Podcast #187: Training Faster Behaviors Without Frustration, Part 2

Interactive Transcript

spk_0 The other thing that I would like to do here with that starting position is I'll lure the dog

spk_0 so that his weight is shifted way to one side and when I let go and he starts to readjust his

spk_0 feet to just to stand more normally the pot targets right there and he can't help a step on it.

spk_0 That's your latency. That's one of my favorite tricks to build a quick behavior from the very

spk_0 beginning and then we can increment distance from there.

spk_0 Hey there fellow training nerds. You're listening to Drinking from the toilet. If you like to geek out

spk_0 about combining the science of behavior with positive reinforcement philosophy in real life,

spk_0 you've come to the right place. I'm your host Hannah Brandigan, teacher trainer,

spk_0 podcaster and author of the book Awesome Obedience and it's companion awesome obedience the

spk_0 field guide, which are both available from clicker training.com. I'm also the founder of Zero to CD,

spk_0 which is an online program and the only totally integrated program to get you competition ready

spk_0 using positive reinforcement methods. And if you're interested in that kind of thing, you might

spk_0 also be interested in knowing that I will be running another 21 day challenge, similar,

spk_0 but not identical to the one that I did around this time last year. This will be 21 days of exercises

spk_0 focused on building awesome or healing. So tighter position, both more accurate and more precise,

spk_0 as well as enthusiastic and there'll be some other tips and tricks and things like that. Lots of

spk_0 opportunities to get your questions answered. So if you're interested in that, we'll be starting that

spk_0 up in September. Still working on nailing down all the details, including lining up some cool

spk_0 prizes that you can win for participating. I'll be more information coming out shortly,

spk_0 both through email and social media. So if you're not already on my email list, you can

spk_0 jump over to my website and sign up there and also keep an eye out on social media. So Facebook and

spk_0 Instagram, those are usually the best places to find me. I look forward to challenging you.

spk_0 Okay, so this episode is part two of a two part series so far, where we are talking about getting

spk_0 faster behaviors and training without leveraging frustration. So if you haven't listened to part one,

spk_0 of course, go back and listen to part one because that's going to lay some context. And I'm very

spk_0 specifically looking at all the ways that we can increase speed that are totally separate from

spk_0 anything that we would put in the category of drive. So I'm thinking about all of the dogs that we

spk_0 might otherwise label as medium or low drive. And we would still like to optimize some behaviors,

spk_0 improve speed, decrease latency, and do it without damaging your relationship or making yourself

spk_0 crazy in the process. Okay, so where do we leave off? So last time we were talking about selecting for

spk_0 conditions that specifically make getting faster behavior easier to happen. So looking around

spk_0 at your dog's life, where they already moving faster in general, if not with this behavior

spk_0 specifically, we talked about some of the things to keep in mind or to look for when you're

spk_0 digging along those lines. We also talked about your dog's technique, the mechanics of specifically

spk_0 how they do the behavior. What movement do they make and what things could we do with training to

spk_0 train for a more efficient technique and also to shape for faster responses within that technique.

spk_0 And now I want to focus in on the human mechanics, how the human is moving when, well, and where.

spk_0 So the wind way and how of the traitors side of things because we own that whole half of the

spk_0 training loop, right? That's as Emily and Eva say, that's our dance space. So what are things that

spk_0 we can do there other than making ourselves really sweaty and exciting and being as interesting as

spk_0 possible and all that stuff that we might do in the name of being more motivating, increasing the

spk_0 dog's motivation. Because that's not what we're focused on here. There's a lot of other roles that

spk_0 we have or a lot of other elements that we are involved in. So I did want to start by talking a little

spk_0 bit about the reinforcement process, not in a drive building way, right? Like not in, oh, you should

spk_0 throw food instead of handling food although maybe you might want to do that. That's not the angle

spk_0 that I'm looking at here. So if you remember back to the beginning of the last episode, one of the

spk_0 things that we talked about was how all things being equal, the system is going to trend towards

spk_0 faster, more direct responses, more direct access to the reinforcement. We can actually use that same

spk_0 idea, but take some control over it, right? We can actually harness that. And so one of the things

spk_0 that I think about when I'm trying to build faster behaviors is what can I do with my reinforcement

spk_0 strategy to reduce or eliminate any delay to reinforcement access. So the longer it's going to take to

spk_0 get access to the reinforcement that you're using, the longer it takes the dog to get to the treat.

