Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Tunnel Shaping – 11/29/23
I got this short training Tunnel as an impulse purchase at the Midwest Cup in June before Lift was born and I was so excited to use it for the first time this morning. She chased Kaladin through at 10ft dark Tunnel right after we brought her home and was happy to offer going through it here. I quietly moved to the next room after this and she tugged without acting like a wet gremlin that was up after midnight.
Notifications aren’t in spam. I just unchecked and rechecked it to see if that does anything
Goat Tricks – Bosu – 11/29/23
We did a second session before we left. Wasn’t too sure about the tipped over Bosu at first but then started hopping on and off.
Lift did her first road trip seatbelted instead of crated. Kaladin survived the experience. Tomorrow we go from the south side of a Chicago to Latrobe, PA. (Since I’m not young and crazy like Shantel who does the trip in one 14hr day.
Prop RC & Turn & Burn – 11/27/23
Tried this in the morning to see what she’d make of it. First she started out being a leaping Tasmanian devil even though she had been tugging like a maniac upstairs and this was the first thing we tried to do this morning. Then she settled down. She’s not sending ahead easily which makes it different but she did end up turning in the correct direction (last time without a spin) so got cheese each time. She also thinks that circling around to start again is stupid and you should go back and forth when the prop is involved.
OK – so I have the checkbox checked but am not getting email notifications for your responses, but the good news is we’ve got some ESP going because tonight I was thinking, hey – I should see how she does on the Turn and Burn before it comes up in tomorrow’s live session and the answer is not too bad. Also -she was in a bonkers mood so I had to do something to make her little noggin think a bit tonight.
Keep forgetting to get video of it, but we are working on having her tug closer to me and up my leg a bit. And she’s gotten so much better at working through Kaladin barking in protest from elsewhere in the house. When she first came home she was incapable about thinking about anything else when Kaladin barked.
Wing Wrap Barrel -11/26/23
Tried it this morning and she stalled out some and also wanted to cut between me and the barrel when going left to right if I was sitting or standing. Then she got a walk and napped most of the afternoon. She needed something to do before dinner so I circled back and voila! One jump on me at the end as I was moving away from the barrel with her toy but she had a lovely tug break in the middle and was much quicker and smoother about wrapping the barrel
Backing up to mat – 11/25/23
And this was from last night which I thought I had posted but apparently not.Different room last night. Pretty good when 1 or 2 hind feet stay on the mat but does think it’s easier to turn around to get on the mat if 1 or all feet come off.
Wing Wrap with Food – 11/25/23
Makes sense on the food and arousal. She really likes food but it doesn’t send her over the top. (unless you are preparing her meal which is a different thing altogether in her book). I’ll try moving to another spot in the room before tossing the toy too.
Decided to go back to this but with food since we didn’t do much before I left for the Open. Takes her a little while to warm up but then she got into a good rhythm and was thinking through it so I let it go on a bit longer. She does seem to switch to the toy easier if I pick up the food bowls. No signs of the Tasmanian Devil during or after the session.
She also got a nice sniffy walk on trails with Kaladin after this and has been mostly zonked out since then. (except for some excitement at getting lunch)
BC-Decel Seq – 11/24/23
The interesting thing with her is that I’m not seeing signs of overarousal/brain frying while she is working for food. If it is there, it comes out when we try to switch back to the toy.
We did a short session at Fusion this morning (not included is her awesome toy races while the previous people were packing up and leaving on the other side of the barrier).
Then she went on a sniffy walk on some trails with Kaladin and has mostly been passed out in my lap or chewing a bully stick since.
Her breeder has a complete jungle gym of noisy things to climb on and over so she came being pretty confident about moving and noisy surfaces. All my other Shelties respect a baby gate that is leaning against a doorway. Lift likes to smack the gate with her front paws so that it crashes to the ground (at which point Demi bolts in the other direction and Kaladin just stares at her in confusion). Then she trots right over the flat gate to escape. So I’m not anticipating issues with adding sound, but will do it slowly incase she’s having an adolescent moment.
