Happy T-Day!

Happy belated Thanksgiving to any US readers!  We have had a pretty wonderful break getting to hang out with family, eat a whole lotta great food AND we got out for morning hikes ALL FOUR DAYS!!!  I may be a little low on sleep, but I'm really happy with how this break has treated us.

Naturally, Dom and I have kept up with our training schedule.  And in keeping with my monthly goal of talking about a couple of podcasts that I'm listening to, let's get after it!  In the dog training realm, I am a HUGE fan of Hannah Branigan's Drinking From The Toilet!  I love how minutely she breaks a behavior down.  Right down to which muscle contractions and body movements will indicate a desired tuck sit.  To her sense of humor, which is so up my alley.  I think I've even heard her say a "that's what she said" joke!  I enjoy the way she delivers information and her self deprecating manner.  Her podcasts have plenty of useful training information in them, but they're also just enjoyable to listen to.  If you haven't already, I highly encourage you to go check it out.

The non-dog related podcast that I'd like draw your attention to this month is Threshold.  This podcast takes one topic and explores it from multiple angles.  Digging into areas that may not seem directly related to the topic.  Season 1 focused on the bison and Season 2 is about the negative environmental effects that are impacting the arctic.  Amy Martin has an easy voice to listen to and I enjoy hearing the many sides of one topic.  If you're looking for something a little different to listen to, I encourage you to check it out.

And now on to the #100DaysofDogTraining!

Day 9

Day 9 of the #100DaysofDogTraining:  We've been working on crawl using a food lure, which you can see in the video.  And that works totally fine when I'm just wanting him to do the exercise.  But I wanted to spice things up a little and also get him thinking about the movement a little differently.  I decided that I wanted to try and sort of shape him crawling towards me.  This is the second time that we've done it.

I like how he's coming along overall.  It's a movement that takes more control from him and has helped to get him to pay a little more attention to how he lays down.  He used to lay down in a nice sphynx position, but then he got into the habit of rolling onto one hip.  Which is totally fine if I have him in a down where he's going to be waiting for a bit.  I prefer the sphynx down position while we're working.


I also should have ended sooner than I did.  That last jackpot that came after the movement I was looking for should have been the end, but I pushed it further.  I'll work on that.

Day 10

Day 10 of the #100DaysofDogTraining:  Today we spiced up the platform pivot.  I still warmed him up with pivots in both directions at all three levels (not included in the video).  Since I'm increasing the difficulty of the pivot, I took it back down to the lowest level to start with.  Though I don't think that I will increase the height.

My aim for this exercise is to continue encouraging Dom to pay attention to his back legs and increase the strength.  He is quite proficient at the regular pivots, so I added a FitBone on one side of the platform.  Initially I put the FitBone perpendicular to the platform.  I changed the position to be parallel to the platform as I started thinking that maybe the perpendicular position was too difficult for him, but the parallel position is definitely more work for him.  In subsequent training sessions I plan on going back to having the FitBone perpendicular to the platform until he's more confident in his movments.  Then I'll work more on the parallel position.


This exercise definitely was working those muscles.

Day 11

Day 11 of the #100DaysofDogTraining:  I gotta say, today I am feeling like a badass!  I was able to leave work early and I feel like I've gotten a ridiculous amount accomplished.  For crying out loud, I've gotten a full training session in with Dom and am able to post the video before 9:30pm!  Excuse my while I pat my productive self on the back. ;)

I'm continuing with the spicing up our standard exercises theme and today we added a FitBone in to the mix with the paw pods.  I warmed Dom up on the two sets of paw pods first, which I didn't include in this video as it's already part of another.  Then I swapped out one set of paw pods for the FitBone.  Adding the FitBone actually decreased the difficulty for Dom while moving in one direction.  But I decided ot take it a step further and have him come forward and then back up to the FitBone.  This is something I haven't had him do before.  He already knows how to rear foot target and back up, but I haven't had him do something like this.  You can see that initially he's not sure.  Occasionally I'll use a little physical pressure by leaning towards him to get him to adjust where he's distributing his weight, but he's not used to me asking him to actually move backwards for these exercises.


