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Hi Kelly!
There are about 1000 that I loved about this session 🙂 A lot of what we do with the puppies at this age is lay the foundation for when we need to train the hard stuff – and this session was just perfect in that regard. You had *GREAT* transitions from toy play to shaping to toy play to shaping. I obsess on clean, fast transitions because that is what can really make a difference in helping the learning process. You nailed the speedy end-of-tugging while putting the tray down and having your cookies ready: so when the toy went away, the prop was there and the cookies were ready, and you were able to nail the first interaction with a reinforcement. And after the 2nd and 3rd play break, he recognized the transition back to the tray thing and immediately got back on it: “oh look, there is my thing, I will get on it.” Click/treat for you both!!! Super! I know it sounds silly, but getting the mechanics of a training session to be smooth like this is the most important thing for future training. YAY!!!! My only suggestion is if he gets caught up in the smell of the cookies while you present the toy, you can move to a different spot away from the pool of scent to get the tug going (he was looking for cookies on the first play break :))
He did a great job offering behavior on the tray thing 🙂 Next session, you can use something bigger so he can get his back feet on it, and/or something taller so he has to get on it more. You can use all sorts of random objects as long as they are stable and have good grip – the more variety, the better.
Fabulous job with the session! Onwards to more goat tricks!!Tracy
Hi! Hooray for quick sessions to break up the work day!
He is sorting himself out nicely on the step – you can feed a little lower so his head is lower and that should encourage him to stand and not sit – which makes it easier to turn around 🙂 You can also do some rapid-fire feeding in the stand, to encourage *not* moving or offering for a moment LOL! I am coming to have a fine appreciation for helping the dogs be stationary LOL!!! His was getting really good at turning around and not coming off – the addition of the mat helped give him more grip too. And he seemed to have no trouble getting off without falling on his head. Yay! You can try to get this game on as many different plank-like things as possible.
On the backing up – yes, I think he was asking if it was the platform or the feet. We will be getting a platform involved in the backing up very soon, so for now start it without a platform and see if you can shape it. Then it will be even easier with the platform. I am really excited by what he was offering so far – for such a fast moving dude, he had some really nice clear hind end offering happening here! Very nice!!!
Great job 🙂 Looking forward to more work break sessions!
TracyHey there!
The blind crosses on the first video look terrific – I thought the toy reps and the cookie reps both looked terrific, so keep on using both (one was not better than the other, they were both really strong!). This is a good game to take to different places too, because it is great for recalls!
The target in the hand also looks terrific. Yay!! We build this into a fancy game soon – she will be ready for it 🙂
The wrapping session was really fun to watch! The first part went perfectly. One thing you can do is move the bowls a little further back, so they are nearer to your hips, to get a little more turn from her (she is a big dog LOL!) Now when the upright got further away, she showed us a side or preference: any time she turned to her left, she was perfect (going from your right hand to your left hand). Turning to her right was MUCH harder for her (going from your left to your right) and she was stumped on a couple lol!!! You can help develop the right turns 2 ways:
Pull the upright in closer when she has to turn right, so it is easier to do (then slide it back out for left turns).
Or, you can use your arm- when she is going to turn right, put your right hand on the upright so your arm is blocking the road between it and you, so the only real option is to go around it. If you try that and she is still stumped, definitely pull the upright in closer.
Great job here!
TracyHi! She is so fun! And the Santa toy is very appropriate for the time of year too LOL! Glad to see it was warm enough to work outside, and NO SNOW! Wow!!
The toy races are going well, she is driving straight and fast to the toy and even managing to get there first when you try to cheat to win by throwing the cookie back 🙂 Yes, you can look at her more on this, but definitely add more distance now – hold her collar and throw the toy as far as possible and let go of her to run when the toy lands. The goal is that she drives ahead so much that there is clear daylight between you and her. You might need a heavier toy to get it to throw far? I think it will be a fun way to build the confidence of being out ahead of you 🙂
Great job with your energy and engagement here, she really soaks it up!!!
TracyHi! Super fun session here! That cheat-to-win on the 2nd rep changed the game up – he started to really put on the Rocket boosters, especially on that last rep where there was a clear stretch of daylight between him and you. So fun!!! You can throw in a cheat-to-win rep on each session, just to keep him fueled to win the toy 🙂 I love the confidence this is building to drive forward ahead of you; we will be adding it to other games soon 🙂
Great job!
