If I’m not mistaken, my reinforcer for the kibble recalls is liver in all the videos below (same value as chicken).
Container 3, location 1
I started on a long line. She reoriented as soon as she spotted the container – so I took a break to loop around the park and then set up in a different part of the park off leash!
Well done, puppy!
Container 3, location 2
Two days later at our toy play plaza. You go girl!
Container 3, location 3
Yet another park for our third location!
Session 1
In real time, I had the impression that Chai’s response was below baseline speed (even though it looks good on the video). To be on the safe side, I took a break and then did another session in a different part of the same park. (Note that my new Chai-tailored recall strategy is not like my distraction protocol: I get to take a break right away and then try in a different location.)
Session 2
After a 10 or 15 minute break; different location in the same park.
In the video above, Chai definitely turned on a dime! Achievement unlocked!
I’m calling this post iteration 5.2 because I made the new plan (5) after completing my work with the first container. It’s .2 because we are at level 2 (barrier).
If I’m not mistaken, the reinforcer from my hand in all the videos below is liver (same value as chicken).
After working through the first container challenge, I decided to try something new with Chai. Chai’s distraction recalls need to be handled with care: she is a worthy opponent with her own agenda, after all: the kind of dog I most love working with!
The new strategy:
+ 3 kibble containers in 3 outdoors locations – maybe the last one will be a metal cage thingy to mix it up. + Always reward with what’s IN the container. + If I don’t get an immediate recall response and a turn on a dime – take a 10-15 minute break and repeat in a different spot of the same park (my current plan diverges from the distraction tracker). + Once I’ve gone through 3 kibble containers in 3 locations – up the value of the distraction in the container and repeat. + Then, depending on how things are going, decide whether to up the value a second time OR lower the value and increase accessability.
August 2, 2023
Kibble container #2, location #1
To be on the safe side and since this is a new container, I started on a long line. LOVE this video! The subtitles will tell you why!
After park-officing some more, we repeated the challenge off leash:
August 3, 2023
Kibble container #2, location #2
I was going to office from another park today, but it didn’t have any good tables. So we just did a quick recall session and then moved on to a third park I could actually work from! Here’s our session from location #2 – the one that, unfortunately, isn’t officeable. Since yesterday went so well, I didn’t start with a long line today.
Kibble container #2, location #3
After officing outdoors for a bit, I set up for our third location – and again, Chai aced it! I love how she is starting to expect me to help her get to the food. What a difference from the very first container (the one I secured with tape) that she treated like a food toy!
In the video above, Chai spins on a dime when I call but then basically freezes in place until I tongue click. It’s a little hard to see what’s going on because my tongue click is almost inaudible over the background noise. In any case, I am counting this as a success but will slowly move the click further and further from the moment of reorientation towards her moving in my direction if I see this happening in the future. It didn’t in location #2, so I’m not concerned. You never know with this clever puppy though!
I’ve decided to chute back down to distraction B (a bag that used to have food in it) at the barrier level (level 2) in the house and build back up from there. I’ll skip distraction A (empty plate) and work with only B (bag that used to have food in it) and C (kibble) instead. I’m calling this recall round 3.2 because it’s the 3rd “new attempt” and I’m starting at level 2 (the barrier/helper stage). The drawing board I went back to after this session says:
I’d worry about all things off leash and barrier free after working through this new barrier plan. I excluded the empty plate – wasn’t it beneath Chai already? Let’s find out!
July 15, 2023: single rep success at the barrier level (level 2) in the house!
Paper bag (intermediate distracton) in plastic container
Kibble (difficult distraction) in plastic container
For now, at round 3 of our distraction adventures, I’ve decided to let Chai check out the barrier, but not provide her with access. For now.
July 16, 2023: the roof, the roof, the roof has distractions …
In the two videos below you’ll see me move towards the distraction to celebrate with Chai rather than away from it (as I recommend you do when working on recalls with your own dog). The reason I move towards the distractions is that I want our reward celebrations to be on camera, and that’s the only way to make that happen since we’re coming around a corner.
Chai does a lovely job with distraction B, the paper bag in the plastic container (barrier):
The next session, we’ll move on to distraction C: kibble in the plastic container! Being good students of my recall protocol, we took a break of personal play and relaxation on the roof before setting up the next challenge:
Chai was being a superstar again! Go puppy! (Once more, my smart student is setting me up for an extinction burst in the future. She knows how reinforcing recall success is for me …!)1
Level 2 (barrier) at the park!
