Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
No video because of user error LOL but we did backing up to a low mat last night for his “night snack”, and he’s so freaking clever- we progressed super fast using his kibble, I will try to do another session and actually press record 😉
And then today we played more barrel wraps- my goodness my puppy is VERY GOOD and my handling needs a LOT of work, LOL. I feel like I try to incorporate what you’re saying and then I look at my videos and I’m crouching around and not cueing anything lol lol.
So we started off going to the dish- and we had a few successes, and I had many failures (Checkie was 100% correct of course). Really struggled with the handling here. Here’s the video. (We tried this game again later, see below)
I didn’t want to let myself get frustrated so we did some fun parallel path with the uprights game- he loves this game! Running in straight lines and eating cookies!
Later in the day (after a long puppy nap), we attempted the barrel wraps again (this time for kibble, a little less overexciting). I feel like my handling was overall better here- I’m trying so hard to stay upright and cue with both arms pointed back to him to open my body- I also started further from the barrel so I had a little more time to get in position and cue. He is SO FAST, it’s like he’s decided what he’s going to do when he exits the barrel before he even goes around it. I love his speed, but it is a learning curve for me 🙂
We then tried same thing but to the toy-
And lastly added in some front cross + decel turn -> run to the dish.
I’m really happy with his send commitment to the barrel (when I cue correctly)!!! I think we’re ready to work more on the rotated sends to the barrel and maybe try the rocking horse two barrel game.
Overall- also trying to build in cookie scatters for decompression in our training sessions- the decompression guide was a GOOD reminder! We also do off leash walks/hikes with friends (either just my 3 dogs or with Danika’s pack) once a week, and more when possible. And chews a few nights a week 🙂
I have a couple weeks off work for the holidays so hoping, weather-willing lol, that I can touch on some of the games I haven’t tried yet!
YES that WAS a helicopter, LOL. Living in a big city I don’t even notice it sometimes. We have lots of “big city” desensitization, LOL. (I’m in the capital city of California, Sacramento, about 3 miles from downtown- so we get a LOT of noises)
We played with the barrel and the aframe box yesterday I tried adding in the bowl on the left barrel wrap and then switched to trying the full wrap and he was awesome! We struggled a little wanting the toy yesterday, so switched to food. I forgot to put a collar on him (going out of the house with only one dog is a little bit of an ordeal so i didn’t go back in to get the collar, lol)
Here’s with the bowl-
Here’s one nice rep with a toy-
And then the rest of our attempts, no thank you to toy, switched to food lol-
And then we played with the running contact box with the bowls! I am very impressed with my puppy’s ability to canter through the box while staring at me the whole time. Ha. So thinking will probably put this on hold until I can use the T&T, see if that helps by taking me more out of the picture, but robot friend isn’t ready for prime time yet.
Today, I beat my head on the wall a bit with the barrel wrap turns with the front cross to the reward. Checkie was trying really hard, but also was STARVING (don’t tell him he’d eaten lunch an hour earlier lol, he was STARVING!!!) and leaving the bowl was so hard. I switched to no food in the bowl pretty quick, and at the end tried food in the bowl again, NOPE. We played this way too long- I didn’t set a timer and lost track of time trying to figure out the food bowl and line up stuff. You’ll see we had some issues actually getting the front cross, some was me forgetting it, some was him blasting behind me. Also rewatching these videos, it’s pretty obvious that we BOTH struggle with his left wraps (me with a dog on my right, him wrapping to the left).
After a food scatter and the food going away and him believing the food was gone, lol, we tried with a toy.
Not on video we have also been playing stay games (going well!) and some of the get it pattern game. He’s having some big feelings lately, more alert barking to noises and he burst out of the house (on leash!) barking at my neighbor’s young child across the street, even though he’s met that child and loves her. So we’re just working on keeping the brain calm and happy and not asking for anything too stressful in everyday life right now, and getting more rest- pre-holiday has been a bit busy for all of us so he’s lacking in the daytime naps and it’s showing!
