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Hi!
>>So I started to play the focus forward game and realized I had a problem with the toy play 🙂
Ah yes, I see it: I call it “velociraptoring”. Lots of open mouth near hands! Great dog training to take the next session to be all like “mouth on toy – play! Mouth near hands – things stop.” I think he was figuring it out! You can also do some retrieves where you toss the toy way out to he can grab/focus on it, with your hands NOT nearby LOL! And when you restrain him, a harness might be easier – it is possible that the hands more directly on him were too stimulating and that is part of why he was more mouthy there, so a finger on the harness might be less stimulating.
My dogs ALL are raptors on their toys early on, so I also reward the self-control of not grabbing my hands or open mouth near my hands by tossing a small handful of treats away – he gets rewarded and it buys you time to safely pick up the toy and re-start. He is happy to go back and forth between food and toys, right? If not, we can work that but if so, we will use that to help him learn the mechanics of these transitions. I am sure the drive ahead will be easy peasy for him, so this is a good detour for now! In fact, focusing on these cookie and toy skills will allow you to sail through the other stuff so easily, so I am glad you are taking these dog training detours. Click/treat for you 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi there!! I think he matches his rhythm to the music in the background LOL!!!
>>So, for now I’m skipping the deceleration/wrap until we can do it with me enjoying food taken from fingers>>
100% understandable! You can do it with a tug, or maybe buy a big jar of peanut butter and let him stick his face into it as the reward. Anything to protect fingers!
The prop game is looking good! I like the feeding tray 🙂 You can also use the Manners Minder by setting it next to you – indicate the send to the prop then click the MM. That will add great challenges for him because he will have to leave the MM to get the MM 🙂 The foot hits look good so you can totally do more sending. Also, you can play this with the toy in your hand.
With the right side being harder, stay pretty close to the prop for now so the value if super high. You can add the challenge of more distance on the left side. The right side will catch up pretty quickly.Back and forth looks awesome too!!! And I could see you getting up into the stand 🙂 He had the rhythm really nicely. You can add a little challenge by moving the 2 bowls a little further back, by your hips – so he has further to travel, has to bend more, and the option to cut between the upright and you is more visible. If he has questions, you can bring the upright in closer to you but I don’t think he will have questions on it 🙂
Great job!!
TracyHi again!
Super nice drive forward! You are even delaying the release with a little ready ready and she is maintaining her focus forward to the line (and not losing her mind – I love that she can get more excited and NOT go feral haha!!). And then she easily came into the drive to handler focus even with added layers of excitement. GOOD GIRLIE! This bodes really well for the layers we will be adding where the pups come in with more speed and still turn tight, then explode out of it. I am excited!!! One little detail – as you were finished at the end, note how she turned away from you to her right rather than towards you. Keep an eye on that and see if she is showing a side preference to turn to her right in other aspects of training or life. If not, no worries! If so, also no worries, we will just encourage her to turn towards to to the left into those moments and not away to the right even if the right is the easier side. Generally the dogs should turn towards us unless specifically asked to turn away, if that makes sense.
Great job here on all of the videos!!! Let me know what you think 🙂
TracyOoh I like your transition of quick treat then onto the tug while turning! It was like you had 6 hands. Very quick and impressive, it was both engaging and kept her right on you for the turn, love it! The toy added more excitement for sure, but she was still did a great job being straight and tight on the line and turn. She was a little wide as you turned on rep 2 because you started the deceleration & turn as she arrived, so she was not fully prepared for it. Using the idea from above – run til she turns back from getting the treat then let her see you stop – will help keep her wicked tight on these turns even as you add more excitement from the toy 🙂
hi! This is looking really strong – it is hard to get low with a small pup but the placement was much better 🙂 You can add in a slight tweak in the mechanics, so you are stopping sooner for her to read the deceleration (and so you are not stopping as she arrives, which causes her to not have time to engage her hind end as much) You can flip the motion – When you send her to the treat, you can run as she is getting the treat. Then stop as soon as she turns back from getting the treat so she sees you deceleration into the stop and drives into it. You’ll see some amazing hind end engagement with it! She is already coming in nice and tight to you! Good girlie!
Great job 🙂
TracyHi!
