Luna got to help out testing a new class at PosiDog last week. The class is going to be brilliant, but Luna, was not. I'll have to be taking my own advice: ALL food from food toys and training, and daily off-property leash walks. We've yet to do the walks, with being snowed in and it being too cold tonight for her to wait in the car while I teach... but...it's on our agenda.
While you are snowed in this week..parts of a clicker agility book are available:
http://agilitynerd.com/blog/agility/publications/ClickAndPlayAgility.html
Have fun,
Monday, February 8, 2010
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Explaining Teaching
First off...to further promote:
http://goclickchallenge.wordpress.com/
Read/watch and enjoy. Join in and share your training too. Laugh at my attempts to quickly train varied behaviors. Be amazed by the successes of others!
**********************
Now to the technical part of today. I was recently asked about my teaching process. And I felt like I gave a really incomplete answer. Yesterday however, while I was listening to an explanation of the "Delta Rule" for learning, I was able to use parts of that for how to explain my thought process when teaching.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_rule
For everything we do, I have a picture of the "Ideal response". I tend to ask students to "show me where you are at". I compare that to the ideal, and note the differences. From there, I look at those differences and pick which one is likely to be best to first modify (Remember, for "Good Training" we modify only one thing at a time!). We do a few repetitions together and I give the student a couple of minutes to work at that level before we make additional modifications until we are at the "Ideal Response."
The differences can be what the dog is doing or what the handler is doing. Maybe I want the handler to keep hands at side ("Hands at side. After the click finishes, move your hands." Maybe I want the dog to sit right away ("If he pauses...move away and then try again.") Maybe I want the treat to be delivered under the dog's chin "Feed head straight, chin tucked [yes...that's two...shh]." Maybe I want one cue only "Sit once, then silence." There are four things that all need to be changing to improve the behavior of "Sit." If I gave all four to a student, s/he (and I!) would be overwhelmed.
I look at the priorities of each one to decide which is the most important right away. The order can depend on the dog/handler students, their abilities, and goals. For an average team... here are my thoughts:
Hands at side: This is important regardless of competition goals or pet training goals. This also tells me I should have caught this earlier too. This will impact the handler on all behaviors.
Latency: We want the dog sitting right away. This is important but may be fixed as we address these other issues. If he's not attentive until he hears the owner's hand in the treat bag...fixing the first issue may fix this.
Feeding Position: This is important with a bouncy young dog, less so with a more stationary dog.
One cue: Again, something that will impact the handler on everything. However, if the dog has lower latency [is responding right away], the owner may not feel the need to be cueing twice.
Going over this list... half the points point to fixing "hands at side" first. In TAG Teach language this could well be a "Value Added Tag Point." But fixing one thing, we are fixing half of all our problems! Addressing this first will be key.
I will explain and demonstrate about 5 times. Then let the handler take a few turns with me observing. I'll then work my way around to other students, and when I get back we'll work on our next piece, "Placement and presentation of reinforcer."
Now that was boring wasn't it.
http://goclickchallenge.wordpress.com/
Read/watch and enjoy. Join in and share your training too. Laugh at my attempts to quickly train varied behaviors. Be amazed by the successes of others!
**********************
Now to the technical part of today. I was recently asked about my teaching process. And I felt like I gave a really incomplete answer. Yesterday however, while I was listening to an explanation of the "Delta Rule" for learning, I was able to use parts of that for how to explain my thought process when teaching.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_rule
For everything we do, I have a picture of the "Ideal response". I tend to ask students to "show me where you are at". I compare that to the ideal, and note the differences. From there, I look at those differences and pick which one is likely to be best to first modify (Remember, for "Good Training" we modify only one thing at a time!). We do a few repetitions together and I give the student a couple of minutes to work at that level before we make additional modifications until we are at the "Ideal Response."
The differences can be what the dog is doing or what the handler is doing. Maybe I want the handler to keep hands at side ("Hands at side. After the click finishes, move your hands." Maybe I want the dog to sit right away ("If he pauses...move away and then try again.") Maybe I want the treat to be delivered under the dog's chin "Feed head straight, chin tucked [yes...that's two...shh]." Maybe I want one cue only "Sit once, then silence." There are four things that all need to be changing to improve the behavior of "Sit." If I gave all four to a student, s/he (and I!) would be overwhelmed.
I look at the priorities of each one to decide which is the most important right away. The order can depend on the dog/handler students, their abilities, and goals. For an average team... here are my thoughts:
Hands at side: This is important regardless of competition goals or pet training goals. This also tells me I should have caught this earlier too. This will impact the handler on all behaviors.
Latency: We want the dog sitting right away. This is important but may be fixed as we address these other issues. If he's not attentive until he hears the owner's hand in the treat bag...fixing the first issue may fix this.
Feeding Position: This is important with a bouncy young dog, less so with a more stationary dog.
One cue: Again, something that will impact the handler on everything. However, if the dog has lower latency [is responding right away], the owner may not feel the need to be cueing twice.
