[Dianne M]

Good morning Tracy –

Here are a couple of my outdoor training sessions since it’s been so nice the last couple of days.

We worked on left and right verbals. I pushed it one too far I think; he told me on the last rep that he was done. He’s not a fan of collar grabs but we keep working on them.

Gave him a break while I did something else, then came back to it for a few reps where I’ve pulled the wings apart about 6” or so. He’s doing pretty good on these I think –

And later on to tunnel threadles. I think I am tunnel threadle challenged. I started with refreshing on just the baby dog version with the verbal, then attempted the advanced version. He is running around the tunnel without hitting the entry. Am I too close to the entrance? I struggle with these 😢

Let me know what you think. Thanks,

Dianne

[Dianne M]

Hi Tracy –

I’m sorry I’ve fallen so far behind. I have been away for a week in lovely Dayton, Ohio and it was cold, snowy and windy. Yuk!

I was able to play with Baxter today. We tried the serps with motion and here are two clips. We are struggling with holding stays and I have to work harder on this. I’ll go back to the stay games and concentrate on them more frequently.

We played with the wing wraps too. We both like these.

Thanks,
Dianne

[Dianne M]

Hi Tracy !

Here is our work today on the head turn foundations. He offers wraps easily and is such a little stinker to turn his nose up at yummy treats. You will see on the video.

And then we tried the tunnel threadles. To be honest it didn’t feel great because I don’t have a clue what I’m doing. And I forgot to add in the verbal aagghhh!! But is this right? It didn’t seem right.

Let me know what you think.

Dianne

[Dianne M]

Hi Tracy –

Here’s what we’ve been working on the last couple of days –

Toy Play – this is our first official session of working on impulse control. Is this what we’re aiming for? I admit I put my hand practically in his face so he could touch on the way to getting the toy so we could start with something successful. Let me know if this is what we’re working towards.

We also did some more backside slices. I tried to stay off his line and get his reward out sooner. Not using a verbal yet – I realized I can’t use “back” because that sounds too much like “Bax”, which I call him a lot. I think I’ll use “push” when we get to that point. I realized he didn’t seem to be his usual joyful, bright self so I cut it off after a few reps on each side.

Today we had a chance to play outdoors. I revisited the original tunnel foundations since we haven’t had much of a chance to work on the tunnel. I think he did well.

And finally another few reverse retrieves because he loves them 🙂

Let me know what you think.

Thanks,
Dianne

[Dianne M]

Hi Tracy –

We’ve discussed working on toy impulse control previously and I started working on it. I started with sitting on the floor with a toy on the floor next to me, and having him do a simple hand touch or spin and release to the toy. The problems I ran into are a) I used my “get it” cue and he started searching all over the place for a treat and b) the dead toy didn’t seem very exciting to him so then I had to shake it around and make it fun. I figured I’d hopefully get some ideas of a different cue word for get the toy on the ground in your webinar tonight. I need to teach him to jump on the toy on cue which he really doesn’t do right now. He loves his toys and goes after them when I don’t want him to, LOL.

Also, do you have any suggestions for a dog that has an extreme preference for only one toy? He has one very favorite toy, one or two okay toys, and a bushel basket of toys I would really like him to play with. I mean, these are really nice long, furry, expensive dog toys that any respectable dog would go nuts over, but he says no thanks, I want my one squeaky toy. My fear is that I will lose it and we’re up the creek, and it’s also very squeaky which I envision not so great at trial time. Let me know your thoughts.

I worked on the backside slice foundations last night. This is the first time I’ve used the manners minder in a reward situation – he’s been getting free cookies for the last several weeks out of it because the motor would startle him. So you will see him go check the manners minder out as he’s expecting a treat, but I’m sure he’ll figure it out quickly. When I reviewed the videos I already see that I’m not connected enough with him.

We also played the reverse retrieve game and I knew he’d love it.

We will do more work on the toy impulse control.

