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Hi! She was a really good girl in a distracting new environment! Wow!!!! That focus is more important than anything else. Good girlie, Maple!!!!
On the serps – this is going really well! Two little suggestions on mechanics:
– put yourself closer to the jump, so close you can touch it with a bent arm. That way she can turn before she gets to the jump bump, which is what she will do on grown-up serps (turn before takeoff).
– when you strike a pose, turn your feet to the hand with the toy in it (your target hand was perfect!)She responded beautifully, so I assume she will be great too when you add these little suggestions.
On the parallel path – yeah, I see what you mean that she thought the ‘dead’ toy was dumb haha!! But that is fine 🙂 When you play this, don’t have anything out there as a target. Instead, as soon as you see her looking at the jump and moving to the jump, throw something (so she will continue through the uprights). It can be a thrown toy or a cookie – but that way she gets rewarded for going to the jump rather than lured. Remember to throw early, before she gets there, to reinforce the decision to move to it. She looked great here, so I am thinking it will be no problem at all for her.
Great job!!!
TracyHi! You definitely added challenge here with distance and moving away – Nice job turning around and starting to move away on this session! You gave the pizza cue – oh now I see what you mean: I thought it meant your were going to walk back and deliver the treat. She thinks it might be a release cue of some sort, she got up on it when you used it. So you can totally go back and hand the treat to her after you say it, then you will have a cue that means “stay there, delivery coming to you from me”.
She is twitching a bit in her stay, so you move away smoothly. When you stopped and then took a step then stopped and took a step… she got twitchy 🙂 So you can take a couple of steps and then release, without a stop between steps. That can help her understand that the momma is going to move away and the release is only on the verbal.Great job!
TracyHi!
>> “Pizza…….” it means the delivery is coming, you need to stay. I really didn’t want to mix the two things here. I wanted to stick with how you are doing it. What do you think? Should I mix in the “Pizza…..”? I also use the “good girl”. I don’t want to confuse her either.>>
OMG Pizza is the most brilliant thing I have heard in a long time. SO FUNNY! Yes, you can go back and deliver the pizza as long as she doesn’t move her feet. What does good girl mean – is it a general praise thing or is it something more specific?
I love Pizza, I might have to use it with my dogs.
And now I am hungry. Thanks. LOL!!!!!
On to the video:
Yes, stays totally take time! It is important to convince the pups that stays are FUN so it is worth it to do all of this foundation. She is doing well! I am liking where this is going! A few thoughts and ideas for you:
Good girl and good job here seemed to mean ‘nice job, keep doing it’. So as you use it, don’t be too exciting with your praise as you move away, that draws her out of the sit a little bit: be on Team Chill 🙂 Be quiet in your praise to help her stay settled 🙂
When she sits, you can move away sooner, so she doesn’t think you want something else. If you face her for too long, I think she was trying to figure out if you wanted her to offer something else. And as you move away, you can turn more as you lead out so you don’t have to back away, and you can also step over the jump for now to get you to the other side quicker. She is ready to see you on the other side.
I also think really short stay sessions then a bit of action then back to stays will help!
She finds the jump interesting but not too enticing, so she is doing well sitting in front of it. Great job! And yes, feel free to add in some Pizza delivery (extra cheese LOL!)Tracy
So cute! She was a happy little monkey on these!! I would do ankle jumps with her 🙂 And that can set up a nice little jump grid, over one ankle then bounce on the flat then over the next ankle. She was perfectly fine here with the knees but she is soooooo tiny that I vote for ankles for now (I am a little hyper-obsessed with being careful with baby dogs LOL!) It also will get her happy to be near your feet – many littles are uncomfortable being near our feet 🙂
Let me know what you think! Great job with her!
TracyHi!
>>Totally agree about Operation Swallow. This is driving *me* crazy. If she’s not really hungry, she’ll dash after a thrown treat and then bring it back to eat it slowly.>>>
Bwahahaha that cracks me up! I feel the pain. LOL!!
