February 7, 2025

Millie Article Track. 250 yards, 30 min old. 6 articles aside from start. Sunny, mid-50s, light breeze, low humidity.

I don't have much commentary to share with this video, except that I was perplexed by her distractibility from the very beginning. (Walk a few paces, then go off, then walk a bit, then go off again). I did try to restrain her from exploring, but we seem to have had trouble concentrating on the track.

I also made the mistake of giving treats--from my hand--that were too high value (freshly cooked duck liver) whenever she found an article, so that with the second and subsequent articles her focus was too much on getting treats. I shall have to go to the "treats raining from heaven" approach when she is about to indicate. (Problem is that my aim is not very good). And on the whole her indications were indistinct. She seemed more inclined to indicate turn markers than actual articles, and missed the last two or three articles altogether. I rewarded her on the last article just because we had finished and to give her motivation for future tracks, but that may have been a mistake.

On stretches she did show good tracking behavior, and made decent turns.

We're going to need a lot of off-track article-indication games.

Video:



Comments

  1. Jack's JourneyFebruary 11, 2025 at 11:49 AM

    Yikes, there was not much to like about this effort Ralph. I'd love to see the map of this track, to see where your food drops were, distance between articles, etc. I tried to 'attach' the ARTICLE map that is part of the TRAINING tab, but alas I couldn't figure that out. But go to the TRAINING tab and look at the ARTICLE track map/picture. No turns. Very specific food drop pattern to article to food drop to article .... I don't think Millie learned what you wanted her to learn on an 'article track' rotation. I am encouraged by your interest in article games. I do think they could help you. I do encourage you to video your games. I think it would be worth your time to take a private lesson with Judi to specifically address your articles and what you should and should not do when Millie successfully indicates, fails to indicate or completely ignores articles. You need a stronger game plan my friend.

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  2. JudiFebruary 11, 2025 at 2:10 PM

    “You are really not doing it today.” That says a lot. Maybe go read “random thoughts 2” again. I’m going to sound more harsh than I’d like to…but I don’t know how else to say this. In regard to articles has no idea, zero idea, what you want. She wants to make you say “good girl” and pull out food. But she does not have a clue what she does to make that happen. I’m sorry, that’s how I see it.

    You have convinced yourself that no PBGV will ever down in inclement conditions, as long as you believe that, it is unlikely you’ll successfully train it. Betty Swenson could probably teach your dog to Shake off on cue, I couldn’t. Personally, as much as I shape behavior, I can’t figure out a way to shape your stop-stare-shake off behavior…nor can I reinforce it at a high enough rate to find the behavior useful. On this track, her stop-stare-shake off happened ?once?.

    Please answer below. 1. What was your scuff walk food pattern? 2. What strategies did you use to make the track teach the dog? 3. When you were laying the track, where did you perceive the challenges to be? 4. When you were laying the track, what were your thoughts as you plotted?

    I’m going to try this one more time. First, does Millie eat kibble? If so….no more meals (given the weather, tonight is an awesome time to start this). Take Millie, 2 articles, and her food bowl into another room (so no other dogs can help her). Set an article on the floor (I’d be sitting on the floor). If Millie sniffs or steps on the article click (yes, use a clicker. If you don’t have one, cluck like one does to a horse, or clap your hands once), and then drop a few pieces of kibble onto the article. Pick it up, set the other one down. Repeat. Swap articles back to the first one. Repeat. And continue until all the food is gone. Say nothing—complete silence. I want Millie to focus on Millie, and what makes the food appear—not on you. Please video and post, I can’t help without seeing what’s happening. DO NOT HIDE the articles. Stand by, I’ll make a video for you. For now, the goal is that she sees an article and either steps on it or sniffs it. I”ll go make a video with Fletch and post it below.

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    Replies
    1. Ralph HattoxFebruary 12, 2025 at 6:36 AM

      Thanks so much for the feedback. A few points to answer your questions. 1. Although it was not obvious from the video, I did have a food drop pattern--20 yards food, 20 yards article, 15 yards food drop (to encourage restarts), repeat. I tried to integrate turns, which merely confused the issue. We need to go back to that straight-line routine, which I see is in the "Training Exercises" section. I have been too haphazard, trying to train a few things at once, and need to be more systematic

      I will start to implement the indoor routine with her food tomorrow morning. My dogs eat twice a day, and it will be much easier to isolate her from the other dogs during the 4:30 am feeding rather than in the evening. I just watched the video with Fletch, and I get the idea. I'll have to set up a tripod to film. At least initially I'll have the food on a low table next to me. Yes, I have several clickers, and Millie is clicker trained.

      Actually, I know that PBGVs can, with some difficulty, learn to sit as an article indication. Somewhere in the middle of her TDX training Ilsa would occasionally sit at an article; I worked to capture that behavior, and in the end a sit was a prerequisite for a "good girl" and a reward. By the time we got to her last few tests she was sitting reliably at every article. I haven't pushed the matter with Millie because she did seem to be reliable with the stop-stare-shake behavior, and I didn't push the point because I wanted to concentrate on other things. But occasionally we'd have a session like the one in this video. I've never seen her blow off more articles than here, and I can't let it go. Missing an article is a stupid way to fail a track.

      Thanks again for the suggestions--I'll post a video after the first few sessions.

      Ralph

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  3. JudiFebruary 11, 2025 at 2:52 PM

    Video is uploading, so some explanation. First, the food (in the bowl) is in plain sight. I want the dog to know what’s in play. If she goes for the food bowl, say nothing, just block her. If you have to elevate it a little, that’s fine. Notice the first time Fletch just sniffed the hairbrush, I clicked and fed. FOR YOU I lured him away, so that the camera could see the next rep. After that, I tossed a cookie—this is just done for you, BUT, if Millie just crowds you, toss a piece of kibble like I did to draw her away. while she’s chasing, swap articles out. Fletch is a pretty low drive dog, yet in 2-3 reps he progressed from sniff to paw to OFFERED down. I DID NOT CHANGE CRITERIA—if he’d continued to sniff, for this session I would have taken that. Notice that the food comes from the article, not from me—I don’t hand him a single piece of food. Tomorrow, I’d delay the click just long enough to see what I get—a second sniff? Great. A longer sniff? Great. Sniff then shake off? Great. But I want to see video—especially of first 3 sessions
    https://youtu.be/GdodWPrEpf0?si=NkV43VXK8NlxzKRP.

    ReplyDelete
  4. JudiFebruary 11, 2025 at 2:54 PM

    There is no . At the end of the YouTube link

    ReplyDelete
  5. JudiFebruary 11, 2025 at 3:03 PM

    There is no period at the end of the you tube link

    ReplyDelete

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