[Cindi Delany]

#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.

[Cindi Delany]

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.

[Cindi Delany]

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.

[Cindi Delany]

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 cookie

Toy 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 it

Toy or Food Reward LSMs
Tails = get FR or toy behind you – non-specific that it could be thrown or pre-placed

[Cindi Delany]

Whoops, 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.

[Cindi Delany]

Okay, we’re finally home from our month long travel adventure. The 5 day drive home from Chicago was mostly freezing cold, super windy and snowing (Illinois to Iowa to Nebraska to Wyoming to Utah to Nevada and home to California) so we didn’t stop for any training and just did lots of hiking as the weather permitted.

Short session of backing up today. In Chicago with no props he had started to offer an adorable army crawl backward on the mat in the vendor area after lots of reps of going to the mat and being asked to lie down. It was cute so I reinforced it there (and those are the thoughts he was having in that one clip of backing up on the competition ring viewing area over the rings where you mentioned he was kind of splaying his back legs). So this is just our backup to a prop from the current homework set where he knows to walk backwards instead of crawling. I used guide poles to give him a visual for backing straight.

[Cindi Delany]

He seemed to be pretty much the same there as he has been other locations. No tells that he’s feeling unnecessary stress. Not taking the treats any differently, and still working happily just for his puppy kibble that we use for most of his training.

He also really enjoyed when we ended up on that overhang platform right over a set of weaves that dogs were blasting through. He thought that was super fun.

On the competition floor when we were wrapping the barrels, I definitely did clock the puppy doing the restrained recalls. And I noticed on the one barrel send that they were going to basically pass by each other. I wasn’t actually worried about it at all. When Vibe is focused on working, he doesn’t easily get distracted. I figured worst case the puppies might try to say hi to each other, but they are both very social so I wasn’t worried that it would be any kind of an issue.

I taped a tiny bit of hanging out and just doing some pattern games while they were doing one of the awards ceremonies on Saturday. We were right by the loudspeakers that had loud music and the announcer. Other than the fact that I was tossing kibble and he was having a hard time finding it on the surface he seemed happy to work and play.

Yesterday, as Challengers was ending, and before the finals ring was in use, we also played on the turf with a drag toy. He was happy to interact with it and chase it and tug on it. I didn’t have anyone available right then to do any restrained recalls, and there was a bit much going on to try and do that. But he did enjoy playing with the toy there.

[Cindi Delany]

We’re at the invitational and Vibe is having a great time. We’ve been doing little flatwork training stuff anywhere we can find a not too crowded, not too slippery, not too cold place here. It’s a bit of a challenge.

We did some training on the far end of the viewing area over the rings. Also a bit at the Galican vendor display. Then a few minutes while they were building all 4 rings for the night time class.

Mostly hand touches, back and forth pattern game, up and down game, some strike a pose, some wobble board stuff, a little bit of barrel wraps, lap and tandem turns on the flat, some Startline stays, just whatever seemed safe and wouldn’t put us in people’s way.

Viewing Area

Vendor Area

Competition Floor

[Cindi Delany]

Okay, sessions today at our ring rental (before our hike this time). We worked on Rocking Horses with more distance and both running with and 1 step send (at least that was my goal when I started – hopefully I actually did what I planned). We also did SAP serp with fading the hand touch and trying to control my freaking mouth (letting the Manners Minder do the marking – when it felt like working). And, worked on “Out” just to get a feel for that. I didn’t have his prop with me and he’s finding his jump bumps really nicely so I used his SAP serp setup.

Rocking Horses More Distance

SAP Serp Fading Hand Touch

Out

[Cindi Delany]

Some of the new games during our ring rental this morning – after a nice forest hike. 😊

A bit of rocking horses with some backward sends. Also some Strike a Pose serp foundation stuff.

Rocking horses

Strike a Pose

[Cindi Delany]

This is super helpful and thank you for all of that detailed information. It really helped me see this a bit differently. I think because he “seems” to not be affected by new environments and locations I was more assuming that we would see the same play behaviors in different situations. But it totally makes sense that he is doing more processing than is obvious in the moment.

