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Hi!
We’ll go back to the find the jump game to work on looking ahead!
We did the Wind in Your Hair, part 2 game. The rear crosses were a struggle. I have had a lot of issues with trying to do rear crosses with Nox, so it’s no surprise that I’m struggling again, lol. Even when doing the prop game with Katniss, it was hard for her to go in the correct direction. I tried a few different approaches with changing the reward and where it was coming from; I had the most success with a placed reward based on your suggestion for the find the jump game. Hopefully that strategy applies here, too, lol. The backside wraps were easier.
Hi!!
<This game actually builds to a jump grid for slice and backside jumping, and that will make it easier to get the 5 wing added in too>
I guess that means we have to come back to it at some point for real then, haha!!
<She did well with the ladder grid, even when she sat backwards LOL!!!!>
She cracks me up!!
This is our attempt at the Find the Jump game. It went well for the most part. I was able to get a decent distance away from the jump laterally on several reps. After watching the video, I don’t think I showed her the picture with me ahead and lateral as much as I could have. It felt like a bigger distance in real life than what it looked like in the video, lol. Is it a concern that she’s looking at me on every rep instead of straight ahead? I know we’re in the beginning stages of this skill, but I want to start it out right since it has been such a difficult skill for Nox; I don’t want to mess it up, haha.
Hi!
<<There is no catch up week, per se, but there are quieter weeks and plenty of time at the end of class to finish up 🙂 Hope you are feeling better!!!!>>
That’s good to know! My plan to get caught up during spring break didn’t go well, lol. Thankfully, I am FINALLY feeling better!
<<OMG what a nut! She is hilarious!!! She is doing the Inner Pillbug Game – super tight turns LOL!!!!!!! And Nox was angry because it was against the rules LOL!!!!!>>
Haha!! Yes, she is SUCH a nut!!! She has quite the personality. And Nox very much tattles when anyone breaks the rules, except her, of course. 😂
We took another try at the Zig Zag game, but we still couldn’t get all 5 wings. When I added the 5th one, she just ran straight to me instead of going between any of them. I tried on another session to put the MM between the first two wings to reinforce staying on the line, and she was good with it until I tried to get to the last wing again. I didn’t get that on video of course. I like this game, and I think we’ll come back to it at some point because I can see some value in reading crosses from a distance, but for the time being, I think we’ll take a break from it for now, lol.
We also did the Sends and Serps game again. I tried the advanced level since she was doing well with the baby level. She did a couple of good reps with the wing moved back, but then she struggled with getting the backside. I realized we hadn’t actually done the backside foundations game in Max Pup 1 and she was really just relying on my handling to get the backside, so I went back and did the game with the barrel and the jump bump. She picked that up really fast, so then we did the send and serp game again. We definitely need to keep working on the backside to get it as an independent verbal behavior, but I’m pretty happy with how it is going so far.
Finally, we did the ladder grid foundations. It went well. No questions here really. 🙂
Hi!
I really like the Toys Not Flesh games! We have played them a couple of times; I think they will really help us if we keep practicing them.
Is there by any chance a catch up week built into this class like some of your others have had? I thought I’d able to do a couple sessions each day this week to get caught up from being sick and some bad weather, but I decided it was a good idea to get sick again (and on the first day of Spring Break, ugh!). I’m finally feeling better after getting some meds, but we’re a bit more behind now, so I need to figure out what to spend my time on.
We did the Serps and Sends game. We really had to start from scratch with this game since we haven’t gotten past the first strike a pose game in Max Pup 1. I started with using the target in my hand and standing still while calling her over the jump. I was able to very quickly move to fading the target and add some motion. (I didn’t include the very beginning steps in the video.)
We also tried the Zig Zag game. That was a fun one! I actually played it with Nox as well before trying with Katniss, and the issue must be me since they both did really great until I added the 5th wing. I think I was just too slow for how fast they were going. I’m going to blame it on being sick, lol.
Katniss played the Pill Bug game again, but she didn’t invite me. She thinks you should make update the rules of how to play, lol.
