Some ideas on using Dismissal to create an Off-Switch and shape Engagement with working dogs by Ron Watson of Pawsitive Vybe.
Chad Culp’s recent piece on his blog, Thriving Canine should be required reading for all dog trainers, dog sport and disc dog handlers in particular.
What Is Dismissal? Dismissal is the opposite of Attention. Practically speaking, it means that the handler is not available at this time. It does not
DOC is our Environmental Management Protocol. It is designed to help dog trainers learn to passively handle their dogs through shaping and reward and repetition.
The concepts of On and Off can be taught quite quickly by marking the off and tossing a cookie. The dog leaves the Spot to go grab the cookie and then immediately returns to earn more cookies for doing the Spot again.
Change the venue of your multiple dog working environment. Start to generalize the environment.
Adding action by way of the distraction dog while maintaining a working relationship with the working dog.
Paying the Release of a duration behavior is important as duration is defined by the Release. Without the Release, duration can’t happen. It’s also important to have the dog seek out the handler for reinforcement after the duration behavior has been performed.
A sample session of working multiple dogs on taking turns using a pedestal.
We have the Working Dog, the dog holding the duration behavior and a Distraction Dog(s) that is doing stuff.
In this Video, Apryl Lea and Pan work on a Pedestal, or raised spot. The intent of the session is to Manufacture the Approach and Generalize the Handler position.
While it is true that dogs do not generalize as well as humans, generalization may be enhanced through training. And the dog surely won’t be able to generalize unless they practice. Generalizing the spot behavior is critical to being able to use the skill successfully in our daily interactions. We need to be able to put our dogs in many different spots, as it is not practical to always have ‘your’ Spot with us.
Generalizing the Pedestal behavior can be done quite easily by creating a circuit of many different pedestals and working them in rapid fire succession.
We like to use Pedestals here at PVybe HQ because it is a very Black and White behavior. The dog is either on it, or not on it, plain and simple. A Spot, while definitely more concrete than simply putting a dog in a Sit or Down, is not nearly as concrete as the Pedestal.
Behaviors can be broken down into many root concepts. Spot training offers us several active root concepts that we can teach our dogs that will come in handy in other situations.
Many clicker trainers have problems with duration because they are primarily focused on marking and reinforcing action. After the action part of the duration behavior has been performed there is really nothing left to mark.
Spot Training in 3 steps: shape interest, add value, release.
Reward placement is key in teaching a dog the Spot behavior. The reward must be delivered so that the dog can maintain position on the spot. Reward placement can be used to your advantage though…
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