spk_0 Are you having to walk out to the dog and hand them the treat or do they have to run a long way

spk_0 to get it? Or is it in a ziplock bag stuffed in your pocket and you have to fish it out of your

spk_0 pocket and open the bag and get out one of the treats? Anything that is a delay is not going to lend

spk_0 itself to faster behaviors. Now, not every delay in access to reinforcement is bad. It does depend on

spk_0 the outcome that you're looking for. If you are looking for more chill responses, then one of the

spk_0 things that you might do is draw out the reinforcement delivery process. But if you're looking for

spk_0 really sharp, snappy responses, you're going to want to look at really snappy, zero delay,

spk_0 reinforcement access. Make the behavior that your dog is already doing very much the straight line.

spk_0 Make as simple as possible. Make it very efficient. That's going to help harness that already

spk_0 existing efficiency trend and help you get faster behaviors going. Again, without doing much else.

spk_0 Now, kind of in that same category, one of the things that I'll do is I really focus on having

spk_0 really crisp mechanics. I want really rapid fire responses. I want a very sprinty performance. I'm

spk_0 going to want to have really crisp, crispy, really crisp mechanics with high contrast, but that are

spk_0 very, very clear. When I'm talking about mechanics, I mean everything from what you're doing with

spk_0 your body during the, when you give the cue, if there's a cue involved and also during the behavior

spk_0 and also what your job is during the reinforcement process. How you move your body as you're

spk_0 getting the treat out and handing it to the dog. Or if one of the ways that you're using,

spk_0 or one strategy that you're using to reduce any delay to accessing the reinforcer is you're

spk_0 keeping a handful of treats that you can deliver when treated at a time, but you're pre-loaded

spk_0 in your hands, you're not having to go back to treat pouch at all. That's a really good way to

spk_0 reduce the amount of time that elapses between when you mark when the dog completes criteria and

spk_0 when he actually gets the tongue touches the treat if they're pre-loaded in your hand. But if you

spk_0 have treats pre-loaded in your hand, it can be very easy to get fuzzy about when the treat is being

spk_0 delivered and when it's not, especially if you're also queuing with your hand. Or there's some

spk_0 other, you're trying to manage a target. So there are some trade-offs here. I do, when I'm shaping

spk_0 behaviors that I want fast, I do very often pre-load a bunch of treats in my hand so that I can

spk_0 really rapid fire deliver for rapid fire behaviors. But I have to be really conscious about what I'm

spk_0 doing with that treat hand during the behavior, during the queue and during the behavior. Of course,

spk_0 one of the other trade-offs of having treats in your hand is a treat in your hand could become

spk_0 part of the queue. And will, if you don't take other steps. But that definitely is something you're

spk_0 going to want to include in your training plan. But we can talk about getting treats out of your

spk_0 hand in a different episode if you care. If that's something you're interested in hearing me talk

spk_0 about, you can let me know about that. Okay. But making it very, very clear when the food is being

spk_0 delivered, making the path that the treat is taking so your dog knows where to expect it to appear

spk_0 in space and they can get there really quickly. That's really going to be to your advantage.

spk_0 So your movements have no hesitation. They are very, they're smooth. Again, they're very crisp.

spk_0 The movement of your body is a big part of what tells your dog when the reinforcement is available

spk_0 and how to get it, like how to get there. So, right, you know, if you're tossing a treat, if that's

spk_0 part of what you're doing, your dog is watching your hand move to get the information that they need

spk_0 to then have a guess of where the treat is going to land. They're not, they can't watch the

spk_0 nobody can. All right. Just don't work like that. Maybe, maybe birds. I don't know. I'm looking for

spk_0 that consistent sea in motion. It doesn't always mean that you're delivering the treat in exactly

spk_0 the same way because we need some flexibility within that treat delivery strategy to have, you know,

spk_0 very small, like the small effects, like there's new wants. That's what I'm saying. I'm saying there's

spk_0 new ones here. But crisp, smooth without hesitation, without fuzziness or if you're noticing fuzziness in

spk_0 your dog's behavior, like your dog maybe can't tell, should I be following the treat? And I should

spk_0 be offering behavior. That's a good sign that we need to do something different. So like one of the

spk_0 things that I do, and this is something that we do, we do this in zero to CD, but I also do with

spk_0 my own dogs, is I make it very, very clear that if I'm lowering my dog, the treat is in contact with

spk_0 his nose. That's partly my job and partly a trained behavior. And then, and I'm holding the treat so

spk_0 it's fairly exposed in my fingers. You can't see the one I'm doing with my hands. But if the dog

spk_0 should be offering, I close my fingers so that the treat is not accessible. I freeze my hand

spk_0 and my knuckles are more towards the dog. The treat's not facing the dog and there's no contact.

