Hi all,
This week has been as hot as an oven, so I haven't taken Peepers out to the barn. He's been a little unhappy about it, and has even taken to putting himself in his carrier and then calling to me to get my attention. Poor guy. I think I will have to take him out there even if we bake really soon.
Sparky has gotten in enough feathers now so she can fly about 30 feet. She doesn't gain any altitude, and landings are a bear for her, but she has started using her wings again to take her as far as they will, then walking the rest of the way. So now I am constantly on the lookout for little miss greenjeans on the floor. It's awesome to see her start to get her mojo back, and I can't wait til she's cruising around the house like she used to :).
Dempsey has been a rockstar with his flyball training. At practice this past Sunday, only one thing of note happened - we lined him up for recalls against a little dog named Kix. Kix is small, but mighty, and is of the philosophy "say it loud, say it proud". For the first recall, Dempsey was watching Kix and missed the jumps. We changed it up for the next few recalls, letting Dempsey go first, and he got his head together and recalled like he's supposed to. He needs lots of practice with this kind of distraction, just to make it clear to him that he can do his job even when other things are going on.
I borrowed one of the team boxes, and Dempsey has gotten to practice his box turn at home. He's been totally awesome for the super short sessions we have had. When he gets tired, he hits the bar he's supposed to be jumping over, so I am making sure that I don't give him the tug for those efforts and also am trying to be more aware of how tired and hot Dempsey is getting. I think he's going to get it really soon.
I also tested Dempsey in the field behind the house to see if he would drop the ball when presented with the tug during a retrieve. In flyball, the dogs have to carry the ball over the line, so some dogs need to be taught to carry the ball to you in order to get the tug. Dempsey's inclination was to drop the ball just as he got to the tug, so for now I shouldn't have to do anything to teach him about bringing me the ball. Yeah!
There's a cool front coming through in the next few days, so I am hoping to get outside with everyone and train a bunch of stuff. I'll be crossing my fingers...
Showing posts with label Dempsey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dempsey. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Little bit of training with Peepers and some thoughts
Hi all,
This morning I got up almost reasonably early and took Peepers out to the barn before it got too hot. Since I had gotten up a little later than I wanted to, and it was already getting warm, I went out in my pj's and without combing my hair. Hence, there is no video. Vain, I know, but there are limits here :).
Peepers was pretty excited about going out there, and this time I didn't take Sparky. It was going to be just him and me, then Sidney the lab pushed his way out the gate, so he went into the barn with us. We started how we had ended the last session, with the pole in the same spot in relation to the perches. I worked on moving the perches so that the three things would be in a straight line, and Peepers would have to fly in a half circle to go from perch to perch. There was a time in this session where Peepers started to have trouble. He was going from the shorter perch to the taller one, flying on my right side. He was supposed to fly on the right side of the pole, but he instead flew on the left side of the pole and on my right (for those who are having trouble picturing this, that put him between me and the pole). We worked on this for what was probably 3-4 reps, then suddenly it clicked for him, and Peepers started flying from perch to perch on the correct side. He could hardly wait to take his next turn. I'd give him his pine nut, and he'd turn right around and almost immediately fly again. I had a hard time keeping up with him, making sure I cued the next flight before he took off. All in all, it was a really good session, and I kind of regret not taping it.
As I think about how to go about training Peepers in these skills, I try to draw off of the experiences I have had teaching the dogs similar skills for agility. If I wanted to teach the dogs to go out around a pole, it would be a simple matter of having a pole and slowly moving away from it while asking for the dog to go around it. With Peepers, it is different. I have to set up the perches, which limits some of the choices Peepers makes, and also changes the exercise in some ways. I think that the perches almost distract from the behavior I am trying to teach, a "go around". There also could potentially be a difference in how Peepers thinks about his movement in relation to me. I think that these 2 things may be affecting how quickly Peepers is learning this skill. I am really not sure how to change the exercise, so my plan right now is to keep going as I am (at least one of us has done it this way before), and think about how I might make things easier for Peepers.
As far as Dempsey goes, I have placed a jump in front of a stair for him to jump onto and off, trying to replicate a swimmer's turn on a box until I can get a shell built for him. I am not sure that this is close enough, so I am trying to get the shell built sooner rather than later to be sure we are practicing exactly what we want to. He's doing very well on the stair, and I am looking forward to seeing how he does this weekend at practice.
This morning I got up almost reasonably early and took Peepers out to the barn before it got too hot. Since I had gotten up a little later than I wanted to, and it was already getting warm, I went out in my pj's and without combing my hair. Hence, there is no video. Vain, I know, but there are limits here :).
Peepers was pretty excited about going out there, and this time I didn't take Sparky. It was going to be just him and me, then Sidney the lab pushed his way out the gate, so he went into the barn with us. We started how we had ended the last session, with the pole in the same spot in relation to the perches. I worked on moving the perches so that the three things would be in a straight line, and Peepers would have to fly in a half circle to go from perch to perch. There was a time in this session where Peepers started to have trouble. He was going from the shorter perch to the taller one, flying on my right side. He was supposed to fly on the right side of the pole, but he instead flew on the left side of the pole and on my right (for those who are having trouble picturing this, that put him between me and the pole). We worked on this for what was probably 3-4 reps, then suddenly it clicked for him, and Peepers started flying from perch to perch on the correct side. He could hardly wait to take his next turn. I'd give him his pine nut, and he'd turn right around and almost immediately fly again. I had a hard time keeping up with him, making sure I cued the next flight before he took off. All in all, it was a really good session, and I kind of regret not taping it.
As I think about how to go about training Peepers in these skills, I try to draw off of the experiences I have had teaching the dogs similar skills for agility. If I wanted to teach the dogs to go out around a pole, it would be a simple matter of having a pole and slowly moving away from it while asking for the dog to go around it. With Peepers, it is different. I have to set up the perches, which limits some of the choices Peepers makes, and also changes the exercise in some ways. I think that the perches almost distract from the behavior I am trying to teach, a "go around". There also could potentially be a difference in how Peepers thinks about his movement in relation to me. I think that these 2 things may be affecting how quickly Peepers is learning this skill. I am really not sure how to change the exercise, so my plan right now is to keep going as I am (at least one of us has done it this way before), and think about how I might make things easier for Peepers.
As far as Dempsey goes, I have placed a jump in front of a stair for him to jump onto and off, trying to replicate a swimmer's turn on a box until I can get a shell built for him. I am not sure that this is close enough, so I am trying to get the shell built sooner rather than later to be sure we are practicing exactly what we want to. He's doing very well on the stair, and I am looking forward to seeing how he does this weekend at practice.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Some good days :)
Hi all,
I haven't had time to post about my training adventures in a few days, but I did manage to video them and post them to youtube. We've done some fun stuff, and since I can't remember all of it, I have been reviewing the tapes so I can post what I remember from the sessions.
On Friday, I was able to take Peepers and Sparky out to the barn. Peepers is working on flying around a pole, and Sparky is getting used to being out in the barn. The basic flow of the session is that I work with Peepers while Sparky hangs out on my shoulder. When Peepers needs a short break, I would take Sparky to one of the perches and give her a big almond. She would hang out on the perch and I would go back to Peepers and do little tricks while he caught his breath. When she was done, I would take her off the perch and go back to working on the whole pole thing with Peepers.
There isn't a ton in the first video. It takes a few minutes for Peepers to get into the swing of things, but even during that time, he was interested in the idea of training, he just needed to get into the swing of things. He did some nice reps of flying around the pole. One thing I think I need to note on this is that when Peepers is unsure of something, he tends to not want to take off from the perch he is on. He is much more confident flying from my hand. So, when he shows interest, but is hesitant, I ask him to step up and then cue "go" from there. I don't launch him in this situation, I keep my hand steady and let him make the choice to go. I don't know why this makes a difference for him, but since it does, I use it to break the ice, so to speak. You'll see it in the middle of this video - Peepers gets a little hesitant to leave the taller perch, so I ask him to step up and then send from there. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yScB2-D6IM0
In the second half of the session, I moved the pole and perches around a bit. There is also a spot at about 0:54, where I cue Peepers to go, and he goes, but flies on my side of the pole. This was an incorrect behavior, but I had clicked in anticipation of him going around correctly (my bad!), so I gave him a pine nut, but then picked him right back up and put him back on the lower perch and asked for the correct behavior. I believe that if I click, the animal should get the reinforcer. If I hadn't clicked, I would have just simply picked Peepers up and put him back on the lower perch and asked again. This was the only thing in this half that seemed noteworthy to me. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYJTkcSXuwI&NR=1
The battery was running out, so I planned on ending the session, and turned off the camera. We hung out in the barn for a while more, while Peepers explored the bars more than he ever has before. Sparky of course hung out on my shoulder and watched :). I did notice that this session was pretty hard on Peepers physically - he was very hot and tired by the end of it.
On Sunday, I took Bungee and Dempsey to another team's flyball practice. I've known some of these members for 10 years or so from seeing them around flyball and agility, so I knew that we should get along pretty well. Dempsey did really well, we did recalls from the box with a dog in the other lane, and he was very solid about it, just looked down his own lane and ran his heart out. The only time he slowed down a little was when I was out of breath and didn't call him or speak at all (note to self - get in shape!!). He also did box work, which this team does a little differently. I have been shaping the turn, and had progressed to getting 4 feet on the box (inconsistently). Pam suggested that I start to use a jump before the box, so we introduced that to Dempsey. Kyle taped it for me, so I am able to share; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W3rc6gyXCw&feature=channel and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONJlOQYsDwc&NR=1. You can see at about the 5 minute marker in the second video where Dempsey is jumping the jump against the box and he hits the box with his left rear foot. Pam immediately moved the jump to help make Dempsey's job more clear - all 4 feet over the jump without touching it. Within one or two reps, the jump was back against the box and Dempsey did a wonderful turn. I learned a bunch, some of which I had forgotten. 1.) Get in Shape!!! 2.) Motivation is key, and your energy level will be reflected in the dog 3.) Sometimes you gotta talk (or in this sport, holler) at your dog 4.) get in shape!!!
