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Thank-you!
Correct, only the tunnel verbal so far. Will work towards adding the threadle verbal.Haha, not left handed, but I was trying to focus more on rewarding from left hand recently as I had been tending to feed too much from right hand. Perhaps tipped the balance too far.
Worked on parallel path to jump starting with a cookie toss. Seemed more difficult for him compared to when he was moving ahead but he was still happy to play the game.
Thanks for your thoughts on the jump cues. Makes sense.
Aelfraed worked on tunnel with the auntie holding him this time.
Also some backing up with an incline.
Thank-you!
Yes, we had tennis in the background yesterday.
Today we had people on skateboards in a skate park who were also playing loud music.
We did some more barrel game. Tried the front cross to blind cross first and then started to try some pivot but he seemed to be getting tired of the game so will try more decel to pivot next time.
Parallel path with a sort of a jump.
Retrieve game.
I have a question for you regarding cues. We are of course far from ready to start using them anyway but I’ve been starting to think about what jump cues I want to use for Aelfraed. My question is regarding backsides of jumps and threadles. With Lennan, I have a backside slice, backside rounded, threadle slice, and threadle wrap. I’ve been seeing some discussion recently where people are teaching backside directional cues that are specific to the side of the jump the dog must approach and then the direction to exit. It seems these cues are then used for both push backs and threadles with the explanation of them being dog dependent backsides instead of handler dependent. I’m wondering what your thoughts are on this?
Hello!
Aelfraed took a few days off official training while we visited my sister and her family. He had many new experiences including befriending a tiny human. It was also his first time away without any other dog buddies. He was so super good with everything. Anytime something was new and he wasn’t sure, he checked in with me and then adjusted quickly. The two cats that live in the home are anxious around dogs so Aelfraed had to spend some solo time in his puppy pen both outside and inside and he was totally perfect with this.
https://youtube.com/shorts/R2QDaCTJ_hg?si=2Dsrnwwvg3sZ9c03We worked on some barrel wrapping with a toy on the ground. He doesn’t usually love the toy as much when it’s not moving but he seemed pretty happy with this. Partway through he noticed some people exiting their vehicle so we played some pattern game.
We also tried some turns to the prop. At the end of the session, some walking dogs came into view. You can see one walk across in the video but there were actually 2 other dogs in different directions that Aelfraed was also noticing. I had just run out of cookies so I let him keep the toy instead and he was so good and just settled down and watched.
Thank-you!
In the park, I wasn’t entirely confident before that he wouldn’t decide to play “you can’t catch me”, but he hasn’t shown any of that at all and has been very keen to do his work, so I think we probably can try the barrel game with no leash.Worked on the tunnel yesterday. He was very excited about the tunnel but apparently we had the wrong toy to start. Got a couple of times with threadle position.
Thanks for the sitting demo video. Aelfraed can now sit on a platform but have not tried with his front paws off the platform. Will work towards that.
We tried some lap turns and tandem turns today. A different park. It was noisy. He didn’t seem to care.
Also a few toy races. He seemed really happy to drive to the toy.
I forgot to say before, I laughed when I read your suggestion to train him using a bit of something I ate because earlier this week he got to practice tricks for apple pie crust!
Aelfraed lost one of the two remaining baby teeth a couple of days ago and although the other is still loose and waiting to come out, I guess the one he lost was bothering him more. His interest in food went way up as soon as that tooth was gone.
Thanks so much!
Aelfraed definitely has opinions about his rewards! When I first started teaching him things, whatever reward I used to start the behaviour was the only reward he wanted. So, certain things were associated with toys and other things with food. He has become more flexible overall now about accepting different types of rewards but he still has strong opinions, which is usually totally hilarious.He does seem to have a bit of a preference for left turns at the moment but is balancing out.
We worked on some stays today. He doesn’t like to sit much during stays yet, which is fine. I’ve just been working with position of his choice for now. I think the sit is physically challenging for him. He actually quite likes sitting and offers it frequently, but not for duration. His sit position has become tighter than it used to be though so it seems he is building up more muscle strength.
We also worked some collection sandwich. He had to have a line dragging as we were in a public park. He’s used to dragging that particular line during outings so he wasn’t bothered by it but I think it did possibly cause him to run a bit slower.
Thanks so much!
I think he really just didn’t want food in that moment with the first session. I did also offer him food on the floor and on his bed and he wouldn’t eat it there either but did want to leave the food and return to the equipment. The food I had was 3 different kinds of treats that he has previously said were the best! The food he ate during the second session was the exact same food he rejected during the first session. Of course with a second session, it is also possible it was then easier for him at that point so it is hard to say, but it didn’t seem to me like he ever didn’t want to do the activity.
