Thursday, May 21, 2009

Wetfoot Drill with Videos

Stadler's Pond

Today I brought along a video camera and tripod to record Lumi's and Laddie's continued work on LWL retrieves with the Wetfoot Drill.

Each dog had five successful retrieves, with a number of Walk Outs for shaking instead of coming straight back with the bird. In all cases, I used a single CIW as the only cue to pick up the duck and return, I used cheering and applause as conditioned positive reinforcement (timed as the dog re-entered swim-depth water), and I reinforced with high-value treats when the dog delivered the duck.

As the videos show, the WO continues to have the desired effect of causing the behavior of shaking to decline, since that behavior produces the outcome of the dog not being permitted to complete the retrieve. I call out "Nope" as a no-reward-marker at the moment the dog shakes, then walk around the edge of the pond to pick the dog up and bring the dog back on lead. Sometimes, I then run the other dog. Other times, such as if the other dog has already run that series successfully, I run the same dog again instead.

The series were as follows:
  • Series A. 25-yard swim, duck in water touching shore
  • Series B. 25-yard swim, duck on land 12" from water's edge
  • Series C. 30-yard swim, duck in water touching shore
  • Series D. 30-yard swim, duck on land 12" from water's edge
  • Series E. 60-yard swim, duck on land at water's edge
Here are the videos for each series:









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