Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Games 3 -Sequence 1 & tested RC – 11/14/24
Decided I wanted to try this again in the yard before I take it down for when I’m gone. Lowered jumps to 6in to see what that did for her jumping and threw the creamcheese toppl. No issues with the rear cross, but I kept it easy by not doing the straight line first and leaving the tunnel out. Made a bigger deal about the backside cue and got it this time. It’s out of the camera but on the last rep the toppl bounced off the fence so she pulled up and stared at it until I moved it for her. (silly girl). After she finished part of the cream cheese she politely trotted next to me as I carried it across the yard to get her leash and stuck her head through the loop to get the toppl again. No jumping up on the way in and we did a snuffle back in the house.
After dinner we did some tricks with her “slightly squashed skunk” toy and she gave me really snappy responses when I asked for a sit and led out so I did an inhale while looking back at her and her ears snapped forward and she released faster. Tried a 2nd one when I did 2 tip toe steps and she thought that was great fun too. Then Kaladin (who was lounging on the couch) decided to join in and she dropped the skunk and started jumping on him instead. I think she may fall into the camp of liking the cartoon mashup. We’ll see.
I am laughing at your spot-on response that boinging at meal prep is annoying to household life. (how did you guess that was a likely scenario?) Actually she was fine for quite a while and then Demi started getting more excited (the dog is a complete sloth unless it is meal time) and Lift started chasing Demi around the dining table which is next to the counter where I prep meals and then boinging. We’ve experiemented with different approaches but lately the best one has been me trapping Demi between my legs so she doesn’t run around and bark and letting Lift circle the table if she needs to blow of steam, but pausing operations if she barks or boings. As long as she’s not running on empty for other reasons, I typically only need to pause once or twice and then she either stands and watches me or trots around the table without yapping. Side benefit is that Kaladin has gotten a lot better about meal prep and keeps offering sits if I need to pause for Lift to settle a bit.
Test results came back and the ACTH Stim test was normal so the unlikely possibility of Addisons is ruled out. Thyroid was also normal (and on the higher end).
She’s going to get a whole lot of latent learning soon since I’m gone for 10 days for the Open and then she gets spayed a week after I get back. I got a detailed reconditioning program from our rehab vet which takes her into the end of January. Luckily she’s allowed to do some playing with toys (if no vigorous tugging) a lot sooner than that and she gets to start sprint work (aka – working on the cartoon mashup releases) at the beginning of January about 4 weeks post op.
Games 3 – Seq 1 – 11/12/24
Lots of decompression activities on Sunday & Monday. Was going to give her another day off but then noticed the forecast was crappy for Wednesday and she’s going to have extended decompression time soon while Kaladin and I are at the Open so I set up the Drive ahead sequence in the morning and then we did our sniffy walk and a nap before trying it. (before I set it up, I went outside with her and a creamcheese toppl & dish to see if she would drive ahead to the toppl in the dish. I thought it would be more obvious sitting in the grass in a dish than just on its own, but she thought it was a weird alien and kept circling around it. Driving to a dish with treats in it was easy peasy as was chasing a thrown toppl.)
So I decided I’d put cheese in her dish and use it as a target beyond the last jump but have the toppl ready to go and off to the side (i stashed it in a bush) just in case I needed to throw something. She thought charging ahead to the dish was great (although her jumping form suffers over the last jump even though the dish was at least 20ft beyond it – I was starting to run out of yard!). I didn’t drop enough treats for a better snuffle in the grass when I was done and she started jumping up at me as we were walking back into the house while on leash (side note – she will just jump up on regular walks too and not always because of over-arousal – sometimes it’s because we stopped (like to pick up poop) and she thought it took too long, but other times there is nothing going on and we’re just walking down an empty trail and she’ll start boinging. It’s like she just gets bored with staying on the ground!)