I think I know where we're going with the box turn, so I plan on working on getting Dempsey to offer to go over a short agility jump while I am futher back from it this week. We also don't want him to touch the bar, so I will be careful to reinforce when he doesn't knock the bar. I am also planning to build another faux-box to work on this skill with a slanted surface behind it. Hopefully by next week we will be able to show some real progress on this.
I haven't had time to post about my training adventures in a few days, but I did manage to video them and post them to youtube. We've done some fun stuff, and since I can't remember all of it, I have been reviewing the tapes so I can post what I remember from the sessions.
On Friday, I was able to take Peepers and Sparky out to the barn. Peepers is working on flying around a pole, and Sparky is getting used to being out in the barn. The basic flow of the session is that I work with Peepers while Sparky hangs out on my shoulder. When Peepers needs a short break, I would take Sparky to one of the perches and give her a big almond. She would hang out on the perch and I would go back to Peepers and do little tricks while he caught his breath. When she was done, I would take her off the perch and go back to working on the whole pole thing with Peepers.
There isn't a ton in the first video. It takes a few minutes for Peepers to get into the swing of things, but even during that time, he was interested in the idea of training, he just needed to get into the swing of things. He did some nice reps of flying around the pole. One thing I think I need to note on this is that when Peepers is unsure of something, he tends to not want to take off from the perch he is on. He is much more confident flying from my hand. So, when he shows interest, but is hesitant, I ask him to step up and then cue "go" from there. I don't launch him in this situation, I keep my hand steady and let him make the choice to go. I don't know why this makes a difference for him, but since it does, I use it to break the ice, so to speak. You'll see it in the middle of this video - Peepers gets a little hesitant to leave the taller perch, so I ask him to step up and then send from there. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yScB2-D6IM0
In the second half of the session, I moved the pole and perches around a bit. There is also a spot at about 0:54, where I cue Peepers to go, and he goes, but flies on my side of the pole. This was an incorrect behavior, but I had clicked in anticipation of him going around correctly (my bad!), so I gave him a pine nut, but then picked him right back up and put him back on the lower perch and asked for the correct behavior. I believe that if I click, the animal should get the reinforcer. If I hadn't clicked, I would have just simply picked Peepers up and put him back on the lower perch and asked again. This was the only thing in this half that seemed noteworthy to me. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYJTkcSXuwI&NR=1
The battery was running out, so I planned on ending the session, and turned off the camera. We hung out in the barn for a while more, while Peepers explored the bars more than he ever has before. Sparky of course hung out on my shoulder and watched :). I did notice that this session was pretty hard on Peepers physically - he was very hot and tired by the end of it.
On Sunday, I took Bungee and Dempsey to another team's flyball practice. I've known some of these members for 10 years or so from seeing them around flyball and agility, so I knew that we should get along pretty well. Dempsey did really well, we did recalls from the box with a dog in the other lane, and he was very solid about it, just looked down his own lane and ran his heart out. The only time he slowed down a little was when I was out of breath and didn't call him or speak at all (note to self - get in shape!!). He also did box work, which this team does a little differently. I have been shaping the turn, and had progressed to getting 4 feet on the box (inconsistently). Pam suggested that I start to use a jump before the box, so we introduced that to Dempsey. Kyle taped it for me, so I am able to share; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W3rc6gyXCw&feature=channel and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONJlOQYsDwc&NR=1. You can see at about the 5 minute marker in the second video where Dempsey is jumping the jump against the box and he hits the box with his left rear foot. Pam immediately moved the jump to help make Dempsey's job more clear - all 4 feet over the jump without touching it. Within one or two reps, the jump was back against the box and Dempsey did a wonderful turn. I learned a bunch, some of which I had forgotten. 1.) Get in Shape!!! 2.) Motivation is key, and your energy level will be reflected in the dog 3.) Sometimes you gotta talk (or in this sport, holler) at your dog 4.) get in shape!!!
I think I know where we're going with the box turn, so I plan on working on getting Dempsey to offer to go over a short agility jump while I am futher back from it this week. We also don't want him to touch the bar, so I will be careful to reinforce when he doesn't knock the bar. I am also planning to build another faux-box to work on this skill with a slanted surface behind it. Hopefully by next week we will be able to show some real progress on this.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Dempsey grabs the spotlight
Hey all,
This past weekend I went to a flyball practice for the first time since mid-May. Back then, Dempsey was having trouble getting 3 feet on the box for his turns, and was doing recalls in side by side lanes. There is some video of Dempsey learning his box turn on youtube, and if you're interested, you can look back in the blog for the links. I expected Dempsey to be able to do his recalls, and I thought he may get 3 feet on the box again if I were lucky.
Dempsey did as expected in his recalls, and he hated being touched by the guy holding him. Nothing new there, Besides giving Dempsey a goodie every time the man touched him, I think he will start looking forward to lining up because that means the start of the race. But that requires some experience, so we'll just keep plugging along with that concept.
A little later, Dempsey came back out for his box work. I decided to use a tug to reinforce good offered turns, because I think he needs to be a little more "up" to get better turns. I didn't use it earlier because I wanted him to offer the behavior, and in order to do that, Dempsey needs to be thinking. In any case, once he decided the man standing on the box wasn't going to touch him, Dempsey got right back to offering 3 feet on the box. Within a couple of reps, he offered a beautiful 4 foot turn! Seriously, it was gorgeous! Every once in a while something will just click for Dempsey, and it is such a beautiful thing. I am planning to film next time to hopefully get some record of our progress and how we are doing.
Bungee needs a mention here - he was his normal stellar self, and just did his job like he knows how to do. He even demo'd the steps we took when I shaped his box turn with a clicker for a couple of people who were interested. He really is a neat little dog :).
I also took Peepers out to the barn this morning. It's time to start filming these sessions, as he is getting more and more confident, and I am now ready to start working on introducing a pole for him to fly around. In this session, Peepers was flying when cued pretty well, even though the barn was creaking a lot from the wind. He was offering his bottoms up behavior a TON, I guess he likes that trick, and I will be trying to use it as a reinforcer for other behaviors. He also did something that was good, but not right, that I have to think about. I cued him to fly to a perch, and on the way, for the first time, he decided to land on my arm. I like the idea that if he feels the need to abort a mission, that he lands on me, but I want to encourage him to go where cued. So I let him land, then took him to the perch I had cued him to. When he stepped down onto it, I gave him a pine nut. I think this gives him a pretty good balance to the problem - he can land on me if he wants, but the big reinforcers happen when he gets to where I ask him to go.
I got kind of excited after this morning's training (Peepers just did so well), and was home this afternoon, so I decided to do another session out there, and I thought it would be a good idea to bring Sparky out and introduce her to the barn also. I also filmed it, because I started 2 new things: Sparky's intro to the barn, and Peepers learning to fly around a pole.
The session didn't go quite as planned. Peepers seemed to be a little upset, I suspect because Sparky was there and on my shoulder. He offered exactly zero bottoms ups, lol, and did I think one on cue. Sparky wasn't interested in being anywhere but my shoulder, so what work I did with Peepers was done with her right there. I was able to introduce the pole to Peepers, and we did get to the point where he has to think about the pole while he flew from one perch to the other, but he really didn't have to change his path at all. He did of course notice the pole, and it affected him in that he wasn't able/willing to leave one perch for the other, so I just asked him to fly from my hand, as you can see from the video. One or 2 times I felt like I had to kind of dump him off my hand - I feel like I can no longer allow him to sit on my hand and regurgitate, so when he starts to do that, I rotate my hand around to force a different behavior. I suspect this isn't the best idea, and I am going to try and avoid the situation entirely as best I can in the future.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw4f6UjegGY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4enLervkqQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgHuBUztvQw
There's also some other kind of interesting things to note. The parrots are left loose in the house overnight, and in the morning, Peepers has the option of eating to his heart's content, with foraging everywhere and all sorts of goodies. When I took him out to the barn in the morning, the poops he did out there had almost nothing in them. It could be that he had already digested the stuff he ate in the morning, or he could be a light eater. I have no idea, but for those who are interested in the whole food management thing, it's worth noting.
I also have been concerned about all the pine nuts and almonds Peepers has been getting from all the training. Today after both sessions, I cleaned up the bird room, and there was a pile of regurgitated pine nuts in a pile on the floor. I think they were from the second session, just because the young dogs would have cleaned them up if they had had access to them, but I don't know for sure. So, I am going to keep an eye on this and see if he's stuffing himself to the point where he can't keep it all down on a regular basis. I don't know what I would do about it, but hey, I at least want to know if it's happening :).
This past weekend I went to a flyball practice for the first time since mid-May. Back then, Dempsey was having trouble getting 3 feet on the box for his turns, and was doing recalls in side by side lanes. There is some video of Dempsey learning his box turn on youtube, and if you're interested, you can look back in the blog for the links. I expected Dempsey to be able to do his recalls, and I thought he may get 3 feet on the box again if I were lucky.
Dempsey did as expected in his recalls, and he hated being touched by the guy holding him. Nothing new there, Besides giving Dempsey a goodie every time the man touched him, I think he will start looking forward to lining up because that means the start of the race. But that requires some experience, so we'll just keep plugging along with that concept.
A little later, Dempsey came back out for his box work. I decided to use a tug to reinforce good offered turns, because I think he needs to be a little more "up" to get better turns. I didn't use it earlier because I wanted him to offer the behavior, and in order to do that, Dempsey needs to be thinking. In any case, once he decided the man standing on the box wasn't going to touch him, Dempsey got right back to offering 3 feet on the box. Within a couple of reps, he offered a beautiful 4 foot turn! Seriously, it was gorgeous! Every once in a while something will just click for Dempsey, and it is such a beautiful thing. I am planning to film next time to hopefully get some record of our progress and how we are doing.
Bungee needs a mention here - he was his normal stellar self, and just did his job like he knows how to do. He even demo'd the steps we took when I shaped his box turn with a clicker for a couple of people who were interested. He really is a neat little dog :).
