fawkese1

ok so i got a bucket for my birthday (really random, but it was a bucket of gifts from my sis) anyhow, i was looking at it and thinking how perfect it was in size for clover to be able to carry, and i've decided to "free-shape" the behavior... which means i will not prompt him, but click/mark as he gets closer to our goal... tonight we had our first session, which i filmed... i just sort of let him get a feel for the bucket tonight, and clicked every interaction... here is the vid

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSt_WAYOm1o

couple of things i did "wrong" first, the session was way too long i think... 8 minutes! but he kept going back to the bucket without any encouragement from me, so for this session i just let him sorta do whatever...
my timing wasn't great, i missed some really great opportunities to click him, he even opened his mouth on the bucket, and i didn't do a good job of catching that
i think too that my rate of reinforcement wasn't high enough....

my plan is first to position myself so that i can see what he is doing better...and to continue to click all interactions with the bucket, but to give a higher value reward for actually putting his mouth on the bucket, then on the rope handle, etc...
i'm hoping that as i up the criteria, i can stop clicking everything, and only click things as they get closer to my goal, giving higher value rewards for the "best" behaviors he offers, if that makes sense...


so, this is the first time i am actually trying to free shape an entire behavior, usually i use all sorts of prompts and/or capture behaviors, there is no real purpose for it other then to be cute

any input/questions....

Mikey

Links not working for me

BUt guessing-make sure the handle is up so he *could* mouth it.

And don't reinforce any 'pawing'-that was my mistake teaching Mandy to carry a basket-it was forever that she was grabbing it AND putting her paw in it, and yanking up ruined a few baskets that way

fawkese1

hmm...could be that i only just uploaded the video? let me see...

oh and we got some pawing in, but again, i plan on reinforcing everything he does at first, but giving higher value stuff for doing what i want...

the bucket is plastic with a rope handle like this:

fawkese1

just checked the link again, and it came up for me... is it just not doing anything for you mikey?

Brittany

Fawkese..It says this video is private

Mikey

Yeah And I dunno-we got really stuck when I reinforced pawing so-different dogs of course-but I wouldn't do it Reinforce everything BUT pawing me thinks

Yeah It was asking me for a login. Log out and try following the link

fawkese1

oops.... just realized that i had set it to private on youtube...hopefully it works now

Criosphynx

omg I had a reply and then I accidently ripped the tower away from the plug...


first off, Iam impressed with how polite and calm clover is!

loved it when the cat came to supervise.. lol





if you just want him to carry it, you could backchain it...it would go faster probably


I enjoyed it. We dont' see enough clover!

fawkese1

grrr.... that is soooo annoying!

thanks...he is a really mellow dog, one of my favorite things about his personality, one of the reasons that i liked him so much when i met him...keep in mind too that he is only around 18mos old!
on the other hand, don't let him fool you completely, he can go and go and go when we are out playing or hiking or something and i have a dislocated knee that says he isn't always so mellow...

that's my roommates kitty sam, she is very helpful, fawkes and jasmine our other two were also keeping an eye on the whole thing, lol, they just didn't make the "final cut" i'm thinking of playing something like 101 things with a box with them...

on back chaining... clover has a really good natural retrieve, and i can get him to carry stuff a lot of the times already, and we haven't worked on it at all, so would back chaining be necessary? also, i really would like to practice free-shaping an actual behavior that i put on cue...if i back chain, could i still do that? ii only just started this last night and haven't really thought about it too much or anything...and i've never tried to back chain anything, so...could you break it down a bit for me?

thanks crios... lol... i told clover what you said, now he is blushing! of course i think he is just feigning humility, but....

on this:
i'm hearing you mikey totally, but i really want to continue to build his confidence, and i feel like if i completely ignore any offered behaviors in the very beginning, he may stop being so creative... i'd rather not lose that, even if the bucket carrying doesn't work out as planned... anyway, i also think that if i offer him better treats for the more desired behaviors that he will learn to offer those more... he is just starting to grasp that too, that better treats actually mean something... anyway, i plan on continuing to film our sessions with this behavior so we'll see how it goes...


do any of you have any input as to my own observations in my first post?

totally OT, but i'm using one of those "flip cameras" i absolutely love that thing, it is the easiest thing evah...highly recommend it


thanks so much for your responses

Criosphynx

Ah, well if the process is the product, then no need to backchain. It sounds like you just are trying to give him som'thing fun to do, in that case, who cares LOL

you would teach the behavior in reverse...starting with him lookin at the item. You would present the item and take it away after each rep. You would build on looks to touches, to rough touches, to mouthing, to holding, etc etc. Basically, each tiny step is very ingrained so the chances for the behavior to fall apart is very low.

also, I don't know if the video/audio is funny on this one too, I couldn't tell, but be careful about clicking to late. You will reward him disengaging the object so you end up with a chain of "touch...pull away....touch...pull away." very very very hard IMO to add duration after they get into that habit. Better to jump the gun and click early if its a behavior that will need duration. Make sense?