Training Course with Kamal Fernandez

Copyright © Kamal Fernandez No part of this handout may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without prior permission of the writer.

Imagine owning a dog that relished the idea or even the prospect of training? One for which the opportunity to learn a new exercise would send it into euphoria …or a dog that salivated at the chance of doing a 15 minute down stay in the rain? All seem a million miles away? Not with the power of reinforcement, it’s not! Most people are now familiar with ‘clicker training’, or to give it its posh name…operant conditioning. The growing understanding of this methodology has allowed us to train elephants to do pirouettes and llamas to tap dance. However, I can’t quite imagine the thought of Elephants in HWTM…especially not in lycra. So the possibility to train a dog, regardless of breed to do a series of exercises with verve and style, becomes far more achievable. Clicker training is not new. The chances are you have been doing it for years! However you decide to approach your training - all good training is reliant on similar principles (good timing, want, drive, understanding etc.). You don’t have to use a clicker to ‘clicker train’ and in fact, a clicker being such a specific tool you need the timing and precision of a brain surgery to really be accurate with one. Reinforcement builds behaviour, is a mantra recited by ‘clicker trainers/reinforcement trainers’ time and time again. Being a ‘splitter’ and not a ‘lumper’ makes the possibility of a complex task a ‘piece’ of liver cake! The power of positive reinforcement cannot be fully understated! I know from personal experience, IMHO reinforcement is the only way to go, when training your dogs for any competitive dog sport. Make the task easy to achieve, yet challenging enough to engage the dog’s brain. Remember, the more you play with your dog’s brain, the more brain you’ll have to play with!

Positive Reinforcement This is possibly the easiest, most effective consequence for a trainer to control (and easy to understand too!). Positive reinforcement means starting or adding something good, something the animal likes or enjoys. Because the animal wants to gain that good thing again, it will repeat the behaviour that seems to cause that consequence. Examples of positive reinforcement: A dolphin gets a fish for doing a trick. A worker gets a paycheque for working. A dog gets a piece of liver for returning when called. A cat gets comfort for sleeping on the bed. A wolf gets a meal for hunting a deer. A child gets dessert for eating their vegetables. A dog gets attention from his people when he barks. An elephant seal gets a chance to mate for fighting off rivals. A child gets ice cream for begging incessantly. A toddler gets picked up and comforted for screaming. A dog gets to play in the park for pulling their owner there. A snacker gets a candy bar for putting money in the machine.

Negative Reinforcement Negative reinforcement increases a behaviour by ending or taking away something bad or aversive. By making the animal's circumstances better, you are rewarding it and increasing the likelihood that it will repeat the behaviour that was occurring when you ended the bad thing. In order to use negative reinforcement, the trainer must be able to control the bad thing that is being taken away. This often means that the trainer must also apply the bad thing. And, applying a bad thing might reduce whatever behaviour was going on when the bad thing was applied. And reducing a behaviour by applying a bad thing is positive punishment. So when you start your bad thing that you're going to end as a negative reinforcer, you run the risk of punishing some other behaviour. One of the major results of taking away Something Bad is often relief. So another way to think of negative reinforcement is that you are providing relief to the animal but of course, this makes it an example of positive reinforcement -you are providing Something Good -relief. Confusing? Examples A choke collar is loosened when the dog moves closer to the trainer. An ear pinch stops when the dog takes the dumbbell. Reins are loosened when a horse slows down. A car buzzer turns off when you put on your seatbelt . Dad continues driving towards Disneyland when the kids are quiet. "I'm not talking to you until you apologize!" The hostage is released when the ransom is paid. Torture stops when the victim confesses. "Why do I keep hitting my head against the wall? “‘Cause it feels so good when I stop!" The baby stops crying when his mother feeds him.

