[Kathy McClung]

Hi Tracy!

>I know a lot of people who have had tremendous success helping with car sickness by feeding the pup a ginger snap before the drive. Simple but effective! I can find out exactly which brand and how much, if you want (one of them is a vet so I trust her advice)>

I would LOVE more info about the ginger snaps! Thank you! We had mixed results with the Cerenia but I’m still hopeful. No barfing but he did still have some complaints. I am hoping he is just getting used to riding without feeling nauseated and as he trusts more that he will feel ok, he will not have complaints.
Also – thank you for the pee advice! 🙂

We finished up some week 1 stuff & started on week 2.

Stealth Self Control Game 1
I started with step 1 to get the game going. I haven’t introduced the novel neutral item et. Do I need more room to play so there is more distance between us as he goes to get the treat & come back to me? I can expand a little further into the next room (tiny house problems!)
Can I mention – OMG – I think I finally was able to successfully teach a pupper to tug & out!!?!?!?!? Whaaaaaaat?

Goat Tricks 1
I am not sure I did this right. The reset cookies may have been wrong. We played a lot in between & I edited it out for time so you could see what I was doing with the shaping.

Week 2
Wing Wrap Foundations ( next steps)
I added a laundry basket as a barrel. I tried kneeling and he definitely noticed that!

Thanks so much!!!

[Kathy McClung]

Good morning!
I hope you are still in FL & avoiding “the weather”!

We have some catching up to do so we were busy this weekend ☺
The little lint wisp is surprising me & I love it!
We have a ways to go on getting him ready to travel to do agility, happy crating & he has to get over car sickness too (poor baby). I got a prescripion for Cerenia and we tried it out this weekend with mixed results – one perfect & one better but not perfect. Fingers crossed it works once we get the dosage right.
Here are our videos!

Driving Ahead
I used his harness instead of the collar. I played a lot between throws to keep him interested & amped. A few times my hands smelled very delicious and he was turning to smell them when I was reaching for his harness. He did better about me holding the harness. I’ll keep working on that to make it a happy thing.

Prop Sends
We did another session of the Foot Target pregame and he was driving to the target so I tried a session of Prop Sends. He did so great!!! He surprised me and was really driving to the target! BUT I FORGOT TO RECORD! When I realized it, we did a quick re-do to get some video.I just did the side & back sends on the video, but we started with front sends. He was a little tired by then, but he still did good!

Blind Cross foundations
a. I am so uncoordinated
2. I am such a bad thrower

I was throwing treats on the rug so he could find them. I think he did better than me!

Resilience Conditioning Walk
We had to go to a vet visit so I took the opportunity to walk around with Lew. It was just a sidewalk stroll. He is very aware of sounds. You can see him notice the traffic & change direction, he heard someone close their car door in the parking lot next to the sidewalk. He noticed a big dog and watched. He brought me back to the building when he decided that maybe that was safer. Then we resumed the walk. LOTS of peeing! He seems to pee whenever he is unsure or doesn’t know what to do. And also to mark, but I feel like a big percentage of his leg lifts are kind of obsessive. I have never had a boy that did agility. Do you & your boys have any tips for me on teaching appropriate pee habits?

Thanks so much!!!

[Kathy McClung]

Good morning!

I did a little work with getting him to line up next to me with a treat and touching his collar. He was ok with it. I’ll try the Driving Ahead game again.

Wrap Shaping
We did a few sessions of Wrap Shaping. I had to figure out some mechanics on the first session. It was mostly just him going from bowl to bowl when he heard the treat, I didn’t advance it past that. I didn’t post that video. The second session, I forgot to let him choose to go to the bowl but he was doing great going back & forth. The third session, I did later the same day & he was choosing! Yay! I added the stanchion and it didn’t phase him.
Wrap Shaping (2)

Wrap Shaping (3)

Foot Target
We worked on the foot target again. I started rewarding at the object and moved to tossing the treat away & letting him come back & touch. Steak was the reward & that seems to be his fave so far. He didn’t mind that I was standing. I broke the session up into 3 sessions with toy play in between, but he was not interested in the toy once the steak came out, I tried to get him to play each time for a bit & when he wasn’t interested, I went back to the target game. I’m excited to let him sleep on this a day or so and try it again!
Foot target (2)

Thanks so much! I hope you are staying warm – is is cold in Florida!!! There was frozen water on my deck this morning!!!

[Kathy McClung]

Thank you for the awesome feedback!

>I like that he is an effective communicator >
This instantly made me feel differently about hearing the bark! 🙂

>He is SUPER quick in his movements – he moves towards the prop then smacks you with his foot LOL!! So you can reward him for moving towards it/looking at it, getting the click/reward in early and before he smacks you. Then you will start getting more of the foot smacks you were getting at the end of the session.>

I didn’t see how fast he was indicating. I’ll try & mark it on time!

Here are the driving ahead & driving to handler games. I need to teach him about the collar grab/set up position. I was picking him up to position him, he didn’t seem to mind, but he also didn’t really know what was going on, he started to figure it out better by the end.

