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Hi!
>>So much content here, Tracy, I’m hopelessly behind, but BliZZard and I are having fun!>>
I am glad you are having fun, I think you two look terrific! I know there is a lot of stuff – with my pups, I just try to do a different topic for a minute or two each day – so on Thursday, I do a little handling game. On Fridays, I do a goat game. And so on 🙂 If I have time to do more, cool! If not, no worries because it all gets done eventually 🙂
On the video –
BC foundations look really good and his focus in that distracting environment was REALLY good! Looks like there was someone else in the ring and there were folks outside of it and he was a superstar to play the game with you. Yessssss!!
Great job with the cookie toss and running away with clear connection for the first part – the timing of the blinds were great! I think he needs a little more eye contact as you reconnect on the new side, as it took him a couple of steps to realize he should come to your other side. You had your ‘new’ arm low and back but it might have been blocking his view of your eyes – so you can make a little adjustment by having the new side arm further back and the original arm wrapped across your belly – and lookg for his eyes and show him the reward with the original arm (now the opposite arm) across your belly. That should help him see the change sooner and have quicker responses to it. Let me know if that makes sense; I might need to drink more coffee haha!I was just about to suggest a toy for this game and then you whipped it out, perfect! You can also use the toy in the arm across the body to help establish that initial connection when you reconnect after the blind: for example, if he starts on your left, the toy is in your left hand. Then you do a blind and he needs to change to your right: keep your right arm way back, look for his eyes, and use your left hand (still with the toy in it) across your belly to open up that initial connection. It is not something we do forever, but it is a great teaching tool for the pups to get them to explode to the new side 🙂
Got tricks – he is a confident little dude, I love that! And yes to needing 453 arms for these games 🙂 For the smaller stuff, I suggest using your armpits: toy or prop tucked into the armpit will give you more of an extra arm to get stuff in and out. You can probably do that with the plastic lid you started with here (I think that is what it is). Good job rewarding for him getting all 4 feet (especially back feet) on that – it definitely has value, he was thinking about his body, nice hind end awareness, and he didn’t seem to mind the texture or the little bit of noise his feet made. Perfect!
When you break it off for toy play – he likes that toy (so do I LOL!) but he likes it when you keep it moving away so he could chase it – but then you were getting some tooth hugs I think (judging by you saying “ouch!” a few times LOL!). Now, I like sporting dogs to have hard mouths on tug toys so we don’t want to discourage it but we want to protect your fingers (fingers are pretty useful…) – so you can tie this awesome toy to a longer toy. Then when you present it, it is easier to keep moving because you can drag it around for him to chase and also he is less likely to grab flesh by accident because the cool part of the toy will be further from your flesh.The big disc was a great choice for a next step, he was definitely ready!!! I like how you were getting all four feet on this one too. For now, stay closer to it – you were moving back from it and I think he was trying to offer staying near you, thus the 2o2o you were getting when you wanted all 4 on 🙂 You can also toss the cookie off to the side as a reward and reset him, then he can come back and get on with all 4 feet (you can jackpot all 4 feet in position then release – the jackpot should make an impact and also holding position is a great challenge for his body!)
The other thing you can do on this big disc is get him to sit on it. That is great body awareness and future conditioning – a nice tight sit on the wobbly disc!
When he dismounts, he is pushing off with a good bit of power and the disc was beginning to slide. You can see if propping up some towels around it will hold it in place, or you can use something more substantial – I have an inflatable donut holder that I use, or you can have the disc in the corner of the room so 2 walls help hold it. I like his power and I don’t want him to hyperextend getting off or scare himself if it slides too much.
The wobble board is a great next step – I don’t think he will have any trouble at all 🙂 You won’t be able to stick it in your armpit or lift it on or off the table, so you can do tug breaks by moving further from it (off camera is fine) or you can tug right on it! Fun!Not sure where you are with teaching backing up – but because he is doing so nicely with getting on all the things and putting his back feet on them, you can totally add in backing up onto them.
Great job here! Let me know what you think and keep me posted 🙂
TracyHi!
>>Since the post above, I did the prop game 1 with kibble. Worked much better. She does sometimes drive to the prop without my cue
Great news about the kibble! It makes it a little easier to balance with the toy drive 🙂 If she leaves you to go to the prop before you send her, you can add in more of the ready dance and give a kibble for looking at you! hen she gets another kibble for the send. That can help her learn the patience of waiting for the cue 🙂
>>I was pleased with our recent smaller space drive to me. She seems to be getting it.
Yay!!! Good girl!!!
>>I will have to try the redirect for the foot thing. She really likes my UGGs or anything with shoe laces. And if I kick my shoes off, those sharp little teeth get my feet. OUCH!!
