[bsshay]

Thank you for your candid and constructive feedback. You’re helping me to see/look at things in new ways.
B

[bsshay]

Gosh it’s fun when the puzzle pieces start coming together 😎

The pool is about 10ft away from the end jump here. I have to confess we worked very hard when she was young on her NOT jumping in the pool without my permission. I would open my kitchen door and in a flash she was sprinting into the pool. Now she looks at me and waits for the OK to go in. SO, she DOES have Impulse control on something. 🤪

We had taken the treats from the chair before I started the camera. I still have to put the treats in a jar or my bait bag so she doesn’t steel them. She’s quick! Although with the fence there she might be dissuaded. We used just kibble so we would be successful. It will be harder for her to leave a toy, and even then I’ll have to put the toy in a jar too.

But that’s what we’ll try next with a lesser toy and work our way up to the “APDB”. 😂

How important is it for the treats/toy to be naked and free for the stealing in my reward chair? For our purpose it’s still ok for them to be in jars?

There’s an agility buddy I will ask to be my first person. She is in class with us and we recently shared a VRBO. So Posh is used to her, likes her, but isn’t used to her in our backyard. She can be our leash runner. Ha!

So here’s something I’ve discovered about Posh and her toy possessiveness. If she tugs with a toy, she is more possessive of it than if we just play fetch, no matter the value of the toy. So, if we do a sequence and I reward her by holding out the toy for her to run, grab, and tug, she has more trouble letting it go (possibly hanging on my arm with her paw or jumping repeatedly at me to grab it back) for our next sequence, than if I throw the same toy for reward and we play fetch. Weird? Normal?

Thank you again. B & P

• This reply was modified 3 years, 2 months ago by bsshay.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 2 months ago by bsshay.

[bsshay]

Hey. Thank you. Such great advice here. I didn’t notice I had a leash in each hand.

Yes, in my opinion, my Apricot Poodle ‘Paris’ is a ‘stable pony’ for Posh. Paris is rock steady, super confident, and has the best people, dog manners of any dog I’ve ever had. I may be biased but I think she shows Posh that things are ok. I could be wrong. I’ve been wrong before. 😉

I can walk them with both leashes in one hand and have the other hand free to help Posh. Also, Paris is so good I can drop her leash, she’ll stay right near me while I work with Posh. Sometimes I take them together for orientation around the rings, and then take Posh by herself and work her around the trial area.

I also have a black Alpha Female that I never walk with Posh unless absolutely necessary. Although this girl is great with people, she needs a bubble around other dogs. Posh is so great with most other dogs, I don’t want to take the chance of ruining that.

Thank you for noticing and helping me be more conscious of this. 👍

B & P

[bsshay]

Hi again. Attempting RR Combo Game here 😉

Using just kibble for cookies, and no toys at all, no cookies on me after we past the gate. It’s getting hot, and we had a very early private, so I lowered jumps and kept up my enthusiasm. Her natural distractions in our backyard are bird poo, the pool, and whatever else she can find under the vegetation. They are a form of non-scary Kyrptonite. She wanted to go off for the bird poo before we started our game.

After filming she got to jump in the pool, can be a reward in itself. Sometimes I have her jump in the pool before we train, just to keep her cool. As a pup she wanted to jump in the pool all the time and not come out 🤪

Thank you… B and P

[bsshay]

Hope this is ok. Just sent you an email to agilityuniversity@gmail.com. With more information about this toy. 😉

[bsshay]

This is great information, thank you. Will do.
We may not be at a level of proficiency with each of the new set of games, to move on to the next set, but we’ll keep working on them. 👍🏻😉

[bsshay]

Yes! I get it. Thank you.

I had class this morning at a location we hadn’t been to in a few weeks. The field is divided down the middle with a chain link fence with some shade cloth on it. The other side is used for kids soccer, but this was the first time there were kids working there. Posh barked at a mom leaving on the other side of the fence. So we worked pattern games nearby and she was ok. Even though our last lesson there I was able to run without a toy, for our first run I recognized she needed higher reinforcement and used the dumbbell. My classmates were walking to places around the ring as she was sitting at the start line. She left her start to go see one but did not bark. I calmly went over and put her leash back on, took her back, started again and she did well. Toy in hand. We progressively made it to hands free running, toy delivered from pocket.
I was able to recognize what she needed. I feel like we’ve regressed from last week, and are working back to where we were.

