"chin" "front" 2/28/13

Here's a clip of our training tonight... with my comments...

• tonight she had a real issue with sitting crooked... actually her sit was straight - its just that the orientation to me was off by about 30 degrees... which may be a by product of watching my hand to put her chin in it
• so I switched from doing chin to straightening the front (at about 1:10 into the video)... I don't want to lose that straight orientation
• if you have any suggestions about how I'm doing the front, feel free to share
• she acted at one point like she thought she had dropped the treat and was all about finding it... I've looked at the video and all over to see where it went and can't figure out what she was looking for.  anyway, I finally just tossed a treat to get her past it.
• tonight even doing that didn't work, so I had to take her by the collar and just get her to stop for a moment - which did work...  "oh yaah, I could work with you and get more treats"
• you can see that she is often starting straight and then deliberately turning her body... its so deliberate looking, maybe it started before we were doing chin or its just some new superstition
• she just has such a hard time believing that being still could be rewardable... if all else fails, offer 6 more behaviors
• I was purposely treating her from my right hand most of the time to get her to straighten her orientation and when I used the left hand, I treated on the side of her face nearest the camera to get that head to turn and hopefully keep the body oriented right
• at one point I was getting a lot of foot tapping that I had to sort out... she was staying straighter, but I thought she was getting the idea that moving her feet was a prerequisite to hearing "yes"
• at one point she was acting like she didn't know what "front" meant, so I may have to go back and reattach the cue
• it got better toward the end when I got the reinforcements going faster... though I notice in the video that I am already moving my hand when the "yes" comes out...

Any feedback you have is appreciated...

"chin" 2/24/13

Here's a clip of our training on this... these are the things I was thinking, noticing and/or wanted to know what you think...

• Gimme doesn't seem to settle in unless my hand has the thumb on one side and fingers on the other - I probably taught that
• am I even teaching that right... guessing at what you want for holding the dumbell, maybe my presentation should be more straight... so her chin is resting in my finger tips and fingers aligned with her head - now its kinda like her throat resting on my hand
• it occurs to me I may be "helping too much by having my hand follow her around
• if I lower my hand she starts getting really bouncy with her head and/or trying to put her foot in my hand
• do I care about lowering my hand... if the idea is to for her to rest her chin on my fingers to encourage holding the dumbbell - maybe it won't be an issue other than for teaching clarity of her "job" to rest her chin in my hand
• sometimes when I don't click (you can't tell in the video) its because she isn't really laying her head in my hand, more like hovering her head right over my hand
• I moved the treat dish between my thighs so she would stop going over to check on it
• should I train this with both hands or just one?  if one, which?
• should I be training this me standing?
• at one point around 3.5 minutes, I lost her a bit (when she went to check out the camera) so clicked re-engaging my hand to get her back in the game
• note the whiny/moaning when she gets frustrated - that's quiet for her

Of course, I'd be grateful for any feedback...