Negative Punishment Negative punishment is reducing behaviour by taking away something good. If the animal was enjoying or depending on something good it will work to avoid having it taken away. They are less likely to repeat a behaviour that results in the loss of a good thing. This type of consequence is a little harder to control. Examples A child has its crayons taken away for fighting with his sister. The window looking into the other monkey's enclosure is shut when the first monkey bites the trainer. "This car isn't getting any closer to Disneyland while you kids are fighting!" The dog is put on leash and taken from the park for coming to the owner when the owner called (this causes the unintentional result of the dog being less likely to respond to the recall). A teenager is grounded for misbehaviour. A dolphin trainer walks away with the fish bucket when the dolphin acts aggressively. "I'm not talking to you after what you did!" Xena, the Warrior Princess, cuts off the air of an opponent who refuses to tell her what she wants!

Positive Punishment Positive punishment is something that is applied to reduce a behaviour. The term "positive" often confuses people, because in common terms "positive" means something good, upbeat, happy, pleasant or rewarding. Remember, this is technical terminology we're using, so here "positive" means "added" or "started". Also, keep in mind that in these terms, it is not the animal that is "punished" (treated badly to pay for some moral wrong), but the behaviour that is "punished" (in other words, reduced). Positive punishment, when applied correctly, is the most effective way to stop unwanted behaviours. Its main flaw is that it does not teach specific alternative behaviours. Our society seems to have a great fondness for positive punishment, in spite of all the problems associated with it (see below). Peeing on the rug (by a puppy) is punished with a swat by a newspaper. A dog's barking is punished with a startling squirt of citronella. A driver's speeding results in a ticket and fine. A baby's hand is burned when it touches the hot stove. Walking straight through low doorways is punished with a bonk on the head. In all of these cases, the consequence (the positive punishment) reduces the behaviour’s future occurrences.

Here are some pointers to keep in mind about ‘clicker training’ 

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A clicker allows me to ‘mark’ random behaviour and reward it, thus increasing the chances of it occurring again. I can shape individual traits into my dog’s work to give them each ‘personality’ in their work. For example, my young collie, Scooter, is a real softie and although very willing … when I first got him, he would rather have a cuddle and curl up on the sofa then play tug or engage in a way that was useful or productive. I applied the rules of ‘clicker training’ and built and shaped any resemblance of drive and power he had. Over time this has became strong enough for me to use in his training. Any flicker of what I wanted was rewarded; this in turn grew and become stronger. I can reward the dog for each part of an exercise as opposed to waiting for the exercise to be completed; therefore by rewarding the ‘parts’, I can make the overall exercise stronger. For example, if my dog does a particularly brilliant pick-up on retrieve, I can isolate this ‘part’ of the exercise and ‘reinforce’ this component, thus increasing the chances of the ‘brilliant’ pick up happening again. I can alter an exercise by increasing the reward for parts of the exercise I like and not rewarding the parts I dislike. For example: for a dog that had ‘learnt’ to be OTT, I could reward the dog for the most minute behaviour thus inevitably making the dog try less to get more. The clicker allows me to gain a lot more for far less. The dog learns to push me in order to get me to reward it. You can shape in any type of behaviour you want, from tugging a lead to heelwork. The method is only as good as your imagination. I don’t have to run round like a headless chicken to bet the dog working me, once the idea of how to get rewarded is set in the dogs mind. I have found when using a clicker I can put duration on exercises fairly quickly. This ultimately improves concentration and stamina. However, if not done systematically and logically for the dog, it can induce stress and create a ‘grey’ area for the dog. Telltale signs of anxiety are vocalisation and avoidance behaviour. This is ok, learning in itself can be stressful. Just reward any improvement and, in time, your dog will see any failure as a chance to show you how fantastic s/he is and try even harder to get it right.