spk_0 So that's one way that I make it very, very clear when the food is being delivered and when the

spk_0 dog should offer the behavior. And since they're really clear on that, they don't waste any time

spk_0 hesitating on their part of, oh, was she about, oh, was she about to give me, oh, no, oh, maybe I should

spk_0 should I sit? What? Okay. Right. So we don't waste any time in that hesitation. They're like,

spk_0 oh, it's my turn. Now I go. It's a really nice clean, sharp session, which tends to be

spk_0 conditions under which we see fast behaviors emerge. So same basic idea, category, also consistent

spk_0 timing of the marker queue. And again, consistent initiation of that reinforcement. When I'm working

spk_0 with teams, or actually, no, this isn't even, this isn't even like a, oh, I'm a professional

spk_0 dog trainer. I want to work with my own dogs. One of the top reasons that I see slow behavior

spk_0 is, is coming from an unsure dog. It's coming from a dog that is not confident what behaviors

spk_0 earning the reinforcement, how to do that behavior or where the reinforcement is coming from.

spk_0 And again, those things, even the absence of anything aversive, are going to tend to make a

spk_0 dog that's a little bit, a little bit careful. Like, now I like to anthropomorphize and give voices

spk_0 for my dogs. And also your dogs, when I'm watching your dogs on video, or in person, I'm making voices

spk_0 for them and you should know that about me. Feel free to unfollow if that's not something you're comfortable

spk_0 with. So I am making voices for your dogs and for my dogs. And so one of the things that dogs will

spk_0 say, and I will watch them do it, you'll see them, they're looking at their person and they're

spk_0 looking at the source of reinforcement and maybe the tree pouch, the tree hand, and you'll see them

spk_0 make a little movement and they're asking with their eyes, is it this? Am I doing it right?

spk_0 And so they're doing this little question mark behavior. Now the key, the trick, the magic is,

spk_0 we can capture that and reward it. And when we capture that first little like, could it be this?

spk_0 And I reward that then often I get the rest of the behavior, which is so cool. And I just think

spk_0 that's really fun. So you know, see also previous episode where my recommendation is reinforce

spk_0 even the slow responses with holding reinforcement is not usually your best your best choice here.

spk_0 So if you're seeing slow behavior, a really good thing to look at after you've eliminated like,

spk_0 is the dog hot? Is the ground to slippery is, is my dog sure? And or is my dog unsure? Because my

spk_0 timing is maybe not super clear. And this can be separate from rate of reinforcement, right? Like,

spk_0 delivering a high volume of food during a session is not the same thing as being clear. And a high

spk_0 volume of food with no clear pattern or contingency can result in just as frustrated of a dog as a

spk_0 session where there is too low a rate of reinforcement. There's not enough food being delivered. So

spk_0 the contingency is the most important part here that that it's clear what you need to do to

spk_0 access the reinforcement. That's where you're going to get confident and you're going to see faster

spk_0 behaviors as a result. All right. Now in terms of criteria, let's actually this is part criterion

spk_0 part structure. Another thing to do is remove any requirement for duration, especially if the

spk_0 behavior is stationary. So talking about reducing any delay to accessing reinforcement, that's

spk_0 sort of like duration of like the reinforcement process. At least definitely eliminating the duration

spk_0 between the click and like the contact with the treat or the click in the expectation. So the

spk_0 the more we can reduce that, but also reducing any requirement for duration during the behavior

spk_0 portion of the loop. So in general duration and speed or duration and latency tend to be sort of

spk_0 inversely proportionate in that. Logger duration behaviors tend to be performed more slowly if

spk_0 you're running a marathon versus you're running not a marathon. You're going to run marathons.

spk_0 You're going to run a marathon a lot more slowly than you would run to the bathroom from here.