Because he can be such a tough tugger away from equipment and work expectations it’s been surprising to me When it disappears in other situations. I’ve also been so used to Ripley being such a persistent and strong tugger, anytime and anywhere, that it’s made me forget other dogs I’ve had where we had to build that up a lot more slowly. With most of those dogs, I did a lot of light tugging and letting them win. Vibe doesn’t really seem to like that very much so I’ll have to play with some different options.

Also, I’m enjoying the Brain Camp series and have added more up/down game to our stress cycle pre/post run prep (mostly for Rip, but making sure Vibe knows the game too).

Yes, we are continuing on our chill drive to Chicago – left Tulsa yesterday after a relaxing 4 day stay, in Missouri today, Chicago area by tonight with ring rental at Agility at the Farm on our way this afternoon. 😊

[Cindi Delany]

So, we did try a really floofy toy at the beginning of that session. I have 2, 1 with a handle and 1 without. At home he likes them both. When he’s really I interested in tugging he gets a really good grip or if he doesn’t on the first try his next try is usually even harder.

Around agility equipment he is really not trying to grip at all. He may do a little bite at it especially if I drag it and run, but then releases almost immediately even if I don’t pull. Here’s the short clip of the actual floof toy. When he did try to really bite at all it was more on the nylon bungee handle part and even then he wasn’t really gripping it.

I switched to the fur braid, udder tugger, fleece/fur tail combo toy after that in our session and he had some interest but really not trying to grip it and tug.

Here’s a clip of tug at the AirBNB with various toys. He does sometimes re-grip but usually it’s stronger on the second attempt and then he really holds it. Sometimes if Rip’s around he checks to make sure it’s okay to really tug but once he knows it is he tugs really hard. I don’t feel like he’s ever doing that when we are around equipment.

It’s not so much that he’s leaving me to go do equipment, but it feels like he has an expectation of work and doesn’t feel like it’s time to really tug and play (even though I do feel like he likes to tug and play when he feels it’s the right time/expected thing).

I am seeing a real thing with him about expectations and have had other working line Bree Koolies tell me their dogs are like that too. I still think we can work toward tug as a reinforcer for work but it’s looking like a bit of a process.

[Cindi Delany]

Okay, so, as you know from Vibe’s MaxPup posts, we’re on our epic trip. We’ve had the ring rental the past 2 days here in Tulsa but mostly working on contact entries and exits with Rip and not doing a ton of stuff to make sure he’s getting enough downtime. Yesterday we did a bit more opposite arm specific stuff including turn away wrap (tandem turns) and a few threadle wraps.

For the threadle wraps we used to use both arms and then transitioned to mostly dog side arm. I feel like sometimes that’s what he needs and sometimes he likes the opposite arm coming up.

The issue we have is that if the opposite arm comes up before he’s on the line to the backside he takes it as a front side turn away/fake rear cross/get out cue. We’ll try to do more of this today when we have the rental and also some actual get out.

[Cindi Delany]

Okay, I did find a longer flooffier tug toy to try when we go to the facility today.

This video is from yesterday AM before your feedback. I used a medium length tug toy for a few reps before he got too work focused. Also a tiny bit of squeaky ball to see how he felt about that. I don’t plan to use thrown balls with him but wanted to see how he felt about the noise and rolling to overcome his work focus.

We did a few barrel tunnel wraps including a couple of backward sends. A few reps my connection was crappy and he found the wrong side of the tunnel but all good bonus points for the effort that took. I’ll use more of the opposite arm exit line connection with him in the future from Rip’s class.

We also did some Startline work. We’ve done this a bit away from agility at home and away from equipment at trials so this was in the ring with our parallel path set up.

Also, including some clips of Vibe getting to play with his 2 Tulsa littermates that he hasn’t seen since he left Canada (including 1 who belongs to the facility’s dog diving instructor – it will be obvious which pup that is). Our “get measured/podium training” at trials paid off when he came time for a group pic. 😊

[Cindi Delany]

We are definitely still figuring out toy play in the presence of equipment. He tugs like a beast at home, outside the ring at trials, and various places as we travel, but once the opportunity to work is there he really loses interest right now.

I’ll clean up my praise/markers. 😆 I was excited to see how much latent/new learning had happened since we last did any real training the past 2 weeks.

Here’s some of his barrel stuff and a countermotion cookie send from his first agility seminar at Run Wild 2 weeks ago.

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