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Good morning!
>>So I figure next turn I’ll follow your suggestion above and do things from different angles and places around the clock. Assuming that goes well, we can move to adding 5 & 6. If you have different thoughts, holler.>>
Sounds good! Give her a couple of days off to cement this new level of tightness and then do the session with the new angles. It is amazing how those days off allow for the latent learning! She definitely was thinking about the tightness on the last few reps here, but she was still nailing it 🙂
And yes, if the angles go well (90% success or higher in finding the entries, no worries if she has to slow a little to think about it) then the session after it can be adding poles 5-6 🙂
Have fun!
TracyPerfect! I use poles as my regular cue and weaves as my threadle cue because I couldn’t think of anything else that I would remember hahaha
Hi! I am VERY excited about how this went! The little detour into getting her happy to hop on seems to have helped: At the beginning, she totally hopped on facing the wrong way, turned around while the board was in the air, and seemed perfectly fine to do it.
The rest of the session went great: as it progressed, things are noticed:She is now weight shifting and focusing ahead to target position during the countdown. And hopping on before being asked her to hop on – that is a good sign of confidence!!!
I think you can now add some motion to it – countdown, target cue, drop the board you walk forward. Start this with a little less height so it is easier for her to stay balanced on the board if she is surprised by your motion.
If she is happy with that in a session or two, add more height to go along with the motion.
And the other thing you can do is fade out the treats on the target – she is happy to eat them, but they might actually be delaying her movement into the 2o2o because she is assessing them a bit when she lands (reading the menu? LOL!)And if she is happy with that? Onwards to level 3, the Crazy Elevator Game! Fingers crossed for good weather so you can keep playing outside 🙂
Great job here!
TracyHi!
>>my plan was to do 2 on right and 2 on left.
I love your plan! I am going to start needing to reinforce you with a bottle of wine for sticking to your plan… always stick to plan, less is more.
>>I ended up doing a third rep with dog on left b/c I wasn’t sure if I saw hesitation. On that last rep, it was there. So decided just to do some rewarding for running to the end of the board. I figured it couldn’t hurt reinfocring the running to the end of the board behavior.>>
Actually…. by not stopping, you ended up getting more rehearsals of hesitation. Stick to the plan – and if you notice something on the last rep, resist all temptations to do one more or two more. Just note it and make a plan for the next session. After that 3rd rep, you ended up doing 7 more reps. No bottle of wine for you LOL!!! Yes, he got reinforcement but it was also building in stopping more in the middle because he was thinking about the movement of the board.
Remember that the key to the teeter for him is thinking about things less and just running like a mad man. He is at his happiest training the teeter when you make him nuts, do very few but completely insane reps, then you’re done. Wheeee!!! That can be accomplished in 3 or 4 reps, but you ended up at 12 reps which is tooooo many for this new game. I promise that the crazy elevator game will percolate like a great cup of coffee (NOT a Waffle House cup haha) if you do less-is-more: super high value rewards for just a couple of reps.So your training instinct of a 4 rep plan was GREAT!!!! Trust your planning instinct and stick to those super short sessions with limited reps (especially because there is so much concussion on the dog’s body with these games). Don’t let the just-one-more take over LOL! Remember, there is wine in it for you!
So – on your next session, just do 1 or 2 on each side with massive reinforcement and wildness before & after, then be done regardless of how fast up the board he is. You might be able to see in the extended demo section that it took me multiple sessions to get the dogs going fast across the board 🙂
TracyHi! It is good to refresh the mountain climbers because they are getting built into the Elevator game!
He did really well here – it took him a moment to adjust to the new tip but then he was great! Very confident young man 🙂 If you think the noise of the board mght bother him, you can drape a towel over the holder – I mention it in case you feel he needs it, I did not see anythign that leads me to think he was bothered by the noise 🙂
I feel your pain with the target falling off LOL! I now just carry duct tape in the car so I can tape anything, anywhere LOL!! He was a good sport about it, he is confident enough to wait for the cookie delivery.
>> I also asked for a 2O/2O at the other end of the board. Without the presence of the target plate that part was hard for him. Actually, I had target plate issues both up and down!>>
Yes, he was missing more than he was hitting the position there, so in this game I just suggest helping the dog turn around then hop off the side (using my very high level ‘hop off’ cue LOL!!!) That way there is no rehearsal of self-releasing or running through target position, especially when cued.
On your next visit to the mountain climbers, you don’t need to add more tip – instead, add more of your motion 🙂 Have him start with you so you can run, or send him around a wing so you can get ahead and moving. I think he is ready for that and it will prepare him nicely for the next steps of the Elevator Game 🙂
Great job here!
