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Good morning!
The clicker sits are off to a good start.
He had a little trouble offering the sit – sometimes it was right away, sometimes after you gave a cue once or twice, sometimes after a bit of barking at you LOL he was getting the idea though and by the end he was slamming his butt down LOL!!The timing of the click was spot on here – one tweak for the reward placement. Throw it towards him and even a little behind him so he turns back to get it rather than moving forward. We want to really emphasize the importance of staying in that spot because the reward is flying to him.
For the next session, start where you ended here and see what he says. If he is offering the quick sits, you can begin to delay the click to start adding duration then we can get you moving too. I don’t want to spend a lot of time adding duration with you standing still too, because he will winder why you are standing there staring at him with nothing happening LOL!! So a bit of quiet praise is good before the click/catch, and adding in a little bit of moving away.
He is doing well with the tandem turns! You can show him the outside arm sooner, bringing it up to join the inside arm before he gets to you. When it was visible after he arrived, the turn was not as smooth. It is the opposite arm that draws him forward and into the turn, so the more visible it is, the easier the turn is.
For the lap turns – he sure loves the prop! Having your arm extended early helped him *not* go to the prop You can also shake the magic cookie hand and reward him for coming to it before you turn him away.
After you turn him away, to get him to go to the prop – take the magic cookie hand out of the picture by standing up and also start walking forward: that is the cue to find the prop (then you can reward with a tossed cookie). You were stationary with the magic cookie hand right over his nose, so he remained locked onto it ) By standing up and moving forward, you are cueing him to look for the prop on the line (like you did with the parallel path game).
Great job here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Question – for the start line game, should I use a different word for agility start line? Right now I say Wait before opening the crate door. Once I open it & she gives me eye contact I say Ok, she hops out or sometimes have her come to my side for a hand touch >
It is your decision about which verbal to use. Dogs are brilliant at context so you can use wait in a crate and also wait on the start line if you wanted to. For example, I use ‘stay’ at home when I don’t want the dogs underfoot in the kitchen (there are a lot of dogs here haha). And I also use stay in front of a jump in agility. No questions from the dogs 🙂 The only suggestion is that you won’t want eye contact as part of the criteria while she is holding a stay in agility – we will eventually be teaching her to focus forward on the first obstacle. But again – dogs are brilliant at context so I don’t think she will have any questions at all.
> Other than that she does not have a formal stay like in a sit or down outside the crate. Guess I should teach her that at some point, lol!>
Yes! Start teaching the sit stay with the stays-2-ways game. It is actually really fun to teach stays!
The beep beep backing up looks great!!! She ends up in a down or a bow sometimes because it is a really hard skill and she is shifting her weight back, but she is doing really great with using her feet independently and not needing you to help more than giving the verbal cue. Super!!
>How can I fade away that down?>
To get rid of the down, don’t reward it 🙂 But also, we don’t want to frustrate her if she does good backing up and then ends up in a down, and doesn’t get rewarded. So if you shorten the distance to the rear foot target, she will get to it sooner before she ends up in a down. That way you can reward her while she is still standing. You can also throw the reward behind her, which will help her want to remain standing as a way to prepare for getting the reward 🙂
Good job warming up the tandems – I think the 2 hand approach is working great!! It will be easier if you start her behind you with a cookie toss rather than next to you. That will give you more time to decelerate (which is a big part of these turn aways) and show her your hands, so she is prepared to turn away.
Adding the prop: she was locked into your hands so turned away really well – the next step is to turn her away then take your hands out of the picture so she looks for the prop. When your hands were still in front of her nose, she hit the prop when you drew her over it. You can be further away from it and past it before you turn her away – then lift your hands as you move the new direction to see if she locks onto the prop (then reward when she does :))
>I think I went a bit too long with the tandem turn because I got confused at one point while doing the lap turn & had to cut it short lol!>
Yes, there you had tandem on the brain 🙂 but she got rewarded so it is all good! And you did use a thrown start cookie which is great because it gives you more time to set up the turn away. For the lap turns, the arm closer to the prop is what draws her in then turns her away. Then you can take the hand out of the picture as you move forward to see if she will lock onto the prop.
She is more than happy to turn away, so I think this will be easy for her!
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
The pattern game is going well! You can add in walking back and forth as you play, because that will make it easier to take it on the road to new places.
