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Hi! Just saw this…. I have a game for that! From the puppy program, get started with this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iPa5p6Dt5M&list=PLfmMHeoeqwgbgZtQq99RPwFDMW8k8I3P3&index=12
And we will build from there when class starts 🙂Hi! Lots of good stuff here!
On the stand on the plank: I think he was sitting because he didn’t like his back feet falling off and didn’t quite know how to stand and keep his feet on – so, you can use a wider board or put two side-by-side for now if you have 2nd one. The other option is to isolate the 2 back feet on the plank by luring him into a 2o2o off the front of the plank. I think that can help him figure out how to put his back feet on it without having to worry about his front feet AND back feet all not moving at the same time LOL!!! He did get into the stand towards the end, great job with the fast rewards! His back feet were under him which probably meant he was not totally sure of where all the parts needed to go 🙂 so widening the plank or isolating back feet for a session or two can help, then it will be easier on this one.
Parallel path on the prop – I think that moving further from it laterally really helped solidify the game here, because he had to choose looking up at you or looking down at the prop. When you were close to it, he was trying to do both. And when you took that step further away for your line, he couldn’t do both… so he focused on the prop a lot more! Yay! I think on the reps where he couldn’t find the prop after eating a cookie, he just needed a moment before you moved up the line again. So when you throw the treat, go to where he is getting it – then after he lifts his head from the eating event 🙂 you can proceed up your parallel line again 🙂
He did really well here, so you can also do the countermotion element of sending him sideways or backwards as you begin to move away.The stay game -this is also going well!
> Had to think about my cues … luckily he was forgiving.>>
Yes, try to clarify the verbals so that you can use your ‘catch’ verbal more consistently – I think there were a lot of yes verbals followed by the throw, but I don’t generally recommend ‘yes’ as a release word of any sort (because we humans say it so often and generally we want the dog to keep doing what he is doing LOL!!) And when you use your catch word, keep your hands totally still when you say it, then toss – he is very tuned into your movement so I want him to not think the hand motion is the release and miss the word. You can also just use your ‘catch’ word, you don’t need to ‘yes’ it and that might make it easier to build value for that verbal.
Speaking of movement… he likes to move his feet, he reminds me of two of my dogs. So you can change your criteria slightly for the initial reward: look for butt to be in the sit AND for both front feet to have weight in them (so he doesn’t patter his front feet). You can wait for him to be totally still, the reinforce. It will take some patience for him to settle himself, but I think that is a great game for him!
He does like to pummel you a bit… You can see if turning away consistently gets him to stop, but it is motion and he likes motion (plus be careful not to turn back to face him when he barks). So if it does not help him stop the pummeling, you can continue to face him, completely motionless, til he settles completely into the sit (butt on ground, weight in both front feet). And if he is able to pummel you and then sit, you can add in something for him to sit on, like a cot or bed – so he runs to it and sits, rather than slams you in the belly or tries to grab the food (I feel that! Ouch!).Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! I hope the icy stuff melts and is GONE by end of day today. We have stuff to do!!!
The back and forth looks good here! You can add challenge to the angles by tossing the treat even further away off to the side, so he he as find his way back on the plank for progressively more difficult angles. I think he has some value for standing on the board so he was offering that too, which is fine of course 🙂 He was turning around nicely when you tossed the treat the opposite direction! The bow was adorable. His right turns looked great! He is not as fluid with the turns to his left, so you can slow down the cue for those and lead his nose through the turn so he bends into it and thinks about his feet on the left turn. And when you start flyball training, he will do a box turn to his right LOL!
Great job!
TracyHi! He is doing well with his goat tricks 🙂 Yay! And as cute as always 🙂 The yellow box looked good, he was able to happily get on it, no problem. Yay! And also a good transition back to the toy. The noisy Sorry game gave us good insight into helping him in these types of moments: yes, the sound was weird (but not terrifiying) – so you can click for that first choice to sniff it, then toss the treat away so he can have a ‘relief’ moment (I am a big fan of letting dogs move away from things that are weird :)) Then when he comes back, you can click for the next sniff, then toss away. Then click for a paw touch then toss the treat…. then I am sure he will pretty quickly get all feet on it and you can switch the placement to feeding while he is on the box (like you did for the yellow box). He did come back and offer pretty quickly, so the main reason that I suggest this is it will lay the groundwork for teeter training in the future. When the teeter moves or makes noise, he will already have experience in the protocol from this, so he will make the transfer very quickly 🙂 Let me know if that makes sense!
Great job here!!
TracyHi there! Great post here, he is doing so well!!!! Soooooo many lovely things on this video!
