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Hi!
>> Can I have a holder for the bond cross and racing her?
Yes š That will give you a better head start AND she will be even faster š
>>And I canāt use a toy for the blind cross, can I just treat her? I need to work the lotus ball, then maybe that would work and I give her the treat from it Or maybe have her ball and when she comes in to hand, I throw it??>>
Yes, and yes š You can reward from your hand as long as you keep moving. And you can also throw the lotus ball or regular ball out of ahead of you when she catches up š
Keep me posted!
TracyHi!
>> On the wing wrap, when can I drop the bowls and reward from hand. I did a few that way at the end. Just easier then bringing the bowls.
You can drop treats on the ground if she can find them. And you can reward from your hands if you want – we will be adding more about motion and reinforcement in the next couple of weeks š
T
Hi there! Both of these sessions look great!
>> I have to confess that I struggle with using a toy to work and keeping them interested in it. Its just so much easier to use food.
Yes! It is so much easier to work with reinforcement that the dog actually loves – it makes the training stuff go faster and is more fun too. And he DEFINITELY is very fast in his training!
>>So moving to another room or insisting on toy play while shapping or working is tough for me.
Definitely donāt insist on it – that is a fun killer for you both. You can move to a different room and throw a toy around, or just carve out a minute or two during the day separately from training to just hang out and play with the toy. If you feel like you are insisting, then you can stop š It is more important that the toy is fun for you both! So play with it separately. I have found that reducing the pressure with toy play and bringing the toy into training later, when the pup loves it, is worthwhile and effective.
On the videos – his wrapping looks great! You can sit on a couch and even try standing up! It was hard to tell – how much distance between you and the basket did you have? If there was not a lot of distance, you can add more š We will be moving this to a jump wing soon too.
He is VERY driven for his food, so I am confident that you will have a ton of speed on course and in his training – so there is no pressure to bring toys in, you can build it separately as just something goofy and fun then add it in to agility eventually šThe backing up cracked me up – you placed the start cookie just far enough under the chair that he HAD to back up. Brilliant! LOL!!!! Keep going with this approach, gradually adding in more distance and more steps away in the backing up. You can also add in starting him on a target or dog bed, and have him tak a step off then back on… building up to all four feet off then backing up. Then, the bed or target becomes a useful destination for backing up and hind end awareness.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Backing up mechanics can be adjusted to the āwhatever worksā category! This is not necessarily working, so we can play around.>>Itās hard on my back and one hip because I have to bend over much more than with tugging and hold the position for a longer period without moving.
On the left side of the screen here, it looks like there is a ledge or something to sit on – you can sit on that with your legs extended (which will act as channels!) and so you do the same procedure without bending over: cookie right at the base of the ledge you are sitting on, then next cookie between her front feet. Low hands – yes. Bending – no š
>> I canāt toss a treat through her legs as she doesnāt really move from between my legs until after I toss it and I canāt really do it while she is still between my legs (plus the whole she has no chest yet ā LOL!) and once she takes a step back out from between my legs she simply turns around to go find the treat so I donāt think she has backed up more than one or two steps at most.>>
I am not worried about # of steps backing up right now, it is more about sorting out the mechanics. So you can reach your reward hand forward and place it to where you want the cookie to be – this will help her back up and NOT turn around. I would place it just behind her front feet.
The other option is to use a target:
Start her all four feet on a low dog bed. Lure her to bring her front feet (only front feet) off the bed. Then reward her for stepping her front feet back on by placing the cookie on the bed between her front feet.
Do that a few times and if you think she is getting it… lure her to get all four feet off the bed… then reward her for stepping even just one little foot back onto it.
And to make the bed/target salient, you can put it in a crate, or between X-pen panels, anything that makes is easy to step back and hard to turn around. I like starting with front end awareness for this with baby puppies, because it helps get the concept going while they are growing up a bit to be able to realize they have back feet too šLet me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Ah yes, I can see she was a little questioning at first! You can pack the underside of this with towels so it is more supported (moves less) and also the visual of the towels under it will help her confidently get on the raised edge of it. Then we can fade out the towels, over time.
