Rally Obedience with Maggio

This past weekend I competed with Maggio at the APDT Rally Obedience trial hosted by Sit Happens! in Calgary. We needed one more leg in Level 3 to get his RL3 title - and it just had to be under a different judge than Tammy Brooks who we had already qualified twice under in the spring.

Funny thing, how this training and behavior stuff seems to Evolve without us realizing. I mean - I really did not train and practise much at all for this trial as I have felt pretty confident in our skills in regards to what's required for Level 3. I read through the exercise signs and did a couple of run throughs last week, feeling like "we've got this under control". I should be able to handle through the courses and we should be able to finsih (provided my ring nerves stay under control). But then, in the ring - a brand new problem was born. One that I didn't even know existed.

Our first round, under judge Sarah-Jane Petti - a round which WOULD have counted (had we qualified), resulted in an NQ due to a silly brain fart that took me completely by surprise. Stuff that just "happens" and left me confused about what really did happen? The brain fart moment caught me totally off guard and I was not prepared with a "plan" of how to handle it. Had I kept my brain on my head through it - I would have said to the judge "I would like to re-do this station"...taken a few steps back and re-done the station...thus resulting in deductions in points - but because of my choice to just keep trying on the spot without indicating I am re-doing - I had a Non Qualifying score. It was very messy and also pin-pointed a brand new problem to me: Maggio was totally confused about the similarity of the words "Stay" and "Stand". It had never happened before, but with so many position changes in a row in Rally and going from sit to down to stand and then sometimes leaving the dog with "stay" - I think everything just became a guessing game. He was honestly confused - and happily trying his best. Here is a video of this run:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtuKlYzl_08

I only did this one round on Saturday, went home for a "think", a glass of wine and a good sleep before returning back on Sunday. In my warm ups on Sunday I made a point of experimenting with what difference it made whether I used or dropped my hand-signal to "stay" simultaneously as I said "Stay" and whether I could really slur through the first letters in "st...." and really emphasize the "AY!" when I wanted him to STAY. as opposed to "Stand" when I tried to really enunciate every letter. With this somewhat comical plan I made it through the first half of the course pretty nicely....and then we ran into the same trouble again. Stay? or Stand? WHAT?

This time, though - I knew that I have to tell the judge clearly that I am re-doing...and re-do I did: a few times, before we got our stuff straight. Goodness gracious. We got through it but Now I REALLY had to come up with a Real plan.
Here is the video of this round: (which I call "warm up" as it is for the "wrong" judge, so even though we did qualify and had a score of 199, it did not count towards the title)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raIbgzziqtM


I now had a few hours before my final try. I drove off with Maggio, found a nice, big piece of grass in the city and over three little mini sessions set out to convince him that "WAIT" is the new "Stay". I had come to the conclusion that the frequent changes of position, similarity in words was just too confusing and without a new cue that would really sound distinctly different, I would be up for the same mess. Same hand signal, just a new word that is distinctly different than "Stand" to replace the old "Stay". This saved us in the last round. We got through. No big mess-ups, "Wait" worked and Maggio was happy to work. We lost some points to other mistakes and oopses, but with 6 months to wait until the next opportunity to try - I was happy with some loss of points - at least this counted: and Maggio finished his RL-3 title. Hooray!

A big Bison bone for Maggio in the car on the way home. A smile on my face. A couple of ribbons to add to our collection. One fourth placement and one third. But Mostly I returned home with a great feeling of gratitude for a dog who was so very happy to work. It felt like true teamwork and really fantastic to work together! He made me very proud. I hope he understood the many Thank yous I tried to convey last night. He's never asked to sign up in any trial - yet he's travelled this journey with me as a very willing and happy partner. What amazing creatures these dogs are!!!!

Breed-Ambassador Dressing up for Grad night

This is Davis - an American Staffordshire Terrier - one of the breeds that will often be lumped and labeled under the umbrella of "pit bull". Davis is a "Staffie" but more than that: he is a fantastic Breed Ambassador. I've had the great priviledge of having him in one of my recent Mutts and Manners classes. What an awesome dog! Fantastic with people and other dogs alike, one can only wish and hope that anyone with biases and prejudices against "pit bulls" would get to meet dogs like Davis.

So, I just had a burning desire to share that, and add a photo of the very Handsome Boy during the final class when he came "dressed up" for the occasion! Way to go! The bar has been raised! And congratulations Carla - job well done - he'll make you proud many times over yet!

Davis is taking Grad Night to new heights, arriving with "attire"! What a handsome boy!
Davis graduated from Mutts and Manners class last Thursday night.

Weekend walk in the Foothills

Sharing some photos from the weekend. We have been so lucky with the fall weather. People and dogs alike have been able to enjoy some amazing hikes and walks. Here we are out for an amazing outing with friends in the foothills south of Calgary.