I also took Peepers out to the barn this morning. It's time to start filming these sessions, as he is getting more and more confident, and I am now ready to start working on introducing a pole for him to fly around. In this session, Peepers was flying when cued pretty well, even though the barn was creaking a lot from the wind. He was offering his bottoms up behavior a TON, I guess he likes that trick, and I will be trying to use it as a reinforcer for other behaviors. He also did something that was good, but not right, that I have to think about. I cued him to fly to a perch, and on the way, for the first time, he decided to land on my arm. I like the idea that if he feels the need to abort a mission, that he lands on me, but I want to encourage him to go where cued. So I let him land, then took him to the perch I had cued him to. When he stepped down onto it, I gave him a pine nut. I think this gives him a pretty good balance to the problem - he can land on me if he wants, but the big reinforcers happen when he gets to where I ask him to go.
I got kind of excited after this morning's training (Peepers just did so well), and was home this afternoon, so I decided to do another session out there, and I thought it would be a good idea to bring Sparky out and introduce her to the barn also. I also filmed it, because I started 2 new things: Sparky's intro to the barn, and Peepers learning to fly around a pole.
The session didn't go quite as planned. Peepers seemed to be a little upset, I suspect because Sparky was there and on my shoulder. He offered exactly zero bottoms ups, lol, and did I think one on cue. Sparky wasn't interested in being anywhere but my shoulder, so what work I did with Peepers was done with her right there. I was able to introduce the pole to Peepers, and we did get to the point where he has to think about the pole while he flew from one perch to the other, but he really didn't have to change his path at all. He did of course notice the pole, and it affected him in that he wasn't able/willing to leave one perch for the other, so I just asked him to fly from my hand, as you can see from the video. One or 2 times I felt like I had to kind of dump him off my hand - I feel like I can no longer allow him to sit on my hand and regurgitate, so when he starts to do that, I rotate my hand around to force a different behavior. I suspect this isn't the best idea, and I am going to try and avoid the situation entirely as best I can in the future.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw4f6UjegGY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4enLervkqQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgHuBUztvQw
There's also some other kind of interesting things to note. The parrots are left loose in the house overnight, and in the morning, Peepers has the option of eating to his heart's content, with foraging everywhere and all sorts of goodies. When I took him out to the barn in the morning, the poops he did out there had almost nothing in them. It could be that he had already digested the stuff he ate in the morning, or he could be a light eater. I have no idea, but for those who are interested in the whole food management thing, it's worth noting.
I also have been concerned about all the pine nuts and almonds Peepers has been getting from all the training. Today after both sessions, I cleaned up the bird room, and there was a pile of regurgitated pine nuts in a pile on the floor. I think they were from the second session, just because the young dogs would have cleaned them up if they had had access to them, but I don't know for sure. So, I am going to keep an eye on this and see if he's stuffing himself to the point where he can't keep it all down on a regular basis. I don't know what I would do about it, but hey, I at least want to know if it's happening :).
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Bits of stuff here and there
Hi all,
For the past coupla days, I've been taking Peepers out to the barn to work on flight stuff and acclimating to the barn. The heat has kind of taken it out of him, so I have backed off other training. But today, it has cooled off to a lovely 95 degrees, so we were able to work on everything.
First off I guess is what's happening in the barn. Every day, Peepers is more willing to do more things he knows, but he still has a lot that he is concerned about. I can hardly blame him. Yesterday, the neighbors right on the other side of the fence were working on their RV, and today the new tenant in the garage apartment came out to say hi. In addition, there's a mockingbird nest right outside one of the big doors, and that bird does some interesting things :). We've also had model airplanes in the field behind the property, breezes that make the barn creak, and lots of other new stuff. What's great about all of this is that Peepers has continued to work with me, and tried to pay attention. Today was the first day Peepers did not want to come back in the house when we were done training, so I ended up spending quite a bit of time picking him up, walking to his travel cage, watching him fly off, and walking to pick him up. over and over and over again. There's a technique that some people use with dogs to get them to pay attention that may help Peepers in this case that I am considering - if he refuses to go in his cage, I may leave the building and walk out of sight. I want to be sure that this will be effective for him, though before I try it - if he doesn't care whether or not I am around, this will fizzle badly :).
The dogs have been interesting. Hold is coming along ok, with Bungee telling me it is IMPOSSIBLE to hold a clay coaster. IMPOSSIBLE. It doesn't matter that Sophie does it. IMPOSSIBLE. Dempsey is almost managing to sit still while holding, although I am reminding myself constantly to make sure I reinforce before he starts to wiggle. One misstep, and he's wiggling all over the place again. Sophie has turned into such a little holding pro that I wanted to take a picture of her holding a sunflower from the backyard. The sunflowers have little fuzzy spiky things on the stems, and although she would hold it, she looked like I beat her into doing it. So I didn't snap a shot. I'll try and find something else cute to do...
Peepers harness session turned out super short. It seemed to me that he really didn't want to do it, but he was sticking around like he did want to train. So I asked him to put his head in one time and we would be done. So that's what he did lol. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoSAQgSD9sQ
Sparky, OTOH, was a rock star. Today she left her head in the big loop while it touched her. Pretty big deal, IMO :). I think Sparky's progress is more typical of an adult parrot learning about the harness - she's going at a slow but steady pace, whereas Peepers started like gangbusters and has slowed considerably. I find it easier to know how much more to try with Sparky on any given session, I think because I feel like I know more about how she's feeling. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYVoz3C5U7k
Then I worked on the retrieve with both of them. Peepers is doing pretty well, and is starting to move his head slightly towards my hand when he drops the diehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YGDP8L_5tY . Sparky had a big session on this - she picked up the die and started running around with it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Fke_JF2ecg I don't think she knew quite what she should do with it, but eventually she let go. It seemed like it was a pretty big deal in her book, so I asked her to pick it up a couple more times and we were done. Sometimes she is so silly...
For the past coupla days, I've been taking Peepers out to the barn to work on flight stuff and acclimating to the barn. The heat has kind of taken it out of him, so I have backed off other training. But today, it has cooled off to a lovely 95 degrees, so we were able to work on everything.
First off I guess is what's happening in the barn. Every day, Peepers is more willing to do more things he knows, but he still has a lot that he is concerned about. I can hardly blame him. Yesterday, the neighbors right on the other side of the fence were working on their RV, and today the new tenant in the garage apartment came out to say hi. In addition, there's a mockingbird nest right outside one of the big doors, and that bird does some interesting things :). We've also had model airplanes in the field behind the property, breezes that make the barn creak, and lots of other new stuff. What's great about all of this is that Peepers has continued to work with me, and tried to pay attention. Today was the first day Peepers did not want to come back in the house when we were done training, so I ended up spending quite a bit of time picking him up, walking to his travel cage, watching him fly off, and walking to pick him up. over and over and over again. There's a technique that some people use with dogs to get them to pay attention that may help Peepers in this case that I am considering - if he refuses to go in his cage, I may leave the building and walk out of sight. I want to be sure that this will be effective for him, though before I try it - if he doesn't care whether or not I am around, this will fizzle badly :).
The dogs have been interesting. Hold is coming along ok, with Bungee telling me it is IMPOSSIBLE to hold a clay coaster. IMPOSSIBLE. It doesn't matter that Sophie does it. IMPOSSIBLE. Dempsey is almost managing to sit still while holding, although I am reminding myself constantly to make sure I reinforce before he starts to wiggle. One misstep, and he's wiggling all over the place again. Sophie has turned into such a little holding pro that I wanted to take a picture of her holding a sunflower from the backyard. The sunflowers have little fuzzy spiky things on the stems, and although she would hold it, she looked like I beat her into doing it. So I didn't snap a shot
Peepers harness session turned out super short. It seemed to me that he really didn't want to do it, but he was sticking around like he did want to train. So I asked him to put his head in one time and we would be done. So that's what he did lol. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoSAQgSD9sQ
Sparky, OTOH, was a rock star. Today she left her head in the big loop while it touched her. Pretty big deal, IMO :). I think Sparky's progress is more typical of an adult parrot learning about the harness - she's going at a slow but steady pace, whereas Peepers started like gangbusters and has slowed considerably. I find it easier to know how much more to try with Sparky on any given session, I think because I feel like I know more about how she's feeling. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYVoz3C5U7k
Then I worked on the retrieve with both of them. Peepers is doing pretty well, and is starting to move his head slightly towards my hand when he drops the diehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YGDP8L_5tY . Sparky had a big session on this - she picked up the die and started running around with it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Fke_JF2ecg I don't think she knew quite what she should do with it, but eventually she let go. It seemed like it was a pretty big deal in her book, so I asked her to pick it up a couple more times and we were done. Sometimes she is so silly...
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
So, I was going to post a bit about what happened yesterday, but I really don't remember the details and all I was thinking. I do know that I started with flight stuff with Peepers, and my impression is that it went well, with more work of course to be done with discriminating between cues. I also have decided to try and separate the flight and harness/table sessions a little bit because I think the flight stuff seems to interfere with Peeper's interest in the harness stuff.
In any case, I did Sparky next. Her video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4z0KS_21LI. At the end, I did try to start the wing lift the same way I have done it with Peepers. She seems pretty offended by my efforts, so I will have to play it by ear.
Peepers got his turn. I thought I would try and get him to just leave the big loop over his head and do a wing lift. I think this may be a good way to get him to understand he can do things while it's on, and give him a little more confidence in getting out. You can see his solution to the problem of what to do when I cued the wing lift while the loop was over his head here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MP2jVgOLHk
Today, I did the flight training about 2 hours before my planned time for harness stuff. Peepers was pretty good, but I did find an area where he was very confused about whether to fly to the perch or come to me. He has been doing either successfully on cue from other areas of the room, but this one spot had him just befuddled. I'm not positive what it was about this one spot that caused so much problems for him, but we worked on it. I suspect that it will still be a problem tomorrow, so I plan on working with him on it then.