Question – what does she love to chase? We can get her to think less about the movement of the board and run back to it quicker by throwing the reinforcement as a click-then-toss strategy. You can do something like thrown cookies, or even balls if she loves those. She might not love a tug toy here, or maybe she will? The action of the movement of getting on then off builds the love of the wobbler very quickly for dogs that get thoughtful about it.Backing up is going well! Since you shaped it – we can get her head lower by lowering you hands by just having you sit on a chair or couch for this session (and donāt have the wobble board or anything else nearby, I thought she was going to offer getting on it even though it was leaning on the wall LOL!!!) It also looks like you were ping ponging distance, that is going well too. You mentioned having shaped it to a target at first – was there a question from her that caused you to leave it in favor of shaping it? If not, you can add it back in as a hind end awareness game. If there was a question, let me know – we donāt need to add it to the backing up but we can game plan separately.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Have the board not there
Sit on a couchOMg he is growing so much! This is looking really good! On the first session here, I think he lost his chain of thought for a moment when the cone got further away LOL Great job moving it back in and then keeping it close the next day, for 100% success. NICE!!! He is doing so well! Yes, keep inching that cone out, bit by bit. But also, you can change the picture a little bit sitting on the couch instead of on the floor. That will get us moving towards having you be able to stand up š
The other thing you can do is change the object from a cone to a laundry basket to a…. whatever you can think of š that will help generalize the behavior really nicely too.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
It was hilarious when the person in the chair handed you the clicker without taking his eyes off the TV. Ah, what the other people in our lives do for us when we are training puppies HAHAHAHA! Love it š
He did well here with his front feet but I think he was telling you that he is not comfy with his back feet on this yet – he was doing a whole lot of things NEAR the board but not ON the board, after the first hit of the back feet. It is possible that he does not love the movement at the moment. So in case that is what he is thinking, you can break it down to build up the back-feet-love by putting it on something really big that makes it barely move but easy to get his back feet onto. You have those big lovely dog beds right there, maybe plop it right into the middle and see how he does with getting all feet on the wobbler without it moving as much? When he is very happy to get all feet on, we can fade the dog bed support and just put some towels under it so the tip is there but minimal. Youāll know how he feels about it based on how much behavior he offers on the board, versus near the board.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! I mentioned stuff about planks above, I am excited to see her do so well here! I really love her confidence!
The plank on the ground was easy for her, so she wants to go fast when you elevated it. For now, with the elevated plank, stick close to it so she doesnāt try to go fast. You can even straddle it or step over it, so she turns slowly – we need her to slow down for now so she can keep all of her feet on it, then you can click for her keeping back feet on when she turns. You can even have her do a full 360 degree turn, a complete circle – you can step over the board to help her do it.
Because she likes to do everything fast, she was happy to drop a back foot off here and there. So by saying āPearl, slow down for a minute and follow the cookie and think about your feetā she will learn to keep her feet on and then she can go fast again š And hopping off the middle as it gets higher will help her learn how to be safe on the big tall DW.And if you do have a 2nd plank, working with 2 planks side-by-side can allow you to add speed AND click for her back feet staying on as she does a circle.
Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
TracyPerfect about the fit paws and wobble board stuff – keep revisiting it as she grows, so she is always being reminded of where her feet are and how to balance. The more you can show her, the better – you can set aside a once-a-week session for āwhere are Pearlās feetā on all of the āstuffā š
T
She totally has no fear! I love it! She is still sorting out how to get her hind end involved but she did a great job hopping up on the thing, even when it was a little unstable under her. YAY! When she is on it and balanced, you can lure her around in a circle so she gets used to moving and balancing.
Because she is a larger breed, her āchassisā might end up to be as wide or wider than the dog walk plank – so in the beginning stages, have 2 planks side by side so she learns to place her feet on the wood, turn around, jump off. Then we will get her on a normal width plank, teaching where to put all of her feet and how to dismount safely (just in case she loses her balance), then we add speed. She will be amazing!
Great job here!
TracyI am glad she likes to tug but OUCH for your hands! You can take the longer toy and have a big, obvious thing on the end – like a big ball or hollee roller or something, to draw her focus to it and away from your flesh. Then use the toy for the very beginning stages of the driving ahead game, where you just drop it (no running, just dropping). When she gets the big end and not anything near your hands – BIG tug party! And we then work than concept up to you being able to hold it and she doesnāt touch your flesh. When the dog bites me by accident, I just stop the game for a moment (no verbals or anything, just stop tugging) as a response to irresponsible teeth use LOL! They learn pretty quickly not to bite us š
TI agree – bigger cone will help. Plus, she is only 6 months, so she will get more coordinated with wrapping stuff as she matures š
Good morning!
Work gets in the way of the fun LOL!>>Will it be OK to still submit stuff for week one?
Yes, you can submit in any order.
