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Good morning!
What a good boy, waiting for da momma at the beginning!
He is showing really nice value for his target! He is also lining up as a send and turn back, setting up a bit of collection, which is what we want in this game. Nice! Also, he is correctly turning towards you after each hit, which is also desirable. – it builds understanding of how to turn both directions, not just the stronger direction.
He was not always sure of when he was supposed to start the drive to the prop, so was sometimes a little slower to leave you and also watched you rather than looked at the prop. That was because of the transition – you were moving towards it a bit but the actual send cue of the big arm/leg motion was not as salient relative to that. So, one tweak to make it very clear as to when he should start: add the ready dance (plus it is goofy and goofy is ALWAYS good haha)
Start with him in front of you looking at you. Yours hands are both in front of you in what I call “squirrel” position (or t-Rex, depending on your mood haha) – dance back and forth without moving your feet, and say something like ready ready ready to him (he is welcome to dance back and forth with you). After a couple of back and forth wiggles, shift your cue into the big arm/leg indication of the prop (and if you are doing the sideways or backwards steps, your connection can shift from his eyes to the prop as well). That should give a very clear “NOW” moment to him, so he can drive to the prop on the send cue. This will really help as we add in more sideways and backwards sends, plus more motion in the future. Let me know if that makes sense!
Great job!
TracyWhoa! I love that she is a MAS!! I assumed BC, based on your other dogs. Oopsie!! She is SO COOL!
And you were not that slow getting your treats out, it is more that she is already super quick 🙂
T>>Ted pops on his perch. I use my marker word and hold out the kong and Ted’s all like “yo…what’s that? I want the good piece of kibble!” and runs around the room looking for a piece of kibble!!! So we trained licking the kong to get a piece of kibble 🙂 🙂 I know the dog determines the reinforcer….but come on Ted LOL>>
Bwahahahahahaha you have just witnessed the magic of classical conditioning hahahaha. The marker word is conditioned to specific style of reinforcement as well specific type. And the running around the room looking for the kibble is an example of the power of good old Pavlov (or “effing Pavlov” as I also call him haha)
Another example: before UKI allowed us to bring toys in the ring for ‘regular’ runs, my experienced trial dogs would get rewarded with a tug on the leash then cookies outside the ring. So the end of the run was paired with cheese outside the ring (location, style, type of reinforcement). So then when UKI said “you can have your toy with your leash at the end of a real run”, I thought COOL! what a great way to reward because my dogs LOVES toys!
Yeah, well, Pavlov: my super toy-driven dogs could not interact with the toy at the end, they could only eat the cheese. In the grand scheme of things, the cheese is a lower value reinforcement as compared to toys… but in that conditioned moment, it was cheese, it had to be cheese, could be nothing other than cheese. Effing Pavlov LOL!!!!
Hi Kelly, welcome to you and Storm!!! He is lovely 🙂 Where is he from? I also find my boys to be different than my girls:
Boys: I love you I love you I love you let’s do something goofy and oh by the way I love you
Girls: Hey human, get your act together! Let’s get it done!Ha!!
On the video: His focus forward to the toy and drive to it looked pretty perfect – you held him a couple of extra seconds and he held his focus and drive ahead brilliantly! Nice!! I chuckled when he offered a sit as well. Good boy 🙂
His toy play looks fabulous and he looks ready for the next steps:
Throw the toy a bit further and then when you let go, start to walk so you can introduce your motion (in a casual way :)) If that goes well, you can add more and more motion building up to running! You might need to be outdoors for that because he looks like he is gonna be FAST LOL!!!! If he starts to go wide or slow down when you add motion, dial it back so that he remains as fast and confident as he was here.Great job!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! Love the profile photo, you have such an awesome crew of critters!
>> We are working on our toy skills and have been a lot for the past couple months – she has a really great retrieve and she will drop the toy and I mark and reward that often, but have not yet put the drop on a cue so we are using two toys here since she is used to that framework.>>
Sounds good to me, I prefer to NOT put the drop on cue too early as it could actually diminish the toy play. And using two toys is awesome!
>>What we have NOT worked on is any sort of restraint yet, as is pretty obvious here! She doesn’t have a collar on today, and I prefer to restrain my dogs lightly on their chests anyway as I don’t train with collars on in agility, so we are trying that. She seemed to settle in a bit once I’d done it a few times.>>
Definitely keep playing the offered collar game, that is a great one for all dogs. I also slide in some pairing games with the various restraints (chest, collar, harness, and under the belly because harness and belly are useful for flyball) – it is full on classical conditioning where I touch the thing (chest/neck/belly/harness/etc) and immediately start some crazy ass game like cookie chasing or toy tugging or throwing toys. Just a one-finger touch, no restraint at all, will start it then over time it gets built to full on restraint – but paired with magical moments so the reach towards the pup for a restraint evokes a really positive conditioned response. I admit to not shaping collar grabs with my 2 youngest dogs because I have been pandemic-lazy but this constant pairing has given me the same result of them moving into me to offer being touched/grabbed/held.
