TAGteach

Sep. 5th, 2011 04:30 am
potato_head: (o u o)
Just found out about this concept. Basically, adapting clicker training to use with children - and adults, and any other age of student.

This idea is REALLY interesting. My initial reaction was one of confusion, but I have come to realize that this is because I have been looking at clicker training as more of a means of communication with an animal, that works on top of the framework of teaching by succession. However, on further thought, I realize there's no other way of teaching by succession that works exactly the same as marking. You can describe a position until you're blue in the face, and even how it feels for you when you're in it, but the only way for someone (including animals in 'someone') to know that they're assuming that position is to be told EXACTLY when they are in it - by marking.

What I'm wondering is - for now it only seems to be used to teach skills. In dogs we now see it being used to train positive general behaviors, reduce anxiety and reactivity and other negative reactions and behaviors. Can we do this with people as well? I would expect so, and I think it would be especially helpful with autistic children/people, where it's already being used to a lot of effect to teach skills. I hope we'll see it moving in that direction very soon.

In the meantime, there's an article on the site about using TAGteach with yourself, which I think sounds like a wonderful idea and I will be trying immediately. I've always had a very difficult time learning anything that doesn't come to me naturally (I was not terrible at the clarinet because I hated it, I was terrible because the basic steps that I was supposed to learn by did NOT work well for me at all, and when I tried to communicate this what I got back was 'try harder, practice more'), and I hope this might help. At the very least, breaking things down in a clerical way entertains me (to demonstrate this, I have a 'pokemon' and a 'monster rancher' folder on my desktop, each filled with excel and word files...)
potato_head: (D: D: D:)
Omg we have a major storm brewing right now. Like it's about as dark outside right now as it would be at 5AM. And it only just started raining.

I hope this keeps up through work, I love stormy days at work. :D It feels so cozy, serving hot coffee to people during a rainstorm (or when it's snowing out)! And it seems to put people in a better mood than when it's sunny out, hell if I know why. I know that's not the usual trend, but customer trends at coffee shops seem to be very different than usual customer trends.

OMG now it is REALLY raining. And thunder. Excited! This also means the pain in my ears will stop soon (very sensitive to pressure changes).

Anyways, a bit more talking about training Tripper. Worked with him a bit more last night. I've decided the best solution to my and his non-syncing schedule is to do very short sessions with him in the evenings, so he won't get tired and frustrated. We worked on 'brofist' because he's having a lot of trouble with 'lick' still so I want to wait and work on that separately.

I have a hard time understanding why people who have the time to work with their dogs, don't. I don't think I really knew Tripper before I started training him, and I was vastly underestimating his intelligence, too. I mean, it's not like I'm an awesome trainer, we're learning together and I think I'm getting a lot better.

I wish I could go outside and stand in the rain a bit, maybe even walk into the woods (good chance then of encountering the new inhabitants close-up, I think...at least, rain used to draw the old ones out, even though they were usually not active during the day). But I have work later and don't want to have to take another shower between now and then. Also, there's a fog that's collecting in the woods in a way that makes me kind of uneasy.
potato_head: (cockatrice)
A few videos of Tripper!

From the beach:






And mom taped this last night; I bring Tripper some munchkins after work every night. This has taught him to tell time somehow, and he gets excited around 9:45 every night, although I don't get home until about 10:10. I've been working on him being a bit more relaxed about the donuts; just a few weeks ago, he wouldn't have been able to focus enough to lay down, let alone practice a new trick (brofist).


potato_head: (o u o)
Tripper and I have the house to ourselves a bit, so I took the opportunity to do some training with him :D I couldn't find his clicker, but he caught on to my verbal marker ('yes!') immediately. We ran through some things he knows already to get him warmed up (touch, down, sit) and to try and work a bit more on distinguishing between 'sit' and 'down'...he still thinks they mean the same thing 6 n 9 I can't start teaching him proper stays until he knows the difference. He blatantly refused to do 'show your belly' on hardwood (barked at me when I asked, then offered everything else he knew very quickly xD) and then when I got him on the bed and asked him to do it, he looked at all the things around him (he didn't have much space) and then gave me an 'are you serious?' look. I guess it's moot since we don't have any carpet in the house any more, so it's not like he can ever show it off since he won't do it on hard surfaces P:

So then we started working on a few new things...'lick', which I've been wanting to teach him for awhile (to get him to clean his mouth when he's drooling or foaming after eating, blegh) and 'brofist', as well as meeting my eyes when I call his name. He got 'brofist' really fast, probably because Derek already taught him to give low-fives when a hand is offered palm-up, so it was the second thing he offered after trying to 'touch' (we do nose-touches). 'Lick' he is having a bit more trouble with, he'll get it for awhile but then he's not sure of himself and starts offering other behaviors in addition to the lick to see if he'll get a jackpot xD his favorite at the moment is hitting me with his paw while he licks.

We also kept practicing 'touch' just to mix something in with the other two and because he likes it (I think he especially enjoys the behaviors that involve interacting with me - he gets kind of excited about 'brofist' too) and practiced a bit on leaving food, which he did surprisingly well with. I got him to run through several tricks, including trying to practice down vs. sit and even though that one frustrates him a bit he didn't get distracted/frustrated and grab the treat off the floor like he used to.

Anyways, we're taking a break right now. I'm nervous because I have to report for jury duty tomorrow :C Dad had me drive there and back twice so I know how to get there, but there's still a lot of interacting! And what if I get called?! I can only hope that my obvious terror of people will keep them from picking me, since I refuse to lie to get out of it. ;A;
potato_head: (cockatrice)
So I made the decidedly un-thought-through choice of reading a bit of a violently transphobic blog (nothing like reading that a person wishes all trans people were dead! Certainly brightened up my afternoon!) which I am not linking because TBH spreading hate and giving it attention is just not my MO. So instead, as I was thinking about this earlier and hopefully it will cheer me up, I am going to take inventory of the commands Tripper knows! This should be interesting since he's learned two different sets of commands from Dad and I, and has learned a lot of very nuanced commands because we're a bit haphazard about teaching him.

I think this will probably be long )

I'm honestly, often surprised by his ability to pick up commands very quickly. Originally I only meant to teach him 'mouse' for the sake of the video, which was for a presentation I was giving on clicker-training. I spent about three hours with him on it, all in one session, and by the end we were both exhausted and cranky (never again!). I didn't even teach him the turning behavior during that session - I tried, but he wasn't getting it, so I just ended with jumping onto the ottoman and sitting facing me. A month or so later, I decided to see if he recalled the trick at all, and cued him (without the clicker even in my hand, which generally makes him more attentive to my commands because he knows he'll get treats). He did the complete trick, including the turn. I was surprised and did it with him a few more times; it wasn't a fluke. He retains it even now, even though I haven't reinforced it in any clicker sessions since then.

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