He did really well with the bowl on the ground after he offered trying to get his feet into it LOL!! I think that him seeing you put it down got him thinking that you wanted him to offer behavior on it, so you can have stuff already in the room then bring him in to start the pattern game.You can also take this game to different places: the kitchen of your house with something interesting on the counter that you don’t want him to have, outside on a leash walk, training facilities, etc. You might find that harder locations will require really high value food, which is perfectly fine.
Great job with the handling combo! This was fabulous 🙂 He was such a good boy about ignoring the toy on the ground, cookies for ignoring it helped a lot 🙂 By the 3rd rep, you didn’t even need to hold his collar anymore, he was really good about moving away from the toy – he understood the assignment 🙂 I was super happy with how well he went from the toy to the cookie to the toy.
Since this went really well and you have your wrap verbals added, you can add the last step: after the barrel send, do a FC like you did here and add in driving to you for a decelerated pivot. As he exits the barrel, decelerate and call his name, and show him your hand. When he gets to the hand, do the 360 degree pivot that we did early on in the drive to handler game. After he pivots with you, you can then after to the toy on the ground. He might be expecting to go immediately to the toy after he exits the barrel, so you can have a treat in your hand to get him focused on the pivot too.
The stay game is going well! The first couple of reps where a refresher then you were able to add duration and distance. He was totally on board and held the stay (nice tuck sit too).
Four small things to add as you work the stay behavior:
– more turning to walk forward instead of backing up like you started doing at 6:30
– lining him up at your side with a sit cue (he can follow your hand into position) which will make it easier to move away forward
– sometimes using your release word (“OK” or “break” for example) so he moves forward out of the stay. No click needed on those reps.
– Add more arousal with tugging before every few reps… and you can even use the toy as the reward, I think he will like that.It was so fun to see him swimming! He was very comfy both with the water and with the helper in the pool. Love it! Swimming is such a great activity in so many ways.
Great job here!!
Tracy
Good morning! This was such a wonderful session!!!! No real feedback other than saying how great it was 🙂
He really is a total rockstar about leaving the treat on the ground and not trying to grab it. WOW!! That is wildly unusual (in a good way!) for such a young dog, especially a dog with a lot of food drive. So lovely!!!! And so cute when he would look at it lovingly before walking away from it. Made me chuckle each time.
The barrel wraps look great, because he is able to focus on the task and can ignore the food. Your crosses also looked lovely – there were fronts and spins (front/blind combo) and there was even one ‘regular’ blind in there. All perfect!
With that in mind, you can add more now:
>to also include some turns and consistent verbals.>
Yes – you did have the wrap verbal on some of the reps, so you can use it more consistently. And you can add in the pivot/drive to handler after the barrel: as you finish the FC, you call him to your side and he does a complete circle with you. Then you drive forward to the cookie on the ground. That might surprise him at first, he might be expecting to go to the cookie on the ground, so you can absolutely have a treat in your hand to reward him for sticking with you on the turn rather than trying to go to the cookie.
Fantastic work here!
TracyGood morning!
The tunnel threadle game went great! You had more running which he liked 🙂 and he was going faster of course. But your timing was earlier so he found the lines brilliantly. Look at the line at :21-:22 for example – after he exited the wing, he was able to get on the threadle line and drive to the tunnel without looking at you. Super!!! I don’t think you need to use the threadle arm to flip him away because he was starting to look at you. You can keep the arm up and keep moving away until he flips himself away like he did at :22.
>I’m having a brain block on the tandem turn game. Thought I was all set to do it today and then totally forgot to follow through on the tandem part of the turns. He did very nice threadle wraps though!>
Ha! That is hilarious! The threadle wraps went really well! And he was extra talky during this session, but I don’t think he was frustrated. Just talky LOL!
Your brain is more programmed for threadle wraps because that is really what we see the most of nowadays on international and UKI courses. And this session went great! You were setting the line really well so he appeared to have no questions about which side of the jump to be on. I don’t think he needs you to use your arm to flip him away here either so you can decelerate near the wing and let him self-flip. That why he doesn’t rely on an arm cue for the flip away element and you are not going to need to worry about perfect timing 🙂 The decel will be important at this stage, though, so he can organize to self-flip without your motion pulling him off the line.
