[Cindi Delany]

This week I plan to circle back to the games we’ve covered so far and make sure we’ve covered them well. Let me know if you recommend anything else for those so far.

You might have missed our most epic sh&t pile game post from yesterday (just above the adolescence webinar screenshot). I feel like we’ve kind of maxed that one out for now – not a ton more props I have to add and kind of feel like I don’t need him to have too much more confidence in that area. But, we’ll revisit as he grows to make sure he can still keep track of all of his legs.

He’s developing nice toy/tug drive and we’re still working on his mental and emotional ability to fluently switch between toys and food (with or without work involved). My last few BCs were pretty equal between food/toys and switched easily, but I remember my mini poodle struggled. I did “cookie jar” games with him (and with Ripley) from a Julie Daniel’s class (she recently passed away). Anyway, I decided to try that with Vibe today and I think it’s helpful.

It feels like it makes the cookie switch more predictable and obvious for him since they are there in plain sight at all times but he doesn’t have to worry about resisting them (the way he would if they were in an open bowl – which we’ll eventually work up to for some stuff). I’m trying to give clear cues that we are switching back and forth, and over the course of the session I animated and jackpotted the cookie part more.

Also, found this AMAZING toy in a tug toy drawer I had forgotten about. You know how some toys just have it all 😆. It’s a padded handle, fleece/fur braid, udder tugger and then streamers of felt and fur and the fur is even a Velcro food pouch. He’s really liking it and should translate well to smaller toys with each of those elements.

A bit longer video just to show the progression so far.

P.S. apologies for some mild arousal humping by Ripley in the background. Ugh! I guess I was focused on the puppy when I edited. I do let Rip play most of the puppy games before or after Vibe to try to minimize jealousy but this game was just too fun for him to contain himself. 😝

Toy Cookie Switch with Cookie Jar

• This reply was modified 3 weeks, 2 days ago by Cindi Delany. Reason: Apology for humping added 🤣

[Cindi Delany]

So, just clarifying from last night’s webinar (had to leave early for my UKI Invitational Prep group meeting)…according to this (tried to get just a screenshot but I know bbpress hates images embeds):

I’m still an adolescent (as are most humans I know). 🤣

• This reply was modified 3 weeks, 3 days ago by Cindi Delany.
• This reply was modified 3 weeks, 3 days ago by Cindi Delany.
• This reply was modified 3 weeks, 3 days ago by Cindi Delany.

[Cindi Delany]

I would NEVER question your professional integrity – but I am highly suspicious that Vibe has paid you off to recommend additional goat/sh@t pile games. 🤣

He (and Ripley) both really love the purple balance board Rip finally convinced me to buy this year after he lusted after it at the big events Galican had it on display at the past few years. I have to basically pull them off it and keep the door to the room it lives in closed. 😂

#FYP and for Vibe’s pleasure – more advanced sh@t pile (special cameo from Ripley at the end just to prove he did MaxPup as a puppy too):

Advanced Sh$t Pile

[Cindi Delany]

Back from the 3 day trial. He was great – met lots more people and puppy friendly dogs. His motto these days is “Parkour!” and he tries to interact with any and every object he sees with goat games.

His huge favorite is “Get Measured” where I let him hop on the measuring table near the ring and use the wickets (this was a CPE trial) to measure him.

This morning we did some toy play – just building toys as a reinforcer so we can eventually use them as reinforcement in training. That went well. I let him watch Ripley do a training session with toy reinforcers and that’s really helping him get the idea.

Toy Play

Then we did some prop sends. We added a tiny bit of distance and sideways and backwards sends. He was great. I am still using thrown cookies to reinforce but back towards me. I want to keep him moving and avoid too much stillness because he can tend toward stillness at times during training when it’s not really the desired state of mind and I don’t want to encourage him to freeze when he’s uncertain. I’d rather he keep moving and offer something at this time. I’ll adjust has we go but that’s where my head is at right now based on some things I’ve seen in the breed.

Advanced Prop Sends

We ended with sh@t pile because I knew he would love it (and of course he did). 😁

And, adding our Decompression Walk. We do this off leash walk most mornings lately when we are home and it’s not raining. Usually just me, Ripley, and Vibe. It’s a holiday so my wife and our Swissy went with us today. I haven’t filmed a trial environment leash walk (mostly because I don’t have enough hands to manage puppy, camera, and prevent dangerous parkour performances). So far, he moves through those environments with a lot of confidence and optimism, and a lot of focus on me while also looking for opportunities to interact with objects in the environment that look “goat worthy” 🤣.

Decompression Walk

• This reply was modified 3 weeks, 4 days ago by Cindi Delany. Reason: Added decompression walk video

[Cindi Delany]

I like it. I’ll start working in that sequence in our next session.

This video is from early this AM (it’s shower day 🤣) before I got your feedback, but already working in more food toy switching and play work play sandwiching.

So – tug, cookie, tug.
Then decel game
Then blind cross game (my blinds are late, I think I need a little more room)
Then ending with a retrieve game with a fuzzy little ball he’s loving

NOTE: my back is a bit sore so I’m a bit stiff – at least till the Motrin kicks in 😝

We’re heading to a 3 day show so we’ll take this stuff on the road.

