Loving the bells

Hmmm. In our first session tonight, E was touching the target dot behind the bells but when he'd also touch the bell, it would jingle and he'd panic and run away from it. Next training session, he was trying hard to avoid that bell. Uh oh. That's not what we want.

I gave him some "easy wins" and ended the session to think about this some more.

Tonight I realized I needed to help him love the bells by taking them off the door, going into a different room, and teaching him to target them while they're on the floor. So I sat down in a quiet room with some GOOD treats, and he expressed concern that the Evil Bells were there. I went slowly. I handled them in such a way that they only made a little noise, put them down on the carpet, and let him smell my hand. See? That's what bells smell like, OK?

We started the targeting exercise, and by now he knows the game and is moving into it quickly. He'd look at them. I'd C/T. Then I went for the gold. I put little pieces of cheese near the bells. He gobbled them up as I clicked. I put one ON the bell. He gingerly took it as I clicked. I took about 6 little pieces of cheese and tucked them around the bells so he'd have to stick his nose right in there to get them, touching the bells with his nose. He was starting to like this.

I could see his attitude changing. We made good progress and I was running out of the cheese so we stopped, I praised and rubbed him down, and went to the kitchen to reload. (He was also getting tiny cat food bits, and small dog kibbles. I save the cheese bit for a high level of performance, like actually touching the bells).

We went back and I put the bells on the ground again. He seemed spooked again, so we backed up-- a C/T for just looking at the bells. After a few of those, he was off and running again, giving me some really good pushes on those bells. His fear of making them jingle seemed gone. He even whacked 'em with his paw once, good and hard. He got a jackpot for that.

I used the relative value of the treats to communicate my level of pleasure with his performance. A touch resulting in a jingle would definately warrant a cheese treat, and maybe more than one depending on the intensity of the hit. A nose-touch to the thick cord would just get a lower value cat-food bit. He was doing very well!

We took another break. I wanted to evolve to holding the cord in my hand, dangling the bells down so they were hanging. I'm starting to emulate the position they have on the doorknob.

Again, he started out concerned, so we backed up a few steps and "warmed up". Again, he progressed quickly. He was consistently nosing them and making them jingle a bit.

Another break.

This time, I moved the bells to my other hand. He didn't like that. But again, after a brief warm up, he was back in the game. By now, the other dogs were losing their patience and starting to scratch on the door and complain. He was getting distracted so I found a good successful touch, and ended the session with lots of praise and scratches.

After the session, I took him out and he immediately relieved himself. When a dog is eating treats like this, especially when combined with the pressure of a few training sessions, it will usually make him have to go. By the way, it's important to make sure you potty your dog before you start a session, too, so you don't have a dog who is distracted because he kinda has to go.

I did "therapy dog work" at Stanford Hospital when I lived it the Bay Area, and a team of us would go in and give dog visits on a floor for about an hour. We would of course "empty" our dogs before going in, so you'd think they'd be fine. Without fail, as soon as we'd leave we'd head for the grass and all the dogs would have to go. And go. And go. Even though they enjoy the therapy dog work, the pressure of it seems to stimulate the other body functions and I think this applies to any kind of training session. So keep that in mind, if your dog's been concentrating and working hard for you, give him a bio break afterward.

We have one family coming to visit E this weekend. We'll see if it's a good match!

The different elements of a behavior

It's helpful to think of any behavior as having the following elements:

Distraction in the environment (birds chirping, traffic noise) or in the dog (stress)
Distance (how far away from you can he be and still obey the command? How far can he carry the tennis ball?)
Duration (how many seconds or minutes can he do it?)
Intensity (how hard does he have to push the jingle bells to get them to ring?)
Speed (how quickly does he perform the behavior?)

When we talk about "raising the bar" on a behavior, the truth is that we've got 5 bars, each with their own range of difficulty. So we have to be careful to only raise the criterion of one bar at a time, and when we do, we temporarily relax our requirements for the other ones. Once the new criterion is solidly established, we then work on getting those other elements back where they were. Generally, we want to shape the element of speed last. We want to get the other stuff right before we ask the dog to speed things up.

These concepts apply to all learning situations, by the way, this is not just about dog training. So if you want to improve your golf swing, work on one aspect of it and give yourself a break on the other elements of it while you're learning the new part.

Studying this stuff is fun, it's fascinating, and its immensely applicable in life.