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Tunnel Threadle – 1/28/24
I had done 2 short sessions at home in the last few weeks but the small space makes it hard to collect her from the PT without having her go back in the tunnel on the way back and she had big feelings about the collar holding. So tried it at Fusion with more space and using a sit instead of holding her collar. Not on this video but she went in and popped out again the first time so I straightened the tunnel more (it was barely curved before but it is a dark one) It looks like something sunk in from the home sessions as she flipped her head away on the verbal cue. (sorry about the camera angle – you’ll just have to imagine her in a sit looking at me and then at the tunnel) I did have to use a break cue to get her butt off the ground a few times.
I’ll have to go find my treat hugger and see what she does with it when she is feeling leapy. She’ll play with a raccquetball at home, but it ranks below furry/fleecy things in her book.
Decel – 1/28/24
This was after her break in the car while I trained Kaladin (was able to set up part of the USO Finals course to try different weave entry options – of course they all went much smoother since I hadn’t we running for 180yds or so before it!) I seem to have flunked at selecting the correct zoom level for my videos today! (although you can read my shirt in the middle) The 2nd one I went back to reset because she lay down when I stepped to the side. The others were all nice solid sits. It’s so funny how she drifts wide on the first wrap and then goes, oh right – I remember this game.
Did a Sniffari with her and Kaladin separately in a nearby park we had never been to before. I did have to intervene when Lift picked up a dead mouse leg. Is the reason to take the dog solo so that the focus on their own sniffing and discovery without being influenced by another dog?
She’ll have a quieter training week coming up since I am way over-scheduled with things like the MYOB webinar, massages for the dogs, getting my hair cut & colored and all the secretary stuff for the MAC UKI trial next weekend.
Rocking Horses 3 – Tunnel – 1/27/24
Decided this would be a great one for the larger space at Fusion. This one would be a lot easier if I could toss a toy but she wasn’t interested in tugging any of her toy choices. She was happy to work for cheese though.
RDW Foundations
Realized I hadn’t done this for a month so tried it with the Pet Tutor and then doing a wrap to add more speed. My finger went rogue and clicked her first ever launch over the mat. Whoops! This was after she had 2nd breakfast and a short nap in the car while Kaladin got to do tunnel-weave discriminations.Wing Wrap
I was going to call it quits after the RDW work but had some time left and Lift didn’t seem to be done so we did some fun Turn & Burn with a wing and cheese.She got a sniffy walk with Kaladin after this,took a nap when we got home and got to chase Kaladin around the yard after that.
Serp with Motion- 1/26/24
I haven’t done much with adding a verbal cue to a threadle, but felt like I could try the motion for the serp. She played tug after this on the other side of the futon.
Rocking Horses 3- Tunnel – 1/25/24
This was before dinner. Excited that she worked for a toy and to see her speed up with the higher arousal from it. She even was able to go back to the toy after I tossed a piece of cheese to help get the toy back from her in the middle. Not quite sure how I missed how little space I was giving her to wrap the wing when I shifted it a bit to make it easier out of the tunnel. Whoops! I do have Fusion booked this weekend so am hoping to revisit this one with more space there.
Perch – 1/24/24
She was quite the barky, leaping lemur before breakfast, but settled down quickly to do a few tricks for food with Kaladin in the kitchen. The perch session was at lunch time and after she had run around the yard with Kaladin. She did play tug with me upstairs right after this. I didn’t quite understand your earlier comment about tossing the food to the other side before she stopped pivoting on the perch but then it hit me while watching this that if I tossed it more behind me as she first got to the perch she would probably have to pivot her hind end more to center to leave the perch to get the food so will try that next time.
I was so proud of how far her stay has come along in last night’s Live session since she basically didn’t have one at all when Max Pup started and her sit and down were not at all on cue.
Wing wrap – 1/21/24
Catching up from yesterday. On Sunday it was warm enough that I could take her for a nice sniffy walk on soeme trails and it was still cold enough that no one else was there so she and Kaladin got to have an extended zoomie session across a small field and up and down the trails. She actually worked mostly for toys on Sunday and was brilliant.This was her first time wrapping a wing and she even worked for a toy. (it was at lunch time). Forgot about the turn & burn part but excited she was motivated to wrap the wing for the toy and didnt’ get leapy. After this I tossed the toy for her and she decided she needed to chew on it.
Minny Pinny -1/21/24
This was before dinner. I had the video going before I brought her into the training room so I didn’t have to stop by the tripod to start it. I had planned to use cheese and had it in my pocket, but she tugged in the family room and then down the stairs to the small room outside the training room and into the training room so I decided to see what she did with the toy instead. I also decided I didn’t want to use Haw for left and picked “Say” (Thai for left and sounds like Sigh) Rhymes with my nephew’s name, Ky, but pretty sure it doesn’t sound like any of my other verbals. Got a few reps in each direction and then she said she was done (or at least she was done with me holding her collar to start her)
Wing Wrap – 1/22/24
Cool idea on the Choose your Toy game. Tried that today over lunch today with the “Choose your toy” game and was pretty happy about how it went in terms of her working for the toy (even if she wanted to switch midway since I hadn’t put the other toys up) and in the training room. Had a moment near the end where I had gone on too long and she threw in a leap, but then she went back to the toy and did one more rep so we finished and she got to chew the toy for a bit.
