Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Prop – Parallel Path and Rear Cross – 7/22/20
Still missing hitting the prop on some parallel motion passes even with me close (and he doesn’t cut in on is path, he just trots over it without touching it)
This is the 3rd short session with the RC – I often get a turn the wrong way before he spins to go the direction I headed. I’m having a hard time pushing in on the blind-cross line since I don’t have him driving ahead much either. But this time I did get 1 correct turn each way. (He has the start of some nice right and left verbals but I didn’t think I should use them here since we want the body motion cutting behind his line to indicate the direction change)
Adv Sit Stay with Toy – 7/22/20
So this is the game that I usually play early on with puppies, but I delayed it a bit with Kaladin since he wasn’t keen to tug for several weeks after I brought him home. Then I introduced it and he kept checking out or wandering off after dropping the tug. I took a break, consulted my notes from a Shade Whitesel seminar and realized I was more taking the toy than letting him drop it and he was really not interested in playing with those rules. Back to the drawing board for months with toy play. This is the first time I played it since then and am happy to report that it is better even though it still needs work. He offered 2 sits right away. Then he hesitated. For the next rep I had him chase the toy as a reward before trying for the sit-tug sequence again. He offers some downs, but I went with them since it was an offered, stationary behavior. On one of the downs, a squirrel runs across the road towards our neighbor’s yard so I waited to release until he looked at me and then had him chase me. He is slowly growing out of it, but he can be very fixated on motion – not to chase it, but to stop and stare. Since he didn’t budge from the down and then chose to look at me I figured that warranted a chase game as a reward.
(and thanks for the tip to release him to a tossed toy right before it hits the ground – those are definitely faster!)Blind Cross Drill with Leadout – 7/21/20
Decided to take the eating out of the equation for this session and did leadouts. Got an inadvertent send around my little tree when I didn’t switch hands quickly. This is a lower auld toy (less fuzzy stuff) but he still did pick it up when I sent him.
Sit Stay – 7/21/20
I like how this is coming along. I’ve been experimenting with different toys and my movement (including move forward, pause, move again) and noticed that when I say catch he gets up but stays back vs when starting forward when I say break.Prop – Countermotion – 7/21/20
Did a couple of sessions staying closer to the prop. It does help to watch the cap although in one of them his neck ruff got in the way of me seeing it! It’s a bit hard to try to leave any sooner when you’re that close. Should I move a bit further away for the send and then add in leaving sooner once I establish that the send from further away is holding up?Prop Send – Parallel Path & Counter motion – 7/19/20
Did a session yesterday inside with the cap on my little yoga mat, but it seemed like he was starting to get confused about whether he was hitting the hat or the yoga mat. So moved outside this afternoon. Hard to tell on the video, but sometimes I’m pretty sure he is trotting over the cap instead of actually hitting it with a front paw. Was also having trouble seeing the hit on the cap in the counter motion and think I rewarded a near miss or two.
Blind Cross/Collection/Get It – 7/19/20
It’s a miniscule treat in the bowl, but he still takes a while to eat it so I find it hard to time when I start running and then do the blind cross. I admit I practiced this with Min first to sort out the mechanics after I did it without a dog. So then I just did the whole thing together the first time with Kaladin. (For me I realized I need to remember that the toy is in the hand on the side you start running on, then BC to the other to do the spin and throw the toy out of the original side hand)
Sit Stay with Nemo – 7/19/20
Did some of the sit-stay exercise cueing the sit and rewarding with cheese when walking in the huge and deserted park preserve this morning. (he was awesome). This is the other session where I used Nemo as his reward and threw in some driving ahead after he recalled to me. I plan to continue with revving him up more between reps.
Sit Stay – First 2 sessions – 7/18/20
I liked what I saw here. Only problem with using the larger space in the kitchen is that sometimes his sit slides in to a down due to the laminate floor. I felt like the paw movement on one of the sits in the kitchen was actually him trying to stay in the sit so I just ignored it. I don’t see paw movement from him on grass or carpet.