TracyOops, I almost missed this, sorry! Good little guy totally has the rhythm of the back and forth here! First session went really well! When you went to the upright being further in the 2nd session, you can warm up the rhythm with it closer then while he is eating, sneakily slide it out an inch or two. I think we were also seeing a bit of the ‘right turn is easy, left turn is harder’ that we saw in the plank game. In session 2, he was really peachy keen on the wraps where the wing was on his right shoulder…. but he had to think really hard about going to his left (I saw a little steam coming out of his ears haha!) Good boy, he figured it out and you had parties when he did 🙂 On the 3rd session you gave him a little less room between you and the upright, and I think that was totally the right decision to keep the success rate high. You can keep the upright close to you when he has to go to his left, scoot it a little further away when he goes to his right, pull it back in when he goes to the left…. pretty soon it will all even out.
With the upright close to you, you can start to change your position – try the next session with you in a chair and see how he does (we are working up to getting you standing 🙂 )
Great job!!
TracyHi Leanne! Glad you are here! He is just STUNNING, I love how he is growing up. Yay!!
This game looks great so far – my only small tweak is to let go of him before he looks up at you – everything is great except you are holding him for one heartbeat too long so he looks up at you and we don’t want him to think that you want him to look at you on these.
His drive forward looks good, and he does not seem to mind the pressure and excitement of you running. And he appears to have terrific toy drive too! Perfection!
He is going just fast enough to beat you to the toy every time… so now let’s teach him what it feels like to REALLY smoke you (sorry not sorry haha). Go to the Week 2 Toy Races where you are going to cheat a little so you can win and steal the toy an tease him a bit. The goal is that he figures out that he can win the toy race by miles and he gets to feel the wind in his hair as he leaves you in the dust. Don’t worry, I promise we will also teach him the joys of turning nice and tight haha but he is totally ready for the next steps on this one 🙂
Fabulous job! Let me know what you think!!
TracyHi there!
I love his little waggy tail 🙂 That is a PERFECT sized plank for him for now! Wide enough that he could get all four feet on but narrow enough that it was still pretty challenging. He was *instant* in putting his hind end on it, that is fabulous. Totally a goat-beardie hybrid LOL! He also didn’t seem to mind it moving, because it was still moving when he got on haha! Very cool.On this turns here – he was turning to his right very well! Part of this was because that was where you were located relative to the plank and partially I think that is his preferred direction – when you wanted him to turn to his left at 1:44ish, he kinda of fell all over his feet 🙂 And then when he turned to get back on the plank at 1:50, he turned to his right even though turning towards you would be to his left. And when you helped him turn right with all his feet on the board, he was quite coordinated and balanced! So – on the next session, try to get him to turn left (be prepared to it to not be as smooth as turning to his right LOL!) You can totally help him, cookie on his nose, move very slowly. That will help get him comfy to turn to both sides equally.
If you have a slightly high plank out in the yard, maybe 6 or 8 inches off the ground, you can try this game and that will include more hopping off too. For now, don’t go much higher than 8 inches because he is still so young.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi there!
>>Quick question about this week’s goat tricks. Little man is already offering advanced level tricks on moving objects and planks. Do you still want me to upload beginner videos or go ahead and upload where he currently already is ? FYI..didn’t push to train these ..it’s just who he is 🙂>>
Perfect! Show me where he is with the advanced stuff, and we can add to it! We have all sorts of crazy goat tricks we can build on LOL!!!!!
