#body!!!

Since we are already on stage 2 (6 known behaviours reliably), I am following along with a set of another three known but new to mimicry behaviours for the dog’s. Both Ken and Claudia in their research note that dog’s start generalising at around 8-10 mimic behaviours - this will bring us up to 9.

One of them is “Dig” on our nail file board (for those lazy nail days lmao). As an experiment - I decided to skip step 1 (demo -> mimic cue -> known cue) and see if they will perform the preknown behaviour without prompting.

I did expect Thyme to get this straight away - he’s been quite on the ball with this concept. Thistle has been lagging behind throughout the entirety of stage 2 (demo -> mimic cue -> wait).

Thistle was such a pleasant surprise to get it straight up - even with all the environmental stacking to ensure success - that I rewarded her the whole bowl of food lmao.

For both dogs I have also been trouble shooting on their ability to wait until cued to mimic. Both dogs, in their enthusiasm, have been launching into action before I cue. Some of that has been on me (doing a body position that is similar to the mimicry cue) and some of that is them being impatient. So process has been going

This gifset - my ready position is wrong and I realised as I did it:

(Dog in ready position -> dog signals consent/readiness (eye contact) -> I demonstrate the action -> I return to my position with hands at my side -> Reward dog for stationary -> Return to position with hands at my side -> dog signals concent/readiness -> I give the mimic cue -> dog works through the mimic puzzle -> reward and/or reset!)

…cool there’s more to that and I now want to make a flow chart for no real reason.

Here’s an arbitrary gifset of both my “Watch” and my “Your turn” cues. Because of the self-training and troubleshooting earlier in the year - the dog’s and I have come up with a very sing-song set of cues. Really should have decided our cues before learning mimicry but I kind of enjoy it. It’s a fun verbal-body to do.

The Watch is an adaptation of our Wait cue and our Focus cue combined.

The Your Turn is an exaggeration of something I was doing subconsciously. Rather than stop myself from crossing my hands - I let the whole thing become the cue.