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Ok great thanks for the feedback. I will try some other toss directions with the perch box. I think I was tossing closer to my side a little but it wasn’t working great but now I don’t remember why. Heh.
I’m at a trial this weekend and it’s cold and dirty so we haven’t done much. I didn’t want to toss a treat in the gross floor so for his platform I did hand feed him. And I used a garbage can as a barrel which seemed ok lol. And he’s still not really playing with toys with this many distractions.
So I have a question. Casper is recently hating his harness and coats. Like just the last two weeks I did find out that his sire is the same way. But… Is this related to him but liking being touched when we play tug? I am thinking it could be. When he has his coat and or harnesses on at the trial this weekend he really dumps and doesn’t act like himself at all. I don’t want him to be like that. But I don’t want him to be cold. And I don’t want him to pull on his collar either and hurt his neck. So I’ve been walking him on a collar with no coat and using lots of treats so he’ll stay close to me and not yank his neck. It’s been ok. I also bought him a warmer bed for his crate and a small personal propane heater so he’ll be warm. (Good hell, seriously dog? 🤣🤣🤣)
So what are your thoughts on this? Thanks!
Thanks so much for your feedback! I think I need to go to a barn just by myself so I can see what he’ll do off-leash and just with me again. 🙂 Other people and dogs are also great, but to get him to focus on me without distractions I think is also great. Being patient with myself seems to be good to be patient with him, too.
I’m doing okay, taking one day at a time. Casper sure is a happy guy to have around. 🙂
Today I did a little of the perch box where I threw the treat to the side and let him come back, put his feet on, and move his rear. I don’t know if he thought I was clicking for the rear-end movement or for putting his feet on the box, since they both seemed to happen at the same time. And this was our second training session. The first one I had to figure out how far to toss the treat. If I toss it too close to the perch box, he’ll actually move into position to face me before he puts his feet on the box. So I thought that was interesting.
I also worked a little on the stay platform. In the beginning I had to remember what I was doing, lol. But, he was not prancing around on the platform when I fed him on it, so I thought that was good. haha. He did offer a little begging on the platform, too cute, hehe, but I didn’t click until he had all four fit down. I tried to do some distance and duration while he was on there.
Thanks so much for your kind words. Yeah, I was thrilled with his tiny retrieves. :). Baby steps, literally. hah. He is an adorable puppy, making me laugh even if I don’t feel like laughing much. 🙂
I still haven’t done much… but I wanted to get out today and work with the dogs a little. Nothing serious, and I don’t know if I even did a good job myself. Mostly Casper and I walked around the barn, and I did some of the resilience treating to the side and front with my words. That is what I did first. This was his third time in this barn, and finally he was able to play a little. We just did a little cone wrapping with this real fur toy he likes. And, as you can see, a major distraction behind us. I didn’t trust him not to run off, so again he had his leash on and I stayed very close to him. But I was really thrilled he played with the toy!
And I did a little stay on a platform. It’s not his platform, so I thought he did pretty darn good. And another distraction came in while we were working. I also didn’t trust him not to run off, so kept close and kept his leash on. He looked, but he stayed for me. This is hard for him so I didn’t want to push it much and didn’t work it for long. And the video isn’t great. 🙂
I have signed up for Max Pup 2, and I don’t know how much I”ll be able to do in a timely manner, but having this class and Casper to work with helps me a lot on a day-to-day basis. 🙂
As you know my dad died a couple of days ago so I probably won’t be posting much for a while. Thanks for your feedback. I didn’t actually realize that any behavior between the click and the treat can become part of the behavior, which made me laugh and was eye-opening. I am pretty sure I have put that in my other dog’s training lol, and I would like to not have it for Casper. 😜 So I really appreciate you saying that!
This morning when I was talking on the phone to my mom I was also playing with Casper, because playing with puppies is very therapeutic. And he was taking a few steps towards me with this mostly chewed little ball that he likes.
So of course I had to get some video, though he did better before I videoed. He did chase the ball a little and brought it back to me, though he really wanted to bite my hands. It was a little painful but I thought worth it for a baby tiny retrieve LOL.
Thanks for the feedback! Yeah my house is teeny tiny, so I can work the threadle at the barn or once I can get outside. Dreamer has so little collection that I hope Casper will have more. Though Casper will be small so I don’t know how much collection he’ll need to have.
Wasn’t the pool noodle cute? LOL he does make me laugh this silly guy. It’s all about play for him, which is awesome.
