[Kathy McClung]

Hi!
Thanks for the great feedback on the turn & burn game!
We are going to dive in to the games this week.
I tried the tunnel. I mixed some smelly hamburger bits into the kibble in the manners minder and he could tell for sure. He did not run really fast to the MM but he did go to it and eat the boring treats. He has run through tunnels with someone standing at the end with a target & treats and he ran really fast but I know this game is about shaping, so I let him figure it out so that he was offering to go through the tunnel. I moved the MM through the tunnel a little at a time we started right at the entrance, went a little further back, then the center and then the end. He was getting the game but not really enthusiastic, so I tried a new toy. I think he liked that much better!
Here is our video.
I included the very beginning & him figuring it out. Then clips of the MM at the end and finally with the toy.

[Kathy McClung]

Hi!
Thank you for the cookie info!!! I’m going to try them!
We have some catching up to do!
I wanted to give him another session of turn & burn before we tried the new game because I felt like we didn’t really have a good “send” to the barrel. I didn’t want to use lineup cookies & take away from the excitement of the toy (which would give us a better approach) but I think this went pretty well.

I introduced him to the Manners Minder to get him ready for the tunnel game. He is starting to be interested in it. He doesn’t love the only treats that he likes that work in the machine, so I’ve been following him to it & tossing in some cheese bits to sweeten the deal.

I took your advice one the 1 rep + a huge hamburger treat on the wobble board and I let him watch Frankie & Bazinga do it first. He was so amped up. After his rep, he ran back on it & slammed it & looked at me like “bring me my treat, woman!” hahaha

Side question, can I do some private lessons with Bazinga for weaves? She is pulling out at weave 10 and I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong or can do better to support her through it.

Thanks for the feedback!

• This reply was modified 3 months, 4 weeks ago by Kathy McClung.

[Kathy McClung]

Good morning!
We had a local trial (only an hour away – yay!) this weekend and Lew came along to spectate! He did really well! He is getting better about waiting in a crate. I’ve been letting him stay with Bazinga in her crate and as long as he can’t see me, he is cool. I could hear him when Bazinga was running though. The Cerenia seems to be doing the trick with his car sickness. I’d still love to hear which ginger snap cookie is the best one. It can’t hurt to try that too. My vet said to only do the Cerenia on 2 consecutive days and sometimes we travel more than that, so maybe day 3 can be cookie day!

These videos are from friday. I just didn’t have a chance to edit & post. I think we are all recovered and ready to have more fun.

We did another session of backing up. I tried to keep my hands low & toss the cookie back between his front paws before he picked his head up. I moved the chair against the wall because Mr. Smartie figured out he could turn around.

Prop Game with rear crosses!
I hope I did these right. I think I should have been rewarding him for hitting the prop when he came back. Not sure what I was thinking! I didn’t even reward for the return hits on the parallel path contrast reps! Sheesh! Mean.

Stealth Self Control – Novel/Exciting
I started with the repeat novel/neutral item. I saw him look at it on the first rep and then I think he tuned it out. I did a cookie toss and switched to what I thought would be a novel/exciting item (bag of treats) but after thinking about it, I think it is really a novel/neutral item since he really didn’t even know what it was. He doesn’t see that the treats come from the bag because I have to cut all his treats up to make them small enough. I don’t serve treats from the bag, I have them in a tupperware container. I didn’t see him notice the bag at all. I’ll try to think of a better novel/exciting item. Maybe the tupperware!

Goat Games – making noise
I tried moving the wobble board onto the hard floor. He was excited about it at first but then it made noise & slid at the same time and after that he was cautious, especially on the side that happened on. I hope I ended the game early enough.

Thank you! I’m excited to review the new games!

[Kathy McClung]

Hi!

He was cracking me up with the backing up! I really wanted to do another session today!

>Remember to use a line on the ground as a way for you to know when to do the FC and run. >
We did Right Turn Turn & Burns ☺
I put down a line & made the toy longer too. We moved the line 1 time and he did ok with that. He got distracted once because he heard something right while I was taking off.

We practiced some Collection Sandwich. I don’t have video, but he was happy to chase me (after he found his cheese, of course!) and happy to pivot and run back with me, but he wasn’t all that thrilled with chasing the thrown toy. I think he had food on the mind. Do you think the lotus ball may be good for this game? I still have to show him the secrets of the lotus ball!

I’m going to try rear crosses with the prop next.

Thanks so much!

