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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.
We’re home after a pretty long day of driving and did a quick training session with tug, retrieve, and play in the hose breaks every few minutes.
Just a bit of Threadle slice, backside push slice, and multiwraps.
Rain, travel, and being at a really tight indoor arena are cramping our style to get to train (and video) We did a little pivot work before we left home last week so I’ve got that video. We’ve been training at this trial when we can and getting great toy play – walking around, in areas with space, retrieve to tug and training reinforced with tug, and he’s doing great. 😍
#WINNING! 🥳
Good times over here in the Kool Vibe house. I mentioned that we’re definitely seeing a shift in tugging during training thoughts and that he tugged as play and as reinforcement this past weekend at the trial. He also tugged nicely in his little in-person class last night (the one that he almost never gets to go to since we travel so much).
But, this morning I got the most awesome little bring tug toy into momma’s leg to tug against her. It’s something Ripley has and I love where he grabs the toy brings it into me and shoves it into my upper thigh so I can easily grab it and we can tug up close. I haven’t actually worked on that with Vibe yet but he’s seen Ripley do it and my hands/position also helped.
The other apparent secret to better tugging with Vibe is having a better wingman. Ripley is NOT a good wingman. 😝 If we were in a bar together he’d be the prettier, funnier, more charismatic friend who’s a horrible choice for that. Our Greater Swiss Mountain Dog is so much better – Vibe loves him and wants to tug with him but he’s not as fun to tug with. And, to get him to tug you have to shove the toy in his mouth (and return it there when he drops it during tugging). So, in comparison I looked like a better pick (sometimes) and the shove it in the tug partners mouth worked in my favor too. 🤣
Speaking of this:
OMG! Somehow I am not surprised LOL!! He must be part cat 🙂
I love his little side-windy rubbing passes he does to try to entice Big Mack (the Swissy) to play in this video – so cat-like. 😸
Sorry the video is long – you’ll get the gist in the first 30-60 seconds but they are pretty cute together so if you’re just bored and have nothing better to do (super doubtful knowing you) feel free to enjoy it all.
Good morning. Ripley had a trial this weekend at a location Vibe hasn’t been to yet. It was pretty stormy and rainy but got a bit of training and LOTS of play in with Vibe.
Poor freaking Ripley though, this grass was really deep and uneven – super hard to run on and the courses were not great for him – it was a “UKI” trial but it was like if AKC, CPE and UKI had an ill-advised baby. The distances were really difficult for him (way too tight, twisty, weird) so we ended up NFC all of them once I saw the pattern. Got some good start line work in and lots of celebrating at the end even when he made mistakes (he tends to get big mad when he’s made a mistake on course so trying to help him not worry about it and just have fun).
Vibe was great. It was a smallish local show (the closest location to our home) to start and when folks saw the weather forecast about half of them scratched. So, nice big open grassy spaces around the rings and elsewhere on the property and a practice ring set up (it was a 1 ring trial) with very few other dogs/people and very chill (especially compared to what he was seeing our month on the road with bigger Run Wild, AZ Festival, and Chicago Invitational.
We did little bits of “real” training (not too much once I started to feel the toll the surface was playing on me and Rip) and LOTS of playing – chasing and tugging on his tug toy, retrieve with a holler roller on a bungee. Last time I showed him that holler roller toy type a few weeks ago he wasn’t into it but now he’s really liking it – I think it’s because baby teeth are all gone.
Plus, lots of sends to his mat from big distance, sends to the mat with counter motion, wing wraps on wings in the practice ring and next to the competition ring during walk-thrus, hanging out watching dogs run in the trial and practice rings, and lots of just cuddling and him doing his hug/kiss thing that he loves next to the rings. I was super happy with him. 🥰
In other news, this is the weekend he also discovered that he can just spring up onto our kitchen counter and dining room table from a standstill (just to see if there’s anything interesting up there – not specifically trying to get anything). 🤣 Good times advanced puppy proofing ahead.
For tails he should definitely move to the reinforcer. For catch and heads (as well as normal “get it” thrown reinforcer – meant to be more to his side or in front of him) he can definitely move as needed to collect the reinforcer. Our only true exercise not finished type marker is “nice” for more duration stuff.
We did a bit of remote reinforcement work (LSM for going to that is just “Cookies”). Also some toy play in this video and then some retrieve. We were just being silly at the end but it cracked me up that he was retrieving the toy and wanting to put it on my mouth. I’ll have to teach him about primates and hands in the near future. I know you’ve mentioned avoiding ball chasing so we’ll have to find a toy he likes to retrieve for now that isn’t a squeaky ball. We’re still a bit unorganized after our trip so it was the closest/easiest to get to retrievable toy.
Alrighty then, here’s our current LSMS. He’s seen/heard most of these but a few are waiting for him to be better at catching treats (if that happens – Rip loves it but I know not all dogs are great at that).
Food Reward Specific LSMs
Yes = move to my hand for food reward (FR)
Nice = room service – FR comes to you
Get it = FR tossed – in front of or to side of dog
Find it = I dropped an FR or you missed one, find it on the ground
Ground = FR placed on the ground between dog’s feet or to side of dogs feet
Dish = get FR from dish/bowl
Scatter = multiple FR dropped on ground (usually with all done session end)
Heads = FR thrown to you to catch (not using with Vibe yet)
Hand over head and ‘Ready’ FR is about to be dropped straight down for you to catch (not using yet – kind of an LSM, kind of a focus/pattern game the way I use it)
Manners Minder sound – just wheel turning or with beep = get the FR from the MM no other marker used usually but occasionally with a clicker or other verbal marker if I need a really precise mark for a behavior
Click from clicker – non-specific delivery usually set by context of session but is a terminal marker vs duration (i.e. behavior ends)
Take it = release to take cookie from my hand for food- used with a variation of it’s your choice game that I use that’s more about timing of getting the cookie that preventing dog from getting the cookieToy Reward Specific LSMs
Catch = catch toy thrown to you
Toy = get dead toy off ground
Grab it = grab tug toy to start tugging
Chase = toy being thrown and release to go get itToy or Food Reward LSMs
Tails = get FR or toy behind you – non-specific that it could be thrown or pre-placedWhoops, I saw somewhere you mentioned angling the prop to reduce the height of the step back onto it. Happy to just keep it flat if that’s better. Those are just cheap jump poles. If no worries about them rolling under him I can use them.
Here’s some of the Threadle wrap on the flat exercise stuff that was released today. We did this on the road a couple of weeks ago so let me know if in didn’t get the steps right.
Also, for the reinforcement/LSM stuff do you want to hear our crazy list of LSMs again (they’ll be the same as Ripley’s) or just start thinking about that stuff.
