Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Hi!
>> Regarding the party of one, yes she still steals and runs off, but it is improving. So that impacts my behavior, worried about that outcome. The other issue is the trade game doesn’t work, because she drops the toy when she realizes I have food. I need to improve that and it will help. Perhaps as the game becomes more fun, the running off will improve.>>
You can try working with 2 toys! Reward then trade, without losing the toy value when food comes out.
>>I also noted the stay issue. I thought there was an instruction to face the direction you were going…I took things too literal!!>>
Sorry! I just didn’t want anyone to be turned and facing the dog 🙂
>It will be fun to work on these without the arms. My guess is you will comment on less arms more in the future. It’s a bad handler habit….
Yes, there will be more about arms – mainly, less is more when we are close to the dog, plus we run faster when we don’t have are arms up – and judging by her speed already, you’re going to be running fast fast fast 🙂
Have fun!
TracyHi! I wouldn’t call him unstable, it is more like he is moving like a puppy 🙂 My Elektra (the smaller one) is totally still moving like a puppy and she just turned a year old: hoppy, front legs doing all the thinking and back legs kind of along for the ride. That is what I see with Robbie. I approach this puppy movement in 3 parts:
Part of working on it is the extreme patience of letting the develop and not worrying too much about it 🙂 Some dogs develop faster than others 🙂
And part of it working on proprioception – cavalettis, discs, balance, foot targeting body part tricks, backing up, mat work, etc.
And the other piece is developing a conditioning program specific to the needs of the individual pup (I do this starting at about a year unless I see an issue) – this includes a look at structure, a look at muscle development, and a look “under the hood” (radiographs and soft tissue palpations) to make sure there is nothing unseen that might be holding the dog back. Now, I do this with a vet specialist because it is out of my wheelhouse 🙂 There are a couple of vets I go to in the MidAtlantic area, and online I highly recommend Dr. Leslie Eide (she might do in-person stuff too, but is too far from me). Dr. Leslie and my other vets have given the dogs specific things – for example, quad strengthening stuff for one dog who needs to get stronger there, and core stuff for Elektra.
Hope that helps!
TracyHi!
The stay comes together as soon as we crack the code to figure out what helps him. If he is figuring it out, yay! You can also play with alternate routes to stays, like stationing on a platform (you can leave the MM up there with him) or crate games (old school, but effective :))For the set point, without a stay – I liked the position you used on the very first rep where you were sending, holding him a little from behind – that way you can send him without him also trying to read any body language or position. If he is comfortable with it, you can hold him like that from a sit so he engages his rear on the send. It is also perfectly fine if someone else holds him and you are out at the MM 🙂
As for the distance between the jumps… hard to tell! The first 30 seconds here were basically a familiarization where he sorted out the setup. He did something slightly different on each rep. At about :31, he got into the groove and then was repeating the behavior and striding more consistently. I think for now move the jumps in 6 inches closer, so he is more in the middle of the jumps on the first landing and that arc carries him through to a landing a little further from the 2nd jump. The other thing to add is starting him closer to the 1st bump – his front feets should be about 6 inches from it, as that will encourage immediately pushing off from the rear rather than striding in which encourages more front end use.
I think the more he sees this, the more we will see a form percolate and then might vary the distance – I am sure he will end up at 6 feet between the 2 jumps but he is young enough that he can start on a smaller distance 🙂
Great job! It is fun to see him in action again!Tracy
Hi!
>> for the most part LOVE having the Training Center but damn….I always end up with stuff at home that I want here and vice versa! >>
Ha! I feel that – so much stuff ends up living in my car for that reason LOL!
He did well on the backing up here – he was really good with ‘looking’ for the board with his back feet, didn’t seem to mind the little bit of movement! Yay! I liked your reward placement, and I think he had enough weight shift for what we need here – because the board was not moving, he was a little weight shifted back, mainly balanced – but not fully on his front. You can keep adding a tiny bit more tip to add some challenge here.
On the Think Less Teeter More game – I am glad he likes it! It is supposed to be a bit silly fun 🙂 I am glad you went to the target to prompt the behavior – on the first few reps without it, he was offering a bit of 4on and down, it was unclear what the exact behavior should be. So keep using the target for now, but not the loaded target. The target prompts the behavior but the loaded cookies make it too easy 🙂 On the last rep, he did a 2o2o without the target but he was stretched and might have been cuing off your body language. I think leaving the target in for this and also for some of the end position games will help him as other elements get more complex 🙂 Then we fade it out next week 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyYeah, I think the teach its will need to be stabilized as we move forward – Elektra only weighs 14 lbs and she almost pushed it out from under her. Helloooooooo tunnel bags!