Riding my wave of success, headed back outside in the late afternoon for real-world recalls at the barrier level:
This wasn’t a single-rep success session: I quickly tethered Chai after getting distance with my treat tosses, returned to the camera to reposition the kibble box and then returned to Chai to release her for the second rep of what would end up being the 2-rep session from the video above. We then took a break for some park fun … and had a new session about 15 minutes later:
Single-rep success! And on that note, we called it a successful day! Only distraction C at the park is left, and we’ll test out of the barrier stage again (third time’s a charm?)
July 17, 2023: third time IS a charm this time! Single-rep success on kibble in the plastic box at the park!
I’ve taped the container to make sure Chai can’t get to it, and upped my first reinforcer to an entire handful of chicken.
Single-rep success! We tested out of the barrier level! Go puppieeee!
I’ve completed the barrier plan I made. Now it’s time to go back to our headquarters and figure out how to proceed … our goal, after all, is still off-leash recalls away from unprotected distractions. And I know that Chai is a powerful strategist – as am I! (Insert suspensful music!)
Just joking, of course. She is a dog, not a cunning human! ↩︎
Well, well, well. No, I have still not printed my distraction tracker. No, I do not practice what I preach and keep my 3 environments the same at all 3 levels (level 1: long line; level 2: barrier/helper; level 3: off leash). I was aware of the latter but thought Chai could do it anyways. I was NOT aware of skipping yet another 6 steps, which is both wild and wildly amusing.
Future me chiming in from bird eye’s view:
Check marks are for the achievements Chai has unlocked, strike-through text for the steps I am skipping and the green arrow for what I’m trying on July 1st’s first park session below:
I’m about to skip 6 steps!
July 1, 2023 – off leash unprotected kibble distraction at the first park we already failed at.
Our most difficult distraction, and I just go for it! Watch me crash and burn entertain you and Chai, smart and pragmatic as always, enjoy her pre-recall kibble snack! Who knows where my brain cells are off to. Well, I know where they are off to but seriously – I’d expect to be able to keep all things recall straight anyways! Instead, I’m being hilarious these days. (Nobody’s perfect, dog trainers are just as human as everyone else etc. – I’m sharing this because some students are intimidated by professional trainers when really, there’s no reason to. If your trainer only shows you perfect sessions, that’s not because they only have perfect sessions but because they only show you those. I promise! Our humanness never goes away, no matter how long we’ve been in the field. We all have days where other things are at the forefront of our minds – no matter how much we love our dogs and their training! Personally, I think that’s a good thing. It keeps us humble and it makes for good laughs! So here you go!)
What do you think my rogue self did next? Nope, I didn’t go back to practice unprotected distractions in the house and on the roof. Instead, I got my helper to help and stuck with this very same distraction in this very same location:
Off leash kibble recalls at the park with a human helper (level 2 – barrier/helper)
Here are the next few sessions/reps Zane and I did. In the video below, Chai does exactly what I expected her to do: because she got the kibble in the previous session, she tries again:
We repeat the same set-up. I thought Chai would try again – but no: this puppy learns FAST and has already made the connection that Zane’s presence means there is no point in trying to get the kibble right away! Smart and pragmatic is a dangerous (and dangerously fun) combination!
Chai does well when Zane squats near the kibble plate
This gives me an idea about how to proceed: what if I gradually faded my helper rather than going from recalls with a helper right to recalls without one?
Fading my distraction recall helper at the off-leash kibble stage at the park: 1st step
NICE! Next, I’ll ask Zane to squat just a little further from the kibble …
Fading my helper: 2nd step
Superpuppy! Now I’ll ask Zane to stay at the same distance, but stand up rather than squatting. Gradually changing the picture for Chai …
Fading my helper: Zane stands up
Go Chai! Upwards and onwards: let’s ask Zane to move further back still …
Fading my helper: Zane moves further away from the kibble
Most excellent puppy! (See what Chai is doing here? She is building my trust back up at the same rate that I’m fading my helper. “Patience, grasshopper,” she tells herself. “You’ve got this. You’ll be eating out of your human’s hand again in no time!” This puppy has a master plan!)1
Fading the helper: Zane moves back EVEN further!
Unfortunately, Chai running towards the distraction is out of frame … but you can see her response! Go puppy!
Zane moves further back still – and we need to end the session due to an incessantly barking Dachshund
It’s a shame we had to end here – I would have loved to fade Zane all the way off the stage space and then try again without a helper in this location. Alas – not today! Zane was relieved from his helper duties and I, riding the wave of success, kept going in a bark-free spot of the same park against better knowledge.
No helper – empty plate. Same park, different spot.
