Been Awhile

Life has a habit of getting in the way of things I'm doing and documenting our training has been one of the things to suffer. The training/teaching itself has continued but finding time to write it up has been difficult to say the least.

Our weather has been rainy and nasty so there's been a lot more time spent hanging out on the couch and playing "what is it?" I have toys and food and show one to Ranger and ask him "What is it?" He signs toy or food and is right way more often than chance; In fact he seldom makes a mistake. Maybe I need to get an observer to count how many times I ask the question and how many times he gets it right. I have noticed that mistakes are more common after we've been playing for awhile.

It interests me that it doesn't matter which toy it is he signs "toy." I don't know if that means he has a generic category labeled Toy and meaning "things I can play with" or if he's simply dividing it into things he can eat and things he can't eat. I'm going to have to offer him some non-toy items and how he reacts when asked to identify them. Perhaps I should work on teaching him the sign he can use to ask for the sign for an item so he can use that as a sort of "I don't know." I'll have to think about that.

Ranger has also invented his own sign. The pawing the air twice with the right paw means he wants petting. Interestingly it is always twice not one or three but two pawings of the air. It seems to me that he uses this request for petting with clear intention. I haven't tired "saying" it to him. I'll have to try that and see how he responds. It's lots of fun and quite interesting working on cross species communication like this. It helps a lot that I have a dog that knows he can communicate to people and have them respond appropriately.

Effective Communicators

Last night Ranger jumped up next to me and sat. I knew he wanted something so I put a toy on one of my knees and a chew on the other. I signed this is toy and this is food and asked him to tell me what he wanted. I was hoping he'd sign a reply but his method of communication was just as effective as a sign would have been. He jumped down and touched the chew with his nose. The more I think about it the more I realize that that's what this whole experiment is about, establishing clear and effective communications across species lines. The first step, of course, is making sure both species understand that such communication is possible. As I've spoken to people about my experiment in teaching Ranger K9Sign everyone has accepted that I'd be able to communicate with him and he'd be able to understand me but it isn't automatically assumed that Ranger would in turn be able to communicate with me and I'd be able to understand.  I'm confident that we both recognize that such communication is possible. Now we're working on finding the places where understanding already exists and how to establish more communication intersections.

My in-laws frequently hosted foreign visitors as part of the Friendship Force. Often their visitors would speak little or no English. Watching how they communicated across the language barrier has informed some of how I'm working to establish communication with Ranger and how I perceive his efforts to communicate with me and others. Ranger is an effective communicator both with other dogs and with people. He "speaks" clearly and distinctly--actually touching the chew with his nose rather than simply pointing it for example. He makes eye contact with the person to whom he is communicating so they know he is addressing them. He waits for people to understand what he is communicating and if they don't understand he tries again.

It's nice for both of us that Ranger is able to tell me whether he'd rather play with a toy or have a chew. And every time he's able to tell me and I'm able to respond appropriately it deepens our bond and strengthens our ability to communicate.

Signing toy? Maybe

I didn't have the chance to post this yesterday but there was an interesting occurrence. We were playing fetch with squeaky toys and I was signing toy then throwing it. At one point it Ranger dropped it in his wading pool. He jumped in after it and using his right paw, remember he's left pawed, dunked the toy up and down in the water using the motion/gesture for toy. It was a beautifully formed gesture repeated over and over dunking the toy. He was using the paw that is designated for signing toy even though that isn't his preferred paw. It could have been entirely random or perhaps it was meaningful. It was certainly suggestive of intentional signing. I'm glad I'm in this for fun rather than true science the question of how you know with real certainty that it is intentional signing would drive me wild.

Something interesting I'm discovering as I talk to people about teaching Ranger to sign. No one has any doubts that he can learn to read signs but for many people the idea that he could learn to make intentional signs to communicate to the humans through a shared language doesn't even register even when you're explaining that that's exactly what you're doing. For a large number of people communication with a dog can only flow one direction.

Thinking

I'm enjoying this journey and the process of thinking about why I want Ranger to learn to sign and how I'll know if he gets it. I have many examples of Ranger communicating his wishes to me and to others and how clearly he manages to make his point with the tools he has. I like the idea of giving him more tools with which to communicate. And I like the fact that I'm doing this simply for us.  I don't have to prove anything or consider scientific standards. That's part of the reason I'm not worried about doing this according to the book but am willing to take a more organic approach and simply make it part of the fabric of our life together. Even if he never learns anything we had fun together.

Definitely Getting the Idea

Visiting Grandma's house today Ranger nudged the bait bag I was wearing with his nose and signed food. Much praise and of course treats. The context was not one in which treats would be expected. We were stretched out on the floor and he was getting tummy rubs. Tummy rubs are their own reward so he wouldn't automatically expect treats in that context. Of course, he's a dog which means an opportunist. Treats were right there in front of his nose why not point them out to Mom and make that paw wave that she gives treats for. Or perhaps he really has figured out that a lift of the left paw means food. I can't tell how much he grasps or how he processes information. Still, I found it very encouraging.

Progress? Maybe

Ranger is definitely getting the idea that he can trade the left paw lift (food sign) for treats but I'm not sure  that he recognizes it as a "word" or label for food items. We spent part of the day signing food and giving treats; Ranger signs with us or "fills in the blank" and signing toy and tossing his favorite squeaky toys. Ranger has yet to offer the sign for toy without prompting.

We went to our favorite pet store today and while one of the clerks was fishing in the bottom of the bag for the elusive last treats Ranger sat politely and signed food. I praised him and the clerk delivered the treat. He volunteered the "sign" but it was in the context of someone being slow to provide the treat he expected. I'm going to be more convinced that he understands it as a word when he comes in and asks for something to eat when there's no context other than him wanting to "tell" me something.

Progress

We spent some time signing toy and tossing Ranger's toys this afternoon. Later we took him to the park and signed this/that is food before giving him treats. I've realized that this and that are going to be a single sign. When I signed this is food to Ranger he responded by lifting his left front paw and was rewarded with a treat. He still doesn't seem confident that raising his left front paw is what he needs to do in order to get food but I think he's beginning to grasp the idea. At one point I signed this is and before I got further Ranger signed food. Once he offered the sign for toy and was gently told no. He offered the other paw in a sign for food and got a treat. It's progress albeit slow.