Clicker training worked for us! (video)

[Noobs]

Here's a video I shot today with Murphy. We've been working with this box for about 5 or 6 days, but I didn't include any of those sessions in the video - they were mostly free shaping sessions to get him used to interacting with the box. The hoops trick in session 2 and the "drills" in session 3 he's been doing for a while, but the trick in "session 1" was learned just last night (and was inspired by Horace's Mum!).

Enjoy!

http://s30.photobucket.com/albums/c304/ ... aining.flv

[Noobs]

Another viewing option of the same video is on youtube -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdHr79untd4

[mustlovdoggs]

Really enjoyed your video. Great dog. Great trainer

[Horace's Mum]

Excellent! You have really good use of hand signals, its so nice to someone with a hearing dog using such clear hand signals, and murphy obviously understands them very well. I'm assuming you also use words? I wonder if it is worth changing the touch signal a little to make it clearer from the high 5 - either do what you did earlier on and have one finger as touch, or use an upright hand for high 5 and a hand on its side for touch. Just an idea, but you have done so well with him, he is lovely and calm and focussed, and you can see the huge improvement from the last video you posted

[Noobs]

Thanks!

Horace's Mum, thanks for the compliment on my hand signals. Yes, I do use words. I use the word "touch" for touch with the hand held sideways, and "high five" for the high five with the hand held upright. The "oops" moment was because I held the high five hand too high. So the oops was actually for me and not him. When I am free-shaping (during session 1) I don't use any words except for praise. I will also sometimes say "try it again" but I don't give commands during free shaping.

Also, for the targeting with just the finger I use the word "here" - just a little more precise than "touch". By teaching him "here" I was able to get him to target the fridge door and some of the cabinets in order to teach him to eventually "close it". We'll get there eventually!

[Horace's Mum]

Ah, gotcha, it wasn't entirely clear what you were asking because I couldn't hear the words and I was only going on hand signals (I'm not much good with words anyway!!).

If you want to teach him to target doors you might find it easier/more useful to use a post-it note or something similar rather than your hand - that way he learns it is the door he is targetting and you don't have to go through the process of withdrawing your hand from the equation. If you use a post-it you can gradually cut it down smaller and smaller until it is gone and he will understand it is the door he targets not the sticker. Just a thought

I'm the same when free-shaping, I very rarely do anything other than sit and click - occasionally I point to what I want him to focus on if he is getting really wound up and not giving me what I am looking for. Depends whether I am looking for something or just seeing what he will give me.

[Noobs]

If Murphy gets confused during free shaping then I'll help him out by touching what I want him to interact with (toy, box, etc.). But I learned recently by watching other videos online that I really have to click/treat the smallest action toward what I want instead of expecting/wanting him to do too much at once. It took me probably 2 or 3 days to get him to put his two front feet inside the box and stand still for a couple of seconds, but it was challenging because he spent several minutes standing on one foot and scratching the inside of the box with the other.

You are SO RIGHT about the post-it! We actually tried a small magnet on the fridge door which worked pretty well...but what do we do on wooden cabinets? And how to phase out the magnet? So thanks for the suggestion, we'll go to a post-it starting with our next session.

[Noobs]

Oh I should add that I don't always use words and hand signals together. He's pretty good with the hand signals, so I use verbal commands sparingly. I often use verbal commands when we're out walking and I haven't got his full focus. But during training sessions he's pretty good with mostly hand signals.

[mustlovdoggs]

How'd you frist get me to jump in the ring?

[mustlovdoggs]

sorry not me him. I can not type and watch tv too

[Noobs]

I'm trying to find Horace's Mum's video in which she gave step by step instructions on how to do it, but I can't seem to find it. So I'll show you my other video of just the jumping that was shot a few months ago. I started out with my arms down on the floor with the treat on the floor - so all he had to do was walk through my arms. I put my arms up against my fridge so he couldn't go around them. After every few reps I raised my arms a few inches. When I was ready to move my arms away from the fridge, I lowered the ring back to the floor then raised it a few inches at a time. The video below was our third 5-7 minute session.

http://s30.photobucket.com/albums/c304/ ... _hoops.flv

And Horace's Mum, if you have a link to your video somewhere I bet it would be great to see again. The only video I saw is the "mixed clicker" one but your arms were already several inches off the floor on that ring trick.

[mustlovdoggs]

Think you Great video, I what to work with Spencer on that . We also are tring the toy box thing. Been working on it for about three weeks but, he'll put them up then pull them right back out again. I started tring to teach him that so when I clean the house, him and Tristan are supost to pick up their toys. Not working so good.

[Noobs]

My goal is to put the command "clean up" to that trick of putting the toy in the box, so that he can clean up his own stuff as well. But that's going to take a while, so I'm not too concerned at this point.

I actually started with free shaping him with the box, I clicked and treated every time he so much as looked at it. Eventually I withheld the click until he came closer to the box. Then I only clicked when he lowered his head into the box. After a few days of that I got him to put one paw then two into the box until he was standing in the box for a second or two, but that part has nothing to do with the toy trick.

The first time I tried the toy trick I had the toy inside the box. I clicked/treated when he picked up the toy - and when I clicked, he let go so he could get his treat. Eventually I was withholding the click until he was holding the toy in his mouth for a few seconds then dropping it on his own. It took a few minutes before I was able to build up to having the toy outside the box for him to pick up and drop inside. I think if you go very very slow and click/treat for very small progress you'll get there. Remember to make it really easy for Spencer to get it right so that he'll be confident enough to try to go further when you withhold the click. I think that when I first started out I was expecting too much too soon, so he ended up coming up to the couch and sitting down, basically giving up because he didn't know what to do.

[mustlovdoggs]

Noobs Yes I think I wanted to much to soon. Also I think that he thinks that I was playing with him. So she is playing with me let me get my toy out of the box so we can play some more. He is a smart doggy He'll get it. Thank for the help. When we do get it, I'll do a video of it so you can see what you helped do. Thanks Jan

[Horace's Mum]

Here you go

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYUzqFJEY7U

And Noobs, you are right about clicking the tiniest movement, I think a lot of people try to do too much too soon, and try waiting just a little too long to see if they get a bit more, when in actual fact if you reward the slightest correct behaviour you progress a lot quicker. That's very important when I work with Horus because every different instance is using "touch" for example has to be shaped, I can't use a generic touch command and transfer it. The closest I can do is point or tap tap on an object to get focus on that, but then I have to free shape what I want him to do with that object. It is amazing how quickly you can move from a glance at an object to doing something with it if you reward quickly and generously. First time we worked with a box for him to stand on his back legs on, it literally took 6 clicks to progress from sniff the box to stand on the box front legs to stand on all fours to stand on back legs only. Mind you, that is more natural for him, it took a lot longer to shape the retrieve because it isn't something he does naturally at all!!