After the first time, he totally got it.  When I reset him and had him do it again, he totally knew what to do.  And props to me for quitting while I was ahead instead of continuing for more gratification with more reps. ;)

Day 12

Day 12 of the #100DaysofDogTraining:  Today we spiced up our core disc work.  I did warm Dom up with some front and rear foot targeting on the disc and we attempted a sit, but that wasn't happening today.

I have one end of the platform propped on the core disc so that it now has a little bit of instability to it.  Now simple movements have increased difficulty.  Dom has done the first part of the exercise before and is very comfortable walking forward onto the platform.  I had forgotten which type of a dismount I've had him do, but I figured it out after the first one was definitely ideal.


After working on forward movement on the platform, I introduced rear foot targetting and moving backwards on it.  This is something that IS new to Dom.  He obviously understands that if front foot targetting isn't getting reinforced then I'm likely looking for rear foot targeting and he offers that.  As he's never moved backwards up the platform, I used physical pressure along with his cue to move backwards.  He got the idea and showed improvements after the first time.

Day 13

Day 13 of the #100DaysofDogTraining:  Today we did our simple rear foot targetting using the platform.  Dom has been doing this since he was little, so he's got this down pat.  We start out at the lowest height and work our way up to the highest height.  He's done this enough that I realized we haven't worked on stimulus control at all.  Towards the end I started having him do his watch cue so that he would wait until I gave him his rear foot targetting cue.  This is the base behavior that we use to transfer to other objects.

Day 14

Day 14 of the #100DaysofDogTraining:  Today I picked to reintroduce Dom to the donut.  It's been well over a year since he last saw this and I don't think that I really did all that much with him other than having him place his front paws on it.

As you can see, he's initially not entirely sure about it, but his confidence increases.  I move the donut a little and have him approach it from different directions so that he doesn't become comfortable interacting with it from only one position.


I then propped it between the crate and the wall and had him start rear foot targetting it.  He's pretty unsure about this, so I reward for just putting one rear foot on it and we leave it there for this session.

Day 15

Day 15 of the #100DaysofDogTraining:  Today I decided to start tackling my plan to use the platform as a station.  Or what ended up translating into "hey, you don't have stimulus control or correct cuing for this!"

Going into today's training session I had already realized that I don't have going onto the platform under stimulus control.  Most of the equipment that I use for conditioning with Dom, I don't have stimulus control over.  I also realized that I don't really have a clear cue for how I want him to get on the euipment.  Or at least sort of.

Dom does understand that "touch" means to put his front feet on something (which has meant that I needed to redo my cue for a nose touch, as I also had the same cue for that).  And he knows that "back feet" means to put his back feet on something (I try to stick with cues that obvious to ME so that I don't bugger them while training them).  What I don't have is a cue that means to put all four feet on something.  I decided to go with "up" as the cue for all four feet.

And as I mentioned, I also don't have stimulus control over this behavior.  Dom has the general understanding that when a piece of equipment is on the ground, that means to put at least one paw on it.  What he doens't understand is that I need him to wait until he's cued to do so.

So today we worked on developing a cue, "up," to mean get all four feet on the object, the beginnings of waiting until cued to get on the equipment and starting to develop an understanding that he shouldn't always just position himself based off of my body positioning.

I guess that's an additional realization that I had, is just how much cuing he takes from my body position.  It's understandable as that has really been the largest cue he's had for how to interact with the equipment.  And from a conditioning stand point, that's totally fine.  Our end goal for this behavior is that I want to be able to send him to the platform from a distance and have him station there until released.  We've got a little work to do. ;)

These beginning stages aren't always the most entertaining, but I have a picture in my head of how I want the final behavior to look and it'll be nice to have this beginning stage to compare to.

We Made It....

