practice makes...

Share your experience and tell us how using positive reinforcement training methods has changed yours and your dogs' lives.

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chay
Posts: 352
Joined: Thu Sep 23, 2010 10:58 pm

practice makes...

Post by chay »

certainly not perfect YET, but gypsy has been kicking so much butt in our sessions lately so i thought i'd post a quick vid of last night's warmup to show how far we've come!

http://www.youtube.com/user/chaygremlin?feature=mhee

this is just a bit quick warmup of stuff she knows, we have phased out the clicker for these. briefly afterwards we moved on to "paw" which is totally new for her so still a bit trial & error-y. this from the dog who used to completely lose her mind if there was a single scrap of food around!

featuring:
- trademark "spin-in-a-circle-before-sitting" (every time :lol: )
- slowly-growing-out bald patch on her butt from where she had to have a patch shaved off for a skin infection some weeks ago (don't mention it to her -she's still a little precious about it! :oops: )
- HUGE apple pieces as training treats - i don't normally chop them this large, i promise! :shock:

i know it is very brief but any feedback would be most welcome - for example you can see once she sits before i ask her for a "down", as she knows i often ask these two of her very soon after or near the other, so in some places she's still guessing what i'll ask before i ask it. we are still obviously building up the things i can ask of her randomly to really switch her brain on and test her!
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minkee
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Re: practice makes...

Post by minkee »

I love how amazingly happy she looks to chomp on those bits of apple :D
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Mattie
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Joined: Tue Jan 09, 2007 5:21 am

Re: practice makes...

Post by Mattie »

She is gorgeous and really enjoying herself :lol:

I wouldn't leave out the clicker yet, the clicker tells her that is what you want as she is trying to anticipate, not sure if you are giving her commands or not but if you are and she is anticipating she hasn't learn the command properly yet so still needs the clicker.

She is doing really well, well done :D
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chay
Posts: 352
Joined: Thu Sep 23, 2010 10:58 pm

Re: practice makes...

Post by chay »

thanks so much guys!! i just realised half the length of the video is just taken up by her chomping through the huge bits of apple i'm using, oops...

hiya mattie, thankyou for the feedback! that is a good point. i am giving her commands, both verbal and hand signals ("sit" is a fist with my index finger pointed upwards, "down" is an open palm facing outwards...sorry i am out of the frame of the video so it doesnt really capture this!).

so i say "sit" paired with the hand signal, she sits - i say "good girl!" and give her the apple. after she has done 'sit' at the start i bring her up standing again, then as i ask her 'down' she goes into a 'sit' again for a moment, before going into 'down' ... i wait until she's held it for a moment then say "good girl!" and apple.

so she doesn't actually get 'down' wrong - if that makes sense? should i still refer back to the clicker even though she got it right after i asked her?

i am definitely still using the clicker for 'paw' as she's still nutting out what i want with this one :)
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Mattie
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Re: practice makes...

Post by Mattie »

chay wrote:thanks so much guys!! i just realised half the length of the video is just taken up by her chomping through the huge bits of apple i'm using, oops...

hiya mattie, thankyou for the feedback! that is a good point. i am giving her commands, both verbal and hand signals ("sit" is a fist with my index finger pointed upwards, "down" is an open palm facing outwards...sorry i am out of the frame of the video so it doesnt really capture this!).
Your finger is good enough if your dog is close to you but can she see it if at a distance? The hand signal I teach for sit is my hand flat with palm upwards and I raise my hand as part of the signal. It is an extension of when I am teaching the sit. For down my palm is facing down and my hand moves down. This can be seen a lot better if my dog is at a distance. There are times when you need to get your dog to sit or down fast, the hand signal has to be very clear to the dog at a distance.
so i say "sit" paired with the hand signal, she sits - i say "good girl!" and give her the apple. after she has done 'sit' at the start i bring her up standing again, then as i ask her 'down' she goes into a 'sit' again for a moment, before going into 'down' ... i wait until she's held it for a moment then say "good girl!" and apple.
I would not accept this, down is down, sit is sit, if my dog goes into a sit first when I ask for a down then they are not doing what I asked. Again the time may come when you need your dog to go down fast, if they haven't been taught this they can't do it.
so she doesn't actually get 'down' wrong - if that makes sense? should i still refer back to the clicker even though she got it right after i asked her?
She is getting the down wrong, she should be going right down and not into a sit first. Watch how she goes down normally when she wants to lie down, that is what you want. Merlin used to walk round in a circle to go down, gradually his back legs would get lower and lower until they were down, then his front legs moved in front of him so he could lie down. I never taught him to sit because he was a Greyhound and they often have problems with sit but he did learn to go down on command even though it took some time to go down.
i am definitely still using the clicker for 'paw' as she's still nutting out what i want with this one :)
I would continue the clicker until she was a lot better and could do these properly anywhere you asked, there is no rush to get rid of the clicker, it is more important that she gets these right.
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chay
Posts: 352
Joined: Thu Sep 23, 2010 10:58 pm

Re: practice makes...

Post by chay »

ah i see what you mean - that makes alot of sense, i hadn't thought about it like that before! i'm fairly sure when she is naturally laying down, she does sit first (she sits her butt down then puts her elbows down) - but in this case i think it was because i had just asked her for 'sit' a moment before rather than it being part of the natural movement? i will have to do some clandestine observation of her chilling out tonight

now i am thinking of it all of my hand signals are all very 'up-close' / small signals - i was working on the assumption that she is never going to be off lead outside, however if somehow (god forbid) she does a runner one day i doubt an index finger is going to stop her :shock:

another good point, we are still proofing these in all different locations too...still much work to be done but gosh we are having a good time doing it :D
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