[k8marie]

Hi Tracy,
We do have a school across the street from our community. We work a lot in the yard when kids are out so I think the noise from the school was louder that day due to the cloud cover we had. There’s a park right next to the school and we usually walk over there twice a week and do resilience games and work on getting her to tug when the kids are out for recess.

It rained yesterday so I figured it was a good day to revisit our retrieve – or lack there of. The first part of the video is from yesterday – realized you can’t really see what we are doing so I didn’t post it and tried again today. We are not having success with her bringing the toy back. She likes driving to it, and may bring it back halfway, but just won’t bring it to me. If I call her name she comes to me without the toy – when I tell her to “get your toy”, she goes back to it but doesn’t bring it. I switched to a toy on a rope, so that I could pull it back to me. I think I may need to do that for a while until we build value in bringing it back to me. Look forward to hearing your thoughts.

[k8marie]

I have another block that’s about double the size of this one so I’ll try using that.

Worked on the “Fold it In” Exercise. I had a hard time getting her interested in the toy and tugging. She may have some teeth coming in. I see what you mean about my position next to the barrel. Had greater success when I was back and away from it a bit.

Switched to the food bowl and worked through distraction by moving the bowl back and then forward again. We’ll try the Rocking Horse again in a few days. Thanks! (Yeah Virginia!!)

[k8marie]

Hi Tracy,
Keeping my hands low really helps for all these games.

this morning we played with the Body Awareness Perch Work game. I’ve been avoiding this one as I was never successful with my other mini’s on rear end awareness exercises. Standards I did OK so it must have to do with the difference in size.

She knows it’s about the perch, but it took her a bit to figure out front feet on. Rewarded when she looked at it and tried to reward in such a way to encourage her to step on the perch. Took a while but she did figure it out. Not sure where to go from here.

[k8marie]

Tracy,
thanks for the reminder of the advanced level of the cone game. We did skip that, meant to come back to it but there are so many other fun things to try that we never got to it. I was really pleased with the session. We both had to figure things out and it felt like we were successful. Yeah us!!

Here is our work on the tight turn. I’m not sure if my mechanics are right as once I got out there I couldn’t remember which hand when. Sorry about the first few reps as all you can see is my back side – not the most flattering angle for me. Some turns are a bit wide, most likely due to the position of my hand. Need to review the lesson to get a better sense of where/when for the hand turn.

[k8marie]

Hi Tracy,
Revisited the Rocking Horse this morning. This is still challenging for both of us. Worked on lining her up before sending – line ups are going pretty good. I have to remember to keep my hand really low when lining up or I get a bouncing poodle (makes me miss my standards). I’ve been using her wrap cue to send out of the line up (right=wrap; left=lala). Sometimes she doesn’t release on that. should I be using break and then the cue (not my preference) or just hold my position until she releases?

She still seemed confused when turning to the left – I brought out an empty bowl and that really helped. Had to work through the bowl distraction but the bowl really helped. I edited out a lot of the tugging or you would have been watching a 5 minute video.

I borrowed an upright from a friend so hope to play with the tight turn exercise later today. Thank you!

[k8marie]

Hi Tracy,
Well, found out we can’t use any kind of cheese for rewards. After using it for the Threadle slices yesterday she woke me up at 3 this morning needing to go out. Poor girly.

I wondered about adding the verbal. I use “in-in” for both sides of my Threadle slices. Is it too soon to add them? If not, I’ll add that when we work on this again.

This morning we worked on the backside slice. She was pretty consistent going to her right, not as stellar going to her left. I think I might have been tossing the cookie too far so that her path was bringing her in rather than parallel. Only worked the first position as I want to get the verbal added before going to the harder positions. I use the same verbal (push) for both sides. OK to add that now?

[k8marie]

Hi Tracy,
We worked on the Threadle Slice Pose earlier in the day and really bombed out on it. I was using the MM and she was much too interested in it. My hand target wasn’t even a thought in her poodle brain.

Took a break for a few hours, rewatched last nights lesson and decided to try it again with lactose free cheese (Jarlsburg) and a food dish for the target. Also focused more on my position in relation to the stantion and looking at the target when I called her. This went much better. Even got position 2 on her good side – tried on the other side but wasn’t successful. All in all I was pleased as our first session was a bit of a mess. Here’s video of the second session.

Was much cooler on the artificial turf as we had some shade – that’s always better for me.
I don’t have a single wingless stantion, so I have to hold off on the tight turn until I get mine. As always, thanks for your review and insight! K8

[k8marie]

Welcome Home!
I love Purina Farms and try and make it to our National Specialty there at least every other year.

