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Hi! I agree, this went really well! Serpentines are hard in general, and the sequences added motion and distractions. Some ideas for you:
1st rep of the first sequence – very nice handling! The middle jump at 16″ was too hard, so you can ‘warm up’ the jumping by having the middle (serp) jump a little lower on these because there are so many other challenges. The other jumps at 16 seemed fine.
The 2nd and 3rd reps looked really good! Try to keep moving past the last jump so he lands long then gets the toy. You were stopping a bit short so he was not jumping the last jump in full extension.tunnel sequences:
The angle of the jumps after the serp jump and the tunnel out there add plenty of distraction 🙂 So if he struggles and runs past the serp jump, try to dial back your motion rather than change arms. When you were changing arms, it got his attention but it also rotated your feet, so it changed what the cue looked like.
Great job rewarding him for coming in!!
On this set up – Going towards the tunnel and going away from the tunnel, step more on the line in towards the jump *after* the serp jump – the angle means it is a bit of a push through after the serp, so running parallel isn’t a strong enough turn cue. You can see at :42 he had trouble finding the last jump. At 1:31 (right at the very end) you stepped more towards that last jump and it set up a MUCH nicer turn. Yay!!Good hob breaking down and rewarding the turns on the tunnel!
He isn’t quite ready for all the motion on the serp jump coming out of the tunnel – you were having to change your arms and that changed your feet too, which changes what we want the cue to look like. 2 ideas for you:
try his name “GRIZ!” rather than left there. His name might be stronger!
And, as you add in the running with the arm back and no foot rotation: take out the 3rd jump for now – it is a massive distraction with all of that motion, so you can install the motion then add back the jump when he comes in with you running hard.It sounds like you started calling his name at 1:16 – I think it really helped! Resist the temptation to add the other rotation with your upper body, because it turns your feet and adds a deceleration that we don’t want him to need. The arm across your body there is causing you to turn your feet and run sideways and we don’t want that to be part of the cue. So keep your arm back, eyes on his eyes, but feet moving forward – we want him to read the cue like that rather than need the arm across the body or any rotation/change in motion.
Great job!!!! Let me know what you think.
TracyGood morning!
I am super happy with the progress on all of these, even on the ones where they weren’t perfect (see below) – save perfect for trials! Let’s get all of the oopsies taken care of in training 🙂
Flat game was great – now make it a triangle – he is facing you, the ball is on the ground on one side of you, you have your arm in serpentine position on the other side – and have him come in and touch your hand. Pretend there is a jump there that he is serping. It is just a value building/self-control game to do it on the flat, to keep the “drive to momma” high in value even with something exciting out ahead.
The wing work is going well! He did a good job and was hitting your hand pretty hard on all but one rep. My only suggestion is to change your hand position, so is it more open and back like a serp – the back of your hand wll be on the same plane as your back, rather than the same plane as your belly – not sure if my words are making sense 🙂 Basically – turn your hand around so it opens your shoulders more towards him and is is coming in away from the ball, not torwards it.
And now… onwards to a jump on this! Then onwards to motion!
The other thing that will really help are the zig zag slicing grids I posted today (they are in the week 5 package) – it is another way to teach serps by angling the jumps so it is more about finding the line and less about handling.
First pinwheel looked (and sounded) good. You made the RO sound a little different from Go. An option for a name call on course is to use BIE rather than RO. I use DOO for Voodoo and Sauce for Hot Sauce.
FC 1st rep: Your timing and line were strong here and he blasted through it, no slowing down and not wide. So why was the bar down and why did he end up in the on the wrong side of you to the tunnel? A couple of reasons:
One of the things you might not realize you are doing is switching hands with the toy at :18, which throws the cues off kilter a little and draws his focus (so he pulled the bar). He was definitely turning correctly over jump 3 and he definitely know which tunnel entry you wanted, which means he read your line nicely. He ended up on the wrong side because as he landed, you were connected with the dog-side arm down and at your side and turning your shoulders forward. That broken connection and read line a BC (like a spin) so he went back to your left side while reading the line to the tunnel properly. Remember to keep your arm back and make direct eye contact and maintain it as you cue the tunnel – talk directly to his eyes 🙂2nd rep – excellent send to the pinwheel jump at :33! And you started to blast away… but then switched the toy hand which delayed your motion and caused you to run a line towards the wrong end of the tunnel. Freeze the video at :34 as he is jumped the 3rd jump and you were right on the line to where he went and moving a bit sideways towards the off course – motion is king! You ran a similar line on the last rep at :52 nut had a stronger connection, so he got it, He is an honest young man, he gives you very strong feedback.
