Monday, October 19, 2009

Could we actually be making some progress on the 2020 retrain with Breeze?

Ok after the fun match and feeling sooo very confused and discouraged over the contact situation with Breeze, I sat down and knew I had to figure out how to train this 2020 to Breeze. I am TIRED of talking about these contacts, I am seriously tired of training them, I am tired of seeing the suckey contacts, and I am ready to just make it happen. RETRAINS ARE HARD. So I broke the problem down for myself and tried to figure out what Breeze understands and what she doesn't... and I swear Breeze really understands the 2020 when I am right there, when we do it slowly, when she is not excited.....but the minute I add speed or excitement in....it all falls apart and I SWEAR she thinks in those situations the criteria IS a 4 on the floor.

So I sat down and thought of all my training principals. I tried to think how this was looking to Breeze and how could I use reward placement, the timing of the reward, and the rate of reward to make things look different for her to get her to understand that I want her to do 2020 all the time on the dog walk.

I deceided to try the manners minder again, I figured it would put some pressure on her because it would be in front of her, it would allow me to reward from far away and control the reward delivery, and I just get the feeling if I could get her to do it right just a few times, she will get it.

I went outside and got everything ready, I had a special reward set up because if she really got it and drove into position fast I wanted something to really make an impression on her that she got it right, I got everything set up and then brought her in.

First time she blew by the contact and the second time,...she stopped, that is the time I got on video. Whoo HOOO. She got a big tuna treat.

After a few more tries, I took her over and did the Aframe with her where I am using the 4 on the floor, I wanted to pair the two contacts to really make it clear which one I wanted where. I went back and forth three or four times, and then was able to take away the manners minder and SHE GOT HER DOGWALK CONTACT!!! I celebrated and then quit, I will give her overnight to think about what we did and hopefully she is starting to get the idea!

1 comment:

Sam said...

Good job Breeze!

I love those remote treat dispensers. Might have to invest in one, they look so nifty.