Thanks,
Dianne

[Dianne M]

Hi Tracy –

This training session is a hot mess. We’re working on the threadle exercise and I don’t feel like it’s going very well. I don’t feel like he has value for my hand/the target. I’ve been just doing target nose touches in the house from time to time the last couple of days to try to increase his value to it. I cannot put the toy down on the ground at the reinforcement spot since he has way more value for the toy – notice I ended up having to hide it to get a better response. I also feel like I’m bending down to him and that’s not what I really want to do in reality. Love my little dog but sometimes it’s hard to train littles LOL.

I’d also be interested in exploring the arm across the chest threadle cue. Do you think that would work here? I may not feel like I have to bend down to get my hand at his face level? Please let me know what you think.

Thanks,
Dianne

[Dianne M]

Sorry – here’s the head turn work.

Dianne

[Dianne M]

Hi Tracy –

I have been away from home for the last week and it was really good to be playing with Baxter today. We didn’t do much because it got to be kind of late and we’re all trying to settle back in but it was fun to play with my puppy again. And boy do I feel like I’m falling behind now!!

We did a little bit of perch work. I introduced a perch to Baxter a while ago but we haven’t seen it in a while. We really hadn’t done much other than get your front feet on the perch.

Then we did a little bit of the head turning exercise. It was very awkward at first and I struggled with the mechanics but I think we were beginning to get it by the last few reps.

Let me know what you think.

Thanks!
Dianne

[Dianne M]

Hi Tracy –

I’m trying serp foundations again! It seems like I’m fixated on this skill LOL.

I tried your suggestions about placing the toy on the ground. I was trying to work on the flat without using the jump. He is able to come in to me when I’m holding the toy and then throw it, but can’t possibly manage it when the toy is on the ground. Epic fail LOL. After a few reps I tried to make it easier by being closer to him but that wasn’t great either. I’ve worked so hard on toy drive and throwing the toy for him to pick up that I can’t be surprised that the toy has so much value. We need to work on impulse control. Trying to hold my target shoulder back and chest open like you suggested, and looking at the target hand. A lot to think about LOL!

He’s also breaking his stays A LOT. Have to review the sit stay games and work on a stronger stay.

Then we played the rocking horse game. The couple of fails was my fault for not connecting with his eyeballs 👀

Thanks,
Dianne

[Dianne M]

Hi Tracy-

Hope you had a great holiday weekend. We went without water for two days. That was fun 😩. Fortunately no pipe damage after we got thawed out Yay.

I’m working on serp foundations again. We’re taking your suggestion and using a food bowl. I primed him beforehand with free treats and then tricks for treats to go to the bowl. Then we attempted the serp exercise. It was hard! We got some good reps at the end I think. I think I have the dish a little too far behind me if I want to be moving in a parallel line. Then I pulled out his toy which he LOVES! There are some bloopers, and some good reps as well. I’m working on not saying “yes” but I caught a few in here.

We also worked on rear crosses. I reminded him before this video about his prop by just doing the parallel path for 3-4 reps, then we tried the rear crosses. They are better than the last time we did them.

We also worked on lap turns which I didn’t get videoed. He comes to my hand and does the turn okay but then doesn’t drive forward to his prop. Should I just throw the cookie to drive him forward or throw a toy? He will move up with me if I move forward but I’m not sure that’s the intent?

On another subject, I will be traveling up north next week for New Year’s to see family and won’t be home for the zoom class either Wednesday or Thursday night. Not sure how I’m supposed to notify you about that so here it is. If there’s another way to notify you about the zoom classes let me know. Thanks.

Dianne

[Dianne M]

Hi Tracy –

I revisited the serp foundations game we played last night on the zoom class. I did some latent learning overnight myself LOL. When thinking about this (in the middle of the night LOL) I’m envisioning how this will look on course and it clicked with me that I don’t want to be bending down while moving forward so to fixate on him hitting the target in my hand isn’t possible. With the fixation in my head of not worrying about him hitting the target the whole exercise started to make sense to me. I want him coming in to me and then continuing on in whichever direction our motion will be carrying us.

