[Kyla McNeill]

Thanks so much!

Haha, it would be great if I had a giant hall for my living room, but no, the small carpet area is my living room. The hall is in a church where I teach some puppy classes.

I do have another plank so will try the 2 together next time we do that game.

We tried some more backing up.

We also did some more forward focus. The release timing was a little tricky as it was hard to tell sometimes if he was actually looking at the cone. I figured generally looking forward was ok?

For the last week, Aelfraed has been getting extremely excited when he sees me pick up the tripod. He knows it means we are going to play fun games.

[Kyla McNeill]

Hello!
Aelfraed worked on some forward focus. He was definitely more excited about the toy version.

He has started working on backing up in the last couple of weeks. He’s starting to get the idea. Also a little practice on turns. He’s been doing those for a few weeks now.

Slightly elevated plank. Still difficult to turn to his right but got it one time.

[Kyla McNeill]

Thanks so much! That totally makes sense about the inflated disc.
Will definitely try those progressions for the tippy board and toy races next time we work on those.
Today we worked on plank. He has been on a plank before but this specific plank was new to him and doing it outdoors was also new.

[Kyla McNeill]

That is so hilarious! Aelfraed would totally snap his fingers or ring a bell for his staff if he could!
He actually already has been to an outdoor restaurant patio once and he did great!

This video was from yesterday. He is quite fine with the black foam pad but having it on top of the folded laundry basket was new. The balance disc he has also worked with before but still has not been a huge fan of rear paws on it. Unfortunately my cookies were a bit bouncy when I tossed them but he didn’t seem to mind. He had already rejected the non-bouncy cookies I had intended to use.

Today we worked on the tippy board. He has worked on this before and had graduated to its full tip so the tip is not padded at all here.

We also worked on some more toy races.

[Kyla McNeill]

Thanks so much!
Yes, he has done restrained recalls and with this person holding him so he likely could have been thinking about that. I was using a run to toy cue (pounce) but I’m quite certain he does not yet know what it means. Will try slower running next time.
He is definitely hilarious and fun! We laughed so much about him telling me to go fetch his toy!

Today Aelfraed got a big city experience as we went to visit my sister in Toronto and went for a walk at one point. It was really good as we only walked a short way along the busy streets and then spent a while exploring a garden centre where Aelfraed mostly led his exploration (including finding a mud puddle to play in) except when I had to prevent him getting in the way of other shoppers. He had a great time exploring and had one startle moment when a tent side suddenly flapped in a gust of wind right into his face but he recovered quickly and was right back to exploring the same spot a few seconds later. He really was not a fan of super loud motorcycles (I don’t blame him for that) but otherwise handled all the busy places well too. He thought it was quite concerning to see a dog tied to a tree outside a shop without its human present. The dog was calm, Aelfraed likes dogs, and we had also passed a couple of dogs with their people as other points in the walk which was fine so I don’t think he was upset about the dog specifically. However, seeing this dog all by itself caused him to issue one single sharp bark and was the only time he barked during our whole outing. It was very interesting.
He has only met my sister once before so far, about 3 months ago, but he was quite happy to play tug and some version of fetch with her (indoors) which I thought was great.

[Kyla McNeill]

Hello!
Aelfraed and I worked on some toy races, with added fun of an auntie to hold him (he has done other things with this auntie holding him so that wasn’t new).

[Kyla McNeill]

Thanks so much! I did feel he opted to leave the toy game to return to the barrel game. The toy was moving slightly but definitely was not the most exciting game. I was being cautious and testing it out a bit as I wasn’t sure if he would want to play at all. He had had a chiropractic adjustment earlier in the day for a stiff neck following a small slip the previous evening. He seems completely back to normal so we will be able to do more exciting play next time.
At the end I think there’s a good chance he was judging me, lol. He had started this session by barking at me to tell me I was being way too slow while I was turning on the camera and had the prop folded under my arm.

[Kyla McNeill]

Sounds good, thank-you!

Here is Aelfraed working on the wrapping game with a larger prop.

[Kyla McNeill]

Hello!
Thank-you for the last message!

Aelfraed really enjoys interacting with objects but does tend to be more cautious with his rear feet overall. Will certainly try encouraging more motion earlier next time.

I have previously observed Aelfraed does not enjoy having his body tapped during tugging. I occasionally still forget and he reminds me…not the border collie!

