158. VIDEO: Education on a shoestring

I should know by now that Gus learns in leaps and bounds, avidly, like a five-year-old with Asperger’s.  But still I’m staggered by how easily he’s mastering the mailbox-trick skills.  In his first lesson (of no more than 10 minutes), he met the mailbox for the first time ever and then learned to slam its door shut when it was presented to him half-open.  So today [in the video-unfriendly gloom of the green-tinged arena lights] we move right along to opening the door.

First he discovers the shoestring that I attached as a pull-tab to help him yank the door open.   When I lift the string toward him, his natural instinct is to bite it, so I click and treat that.  The Very Next Time I show him the string, he bites it and instantly tugs it.  Click and peppermint candy.  Now he feels for the string with his muzzle and maneuvers it between his teeth all by himself.  Once he’s got it, he yanks promptly — and efficiently, straight out — to whip that door right open every time.  Before he spits out the string, he does indulge in assorted, random, semi-violent yankings just for fun, but I think/hope I can train him out of that fairly soon.

Clicker-training protocol requires that the animal repeat the trick many times, to be sure it’s fully understood and mastered, before the human gives any verbal command.  In fact, clicker gurus say that when you’d wager $50 that the animal will correctly and immediately execute the trick, that’s when you can start adding a verbal cue.  Well, Gus compresses that process into maybe half a dozen repetitions before he seems totally ready for a verbal.  For shutting the door, I’m saying “Bop it,” which he already knows from his top-of-nose bopping to roll the beach ball.  For opening the door, I’m introducing an all-new cue:  “Pull it.”  And, contrary to protocol, I’m already asking for shuttings and openings in the same session.  Cuz this animal be genius.

Now, I don’t believe Gus has figured out or memorized the new cue yet.  Probably he’s taking a more gestalt approach, learning that pull-it is called for when he sees the door is closed and the string is salient, while bopping works when he sees the door is half-shut.  But I’d bet $50 that he’ll understand and distinguish between the verbal cues in just one or two more sessions.