Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Hi! Sorry that I missed this post!!! Just found it now 🙁
>> It seems if I go on too long she has that head explode and then she is done, or hard to get back. She will end it herself. And THAT’s not good. I need to keep sessions really short. Doing the tugging in between really helps! Or yea. Keeping the arousal level high.>>
I agree! It is easy to keep going and going and going with puppies… til their heads explode and then the session turns to poo. So I like setting a timer, breaking things up after 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 treats, and tugging lots 🙂 It helps prevent brain explosion LOL!
On the plank video:
I love her coat! She is very focused on the back and forth here – see f you can get her to leap on in the middle and balance because it is always harder to stick a landing and be stationary than it is to keep moving. Then she can turn in a full 360 degree circle.
And having her hop off on her own was too cute at the end – she had to take a moment to figure it out, then she was like “oh, I step off” LOL!!! You laughed and so did I 🙂 I also like to get the pup to jump on in the middle, turn a full 360 and then hop off – this is hard! But as you mentioned, teaching the pup how to get off is super important, in case they ever need to bail off the dog walk if they lose their balance. If she ever loses her balance, she will know how to safely jump off rather than fall and possibly get hurt.Keep visiting this as she grows, maybe once a week – it will change as she gets bigger ( not sure how much bigger she will get? But a little bigger :)) and she will need to keep ‘finding’ her balance and hind end. It will really help with your dog walk training.
Great job!
TracyHi!
>>And as for his slower performance when going to the right, I think that is relatively new. He had a short puppy massage last week and turned up. He does see Dr Julia in about 2 weeks so I’ll see if she turns up anything.>>
He might have a trigger point that needs releasing or something a little out in his chiro -we have been obsessing on his videos since July, and I simply don’t recall noticing that before. No worries – he might just be muscling up and not quite balanced yet.
On the teeter – bonus points for his fancy holiday attire! And yes… the magic of peanut butter LOL! Good boy! His balance on the board is looking good and I am glad he was trying to start without you. He is definitely growing in confidence! I suggest a two-pronged approach to more teetering:
– on the home teeter, do a ‘boil the frog’ approach: when he drives up the teeter at the beginning of the session with no questions and goes right to the end (for 2 short sessions in a row), you can start to raise the teeter a tiny tiny amount at the start of each session. It is like boiling a frog: it is so gradual, he won’t even notice 🙂 (Or at least that is what I hear, I have never actually boiled a frog!) And if he asks a question at any point, you stay there for a couple of sessions until he is driving up it again.
– try to get to different teeters and start with the easiest form of the game, just to build confidence in different places. It is easier said than done during the winter in a pandemic for sure but there is no rush 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi! I definitely encourage the run to the end, as it is much faster. The teeter Teach It will help encourage that too, because he can learn to do it independently without you and without needing to have a lot of speed to do it 🙂
Tracy
Hi! I love the fun lazy mini mountain climber! What a great variation to build confidence, he seemed super happy to run up it! We shall name it: Hill Climber! Ha! And it is the type of thing that might be small enough to take different places to help generalize the behavior, which is useful for all 3 contacts not just the teeter! Brilliant! Click/treat for you!
On the Lazy contacts game: I think will really help the bang game on the teeter (where he was still sorting out hind end) and also the hind end awareness on the running dog walk. He did really beautifully here, the hardest part was not wanting to play with the toy LOL I am not worried about that – you might have to go to highest value toy, just to get him wilder. Or a ball to chase? You can also try doing it all with a toy, and tugging in position (that is hard but it builds into my teeter games for a 2o2o in particular). It looks like he is doing a bit of a nose touch to the target, and that is GREAT – I fully support a little extra *something* in terms of targeting behavior for stopped contacts, as the criteria holds up a lot longer in competition. You don’t always need to keep the nose touch, but it will help teach him the weight shift. If he wants to scratch at the target and nose touch it, even better: really shifts his weight back when that happens.
Yes, he was not ready to run down the hill to the target – there was a lot of motion from you as you were trying to get the target in so he was shifting his weight forward and his butt was coming off the side. We will add that in at a later date.
Great job on these!!!!Tracy
Hi! This is a cool video to watch – because he understands turns so well, at this point you don’t need to work that hard to get a great turn (makes life so much easier!!!) It looks like when you drive in to the turn and decel and rotate relatively last minute – you are getting stunning turns. He seems to NOT need you to do a big decel and stick your hands in his face as you rotate. You can drive in, slide on the brakes, and rotate and go – I guess it is the difference between driving a Mack truck and a Ferrari. He is currently in Ferrari mode, so the rotation is more about getting outta there because the decel is creating the turn. The throw back rewards are definitely helping maintain the commitment – but you can see on rep 3 how you drove in more and rotated later – and he was speedy around the wing and maintained his commitment 🙂
Now, I see the difference between running through the left turn and trotting through the right on some of these. So let’s mull that one over, I don’t recall see that but I need to go back and look. I think the side preference was more committing easily versus needing more support? He might need an adjustment or extra stretching on that side. Let me know what you think!
Great job here!!!
TracyHi! These are going really well!
