Category: Advanced Stuff ¤
  Author: Victoria Farrington ¤
   Title: Jackpot With Extravagance ¤

	okay, way late and I meant to go to sleep but I lay awake thinking
about jackpots.
	I do  the very opposite of jackpotting in moderation--I jackpot
with extravagence.  (Is that a misspelling?) Especially in the early and
late stages of a dog learning a behavior, I don't care to do a lot of
repetitions and perhaps with terriers more so than other dogs, you have to
get a lot of intensity or you don't get anything anyway.  (Dash is always
intense, so if I don't work to make him intense about what I'd like to
see, he'ss off being intense about something else.)
	I dithered around with teaching the weave poles.  (Ah, there's an
idea.  I'll just train Dash to stand still and teach the POLES to weave
around him.)  So Dash wasn't crazy about getting near them.  He was a bit
confused, I imagine, a bit bored.  So over the past week, I've either
given a jackpot or nothing when he so much as looks at the weave poles in
the backyard.  The first time, I cheated but this was because I read Susan
Garrett's post about standing around with Buzz's food dish while Buzz
figured out that any interaction with the poles earned him a bit of
dinner.  I let Dash see me standing around inteh backyard with duck wings
until he started to experiment with anything that might attract my
attention, and thus earn himself some duck.
	he got 3 jackpots in the space of about half an hour and it only
took that long because he spent about 20 minutes with the first duck wing
before he came back for another.  5 sort of interactions with the poles
and 3 jackpots.  The other 2 times I said, "Wonderful dog," and beamed.
	The next day, he was moving toward the weave poles and I clicked
and then we played soccer and did other stuff.  later that day, he
accidentally got near the weave poles, I clicked, we ran in the house and
each hadd our lunch.
	By the 4th day, he had the patience to hang around the weave poles
trying this and that and so when he entered (or sort of entered), I
clicked and he got a great toy.  Then I did do some regular c/t with small
food treats or less than spectucular toys but before he could think this
was just an ordinary type thing, I tossed a jackpot (more duck parts) in
the middle, followed it with some click/treats of more common proportions,
then jackpotted another behavior and we played soccer.
	I think we're on Day 9.  We spend no more than about 10 minutes on
the weave poles at various times and he can do 4 more or less consistently
and with energy.  I don't care if he misses a pole right now.  I care only
that he's moving quickly toward the poles, has the basics of weaving and
is gambling with a really cool prize.  I think of this as My version of
money in the bank--an intense dog can do careful repetitions and put up
with some well timed "wrongs" if he cares enough.  If he isn't intense, I
don't have anything to back up the period in which he's going to be
perhaps as often wrong and as he is right and willing to keep trying.
Once he starts to be more right than wrong but trying, I bring back
jackpots only for perfection.  then that behavior specific expectatoin of
a truly great thing has to be stretched to include the possibility of a
jackpot for the previous or next behavior until we're back in the exciting
world of chains.
	I've been thinking of reasons why a jackpot would backfire.
	1.  The dog has learned to expect only ONE jackpot per session so
when he gets it, he's done for the day.  i see this happen with people who
habitually jackpot at the end of a session.  It has come to mean "end of
session" to the dog but that needn't be so.
	2.  The jackpot is too often linked to the same behavior, the
whole behavior, the same part of the behavior...on and on.  IOW, the
expectation is too specific on the dog's part which leads either to
disappointment or increased excitement right before that very specifically
located expectation,but none for the rest of the session.
	3.  The trainer doesn't ask the dog to refocus himself after a
jackpot.  no matter how wild and crazy a dog gets over something, he can
always settle himself or respond to another cue IF he has to.  Dash loves
to attack soccer balls so he's got oh, about 6.  The other 5 are always
more thrilling than the 1 he has so even when he's got soccer fever, he'll
drop or spin or retrieve his DB, sometimes with more enthusiasm than
finesse, to get another soccer ball even if it means leaving a perfectly
good one he already has access to.
	4.  The dog doesn't really appreciate jackpots as meaningful
training information.  This really belongs in my creatve/non-creative dog
post, but some dogs don't do more than think "Wow."  They do not repeat a
behavior or level of competence after having been jackpotted because they
aren't making the connection.  Perhaps they think it's just a stroke of
good fortune.
	5.  The dog trully is too tired or too full of food for much
enthusiasm or energy.
	And suddenly, I'm trully too tired to continue.
	For what it's worth,
	Victoria Farrington

	Oh, Dash also got a jackpot today, a pig's ear, for just sitting
in heel position and then taking 1 step with me in a very exciting park at
dusk.  Then he got to run around.  Then we did it again and he really got
to run around.  This is the late stage jackpot--I'd rather he found out he
got excessively good things for minimal interaction in a new place and
then work to extend his efforts with a VSR than give him more than a
handful of reinforcers (by number, not a fistful of treats).