Reply To: Tim Rinaldi & Molly

[Alana McGee]

Nice Tim. This is an excellent example of how to use a toy as reward in short precision movements/ training sessions. She had a couple of really nice trials (that’s what we call an execution of an event or repetition) where she was holding her nose on target for longer, but a few things to watch out for. Watch this video again with this in mind:

Sometimes she is mouthing, sometimes she is not even touching it. You are shaping an alert here, but what do you want that alert to be?(you told us- but keep that in mind during the session) Think about the criteria for success. If she touches it for 1 second does that count towards your shaped alert, or must it be two seconds?

We are being nitpicky because you guys are doing so well, but watch this video again and look at when Molly is touching the object and your click. You are just a hair late. If the click happens after Molly is pulling her face away that is what she will begin to associate as the desired behavior. 0:38 was better. 1:03 was good too as duration was building, but that was open mouthed- just fyi so you are aware of that. Again, this is just the beginning of shaping an alert, but things to watch out for down the line. Again, we know this is just foundational shaping but want you to start to notice these subtle differences.

Would Molly be willing to do this exercise with food? She might be a bit calmer and deliberate. If so we would recommend you put the target under something stationary/ stable, like a log so it isn’t moveable and use your clicker to mark for the contact.

You do have an amazing bond with her, and it shows.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 5 months ago by Alana McGee. Reason: typos