E-mailed this to Clicker Solutions today.
Something I would love to have some constructive critisim on . Baron naturally developed grabbing a toy when I told him to "Bring it to me". It amazes me and I want to fine tune this. We started out playing fetch together and it was a way for me to teach him to fetch. He use to love chasing after balls and toys and would go after them, grab them but never come back to me with it. It made for a boring game of fetch for sure. Well after reading advice I saw here I developed the rules of fetch to be if I throw it and you don't bring it back the game has ended. Baron started to bring it back to me after a while but would drop the toy a good foot or two from me. My rules were, bring it to me not drop it a foot from me so I would point at it and I would tell him "Bring it to me". After a few times he started actually picking up the toy and handing it to me!
Last week he took a new toy we bought him and carried it out to the dog kennel outside when he went potty and left the toy there. I told him him "Bring me your toy" and amazing, he went to the kennel and brought back the toy! Ok so this maybe a fluke but I decided that this is an amazing skill and I want to actually put it to work so I've started working with him on it.
So far I've decided that "Bring it to me" is too wordy and I've started with the cue of pointing at the object. I'm not 100% sure what I want the ultimate goal to be. I think I would like two goals from this. 1) I want to point to an object and he pick it up and give it to me and 2) tell him to "Grab ___ (your ball)" or "Grab my house shoes"
My current rules are
1) He has to hand the object to me.
2) He must bring it straight to me. (No running around with it for example)
Here is a video of us working on "Grab it"
So my question to everyone is
1) What cues / tricks can I develop this into?
2) Should I work this into a verbal cue and if so what ? I was thinking of adding the verbal cue "Grab it" later but I wonder how well this would work if I want to use it with multiple objects.
3) Any other suggestions on training / developing this?
Hi Lisa,
ReplyDeleteIt nice to see you and Baron back again. There are so many things you can do with a retrieve. You'll get plenty of ideas about that. I'm going to take you up on your invitation for suggestions for the training. I'm not a professional but have trained a nice informal retrieve to hand with two dogs and am familiar with a lot of the standard methods. I have three suggestions.
1) Remember the thing about not putting a cue on until the behavior is consistent and just how you want it? That goes for hand signals, too. So after you point, everything he does after that is getting reinforced when you click at the end of the chain. Including his hesitancy at the beginning. Also the fact that he is not really delivering it to your hand; you are reaching for it. This isn't a finished behavior, so you don't want the pointing cue to solidify it. Plus, to me (sorry to say it again), he looks stressed. I wonder if he is confused about whether the point is supposed to override the "sit" cue as well. Here is a suggestion. Don't ask him to sit. Don't point. Just drop the toy. He seems to have quite a bit of a natural retrieve and I bet you anything he will pick it up. Do you see the eagerness at the end when you throw the toy for him? That's the eagerness you want when he retrieves for you. And I think you can get it if you give him some more freedom.
2) Set lower criteria at the beginning. Now that you have dropped the cue, you can click approximations. With some dogs you have to click for sniffing the toy, touching the toy, mouthing, etc. With his natural retrieve he is farther along with that, but he doesn't know yet that it is going to be his job to bring it to your hand. Be very disciplined about your own behavior and do everything you can to get him to target your hand with the toy. Help him at first, but gradually get him to do more of the work.
3) Be careful what you click. Most of the time in the video you are clicking when he lets go of the toy or even after. That pretty much guarantees that you are teaching him to drop it. This is why a lot of people start the retrieve (especially for formal obedience) by teaching the dog to hold something for a duration before ever letting them pick it up. Here's a method that reflects that: http://www.shirleychong.com/keepers/retrieve.html
When I taught my dogs, I just wanted them to get it to my hand so I started this method around Step 10, skipping the hold. But whatever you do, once he is getting it to your hand, click when it hits your hand and his mouth is still on it, not after he lets go.
I've enjoyed your videos today on CS and I agree that Baron seems lots more relaxed and happy now. And he is a really smart fellow. He'll be a joy to train.
eileenanddogs
Hi Eileen!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment. I received this via. e-mail and responded there but it didn't post but I hope you received it.
I think you are right about the stressed part now that I'm watching and I think it's a good idea for me to take a step back from this as formal training and just keep it up as play for a while , while I think about how I can do this.
:) Thanks for pointing it out and for the tips! Once I think we are ready to approach this behavior again formally I hope I'll be a better trainer and can put together a better plan of action.