>>I noticed that she did respond to my pressure/touch by backing up and even going behind me, so not sure if the collar would help with that (we are working on offering the collar for grabs as a separate skill, also).>>
That might just be lack of experience wuth restraint being added in
On the video, she was a tugging beast! So fun!
She definitely appeared to be all like “what the WHAT” on the restraint element, so I suggest we separate the restraint and the driving ahead so both can be built joyously then out back together.
For the driving ahead – she has such lovely toy drive that she is not going to have a problem smoking you on this game 🙂 We can work on getting her to go straight and not curve a little out or go behind you.
The going behind you was the weight shift from the restraint where she leaned away from it and going behind you was the fastest route (clever LOL!) plus the drive to the toy (holy bananas she is FAST) – you can drop the toy more in front of her and closer so she can drive to it straigher. The further it was. the more she was plotting to go around you before you even let her go LOL!>>I noticed that she did respond to my pressure/touch by backing up and even going behind me, so not sure if the collar would help with that (we are working on offering the collar for grabs as a separate skill, also).>>
Looking at the restraint separately, I don’t think the collar would have produced different behaviors, she is just new to this restraint element. By the end, though, she was figuring it out completely because she sorted out the idea of the game: restraint then go to the toy. Easy! You can do 2 things to help that out even more:
She seems to have a really good nose touch, it looks like you asked her for one in the early part of the video – you can for now replace the restraint with the nose touch: nose touch, toy goes down, then drive to the toy. It will get her close to you to start it without going behind you. And then, with the gentle restraint to her chest that you worked up at at 1:52, take out your running for a bit – when you have your hand there and you throw the toy, just lift your hand to let her get it rather than running – when you run, there is a tiny bit of incidental opposition reflex/push back because you are weight shifting forward and your hand pushes back to allow you to do so.
She will not be sad that you are not running LOL! And that way she can get the quick pairing of hand-on-chest = toy. Then I bet by the 2nd session, she will be game on for adding a little more pressure on the restraint – she was already feeling more comfy here in under 2 minutes!Great job! Let me know what you think. And you are correct – you are unlikely to be able to out run her to the toy and that makes me a do a happy dance! I love her speed and athleticism, plus she is also brilliant. Fun time ahead!!
Tracy
Hi Joni! Welcome! Ruby is just lovely 🙂 And sassy! What a cute smart little girl!!!!
On your first video:
Good tugging to start! And yes, then she was like “why are you throwing boots at me mom?” LOL!! But also yes – good recovery and she got right to offering on the boot.You can have your cookies ready in your hand to be able to get them in low, right on the boot, within a second of each click. That will help you get the rhythm going as well. The mechanics of being ready are probably the hardest part (you will feel like you need another arm or two):
I dig out my cookies during the tugging so as the prop goes down, the cookies are ready. You were rewarding at her mouth, but I think for this skill you can shift for the next session and reward by putting the cookie down on the boot (to get her looking at the boot more and up at you less.I also like her back and forth to the toy – nice balance with food and toy drive!
One thing I see she is doing is circling to her left – either around you or around the boot. She might be doing it because that is what she does when she is thinking (pretty common behavior in Border Collies LOL!) or you might have already been shaping a circling behavior (like circling a cone). Either way, we can use this prop set up to teach her to offer without circling because we will only want the circling on cue and also not only to the left LOL!! So you can break it down to get some rapid-fire rewards in – hold the boot in your hand and do some quick treats for her nose touching it, then lower it to the floor, very quick treats for interaction even if it is not with a foot at first.
You can also change the training set up for a bit to where you are sitting in a chair, up against a wall, and the boot is up on something a little elevated – so circling around you won’t get rewards and she will quickly figure out how to step up onto the boot and not go around it. Let me know if that makes sense, I might need more coffee haha!Pre-game video 2 – I really like how you set this session up: the prop is very obvious , you were nice and low, lots of fast clicks and treats!! And then you started to vary your position from sitting to kneeling to standing while maintaining the high rate of success. Click/treat for you!! Brilliant! She was a rockstar and you can see how quickly the behavior was coming, plus she was not circling. Yessssss!!! My only suggestion is to have a couple of treats already in your hand. You were clicking then going into your pocket to get the treat out then rewarding. One thing I notice about Ruby already is that she is *quick* so having a couple of cookies in your hand will help you be as quick as she is – click then instant cookie toss, so you can really isolate the behavior and reward without her waiting or offering more behavior LOL! Plus it is a GREAT way to introduce a bit of distraction, because she will learn to ignore the cookies in your hand in order to earn those cookies 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think! I am looking forward to seeing more from you and Ruby 🙂
Tracy
Hi again!
