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We tried out the lazy game today in the living room, since the only fenced area we have is uneven and Djinn tends to get the zoomies. I had to get creative with the jumps because I have a garage sale set that is apparently missing some of the pieces (lol) and we also are remodeling the living room (aka my training room).
Djinn unfortunately has a little shoulder injury that we’re rehabbing, so I’ll stay away from any actual jumps and try to keep her training as low impact as possible. If it’s alright with you, I may swap her mom out in some videos so I can get feedback on the concepts and my training if it’s something she shouldn’t be doing.
We did some practice of the pre game 2 tonight. This one was very hard for her! We have been working on basic stays but only with food or no motivator. I realized that going all the way to the ground was too hard for her so I started with a stay and having me put it most of the way down – I hope that was the right choice but let me know if there is something better to build up that stay.
We did get a few good ones at the end, some not on camera. This one is going to need a lot more stay practice and practice before we can progress to other levels. It’s nice that she has such a high drive for the toy though!
I’m finally done with a month and a half of travel (work and dog related) so I have more time to record videos and train.
We worked on the very first pre-exercise today.
First I wanted to show how we are having some extreme excitement when it comes to training time. I’ve been trying two things to manage this. One, I only approach, acknowledge her if she is calm (ish) and not barking. Two, I’ve been working on her settling when I’m working with other dogs. We still have a ways to go haha – she came out of the playpen hot and even knocked me over when I tried to sit on my “chair”
Open to your recommendations on other things I can add in to tempering that explosion of energy.
This first round she is getting the wraps super well but did NOT like me holding onto her collar. She is a little more comfortable with it by our second try.
Don’t mind the wailing in the background, her brother just got neutered with a slightly more invasive surgery (retained testicle) and is very unhappy that he’s on crate rest and the other dogs are training 🙁 he did get to do some snuffle mat work before this
I had one question about the winter camp that was advertised – if I bought one spot, could I try it with my older dog and if she’s not ready yet (we’ve only been working on herding competitions, no formal agility training) would it be ok if I switched back to Djinn for the videos?
Here’s our practice from last nights class. We only got a few reps in since we were doing it with a toy but Djinn thought it was great fun!
Djinn is in an “attack everything in sight” phase, and also seems to have built value in “if the person puts something on the ground, I should interact with it” which made me have to switch from a pool noodle to a less exciting bar lol. I wanted to share the blooper because it shows her “parkour” behavior too – yes she seems to thing that’s what I want but she also does this all the time off the bed/couch/stairs/anything. Great for the future but right now I’m trying to discourage jumping on things and launching off them to protect her joints – open to your suggestions!
Head turning training – I had the same issue as some of the live participants where my pole is a bit too long to sit down so her head is a bit up. I will find another solution.
Djinn has been having some major tummy troubles, so I’m having to limit the amount of treat rewards training. I’ll be going through the exercises and making a list of all the toy-based ones until she’s feeling better.
I did a bit of backing up sitting using your recommendation. I think I still need to have the mat farther. She’s obviously built value on the mat but still not quite shaping the behavior yet.
I got a toy that protects my flesh and we’re building up a better tug. She still likes to pounce/chase/pin more than she does a full on tug but she obviously loves the toy and my hands like being scratch-free.
I tried practicing some parallel path with a toy instead – mostly we just fumbled around but we got one good run in:
Djinn got really worked up after this session and had a hard time calming down again – panting and pacing around her playpen. I gave her a bully stick and she finally settled down and chewed. My takeaway is have something ready for her to chew after a session especially if she seems amped up.
Since you requested, here is a video of a roomba ride and also a fun video of them exploring the roomba for one of the first times
On Tuesday in class you asked if we had any general puppy behavior issues and I couldn’t think of any then, but then I remembered that I have demand barkers and “FOMO screamers” as I call it. Djinn demand barks and also will bark if she knows that I am out with her mom in the yard – I’d love to hear your opinion on how to address that. I generally wait until she stops yelling to give he what she wants. Here’s her doing it because she knows I’m going to set up to train:
Backing up: I think I’m struggling with the mechanics of this. I tried a few different things like placing the treat in a different way but she likes to circle instead of back away from me after eating the treat. She likes to circle in general so I’m looking forward to your feedback!
