Coccinelle has started working!

 

As Debbie Jacobs says "If your dog will eat, you can start training". So guess what, we've started. 

 

Coccinelle asks "What we are doing?"

 

 

 

Instead of feeding Coccinelle out of a bowl we are doing  training at meal time.  Coccinelle eats a FLAT 1/4 Cup of kibble twice a day.

 

 

 

This is comes out to roughly 66 pieces of kibble - that's a good amount of training time!

 

 

Coccinelle loves people but, she's a little timid with human hand down at her level.  So, what's perfect to work on this?  The skill of Touch!  Touch can turn into targeting and it's a versatile skill for any dog to have.  The video's below are all in our first training session.

 

In the video below - while Coccinelle's tail is waging, look at the rest of her body language.  A bit of a roached back and watch her ears as she comes in to touch my hand. This is what we want to work through - creating a different emotional response.  Coccinelle has complete control in the game (remember control like food is a primary enforcer) and this is a good start to understanding how we "talk" to each other.  Midway through, I decide to toss a kibble away as a way to relive pressure for Coccinelle and to see if she wants to continue to work.

 

 

 

 

She's getting a bit more comfortable and we have started our "training conversation".   One of the many things I love about positive/force free training is that the communication isn't with our normal human conversation.  A marker is used to "mark" the behavior the trainer is asking for - the learner (dog) quickly understands this and that's our conversation - it will grow as we continue training.  This conversation will lead to a deeper relationship between us. We try to be as clear as possible in what we are asking of the learner.

 

Coccinelle is comfortable enough that she's coming up on me for the treats. I watch this a few times and then in my mind decide this isn't a behavior I want to reinforce.  So what to do...

 

 

 

 

I move quicker in my deliver!  I'm reinforcing Coccinelle BEFORE she jumps up.  I don't yell at her, I don't tell her no - I just increase my speed of delivery. 

 

 

 

 

And look what I'm getting now!  I didn't ask Coccinelle for the sit but, I'm going to reinforce her for it as this is excellent.  Rember to always reinforce the behaviors you want!

 

 

 

And I decide to really reinforce the sit!  Coccinelle is a smart little gal. All of this was on Saturday night and she arrived to us very late on Friday so the girl is pretty dang amazing and we are having some wonderful training conversations!

 

Coccinelle's training session took a little under 8 minutes and we used all 66 pieces of kibble.

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