7. Just like it sounds, George had to start going & getting the ball from further & further away, and sometimes not that far away, I like to keep it random. George isn't tuned into the ball like some ball freaky dogs, so sometimes he just doesn't see it so we keep it light, no big deal, we'll just get it & move it a bit closer. We worked up to basically a 15 ft radius.
8. Again, pretty self explanatory. While I usually caution people that a moving or thrown ball is not the same as a flyball retrieve (it's not), this is about making the ball fun & unpredicatable, and cause fetch is fun & it's another way for George to interact with the ball. Again I'm working in basically a living room size room so the ball isn't ever terribly far away. At this point I start moving, once he gets it & turns, I take a step away from him, then a few more steps, then a jog away. This is important b/c I want to be able to run away from him and I'm just building up to that 1 step at a time. This is hard for dogs, often when they see movement they will often drop the ball at first, cause you are moving you have the reward! If he dropped it I just asked him to get his ball again & bring it w/ slightly less movement on my part.
9. So now he's picking up a ball, stationary or moving, so we take it on the road, we do it outside, in the training building, in the basement, in the garage, wherever to help solidfy that no matter where you are or what the distractions, the game is still the same. This is something that people tend to skip, or you hear "my dog does this at home but won't even look at a ball here!" Everytime I go to a new place, we start with very easy stuff, just pick up the ball right in front of you, then increase difficulty & I keep it mixed, sometimes it's a dead ball, sometimes it's thrown. I never try to trick him or hide the ball. If it rolls somewhere he's not going to immediately see, we just go get it. We worked up to him going about 50 ft to get a ball, then chasing me back with it about 75 ft. Good boy!
10. So, the next step, is that I take the white prop board and put the ball on the other side of it. Why? Because George is going to have to carry the ball over 4 hurdles, and the prop looks a lot like one. He's also going to have to jump over the prop & get a ball off the box, then jump back over that prop. So we start simple, he just needs to do a short retrieve with the prop in his way. I use my body to guide him over & back and only click for the retrieved balls that make it over the prop. He drops on the "box" side of the prop, no reward. If he'd been really struggling with this, I would have made the requirements easier, like pick up the ball, turn towards the jump, click. Luckily I didn't have to, but if you could literally shape this behavior that minutely.
So that's it, now you have a flyball dog.
Just kidding. Well you can at least see that George is progressing towards something more flyball like in this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVSw_AXWpyY
A few things of note from the video.
1. This was a hot, hot practice, literally, 85 plus high humidity. George is now in great physical shape and other than a slow start for box work, he really worked hard this practice. All these clips were shot sequentially, so he didn't wander off & take a nap or have a nice lay down between attempts, he was working hard! So was I! At this point his slowness is more related to him saying I'm not sure what you want vs not being in shape. So you see lazy & unmotivated, but I see a dog who doesn't want to be wrong & is showing me he's not confident in what I want.
2. In the first set of box work, we've gradually moved the carpet board up the box. By the end he's hitting the box w/ the carpet board at the same angle as the box. The next step is to take it away entirely. I do this with out a ball in cause I want him used to the slightly different sound & feel without having to worry about getting the ball.
3. For runbacks, the dog he's running against is my dog Nikki, she is very fast, ideally I'd pair him with a slower dog to try to build some race drive, but Nikki is the dog he MOST loves to chase and body slam playing in the yard. So for this exercise I'm not really looking for race drive, just that he stay focused on me while his favorite wrestling buddy is running. Which he did beautifully! The gating goes about 15 feet past the last hurdle, so he can certainly go chase her if he wanted to. We also moved the lanes closer together & that seemd to throw him off...see all the barriers & I moved the gating over. But as we kept going I was pulling the barriers & gating back away & he stayed on task. He usually does a better job staying in line for runbacks.