Oh good baby here!! Such a good girlie!! Going back to seeing if she will turn equally both directions – she has the rhythm of the game now, so it looks like she was turning equally to her left and right based on which side of you she was on. Yay!!She did really nicely both driving to you and turning SUPER tight on your leg. No flanking out, no butt swinging wide (she was decelerating with tons of balance, so awesome for a baby dog!!), no jumping up. Perfect girlie! For now, because she is so little, bend down more to cue the position and turn and deliver the treat (sorry about your back, don’t do too many reps LOL!). For now, put the treat right below your knee cap and when she arrives and you turn, put it right in front of your knee cap so her head wraps around your leg a tiny bit to encourage the body bending.
She seems to really like food right now (perfect) so getting her right back on the toy was probably the hardest part of the session. I am thrilled to see her food drive, that is NOT something we see with a lot of baby BCs! So you can move the toy play away from the food area by running to a different spot and also lengthening the tug toy so you can swing it around for lots of chasing.
Great job!
TracyGood morning! Scrimmage is such a gorgeous baby dog!!!
She totally cracked me up on this session – on the first rep, she realized it was a ‘get that cookie, come get this cookie’ game and the look on her face after cookie #2 at :08 was so funny (“should I at least be sitting for this??” LOL!!) And it is nice to see a BC that really likes food! Yay!
She did really well grabbing the treat and coming to you on this one – my only suggestion is to reward lower, so her head is straight (she doesn’t have to reach up) and her head is even a little turned into you. I’d say the best placement will be close to your leg like you had it, but just below your knee cap (bending over is fine to do it 🙂 )
In future sessions, we will also keep an eye on which way she turns after getting the cookie, to see if she has a side preference (like always turning to the left, for example) or if she will turn both ways. It was hard to tell on this session because she was just getting the rhythm of cookie-then-momma. Ideally she turns into your line, towards you, and not away. I will see if she is doing that on the next video 🙂
Great job here!!!Tracy
I *might* need more coffee to answer this properly, but let me know:
“”If in throwing the treat, I’m “sending” with right hand and right leg, should I be starting my run away as if this were a post turn (starting with connection still on right, then blinding to pick him up left) or as if there were a FC (crossing immediately to connection on left then blinding to pick him up on right)? “”
Either! Both! LOL! You can start by tossing/sending with your right then doing a FC and running away looking over your left then do a BC to get him on your right side (and yes, I am spinning my chair now to make sure I am doing this correctly haha)
Or, send/toss with your right, post turn, run away looking over your right then do a BC to get him on your left.
>>
Ultimately, he needs to see both, but are you wanting us to focus on one vs. the other right now? >>I think in general , I do it as the FC option because it gets my sorry butt up the line faster 🙂 But either & both are fine 🙂
>>I think I did a mix of these in our session, because to be honest, I hadn’t planned the piece in my head sufficiently when we started.
I didn’t emphasize those mechanics of escaping up the line because they are not as important as the BC mechanics – and with any young pup, I find that no matter how many pups we have raised, the mechanics are always wonky and awkward with the new pup LOL!!!!
Let me know if that makes sense 🙂
TI kinda figured that this would be perfect timing for your teenage puppy holder. It is also a great stealthy self-control game, because he will need to leave her to chase you and I am sure he loves her. Have fun!
Good morning to you and the baby goat!!! Goat games look great here and I am glad you have also been working on them already. Yay!
He was really wonderful with getting his front feet up on the perch thing! Looks like you have also been shaping some hind end awareness because he was offering some back feet moving too, yay!!! His confidence was lovely 🙂 You can use a bigger perch if you want him to get all 4 feet on (or 2 of these stools pushed together) – that would be a next step (getting him to get all 4 feet on something).
I think the hardest part of this session was getting him to NOT get on the thing when you wanted to play tug LOL!!! It is actually an important skill for future sports stars: play with this thing and do a thing here, even though something REALLY EXCITING is right there LOL! For example: Stop on the bottom of your dog walk even though there is a tunnel right there. Or, do the turn that I am cuing even though you see the delicious a-frame out ahead. And so on LOL!!!
