Gameday Tuesday

Yesterday, we played a lot of games all day long. A large majority of the interactions we had was through games and it was a lot of fun for us both. I love using games as training and I feel they can teach a lot of the very things we want dogs to learn in a fun way for both dog and human alike.

The games I play with Wally are mostly mentally focused, though there is usually a physical aspect as well. They also often relate to a behavior we've been working on and it gives him a safe-yet-practical application of that behavior, with the pretext being having a good time, so there's no stress involved.

Here's the games we played most of the time - all of these were played indoors:

Hide And Seek
How to play: Have the dog stay in one location while you move out of his sight. Then call him. In the beginning, call him at regular intervals, then do so less and less as he becomes better at the game. You can also cover his with a towel or blanket so he can't watch you leave. This will have to use his ears to try to get an idea of where you might be going. Adding challenge can also be done by going farther away. This can cause the sound to become less exact in where it's coming from, requiring him to pay more attention to locate the sound relative to where he is.

Often times, I put little "obstacles" in his way that he can clear using a behavior we've recently worked on. For example, yesterday I left cracks in the doors I went through to have him open them with his nose in order to get by instead of just leaving the door open. Back when he was learning to go up and down stairs on his own, that is when I started hiding on different floors of the house.

If for some reason he just can't get to me, he can bark (him calling out to me). This may help teach him a skill I hope we never have to use - if for some reason we get separated, stay put and bark. That will allow me to follow his bark to find him, hopefully.

Rapid Cues
How to play: Have the dog in front of you, and then start calling for various behaviors that he knows, allowing just some seconds between them. The dog has to change positions/perform the behavior correctly and in time before your next direction. After so many correct responses, reward him and play another round. If he doesn't get a response correct, start over and the dog gets no reward.

This can be a challenging game, both mentally and physically, so start slow and with just a few behaviors. It is also best to stick with known behaviors he's performed reliably since this game is more about how fast he can remember the behavior and then perform it. As he gets better at the game, increase challenge by speeding up how fast you call out behaviors, by increasing how many correct responses you require before getting a reward, or by throwing in more behaviors you'll call out (and when he or she gets really good - you can do ALL of those: Speed up and require more behaviors while calling out more and more of his known behaviors).

It is hard to recommend a time to start with and how to decrease it since it will depend on the dog, how fast (s)he picks up on what you're doing, and what you're asking of him/her. I will suggest that this is a game you might want to use little tidbits of food you like (for example, I use bits of bread or deli meat) as this seems to add a competitive aspect to the game and that seems to make Wally get even more into it. Not only is a wrong response preventing him from getting food - the food goes away! (I eat it)

Directions Game
How to play: I use the coffee table as a barrier and I stand on the other side of it and back from the table a few feet. I then indicate a direction with an arm signal and the verbal name of the direction (I just use left/right - I know, how imaginative). Remember, that the direction is always relative to the dog, so if he's facing you, his left is your right and vice versa. When he comes around the table in the proper direction, he's gets rewarded. Of course, you can almost play like the Rapid Cues game and have him going in different directions multiple times before you let him around the table for the reward.

One variation is using targets and put them to the left, right, and behind the dog. Call and indicate the direction and when the dog touches the proper target, praise (or click if using a clicker) and reward him. Like before, you can play it in a Rapid Cues style, having the dog return to the center position each time (which can help teach him "front" as well if you have the center lined up with you).

Find It!
How to play: Simple. Hide something, make your dog find it. You can start with treats with a strong scent or anything that has a scent he can pick up on. Usually, I'll wrap up some well-loved treat in a towel, then put another towel on top of it, and then put in some location where he'll have to go looking for it.

Wally got good at this really fast some time back so I pretty much have to make it hard for him or else he's done in like 30 seconds. I'll ball up towels, wrap them in another towel, tie the outer towel into a knot, cover that knot with ANOTHER towel, and then put it somewhere so he has to go looking for it. Once I threw in that last part (going to look for it) this put the challenge up for him and he had fun going to all the different places where it was - to find out it's not there - and then expand his search pattern. For even more challenge, I cover his eyes and walk/move quietly as possible to not give away where I am placing the towel via sound.


I hope you and your canine(s) enjoy these ideas. If there's games you like to play, feel free to share them as a comment on the blog, or email me and I'll include them in a future post after trying them out on Wally to see how he reacts to it!

"All-Positive Monday II" Results

Once again, no major changes in Wally's demeanor or behavior from the "All-Positive" day, so it must not be that major of a change for him. That's good. :)

I did notice one interesting thing: I didn't get any new behaviors from him, despite constantly getting rewarded for anything - whether we worked on it before or not.

He usually did most of his usual behaviors, just faster, more often, and with more "oomph" sometimes as if sitting so hard that he flops on the floor will make me reward him faster or something! But I was thinking he'd try to pick up some of those newer behaviors, just to try them to see if he would get rewarded again, but I didn't see it. It seems like that for us, this is a good way to refresh/review known behaviors.

Or, perhaps I'm looking at the wrong data, as it were. Perhaps what he is telling me through his behavior is something like "These are the ones I can easily call up while I'm so excited and just want the next reward!" or perhaps, "These are the things that are on the top of my mind/are the ones I feel like I've been most rewarded for."