After that she goit a snuffle and I experimented it a bit with what she might like for engaged chill (jury is out but one possibility is that she likes to volunteer to pop into my lap as I am crouched down and just sits there on my thighs as I scritch her chest. This settles her but is obviously not the most comfortable chilling position for me!). Then I realized I had left the toppl outside in the bush and decided we should do a one and done with me throwing it. So a few hours later we went back out. This time I remembered to take the leash off first and see what she did (stayed engaged yay!) instead of unhooking it was she was distracted. I got the front of the jump out of the tunnel instead of the back and am pretty sure I started rotating in too soon (hard to tell at a distance), but kept going and found out she will also happily drive ahead when I chuck a toppl ahead of her. I let her decompress by finishing the cream cheese and also tested her leash loop behavior with the toppl on the ground (also pretty good). This time she came in trotting nicely at my side with no boings even though I was also carrying the tripod in my other hand so thinking the extra decompression after did help.
Nothing much going on today (she had her vet visit to check for stuff – no results yet) and we’re heading out for massages. She’s been napping since she got home from the vet.
So how long does this “teenage/my brain parts don’t talk/things are super hard for me” stage last again?
Since the following applies (summarizing here more for myself!):
– Tug & agility is super hard – tug-1 rep of something easy – tug – stop (and decompress)
– Food & agility is hard but not as hard as tug rewards – volume dial (with barking & movement to amp her up) – up to 3 reps – stop (and decompress) – If I lose her behind me, try to keep going since it was no doubt caused by me disconneting. Lotus tug (with food) is between the two so maybe one or 2 reps with that?
– The more that we can do with getting her arousal up, doing a thing (or two/three) and then decompressing down again without any leaping lizard episodes, the better and eventually this will help build her resilience (and when her brains do finally start talking to each other again, that framework will be in place to do more stuff eventually)
– Lots more neutral pattern games/ general decompression (bully stick chewing, shredding cardboad, sniffy walks where nothing exciting happens (like dogs lunging at her or bikes flying by out of nowhere), napping, playing with Kaladin (usually), and snuffle mats/treat scatters all work for her)
– She needs at least day off between hard thingsI have these questions:
1) Does it make sense to do very many in-person classes at this point? Or do I keep adding them in (maybe every other week?) but plan on using treat rewards for a while until I can get more consistent good results with a toy at home?
2) Where do things like her RDW foundations (going nowhere very fast and soon to be slower since I have a week before I leave for the Open and then we’ll probably have snow when I get back) or short teeter sessions fit in? Is that more like a harder agility sequence so should alternate with those?
3) Does it make sense to substitute in a jump grid session (dragging the lotus tug) instead of a short sequence session?
4) Thoughts on whether I should try 1 rep with a toy and then do a treat scatter and switch to another rep with food? (after getting success with 1 rep with toy & quit)
5) Does it make any sense to consider an NFC run before I have a more solid toy (not lotus tug) reward behavior in place? Sure I could probably have her ready to do the food reward box sooner, but not sure I want to do that and then try to introduce the toy in the ring after that. Kaladin is a dog that can switch back and forth more easily and I did do food reward box NFC with him when did some teeter bang it games but he transistioned pretty smoothly to NFC with frizzer since he loves his frizzer so much.
6) Can I use pattern games to help get her back if she’s lost her puppy marbles? (example – we finished a walk with my sister and her 2 dogs and were going down the driveway back to the house. Her 2 dogs started a rambunctious play session while still on leash to work of steam (from behaving themselves as joggers & cars went by) in the front yard. Lift really wanted to join in. I kept moving her further away and when she finally glanced sort of at me, I tossed a treat and moved into a pattern game. Her latency sucked at first even with moving further away, but then she got into it and eventually I was able to walk her past the playing dogs at a distance and got some good responses to trick cues)In answer to your question, that was her first wrap a tree in NY session. I have done a bit of wrapping around my oak tree at home but we haven’t done it lately.
She was such a trooper around my young nephews too. Made the 6yr old’s day when she agreed to sit on his lap next to me (with cheese as a reward).
