Lumi and I often train near water, because I've found that nothing reinforces a behavior more for Lumi than the chance to swim afterwards.
Today, we worked on a variety of skills in a new location we've never worked before, with a pond giving us the special opportunity to set up a water retrieve as the reinforcer for correct responses.
TRACKING
I started the session by leaving Lumi in the van and laying a track for her, about 120 paces. Besides meandering a great deal, the track also contained some challenges: it went over a pile of rocks, through underbrush, and across and then down an old gravel road, in addition to stretches of weedy grass. I baited most of the track, but had a few stretches as much as ten paces, always on curves, with no bait.
Lumi did fine with this track, and gave a good down indication when she got to my wallet. I'm not sure if either of us learned anything new, but we both had good practice. Lumi continued to learn persistence in the face of challenges, and I continued to learn what Lumi looks like when she's off-scent. I feel that's a key skill for me, so that I'll be able to recognize it in case it happens someday when we're testing on a track where I don't know where the turns are.
After the track, we ran to the pond so that Lumi could swim a little before we started our field exercises.
RETRIEVING IN A "T"
For our first field training, we worked on whistle sits, backs, and overs using a "T" formation. I set it up so that as Lumi was completing the retrieve, I was running away from her and toward the pond. She would race to catch me and give me the dummy. Then I'd send her into the pond, cue "left", "right", or "go out" (straight), and throw the dummy to reinforce her response. When she'd return to me, she'd swing to left heel, I'd take the dummy, cue "shake", then toss the dummy on the grass or offer it for tug or both, and finally toss it near the pile of "used" dummies so we could head for the next rep of what we were working on.
That game may sound simple, but for Lumi, it seems to be an exciting sequence. As a result, she can hardly wait for the chance to make her next retrieve in the "T", knowing what's about to follow.
We set the "T" up with three dummies at left, three at right, and four straight ahead. The whistle sit was always in the middle, of course, and we used "back" spinning half the time to the left, half the time to the right. I tried to make the sequence as random as possible. In previous sessions, Lumi has begun to flag after a smaller number of dummies, but today, she was high the entire time. I'm pretty sure it was the swimming at the end that made the difference.
CASTING
Next, we worked on casting, that is, straight retrieves out and in, rather than bowed paths. We worked both in the water, and also across a little inlet of the pond with Lumi swimming across the inlet, retrieving the dummy on the land on the other side, and then swimming back. Because the inlet wasn't very wide, she could get to the dummy faster by running around on shore, so the challenge was to train her to take the straight path.
We made progress both in the water and across the inlet, and since we've been only working on casting for a few sessions, I'm pleased with where we are on this. At our last field training day, I had the opportunity to see a very experienced Lab doing this kind of thing, so it's given us something to aim for.
LONG RETRIEVES
Next we did a number of long retrieves. Since I wasn't familiar with the area yet, I had trouble finding a good place to set up a 200+ yard retrieve, so we started with two 100 yarders, one through the woods, and one over grass and then across an old gravel road. Lumi always seems most motivated by retrieving through woods, so I try to set those up when possible, but it's harder to find a place to set up long, straight distances.
At last, we walked about 200 yards down a mostly straight section of the gravel road, and where it curved, I threw Lumi's dummy straight ahead into the meadowy area in front of us. Then we walked back to the starting point and I sent Lumi to the retrieve. After a few seconds, she disappeared around a bend, and then she was gone from sight. But judging by the interval, she must have been at a full run the entire time, because soon she came tearing back around the bend with her dummy in her mouth, and I turned away and ran to the pon. She caught me before I got there, and we ran the rest of the way together. Then I sent her out into the water and threw the dummy out beyond her, leading her straight out into the middle.
Great fun, and a great way to end the session at our new pond.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Monday, March 19, 2007
Rust
Based on a diagnosis last November of arthritis in Lumi's hips and left wrist, we stopped doing agility entirely at that time. I had considered Lumi to be retired from the sport.
But at our last visit to Carol Lundquist, our holistic vet, she said that Lumi does not necessarily need to stop agility entirely. She suggested that we introduce one obstacle per month, similar to a food allergy test, watching to see whether a particular obstacle shows a return of Lumi's wrist pain. For this month's obstacle, I chose the weave poles.
Because of weather and competing priorities, we've only had time for two sessions so far. Yet I've been surprised by how little Lumi's long lay-off has affected her performance. Yesterday with our steel-based weaves, Lumi ran 12 poles in 2.85 seconds.
Though she's had faster times at lakeside with swimming as the reward, that's one of the fastest times Lumi ever had in our training field, where she's working for her tennis ball.
It seems that if there was any rust after four months, it flaked off quickly.
But at our last visit to Carol Lundquist, our holistic vet, she said that Lumi does not necessarily need to stop agility entirely. She suggested that we introduce one obstacle per month, similar to a food allergy test, watching to see whether a particular obstacle shows a return of Lumi's wrist pain. For this month's obstacle, I chose the weave poles.
Because of weather and competing priorities, we've only had time for two sessions so far. Yet I've been surprised by how little Lumi's long lay-off has affected her performance. Yesterday with our steel-based weaves, Lumi ran 12 poles in 2.85 seconds.
Though she's had faster times at lakeside with swimming as the reward, that's one of the fastest times Lumi ever had in our training field, where she's working for her tennis ball.
It seems that if there was any rust after four months, it flaked off quickly.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
A Gathering in the Woods
After several posts on the DogTrek list on the subject of desensitizing Lumi to the sound of gunfire, Amy Cook joined in with what she called her "unsolicited two cents", which of course was really very much welcome. Her suggestions gave me some assurance for the first time that Lumi could actually become comfortable with gunfire, provided I went about the training properly.
The key that Amy emphasized over and above all others was sequence: Gunfire predicts good things, not the other way around.
Amy, of course, was not the only one on DogTrek offering helpful insights this training. But for some reason, the easy authority with which she explained what we needed to do was especially helpful. This really came through when I posted about an unsuccessful attempt to apply her advice yesterday, and she replied with yet another clear, relaxed post that set aside my concerns and again showed the path we needed to follow.
So this morning, Lumi and I went out for another session, armed with a crystal ball provided by Amy that showed success in our future. Confidence is a great thing.
Based on what little I had learned from previous sessions, and guided by Amy's suggestions, here's how today's session went. For each point, I've also added my subjective evaluation about what mattered with respect to our D&CC training, and what did not:
The key that Amy emphasized over and above all others was sequence: Gunfire predicts good things, not the other way around.
Amy, of course, was not the only one on DogTrek offering helpful insights this training. But for some reason, the easy authority with which she explained what we needed to do was especially helpful. This really came through when I posted about an unsuccessful attempt to apply her advice yesterday, and she replied with yet another clear, relaxed post that set aside my concerns and again showed the path we needed to follow.
So this morning, Lumi and I went out for another session, armed with a crystal ball provided by Amy that showed success in our future. Confidence is a great thing.
Based on what little I had learned from previous sessions, and guided by Amy's suggestions, here's how today's session went. For each point, I've also added my subjective evaluation about what mattered with respect to our D&CC training, and what did not:
- We went to a location where hunting is permitted, rather than continuing to hope that no one would hear us and report us at one of the other places we had tried. Our new location happened to be a muddy and heavily wooded area surrounding a "river", actually no more than a stream. Do I think the location mattered? Not really, but I guess it's possible Lumi was more comfortable in the woods than some of the more open areas we had tried before.
- Lumi and I had a lot of company. Dave and his girlfriend Heather, Brookie the Cookie, and Dave's MinPin Athena all took one route through the woods, while Lumi tethered to my belt and Gabriel on a Flexi took another. Do I think all that company mattered? Absolutely. Gunshot after gunshot, Lumi could not help but notice that no one else was bothered by the sound in the least. The more people and dogs showing no reaction, the more normal no reaction must have seemed.
- I didn't bother to bring a toy this time. Instead, I came armed with a variety of treats, especially several sticks of string cheese (mozzarella). Do I think the choice of food versus play, as what the gunfire would predict, mattered? It was crucial. There's no way Lumi would have played after the gunfire during this session, at least in the early going, and even a lower value treat would have failed to interest her. But Lumi loves cheese and this meant that I was able to feed her within a second after each shot, about three little bites of string cheese. I also fed Gabriel, not because he needed it, but to show Lumi that if she didn't eat the cheese, someone else was available to eat her share. I don't know whether that mattered at all, but I don't think it hurt.
