Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Ah! I get it now, the “get it” is marking where their eyes are going, the “release” is literally letting them go in this case. And helpful to know about delaying the marker if needed, that also clarifies it for me.
Worked a little of some goat tricks this afternoon. Sorry about the longish video, but it’s several things in one really. Getting on the wobbly disc, I was afraid with her high center of gravity and long legs (as opposed to my bulldozer shaped terriers) that this would be too much movement, but I think it was the right level of challenge? It was definitely work to get all her legs on but didn’t look too shaky once she was on.
Then I worked the crinkly packing material and the noise didn’t bother her I don’t think, but when I was done and put it off to the side she didn’t like it moving, sort of like the trash can the other night. She’s had a few instances of knocking over baby gates and things around the house that probably has her a little spooked. I tried to just play through it?
I think there’s a bit of me digging cookies out of my pocket while tugging, but can’t remember now if I cut that out.
After a big day visiting my parents (and their VERY barky, pushy Spitz) for Thanksgiving, then a nice long nap to recharge she came home looking pretty game so we did some of the SSC on a cone wrap. Didn’t go much beyond baby level, mostly because I had a question about the advanced level. If you are using “get it” (“dish” or “toy toy” for me here depending on if it’s a food bowl or toy) if there is a direct line to the reinforcer why wouldn’t you expect them to skip the obstacle and take the reinforcer? Is this why you were using your hand to mark the line you wanted? I feel like without some sort of cue to take the “obstacle” I wouldn’t want the dog to be rehearsing grabbing obstacles that aren’t cued, or when something else is cued. At this stage can we just rely on that free hand indicating the line to BE the cue to take the obstacle/cone since the obstacle/cone does not have a verbal cue yet?
“Look at your baby dog doing big blind cross recalls in a giant field with every opportunity to do other things available to her… but she was choosing the game with you!”
We won’t talk about what happened when I leashed her up after this and went to leave said field and a couple of kids with a soccer ball came in right after us. Brain explosion! 💥 (Second time this trip kids with a soccer ball caused her brain to come exploding out of her ears, also happened when I tried to take her and Roots for a walk through a public park for some leg stretching).
Still traveling, caught some of tonight’s zoom on some terrible hotel wifi. Didn’t find anywhere for them to romp off leash today, and she was needing some toy play, so I did some of the back and forth and wrapping a trash can for toys. Only thing that felt somewhat safe on the slippery hotel floor. Then a little collar grab, and you can kinda see how I am trying to shape her to offer putting her collar in my hand.
Have not even looked at the week 2 material yet, forget week 3. Knew I’d end up way behind with the Open in the middle of this course, but oh well.
Wild at Heart is where I bought that toy! She does seem to prefer the one I had at home that is her brother’s color. She’s currently shoving it at me and Pick (he thinks Holee Rollers are gross, like all of my terriers have). But the dog chooses the reinforcer so I’ll use that one.
This was another session I did Friday afternoon out in the field doing the blind crosses and one rep of the decel exercise. Haven’t done any more specific training sessions with her as brain power for each of us is becoming limited, which I’m sure it is for you too!
Tiny bit windy to set up a camera and I had some time at my AirBnB, so played around with the goat trick on a pillow. Only distraction was Pick who found the game a bit exciting, released once when I brought out the toy toy, and then the second time he jumped off was to get a cookie he dropped that I had given him. Beat worked through her brother jumping practically on top of her (twice) quite well!
Left in a bit at the end of just playing with her and she did some nice retrieves. I prefer the longer toys too, but this one was in her colors soooo… priorities. I can attach a leash to it I think.
Yeah, I probably could find something easier to use, but this was what I had close by… gotta conserve those steps!
And the blind cross exercise was exactly what I did today. Worked in the same area again with similar distractions, but off leash and for toy toy this time. She was slightly offended at first when her cheese was dirty, but got over that fast. Watching this back I needed to throw the cookie further or get further ahead since I didn’t give myself much room to get the blind done, but again, I was mostly working out how much I can trust her around these distractions as her tendency when out just leash walking is to want to greet everyone, but I guess once she’s working she’s pretty focused. (For now, adolescence is coming of course!) I can go out to a big field where I know I can trust her (and know I won’t suddenly find myself in the way of traffic or running directly into someone) tomorrow and see if I can do another exercise with some speed and distance. Maybe where the old grass rings were.
Great exercise for a hot day where I can sit down! Not sure if she’s still doing a little too much staring at my hands? I didn’t have any noisy bowls or treats so had to make do with plastic bowls and meatballs broken into chunks. We have worked this with metal bowls and kibble at home before this session, so she had some idea of what the game was about, but this was a lot of distractions, not to mention it was HOT!
Took a break from packing for Florida and did some work outside with Beat. I did notice with her what you had mentioned about the pups not wanting their collar grabbed and tried to just orient to her like you said. I just started teaching her to target her neck/collar/harness to my hand on cue for this (more for emergency recapture when hiking off leash, but would work for this as well), but it’s not quite ready for this scenario yet. Got a little more keep away with the toy than I’d like, she’s usually not bad about it, but this was a brand new toy she’d never had before, so of COURSE it was super high value!
I tried to do some decel coming into the handler work, but got mixed up which hand you wanted us to reward with (from the blind cross exercise) and it was super sloppy. Also tried some work with the prop game but she’s never played that outside and it blew her mind. Will see if we get a chance to do anything at the Open or if we will just have to catch up after we get back. Sigh. So much to do with a puppy!
Question about marker cue for the driving ahead game. The idea here is to teach them the concept that they CAN drive ahead of us, especially if we give them a verbal cue that supports some object/obstacle ahead of them, not that “get it” becomes the cue to drive ahead correct? So we would just be using the cue that means grab your toy (Toy toy for me) and not our drive ahead cue (go-on-go for me)?
Does this position work for the nose target?
And holy heck she’s been on a growth spurt since Friday!
“and when it happens everyone in the world can hear her!“
Yup, I witnessed this! 😆 Pretty sure I was there when the ex pen panel blew over near her at Riverside a few weeks ago. Didn’t even touch her, but she made me think she was being crushed to death! I think John was there, not you.
Thanks for the info on sighthounds vs terriers! Everyone keeps telling me I have to be prepared for her to act like a BC, and I’m like, yeah, I don’t see it yet.
Her parents were both pretty small, mom was a 23# Whippet, and dad was a 33# BC (tiny for a male!) but even within those breeds, pretty sure small parents can have big offspring. And of course, right after I was commenting here and on my FB page about her still being smaller than my Rats, I looked at her yesterday morning and said “you grew overnight”. She’s officially taller than my smallest one and even with my middle one now so will see where she ends up. If she winds up in the middle of her parents’ ranges for weight, she will weigh pretty much the same as the terriers though (mine are 23-27 lb). Regardless, I oohed and ahhed at that stack in that video too 😉
As for markers, my “yes” is a release/end of behavior marker. I’ve done Rachel Pearson’s stimulus control stuff, and while I’m terribly inconsistent with the markers in every day life (and why I kinda dislike the idea, but see that it’s useful) I do try to be consistent with them in training sessions. I would use “good” as the marker if I wanted her to stay in position to be fed. I guess I do have a “get it” cue for a thrown cookie, but I think I mostly use it when they are already looking at me?
For the nose marker, I’ve been working on a chin target behavior with a Tupperware lid (to be able to teach a head flat on the floor trick) recently and wanted this to look different which is why I held it that way.
