tashakota
Posted : 3/27/2008 8:42:13 AM
All 3 of these dogs are seasoned free-shapers as well.
stardog85
Shadow: Very clean and efficient overall! I would probably have tried to up the rate of reinforcement by lowering the criteriaat the beginning. The rate did increase on its own but I generally try to get more clicks/minute in my first one or two training sessions when I'm shaping new behavior.
To lower criteria do you mean to c/t any looking at or movement towards the stick? I was wondering about this, should we do that if the movement is not related to the stick at all? I mean, she does a lot of dancing around but she hardly looked at the stick in the beginning. I didn't want to c/t random movements. Part of Shadow's free-shaping behavior involves a lot of random movement hoping something gets clicked. So with her, I am a bit more selective on what gets clicked and what doesn't.
stardog85
Kota: same situation as Shadow (lowering criteria for higher reinforcement rate would be good), but even more so since Kota was more anxious/confused about the whole thing. I would also have broken the session down into shorter increments with a non working break in between. Even a few short breaks would likely have resulted in fewer long pauses and anxious/confused behavior on Kota's part. I also noticed a few movements of the target stick that looked like you were trying to get him to pay attention. I do this as well, but as someone earlier pointed out, it can really clutter things up in the long run. He really seemed to do well afetr you started throwing treats - any idea why that would be? I'm wondering if just having to get up and get them allowed him to be more aware of other options or gave him little min breaks to think, who knows though. I would've really ended the session around the time of that surge in performance around 6 minutes; after about 6:20 he really disengaged.
Wow 8 minutes? I didn't pay attention when I pulled it off the camera. Um, a little too long eh? lol... Also the clicker was rather loud and he didn't care for it. I've had to go to a more used clicker for softer noise, so that's part of the anxiousiness. And yeah, I kind of dragged it along too much. And he kept biting it. Silly dog thought he should grab the stick, not just touch it with his nose. I should have quit after about 1:20 when he really started biting it and not drag it out for 8 freakin' minutes! sheesh... Can you tell he's my favorite? 
stardog85
Pepper: the best of the bunch imo - nice short session, high rate of reinforcement, little body language "clutter", etc. She is rather focused on food isn't she! :)
Ya think? ;) She is a food hound. Great drive and energy when she thinks food is involved. Now if I could only figure out how to get that energy to last through an agility course...