4. Best of all, you get to see the very first time I've combined step 10 with retrieving the ball off the box. We put the carpet board down low again, so that he had the best chance for success, then we moved it up slowly but not all the way up. I was more concerned w/ his confidence & success rate than getting the ball up to the ball hole area. He is again working with another dog and staying really focused, the dog is a total stranger to him. Good boy. You can see towards the end after a string of nice ball retrieves I cue him poorly & he drops the ball almost immediately after jumping the prop, the next attempt he is like cool, I don't have to bring the ball, so you can see how quickly stuff can fall apart. I just ignored this, he got no click, no treat & we tried again. The next time *I* remembered to tell him that 2nd cue..."bring it!" and then he brought it back to me. No reprimand, no big deal, my bad, try again dude! If you watch closely to this whole series you can also see him go from jump the prop, put head down, pick up ball, to jump prop aiming his head right for the ball. I've done this enough that I could see that while working him, but it takes a bit of experience to watch & see what you want develop. I also helped him smooth out his turn, by pushing into the lane with my body. George also seemed to enjoy having a whole chorus of "good boy" from my teammates. They all seem highly amused by George's training, I thank them for their support. Angelic you need to buy Skidmarkz a bottle of Margarita, Cuervo Gold preferably :)
Addendum:
We practiced again tonight & George was able to have the ball much higher, so we'll just keep building til he's going to have to grab the ball outta the box w/ no speed (ie the box isn't triggering). He also was doing a great job bringing the ball further & further, and not dropping it til I clicked. Once he's doing a nice turn with the ball in it's actual hole, we increase the speed once the dog is confident by increments, basically, 1/3 speed, 2/3 speed, full speed. Again this enables you to back chain, if it was too fast you slow it down again.
That's it for now. Squibby is doing super awesome, but that blog update will have to wait til tomorrow! And yes, I like to make numbered lists.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Top Secret Training Tool aka the GOB!
Let's see, I kinda left you hanging. So the GOB...
BTW, props to Laura Dallas who first mentioned this concept to me, about 2 years ago. Her idea that if the dog had to move a ball to get to something underneath was pure genius! This is the first time I've actually had the dog to attempt this with!
Still this can't possibly work right, I mean, seriously, it's a christmas ornament & a bowl.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=popT9Yv1mPs
Oh damn it did! Notice what I'm not doing? I'm not begging, I'm not flailing around motioning at the ball, I'm not saying much at all, just asking him to try again when he fails. He learns through failure and you gotta have the patience to let the dog try & fail, and not let it be the end of the world. Of course then you add more turkey ham to the bowl when the times get really rough and he rolls over & pretends he's dead.
So we did a lot of GOB work, with the nubby up, concept: pick up the thing, get a reward. The bowl kept him from dragging or pushing the GOB, I kept him from nudging it aside to get the food underneath. Almost immediately, I didn't allow him to get the treats himself out of the bowl, I doled out the treats. Probably the most key concept is that I never allowed him to get the GOB out of the bowl any other way than with his mouth. And reward heavily with high value treats (ie with lots of little bits of diced ham!).
Here is some more of George's first GOB work, it's not very exciting, but you get an idea that just b/c he figured it out, doesn't mean he's "got it" perfectly yet.
http://www.youtube.com/mcjayne#p/u/0/KWeCOqIBNcU
I know I read in an agility magazine that you go for a 80-90% success rate w/ a clicker. So when they do it right 90 times outta 100, you can consider it pretty solid. Dang, that's a lot of clicking! I guess my point is that just because a dog does it a few times, don't assume that they are solid & always be prepared to take a step back in training to make sure they really got it. Don't see it as a set back, but instead as a sign that the dog is telling they just don't understand yet, could you show them again?
Step 6, part b. So we played with the GOB, nubby up for a long time. It got easier & easier for George, you'd set the GOB in & he'd pull it right out. I phased out having treats in the bowl really quickly so the bowl became really only a reason to lift the GOB high. So it was time to up the ante. I flipped the GOB over, and it was just a round ball, granted it has a little texture to it, but it's bigger than a normal tennis ball. My hope was to switch to a tennis ball as soon as possible but of course we needed a bridge between the nice easy grab the nubby side of the GOB gave him, and a real tennis ball. It took him several attempts to actually open his mouth wider and get a grip on the non-nubby side of the GOB. Once he figured out how to do that we were golden! He quickly worked up to pulling the GOB out almost as soon as I put it in the bowl. Yeah!!
Step 6, part c. So that whole GOB thing...yeah well, we were done with the GOB. But here's the slick thing, he got the concept: pick up something, pick it up high, use your mouth, get a reward! So part c was simply putting a real tennis ball in the bowl & letting him ponder that. He figured that out so quickly it was just lovely. But then we were stuck for a long time, if I moved the ball out of the bowl & just had it on the ground he was totally befuddled, in the bowl, he'd instantly pick it up. So I alternated 1 time outta the bowl, then bowl disappears & I would cup the ball with my hand and have the back of my hand on the ground. It took a few tries but he started picking it up out of my hand, and then I was able to transition to just setting it on the ground in front of him. For several sessions we had to always start w/ the ball in the bowl, at least once then he'd retrieve it off the ground. That's okay by me, that's some really easy back chaining to do. After several more sessions w/ the bowl we phased it out completely & he was picking up the ball off the floor with no problems. Yeah!!
