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.