[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>It doesn’t appear that Cowboy was bothered by the noise but I do wonder if I should have done that warm-up rep because it looks like he was a little surprised when the degree of tip increased within the same session.>>

I do like the warm up sessions as we add more height; the dogs take a moment to remember what we are doing before we add the crazy stuff 🙂

>>Today, I worked on the Bang Game and also added more tip. I started with the tab leash and then did a few without it only because when I used the tab he would repeatedly do a “4 on” and I found myself asking a second time to get the 2O/2O.>>

I think his question had more to do with the saliency of the target – the black target on the black mats seemed to blend in, so he was looking at you on those reps and trying to measure the stopping point based on your stopping point and position, rather than using the target to assist in the position no matter where you were. He got into the 2o2o when you were ahead or moving but the 4on when you were stationary or not past the board. When you switched to the cookie toss starts, you were out ahead of the board and moving before he got on, which helped to pull him forward into the 2o2o position. He still wasn’t using the target though… so rather than focusing on your motion/position, let’s focus on getting him to use the target so you can get the 2o2o even when you are behind him 🙂

Looking at the April 23 session with the red target – it looks like he was looking at it and using it rather than watching you, so I think a more salient target like the red one or a contrasting color will really help. And… do all of the reps on the next couple of sessions with you sending him into position with you hanging back a bit, no motion from you 🙂 This will really help the independence on course because he is a speedy dude and is likely to get to the end of the teeter before you do 🙂 And also we can get him to keep his head low and straight with with the target.

He does well with you ahead and moving, so we can set that aside for a bit to really build the understanding of him driving into position without you being there too 🙂

Nice work here! Let me know if that makes sense!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi there!

>>That’s understandable about doing the weaves and seesaw on alternate days. It’s quite a lot of work for the joints.>>

Yes, it is hard on them so I try to do 2 days “on” for training then 2 days “off”. My dogs have a better scheduled calendar than I do hahaha!

Really nice session here!
Your reward placement looked really good! I like that delivery for him, to keep him wanting to be right at the very end of the board. You can also release him forward off the board mixed in with the delivery – maybe think of it like this:
if he gets his feet right at the very end, release immediately to the reward, big party!
if he stops a tiny bit short, you can go back and place it exactly where you did to reward the good choice and keep encouraging being at the very end of the board.

It looks like he is no longer using the target, or using it very minimally – it doesn’t appear that he is looking at it. So…. yes! Let’s just get it out of there 🙂 Do a quick warm up with it there, then take it off as he is off hunting for a treat in the grass. Try to do it in the flow of the session: 2 reps with the target in, if they are good – throw a treat somewhere, remove the target, and then go into the next session in flow 🙂
If it works and he is fine, perfect! If he goes “where is my target?!?!!?” then we will have to make it smaller 🙂

Then we repeat the process on the teeter using the bang game 🙂

Great job here!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi there! All sorts of good work here 🙂

On the downhills video:

Downhills – I agree, he seemed very happy! And he was getting good speed going and this is a game where it is hard to get a lot of speed. Nice!!!! And also it looks like you were able to add a significant amount of tip, and he had no questions. My only suggestion is to slow him down before leaping onto the board and help him jump up (like you did at 2:05) so he doesn’t splat himself trying to get on (don’t let him talk to River, she also has anti-self-splat homework LOL!)

So, for planning: in the next session, with the tip you ended with here: keep moving past the target position (not with a lot of motion yet). And if he is happy with that, add more motion: run! Wheee! And then a little more tip. That might all happen in 2 or 3 short sessions – and that is probably all we need on the downhills before we get into the crazy elevator game.

Elevator game: so much good! When adding motion, do the first motion rep with a little less motion as kind of a warm up, then you can add more to get in to the running.
I think you can add more height here too, building up to the board being level with your hip (my guess is that you can get that in the next session) and then in the session after that, higher than your hip. As you add the height, though, dial back the motion – so like with the downhills, you can do between 2 and 4 more sessions to get both the height and the motion, starting them separately then building them together.

