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I’m really terrible about remembering to keep moving on both this and the weaves. Keep bugging me!! That makes total senses with the wobble board. I went back and rewatched the motion override game and we did a session last night. I’m going to do a few more because it was rusty.
Here is my wobble board with no manner minders. Mid session I remembered I needed to do a release word. I also realized it was confusing with the yes and the break. So I tried to switch to throw food for hitting target and the release word but the yes is habit so it’s taking me a second to stop saying that. Once I get my act together with my mechanics this should go better!
I’m going to make a note for everyone to keep the black salsa lids so I can make multiple sizes for the fading game!
I like the idea for
The reinforcement strategy. I tried to incorporate it into the sessions last night and tonight. Last night we did 2x2s and I think the reward system was clearer for Chapter. We still had an issue with finding pole 1 on the off side when I’m past 3 o’clock (so 3 to five). I’m not sure what to do since there were was too many misses on this session. I also accidentally rewarded a miss when i accidentally hit the manner minder button (bad trainer) I don’t want to drill him but I feel like we struggle with this entry. The onside weaves went well I think. I also tried to be more cognizant of moving moreTonight we did channels and when I walked through the channels they felt tighter than they look on the video. I started with his weaker side and then moved to the stronger side. I had no issues with him flanking or running out in anticipation for the frisbee . I’ve been rewarding with more tricks, tugging and short short throws in between reps and that is seeming to help. Interestingly he struggled with finding pole 1 on the off side entry in this as well. Not sure what to do about that.
Should I do a short session on just that side with both the channels and 2x2s? I don’t want to over weave him but I also don’t want to skip over the harder entries.
Thanks for the feedback on the last two games! I’ll work on that this weekend.
Last night we tried the wobble board again. I moved the manner minder much further away. This went better than I expected 😂 he had a few times were he took his back feet off but then I waited for him to fix it. I think I’m standing too much near the side – I think you said that’s where I don’t want to be.
Tonight we worked on fading the target with the plank. This was hilarious. We airated (spelling?) the yard so we had like poop looking clumps of dirt all around. Chapter has been running on the poop looking yard for weeks . Apparently it was totally unacceptable for these clumps to be touching the target. It was like he had never seen them before! So then I switched to grass – and that was not okay either. I rescued the amount of grass and had like four strands and he reluctantly targeted but was disgusted. At the end I decided to yank the target and see what happened. Overall it was hilarious because it was so our of character for him but now I’m
Not sure if I should resort to cutting the lids smaller and smaller. Thoughts?
Great tips on working through the arousal and teeter games. I did the wobble board again tonight with your suggestions- I’ll post that tomorrow.
Here is our elevator game second try with much better management on my part with all the things needed in this game. It was way easier to hold the board when he wasn’t walking up and down it! Once I got my mechanics together I think this game went well . I’m not sure about my timing on the 1,2,3 target but Chapter seemed to understand to look forward.
It’s funny you mentioned the bang game in the last post because we did a session last night and I just hadn’t edited it yet. I added more height (which is hard to see with the camera angle) and I also added a little bit of motion. I was surprised how well he handled the motion on this game versus the wobble board. We only had one rep where he kinda sauntered off the end of the board.
Let me know what you think!
Here are two sessions I did the last couple days. I was feeling lazy the past couple days so we did some hiking, fitness and shaping stuff to change it up.
Here’s a channel session from a few days ago. I angled the poles to 1 and 7 each- let me know if this is what it’s supposed to look like. I also used the frisbee as I had been and tried to remember to add motion. Near the end of the session Chapter was running wide to the right when he was anticipating the frisbee throw and ended up weaving the three poles on that side of the channel. He is very right sided and flanks to the right when he plays fetch, runs laps in the yard, etc. Should I just do manners minder on that side for now and use frisbee on the left only?
Here’s my session of 2x2s from last night. I tried to incorporate your suggestions from the prior post with doing a few reps on the offside to warm up, a front rep and then on side. He struggled with finding the first set of poles so I didn’t tighten them up. It seems clear that the frisbee is way higher value than the manner minder so when I switch back and forth he is like ‘what the heck?’ But, if I only do the frisbee things get wild fast and Chapter will start to just throw behaviors in hopes of the frisbee. I’m not totally sure how I should handle that- shorter sessions so he doesn’t get over the top? I’m also wondering if it’s almost punishing to get a manners minder treat after tosses. Let me know what you think. This was also a new location and direction for him to weave in.
It’s even a few days but we’ve done a combo of a few rest days and then training, but I’ve slacked at editing video….I’m a total editing procrastinator!
Here is our downhill with more arousal. I edited out some of the toy play in between each rep, but I tried to get him as jazzed as possible. Let me know if we need to do another session of this, or if we can move on!
Last night I did the wobble board again and tried to move the manners minder out more. This went so so. I also see now from watching my video that my reward timing wasn’t great and there were times I should have rewarded and missed it. Chapter ended up getting confused and he left to sniff twice- which is not like him. When he did that I tried to make it simpler and clearer. I think I was lumping a little and changing too many variables. Ideally I wanted the manners minder farther out adn be able to walk past him in position- we did get there are the end, but this session was a good reminder to change one thing at a time. I also did this session after a 2×2 weave session with lots of frisbee throws, so some frisbee feelings were definitely there at the beginning!
Let me know what you think! I’m hoping to make some good progress/foundation these next two weeks because Chapter gets neutered second week of May so we’ll need to take some time off, especially since he’s a one nutter 🙂 so it’s more similar to a spay.
