#2on2off

[twobigears]

**2on/2off Part 2 now available!**

Part 2 is a longer video. It contains a lot of material that I wanted to keep together. All of these pieces are important to the process and I think leaving some of them for a later video would create unfortunate gaps and questions.

Plus....these early steps are perhaps the biggest foundation pieces for independent stopped contacts. There is still a lot more to come, but in my experience, most problems with stopped contacts at all levels can be traced to errors in this section. 🙂

In this video:

Plank setup

Problems with pre-placing food bait on the target

Plank Step 1a: no handler motion--Plank Step 1b: motion is not the release cue

Plank Step 1c: food is not the release cue

Progressing and naming the 2on/2off

Troubleshooting these steps

Once again, this isn't the only way to train stopped contacts. It's just how I train it right now. 😉 However you train it, I hope you'll take away some helpful tips!

[twobigears]

Back to our 2on2off after slacking on it for a while. And that's okay, because putting in the effort on the early steps pays off and Blizzard is progressing quickly now. :) She is showing great independence from handler motion and position. I am juuust starting to add a new challenge and transition to pre-placed reward/reduce rewards in position by occasionally dropping the lotus ball before saying anything else or feeding in position (only in one rep here).

[twobigears]

Something fun! Running the dogwalk with Blizzard. I want her to be comfortable moving and running over the dogwalk before we add the criteria of the 2on2off on the end. I use a hoop at the end just to prevent crazy leaps, it doesn’t really teach her any sort of end criteria.

[twobigears]

Training Tuesday! Reinforcing Stopped Contacts

Changing the location of reinforcement for stopped contacts from in-position to out-of-position sounds counterintuitive, but it works. Releasing forward to a reward reduces dependence on the handler since the handler doesn't need to move close to the dog to deliver the reward. It also helps reduce problems like curling or stopping sideways by keeping the dog's focus forward.

And most importantly, it's a big piece in creating a ring-sustainable behavior. Dogs who are frequently rewarded in-position in training often lose their stopped contact behavior with the absence of those reinforcers in trials. Associating the release with reward in training strengthens the behavior for trials.

Chandra here is retraining from a bang-and-go to 2on/2off on the teeter. We're still working some of the pieces, and front-crossing is a particular challenge for her to think about, especially with the pre-placed toy. :)

facebook.com/beyonddogtrainingco

[twobigears]

Plan: put toy at end of dogwalk before Chandra enters the building and see if she has enough control to stop at the sight of the surprise toy. I think she does since she's very good when she knows the toy is there or she knows I'm not carrying a toy, but we haven't tried a surprise toy pre-placed yet.

Reality: Chandra doesn't even see the toy and reminds me that layering with the dogwalk is still Very Hard.

Silly trainer didn't even think about the layering aspect and I know that is hard for her. More pieces to work on!

[twobigears]

More 2on2off because that’s about all I’m bothered to video lately. I was recently reminded that if a dog is struggling with a particular difficulty with a behavior (e.g. 2o2o on the competition ring for Chandra), go back to easier levels and increase the challenge there. It’s not like I didn’t know this, I just...needed reminded??? And we have been working a lot of pieces with the 2o2o, still just missing some to get consistency in competition.

Stopping with a stationary toy pre-placed in front is challenging for Chandra. It’s a hard piece by itself. Added to Chandra’s history of a running dogwalk with toy out front, it’s even harder for her. But she is getting a lot better at it.

Today was also the first time she was able to stop on the end while I threw the toy (last rep). She is good at stopping and waiting if I throw the toy after she stops, but it was very hard for her to stop if I threw the toy while she was still moving. We only did one session on that a few weeks ago because it was too hard and frustrating, but it is a piece we need to work on. I decreased the difficulty by starting her close to the end (decreasing distance and speed), not adding my motion, and gently tossing the toy. Proud of Chandra for doing it, this was previously a struggle that caused a lot of frustration for her!