Continuing to rebuild

Rich is here for a few days. Every morning he takes 10 kibble. He sits on the sofa. I sit in the chair. And we perform the get help behavior chain.

The first five reps that we performed the behavior it was awkward. I had to Q Lily to sit in order to remind her what her job was when she got to Rich.

At first it was confusing for Rich to wait until Lily was seated and holding the bringsel quietly. At first it was awkward for Rich to emphasize carrying the single kibble back to me. But soon we all found the rhythm.

This morning the behavior strongly resembled the successful behavior when we were training with Wendi.

This morning Rich remained seated on the sofa but this time I was standing across the room.  Only one small change but the beginning of generalization.

The training goes like this

• I give Lily the bringsel
• Lily carries the bringsel to Rich. She sits and she holds the bringsel quietly in her mouth
• Rich takes the bringsel from Lily and gives her a single kibble
• Rich stands.  He obviously holds a second kibble in his hand.  Lily is aware and is focused on the kibble.
• The pair walk to me, where Rich gives the treat to me and I reward Lily.

This morning Lily walked slightly ahead of Rich but continued to turn her head back toward him in an effort to make sure he was walking with her. That is a critical part of this behavior.

Thursday

We continued working the simple chain.  Lily's default Sit followed by a quiet hold are now a default chain.  On the third rep Lily had the bringsel and was enroute to Rich when she suddenly needed to scratch.  She dropped the bringsel, took care of the itch and then continued with the business at hand.  <G>

Generalized the behavior by:

• changing our positions in the room (Rich stood in front of the open door; I stood across the room from  from him
• for the first time, both Rich and I were standing

For the 4th and 5th reps, after taking the bringsel from Lily, Rich then dropped it.

Lily and I practice that drop sequence alone together a lot.  She didn't miss a beat transferring the skill to Rich….picking it up, sitting and holding again.

I began adding distance taking a step backward each time she left me and was on her way to deliver the bringsel.

Sunday

Jan stopped by today and offered to help in Lily's generalization of the Get Help behavior chain.

Nad and Sammy volunteered to present Lily with a little distraction!  They did a good job!!!  In an earlier session (that was not captured on video) Jan also added dropping the brings into the chain.  Lily handled it well and, by default, merely picked up the dropped brings, sat and held it quietly until Jan took it from her.

Tuesday

I wish that I had had my camera with me today. Lily repeated the bringsel get help behavior chain at the hairdressers. Between me and the hairdresser, Paul.

I am seeing a repeated pattern… the first time when Lily is presented with a new person she needs to be shown or reminded. Then, once she remembers the game, she does fine.

In addition to being in a new location (she is familiar with the hairdressers but she is not used to working there ). A shiny, slippery ceramic tile floor. Paul, a familiar person but one she has never trained with or interacted with before.  The first two reps I asked Paul to cue the sit. Like most non-trainers, he repeated the sit cue many times. And he talked to her constantly (which is ok because once the behavior is learned, who knows what will be said; I just consider it a 'bonus' distraction). But on the final rep when I asked that he not say anything to Lily at all she was able to do the chain flawlessly.

A thousand more reps with a hundred more people and this behavior will be solid!

Next step: witholding the treat upon arrival at the stranger.  Stranger carries treat back to me and Lily

is rewarded there by me.

And, of course, much more of the same….with other people and distractions, adding distance, changing location, etc.