After my first video (which I felt was successful) I had a lot of trouble asking for the next step from Lexi on her cik & cap work. I just could not get her to make that turn all the way around the pole. Diana gave me some great advice about rewarding and the placement of my hands but I was really struggling with the concept! Who knew I'd already be challenged at Day 2?
Poor Lexi was trying everything, but she just wasn't getting it. It was like she didn't want to let my hands out of her sight. I could get her to make the turn by luring her, but it was clear to me that when I was luring, she was just watching my hands, and not paying attention to what she was doing (so not really learning).
Here's the first video from day 2:
You can hear me talking to Jonathan trying so hard to figure out how to get my hands in the right place to reward Lexi completing the circle. No such luck. I even ended up accidentally rewarding her the wrong way in my attempts.
Then I decided to try a smaller object. I thought if I could reach over the pole it might help my hands. I didn't have a cone, and tried a number of household objects before I stumbled upon a wine bottle holder and bottle of wine (haha!) Anyways, DING DING DING! It helped tremendously.
We just did a short session last night, and I was already getting more of a turn than previously. I'm hoping that I'll start with this, and then be able to work up to something that I don't have to reach over once she gets the idea.
I'm still luring her more than I'd like, but I'm sort of treating this as day 1 again, now that we have the right plan in motion, I can hopefully fade any luring. I also received a suggestion to already start getting her to go a bit faster, and drive out of it, and I will work on that (I hope it will come with confidence). But, I'm in no hurry, and I think this is one of those foundation skills that can't be overworked.
I haven't seen Silvia's cik/cap dvd and don't really know what the criteria are. But Lexi does seem to get it with the wine bottle and the last try looked good to me. When are you supposed to click? Maybe she thinks the middle of the behavior is what you want and that's why she was stopping? I don't think I would ever be able to get the hang of clicker training! LOL!
ReplyDeleteThe second video things seem to go better. In the first video I think you needed to use both hands. It looked like you were trying to do everything with the same hand/arm. So have treats in both hands. But its is easier when you use a shorter object to go around. I think she is getting it just fine.
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