Turns out the tunnel was somehow filled with rain water that she was rolling in. She was very crunchy after this game of hers, haha!!Haha! I was trying to decipher the notes about playing, and I was really struggling. Thank you for the edits. Very helpful info!!
We do cookie trades in the house for bringing me random objects she picks up that she’s not supposed to have, and it’s been working pretty well. (I think she might be part golden retriever, lol.) She used to run away with anything she had, but 9 times out of 10 she’ll bring it to me now if I ask her to. I can see the cookie trade thing helping to get her to want to bring it back to me when I let go of the toy, too. I remember in one of the Max Pup 1 toy games, you specifically said not to trade for a cookie in the beginning and to just take the toy out of the dog’s mouth, so I wasn’t sure if I should be doing that yet. I will give this routine a try for sure!
And yes, she did bite me when I gave a verbal correction. She likes to reposition higher on the toy onto my hand. She bit me pretty hard a couple weeks ago, and bruised my hand and drew blood. I (reflexively) gave a pretty loud correction when she did that, and she immediately let go and tucked her nonexistent tail. Since then she has been better about it, but will sometimes still go for the part I’m holding. It doesn’t seem to matter how I hold the toy or what toy I use; she is intentionally aiming for my hand. When she and Nox are playing tug with a toy, she’ll get very close to her face sometimes, and Nox lets go (she’s super nonconfrontational.. you know, except for her leash reactivity. She’s a weird dog!), so I think it’s a learned behavior that she’s been rewarded for. Most of the time she plays tug nicely with Nox and with me, though. It feels very much like a puppy pushing boundaries sort of thing.
Hi!
We did set point with the moving target again. I started with a warm-up rep without the jumps as you suggested. I am still moving the toy very slowly because I don’t think she’s ready for too much movement and speed on it just yet. Her stay behavior is good, but not that good, lol!
I included a clip of me playing tug with her from about :20 to 1:17. I was wondering if you have any suggestions about my play mechanics. Although I tried desperately to get Nox to play with toys as a training reward (she LOVES them in the house), it just never worked, and I honestly think that through some bad advice, I poisoned toys for her in training. I do not want to make any of those mistakes with Katniss since it’s going well overall (except for having the occasional victory lap with her toy still, lol). If this is out of the scope of this class, I totally understand!!
We also did the Minny Pinny Proofing game. In reality, though, I wasn’t doing any real proofing here. The minny pinny is the next game we were going to play from Max Pup 1 since we’re trying to do these two courses simultaneously. Therefore, she hasn’t actually seen the minny pinny or heard lefts and rights except for the tunnel exit game (and I was relying on motion).
The first part of the video is where I introduced her to the basic game. A couple of days later, we tried some of the harder ones since she did so well with the basic game. She was good with me being in the middle of the set up (I didn’t go much past the middle with her), but the rear cross proved to be much too hard, so after two failed attempts, I did one where I supported her more with motion and then did a couple of really easy lefts and rights at the end of the session (not included in the video) just to boost her confidence.
I know that the big thing to improve this skill is repetition of the easier ones before adding too much challenge. I wasn’t sure if I should even attempt any of the hard ones, but I hate to not get any feedback on my mechanics while the class is running so that I can continue on my own when we’re more ready. I caught myself rewarding in the wrong place a few times both with the food and a toy. I know the reward is supposed to be parallel to the wings, but in the moment, I kept forgetting!
I have a question about her mechanics and the set up. Once she figured out how to play the game, she had more speed and started to bounce. However, I noticed from the video that she often would only bounce the first one and then throw in a 2nd compressed bounce before the third jump. Is this just her sorting out her feet still, or do I need to move the jumps closer together for the time being? She’s probably about 18″ (maybe more) tall at the shoulder right now. And does it matter if she’s trotting through some of the harder reps when she has less speed?
Hi!
<<That jumping on the back is a frustration behavior (jumping on the handler’s back is a pretty common Aussie frustration behavior, actually!)>>
Oh good! Something to look forward to, lol!!! At least she’s not screaming at me or running away like Nox? Haha!
