flyingduster

I can sometimes have an inclination to use my clicker like a remote control, and *point* it when I click (duh!) now I *KNOW* better, but it still happens at times! lol. Paris is also sometimes inclined to throw anything at me and watches for my hand movement either for the click or when I move to the food or to feed her, rather than paying attention to what I'm clicking.

So my trainer suggested an exercise to help us; teaching Paris to put her head inside a bucket! Both to give us something rather unimportant to teach (we can screw it up and it won't really affect our competitive training), as well as teaching Paris to LISTEN for the click better (she can't see me moving if her head is inside a bucket!)

So I had a quiet day at work on friday, and within a few mins we had it down nicely, though I've yet to add very *much* duration to it, we'll work on that another day.


it's silly, but incredibly cute when her big fluffy head disappears inside a bucket, so I had to share!!!! And hey, might be useful to play about with for anyone else having similar problems... or for someone bored. LOL!

Birdie

Hahahah! Looks like fun! I think I'll try this with Desmond.
Oh, and I lol'd at the end when you realized she'd been licking the bucket... hahaha! Classic Paris! (:

MericoX

Nice!!
How'd you get her to put her head in the bucket in the first place?

amerique2

I'm having fun, fun, fun watching these videos you've posted. Paris has got it down.

Now for a question---I was reading a book by Karen Pryor's and she mentions that eventually you only reward them with food randomly, so they don't expect a treat every time. I'd like to train with food and clicker but don't want Rebel to only do what he's supposed to do when there is food involved. How do you transition? Do they eventually obey on command without the clicker and without the food? The obedience instructor I'm now going to doesn't use food as a motivator because he says that you don't want them only obeying for a food reward. Help me understand, please.

flyingduster

MericoX, Paris is already very adept at figuring out shaping behaviours, the context is me sitting in a chair with clicker & treats, which is essentially her cue to start throwing behaviours at me. So when I put the bucket down she immediately went to look at it, which got clicked. She tried hitting it a couple of times with her front feet but with that being ignore she went back to sniffing it, which got clicked. Every time she got clicker she'd pop her head back up for her treat, and drop her head back down to look; just like in the first bit of the movie. I just kept up a really rapid-fire series of click & treat for her trying to sniff at the bucket. She was pretty sure there might be something inside the bucket so she was quite happy to stick her head inside it just to check, and that got a jackpot (treat, treat, treat, treat. Rapid fire one after the other with no clicks in between). Paris is smart, she literally took about 30 seconds before she was sticking her head inside the bucket happily.


For when I'm TRAINING something, I use the clicker and treats a LOT. It really is such a fast accurate way to train things! Once it's *trained* I use various other rewards (a simple "YES!!" [instead of the click, as I certainly don't have my clicker on me at all times!] and play, a tug game, chasing a ball, bouncing on the spot, whatever makes her go 'YAY!') Paris LOOOOOVES to bounce and be silly, she also adores to run, so they in themselves are rewards for being good too!

I use food to train things initially as they are faster and easier to use is all.

amerique2

Thanks for the info, FD. I'm starting to understand. Think my Rebeldog would benefit from that training since he's VERY food motivated! Will get me a clicker and let you know how it goes. Keep your videos coming!!!

neVar

now you just gotta get her blowing bubbles in there

neVar

FD- this is a great video BTW for showing how shaping with the clicker works i'm passing on to some students!

JoeyLondon

Oh, wow! I LOOOVE Paris' haircut, and the pink is so awesome and cute. Double wow. What a gorgeous girl. I showed your video to my fiance, and I think it's why he finally said, "Yes. You can get a poodle." He's citing my persistence, but I think you and Paris were the tipping point.

lisasgirl

Yeah, once the dog has it down pretty well, where they're performing the behavior just how you want it using the treats, then you start to phase out the treats. You can do like she does with Paris and substitute click/treat for other rewards. You can also just start giving him treats for doing it a little less often. Like every third or fourth time Rebel does the trick you give him praise or something in place of a treat.

As you start to hold off on treats more and more often, then every now and then you give him a jackpot of treats (like, lots and lots of awesome treats at once). Basically, Rebel never knows when he's going to get something amazing. After a while you can just about phase out the treats completely.

Does that make sense? I'm not sure if I worded it in a way that makes sense.