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Hi! These are great questions!
>At what point in a puppy’s life, do we begin teaching these reinforcement procedures?
AS early as possible so we can be as consistent as possible. I start using them as soon as I know the puppy will eat the treats and play with the toys 🙂
>>How does “snack” differ from the clicker or “Yes”?
“Snack”, for example, is very specific to the location of the reinforcement: reinforcement is available in my hand next to my leg. A clicker and “yes” are not specific about that – those are both normally used to mark a moment in time as one that will garner positive reinforcement, but they are non-specific about the location of that reinforcement. And, since placement of reinforcement is so critical, the location markers are super helpful. They don’t necessarily replace the clicker or a ‘yes’ but they can work in conjunction with them to clarify things for the dogs.
>>In practical use, when training eye contact, when puppy looks at you, do you click or say “snack”?
Looking forward to a discussion w/r to theses questions.It can vary, there are a lot of ways to do it. In the ‘get it’ procedure with food, we are basically clicking the eye contact then saying get it to toss the food away, so the dog can get the reinforcement and then offer more eye contact to get more reinforcement. You can also do this without a clicker or a yes – a snack or get it cue can also serve as an event marker like a click would, as well as provide info as to where the reinforcement is located.
Tracy
Hi! These went really well!
For the layering – I think you were trying to pull away sooner than needed, and that was causing him to ask questions. For example, at :03 and :21, you were fully turned by the time he landed from the first jump, so he was correct to respond by coming to you and not staying on the line. You were clearer at :13 and :29, by taking a step or two past the landing spot to commit him before pulling away, and he go it really nicely!
On the Go Tunnels – motion will really help! You were using a lot of decel a :37 and :49, but as soon as you started moving more, he got it nicely 🙂
You can also use more of your dog-side arm, especially on the sends: as he is passing you, your arm can ‘bowl’ him forward a little to support the line. You don’t want to fling it to the sky or point up in the air, but bowling-for-Aussies will help support the line as you peel away 🙂And yes… try to stop saying over LOL!!!!!
The threadles are going really well!
On the Threadle wraps – arm swooshing is fine for those as long as your feet don’t show slice – I think you might be leaning back a little so that might show a bit of slice rather than cotinuing to move forward. When you were swooshing but not leaning back, he did well and also the threadle wrap cues work best when you are away from the jump like at 2:37 and 3:16, and the threadle slices are closer to the wing – it sets up a clear difference in the positional cues!
You were doing a really strong job showing the threadle slices – good timing, arms, and stepping to the center of the bar! By the end of the video, he was really starting to nail them with speed from the tunnel AND your speed! It was beginning to look like what we want him to do at a trial – very exciting that he was able to do both with all that speed (and also take the front of the jump when asked). Good boy!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyThere were a couple of spots with those run-arounds that looked pretty much like what we did in class LOL!!!!
Good morning! Hope you are safely home and getting some well-earned rest!
>>we were all too busy at the Open to focus on anything else.>>
So true! It was pretty non-stop and I didn’t even enter most of the classes!
>>I don’t remember specifically training an off arm to turn away with Min
They read it pretty naturally, not much training required. If only threadles were as easily trained LOL!
Kaladin – I think the hardest part was keeping the toy in one hand, not switching it around LOL! Or you can stick it in a pocket – he had some confusion about when he needed to watch the toy or when he should keep goin.
These are looking really good! You can tell him to go tunnel sooner on the line after the pinwheel jump- as soon as he lands and looks down the line, you can start cuing it.
For the left/right soft turns, no problem turning right on the first run. Not as strong turning left at :20 but you were late – when you should have been cuing the turn, you were switching the toy to the other hand so you were a stride late and he had a takeoff decision already made.
You were earlier at :31 so now we have entered th Goldilocks Zone of trying to figure out what is “just right”: He is super responsive to turn cues, so that one had a little too much decel and was a little too tight. Try being more lateral so you don’t have to decel as much and also a slightly softer brake arm, but at the same timing as you were here.
Tunnel threadle – he is doing well here!! You can be more lateral and use a turn cue on jump after the pinwheel jump to help prepare for the threadle – you might have used one quietly? I could hear it when you switched sides and the camera picked up the verbals better.
I think you can keep running to the tunnel entry at 1:09 – you decelerated a lot and changed toy hands, so he was not sure if you were rewarding or continuing.