spk_0 Like if you're in your house and so is the bathroom because you have indoor plumbing. I do and

spk_0 probably a lot of people do. But maybe not everybody. I don't want to be insensitive. But yeah, like

spk_0 longer distance like the longer the duration of the behavior, the slower you're going to get started.

spk_0 That's that sort of delayed start phenomenon. And also the slower you're going to do the thing

spk_0 because what's the advantage to rushing if you're just going to stand around hurry up and wait,

spk_0 right? So dogs too. So if we can remove any requirement for duration, let's say that you want to

spk_0 work on a faster retrieve. So you want your dog to run out to the dumbbell pick it up, race back.

spk_0 You're going to want to take away any requirement for the hold for that behavior. So the dog leaves you,

spk_0 picks up the object, the dumbbell comes back. Now normally in the finished product, we would want the

spk_0 dog to continue to hold that object in their mouth until you cue them to drop it or you cue them

spk_0 to put it in your hand. It depends on if this is an obedient retrieve or some other kind of retrieve.

spk_0 So yeah, we want to take that away. And I will actually go so far as to not even if what I want is a

spk_0 faster, maybe faster return or faster pickup. I won't even let the dog come all the way to me. When

spk_0 I say I won't let them, I mean, I'm going to mark and I will deliberately interrupt the return

spk_0 with a dumbbell by throwing food or throwing a toy if I'm training with a toy. So I'm not going to

spk_0 require him to sit there and hold it for, you know, one Mississippi to Mississippi. I'm not even

spk_0 going to let him get to me. If I want fast pickups, I want him spitting that dumbbell out. I want him

spk_0 barely to have contact with his little tongue and he's spitting it for the treat. If he's coming back

spk_0 to me, I'm clicking and then chucking a treat so that he spits the dumbbell and runs after the treat.

spk_0 That gets a lot of speed going really, really quickly. So more you can reduce duration, not just in

spk_0 the hold, but also the how long is he carrying it, the faster he's going to go back and pick a backup

spk_0 and the faster he's going to come back with it. If you are working on a cue response, so this is

spk_0 more focused on latency at this point. You want your dog to respond instantly on cue to go to the

spk_0 mat, then you would want to remove any requirement for how long they stay on the mat. Just isolate the

spk_0 going to the mat. Don't require them to stay on the mat. We can build that in and I have thoughts

spk_0 on that. But for the moment, you want to make your behavior like it's made out of rubber.

spk_0 You know, like, what was that movie? Flubber? Like make the behavior bounce. If you're working on,

spk_0 you want a really fast sit, bounce your dog out of the sit. So reward out of position. Yes, but also

spk_0 reward quickly out of position so that your dogs, but doesn't have a chance. Like it doesn't even make

spk_0 a print on the ground. They're right back up. They have no chance to settle. Rewarding out of position

spk_0 in this way is also going to tend to keep your dogs muscles more higher tone. Like you're going to

spk_0 have more muscle tension in those action muscles. Because if they're popping right back out of the

spk_0 sit as soon as they touch it, they're going to keep those muscles engaged and like slightly

spk_0 contracted, which means they're going to be in position to do a faster sit again after they

spk_0 swallow the treat. Right. So you're keeping more engaged muscles. You're taking up the slack.

spk_0 Is it the term that they it's how they'll describe it sometimes in human sports? I'm guessing it has

spk_0 to apply in dogs as well. They're already like, they're already taking up the slack in that muscle,

spk_0 which means they're already more like tension like a spring and they can explode into the next

spk_0 behavior. So rewarding out of position where relevant so that behavior is very bouncy bouncing and

spk_0 bouncing out faster behaviors. Okay. Another thing for latency, think about your starting position.

spk_0 So yes, the position you're in, but for this, think about how you're setting your dog up

spk_0 in whatever position they're going to be. Like how are they lined up what direction are they

spk_0 facing? How are they angled? Where's their weight shifted when you're going to give the cue or when

spk_0 it's their turn to offer that behavior? So that's the starting position. And if you want really

spk_0 short latency, set up your stug in the starting position so that they can't help but fall into the

spk_0 behavior. Like think about like bouncing an egg on your counter or something, right? Like so if you

spk_0 just let go, the dogs are just falling into the behavior. So if you want fast downs again, you might

spk_0 lure your dog so that they are just almost down. They're in like a slightly awkward kind of hovering

spk_0 position. And then if you release the treat right there, close your fingers to cue them, make it

spk_0 clear that it's their turn to offer. If everything else were to stay the same, Gravy's going to suck your

spk_0 dog back down to the ground and you're going to get a really quick response. They don't have to arrange

spk_0 anything. They're already there. Their feet are already where they need to be. All they have to do

spk_0 is nothing and they're going to hit the deck. I love using this when I'm trying to reduce latency.

