Canine Circus School's video: Balzac Training Journal: Warm up Rope Hoist stage 2 Coin in Cup

http://bayareadogtrainer.wordpress.com/ First we warm up with some obedience, then we work on the second stage of Rope Hoist. In this stage the dog must learn to let go of the rope while keeping his paws on it. Then the dog must reach, grip, pull and on the rope again. So basically I am working on the place in the exercise where the series of basic actions is repeated. I thought these video clips really shows Balzac's mind working. You can see how his jaw starts to chatter, as jaws do when they are put into drive conflict. The conflict in this case is switching from holding the rope to letting go and pulling again. This goes against Balzac nature and prior learning. The coin in cup (bowl) exercise is a fun one. Again Balzac has trouble keeping his intrinsic drives at bay and instead working precision with small light props in an opperant modality. We are working through some prior learning that is causing conflict with the behaviors, Balzac would much rather do a KNPV small article search, and an Object Guard, a few times while we were training he conflated the two. The point of the Coin in Cup is to gradually make the coin and the cup smaller until he can pick up a dime and place it into a beer bottle. I have the coin wrapped in clear tape to protect Balzacs teeth and prevent accidental swallowing. Music By: Kevin MacLeod