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Welcome!!!!! This video is a great way to get started: fantastic!!! Jazz was VERY happy to focus forward on the toy and drive to you. Your releases were connected and everything looks great!
>Still working on bringing the toy back… hence the rope attached.>
That was smart! I looked like Jazz was not exactly trying to run away, but not exactly bringing it to you LOL!!! So the rope is perfect. And you can have a second toy in your hand or pocket: That way you can add in turning and running the other way when Jazz grabs the thrown toy. This can help make it exciting for Jazz to come back to you (no worries if he doesn’t carry the original toy all the way back to you yet :))
You can take this game to the week 2 Toy Races! My only suggestion is to perhaps use a taller toy, so it is easier for Jazz to scoop up on the run. Something like a big hollee roller works great, or a taller toy.
Great job! I am excited to see more!
Tracy
Hi again!
He is brilliant at wrapping this cone! SUPER! The distance is perfect here, and it was great to see that he could maintain the behavior while you moved into a standing position. PERFECT!
The next step is to replace the cone with different things: laundry basket, barrel, anything you can find that is not a jump wing yet 🙂 That helps him generalize the behavior. One Tuesday we add some big excitement to it all!
Great job 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
He did really well here too! You were a shade too far away on the first rep but he did nicely when you were closer. It really helped him when your leg moved with your arm – the cue was very clear and he sent to the prop really well.
>I have always did my turns counter arm and truly don’t want to change now since I will be running 2 dogs.>
You can totally start the crosses with the counter arm and stepping with the leg, no worries! For the backwards and sideways sends, think of the sending as being the visual of what happens after you have finished the cross and are running the other direction, so you would be on the new arm. We will be adding countermotion soon which will feel more normal 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
I agree, this went really well. You had SUPER nice connection on the blind crosses here!! That is why he did so well – when you were connected, he knew where to be. Your arms were nice and low, and he could see your eyes clearly.Now, you also need to show him that new connection early enough that he can adjust. At :23, you were late with the blind so his response was late (he responded as quickly as he could) – and you didn’t reward. You can and should reward that. Remember that his reward is not contingent on whether *you* were right or not 🙂 He got to the correct side as quickly as he could. All of the other reps were much earlier, so he was able to change sides much earlier too. That looked great!
Nice work here!
TracyHi!
>I’m giving her a few days for the step on the hat game. Yesterday we did goat tricks on the plank! She was stellar.>
Perfect! And the goat games will help with the prop games too. Plus you can switch to a bigger prop that she can step up onto! It might be more salient.
She did well with the novel-neutral object! Your position made it more salient: you were standing near it then tugging almost on it LOL! So you can have it further away – being so close can accidentally enhance it, as if we want her to interact with it.
You can also do this as more of a recall, especially if she heats the weird lawnmower noise outside: after you toss the start cookie, you can move away a bit and let her chase you while you call her name. Then you can reward with the tugging further from the novel-neutral object and she gets to practice running past it and ignoring it.
>She is a baby baby. Took her on a walk around the neighborhood. She plopped down in the grass several times.>
She really is a youngster! So tiny! These short bursts of training are best to avoid depletion. She will be able to extend the session duration as she grows up, but these 1-minute-ish sessions are great for now 🙂
Nice work!
TracyHi!
>It’s a shame that he doesn’t like food at all 😂😂🙃! This is just his kibble lol!>
Poor starving baby dog LOL!!!! This was after half of his breakfast? HA! And he loves to tug too. Yay!
He did really well with the forward focus. You also added the hand eye (and we can add the verbal for it soon if you want a verbal). And click/treat to you for working both sides!
For the next session, start a little easier from where you ended here, then see if you can get the bowl to come all the way around the cone so he has to look past it then travel past it to get to the cone.
>My only issue was trying to not choke him or make restraining bad before I released him. That was hard 😂. >
He was STARVING hahaha You can line him up using a cookie then take hold of him – that might feel smoother? You can also get lower by sitting on something (that will feel easier because you can be closer to manage all the things: collar, cookies, bowl, etc). And a harness is easier for restraining these powerful youngsters, if you have a harness.
Great job here!
TracyHi!
>I started with food, but failed to notice a toy, that he did not fail to notice, so we switched.>
Yes, he totally noticed the toy 🙂 His expression was so cute!
> As we worked, I noticed that my holding his collar when I get the toy may be acting counter-productively to the collar grab, adding a slight aversive into the sequence,>
It might have been a bit of unintentional trying to preserve your flesh to prevent him from jumping up? And he did prefer to stay just out of reach after that.
> so I shifted to tossing a treat to get the toy–I think you may have been pointing this out earlier, but I really felt it here. I liked the last rep.>
Yes! That last rep was my favorite too! I think it was favorite as well!
Since he loves treats, you can use the treats to help get the line up, looping them into the game:
Tug tug tug, out cue, follow a treat to line up at your side (or between your feet), feed cookie, gently take collar… throw toy then tug either with the toy he has brought back, or the other one you had with you. And repeat 🙂 That can help him love the collar holding while also building the value for getting nice and close to you after tugging, but without jumping up for the toy.And I personally LOVE to use food with very drivey, toy-loving BCs like him! It really builds in the precision while maintaining the excitement of the game.
