[agilitywawa]

Hi Tracy,

Yes, he’s my first Mal – I am really enjoying him – he’s super fun to train. And I haven’t had a boy in quite a while. So nice to have a dog that likes both food and toys, unlike Dellin who spit out every type of food as a puppy.

I will be using the same verbals for him that I use with Dellin – since I can finally remember and get them out while running.

I still have a bit of time left to take the wraps outside to get off those mats, but it has gotten a lot colder this week. Hopefully the snow stays away for a while.

I will try the pile of stuff with my helper!

Here’s the plank and toy races. The only thing he has not been able to do on the plank is back up (I may need to put a target on there to help him). He can back up onto it without an additional target, so maybe I could build off of that.

Joan

[agilitywawa]

Hi Tracy,

“I think his quick inspection of the object was mainly because you were tossing the treat right at it. That might have caused him to think you wanted him to expose or offer behavior on the object. Since we are going for ‘ignore it completely’ you can have the stimulus off to the side and toss the cookie past.”

My bad – I misunderstood and thought we were supposed to toss the cookie relatively close to the object.

We did the shaping #2 with the inflatable donut. When I’m standing close to it, he thinks he’s supposed to pivot! When I took a step away, then he hopped onto it. Typical of the breed, he has no issues with things that move or make loud noises. He loves to bang the tippy Cato board. he can also get onto 4 pods – front feet were shaped and back feet were lured (to cut down frustration for him).

Then we wrapped a large trash can.

Then some toy switching skills. He has very good toy skills – his very first class right after he came home was for toy skills. He switches toys easily. These 2 toys are roughly equivalent in value, the green one may be a bit higher – it’s more of an outdoor toy and he wanted to go out and run around but the weather was horrible (welcome to late November).

I have also taken a class with him just on markers. I found it lowered his frustration quite a bit.
His food markers (some I use more than others):
“Yes” – move toward me to get the food
“search” – one thrown cookie
“floor” – one cookie put on the ground
“snack” – one cookie delivered to him – he does not move
“dish” – one cookie in a dish, he is sent to the dish
“scatter” – a bunch of cookies put on the ground
“catch” – one cookie thrown to him

His toy markers:
“strike” – he moves in and grabs it
“chase” – I’m throwing it far
“toss” – I’m throwing it close for him to catch
“get it” – dead toy on the ground

Have fun at the US Open – too late in the year for us to get there and back in the RV without hitting bad weather.

Joan

[agilitywawa]

Hi Tracy,

I did the first step of the stealth game yesterday and today. I tried 3 objects yesterday and all of them ended up just off the camera! He behaved the same way he did today. If he checked them out at all, he came right to me when I said his name. Today I have 2 different objects – the basement is definitely the place to be for novel neutral objects. He give a cursory sniff and heads right back to me. I was delaying giving him the toy so he had time to swallow the cookie toss. Otherwise he was coming back and hacking or spitting out the cookie.

Then we did a re-do of the blind cross foundation – I did not realize that the toy should be much more visible to him and not just a reward. Thanks for clarifying. I felt like I was giving him enough space – then I watched the video! Clearly, I have not had a large dog in a number of years and I need to starting paying attention as he continues to grow.

Joan

[agilitywawa]

Hi Tracy,

A beautiful day here, so we had the space to do the driving ahead/focus forward. We’ve done this type of exercise before, but usually I just say “get it”. I started saying “go go”, and I think that’s why he looked at me (whaaa??). And I have not been running as much toward the object with him – I’ve been running away from the object. So I changed up the game on him.

We also did the blind cross foundation. Camera angle not the best – I manage to block him part of the time but he does end up on the correct side.

Going to try the first stealth game later. He’s a dog who sees everything (no surprise), so it will be interesting to see what he says about the game.

Joan

[agilitywawa]

Hi Tracy,

Giving him some more room helped him to turn the correct way. I will say that when he chases toys outside that almost 100% of the time, he turns left after picking up the toy – even if it would be easier to turn right. We will address that with our conditioning person. He circles cones, etc. equally well – does not seem to have a strong preference that I can see.

We did a few forward send with the toy – he got a bit sloppy as his arousal went up so I need to figure out the correct balance of cookies to toy. Then we did some side sends and rea sends for cookies. He did fine with both.

I re-did the decel exercise and circle – trying to make sure he kept his rear in.

Darkness prevented us going out for the driving ahead- so tomorrow!

Question on the cone work. We have worked through all of the baby steps, starting the same way – with bowls. He is now at the point where he does multi wraps of cones, wings, trash cans (I don’t use cones anymore because he’s so big). He can can that with distractions- me holding food out in my hands. I’m at the point where I’m starting to name the wraps. Should I wait a couple of lessons to do anything or do you want to see any of this now?

