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Hi! I got it from here:
http://www.nosetouch.com/teeter_teach_it.htmThey made a special attachment for my small dogs 🙂 So if you order one, tell them you chatted with me about the small dog attachment 🙂
Hi! Great to see you here! I think you will find this is pretty different than last time, so it won’t feel repetitive and we can totally work on improving teamwork 🙂 Have fun!
Hi!
On your first video – He did a great job going back and forth between the two toys! He needed the 2nd toy to become “live” because he was so engrossed in the first toy but it was very cool to see that it could be a little less ‘live’ by the end (just wiggling a bit). You can probably incorporate a boring cookie into this game to help balance the food and toy drive: toss a boring cookie for him to get, then play the two toy game after he eats it. We can then gradually increase the value of the cookies mixed in while maintaining the toy play.
He is doing well on the food bowl/cookie game! He was starting to go back and forth but then I think the 2nd food bowl got a little hidden behind you leg and he lost his train of thought. You can keep the bowls more visible and see if that helps him out. Also, it is possible that he is better going to his left than his right – when he was moving on his left lead (from your right hand to your left hand, he was able to offer really well! Then he was a little more stumped going from your left hand to your right hand – I think all of the puppies here are having the same question and we are seeing some side preference LOL! My 2 pups both are lefties. Any side preference we see here resolves itself really early on by keeping the more difficult side a little easier to get right in these early sessions.
>>I also did a session in the evening where I put a wing between the dishes. (No video) Is it okay to go to a wing?
Was he able to go back and forth pretty easily? Was he offering it one his own, or still waiting for treat drops? You can warm up the session by dropping the treats and then seeing if he will start to offer the back and forth without them audibly being dropped in.
>> He went behind me a couple times, but seemed to pick it up pretty well.
Good boy! You can sit with your back against a couch or wall to help keep him in front of you and not cutting behind. Was he cutting behind you to go to his left (that is when my pups would do it – to maintain the left turn rather than choose to turn right LOL!)
>>If not okay to use a wing, I’ll have to find a wingless.
His rate of success will tell us – if he is highly successful, then we are good to go on a wing 🙂 By that, I mean successful 80% of the time or more. If he is asking questions or not successful 80% of the time, then you will want to find something narrower so it is easier to go around. If you don’t have a wingless, you can try a toilet plunger (buy a new one LOL!) or something that can stick straight up but is pretty narrow to make it easy.
Great job here! Keep me posted!
TracyHi!
>>his is no longer a Sweat Shop work room but a pajama party play house. Best morning ever. Time was 3min 12sec good job mom.
Ha! That is great – we love pajama party play house!!! I like to set a timer on my phone so that at about 2 minutes, my phone starts telling me to wrap up the session 🙂 That way I don’t go toooooo long with the pups!
And were those actually pajamas? I am glad I am not the only one who wears pajamas in videos hahahahaa.
She seemed really happy with the movement and the jingle bell attached to the board was brilliant! It is nice to see pups being so confident on all of these moving things. The pans were weird at first, she said- note how she went to check them out when you put them down, as if saying “what the heck are these?” Ha! Tugging back and forth across the board was also great but tugging ON the board was the BEST! Note how she shifted her weight right into her hind end while she tugged: brilliant! And I heard your timing go off – yay!1 This was a really fast, fun, high energy session!
Great job!!! Looking forward to more!
TracyHi! This plank is a good size her her (or was, she has probably grown a bit LOL!) She did really well getting on it and hopping off. And paws up looks good too (that is actually an important conditioning exercise for the future! Try to see if she will now turn around in a circle with all 4 feet on it, maintaining all 4 feet on. She was turning a little here but a foot or two would fall off the side LOL!! You can take the 2 planks you had in the beginning of the video and put them next to each other so you have a really wide plank to give her room for all 4 feet to turn – then when she is good with that, try it on just one plank.
>>No play breaks 15 min plus sessions, no shaping. Well that was work.
You’ll find that the play breaks bring a lot of passion to the training, and also give both of you a moment to catch your breath and reset 🙂 Kind of a mental rest moment LOL!!! Plus it teaches the pups how to ‘work’ with focus even when they are pumped up, which is great for future trials!
Looks great here 🙂
TracyPerfect! Sweet baby goat LOL!!! That is why it is great to start this so early – gets the pups really confident on crazy things 🙂 Since she seemed to really like that wobble board, you can see if she will play tug with you on it – that encourages her to move the board and also encourages more weight shift into her rear when things move 🙂
T
Hi there!
Very nice transition from the tugging onto the chair cushion shaping session! I liked your transition from the tugging into the shaping – fast and clear, that is so important so she was able to get right into the offering. She got a little caught up in cookie smells for a few seconds, good job being patient as she sorted it out. To help her stay engaged with all the cookie smells, you can add in more toy play – you can click/treat and reward on the cushion, then use your break cue and reward with tugging rather than a thrown cookie when she hops off the cushion.
