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Tracy, thank you so much for your encouragement! I do need the positive reinforcement as I train my dogs, so I really appreciate it. Your reply gave me lots of warm fuzzies. 🙂 Casper is different from all my other dogs, as, of course, all dogs are different. And he’s fun, and I do want to give him the best start possible! I go back and forth between really wanting him to play with the toys, and realizing he will do it at his own pace. So thanks for reinforcing that the toy play will come back as he grows more accustomed to working around distractions. And yeah those teeth, poor guy can hardly chew kibble right now. 🙂
Today I took him to another agility training place, and there were other people and dogs, and that totally blew his mind! 🙂 He couldn’t play with toys at all. I tried for half a minute just to see what I’d get from him, and nope, toys were not interesting at all. He just wanted to watch what was going on. We did walk around at first so he could see things. And say hi to a nice man sitting in a chair watching. The next area over had dogs running agility full tilt and that was super hard!
This first video is when the other people and dogs were still there, so I just did a very basic simple barrel session. I think he did pretty good. I didn’t trust him to run off and go visiting so I left his leash on him. He didn’t seem really care about the leash.
After most of the other people and dogs left I had a much easier time with him and was able to take him off leash. Again we just did the threadle basics, and I brought out the barrel again.
I also worked on his perch box a little and did some middle training, which he was good with. Just super short and things he is pretty good at at home.
I am having an ablation Monday morning Dec 19 so I don’t know how much I’ll be able to do for the next week. I guess some people recover from it in three days, and some people take a couple of weeks. I always say I have a poor recovery, especially when I’m upset, and usually physically too, so I’m going to take it easy and not plan on much for the next week or two. I’m fortunate to have a good husband who will take care of the dogs. 🙂
The puppy class is pretty stimulating for him. 🙂 I don’t do the classes that have play groups, and the class is only about 45 minutes, but the two other puppies are super cute and he wishes he could meet them. I pick the puppy classes now where I can just work my own puppies around other puppies so they learn to work with me around other dogs. But it’s still hard! I’m glad he’s really food motivated. Though eating kibble is a bit difficult for him now with all his teeth doing their puppy thing. So I try to use soft treats unless I want him to stay for a second and crunch on the kibble. lol.
I don’t think I have seen the cookie pattern games, where have I missed those? Or is that in the resilience games? I have to read those more, I have been focusing on only the few things we have been doing. :p
He loved the barn today. Didn’t even want to pee before going in, so I waited him out so he did pee before he went in. Good boy! And I did just use food mostly for training. We did the barrel game very quick and short, and I think he did great!
I also did only a few reps of throwing the toy to drive forward, and I think he did good there too. This is the whole video, I didn’t cut the front or back off like I usually do. As you can see, the flooring is SUPER interesting to him. But he was able to leave the fun smells of the turf to come and work for a little bit.
We also worked the threadle basics just a tad. I forgot my target so I used a bit of napkin that was in my car lol. He seemed to adapt to that just fine. He got lots of breaks between short training sessions. It’s nice to have two dogs, Dreamer had fun working threadles too!
And… I was going to work the blind foundations but it turned into a play session instead, because he wasn’t super into the toys. So this is that, thought I would include it so you can see what he’s doing with toys in the barn, especially after we’ve done some training with treats. 🙂 In the past with my dogs, I would give up on toys if they weren’t super interested, and just went to treat training. But I really really want to keep his toy drive! My older Farmdogs only work for food now and I love that Dreamer works for toys. Aaannd pfft, watching the following video, I was touching him way too much wasn’t I? LOL That’s why he said nope, don’t want to play that way. :p
Oh, that is a good point that Connor was eyeballing from inside the xpen. 😀 And him just being there could have been too much pressure. I will rearrange it next time. All these things I don’t catch and I appreciate that you do! It’s so nice to have more eyes on my training. 🙂
Yes, I was trying to keep him from getting the toy when he jumped up. The little turkey is a food thief, too, if I sit on the couch eating and am not super careful he will dart in and steal food off my plate. If I don’t want to constantly reward him for sitting and waiting nicely while I eat, I just put him into his xpen. I love his confidence! But I want my own food. LOL
I love impulse control games! Casper really needs them. He hates waiting for anything and things he should have All The Things NOW. So I was pleased with the threadle game too. 🙂
I took him to puppy class last night and we tried playing with those same skunk toys and he had a hard time playing. He is great at taking treats, but in that distracting environment, the toy play isn’t as valuable. I really need to remember that. What’s the best way to keep toys high value in distracting environments? Keep the play really short? I do plan on heading to the barn today even though is bitterly cold. I wish I had a warmer coat that fit him better, but he’d just grow out of it in a week. :p
Thanks!
