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Finally had a handling session working on the rear crosses with the prop that felt GOOD this week. (Had one yesterday on that same town green where she worked so well last time, but this time she left working to go jump on a person, so we won’t be able to work off leash in public any more 😔). I guess still more than two “failures” so I should have done more just going with her on the parallel path?
(You can hear my timer going off at the end, but since we stopped for a play break in the middle I went a little past it)Went easy on myself today and did some proprioception work. I felt the Shpile exercise would be relatively easy for us, easy enough I almost didn’t video. I noticed at the beginning though she actually left food to go to her toy. I don’t think she was actually avoiding the shpile, or apprehensive about putting her feet on the things, but just working out managing her arousal in order to do so? Just wanted to see what you thought about it. She certainly improved through the session, so I’m not worried.
I like the reset cookie for handling errors. I will definitely try that! If nothing else it will give me time to process while not causing BIG MAD feelings! I knew it was a long session, but there was that pressure of “we’re several weeks behind” and good weather days are few and far between so I wanted to feel like maybe we at least made a little progress from our one turn and burn session a week or so ago. Then add in it was just a rough day on many fronts and I probably should have just not trained a dog that day!
As for the noises, yes there were some gun shots, but also there was an agility class going on inside the barn so there was also a teeter banging, which I think sounds much louder on the video than it was in real life.
Not the greatest session today. I think I tried to add too many things at once, feeling so far behind! I have done some (unvideoed) sessions of turn and burn and collection sandwich, so tried putting some of that together in the “handling combos” exercise (which never became combos, we didn’t really even get baby level). This is not our home location, but it is where she learned “turn and burn”, and using the same obstacle. This was definitely a lot for her brain, you can see she even left working at the end to go try to see a friend (who was close to 100’ away and with two fences in between us). Adding the left, right and go on verbals was new for her (and the left verbal is a completely new word for me, chose to keep right “tight tight” which is what I’ve used for all tight turns towards me and left is “ski ski”).
I was trying to leave way too early, to try to prepare to do some combos but clearly she isn’t ready for that. But I still got way more failures than I liked, and at the end I tried to get some easy wins with being right up close to the obstacle with the toy right there as well and by then she was just fried and as you saw she left working, so I quit there. So I guess I’d love hints on how to make progress and keep up without over facing? I struggle to keep sessions short enough and the success rate high and still add even 1-2 reps of anything new.No video, but the sit is going well. One session of doing some sits on a narrow plank got her posture fixed (it was on the list to do, just hadn’t gotten there) and it transferred over to her offered sits with this exercise. I did some judging yesterday and she got to play the sit stay game for a toy during lunch (so people eating about 20’ away) and in the ring while breaking down at the end of the day (so people moving equipment around). Distractions don’t seem to be much of an issue for her once she goes into “work” mode. Thank you to her working border collie lines!
Did another prop game session today. Tried to add in some rear crosses, but not sure she’s driving ahead enough for them. I found myself trying to “help” send her forward since she was stopping when I started to cross a few times, which I don’t think is the goal of this exercise.
Well day 2 with the stays went much better. I guess 3 sessions spaced throughout the day weren’t enough for latent learning to set in, she needed overnight. The carpet wasn’t really that slippery, it’s about as non slip as it’s going to get for indoor footing. I think the sliding was yes, the front feet moving, but also some muscle memory; in the first session when I was waiting for her to offer a sit, she just stood there staring at me. So I moved close to the bed on one side of the room, since she knows to get on there and “switch off” and go into a sit or down to settle there, and the sit is generally sloppy with no core muscles firing, so she rocks back and slides into a down. (When I have a dog in rehab that just wants to round their back, my go to is high feeding, so that’s why I was rewarding that way in the previous video.) I captured a few sits that she offered on the bed and once she caught on to that, moved away from the bed, but I was still getting the “melting” switched off sits. But she figured it out overnight and this session went much better. I still caught myself a few times saying the word as I raised the hand to throw so will now need to make sure I do the pause.
I also tried the stealth self control on the cone exercise again and I think it went better? I think it was the rep at 1:10 where it was really obvious when she looked at the line.
Speaking of reward placement, struggling with the sit stay. Honestly I hadn’t taught her a sit yet as I usually like puppies to have some core strength before asking for that. I had thought that she was just about ready to start it, but maybe not? I usually reward initial attempts with nose nice and high to encourage good posture. This was our third attempt today at this and in the first session I had to have her on her bed since that’s the only place she would offer a sit at all. But she really wanted to down. I was trying in the first session or two to reward the sit with a cookie toss or some sort of release, but I was still getting lots of downs. So in this session I decided she needed some reinforcement of the correct position/posture and used her duration/stillness marker “good”, and even still, if I didn’t give the marker as soon as her butt touched down, she was going into a down. I don’t think she’s so very whippety that she can’t sit, to me it just looks like she doesn’t have enough core strength to maintain it. My thinking is put this exercise away and work to improve the posture in the sit so she can hold it more comfortably before revisiting, or just work this exercise with a down? The concept of holding the position should transfer to the sit.
And a little strike a pose session. Couldn’t seem to remember to get my feet turned the right way. The reward in my hand was some pretty boring kibble.
(Oh, the “it’s so terrible to be you” comment is towards my other dog whining ever so quietly and pathetically in a crate!)
Do you think the change in her behavior could have just been how reinforcing “get it” (chase the moving cookie) is compared to “yes” (take a cookie from my hand with maybe a sore mouth)? That she slowed down upon hearing “yes” anticipating coming to my hand?
