Thursday, November 13, 2008

Line Mechanics

AM: Neighborhood Lacrosse Field

With heavy rain and little time, I decided to work on line mechanics with the dogs. I used a holding blind (HB) I borrowed from Bob Hux on Tuesday, a canvas dummy for throwing, a 2" white dummy for happy throws and tug, and treats.

The training sequence was as follows:
  1. First throw for Lumi: With Me (heeling) to HB (all heeling intermittently reinforced with treats); With Me to SL; throw CD
  2. Bring Laddie to HB: With Me
  3. Send Lumi, prepare to honor: Send Lumi; receive CD at honor position; "Ready to play?" (RTP), which cues Lumi to down; treat
  4. Throw for Laddie: Treat Laddie for waiting at HB; With Me from HB to SL; throw CD
  5. Reinforce Lumi's honoring: RTP (again), Here, treat, happy throw, tug
  6. Bring Lumi to HB: With Me
  7. Send Laddie, prepare to honor: Send Laddie; receive CD at honor position; RTP, which cues Laddie to sit; treat
  8. Throw for Lumi: Treat Lumi for waiting at HB; With Me from HB to SL; throw CD
  9. Reinforce Laddie's honoring: RTP (again), Here, treat, happy throw, tug
  10. Go back to step (2) above
We repeated the sequence three times, then packed up and went home.

Although the sequence is obviously not identical to event conditions, it enables us to practice some concepts. To summarize the similarities and differences and describe the reinforcers:
  • Heeling to HB is identical to event, other than Event Discount Factors (EDFs) such as excitement level; treats provide reinforcement for heeling.
  • In an event, dog would not be left alone at HB, nor receive treat for waiting alone. Treat provides reinforcement for waiting in HB.
  • Other than EDFs, heeling to SL is identical to event, except that for Field Trials, we'd be setting up on a mat; again, treats provide reinforcement.
  • Sending to "mark" thrown by handler has little resemblance to an event mark.
  • RTP and dog's response (down or sit) before next dog runs is identical to event, but handler would not give a treat. In addition, handler would stay with the honoring dog, so leaving the dog to honor alone has little resemblance to an event honor. Also, EDFs make honoring much more difficult, especially when a flyer is thrown for the other dog.
  • Second RTP after the throw would not be used in an event. Instead, RTP would be used only to cue the down (Lumi) or sit (Laddie), and as soon as the honor dog is released, handler would cue Here. I decided to add a second RTP before Here in this exercise to compensate for the fact that the handler steps away and works with the other dog after the first RTP.
  • On the other hand, reinforcement for the second RTP is identical to an event: excited Here, treat once dog is off the field, run together to van, happy throws, and games of tug.
In summary, this exercise provides opportunities for reinforcing correct responses to all of the following:
  • With Me to HB
  • Waiting at HB
  • With Me to SL
  • RTP to cue down (Lumi) or sit (Laddie)
  • Here instead of breaking after RTP
With limited time, this seemed like a reasonable way to work on heeling to and from the HB. But if we get an opportunity in future sessions, I may change it as follows: Have the dog at the SL wait until the other dog is in the HB, and then send the dog at the SL to a remote-launched mark or a pre-positioned blind.

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