Going over this list... half the points point to fixing "hands at side" first. In TAG Teach language this could well be a "Value Added Tag Point." But fixing one thing, we are fixing half of all our problems! Addressing this first will be key.
I will explain and demonstrate about 5 times. Then let the handler take a few turns with me observing. I'll then work my way around to other students, and when I get back we'll work on our next piece, "Placement and presentation of reinforcer."
Now that was boring wasn't it.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Teaching: Focus Points
I've been prompted to think a lot this week about my teaching, thanks to a student and friend.
All instructors tend to have a few focus points they are stuck on. I know for the last two months mine has been "Placement of reinforcer" and this last month I have added in "Presentation." This has greatly helped my training with my own dogs, as well as the training my students in all my classes/lessons. But...I need to think about all the other important things too!
Some focus points that I will need to focus on in different weeks:
Speed and latency, Shaping skills, mechanical skills, fluency, toys as reinforcer, real world applications, challenges...
On other notes, Griff and I, and a two-legged student, visited a 4H/FFA club in another county today to give a workshop. Griffin and I were the students while the 'real' students had a chance to judge. He was adorable and his heeling was beautiful! He did two whole patterns, his only errors were a stop and sniff when our 'judge' directed us over a hose and into a wall, and when we were 'left turned' right into a bucket...Griffin went on the other side and immediately resumed heel.
Some of the things the students learned in this three hour lesson today:
-Proper obedience handling for heeling: via tag-teach
-Clicker introduction and mechanical skills
-Targeting: taught by my assistant for the day
-Go-around an object
-Call fronts
Time goes fast and I really could teach more long lessons. The time went fast and I can't wait for my next time with this group!
This is going to be a great week with agility class starting at PosiDog!
All instructors tend to have a few focus points they are stuck on. I know for the last two months mine has been "Placement of reinforcer" and this last month I have added in "Presentation." This has greatly helped my training with my own dogs, as well as the training my students in all my classes/lessons. But...I need to think about all the other important things too!
Some focus points that I will need to focus on in different weeks:
Speed and latency, Shaping skills, mechanical skills, fluency, toys as reinforcer, real world applications, challenges...
On other notes, Griff and I, and a two-legged student, visited a 4H/FFA club in another county today to give a workshop. Griffin and I were the students while the 'real' students had a chance to judge. He was adorable and his heeling was beautiful! He did two whole patterns, his only errors were a stop and sniff when our 'judge' directed us over a hose and into a wall, and when we were 'left turned' right into a bucket...Griffin went on the other side and immediately resumed heel.
Some of the things the students learned in this three hour lesson today:
-Proper obedience handling for heeling: via tag-teach
-Clicker introduction and mechanical skills
-Targeting: taught by my assistant for the day
-Go-around an object
-Call fronts
Time goes fast and I really could teach more long lessons. The time went fast and I can't wait for my next time with this group!
This is going to be a great week with agility class starting at PosiDog!
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Speed:
I'm not so great about sharing videos and pictures that include me. Next practice I'll get a short one. Short is a start (...lower my criteria for myself, right?!).
Recent talks with training buddies, students, and professionals in varied fields is making me stop thinking about speed as something we add to behaviors after they're started, offered, and close to perfect. In so many settings, and especially for competition behaviors, it needs to be one of the earliest, if not the earliest priority.
Performing with speed can put a different emotional response to a behavior. It can make the striding and so the actual performance of a behavior different. It can make faults more likely or less likely to happen.
I need to constantly be reminded with my own dogs to keep this a priority. But I'm doing pretty well with student dogs. And even my non-sports students hear some of this when we talk about recalls. The slow puppies? Practice recalls at the time of day when they're most likely to be wild. We want to practice with speed!
A recent example is Griffin's contact behavior. We did about 30 reps with the aframe at Posidog last week. He hit every contact (1 was close to the top, one close to the bottom.). He was VERY consistent with his speed. But he felt slow. Reviewing the video, his performance was about 1.5 seconds long. I compared it to a video of Luna last year (...or the year before?) where she was moving almost as fast as she could, really trying, and looking fast. She was 2.5. I've been puzzled about that. I don't know that Luna can get faster...but Griffin sure can!
Some parts of my plan for increased speed:
- Use a thrown toy as a reinforcer rather than thrown food.
- Recall him over, or have his favorite people recall him over.
- Improve speed on all his behaviors.
- Reinforce speed in play
- Play and run with him more.
Off to think about speed....
Recent talks with training buddies, students, and professionals in varied fields is making me stop thinking about speed as something we add to behaviors after they're started, offered, and close to perfect. In so many settings, and especially for competition behaviors, it needs to be one of the earliest, if not the earliest priority.
Performing with speed can put a different emotional response to a behavior. It can make the striding and so the actual performance of a behavior different. It can make faults more likely or less likely to happen.
I need to constantly be reminded with my own dogs to keep this a priority. But I'm doing pretty well with student dogs. And even my non-sports students hear some of this when we talk about recalls. The slow puppies? Practice recalls at the time of day when they're most likely to be wild. We want to practice with speed!