- Another reason that I'm glad I tried food rather than toys is because play is about arousal, while eating is about calmness. I think Lumi needed calmness, not arousal, at this stage. Do I think feeding Lumi after the gunfire, rather than before or during, mattered? Based on my observations today, I couldn't say. But based on my faith in Amy's experience in these matters, I have no doubt of it.
- I kept Lumi on leash the entire time. In our previous attempts, she was either on a long line or off lead, and I wish we could have done this work today with Lumi off lead. But I needed her to stay with me, and it would have been too much work, and unpleasant for both of us, if I had to keep calling her back to me. Do I think having Lumi on lead mattered? Without question. It made things so much simpler and easier, especially the fact that it was a short lead. It took the possibility of flight or any other independent action out of the equation, and allowed Lumi to settle in with me the entire time.
- Lumi and I were separated from the gunfire by about 250 yards at first. Not as far as earlier experiments, and with less ambient noise, but I wanted to try it because the woods were so thick and the ground was so muddy. Do I think the distance mattered? Yes, but remarkably enough, in the inverse! After the first couple of reps, I tried moving us about 25 yards closer to the others for the next rep, and to my surprise, Lumi seemed more comfortable at that new distance. After that, we moved about the same distance closer after each rep, and the closer we got, the more comfortable Lumi became. The last time Dave fired the pistol, Lumi and I were standing only about 20 feet away. Lumi started at the gunfire, but immediately welcomed her pieces of cheese and made no effort to move away from the direction of the gunfire. As with all the other reps, Lumi tried harder than normal to press in close to me immediately after the shot, but aside from that seemed her normal self, alert and energetic the entire session.
- I didn't keep Gabriel with Lumi and me for all the conditioning. The closer we got to our other family members, the more that both Gabriel and, yes, Lumi too were pulling on their leads toward the clan, gun and all. At last I called Cookie on the walkie-talkie to come and take Gabriel, so that for the last few reps, Lumi and I were in our own little group and everyone else was with the gun. Do I think it mattered that Gabriel was with Lumi's and my group at first? I don't think so, but I'm not sure. It certainly didn't seem to matter after a few reps, though. If anything, I think it helped to normalize our work to have Gabriel off in the distance with the rest of our gathering, completely at ease and waiting for us to join them.
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Pistols and Labs
Yesterday was our second visit to a field training day for gundogs. Lumi made some progress in our D&CC work for gunfire, but she needs a lot of sessions, not just two, and that place isn't doing any more training days this year.
TRAINING PISTOLS
Although Lumi already has some gundog instincts and trained skills, her noise sensitivity trumps everything else. In the big picture of gundog training, it's a small matter, but for Lumi and me, it's the top priority, the only priority, because nothing else matters if we can't solve it.
So I've put a lot of thought into how to work on gunfire D&CC. Yet it didn't occur to me until today that I might be able to order a pistol that shoots blanks online.
Sure enough, you can buy them from online stores for gundog supplies, and other places as well. I found one that was pretty inexpensive: about $22. It should be here in a few days.
Then all I need is someone to stand about a mile away and fire it for me while I play with Lumi. You'd think it would be easy to find someone to do that, wouldn't you? We'll see.
WATCHING THE LABS
Meanwhile, as suggested to me by private correspondence, I didn't spend all my time at yesterday's training day working with Lumi. At one point, I put her in the van and went off to watch the pros working with their dogs, or their clients' dogs, for awhile. I don't know why the difference between marks and blinds was so confusing to me before, there's really nothing to it once you've watched for a few minutes.
Watching serious field-trained Labs was an education in many ways. It goes without saying that they are nothing like your typical neighborhood Lab. One of the yellows looked like a body builder, muscles bulging up down his legs. He also had no hair around his elbows, perhaps from hunting hazards? I didn't ask why.
The skill of one of the black Labs in particular was also amazing, cutting off small triangles of water hazards to run a perfectly straight mark. As he approached each pond, he flew into the air and leapt in wildly. What drive!
Lumi, of course, will never look or act like one of those FC Labs, but she still looks athletic as Goldens go. I saw other Goldens there, and none of them had Lumi's lean, muscular physique. On the other hand, none of them had her fear of gunfire, either.
MORE PHEASANT WORK
We have so many things we could work on these days, but yesterday's field training inspired me to work with Lumi on field work some more today.
We still have two dead birds from last week to train with. They won't last forever. As I understand it, we can eventually look forward to maggots, red ants, and other niceties. I don't know where we'll get more birds, but at least we have these two for now.
We were training with our pheasant today at the lake for about half an hour. I'd throw Lumi's dummy into the lake, and then when she brought it to me, happily swinging into heel position, I'd reinforce that by throwing the pheasant for her up onto the hillside, with Lumi in a "wait" at heel. When I'd release her after the pheasant had rolled to a stop, she'd break from her sit like a shot, run to the bird, and race back with it. I'd reinforce that with another throw of the dummy into the water, and so the cycle continued, a continuous stream of self-reinforcing behaviors feeding upon one another.
By the end, Lumi seemed to be enjoying the bird more and more. As we were walking up the hill toward the van, I tossed the dummy one time and Lumi just looked at me for a second. "Hey, where's the bird? That's just a dummy!"
"You better get used to seeing more dummies, Sweetie," I told her. "Those birds won't last forever. You might not mind maggots and red ants, but I sure do."
TRAINING PISTOLS
Although Lumi already has some gundog instincts and trained skills, her noise sensitivity trumps everything else. In the big picture of gundog training, it's a small matter, but for Lumi and me, it's the top priority, the only priority, because nothing else matters if we can't solve it.
So I've put a lot of thought into how to work on gunfire D&CC. Yet it didn't occur to me until today that I might be able to order a pistol that shoots blanks online.
Sure enough, you can buy them from online stores for gundog supplies, and other places as well. I found one that was pretty inexpensive: about $22. It should be here in a few days.
Then all I need is someone to stand about a mile away and fire it for me while I play with Lumi. You'd think it would be easy to find someone to do that, wouldn't you? We'll see.
WATCHING THE LABS
Meanwhile, as suggested to me by private correspondence, I didn't spend all my time at yesterday's training day working with Lumi. At one point, I put her in the van and went off to watch the pros working with their dogs, or their clients' dogs, for awhile. I don't know why the difference between marks and blinds was so confusing to me before, there's really nothing to it once you've watched for a few minutes.
Watching serious field-trained Labs was an education in many ways. It goes without saying that they are nothing like your typical neighborhood Lab. One of the yellows looked like a body builder, muscles bulging up down his legs. He also had no hair around his elbows, perhaps from hunting hazards? I didn't ask why.
The skill of one of the black Labs in particular was also amazing, cutting off small triangles of water hazards to run a perfectly straight mark. As he approached each pond, he flew into the air and leapt in wildly. What drive!
Lumi, of course, will never look or act like one of those FC Labs, but she still looks athletic as Goldens go. I saw other Goldens there, and none of them had Lumi's lean, muscular physique. On the other hand, none of them had her fear of gunfire, either.
MORE PHEASANT WORK
We have so many things we could work on these days, but yesterday's field training inspired me to work with Lumi on field work some more today.
We still have two dead birds from last week to train with. They won't last forever. As I understand it, we can eventually look forward to maggots, red ants, and other niceties. I don't know where we'll get more birds, but at least we have these two for now.
We were training with our pheasant today at the lake for about half an hour. I'd throw Lumi's dummy into the lake, and then when she brought it to me, happily swinging into heel position, I'd reinforce that by throwing the pheasant for her up onto the hillside, with Lumi in a "wait" at heel. When I'd release her after the pheasant had rolled to a stop, she'd break from her sit like a shot, run to the bird, and race back with it. I'd reinforce that with another throw of the dummy into the water, and so the cycle continued, a continuous stream of self-reinforcing behaviors feeding upon one another.
By the end, Lumi seemed to be enjoying the bird more and more. As we were walking up the hill toward the van, I tossed the dummy one time and Lumi just looked at me for a second. "Hey, where's the bird? That's just a dummy!"
"You better get used to seeing more dummies, Sweetie," I told her. "Those birds won't last forever. You might not mind maggots and red ants, but I sure do."
Thursday, March 8, 2007
Enthusiasm and Intermittent Reinforcement
When I began trying to learn how to use intermittent reinforcement for Lumi's training recently, my objective was to prepare Lumi better for freestyle trials, in which she needs to go about three minutes without food, toys, or play breaks. That is, she needs to go without any primary positive reinforcement (+R), unless performing the freestyle routine itself is an intrinsic reinforcer to some extent.
