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Yes, I mix in a lot of tugging to keep the dog exciting and as a mental break – and I either pick up the prop or move away from it, so the pup doesn’t obsess on cookies when I want tugging 🙂 Keep me posted on how it goes!
Tracy
Hi!
Your stays look good here!! When you do the ‘catch’ reward when she is in a down, you can throw the catch cookie off to the side so she has to get up between so you can reset – catch is a release word, so it is fine for her to move to get it. It looks like she had good duration and was letting you move away really nicely!
She does mix up sits and downs – you can let her offer (so it doesn’t matter which one, it is her choice) and you n also cue a sit or a down with a hand cue to help her out if you want specific position. Both positions are perfectly acceptable on the start line. The down is more comfortable for a lot of Border Collies, it is pretty natural for them!
Because this went really well, you can also use a toy to teach her to do it in higher arousal. She is going to be in higher arousal when looking at a jump in the agility ring on the start line, so you can start preparing her for that by using a toy in this game, instead of treats.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Backing up: When working on this on the flat without the barriers, you can start with a bigger target – something that she can easily get on with all 4 feet. I think the targets here were too small so she didn’t quite know what to do. On a bigger target, ask her to start with all 4 feet on: then for the backing up, you can start with just front feet coming off (use a hand touch to help her step off) then front feet step back on. When she can do that, you can use a hand touch to get all 4 feet off, then back up back on. This will help her understand that it is all about the target 🙂 The wider target that you used later on definitely helped, but she couldn’t get all 4 feet on it. The diagonal in the backing up is probably because of reward placement – it is all coming very close to you, so she wants to look up at you and is moving on a diagonal to make that easier. It was hard to see where you were rewarding, but it looks like you were handing her a treat then putting one down in front of you (or clicking and putting it down in front of you), so she was looking at you. To change that, after the click, toss the treat away back towards the prop so she gets more value for moving towards it – the treat will land on or near the prop, so she keeps backing up to it – then you can drop a treat between your feet to reset.
Using the channels is perfectly fine to help her out! And I think she did really well with the channel you set up here! The channel helps straighten her out and I think it helped her isolate the target because there were fewer options to go around the target. To get more steps, toss the treat back so it lands on the target – then you can also gradually move the target further away 🙂 When backing up to the target gets easier, you can then widen the channels and then fade them out altogether.
Great job!
TracyHi!
I like the mats! They really help her to be able to move and not slip. Very cool!The parallel path to the prop looks great. She is hitting very distinctly and your click/treats are great (the early one can be considered a good reward for her heading towards it lol :))
On the rotated sends, when you were sideways – she was hitting it nicely but I am not sure she knew when she had permission to go to it. So you can start by engaging her in front of you (saying ready ready ready or something like that) then you can make a very clear arm & leg motion to the prop – that should tell her she can start moving to it
On the rear crosses – those are hard for dogs! I think the most helpful thing will be to give yourself more room: using a long hallway or as much room on the mats as you have, start with some of the parallel path stuff until she is driving ahead of you to the prop. Then, starting as far back from the prop as possible, start by moving& sending her forward to it with you cutting in behind her as early as possible: that will help get her seeing the rear cross sooner, so she can change sides sooner. Keep reinforcing the new direction, even if she is not perfect yet – it could be that your timing was a little late, or it could be that she needs to figure it out, or both 🙂
Nice work!
TracyYay! He is so adorable AND brilliant too 🙂 And yay for the 15 month old girl! I have 2 dogs aged 2 and under, I might be insane but I love every minute of it.
He did well with his tugging here!!
When he comes off me, what do I do. It seems like it puts me back into ‘shove it in his mouth’ position. Do I wait? Make it move then bring him back?>>Bearing in mind how small he is, you can do a shorter session by letting him win the toy: when he pulls on it decently, let him win it out of your hands and then you can cheer for him as he runs around or kills it (or bring it back :)) Be easy at first, let him win easily – then gradually increase the amount of pulling you want to feel before you let go. If he comes off of you and lets go of the toy, it might just be that he is a little fatigued – so yes, you can wiggle it around, and lean back an entice him back up – and then on the next rep, let him win so he can be on all fours again. If he will grab it when you present it, you can totally hold it in front of him and tell him he can grab it (without moving it towards him). If he doesn’t find that engaging, you can squiggle it around and get him chasing it 🙂
Nice work here!!