You stayed in motion nicely at 1:24 but pulled away more than he needed – try doing everything the same by running more directly to the tunnel entry and see what he does – my guess is he will be perfect 🙂Min was great on her runs! At :20, you said ‘good job’ as she entered the tunnel, and she came out looking at you. So try to give her a directional – GO! – so she doesn’t look a stride looking at you (and possibly judging you haha!) I think she also slowed down a little at :38 when you were quiet – you can also give her a ‘go’ before she enters the tunnel there too to get her to accelerate out of it
Brake arm looked great!! And she was great with her tunnel threadles. So, like Kaladin: cue everything the same as you did here – but instead of pulling away, try to run directly to the outer edge of the tunnel entry you want and see if she can drive in straight rather than have a couple of extra strides.
WELL DONE on the biathlon jumping!! You worked every inch of every line! Loved the double BC action haha! And you were connected and aggressive all the way through. The outside arm got her to tat 2nd to last jump nicely! A slightly earlier RC and call would have tightened it, but my guess is that the delay might have had something to do with the length of that course and burning legs/lungs 🙂
Great job!!!!!!!
TracyGood morning!
Super nice USDAA run!!! That tunnel-teeter line after the dog walk is kind of how we started CAMP this summer (teeter independence) LOL! The Blind can come sooner if you trust him to be more independent on the teeter so you don’t have to be as close to it. I am glad you felt prepared for the various challenges!>>I could BC whenNuptse enters the tunnel because the jump after the tunnel is on the path.
The jump is only a given on his path if your path supports it as well, and I don’t think that was the case on this setup – you would need your running path to be between the uprights of the jump after the tunnel.
On the training video, I think the BC timing was good – not sure if it can be any earlier there because your path is not between the uprights of the jump after the tunnel. So if you are earlier (doing the BC while he is in the tunnel) and in the right position heading towards the 2nd jump after the tunnel, you might pull him off the jump after the tunnel.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHello and welcome!! Do you call him Pony because he is tall? I like his height!
>> I promise to be more energetic next time 🙂 ! I haven’t been on camera training in a few years!
You were fine in terms of energy! We don’t need to be too energetic during shaping 🙂 You can also break off and play tug after 4 or 5 treats if you want him to be a little more energetic, but I thought he was quite perfect here 🙂
Good clicks – I think the session was better when you tossed the treat rather than handed it to him – you can build value by d0orpping the treat on the prop at the very beginning rather than delivering to his mouth, as that was actually pulling his focus to you and his feet off the prop But tossing back and forth worked best with him – you can add a ‘get it’ marker (anything you might already use with the other dog or any word/phrase that means Ronan can go get the treats) to the tosses, to begin building in words to the placement of reinforcement.
Nose to target shaping was great! You don’t have to move to a new spot after each click, you can stay where you are and let him drive back into the target (which also builds nice value for driving into you even when you are decelerated, which is useful on the agility course!). It looks like he had plenty of value for touching the target, so the cookie toss was a great way to reset him to then be able to come back and hit the target again. Two more things about the cookie toss reinforcement – you can add a ‘get it’ cue to this one too! And also, if you feel his touch to the target beginning to weaken because he is anticipating the thrown reward, you can leave the target hand where it is but change the placement of reinforcement: using the cookie hand, deliver the treat to the target so he stays very close to it to help maintain value for it.
And you can totally incorporate tugging before/during/after food sessions (you might be doing that and editing it out LOL!)
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
These look great!
>> I put the two games clips on one video to upload. I hope that’s ok.
Yes, that is perfect 🙂
Dice is so cool! Is he a color-headed white? (I am describing the color correctly?)
He is VERY keen to offer behavior and that is fabulous! You did a better job getting into the shaping part on the 2nd rep, it was a smoother transition from the toy to the prop: toy comes out, prop goes in, shaping begins. Lovely! And your clicks were really strong, spot on for his front foot hits. Yay! And is that a dust pan? Perfect! LOL!!! And I am thrilled with how well he was able to do treats and tugging in the same session – that is NOT easy for baby dogs and he was great!
Touching the target looks great too. You had a nice reset cookie toss to set him up to be able to then come back to the target in a bit of a loop, and that is great! You can add a marker word to the cookie toss, something like “get it”. We use those to help the dogs understand where to go for the reinforcement. If you find that the touch to the target is weakening because he is anticipating turning back for the treat, you can change your reward placement: leaving the target hand in position like you had it here, your other hand can bring the cookie over to it and deliver it right there at the target. That can keep the target value high in case he anticipates moving away from it.
Great job here! I am really pumped up for the live class tonight!!!
Tracy
Start with a crate or Klimb right inside the door as a reinforcement location: comes in, gets rewarded, goes back out. Then move it more and more inside the house. And sometimes he comes in and gets a huge treat pile on the floor and the session is over 🙂
T
Good morning! Welcome to you and Brynn! I love that she still has that puppy energy 🙂
Have fun!
TracyHi!
Hi again!
