Remus disk training

I think it was egroeg who was interested to see how Remus' disk training went.

Well he was conditioned to them this afternoon and responded really well. By the end of the conditioning session he would respond to the tiniest of chinks.

He then had a good sleep to think about it and let the new information sink in. .... Then they were used in action so to speak!

We are only using them for any behaviours that i cant ignore and for which positive reinforcement has not worked and for Remus those are food stealing and repetitive barking in order to gain what he wants. For those of you who did not see this discussed on a previous thread, I was clicking him for being quiet to encourage not barking but the clever little so and so worked out that being quiet would not produce more treats after a while so then began to bark....in order to be quiet...in order to be clicked and rewarded......and this is a dog whose foster carer thought was a bit stupid!

My behaviourist friend and his family came to lunch today, so it was great to have him on hand to chink where needed and I could give a big reward when Remus responded by moving away for whatever he was doing.

Apparently I will probably have to run through the conditioning again in a few days as they often try to retest exactly if the disks are the all powerful sound that mean a reward is not following....and then hopefully the behaviour that we use them for should start to extinguish.

In general Remus doesn't bark at us to get something but he will bark at Tonks if he wants what she's got. Tonks can ignore 20 -30 barks and then will charge rhino style at him....at which point he'll nip behind her and take what he wanted....and being the sort of dog she is Tonks just wonders off for a sleep or mooch elsewhere. I can ignore him barking most of the time but not when our children are sleeping.......so he was inadvertently ending up on a variable reward schedule.....teaching him it was always worth giving barking a jolly good go because at some point he should get a reaction!

We shall see how we get on from now!

Ha ha ha. This is hilarious.

Glad to know it went well. The burning Q is how did your friend condition the discs?

The problem we had with not being able to condition our old boy was because he never touched a treat on the floor without being told to take it. We didn't even have to tell him "Leave it".
Mikki Products had no other suggestions as to how to do it.

Aren't you lucky having a behaviourist friend.

He also said it works better if its not the person who lives with the dog who does the initial conditioning. He offered the treats in his hand , it only went on the floor for the negative bit where Remus went forward to get the treat, Kev did a tiny chink of the disks then threw them to the floor and snatched the treat away. Is there anything you could use that your boy wouldn't be able to resist?

Ingestingly...and very disappointingly...the booklet that came with the disks gives big long explanations of how you can train all sorts of behaviours like sits stays etc using the disks. Madness seeing as all of that can be taught with positive reinforcement so why introduce a negative reinforcement....that's not what John Fisher intended them to be used for I'm sure.

Remus has been extra sleepy this evening with a hot head so I guess he's processing a lot of learning!

Isn't it wonderful how brain work tires them out completely.

Sadly, we lost our old boy 4 years ago. It must have been 8 or so years since we tried the discs. Had I known as much then as I do now, I probably would have had the confidence to find a method. Trouble was, I was getting advice from people who couldn't really answer my Qs. Your idea would probably have worked.

I'll be watching this thread because if you have success, I shall seriously think of using them to stop George, GSD from duffing up Zoe when out on walks. He's a minx, he does it at a distance. It's rough play but she's not keen. She gets her own back at home though. Winds him up and then scarpers upstairs. Big wussy george doesn't do stairs

Absolutely agree that there is no need to use discs for stays etc. Nuts!

Nicky

Awww that's sad.

Yep I'll be using them to back Tonks up when he does his annoying ' I will keep barking until you give me what I want' at her. Poor Remus his little life has changed today. Lol. In general he is amazing especially he spent his formative weeks in an abandoned caravan with little human contact. Found out yesterday that his 'owner/breeder' was banned for keeping dogs so God know what he did to him and his litter mate. Remus was at least a third bigger than his brother who iphe was kept with so I expect he got his way lot during those early weeks too. He was very skinny when the rescue place took him on, but he doesn't guard food...he has tried to guard warm spots like the sofa and his and our bed though....but we're resolving that slowly.

Aaaah, sniff poor Remus turned very lucky Remus. You're doing a great job with him. You're lucky too that his nice personality is still intact after all he must have gone through.

Thank you, like you say, I'm very lucky to have a tame behaviourist at hand! Lol!

Well so far it is having an amazing affect! I've only used them a handful of times for trying not steal food. The tiniest chink of them stops him in his tracks, he thinks for a second and then gets down. Because he has had lots of clicker training done for sitting or lying down to wait for his food he is now beginning to glance at work surfaces he knows have food on...and then sit or lie down...which he is obviously getting loads of positive feedback for.

No more me feeling exasperated and yelling 'off'.....or trying to cook like an octopus chef grabbing things I see disappearing off work surfaces out the corner of me eye.

That's absolutely brilliant. I'm so glad it's working. Keep us posted with the progress.

Hi Catrinsparkles

I am very interested in your use of discs.

I took mine out tonight, he'd been walked off-lead this morning and this evening he was on-lead and taken around a regular dog walking track and played in the water on his extending lead and generally played with his toys. He seemed slightly hyper but often is.

A small Pomeranian dog came over and mine reacted to him, he was quite a distance but heading our way and turned around when he saw Bax lunging and growling.

On the way back we pass a farmyard where there are some spaniels, I often stop and give them a treat and Bax has never reacted to them, this afternoon he decides he is going too - they're behind a wrought iron gate so he can't physically do any damage but leaps at them barking and snarling. What was embarrassing was the farmer was in the yard who I know quite well, I apologised profusely and went on my way but I just feel down about it again.

I need something that will work in an emergency and I wonder if discs would work? What do you think? I have worked relentlessly with him using BAT and LAT but it doesn't always work.

Sandy