There are four main areas I should focus my training time and efforts on. The first is my own mechanical skills as a clicker trainer, the second is Red, the third is Lenneth, and the last is the other species I have opportunity to work with.
Mechanically, I would consider myself still a novice. I'd say I've only been working with a clicker since October or November, and I've never seperately practised the physical skills of timing, treat delivery, and high reinforcement rate. I need to work with a human partner and drill click timing (the tennis ball game) and some other exercises as well. It would probably be useful to spend some time visualizing each of the behaviors that I plan to train in detail so I can examine all the components--this will probably improve my shaping abilities as well. It would be really good to get some more advanced DVDs, like Bob Bailey's set, and really study the technicalities--things like when to stop clicking, how to best deliver reinforcement, how to shape effectively. I can read all the books but I think I've read enough now that I really need to see how good trainers are actually doing this. Gary Wilkes, Karen Pryor, and Ken Ramirez also have some materials that it might be worth studying.
Red is coming along very well. His general obedience is probably 60% reliable--this seems like a pretty low rate, but I'm averaging across all situations--at the park, with significant distractions, etc. At home it's generally much more like 90%. One of the main areas of focus for him right now is Treat Zen. I need to finish this one to pass him on his Level 1 test, even though some of his other behaviors are already at higher levels. I never trained this one until I found the Levels program. The other really big thing to work on is his leash walking. He's a puller. Not the worst one I've ever seen, but unpleasant to walk with on a buckle or martingale collar, and I refuse to go back to the prong. He's basically on house arrest until we've got this ironed out, and I really want to be able to take him with me anywhere! I'm adamant about not letting him practice the behavior anymore, though. I need to examine the LLW methods I've accumulated (Sue Ailsby's, Shirley Chong's, Pat Miller's, ClickerSolutions archives) and devise a systematic way to attack this problem. Everything else--recall, targets, stays--is important, but will come with time in the Levels! I want to get him at least to Level 3 before we do any more work in a class, and Shaping Camp is coming at the end of September.
Lenneth is basically a rank novice. Name recognition has gone well, but I haven't even been able to get a nose-touch out of her. I'll have to be very patient with her and remember that for 3 years of her life she probably had no opportunity to earn rewards by her behavior. This is all very new to her. Perhaps I should spend more time charging the clicker--the classical conditioning we did with her name went pretty well.
Finally, I should really do some work with the cats as well. It seems silly not to take the opportunity, since they're there all the time anyway and could certainly benefit. There's also the little gazelle that I hope to be working with soon. My thought is that these other species will really help my training. I'm told dogs are very easy, but all the other ones really make you work at it! I think it'll make flaws in timing, delivery, and all the rest much more apparent and easier to target.
