Part II of II see http://www.clickertraining.com/node/1056 for Part I
Reprinted with permission from http://www.PositivePetzine.com
... "300 Peck" helps us bridge those gaps in a manner which is easy for us
to implement...
Let's use the "sit-stay" as an example. We'll assume our dog has
already been trained to "sit" on cue. So we ask our dog to "sit". Then
we count silently in our head "1-alligator", if our dog is still
sitting, then we click and treat.
Then we ask our dog to "sit" again, as he probably got up when we
clicked (which is fine).
Then we count silently in our head "1-alligator, 2-alligator", if he is
still sitting, click and treat.
The next trial is "1-alligator, 2-alligator, 3-alligator", if he is
still sitting, click and treat. If not, then ask your dog to "sit",
and count "1-alligator". If he is still sitting, click and treat.
The basic rule is that on each trial we increase the count by 1, if our
dog succeeds we click and treat. If our dog fails, we simplt restart
the count from 1.
A typical session might look like this:
sit - 1, click and treat
sit - 1,2, click and treat
sit - 1,2,3, click and treat
sit - 1,2,3,4, click and treat
sit - 1,2,3,4,5 - fail
sit - 1, click and treat
sit - 1,2, click and treat
sit - 1,2,3, click and treat
sit - 1,2,3,4, click and treat
sit - 1,2,3,4,5, click and treat
sit - 1,2,3,4,5,6, click and treat
sit - 1,2,3,4 - fail
sit - 1, click and treat
sit - 1,2, click and treat
etc...
Another practical example can be found here: http://www.clickertraining.com/node/596 In the above article we taught our dogs to lie down nicely beside
the dinner table while we ate our meal. You will notice that this is a
long duration behaviour.
Imagine you want your dog to walk on a nice loose leash. You can teach
this literally step-by-step using the "300 Peck" method. 1 step, click
and treat. 1 step, 2 steps, click and treat; etc
Although it is not obvious, in practice, "300 Peck" enables us to
increase our criteria with greater than 80% success rate overall - and
we don't even have to think too hard about it! We just have to
remember what the last count was and add 1 if we clicked and treated.
This method also works by default to set the exact right amount of
difficulty in any given situation. Sometimes there are distractions
which we don't even notice, but our dogs do. "300 Peck" takes the
guess-work out of setting appropriate criteria for the situation and
always pushes for the maximum performance. To quote the oft-repeated
phrase from 'help wanted' ads - no experience necessary!
Helpful links:
http://www.dragonflyllama.com/%20DOGS/%20Dog1/levels.html
http://www.PositivePetzine.com/Recommended.html
I just wanted
to add my recommendations to this method. I used it successfully with LLW, Heeling, Increasing distances in the directed retrieves and the sit - stay with my young dog.
The first thing I used it for was our heeling (I mean without leash) I went from being able to go 5 steps before she lost interest to 25 in three short (5-10 minutes) sessions. And for us that was the hurdle, after reaching 25 steps I had a dog that would LLW and heel for any length of walk, with a few verbal or treat reinforcers thrown in now and again. Last Wednesday she LLW'ed through a bunch of kids and dogs when we left the training area after our weekly class - we couldn't get around, the kids were going down to the soccerfield next to us, and the dogs were waiting for their class to start... and some of the kids started kicking soccer balls everywhere around us. The only time she made a slight "lunge" (more of a half skip-step forward) was when a father thought it funny to kick a ball right under her nose. He stopped laughing when she just did that little jump, and then went right back to my side, taking eyecontact with me...hehehe....
But I digress.
I have recommended the 300 peck method to other dog owners - pet dogs where the owners were trying hard (using positive methods) to get just a reasonable LLW. All came back to me saying thank you - this method was a winner - they had gotten more progress than they ever thought possible.
For those of you who haven't tried it...please give it a chance ... it is so easy and so very efficient.
Christina