Wally vs Me: Day 2 - Arriba/Abajo

Freaking blogger...ugh. Extended downtime really stinks. Just totally. It stinks almost as bad Wally's poop when he's sick. Almost.

Anyway, things didn't go so well this time around:

Not nearly the same success as Day 1

As you can see, Wally struggled much more this time around.

And again, there was one distinct context that did it, if I called for the direction while I wasn't either at the top of bottom of the stairs. Another thing that got him a bit was calling for a direction right after. Like if he got to the top of the stairs on "arriba", if I called for "abajo" he'd get mixed up, especially at one spot where he can go up another "stair" or come down the stairs back to me.


So there's a gap in our training, the second major one uncovered in just two runs with these games. If nothing else, I'm glad I decided to do this for that reason alone. I never would have thought to do this otherwise since most of the time, I was focusing on training for "real" situations. It's not often (ever?) that I have him go up or down the stairs without me about to do the same, or going in that direction and I might want to have him go before or after me.

It is that situation, Wally did very well. He had no problems going up or down in that context.

I think I'm getting another "life lesson" of sorts about thinking on how to further extend a concept during training so that his knowledge can be more well-rounded. Pretty much a lesson in more generalization during training over time.

To Wally's credit, he does pick up on what's going on, and that shows up during these games. There will be a streak where he's very inconsistent or having no success on the first try, but then he'll start doing it as if it's no big deal. At that point, he's getting into a rhythm and having a run of successes. There seems to be something of a mindset he's having that might be getting in the way more than anything else. He knows how to do it in the sense of what behavior goes with that sound.

I think part of this is he gets an idea of what's going to happen next, and he's all geared up to do it, he's just waiting for the sound (i.e. the cue). Thing is, sometimes any sound that's close, he'll just go do whatever it was he was geared up to do.  I didn't count this in the game, but if I go "arriba" to send him up the stairs, "pare", to stop him about halfway, and then say "abajo", he'll keep going up, or if he comes back down, there's a lot of hesitation.

And I know there's one existing quirk where he'll be just so ready to do whatever just got him a reward and then gets that stuck in his head. It's almost like I need an "okay, reset your brain" cue!

Just some quirks that's coming up with the games. I imagine there will be some more gaps in the coming days since the challenge will probably go up for him. Perhaps I'll actually delay the other games a bit. That may be "cheating" but I want Wally to "win" anyway. On the other hand, it might not be a good idea since the point was also to see where we are as of now, so "teaching to the test" would disrupt that aspect, and maybe not to a lot to help him anyway if I'm not hitting on the areas that he's struggling in.

And hopefully, blogger won't be shutting me out again anytime soon. Tech problems: 1, Me: 0.

New Game Idea: Wally vs Me or Competitive Training

I just got this idea in my head and have started to flesh out how I'd go about it and what the competition would be like. But first, I'll explain what I mean.

Competitive Training?

"Competitive Training" is what I call it because Wally and I will be "competing" for a common high-value resource that we both want. Badly.

If he performs the required behavior correctly, he'll get a piece. If he does, he gets to watch me eat what would have been his piece.

But this won't just be with Ye Olde Bread Balls (at least not this time, and he does love them) but this will be what might be his highest-of-the-high value, the penultimate food prize, the true to-die-for morsel he could ever think of...

Lemon cake.

I have some, and I will use it as the bounty.

Oh and we'll keep score, and I'll post it, just like a baseball box score.

Fun With A Practical Side

I love games and think they are a big help to training dogs. These "competitive training" sessions will help him learn the skills that are the subject of the day and also give him more opportunity to practice them in a highly positive emotional context/environment, which seems to help him learn things very quickly. It will also take some of the edge/frustration of getting a no-reward marker and he'll have to control himself enough to understand the situation, listen for the cue, and then think about what the right behavior is.

Doing this will also allow me to mix up the training sessions for him. I can be more animated and dramatic because I'm not as concerned with picking up the behavior as I am making it all this big deal to him. I'll also do this to up the challenge subtly as I'm now being as big a distraction as anything else and revving up his emotions to higher than usual levels. Oh yes, I plan to get him barking and wagging and jumping up.

Plus, if it's easy, what does he learn?

There's also another practical purpose - the days he "loses" or "barely wins" are areas in which we need to work more on during "formal" training sessions. Gaps/weaknesses in what we've done so far will show up, giving me a better picture of where we are.

Rules of the Game

Here's the rules:

1. The only "behavioral rule" will be to stay engaged in the game at all times. This won't be a problem, though, unless something unexpected happens and freaks him out. We'll put the game on "pause" if that happens to let him settle down.
   