We are seeing tandem turns making a comeback in certain situations. One example of where I am seeing them all the time is after a dog walk: dog walk is on your left side, for example, then we need to turn the dog to their left to pick up a jump and go to a tunnel under the dog walk, while we layer the DW and also turn back the way we came. Perfect spot for a tandem turn because it gets the handler miles ahead for whatever happens after the tunnel under the DW. Let me know if that makes sense or if I should have more caffeine and draw it LOL
So you can practice the tandems too, mixing in with TWs. We have more TW stuff coming soon here too because it has become so important.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning! We are sharing the same weird weather: 32 degrees yesterday morning, projections of 80 degrees on Friday. So weird!!
He gave us good feedback on this session about what he is seeing!
It came down to giving him more help than he needed, which changed the line of your shoulders and that in turn created a couple of questions. The extra ‘help’ was when you were trying to flip him away to the threadle side of the tunnel:
– when you were too early ( :18, 1:01, 2:04) he totally (and correctly) saw the line to the non-threadle side tunnel. He had only gone about a stride past the wing when you flipped him back and then you said tunnel, so off he went. The flip arm turned your shoulders directly to that tunnel entry.
– at :41 , 1:34, 2:10 you stopped moving flipped him back as he got to you and he jumped up. The flip arm turned your shoulders to the center of the tunnel, so the jumping up/spin was him being confused.
– :32, 1:14 you didn’t flip him back as early and he got it – the flip back turned your shoulders to side of the tunnel you wanted.
And compare to the other side, especially at 1:49 – the timing and line turned your shoulders to the threadle side of the tunnel.
Two things to get him to consistently know what you want without you having to be perfect in timing:
– you don’t need to flip away your arm. Let him self-flip LOL!! If you have your threadle arm up and you are moving towards the correct end of the tunnel, he should put himself into it. That way you don’t have to flip your arm – just keep it up and move along the threadle line for as long as needed until he drives away to the tunnel
– you had a verbal going then switched back to a tunnel verbal when you flipped him away. You can stick with the tunnel threadle verbal, because it will only mean the threadle end. Using the tunnel verbal can confuse him because it might mean either end, which would rely on perfect timing. So using just the threadle verbal will help solidify the behavior along with letting him self-flip 🙂
>Thank you for your kind words about Potter. He was an amazing dog! It’s tough without him. Having the other dogs yo train and hug helps tremendously.>
It is so hard to lose them and the other dogs definitely help make it easier. Sending hugs!!
Tracy
Hi!
He is doing really well with his tunnel sending here! You can add in using a toy as a reward: throw it when he is exiting the tunnel so he drives out straight rather than turning back to you. That will be useful when he starts running sequences because he is small and we will be building BIG commitment 🙂He is also doing well with the tunnel threadles here! Try to have him lined up at your side for a smoother transition into the send. We will be adding a verbal to it soon!
His stay is looking good on the grid video! Yay!
>I didn’t use jump bars when I did the set point game – my jumps have a permanent base bar though. If its too early even with no bars, then I will hold off. >
It is still a little too early because his striding at this age is all baby body striding 🙂 and as he grows, his striding will change. And if we start him too early, we have to re-teach it to get him to use adult form and not default to baby dog form. When he does start to see it, there will be a little bit of jumping involved so you’ll see him engage his hind end to lift off.
>Assuming that is your recommendation, what is the appropriate age to start the Max2 puppy course?>
6 months is the earliest that we like to start the dogs, but 8-9 months is actually better because their brains and bodies are more prepared.
Nice work here!
TracyGood morning!
>Kaladin is happy to report that his hooman managed to keep her dog-side arm down lower at the USDAA trial on Sunday so he didn’t get confused. >
Yay! Great job, hooman!!!
On the first video:
>The bar on the ground caught her attention and she ended up shooting around the back of the tunnel (looking very proud of herself as she reappeared on the other side).>
Actually, if you look at the line you were setting on the post turn at :08 – even though you were saying tunnel, I think the physical cue set the line to the bar! You were facing it! Good girl, Lift. Post turn days without a brake arm before the jump might be over because her knowledge of lines has expanded a LOT! You used an opposite arm after landing to get it on the next rep (she was still looking at the line to the bar) but you can also use a brake arm (2 arms, really) to release to the first jump to get more collection and get you turned sooner
The circle wrap at :31 looked great!
