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Hi! This is also looking terrific! The flat barrier seemed to be a really good next step – a bit more challenging but not mind-blowing. The barking didn’t appear to distract her at all. I laughed out loud with the garbage pail, it was such a funny visual and you were hidden behind it LOL! She was perfectly happy to wrap it, no trouble at all. Yay! And also no problems when you stood up. Because she is able to let you do that, you can move this forward two ways:
moving the big pail a little further away, so she could potentially fit between you and the pail
beginning to reward from your hands rather than with the cookie bowls. You can leave the bowls there when you do this the first time and just deliver the cookie from your hands. Then you should be easily able to fade the bowls out of the picture entirely.Great job on all of these! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! She does indeed have a nice stay already 🙂 and it is fun game indoors for sure.
Interesting that she had the big yawn at the beginning – these are hard! You did a lot of challenging reps with distractions, so be sure to ping pong those with lots and lots of easy reps where she can be correct without any proofing needed. You can also add in the Advanced level (it is on the video, we didn’t do it in the live class :)) to get her even more excited and add the challenge of seeing if she can stay while she is more ramped up. Great job with the different verbals here, it was very clear! And she also was a good girl on the drive to handler – it provided some fun ‘action’ mixed in with the stays 🙂
TracyHi!
Yes, it is hotter than an oven here!! I can’t wait til the sun goes down so I can get outside with the dogs!!
>> I thought it was cute that she veered sideways to touch the prop when I started being more distant. She could have stayed with me, but she knows the prop gets the C/T.
That is exactly what we want her to know 🙂 Yay!!
She did really brilliantly on the parallel path, no questions at all from what I could see. Nice! And I want her to choose that prop over sticking with you for now 🙂 At least, in this situation.
The countermotion is also going really well – she had the crispest responses when you engaged directly then sent.>>My guess is the bag prop is not as compelling as a food or toy reward.
Haha! Correct 🙂 And she did give you some “this is weird!” looks – but she produced the correct behavior each time! One thing to be careful of: these countermotion sends are for crosses where we want the dogs to turn towards us, so be sure that your next line of motion is straight ahead (not towards the prop or towards the pup). At :38, you had a good countermotion step followed by a step out across her line, towards her: which she read as a read cross and turned to her right (away from you) rather than towards you (to her left). So be careful to stay on the straight line like you did on all the other reps.
The rear crosses went really well!!! She was not 100% sure but she did them! Yay! Be sure to balance lots of the straight line parallel path before and after the rear cross – that will keep her driving to the prop. You can toss in a rear cross every few reps, but she should mostly see the parallel path to keep her confidently driving to the prop.
Great job here!
TracyHi!
One thing that will help on the parallel path game to see if he is hitting or not is to stare at the cap (don’t watch him at all). That is how I was finally able to see the rear foot hits on the running contact work – starting at the mat 🙂 It will also help on the countermotion games – looking at the cap even as you move away.
With both of the games, stay a little closer to the cap for the next session or two. I think you were adding distance a little too quickly here, so he was not as strong on the hits. Do a session or two that is very ‘up close and personal’ to the cap 🙂 and when you can see the hits with lots of intent, you can gradually add in distance. The countermotion can be nice and close too – it is more about how early you can leave for now, so being closer will allow you to see what his quick little feet are doing anyway 🙂 I think he is understanding the general concept of both games (stay on the line and commitment to the cap) but I agree – there were some moments where he was not hitting as clearly as in other moments. Stay closer for now will help build up the value of the hits (as well as continue to solidify the understanding of the concepts.
Great job on all of the videos! Let me know what you think 🙂
TracyHi!
I think the eating is going well LOL! As long as you keep moving while he is eating, you will have time to time the blind cross: you can start moving away while he is eating and then start to run when he is finished. You started to do this on the last rep with the blind but then stopped yourself – I think he is ready for you to be moving away on these then really run after he eats the treat. Plus, it will likely help him swallow it faster 🙂
The drive to handler and the GO all look really good – well done with sorting out your mechanics!!! He is doing really well with the nemo ball on these, so you should also mix in other tug toys. That way the nemo ball can retain its status as highest value, while you also build in other toys to increase that value too – I think this might be a good game for that!T
Hi! The sit stay work is going well!