Thank you! 🙂

Driving Ahead

Driving to Handler

[Kathy McClung]

>>I think at one point you said “your brain is braining” and that is the funniest thing I have heard in a while LOL!!!!!!!!

Hahahaha!!! I’m glad that made you laugh! 🙂 That made my day!

We did Handling 1. I broke it up into 2 sessions. I did position 1 yesterday (I needed to brush up on my spins!) and then today did a quick warmup of position 1 & then the others. I think maybe I wasn’t extreme enough in the changes in position. They didn’t really look dramatically different when I reviewed the video, but I did feel like she did better when she was ahead of me (position 3) than when I was past the obstacles (positon 2).

Handling 1 – position 1

Handling 1 – position 2,3 & 4

[Kathy McClung]

Thank you!!! I like the way you describes the different release verbals. I think using jump/obstacle name on a lateral lead out is more helpful than “break”. I’ll work on that with her.

We did another session. I set her up in the center in front of 3 different jumps to get her used to the “jump” release verbal & her moving away from me without my movement. Then we went back to the tunnel & jump set up, but set her up close to the jump at first & worked on that and moved to the side until we were in between the jump & the tunnel. The video is from when we got over to the tunnel & jump.

• This reply was modified 5 months, 2 weeks ago by Kathy McClung.

[Kathy McClung]

Thank you for the great ideas!
For the next session, should I stand or sit?

Over-thinking thought of the day:
I’m wondering if I’m confusing her with her startline by lining her up & saying “jump”. I always release her with a “break” verbal at the startline and it is almost always a jump. If I use a tunnel at the start, I think (I bet) I just say “tunnel, tunnel” so she may be more used to that.

Will I mess up her startline if I use “jump” and it confuses her?

[Kathy McClung]

Hi Tracy!
Here is our first submission. We tried the verbal_only commitent exercise. I warmed her up on just a jump and just the tunnel and she was pretty gung-ho on each, so I tried the first exercise.
Me sitting really changed the picture for her. The beginning set up, I was sitting pretty far back – maybe 10 feet and the jump was 8 feet from the tunnel. It was very hard for her, so I cheated and stood up for a few reps and she did better. Then I moved the chair closer and moved the jump closer to the tunnel. I think her lightbulb may have gone off. I tried to keep it short, so we ended the game. I left in some good bazinga-bloopers! I edited out me getting up to retrieve thelotus ball each rep! hahaha!

• This reply was modified 5 months, 3 weeks ago by Kathy McClung.

[Kathy McClung]

I’m sorry if I have abandoned CAMP! I decided I really need to focus and finish our Weaves, Teeter & Dogwalk. Also…the HOT!!! Everywhere! Hahaha
I feel like I’m still in class with you with the Teeter & Weaves classes! We did a lot of practice with forward focus & lateral starts. She is getting it and it is a great skill. I’m going to try to do the independent obstacle skills for the rest of CAMP to gain more skills.

We are getting there with the teeter and are almost ready to start the last package. She has loved every bit of it. I think she is a thrill-seeker! I don’t want to lump it and my teeter board is homemade from wood and has a pretty strong whip, so I want to make sure she knows what to expect once the drop is from high.

We have 12 weaves!!! We have 6 weaves not at home! We did the 6 weaves in FEO at a trial!!! EEEK!
I am still fading the MM but she understands the lotus ball now. I added her verbal “get it” so she knows it is coming and that helped her.
Here is our FEO with weaves last weekend! I was so excited! I was planning on giving her the toy after the weaves, but I saw her face & she wanted to run! So we did! I think she would have been mad if I stopped her to play. haha

YOUR NEW PUPPY IS SO CUUUUUUUUTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you!!!

[Kathy McClung]

Hi Tracy!
Me & Bazinga were able to finally get out there & work on this exercise again. I added in a placed lotus ball but it was very tempting for her. Rep 2 had some cheating – haha! I do think it helped her focus on the jump.
Here are reps 1, 2 and some later reps. I did eventually switch to throwing the lotus ball and that worked well. I just didn’t show it here.
I haven’t worked up to getting laterally to the other side of the tunnel yet.

[Kathy McClung]

Hi Tracy!

>>I did see a video on Facebook with you running in big girl panties that had me laughing for hours LOL!!!

LOL!!! My friends are hysterical!!!! There was no way that I wasn’t going to wear those when I saw them!

>>I don’t think it is too extreme, but it is possible it has lost some value because it doesn’t spit out any treats. So you can surprise her with rewards from it and that can keep her looking ahead.

Ok, I’ll mix it up a little and see if it helps keep her forging ahead like she used to. I am hiding it behind a single wing. I’ll also set up a jump and hide it behind a wing of a jump.

Once she’s comfy with 6 again, do you think I should I move forward with the adding the 4 poles and keep mixing it up with the MM & the lotus ball as a reward and just plan on fading the MM once she has all 12 poles? So the MM will be a part of the whole process and work on totally fading it at the end?