I told her if she wants to stop growing at 12.5 or 12.6in and focus on fur instead that would be just fine with me, Or she can keep going and be a teeny tiny 12in dog in UKI and USDAA.
Backing up to Mat – 11/24/23
Tried this after she napped all afternoon and then ran around the yard with Kaladin. Not a really high state of arousal but she was thoughtful and switched back and forth between food & toys. Took me a few tries to figure out the best distance to get her off the mat. Just had to laugh at her creativity going around my leg at first.
Goat Tricks 2 – 11/23/23
Happy Thanksgiving! Apple pie and cranberry sauce are done over here and we’re doing the Blue Apron Thanksgiving box so it makes for much simpler prep for the feast.
She had a mellow few days at home with Dean and Demi after her farm stay but she was probably a bit worried about Kaladin and I not being there. Anyways, we did this short Goat tricks session this morning and then went on a nice sniffy walk on some trails in the woods after breakfast. She’s mostly been napping on my lap or a dog bed in the kitchen while I’m cooking since then.
What’s the best thing to do if I get the over arousal/over tired jumping up at me behavior in the future? Switch to some pattern cookie toss games and call it quits? Give her a snuggle and call it quits? (she usually calms down if I hold her quietly as opposed to holding her and revving her up)
For backing up onto a mat, do you mean like a yoga mat or something almost flat to the ground?
Goat Tricks – movement stuff –
She had done a bit with a single versa disc before. Don’t think I had 2 together before. She’s also had 1 or 2 previous sessions climbing onto the soft side of the bosu. I haven’t rewarded much for her staying on it before this
Thanks!
Do you use “get it” for both a thrown reward and a “go get the dead toy” marker?I’ve used “toss” a lot with Kaladin for pattern games but I’m betting he’ll transition to a “get it” easily since that does tend to naturally slip out. I’ll try it on his walk tomorrow and see. (I do a lot of tossing treats to the side or in front of him to keep him occupied and more relaxed when other dogs are passing.
I find I do better if my directional cues make sense in my head so think I’d have a harder time with Soft. I do use “poles” for weaves so am leaning towards Haw. I’ll see what I think when I actually get to the point of training those directionals.
I’ve gotten a lot better about using yay as my generic encouragement word on course but I do still find myself telling Kaladin “What a good dog you are. Yes you are” as we walk distractions. Of course “yes” comes out of my mouth a lot when shaping since I prefer not to deal with fumbling with a clicker and treat and Kaladin does understand yes (contextually) as meaning look to my hand for a treat.
Games 2 – Toy Races – 11/22/23
We did some toy races first thing this morning (well – after Kaladin got his walk). She beat me to it when I’m heading away from the camera but didn’t grab the toy so I stole it. Then the next time she did grab it ahead of me…and headed off to the dog bed to chew on her prize.
Plankrobatics – 11/22/23
OK -so this is a long one, but I’d like your feedback on what I should have done differently. After we did the toy races, I moved down to the basement for the travel plank. We’ve done some perching on pods and discs pre Max Pup so I thought I’d see what she though of my plank. Turns out she thought it was lots of fun to get on and off and I even got a turn near the end as opposed to a hop off. So then I figured I would end with a bit of tugging and was about to head over to turn the video off, but ran into the issue of her not wanting the toy and trying to jump up at me instead. She did this a bit when I first brought her home but she would stop if I acknowledged her by giving her a little hug and then it faded away and I hadn’t seen it in a while even if I was switching back and forth between toys and treats. I’m not sure if it came back because she didn’t want to come off the board for the toy in the first place. I tried bringing her arousal down by using a pattern back and forth and some other easy behaviors with food, but she was having nothing to do with the toy. I’m not really sure what prompted her to finally grab onto it when she did, but we tugged for about 3 seconds and then I let her win and run off with the toy for a bit before I rescued it from being eaten.