T
Hi there! He definitely looks really confident about getting on ALL the things, even the moving ones 🙂 That is great! The disc and the wobble board are both small, so he is contracting his body to get on them with all 4 – and that is fine, but be sure to balance each contraction with extension, meaning he can stand with good posture and all 4 feet on something, almost like stacking. The paw pod thingies are hard because they are relatively small. So you can take 3 or 4 discs and smoosh them together so he can get on them, or the disc and the wobble board, etc. Think of his body as an accordion – sometimes contracted, sometimes extended, not too much one way or the other 🙂 Plus, by asking for the extended stance with all 4 feet, you will be asking him to use more of his hind end and balance, but in an easier way than getting all of those paws onto a small surface area. Plus, you won’t have to slow him down if the playing field is larger (and the plank games help too, because the pups have to think about their hind ends a TON on the planks, especially when we add in turning around). And, in all honesty, when consulting the top notch rehab veterinarians about how to slow down Hot Sauce in order to isolate her left hind use… the answer is to lure. A stick of cheese or a peanut butter kong on the nose helps me lead her into the stance I want. She still totally has to think about her body but the lure prevents any flinging LOL! We know that Wingman doesn’t have any worries about this, so feel free to lure (
Somehow “lure” became a dirty 4-letter word in dog sport training (myself included, I MUCH prefer shaping!), but in recent years I have found there is a time and a place for it… and sometimes it is a great way to say to the pup: sloooooow down, kiddo! LOL!
For the pivoting and also on the wobble board – for now, try to feed him with his head lower, so he is not reaching up as much (changes his stance and weight shift when he reaches up). Thankfully, he will be tall enough soon that you won’t have to bend over LOL!
>>Is it reasonable to work toward getting him to back up to a 2o2o on the balance disk and then doing this pivot like he does here with back feet on and front feet walking around?>>
Yes – but not yet because the understanding and strength take a while to develop. We will be breaking down backing-up-onto-a-thing in coming weeks, so for now keep them separate (backing up and getting on things). I do recommend having him put his back feet only on the disc with his front feet on the ground, but moving forward for now: have him come up to the perch position like you had here, front feet on and back feet off. When you reward that, reward further away from the perch so he steps forward off of it – and then puts his back feet on it with some shaping (or a lure hahaha). The other option is to get him to be all four feet on something (like several discs squished together) then reward for stepping off with his front feet, leaving his back feet on. You can use a hand target it get him to move his front feet off.
Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
TracyHowdy! Glad you like this variation on teaching it – it has turned out to be a really easy way to get the behavior. I used to shape it on the flat but this is muuuuuuuch easier for dog and handler. You were able to start the behavior really quickly here with Wingman and it was the correct body posture we look for – balanced movement, walking backwards and not hopping, low head. Yay!! This backing up behavior will end up being a great warm up and conditioning behavior, as well as a hind end behavior too (it is fatiguing to the puppies, so don’t do too much of it). I am excited to build on it in coming weeks.
>> I didn’t click and treat when he went behind my leg instead of backing up. I just started a new rep by tossing the cheese between my legs. Is that the right way to handle that?
Yes, absolutely spot on. Drop a cookie in the sweet spot and tell him to get it, then the click and treat toss can come for the backing up. One thing I suggest here is that you have a handful of cookies ready, so you don’t have to reload – the first couple of treats were a little delayed and the motion of hand going to pocket for treats will draw his head up to watch. So, if you have a few treats already in the hand, you barely have to move and you can just kind of flick the treat back as the reward – it really helps keep his head down and that way he can really use his rear. You can even let your hands dangle there so the cookie hand is low and he can actually focus on it (more low head action). The cookies in the hand right there in front of him also layer in some self-control because he will have to move away from the cookies in order to get them 🙂
We will be adding on this soon to get more steps backwards, so for now just keep focusing on great form like you did here – better to have a couple of steps of good form than a lot of steps of puppy hops LOL!!!
Great job!
TracyHi! Bummer about school stuff but yay, I am glad you are enjoying!!!! This is a great group of people and puppies, and I am really enjoying your videos with Ted! (plus the great tunes hahaha)
Hi!
>>I can also tug with her back to the start area too. I’ve been working on that.
Ah! Yes, that is perfect, I think she would think that was super fun 🙂
>> Send with the arm. Got it. I also think I forgot to LOOK at her eye’s.
Yes, arm & leg on the send, look at the eyes – so many little details that we don’t even realize that we do with our older dogs LOL!
>>But I do have video of the Teaching Deceleration and turns. I might post that.
Great! Looking forward to it!
>>I have a question. Am I doing this okay with the video’s? Let me know if you want anything edited together or anything.
So far, perfect! I like seeing them in the isolated clips that you have sent, that way we can talk about each one – makes it easier to look back on, as opposed to a long one with a bunch of stuff edited together.
Have a great day!
T
