Send Outs

Gata's send out is beautiful - fast and straight and good (not great) down 95% of the time.  The other 5% of the time she adds in some undesirable behaviors, like looking back at me over her shoulder, or spinning circles after running just a little way.  I know that these reflect confusion or uncertainty on her part.  I don't believe that Gata is "messing" with me.  I'm not sure that I believe that dogs do that at all, but I know that she doesn't.

I've been debating whether or not to try to fix this, since it's not really all that broken.  I've decided that there is absolutely no harm in going back and working on the foundation behaviors that we've put together to create her send out.  As long as I continue to work them positively and use variable reinforcers to reward good vs excellent execution I don't think that I will make it worse.

A couple of things I need to remember with Gata:
1. More than most dogs, she likes predictability.
2. Speed/running is self-reinforcing for her.
3. We have done lots of cone/pot work, so I will need to add those in as distractions on the field at some point in the future.  She needs to be confident in her decision to go "straight ahead" regardless of whatever else is on the field.  I know that cones on the field at MPSC have contributed to this problem.
4. Problem with Gata started when working with Dembouski and switched from my method in which we always did the down to his method in which most of the time the dog just ran out fast and straight to a reward on the ground.  When we again asked for the down all these other behaviors started.  She was no longer certain of what we wanted.

Basic method:
1. Downing on the step pad so that front legs are on the pad - no creeping forward off the step pad entirely or just enough so that back legs are on the pad.
2. Send to step pad and down (particularly important with Gata to always do the down).  Would break this into a few pieces with Tor - go to the pad, put both front feet on the pad, down on the pad.  Plus add in a "Mark" step for Tor.
2. Increase distance to step pad until it is no longer visible to her.
3. Increase distance until I am just downing her before she ever reaches the step pad.
4. Add in heeling with medium-length sends, add distance quickly with Gata.  I think doing too many short to medium-length sends increases the likelihood of undesirable behaviors with her.  It's almost like she starts to count paces and is "waiting" for the down command.

Other things to think about:
1. How close does Gata have to be to the step pad when she downs.  She likes to creep forward.  Do I want to deal with that now, too?  Yes, I think so.  What to do?  Mark the behavior with "Good" but ask her to "Back" up to the step pad, step on it, and repeat the down, until she downs on the step pad.  Which part of her has to be on the step pad?  Black and white, black and white.  Think about this!!!  If the decision is that her front legs need to be on the step pad then I need to work her down on the step pad before anything else.  OK - made up my mind, am going to do that and have amended basic method to reflect that.

2. Fading the step pad.  If I insist that Gata step on the step pad and then down with her front legs on it, I will have to figure out a time when it is appropriate to fade the step pad.  I may have to develop some smaller step pads or come up with another mechanism that allows me to fade it.

So, as long as I am going to be working send outs with Gata I am going to start teaching Tor the send out, too.  We couldn't add in the heeling at this point but will probably be ready for that by the time he gets the rest of it.