So the oopsies where were not really about verbals, I think those are going fine! The 3 details on this type of sequence are:
– don’t switch that toy around! Either shove it into a pocket or make sure you don’t switch hands (I tend to just shove it down my pants LOL!!) You will find that you are much quicker and more connected when you don’t have to multi-task the toy hand. I don’t think you are doing it actively, but it is taking up space in your running and he is too fast for that 🙂
On your connections – you are doing a great job of keeping your arm down. Remember that it is back and down, not just down. Exaggerate the back element and the connection to his eyes. Because he is so young, he is very very literal so he can’t yet read the cues like an experienced dog would. And run your lines like you did on the 1st rep – that was awesome!!!Overall, the training is going well! Don’t be defeated! These sequences are intended to hone the running lines and connections and tiny details. You did a great job of making sure he got rewarded!!
Le me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>> I’ll try today. If he’s bouncing the two jumps, should I add the third one back in on the next session tomorrow maybe?
If he is bouncing the 1st 2 jumps, do several sessions for at least the next week to install the new muscle memory. After that, you can add in jump 3.
The serpentining is going well!!! Really strong on just about all the reps: you were really working your connection and line. That toy was cracking me up – it was so HUGE LOL! But he was happy 🙂 He had 2 little questions: at :34, on the way to jump 2, you looked forward a bit too early and he didn’t pick up the 2nd jump. You fixed that on the next reps and had great connection, so he nailed it. On the first rep where you sent to jump 1, you didn’t quite have enough connection and open shoulders, plus you didn’t call (you were probably thinking about the handling and how to throw the giant toy lol) so he ran parallel to the serp jump. But you fixed it on the 2nd rep – called him, connected more, opened you shoulders more – lovely! Very nice job on these, I am sure he will continue to get better and better with finding these lines. Great start with the baby dog!!
Tracy
Good morning!
The tunnel turns looked great! You showed him the info before he entered on the turns and on the go rep – and it looked terrific. You also had great connection on the exits, so he was easily able to drive into the next line. Super nice!On the running rewards – the first rep went really well – nice timing on the turn 2-3, connection, good turn cue with your rotation before the tunnel. After he exits, give him a lot more connection – your arm was back but you didn’t get his eyes, so he wasn’t sure where to go.
The 2nd rep had a broken stay (more on that below :)) which threw off your timing so he dropped the bar at 2. The next 2 reps were really nice and you really emphasized the the connection on the tunnel exit, so it got really smooth.About the porridge:
>> I tried a couple different rewards. The first rep is ball on a rope which Chapter didn’t seem too into last night (too cold) I switched to the frisbee which he was WAY too into (too hot) and his teenage brain couldn’t handle it. So I went back to the treat ball which is what I use most of the time.>>Yes, sometimes frisbees are a bit too stimulating, and the youngsters go into “THROW THE FRISBEEEEEEEE” mode 🙂 My 8 month old puppy is totally in that mode at the moment LOL! So yes, keep experimenting with what seems to produce great porridge LOL! And you can use the frisbee in situations where we do want him to think even when he is highly stimulated – it will be great for teaching him how to handle the excitement of other dogs running agility or being at a trial!!
The other thing I was going to mention is that Maddy is getting a little too involved now that you are running sequences… she was in his way a few times and also in his landing spot at one point in the running reward sequence. You probably don’t see it while you are running, but I was nervous for her safety. Chapter does a great job avoiding her, but it draws his focus away from the jumping and if he makes one wrong move, she could get hurt. She probably needs to watch from the sidelines now that the agility is getting exciting!! (Sorry, Maddy!)
>>but I’m not sure I’m getting the excitement at the end like we’re aiming for.
He was really smooth and fast here, so I liked it 🙂 We don’t want him to be insane, we just want the speed that he was producing – it was nice!!!
>>Quick question about startling stays. Since Chapter was having some Goldilocks moments with the change up in toys I opted to ignore startling issues to preserve enthusiasm. In some reps not shown I did go back and reward good stays but if he broke early like in the videos I just went with it. What are your thoughts on whether or not to stop at rep for a broken stay at this stage of our training?>>
I personally never ever run the course when the dog has broken the stay – it is actually a bit unfair to the dog to do that because it reinforces broken stays. We humans allow it sometimes because we want to keep the dog happy and fast… but dogs perceive it as “she is good with it because the reinforcement of continuing then the toy was presented, so I will keep offering that behavior.” And then it becomes grey to the dog: sometimes we allow it, sometimes we tell the dog he is wrong to do it. That leads to lack of clarity, which leads to stress – which leads to less enthusiasm. So, I never run when the dog breaks a stay.
