I think we need speed cameras that work in the context of dog training. Seriously, it's my newest creative idea. Certainly *I* would have got a speeding ticket today if I'd had one of those cameras on me. I'm almost expecting to get an expiation notice that says 'You were adding criteria at an unacceptable rate. This resulted in a failure rate for your dogs that was far too high. Your privileges to add more than one criteria in a session have been revoked.'
Ok, so that probably isn't going to happen. But I do like the analogy :)
This afternoon, having not done anything since Tuesday (yes, slack, i know, no excuses!!!) I thought I'd pull out the 2x2s, and since Josh had done so well last time I moved them a little closer together (first mistake). So the first couple of repetitions went quite well. He missed the entry once but after that did a nice entry on the left, then on the right, then we went back to do one on the left again since he'd missed the first one. By this time, Josh was clearly thinking 'Aha! So now she wants me to do that second set of poles. Bugger the first set, I can get my toy more quickly if I go straight for the second set!' So although it was quite a nice, easy entry he was entirely focussed on the second set of 2x2s and just repeated them over and over. I usually try and give each dog a chance to get it right for themsevles without making it easier, but clearly this time I'd gone too far too fast. This many failures in a row told me I'd certainly been 'speeding' as far as my training is concerned. So what will we do next time? I will widen the gap between the two sets again. I will be sure to reward entry to the first set (the correct entry) every few repetitions, thus building value into that. Who can blame the dog, really? If the reward always comes after that second entry, why bother with the first? Our dogs are much smarter than we given them credit for sometimes (or all the time really!!)
Silly me forgot the sets were too close together when I sttarted with Fyre, but I figured I'd give him a few goes anyway, from a very easy entry on the left, and lo and behold after a couple of tries he hit it beautifully. Although the video is unfortunately zoomed in too much here so you can't see everything, do note that most of the time in this session was spent playing with the (new) toy after he got it right. That length of session os bordering on too long for Fyre, so I wanted to finish whilst he was still all bright and 'up' and make the reward for getting it correct an extended and very fun time for him.
(Incidentally, this toy is one I picked up at Go-Lo in the kids' toy section - I don't know what it is actually meant to be used for, but it is soft plastic rippled tubing and sure enough the dogs had a lovely time grabbing and tugging on it. Once again re-affirming my decision that $2.50 toys are nearly always the way to go.)
In summary: Speeding: Think About The Impact (I couldn't resist
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