Yeah, I was thrilled he could work at the barn with people out! There weren’t any dogs out, he may not have been able to resist a fun dog distraction. 🙂
Changing focus a bit, I have been during perch work with him since he was little. I usually step around the perch, so that’s where we are now. However, I really like your idea of tossing the cookie at an angle, then when he gets back on the perch and moves his rear to face me, click/treat for rear movement! I can work on that.
We also did some platform start line stays. I tried just on the floor at first, and he just bounced all over the place lol. But the platform works wonders!
Oooh yeah, good idea to release him from the crate to something he really likes. 🙂 You have such great ideas. :). He is really liking wrapping that barrel. Wrapping in general. too much so as you’ll see by today’s videos LOL
I am trying to be more conscious of trading him for things (which I do multiple times a day lol) and see if he’ll take a step toward me. I think I need to use a treat higher value than kibble. I’ll put a bowl of freeze-dried liver out, he loves those, and I bet he’ll come towards me more for those!
That is very interesting that your dogs didn’t like that sound I made either! Actually, I have never made that sound before. heh. I was wanting something loud that would get his attention, and it just came out. So note to self, do not use that. I don’t want to sound like something dying!
Very interesting that Casper is like your Contraband and Export. I don’t think I’ve had a puppy this independent before. So as they say, each dog teaches us something new. Which is another fun part of having a new dog. I do appreciate your telling me that things will come, I would probably be getting frustrated otherwise, and I don’t want to get frustrated. I see his potential, I just need the tools and the attitude to harness that attitude.
Thanks for those videos! They help a lot!
On to training… I went to the Sir Robert barn on Sunday with the group and that was awesome. I went in the morning to play some flyball, I want both Dreamer and Casper to do flyball. I’m pretty sure Dreamer is gonna be a natural. 🙂 And I hear Jana is taking the online course from your flyball captain so I’m looking forward to learning from her. I did flyball a lot before 2016 and it was fun. Mostly with my BC Mix and Jet. Anyway… so Casper was a bit overwhelmed again. He did great with little recalls in the morning, but I think by the afternoon he was tired, even though he did a lot of waiting in his crate in the car. The last thing we did at the barn was a little tunnel, kept it super easy, and I think he did great. We did more too but just baby things.
This morning I got out the new barrel. I want him to be able to do the barrel at the barn and figured it’d be easier to have one just like it for now. He did a really good job. I just backed it off to the basics with toys.
Then I tried the Strike a Post Threadle with a jump. He really really REALLY wanted to wrap that upright! I started too hard, so I probably need to give the touch target a lot more value than it currently has. As you can see, he was really going out of his way to wrap around that jump upright.
First Time:
Second Time. At the end of this video, the Manner’s Minder stopped working. It’s a really old one and the remote isn’t very reliable. I need to bend the metal bits to get it to work. I need to look into finding a replacement remote so it doesn’t stop working on me!
One more quick note… I can use a mat for Casper to keep him a little still. He’s still learning the platform. I have done some crate games with him… But then he gets stuck in the crate and won’t come out!! 🤣. I have to lure him out or scatter treats on the ground. He likes to get stuck in the crate or on the matt. Maybe I’m doing it wrong. But he is a little independent guy! And I definitely want to keep that. I want him to be confident and be able to make decisions. And I plan on doing Nosework and tracking and other sports where he will definitely need to make his own decisions. ❤️
I will reply more later, just reading your reply this morning, and I have been working on getting him used to the hair dryer. My other two Farmdogs love the hair dryer cuz I condition them slowly when they were puppies. This morning I gave Connor a bath and blow-dried him and Casper which works well together. I use a ton of treats when I am blow drying them. They can get really cold so I wanted them to be able to like the hair dryer in the winter after bath. Then I locked Casper in the front room and blow-dried Connor again. And Casper was actually upset that he did not get to participate! So that just occurred to me when you were talking about trading the treats for whatever he may have in his mouth. I do trade him for things, but maybe I need to do it more often or more consistently.
Thanks! So I tried the toy play in the hallway again but I feel like a clutz. :p And I didn’t keep it to less than 30 seconds which I should have. But sometimes it takes him a bit to even start to play…
In this first one, the door behind him was cracked open, my bad, and was totally distracting him. I should have just closed it right away but I was a dork. It was less than a minute, though, then I stopped.