   
2. Each day, a new skill will be picked and at least 20 trials will be run through but there could be any number at the high end (realistically, probably about 40 at the most - I only have so much lemon cake and can make the pieces only so small!)
   
   
3. Any known context is applicable and can be called upon.
   
   
4. Only reasonably well-known behaviors/cues will be required. For example, asking him to get his dumbbell from a pile of objects is fair game, asking him to get "azul" instead of the "conejo" is not.
   
   
5. A success gets him a treat, a failure means I eat it instead.

And the preliminary schedule of "events", so to speak:

Day 1 - Abres y Cierras (opening and closing doors)
Day 2 - Arriba y Abajo (going up and down stairs)
Day 3 - Vámonos y Pare (going and stopping)
Day 4 - Pelota y Conejo (determining his ball and rabbit)
Day 5 - Azul y Amarillo (the return of the blue and yellow cards or cones)

If I think of more stuff he'll have fun competing against me with, I'll add them in somewhere and the schedule can change.

Oh, and yes, all the cues will be the Spanish words I've been using.


Hopefully, we'll be able to kick this off tomorrow. Also, I hope Wally wins and beats me badly! That would mean he's learned everything very well and in more than just one situation!

A Day of Spanish Cues: A Mini-Test and More Work On Stay

Just to mix things up a bit, I decided to give a little "test" to Wally on the Spanish cues we've been working with for quite some time now and it looks like he has an understanding of them. This was not only a test of giving the right behavior in response to known situations, but what he figures out when given the cue in new situations (for that cue).

Also, we worked more on training stay and did throw in a little more working with recognizing the ball and rabbit, but that was nothing that hasn't already been mentioned before. The majority of cues he got were in Spanish, so it was a day of Spanish for Wally.


The Mini-Test

Abajo, Arriba, Abres, y Cierras

First up would be the mini-test. This would be on the first four Spanish words I really introduced to him and used in training him.

Abajo y Arriba
 
For "abajo" and "arriba", I put him near the stairs and he had to go in the proper direction that I gave. At first, it was easy, I stayed where I usually do and cued arriba or abajo. As expected, this was no problem for him. He got these easily for both sets of stairs. A really good job and didn't really miss any, aside from the occasional "extra" barking before he would do the proper movement, especially, for some reason, with arriba. Maybe the sound of the word just sounds exciting to him!

Having mastered that, it was time to up the challenge some. I moved back from him to add some distance with him staying put. Then, I cued the direction. He was anticipating another instruction at first, and the first few times, he was confused. This was especially the case on "abajo" likely because he was even farther from me and he had to pick out the sound with some walls and such between us. Even though this was harder for him, after a while, he picked up on it.

Next was really tricky. I had him come to the middle of the hall. Arriba was to make him go up one set of stairs, but abajo was for another set. This really threw him for a loop for quite some time! Up until this point, arriba/abajo belonged to the same set of stairs, just a different position relative to him and I (probably, at least that was some part of the "picture" he had). Now, we're in the middle and it was less obvious. Wally had a tough time with this, and I certainly made a mental note of it.

The next test was as tricky as it didn't involve stairs at all, but a chair he could jump/climb into and jump down from. Or at least I though it would be tricky. He figured it out somewhat quickly, though it's probably something we could stand to work on later.

Abres y Cierras

Working these two was more limited as they relate to doors. At first, it was right near the door. A warm-up of sorts was leaving a small crack in the door (so his nose could fit) and cuing abres while a clearly opened door would have me cuing cierras. No problems here, he moved quickly and only got them mixed up when he wasn't thinking straight and just eager to one of them, usually the last behavior he did, regardless of the cue. That excitement. Looks like we need more work on controlled excitement training as well.

Increasing the challenge came mostly from creating ambiguous situations or cuing the same direction more than once (Especially for abres as this has easily practical uses - I may need him to open the door wider for something).

With the ambiguous situation, I put the door with more than a small crack in it, but not quite halfway open to where it would be clear which one I want (or where it would be impossible for him to close due to the angles and position of the door). Now this made him think! I could see him pausing before acting as if he's trying to remember which cue when with which behavior while looking at the door. It looked like he was thinking "okay, where do I need to push the door to do that?".

At first, he sort of just guessed, or took the easier looking action, but after getting some light "nope" markers, he started to think about what was going on, and starting picking the right behavior more often, and once he started getting rewards again, he was making a clearer connection and being right more, and more frequently.