>I ran deeper into the tunnel pocket to prevent that reverse transition thing on the RC and it worked better. I think she shot a bit wide looking at the wings we had across the end of the dogwalk (it was a day for visual clutter for sure!)>
Yes, the visual clutter can be part of it and you might also need to hit the brakes really hard to get the wrap on a RC.
>Totally late on the opposite arm for the backside wrap around 0:57.>
For the circle at :57 I think that you were a little too decelerated at the tunnel which put you behind. She still turned nicely!
>think she’s trying out for the half pipe free style around 1:13…it seemed like a good time to throw in a fun go at the end of that one. Next 2 reps suffered from disconnection (bit hard to tell with the camera angle but I’m seeing my inside arm in line with my body or a bit ahead but not behind.)>
She has some opinions on those reps, I think it was because it was toooooo much info and she doesn’t need that much.
At 1:13 – we see angry Lift because you were rotating/leaning over and decelerating and putting the brake hand in, all in the same move.
You are also giving the brake arm right to her face and it has the toy in it at 1:25 and 1:38. I don’t think she needs that powerful of a turn cue – a decel then an empty brake hand more towards the takeoff spot is probably ideal.
Compare the rage reps to an empty brake hand directed more to the takeoff at 2:01, no rage happening there. Yay!
Looking at the backside exits:
The exit line arm worked great! She seemed to have no questions on those.To get more independence on the backsides, look at her beady little eyes 😂 and not at the backside At 1:05 you started by looking at her then looked forward to the backside and that changed the line of your shoulders – which is always when she can into you. Compare to 1:14 where you had better connection and she went to the backside really well so you got further across the line!
We work on more backside stuff in coming weeks here 🙂
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
>Well, this didn’t turn out as well as I hoped. I started with Casper and tried to correct the items you pointed out. That went maybe ok except he is dropping a lot of bars and that is making me crazy. I included the tunnel on the rework, hoping to up the energy.>
I think that 90% of the session was really spot on!!! The bars which were 10% or less were probably annoying but everything else went well and we can eliminate the bar issue with 2 little tweaks (which you actually did at the end of the session). More on that below.
That first rep was GREAT – he was surprised and a bit wild by all the tunneling, I think I could hear Enzo singing in the background, and you both absolutely nailed the collection cues and exit.
>I included the tunnel on the rework, hoping to up the energy.>
It totally upped the energy!
You nailed it on the 2nd rep as well. As he was exiting the tunnel, you were already working the collection cues. Gorgeous!
Since you were nailing these, you can add a wing out past the wrap jump as a visual distraction. Have it on a relatively straight line so sometiems you can use a ‘go’ cue to get him to it and sometimes you wrap the jump like you did here. If that goes well, the wing can become a jump.
>When trying to get the backside circle wrap to work, I had trouble because I’m blocking the wing and Casper can’t see it and doesn’t know there is a jump there. I am generally positioned where the wing and bar meet, so the dog can see the wing and knows there is a jump there.
>Looking at the backside circles: your position where wing-meets-bar was really good on just about all the reps!
The cue at :39 was so timely and powerful that he almost collected too much (I thought he was considering the front side for a moment!) but dang, he was so nice over the bar at :41!! I also really liked the rep at :53. He is skittering a bit on takeoff and landing, so you will see more tightness to the turn on turf or grass.At :59 yes, you did start to block the wing but he still did a good job! But that was really the only spot where you were not in a good position. Overall these went great!
>Starting about 1:05 you can see why I almost never to blinds.
>Yes that was a bit of a late blind at 1:06 – give yourself more of a lead out so you are well past the jump. You released at the jump so the blind started after he took off.
You had a better lead out on the next rep and the exit line arm made the blind crystal clear even thought it was still a little late. Also you don’t have to gravitate between the uprights for the blind, you can stay on the line you were running on which helps cue the turns.
The exit line arm use on the FCs was also spot on – if the FCs were a little late, he still read it well. When it was very late (1:30 and 1:46 where the FC started after he took off) he had to land on the original trajectory before turning so the turn was wide.
>At about 1:55 is a series of 3 reps where Casper drops the bar on the first two. >
He also had a bar at 1:34 along with the others later on – so why did the bar drop even as the timing got earlier?