[Kathy McClung]

Hi!
>You can see towards the end (1:19 ish) he was actually trying to do it to his right! Good boy! So for the next session with the toy, start him on your left side so he turns to his right and we will see if it is easier to leave the toy 🙂>

I’ll use a line on our next round of Turn & Burn and try letting him be his righty self! 🙂

Thanks for the great idea of using the lotus ball with the parallel path – I’ll try it! It is so hard with grass & tiny treats. I want to carpet my yard with artificial turf!

We had a crazy day today so we tried the backing up game.
Firstly, I had already thought your idea to throw a treat behind our legs was a great idea, then I saw that you suggested to someone to try a chair to stay low with another little pupper so, I thought “my pup is little, let me try that”. SO THAT IDEA WAS MEGA BRILLIANT! He was in such a hurry to get out from under the chair, we had very motivated back-ups!

Thanks for watching!!!

[Kathy McClung]

Hi!
We did turn & burn again! I started with food and once he got the hang of it I whipped out the toy!!! He liked that!!!!

We did the prop game with countermotion. He had some good hits and good drive to the prop. He faked me out a few times! I feel like it was still hard for me to leave before he turned around.

We tried the parallel path game outside but I must not have pressed record. He did ok. I wasn’t very far from him. I’ll try again & get video.

Thanks for your feedback!

[Kathy McClung]

Hi!

>I admit to laughing when he went rocketing by the prop (like Kramer from Seinfeld entering a room), did not get the click, then rage barked at you LOL! He is so fun!>
I laughed so hard at “rage bark” in relation to Lew! bwahahahaha! But he was! Perfect description!

We’ll try the parallel path again and get rid of the clicker & just use the verbal “get it”. I’ll watch where is is looking on the left side. I wonder if I should try “spinning the room” and make my left side be on the blue & green yoga mat side too?

>Love the new door behind him too 🙂 >
Thank you! Lew loves it the most out of all 3 dogs. He’s a looky-loo! (I don’t know how you spell that!)
I’m excited to try Turn & Burn again. Thanks for the details on where I need to be – I was totally going to do it wrong!
I didn’t even think that he hadn’t seen that barrel yet. It makes sense that he didn’t know what I wanted.

I introduced the beginner Pattern Game. I think we has giving me good attention between treats.

We tried the Collection Sandwich. I tried really hard to get the mechanics clean, but it needs improvement. My turn is wide, I need to pivot more instead of taking steps to turn. We started with the cookie toss, blind cross & collection turn. Then I showed him the pivot & the thrown toy. Then we tried putting it all together. He was starting to get hot by the end so I only did a few of the full sequences. I was pleased that he stayed interested in the toy after the cookie toss for a few reps. I did see his enthusiasm diminish as we went along. It could have been that he was tired & it was a lot for him by then.

Do you think we are ready to try the Novel/Exciting Stealth Self Control games or should I do a few more sessions with some novel/neutrals?
Thanks so much!

[Kathy McClung]

Good morning!

Thanks for the great feedback!

We did another session of the parallel path game inside. I tried to be more accuate with the marks/rewards to be clearer for him and I think he had more hits this session. He seemed to miss more when he was on my left, so I tried to support that more.

We tried the Turn & Burn game baby level. I started with a toy but he was very amped up for the toy and really didn’t know what I wanted him to do wth the barrel. I probably should have refreshed the wing wrap game before I started. I only made a few attempts and then we stopped so he didn’t get frustrated. I wasn’t sure how to make it simpler for him using the toy as a reward. I came back to it 20 minutes later and used treats. You’ll see that I lured him around a little to give him the idea. I hope that was ok. He was very excited to play!

Thanks so much!

[Kathy McClung]

>It is really interesting!! There is a high percentage of dogs that turn the same way their tail goes. We have to take out the answers from all the people who have dogs that do not have the curled-over tail set LOL!!!>
This is so cool! I saw a few people with minds blown like ours were! There really did seem to be a lot of dogs that turn the same way their tail curls. It is really cool just training a dog with a tail – haha! It is such a big communication element.

We took a few days off but are back to it now ☺
I made sure to do one more session of the Stealth Self Control with another novel neutral item before we move to the next step. When he noticed it, he BIG noticed it and I’m kind of blocking your view in the video. He didn’t seem upset just very much like “WHAAAAAAA is THAAAAAAAA?”

We did the parallel path game. A couple pups stopped in to say “hi!”
I may have treated for too low a criteria? But he seemed to do better as we went along.