....Through the first week of the #100DaysofDogTraining!!  I am finding more and more that if I plan things out in advance and put them in a readily visible and therefore easily reminded location, that I am MUCH better at keeping to a schedule.  Granted, sometimes my day will get away from me a little and my scheduling doesn't line up as well with real life, but having as many things as possible scheduled out helps to keep the feeling of being overwhelmed, a little at bay.  And considering that we are full on into the holiday season and my weekends are now booked up, advanced scheduling is my best friend.  I love this time of year, but I have to say that I'm looking forward to a little more breathing room come January.

This will be my first daily training videos recap post and I think it's going to be a little lengthy.  I did notice that my video descriptions started off not super brief, but as the week continued on (and I got lower on sleep) I started getting a little more concise.  It helps that these videos are more descriptive of the beginning stages of things.  Once I do videos of similar exercises with increasing difficulty, my descriptions won't need the discussion on how I got to that point.  I can just refer to previous videos. ;) Without further ado, here are this past week's videos:

Day 2

Day 2 of the #100DaysofDogTraining:  Dom has some minor mobility issues that require him to put more thought into his rear leg movements and make some things a little more challenging for him.  He is still fully capable, it just requires understanding that he may not get a particular movement on the first training session.  Sometimes it takes a few training sessions if the particular movement requires a lot of control over the rear end.  Regardless, I like exercises that build and maintain rear muscle mass.  That is key.

For this exercise, I'm utilizing a platform in the form of an aerobic step.  I have the platform up against the wall to give Dom added security while he figures out how to move his body in a controlled manner for a sit.  If he gets to a point where he easily and rapidly does a tuck sit, then I will increase the difficulty by moving the platform away from the wall.  We practice the sit from both directions to try an balance out the muscles.  He does have one side that is weaker than the other and you can see it in the video when he swings his rear completely off of the platform. 


When I first started doing this exercise (I really should have done a comparison video.  Maybe I will further along) I would stand next to him on the open side and use my body as a guide to help keep him on the platform.  Gradually we've worked up to a point where I am standing in front of him except for some days when he swings his butt out.  Then I'll step a little out to the side to help guide him.  As always, I reward him for effort.  He's trying and that's what counts.

Day 3

Day 3 of #100DaysofDogTraining:  Today's video is of Dom doing some pivots on the aerobic step that I use as a platform.  As long as I'm keeping track, I do one full revolution in each direction at each of the three levels.  Pivoting on an item is one of the first behaviors that I train my dogs for, so he's got that down pat and is very responsive to slight weight shifts from me to cue which direction he should be moving.  I am moving slowly because I want him to move intentionally on and off the platform and I want him really paying attention to what he's doing with his rear.  If I move too quickly, he is more than happy to keep pace, but doesn't move as intentionally as I would like.

Day 4

Day 4 of the #100DaysofDogTraining: I've already posted the video of Dom doing the paw pods outside of this training "challenge," but I do add the paw pods to different pieces of equipment to change things up a bit.  Some of these exercises I do some warm up moves him to get him paying attention to his feet and to make sure that he is physically doing well to keep proceeding. 

As you can see, I start with just the one set of paw pods and then work up to both.  From there, I bring out the aerobic step.  Targeting his front feet on the paw pods is the easiest for him to do, so I start with that.  Then we move on to putting the back feet on the paw pods.

Also wonderfully captured was a little sliming session.  Dominic gets really frothy when he's taking treats.  And he just happened to shake his head and fling some froth on me.  This is why I keep towels in the training area....

In the process of cleaning myself up, I managed to knock the mini hood off my betta tank.  Which was of concern to Dom.  When I started to get him back on the platform, he was doing some ear movements that indicated he was still concerned about the area.  So I took him back over there, we did some hand targets in the specific directions that he was concerned about, he got to get a good look at things and then he was fine to keep working.

It's been brought up by other trainers that a lot of people post videos that show only the successful segments of the training session or the segments that make things look like they are always perfect.  We all know that this isn't the case.  Though I do understand why people more heavily edit a video when they are trying to keep the clip rather brief.  This video is almost six minutes long, so clearly I'm not trying to keep it brief.


But here is Dom and I working on this exercise today.  Bumps, slime and all.

