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Good morning!
Thanks for the lists and videos, lots of good stuff here! And yes, I think these will help with the frustration behaviors you see because it makes things so much more predictable (and also helps up figure out what she is predicting when she gets frustrated).
>>She is much better about taking food at all times now. For a long time she would refuse kibble in new environments. She will still refuse kibble if overaroused>>
Will she play with toys in that overaroused situation, either tugging or chasing the tennis ball?
>>Throwing a toy and running to chase the toy makes it much more valuable to her than a dead toy
We can build that up, stay tuned for more on that in the next set of games.
>>she may not tug if I have chicken also. She will tug if I have kibble or zukes.
You might have to begin this with food in the room but not as part of the training – for example, tugging on one side of the kitchen while there is a small piece of chicken on the countr on the other side.
>>I have been taking her to other places and she is playing and tugging just like home!
Awesome!!!!! I love that!!!
>>>Activities
tugging on my shoe laces, tugging on my pants
biting spraying water, chasing a variety of things
1.Chasing
me, another dog, or the ducks
right now chasing another dog or ducks is more valuable than anything
2. biting spraying water-this makes her lose her mind so we don’t do it very much lol
3. she loves to tug my pants and shoelaces!! No toy, no problem, just grab mom’s leg. >>These are all great activities, I suggest you start to put them on cue so that you can access them more easily as reinforcement. For example, for the water spray – add a word to it just before you spray it 🙂 It can be SUPER useful to have the water spray available both as a reinforcement and as a distraction!
Same with biting shoes/pants, if you know you can elicit it then add a cue to it just before you elicit it.On the videos:
Strike – because she is little, I recommend holding the toy lower so she doesn’t leap up as much and can just drive to it, kind of like what you did at :40 and after it, when you were doing the drop it then strike. That was really strong! Jumping up is creating slightly weaker tugging (it is harder for her to grip) and we don’t want her to offer jumping up on you 🙂
Get it – she is driving to the toy nicely. You can use a 2-toy approach to get her to bring it back: when she starts to bring it back like at :27, you can cue a drop it and whip out toy #2 for her to drive to (strike!) or throw it the other direction (get it!). That will improve the bring it because it is reinforcing to do so. She seems to like thrashing with the hollee roller, so be sure to let her thrash before you ask her to bring it (don’t want to interrupt the fun LOL!)
On the video, she started off pretty good with the bring it, which means that there is something not all that reinforcing about bringing it, so the 2-toy approach might really help build that up.Toy Chase ‘shhhhh’ – since we are just working mechanics, you don’t need to wait for her to sit or look at you – you can get the toy back and immediately start the shhhhh again. She picked it up really nicely, probably because it involves chase which is one of her favorite things 🙂
When you did the ‘all done’ and walked away, she grabbed your pants – that might be a frustration behavior because ‘all done’ might actually be a negative punisher (withdrawal of access to reinforcement). So even if you are walking off to give her a cookie, you are withdrawing access to positive reinforcement in the form of the action games, agility, etc. I personally don’t have a specific ‘all done’ cue for that very reason 🙂 so you can play your way off rather than indicate to her that the party is over. Then after playing your way off, you can go to treats, maybe toss some in the grass so she can sniff around to reduce her heart rate and begin to relax.Catch is going well! Just be as sure as possible to say it then move your hand – you were unfurling your arm before the catch word there, and we want to be as stationary as possible (or, don’t unfurl the throwing motion til after the catch word because there will be times we are in motion).
Food reinforcement: good choice of location for this session, it was really easy for her to see where the thrown cookies were!
Get it: This was strong, you did a really good job of focusing on mechanics and not moving hand too early
Cookie: this was easy for her, also good emphasis on saying the word then moving – you are really focusing on clean mechanics and that is great!
Shhhh – sheltie heaven LOL!! Be sure to give her a chance to swallow the treat LOL! This also went well.
Catch versus get it went well too – she doesn’t have to catch the thrown, but you can throw it behind her more so she doesn’t move forward for it to help keep it different from the ‘get it’.Tugging then drop the toy to the cookie combo: what types of treats did you use here? She did a great job going back and forth between tugging and food! I think this went really well and she appeared to actually be *patient* in the transitions – didn’t grab the toy until cued, ate the cookie, got back on the toy – NICE!
