E41: 머라야 하인즈(Mariah Hinds) - "프루핑 및 링 신뢰성 구축하기"

So, I wanted to ask what proofing means to you, and then maybe a little bit about why it's critical for success in competition. Sure. So, for me, proofing means that we're adding achievable challenges to this goal. So, once the dog can do a behavior reliability on cue, and it can be a verbal cue or a hand signal on the cue, then we can ask the dog to do the behavior in different locations. And perhaps we can ask the dog to do the behavior with the other dog around. And perhaps we can ask the dog to do the behavior in different locations and proximity to us. So, can you sit in front of me? Can you sit at heel? Can you sit on the right side of my body? Can you sit between my feet? And I really think that proofing is critical to success in competition because there are tons of distractions at a trial. And although you can't actually train for every single distraction, you can practice adding distractions in training. And if we add distractions in a strategic way so the dog is really successful, then we're really building the dog's confidence. And the dog learns and says, yes, I know exactly which behavior you want me to do. And no matter what's going on, no matter how far away I am or where my handler is or how quickly I'm moving, I know that this is the behavior that gets me closer to earning my reward. So, you mentioned kind of dogs different ages, different stages. At what age or point in your training journey do you really begin to add proofing? And what does that look like? Well, I think that everyone proofs their dogs, whether they realize it and they work through the behavior strategically or whether they don't. We work on adding distractions to our healing. We work on adding distance to our position changes for utility. We work on adding out of motion to our down for open. We work on adding distractions to our stays. We work on practicing new locations. And once the dogs have the basic understanding of these cues with different locations and duration and distance, then we oftentimes add another layer of understanding with even more distractions and more proofing. And typically, I find that skills fall into a few different categories. It either hasn't been introduced yet. The skill is just being learned. The dog is more than 50% reliable with behavior. We're adding new locations or we're proofing for duration and stimulus control. We're adding distance or distractions. And so when those are all the categories that behavior can really fall into. And when the dog is just learning the skills, we set up the environment so the dog can be really successful.

And if we set it up well, then the dog goes up to being successful with behavior. 60% of the time are better really quickly. Then we can start practicing in new locations, such as the bedroom instead of the training room or on the patio or at the training building after the dog is acclimated. We can also work on building duration and putting the behavior on stimulus control. Then we can add distance and distraction. So I start adding distractions strategically to my dog's behaviors. The moment that the behavior is robust and strong enough, that the dog will really likely be successful. And if we practice the skill the same way without building more challenges with the behavior, then our training might just go stagnant and we might not really make any real progress to our goal. Is there ever a point where you stop proofing? Not really. When I'm first working on sequencing behaviors together, such as for the retrieve over a jump, I mean, that's a behavior sequence and it starts with the dog sitting in heel position. Then they go over the jump on cue. Then they automatically retrieve the item. Then they return over the jump, automatically do a front. So when I'm teaching that sequence, then I'm definitely going to start sequencing those things together with much fewer distractions than if I'm just working on just one piece of that behavior. But before that, I want my dog to be able to do those behaviors separately with distractions. I want the dog to be able to pick up the dumbbell off the ground with distractions around. I want the dog to be able to go over the jump with my jump cue and chase a cookie as the reward for that behavior. I want the dog to be able to set up in heel position and stay while I throw distractions, such as a cookie or a dumbbell or a toy. I want the dog to be able to come over the jump from a set, any angle with the cue to jump. I find that that's a really overlooked part of that behavior sequence and it falls apart really easily. And if the behaviors, if the pieces are solid separately before we sequence them together, then sequencing the behaviors together happens really quickly. And if a piece of the sequence falls apart, then we can easily fix that piece of the sequence just by revisiting that piece. And once the behavior sequence or the chain is solid, then we want to go back through and add more layers of understanding and more layers of confidence by adding distractions and proofing the entire behavior sequence. So with my, so for example, with cover, we're working on adding some distractions to our slow healing.

So at the trial on our, at our third leg, she really was a little 4G with, with the slow healing. And so I really wanted to get that a little bit more reliable. And so, and she's consistent with it until we add distractions. So that's what we're working on. The goal ultimately for her will be that my training partner can swing a toy and that she'll remain in heel position while we're walking. Right now, we're working on food distractions while she heals because she finds that a lot easier. She's way more toy motivated than she is motivated. So I'm building confidence with her with that so that she understands, so that then I can add more layers of confidence. The other thing that we're working on proofing is doing a finish with the pressure for a judge without her squeaking from the stress of the pressure. So at home, I'm practicing finishing, having her finish on cue with a dog bone as a distraction or some other distraction, food or toy distraction. And then when I have my training friends to help me, then I'll do a few repetitions of what she's been successful with at home. And then I'll replace the distraction with a person and see if she can do that successfully. I know that precision and maintaining criteria are like super important to you. So I wanted to kind of delve into that a little bit and ask you what the relationship between proofing and getting really precise, consistent behaviors is. And if you could just talk about that for a minute. Sure. So really, first, we need to add the behavior. We need the behavior to be precise with our desired criteria. So that needs to happen first. And that needs to happen before we add layers of proofing. So and we can certainly use different reinforcement strategies to help maintain the desired criteria without losing attitude. And that's really important to do. I do that a lot with my puppy when I'm building reliability. So she'll get one reward for trying and she'll get multiple rewards for doing it accurately. We can also think about where we place the reward. So we're getting the most effect for our desired behavior. And this is talked a lot about it in the precision healing class that Denise does. So if a dog is lagging, we want to build more reliability for being in heel position. Then we really want the reward to happen ahead of heel position. And if the dog is healing too wide, then we want the reward to happen with the dog really close to us with the rear end as well. Because otherwise we'll create crabbing.