Yes! I feel that pain, literally LOL!! Figure out what triggers it and start there with redirecting: my youngster grabs my foot when I enter the room she is in (even if I was only gone for 8 seconds LOL!). So every time I enter the room, I give her a toy or toss some treats on the ground – it conditions her to do something else with her mouth. At first she gets it when I enter before she makes a choice… then after a couple of weeks, I would let her have a moment to remember to NOT grab my foot… then I would reward it. She got much better very quickly 🙂
Keep me posted! Happy New Year!
TracyHi! Both of these sessions went really well! She really seems to understand this game 🙂 And she was super cute looking through the mesh LOL!
A couple of ideas for you to keep moving it forward she is ready for harder stuff now –
– You can fade the bowls out – start by having them less visible, and then just getting them out of the picture entirely and feeding from your hand. You can bend over to deliver the treat so she doesn’t jump up.
– you can also try this with 2 toys! Keep it simple – toys make things harder because they are more stimulating. So let her tug on a toy then take it…. then when she goes around the thing, you can tug with a toy in the other hand. And back and forth for toys! You can start sitting or standing, whichever you think will be easier for her.
– You can use a jump wing for this now – on your first session with a wing, have your bowls out and do it exactly like you did here. But then, if she picks it up right away (and I think she will), you can fade the bowls on that too and start standing up.
– Using a barrel or something that will stand up by itself and won’t fall over – when she wraps it and you are standing nd the bowls are faded…. you can add in the Turn-n-Burn game! That is where it gets really fun!!!The only other thing I see is that when you are getting ready, she likes to circle around you to her left. Try to not let her do that, as she might build it into other behaviors and then it will be a habit that we don’t want (you can see her doing it at the very beginning of each video). So as you are getting in position, have her playing with a toy or picking up some treats on the ground, so you can get ready and she doesn’t circle you 🙂
Great job here – have a fabulous last day of 2020 and I will see you soon in 2021!
Tracy
Hi!
>>. I’ve actually worked on it the last couple days and….I hate to say it, but I think she thinks it is boring. She kind of tires of it easy. Maybe I need to always do it first. Or play in between? Maybe not.
It is possible that the skill of backing up in the style we are training is physically tiring to her – it is a workout! So yes, break it off and play a lot, and also do very short sessions – give her a day or two off in between sessions. This backing up skill is something that we use in conditioning when the dogs are adults and it is tiring for their legs!
T
Hi Kathy!
>>As far as learning break, it worked like a charm.
Yay! Break is pretty easy – those stays are harder LOL!
>> The only concern I have is I currently wait for her to offer me her stationary position (for her it is a down). But when I want to lead out to do something, versus just lead out to do a catch, I want her lined up towards something in particular (like a laundry hamper). Not sure how I work towards lining up straight if I just wait for her to offer me something. In the past, using a more traditional way to teach a stay, my dogs have always lined up between my legs so I can set them up just so.>>
We do eventually teach the pups line up positions, but I do that after they know how to offer stay behavior (otherwise things get muddy and stressful for dog and human LOL!). For now, you can just position yourself in a way that helps the pup face the way you want! And then you can add in your line up cues to help get the position going – now that she is happy to offer it, you can position yourself so she offers the line up you want, or you can cue the behavior if she understands the cue 🙂
Tracy
It sounds like you used a little time out (negative punishment) followed by watching your other dog (which is stimulating and that type of stuff has been known to increase behavior in studies). Time outs can be effective but can also backfire – so I use them sparingly. If I find I have to use them over and over and over and over, then I stop and sort out where I can prevent the undesired behavior from happening so I can train the desired behavior. If the pup has a general understanding, and gets a time out for an undesired behavior – and goes back to the desired behavior, then you are generally fine. I also find that after a negative punishment, I like to fill the next sessions with positive reinforcement for the desired behavior to help balance whatever shift might have led to the undesired behavior. Let me know if that makes sense!
TracyHi!
>>Wow the toy transtions group /link looks great! Question on the beginning stay training vid for this class:
what do you do when you are using a toy but the puppy takes victory laps instead of retrieve? Lure back with 2nd toy? what if that fails?>>A couple of things will help:
start in a smaller space so there is less room to run, which makes the victory lap less reinforcing 🙂
I put toys on long lines so there is not as much option to run around with them – and then you can work on the retrieve games with that, as well as rewarding for coming towards you with another toy or a treat (I *might* lure it once or twice to get the ball rolling, but then it becomes a reinforcement after a choice to at least bring the toy a few steps towards me).
