corvus

I'm currently running a pilot study on optimism in dogs. It's a fun program, but kind of time consuming as it takes the dogs a few weeks to learn the task so we can test how optimistic they are. If anyone is in the Sutherland Shire and is interested in participating, could you please let me know? The time commitment is half an hour per dog most days for maybe 4 weeks at most. Training happens at your home so the dog is in a place they are comfortable in.

And those are the much like the ones I used when getting possums or gliders out of traps! Best thing for bitey bats, too. They are a good balance between sensitivity and protection. I always ended up taking them off for bats and anything smaller than a rat, though, which is how I got bitten by a bat and had to go and get rabies boosters. It's really hard to handle a 14 gram, wriggly bat with any kind of gloves on. They are so light and small they disappear without fingertips to tell you where they are. :p The sun gloves are fine for protecting against shallow scratches and abrasions, though, and more comfortable in the heat. I thought mine might get ripped to shreds in the lantana and the likes, but they held up all right and still protected the backs of my hands.

I used to wear sun gloves in the field because I would end up with crisscross cuts and scratches all over the backs of my hands from dragging traps through brush and checking them and so forth. It did solve the problem and then some. I became very attached to them because they also helped protect my skin from getting all dry and rough. I had a different style with a covered palm as well. My hands faired much better in general after I started using them, and I converted a few ecologists along the way. They were invaluable during a wetland field trip where I was constantly dunking my hands in the river and getting alkaline mud on them. Good to look after your hands and skin. Makes life much more comfortable.

Funniest thing, I thought I'd try the 'round the back one out with Kivi this morning and as soon as I turned to face him he just happily walked around behind me without even a vague cue and appeared again in heel position. I tried it a few more times in case it was a fluke and he got it every time. Apparently I had unknowingly already taught him one somewhere along the way. I mixed them up and did some u-turns as well and he didn't show even a moment of hesitation or confusion. Kivi is easily put off if he's unsure of himself, so I guess the skills just kind of translated from all that finding heel training. I often send him around behind to come back into heel if he has swung right out for whatever reason and I just want to reset and try again. I guess it looked pretty similar to him.

The main use of a cue in my eyes is the ability to warn your dog when a sudden environmental change is about to occur. It's taken us a while to get this working, but I think Erik is finally starting to actively look for what he's meant to be looking at when I tell him out of the blue to Look At That. This is a massive advantage when you have noticed something coming but your dog has not. It means they can be told to prepare themselves for something unexpected and they have a rule structure for how to handle it calmly. Most of the time I don't cue, though. Erik's job is to notice things and tell me he's noticed them by looking at them and then back to me. I reward that A LOT. It's easy to fall into the trap of using this as a management tool and only practising it when there's a problem. Do that with the wrong dog and you can make the problem worse. In the initial stages, the click is used both as a marker and an interruptor. Therefore, you click when the dog is looking at the stimulus. You're marking the behaviour, but they will turn back to you for their treat, so you are simultaneously interrupting them looking and thus hopefully preventing them from getting fixated. If they get fixated anyway and don't respond to the clicker, then yes, you are too close. Or perhaps you just need more practise. More distance never hurts IMO. If the behaviour you want is looking at you and ignoring the stimulus, that's fine, just keep clicking for looking and the focus on you will probably come on its own. IME once the dog sees LAT as a trick they can offer to get a treat, they often don't care enough about the stimulus anymore to want to look at it. They get into training mode and you have to cue it to get them to look away from you. We have a release cue that tells the dogs the bar is closed and they can go do what they like for a bit. They often try to tell us what they would like to do is more training. I'm a sucker for a dog that wants to train and can't resist rewarding it sometimes.

Where did I say "it" was the dog??? "It" is whether an animal enjoys an activity or not. Way to quote me out of context. This is a thread about competition obedience with a dog. It is you that is out of context. Uh huh. Because how far a trainer goes to help a dog enjoy an activity has nothing at all to do with enthusiasm in the obedience ring. It's okay, you can say you misread what I wrote. It doesn't hurt.

Where did I say "it" was the dog??? "It" is whether an animal enjoys an activity or not. Way to quote me out of context.

I think that's a really important question. I can see that maybe some people are not interested in persisting with a dog that is difficult to train. That's why working breeds are so popular, I guess. For myself, though, I've become increasingly unwilling to accept that an animal just doesn't like an activity and there's no helping it. Whether you want to help it or not seems to me to be the real question.

It was a joke Corvus So was mine. Hence the wink. :p I don't think enthusiasm and drive are the same thing. Enthusiasm in my mellow dog looks very different to enthusiasm in my drivey dog, but that doesn't mean it's not there or that it's not worth nurturing. An enthusiastic dog is a happy dog.

If you can't get enthusiasm out of a dog unless it's a working line dog then I don't think it's the dog that is the trouble... ;) Other people are doing just fine.

Meant to say I think your adult albie is a Black-browed Albatross. ;)

They look different to Mini Pins to me. The head looks rounder and their legs look stronger and more muscular. http://pragueratterclub.com/Resources.html ETA And the ears look set slightly lower.

