School time for our puppies! Here is your first to-do list. The first task might sound a little silly for those with adult dogs, but in fact, it's never silly to make a recall even better!
1. call your dog at least 10 times a day to do something fun together: to play, to go out, to get a treat, something to chew on or a new exciting toy
2. put a plate (or another object, but I like to start with a plate as puppies can't chew on those too easily) on a floor and shape a puppy to touch it with a front paw: you can first click for head movement in the right direction, then one/two/three steps, then stepping over it or close to it and finally for stepping on it
3. sit on a floor and put a fist full of treats or dog's favourite toy right in front of their nose, wait till they stop sniffing and click for anything they try other than getting directly to the food/toy or staring at it. It's very important the dog understands staring at food/toy doesn't get him anywhere as it will later on allow you to work with food/toys in your hand without distracting the dog's focus from the job at hand.
4. find a box or a drawer that is as long as your dog and not too high and shape a dog to put 1-2-3-4 legs into it. Then try with smaller&smaller objects, final goal is the dog can stand in a small bowl.
5. observe your puppy and see if he sometimes stretches his legs out when in down position, puppies often do that when relaxed or playing. Name it (I call it "frog":) and reward. It's a nice stretching exercise and very easy to get it on cue if the dog does it naturally (some dogs do it as adults too, but mine didn't and it was much harder to train it as with puppy Le who was doing that naturally). If not, put a dog in a down position and reward from the floor and so far ahead that the dog needs to stretch out to get it - but not so far that he would crawl ahead. Watch the hind legs and click for moving them back OR out, but NOT for crawling step forward.
Looking forward to see your videos!
Pfew.
Just started to work on no 5: that is going to be a challenge!
Of course the dog is offering all sorts of “get on your back and be silly” “roll over” “play dead” “tap the floor with front feet”. But nothing seems clickable as far as hind legs are concerned…
Another problem is that by doing so, she makes me laugh… which is a reinforcer… but that doesn’t reinforce what I want!
I’m going to try make her taget my hand in front of her with her nose… and see if it helps her to get these hind legs moving back…
Any other ideas, people?
@MarieI do it when I first let her out of her crate in the morning. That is when she wants to crawl and roll around on the floor. #5 is her morning trick.
Smart dog! Stretching in the morning!
Woohoo!
Promising! If you have the same “problem” I have (an over enthousiastic dog), try it. I have achieved (could be luck though!): “one hind leg streched, and one hidden under her”… but at least, she’s not rolling around like a crazy tumble weed!
Silvia, is it “legal” to use target (hand, stick, whatever), or am I cheating? Is using target still considered shaping? May be not free shaping…?
What do you reckon?
M-E
Sounds good! I did it that way with La (another very enthusiastic dog! 🙂 ) too, worked great. With Bu, I started in play dead position, she just didn’t seem to think she could do it in down position.
Thanks!
I’ll see how it goes, but I’m already more hopeful!
(How do you say “thank you” in Latvian?)
M-E
Are you asking me? I don’t know a word in Latvian, hm…
Silly me…
Thought you were from Latvia. Slovenia it is!
So, how do you say thank you in Sloven… ish? …ien? ian?
🙂
M-E
Slovenian 🙂 It’s completely opposite side of Europe as Latvia (MUCH warmer over here, next to Adriatic Sea 🙂 ), but I can’t blame anybody for not knowing it, it’s a very small country, 2 million inhabitants all together. Thank you would be HVALA 🙂
“Is using target still considered shaping? May be not free shaping…?”
When I started doing clicker training with Dragon, I also had this moment where I thought, how much is it “ok” to rely on targetting and prompting and such? Isn’t “real” clicker training all about free-shaping? But I think that that’s not right. Any time you break the behavior down into small steps, increase criteria carefully, and have a high rate of reinforcement as you’re teaching a new behavior, you are doing it right. Free-shaping is hard for a dog new to clicker training! Just because you’re using a target, doesn’t mean that the dog isn’t learning to think and offer behaviors. 🙂
Amen to that!
