I'm getting ready to teach a tricks class* and started thinking about how I can introduce people to free shaping. I am sure that many people have heard of "the box game" and that many have given up. Free shaping is hard! The dogs who have been so used to getting lured for everything will just sit and stare. People are told to not say anything, don't move a muscle, and just wait. And so they do, and so the dogs stare while the drool starts coming down. Eventually either the dog or person gives up and they think that clicker training isn't for them. But I don't think it has to be this way!
Back to the box game, the original game is called 101 Things To Do With A Box and it's a creativity game invented by Karen Pryor. The dog is clicked for any NEW behavior he offers. So a paw touch might be clicked once, but a nudge of the nose the 2nd time, then climbing inside it, etc. I have never played that version. I think it's a great idea but I personally want the dog learning that a click means they are on the right track. I don't want them learning a click means to not do that again! I know an advanced dog CAN learn the difference between a traditional shaping session and the 101 Box game but I can see a new dog and person quickly give up.
The version that I recommend is clicking any interaction with the object. The 3rd or 4th time you play you can start to narrow down your criteria and actually work towards a specific goal. But the first few times I just want the dog to know that it is his job to interact with whatever I put on the floor. If I'm working with a person who has tried to play the game before and failed, I won't even use a box. They see the box as boring. Instead I'll put down a block to start pivoting skills, a small basket that the dog will eventually learn to jump in, or even a skateboard (rigged so it can't move on the dog). I will put down any object other than a box to try and get a fresh start.
I then have the person MOVE and TALK! While eventually I want the team to be able to sit quietly and let the dog think, I also want want both dog and person to be successful and have fun. They know how to lure, so let them do it for a little bit. Put the object against a wall and stand so the dog has no choice but to step on it or sniff it. Yeah he might delicately stretch his feet over it in the beginning so not one paw touches it, but still click the proximity to the object! Feed ON the object so that the block/skateboard/whatever seems to grow the treats. Treats don't come from you, they magically appear on the object! Is the dog still standing on it (eating it's treat perhaps)? Then click and drop another one on it!
When the dog starts to think that the magic object gets him the treats, then CHUCK the treat down the hallway. Dogs love thrown treats so it makes it fun, plus it resets the behavior without the person having to move. If the dog doesn't come right back to step on the magical treat growing object, then by all means move around the object to get his attention. And if you have to, sure go ahead and lure them up on it. But keep tossing those treats and gradually start moving away from the object. I don't find that it is long before I can get rid of that lure and have the dog offering interacting with the object. Remember to quit after a pretty short time those first few sessions so that the dog is left wanting to work. If you get stuck, try picking up the object, moving a few steps, and then putting it back down. Most dogs will reinvestigate the object so click right away and then end shortly after.
The beginner dog and person should go through the above for a few more sessions. The point is not to get the standing silently and waiting from the get go, but to teach the dog to interact with objects and the student how to click the little steps. When the dog is happily running over without any lure or movement from the person, then start the free shaping. Start defining the tricks and decide the tricks that you want to teach.
To summerize here is my advice for new shapers:
- Go ahead, move and lure in the beginning
- Throw the treat. Makes it fun and resets the dog. THROW IT!
- Do it in a hallway. This way if he gets stuck and you toss that treat, you can now re click the dog for running back towards the object (even if he was just trying to get to you)
- Drop the treat on the object in the beginning stages. Make the object magical!
- Pick it up, move a few steps, put it back down.
- Be prepared to start the training session as soon as you put that object down. Most dogs will go sniff the object right away, all dogs will at least look at it. If you aren't ready, you miss these first valuable clicks!
It may not be the conventional way to teaching shaping but I have had success with these methods. If I can prevent the dog and the person from giving up in those initial sessions then it is easier to start real free shaping.
Does anybody have any other tips in either getting the dog to start interacting with an object or to help the person learn the skills?
*I got roped into teaching classes at TCOTC. It's been a while since I've taught a class so I'm a bit nervous. Will be starting the end of January with this tricks class and a competition obedience class (all current students are at the novice level). They're desperate for instructors :)
Same video as in Lance's, just posted again :)
Vito had his first experience in a trial in May doing tunnelers and jumpers. But I knew we weren't really ready so I consider his first real trial to be in July. He bounced a lot more than he ran for his first several trials and just now do I feel he is truly starting to get it and run. He did mainly CPE and managed to qualify for CPE nationals next year held here in Minnesota by finishing up his level 2 titles. 
In May I went to a introduction put on by the MN Disc Dog Club and was hooked. At that time Vito had little interest in his disc, only wanting his beloved tennis ball. I picked up all the toys outside so he had no other options and it wasn't long before Vito became just as obsessed about the disc as his ball. I created a monster! In toss and catch competitions we seemed to get worse every trial. Vito would be so frantic trying to get to it that he would jump too early and while he would always make contact with it, he would rarely catch it. Many times he will twist himself in weird contortions trying way too hard.