I also played with the dogs a bit, something I really need to do more of. Bungee seems to have decided it is actually possible to move while holding something, but he mouths a little bit while he's doing it. He also is learning to target his foot, which I will build up to a "go to" target. Dempsey is still learning to hold. He's so so fidgety while he's got the dumbell in his mouth, but before I have taken it from his mouth. He taught me (again!) today that I really need to take the dumbell BEFORE he starts to fidget if I want to have any hope at all of teaching him to stay still. It made for some really rapidfire reps, but I think that if i keep that in mind, he will have it down in no time. Sophie has reminded me that she, in fact, is the queen of all things and will hold anything I hand to her if there's cheese involved. That's a girl that never forgets what she's learned :).
I started the 2nd parrot session with a new fun skill for Peepers - the retrieve. I spose technically it's not new, as he did learn it about 8 years ago, but he hasn't been asked to do a retrieve for at least 5 years. So I decided to start over and shape it again. I used a die because I wanted something relatively easy to carry but not too interesting to fiddle with. And, I wanted it to show up on camera decently. The beginning of this looks much like 101 things - look c/t, approach c/t, touch c/t, etc etc. Peepers enjoyed it very very much - he's now regurgitating while he works on some things, and this was one of them. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIVBkcYe0IE
Then Sparky was squeaking for her turn, and we worked on her harness stuff again. She has started exploring the harness a little bit more, and was putting her head fully into the loop to target the stick. I think she's starting to figure this isn't a big deal, and maybe we'll be able to make some more progress on this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=To41Hz9wKmc
Peepers was a total pest during Sparky's turn, so I thought he'd be pretty up for one more turn, this time working on the harness. I am still thinking that a wing lift while the big loop is draped on him will help Peepers a lot, so I continued to work towards this today. He's kind of funny, offering the wing lift before he sticks his head in, and after he takes it out, but he still isn't quite up for doing while the loop is across his neck. It's ok, because he's more willing to try this than he was to put his head through the small loop. I like that I am getting back the willingness that I was starting to lose. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfOgkfJVYmA
One thing that I am not to happy about is my inability to quit before the parrots do. Today, Sparky swallowed a pc of almond wrong, and needed to stop. For some silly reason, I asked her to do one more rep before quitting. I know better. And Peepers is starting to leave the session earlier than I plan on, which is so so bad. So, I am going to try and make sure I don't ask for more than they are willing to do. And I will be giving myself a think on the head if i fail to do it lol.
In any case, I did Sparky next. Her video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4z0KS_21LI. At the end, I did try to start the wing lift the same way I have done it with Peepers. She seems pretty offended by my efforts, so I will have to play it by ear.
Peepers got his turn. I thought I would try and get him to just leave the big loop over his head and do a wing lift. I think this may be a good way to get him to understand he can do things while it's on, and give him a little more confidence in getting out. You can see his solution to the problem of what to do when I cued the wing lift while the loop was over his head here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MP2jVgOLHk
Today, I did the flight training about 2 hours before my planned time for harness stuff. Peepers was pretty good, but I did find an area where he was very confused about whether to fly to the perch or come to me. He has been doing either successfully on cue from other areas of the room, but this one spot had him just befuddled. I'm not positive what it was about this one spot that caused so much problems for him, but we worked on it. I suspect that it will still be a problem tomorrow, so I plan on working with him on it then.
I also played with the dogs a bit, something I really need to do more of. Bungee seems to have decided it is actually possible to move while holding something, but he mouths a little bit while he's doing it. He also is learning to target his foot, which I will build up to a "go to" target. Dempsey is still learning to hold. He's so so fidgety while he's got the dumbell in his mouth, but before I have taken it from his mouth. He taught me (again!) today that I really need to take the dumbell BEFORE he starts to fidget if I want to have any hope at all of teaching him to stay still. It made for some really rapidfire reps, but I think that if i keep that in mind, he will have it down in no time. Sophie has reminded me that she, in fact, is the queen of all things and will hold anything I hand to her if there's cheese involved. That's a girl that never forgets what she's learned :).
I started the 2nd parrot session with a new fun skill for Peepers - the retrieve. I spose technically it's not new, as he did learn it about 8 years ago, but he hasn't been asked to do a retrieve for at least 5 years. So I decided to start over and shape it again. I used a die because I wanted something relatively easy to carry but not too interesting to fiddle with. And, I wanted it to show up on camera decently. The beginning of this looks much like 101 things - look c/t, approach c/t, touch c/t, etc etc. Peepers enjoyed it very very much - he's now regurgitating while he works on some things, and this was one of them. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIVBkcYe0IE
Then Sparky was squeaking for her turn, and we worked on her harness stuff again. She has started exploring the harness a little bit more, and was putting her head fully into the loop to target the stick. I think she's starting to figure this isn't a big deal, and maybe we'll be able to make some more progress on this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=To41Hz9wKmc
Peepers was a total pest during Sparky's turn, so I thought he'd be pretty up for one more turn, this time working on the harness. I am still thinking that a wing lift while the big loop is draped on him will help Peepers a lot, so I continued to work towards this today. He's kind of funny, offering the wing lift before he sticks his head in, and after he takes it out, but he still isn't quite up for doing while the loop is across his neck. It's ok, because he's more willing to try this than he was to put his head through the small loop. I like that I am getting back the willingness that I was starting to lose. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfOgkfJVYmA
One thing that I am not to happy about is my inability to quit before the parrots do. Today, Sparky swallowed a pc of almond wrong, and needed to stop. For some silly reason, I asked her to do one more rep before quitting. I know better. And Peepers is starting to leave the session earlier than I plan on, which is so so bad. So, I am going to try and make sure I don't ask for more than they are willing to do. And I will be giving myself a think on the head if i fail to do it lol.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Interesting day
yesterday was kind of cool. I had decided I was tired of the plateau that I had hit with both the birds, so I made a couple of little changes to see what would happen.
The first thing I did was work with Peepers on flying from perch to perch on cue. I didn't video this part, because it's been worked on and filmed a bunch already, and the room isn't set up well for taping flight stuff. Peepers had a great time with it, and was quickly flying from one to the other and back again on cue.
The the real fun started. While Peepers was munching on an almond, I set up the table for his harness training session. I was about to start the tape, and he was still on the perch, looking ready to train. So I asked him to come with me over to the table, and he flew to the other perch. Smart bird! But so wrong lol! I asked again, and he flew back the the 1st perch. It took him a few minutes to finally head to the table, where I started the tape and began his harness training.
I tried to do something a little different. I have been putting my finger under his wing to get him to lift it, then c/t when he does. I can't figure out why I am still doing this after a few successful sessions, so this time I decided to just point to his wing and wait for him to offer it. It was little slow, but Peepers picked up on it, and started to offer it. Then he got super excited, and almost all training stopped. I need to work more with him on actually working through this - it can get a little ridiculous sometimes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-lFIP5A-pY
Sparky then got a turn. I really want her to start touching the harness with some body part or another, and I started to ask for a little more from her to try and get that. I may have figured out some fairly reasonable way to hold everything and start to get her head closer to the loops while targeting. She did have one funny incident in this session - she touched the harness with her foot! Ack! She was very silly about it, and I think that overall it was a good experience for her. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDtULrKFFsU. sparky ended this session on a very odd note - she was wiggling her neck around like there was a piece of almond stuck in it. She's ok, but it was really weird and kind of disturbing.
The dogs are having a fine time with "hold". Bungee is slowly learning he can hold and move, although he tends to mouth whatever he's holding while he moves. I'm not sure what that's about, but I am sure we can work through that. And Dempsey last night went from a dog who could barely pick up the dumbell and fling it at my feet, to one who picked it up and SHOVED it into my hands. All in one session. He must've gotten another brain cell to work LOL. Sophie is supplying plenty of motivation to the boys to get it right - she jumps in and shows them when they screw it up. And I'm sure she has some choice words for them when she does this. Sidney is hanging out practicing anything he wants to, and enjoying every minute of it. I need to get them back out in the agility field, but boy, it's hot.
The first thing I did was work with Peepers on flying from perch to perch on cue. I didn't video this part, because it's been worked on and filmed a bunch already, and the room isn't set up well for taping flight stuff. Peepers had a great time with it, and was quickly flying from one to the other and back again on cue.
The the real fun started. While Peepers was munching on an almond, I set up the table for his harness training session. I was about to start the tape, and he was still on the perch, looking ready to train. So I asked him to come with me over to the table, and he flew to the other perch. Smart bird! But so wrong lol! I asked again, and he flew back the the 1st perch. It took him a few minutes to finally head to the table, where I started the tape and began his harness training.
I tried to do something a little different. I have been putting my finger under his wing to get him to lift it, then c/t when he does. I can't figure out why I am still doing this after a few successful sessions, so this time I decided to just point to his wing and wait for him to offer it. It was little slow, but Peepers picked up on it, and started to offer it. Then he got super excited, and almost all training stopped. I need to work more with him on actually working through this - it can get a little ridiculous sometimes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-lFIP5A-pY
Sparky then got a turn. I really want her to start touching the harness with some body part or another, and I started to ask for a little more from her to try and get that. I may have figured out some fairly reasonable way to hold everything and start to get her head closer to the loops while targeting. She did have one funny incident in this session - she touched the harness with her foot! Ack! She was very silly about it, and I think that overall it was a good experience for her. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDtULrKFFsU. sparky ended this session on a very odd note - she was wiggling her neck around like there was a piece of almond stuck in it. She's ok, but it was really weird and kind of disturbing.
The dogs are having a fine time with "hold". Bungee is slowly learning he can hold and move, although he tends to mouth whatever he's holding while he moves. I'm not sure what that's about, but I am sure we can work through that. And Dempsey last night went from a dog who could barely pick up the dumbell and fling it at my feet, to one who picked it up and SHOVED it into my hands. All in one session. He must've gotten another brain cell to work LOL. Sophie is supplying plenty of motivation to the boys to get it right - she jumps in and shows them when they screw it up. And I'm sure she has some choice words for them when she does this. Sidney is hanging out practicing anything he wants to, and enjoying every minute of it. I need to get them back out in the agility field, but boy, it's hot.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Lots of learning, little bit of progress
Yesterday was a pretty good day for the birds, at least it was informative for me and gave me a lot to think about. I planned on doing a longer session with Peepers to work on different aspects of his harness training, so I split the training into 2 videos.
