(VICT) Re: Hello, food question
- From: "kitty hevener" <khevener@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <vi-clicker-trainers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 8 Oct 2006 06:33:49 -0700
Hi Martha, congratulations on getting your first guide dog. My first guide
dog and I have been together for a little over six years. Leash corections
never worked for me either, despite what the school said. I see several
options for you and will share some below. Please know though that these
options may not be a cure all. My girs is an opportunist and is extrememly
fast. Her speed at grabbing something she should not have has surprised
many sighted people.
option 1. If she has a long history of the "leave it" command being
meaningless to her, you may need to come up with another cue and reteach it.
To start the process, I would hold a low value treat in my fist. Hopefully
she will try to get it from you. As soon as she stops click and treat. Do
this a few time before introducing the word cue. I treat with something of
higher value than what is in my hand. When she masters this stepl I would
do the same thing, but have your hand a little more open. As she mastes
this, you might try increasing the value of the treat she is supposed to
leave. You may need to initially go back to the closed fist just to insure
success. I think this is especially important if you can't see what she is
about to do. You can eventually move from your hand to putting low value,
then incresingly higher value treat on floor. Be ready to put your hand or
foot on it to keep her from getting it if necessary.
Btw, if your dog refuses to take treats or food from your hand, then you
will need to teach her to do this first. I used "take it" as my cue.
option 2. Redirect the dog. Your dog can only do what you ask if she is
paying attention to you. Many sighted people get their dog focused on them
by using words such as watch, look, etc. I use touch. This means that my
dog will touch me with her face, nose, or mouth. I always reward this
command. The other day, I was in a situation where some crackers were left
on restaurant floor. Before I even knew they were there, old hover went in
to action! She was so focused that "leave it" must have meant "keep on
eating". I switched to "touch". She did and I treated. I initially
thought she had responded to touch because she had eaten all the crackers.
But, my friend told me there were still some under her nose. I then used
the remaining crackers as an opportunity to work on "leave it". Btw, I use
a gentle leader with my dog. When I started using the remaining crackers as
a teaching opportunity, we were both standing. So, I could feel as soon as
her head started moving down toward the floor and, if necessary, would have
been able to move her head away from the food.
Martha, hope this helps. Am sure others will have ideas for you as well.
Glad to see your interest in switching to positive methods. oh, one more
thing I have found. Since my dog, like yours, was trained with the
traditional training methods, you may find that it takes some time to get
your dog to respond to the positive methods. Afterall, with the old method,
your dog only knows she has done something wrong if she gets a leash
correction, ie punishment. Manyclicker trainers comment that "crossover"
dogs such as ours are hard to switch over. However, it can and does work.
Having said that, I will be the first to say that my dog isn't perfect. I
have yet to meet the perfect dog. What I can say is that she is safe, and I
can typically control her through a combination of commands and managing the
environment.
----- Original Message -----
From: "marthaharris" <latinanewschic@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <vi-clicker-trainers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, October 07, 2006 6:02 PM
Subject: (VICT) Hello, food question
Hi Everyone,
My name is Martha, and I am working with my first guide dog Valerie. I
wanted to try clicker training with her, since corrections aren't very
helpful. What do you do if your guide goes after food? Valerie tries to eat
food from the cafeteria floor at my school, and leave it and leash
corrections don't help.
Thanks,
Martha
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