Pre-game 1, prop shaping: Good job with the c/t timing here! He was super about offering the foot hits. Try to stand still, as frozen as possible – he was watching you move a bit (he sees EVERYTHING lol!) You can also throw the treat further away so he can then really drive back to the prop and smack it 🙂 He is doing great and it is a perfect choice of prop… so you can definitely move on to the next set of games with this (the sending from week 1).
Pre-game 1, nose touching – also fabulous! He offered a very clear nose touch. Good boy! Good clicks! One tweak on the rewards – have your treat ready in the clicker hand and then after the click, bring that hand over to the hand he just touched and feed him there, either right on the target or right in front of it. That will keep him closer to it and also keep him from putting himself into a sit to wait for the cookie. And if he is standing and closer to it, he is more likely to touch it again faster. And it will prime the pump for when we build on this (next Tuesday :))
Driving ahead with toy: he has fabulous toy value! I love his toy play! He is very engaged and maybe a little naughty on the toy… but I consider “naughty” to be the same as “perfect” with toy play at this age.
This was a great session, building from up close to adding distance while also staying connected. He was looking forward on all of them but one (he looked at you when you added ‘steady’ for the first time). He seems comfortable with the restraint and very confident to drive ahead with speed and grab the toy. Adding the ‘ready’ word is great too because it will serve you well in the trial ring eventually: when you ask if he is ‘ready’ he is going to say HECK YES! GAME ON! and it will be a fun way to get him in the zone for his runs.
You can play this game with various toys, to spread the value to as many different toys as possible. And, add in your motion now. My guess, based on this, is he will NOT have any trouble with you moving – so you can probably add in running as soon as you let him go. If he thinks that is weird at all (that would surprise me, based on his zest here), you can dial back your speed and go back to walking. If he is happy with you running – go to the toy races so you are actively trying to beat him to get to the toy (good luck, he is fast haha!). I think your only challenge will be finding the place to do big toy races… you probably have snow on the ground. So, any indoor area where you both have good footing will work for the toy races.Drive to handler – also going really nicely! He seems to want to be a tiny bit wide of you, so you can feed the reward so close to your leg that your hand is touching the side of your leg. That will further encourage him to drive into you for tight turns. You can even feed him with your hand slightly forward, more on your knee, so his head is turned a little and his neck is almost wrapping around your leg – also to encourage the beginnings of tight turns. That will also help him line up his hind end, which is a factor in turns. You started doing more of that (feeding really close to you) at 3:55 and that totally convinced him to get closer to you and tighter into the turn. And he then was able to bend his body as you added in the turns after he drove to you. Those looked good!!!! The double turns were harder -he lost connection a little on the 2nd turn, so you can move more slowly to maintain the eye contact as he gets the hang of the fact that there might be 2 turns in a row LOL! The last part of this section, where you added speed and the toy: I am really excited to see the excellent food and toy transitions at the end, he looks like he has GREAT balance and that is rare in puppies! It is very cool to see him going back and forth between food and toys – perfect!!!!
You will be able to advance this game really quickly too – check out the blind crosses first (those will be super easy) then you can move him to the game we added this week, which combines this game with blinds with driving ahead. Wheeeee!!Great job here! He looks fabulous!
Tracy
Ooh, it sounds like Bonnie has a BEAUTIFUL place!! So nice!!! And perfect for the winter!
>> About her even liking to turn to the left on the blind better too. Not as good on the right.
These puppy classes during the pandemic have really helped us see early signs of side preference, it has been fascinating! And because we can see it sooner (thanks to obsessing on videos haha) then we can help balance it sooner. Plus, now that I also play flyball, I have gotten better at reading side preferences because it is really important for flyball 🙂 3 of my dogs are lefties and 2 are righties in flyball… but they are all pretty balanced in agility!
Stay warm 🙂
TracyHi!
One of the fun things with young dogs is sorted out the toy play and food play and all of that – it is not that easy! A definite puzzle when/how to use food and toys. He clearly is really stimulated by the frisbee – try to use it more interactively, rather than throwing it. The sends looked really good! So have him come in and tug with you with a soft frisbee. It is possible that some of the running around and arousal you are seeing is linked to the running after the frisbee when it is thrown. And in situations where it is not thrown, he is ‘hacking’ his own arousal by running around. So, see if you can get him to come in and tug, and then you can release from the tug with a frisbee throw.>>I did have issues with Chapter throwing out behaviors to get rewarded faster.>>
What types of behaviors? One of my youngsters thinks the frisbee is LIFE so the behavior I have taught him is to sit and wait. LOL! “You want me to hurry up? That is cool, offer a sit and then I will hurry up” LOL!
I thought he did really well with the tunnel and wraps with the frisbee and with the food! Really nice work with your sends!! He was faster with the frisbee, partially because of the value and partially because the food was the last rep where the ‘edge’ was off. And since the frisbee was out of the picture, he was taking himself on frisbee runs.
