Tracking and Clicker Training Workshop

A warm June morning found six Pyrs and their owners in a Vacaville field getting their first taste of tracking under the expert guidance of Kathleen Monje, Pyr owner and trainer from Oregon. Most of the dogs found the scent of meatballs irresistible and their owners and handlers were introduced to the pleasure of watching their dogs figure out how to find the next one.

Debi Carpadus brought Elura, Randy had rescue dog Beluga, Christine Palmer-Persen had Bubba, Bernie Ducker brought Glory, Pat Sabo came with Giselle and Lee Baszczewski brought out one of her dogs. Pat Sullivan and Miro arrive a bit late for the tracking, but they participated in the later training.

Debi, Pat and Bernie
Debi with Elura, Pat with Giselle, Bernie with Glory		 Randy with Beluga - Kathleen starts laying track
Randy with Beluga, a foster dog in Rescue
Beluga gets the idea
Beluga gets the idea that following the scent scores meatballs....		 13TrainingWorkshop.JPG - 513183 Bytes
...and he figures out Kathleen is the source.

After the tracking, dogs were watered and put away, and clickers were distributed. Kathleen demonstrated the correct method of timing the click and the treat then everyone went into the house to practice, away from the dogs. We watched a video of Kathleen and her 10-month old Pyr successfully completing a tracking trial to earn her TD degree, then the group broke into pairs to practice their click-and-treat technique. Kathleen then demonstrated the concept of “shaping” behavior by having the group use only their clickers to guide her from the door through a path to the chocolate cupcakes on the table.

Kathleen demonstrates the clicker
Then everyone went out to John’s fenced back field and Kathleen demonstrated how to shape “heeling” with 15-month old Glory – off lead. Within minutes, Glory was walking in the correct position at Kathleen’s side, head up, anticipating the next click that would tell her she was doing it right. Then 4-month old Miro was brought out, and after an initial click-treat session to get him to associate the two, he promptly jumped up on Kathleen. She ignored him until he got down, then clicked and treated. Within minutes the pup discovered that if he sat in front of her, he’d earn a click and treat and it was amazing to watch him stop himself in the middle of an attempted jump.
Glory starts the heeling lesson Kathleen treating Glory
Glory's head is in the correct position
In this sequence, Glory is completely off lead (in a fenced area) and is concentrating on earning a click and treat from Kathleen. In order to do so, she must maintain the correct heeling position. She is not told to heel; Kathleen emphasized that a behavior is "named" only after it is learned properly.		 Still heeling properly

 

Kathleen then set up “weave poles” in the lawn in front of the house and, again using Glory, demonstrated how to “shape” her movement through them. Within five minutes, Glory had picked up on the fact she would be rewarded for going through each opening from the opposite side of the last – weaving three openings in four poles. (At that point, I was so fascinated, I forgot to take pictures!) By then, Board members were arriving for the afternoon meeting, so the carting session had to be cut short, though Debi did get a chance to work with Elura and Don Bowden introduced Max to the harness and shafts. Hopefully, more dog-handler teams will get to work Sunday in Half Moon Bay.

June 2004