Steps 7-10 details will be blogged another day sadly.
Squibby!
Yeah you remember him right, I do every time I work with George cause Squibby makes it a lot easier on me. Nonetheless, he's still a young dog & he can meltdown just cause his little brain is overwhelmed.
Tug 4 Ball:
We humans spend a lot of time wiggling tugs for dogs, but we don't always explain to them that they are working to get the tug. I mean great the dog loves a tug, but will they work for it, will they do something specific to get the tug? So for Squibby, this video just shows that we are working the same concept as George is...minus the need for a GOB. For this I'm asking Squibby to go pick up a ball and then we'll have a nice game of tug as his reward. We've worked a fair amount of food for the ball, so I wanted to make sure he understood that picking up the ball could also lead to other rewards. This is also a training exercise that helps balance tug vs. ball drive. I'm making a big deal about the tug, not so much about getting the ball. In this case, I don't actually even care that he brings the ball to the tug, just that he go & pick it up, then we'll tug like crazy. Look the tug is more fun than the ball!
http://www.youtube.com/mcjayne#p/u/0/tgc-UGwGj3k
Bring me the Ball!
Hum, but the ball is really important in flyball, and this is why I'm working to balance how much Squibby loves both those things. I also think it's important that the dog understand that bringing the ball TO me is important. So this video shows not only just how awesome I can stop a rolling ball with my feet, but that I'm specifically rewarding a retrieve based on having him bring the ball to me, not just sorta near me. And a warning, this video is duller than most, but you can look for these nuances. IMHO there are two parts to a retrieve, you'll hear my two cues in the video, 1) Where is your ball (ie go find the ball) and 2) Bring the ball (duh). The nice thing about using a clicker to teach or hone a dog's retrieve is that they sort of naturally start holding the ball UNTIL they hear a click, so you can get them to bring you a ball a longer distance just by not clicking until they are closer to you. I also reinforce that by making them go pick up the ball if it's not close enough to me (and heavily reward dropped, then picked up & carried further balls). Even George has picked up on this skill. I don't make a big deal about it, just whoopsy, "where is your ball" to recue them to pick it up. We start small, with just bringing it a few inches, but you can clearly see that Squibby's got it, he's bringing it to almost the exact same spot each time. And he's getting very tiny rewards, but a lot of them for bringing the ball nice & close to me.
http://www.youtube.com/mcjayne#p/a/u/0/tlFa6vfhWpo
So that's it, a nice burst of blogging but sheez I'm tired & still have more video to edit, laundry to do, a lawn to mow, sigh.
BTW, props to Laura Dallas who first mentioned this concept to me, about 2 years ago. Her idea that if the dog had to move a ball to get to something underneath was pure genius! This is the first time I've actually had the dog to attempt this with!
Still this can't possibly work right, I mean, seriously, it's a christmas ornament & a bowl.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=popT9Yv1mPs
Oh damn it did! Notice what I'm not doing? I'm not begging, I'm not flailing around motioning at the ball, I'm not saying much at all, just asking him to try again when he fails. He learns through failure and you gotta have the patience to let the dog try & fail, and not let it be the end of the world. Of course then you add more turkey ham to the bowl when the times get really rough and he rolls over & pretends he's dead.
So we did a lot of GOB work, with the nubby up, concept: pick up the thing, get a reward. The bowl kept him from dragging or pushing the GOB, I kept him from nudging it aside to get the food underneath. Almost immediately, I didn't allow him to get the treats himself out of the bowl, I doled out the treats. Probably the most key concept is that I never allowed him to get the GOB out of the bowl any other way than with his mouth. And reward heavily with high value treats (ie with lots of little bits of diced ham!).
Here is some more of George's first GOB work, it's not very exciting, but you get an idea that just b/c he figured it out, doesn't mean he's "got it" perfectly yet.
http://www.youtube.com/mcjayne#p/u/0/KWeCOqIBNcU
I know I read in an agility magazine that you go for a 80-90% success rate w/ a clicker. So when they do it right 90 times outta 100, you can consider it pretty solid. Dang, that's a lot of clicking! I guess my point is that just because a dog does it a few times, don't assume that they are solid & always be prepared to take a step back in training to make sure they really got it. Don't see it as a set back, but instead as a sign that the dog is telling they just don't understand yet, could you show them again?
