The title of this iteration is 6L3: 1/2.0/3.B: 6th training plan adaptation, 3rd location (L3), levels 1 (holding on to long line), 2.0 (back tie) and 3 (off leash) with distraction B (kibble). Slow and steady wins the race!
The day before yesterday, Chai had an easy taco recall at the Urban Enrichment Jungle. Today, we are back to the first distraction session in our third location: Kiba’s Park!
October 5, 2023: first session in location 3
We’ll start out with holding the long line in my hands. I’ve got a taco de canasta con chicharrón ready and will release Chai to the intermediate distraction (kibble) by dropping the long line after a successful recall. Let’s see how things go today!
Success!
Our next recall will be an easy taco one, followed by one with the distraction in the exact same location at Kiba’s Park … and a backtie! Slowly and steadily, we are getting closer to our highest value distraction!
October 7, 2023: back-tie success!
After yesterday’s easy taco recall at Toy Play Plaza (no video), today, it was time for the back-tie distraction recall! Chai knew this was a set-up but she didn’t know exactly where it was:
You can’t see the back tie – but it stayed loose! Go puppy!
I should do the easy taco recall tomorrow in the same space since there will be no empty target session this time! And then … off leash!
October 9, 2023: intermediate distraction off leash in location 3/3 – success!!!
Chai got an easy taco recall at the Dead Poultry Park yesterday, and today, I picked up 3 freshly made tacos de canasta de chicharrón and we tackled our last stop in the intermediate distraction recall stage: off leash, unprotected intermediate distraction (kibble), location 3 with the first taco. She did it!!! Another easy taco recall next, and then we’ll be ready to start with – drumroll – DIFFICULT distractions!
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. ↩︎
Chai has a good recall away from dogs, even out of full-on play. Only Kiba is different: Kiba is Chai’s best friend. She is only a month older and they have the same play style.
Chai is able to recall … But only once they have played and Chai has satiated on Kiba. When she first sees her and hasn’t yet had an opportunity to play, she cannot currently respond when I call.
I love a good challenge, so I’m going to work up to recalls away from Kiba before Chai has had a chance to say hi!
June 12, 2023
Here, I’m trying an informal recall on leash: I will use the leash to stop Chai if she doesn’t respond. I will wait her out if she doesn’t respond and then “okay” release and drop the leash. Only once I get her to recall on “Pup-pup-pup” alone do I want to try and use her formal recall cue. That’s the plan for now anyways!
There were a two or three more recalls between June 12 and July 22 that I didn’t record and didn’t take notes on … And sadly, all I remember is that I did not get Chai to respond on Pup-pup-pup on the pink long line. Picking back up with a video on July 22:
July 22, 2023
Today, I decided to try a shaping approach: I would simply wait Chai out, release with “Okay!” and drop the leash as soon as she reoriented, weight-shifted or moved an ear back towards me. Well – I did, and Chai said, “Now what?”
Next time, I’ll either run up to Kiba together with Chai or call her when she checks in rather than releasing her right away: check in – recall – tongue click – chicken – “Okay!”
I don’t want to introduce that “Now what?” confusion into our recall!
Is one of the above options better or worse than the other one? No, they are simply different. Go with your gut if working on a similar challenge with your own dog!
July 24, 2023
I botched today’s training plan even though I went over it in my head before getting to the park: Alan and Kiba were late, so Chai and I worked on positions and personal play first. When our friends suddenly came around around the corner, I barely had time to hit record on my phone … And I ended up repeating yesterday’s session rather than doing what I actually wanted to do, which was call Chai when she reoriented. Anyways, here’s the video! Looking a bit better than yesterday, so we’ll take it as a win either way! And next time, I will call her!
My challenge: I only get a single recall to practice this because once the two Border Collies have had a chance to greet each other, I can call Chai without problems. The challenge is before they’ve said hi to each other! We’ll try again Wednesday.
July 26, 2023
I stuck to the training plan today, called “Schnee” as soon as Chai reoriented, got THE most enthusiastic response and ran back to Kiba together with her. I had planned on using my informal recall cue but the formal one came out of my mouth instead. It worked though – so all good!
Finally, things went (almost) according to plan … and I did not record it. Sad face. I’ll repeat the same step another time to get a video.
Today’s single salvageable picture of a great session isn’t very helpful!
August 3, 2023
Off leash Kiba and off leash Chai met at the park today. We hadn’t planned for it, but I felt optimistic, had chicken ready because we had just practice a food distraction recall, and just went with it! I used my formal recall cue (“Schnee!”) since it had worked so well the last time and Chai spun right around from running up to greet her friend, came back for her handful of chicken and then enjoyed a good play session. WE DID IT! I’ll repeat the exercise to get video proof. But oh-SO-proud of my girl!
Some pics from after the recall and after they played – by now, I had had time to get out my phone!Happy pups!