Great thanks! The barrel wrap is really fun. 🙂 I tried it standing up this morning, which was an adventure LOL. It is hard with the small room and the small dog. I cut out some of the playing time to make the video shorter. And I can’t reset the barrel with a toy in my hand, he keeps jumping up for the toy. Lesson learned!
We also did some more threadle, with the treat in the bowl. I think he did pretty good!
Thanks for the parameters I should work with him at the barn. 🙂 (haha been watching too much Star Trek lately.) I decided not to go today, since it’s been snowing for two days and I didn’t want to make the drive, so I rescheduled for Friday.
That makes sense for the threadle exercise too. 🙂 I’ll work on that again at home as well. I’m glad my mechanics look good. When I watched myself, I thought my feet weren’t pointing in quite the right direction, but I will work on that more next time.
Today we just did a little toy play around the barrel, and I think he did great!
We will go back to the barn again tomorrow and see what we can do. Hopefully, after a week he’ll be more relaxed there. We go there quite often over the winter. And I won’t go with any expectations like I did last time. Stupid expectations. :p I always have to adjust to what he can do (all the dogs). And yeah he was pretty tired afterward. 🙂
Had a show last weekend but I’m back at it today. He had a super fun weekend again. I love how confident he is, that he’ll want to run right up to the Great Danes and Wolfhounds and not even worry that they may be scary. I asked the Wolfhound folk if he could visit, and he was so sweet with the giant 9-month-old Wolfhound puppy. All good experiences!
This morning we started the threadle basics. I did try the position out myself before starting. Then after the first side, I had to think for a minute (thus the pause lol) about doing the next side. I think he did a really good job for his first time!
And then I tried starting the turn and burn too. This was the first time I really did it with toys at home. I started with treats, to remind him, then went to the toy. He still wanted the treat but he went to the toy pretty quickly, I think. I wasn’t sure if I should help him go around, or wait him out. I opted for waiting him out and he did figure it out. :). I started standing, but thought maybe that was too much, so then went to kneeling. Hah. And most of this video is play rather than working. 🙂
I’ll probably do this same thing at the barn tomorrow, or even take it a step backward and see what we get. And do some more drive-forward activities.
Yeah, it was a strange new place. I was smart enough to bring my “barrel” before I read your reply. 😀 Didn’t want to have that be different too. He wasn’t able to do much there. I started with the barrel with me sitting on the ground, but he was too interested in the food in my hands and didn’t think about the barrel. So I figured I should use a chair, to keep my hands further away from him, and it’s a familiar picture. He did well with that after taking a minute to think about it. 🙂 though I did forget my bowls, so that was a different picture too, so I kinda helped him a little. So no Turn n Burn for us yet 🙂 I could try to turn n kinda short burn at home lol. My biggest room is really small, and 1/4 of it is taken up by his xpen, that has my mini Christmas tree on it so it’s out of his reach. LOL
We also just did some driving forwards. I had to use low-value kibble to reset him. When I tried cheese, he just wanted the cheese. I wanted to do some driving forward to balance out all the barrel wrapping we’ve been doing.
I think I over tired him. :p I did bring Dreamer and we worked his threadles too. I put each of them back out in the car in their crates when the other was working. Dreamer wanted to bark when Casper was working, and Casper definitely wanted to bark in the crate inside the barn when Dreamer was working. And I wanted Casper to actually rest between his training time. But I don’t think he did anyway. He did have some fun times chasing Dreamer through the full length long tunnels. 😀
Thanks! I have done the lid thing instead of the hand, so I’ll work that again. That is true, he does offer a chin on the ground, which I didn’t even think about! I’ve never trained that, the sad chin on the ground, so I kinda miss it as an option. I will work on that too.
