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So, yes, the “Treat” was just his kibble but that’s what I use for about 95% of his training. My impression was that he really thought I was trying to trick him and that wait for his food bowl meant no food until he was released (even from me). Who knows what part of his expectations I didn’t meet in the moment, he’s definitely his own little person.
I do think he has a lot of reward prediction thoughts and reactions to things not following the pattern he expected them to. That’s been a super consistent trait since he first came to me.
I did add in his cato board to a lot of our training recently, less for the stationing aspect for startline stays, and more for a consistent place to go to clean up training loops and give him a bit more predictability right now.
Today we worked on fading the cato from his stays – smaller flat yoga mat piece first, then little square contact surface mat, then nothing. Lots of treats tossed behind, lots of tugging, and hose breaks.
We went on to lateral lead outs on a barrel after that and he did great. We need to revisit his focus forward cue and clarify it’s not a release to obstacle. We didn’t do a ton of that the first go ’round and haven’t revisited so he just needs to see that and then we’ll be able to add in a focus forward cue that isn’t a release to do the thing.
Good point on fading the Cato. We really haven’t done much start line stuff – I was kind of worried about ruining his stays forever – but I’m feeling like he’s more ready now. We do lots of random stays/waits around the house so I’ll start fading in agility friend objects now.
I’ll also get to leash and between legs set up like I’ll be doing in actual training/trialing now that I think he’s having some good success.
He has such an interesting way of thinking. The past few mornings I’ve been asking him to do a sit and wait while I put his food down and then I release him to it. We’ve done this the past few days. IT helps when I’m feeding the 3 dogs in different areas to avoid any food issues. He used to want to jump on the counter where I was prepping or jump on me or follow me as I delivered the first bowl to the Swissy in the laundry room by the kitchen.
He’s been getting more able to control himself in general. This morning I asked him to sit and wait as I started to put the bowl down and tried to hand him a few kibbles to reinforce as that was happening. He kind of partially closed his eyes and turned his head away, refusing to take the kibble, like it was some kind of a dastardly trick. I am in so much trouble with this kid. 😝
Ugh! YouTube do better. 😜 Yeah, it was in an endless processing loop. New link below:
P.S. We’re heading to New Mexico this weekend for Game On! agility camp next week. I’ll take a couple of barrels and collapsible jumps with us (plus his cato board) so Vibe can keep playing his baby games on the road again. We’ll be driving the brand new RV – I’ll have to remember to share an MTV Cribs video of it with you. It’s full-on dog/remote work pimped out.
Good info on the turns right vs left on that decel exercise. I’ll keep an eye on at and consider for now that right turns may be easier for him. Or, it would be that I do more dog on left reps so I’ll make sure to keep it balanced.
As far as after training, he’s really the same with or without the arousal modulation practice at the end of the session, but he isn’t getting super aroused in these sessions at home. So, we’re mostly just building the muscle of that game for when we do need it out in the world. Have I mentioned that he is truly feral and may have much more dingo than most Koolies? 🤣
Early this AM we did more startline stays in the context of serp countermotion. I was kind of thrilled with how he did on both parts. I am doing a LOT of reinforcing of the stay. I know I’m going to need it with him, so I really want him having good thoughts about it.
Thanks for the feedback and advice. Yeah, since we haven’t done wing wraps for a few weeks we started a bit back from where we left off in terms of commitment distance. No biggie, that will come right back. And, yes, to letting him go at his own pace on value for reinforcers. I had a lot of faith that when the time was right he’d be all in on toys so just didn’t really push the issue when he wasn’t ready yet a few months ago and now he’s got a LOT of things that are SUPER reinforcing and gives us lots of options (food to mouth, thrown food, food in a dish, manners minder, balls – thrown and dead, tug toys – offered from hands, thrown and dead, frisbees, playing in the hose, all the things 😁💗).
Sorry to post again so soon but we did a fun session this AM including a few of the current exercises together. So, longer video because it includes some stay work, some decel work, a bit of after training arousal management routine, including some cheeseball pattern game, and some grass treat snuffle (along with lots of different reinforcers and delivery styles).
We’ve been home for almost 2 weeks and I think it’s the longest Vibe’s been here since I got him. So, our routines are a bit off since we had really good and clear routines on the road. We’ve been doing less training stuff since it’s been god awful hot but I’m trying to get us back into some routines.
We did some adding motion to serps and threadles a few days ago but I wanted to really break it down so we could also use our stays a bit. It’s like watching water boil so I’ll post when we’re a bit farther along.
We did tunnel rocking horses yesterday. It’s been a couple of weeks since we did any wing wraps and so had a couple of errors that I reinforced for effort. He LOVES playing in the hose now (like Ripley) so I’ve been breaking up our sessions for hose play breaks frequently.
I just signed up for MaxPup 2 and excited to keep going.
