- Location
- Andorra and Spain
I noticed a tiny bit of frustration coming in when I was giving food when a ball reinforcer was expected, so I've spent the last couple of days thinking and introducing location-specific markers.
Specifically, a behaviour I've been working on with Willow is dropping a ball on cue. She LOVES to possess balls, and so this is really tricky for her. I had started reinforcing the drop of the ball with the throw of another ball, but on the last rep, I could tell she found it aversive when I said "yes!" but followed it with a scatter rather than a throw. I realised that I was punishing the drop by doing that, and I would have a much longer road to a strong drop behaviour if I continued to do that to end the session.
So now I have introduced these marker words:
"Scatter!", as always, means you will have a cookie scatter on the floor by my feet.
"Nice!" means "come to me for food"
"Yum!" means "you stay in place, food is coming to you"
"Ballie!" means "I'm going to throw the ball for you to chase"
I've ditched "yes!" completely, because I don't think I can trust myself to use it consistently, and because I've used it for too many different reinforcement scenarios in the past, so it's a bit muddied.
This morning, I did some work on Willow's drop again. At the moment, this isn't on a verbal cue. I started off (some time ago) by waving another ball at her and waiting for her to drop the ball, but she would just stare at it, so I started showing her the ball and then putting it behind my back. Soon that became a successful cue to drop the ball for the chase of another one, and I've now started to fade the ball, so I can put my obviously empty hand behind my back as the cue. I'll soon add on a verbal "spit" and transition to that in the usual (new cue, old cue) way.
Having done the work on loading my location-specific markers, it was really interesting on this, our first session of using them for ball play instead of a blanket "yes!", how as soon as I said "scatter!" as the marker for the spit, she put her head down and started snuffling. Whereas just yesterday, when I said "Yes!" followed by "scatter!", I saw her tense (on the yes) in anticipation of another chase, and then saw her deflate on the "scatter" as she realised she wasn't getting the ball.
On the walk back home, we played around a lot with differentiating the "yum" and "nice" markers, and they all stayed really engaged the whole way back.
Specifically, a behaviour I've been working on with Willow is dropping a ball on cue. She LOVES to possess balls, and so this is really tricky for her. I had started reinforcing the drop of the ball with the throw of another ball, but on the last rep, I could tell she found it aversive when I said "yes!" but followed it with a scatter rather than a throw. I realised that I was punishing the drop by doing that, and I would have a much longer road to a strong drop behaviour if I continued to do that to end the session.
So now I have introduced these marker words:
"Scatter!", as always, means you will have a cookie scatter on the floor by my feet.
"Nice!" means "come to me for food"
"Yum!" means "you stay in place, food is coming to you"
"Ballie!" means "I'm going to throw the ball for you to chase"
I've ditched "yes!" completely, because I don't think I can trust myself to use it consistently, and because I've used it for too many different reinforcement scenarios in the past, so it's a bit muddied.
This morning, I did some work on Willow's drop again. At the moment, this isn't on a verbal cue. I started off (some time ago) by waving another ball at her and waiting for her to drop the ball, but she would just stare at it, so I started showing her the ball and then putting it behind my back. Soon that became a successful cue to drop the ball for the chase of another one, and I've now started to fade the ball, so I can put my obviously empty hand behind my back as the cue. I'll soon add on a verbal "spit" and transition to that in the usual (new cue, old cue) way.
Having done the work on loading my location-specific markers, it was really interesting on this, our first session of using them for ball play instead of a blanket "yes!", how as soon as I said "scatter!" as the marker for the spit, she put her head down and started snuffling. Whereas just yesterday, when I said "Yes!" followed by "scatter!", I saw her tense (on the yes) in anticipation of another chase, and then saw her deflate on the "scatter" as she realised she wasn't getting the ball.
On the walk back home, we played around a lot with differentiating the "yum" and "nice" markers, and they all stayed really engaged the whole way back.
I also prefer the dog to put an article into my hand and not drop it, though can see a good reason for teaching the drop! Don't fancy a dead rat or poo or other unmentionables put into my hand, but perhaps would use a 'leave' cue for that. I do admire your thinking though and wish I was that inventive.