My toolbox is helping. 😉

Here’s a very short clip of how I can transport her from car to field/trial. As long as she has something like this in her mouth, she can make it through/past most any situation/people without reacting.

[bsshay]

Hi. Another new feed, in addition to the non-cookie pattern games above.

I was wondering if you could watch this video I made for ‘Stimulus Control’.
Here is a toy someone told me not to use anymore. It seriously dials her up and can take her brain to that place of being ‘possessed’😉.
I’d like you to see how intense she can be, how hard it is for her to give up a toy. She has a history of stealing and self rewarding.
It is a JW small dumbbell, rubber? I like this toy, we can tug with it, throws well, and it’s value is equivalent or higher than her tennis balls. It makes the world go away, overrides bunny poo and people. I can put it in my pocket. And even though it can dial her up to the max it can also appease her….she calmly chews on it laying on her belly with the world walking around her, it can chill her.

My goal would be remote reinforcement with this toy by itself on the ground. But now I have to secure it in a jar, in her purple chair and she really doesn’t want to leave it. If it’s by itself in the chair she will steal it.

As you can see, she will wrap her paws around my hand when I ask her to release. When working on this without treats, she will stay like this for minutes, while I wait her out to put her paws on the ground.

Thank you. Barbi

[bsshay]

Hello. New feed. Non-cookie pattern games.
First one is no distractions. Using cookies on a very high bench behind us for delayed reinforcement.

Second one is distractions. She got to sniff them before we videoed. She was definitely interested in the mosquito repellent chemical lantern. And I pulled out the ‘Chlorine Bobber’ from the pool, which turned out to be too much. She LOVES to swim and has been wanting to ‘get’ this bobber for awhile. After videoing I threw it back into the pool, and she was beside herself wanting to go in and get it. Her brain goes to a different place when something like this happens, possessed, then need to reset and get the item out of her sight.

So, if I understand the lesson right, we are supposed to wait for them to engage/orient to us?

Thank you, Barbi

[bsshay]

Hi. Thank you.
Everything you’re saying makes sense. But I’m not sure, for Posh, what a non-scary Kryptonite would be. Seems like they’re all scary. Can you give me examples of Non-scary ones? Bunny poo? Fresh cut fertilized grass? Leaves and bird poo? Can you give me some examples, please?
Barbi

[bsshay]

Hi again.

So you know we have Kryptonite every time we go to class. This week I’m embarrassed tell you we had an incident and I didn’t handle it very well.
There’s a class before us, and when we walked in a young boy was waking around waving a chair over his head. So we gave them about 100′ and worked games with treats. It went well but while I was doing this someone else brought a guest, old woman, and another male student showed up who hadn’t been there in a couple weeks. Normally, I would work Posh near them with treat or toy pattern games, but didn’t have time to do all before class started.
The woman kept starring at Posh even though I asked her not to. The man is young tall strong presence, but he’s been in our class for over a year.
Our first go at an exercise, I could tell she was bothered, didn’t want to tug with Kong hollee on bungee, didn’t want to do tricks for treats. But lined her up with a sit. She held it for reward, then left to run barking with gusto at the man who was standing watching us from about 30′ away. I called once then, decided we were done and got her back to her crate. Embarrassingly, I got frustrated, even angry.:( I’m just worried about the Automaticity of this. But got her back into her crate to reset, and reset myself. After awhile I got her back out and went near the man, a few feet away and worked pattern games. She did well with this for him, but not the woman. Then took another turn, this time with ‘Balls’ and treats. We were hesitant, but she hung in there. Funny thing, the more I fuss with her on the start line, the worse we do. The more I get it done, and concentrate on my handling over “what she might do”, the better we do, toy on me of course.
So, after that, our turns got better. We were able to do our sequences with the entire class close, 5-10′ or so. She once glanced at the man as we went by, but chose to keep running with me. As long as the old woman stayed near the crates she was ok with her.
Gosh, the learning curve for both of us is hard. The first time, I didn’t set her up for success, didn’t do our routine, didn’t take our purple chair with us.
But the good thing is we were able to recover and have successful segments for the rest of the class.