Step 6, part b. So we played with the GOB, nubby up for a long time. It got easier & easier for George, you'd set the GOB in & he'd pull it right out. I phased out having treats in the bowl really quickly so the bowl became really only a reason to lift the GOB high. So it was time to up the ante. I flipped the GOB over, and it was just a round ball, granted it has a little texture to it, but it's bigger than a normal tennis ball. My hope was to switch to a tennis ball as soon as possible but of course we needed a bridge between the nice easy grab the nubby side of the GOB gave him, and a real tennis ball. It took him several attempts to actually open his mouth wider and get a grip on the non-nubby side of the GOB. Once he figured out how to do that we were golden! He quickly worked up to pulling the GOB out almost as soon as I put it in the bowl. Yeah!!
Step 6, part c. So that whole GOB thing...yeah well, we were done with the GOB. But here's the slick thing, he got the concept: pick up something, pick it up high, use your mouth, get a reward! So part c was simply putting a real tennis ball in the bowl & letting him ponder that. He figured that out so quickly it was just lovely. But then we were stuck for a long time, if I moved the ball out of the bowl & just had it on the ground he was totally befuddled, in the bowl, he'd instantly pick it up. So I alternated 1 time outta the bowl, then bowl disappears & I would cup the ball with my hand and have the back of my hand on the ground. It took a few tries but he started picking it up out of my hand, and then I was able to transition to just setting it on the ground in front of him. For several sessions we had to always start w/ the ball in the bowl, at least once then he'd retrieve it off the ground. That's okay by me, that's some really easy back chaining to do. After several more sessions w/ the bowl we phased it out completely & he was picking up the ball off the floor with no problems. Yeah!!
Steps 7-10 details will be blogged another day sadly.
Squibby!
Yeah you remember him right, I do every time I work with George cause Squibby makes it a lot easier on me. Nonetheless, he's still a young dog & he can meltdown just cause his little brain is overwhelmed.
Tug 4 Ball:
We humans spend a lot of time wiggling tugs for dogs, but we don't always explain to them that they are working to get the tug. I mean great the dog loves a tug, but will they work for it, will they do something specific to get the tug? So for Squibby, this video just shows that we are working the same concept as George is...minus the need for a GOB. For this I'm asking Squibby to go pick up a ball and then we'll have a nice game of tug as his reward. We've worked a fair amount of food for the ball, so I wanted to make sure he understood that picking up the ball could also lead to other rewards. This is also a training exercise that helps balance tug vs. ball drive. I'm making a big deal about the tug, not so much about getting the ball. In this case, I don't actually even care that he brings the ball to the tug, just that he go & pick it up, then we'll tug like crazy. Look the tug is more fun than the ball!
http://www.youtube.com/mcjayne#p/u/0/tgc-UGwGj3k
Bring me the Ball!
Hum, but the ball is really important in flyball, and this is why I'm working to balance how much Squibby loves both those things. I also think it's important that the dog understand that bringing the ball TO me is important. So this video shows not only just how awesome I can stop a rolling ball with my feet, but that I'm specifically rewarding a retrieve based on having him bring the ball to me, not just sorta near me. And a warning, this video is duller than most, but you can look for these nuances. IMHO there are two parts to a retrieve, you'll hear my two cues in the video, 1) Where is your ball (ie go find the ball) and 2) Bring the ball (duh). The nice thing about using a clicker to teach or hone a dog's retrieve is that they sort of naturally start holding the ball UNTIL they hear a click, so you can get them to bring you a ball a longer distance just by not clicking until they are closer to you. I also reinforce that by making them go pick up the ball if it's not close enough to me (and heavily reward dropped, then picked up & carried further balls). Even George has picked up on this skill. I don't make a big deal about it, just whoopsy, "where is your ball" to recue them to pick it up. We start small, with just bringing it a few inches, but you can clearly see that Squibby's got it, he's bringing it to almost the exact same spot each time. And he's getting very tiny rewards, but a lot of them for bringing the ball nice & close to me.
http://www.youtube.com/mcjayne#p/a/u/0/tlFa6vfhWpo
So that's it, a nice burst of blogging but sheez I'm tired & still have more video to edit, laundry to do, a lawn to mow, sigh.
I am a bad blogger!