spk_0 I'll use this a lot to reduce latency by luring a dog right up onto the edge of a prop or so they're

spk_0 slightly out of balance and the action that they would take to rebalance themselves is the

spk_0 behavior that I want or on the is already on the path to the behavior that I want. So if I want

spk_0 my dog to give me a fast response on a send a target of the same sending my dog to a pot target,

spk_0 maybe it's for a send away or a go out. And right now it's really slow and I'd like to go a lot

spk_0 faster. Okay, so applying some of these principles, I'm going to make sure that I reduce any

spk_0 duration in the behavior. So I'm not going to have them stand on that pod target or stay out there

spk_0 that's going to tend to create slower behaviors. I'm going to reduce any delay to accessing the

spk_0 reinforcement that I can that I've control over. So I'm not going to walk out and hand it to him.

spk_0 I'm either going to throw it or maybe I'll have something stationed out there. I'll have a buddy

spk_0 or I'll use, you know, treat dispenser of some kind. I'll also reduce the distance by quite a lot

spk_0 so that it doesn't cost the dog as much to go out there. Now there's a sweet spot, especially if

spk_0 we're talking about like big dogs because big dogs need some runway to get up to speed and they

spk_0 also need some runway to slow down. So this part's a little bit counterintuitive. It's probably

spk_0 true for all dogs, but it comes up more with with bigger dogs. So, you know, my German shepherds,

spk_0 my daines, my mastiffs and similar dogs who don't corner particularly well. There's too far,

spk_0 you know, if you're too far away, you're going to get an amble out there. And if it's too close,

spk_0 then there's no point and you're going to get an amble out there. Really, it's too expensive. It's too

spk_0 expensive to accelerate the slam on the brakes that quickly. So I'll often experiment and see like,

spk_0 how many steps away is the sweet spot for this particular dog? And I'll think about

spk_0 how am I delivering that reinforcer so that my dog's not having to do, in this case, do a sharp

spk_0 change direction to access it. For some dogs, I like that sharp direction change. It gives me

spk_0 a sharper behavior. It depends on the dog. It depends on the specifics of the application.

spk_0 But in this case, it's a medium sized dog and I'm working on the fast response soupa target.

spk_0 The other thing that I will like to do here with that starting position is I'll lure the dog.

spk_0 We're very close at this point, but I'm luring the dog so that his weight is shifted way to one

spk_0 side. And when I let go and he starts to readjust his feet to just to stand more normally,

spk_0 the pot targets right there and he, boom, he steps on it. Can't help a step on it.

spk_0 That's your latency. I love building a behavior from that. That's one of my favorite tricks to

spk_0 build a quick behavior from the very beginning. And then we can increment distance from there.

spk_0 So that's sort of a back-chaining type of approach, which you know I love doing.

spk_0 To get the behavior from the front, one of the things you'll hear me say a lot is to mark the

spk_0 initiation of the behavior. This is probably the biggest thing if you're trying to reduce latency

spk_0 on a behavior, trying to get a faster response to, you know, you say down, you want your dog to start

spk_0 laying down as quickly as possible. Mark the thought. Like mark what you can see in your dog

spk_0 when they're registering that you have given a cue. Like when you see the change in their eyes

spk_0 or the way their ears flip and you can see them making a change to what the behaviors that

spk_0 they're currently, the weight shift, maybe their head starts to go down. Mark that. It's so much

spk_0 earlier than you think. And I know that's kind of scary because you think, well, if I said down and

spk_0 mark when my dog just starts to drop their head, then I'm going to lose the down. He'll stop laying

spk_0 down. Well, if that's the only thing you did in the world, yeah, that's probably true. Like absolutely,

spk_0 if you always mark, especially if you're rewarding out of position, if you always marked when your dog

spk_0 dropped their head when you said down and then you threw a treat in front of your dog and they

spk_0 popped up to go get it, then the behavior you would eventually shape is probably going to be

spk_0 something like a head dip. Well, that's not a down. Fortunately, speed is just one, it's in latency.