I guess what I worry about with all these marker cues is that I put all the effort into teaching them and learning them myself, only to use them correctly only 70% of the time in training sessions (while also training with worse physical mechanics because I’m trying to remember words), maybe 50% of the time in real life situations and any one else who interacts with her is likely to use them correctly 0% of the time. Do they still have as much value as general marker cues if the dog can’t actually predict anything based on them any way?
Cold wet day, but managed a toasty warm indoor session this morning and a session on a town green before the rain at lunch time.
Stealth self control with novel exciting object-
Poor kid has a loose tooth bothering her. All her other teeth so far fell out without seeming to cause an issue, but one canine is hanging on while the adult one is coming in and that one seems sore. In this session I was trying to warm her up with toy play and she stopped abruptly and was licking the left side of her face. I spent a minute or so (edited out) verifying it was a tooth, then returned to gentle play since she seemed to want to, ready to abort and just go to food if needed. I’ve worked a little bit on some fitness stuff with the food container open and next to me on the floor (all with me sitting and readily able to cover it), and that blew her mind for several sessions. So I expected me standing up with it open for the first time would be really difficult, but no issue at all. She even tugged, sore tooth and all, while I moved it some. She even nearly stepped on it at one point and never tried to take any, so good girl! Whippet reading ahead a few chapters again lol.Prop games on the town green, completely unleashed in a public place! (Pretty far from cars though, but they can be seen and heard easily)
I forgot about the tooth and tried to warm up with some tugging, which again ended abruptly with her licking and pawing the side of her face. I thought best in a public place to not take a chance that her tooth would hurt and that she’d try to leave the game unexpectedly and just go to food. So did some cookie throws to get her arousal back up then did some forward sends, sideways sends, a few backwards, but mostly adding lateral distance. I didn’t do a great job using the right marker cues, but oh well, she got a cookie for a job well done each time any way. I didn’t do much countermotion as I didn’t feel like she was really INTO it with the tooth, the cold and wet weather, distractions, etc. Felt like she wanted to play, but with a little more support so the lateral distance seemed the most appropriate.I feel pretty pleased with both these sessions!
Backing up… this is my JAM! (I’m a rehab vet, and it’s one of my bread and butter exercises, but even I missed some opportunities to reward in this session!) Had not touched this fitness exercise yet, so you are seeing 100% her first introduction to this, but she has done some front and rear foot targeting on a plank. She is quite a bit longer than I anticipated and I was a tiny bit out of room, I would honestly have set up the other way in the room if I wasn’t trying to film it. I also should have been quicker to scatter in some of her breaks.
You are correct, she offered the wrap before I offered the food. So far, she has NEVER turned down food that has been offered. LOVES food.
And at the end I let her keep the toy for a bit, just wander around with it while I turned off the camera and picked things up to go inside. I tried to pick up the semi-abandoned toy and she kept trying to re-engage/bite my arm, which is when I remembered I intended to food scatter and yes she happily did so and then came inside easily.
I can definitely try dialing back the motion if she needs it next time on this exercise. I might also try just taking the tug part off of the Holee Roller (the one I made myself by attaching a fleece tug to a plain Holee Roller ball) since she seems to want to target that part instead of the ball itself. For tugging games, I’ll keep the handle attached since she likes it, but for throwing games or anything where she’s getting it off the ground I’ll take that part off because it will be easier for her to pick up.
Today did some wing wrapping with a big outdoor garbage can. I liked how when I asked her to trade the toy for boring kibble she skipped taking the kibble and offered going around the barrel instead. I had kibble on me for a food scatter at the end, but I’ll be sure to have a higher value treat as well for trading. She’s starting to figure out “give” (my release cue) but I don’t want to overuse it for these exercises with high number of reps, so want to keep using “trade”.
Great idea with “gimme a second” cookie for when I can’t get the toy out. Holee roller toys are tough to stash on your body for training.
Today I worked on some toy races, which surprisingly didn’t go as well as I would have thought. After just a few forward sends to the toy, I muffed up what I was supposed to throw first on my first attempt. Then with the racing part she did beat me there, but overran the toy so I was able to grab it the first time, let her come back to get it the second (so she wouldn’t get discouraged/frustrated and start biting), and the third she choked on a cookie right when she caught up and passed me so I got the toy and some biting ensued. So I abandoned the cookie throw and did a push back like you did with Crusher and she beat me and grabbed it cleanly so I quit there. I would put overrunning the toy when they are trying that hard to beat you in the same category of just not focusing on the task at hand correct? And we should avoid setting them up to do that repeatedly?
Worked some of the Decel exercise that I seem to struggle with and managed to get her to stop nice and straight after the first one. I didn’t have a cookie in my hand, it was just a target.
I will likely use a forward focus cue… Roots especially needs one to help with his start line stress (worries about the dogs behind him, but giving him a job to do and focusing on the jump REALLY helps). Not sure Beat will have that same need, but it was easy to teach.
Here is some of the prop work that fell through the cracks before we left. She struggled to recognize the prop when it was her first time seeing it outside last time, and I worried that she hadn’t seen it in weeks, but after a brief reminder she was all about it. It’s that whippet latent learning you keep talking about!
Also a little plank work. I really expected her to struggle with this, and I had a back up plan for something lower to put it on if she needed it. A few days ago she would have looked like your demo video with CB, but on our trip we did lots of “hop on the thing for a picture” on benches, logs, rocks, etc and I think she did her “latent learning” on that.