Well between visitors, mowing, and hot, hot weather, my training efforts got slowed down for about a week or so. My blogging efforts definitely got slowed down but training has been kicking along, it's just boring & repetitive training so it's dull to video. Well it's too hot to mow today so I'm going to get my blog on (and avoid doing laundry).
So what's been up.
Well I'll start by showing some video of both Squibby & George doing box work. Hum, it's old footage, but another step in the process anyway. http://www.youtube.com/mcjayne#p/u/0/6wye0csmET4
Squibby the Squibbler!
Squibby does a good job work for his tug, but we've struggled at team practices with the distraction of all the fun people & dogs he can visit. So he needs a lot more work on making flyball super fun & slowly increasing the level of distractions. Turns out flyball is played in a setting that's just chock full of distractions, but for a young dog this is something I would rather expect. Squibby however is currently in another foster home as Jo was watching a friends dog that I normally dog sit, and he wasn't thrilled with her social butterfly/playmaniac young dog. So we traded Squibby for Cisco until Cisco's owner gets back from vacation. Squibby is really happy there and is playing up a storm with her dog. So good to know he is exactly the same dog no matter what house he's in!
George of the Jungle!
George has lost weight & is in really nice shape. With his endurance and physical fitness in better shape he's been able to work for longer sessions, which is helpful. So aside from runbacks & box work our primary focus has been on ball work. It went like this:
Step 1
Look at ball, click reward
Step 2
Nose touch ball, click reward
Step 3
Open mouth a little while touching ball, click reward
Step 4
Nibble on ball, click reward
Step 5
Nibble a LOT on the ball, click reward
Step 6
Use teeth to pick up ball, click reward
Step 7
Pick up ball from further away, click reward
Step 8
Chase moving ball, pick it up, bring it back towards me, click reward
Step 9
Do step 8 in various locations, and ball placed further away and is stationary or moving.
Step 10
Jump over a jump and bring the ball back to me, click reward, and lots of rewards!
Yes folks it's just that easy, in only 10 steps he's getting the ball. Ha aha ha. Now for some details.
Step 1, easy, he looked at it, he got a click, reward
Step 2, still easy, touch it with your nose, get a reward, once they got this I start waiting for them to offer a double nose touch
Step 3, smear ball with gooey treat, he opens mouth to lick it off & gets a click reward and lots of them b/c the reward needs to be better than the goo on the ball. He really liked Step 3!
Step 4, ball now has a slit in it, and a treat is wedged in the slit, so he has to work to get the treat out (or further in the ball), and when his teeth make contact he got a click & rewards, again heavily rewarded b/c he's leaving another treat to get the reward. We worked a lot of Steps 3 & 4.
Step 5, George now has the concept: put teeth on ball, move teeth, get reward, so we stopped baiting the ball with anything tasty and he had to do it on a regular old ball. He got that quickly because in steps 3 & 4 he was consistently rewarded heavily for leaving the baited ball to get an even better reward. We did this A LOT, I have an immense amount of video of this, it bores me to fast forward thru it so just imagine lots of repetitions here. When he would consistently nibble, look at me and nibble some more, it was time to move on. Here is video of George ball nibbling.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97HzIqKSGRw
Step 6, Part a) I cheated. I have this ball toy that looks like a christmas ornament, it's got a nubby on one end so it makes for an easy thing to pick up. I then took a tiny bowl, and put the ornament ball into the cup...but the bottom of the bowl was filled with diced ham. Yummy. I kept a finger on the ornament ball (let's call it GOB for short), so that George couldn't nose or paw it out of the bowl. The only way to gain access to the ham was to put his teeth on it & pull it out. I let George problem solve his way thru that puzzle, and he figured out that he could easily bite on the nubby part and pull the GOB out of his way. At which point I clicked and he had full access to the ham in the bowl & I gave him additional ham bits. Repeat, although I only let him have the ham in the bowl about 5 times before I started clicking & making the only treats he got come from me & not the bowl (the focus is not the bowl's goodies, the GOB is the magical treat producing element!). If I had not had the GOB around, I would have rigged up a string or loop around the ball so he had something small to grab onto to pull the ball out of the bowl.
THE GOB!
I know you are thinking, this GOB thing is a total crock! It is barely a ball, but I am teaching a concept, not just to pick up a ball. And for a sensitive dog like George I wanted to make it as easy as possible to LIFT the GOB outta that bowl & get a reward. It meant I didn't have to fiddle around with a regular tennis ball for a long time til he opened his mouth super wide & shoved it in himself, then picked it up. You'll see, trust me, have a little faith in dog...