SMART to do this with the couch behind you so she wouldn’t go around you!! Love it!
It took her a minute to get the ball rolling with the wing there. Question – will she go back and forth between the bowls without the wing there? If so… no problem, the upright was enough of a different picture that it took her a moment. If not, you can start the sessions by getting the rhythm between just the bowls… and when that is going, slide in the wing later in the session. That way she will find it easier to offer going around the wing – she was a superstar at 2:05 and 2:45 and 3:03 and 3:30 as well when she chose to go around the wing!!! I admit that pawing at the ball was pretty funny (DUDE WHERE IS MY TREAT haha!)
Then she smacked your foot. Too funny!
She is doing a great job with this! By then end, she totally found the back and forth rhythm, around the wing. On the next session, try starting with just the bowls then sliding the wing in to keep the rhythm going.
Excellent work on all of these!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
She clearly likes that prop since she was standing on it waiting for you LOL! Yay! She was being a SUPER good girl going to it! Onething to add is a foot step – you were doing a great job with the hand cues so you can also take one big step with the foot on the same side as the hand cue. I am sure that will be no problem for her when you are stepping forward or sideways.
When you shifted to the step back sends, you were definitely using the leg (nice!!) but I think you might have been a step or two too far from the prop to start with, so be maybe one or two feet away at the beginning stages, then we will add distance.
The other thing I noticed is that she was thinking that your ready dance meant you wanted her to go do something – she was all like “YES I AM READY WHAT SHOULD I DO” hahaha! We want her to just kind of look at you, so you can say ready, give a cookie, say ready, give a cookie, say ready… then then point & step to send her to work. That will help her understand that ready just means to pay attention and not necessarily start without you.
This is looking great!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyGreat job on this one! You were moving at the right speed and turning at just the right time, to get her to be tight to your leg and curling as you turned – she was bending so nicely!!! The main thing with BCs is that we get them to come in really tight and not flank out away… mission accomplished here! Yay! You can add speed to the game by trying it outside or somewhere that has more room for her to run for the treat then run back to you.
Lovely job!!
TracyGood morning!
She is really good at this! You can let go sooner, meaning as she tracks the ball landing and before she looks back to you, let go immediately. This is easier said than done, so you might need to let go of her before the toy lands LOL!! Also, because BCs tend to want to watch us, you can set aside any games where she needs to earn something by looking at you for now – she might think she needs to look at you in order to earn the toy here, she was so quick to look back at you LOL!
Correct, you are not likely to win the race here but we have ways of cheating later on down the road so she has to drive to get past you LOL!!!About the floors – yes, we want to find a way to not let her slip. I buy cheap rugs and runners from Walmart (the ones that have some rubber backing) to put over my wood floors, then I roll them up between sessions so that they don’t get chewed on by the puppies 🙂
And you can post the clips separately like you did here, it makes it easier to look at each game 🙂
Great job!!
TracyHi again! This went well too!!!
Omg her pounce was HYSTERICAL, I just love watching her LOL!!! She was offering super distint front foot hits, this is actually a better prop for the sending game than the boot, I think. This prop is definitely ready to be added to the sending.
You added the different thing to touch halfway through – that is good! It was a different size, shape, texture – all good for her to experience. This is where you can have the cookies ready in the same hand you deliver them from, and put the treat down on the thing itself (rather than hand it to her) or toss it away so she comes back and offers again. That cn really help build fast value for all the things you show her.
You mentioned being slow but I think that was because you were getting the cookie out of the other hand then delivering it. It feels slow because she is so quick, especially when she is investigating something new.
She did have some circling here initially on. the new prop, just a little – then after the toy break, you raised the rate of success and she stopped circling… so I think that the circling is happening when she isn’t sure. Good to know! When she is familiar with the thing and there is value, you don’t need to be as quick. But on the new stuff – be insanely quick like you were on the last part of the video. You rocked it and so did she!!!Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! She is super cool, I am glad you decided to get her! And yes, you can get whatever you want 🙂 Jedi is awesome but so is Ruby!! I love how she is built and how smart she is!!!
