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Most often the “ball to hand” is a black and white criteria that helps the most early on and can be faded quickly (going back to cueing the out and then rewarding with food or tug). But like this weekend I tried using a higher value tug than my dog was used to and she spit 2x so I gave her a reminder of ‘to my hand’ and then she could get the tug. It was nice to have something in the toolkit to fall back on versus her spitting all weekend (but I did go back to a lower value tug in the next race to make it easier for her to succeed).
Along those same brainstorming vibes – I think the progression will be:
Right Hand
Left Hand
Showing Your Back
Taking One Step Away
Walking Away
Jogging Away
The immediate YES when she bumps your hand and then get the treats out to be delivered is where you get the hustle for touching the ball to you to get the treats unlocked.Parallels to Colleen’s tug to ball holding class (I have also taken twice) – you could do the balled up tiny tug in your palm so it’s touch to tug, and then also do the whole ball to long tug to also help with the height difference. I personally like the food because it’s an immediate yes/no and I tend to mess them up because I dropped my shoulder or made the tug too wiggly. I did have one dog that could successfully ball target to tug but she was a robot – and I got bit a LOT in her training so that might not have helped haha. And there are SO many ways to do ball holding so if you want to do this method since you have already done it before – go for it!
Other ideas that might help…. what if you did a hand extension of some sort? Like those extendable poles with the red foam balls on the end for touch sticks – could she do ball to touch stick?? I would want it something she can see clearly and can bop easily (not a lot of attempts and failures that she would have made if the target was wider. Almost like a tennis racket! Alternatively I have trained 2 clients dogs that they must jump on their owners with the ball in their mouth to get their reward. It’s no bending and the stationary owner usually cues a jump up so at the end of the runback the dog jumps to push their front legs into the owner’s thighs (You have to be okay with your dog jumping on you for that one). If you went that route you could do a ball pickup and then reward when she jumps on you squatting down, then maybe jumps on you sitting in a chair, then jumps at you while standing – then work towards adding movement (just you have to be stationary when she gets close).
When her front feet hit and she doesn’t have her mouth on the ball yet, those calls do seem that they pull her off. YAY for her being in a snappy hurry to get back. It looks like you have easily corrected it by calling later. Her body position and rear look like they are getting some great rotation!
What is your plan for a solid ball carry? Do you want her to carry to your hand or until you say out? Just like she does so well with the two tug (don’t switch until I say so) I want her to have the same criteria for the ball.
So if the impulse is hard – I would think about making the exciting toy like the food bowl -impulse control game from Unit 1. I think she would also benefit from instruction earlier on like “wait” or “stay” so she knows the expectation. When she hears nothing and the tug it thrown or lowered, it makes sense she is going for it.
In the beginning I might make my toy placement super boring too, might place it on the ground instead of tossing it so it’s not much excitement. Then when she gets the tug and brings to you the party lights up. And I try to use woohoo or something different than my “good eat these treats” command but it gets hard when you get excited when they do it right. Worst case if you accidentally say the cookie word you can pay out, and go back to tugging since she goes back and forth nicely.
The steps might look like this.
Ask for Sit or down
Tell her wait/stay
take half step away to set tug on the ground
take half step back to her
say RSO and send to toy
run around the house or room having her chase you and make a big giant party
tell her out/good girl get the treats.Other things you can work on – she has a platform behavior from fitness – you can have her sit on the platform and do all those steps above and then move her back to the ground. The goal is that she will be able to do her own sit/stand and stay while you do your at home box work instead of offering 845 box turns.
Have you also done some sessions of games for tug? Like sit, get the tug. Back up, get the tug, do a spin and get the tug. It might help her to connect the dots that the tug is a reward to be earned versus something that she always chases (like recalls and when it moves). We just talked about this in the Colleen Morita X Flyball class and it’s something I do, I just never thought about it in that perspective.
She does look really pumped up compared to previous sessions! Trying to get the jump on the way back with an object is so much harder – I sent you a picture of a double wide jumps (just two jumps side by side with the middle stanchions removed). That can often help with the confidence and removing pressure on the return – and you can slide them closer together back to a 30″ wide jump a little at a time after each rep. This way she can understand it’s a forward AND back game. She also kept going to the one side of the jump – maybe because your shoulders were pointing in that direction or she was avoiding all the people in chairs (or because it was the shortest path since the ball kept wanting to bounce that way).
Was very happy with her driving away and ahead of you. She strides nicely into the jump getting right up on it – not appearing like she would be a dog prone to launching at this point!
Okay – so with both the mat work and the jump work: I want to see a little less hand holding from you. If a tiny tug or ball held behind your back is helpful you can use that instead of food to get some pizazz from her. But just make sure SHE is the one that is making the decision to take a jump, or she is the one that is deciding to put her rear feet on the target mat. She is doing it now with luring – but I want her to start to offer it on her own. You can help her by moving closer to it, turning your body (like you were doing in the jump video). Eventually I want you to be like an agility star where you can point to the jump and she flies ahead to take it.
Also – I bought my dog an air fryer because one time he ate someone else’s chicken and thought it was great. So I get going to the store and buying anything to motivate them. My dogs favorites are the frozen meatball bags (heated up) and the store $5 rotisserie chicken – so you can try those too. I will say I often make the food part of the game too – often putting them in a food bowl and swirling them around in front of the dogs nose to really tease them.
