Training Page 3
Instead of pushing too hard (this was all over 2 days and 2 sessions: first day 10 minutes of just clicks and treats, no work; the second day was 2 hours and 10 mins, 1/2 spent in the kitchen, 1/2 in the living room and dining room.), I decided to stop in 10 more minutes. After the tossing had stopped, another behavior was tried; not allowing me to get teddy. It wasn't keepaway so much as a way to increase the rate of treats. He brought teddy to me at my feet (a Jackpot!) then when I reached to get teddy, he grabbed it (gently, remember he is still terrified of me) and pulled it back to where it had been laying where he picked it up to deliver to me for treats. Guess what? he tried to get treats for 'taking teddy away from me' (not really he was just trying to set it up perfectly so he could continue to get treats.)
Instead of clicking and treating this new emerging behavior, I ignored it. No treat, no click, no reinforcement. After 2 more minutes of the 'takeaway, give me treats' behavior, this stopped ("was extinguished" as researchers call it) and he returned to trying to carry teddy to my feet. After 3 more 'good' returns of teddy, I started tossing teddy to places he couldn't see. After a moment's wait he ran after it and was delivering it at about 70% accuracy (getting it to my feet, not 3 ft. away.) It was enough for the night.
I knew he had learned a new behavior from several indicators:
1) He had never before been taught or told to bring teddy to anyone.
2) He had not been told, pointed, pushed, pulled, yanked, jerked or anything but rewarded or ignored in this whole exercise.
3) He is a 5 year old dog. No 3 month old puppy. It took a lot of effort on his part and a lot of patience on my part, for the final behavior to be conditioned.
4) he kept trying to offer the trained behavior even after I had stopped clicking and treating (usually a sign that the behavior is known to deliver a positive stimulus.)