Geez..... I feel like I'm spinning my tires here lately!
I blame myself... certainly not the dog. She's very smart and eager to please. I don't know if I'm doing something wrong, expecting too much too soon, or both. Probably both so some extent.
Gracie is doing very well with touch (the target stick with nose), but I'm not convinced that she's connecting the cue as well as I thought. She's also failing at "Flat" (in a down, putting her head down between her front paws all cute-like). Even her cued downs (not a new behavior) are pathetic the past couple days!!! She spends a lot of time throwing all sorts of behaviors at me, but responses to cues are just not up to par.
Could it be a learning dip? How long do they usually last? Perhaps she's still confused with the whole new training method thing? Is this common with crossover dogs? Should I try a whole new behavior for a little while and give these a rest for a couple days? Anyone? Anyone? Anyone? (Insert Ben Stein monotone here) I'm really frustrated!
Hmmmmmmmmm......
I know we can do this.... I just have to figure out what's not clicking with my clicker training!
Slow days
Interesting. I had the same trouble with my cat intially. Same identical behaviours. I knew she was not mentally deficient, quite the opposite, but it took a long time just to get her to touch the target stick. It just took a lot of persistence and patience. Each cat or dog is different. When you see videos of cats and dogs responding and performing quickly and your own darling has just been staring at you for two weeks while you hold the target stick and say, "Touch it. Touch it," until you are blue in the face, you do begin to question your training methods.
My cat now loves to do the routines; that is, the ones she knows. When I introduce a new routine, she resists. She will do lots of her old tricks in hopes of a click rather than try the new one. I also found that breaking down the desired behaviour into simpler steps helps, even if the trick appears to be relatively simple.
Don't get discouraged. I think cats and dogs can pick up on that. Both are very adept at reading body language and understanding human tones.
Good signs...
It could actually be a good sign that she is just throwing behaviors around instead of responding as she usually does (or should) to your cues. Think of it as a creative burst of energy, like a painter who only had blue paint and now has red as well.
As much as you are thinking about the ramifications of being a crossover clicker trainer, your dog might be thinking along rather similar lines about being a crossover clicker dog.
Cheers and good luck.
-Kelly
Thanks!
Rosana,I appreciate your encouragement and kind words. Starting out to become a crossover is much more difficult than I thought it would be! But we'll get there!
And thanks for reading.... it helps knowing someone is interested!
Kevin
Good days and bad days
I don't really know about shoulds here, maybe someone else should address that part.
But I have often observed that some days are good, some days I'd rather not remember. Ditto (alas) for weeks.
Often when my dog acts like she has no brains at all, later I can realize that maybe I was giving her less than totally clear signals. Other times, I'm clear and direct but she is trying out things, like this morning before her breakfast when we were doing long downs in our front yard. Yesterday it was shaking hands, and she seemed incredulous this morning that she couldn't get clicked for shaking hands on the long down!
Some days are like that. Be sure and post when you have a brilliant day with Gracie!
Rosana Hart
www.training-dogs.com