Let there be LIGHT

Kona and I have been working on training the first steps to Kona turning on a light switch. She is getting the idea fairly well. I have made a video of her doing it and I am hoping if I have made the video correctly and/or can figure out how to add one into this blog I am about to include it....If not I will keep trying.


Here goes nothing.......Wish me luck








In the video we introduce a hand held switch and plate with a piece of tape attached; this has two purposes it gives the puppy something of interest to target to and encourages the puppy to used it's nose and mouth to manipulate the tape. Everything we teach comes in steps so it is important to understand that this is just the introduction phase and it looks more like the puppy is chewing on the light switch which it is at this time. Our goal is to gain the puppy's interest in recognising a target (the switch) then coupling a cue word with the action (light) the important thing at this stage is to get her excited about touching the switch, allowing the mouthing sets the ground work for later when we will ask for her to put pressure on the switch to push it up.

This particular switch has been altered so we can hold it in our hand ,later she will move to one mounted on a plank and eventually the wall at low level then graduate to the wall at normal switch level. As you can see there are many many steps to teaching a puppy to smoothly follow a directed command to go to a light switch in a room, get up on the wall with front paws and turn it on or off for that matter which is done with the paws. We call this chaining where we teach each step slowly and one at a time building on every stage with a new or more precise step. Through the blog you will begin to understand how it is that we connect the dots to make a complex behaviour such as this one something that our assistance dogs do with ease.

I am sorry the video quality is so poor i only have dial up and I think this may affect what quality I can post if any of you would like me to email the video please drop me a line and I will gladly do so. I also notice the sound did not transfer (my limited skills if anyone would like to online tutor me in video transferring and creation I would greatly appreciate it). What I am saying each time I introduce the light is "Light" when she touches it I glide it down word to make the switch go up and show her that action other than touch is needed. If you notice the last frame she is moving towards the light and touching with less action from me.... all of this was accomplished with about 10 attempts in less than 5 minutes. It is important at such a young age to keep lessons short, action packed (to keep their interest) and to end will success and before they tire of the lesson. Now we will likely not work on this again for at least a day maybe two, this gives time for Kona to absorb the process and too much frequency too soon can get boring for a puppy. I will test the waters of interest by introducing the switch again without pressure just showing it to Kona and see if she shows interest then if she is excited about seeing the switch we will do a few rounds again as we did ending with some big rewards.