# One session imprinting



## liz shulman (Aug 28, 2008)

Something I stumbled on a few years ago. I had taught two dogs how to heel and one dog how to retrieve without really training it. They were performing perfectly. I had two young dogs that had one session of formal heeling training before winter hit - hard. Where I lived, I couldn't train outside (2 feet of snow, icy, 5 degrees), couldn't train inside (too small) couldn't take them anywhere (car issues). They had no training until spring. The first day back in training I said "heel" and they were right there - turns, changes of pace, halts - never put a foot wrong.

I had another dog who learned retrieves in 5 sessions - backchained and each session was the next step. She totally got each step in one session.

So I asked my trainer how these dogs were doing things that I hadn't actually _trained_. He said "one session imprinting" -- basically the reward is such that the behavior sticks with the dog. Since then I've been somewhat able to do it with Tyr - his sendouts are probably the closest I've come to doing one session imprinting with him. I'm trying to figure out why it works accidentally but I can't get it to work when I try to do it.

Has anyone else heard of this? Done it?


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## Konnie Hein (Jun 14, 2006)

We have what I would consider to be "one session learning" with our disaster search dogs when using our "Focused Scenting" method.


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## liz shulman (Aug 28, 2008)

Konnie, can you describe how that's done?


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## Konnie Hein (Jun 14, 2006)

The Focused Scenting method is a method we use to train our disaster SAR dogs. We manipulate the environment to allow the dog to teach itself what actions bring reward. No corrections are used. It is very similar to Randy Hare's detection training method. Through a type of self-reinforcement, the dog learns that he will get his reward (tugging with the helper) only by finding and alerting on human scent. We've found that the learning is much faster and more solid than our traditional training method.

One example of one-session learning is when we teach the dog to ignore its own reward toy. The dog already knows how to find the hidden human victim in a series of barrels and to ignore minor distractions in the process of doing so. We place one human (hidden) in one of the alert barrels and another human with the dog's toy off to the side. The dog is sent to search and is allowed to grab the toy from the standing human if he wants to. He can carry it and even run around with it a little. We allow the dog to make the decision to drop the toy on his own (and they pretty much all eventually do, because just holding the toy isn't rewarding enough) and continue to search for the hidden human. No corrections or verbal reminders to search are given by the handler. The dog is rewarded immediately after he drops his toy and finds and alerts on the hidden human. Most dogs learn to completely ignore their reward toy being held by a bystander or on the ground in the search area in one session. 

The interesting thing is that there are some dogs who repeatedly grab the toy from the human bystander after multiple runs in the same day. They don't appear to be learning to ignore their toy. We'll bring them back the next day and they'll completely ignore their toy the first time out. It's as if they were thinking about the training sessions in the down-time.


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## Konnie Hein (Jun 14, 2006)

The Focused Scenting method is a method we use to train our disaster SAR dogs. We manipulate the environment to allow the dog to teach itself what actions bring reward. No corrections are used. It is very similar to Randy Hare's detection training method. Through a type of self-reinforcement, the dog learns that he will get his reward (tugging with the helper) only by finding and alerting on human scent. We've found that the learning is much faster and more solid than our traditional training method.

One example of one-session learning is when we teach the dog to ignore its own reward toy. The dog already knows how to find the hidden human victim in a series of barrels and to ignore minor distractions in the process of doing so. We place one human (hidden) in one of the alert barrels and another human with the dog's toy off to the side. The dog is sent to search and is allowed to grab the toy from the standing human if he wants to. He can carry it and even run around with it a little. We allow the dog to make the decision to drop the toy on his own (and they pretty much all eventually do, because just holding the toy isn't rewarding enough) and continue to search for the hidden human. No corrections or verbal reminders to search are given by the handler. The dog is rewarded immediately after he drops his toy and finds and alerts on the hidden human. Most dogs learn to completely ignore their reward toy being held by a bystander or on the ground in the search area in one session. 

The interesting thing is that there are some dogs who repeatedly grab the toy from the human bystander after multiple runs in the same day. They don't appear to be learning to ignore their toy. We'll bring them back the next day and they'll completely ignore their toy the first time out. It's as if they were thinking about the training sessions in the down-time.


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## Konnie Hein (Jun 14, 2006)

sorry, double post


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## liz shulman (Aug 28, 2008)

Konnie Hein said:


> It's as if they were thinking about the training sessions in the down-time.


I've seen that too. Neat stuff. Thanks!


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## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

Single event learning is another name for this.
It can work both for the good and bad. 
Example for the bad. A puppy runs around the room and accidentally knocks a waste basket over. Scares the crap out of the puppy and it then avoids the waste basket.
Example for the good
Now, if that waste basket had a nice chicken bone  fall out of it the pup may very well have learned to start knocking over waste baskets.
If the consequence is big enough(good or bad) the dog will lean.
As Konnie commented about dogs doing better the next day, I do believe they think, or at least process their actions somehow.


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## Anna Kasho (Jan 16, 2008)

I have definitely found it helpful to leave the dog to "think about it" when I'm training something and the dog just doesn't seem to get it - feels like we'd hit a brick wall. Coming back to it next day, the dog does the exercise perfectly... It is also easier to get it right once and NOT repeat in the same training session, at least with my mals. That way they don't learn to do it wrong :lol:


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## Gillian Schuler (Apr 12, 2008)

My Dad taught his JRTs to search for and retrieve lost golf balls which he then sold back to the golf club :lol: 

The bitch found a mouse in an empty milk bottle once and from then on only searched for milk bottles.

Isn't this self-rewarding, just as the waste paper basket was a case of self-punishment and likely to have a stronger effect on the dog??

I agree that something I thought the dog would never learn properly, given a day's rest, came out top. 

Learning by sleeping? I think I'll put mine in an artificial coma after training.........


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## Anne Vaini (Mar 15, 2007)

Yup. I just typed out my dog's training journal and I was surprised by the behaviors that she learned in 15 minutes and we never had to work on again - just a bit of review now and again.

She learned to tug on cue in literally 30 seconds. I have a witness. Then a week later I asked her to tug open the oven door and she did it. Fastest training ever.

Usually this happens in a bad way for me. 1 poorly timed click that captures a not-quite-right behavior that we can't shake.

I had been taught that it takes 30 reps before the dog starts to understand the behavior. Well, I don't think that is 100% true, but sometimes it seems to be the case.


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