How have you benefited from target training?
How can I use this to my advantage? I got him in the house with it a few times by holding it in the room (I was previously having difficulty getting him to come in on my command). Also, how do I shift from having him touch the target to having him perform to a different command which is essentially asking him to do the same thing? For example, if I have him touch the target to come in, I've been saying "touch" to indicate that I'd like him to touch the target. But what he is ACTUALLY doing is coming inside the house. Eventually I don't want to use the target anymore for that behaviour and want him to come in on the command "inside", so how do I go from one to the other? Or am I going about this incorrectly? Thanks! |
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| Target training is generally used to teach the dog to go away from you (as in a go-out in obedience, or to drive through the weavepoles in agility) or to find and hold a stationary position (the two-on/two-off a contact in agility).
I'm trying to think how you can use it to teach a recall (which is in some ways essentially what you want, with a twist: innovative thinking, by the way, love your willingness to take a training method and perhaps push the boundaries of its uses a bit, this is how innovation in training happens). Since a recall typically means come to me, that makes you the target. You don't really need a target plate for that. To get the little bugger to come in, when place is not actually determined by person, I suppose you could place a target plate some place convenient to the door and teach him a specific command means run to that place and sit or down and whatever, A mat or something like that would make "the place" more distinct in his mind (easier for him to understand). If you do this, you have to decide what you want the final behavior to look like and then break it down into tiny bits, probably by backchaining, meaning you start with the end result (a down on the mat, nose touch on plate to start) and then move back in tiny increments and send him from different parts of the yard, starting with you right there with him to him eventually running to his "place" (or "house" or whatever) no matter where he, or you, are. Obviously, if you want that "place" to be inside the house, you have to be willing to train with the door open, which does not appeal to me in WI right at this moment (-3F).  Don't even put a command to the behavior (chances are he doesn't know that "touch" means touch either - he just knows it's a command, and that's where he's been getting cookies lately, so he looks for it.
I taught my youngest to run to their crates (I got tired of chasing them around the house and begging them to get their butts in there when I was getting ready to leave). I didn't do it as formally. I just made a big production of giving them a cookie for running into their crates. I can now tell them "crate" and they rush in there, but really, they are no doubt clueing more off my behaviour than any verbal command (mom opened fridge and then headed to dog room - oh, boy!) Baby dogs all run into their respective crates (whether I want them to or not) - the "elders" - and even some of the youngsters at this point - aren't crated, but they get a cookie too for showing up and sitting (or they'd mug me, quite frankly) and they all get rewarded every time - which does NOT follow the basic tenet of good training (variable reinforcement rates and weaning them off treats) But since this is not part of an AKC obedience exercise and since it's not the most fun thing in the world to do, they get their cookie come rain or shine and they push each other out of the way to get there first. It's just habit is all it is. I've had two foster girls with me for less than a week and one of them has already joined the rushing crowd and the other crates on command and it really says nothing about my training skills (or lack thereof) because they are just doing following my guys in pursuit of the magic cookie. I figure a tiny piece of hotdog is a small price to pay for not having to sort them all out and take 30 minutes to get out the door. Color me lazy. In your case, it would probably be easier to go back and reinforce the heck out of the recall, making yourself more enticing than dirt (that he's probably off sniffing, cheerfully ignoring you telling him to come). But as a training experiment, it could be a great learning experience for you to adapt targeting and mold it into what you want to achieve. I wish I had your natural sense of innovation, but I rarely think outside the box unless some better-than-me-trainer shoves me out and makes me 
Kristine |
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