Best of “Fancy”

[Alana McGee]

Watch Fancy as she progresses through Recreational Truffle Dog Training 101. This topic shows selected video homework and feedback for current students to view.

[Alana McGee]

Welcome to class Launie & Fancy! Please post a little something about yourself, Fancy and your interest in truffle hunting here. We would also love to hear how you found out about the class 🙂

(To reply, type in the box below and click “post quick reply”)

[Alana McGee]

TDC:
Welcome Launie and Fancy. We are very excited to have you with us!

[Alana McGee]

TDC:
Hi, Launie. Please confirm that you have access to the Introduction and this discussion forum. Kristin

[Alana McGee]

Hi Alana & Kristin,
Aug. 7 Day 1 Fancy’s 1st scent of the truffle oil reaction was akin to Dracula recoiling from garlic. After 1 minute she caught on to click n treat. By 10 mins she was sniffing and keeping eye contact on the scent tin. Aug. 8 Day 2 yesterday, I forgot to keep her on the leash and she was practically glued to me and located rapid hiding of the scent tin 100%. I was hiding it under little carpet mats and she would dig the mat back every time. Even once or twice when she would lie down and not go to the tin, she kept her glance on where it was. Every time I moved the tin she would wait until I said the word “truffle” before diving for it. After I reward her with a click n treat and “good dog” I hold the tin to her nose and she tries to give it a lick after sniffing it again. Clearly she is having a lot of fun with this new sport! Quick question: is their an alert when the next lesson comes or will it say 2nd lesson?

[Alana McGee]

TDC:
That sounds like a great start, Launie. You are doing a good job of keeping it short and it sounds like everyone is having fun. That’s perfect. Try to resist the urge to start adding challenging hides. She will need to learn to discriminate between like objects as we progress. Why don’t you try posting some video at this point? That will get you familiar with the video posting process and will also allow Alana and I to see you and Fancy in action right from the start! Limit the video to less than 5 minutes and please don’t hesitate to ask for help uploading/ posting it.

Can you tell me if you are viewing the Introduction AND Lesson 1 at this point? As admin, we see all of the lessons, but I’m curious if yours showed up earlier than we expected. Please let me know. The lessons will appear under the My Content section. You may receive an email, but I wouldn’t rely on it. Check the site each week.

[Alana McGee]

Hi Alana & Kristin,
I’ve never posted onto a thread before so I hope I did it right. I commented on Fancy’s Day 1 & Day 2 exercises/results but I posted it as a quick reply onto another participant Peter’s comment! Do you and Kristin still see it when I do that? Here’s what I sent in yesterday –
Hi Alana & Kristin,
Aug. 7 Day 1 Fancy’s 1st scent of the truffle oil reaction was akin to Dracula recoiling from garlic. After 1 minute she caught on to click n treat. By 10 mins she was sniffing and keeping eye contact on the scent tin. Aug. 8 Day 2 yesterday, I forgot to keep her on the leash and she was practically glued to me and located rapid hiding of the scent tin 100%. I was hiding it under little carpet mats and she would dig the mat back every time. Even once or twice when she would lie down and not go to the tin, she kept her glance on where it was. Every time I moved the tin she would wait until I said the word “truffle” before diving for it. After I reward her with a click n treat and “good dog” I hold the tin to her nose and she tries to give it a lick after sniffing it again. Clearly she is having a lot of fun with this new sport! Quick question: is their an alert when the next lesson comes or will it say 2nd lesson?

[Alana McGee]

Hope this video of Fancy’s day 3 exercise shows up! My video was about 5 mins so I let the iPad shorten it enough to email which was the only way I’m accustomed to attaching files. I did buy Photon to enable opening Flash so I could watch the Participant videos but I am unsure how to use the Photon. So far I’ve watched it the 3 videos from my PC at work. I am waiting until a neighbour working with electronics has time to show me Photon’s application.

[Alana McGee]

TDC:
Hi, Launie. We did see your post under a different thread and moved it here. We are clever like that

Your video is not showing. You will need to upload it to YouTube first. Once uploaded, go to the share function. Copy the link YouTube provides. Then, in your reply, click on the little filmstrip icon just above the text box. A pop up window will appear for you to past the link. Your video will show up in the reply when you click Post Quick Reply.

Give it a try!

