Why Clicker Training Rocks

Today we started serious work on Fetch & Drop It, April's Training Challenge for Genius Puppy Hurley.  I grabbed a squeaky ball, the clicker and dumped a handful of diced carrots on the counter.  Ready, set, train!

Hurley ran after his ball as I prompted "Go get it".  Actually, he meandered after it and pounced.  And then he brought it back, I asked for a "drop", he dropped it and got a click & treat.  Repeat.  Repeat. Repeat.  Wait...I thought this was something new we were training, right?  Guess Hurley pretty much has Fetch & Drop down.  So what to do now...

I decided to practice shaping using the clicker.  I am, by default, a trainer by lure.  It has always seemed like the quickest way to get the behavior I want and, other than encouraging sharkiness in relation to my hand, has been pretty successful for us so far.  But not all behaviors can be lured and I absolutely agree with the theories behind shaping as to its effectiveness in training by forcing your dog to think and problem solve.  Learning's a lot more effective and sticks when you have to figure something out for yourself.  It's about time that I added shaping to our training bag o' tricks.

I grabbed a box, a box barely big enough for Hurley to get in.  In fact, I had my doubts that all 4 paws of his 80 lb-ness would fit.  But, hey, we're just getting started - what are the chances Hurley's actually going to offer all 4 paws in the box today when he's never offered a single paw in a box, right?

It did take us over a half hour to get from one paw touching the box to all four in.  And the only time I helped was when he was stuck at the first paw in the box.  I told him "Other Paw" and he plopped his other front paw in the box immediately.  From there, it was just clicking and treating two paws in and any time a back paw went in.  From the second he got all 4 paws in at the same time, it was maybe 10 seconds until I got this:

 I had no hopes, no intentions of getting a sit in the box but apparently Hurley did.  So I started marking getting in the box with "In".  How the heck did we get from experimenting with shaping to verbally marking "In"?  a) Clicker training rocks and b) Hurley is a genius puppy.

We were out of carrots so I told him good job, gave him a kiss and hug and took myself a bathroom break.  A few minutes later, I came back out to Hurley, just sitting in his box.

I knows stuff!

Training Challenge Updates

No, the interwebs did not swallow me whole, nor did I get run over by a bus.  Sorry I've been M.I.A.!  We just finished the wettest March on record here in Portland and I had me some lack of sunshine blues.  But even though I've been a bit lax on taking the dogs on walks or to the park, we did make progress on our March training challenge to learn to twirl.  Luckily for the dogs, I am an expert twirler so I was really able to lead the pack on this one.  :) 

March roared in like a lion with Hurley having the hand gesture for twirl down before March 1st.  Rockin' & Rollin', my friends!  Unlike Roll Over, he had no problems learning to twirl in each direction.  As with everything, he's much more reliable with the hand gesture than the verbal so right now we are continuing to work on cementing our verbal communication.  And I have the best verbal command for twirling in each direction (think figure eight) - HIPPIE DANCE.  Hippie is twirl counter-clockwise and Dance is twirl clockwise.  While we have the foundation down pat, it's going to take us a little bit longer to get the two fully strung together into one solid Hippie Dance command.  Hehe...it makes me smile every time we practice as I imagine our progress getting us to the point where I say "Hurley do your hippie dance" and he meanders around in a large figure eight in typical "Hurley don't hurry" fashion. 

The girls did great this month with twirl too.  I figured out that Maggie learns much better without a lure.  A treat in my hand gets her so pumped up that she can't concentrate.  So we spent most of the month just working on her targeting my treat-less hand around in a twirl.  Such a better training experience for both of us!  I'm still working on fading the hand targeting to a hand gesture but that too will take more time.  And once I wasn't worried about always having that treat in my hand, I started practicing our twirl randomly throughout the evenings.  Hurley's doing his "Hurley don't hurry" thing when I call him to come inside?  No sweat.  The girls and I will just practice twirl while we wait for his meandering self.  Waiting for water to boil?  Perfect time for an impromptu training session! We got a lot more practice in this month than in previous months but overall, probably had less formal training sessions (one dog, 15+ minutes, treats, clicker, the whole shebang).  I feel like we've figured out a good groove for how and when we practice - one that doesn't stress me out trying to find the time to work with each of them and allows us more practice time in smaller increments throughout the week. 

