In our training we will see that some dogs response faster or slower to cues. In animal training we call that Latency. Simply stated latency is the time interval between the cue and when the dog starts responding to this cue. Many trainers and people confuse this with speed. The speed of execution of behavior is something very different. Speed is the interval between the initiation or start of behavior and the completion of behavior. Both are controlled and modified differently.
So how do we do this?
People like to see dogs that respond very fast to commands. If that is something we want we need to shorten the intermission between cue and behavior, decreasing the latency.
Developing short latency isn’t that simple, however the good thing about it, is that it generalizes very easily between behaviors. So if you get a short latency on one behavior and your training process is correct, the dog will generalizes this with other trained or known behaviors.
In order to decrease the latency we need to have at least one very good, very simple behavior, like sit or down. Coming in basic position or retrieving is not a simple behavior but a behavior chain. We need to pick one cued behavior that the dog can execute with little effort.
If you pick a sit for example you will work on that behavior for the next couple days. No other behaviors will be reinforced or trained. The dog will need to figure out that when you ask for something, the cue, you want it now and not later. You can not accomplish that if you train multiple behaviors together. Some of those responses will be faster and some slower as not all of his responses of behavior are not equally strong. If you have trained multiple behaviors at once you most likely have a dog with a long or longer latency, thats the price you payed.
Ok so now that we picked a sit as our target behavior we will need to determine what the average latency is. Let’s ask for 10 sits and observe the dogs responses and figure out what the time delay is the dog offers. Say for instance the fastest time to respond was 2 seconds and the longest time was 10 seconds. But on average the dog has a latency of 5 seconds. What this teaches us is that the dog can respond in 2 second. For our training now we will ask the dog to perform on 5 seconds or faster, thats our criteria. We will reward with a continuous reinforcement schedule, again that means we will reward every repetition that meets our criteria. Make sure your criteria observation, timing and rate of reinforcements are correct! And again we train only 1 behavior, the sit, thats it, nothing more, nothing less. Don’t try to mix in other behaviors as it will not work and only set you back.
What will happen if your timing is correct the dogs latency will slowly reduce. When the dog hits the criteria 8 of the 10 repetitions it's time to increase the criteria by about 10 to 20 percent. In our example we will now set a 4 second latency criteria. Set your criteria gradually, go slow not fast, don’t push the dog. If this is the first time you do this type of training you will be making mistakes, so be patient. Both you and the dog are learning at the same time.
What can happen is that the dog may start barking excessively. Why? Because you have changed your behavior, you are doing something completely different then before. But don’t let the dog throw you off balance and stick by what you are trying to accomplish, shortening the latency. However keep the training sessions short, very short. 10 repetitions per session and maybe 3 sessions per training block. With maybe 2 training blocks per day.
A problem a lot of people run into is that when they see the dog getting better and faster in responding they start lumping. They start raising the criteria way to high. This can ruin your training and your progress. Be consistent in raising the criteria, when the dogs hits 80% of the target raise that target with 10 to 20 percent. Consistency is key!
Not all dogs are created equally.
What is also important in setting your criteria is working within your dogs capabilities of movement. A big German Shepherd will not move as quickly as a nimble malinois and that malinois will move slower than a fast Australian Shepherd. I see too many people compare their dogs to dogs that have completely different genetics. and body structure. Even within the breed there are many differences. I have 5 German Shepherd and my big boy Augustus moves a lot slower then my tiny compact Female Walkiria.
Don’t confuse short latency with cue anticipation.
Also don’t be fouled by the fast latency you see from the top dogs in obedience competitions like schutzhund or IPO. In those cases the dog is responding before the cue is even completely spoken. These dogs are anticipating the cue as the routines are always the same and very predictable for the dogs. Thats why these dogs are so quickly to respond. You will see the dog starting to sit when the handler just made the “S” sound and is in sit when the cue is fully given. That has nothing to do with short latency but everything to do with response and cue anticipation.
Once you are happy with the latency in one behavior you can pick another simple and already well trained behavior. Never pick a new or freshly trained behavior to start this work with.
Bart de Gols