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Hi!
I like how the tunnel start was more fun for him and made you work harder LOL!! He did REALLY well on this too! I feel the pain of almost falling over the dog on the rear cross entries LOL!
All of the GO and wraps on the wings plus left or right exits are looking good. And he read the rear cross tunnel exits too. I think his only real question was about the tunnel entry on those hard RC angles – he seemed to respond better to a Go cue embedded with the tunnel cue – those were most successful for commitment. When you only said the tunnel cue, he tended to have more questions. So you might want to play with a “GO TUNNEL GO TUNNEL” type of cue as he exits the wing wrap to commit to the tunnel, then switch to the left/right? The Go has a lot of value so it can be placed before the tunnel cue to name driving to it, rather than go go go go go which names the exit. Let me know if that makes sense! Everything else looks great so we can focus on the little details 🙂
TracyHi!
Interesting session! She probably has a reinforcement history of chasing the ball in that location, so that is what she was looking for especially when you were moving faster. Definitely don’t try to go faster – in fact, go really slowly so she doesn’t focus on your motion. Also, I think it was a really good plan to switch to the tug toy. You started to have really good reps at about 4:00 and that was great! So yes, keep this going with the tug toy (not the ball) as the toy produces a very different response. And keep walking past the jump slowly – if she takes it, reward! If she does not take it, keep walking to the other side, no reward, then turn and walk back towards it. I think you were trying to line her up after she missed, and it made both of you twitchy LOL! So, if she misses, now worries, keep walking then try again with the new direction. She will learn to find it because that is what triggers the toy to get thrown 🙂
Good job with your training choices here, figuring out what she needed! That really set up the success you had here and will make it easier for future sessions 🙂
TracyHi! Nope, it won’t confuse them – the travel plank or the teeter will look significantly different than the DW mat or board. Hot Sauce had zero questions training through this to the finished behavior on both 🙂
TracyHi! This looks really strong!
>> I tried to keep my dog side arm back and connected while moving forward. >>
You looked great to me! And she had no questions that I could see.
Great job with the gradual angling of the serp jumps! She was fast AND finding the turns with no trouble on the first couple of reps –
When you added the bigger sequence starting at :19 and at :26 and :44, change sides after the tunnel send to get to the other side so when she exits the tunnel, she serps the jump after it rather than do a 180. That is a little more challenging to find when you are in a lot of motion.The only other suggestion is when she lands from the serp jump to go to the tunnel at :54 and 1:02, add a stronger connection to turn her back out the tunnel and also keep moving towards the tunnel entry to set the line – you were moving away and she was looking up at you before turning back to the tunnel.
You got the serp jump after the tunnel at 1:44 and 1:57 and she looked great! No trouble finding it, jumping it, and turning. NICE! You can add more speed to get a little further ahead and see how she does with it.
Great job!!!
TracyHi! Tunnel plus toy was definitely very fun 🙂 And I am glad to hear he was pulling towards it more, I could see your dog-holding arm getting longer LOL! Good timing on your throws too, he never had to look back. You had some angles going too, all good! And very fun 🙂 After another session like this and you can switch him to the inside to begin the threadle foundation.
About the victory laps – I love letting dogs have the joy of running around with the toy, and cheering them on, and putting it on cue (go for a run!). Try not to call him back or use your bring it cue until you think you have a reasonably good chance that he will come back – with my pups, I count to 10 in my head slowly, then use the cue (bring it!) And as soon as they turn their heads to me, I make a big party (run away, cheer, etc) and then as they almost arrive, I reward with another toy. That has helped allow the victory laps without losing the retrieve 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! This was a good warm up & review! She wasn’t really making the 2nd turn on the first couple of reps when you were not moving, but she was making it perfectly on all the others when you were moving – so that is fine 🙂 The serpentine is a moving cue so we don’t have to obsess on standing still LOL! Onwards to the sequences below!
Tracy
Hi! It is hard to tell if it is mechanics (his or yours) making it harder to turn to his left or the visual of the obstacles that were right there 🙂 He turned nicely to his left at the end when you were not turning towards the obstacles. One thing that will help both directions is to have him approaching from behind you, rather than parallel to you – that way you can show him the magic cookie hand before he catches up to you so he is locked onto it in advance for a few steps. Also, when he was on your right side (turning to his right) you had more of a both hand approach to the first rep and the on the other reps, you were more outside-arm only. Then on the last rep, you had more of a 2-hand approach. He might find it clearer to have both of your hands in play?
But overall, I think this is a really good start! The pups learn to anticipate the meaning based on what follows the first part of the cue, so it will get easier and easier for him to not have to think about it as much 🙂 Try out the 2-hand approach with him starting behind you and see how it goes!
Nice work 🙂
TracyHi! This is looking great! He drove in perfectly and is turning away beautifully to both sides, Yay! I think you might be a tiny bit early stepping back, which is why he was a little sticky on a couple of them – try to wait with your magic cookie hand extended towards him and your feet together until he is about 2 inches from your hand – then your hand and leg can start moving back to show the turn. If you are too early, the turn won’t be as snappy because it is not as clear about what to follow.