Some of the pitfalls are:      

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The clicker can encourage laziness on the handler’s part. Again this is a reflection of handling as opposed to the method. The ‘clicker’ isn’t a magic tool that produces a dog that wants to work! It still requires hard work. Handlers becoming too reliant on their ‘clickers’ and not being able to function without them. The clicker can create a false illusion of the dog actually knowing what it is doing in one situation. The method relies on ‘proofing’ and ‘generalising’ – this can occur with any method but seems to happen more frequently with ‘clicker’ training. The ‘clicker’ methodology is based on scientific research, by people not necessarily involved with dogs. The method can lack emotion and passion, and create a dog that lacks personality. You can’t ‘create’ personality without letting yourself get involved! A lot of ‘clicker’ training is based on manipulating the dog mentally. This can be mentally challenging, and produce anxiety in the dog. Just because you aren’t physically offending the dog, doesn’t mean you’re not mentally. The clicker is always clear about what is being rewarded. For example: if you had taught a foot target and you were working on head position, but the dog adjusted its head position and foot at the same time, it may be unclear to the dog what you were rewarding if you ‘clicked’ whilst they both occurred. You get what you click, if you train your dog and reward every 30 seconds you will get a dog only capable of doing 30 seconds of work. This is a classic error of clicker trainers in competitive Obedience and a reason why traditional trainers condemn the method. Remember what Susan Garrett says (‘Say Yes Dog Training’ and author of ‘Shaping success’ and ‘Ruff Love’) refers to this as the D.A.S.H. principle! Desire, Accuracy, Speed and Habitat when teaching any behaviour.

Throughout the two days you will hear me refer to the following; so here is a brief explanation of each: Heelwork – The ‘Plumb’ line approach ’Strut’ maintaining the plumbline.

An imaginary line from your hip to the ground can indicate where a dog should be. The dog should alter its position/weight to maintain this line, regardless of which foot your stop on or where your weight is, this includes throughout the turns. A strong basic static heelwork position in both a stand and sit is the foundation of your heelwork training. Having both of these been taught, generalised and proofed will make the pursuit of super heelwork that much easier! Here are some points to aim for:  

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A strong static sit at heel: on one verbal cue the dog adopts the ‘perfect’ heelwork position. This position should be able to be maintained under distraction and testing, be it from your hand or lead. A strong static stand ... as above.

Out wide on a constant hand-touch. The hand touch should be strong and in the same position. Allowing your dog to move on a hand-touch will transfer to moving in heelwork position. Out wide ‘follow’. The dog should be approximately level with your leg and maintaining this position under the hand, with and without a lure/reward held in it. The dog being able to go from a static sit into a static stand, on both the left and right leg. Sideways movement out wide, on both a hand-touch and follow. The dog having the ability to move sideways out wide will assist in teaching the turns. Once your dog can do all the above you are ready to progress to turns. Once you have got all the basics, you can then start to build the steps you take. Don’t be in a rush, remember every minor change in position you allow will be exaggerated when you start moving and increase speed. Your first steps should be tentatively, almost creeping forward so as to allow plenty of time for your dog to get its bearing and hold position.

You will find the progress (if all of your basics are 150% sound) relatively quick. You will go from not being able to move one step, to putting around together in one week. This is solely dependent on how good your building blocks are.

Here is a list of Heelwork skills you need to master 1

Luring into close, progressing to dog ‘finding leg’

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Static stand at heel

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Static sit at heel

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Follow

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Hand touch – static, under distraction and for a length of time.

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Hand touch out wide – constant hand touch, with turns and changes of pace (see below)

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Sideways steps – out wide

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Sideways steps – on leg

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From sit at heel into stand at heel

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Sit at heel, into stand at heel and ‘creeping’ forward

1. From sit at heel into stand at heel, starting to work around the clock face to the right Cue the dog with your foot 2. From sit at heel into stand at heel, starting to work around the clock face to the left Cue the dog with the foot 3. 15 paces in straight line 4. Figure eight 5. Each exercise must be proofed and generalised

Timing Timing is an absolutely fundamental to any type of training, regardless of the discipline, method or animal! Relying on a ‘God Given Gift’ to be able to read and react to any given situation would be wonderful but unfortunately doesn’t always happen like that. Even if you have excellent timing and ability to read a dog, working at it to improve your skills will help you in the long run and make you a far better trainer. Here are some ideas to try and improve your timing (and sadly enough I’ve actually done all these and they do work!).   