You can make a quicker transition back to the stay: play with the nemo ball, get him all jazzed up then start again – I think that without the quick transitions, he loses the groove of offering. For example at 1:22, you ended the interaction and moved him to a spot and he lost the rhythm. Quicker transitions will totally help keep him in the game.
Also, you can mix in throwing the reward back while you are still moving – sometimes stand still, praise, throw back (or release forward) and sometimes be moving forward, keep moving, praise while moving, then throw back while moving 🙂 We don’t want standing still to predict the release or throwback (as many pups figure out quickly 🙂
And he did well with the driving ahead after driving to handler! Very nice!!!
THi!
The wave is so funny! She clearly loves to wave LOL!! I think it is probably a good idea to NOT have her wave with the sit if you want to do obedience. If it was only agility, no big deal at all LOL! My guess is the wave will go away as you add a lead out on the sit in agility. 2 ideas for the sit and agility lead outs: you can click sooner, just as her butt begins to move but before it actually hits the ground… and before her wave paw comes up 🙂 Then throw the treat. You can then begin to delay the click (or not click at all) so you can get the stay without actually clicking the wave. Then add duration – walk away, with connection, and don’t click until she puts the foot down 🙂 But for the agility start line, no worries about it. For obedience, you can use your mat or a perch for her to first put her front feet on and get rewarded for front feet on it (both feets, no waves lol) and then have her get her butt on it too in a sit. Let me know if that makes sense.The wrapping looks great! Two things to add now – rewarding from your hand (no more bowl drops – you can have the bowls present for the first session as you add this, then fade them) and a different larger thing to go around (like a pop up crate). There are more ideas on the course syllabus page that I added on Saturday.
The drive to handler looks great!!! Well done with your timing and with the nice low hand! You can definitely move onto the ‘collection sandwich’ with the blind and the go that I posted on Saturday. And, another idea for a wave-free sit: you can get her to your side, turn, then cue a sit at your side – then reward. I wonder if she will wave when you do that, because it is cued entirely differently than the wave set up?
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyShe did an awesome job here! So serious!! Her little tail… GAH! it was distracting LOL!
I couldn’t see your head on the sends, but on some of the reps she wasn’t as fast or head-checked for a moment (:50, 1:02, 1:07 for example) so it is possible that you were not as connected (shifting connection to the target) as you sent. On other reps (before those and then again at 1:17 and 1:40, for example) you sent and left nice and early and she had no questions – so keep working that connection.
One other thing to consider, because you mentioned her front feet earlier – in the transitions after the reward and back into the next send, she has her front feet in the air a lot 🙂 If that is something you would like to avoid (or accidentally reinforce with the next send) you can help her not do it and also still get the tight turn/drive back understanding by tossing the reward past you as she drives back rather than feeding from your hand. That way she stays down on the ground, drives back, gets reinforcement, and it buys you a bit of time to reset. Now if you don’t care, perfect LOL! I don’t mind it with the littles and my littlest, Elektra, does a similar front feet thing which I have put on cue (“Baby Bear”) because it is cute. I have personally not found it to be a problem in training or on course or in life, other than some offering of baby bear cuteness when she wants part of my dinner LOL! (And I of course give her some, because, I am the WORST lol!!!)Collection sandwich video – there is a lot of cuteness happening here too, it is distracting. LOL!
The start station has a lot of value right now so she is not driving off of it on the release with as much speed as I know she will have eventually – she did get progressively faster and faster on these though, so it is already percolating nicely – then she was starting to smoke you, so be sure to get your blind cross started basically as soon as she leaves her station.
You might have stepped in a little towards her – but she didn’t seem to be bothered and was happy to drive to the collection cue.
