Please critique my heeling vid!

[PaddyD]

Originally Posted by GatorDog

Why wouldn't you reward him for the correct behavior every time he does it?

Part of training is to let the training take over and the rewards to take a lesser role. That is a gradual process.
At the beginning it is 100%, then as soon as he's 'got' it rewards begin to diminish very gradually.

[GatorDog]

Originally Posted by PaddyD

Part of training is to let the training take over and the rewards to take a lesser role. That is a gradual process.
At the beginning it is 100%, then as soon as he's 'got' it rewards begin to diminish very gradually.

Oh. That's just not how I'm used to training. With marker training (during a training session), when I say "yes", the dog gets a reward. Otherwise, what would the dog expect when you mark the correct behavior? In marker training, a negative marker is usually a verbal "no" command and no reward or ignoring the behavior and asking again until the correct behavior and reward can be given.

If I marked a correct behavior without rewarding my dog, he would be very confused as to why I said the marker word without rewarding him. Which would pretty much take us back a few steps in our training. My dog gets a reward every time he does something correctly and the behavior is marked. It isn't necessarily always food, but its something that he can identify his actions correctly by.

[chelle]

Originally Posted by GatorDog

It's amazing to see what you really look like when you're training rather than what you think you're doing. I find video taping extremely helpful to handlers. It's also really fun to look back on older videos and see how far you've both come!

So true! I hope to look back on this in six months to a year and smile.

Originally Posted by x0emiroxy0x

Wow. I don't think Rocky will ever get to this level I love his attention on you and his eagerness to work! Can you get him to do it outside yet?

Don't discount what Rocky can do!!!! Bailey is stupid crazy food-driven. Definitely a big plus for us.! He'll behave the same way outside in our yard or the park. I haven't tried this same thing at the dog park because I don't want the other dogs' attention with the treats. He actually performs far better when offleash working this stuff. It's so much easier than fussing with a leash.

Originally Posted by PaddyD

Nice video and nice work. I think you should not give treats every time, maybe every other time. Also you were only turning to the right, which is easier for him. I didn't see any left turns.

Aghhh!!! You're so right, I never did turn left, even once, did I? I'm just a right-leaning girl, I guess. Thanks for bringing that to my attention!

Originally Posted by PaddyD

Part of training is to let the training take over and the rewards to take a lesser role. That is a gradual process. At the beginning it is 100%, then as soon as he's 'got' it rewards begin to diminish very gradually.

True. I will decrease the treating.

[PaddyD]

Originally Posted by GatorDog

Oh. That's just not how I'm used to training. With marker training (during a training session), when I say "yes", the dog gets a reward. Otherwise, what would the dog expect when you mark the correct behavior? In marker training, a negative marker is usually a verbal "no" command and no reward or ignoring the behavior and asking again until the correct behavior and reward can be given.

If I marked a correct behavior without rewarding my dog, he would be very confused as to why I said the marker word without rewarding him. Which would pretty much take us back a few steps in our training. My dog gets a reward every time he does something correctly and the behavior is marked. It isn't necessarily always food, but its something that he can identify his actions correctly by.

Surely, at some point you phase out your marker/reward .... you don't keep it up forever.
Once my dog has learned something the treats begin to disappear and the training shows how effective it was.