Later I went back to the hallway, with the door closed, and tried to keep it short again, but the noise I made to get his attention was too different and scary! Gah darn me. Rewatching the second one, I see that I should have stopped right after that second teeny tiny baby retrieve. Maybe two throws and be done. I hope I’m not making this worse. Let me know what you think. He doesn’t usually chase me when I run from him. Even when I went to the breeder when I got him, and I ran away from him in her back yard, he just stood there and looked at me like I was a weirdo, I thought… oookay, we’ll see how this goes. LOL I’m not sure if he’ll pick something up and place it in my hand yet, he still tends to just run off with things. :p
We tried the little stay again and I tried to wait until none of his anything was moving. He does move at the speed of light! It’s hard to wait for no movement, toss and say catch, and take a step away. That hurts my brain. lol. I can add in some gooooood while he’s not moving, too. It kinda looks to me like he’s offering his sit and down to see which one I’m going to click for. So hopefully he’ll understand the difference between those, and stillness. Also, I’m super good at training behavior chains that I don’t want (LOL) so I don’t want him to think he moves, then is still, and then gets the reward.
We also did the tunnel a bit again and I think he’s really catching on! I made it a little hard sometimes and he went to the MM and didn’t get a reward without going through the tunnel. I’m assuming that we want his tunnel offering really solid before I start changing my position. He really doesn’t like me to hold him or hold his collar, which I need to work on separately I’m sure, to make those good things instead of icky. I think he’s really understanding the Manners Minder!
LOL doesn’t he have the cutest sit? His down is similar. He will kinda lift up both front feet and then plop into a down, which is just so cute. I would like a fold-back down but how can I resist such a cutie? It was fun working with some classmates, we are hoping to get together more. I’m a weirdo retired person who prefers to meet during the week. Darn people with jobs, they get in the way. 😀
Sounds good about the turn n burn and waiting a bit with the toy, or using treats. I ordered a new barrel thing which should be here in a couple of days. It’s the same as at the barn so then I won’t have to bring mine (hopefully lol).
Yes, the resilience game was the first thing we did at the barn. He did seem to really like that. I don’t think he understands the words yet, but I’m sure he will. I can do the pattern game next time.
I am glad he loves the barn. Since I’m crappy at training loose leash walking, I strap the harness on my little dogs and go. He pulls me all the way in. 🙂 I figure we’ll learn to walk nicely one of these days so I can get him a CGC.
Last night I tried some toy play in the hallway, which wasn’t really fun for me LOL. I was trying to see if he’d take even a step towards me, which he did only once. Then he got bored of the toy. Afterwards I pulled out one of my own real fur toys, but the phone was set the wrong direction so I got 2 minutes of baby gate video. hahah gotta love that. Anyway he seems to just want to play with and tear up the real fur himself, so instead of interacting with me more, that causes him to play on his own more. What should I do? I do need to read back, too.
I also worked a little of the start line stay last night. Trying to get in a heartbeat or two of a wait. I figured either a sit or a down was okay, as long as he was stationary. This game may take a while for him to get. :p. He does like to be busy and bounce around a lot.
Yesterday I pulled my baby tunnel out of the snow and it was thawed this morning, so we started on the tunnel game. I just introduced the Manners Minder to him yesterday, and he thinks it’s a pretty Cool Thing. I helped him at first through the tunnel because I don’t think he really understood what I wanted. And I think I was using the MM more as a lure than a reward, but I figured that was okay for his first time. He loves the tunnels at the barn, but he’s never done one inside the house before. Julie was showing me the more advanced tunnel exercises and I want to do those, they look fun!
Okay thanks! That is cool that the dogs calm down with chewing. I’ve heard to referred to as like us reading a book. Dogs chew, we read. 🙂 It works for me, I love to read!
Yeah he loved that darn barrel LOL. I did put some heavier stuff in it and that seemed to work better. If I pull the toy away too soon, it seems he will just barrel (haha) into it. But if I’m too slow or late, he’s a bit slower. I did this at home a couple of days ago. Then when I watched the video I realized Connor was at the wrong place again, but Casper didn’t seem to mind this time.
Today I met a couple of classmates at the Barn of Sir Robert of the Sponges. 🙂 And Casper did so good! It was our third time at the barn and I think he’s really settling in. We worked on the treat delivery resilience game which he did really well at:
And I wanted to try the little start line game and he did amazing! I was so thrilled with him. I don’t know if my mechanics are right… and I didn’t wait for him to sit for long, and I didn’t work it for very long, so he could be successful. Let me know what you think. Mitre’s Mom was doing the video and the commentary. 🙂
And since he was doing so well with it all, I thought I would try a new barrel. I really need to get a couple of these, much nicer than my laundry basket lol. I’ll see about ordering some. He did great when I was kneeling, but struggled a bit when I stood, so we also didn’t do it for long.