>> I’m no longer getting abuse screening questions at the doctor so I’m totally satisfied with that 🤣.
That is actually a massive triumph, no joke!!!!
Tugging from hand – the strike went really well. The out is harder for him so the immediate strike after he outed was good! Using a slightly shorter toy will help get that underway so he doesn’t continue tugging on the long handle (clever dog LOL!)
Try to be stationary with the toy when you are cuing the strike from your hands in front of you, more like you were generally when it was off to the side.
He liked whooosh with the toy LOL! Fun!!!!
About the victory lap at 2:15 – it is possible that he needed a break – 2:15 of tugging is a bit tiring so I am not surprised that he called a quick Uber. You can do a couple of little things and keep the sessions short – and cue a victory lap. Literally tell him to take the toy and the Uber and go for a run, and do NOT try to call him back. Enjoy the beauty of his athleticism. And if he tries to come back to you before you ask him too, send him back out of a run. Putting it on cue will help reduce the frequency of it (counterintuitive, I know) and it will also add to the list of activities that you can use in reinforcement procedures! All of my dogs have ‘go for a run’ with the toy on cue, it has really helped make the sessions more efficient.
You can make training sessions shorter, leave him wanting more, use your ‘go for a run’ victory lap cue and also we can begin installing loops with the tug toy so that he brings it back and laps less. How does he do in terms of going back and forth between food and a tug toy?
The catch is looking good – one tweak is to throw lower – as we build it, it is not something where he has to leap up to catch it because he might break himself – it is thrown towards him, sometimes behavior him, but we will want to work the mechanics so that he does not leap up high for it.
>>Do you have marker cues specific to your frisbee?
No, they are the same as I would use for any other tug toy. When I am actually doing disc, I have a process that tells the dogs when they are allowed to start running straight for a disc throw but I don’t use that in anything other than disc throwing games like UpDog.
>>I foresee the words here being a problem for me. I already want to stress about something. Get it has been my go to for toy on the ground versus me running with a toy so I’ll try to keep that as clean as I can. I’ve worked strike in the past and think I can keep that one clean because it’s unique>>
I think you did fine here with the words! Be as clean as possible without getting too obsessive.
>>I plan to do more dock diving this year and for dry land I want to work jumping/popping up to bite a toy/frizz. Would you use strike in that situation or a new word? #overthinkersanonymous>>
Yes – when I am doing pop up for the frizz in my hand, I will say my bite cue but in that specific instance, I will also have my toy & hand already in the air (not moving, just located where the dog should leap to).
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
I don’t care what Noodle said about today, I want it to be a No Bones Day but yet… it is a Bones Day LOL!Great job with the food procedures. The main thing I am going to bug you about is sayin the word *then* moving the hand to place the reinforcement, You had it flipped for the most part, doing hand-moving-then-word. So to strengthen the words and be as clean as possible with the mechanics: have the cookie ready but keep your hands still until a heartbeat after you said the word, so search, snacks, catch, whoosh. Those are all great choices of words!
For the catch:
>>I’ve seen other trainers note that tossing food to face can raise arousal.
I don’t use it to raise arousal, as a blanket statement. It is simply a reinforcement procedure – the dog will let us know if it raises arousal or not. It *might* raise arousal with some dogs? But generally I use it as a way to reinforcement certain behaviors, so no worries about if it raises arousal or not. Reinforcement is in the eye of the reinforced 🙂 and arousal is based off of that.
>> I don’t feel like it raises his arousal because he’s so uncoordinated at it. He can catch the frisbee and bumper at high speed and height so I don’t quite understand how it doesn’t carry over but apparently it’s not the same
The food is MUCH smaller and there is a different coordination needed for it. He does not actually have to catch it – throw it more behind him than towards his mouth. It is more about being location-specific and not about actually catching it.
>>Some observations I had. I’m not sure my snacks and whoosh look different enough>>
I agree, the whoosh does look too much like snacks – for the whoosh, there is more motion so keep your hand moving so he follows it after arriving at it and continues to follow it. Snacks is a stationary hand at your side.
>>I left a point in where he ran off. Not sure if he got spooked or something else happened that I didn’t observe. He’s really bad if he thinks he will be put up for Callie to work about coming back to me. I’ll usually get Callie out like I did here to show him he’s not going up.>>
Was that at about 1:00ish? He did look spooked about something. You can use reinforcement procedures to help him understand that going in a crate or on a Klimb still means reinforcement in in play (it is a great opportunity for more ‘catch’ or using a MM!)
Onwards to the toys!
TracyGood morning!
Thanks for the videos! These look really strong!