Backing Up – 11/22/23
After the morning’s “Maul the Momma” session, she had breakfast and then settled down in my office for a nice long nap until lunch. After lunch she didn’t look like she was ready to settle down for her afternoon nap so I decided to see what I had with backing up. I had done a session or two of shaping backup several weeks ago, but I like this method much better for getting more independent hind foot movement and keeping her head in a more neutral position. She does a bit of jumping up at me before engaging with the toy, but in this case she goes to the toy faster than in the morning when she was more frantic about not grabbing the toy. I had originally planned to tug a bit and then do a few more backing up reps, but decided to stop with some good tugging instead. (and after I had turned the video off, I did 3 reps of tossing “roadkill raccoon” and then moving away for her to chase me which she did so we had more tugging parties since she didn’t drop the raccoon on her way to me)
Marker Cues Questions:
I have been working on/planning on the following marker cues but I have some questions:
Get it – Get Tossed or dead toy away from me
Grab it – Tug w/held toy
Treat – duration marker – treat delivered to mouth
Yes – treat from hand – move out of position
Toss – thrown treat away from me (often to side)
Catch – tossed treat/toy -can move to catch it (haven’t started this with Lift yet, but have it with Kaladin)
Eat it – treat in dishQuestions:
– I’m thinking of combining toss and get it into a cue to go get the toy/treat. My thoughts are I often default to saying “get it”, but is it important to distinguish between toy & treat w/the marker? And should get it be more about driving ahead as opposed to the cue I will use with the pattern game or the backing up when I toss the treat between their legs? (Right now that would be a toss cue for me which is maybe a bit more thoughtful than a run and get it for the toy).
– I picked “Yes” for the come get the treat from my hand since that is what I tend to default to say when I want the dog to come to me to get a reward out of my hand. However there is the tendency to use Yes when I”m excited that they did something (like hit a weave pole entry) and that is a situation where I don’t want them to break off what they are doing and come to me for a treat. So I”m thinking about switching to snacks. But if I do that, does “yes” have a specific meaning or is it just a generic encouragement workd?
– And thinking ahead to directionals, I clearly need something other than “Left” given her name. Is Links (German for Left) too close to Lift? Do I need something else for left? Haw or Port maybe?Wk 1 – Decel/Turn – 11/12/23
I snuck in 1 more short session with Lift before I hit the road with Kaladin. Definitely a favorite Sheltie game with all the cheese treats so I added in some toy play to make sure we keep practicing switching back and forth.And on the hand touch – that is totally me having done some nose touch to hand work with her before where the treat was delivered in the hand some of the time. I’ll work on getting the hand further from my body and continuing to reward away from hand.
Games 1 – Send to Prop – 11/11/23
We did our pre-game send to prop in this family room, but the earlier video was the 1rst time I tried a toy with this game so clearly that rocked her world.2nd try yesterday in same room but with a toy and with a warmup up of driving to the toy went a bit better.
Wing Wrap – 11/11/23
This was also from yesterday where I felt like she was catching on more about looking for the other side when her toy went dead.
Pre Game Hand Touch – 11/11/23
We did 1 session with the post-in note pad in my hand the night before class started and she was a bit confused at first so I switched to just my hand and the lightbulb went on. This next session from last night, I warmed her up with my hand and then added the post-it pad and it went much better.
And clearly I need to figure out what to tighten on my new tripod so it stops rotating up towards the ceiling partway through!
Games 1 – Drive Ahead to Toy at Fusion – 11/10/23
I let her take her time sniffing things as we walked into the arena room. (If there are people/dogs there I typically carry her in, but we had it to ourselves). Then we did a short send to/release from her mat with a toy followed by this session. I’d say she really likes having more space to run and didn’t have issue with me running along pretty close to her.BC Foundations –
We did a short play break after the Drive to Toy and then swapped out for a smaller and easier to throw toy. And partway through this is where the wheels fell off the bus a bit and she went on walkabout. I realized that while I’d let her acclimate to the space outside the ring, I hadn’t done much this morning (beyond the mat game) in the ring. This was her 5th or 6th time at Fusion but only the 2nd time she was “training” in the ring. Previously she was just visiting or doing mat games and chasing tossed treats in the space outside the ring.
