The March for the Animals event was a great success for Bmore Dog. We hope it was successful for the MDSPCA too!
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Come and Meet B-More Dog, Sunday April 20th!
B-More Dog will be attending their first event this Sunday April 20th at the Maryland SPCA's 13th annual dog walk, being held at Druid Hill Park. The event will run from 10am to 2pm, come rain or shine!
Please look for our banner and stop by to say hello.
We're looking forward to meeting lots of new people and dogs!
Directions:
http://www.mdspca.org/events/mfa.html#Directions
Please look for our banner and stop by to say hello.
We're looking forward to meeting lots of new people and dogs!
Directions:
http://www.mdspca.org/events/mfa.html#Directions
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
April 15!
Did you do file your taxes on time this year? We did! Actually, for the second time in my life, I had my taxes done weeks before the deadline, which was a huge relief. And I used $15 of my refund to buy Doc a nice new collar. Tucker too. Nothing fancy, just some plain black and brown leather with studs that we picked up from a vendor at the Tri State APBT Club ADBA show in Woodstown, NJ this weekend.
Pictures will come eventually, as soon as I get around to unloading them from my camera!
Pictures will come eventually, as soon as I get around to unloading them from my camera!
"Big black dog" syndrome
Recently, the AP reported a story about how big black dogs, lab mixes, rottweiler mixes, and the like, are the hardest dogs for shelters to find home for. CNN also posted the story to its web site last week.
This quote from the story pretty much sums it up:
It's such a sad thing that the generic "black dog" is so hard to find a home for, and as the owner of a "big black dog" (my old lady dog Reba) it always depresses the hell out of me to read about this subject. But I have to say, I was beyond thrilled to see national news organizations actually pay attention to it--and it's a pretty good story too! I can probably count on one hand the number of times I've thought mainstream national media did justice to a dog issue. Usually, most stories about dogs in the media are of the biting dog variety or the animal rights variety. This one is neither. Anyway, you can read it for yourself here.
This quote from the story pretty much sums it up:
It's not just that large dogs can be frightening: Animal shelters say black dogs of all sizes are difficult to photograph for online listings, and are hard to spot against the shadows of their crates and cages in dimly lighted kennels.
Older black dogs with a little white in their muzzles can look elderly. Bigger breeds like German shepherds or Chows aren't as fashionable as small, cuddly lap dogs.
Then there's the reputation. The idea of a big, black dog unleashing destruction is a common theme in books, movies and folklore as diverse as "The Hound of the Baskervilles," the "Harry Potter" series and "The Omen."
It's such a sad thing that the generic "black dog" is so hard to find a home for, and as the owner of a "big black dog" (my old lady dog Reba) it always depresses the hell out of me to read about this subject. But I have to say, I was beyond thrilled to see national news organizations actually pay attention to it--and it's a pretty good story too! I can probably count on one hand the number of times I've thought mainstream national media did justice to a dog issue. Usually, most stories about dogs in the media are of the biting dog variety or the animal rights variety. This one is neither. Anyway, you can read it for yourself here.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Teaching an Old(er) Dog New Tricks
(Please note: there will be a detailed "tutorial" on bmoredog.org on clicker training for this process - please check back!)
For most of his life, Oscar has been a dog who wouldn't play fetch. This never really bothered me, because he's certainly entertaining in a lot of other ways, but it was rather remarkable, the conviction with which he would NOT play fetch. We'd be out with other dogs, someone would throw something, and he'd look at it, then look at me. Occasionally, if all the other dogs ran, he'd go too, but it was clear he was running after them for the sake of running, and really had no interest in the toy. I did try to teach him once a few years ago. I threw a toy down the hall, he rolled his eyes at me, walked down the hall to get it, and put it in his room.
As I said, this wasn't a downfall in my eyes, except that a retrieve is needed for the RH training we've started. I need to put a retrieve on him, as they say, and the problem with that is that most of the methods involving teaching a dog to fetch who doesn't want to fetch employ a great many forms of negative reinforcement and negative training that I feel strongly against doing with my dog.
So I had to come up with my own way.
Wednesday, March 26 was the first day I started actively training Oscar with a goal of a retrieve. I decided to do clicker training for this, because so much of the behavior needed to be away from me and I didn't want even my voice to bring him back before he was ready. He's done a little bit of clicker training in the past, though it isn't our primary method, so he was already familiar with the clicker being a good thing.
For the first day, anytime he mouthed the toy he would get clicked. The next day was much the same, but by the end he had to pick it up in his mouth to get the click.
By the end of day three he was very interested in having that toy in his mouth and I could toss it a short distance (less than ten feet or so, I have a lousy arm) and he'd go to get it and pick it up. Possibly by accident he'd come to me with the toy still in his mouth to get his treat after being clicked for picking it up. I moved the clicker to him coming towards me with the toy in his mouth, and attached the command "bring" to the action.
Day four he would consistently go to the toy when it was tossed, and if he got distracted by something else, the command "bring" would remind him to pick up the toy and bring it back to me. He was still bringing it in my direction and dropping it towards my feet, but since we'd had such a hard time getting to this, I didn't want to push this and make it not a fun game anymore, so I kept on this step for a while. As days progressed, the ball would get tossed further away, in different directions. Sunday in class it bounced underneath a section of fencing on the ground and he was so motivated to get it he tried several times to get under the fence, and to lift the ball with the fence.
Yesterday I decided it was time to start shaping towards the "out" - thirteen days from our first day with this method - I stopped rewarding for him simply coming back to me and made a strong effort to get my hand under his mouth before he dropped it. I'd say "out" and pull the toy from his mouth. If he dropped it before I could get it, he wouldn't get a treat, or any other kind of comment, but I'd simply throw the toy again and ask him to bring. In this session, less than ten minutes long, he was holding the ball until the "out" about 30% of the time, most of that towards the end. I'll keep on this level for a time and gradually extend the amount of time he needs to hold it in his mouth before I give that out.