Two other things that I find important for getting better retrieves:
I name and cue the victory laps, so Ican send the dog to do it. I say “go for a run!” and the dog can take the toy on a big loop – then when I think he is just about done, I call him back and reward for coming towards me with the toy. The cued victory laps allow the dog to have a moment as a release valve – and turns out they take fewer and fewer laps on their own.And – an important one – watch your toy mechanics (the Toy Transitions class has more on this). If the pup brings it back, and you take it away and go directly to your next rep… many dogs perceive that as a negative punisher for bringing the toy back and they stop bringing the toy back. That is why sooooo many dogs start out with great retrieves… but then they deteriorate through adolescence. Accidental punishers! So when my pup brings the toy back, I reward with something: a treat, another toy, tugging with the original toy. And when I take the toy or ask for an out – I also build in a TON of rewards for that too, very often giving the original toy right back.
And, be sure to train your retrieves, using the retrieve games, in the bigger areas. Most of us train them indoors in a small space but don’t also train them in the bigger spaces. Oopsie! I am for sure guilty of that 🙂 The games don’t generalize without training them, so do the basic retrieve games in the bigger spaces and you will see a difference too.
Let me know if that makes sense!
TracyHi! It sounds like you had a great week! Perfect!!! And I am really glad to hear Ted did so well. I definitely worry that our crop of pandemic puppies will have a harder time when life gets more normal – but there is not really anything we can do about that other than train 🙂 His toy play and his downs looked good!!!! He also did not look too chompy on your fingers 🙂 About the blinds – it was hard to see your eyes, so be sure you make eye contact as you finish the blind – eye contact is more important than hand cues, and I think you were emphasizing hand cues (which might be why it felt weird :)) You can use the hand cue for the tight turn when he gets to you – you used the opposite arm to set up that tight turn and I think it was very effective for him: note how he was turning his head and bending himself around your knee, but not swinging his butt out wide. YES! Very nice 🙂
If you have room, you can add challenge by going to a bigger space and increasing speed and then adding in the GO element of the toy race at the end after the tight turn.
Great job!!!
TracyHi! Thank you for the update!!
>>We have been working on the drive ahead and she continues to do a great job. I am moving with her but would like to work more in a more open area. Outside not an option right now. She likes to ride / bite on my shoe in general (not when focused on her toy) and I want to work on moving with her and making sure she is not doing that. So not checking it off yet although going well indoors.>>
Perfect! My smaller pup is all about biting my shoe, for some reason – I have her pick up a toy or eat a treat in any situation where she might get triggered to grab my feet LOL! So I will enter a room (that is a BIG trigger for her) and when I enter, drop a treat or give her a toy. Then I start to let her make a choice- if I can take a step and she resists my tasty feet… toys and treats! I can now enter and walk around a room and she will re-direct herself to a toy and not to my feet lol
>>So we introduced chicken for this exercise. The chicken trumps the toy drive. She is also doing well with this. We’ll do a few more sessions and check this one off. Since it is a small indoor space, I am not really seeing much decel, but something that I will need in the future. She is a fast little thing.>>
Decel in a small space will translate when you have more room, because you are still pairing in ‘drive to da momma’ even though you don’t have room for big sprinting yet 🙂 It builds a lot of value of drive to you!
>>We started the prop game this am using chicken. It went well but I need to be careful when I cue the prop that my arm does not arc back up at the end…that causes her to jump up towards it. The chicken residue is quite tempting. I tried it a few times with a toy but the chicken was already on her mind. Next session we’ll start with the toy and only pull out the chicken if needed.>>
Does she like lower value food? You can build value for a ‘boring’ cookie by rewarding her for swallowing it – she swallows a boring cookie, then she gets rewarded for that with a toy or chicken! It will help the less valuable cookies become more valuable 🙂 And yes, with the early stages of the prop sends, keeping your hand stationary helps. The hand (and chicken lol) has more value than the prop does, so keeping the hand still will really help.
Great update! Sounds like you are progressing beautifully!
TracyHi! Hooray for good weather!!!!! I am glad you got to play!
It fascinates me how young dogs need a really clear connection out of tunnels! All of them are like that – Eden, my dogs, and all of the pups here 🙂 At :03, you gave her the connection that your adult dogs would have no problem with, but she did not commit to the jump after the tunnel. Then at :16 you made a VERY direct connection as you kept moving – and she never even asked a question, just found the line perfectly. Yay! At :28 you didn’t even have to be close to the jump – just connected on the tunnel exit and she found the jump, no problem. I think the motion helped too – see below for more thoughts on that when you were trying to get to the blind cross 🙂
Wraps – I am glad you did not delete them 🙂 Your transitions are good – you can rotate a step sooner maybe but she was collecting really nicely! The main thing to tweak here is your position – and that might be why you didn’t like them – try to position yourself more on takeoff side near the wing. On the wraps at :19 and :30 you were transitioning into the turn nicely but positionally past the jump, on the landing side: so she collected but drove to your position, creating a wider-than-desired turn. If you aim for getting to the takeoff side of the wing you will find you get better turn – you might have to run closer to all of the wings on a small set up like this, because otherwise you might get there too soon and feel like you are waiting if you send her.