TracyHi!
He was doing some good backing up offering! I think a wider target to back up to along with your sitting will help (then getting him straight will be easy – I think he was not quite correlating the backing up with the target yet). You can also try a tug toy between your feet rather than the cookie tray – he was looking up at you and offering some head tossing, so a toy down there cna give him a focal point and then you can release him to it.The retrieve looks good! And it was also really good alternating between toy and MM, so he got to practice food and toys in the same session. Yay! When he is tugging, let him do more of the pulling so he is pulling back on the toy (you can let him win, too!) – there were some moments when you were pulling him towards you, so he was losing his grip and letting go. I like to let the dogs do all the work of the tugging, so they do all the pulling LOL!
And hat a funny puppy moment when he totally did not know where the toy was – TOO CUTE!!!!! He is doing really advanced stuff so it is easy to forget how young he is… and those puppy moments are a good reminder 🙂
Great job!!
TracyHi!
>> We will just keep plugging away at a pace suitable for BliZZard…
No worries! We have plenty of time – taking it at a comfy pace and you will not be behind at all 🙂 He is doing really well!!!!
Sends: great job with the ready dance, he was super engaged!! And he is showing really nice value for the prop – great job shaping that! On the sends forward to the prop, add a little more connection to his eyes: look at him as you send forward more and less at the prop, as that will turn your shoulders more to it and less past it – he was not entirely sure if he should go to it because he couldn’t see your connection as well. The sideways sends were good too but I agree that the backwards sends looked great, I think because he could see the connection shift and your eyes/shoudlers clearly the whole time – plus all the value 🙂
Speaking of value: he wants to look at you a lot so I think you can shift the placement of reward on these by mixing in tossing the reward back to the prop. He was coming back and watching your hands get the treat out, so he was building focus on your hands into it. We can get him to focus on the ‘task’ more by having the treat ready (it can be in the clicker hand) so there is less time built in looking at your hands, and then toss it to the prop as soon as he hits it. That will get even more independence on the sending.
Wrap shaping – BliZZ is a chewer LOL! This was going REALLY well and he made a TON of beautiful choices… but I think the chewing was delaying things LOL! (It was so cute, though…) The noise of these particular treats was helpful but he was losing his chain of thought when he was chewing – you did a good job helping by looking at the other bowl and then he was really starting to pick it up! Yay! By the end of this section, he was in the groove of the back-and-forth so you can go to a treat that is less noisy, and therefore requires less chewing (hopefully LOL!) A smaller kibble or a bit of cheese or something soft can help him swallow a little faster without choking on it.
He did well when you added the upright – it didn’t bother him at all and he immediately resumed the back and forth. Very cool!!! He did a great job of finding it when you pushed it further away, you could se him really think it through. When it was a little far towards the end, he had some trouble going to his left but was fine going to his right – could be a slight side preference. So on the left turns (when he is going from your right hand to your left hand) you can keep it a little closer for now. And on the right turns (going from your left hand to your right hand) you can slide it out a little 🙂 When you get to the next session on this, you can add in something bigger to go around, and then add in standing up!
OMG the picture at the end is GREAT!!!! He was watching intently and also check out the great position on the screen of the video! Love it!!!
Great job here!!!
TracyHi!
>>I’ve been struggling with getting him to play with toys as of late. I think my toy sessions are too long- I really struggle with super short sessions which I need to focus on with him. He can play decent in my room and the kids rooms but if I move to the kitchen/great room or outside he loses interest.>>
SHort sessions are hard – we don’t always realize how long things go on! I set a timer on my phone during puppy training for 90 seconds or 2 minutes to help me keep track. And definitely try to switch rooms in the house, it is a great way to generalize behavior without having to go to agility trials 🙂
>>Tonight I did have him switch out frisbees and also eat food and alternate. This was my first time doing this outside and it went well- yeah for a win!>>
Yay! That is great!!!!
