Home › Forums › Recreational Truffle Dog Training 101 › Lucinda & Tally (access until Dec. 31, 2014) › Reply To: Lucinda & Tally (access until Dec. 31, 2014)
What does your start look like? Do you have Tally in a sit stay prior to starting?
Tally is sweet! That tail!
What are you selecting as is worthy of a ?click?? It is great to get more solid alerts in the behavior chain (and we are curious to see more where you are at now with some more complicated set ups) but we would recommend clicking the initial paw/touch. and building to what you want (you can click again for that!) but we want Tally to know that she is correct and at the truffle source. We don?t want her to get confused and leave the truffle simply because she hasn?t offered enough of an alert. It looks like you are going for a lie down behavior?
We would suggest you reward along the way. The paw counts! Yes it is a truffle! Good tally! and then keep her there and solicit further behaviors. Each of those in succession also get clicks and treats! It then becomes a behavior chain.
It isn?t just a lie down at source or no cookies, we want to make sure that Tally keeps a lot off value at the truffle even if she isn?t lying down. The lie down behavior can come with time. But pawing is really good too, so are nose touches.
Alerts area chain of behaviors in truffle hunting usually, not just one. If it is easier to do it without a clicker, feel free, and just use verbal praise, but make sure you mark the moment when Tally shows active interest. She paws the box, that?s right Tally!
Because of the Tally’s enthusiasm, we would have you pick the hot box up each time and remove it after she alerts on it. Don’t pull Tally away- she is wanting to stay on odor- that?s awesome!
Remove the box from the scenario. Every time Tally re-alerts on the box (even if you want to move on) that?s okay, she should be rewarded for that. She is right, and we LOVE persistence. In the real world you will be removing the truffle from the scenario after an alert, so do it now.
We deal with residual odor later if a dog doesn?t leave trace odor, but for now any time Tally indicates on the box at all, she?s right! Good Girl. But pick it up and remove it form the game after she has alerted once or twice (in the same pass- usually a couple seconds apart)
It looks like you guys are doing well, and we are glad we are seeing some video. It helps us help you. Keep building value at odor and lengething the alert chain. Tally seems to stay at source well, but there was one moment in the sequence at 0:43 when she alerted but wasn?t getting feedback from you that she was right, so she was going to leave the truffle. This is exactly when and why you should be rewarding sooner. We can build to whatever alert you want, but first make sure that Tally knows she is right and build confidence.