The only other question he had was returning to focus after the throw in the grass 🙂 You can replace the naked cookie toss with a big bowl or mat to toss it too (so he can find it more easily) or even use your MM – cookie in your hand, reward for driving to you, turn away…. click the MM! He will like that, I think 🙂 Plus it is challenging to have to ignore the beloved MM 🙂
Nice work!!!
TracyHi! I am sorry to hear that more snow is coming!! I am ready for an early spring LOL!
Good job on the teeter games – I really like how the target was getting her to look forward and not at you – I think some of the reps had a loaded target but not all of them? Fading the cookie from the target is helpful but we do want to keep that nice focused forward behavior. Try not to move until after she has arrived in position – she wanted to watch you when you were moving.
The other thing I see is that even with the target there, she is pretty upright as the board drops then she lowers her head to get into position. That might mess up the balance on the board when she gets more speed moving to onto it, in a sequence. I have a couple of ideas to help that but the easiest one to try is moving the target closer to the board, so she has to lean back (weight shift) a little to get it. An ideal spot might be about 2 inches from the end of the board, but you can experiment and see what works the best. The goal is that she anticipates the targeting and shifts her weight back as she gets to the end of the board, which will also produce great balance with speed.
Nice work! Let me know if that makes sense!
TracyHi! Nice work here! He remembered the value nicely (good warm up to refresh it!) and was really good about going to it before going to the reward. And yes, you will want your feet facing the reward more but it will get a lot easier when we add movement. It feels kinda strange standing still LOL!!
On tweak to add now is his starting position – on these reps, he was traveling along the same line as your feet. So now move to him starting more in front of you, facing you – so he has an almost 90-degree angle of approach. That should produce the 2 turns that we want from a serpentine (in then back out) by getting him to drive directly towards your spoon hand in a perpendicular approach then turn towards the reward hand. I think his value is high enough that he is more than ready for this – it also adds challenge because he can see both the spoon target AND the reward hand 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi! Lots of great stuff here!
>>For the teeter I am not sure if I am working towards 2o2o or 4on. If you have a recommendation I would love to hear. I taught my older border collie a 4on and it was beautiful when she learned it. She would run to the end and lean back (almost into a bow position). It did not hold up over time and she began stopping/creeping further up the board. I am sure more could have been done to maintain her behaviour but others have told me that’s just what happens with 4 on and that 2o2o is more clear.>>
I have seen the same thing with 4on behavior- it deteriorates faster than 2o2o. When my 2.5 year old dog was learning the teeter, I asked a whole lot of folks about why they went to a 4on instead of a 2o2o and truthfully, there was no clear reason – they would say things like it is faster (it is not) or safer (it is not). I *think* the reason people do it is that they can rip the dog off the board sooner because he *might* reach criteria sooner… also known as not maintaining criteria 🙂 I can train a great 2o2o and also rip the dog off early at a big event LOL!! Plus, when I asked my dog which was clearer: she 1000% chose the 2o2o. I have found 2o2o using a nose touch to be intensely awesome and we also have adjunct games to teach the dog how to control the board. Contraband will do a 2o2o (Elektra is too small, she has to do a 4on).
>>We had a little set back on the teeter and I’m not sure why. He’s not particularly worried about the motion I don’t think and he doesn’t tend to be sound sensitive.>>
Watching the 2 videos – I think there is a whip and reverb to the set up that he was avoding. Listening to the sound, it was not one bang like it would be when he was slamming it – it was 2 or 3 bangs in rapid succession. I don’t think he like that! It also means the board was whipping (to create the repeated bangs), so there was weirder movement to go with the sound.
I like that you had him play with a toy after each rep! That helps, he loves his toys! And do fewer reps – do one rep for a great toy then go do something else – we really don’t want the dogs thinking too deeply about something crazy like a seesaw and the best way to keep them liking it without over-thinking is to do one rep then leave LOL!
I think you do not need to eliminate the movement, but I do think you should do something to dampen the repeated sound – you can put a sand bag or two on the base of the teeter so it doesn’t move at all, and a towel or something where the board meets the barrel. Is the other side of the barrel covered? You can also have the edge of the teeer go right to the edge of the barrel so there is less teeter hanging over the edge and whipping, if that makes sense.Backing up onto the teeter board is so hard! He was definitely ‘looking’ for it with his back feet LOL! Good boy! I think I would dampen the whip of the board for this one too with a towel under the side with the barrel. And you can use a toy on all of these reps, he definitely was happier to do it with the toy!
The lazy game is looking good! He definitely likes it better when you move to the tunnel, he was not sure that he had permission to go to it without a lot of movement or loud verbals 🙂 When you cue the left and right, try to turn your shoulders a little sooner: he exits the tunnel, you say left/right and turn at about that same moment. A soft turn will work, you don’t need to whip your shoulders (there is no place to go LOL!) – on these reps you were facing straight til he took off, so he was a little wide and ticked a bar here and there.