So I put the leash on her and let her sniff around and explore the ring for a few minutes. Then we revisited each game with much better results.
Goat Tricks – Plastic Lids
We’ve played with toys in almost all of the rooms in the house, but some toys have tended to stay in a spot (like roadkill raccoon in the kitchen). The fur and fleece fancier toys tend to be the ones that travel around more. Anyways she wasn’t tormenting the adults tonight (the sniffy walk on a nearby trail with Demi probably helped) but I decided we might as well slip another Goat Tricks session in. I was surprised that she was hesitant with the shallow plastic lid since she’s never shown any sign of being hesitant about clambering into or over surfaces before. She found the plastic box bottom with the higher walls much easier.
Lift – Games 1 – Drive Ahead to Toy – 11/9/23
This was our first session this morning and she thought it was a blast with the longer room. The first time I added a bit of speed she pulled up when she got to the toy and looked at me (it went off camera to your right). The next time she had no issues and even got a bit ahead of me.
And she’s a Sheltie -she thinks eating clumps of Kaladin’s fur is fun. The main problem wit crunchy treats for her is she takes a long time to chew even small pieces so I have mostly been using bits of cheese or those Bixbi pocket trainers (cut into 6 pieces).
Send to Prop – 11/9/23
Played around with this a bit with both food & toys at. It got a bit sloppy on the sends but I was happy with how I got her more excited with the ready dance.
Goat Tricks 1 – 11/9/23
I’ve done a bit of shaping her into boxes or containers but this was the first session for this basket (or anything slightly textured) and the first in the living room. “Roadkill raccoon” is a favorite of hers when playing in the kitchen but apparently less so tonight in the living room. She was being a nusiance trying to get Kaladin to play when he was done for the evening so I decided to do the shaping session to see if it settled her down after & it worked.
Wk 1- Decel/Turn – 11/8/23
Did this at lunch after she napped most of the morning.
She is coming with me to the Open so I’m packing in some extra sessions before I leave on Sunday since she’ll have a MaxPup break from then until the next Live SessionAnd yes, I tossed small pieces of cheese for both of her BC games earlier today. I have more length in the upstairs hallway into the bedroom but it’s narrower and I have to sidestep a dresser so was worried I’d run into it while BC-ing. I also have a longer living room but it is wood floors with an area rug so footing isn’t quite as good. If I am throwing the toy after the blind is it being thrown with the arm that is across my body to indicate the blind?
Hadn’t planned on it but we also got a nice resilience walk in tonight through all the random stuff in our massage therapist’s back yard. (Chicken coop, grills, random wood planks, a mower, flapping tarps in the wind etc) Jumped when the tarp she had been sniffing suddenly flapped right next to her in a wind gust but then headed right back to check it out more. (No video – it was pretty dark)
Wk 1- BC Foundations – 11/8/23
This is a 2-part video. Did it this morning before she had breakfast (when I train a lot of the time) and she was kinda sticky about chasing me after getting her treat. We’ve done the toss treat/chase me type game before and I thought this was a bit unusual, but she was coming into the correct side. (i had Dean running a timer for me upstairs – I need to figure out my “dumb watch” timer.
Then I did a lunch session for decel/turn and she was her usual perky self so I tried this again with a warmup of just treat – chase me/no BC and got what I had been expecting in the morning. I have Fusion rented for Friday morning so plan to use part of the time to try this with Lift in a much bigger space but without grass to hide the tossed treat
Games 1 – Wing Wrap w/2 toys – 11/8/23
Was curious to see what she would do with 2 toys instead of the food last night. Also forgot I should have started with her going to the right first but she caught on.
Looking forward to it. I’ll see what I can get done before I leave for the Open on Sunday. Lift is not coming with me so she’ll get a break from Max Pup for a bit. She is doing a few days as a farm stay with Skye Priesz to give Dean and Demi a break since her favorite interactive toy is coming with me.