TracyHi there! Nice work on these sessions!
On the Downhills – yes, I agree with the ide to warm up with bang game then go back the full downhills. I think he was trying to think about both the target AND the downhill. The warm up will allow him to not have to think about the target. Also, I notice that he is incredibly literal with reward placement, he goes to exactly where you put your reward. Good news… bad news. Ha! So on the throw backs, your aim needs to get really good – try to get it to hit right a the edge of the board, not a little bit further up, as that causes him to stop a little short. It is tricky, so you can also run back to deliver it or release him forward.
Otherwise, he did really well. I think he just needs more experience on this game with the board going to the ground and then it will be perfect 🙂Elevator game: Looks lovely! Good job adding the motion, he was definitely ready for it. He shows us he is confident by starting to scratch LOL! Makes me laugh. At this point, I vote that you move on to Part 3, Crazy Elevator! Take out your motion to start it, and remember to warm up with regular elevator game 🙂
And more good news, bad news – because he is now doing just about the whole teeter, you are now getting into a lot of concussion on the joints – so like with the weaves, dial back the number of sessions and amount of reps in that session. I train my youngsters like this: weaves on one day, teeters the next, then a day off. Then weaves, then a teeters, then a day off. And if they get two days off? Even better. (In case you are wondering what I do with the adult ‘trained’ dogs… well, they don’t get trained at all right now hahahaha)
Target fading video – you needed a warm up rep or two here as well 🙂 Make that your mantra – first 2 reps are warm ups, then you can go crazy 🙂 When he had his little warm up, he was quite fabulous!
One little error in the middle, probably too much running but otherwise a really strong session! You can do another session just like this (with a warm up rep) and if he is finding it easy… fade the target to one small piece right in the center on the edge. Then I am confident you can fade it all the way out too. When it is faded on the plank, we just repeat the process on the bang game on the teeter as well.Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi there! He is looking really good here!!! The different pieces are really starting to come together!
He is doing really well with the target fading! I think he was fine without the target, not really using it – on your next session, warm up with the current target then in a moment where you are reinforcing him, just scoot it out of there and see what he does on the next rep (he is probably going to be just fine without it). Also, we can add one more level: to be sure he is definitely stopping and holding position, keep moving for 2 or 3 more steps to be sure he hits and holds position before you throw the reward back to him.
Elevator game:
You might find it easier to hold with one hand if it is more about bending at the knees versus bending at the waist? Let your thighs do more work than your back 🙂 When I use my legs more, it is easy to hold the board with my big dog. Love the frisbee under your shirt LOL!!! The things we do for our dogs….He did really well, especially as you started moving. Great job to him for ignoring all of the things happening!! And at the end, your son was calling you and Chapter remained perfectly on task 🙂 YAY! So keep working this – adding more height now, as well as continuing to add motion. If he is happy with that in the next session or two, we move to the Crazy Elevator game.
Downhills:
>>Normally he would have jumped off and sprinted to the other side of the yard and barked- he definitely controlled that impulse here. Big win!>
That is the best part of any of these sessions! And it is a reflection on the engagement work you have done, as well as the value of the teeter. YAY!
The teeter game here is looking really good – he is moving nicely down the board and getting his end position, no problem. Happy dance! So, add more motion and see how he does with that (mainly in terms of the end position).
Because there are a limited # of hours in the day, you can focus most on the Elevator game so we can move to the Crazy Elevator game – which merges all of the tracks 🙂 and a bit of the target fading too.
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>Today I tried to follow your suggestions for the Bang game – clicking for focus forward – I clicked earlier, sometimes before she lay down. >>
I thought this session got you a massive step forward – she was totally looking ahead and not at you! YES!
>>She was not thrilled with this game, as she’s not crazy about the MM,>>
I know… LOL! My big puppy is not crazy about it either. And they slow down and get thoughtful… But it allows us to show her exactly what the correct behavior is, which will result in more reinforcement that she likes eventually. So sometimes we whip it out to get the behavior then it become the gateway to the better rewards 🙂 It also looked pretty hot there – her tongue was huge LOL and that might be why she was a little calm and not terribly excited about the MM.
On the next session, do everything the same but add your motion of walking past, then jogging past. My only suggestion is to always start her right close at the end of the board, so she is basically leaping on directly to the target rather than stepping a few steps to it (the end result of striding should be 2 (or 3) massive strides up the board then one little weight shift stride into position, so we don’t want her to practice 2 or 3 little steps into position). Click exactly the same way you did here, emphasizing the early click with her looking straight. It was really strong!!
And if that goes well on the next session… do everything the same except tug with her between reps 🙂 This end position is so important that we can take as much time as needed to get it perfect.