However, you do need a plan of what to do when it happens, because it might happen! When my dog breaks a stay in training, I just laugh, tell him he is a cheater or super cute or just call him back (really happy), jog back to the start, reset the sit… then on the next rep absolutely find a way to reinforce either by throwing back a reward or releasing into the sequence *before he breaks*. I do my absolute best to NOT allow a 2nd break of the stay. I also never get mad at the dog: never say “uh oh” or “eh eh” or “Oh MY!” or “NO!” or any of the negative markers (the NRMs actually now have some science behind them that say they hurt more than they help).
If I am greedy and lead out too far and *don’t* reinforce or release before the dog breaks on the 2nd rep (or on a rep shortly thereafter) – then I repeat my happy self – maybe do a couple of tricks to get some reward into the dog. Then I go bang my head against the wall for allowing it LOL!!!!! Then on the next 5 or 10 reps over how ever many sessions I do, I absolutely do not allow it to happen again by early rewards and releasing before I get a break. Tons and tons of reinforcement goes back into the stay.
The clarity builds the behavior, and it is one of the most important behaviors we have in agility (and it is hooked to contacts and the table and even the weaves) so I like to be super clear in a happy, reinforcing way.
Let me know if that makes sense! Great job on the sequences!
Tracy
Good morning!
>>>>>>So did you have to give yourself any time outs from electronics? LOL!
I received 2 penalties. One was time out from electronics, one was picking up shit in the backyard. My wonderful husband typically does that, and he was certainly lovin you that day!!>>>HA!! You’re welcome, Doug LOL!!!!!!!
>>>Also, she really likes the ball as part of this game. Super high value rewards. Yay!
The tennis ball is Wilson’s fav. I tried it early on with Demi and she hated it. I never went back. Guess I should have! It has been awesome in weave training.>>>I guess she likes it now LOL!! She was SO FAST. It was super fun to watch.
>>>>you are bending over a lot and I think that is slowing down your running.
I will try to address this. I have always done it, and it bothers me. Time for a change.>>The key is going to be finding what feels comfortable for you, while allowing you to stay connected – if you run more, you will find that zone. I think you were hovering a bit 🙂 and not running a lot, so ended up a bit bent over. Now, if you are comfortable running and you are connected and you are bit bent over… that is perfectly fine. Some of the best handlers in the world run a bit bent over! So find what makes you comfy and go with it 🙂
T
Hi!
Bearing in mind that everyone can define their verbals differently:>>’m a little confused on right/left verbals….I thought they were more for soft or 90 degree turns. On the serpentines the dogs are doing more of a wrap as they send away and come back in for the serp. So I am trying to decide what the verbal should be for my handling vocabulary or at least understand when/when not to use a directional cue.>>
I define my left and right verbals as “loose turns” where the dog makes roughly a right angle of turn (L-shaped). The dog does NOT come back around the wing in a tight angle on my left and right turn verbals. So, on a 3 jump serpentine, I send him away on my right – he turns left (L shaped) over jump 1, then right (also L shaped) on jump 2 to 3. He never crosses the plane of the wing he just took, so he isn’t wrapping.
I use noises (tststs and choochoochoo) for my wrap verbals, which as U shaped turns and the dog comes all the way back around the wing in a tight collection (very close to the wing, not eventually coming back around it). So on a 3 jump serpentine – he is not wrapping because he never comes back around the wing into the gap. I might use the wrap verbal on a threadle, though!
Let me know if that makes sense.
TracyGood morning!
So did you have to give yourself any time outs from electronics? LOL!
Holy cannoli she was BLAZING on the Go lines. And on the turns! You’re going to need to go shopping for roller skates lol
She pretty much nailed everything here – she lost her line and ended up backside line at :52, you might have been a little closed forward in the connection and blocking the jump a tiny bit – you were further over on the next rep and she nailed it.
On the turn cue at 1:20, when she went straight – your shoulder was closed forward so she did not see the line change. It was a moment of you seeing her but not connecting to her. Scroll back and compare it to what she saw at :34 and :44 -arm back and lots of eye contact and she saw the turn clearly. You had more connected at 1:27 on the next rep and it made a big difference to her.Also, she really likes the ball as part of this game. Super high value rewards. Yay!
