[mjohnston]

Thanks Tracy, I appreciate your feedback.
Regarding rewards, yes – right now his ‘turnip’ (which is a ball shaped like a turnip) and cheese seem to be his favorite. He also likes his fuzzy tug toy but right now in situations where he is likely to sniff, he really only responds well to food. I have been using ‘people’ food – mainly cooked steak. I will try some other high value people food like you’ve suggested to see if any of those interest him.
Here are some videos from tonight’s training session. I’ve tried to keep the sessions short and also tried to get him more ‘rev’d up’ before entering the ring.
The first video is from our ‘warm-up’ – which includes entering the building and then doing a bit of work in the ring. I was trying different rewards as well. At home he like to ‘find’ the little dinosaur toy – aka Dino – so I was seeing if he was interested in that. It was a no go!
I tried a bit of ‘crate games’ to see if he would get excited about this. I also played this before each of his turns in the video below. He did seem to really like that and was really diving back into and out of the crate after a few reps.

The second video is of our 3 turns which I tried to keep very short.
There was a dog in a crate that was right next to the entry gate so he wanted to go say hi to the other dog. I didn’t feel like he was in the right frame of mind yet so I did some tricks with him on the Klimb before taking off his leash. For this I was using Chicken as the reward.
2nd turn was weaves. I used the turnip as the reward for this as that is what I use at home. He did the first set of 6, got the turnip and then his nose went down when I tried to get the turnip back. I literally had to put the cheese right on his nose to get him away from whatever he was smelling over there. I know you can’t see it because of the instructor standing in the way 😊
3rd turn – I used a placed toy and also cheese as his rewards.

[mjohnston]

Hi, This video is a bit long so feel free to ‘speed watch’ it. I’ve put some notes below on some key points. The second video is from a seminar that I did with Bobbie today. Essentially what we are trying is to give him some time to sniff and then reward him when he chooses to engage with me. You can also see some of the tricks that we are adding like hand touches and spins. Still working on adding some more tricks to our toolbox.

1st turn – started by doing some engagement exercises outside the ring. Then I let him loose in the ring (6:31) and set bars for Raven. If he came near me, I rewarded him and tried to get him engaged with me. I started getting some engagement around the 10:30 mark.
2nd turn starts (11:52) Here I had set up a movement puzzle that I did with Fiona. He was slow to start but then got into the pattern. At 13:51, I then transitioned to some more of the engagement sit/catch game. He seemed to be very engaged, so I tried his fuzzy toy. And he played with it. I even did a few forward focus / chase the toy reps. I was pleased with that. He seemed to start to lose interest so at 14:50 I go back to setting up the ring for Raven and paying him for engaging with me. I was trying to do things to catch his attention as he was sniffing a lot and not paying any attention to me. I did finally get his attention at 16:52. At 18:55 I start to use the climb to see if I can get him engaged with sitting on it and then release to do some 1,2,3 treat walking.
3rd session, I setup a 4 weaves poles and use the disks to make it a short pattern game. He did this well so I threw Raven’s ball for him which he chased a few times and then lost interest. I then setup a short sequence which started with 6 weaves followed by 2 jumps and a tunnel. At this point I also have his turnip. He was really engaged at this point. On the last rep, I added in the teeter after the tunnel.

Bobbie Seminar video – https://youtu.be/zYbijNZ7H0w

[mjohnston]

Thanks Tracy. Based on your feedback, I wanted to clarify the video from Get Rev’d. The pattern games were not played back to back. This was a private ring rental and I had Raven with me. I was running her and then would take a break and do the pattern games with Sieger. Bobbie recommended that I keep him on leash and practice these games with him in short sessions. At Get Rev’d I can’t get Sieger to engage with me and play with his toys. During our last class, I literally could not get him to take 1 jump. He is all nose to the ground. I wish I could ‘Let him be wild’. There is no wildness only sniffing!

[mjohnston]

And here is a quick video of the first sequence from package 1.

[mjohnston]

Hi Tracy, Here are some quick videos so you can see where we are. I am also working 1:1 with Bobbie. Sieger had been doing really well and then about 2 months ago, he started to get really ‘sniffy’. I tried a lot of the games and tools that I’ve learned from you and Bobbie but we were still struggling so I called Bobbie to get back on track.

