Silliness in training
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IliamnasQuest
- Rank 3
- Posts: 1010
- Joined: Fri Feb 17, 2006 8:04 am
- Location: Alaska
Silliness in training
I have to tell you, I am having SO much fun training Khana!
Disclaimer first: I love to train. I love seeing how much my dogs can do and how I can get them to do things and have fun while they're doing it. I believe that using positive training methods strengthens the bond between human and dog (opening up new channels for communication and all that). BUT I realize that not everyone likes to train and I don't expect anyone else to try these things! I'm just sharing because I'm having so much fun with Khana .. *L* .. so if you don't want to read a long post on training, now's the time to stop!
Okay .. for those new to the forum, Khana is my 23 month old female chow. She's the one I do the most with these days, because my others are older and lazy and that's okay with me (Kylee is the one who just turned 15, Dora is my black one and she's nine and a couch potato most of the time - and then I have Trick, a German shepherd who is ten and nearly retired from competition). Khana has been trained using positive reinforcement from the beginning, eight weeks old.
I have just started teaching a freestyle class. This is a style of training that involves "dancing" to music with your dog. Basically you teach your dog lots of fun moves and then you put together a routine to music. I've done this with all my dogs over the years, but now we're actually thinking of trying for titles.
Positive reinforcement training is where you reinforce for the behaviors you want and try to ignore those you don't want. I do a lot of free shaping .. I simply wait for her to do something that is even close to what I want, and then I mark the behavior (I say YES!! right when she does it) and I follow that with a treat. Khana is very food motivated .. *L* .. which is wonderful for training. Sometimes I use a lure to get the behavior - like teaching her to spin, I started off luring her into a circle with a treat, and then quickly phased out the treat and would just mark after she did the spin and give the treat then. She turned into a spinning fool in a very short amount of time! She can just fling her body around SO fast, her tail comes unrolled .. *LOL*.
I also do most of my training off-leash. I've done this since she was a baby too. My thoughts are that I don't want to have to depend on the leash so we both have to learn how to work without it. I did tons of off-leash recalls when she was young and used my shepherd to help her learn (Khana would follow Trick to the end of the earth).
Today's freestyle class was SO much fun. I have five people in the class, and Khana is kind of my demo dog but is also learning one step ahead of everyone else. In freestyle, the dogs do all the things in heel position (on your left side) like moving forward, left turns, right turns, about turns, left pivots (90° up to 360°) and then they have to learn all of those same things while working on the right side! Most dogs who have any obedience training are used to working on the left, but the right is confusing (and confusing for the humans too).
I'd been working with Khana on the right and she is doing really well, so for demonstration I showed them how I used a target stick to teach her to back up on the right side (as I back up) and to also tuck her rump behind me when I turn right (this is a tough behavior!). The target stick is just any kind of stick with something on the end like a little ball or a piece of tape that the dog targets to. You can try this at home - take a piece of dowling or a stick (the diameter of a pencil or so) and put something on the end. Then put the target end of it down near your dog and when he reaches his nose out to see what it is, say "YES!!" and then toss him a treat. Do it again, and keep practicing it (reinforcing everytime) until you can put the stick to either side of him, in front of him, or even a bit above him and he will touch his nose to it. Then you need to get him to follow the stick around - start walking and when he follows the stick a couple of steps, say "YES" and give a treat. Pretty soon your dog will eagerly target to that stick and you can use it to teach him spins, turns, walking by your side, etc.
One of the things you do in freestyle is that you teach your dog to work in front of you - both with the head facing to you and the head facing away (butt to you). It's really hard to get them to face away! So with the target stick, I taught Khana "in front" which means she's to turn away from me and stand with her butt in front of my legs. I just used the target stick to turn her around and face her the other way, and then gave her the "stand/stay" command which she already knows. It was very effective and I can see that she will soon learn to do this without the target.
And then, with her in front, I told her "scoot" (which is her command to back up) and I backed up with her still in front of me, butt towards my legs, backing up to follow the target stick. It really was neat!
There are so many great possibilities in training this way.