Parallel path work: Took me some time to figure out the mechanics and I’m going to need to find a bigger space to practice in! She got the idea though!
We did some tugging practice too. She likes to use her little paws a lot and scratches me a bunch trying to grab the toy with her front paws. Aside from wearing gloves, what are some suggestions to build up a better tug with less hand shredding?
Goat tricks part 2: She clearly had it down very quickly so I switched to a more challenging prop. I did Puppy Culture with these puppies so they were riding roombas and climbing all over everything at like six weeks old, so she thinks this is extremely fun. She definitely had to do some thinking about interacting with the new prop at first!
Goat tricks 3: I didn’t have a platform like you had in the videos so I did a slightly smaller version – I can work on building something better later on. She enthusiastically got the concept all though at first she though “attack it” was the right answer
Building tugging: I didn’t see your video at first so in retrospect I will try with only two toys haha. Djinn doesn’t bite and grip like her brother or her mom does, she doesn’t bite and tug hard. Any suggestions for some toys more like you use on your videos/links to buy them?
The “headphones” toy is one of her brother and mom’s favorite to tug with but she doesn’t seem to clamp down, she more wants to chase.
Wing wrap foundations try 1: Had a few good wraps here, and then she remembered that I put the beloved hedgehog toy away behind us and had to go get it. I put the toy bins up after this
Wing wrap foundations try 2: Since toys are EXTREMELY EXCITING I tried using treats instead. She was a lot slower and sometimes didn’t hear the treat drop, so I moved the bowls further out
Djinn does everything EXTREMELY FAST which is fun, and I also have to be so fast with my rewards. I think she could probably be moving faster in progression than I am but she’s being very kind to me lol
Hey Tracy! I’m just putting this here in case you know of anyone. I had a puppy that got sent back due to the owner’s health issues. He is Djinn’s brother (not Quest). Super high drive, awesome working ethic little guy. Let me know if you know of anyone who would be interested in him! I want to make sure he goes into a sport home.
Thanks Tracy! We’ll try to take training outside this weekend before more snow comes – the snow was a bit deep for us to play outside this week.
I had another question – I’m really liking this course and I’ve always wanted to do agility with my dogs (obviously they love the concepts from it) but there’s not a lot of resources for me to do it in my town. Do you think I’d be able to practice remotely and learn enough to be able to travel to compete or do workshops?
Blind cross practice. I struggled with the mechanics of this first when I tried a few weeks ago and then re-watched and practiced without a dog and now I get it a lot more (still not sure how it applies to agility since I know pretty much nothing yet!) Djinn seems to get it!
She seems to be doing good at switching between the toy and the treat too and was very focused this session
Backing up practice – I taught her mom the “head up” way. I was wondering aside from mechanics wise, what’s not good about that? (I also forgot to put brother in his crate for this session oops)
Strike a pose. Djinn obviously loves the target but sometimes (as you can see) she runs back part way and looks at me funny before she will touch:
Other hand. Sometimes she “Leaves the building” while we’re training lol. She’ll be super focused and doing great and then all of the sudden just run off – this time it might have been because of the other dogs barking
We are still playing catch-up and tried the first goat games tonight. The very first session went pretty well although I am still resisting the temptation to lure as that is how I taught Djinn’s mom
The second round didn’t go as well, I tried to give her a 10 minute break, work with her brother and come back. She seemed almost scared of the prop so I will try it again another day.
I had an issue with her brother (I didn’t video since I only have one spot) where he was so amped up with the toy that he wasn’t interested in the prop. I put the toy away and he frantically looked for it instead of being interested in treats. So that’s something to work through!
Week one videos.
Resilience walk. We’ve done quite a lot of these as I like to have my dogs comfortable in all sorts of situations. Djinn is pretty bombproof and seems to enjoy new environments (and being called shorty by strangers) very much!
Pre game 2. This was actually very first session of her practicing this. She understood the assignment immediately.
Baby level building sends:
Driving forward outdoors. I will put her on a harness next time, she’s a slippery little ferret and we need to work on her being comfortable with me holding her back, looking forward to your tips on that.
We can get good distance but I still cannot follow/run after her. She will either go flat or leave the toy and run away.