Great job here!
TracyHi!
Super nice facility!!!
>I did it a little different; I went to my facility that he is very familiar with, and that has its “furniture” changed around with things added and subtracted every few days to work recall.>
That is also a great way to do it! He is obviously very comfortable there. The novelty of the furniture being moved is useful for processing impulse control, and also has useful implications for resilience. And you can place random objects in this location or any location, really. The key is the novelty, and he did great here!!
You noted that he was not gripping the toy as well as he could have in the earlier part of the video when you were standing up – he might have been letting go of the toy because it was coming up high, lifting his chin up which was making it harder to hold (especially with baby dog teeth). He was able to grip and pull back when you were sitting and the toy was lower.
He is doing so well with the transitions from tugging back to cookie games!! That ‘aus’ at 1:41 then back to the cookie toss was especially crisp!
Great job! Keep adding novel-neutral challenges to the environment or to the games.
Tracy
Yes, for now, move slowly, lower hands, and let him lead the way – but if he is having any questions about where to put his feet, it is also good to have it even grippier for now. That can really help him understand where his little feets are 🙂
T
Good morning!
These sessions all looked lovely, you are going to be bored by hearing “great” and “super” all the time hahahah!!! Plus she easily went back and forth from the toy to food to the toy – YAY!Goat tricks went great! She was happy to tug, happy to get on the object, happy to tug again. Super!!! For the next session, you can having something bigger for her to step up on, and maybe combos of whatever random objects you have so she can climb around on things.
Plankrobatics: she was super about getting right on the plank! And also super about hopping back on after grabbing her cookie. Turning around? No problem! She was pumped up but also using her body really well, ev en after the tug breaks. Excellent!!! Do you have anything you can elevate the plank on a little – as long as it is stable, it can be higher to add challenge.
Aha! The combo of random stuff is on video 3! Sounds like you wanted more movement on the objects at first, but she did great goat-ing around on them. The small disc was harder – I don’t think it was too hard, but it is possible that she couldn’t figure out how to stay on it AND tug without smacking her toes on the raised edges. The end of the session was great with it because the toy was not moving as much. You can pair it with another thing (like the cato plank that was under the cot) so she can get all 4 feet on the two of them combined. A larger wobble board would be great too if you have one.
>also did SSC Focus forward,camera wasn’t on🤤>
How did it go?
Great job here!!
Tracy
Hi!
>. He seems completely back to normal so we will be able to do more exciting play next time.>
Great! I am glad he is feeling better!!
>At the end I think there’s a good chance he was judging me, lol. He had started this session by barking at me to tell me I was being way too slow while I was turning on the camera and had the prop folded under my arm.>
Ha! I have found that Shelties are excellent at issuing judgement LOL!!!! But he kept working, so you clearly were up to his high standards of excellence 🙂
T
Good morning! He did so well here!!
At the very beginning, he was assessing the environment a bit (windy day!) but then he really locked into the game when you make the barrel big. And he did GREAT tugging for a moment with the barrel and bowls right there. It looks like at 1:15 he barked and stopped playing, possibly wanting to go back to the barrel/bowls – but it also might have been because the toy was a little dead/dangly 🙂 So keeping the toy more active for him to chase can keep the tugging going until you are ready to switch back to the cookie portion.
Then he barked when you reached into your pocket to get a treat towards the end – excitement? Arousal because of the pocket distraction? Judging you because the cookie might be late? Shelties sure can judge hahahaha. No worries, it is good to note and see if there is a reason for it or if he was just excited 🙂
Great job! Using this barrel, you can start to add a bit more distance. I think this barrel is going to be ideal for the game we add next Tuesday!
Tracy
Hi!
Great job with this session! The play breaks really keep things interesting so he doesn’t lose interest by doing the same thing over and over.
He did well going around the bucket! Nice job breaking it up with toy play and moving the bucket away during the play, which made it smoother to get right back into the session with adding distance.
It was interesting that it took him a moment to realize the blue/yellow box was something he should go around – it was pretty different looking than the other stuff he has gone around! That is why we change up objects at this stage, to help the pups learn to go around whatever we put in front of them LOL! So keep changing up what you present in this game, because it is a way of generalizing the concept and it will make things easier when he eventually sees all the different types of jumps.
>I initially was going to use one of the large cones I have but decided maybe you would rather we used something totally different than stuff we actually train with eventually.>
You can throw a cone in there sometimes! And a laundry basket or taller barrel too. We are working up towards getting the pups on a jump wing, but we have another layer or two to add before we go to the wing.
Nice work!
Tracy
Good morning!
He did really well immediately interacting with the plank! Super! And
You were really good about letting him offer getting all 4 feet on the plank instead of just two.To get him to turn around smoothly, you can move less – very slowly, and with small steps for now, so he is not trying to go fast. Also,
what is the surface of the plank? He was slipping a bit, so you might need to make it grippier if it has a slick surface. Attaching a yoga mat to it can do the trick!That will also help you be able to do things like add sits and downs on the plank, turning in a full circle in one spot, and hopping on and off 🙂
Nice work here!
Tracy