Social learning can definitely be so cool (and also sometimes not helpful, lol). Here’s a fun story where Aelfraed actually helped his big brother this summer. Lennan unfortunately needed many trips to the rehab vet over the last 4 months. Sometimes we have to go to the downstairs section and Lennan thinks the elevator is very scary so I have previously requested to take the stairs. His appointments earlier on were in the upstairs section but while we were there I requested if I could take Aelfraed on the elevator and the staff were happy to help. We had 2 opportunities, a few weeks apart, and Aelfraed was cool with it. Another few weeks later, Lennan had to go to the downstairs section and I decided we would see what happened with the elevator. Lennan balked but watched his little brother trot in and then reluctantly followed. On the way back up after his treatment, he still let Aelfraed go first, but he walked right in without hesitation!

We did some more collar practice. Sometimes taking the collar and sometimes not, with some repetitions of driving to toy.

We also did some more prop sends. It was the first time with the prop outside and I think that was really different for him. He seemed very excited.

[Kyla McNeill]

P.S. I realized after that you couldn’t see my whole body for the prop sends. I promise I was looking at him when I sent him.

[Kyla McNeill]

Sounds great, thank-you!
Will try to add in some quicker collar grabs when he is receptive. Up until now this has not been possible as he is exceptionally quick to move away from the hand and getting hold of his collar before he thinks about it has not been possible. Even when he has been seemingly super excited and engaged in play, he has been very quick to drop the toy and deke out of reach. Going slow and allowing him more time to think about it has actually been really helpful for us. I was happy to see his happy responses to the quicker collar grabs yesterday so we will definitely build on this.

Lennan taught his little brother that the disc is an extremely important part of life so Aelfraed does now enjoy the disc quite a lot. He does enjoy rollers when his mama can throw them well for him…which is not always, but yes, we can try to do more of that.

His brain tired responses so far have been either increased barking or excessive chasing of my feet and legs.

Today we played some goat tricks. The prop is a collapsible laundry basket that he had never seen before.

We also did some more prop sends. The first picture at the start of this video, I included for you as this is what happens when I turn on the demo videos. He suddenly appears, extremely alert. He would like to go through the phone to go play with you.

[Kyla McNeill]

Thanks Tracy!

This morning we worked on some drive to toy outside. I haven’t tried a tab leash for him yet, but I am fairly sure he will be offended about it flapping when he runs. Outside is his favourite place to be so I thought we would just try with the collar on its own. Allowing his collar to be taken on cue is something he has previously learned but usually something he still has to think about. He was actually enjoying the game so much he was starting to allow quicker collar grabs.
This video is a little long. Feel free to ignore the end or fast forward, but I left it in because we had an interesting moment. He caught an interesting scent in the air and I decided to wait to see what happened. I wasn’t sure if we had played too long and he was done or it was just something he really needed to check out and he would come back after. The seconds he went out of screen he was still scenting the air, just in a different spot. Turned out he did decide he wanted to come back to play so we had some unplanned resiliency training as well.

This is the small cone he has previously done the wrapping game with. He has also done it with a couple of other random objects but mostly this cone. He doesn’t seem to find my change in position very hard but adding distance is definitely harder for him.

[Kyla McNeill]

Thanks so much! We will definitely try these games outside next. That floor would indeed be slippery for him for faster running and we won’t be back to that location for several days anyway.

We tried some blind cross practice today.

Also some wing wrap. He knew this game already but with a much smaller prop so this was first time with an actual wing.

[Kyla McNeill]

Thanks so much!

Aelfraed is usually allowed to run around with the toy a bit if he chooses since he enjoys it and although does not yet bring the toy back, he is not dedicated to keepaway. He was definitely surprised about being stopped by the leash, poor little guy. My brain was a bit silly and thought it was important to keep him from running out of view of the camera.
Anyhow, he was happy to play the game again.

He is entirely happy to receive the food from my hand when moving to my side, including following the food. He has figured out he is happy to take food from hand when we are walking so I’m guessing he finds this to be a similar scenario.

More prop sends. He was not that keen to get the food from my hand although he did follow through. We also tried some toy which he seemed to enjoy. Interestingly, he was more keen to take the food from my hand after some toy reps. However, as he had had enough by then I was not able to see if that was a consistent pattern. Might experiment more with that later.

[Kyla McNeill]

Hi Tracy,
Here are our first training sessions.
Aelfraed doesn’t like being restrained very much and also doesn’t like toys that aren’t moving very much so I wasn’t sure how the drive to toy game was going to go. However, he has been improving with both those items recently and he did way better than I expected.

Aelfraed has learned about this prop already over the last few weeks and he really likes the game. These were his very first directed sends though! He does not enjoy treats in my hand nearly as much as collecting them himself which is why I was rewarding with the treat toss, and especially after he wasn’t interested in the food in my hand while I was setting the prop down.

I think my timing needs improving on this one.

[Author]

Posts