Holy wow what is that long toy you whipped out! So fun! If she is caught up in cookie smells when you present a toy, you can totally run around away from the food smell and get the toy wild, kind of like you did at the end – that was really fun!
She did really well on the cushion – whole body on, she seemed to have no concerns. So, try to shape her getting on other things with different textures and movement. She is looking great!!!Tracy
Hi Kelly!
There are about 1000 that I loved about this session 🙂 A lot of what we do with the puppies at this age is lay the foundation for when we need to train the hard stuff – and this session was just perfect in that regard. You had *GREAT* transitions from toy play to shaping to toy play to shaping. I obsess on clean, fast transitions because that is what can really make a difference in helping the learning process. You nailed the speedy end-of-tugging while putting the tray down and having your cookies ready: so when the toy went away, the prop was there and the cookies were ready, and you were able to nail the first interaction with a reinforcement. And after the 2nd and 3rd play break, he recognized the transition back to the tray thing and immediately got back on it: “oh look, there is my thing, I will get on it.” Click/treat for you both!!! Super! I know it sounds silly, but getting the mechanics of a training session to be smooth like this is the most important thing for future training. YAY!!!! My only suggestion is if he gets caught up in the smell of the cookies while you present the toy, you can move to a different spot away from the pool of scent to get the tug going (he was looking for cookies on the first play break :))
He did a great job offering behavior on the tray thing 🙂 Next session, you can use something bigger so he can get his back feet on it, and/or something taller so he has to get on it more. You can use all sorts of random objects as long as they are stable and have good grip – the more variety, the better.
Fabulous job with the session! Onwards to more goat tricks!!Tracy
Hi! Hooray for quick sessions to break up the work day!
He is sorting himself out nicely on the step – you can feed a little lower so his head is lower and that should encourage him to stand and not sit – which makes it easier to turn around 🙂 You can also do some rapid-fire feeding in the stand, to encourage *not* moving or offering for a moment LOL! I am coming to have a fine appreciation for helping the dogs be stationary LOL!!! His was getting really good at turning around and not coming off – the addition of the mat helped give him more grip too. And he seemed to have no trouble getting off without falling on his head. Yay! You can try to get this game on as many different plank-like things as possible.
On the backing up – yes, I think he was asking if it was the platform or the feet. We will be getting a platform involved in the backing up very soon, so for now start it without a platform and see if you can shape it. Then it will be even easier with the platform. I am really excited by what he was offering so far – for such a fast moving dude, he had some really nice clear hind end offering happening here! Very nice!!!
Great job 🙂 Looking forward to more work break sessions!
TracyHey there!
The blind crosses on the first video look terrific – I thought the toy reps and the cookie reps both looked terrific, so keep on using both (one was not better than the other, they were both really strong!). This is a good game to take to different places too, because it is great for recalls!
The target in the hand also looks terrific. Yay!! We build this into a fancy game soon – she will be ready for it 🙂
The wrapping session was really fun to watch! The first part went perfectly. One thing you can do is move the bowls a little further back, so they are nearer to your hips, to get a little more turn from her (she is a big dog LOL!) Now when the upright got further away, she showed us a side or preference: any time she turned to her left, she was perfect (going from your right hand to your left hand). Turning to her right was MUCH harder for her (going from your left to your right) and she was stumped on a couple lol!!! You can help develop the right turns 2 ways:
Pull the upright in closer when she has to turn right, so it is easier to do (then slide it back out for left turns).
Or, you can use your arm- when she is going to turn right, put your right hand on the upright so your arm is blocking the road between it and you, so the only real option is to go around it. If you try that and she is still stumped, definitely pull the upright in closer.
Great job here!
TracyHi! She is so fun! And the Santa toy is very appropriate for the time of year too LOL! Glad to see it was warm enough to work outside, and NO SNOW! Wow!!
The toy races are going well, she is driving straight and fast to the toy and even managing to get there first when you try to cheat to win by throwing the cookie back 🙂 Yes, you can look at her more on this, but definitely add more distance now – hold her collar and throw the toy as far as possible and let go of her to run when the toy lands. The goal is that she drives ahead so much that there is clear daylight between you and her. You might need a heavier toy to get it to throw far? I think it will be a fun way to build the confidence of being out ahead of you 🙂
Great job with your energy and engagement here, she really soaks it up!!!
TracyHi! Super fun session here! That cheat-to-win on the 2nd rep changed the game up – he started to really put on the Rocket boosters, especially on that last rep where there was a clear stretch of daylight between him and you. So fun!!! You can throw in a cheat-to-win rep on each session, just to keep him fueled to win the toy 🙂 I love the confidence this is building to drive forward ahead of you; we will be adding it to other games soon 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