Have fun with the end position on the mountain climbers!T
This is great! Good girl, Emmie! You can add in a tiny bit more tip, every couple of days, using this one hit wonders approach 🙂 Since she does so nicely with it, you can take the one hit wonders on the road: peanut butter (or massive rewards) in hand, go someplace to play a simple game on a new teeter – massive reward, end of session on the teeter. It will make her head explode because she will want to do more 🙂 But you can go do another rep later on 🙂 She is looking great!
TracyHi!
I think she has reached the point where you will need to bring her into the room on leash or tugging on a toy, so she doesn’t start without you haha!!! She is confident enough to start without you, but still cautious enough that she hesitates after starting without you. So you can change it up – bring her in on a leash or tugging on a toy so you can get ready with the rewards and also get her pumped up… then go into the first rep. When you controlled the entry to the rep, she was really driven across the board! When she started without you, she was more careful. I don’t mind the careful but we can foster the drive up the board by getting her a little wilder and having her start with you 🙂 This is a good point to reach! Great job!!
TracyHello and welcome! I am looking forward to seeing Cowboy play teeter games!
He did really well here with the Mountain Climbers – yes, he totally thought that first rep was WEIRD but then he quickly picked it up and did really well!! Yay! A couple of ideas for you to get him even more comfortable:
I think the jump wing was a clip and go, which is probably not quite stable enough to hold the board under him when he really starts running. I see there were some more solid jumps in the background, you can totally use a really solid jump to hold the board. And put a couple of tunnel bags on the teeter base to keep it from wiggling too 🙂 And because he is just beginning the game – you can put a 24″ table near the teeter, so he can step off onto it on the way back down, or if he gets off balance and needs to get off the plank.
He was already picking up speed and confidence here, so I think he will continue to get better and better here, which will allow you to start to add more challenges. Fun!!!The other idea for you – let him see you load the target, show it to him then go back to the beginning of the board. You might have been doing this and edited it out – you can totally make a fuss over that moment so he becomes very focused on it and thinks less about the board 🙂
>>BTW..I can send you video of Cowboy on a travel plank, wobble board and rocking back during tugging if interested. He has done a lot of the preliminary foundation exercises and is comfortable with the bang and some movement underfoot.>>
If he is happy with those, you don’t need to edit the video. If he has any questions later on, we can come back to these and see if there is a question we can answer somewhere 🙂
Great job here!!! I am looking forward to more!
TracyHi!
Good session – he did a great job driving to the end and there is a whole lot of tip! Yay!
I can see the off balance stuff you mentioned here. I don’t think he was rusty from not having done it in the last couple of days, I just think we have reached the point where there is enough drop that the big dog plate was causing him to have to reach too far forward to get the treat. Switching to the small dog plate was definitely better! But even with that one, I think he had to shift all his weight forward to eat the treat then had to figure out how to get it back and the board is wobbly.
So – I think we have reached the stage where the target you are using on the plank and bang game can go on the end of the board for his uphills, to help prompt the down. That can help him sort out the balance thing as the board is dropping – when you add it, show it to him as a bang game first, and after a couple of reps – go to the Mountain Climbers but with only a couple of inches of tip so he can find the position. And if that goes well, you will be able to add tip back pretty quickly.>> Anyhow, you also may notice that the Teach It is a little unstable until I realize the issue and tweak things again. He did get a little more coordinated as the session went on.>>
I have tunnel bags on the bottom of the teach it, I did notice that it was starting to move a little as the hard-driving dogs were arriving at the top 🙂
Let me know if that makes sense!
TracyHi!
I was great seeing you in the Clubhouse last night! I really like that app, it is like an interactive podcast! So cool!>>I’m noticing spray cheese is such a super party I’ll judge you for your next reward and not come with you to the next obstacle. Running with me has lost some value. So question is did you only use your hot dog party with the teeter or did you transfer it to other tasks?>>
Value is like a pendulum, it swings back and forth. Since the teeter is now his great love, you can go to lower value treats for it… and the spray cheese (YUM haha) can be for jumps or moving with you! And sometimes he gets the cheese for the teeter, sometimes a different treat… keep an eye on that pendulum and adjust as needed. You might find that the teeter loses a bit of value so you go back to cheese on it. That is all totally normal and expected at this stage.