It was the line of motion, not the timing. Motion is still the primary cue that all of this other stuff is layering on top of. It was likely the conflicting cues of the straight line/convergence towards the jump you were running fast on (cues extension) then popping unto the FC without a decel or transition before it.
At 1:41, you were moving towards the jump fast (so he was shifting to his right) then as he was taking off, you did the FC to cue a left turn – too late to adjust, bar down.
The same happened at 1:56, where he saw you converging to the bar so he is collecting to set his line there – and when you finished the FC you took off for a right turn after takeoff, so he was jumping towards the original line your motion set and tried to turn over the bar (not successfully).
You were even earlier on the FC at 1:59 (I liked that timing!) but the convergence towards the jump was the same so he jumped it the same way (he didn’t see that you were moving to the right until after he takes off).
Skip ahead to the FC at 3:10 – you had a brake arm in use (it was a tighter turn) but more importantly your line of motion was spot on: you did not converge to the jump and he saw you moving away to create the right turn before he took off. No problem! More on the below.
>About half way through, I pulled out Enzo.>
Yes, it is totally OK to swap dogs! And Enzo gives good feedback too!
On the first couple of reps, Enzo collected really well but was not watching the exit, he was expecting the spin to mean stay out on the line (which does make sense in this context, a FC is what would likely take him the other way.
And his blinds looked great 🙂
After the FCs, you can add in showing more exit line arm to Enzo so he knows exactly there to be. He had a lovely collection at 2:51 (brake arm!) but then when he landed at 2:52, he only saw your back and your lateral motion. So he drifted wide until he could see the line a bit better.
When you brought Casper back out:
He had a bar down at 3:01 because he was surprised at the tightness of the turn (it is basically a wrap). The rotation alone didn’t tell him how tight the turn was so his back feet hit the bar when he saw the exit line arm.
On the next rep, giving Casper a clear brake arm to set up the collection worked great! And you did it with some decel and without converging in towards the jump, so he knew it was a right turn. At 3:09 when your right arm was a definite brake arm as was heading for the jump, followed by the exit line arm: lovely!!!
So the motion & line matched everything else and he kept the bar up, no problem. On the reps where he dropped the bar earlier, I think all you need to do is trust his commitment more and stay laterally away from the jump (and decel into the turn if it is somewhat tight) rather than move toward the jump at all.
Great job here! Let men now what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>I worked on exit arm today and really should have had coffee first. I get the increased upper body turn to more clearly show the new side but I seriously struggled with which arm to hold the toy in. >
Coffee first is always the best idea!! Sorting out which hand holds the toy is easy for ‘regular’ crosses (the dog-side arm before the cross) but harder when you are doing spins (opposite arm before the spin) or several in a row. I walk courses and practice specifically which hand goes where sometimes LOL!
On the foundation stuff – he is reading things really well!
When rewarding with the opposite arm – stay upright and keep moving, so he doesn’t see pressure on the line. When he reaches you, he can grab the toy and keep moving (rather than curl in front). The connection clarity if part of what makes the turns so nice, and the chase-da-momma is the other part 🙂
This keep-moving-then=let-him=run-through-the-reward is what you did at :48 and it went great!On most of the wraps, yo had lovely turns because you had a bit of decel into the rotation, so the cues were all lined up and the exit line was super clear. The rotation was on time which might feel a bit late (more below) but it was timely – the decel and brake arm are the key collection cues. 1:34 is a lovely example. 1:43 is when you didn’t start that bit of decel and brake arm until after he had made the takeoff decision, so he grumbled at you and turned after landing.
>also did something super funky on 2 of these that made him think it was rear cross. Also, I accidentally cut out what I think set us up for the issue 3 reps earlier where I said the wrong wrap word so he wrapped away from me (correct for the verbal, not for what I actually wanted). On video looked like just poor timing on my brake arm and exit rotation plus pressure forward on his line before the-off on the 2 in this video.>
This is actually a pretty common blooper – you were too early with your rotation, so your feet stepped him directly to the RC line.
At 2:21 he was still pretty far from the jump, not yet having made a takeoff decision, when your right leg stepped forward towards the RC line followed by your left leg. That both cued the RC and put you physically right on the takeoff spot for the wrap you wanted. That is rewardable by either continuing back to the barrel to try to get it on the next go-round, or just rewarding 🙂
At 2:50, your right leg planted facing the RC line then your left leg stepped across then at 2:51, you can really see the right leg stepping towards the RC line sealing the deal of a rear cross just before takeoff (plus you are standing in the takeoff spot).