In the bigger sequences with the blind to the wrap: turning to the outside away from the course was good, she had no trouble with that! It was a little harder to stay connected so she missed the jump at :49 (you said tunnel, so she did LOL! I have made the same mistake with my pup LOL!) You had strong connection at :56 and 1:05 so she nailed it.
She had trouble at 1:11 and 1:16 and 1:28 finding the jump after the tunnel. It started with a little more connection needed and you did add connection – and then I think it was all about motion – you can run deeper in towards the curve of the tunnel, so you can be lateral (to set up the blind) and moving (so she sends to the jump) – kind of like what you were doing at the beginning of the session. The send without as much motion was hard after the tunnel (but we do have that as a Wingin’ Game to help fix that!)
After the blinds, try to keep your new dog-side arm further back and give her more eye contact so she can set up a tighter line for that. You had your dog-side arm out and to the side, so she didn’t see as much of the new line and was a little wider (the connection lines your shoulders up to the line better than the hand cue does).
You had great connection going on the pinwheels after the wraps and all the way back to the tunnel!Great job here! These are good challenges for baby dogs and she looks terrific!
Tracy
Hi! I just found a question that I don’t think I ever answered:
> What are your thoughts with adding in a peanut underneath so the board wiggles? Of course the peanut will be stationary so it can’t roll.>>
I would add this after he can do balance stuff on unstable surfaces (peanuts, donuts, discs) without the plank, so he is familiar with the movement of these. Then add one end of the plank on one unstable/low disc and see how it goes, before adding the height.
>>I haven’t put criteria to it yet but no time like the present.
What should the criteria be for hitting the mat?
Both rear feet hit the mat?>>Yes – you have already done the value building, which is basically “any foot hits the mat please and thank you” 🙂 and now we can go to the more specific split rear foot hit. Both rear feet. My best advice is to learn to stare at the mat and not at his feet. 🙂
T
Hi!
>>Didn’t have any pockets in my COVID attire.>>
HA!!! That cracks me up! I grabbed some new COVID attire because it had pockets LOL!!!! I think Covid attire might end up being my permanent attire, though 🙂
The backing up is going really well! Great job on the warm up and also great job pingponging the distances. You got better with being stationary… when you were moving even a little, she was turning and getting on the mat with her front end. When you were standing very still, she was backing up onto it like a champ! Yay! So now you can be a bit more selective: only click the ones where she backs up, and don’t click/treat the ones where she turns and gets on it with her front feet. Now, do this with an eye on rate of success – if she fails too much, she is going to get frustrated. So when you are selective – if she makes a mistake, get closer to the mat so it is easier to be correct.
>>How do I add the verbal on now?
When adding the verbal – do a quick warm up at the beginning of the session to refresh the skill (no verbal). Then when you are really very sure she is going to back up – right as she is eating the cookie that you have placed between your feet, quietly say the verbal – then click/treat when she does it. Basically, we are pretty sure she is going to back up after eating the cookie, so you can add on the verbal by doing it just before she offers the behavior, in the scenario which is causing her to offer the behavior. Let me know if that makes sense!
Great job 🙂
TracyHi!
Yes, Wayne Gretzky and Ken Jennings – both GOATs 🙂For t he cans – a low, big tuna can or a soup can can both work!
>Maybe glue some non slip on them.
Great idea! And on a non-slip floor too.
> Hmm….. I have her up on the Peanut already. She can almost climb up by herself. Hmm…I bet I could do the Goat game with that.
Yes, just be careful that the peanut doesn’t move around at all so she doesn’t slip. Have fun!
Tracy
Hi! We had a moment of a white Christmas but now it is back to green grass, thankfully LOL!
On the stays – try to not be tense as you walk away – that will draw her to you rather than help her stay 🙂 She was getting the idea! You can reward sooner though – toss the treat back on that very first step away, mixed in with the instant she sits, mixed in with a step or two away. You were using a catch cue (yay!) and I think adding a clicker will help too – something about the concept of ‘wait for the click’ really helps the pups get this started.
The putting-it-together game is looking good!! All of the elements look great- my only suggestion is to decel sooner after your blind cross, as you get into the turn – when you are late with your decel, she either doesn’t get a moment to slow down or she ended up on the wrong side. But when you slowed down it looked lovely! Your reps at approx 1:00 and definitely the last rep were smooth and beautiful. Yay!
Great job!
Tracy