And if the dog is healing and they tend to crab out and forge ahead, then we can have the dog spin away from us, which encourages their butt to get in. And then we can reward them from behind heel position or even from our right hand. The dogs tend to anticipate where the reward will happen. And then we'll really gravitate more to that area. And we do talk a lot about reinforcement strategies in my class. And it really can help build a lot. It can help a lot with building reliability. Do you work precision and consistency separately? Do you, I mean, it sounds a little bit like they're very closely related. So can you talk to that for a minute? I do think they're closely related. I mean, I think that really precision kind of has to happen first. And consistency is really just generalizing the behavior. So first I work on precision. Let's say that I'm working on fronts. So the first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to help the dog be correct. So I can use a platform to help the dog find front precisely. I can also do step back fronts where I lure the dog into position while I take a step back. And once the dog is precise at finding fronts from two to three feet away with the platform or with luring, then I can start fading my lure. So I can ask the dog to find fronts with my hands pointing at my face instead of my hands. The other reason why I like to do that step is because when I'm teaching the dog where I want them to focus, when they're finding front, I don't want them to accidentally find front on a stranger or the judge. So I do want them to look up at my face. And so then I can go to finding, I can go to teaching them to find a precise position with my hands on my side. And once the dog can find them positioned precisely from two to three feet away, then I can start adding different angles that come to front. I can toss the treat to the left or to the right and have the dog find front that way. Again, just from a very short distance away. And that's quite a challenging thing to do precisely. So once they're precise with that, then I can start adding more speed by tossing the reset cookie further away. I can start weaning off of the platform and going back to an earlier step to help guide them, to help guide the dog to where they should go. I like to do a little bit of pointing to my face as I'm waning off of the platform. I'm going to add in my distractions, such as the judge and the pressures of the ring gating and so on. So the dog really needs to understand exactly where the position is precisely first, before we get consistency with that position with a lot of variables.

So I think that all Mava's competitors have been at that place where they thought their dog knew something, right? They show up to compete, and then their dog's carefully trained behaviors fall apart totally in the ring. Where do people go wrong when that happens? And what kind of things can they do to prevent it? Sure. Well, I think that it's a really common thing that happens. And I think that we all fall into the habit of training at one or two places because it's convenient. And then we expect that is enough to get reliability in a new place with new dogs and new people and a stranger in the ring with you. And I think that's a lot to ask of our dogs. And I find that training at different places is really important. And going to show-and-go is a great way to see where your dog is in terms of readiness. And if you can't find a show-and-go, then I think another great option is to go to places where there are other dogs behind the fence, such as or on leash. One option would be going to a big grassy area outside of a dog park and practicing there. Or you can go to a parking lot near the dog beach entrance. Or you can go to a parking lot at a really busy veterinary clinic. And for me and my dogs, that always tends to give me a really accurate gauge as to where they are with reliability with distractions. For me, I like to combine that with distraction work at home. It just isn't practical for me to go train at a new place more than once a week. But at home, I can add challenges and distractions that help my dogs understand that the way to earn the reward for the acute behavior is really to ignore the distraction. So I think the other place that a lot of people really struggle is when it comes to cleaning up kind of their own body language, right, as part of proofing. I mean, we get all this reinforcement built in from our dog doing the right thing when we do all those extra movements, when we lean forward slightly on the down cue, or, you know, when we use our hands a little more than we should. So I wanted to see if you could talk a little bit about why it's important to get rid of that movement and then share any tips you have. Because I think it's something I think that you do really well. Well, thanks. Yeah, I do find that it's really important. I find that especially when we're preparing to go into the novice ring, that we've done a lot of helping the dog set up in heel position by doing certain things with our body. Or we help the dog halt when we're healing by turning our shoulders towards the dog and looking at their rear.