On these tunnel turn games: now add in more of your motion so that you get used to driving her in and then driving away on the lines, while maintaining your connection.
On the running rewards sequence:
first rep – she had to collect on jump 2, tried hard, didn’t quite jump high enough. Same thing happened at 3:12 – but I think you were stopped then suddenly pulled away there, so she tried to adjust in the air. Then you turned too much and closed your shoulder forward and a bit too lateral from the line – and you said tunnel to the tunnel, not to her 🙂 Your feet were also pointing to the end of the tunnel she took. So she ended up in the wrong spot. This also happened at 2:50. You were good to reward her! I know you were not fully on board with the reward there LOL! but still be happy because handling errors are always human errors… so happily reward her and don’t beat yourself up 🙂The reps at 2:38 and 3:00ish were GREAT – you were connected and moving along the line, rather than trying to pull away. And she nailed it. Yay! And wowza, she has a new level of speeeeed, I love it!
Speaking of speed… you are bending over a lot and I think that is slowing down your running. You are probably bending because you are working the connection a lot, which is great! You can play with being able to be a little more upright and connected – whatever feels most natural. Having your dog side arm way back, pointing to her toes, when you are ahead might allow you to be more upright and stay connected – play around with it and see how it feels!
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
I am glad you posted these! I love serp training and there are about a million ways to do it 🙂 Feedback from the dog is always welcome and we can tweak things to help him see what we want 🙂
I am not a barrier girl – I find that barriers make us think the dog is understanding but then when the barriers are gone… dog doesn’t understand LOL!!! We tend to use barriers to try to get the full behavior when we will be better served to go back to earlier steps and figure out what the dog isn’t understanding. So I don’t use barriers at all. I agree, though, that we don’t want the mistakes, so here are a couple of other options:
Using the pet tutor was 100% the right choice for him on the 2nd video. The ball was just too stimulating – motion is stimulating plus the ball, so as a Border Collie, he didn’t know how to drive into you and resist the ball. It is an impulse control struggle for sure! So –
A couple of things to build the joy of serpentines:
take it to the flat, away from wings/jumps/barriers. Put a toy on the ground on your right side, and ask him to do a nose touch to your left hand. Your body can simulate serp position but it doesn’t have to – basically, it will help him understand the impulse control of – come to the hand, not the ball, in order to get the ball. If the ball is too hard, start it with the pet tutor. Then go back to the ball after a couple of successful sessions.
If he can do it on the flat – take it to a wing. Add motion while on the wing – but he will need to touch your hand in order to get you to hit the PT or cue the ball grab.
No worries about having him touch your hand for now – it is just to build value for driving in. The chain in in-then-out will be super easy when he loves to drive in.The other thing you can do is one jump without a toy or PT out ahead – just come in towards the momma. I suggest having him touch your hand on the first couple of sessions as he comes in – I think he will appreciate the very clear ‘thing to do’ at first. You can reward that with a cookie then swtich to a toy from the other hand after he is happy to drive in. Then it will be easy to fade that and add in the reward on the ground out ahead.
After a wing with motion, the skill can go back to a jump. And then 2 jumps, When he understands it on a wing and one jump with motion, the rest will be easy peasy! If you are tempted to get out the barriers… go back a step LOL!
The first rep of the big pinwheel tunnel sequence was lovely!! Connected, all the good verbals, FAST!! And a nice turn on the tunnel exit. Yay!
I have no idea why he left after the tunnel on the 2nd rep – something caught his nose and smelled good? Go and Ro sounded too much alike, he realized there was an error and needed to sniff? I do plan to keep bugging you to use something different than Go and RObie 🙂
FC rep: speaking of bugging you about Go versus RO – you said a clear GO and he exited looking at you at :37.
