[nagdu] Clicker training

[Julie J.]

Sure blind people can use clicker training.   I think sighted people say 
that blind people can't use it because we can't do clicker in exactly the 
same way as sighted people.  For example when I was training my last guide, 
Belle, I was working with a sighted trainer.  She insisted that the very 
first thing I had to teach the dog was eye contact.  I was supposed to click 
and treat each time she looked at me.  then I was supposed to increase the 
distance and reward for looking at me from across the room.  I'm sure you 
can see the problems with this plan.  It's impractical, but even more so, 
it's useless.  Never in my work with my guide dog am I going to use this eye 
contact behavior.  It makes no sense to teach useless behaviors.

So then I found an email list for blind and visually impaired people who 
were using clicker training.  I quit trying to use clicker training like a 
sighted person.  I evaluated what exactly I wanted to accomplish, which was 
getting my dog's attention.  I didn't need eye contact to get her attention. 
I could accomplish that through a different behavior.  I taught her to touch 
her nose to two of my extended fingers when I asked her to do so.  I could 
very easily teach this behavior because I have no difficulty knowing when 
she is touching my hand.

Once you understand this part of clicker training you can apply it to any 
situation where you want to teach the dog something.  Stop thinking in 
sighted terms.  Dig deep to uncover what it is specifically that you are 
trying to accomplish.  Be creative in identifying solutions that will 
accomplish this goal that will work for you and then just do it.

As long as you are working directly with your dog, typical of guide dogs, 
you should be able to come up with workable blindness alternatives.  the 
only areas I've encountered that I haven't been able to come up with great 
solutions are when I am a distance away from my dog.  Generally I work close 
to my dogs and increase distance slowly to be sure that the behavior is 
really reliable.  For a typical guide dog there is little to nothing they 
need to do from a distance anyway, so this challenge doesn't really matter.

Tami summed up the basic mechanics of clicker training very well.  The click 
means the dog did something you wanted at that precise moment.  Each click 
earns a reward, usually food.  There are more advanced concepts like 
successive approximations, variable reinforcement and the like, but the core 
of clicker training is that click means the dog did something you wanted and 
that a reward is coming.

HTH




-----Original Message----- 
From: Leye-Shprintse
Sent: Thursday, July 18, 2013 8:39 AM
To: nagdu at nfbnet.org
Subject: [nagdu] Clicker training

BS"D

Hello,

What I understand some guide dog schools in Northern America use clicker 
training to train their dogs and the method are taught to their students 
during training. In Sweden, we do't use it since blind persons can't use 
this method of training. I wonder if someone has the time to tell me how it 
works, how do you use this method and when? As an example, can you use it 
when you work the dog in harness, when the dog shall 'find the 
stairs/kerb/lamppost'? Thank you for taking the time to read this!

Kind regards,
Leye-Shprintse Öberg
Sweden

Courriel : leyeshprintse at ymail.com

Envoyé de mon iPad
_______________________________________________
nagdu mailing list
nagdu at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nagdu_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for nagdu:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nagdu_nfbnet.org/julielj%40neb.rr.com


-----
No virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 2012.0.2242 / Virus Database: 3204/5999 - Release Date: 07/17/13