Day 5

Day 5 of the #100DaysofDogTraining:  Today I videoed a little of our core disc work.  My goal with this exercise is to get him targetting with his front and rear feet separately and to eventually sit on the disc.  I have the disc up against the wall to help as a guide for him.  He was sitting on it earlier this week, but today it wasn't happening.  I try to go with what he feels capable of doing each day and that definitely varies.  I'm sure that if I kept detailed records of his activities each day I would be able to figure out what activities caused increased muscle tiredness the next day, but I'm not at that level of obsessiveness.  Yet. ;)


I am happy with how he's targetting with his rear feet from the middle of the room.  It's probably not a bad idea for us to brush up on that a little bit.

Day 6

Day 6 of #100DaysofDogTraining:  This currently is the most fun exercise that we are working on.  Clearly Dominic enjoys it and I CANNOT help but crack up at his antics! 

I decided that I wanted to be able to release him to a tug as a reinforcer for some exercises that I would like to do.  He understands taking the tug while I'm holding it, but he doesn't have any experience being released to a tug.  I have a couple scenarios in my mind where I would like to use this.  One is with the tug placed behind him and me releasing him backwards toward it.  And the other is having the tug in the middle of the room while I work him on something and then release him to the tug.  Both scenarios require gradually building up to those points and this is the start of our work towards that.

I've combined our very first session, where I just release him to the tug straight in front of him.  And then our third session (today), where I have started moving the tug off to the side of him so that he does have to turn to go for it.


You can also see that I need to work on his out cue.....

Day 7

Day 7 of the #100DaysofDogTraining:  Today we were tight on time, but I'm trying to stick witht the goal of consecutive daily videos of our training sessions.  So I went for dumbbell work.  The beginning of the video are a couple short clips of where Dominic was with regards to a shaped dumbbell hold in January of 2017.  The rest of the clip was from today.  We've taken a few months off from doing anything with the dumbbell, but we're basically in the same spot that we were.  He will mouth the dumbbell, but we haven't progressed on the hold.  I've tried added movement on my part to entice him to grab for the dumbbell so that I can hopefully capture a longer hold on the dumbbell, but that hasn't happened.  I've brought out both the wooden dumbbell and the leather article to see if maybe he has a preference, but that hasn't changed anything. 


So this is where we're at.  Admittedly, if I do show him in obedience at all, it will not be at a level that requires dumbbell work, so my motivation is low for this behavior.  However, the fact that he is the only dog I have not gotten an actual hold on does tend to keep me going back and wanting to figure out how to communicate to HIM what I'm wanting.  So I'll keep periodically plugging away at this and probalby trying different things.  We'll see.  For now, we're at a plateau of just mouthing it.

Day 8

Day 8 of the #100DaysofDogTraining:  Dominic has a pretty decent recall when he's off leash, but it could definitely use a little actual work.  As you can see from the one incomplete recall that we had.  At one point I was being really good and bringing treats for him and Miley and focusing on random recalls on our weekly outings.  I have been less diligent about that over the past few months and now seems like a great time to pick back up working on that.  The longer his reinforcement history for off leash recalls, the more automatic his response potentially becomes.  Continuing to build up this history under low to moderate levels of distraction puts us in a better position for when high levels of distraction crop up.  Like deer or elk.

I don't do a ton of recalls on these weekly hikes because I do want him to enjoy himself and get some good exercise and sniffing in.  Now that it's getting colder, I'm also going to switch to a different method of treat distribution because my hands get really cold really fast when I have to take them out of my gloves to hand him a treat.  I have one of those treat tubes and I'll definitely start using that instead. 


I also reward Dom for his periodic check ins.  I don't reward every single one of these with food, as I don't want him just hanging out next to me for the whole hike.  So for check ins I switch between a food reward and physical play.

100 Days of Dog Training

I decided that I'm going to go for it and shoot for completing the 100 days of training!  It's started some fun thoughts in my head for little behaviors that I could train Dom to do.  Things that I wouldn't otherwise have a reason to try out, but wanting to keep having something new to post will, I think, help keep those creative juices flowing.  And Dom loves training, so it's really a win-win.