I’m going to do more with adding excitement next time and also see how the other sit stay game goes.
Drive Ahead to Nemo Ball – 7/17/20
So I didn’t realize this until I watched the video, but I think he is telling me I made it too hard/put too much pressure on him when he doesn’t drop Nemo quickly but trots around the yard with Nemo and avoiding me.
He sends beautifully when I toss Nemo ahead, restrain him and then release and follow him. He did this twice (I just cropped out the first one) But he has an extended party with Nemo which I didn’t register as a possible sign that this was getting harder for him. So then I placed Nemo in front of him, went back to Kaladin and released. He sent and grabbed Nemo (yay!) Longer party of one. I think I should have gone back to something easier or tossed Nemo to him to catch to see if he would drop it as a sign he wanted to keep training. Instead I decided to place Nemo in front of him again. Reminded myself not to lean over him, told him to get it and he lay down, twice. (Whoops! Stoopid Hoooman) I got him unstuck by using my arm and moving with him. I cropped out the end where I made it really easy by having him offer a sit and then releasing him to a tossed Nemo to chase.
So the weather sucks (heat index of 105 today), but when it gets cooler, I am planning on doing a session of sending to Nemo but ping-ponging the difficulty by varying the distance ahead or by tossing Nemo instead of placing him out there as more of a dead toy. When he’s happily sending to a dead Nemo and not being distracted by my movement with or behind him, should I try mixing up the toy reward? (Like do a short send to a tug toy and then reward him with an easier send to Nemo the next time.)
Drive to Handler with Nemo Ball – 7/17/20
Decided to experiment with using Nemo as the reward to drive to me. He seemed to find it rewarding – didn’t have extended parties of one with Nemo but dropped it right away even after I tossed it to him again. Can definitely see that he needs to see the decel in time to respond to it. (I need to remind myself that he’s much bigger than Min who practically turns on a dime) I did feel like he was anticipating blasting out of the spin with me to get Nemo though. Not sure if that is a problem.Drive Ahead – Nemo Ball & Cheese – 7/15 &7/16/20
Short session yesterday where I experimented with sending him ahead to his favorite (deflated) Finding Nemo ball. Sometimes he pulls up short when Nemo is a dead toy, but this time (Maybe due to tossing Nemo there right before?) he charged ahead and grabbed Nemo (yay!) Of course it’s a bit hard to have interactive play with Nemo. Usually he grabs Nemo and tosses the ball around a bit and then drops it for me to grab and start another game. This time he did proudly strut around the yard a bit with Nemo and then ran after me to play again.
Also wanted to experiment with cheese in a dish. Sent ahead confidently so I started a bit of motion walking along behind him. I noticed he looked askance at me the first time but went straight ahead the 2nd time.
Now we’ll take a break for a couple of days and let the latent learning kick in
Prop Send sideways & backwards – 7/14/20
Moved to the kitchen. Cap started sliding on the laminate floor so I put a yoga mat platform underneath it. In the middle he started getting pretty mouthy in his excitement so I paused a bit and let him settle.
I’ll keep moving this around to other places, but a few questions:
– Should I be standing up more when I engage him in the ready game? (he seems to have no problems with me leaning down to him though)
– What kind of distance should I be working towards?
– Are my sideways and backwards movements too exaggerated or is that good for this stage?
Drive ahead to Toy…sort of – 7/14/20
Cooler tonight (70s, but still a big muggy). What do you make of this? I tossed the whole long toy so he wouldn’t grab the part 2ft away and he just continued to stare at it and then lay down…twice. Distance too far maybe? So I did a recall to the toy to get him moving more and then he does a deliberate send out to the toy. I cropped out some of the extended playing between the tosses and also the warm up game where he was tugging well…right before he decided to stare at the toy and lie down.