On the mechanics of the blind – give her one more heartbeat of the cross-body connection before you go to the collection hand. The collection hand was in play before she had made the side change, so she didn’t see the connection as crisply – and the line behind you had a bit of zig zag. I felt like I had both hands in play for a moment with the pups here: cross body arm to get connection and the dog-side arm to get into the collection. That is fine and will help her see the side change sooner.No worries about the bending of the line a little on the GO! There were 2 strong visuals out there – the station and the tunnel – PLUS the additional layers of putting it all together adding more challenge… and she was still able to go to the toy, which was a little harder to see in the grass. AND she was able to bring it back, head up, each time – VERY cool to see that!!!!
Great job on these! Le me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>So would the verbal here would be the one for a tight left and a tight right, correct?
For wing wrapping? Yes, it would be tight left and tight right.
I can’t wait to hear the full story about E and Sly 🙂
I like Port and Star!!!! Star might sound a little like Sly or even Target if you use that word.
I use left and right for the soft 90 degree turns, and noises for the wraps:
sisisisi for left wrap
choochoochooo for right wrapHi!
I like when we find out what the dog needs in order to create training progressions to help him out! Yes the clicker session on the sends looks good but he left for the kennel on both the ready (:10) and on just the clicker (:56). So I think it has to do potentially with some clarity of behavior as well: when you were closer to the pillow, he did fine and had no questions. The leaving all happened when you were further from the pillow (plus the interactions with it that were not as accurate). The home session was also plretty close to the pillow and he was at his happiest when you were about an arm’s length away. When you got a little further – (like 2 arms lengths away) the behavior was not as crisp.
So I think that the question he has is more about adding distance too quickly – keep the next several sessions to no more than an arm’s length away from the pillow. I don’t think you have poisoned anything, I think he is preferring the clarity of proximity for now – we can add more distance much more gradually 🙂Separately from this – do add a ready word (or any similar word) because a word like that is just so darned useful for getting engagement! But add it without the dancing – just pair it with great things: say ready thn throw a ball. Say ready then give him his dinner bowl 🙂 I use it conversationally all the time with my puppies and right before something fun is presented (toys, treats, activities) so they are pairing it and getting a positive conditioned emotional response. We can add in body language later on after the CER is in place.
Collection sandwich: This is looking terrific! Also, he did well with the toy on the first few reps! Cheese is delicious so I am glad he played with the toy. Your mechanics were terrific (this game has a need for 65 arms). When using all treats, you can have an empty food bowl out ahead – start with a cooke in the bowl to send him away, then toss a cookie into the bowl so he can drive to it as his destination.
Stays: I agree, catch is a fun word and it find it so entertaining when the pups do actually catch it LOL!! I do use this game when I begin to put the dogs into the ring (and a variation on this game) – it transfers brilliantly to NFC/training runs early in the pup’s career by giving the pup a framework for amazing stays and teamwork off the line, even as yougnsters. It creates happy relaxed stays – and he did awesome!!!! Having the foundation of a solid stay really helped too. You can also add the advanced level of the game (we didn’t do it in the live class, it is on the video :))
Great job!
TracyHi there! There are SO many good things happening on these videos! Happy dance!
Wing wraps – looking good, he is totally in the groove here. Yay! Next session: warm up for 2 or 3 cookies just like this (or however many it takes until he is in the groove) then move the wing out a few inches to add challenge. Try to do keep it to maybe 10 treats before you throw the party 🙂 Then take a break and come back after a minute or so for 10 mire treats. That will keep him in the right working state without him losing his train of thought.Toy To Treat – this is a great game to help him learn to modulate his internal arousal, which will help if he gets frustrated! He did a great job here! You did a nice job of have those ‘frozen moments’ and basically rewarding him for being a bit patient when there were no active treats or toys! He was terrific! Yes, keep playing this game: add different places, different values of toys and treats, etc – and even a bit of you turning away where he might have done a butt chomp on the past – start a fake, minimal turning away and then toss the rewards for him waiting patiently.
Sends with Opposing Motion – yay, he is doing a great job here! Try to move away less quickly for now – early yes, but not as fast. Motion (especially fast motion) causes a lot of behaviors to break down, so as you move away, you can be very casual and slow about it – especially as you add more distance.