Your connection looked lovely!!!On the wraps – he is committing really nicely and turning really well too! Connection looks great. I think we can tighten the line up with 2 little tweaks:
add more of a clear transition of fast-slow-rotate, which means accelerating into the wraps more. I know it is counterintuitive to run hard into a tight turn, but it will help 🙂 You were decelerated at :25 so he didn’t see the change coming and was wide. Same thing at :39 and :49 – you rotated sooner so he turned better, accelerating hard to the wrap wing until he lands from the pinwheel jump then decel and rotate will make them spot on 🙂 At 1:47 you had more acceleration but not enough decel – you slammed on the brakes and he didn’t take it (baby dogs don’t know how to save us LOL!Also, accelerating to the wing will also help tighten the exit back to the pinwheel jump – when you were a little laterally away from the wrap wing at 1:12, 1:33 and 1:58, he drove to your position and then pushed back in. If you are closer to the wing, he can chase your line more directly to the next jump.
After he realized the other tunnel was out there, he started turning wider on the tunnel exit 🙂 A name call will help, I think he was just jazzed up by the other tunnel 🙂
Last video – blind crosses: the turns to the outside was easy when he was turning to where the other tunnel was and much harder on the white wing that seemed to turn away from everything! Even when you were very precise, I thought his thought bubble was still on the other turn LOL!
Howeber when you added it to the sequnce – very nice!!!
At 1:19 you did a great job of moving across the line after the blind.
At 1:33 you stopped too mjuch and showed the backside 🙂
1:41 was better but not as good as 1:19, you were a little in his way on the line.
The other side was even better and he gets a double gold star for a wicked tight turn at 1:56 and 2:10 away from the orange tunnel!!!
Not sure why he hit the bar 2:09, possibly a little late on the reconnection?
Now you are either going to laugh or curse me out – you spent a few reps trying to get the exit of the red jump to be a post turn, when your instinct seemed to be that you wanted to spin (you were rotating at 1:56 and 2:10…. the post turn was good but I think the spin will be better for him in this scenario. The turns at 1:56 and 2:10 looked much tighter than the post turns at the end 🙂
Either way – great job! I am super happy with how much independence he has on the line and how easily you were able to start and finish the blinds!!!!! That is looking terrific!Lovely work! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! I love this running contacts training as a hind end awareness game – it teaches the dogs where to put back feet while running. And it teaches us humans to have a really good idea for criteria 🙂 So you can definitely do the mat work, but we won’t put it on a contact at any point 🙂
T
Hi! Her monkey noises when she was wanting the treat were too funny! Aussies are total optimists when it comes to food 🙂 Then she was like, “FINE, I will do the contact thing for the cookie” haha!
>>Forgot to grab a plastic lid when we were upstairs, so I used a small box lid. Good variety practice.:)>>
I do that too – rather than lock into one target, I grab whatever is around 🙂 I used a random index card last week and I have also used random piece of whatever is around. I think it helps to generalize the behavior and makes it easier to fade the target.
This game helps build up the value of offering that position – you can see that sits and downs have more value in this scenario in the house, so I am really happy with how she worked through it and figured out that the 2o2o has tremendous value! She did a great job!! You can add this to the bang game if there is not too much snow 🙂
Nice work!
TracyOh wow, she is really getting distinct steps with her backing up!!! This is really terrific for such a youngster!!!
I think she kinda sorta knows it is about the mat, but not fully. So I don’t think you need a bigger mat, but rather a more obvious mat – you can raise it an inch or so by putting it on something like a small dog bed or even a couple of towels. That can really help make it salient – it is backing up to the mat, not just backing up. She will have an ‘a-ha!’ moment 🙂 Do a session or two like this one on a more obvious mat… and then you can start to only click for the mat 🙂 If she backs up sideways, you can have her come back to reset between your feet (with a boring cookie :)) and try again – and backing up onto the mat gets GREAT cookies. If she struggles, you can start it really easy with just her front feet coming off the mat, then stepping back on. If you find something that raises the mat a little without making it too hard to step backwards onto, I bet she figures it out immediately.Great job!
TracyHi! This also went really well! Your motion was spot on.
For the line up to get her started, you can show her a treat, toss it, send her to get it – as you start moving up the line 🙂
The bag was right in the middle so she had no trouble finding it at all – so it is possible that in the previous video where she was missing it towards the end, it was just because the bag was less visible among the other stuff there .
If you have more room you can add more lateral distance! You can also add challenge in 2 other ways:
when you toss the treat, starting moving up the line towards/past the bag before she eats the treat, so when she turns around you will be way ahead – can she still hit the bag (probably). And you can do the opposite – go with her to the treat, wait there while she eats it… then move with her so she drives ahead of you. I think she can do that too!
Great job here!
Tracy