On the teeter video:
>> He was able to work though and this training session was less than ideal
Actually, it was a good bit of activity around him! He had to really focus in on what he was doing Your daughter was adorable, the MM does like to die at inopportune moments, and your son felt the other dog would provide a helpful distraction LOL!! I did hear Chapter getting excited, and that is fine. The one tweak is that you can start the session facing him to help him back up onto the teeter – when you were off to the side, he was not as sure. For a 4 on behavior, you can start with all 4 feet on, do a hand touch to get his front feet off, then let him step back to all 4 feet on. After a couple of successes, you can do a hand touch so he comes all the way off and reward for backing up into the 4 on position.
When yo usay he was getting worked up in the other class, other than barking or whining, what else was happening? You can break up teeter sessions with doing other things, so he doesn’t get too over-stimulated. I like to do very short teeter sessions because it is a hard obstacle!Motion override went really well! The only thing I noticed was that sometomes you had to cue twice – so you can walk more slowly because generally that is a sign of him not quite processing it the first time. He also might have been watching your hands for a hand signal, but that will go away when you add more motion into it, especially when you work it up to running.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! I wonder if he felt it was weird and was avoiding it a little? It is possible LOL! It was a smart decision to ‘refresh’ the backing up using the Cato board and he was doing much better towards the end. He was definitely thinking about his hind end a lot more there. I wonder if he will make the transition from the Cato board to the teeter more easily if you put the Cato board over the end of the teeter to get the general idea going, then fade the Cato board out and just leave the teeter? The teeter is narrow AND it moves, so that might be a good intermediate step. You can also see if he will back up onto the wobble board. Another way to jump start it is to make it more about front fete for now – start with all 4 on, then do a hand touch to get his front feet off, so he steps his front feet back on – then use the hand touch to get him further and further off, stepping back more and more so eventually he will back his hind end on 🙂
Nice work here! Let me know what yo think!
TracyHi! These are looking really good!!
Doing them on 2 jumps is hard, because there is no momentum to carry through – he did well! You can throw the reward sooner on the Go on the 2 jumps to create the momentum 🙂 He did well with the RC on 2 jumps!!! That is also harder when there is no momentum!
Your transitions on the dig wrap looked really great too! One tiny detail – when you lean in to accelerate, you can soften the connection a little so you don’t accidentally push in towards him. When you leaned in, you showed a little pressure into the line and he moved away, almost anticipating a RC. So you can soften the connection and accelerate towards the wrap wing, so he doesn’t feel any possible RC pressure.
On the 2 backside reps: On the first one at :37, your line was almost identical to the RC line, and you were a little behind… so he did read it as a RC (the verbal is not yet overriding motion). The cue was much better at :53,you had a better line and connection, and you were ahead – he read it with no problem. Yay!!
When you added the tunnel and fuller sequence: You had a good transition into the wrap here too! There was also that tiny bit of pressure pushing into him as you accelerated, so I think you can soften the connection a bit here so he doesn’t see it as potentially the beginning of a RC.
The RC wrap looked really good! And I think he liked your scream in terror as you tried to not get impaled LOL!! Good boy, stay on his line!!! Your go looked really good here – lots of momentum plus an early toy throw. And the backside at the end – lovely, clear cues! He got it with no problem. NICE!!!!!
Great job!!
TracyHi! It took him a moment to realize that the PT was related to the wobble board! But then I think he quite liked it LOL! The PT noise is pretty quiet, you might need to put a verbal on getting it? He wants to look at you and wasn’t necessarily driving to the PT. However, I am sure he will figure it out – give him another session or two, and the PT beep will be perfect. I like your idea of moving it partially to a noisy floor next – a little more noise is great, he didn’t seem to mind the motion at all here!
Tracy
Hi!