In the first video I spend most of my time working with Peepers on putting his head through the loop of the harness. I was having trouble with it, because he wasn't really interested in doing it. I was wondering why he had such a change of attitude, when it dawned on me to dump the clicker I was holding. That seemed to help him immensely, he started sticking his head through the loop immediately. Hmm, I guess he doesn't like the clicker making that noise directly in his ear :). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IpRKG2SfW4
When I thought we should be done with that stage, I stopped and restarted the video. Then I began to work on wing lifting. I am not veru happy with the attitude I see with Peepers on this. I think using my finger to get him to lift his wing is a little too aversive for him, and I need to consider alternatives to show him what I am looking for. But, I will still need to be able to handle his wings to get the loop over them, so this is a bit of a problem. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8v8svajmZls
Sparky is getting more comfortable on the table, and it may be time to teach her something new. She still doesn't want to move too much on the table, but in this session she stayed engaged in the training for quite a bit longer than usual. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hvqbFHI5YM
IMO these videos are getting more instructional as far as watching the birds, and getting attitude for each step. The 2 of them are very very different, and my training has had to adjust a lot for each bird.
The dogs are starting to cruise through their new behaviors. Bungee is learning to hold onto his dumbell and move (that's hard!), and also to hold onto anything I ask him to (that's easy!). Sophie's just showing everyone up, and holding onto whatever like a little pro. Dempsey is learning to keep his mouth over the dumbell for more than a millisecond for his goodies, which he finds very difficult. And Sidney has it going on - he just hangs out and gets cheese :).
In the first video I spend most of my time working with Peepers on putting his head through the loop of the harness. I was having trouble with it, because he wasn't really interested in doing it. I was wondering why he had such a change of attitude, when it dawned on me to dump the clicker I was holding. That seemed to help him immensely, he started sticking his head through the loop immediately. Hmm, I guess he doesn't like the clicker making that noise directly in his ear :). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IpRKG2SfW4
When I thought we should be done with that stage, I stopped and restarted the video. Then I began to work on wing lifting. I am not veru happy with the attitude I see with Peepers on this. I think using my finger to get him to lift his wing is a little too aversive for him, and I need to consider alternatives to show him what I am looking for. But, I will still need to be able to handle his wings to get the loop over them, so this is a bit of a problem. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8v8svajmZls
Sparky is getting more comfortable on the table, and it may be time to teach her something new. She still doesn't want to move too much on the table, but in this session she stayed engaged in the training for quite a bit longer than usual. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hvqbFHI5YM
IMO these videos are getting more instructional as far as watching the birds, and getting attitude for each step. The 2 of them are very very different, and my training has had to adjust a lot for each bird.
The dogs are starting to cruise through their new behaviors. Bungee is learning to hold onto his dumbell and move (that's hard!), and also to hold onto anything I ask him to (that's easy!). Sophie's just showing everyone up, and holding onto whatever like a little pro. Dempsey is learning to keep his mouth over the dumbell for more than a millisecond for his goodies, which he finds very difficult. And Sidney has it going on - he just hangs out and gets cheese :).
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Wow! Wow! Wow!
What a day for Peepers! 2nd day of harness training, and he just seems to think this is easy as pie. I added in putting his head through the smaller loop, and he didn't mind in the least. He even decided to let it stay on while he munched on his almonds. It's just crazy how bold he gets as every new experience turns out well, and he finds that he can choose whether to go on or not. I now need to teach him to raise each wing so I can slip the big part of the harness over them. This should get interesting, as we have no background behaviors to deal with this, so I am basically starting from scratch. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8j_7BkBAfU
Sparky had a rougher time. She's getting better on the table, and did some targeting, then Peepers flew in and just about landed on her. It didn't seem to ruin her entire day, but I don't think she wanted to train much more. Of course, this happened towards the end of her max 3 minute session, so it could have been a combination of the incident and her natural tendency anyway. But, certainly progress is progress, and I look forward to building on what I've got. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hPhAV_HD48
Bungee's hold is coming along really nicely. He now grabs the dumbell and typically tries to hold onto it, although sometimes he mouths it a little bit before he just holds it. But spitting it at me has almost disappeared. I ended up using Sophie to help fix this - when Bungee spit the dumbell at me, Sophie got a turn at holding it. He was horrified :).
Dempsey has learned to shake with either paw on cue. He's a little enthusiastic and therefore sloppy about it. He sure did pick up on it fast though, so I am sure he will be able to clean this up fairly quickly.
Sparky had a rougher time. She's getting better on the table, and did some targeting, then Peepers flew in and just about landed on her. It didn't seem to ruin her entire day, but I don't think she wanted to train much more. Of course, this happened towards the end of her max 3 minute session, so it could have been a combination of the incident and her natural tendency anyway. But, certainly progress is progress, and I look forward to building on what I've got. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hPhAV_HD48
Bungee's hold is coming along really nicely. He now grabs the dumbell and typically tries to hold onto it, although sometimes he mouths it a little bit before he just holds it. But spitting it at me has almost disappeared. I ended up using Sophie to help fix this - when Bungee spit the dumbell at me, Sophie got a turn at holding it. He was horrified :).
Dempsey has learned to shake with either paw on cue. He's a little enthusiastic and therefore sloppy about it. He sure did pick up on it fast though, so I am sure he will be able to clean this up fairly quickly.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Boy, it's been a while
Hi all,
It's been a while since I posted, and a lot has happened. I have moved from AZ to TX, and am currently hunting for a job. While I look, I have had some training time between unpacking and wasting time online :).
The dogs have adjusted really well to the move. Sophie spends an inordinate amount of time rolling in the grass. Just the other day, I took her with me while I walked to the post office. It took a long time, because every 3 or 4 steps, Sophie would just stop, drop, and roll. All that seems to be required for her is grass, and we're surrounded by it now. I am so glad to see her happy. Sidney has just gone with the flow, as he always does.
Bungee has enjoyed the extra space, and immediately got himself an agent for his still nonexistant modeling career. Hopefully, Dallas will give him his big break. In the meantime, he's learning to hold anything I ask him to. This is very hard for him, as he really wants to DO more, but he's slowly getting it.
Dempsey has gotten back into his weave training. We haven't lost much in the 2 months he's been off, so I am hoping to get this behavior fairly solid by the end of summer. I also need to figure out how to set up the video camera for this - the field in much bigger than my backyard, with no natural places to set the camera. I'll be looking for this, so I can show Dempsey's progress.
Peepers and Sparky were totally easy for the move. We spent 2 nights in hotel rooms while we drove, and both nights they were relaxed as can be, clearly confident in their new surroundings.
2 days ago I started up with training them again. All I planned to do was review what they knew, just to see how the behaviors held up under new circumstances. Peeper's video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEi7r4vHyn4. He was a total rockstar, and just blew through everything except a recall off his sisal perch.
Sparky had a rougher time. She didn't want to stay on the table. Her video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rzVRrtvNwc. I shouldn't have pushed her quite this hard, I have just had a hard time adjusting to her change in attitude and personality since she barbered her wings. It's been a long time, yet still I try to treat her like the confident little bird she was. I changed my expectations for her on her 2nd session on the table, but I also am really waiting for her to molt the damaged feathers out, and having her real personality come out again.
Yesterday the birds both had sessions also. I've decided to work with Peepers on wearing a harness, so yesterday we started with a couple of easy known behaviors, then moved on to the harness. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH4QpbdYEfk. Sparky just needed to work on being comfortable on the table, so what I got of that session is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGWf7obTG1Y
I'm really hoping to get back on track training the animals, and hopefully get a job that will give me a schedule that allows that.
It's been a while since I posted, and a lot has happened. I have moved from AZ to TX, and am currently hunting for a job. While I look, I have had some training time between unpacking and wasting time online :).
The dogs have adjusted really well to the move. Sophie spends an inordinate amount of time rolling in the grass. Just the other day, I took her with me while I walked to the post office. It took a long time, because every 3 or 4 steps, Sophie would just stop, drop, and roll. All that seems to be required for her is grass, and we're surrounded by it now. I am so glad to see her happy. Sidney has just gone with the flow, as he always does.
Bungee has enjoyed the extra space, and immediately got himself an agent for his still nonexistant modeling career. Hopefully, Dallas will give him his big break. In the meantime, he's learning to hold anything I ask him to. This is very hard for him, as he really wants to DO more, but he's slowly getting it.
Dempsey has gotten back into his weave training. We haven't lost much in the 2 months he's been off, so I am hoping to get this behavior fairly solid by the end of summer. I also need to figure out how to set up the video camera for this - the field in much bigger than my backyard, with no natural places to set the camera. I'll be looking for this, so I can show Dempsey's progress.
Peepers and Sparky were totally easy for the move. We spent 2 nights in hotel rooms while we drove, and both nights they were relaxed as can be, clearly confident in their new surroundings.
2 days ago I started up with training them again. All I planned to do was review what they knew, just to see how the behaviors held up under new circumstances. Peeper's video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEi7r4vHyn4. He was a total rockstar, and just blew through everything except a recall off his sisal perch.
Sparky had a rougher time. She didn't want to stay on the table. Her video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rzVRrtvNwc. I shouldn't have pushed her quite this hard, I have just had a hard time adjusting to her change in attitude and personality since she barbered her wings. It's been a long time, yet still I try to treat her like the confident little bird she was. I changed my expectations for her on her 2nd session on the table, but I also am really waiting for her to molt the damaged feathers out, and having her real personality come out again.
Yesterday the birds both had sessions also. I've decided to work with Peepers on wearing a harness, so yesterday we started with a couple of easy known behaviors, then moved on to the harness. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH4QpbdYEfk. Sparky just needed to work on being comfortable on the table, so what I got of that session is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGWf7obTG1Y
I'm really hoping to get back on track training the animals, and hopefully get a job that will give me a schedule that allows that.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Geez, another title...