So what's been up.
Well I'll start by showing some video of both Squibby & George doing box work. Hum, it's old footage, but another step in the process anyway. http://www.youtube.com/mcjayne#p/u/0/6wye0csmET4
Squibby the Squibbler!
Squibby does a good job work for his tug, but we've struggled at team practices with the distraction of all the fun people & dogs he can visit. So he needs a lot more work on making flyball super fun & slowly increasing the level of distractions. Turns out flyball is played in a setting that's just chock full of distractions, but for a young dog this is something I would rather expect. Squibby however is currently in another foster home as Jo was watching a friends dog that I normally dog sit, and he wasn't thrilled with her social butterfly/playmaniac young dog. So we traded Squibby for Cisco until Cisco's owner gets back from vacation. Squibby is really happy there and is playing up a storm with her dog. So good to know he is exactly the same dog no matter what house he's in!
George of the Jungle!
George has lost weight & is in really nice shape. With his endurance and physical fitness in better shape he's been able to work for longer sessions, which is helpful. So aside from runbacks & box work our primary focus has been on ball work. It went like this:
Step 1
Look at ball, click reward
Step 2
Nose touch ball, click reward
Step 3
Open mouth a little while touching ball, click reward
Step 4
Nibble on ball, click reward
Step 5
Nibble a LOT on the ball, click reward
Step 6
Use teeth to pick up ball, click reward
Step 7
Pick up ball from further away, click reward
Step 8
Chase moving ball, pick it up, bring it back towards me, click reward
Step 9
Do step 8 in various locations, and ball placed further away and is stationary or moving.
Step 10
Jump over a jump and bring the ball back to me, click reward, and lots of rewards!
Yes folks it's just that easy, in only 10 steps he's getting the ball. Ha aha ha. Now for some details.
Step 1, easy, he looked at it, he got a click, reward
Step 2, still easy, touch it with your nose, get a reward, once they got this I start waiting for them to offer a double nose touch
Step 3, smear ball with gooey treat, he opens mouth to lick it off & gets a click reward and lots of them b/c the reward needs to be better than the goo on the ball. He really liked Step 3!
Step 4, ball now has a slit in it, and a treat is wedged in the slit, so he has to work to get the treat out (or further in the ball), and when his teeth make contact he got a click & rewards, again heavily rewarded b/c he's leaving another treat to get the reward. We worked a lot of Steps 3 & 4.
Step 5, George now has the concept: put teeth on ball, move teeth, get reward, so we stopped baiting the ball with anything tasty and he had to do it on a regular old ball. He got that quickly because in steps 3 & 4 he was consistently rewarded heavily for leaving the baited ball to get an even better reward. We did this A LOT, I have an immense amount of video of this, it bores me to fast forward thru it so just imagine lots of repetitions here. When he would consistently nibble, look at me and nibble some more, it was time to move on. Here is video of George ball nibbling.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97HzIqKSGRw
Step 6, Part a) I cheated. I have this ball toy that looks like a christmas ornament, it's got a nubby on one end so it makes for an easy thing to pick up. I then took a tiny bowl, and put the ornament ball into the cup...but the bottom of the bowl was filled with diced ham. Yummy. I kept a finger on the ornament ball (let's call it GOB for short), so that George couldn't nose or paw it out of the bowl. The only way to gain access to the ham was to put his teeth on it & pull it out. I let George problem solve his way thru that puzzle, and he figured out that he could easily bite on the nubby part and pull the GOB out of his way. At which point I clicked and he had full access to the ham in the bowl & I gave him additional ham bits. Repeat, although I only let him have the ham in the bowl about 5 times before I started clicking & making the only treats he got come from me & not the bowl (the focus is not the bowl's goodies, the GOB is the magical treat producing element!). If I had not had the GOB around, I would have rigged up a string or loop around the ball so he had something small to grab onto to pull the ball out of the bowl.
THE GOB!
I know you are thinking, this GOB thing is a total crock! It is barely a ball, but I am teaching a concept, not just to pick up a ball. And for a sensitive dog like George I wanted to make it as easy as possible to LIFT the GOB outta that bowl & get a reward. It meant I didn't have to fiddle around with a regular tennis ball for a long time til he opened his mouth super wide & shoved it in himself, then picked it up. You'll see, trust me, have a little faith in dog...
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