At that point, we move to the Crazy Elevator Game 🙂

Uphills:
Ice cream WALRUS in a top hat!!!!! With a mustache! This is my favorite so far. Top Chef: Teeter Edition. Best thing ever! And the session was brilliant, he was happy of course 🙂 Keep adding tip 🙂 I think this is more for us than him at this point but that is great – the entertainment value is totally worth it 🙂 and I appreciate it LOL!

Target fading: the cat! Why do they like to make appearances in the teeter class? I feel like your cat was judging me through the camera. Ha!

For some reason, he seems far better on his targeting when he is on the actual teeter than he did here at the beginning – maybe the toy out ahead helps here? And also maybe this is just less stimulating compared to the excitement of the teeter itself 🙂 When you added more motion and tugging, he was more into the game – and higher arousal also built in more success!
He seemed to do well without the target here – I think he was taking a heartbeat to look for it, which is fine – you can let him do that but try not to slow down your motion at the end to help him. Keep moving through (slowly) until he makes a decision.

This game can go outside on the plank to work through the fading on the grass for one more session to help solidify – and then onto the teeter for the bang game 🙂

Great job here! He is moving forward beautifully on all tracks 🙂
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! Hope you are feeling well today!!

This was a really strong session:
Great job introducing this crazy game very progressively! He did well here and looked just fine adding in this bit of insanity LOL
He is getting the full idea of the elevator game now – note how he is looking for target position during the countdown in the warm up!

>>He was looking off to the side a bit as if he was wondering how we has going to get down>>

I think this was when he was looking down at target position? He didn’t look concerned about getting off the board. The first rep of the crazy elevator game was a little surprising to him but then he was perfect!

From the stay – yes, we do it without a lot of speed at first so he figures out he game and you figure out the catch. You two got it really quickly! It looked nice and smooth. And then adding in the speed from the fox barrel (hello, old friend LOL!) was also really strong! The mechanics looked good!
When you play this again, add motion with you moving away after you give the target cue – warm up it on the regular elevator game like you did here, then from the stay and then from the barrel wrap.

If that goes well (and I think it probably will) for the next session, add more of your motion (jogging, then running) as he is finishing the barrel wrap. Wheeee!

Great job here, he is advancing really quickly!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
Things are going well here, a couple of thoughts for you:

At this stage, a lot of what we will be doing is assessing what just happened and planning for the next session(s). I’ll only go full-on-obsessing on the videos if there is something weird happening – but everything is moving forward beautifully so no need to over-obsess on this one haha!

>>These channels move a lot as the base isn’t heavy. It looks like in the first rep he may have hit the third pole but I don’t think I saw it happen again. I don’t think he’s one of those dogs who will just plow through the poles but just wanted your thoughts on that.>>

I don’t think he will want to slam himself on the poles, so no worries about it for now. Also, I think the channels are in that slightly-awkward position for him here – not quite running, not quite weaving. So… let’s move them in a little more and start to get striding.

He seemed to do pretty well with the various angles of entry and with you in different positions (especially the straight entries with you far ahead). So I think it is important now to get the striding and then revisit the various handling challenges.

So move the poles in by the width of another finger, and do an easy entry, and see if he strides. Yes? Cool! We stick there for a bit. No? Move them in a tiny bit more 🙂

When you are working the striding angles, work the ‘top’ of the clock (10-11-12-1-2) and have him start with you so you can send and move up the line (no need for wings or stays, just sending from next to you is perfect for now).
The first striding session will tell us what we need to know for planning future sessions – he is doing well with understanding a lot of challenges so I think we will be able to focus on the striding for a couple of sessions – get that rolling, then back to the challenges.

Let me know if that makes sense! It is hot here too so I am doing super early or super late sessions. I love the heat but it does make training harder!

Great job here 🙂
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Wheee! This was really hard for him – but that is fine, it is a really hard game 🙂

One thing that will make a difference will be motion: when you want him to go past the weaves and into the tunnel, use a couple of steps in towards the tunnel to support the line. If you don’t move, he would have to layer the weaves and I don’t think he is comfortable layering yet (I think a lot of us don’t do much layering right now, so one more step will help).

