Paw Target (video)

[Emily_Babbelhund]

As part of our service dog foundations course, Carbon has to learn to target with his paw. As I discovered very quickly, Carbon didn't actually know he HAD paws. He just thinks he is a large nose and mouth. This explains a lot about why he looks the way he does when he runs.

It took about three days to get him to touch the target with his paw instead of his nose (nose targeting is different foundation task). Now we are working on different surfaces and distance. The ultimate goal is for him to hit a target of 2 inches in diameter from 10 feet away on a verbal cue.

But today's goal was just to get him to whack his paw (and not is nose) on the target. It was raining today, so we had to film indoors and it was his first time doing this in the hallway.

I video bits of his training because every Wednesday we have a live webcam session with his trainer, who evaluates our progress. In what has become a theme with me, our trainer said that I've asked Carbon to move too far, too fast. This is why he's hesitating when I walk further away down the corridor. The other thing I shouldn't be doing (though our trainer was too nice to point this out) is saying, "Go", "Get It" etc. He won't learn the cue ("Target") until he's 100% mastered the task, so I shouldn't be mudding the waters now with other words.

As people who have met me in person know, I can't seem to stop talking...no matter the occasion!

 

[pup-pup]

What a good boy! It’s so nice to see such a happy dog.

 

[HAH]

This is a lovely video Emily! And that tail - LOOK how much he’s enjoying it you’re clearly all over the points for improvement - he does look a bit confused at the longer distance, but you correct it so he ends on a high. Brava!

 

[Shaz82]

He's lovely, no wonder you wanted to keep him.

 

[Selina27]

Wonderful, he looks so happy! Well you both do!

 

[Plum's mum]

Clever, clever boy. Love it.

 

[Cath]

He is so happy, great work both of you

 

[kateincornwall]

You , talk a lot @Emily_Babbelhund ??? Nah ! This is lovely, bless your boy x

 

[Emily]

Look at his tail go!

Lovely video, he's doing so well.

 

[Jacqui-S]

It always amazes me how fantastic he looks compared to when you first fostered him.
Good boy Carbon x

 

[FayRose]

Good work both and it certainly is good to see a dog happily learning what you are asking of him. Tail never seems to stop wagging

 

[snowbunny]

Aw, bless his cottons - and yours!

I was given some advice a while back - "for the love of all that is holy, will you STAND STILL, WOMAN!!!"

Every time you feel the need to help him out, it's telling you you've gone too fast, but you already know this. I don't think you should be pointing, or walking towards the target. Use your treat placement to set him up for the next repetition. I find it really helps to write down what I'm going to do in a session, as precisely as I can, and the criteria for moving on. So here, it might look like:

Objective: To have Carbón target a pot with his foot from a distance of x metres, when it is placed behind him in the hallway, without any verbal or physical cue.

Steps:
1.
I stand half a metre in front of pot, dog stands half a metre behind pot. With pot between me and dog, mark and reinforce for any foot movement towards pot.
Treat placement: toss behind dog.
Criteria met when: dog is turning fluently after eating and deliberately putting his foot on the target.

2.
With same set up as above, moving reinforcement to the side. C&T approximations of foot targeting pot.
Treat placement: toss to the side of pot
Criteria met when: dog is turning fluently and deliberately putting his foot on the target.

3.
With same set up as above, moving reinforcement to the front. C&T approximations of foot targeting pot.
Treat placement: toss between me and the pot.
Criteria met when: dog is turning fluently and deliberately putting his foot on the target.

4.
I take 1 pace backwards. Repeat steps 1-3.

5.
Keeping same distance, move everything through 180 degrees. Repeat steps 1-3.

6.
Keeping same distance, move to another room. Repeat steps 1-3.

etc etc etc.

It doesn't have to be the order I've put in above, of course; you can change whatever criterion you want in each step. So early on in your video, you're changing the look of the picture by changing where you're standing in relation to the pot, whilst maintaining the same distance. Which is great, but Carbón hasn't reached the point where he's understanding the task in the first direction before you change it. Get that "aha!" moment before you change a single thing.

If you write it all out, you're very clear on your criteria and you don't chop and change all the things you're adding at once. It seems like it's a lot of faff, but it actually saves a lot of time during the actual training, as well as frustration on both your sides. Then you can look at your video, review what you did well and what you could improve the next session. Watch it so you're watching yourself - are your mechanics clean, or are you muddying the picture with unnecessary stuff? Watch it again so you're watching what the dog is doing performance-wise - is he meeting criteria before you move on, and does he have that clear confidence that he understands the task? Finally, watch it again so you're watching what the dog's body language is telling you - can you see Carbón giving you any signs that he's confused? The more you do this, the more you'll be able to perfect your skills. I hate videoing myself, but it's so useful because you simply can't see everything in the moment you're training, so reviewing it while looking for different things helps you flag up things you need to focus on more in the next session. I've lost my camera cable and my batteries are all flat, so I'm feeling really naked not being able to video my training at the moment. It becomes second nature. What am I missing?

Sorry, I've written an epic. It seems both of us have an issue with wittering on

I'm sure Donna has already told you all this, but it might help someone else. It's SO useful to have these videos to learn from, but I know it's a bit unpleasant opening yourself up for people to see. We need to get everyone on board doing it.... come on guys, let's see all your training so we can help each other out

 

[Beanwood]

Absolutely! Lets share our videos!