This is just me, but I think I'd try putting blink on verbal cue just on the hunch that it might be easier for the dog to grasp duration with a behaviour that is cued with the same kind of signal as other duration behaviours. I haven't done anything like closing eyes, but I'm currently teaching my dogs to take a breath on cue. Sometimes holding out after a short breath can get you a longer breath. Same with targeting. Once your dog knows what they are being asked, if you hold off rewarding they will often do it again harder or do several in quick succession like the way we hit buttons repeatedly and harder if they didn't work the first time. If a dog can blink harder or several times quickly you might get a smidgeon of duration to work with.

Cool, I didn't know that you could do them from Sydney harbour. We went with SOSSA: http://www.sossa-international.org/Pages/Front%20Pages/TripDates.htm They have a small boat that isn't that fast, so it takes about 2 hours to get out there, then they putt around for about 3-4 hours catching birds, and then they head back again. It's $100 for non-members. We went in September 2008 and have been meaning to do more ever since. OH wants to go in the winter to see jaegers. But maybe we should try Hal's trip to compare. Gorgeous photos! What size lens?

That is not true. :rolleyes: If you've had a brown cross the road to have a go at you it was a freak occurrence. I've seen plenty of them over the years and they are ALWAYS heading away from me at a speed that sure looks like fleeing. They are nervous critters, though, and if you get too close they can be unpredictable. I have nearly trodden on them and I've never had one have a go at me. The only snake I've ever had head towards me was a red belly and it was just passing through while I stood around watching it. I don't think it even knew I was there. They don't see that well. It's also not true that red bellies keep browns away, as has already been noted. Red bellies tend to eat amphibians and reptiles and that includes small snakes, but browns will eat anything at all, which also includes small snakes. Lots of things eat small snakes. Including bigger snakes of the same species.

There's a group that does regular pelagic birding trips out of Wollongong. Some great photo opportunities for albies and other sea birds. I had a rubbish camera when I went, but I think we'll do it again sometime. It was a great day and OH got to hold a shearwater. It didn't throw up on him, so he was pretty chuffed with that. They caught a couple of albatross and brought them onboard to measure. Seeing them close up makes you realise just how freaking enormous they are. If you go at the right time of year you can see whales as well. There are usually dolphins. I have a friend who used to go a lot before he moved away and one time he saw a pod of Orcas. Wow! There's another group that does pelagics out of Eden... or it might be the same organisation. Apparently you get a better chance of seeing some cool marine life on that one. Every now and then they do 2 day trips. I don't think I could handle 2 days on a little boat on the ocean.

I was going to use them to improve balance and as foot targets to tell them where to put their feet. My little guy stands on my gym ball to improve his balance, but my bigger dog is not quite ready for that. He needs plenty of easier things to help him along first.

That's what Kivi was doing after he ate half a packet of Neurofen. When we worked out what had happened the symptoms had cleared up, but the vets did a blood test and the results showed his kidneys were still in distress, so he was put on a drip for the rest of the day until his bloods went back to normal.

I think you should get some professional help, even if it's just to make sure you're on the right track. It's really hard to tell what's going on over the internet. Perhaps you could get a hold of the CU book or even better, the dvds. The CU_Dogs Yahoo list is also active and a good place to lurk if you want to learn how to apply various techniques for reactive behaviour. The book is assumed knowledge, though. I appreciate that! Leslie McDevitt says that if you play Look At That enough you can turn distracting things into a cue to play LAT. So eventually you don't have to cue it, because the dog notices the distraction and automatically looks back to you and starts playing LAT. In the meantime, vigilance pays off I guess. I'm not entirely sure what you're doing, but it sounds good. There are differing opinions on this. What I do kind of depends on the situation. If we can get more distance between us and the thing they are going off at, that's a good start, even if you have to drag them. I tend towards just waiting for them to calm down enough to think again. But if they aren't getting any calmer after, say, 30 seconds, I will try to get more distance. That's my dogs, though, and they tend to come down pretty fast. There are some TTouch techniques that some people use, but I don't know how to do them. Might be worth looking into, though. It sounds like it. Keep up the conditioning with those keys and you would expect to see him re-engage with you more quickly over time. If that is not happening, my guess is you need more distance. More distance is often worth a go, I think. It often surprises me how drastically behaviour changes with distance. Good on you. You seem very dedicated. I think it's a good idea to observe very carefully. If in doubt, try more distance. I sometimes think it's better to do nothing until you're confident on what path to take. Maybe that's because one of my dogs finds a huge amount of things rewarding, so it's easy to accidentally reward behaviour with knee jerk reactions. no, i'm not and yes, i do fear that i'm misreading her behaviour. BUT, when at the park and a dog is approaching byron, she will run just in front of byron and 'turn him' in another direction --- that's in a calm setting tho. at the fence, she barks at him close to his ears, she appears to nip at his cheek/neck [never engages], front paws his back, and runs from one side of his body to the other [she bahaves this way also when trying to engage byron in play --- byron will respond positively, or negatively with a sharp yap at her, and sometimes i'll step in just to stop her barking]. That behaviour could just as easily be an attempt to control Byron, and may be prompted by Bella's distress at Byron's behaviour. All that over-arousal can really upset other dogs. I think it's always good to give dogs something to do when they are getting upset. I cue easy behaviours like a sit or down and then cue them to take a breath and we move on to eye contact, LAT, paw, target. Massage can help calm them. Mental notes are good! My boys are BFF, but even they have got into fights once or twice when both were very aroused. They have never hurt each other and once they have had a moment to calm down it's all having a calming shake and let's be friends again. Still, best not to have to break up a fight! I think calming routines are very helpful. Erik is a touch reactive and gets fired up in the blink of an eye, but he's very quick to come back to me, offer a down, and wait for further instructions. I've had him come over and fold into a down in front of me moments after a scary fight with a dog we didn't know very well. He wasn't really thinking, but it goes to show the power of conditioning. I lean on downs a lot. It gives me the time I need to decide what to do next and keeps Erik out of trouble and calms him down while I'm deciding. It's not uncommon for him to down automatically in situations where I would have cued it if he'd given me the chance. With Bella, perhaps give her a Kong or a pig's ear when you take Byron out without her. My boys settle better on their own if they have something to chew on.