Pinot checking back: "Are you coming?"

Tails and backs...dogs on a huge treasure hunt enjoying all kinds of interesting finds in the tall grasses.

Our friend Monty at full speed.

Pinot takes a break.



Maggio. "Mr Wags Unlimited" himself. A true portrait of never-ending happiness :-)



Alberta really is an amazingly beautiful province.



"This puppy can't do it!" or do we need to find better motivation?

Last night in Puppy Foundation Skills class we worked on a variety of Attention games and Focus. There were five pups in the group and for most of them it was week two or three in a very distracting environment! Quite often we'll have this conversation about the need to find something (usually food or toy) that Puppy really likes that we can use to reinforce (reward) the behaviors we like and are working on. Without something that the puppy truly cares about, the "training" can easily become an exercise in frustration and can understandably seem like a battle that can't be won. It can totally seem like "This puppy can't or won't do it!" I've often heard people sigh in frustration and say "My puppy is just too distracted!"

If that seems to be the case - (usually) there is nothing wrong with the puppy. There is just an imbalance between what the owner is using as a "reward" and a very stimulating environment that seems very enticing and inviting (puppy mates to potentially get to play with?!!!) Unless we really take care too look for something that the puppy TRULY values - why would a baby animal automatically "know" what is wanted or asked of him and choose to turn to a person with "mediocre" rewards?

Quite often we have this idea that any food should do - any puppy should work for any kind of cookie or any kind of toy in any kind of environment. After all - we gave the puppy SOMETHING, right? Shouldn't that be enough?

Something pretty cool happened last night that illustrates just how big a difference the choice of reinforcement (reward) can make.

I had been keeping an eye on one of our newest members of the class, observing and hearing from the handler how distracted her puppy was; unable to focus. I was sensing some frustration growing. I asked if I could borrow the puppy for a moment to demonstrate the next exercise (a baby heeling/ attentive leash walking exercise).

After quickly establishing that the puppy was comfortable being with me, I held the leash handle in my hand and simply waited for the puppy to acknowledge me. After a short moment, the puppy offered a quick head turn in my direction...I praised her up and said "YES!" and smiling warmly at the puppy I pulled out some string cheese to reward this voluntary check-in. She ate her cheese slowly as if wondering about it - and went out to the end of the leash to strain toward another puppy and see if she would get to go play. I didn't let her get to the puppy but stood still again waiting for her to check back with me...waited a little longer this time...and eventually she looked back in my direction. I again told her "YES!" and offered another piece of string cheese. Same lukewarm reaction from her. She ate the cheese but not with the kind of gusto that comes from true enjoyment. A few more repetitions of the same....each time it seemed to take a little longer before she checked back with me and between each repeptition there seemed to be more straining away and more sniffing of the floor. I was now looking for plan B as I was running out of cheese and thinking "This is not really working".

After the on-leash version (described in text) is well established,
it is not such a big step to remove the leash and continue to
work the puppy off-leash. By giving the rewards right next to your body
you start to convince the puppy that this is indeed a "magical
place" and they start to show up beside your leg more and
more and more...

So I re-loaded my pocket with some freeze dried liver instead. My demo-Puppy could immediately smell the difference and what a shift in attitude we got to witness! All of a sudden I had a puppy looking up to me, offering gorgeous attention, and when praised and told "YES!" she was snarfing up her liver with GUSTO!  and very quickly re-orienting to me yet again and again... as if continually asking "Is this what you want? This? What about this? And this too?"
We started exactly the same as before. I stood still, just waiting for her to look in my direction. When she did, I told her "YES!" smiling and offering her a piece of liver or two. It only took seconds before she simply would not look away, she would not leave my side! She just stood there beside me looking into my face and eyes. That is the first step. When that was established, I would start to move. One or two steps. Was puppy following? YES! she was! So again I would verbally praise her up, tell her YES! and pull out a piece of liver and reward right next to my pant leg (in the location I want the dog to walk for nice polite walking-beside). It was a beautiful sight and this puppy had in a matter of minutes transformed from "too distracted to focus" to a focus-machine...looking for ways to earn more reinforcement!

There was no magic to this - the importance lies in Understanding what happened and how it impacts your dog's ability to learn and focus and be motivated to work. What we use as "rewards" are only reinforcing to the dog if the DOG sees them as true rewards and WANTS them! Sometimes we simply have to experiment and try different things! Like with my demo puppy. We learned something about what she truly finds valuable yesterday.

People who really get hooked on dogs sports have usually
also been very successful at developing a nice repertoire of
"top rewards". Big effort = Big reward. Everyone is happy,
and the dog loves the continual challenges presented.

