Yes/no Training For Video

Jean Cote

Administrator
Staff member
Hi Everyone,

I'm going to be filming soon with Chase and need to train her to do a Yes / No on command. Problem is that I'm not quite sure how to go about this one.

I've tried putting targets inside a box and getting her to touch both one after the other but she isn't quite getting it. Before I spend any more time on this I figured that I would ask here in case someone has already taught these tricks in another way.

The trick "Yes" should mean "moving head up and down", and the trick "No" should mean "moving head left to right". She's a Border Collie.

Thanks for your help. :)

Sincerely,
Jean
 

fickla

Experienced Member
I've taught the no to be more of a head shake rather than side to side. I've also experimented with the side to side trick, but of course moved on before completed like most of them :)

The way I was working on it was using two targets taped in a door way, up at nose height. Requiring a random number of touches before rewarding. At first I clicked one, then rewarded a topposite target, then did the other one and again rewarded opposite. When the dog started to anticipate where the treat was going to be I went to the random number of touches before rewarding. I got the head movement in a few sessions but never bothered fading the targets.

Never taught yes, but I would guess you could try going for the head movement up. Maybe fake tosss a treat? I think up would be easier than down as less likely to lie down or just look weird. But this approach might lead more to a "what's up" head pop trick rather than repeated nodding.
 

Jean Cote

Administrator
Staff member
Thanks so much fickla. That is excellent advice and I never thought about using a doorway to train anything. I will give it a try tomorrow with targets on either side. I will start with the "No" as it should technically be easier... Wish me luck. ;)
 

tigerlily46514

Honored Member
This trick was very very hard for my dog.
I used post-it notes, on two bar stools.

over time, i could move the bar stools further apart.

Once i tried using the bar stools, it went way easier, he "got it" then.

but at first,
I actually had to shelve the whole trick,
and re-introduce it a month later to get him to understand.

for my dog, this was one of his hardest tricks of all. this one, and cross paws, were his 2 hardest tricks. Lots of tricks i thought were harder, he nailed 'em, easily, :) but not shake head.

One of the very few videos i have of Buddy:
(obviously, i need a new question, but back then, this question was great.)

 

tigerlily46514

Honored Member
he throws in the lil verbal "no" on his own. but it works out perfectly, though, doesn't it??

Buddy was getting stoked/excited, cuz we could not work the camera,:ROFLMAO: and he had to keep repeating the trick, over and over, then we'd realize we had no sound, or it was dark, etc, so by the time we got this filmed, by then, Buddy was throwing in verbal noises........ on his own......


funny dog.
:ROFLMAO:

He really CAN do a more prolonged turning of his head back and forth, but we were just so stoked we'd figured out how to work the borrowed camera, that by then we weren't even really paying att'n how well he was doing the trick by that time!
 

tigerlily46514

Honored Member
i haven't taught "yes" yet, either.

i'd probably do same method i did for "no",
and just attach post-it notes onto some stationary object,
and reward touching both targets. Of course, it'd be up and down moves.
then move object away and away.
 

Anneke

Honored Member
I haven't trained yes, but a few years ago I had a go at shake head(no). I used this tutorial by kikopup
Here is a vid of one of my sessions. For some reason I never finished the trick. Maybe now I will;)
 

charmedwolf

Moderator
Staff member
I used the same method as Tigerlily and Anneke. A nose target on post-it notes but I put it so that her back was in a corner and she had to touch left right left before getting a treat then slowly moved her away from the corner.

For teaching the "Yes" You could probably get her to follow a target stick for up and down motion.
 

running_dog

Honored Member
I've done a 3 or 4 sessions on this.

I got fed up of post-its after the first 3 minutes and used a stack of treats on either side. When Zac glanced one way or other I clicked the movement. A bit risky as it rewarded him for looking at the treats :confused: . I also clicked him for looking to one side out of the window and rewarded on other side. For a while it is like clicking a loss of attention O_o that doesn't happen with post-its so I think the post-it method is probably better.

