I have started the foundation work for the Object Guard with both my boys, though my question only pertains to one of them.
Basic Overview of the Exercise:
The dog must guard a basket from the decoy's 3 attempts to steal/displace the basket. Dog should bite the decoy as close to the basket as you can keep your dog and must then release the decoy when he takes a step back. Dog must return to the basket after outing off of the decoy and go back into a guard. Handler is not present.
My plan is to teach the OG by starting with a regular place command. The foundation is going to be built using clicker training. Right now I am using part of a cereal box for this exercise.
Anyway, my question pertains to Cairo. He is a very mouth oriented dog and much of the time that he goes to this cardboard piece he puts his mouth on it, bites it, moves it, etc. I stopped the session because I wasn't 100% sure how I should treat this. Should I click/reward for him mouthing the place marker now and extinguish that particular behavior later? That way he would be getting click/reward with any part of him touching the cardboard. OR should I only click/reward for non-destructive ways of touching the box? If I approach it in the latter method, should I go ahead and give him a negative marker for mouthing the place marker?
My concern is that in a trial he may get stressed, over-excited, etc and decide to decimate the basket. I am wondering if the click/reward for him putting his mouth on the place marker now will make that more likely to be a default behavior?
I am interested to hear y'all's thoughts. Thanks.