When we opened the front door today Bailey startled us when he popped his head out to say hello. My aide was so surprised she shut the door in his face (usually there are no dogs allowed in the area where the door is). She then opened the door again so Bailey could greet me. He was so happy to see me that he ran into the gated front yard jumped up on me and started giving me kisses. After that fantastic greeting we all went back inside to the den. We started the day with a light switch session. We used the small mobile board and he did phenomenally! At one point it seemed like Bailey was losing interest so we decided to stop. We were putting away the supplies and kind of ignoring Bailey when he walked over to the big light switch board and turned on the light. We went nuts with excitement, and Bailey got a big piece of chicken for him being so smart!
So after the light switch session I wanted to do some bell training. We hadn't worked on this in a while and I was kind of nervous that Bailey would not remember.Nope! He remembered and looked up at me almost every time I rang the bell. What a good boy. So after that it was hide and seek time. I was the one hiding but Bailey was on leash and had to bring my aide to me. He did great! I even hid outside of the tennis courts (something I've never done before) and he still pulled my aide to find me. At first he was a bit confused when he couldn't find me in the tennis courts but once he heard the beep of my wheel chair he quickly figured out how to get to me. After that it was break time and a funny thing happened. My aide and I were checking my cell phone when it began to ring. We answered it on speaker phone and a recorded voice came on the line loudly. Bailey had been in a deep sleep but quickly sat up confused at the new noise. He looked at us with complete curiosity and began cocking his head to the side and then quickly cocking his head to the other side. He did this quite a few times to the point where it made him look like a animatronic toy and we busted up laughing.
So after break time I wanted to do one more light switch session. Here is a video of how it went.
After that it was lunch time and then play time. Overall a good day.
your pca really needs to stick with one reward. the petting/verbal and food reward is too much and slowing things down.
ReplyDeleteLisa, I am not sure I understand what you mean by telling Eva that the combined rewards are slowing things down.
ReplyDeleteI respectfully disagree. I believe that Eva and her aid are working very well with Bailey and he seems to be responding perfectly.
in the long run, it will slow things down. it is not proper clicker training. there were only seven clicks in over 90 seconds - that's a very low rate of reinforcement.
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