The Power of a Click

I have used a clicker for teaching certain behaviors for several years.  The most complicated trick I’ve taught so far was skateboarding.  The most amazing thing I’ve done with a clicker (so far) is convincing an adult Aussie male foster that the place to pee is outside, not indoors.

My sister-in-law, Karen, has been training dogs since the 70’s.  Around 1990, she became interested in reviving one of the hunting lines of the American Cocker Spaniel that had nearly died out.  She was the driving force in the formation of GLACSHE (Great Lakes American Cocker Spaniel Hunting Enthusiasts) and has a formidable background in training Cockers for hunt tests.

Enter Lacie, a one-year-old, rescue female Cocker with drive and endurance that could really take her a long way.  One problem.  Although Lacie would willingly retrieve her favorite stuffed toy, she wanted no part of picking up a dead bird or even a field dummy.  After butting heads with Lacie over the issue for almost a year, Karen happened upon this video which shows how to clicker train a retrieve.

A week or two later, Karen shot this video which shows Lacie enthusiastically grabbing, holding and delivering her field dummy to hand.

The power of the click lies in several things:

1.  First and foremost, it is a distinct sound that the dog doesn’t hear in any other context.  As such it is an unequivocal way to indicate to the dog she has done the correct thing. Like telepathically telling the dog, “That’s it!  That’s what I want!”

2.  It forces the trainer to think about what she wants to train in new ways.  If the trainer is to be successful using a clicker to train a trick or behavior, she  will be forced to break the behavior down and analyze the steps involved in a way they might never have considered doing before.

3.  Your dog learns that she can make something good (the C/T) happen by her actions.  For some (perhaps most) dogs this is a very powerful and awakening concept.  They become active participants in their training.

4.  As a direct consequence of #3, behaviors are “owned” by the dog not imposed by the trainer.  Belle and Libby both were shaped to skateboard.  At most, I drag the board out once or twice a year.  But because they “figured out” how to skateboard for themselves, the behavior is still intact.  I’m not suggesting you can shape a behavior and then expect the dog to remember it forever, but I do think it becomes more firmly established than a behavior that was taught by leading the dog by the collar and getting her to perform.

5.  In agility, without timing your runs are doomed.  Using a clicker to mark a behavior will will give you a whole new appreciation for timing ;-)  Hopefully, as your timing improves while clicker training, there will be some spillover of that improvement into your agility handling.

Scotti's Seite

I have been a big fan of ScottisSeite on YouTube for several months.  I don't speak German, but I gather from watching the videos that Tanja and Claudia started their agility careers about three years ago and now conduct agility seminars on a fairly regular basis.  I am fascinated by how different Tanja’s handling is from what we see in America.  Her hands are extremely important in her handling--much more important in the hierarchy of communication than is the case in this country.  Additionally, at times her body becomes another obstacle on the agility course—one she uses to shape her dogs’ path, not block off-course choices.  Tanja also has the option to send her dogs when it is appropriate.

If you watch some of her trial videos, you will see why Tanja needs these tools.  German courses are quite different than the ones we see in this country regardless of venue.   Unfortunately, I'm not articulate enough to describe the difference.  To me the courses are more complex and require a lot of 180's and by-passing of obstacles.  Yet the good handlers make them look like there is an organizing principle in their design that allows both handler and dog to really get it into gear.

Now that my ankle has begun to become more flexible, I'm looking forward to working on Belle's speed.  I based my current course on one that Tanja posted on June27th.  Since I really, really wanted to work on the Ketschker turn, I made the course symmetrical and replaced the weaves with a long, straight tunnel. 

Chances Analysis

Here is the Chances course from Saturday's trial with the handler lines for all three levels shown:

 

For Elite and Open, the most difficult challenge is getting the dog into the #7 tunnel.  Unfortunately, the majority of the handlers were almost to the line or actually at it as their dog was turning from #4 to #5.  This meant that the only way they could move toward the path from #6 to the tunnel without crossing the line was by moving southeast.  The obvious line is 5-6-7.  However, moving south pulls the dog off that line and right to the A-frame.  If you look at the video of Belle and me, you will see that I step away from the line as she is going through #5.  Either she was oblivious to that step back or else my subsequent push toward the line more than compensated for it.  (I was concerned about the possibility of an off-course from #4 to #9, so I was closer to the line than I should have been.  Having made that error, I then compounded it by moving too quickly to support Belle's path from #4 to #5--I should have taken smaller steps.)

The other challenge was the weave pole entry.  It is an off-side entry and most of the dogs were moving at a goodly clip.  It was really impressive to see how well some of them made their entry after over-shooting the plane of the weave poles by three feet or more.

For the Novice class, the A-frame proved to be a very attractive off-course in the opening, with perhaps as many as half the dogs taking it.  (I don't know for sure, but I don't think a single Open or Elite dog went 1, 2, A-frame.)  I think the basic problem was that many of the handlers chose to lead out on the dog's right (not an option in Open or Elite).  Part of their decision was probably prompted by the idea they would be better able to keep their dog off the A-frame.  Another factor that influenced their choice was it removed the necessity to rear cross between #4 and #5 (or as at least a couple of handlers did, front cross at that point). Unfortunately, being on the dog's right after he takes the #4 puts the handler too close to the handling line for the tunnel/A-frame discrimination, and as a result, the percentage of dogs choosing the A-frame over the tunnel was quite high.

Back to Trialing

On Saturday, Belle, Dusty and I went to the QCDC in Davenport for our first trial in more than 10 weeks.  I had hoped to trial on both Saturday and Sunday, but a summer cold took me down for the count Saturday evening and all of Sunday.

I was a little anxious to see if all the distance work Belle and I have been doing would hold up in a trial setting.  Belle performed wonderfully for three of our four runs.  Our fourth run, jumpers, was under SCT by just a hair.  I realized during the run that Belle was running slow, so I did my best to move a little more to encourage her to move faster.  Needless to say, we will go back to working on speed as well as distance.

I was very pleased to see that I'm not really limping all that much in the video.  Sports turf is just so foot-friendly.

Here's video of Chances and both Regular runs: