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Good morning!
>>I’m a little late in posting some Week 9 homework. Is it ok to post it now?
Absolutely! We’ve got several more class weeks, keep on posting!
>>This one is some tunnel threadles. In the first few, I think that Ria might be on the wrong side of me but it seems that we get thing straightened out a bit as time goes on.>>
She was finding the tunnels really nicely!!! You can smooth things out by taking the extra heartbeat to get connection before sending to the tunnel (you might have to also stand still while you do this, she likes to make decisions based on your motion). She is pretty speedy, which is great! But is also means that we slow the handling down so she can process it while trying to go really fast.
When you got connection to her when she exited the tunnel, she was able to come to the correct side (between you and the tunnel). That extra moment of connection really helped! If you were trying to cue the next tunnel before fully connecting, she ended up on the wrong side of you (or back in the tunnel she just exited).
So – Send her to the tunnel on your outside arm (you are between her and the tunnel) then when she exits. Make the big connection so she is on the inside – and stand still til she makes that decision 🙂 One thing I think will also help is using the opposite arm (held across the body) on then threadles (along with the verbal, that was going really well!). That can help her recognize coming in to the new side and also it can help her turn away to get into the other end of the tunnel.
You completely nailed that connection moment and getting her on the line to the threadle end of the tunnel at 2:56 – it was great!!! A perfect example of the connection and patience 🙂
>> There were also some roofers working, so it’s a bit noisy.
It was noisy – but she didn’t seem disturbed by it when she was working. That as impressive! Many dogs would be sensitive to it and unable to work, but she was great. Is she worried about it when she isn’t working?
> Ria has had a few stressful days lately barking and lunging at a German Shepherd and being reactive in general, so no practice on the week 10 homework yet.
Poor girl! Is something worrying her, or is it just seeing the big dog is weird for her?
Great job here! Looking forward to week 10 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
>>Not sure if it was mentioned but if I stand still on serp exercise, can I reward dog with either food or toy in my off hand (ie, not the hand they touch, the one in front in direction dog is supposed to go)?
You can start with whichever is easier for the pup… then go to something more distracting. I tend to start with food and then go to a toy – then I dangle the toy: can the pup choose to come to the serp arm or does he skip it to get directly to the toy? It is an early proofing game for serpentines. Plus, it builds in a nice self-control element and eventually the toy goes on the ground.
>>On threadle exercise, does reward have to be preplaced or can cookie/toy be tossed to landing side after dog touches my outstretched hand?>>
I prefer the pre-placed toy or treat, so the pup can drive out directly to the reward (which eventually becomes the bar of the jump or other side of the tunnel) without needing any additional handling help. If the handler tosses the reward, the dog begins to look at the handler’s movement which can result in the pup beginning to rely on the additional cue to go back out. Plus, it is a fabulous self-control element, and threadles require a lot of self-control. If the dog struggles with the toy or treat already on the ground, you can begin the concept with a Manners Minder or an empty food bowl that you can then toss the reward into after the dog arrives at it.
Let me know if that makes sense!
TracyGood morning! I think it is great to do lots of fun things like hiking with pups 🙂 For the recall – check out the magic word game, that is a really fun one for taking into the real world and improving on the recall.
He is doing well with the games – being able to do them in a new place is awesome!!Starting with the blinds: you were emphasizing connection and it looked great! He was very quick to drive to you, so you will need to throw the treat further away so you can get ahead more LOL!! Great job getting the toy involved – you can have it on a long leash and drag it to get him to chase it more (more on that below). You mentioned wanting to work the recall more, so you can do it from a restrained recall (as much as the pandemic allows?) or, you can throw the treat near-ish to the videographer and recall him away from her – and doing the blind just adds more to the fun 🙂 Because the recalling from distractions is likely to be really difficult, you can use the highest value rewards when he chooses to drive towards you.
The toy races are going well! On the reps where he didn’t really get ahead of you, I think he didn’t realize that it was a race because you tossed the toy while he was still eating 🙂 You can distract him with the treat, but wait til he is done chewing it 🙂 before you throw. He was really strong driving to the toy when he saw you throw it! It looks like he was having a bit of a party of one, taking on a run? If so, you can call him and run the other way, to get him to chase you with it: then trade for another toy or treat when he brings it back.
The tugging everywhere section looked lovely! Good boy being able to tug on all the things in a new place. You had a really good assortment of toys going! He left the game at 2:50 – you were offering a great toy but maybe the session had gone on too long? Or a new distraction entered the room? He was a man on a mission! Was it a person he wanted to visit?
One thing I notice on the other games is that his food drive is a little stronger than his toy drive at the moment – so on this game, with all the fabulous toys and wild tugging, offer the most boring possible treat – then go back to a wild dance party of tugging, throwing toys, etc. It might be fine at home, so you can also take it to different places. And if he is happy to go back and forth with boring food, feel free to add more interesting food 🙂
Collection sandwich – really really nice connection with him on these!!! You were a little late on the first blind so he didn’t find the new side. You were really great with timing on the next reps, but he was distracted. I think part of it was a food versus toy thing – he was very happy to go eat the treat, but then the toy was not as interesting when offered after he had the cookies so he was exploring other adventures.
When you used the food, he was much more engaged. That is good info about distractions – if it was something like people or good smells, for now go to food as reinforcement. Separately, you can take food out of the picture and move further from the distractions – then see if you can get him playing with the toy. This is a pretty normal shift in value, food and toy value swings back and forth like a pendulum a lot at his age 🙂When you moved over to the obedience ring – very nice! He did really well here!! Great job with the mechanics of the game, he was collecting beautifully and turning with you, no questions. Yay! Was that ring less distracting because fewer people were around? Or maybe the turf has different smells? You also made an excellent decision to use food rewards – it was the right choice for the environment. Also, when he is off getting the cookie you tossed, you can run away rather than walk – walk away as he is getting it, and as soon as he swallows it: run! I think he will REALLY like that and he is ready for the added challenge of your motion (followed by decelerating and turning, which will set you up nicely for when you add a wing or jump :)) Did you notice that there was agility happening in the other ring and he ignored it, good boy!!!! I could hear people yelling cues and a dog running through the tunnel: Mr. BliZZ had to have heard it but yet never looked away from you. That is AWESOME!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! He definitely had a lightbulb moment here! Yay! I think the curling to the side is easier for him and allows him to also watch the cookies from your right hand. The channel of the 2 wings helps him and I think he might have also been targeting a step back over the feet of the wings. All good!
2 ideas for the next couple of sessions – mix up the hands you reward from. Sometimes use the left, sometimes use the right, so he doesn’t target to or focus on any particular hand. Cookies in both hands help a lot! If there is no room for a clicker, you can go to a verbal marker. And the other thing you can do, especially at the start of each session, is start closer to the channel so he doesn’t offer curling out of it. Then you can move yourself further from it, so he has to ‘find’ the channel backing up.
You can also use a wall as part of the fading process – putting your left side against the wall and the wing on your right side, you can work the skill- then get further from the wall (wing still near your right) then fade out the wing by moving it further and further.>> Add a verbal when I’m sure he’s got it,
Yes, you can add a verbal whenever you can reliably predict he will offer the behavior.
>>then try transferring to a plank?>>
I think you can transfer to different things while the channel is still close and helpful – like a wide board, wobble board, then a more narrow board, etc. Then after he can back up to all the things, then fade the aids to help get the backing up 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
I am glad it went so well! He definitely found it a lot clearer when the more exaggerated arm back. Yay!! So now to build on it: As you are directing him to the barrel, you can keep the dog-side arm back like it was here and fade out the arm across the body on the send part. But also add in the FC on the barrel – this is where the arm across the body will be the most useful because his questions generally came after the FC (or spin) – so execute the FC (or spin) and then use that arm across the body to get the dog side arm all the back for connection on the exit. That will help set him up nicely for the sending to the next barrel when you add it back in.>>There was one atrocious rep where I slipped into old ways, and he let me right away that those methods would not fly. So we acknowledged the suckiness of his mother and started over.>>
Ha! He was funny there! One thing you can do to help is throw at least half of the rewards out to the other side of the barrel when he is committing. That will maintain the value and he will go to it, even when you are not perfect (I didn’t think you were that sucky there LOL!) But if reward is always back at your hands and away from the barrel, he will need you to be extra perfect. So you can start the anti-perfect games by rewarding out past the barrel a lot. That way, when you are ‘pretty good’ (like you were on the one rep he questioned) and also ‘good enough’ (which is what most of us are in the ring at a trial LOL!) you will find he commits nicely.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning! He did well here!
On the first part where you were working the wrap on the side far from the tunnel – he did really well! The main thing is to stay super chill until he has fully landed – wait for the clean jumping effort, back feet on the ground… then party 🙂 You were not wrong in marking the good set up for the jumping (he was placing himself REALLY nicely and bending beautifully!) – but when you got excited, he got excited and dropped the bar. But on the reps where you were quiet… he nailed the wrap and the jumping effort. Yay! So on this particular skill, stay quiet for now.But separately, you can play proofing games on a jump to help him understand that he can jump without touching the bar even when you praise, talk, turn, etc – all the things he might see or hear over the bar LOL! Here is an example from when Voodoo was close in age to Fever:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mX8CuUnjdVAWhen you switched sides and he was seeing the tunnel as a distraction – I think he was considering the the verbal as “go do something” so he was offering a couple of different things – the tunnel, wrapping the bushes hahaha 🙂 (:46, 1:25, 1:34 are examples of those moments). Good boy! So you can tweak the set up slightly to help attach the verbal to the skill: when he comes around the wing, call him til he is facing the jump (and not the tunnel) or looking at you, and then start the backside wrap verbal. I think your line of motion looked great! So he was trying to sort out the newer verbal with his inclination to offer behavior further away. When you dialed back your motion at 1:00 and then at the end, he was much more easily able to process the cue – so you can keep the motion calm for now, and add in calling him – I think that will allow you to be able to add more and more motion too.
Overall – he is doing a GREAT job on these – they are wicked hard for a youngster and he is rocking it!!Tracy
There is always room for more coffee!
You have it correctly – go up on your right, she is facing the jump so she should take it. Then turn back and the jump is on your left side… but connect with her and call her to your right side so she does NOT take the jump and then reward. I will see if I have a video, if not I will get one 🙂
T
Hi –
>>Should my body position be the same for serp and threadle? The only difference being my verbal? I’m picturing this scenario in the middle of a course and see myself traveling across the plane of the jump looking the same to her. In slo mo she seems to get the difference, but when we go live and she speeds up will she get it?>>That is the difficulty of the threadle – the trained verbal understanding needs to override motion in some situations. The serp body posture is a bit more ‘frozen’ and with threadles, when using the same arm, the arm swings back more (like pulling open a door). The positional cue is slightly different (serp is across the bar, threadle is near the entry wing) but ideally the dog can threadle even when you are ahead. And that is why I also use the outside arm on the threadles – because there are moments when I think the physical cues are too similar for the current level of verbal understanding, so I use the outside arm to help it look different.
Let me know what you think!
TGood morning!
>> Typically, I’m only tested on my lefts and rights when I have my annual eye exam>>
OMG that made me laugh so hard! LOL!!! You did fine adding the verbals and I think you will find them super useful with his speed. In fact, from the verbal side of things, it went really well! You had success, added some challenge, yay! He was not perfect yet, but we don’t want perfect on this – highly successful is great because then he can learn the difference. The hardest part was figuring out how to set him up for that success and that went well. We can use this set up to answer two of his questions here:
– how to read front side versus back side if you were in a bit of a neutral position
– how to not touch the barsSo on the front versus back – he would sometimes go to the backside when you were a little center of the bar. You can add a proofing game for it! Start in that same neutral spot, and sometimes say left or right (whichever direction takes him to the front of the bar and into the minny pinny) and sometimes say your backside cue! Since he asked the question, we can add a game to clarify it 🙂 If he needs help, you can add the tiniest bit of body cue.
On the no-touching of the bars – he definitely was trying to sort his feet! So you can squish the 2 outer wings in a little closer, so the distances between the jumps are smaller to encourage bouncing. You can toss rewards (cookies are easiest) into the gaps between the bars and also reward when he does all 3 – if he does not touch the bars or the wing. You can be very stationary, and pretty close (that was when he did his best work) and also pretty quiet – and when he is super successful with that, you can add more motion and verbals. If he touches the bar or wing – no reward (praise but then reset and try again). If he touches the bars twice, make it easier – less motion, tossing a reward into the gap, etc. I think that it will help him multi-task the jumping and processing verbals, which is actually really difficult.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>although a little side note, don’t title your Youtube video “naked play” or you will immediately attract unwanted comments – had to fix that fast!!>>
hahaha! Yes, I had that on my mind! And I also have the video unlisted so random people can’t see them or don’t find the naked word 🙂
He did really well here! On the volume dial game, your tricks are really good! He was perfect here because it is such a comfy environment, so to prep for harder places you can move the treats more – when you reward him, have him chase your cookie hand for a couple of steps before you deliver it to him. It makes the cookie very toy-like and is useful for working through distractions when using food. You can also try these with toys – I use a combination of both, depending on the dog and the situation.
And nice job easing into the naked play, it was a pretty seamless transition so he was perfect. Yesssss! That becomes the beginning of your transition to the start line for trials and I think he did really well!!!Your Ready word seemed to be catching the ear of Sole too, I think LOL! I heard a sad song from another room 🙂 Too funny! Loading the word is really easy at home and he was quite perfect – so you can distract him and also wait til he is ‘otherwise engaged’ – I use the ready word when the dogs are snoozing, hanging out, chewing bones, playing with each other, torturing the cat, sniffing around in the yard, etc. So it is not in a ‘training’ environment but more in every day moments at home. With apologies to the husband – because when he is trying to relax on the couch and the dogs are relaxed… that is my favorite time to use the magic word and get them nuts then run to another room to dole out rewards LOL!
And I also do the ready word in random environments – for example, I will bring a dog with me to the store, get them out of the car on a leash – play this game, reward, back in the car. LOL!! These little field trips provide good exposure to new environments in these crazy times.
You can also take the volume dial and naked play games to different places – road trips, to the club, anyplace where you will want to engage him or where you think he might encounter distractions. For example, if you are at the club and someone else is working a dog… that is the PERFECT time for the volume dial because it becomes very trial-like!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! Sorry to hear about all the snow, it was a doozy of a storm! I am adding a few more games for in the house tomorrow too – Mother Nature is going to be mean to use for a few more weeks 🙂
She did really well with the ready word here 🙂 If the word is already a bit charged, you will see the dogs looking for a game, like she was 🙂 It was so funny!!! You can wait for her to offer eye contact or a sit, then reward – offering the tunnel was hysterical!! Or, when she engages, you can ask for a stay or a trick in front of something distracting, especially when you are able to get out and about in new places. I also use this magic word when the dog is engaged in some other activity at home – snoozing, playing with one of the other dogs, in the backyard, etc – throwing the ball was great because it was a great way to distract her and re-engage her. I also play this game when the pup gets out of the car in a new place (on leash) – to start working on getting immediate focus in new places. I have a few short ‘road trips’ planned with the pups so they learn to engage in new environments with the magic word. By ‘road trip’, I mean 20 minutes down the road to the store LOL!
Great job here! Stay warm!
TracyGood morning!
The wind was BRUTAL here the last few days but it seems calmer now? It blew away the snow, though, so I am happy LOL!
>>I realize that it must seem like I’m ignoring your feedback, but I promise that your voice is in my head as I do this,>>
I believe it! It is hard to do all the things with puppies – every element has to be just about perfect because they simply can’t help us out a lot. It is much easier with adult dogs! And hopefully my voice in your head is not using too many cuss words haha 🙂
So I watched it from the perspective of figuring out what he was sometimes spot on and why he sometimes had questions. A couple of ideas for you:
>>I still felt like he was checking his bank account and worrying about the cookies. This is why I tried breaking it down and rewarding with cookies on the line for a couple of reps.>>
It is always good to reward on the line and not from your hand! One place to definitely toss rewards is out past the barrel. With all the rewards coming between the barrels, he might lose a little value on committing to the them.
I don’t think he was worrying about his cookies, though, I was seeing other patterns from his questions:
I think the frozen moments mainly have to do with shoulder position. Yes, your eyes were on him and you could see him – but with your dog side shoulder closed forward, I don’t think he saw enough of the connection to feel solid about making a commitment decision. The closed shoulder blocks his view of the connection, especially when he was looking for where to go next.
What was happening to close the shoulder forward was that your dog-side arm was perpendicular to your body and sometimes cuing ahead of your body when he was still behind you and not back enough towards him. Pups often need a very exaggerated connection so changing the arm position helps dramatically. The closed-shoulder moments were most obvious at :12 and 1:22 where he had big questions, and there but not as obvious at 1:12, 1:42 and 1:54 (he was a little sticky on those but not as frozen). Compare that to 2:22 as he exits the barrel on your left – your shoulder is open back to him, very direct eye contact, zero questions (which is especially noteworthy but it was late in the session and that is when we would see him more interested in cookies and more mentally fatigued, but that was one of his best reps).So, a couple of ideas for the exaggerated arm back/open shoulder position:
– point your hand back and down towards his nose and lock your elbow.
– as you do that, show him the reward (cookie, toy, or air cookie LOL!) across your body with the opposite arm. The opposite arm is touching your body, across your belly, and hand on your opposite hip.
– look at his eyes, like you were.When you do those two things, especially the reward-across-the-body, your dog-side shoulder stays waaaay open and the dog drives in to the new side because your connection is very clear (and you do reward from the opposite arm). And he doesn’t need the dog-side arm to move to indicate the barrel out ahead until he is passing you so you can move forward with that position.
Since he was asking questions about exiting the barrel and coming to the new side, you can do this on one barrel for now – because being able to move more will also be compelling so he can make a decision (even if it is the ‘wrong’ side, it is still a good decision that gets rewarded :)) So do one barrel, FC, move away with the connection as above, and reward as he drives through to the new side. Adding the 2nd barrel means less moving for now and also the temptation to cue it – but it will be easy to add it back when the driving to the new side is less sticky.
You were generally quite good about the GTF off his line LOL! And the when you were on his line, like at 1:58 – he let you know LOL! At that moment, you were asking him to take it but your right leg was on his line, blocking the view of the barrel – so he went that general direction but did not know what, exactly, you wanted him to take. Puppies are very honest LOL! As he gets more experienced, he will push you out of the way. Note the difference when on that last rep, for example, he could see the barrels fully and he went to them immediately. Yay!
Nice work! Let me know if the shoulder ideas make sense!
Tracy
Good morning! He is doing really well here! Only a little chewing hahaha! I used tiny grated bits of cheese with my Paps, he might like that too.
But even with chewing, he made great choices here! He is showing a definite preference for the right turn, and that is normal. So keeping the cone in closer for now for both sides if the way to go – the distance gets added when you get to the sending, and it is pretty easy. The next step here would be to move the bowls a little further back, maybe just behind your feet, by your heels – so when he gets his reward, he can turn all the way around and head directly back to the cone.
You can also do this training entirely with toys too! The goal is to build commitment so the other thing you can do, now that you are standing, is take this outside 🙂 Bowls, cone, cookies/toys, puppy – on the road!
Great job here! Let me know if that suggestions make sense 🙂
TracyGood morning! I agree, she was moving! Yay! This looks really good, so I have some ideas to build on it more. If you get a chance to do this with more room at Bonnie’s place, great! She was looking ahead really nicely – there is nothing to look forward to after the jump, so no worries if she looks back at you a little for now.
You don’t need her to get much further away, but there are some variations to add to this for her. 3 things that I can think of for you to mix in:– You can add in having her come to your other side and *not* take the jump. Here is what I mean: when she is on your right and on the line to the jump and you are walking away from the camera – she gets rewarded for taking the jump because it is on her line. Then as you walk back towards the camera, you can ask her to come to your right side – meaning, you are between her and the jump and then she gets rewarded for staying on your right and not going behind you to take the jump. Let me know if that makes sense, or if I need more coffee 🙂
add in calling her past on the other side– you can do more reps of going all the way to the cookie with he, let her eat it – then as you move forward, let her drive ahead of you. You did a little of that and she did really well, so feel free to add more!
– And since she is driving to the jump, you can add your “go” verbal. As soon as you know she is going to begin moving to the jump, you can say go to name the behavior.
Let me know if that makes sense! Great job here!
TracyHi! Lots of great stuff here, I am glad you are having fun!!!
Threadle versus serp versus tunnel – really nice! She is almost perfect on these so we can build it up into more craziness 🙂
First, a couple of little details to consider:
Keep your serp and threadle lines within an arm’s reach of the jump – you were a little further away on some of the threadles, and the position on both should be basically the same and very close to the jump.
At :49 on the serp – she did come in on the serp jump then when you moved grabbed the tunnel, I would reward her (I think you didn’t?) It looks like she was reading your motion and produced a REALLY tight serp hahahaha Bonus points for the turn to the tunnel.She had some questions on the threadle when you moved into position: At 1:25 – Your verbal ‘in in’ started before the arm movement, and you were in serp position so she took the front side. At 1:36 – the arm cue had better timing but she still took the front. When you didn’t move, she got it from the far position. So, I think her question was about your position when you were moving – it was basically the same as serp position (which is GOOD, we just need to convince her of it :)). So to help convince her: move more slowly, start your threadle arm before you release, and release just after you get past the entry wing – let’s see if that helps her read the difference.
The other thing you can add which will help her question too – standing still in threadle position (which is near the wing further from the tunnel) – start changing her start angle. So if the tunnel is noon and she was set up at 6 o’clock approx, try to move her to 5 o’clock, 4 o’clock, 3 o’clock (where she will be squarely facing the wrong side of the bar!) and show her the 3 difference cues – do to standing still at first and then add motion there too.
Backside slices: these are also looking great!
A couple of little ideas: be sure to start moving up the line on the parallel path for a couple of steps before you release with the push cue – this is especially important when you are further across the bar. At 3:15, for example, you lead out really far away (yay!) but stood still, released & started moving so she was locked onto the front side (no yay haha)
When you moved a little and then released with the push cue, she did much better! And the added connection at 3:28 really helped when you were all the way across the bar.Her default commitment to the jump after arriving at the backside looks fabulous! She seemed to have no questions on that one. It didn’t seem to matter to her when you added the wing or more running – really good! So you can definitely start at the wing and add lots of running and more of a German turn, pushing her to the backside from far enough across the bar that for the German, you and she are on the takeoff side at the same time.
And no distractions with the tunnel there – good girl!!
>>I tried using the contact board for discrim and she just doesn’t get running away from me on it. In the training I did on it, I was lateral or ahead. >>
Ah, yes, that is something she would need to know separately from the game, so you can definitely play with that! It will help your contacts overall too. Instead of the plank, you can use a mat or wobble board or crate, anything that has a verbal attached.
>>I’m wondering though about the plank to table that I’ll be using for entries? I could put that next to tunnel and work the discrim that way.>>
Absolutely! That would work beautifully!
>>What should they do at the top of the table? jump off for treat? place reward there for them to stop?>>
Anything that involves staying on the table is good – wait for you to deliver the treat, drive to an empty food bowl target, or you can even put a manners minder on the table! We don’t want to encourage the dog to jump off, though, that would be bad LOL!!!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
