A few more fun tricks that we're working on -

Kolt 9 m/o, backwards crawl and more

I've been trying to figure out how to get some videos of his search training as well. But we've been in buildings with varying amounts of space and light. He is doing great at it - loves the work, stays on task and gives strong alerts. Having so much fun with this dog!

I hope Fabio sees this and starts thinking what marking means.

nice job, that dog has really learned how to learn.

Love it! Love this dog!

I thought it was so cool how he is trying to match wits with you at 00:47. He got marked, so I'm guessing in his world, he won! Just shows how proactive he is at problem solving (in this case, accessing the reward quicker). As Peter alluded to, this pup has certainly learned that he can affect the world he is living in.

I am working on building distance in my dog's backing exercises, but, like Kolt, Sadie's efforts get shorter and she gets more insistent (vocal) as she gets farther away from me. I've been trying to build distance by varying the point at which I mark, backing in chutes, and touch pads. If Mara or anyone else has a suggestion, it would be welcomed.

Duane - do you do much high end awareness work outside of the backup? Do you much distance work outside of the backup?

Not a lot. We do position changes at a distance and we work on directing verbally off-leash. My goal is to build a repertoire of tasks that she will perform on verbal cues (and maybe hand signals, later) that we may choose to use in movie work. The escalation of drive (or anxiety, if that is actually what is occurring) and vocalization only occur in the backing exercise.

The backing was originally taught for practical uses and rear end awareness. As we progressed, I realized that I wasn't varying my mark enough, and she would only back up a certain distance each time I gave the command. No problem for backing into a crate or backing away so I have space to bend over and tie my shoes, but I feel like I should be able to build duration on it and have her back up until given a cue to stop. The touch pad helps with distance, but if her drive starts to escalate and she is not in a chute, she will still turn to run toward the pad.

The backwards crawl is just great! I'm going to try to teach that.

 Quote: Duane Hull

Not a lot. We do position changes at a distance and we work on directing verbally off-leash. My goal is to build a repertoire of tasks that she will perform on verbal cues (and maybe hand signals, later) that we may choose to use in movie work. The escalation of drive (or anxiety, if that is actually what is occurring) and vocalization only occur in the backing exercise.

The backing was originally taught for practical uses and rear end awareness. As we progressed, I realized that I wasn't varying my mark enough, and she would only back up a certain distance each time I gave the command. No problem for backing into a crate or backing away so I have space to bend over and tie my shoes, but I feel like I should be able to build duration on it and have her back up until given a cue to stop. The touch pad helps with distance, but if her drive starts to escalate and she is not in a chute, she will still turn to run toward the pad.

I wonder if she is confused on just *what* she's getting rewarded for? Hind end awareness work will make her more aware of her back feet which will help her be more aware that backwards foot movement is what is being rewarded. i would also up the rate of reward and try marking for backwards foot movement instead of placement. when that hind leg is up and moving back, mark/reward it instead of waiting for her to hit a target (or even the floor)

DP

She's pretty clear what she's being rewarded for. She gets to a point where she feels like she has performed what was asked and starts getting animated when I won't comply. Her hind end awareness is pretty well developed, and we are way past marking individual steps. I'm trying to get her to back up more than 5 ft at a time.

We started out marking backwards foot movement, then withheld the mark until she took two steps, the three, etc, etc. However, we hit a wall between 5 and 10 feet. At that point she will stop backing and start vocalizing her displeasure (frustration) at not having been marked yet. If I put spacial pressure on her (walk towards her) give her an "uh uh" or bridge ("good"), or repeat the command she wil continue backing until she's almost 10 ft away. This is the point where she is expecting a mark.

I see the same thing in your video. At this point in his training, Kolt expects the mark at two to three steps, until he is a few feet away from you. He knows at that point he will get marked for even the slightest backward movement. There is a difference in what he offers based on his physical (spacial)proximity to you. We should be able to add steps (distance, duration) by withholding the mark for one more step, but Sadie gets to a certain distance where she won't continue backing without some form of pressure.

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I see the same thing in your video. At this point in his training, Kolt expects the mark at two to three steps, until he is a few feet away from you. He knows at that point he will get marked for even the slightest backward movement. There is a difference in what he offers based on his physical (spacial)proximity to you.

I see what you're seeing but it's more trainer error than dog in the video (nothing like video to show you what you're doing wrong...). I should have rewarded him faster as I was waiting about 3x as long as I had in the previous session. It was about the fourth session of backup crawling and I had just begun to ask for duration in the behavior, i.e, more than one step. He was offering nice backwards motion and I should have been marking/rewarding before he stopped. He also backed into something that you can't see in the video so that didn't help....

Today I was getting a good 3' of backwards moving without stopping. And I was marking/rewarding before he stopped. He ended up about 7' away from me (with no prodding or pressure from me, I was stationary except when tossing treats) before we quit due to lack of space in the room.

I've also add that just last week I started to ask for behaviors at a distance (separate of backing up). I'm marking and rewarding for staying behind an invisible line about 5 feet away from me. When he had the concept of that, I then asked for known behaviors at the distance - sit, down, stand, sit pretty, take a bow. It's a bit for him to wrap his head around, but he's getting it. My eventual goal is to be able to give commands when I'm 20-30 ft away and have him remain stationary unless asked to do otherwise.

If you don't do other commands at a distance, then the backup at distance could be a bit confusing. Dog is usually rewarded for being near to you so it the move away might be frustrating Not sure it this applies in your situation, but it does for my dogs. It might be worthwhile taking a break from the backup and practice getting other solid commands at a distance.

The concept of marking for a dog staying behind an invisible line was an "ah ha" moment for me for anything at a distance. At first Kolt wanted to be right next to me as that is what he was used to. But when he realized that he was rewarded for staying away he started to get comfortable offering behaviors a few feet away from me. I can see this sort of exercise is going to help with all sorts of commands at a distance.