Name Recognition

One of our primary goals with training for the past few weeks has been to get the girls to learn to respond only to commands directed at them. I have worked a lot of puppy push-ups with both girls at once, rewarding only the one I ask to do the behavior. We also played the come game using the girls names, rewarding only the one we called. DH has spent many evenings in the pasture, incorporating play into the training.

Boot and Sock Removal

It didn't work out well, but DH helped me film Molly removing my boots and socks the other day. Note that these are VERY new jodphur boots with strong elastic in the sides. Removing them is very difficult, even for DH--and he has hands! So it is QUITE a task for Molly right now, but one she is eager to tackle. She gets furious if someone else does it for her!

More Distance Training with Shawnee

I tried to focus on some feedback I got on our last distance training session. I needed to make sure I clicked while Shawnee was moving. I also only rewarded her for going around the object in one direction. Last time I had accepted both. I also tried not to move my treat hand before I clicked and treated. I also wanted to be sure that she was understanding this too is going around the object and not using the wall or the oven as reference points.



Although I may have improved on these respects, I found new errors while looking at the video.

This session was way too long. This explains why I was having trouble towards the end with her lacking focus. I should've stopped shortly after changing positions.

Additionally, Shawnee was distracted by Molly complaining in the other room. Although she's usually fine, Molly was whining this time despite the door being closed and the radio being on to cover the sounds of clicking.

At one point, a fly is also distracted her.

I should have repositioned the camera when I changed positions. The second half of the film shows too much of me and too little Shawnee.

LLW Training with Shawnee

I don't remember when these sessions happened. The first is made with the netbook and the other two after we got the video camera. But it is still not THAT recent. I am just way behind processing vids. I am even more behind with training.

Edited to add: I realize I didn't explain the goal of these trainings for those not familiar with the exercise. The goal is to have Shawnee walking on a loose leash (meaning the loose is hanging slack enough for the CLIP to her collar to relax into a vertical position--not pulling ins't enough). She should also be paying attention to ME. The goal is to reward the moments when she has the loose leash because she is paying attention to the handler, not just because she isn't pulling. For example, if the leash tightens, I have to go back until she returns her attention to me. It isn't enough if she just backs up but stays focused on the distraction element.



Session 1



Notes: The leash is too long.

Session 2



Notes: The distraction was not strong enough.

Session 3



Notes: I only planned to have one distraction -- DH behind the camera. Once I started training I noticed that getting too far away from him resulted in her being attracted to going around the house. Going that way usually results in a car trip. So I ended up working with two distractions in opposite directions. In some cases, she was also a bit too distracted by the garden. I think retraining in the same location it will go better, but I'm not sure.

Using a human as a distraction is a bad idea, because he is trying to tell you what to do. This made it difficult to concentrate on training the dog and doing what you know you're supposed to do.

While fishing for treats in my pouch I missed a lot of really great reward situations when she was paying extreme attention to me. In the future, I should stand still while getting treats, so I don't miss the wanted behaviors.

L2 Distance Session 2

I forget hwen I did the training, but I think it was sometime earlier this week or late last week. I am trying to film more and more of my training sessions so I can track the progress and have a better chance of finding bugs in my training methods. So here is one of them.

A Video Starring Molly

Molly and I are competing in a virtual levels training competition. This is our entry. Since we went to all that work filming and making the video, I thought I'd share it here as well. Enjoy!