How fun to get to stretch out for chase recalls! I agree with you she was on the right lead for this one. And I am assuming she is right preference for things at home too – it’s always funny to see how often they prefer a direction when you start to focus on it.
I appreciate your energy and effort! It’s going to pay off!
Let’s keep her elevated instead of going back to the flat floor (and you can just stay on that until you graduate to the slant board and make it steeper on a box). I like to use a square Cato for a dog her size (or a similar piece of equipment, about 4-5″ tall). Then I might have you add in a prop in front of the Cato board as well (Snorkel got the same recommendation so she can likely help you set it up at your next practice). This will help her head look a little more forward. She’s doing a great job at swinging her rear around – I just want a little push up.
If you gave her the treat, and then played with her does that pump her up? Like even just playing rough with your hands without a tug. If I shove and tickle and even just act like I’m going to scary monster wiggle finger grab my dogs they start barking and get jazzed up. I was wondering if we incorporated some play…. do the activity, get a treat to know you did it right and then hurry back so we can play some more. And if you did incorporate the tug in that play break, that might be her favorite.
The tall cones and cavaletti is going to be just fine until you get to the part of challenging her more with a side angle. I just want to prevent her from being able to slice through it like agility dogs do.
So I have a question for you – does she get out of her mind excited to eat breakfast or dinner? Is she a little on the heavy side or thin – I know puppies vary by the week on looking fat or skeleton.
I am wondering if we changed to a meal would that help with the food drive. Or cutting her meals back to make her hungrier for training snacks. She could also just really not be into treats – which I do know a few BCs that are like that.
Let me know and then I will make some recommendations.
Backing up was perfection! Even steps and she really stayed straight too.
I am loving that both of you are bringing your best to the table and she is enjoying home-school more!!
To help with her bringing the tug back to you – work on following her up as she goes towards the tug. Or you can start her closer to that blue 5 gallon bucket. So you can take 4-5 steps away once she has the tug in her mouth. That gives you a little more room to work backwards and encourage her to move towards you – and you don’t have to take that step towards you.
And if you play this in the house (when you don’t have camera constraints) I will legit play a version of easy hide and seek with my dogs. I toss the toy, let them see me as they look up with it, and then I take off into another room. Sometimes that might make them spit but often if they come find me and have nothing in their mouth I race them back to the tug and steal it. And then I would make it easier too (maybe don’t go out of sight until they are closer) and once they do get close I will PARTY. You are jumping and giving 140% of your energy to try to entice her back to you – but I want to flip it to be opposite.
You can call and clap to get her interested in engaging – but then when that tug hits your hand – that is the moment the FUN and explosion of praise and tugging happens. Cause – tug touches your hand, Effect – best tug party ever.
Try out different rooms too – sometimes if I throw into a tiny closet they will take the tug and try to run it out back into the bigger room and I can catch the handle on their way so it inadvertently becomes a game of tug – I tend to use this more for dogs that prefer a party of one. She isn’t bad about that – but wanted to see if getting her in motion that way might help.
I wonder if you add a step away from her when you call her to the new tug and wiggle it? She holds it really well and doesn’t tend to ‘spit’ or drop it early – so you can add in some more challenging elements to help her switch a little more quickly when you are verbally (and physically by shaking the tug) cueing it.
Just make sure she doesn’t start dropping the tug based on your body motion – because that will turn into her being a spitter and we could fix that later… or we can prevent it now LOL.
This was her FIRST session!?! That is the most distance I have seen that quickly – she is great at shaping and offering it and your clicking for the commitment was spot on. No feedback on anything to change. Just keep working on changing your location (in front and behind her) so sometimes she is beside you, driving ahead of you (picture going to the box), or taking a jump while she is behind you (like the picture she would see in Flyball coming off the box).
YES!!! This way perfection. You can see she is looking at you and then she looks to the board and down to make sure she is calculating her landing.
You can add a little bit taller prop too – or prop this triangle tube up on some books/wood. This will encourage a little bit stronger push up and over, and get her working a little harder to get over/back. Especially being a little height dog – I will want her to really reach and push hard off that box (not drive down asap like we would a Ravi/Combo/Inky size). This will set her up better for striding between the box and the first jump back.
And it might be a good idea now to introduce a idea of a retrieve with this turn on the flat slant board. So you can use a tiny tug and just place it on the Velcro area (instead of using a ball). Less criteria about snappy feet, but do still care about it looking like a turn (no coming in straight or cheating with two footed grab). More focus on head position and understanding that you will need to reach your head in and grab something while also turning your body and also carry that thing back off the board. It’s a LOT of mechanics which is why I prefer to teach it to them earlier in this easier phase – especially given she doesn’t love carrying a ball yet.
I watched this 4 times to try to make a best guess on which one was better, but I just can’t make a call. A smidge quicker/tighter rotation the first way, but more coordinated steps the other way. So just going to have to decide when you put it on the Cato turn board (which way decelerates better going in and keeps a higher rear).
And I wouldn’t worry about the footwork too much here. We will get more critical on the rear foot placement on the Cato board mat work.
