More clicker games with a dummy this time

I'm very good at carrying things around, so this was an easy game. I think Mom was really happy with the way I played the game. And I was really happy because I got lots of biscuits. When we finished playing the game, Mom took away the dummy, and put it up where I could not get it. Too bad, it might have been fun to chew on.

Although hunting dogs are taught to hold a dummy at the middle of the dummy part, I am teaching Emma to favor picking up a retrieving dummy by the rope.

Most of the items used in PWD water work have ropes on them, and are better taken by the rope for various reasons. The gear bag is required to be dragged by the rope; grasping the fabric in the teeth might cause damage. The bouy ball is too huge and can only be taken by the rope. The floats on the float line will fit in a dog's mouth, but I've heard that too much damage to the floats can result. In the case of the dummy, a dog will get less water in her mouth when retrieving by the rope.

I felt it would be a good idea to teach Emma to take by the rope, but I double checked with a question posted on the PWD Pets group. Everyone who responded confirmed and reinforced this decision as being a good one.

This session is the first time since age 1 year that Emma has worked with a dummy. I used Diamond tiny puppy biscuits, broken in half. She was consciously choosing the rope end by the time we quit. I remember that she had a similar dummy when she was small, and chewed the rope off, so I put it out of reach when we were finished.

Kathy, Emma's 2lggd mom

PWD Portie Portuguese Water Dog work waterwork clicker training video

My Mom the Whistle Blower

My 2lggd mom played a new clicker game with me today. She was giving me the sit hand signal, and I was sitting, but then at the same time she started putting this thing in her mouth and making this loud whistle noise. She had the thing hanging around her neck. At first when I heard it, I found the sound a little distracting. I got confused, and forgot that I was supposed to sit for the hand signal. But then I figured out that the whistle sound meant sit TOO! After that, the biscuits came really fast! FUN! (Yum).

I think that I could learn a lot from the ways that hunting dogs are trained. The only problem is that too much of that training involves coercion (shock collars, ear pinches, and so on). Emma and I just do not train that way; I will only use positive motivation. The only things Emma gets punished for are things that are always patently wrong (such as climbing up onto the desk to eat cat food out of the kitties' LeBistro).

Last week I saw a couple of videos of Lindsay Ridgeway working with his Golden Retrievers, Lumi (age 4) and Laddie (age 4 months). Lindsay dislikes coercive training methods just as I do. The "Pinball Drill" shown in these videos is an exercise that Lindsay is using to teach the dogs the "handling" cues to direct them to retrieves in the field. I can see that such fine control to direct the dog at a distance would be just as useful in PWD waterwork. Whether its dead birds, or fishing gear, a retrieve is a retrieve, right?

I joined the Dog Trek group so that I could learn more about this pinball drill, and how Lindsay trained it. He provided an excellent explanation. For me, teaching the whistle sit is the first step. The whistle sit is used to cue the dog to stop and visually check in with the handler for a new directional cue. When the dogs are working in the water, they apparently have no problem translating the "sit" as stop and swim in a tight little circle to check in for another hand signal. I got out the whistle which I once used for teaching sailing to 10 year olds, and we got to work. Right now, I am continuing this work, trying for more distance. At greater distances, Emma has a tendency to want to step toward me before sitting, so we are working on that, reinforcing only the prompt sits, ignoring the traveling sits.

An unanticipated minor problem: now when Emma sees me with the whistle she starts offering uncued sits.

Here are the LL&L videos:



Laddie, at only 4 months then, is astonishing! Such a great testament to clicker training.



And Lumi is such perfection, she is a joy to watch.

Kathy, Emma's 2lggd mom

PWD Portie Portuguese Water Dog work waterwork clicker training whistle sit

Teach me to tie a bowline ...

oh ... wait ... no thumbs. Well, OK. I'll just pick it up then.



Mom showed my this video of Moxie. Now I get it!!!

I was inspired by Moxie making herself useful on the boat. There's more method to this though. Except for the three-sided ring used for the underwater retrieve, and the courier pouch, all the objects that PWDs carry for water work have ropes. Some of them MUST be held by the rope. Others, carrying by the rope is optional, but perhaps preferred.

This session was the very first time Emma has ever been asked to touch a rope. She's all about picking up the rope. Holding, as usual, will be the hard part though.

Kathy, Emma's 2lggd mom

PWD Portie Portuguese Water Dog work waterwork clicker training video

What is this thing and why should I pick it up?

Oh, that's right. I should pick it up because mom will give me a biscuit!

Mom's been asking me to pick up some strange things lately. I've had this toy for a long time, but she never paid me to pick it up before.

Inspired by watching the Movers & Shakers PWD club's Southern Splash Water Trial, I am trying to teach Emma some of the basics. Maybe we will give it a shot in '08. In an earlier session, I already got her touching, and then picking up the sinky-ringy (this is the object used for the underwater retrieve). In this session we are working towards holding it gradually longer periods.

The treats are Charlee Bears. Emma is VERY food motivated, so if I use anything too extremely yummy, she can't focus. My timing is occasionally off, clicking too late so I'm reinforcing dropping the ring instead of holding it. Fortunately, clicker training errors are not difficult to recover from; I just have to get it right MOST of the time. After a while, I added a "negatory" sound when she dropped it too early.

Emma isn't too good at holding things when it's not on her own terms. If I reach my hand towards her, she will drop the item before my hand reaches her mouth. So I won't even go there until she will hold while walking around, while sitting, or while I walk around her.

Kathy, Emma's 2lggd mom

PWD Portie Portuguese Water Dog work waterwork training clicker video underwater retrieve