The flight home was hard for her. She had puppy Xanax before both flights and was very calm/napping the whole time on the way out. Started out that way on the way back, but had a bit of a puppy panic attack when the engines revved for takeoff (it was especially noisy and vibrated alot). I had my hand down by the mesh of her bag (luckily) and it must have been very slightly unzipped because suddenly she burst out of there and was in my lap. I had to hold her for about 10minutes (with her panting heavily) before I could settle her enough to get her back in the bag before the flight attendants noticed she was illegally in my lap. After that she settled down and was a model canine citizen the entire rest of the time and then came out of the bag calmly at the baggage claim looking like nothing had ever caused her to panic. So needless to say we took it easy today with a sniffy walk, chasing Kaladin around the yard, a neutral pattern game session followed by a snuffle mat, and a short toy session with tricks when she came up to me with a toy.Tug games in NY – 11/9/24
More decompression yesterday and today with shredding cardboard and chewing. Also some neutral pattern games followed by a snuffle. Did another RR with her breakfast this morning in the front entry way. Didn’t video but she had better responses to cues and walked by it with me. She is also looking at me expectantly to cue a trick or Happy Hour. Then did a walk (took the 3rd time but she figured out that she can walk politely with my sister’s Sheltie & Collie without trying to play with the collie half the time….apparently we haven’t practiced walking with dogs other than Kaladin and Demi much).Video is an experiment with her tug toy after a nap. I wanted to see if she could tug and then segue to wrapping a tree as pseudo-agility. Answer today seems to be good for 2 reps with the tug and then needed a decompression.
Remote Reinforcement- 11/7/24
MaxPup – NY edition – complete with my parents trying to move a bunch of toys right by us in preparation for my nephews showing up. Lift was a champ on the flight (with the help of a bit of Xanax since she was a little bit anxious on her last flight) and walking with me in Flushing where we stopped to get Singaporean takeout. (the Xanax was mostly worn off but probably helped with that too since she is not used to walking in cities much less NYC). Lots of decompression (napping, shredding, bully stick chewing, some sniffy walks, snuffles….) yesterday after the flight and today. Earlier in the day she was enthusiastic about tugging with me and bringing back her squashed skunk toy so I decided to up the ante with the remote reinforcement and used her raw meat meal. On the first rep she turns the wrong way on the cue but the 2nd rep she had a snappy response to the trick (even after she gave it a glance when we walked by it to get back in the camera angle). I did a neutral pattern game later in the day followed by her snuffle mat.
1 Jump at CSZ – 11/3/24
Gave her a break on the Find Face game and experimented with amping up her arousal with an active trick right before asking for the jump. Did not get sticky on lead outs (even with me using the obstacle name) and had faster, happier line ups. CSZ has 3 separate warm -up jump areas so I grabbed the one furthest from the ring near the end of a class when the remaining dogs were mostly clustered by the ring. I did step in when she noticed the 2 poodles (one a puppy at the end of the leash) going by with a handler who was busy talking to someone else. We did do a pattern game/volume dial by the podiums earlier in the morning followed by a snuffle mat and then bully stick.
Our snow did melt when we were gone but it’s also supposed to be raining off and on the next 2 days and then I’m flying (with Lift) to NY to visit my family from wed-Sat. So we’ll take the pattern games/volume dial etc on the road.
In other news, Kaladin decided that Camille Cargol was OK in his book after he had to roll his eyes at her for a bit when she worked on the tightness in his neck.
Remote Reinforcement- 11/2/24
RR at CSZ off in the corner of the warm-up area but with traffic going back and forth. Did regular pattern games to warm up and made sure to empty the treats out of my pockets before walking away from the main reward the first time. This was her 3rd? time out and about – just did easy pattern games and a bit of volume dial followed by bully stick chewing and snuffle mats the first two so she could settle in.
Kaladin gives 4 paws up for Petr Pupik’s courses (as in he’s sacked out now after having fun running 4 of them today – levels 2 & 3) A2 clean but he slowed down to question 2 threadle wraps. Other 3 had an off course due to handling but he did amazing layering and was really flying.
Remote Reinforcement – 10/31/24
This was yesterday’s Halloween edition where I inadvertently dressed to match my dog. We had done this before earlier in MaxPup but not recently. She remembered it so I added in a small trick before heading back to the treat. Is it important that I give her the treat when we get back to it as opposed to her grabbing it? She’s waiting so I just picked it off the footrest and gave it to her. After the snuffle mat she decided she did want to play with her tug toy so we went a bit longer and mixed up the leash on and off while playing.