Here is a quick session after we came in from the rain. Enjoy my wet mophead puppy LOL.

Unfortunately the mats have shrunk with the cold since Wayne and I put them in this summer. Looks like we will be starting a taping project after the holidays.

Have a good day.

Dianne

[Dianne M]

Hi Tracy –

Here is a quick clip of the new rear cross foundations game you posted yesterday.

This was a cute, quick 5 minute game. Loved it.

Dianne

[Dianne M]

Hi Tracy –

Thanks for the encouraging words on an intact male 🙂

I will take your advice on the manners minder before I bring it into training. Thanks.

Regarding using “Yes” as a marker, I understand the concept that you wrote about in your previous post. Unfortunately, I am concurrently training Gabby in rally and obedience since she can’t do agility anymore and I mark her frequently with a “yes”. So this is totally my issue and I will try real hard to remember to not mark “yes” with him during these training sessions. And I have to work on the hands 🙂

We worked outside this morning since it’s not raining (yay!). We did some wraps around his cone. He took off with his toy after the first wrap and it took a while for him to come back. You can hear him squeaking it in the distance and then he tried to bring it back but got hung up in a stick. You can see my hesitation – I was about ready to go help him out when he disengaged himself – then he’d lost track of what he was doing and kept looking at the toy and looking at me and actually came back with the toy. Good boy!

On the wraps, he was offering them on his own and then I remembered you saying to do nose touches and free cookies to keep him with me. That worked better. Hand targets need a lot more work since I have to be pretty close for him to do it.
We’ll use them throughout his career so he’ll get a lot of work on them LOL.

To be honest I didn’t feel like I was as far away from the cone as it looks on the video. Either my spatial awareness is way off (which is entirely possible) or the wide angle on the lens distorts distances. Regardless, sometimes he understood perfectly and other times he had questions, so we will continue to work on these after getting your feedback.

His tugging is really improving!

That was the entirety of the training session for this morning. I realize it’s 7:30 minutes but there was a lot of play play play, tugging, and a pause for maybe a couple of minutes when he was off with his toy. Too long?

Then I let him run around the back yard while I set up the camera out front. We did some resilience work in a novel location for distractions (the front driveway where he doesn’t go very often). He did amazingly well. I kept inching towards the bushes to see if he would choose to go sniff them (and mark LOL) but he stayed engaged. Yay Baxter!

Have a good day.

Dianne

[Dianne M]

Good morning Tracy

Here are some tandem turns using a cookie throw and his prop. I think they’re going pretty well. And Baxter is slowly getting used to that Manners Minder – he’ll go get a cookie out of the bowl now – I think I can try letting it dispense now without the beep and see how he does.

And we did a parallel path commitment session. He seems to get this and was committing way before the jump. I, on the other hand, can’t walk straight LOL.

We did some work outdoors in the yard near the tunnel. We played and tugged and chased and retrieved around the tunnel without actually engaging with it. He did run in with his toy but got better about coming out with it. Until he lifted his leg and peed on the opening 😫

I’ve never kept an intact male before so this will be interesting. My two old guys were both neutered young as that was what was done 13 years ago. He’s good in the house, thank goodness, but he lifts his leg on EVERYTHING outdoors, and I mean everything. He lifted his leg on his toy! Yuk!! Any suggestions would be welcome.

Have a great Sunday.

Dianne

[Dianne M]

Hi Tracy!

Another rainy day 😟

We are working on lap and tandem turns today. I’m sorry the videos are so far away – I tend to cut us out of the frame frequently so this time I think I overcompensated.

Session 1 went pretty well I think. Then I advanced to the advanced level. He had difficulty ignoring the prop so I was feeding him when he came to my hand. After we managed the lap turn I had difficulty getting him to drive to his prop. I think we got a little better after some reps.

This is our first attempt at the tandem turns. I think these will get smoother with practice.

Did some toy races which he loves and he SMOKES me! Also worked on the Manners Minder which is going slow but that’s alright.

Let me know what you think.

Dianne

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