Go There Nr 1

Go There

"Go there" can be a basis for many different behaviors in different situations. This is a small mini-series in which I will show the basis for
1) a calm greeting of guests at the house door
2) leashing on and waiting at the house door before going on walks
3) waiting for the food bowl

See Go there Nr. 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1_CcP0bHb0 for more of these.

Each of these can entail sending the dog to a specific place, doing a sit-stay there and waiting for further instructions in spite of the temptations of the moment. It can also be used when training two dogs at the same time, for example sending one dog a few feet away, so that you can work with the other dog. I of course cannot show how this works because I only have one dog to work with.

Traditional so-called "balanced" dog trainers and other old-school trainers pooh-pooh clicker training, saying that the dogs will only work for treats. Well, just because they say this, doesn't mean that it's true.

There is a difference between:
teaching a behavior - using the +R and only if necessary the -P operant conditioning quadrants to introduce and establish a behavior. +R means adding a reinforcer (=reward=anything the dog likes, not necessarily food) after the behavior so that the probability of the behavior being repeated is increased. -P means taking away something after the behavior so that the probability of a behavior being repeated is decreased.
+R (reinforcer) is given when the behavior was successfully completed.
-P (punishment) is applied - for example the withholding of an expected reward - if the behavior was not correctly performed.

Training a behavior - once taught (see above) using a fixed schedule of rewards, one practices by on the one hand decreasing the quality of rewards and gradually the frequency of rewards, using vocal bridge motivations like "good job!", "great", "yes" instead of actual rewards. Since the dog has learned that these are positive in nature, they are not found to be -P punishments by the dog. The goal is to reduce the frequency of rewards to the point that bridge words are usually enough (praise) with only sporadic treats or play rewards actually being given.

for more information and consultations, lessons in northwestern Switzerland contact Leonard "Buzz" Cecil at
http://www.auf-den-hund-gekommen.net

languages German and English

Leonard "Buzz" Cecil is a member of:
APDT, PDTE and IPDTA

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• clicker
• Clicker Training
• Flat Coated Retriever
• cue
• positive

[musicofnote1]

Nr. 2 will be getting rid of the target disk. And then fading the food reward (reward will be the release to leave the "place".

[MyGSDLove]

Great work and write up Leonard. Although all I could think was how adorable and happy Miss V is