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Good morning!
This was a lovely session! He is very food-driven but was able to move away from the food and have complete engagement with you. And when you delayed a bit and asked for the sit… he got more engaged and excited to do behaviors. SUPER!
You were already asking for sits, hand touches, spins. And you were consistently clear with the ‘party’ marker. So you can start to use a couple of behaviors in a row (you did a down to stand at the end). And you can be asking for behavior while you walk away from the cookies too.
At this stage, I also like to add the leash: the pup is on leash, I put the pile of treats down, walk away, take off the leash… and he is stays with me and is engaged: party! The begins to simulate what he will need to do at the beginning of a run in agility and the higher levels of obedience, so it is good. To start showing it to him now!
Great job :)
Tracy
Good morning!
>For the resilience game would it be ok to use my training space or should I work somewhere else? >
You can mix it up all – as many different places as possible! It can be something as simple as right outside a door, or a hallway – changing the environment from being what he is used to into something different can be subtle so he still gets the experience of the differences.
He definitely was a bit startled by the first cookies marker: everything was so quiet, he was concentrating so hard… but then he was fine and did great in the session. You can start adding in asking for a trick or behavior or two before using your cookies maker to run back and get the treats 🙂
The threadle wrap foundation went really well! He seemed to have no questions about turning away from you in either direction. Yay! Adding the movement also went well – my only suggestion for hen you are moving is to let him get nice and close to your leg & hand, then cue the turn away. When he was further away and you were moving, he didn’t quite read the cue to turn away. But he was perfect when he was close to you!
We build on this game soon. Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
These are great! I think you have covered all scenarios except maybe remote reinforcement?
A question about Tails versus Catch & Heads – for Tails, it sounds like he should move to get the reward which could be thrown (or placed for Tails). For Catch & Heads – is he also allowed to move? That reward might end up behind him. So it might be a little redundant – which is not a problem because he will of course read context as part of it. And I love that you have Heads & Tails LOL!T
Hi!
Hi!
Nice start here too with the pattern games. And I love the tricks! That got him pumped up to a great level of engagement.And that transferred really well to the barrel: the barrel reps were great! You had distance, verbals, countermotion, blind crosses, etc and he nailed it!
>This is the first time I’ve ever actually felt some real flow with some handling. I could not get over how good it felt (it felt a lot more balletic than it looks on video haha).>
I thought it looked great! I bet it felt great too 🙂 The games you played before the ‘work’ all really helped. When he is engaged like that, there is a lot of lovely flow and a tremendous amount of success. Yay!!!!
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
The pattern game really helped re-engage him when something in the environment got him woofing here. I also wonder if tugging would be helpful – like tricks, tugging will bring him to a higher arusal state which can help him ignore distractions and engage more. He was tugging as part of the reward for the tunnel and he was super engaged. And of course. The tunnel reps went great 🙂>His coming back with the toy was a little laggy. (I cut out his out-of-shot shenanigans)>
It is possible he was checking out the environment a bit when he was romping with the toy – a combination of reward and decompression and assessment of the environment. No worries! The retrieve will get better and better as he gets more experienced working in new places.
Hi! All 3 of these sessions went really well 🙂
The pattern game went really well – finding the treat in the grass was the hardest part. It helped get him very engaged!You should put that bouncing up on cue as a trick – so fun! And you can add in any tricks after the pattern game and before the ‘work’. The tricks will bring him to a higher aroual state which is actually helpful!
He did really well finding the jump! Good boy! It was going great til the person asked a question… oops! I guess they didn’t realize you were training a pup! But overall a really strong session in a hard location! Super!!!
Nice work!
TracyGood morning!
She slept on the soft turns in the wingin’ it game and her brain locked it in: no questions or looking at you going to her right or to her left, picking up right where she left off on the last rep from the previous session. Nice tight turns. Gorgeous connection from you, with clear motion and verbals. SUPER!! If you revisit this, keep adding distance. New games are coming today though, so it is perfectly fine if you move on to them.
The plank on the ground might be so simple that it doesn’t even register for her. She was happy to move back and forth with speed and good balance, even with yummy cheese and ball breaks. So you can elevate the plank now, to challenge her balance and teach her how to jump off it. Do you have anything that can lift the plank at least 6 inches off the ground, or even a foot off the ground? She looks ready for that!
