Land Blinds

AM: Germantown Playground

General notes: Today we trained in an area in Germantown near the soybean field I mentioned in yesterday's post for Series C, D, and E. The section is labeled "Playground", and that's the parking lot we were in, but of course I set up our courses on the adjoining fields.

SERIES A. Triple land blind (Laddie, then Lumi)

The terrain gave us an opportunity to work with a factor we rarely get to practice much, steep hillsides. Because we were working on a new skill, I decided to run both dogs on the same blinds at the same distances. It turns out that Lumi did better at first, in the sense that whereas Laddie attempted to take an indirect route that kept him on level ground, Lumi immediately took the line I sent her on, even though that meant running onto a sideways embankment. In Laddie's case, I called him back and sent him again, and after that, he held the line I sent him on.

For Series A, the first blind was to the right at 50 yards. The blind was on the embankment to a deep pit, and the line to the blind crossed the banks on an angle, going down and then continuing back up to the blind. The second blind, in the center, was in a similar position on the embankment of another pit. The line to the second blind first crossed a diagonal strip of high cover, then reached the edge of the pit. The third was to the left at 130 yards. The line to the third blind crossed a diagonal strip of cover, into and out of two depressions in the ground, uphill thru a keyhole formed by two trees, and close to a picnic shelter on the right.

All blinds were ODs withour markers.

SERIES B. Triple land blind (Laddie, then Lumi)

For Series B, I placed two ODs at each blind, then ran Laddie at one SL, moved forward 70 yards, and ran Lumi from that closer SL.

The first blind was in the center at 160 yards for Laddie, at 90 yards for Lumi. It was on the corner of a 10' high hay bale. The second blind was at 170 yards for Laddie, 100 yards for Lumi. The line to the second blind passed a large, rounded area of woods and underbrush on the right, then another large, rounded area of woods and underbrush on the left. Each of the areas provided a potential wrap, first to the right, then to the left. The third blind was on the left at 230 yards for Laddie, 160 yards for Lumi. The line to the third blind passed close to where the second blind had been placed, then climbing a steep hill on a diagonal. An area of woods on the left at the top of the hill turned out to exert strong attraction to both dogs.

Both dogs performed well on the first two blinds, and Lumi stayed in control on the third blind as well. On the third blind, she pushed well to the left and required repeated right angle-backs and right Overs to keep her from running to the woods on the left.

Laddie, who ran first on Series B as he had on Series A, went OOC the first time he ran the third blind. Before he accepted a sit cue, he had spotted the third blind. Since I didn't have another blind set up for him, and it was then pointless to run him to that blind, I walked out, slipped on his lead, walked him to the blind and picked up the dummy, then walked him to the van and tied him to the outside of the vehicle at the trunk. I didn't want to put him in the van because I was afraid he'd damage the upholstery as he has in the past, and I didn't want to put him on the tie-out where Lumi was waiting because I didn't want him to see where I was planting another long blind for him. So I left him at the van and ran Lumi on Series B, then went out and planted a blind at 250 yards in a new direction. The line to the new blind was over a variety of changes in elevation at various angles and thru two diagonal strips of cover.

I then got Laddie from the van — fortunately, he had not chewed thru the slip lead I'd used to tie him to the van — and ran him on the 250 yard blind. Again he went OOC, and again I walked out, put him on lead, walked him to the blind that I believe he had spotted so I could pick it up, and walked him back to the SL. There I put him on the tie-out and set up yet a third long blind, this time 240 yards, where the blind was not visible from where Laddie was tied and the SL would be in a different position than the one we'd been using.

I came back to get Laddie, walked him to the new SL, and ran him on the third long blind. This time he remained responsive to all WSs and casts.

Long Time-out versus Non-reinforced Trial

For years I have advocated short time-outs for undesirable behavior such as barking, on the grounds that after about 30 seconds, I can barely remember the transgression, so I figure the dog can't remember it, either. I also don't put the dog in isolation, but rather stand or kneel beside the dog as we take the time-out together in the most boring location I can conveniently get us to. Doug St. Claire wrote in 2004 on the ClickerSolutions list that my version of the time-out was so unconventional that it needed a different name, and suggested calling it a "time-in".

Today's experience with Laddie's long blinds reinforced my feeling that at least for some training, a short time-out is at least as effective as a long one, and I now am starting to think that when using a Walk Out for a slipped whistle, no time-out (or time-in) at all is even more effective.

My reasoning is that a long time-out, such as Laddie's stay at the van between the first and second long blinds of Series B, is tantamount to ending one session on an incorrect response, and then hoping or expecting the dog to perform the same behavior correctly on the first trial of the next session. However, according to what I have read as well as my own experience, when a behavior is not fluent, it's more likely that the dog will perform correctly immediately after an incorrect and non-reinforced trial in the same session, versus at the beginning of a subsequent session, where the dog is more likely to revert to an earlier, incorrect behavior.

Thus I suspect that the most effective use of the Walk Out is as an interrupted trial — where the dog is not permitted to obtain the reinforcement of completing the retrieve but is immediately given another chance — rather than as the negative punishment of a time-out, especially a prolonged one.