Thanks,
Joan

[agilitywawa]

Hi Tracy,

I got a bigger prop for him since he’s already pretty big (“we’re gonna need a bigger boat!”). On the video, we did Prop Game 1 – forward send and then we did the start of the Decel and Turn (dizzy time).

He has done quite a bit of the driving ahead for the toy, including with my motion, so I won’t go all the way back to the very first baby steps. Which means I need to go outside to give him enough room – will do that later today. Full disclosure – he has been working through another online program, so this is not his first class. But I like how everyone has different skills and approaches and I know this class has a lot of things I can do in a small space as winter approaches here (sad face).

[agilitywawa]

Question about the assignment – since Didi’s issues are purely fear driven, I do not intentionally put her into a place where she’s going to have the kind of reaction it seems that we are looking for in order to assess how long it takes her to recover. If she trains at home, she’s fine. I can note if things that might distract her in classes or at what point I reach an issue if we are out in the world, but I am trying to avoid creating a reaction by keeping an appropriate distance and working incrementally on her big trigger (strange people). At times, objects in the environment might worry her (trash dumpster for example) and then I can gauge her willingness to interact with the object and how her body posture is at the time – is she stretched out long in a fearful posture or is she more relaxed and how her recovery is from the encounter.

I guess I’m not sure how to go about the assignment given that I am trying to work under her thresh hold and not elicit a huge fear response in her. Or am I reading too much into it and I can note things like how she behaved at her new barn hunt class this week in a new place? And how she did at agility class this week.

Thanks,
Joan

[agilitywawa]

We are working with Dr. Jennifer Summerfield (remotely – she is working with my regular vet on the prescribing). Didi’s on 5mg of Fluoxetine once daily. Didi weighs 11 lb. We have worked with Sharon Carroll on the behavior mod work.

She has also been taking Purina Calming Care for months. I don’t really think it does anything but I’m afraid to stop it. lol.

I have started doing Fast Cat with Didi as a confidence thing – being able to work with people in the area. I have seen a lot of improvement – she basically runs straight now instead of veering when she goes by the lure operator. She seems to enjoy doing this. At the last event, she was able to do her end of run procedure that she does in agility class – she heard her remote reinforcement marker (“candy”) and as part of that, she was able to present herself and jump up to be picked up – then we get the cookies. This was a first in this environment. She does not run off, but this was the first time I got full buy in from her at the end. This is how I would want our agility runs to end if we can compete.

It has also been suggested that activities that involve using her nose could be beneficial, so I signed up for a 3 week intro to Barn Hunt to see if she enjoys doing that.

[agilitywawa]

Hi Bobbie,

No, I no longer live in NY, but I remain devoted to all their sports teams. LOL (Go Yankees! – Didi was named after Didi Gregorious who is sadly no longer a Yankee).

Didi and I started working with a Veterinary Behaviorist about a month ago and we all believe that Didi’s fear of people is a genetic thing. We started some meds 3 weeks ago and I may be starting to see little glimmers of them helping although it’s still early (and there’s room to increase the dose too).

Joan

[agilitywawa]

Hi Tracy,

Continuing on the decel games – I did a few sends. Then worked again on the FC/turn and burn but focusing on not taking a step back to make sure I have those mechanics cleaned up. on one side of the turn and burn, the house is there, so no real estate for her to take off running to.

Then a little of the sequence. On the “go” I should have had the toy out as a target, but forgot.

As to the resilience piece – interesting stuff.

You wrote: “have you taught her the pattern game/coping mechanism that you taught Didi? I can grab some video of it in terms of how we are doing it recently, but it helps the dogs explore the environment, breathe… and also offer engagement with you with a specific framework for doing so. I have expanded how we use it a whole lot since we last looked at it”

I have not specifically taught her that, but I have used treat tosses on occasion if she has had “a moment” in the basement training area. Sometimes chasing the treats will get her up and running around again. It’s harder with her since she does not share Didi’s love of cookies over everything else. But maybe I should try this in more of a pattern game when nothing is going on?
If there’s a new way to do it, I’d be interested to see video too.

I could certainly try the come to my side, throw toy too and work on a loop. That’s not too dissimilar from some of the toy work we have done.

Thanks,
Joan

• This reply was modified 2 years, 10 months ago by agilitywawa.

[agilitywawa]

Hi Tracy,

Been gone camping and then to a UKI trial.