Oooh – I have to email Casey soon about seminar topics. I will be sure to ask for a young/novice dog handling session. Each session will be a half day so I could do that with Lift on Friday, leave her at home to chill out on Saturday and then try some NFC on Sunday.
Cups/Classics/Festivals can have NFC toy runs but no food box.
Yes! Claudette was under her coat and right on the withers. Tari originally measured at 14.5in and into the 16in USDAA class. I didn’t care since 14in wasn’t a USDAA jump height cut off at the time. Then they changed the cutoff (back when they had 14 & 18in jump heights) so I got her re-measured when she was 7 or 8 when she had dropped down in her pasterns a bit. I got her really skinny and lifted up her top coat and trimmed the under coat over her withers (so she didn’t even look funny since my trim job was disguised). I also got tips from Bonnie Griep on flyball measuring and trained a really solid stand. Then I ran her all day in 90 degree weather at 12 performance and then brought her into the building to get her measured. Told her to stand, lifted up the top coat over the withers to show the judge and then stepped out of the way – 14in exactly and by 2 CMJs! That 2in made all the difference as she finally got her ADCH jumping Ch 14 instead of 16.
Yeah – Min had absolutely no typical hypo thyroid signs. Her coat and weight were fine. Really the only thing was being slightly more mellow than normal (hard to measure until you look at it in hindsight) until it finally caught up with her and she just stopped on course.
I love trialing at CSZ. Such nice turf and so much space for crating. (Plus I started out running at TCOTC where they have massive I beams every 20 or 30 ft in the ring so 6 poles at CSZ is easy peasy) And good hiking on the way when you don’t have to work on a Friday!
10/30/24
This was from yesterday. I’d originally planned to take yesterday off and try the sequence today, but the weather didn’t comply (80 earlier this week and 3 in of slushy snow in time for the trick or treaters tonight. Since she had a class on Tuesday, I let all the dogs shred a cardboard egg carton and paper towel roll plus chew on bully sticks after I set the course. Then we did the sequences and did more bully stick chewing after. We’re heading off to Canine Sports Zone tomorrow for the MIAC ISC trial. Hopefully stuff will be melted and not too sloppy when I get back.
Pulled her off jump 4 in the first rep but kept going and made sure to show lots of connection for the end so she was happy about the BC after the tunnel.
Ended after the 2nd rep and even got some tugging with the lotus tug after I’d put her leash on.
I think we had chatted about this before, but Min was slighly hypo-thyroid and had low B12 levels that was diagnosed when she was 7 I think. She had normal bloodwork in April but in mid September she stopped on course at a trial and just stood there. I was panicking that something was seriously wrong or that she had a tick borne disease, but got her into the vet the next day and after we got her on a low dose of the thyroid meds and the cobalamin injections, she was back to normal in a few weeks and in time for the Open. In retrospect she was showing lower energy levels over the summer but it was subtle because she was always pretty lazy in class and super mellow at home. I emailed the vet today to ask if we should check Lift’s thyroid too when we do the Addison’s test. Her potasssium came back as normal in her recent CBC but on the low end of the scale.
In her class from Tuesday, some people were doing the Agility League so the timers were out. When it beeped I remember thinking that it was a good experience for her to hear it. I’ll see about rounding up some ring crew the next time we go back.
Freezing at the start – I do think it’s a “can’t process right now” moment. She did it at end of MP 3 and I just gave her several weeks off anything agilty and then it went away. I also am not consistent about whether I release her with ‘break” or the obstacle cue and ‘break” is stronger for her. So I think if she’s busy processing, she’s more likely to stay put when I use “jump” instead of break. I’ll add more rewards for moving forward too to balance out all the catch rewards for staying put.