>>Also one other question, when she loses her grip on the toy and rebites should I say something? I saw her looking at me when this happened for permission, which may be a good thing>>
It depends on the context, but generally you don’t need to – you can keep the toy moving and keep it low. If food is in the picture, she might be offering a drop for the food? For the re-grips, that is one situation where I might use the “shhhhh’ moving toy marker because I want to encourage the dogs to really grip the toy and also because they are less likely to grip my fingers by accident 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! Thanks for the great lists!
A couple of questions for you so we can plan even more:
About the food:
>>If they are really nervous they can’t take the food. Either they ignore if or take it rapidly and then drop it.>>
Do you know what might trigger them to be nervous? Is it something like being at the vet? Or anything your might encounter in the training environment?
And in general, if they cannot take food, try to move them further away from whatever might be triggering the nervousness (if possible, it is not always possible!)
About toys:
>>Any distraction at all in the environment will distract them from playing with any toys. I am most successful at getting them to play with toys inside when there is nothing else going on. Introducing food into the environment pretty much stops toy play >>
This is not that unusual, and we can build up the toy play (because it is really useful!) so here is a question:
will they chase the treat hugger even if it doesn’t hav a treat in it? At least go to it, maybe pick it up?
And also, will they chase a ball even with some minimal distractions?More coming soon on how we can build up more toy play value 🙂
About the activities:
I agree with your assessment that those activities are valuable because of the food reinforcement component 🙂 Yum!>>They both would like to chase cars, airplanes, anything with lights. >>
We can use the chase element to build up some toy play- we don’t want them chasing cars/planes, obviously LOL! but maybe something like a plastic bag on a flirt pole, or a piece of fur on a long leash they can chase? We can get really creative and see what inspires the chase, because that can be super reinforcing!
Let me know what you think!
TracyHello!!! And welcome to you and your baby BorderPap!!!! One of the demo dogs is my BorderWhippet x Pap when she was about 3-4 months old 🙂 so fun! Can’t wait to hear more about Filly!
TracyHello and welcome!! I totally understand the accountability of a working spot LOL!!!
You probably won’t find much in terms of my US Open runs – I only ran a couple of things the first 2 days to get my baby dogs in the ring, and I didn’t enter anything else because I was in charge of making sure all courses in the 8 rings got built. It was exhausting LOL so I am glad the puppies got to play but I’m also glad I didn’t enter anything else 🙂
The pre-games looked good! They are both value-building games – mission accomplished! For the foot target – the tote bag (I think that is what it is) is perfect 🙂 Your click timing was generally spot on. And here and there it was a little early which is still fine in this case. There were a couple of clicks for almost-touching the bag, so especially if you might want to train running contacts: stare at the bag and wait for feet to touch 🙂
The target in hand looks good too. A suggestion on changing mechanics a bit: the target was in your right hand, so that hand can stay stationary out to the side, elbow locked. After he touches it, the left hand can come over and deliver the treat to him at the target (then move him away with a get it toss). That will speed up the delivery (you can have the treat in your fingertips of your left hand before you present the target) and will change the placement to get the target hand super valuable and also so he doesn’t face you while waiting for the treat in front of you. It will make more sense when we put it in context (cliffhanger!)
The space you used for the video is perfect for tomorrow night!!! Can’t wait!
TracyHello and welcome!!!
Sounds like he is living his best life and learning lots of things 🙂 there are a ton of games here, but they are all tiny chunks that are easy to do, so you won’t feel overwhelmed. I’m looking forward to hearing more about his adventures!
TracyWelcome!!! I’m excited for you!! And happy to see you here!
No worries about feeling rusty, we’ve changed things a lot and you’re going to be great. And he is ADORABLE!
Have fun!!
TracyHello and welcome!!!! I am excited to hear more about Tali 🙂 and yes, this is a step-by-step foundation that covers a lot of material. And if you are interested in something that isn’t on the list, let know!
Have fun 🙂
TracyHello and welcome!! She is adorable 🙂 I think you will find that MaxPup has changed a lot, so it will be an entirely new adventure. Have fun!!
TracyHi Ruth and Leo, welcome!!! What a perfect age for a baby BC, and he is gorgeous!! Can’t wait to hear more about him 🙂
TracyHi Ruth and Leo, welcome!!! What a perfect age for a baby BC, and he is gorgeous!! Can’t wait to hear more about him 🙂
TracyHello and welcome! This will be a perfect place to start him. The games are fun and will build confidence 🙂
Have fun!
Tracy