Great job on this video – you were for sure quicker with the treats which really helps. She is SO FAST that the quicker you can be, the better. You might just need to have 5 or 6 treats in one hand and the clicker in the other, to be able to get those treats in super fast. She was great about offering on the boot, even when you were holding it, and not going behind you or circling (that might have been an arousal behavior when she was not sure what to do).
One thing to think about: chat her up, praise, talk… during the play and during the rewarding. But when you are waiting for her to offer, be quiet 🙂 When you keep talking, she is not sure if she should look up at you or look at the boot. Quiet, stationary momma becomes the cue to offer behavior on the boot, which makes the transition really clear. But definitely chat her up and be wild with praise when you are playing and rewarding, because it really helps build a strong relationship.
I love that she goes back and forth from the food to toy so nicely. Yay!! And that long toy is awesome LOL!!Great job here – I think you can take your boot into the send game 🙂
TracyHi there! Maple did really well here! And your editing was fine 🙂
Yes, I agree that she got rewarded more on the hand touch the thingy part 🙂 I like that thingy! You can get even more value for it by placing the treat right on it after she hits it (you can turn your hand so your palm is up for that) but overall, she did great and just keep building value for it until we add it into the game.
On the pillow – you can get more reward to her in two ways: she did investigate it a lot with her nose, so you can totally reward that at first! Then when it has more value, you can wait for a foot touch. Also, I think she was watching your hands because your hands were delivering the treat to her mouth and then tossing it – so change the placement of reward to put the treat on the pillow, so she will watch the pillow more – which in turn should get more interest in interacting with the pillow. Let me know if that makes sense! Great job!
TracyHi! Sorry, I almost missed this! I loved his little high five at the end 🙂
This went really well! The recall work you’ve been doing is really shining through 🙂 Yay! He is powering to you so nicely! Because he has so much power, I want to emphasize your deceleration more so he uses his rear more to stop next to you (right now he is using his shoulders). So toss the treat like you did, run away like you did, call him… as soon as he turns and starts moving – you stand still. Let him drive to you without you moving, and then when he gets to your hand, do the turn and reward. Don’t worry if he is not as fast at first when you are stationary, because he has to sort out all of that momentum LOL!! And of course you can mix in lots of full on running recalls too. You were stopping just as he got to you, so he didn’t really have time to think about shifting into his rear (and young pups need a lot of time to find their rear haha!!!)
He was great about assessing the new thing in the environment, kinda shrugged his shoulders, then got back in the game. Such a perfect response! I love that 🙂 I like that you let him have a moment to look. You can wait longer to call him in that moment, because when he is assessing, he is not likely to respond so it is better to wait til he re-engages. I am glad that he was interested but not worried at all. Such a confident little dude 🙂Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHo! Another very lovely session here too! Great job with your reward placement: low enough that she didn’t have to lift her head up too much (sorry about your back :)) but also right at your knee and a little curled in, to help her bend. Click treat for you! It looks like she was pretty perfect, no flanking or butt swinging out, and happy to curl around your leg on the bend. Super smooth transitions to turn her, reward, then throw the next cookie the direction she was facing. Another click/treat for you! LOL!!!
My only suggestion to add to this session is a more distinct get it cue for the cookie. You were generally using get it, but it was in the middle of praise sentences – so you can be more clear with the distinct get it cue before the cookie throw (this will serve you well in future training).
Since she did so well here, you can add 2 things:
– more distance on your cookie through, so she drives faster to you and therefore has to decelerate more
– more excitement by tugging before the cookie throw, rewarding with a cookie for turning with you, then tugging again. Excitement is often the killer of collection so we add it pretty early LOL!Great job here!
TracyHi! She is so cute and small!! Love her! She did really well here, no need to back up to earlier steps. Her focus ahead to toy and drive to it was perfect! On your transitions from the tug to the toy toss, I liked the 2nd and 3rd transitions where you tugged her into the line up position and then gently took her harness and tossed the toy (versus the first rep where you moved her into position by the harness after taking her toy, that is less fun and less smooth for the pup).
You can sometimes ask for the retrieve, but you can also go play with her when she gets to the toy – that is really engaging! And, it works nicely into the next step: add your motion. Do everything the same but now add walking forward after you release her. And if she finds that to be easy, you can gradually add more and more motion til you are running (might take a couple of sessions, because she is so little :))
Great job!!
Tracy