I am considering March's training challenge a rousing success!  Are we where I want all 4 of us to be in our hippie dances?  Not entirely but we've got a good start and that's all I can ask.

So now it's on to April and what do we have in store?  Well, I need to lay the foundation for Hurley to learn a few things that the girls already know.  And I need to practice January's Back up and March's Twirl with the girls more.  So this April, Hurley will be working on Fetch & Drop.  He's not a natural born fetcher but I'd like to train him to fetch specific items by name and to put his toys away in the toy basket, both of which require a solid understanding of Fetch and Drop.  Since Maggie already has these down and Sadie really has never given a rat's arse about Fetch, I will spend the month making further progress with them on past training challenges.  Giving both them and myself this time to work on these challenges is as important as the accomplishments we make during each individual month.  Because it means we haven't given up even if we weren't able to reach the finish line at month's end.  Except for roll over.  I completely give up on teaching the girls that one and I don't feel one iota of guilt about that! 

It's Monday, I have the day off, and for once, the sun is shining.  So pardon me while I sign off and take the dogs on that super, duper long walk that they deserve. 

Sadie Shows Off

Sadie heard that she was trailing Hurley in our monthly training challenges.  This upset her so much that she made me make the following video so that she can show everyone how awesome she is at her favorite trick, Touch.  Then I tried to get her to speak (her very, very favorite trick) but apparently she had a frog in her throat.  The best part is when she offered up a twirl at the very end.  Woot!  I may be a slacker when it comes to March's challenge of training all three of them to twirl but they aren't holding it against me! :)

Leaping Ahead

You know that road to hell?  Yup, I made great progress on paving it this past month.  My good intentions fell by the wayside as I got both discouraged and lazy in the latter half of the month. 

Wanna know exactly how many training sessions I did with Maggie & Sadie after the last post on training roll over?  Zero. Zip. Nada.  (hangs head)

I don't wanna say that I gave up but that's sorta what happened.  Maggie got as far as I expected, which was to willingly lay on her side and lift a foot in the air.  For her, this is great progress.  A rolling over dog, she is not.

And then there's Sadie.  I love her to bits & pieces but totally don't understand how she can get something one day and look at me like I've never ever worked on it with her the next day.   The good news is that once we moved on to roll over, she seemed to start to understand January's training challenge Back Up.  So maybe once we start March's challenge, she might magically start offering a roll over?  A girl can wish. 

At least there's Hurley.  The genius makes me feel like I'm the World's Best Trainer.  It's a great ego boost!  He's a roll over god. 

So on this leap day, we leap forward to March, leaving roll over in the dust.  Good riddance, roll over! Hello, twirl!  Why twirl?  Because I truly believe this one should be easy for Maggie and after the last 2 months, girl needs a break.

2012 Training Challenge Standings

January "Back Up"
Hurley: Stellar
Sadie: Getting There
Maggie:  Oh you want me to hop?  I can do that!

February "Roll Over"
Hurley: I roll like nobody's business.
Sadie:  If there's carpet, a lure and a tent, you got a 1 in 10 shot at me doing that crazy roll over thing.
Maggie:  Good girls don't roll over.  It's uncouth!
 

The Training Shuffle

This post is part of our 2012 Training Challenges series.  Each month we'll tackle learning a new trick, command, behavior.  You name it, we'll train it.  Seriously...if you have an idea, let us know in the comments below!

For every one step forward, we take a few steps back.  And then a few steps forward, back, forward...you get the point.  I call it the Training Shuffle and it completely defines my experiences training Maggie & Sadie. 

If you like my Facebook page, then you might have seen my post last week about how awesome Sadie did in our first rollover training session.  It was amazing, unexpected and completely due to the Hubster's work with her.  She was lured into a rollover on the very first try!  And then she did it again...and again...and then on the other side.  Woot!  I was ecstatic that our training challenge for February was going so well with her, seeing that Back Up last month was, well, let's just say Sadie did NOT have it down by the end of the month.

Then we had a second training session, a third and a fourth - all complete and total training failures.  Not only did she refuse to be lured, she refused to lift a leg off the floor.  Yes, she would get on her side but that was it.  She wouldn't even move her head around to sniff at the treasure trove of treats I had in my hand.  What the !?!?!?

I was at a loss.  How does she go from absolutely no problems rolling over to get to a treat to zero interest in the treat?  Several theories later, I realized that it was the room we were training in that was the problem.  See, the Hubster does training in our den in the basement.  Our carpeted den.  I usually do training upstairs in our living room.  Our hardwood-floored living room.

