When we’re teaching or shaping a new dog behavior, many of use the click/treat strategy that marks the behavior (click or verbal marker like YES!) just before we reward the behavior (with food or a toy). Dogs need to know every time they get it right … at first. Later, we introduce more intermittent reinforcements, where the dog doesn’t know which correct response will earn a reward. We’re told that a variable reinforcement pattern is the MOST motivating one out there.
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Posted by Roxanne Hawn | Posted in Dog Musings, Dog Training | Posted on 13-07-2010
Once in a while, everyone gets stuck. Maybe it’s stress. Maybe fear. Maybe illness, in ourselves (or those around us). When friends face what we called “stress lock” back in my college days, I typically tell them this: “Action is always better than inaction.” In other words, do something … anything … to make progress, no matter how small.
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After Memorial Day Weekend, I prepared to amaze you with a new video of Lilly showing off her trick called BALANCE. It’s essentially where she sits up like a chipmunk. It’s actually an old trick, but over the long weekend she suddenly could pop up from a seated position without any help from me.
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I took Lilly for an in-town outing for the first time in doggone ages last Sunday. We mostly ran errands and such, but she did get her first chance to visit my mom at the assisted living place. It wasn’t a perfect visit behavior-wise, but it wasn’t terrible either. I kept it short (10 minutes). I rewarded the heck out of every tiny confident thing. Looks like we have a few challenges to train, if indeed Lilly would like to continue these visits.
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