spk_0 There are just that's just one slice of your whole big picture training plan. You are free to

spk_0 mark that initiation of the behavior. You're even free to reward out of position. But then mix that

spk_0 in or like use that as one ingredient and then in a separate ingredient, you let the dog complete

spk_0 the behavior or even, oh, even better. This is actually what I do very often. I'll do this

spk_0 marking the initiation of the behavior. And then even in the same session, maybe do that for a

spk_0 couple of reps and then same session or maybe a different session. I'll use that more back

spk_0 changing strategy. So I'll pull them into a starting position that's almost the end of the behavior.

spk_0 It's like the last note in the song. So I'm going to mark the first note and then also the last note

spk_0 and then getting the stuff in between is actually not that hard, especially when you do them next

spk_0 to each other. You're going to very easily be able to squish those things together and make

spk_0 a little Oreo sandwich cookie of behavior. And then finally, and this is the last kind of tip that

spk_0 I wanted to leave you with. But I wanted to give you something that you could use to integrate some

spk_0 of these little kind of separate elements, right? So you're working on your Oreo. You've got like

spk_0 the one cookie piece and you got the other cookie piece and like what do you do to get the icing?

spk_0 All right. So as you're starting to introduce new elements, so let's say you're sending the dog

spk_0 to the target and you want them to sit. Maybe you're saying to a platform and you want them to turn

spk_0 and sit on the platform. Well, you can know all things that we just talked about and then introduce

spk_0 the new element. So maybe the sit component, you might introduce that between the click and the treat.

spk_0 So this is this little hack, this little training hack. It could be his whole own episode, which again,

spk_0 I don't know. Let me know what you guys want to hear about. And I can clearly ramble about a lot of

spk_0 things. But if I want the real focus of my session is getting the fast send to the platform.

spk_0 I'm still going to have distance quite short. But I want to go ahead and introduce the idea that

spk_0 there will be a sit that gets there. There will be a sit when you get to the platform like as part

spk_0 of the game. But I want to do it in a way that doesn't decrease their confidence or decrease their

spk_0 speed and going to the platform. I'll mark the initiation. So I'll mark that first paw landing on

spk_0 the platform and then my treat delivery. So I'm going to introduce the sit between the click and the

spk_0 treat. So I'm going to click when the dog's paw lands on the platform and then I'm going to take

spk_0 that treat and deliver it in such a way that it lures the dog up into a sit. They get to swallow

spk_0 that treat and then maybe I toss another one or I lure the dog off into a new starting position.

spk_0 And we start again. I love using this for fast setups in heel. So this is a behavior that if you

spk_0 are not careful and you're doing training the way that most of us just tend to just left

spk_0 our own devices, which is often a little bit sloppy all of us or this way. Once we have taught the

spk_0 doctor find heel and we have a food enough for our purposes find heel position or get to heel

spk_0 position. We then tend to for a long time like the career of our dog in training. We tend to call

spk_0 the dog to heel in order to then do something else like call them to heel so that you can throw the

spk_0 devil call them to heel so you can send them over the jump or send them to the the gutter call them

spk_0 to heel so that you can leave them on a stay and then call to heel tends to predict you're

spk_0 going to have to do something that's hard or I'm going to walk away from you. And so the

spk_0 the behavior of coming to heel position finding heel position starts to get slow and it

spk_0 starts to get kind of a weighty and it starts to get kind of icky. Which that makes sense. If

spk_0 every time you're like, oh, we need to talk like, oh, I don't want to. Like, could I take my time

spk_0 responding to this? Maybe something that bad, but it's a really common pattern. And so one of the

spk_0 ways that we can prevent this, that I include in training to either fix it, if we've already done

spk_0 it or get a faster response in the first place or prevent it, right, is one, marking the initiation.

