Diesel's Box

Diesel is a smart dog. While he doesn't fit with us, stresses Kaytu, and it will be better for everyone when he goes to a new foster, I know that he is definitely smart. I decided to try "101 Things To Do With A Box" with him. I haven't even tried it on the girls yet but it seemed like the perfect game for him. The basic idea is that it's a clicker training game where you "capture" a behavior by marking it with the click, and then the behavior can be "shaped" by requiring a slight change in the behavior already being presented. [Note: The clicker must be "charged" first so the sound has meaning to the dog.] At first, you mark (click) when the dog even looks at the box. Then you start requiring the dog to touch or interact with the box in some way, and then build on that. After several sessions when the dog has caught on to the game the rules change so that the dog has to do something new with the box each time. Only new behaviors will be marked and rewarded each time. This can initially be frustrating for the dog as behaviors that were previously rewarded no longer work. The dog will catch on and come up with all kinds of interesting things to do. All on their own! Dogs are intelligent and perfectly capable of figuring out ways to train their humans to give them treats. There is no luring or physically touching the dog in any way, and it's good to limit using your voice as well.

I grabbed a shallow box about 10"x13" and about 3 inches deep, and armed myself with a bag of pea-sized treats and my clicker. I picked this box because it's relatively small but big enough to interact with. It also has big flaps to interact with.

I confidently placed the box on the floor and grinned. Diesel looked at me, his forehead wrinkled and one bottom tooth sticking out. He licked, a behavior I've previously taught him. No reward this time! He licked again. Then he licked again. He sat down and licked and smacked his jowls about another 7 times. No reward, that's not what I want. Should I help him? No! I crossed that thought out of my head. He would look at the box eventually, I just had to be patient. Minutes passed. He licked a little more, he walked around a little, and mostly he sat and stared at me with that wrinkled forehead. I admit to poking the box with my foot twice to get him to notice it. He didn't seem to care anyway. I knew I really didn't want to lure him so I didn't try to help him again. Eventually he turned his head to his right, away from the box. Then he looked left, directly at the box. Click! "Yes! Good boy!" and a tasty treat. He did it! It took over 5 minutes which feels like an eternity of waiting when all I was doing was staring at him, but he did it. Within the next 5 minutes he figured out the box was magical. Every time he looked at the box I would click, tell him Yes or Good, and give him a treat.

He was sitting face-to-face with me, the box on his left. He'd look at the box, click, treat, look, click, treat, look click treat, several times then he'd stop and look at me. I remained silent except for my verbal marker and praise after each correct behavior. After pausing for 5-10 seconds to look at me he would look back to the box. He's got it!

Soon he was not only glancing at the box, but holding his gaze to it for a second or two. Time to change the criteria! Any time he held his gaze or leaned toward it I would click and reward. A quick glance was not enough any more. If he leaned in or stuck his head down to it I would click and reward with several treats and excited petting. He is a very affectionate dog who loves petting, it's the ultimate way to show him he was a good boy. It wasn't long before the criteria changed again and he had to touch the box with his nose or mouth.

He was already guiding the game and choosing the path by using his face to interact with it instead of his paws or body. At this point, using his face, he has many options. He could try to push or pull the box along the floor, pick up the box, press down on the box, lick the box, whatever he wanted to do.

He was offering two different behaviors and I was marking them both. I was wondering if he would get confused, combine the behaviors, or choose one over the over. The first behavior he offered was using his nose to push down on one of the flaps. Every time he pressed the flap with his nose, I clicked, said Yes or Good, and gave him a treat. He experimented and found out that this game worked on every single flap! What a smart boy.. he tested! Was it only one flap that worked, or was it all of them? My jaw dropped the first time he tried a different flap then looked up at me with his even more wrinkled, head slightly tilted and ears forward as if he was asking "This one too?" 

He started pushing down harder on it sometimes and each time he did that he received an extra treat or two as well as petting. Gradually the criteria was changing from touching the flap to pressing it down with force. At the same time, he started mouthing the edge of the flaps- easily shaped into picking up the box and I just couldn't ignore it, so I marked and rewarded it the same way as I did the flap press. He would put his lips around an edge. He never progressed to trying to lift, push, pull, or do anything else, and his teeth never touched the cardboard (which was now very gross and slimy). Unless he offered something new on his own, the behavior could not progress to something new.

While marking these two behaviors he suddenly offered a new one. He gently lifted his paw and put it on a flap. I clicked and rewarded him, and cheered him on and pet him. I tried for several days to teach Diesel to shake and could never get him to lift his paw, and here he does it on his own with no lure! He is thrilled with himself and immediately stomps on the box again. "I like this game!" He stomps on the box several more times without offering any other behaviors. As he stomps harder, the box begins to sometimes flip up on its side. How fun! The criteria has now changed and he must step hard enough to flip the box up. He figures this out quickly and is rewarded each time.

While initially a new behavior is rewarded excitedly with petting and bonus treats, the behavior becomes mastered and I gradually give less of a reward by giving only a click, Yes or Good, and a single treat.

I don't think he likes that. Again, he chooses a new behavior on his own even though he is being consistently rewarded for something else. Why would he do that?? I'm honestly not sure why he would unless he figured out that new behaviors are more rewarding. He tentatively lifts his left paw and places it in the bottom of the box. He looks up at me with that extra wrinkly face, head slightly tilted. "What about this?" I click and reward excitedly with petting immediately.

Once again he is thrilled with himself, and once again he offers this new behavior several times in a row without offering any other behavior. Then he stops, looks at me, and pees on the floor. No, that behavior is NOT one I'm looking for. I get him outside asap and clean up the floor. I know better than to stop training. He is a smart dog. What if he thinks training isn't over until he pees? That would be an awful habit to create! I bring him back inside and stand by the box. What will he do?

He gently steps on the flap and looks up at me. Nope, not good enough for a click! You have to make it flip up. I give the first verbal encouragement of the session. "Mhmm," and a slight nod. He stomps on it. He goes back to stomping on the flap to make the box flip up and does this several times. Then he tries placing his paw in the bottom again, which I click and reward. He goes back and forth between the two. For a while he does both about equally but he starts doing more stomps to flip the box on its side than placing his paw in the bottom. It's always his left paw he stomps with or places in the bottom.

I decided to stop as we'd been going for a good half hour by that point. That's an extremely long training session for something new and I had not planned on doing that to him! My initial goal was to get him to touch the box with some part of his body. Once he started to figure out the game he was so engaged and so happy with himself that I couldn't stop. I wanted to know what else he could do! I chose to stop when I did because I didn't want him to get bored or disinterested, and a break is definitely needed after that long.

I set up the video camera to record this whole thing but of course the batteries died about 2 minutes in when all that had happened was me standing there with Diesel sitting in front of me staring and licking his chops. I'll charge the batteries and try to record what happens next session.