Laci is so cute!!!! I had to watch the video a few times because her cuteness was distracting LOL! She seemed to think this session was WAAAAAY too good to be true LOL and kept offering the down (and that is fine for now :))
Well done to you for making sure you said the word and *then* moved the hand – it is harder than it sounds LOL! You wanted to pump the hand a little bit before the catch word, but then you caught yourself and you were clean there too.
The MM part was also great, she totally thought it was the down behavior and that is fine for now 🙂 Because you mentioned wanting more motivation and less handler focus for her, I envision the MM being used partially as a remote reinforcement to get her faster in the ring, and partially placing it so that she can learn to leave you in the dust 🙂
The cat was cracking me up, strolling by then talking in the background. My cat would do the same thing, it is as if the cats know when there is a camera on!
Keko also did a great job! He is stunning! And I love his tail wagging. And the operatic singing of the others in the background was cracking me up and it is a great distraction for him.
He also seemed to think this was the best thing ever (free cookies! Ha!) He totally seems to position himself to be able to watch your face, and that might be something we really focus on when we add these into trained behaviors: making sure we emphasize the reinforcement procedures where he is looking at the line and driving away, rather than being near you or looking at you.You did a great job with him as well, in terms of focusing on the clean mechanics of the various cues. Well done! I am looking forward to the toy videos you mentioned. Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>1st clip – send to the ball, I’ve been using this instead Question is, what am I rewarding when I release him tot he ball?>>
For right now, we are just practicing mechanics and not rewarding anything specific – jut giving the dogs a good time while we get the words attached and the mechanics in place 🙂
You worked it from a stay which is fine for now, but you can also just hold his collar. We will be adding more to it soon! He did really well with the stay behavior and clearly the ball is very high value.
>>You can also see some of his I’ve got the food and the ball, which one do I really want -always entertaining>>
He did well when both were there! I like that he didn’t obsess on one or the other and was able to stay engaged 🙂
>>2nd clip – catch with a ball – 1st couple of reps always have the victory lap, then it fades
The Catch is also looking strong, the value of the reinforcement type has transferred to the tossing it to him. My only suggestion is to always have it thrown towards him. and not where he moves forward to get it. We will be adding behavior to it soon which will clarify it as well. –
The victory lap was no problem – it was pretty short, and seemed joyous 🙂 That is just a reflection of the reinforcement procedure where the catch has a bit of a victory lap built in at first. But then he seems to remember that it is inefficient in terms of getting the next catch or toy throw, so he brings it back quickly. Either way, he seems like he is having a great time and the victory lap doesn’t take hours, so it is all good 🙂
>>clip 3 – tug, again, the out can use a bit of work
This is going well – the mechanics here are the hardest part! You were clearly focusing on the word separate from moving hands, and clean words (I think I heard a ‘get it’ sneak out in place of the ‘tug’ word, but otherwise it was pretty darned perfect!) He did well with the out behavior and you were good about reinforcing immediately! If you reward with a treat, will he continue to tug after that?
>>We were at a trial this past weekend – did a bunch of work ringside on the food catch cue. Looks like it’s a good focus exercise for him>>
Yay! That is a really good application for it! And if he is reasonably good at catching balls, you can use 2 tennis balls and short tosses outside the ring too (if he is bad about catching short tosses and the balls go bouncing away… it might be a bad idea to use that outside the ring LOL!)
Great job here!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyHere ya go! It should also be in your email:
https://www.paypal.com/invoice/p/#C9HLP7DUZ3HK529ZTracy
Good morning!
>>When she’s stressed, she will take food but not toys – but activities like chasing are still fun for her. When we’ve done NFC runs or worked in unfamiliar places, I take a toy in the ring, run away and tease her with it, and the chasing gets her interested enough to work for the toy.
This is good to know and we will definitely incorporate that!!!
>>Food:
These are all good but the pill pockets just crack me up LOL!!!
>>Toys:
1. Big purple ball she can herd
2. Competition frisbee
3. Soft frisbees – Chuckit, WestPaw
4. Holey Roller ball
5. Squeak toys>>Have you ever tried a tennis ball – either a regular tennis ball or one of the little ones that squeak? She likes all of the things that are similar…
Also, for the frizzers, to add in chase – my Hot Sauce is a frizzer maniac but we can’t always throw the frizzers – so I punched a hole in the middle and attached it to a long tug toy – she loves to chase the frizzer on a rope and tug on it too! Might be something to play around with especially for NFC runs.
>>Activities:
1. Chasing
2. Licking my face/Find My Face game
3. Chasing & finding tossed treats on the ground or in the grass
4. Running
5. Digging>>So, all movement-based, chase-based activities 🙂 Perfect! We will keep that in mind.
Great job here!!! Onwards to playing with the various procedures!
Tracy