Thanks so much for all your amazing feedback- we literally couldn’t do this without your guidance 🙂
Thanks so much for the feedback!!!! We played a few games in the soggy backyard today, which is probably not good for my struggling grass but I couldn’t handle being cooped up all day, LOL. My video angles are maybe not great because I was trying to stay on the least-soggy part, ha ha
First up we did turn and burn, and today he told me he wanted to do right turns so I went with it. I added in the collar hold line up and a verbal, and my mechanics were a bit fumbly but he was super anyway. And toy reward, yay!
Then we did parallel path transfer to the uprights, SUPER smart puppy here!! I am trying to look at him and the line and NOT the uprights. Because I was thinking so much about looking at him, I was struggling to toss the cookie and leave a little early or get lateral. Ooh boy so much for my brain, LOL.
And then we did some running box work. I am the worst “in the moment” trainer, I start improvising lol, I started to change the picture by adding motion without REALLY realizing what I was doing, thankfully my puppy is brilliant. I meant to bring the bowls out to toss the rewards to, and completely forgot until after I did this game, so I obviously didn’t ask him to redo the game but you’ll see I was just tossing cookies again.
And separately, I introduced the treat & train! As expected, the robot is SCAARRRYYYYY, he was able to eat from the quiet bowl after careful investigation, and then separately I fed him away from the T&T while I turned the gears. But then a couple hours later I found him in the garage getting all up close and personal with his new robot friend, so I think he’ll learn to love it soon 😉
AND, on the weekend, he was a VERY GOOD BABY at my other dog’s trial. He got to walk around a couple times, made new friends (we had an oops where he darted forward to jump up on someone and hit the end of the leash before I could react, and fell flat on his back- he was fine, I am traumatized!), and was able to focus on me when seeing another dog. And lots of car crate lounging 🙂
Overall I’m so thrilled with the way he’s progressing in these games, it’s so fun to watch! I am definitely struggling a little with keeping all the pieces straight even when I write them down so will just keep muddling through and being very thankful for my SUPER cool puppy who is willing to try even when I’m being kind of silly and unclear. Thanks for all your feedback so far… we’re having so much fun 🙂 🙂
We trained on the squishy ground yesterday and he was great, he seems to only dislike when it’s actively raining while wet ground seems to be ok, haha. We played around with most of the same games as the last couple days just to see where we could get with your feedback. Overall really pleased with all of this, he’s such a fun puppy. More rain today so no outside games but he’ll spend some time at my Aussie’s scentwork trial so will get some more dog life exposure there!
First up, rear cross with more distance to the prop- yay!! He read the turn correctly and was super excited. There’s a few reps in there when he makes it almost but not quite to the prop and then turns, I wasn’t too worried in the moment 🙂
Then we played with the parallel path again, looking back I think playing this directly after the rear cross made us both struggle a little but I think we had some nice reps towards the end.
And then we did turn and burn barrel wrap, staying all on one side. Towards the end of the video he disappears and in the moment, I didn’t notice!!! I THINK he was going over there to either get a quick drink or to look at his cookies (both are in the direction he trotted to), and if I had been paying better attention I probably should have taken a quick break or some other kind of reset or just stopped the game, because our next reps were not the best. BUT, we did some reps for a toy, yay!
And then we did the box again, with tossing the treats ahead of him. OMG he’s so much quicker than I am, I was trying to reward a foot in the box or even looking at the box and not at me but by the time I say get it he’s already staring at me, lol.
And lastly we tried just a couple reps of strike a pose with the dish so I could figure out my mechanics, but I knew we’d trained for awhile already so didn’t push it.
My uncut video was super long, a bit over 10 minutes, but when I cut it down it’s about 6.5 minutes of training and 3.5 minutes of toy play and resetting the games. I’m impressed with his stamina but wondering if we should play fewer games in a session so that he doesn’t fizzle out, but also watching the videos he looks ok for each new game, it’s just when I played too long (barrel wrap) is when his brain needed a break?
Yay thanks! Will try the parallel path with a target soon- it’s raining again today but hopefully more outside training tomorrow (Friday)!
These are from yesterday (Weds), I had the best of intentions today but it ended up being a day off and no agility field rental because of the rain, ha. Oh well, resting is good!