It is such a common blooper on FC rotations that I have an explanation of it, even though I couldn’t get the demo dog to do it wrong LOL
Being fully rotated helped (no RC info and you were not standing on the takeoff spot at 3:08) He ticked the bar there but that was mainly because you were sanding still there for a while.
So to help prevent accidental rear crosses the magic is in the timing of the decel and not being too far ahead where you might end up rotating too early.
>In honor of EOTT large dog round 2 jumpers course we tried an easier variation of the come into a jump tight wrapping away to weaves. I want to set it up for real at some point since it’s such an interesting challenge.>
Those were fun to see, he did great!! There were a lot of opposite arm uses on those courses, primarily the exit line arm after blinds and the soft brake arm (added yesterday) to help deal with some of the discriminations. I had fun playing armchair quarterback to see how the opposite arm was helping or needed!
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
The photo on the right of the title card (with her eyes closed) was cracking me up. It looks like she was having a laugh after a good joke LOL!
The threadles and serps went great!!!
>She loooves her Treat & Train.>
Yes, the Treat n Train is both a great way to reward and a great distraction.
Adding in a start cookie on the threadle reps allowed you to adjust her start angle here so she didn’t always just loop herself back from the TnT 🙂 You can also use a stay if she will hold a stay in the presence of the Almighty Treat N Train LOL
Have you decided what verbal you’d like to use for the threadle lines? Most folks use ‘in in’, I use ‘close close close’, but it can really be anything that you like 🙂
The serps are also going really well! You can use a treat n train on this one too – the major thing that changes is your position on the jump so the TnT can be a few feet past you reward hand on the exit line.
For the start cookie, you can throw it to a variety of different angles so she comes in from a slice, from a straight line, and even from a crazy wrappy angle. You can also use a stay on this one.
Since this went so well, you can mix in showing her serps and threadles in the same session – your position will change, and you can have th TnT in one spot kind of in line with a wing so it can be used a a reward target for both!
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning! These reps looked great!!!
Two ideas to get you being able to do your FC and run away even sooner:– using the timing you had here (she was almost done with the wrap), keep your feet together and the toy hidden until you do the FC and start to run. You were stepping towards the exit line and showing the toy, but she seems ready for you to just take off and run 🙂 The toy can come out as she exits the wrap wing.
– if she is happy with that, you can put a line on the ground so you can start your FC even earlier 🙂 You can use a leash or just draw a line in the dirt, anything that is visible for you. You can place the line at the middle of the wing, so when she gets to the line she is halfway around and you can do the FC then run. When she is happy with that, the line and keep moving towards the entry side of the wing so that you can build up to doing the FC just as she arrives at the wing.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
>The wait at the side was much harder. I couldnt quite go forward so went sideways. I fed from hand oops but then corrected myself and did a toss.>
Yes, feeding him at your side builds value for being at your side… which can ultimately make getting a wait while you are moving away a lot harder.
You can move forward more by letting him offer the sit, then you step forward while you mark and throw the reward behind you. That will build in moving forward right away, making it easier to build up duration.
You can also add in using a toy between cookie reps here so he remains excited and does go off sniffing. Eventually the toy can also be the reward for the stay!
>Here is our food toss. my chucking wasnt great but we haveplayed this quite alot.>
He was happy to go back and forth here but he didn’t engage with you a lot – he was looking more towards where he thought the next cookie through would be. So for the next session, wait longer before you throw the next cookie. Let him look towards you for a second or two, then throw it. The engagement doesn’t have to be eye contact as long as it is towards you and not looking out into the environment.
Looking at the retrieve video:
>he wasnt super convinced about toy wondered whether it was because a restricted space. will try with a difffernt toy>
Agreed, I think part of it was that the space was small and he ight have been feeling blocked in. Also, he backed off when you were tapping him on the ribs, so you can take that out. He was most engaged when you were sliding the toy around on the floor away from him, that is when he was grabbing it more but I am not sure he really thinks of this as a tug toy. Two ideas to build on this:
For this type of toy, you can have 2 or 3 toys: when he brings the first one towards you, reward him by throwing the 2nd one, and so on. If he doesn’t consider these tugging toys, you can still reward bringing it back by throwing a different toy.
