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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.
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.
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.
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
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