The teeter bag game was probably not boring – it is probably a bit harder! This is where having her chase the reward really helps: it keeps her arousal high and gives her a moment to get away from the weird moving board. Then she can decide if the wants to come back or not. Happily, she kept coming back to figure out this puzzle.
You got lots of great hits with her front feet by the end. Let her sleep on it then for the next session – take the tip out entirely and reward her for offering back feet on the teeter when it is not moving. When she realizes what you want, we can add by the tip.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
How did tryouts go? I saw you got good points which is fantastic after such a long layoff for injury!!! And I know Aelfraed will get his turn in the big ring soon enough 🙂
Holy wow, look at how well he was putting the pieces together! You’ve done lovely foundation work with him that it was easy for him to string it all together. The threadle wraps in particular looked impressive – you had great connection and decel into them, so he got them even without much experience with them. YAY!! So fun!
His teeter work is going really well! The real question is: will there be ice cream involved? LOL!
He seemed super happy with and it was smart to have the physical support of another person 🙂 because the pups do feel a bit safer that way! Can she hold in at one end (maybe the chair side) and he can recall across the board to you at the table?>He has also learned to go up the full height when it is braced up. >
Yay! I call this ‘mountain climbers’ and we get this started in class here very soon 🙂 He already has a nice head start so we can make quick progress.
Are you going to train a 4on position for him? I am not sure how much he weighs but he seems pretty small and so the 4on might be the best bet.
>His current favourite food is bread and butter >
Mine too, Aelfraed, mine too! I would totally jump on the board for that! And kudos to you for bringing th best rewards out!
He was totally into it LOL!! Bread is magic LOL! You can have him jump on from the side a bit in preparation for when we add the bigger pieces of the bang game. And you for backing up – you can center yourself on the board rather than be off to the side, so he can step backwards onto it without taking his eyes off the delicious treats 🙂 You might have to reduce the tip a tiny bit to help him get his back feet on easily. Once he gets backing up going, he can back up into 4on if that is the desired end position. He had 2o2o here so let me know which you will want to do eventually.
Looking at the lazy game:
>He thought the slow version was pretty strange>
Ha! He is always good at expressing his opinions LOL! He didn’t seem concerned about it, just a little judgey. You can throw the rewards further so he can be running more – the goal is that he can be sprinting around even when you aren’t needing to sprint.
>Should we still do more of the slow version though?>
Yes, throw it in here and there – they are basically anti-perfect games We want him to know that it is totally worth his while to find the jumps even if our connection and motion are not quite right 🙂
He did brilliantly when you did add speed! Super fast, found the lines really well (even when you were doing the lazy sends) and he seemed to have no questions. New handling games added today!
He also showed really nice independence commitment on the wing games!
Your connection looked great throughout th session, both with the regular connection and the exit line connection after the crosses. Super!
Since this went amazingly well… you can add more distance 🙂 Can you get him to send to the wings with the wings 6 or 7 meters from the tunnel? Or more? Eventually we would want 10 meters but we don’t need that right now 🙂 That will build up nice distance skills for the international stuff as well as for the Canadian gambles!
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
So sorry for the delay! I answered this in my head but never actually typed it out. Eek!
>between a show in West Palm, another in Elkton, and a crazy few weeks of work, training has definitely been…nearly absent. And we leave for a show in GA Tuesday. >
No worries at all! It sounds like the shows are the fun kind of busy and hopefully being busy at work is still fu 🙂
>I do plan to work on the last 2 weeks of skills next week when we are back! Ingy seems to whine at me when we’re outside for a bathroom break for training, which is super cute! She’s addicted in the best way!>
She is definitely a dog that loves to do ALL THE THINGS. She is going to be really good at a number of different sports – exciting times ahead!!
>Super looking forward to class #2 – when do sign ups open?>
Sign up are open! This Fast Track version is a small group so MaxPup 2 will be small, but I didn’t want to make you all wait another 10 weeks or so til the regular MaxPup folks catch up. Here is the link to MaxPup 2:
>I also have a friend looking to start this class (class #1) fast track edition, do you happen to have the dates of the next round?>
I don’t think we will start it until September 🙁 She can join in this as an independent study and get all the games!
Have fun in Georgia! Keep me posted!
TracyGood morning!
Throwing the toy away from the wobble board was great it was a nice release from the challenge of the moving board. Plus, it gives us an idea of how he feels about it: if he really hated it, he would not bring that toy right back Ito the session!
