that tells her that I am not happy with her work results in a drop in her enthusiasm and drive. I am not talking about a correction, even things that are more accurately described as "no reward markers", do this as well.
She did very well in her search and rescue training because it was very clear from the start how to get the reward and she got very little pressure to perform in a specific way before the find, just run through the woods and go to the person once she found them. Initially the "victim" handed her the toy and then we backchained a few behaviors like a return to me, jump on me, return to the handler. It was quite simple and she did it well. Detection work was less smooth because she clearly felt like something was EXPECTED of her and, in spite of her toy drive, she worried about what that was. This could be due to her basic, eager to please personality, or possibly due to her lack of experience with offering behaviors at a young age or more likely a combination of both. I start my pups off very early teaching them to be comfortable offering and experimenting with behaviors.
So for obedience training I have a toy nut, who, at the sight of a toy, bounces like a kangaroo in place, going "gimme the toy!, gimme the toy!, gimme the toy!. However she is sensitive and not only can I not use a correction, I can't even use a no reward marker, meaning something that tells her she is choosing the wrong thing. I need to get through the toy happy dance and ask for a specific task that requires precision without losing the enthusiasm but getting the precision. There are a great many ways to train the behavior but I want her to look like she is happy and enjoying her job at the same time. What is the point of selecting a high drive, enthusiastic dog if my training technique takes that away, just leaving me a dog going through the motions?
In the second part of this blog I will describe in a little bit more detail how I am attempting to achieve this.
First a little bit on Jill. She is interesting because she has very very high toy drive, she grabs toys and she will bite hard if your hands accidentally get in the way. She will fetch for hours but when I first got her (in January of this year) she didn't have any interest in tugging, all she wanted to do was retrieve. I like having a tug drive because it easier to reward at the place of reinforcement than a throw. So I used the principles of "reward transfer" to teach her to like tugging as well as retrieving. I did this by engaging her in a tug, then pulling an identical toy from a pocket and throwing it while she was tugging. She learned that to get the throw she had to tug first. When utilizing reward transfer the higher value thing (the retrieve) has to occur after the lower value thing (the tug). I was also careful not to give her the throw after she let go of the tug. She had to be actively tugging but I wasn't concerned about how long or how hard. Once the new game had value both intensity and duration can increase. A reminder for any type of training - if you don't have value then don't expect intensity!
An example of toy drive - Jill did this little arrangement while Mike was sleeping. I can just picture her whispering quietly, "when mike wakes up we are going to have a really fun time!"
In spite of crazy toy drive Jill is also VERY easy to please and extremely sensitive. Any information that tells her that I am not happy with her work results in a drop in her enthusiasm and drive. I am not talking about a correction, even things that are more accurately described as "no reward markers", do this as well.
She did very well in her search and rescue training because it was very clear from the start how to get the reward and she got very little pressure to perform in a specific way before the find, just run through the woods and go to the person once she found them. Initially the "victim" handed her the toy and then we backchained a few behaviors like a return to me, jump on me, return to the handler. It was quite simple and she did it well. Detection work was less smooth because she clearly felt like something was EXPECTED of her and, in spite of her toy drive, she worried about what that was. This could be due to her basic, eager to please personality, or possibly due to her lack of experience with offering behaviors at a young age or more likely a combination of both. I start my pups off very early teaching them to be comfortable offering and experimenting with behaviors.
So for obedience training I have a toy nut, who, at the sight of a toy, bounces like a kangaroo in place, going "gimme the toy!, gimme the toy!, gimme the toy!. However she is sensitive and not only can I not use a correction, I can't even use a no reward marker, meaning something that tells her she is choosing the wrong thing. I need to get through the toy happy dance and ask for a specific task that requires precision without losing the enthusiasm but getting the precision. There are a great many ways to train the behavior but I want her to look like she is happy and enjoying her job at the same time. What is the point of selecting a high drive, enthusiastic dog if my training technique takes that away, just leaving me a dog going through the motions?
In the second part of this blog I will describe in a little bit more detail how I am attempting to achieve this.
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