No worries about the 2 misses – you caught them and adjusted and he didn’t feel any frustration or pressure. Part of the game is to train us to see that and adjust… and you did that beautifully! I’d say that after another session or two like this, you can add more distance which will allow you to leave even earlier (but slowly LOL). This is where you might find the biggest difference between whippet training and RR training: motion! Add the motion in very gradually and casually with the pointy dog 🙂 I have found with RRs that we could add motion in right away in agility because it got them really excited! Let me know if you have also had that experience 🙂Speaking of motion – your first rep of your collection sandwich handling combo looked GREAT – the perfect level of motion for the task at hand at this moment. He picked up speed on the next reps, but you don’t need to. The blind and the turns looked good. You lost a little connection at 1″29 so he ended up behind you, but you made the right decision to reward and carry on 🙂
You can add in a little bit of toy play on rep or two of this and see how he does:
Do a blind and reward with a toy, then a cookie toss, blind and reward collection/drive to you with a treat. That way we can build up to adding the GO at the end.The parallel path session looked great! You did a nice job of gradually adding distance but then you found the threshhold – you were a little too far so he had 2 failures out of 3 reps and he let you know he was frustrated at 1:00 but jumping up, I think what will help is as you add distance laterally – when you change sides, take a heartbeat to connect with him, then move – that way he doesn’t lose the rhythm and just follow you (and miss the target).
He is definitely getting the idea, the foot hits had some real intent – but adding distance definitely increases challenge! You can also tweak the placement of reinforcement for a few reps each time you add distance: click then toss the treat to the pillow case. Then, call him to you, reward, start again. After a few reps, he is likely to be ready for you to throw the reward out on the line again.And yes, do a few more sessions on this before adding the RC. But, with the RC, there is no lateral distance, so I bet he will pick it up faster than you think!
Great job here, you are both looking terrific!
TracyHi!
>> I don’t think there is any one way to train a dog anymore, I think you have to train the dog in front of you and every dog is different so you better prepare to adapt!! >>
These are the absolute truest words that I have heard in a LONG while. Whenever I get arrogant enough to think I know what I am doing, one of the dogs steps up and reminds me that I have a lot more to learn and that I’d better pay attention LOL!
>>I’m ok at adapting but I could be better at it, ug, oh well.
I feel that – it is really hard to set aside what we think we know in order to learn what we *need* to know. Constantly working that skill!
He looks great on the videos!
With the bowls – he definitely was happy to wait for the food to hit the bowl at first, but then I was REALLY happy to see him getting into the groove of offering the back and forth on his own. YESSSS good boy! We will be able to progress this very quickly now: over the course of a couple of sessions, if he will let you push the upright to about a foot away (revealing the possibility of cutting in between you and the upright) then you can add challenge. You can working on standing up, and separately you can work on adding something bigger (see the game I posted on Saturday – something like a laundry basket. I use a pop up crate). You can work on these separately, with the end goal at this point being that you can both be standing AND having him wrap something bigger that is a foot or two away from you.On the Blinds video: wow, the mountains behind you look like a movie panorama! Gorgeous!!! I was distracted haha!
On the blinds – very nice! He is a big fan of the stronger connection. The 2nd and 3rd reps were perfect examples – on the 2nd rep, he was coming towards you but did not commit to a side or to adding speed until you made the extra connection by showing the toy across your body. Then, watching the 3rd rep step-by-step: he actually stayed on your original side (right side) until the toy came across at :13, then he changed sides and drove to the new side (and the toy). The toy pushes your ‘new’ dog side arm back, so at :13 he could see your eyes/upper body better. Compare it to :12 when you had your head fully turned but your left arm was parallel to your side (nice and low but parallel) and the toy was not yet across your body) – he was still looking at the right side of the body). Great camera angle to see it!
So I don’t think he is waiting for a toy as a lure – I think he reads the connection as the side change cue and needs to see your eyes/upper body – and the dog-side arm back reveals that. More experienced dogs will know that the head turn predicts the rest of the cue so they will make the BC side change sooner, but youngsters do for sure rely on the full picture. Let me know if that makes sense!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