Zane headed back to the apartment and I went to a different spot in the park, far from the barky Dachshund. My goal was still to work up to unprotected kibble recalls. I rounded up enough brain cells to start over with an empty plate in the new location: I didn’t want to make both criteria harder at once (new location AND no helper who might pick up the plate). Even though Chai had worked hard to re-build my trust, I wasn’t quite there yet … and as it turns out, that was wise:
Have I mentioned this puppy is whip smart? She knew Zane was gone, saw a plate and would have gone for it. A moment after my recall she realized the plate was empty and turned around to come back to me. I repeated the empty-plate recall in this second location one more time:
After this rep, I made the smart decision to end for the day. Back to the drawing board! I need to think about how to outsmart my puppy … And it’s finally dawning on me that I skipped steps! (It’s humbling to be a student of your own recall protocol and realize that you, too, very much need to print it out or become a person who checks things off digitally.)
Chai had shown me that she was not going to recall away from unprotected kibble in the park at this point! Her motto: “If you see something you might be able to eat – eat it!”
Back to the drawing board I go … let’s see what I’ll cook up next!
I know, of course, that dogs don’t have master plans. If you know me, you’ll know that. But in case you just stumbled across my blog and started reading here, I’m pointing out that this is a joke. ↩︎
After having succeeded outdoors, I stuck to the plan this time – hence the title: round 2 (the 2nd stab at distraction recalls) .3 (level 3: off leash) in our first location with our first distraction.
FUTURE ME CHIMING IN HERE FROM A BIRD’S EYE VIEW:
Steps we have already tested out of are indicated by a check mark, past steps I skipped are crossed out and the steps I am tackling in this post have a green arrow in front of them. Future steps have a square:
Off leash recall away from an empty plate in the house
Reinforcer: a piece of cooked chicken from my hand and “okay” release to check out the distraction.
Extracalifragilisticexpialidocious! Upwards and onwards: distraction #2 – the bag. I didn’t have the paper bag anymore and used a plastic bag that used to have pastries in it instead:
Off leash recall away from empty plastic bag in the house
Chai nailed this distraction as well! Go puppy!
According to my notes, I did not trust that Chai would recall away from kibble off leash. I did not take video, but this is what my notes say:
Long line recall away from kibble in the house
I wanted to go back a step due to my faux pas the other day where I skipped a few steps and she got the kibble. My helper was still working and I don’t have a barrier other than him, so I went back to a long line. And indeed: she hit the end two (or was it three?) times before we could end on a success: recall on a loose long line, chicken from my hand and release to eat the kibble.
So we did end on a success … but not at the off leash (level 3) stage.
July 1, 2023: revisiting the barrier/helper level (level 2)
I had my helper back and revisited the barrier stage with Chai off leash and Zane protecting the most difficult distraction – kibble – in the house. She nailed it on her first attempt! (No video.)
Next, we went up to the roof for an off-leash kibble recall with Zane ready to pick up the kibble plate: by now, I had realized I hadn’t done the barrier level for kibble on the roof the last time.
It took two sessions with a break in between: Zane had to lift the kibble plate in the first rep of the first session. In rep #2, Chai nailed it. We took a recall games break and then had another helper session, getting a single-rep success on the roof (no video).
At this point, future me with his bird eye’s view can proudly show you the following table:
Yay – no more skipped steps! But will I remember that I haven’t yet worked on off-leash kibble in the living room? Stay tuned to find out …
I haven’t gone off the rails yet – still sticking to the distraction recall tracker (apart from the fact that the leash tightened for distraction #1 at the park and I did not repeat that session). So for the most part – good dog trainer, C! Click and treat!
Yesterday, we tested out of level 1 and are now at level 2 of my distraction protocol – the barrier/helper stage: the dog will be off leash and the 3 distractions in their 3 environments either behind a barrier or being protected by a helper who is ready to cover or pick them up. Zane agreed to be the guardian of my distractions. Sunday morning, we tackled Chai’s easy distraction – the empty plate – in our first (easiest) environment: the living room.
We took a brief break and moved on to distraction #2 – the paper bag:
This session looked even better than the previous one where Chai had every-so-briefly hesitated (which I ever-so-nonchalantly ignored): now she was sure I had chicken, and nothing (she knew of) beat chicken!
Upwards and onwards – distraction #3, the most difficult one! Kibble! What do you think is about to happen? Take a guess; then let’s find out:
Did you think I would crash and burn? Not at all! The master of puppyteers is lulling me in a false sense of security all the while concocting The Master Plan below her dark sunglasses deceptively big ears. She’s a poker player drawing me in with puppy dog eyes: she is letting me win and win again. She is pushing stacks of chips neurotransmitters, hormones and endorphines of proud dogtrainerness across the table: “I am anticipating your every wish! You can trust me, C. Would a creature as cute and perfectly eared as I ever eat your kibble? We are a team. You are my ride or die. Sunsets! And something about stealing horses in your native language! Raise the stakes, C! GO ALL IN! It is going to be a glorious day.”