August 23, 2023 (the date in the video thumbnail is wrong)
FINALLY, I got my formal recall away from Kiba on video! Chai saw Kiba – checked in with me – looked at Kiba again – recalled on “Schnee” and got a piece of liver before being “okay”-released to play with her friend! SO proud of my puppy! (And SO grateful for these two friends – this human and his dog – and the fact that I can count on them unconditionally and for much more than just training dogs. Thank you, Alan.)
September 8, 2023: using the opportunity for another formal off-leash recall before saying hi to Kiba
I used today’s play-and-training-and-catching-up meet up for another recall away from Kiba before the dogs had a chance to say hi. I reinforced with liver and okay-released Chai to play.
You’ll see in this clip that recalling away from Kiba has become easy for Chai: as she’s growing up, she’s getting less playful which makes Kiba less of a difficult distraction than she used to be. Good girl, Chai. Sooner or later, I’ll have to stop calling you a puppy!
This video concludes the Kiba recall series! Recalling away from her bestie has turned into a walk in the – literal – park for Chai!
San Marcos La Laguna is teeming with free-roaming chickens. They are in the streets, they are in the yards, they are behind fences and outside of fences. Roosters cockadoodledoo all night, and chickens, big and small, enjoy their life (until they don’t).
Where we used to live for the past 2.5 years, there was one trail that led past chickens and turkeys. My dogs initially craved a bite or two, but soon learned to walk past without giving it much thought. They accepted that killing chickens just wasn’t in the cards for them.
When we got to San Marcos la Laguna – the first stop of our slow travel road trip – Game showed me she had generalized her walking-past-chickens skills. I walked her off leash, and she was great at strolling past chickens without paying attention to them. Until The Day That Changed Everything.
The Day That Changed Everything
Our morning walk to the lake led us past a metal gate with a gap below, just tall enough for a chicklet to squeeze out into the street. One morning, we were walking past the gate as usual, minding our own business, when a little chicklet ducked under the gate, and tried to cross the f*ing road. By the time I noticed the wee bird, it had strolled right under Game’s muzzle. “What’s that?” Smack! Game lowered her Baskerville-muzzled nose, and that chicklet’s road-crossing intentions were cut short. Game was delighted! Who knew that smashing down your muzzle makes the little feather toys stop moving! So much power! So much fun!
(I found the owner, apologized, and paid the equivalent of US$15 dollars for the chicklet. Yes, that’s certainly the price of a whole flock of grown chickens, but I’d have paid twice as much, too. It was my fault; I certainly deserved the financial punishment.)
Game is a smart dog capable of single-event learning. Going forwards, she didn’t look at chickens like she used to (the way she looks at furniture: boring; whatever). She now looked at chickens – big and small, black and white and brown and red and stripey, egg-laying or cockadoodledoing – like this:
A recall challenge
I wanted to continue having Game off leash in this town of free-roaming fowl. I was only going to stay for a few weeks, but I have never met a recall challenge I didn’t like. I could, of course, also have made this a “leave it” challenge – most trainers probably would; “leave it” seems more intuitive in this context. But recalls are my thing, so that’s what I went with.
I remembered an interesting episode from The Canine Paradigm: Episode 22 – Greyhound Versus Cat. In this episode, Pat modifies the prey drive of his sister’s newly adopted Greyhound to keep him from eliminating the family cat. Pat doesn’t approach this as a recall issue – but his training intrigued me, and I decided to use my chicken challenge to try something similar.
If you haven’t listened to the Greyhound Versus Cat episode on the Canine Paradigm – do so before reading on! Pat’s story will help you understand what I am doing in the videos below. It’s also a great podcast episode. I wouldn’t do it justice by trying to summarize it – just check it out yourself. And in the unlikely case that you haven’t heard of The Canine Paradigm before, get ready to add a new podcast to your personal favorites!
So many new things to try!
I had never used existential food to convince a dog not to chase a prey animal. While I train with kibble a lot in everyday life, I’d generally use higher value reinforcers for something as difficult as a recall away from a chicken. I have also never fed an entire meal after a single click.
Would a large amount of food make up for its lower value (kibble is low value, but an entire meal is a big reward)? Would Game be able to eat an entire meal without lifting her head, and thinking chicken thoughts, right away? Or would it take a while for her to learn that interrupting the behavior of eating caused the restaurant to close? I couldn’t wait to find out.
The Game plan, part 1
I came up with the following rules:
Game was going to earn both her daily meals – breakfast and dinner – for chicken recalls.
For a single chicken recall, she would receive an entire meal.
If she stopped eating (i.e. lifted her head), I’d take away the food.
The next opportunity to eat would only come around at the following mealtime, which, again, would happen in a chicken context.
Session #1
Criteria: No recall cue. I’ll click for her choice to reorient to me after figuring out she can’t get to the chicken.
Session #3 or #4:
Criteria: I’m adding a recall cue, but will reward her even if the leash tightens before she comes back. (I will require the leash to stay loose a few sessions further down the line.)