So since Disco *does* like toys, we can help get more toy play and less leaving the toy to go do the cookie fiesta on the perch. There are a couple of ways to do it:
– you can scoop up the perch, stick it under your arm (or up on something like a table) and then play tug.
– you can move further away from the perch (not always possible lol) and swing the toy around, even tie it to a leash or another toy so it is crazy exciting to chase.Then, when Disco grabs the toy toy and tugs on it, after a couple of seconds, you can reward that by plopping the perch back down for more clicks & cookies on it, or you can run back over to the perch to re-start the game. That keeps the goat game really fun while also rewarding the tugging that happens between rounds of it.
When I was starting these shaping games with my food-loving dogs, I would have the perch in one room of the house and then run down a hall to tug, then run back to the room for perching LOL! When the pups got the rhyhthm of it, I could tug right next to the thing.
Let me know if that makes sense! Great job here 🙂
TracyDriving ahead looks awesome! I love how he immediately got focused on the line as you took his collar and tossed the toy. He got very serious about it LOL! Nice!! He smoked da momma, which is *exactly* what we want. Wheee!
He appears to have zero difficulty with the pressure and excitement of your running, he remains straight on task. GOOD BOY!!! Sometimes puppies flank out or jump up or cut behind or back off because they are not comfortable with it… nope, Mr. WM is all sorts of game on! Super!
Ok so now we tweak the game a tiny bit : it starts the same wy with you holding his collar and throwing the toy, but we are now going to try to get you ahead so that he has to pass you rather than be ahead the whole time. You can do this by gentle opposition reflex on the collar, throw the toy… but then instead of just letting him go, you are going to gently push him back and run, so you have a head start on him (very much like the playground cheating we did as little kids, did you ever do that? I totally did hahahaha). The push back is gentle, we don’t want him to lose his balance, but we do want to see what he does if you give yourself a step or two head start. The other option is to enlist a family member as puppy holder – everything is the same, except they hold the pup and you start to run when the toy lands – after 2 steps they let go of the pup. The goal is to get him to feel the joy of accelerating past you 🙂
Let me know if that makes sense! Great job here!!Tracy
Good morning!
Awww good baby doing blind crosses! The element of commitment that starts it (go do a thing, I am running the other way) looked GREAT – I know the “thing” you sent him to do was to go get a treat of fthe mat, but it is actually a really helpful baby dog countermotion game that builds great commitment skills! Yeah, it is unlikely that a Lab is going to NOT eat the cookie hahaha but he then has to leave the cookie smell AND has to think about what he is doing and then turn the ‘correct’ direction towards you (like a FC). Basically after he eats the treat, we are looking for him to turn towards you based on your line and connection – which he did on all but one of the reps. And I think on the rep where he turned what I would consider “away” (:21), I think he was still reading your line – you had cut in behind his line there so he was turning to the line, like a baby dog rear cross. I know that this is a slightly obsessive detail, but it helps us make sure that the pups are comfy turning BOTH directions and not just one direction 🙂 So keep your running line as straight as possible and I am confident he will read the turns to chase you perfectly.
Your blinds looked really good!!!! Great mechanics and connections. He was responding beautifully. The quicker you show him the new connection, the quicker he changes sides. On the first reps at :06 and :15, you started the BC, took one more step, then finished it so he had a moment of delay in changing sides. You got quicker and quicker on the others, so keep focusing on finishing the blind as quickly as possible (in terms of showing him the new connection).
Great job!!!
TracyHi again!
On the training games here: Good work!!! He was very gentle on the prop, just doing a bit of foot hit for the first bit – placing the reward right over the prop seems to help him because there is less motion to and from the prop. As the session progressed, he got more excited and then was adding in the rolling 🙂 For the purposes of what we are using the prop for – not a problem, because he won’t want to roll it. But for training challenge purposes – you can alter the timing of your marker/reward so isolate those softer/slower lifts of his feet -where he raises the foot to touch the prop, right before he touches it – to see if you can help him touch not roll. It is a good training challenge, good for training mechanics for us humans and good for his body awareness 🙂 He is going to have to settle himself to do it…. which is GREAT! You can definitely move into the sending to the prop games now too 🙂The back and forth game looks really good too, I loved this session: you had just the right balance of easy stuff to get it rolling while letting him think it through, with some challenges for him to choose, big verbal party when he did choose correctly (plus cookies of course) then mixing in moments of the easy stuff too. Yessssss 🙂 If you can get this again on the next session (I am very sure you will), you can slide in the thing to go around in the middle of the session (jump upright or cone or whatever you would like to use :))
Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