With the couch, I had felt he was adding the couch to his obstacles as opposed to leaving the activity. He has recently decided it is now easy for him to get on the couch and has been enjoying showing off this ability frequently.
His food desire is still really variable right now which I’m pretty sure has a lot to do with his teeth. He has 2 remaining baby teeth that are really taking their time and 1 of them just became loose 2 days ago. Yesterday, he didn’t really want food much overall and was very slow to eat his meals. Today he was quite interested in food all day, ate meals quickly, and was eager for treats. The only reliable times he is excited for food right now are whenever I’m eating and he thinks I should share, lol. Apparently we need to start training with linguine because he was quite excited about that.
We did the strike a pose again to experiment with rewards and he really does not think that a toy is an acceptable reward for this game. He will play between reps but will not go for the toy if he has not received his cookie. He did think the cookie dish was perfectly acceptable.
Chasing the auntie and adding the race part.
Working with the prop and trying out some rear crosses.
He seems to really like the plank now and has figured out how to turn.
Hello!
Aelfraed worked on 2 sessions of plank plus other equipment.
In the first session, he rejected all of his usual favourite cookies so we played with the toy.
Second session he said food was acceptable.
Another session of strike a pose. Tried to reward directly with the toy but he didn’t seem happy with that. He seemed food with getting a cookie first and then playing.
Barrel wrap with chase the auntie.
Sounds good, thanks! Will definitely try toy next time.
Aelfraed thinks that chase the auntie game is super fun!
He already had learned that the tunnel is super fun but we hadn’t added a cue so we did that today. We also did chase the auntie out of the tunnel which was great. Sorry about the poor camera angle that didn’t allow you to see the other side. We only did it with him starting on the outside, no threadle position yet.
Thank-you! Aelfraed loves world watching. He did quite a bit of puppy world watching early on but not as much recently. I was thinking when we were out yesterday that we need more adolescent world watching now. Actually, when he offered a down at the end of his pattern game, we did just chill for a bit.
Here is our first try at the strike a pose game.
Thank-you! Will definitely try that with the toy next time I have a helper. I suspect he will find it very fun!
I did take him back to the chiropractor last week as I wondered if something was wrong when he first went off his food. She didn’t find anything that really stood out as a particular problem, did some minor adjustments, and his lower food interest continued after. Will see how it goes. I think it could be his teeth as well. Not all of his adult teeth are fully grown in yet.
Aelfraed worked on some inflatable equipment that had lower inflation and he did seem to enjoy that. These particular shapes were new to him as well.
We played some pattern game in a park today. We were not particularly close to any distractions but close enough that they were interesting. There were people playing tennis, a parent who had both a very large dog and a small child inside an electronic play car, dogs barking in a nearby house, and cars arriving with more people for tennis.
Sounds good, thank-you!
Aelfraed has definitely started into adolescence when he turned 6 months last week! My border collies didn’t turn into teenagers until 7 months so I wasn’t mentally prepared yet, lol, but that is where we’re at. I did wonder if the tippy board session was impacted by adolescence.I did not expect him to be the type of boy to go off food based on his food love up until now, but he’s full of surprises. Last week he went off his meals for a couple of days which was a drastic change. He went back to eating normally but is still not nearly as excited about mealtime as he had been previously. He does want to work for food but even the best food right now does not really get him amped up.
During the plank session, the person who appeared was someone Aelfraed knows but neither he or I expected her to appear at that time (plus she was eating a snack) so I didn’t really have a plan for distractions and it didn’t bother me that he left, but I can certainly try a pattern game in the future.
More toy races. Throwing the toy more to Aelfraed’s side definitely helped!
Parallel path with prop.
Barrel wrap with toy reward. I was pretty sure he was going to be mad about the disappearance of his treat plates from the barrel game so decided to try him out with toy reward before progressing to the turn and burn game. He was still a little mad to start with but we worked it out. He sniffed the ground partway through because he found a cookie he had left behind from his parallel path game.
Hello!
We worked on some more forward focus.
Toy races are still a challenge. It does seem to work better when I let him go and move later. He doesn’t really want me to win but it still seems to be his goal to arrive at the same time when I’m running faster to get there rather than really driving ahead. When he did miss, he was mad, but seemed more interested in then yelling at me about it rather than trying harder to get the toy.
Tippy plank with added noise. He definitely found this difficult but was willing to work on it. I don’t find him particularly noise sensitive so I don’t think the noise itself should have been too much but I have noticed in other situations as well that he finds it difficult when the “rules” of something he has done before change. Should I have shown him the change before allowing him to interact with it?