So this morning, off Sadie and I went to the den to see if carpeting truly made a difference.  Voila!  Training obstacle overcome.  Princess Sadie must be comfortable when contorting her body into a rollover.  Either that or she must have her precious tent to hop into after each successful or unsuccessful attempt, which belongs in the Top 5 Cutest Things Sadie Has Ever Done list.  I keep watching this video and dying over how adorable she is.  Who needs a roll over when your dog hops into her tent with such utter joy after attempting said roll over?

While we had a step forward in our training this morning, I am sure we will experience some more steps backward but how could I ever get frustrated with a dog who has such enthusiasm for all things tent-related?  I don't.  She just makes me laugh.

Why Hurley Is a Genius Puppy

This post is part of our 2012 Training Challenges series.  Each month we'll tackle learning a new trick, command, behavior.  You name it, we'll train it.  Seriously...if you have an idea, let us know in the comments below!

I've often said that Hurley is incredibly smart.  I frequently call him a genius puppy.  Why?  His ability to learn anything faster than I can teach it.  Literally. 

Case in point.  We're working on Roll Over.  We started the last week of January and have been very lax in the number of training sessions we've done.  This is exactly how much time we've put into it:

Week One:  2-3 training sessions of about 15 minutes each.  First session was about getting Hurley comfortable rolling onto his side so he got clicks & treats simply for laying on his side.  Second (and third if we did a third that week, I can't remember) session was about getting him to roll over while being lured by a handful of treats.  No verbal command used to mark the rollover yet; it was just about getting him comfortable with the movement.

Week Two:  Last week, we did a couple training sessions in the store (probably 15 minutes each) continuing to build on his comfort level rolling over.  I also worked on withdrawing the lure by keeping my hand full o' treats farther away from his snout.  I was still moving my hand across his body/back to elicit the roll over but I was able to back the hand away about a foot to 18 inches away from his body.

Week 3:  This past weekend, the Hubster worked on roll over with him.  On Wednesday, I had a 15 minute session in the shop.  As soon as he hit his side, he immediately did a roll over without being lured (I did have treats in my hand but hadn't had the chance to move my hand before he flopped over) and so I started marking it with the verbal cue.  He even figured out the hand cue before I had decided what it was going to be.  If that doesn't tell you who's smarter between the two of us...

Total time Spent on Roll Over:  90 - 120 minutes.  Yup, that's it folks. He's about 80% of the way there. 

He is at the point that we are "showing off" his trick to customers.  Hurley loves to show off so I use it to cement whatever we are learning.   Even on a command he's being stubborn on, he can never resist the temptation to show it off to his adoring fans (yes, he is fully aware of how many people he has wrapped around his dewclaw).

And while he may be smart, he's not perfect.  Dude can't figure out how to roll over on his left side. 

Training videos coming soon & next week I'll share the trials and tribulations otherwise known as me trying to train Maggie & Sadie.

February Training Challenge: Roll Over!

This post is part of our 2012 Training Challenges series.  Each month we'll tackle learning a new trick, command, behavior.  You name it, we'll train it.  Seriously...if you have an idea, let us know in the comments below!

For January, we tackled "Back Up" with moderate success.  1 out of 3 ain't bad?  

Since it's leap year and we've got an extra day in February, I'm not at all freaking out about not really having started for reals our February Training Challenge.  If you caught one of my posts on January's challenge, you might have caught the sneak peek at our next challenge, which is....drumroll please...Roll Over!

While this is a fairly basic one, it has been heretofore absent from our modest arsenal of tricks.  And it's been tried though not in a while.  See, last I tried, Maggie was probably about a year old and, at that point in her life, extremely averse to rolling onto her back.  Girl hated belly rubs.  Luckily, she's relaxed as she's grown up and it might be a good time to try again.  I hope.

The Hubster has had some previous success with Sadie but it hasn't stuck.  Which is more to do with our effort than her ability to get it. 

And as you saw a couple weeks ago, Hurley is already getting pretty comfortable with rolling over; now it's just fading the lure.  Which will be 100% about my ability more than his.  He's pretty patient with me and knows I need time to figure it out so I'm confident we'll get there.

What I'm really saying is....holy crap, we're already a week into February and I haven't even started working on shaping the rollover with the girls!