PARADIGM SHIFT
My reason for beginning to experiment with intermittent reinforcement was based loosely on a suggestion made to me on DogTrek. I speculated that the dog's experience with intermittent reinforcement is to some extent a learning paradigm, like clicker training. According to that concept, a dog accustomed to intermittent reinforcement for some behaviors would also be more comfortable with intermittent reinforcement for others.
So I chose a few behaviors — on doctor's orders, we weren't working on freestyle at the time — and began gradually putting them on intermittent reinforcement, specifically, a variable schedule of reinforcement (VSR).
RATIO STRAIN
This turned out to be more difficult with Lumi than I expected it to be. After only a small number of unreinforced reps, Lumi would seem to become confused by cues she had previously had reliable responses to. She might freeze and just look at me, or she might offer some completely different behavior.
One of my correspondents on DogTrek stated that this showed that Lumi did not have those behaviors on "stimulus control", so I researched the term a bit. What I learned is that stimulus control isn't an absolute, it's the measurable tendency of an organism to respond to a stimulus. According to that understanding, those behaviors and a hundred others that Lumi offers in response to cues are on stimulus control. They just aren't proofed for extinction when not being reinforced as often as needed.
Which makes Lumi like every other trained dog. That's because every trained dog has behaviors that are not intrinsically reinforcing, behaviors that she does instead because she has been conditioned to do them by positive or negative reinforcement. Those behaviors vary in their resistance to extinction, but they'll all extinguish eventually if not reinforced for a large enough number of reps. No one would suggest that those behaviors are not on stimulus control simply because they won't last forever without reinforcement. The same applies to Lumi's behaviors.
Instead, it was simply a case of ratio strain, exceeding the dog's capacity for performing without reinforcement. According to Pam Reid in Ex-Celerated Learning, dogs vary by individual in how long a behavior will persist without reinforcement, and I'm guessing some of it has to do with how much prior experience the dog has with ratios as well. Lumi has little experience with VSRs, and she also may have less intrinsic tolerance for them anyway. Pam speaks of a BC who might go 30 reps for the chance to chase a tennis ball, while some Saluki might not go 30 reps no matter what reward is available. I'd guess Lumi is somewhere in the middle of that spectrum.
UNEXPECTED RESULT
While putting a few of Lumi's behaviors on intermittent reinforcement proved to be more difficult than I expected, I had another surprise in store as well. Lumi's enthusiasm for the behaviors, as long as we didn't hit ratio strain, seemed to go up during the training, not down. Since motivation affects the amplitude of a response, it seems that intermittent reinforcement was increasing Lumi's motivation. I had heard of this phenomenon, but I guess it was counter-intuitive, because I still didn't expect it.
I've since discovered that I'm not the only one. Other trainers, too, make no connection between intermittent reinforcement and motivation. This seems especially true of those who for one reason or another have little use for VSRs in their training.
ON FURTHER REFLECTION
In thinking about it, I realized that it's actually inevitable that intermittent reinforcement would result in more vigorous, enthusiastic responses. The reason can be given in two words: "extinction burst".
An extinction burst is the phenomenon that sometimes occurs when an organism finds that a previously reinforced behavior is no longer being reinforced. Eventually, the behavior will extinguish (stop occuring), but first, the subject is likely to attempt more vigorous versions of the behavior in hopes that those versions will obtain the reinforcement that the less energetic version did not earn.
To the subject, intermittent reinforcement looks exactly like extinction until the next reinforcement occurs. Looked at in that light, it seems only natural to expect higher motivation for behaviors being trained on an intermittent schedule.
SLIPPING AWAY
That would seem to make intermittent reinforcement a pretty attractive training tool, and truth be told, I am attracted to it for that reason. But just as an extinction burst can quickly slip into extinction, a VSR can quickly slip into extinction, too. That's ratio strain, what I was seeing with Lumi.
In addition, just as an extinction burst can result in other kinds of behavior variability besides energy level, I've found it difficult to apply intermittent reinforcement without losing some precision in some of Lumi's behaviors.
But I think I've found one way to take advantage of this motivational boost without those disadvantages, and that is by means of non-contingent variable-value reinforcement.
DISPENSING TREATS
When you read about lab experiments, it seems as though behavioral scientists generally dispense a single-value reinforcement after each correct response, sometimes using automatic, mechanical dispensing equipment. When dog trainers are training behaviors, they often try to simulate that equipment in various ways: maintaining a neutral composure, giving the treats with precise timing, and dispensing uniform amounts.
In addition, many trainers also sometimes give what they call "jackpots". By this, they do not mean the random payoffs that occur in casino gambling, but extra rewards when the dog seems to show a breakthrough in understanding or higher than usual enthusiasm in her response.
That is not the kind of variable reinforcement I'm talking about for increasing motivation. The kind I'm talking about is actually more like the casino terminology, in that it is random and is not contingent on the quality of the correct response
Let's say the dog gives five correct responses in a row. Instead of giving an equal reinforcement for each response, say a single treat 7 units in weight, you might give the dog several treats each weighing 2 units. But the number of those treats would vary randomly from one rep to the next: 3 small treats for the first rep, then 1, then 4, then 7, then 3 again, for example. Both dogs received about the same number quantity of food, but the second dog also experienced the element of surprise from one rep to the next.
DOES IT WORK?
From my experience, many trainers have never tried that approach to giving reinforcement and are convinced that it would not have any effect on the dog's acquisition of the skill being trained. For them, trying to understand why it would work is beside the point because they are convinced it would not.
And for some dogs in some circumstances, I'm sure they're right. If the dog is particularly hungry for example, as the typical laboratory subject is, then variations in motivation, if they exist at all, may be too slight to observe. Also, motivation isn't the same as speed of acquisition. Two dogs may learn the same skill but with very different attitudes toward the training process and the skill itself, and no data may be collected to show those differences. It's comfortable to assume that if a scientist says he has not seen improved results with a particular approach, it would a waste of time for you to try it yourself on your own dog.
Nonetheless, at the recommendation of my friend Lee Baragona, a trainer with national championships in multiple sports with multiple dogs, I began experimenting with randomly varying numbers of treats for sequences of correct responses as described above. The result was immediate and striking: a distinct boost in Lumi's level of excitement for the game. I could even feel it affecting me as the treat giver. For example, I might think, "Here's a smaller amount than last time, Lumi, but you know what that means, don't you? Maybe more next time!"
VARIATIONS ON A THEME
Once you have the experience that that way of giving reinforcement does affect the dog's attitude, then you find yourself wondering about an explanation. For me, the explanation is that intermittent reinforcement is really just a special case of random non-contingent variations in reinforcement.
That is, in a VSR, the number of treats is still varying randomly from one correct rep to another. In a VSR, the number of treats is either 0 or 1, whereas in the more general case that I'm describing, the number of treats includes other possibilities. You might vary among counts of 1 through 7, or you might also respond to some correct responses with no reward. You would only do that, I guess, if the dog has enough reinforcement history for the correct response that she won't take zero to mean that she had performed the behavior incorrectly.
FOLLOWING FOOTSTEPS
In all of the above, I may well be following in the footsteps of researchers and authors who have explored learning and motivation in the past. Some may have reached the same conclusions, some the opposite. Nonetheless, it's interesting to experiment and try to understand what I'm seeing on my own.
It's one of the things that makes dog training so rewarding.
PARADIGM SHIFT
My reason for beginning to experiment with intermittent reinforcement was based loosely on a suggestion made to me on DogTrek. I speculated that the dog's experience with intermittent reinforcement is to some extent a learning paradigm, like clicker training. According to that concept, a dog accustomed to intermittent reinforcement for some behaviors would also be more comfortable with intermittent reinforcement for others.
So I chose a few behaviors — on doctor's orders, we weren't working on freestyle at the time — and began gradually putting them on intermittent reinforcement, specifically, a variable schedule of reinforcement (VSR).
RATIO STRAIN
This turned out to be more difficult with Lumi than I expected it to be. After only a small number of unreinforced reps, Lumi would seem to become confused by cues she had previously had reliable responses to. She might freeze and just look at me, or she might offer some completely different behavior.
One of my correspondents on DogTrek stated that this showed that Lumi did not have those behaviors on "stimulus control", so I researched the term a bit. What I learned is that stimulus control isn't an absolute, it's the measurable tendency of an organism to respond to a stimulus. According to that understanding, those behaviors and a hundred others that Lumi offers in response to cues are on stimulus control. They just aren't proofed for extinction when not being reinforced as often as needed.
