Nothing formal here. This will probably just be my notes on training the most adorable Golden Retriever puppy ever ;->. Gitchi (http://www.k9data.com/pedigree.asp?ID=415628) is 5 1/2 months old now. I may go back and document some of her earlier training/life experiences, but I'm not making any promises about that.
So without further ado... I have *finally* decided on a contact behavior for Gitchi: <drum roll please> She will do a 2o2o with repetitive nose-touches to a target close to/between her front feet.
Here is video of Gitchi tonite learning to back up with nose down and weight shifted to her rear: "Gitchi - Shaping Success Puppy Game #11: Backing Up"
And here's what it looks like being trained (and I do mean *trained*!)
Here's Greg Derrett and the finished behavior
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccm3lXB8uUM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccm3lXB8uUM
Susan Garrett says that patiently shaping a back up like this with head low and weight shifted back (as opposed to head up pushing backwards with the front feet like you get when you teach back by walking into the dog) is a great foundation skill that leads to a safe(er) contact performance that minimizes shoulder impact and neck twisting. The way she teaches it is ingenious really - it's more or less pure shaping except you toss the treat between the dog's front feet, which "shapes" the dog to offer more steps backwards with the head low, which you can mark and reward with another treat tossed between the front feet.... lather, rinse, repeat. ;->
So Gitchi talked me into training inside this blustery evening, since Tues nite class was canceled because it's been storming all day and is relatively cold (albiet not the blizzard raging from Dallas to Chicago). She's working on tug/treat/tug, sitting inside a pvc box, perch work (front feet up, rear feet moving around) --- and of course her favorite: Go Around!
"Around" means she is sent out to circle a 'cone' and then come back to me to tug. Here's a video of the very first time when we started it ~ a month ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_sq7sJkoI4 . The game's gotten a bit more complicated since then - there's even talk of starting a "barrell racing" league! Anyway, here are my rules: If sent from my left side, she is to go left to right around and then catch up to me to tug on my left side IF I do an about turn while she is going around. Occasionally I turn in toward her as she comes back toward me and reward with the tug in the Derrett "first arm" position, or I complete the front cross and she comes up to get the tug/reward on my right. Also sometimes as she is going around left to right I do a right turn and accelerate so that she goes only 90 degrees around to the right as I throw the toy out in front and race her to it. Of course, all this is reversed if she starts on my right.
Gitchi likes these movement kind of games the best. She also likes "Aim for It" and "Race to Reward" from the Agility Right From the Start book. Tonite we also worked on nose-touching a target, something she finds so very exciting - NOT! Now if I hold the target up real high where she has to make a Herculean leap to nose-touch it - THAT she excels at! Beeeee-caaaaaause her top is made'a da rubbah, and her bottom is made'a da springs! Anyway, I can see I'm going to need higher value treats to get the chicken-plucking pecking target touches those dogs do in the above videos - I mean are those even real dogs or just cartoons?
Hey, there's an idea for a cue - I could call the nose-touching "plucking", so at every contact obstacle, I could holler "GITCH, PLUCK IT!" ;-O
TTFN!
Suse 'n da Gitch
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