From my general search on Facebook, the 100 days of dog training challenge is to do a daily post about a trick, behavior or exercise that you're working on.  A nice broad area.  I will post daily on the Facebook page, but I think I'm going to still stick with weekly blog posts that involve a wrap up the videos that I've posted.  We'll see how it works out.

Our first submission is around the counter conditioning I'm doing with Dom in the hallway outside of my bedroom.  I either didn't realize or it didn't manifest until after Miley's passing, but Dom is pretty uncomfortable walking past the baby gate in the hallway.  Previously, Miley was the one who wasn't comfortable and I focused on her and Dom seemed to be fine.  After Miley passed, it became readily apparent that he wasn't comfortable moving around the gate.

Dom's nose touch to my hand is a strong behavior that has a solid reinforcement history.  It's a fall back behavior that I can use to assess his comfort level.  It's also a behavior that he feels very confident performing.  Having him do a behavior that he is confident in around something that he is less comfortable with has helped to counter condition his response to something that he's not completely comfortable with.  I also worked him both directions in the hallway on alternating days so that he didn't become okay passing the baby gate in only one direction.  Though I only apparently recorded on days where he was moving out of the bedroom.

Initially I focused on rewarding for the nose touch, but I changed up the location of my hand based on which direction he was showing some discomfort in.  If he eye balled the baby gate in between nose touches or cocked an ear towards it, I would place my hand in the direction of the baby gate.  This allowed him to do the behavior that he was confident in while being able to keep a solid visual on the thing that he was less comfortable with.  After a couple of strong nose bumps, I'd move my hand elsewhere.  I'd do the same thing if he was starting to give the bathroom the hairy eye. 

Gradually I would take a step backwards so that he had to also gradually move further out into the hallway.  I would stop taking steps backwards once the "pull" from him was too great.  Basically, once I felt that he wouldn't voluntarily move forward any further without me actually luring and essentially taking him beyond the point where he was most comfortable.

Progress was slow, but he was ending each session just a smidge further into the hallway than the previous session.  We finally hit a point where I felt that we had plateaued and we weren't gaining any ground.  I decided to change the picture a little and add an additional element.  I've trained him previously to touch an item with his feet and it's been a pretty solid behavior.  I would warm him up with nose touches to my hand and then add in the foot target.  Initially he wasn't entirely sure about the set up.  I started by rewarding him for effort.  He may not have been hitting the foot target every single time, but he was definitely trying.  It was just a matter of increasing his confidence in doing this behavior in this setting.

I also started adding in jackpots for steps forward, which was the ultimate behavior that I was aiming for.  Any time that Dom took a step forward with any foot (which did require me paying attention to the back feet that I couldn't always see super well) I would jackpot the foot movement, regardless of whether I had asked for any other behavior.  That saw a larger improvement in willingness to move down the hallway with a happy attitude.  Happy attitude I based off of ear placement and how he was taking the treats.  Ears up and faced towards me was the desirable position.  Taking treats neither too hard or too hesitantly also indicated that he was comfortable with the position that he was in.

He is now comfortably working down the hallway and the number of glances towards the baby gate has decreased.  Even though I have hit the desired "end behavior," I will continue working on the counter conditioning for a couple of reasons.  One is that I don't know for how long of a period of time he has been uncomfortable moving past the baby gate.  Miley was obviously uncomfortable and he may very well have been flying under the radar.  So he quite possibly has a longer history of being uncomfortable than comfortable, that I would like to counter balance.  And two, it's and easy and fun way to warm up to a training session of other behaviors.  I can also continue to add in other behaviors with a longer reinforcement history to spice things up and keep it fun and interesting.

What's Next?

So what's next?  Three words that have been plaguing me in so many areas of late.  This short little sentence has been bouncing around in my head and every time I think I've answered it in one area, it attaches to another. 

At work, it frequently has to do with training plans.  What behaviors are we training for next?  How are we moving forward from one stage of the behavior to the next?  What equipment do I need to work on next to keep things moving forward?  Got everything under control withe colony, great, what projects are you tackling next?