Or, perhaps I need to "create" more situations. Leave out some objects and see what he does with them. Put some new "features" in the "terrain" to see what he does or how he responds. Things like that might trigger some other behaviors or give more insight to what's going on.

Looks like I have some things to consider in preparation for next Monday! I am glad I started this, though, and I don't think Wally has any complaints about it either!

"All-Positive Monday" II

Is it Monday yet?

It's Monday again, so time for another attempt at an "all-positive" day. Like last Monday, Wally will get a reward and/or praise for everything he does, barring any safety,etc behaviors that can't be rewarded. Last time, there wasn't too much of a difference, so maybe this time, there will be more of an effect. If not, perhaps I can safely conclude my methods are "close enough" to where he just doesn't perceive any real switch in how I relate to him.

Of course, in regards to position, it will be more practice for me to be quick on the draw. Like if he's walking with me, catch him in heel position so I can reward him instead of when he's not in position and then I have to call him into position again. Things like that will improve my observation skills and awareness of him "offering" me or other objects behaviors.

Another thing that has me thinking is trying to come up with a "theme" for each day between Monday and Friday. The weekends he usually gets "off" where we don't do any training. Kind of a time for him just to unwind and process the week before. Usually. Sometimes (okay, often!) I can't help myself. I guess I enjoy training him and he certainly perks up when he senses a training session is going on. While I don't need the clicker all the time, he definitely will perk up if I grab it! I think he knows what that means!

I don't know what I'll come up with, and if there's any suggestions, feel free to let me know what's on your mind! In fact, do that anyway, let me know what you think and any suggestions. I'm all ears and will listen to any feedback. Or perhaps I should say, I'm all nose and will sniff any feedback since we're talking about dogs and all!

What Is Your Canine's Payscale?

Keeping up with the jobs theme I guess, I was thinking more about how I "pay" Wally for jobs and tasks well done, or for doing well during training.

It's pretty simple here, everything he gets is something he considers to be "high value". In other words, this is something he is really excited about getting and really loves to have. For Wally, that's almost always some kind of food as he's highly food motivated. I always keep some bread or leftover pasta or some kind of tidbits he likes around so that I can capture things I like and it's always in reach for when I want to do some training or practicing some behaviors.

There's a couple ways to go with this. Some like to have varying degrees of reward, saving the best stuff for the hardest tasks and/or the best performances. Some just use one kind of reward - finding something the dog likes and just using it. I like to just use something he loves every time. 

Along with the value of the reward, there's the frequency of reward. Some reward every single correct response, some require multiple correct responses before a reward. Really, each has a use during the training process and beyond into the "real world" where the behavior is asked for in a practical applications. During the early stages of learning and in beginning use in practical situations, a reward each time can be an advantage. Once the behavior is set and is reliable, switching to a more random frequency (and try to be truly random, don't do every 3rd success all the time, etc, dogs can indeed pick up on patterns like that) can make the dog much more willing to perform the behavior over and over again, in the hopes that this time, the reward will come.

So reward delivery can come in various flavors and styles, making for many ways to "pay" your dog for successful jobs well done. Eventually, the job hopefully will become a reward on some level in and of itself, and even the opportunity to do the job, but these things come later down the road after an established history of "good pay".

Job Creation For Wally

Cotons aren't noted for having "jobs" like a working or sporting breed, but I try to come up with things Wally can do for me as "jobs" that he is physically able to do and uses the behaviors he's already learned. So, like with a human job, I try to come up with Wally's "résumé" of sorts - a list of things he can do that could be put to work.

• Barks loudly, especially for the size of dog he his. Cotons don't have yippy, "little dog barks" and that's certainly true of Wally. This let's me hear him bark in almost every place in the house no matter where he is or I am.
• Likes to use his paws.
• Can push things with his nose
• Will stay in one spot if so instructed
• Has some ability to pick up small/light objects

With these skills in mind, I have to come up with things I have teach him how to do and that he could do either on a quick cue and he can carry the task to completion, or he can do based on environment (what he sees and hears triggers him to do that task).

This will be something of a project for us but he has some of jobs already.

• He opens and closes doors for me (though we are still working on the closing part, and developing new cues to make the sound distinct - for now we are using "abres" and "cierras" spanish for "open" and "close")
• Whenever a timer goes off in the kitchen or the kettle is whistling, he barks loudly so I can hear it, even if I can't hear the actual sound (like I'm in the basement). Sometimes he'll even hear the ding of the toaster oven timer from the basement and bark!
• We're working on this but if I drop something small or light, I'd like to have him pick it up and hold it for me. We're working on both the pick up and hold/carry, and him doing it when something drops without a verbal cue from me.
• If there were light switches on the floor, I'd have him push them with his paws, but alas... 
• With planting season right around the corner, I wonder if he could dig holes in containers or loosen up the soil...

He enjoys doing these things. Seems like it gives him something to do and think about and of course he loves the praise and rewards he gets for a job well done. Then there's just another thing we can spend time together doing - all things dogs love. Hopefully, we'll be able to learn more behaviors and get better at these things so he can continue to learn and gain more confidence as a "houseworking dog" of sorts!