A young dog winter camp would be awesome. The January Fusion trial is 5.5 weeks after her spay so I was thinking that might be overly ambitious even for tricks & tunnels (and maybe a 4s jump or two). But there’s a mid-Feb Fusion trial that I’ve booked Casey Keller to judge and then there’s another one at Fusion mid-April, plus On the Run USDAA & UKI trials in March. I’m also toying with the idea of NFC Speedstakes at MAC’s Classic on Memorial Day weekend (it’s at On the Run and there will not be a food reward box since it’s a classic so that will depend on how she’s doing with toys in public) Claudette graciously did a practice measurement with Lift last weekend in the middle of the day after she had settled in and got her at exactly 12.75in. Lift was pretty relaxed about the whole thing but I do need to train the stand better so that she stays relaxed when I back away a step and don’t crowd her. I am sure no one will get her at 12.6in for WAO, but I am going to try really hard to get the 12.75in to jump 8in regular. (she sailed over a 16in jump that had been left up for Kaladin a few weeks ago but there’s absolutely no way she needs to jump even 12in if I can help it. Plus – there’s all those crazy fast mini poodles at 12in!)
And yes – a traditional spay. At least it’s a one-time nuisance as opposed to the recurring heat cycles.
And LOL- deranged & debuting Jitterbug…I think I’ll delay on the Master Class for now…since I do need to focus on finding a job after the Open and all!
Oh – and one question on the teeter. We’ve been taking it slow with the bang it game. She is happy to jump on when the board is up to almost a foot off the ground and she almost always sticks her landing (every now and then she overshoots and ends up off the other side if I got her ramped up a lot). She has her front feet near the end, but she’s not that into scratching her scratch band. (she is stronger scratching at things held at an angle in front of her than on the ground too even though we’ve worked a fair amount had presenting it flat). How much should I try to get her scratching at the band sooner vs just rewarding her faster for landing close to the end (sometimes front feet on the band and other times just behind it)?
Class – Tues 10/29/24
First session:
I didn’t have as much time as I wanted to settle her in since I thought I was going 2nd and ended up going first. I think that contributed to her saying no to her orange fur tug at the beginning. I’m trying to mix up when I take her leash off (during volume dial, after/before etc) I do like how she stays facing me to see what is next when I do take the leash off. First rep I have a great camera angle for my right arm going up for the layer and her starting to pull in and then I realized it was up there and brought it down & back and she turned back onto the line for her jump. (yay us!) 2nd rep – turns out the person subbing for my friend can’t throw – way overshot her line so she missed the lotus tug and I had to run over and help her find it – but I think it was a surprise at least. She is hanging onto the lotus fur tug on our way out.
Between sessions we did a snuffle mat and then a bit of chewing on a bully stick and also went outside to wander around and sniff. I think that worked since I felt like she was more focused in the 2nd session even though I probably should have cut the first one off sooner (sub teacher also forgot to give me a 3min warning and clearly my own internal clock isn’t so good when I am focused on Lift)
2nd session:
She got to practice walking in on the left side entrance while Dawn & Yahtzee were playing & then leaving on the right side. (I did walking pattern games to make sure this was easier for her). She did her own built-in decompression between reps by getting the treat out of the lotus tug. (I did crop out some of this starting at 2:27 when we were off camera on the left). Then the instructor blocks the view of me rewarding her lead out with a “catch” for the thrown back cheese. OK – there was an extraneous“yay!” in there when she did the backside wrap on the pink & yellow jump in the foreground when I should have just been cueing the jump & tunnel.What is in the works for the youngsters when Max Pup 4 ends? Lift will not be doing any kind of NFC debut this year partly because I don’t think she’ll be ready and also because I want her to debut on her “home turf” at Fusion and the next trials there are mid Jan, mid Feb, and April. Also because she’s getting spayed in early December so we’ll have a built in break for a few weeks there. But I’d love to get your feedback on her eventual NFC debut so am wondering what kind of class she could be in for early 2025. Chaia pointed out that Master Class to me which looks cool, but I was wondering if there would be something else that might be more appropriate for Ms Lifty.
But the master class stuff does look cool (even though I can get myself into trouble when it’s a bit less structured and has a year to get feedback!). Are the working spots filling up fast?Finally had a chance to take a close look at the screenshots and read this now that the trial is over. I think part of me thought I needed my arm up for the jump after the tunnel because I was asking for more lateral distance but it clearly closes off the connection with her.
