Reply To: Bev Maahs & Wolfy

[Alana McGee]

Fascinating after so few trials with the click he associates the open mouth pick up! This is an excellent example of careful what you click for, and for students who are unfamiliar with clickers, the power of the information they convey. Fascinating to see such a clear example of that. Good teaching moments!

When you run into problems or challenges, yes, often going back to basics can help. That is why foundations are so important! Awesome timing at 3:18 right before he put it in his mouth.

After odor is bit more solidified that will be an excise to work on- rewarding closed mouth/ nose touches as opposed to open mouth pick ups. But again, organically this will diminish on its own as when you move to boxes (as you see in the next video) and indeed underground as he won’t readily be able to mouth the target so the behavior will alter and evolve.

We like his decision making at 0:59.

Even by the end of the session you were seeing a decrease in this behavior when you stopped using a clicker and started using “yes”. Fascintaing really and a testament to all that foundational clicker training you have done previously shaping other behaviors that he really is specific about what the click means. Well done on your part as well to switch technique and see if that made a difference.

You do a good job with the ball treat transition, and we really like your reward sequence and connection here.

You’ve got some speed! Good job on getting those containers down (0:48) The one thing to do with the containers here is put a paper towel in each as well to remove the visual identification of the tea ball inside one.

You do a great job of staying engaged at the source and having Wolfy be part of the party. Execllent work Bev. And nice in the box nose touch at 2:05! Using the boxes in this way also get the dogs used (in an artificial sense) putting there heads into a hole to alert. Very well done!