So today I finally got to play with Dempsey and the parrots. Dempsey got to practice his weave poles and box turn, while the birds worked on recalls and sends around the evil sisal perch.
So Dempsey's weaves were better than expected given that he's had over a week off from practicing them. he had some trouble getting into them, then in one of the spots where I had closed the poles last time, he popped out. I guess that was a little too hard to get back into. But, after I opened the one spot about an inch, he just plowed right through like he had been doing it all along. So I closed up the last poles and inch or so and he thought he could totally handle that.
Like I said, Peepers and Sparky worked on recalls and sends, near the sisal perch. You can see the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaLxkrjyph4. You can see I sent Peepers towards the sisal perch to the red perch near it. I did one rep where I stood between the sisal and red perches, and sent Peepers to the red perch from there, but he was uncomfortable with that, so I went back to what he was more comfortable with. I mixed in recalls for Sparky in between Peepers reps. This is one thing I can do with the birds that I can do with the dogs - play with them both at the same time. the dogs swallow so fast that I don't have time to cue another one.
I'm hoping tomorrow to continue with the stuff I did today, apparently that's enough for my plate right now LOL
So Dempsey's weaves were better than expected given that he's had over a week off from practicing them. he had some trouble getting into them, then in one of the spots where I had closed the poles last time, he popped out. I guess that was a little too hard to get back into. But, after I opened the one spot about an inch, he just plowed right through like he had been doing it all along. So I closed up the last poles and inch or so and he thought he could totally handle that.
Like I said, Peepers and Sparky worked on recalls and sends, near the sisal perch. You can see the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaLxkrjyph4. You can see I sent Peepers towards the sisal perch to the red perch near it. I did one rep where I stood between the sisal and red perches, and sent Peepers to the red perch from there, but he was uncomfortable with that, so I went back to what he was more comfortable with. I mixed in recalls for Sparky in between Peepers reps. This is one thing I can do with the birds that I can do with the dogs - play with them both at the same time. the dogs swallow so fast that I don't have time to cue another one.
I'm hoping tomorrow to continue with the stuff I did today, apparently that's enough for my plate right now LOL
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Who knew we could move this fast?
So today I finally got to train just a little bot with Dempsey and Peepers. The new dog has been a little bit of a drain on my time, but we may be settling into a routine that will allow me to get back into the training that I've been doing.
So Dempsey got to work on his box turn. This is the first time we've done anything for 5 days, so I expected that I would almost have to start completely over with this. Dempsey needed to be reminded once that the box was the key to me throwing the ball, but we needed to keep really working the idea that 3 feet needed to get on the box. Overall, we had a good session, with a bunch of 3 foot turns towards the end. All that work was hard for Dempsey, though. He came out of the session with all the wrinkles that usually mean he has been thinking really hard about the project we've been working on.
Peepers got a session working with the sisal rope perch. I had one session before this one (I think I wrote about it here already), but I hadn't done anything with it since, besides keeping it near a bowl of strawberries to keep Peepers away from them. Anyway, the plan was to work the same way again, asking Peepers to do other things near the perch. He relaxed so quickly that I decided to try and ask for direct interaction with the perch. Peepers was a star, and by the end of the session was stepping up onto the perch and staying there to eat his almonds. I taped this one, and it is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuuvNDYmsCc
So my plan now is to do a few sends and recalls to and from the sisal perch, then add in the red perch and go back and forth. Then, we get to add in hoops to fly through. This is starting to get fun :)
So Dempsey got to work on his box turn. This is the first time we've done anything for 5 days, so I expected that I would almost have to start completely over with this. Dempsey needed to be reminded once that the box was the key to me throwing the ball, but we needed to keep really working the idea that 3 feet needed to get on the box. Overall, we had a good session, with a bunch of 3 foot turns towards the end. All that work was hard for Dempsey, though. He came out of the session with all the wrinkles that usually mean he has been thinking really hard about the project we've been working on.
Peepers got a session working with the sisal rope perch. I had one session before this one (I think I wrote about it here already), but I hadn't done anything with it since, besides keeping it near a bowl of strawberries to keep Peepers away from them. Anyway, the plan was to work the same way again, asking Peepers to do other things near the perch. He relaxed so quickly that I decided to try and ask for direct interaction with the perch. Peepers was a star, and by the end of the session was stepping up onto the perch and staying there to eat his almonds. I taped this one, and it is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuuvNDYmsCc
So my plan now is to do a few sends and recalls to and from the sisal perch, then add in the red perch and go back and forth. Then, we get to add in hoops to fly through. This is starting to get fun :)
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Dunno what to title this, but it was good
Hey all,
Today was a busy training day, it was so beautiful out I guess I was inspired to add a couple more training sessions.
Peepers got the first session, which was #5 with the red perch. I had gotten some suggestions for improving our sessions, so although I started the session with a clicker, I got rid of it shortly after we started. I also held the perch so that it moved less (I was able to stop it from rolling, but not from shifting around a little). He got right into the whole thing, and we ended the session by stepping onto the perch. Woohoo! Video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhGJStSm600. On a side note, this put so much pressure on him, he really started biting his nails. I can relate - I'm a nail biter too :).
Later in the day, we did another session with the perch, and Peepers progressed to flying to the perch while it was fully set up. I taped this also, and will check to see if you can actually see anything in the video. I tried to put it within view, but I'm really not sure if it worked out. Peepers did a great job, though, and we finished really strong. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpAnIhedc-Q
During the second session, Sparky decided she wanted to do recalls, so I tried to fit her in while Peepers was munching on his almonds. She's just so cute, I guess I will have to work on teaching her to station while I play with Peepers, since it's really not fair to him when she does that.
Dempsey got to practice weaving and his new skill, box turns for flyball. He was a rock star for his weave session! I was able to close 6 more poles, and he really worked all the poles, you can see he's thinking it through and trying to get everything right. I need to tape again, although I suppose the steps are so small that it may not show well on video.
Dempsey also worked his tail off when we practiced his box turns. This was session #3 of shaping a turn, and in this one, we got to the point where he goes to the box, and puts three feet on it. He started by putting his back feet on, so now I can click when his front foot hits the box, and he naturally puts on his back in his effort to come back to me for the treat. Once again, I guess I need to tape this. But he's making just super progress on this, even though it totally exhausts him.
Tomorrow should be another great day for these guys. I am hoping to really start some fun stuff with Peepers in the next day or 2 involving the red perch and hopefully another one. And who knows how quick Dempsey will be with his skillz :).
Today was a busy training day, it was so beautiful out I guess I was inspired to add a couple more training sessions.
Peepers got the first session, which was #5 with the red perch. I had gotten some suggestions for improving our sessions, so although I started the session with a clicker, I got rid of it shortly after we started. I also held the perch so that it moved less (I was able to stop it from rolling, but not from shifting around a little). He got right into the whole thing, and we ended the session by stepping onto the perch. Woohoo! Video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhGJStSm600. On a side note, this put so much pressure on him, he really started biting his nails. I can relate - I'm a nail biter too :).
Later in the day, we did another session with the perch, and Peepers progressed to flying to the perch while it was fully set up. I taped this also, and will check to see if you can actually see anything in the video. I tried to put it within view, but I'm really not sure if it worked out. Peepers did a great job, though, and we finished really strong. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpAnIhedc-Q
During the second session, Sparky decided she wanted to do recalls, so I tried to fit her in while Peepers was munching on his almonds. She's just so cute, I guess I will have to work on teaching her to station while I play with Peepers, since it's really not fair to him when she does that.
Dempsey got to practice weaving and his new skill, box turns for flyball. He was a rock star for his weave session! I was able to close 6 more poles, and he really worked all the poles, you can see he's thinking it through and trying to get everything right. I need to tape again, although I suppose the steps are so small that it may not show well on video.
Dempsey also worked his tail off when we practiced his box turns. This was session #3 of shaping a turn, and in this one, we got to the point where he goes to the box, and puts three feet on it. He started by putting his back feet on, so now I can click when his front foot hits the box, and he naturally puts on his back in his effort to come back to me for the treat. Once again, I guess I need to tape this. But he's making just super progress on this, even though it totally exhausts him.
Tomorrow should be another great day for these guys. I am hoping to really start some fun stuff with Peepers in the next day or 2 involving the red perch and hopefully another one. And who knows how quick Dempsey will be with his skillz :).
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Wow-o-wow-o-wow!
Ok, so I didn't post yesterday, but i did do some training.
I started yesterday (Saturday) by going over to my friend Annie's with bungee and dempsey and practicing agility. Both dogs did really well, we seem to have hit on a way for Dempsey to have a running a-frame, which I think is important to save his shoulders from wear and tear. In addition, Annie has a set of 6 slanted weave poles, so we took them out and let Dempsey practice his new behavior in her yard. Once he figured out that yes, in fact there is such a thing as weaving in places other than our own backyard, he did fantastic. He even demo'd his leap-n-wiggle thru the last 4 poles behavior for Annie, and she thought it was darn funny :).
When I got home, I got out the red perch and worked with Peepers some more on it. I decided he needed to touch the red part to get clicked, and within a really short time he was touching away. He was still nervous, but he's so willing to try things that each rep makes him more brave in the face of scary things. I only had a few minutes, so Sparky only got a few reps of stepping up for almond pieces before I needed to leave. But it was a really good day. Oh, and video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slNMj2HiHRs and here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EI6WvZzpZvo
Today was also a big training day. We started by taking Bungee, Dempsey and Sidney over to a flyball practice. Bungee and Sid have done it before, but Dempsey's only even seen flyball from a distance once in his life. Bungee was his usual rockstar self - he went out there and played the game like he had been doing it every weekend for the past 2 years, when in fact he hasn't even seen any of the equipment for 2 years. His turn on the box didn't detriorate at all, and he still is passing into other dogs like he always has. Dempsey really impressed me - he did recalls in his lane while another dog was running down the other lane, and he just thought that was easy as pie. And he's fast. They both really impressed the team, and we were asked to join them this next weekend for a tournament in California. I haven't decided yet, but it would be fun for Bungee to get in the lanes again. Sidney got to have a turn, and showed everyone that the old man still has it. Man, I love playing with that dog.
