Category: Crossing Over ¤ Author: Lana Mitchell ¤ Title: More on Getting Started ¤ Reply to: Robert Servranckx >>>>My Lab, Gryphon, has been trained using gentle j&p for 9 months, and is almost at the Novice obedience level (we're just about ready to start Novice A trials). I have no idea how to cross him over (or myslef, for that matter! ;-) ) to clicker training for the exercises that he already knows well.>>> First, please first read "A Dog & A Dolphin" by Karen Pryor to get the gist of the basic principles of clicker training (if you're not sure about it). Then pick some simple behavior, one you don't give a hoot about. Don't pick heeling or fronts, but a trick-type behavior such as touching your hand with a paw, pushing a ball with his nose, or spinning to the left. Practice your timing with this silly behavior and let your dog see how his behavior can reap rewards for him. Once you have your dog reliably offering the behavior, put it on command, put it on total stimulus control (these terms mean simply that the dog performs the behavior every time you ask for it and never performs it if not asked). Learn more about stimulus control by reading the aforementioned booklet which retails for under $10.00, or "Don't Shoot The Dog!," Karen's most excellent book on operant conditioning training. Once a behavior is on stimulus control two things have happened - you know how to clicker train a simple behavior, and your dog knows he is allowed (encouraged) to offer new and creative (?) behaviors - his own input to the training process. Now, with your leash in your training bag, take those same principles, and work them with the heel, straight fronts, a cute stand for exam and so on. Ignore incorrectness and reinforce correct or closer-to-correct behavior. Dogs, like new computer users, went through a process of trying several ways of doing something until they came up with what worked every time without fail. Through the process of elimination they developed hunting and socializing skills much like all of us on this list figured out how to send and receive e-mail. I always think of each and every behavior I want to teach as being like a piece of wood into which I am going to carve a horse's head. All that is required is that I take my hammer and chisel and eliminate everything from the chunk of wood that does not resemble a horse's head. At first I eliminate big areas, big chunks of wood. Then as I get closer to my goal, I focus on particular areas, on detail, working perfection into each and every one of them on an individual basis. When my sculpture is near completion I begin looking at the entire object and start to fine tune all the areas into a whole sculpture - a nose hair here, even up the ears, and so on. This is how I shape every new behavior on a dog - through the process of elimination. For a drop on recall, from start to finish, I eliminate everything that doesn't resemble any portion of a down, then anything that isn't close to a down, then everything that isn't at least half of a down, then everything that isn't a down-stay, then everything that isn't a PLOP down (fast), then everything that isn't a down in motion, and so on. By eliminating everything that isn't a drop on recall, I end up with only a drop on recall, and a darned good one at that. For behavior chains, remember that each behavior in the chain must be taught as a separate entity before one begins putting the behaviors together. As known behaviors are chained together, each requires further shaping for the purpose of fine tuning so that it fits perfectly with the others, much like puzzle pieces. Have fun with clicker training and allow your dog to have fun with it. It's the only training technique I've used wherein I laugh at and enjoying my dog's "failures" because with each failure, he has eliminated something that the behavior is not. Do this and you will have a cross-over dog; you will be a cross-over trainer. Lana Mitchell, cashmerek9@msn.com Tualatin, OR 'CLICK' For Success (c)