>>I forgot to mention with the tug tug tug and lazy game is that with a frisbee he won’t eat food. I am working on his tug toy skills with other toys so I can try it with lower value toys and see what happens!!>>
This is where you can start shifting the value to other toys and food by using the frisbee so you are not locked into only frisbee. Have the frisbee present, tucked under your arm or in a pocket. Have him eat a treat (criteria = take it AND swallow it!) and then reward the act of eating with the frisbee. That will raise the value of food in the training environment. Same with other tugs – tug on it then reward the tugging with the frisbee, Start this away from trying to train anything else, just do the food then frisbee or tug thn frisbee games until he can eat and play with other toys, in the presence of the frisbee. Let me know if that makes sense and let me know how it goes!!
Tracy
Hi!
Peanut butter on a spoon is MAGIC lol!!! And I think they get used to turning around or being lifted off and that contributes to confidence later on – I know far too many dogs that take a spill on a teeter and are then afraid of it. He sorted this out! He was not entirely sure of how to get on and the moving of th board wa a little weird… but peanut butter is magical! If the board flapping is worrisome, you can leave him in a stay and go to the end of the board, face him while you hold the board and recall him to you. That will split out the movement of the board and also get him more comfy with you ahead (he seemed most comfy with you next to him, which is fine to start!>> I realized he wasn’t at my feet but at the top of the teeter about 15ft away and wondering why there was no PB on the spoon!>>
HA! That is funny. My Elektra just goes and stands on the end of the teeter now and waits there. She is a nut.
I am glad that he is feeling good about turning around and walking down! All of that helps build into the confidence of driving up the board – the height is hard!!!! A few more sessions and he will be ready for more movement too.
Nice work!
TracyHi!
Your raise a good point here:
>>It’s hard for me to get him running in the close confines of the basement.>>
We don’t need them running at this point. I am happy with the trot, and with the thoughtfulness. I think it was SUPER clever how you changed the angles of the plank to get him using his hind end to get on – brilliant! I would not have thought of that, and I love it!
Does he have value for stopping at the end of the travel plank? You can maintain that, it looks like he offered it when you were running LOL!! You can have him get on at an angle then stop at the end. If I recall, you are getting on the RDW crazy train with a bunch of us, right? The travel plank isn’t used for that so feel free to use it for your teeter behavior which I think will be a stop, right? Either way – he looked really good here!!!! Thinking about his feet most of the time and you can also do the turning around on this plank – it is nice and narrow and will add some challenge there 🙂Great job!
TracyHi! How did you end up in terms of snow? We didn’t get any, still green grass here.
On the tunnel work – this is a good skill to revisit! Think of it as 2 elements: when she lands from the jump before the tunnel, you cue the tunnel. And when she is somewhere before the entry, 6 feet or so, you cue the exit of the tunnel. When they looked good here – that is what you were doing. When they went wrong, something was different about those 2 elements. Here are specifics:
She was reading the tunnel breaks well, because you were showing commitment then decel + verbal (a noise) at the right times. One thing about tunnel breaks is that you can also be leaving for the next line so you don’t end up standing still.
You did a FC at :23 – you got the commitment then the decel, so be sure to also let her see that foot rotation for the FC before she goes in (somewhere when she is between 6 and 3 feet from the tunnel entry) The same goes for BC in places that you would use a BC. At :28, you were too early because you started the blind as she was taking off for the jump before the tunnel, so she read it correctly as changes sides at landing to the other side of the tunnel. That also happened with the spin at 1:30 and somewhat with the BC a 1:39 where she did not take the tunnel – you were looking forward when she landed and said over instead of tunnel, so she read it as a Blind cross coming for the jump and not a cue to go into the tunnel.
The crosses/spins/breaks are all about cuing the tunnel exit, so they work better when you let her land, cue tunnel, then start the cross or exit cue. I use the zone that is between 6 and 3 feet from the tunnel entry because the dogs should be committed by then and will also have time to see and process the exit info.
On the spots where you got commitment and she was turning better, your timing of the commit to the tunnel she show the exit info was much clearer (:51 and 1:05 were really good! At 1:15 and 1:23 she was turning, but you were a little far from the line so you can get closer to the line to get and even tighter exit from the tunnel there.
The best one was at the end (1:50) – you committed to the tunnel when she landed and then when she was about 5 feet from the tunnel entry, you showed her the blind – very nice! She was turning when she exited!