So I came home and built a ramp that looks like the front of a flyball box for Dempsey to learn how to turn. I'll be taping these sessions, and posting them, so hopefully he'll progress at least somewhat well. After that is was back to training Peepers and the perch.
He was a superstar!!! Today I thought I could get Peepers to touch the perch with his foot. it turns out he thought that was an ok plan, too, and for his last rep he even started to put some weight on the perch. It was totally awesome. The change in his demeanor from tape #1 to #3 is just ridiculous, he's almost totally calm now around the perch. I suppose if nothing goes horribly wrong he'll be standing on it tomorrow. Video:
While I was playing with Peepers, Sparky suddenly decided she wanted to start doing recalls again for the first time in something like 4 years. So that was super exciting. I guess once the ball starts rolling, we really gain momentum LOL.
I'm almost done for the day, I may train Dempsey in the weaves, and may or may not start the box turn. The parrots will get to do some recalls for fun before they go to bed. Tomorrow is cleaning day, so they may or may not get to play tomorrow, but I'm pretty excited about the progress everyone is making, so I may just have to figure out some time to see what happend tomorrow.
EDIT: Youtube is giving me fits trying to post my videos. I'm still working on dowloading the 2 videos of Peepers - they been rejected because they're a little too long. So I am either finding a new home for them or learning how to use the video editing software I have. Either way I hope to have it done by the end of today (3/9/09)
I started yesterday (Saturday) by going over to my friend Annie's with bungee and dempsey and practicing agility. Both dogs did really well, we seem to have hit on a way for Dempsey to have a running a-frame, which I think is important to save his shoulders from wear and tear. In addition, Annie has a set of 6 slanted weave poles, so we took them out and let Dempsey practice his new behavior in her yard. Once he figured out that yes, in fact there is such a thing as weaving in places other than our own backyard, he did fantastic. He even demo'd his leap-n-wiggle thru the last 4 poles behavior for Annie, and she thought it was darn funny :).
When I got home, I got out the red perch and worked with Peepers some more on it. I decided he needed to touch the red part to get clicked, and within a really short time he was touching away. He was still nervous, but he's so willing to try things that each rep makes him more brave in the face of scary things. I only had a few minutes, so Sparky only got a few reps of stepping up for almond pieces before I needed to leave. But it was a really good day. Oh, and video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slNMj2HiHRs and here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EI6WvZzpZvo
Today was also a big training day. We started by taking Bungee, Dempsey and Sidney over to a flyball practice. Bungee and Sid have done it before, but Dempsey's only even seen flyball from a distance once in his life. Bungee was his usual rockstar self - he went out there and played the game like he had been doing it every weekend for the past 2 years, when in fact he hasn't even seen any of the equipment for 2 years. His turn on the box didn't detriorate at all, and he still is passing into other dogs like he always has. Dempsey really impressed me - he did recalls in his lane while another dog was running down the other lane, and he just thought that was easy as pie. And he's fast. They both really impressed the team, and we were asked to join them this next weekend for a tournament in California. I haven't decided yet, but it would be fun for Bungee to get in the lanes again. Sidney got to have a turn, and showed everyone that the old man still has it. Man, I love playing with that dog.
So I came home and built a ramp that looks like the front of a flyball box for Dempsey to learn how to turn. I'll be taping these sessions, and posting them, so hopefully he'll progress at least somewhat well. After that is was back to training Peepers and the perch.
He was a superstar!!! Today I thought I could get Peepers to touch the perch with his foot. it turns out he thought that was an ok plan, too, and for his last rep he even started to put some weight on the perch. It was totally awesome. The change in his demeanor from tape #1 to #3 is just ridiculous, he's almost totally calm now around the perch. I suppose if nothing goes horribly wrong he'll be standing on it tomorrow. Video:
While I was playing with Peepers, Sparky suddenly decided she wanted to start doing recalls again for the first time in something like 4 years. So that was super exciting. I guess once the ball starts rolling, we really gain momentum LOL.
I'm almost done for the day, I may train Dempsey in the weaves, and may or may not start the box turn. The parrots will get to do some recalls for fun before they go to bed. Tomorrow is cleaning day, so they may or may not get to play tomorrow, but I'm pretty excited about the progress everyone is making, so I may just have to figure out some time to see what happend tomorrow.
EDIT: Youtube is giving me fits trying to post my videos. I'm still working on dowloading the 2 videos of Peepers - they been rejected because they're a little too long. So I am either finding a new home for them or learning how to use the video editing software I have. Either way I hope to have it done by the end of today (3/9/09)
Friday, March 6, 2009
new skills, little twists
hey all,
Today when I worked with Dempsey, he started the session looking at the sky and barking, rather than really working. I think this is how he shows the stress of the job I am asking him to do. He worked through it, and did some nice reps of all 12 poles, but I think I need to find a way to help him through the tough stuff. In any case, I taped it (I really thought we would have another great session like yesterday), and it's here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAPTxj0RG0g
I thought a lot about what I wanted to do next with Peepers. Historically, he's been frightened of the perches I built for my original parrot agility project, so I thought a good start may be to work with him on dealing with those perches. The perches are PVC covered in vetwrap, one blue and one red. The blue one is getting a makeover (for some reason it gets disturbingly sticky in some weather), so I chose the red one. When I thought about how best to go about teaching Peepers that it's not scary, some of the more typical suggestions didn't seem to fit what my goals are (in the end, it's not just that I don't want him to be frightened, I want him to be enthusiastic about working with/around it.
So, since the perches kind of come apart, I put the perch portion of it on the kitchen island where we have been playing for a week. My original thought was to just have the perch there, and we would do other things around it, giving Peepers the idea that it's not dangerous just sitting there. I wasn't prepared for Peepers' reaction.
I set the perch down, and then went to get the clicker and treats. While I was doing that, Peepers flew to the island and immediately started circling the perch. That completely changed my plans for this session. We went straight to "do something with the perch". Kind of 101 things, although I have a behavior that I want in the end is for him to step onto it. Anyway, I taped the session, and it's here: . He did some really interesting stuff, so it's well worth watching. And I did a bunch of different stuff too :). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBIPGjVLMzg
Then sparky was acting kind of interested in training, so I played with her and targeting. I taped it, and please forgive the sorry state of her feathers - I went on vacation for a coupla weeks, and she snipped a good portion of her wing feathers. For those of you who noticed, it was at the same time that Peepers broke off his tail feathers. Anyway, Sparky learned a new skill, which was to go down the bars to touch the target. You can see when I first ask her to do it, she doesn't know what to do. It was a nice little piece of problem solving for her, as she doesn't usually think about how to do things much. the video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Op_1BR3kyPE
I had a really nice lunch today with Nikki, and am feeling kind of energized about working towards a business for training parrots here in Phoenix, kind of like dog classes. I really think that parrots and their people could benefit from this, and group classes are a format that I think I am pretty good at. We'll see what I can do over the next few months to achieve this.
As a note, I am going to publish this now, and add in the links to videos as they go live on youtube, so if there's no link, please check back. These take a while to download, and I want to get the information about these sessions out because they really got kind of interesting.
Today when I worked with Dempsey, he started the session looking at the sky and barking, rather than really working. I think this is how he shows the stress of the job I am asking him to do. He worked through it, and did some nice reps of all 12 poles, but I think I need to find a way to help him through the tough stuff. In any case, I taped it (I really thought we would have another great session like yesterday), and it's here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAPTxj0RG0g
I thought a lot about what I wanted to do next with Peepers. Historically, he's been frightened of the perches I built for my original parrot agility project, so I thought a good start may be to work with him on dealing with those perches. The perches are PVC covered in vetwrap, one blue and one red. The blue one is getting a makeover (for some reason it gets disturbingly sticky in some weather), so I chose the red one. When I thought about how best to go about teaching Peepers that it's not scary, some of the more typical suggestions didn't seem to fit what my goals are (in the end, it's not just that I don't want him to be frightened, I want him to be enthusiastic about working with/around it.
So, since the perches kind of come apart, I put the perch portion of it on the kitchen island where we have been playing for a week. My original thought was to just have the perch there, and we would do other things around it, giving Peepers the idea that it's not dangerous just sitting there. I wasn't prepared for Peepers' reaction.
I set the perch down, and then went to get the clicker and treats. While I was doing that, Peepers flew to the island and immediately started circling the perch. That completely changed my plans for this session. We went straight to "do something with the perch". Kind of 101 things, although I have a behavior that I want in the end is for him to step onto it. Anyway, I taped the session, and it's here: . He did some really interesting stuff, so it's well worth watching. And I did a bunch of different stuff too :). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBIPGjVLMzg
Then sparky was acting kind of interested in training, so I played with her and targeting. I taped it, and please forgive the sorry state of her feathers - I went on vacation for a coupla weeks, and she snipped a good portion of her wing feathers. For those of you who noticed, it was at the same time that Peepers broke off his tail feathers. Anyway, Sparky learned a new skill, which was to go down the bars to touch the target. You can see when I first ask her to do it, she doesn't know what to do. It was a nice little piece of problem solving for her, as she doesn't usually think about how to do things much. the video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Op_1BR3kyPE
I had a really nice lunch today with Nikki, and am feeling kind of energized about working towards a business for training parrots here in Phoenix, kind of like dog classes. I really think that parrots and their people could benefit from this, and group classes are a format that I think I am pretty good at. We'll see what I can do over the next few months to achieve this.
As a note, I am going to publish this now, and add in the links to videos as they go live on youtube, so if there's no link, please check back. These take a while to download, and I want to get the information about these sessions out because they really got kind of interesting.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Just got a little bit done today
Today I am battling a migraine, so the only thing I've done so far is work with Dempsey in the weaves. It looks like I may have been right yesterday - he seems to have made the connection that he needs to do them all to get his cheese, and he seems to have made a commitment todo them. I was able to narrow 4 poles today, and I also started to move along the line just behind/with him to get him used to that idea. That's a heck of a lot of changes for the short sessions that I do (5 mins max), and he popped out once when I narrowed the poles, and once when I moved with him (that one was kind of interesting - poor guy tried to glance at me right before the very last pole, and missed the pole as a result). Other than that he was being the professional that he thinks he is :).
