For the trainer

I recently started watching the Julie Flanery's 'TAP Dancing' DVD seminar. I'm only halfway through the first disc but I already have learned some good tidbits. 

'Clean Training' is something I struggle with, but becoming a clean trainer is one of my biggest goals. I was not taught to train clean, and judging from what I see on YouTube and in person, not many trainers are. It has made training alone much harder than it already is.  

Note: I don't have a following on this blog, I don't write for others, I am not wanting to be noticed. I will never post controversial stuff or EVER engage in training wars. I refuse to. I fully expect few, if any, people will ever read my little corner of the 'net. And that's fine with me. I am mostly using this as a place to store my thoughts on training, share pictures of my dog with her breeder, post brags, and have a place I can come back to from time to time and review how my dogs and I have progressed. I've tried training journals and it just doesn't work. A blog is easier to throw thoughts up on, post a video or two and some pictures on. 

Now that that's been said, here are few thoughts I jotted down during the time I watched last night.

Some of the qualities of a good trainer:

• Patience
• Clear Communication
• Consistent
• Predictable 

 We trainers also need to understand:

• Clickers/Markers (doesn't matter what you use, they all work the same)
• Reinforcers/Rewards
• Lures - anything (toy or food) the dog will follow that is also a reward
• Prompt - anything that the dog will move to to get the reward (ie targets)
• Guides - gating, barriers, platforms, expens, etc

Remember: Any method or combination of methods can be used to create precision. Not everything works for every dog. Use what works for yourself and the dog. 

^This is something that I think isn't said nearly enough by the majority in the clicker training world. 

Lures don't train behavior. They show criteria.

Reinforce. Don't hand out free food! (something I really struggle with, as I mostly only personally know less than stellar 'treat dispenser' trainers in person. The the better trainers I know live too far away to get hands on training with.)

Avoid becoming lure dependent. Get the food out of your hand ASAP. 

When adding cues:

•  If luring, verbal cue predicts physical cue (hand signal, etc), then behavior, then mark and reward.
• if shaping - verbal cue predicts behavior and then mark and reward. 

Add a cue when you can predict the behavior is going to happen. (Another weakness, I tend to rush into putting a cue on the behavior)

Foundation skills need to be maintained to a high degree throughout the dog's lifetime. (something else no one ever told me.)

Training sessions are for gathering information

• what works
• what doesn't
• where is my dog lacking
• what's my criteria
• what do I need to do in the next training session

 
 

Update

I have been so busy the past year that, much to my dismay, serious training has fell by the wayside. It wasn't by choice, but sometimes life throws you too much to handle at once, and something had to give.

But, we are now getting back into the game. And boy is there so much left to learn.

I have realized that as much as I want to train for and reach my competition goals, I first need to put the time into laying a solid foundation. A dog with a truly solid foundation becomes a dog that is an outstanding competition to live with, and performance dog that can handle everything in stride.  I have realized I haven't put near the foundation on my dogs as I should have. Part of that was due to lack of knowledge, and part of it was I was just in a rush to get to the 'fun stuff.' Lesson learned. This journey sure does keep us humble.

And now for an update. It's been a relatively quite past few months but we were able to try out a couple of new activities.
 

We attended our first UKC show back in March, and Darcie was Best of Breed over competition in smooths, and then went on to win a Group 1 and a Group 4. It was quite an exciting day! She is fast closing in on her UKC Championship. She also ran a couple of practice runs in Lure Coursing and seems to be a natural at it. 

We were also able to go to a Herding lesson earlier this year. Tess and Darcie did EXTREMELY well. Their handler, not so much. Herding is something we all enjoyed and I hope we'll be able to fit in some steady lessons in the near future.