An unexpected injury
While we were training our way through the chicken challenge, Game hurt herself (she’s a head-through-the-wall kind of dog – it happens surprisingly often). I put her on limited activity for a week. No running, no playing, no training – except for her two daily short leash walks culminating in a chicken recall at meal time.
Session #5ish
Criteria: same criteria as the previous session.
You can see greater intensity and arousal in the video below: if Game’s exercise needs aren’t being met, she turns into a little maniac. She REALLY wants to go for that rooster, and she can’t finish her meal (I learn that if she’s on limited activity, this protocol is setting her up to fail):
My stubbornness pays off!
I stuck with the protocol though, and got to a place where the line would stay loose between the recall and Game returning to me for an uninterrupted meal. (There’s some sessions that I didn’t record.)
Upping the ante: off leash; chickens kept safe behind a fence
Once Game could reliably recall away from chickens without tightening a leash or long line, I found a place she could be off leash, with the chickens safe on the other side of a fence.
Session 10ish:
The rep below is not perfect – you can see Game hesitate before responding; then she realizes there’s no way to get across the fence and comes back. If there had been no fence, the session below would have resulted in a fatality.
Session 11ish:
This one is better: there is the tiniest hesitation (I know what her whiplash turn-on-a-dime-s look like, and this isn’t quite it – but she’s almost got it):
… and we did it: by the subsequent session, I got that perfect turn on a dime with the chickens behind a fence!
The Game plan, part 2: off leash Game with unprotected chickens!
It was time to get some chickens of my own, and up the ante: I wanted to try this off leash and without a fence, and I wasn’t going to subject someone else’s chickens to this experiment.
I LOVE environmental rewards, and I couldn’t resist the temptation to integrate them into the second part of my training plan (here’s where my plan wildly diverges from what Pat Stuart did with his sister’s Greyhound: no cats were going to be harmed in Pat’s training! The questionable ethics you are about to read about are entirely my own.)
The morality of it all
I have no qualms about eating meat, or feeding my dogs meat, and I also have no issues with (quickly) killing an animal in order to eat it. (I do have issues with livestock or wildlife being killed for reasons other than eating.)
I planned on getting two chickens (that way, I’d be able to have at least two reps, even if the first one didn’t go as planned). I’d use the chickens in my training, and then we would eat them. First, I would recall Game away from a chicken in a crate, and reinforce with her usual meal. Then, I’d recall her away from the same chicken outside of the crate, and reinforce with a release to run back and kill the chicken. (I decided that being quickly killed by a dog is no more inhumane than being killed by me, the human. The chicken was going to die and be eaten either way, so using it as a reinforcer seemed morally acceptable to my pragmatic self.)
I was particularly curious about how this experience would translate to the chickens we met in the street: would Game be more likely to engage with me in order to earn that once-in-a-million jackpot of killing (my theory was that she would), or would she become more likely to try and kill on her own time (my theory was that she wouldn’t)? I was determined to find out!
Time to purchase some chickens
I had to run an errand in Antigua, a city some 150km from San Marcos. It was the perfect place to buy chickens from someone I would never see again. I went to a farming supply store that sells chickens, and doesn’t ask questions. And there they were: a big wire cage with lots of poultry crammed in, clucking and sticking their heads out. They were black-and-white barred chickens. My favorite kind, because from a distance, they look like a mad novelist scribbled all over white birds in black ink. They are pretty. I’m sure they are also tasty – if not to humans, then certainly in a raw meal for my dogs.
I stood there watching the chickens in the cage, and then, just like that, I didn’t want to buy them anymore. It would be lying if I said I couldn’t buy them anymore – it wasn’t that. I’m not particularly sentimental about death; neither my own nor that of another animal. They were going to die sooner or later, and their current life wasn’t exactly amazing. But I looked at their less than ideal existence, crammed into that cage. I imagined their several hours long, less-than-ideal journey back to San Marcos, in a cardboard box, in my hot car. All just to be killed once we got there. It seemed quite pointless, especially since Game and I were going to leave the town of free-roaming poultry soon anyways.
I told myself to remain standing there for another minute, and remind myself of the facts: this was my one chance of buying two chickens far from the scene of the murder I was plotting, and following through on my training plan.
A minute or two later, I still didn’t want to do it. And so I didn’t, because at some point in the last decade, I’ve learned that it is perfectly okay to walk away from a perfectly good plan.
The anticlimactic ending
Game spent the remaining week and a half in San Marcos on a leash around the chickens roaming the streets. And then, we left for Huehuetenango, a city that doesn’t have free roaming chickens – or at the very least, we didn’t meet a single one. I’d like to say that the chicken store chickens lived happily ever after – but that’s pretty unlikely, so I’ll need to end this story on a different note: the feeling I remember. As I walked away from the chicken store, I felt a moment of humaneness. The kind that makes your heart jump. I thought to myself: “I’m humane sometimes. Sometimes, I am kind.” And for a moment, that thought (however misguided it may seem) made me smile.