First up, barrel wrap oops, I forgot to weight the laundry hamper! You can see some questions at first then he goes for it, and takes the whole thing with him… WHOOPS but he’s so confident! We then reset and did some really nice turn and burn wraps with the WEIGHTED laundry hamper!
And we played with the running contact box 🙂 I love this fun puppy.
I also was a little naughty and did more prop games including parallel path before I saw your feedback (so no food dish here), and also did the transfer to the uprights game. When we try parallel path with the dish I can already guess it will be easier for him to have a target to look forward to, and the transfer to the uprights when I watched the video I could see I was tossing the cookie too sharp/fast so he couldn’t see it, so I am guessing that the dish will help there too?
Also did lots of toy play in this session! He was super awesome about going for the long furry tug and tugging until he heard the ‘trade’ cue. The new long furry toys are a BIG HIT!
Super fun training day today with Mr Checkie! We played with some games outside (and some TUGGING yay!), and he visited my bodyworker/chiro-ish vet for the first time which was fun to practice getting “really firm pettings” (lol). He also got to practice settling in the soft crate when it was my other dog’s turn to have his firm pettings, and Checkie was really good! He was able to mostly settle and didn’t destroy my fabric crate so that’s a win in my book haha
Onto the videos! First up we revisited the parallel path prop game, where I threw a get it cookie. Super fun!
Then we played strike a pose with some more space. He was perfect, my brain was fizzling. Not sure why this is so hard for me to remember all the pieces!! Thank goodness he loves training and helping me figure things out 😉
We then introduced the running contact game with half a yoga mat, I realized afterwards it’s a black thing on the ground that probably looks sort of similar to his prop (though very different feel!), well anyway he thought this game was cool! Just for fun I’ll introduce my PVC box at some point too. We’re going to do running contacts but TBD on method, ha
And then we tried the lap turns and tandem turns! My fingers couldn’t handle having the food as a lure for too long so I tried some empty hand lures during the session and he was super willing to give it a try!
We’ll try barrel wraps again tomorrow(Weds), I wanted to give his brain some time to think on it before I tried again 🙂 Always so many things to train! But he’s so fun and willing!!!
Thursday we’ll get a chance to practice some of these games at a new place (my other dog’s agility training place for a field rental), and I’m looking forward to seeing how he does! Hoping we can get some good tugging and engagement and anything else is bonus 😀
Checkie had a BIG weekend! He went on two off leash nature walks, and went to his first Fancy Dog Show! He was happy and friendly and engaged and super waggy, and TUGGED RINGSIDE- wooohoooo!!!! So thrilled with my bouncy dude. We also got some new long furry toys in the mail today, so those will make an appearance soon 🙂 🙂 He also practiced some walking on planks and turning around, he’s a star at getting on top of everything- today he figured out how to get on my desk because I have a cookie jar there haha. No video of any of this but really it would just be to show off my cutie puppy so it’s ok 😉
We revisited prop games outdoors, with me sending from the side so I could try countermotion, which worked better but my brain was like “hold still until he touches the mat and then move”… so, work in progress on the moving away aspect lol. And then we tried moving parallel to the mat – I realized I haven’t done this game yet! Happy with his first try.
And then we played around with the barrel again, this time with a leash to mark his spot. You’ll see his right turns/from my left were a struggle, I am not sure if it’s something I’m doing or he just doesn’t quite get it or hard to look away or simply the harder side? (No food in my cueing hand) Left turns/from my right were easier. I don’t think you can see where the leash is on the ground but I think I left early 100% of the time, LOL. Didn’t seem to negatively affect him though!
We only have a couple more days before the next rain storm moves in, so going to try to play outside every day- we both loving having more space!!!!
We played outside today! My goodness this puppy is so fun and enthusiastic and engaged and basically perfect. My mom (you’ve probably realized by now we live together) is retired and loves to watch the dogs train and play. So she was outside watching this session but is a little distractible, Checkie is super cool and worked through everything including a loud noise at some point. I love playing with him so much!!! I’ll be honest I’m struggling a little organizing all the material into a training plan but I think we’re doing ok over all with the games themselves, just trying not to “leave any behind”! Currently doing 1 training session per day is working best for me.