[Cindi Delany]

We did a quick session this morning before I saw your feedback about trying the sh*pile game. Just trying to do a quick shaping in arousal session.

What I’m seeing with this pup that is the opposite of lots of pups is that where typically toys are the distraction from training instead for him training is a distraction from toy play. It feels kind of like a high class problem to have but it does likely mean it might be a while before toys are a reinforcer for work.

It reminds me of pups who want food not toys where we almost pay them to play with toys and give cookies for interacting with the toy. I had to do that with my mini poodle.

I feel like I need to figure out how to make the opportunity to work contingent on toy play.

Anyway, here’s the quick session. We’ve only done a little bit of station training and only 1-2 short sessions starting to build duration and nothing to really proof that. But here you can see once the props are in play and training is an option it is really hard for him to go back to toy play.

He has seen the Cato board before but the plastic bin thing he’s never seen before.

I’m finding this puppy so interesting. 😆

[Cindi Delany]

LOL you are just going to have to trust me (until I can post some video) that I am definitely making the treat back to toy transition as fun and exciting as possible. I am running around like a total idiot with the toy (on the ground, up, running, etc.). He has this fascinating ability to focus and “sit” in a certain expectation that isn’t quite as flexible as you’d think for his breed and age.

I think it’s going to be a plus and minus to figure out how to harness it.

But, we are making progress and had some good treat to toy transitions this AM and a really nice response to harness pressure (once Amazon got his new harness to me after he outgrew Mighty Mouse’s harnesses earlier this week) for focus forward (no chomping) and lovely decompression at the end of the session.

So, last night we did a quick session of 2 dish shaped wrap. I have played this game with him a couple of times last week. So, in this video I just did a fast forward of what he’s done so far and upped the challenge a bit at the end.

2 dish shaped wrap

We also did an end of day more chill version of goat games yesterday. The goat gene came pre-installed in this pup and his life is a goat game so I just had him work on some of the props he’s seen – some are unstable but he seeks them out and loves them so I didn’t stop him. We’ll add in the arousal element next session – I hadn’t reviewed the game in MP before this so was just trying to tire him out before bed. 😊

Goat Games – Vibe style

[Cindi Delany]

So, we can’t use a cookie to release the toy and then go back into toy mode yet. That’s not his current preferred order of operations, but we are getting closer.

This morning we did a bit of send to the prop and then did some work on some toy cookie toy transitions after the food session. For the first time he was able to do that a bit but he’s definitely having to recalibrate his expectations to do that.

We’ll get there, just gotta show it in a way that makes sense to him. So, we’re using a bit of a Chirag Patel “drop it” means treats are going to appear so that treat gathering is more of a cued behavior which is where I think his mind works best. Also creates a nice, joyful toy drop that Rip has and I love.

On that big fluffy thing he’s surprisingly not actually shredding it. There aren’t ever any little bits (unlike Rip who tried to totally shred this one when he was a puppy).

We do always end with a treat scatter and then a snuffle mat in his x-pen after training with puppy nap time. I’ll keep an eye on that decompression cycle during and after arousing play. The first week I got him the over-arousal biting was pretty impressive (my hands are just now healing from that week) but he’s getting much better about it the past 2 weeks. 😊

Prop Send and Treat Toy Switch

[Cindi Delany]

We’ll keep working on tug to food transitions as we go. It’s definitely on my list of things that we want and don’t have yet. I like the idea of moving to a new space when we go from food to toy at first to help and think that will be great for him.

• We did just a bit of focus forward to start (trying to stay in order so I don’t forget to do stuff).
• Started with his long drag toy but when it came time for him to bring it back it’s a bit too big and cumbersome and we were getting some “rolled it” moments.
• During a session later in the day we went to 2 very similar easier to grab and carry little toys.
• He tends to have a REALLY good grip on tug toys and doesn’t re-grip the way Ripley did so it’s a bit harder to nonchalantly steal the toy away. We’re working on a “ready” cue to drop the toy for a throw or re-bite offer and getting a bit better already.
• We have done some collar grab work during normal food training and he’s been fine but in arousal and tug he’s less a fan of that so we’ll keep working on it and in the interim I adjusted to move of a cross chest or under chest gentle hold.
• We did have to do a bit of 2 toy switch play in here to make the game a bit easier.
• By the end of the small toy session he was pretty aroused and we were getting some more bitey behavior so we transitioned to a bit of chill out and chew on nylabone instead of mom’s hands and sleeves just to practice that arousal modulation skill a bit.

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Long fluffy drag toy session

Smaller easy carry toys session

• This reply was modified 1 month ago by Cindi Delany. Reason: Just figuring out interfaces HTML syntax stuff
• This reply was modified 1 month ago by Cindi Delany.

[Cindi Delany]

Okay, jumping in (knowing I’ll be traveling a bit during the actual course so taking advantage of being home, no rain, all the things in our favor).

We worked on the first exercise of Week 1 – Handling Challenge 1 – wing wrap to tunnel or jump – 4 start positions. I kind of lost track of which starting position was supposed to have more motion vs more send but all good.