>but not helping him learn how great underfoot movement of things is.>
I think he is learning how great it is – there was a definite increase in his interest in moving it, lots of good reps, and happy engagement.
He was moving the fit bone really well. And he had multiple great paw smacks on the board to make it move, so I call this session a big win! And most importantly, he kept coming back. You were great about letting him choose what to do so he is developing a happy feeling about it!
>I may try to create a less wobbly board, or I may move on and attach the teeter plank to the base and see if things go all right at 1/2 Inch off ground (strongly suspect that he’ll be just fine with it).>
You can create a less wobbly board by shoving towels and old shoes under it 🙂 it will still move a little but not a lot, and then you can fade them out gradually.
And yes, you can add in playing around on the teeter plank – that is a different picture and he might think it is fun!
I agree, he did great with the elevated plank! He seemed to have no questions or concerns and was adding lots of speed without being asked for more speed. Super! And he was able to turn around pretty quickly without losing any balance. So the challenge now is to keep raising it – what else do you have that can lift if another 6 inches or so?
Great job 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
>But we also spent last week shuttling around getting our first grown up clearances. Great thing is hips and elbows look wonderful! I love having prelims done at 12mo as it’s before you start doing anything serious for sports.>
Huge happy dance for this!!! Yay! I mean, we already knew she was perfect on the outside so it is nice to have images that show she is perfect on the inside too 😊 And click/treat to you for getting some clearances before starting the ‘heavy lifting’ of agility training – it is something we should all be doing!
>This has been in my repertoire, so we have done “part one” in the past and pretty much the exact way you do it.>
Great minds thinking alike 😂
She did great here, of course. So in the spirit of the lazy game where you are walking and not really handling at the beginning… you can soften up your connection a bit and not be as good of a handler LOL! You will still need half an eyeball on her, but you don’t need real connection – can she still find the jumps? That level of the lazy game is basically an anti-perfect game: we humans will sometimes not be perfect and we love it when the pups go and take the jumps anyway 🙂
The reps with more speed also looked lovely! You can add a bit of anti-perfect to this too: a little less connection on the send, maybe a little arm fling too… you know, all the things we humans should NOT do but sometimes do anyway. Then you can pay Bokeh for taking the jumps anyway 🙂 It is not proofing, we don’t want failure… we are just letting her know that it is worth her while to try to find the jumps even when the humans are not really clear in the handling.
And you can move on to the next steps, she did great here!!
Nice work!
Tracy
Hi!
This was a strong session – he is finding the jumps really well! Yay!!!
When he was on your right at the beginning – that 3rd jump is really little so it did take him a moment to ‘see’ it. Then he was locked in and did great! Then the rest of the reps went great.
He found the middle jump brilliantly in this session!
When he was on your left side, he had a little trouble finding the 3rd jump – be sure to look at him (connection) for that last send. When he missed and was looking at you, you were disconnected by looking forward to the jump (2:55 is a good example of that). When he got it like at 3:52, your connection was much more visible and he had no questions.
When he is more experienced, connection won’t need to be as strong but for baby dogs, it is super important.
As we add more (new games coming today!), I also want to add more arousal into his sequencing. So if you get a chance to do one more round of the lazy game bring in some toy play. Do a little bit of tugging right at the beginning then simply hold the toy… but still use food as the reward. You can click then throw like you did here, because I think that is helpful to get him tighter on the line.
This suggestion might require 3 or 4 hands 🙂 so you can also have the toy stuffed in a pocket and maybe slightly visible – he will know it is there and that should be just enough to increase arousal.
Good job adding in stay rewards – the sequencing is exciting and he is speedy so we definitely do not want to lose the stay 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
I think he did great here with the toy! Lots of very deliberate foot smacks to the board which you marked beautifully with your ‘take it’ and also some gentler touches which got cookies and kept him motivated to try it.
(OK, trying to lift it with his nose was ADORABLE)
2 ideas for you:
– you can stuff a yoga mat, towels, or even a tunnel bag or 2 under it to dampen some of the movement/noise, so he feels happier to put more than one foot on it as you build up to getting more and more feet on it.
– after the ‘take it’ marker, you can give him a cue to take the toy for a runabout 🙂 I say “go for a run” and the dogs take about 5 to 10 seconds of ‘woohoo’ with the toy. The exact amount of time depends on the moment: sometimes they only need a couple of seconds because the mental challenge is not that big. And in harder sessions, I count to 10 before calling them back because it helps them clear their heads.