>> I’m not sure what part of her pedigree it is from. I had her aunt for a while, and it wasn’t an issue, so I assumed that it was from the pap side. >>
It might be an age thing – I have seen sooooooo many BCs that have no interest in food as a baby puppy. Treats and even meals are not interesting. Paps, on the other hand, are piggies.
>> I also agree with your assessment of the paw targeting issue. I think she doesn’t have a good basic understanding of the concept, so it falls apart. I tried doing it with just tug rewards to see if she was “higher” she’d be better about, but that only improved things slightly. I suspect she thinks the game is as much about hitting *me* as it is about the target in her mind. So away from me she’s not really sure what she’s doing. I will back it up a few steps and work really basic paw-to-target with reward on the target itself.>>
I was thinking about this and yes, you can totally do all of the value building with the paw target and changing the reward placement. You can also use balls because she seems wild for balls too 🙂 She is pretty amazeballs with her goat games, so you can totally use that: what is her favorite thing to goat around on? Something relatively easy to get on – and that can be moved near weird things and you can split the behavior into approximations. And then you can bring it to new places and weird places!
Keep me posted!
TracyOMG she is so tiny and cute!!! This was definitely a little more challenging for her, but not mind-blowing. Yay!!! She did a great job 🙂 It looks like it was flat on the ground here – do you have something you can elevate it a little bit on? Thick textbooks come to mind, because they will be stable and hopefully also just a couple of inches off the ground – that can add challenge to balance skills without risking a dismount from too high up.
Tracy
Hi! I think drive up the board was fine for the first 3 reps- but then on rep 3 you were moving the board under him, I think? He had some concerns about that – and then he took the toy and said ‘peace out’. He was willing on the next couple of reps but then when you got into the 6th rep or so, he was depleted and said no, thanks after that. So I don’t find it discouraging, just a reminder to proceed slowly and not lump 🙂 The game where the board moves under them is something I do when they have their front feet on the ground, so they can control the motion with weight shift, plus it comes a bit further down the road. So go back to that one or 2 rep big reinforcement bonanza. He will let you know if he wants to do more – if you see him ‘peace out’, then don’t ask for another rep. You can also revisit the moving wobble board and make sure his value is full on that one, so that he is a happy dude on movement without having to do to many reps on the actual teeter. Keep me posted on how he does with his raw food tonight!!!
T
Hi! That is convenient and it went really well!
>>We found the rear cross on jump#5 quite difficult b/c of the change in leads (I think) – we were only successful when I said her name to bring her in closer to me (maybe this was a place for a lap turn -haha!). Then I found I had to be careful not to get stuck behind jump#6 so that I could send her to the tunnel.>>
That is exactly what the challenge was: difficult rear cross and then really difficult line back to the tunnel LOL!! The challenges you worked through were exactly what the sequence was supposed to be 🙂
Some thoughts for you:
1st rep – she found 3 on the takeoff side nicely! Yay! On the rear cross, you can set up for decel sooner so you can move forward sooner. That decel can start when she lands from 3, so you are already moving again when she catches up to you at 4.2nd rep – she didn’t quite see the rotation on the tunnel entry so was a little wide on the exit, which put you ahead (too far ahead), which causes her to drive on the backside line because. The timing of the set up for the rear is the hardest part!
3rd rep – nice turn out of the tunnel and line on takeoff of 3! And great job setting up the rear cross here! And yes, one of the challenges on this one is that it is hard to get out of he RC and back down the line (that is why I used a ‘get out’ with Contraband to get the tunnel). I figured it would simulate the wild ride that we would experience on course with the youngsters so you can use the get out to push her back to the line if you get in too deep on the rear cross. Slightly evil course design 🙂
4th rep – nice job on the rotation on the tunnel entry, so she read the line to 3 with you on the landing side really nicely!! Yay! That handling move puts you really far up the line so you would need to decel and wait longer – and that is what you did on the next rep, setting up a really nice rear cross and line back to the tunnel! Yeah! Really nice!
