Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Hi Tracy,
Thanks for the feedback! I think the lefts and rights work is on track to sort itself out (hopefully even in my dyslexic brain!).
Obi tried the ZigZag, and thought it was pretty easy. I’ll add distance and more jumps when we get to our yard:
We’ll be working the serpentines next, I think 🙂 we thought we got strike a pose in max pup 1, but teenage brain evaporated that. So we’ll go back to those games for quick refresh.
Cheers,
MThanks for the feedback Tracy, we gave it a second try with the verbal before release from collar grab, and tossing a cookie to help with brain explosions. I realized I switched the order from your suggestion – said the verbal first then tossed the cookie on the away turn. Oops.
What was really interesting is that he was resisting the collar grab when it was time for turn away turns and wanted to line up on the other side of the jump. ‘Um, you are totally wrong lady’ attitude :)! The cookie tosses were super effective in helping get over that hump.
I always try to end a session with something he finds very easy to make him feel extra successful. So we went back to the easy sides.
Did we do this kind of proofing for the wing wraps? I feel like we didn’t, but could have missed it!
Thanks a ton for walking us through this!
Mariela & Obi
Thanks for the tips and detailed feedback, Tracy!
We tried a Mini-Pinny verbals session with our makeshift travel agility setup 😅 The mountains got a couple of feet of snow, so we are taking the pups on a few days of advenutre.
I started Obi with right turns because those are definitely clearer for him. He has more trouble with left turns and left wraps. His brain exploded a bit 🤯
Let me know what you think?
p.s. Isaw the moving towel and footing after the recording, will move to entirely non slippery floor setup.
We followed up with a wing to wrap the pup around! We had a bit of a fun wild time with that (I like that we had 6 combinations of what to do with these). We stopped by our local baker on the way back from the hike, so Obi was thrilled to have some baguette pieces to chase, too 😅.
Here is one thing that I do catch myself thinking about a lot — trying to make sure I get the blind cross in BEFORE he catches up to me. Once he is by my side it seems very hard to switch. Is this the right attitude? (Skye *rarely* needs blinds, so I have very little practice with them).
Thanks for shepherding us along, Tracy! 🙂
Happy weekend, Tracy!
>> remind me how old he is? That helps direct the plan because we can’t do a ton with a large breed boy puppy til he is physically mature. I think we want to start showing either jump bumps (rather than bars on the ground) or low bars. We can start at 4” to test out if we have the right distances, and then see how he does.
Obi is 11 months now! I’m not sure where to get jump bumps, but I can make some out of pvc + pool noodles (DIY ftw!). Already ordered the noodles 😀
Thanks for the feedback on the class criteria, too!
———————————————————————————
Here’s our second try at the pill bug game, with a bit of rain but that’s not the reason for my lack of coordination. Lots of things happening at once/quickly and I think I just need to go run circles by myself before involving Obi 🙂More specifically I see myself hesitating to make sure he is on one side of me and somehow try to observe as he switches over as I make the cross. On the blinds I also don’t give him much room to run between me and the tunnel. Whoops!
I appreciate your thoughts!
MHi Tracy!!
Bit of a windy day today, sorry for the sound 🙂 Here’s the set point game with a toy, and Obi says it is much more fun with a lotus ball.
It’s really fun to see the games pay off in class, we got better sends to tunnels and wraps with the verbals and I managed a blind cross (I dislike blind crosses).
In class he jumps with a bar during the “sequence runs”. Should I be dropping the bar completely or let him do it at this height? The class already does A-frames but Obi has suicidal jumping tendencies so I’m skipping those until he gets his head on straight and we get our handling rhytm — it wouldn’t be a problem to ask for the bars down.
Thanks for your feedback!
(p.s. love that class is on Wednesdays now so we can tune in, we were always out on Tuesday nights for MaxPup1)
Hi Tracy,
Obi and I had a brainstorming session with Wind in your hair and your feedback.
He thinks that the MM is a slow and boring tease, and the Ready Treat is more his speed, so we switched to that. I feel like it’s also a good way to eventually get him to understand “later” while I load it and have us walk away (so hard!).
He also feels like looking for tossed tiny (and god forbid — dark colored) treats in the grass needs careful observation of my throwing arm. So we went shopping for cheese balls, which are big enough for him to see easily and get a “holy amazing cheese balls” response.
I’d love to be able to run with a toy too while he focuses ahead, so that will be the next thing we do. I’ll have the Ready Treat and his favorite lotus ball both loaded with cheese balls and alternate as you suggested.
Speaking of toys, he gets super duper excited when the toys do have some food in them. He retrieves, tugs and is happy to have me open them or trade them for a treat. I’m struggling at keeping *just toys* exciting for him (especially in a distracting environment) Any tips on how to work that transition?
Thanks!!
MarielaHi Tracy!
Hope you had a lovely weekend!
I lead out to the MM on the Set Point game today — some progress there:
I played the smiley face game with some distance added between the tunnel and wings.