Rally
Did his 3rd ever agility trial in January. Did mainly CPE and finished up all level 1 titles, level 2, and is halfway through level 3. Did a few one day NADAC trials to get his novice jumpers, tunnelers, and regular titles. In March I changed from a 2o2o on the dogwalk to 4 on the floor. He did great with it but has recently started taking extra strides before downing in trials. I have been proofing it a ton in class and have pulled him from doing the aframe and dogwalk in trials unless I can put him back over it (as in some CPE games, NADAC, and ASCA trials). Lance's stutter stepping has gotten worse and I have started doing more jump chutes with him. Of course I haven't found time to do enough of them to make any difference.
Oh my. Vito started out the day really well and then we seemed to get a little bit worse every run!
Wildcard
Fabulous job on the short little course. Vito actually placed 1st out of all 45 level 3/4/5/C dogs who ran it. Nice running aframe and good weaves
Standard
A little scream after I released him from his 2o2o on the teeter, 2nd obstacle :) Same set up as yesterday with the wrap to the dogwalk and this time a 180 left afterwards. I knew Vito wasn't ready for that turn again so I planned to drive him off the end again. He didn't read the wrap this time so we did it again after he took the tunnel. Today his dogwalk seemed really nice, he looked like he did a little stride adjustment on the middle board right before the descent. Yay!!! Good rest of the course including a rear cross into the weaves, and nice aframe.
Jackpot
Vito was a little nuts before we even went on the course, doing some screaming at me. The run didn't feel connected at all, but it doesn't look as horrible on film. Vito didn't collect at all for the 1st set of weave poles, looked at me instead and screamed. He self released from his teeter if he even stopped for any time at all. I screwed up trying to do a send to a double that I didn't walk so Vito went around it.
Snooker
Did a different plan then I walked (I do that a lot to myself!). Vito's weaves were broken :( Took 3 attempts to get the entrance the first time, had to them again for the 2nd #7 and it was fine. But broken again on the closing. I also wanted to avoid doing the threadle in the closing so tried wrapping him around the other side of the jump. Vito went really wide and even went around the pole marking the start line. Teeter was good at least!
Colors
What a wreck! Vito self released on the start line and I was so stunned that I stupidly didn't have him sit right where he was. Then he misses a jump, blows past the weaves to sniff the number sign, totally ignores my cues to NOT go in the damn tunnel. Idiot :) He wasn't even acting super excited and zoomy, just stupid! What a way to end the trial.
Here's video from Friday's 2 runs and the first 3 runs of today. I was going to include snooker and colors but it got too long and I don't really need to remember them :P
Us agility folk are hardcore! Despite a gigantic blizzard with 17inches of snow falling throughout the day, most of us managed to make it to the CPE trial. It was canceled after the first two games when we heard the plows were being pulled. Took us about 2hrs to get everyone shoveled out and pushed out of the parking lot.
Lance
I had pulled Lance from standard and put him in fullhouse because of our contact issues. And thankfully there was an aframe in fullhouse today! I planned it for last and tested him by continuing to drive past the end and sure enough Lance came with me instead of downing. I gave a simple "ah ah" and put him back over it and then he was a good boy :P
Busy weekend, obedience yesterday and agility today! There was an ASCA trial this weekend and since they take day of show entries I decided to head on down with the boys and train their contacts in a trial environment. I was a bit bummed the contacts weren't rubberized and the aframe was taller than Lance is used to.
Lance
I entered him in two rounds of open standard. The first course had the dogwalk in the beginning and the aframe at the end which was perfect for us! He is much more likely to do his 4 on the floor in a trial on the dogwalk and he did it perfectly in his first run today. Middle of the course goes smoothly, even does his very first set of 12 poles in a trial, and then we get to the aframe. He gets to the top, stops and stares at me. I repeat his command for floor, and Lance takes a few more steps down, slowly, looks at me again and then gets to the bottom and lies down immediately. I praise him and we do the last jump and run for our treats. While I'm not thrilled about the creeping, at least Lance was thinking instead of launching.
In the 2nd run the Aframe was the 4th obstacle so I planned on leaving the course after I was satisfied with Lance's performance, whether after the 1st attempt or several. His performance wasn't horrible. No hesitation at all on the aframe and he did down, but still took an extra stride on the ground than I would like. I put him back over and he did a perfect 4 on the floor so I praised him and left the course to give treats.
Vito
I thought it would be good for Vito to get some more dogwalk practice in a trial so entered him in two rounds of novice standard. Since I'm debating about whether to enter him at 16 or 20in at the NADAC trial in a few weeks I entered him at 20 today. We jump 20 in practice but since he has mainly done CPE shows he has only had to jump 16 in a trial setting.