At home, it centers around Dominic.  He's an only child, but we don't plan to keep it that way.  So what's next?  Getting on a puppy waiting list!  It's a happy thought to look forward to and not being in a hurry is the best position to be in.  Breedings are never a for sure thing, so I don't plan on saying much about the upcoming puppy until I have my greedy little hands on her. ;) But yes, we are going with another great dane and we are going for a little girl.  I love great danes and having the next puppy in the house NOT be one just didn't seem possible.  Maybe eventually we'll add a non-dane to the household, but that's still a ways down the road.

So what's next for Dominic in competition?  That is an answer that will be constantly evolving.  Currently, Dominic is officially retired from the conformation ring.  We're 99% sure that Dominic has wobblers.  He's seen a neurologist and she's pretty certain, but he needs to have an MRI done to officially diagnose him.  He thankfully isn't very symptomatic.  Most of the signs I doubt other people would notice, I'm just so used to what is off with him, that it seems blatant to me.  The most obvious symptom that he has is a slight tremor in his back legs while he's standing still.  Of late it's become more frequent.  He has no major mobility issues otherwise, just a slight tremor while standing still.  At the moment I'm doing strengthening exercises at home to try and help him keep up the muscles to support himself.  I periodically video the exercises so that I can later assess if he's declining.  I'll start incorporating more descriptions and explanations about how we work with his abilities and challenges, in future posts.  In the mean time, the short answer for Dominic's competition career is that I'm still figuring out what that will look like for him.  There are plenty of sports that he can still do, but there are others that are not in the picture for him.

What's next for training Dom?  Excellent question!  I'm afraid that I'm going to jinx myself by saying this, but I seem to have managed to set and stick to an actual freaking training schedule with Dom!  And we're even getting walks included in that! (insert wide eyed amazement emoji here ;) ) The only downside to actually being consistent with our training sessions is that I'm getting a little bored with the way that I've set it up.  I have two training plans that each involve five behaviors/exercises to work on.  I alternate each day so that we don't do the same training plan two days in a row.  Great!  Except that now I'm a little bored with the monotony of it and I'm wanting to add in a little something to keep Dom and I both jazzed to train.  With no set thoughts on competition in the near future (dude, it's the holiday season and there is no derailing my focus on that!), I've been mulling over what to do to keep things interesting and to keep me consistently training.  I am currently toying with the idea of the 100 days of training challenge.  I just am not sure quite how interesting that would be.  I started an Excel file (because I freaking love excel) just so I could start generating a list and see what I'm working with, and I think I can make it interesting.  So stay tuned!

I've also had the thought of what's next for this blog?  I have to admit that I pretty regularly wonder if I should keep the blog going.  I do enjoy it, but I wonder if my time and efforts would be better focused elsewhere.  I have the Facebook page for the dogs now.  Admittedly, I let that page falter and haven't done a ton with it, but I am getting back into that as well.  This blog seems like a good place for my dog related ramblings, but that's kind of what the Facebook page could become as well.  I'm just not really sure on that.  That's an area that I'll shelf for the moment, but will keep coming back to.  I also keep wondering if blogging is going to be one of those media forms that sort of fades into the distance.  I LOVE podcasts and would listen to podcasts over reading blog posts.  But there are several blogs that I still read, I just get them sent to my email to make it easier for me to stay up on.  I'm also not entirely sure that what I have "to offer" is enough to keep the blog going.  When I first started, I was soooooo enthusiastic about this blog.  I dove into it and the dog blogging world in general.  My life has changed a bit and my time commitments have most definitely changed.  And I've been wondering if keeping up the blog is one of those things that will change as well.  Who knows.

Changes are a commin'.  Mostly exciting.  I'm sure there will be enough of them that I couldn't anticipate, but I am looking forward to the ones in the works. :)

Continuing Education

The froth is strong with this one.  Now picture that, while training.  Only add more froth...