spk_0 So once the dog has, there's so many components, so many exercises that we put into giving the dog

spk_0 a complete understanding of like where heel position is and how to get there, like how do

spk_0 their body to find their? I did not actually plan this, but that is that those are the things that

spk_0 will be working on in the 21 day healing challenge. What was I going with that? Right. But so to get

spk_0 the speed and to keep the speed, we'll very often click as the dog is just first like headed down

spk_0 the shoot. And that might look a little different because different dogs have, you're just different

spk_0 stylistic ways that they move themselves towards heel position. But that very first movement,

spk_0 usually it's that first lateral weight shift. If we're talking about less sighted healing,

spk_0 that first lateral weight shift in the counterclockwise position. So they start shifting their weight

spk_0 to their right, which would be, depending on where they're facing. But anyways, that first weight

spk_0 shift, capture that with the click and then deliver the treat in heel position, deliver the treat

spk_0 to paraphrase Alex Krillin, where the perfect dog would be. And so we've marked that first movement

spk_0 on that counterclockwise pivot action gets captured with the timing of our vent marker, the timing

spk_0 of the click. But then what happens between the click and the treat is the dog going the rest of

spk_0 the way into heel position. I love this because it's really the best of both worlds. You're not

spk_0 sacrificing a full pivot into heel. That's already an expensive behavior. It is very easy to break.

spk_0 It's hard to train in the first place. It's not hard to teach. Obviously we can do it. I can help

spk_0 you. But it's not free. We have to put a lot into it. It's easy to screw up. And then it's easy to

spk_0 break it once you've already got it. So we put a lot of effort into getting it strong in the first

spk_0 place and preserving it. But the the more duration we require the dog to be in the

spk_0 illusion once they get there, we're going to see increase in latency. So slower response time.

spk_0 The harder it is to get access to the reinforcer, especially if you're moving to putting your

spk_0 heel behaviors into a reinforcement strategy like a zin bowl or you're asking for more work,

spk_0 you're going to see increase in latency. So how can I keep all of that and keep the sharp

spk_0 response? Mark as they're coming in and then deliver the treat so that they complete the behavior.

spk_0 I use the same thing for down. I mark as the dog drops their head, deliver the treat,

spk_0 such that they complete the down and then may bounce them out of position. I still don't like to let

spk_0 moss grow on that stone. This is a metaphor. So I still like to bounce them out most of the time.

spk_0 Anyways, so introducing new elements between the click and the treat. This also applies by the way,

spk_0 it's one of my favorite strategies for introducing distractions, which I first learned from K-larts,

spk_0 which was a really cool, really cool trick adding a distraction between the click and the treat. But

spk_0 that a little bit applies because sometimes adding distractions slows behaviors down. And one way to

spk_0 preserve fast behavior while introducing a distraction is to introduce the between the click and

spk_0 the treat. So anyways, that was just a little extra like dessert mint for you to wrap this all up.

spk_0 So there you go. Very long two part, a big, a lot of me talking about making faster behaviors without

spk_0 frustrating your dog or having to withhold reinforcement or drive building because in this,

spk_0 in this heat in this economy, who has the energy for drive building, I do not, it is entirely too hot.

spk_0 So faster behaviors without breaking a sweat. That's the goal.

spk_0 All right, well, let me know what you think. I'd also love to know what else you want to talk about.

spk_0 You want me to talk about you want to talk about together. I'm very interested to know what

spk_0 behaviors specifically maybe you struggle with in terms of building speed. We could grab one of those

spk_0 and explore it. Talk about different training plans. You know how to find me or if you don't,

spk_0 you can find me on Facebook or Instagram if you find the post that goes with this episode.

spk_0 Adding a comment there is a good way for me to see it or you can always send me an email.

spk_0 Thanks for listening. If you liked this episode, well, you've got taste. And I hope you'll hit the

spk_0 subscribe button on your podcast app to make sure you don't miss the next episode. If I'd be

spk_0 subscribed, well, thank you. I really appreciate it. And there are still some ways that you could

spk_0 reinforce me if you were so inclined. You could always leave me a five star review on iTunes or

spk_0 Stitcher or wherever you happen to be listening to this podcast. And you can also check out and support

spk_0 the sponsors because they help make the podcast possible. You can find links and information about

spk_0 them and the other things that we've talked about in this episode by going to the show notes,

spk_0 which can be found at www.wonderpupstraining.com slash podcast. And while you're there,

spk_0 you could also pick up a free PDF training template to help you plan your training sessions.

spk_0 There's also some other articles and previous podcasts and that's the thing that you could always

spk_0 find if you were interested. So until next time, happy training.

Podcast #187: Training Faster Behaviors Without Frustration, Part 2

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