Finally got to look at Week 9 and start the deceleration exercise. Baby steps – in front of tunnel to FC, then turn and burn. The added the tunnel to the FC.

We did our first 2 NFC runs this weekend and she handled the environment really well – perfect start lines (at start and in middle of course), able to play with her toy, looking for her jumps. She had a lot of fun and the course had a few places where rewarding was obvious and easy. It was speedstakes, so I got to us “GO” quite a bit! She did an end line of 3 straight jumps out on one course with me in the dust. Great first show experience.

Decel video:

Thanks,

Joan

[agilitywawa]

Hi!

Thanks so much for doing that! Looking forward to hearing what they say. Dellin is interesting because changing things in training can blow her mind if I go too fast, but she can take all of her skills to new places and be fine. She has been to a couple of seminars and other new places to work and she translates her max puppy handling skills brilliantly – no problems. So, known things in new environments are ok.

Today she happily got back on the teeter for her 4 reps and I had the cone to wrap. Way more animated than the first video. So I did not wreck all the previous work. I was relieved anyway…

Joan

[agilitywawa]

Hi,

I would be interested in hearing more about the resilience conditioning – it’s not something I am familiar with. I’m glad I had that on video – when I try to tell people how sensitive she is, it’s hard to really convey it accurately and without me sounding like I’m overreacting to a minor sensitivity. You are right – I am very careful about how her training progresses, but I can’t control everything.

As it turns out, she is having a massage later today, so we’ll see if anything is off there.

Thanks!
Joan

[agilitywawa]

Hi,

The game where you go up and the board does not move was the one that caused the meltdown. All the games with tables have been fine.

I know she does not look super enthusiastic, but for her it was good. I would not say she’s super enthusiastic about anything. I think she likes the cone wrap after the best, so I should not go out there without the cone.

You said – Toys as the target, meaning she would not do a 2o2o? What if you used a toy between cookies, to keep things more interesting for her? I am not fully convinced the food is a great positive reinforcement here so a little excitement will help with that.

Correct could not do 2o2o with toy as target.

This afternoon I put the cookie down first then just let her go on the board and released and threw the toy and she had a total meltdown – would not chase or bring the toy back -acted very suspicious of the whole set up, like I had muddied the picture for her. She initially goes after the HR, but won’t pick it up, bring it to me, catch it when thrown to her or tug on it. Then she flops over and does all her appeasement stuff, so I quit. I’ll be lucky if she even gets back on there tomorrow. I have noticed with her that if I take too big a leap and the picture changes too much that she will tell me she’s confused by quitting. I left that in the video so you can see what I’m dealing with. It seems like if normal dogs can modify a piece of training in one step, Dellin needs 3 steps. Just an observation I’ve made with working on heeling. And once she knows what is going on, she’s happy to work, but my path looks a lot different from everyone else’s.

Here’s the teeter video:

In an effort to get her back to some sort of happy place, I went back to the sequence to work on the turns at 5 with RC or FC. She got back on the HR there and was acting normally again.

The RC is hard to see and some of it gets cut off because the turns are super wide. I’m really horrible at those.

Thanks,
Joan

[agilitywawa]

Hi Tracy,

I’m guessing the arm is why it was so uncomfortable on the lead out. I don’t find it bad when moving.

The teeter – no issues with the end games – bang or the noise. In between Max Puppy sessions, I was going to do the Independent Study teeter class. I did the elevator up to nowhere and she does not like that AT ALL. She would not get on the board again. I had to go back to a flat board in the basement and work my way up to getting any incline – it took a couple of weeks. I went back to using 2 tables – a 24 and a 16 and initially, I let her go back and forth since she was offering going up. Then I got to a 24″ table and like an 8″.

To work on the going up piece, Nancy suggested that I work on getting what had been the 24″ table lowered. We did 16″ and now we are lower and she’s going to the ground. As you can see, she thinks quite a lot about it. I use food at the end. Toys were too much – she could not stop. To keep a clean loop, I either circle her back and run or send her around a cone and run back. I only do 4 reps per session. Some days I get 2 sessions in. For her, this seems to be about right. I am trying to vary my position, but not be part of the cue (like me moving with her).

Then we started the Big Lines games from the live class. I only did the 1-3 both ways (blind cross before or after #3). She had already done the teeter and some weave work and the grass was really wet (but we have storms forecast for later, so wanted to at east start this).

On the first rep, I forgot to tell her “left” out of the tunnel so she went super wide. Fixed that on the second rep 🙂 I think I’d almost always choose the BC on the landing side of 3 or I’d likely end up in the dust depending on where the course went.

Thanks,
Joan

[Author]

Posts