On Coupling | Video and Still Frame Captures of Live Coupling
A Video Breakdown of Coupling in Graphic Detail with ... WHAM!
Bridging the Take is one of the skills we use to teach dogs to catch discs. The awesome thing about it is that it works regardless of how well you communicate. This certainly can get a dog to catch and will, but it can also communicate and teach so much more. The key is marking and cuing on coupling.
This video has been taken apart and featured in my graphic novel instruction, a panel of which is featured below. This IS coupling. Each panel either highlights the coupling moment, or shift in coupling or is demonstrating coupled interaction–the images below start at 2m04s of the video or so…
Shared Awareness Discloses Shared Knowledge
In this first image we have WHAM! getting her feet under her with the skill. Markers, Cues and even Triggers are offered at moments of coupling. This timing puts dog and handler on the same page WHAM! and I share understanding of what is being done and what’s notable.
It is important to note that I’m not talking about WHAM! here; not her alone, at least. We’re not “working the dog” and somehow out of the picture. You’re in it. YOUR skills are being shaped and developed. Maybe you’re such a badass that you only have something new to learn about this dog, but you certainly can benefit from tuning your Awareness and Attention.
When the handler markers at the right time it demonstrates that the handler knows what’s up. If I note your amazing behavior as you’re doing it, you know I know you’re cool. So you’ll do it again and can play with me and share knowledge about the skill. I can trust that you know what I’m talking about, and you can trust me. Acknowledgement of key moments of coupling is key for improving task Awareness.
Inceptive Marking Idealizes Skills
Marking on coupling, Inceptive Marking, idealizes skills. What does that mean?
A skill is when an action is successfully adapted to the situation. WHAM! did quite a bit of this, and improved throughout our session. Her adaptation of chase, around, collection, and Bite/Take certainly tightened up. I don’t think they ever became Idealized Skills here, but they’re getting closer. And closer is what we want.
The Idealized Skill is the experience and understanding required to adapt the actions that make it up in dynamic fashion to fit a wide variety of opportunities in a variety of environmental situations. This would be a behavior that has been generalized in regular dog training. But which behavior has been generalized? The around, the chase, the turn, the targeting, the collection, leap, or bite? And did we generalize the Catch to “around and catch”?
I think we did much more than that. I think we turned mere behaviors into adaptable skills. We disclosed key aspects of the skill, and we wound up with a pretty nice leaping catch to boot. More work like this and more small-sided games that challenge her to pick up different information and these skills will become (they did, BTW, Jack’s a badass…) Idealized Skills that WHAM! can apply to any discs being caught and any and all interactions with her handler.
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