So, here's something that's been on my mind lately (dog training related of course): Conditioned Reinforcers. A conditioned reinforcer is something your dog finds reinforcing which has no intrinsic value of its own. Some things that come to mind are hand targeting, spinning, leg weaves... whatever you can think of! I look for things I can condition to be reinforcing that I can use in the ring (where toys are cookies are not allowed). A friend of mine has conditioned "Pansy wave" - her dog loves it! (Okay, so do I - it's darn cute!)
Why is this so good? When I'm in the obedience ring, I can't talk to my dog during exercises (except to give the first command). If my dog starts to get stressed, wonders why I've gone silent (never mind the whole can't breath in the ring thing), and thinks maybe she's wrong - that's just not good. If I can do a conditioned reinforcer in between exercises, I help my dog to feel good about the ring, confident and ready for the next thing. Andi particularly likes to jump to a hand target. It takes no time, the judges don't get unhappy about us wasting time in the ring and my dog is smiling when we set up for the next exercise. She knows she's right and I'm happy with her. BETTER than cookies!
Okay Jade, just to prove I was paying attention, I put in a picture with Graci's favorite conditioned reinforcer - a hug and a kiss! But how do I turn it around? :-) You'll all have to be patient with my learning curve here!
Awesome blog entry! I'm reading When Pigs Fly right now and she definitely talks about this a lot. Makes complete sense to me!
ReplyDeleteRuss' favourite is spin. Marco likes hug. Heidi likes paddy-bum (not that she wants that shared on the internet)!
Welcome to the world of blogging! Good subject - I love this type of training reminder to connect with my dog between exercises.
DeleteAh, today is a frustrated day. What happens when "solid" behaviors become confusing? Two days before a trial. I see a lot of people who enter the trial anyway - after all - they paid for it! That's true, but I've never seen everything "fall back into place" in a ring environment. If the dog is confused at training, they're not likely to become unconfused at a trial!
ReplyDeleteAndi and I were at a trial in Vernon last weekend. Just as we set up for directed jumping, something caught her eye a little left of center. I couldn't get her to look where I wanted her to so when I sent her she went over the jump first (NQ) then went to her "go back" location. Le sigh. That wouldn't be a big deal except that since I couldn't remind her of where she's supposed to go in the ring, she decided that must be fine then. And since she loves to jump, it would be way more fun to jump and go to center, then come back over the jump again. More jumps is always better, right?
Now, we're facing another trial at EKKOC. But she's stressing (whining, lip licking) when we set up in front of the jumps. She's not sure what she's supposed to be doing. Looks like we won't be playing this weekend. I just don't want to set my dog up for failure. Oh well. There are always more trials.
And a plan to fix it? Of course! There's always a way to fix problems! We're going back to targets on the go back for a while. And I think I'll teach her to "mark", the way they do for Utility exercises in the US. They put out three gloves, "mark" the one they want the dog to take and the dog retrieves that one. That should be fun!
My biggest stress? Seeing stress in my dog when she's working. She's a fabulous worker and wants to be right. We'll get there again Andi, don't worry!