Balancing with the push on the 6th rep looked good – but rep 7 did not have the same decel as rep 5 so she went to the backside. On these angled lines into the RC, the decel when she lands from 3 has turned into a critical piece. And you nailed it on that last rep, so she got it again really nicely!
So, saying her name plus that little bit of decel to straighten the line was great! And this is a not a lap turn moment because you don’t have time to rotate into it and out of it 🙂
>> I am wondering if this is our last week, and also if there is going to be a sequel after Max Pup 3 ends>>
Nope, there is more 🙂 It is 6 working weeks spread out over 9 weeks, so we go until February 12 (which includes 2 more working packages of games and a break week, but sadly no more live sessions for this class).
My plan for the upcoming months is a weaves & teeter class starting in mid February, then in March & April we will do some live seminars as well as start up the next level of MaxPup! Stay tuned for more!
Tracy
Hi!
As with the earlier video, she is reading those lap turns really well. She drives right in and turns away beautifully. That is a really strong skill! And she had no trouble transitioning from the wraps or racetracks into the lap turns. Yay!! My only suggestion is to call her so she exits the tunnel looking for you on those turns, rather than looking for the wing then turning when she sees you rotated.
Tandem turns are harder! She looks to be consistently coming to the correct side, but not turning tight on those reps as you mentioned. You can play with adding a little bit of deceleration so she reads more of a tight turn, a wrap cue, and also earlier turn aways with your hands. I think the decel might be the winning option (along with quiet wrap verbals), but she will let us know 🙂 If you are earlier without decelerating, she might read the motion as a cue to stay wider. You can try using both hands too, that might be a strong cue. She was tighter at 1:44, but she was also a little slower in that section to begin with. So try the decel and 2 hands with a quiet wrap verbal, and see what she does!
Great job, let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Nice work on the lead outs!
The blinds look good, definitely a better running line and that helped her line up her turn nicely. You can begin to turn sooner now: when she has fully landed from 1, start the blind and allow motion to support jump 2 (and you can use a jump verbal if you like as well). You can see that she is already turning on the correct part of the bar on the BC reps on both sides.On the FC – she read this line nicely too! On one rep, she stood up as you arrived in position so be sure to maintain her stay. At this stage, you can stand totally still on the release and see what she does – you were giving a step forward towards 2 after the release and that was putting her more on the center of the bar of 2, so the turns were not as tight as the other handling moves. I think she doesn’t need that step to support commit, I bet she easily finds the line – but she will tell us LOL!
The push lead outs were lovely too, they set a nice line (especially to the backside of 3) and she drove into them nicely!! It is a good option to have in the toolbox for the tighter turns. She read it really well, collected but didn’t slow down excessively. And great job maintaining your connection as you moved away and sent to 3!
Great job!!
TracyHi!
She did really well here! It is a difficult skill to do on a verbal without motion! I think she is also processing different energy levels of the verbal: ‘mat’ is quiet and low key and ‘tunnel’ is loud and repeated on the reps where she gets it right. And that is fine, because the cues for the a-frame or dog walk will be pretty different sounding than the tunnel cue. We will be adding to this game in the next games package 🙂
>>You’ll notice that Keiko seemed to prefer her mat, or at least a few times she’d go to it first, then go to the tunnel.>>
It might be because the tunnel cues are generally given with motion and not standing still, and mat cues are almost always given with motion.
Plus, it is easier to earn reward on the mat (closer!) and more work is required on the tunnel (the rewards are further away)Great job!
TracyHi! Looks like she is having no problem finding the angles of entry! So you can push the planks in closer to the board so they don’t extend out as far from it, so there is less of a visual aid. When the MM is out there on the table and you are marking the angle of entry, she is keeping her head up and losing the weight shift when there is more drop to the board. So, you can keep the angles and board to help her but as the teeter adds more movement, go back to the targeting and rewarding for that (rather than the MM) – so she goes across the board, lowers her head, and shifts her weight 🙂 The angles look great so you can remind her to shift her weight as the board drops.
