Retrieving a Fork with Food on It (Zen + Retrieve = Yippee!)

I’ve said all along that I wanted to train Barnum more and better than I did Gadget and Jersey. I wanted him to learn skills they didn’t know because I now need more types of assistance than I used to. And I wanted Barnum trained better because there were skills Gadget had that were good enough, but that were never really perfect. For example, Gadget was good at retrieves but lousy at combining the “hold” with other skills, like heeling or sitting or sometimes even waiting for the release (instead of just dropping the item in my lap).

One thing I never trained Gadget or Jersey to do is pick up silverware that had food on it without tasting the food. I just didn’t know how to communicate that part, because I didn’t know about doggy zen. Since dropped utensils often have food on them, this was a hole in our training.

Thanks primarily to all I’ve learned from Sue Ailsby’s Training Levels and the Training Levels list, I am a much better trainer now. I also owe some credit to Barnum for being harder to train than Jersey or Gadget, which made it impossible for me to be sloppy and take shortcuts like I did with them.

One of the ways Barnum is much better trained is with his “leave it.” I used the “puppy zen” approach to teaching this, and it’s an awesome tool to have in your dog training toolkit. (I’ve posted about zen plenty in the past. If you want to read some zen-related posts, click on the relevant tag or search “Zen.”)

We have been working on a default zen, which means that I don’t have to cue “leave it” for Barnum to know that he should not eat/sniff/touch/grab that thing/person/animal unless I tell him to. I wrote this earlier post on zen which includes a video (a captioned version and a noncaptioned version and a transcript of the video at the end of the post).

Recently we’ve also been working on combining zen and retrieve.

In general, I’ve been trying to widen Barnum’s repertoire of things he understands how to pick up, like big (wide) things, long things, heavy things, bulky things, flat things (e.g., paper), etc., as well as circumstances in which he picks things up (different rooms, outside, with other people around, with background noise like a video playing, over longer distances, with me moving, etc.).

I’ve also started combining zen/distraction with retrieving. I started leaving a treat on the floor and asking him to retrieve something while ignoring the treat. Over time I’d add more treats and/or put them closer to the retrieve items. Eventually I could put several treats under and around the item and still have him pick it up. The challenge was not with him snorking up the treats but with him being afraid to pick up an item that was within “the zen field.” (You can see the zen field at work in the video referenced above. If a treat was next to another treat that was also “zenned,” he wouldn’t eat it unless specifically cued to do so.)

Last Saturday he was doing really well with something we were working (I don’t remember what anymore) and for his treats I was using leftover cooked fish and fish skin that was very smelly and exciting to him. I was delivering the treats on a fork. I thought, “Hmmm.”

I got a clean fork and had him retrieve it. Then I smeared some fish juice on it and repeated. Then put a piece of fish UNDER the fork. And finally I used the fork I’d been feeding him from with a piece of fish speared on the end, and he retrieved it! (Without touching the piece of fish, I mean.) We did it a few times, including the fork ending up in different positions and having fish flying off it, etc.

In the following days, I tried it with pork and hot dogs. Each time, if I didn’t begin with review, he’d start toward the food end of the fork and I’d tell him leave it. But once I reviewed and he realized we were working zen AND retrieve, he’d switch to carefully picking up the handle end of the implement and leaving the food on the fork.

Today I finally made a video of him doing this, and I tried to show some of the steps leading up to it. It’s kind of a clumsy video. My voice wasn’t working, so we did it all without voiced cues, and he was not the most “in the game” he’s ever been, but hopefully you can understand what’s happening. (For the record, when I say, “Oops,” it’s not because he’s eaten the food, it’s because of the sloppy way he retrieved the fork which resulted in a piece of hot dog falling onto my foot plate, which he then went to eat, so I had to cue him to leave it.)

I am “signing” in this video, not speaking. I use the term “signing” very, very loosely because I am so out-of-practice signing that a lot of it is kind of incomprehensible mumbling from an ASL perspective, so the captioned version is as much for hearing folk as it is for Deaf or hard of hearing people.

You can watch the video (uncaptioned) below. . . .

The captioned version is here.

There is a transcript of the video below which might be of interest even to those who can watch the video, because there are some things you don’t see very well in the video that I explain in the description, like where the meat is, and that in the last retrieve the fork is right next to a piece of hot dog on the floor, etc.

Comments, critiques, questions, etc., all welcomed!

– Sharon, the muse of Gadget (she didn’t do this stuff with me! Boo!), and Barnum SD/SDiT

Video Description:

Sharon: I’ll show you how Barnum and I train zen (self-control) and retrieving.

