On Thursday night we had an awesome class worked jump circles, jump to tunnel and spins in RZ. At the end of class I went to release him out of the crate to put his leash on and when released he ran at Churchill. I left the building and he ran around playing with the other dogs and never bothered caring about me gone. After a few minutes I grabbed him and put him in the car. So by Friday morning I really was ready to kill him :). I decided that I didn't want to work Friday morning so I opened the garage door and released him to run. I walked around the field he ran around always within 50-100 feet of me and once came over and bounced me we played tug for about 10 seconds and I told him to go run. When I got to the door he beat me there and we went in.
I wrote Christine of my woos and asked for inspiration. She wrote the following back
Restricting his privileges SHOULD be about allowing him to choose you...you're just restricting the number of options that he has. It definitely shouldn't be about a battle. It's about making you the only really great option. It's not actually about taking things "away" because he's not working (as in, you don't do your homework, you loose TV for tonight). It's more a "you don't have any privileges to begin with. You do X, you get reward Z." From a behavioural standpoint, it's actually a big difference. Having the privileges and loosing them is very frustrating. Having no privileges and EARNING them is reinforcing and not punishing. If you do it the first way, you build in more frustration. Of course we have to do SOME punishing (even if it's mild punishment like negative punishment). Too much of it is punishing though. If you start with zero privileges and everything is earned, then you can use mostly reinforcement, which builds on positive feelings and you can get more transfer of value.
You're putting him in a "small box" with few options. The great option is you. All the other options are B-O-R-I-N-G.
I am not doing it right, I am using the restrictions as a punishment for bad behaviour. I still don't get the whole letting him earn privileges. I get it on paper but I am having a very hard time putting it into practice.
Class last night he did great and Christine said that is the best she has seen him work. The class was very small only two dogs working at once so I think I was much more relaxed and therefore so was he. He did leave a couple of times but it is really nice with Christine when he leaves, I leave and she tells me what to do. It took him a few minutes to care (OK felt like a few probably only one :)) but then she says he was looking for me so I came out and ran around like an idiot until he not only engages me but is begging me to play. A couple of time he did leave and came right back and I so wanted to tug with him and she stopped me. Makes perfect sense you don't want to reward him for leaving by rewarding him for coming back. Very hard just mild praise and go back to what you were doing. Don't grab him or take away his choices just keep working let him choose to work. Brilliant will have to work very hard to put this into effect.
This morning we went for an off leash walk in the rain, I only called him once or twice and he came right away. I did a lot of just changing direction and he followed every time. I have let him out for two pees again out the front door and he went out peed and came right back even though he was staring at the birds flying around in the tree.
The only work we have done today is choosing to play with me regardless of what toy I have in my hand. We worked with the schumm tug, the flying squirrel and the swiffer. He liked the flying squirrel and that was by far the hardest to get him to relinquish and play with me with another toy.
I wrote Christine of my woos and asked for inspiration. She wrote the following back
Restricting his privileges SHOULD be about allowing him to choose you...you're just restricting the number of options that he has. It definitely shouldn't be about a battle. It's about making you the only really great option. It's not actually about taking things "away" because he's not working (as in, you don't do your homework, you loose TV for tonight). It's more a "you don't have any privileges to begin with. You do X, you get reward Z." From a behavioural standpoint, it's actually a big difference. Having the privileges and loosing them is very frustrating. Having no privileges and EARNING them is reinforcing and not punishing. If you do it the first way, you build in more frustration. Of course we have to do SOME punishing (even if it's mild punishment like negative punishment). Too much of it is punishing though. If you start with zero privileges and everything is earned, then you can use mostly reinforcement, which builds on positive feelings and you can get more transfer of value.
You're putting him in a "small box" with few options. The great option is you. All the other options are B-O-R-I-N-G.
I am not doing it right, I am using the restrictions as a punishment for bad behaviour. I still don't get the whole letting him earn privileges. I get it on paper but I am having a very hard time putting it into practice.
Class last night he did great and Christine said that is the best she has seen him work. The class was very small only two dogs working at once so I think I was much more relaxed and therefore so was he. He did leave a couple of times but it is really nice with Christine when he leaves, I leave and she tells me what to do. It took him a few minutes to care (OK felt like a few probably only one :)) but then she says he was looking for me so I came out and ran around like an idiot until he not only engages me but is begging me to play. A couple of time he did leave and came right back and I so wanted to tug with him and she stopped me. Makes perfect sense you don't want to reward him for leaving by rewarding him for coming back. Very hard just mild praise and go back to what you were doing. Don't grab him or take away his choices just keep working let him choose to work. Brilliant will have to work very hard to put this into effect.
This morning we went for an off leash walk in the rain, I only called him once or twice and he came right away. I did a lot of just changing direction and he followed every time. I have let him out for two pees again out the front door and he went out peed and came right back even though he was staring at the birds flying around in the tree.
The only work we have done today is choosing to play with me regardless of what toy I have in my hand. We worked with the schumm tug, the flying squirrel and the swiffer. He liked the flying squirrel and that was by far the hardest to get him to relinquish and play with me with another toy.
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