[k8marie]

Hi Tracy,
I’m working on dropping the “yes” marker before the “get it” – it’s an old habit. It’s so automatic you’ll notice I’m still doing it on this Handling Combo exercise.

I didn’t hold her collar/harness for these as she is still biting/resisting when held back, especially when excited. Post turn also seems to come automatic to me – really had to concentrate to remember to FC. Using food helped when I left the toy behind. And the BC was horribly late… need to have more distance before sending so that there is enough space/time to get a timely blind in. Tugged more between sends but cut to keep it shorter.

Plan on working on stays and retrieve tomorrow. Thanks!

[k8marie]

Hi Tracy,
Your comments make perfect sense. My mechanics fall apart when the prop comes into play. I’m more focused on what I can do to keep her from grabbing the prop and not on what I need to be doing for the exercise. Today will have to be a “no cheese day” so we’ll come back to this one.

I was pleased with our session on Novel/Exciting Self Control. No problem with the novel item; a bit more challenging with the Exciting (Whimzee bag with one whimzee in it). I didn’t mark/reward when she backed on to the lid, probably should have but I didn’t want to be marking when she had the bag. As I waited her out she got it – could almost see the wheels turning in her brain. Sorry for the weird angle of the video.

Hope all goes well in Indianapolis. K8

[k8marie]

Morning!
I’ll work on the hand target from a standing position. Challenge for me is a bad back and a small dog (haha).

Here is our Rear Cross (Lap Turn) with the prop. Sorry for the length of the video but you said you wanted to see it all! I think key for me is using the cheese to engage her so she doesn’t take off with the prop. The toy wasn’t as exciting as the prop so she did get a lap in.

She is really interested in the cheese in my hand and although she can complete the turn she doesn’t drive on to the prop. I do have two pieces of cheese in my hand – one to help with the turn and one to toss. Should I be doing more of the turns without the prop? Toss the cheese from my other hand? More parallel drive past the prop? Limited by the amount of cheese she can eat. Looking forward to an “easy” week to get caught up. Started on the tunnel exercises but I need a refresher course on using the MM as she isn’t that keen on it. Also did some Self Control (Novel/Exciting) I’ll post that next as she is pretty interesting! Thanks!

• This reply was modified 2 days, 18 hours ago by k8marie.

[k8marie]

Tracy,
Sorry ‘bout that. I was editing and posting in bed in the dark… I made the video public so you should be able to access it.

Enjoy! K8

[k8marie]

Hi Tracy,
Today we took a break from “training” and took Jazz with me as I did some course training with my other mini, Jack. A friend has enough property to set up International style courses so we try and train with her once a week.

Jazz did great in that environment. Tugging when the other dogs were running, played the resilience cookie toss game and relaxed in her crate while I ran Jack. After a nap at home we revisited the hand target exercise and I was really pleased with how she did today. (Probably helped that I reviewed the video over lunch so my mechanics were much better.) Here is the video of our session. I didn’t edit out any of the tugging – she gets a bit mouthy, but nothing like she has in the past.

I purposefully gave her a break from any prop games/exercises and will try those again tomorrow. Sorry the video is kinda long but I think it will help you get a sense of how she engages/disengages.

Look forward to hearing what you see! K8

• This reply was modified 4 days, 4 hours ago by k8marie.

[k8marie]

Hi Tracy,
Video is my turn away sessions. I did the Lap Turn prep in the am and the Tandem Turn prep in the afternoon. Had a toy play session after each and after the afternoon session (Tandem) wanted to try with the prop. Well… the prop is much more fun than any toy and off she went when it hit the ground and she was released. Didn’t include the video as she wasn’t going to give it up. She already had her allotment of cheese for the day and the treats I had just weren’t high enough value. Should I change the prop to something that doesn’t move? Save my cheese for prop only sessions? Send her back to Minnesota? (Just kidding – I love this pup)

The turn away sessions without the prop went well. I think I’m rushing the tandem turn and bringing my hand up too high which brings her off the ground. Here is the video:

I also did some hand target refreshers to get ready for the serpentine strike a pose. She’s a funny girl. She gave me two great hand touches and then started giving me paw touches instead (We have NOT done any hi 5 training). When that didn’t get her a treat she started biting the card. This happened on both sides – 2 touches; paw touches and bite the target. I know with my other poodles I’m not able to repeat things as they start to get creative and offering all sorts of behaviors — forget that some things are genetic. Thoughts?

Sorry to be so wordy – since I didn’t get it on video I wanted to get your input. Thanks again!

[k8marie]

Hi Tracy,
I’m really enjoying this course – seeing progress with understanding what opinionated Jazz is trying to tell me (haha).

This morning we worked on Rear Cross with the Prop. I think it went well – she only grabbed the prop once and only took one lap around the yard before giving it up. Especially when turning to the left she turns into me, making a tight loop before heading in the right direction. Is this because I’m crossing too late? Right turn seemed to go much smoother and definitely improved from our last RC session. Here is the video from this morning.

We also played with the Collection Sandwich game. This also went much smoother than last time. I’m still a bit late with some of the BCs but much better timing for the deceleration/collection cue. Here’s a short video for this:

Would really like to go to the US Open! My boy is a little too big to fly in the cabin and I won’t fly him in cargo – the drive from CA to Florida is just a bit too long. Things should be different with Jazz as she should fit for flying in the cabin. Till then we go to trials that are only a few days drive.