[Cindi Delany]

Okay, we incorporated some of your feedback into our stopped contacts version of contact exit skills today. Did a set of all the jump approaches being ahead and then a set tucking more into the wing wrap. Also some dirty jump handling and effort cookie/hand touch cookie if bar dropped.

[Cindi Delany]

Great info and advice, thank you! We’ll circle back to more advanced versions of some of this before we hit the road for Run Wild camp and Canadian Open (we leave on Monday). And, we’ll see if we can do some of this while we’re traveling too with camp and practice ring setups.

We did do contact exits with the running contact behavior today and his new (added yesterday) “Spot” cue for that behavior. It was a nice session. I am still using 4’ bars that are 1/2” PVC and my lighter wings so that any hit will cause a bar drop.

His cue response was awesome, mat hits were pretty darn good, and not a ton of bars and almost all my fault (totally stopping, being in his path, early toy toss). I want to proof against those things so they are explanations not excuses.

I’m still not running and trying not to toss with my left arm (side the chest injury and rib fracture are on) so there’s some weird toy hand switching I would normally avoid here.

Fun exercise! It was really helping me figure out timing on his cues and what he needs when (at least while we’re using a mat behavior cue).

[Cindi Delany]

Okay, so still injured and actually found out I did break a rib at that trial 2 weekends ago (found out after 3 days of competing in the West Coast Cup this past weekend) 😝.

So, still not really running at home (running at WCC did not help the healing process apparently). Also still not tugging.

So, we did some lowkey “other side of the dogwalk” stuff from Package 4 skills but with the real dogwalk since this isn’t new to him. Also some of the weave independence stuff from Package 5 skills. Added a couple of clips from 2 weekends ago where we had some of this on our courses – I LOVE it when camp stuff shows up immediately for me in a trial. Including a course with the layered weaves where the same basic course layout was used for 3 classes so I used my Gamblers run to practice the weave layer for the Masters Agility class that came after it. 😉 I’m too short so to see if he hits the entry so I have to like peek under the dogwalk. 🤣 Also added a short clip of layered dogwalk to a jump with a flipaway to the weaves layering jump and dogwalk. A bit of an awkward jump approach since he was already thinking about taking the far side of the weaves but he saved it. He’s a good kiddo.

I want to work on the contact exit skills next so will set that up. He’s still having LOTS of issues with aframes in trials when he extends and just leaps apex, lands halfway down downramp and strides off. At some RDW issues when his stride really extends and his beautiful perfect hit 4 stride becomes a 3 stride that leaves the dogwalk 12″ above the contact.

On Aframe at home and with props (or at home without props) he is perfect almost every time with landing from apex and taking a nice stride down, but the struggle is real at trials. And, if I ask him to try again in that setting it’s variable if he fixes it (at which point we’re usually coming in with less speed and extension), repeats the same thing if I really go back a few obstacles, or even starts to have 2o2o thoughts if he’s not sure what I want.

I’m trying – for the first time with running contacts a “hit it” type cue after the runnning contact obstacle cue to see if that gives him the clarity he needs. I really don’t want to have to use that long term since I really like being able to tell him once he’s committed to the contact with the contact verbal how to exit the contact and to which obstacle, but so far that’s way too often leading to missed contacts when his stride gets really extended.

So, in the past his mat cue was just the running obstacle cue (fly – RDW, zoom – RAF) or “Go,” but I’m adding “Spot” for the actual mat hit and transitioning to a yellow mat. He did great on this today in a short session so we’ll see if it translates and gives him the clarity he needs.

[Cindi Delany]

Good points, thank you. We have seen some of those veer around something to get to something. We had a hidden/recessed weaves entry at Run Wild where they had to veer around a tunnel to find a hidden set of weaves that felt new to me.

And yes, on some really fast lines to a backside I have been looking to landing to help avoid drive-bys. So glad that’s in the skills package I worked on today.

Full disclosure, I had a pretty bad fall late Sunday at a trial and have injured ribs/intercostals and a tidge of pericardial inflammation so not able to run super fast or apparently tug right now. So, toned the exercise down a bit and will ramp up with next steps you recommend as it hopefully improves the next few days.

Rip’s a bit confused why I’m not tugging so you’ll see he’s a bit unsure about the dropped toy after the first few reps so we used more kibble to reinforce.

[Cindi Delany]

So, I am still only on the 2nd set of content for this class but I just wanted to post more from our 2 day training this weekend because so much of it is dead on what you are saying are course trends. Taner, the instructor (who you know is a UKI judge) has been a major advocate for bringing more international challenges to the US and big on watching for “newer” trends.

He specifically discussed the exact challenges you’ve been helping us master in he first 2 sets of content in this CAMP.

So, some clips of focus forward starts, threadle wrap vs push wrap, and lots of discriminations, including some that were very similar to what we did in our homework for you earlier this week (especially jump/tunnel and jump/tunnel/weave) and often where you can’t (or don’t want to be) right there to help a ton and verbals get really important. I’m so glad we just worked on this in AU CAMP.😊

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