I think the first rep, I could see the difference in right versus left turns (trotting versus running) but then a switch flipped and he got balanced and was running on both sides. Maybe it is a warm up thing and he needs a bit of an explosive warm up on both sides? But the blinds with the wrap and the blind to the spin looked strong – your transitions were really good moving into them so you were super timely and smooth getting out of them. When you blocked the wing a bit, he slowed down, but I think that was a product of a small set-up so you didn’t have a lot of room to show him the line.
There was a little zig zag happening on the double blind – I agree that you were getting a little too deep on the first wing and then had to move away to not impale yourself 🙂 Also, I think it might have been the arms out to the side causing it? To make connection, you had to do a little more shoulder movement and that was pulling you side-to-side a bit. I think squirrel position (or t-Rex arms LOL!) can get you to be very quick twitch on the doubles so you can run a straight line and just do quick switches.
Watching the 2nd video, I had the same feeling that it was the arms being too flowing that set up the zig zag line – so you can try running to the wing, bringing your arms in super tight, and snapping through the upper body changes without as much smoothness 🙂 You get to be choppy LOL! On the wrap on the center wing, the flowing arms were fine, he liked that! But on the doubles, he is reading them well, your connection looks good, but I think the centrifugal force of the arms being further from the body is what is changing the running line. Let me know if that makes sense! Great job on these!
Tracy
PS – forgot to add that the long run to the tunnel was a SUPER fun addition! And a good reminder to maintain connection all the way through, you pulled off at the last minute and he was paying attention. Baby dogs need us to drive all the way into a tunnel LOL!Hi!
Sorry about all the snow!!On the first 2 reps (FC and spin) – you can run in deeper to the tunnel so you can move through the transition sooner. You got a little ahead and ended up waiting for him, which actually made the rotations a tiny bit late (it is a long tunnel LOL!)
The circle wraps are going really well! His understanding looks really really strong, in terms of completing the wrap while you move through. He only had one question on wing 3 where he had a refusal, but I think that was more of a sudden decel moment so he pulled off at the last moment (it was a FC not a circle). I see a difference between the circles to his left versus to his right: left seems like he is running and right seems like he is trotting more. Interesting! I need to mull over some ideas on how we can strengthen turning that way – probably little things like mini pinny to the right, and also earlier rewards so he drives into this right turns with reckless abandon, thinking only about cookies and toys LOL! But with the understanding looking so strong, it is a nice luxury to now get to obsess on striding! Great job!!!
TracyHi! Hope you had a good holiday weekend!!!
>>I took a few days off because Chapter has zero sense of self preservation and tweaked his shoulder.>>
Oh no! I hope he is OK!!! Looks good in the videos!!
>>I did two sessions of the teeter super short like you suggested. No running off once I got his attention.>>>
I thought he did really well! Not over-stimulated at all. Thoughtful, thinking about his body, and banging the board nicely! Perfect!
>> So the teeter class I was in prior we initially did a back up while sitting on a chair and then the idea of that class was to work with !ow teeter and side load until you got to the beginning (if that makes sense). >>>
Sorta makes sense? Back chaining?
>> Anytime he made an effort to bang the board I rewarded it because I didn’t want him to get frustrated especially with our teeter arousal issues.>>
Correct! It was smart – he had a good session! So in his previous training, was he backing up into a position? Or turning around and getting on? I think you can clarify it to be getting into position, or backing up into position – then I can add a different way I do the bang game which is fun but also pretty clear in terms of criteria (hopefully LOL!). The game I posted yesterday will also help with clarifying criteria (The Lazy Game Contacts Position Edition :))
>>We also did the wing it counter motion.
I was a bit worried since we have never done anything similar to this before but he caught on really well.>>>Yes! He nailed it!!!!!! So fun to see, he had zero problems and even let you move away really well. He is definitely ready for the next levels of this game.
>> and you were right about the verbals- so hard! I also cant ever remember my left and right cue words or know which way we are turning- what’s the benefit for different verbals on left and right versus just a wrap tight cue?>>>
The benefit is clarity for the dogs when we humans cannot get to position to show them what we want 🙂 So when we are behind or out of position, the very specific verbals will help them execute properly (and we are often out of position :)). The directionals on the wrap are very useful for when we need to clarify turning towards us or away from us, or when the dog can’t tell where we are and has to use his ears rather than his eyes to sort out the cue.
>> Wouldn’t the handlers position, motion and connection provide the dogs with the cues as to where to go?
Yes… in theory and provided that we are always in range enough that the dog can see our position, motion and connection properly. And also provided that our position, motion, connection are correct 🙂
So, I layer in as many verbals as possible. And I use them even when my handling is very clear (when I am ahead, in position and connected) so that I don’t have to think about them when I am NOT in position 🙂It is hard at first to remember the verbals, but I spend quality time in training and walk throughs working them out and practicing, so they are at my fingertips during the run. That makes a pretty massive difference to my dog, and he is much less frustrated with the imperfections of my physical cues 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! Glad to hear things are calming down at home and getting back to normal 🙂 Sleep is good!