We did countermotion – I think he did good! It was a challenge to move away before he started back towards me – he was moving fast.

Thanks for being so fun!

[Kathy McClung]

I feel so science-y!!!! I am following along and it looks like a lot of dogs turn to the same side as their tail. SO INTERESTING!!!
Thanks for posting!!!

[Kathy McClung]

>Nacho’s tail hangs to his left… and he turns left! You might be on to something!!>

OMG!!!! We need to do studies & take polls!!! This is my first real tail!!! LOL

[Kathy McClung]

>One interesting thing on this session is that he turned to his right on every single rep. Why was it interesting? Well, normally the dogs turn towards us based on which side we are on for this game. The right turns were all away from you! So, maybe the is Lew-speak for “I am a righty”.
>

INTERESTING!!!!

I have been wondering, for dogs with a curled tail, have you noticed when they are “righties or lefties” for turning does it match up to which side their tail curls towards? Lew’s addresses to the right!

[Kathy McClung]

Thank you – I’m excited for the next set of games!

We just did a session of Toy Races today and we both had fun! He didn’t care about me holding his harness and he was really into running for he toy! It was a great way to end the weekend 🙂

[Kathy McClung]

Good morning!
I tired cheddar cheese bits and he ate them ☺ Fingers crossed he thinks cheese is yummy for a long time!
Here are a lot of videos from the last 2 days – sorry for the avalanche!

We tried the Fold It In game again with food & toys. Thanks for the suggestions:

>You can hold your hand point a little longer before you let him go – at this point it is to pair the hand point as the cue for the forward focus. As the bowl gets to harder spots, the hand will actually cue him to focus forward (so hold him until you see where he is looking).>

>One thing you can do is hold the other end of the toy and when he is moving towards it, you can start sliding it for him to chase. That will be more exciting as a reward than the dead toy.>

Bowl & food
He was really into the food. I hope I was able to point a little longer. He was pretty focused on getting to the bowl as soon as the treat went in.

Toys
Moving the toy definitely helped but he was thinking about food after a few reps. I played tug with him in between. Maybe the “out cookies” were too distracting.

Wing wraps
I added a little more distance between me & the barrel. He did sneak through a few times but he mostly got it.

We did another session of Plankrobatics with the treat tossed ahead. I think this helped to keep him looking forward & where he was going & not at me.

We did another session of the outside prop game after a couple days off. He was really excited to see the prop. I think he was a little more confident about moving away towards it this time.

Thanks so much!!!

[Kathy McClung]

Hello!

>I admit to snorting in laughter when he almost feel over driving to the bowl when you were letting go of his harness LOL! I guess he likes treats LOL!>
He was so wild!!! Thanks for the great ideas for the next session of this. I’ll set it up tomorrow if all goes well.

>Or, if you have access to a longer plank, get him running across it to see how feels with the wind in his hair 🙂>

I set up a longer plank. I kept it low for this session but I’ll raise it up for the next one. There was a really cool moment after the session when we were out in the yard with the other dogs. I caught him out of the corner of my eye prance up the length of the plank on his own, just enjoying it. It is so cool to see them enjoy doing the thing just to do the thing. I think he was having a moment of feeling “cool”. 🙂

We did another session of prop sends. There was some neighbor noise going on and it distracted him a bit. When we moved to the other side of the prop, it was hard for him at first but then he seemed to get back in the groove. I feel like he’s really going to need this skill. How do you think he is doing on this one? Is there anything I can do to make it better for him?

GOAT Games – movement
We got out the wobble board. It is a pretty gentle wobble. He was fine with the movement. The sound was cushioned with the yoga mats. I’ll try it on the floor next. I suspect he may notice the sounds. He is pretty tuned-in to sounds. I won’t say sensitive necessarily, but he listens, assesses & reacts to sound quickly. So maybeeeee he is sound sensitive?

We have been working on toy play and reinforcement strategies. Mostly we are working on tug and out, the 2 toys game, and some retrieves and “get it” for thrown treats on the ground. With food from the hand, I think need to add a verbal. (decisions, decisions to pick one!) He has been pretty good about switching from toys to food & back so far. I’m keeping the treat value at a medium (not steak!) I’m so happy he has a medium treat since it was all or nothing before. I wish he would eat string cheese – I love your suggestion about shreds being safer for him as far as choking. I’m going to give it another try since he seems to be into developing his palate these days! hahaha

Thanks for all the help!!!

• This reply was modified 4 months, 2 weeks ago by Kathy McClung.

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