I agree. I won’t argue over semantic, I’m not big on fancy words 🙂 I prefer to watch the dog and do whatever makes sense to them 🙂
#2 -- What is the goal of this shaping exercise? Is it to target item with 2 front paws? All paws at the same time? I have the heeling video so I have been practicing with Kyuu on that. He recently learned he can turn. His counter clock is dominant. Is #2 going that direction or another?
Yes, it’s going in that direction, but also in the direction of a normal paw touch that we will be using for some other tricks, heeling is just one of them.
Can anyone tell me what the ‘play dead’ position is? Is that laying on their side?
Thank you.
I think that’s what she meant — at least, that’s how I interpreted it!
Yes 🙂
This is the first time I am clicker training a pup and am finding the attention span of a gnat challenging -- it is keeping me to 5 treats a session. Just trying to fit in more sessions to make progress. Recalls are easy, Tili has quickly cottoned on that ignoring the food means you get it -- needs a brief reminder at the start of a session and she gets her feet on the plate before loosing focus. The little mind is very busy and the enviroment is still all new and exciting.
Yes, you must keep it very short with a young pup! Still, I would say you’re not clicking&rewarding enough if you can only fit in 5 clicks! Maybe you could post a video? With a small puppy, just learning the concept, it’s VERY important to be VERY generous with your rewards! I never counted it, but I spend 5 treats in few seconds with a new puppy.
Was only getting a few seconds. Part of my problem is she is still getting used to the idea of eating from the hand -- even though this is the only way she eats. Starting to make some progress this afternoon so maybe we are both getting the hang of it. Will try and video and work out how to load it -- bit challenged on this.
We´re working on #3, he is offering pawlifts (only left paw though), sits and downs. But he keeps looking at the treat. He offers eyecontakt too but not while doing something else (lifting paw ec.). He does not try to get the treat and he is clearly working but he is still looking at the treat so is this ok or not? He does not take the treat even if I have the hand open, so that’s good…
Sounds good, sounds like he can keep thinking in the presence of food! He can look at it for now, but jackpot when he takes his eyes off!
Hi! Carlos and I have been woking on excercise no 2.
The problem is, he has been doing nose targeting before, so it took him a while to figure out targeting with a paw BUT now he is offering both at the same time -- paw + nose on a plate. Any ideas how to lose the nose targeting?
Thanks!
Just make sure you never reward just the nose and try to sometimes catch just the paw -- if you manage to those two things, it will go away soon, don’t worry!
For #5.
#1. If we want a name, when exactly do we add the name?
Do we say the name when they hit that position?
Or wait until they offer that position consistently?
#2. If I want a separate “frog” = bend knees out to side and “seal” straight legs behind. Do I have to train these on separate training sessions until they have a name? Or can I click which ever one she offers and say the name when she does it?
#3. She does have to crawl to get into the seal. The I just feed her rapidly so she can’t crawl forward or I have her in front of me so she can’t crawl.
1. You can add the name as soon as you’re seeing the final version of the behaviour, even if the dog doesn’t know exactly yet what that behaviour is and offers it “by accident” ie. naturally.
2. At the beginning, click both in the same session, by clicking just one you risk to loose the other one. I prefer to be clearing up minor confusions as to loose another cool trick, focusing on just one too much. Later on, when you will try to have her do the known behaviour on verbal cue, then you will only be clicking for one or another in one session.
3. It’s no problem if she crawls forward with front feet -- the important thing is that her hind legs stay stretched behind as opposed to pulled underneath her as she moves forward. You can teach seal crawling then 🙂
Photo with comments is seal. This is frog.
Cute! I like Frog AND Seal!
Wylie and I just started #5 tonight because I was not sure what my plan would be. I am lucky in that Wylie hangs down a leg when he sits in someone’s lap or on the edge of something like the back of the couch (he is only 14 lbs.). What is working for us is that I sit in a chair with my feet on an ottoman, Wylie sits on the ottoman and faces me. Once he knows I have the clicker he is pretty crazy but eventually he relaxes a bit and since his butt is close to the edge of the ottoman a leg slips off and then I c/n/t. We are having great fun with this because I cannot see when the leg slips down so my husband is signally me from the other side of the room to c/n/t.
Oh, that’s a great idea too, I never did it that way! Fun!