Carrying on with my plan to have a monthly continuing education post, this month I'd like to bring attention to Alexandra Kurland's Equiosity podcast.  Alexandra is likely best known for her book "Clicker Training for Your Horse."  While her podcast does focus primarily on horses, the principles and methods that she discusses can be applied to any species.  Her attention to small body movements, animal stance and her ability to split behaviors into ever smaller sections are beneficial to anyone interested in training.  I enjoy listening to trainers of species I don't normally work with because they often have a slightly different way of approaching something or may use equipment or the environment in ways that I hadn't thought of before.  It allows me to broaden my horizons and learn to start looking at the animal I'm working with and the space I'm working in, in a more perceptive (I hope) manner.

The Equiosity website also offers webinars with leaders in the field of animal behavior and training.  Last month I took the Dr. Susan Friedman webinar and loved it!  The webinar itself was two and a half hours long and well worth the price.  You can also purchase the webinars after they've aired at a slightly higher rate.  And as always, I love the fact that the webinar gets saved so that I can view it at my convenience.  With the added benefit of being able to replay any section that I want while I'm taking notes.  This was my first time taking an Equiosity webinar and I definitely recommend it.

On a less education based note, I have thoroughly enjoyed The Habitat podcast.  This podcast is based around the lives of a group of people who volunteer for a one year project to synthesize what astronauts will have to deal with on Mars.  The group stays mostly contained within a habitat on a Hawaiian island and they chronicle what it is like as they emulate situations that astronauts will be dealing with on the eventual manned trip to Mars.  I didn't anticipate being super into it, but I really enjoyed it.  It's not as nerdy as it might sound.  Think of a less dramatic reality show about fake astronauts. :)

Paw Pods

Dominic is working his way through his Halloween attire.  The coat is more than a little big.  I made it for Heffner as one of my first attempts at making less expensive, holiday themed dog coats.  I was going for a longer cut on Heff and it was even a bit big on him.  So Dom basically has a Halloween themed cape.  It works.

I can't believe I'm able to say this, but I've been keeping up with a regular training schedule.  It's the weirdest damn thing.  It does involve protecting that time on a week night.  And I have implemented some things to help get me better organized.  Things like this awesome dry erase wall sticker!  I'm better organized when I have notes that I can look at as to what my game plan for training is that day.  I put the sticker up on the side of my kitchen cabinets facing into the area of the house that I usually train in, so it's very easy for me to glance up and remind myself of what the goal and exercise is.  I'm a fan.

I'm also toying with trying out a training challenge at the end of the month.  I just need to get a little more organized to ensure that I'll be able to accomplish it all and not overload myself.  When I write out a plan, I'm finding that it's helping knock down the feeling of being overwhelmed.  At least a little. 

And I'm happy to say that I actually have a training video!  I got Dom up on all four paw pods.  I'm mostly sure that I haven't used the paw pods with him and really sure that I haven't had him do all four paw pods.  He does have a lengthy reinforcement history for putting his front feet on things, which helps a lot in training this.  And I've also worked with him on rear foot targeting, though he doesn't have the depth of history with that as the front feet.

I did decide to use the flatter disc as an intermediate step prior to introducing the rear foot pods.  Dominic's confidence has been a little lower with Miley's passing and I want to really make sure that I set him up for success.  Plus, it's not like I have a deadline of when I need to have this behavior "finished" by, so why not break it down a little more?

In the process of looking back through old videos to see if I have anything of Dom on the paw pods (I didn't), I did find this video of Miley and Heff. 

That, made me very nostalgic. 

Language Matters

Whether we like it or not, the language that we use matters.  Specific terminology helps to keep everyone at the same level of understanding and theoretically helps to avoid confusion.  It's when one or more parties use a word incorrectly, that things can go astray.  This is a fact that I seem to keep running into.

Case in point was a talk at a conference I went to this year.  For work, I will occasionally need an animal to ingest a bitter or displeasing compound.  A task that can be rather daunting if I am limited with the amount or type of food item(s) I am allowed to disguise said compound in.  When there was a presenter at the conference giving a talk about training for just such a circumstance, I was very excited to hear what his shaping plan was.  I was more than a little disappointed, however, when it became apparent that what he did was exactly what I usually do, and that was disguising the flavor in a treat.  What he described as training was really desensitizing the animals to taking a food item from his hand.  For me, that's a very important distinction. 

