THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF ANIMAL TRAINING by O'Heare James;

Author:O'Heare, James;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dogwise Publishing
Published: 2015-05-30T00:00:00+00:00

Phase 2. Acquisition

In the case of “sit,” prompting is usually a quick and easy antecedent strategy for getting the behavior to occur. To prompt sitting, place a small treat between your thumb and fingers. Ensure you have a good grip on the treat, so that the dog cannot grab it before you let it go. With palm up, allow the dog to sniff the treat. Move it around to ensure the dog is “targeting” it, that is the nose goes where the treat goes. Once the dog is targeting the treat, move the treat slowly over their head so that they crane their neck to continue targeting it. If they jump up to target the treat, it is likely that you are holding the treat too far above their head. In that case, quickly withdraw the treat and try again with the treat held a bit closer to their head. If they back up while you lift the treat over their head, withdraw the treat quickly and try again. If they do this again, you might want to perform the targeting with the dog’s rear end close to a wall or corner so that they are unable to back up (just be careful that the dog does not “feel cornered” so to speak). As they crane their neck to target the treat, they should sit. You now have a criterion-meeting trial. Once the dog has exhibited the target behavior, immediately click the clicker, and then deliver the treat to the dog right away. We often refer to this protocol as merely “click and treat.” The click ends the trial. Therefore, if the dog gets up after the click is sounded, that is not a problem. Carry out a few more trials. You should be able to exhibit the luring motion more quickly and effortlessly in each successive trial, as the prompt and other stimuli take on stronger control over the behavior.

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