And then when you want him to do the weaves not the tunnel – be moving but don’t use as much motion – slower, steady motion will help him ‘see’ the weaves. If the motion is too exciting for now, he will struggle like you saw 🙂

And then after a couple of sessions with this setup or a similar one… it will be MUCH easier for him and he will be able to find the correct obstacle with lots of motion or with just verbals (or motion and verbals :))

So after a day or two off of weaving, I suggest another look at this setup and see what he does – I think it will really help him sort out how to get in and stay in on course!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>>So I figure next turn I’ll follow your suggestion above and do things from different angles and places around the clock. Assuming that goes well, we can move to adding 5 & 6. If you have different thoughts, holler.>>

Sounds good! Give her a couple of days off to cement this new level of tightness and then do the session with the new angles. It is amazing how those days off allow for the latent learning! She definitely was thinking about the tightness on the last few reps here, but she was still nailing it 🙂

And yes, if the angles go well (90% success or higher in finding the entries, no worries if she has to slow a little to think about it) then the session after it can be adding poles 5-6 🙂

Have fun!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Perfect! I use poles as my regular cue and weaves as my threadle cue because I couldn’t think of anything else that I would remember hahaha

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! I am VERY excited about how this went! The little detour into getting her happy to hop on seems to have helped: At the beginning, she totally hopped on facing the wrong way, turned around while the board was in the air, and seemed perfectly fine to do it.
The rest of the session went great: as it progressed, things are noticed:

She is now weight shifting and focusing ahead to target position during the countdown. And hopping on before being asked her to hop on – that is a good sign of confidence!!!

I think you can now add some motion to it – countdown, target cue, drop the board you walk forward. Start this with a little less height so it is easier for her to stay balanced on the board if she is surprised by your motion.
If she is happy with that in a session or two, add more height to go along with the motion.
And the other thing you can do is fade out the treats on the target – she is happy to eat them, but they might actually be delaying her movement into the 2o2o because she is assessing them a bit when she lands (reading the menu? LOL!)

And if she is happy with that? Onwards to level 3, the Crazy Elevator Game! Fingers crossed for good weather so you can keep playing outside 🙂

Great job here!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>my plan was to do 2 on right and 2 on left.

I love your plan! I am going to start needing to reinforce you with a bottle of wine for sticking to your plan… always stick to plan, less is more.

>>I ended up doing a third rep with dog on left b/c I wasn’t sure if I saw hesitation. On that last rep, it was there. So decided just to do some rewarding for running to the end of the board. I figured it couldn’t hurt reinfocring the running to the end of the board behavior.>>

Actually…. by not stopping, you ended up getting more rehearsals of hesitation. Stick to the plan – and if you notice something on the last rep, resist all temptations to do one more or two more. Just note it and make a plan for the next session. After that 3rd rep, you ended up doing 7 more reps. No bottle of wine for you LOL!!! Yes, he got reinforcement but it was also building in stopping more in the middle because he was thinking about the movement of the board.
Remember that the key to the teeter for him is thinking about things less and just running like a mad man. He is at his happiest training the teeter when you make him nuts, do very few but completely insane reps, then you’re done. Wheeee!!! That can be accomplished in 3 or 4 reps, but you ended up at 12 reps which is tooooo many for this new game. I promise that the crazy elevator game will percolate like a great cup of coffee (NOT a Waffle House cup haha) if you do less-is-more: super high value rewards for just a couple of reps.

So your training instinct of a 4 rep plan was GREAT!!!! Trust your planning instinct and stick to those super short sessions with limited reps (especially because there is so much concussion on the dog’s body with these games). Don’t let the just-one-more take over LOL! Remember, there is wine in it for you!

So – on your next session, just do 1 or 2 on each side with massive reinforcement and wildness before & after, then be done regardless of how fast up the board he is. You might be able to see in the extended demo section that it took me multiple sessions to get the dogs going fast across the board 🙂
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! It is good to refresh the mountain climbers because they are getting built into the Elevator game!

He did really well here – it took him a moment to adjust to the new tip but then he was great! Very confident young man 🙂 If you think the noise of the board mght bother him, you can drape a towel over the holder – I mention it in case you feel he needs it, I did not see anythign that leads me to think he was bothered by the noise 🙂

I feel your pain with the target falling off LOL! I now just carry duct tape in the car so I can tape anything, anywhere LOL!! He was a good sport about it, he is confident enough to wait for the cookie delivery.