And here's a little snippet about variable reinforcement schedules. Ken said that many dog trainers aren't systematic enough in how they introduce VRS and thus run into difficulties. Variable Reinforcement Schedules The advantage of using VRS is that it has the potential to strengthen behaviour (resistance to extinction), and allows an animal to work long durations without treats. It can lead to frustration and is not effective unless introduced systematically. Use the same approach as training a reinforcement substitute to introduce a VRS. Monitor focus in training sessions to tell whether a reinforcer is effective or not. If the focus is good but the behaviour is wrong, the problem is with the cue, not the reinforcer. Expectations Animals will develop expectations about reinforcements. They learn this based on how and when they are trained. It is often based on the value to the animal versus the difficulty of the behaviour. Expectations can be changed • Must be systematic • Easiest if planned from start • Variable use of reinforcement reduces specific expectations

These are notes, so if something doesn't make sense I can probably clarify. Reinforcement Substitutes These are conditioned or learned reinforcers used in place of food. E.g. Clapping, toys, tactile, play. Train them like a new behaviour. • Reinforcement history • Relationship • Implementation • Experience Misuse can occur if assumptions are made about what an animal likes. The animal MUST trust that primary reinforcement will occur. Training a reinforcement substitute: • Pick a stimuli that will be useful in training. Something that is easily available, animal may already enjoy, or could be novel. • Train each new stimuli as a behaviour – present stimuli, click, primary reinforcer. • Continue until it is clear animal accepts new stimuli. • Bring to training, starting with an easy, well-established behaviour. Click, new reinforcer, primary reinforcer, behaviour, click, new reinforcer. Only use a maximum of three times in one session. • Then progress to harder behaviours: click, new reinforcer, primary reinforcer as above. Again, only a maximum of three times in one session. • Increase use in sessions gradually, with the percentage of reinforcement substitutes never out-weighing the primary reinforcers. Use a maximum of 20/80%. • This is the first step towards using a variable schedule of reinforcement. Rules for beginners: • Never use a reinforcement substitute after two consecutive behaviours. • Avoid using the same reinforcement substitute twice in succession if you have multiple options. • Always ask for a behaviour followed by primary reinforcement more often than a substitute. • Continue to use reinforcement substitutes as a behaviour more often than as a reinforcer. This is essentially the Premack Principle – reinforce a hard behaviour with an easy behaviour. A reinforcement substitute can become a primary reinforcer, but be very careful to judge this correctly! Never take reinforcement for granted.

Ken Ramirez has a recipe for secondary reinforcers that I love. It breaks it down and makes it easy. He says an animal has to trust that their primary reinforcement will come. I have the recipe written down somewhere if you want it.

Clickers are a precision instrument in training. They are especially useful when shaping movement. It takes practise to get good at using one, but you will certainly get results right from the start. As you get better you can target smaller movements and use it more subtly. The main thing to remember is to click for the smallest movements you can detect, click for movements you think are about to happen, and keep the reward rate very high. A click every few seconds.

Maybe you yelling "No pee!" at him all the time and then tieing him up so he can see all the fun but can't participate? If he pees anyway after you say "No pee", then he doesn't understand the cue. Time outs are a wishy washy punishment at the best of times. I don't know how a dog is supposed to gather from a time out that peeing is not on. If your dog doesn't know how to stop a punishment he will get stressed. Any animal will. The general rule of thumb in behaviour is if a dead dog can do it then it's not a behaviour. Can a dead dog "no pee"? What is he supposed to do instead?

Saw lots of people looking on the coast today, but no whales in sight. We usually see them at some stage, but so far this year have been unlucky. We did a whale watching cruise 2 years ago, but the weather was yuck and they weren't doing much so we only got photos of their backs. We saw some on the way out to the Great Barrier Reef a few months later. Apparently whales galore in tropical waters at the right time of year. I would love to see the Southern Rights in their breeding grounds off southern Australia, but it's Aboriginal land and so you have to get permission to go out and look. It was the wrong time of year when we were going through there. They stay very close to shore with their calves.