To close out the test, I cued abres/cierras from various locations. I might not always be right by the door, and neither might he, though most of it was me being in different places. This worked well, he didn't get mixed up by where I was, he was focused on the door and manipulating it correctly. He did better than I might have thought initially, but I wasn't too shocked as I probably did this now and then just in day-to-day moving around the house and such.


Stop, Wally! Pare!

He's getting it better. I resumed working on the hand signal and saying "pare" and that's helping to stop a lot faster. I've even been able to move away from him while doing this and he'll stand still. Excellente! I think he'll continue making the connection as I continue drilling it (in a fun way of course!) and using a lot of Premack Principle, which is probably how I taught "wait" and "stay" to begin with.

I'm glad and maybe a bit "relieved" that he's getting a better grasp. I think there's still a little disconnect with the sound (once I gave the cue while on our walk, where we worked on it this evening, and he took a second to even register the sound, but then stopped on a dime. Another thing that will come with continued work and repetition and of course plenty of rewards (read: bread balls)!

Of course, I looked up "Spanish dog commands" in google and found this little chart of cues in foreign languages, including Spanish. Of course, there's a different word for "stay" but, hey, I figure it's fine. He doesn't know - and it's not really "Stay" (as in stay put and don't start moving) but "stop moving" (implying he's in motion) so it's more a wait.

Plus, not everyone uses the same English cues - so, yeah. Still, it's a nice little chart. I'm also using SpanishDict.com to look up meanings and such (Again, it matters to me - of course not at all to him...as long as I can say it consistently!) The link goes to "parar" which is the infinitive verb form. I'm choosing the Usted Subjunctive form for verbs at this point, though I broke from that for abre and cierras... not sure why.

Well, guess that wraps up the day. Muy bien, Wally!

Excitement Training and More Spanish

Earlier today, we did some more work on following cues while wound up and super excited. We had started working on this earlier and today we did more with it.

It's easy to get him excited, and adding to it was some more kids running around. While he doesn't particular care about kids doing their own thing, it did add more stimulation to the environment. I also brought out food that wasn't just his beloved bread balls. This time, I brought out meatball pieces I had broken up. I was making some for lunch, so I sacrificed a couple for training purposes.

Once he was sufficiently psyched up (read: play growling while chasing me and with that wide-eyed wild look on his face), we started the training. At first, we worked on drops (lying down) and he still took quite a lot of time to get focused on my cue. I got the zoomies going on again, but then he went down. Gave him a treat and started running around again.

While chasing me, I threw in a stay cue. He froze and when I walked around him, he was zoned in on me and the more I walked around him, I could see him trying hard not to move. I saw those paws lifting up like he was just itching to move. I walked in to him to give him a meatball piece and then started the chase again. If he would have moved, I would have just stopped and not looked at him, totally disengaging, for a little while.

Time to up it some more and to put more intensity into things, I started batting at him playfully and "bouncing" to him which made him take evasive action and come back at me. Getting him even more agitated. I gave another stay cue. He froze (after some steps), and then I threw another twist. I gave a drop cue. This was completely the last thing on his mind! He took off running. Then he was like, "wait...what did you say?" and he froze and look at me again. I gave the cue again, and he almost took off again, but lied down. I called him too me, give him a lot of meatball pieces and that was that.

Later on today, I worked on more Spanish with him. We had worked on these words before in addition to "abres" and "cierras". These two words were for going up and down the stairs.

For going upstairs, I used "arriba" and for downstairs, I used "abajo". One interesting thing I had no idea I was doing at the time is using a lot of words that start with "a-" (azul, amariilo, arriba, abajo) so it will be interesting if he can keep these sounds straight going forward. So far, it looks like there won't be a problem.

I noticed the same effect with "abres" and "cierras" - a very rapid connection to the behavior and the sound with no confusion. This was especially noticeable with going upstairs. Before, he would hesitate or do something else (usually barking for some reason) when I tried to get him to go upstairs. With using "arriba", he quickly put things together and now he shoots up the stairs! Once again, Spanish helped him make a connection (and it was again words form Dora the Explorer! Wally's fetish strikes again. I wonder if it wasn't the Spanish that got him into it..I wonder why he's making connections this fast - what is it about the sounds of Spanish?)

For "abajo", there was a little initial hesitation because he was waiting to hear "downstairs" as I used to say. (To his credit, he knew I didn't say it and he would "false start" - make a move to go down but then stop like "hey! you said something different!") It took a little bit to get over that hesitation, but now, no problem.

So now Wally knows four Spanish words. Abres, cierras, arriba, and abajo. He's learning two more, the colors azul and amarillo. Certainly keeps the training interesting for us both if nothing else!