One last story .. *L* .. last night I was playing with all the dogs and I sat on the bed and gave them all treats for doing sits and downs. I wanted to work separately with Khana on some targeting to my hand (like the target stick, except they touch your outstretched hand). So I leaned back on the bed until I was laying flat on my back and called her up onto the bed. I had treats in one hand, and I reached out the other hand and said "touch" (her command to touch).
Well, instead of going to my hand, she came up to my face and stuck her nose down on my chin! This is a behavior I've taught her, but the command is "nose" instead.
I waved my hand back and forth alongside of her and said "touch" again - but instead of removing her nose, she just pushed it harder against my chin and held it there! I kept waving my hand, trying to get her to see it, but it was as if she thought that was a distraction she was supposed to ignore and every time I said "touch" she just pushed harder against my chin.
I started laughing. I couldn't get her to move away from my chin! I was looking at her cross-eyed because she was right up against my face and nothing I said or did at that point was getting her to move.
It was all fine until I suddenly felt something running down my neck .. she was DROOLING! She really wanted the treat and thought she was doing the right behavior, and anticipation of the treat produced salivation. That's when I said "Ack, enough!" .. *LOL* .. and I sat up and pushed her back a bit. THEN when I put out my hand she went to it and touched it and got her treat.
She is such a character to work with and I love how she thinks. One of the benefits of training with the methods I use is that you get a dog who is always thinking. I want her to understand the choices and to pick the one that makes me happy (which then makes her happy, because she gets the treat). I like how she communicates with me. She was laying on the bed earlier and I was rubbing her belly, and as soon as I stopped she brought her paw up over her face. This was a cue to me that she wanted more belly rubs! So I rubbed her belly again, and again when I stopped she brought her paw up. There are times when I wonder who is the trainer and who is the trainee. But I like that she has the means to communicate to me what she wants, and knows that by giving me a certain behavior she will then be reinforced.
Khana is snoozing behind me as I type. She was very attentive during freestyle class - I had her off-leash the entire class with everyone on the floor working at the same time. Concentration like that wears a dog out! I'm just so thrilled that she's at the point where I can work her off-leash even with the other dogs there. I will admit she did have a couple of "run-abouts" where she got the zoomies and ran around the room, but they were minimal and over quickly. Almost all the dogs in that class work off-leash.
Okay, enough babbling about training. If you've read this far, let me encourage you to try the target stick training! It's really neat to see what you can get your dogs to do when following a target, and they think it's a big game.
Melanie and the gang in Alaska
<img src="http://www.iliamnasquest.com/khana3.jpg">
Disclaimer first: I love to train. I love seeing how much my dogs can do and how I can get them to do things and have fun while they're doing it. I believe that using positive training methods strengthens the bond between human and dog (opening up new channels for communication and all that). BUT I realize that not everyone likes to train and I don't expect anyone else to try these things! I'm just sharing because I'm having so much fun with Khana .. *L* .. so if you don't want to read a long post on training, now's the time to stop!
Okay .. for those new to the forum, Khana is my 23 month old female chow. She's the one I do the most with these days, because my others are older and lazy and that's okay with me (Kylee is the one who just turned 15, Dora is my black one and she's nine and a couch potato most of the time - and then I have Trick, a German shepherd who is ten and nearly retired from competition). Khana has been trained using positive reinforcement from the beginning, eight weeks old.
I have just started teaching a freestyle class. This is a style of training that involves "dancing" to music with your dog. Basically you teach your dog lots of fun moves and then you put together a routine to music. I've done this with all my dogs over the years, but now we're actually thinking of trying for titles.
Positive reinforcement training is where you reinforce for the behaviors you want and try to ignore those you don't want. I do a lot of free shaping .. I simply wait for her to do something that is even close to what I want, and then I mark the behavior (I say YES!! right when she does it) and I follow that with a treat. Khana is very food motivated .. *L* .. which is wonderful for training. Sometimes I use a lure to get the behavior - like teaching her to spin, I started off luring her into a circle with a treat, and then quickly phased out the treat and would just mark after she did the spin and give the treat then. She turned into a spinning fool in a very short amount of time! She can just fling her body around SO fast, her tail comes unrolled .. *LOL*.
