Wednesday, January 26, 2022
Week 3 Update on Kratos
This week has been going good. Kratos will do all of the retrieves without any pressure at all. He gets totally wiped out after about 8 or so. But. His avoidance behavior is gradually getting worse during the "set up" before the Fetch command. Because of this, tonight I mostly worked on the motions before the fetch without ever presenting the dowel and asking for a fetch. I would start and then stop on different steps of the set up and just hold that position until Kratos relaxed. I'm hoping this will help him understand that he can be relaxed for the entire process of doing retrieves and that my thumb can be in his ear without a need for a correction. I hope this is all in line with our training. I will post a video of tomorrow's session and we will see how his behavior is.
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It only took Kratos 1 minute to fall asleep and be snoring during quite time after this session. He was gassed!
ReplyDeleteYes this is in line with the training. What happens is the Dog quickly learns the 'setup' = pressure in ear so the dog gives 'The Look' waiting for the item. This behavior, VERY common and normal for a learning dog. will continue until we add in new factors that allow the dog to move rapidly TOWARDS the dB to AVOID any ear 👂 pressure.
ReplyDeletePatience and Conditioned Relaxation is how one succeeds teaching a dog to retrieve on command. We are building a belief inside dog's mind that it CAN ESCAPE (AVOID) ANY EAR PRESSURE. by getting its mouth on item immediately.
So switching to doing 'Setup' and Conditioned Relaxation is training the learning dog to toggle between Social Drive to Prey Drive to Social Drive.
It's a fascinating training journey isn't it?