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Okay, we haven’t posted for about a week – work was crazy and so we spent more time on toy play, dog dog play with brother Ripley, trick training, and off leash decompression walks (mostly to manage my stress levels, but good for the boys too).
We were at a UKI Festival trial over the weekend and got lots of distraction proofing (plus just Vibe getting to see his fan club). 🥰 One benefit of all of our “get measured” training was that he wanted to beeline for the podium every time we walked by it. 🤣
This morning we worked on backup. I first shaped this about a month ago when he was 11 weeks old and he learned it faster than any dog I’ve trained to do it before. We revisit it periodically because he likes it a lot but I haven’t yet started to stand up. I’m thinking that’s a good next step for us?
Here are his first 2 sessions from about a month ago and his session this AM. I like to use the jump bumps (or a wall) to help them stay straight at first and then fade them.
January 11th and 12th first shaping sessions
Today – 2/9/26
More fun with Vibe.
Last night dealing with my longer work days to finish the impact report he said “If you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em” when I was working late. So, now he treadmills. My wife caught it on camera so I let him offer it this morning to see if he decided it had been a bad or good thing. I’m gonna have to dig out the dog treadmill and set it up next to me as he gets older. 😊
Vibe Treadmill Fun
You asked if he had a single paw raise behavior and he didn’t, so I decided to start working on that. When I was looking for target sticks to help I found this cute extendable plastic fist target that I’d forgotten about so decided to teach him a fist bump for fun. It’s gonna be a fun trick that will help us get our “real” single paw raises in the future.
Paw Raise/Bump Trick
We ended our pre-breakfast (for me/actual breakfast for him) training session today with some bigger boy style tug (thanks to Ripley’s assist with this through the week). So, more of a cued “grab it” on a presented part of the toy and the more low row back and forth “tug” on that cue.
Bigger Boy Style Tug
Yeah, the Swissy is silent, Rip does a deep grunty growl and the little growls are Vibe’s. Rip is used to “fake” tugging with the Swissy where he holds and pretends to tug but kind of isn’t because if the Swissy releases it’s a lot of work for Rip to put the toy back in the Swissy’s mouth. That’s great for the pup at this stage because when he needs to regrip the tug is still right there.
There’s a point in Plankrobatics clip where Vibe is kind of stacked and you can see his current build a bit.
We did Toy Races and some Plankrobatics on his Galican wobble as well as some conditioning style position changes. Saw some issues with my position on mechanics when I reviewed that I’ll work on. We’ll also move this stuff back to his Cato plank and some little sit sized platforms my wife made for me.
Toy Races
Plankrobatics
Thank you for all of that feedback. I agree his affect was a little subdued. Suspect the pressure of the leaning over him and the concept, plus not as much “fun” as our other sessions contributed. I’m also under a ton of work stress (annual impact report due for my program’s funder and setting up for our next ask to continue our program) not to mention the country has gone to hell 😟 and couldn’t sleep so got up at 2 AM and this session was at 4 AM when my wife got up. I suspect this puppy will end up an empath like Rip (and most border collies I’ve had) so just gonna need more mental management on my end so real world stress I feel doesn’t impact them. Plus shorter sessions for this type of stuff and more play breaks like you suggest.
Anywho, this AM I tried to keep my sh*t together and not leak any emotions onto him. FYP a bit of Ripley training the puppy for me, a peak into what I suspect his stride will be, toy, cookie, toy switches, and then my somewhat craptastic attempt at cone wraps with SSC. I’m going to leave this exercise here for now (we have tried both directions). His knowledge of the concept of cone wraps is interfering a bit and my mechanics are not great but I feel like he got the benefit out of this we were aiming for and like you mention in the content and others’ feedback we don’t want to do a ton or tight wraps at this age.
Whoops – forgot, we did some position changes too.
Smorgasbord Session
No single paw lifts yet, but easy to get with props.
This morning for his breakfast training session we worked on collar/harness stuff. We also started the next folding in SSC. Need to edit and will add when ready.
Sorry this is a bit longer. I ended up doing the full kind of desensitization, offer, add cue, add collar pressure following, and harness empowerment stuff I like to try to do with puppies. Also a bit of side lineup and some offered stillness in here since you mentioned it.
Harness and Collar Games
Adding the second video for today or 2 toy play and retrieve. I need to redo the SSC game. I am struggling with the concept of holding with dog side arm and indicating with off arm and off leg. My body wants to indicate with dog side arm and leg. Also struggling because he’s offering the cone wrap and I like that and I keep forgetting it’s not about that, it’s about the SSC. The session today I ended up reinforcing and then naming and then standing to show the 2 wraps and forgot it was about passing the treat bowl or toy, not getting the actual behavior. 🧐
2 Toy Play and Retrieve
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.
