Rumor's birthday was Sept 17th. To celebrate we went to our weekly agility class and brought dog and human cookies to share.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Rumor's 1st Birthday Party
Rumor's birthday was Sept 17th. To celebrate we went to our weekly agility class and brought dog and human cookies to share.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Coming home for the first time 12/1/07
After Rumor's recovery from Paravo she finally was healthy enough to come home. This is our parting shot from Contact Point in Fillmore.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Rate of Reinforcement
Here's a piece that my puppy trainer got from another blog or email regarding "rate of reinforcement" that I thought was interesting and worth a read....
I agree that telling someone to be "more fun" puts blame on the student and not on the instruction to some degree, just as in traditional dog training, the dog is blamed for the trainer's failures. However, I can also see Jo's point that this is a short hand for telling the student to be "more reinforcing" which I think is more accurate and pertinent than being more "fun."So IME it boils down not to being more "fun" , or even controlling all the reinforcements yourself (or convincing the dog you do) that is NILIF, which I also agree with and do myself (yes, the dog can be a dog and sniff trees, after you release him to entertain himself).
Rather much of the problem is that the dog learns that you cannot be relied upon for being reinforcing, or worse that you are reliably unreinforcing.*Bob Bailey* says that all good training is based upon proper timing, criteria and reinforcement, and I think that is at the heart of the matter in agility training. In a seminar I attended of Jo Sermon's (excellent!), she gave us a figure of 1 reward per 3 seconds, in training a new behavior with food, as the slowest feasible rate of reinforcement. A skilled trainer will be reinforcing faster than that. Novices usually exceed 1 reward per 5 seconds, because either their criteria are too high or the student is uncertain of the criteria. Their timing say with a clicker or delivery of the reward is often non-contingent (ie the click does not mark the behavior they're looking for). After about 3 or so minutes of this, green dogs decide that their owners are unreliable and that either rewards are not coming at all or the dog cannot figure out what is making the rewards come, or the rewards are stingy. So the sensible dog will either start looking to the environment for more rewarding things to do, or a sensitive dog will feel stressed because he/she can't figure out what the owner wants, so the dog starts engaging in displacement behaviors such as sniffing or zoomies (that's where controlled unleashed comes in).I can see that the lack of sufficient & contingent reinforcement is the cause of the disconnect, not that the owner needs to be more "fun". What I have struggled with is how to teach the students to achieve that combination of clear criteria, precise timing, and frequent reinforcement that will turn the dog's focus around. Because I don't blame my dogs for my failure to train them, also I don't blame the students for my failure to teach them. I am still trying hard to find better ways to reach all kinds of students, who may come to the class with different backgrounds and skills and life circumstances (I mean, shouldn't we all just quit our jobs and do agility full time!)
I agree that telling someone to be "more fun" puts blame on the student and not on the instruction to some degree, just as in traditional dog training, the dog is blamed for the trainer's failures. However, I can also see Jo's point that this is a short hand for telling the student to be "more reinforcing" which I think is more accurate and pertinent than being more "fun."So IME it boils down not to being more "fun" , or even controlling all the reinforcements yourself (or convincing the dog you do) that is NILIF, which I also agree with and do myself (yes, the dog can be a dog and sniff trees, after you release him to entertain himself).
Rather much of the problem is that the dog learns that you cannot be relied upon for being reinforcing, or worse that you are reliably unreinforcing.*Bob Bailey* says that all good training is based upon proper timing, criteria and reinforcement, and I think that is at the heart of the matter in agility training. In a seminar I attended of Jo Sermon's (excellent!), she gave us a figure of 1 reward per 3 seconds, in training a new behavior with food, as the slowest feasible rate of reinforcement. A skilled trainer will be reinforcing faster than that. Novices usually exceed 1 reward per 5 seconds, because either their criteria are too high or the student is uncertain of the criteria. Their timing say with a clicker or delivery of the reward is often non-contingent (ie the click does not mark the behavior they're looking for). After about 3 or so minutes of this, green dogs decide that their owners are unreliable and that either rewards are not coming at all or the dog cannot figure out what is making the rewards come, or the rewards are stingy. So the sensible dog will either start looking to the environment for more rewarding things to do, or a sensitive dog will feel stressed because he/she can't figure out what the owner wants, so the dog starts engaging in displacement behaviors such as sniffing or zoomies (that's where controlled unleashed comes in).I can see that the lack of sufficient & contingent reinforcement is the cause of the disconnect, not that the owner needs to be more "fun". What I have struggled with is how to teach the students to achieve that combination of clear criteria, precise timing, and frequent reinforcement that will turn the dog's focus around. Because I don't blame my dogs for my failure to train them, also I don't blame the students for my failure to teach them. I am still trying hard to find better ways to reach all kinds of students, who may come to the class with different backgrounds and skills and life circumstances (I mean, shouldn't we all just quit our jobs and do agility full time!)
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
ASCA Turlock 9/8
4 teams from our Turlock group participated in the ASCA agility trial this weekend. Congratulations to Nell and William, Jenn and Fritz, Mary and Bett and Gailanne and Piper!!
This was Gailanne and Piper's first trial. They walked away with 3 Q's and 3 Blue Ribbons!!
This was Gailanne and Piper's first trial. They walked away with 3 Q's and 3 Blue Ribbons!!
Thursday, August 16, 2007
New blog for agility notes, brags or agility news in general
Hi All,
I've created this blog in order for us to post news, notes or anyother agility information we would like to share with others. You can also post photos!
Let me know if you think this will be useful a useful tools.
Thanks, Denice & Mr. R
I've created this blog in order for us to post news, notes or anyother agility information we would like to share with others. You can also post photos!
Let me know if you think this will be useful a useful tools.
Thanks, Denice & Mr. R
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