Trick Challenge: Take And Drop

[myraellen]

In another thread we asked for ideas on what my friend could teach to Lotta. Southerngirl suggested that my friend and others would teach their dogs to take and drop. So, my friend thought that we would create this thread where we could discuss about them.

My friend has seen this tutorial. She has done it only couple times but she thought that she would try to teach them by the same way than here:

In the tutorial it says:
"I've added the "Get it" cue, but not the "drop" cue because I don't think he fully understands yet"

So, in that tutorial that trainer is teaching her dog to take first. We can put own video of it as soon as we can...

 

[running_dog]

Gus knows this but we'll do some revision and use things he is not so good at dropping. Zac has a bit of a rubbish drop because it is so rare he picks things up I haven't really trained this. I'll try and get a video of them today.

 

[running_dog]

So here are Zac and Gus and their first revision sessions of Get it and Drop. They are not beginners but they can both improve from where they are. They are very different from each other.

With Zac I'm building toy drive because he doesn't like toys much. I use treats to reward him for interest in and drive for the toy.

Gus is very very good at drop. He has always been toy and tug obsessed so I worked hard on training a solid "drop" when he was a puppy. However he still snatches when he is excited so I'm going to work on impulse control. I don't use treats because for Gus grabbing the toy and tugging is a reward in itself. If he snatches or dives for the toy before I cue "Get it" I stop him getting it and encourage him to play on my terms.

I comment on Gus's eye contact but you can see he already started making eye contact with me in the previous clip as a result of failure - he started to offer eye contact because he found that lunging for the toy didn't work. I reward him for eye contact by giving the "get it" cue.

 

[southerngirl]

It's been a crazy week I'll post on Monday, hopefully.

 

[running_dog]

It's been a crazy week I'll post on Monday, hopefully.

Seems like crazy week has hit all of us at once

 

[southerngirl]

Seems like crazy week has hit all of us at once

Yeah. I might end up having to do this next week with me helping out a friend and it being Thanksgiving week. I'm staying at a family friend's house, because she was in a car accident that broke her foot. Helping care for her animals, including the dogs 2 Boxers and a shih-tzu. I'm really missing my girls. I've barley seen them for the past two weeks.

 

[myraellen]

My friend thought that she would let you know that she has tried that a couple times. We have made a video of it but we have difficulties in uploading it. We can link it as soon as we can.

 

[myraellen]

My friend has now tried a couple times what was done in the tutorial from Pamela Johnson we had linked. We had difficulties in uploading this video but we were able to do it now:


Lotta is growling because she likes toys so much. It takes a little time before Lotta drops the toy but she does it eventually. (My friend couldn't say anything to Lotta in that video, because we were going to link it here and some of you already knows that she can't communicate/talk to strangers.) Normally she does praise Lotta also verbally and does use verbal cues whenever she can.

So, what do you think about that? Is there anything my friend should do differently?

 

[running_dog]

My friend has now tried a couple times what was done in the tutorial from Pamela Johnson we had linked. We had difficulties in uploading this video but we were able to do it now:


Lotta is growling because she likes toys so much. It takes a little time before Lotta drops the toy but she does it eventually. (My friend couldn't say anything to Lotta in that video, because we were going to link it here and some of you already knows that she can't communicate/talk to strangers.) Normally she does praise Lotta also verbally and does use verbal cues whenever she can.

So, what do you think about that? Is there anything my friend should do differently?

It is good to see you have made a start. Lotta does love to play. Gus can be like that with the play growling too. I quite understand about the absence of verbal praise.

In terms of what you might do differently I still think you need to be clearer in your own mind about what behaviour you are marking. So the instant Lotta lets go you need to mark and reward that means you could (should) be clicking Lotta at 0:17/0:18 and 0:20 (I know you click at 0:21 but at 0:21 Lotta is not letting go (she did that at 0:20), at 0:21 Lotta is chasing the toy which you are moving away from her. Then you could click at 0:55 as she lets go. You can predict when Lotta is going to let go because she starts to mouth the toy rather than tug, so when you see Lotta do that you can put the first pressure on the clicker to be ready the instant she lets go!

You just need to click when Lotta lets go and BEFORE you move the toy away from Lotta. You are half way there

 

[running_dog]

I had a good session with Zac on something when we were out for our walk this morning. Zac is not particularly tug or toy motivated but he is quite possessive of sticks he picks up when we are out and he won't recall away from them (or with them!).

• Today I found a rotten stick which was too soft to do damage to his mouth.
• I repeatedly clicked then treated him for grabbing the stick, this quickly built a strong pattern of grab and release and also built me into his interaction with the stick.
• Then I put the stick on the ground, because he was in clicker mode he began to free shape, I clicked anything he did, also I kept picking the stick up and putting it down again, I clicked him for doing nothing.
• Then I left him with the stick and backed off a few paces. He was divided between wanting the very rapid rate of reinforcement he'd been getting and wanting the stick. So he stood over the stick and looked towards me, I clicked him for looking and held out a treat, he came for the treat and I sent him back to the stick. This happened a few times.
• I walked on, he ran past with the stick then lay down to chew it, I went over and he looked up expecting a treat so I clicked then treated numerous times, particularly between him nibbling on the stick, I also picked the stick up and put it down a couple of times.
• Soon after this I tried throwing the stick, he followed his usual pattern of running past and lying down to chew, I went over and clicked and treated multiple times. Sometimes (when he was obviously looking for the treats) I was able to call him and he left the stick to come to me. I sent him back to the stick and then called him again. Sometimes he began to bring the stick with him and throw it at my feet (click and treat multiple times).
• I was running out of treats so we called it a day!

This session helped me understand that Zac's problem with take and drop and "possessiveness" is that he has a high "I want" threshold for getting hold of something in his mouth. So when he finally does want something enough to get hold of it he REALLY REALLY wants that object so there is no way he is going to share it. That means I have to treat sticks and other objects he wants to get hold of as a much higher level of distraction than they seem at first sight. Building myself into the loop (in the same way I have been doing for other high level distractions) seemed very successful for this particular stick, probably the next stick will be a whole new story!

 

[myraellen]

My friend had noticed that running_dog had done something with her dog but my friend was wondering if anyone has tried teaching this recently. My friend herself hasn't been able to teach this for a while because she has been a little busy. We can tell you when she can try it again with Lotta.

 

[running_dog]

My friend had noticed that running_dog had done something with her dog but my friend was wondering if anyone has tried teaching this recently. My friend herself hasn't been able to teach this for a while because she has been a little busy. We can tell you when she can try it again with Lotta.

Great to see you back
Looking forward to seeing/hearing how you get on with this when you have more time.