[Alana McGee]

[Alana McGee]

TDC:
Hi, Launie!
Fancy is a sweetie! She is doing quite well, but let’s slow things down a bit. You are already a bit ahead of the class so there is no rush here. Let’s focus on building value for the truffle scent as you were doing in Day 3 for a few more sessions before going back to the boxes. I want to point out that she wasn’t doing anything “wrong” with the boxes, but I’d like to see her a bit more enthusiastic about it. If you compare videos, she was happily working on Day 3 and starting to show some stress on Day 5’s training session. It’s subtle so simply taking a step back and allowing her to really love this new game will likely get you just what you want.

The brilliant part I see her is that WHEN we get to the lesson on alert behaviors, you already have something to work with. Fancy was offering an alert by laying down! So we can work with that! She was also digging so that will be another one we can keep our eye on. With those alerts, an offered alert is great so we simply try not to discourage those behaviors in early stages. They can develop into some great alerts later.

I would also like to see you try giving her the verbal cue once and then let her work. Try this with the scent button. Give the cue, let her target it, click and reward. Chatter can become distracting and stressful for dogs. She IS working and being quite methodical so give her the time to do her job and figure it out. Besides, you won’t be able to catch your breath in the woods if you are repeating the verbal cue for the duration of a hunt

Lastly, when she is successful, let’s tell her! Make a big deal about how brilliant she is! Mark and reward and really try to interact with her a bit more. This will serve two purposes. One, it will help build value for the successes and excitement to find the truffle. Two, in the end, you and Fancy will be digging around trying to find a truffle underground. That takes time and you will need Fancy to stay engaged while you try to fine it. This can sometimes take several minutes. By partying with her now for these successes, you are showing her that when she finds the truffle, even more fun is in store (the digging and pinpointing a truffle WITH you). Truffles aren’t always very easy to see so often you will really need Fancy to be persistent and show you where it is.

She is off to a great start!!

[Alana McGee]

Thank you for the positive critique Kristin. I DO suffer a bit of angst training myself while training Fancy. I did feel like I jumped ahead a little too soon. I’ll go back to Day stage & cut out my chatter. I guess it’s a human trait, silence creating angst. I forget I don’t have to worry about making an impression with her. I’ll work on the enthusiasm when rewarding more. This is very fun and I should go step by step so it gets more ingrained. Will forge on slow but steady!

[Alana McGee]

Did not record yesterday Day 6 which involved hiding truffle tin in 3 different rooms which Fancy still found. Fancy is good with strategy and total recall & seems to retrace previous ‘find’ spots. I see her watching me place the tin and am concerned she’s cheating a bit by going straight to where I’ve stopped to conceal the tin. I see her trying to race me. Sorry my son Gabriel wasn’t home to record it. She’s very persistent and having a lot of fun. Tonight I kept it in the kitchen & TV area to try & stifle my dialogue to a minimum!

Sent from my iPad

[Alana McGee]

TDC:
Hi Launie!

Fancy looks like she is doing is great, and she will be a step ahead. Word of caution, slow down a bit.

Lesson 1 comes soon.

Work on your clicker timing and rewarding. When you press the clicker Fancy knows she did something ‘right’. HOWEVER she associates that ‘doing something right’ with the exact thing she is doing at that moment that you click it- regardless of what she did 2 seconds before hand- even though that is what you are attempting to reward. She is doing really really great, and so are you. Don’t get me wrong. You just want to be cognizant of the moment you press the clicker and have that actually be the ‘exact moment’ (or as close as possible) to the behavior you are trying to reward.

Practice having her sit. Only ask her once (you are much improved in only a day on that score). As soon as her bum touches the floor CLICK! and the reward. practice practice practice. Another useful drill to work on timing requires a tennis ball, no dog in the room, and goes like this:

Bounce the ball up and down. Practice clicking the moment the ball hits the floor. Practice Practice Practice. It can make a very big difference down the road to have timing down well when using clickers.

[Alana McGee]

Hi Alana,
When I had Fancy in Obedience class, it was me that always had a short lag between response and clicking so it was helpful to watch a couple of times the clicker training video. Also your video using the flower pots…duh, I have over a dozen of those kicking around and was using Rubbermaid containers which are annoying to handle. Thanks for the tip. Tonight we did a 15 mins hide and hunt but I know darn well she is watching where I go so I have to change the planting strategy! Therese Williams wrote today that Pat Hastings in Portland said Fancy was the best problem solver in litter evaluation. I did about 10-15 mins of toy toss to practice “drop it” and about 5 mins of sit for click/treat. My pickup time is getting smoother. I’m really glad you mentioned the dehydration after the exercises, I felt bad forgetting about that. Grateful for your reminder.

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