Now I am just clicking for any side to side movement. There is not much yet - a very slow head turn to one side and then back to facing me, at first he was just doing eyes left without moving his head so I guess there is some improvement :ROFLMAO:. What movement there is, is now totally independent of lures and targets and I'm hoping to be able to shape it into a full shake head eventually.
 

tigerlily46514

Honored Member
I wish i had video camera, cuz Buddy can shake his "No" even better than in that video above, with several repititions of the head shake, way more than he did in the video. I liked him to do two turns to each side, for this trick, but in video of mine, he is only doing one turn to each side.

It looks better with two turns, which is how Buddy usually does it.
But, Buddy has tendency to zoom through all tricks, always tries to speed the trick up,
and like i said,
we were having so much trouble figuring out our friend's video camera, that by the time we conquered using the camera, Buddy had already done the trick many times, so he was beginning to zoom it up, we were more focused on the camera,
than on him by then! :rolleyes: ha ha!!
 

horsy

Well-Known Member
I've just started training Diesel to do this today! I'm videoing each session so I can put them all together at the end. We are using the post it method. We've done two 5 minute sessions and he seems to have got the idea now, haven't put a word to it yet I'm trying to think of something funny for the cue :D
 

Jean Cote

Administrator
Staff member
Thank you so much for the tips and information everyone! I have begun training my Border Collie to do this using postnotes on the wall. She's getting it! Right now she is hitting one tag and hitting the other one. I will continue to reward this behavior and soon remove the post notes and see how that goes.

I think the hard part will be to get her to do it without anything else. I am probably better off anchoring the behavior to a command first. ;)

Thanks again, much appreciated!

P.S. I will also move this to the challenges forum since many of you have decided to join in.
 

horsy

Well-Known Member
Ok, so I just started to give this the cue "Are you a bad dog?" Unfortunately, Diesel decided to say YES instead LOL

He drives me mad though, we had the best headshake yet, side to side a couple of times, so i clicked and gave a big reward. Not realising he had backed up a few steps while doing it. So the next few tries included great headshakes but also walking backwards. I didn't want him to walk backwards, & realising I'd rewarded it by accident, I asked him to sit and do the headshake, but his headshake wasn't as good then. Never mind, all part of the learning process, we'll get there :D
 

tigerlily46514

Honored Member
too cute, Horsy, i totally know just what you mean, about one (1) wrong click, and bam! dog then decides he needs to do this or that to get a click! ohhhh, do i ever know just what you mean!!:ROFLMAO:

VERY CUTE dog! Nice work!
 

sara

Moderator
Staff member
HA HA HA I sooo know what you mean about accidentally rewarding something! I'm working with Mouse to do a backwards weave between cans (she's too short for me to teach between my legs) I accidentally caught a couple of head throws while backing up, and now she does a half rear, head toss while backing up! cute, but not what I wanted! LOL
 

Jean Cote

Administrator
Staff member
Just to give an update, my training with Chase is going well, I am in the process of conditioning the command. I will share a video once the behavior is somewhat reliable without post notes / walls present. ;)
 

tigerlily46514

Honored Member
Jean, are you making a "how to" video of this?

Jean, did Chase find this trick a lil more difficult than some tricks are? Just curious, how you'd rate this trick as far as difficulty.
Of all Buddy's tricks, this one, "shake head no"
and cross-paws were the hardest ones for my particular dog.
 

Jean Cote

Administrator
Staff member
Jean, are you making a "how to" video of this?

Jean, did Chase find this trick a lil more difficult than some tricks are? Just curious, how you'd rate this trick as far as difficulty.
Of all Buddy's tricks, this one, "shake head no"
and cross-paws were the hardest ones for my particular dog.
No I didn't think of making an how-to video of this, I figured there was already several videos posted for this above. ;) Chase got it pretty quick, it was a little arkward at first because she didn't know what to do, but I put her in a corner and put post-notes on each side of the wall, then rewarded for touching either, then she would have to touch 2 in a row, then right side to the left. Refining it now. ;) Will post a video soon.
 
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