Fun and Games

Since this is a public blog and I'm not sure who exactly is reading, I thought I'd include a few definitions of the behavior terms I use at the bottom. Mother mentioned to me when we met with Dr. Alice Moon-Fanelli it seemed like she and I were speaking another language. Smiles.

My dad and I play catch in the house with hackey sacks. Tom was around while we were playing and got incorporated into the game. He'd pick up the ball if the person nearest him dropped it. For Michael in particular, who likes to sit on the loveseat, it was a great use of the dog. He'd get Tom to drop it. I tried to explain, unsuccessfully, that Tom's cue for dropping an object is "thank you" which Michael didn't quite get. For a while Michael's behavior chain was: take ball from Tom, gooooood boy, thank you. The ideal would be: thank you, Tom drops ball in hand, gooooood boy. But Michael did get the marker word (good boy) or "praise" in so that's a plus. I'm pretty sure Michael caught on by the end. Mainly it was my fault in not explaining it well enough. Tom thought it was fun. He caught a few of the balls and leaped into the air for some of them. Tom likes to take prizes into the living room and sometimes fetch in the house breaks down when Tom's urge to take the object into the living room overrides the behavior chain and the reward at the end. We also used his "take it" command. Michael repeats commands and uses other words and snapping quite a bit. It actually did seem to help Tom and redirect him.

Niko was in the area and wanted treats too. I gave him some for sitting, with the criteria, paws on the ground, no clawing.

I had a training session earlier in the day. Niko went first and we worked on some sitting and also name response which he thought was fun. I've done some of that with him before. Then a little targeting. I used a hackey sack because that was around. I should really pick an object, maybe a pencil, and stick with it. I also tried to tempt Niko to get on the piano with minimal luring and he wasn't interested in my cheddar cheese and lept down pretty quickly.

In Tom's training session I worked some more on the cell phone. It started out quite well with me leaving it on the floor and working on other stuff and known tricks and throwing in a "take it" every now and then. That was in an attempt to have the cue for the cell phone pick up to be something other than the cell phone being in sight. I worked a little on collar desensitizing. I really need to read the section in Control Unleashed to get some ideas. I was thinking I'd work on it by reaching for his collar and clicking standing still or moving towards me but I've gotten a little sloppy. And if he turns his head toward my hand that's not really what I want. because it's harder to grab a collar when you have a nose in your hand. So then I worked on the cell phone trick with the ringer. We had a few good pick-ups, then he let it go through one ring cycle without getting it. I did a few where I told him to "take it" after the ringing started. But I started to fail because I have to set the phone up to get it to ring and stop interacting with him and that's less interesting. Maybe I could come up with a game where I hide behind a door with him in a stay and call him, which would give me time to set the phone up and make it less boring for him. I also worked on some comes. I've changed my cue word and had some fun using it only when he was already coming towards me. And then running to hide in the closet and behind the bathroom door. It didn't take long for him to keep following wherever I went, tail wagging.

I think more cat counter-conditioning is in order. Opal's been lunging after Niko. I'm pretty sure she initiates it but I could be wrong. I haven't seen Tom do anything other than follow Opal's lead since I've been back. I have the nasty habit of yelling at them which I'm sure doesn't help. Me thinks I need to train myself to do an incompatible behavior, i.e. be silent.

Definitions:
behavior chain- a series of behaviors that an animal does to get one reward. Example. Fetch which includes chase after ball, pick it up, carry it back to person, and drop it in their hand. In clicker training the behavior chain is usually taught backwards (a process called backchaining). I taught Tom to drop the ball in my hand first and then to bring it from farther away.

marker word- a word, often "yes" or "good" that tells the animal the moment when they're doing what they're getting the reward for.

cue- the word positive trainers use instead of command. The difference being that a command means "do this or else" and a cue means "this is your opportunity to do the behavior and I'll pay you for it". Ideally the animal wants to work with you and the cue is the invitation, not a threat.