We started with taking the laundry hamper wraps outside- and then adding in turn and burn. He caught on so quick!! (still work in progress not looking at the hand, but really it’s a work in progress for me to NOT HAVE FOOD in the hand giving the cue lol).
Then we played with the prop game outdoors. Having more space made a HUGE difference here!! he was awesome!! I tried to add countermotion but my brain couldn’t quite clunk into gear there. I need to practice again without him so instead focusing on how good he was at generalizing this game!
Then we did blind into decel with tossing the reward- added in tug reward for the last rep, took him a second to decide toy was cool here but then he was all about it!!!
We did some more super fun games, back to the laundry hamper wrap with me standing, and the strike a pose nose to hand touch.
First up- wrap! He did awesome! He was trying to dive back and forth around the hamper before I could even get the bowls down and get in position, he loves this game and was very ready!
And then the strike a pose hand touch. HE did extremely well. Da mama had some struggles lol. You can SEE my brain fizzling out my ears while I try to figure out how the heck to stand for the come to hand stuff- well, except my head is cut off in the video. LOL LOL (and yes I practiced without him before I got treats because feet pointing directions and lefts and rights are hard for me, so this is better than it could’ve been!!!!)
I switched to ‘get it’ instead of ‘yes’ partway through because he was chomping my fingers when I was holding multiple treats and that was the quickest way for me to not get chomped! I also realized I never asked for a hand target in my right hand, he was a PRO and caught on really quickly! As you can see I’m back in the smaller space for this one, so not totally sure about the direction of the cookie toss but I think he’ll figure it out if we need to switch it up.
He also came along to another new place- semiprivate barn hunting lesson! He isn’t ready to hunt live pet rats (friends???) but he was so happy and confident exploring a new place and sort of just wagged away in his crate while my older Farmie and my friend’s Lowchen screamed at rodents hahaha. I really love this silly, happy puppy.
I’ve been struggling a bit with training on the days I have “big doggy class” in person, but we’ve been having a lot of fun just focusing on toy play and playing together in the yard, plus another walk in the neighborhood. We did some of the “get it – check in” game, he was great once he figured out the game was to refocus! No videos – I need that third hand! 😉
This morning we played three games! You’ll see my very patient mom in the background of 2 – I told her she can’t walk through until I switch games, LOL. (As well as my very good Aussie)
First up- prop game! I set this one aside for a while, and still had some trouble remembering to get more lateral distance, it’s like when he moves I move without thinking, but he did really well!
Then we played folding it in- I was trying REALLY HARD to watch for his head to be focused on the right line and he was totally brilliant.
And last, back up again! I think he totally understands the movement but he’s so QUICK I am still getting there with timing!
We ended with toy play – yay!!! Fuzzy tugs! I moved off the food smelly rug and he was all in! Also, his “trade” is like his most reliable cue right now. I tried it outside with no food, and he let go AND REGRIPPED THE TOY when presented! WOw I think I should buy a lottery ticket hehe. Anyways we’re having a total blast, thanks so much for all your guidance!!!! (To clarify I’ve been using ‘trade’ to end tug and give food- food is LIFE so he’s all about trading! Trade will probably be my eventual toy out/give/drop cue lol)
Checkie had a mostly rest day yesterday but we took advantage of the dry(ish) grass in the afternoon to play some blind cross and decel games in the yard. And this morning we did wraps with our new popup laundry hamper (yay!) and tried the folding it in game with no food then added some kibble. He did really amazing so my dopamine flooded brain kept asking for more and eventually I think baby brain fizzled out! He’s such a good boy for being willing to keep going, I’m trying to be better at stopping earlier- our session was only about 5 minutes long total but in hindsight I should have stopped the folding it in game sooner or taken a break in between.
Decels & blind crosses
Wraps with the bigger object, sitting and then standing
Folding it in- went on a bit too long I think
He was able to play tug after (we moved off the the super stinky floor), yay!
Short and sweet training session today of “baby” toy races (just adding my motion moving towards the toy), I tried to add in a retrieve but the furry toy was too fun to pluck at to bring back to tug today! And then we did backup with no clicker. I tried training in the living room today which was great for a change of location to try the games!
