[nagdu] Clicker for scavenging

Thu Jul 2 22:03:50 UTC 2015

hello,
scavenging is my dog's main fault.  He is very food oriented.  I am hoping some one from our school will be at conventioon.
Mary

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jul 2, 2015, at 1:30 PM, Tami Jarvis via nagdu <nagdu at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Tracy,
> 
> The hand touch is the key to power! Using the clicker or a verbal marker along with something rewarding enough to compete with what is on the ground will also take you a long way. You may also want to teach Krokus zen along with touch.
> 
> Zen is where you hold a treat in your closed hand and ignore the dog while he pokes and paws at it. As soon as the dog looks away, open your hand to release the treat. Repeat until the dog starts to understand that ignoring the hand will result in reward. Then you can start waiting longer to release the treat. You can also extend the exercise by putting the treat under your flattened palm on the floor or the coffee table or whatever and take it as far as leaving a treat uncovered in plain view while the dog waits for permission to take it. Using a clicker or verbal marker also helps.
> 
> For touch, I fold two fingers and my thumb over the treat and hold out the other two for the touch. Then the treat is right there. Once the dog gets it, I use the hand signal but leave the treat in my pocket to give in a more leisurely manner. Sometimes I'll return to holding the treat under my closed fingers to play touch games with the dogs for lack of better entertainment, or we'll play touch games with the treats in the pockets or whatever.
> 
> The handy thing about using treats to deal with scavenging is that the dog needs to drop the contraband to take the treat, or at least most dogs do. Even if the dog is coordinated enough to keep the stolen treasure, its mouth is where you can reach it and calmly remove the treasure then reward for letting you remove the treasure and so on. At that point, someone will pop out of nowhere to ask why you just rewarded the dog for scavenging. Ignore them. You're rewarding the dog for giving you its prize. You're also keeping the dog's attention on you while you toss the prize away like it's icky trash. /lol/ A click at the right time also helps reinforce the specific behavior, or you can use a verbal marker. When I'm using verbal markers, I add the name of the behavior to the praise, especially at first. Good give it! Good drop it! Then I have a command to use as the dog begins to leave the stuff on the ground to do touch and treat.
> 
> Another technique that works realy well for difficult things is rapid-fire treating. Since Krokus has learned the joy of scavenging, that might help overcome the self-reinforcement of the behavior more quickly. I thought it sounded kinda nutty, but better trainers than me were enthused about the site where I learned it, so I tried it. Hey, presto! That site is http://sue-eh.ca/. She explains a number of techniques really well. I like her training levels, especially because she makes them flexible instead of trying to insist on a one-size-fits-all miracle method and she offers avenues for further reading and understanding. Essentially, you give one treat after another, starting with five treats, then you gradually decrease the number as the dog gets it. If the dog has difficulty, you can up the number of treats for a time, then reduce back down. That's especially useful for puppies who just forget things as their brains grow and neural pathways get rearranged or who just have spacey times and need a little help to get back on track. It's also good for changing a set self-rewarding behavior in an adult dog, I think.
> 
> Would it be possible for you to have Krokus wait while you check out his relieving area with your foot or a cane (if you carry one) before giving him permission to sniff for the perfect place? It could be a sort of zen practice and give you a chance to move at least some temptation out of the way while doing the touch game... Or it may be totally unfeasible.
> 
> I guess that's the long way of saying that yes, you are on the right track with the touch command to redirect. /smile/
> 
> Tami
> 
>> On 07/02/2015 07:08 AM, Tracy Carcione via nagdu wrote:
>> Julie J, or anyone else who knows, how can I use clicker training to work on
>> scavenging?
>> 
>> I think I understand the basic concepts.
>> 
>> In the winter, I started teaching Krokus to touch my hand as a way to
>> re-focus him, but I let it slide come Springtime, and just restarted
>> recently.  Is something like hand-touch useful to stop scavenging, or is
>> there something else I should be doing instead?
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> My goal is to stop Krokus scavenging as much as I can.  I'm willing to try
>> any method that will achieve that goal, but I'd prefer a gentle method, if
>> it works. If I can get him to decide for himself that it's not very
>> rewarding, that would be great.  Otherwise, I forsee it being a continuing
>> problem.
>> 
>> Tracy
>> 
>> 
>> 
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