rolling dice & practicing cards

🗡 Action Kat’s Going Rogue CGC-A TKI 🗡 “Rogue”

Siberian Husky × Border Collie × GSD

🔮 Action Kat’s It Was In The Cards CGC 🔮 “Tarot”

Australian Cattle Dog × GSD × Border Collie

my personal is @theactionkat

tags for original posts:

#mine - all original posts

#going rogue - all posts pertaining to Rogue

#rogue - just photos/videos of Rogue

#it was in the cards - all posts pertaining to Tarot

#tarot - just photos/videos of Tarot

#the boys - posts including both pups

#training - training musings & updates

please never hesitate to ask me to tag something!

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molosseraptor:

teacup-labrador:

There’s something so insanely powerful being known as the person who does the most with their dog and then they find out you don’t walk your dog everyday

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Do any of you freestyle disc folks do virtual/Zoom lessons, or know anyone who does 👀👀

intriga-hounds:

❤️

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Pretty Terv lady that I got to work with today.

twobigears:

millenniallust4death:

allthings-acorn:

Dogblr! I’m working through a training issue and would love some different perspectives. My question involves dealing with prey drive, engagement, and premack, I think?

Keep reading

Martin and Bosco were known for photos like the one below. There’s Martin weeding his garden while Bosco closely watched him pull every weed for hours. We lived on a ten acre property filled with every kind of wildlife you could imagine; Bosco thought Martin was the most interesting thing on the entire planet at all times.

But how did Martin build this type of engagement? Reflecting on it over coffee this morning, there are three main things that Martin did. Maybe there’s a piece of information that can help you?

Martin marked and rewarded offered attention A LOT (not just during training).  As a baby puppy, it was Yes! Treat. But as an adult, the reward became Martin’s full attention, “I see you little buddy!” Smile. Offered attention was also the currency from Bosco to start training. Done was the cue to end a training session; a specific toy was given to Bosco with the Done command. Sorry, buddy. Training is over, here’s your consolation prize.

Martin’s training sessions were around 3 minutes or less. Yes, that short. It was rare that they hit four minutes (unless they were tracking). Sometimes only one rep and then done. He trained every day for one or two sessions. But he always started a training session with a very clear plan of what he wanted to do. No figuring it out on the fly. He also trained all new behaviors in the basement with food. Then he retaught the behavior outside with food (higher arousal level outside) and then he repeated the process with a toy (highest arousal level). Dogs don’t contextualize training so you need to repeat the process in new environments. 

Martin understood the work to fun ratio on Bosco’s terms. Asking Bosco to just play fetch - so throw toy - Bosco brings it back - Bosco outs - etc. was NOT FUN for Bosco. Outing was very hard work for Bosco. Martin took Shade’s toy skill classes to learn how to play with toys in a way that worked from Bosco’s perspective. Here’s a video showing an advanced example of what a toy session looked like for them. Martin started with a two toy game and by about ten or twelve weeks was here. 

In terms of recalling when there are distractions like squirrels - that’s a taught skill called switching reinforcement. Instead of chasing this squirrel, come back to me for a piece of cheese or this toy. Some people get this skill for free from their dogs and some people have to work very hard for it. You also need to break down the behaviour chain of recalling and reward each piece. The pendulum game is good for this. I might have a post for that but I’d have to look. You can also use a toy word instead of Hier. Bosco thought he hit the fucking jackpot when Martin would scream BITE out of the blue and whip out a hidden tug to mark Bosco’s shoulder whipping around. 

Dog training is a challenging skill and there is so much to learn! Keep working at it and you’ll be rewarded with a better relationship with your dog. You’ve got this!

All solid advice (of course!) so I’m not gonna repeat any of it. I just want to emphasize the “Done” cue. IME, using a clear end-of-work cue is super duper helpful for building focus and engagement. It’s a lot easier to build and keep your dog’s focus when you also tell them when you are done needing their focus! I use a verbal “all done”. And I make sure to cue “all done” when my dog is focused on me, not checked out into the environment.

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allthings-acorn:

Dogblr! I’m working through a training issue and would love some different perspectives. My question involves dealing with prey drive, engagement, and premack, I think?

Keep reading

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organicmatter:

i am just an animal why am i doing all this

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