Which makes Lumi like every other trained dog. That's because every trained dog has behaviors that are not intrinsically reinforcing, behaviors that she does instead because she has been conditioned to do them by positive or negative reinforcement. Those behaviors vary in their resistance to extinction, but they'll all extinguish eventually if not reinforced for a large enough number of reps. No one would suggest that those behaviors are not on stimulus control simply because they won't last forever without reinforcement. The same applies to Lumi's behaviors.
Instead, it was simply a case of ratio strain, exceeding the dog's capacity for performing without reinforcement. According to Pam Reid in Ex-Celerated Learning, dogs vary by individual in how long a behavior will persist without reinforcement, and I'm guessing some of it has to do with how much prior experience the dog has with ratios as well. Lumi has little experience with VSRs, and she also may have less intrinsic tolerance for them anyway. Pam speaks of a BC who might go 30 reps for the chance to chase a tennis ball, while some Saluki might not go 30 reps no matter what reward is available. I'd guess Lumi is somewhere in the middle of that spectrum.
UNEXPECTED RESULT
While putting a few of Lumi's behaviors on intermittent reinforcement proved to be more difficult than I expected, I had another surprise in store as well. Lumi's enthusiasm for the behaviors, as long as we didn't hit ratio strain, seemed to go up during the training, not down. Since motivation affects the amplitude of a response, it seems that intermittent reinforcement was increasing Lumi's motivation. I had heard of this phenomenon, but I guess it was counter-intuitive, because I still didn't expect it.
I've since discovered that I'm not the only one. Other trainers, too, make no connection between intermittent reinforcement and motivation. This seems especially true of those who for one reason or another have little use for VSRs in their training.
ON FURTHER REFLECTION
In thinking about it, I realized that it's actually inevitable that intermittent reinforcement would result in more vigorous, enthusiastic responses. The reason can be given in two words: "extinction burst".
An extinction burst is the phenomenon that sometimes occurs when an organism finds that a previously reinforced behavior is no longer being reinforced. Eventually, the behavior will extinguish (stop occuring), but first, the subject is likely to attempt more vigorous versions of the behavior in hopes that those versions will obtain the reinforcement that the less energetic version did not earn.
To the subject, intermittent reinforcement looks exactly like extinction until the next reinforcement occurs. Looked at in that light, it seems only natural to expect higher motivation for behaviors being trained on an intermittent schedule.
SLIPPING AWAY
That would seem to make intermittent reinforcement a pretty attractive training tool, and truth be told, I am attracted to it for that reason. But just as an extinction burst can quickly slip into extinction, a VSR can quickly slip into extinction, too. That's ratio strain, what I was seeing with Lumi.
In addition, just as an extinction burst can result in other kinds of behavior variability besides energy level, I've found it difficult to apply intermittent reinforcement without losing some precision in some of Lumi's behaviors.
But I think I've found one way to take advantage of this motivational boost without those disadvantages, and that is by means of non-contingent variable-value reinforcement.
DISPENSING TREATS
When you read about lab experiments, it seems as though behavioral scientists generally dispense a single-value reinforcement after each correct response, sometimes using automatic, mechanical dispensing equipment. When dog trainers are training behaviors, they often try to simulate that equipment in various ways: maintaining a neutral composure, giving the treats with precise timing, and dispensing uniform amounts.
In addition, many trainers also sometimes give what they call "jackpots". By this, they do not mean the random payoffs that occur in casino gambling, but extra rewards when the dog seems to show a breakthrough in understanding or higher than usual enthusiasm in her response.
That is not the kind of variable reinforcement I'm talking about for increasing motivation. The kind I'm talking about is actually more like the casino terminology, in that it is random and is not contingent on the quality of the correct response
Let's say the dog gives five correct responses in a row. Instead of giving an equal reinforcement for each response, say a single treat 7 units in weight, you might give the dog several treats each weighing 2 units. But the number of those treats would vary randomly from one rep to the next: 3 small treats for the first rep, then 1, then 4, then 7, then 3 again, for example. Both dogs received about the same number quantity of food, but the second dog also experienced the element of surprise from one rep to the next.
DOES IT WORK?
From my experience, many trainers have never tried that approach to giving reinforcement and are convinced that it would not have any effect on the dog's acquisition of the skill being trained. For them, trying to understand why it would work is beside the point because they are convinced it would not.
And for some dogs in some circumstances, I'm sure they're right. If the dog is particularly hungry for example, as the typical laboratory subject is, then variations in motivation, if they exist at all, may be too slight to observe. Also, motivation isn't the same as speed of acquisition. Two dogs may learn the same skill but with very different attitudes toward the training process and the skill itself, and no data may be collected to show those differences. It's comfortable to assume that if a scientist says he has not seen improved results with a particular approach, it would a waste of time for you to try it yourself on your own dog.
Nonetheless, at the recommendation of my friend Lee Baragona, a trainer with national championships in multiple sports with multiple dogs, I began experimenting with randomly varying numbers of treats for sequences of correct responses as described above. The result was immediate and striking: a distinct boost in Lumi's level of excitement for the game. I could even feel it affecting me as the treat giver. For example, I might think, "Here's a smaller amount than last time, Lumi, but you know what that means, don't you? Maybe more next time!"
VARIATIONS ON A THEME
Once you have the experience that that way of giving reinforcement does affect the dog's attitude, then you find yourself wondering about an explanation. For me, the explanation is that intermittent reinforcement is really just a special case of random non-contingent variations in reinforcement.
That is, in a VSR, the number of treats is still varying randomly from one correct rep to another. In a VSR, the number of treats is either 0 or 1, whereas in the more general case that I'm describing, the number of treats includes other possibilities. You might vary among counts of 1 through 7, or you might also respond to some correct responses with no reward. You would only do that, I guess, if the dog has enough reinforcement history for the correct response that she won't take zero to mean that she had performed the behavior incorrectly.
FOLLOWING FOOTSTEPS
In all of the above, I may well be following in the footsteps of researchers and authors who have explored learning and motivation in the past. Some may have reached the same conclusions, some the opposite. Nonetheless, it's interesting to experiment and try to understand what I'm seeing on my own.
It's one of the things that makes dog training so rewarding.
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Backing Together
I mentioned in yesterday's story that Lumi and I were doing some remedial work on a basic freestyle move: backing together with Lumi at right heel. I described the training as a repeating two-behavior chain:
That may have been a good way to perform this training over the last few days, but this evening I saw that Lumi was anticipating the behavior that was being reinforced — her move backward — and not waiting for me to step back. The result was that she would get too far behind me unless I cued "wait" every time.
If we're going to get a smooth version of this chain, I decided that we also need Lumi to have a strong reinforcement history for the wait, not only for her stepping back.
So I tried doing it this way. First I say "wait" and step back, then reinforce Lumi for waiting with a spoonful of her raw food.
Secondly, I say "OK" as a release from the wait, and Lumi backs into heel position again. I reinforce that, not with a primary reinforcer, but with another "wait". I believe the wait cue acts as a secondary reinforcer because it's an opportunity to earn another cookie if executed correctly.
I was pleased with the results, at least at the slow speed we were working. To earn her cookie, Lumi remained calmly in place as I took a step back, then quickly came back into heel as soon as I released her. Her level of motivation for the game played this way remained as high as with yesterday's version.
The overall backing move, as the chain is repeated over and over, is still too choppy. But it already has a nice measured feeling that hopefully will eventually be as fast, or slow, as required for a particular musical phrase.
- With Lumi in a wait, I step back so that I'm even with Lumi's lower back
- Then she steps back into heel position
That may have been a good way to perform this training over the last few days, but this evening I saw that Lumi was anticipating the behavior that was being reinforced — her move backward — and not waiting for me to step back. The result was that she would get too far behind me unless I cued "wait" every time.
If we're going to get a smooth version of this chain, I decided that we also need Lumi to have a strong reinforcement history for the wait, not only for her stepping back.
So I tried doing it this way. First I say "wait" and step back, then reinforce Lumi for waiting with a spoonful of her raw food.
Secondly, I say "OK" as a release from the wait, and Lumi backs into heel position again. I reinforce that, not with a primary reinforcer, but with another "wait". I believe the wait cue acts as a secondary reinforcer because it's an opportunity to earn another cookie if executed correctly.
I was pleased with the results, at least at the slow speed we were working. To earn her cookie, Lumi remained calmly in place as I took a step back, then quickly came back into heel as soon as I released her. Her level of motivation for the game played this way remained as high as with yesterday's version.