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Try getting a friend to bounce a ball whilst you ‘click’ at the point the ball makes contact with the ground -this will help improve your ability to judge something visually and anticipate the ball touching the ground. Choose a word and ‘click’ every time you hear it on the TV during a program. For example, you could click every time you heard the word ‘Rickkkkky’ on Eastenders. Although, be warned, you may get RSI (repetitive strain injury) from the amount it times it is said! If you can, handle dogs of various breeds and ability - this will help develop your ‘feel’ for what you like and don’t like. You will be forming a visual reference in your mind of what it is you want from your own dog. This will inevitably improve your timing, as you will be able to aim more clearly for what you want. With a partner, place your palms together and have one person randomly move their hand away whilst the other tries to keep contact. This may make you feel silly, but it is an excellent way of developing you ability to react. Dog training is about reading body language and movement; this is exactly what this exercise does. Try to pre-empt the error before it occurs, or be ready for the likelihood that it will occur. This may seem obvious, but you’d be surprised how many times handlers allow their dogs to make the same mistake in the vain hope that they’ll ‘be ready next time’, and never are! For example: If your dog has anticipated the retrieve three times on the trot, there is a high chance s/he will do the same on the fourth…be ready to do something to counteract this! Be prepared to make mistakes, we all do! Accept this is part and parcel of learning, consider it ‘feedback’ and try not to make the same mistake twice!

These are just a few simple ideas to get you thinking, experiment and develop your own ideas. This is called ‘Dog training!’ ... everything is based on trial and error!

Training Toolbox I feel that a simple metaphor for my training is a ‘Toolbox’… (No, not a lunchbox!) As part of developing as trainers we are constantly learning and evolving. Each idea and technique could be viewed as a tool. The more tools you have in your ‘Training Toolbox’ the better equipped you will be to deal with any malfunctions that crop up and, trust me, they will. It is inevitable. I would argue that there is no handler who looks back on their dog’s career and can honestly say that they have made every correct decision and never encountered a problem. If you have, then you are one in a million! Training is about learning; you may use one idea with your present dog then not use it again for your next three. However, when with your fourth dog, the same problems rear their ugly heads, you can go into your ‘Toolbox’ and dust of that old idea and use it. The more you know, the better you will be to determine what will and won’t work. Remember to think it through first and not just try something for the sake of it. READ YOUR DOG AND TRY BEING A DOG HANDLER!

Having a plan/objectives I am a big ‘Planner’. I like to have a plan for everything, be it making a coffee or training my dogs. It gives me the ability to know where I am heading and, more importantly, be prepared for when it goes wrong. Have a clear idea of each training session. I do this mentally, but it may help you to write it down and tick off each thing when you have done it. Go in with Plan A, Plan B and Plan C! Be prepared for when things go wrong, these are living animals you are working with so expect the unexpected. The better prepared you are the more likely you are to succeed and make progress. Throwing mud at a blanket and hoping it sticks, rarely works!

Proofing This is the term used for the process of making your dog 100% foolproof at an exercise. Proofing occurs at two distinct points in a training programme. Initially when the dog knows the basic exercise and can do it in one situation, proofing develops the dog’s ability to perform it in any environment. A better term for this stage would be ‘generalising’. You are getting the dog to ‘generalise’ performing an activity in any situation, regardless of distractions etc. The second distinct stage occurs once an exercise is taught and repeated several hundred, if not thousands of times; then, you may be near the point at which your dog understands the task! This is the point at which you may proof an exercise. In this process, the exercise is altered slightly and the dog asked to perform the behaviour regardless. For example, setting your dog up at an angle to the send-away and asking it to correct itself. This stage can be time consuming and inflict confusion in the dogs mind. DON’T PANIC! This is absolutely normal and to be expected. It shows the dog is trying to understand! Be consistent and alter only one thing at a time. Proofing may evoke the dog to quit, get anxious or wound up. Just persevere, because the outcome will be a dog that has far more depth to its knowledge and more likely to be ready for any situation a show can present.