Pattern Find Face – 10/28/24
Tried this before the chat tonight. (apparently I’m taller than I think since I managed to crop my head off for most of this) She seemed more curious about why I was turning away than worried but this was in the more training-neutral spot of our bedroom where we’ve done tricks and stuff but not wing wraps or anything looking more like agility. I plan to try this again but in the training room (maybe with a wing sitting out) and outside to see if I get different results. Then of course it will be really interesting to try this with a baby sequence. If when I get to that point, I get the leaping lizard instead of curious Lift looking for my face, is the best plan to just keep moving as if it was planned or to stop and do a treat scatter to decompress her?
I did a bit of volume dial too but she didnt’ get too amped up (maybe the room?) I need to see if she’ll do a toy reward for volume dial as I often get the sense that she’s sort of ramping up but not much when we play it with food. Tapping her on the chest and having her chase me can amp her up but she can also have big feelings about that so I haven’t wanted to do that much.
I think I’m going to need to stash a container of treats in my garage so that I’m ready with a treat scatter (or snuffle mat) as I come into the house from the garage. Lift totally channels her inner barky kangaroo when I come home and is too aroused to approach me, but if tell her to get it for a tossed treat (and throw/place it so that Kaladin doesn’t steal it from her) and then walk away and crouch down she will come close and ask to be picked up so she can snuggle. It’s just shocking how fast she can go from boingy and playing keep away to basically demanding I pick her up if she gets something to eat. If she’s really over the top, I might need to repeat a treat I didn’t try food for a while because part of me was thinking it was rewarding the leapy behavior but then it clicked with me that what if she just can’t keep her feet on the ground because of the poprocks moments.
Near the end of the training chat (when my dogs had to welcome Dean home), you were talking about cortisol levels and Addison’s disease. What was the arousal regulation issue with low cortisol levels? Asking because we just did a GI panel on Lift due to intermittent GI upset (often stress related if it’s not bunny poop ingestion) and the only thing that came back was slightly low cortisol levels. Vet thinks it’s unlikely she has Addison’s but we’re doing the test in 2 weeks just to rule that out.
10/22/24 & 10/25/24
10/22/24 – Class with Lotus Tug
On Tuesday we dropped into a class and used the Lotus tug.
Wednesday we did a 2min session in the back yard with Mountain Climber & creamcheese. Thursday we went for a jaunt in a state park.
10/25/24 –
This morning we shared a ring rental with Khamsin & Jimothy. First session was after she hung out on her cot while Jimothy had his turn. Did great for the first sequence and I realized I had forgotten her lotus tug so she got cheese for that first brilliant rep.
Second session was after she had a break to walk around outside and hang out inside but around the corner so not able to watch into the ring. I was wondering if part of her leapiness was me holding the exciting lotus tug. Having a toy in my hand never seemed to affect her when she did agility for a toy pre-adolescence, but that was months ago. So I switched to a smaller toy that I could keep more hidden and felt like that made it easier for her. (she even tugged her way onto the coures) Still some running by obstacles, but she went for the toy each time I tossed and didn’t get leapy.
Oh yay! New obsession!
