I’ve been trying to teach both Atlas and Phoebe how to retrieve using Shirley Chong’s clicker training method. Although I was familiar with the basics of clicker training, I was stumped about when to raise the criteria. Atlas would be performing something successfully at, say, level 17, and then out of the blue he would perform almost the whole retrieve-- like a level 21 move. I decided he was brilliant and clicked and treated (CT) for the level 21 move, and waited for him to do it again. Of course, he didn’t! But I wasn’t sure I should go back to CT for a level 17 move when I knew he could do level 21. So I stalled out for month and months and did nothing.
Recently I started agility training with an up-and-coming clicker-instructor extraordinaire. Tracey has been learning at the Karen Pryor institute of clicker training, so I told her about my dilemma. Go back to level 17! Keep working at level 17 until you can bet $50 that the dog will correctly perform the level 17 criteria, then work on level 18.
Lesson: You can give a jackpot if the dog does something extraordinary, but don’t demand a higher level until you have worked through the lower ones.
Within a week, I had Atlas doing a full obedience retrieve. It was truly amazing how quickly it all came together after so many months of frustration!
But then there’s Phoebe. I don’t want to say she’s dumb, but she sure doesn’t seem to pick things up as fast as Atlas. However, she is willing to work and eager to please. She started at the same place as Atlas, more or less, picking up the dumbbell and bringing it towards me. Sometimes she would drop it before it came to me. Sometimes she would drop it in my hand if I reached out fast enough. I was stuck for days playing this game, trying to convince her that if the dumbbell reached my hand, she would get a CT. Sometimes she would do it, and sometimes she wouldn’t. Initially she would always pick up the dumbbell and then drop it before she reached me. No CT for that! She would then stand staring at the plate of treats, waiting for her treat. Eventually she would look down at the dumbbell, pick it up again, and I would try to reach out my hand to catch it. Then she would get a CT. But sometimes she would return to the behavior of picking up the dumbbell, dropping it, and staring at the plate of treats.
Why did she keep staring at the plate of treats? She knows that a click = treat, and there was no click, so why was she expecting a treat? The next time she went to retrieve, I moved in the opposite direction of the treats. She didn’t try to bring the dumbbell to me. She brought it towards the treats! I had always been standing near the treats, and she thought if she brought the dumbbell there, it would be exchanged for a treat. Aha! Within a few minutes, I was able to teach her that the dumbbell needed to come to *me* in order to receive a treat. Now she is aiming more for my hand! I think she’s finally getting it!
