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I agree with wanting to have the focus to stay with you as you go near people (especially because this smart cookie knows she is going to likely lineup to get to do the fun thing again). I like to have the handler do a verbal “go lineup, or go see” and then the releaser is immediately calling to lineup. If the body slamming isn’t getting better – the releaser could turn their back (so it almost looks like KitKat can do a recall to the releaser). Or the releaser can toss some cookies out in front to save their shins, and then ask for the lineup. We tend to teach the open leg wrap around “middle” and then transfer it to other people. So if you had a group of 2-4 people you can call her between each other and ask her to lineup/middle nicely by wrapping around the leg. Doing a cookie toss behind the leg and one in the middle position is 100% fine too!
And on the “shorter” recalls, you can still run the only difference is releaser is just letting go after you take 2-3 steps past the dog instead of 15-20.
For the other exercises that you have been working on but you aren’t happy with yet – still share the video! Maybe I can add a quick change or fix that will make all the difference.
Here Game – once you say come you can give a little encouragement when she flips and looks at you. I think I often give a YES to be like that’s exactly what I wanted now put whatever I have in your mouth. I was also laughing when she got to the spot you had called the previous times and she turned before you called… and waited for you to call HAHA. She is wicked smart.
Recalls- perfect engagement lining back up into position. And a lovely sit-stay – you got some great distance. Every now and then toss in an unexpected short recall – those really get the afterburners to kick on!
Her bouncing and taking out her holder’s balance was hysterical. She looks like she would make you laugh at home every day.
The toy play is awesome – you are so interactive and lively – she is 100% into it. Inkblot is probably my favorite of the nicknames cause she disappears into the void black. I’m looking forward to seeing your Unit 1 videos trickle in!
Oh how interesting that the cookie toss in one direction has impacted her turn on the Cato! Do you get the same results even when you stand 90 degrees to the Cato and really lure with the cookie/tug? That might help her not want to take an eye off you. Then have you slowly back away – but even if you only get 2-3′ away… that should be perfect. I’m excited for you to add back in the prop and then move to a slant board!!!
She is thoughtful and KNOWS her task! I would keep alternating food and tug so as it becomes very fluent with food it makes it even easier when she is higher from using her beloved tug.
She is really great at going out over the jump and driving ahead away from you! This is going to be perfect when you need to send her ahead of you to a ball/box and when you add more jumps. This is the hard stuff!!!
If you start setting up a little more off center instead of straight on can she still make it? I like to make it more challenging like it’s an agility send from all angles. It is almost like a bobble off the box and they have to come back into the jumps. I will say releasing from those angles I have to run back to the jump to be centered with it to help them come back over the jump.
As for coming back with the toy over the jump – I don’t stress about that too much. You could always just run up in front of the jump so it’s not part of the coming back game. You could run sideways so she is not seeing it as a choice on the way back. If you have a second jump you can make it a double wide in width and that might encourage her back – standing right on it like you were doing and running when she is committed to it. I feel like you could also add gates and click/reward the going back over with the toy and then slowly fade them out.
Thank you for your patience and the nudge! I watched 2/3 videos and then got sidetracked with spring break mom duties.
How has the rear foot targets to shape the turn on the Cato/elevated platform been going?
I know when you throw it she doesn’t immediately come back (likes to chomp/chew the toy for a few seconds) but she does come back to give you the toy. So I want you to keep working on this. Make sure you have a low/medium level of excitement for encouraging her back to you, but when your hand and the toy connect it ramps up to a HIGH level of excitement. I also want you to think about what is her favorite way to interact with you? Is it tugging? Is it when you throw something? Notice this week what she engages most with you happily, and use that as a reward system.
So if she liked you to throw it again, you could do a tiny toss, have her bring it to your hand. Then you go wild with excitement maybe a few seconds of tugging and then you either throw that toy or whip out another toy from your pocket. Then repeat the cycle that it is back to low excitement. This cannot look like a chore or work to her. The idea is to make her so game to unlock that excitement from you that she hurries back to give you the tug (so she can get what she wants again!)
YES!! Those were really nice and clean. On and off and she’s grabbing much quicker too. Over the next few sessions see if you can go even steeper with your wall board (as much as she is comfortable with). Fighting against gravity is hopefully making her snap a little more too (grab fast or drop!). She did have to pump herself up on that one but she DID IT – really nice to see her showcasing resiliency and working through it.
When you take the slant board to practice eventually I would lower it down a lot to build confidence knowing you can always make it a little steeper after each rep.
This is much improved and those first two were very smooth with a small reposition on that third/final one.
If possible I would pull the prop out a little bit. Because of her small size I want her to push a little bit harder off the board back to you. And when that prop is out you can lower the ball to where it would be on the box – hoping she is less likely to 2 foot turn. I am hoping that by getting her head a little lower, her rear will be more level with her front feet.
Another alternative is that you could even add 1 book to raise up the height of her rear if that doesn’t freak her out. To help her position her rear a smidge higher and help her be in the position to really push off strong. This higher rear will also help keep that foot reposition out of the picture. Try those and send another video please.
She had a lower rate of success with ball grabs (compared to the clips I saw on Facebook with the lower Cato slant). Is the Velcro on this board harder to rip off?
It might be worth make the slant a smidge lower, and let’s AMP HER UP! I would likely tease with the ball, then drag her backwards so she is still pointing forwards, and send. Or have her come back with you hands free and get really silly and then send her when the energy from her is high. She did two that had stronger ball snatches – we just need her to be confident enough to do that consistently. We can’t quite get the front feet reset fixed while she isn’t committed to snapping on/off as fast as she can.
Remember how you used to put Ravie and Combo in a sit/stay and you were at the board to point or race them off (at least I have this visual in my head). That might also help her be excited to snap off – but right now she would likely 95% leave that dumb ball every time. This could be one of the ways to drop the foot reset when she is getting that ball close to every time.
Another short term fix you could do is add a second triangle tube prop – to eliminate the idea of doing to two footed smash and grab.
And does she better with a bring it on the flat if you say bring it or get it? It might help her after you get her excited to then be like Bring IT Bring IT!
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.
