Monday, December 13, 2010

Shaping versatility - Applying what you've learned

We have a new kid in the house. I adopted my foster dog, Lucky Latin. That means we are now training a new dog from scratch, something I have not had to do in two years. That was with the puppy, Stellaluna. I have not trained an adult dog from scratch since adopting Venus four years ago. Luke wasn't trained to follow commands but he did know enough about living with humans that I could not say we started from scratch. Soliel, still sometimes called Lucky, has just finished racing and ours is the first home he has lived in. The main items of focus with him right now are socialization, exposure to all this big wide world has to offer, and basic obedience training. Training a recently retired racer adopted straight from the kennels is definitely starting from scratch. It has taken me a while to get back into the swing of things. I had forgotten how much fun and frustration can be involved in working with an adult dog who has no clue of even the simplest things about training. Sol asks, "Who me? You're talking to me?"

Luna is my first dog to be trained almost entirely with clicker training. She has taught me a lot of things that I will hopefully remember while working with Soleil. One of the best and most useful things Luna has taught me is the amazing power of shaping. (click links for explanations of terms) She has help me learn directed shaping in particular. Shaping just means shaping a behavior into what you want. In clicker training, which relies on operant conditioning, it specifically means rewarding successive approximations of a behavior. There are different methods. Frequently free shaping is used as an intro into shaping. A classic clicker training exercise is 101 Things to do with a Box uses free shaping. Will veer off course a bit and admit that I when I learned this exercise in our first clicker training class I hated it. The dog I was using for class just sat there staring at me. My other dog at the time enjoyed it but I did not see the point of the exercise. Perhaps the instructor tried to explain the its benefits but I must have missed it. After that class I never did 101 Things again. I did not like it any better when asked years later to try it with Venus & Stellaluna.

Initially Venus did not even sit & stare. She would stretch and then lay down. "What is your problem woman? I don't care about no stinkin' box." However, with the help of the Luna-tic and a wonderfully patient, upbeat instructor I learned the purpose and many benefits of an exercise like 101 Things. That link is different from the first 101 Things link. (There are Greyhound pictures are at the top. Will that get you to click it?) Wish I had had that article when we first started training. It sure would have helped. Anyway, the point is free shaping is a bit ad lib but useful in a variety of ways. The 101 Things exercise helps the person learn how to shape a behavior even if you are just getting used to using a clicker. (You do not have to use a clicker. You can use a word or other noise as a marker.) With Venus, even though she already had a good bit of training, this exercise in free shaping help her learn to offer behaviors instead of waiting for me to give her instructions. This is important because I want a thinking dog, a dog who has learned to problem solve. That speeds up learning and contributes greatly to a dog's versatility. Free shaping is still not my fave though.

What I love most is directed shaping. Though very similar in ways to free shaping, in directed shaping you know what behavior you want and shape specifically for that behavior. As mentioned above, Luna was a big help to me when learning directed shaping. She made it fun. When I then started applying my meager skills to teaching Venus new behaviors the effects were amazing. Venus became much more animated during training. Instead of being just a willing participant, happy for the treats and interaction, Venus became bouncy, tail wagging in excitement, eyes twinkling. Her exuberance and obvious delight was such a thrill to me. The best part was the effect this had on the behaviors she learned through directed shaping. Not only did she enjoy the learning process of learning the behaviors but then took delight in performing those behaviors. Apparently when learning them so rewarding & that much fun the behavior itself becomes almost a reward. That then had an unexpected benefits. My independant, I work for myself not you girl actually started working for praise. Even better we could use some of those simply, rewarding behaviors to give Venus more confidence in otherwise stressful situations. Venus is a reserved, rather timid dog. If she is unsure of a situation she gets stressed. Yet she loves going places & doing things with me. That sometimes leads to her being put in strange, stressful situations. Now when that happens if she looks a bit overwhelmed I just ask her to do a simple behavior she knows well & enjoys. Being able to confidently perform a behavior associated with the good emotions she felt while learning it seems to make stressful situations much easier. It was a huge turning point in not only our training but our entire relationship. It was good before but now it is even better.

There was no turning back then. I was totally hooked on this style of training. Even though I had been using reward based training for years, this method worked so well for my sighthounds that I really wanted to learn more. So early this year Luna & I headed off to a Pat Miller shaping seminar. That weekend is a whole story unto itself but suffice to stay that was started as a very challenging, frustrating, humbling and even embarrassing weekend. Yet it ended with tremendous satisfaction and a feeling of accomplishment. I learned a great deal and now with Soliel I will be putting a lot of it to use. By the way, if you go to that link, scroll down to the picture below "Shaping Molly to rock the cradle", and look in the back corner you will see a chubby woman with legs as pale as the white walls. That is I and of course the beast in front of me is Stellaluna.

So now we have the new boy and I can no longer choose to just hang out or play with the dogs when we should be training. And I say we should be training for many different reasons. Among them are that the dogs love it. They think of it as a game and it builds a very strong relationship between us. It helps us exercise not only their minds but mine as well. As a bonus it helps give them burn off some energy while we get to stay inside where it is warm. Oddly, it also has the effect of energizing them. The more we train the more excited and energetic they get when they think we are going to do something. It is a funny paradox to simultaneously energize and wear out your dogs.

One of the biggest reasons we should be training is that my dogs have learned a lot of behaviors that are at times very important to safety and others just very convenient. In either case we do not use all of those all the time. The phrase use it or lose it applies perfectly here. Without some practice and occasional reinforcement those behavior I take for granted can start to slip or even disappear. For example... uh-hum, errr... well, I hate to admit this but Venus recall has gotten less reliable. Though I am careful about where my dogs are off leash we do use some very, very large fenced off leash areas. The dogs may not be able to dart into traffic but that doesn't mean a solid recall is not necessary for their safety. Venus, my versatile & theoretically well trained Greyhound, was out in the pasture recently doing zoomies when I called her. She immediately spun & rush full speed at me but in her enthusiasm overshot. Ah, that's OK was my thought. She quickly spun to return but didn't stop at me. She gave my leg a token bump & kept going. A flyby?!! Arghhh! Later she was in another area of the yard, excited about something I could not see on the other side of the fence. I called her and got... not even an acknowledgment from her. Had to call her a second time. So yeah, I'd say we need to get back to work on recalls.

And then there is "Leave It". Luna used to be fantastic with this one. On occasion lately though, "Leave It" with the Luna-tic gets her to give a quick flick of her head, really just a token acknowledgment of me & then immediate return of attention to whatever she should be leaving alone. It's like she's asking, "You mean this thing? This very, very attractive thing. Thiiiiiisssss..." And of course by then I barely exist in the Luna-tic fringe where darling Stellaluna often resides. & have to repeat the command. A diminished response to Leave It could be life threatening.

Of course, with Soliel we need to work on everything. All that good stuff Venus, Luke, Luna & I learned together will now be applied to Soliel. While we are training a number of different basic things right now, one of the most important is I need to brush up & expand on with Venus & Luna start to slip. That is attention. Being able to get & keep your dogs attention is essential to training and everyday life. In a prior post I pointed out that the simple acts of getting your dog to turn his attention to you could save his life if you drop a leash. For my dogs, I use shaping to teach them to not only give me their attention when requested but to also offer their attention even when not requested. It a very necessary thing to teach a Greyhound. So that's what we will cover next.

Happy Holidays!