I don't know if I'll do anything else today. I'm in bed and really just want to close my eyes until it goes away. If I manage anything, I will sure post about it.
I don't know if I'll do anything else today. I'm in bed and really just want to close my eyes until it goes away. If I manage anything, I will sure post about it.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Well the difference a few hours makes :)
I took Dempsey back out to work on the weave poles, and he was a rock star! I guess he must've thought about it, and decided that in fact, he could do the poles in a slightly different position. Or, since he didn't have to go to the bathroom, that made it easier :).
I also narrowed a couple of poles during this session, and I think Dempsey may have had an aha! moment. Previously, when I narrowed a pole, he would pop out at that spot, and go back in later in the poles. this time, he popped out, but instead of continuing down the line, he came back to me. Then, when I sent him thru the poles again, he just went ahead and did them all. I was able to narrow 2 mroe poles later in the session, and he never popped out again. I really hope that carries over, as we'll be able to progress a lot quicker if he commits to the idea that he must do them all.
I also played with the rest of the dogs. Bungee is still working on his "hold" behavior. Boy I suck at training it. And he's such a spaz that we just struggle to get anything accomplished. But, he is now gripping the bar for like a second, so maybe I'll be able to build on that. Sophie and Sidney went thru the tricks they already know, and really enjoyed themselves. Dempsey also got a quick training session during this time, and he worked on just putting his head down. Bungee's demo'ing the behavior in the shot above.
Well, I'm having some difficulty with youtube. Session #2 of Peepers 101 things for some reason was taken off, so here's a new link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1u2E__tYdM
Session #5 is finally loaded: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xczvh60Y-2Y
going backwards...
hey, today Dempsey's session was a bit of a disaster. I had to move the poles over a little bit because he was digging into the ground so much as he pushed through the last pole, he was digging a hole at the exit. We went out after I did that, and he pretty much said he couldn't do the poles at all. We worked through it, but after I got a couple of successes, I quit so he could end on a positive note, and before he got too tired.
Shortly after that I let all the dogs out and Dempsey went to his private potty area, so maybe he needed to go while we were training. Dunno, so maybe I'll head back out later and see how he does. I just don't want to push him too hard if he's having a rough time.
Did session #5 with Peepers, and 1o1 things (It's downloading now to youtube). This time he picked the block up with his beak, took it with his foot, then back to his beak. I thought that seemed different enough, so that became the behavior I clicked. I really am just about done with this, although I could come back to it, when both of us are more used to thinking of and offering novel behaviors in other settings. I am sure that there are some behaviors he could do that don't involve his beak or feet, but right now neither one of us is really thinking about those. And I think that there must be a dimension to his thought process that would benefit from going outside our current box. But I get bored with this game, so I need to do other things. I'm thinking of working on recall next, and maybe sends. I'll either use a chair back, or some perches I made for this a while back.
Sparky was excited about the idea of training, so I took a wooden spoon over by her, and she immediately targeted to it like a champ. It's time for her to venture off her cage for training, so maybe tomorrow I'll work on that with her.
I still have yet to play with the other dogs, but it's time for dinner, so they'll have to wait until I've eaten :). Bungee's definitely getting a turn, and Dempsey maybe another one.
Shortly after that I let all the dogs out and Dempsey went to his private potty area, so maybe he needed to go while we were training. Dunno, so maybe I'll head back out later and see how he does. I just don't want to push him too hard if he's having a rough time.
Did session #5 with Peepers, and 1o1 things (It's downloading now to youtube). This time he picked the block up with his beak, took it with his foot, then back to his beak. I thought that seemed different enough, so that became the behavior I clicked. I really am just about done with this, although I could come back to it, when both of us are more used to thinking of and offering novel behaviors in other settings. I am sure that there are some behaviors he could do that don't involve his beak or feet, but right now neither one of us is really thinking about those. And I think that there must be a dimension to his thought process that would benefit from going outside our current box. But I get bored with this game, so I need to do other things. I'm thinking of working on recall next, and maybe sends. I'll either use a chair back, or some perches I made for this a while back.
Sparky was excited about the idea of training, so I took a wooden spoon over by her, and she immediately targeted to it like a champ. It's time for her to venture off her cage for training, so maybe tomorrow I'll work on that with her.
I still have yet to play with the other dogs, but it's time for dinner, so they'll have to wait until I've eaten :). Bungee's definitely getting a turn, and Dempsey maybe another one.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Things got kind of interesting...
Today was a pretty good day. Dempsey got to have 2 weave pole sessions, and Peepers got one session of 101 things. Both of them made some pretty good progress in their training.
Dempsey just is really getting the idea. Today he went right down the line of 12 poles over and over again, and now he's growling as he enters. i think he's getting the idea that he has to do all 12 poles, and he also thinks it's hard, so he growls as he goes to enter them. I also tried to move some of the poles more upright (#2,3,4,and 5 in stages), and each time, he would try and skip the pole that had changed and reenter at the point where they were the same as before. He worked through it, but I think that I need to be careful how I close the poles, cuz I think that the behavior is a little fragile right now. But I feel a real need to close the poles as quickly as I can. So we'll see how that goes, and how well I balance the 2.
Peepers has session #4 of 101 things today. Since I messed yesterday up, I worked really hard at just letting behavior happen, and clicking something new. Within a very short time Peepers had come up with picking the block up with one foot, taking it with his beak, and putting it in the other foot. That seemed super-clickable to me, so that was the behavior of the day. It was a fairly slow session, in that he didn't do a ton of clickable behaviors, but he was engaged and active. The session was cut a little short when Joe walked in and started talking to me. Peepers got a little offended by the interruption, and we also needed to go, so I didn't try and work through it. I have this video, and you can see at the end one of the day to day behaviors I've trained with him, which is to give things to me. It's a trade, so when he lets me have whatever it is he's playing with I give him something in return, which is usually an almond or a nutriberry. It's a handy behavior, since he's always getting into things.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=128YsCZ_Pho
I didn't work with anyone else today, cuz I had to run out. Sparky was only mildly interested in training anyway, so I don't think I really missed a big opportunity there. I do need to add Bungee back into the training mix, he thinks he's just going to DIE if he doesn't get a turn :). Maybe tomorrow...
K, so i am looking at the video of today's session, and really it is a lot of fun. First, Peepers goes thru each of the behaviors that he was reinforced for in each of the previous sessions. Then a quick pause, and then he comes up with his new behavior. This is only 30 seconds or so in. I just love to see that!
Dempsey just is really getting the idea. Today he went right down the line of 12 poles over and over again, and now he's growling as he enters. i think he's getting the idea that he has to do all 12 poles, and he also thinks it's hard, so he growls as he goes to enter them. I also tried to move some of the poles more upright (#2,3,4,and 5 in stages), and each time, he would try and skip the pole that had changed and reenter at the point where they were the same as before. He worked through it, but I think that I need to be careful how I close the poles, cuz I think that the behavior is a little fragile right now. But I feel a real need to close the poles as quickly as I can. So we'll see how that goes, and how well I balance the 2.
Peepers has session #4 of 101 things today. Since I messed yesterday up, I worked really hard at just letting behavior happen, and clicking something new. Within a very short time Peepers had come up with picking the block up with one foot, taking it with his beak, and putting it in the other foot. That seemed super-clickable to me, so that was the behavior of the day. It was a fairly slow session, in that he didn't do a ton of clickable behaviors, but he was engaged and active. The session was cut a little short when Joe walked in and started talking to me. Peepers got a little offended by the interruption, and we also needed to go, so I didn't try and work through it. I have this video, and you can see at the end one of the day to day behaviors I've trained with him, which is to give things to me. It's a trade, so when he lets me have whatever it is he's playing with I give him something in return, which is usually an almond or a nutriberry. It's a handy behavior, since he's always getting into things.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=128YsCZ_Pho
I didn't work with anyone else today, cuz I had to run out. Sparky was only mildly interested in training anyway, so I don't think I really missed a big opportunity there. I do need to add Bungee back into the training mix, he thinks he's just going to DIE if he doesn't get a turn :). Maybe tomorrow...
K, so i am looking at the video of today's session, and really it is a lot of fun. First, Peepers goes thru each of the behaviors that he was reinforced for in each of the previous sessions. Then a quick pause, and then he comes up with his new behavior. This is only 30 seconds or so in. I just love to see that!
Monday, March 2, 2009
More progress than I thought
Well I got back from our trip yesterday, and today got back into training the critters. I was surprised by what was retained. Dempsey got right back into the weave training, and his footwork improved immensely from the 3 day break. I had Joe video it, and it's here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mgvsx2vNZZA. I was so relieved to see that we didn't take a million steps back in training, as I expected.
Peepers did session #3 of 101 things. I kind of messed it up, as I went into it with the idea of reinforcing Peepers picking up the block with his right foot, rather than just reinforcing anything new. He dealt with it ok, and of course I video'd it. He had a moment in the middle of the session where he just stopped doing anything for a bit, I think cuz it's getting a little confusing for him now. We'll see what happens tomorrow. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0vwWucGrRY
I thought today I would give Sparky a go at 101 things, but she decided today that she really didn't want to hang out on the kitchen island where I've been doing the sessions with Peepers. That was a surprise, but I just gave her some almonds for being on the island.
Peepers did session #3 of 101 things. I kind of messed it up, as I went into it with the idea of reinforcing Peepers picking up the block with his right foot, rather than just reinforcing anything new. He dealt with it ok, and of course I video'd it. He had a moment in the middle of the session where he just stopped doing anything for a bit, I think cuz it's getting a little confusing for him now. We'll see what happens tomorrow. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0vwWucGrRY
I thought today I would give Sparky a go at 101 things, but she decided today that she really didn't want to hang out on the kitchen island where I've been doing the sessions with Peepers. That was a surprise, but I just gave her some almonds for being on the island.
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