Generalising: Ever hear the phrase ‘But he always does it at home’? Well, ‘Generalising’ is a step in training your dog to perform anywhere. ‘Generalisation’ is the technical term for explaining to your dog, that the rules for earning rewards still apply regardless of the situation or environment. This needs to be done at each stage of teaching … and before, after and during ‘proofing’. I believe dogs ‘don’t’ do things because of one of four reasons. If you can identify which of these areas relate to you and your dog, you are half way on the road to sorting it!

If you get nothing else from the two workshop days, take the following as the most important! The four reasons why dogs don’t do things: a) They don’t understand – the dog simply doesn’t understand what you are teaching him/her. This is the easy bit, you need to stop blaming the dog for what he can’t, won’t or didn’t do and start training for what he will, must and needs to do! Don’t blame it, train it! b) They don’t have enough motivation – very few people or dogs do anything without some sort of motivation, be it intrinsic or extrinsic. c) They don’t have any respect. d) There is a relationship problem – lack of trust, dislike of one another etc. Being able to identify which of the four areas relate to you and your dog, is the first step in resolving the problem and turning your relationship around! Realising which areas you need to work on and ‘owning’ it is often the biggest step!

Play Play is something which has been around for as long as dogs have, they invented it! Although play has various forms and ‘technical’ terms to encompass it (positive reinforcement, building drive etc), it still is exactly that – PLAY! However, how do you actually play with a dog in a constructive manner that will develop instinct and build the dog’s confidence and self esteem? Dogs are, by nature, predators. Even that little poodle your grandmother owned is a highly capable predator … (Ok, not quite a killer, but almost!) Their physiological and psychological make-up allows them to be effective at when they do … HUNT! By imitating prey and mimicking dogs interacting, we cement the social bond between us, similar to the way a pack of wolves would. Through this we can build a dogs desire to interact with us and therefore to ‘work’ with us! Changing body posture, physical contact, eye contact, sound and choice of toy can, all contribute to a dog’s eventual personality. How we use this understanding in our dog-handler interactions, can affect the ‘end product’.

‘Smack the baby’ (as named by Susan Garrett of Sayyesdogtraining.com)

‘Kick the baby’

‘Rabbit Game’

‘Eye spy’

‘Get the party started’

‘Nanny’s tea towel’

‘Beat ya’

1,2,3……Go!!!!

Listed above are some games to incorporate into your training sessions. Some space has been left for you to write down the principles of each game.

Lumpers vs Splitters Clicker training is about splitting the exercise into bite sized chunks and, ‘feeding’ these tiny pieces of information to your dog. Susan Garrett (Sayyesdogtraining.com) writes about being a ‘lumper’ or a ‘splitter’. This refers to lumping whole parts of any exercise together or breaking it down into tiny pieces to really solidify your dog’s understanding. The biggest difference between ‘traditional’ training and ‘clicker’ training is based on this decision …. Do I lump or do I split? ‘Lumping’, means to lump all the exercise together into one ‘mass’ of information. For example a retrieve … holding the dog’s collar, throwing the dumbbell out and sending the dog to collect it, then calling it into a present. You have ‘lumped’ the exercises together in the hope that the dog learns the intricacy of each component. A splitter will break the exercise down into tiny pieces and teach each part separately. They generalise and proof each segment before piecing it back together again.

Shaping vs. Luring ‘Shaping’ is rewarding incremental steps in the dog’s offered behaviour as it they look like they are going towards our ‘goal’ position or action. ‘Luring’ is where you draw the dog into the position by using food or toys. Both are valid options, knowing which to do when is not quite so easy!

