I was asked to perform a freestyle demo at Deering Oaks Park for the Animal Refuge League, and optimist that I am, I said, sure, why not? I thought, this would give me the impetus I need to bring my dog off island to the big city and practice training around squirrel distractions. We don't have any squirrels on the island where we live, and Tigerlily I knew was intensely distracted by squirrels.
About a month ago, I began posting some of my squirrel distraction training videos. Tigerlily at first couldn't think if she scented squirrel. She'd quiver and shiver and totally tune me out. If she actually SAW a squirrel, she'd leap and prey scream, shivering. I thought that I would never be able to let her off leash in the park, because she had almost NO self-control in that setting. I was kicking myself for accepting this assignment.
To make a book-long story closer to blog-length, we worked on this prey-distraction issue using the Premack principle for a bit over a month. You may have seen some of those videos? Well, recently I also snuck into the fenced baseball field that's right there, infested with squirrels, and used the Premack game off leash in that safe area. I had to work way over on the highway side of the field, get some behavior out of her, and reinforce her behavior with a release cue, "okay!" and she'd run across the field to the fence where she could stare at the squirrels. I'd let her do that for a while, then recall her. As long as she came away from the fence, we kept up with the game, but on the few occassions where I had to go and get her (because "but Mom, I couldn't hear you!") I said, "too bad" and ended the game by popping her into the car for a few minutes.
We warmed up that way in the park on Sunday. With all the visiting dogs and people, the squirrels were in hiding and I was getting more focused behavior from Tigerlily than I've ever had in that park before. I had a vendor's table and a crate there for Tigerlily, and when we were warming up, if she started to distract on anything, if she took more than two seconds to turn her head and look at me when I called her, I just said, "oops. too bad, crate." And she'd go into her crate, get a drink of water and think for a little bit, and then I'd take her out again.
Anyway, so here's a videotape .of our demo.
Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Share Photos - Free Video Hosting
Yours truly of course screwed up the choreography, but Tigerlily performed WAY better than anticipated. I actually dared to remove her leash!! She performed more or less for the full song, then I brought her to the edge of the stage (letting her ride on my shoulder for fear that she'd now be anticipating reinforcement with a long line squirrel chase, and I didn't want her to take off quite yet!), snapped a long line onto her, and we took off sniffing around after squirrels behind the stage! I'm so proud!