On the FCs – you were actually too early 🙂 Early is good though as long as you are driving forward! But being early slowed him down for a couple of reasons here: by working to get the outside arm up so early – you ended up moving in a bit of a parallel direction towards the 3rd jump rather than a diagonal towards the tunnel – so he went wide over the pinwheel jump, matching your parallel motion. Also, by being a bit too early you ended up facing him and stationary, so he didn’t drive in. On your swing at :37 and :52 – send him to the pinwheel, turn to the tunnel and run forward for a couple of steps – the send to the pinwheel happens when he lands from jump 1, so you will send then leave (with connection of course) – he will see the acceleration cue and 2 thngs will happen: you will drive back towards you faster and you will get to a better position. Then when he lands from the pinwheel jump you will be able to execute the FC – still nice and early but with more speeeeed 🙂 and you won’t end up standing still. You’ll still be on the new arm nice and early and get a great turn but with speed in and out of it. Let me know if that makes sesne – it will still involve the outside arm coming up as you were doing.Nice running rewards on the exits of the tunnel on these – wheeeee! Great job!
TracyHi!
>>His grabbing stuff isn’t all operant yet for all situations, but I’ll take it as a good thing. Pat Miller had a dog, who it was hard for her to keep from picking up rocks. She got it to the point that Bonnie used rocks as a form of currency and brought them to her for treats, but at least she wouldn’t chew on them anymore
Exactly! Grabbing stuff to trade for a treat is far better than grabbing stuff to eat. I will take it!!
I agree that stimulation helps but not always – it is more of a proprioception thing: “how do I do this, mom?!?” 🙂 I think as soon as we can wake up his understanding of pushing from the rear, he will be able to bounce the whole thing. So a suggestion for a different approach:
let’s do it first as a bent set point. He was doing fine bouncing the set point if I recall? So… let’s bend it and transfer the bounce 🙂 It will be 2 of the 3 jumps of this bending grid, on the angle you have here with the 3 foot distance (just remove the 3rd jump). Get him pumped up, then ask him to stay/stay relatively close to the first jump. Plop the toy out past the 2nd jump – straight at first, to get him to bounce it with the jumps angled. If he can do that – then you can repeat the process and gradually change the placement of the toy, so it encourages more and more bending on the bounce. Doing just a couple of reps while he is excited will help! Let me know if that makes sense!Nice job 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
These serp sequences are indeed difficult! They are training sequences and they ended up going really well! Try to be careful of where you have tunnel entries – the red tunnel was a bit of a visual draw for her that made it harder.
1st rep – good handling good reward!!2nd rep – starting with her at :18 made you late to show her the line to 2 so you had a little zig zag. Give yourself a little lead out to make it easier. Nice handling on the serp line!
3rd rep – she missed the middle jump at :30 here. I think a few things caused it – a little bit of delay on the info 1-2 by starting with her, plus the visual draw of the tunnel, plus you turned your shoulder forward. The toy grab was funny though LOL!
4th rep – MUCH better position on the upper body for the serp, great job rewarding that!
Last rep had all the elements – slight lead out so you had clear info 1-2, so she had a great turn on 2. Good serp cue! You moved in towards the last jump a bit more than needed, so be careful not to pressure in, just keep running straight.The tunnel sequence is SO HARD, right?? That was Voodoo in the demo and you can see how hard it was for him as an adult 🙂 The visibility of the 3rd jump makes it pretty hard. Breaking it down was smart – your motion was fine when you started it but she needed to look at it without motion at first, that really helped. When she is coming from the tunnel, you can also slow down – you were moving pretty fast and either it was a little too fast or she got ahead 🙂 So send waaaaaaay away to the tunnel so you can trot through it. Your connection looked really good throughout! And you can also add verbals – calling her name or left/right verbals to help out.
Nice work!!!
TracyGood morning!
This is looking really good! She is showing excellent commitment to the lines – is she barking at you? LOL! She is getting pumped up 🙂 One general note is that you don’t need to call her at the tunnel exit – it turns her attention up to you when we want her to go go go to the jump. A go verbal or a jump verbal would help her not look at you. The crosses look GREAT! I looked at each of them to assess timing: your timing ranged from really good to freakin’ awesome Yay!!
FC: the timing at :05 good. :16 even better! BC timing: Blind at :29 was super! Same with :41 and :51 and 1:03.
On all the crosses you were finished before she took off, and she was reading it because she was turning before she took off. Happy dance!
So – onwards! You can do 2 things with this setup:
spread it out, so she has longer distances between jumps. That will actually give you more time for the crosses – you had very little time on the shorter distances and still nailed it.
Give her a bar to jump – first on the easy jump (the one after the tunnel). Then next session, one of the harder jumps can have more bar (the pinwheel jump or the cross jump) and eventually all 3 will have bars.Great job!
TracyGood morning!
All of these videos looked super! Yay!
