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Yes, I feel you on the “adolescence is coming.” Even without microplastics I do suspect this pup will hit it earlier than expected. I anticipate some of our amazing puppy positives could morph into adolescent challenges. 😝 We’ll face it when it happens.
I wasn’t shocked he was able to work at the trial only because he’s had this weird tune out the background focus on training since the day I picked him up. He is super social and loves meeting ALL the people and (puppy friendly) dogs and so it was fun to see even with a ton of “go say hi” experiences he wasn’t into breaking out of training even when some of his best-loved human and dog friends were walking by or standing at the ring. We have also done classical conditioning to the loud “ready” voice over the past few weeks (hear the thing at a distance, cookies appear, then closer to where the speakers are. We’ve also been doing that for teeter bangs when we are walking by and a dog hits it on course (cookies appear). Pavlov is definitely on my shoulder all the time. 😁
This morning we worked on movement and noise. It’s been baked in a bit already, But I just want to go through all of the MaxPup content purposefully. We started indoors and then moved out onto our front porch for a hard surface. It’s cold here (for CA) but I know it’s worse in many parts of the country right now so I’m not really complaining. But we did fast track that part of the session using mostly kibble so we could get back in the warm house.
He did really well, so I did turn it into a little bit of a sends and commitment game. Pretty much the same thing we did at the trial with his mat sends to a crate. Since he’s getting that concept pretty nicely I figure we might as well start to show him that picture in a variety of different settings and with different props that aren’t yet important Agility things. And yes, he apparently does think he’s in the flyball training class instead of the Agility class. 🤣
We also did some quick plank robotics. He’s also been kind of seeing that in our other stuff so far, but I went ahead and did a few minutes of it just to see how he was doing with his new spider legs that he’s growing.😆. We’ve continued to work on “get measured” – he loves it – and he was about 15” with an official measure device yesterday.
Movement and Noise
Plankrobatics
So weird – went to YouTube and it said unlisted but was still “processing” after 13 hrs. I think it just glitched. It’s there for real now (and unlisted). 😊
Thanks for that feedback. We’ll definitely clean LSMs for this stuff up soon. I think I was keeping it a little messy to avoid him overthinking.
He had a great time today – made so many need friends -human and dog. We’ve been working on getting measured (he definitely loves it) and measured at about 15” today.
We did lots of easy training ringside – mostly go to mat, go kennel, some back up, and then did some shaped wrapping. We started back at step 1 and quickly got back to where he left off in our training at home.
P.S. the loose stray dog in the video was very dog social, and trying to interact with Vibe in a very gentle way, he just fearful of people. After this we were able to contain him for the animal shelter to come pick him up (just so you don’t worry Vibe was at risk when he sniffed him while I was holding him).
Mat and Kennel Ringside
Shaped Wrap Review Ringside
🥳 Party at my house!!!🎉🍾🥂
We got toy, work, treat (kibble) switching today. Doing a happy dance. 😁
We’ll be at a trial the next 2 days so will take stuff on the road. I’ll try to get some video (for class but also I just like reviewing things after in case I missed anything in the moment).
Yes, we’ll start adding some neutral distractions (we’ve already got plenty of not neutral ones given the regular chaos 🤣).
Today was a little less training and more just getting out and about. We have 5 acres and he’s been in our dog front yard, dog backyard, agility field and from the house to my car (plus into our little mini shelter to play with a foster puppy we have).
He hadn’t yet been to our property behind the mini shelter where our livestock (camels, draft horse, mini donkeys) are. So, when I took him out there on leash today I did film as a decompression walk. I am literally not able to not speak to him when we walk on leash so apologies.
He was mostly interested in sniffing a bit and then getting attention from my wife. I felt like he had a pretty nice balanced reaction to the huge animals and only seemed to need/want a little support and then only briefly. I did give cookies when anything that could be scary happened, like when the draft horse snorted right after he turned away. I just try to cushion stuff like that with cookies to try to protect his CER.
I do also tend to say “hi friends” when we approach dogs (or other animals) he doesn’t know. It’s a holdover from Rip’s adolescence when he started to worry about other dogs a bit. So over time I bake in a +CER for that phrase, “hi friends,” as well as “what is that,” so they become cues that cookies are coming or at least something positive and not worrisome.
It’s a longer video so feel free to just fast forward to anything you feel is worth watching.
Decompression Walk/Camels, Draft Horse, Mini Donkey Exposure
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
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). 🤣
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
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
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 lovingNOTE: 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.
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. 😆
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
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
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 sessionSmaller easy carry toys session
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.
