FE590: Out and About

How to Analyze Your Recall Challenge and Make a Training Plan

Do you have a strong recall in most situations, but struggle with a specific distraction? Good - you’re ready to work on an advanced recall, and tackle your big challenge! 

Unlike the foundational steps for a reliable recall, advanced challenges are as individual as the dogs who are facing them. Rather than giving you a recipe to follow, I am going to help you design, tweak, and work through your very own training plan. Your plan may end up looking similar to one of the recall case studies included in this class, or it may look very different - it all comes down to what reinforcers your dog prefers, who they are, and what kind of distraction you are working with. 

This lecture will give you a blueprint for analyzing your challenge, and starting to draft a training plan. Consult it in combination with the two case studies included in this class!

Blueprint for your training plan

1. What is your baseline behavior? What happens right now if your dog is faced with the distraction you would like to work on? 

Put on your ethologist’s hat, and describe observable behavior! If you are a Gold student choosing advanced recalls for this class, share your description as well as a baseline video (if you happen to have one) on your homework thread. Silver students are welcome to use their homework thread for the written part of this exercise as well. Bronze students - I encourage you to write down your baseline, even if it’s just for yourself!

2. Analyze your problem in-depth!



a) Is it really a recall challenge, or does it only look like one? 

Example, fence fighting, especially if it also occurs in your absence, isn’t a recall challenge. Neither is your border collie herding toddlers.

b) Is the distraction something your dog can have some of the time, or is it always off limits? 

Example: other dogs are a distraction your dog can have access to sometimes. Chasing cyclists is always off limits.

c) Do you have a reward that is potentially higher value than the distraction?

Think outside the box! If you suspect a specific reward ritual might be higher value, but your dog isn’t familiar with this reward procedure yet - we’ll start by training this new reward ritual to fluency!

d) Is it realistic to allow your dog to engage in an alternative behavior that is similar to the unwanted behavior? 

Dogs often display behaviors they need an outlet for. Giving them an alternative outlet for the behavior in question helps set you up for success!

Example: if your dog just loves chasing rapidly retreating objects, is there a way of integrating the behavior of chasing into their lives, or even into your recall reward? If your dog loves following animal tracks, is there a way of integrating tracking or sniffing into their life, or even into your recall reward?

e) Can you control the distraction?

If not, is there a way to make it controllable? Can you think of a controllable stand-in distraction you could use in a training set-up?

Your answers to the questions above will help you assess whether teaching a reliable recall in the face of your chosen distraction is realistic for your dog, or whether you will have to look into management options instead.

3. Define a realistic training goal and/or management solution.

Training goal:

be specific! What does the dog’s goal behavior look like to an observer? 

Management component: 

You may decide to work on a management plan instead of a recall. Even if you go with a training plan, you will likely need a management component as well: it is essential that the dog not engage in the unwanted behavior (ignoring your recall, or chasing something that is always off limits) while you work through your plan. 

4. Draft your training plan!

a) Break your overall training goal down into smaller milestones.

Define specific criteria for completing each milestone! Criteria may include speed, latency etc.)


b) Split each milestone down into specific training steps.

For now, you may choose to just do that for your baseline to your first milestone.

c) Write down any additional relevant details concerning set-ups, reinforcers, and criteria!

Homework

• Read the first lecture in the case study series on Leeloo (chasing joggers).
• Read the first lecture in the case study series on Grit (she’d like to take a nibble off cows).
• Write down your baseline behavior in your homework thread!