I’ll play some outside games probably tomorrow afternoon to practice blinds and decel turns, it’s too cold for Checkie in the morning to want to play outside!! and I bought a popup laundry basket for wraps that will arrive tomorrow, so then can practice some more wraps 🙂
He was a super rockstar visiting family for Thanksgiving and visiting the agility trial yesterday. He gets an A+ at car naps, A+ for wearing his jacket, and is also doing super well checking in with me on walks and redirecting to me from dogs and people in the distance. Up close is a little hard because FRIENDS!!!!! But after he says hello to people then he’s all eyes for mama (or mama’s treat pouch)
Here’s our session from this morning- toy races
And back up!
We took yesterday off due to having our first vet visit with a new vet, which went great! So back to it today! The rain stopped so I’ll be able to hopefully have more outdoor space for a few more of these games! I live in a really small house so there’s not much indoor space but I will try to see what I can do 😀
As for food, he is literally always hungry. Because we got home late from the vet, he got dinner late… usually he gets an early dinner plus a small night snack. So guess who woke up at 2am STARVING???? Yep…. And I do mostly train him within 1-2 hours of eating breakfast as well. But today I did experiment with switching between the kibble and the tossable treats more to see if I could help lower the excitement a little.
First up we tried toy retrieves, before any food was in the room, which worked really well- he was happy about the toys!!!
Next up we did folding it in without food in the bowl. WAY more success here. ALSO really excited to see him figuring out ‘dish’ cue meaning “I will catch up with your speed and put food in the bowl hang on a split second!!!” lol
And then we did wrap with the bowls and the orange bucket. He needed some processing time and help to figure out it was the same game, but then he was ON IT!
And lastly, back up! Some mama struggles with clicking the right thing, and some puppy struggles with food in his face, but mostly lots of good fun success.
We’re preparing for a BIIIIIG Thanksgiving adventure- driving, hanging out in the car, possibly meeting some family members and their dogs. And then my adult dogs are trialing Friday & Saturday and he’ll probably come along 1 or both days. So we’ll see how it goes for puppy brain learning ability, or if we just take lots of extra naps lol.
We had a busy busy weekend- agility trial where he was really freaking cool and brave and was able to loose-ish leash walk with me past the crating area and show off his new favorite trick (fling himself into da mama’s arms LOL), and then also we went out to dinner (he napped in the car) then ice cream (he was a happy waggy rockstar on the city sidewalks). Lots for baby brains and he slept 8 hours straight that night 😅
Yesterday we had some sunshine so practiced outdoor games- I tried to go on the grass but it was soggy and Checkie said EWWW gross LOL, so we used the patio. I didn’t notice until after training that my camera distance isn’t great here and cuts off my top half, but hoping you can see the important stuff.
First up toy races!
Decel with more movement beforw the turn!
And some blind crosses! This is where not seeing my upper body is a bit of a bummer (at least it was for me) but my torso and head probably pretty closely matches my arms here.
And this morning…. Back indoors, more rain! We did another three games. Also he lost his first incisor tooth sometime between yesterday and today, and toy play was really not happening this session so I didn’t push it.
Started with folding in the cheese(😂). I got greedy at first you’ll see, but went back several steps and he did well until the end when I maybe tried to progress too quick? Also cookies in the pocket was a bit of a struggle he says FEED DA BABY!
Next we did the two bowls with the upright, and I started on the floor then added the chair. Also really impressed with his desire to stay in the game even during disconnects/resets, hoping I don’t ruin that!!!! lol
And finally we revisited our prop sends, again!
Yesterday we did one game, but his emotions were really tried by me insisting he go pee in the rain instead of testing his bladder control, so I think he had plenty to think about😂
Bowl to bowl with upright! Starts abruptly because my mom walked into our video before we started while we were tugging haha
Then this morning we did two games, goat tricks with lots of stuff going on, you can see how much he wants to interact with the pile, I missed some reward chances here. Also a good game for practicing looking away from my hands when the food is in play😅
And we did folding it in! (All I can think is fold in the cheese!!! lol) He did really well!
Today we’re visiting his first agility trial! So no more training games for the day.