The overall backing move, as the chain is repeated over and over, is still too choppy. But it already has a nice measured feeling that hopefully will eventually be as fast, or slow, as required for a particular musical phrase.
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
A Pheasant Experience
Invited to visit friends in the mountains about three hours to our west, this afternoon I packed up our frozen pheasant in dry ice and Lumi and I headed out in the van with various family members. After settling in the cabin, we went out to the snow-covered hillside to try our hand at pheasant retrieving for the first time.
AN EASY TIME OF IT
As with the duck Lumi learned to retrieve a couple of days ago, her initial reaction to the pheasant was essentially lack of interest, and that meant another shaping session. Unfortunately, we didn't have a creek I could throw her dummy into for reinforcement, but on the other hand, we did have some pretty deep snow banks that seemed to appeal to Lumi's sense of excitement.
That turned out to be all we needed, and it didn't take much time. In fewer than ten reps, Lumi was retrieving the thrown pheasant on the run, and within another five, she was carrying it all the way around to left heel before I took it from her.
MOTIVATED
Lumi showed me that she was enjoying herself, and not merely working for extrinsic reinforcement, in at least two ways. The first was that she broke her "wait" a couple of times when I threw the pheasant as Lumi sat at heel. While I wasn't happy to see her break, I was pleased that the thrown pheasant called to her so strongly so soon in the training.
It only took a couple of restrained reps to repair the "wait". Perhaps another trainer would have been more adamant that Lumi hold her "wait" every time, but we're out there for fun, and that's what we were having. I was comfortable in this case loosening up on one behavior a couple of times to enable high value auto-reinforcement of another.
An even better indication of Lumi's attitude about our work was when I thought, after about three continuous reps of retrieving the bird, that Lumi might like to play a little tug with her dummy before we resumed. I whipped the dummy out of my pocket by its rope and swung it past Lumi's face, fully expecting her to go flying after it as she typically does. Instead, she just stood there grinning and panting, looking back and forth from me to the pheasant. "Let's play with the dummy later, Daddy. I want to chase the bird again!"
A LITTLE FREESTYLE
That was it for our outdoor activities today, but I thought I'd mention that Lumi and I also got in a little freestyle training in the evening. The cabin has an empty carpeted room, and we used it to work on backing together with Lumi in right heel.
Many freestyle dogs flare in this move, and Lumi is especially inclined to because I've stepped on her, even fallen on her, occasionally when practicing. When I use our hand cue for "get it in", Lumi's next option is to back up quicker than I'm moving in order to get out of my way. Besides putting us out of alignment, this makes the backing move difficult to perform at the controlled pace appropriate to our style of choreography.
The solution I came up with a few days ago is to use the clicker and train the move as a distinct two-step chain. The first step is for Lumi to remain in a standing "wait" as I take a step back, coming even with her lower back. The second step is then for Lumi to back up so that she's aligned again at heel -- her withers even with my hips -- which is where the click/treat occurs.
My plan is that after we've done that chain enough times, Lumi will be able to repeat the chain over and over uncued as we seem to back up smoothly in tandem, Lumi neither flaring nor getting behind me no matter what pace I choose to back. Truth be told, I need as much practice with my footwork for this maneuver as Lumi does with her timing.
We're not at the stage of continuous backing yet, but after a few sessions, Lumi and I are performing the chain in short groups of repetitions better and better. Lumi's looking sharp, engaged, and enthusiastic about the game. Now all I have to do is avoid falling on her again.
AN EASY TIME OF IT
As with the duck Lumi learned to retrieve a couple of days ago, her initial reaction to the pheasant was essentially lack of interest, and that meant another shaping session. Unfortunately, we didn't have a creek I could throw her dummy into for reinforcement, but on the other hand, we did have some pretty deep snow banks that seemed to appeal to Lumi's sense of excitement.
That turned out to be all we needed, and it didn't take much time. In fewer than ten reps, Lumi was retrieving the thrown pheasant on the run, and within another five, she was carrying it all the way around to left heel before I took it from her.
MOTIVATED
Lumi showed me that she was enjoying herself, and not merely working for extrinsic reinforcement, in at least two ways. The first was that she broke her "wait" a couple of times when I threw the pheasant as Lumi sat at heel. While I wasn't happy to see her break, I was pleased that the thrown pheasant called to her so strongly so soon in the training.
It only took a couple of restrained reps to repair the "wait". Perhaps another trainer would have been more adamant that Lumi hold her "wait" every time, but we're out there for fun, and that's what we were having. I was comfortable in this case loosening up on one behavior a couple of times to enable high value auto-reinforcement of another.
An even better indication of Lumi's attitude about our work was when I thought, after about three continuous reps of retrieving the bird, that Lumi might like to play a little tug with her dummy before we resumed. I whipped the dummy out of my pocket by its rope and swung it past Lumi's face, fully expecting her to go flying after it as she typically does. Instead, she just stood there grinning and panting, looking back and forth from me to the pheasant. "Let's play with the dummy later, Daddy. I want to chase the bird again!"
A LITTLE FREESTYLE
That was it for our outdoor activities today, but I thought I'd mention that Lumi and I also got in a little freestyle training in the evening. The cabin has an empty carpeted room, and we used it to work on backing together with Lumi in right heel.
Many freestyle dogs flare in this move, and Lumi is especially inclined to because I've stepped on her, even fallen on her, occasionally when practicing. When I use our hand cue for "get it in", Lumi's next option is to back up quicker than I'm moving in order to get out of my way. Besides putting us out of alignment, this makes the backing move difficult to perform at the controlled pace appropriate to our style of choreography.
The solution I came up with a few days ago is to use the clicker and train the move as a distinct two-step chain. The first step is for Lumi to remain in a standing "wait" as I take a step back, coming even with her lower back. The second step is then for Lumi to back up so that she's aligned again at heel -- her withers even with my hips -- which is where the click/treat occurs.
My plan is that after we've done that chain enough times, Lumi will be able to repeat the chain over and over uncued as we seem to back up smoothly in tandem, Lumi neither flaring nor getting behind me no matter what pace I choose to back. Truth be told, I need as much practice with my footwork for this maneuver as Lumi does with her timing.
We're not at the stage of continuous backing yet, but after a few sessions, Lumi and I are performing the chain in short groups of repetitions better and better. Lumi's looking sharp, engaged, and enthusiastic about the game. Now all I have to do is avoid falling on her again.
Monday, March 5, 2007
The Hound and the Mitt
As faithful readers of DogTrek will know, Lumi and I are in the middle of a shaping challenge proposed by Sue Rivers: training our dogs to retrieve an article, cued by seeing the article's mate.
Here's a video of our current stage of training in this challenge, after roughly a month:
As you can see in the video, there are two articles ("targets") on the floor, in this case a mitten and a chess piece representing the Hound of the Baskervilles. With Lumi a few feet away, I hold the mate of one of the articles directly between the two targets and cue "match". The correct response is for Lumi to pick the hot target up in her mouth and "hand" it to me.
THE PLAN
At this stage in the training, I am as careful as possible to give Lumi no information other than the mate itself to help her make the selection. I use no pattern of when I change hot targets -- sometimes after one rep, sometimes after two -- and I try to move the mate on a plane exactly bisecting the two targets, giving no hint in the mate's movement which target is being "aimed" at.
My intent is to click the moment Lumi makes the correct selection, but in order to discourage testing -- Is this it? Is this it? -- I don't want to click if she touches the article without picking it up. In this video, I get trapped at one point by clicking and then realizing she didn't actually pick up the chess piece. It's the usual wrong-click dilemma. You don't want to dilute the meaning of the click by not following with a treat, but you also don't want to reinforce the incorrectly clicked version of a behavior any further by feeding. I chose to wait for the behavior to be finished and then fed.
Oh, you can't see it in the video, but for each rep, I have a piece of cheese in my mouth. A split second after I click, I lean over and Lumi takes the cheese from my mouth with her sweet little tongue and lips. You might not want to see that.
TARGET BIAS
Although Lumi has a high percentage rate of correct responses (10 for 11 in this video), she is still not perfect in this skill, and I don't know if she ever will be. Part of my goal as a trainer is trying to understand what's confusing her at any moment and training past each particular difficulty. In this case, the biggest issue seemed to be preference for one article, what you might call "target bias". We've seen this often before in this project.
What happens is that in any particular session, one of the articles tends to be easier for Lumi than the other. In this video, she was more confident about the mitten, although when the session is over, she's under the impression that I'm going to let her disappear somewhere to chew on the chess piece.