>> and it didn’t help that I brought the wrong one out – this one had boring kibble in it, whereas the other one has yummier treats.>>
Bad Momma! HAHA! Just kidding, it worked out beautifully to have a very ‘chill’ session to get her looking ahead so nicely.
Great job!
TracyHi!
>>But I’ve got Moderna #2 tomorrow early afternoon so who knows what we’ll be doing for a few days after that.>>
Welcome to being fully Team Moderna! Hopefully you have no issues and will feel just fine.
>>. I am seeing that if he’s not busy chasing Nemo, he does notice the teeter noise when it hits the ground behind him.>>
Yes, that is pretty normal – so the release/chase is actually pretty calculated to get the dogs away from the board while also getting a positive conditioned response to the reset noise of the board.
>>I feel like he needs more sessions with theses to raise the board higher in elevator game and to get the board more parallel in the downhill. >>>
Yes – getting the teeter outside is a massive variable change which also brings out more variable changes LOL! I think some of his questions from these sessions were simply because of the new environment (it has only been 2 days, right?) I think it will come together very quickly as soon as he gets more practice with the outdoor variable PLUS the variables you are adding. He did really well on the first outdoor session, but you didn’t add the other variables yet there. Plus each outdoor session is filled with new variables in the environment 🙂
On the video, some ideas:
At the beginning with Elevator Game – he seemed a little distracted outside, that is normal – so the new variable here was probably the neighbor dog barking in the distance, and not the height or motion you added. That is why he had a litle trouble with that. And same with the downhill – so many different things happening, and it was especially hard when you were running right towards Nemo on the ground LOL!I think the biggest thing is that he is still learning about getting into position and holding it with you running for real (that was not able to happen fully indoors). More on that below.
A thought about the ball: when you had Nemo out on the ground ahead for the downhill, he might have been slowing down because of the ball being there. If I remember correctly, the ‘dead’ ball elicits a bit of a stalky response from him? So Nemo is better as a thrown reward then a placed rewad
On the next elevator game moment, he is getting better here for sure! You can mix in tossing the treat back to him or releasing him forward to a cookie bowl or MM – I think he was tracking your hand movement to follow the cookie delivery 🙂
The outdoor environment was a little distracting here too and he is having trouble with motion of your running – so dial it back like you did in terms of not running as hard – but keep moving past the target position til he is for sure stopped – move for another 2 or 3 steps. You were tending to dcel/stop when he was stopping and we want to be sure he will not rely on that .But overall, considering this is only day two of teeter in the yard – he is doing really well!!
As for planning:
>>Then the uphill/downhill merge and then maybe the Crazy Elevator.>>
I think we might flip that… he LOVED the Mountain Climbers (which are basically the first part of the elevator game). So I think the next session can be a warm up of the regular elevator game for 2 or 3 reps, then a couple of Crazy Elevators! When you do that, keep yourself next to the target as the board falls so he only has to think about 1 thing.
And separately, you can use bang or regular elevator to get the holding target position with you moving going as well.
Let me know if that makes sense! He is looking great! Fingers crossed for a very easy next 36 hours for you 🙂
TracyHi!
She looked great with the uphills and the various angles – SO FAST!! I had to check to make sure the video was not in fast forward haha! I am excited about how fast she gets across the board and still gets the weight shift going!
Using the visual aids you have there, ask for harder angles of entry, like 180 degree wraps – but not from the wing yet until you are confident she will line up and not just try to go fast. So it is like sending her to a backside teeter entry, with the visual aids. For River, we know the speed will be there so we want to emphasis the “don’t splat yourself” element 🙂On the plank work – she is at about 50% rate of success with all of the motion (my guess is that the running dog walk work has created a conditioned response to the running when a plank is involved) so we need to change a variable to get that success rate up to 90% consistently. I want her to get better at choosing to stop when you run – you did dial back the motion but it added a decel that kept you near the target area, so I am not sure if she was cuing off that or not. She had the biggest questions when you were ahead AND going fast.
So a couple of ways to tweak it to help her get more successful:Using this setup, we can isolate the “ahead” element by sending her to the wing with you further away, then just jog past the board so you are way ahead when she gets on it, but not moving that fast. Let’s see where her success rate is on that: if she fails, keep the ‘ahead’ variable but dial back the motion.
The other thing to do is to use this setup with you not all that far ahead, but moving fast… and make the target at the bottom of the board REALLY big (think of a small billboard haha) in the hopes that the saliency of the target helps to override the stimulation of the motion. Then when she is super successful with you sprinting past, we can fade the target.
You can work on each concurrently then we can merge them back together.
Let me know if that makes sense! Great job here!
