Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
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.
