Tag Archives: nose

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Staying back in week 1

While the FE350 class moves on to week 2, Reece and Andrea are going to keep working on the basics. Once we start getting this, I think we can catch up, or at least we’ll have a better foundation.

The week 2 notes included the following tip:

When shaping a behaviour involving movement always click (mark) when the dog is in motion.  If you click when the dog is still moving, you will get continued motion. If you click when the dog stops you will get more “stopping”. In other words, the dog will think that is all the rotation you want and stop where you click.

That “clicked” exactly with some of the knowledge Sheila shared with Andrea:

If you click motion, you’ll get more motion. If you click AFTER or BEFORE the motion, you’ll get less motion.

Andrea certainly has to work on the timing of her clicking.

The class forum had a post from another person who was also having issues with the dog licking. Some of the suggestions that Donna gave the student were to try a different hand shape (open palm = lick), to keep the target hand at shoulder or lower, and to place the hand at a 45 degree angle away from the tongue.

So here is an attempt from today. The hopes for this session were: (1) clicking for motion towards the target hand before the lick can happen, and (2) use a fist as the target.

Back to basics: nose touch shaping

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Week 1 – Stumped with the simple stuff

The task is supposed to be simple. Nose touch.

Reece knows nose touch. But he accompanies the touch with a lick. The criteria for the nose touch is supposed to be nose touch with mouth closed.

Andrea doesn’t know how to fade out the lick.

Suggestion was

“One of the easiest ways it to click too soon so he doesn’t get a chance to do the unwanted behavior. A common example is to mark when the dog’s feet are on the floor before jumping to greet. They will short cut themselves and quit jumping.
In this case, it means presenting your hand and clicking as he moves towards it before he makes contact and before his tongue comes out. Do this several times and he will likely realize the tongue is not part of the behavior you want. Dogs are lazy and if he figures out he can nose touch without the lick, he will. Also combine that with the angled hand when he actually starts to make contact and that should do the trick. Timing of your marker is key here so I would use a clicker in your case as it is more precise (if you think you can coordinate clicker treats and training).
Good luck!”

Andrea is still too slow and/or Reece is too fast.

Help???

Week 1 Nose touch attempts