[Karena Kosco]

Hi Tracy,

Week 4-threadle and serp 1.

Some very early attempts at the threadle and Serp foundations. While we realized that we had our feet wrong and I have a bending over issue, we wanted to let you watch these for your feedback!

Mike

[Karena Kosco]

Hi Tracy,

Thank you for the feedback on the last video! We will try to train him together this week so one of us can help with the restrain :).

I am feeling better (finally) after my booster (an interesting 2 days of feeling like I had the flu!) and should be able to get back to some training this week.

Here is the video of Karena doing some week 3 prop games. Do you have any suggestions on how to keep his interest here? We are tugging in-between, but are otherwise trying to keep it short. His interest level for these less movement oriented games can waver.

[Karena Kosco]

He just learned to wave and thinks it’s appropriate to offer at random times now! He’s so cute doing it though! I tried the reward the way you suggest but we haven’t had time for the 2 person game yet.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 5 months ago by Karena Kosco.

[Karena Kosco]

Tooth hugs LOL! We have for a toy and treat toss “get it”. Should we have different words for toy versus treat? For taking a treat from my hand I say “be dainty” because he was grabbing so much initially that it just turned into every time he takes a treat I say it. When I want to reward with a toy from my hand I just say tug because usually I am tugging with a tug toy or a holee roller ball. Do you have any verbal suggestions?

[Karena Kosco]

Good morning Tracy. So many fun games this week, I am really enjoying the class so far! Ronan is having fun too but we need to get past the nipping! Mike got his booster and was down for the count yesterday so it’s just me in the videos today.
We worked on teaching collection (part 2) and wing wrap foundations (part 3). This was actually my second wing wrap session with him. The first one was inside and he did quite well but the distance was very short between dog, handler, and wrap object. Like some of the folks in the online class I was a little bit twitchy and he responded to that and would not commit to the wrap. I also was finding it difficult to just send him around and WALK at a 90° angle away from him :). I like to move lol. Earlier before we took this class we did some operant work with him where he was offering going around a cone and that is why he occasionally does that in the video clips. I grabbed some cookies to bring him back to me so he wouldn’t keep doing that. The sandwich game took a few tries for me to get more fluid.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 5 months ago by Karena Kosco.

[Karena Kosco]

Hi Tracy,
Catching up on week 1 decel exercise before moving onto this weeks more difficult exercise.

[Karena Kosco]

Hello! I felt very successful today with Ronan because for the first time while working Ronan I didn’t get any frustration nipping! He was good in that regard all day for me! Today was mainly working on drills based on your suggestions while I caught up viewing yesterday’s online class. I really tried to keep my arm in tight on the blind cross and by the third rep it was back out again! For the backing up exercise, I added a modified wobble board and kept my hands lower. He is getting better at reaching with his rear legs and is more confident. He also backed up straighter 🙂 I got some nice turns on the elevated plank (today was his second time on it).

[Karena Kosco]

Hi Tracy, Mike is away for a day so Ronan was stuck with just me (mom) tonight ;). Thanks for the great feedback- we will continue to work on the driving ahead game making sure that he is running parallel. In viewing the next video series containing the rear cross I can see why that’s important. Mike did do another plank session earlier today but didn’t video. Hoping we can get to that again tomorrow. I used to do the double blind with my Papillion and she was a little bit slower so it was easier to get both side changes in! I will try the tucked arm as you suggest next time. Today’s video shows the 3 different version of backing up, step 2. In all honesty we have worked with Ronan on both backing up and two-on-two-off before this class started so he is already pretty comfortable reaching for things with his back feet. He had some nice weight shift in there when I added the balance disc and had him stretch forward and then shift back. My baby boy is growing up!
(I hope you don’t mind the singing pap, lol)

• This reply was modified 3 years, 5 months ago by Karena Kosco.

[Karena Kosco]

Good Evening,

A bit of Week 2 work with Ronan. A bit of drive ahead, blind cross, and plank work this afternoon. Some fun!

Mike

[Karena Kosco]

A little bit of the GOAT game. Two short sessions so far. No idea why this is not posting directly as in previous videos!

• This reply was modified 3 years, 5 months ago by Karena Kosco.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 5 months ago by Karena Kosco.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 5 months ago by Karena Kosco.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 5 months ago by Karena Kosco.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 5 months ago by Karena Kosco.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 5 months ago by Karena Kosco.

[Karena Kosco]

Hi Tracy,

I did not video my session yesterday afternoon, but we worked a bit more on the drive ahead as well as the prop game. He was much better with the driving ahead when I moved to the yard, building it up to about a 10 yard toss ahead of me.

With the prop game he is now targeting the boot with a front point, side point, and a rear point at about 15 feet away. He has come a long way in a couple of days!

I am taking the boot with me to a trial this weekend to work on the games with some distraction.

Mike

[Karena Kosco]

Blind cross foundation – 1st attempt.

Ronan seems to get it, but I struggled with the timing of the head turn in a few repetitions. I uploaded the bad and the ugly to let you see progression. I think this will improve with repetition as I get used to the timing with him.

Mike

• This reply was modified 3 years, 5 months ago by Karena Kosco.

[Karena Kosco]

Driving ahead: Thank you for all of the feedback, I am going to try to increase the distance and my speed today in the yard and see how he responds to a bit more stimulation. He can sometimes get nippy when excited and I would like to get to a point where he is focusing that on the toy and not my arm!

Drive to handler: I can see the nuance to what you are saying on when I lower the cookie hand. You will likely be commenting on my timing of rewards, etc. often. Something I need to work on. I worked on this drill a bit more this morning, but I still tended to treat him too far from my leg and I have not added much motion yet. More work to do! I added more distance this morning with good results (no video yet) and I would love to try some motion as well.

Prop game: I was not thinking of the tugging and the ready dance as two, separate parts. I will try the change today. I noticed his confusion when I sent him after the tug, but I did not reflect enough afterwards to see what could be improved. Thanks for that attention to detail!

Wing wrap: I am glad that you noticed that he was periodically offering a behavior at the cone. I was wondering if there was something to change that would encourage the wrap and not the cone touch. I was using the old standby, Charlie bears as a treat. I will see if we have something easier to swallow for today’s session!

Thanks again for the feedback! I can already see improvement today.

Mike

[Karena Kosco]

Pony started with us calling him Rony, but my wife didn’t like the sound of that nickname. She started calling him Pony since he canters like a horse around the house. My wife, Karena, is also training Ronan with me (we co-handle all of our dogs). She took this class with our papillon, kiwi, about a year and a half ago.
I will start using toys a bit more since he is more excited by toys than food.

[Karena Kosco]

1st attempt at some week one training! I tried a different target this time. I would like to try the drive forward more tomorrow with treats and not the toy .

• This reply was modified 3 years, 6 months ago by Karena Kosco.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 6 months ago by Karena Kosco.

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