So Lumi doesn't necessarily like the mitten better, she just got stuck on it in this session for some reason. We work with about eight different articles, and I can't always predict which one she'll get stuck on for a particular session. I try to select two targets of nearly identical attraction to her, and the better I do at that, the easier the session is for her.
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT
It's interesting, and for me dismaying, to hear the sound of one's own voice. In listening to the sound track on this video, I sound neither as thrilled as I actually am when Lumi gets a match correct, not as indifferent as I actually am when Lumi gets one wrong. Even more disconcerting is the distracted-sounded "I love you" to DW Renee as she's leaving the house near the end.
All I can say is, don't believe your ears. My heart is filled with love for my wife and my dog, my voice just doesn't show it very well at times.
One more thing to work on.
Here's a video of our current stage of training in this challenge, after roughly a month:
As you can see in the video, there are two articles ("targets") on the floor, in this case a mitten and a chess piece representing the Hound of the Baskervilles. With Lumi a few feet away, I hold the mate of one of the articles directly between the two targets and cue "match". The correct response is for Lumi to pick the hot target up in her mouth and "hand" it to me.
THE PLAN
At this stage in the training, I am as careful as possible to give Lumi no information other than the mate itself to help her make the selection. I use no pattern of when I change hot targets -- sometimes after one rep, sometimes after two -- and I try to move the mate on a plane exactly bisecting the two targets, giving no hint in the mate's movement which target is being "aimed" at.
My intent is to click the moment Lumi makes the correct selection, but in order to discourage testing -- Is this it? Is this it? -- I don't want to click if she touches the article without picking it up. In this video, I get trapped at one point by clicking and then realizing she didn't actually pick up the chess piece. It's the usual wrong-click dilemma. You don't want to dilute the meaning of the click by not following with a treat, but you also don't want to reinforce the incorrectly clicked version of a behavior any further by feeding. I chose to wait for the behavior to be finished and then fed.
Oh, you can't see it in the video, but for each rep, I have a piece of cheese in my mouth. A split second after I click, I lean over and Lumi takes the cheese from my mouth with her sweet little tongue and lips. You might not want to see that.
TARGET BIAS
Although Lumi has a high percentage rate of correct responses (10 for 11 in this video), she is still not perfect in this skill, and I don't know if she ever will be. Part of my goal as a trainer is trying to understand what's confusing her at any moment and training past each particular difficulty. In this case, the biggest issue seemed to be preference for one article, what you might call "target bias". We've seen this often before in this project.
What happens is that in any particular session, one of the articles tends to be easier for Lumi than the other. In this video, she was more confident about the mitten, although when the session is over, she's under the impression that I'm going to let her disappear somewhere to chew on the chess piece.
So Lumi doesn't necessarily like the mitten better, she just got stuck on it in this session for some reason. We work with about eight different articles, and I can't always predict which one she'll get stuck on for a particular session. I try to select two targets of nearly identical attraction to her, and the better I do at that, the easier the session is for her.
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT
It's interesting, and for me dismaying, to hear the sound of one's own voice. In listening to the sound track on this video, I sound neither as thrilled as I actually am when Lumi gets a match correct, not as indifferent as I actually am when Lumi gets one wrong. Even more disconcerting is the distracted-sounded "I love you" to DW Renee as she's leaving the house near the end.
All I can say is, don't believe your ears. My heart is filled with love for my wife and my dog, my voice just doesn't show it very well at times.
One more thing to work on.
Sunday, March 4, 2007
Real Duck
As Lumi and I were leaving yesterday's field training, the woman who organized it was kind enough to say we could take along a dead duck and a dead pheasant to work with at home. I chose one of each and put them in the freezer when we arrived.
BEST LAID PLANS
This morning, I thought I'd try out the training plan I had come up with. I took Lumi to one of her favorite places, a wooded park with a strong, deep stream running through it. As we walked from the van to the stream, I brought along Lumi's favorite water toy (a retrieval dummy with a tennis ball surface) and the frozen duck.
The theory was, I'd toss the dummy several times, and of course Lumi would run and grab it and come back all crazy to play tug or for me to throw it again. I'd do that a few times and then throw the duck instead of the dummy.
Tried it, didn't work. Lumi had no interest in picking up that duck. She wasn't afraid of it, but she wasn't interested in having it in her mouth.
FALSE TRAIL
OK, she needs to generalize what we're doing here, I thought. So I added a big stick/small log to the mix. Toss the dummy, yay! Toss the log, yay! Toss the dummy again, yay! Toss the duck . . . nothing. "I know what you're doing, Daddy. I just don't want to pick that thing up."
Hmm, maybe she's thinking too much, was my next idea. Instead of a retrieve, we'll play catch. So I lobbed the dummy to her, and she leaped at it and caught it and came right back for a quick game of tug, as per usual. I lobbed a small stick, and she caught that, too, then brought it back so I could toss it for her again. Lobbed the duck . . . and Lumi stepped back so that the duck could fall to the ground in front of her. She glanced at it for a second, then up at me. It was kind of comical.
CLICKERLESS CLICKER TRAINING
So much for capturing this behavior, I finally realized. We're gonna have to shape it. Too bad I don't have my clicker, but we'll make do. I assume you know what I mean by "shaping", so I won't discuss the general concept. But here's a description of how it went.
I brought the duck and the dummy over to the edge of the creek, lay the duck on a little mound, and stared at it for a few moments. Lumi knows this game, and knew exactly how to get started. She put her nose an inch or so from the bird and I shouted "Good job!" (that was our click for this exercise) and flung her dummy into the water. She leapt after it, brought it back, and we played a little tug. Then I took the dummy away from her, as though I were about to throw it in the water again.
But no, I looked at the duck again and waited a few seconds. Lumi took it in, understood what she needed to do to get what she wanted, sniffed the duck again, and then I flung the toy into the water.
RAISING CRITERIA
On the third or fourth rep, I didn't reinforce the simple sniff. After hundreds of shaping sessions, Lumi knows what that means, too. Got to try some variation, got to try harder in some way. So she put her mouth on it. "Good job!" and there goes the dummy flying into the water.
I wondered if we'd run into some barrier, but we didn't. Lumi progressed smoothly to putting her mouth around part of the wing, to dragging the bird an inch and then further, to lifting it an inch off the ground and then higher, to putting it into my hands, to retrieving it when I tossed it a yard away and then further, to retrieving it out of shallow water, and so forth.
A HUNTING DOG
Our last rep went like this. With Lumi in a sit-stay and watching me like a hawk, I walked 30 yards away through the woods and tossed the bird up in the air, so that it dropped on the ground a few feet from me. Then I ran back to Lumi, excitedly called her to left heel, and cued "go out". Off she flew. She found the bird, picked it immediately, and headed back. She accidentally dropped it at one point, got a better grip, and finished the retrieve. Good! With practice, she's teach herself how to get a solid grip the first time.
That final image of Lumi lingers in my mind. Less than an hour of meeting her first duck, she looked like an honest-to-goodness hunting dog, running toward me through the woods with real quarry in her mouth.
PHEASANT NEXT
We'll do a similar session with the poor dead pheasant at some point in the next day or two. I assume it will go even faster, but another hour wouldn't be bad.
I just have to wonder how people who don't use shaping would have solved this. How many just give up on a dog who doesn't instinctively offer the desired behavior?
BEST LAID PLANS
This morning, I thought I'd try out the training plan I had come up with. I took Lumi to one of her favorite places, a wooded park with a strong, deep stream running through it. As we walked from the van to the stream, I brought along Lumi's favorite water toy (a retrieval dummy with a tennis ball surface) and the frozen duck.
The theory was, I'd toss the dummy several times, and of course Lumi would run and grab it and come back all crazy to play tug or for me to throw it again. I'd do that a few times and then throw the duck instead of the dummy.
Tried it, didn't work. Lumi had no interest in picking up that duck. She wasn't afraid of it, but she wasn't interested in having it in her mouth.
FALSE TRAIL
OK, she needs to generalize what we're doing here, I thought. So I added a big stick/small log to the mix. Toss the dummy, yay! Toss the log, yay! Toss the dummy again, yay! Toss the duck . . . nothing. "I know what you're doing, Daddy. I just don't want to pick that thing up."
Hmm, maybe she's thinking too much, was my next idea. Instead of a retrieve, we'll play catch. So I lobbed the dummy to her, and she leaped at it and caught it and came right back for a quick game of tug, as per usual. I lobbed a small stick, and she caught that, too, then brought it back so I could toss it for her again. Lobbed the duck . . . and Lumi stepped back so that the duck could fall to the ground in front of her. She glanced at it for a second, then up at me. It was kind of comical.