I was just talking to @Emily_Babbelhund yesterday about a simply amazing demonstration of shaping by a....wait for it...WHIPPET! The trainer was coaching a complete novice who had never met the dog in her life in front of a room of around 20 people. The dog was learning a completely new task. It really opened my eyes as to how powerful shaping really is.

 

[Emily_Babbelhund]

You , talk a lot @Emily_Babbelhund ??? Nah !

 

[Emily_Babbelhund]

It always amazes me how fantastic he looks compared to when you first fostered him.

You know the funny thing is that he looked like a little Buddha when I first got him from the shelter. He'd had not enough food at the killing station then when he got to the 'free food 24/7" model of the private shelter, he took that literally and ate constantly and of course quickly put on weight. They weighed him when he left the shelter and he was 29 kilos. He's still 29 kilos! He's ALWAYS 29 kilos (except when he was first on doxy and was vomiting every day), even when to me he looks fatter or skinnier. I guess it just does prove what is always said about fat weighing less than muscle!

 

[Emily_Babbelhund]

@snowbunny thanks for the detailed advice! As a fellow novel-writer, too much is never too much.

I was given some advice a while back - "for the love of all that is holy, will you STAND STILL, WOMAN!!!"

In my defence, what you see me doing at the beginning of the video is one of assigned criteria: "working the clock". I'm supposed to work around the target at 12/3/6/9. I didn't do "9" in the video as I didn't fancy a big shot of my big posterior on camera.

The walking up and back was that tip from Donna that originally got him to touch the target. She said 'walk him over it'. The goal was to get him to accidentally brush the target with his foot and then get marked for it. Ditto with the arm motions. We're working on directing his attention to treats or targets with an extended arm.

However, I'm going too far away too soon - especially as he'd never done this indoors - and talking way too much. You are right that I absolutely need to now stop the moving back and forth to the target. If I need to do that, I've pushed him too far too fast. I also need to get rid of the arm motions now and let the target be the cue.

It's SO useful to have these videos to learn from, but I know it's a bit unpleasant opening yourself up for people to see.

I'm so proud of Carbon but I do get embarrassed seeing myself. Not only my rookie training mistakes but the 3 stone weight I've put on in the last 1,5 years. It's not like I don't know what I look like, but it's a painful exercise to watch it and put it out there, even here amongst friends. But we do 3-5 videos a week and I'll keep trying to bite the bullet and share some of them.

 

[snowbunny]

You work that clock! Just use the treat delivery to get him into the next position where he's set up for the next rep, then stand still and stay stood still until the rep is finished and it's treat delivery time again. You can add all the funky movement in later, but until he really knows what the game is, it's important that when he's in the "work" part of the cycle, it's as clear as possible to him, otherwise it's really hard to determine what the cue is. That's why I wouldn't have introduce any of the walking back and forward, or pointing at all. Those are things you just have to fade, and fading is difficult for us movement monkeys! I'd say that if you're having to do any of that, it's because the environment wasn't set up cleanly enough in the first instance. Remember the ABCs of training (Antecedent, Behaviour, Consequence). You set up A (the picture) so that B is pretty much guaranteed to happen, then you use C (your reinforcement placement) to get right back to A again. B is the bit that the dog has to do, A and C are your job. You should have zero involvement in B. Loopy training!!

I was just talking to @Emily_Babbelhund yesterday about a simply amazing demonstration of shaping by a....wait for it...WHIPPET! The trainer was coaching a complete novice who had never met the dog in her life in front of a room of around 20 people. The dog was learning a completely new task. It really opened my eyes as to how powerful shaping really is.

I know a few people who use shaping with their sight hounds (especially whippets). I've done a bit with the target pots with Ginny - and the other day, she wanted to get involved with a placeboard, so I got her front-foot targeting that. I wish she were a little more mobile so I could do more; she's a very different challenge to the others, for sure

I'm so proud of Carbon but I do get embarrassed seeing myself. Not only my rookie training mistakes but the 3 stone weight I've put on in the last 1,5 years. It's not like I don't know what I look like, but it's a painful exercise to watch it and put it out there, even here amongst friends. But we do 3-5 videos a week and I'll keep trying to bite the bullet and share some of them.

Share, share, share! Videos are always completely unflattering because of dodgy angles, but everyone is far more interested in the dog than in the handler anyway! In one of the courses I've done with Shadow, pretty much all you get in the videos is bums and boobs, and loads of people in their pyjamas, because it's about teaching social play and that often happens on the bed first thing in the morning. You get used to tuning it out, even when you're looking at yourself

 

[Boogie]

(((@Emily_Babbelhund )))

Stoppit - you look simply fabulous.

Now throw away your California thoughts of skinny muscly boring bodies and embrace your gorgeousness.

 

[HAH]

Stoppit - you look simply fabulous.

Now throw away your California thoughts of skinny muscly boring bodies and embrace your gorgeousness

This this this @Emily_Babbelhund! And in solidarity I'll post a video tonight of back foot targeting, I need to go back to basics with Kipper as I've been trying to run ahead with balance pods and it's not fair on him. I also know my mechanics are not clean, so need to share

 

[Emily_Babbelhund]

Just use the treat delivery to get him into the next position where he's set up for the next rep, then stand still and stay stood still until the rep is finished and it's treat delivery time again

Thank you (again)! This makes sense. It also explains why he's been quicker to learn what I think of as motionless behaviours. Clearly movement is something I really need to think about when setting up any training scenario.

You get used to tuning it out, even when you're looking at yourself

I'm getting better at tuning it out after two months. Luckily I have the adorable Señor Carboncito who happily furnishes the 'cute factor' in all videos.