Alligator Drill, Fixed-target Drill

Today was Memorial Day, sunny with temperatures in the mid-80s.

The only training we did was water work with Laddie. We started with the most advanced version of the alligator drill, and at the end of the second of two sessions, I came up with a new drill I'll call the fixed-target drill. Laddie's work is detailed below.

With Lumi, I just threw various kinds of open water retrieves, including doubles, send outs without a dummy and verbal directional cues from behind her, and call-backs when she was already swimming out to the dummy. Lumi was responsive and enthusiastic for all of those, and was also easy to walk with as we covered the quarter mile between the van and the beach. Despite all the picnic activities — cook-outs, games of catch, children and dogs running around — Lumi has become reliable enough walking beside me that I didn't bother with a collar or leash.

Lumi has not gotten much training in these last few days I've been working with Laddie at Black Hill, because I feel we need a channel for our next training steps. But at least she's getting some swimming in nearly every day, which is good for her health, I believe.

Alligator Drill. Following Alice's guidance that performance on the first retrieve of a session is a key metric of the dog's progress, I started today's session with the most advanced version of the alligator drill we've used. I ran with Laddie out into swim-depth water, showed him the dummy, threw it up onto shore, and sent him to retrieve it. Laddie swam/ran to it, shook off, picked it up, and brought it to me. Although I saw the shaking off as a delaying tactic, the rest of the retrieve was excellent, including no difficulty alligatoring into swimming depth, so I felt this showed measurable progress since yesterday's sessions.

We then continued to use predominantly that version of the alligator drill the remainder of the first session and for a second session, after Lumi had a turn, as well. Unfortunately, Laddie made no further progress. While he returned with the dummy every time, he also found some kind of delaying tactic every time: Sometimes he would stand over the dummy and stare at some distraction such as a nearby canoe or picnicker before picking the dummy up. Sometimes he would find a clump of grass to urinate on. And often he would shake off. He seems to be trying to learn what behaviors I am willing to accept, such as relieving himself, and which I'm not, such as rolling on the dummy or retreating to the woods.

I hoped such behaviors would stop as Laddie became more comfortable with the drill, while meanwhile being self-reinforced by the retrieve itself and extrinsically reinforced by our games of water-tug and land-tug, open water and land retrieves, and chase. But watching him closely, I saw no sign of his delaying tactics declining, and perhaps saw instead slight increases in his resistance to completing the retrieve.

Since I obviously don't want Laddie's performance to decline, I thought it might be time to think of another drill that wouldn't have that effect. I came up with:

Fixed-target Drill. My inspiration for the fixed-target drill was that, even as Laddie was showing resistance to completing retrieves that required him to bring the dummy back into the water, he was still enthusiastic about the land retrieves we were doing between alligator-drill retrieves. When I decided to try something new, that gave me an idea.

I chose a fixed target on the beach, in this case a large rock. I then made one throw after another to that same target, and Laddie, starting at heel, ran to the dummy and came running back to me with it each time. For the first throw, Laddie and I were on the beach, so he was running along the shoreline. For the second throw, our feet were barely wet. For the third throw, we were a foot into the water, so Laddie was performing the desired behavior, though barely into the water. After a couple of those, I felt it was time to end the session.

What I like about the fixed-target drill is that it is easy to calibrate for Laddie's precise comfort level at that moment. After each retrieve, I can make a decision. If Laddie makes the retrieve with enthusiasm and no delays, I know I can move slightly further out again for the next retrieve. If Laddie introduces some delaying tactic, I can reposition our starting point closer into shore for the next retrieve.

My intent is to use the fixed-target drill again for our next session, and see how far we get with it. If we are doing well, I can gradually swing to the side so that eventually, I'm throwing straight across the water to shore rather than on an angle.

My key criterion for success will not be whether Laddie is succeeding with the retrieves, but whether he is doing so in a continuous display of high spirits. Now that Laddie has learned how to enter water carrying a retrieval article — which was the objective of the alligator drill — perhaps the fixed-target drill will be just the game we need to accomplish that goal.