Invisible Training

I have borrowed this term from my good friend Donna :)

Now that I am back home from my various trips and starting to settle back into a routine again, I am back to working with the dogs.

It is amazing the things I notice now that I would not have 12, 24, 36 months ago from a training point of view. The many and varied types of reinforcement for one, and the dogs' access to them. This is the basis for my 'invisible training' (in Donna's words, the training you are doing when the dogs don't realise it is training).

Once you start looking, there are so many skills you can work on without actually going out and 'training' (this is the basis of crate games too of course). First example - my dogs have their own room where they sleep at night, Billie in her crate so she doesn't create too much chaos (!) and the boys having their choice of doggy bed in the room. In the morning, we go from the room through the house to the back door (and the reverse at night). Now, it occurred to me that apart from Fyre (who makes a beeline each way both times) the other two were helping themselves to all sorts of free reinforcements along the way - Josh would wander over to check out where the cat had been eating or sniff the litter box, Billie would race through like a whirlwind looking for a toy to grab. If they were doing this on such a short walk inside the house rather than paying attention to me calling them to the door, how could I expect excellent concentration or recalls out in the wide world?

So, first order of business: dogs on lead from room to back door and vice versa. This therefore limits their chances to grab 'free' reinforcement, and also makes it much more likely I will have a chance to reinforce them for behaviour I DO want. It also means there is more reinforcement from me throughout (i.e. rather than just giving a treat when they come to me, I can treat them the whole way from door to door for paying attention, maybe ten treats). This has already made a big difference. Billie actually now almost looks like a polished obedience dog with head up and watching me at my side the whole way!

Their criteria also involves sitting at the doorway so I can put the leash on - another chance for reinforcement (R+). I.e. sit, R+, leash on, R+, one step, R+, dog gives attention, R+ and so on. (For Billie she has to sit with no paws moving in her crate as I put the leash on).

Then, once we get to the next door the criteria is to sit, and stay sitting whilst I remove the leash (lots more R+) and not move until I walk out the door ahead and give my release cue. (Which it occurred to me was an excellent way to practice start line stays - it is the same process as lining up at the start line - dog sits, remove lead, wait for release cue - hence 'invisible training'). Because they are also excited first thing in the morning and keen to race outside, it also allows them to perform these behaviours with a high arousal level - good practice for the exciting trial environment.

This is just one part of what we have been working on, but there are so many more applications - I might go through a few more when I have more time!