>>searching for the kfc bucket
OMG I have not had KFC in years but now I want to go to KFC hahahahaha
T
Hi there! He looks great!!!
You can go back to having the cookie in your hand for some of these reps – if I remember correctly, you had put the food off to the side because he was looking at you but I think now he is driving perfectly to the end so you can get the cookie in your hand to reward even faster. You don’t have to do it all the time, you can also continue doing reps with the food in the bowl off to the side.The downhills look fabulous and the board is just inches from the ground. So… might as well just go to the next step and let the board go all the way to the ground. It puts you a little ahead of the class, but I that’s fine 🙂 So do everything the same *except* – change the setup so the board touches the ground when he arrives at the end. Exciting!!!
The bang game looks great! You can have the cookie-in-hand for quick rewards here too. And, since he downhill game will be landing on the ground, use the bang game as a warm up for a few reps to remind him of the end position on the ground, before you do the downhills.
Great job!!!! Keep me posted!
TracyHi! Very exciting to see poles 3 and 4 here! He did great!
Distractions are also great, I am glad they happened! It is fabulous to have random distractions in the session 🙂 I mean, I was distracted by the fandom guy watching in the background and had to rewind the video because I missed a bunch of reps haha Presto did well, it appears that he really didn’t lose focus. That is the best part!
The session went really well. Most of the angles were easy peasy. Good click timing! You can add motion to all of that, and I am pretty sure that you will be able to angle poles 3 and 4 pretty quickly too if the motion goes well. The only question, as you noted – the 10 o’clock angle looked hard. That’s good, we would be so bored if he was perfect hahahaha!! You can start closer to the poles on the same 10 o’clock angle to make it easier to find the entry (the further you are from it, the easier it is to miss), and/or start at 11 then 10:45 and then gradually inch your way over to 10 and past it. While you are doing that, you can be progressing the other angles and adding motion and straightening the poles.
Great job here!
TracyHi!
I love that he was able to do the poles moving away from the MM! Happy dance!!!!Most of the challenges on this session went really well with angles and motion. Yes, that left side threadle send from the harder angle was too hard, so be sure that you have a mental count always going in your head. You can call him back for a line up cookie and revisit the challenge on an easier angle, build success, then work your way back to the hard spot. You can also ‘show’ it to him with a right side send there, then show it to him again with a left side entry and see what he does. He did not get frustrated (yay!) but we do want to raise the success rate for these harder angles as that will help him understand them even better.
>>Should I do another session like this with the poles the same?>>
Yes, for the regular sends – but since he had trouble with the threadle side entries, you can those to 2 or 4 2×2 poles to help him isolate it, before going back to channels (those are harder in terms of finding entries because there are more options :))
Another reason to do another session here is that you added more speed, he was having a little more trouble lining up down the channel (centrifugal force!) – you can really see it on the left side entries (11-10-9-8 on the clock) – he was trying to sort out his leads on the entries and then the speed of it all was causing him to carry out to the side of the poles on the other side of you – he was entering correctly but running the line of poles on the side closer to the 3 and 5 poles instead of center. Center is ideal as it will translate to weaving better, so another session will help! And if it doesn’t we will dial back your motion – the poles start to tighten soon, which will also help.
Nice work here! Keep me posted!
TracyHi! I think this went well on 12 poles, which is a really new setup for him. He did great and I agree – I like the acceleration! Wheeee! The only place he seemed to *not* accelerate was on the rear crosses. So on those, use less motion and just walk through it. He just did not seem convinced that he should finish the channel that independently. The other thing you can do is just send him through all 12 poles no motion, you just stand still back at the 10-11-12-1-2 areas of the clock, to build value for leaving you for the full length of the channels.
All of the other stuff where you were moving and your motion supported it was great! You can add in driving ahead more, which brings me to the next question:>>uestion on the serp exit challenge – Do you want the dot to exit and serp with you or do you just run across the end of the poles ahead of them while they continue to the MM/PT?>>
In these early couple of reps, I was clicking the MM so I don’t mind that the dog ended up going to it (you might see the dog was turning to the line then heard the MM so went back to it). As we fade the MM, we will have the dog exit and drive to the reward on the serp line :))
Nice work here! Great start to 12 poles!
Tracy