Backside Slice – 1/22/24
Took a few weeks off from this one and tried it tonight. I made sure the barrel wasn’t too close to a cluttered wall and she was like – easy peasy. Even did it from a sit stay. I gave her a toy option at the beginning, and she looked up at the cheese, but didn’t get leapy so we went with it. Should I have used the lala to release her from her sit? I wasn’t sure she knew it enough to feel it was a release so used break.
Flyball Restrained Recalls – 1/20/24
Dean and I have always joked about what is our dog’s brains. It started with Fingal having a marble & a sprocket. Tari had peanuts and then we decided she had noodles (which often fell out of her bowl aka head). Demi has mini doughnuts. Kaladin has mini meatballs and some party hats and confetti. After this weekend I decided that Lift has pop rocks. I really hope she manages to grow out of them soon (or maybe graduate to something like nerds), but right now she just loses it and turns into a barky leaping lemur (usually around toys) when her pop rocks are exploding and shooting out of her ears. And while it’s more likey to happen in the mornings (esp if early) or if she is depleted from other things, sometimes they surprise me by being inert (or stopping their exposions) at times when I don’t give that good odds or by exploding at times when she has given indications that her arousal state is in the right spot to play with toys.
Rented a space on Saturday and was excited to try some games that involved more running but had mixed resuts with the flyball retrieve. Space was new to her so I let her sniff around on leash at first until she started looking at me and then we segued into pattern games. Went well so I tried having her chase a toy but she turned into a barky leaping lemur. Took a break and did the volume dial game. Tried again with a favorite long fluffy toy but she wasn’t interested in grabbing the toy. Then of all things she decided she wanted to play with a frizzer (normally she’s only into frizzers if she can steal them from Kaladin). So got a bit of a flyball style recall first with pushing her back lightly and then tossing a treat.
I popped her back in a crate in the car for a rest while I did some jump grids with Kaladin and then brought her back in to try the rocking horses when we had more space. Asked her if she wanted to play with a toy after when the barrel & cone were put away and she jumped up on me instead. So I let her run around with Kaladin in the space to blow off some steam.
I was thinking about the whole thing on the way home and realized that while she hadn’t been at a trial since the weekend before, she also hadn’t been able to go for walks, play with Kaladin much or chew on bully sticks for 2 weeks due to the cold and her tooth extraction. So guessing all that and the new space was the driving factor in why she was so leapy with the toy.
Crate & Pet Tutor – 1/19/24
Did this before breakfast. Kept toys out of it. I have to say I was just thinking about what a crate games slacker I was with Lift since she doesn’t snap into a sit when I put my hand on the latch so I was so glad to see this game as an alternative. Lift doees have a great send to the crate in the context of meal times (from the kitchen, down the hallway and around the corner to the crates.) and apparently she can turn away from the magic blue dispenser of treats to go in there too.
Also video-ed our lunch session of tricks & toys
Kept the food out of the picture but you will see her look up at the coffee table since she’s used to the treats being up there when we shape in the living room. Took a bit to get her to pick a toy she wanted to play with but then it went well.
Toy Stuff & Reverse Retrieve – 1/18/24
Experimented with doing tricks and easy prop stuff for a toy this morning (no tripod or video). At first she wasn’t engaging with the toy well but I kept running to grab the toy when she wouldn’t pick it up and then switched toys until she decided the 3rd very similar long fleecy tug would do. (Usually I haven’t run as much when she is in her leapy lemur mood thinking it makes her more leapy but she actually worked through it after a few leaps). Over lunch we tried again and this time I got video but started it before I took her downstairs so I wasn’t stopping on the way to start the video. She does better (less leapy) about working for a toy on the cone wraps and prop sends and is moving faster, but things fell apart when I tried to trade for a toy with a reverse retrieve. The 2 toys are almost exactly the same (same design but one has some of the fur chewed up a bit). She’s usually quite good at swapping toys but apparently that just wasnt’ the thing after she had to do things for the toy. She also stops to stare up to where the cheese cotainer is on the counter so I’m not sure if trading the toy for a treat would work better to release the toy as then she is thinking harder about switching between toys and treats.
