
Off-Switch + Engagement with DOC – Dismiss | Observe | Capture
Some ideas on using Dismissal to create an Off-Switch and shape Engagement with working dogs by Ron Watson of Pawsitive Vybe.
Some ideas on using Dismissal to create an Off-Switch and shape Engagement with working dogs by Ron Watson of Pawsitive Vybe.
A quick memetic look at the Attention behavior from Ron Watson of Pawsitive Vybe.
This video features Ron Watson discussing Drive Management with a triad made from standard Dog Training key concepts.
In dog training, and modern life, we tend to get overly focused on the goal and the impediment standing in front of the goal. In dog training, this means the behavior we want, finished, and the wrong behavior overwhelm our sensibilities and sensemaking. Pawsitive Vybe has a solution for this…
Patrons only Cookie Class excerpt: Finn & Jake work on engaging for cookies and Elysia & Odie work on a Pedestal Circuit in this weekly Patrons Only Class.
Ron Watson lays out the concept of Duration behaviors and discusses how they work.
Engagement starts with Dismissal. You can’t ON without OFF. If you don’t control turning your dog OFF, you don’t have a good hold of the handle on Engagement. Aleaha & Harbor do some disc work featuring Dismissal and some capturing and shaping of Engagement from the environment.
Ron & Obi work on catching and dropping on cue through controlling the pace and energy level of the game during a Clubhouse Sound of DiscDog session in the Pawsitive Vybe Club. These audio only live training and QnA sessions are a feature of our community work on Clubhouse. This video and audio below are only my perspective, but there are a bunch of people listening on the other end lending their imagination and good questions to the session.
Another installment of the Sound of DiscDog with King. This session was amazing for King and I. This mauling/chewing behavior has been a real nag. It’s quite oppressive in normal working environments, but it wound up being an easy job in this Sound of DiscDog session. It’s very illustrative and easy to hear some of the timing stuff, especially if you heard the first session last week. Check out the audio below before watching the vid if you want the full effect…
I happened to catch a live stream session by Ricky Jones the other day on FB. It’s a nice session with a malinois puppy featuring shaping, cookies, and toys, and is a good mix between action and thoughtful work.
Episode 24 of the show takes on over-arousal in a multi-session progression lesson on Wait vs Stay featuring Ron & Motown working on the Back Stall. This type of strategic multitasking in dog training is what we do here at Pawsitive Vybe and should not be missed. We also have some Disc Quan Do class excerpts featuring the Flank or Pass Challenge that are on point for DiscDogger Weekly. Hope you dig the show!
This is Session 4 of a series of training sessions with Motown over the course of an afternoon. It served as the introduction for the sessions and the culmination of the progression and a proof of concept for the techniques, strategy, and theory laid out in the 15 minutes of training that led up to it.
Session 3 with Motown shows a significant reduction of arousal and a marked increase in Drive. Drive is energy and action applied towards work. Building off of Session 1 and Session 2, we’re moving forward with an increased level of criteria for the target behaviors and are adding Attention, or unsolicited eye contact to the mix to add some additional structure for further reduction of arousal and increased Drive.
This is session 2 of Wait vs Stay via the Back Stall with Motown that took place a couple of minutes after session 1. In this session Motown is more calm and thoughtful and displays a bit more drive and much less arousal. We’ll be building on the stuff we covered in session 1 in this second of 4 sessions.
This is the first of a 4 part session with Motown, an 18 month old MiniAussie. Motown is easily over-aroused while working for cookies. He is Apryl’s dog and she handles him fine. He is still over-aroused, but manageable for her if she stays on top of him. I am not a fan of “staying on top” of a dog. I try to cultivate a sense of self-discipline with a working dog, which is often easier said than done and certainly easier done with a dog who is not yours.
Proper cuing is critical for successful disc dog performance. Issues with cuing and the resultant communication problems are, perhaps, the most common mistakes handlers make and the most common impediments to successful performance in all aspects of disc dog freestyle and disc dog games.
Words Matter. Disc dog vocabulary and nomenclature can be a bit tough to follow. That’s why we created our disc dog glossary back in 2016. It’s got more than a few entries, you will see some of the terms linked in blog posts here on the site. If you need something defined or need some clarity just hook up with us via the “Suggest a Term” button at the top of the page and we’ll see about getting it added to the list.
A Fish is a Flying Give. The dog is supposed to spit the disc out while in mid-air. Some dogs to it fairly naturally, and some have to be taught.
Many handlers struggle with disc dog skills simply because they think that their only cookie in this game is “the Disc”. The disc is a cookie, but it is not the cookie. THE cookie that is most important in the game of disc is Next. It is far better to have your disc dog working for Next than the disc. So, how does that look and how does that work?
We have already talked about how Eppie has a crappy Give and used a cued Drop to address it. Well, it’s still kinda crappy, just a little less so. To quote an Epic YouTube Fan,”Shaping=every repetition is less crappy than the last ????.” Hear, hear, Betsy! Here are the next two…
The Off-Switch is notoriously difficult in working dogs and positively trained operant critters. It appears that teaching them that their behavior creates and shapes their immediate and future consequences can lead to trouble controlling the flow of behavior. Who would have thunk it?
Having an off switch is a critical life skill for all working dogs, handlers, and teams. Not having an Off Switch means, by definition, you cannot turn the thing On at will. If you can't turn the thing On at will (or Off), you don't control the thing. This includes Engagement.
Dismissal is a time to observe the dog. Linda runs her dogs. Kit, the Frisbee Dog is "being bad" wanting to play while we're hanging out between sessions. That doesn't sound like bad behavior to me, how about you? Linda makes things happen, as a person and as a trainer. Her ingrained and natural response is to make the dog stop with the ball.
But the dog is only doing the ball to get Linda's attention and to make something happen. Linda's interaction creates the interaction with Kit. Good, bad, or indifferent the Ball Mauling got her attention.
Linda has dismissed the dog and the only thing that will get her attention is dropping the ball and or looking at her. She has no responsibility at this time. She can afford to shape the behavior and because she has no responsibility she can honestly observe the dog and choose when she wants to interact and mark the criteria.
Dismissal gives the handler time and freedom to freeshape behavior and/or the energy level of interaction or situation.
The "Capture" part of DOC can. be used to shape and control energy levels and particular types of Engagement.
I can dismiss to make the dog higher. I can dismiss to keep the dog high. I can dismiss to slow the dog down and ease up the intensity of our training session. Etc, and on and on. Hope that makes sense - Dismissal can be used to create, maintain, and reinforce specific energy levels of play.
In addition to the general energy level of play a particular type of Engagement can be shaped. Aggressive, pushy, or assertive, behavior can be reinforced by selecting hard aggressive target criteria - the whiplash lookback, for instance, with fast and aggressive bite/roller reinforcement can be used to pump up lower drive dogs. Easy, softer criteria with low energy bite work or disc play can be selected to slow dogs down.
The criteria and type of reinforcement after the Capture can and does shape behavior, energy levels, and Drive.
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