Yo can use tugs toys for this – attach a fun tug toy to another toy to create a toy that is about a meter long. Then throw one end and when he takes a step back towards you with it, you can pick up the other end and get the whole toy wiggling around for him to tug on. That can help shape getting him to bring more and more steps of bringing the toy back while keeping it fun to tug on.>ps tried getting him tro walk away from toy using food but difference in vale too much, will look at usaing a more boring toy if can find. toys are way better than food so need to keep working on jim working for both when both present. perhaps need to work on the animate the food more to make more fun I keep forgetting this.>
Yes, you can use a more boring toy and you can also use higher value, more animated food. You can also introduce the concept by using a food bowl instead of a toy at first: the food bowl is the reward target a you give him fun treats for walking away from it. At first the bowl can be empty then it can have a treat in it! When he understands that, I think it will be easier to add the toy back in.
Nice work here!
Tracy
Good morning!
His little toy pounce on the first rep was HILARIOUS. The toy was very enticing when you threw it so you can add in placing it down then rewarding with treats for walking away from it without you holding him. That will be a good challenge! Wrapping the barrel then driving to the toy was pretty straightforward, it was ignoring the toy at the beginning of each rep 🙂
>He was into it but then got hot (I think) so we ended the session. >
It was hard to see his face but it did look like his mouth was open so he might have gotten too hot. For the high energy toy games, you might only get 3 reps in the heat then need to take an a/c break 🙂 He will develop more heat tolerance as he grows up, but also as a brachy we will still eb super careful about the heat.
He was also processing how to ignore the toy (he kept looking at it). One way to keep him cooler is to have a lighter harness or just a very light neck collar on him for training? The harness is a bit heavy for a small due so it might contribute to getting hot faster – working him as ‘naked’ as possible can keep him cooler.
Strike a Pose:
>I think my Madonna is broken!! >
Funniest mention of this game ever! I do sometimes wonder if other generations get the joke here or sing the song 😂
You are not broken – you are working a tiny dog 🙂 That is why it feels weird. You can try separating your feet and also leaning the target hand downwards (dipping your shoulder down) instead of bending your knees.
You can also move to the next level which is where we fade out the actual touching of the target – on a real serp or threadle, the pups don’t touch our hands. And it is maintaining the criteria of hitting the target that is making you feel contorted. So you can have your hand less low, and reward for coming near it without actually touching it. That should feel a lot less contorted!
Using the toy was harder for sure, so start it with a food reward and then add the toy back when you don’t feel as contorted 🙂
The lap turns went great here! Yay! Your mechanics were spot on – great timing of moving your arm & leg back then turning him away. Easy peasy! You can go to the advanced level here and also get started with the tandems.
Great job!!
Tracy
Good morning!
He VERY QUICKLY figured out that sitting was getting the click LOL! Smart dude 🙂
Good job delaying the click at 1:45 – and click/treat for you, for ending the session! I am sure it would have been tempting to continue since he did so well.
For the next session, do a reminder rep or two of clicking/throwing the reward for the sit, then start to delay the click/add movement so he gets back into the stay he was doing at the end here. Remember to ping pong duration: some short stays, some instant clicks for the sit, and some longer ones all mixed in.Having the leash in the picture was a pain but it was a good pain 🙂 Getting the leash involved with training will make it easier to take the skills on the road, where the leash will be on him.
Handling combos: He did a good job ignoring the toy when you sent to the barrel! Watching you throw it was hard, because the throw really drew his attention to the toy and you had to hold his collar.
So the next steps would be to place the toy down and then reward him with cookies for moving with you back to the barrel without holding him.
You can add in the FC on the barrel and the decel/pivot too, he did great here! But you were being a good trainer and kept the session short and successful, another click/treat for you 🙂
>For the Game Predictability Part 3. I am confused on how it is different than what I was doing with the novel items.>
There are some similarities but a little different in that a lot of the Novel-Neutral games are not used with pattern games. They are using cued games like cookie recalls, and the pattern games take the cues out of it. Plus, this is the in-between step to taking the pattern games on the road 🙂
Nice job here!!
Tracy
