[nagdu] Impulse control

[Tami Jarvis]

Tracy,

That's an excellent description. You've done great work, and so has 
Krokus. I'm going to remember your notion of reinforcing when you pass 
places he's scavenged before whether you can tell there's something 
there or not. I think it will help as we get into training with a guide 
harness, where Loki won't be allowed to sniff at all. We're still 
exploring while learning this and that skill, so he gets to educate 
himself through his nose, within certain limits. For instance, he 
doesn't get to yank me all over the place or cut in front of me just for 
a good sniff. He's also learning about permission, that when he doesn't 
have permission, he doesn't sniff. He's just now getting to the point 
where he doesn't try to sniff at all in some areas in town, or he will 
catch himself. There are other things he needs to be paying attention to 
in those areas, which helps. Anyway, by the time we're doing much in a 
guide harness, it shouldn't be too difficult to keep him on track and 
keep the nose off the ground... But I know his favorite sniff spots, so 
I can click and treat as we go by to add reinforcement.

Keep up the good work!

Tami



On 07/16/2015 07:25 AM, Tracy Carcione via nagdu wrote:
> OK, if you want.  It was a big discussion not so long ago.  I'll paste the message I sent to the TSE clicker list.
> Many thanks to Julie J for laying her method out step-by-step.  This is basically her method, plus hints from Rox and Tami.  Thanks to all of you.
>
> Late in class, Krokus discovered that I'm not fast enough to keep him from grabbing stuff off the ground, and turned in a flash into a scavenging monster.  I wasn't having much success correcting him for it, so I asked a clicker trainer I know whose skills I respect to explain her method to me in detail.  I have been using it for about 10 days, and am seeing improvement, so I thought I'd share.
> When this topic came up before, someone asked how you could click for a negative, not picking up food.  The positive is clicking for focussing on the handler, instead of the food.
> Here's the method I've been using:
> Choose a high-value treat.  I'm using the treats my trainer recommended, bacon-flavored Pet Botanics from PetSmart.  Krokus thinks they're fantastic.  BACON!!
> Choose a not-too-exciting food, like lettuce.  I chose a large, uncooked noodle.
> Henceforth, I'll call these 2 things treat and food, respectively.
> Put the food in something where the dog can see and smell it, but not instantly grab it.  I put it under a small colander.
> Put the covered food where the dog can see/smell it, but out of reach.  I put Krokus on leash, and put the covered food 5-6 feet away.  When Krokus moved toward the food, I held the leash firmly, but did not correct.  I am a tree to which he is tied.  When the tension in the leash slackens, click and treat, c&t.  When he looks toward me, c&t.  When he turns toward me, c&t.  The beginning of the training has a high rate of reward.  After a bit of c&t where Krokus had his back to the food, I called him to come and sit facing the food, c&t.
> When the dog is ignoring the food at a distance, move closer.  Within a couple sessions, Krokus would lie with his paws by the colander, but still focussing on me.
> When he's good at that, uncover the food and put it by your foot, ready to move your foot fast to cover it if the dog goes for it.
> When he's good with that, choose a somewhat more interesting food.  I chose either a Cheezit cracker or a bit of fruit.
> When the dog is good with that, change things up.  Do the exercise in another room.  Put the food near the edge of a table.  Go outside.  Get a partner to play with the food near the dog, but ready to close his hand around it if the dog goes for it.
> Remember that "slow is fast" and that distance and duration are separate things.
> Twice I moved too fast and Krokus grabbed the food.  One person I talked to puts hot sauce on the food, so it's not a happy grab.  Me, I scolded Krokus, and once corrected him.  Then I backed up a bit and got back to work.
> Ignoring food is not a new concept for Krokus.  He was very good at it at the start of class.  This might be letting us move along faster than if he was just learning it.  On the other hand, I do tend to rush my clickering, and have to remember not to.
> The last part of this is the trickiest, rewarding him for not picking up stuff when we're out and about.  I am c&t-ing if he walks past a place where he has often dived before, or giving him lots of praise instead, if I've forgotten to bring the clicker and treats.
> I am noticing definite improvement.  He is diving a lot less.  It's still 2 steps up and one step back, but we're moving in the right direction.
> One big plus of this method is that we're both happy when we've finished a session.  I'm happy because he hasn't grabbed the food.  Even if he has, I've gond back, and we've finished on a positive.  He's happy because he's gotten lots of treats, and, oh yeah, ignored that food.
> Because we're both happy, doing short sessions once or twice every day is not the chore the correction-based sessions were for me.
>
> A couple weeks ago, I relieved Krokus before going into my office.  When I got in, he started staggering and falling down.  A coworker helped me get him to the emergency vet, where he spent the day being monitored and getting IV fluids to flush the poison out of his system.  The vet thought he'd picked up a bit of marijuana on the street.  People think it's funny when I say that, but I know it could just have easily been rat poison some scum put down to kill pigeons.  I mean to get a handle on this scavenging, and I feel I'm making better progress using the clicker, and some corrections, than I was just using corrections.
> Tracy
>