Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Pick-up Shaping, Return Shaping, Marks and Blinds

In this morning's session, we worked at Fair Hill on pick-up shaping with both dogs, making use of a long line and our new wing-clipped pigeons (Series A). In the afternoon, we went to Oaks with Nate to work on shaping Laddie's return and to work on marks and blinds with Lumi (Series B, C, and D). The series were as follows:
  • Series A. Pick-up shaping (both dogs)
  • Series B. Return shaping (Laddie)
  • Series C. Marks and blinds (Lumi)
  • Series D. Return shaping (Laddie)
Series A. I used this series to work on speeding up the pick-up with both dogs (Lumi tends to take her time looking for just the right grip, Laddie tends to shop). I also used the series to begin to associate the phrase "Your birdie's waiting" with the availability of a wingclip for reinforcement.

Series A was the following drill, first with Laddie, then with Lumi (both referred to as "Dog"):
  • I measured a 100-foot run between two lining poles.
  • I placed a "pile" of four ducks at the far pole. (The ducks were not actually piled up, they were scattered near one another but not touching one another.)
  • I set down a carrier containing a wing-clipped pigeon, or wingclip (WC), next to the start line (SL) at the near pole.
  • I sent Dog to the pile four times, alternating sides that I sent Dog from. I had Dog deliver to whichever side sent from.
  • I had Dog on a 100' line for the first two sends only.
  • If Dog took more than an instant to pick up a bird, I used the line to pull Dog toward me. Because of springiness and play in the line, this did not have the force of an aversive jerk, but it prevented Dog from remaining in the area of the pile.
  • After each delivery, I unclipped the line and together we walked to the WC carrier.
  • I said in a cheerful voice, "Your birdie's waiting," then removed the WC and cued "sit" to Dog.
  • I walked 10 yards from Dog, off to the side from the line to the pile, and placed the WC on the ground. In the later reps, I tossed the WC a few feet rather than just placing it down.
  • I walked back and sent the dog to retrieve the WC.
  • After taking delivery, I replaced the WC in its carrier and we returned to the SL for the next send-out to the pile.
In Laddie's case, the long line prevented him from completing his first retrieve. He was faster for the others and completed all of them.

In Lumi's case, she was also too slow on the first retrieve and I tried to pull her away from the pile, but she managed to grab a bird as I was pulling and so was able to complete her retrieve. She, too, was faster on her subsequent pick-ups.

It would probably be possible to generate more motivation and reinforcement value with the WCs using a different procedure — for example, throwing the WC and allowing the dog to parade around with it after picking it up — but I feel the need to balance those goals with the need for a solid retrieve pattern, especially for Laddie. This drill may actually be more along the lines of excitement-proofing the retrieve than adding motivation, but to me, pending guidance from Alice and Jody, it seems the best way to use the WCs at this time.

Series B. For this series, Nate threw three marks for Laddie at 90-110-130 yards, all ducks, separated by 30° angles. The first throwing position was marked by a chair, the others by stickmen.

Laddie's performance on Series B was flawless: he never crept, pinned every mark, never turned toward the thrower, raced all the way home and delivered every mark without dropping a single bird.

This series, along with Series C and D, was run at the most distracting of our local venues, the Oaks field. The terrain is thick, clumpy grass over irregular footing from groundhogs or other burrowing animals, and the field is occupied by a large herd of deer, some of which sometimes stray into sight while we're working. Flocks of birds sometimes settle and lift again nearby, and when it's been raining, as it has been lately, the small pools of standing water occur in many places.

But today we had a special treat. As Laddie was running Series B, a rider on horseback in clear view rode across the field less than a hundred yards behind the chair and stickmen. That meant that Laddie had to run in the direction of the horse and rider on each mark, pick up his bird, and run back leaving them behind him. Laddie showed some interest in them at the SL, but once each mark began, he performed as if they weren't even there.

After the third mark, I said, "Your birdie's waiting", took out the clipwing, put Laddie in a sit, walked out 10 yards, tossed the clipwing a few feet, walked back to Laddie, and sent him to retrieve it. Then I put the clipwing back in its carrier, tossed a duck out for Laddie to pick up, and said "Get your bird". He picked the duck up and we walked back to the van together.

Series C.
Series C was another fairly low-key combination of marks and blinds, in this case the following:
  1. 100-yard blind to an orange dummy marked by a surveyor's flag
  2. 110-yard mark, a thrown duck
  3. 150-yard blind to an orange dummy marked by an orange lining pole, almost invisible from the SL at that distance
#2 was 30° to the left of #1, and #3 was 45° to the left of #2. A chair and a stickman accompanied Nate at his throwing position for #2. A second stickman was positioned between Nate and #3. Nate threw in the direction of #3, so it was a kind of toward-the-line (TTL) drill, but not as tight as most we've practiced.

As usual, Lumi ran the mark easily. She took a wrong initial line on both blinds, but was responsive to whistles and casts and had little difficulty with either of them. I had shown her the wingclip in its carrier before we started, and she seemed excited when I walked her over to it after each of her blinds. In each case, I threw a short poorman mark with the wingclip as I had for Laddie. Hopefully, anticipating the possibility of savoring a clipwing at the completion of each blind will provide added incentive for responding efficiently to every whistle and cast, since slipping whistles and refusing casts only delays the time when Lumi will get to carry the wingclip around for a little while.

Series D.
Series D was virtually identical to Series B, especially in the high quality of performance. The only differences were that the marks were 110-130-150 yards, and there was no horse.

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