I also do most of my training off-leash. I've done this since she was a baby too. My thoughts are that I don't want to have to depend on the leash so we both have to learn how to work without it. I did tons of off-leash recalls when she was young and used my shepherd to help her learn (Khana would follow Trick to the end of the earth).
Today's freestyle class was SO much fun. I have five people in the class, and Khana is kind of my demo dog but is also learning one step ahead of everyone else. In freestyle, the dogs do all the things in heel position (on your left side) like moving forward, left turns, right turns, about turns, left pivots (90° up to 360°) and then they have to learn all of those same things while working on the right side! Most dogs who have any obedience training are used to working on the left, but the right is confusing (and confusing for the humans too).
I'd been working with Khana on the right and she is doing really well, so for demonstration I showed them how I used a target stick to teach her to back up on the right side (as I back up) and to also tuck her rump behind me when I turn right (this is a tough behavior!). The target stick is just any kind of stick with something on the end like a little ball or a piece of tape that the dog targets to. You can try this at home - take a piece of dowling or a stick (the diameter of a pencil or so) and put something on the end. Then put the target end of it down near your dog and when he reaches his nose out to see what it is, say "YES!!" and then toss him a treat. Do it again, and keep practicing it (reinforcing everytime) until you can put the stick to either side of him, in front of him, or even a bit above him and he will touch his nose to it. Then you need to get him to follow the stick around - start walking and when he follows the stick a couple of steps, say "YES" and give a treat. Pretty soon your dog will eagerly target to that stick and you can use it to teach him spins, turns, walking by your side, etc.
One of the things you do in freestyle is that you teach your dog to work in front of you - both with the head facing to you and the head facing away (butt to you). It's really hard to get them to face away! So with the target stick, I taught Khana "in front" which means she's to turn away from me and stand with her butt in front of my legs. I just used the target stick to turn her around and face her the other way, and then gave her the "stand/stay" command which she already knows. It was very effective and I can see that she will soon learn to do this without the target.
And then, with her in front, I told her "scoot" (which is her command to back up) and I backed up with her still in front of me, butt towards my legs, backing up to follow the target stick. It really was neat!
There are so many great possibilities in training this way.
One last story .. *L* .. last night I was playing with all the dogs and I sat on the bed and gave them all treats for doing sits and downs. I wanted to work separately with Khana on some targeting to my hand (like the target stick, except they touch your outstretched hand). So I leaned back on the bed until I was laying flat on my back and called her up onto the bed. I had treats in one hand, and I reached out the other hand and said "touch" (her command to touch).
Well, instead of going to my hand, she came up to my face and stuck her nose down on my chin! This is a behavior I've taught her, but the command is "nose" instead.
I waved my hand back and forth alongside of her and said "touch" again - but instead of removing her nose, she just pushed it harder against my chin and held it there! I kept waving my hand, trying to get her to see it, but it was as if she thought that was a distraction she was supposed to ignore and every time I said "touch" she just pushed harder against my chin.
I started laughing. I couldn't get her to move away from my chin! I was looking at her cross-eyed because she was right up against my face and nothing I said or did at that point was getting her to move.
It was all fine until I suddenly felt something running down my neck .. she was DROOLING! She really wanted the treat and thought she was doing the right behavior, and anticipation of the treat produced salivation. That's when I said "Ack, enough!" .. *LOL* .. and I sat up and pushed her back a bit. THEN when I put out my hand she went to it and touched it and got her treat.
She is such a character to work with and I love how she thinks. One of the benefits of training with the methods I use is that you get a dog who is always thinking. I want her to understand the choices and to pick the one that makes me happy (which then makes her happy, because she gets the treat). I like how she communicates with me. She was laying on the bed earlier and I was rubbing her belly, and as soon as I stopped she brought her paw up over her face. This was a cue to me that she wanted more belly rubs! So I rubbed her belly again, and again when I stopped she brought her paw up. There are times when I wonder who is the trainer and who is the trainee. But I like that she has the means to communicate to me what she wants, and knows that by giving me a certain behavior she will then be reinforced.