Here’s our session of 2x2s with the poles at 1 and 7 and A little closer together. I got kicked off the putting green lol!! Chapter wasn’t super sure of the tree we were under during our first reps off side (I didn’t include this) but he realized quickly it was fine. The onside weaves went pretty well which is interesting because he was having more problems on that side before. When we went back to offside he had more mistakes. Some of them might be my arm moving with the frisbee.- but that’s good to know for proofing down the line. I took a break for about 10 minutes after he had several failures. When we came back (last clip) it was much better. I have a hard time stopping and regrouping because I want to fix it right now! But this was a good reminder to do that. Let me know what you think. I do think he is still trying to figure out his striding but this is the closest and most closed the poles have been to this point.
I brain stormed a bit and did some research on the tip assist and no the arms do not go down (boo for that) I looked around the house and found a kids step stool and duck taped a black target to it (which also helps with fading the target since the top of the stool was black). This seemed to work well on the downhill. Let me know what you think.
We also did the bang game Monday night with a higher bang. This also seemed to go well. I noticed that even though I thought I was closer to the end of the board I was not- whoops!! Let me know what tweaks I need to make to this . He’s really getting the 2 on 2 off with the target. I was also able to work both sides. At least one of the times he jumped the gun on me but I always get confused as to whether I should reward for the enthusiasm if he gets it right at this stage of the game or make him come back and wait.
Sounds good! I think he was hoping I would throw the frisbee- I noticed the same thing happen when I did this again tonight with tighter poles. I’ll edit that tomorrow and post it tomorrow. I also tried to be mindful of calling him back after a miss but he does this a lot where he makes a ‘mistake’ and then quickly fix it on his own. I need to be faster!
Monday night I did channels and added motion and a frisbee. I think this went well- we were also on turf (the beloved putting green of my husbands lol). This side of the yard is very arousing for him because it’s where the kids run around and people swim in the pool!!! I was really happy with his focus. A few months ago I would have struggled with him checking our and running off. Baby boy is growing up!
Here’s our 2×2 from the other night with the poles at 1 and 7 for the front and approx 2 and 8 for the back. I also carried a frisbee which did add some excitement. This session was super quick because I’m not supposed to really be on the grass since apparently we just seeded (whoops). He only had one failure the whole session so I was happy with that.
Here is our downhill track from the other night. We had some issues getting organized and getting a rhythm going but I do think his speed got better as it got clearer. Let me know if I should keep doing some one hit wonders or if we’re good to move on.
Great feedback for the last session! I’ll try the closer poles and also throwing the frisbee as a reward.
I did a short easy channel session last night. I put the MM in the poles as you suggested. It went well- he had one or two times where he weaved the first part of the channel when I would go to the 2 o’clock entry or he missed it all together, but I made it easier and stepped back. That side seems to be his weaker side.
It got super windy when we did this session, and that can be a distraction/stresser for him since there are weird noises and things that fly around, so I kept this session short and easy.
Tonight is the big night for Nosework! It’s exciting to get out there and do some trialing that isn’t virtual and it’s a great mental outlet for him!
Apparently I was so tired the other day I didn’t realize I posted the wrong video! I think he’s around 35ish pounds. He hasn’t been to the vet in a year but he’s relatively easy to pick up so I was surprised how heavy he felt on the board. The cheese is a great idea- I’ll try that. Here’s the correct video.
Yesterday I did a session of the bang game and wobble board. I only did the left side of the bang game because I realized the teeter is too close to the fence when I tried to do the right side. But it’s Friday so I’ll move the teeter to the grass this weekend and get practice with both sides. I think we finally got a clean start on this one! and Chapter seemed to really understand the end position. It was my bad on the first rep because I should have realized he was already focused on the top of the board and of course he did that instead of the bang game for the first rep.
The wobble board session seemed to go well too. He was getting the end position and I started with some warm ups since it’s been a few days. Once this went well I added the wing and I was super surprised (and happy) that he stopped with all that motion!
I watched the video for the next progression of the downhill track- I’m thinking I’ll post another session of the downhill game and then you can let me know if you think we’re ready to progress to that level. Overall, I think he’s doing well and the concepts are starting to gel.
Thanks for the feedback! It’s funny how sometimes it feel bad in the moment but then the video is better. I did do a bunch of one hit wonders this weekend with downhill and he really liked that. I didn’t do them on film since he knows the antecedent of the camera being set up that we’re training. I ran outside to do a rep in the middle of cooking. He seemed to enjoy the unpredictable part of that game.
I tried the elevator game last night- oh my! First off he is MUCH heavier than I thought. It took us a second to sort this game out. I was also holding the treats in my hand under the teeter which is why he was so focused on that. I’ve been working on having him do a behavior and have a reward elsewhere even when I have treats in my hand. Since he’s heavy I’ve had to use two hands to hold the teeter up. I think he was slightly confused since it was our first session. I also got curly butt hair in my face multiple times 😂
Any tips for making this game clearer to Chapter?
So I may have taken your take a day off advice and extended it- but we all needed a little rest. Plus Chapter has a nose work trial this weekend- his first one!
I went back to 2x2s and just held the frisbee which did add more speed and excitement from chapter. The poles at 2 and 8 went well so I moved them closer to 1 and 7 but not quite there. This went well too except he did try to weave the first poles the wrong direction when we did entries around 2. He’s also bouncing through the second set which I hadn’t noticed before but I think he’s just excited and goofy. I think that will work itself out as the poles get closer.
Since he does seem to follow my motion a lot I did try to do some reps standing still and also throw some threadles reps in there as well. Let me know what you think!