TracyHi there! These are all going really nicely 🙂
On the first video:
There was no sound here, so just a general reminder to use the countdown and target cue 🙂 And if you were doing it – click/treat for you!
He looked good here: happy to ride the board down and get into 2o2o. Tee 2o2o got better on each rep – he looked a little surprised on the first couple but then was more prepared as he learned the game. He is a little bit head up riding the board down and getting into position (looking at you and the cookie, probably :)) so we can keep him head down more – throw reward back to him so it lands between his feet (roughly 🙂 or mix in releasing forward to his cookie target bowl.The Bang game on the road is looking really good! He looks a little distracted but not that badly – you still had a ton of focus in a new place (and it looks like warm weather too). He seemed to enjoy the Pill Poeckts LOL!
For the target – you can use something random as a target if you don’t have it, like a piece of paper or something. I used folded up number cones in the one the road video I had LOL! That will also help keep his head down and you can also add tossing the treat back to him to he doesn’t look up as much.
One other little detail on the bang game:
always start right at the very end to maximize going directly into position, rather than starting where the contact zone begins because then he takes a couple of steps into position. We don’t want him in the habit of the extra steps there.
His overall confidence is looking terrific, in a new place and a new teeter!!!Elevator – this is also looking really strong in a new place!!! Your first rep was a little off kilter but he was happy to get the cookie – but 2nd rep was great and so were all the others. Great job getting him right to the end of the board. I am impressed with how he is perfectly happy to let you lift it all the way up in the air!!!! Good boy!
Just one little mechanics thing: after you lift the board with him on the end, give a moment of the board not moving before the countdown begins rather than starting the countdown as it is rising – that extra moment will let him prepare for the weight shift and balance challenge that is about to come (you’ll often see the dogs start to look downwards at that point :))Because this was so successful, when you get back to one of your home bases… onwards to Elevator Game part 3! Wheeeee! We are very close to the full teeter now 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi! I think she did a lot better holding position and you had a clearer upper body position on the serps and threadles before the release! And you can totally throw a reward back to her as you move to help maintain the stay.
I also think she was a little excited and a little distracted, which is why she had some errors in the first part 🙂 When she settled down a bit, she did really well!
So an idea for you:
Because she might get excited and the tunnel gets more tempting, you can have her come in and touch the target in your hand like she did back in the original strike a pose 🙂 The difference is that now you can get her wilder with tugging and being outside, and the tunnel is nearby. Adding the target back and rewarding that will help her remember to drive in to you rather than the tunnel – and then you can take the target back out.
Start this without motion and you just standing still in serpentine position. And if it is still really hard, you can take it away from the tunnel at first, and start it with her just being really excited 🙂
As soon as she can do it when she is a little wilder, then it will all be much easier 🙂Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! This was an interesting video but I think it will help the handling a lot! The tunnel here turns her strongly to her right, so she will keep turning that direction unless the handling tells her not to. And then, because she is small and low to the ground – she needs more connection when she exits the tunnel. On most of the reps, your dog-side shoulder was forward and even if you could see a red blur 🙂 she could not really see you or the connection – she could only see your back or what might have been the shoulder turn of a blind cross.
So at :02, :07, :17, :41 for example, she was completely convinced she should go to your right arm. When you ramped up the connection at :11 and :34, she got the wing 🙂 And at :59, your motion was really good! Adding in more connection will help that too. So because she is little, think of connecting more down towards her, you might even dip your shoulder downwards. And have your left arm alllll the way back – magnets on your fingertips to her nose) so that when she exits the tunnel, she can totally see the connection. That should help her find the wing 🙂Let me know if that makes sense 🙂
TracyHi!
By cementing it, I mean latent learning: during breaks between sessions, her brain and muscle memory are really embedding the learning. So the success of the first session might not show up til the next session in a day or two 🙂>>And “short to the jump”. Do you mean the one she is coming off of, or the one she is going to? I think I see her closer to the one she just jumped. Do you want the stride right in the middle of the two jumps?>>
Yes, ideally she is right smack in the middle. By ‘short’ I mean that her front feet are landing just a little past the bar she just jumped, rather than in the middle.
Let me know if that makes more sense 🙂
Tracy
Hi again! Another great session here, you were great about continuing to move and not reaching for rewards until after he had clearly chosen to stop. And it was just the right amount of motion to challenge him but still set him up for success – he did a great job. So on the next session:
– begin by keeping the same amount of motion, but be further ahead of him as you are moving towards the tunnel. That will challenge him to hit & hold position when it will be tempting to chase you to the tunnel 🙂If that goes well? Onwards to gradually adding more and more of your speed 🙂 This game is coming together VERY nicely in time for the teeter to get added after the tunnel 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