So, Kryptonite for us can be many things. I’ve thought of getting some blow up dolls/men and put them in the backyard for Kryptonite games. But I don’t want her to think our backyard is scary?? She reacted to helium Bday balloons we had, and I had to tie them to me and wear them around and sit on the ground with them, my other dogs showing her they were nothing and treating her….but it worked. What do you think of blow up dolls? or aliens?

I take her to the nearby school when the kids get out, and do pattern games and action games for treats and she’s done well. I take my other dog with us sometimes and if someone wants to pet I have them pet her, while I treat Posh. If I take Posh alone, I tell the kids they can’t pet her and treat her heavily when they go by. Her only severe reaction was our neighbor’s dog, which she’s seen many time with no response. But the dog showed up with a ‘collar’ on after being spayed. ish…

During early Covid, I took her regularly to an indoor mall and just walked her around to see peeps with masks, bags, etc. She did well as long as we were moving along and no one tried to pet her. Her eyes lit up when she saw women in long dresses all covered up, but that was all. Perhaps I can go back and work K games there.

So, most of our biggest reactions happen in class, trials. Hopefully our ‘reactions’ will become less and less with our tool box and I’ll get better at recognizing what she needs when. Do you have any suggestions for when she takes off to bark at someone? Until this week I’ve always run the other way and then rewarded her when she does come to me. But now I feel this is ‘Automaticity’ that needs to Stop. But what’s the best way in the moment? Keep running the other way? Tell her to get in her kennel? ??
Of course, once again, I didn’t get this episode on film.

Thank you,
Barbi

[bsshay]

Yes, thank you. I noticed many of the same things you did. And trying to work on them.

Barbi

[bsshay]

Hi again. Just Paypaled the balance, thank you.

Here are 3 vids from one of my classes last week. These were before my trial/FEO videos from last weekend.
Class was an AKC Masters JWW. We are an intermediate class. Our instructor broke it down in 3 snippets. She allowed me to
use our chair, before, after, and allowed a first go, which I did with Toy in pocket, then a second go, No toy, although I had a few pieces of kibble in my pocket. We had varied results. As you may hear me saying to a classmate, who was encouraging me 😉, that I get nervous when I don’t have a toy, and when I know I’m being videoed.
Here I’m using a Kong holee ball with bungee. Both treats and toys were secured in jars in the chair. For the trial I had to escalate to a Tuff tennis ball with bungee, and high value treats. The beginning of each has a bit of time me waiting my turn.

The day after, for my private lesson with Amy Mescher 😉, she put out strange balls on either side of the weaves, and had me run the same full course with NO toy and No treats. Of course there were no other people there. Posh did great.

When you have time, I’d appreciate your feedback.

Thank you. Barbi

• This reply was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by bsshay.

[bsshay]

Hi. Here are two FEO videos for tonights Zoom class.

First one is FAST. She was fussy on start line when I went to put the toy in my pocket, perhaps cuz I faced her away from everything, everything trying to swing start?
Then I wanted her to take the serp jump and come with me to the teeter, put she went to the weaves instead. So I just let her go and supported. I ended up on the OTHER side of the teeter as she was weaving, 30 ft, layering jumps and teeter…go figure!

Second one is T2B. The peeps behind her I asked to turn around, but with the toy I don’t think she needed it. I was able to work the start line a bit. Tried to layer a jump on the way to the weaves. I thought it went well, except for AF 🤪. Interestingly, the timer made me laugh on the start line, and the jump setter when we exited said my face looked much more relaxed on this run. Can we talk about this aspect in later? We definitely do better with a toy and the run doesn’t count.

Thank you.
Barbi and Posh.

[bsshay]

So sorry. Wasn’t sure if you got that email or it went to your IT person.

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