>>He nailed this in the backyard earlier in the day with other dogs milling around but I didn’t have video going. So I tried it later and he started giving me a down or a stand freeze instead of a sit.>>
That is interesting. Were the jumps & tunnel out with the other dogs around too? It is possible that the other dogs running around raised his state of arousal so he did better! You can try this game after getting him wilder with tugging or send him through a tunnel and see what he does. I see the freezing you were talking about, but you did a great job of getting him back on track – he had lots of nice reps! It is entirely possible that is was too Lazy-Game-like, so it was smart to change directions. But definitely try it after making him wilder and see what he does 🙂 It is off to a good start!
TracyHi!
Goat games on the donut – these are hard, his body keeps growing so he has to figure out where to put his back feet LOL! His front feet were easy for him to offer, and I swear I snorted with laughter at :40 when he looked at you and put the one front foot on the donut LOL! “Look ma, I am TOUCHING THE THING” so cute!
We can now start to ask him to get his back feet on weird things like this – the donut might be a little tall and a little small for now to wait for all 4 feet on, so if you have several discs you can see if he is happy to put all 4 on those. And you can also put 2 donuts next to each other, or a donut next to a platform or table, just to give him a wider playing field to Get all four feet on – which we will eventually reduce to seeing is he can get all 4 feet on the single donut. Let me know if that makes sense! He looks great!Tracy
Good morning! Hope you had a great weekend!
The Blinds are going really well. It took a minute to figure out how to get him to leave you for the cookie, letting him see you put the treat in the bowl TOTALLY helped. Yay! And he was awesome about going from the cookies back to the toy. Happy dance! Because he clearly liked the cookie, you can call him too as you start moving away – when he eats the cookie, call him as you run so he turns back to you sooner (he was making sure every crumb was accounted for :))
The blinds crosses themselves look good, he is reading them nicely! You can make a more obvious connection change – have your ‘new’ dog side arm further back to get more eye contact going, then he will be able to see the change of sides sooner – when you had your new dog side arm out to the side, he was a little later making the side change because the arm blocked the connection a bit. At 1:33, for example, so he didn’t really turn til you made the side change and opened up your dog-side arm further back so he could see the new connection.
He also did well when you turned then drove forward again to the toy throw (:46) – nice tight turn, then he accelerated ahead so nicely!! You can add the Go Go Go verbal to that because he seemed to understand it so well.
One thing you can do with these is have Jeremy hold him as you run away, so it is a restrained recall into the blinds. That will help with any ‘daddy distractions’. And if that is easy, Jeremy can also have a treat in his hands to teach Disco to ignore cookies!
Great job!!
TracyHi! Great to see you here! And I am glad you have a winter training place to continue his progress. He looks terrific here.
The Lazy Game looks good! I suggest lower bars, so he doesn’t land heavy on his front during the reward tosses with food (it is a nice part of a warm up routine too, just in case it gets cold there this winter LOL!) The toy brought a lot of giddy up to the game so he was faster and a little wider – I think the wider was just that you were not turning your shoulders as early, because it is the lazy game LOL! But I really love how, when he got more excited because of the toy, he committed BETTER rather than looking at you or getting frantic. That is great to see him being able to go fast while retaining his thoughtfulness. YESSS!
Mountain Climber- Speaking of going fast but staying thoughtful – we see that here too! Yay! You had great placement of reward at the end of the board (right at the edge and with his head low), and he seemed very confident with the height! Great drive to the end but he also was being thoughtful about his feet and not flying off – perfect. That is exactly what we are looking for on this game. Do one more session like this, then if that goes as well as this one did: add a tiny bit of tip by moving the barrel a tiny bit more out so it moves just a couple of centimeters.
Wing & tunnel sends – He does like the Go on the tunnel! He was responding nicely to the left and right verbals. Your timing on those were really good, but you can show the physical cue for those at the same time you start the verbal by letting him see you turn. As you were saying the left/right cues, you were moving forward so he was getting more of a “go” physical cue. He was turning left/ right but a little wide – the earlier physical cue will tighten it right up. The sends to the wing looked good – you can add more distance between the wings and the tunnel, and stay closer to the tunnel so you can send from further away (we need to prepare for those AAC gambles LOL!). I will be posting more games using this set up later today, so you can incorporate those too.
Great job!!!
Tracy