To me, training an animal to ingest a bitter compound means that I present them with said compound in whatever vehicle it's made up in, and regardless of how much of that displeasing flavor is there, they will ingest it in it's entirety.  In this case, this involves teaching the animal to over come the aversive flavor in order to gain a positive reinforcer.  I'm not sure why, but training an animal to voluntarily, and often repeatedly, consume something that tastes terrible is more challenging than training them to present a leg for a voluntary injection.  Both involve aversives, but for some reason the aversive in the mouth is more challenging to get past than the aversive of a needle poke.  Something that I'm sure anyone who has tried to pill an uncooperative pet can start to understand.

In the case of the presenter, there was no training to take something that the animal had clearly indicated was distasteful.  Instead, they disguised the flavor.  No training involved.  Well, maybe the training of the handlers who had to figure out how to mix the food items up.  But generally speaking, it wasn't training that he was describing in his talk.  It was desensitization that he was describing.

Via Wikipedia, desensitization is defined as the diminished emotional responsiveness to a negative, aversive or positive stimulus after repeated exposure to it.  Initially the animals had a negative emotional response to his presence and were reluctant to take a regular treat from his hand.  After continued positive interactions with the animals, they all got to the point where they would take a treat from his hand.  He had built up a bank of positive associations and was then successful at administering the compound.  He then proclaimed that positive reinforcement training works.  Which is a great outcome all around, but the language needs work.

Fast forward to more recently, but again surrounding discussions of training animals to voluntarily ingest something bitter.  This time the mode of desired administration is via a large syringe that the animal can drink from.  A lot of non-pet animals will build up negative associations with syringes.  A syringe frequently means that they are going to be sedated or have an injectable medication administered.  Both of which can be undesirable outcomes for the animal, which leads to building up a negative emotional response to syringes.  Getting them to overcome this negative emotional response and voluntarily drink from a syringe would fall under the category of desensitization.  Technically you could also lump it under training, as long as you were specific about your outcome.  If all you're wanting is for that animal to drink a liquid that it finds appealing from the syringe, that's not so complicated.  If you want them to drink an unappealing liquid from that syringe, you now have a process that requires desensitization AND training and you really better be specific about the outcome.

In addition to specific word choice, how we communicate our definitions is also important.  Frequently everything gets lumped under the word training.  Which is not entirely incorrect when you're being very general.  It's when you get specific that the waters start to get muddied.  Lets take this syringe drinking for example.  Lets say you have one party who is requesting the training of an animal and you have another party who is providing the training of the animal.  Both parties use the word training as the descriptor in their communications.  Lets say that the requester knows that the whole reason they want their animals trained to drink from a syringe is because they will eventually be ingesting something very aversive tasting from it.  Maybe this lighting gets brought up in the conversation, but the emphasis is always placed on training for drinking from a syringe.  And lets say that the person providing the training generally knows the reason behind wanting this behavior.  But both parties keep using the same phrase, training to drink from a syringe.  This is where using the correct language would greatly help when the trainer does not end up producing the actual desired outcome of the requester.

The trainer desensitizes the animals to drinking from a syringe and they will happily drink appealing liquids from said syringe.  Given an aversive liquid, the animals will not.  The requester is disappointed because they have not gained the desired outcome that they need.  If both parties had been specific in their language, confusion could have been avoided.  The person providing the training, having more experience with the specific terminology, should have also explained that what they were capable of providing were animals who were desensitized and should have explained the difference between the two terms in this particular case.

I catch myself starting to say that it's annoying that we have to be specific, but really it's not.  Being specific helps us all understand each other better.  It helps us try to avoid confusion and misunderstandings.  It helps us to be honest and to be seen as honest in what we are trying to convey.  Yes, it may take a little effort initially, but it really is worth it.  Just like when you start training for the very first time.  It takes effort to learn the mechanics and the language, but it's so incredibly worth it.