Your list of reinforcement Being mindful of your dogs ‘Hierarchy of reinforcement’, will allow you to exploit his drives to get what you want. At times you want him excited and quick in his movements, others time you will want him sedate and thinking. Knowing what affect the reinforcement has on your dog, will allow you to exploit these to your advantage. What is reinforcement for your dog? List them below from 1 to 10, in order of which is the most powerful to which is the least affective. Knowing what makes your dog tick, will help you create the superstar you have always wanted!

Reinforcement Zone Greg Derrett, world renowned agility trainer, refers to what he calls the ‘reinforcement zone’. This is a turn of phrase which I have taken on, because I feel it best captures the area/place where I want the most reinforcement to occur to help the dog get the message (as quickly as possible) that there is importance in this area/place. We know the importance of the ‘click’, however, it is equally if not more important to be mindful of what you do after the click. As the side effects of having a weak ‘reinforcement zone’ will undoubtedly lead to variation in the behaviour and by-products you may not want. In the initial stages of learning you want 80% of your reinforcement to occur in that reinforcement zone. The remaining 20% can vary, for example the reward is at the table across the hall or, if training sits, you may use a throwing reward.

Transfer of value Susan Garrett articulates the process of making a totally mundane boring exercise, object or behaviour the most important and exciting to your dog by what she terms as the ‘Transfer of value’. The value of having a reward that means something to your dog cannot be over emphasised enough, as this desire for the reward will transfer onto the behaviour your are training. For example, if I asked you to go to work for $1, you would be reluctant and probably not think it was worth the effort. However, if I asked you to go to work for $1million, you would probably be salivating at the prospect! It’s no different with your dog. If every time your dog touched his dumbbell he was clicked and earned some steak, he would quickly transfer the value of the steak to the dumbbell, thus creating a dog that is salivating at the sight of a dumbbell! Use your good rewards to teach things, as you are building a history of lots of value for doing that behaviour.

Putting a round together The first step in creating a ‘chain in behaviours’, is being unpredictable with when your reward your dog. At this stage you can start to select the better examples of the behaviour to ‘click’. For example, my dog may offer me a sit and I may click it as it was a particularly good ‘sit’. He may then offer that behaviour again and I may not reward that ‘sit’ with food/toy, and just praise the dog. He may then offer me a better response in an attempt to get me to ‘reward’ him. I would click and feed for this ‘sit’. I have started to tighten the screws on the type of ‘sit’ I am prepared to reward. For example, I will only reward fast sits. When I can reliably predict that this response will occur, I would then add a cue. From this point, I would not reward my dog if he ‘offered’ me this response (generally speaking however, there may be a time when I am shaping something new and this may be a response along the lines of what I wanted to shape). Once I have the behaviour on cue, I can then start on building my history of reinforcement for the correct behaviour. Getting your dog to perform what Karen Pryor (author of ‘Don’t shoot the dog’) refers to as ‘twofers’ or ‘threefers’. This is a nickname for getting your dog to perform several repetitions of one behaviour, for one ‘click’. For examples, three sits for one click or two downs for one click. It is most important that the behaviour stays the same. There should be no deterioration in the behaviour. Once you have mastered this, you can then start to form a chain of different behaviours … and eventually exercises. For example, you could do a recall, retrieve and heelwork all for one click. Another example, a Novice round would be made up of all the exercises for one click. You should again be aiming for 1.5X what you want in the ring.

I hope that this handout has given you some idea of how I train and food for thought with your own dogs. For further information please refer to the following sources: http://susangarrettdogagility.com/ ‘Shaping success’ by Susan Garrett ‘Ruff Love’ by Susan Garrett ‘Don’t shoot the dog’ by Karen Pryor Greg Derrett Agility DVD series ‘Excel-Erated Learning’ by Pam Reid

Good luck and, most of all ENJOY YOUR DOGS!!!!