I posted 3 videos, but I mostly just need feedback on the last one since that was the new game we tried.
Based on your feedback for the Tunnel Exit Turns game, I tried it again and focused on some reps with just the “Go.” Then, we did a couple with adding in the wrap. It went much better after being reinforced a few times (imagine that! 😂). We’ll keep working on these directionals and verbals.
This is the set point with a moving target. She broke her stay the first time, and then we had some successful reps. Then she got up one other time, but I was pretty confident that she wouldn’t break again since she didn’t really leave the start line.
This was the new game we played. It was the Pill Bug game. Very challenging, lol! I didn’t try going all the way around the tunnel, but we did get some blinds in. When she catches up to me, am I always supposed to reward at that moment, or am I supposed to sometimes keep going and have her run next to me at my pace before rewarding?
Hi!
We attempted the tunnel exit games. Katniss doesn’t really know what “left,” “right,” and “go” mean yet, so that probably made this game harder. I’m pretty sure there are some games in Max Pup 1 that we still need to do that practice those skills. I’ve been trying to play at least one game from Max Pup 1 each week along with all of the games in this class, but it’s been slow going thanks to work, weather, and being sick. Even though she doesn’t know those verbals, I was hoping body language would suffice.
Our problem areas:
-The “Go” was the hardest one. I think I needed to connect more, and it didn’t help that she flew out of the tunnel past me and doesn’t know what a “go” verbal is.
-She sometimes runs behind the tunnel instead of going in it. There is one example of this at :27 and :46. The first time, I rewarded her anyway. The second time, since it’s something she’s done several other times even on easier entries, I sent her back through. Is it ok to do that since it’s not necessarily a handling error, or do I ignore it for now?
(The rest went fairly well if you want to skip to the end since it’s longer than 2 minutes. :))
-At 2:23, I messed up the handling, and she didn’t know what to do, so she jumped on my back. She’s done this a couple of other times in the past, and it’s definitely not something I want her to do, even if my handling sucks, lol. Should I just ignore it like I did in the video, or is there a better response if it happens again?Unfortunately, it’s not really possible to take them separately all the time. For example, they are in back-to-back scentwork classes one night a week, and that’s the only day the classes are offered. I will keep working on the skill and trying to use management as much as possible when I can’t avoid it.
Hi!
<<For some of the reps, like at :04, the connection was turning forward and looked like a blind, so she was correct to consider coming to the other side (definitely rewardable!)>>
I actually thought she was going for my toy, which is why I didn’t reward her. I didn’t realize it was my body. Ugh, lol!
<<No stopping without a reward (and definitely don’t mark the moment as a dog error) and it is actually better to just keep going if possible.>>
Old habits die hard! There were a few times where she didn’t take the correct thing, and I can see the pause between when she missed it and when I gave her the toy. Unfortunately, there were some times where my brain reverted back to stopping (without a reward).
<<Wow, the big sequence at the end had all the elements! Connection, verbals, timing, and some fancy handling! Super!!!!>>
Thanks! It is very cool starting to do sequences with her and seeing the pieces coming together!!
This is the proofing verbals game. It went well, but it was definitely hard for her!
On to some more games!
This is the set point exercise again. I took the 2nd jump out. I had completely forgotten it was there! I am working with Nox on some jump grids, and I’m supposed to be doing a double jump for her set point. I will try not to leave that extra one in again! I also moved the MM out a bit more. You can see some amazing self-control and understanding of her release cue on the first rep!! It was a total accident, but I clicked the button on the MM before I meant to, and she sat there until I released her! It was making the spinning “cookie-is-coming” noise for a while, too, because I chose treats that apparently didn’t work well in it. They took FOREVER to dispense. While it was not purposeful, it was pretty cool that she didn’t break!!
This is the Smiley Face Game. It was her first “real” sequence! I am very happy with how it went overall. The biggest issue we had was me not giving her the right amount of connection at points. The video contains two sessions on different days. We started over with the warm-up at about :55.