Or we help the dog find front by always practicing with our hands near the center of our body during practice. And then we go in the ring and we can't help the dog. So we've removed the cue that the dog was familiar with. And the dog doesn't know what you want anymore because we've removed the cue and there are distractions everywhere. So it really can be challenging for the dog to go in the ring when they really just aren't ready yet. Whereas if we actually prepare the dog and we show them that the cue for the behavior isn't all of this extra body movement, then they're going to be a lot better prepared. As for tips, I think the first thing that's really important is discovering what your body is doing while you say the verbal cue. So the more that you actually video yourself and then watch those videos back, the more that you're going to realize what you're doing with your body while you're saying your cues. So once we realize what the body language cue is that we're doing, then we can start working on fading them. I also think that one of the longstanding myths of dog training, especially in obedience, is that you should be saying the verbal cue while you help the dog do the behavior with your body language. And what we really want to be doing, if we want the behavior to be reliable without body language, is first saying the verbal cue without moving and then following that verbal cue with your old cue, which will be the body language help or the hand signal gesture that you've been using. So I know, like, for example, some instructors use the prompt kind of always return your hands to neutral or always return your hands to the same spot. You know, is that helpful? Is that kind of a strategy useful? Yeah. So, I mean, we want to practice looking formal if that's what we're going to do in the ring. So, you know, yes, if you're if, for example, you're using pocket hands, to putting your left hand out to your side to help the dog actually sit when you stop, then that's fine. But we want to kind of return to formalness when we can to help the dog see that picture as well. So beyond kind of simply proofing, what what other skills are there that somebody needs to know to get ring ready? And I know that that you're kind of teaching some classes on this. So I thought it might be a good topic to talk about a little bit. Yeah. So I'm taking a class on putting the novice exercises together called putting it together. And I'm teaching proof positive building reliability.

And the first thing that we cover in proof positive positive building reliability is discussing our reinforcement strategies for the behavior that the students have chosen to work on in the class. So we have some people working on fronts or position changes or go out some healing, some drop on recall, some setting up and heal position, some weave, some running contacts and freestyle behaviors and lots and lots of obedience. I really love that variety. It really keeps the class fun and it's fun to follow along with. So the next thing in that class is that we talk about feeding our extra body language cues. And we work on actually putting it on a verbal cue. And we work on getting the behavior solid under one set of circumstances. We work on waiting and we work on teaching stimulus control. So helping the dog learn to wait for the cue before doing the behavior. And then we start playing games. So this week we're going to work on teaching the dog to ignore our body language and listen to the verbal cue. And we're going to work on doing the behavior in various locations. And then the upcoming weeks, we work on adding sound distractions and spatial pressure, which is the amount of things around the dog. So like ring gates and judges, although we're not actually going to be working on people. So, you know, a trash can can provide spatial pressure. A wall can provide spatial pressure. We're also going to be adding various angles, some adding duration and distance, different locations, adding some out of motion to the behaviors. And we're going to work on building reliability with food and set distractions in a few different scenarios. So overall, we're playing fun games to build a dog's understanding and reliability with behaviors. And in the putting it together class, we're working on making sure that our behaviors for the novice ring are really solid separately. So we're working on stays and fronts and moving in heel position and setting up in heel position and stand stays and our circles for our figure eights and our complete figure eight exercise. And our turns and change of pace and healing, taking off the leash, entering the ring, exiting the ring. So first we're doing some problem solving, helping the dogs understand the desired behaviors. Then when those pieces are solid, then we're working on sequencing the behaviors together, building confidence by adding realistic ring distractions, weaning off of rewards and practicing our entire ring performance. So we're looking at all of these pieces in this class and put those together when the pieces are ready to come together.

So in both classes, we're talking about reinforcement strategies. And there are lectures on building reliable, precise fronts. The putting it together class covers a lot of topics regarding the novice ring and polishing those behaviors before sequencing them together and putting them into our ring performance practice. And the building reliability class covers adding distractions, different locations, spatial pressure, those sound distractions, handling our body language distractions, and adding those things to our simple behaviors like sitting down. Then we can take those games and practice with our complex behaviors and add duration and out of motion and food distractions to those behaviors as well. Both classes are really a lot of fun. And if you do obedience, then both classes could fit your needs. It just really depends on where your dog's behaviors are and their understanding of the behaviors. So if you're just starting out and you're just working on pivots, then building reliability would probably be a better fit. Versus if your dog is kind of solid with that and you're really ready to kind of move on and start sequencing, you know, a little bit of fine heel position stationary with actually moving heel position, then the putting it together class is a good fit. They sound very complimentary. They do. They sound like they'll work well together. Yes, definitely. Well, thank you so much for coming back on the podcast, Mariah. I appreciate it. I know things are crazy, but I'm glad you could make some time for me. Yeah, it was a lot of fun. Awesome. And thank you to all of our listeners for tuning in. We'll be back next week, this time with a special anniversary edition of the podcast. Also, just a last-minute reminder that if you want to take a class for the December term, today, December 15th, the day this episode comes out, is the absolute last day for registration. So, if you're a procrastinator, it's time. And if you haven't already, subscribe to our podcast in iTunes or the podcast app of your choice to have our next episode automatically downloaded to your phone as soon as it becomes available. Today's show is brought to you by the Fenzie Dog Sports Academy. Special thanks to Denise Fenzie for supporting this podcast. Music provided royalty-free by bensound.com. The track featured here is called Buddy. Audio editing provided by Chris Lang. Thanks again for tuning in, and happy training. Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music