[k8marie]

Hi Tracy,

Here is a short session on handling combos. I’m not holding her collar as she still gets real bitey with that. I use food to help line her up instead of collar hold. She does a lot of jumping up to my hand when I’m using food – not sure what to do about that. All in all I think she did pretty well. I have to remember that she’s only 17 weeks old.

Question relating to parallel path. Should I reward If she drives forward past the prop but doesn’t touch it? She did that 3 times in a row and I didn’t reward… her response was to grab the prop and take a few laps around the yard. I got the message – she’s not subtle.

Thanks!

[k8marie]

Hi Tracy,
Things have been a bit challenging this week on the home front. We should have been on our way to the UKI West Coast Open this week with my 5 YO mini but my partner fell on Monday and broke two bones in her leg. There is no way that she could handle things on her own at home so no WCO this year. Thankful you post a video of the live class as I totally spaced it out yesterday (brain is not all there). Anyway… enough about that.

Here is our session with the Resilience Game (Predictability). She does get distracted by smells and bits of dirt/rocks (we had workers here today) but did really well with reconnecting. In the grass the second toss dropped a bit further down so it took her a bit to find it but she reconnected right after. Fun game and look forward to seeing where this goes! Thank you!

Should have kept the video on for leashing up so you could see how well she’s doing – no biting!

[k8marie]

Hi Tracy,
Glad to be able to get something in today. We worked on the rear cross yesterday, but I had the camera at the wrong angle so the target and my cross weren’t in the picture. Here is our session on rear end awareness/backing up. She caught on to this pretty quick! I realized that I should have followed up with more treats at her chest to encourage her to back up more rather than just rewarding once. When do I add the verbal?\

We also worked on the Turn and Burn – Jazz liked this one! Since you thought she was a lefty we started on that side (my right). This went well… I should have rewarded her when she offered the wrap even though I wasn’t ready. Seemed to confuse her when she wasn’t rewarded but she go back into it quick. I wasn’t so good on the other side. My mechanics were off so I cut it short. I need to mark it without her so that I know what I’m doing! Also I’m going to have to watch how much cheese I use as she was getting pretty loose poops. No fun!

[k8marie]

Tracy,
I see what you mean about her seeing me move the hamper. She doesn’t miss anything! And I’ll work on moving away when I switch to toys.

We revisited parallel path and counter motion using “get it” instead of the clicker. Pleased with her response! One toss (I think it was the second one) went into one of the seams in the concrete. She got it out but continued to be drawn to the scent there. Think we might be ready to try the rear cross?

We also did plank games today. Did them this morning with the plank and fit bone… My camera angle was bad so I only got 1/2 of the plank and no fit bone. Played with it more this afternoon – this was bath and groom day so she had a pretty busy day.

Thanks so much!
K8

[k8marie]

Hi Tracy,
I think using a mat will be really helpful for exercises where I’m tossing the treat behind. I’ll also be playing the resilience game to help her find the treats and reingage.

Here is the next step for our wing wrap foundation. I added the hamper and seated position and just used treats, with breaks for toy play. Initially I was placing the treat in the opposite bowl while she was still eating, when she seemed confident with the game I started waiting to add the treat till she had committed to the other side. There was a gap when I moved the hamper out a bit, and she tried the shortcut, at that point I extended by right leg so that my foot kind of blocked that route, leaving about a six inch gap. Pleased to see she chose to wrap. In the interest of time I didn’t video the toy play – first break it took her about 30 seconds to engage with the toy, second break about 15 seconds and the third break was about 3 seconds. Look forward to trying the turn and burn game! Having a great time with this!

K8

[k8marie]

Tracy
Good morning/afternoon! I agree that “get it” would be a better marker for when she is driving to the reward. I’m going to have to switch to cheese for working in the yard as well. She had a hard time finding the treats for our Collection Sandwich. It looks like rather than waiting till she finishes the treat I should continue moving away so that there is more distance for me to complete the blind – most of these are late (again). Also I’m not sure if I’m decelling enough before we turn. Here’s our video from last night.

Thanks!
K8

• This reply was modified 1 week, 6 days ago by k8marie.

[k8marie]

Hi Tracy,
Busy day yesterday so didn’t have a chance to video. Here is our session on Parallel Paths and Counter Motion. I need to use treats that don’t bounce as much as they really took her off her path. Too hot to work on our yard (downside of artificial turf) which would have eliminated the bounce. Other than the bouncing treats I think she did pretty well with the parallel path. It looks like she did better when I wasn’t crowding her line – what do you think? My mechanics aren’t that great for the Counter Motion, but she seems to get what the game is. Look forward to hearing how I can clean it up.

Loving this class!

K8

[k8marie]

Hi Tracy,
I wasn’t able to stay on for the whole live course and will have to catch up on the video. Looking forward to the sending exercises that you demonstrated.

Here is our wing wrap with food and bucket. Cheese works much better! She caught on pretty quick since she wasn’t having to chew as much. I moved the bucket back two times. The second time I used my knee to partly block her path, but left about 5 or 6 inches open. You’ll see her think about cutting through, but makes the right decision to go around. Haven’t tried it again with toys… Look forward to seeing how we progress from here.

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