Here is our continued work on the Concept Transfer for the Serpentine. She is pretty good on the slice or direct approach, and we still need to work out the “wrap” approach. She does better when my arm is more fully extended (like you suggested) but I still get a bit sloppy sometimes. Unfortunately she had too much cheese and I had a “runny” puppy that needed to go out to potty at 2:45 am. I’ll need to come up with something else that is high value and doesn’t upset her system.

Question: Will the video lessons and the forum be available for viewing after the class ends? I plan on using the time between Max 1 and 2 to continue to work on things. Hoping that I’ll have access to the materials during the break time.

Thank! Kate

[k8marie]

Hi Tracy,
Trialed this weekend so didn’t really have a chance to videotape. We did a lot of resilience games around the rings, tugging and toy chasing in the isle during walk through, and some playing with a border collie pup the same age. She did really well in the new environment!

Worked on backing up on the board this morning. She did much better with me in the chair and having the board closer. I’ll need to review the next steps to know where to go from here.

JFYI – I probably won’t make the in person class as I have class tonight with one of my other boys. Hopefully I’ll make it for some.

[k8marie]

Hi Tracy,
Sorry for the long video… since we continue to have challenges with our sends for the Rocking Horse I thought it best if you got the whole picture (minus the time I have to take off to get a bandaid for my thumb.) Hopefully I edited out the expletives. I now use a treat to get the toy to avoid teeth to skin contact.
We did this on Weds around 4:30 with 0 success so I didn’t post it thinking maybe it was the time of day thing. This video is from this morning around 9 am… things went a bit smoother, but still not that great.

When editing the video I did notice that she does a lot better when I line her up before sending rather than doing it on the fly. I’ll start using treats to get the lineups better. I’m not sure why she is jumping up on the hamper. You can probably hear my frustration – at one point I tried having the toy on the ground to encourage her to go around it, but she did a grab and run. Wanted to finish on a good note so kept trying one more time.

Trialing this weekend so not sure what videos I’ll be able to get with her. Appreciate your insight!

K8

[k8marie]

Hi Tracy,
No treats or toys on me for the Remote Reinforcement. I guess she’s just one smart poodle!

Today is “groom one of the other poodles” day (we have a trial this weekend) so I’m doing exercises with Jazz that don’t require a lot of set up.

Played with the Threadle Foundation exercise. I think she did pretty good – just a bit of jumping up when we started but I think once she figured out that the cookie came after the turning she settled down.

It would help if I could remember the sequence of turns – I threw in a couple of double turns instead of doing the beginning half turns. Hope that doesn’t create problems…

[k8marie]

Hi Tracy,
This morning we worked on Remote Reinforcement. She did really well moving away from the table with treats. So well that I think she may have thought that I had a treat in my hand. This will be a good one to continue doing adding time and distance away.

[k8marie]

Hi Tracy,
This morning we revisited the tunnel send game. I purposefully didn’t do any collar restrains, instead lining her up as best I could with a cookie. Clearly I need to work on our lineups 🙂

I shortened the tunnel, and interestingly this morning she was more consistent on the left side than the right. I think I might have been further forward on the right side so sending around rather than in.

Pleased with her progress. She gets her final vaccine today (rabies) so may be a bit sore for a day or two.

I saw the notice for Max Pup 4. I’m hoping that there will be a Max Pup 2. If so, do you know when that would start? Don’t want to miss it! Thanks again – your feedback is so helpful!

K8

[k8marie]

Hi Tracy,
Here is our morning session on the Shpile. Fun game! Realized I probably should be tossing the rewards on the pile and not delivering them from my hand. I think I would have gotten more activity on the pile if I was rewarding more frequently and by tossing the treats… next time.

She didn’t seem to want to leave the pile until I gave her release word (Break), then she was totally into chase and tug. Would it have been better to use a reset cooking rather than the release word?

[k8marie]

Hi Tracy,
Thanks for the feedback and suggestions for the tunnel games. We’ll keep working on this. I had the tunnel shorter on previous sessions, when I was introducing the TnT to her so I can go back to that length.

We also worked on Strike a Pose Concept Transfer some more, making sure I was closer to the jump than our previous session and using a food dish to send to. We didn’t feel as in sync and connected as our last session. I think that partly may be due to doing this at 5 this evening. I felt pretty “sloppy” with my cues, not as sharp as in the am, and I think she is thinking about her dinner (feed them between 5 and 6).

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