Khana is snoozing behind me as I type. She was very attentive during freestyle class - I had her off-leash the entire class with everyone on the floor working at the same time. Concentration like that wears a dog out! I'm just so thrilled that she's at the point where I can work her off-leash even with the other dogs there. I will admit she did have a couple of "run-abouts" where she got the zoomies and ran around the room, but they were minimal and over quickly. Almost all the dogs in that class work off-leash.
Okay, enough babbling about training. If you've read this far, let me encourage you to try the target stick training! It's really neat to see what you can get your dogs to do when following a target, and they think it's a big game.
Melanie and the gang in Alaska
<img src="http://www.iliamnasquest.com/khana3.jpg">
that is so awesome. to have a chow that listens...what a feat! LOL. I trained my LuLu for show and she was awesome but extremely stubborn and Moses my rescue was such an easy boy but now many a years later and a couple kids and a busy life later I got this new Bailey boy who is giving me a run for my money with just stay! It's not selective, it's I have no intention of staying. LOL. It's my fault mostly I haven't given him the full time to train. We start puppy school soon and he might not be the best listener but I'm certain he'll be the cutest one there!!! 
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IliamnasQuest
- Rank 3
- Posts: 1010
- Joined: Fri Feb 17, 2006 8:04 am
- Location: Alaska
Thanks Sandy, Lulu, Sylvia - I truly have so much fun with Khana!
Sandy - I know that training is tough for some people, and I'm lucky in that it does come easily to me. I want my dogs to just shine when we're working together and they have to enjoy it in order to shine!
Lulu - Bailey sounds like my kind of dog - stubborn! *L* One of the reasons I like the chows is that they have such a mind of their own. I hope your puppy class goes well, and I'm sure that he will definitely be the cutest!
Sylvia - thanks so much! I have such big plans for Khana but in all reality if we end up not doing any of them it won't change my love for her a bit. I am hoping to have her at nationals next year. It's just so far to go and I have to figure out if I can be away that long (I would drive to Colorado from Alaska). I'd love to be able to do a freestyle demo with her at that time. We'll see .... *L*
Melanie and the gang in Alaska
Sandy - I know that training is tough for some people, and I'm lucky in that it does come easily to me. I want my dogs to just shine when we're working together and they have to enjoy it in order to shine!
Lulu - Bailey sounds like my kind of dog - stubborn! *L* One of the reasons I like the chows is that they have such a mind of their own. I hope your puppy class goes well, and I'm sure that he will definitely be the cutest!
Sylvia - thanks so much! I have such big plans for Khana but in all reality if we end up not doing any of them it won't change my love for her a bit. I am hoping to have her at nationals next year. It's just so far to go and I have to figure out if I can be away that long (I would drive to Colorado from Alaska). I'd love to be able to do a freestyle demo with her at that time. We'll see .... *L*
Melanie and the gang in Alaska
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chowfrnd88
- Rank 3
- Posts: 4327
- Joined: Tue Mar 21, 2006 7:47 am
- Location: Maryland
Melanie, I'm so sorry I'm so late in commenting on this!
That is so cool, it sounds like she is just so happy learning all of these things. I'm going to try it with Special, I definetly see first-hand what you mean, how it stregthens the bond between us and our chows. It's an amazing transformation that takes place and I can say that Special always looks like he loves it, just like what you always describe. I can see his mind racing to figure out what I want him to do, and he's so proud when he catches on. Plus, I really don't think it takes chows very long to learn a task, it seems like Special always gets it after the first few tries.
Way to go Khana, keep dancing!
That is so cool, it sounds like she is just so happy learning all of these things. I'm going to try it with Special, I definetly see first-hand what you mean, how it stregthens the bond between us and our chows. It's an amazing transformation that takes place and I can say that Special always looks like he loves it, just like what you always describe. I can see his mind racing to figure out what I want him to do, and he's so proud when he catches on. Plus, I really don't think it takes chows very long to learn a task, it seems like Special always gets it after the first few tries.
Way to go Khana, keep dancing!