CLICKERLESS CLICKER TRAINING
So much for capturing this behavior, I finally realized. We're gonna have to shape it. Too bad I don't have my clicker, but we'll make do. I assume you know what I mean by "shaping", so I won't discuss the general concept. But here's a description of how it went.
I brought the duck and the dummy over to the edge of the creek, lay the duck on a little mound, and stared at it for a few moments. Lumi knows this game, and knew exactly how to get started. She put her nose an inch or so from the bird and I shouted "Good job!" (that was our click for this exercise) and flung her dummy into the water. She leapt after it, brought it back, and we played a little tug. Then I took the dummy away from her, as though I were about to throw it in the water again.
But no, I looked at the duck again and waited a few seconds. Lumi took it in, understood what she needed to do to get what she wanted, sniffed the duck again, and then I flung the toy into the water.
RAISING CRITERIA
On the third or fourth rep, I didn't reinforce the simple sniff. After hundreds of shaping sessions, Lumi knows what that means, too. Got to try some variation, got to try harder in some way. So she put her mouth on it. "Good job!" and there goes the dummy flying into the water.
I wondered if we'd run into some barrier, but we didn't. Lumi progressed smoothly to putting her mouth around part of the wing, to dragging the bird an inch and then further, to lifting it an inch off the ground and then higher, to putting it into my hands, to retrieving it when I tossed it a yard away and then further, to retrieving it out of shallow water, and so forth.
A HUNTING DOG
Our last rep went like this. With Lumi in a sit-stay and watching me like a hawk, I walked 30 yards away through the woods and tossed the bird up in the air, so that it dropped on the ground a few feet from me. Then I ran back to Lumi, excitedly called her to left heel, and cued "go out". Off she flew. She found the bird, picked it immediately, and headed back. She accidentally dropped it at one point, got a better grip, and finished the retrieve. Good! With practice, she's teach herself how to get a solid grip the first time.
That final image of Lumi lingers in my mind. Less than an hour of meeting her first duck, she looked like an honest-to-goodness hunting dog, running toward me through the woods with real quarry in her mouth.
PHEASANT NEXT
We'll do a similar session with the poor dead pheasant at some point in the next day or two. I assume it will go even faster, but another hour wouldn't be bad.
I just have to wonder how people who don't use shaping would have solved this. How many just give up on a dog who doesn't instinctively offer the desired behavior?
Saturday, March 3, 2007
Gundog Meets Gunfire
Today, Lumi and I made a four-hour round-trip to a field training site for gundogs. Originally planned as Lumi's introduction to both real birds and real gunfire, I decided in the last few days we better just stick with seeing how Lumi does with gunfire, and then take some dead birds back with us as homework for next weekend. That turned out to be the right decision.
FIRST SHOT FIRED
Lumi was apparently the only dog there with possible sound sensitivity, and when I introduced myself to a couple of the organizers and mentioned my concern, they were naturally too busy to point me in any particular direction where Lumi and I could get far enough away so that the first gunshots fired would be sub-threshold.
Trying my best to understand the training layout, I took Lumi several hundred yards from where I surmised the guns would be fired and we began playing retrieve and tug games with one of her dummies. Lumi is quite enthusiastic about these games, and I didn't want to wear her out, but I did want her to be in mid-game when the first gunshot sounded. As luck would have it, she was just about to pick up her dummy.
Well, I think it's fair to say that, despite my best effort to make an accurate estimate of how much distance was needed, we were not sub-threshold. Lumi froze, and was completely unwilling to pick up the dummy or play in any other way.
MAKING A START
Since we were clearly too close to the gunfire after all, I moved us out another three hundred yards or so, and ran up against woods and a wire fence or we would have gone further.
There, we started worked on D&CC, first just asking for recalls, then running around in the meadow whenever a shot sounded, and finally chasing the dummy together an instant after each blast, though Lumi would still not pick up the dummy when we got to it.
This was an interesting time to me, rich in variety and nuance, but it would not be interesting to record, I think. I will mention these notes, though:
Though pleased with our progress, I was disappointed that Lumi was still unwilling to play with her dummy. The breaks between shots seemed to be around 10 minutes, so there weren't that many in an hour and a half. But Lumi clearly did not consider that area by the treeline to be any more hospitable to play than the meadow had been. So we began wandering further afield, first one direction, then the other.
Suddenly we came upon a pond hidden in the woods, complete with clumps of reed and decoys scattered here and about. Lumi's demeanor transformed the instant she saw the pond's surface glistening through the trees, and I didn't hesitate. I broke into a run, Lumi at my side, and as we approached the waterline, I tossed the dummy into the water.
I knew at the time that if Lumi didn't retrieve it, it was lost, because I sure wasn't going after it. But I was certain it wouldn't be a problem, and it wasn't. Lumi was back to her old self.
We played the rest of the morning at that pond and two others, each successively closer to the original meadow. Besides retrieving her dummy from the water, we played tug, short land retrieves, and even a little catch and tug with her soft disc.
Staying sub-threshold was not easy, and I wasn't always successful at it. First, everything is fine for a while, and you figure you can move closer. But you can't move an inch at a time or a foot at a time, because its fifty yards or more to the next good place to play. Then you think the dog is fine there, but after a few shots, you realize that she's tensing up and that you need to retreat back to more distance
Of course, we could have stayed at that pond in the trees the whole time, but we could barely hear the gunshots there. If we just wanted to play in the water, we didn't need to drive four hours to do it.
ALL'S WELL
We finally quit around noon, though gundog training continued at various locations around the facility. Lumi may have had more energy, but I was done. We stopped at one of the training stations to select two dead birds -- a duck and a pheasant -- and then we were on our way home. In the next few days, I'll see if I can get Lumi to retrieve either or both of the carcasses. That should be another interesting challenge, but she's already shown me that her issue for that training will be lack of interest, not fear.
As for gunfire, we only have one more chance to work at the same training site for the rest of the season, and that's next weekend. We'll be there, and once again we'll work on D&CC. But this time, we'll start at that pond in the woods with the clumps of reed, and the decoys scattered here and about.
FIRST SHOT FIRED
Lumi was apparently the only dog there with possible sound sensitivity, and when I introduced myself to a couple of the organizers and mentioned my concern, they were naturally too busy to point me in any particular direction where Lumi and I could get far enough away so that the first gunshots fired would be sub-threshold.
Trying my best to understand the training layout, I took Lumi several hundred yards from where I surmised the guns would be fired and we began playing retrieve and tug games with one of her dummies. Lumi is quite enthusiastic about these games, and I didn't want to wear her out, but I did want her to be in mid-game when the first gunshot sounded. As luck would have it, she was just about to pick up her dummy.
Well, I think it's fair to say that, despite my best effort to make an accurate estimate of how much distance was needed, we were not sub-threshold. Lumi froze, and was completely unwilling to pick up the dummy or play in any other way.
MAKING A START
Since we were clearly too close to the gunfire after all, I moved us out another three hundred yards or so, and ran up against woods and a wire fence or we would have gone further.
There, we started worked on D&CC, first just asking for recalls, then running around in the meadow whenever a shot sounded, and finally chasing the dummy together an instant after each blast, though Lumi would still not pick up the dummy when we got to it.
This was an interesting time to me, rich in variety and nuance, but it would not be interesting to record, I think. I will mention these notes, though:
- It was gratifying that, even unwilling to retrieve, Lumi's recall remained strong during this period.
- I was able to be somewhat objective in measuring Lumi's progress during this hour and a half. Since I couldn't use play for the counter-conditioning, I used food, and had three different kinds of treats with me. At the beginning of the process, Lumi would only accept one of the three kinds. By the end of this work near the trees, she was happy to accept all three.
- Lumi is not a dog who leans on people (including me), but for this one time, Lumi would lean against me as we stood together waiting for the next gunshot. Based on that, and also how Lumi has acted the rest of the day, it almost seems as though this experience has brought Lumi closer to me in a way, perhaps less independent than she usually is. A part of me admires her independence, but I have to admit that I like it when she wants to be close even better.
Though pleased with our progress, I was disappointed that Lumi was still unwilling to play with her dummy. The breaks between shots seemed to be around 10 minutes, so there weren't that many in an hour and a half. But Lumi clearly did not consider that area by the treeline to be any more hospitable to play than the meadow had been. So we began wandering further afield, first one direction, then the other.