One jump serp looks good! Just move the toy further away if it is placed on the ground, he is landing on it2 jumps on left – very nice! Your line of motion was spot on, perfect upper body, and the angle of the jump really helped on the first couple. And you maintained it when you flattened the jumps – note how well he read the line to jump 2 without you needing to step to it.
2 jumps on right – also very nice! You were dipping your shoulder here (maybe looking at your hand or back for connection) on the serp jump and I don’t think he needs it anymore – you can maintain the position and look at him, see how he does with that!
3 jumps – looks good! the slight angles are helping but he also did fine with the flat lines. Your line of motion was exactly right which really helped him out. You were super connected – as with the 2 jumps, leave your upper body open but see if you can fade the dipping shoulder – just look at him with your arm up. I suggest it because it will allow you to run faster. You can also add verbals to this – left/right or soft name call or a jump verbal, just to be able to name the behavior. We add more to this tomorrow!
He did well on the bending grid, I don’t think the height was a problem at all. In a few dayss, try the middle bar at 8″. Also, you can keep turning your shoulder so he turns on the 3rd jump as well. He is following your line of handling, and you were facing a bit straight over 3 so he didn’t really turn. If you keep turning as if you are going to have him take 1 again, he will continue to turn over 3 as well.
Great job!Tracy
Hi!
I think he is doing fine on the tunnel exits – I prefer young dogs to come blasting out as opposed to turning too tightly 🙂
First rep – Go – terrific! Very nice.
Second rep – the last thing he saw before he entered was you facing forward, which is the same cue as the go cue – so he came out turned.
Third rep – I think you were working harder to get him to turn by getting to the tunnel exit faster – so before he entered, he saw you moving straight, faster 🙂 which means accelerate more on the exit.
So to work the turns, maybe put a cone out 3 feet away from the tunnel entry (off to the side, so he passes it and you can see him passing it). When he gets to that 3 foot marker, you turn your feet, call him and move the new direction. That should immediately tighten up the exit because he will see it before entry. He was great about changing lines when you connected when he exited, so I am confident he will read the earlier turn cues really nicely 🙂
Let me know if that makes sense!!T
Hi!
Skye says the bending is hard!! He has his head turned and is sorting out his leads but yes – we need to convince him to bounce these 🙂 He was starting to get it coming in from the wing wrap on the first wing wrap rep at :55 but he couldn’t quite get it sorted out so went to adding a stride. That is a smart way to sort it out! So now we can tweak the grid to help him choose the bouncing – the two things I suggest for that are
– lower bars or, better yet – jump bumps if you have them. Even with low bars, he will hit/drop them so we can use something that is not displaceable.
-shorter distance between the jumps. The grid distances are just general suggestions, and then we tweak based on individual needs. So we can play with distances to see where we get the bouncing: start with 3 foot distances and see. If he bounces, we can try 3.5 feet or 4 feet. It might take some trial and error to find the bounce distnce and that is fine – we can find it then we can gradually expand it to extend his bounce distances.Looks like he was a happy dude coming in from the xpen, lots of good toy play!
>>I did these over the course of 45 minutes with trips to the expen or snuggle time, walking a path, or ball throwing.
That might be why he was more interested in eating stuff at the end – even with other activities in that 45 minute period, he got depleted (any activity will deplete a dog). So if you have 45 minutes of time to train him, I suggest rest breaks only – train for a minute, rest for a few minutes, train for a minute, etc. The ball and path walking can be at the end. Rest can be some sniffy walking for a minute or two or just chilling in the xpen. Does he like to chew on bones? He can chew in the xpen, that is often a great relaxation tool for dogs between turns.
>>is he now eats stuff to get me to ask him to “drop” (which he does really, really, well.) so he gets attention or a cookie.
It is entirely possible that he has switched into more of an operant process on this, rather than the reflexive response – and that is a GOOD thing! The reflexive response was either environmentally triggered (see mulch eat mulch) or triggered by anxiety/stress – not sure we know 100% why. But… if he is choosing to offer the behavior of picking something up to get attention and a treat, it generally means we have left the realm of anxiety/stress/environment issues and are in the ‘normal dog training’ realm. Happy dance!!! So, honestly, I would continue to reinforce operant decisions in those moments for now 🙂 You can try to head them off by watching him closely in situations where he might grab something to get the cookie. When he looks away, call his name and give him the cookie or toy (before the grab). Then you can shape it to him offering looking back at you in those situations – for big rewards. Let me know ifthat makes sense – this shift is a very good thing 🙂
Tracy