>>With the wrapping game if I was to use food can I use something other than a bowl since in one class we are learning how to work without driving to the bowl that holds the cookies.>
Question: does the bowl with cookies have a marker cue, like āget itā or something? If it does, you can use it here – say āget itā then drop into the bowl.
If not – you can totally replace the bowl with anything that helps the pup see the treats: plastic lid targets, 2 pieces of paper towel, little plates, lotus balls, 2 manners minders LOL – anything at all. Or even just on the floor, as long as the pup can find them easily. We donāt stay with the bowls for very long, so anything you can think of will do.
Have fun!
TracyGood morning! I hope you are feeling better, that ER trip must have been scary!!!
>> So, lately, Iāve been working on getting distance a gamble foundations. Iāve been working on getting him to turn away from me (Switch) and go over an obstacle. I toss the reward to him and say ācatchā. This would be correct? I have him running to a target where he stays to receive the reward. Now, if he were continuing to run and I threw the toy that would be āget itā, correct?>>
This helps us really define your markers. So on your switch, he turns away and runs to the target and waits there for the reward? Then yes, I think ācatchā works nicely for that! If you wanted him to continue forward to a thrown reward – I agree, it would be a get it.
>>I really want Skye to get his reinforcement and connect with me instead of eat something. I think getting this into a loop will work. We do lots of loops, typically, itās a CU pattern game where his connection/eye contact causes me to deliver his reinforcement somewhere. So, what do you think of do an obstacle, I toss his ball, he gets it, then connects with me, which causes me to ? Iām not sureā¦. What the rest of the loop would be.>>
Loops are always good and for some dogs, they are critical! What if he went to his target then the immediate reinforcement was back at you (my shhhhhh cue to chase the reward in my hand) which both reconnects him to you AND sets him up to face the A (antecedent) of the ABC loop? I have videos coming with more info on that tomorrow – and to loop a catch or get it, you will want to follow it with a reset marker:
Switch cue – correct behavior which includes target – catch – reset cue. Eye contact is not necessarily part of the criteria, but you will get it naturally. The reset cue reinforces the choice to get the cookie at the target (an easy choice, but still a good choice LOL!) and it also loops in a reflexive reconnection back to you.>With Flurry, Iām using catch for contact behavior.>
Yay! Perfect.
>>>I think with Flurry taking a jump when Iām standing next to it, maybe wrapping, will be good. She still has the issue of when we get to a jump at the same time, she refuses to take it. Itās better, but it still pops up. So the toy placement one I think would be good for her. She would have to ignore the lotus ball and go around the wing. Iāll get video tomorrow.>>
I agree, this will ask her to ignore the distraction of the reinforcement by doing the jump, then get the reinforcement š And we can get your hands moving too as distractions later on down the road.
Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>> Get itā to the Manners Minderā¦.. He likes the MM but doesnāt LOVE itā¦.dispenses the rewards too slowly for his liking so I āpreplacedā some kibble so some was there when he arrived
Patience is a virtue haha hahahaha the pre-placed treats are fine as long as he doesnāt grab them without permission š
In this video he seemed to like the MM well enough. You can make it more desirable as a reinforcement in 2 ways:
– mix in stinkier grosser treats š I mixed in freeze dried tripe for a while LOL!
– after he eats the MM treat, give him something he likes better. My Contraband is underwhelmed by the MM, so for a bit the loop was behavior – eat from the MM – frisbee. I also place a frisbee on top of the MM so he grabs the frisbee rather than eats the treats. The MM is a great big obvious object but we donāt have to use it for only boring-ish treats š>>Would it make sense to do a few reps like this to start each DW session?
You could, he wonāt be sad, and it warms up the value.
>> Also realized that I need to pay better attention to the order of the way things happen ā cue Get It and then āclickā the MM.>>
Yes – the order is important so we keep the value of the get it marker.
>> Iām using Katarinaās mat method and Iāve put my mat on top of a Hit It board. I finally decided that I was driving both he and I crazy with trying to see and reward good split rear foot hits, couldnāt consistently see them in time to reward well. So I put the mat on the Hit It Board and decided that if I heard the board to reward. Itās helped a lot!!!>>
Smart!!!!! It is indeed hard to see those fast feet!!! Just be careful that the vibration of the DW is not triggering the Hit It board beep, as it does with Hot Sauce LOL!!! I like being able to hear the beep as a secondary affirmation that he did, indeed, hit the yellow š And it hopes raise the success rate!
Let me know what you think!
Tracy