Great job!
TracyHi!
She is doing well with these: The lap turns looked good from the stay and from the tunnel – just call her sooner when she is in the tunnel and be slower on the movement of the arm & leg turn away portion of it (to tighten the turn). For example, at :34 you were a little early and too quick with your leg back so she was wide. Keeping your feet together for longer will get a tighter turn on those, especially when she is flying 🙂
Tandem turns from the stay: she was a little careful on these, so you can move before the release so she moves a bit more too! She is ready them well but didn’t power into them as much as she did with the lap turns. And with these, you can also call her sooner from the tunnel to get her focused on the driving to you, which allows you to turn her away sooner.
Nice work! I see there are more of these below, so we can see how she does 🙂
TracyGood morning!
On the serpentines:
Really strong reps here! He seemed to get all of the reps on the sequence 2 with the correct side of the jumps and figuring out the jumping form. Yay! Getting the jumps gradually closed was helpful to him. It looks like sequence 3 was harder, good job breaking it down. Finding jump 1 on the slice angle is difficult, so breaking it down was REALLY helpful for him! Yay! The jumping effort on the flat serpentine jumps is challenging – you can see it when he hit the bar at 1:31, that was a jumping question. So for now, leave that angle a little more open, just an inch or two, so he can get the jumping form.
At 1:36 he offered a threadle – I didn’t think your shoulders were threadley plus there was no threadle verbal, so be sure that the threadle is not a positional cue. Meaning: he should not threadle just because you are in the gap between the jumps LOL! Your shoulders looked more like a 180 cue, so that is a balance you can add to this set up – not being that far ahead and keeping him on the 180 line, so he doesn’t try to read your position as the threadle cue. And if you are practicing threadles, definitely do lots of balancing wit 180s. And if you are not practicing threadles… cool beans, no need to add them at this moment LOL!!! I am currently *not* practicing threadles with my youngsters.
The next reps were better coming down the line – you were a little further ahead. It is also possible that the offering of the threadle was a jumping question – it is just easier to wrap the exit of the first jump and come to the takeoff side of the next jump from the threadle angle. Stay tuned for the jumping skill to help with that, fingers crossed for NO MORE SNOW so I can video it with the baby dogs! I have it with the adults so will post that if I can’t get decent weather in the next day or two 🙂He did a nice job with his mountain climbers! I see what you mean about rep 1 being a bit of a surprise and rep 2 being GREAT. So maybe on the next session – rep 1 can be half an inch easier than where you ended here? Rep 1 – still has tip but not as much. Then rep 2 can add more. And you keep ping ponging the tip back and forth so the first rep is a little easier then where you left off, then you add more in rep 2 until you see him become a raving lunatic for the teeter on rep 1 🙂 I know he is getting a really high value food reward – you can also add in more arousal before rep 1, like ball play before it so he is really stimulated (I think he likes chasing balls, right?) and then he might throw caution to the wind on rep 1: jackpot! Let me know if that makes sense.
Great job on these!
TracyHi! I think you were pretty close to the jumps here! I don’t think you need to be closer. And he did really nicely with the gradual angling of the jumps. Try not to move away from the line at all on the serp jump – not because that is a bad thing, but because when we move away we also then move back in, and I think that is one of the reasons these pups pop back out onto the backside line. When it was just the line of jumps, you were great! When he was exiting the tunnel on the harder angles, that is where we all want to move away a little – so rather than move away, slow down a bit so you can be really tight to the line and he can come in and back out.
I have more games for this coming this week, as several of the pups have the same question about the jump *after* the serp jump. So stay tuned for a jumping exercise to help them sort out how to jump that angle (in case that is the question) and also stay tuned for a handling game to help them understand it is the front unless cued to the back (in case *that* is the question LOL!!!)
Nice work on all of these!
Tracy