>> I also asked for a 2O/2O at the other end of the board. Without the presence of the target plate that part was hard for him. Actually, I had target plate issues both up and down!>>

Yes, he was missing more than he was hitting the position there, so in this game I just suggest helping the dog turn around then hop off the side (using my very high level ‘hop off’ cue LOL!!!) That way there is no rehearsal of self-releasing or running through target position, especially when cued.

On your next visit to the mountain climbers, you don’t need to add more tip – instead, add more of your motion 🙂 Have him start with you so you can run, or send him around a wing so you can get ahead and moving. I think he is ready for that and it will prepare him nicely for the next steps of the Elevator Game 🙂

Great job here!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi there! Nice work on these sessions!

On the Downhills – yes, I agree with the ide to warm up with bang game then go back the full downhills. I think he was trying to think about both the target AND the downhill. The warm up will allow him to not have to think about the target. Also, I notice that he is incredibly literal with reward placement, he goes to exactly where you put your reward. Good news… bad news. Ha! So on the throw backs, your aim needs to get really good – try to get it to hit right a the edge of the board, not a little bit further up, as that causes him to stop a little short. It is tricky, so you can also run back to deliver it or release him forward.
Otherwise, he did really well. I think he just needs more experience on this game with the board going to the ground and then it will be perfect 🙂

Elevator game: Looks lovely! Good job adding the motion, he was definitely ready for it. He shows us he is confident by starting to scratch LOL! Makes me laugh. At this point, I vote that you move on to Part 3, Crazy Elevator! Take out your motion to start it, and remember to warm up with regular elevator game 🙂

And more good news, bad news – because he is now doing just about the whole teeter, you are now getting into a lot of concussion on the joints – so like with the weaves, dial back the number of sessions and amount of reps in that session. I train my youngsters like this: weaves on one day, teeters the next, then a day off. Then weaves, then a teeters, then a day off. And if they get two days off? Even better. (In case you are wondering what I do with the adult ‘trained’ dogs… well, they don’t get trained at all right now hahahaha)

Target fading video – you needed a warm up rep or two here as well 🙂 Make that your mantra – first 2 reps are warm ups, then you can go crazy 🙂 When he had his little warm up, he was quite fabulous!
One little error in the middle, probably too much running but otherwise a really strong session! You can do another session just like this (with a warm up rep) and if he is finding it easy… fade the target to one small piece right in the center on the edge. Then I am confident you can fade it all the way out too. When it is faded on the plank, we just repeat the process on the bang game on the teeter as well.

Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi there! He is looking really good here!!! The different pieces are really starting to come together!

He is doing really well with the target fading! I think he was fine without the target, not really using it – on your next session, warm up with the current target then in a moment where you are reinforcing him, just scoot it out of there and see what he does on the next rep (he is probably going to be just fine without it). Also, we can add one more level: to be sure he is definitely stopping and holding position, keep moving for 2 or 3 more steps to be sure he hits and holds position before you throw the reward back to him.

Elevator game:
You might find it easier to hold with one hand if it is more about bending at the knees versus bending at the waist? Let your thighs do more work than your back 🙂 When I use my legs more, it is easy to hold the board with my big dog. Love the frisbee under your shirt LOL!!! The things we do for our dogs….

He did really well, especially as you started moving. Great job to him for ignoring all of the things happening!! And at the end, your son was calling you and Chapter remained perfectly on task 🙂 YAY! So keep working this – adding more height now, as well as continuing to add motion. If he is happy with that in the next session or two, we move to the Crazy Elevator game.

Downhills:

>>Normally he would have jumped off and sprinted to the other side of the yard and barked- he definitely controlled that impulse here. Big win!>

That is the best part of any of these sessions! And it is a reflection on the engagement work you have done, as well as the value of the teeter. YAY!

The teeter game here is looking really good – he is moving nicely down the board and getting his end position, no problem. Happy dance! So, add more motion and see how he does with that (mainly in terms of the end position).

Because there are a limited # of hours in the day, you can focus most on the Elevator game so we can move to the Crazy Elevator game – which merges all of the tracks 🙂 and a bit of the target fading too.
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>Today I tried to follow your suggestions for the Bang game – clicking for focus forward – I clicked earlier, sometimes before she lay down. >>

I thought this session got you a massive step forward – she was totally looking ahead and not at you! YES!