The Go and the wraps looked really good on this video! He was starting to smoke you on the GO lines, even when you had a head start coming out of the tunnel. That makes my heart happy: he wasn’t running to catch up to you, he was running to PASS you. Yesssssss 🙂 So many dogs catch up to the handler and slow down… he was accelerating past you on your go cue, which is PERFECT 🙂 yay! The toy throws were good – he knew to just keep looking forward and it would appear out there LOL!!!!
I think the wraps are going well! Nice line to the wrap wing, no extra pressure, and he gorgeous turns. I think the last wrap rep was my favorite (2nd to last rep on the video, the last rep was a go which was a great balance). On the last rep, you were decelerating and rotating so he basically was approaching the jump with you backwards to it, fully rotated, and not only partially rotated. The fully rotated is a nice clear collection, plus it doesn’t look like a rear cross. Plus it gets you way ahead on the next line, which is faster 🙂 The other reps were really good – I really also liked the first one, partially because the mechanics were good and partially because you and he nailed it, after all of the go reps. Happy dance!
You mentioned not feeling 100% on the wraps, but I think they were really strong! Your timing was a little varied on each rep, from a little early to on time – and he did well! Great job!
TracyHi! I totally feel that about the holiday time… it is flying by!!!
He was fabulous here! The best part? The speed that he drove in to you with. It is pretty hard to convince a lot of BCs to drive in that hard when the handler is stationary and in this position, and he was all like BOOM I AM HERE! But he also decelerated into his hind end like a rockstar. That is going to end up being amazing turns AND a lot of speed in and out of them, very cool to see it this young.
Great job with your mechanics and reward placement! About the To Target Or Not To Target question: we do fade the target out pretty quickly, so you can totally do it without the target and just the hand. The key, I think, is making it more salient on the first rep of each side, that is where he had questions (then he got it really well). You can add salience by exaggerating looking at it (you were generally looking at it and he did well – on the reps when the shift to looking at the hand target was softer and not as obvious, he came to you or the other hand more than to the target). You can also add a little shake shake of the hand – a little up and down movement or ‘jazz hand’ to draw his focus to it on that first rep. That will work with the empty hand as well as the target. But you can definitely do it without the target because he was driving in beautifully to that!
His stay was great on the first rep, so I think you can use the stay and give a bigger shift of connection to the hand and a little bit of jazz hands 🙂 And he gets a gold star for ignoring the audience in the 2nd part! Great joB!!!!Tracy
Hi! An outline might make it seem too progressive when it is kind of a zig zag approach, with every dog being very different with teeter training 🙂 I think of it as a pyramid:
On the bottom level, we do the games like mountain climber to get confidence with height, love the slam for noise, lots of wobble board stuff, hind end awareness, and teaching the end position (4on or 2o2o). Then the next level up are the games that combine them, such as the bang game and the teeter tables game and adding some tip to the mountain climber game. Then at the top of the pyramid are the elevator games. We will be looking at the bang game, more of the mountain climbers, and the elevator game in coming weeks here 🙂For motion override – yes, if your sit cue does not automatically mean to stay also, you can use a stay cue as long as you keep moving 🙂
Keep me posted!
TracyHi! Good session! Yes, generalizing is difficult but I think he did well. It is amazing how quickly dogs can generalize *some* things but not others. Change of location is really hard! I like to start with tugging and tricks (or tricks for treats) in each new environment (or one that that the pup hasn’t been to a lot) to kind of get a barometer for the focus level. Sometimes, the pup can focus and we can train whatever was on my plan… sometimes the pup can’t focus and my plan goes in the trash so we just work on focus and play 🙂 And, you can ‘warm up’ a skill in a new place with a fast-forward review of the earlier stages (like you did later with the orange cones)
I can see his argument for wanting to put his front feet up on the bucket LOL! He does have a ton of value for goating things lately. I liked the cones-on-top-of-bucket set up – that was a nice tall thing where going around was easy and he couldn’t quite have the same access to your hand. After your quick review, he definitely seemed to remember and things went very well from there. He was really good about finishing his job, with you leaving a little earlier and earlier – try to keep running til he catches you and then play tug, that gives real incentive tp drive fast to you out of a turn (which helps create amazing natural collection too!).
The only other thing I would suggest is to make a noise or something silly… but don’t say ‘go’ 🙂 That ‘go’ verbal will be for the big extension lines – and this skill will eventually be wrap verbals (but not yet, too soon to slap them on). So I like to make a swooshing noise or something silly because I find it impossible to be quiet LOL!
Great job 🙂
TracyOMG! I think he is getting it! Yay! Great job with the mechanics! And I think the 2nd object (big round non-wobbling wobble board) was better for keeping him a bit straighter. It was definitely hard on the slight incline (he was lifting his head, wanting to use his front) but he will get better at keeping his head down with more practice. Is he even 5 months old yet? This behavior takes a lot of coordination and he is showing tremendous progress (and add in a new location too, yay!) After a couple of more sessions, if he still needs help going straight, we can add in the channel – but he is doing great!
TracyYes! Tugging breaks it up before the pups have time to over-think things, plus it keeps arousal level high: perfect for teaching teeter stuff!!!!