If I try the weaves in FEO, I won’t have the MM as a visual, so I’ll keep working on “other locations” with the weaves & the MM until I can fade it from the “other location” too. Then I’ll bring it into FEO?

Here is her video from yesterday:

Thanks for alllllllll the weave advice!!!
Looking forward to chat nite!

[Kathy McClung]

Hi Tracy!

We had a FANTASTICLY FUN weekend! Frankie got her MACH4! She ran happy all weekend! YAY! Bazinga was awesome at the trial this weekend! She Qd another FAST run!!! I’ll post videos tomorrow. I really wanted to ask about the weaves so we can work on them again.

>>It might be growing pains, it might be a bit of “sheesh can’t we finish training this already”

Hahahaha! I am feeling the sheesh! Am I taking too long? I feel like I’m dragging through the weaves, teeter & DW. Is it my own fear?

>>Apologies for my lack of caffeine which equals lack of clarity LOL!!! I meant that because you’ve been noticing her watch your hands more, you can carry the reward… but do 50% of the reps as a reward from the MM that is hidden somewhere. That will be surprising in a good way, and also help keep her from looking at your hands because the reward is out on the line somewhere.

Oh! Ok. I have not been treating from the MM at all. I just have it out there as a kind of visual target. Maybe that is too extreme?
So I can still use it – just switch it up & be surprising? I have been hiding always in the direct line of sight from the weave exit. Should I be putting it off to the side too? I am very bad at fading!
I guess I feel like (maybe this is superstitious) that she can’t find the weaves in other locations if the MM isn’t there as a target.

We did a session yesterday and I put the MM behind a wing and gave her some ROOM to work on the left side of the weaves and I think that helped. Maybe I was crowding her. She did much better this session on both sides. I can post a video if you want to see.

>>Thoughts and prayers 🤣😂🤣 He is so cute that it really doesn’t matter if he has life skills or not. Just carry him around everywhere in the trial environment (he is so smol!) and soak in his cuteness.

🤣 YES!!! He got lots of attention from his aunties and did a lot of visiting. He got his first steak treats and NOW he is food motivated. He has a new Auntie Steak lol. He did a great job for such a new little guy.

Thank you!!!

[Kathy McClung]

Where are the links to the zoom chats? I could’t find them.

[Kathy McClung]

Thank you!!!!

>>Bummer about the video but congrats on a great run! Did you at least get a cool Boston Terrier ribbon?
We did! That reminds me, I need to do a photoshoot for her. Little superstar!

Thanks for all the feedback. She was going really fast. I’ll rewatch the videos to see where I was cheering too much and remember not to do that.

>>Looking at the weaves – I think they are going better than you think they are going

Thank you for saying that. Maybe I’m feeling the growing pains? I just feel like she has a better handle on them earlier. I’ll read your comments over again before our next session and make the adjustments.

I do have have one question on this below. I didn’t follow what you meant?
>>and you can have the MM hidden behind a wing so she doesn’t see you throw the reward all the time.

We are headed to a trial tonight for Sat & Sunday. I am bringing tiny puppy Lew and am feeling very “We’re coming as we are and we are not ready for prime time” I expect a weekend of chaos! I suck at teaching life skills to dogs because I am a pushover and I know he is not ready for crating. PRAY FOR US!
HAHAHAAHAHAHA!!!!

Have a great weekend!!!!

[Kathy McClung]

Hi Tracy!
Boston Nationals was a blast!!! Bazinga was AMAZING!!!

We tried for FAST for real twice. The first run she got the send (jump to tunnel) but I said her name and she turned on a dime & came out of the tunnel! That was allll me. I say Frankie’s name when she’s in the tunnel so she turns to my voice and that is not going to work for Bazinga.
FAST (NQ) But I’m so happy with her run

The second FAST she got! She even did an A Frame! She got her very first official AKC Q <3
I don’t have a video of her Q though. It was pandemonium! Everyone was running dogs & volunteering so we were all loco.
The rest we ran FEO for Novice JWW and Premier JWW and she really tore it up and did some nice lines.

Here are some videos!
FEO JWW Monday

FEO JWW Tuesday Run 1

FEO JWW Tuesday Run 2

I haven’t posted because I was struggling with weaves since we got back. I am really discouraged. I must be doing something different because it has fallen apart. She’s looking for the toy and pulling out of them & she never did that before. I’m wondering if the toy is more visible because it’s warmer out and I was maybe keeping it in my sweatshirt pocket. I’m not sure. I had tried them with no MM at home and tried her at other locations with the MM and got too many failures. She was SO amazing on them and was doing 6 + 4 and ever since I tried to fade the MM we have gone back to 4 and struggled.
She seems better on offside than onside but we are struggling.
Here is our recent session. There was no MM but I put a wing where the MM usually is. Not my best trainer-self 🙁

Here is a session the next day with the Manners Minder behind a wing.
She’s still really looking at my hands a lot.

I’m not sure what my next move should be. I don’t like when the sessions are frustrating for her. She loved the weaves!

Thanks for any advice 🙂

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