We did a second training session yesterday, and 100% of the time, he waited until I said "out" to drop the ball. It did hit the ground a few times, because I didn't have a good grip on the slimy part - when it did, I said "bring" he picked it up, and waited for the "out" again.
Today I videoed it. Not the most exciting video, unfortunately, thanks to this giant tree in the center of my tiny yard that blocks a lot of views. But you can see how prissy he is about picking up the ball if a leaf is sticking to it (he'll shuffle it around until he can get to where the leaf isn't in his mouth), you can see how truly terrible I am at tossing the ball (don't worry, that's my hovel I hit) and you can see that he's doing it, if not with his highest level of enthusiasm. At one point we're just off camera (you can watch his butt wiggle) and I say "bring" and "out" very closely together. He had dropped the ball on "out" which he's supposed to do, but my hand wasn't where my hand is supposed to be, so he missed. So I asked him to bring it again, he picked it up, and I asked him to "out" and he gave it to me.
There's also a long segment where my lousy toss caused the toy to go inside a storage shed, and bounce up onto a shelf into a coiled hose. I could see it only because it was a drastically different color than anything else in there, but it was above his eye level. He spent some time sniffing it out, then found it and brought it to me. This is really exciting to me, because it's so close to the final goal - where we need to be in about a YEAR - that it boggles my mind.
ETA: New Object (this is the one we'll use for the test!)
For most of his life, Oscar has been a dog who wouldn't play fetch. This never really bothered me, because he's certainly entertaining in a lot of other ways, but it was rather remarkable, the conviction with which he would NOT play fetch. We'd be out with other dogs, someone would throw something, and he'd look at it, then look at me. Occasionally, if all the other dogs ran, he'd go too, but it was clear he was running after them for the sake of running, and really had no interest in the toy. I did try to teach him once a few years ago. I threw a toy down the hall, he rolled his eyes at me, walked down the hall to get it, and put it in his room.
As I said, this wasn't a downfall in my eyes, except that a retrieve is needed for the RH training we've started. I need to put a retrieve on him, as they say, and the problem with that is that most of the methods involving teaching a dog to fetch who doesn't want to fetch employ a great many forms of negative reinforcement and negative training that I feel strongly against doing with my dog.
So I had to come up with my own way.
Wednesday, March 26 was the first day I started actively training Oscar with a goal of a retrieve. I decided to do clicker training for this, because so much of the behavior needed to be away from me and I didn't want even my voice to bring him back before he was ready. He's done a little bit of clicker training in the past, though it isn't our primary method, so he was already familiar with the clicker being a good thing.
For the first day, anytime he mouthed the toy he would get clicked. The next day was much the same, but by the end he had to pick it up in his mouth to get the click.
By the end of day three he was very interested in having that toy in his mouth and I could toss it a short distance (less than ten feet or so, I have a lousy arm) and he'd go to get it and pick it up. Possibly by accident he'd come to me with the toy still in his mouth to get his treat after being clicked for picking it up. I moved the clicker to him coming towards me with the toy in his mouth, and attached the command "bring" to the action.
Day four he would consistently go to the toy when it was tossed, and if he got distracted by something else, the command "bring" would remind him to pick up the toy and bring it back to me. He was still bringing it in my direction and dropping it towards my feet, but since we'd had such a hard time getting to this, I didn't want to push this and make it not a fun game anymore, so I kept on this step for a while. As days progressed, the ball would get tossed further away, in different directions. Sunday in class it bounced underneath a section of fencing on the ground and he was so motivated to get it he tried several times to get under the fence, and to lift the ball with the fence.
Yesterday I decided it was time to start shaping towards the "out" - thirteen days from our first day with this method - I stopped rewarding for him simply coming back to me and made a strong effort to get my hand under his mouth before he dropped it. I'd say "out" and pull the toy from his mouth. If he dropped it before I could get it, he wouldn't get a treat, or any other kind of comment, but I'd simply throw the toy again and ask him to bring. In this session, less than ten minutes long, he was holding the ball until the "out" about 30% of the time, most of that towards the end. I'll keep on this level for a time and gradually extend the amount of time he needs to hold it in his mouth before I give that out.
We did a second training session yesterday, and 100% of the time, he waited until I said "out" to drop the ball. It did hit the ground a few times, because I didn't have a good grip on the slimy part - when it did, I said "bring" he picked it up, and waited for the "out" again.
Today I videoed it. Not the most exciting video, unfortunately, thanks to this giant tree in the center of my tiny yard that blocks a lot of views. But you can see how prissy he is about picking up the ball if a leaf is sticking to it (he'll shuffle it around until he can get to where the leaf isn't in his mouth), you can see how truly terrible I am at tossing the ball (don't worry, that's my hovel I hit) and you can see that he's doing it, if not with his highest level of enthusiasm. At one point we're just off camera (you can watch his butt wiggle) and I say "bring" and "out" very closely together. He had dropped the ball on "out" which he's supposed to do, but my hand wasn't where my hand is supposed to be, so he missed. So I asked him to bring it again, he picked it up, and I asked him to "out" and he gave it to me.
There's also a long segment where my lousy toss caused the toy to go inside a storage shed, and bounce up onto a shelf into a coiled hose. I could see it only because it was a drastically different color than anything else in there, but it was above his eye level. He spent some time sniffing it out, then found it and brought it to me. This is really exciting to me, because it's so close to the final goal - where we need to be in about a YEAR - that it boggles my mind.
ETA: New Object (this is the one we'll use for the test!)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