Sounds good about the toys too. I will stay gentle and keep the toys low. And no smacking him. 😀 And keep it shorter!
That sounds great thanks! I will work it again this evening, after 24 hours have passed. We all slept pretty well last night! And yeah, I can see him stronger on his left. When I do the perch box for him to move his rear, moving to the left is WAY easier for him then to the right. (I am gonna have to get that beg on cue so I can reward it too!)
LOL he was totally trash talking wasn’t he. :D. I’ll start him on my right hand tonight too, to set him up for success. 🙂 I also can’t write with my left hand, it hurts my brain!
He is in full-blown teething mode too now, so I wonder if his tugging won’t be as strong right now. I worked the two toys again, and tried to be super gentle when playing. No hard tugging. He seemed to like the toys, but not for long, so I probably need to make this session shorter while he still wants more. He definitely noticed the sound of the car going by outside. I was smart and put Maze in the bedroom though, so there was no dog barking.
I also tried the hand touch and progressing it into a chin touch, but he touches so fast that he just darts in, touches, then darts out again. And a couple times he wanted my treat hand instead. I felt very clumsy about this session. And I didn’t try to get any back-up in that, since I was clumsy.
Thanks for letting me know I’m not behind. 🙂 I do love all the options we have to work on! I’m trying to choose the ones I think we need, and I can do without being a complete clutz. I plan on renting the barn (who Robert of the Sponges trains in lol, he’ll forever be known by that! 🙂 ). So I can work some of the blind cross and fancy moves stuff that my house is too small for. We have snow now, so can’t work outside anymore.
Maaaah I feel super behind. After an agility weekend and then a barn hunt weekend I haven’t had time to do much. We have been working a bit on the go-around-the-thing game (my technical name for it lol). And I introduced the laundry basket thing today. He’s doing great with the jump upright. He started great with the barrel (It’s the laundry basket for my trailer) at first, then seemed to think too much. And oh my, it was hard not to reward that little beg! You can’t see me but all I did was smile. 🙂 And, Maze barked again, oops. At the end he was struggling so I waited for him to figure it out then stopped with a jackpot. 🙂
Replying to your input about the two toys, heh yeah, he definitely backed off again after I touched him. So I will not do it, even though it’s hard! That’s great that I can squeak them, not sure why I think that’s cheating lol. He loves the squeaks. I will play that some more this week.
I also worked the cone game with a jump upright, and he had no problems with that at all. And I put the bowls down first, then the upright. 😀 I did leave the upright out for about 10 minutes just standing in the room. He hasn’t really seen it before, so he sniffed it for a while and then tried to chew on it so I thought we were good. LOL
I also worked the toys on either side of me. I got new toys, the same, the no-stuffing ones. He really likes them! And I was so tempted to touch him. I did at the end, a little, and he dropped the toy, so I shouldn’t have. :p. But he really had fun with this! Oh, and I didn’t even hear Maze bark until I watched the video. Oops! I should have put him away.
And, there is so much to do I feel totally behind! Do you have any of the exercises you recommend for us, that maybe I should focus on more?
Thanks! I love the idea of the hand touch, turning into a chin rest. Casper also hates when I try to look at his teeth, which he’s going to have to learn to be okay with for the show ring. Plus, we all need to look at our dog’s teeth. So I’ve been trying to build a chin rest for that, too.
It did take me a bit to figure out the mechanics but I think I got it working okay. Hand touch, Yes for that, drop cookie for reward between my legs, let him back up, and Yes that too. How did we do?
I love training back-up! This was Casper’s first session ever. And I thought since he’s little, squatting down would work well so he can get the treat between my legs and then naturally back up. He will still scoot backward if anyone tries to reach for him when that person doesn’t have treats, and I would love to click for that, but not having treats in my hand makes it hard to reward. And when I have treats now he knows something good will happen closer to me so he stays pretty close. And… I’m eliciting the behavior by putting the treats between my legs. 😀
That yellow board is what I have my older dogs back up onto, but Casper is not that advanced yet. 🙂
