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I love that on “ready” she was offering the sit willingly instead of jumping or trying to get the toy. She liked that anticipation.
This was SOOO good. When you said YES on that last one and she whipped over expecting and looking for it before you showed the one to switch to.
Can she also have the new toy in sight but stay on the one you are tugging? (the proofing exercise?)
If you have a cato or some sort of platform (even a slanted hit-it board) you can leave the mat elevated on that. I have not found it beneficial to take the mat back to the ground, since it goes back on the slant board eventually when we add elevation.
Nice job keeping the strict criteria for the back feet!
I liked incorporating the leash. For Astra I loved seeing her drive away on the release when you held her. Those are fine. My goal for her (as I see coming up in her training) will be for you to be able to tell her stay/sit and then setting a toy on the ground (or later pointing/placing a ball in the box) and then sending to it. She also doesn’t seem to be one to melt if someone holds her – but as wild as she gets for a toy I feel like that’s going to be the hard part. Hold your body and your brain to do the activity with focus. Cookies dumb, toys mean LETS GO she says!
I agree she doesn’t quite have the ‘touch this get cheese’ lightbulb yet. But she is close because a few times she did her front feet and looked at you expectantly.
I do wonder if your movement is so much that it is distracting and her mind is thinking it’s more of a ‘recall/be near you’ and less of a foot target. She also has a strong preference to be on your right side (the treat hand). You could test out the treat throws reset, then have you be on the other end or off to the side on the other end, and toss the cookie continuing forward once back feet come on – very similar to how you were setting her up with the turn on the plank fitness exercise (just not the spin).
I’m also wondering if she will be a special nugget that we might add a prop next to her ipsilateral setup and have her hop over that sideways in both directions. That would be fine with me too – there are a ton of ways to teach a box turn.
BEAUTIFUL!! She has a very solid concept of getting on that Cato. It didn’t matter how far off the center line you set her up, or how far away you stood. She sought it out to stand on it. I liked that you started to incorporate more distance off at the end (so she was ‘pushing off’ the Cato more instead of standing and waiting. I cannot wait to see her start to incorporate the turn with the Cato!! And when she starts turning I imagine she’s going to be fast like everything else she does. It might be worth taping that mat to the Cato, or just using the Cato surface if you don’t find it too slick. I want her to learn to depend on her equipment and dig hard always – never have a slip and lose confidence in what she puts her feet on.
This is what I saw
1 – Right
2 – Left
3 – Right (then changed to a left to get onto the tug to turn into you)
4 – Right
5 – Right
6 – Right
7 – RightSo it’s a pretty good chance she’s going to be a right turner. However – I have had a LOT of success with just training both directions. It becomes super obvious when one turn direction stays higher/cleaner when you add 5-10′ of distance from the box. Doing both directions also keeps them balanced so one side doesn’t get overused early on in their training.
That’s a common problem haha – you have to keep moving to more and more distracting areas… which is the best problem to have because the end goal is a flyball runback with 7 other loose dogs and you CAN’T get your dog to leave you. BINGO!
Excellent timing on the calls and moving away from her. I was curious a few times if she could hear your feet first but she seemed very keen on the call. Well done.
This course is such perfect timing for her in regards to maturity. And I’m so pumped you are taking the intermediate fitness. What I’m seeing just from spins is she wants to reach a lot with the front, and the rear is often just an afterthought… along for the ride. I expect that the more you do these, the fitness, and she grows in the next month we are going to see a big difference in this coordination.
I really enjoyed the part of the session after you were done luring and let her shape the behavior. She struggled and you helped her a little with you body pressure and position – but honestly those shaping sessions are where I see the most success. Because otherwise they are just following the cookie and they don’t really remember what they were doing.
You can turn the Cato longways for the back and forth, and then short ways like you had here when you want to start doing the turn portion (go up on the Cato and then turn back to the position you started from).
And remember to try to say YES more for the back feet. All dogs can do a box turn with their front feet, it’s the back feet that are the most important part for a 4 footed turn.
Retrieve – love the intensity coming back. I was so glad she didn’t get a deck splinter from her sliding LOL.
Line Up – looks so good on both sides.
Backing up – you are a clicker WHIZ! Your timing and eye is really impeccable. Here is another video to demonstrate backing up in case it’s helpful to see another view.
Left/Right – both look so good – I’ll be curious to see if she ends up being a righty! I have been training my dogs to turn both directions for a ball so when I add 15′ of distance or a jump it becomes VERY clear which way is the preferred/easier/snappier.
Two Tug Game – Excellent tugging and switching when you cued it. The only item that I could see being unclear for Jinka is when she makes the mistake onto the tug before she is cued (sent herself to it) she then is doing the same behavior (sending herself to the original tug). It feels a little like she is guessing, and I think you can make it more clear for her. When you cue the YES and she does it correctly give her a little extra verbal praise like good dog, woohoo, etc (whatever you normally do). When she does go for the other tug before being cued, it’s no fun just like you are doing, but then do cue her back to the one she should have stayed on (YES, or get this etc). The only time she can strike and play is when you indicate when and where. I will also admit my strictness on the proofing depends on the dog – my Wocker would NEVER drop a ball, toy, anything, and in fact I had to work harder on getting him to spit so I did not do much carry and focused more on spitting/trading. My whippet mixes were more the “spit when the tug is coming into view” types and more likely to leave balls so I did proof them much harder on this exercise.
Super focused and I loved how she did flybys with you to bring you back the tug. And once again ignored that excellent distraction baby LOL. She did 2 right and 1 left, the rights seemed tighter but they were more stop/go versus the left was continuous motion so it was wider. I will be curious which way she ends up turning.
I just did a B&T and I did both directions up until I added 15′ to the slant board/box and then every turn to the left was low, sloppy, or 2 footed and every turn to the right was perfect. So nothing wrong with doing BOTH directions to keep her balanced.
The video is perfect! I can see every aspect. I like that she folded into the releaser as well – this makes life so much easier for everyone and it’s an important skill I like to teach my dogs that sometimes someone else might grab you. (Like if I were to trip and someone else would catch my dog while I’m down).
If other dogs are distracting/challenging – maybe have that dog do a longer recall and Jinka does a shorter recall (like half the distance of these).
WOW! So much progress already! I was going to say to wiggle the tug more as you say “YES” for the switch but on that second session she had it down. Even proofing with the baby and dog – loved it!!