I have two primary places that I train at – High Octane and Get Rev’d. I would consider High Octane the more familiar place and he does better there. When we started at Get Rev’d he was doing really well but now it’s a real struggle.

I’ve added some videos below so you can see what I mean. If I can get him going, then he does well.

After looking through Package 1, I really want to focus on teaching Sieger more action tricks so that is going to be my focus for the next few weeks. Looking forward to seeing what else I can add to our repertoire.

https://youtu.be/1XsP0EXIuD8 – Sieger at GetRev’d, ring rental. This video is from today. We were just practicing some of the pattern / pressure games.

https://youtu.be/516-G0zxbUI – Seminar at High Octane on 10/11/24.

https://youtu.be/LAWobsFpiMc – Class at High Octane 10/12/24

[mjohnston]

12-26 Wk 8 Class

https://youtu.be/cXUDininGDk – Backside Slices – A bit hard to do in my space inside. I’ll work on this one more outside!

https://youtu.be/8oqN1He3K2E – Headturns – I need to work on my mechanics on this one!

https://youtu.be/Rc0kMnK-XWw – Threadle slide – I’m not sure what I did but this seems to be in slow motion. Sorry about that.

Happy Holidays.

[mjohnston]

Tonights training

We started with the ‘Get Out’ excercise from Tues class. Note, I am using the word Push instead of out.

After that I did some side to side chill patterns- followed by some Find My Face and ended with some of the ‘stay’ catches.

[mjohnston]

A few videos from tonight’s class. Sieger got tired after the 2nd video and took himself to bed! I’ll try the get out excercise tomorrow. Thanks!

Started with some Strike the pose with the toy on the ground. Did a couple of drive to the toys with body pivots to spice things up. Then started the first excercise of the Strike the Pose with the ‘jump’. My space is limited in doors so I just used a hoop. I’ll move this to a larger space with a jump and towel as in the demo.

Rocking Horse (2 Barrels)

[mjohnston]

Here’s a video of me trying to get Sieger to back-up. I have to admit that this is one of the harder skills for me. I wasn’t having any luck with having him just back up when I was standing. He kept wanting to lay down. I had better luck when I was sitting and I put out a large target for his back feet.

[mjohnston]

Hi Tracy, Here is a video of a few more games.

*Stay – baby level ‘catch’ game
*Leg bumps
*Serp with food and toy
*Tandem Turns

Re the Serp with food and toy. He has a harder time going to my right hand and then back to the left. I think that is because I’ve taught him to touch my right hand and then do the ‘middle’ behavior. So he thinks he’s suppose to go behind me and through my legs vs going to the left to get the toy.

[mjohnston]

Videos from tonights class

https://youtu.be/HF3QePVBV-Q – Strike a Pose (Serp)

https://youtu.be/ei_pDSzlIso – Handling Combos (Wraps) – Our space was limited so I just did the first step of doing the wrap and driving to the toy. When I can get outside, I’ll add in the BC handling as well. He definitely goes around to the right much easier than the left.

https://youtu.be/XXjopRRnEGE – Prop Game 3

Thank you!

[mjohnston]

Happy Thanksgiving! Here are two videos outside.

https://youtu.be/1QFLrnwmuo4 – My helper (aka my Mom) didn’t start the video the first time so this is just one rep of the decel sequence from WK 3. This was interesting. He noticed something after the sequence and had trouble refocusing. I worked with him a bit, did a pattern game and tested to see if he was able to play tug and was ready to continue. I also did a bit of the ‘close tugging’. We took a few minutes break as he was still not able to focus.

https://youtu.be/mLGH9C9Xp_k – This is just a few minutes after the first video so I was pleased that he seemed to be more focused during this exercise.

Enjoy.

[mjohnston]

More plank work – with the tugging and turns

More balance work on various objects

Enjoy!

[mjohnston]

Hi, Here are some videos from the Wk2 lessons

1) Plankrobaticx

2) Any Toy Any Time (Tugging)

3) Goat Tricks 2

Thanks!

[mjohnston]

Thanks!

*Bowl game – I’ve actually been doing this for a bit so I just jumped ahead and showed you where we are currently.

*Drive to handler/decel – I moved to a little larger space and worked on trying to get the decel component. I’ll also work on this outside where I have more space.

*Driving ahead – I have worked on this outside as well and will try to get a video in the yard. He is doing really well with this one.

*Prop Hits – I can to cut this a bit short. he needed to go outside 🙂

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