Luna Learns to 'close The Door'

Luna is a two -year-old Australian Shepherd the behavior i wanted to teach her was pushing the door closed on the cue, 'close the door' I wanted to be able to do this whilst sitting in my chair in the living room the closest behavior she has to this behavior Is a nose touch to objects that are close to her. That is where i started. In this first ten treat session, Luna freely offers a nose touch which I am able to easily capture I choose to reward her from my hand, making a nice tight training loop Which affords me a high rate of reinforcement My second Ten treat session Is a beautiful example of tight training loops. it even results In a push strong enough to close the door. as Luna is catching on so quickly, I decide to raise my criteria and click for harder pushes. Unfortunately my first click is less than accurate Not only is it a soft push, i managed to capture rear-end movement towards the door Luna and I have been working a lot on rear end movement lately I immediately lower my criteria again. and am happy that she manages to catch on again by the end of the session In watching this session, i see that my clicks are just fractionally late that's probably what 's encouraging her not to push so hard i miss a click on purpose trying to get her to push harder, but it frustrates her. She doesn't know what to do i'm trying to think desperately how I can increase the strength of those pushes i'll have to wait 'til next session. ohh dear (sigh) In an effort to try to get harder pushes i've definitely managed to get more variety of behavior I've also managed to frustrate poor Luna. she resorts to rear end movement trying to get me to click for that . I start to throw the treat away to try to discourage her from coming in to my leg. It does get a little bit more of a hard push. But I am really not happy with this training session. O.K. time to regroup How can i get firmer nose pushes without frustrating Luna? i'm going to go for more interaction with the door. say two pushes before i click most of the time i'm also going to continue throwing the treat away, that seems to make her come in with more activity This session I continue with the same techniques as the previous session I get some really nice, hard nose pushes. Maybe we're getting somewhere. Things are moving in the right direction and I decide to try a jackpot with Luna. i don't usually use jackpots but there was something in Luna's expression she just seemed really happy to receive a special treat and she has been working really hard maybe she needs that extra value of reinforcer. I'm going to try it a few more times. i think she's actually starting to get it Good girl Luna O.K. next step... i'm going to back chain closing the door so i'll gradually leave it further and further open. she still has to push it all the way shut. Good girl now i'm going to start backing up, Give her a little bit more distance between me and the door. My favorite part, time to start adding the cue. 'Close the door' That was a really good session. Luna only closed the door once without me giving the cue. She doesn't know the cue yet, I'm just associating it. That's how she learns the behavior doesn't pay off unless she hears the cue. She is even able to discriminate With other well-known cues that she has Time to start adding more distance. Luna does quite a lot of work at distance so she's not finding this too difficult at the very end of this clip you'll notice it takes her longer to come back after the cue. You can't see but i've actually sat down on the couch. She's not sure how to behave when i sit down, but she does figure it out. So there you have it. I've taken Luna from capturing a nose push on a door to sending her 15 feet, on the cue, 'close the door' I had a lot of fun and I think she had a lot of fun too. it's taking fifteen minutes in real time obviously there's more work to be done other doors, New locations, more distraction, but think she's done a great job for today. Thank you for watching