Timing and latency and short sessions

I have been pretty successful with my clicker training so far. Noch has been a brilliant student.
But I realise that I can working on getting better, as I said in my last post, and so I am formalising my training and keeping a log.

But geeze, it sure as hell is hard to keep a log and stick to the set goal for that training session! I realise I train intuitively a lot -- which can actually be good and bad. Bad because it probably makes Noch's job confusing if the actual goal changes. I do see the advantages to keeping to one training session=one goal. I also see the advantages of forcing oneself to write down that one goal and how to reach it on paper.

I have also realised that my training sessions may be a bit on the long side(!)

Apparently a good rule of thumb is 5 repetitions to one training session.
Then break for a short while (go write in you log).
Then do another training session.
In total a training period should last about 5 mins maximum. This means that you have time for approximately 2-4 training sessions in one training period. Wow! So short eh? I can see that clicker training really doesn't have to take a lot of time at all.

These incredibly short sessions put a lot of pressure on the handler to set up good criteria -- which is great! It also keeps the dogs perky and bright eyed and loving it (and ending when they still want more). Of course it is painful for the handler to stop when the going is soooo good! But I think it is one of the keys to getting the dog to lvoe cliker training.

The repetitions themselves have some timing critera too: latency (the time between signal and offered behaviour eg. handler standing up and waiting, handler presenting target, handler giving command) should be between 0,2-3 seconds depending on the nature of the excercise. 0,2 seconds being for commands/signals the dog already knows, 3 seconds being for when the dog is starting to learn a new behaviour. When you are free-shaping this latency can be increased to 5-10 seconds.

Again this strikes me as really fast! But it does make sense -- in practice this means for example presenting a target and after 3 seconds of the dog failing to touch it the target gets removed and hidden behind my back for 5-10 seconds. It is then presented again for 3 seconds. These 3 seconds in other words is the window in which the dog has to present his behaviour.

Additionally you want to avoid letting the dog do two incorrect repetitions in a row, and really really avoid three incorrect repetitions in a row. If this is happening you may want to consider that your criteria are too high and you may need take them down a notch so you are setting your dog up to suceed.

My book advises 5-30 min training passes per "go".
This means 3-6 training periods each containing 2-5 training sessions containing in turn 5 success/fail repetitions.

So much to think about! Geez, I am now SURE that Noch has the easy end of this bargain!

Lastly -- I found a brillant way of teaching loose-leash walking that I am dying to try! It echoes my thoughts of pondering if you could use horse rein signals with a pulling dog. I mean we humans instinctively pull on our dogs to communicate with them through the leash. Actually no different than using a bitless bridle on a horse. In the same way that pulling on a horse that hasn't been taught to move away from pressure is meaningless, so is pulling on a dog -- it will only be met with resistance. Sometimes I even ponder if it is possible to teach a dog to canter and trot and do groundwork like horses -- it would be fascinating to try! Anyhow Shirley Chong has this great way of building up to loose leash walking that is based on her experince with teaching race horses to have soft mouths again:

http://www.shirleychong.com/keepers/LLW/LLW%20Step%201.html