A recent example is Griffin's contact behavior. We did about 30 reps with the aframe at Posidog last week. He hit every contact (1 was close to the top, one close to the bottom.). He was VERY consistent with his speed. But he felt slow. Reviewing the video, his performance was about 1.5 seconds long. I compared it to a video of Luna last year (...or the year before?) where she was moving almost as fast as she could, really trying, and looking fast. She was 2.5. I've been puzzled about that. I don't know that Luna can get faster...but Griffin sure can!
Some parts of my plan for increased speed:
- Use a thrown toy as a reinforcer rather than thrown food.
- Recall him over, or have his favorite people recall him over.
- Improve speed on all his behaviors.
- Reinforce speed in play
- Play and run with him more.
Off to think about speed....
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Training Troubleshooting
I put these on our camp blog, but thought it deserved a mention here. Horray for copy and paste!
When you're having a problem with training...look at these pieces:
1) What is your rate of reinforcement. How many times/minute are you click/treating. The higher this number per minute, the better. An exception would be behaviors that take a long time (...retrieve) or duration behaviors (stays or heeling).
2) What is the placement of reinforcer? Where exactly are you putting your reinforcer? If you have a stay exercise, you almost always want to feed the dog in position, with his chin tucked a little. If you are doing heeling with a slow dog, toss the treat ahead. If you are heeling with an excited dog, feed at nose level, right along your leg. If you are doing fronts...feed right where your dog's head should be: Straight and close to you.
3) Think about how you present the reinforcer. Do you move your hand to his mouth? Do you have him move to get it? Do you toss the reinforcer?
When you're having a problem with training...look at these pieces:
1) What is your rate of reinforcement. How many times/minute are you click/treating. The higher this number per minute, the better. An exception would be behaviors that take a long time (...retrieve) or duration behaviors (stays or heeling).
2) What is the placement of reinforcer? Where exactly are you putting your reinforcer? If you have a stay exercise, you almost always want to feed the dog in position, with his chin tucked a little. If you are doing heeling with a slow dog, toss the treat ahead. If you are heeling with an excited dog, feed at nose level, right along your leg. If you are doing fronts...feed right where your dog's head should be: Straight and close to you.
3) Think about how you present the reinforcer. Do you move your hand to his mouth? Do you have him move to get it? Do you toss the reinforcer?
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Preparing for Classes
I'm currently finishing the last preparations on my curriculum for my agility class due to start at PosiDog soon. Instructors do put care into these projects!
It's a challenge to go through what I think are all the important foundation skills, balance them out so everyone gets enough practice on everything, and to keep it fun. There's not really a part of dog training that shouldn't be fun... but when you sign up for an agility class you're probably wanting to start playing with the equipment.
But there's a lot more to agility than just the equipment. Most of the game is about what's going on in between the obstacles. If our dogs are good at learning, they will learn the obstacles faster. If your dog already knows a lot of behaviors, he will learn this game faster. If we practice on speed activities, your dog will be faster in agility. If your dog knows about how to move his body, especially in relation to objects and obstacles, he will learn faster.
The great thing about foundation classes like this, is that you can do almost all of your homework in the house and that you really don't need any equipment.
It's a challenge to go through what I think are all the important foundation skills, balance them out so everyone gets enough practice on everything, and to keep it fun. There's not really a part of dog training that shouldn't be fun... but when you sign up for an agility class you're probably wanting to start playing with the equipment.
But there's a lot more to agility than just the equipment. Most of the game is about what's going on in between the obstacles. If our dogs are good at learning, they will learn the obstacles faster. If your dog already knows a lot of behaviors, he will learn this game faster. If we practice on speed activities, your dog will be faster in agility. If your dog knows about how to move his body, especially in relation to objects and obstacles, he will learn faster.
The great thing about foundation classes like this, is that you can do almost all of your homework in the house and that you really don't need any equipment.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
More Snow and 2010
Somehow I'm still writing 1997 on papers. Maybe I'll finally catch up on the year!
Today has been ridiculously foggy and wet. But wet and snowy is always preferable to mud. We're hoping everyone else is having fun in the snow and that it doesn't melt too fast.
I've come across a bunch of my old dog training notes and picture from when Blaze was a very young dog. That seems like such a long time ago. We were in a local training class and agility in Columbus, involved with 4-H, and always wanting to find more, new things to train and things to do. It's years later and I've had many more experiences, and much less time! There are so many more opportunities for dog owners now than there were ten years ago. More activities, more local competitions, more training schools, and many more opportunities for instructors to learn more and help students better. Today, if I was a novice pet owner with Blaze, we would receive very different help and start solving his anxieties much sooner. Now is a good time to be a dog owner!
Take this year to try something new with your dog, agility, rally, or even competition obedience. AKC's mix breed program is starting in April, allowing mix breed dogs to participate in agility, rally, and obedience events. This will bring more opportunity for dog owners in areas where other organizations are less available.
We'll be doing some new things.... I'm impatiently waiting to start obedience with Griffin, and to finally start trialing in agility with him.
And maybe this year, if we're lucky, I'll become more competent at this blogging thing and utilizing technology.
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