Yesterday I ran a track in my neighbor's lot.
My cat helped lath the track. The track ended up being 62 minutes old. I was aiming for 45. There were random food drops. Edgar had a strong start. I stayed up close to him. He wasn't bothered by Ralph's foot steps. At the first turn, 90 degrees to the right another neighbor walked across his second leg, third leg and last leg. He was a bit distracted by her but he got back to work. When she walked back he didn't pay any attention to her. He ignored the cross tracks. His fourth and last turn was open angled and in true Beth Goodbody Shepherds' fashion he cut it. The other turns I had to back up. He did need a prompt to indicate.
On a very positive note, I had to drop him off at the vet. He didn't car sick. On the way out to Golden Dome it was the same. We will keep playing the car game. He didn't like me leaving him so I hope I haven't undone all the hard work.
Yay! You found your way back to your blog! I'll comment here for the posts in groups and this one. For the one posted in the groups, it sounded like you handled the carcass distraction well and that there was enough reinforcement on the track to help him get back to work (and reward him for it). The enthusiasm for tracking he demonstrated in that track is great (though I know it's not always fun to get pulled to the track, but I'd rather have a marlin than an anchor on the end of my tracking line 😁!)
ReplyDeleteRandom food drops - are you filing away his reactions to where the treats are? I encourage you to make sure they are not random to you so that you can determine if they are actually reinforcing him for what you want (like returning to the track after casting off, or working past a distraction, etc). I would also try and make sure they are not random when planning if and how you'll reinforce turns or reward for working past a challenging spot. I suspect you *are* doing that but cannot tell for sure from the descriptions. If you can provide an image of a map - it helps us visualize things a bit. Like I'm curious about the open angle turn being cut...what was the reinforcement patter there if any?
I love hearing that it sounds like he processes distractions and then lets them go...that can be a tough one!
Great news on the progress with the car sickness (fingers crossed)! And thanks so much for the introduction post you did! It's great learning more and sounds like you have a wealth of experience with tracking, which is wonderful!
Hi Beth - I agree with Anne's comments here. Having systematic reinforcement patterns can help both you get the progress you want and Edgar get thoughtful reinforcement on the track. We can review some potential ways to incorporate this with the track. In addition to the map, can you also include your "main goal" for each track in the blog post? We'll talk in class tomorrow but there should be a regular rotation of training activities/goals and goals to work through particular items in training that may need to be addressed. Having the goal in advance will help you design a track to address this goal and will let us know what kind of feedback may be most helpful for your training. Sounds like he is making great progress on and off the field! I'll see you tomorrow!
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