A quick victory lap with the toy is a fun reward and a really good release from the challenge of the wobble board. It lets him blow off a bit of the steam from it and then he can come back to it in a great arousal state. It will reduce the number of reps you get because it takes up more time, but the reps will be even better so we don’t need more of them. And you can trade for another toy or a treat to help him come back after a cued victory lap 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>She was also a little unfocused. We had been at a trial earlier in the day so she had spent some time in the crate and then socializing at the trial so maybe that affected us. >
Was she unfocused at the start of the session? She was nicely focused in the video below and worked well! But yes, it is entirely possible that she was brain tired after a day at the trial even though she was mainly hanging out.
On the video here:
>see if you think it’s me not getting in the right position to connect etc.>
It is a challenging game because the pups have to send without a lot of motion from us! On the successful reps like at :22 and 1:17 – you made a very clear connection at the tunnel exit and maintained that connection through the send. What I mean by that is your gaze was following her eyes as she passed you and went to the wing, rather than you looking at the wing directly.
On the reps where she didn’t go to the wing (:48, :58, and 1:50), you had some connection when she exited the tunnel but the main difference was that you immediately looked at the wing as you sent her… and that is when she turned back to look at you. So it was a subtle disconnection that was causing the questions. I think using a lower arm and keeping your eyes on her eyes the whole time will really help, especially in these early stages – young dogs need intense connection for sure!
And if something goes wrong – rather than stop, you can pretend it was correct, do the FC and cue the tunnel, then reward. It definitely keeps the dogs in the game even when they know something was not quite right 🙂
The reason for that is if it is a handler blooper that caused the question (and very often it is us handlers blooping it up 😂) then stopping can be deflating/punishing – and that might be where some of the lack of focus came from. So, keep going, reward, then make an adjustment. My first adjustment with my young dogs is definitely to add bigger connection – disconnection is the most common error and the youngsters really need to see it.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
She was cracking me up at the beginning!! It was so fun watching her solve the puzzle of what makes the MM work. One foot? Pressing with one foot? Then she pressed with 2 feet, got a reward… and I swear after that she pressed with 2 feet, didn’t get a reward, and turned to look at the MM like “WTF?? Where is my cookie?” Ha!
Then she got all 4 feet on – and as you added a bit of delay on that she looked at you a few times like “Hey, I’m doing the thing, pay up!” Hilarious but also very smart!
She went from one tiny front foot touching it to all 4 feet on the board and moving it in under 2 minutes. Wow! She really does love these puzzles, it is the absolute best way to train her.
Since this went so well, you can gradually remove the towels to add more movement a little at a time.
>Had a MM malfunction halfway through at which point she stood in the center while I unjammed it.>
That was another important lesson she learned here: the MM will malfunction a lot and she will have to be patient to let you fix it 😂
>I am planning on a running DW and AF, 4 on for the teeter (quick release). >
Fun! She will catch on really quickly and love it. I figure you can easily train it the same way you trained Jack’s.
>hat is how I trained my standards (poodles not ethical). >
Once again, lack of caffeine made me read the as “Poodles are not ethical” and I pondered that for a few minutes. Then I realized what you actually typed LOL!!!
>Do you think it’s OK to do some of the jumping games with Jazz?>
Really good question! If she might have a ouchie poses/hip flexor, we want to be careful to not do side to side stuff, so no zig zags. For the jump grid stuff, I would be concerned that she would compensate and push off with the other side, creating an imbalance.
So what might be a better use of time until it is all sorted out is to do catalettis which can produce a lovely even trot and great balance which is totally useful for jumping. The next vet appt is 4/22, I believe, so that will give you a clear answer. Fortunately, she has never had a struggle with form or jumping stuff, so I don’t feel any concern about not doing it – she will catch up in a heart beat when you show it to her.
>I plan on taking Jazz with me if/when I have to go to San Diego. The other two (Duffy and Jack) will stay home with my partner. Hope to be able to continue training in some way there.>
I have agility contacts in SD, including MaxPup grads 🙂 so I can reach out and find training folks as well maybe some folks who can do any body work that the vets might recommend for her. I will ask again when you have more info next week. Happy to help in any way!
Nice work here!
Tracy