We’re back from our last long trip that ended up in Canada for a UKI Cup. At a local UKI Classic so did a bit of ball retrieve. He’s only seen a tennis ball a couple of times since we’ve focused on tug toys. He’s never seen the Chuckit or done a distance retrieve but he’s done plenty of tug toy retrieves and dead toy sends in training. I know I could have him drop the ball for a tug toy but wanted to play with him keeping hold of the ball a little bit here. He definitely enjoyed this. 😁
First sessions of “Find My Face” and some stay game. A few minutes near the regular outdoor practice jump and then we used the warm up area of the ISC trial as the last 2 dogs were running and course change was happening. (BTW Rip had a nice clean A3 on a Fanny Gott course yesterday – he’s jumping 24” so bars are a real issue but he’s such a good boy 🥰).
Quick session with more distance and starting my rotation earlier. We did more of this earlier in the course, so just reminding him about barrel commitment. It is a bit hot out so we took a few shade and water breaks. I think I’m going to need to make sure and help him remember to take breaks and take care of himself since I think sometimes his desire to do the thing could overshadow his self preservation.
Okay, 2nd session on the Minny Pinny’s, and of course, latent learning helped us out. I also removed the barrels and tucked the cone behind the wing for this session from the start so we would be less likely to motorcycle turn and hit it. We did offered and restrained version.
He’s got it. He likes them.
We also did a tiny bit of threadle wrap. I use 1 arm (dog side) with Ripley for these continuing forward ones and I am not smart enough to do different things with different dogs in my old age, so I’m transitioning him to that and he’s getting it nicely. I want to go a little slow on this stuff since it is counterintuitive to some extent, and he’s not a come in tight to momma for no reason puppy. He’s already shown he’s a distance dog so we’re going counter to that with him. I’m going to keep interspersing hand touches to keep value for coming into the momma. Next session I’ll also randomize normal wraps and turn away with me and pivot instead of any barrel interaction.
It was randomly a bit hot today here in Washington so this was a short session. At least today the dog on right threadle wraps were harder and he really want to do a regular left wrap so we just did some hand touches dog on right and a couple of wraps away before I forced him to go drink some water and chill. We’ll just build this up. He’s going to be great at it, but I want really good understanding and happiness about it before I ask for any more.
And, note that I got yelled at by him when he decided to do his middle position facing my butt. Seriously, take some accountability little dude. 🤣
We also did some Rocking Horses Part 2. Big fun. 💕. A bit more distraction here since we did it closer to the main arena and it’s prime class time. A puppy class also let out on my left partway through our this clip and cute babies were heading toward us so he had to check for possible playmates. 😆
We’ll work through those variations on TW.
We did a short Minnie Pinnie session this AM. We have limited and kind of weird equipment here that we brought with us for our 2 week stay at Run Wild (before a short trip to Canada). I had to improvise a bit based on what Vibe was telling me.
I added his cavalleti as the jumps when I got worried about him rolling the bars on the ground (no jump bumps with us). But he was still trying to wrap the barrel I was using as a wing so getting some interactions with the cone and I feel like the pure 90 degrees wasn’t quite right for him today.
Let me know what you think I should modify given that what you’re seeing is most of my equipment here. I can use the 2 practice jumps up on the hill by the big arena if needed.
Okay, we’ve been adventuring and traveling with lots of life skills training and just puppying, with bits of training here and there. We’re settled in for a few weeks and gonna video and post some of our stuff.
Here’s some reverse retrieve from today. We got a fun tug ring in Utah and it’s a nice one for him to be able to shove into my hands after retrieving.
We also did some Threadle wrap work on a barrel. The flip away is easy for him. Harder is coming in to my side first so we’re putting some hand touches in there to keep the value for that.
It’s pretty subtle so far, but I can just see him having teenage thoughts about whether he really needs to go kennel when something more fun is an option, he’s done the doggie equivalent of rolling his eyes at me more frequently, he’s becoming more judgey, even more confident in himself (whether it’s warranted or not), no personal experience with human kids, but feeling more like having a 13 year old human kid. 🤣
When he refused the treat as reinforcement I did cue his “take it” – which means take the treat from my hand. It was previously used as my version of “it’s your choice” where I hold cookies in a open hand on one side, have a piece of kibble in my other hand that’s a closed fist and I flip that hand over and open it, cueing “take it”. The original cue was working on impulse control (don’t mug the closed hand or steal from the open hand) but it also results in an R+ cue for eating food enthusiastically (and happens fast and fun so no shades of P- that I don’t think are necessary in that game).
We also have some food play games (we worked on those during breaks at the Dr. Canapp 2 day gait analysis seminar at Fenzi Ranch recently, to give him a fun small/busy space game) where he kind of chases my hand with the cookie in at as I like drag it around on the ground and he pounces on it. So, we be still options for treat eating behavior if we need it if arousal and tug drive start to over-ride food eating behavior.
Keep us in your prayers in the months to come. 😇🙏😝
Breaking News – Vibe officially hit adolescence yesterday. 😳 I’ve warned my wife and the other dogs that shit’s about to get real up in this joint. 🤣
We did a short session of tunnel threadle and Threadle wrap yesterday. I didn’t do a great job of cueing the turn back to me out of the tunnel in the double whammy version but he was reading the tunnel threadle cue pretty well. We only did a couple of reps of the barrel Threadle wrap. We’ll do more of that, I just felt like his newly adolescent brain needed to come back to it in another session.