Today Obi was definitely more distracted, because there was a toy and a MM in the general vicinity and perhaps something else. We did a tugging toy / sniffy breaks between the two sessions and we were out for no more than 10 min in total but hey it is what it is. I screwed up a right turn and turned it into a wrap too, oops! I made him super successful in the end of the session with the easiest asks. At the end of the video you’ll see us playing the game yesterday and we were hopping 🙂
Watching the videos again shows me I have to be extra patient with his tunnel commitment (practice that separately with the wrap/vs tunnel game?). The countermotion pulls him off the tunnel 🙂
We added distance and used a toy for the Wind in your hair game yesterday. Countermotion pulled him off the wing wrap too, oops!
Thanks for the feedback!!
MarielaThanks for the feedback! I think he will let me lead up to the MM for the set point game 🙂 I wish I could toss cookies reliably to him but he is being a typical Berner on that one and terrible at catching, so the cookie usually ends up on the ground and its sniff fest 😀 He’s got a reliable X (if I say this stay in your place and I’ll give you cookies), so I walk over to where he is to keep him in position.
We did another session of the wrap/tunnel discrimination this morning and he was flawless <3 sleep and latent learning FTW!
Here’s a couple of contexts for the moving target pre-game:
inside: https://youtu.be/7VoIPPTUHaI?si=EgUqBbdTFSpbqP1k
outside: https://youtu.be/TU5O0i5RCMc?si=F8L6i0NPwodEMQg_I keep bouncing around with my verbals, as I’m trying to teach him “later” in a separate context, but also wanted to engage him at home (hence the “ready”). So it becomes a “stay” “later” “ready” “okay” “get it” word soup. I think it should be just “stay” -> “get it”?
The smiley face game is super fun: https://youtu.be/A4jx9FoUnaU?si=dd5KHmbraqlldtd_
Don’t have a left/right verbal yet, so we’ll go back to MaxPup1 to refresh + get those in. (we did the minny-pinny, but no words :D)p.s. toy retrieve (not that it is super reliable with him) is paying off in surprising contexts, today he found a dead squirrel deep in the woods and brought it to me to trade for a ton of cookies. I was very proud and throughly disgusted at the same time.
Hi Tracy,
We got the class games in:
Wind in your hair: https://youtu.be/G51VpPUReRc?si=KcBxXHuZQoCAFE6T
I feel like my timing with the cookie toss isn’t ideal — should be throwing it when he looks at the jump and commits but I’m slow a lot of the time.Wrap proof: https://youtu.be/nloRjJLUrd8?si=_XzFNTt6Bhc4s3pA
This one was a lot of fun.Set point: https://youtu.be/lQCOIvqftfg?si=xyj3q7zJA9O4lKGC
I think having the treat dispenser leads to the trotting? I also forgot that I was supposed to lead all the way out before releasing and not moving (ops :)) Will try that way tomorrow 🙂You see in the video that we live right next to a school, so I often time the chaos of school pick up/drop off with his training sessions.
Hey Tracy,
We are still around! Between the snow, daily hikes, body awareness work and his puppy sports classes, we’ve dropped off on the games. BUT I’ve taken to heart the stay games you have and they are making stay so much fun! And it doesn’t mean we are not going to finish them eventually on our own time — because your videos and notes are wonderful.
Given how much I love your materials which independent study courses would you recommend I follow MaxPup with? And do you have other online classes like this one that are continuations and I should keep an eye on?
Here is our try at the stay with lateral send game:
I also have a recording of our first ‘sequence’ in puppy class. You will see me lose my brain a bit, because this was my first experience of ‘if you get the flatwork fundamentals right, the rest falls in’ so I’m doubling down on games etc 🙂
Contrary to what the video shows, the class is mostly about working around other puppies so we can proof and not really about sequences and courses.
(edit:) Forgot to mention that the resilience games are awesome, I use them a lot especially during the puppy sports class.
Hi Tracy!
Thanks for the help with the teenage/arousal moments <3 To stay sane, I look at my 3 year old and remind myself she was just as much of a punk as Obi is 😅
Here is a few things we did:
Parallel path between uprights:
Strike a pose + uprights
Rocking horse:
Let me know what you think!
-MHey Tracy,
I hope you are having a lovely holiday season!
I wanted to hear your thoughts on one tunnel video which has a lot going on in it (it’s a bit longer, sorry!). This is our second session with the tunnel:
Few observations/questions:
1. The session made me realize Obi is not a fan of being held by the collar and positioned (before the video starts). So I switched to asking for a line up next to me and rewarding with a cookie for that. I’m planning on working on collar asks and having him move while I hold the collar with two fingers (we haven’t done much of that). What do you think?
2. For toy reward he far prefers and really leans into tugging with a toy that has food in it. I would like to have him be excited to tug with anything eventually. Any advice on how to transition to toy only tugging in exciting places? 😬
3. Obi’s arousal/excitement is all jumping up (you can see him trying to take me out). Any ideas on how to channel this? He at least shows self restraint and doesn’t bite into me (we got there by me stopping play and leaving the room/going behind a barrier when he grabbed me).Thanks!!!
Tracy your feedback is super helpful, I’ve slowed down things a bit for us and following up on your on point suggestions.
Off camera, I also had gotten sucked into doing longer sessions with Obi which fried his baby brain! Greedy human… (so tempting to work with him longer, he is so much fun!) We are back to 2 min timers.
In the meantime my partner got a video of what we are up to on the morning forest hikes – it’s got both hind end awareness and some version of plankobatics (but with a tree log) so I figured I’d share it in lieu of those recordings.