Strike a Pose – Serps- 1/17/24
Did one direction in the morning and the other in the evening. Had her chase me to do her next trick in the volume dial game more in the evening but didn’t get it on video since I was running in and out of the training room. Sit stay isn’t quite solid enough to be reliable for this game so I did throw some treats back to her to catch. (I wanted to try the sit stay since I see that’s coming up for the serp with movement game)I was better about triggering the Pet Tutor sooner in the evening so she paused less when we went the other direction
Reverse Retrieve – 1/17/24
Lookit here! Toy play in the morning before breakfast! This was after her Serp session. Much better on me holding her collar too and didn’t seem to be affected by “Indignant Pup” protesting in the ktichen.
I’ve been doing ad hoc trick training with toy rewards and she’s been doing well. I’ll work in some foundation “equipment” too.
Find Face – 1/16/24
This was from this morning. She seemed quicker about circling around to find my face this time since I wasn’t turning around quite as much. Funny that you should just ask about spin cues. I just added those in to the Volume Dial game this morning since she’s getting pretty good about them with a verbal cue and me fading a hand touch. (Flip is to the left & Turn to the right)
Head Turn on wrap- 1/16/24
We did one session of this (not video-ed) outside in NY over New years wrapping around one of my nephew’s new arrows from his bow & arrow set present. She was tight to the left and a bit wider to the right like she was on the Live sesion. This morning we tried it again after a break from Find Face and she tightened up her right turn.
She wasn’t interested in the toy before or after the morning sessions (but also wasn’t a leaping lemur). But tonight I did some casual training in the kitchen after dinner and she started off bringing me roadkill raccoon and then switched to cheese and back to the toy and also did hand touches and flip/turns for a tug reward! Not sure if she feels like toys are fine in “non max pup” sessions with no tripod and that are downstairs or if she just felt more settled at night. (although she was kinda bonkers before the evening training session so who knows?)
For the Flyball style restrained recalls, can I do this by tossing a treat back if I don’t have a 2nd person to restrain her at a place where I can safely run for a longer distance than inside my house?
Remote Reinforcement – 1/15/24
She was with me all weekend at the Fusion UKI trial. She did fairly well being a good canine citizen (better when helping me score from my lap or the crate near me than she did in her crate in the other room). She did really well with pattern games, some volume dial and stay games – mostly when dogs were not running or in an adjoining room but with other people/dogs going by. Dean stopped by in the afternoon to watch Kaladin’s last run and then run the dogs home so they didnt’ have to wait around for me to wrap up the trial and take Lori M to the airport. Happy to report that she was able to take cheese from Dean and turn away from Kaladin and I running. He had her in his arms back a bit from the ring and said she would watch and was interested but then would look at him and get rewarded with cheese. Had a sniffy walk this morning with Kaladin (yes -in neg 2 or whatever it was).Then we did our first “Happy Hour” session after that. She was good about turning away from the treat when I moved away.
Should I be pausing more after the HH cue and before I run to the treat?After I turned off the video, I looked back and she looked really settled (and not about to transform into Leaping Lemur) so I asked her if she wanted to play with her fox (aka – Fatally Flattend Fox”, a friend of “Roadkill Raccoon”). She did so I turned the video back on.
Perch – 1/15/24
This was later in the afternoon after she had a long nap. Went back to her original perch which is slightly larger in diameter but also higher.
Lift had 2 teeth extracted on Wednesday (the stubborn baby canine and mal-formed pre molar. Vet wanted me to keep her quiet for 2 weeks but revised that to “try for a week” when I burst out laughing. She was dopey the first night and ready to go the next morning. We did her first engaged chill session on Thursday and some leash on/off work since food works well and they were the lowest key games I could think of.
Tonight she was about to implode from not being able to chase Kaladin around or chew a bully stick so we did these 2 sessions after dinner.Perch- 1/12/24
I had done some perch work with her pre-MaxPup using a rubber bowl from Fleet Farm but it was more about sending to the perch and not having her face me on it. This was the first time seeing a lower food dish perch (which I had forgotten I had) and having her face me so she was a bit confused at first until I got her on my side.Find Face – 1/12/24
My bad acting of looking bored confused her in the middle but she picked it up again when I turned back a bit to make it easier.Clarification question when you said volume dial and patterns are mentally expensive. It’s not the game itself that is expensive, but doing it for arousal management in a challenging environment right?
I did a super bowls and a power bowls this morning to help neutralize them after the trial for both dogs and it seemed really easy. Lift even did some retrieves wtih a toy and this was before breakfast. Then she slept all day and still said no thanks to the toys when I was warming her up before her live session turns tonight. When she works for toys, I feel like it gets her more aroused and she likes it, but only if she doesn’t tip over into the leaping lemur or decide to wander off to find cheese debris.When should I switch to using the threadle tunnel cue and arm?
I think Lift is tired (but cranky) on day 3. She’s still doing some great volume dial and pattern games but got leapy about the toy when she transitioned nicely on Friday and yesterday. However she thinks the cookie toss to chase me (with and without BC) into the decel and turn for cheese is fun.