Now, I agree that the turn on the exit of this tunnel is better with a FC, but working the timing of a BC here is a good thing too because I am sure you’ll use them in other situations.Oops, almost forgot – you can use your directionals too! The tunnel verbal commits her to it, then as you show the exit handling, you can use your GO or left/right/wrap verbals to help seal the deal.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! This went really well! He was figuring out pretty darned quickly that sitting and remaining in the sit was the road to easy money – or easy cheese 🙂 Nice!! You can add duration more gradually, with some praise at first, then turning sideways to face the direction you will lead out towards. When you do start adding motion of a lead out like a step away, you can click/toss as soon as you start moving away to help pair moving away to mean the reward coming back behind him 🙂 It might take a couple of sessions to add that because he is young, but he is definitely catching on quickly! And every time you add a hard one, do a couple of easy ones after it so the game gets harder very gradually. One thing to be careful of: don’t walk towards him when you want him to offer the sit. That can build in pressuring towards him as an inadvertent sit cue. Instead, you can let him get the treat then come to you and just stand still – then he can restart the action by offering the sit. If he moves out of the sit, don’t move towards him – just stand still til he reminds himself to offer the sit 🙂
Nice work here!!!! Let me know what you think
TracyHi! He did a great job on the retrieving here, generally driving to it and bringing it right back. Nice!!! I think the retrieving is going really well so this is the type of thing to keep playing in various no-pressure situations. We can eventually shape him to put it in your hand for tugging – but first we can think about the tugging fierceness 🙂 I think he really enjoys being sent to the toy to retrieve it, and also he has the history of reinforcement for dropping it to get the treats… so it makes sense that the tugging is not as fierce in this situation at the moment (other reasons too, like teething, add to it). Dropping it has been reinforced by getting the treat (yummy!) or by getting it thrown again (wheeee!) And that is all good! We can isolate tugging fierceness, though – by letting him win the tug o’ war. If he gives a good pull… he win! He gets a victory lap! And on a food toy, if he wins, you can let go and then open it for food. Start by letting him win pretty easily, then you can work up to him having to work harder and harder to pull it out of your hands. That will get more tugging fierceness going 🙂 I thought I had a video of that, but I can’t find it – I will keep looking.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>Started sitting with quieter hands. Transitioned to standing. He was doing really well, so I did push the wing out towards the end. Toy games to start and toy games intermittently during the session. He handled the transitions back and forth pretty well.>>
Yes! The quiet hands were hard at first for him! But he thought his way out of the dilemma LOL and solved the puzzle. Yay! Then he got really good at the back and forth without watching your hands, it was a big moment. Good boy!! And great to hear that the toy play scattered throughout was no problem – it also helps dogs learn to self-modulate their own arousal because tugging is arousing and this wrap game is thoughtful.
>>Your comments about feeding your dogs before training were interesting. I’ve always heard people recommend training a hungry dog, but I am seeing some franticness over the food with WM. With Phyzz, I have the same issue but it is his toy. If I’m training with his toy in my hand, sometimes he only worries about the toy hand and not the rest of what I’m showing him.>>
Yep, there is a lot of conventional wisdom is dog training that is just not supported by science, which is why we don’t have to listen to it LOL!! The thing about franticness for toys – that is one of the reasons why I get toys into the picture really early on – partially to work on arousal, partially so that the early conditioned responses to toys are not as stimulating as later on. I find that if we add toys into the exciting running behaviors, then the conditioned response to the toy being present is high arousal. But when it is mixed in with food and shaping and NOT running… then the conditioned response is more thoughtful and less frantic. All fascinating stuff!!!
Tracy
But I think the same concept applies with respect to their mental focus. So I appreciate your examples from your own dogs.
Hi! Great update!!! It sounds like he did super well in all sorts of new environments.
>>Today, I used toy breaks to start our training with food rewards and used toy breaks to break up the session. He did pretty well. Not as ferocious as he was a week or two ago, but definitely engaged. I will keep at this.>>
Great! I am a big fan of tug breaks 🙂 You can also give him training breaks – for example, my youngsters had a couple of days of training in a row with yesterday being especially busy… so now they will be doing nothing today other than some wrestling or running around and leash walks. That allows their puppy brains to cement what we did on Monday & Tuesday and they always come back stronger in stuff like tugging or body awareness when they have a do of nothingness LOL!! My house is STRANGELY quiet with 3 youngsters in it today – brain cementing at work 🙂
>>Do you want to see video of any of this as we do it, or are my descriptions enough? I know video review takes time so I don’t want to flood you with lots of video that looks the same!>>
For stuff that is going well and does not need to progress, descriptions are good 🙂 If you want to post anything about tugging not being as strong, or anything needing next steps, go for it! Alway happy to see that 🙂
Tracy
Hi! Good work here! Yes, a couple of sessions for just getting on will be great to build the salience. Standing on it will be better for ways we will be using it for backing, so you can click and reward before he offers the sit. And try to stand still so that he is not following your movement at all 🙂 That way he can find the board and you can just lean up against the wall, causally 🙂
T