He was crazy amped up for the first run, even screamed and stood before I got one foot away from him on the startline. I resat him and released him to the aframe as 2nd obstacle and dogwalk as 4th. Both were drop dead sexy! Acceleration with each stride on the dogwalk with foot placement all the way to the very bottom of the plank. The judge even made a Wow comment as we ran. Rest of the run was Vito's fastest running in a trial so far. He did knock 2 bars which I'm not thrilled about. Also hesitated on the teeter with only 1 foot on the ground so I waited until he got to his 2o2o position. Weave poles were good.
2nd run Vito wasn't as psycho and the dogwalk and aframe were right at the end. It was another gorgeous running contact which lead to an off course. I was totally expecting it though as there was the aframe/tunnel discrimination 1 jump after the dogwalk and the extension of running the dog walk put him right on the tunnel path and I didn't pull him off it. Teeter and weaves were good.
The little guy pulled it off!
We made it through!
November Progress:
1. Tricks- I taught both dogs to jump through my arms. Lance actually seems to really like this one, after he got over the initial avoidance issue he always has with tricks involving me. Of course it's not all that impressive at corgi height but still :) Vito finally got over trying to pray on my arms and now happily jumps through.
But that trick didn't take very long at all so I then moved on to tying to fix their paw over nose trick. I feel like I made zero progress as all 3 still suck at it. I did communicate I wanted duration to Lance, but it lost the paw on nose part and is more of holding paw in air in a prolonged wave. Vito's action turned into more of an ostrich movement of sticking his head in his armpit. And the little I did with Chuck turned into stomp feet on the ground! Clearly this trick is not my strength!
With Chuck I worked a very tiny bit on baking up away from me without any forward movement on my part. I also worked a tiny bit on crossing his paws with the use of a target still.
2. Go Outs- I didn't do as much as I wanted with him in new places. Only work done was Lance doing very miniature go outs at the horse barn during an agility trial. We did do our 1st run through though!
3. Heeling- I've done quite a bit of heeling with Vito this past month but no more than usual with Lance. I have no grasp on if either are doing any better or not. I guess we'll find out next weekend at the trial!
4. Fronts and finishes- crap. Did practically zero work on it.
5. Disc- Another failure. Nothing done that I can remember.
December Goals:
1. Run throughs!- Get off my butt and take Lance and Vito to more run throughs. At the very least get them out to a petstore or somewhere to practice with distractions.
2. Lance's agility contacts- Work on insane proofing in class with him holding his 4 on the floor position. See if I can get him to other locations to practice.
3. Drop on Recall- Start to work this concept with Vito. He already has a great moving down while heeling, good downs at a distance, and a good wait while running towards me. Now to combine!
4. Out of Sight stays- Maybe go back to the random stays I was doing for Lance last January and work more with Vito. Or maybe just work on simple time out of sight. Oddly while Vito does have separation anxiety, I am not worried about his long out of sight stays in open. I know he needs more work on time, but I'm just not worried about him. Of course now I probably jinxed myself!
5. Tricks- I will try one more month to get a good paw over the nose.
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| Must pet the kitty! |
The work has begun! I hope to be able to get Lance to new places to work him nailing his 4 on the floor criteria but I am not sure how likely that will be. So while waiting for run throughs here are the proofs I have done, mainly on the aframe and some on the dogwalk.
Handling:
- Running past
- Stopping early before the end
- front cross, rear cross, blind cross
- Recall over while I stand far beyond
- Hovering over
Distractions:
- Target just beyond reach of position
- Treats just beyond reach
- Food bowl with treats just beyond reach
- Thrown treat: Gotcha! Only once though, 2nd attempt was great
- Thrown bully stick
- Someone else holding out food: Gotcha! I had Adam hold out food and he went for it the first time. All repeated attempts were great.
- Someone else rolling food.
So far he is doing awesome and nailing his down at the end. He is very tempted but being a good little boy.
I only got him with two of the tests, a rolled treat and Daddy holding out food. On our reattempts he passed the tests with flying colors. On the positive side this means Lance is really understanding his job. On the negative side, I really wish Lance would fail more so I can work on the issue and punish the wrong response (in terms of decreasing the behavior of extra strides before downing, not by using force) instead of just reinforcing the right response. I don't want it to become like our stay issue, zero breaking in class but failing almost all the time when competing. If we hadn't have this issues already crop up in competition then I would take a different perspective. Generally when I am proofing something my goal is to really make them work hard, but not have them fail. I want the dog to make that tough decision to perform that behavior and mark the instant they seem to have made the choice.
Does anyone have any other distractions we can work on? Lance doesn't care for toys or I would have done everything with toys and food.
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