Sharon picks up a fork.

Sharon: This is clean.

Sharon holds out the fork and Barnum takes and holds it in his mouth. Sharon grabs the fork in Barnum’s mouth and clicks and he lets go and gets a treat. Sharon tosses the clean fork on the floor and Barnum retrieves it for a click and treat again.

She spears a piece of hot dog onto the end of the fork and tosses the fork on the floor. Barnum moves around the fork warily. He picks it up but at the food end, so although he doesn’t eat the hot dog, when he hands it to Sharon, the hot dog piece falls onto her footrest. He moves to eat it. Sharon voices something that sounds like “Leave it,” and Barnum retreats from the hot dog piece.

Sharon: Oops. We’ll try again.

She holds up another fork that has a beef cube on it and throws it on the floor. This time Barnum picks it up by the handle. Sharon shows the fork to the camera so viewers can see that the meat is still on the fork.

Sharon takes two more hot dog slices and puts one on the fork that has the beef on it and tosses the other on the floor. Barnum doesn’t attempt to eat the one on the floor. When he turns and looks at Sharon instead, he gets a click and a piece of hot dog from her hand.

Sharon holds it for him to take, and then give back to her. She tries to hold it for him out to the side, but drops it instead. Barnum picks it up by the handle and gives it to her. Sharon shows the camera the pieces of meat still on the fork.

Sharon: Perfect!

Sharon throws the fork with the meat on it over next to where the hot dog is lying on the floor. Barnum retrieves it while ignoring the hot dog on the floor. Sharon clicks and treats him.

Barnum’s First Service Skills!

I’ve been really sick lately, so not up to much of anything, including blogging.

Here, for your viewing pleasure, an almost wordless blog!

Barnum’s first service skills — shutting cabinet doors. And because we were on a roll, I added shutting a couple of drawers, too.

Please note: My voice was not working when I made this video, so what little language occurs is in (sloppy, distracted) American Sign Language. If you just want to see the action and don’t care about what I’m saying, watch the YouTube version, below.

If you want to watch the captioned version, please view the video at dotSub.

Enjoy!

– Sharon, the muse of Gadget, and Barnum (That’s Mr. SDiT to you)

P.S. Instead of doing a transcription on another page, for those who don’t watch videos, here is a transcript and description of the action in the video:

Title: Barnum’s First Service Skills: Shutting Cupboards & Drawers

Sharon: Today I’m showing you Barnum’s first real service skill.

Sharon laughs as the sound of cabinet doors slamming is heard.

Cut to Barnum shutting a cupboard without being asked.

All the cupboards are natural pale solid wood, poplar, with shiny chrome-colored round metal knobs.

CLICK!

Barnum returns to Sharon for a piece of meat. Sharon laughs.

Sharon: He’s ready! Let’s try again.

Cut to Sharon in the kitchen, opening a wood cupboard. Barnum is so eager to get his nose in there and shut it that Sharon can’t open the cupboard.

Sharon: Excuse me!

Barnum backs up but is still in the way. Sharon cues him to sit, which he does.

She opens two cupboards. He shuts them both, getting clicks and treats for each.

Sharon moves to a cupboard where one door opens against a wall.

Sharon: This is a hard one.

Barnum moves in too close again. Sharon and the camera person laugh.

Sharon: Excuse me.

She cues a sit. Barnum sits. When both doors are open, she cues, “Shut the door.” Barnum closes both easily and gains two clicks and treats.

Sharon moves to the other end of the kitchen, next to the stove. She opens a cupboard under the sink that partially blocks a very narrow cabinet door next to the oven, which she also opens. Again, she has to ask Barnum, “Excuse me.”

He right away shuts both doors. After clicking and treating, Sharon gets another handful of meat from a tray on the counter and goes to a large pantry door, as tall as the refrigerator and almost as wide. This door has no knob.

Sharon: This is a hard one.

She opens it. Barnum goes right over and shuts it on the first try. Pleased and surprised, Sharon vocalizes, “All right!”

Sharon [to camera person]: Want to try drawers? Come around here, we’ll do this one.

She opens a drawer that is nose height for Barnum. The drawer is large and filled to the top with pot holders and cookbooks.

Barnum shuts it with one quick nudge. Sharon clicks and treats.

She opens the drawer beneath it, which contains empty plastic containers. It comes to about knee height for Barnum. He shuts it with a flip of his nose. Sharon clicks and treats.

Sharon looks at the camera and raises her hands in the air, making the “applause” sign and saying, “Yay!”