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.

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

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 :).

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)

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

One step forward, 2 steps back

Hey all,





Today was kind of an interesting day with the training. Dempsey seemed to decide that wiggling thru the poles was really hard, and started experimenting with different behaviors to see if he could get the cheese some other way. Happily, Joe taped this session for me, and its here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-SK0Gewtb0 for all to see :). It's a heck of a session, it looks like a little bit of a disaster as far as progress goes, but i suspect he needed to do all those other things just to find out what would happen.





Peepers had session #2 of 101 things today. Today's behavior was picking up the block with his left foot. He had started doing a bit of that yesterday, so today he picked that behavior right away when picking it up with his beak didn't work. He did stop to think for a few seconds in the middle of the session, but this is different than the newbie pause, in that the animals new to the game actually walk away from the object, while in this case Peepers stayed right there, and to me obviously was still fully engaged in the game. I can't get this vid to successfully download, so I'll come back and link it when I finally get it going.





Sparky got to play a bit with the block too. She was very interested in Peeper's training session, but when she saw the block she attacked it. Of course, since she touched it, it was click/treat time :). In real short order, she was touching the block with her beak without all the aggression. I should have taped this one, but I didn't think to turn the camera in her direction to capture this. She's pretty aggressive towards anything strange, so I'm sure I can find something to replicate the situation and film that at some point soon.

All the animals will be getting a break from training for a few days, as I am going to aravaipa canyon this weekend. I expect Dempsay to take a few steps backward with this break, and Peepers to pick it up just like I had never left. I dunno what Sparky will do, she's already surprised me by getting back into the training game so quickly this time around.

Progress!

Today Dempsey started wiggling thru the poles until the last 4, then made a big leap thru the rest. He's really excited with the training - so I guess the weave-a-matics work really well for him. He's also clearly trying to work out his footwork, which I would guess will take a while to really get down.

Peepers and I played 101 things to do with a block today and I filmed it to put on youtube. As soon as I can get it to upload, I'll post it here. I was hoping that he would show what I think is a typical behavior for this game, which looks to me like a pause to think about the situation. I always get a little panicky, thinking that the animal is quitting, but they have always come back stronger from that break, so I think it's worthwhile getting that on film and showing that apause isn't a disaster.

Sparky got to work on targeting to a stick, as I thought she would need some time to remember the training game. In the past, she's attacked the clicker after long intervals between training sessions, so I expected to see that again. Boy was I wrong. Little miss was all over her targeting behavior, and clearly sh's ready to rock and roll with the training game.

Poor Bungee thinks he's being neglected. I didn't train him or the older dogs today, so tomorrow I really need to make sure they at least get a few minutes to work.

Most of my day has been spent trying to get my camcorder to work with my laptop. It looks like the problem is that the cam records in mts format, and the programs I have don't recognize that. So I finally dowloaded a player that recognizes mts files, which gave me the codec so the other programs can see and read them now. I still can't edit them, nor can I save them in a different format. Maybe tomorrow I'll be successful with that aspect of this project, which should help with the youtube part, as I think that also is unhappy with mts files.

Just a little training

Today I worked Dempsey twice on the weave poles. He's been struggling with how to get through the set of 12 poles as quickly as he can, and is currently switching between jumping thru and wiggling thru them. I am currently trying to get videos downloaded so everyone can see. In any case, he seems to have the idea that he needs to go all the way to the end of the poles, and do it as quickly as he can. Which seems pretty good considering it's just a few days of training, and maybe 10 sessions of less than 5 minutes each.

I've been so busy trying to get this and some other things set up, I haven't been able to sit down and do the other training sessions. I really need to just get down to business, cuz everyone's been watching Dempsey get his turns and they want theirs too.