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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.
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!
