Sheila, This Flip fascinates me on so many levels. The very first thing that jumped out on me was the beauty of the picture and the site. And in the same breath I noticed the pace at which you were walking. So often when LLW we walk so slowly, unnaturally so in many cases. This was a walk with a purpose. Loose SHORT leash! Of course you can! Control your environment? Of course you can. Then I watched it again, just looking at Boon. She glances at you from time to time, but she is very aware of you AND her surroundings. Sue spent a lot of time with Lily and me working on our "footprint" and using a short loose leash. I love the short leash for vested public work. Thanks for sharing this very enjoyable and informative clip.
Lynn, I TRY to click Boon when she is observing her environment. She of course then looks up at me for her treat. In this video (without food or clicker) you can tell that I have apparently set a pattern that I didn't realize I had set. If you watch it you will see on the way out (away from the camera) Boon glances at me approximately every three to 5 seconds. On the way back (toward the camera) at pretty solid 3 second intervals. This illustrates the beauty of video! It is unemotional information!! And information is GOOD!
I am not disappointed, this was a place we had never been and taking all the food away for that distance was in my mind a challenge for us especially with the short leash (first day with that too, I wanted to gauge how much using the longer leash is or isn't a problem for teaching Boon) At the same time though I see that I have taught Boon to walk for approximately three seconds average before expecting to get a treat! Time to raise my criteria.
As far as pace goes, I try to walk at a normal to brisk pace when in a new area. It keeps the sniffing to a minimum setting the dog up for success as it is so much easier to sniff when walking slowly. As you know, ALL habits are built one action/behavior at a time so I try to make sure whatever action is being most repeated is the one I want. I practice slow pace (a necessary pace to know) in very familiar environments first (for less need to sniff and as part of other exercises like stairs) and then to more and more distracting environments but for only short periods of time interspersed with faster paces for interest to the dog, keeping them on their toes since they never know what's next, enhancing their attention skills and mitigating a lot of the sniffing. The slow pace is also hard on them because their bodies are built to move out and it isn't natural for them adding to their "burden" when learning.
I was taught to practice my handling skills without the dog on a regular basis. This keeps my skills sharp and it makes it less likely that I will slow the pace because I am simply not coordinated enough to do all that I need to do at a faster pace.
It can feel silly but practicing the mechanical skills of training without the dog. ( preferably with partner who can "Click" whatever criteria is being worked on) This practice can cause HUGE leaps in handling abilities. These skills are unnatural to us! With practice /without the dogs/ we break the criteria down, set up the environment and gain valuable information and muscle memory taking us in short order from unconsciously incompetent to unconsciously competent! Seemingly small actions, treat delivery for instance, can be practiced in isolation and once broken down into small criteria (Click AND THEN Treat) are found to be uncannily more difficult than we thought. Luckily these skills are quickly learned and or polished and then applied more effectively. When we train ourselves like we train our dogs, the experience is pure joy!
Sheila,
ReplyDeleteThis Flip fascinates me on so many levels. The very first thing that jumped out on me was the beauty of the picture and the site. And in the same breath I noticed the pace at which you were walking. So often when LLW we walk so slowly, unnaturally so in many cases. This was a walk with a purpose. Loose SHORT leash! Of course you can! Control your environment? Of course you can. Then I watched it again, just looking at Boon. She glances at you from time to time, but she is very aware of you AND her surroundings. Sue spent a lot of time with Lily and me working on our "footprint" and using a short loose leash. I love the short leash for vested public work. Thanks for sharing this very enjoyable and informative clip.
Lynn,
ReplyDeleteI TRY to click Boon when she is observing her environment. She of course then looks up at me for her treat. In this video (without food or clicker) you can tell that I have apparently set a pattern that I didn't realize I had set. If you watch it you will see on the way out (away from the camera) Boon glances at me approximately every three to 5 seconds. On the way back (toward the camera) at pretty solid 3 second intervals. This illustrates the beauty of video! It is unemotional information!! And information is GOOD!
I am not disappointed, this was a place we had never been and taking all the food away for that distance was in my mind a challenge for us especially with the short leash (first day with that too, I wanted to gauge how much using the longer leash is or isn't a problem for teaching Boon) At the same time though I see that I have taught Boon to walk for approximately three seconds average before expecting to get a treat! Time to raise my criteria.
As far as pace goes, I try to walk at a normal to brisk pace when in a new area. It keeps the sniffing to a minimum setting the dog up for success as it is so much easier to sniff when walking slowly. As you know, ALL habits are built one action/behavior at a time so I try to make sure whatever action is being most repeated is the one I want. I practice slow pace (a necessary pace to know) in very familiar environments first (for less need to sniff and as part of other exercises like stairs) and then to more and more distracting environments but for only short periods of time interspersed with faster paces for interest to the dog, keeping them on their toes since they never know what's next, enhancing their attention skills and mitigating a lot of the sniffing. The slow pace is also hard on them because their bodies are built to move out and it isn't natural for them adding to their "burden" when learning.
I was taught to practice my handling skills without the dog on a regular basis. This keeps my skills sharp and it makes it less likely that I will slow the pace because I am simply not coordinated enough to do all that I need to do at a faster pace.
It can feel silly but practicing the mechanical skills of training without the dog. ( preferably with partner who can "Click" whatever criteria is being worked on) This practice can cause HUGE leaps in handling abilities. These skills are unnatural to us! With practice /without the dogs/ we break the criteria down, set up the environment and gain valuable information and muscle memory taking us in short order from unconsciously incompetent to unconsciously competent! Seemingly small actions, treat delivery for instance, can be practiced in isolation and once broken down into small criteria (Click AND THEN Treat) are found to be uncannily more difficult than we thought. Luckily these skills are quickly learned and or polished and then applied more effectively. When we train ourselves like we train our dogs, the experience is pure joy!