He wasn’t able to play again, which is fine… okay well he played with Mitre’s real fur toy! So I will be buying him some new real fur tugs. 🙂 So maybe that’ll be higher value than just my fleece toys when the environment is more difficult.
Overall I was really happy with his work at the barn! Then he got to play with Mitre a little bit, and they had a blast. 🙂 They are very well matched puppies!
Thanks! I tried a little tugging in the bathroom today but the room is actually too small and he got kinda weirded out and didn’t want to play. I also tried the hallway, but I forgot to block and end off so he ran off with the toy. LOL, So next time I will do better. 🙂 Sounds good about clicking for bringing me anything else too, with food. Just like scooting away from me he usually runs when he has something. He is getting better at realizing I’m not just going to take it, sometimes I will play with the thing in his mouth and then let go and let him keep having it. If it’s safe, of course. I do think he will probably drop anything he has for food, though, so I’ll have to see about how I could do that. Letting him have a chew after play to help calm him down sounds like a great idea. He loves bully sticks so that will work well.
“the concept of NOT moving when the momma moves away is a mind-exploder for puppies. ” LOL I didn’t realize it was quite so hard! I worked that a little today again but I forgot to turn the video recording on. Pfft. Hate when that happens. I used a clicker and that did seem to help, though I will have to get my mechanics better when using the clicker. I felt a bit awkward.
And very cool about the release word. I am in the habit of using Break now, and changing, for me, is super hard. That’s why all my dogs have the same words for contacts too, because I would just spew out the old word if I tried to change to a new word. :p
I did remember to hit record on our barrel wraps training today. Casper is getting so stinking enthusiastic about my laundry basket that he’s running the thing over! Hahaha he cracked me up. So I pulled out the wing and used that instead, but I went back down to just two toys because he’s not seen the wing before. I think he did a good job.
Enjoy your holiday! I am glad you are taking time off. 🙂 Our big day is Christmas Eve, but I like to be lazy on Christmas day!
Thanks! Yeah, I love the idea of having a word predict where the cookies is coming from, so they won’t grab at my hands. Casper is a huge food thief so that will help immensely! And very good you don’t require catching. I think Casper will be great at it once he’s older and has more coordination. 🙂 I will get better at the words, once they become more second nature to me.
I was reading some other lessons today so I thought we would try the retrieve games and the start line stay. I wasn’t sure what he would think about tugging on me for the beginning retrieve, but he did great! I remembered not to touch him or smack him at all! He is still majorly teething so I wasn’t sure if he would even want to tug but he was all excited about it. And since he still will forget about toys after he’s had food, this was our first training session this morning. He will not even step toward me with the toy, though. He is definitely in the Game of One puppy stage. :p. I really want to have a great retrieve with him so I want to work on this one a lot. So I’m looking forward to your help with this one! Question, what’s the best way to end the game? I let him have the toy then went and got some kibble out of one of the many bowls of kibbles I have scattered around the house. I use them a lot. Including, like when he’s in the bedroom and I want us all out so I can close the gate, but he doesn’t yet scook out like my other dogs. He will actually back into the room even more. So I’ve been throwing some kibble out of the room so he will leave the room and I can close the gate. Anyway, video:
I also tried the baby start line stay. I LOVE this idea! Casper has no stay whatsoever and when I try to get pictures I have to give him a big kibble that he can chew for a second to give me enough time to move away and snap a picture. Hahaha he does make me laugh. For this first session, I just threw back a treat and said “catch” (Look at me using the right word lol) so he would move a bit away from me while I stepped forward. As you can see, no duration at all. And… when he went for the slipper I realized this game was HARD for him and he was done, so I trained too long. So next time will be shorter. Also, I have been using the word Break as Dreamer’s release word. Before that, I used Okay with my other dogs. I like Break, it’s short and sweet, but I also use Wait for my start line stay, and they sound a lot alike. Is it okay to use Break and Wait? Sometimes at Dreamer’s start line, I say “You Wait” which may be a little different.
Thank you! So far so good. I still feel crappy but getting a little better every day.
Thanks for your feedback! Yeah, Casper is a very baby dog. I am thankful I have your encouragement with him!
Usually, I use Get It for everything cookie related, whether it is in my hand or on the ground. So I will modify my words and work through the resilience games. I started the cookie delivery today. And up super easy. 🙂 I will have to keep a note by me for a while to remember which position goes with which word. And… how do you teach a puppy to catch? Casper has no clue. LOL. I’ve never thrown food toward him before to have him catch. And with toys I’ll toss a small light toy but he doesn’t catch it yet. I’m thinking he may need to mature and have more coordination to actually catch. I use a slow arc so he can see the treat coming.