>>She was not thrilled with this game, as she’s not crazy about the MM,>>

I know… LOL! My big puppy is not crazy about it either. And they slow down and get thoughtful… But it allows us to show her exactly what the correct behavior is, which will result in more reinforcement that she likes eventually. So sometimes we whip it out to get the behavior then it become the gateway to the better rewards 🙂 It also looked pretty hot there – her tongue was huge LOL and that might be why she was a little calm and not terribly excited about the MM.

On the next session, do everything the same but add your motion of walking past, then jogging past. My only suggestion is to always start her right close at the end of the board, so she is basically leaping on directly to the target rather than stepping a few steps to it (the end result of striding should be 2 (or 3) massive strides up the board then one little weight shift stride into position, so we don’t want her to practice 2 or 3 little steps into position). Click exactly the same way you did here, emphasizing the early click with her looking straight. It was really strong!!

And if that goes well on the next session… do everything the same except tug with her between reps 🙂 This end position is so important that we can take as much time as needed to get it perfect.

>> and it didn’t help that I brought the wrong one out – this one had boring kibble in it, whereas the other one has yummier treats.>>

Bad Momma! HAHA! Just kidding, it worked out beautifully to have a very ‘chill’ session to get her looking ahead so nicely.

Great job!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>But I’ve got Moderna #2 tomorrow early afternoon so who knows what we’ll be doing for a few days after that.>>

Welcome to being fully Team Moderna! Hopefully you have no issues and will feel just fine.

>>. I am seeing that if he’s not busy chasing Nemo, he does notice the teeter noise when it hits the ground behind him.>>

Yes, that is pretty normal – so the release/chase is actually pretty calculated to get the dogs away from the board while also getting a positive conditioned response to the reset noise of the board.

>>I feel like he needs more sessions with theses to raise the board higher in elevator game and to get the board more parallel in the downhill. >>>

Yes – getting the teeter outside is a massive variable change which also brings out more variable changes LOL! I think some of his questions from these sessions were simply because of the new environment (it has only been 2 days, right?) I think it will come together very quickly as soon as he gets more practice with the outdoor variable PLUS the variables you are adding. He did really well on the first outdoor session, but you didn’t add the other variables yet there. Plus each outdoor session is filled with new variables in the environment 🙂

On the video, some ideas:
At the beginning with Elevator Game – he seemed a little distracted outside, that is normal – so the new variable here was probably the neighbor dog barking in the distance, and not the height or motion you added. That is why he had a litle trouble with that. And same with the downhill – so many different things happening, and it was especially hard when you were running right towards Nemo on the ground LOL!

I think the biggest thing is that he is still learning about getting into position and holding it with you running for real (that was not able to happen fully indoors). More on that below.

A thought about the ball: when you had Nemo out on the ground ahead for the downhill, he might have been slowing down because of the ball being there. If I remember correctly, the ‘dead’ ball elicits a bit of a stalky response from him? So Nemo is better as a thrown reward then a placed rewad

On the next elevator game moment, he is getting better here for sure! You can mix in tossing the treat back to him or releasing him forward to a cookie bowl or MM – I think he was tracking your hand movement to follow the cookie delivery 🙂
The outdoor environment was a little distracting here too and he is having trouble with motion of your running – so dial it back like you did in terms of not running as hard – but keep moving past the target position til he is for sure stopped – move for another 2 or 3 steps. You were tending to dcel/stop when he was stopping and we want to be sure he will not rely on that .

But overall, considering this is only day two of teeter in the yard – he is doing really well!!

As for planning:

>>Then the uphill/downhill merge and then maybe the Crazy Elevator.>>

I think we might flip that… he LOVED the Mountain Climbers (which are basically the first part of the elevator game). So I think the next session can be a warm up of the regular elevator game for 2 or 3 reps, then a couple of Crazy Elevators! When you do that, keep yourself next to the target as the board falls so he only has to think about 1 thing.

And separately, you can use bang or regular elevator to get the holding target position with you moving going as well.

Let me know if that makes sense! He is looking great! Fingers crossed for a very easy next 36 hours for you 🙂
Tracy

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