Suddenly we came upon a pond hidden in the woods, complete with clumps of reed and decoys scattered here and about. Lumi's demeanor transformed the instant she saw the pond's surface glistening through the trees, and I didn't hesitate. I broke into a run, Lumi at my side, and as we approached the waterline, I tossed the dummy into the water.
I knew at the time that if Lumi didn't retrieve it, it was lost, because I sure wasn't going after it. But I was certain it wouldn't be a problem, and it wasn't. Lumi was back to her old self.
We played the rest of the morning at that pond and two others, each successively closer to the original meadow. Besides retrieving her dummy from the water, we played tug, short land retrieves, and even a little catch and tug with her soft disc.
Staying sub-threshold was not easy, and I wasn't always successful at it. First, everything is fine for a while, and you figure you can move closer. But you can't move an inch at a time or a foot at a time, because its fifty yards or more to the next good place to play. Then you think the dog is fine there, but after a few shots, you realize that she's tensing up and that you need to retreat back to more distance
Of course, we could have stayed at that pond in the trees the whole time, but we could barely hear the gunshots there. If we just wanted to play in the water, we didn't need to drive four hours to do it.
ALL'S WELL
We finally quit around noon, though gundog training continued at various locations around the facility. Lumi may have had more energy, but I was done. We stopped at one of the training stations to select two dead birds -- a duck and a pheasant -- and then we were on our way home. In the next few days, I'll see if I can get Lumi to retrieve either or both of the carcasses. That should be another interesting challenge, but she's already shown me that her issue for that training will be lack of interest, not fear.
As for gunfire, we only have one more chance to work at the same training site for the rest of the season, and that's next weekend. We'll be there, and once again we'll work on D&CC. But this time, we'll start at that pond in the woods with the clumps of reed, and the decoys scattered here and about.
Friday, March 2, 2007
Visit to Carol
Lumi and I saw Carol, her holistic vet, today. We covered the usual items of the visit -- acupuncture, chiropractic adjustments, laser therapy -- and also some new items.
BIG DOGS
I brought up the question of whether I was responsible for the degree of Lumi's arthritis (both hips and left wrist), and whether I had been negligent in having her arthritis diagnosed. Carol dismissed both ideas and pointed out all the things Lumi is doing right -- good diet, good weight, daily stretches, trained exercises, sports, supplements, regular vet, holistic vet, two orthopedists, three sets of hip X-rays, and two sets of forequarter X-rays already in Lumi's three years. Carol noted that it's difficult to keep a big performance dog sound. She must have run into questions like this before. She said that people with smaller dogs don't always seem to understand.
BACK TO THE FUTURE
Then Carol said that Lumi's wrist seems quite a bit better this month. To my surprise, she added that she doesn't think there's any reason Lumi should not resume both agility and freestyle, within limits. She suggested two areas of limitation.
First, she feels that I can rely on Lumi's behavior to choose freestyle moves and agility obstacles. Carol feels, based on a year and half's monthly visits with Lumi, that if Lumi doesn't want to do something, it's not likely to be motivation or a training issue, it's likely to be pain. Therefore, when Lumi shows avoidance of something, I should trust her. We know two things that Lumi has a history of avoiding: flip finishes on the left, and the teeter. But that doesn't rule out whole classes of other freestyle moves as I had surmised, nor all agility.
The other limitation is that Carol would like to see Lumi jump no higher than 16". Since Lumi stands 24-1/2" at the withers, that rules out AKC agility as far as I know, but I believe that NADAC and CPE would both have provisions for Lumi jumping at 16".
Cool, huh? Lumi can start doing agility again, and we also have a much wider palette of freestyle moves to work with than I had thought. We may eliminate more moves besides the flip finish to left heel in the future, but we'll do it based on observation rather than assumption. Soon we'll start coming up with a new routine for her.
As for agility, Carol had another suggestion I liked very much. Let's start with work on a single obstacle until our next visit. If Lumi's wrist is more painful at that time, we'll know what probably caused it. For me, the choice was between Lumi's two favorites, weaves or jumps. Given how hard the ground is these days, I decided to go with weaves. In a month, assuming all is still well, we'll add jumps for another month and then see where we are.
Well, that brings you up to date on Lumi's freestyle and agility. As for her other sports, here's a quick update.
SELECTING A TRACKING STYLE
Lumi's making great progress in FCI/Schutzhund-style tracking, and also in AKC-style, but IMO this can't go on. One day there will be no bait in the FCI track and Lumi won't be able to distinguish it from an AKC track. So except for one more AKC class in about two weeks, I think we've done all we're going to do with that style of tracking. I assume we'll eventually test for an AKC title or two, but we'll be working in FCI style.
REAL BIRDS, REAL GUNFIRE
Meanwhile, tomorrow is a big day for Lumi's field training, her first chance to be around real birds and real gunfire. Lumi and I have spent the last month doing D&CC with various loud noises, and she's fine with all of them now: she thinks they're recall cues.
Of course, gunfire is different, but something else Carol said makes me optimistic. It seems Carol's Berner is as scared of thunder as Lumi is, yet had not the slightest problem with gunfire the first time she heard it, and that was with a gun in her immediate vicinity. Carol thinks that dogs experience gunfire differently from thunderstorms and fireworks displays. No guarantees, but my fingers are crossed that Lumi has as easy time of it as Carol's Berner did.
BIG DOGS
I brought up the question of whether I was responsible for the degree of Lumi's arthritis (both hips and left wrist), and whether I had been negligent in having her arthritis diagnosed. Carol dismissed both ideas and pointed out all the things Lumi is doing right -- good diet, good weight, daily stretches, trained exercises, sports, supplements, regular vet, holistic vet, two orthopedists, three sets of hip X-rays, and two sets of forequarter X-rays already in Lumi's three years. Carol noted that it's difficult to keep a big performance dog sound. She must have run into questions like this before. She said that people with smaller dogs don't always seem to understand.
BACK TO THE FUTURE
Then Carol said that Lumi's wrist seems quite a bit better this month. To my surprise, she added that she doesn't think there's any reason Lumi should not resume both agility and freestyle, within limits. She suggested two areas of limitation.
First, she feels that I can rely on Lumi's behavior to choose freestyle moves and agility obstacles. Carol feels, based on a year and half's monthly visits with Lumi, that if Lumi doesn't want to do something, it's not likely to be motivation or a training issue, it's likely to be pain. Therefore, when Lumi shows avoidance of something, I should trust her. We know two things that Lumi has a history of avoiding: flip finishes on the left, and the teeter. But that doesn't rule out whole classes of other freestyle moves as I had surmised, nor all agility.
The other limitation is that Carol would like to see Lumi jump no higher than 16". Since Lumi stands 24-1/2" at the withers, that rules out AKC agility as far as I know, but I believe that NADAC and CPE would both have provisions for Lumi jumping at 16".
Cool, huh? Lumi can start doing agility again, and we also have a much wider palette of freestyle moves to work with than I had thought. We may eliminate more moves besides the flip finish to left heel in the future, but we'll do it based on observation rather than assumption. Soon we'll start coming up with a new routine for her.
As for agility, Carol had another suggestion I liked very much. Let's start with work on a single obstacle until our next visit. If Lumi's wrist is more painful at that time, we'll know what probably caused it. For me, the choice was between Lumi's two favorites, weaves or jumps. Given how hard the ground is these days, I decided to go with weaves. In a month, assuming all is still well, we'll add jumps for another month and then see where we are.
Well, that brings you up to date on Lumi's freestyle and agility. As for her other sports, here's a quick update.
SELECTING A TRACKING STYLE
Lumi's making great progress in FCI/Schutzhund-style tracking, and also in AKC-style, but IMO this can't go on. One day there will be no bait in the FCI track and Lumi won't be able to distinguish it from an AKC track. So except for one more AKC class in about two weeks, I think we've done all we're going to do with that style of tracking. I assume we'll eventually test for an AKC title or two, but we'll be working in FCI style.
REAL BIRDS, REAL GUNFIRE
Meanwhile, tomorrow is a big day for Lumi's field training, her first chance to be around real birds and real gunfire. Lumi and I have spent the last month doing D&CC with various loud noises, and she's fine with all of them now: she thinks they're recall cues.
Of course, gunfire is different, but something else Carol said makes me optimistic. It seems Carol's Berner is as scared of thunder as Lumi is, yet had not the slightest problem with gunfire the first time she heard it, and that was with a gun in her immediate vicinity. Carol thinks that dogs experience gunfire differently from thunderstorms and fireworks displays. No guarantees, but my fingers are crossed that Lumi has as easy time of it as Carol's Berner did.
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