Training Session 1

My health and a number of other things going on (Shawnee in heat, Molly with a problematic toe injury, and a sick horse) have prevented me from getting to the training goal before today. I just did a short session with the girls--worked Shawnee while Molly was on mat then worked Molly while Shawnee held a stay (She isn't advanced enough to mat on anything like Molly is). I started with a few post-it targets on hand then quickly advanced to my knee. Once they did that a few times, I moved the target to the doorbell. No problem--they targetted it there. Molly did have her usual "are you sure I'm not supposed to retrieve this?" issues but Shawnee was easy going and confident.

Unfortunately they are not yet pushing hard enough or precisely enough to ring the bell, but I am sure we can work that out with time.

I'm very proud of them for remembering the yellow target when it has been so long since we last trained with it and we had done so few training sessions on it.

Training Goal: Ringing a Doorbell to Signal Potty Needs

The border collie forum I frequent is now adding a clicker training club for those of us who want to so we can help encourage each other to get training and give advice and feedback on problems. HEre is my first goal with these two.

problem: at this point, Molly is pretty easy to understand because she barks when she needs out. Shawnee is more confusing because she tends to just stare at you.

Overall goal: to have the girls ring a doorbell placed at their height when they need to go out to potty.

rough training plan: both the girls already have a strong hand target with their noses. So now I want to add a Post-it note to the target then be able to move the target to other things. That way I can place the target on the door bell itself and get them ringing it with their nose. Then finally I can phase out the target. Once they are ringing the bell and training sessions, I can start trying to teach them to ring the bell when they need to go out. I am not sure whether I should use a cue as an intermediate between training sessions and potty ring.

Current status: I last trained a few weeks ago. I had both the girls relatively successfully nose targeting the Post-it target placed very close to me.I will probably need to back up to having the Post-it on my hand because of the time since I last worked on it.

Intermediate goal one, which is probably actually due on 6 March: getting the girls to target the post it with their nose when it is placed on the doorbell. Hopefully this will at least sometimes ring the bell.

I will try to post progress reports frequently. Maybe even after every training session if I can get the time and energy for it.

Paw Targetting

Even though yesterday was her birthday, Molly had a training session. She enjoys it, so no reason to skip it.

The last few times we'd trained, Molly still insisted on retrieving her paw target. After a tip from an online friend, we tried taping the post-it target to the floor. So far the tape seems to be holding up to her attempts to scrape it off the floor and she got a LOT better at the behavior in one short session.


Many of her hits did include trying to scrape the target off the floor, so I worked on clicking early, before the scrape, to fine-tune the behavior.

My timing wasn't perfect, so sometimes I clicked for a paw hitting off the target. But she did get less scrape-y in her pawing and actually did almost the whole session standing up! Standing it great progress because initially she thought she was supposed to lie down while pounding her paws into the floor.

I think she'll have this behavior down in no time if I just keep training.

Paw Targetting

I am starting work now on getting Molly to target with a paw. This is part of Level 3 target, but that i sonly part of why I am doing it. I want to teach her to push switches on power strips with her paw. That's my ultimate goal.

Today was our first training session. I put a post-it on the floor. Being very retrieve oriented, Molly wanted to pick it up and give it to me. I just ignored these attempts (no reward), taking the post-it from her and putting it back on the floor. I started by clicking and treating for looking at it. I wanted her to know that this is what it dealt with. She kept persisting with retrieve, so from there I went to clicking and treating for moving a paw, even just slightly. Then I refined to moving a paw near the target. She hit it sometimes, probably mostly by accident, but I reacted by rapid-firing clicks and treats while she was touching it.

By the time the short session ended, she was pounding her paws into the floor, often on the target, and only getting rewards when she hit the target. I didn't want to overdo it this first time (she does seem to learn amazingly quickly), so I ended by jackpotting her--rewarding her with a small handful of treats--when she again hit the target hard with her paw.

Doing Better and Public Access

We've been taking it pretty easy and Molly is seeming a lot more like herself. I gave her treats for coming into the laundry room, which she ate gladly and without signs of stress. We did some mat training today to build up time. We're also doing lots of named retrieves with things she knows, like mat, pants, and phone. She is gettign really good at the retrieves, even from quite a distance.

Today we took her to Farm Fun, which is a petting zoo-like place next door to us. The place is crawling with kids and dogs on leashes. We got ice cream for us and sat down. Molly mostly did okay, but she was whining a lot. She still responded to sit, down, and target commands, but didn't take treats (so she also passed on the road L3 zen).

The whining was mainly aimed at dogs and kids. We need more practice!!

Our thanks to everyone who has worried about Molly and sent her good vibes. I hope to be able to report that she's completely back to normal within a few days. We're going to stay taking it easy a little longer and not add any new behaviors yet. We will probably continue trying to improve and practice things she is already doing easily like we've been doing.

Clicking with a Toe

I've mentioned a few times in earlier posts that I work my clicker with my toe so I have free hands when training Molly. Someone on one of the mailing lists I frequent asked how I manage this, so that's the purpose of this entry.







I have two clickers. I can't use the type of clicker where you have to push on a metal plate even when I click with my thumb. My thumb is too weak in the joints for that. The clicker on the right I bought here in DK. The one on the left I ordered online from the US. It's a i-Click and is very easy to click with finger or toe. Both work for me for toe clicking, but the shape of the i-Click makes it a more comfortable choice.



I don't know if my toes are weird and that is why it works so easily for me. My guess is that most people could click with their foot with a button clicker. It probably even works with shoes on. I am a bare foot person.



I find toe clicking to be especially helpful when I want both hands free for something. I use it a lot when an item is involved. For example, when working on teaching Molly to target a stick, I can put the clicker under my toe and have the stick in one hand and treats in another. I don't have to try to juggle things and I can keep clicking precisely on time and deliver treats promptly as well.



I wish I'd figured this out when I was working on her early retrieve training, because I had a horrible time working on hold when trying to hold objects, the clicker, and treats. The only way I got it to work then was by training hold on a metal pipe that I could hold between my knees.




When I set up to take these pictures, I got an extra bonus from Molly. I used her mat under the clickers for that picture. As soon as I put down the folded mat, she showed perfect mat behavior, even though it was too small for her to fit on. So a shot of that is the extra bonus at the bottom. Of course she got praise and treats.

Another Update

We haven't had many formal training sessions in the past few days. I haven't felt up to them. We have worked enough on mat to start adding a cue and it is going well. We've also done a little work on targeting the end of a stick, but not much.

Mostly we train in everyday things. Every interaction we have is training. It is learning what I expect of her and what to do. Even just snuggling on the couch is training. It's building up a credit of good experiences and trust that helps when I want to call her to me somewhere sometime.