In this puppy's case the difference between "too distracted and not interested in training" and a "learning machine" involved a switch from something we "think" should be a reward: cheese (which is something many dogs looove - but this puppy felt lukewarm about) or the dry dog bisquits the owner had been trying to use (which clearly were not of high enough value) to something we let her tell us she WANTS: dried liver.

It's really no different than motivating people when you think about it. One of my mentors and teachers, Chris Bach (The Third Way) illustrated this to me with a very memorable example. Let's say you have a job where there are big performance bonuses paid out in event tickets. You are a hockey fan and really don;t care for the Opera at all, but your boss at work insisted on paying your performance bonus in tickets to go see the Opera. How "rewarding" would you find that? How long would you continue to work in that kind of situation? Would it seem like it's worth your while?

But if your boss now had a conversation with you about your wants and desires and you could tell him you'd really prefer tickets to hockey games instead - and he started to give you wonderful tickets to your favorite hockey teams' games...now, wouldn't that change things? All of a sudden you would feel like you were heard and had great motivation to work!

So, for our dogs - whom we do not have the ability to converse with like that...we need to find out in different ways. It's worth doing some experimentation with and can be a discovery as simple as what we had in class. Or it might take some time and effort to really find out.
Sometimes the top reinforcers will change, too. So keep experimenting and try different things! Also switch things up. The more highly-sought-after rewards you know you have in the repertoire to use, the easier the journey will be! What are your dog's favorite "tickets"? What is going to help motivate him so that he goes from "Too distracted to work" or "mediocre response" to that "WITH GUSTO and brilliance!" response?!



Working for....Praise or Food or checking to see what you've got first?

Making eye contact is a Foundation Skill we work a lot on in

the "Adolescent Mutts and Manners" Program. It teaches

several important lessons:

1. it teaches the dog to focus on the handler's FACE, not hands

2. it teaches the dog a lot about impulse control around food;

IE; just because we have food here,

does not mean it is automatically available and

3. it becomes a really wonderful connection tool for the human being;

there is hardly anything that is more "warm and fuzzy" than a dog

looking lovingly up into your eyes.

Eye contact builds wonderful connection!

Continuing on the topic from last time What happened to praise. There are a few things that can happen if we start to rely too much on the use of food (or toys) and also more specifically if we use those as "bribes" instead of "consequences" or not thinking about WHAT we are actually rewarding with the food. So maybe rather - if we are using food in non-effective ways.

I think all of us have seen the dog that comes when called - arrives at the handlers HANDS, checking/ smelling for food - and when finding none, he takes off again. How frustrating!

Another thing I see and hear complaints over very often in classes, is what we can call the "One-cookie Syndrome". This is something handlers create by only ever rewarding their dogs with One Cookie. The dog comes, gets his One Cookie and nothing more...and so he runs off again. Each time he comes to the handler, he is rewarded - but with one, very predictable cookie. And so it won't be long before the dog figures out that opportunities for praise/ rewards/ treats end with the first cookie, and so he starts to believe that after the one cookie, he is definitely free to run off again.

This is Currie. Another Manners class participant who

mastered the Eye contact game beautifully.

Attention starts here, this is a very powerful and useful game!

The third thing that often happens in conjunction with, or after these two are already in place, is that the handler - now wanting to prevent the running off - starts to grab the dog's collar as soon as the dog gets to them. I have seen many a student in classes do this with much rehearsed precision, incredible timing and speed; diving over the dog's head with a lightning-fast motion that captures the dog before he has time to think about making a decision about whether to stay or go. And thus, with this new capture-the-dog technique, we have created a new phenomenon: the Keep-Away-Dog.

So, as with so many things; one thing leads to another and before we know it, we have a whole host of new dilemmas to deal with.

Here's a simple little test you can do right now with your dog to see how much he values verbal praise or if you need to start to think about How you reward/ reinforce your dog and whether you are using food effectively.

Take a container with some yummy treats and place them up on a table/ counter next to you when your dog is in a different area of the house. Now, call your dog. When your dog comes to you - do NOT use the treats to reinforce him with immediately, but shower him with lavish praise. If he likes to be petted, give him behind-the-ear scratches, chest scratches and bum rubs- all the while praising him up like he's just done something amazing. Does he happily stay with you, soaking up the praise? Is he willingly letting you grab and let go of his collar? If you can keep him with you, fully connecting for about 20-30 seconds - THEN reach into the container of treats, take out a few (as in 5-6, Not just one!) and give them, one-at-a-time in a slow succession...all the while continuing to praise. If you pause between these treats, and only use verbal praise - where is his focus? On your face where the wonderful words came from, or your hands - where the cookies came from? If you now take a few steps away from him...does he follow you? and if so, where is his focus: on your hands or on your face?