Mon 10/21 – decompression walk in the morning before it gets up to 82 (yes – 80s in MN in mid October!) & probably short play session inside later in the day
Tues 10/22 – Fusion drop in class (plan to put lotus tug on a leash to make it a longer toy), walk
Wed – 10/23 – RDW session (I’m so far behind in this class!), walk
Thurs – 10/24 – state park hike
Fri – 10/25 -Private training at Fusion (RDW session & some kind of easy sequence), walk
Sat – 10/26 – UKI trial – pattern games, maybe volume dial and some fun tricks (I’m secretarying so she’ll spend time hanging out in a crate under my desk or in the car)
Sun – 10/27 – Hang out at home with Dean & Demi while Kaladin & I are at the UKI trial10/20/24
Not quite sure what to make of this. Yesterday afternoon Lift and Kaladin had a photo session in a park with Sarah Kurtz. She did brilliantly holding stays by herself & with Kaladin, recalling to me and playing with the lotus tug. When we got home I hung out on the deck so that she and Kaladin could decompress by zooming around the yard and then plunking down to nap (Kaladin)/chew on a stick (Lift). No training last night, she just napped from dinner until bed time.This morning she woke up with ants in her pants and raring to go. We did a 2min session inside with cheese for her RDW foundations before breakfast. No toy to over-arouse her, but she did have to use her little brai cells since we are testing whether she understands the distinction between the cue for the squish mat vs tricks/marker cues to get treats. (survey says – improved from the session 2 days ago but still needs work). After breakfast we tried sequence 3 with the lotus ball and the wheels came off the bus. I forgot about the pattern games first (in the neutral backyard – whoops!) and started with volume dial which she looked good in, but then got barky about lining up (not sure if it was lining up in the course facing out, because I was holding her new favorite lotus tug or just because. Maybe I should hae just stopped there). Pulled her off the jump before the tunnel when I disconnected and it went downhill from there. However she did voluntarily stick her head through her collar even with the pop rocks going off so I took it off again and let her chase me for the toy.
I decided a decompression walk in the woods was in order and popped her and Kaladin into the car to go to a local park. When we got home I wanted to see if the leaping was more prevalent when I had the lotus tug in my hand so I left both dogs in the car, set up my tripod outside (with video running), put the lotus tug on the deck railing and then took Lift straight from the car into the yard on her agility slip leash. This time I did remember the pattern games before moving into volume dial. She was a bit slow and ran by the tunnel on the first rep. We tried one more where I left off the first jump and she did everything “right” but wasn’t too zippy so I left her in a sit (and she lay down) and grabbed her lotus tug to let her chase it. (probably should have just run to it with her, oh well). As I was heading back into the house, she started tugging like crazy on the empty lotus tug so on a whim I turned on the video again and did 2 easy sequences (aka no sending to a jump for a turn) with the lotus tug – no leaps – seemed really happy so called it quits and went inside, got Kaladin & Demi and plunked myself down on the deck to let the dogs chill. (she and Kaladin did a short zoom and then sacked out again). Now lecturing myself that she is probably depleted from having to think for a few sessions over the last few days while the furry lotus tug is in my hand and that I should just post this and go find something else to obsess over that doesn’t involve training Lift.
Sequence #1 – 10/18/24
I did this after breakfast and she was pretty amped up going into it. Also a bit sticky and barky on some starts (maybe because I was holding the amazing cream cheese toppl on a leash which I almost forgot at first) However she nailed the sequences including the layering on the last try. (and yay me for just going on when a disconnect moment had her miss a jump – I’m slowly getting better at that! Still had an extraneous Yay or two slip out though)
I’ll find another class to drop in on after I work a bit more with her fur lotus ball at home first. I tried moving the lotus bungee toy around more and she doesn’t seem to get the treat out any faster, but she does stay engaged and pounces on it. I had a piece of a pretty stinky Saint Roccos treat in there. I could leave it a bit more open, but then I need a larger treat so it doesn’t fall out before she gets to it and she’s small enough that too many rich, larger treats risk a bit of digestive over indulgence. Here is a pretty good session this afternoon in terms of her engagement (she did run off with the lotus toy before we started…)
I’m not sure which marker cue I should use since I have been distinguishing between thrown food & toy for her. Kaladin has “get it” for toy or food delivered away from me, but I thought Lift would do better with different cues (get it for food & grab it for toy) since she has definite opinions about her rewards. I used grab it here (food) but maybe it should be get it since it will transition to only a toy? Or maybe I’m over-thinking this. And does the value of chasing the furry thing eventually override needing to get a treat out of it? Just wondering if I’ll get a mad Lift in the future when she chases a fur bungee and there is no food in it.
I was really happy with how she did with all the sounds in the class on Thursday (barking dogs, a-frame etc). I think it’s helped that the boarding dogs often erupt in barking fits when we are training. She does react more to motion than to sounds though so I am deliberately attending classes that are in the full ring for our first few forays so that there isn’t another dog running in the ring on the other side of a barrier.