Hi!
Super helpful info about working the dogs at the same time! I did consider that it might be taxing on Katniss mentally to have to watch Nox working, but I thought it was a skill we should be working on. A little bit of background info… When I first got Katniss, I was able to leave her in a soft crate in the backyard with me and she would quietly watch while I played with Nox. Once Katniss started understanding what training was all about, that quickly turned into barking, so I left her in the house while I worked Nox. Often, she would be with my husband in his office while he played on his computer or finished up his work (so not paying attention to her really). He said she would bark and cry. He did try to distract her with toys, but he doesn’t do much training and doesn’t know all of the pattern games and such to help her work through it (that was my only thought on how to work on it). So… I started bringing both dogs outside and putting one in an x-pen with the Manners Minder. It worked really well at first and Katniss will now sit without barking or jumping on the pen at all while I work Nox. I have not tried it without the MM in the down-stay mode at this point. However, I do recognize that she is still “working” and therefore using up some of her mental bandwidth. This skill has not transferred to the car at all unfortunately. She will SCREAM in her crate when I take them both to a training class but only when I take Nox out. She will stop after a couple minutes, but I certainly would prefer she not do it at all. Besides being annoying to others if the car is open, I know she’s stressed. I’m not quite sure how to work on this issue without stopping other training altogether. Nox has SERIOUS FOMO, and I want to prevent that in Katniss. Nox was doing well with the MM in the xpen, but she’s starting to bark the whole time except when treats are actively being dispensed, so I have already stopped leaving her outside when it’s Katniss’s turn.
As for the question about the toys, I do sometimes give the toy right back to her as a reward for letting it go, but I do need to balance it more with more of those reps. I think I was being super boring in the video, lol. I probably should have ended the training a little earlier since I was not giving her my best after a long day at work.
Thank you for pointing out that I randomly took a treat out of my pocket and pulled her focus off of the toy! Nox kind of broke my training, lol. I have caught myself throwing cookies at Katniss for absolutely no reason other than the habit I’ve formed to keep Nox focused while transitioning from one place to another during training. I’m so used to a dog that will leave to chase things when she’s not quite sure what she should be doing (or when something catches her eye) that it’s apparently ingrained in me without my knowledge, haha.
Hi!
This is the Feel the Wind in Your Hair game. Our biggest challenge was the toy. She is getting much better about bringing the toy back or at least to my general vicinity and then letting me walk over to play with her. In the beginning, if I let go of the toy, she took off with it and did zoomies. She would come if I called her but not with the toy, lol. We’ve been playing the games in Max Pup 1 to work on toy skills, and I’m definitely seeing improvement! She is also not used to driving to a dead toy, so that skill isn’t strong yet, but she seems to be getting it.
We were both a little tired in this video I think. I alternate working her and Nox, and this was her last turn. They only work for a few minutes at a time before getting a break, but I’m finding that she tires more quickly than Nox ever did as a puppy. I don’t know if it’s a mental or a physical thing (or maybe both).
Hi!
I’m a bit late posting this, so if it’s past the deadline, that’s totally ok!
This is Package 4 Deliberate Disconnection and Extreme Connection. Nox didn’t have any issues really, but I had a couple of spots where I flung my arm out and was late for the backsides, which she did not appreciate, lol. One question about this. What is the difference between the deliberate disconnection and the extreme connection for backsides These seem like opposite types of connection for the same behavior, so I know I’m missing something.
This is Package 4 combos. They went really well I think!
Thank you for another super fun and VERY helpful class!!
Hi!
<<Looking a the video: reward placement was very strong!>>
I tried to work on this again here. I forgot on the first rep but did better on the others.These are the combos from package 3. They went really well! The only parts I cut out of the video were clips of us going from her toy back to the start of the next rep and me looking at my notes for the numbers. She read every cue perfectly, and there was no angry air chomping at me, just her normal sheltie barking. I noticed in the video that I could have run a more parallel path on the extreme connection like you mentioned in for my previous video, but I think I did a bit better with it in the sequences.