When you are done with this interaction, next put the cookies in your pocket and take the same show on the road next time you can safely let him off leash outside. Same response? Different? What happens?

This is my Dear boy, Maggio who is excellent at
offering eye contact and asking
the question: "Is this what you want?"

This little interaction will tell you a lot about where your dog's focus is and where you have taught him to find his reinforcement. A lot of scenarios can play out. If he didn't care about you calling him at all, obviously that says something about his recall and ability to come when called. Maybe the rewards are too much in the environment and really not enough with you at all?
If he came, but could smell the cookies on the counter/ or in your pocket and was obsessed with how to get to the cookies instead of caring about your praise - that shows you an area that can be improved upon!

If he came, took his cookie and started to dash away from you...you know you need to keep him engaged for longer periods of time. It's the one-cookie-syndrome thing. Try really hard to draw out your reward sequence...starting with verbally praising your dog up, then rewarding in multiples to keep him engaged, all the while continuing to Smile and use your warm, verbal praise.

If you get way more focus on your hands than your face - this tells you where your dog has learned the reinforcement comes from.
One of my favorite things to teach dogs is the "Eye Contact Game" - but even beyond teaching it formally: NOTICE when your dog is connecting with your eyes! Notice when he checks in and seeks out your eyes! Smile back and tell him how much you love him for it! Don't wit until you have no connection to try to get it - but notice when you have it, and use your best, warmest verbal praise accompanied by a warm smile to tell your dog what a great choice you think that is!
There really is no better feeling than a dog frequently looking up into your eyes, as if asking "Is this what you want?"

What happened to Praise?

We've come a long way in dog training when it comes to Methods and How we train and motivate our dogs to perform.

I know - corrections and heavy handed methods are sadly still out there and in use - but there is a shift in thinking and there seems to be more awareness and interest in exploring dog friendly techniques. At least I want to believe so.

Annette and Maggio in a Rally'O trial.

One of the main things really setting Rally'O

apart from traditional obedience is the ability

for the handler to talk and use verbal praise

even in the ring, during the performance.

In this movement toward more friendly and "positive" training, there is one development that I am not particularly fond of. I will tell you what I am referring to - and then you can judge for yourself if you have ever seen this or maybe if you are seeing any of this in your own training?!                                                           The question is "What happened to Praise"?

Those who have attended classes with me or seen me work my own dogs, will know that the clicker IS a tool I have in my tool box. I *do* find it a hugely valuable tool and for some tasks: especially those requiring very specific timing to teach, such as precise movements, the clicker is invaluable. But at the same time - I do not find it a Be all - End all tool.

I also "get it" when clients struggle to keep track of dog, leash, treats/ or toy/ listening to instructions, let alone trying to put it all together. Sometimes it's just too much to add a clicker - and I see better results when we remove it and focus on Just Training.

In serious circles of "Clicker Trainers", timing and juggling of multiple tools is second nature and does not, of course, cause issues with not having enough hands. The mechanics seem to flow seamlessly and the sequence of click, treat is rythmic and precise, and the click captures Just the right behavior. Every time. Progress is fast. In many ways it is beautiful.

But here is what often bothers me when watching some Clicker Trainers (both skilled and not so skilled) work: the mechanics and concentration on flow is so overpowering and "sterile" it leaves no room for verbal praise! There's often reference to the need to completely isolate the click from anything else, to remain objectively neutral while training. The dog, when "clicker savvy", should "work to hear the click".

When a dog understands the sequence of click=always means a reinforcer is imminent, the dog may indeed be "working for the click" but it seems as if, in the process of picking up the clicker, the trainer has forgotten about verbal praise?! In attempts to keep the click completely salient and clean, so much concentration goes toward it - that the trainer becomes a quiet robot, not ever verbally connecting with their dog, not praising or celebrating the progress made! I find this very sad.

Again - I like the clicker for a lot of things. I use it. But even more than I like the mechanics of a tool, I LOVE what happens when we reach a milestone in training and people happily exclaim "YES!" (treat) "YES!" (treat) "YES!" (treat) and continue on with a long sequence of "What a good boy/ girl/ What a clever puppy! GOOD CHOICE! That was amazing! Good boy!" A dog that finds value in praise and social connection with people, will turn into a wiggly-tail-wag of joy. I find THAT a true pleasure to watch.

I think verbal praise is extremely important and find it very sad it often seems forgotten in striving for "clean training mechanics". Using the clicker as a tool has its place in training, so does food, so do toys. Let's just not forget about Praise! It's something you will always have with you, something hopefully your dog will have come to value and see as Important.

Next time I will suggest a simple little test you can do to see whether you are remembering to also use verbal PRAISE to reward your dog or if you are relying too much on food? There is a simple thing you can do to find out...the dog will tell you :-) But I will save that for next time.