Urban art clue #6: our art piece is located on one of the sides of a triangle formed by two major highway-ish streets (the a and b sides of the triangle) that appear yellow in the “map” or “terrain” view of Google Maps, and by one smaller street (the c side of the triangle). My triangle sides may not be properly named, but I’m the one naming them, so you’ll all just have to live with it. Triangle anarchy! 🏴☠️
Next stop: the roof of our apartment building! We’re off to a strong start with the empty plate. (The reason no one here is running full speed is the fact that it is HOT!)
Upwards and onwards: intermediate distraction on the roof – the paper bag!
This went so well – after a break, we head back for our third and most difficult challenge in the intermediate environment: kibble!
At first sight, the video above looks great: Chai recalled, didn’t she? Well – yes and no. Watch again! At 00:11, she does a double take. I should not count this as a win, but repeat the session. I saw the double take in real time and again when reviewing the video. And then I said to myself: you know what, she is doing SO well – nevermind that little hesitation. Oh, past C, my friend! Future C smiles at you and shakes his head. You lowered your guard! You don’t know it yet, past C – but nothing escapes the twentythird sense of The Border Collie. She won’t let that one slide …
Urban art clue #4: it IS in one of the neighborhoods that have more than one part (when I say parts, I mean the equivalent of Upper, Lower and Midtown Manhattan.)
+ Today, I upped the difficulty level of Chai’s formal recall (“Schnee”) in real life situations at UNAM – so I upped the reinforcer accordingly: hotdogs for the win! Chai loved them and had A LOT. (Up until now, she’s only worked for kibble.)
A check in and a relatively easy whistle recall – kibble for check-ins, hot dogs for our 2-dog whistle recall:
+ An UNAM student offered the back of their hand for Chai to sniff and then touched the back of her head – and she didn’t mind! Wow, puppy! You are being so brave with random strangers!
Below, Chrissi being overconfident in one of their recalls, the stranger reaching for Chai, meeting a dog and lots of exploring! Come join aus at Las Islas:
… after seeing me use “Schnee” in a situation that was clearly too hard (The Popcorn Incident), below is an appropriate recall level for formal recalls rewarded with hotdogs: Chai is running the other way when I call. Not suuuper easy and not too hard either.
Game comes back too because she loves hotdogs – but every dog only gets them on their own recall cue or the multi-dog cue (whistle). Sorry, Game!
+ Chai mastered going up and down the see-through stairs at UNAM!
UNAM fun with Game. I love the color of bougainvilleas!
+ Chai saw lots of umbrellas and rain gear because it started raining as we were there!
+ The wind picked up too, and Chai startled seeing the big flag blow in the wind, and then had a similar reaction to a poster being moved by the wind. She quickly got over the poster, and we walked up to the UNAM flag to see it wasn’t a monster. Chai was able to quickly shake off both startles! I love a puppy with a good bounce-back!
I happened to take a picture right at Chai’s poster startle moment. You can’t see the poster – it’s up and to the right. Imagine a straight line going up from Game’s butt to the edge of the wall. That’s where the poster is.
Going right up to the previously scary flag blowing in the wind!(Actually, the wind must have picked up before the rain started: I can see in the pictures that the ground is still dry.)
+ Game peed outside twice after Game pooped and once completely independently! Go puppy! Spending lots of time outside and in one area (that becomes boring/familiar over time) certainly helps remind Chai that maybe she’d like to pee! So does Game who is still the best role model for outside toiletry.
+ I picked Chai up and rode the scary elevator with her in my arms twice.
+ Husbandry: “Brush!”, and “Claws!” on the right back paw. (I thought I’d spread out her paw husbandry over the week now that we’re settling back into some sort of everyday life.)
She actually didn’t eat any kibble even though my recall happened late – she just touched it and then turned on a dime right as I called. I waited till the last millisecond to call her this morning, hoping she’d choose to do an auto-return! But … not yet. Let’s see what tonight holds in store for us!
Session 2, dinner in location 2:
A relatively slow approach the first time (trotting rather than running). However, this doesn’t necessarily mean anything. We’ve had an active day of hiking and training. No auto-return – so we will change gears!
I might take a day off this project as I think up the next strategy I want to use (and ponder where I want to take this behavior, and whether I want to keep working on it). I’ll keep you updated! Btw, what I say in the end is that Game just had a street meal, not a straight meal. No straight meals for anyone – streetfood only! This little town has the best Quesadillas I’ve had in all of Mexico!
