Targeting

[kiesha09]

I thought I'd start a new thread rather than derail the other 'clicker training - all types' thread and focus this one on targeting.

I love targeting but I have a couple of problems.

Dog 1 gets way way way too excited with targeting. He starts targeting something with his nose but then his arousal gets too much and he will mouth the hand/target stick instead. I need to some how bring things down to a much calmer level but as soon as I do one target he goes through the roof!

Dog 2 is so gentle with her targeting and will only touch very quicly and softly. She will move all over the room to touch targets etc, can touch targets on doors etc. But I can't get any duration on it. She is just so quick. How can I build this?

What are some other targetting ideas and uses do you have. I love Aidans measuring tape one

Edited January 14, 2011 by kiesha09

[Staranais]

I have also had problems building duration in the past. One way I have experimented with that helped was including an intermediate bridge (basically that means "keep doing what you're doing & you'll hear the click soon"), introduced in other situations so the dog understands it first.

Also when teaching something like paw touch to your hand, when the dog is fluently offerning short touches, I have found that it can help if you move your own hand to keep contact with the dog's paw after the dog has touched, before marking with the terminal bridge, to demonstrate what you want. After a few reps of being marked for passively keeping contact with your hand for a second the dog often gets it and actively tries to keep contact for that second.

[Aidan3]

Dog 1 gets way way way too excited with targeting. He starts targeting something with his nose but then his arousal gets too much and he will mouth the hand/target stick instead. I need to some how bring things down to a much calmer level but as soon as I do one target he goes through the roof!

Without seeing it I'd say you just need to clean up that criterion a bit. Ignore when he mouths. Make sure you can always see what he is doing to the target so that you don't reinforce the wrong thing.

Or, use a big, flat target that he can't mouth.

You get what you click, if you are clicking a variety of responses you will get a variety of responses (and that is OK at first). As you selectively reinforce the response you want more of, you will get fewer of the variations, and more of the response you are clicking on.

Dog 2 is so gentle with her targeting and will only touch very quicly and softly. She will move all over the room to touch targets etc, can touch targets on doors etc. But I can't get any duration on it. She is just so quick. How can I build this?

Unless I specifically want the dog to hold something in place, I have the dog follow the item stopping just short of touching it. This is a bit easier for things like heeling, moving into position etc If you want the dog to hold something in place (like a tape measure) then teach a paw target, when it is strong only click the hardest touches. These tend to be a little longer, so you can then start to build in a bit more duration.

Timing can be a bit tricky building duration on something so brief, aim to click the best 2 out of 3 until you have something to work with.

[corvus]

I found cleaning up my criteria has been helpful in general. My targeting cue is two fingers held out. My targeting dog is expected to press his nose into the little circle of palm below the two fingers, bordered by my thumb on the inside. It's a smaller target, the fingers give him a guide, and once he realised that that's what targeting means he would hold it for longer and press harder, giving me something good to mark. A wee bit of frustration seems to often result in a harder touch.

My dog can also get a bit excited about targeting. Sometimes I just want him to get it together. I crouch down and give him some easy touches and a bit of a chest rub to help him calm down and he usually gets nice and focused again. For him at least the excitement is mostly "OMG, target cue, food, quick!" and he gets frustrated if I he didn't meet criteria a couple of times in a row. Ken Ramirez at the APDT conference said your animal has to trust that their primary reinforcer will come. That one little sentence was quite profound to me, and made me look at my training in a new way. I have to make sure my animals trust that they will get their reward. Sometimes I get caught up looking for criteria my animal isn't aware I'm looking for. I try to stick to a rule with my targeting dog that if he didn't get it twice in a row we do something easier to build him up to it again.