[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! She was just so funny, trying to pick up the target 🙂 This is going fine and I think there is enough value to change it up a bit by having her hop on the side of the plank into her 4on target position, with you standing and to the side. It is kind of like the teeter bang game: the target is already on the plank, you and she are next to the plank, hand on collar getting her excited – then give the target cue, let go, and reward for hopping into target position. That can allow you to add more independence to it – I will be posting ideas on that this week! Let me know if that makes sense 🙂 You can also do the demand for targeting game from yesterday, I bet she finds it really easy to do 🙂
Nice work!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi there!
It is always great to train in new places!! She seemed to have no trouble at all in a new environment in terms of focus and engagement. Plus the pill bugs are a good workout LOL!
She had a hard time staying on the correct side when you were going around the curve of the tunnel, she wanted to put herself between you and the tunnel – it worked best when you were ahead but not moving that fast yet – you were best able to show her where the connection was so she could get rewarded for staying on that side. You will be able to add back more and more speed and she gets the hang of staying on your side and not migrating towards the obstacle 🙂

On the wing wraps – she definitely was anticipating the chase-the-momma moment when you were trying to move (understandable, it is super fun!) and she was fine if you weren’t really moving, so we need to shift the balance away from you and back to taking the wing without you. Totally normal! You had the best results when you held still til she was almost all the way around the wing, but she wasn’t going to let you leave earlier or use a lot of countermotion yet. So, no problem! As she begins to wrap, drop the reward in on the exit side (where you want her to go) and keep moving slowly. The goal is to be able to stay in motion while she completes her job. You can drop a toy in and then have her come to you for a 2nd toy (unless she is happy to retrieve it) or you can drop in a giant cookie (might as well break in the new turf with cookie crumbs hahaha) but the goal is to keep moving and drop it in early so you can keep moving.

Good girlie on her stays for the RC! I know you have worked hard on the stays, they look GREAT! She did well with the hard RC skill and also with the toy on the ground. Since she wants to watch you and is craning her neck (impressive!) and that is causing a bit of front foot movement, you can leave something out ahead to focus on, such as a toy or an empty food bowl – then release and toss the reward in there, depending on which side you release her on.

Great job here!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi there!
There was one moment in here that made me think that your running contact training is going to go really well: it was when you were trying to pick up the mat and she was insisting on getting on it LOL!!!!! Too funny but a gold star for being tenacious about the darned mat LOL!!

I think she was ending up interacting with other stuff because that stuff was salient in the environment when you moved the mat further from the MM, plus the whole “offer stuff” has a lot of value – and the mat itself doesn’t have a lot of value quite yet. So a clearer space will help that not be a problem.

For the mat – looking good! I think you were clicking for her front feet generally (a little hard to tell when the mat was off screen) so now delay it to rear feet only, ideally for the second of the 2 back feet to hit. Welcome to the exciting world of obsessing on split rear foot hits hahahahaha! You can start her at a bit of an angle, almost 90 degree, so you can see very clearly front feet then rear feet – and then work back to sending her straight over the mat (and back and forth).

Nice work here!!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>>I did some plank work elevated with a sit stay and a toy in a lower distraction environment. It worked well.

Yay! Sounds good!

>>I have started using step/flip as right/left. The bigger question is can I think fast enough to use them as left/right

Yes! I feel that pain – I do a lot of planning of the newer verbals because they are not all at my fingertips yet. I spend a fair amount of time reminding myself of which directionals to use 🙂 It is getting easier and easier with all the practice 🙂

>>Here is mat work with the MM. It was our second session with this random mat square. I am sorry I pulled it just out of view when I backed it up. I thought it was interesting she started interacting with other objects when I moved. When she went out of screen she was on a different platform. We seem to be over MM is scary.

Yay for being over the scary MM! But this was a video of a lovely session of ‘give me your collar’ (really nice work, btw, I love how she is offering up her collar!). Please repost the MM video 🙂

Thanks!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! He is doing a really nice job committing to the wing wrap here, with you fully rotated! It is a particularly hard game because there is not a lot of momentum and because there is no jump bar to help with a focal point.
My only suggestion is to let him see more of the wing- you were blocking it as you sent him back to it. Let him be able to see the outer edge or more of the side of the wing you want him to go around – so you will be on the other side of the wing. That will get snappier behavior because he can see where he is going sooner.

Question: verbals! Have you decided which verbals you want to use? You can go for a general wrap/collection verbal (“wrap towards me”), or you can do a ‘wrap left’ and a ‘wrap right’ verbal (separate words). We can add them at this point!

Nice job!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!
Good work on these!
First clip: value building on countermotion – it was a bit windy so I couldn’t hear what you were saying to him, but you can use your ‘backside wrap’ verbal on this if you have one, as well as a ‘get it’ cue for the reward dropping in. It looked good, so might as well slap the verbals on LOL!! A couple of little details – try not to move up the line so early that you block the wing (for example, at :19 – he needs to turn his head and be able to get past you, so you can wait for one more heartbeat. You can also add in starting hand on collar, getting him pumped up and sending to it, moving forward when he is ahead so he has more room and more of a visual of the wing. Good job tossing the reward behind you, he seemed to do just fine with the commitment! Most of the reps were at a slow walk, which was perfect – the very last one was more of a run and he was like, “wait, what?” LOL!! So add motion a little more gradually 🙂 Fast walk then slow jog will ease him into it.

2nd clip – send & go – you can also be using your wrap verbals here, they aren’t backsides so it would be left wrap and right wrap (you might have been doing it, I feel your pain with the wind!). I like how he was committing as you were showing all sorts of handling – if he understands to commit no matter what, then you can do whatever handling you like 🙂 Yay! As with the circle wraps on the first clip, add in throwing reward back to the wing as you begin to leave earlier and earlier. You can also add in the 90-degree exit (you will be running an “L” shaped line rather than back to where you sent from) on the FCs, to show him even more commitment and independence. I think he is ready! The step back element (when you are fully rotated) will be easier when you have more motion into it, we will be adding a few more games with more motion to help 🙂

Plank – he is looking more and more confident, which is great! The leaping off is going well – such an important skill to help prevent him from splatting himself if he loses his balance! The MM helped keep him straight, at least until you tried to run – at that point, your motion was the most exciting thing 🙂 So, you can isolate and separate them: toy races to the MM (he drives to it when you are running) and also you don’t need to add more speed on the plank, until you get 2 planks on 2 tables – the plank games are pretty much to get him confident, and the rest of the speed gets added as the end behaviors get added in.

Nice work here!!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
It could be hormones and development age if it suddenly cropped up – no worries but definitely something to keep fun 🙂

About the verbals:
With my 6 year old dog, I started with the ‘wrap towards’ and ‘wrap away’ but because of his speed, it delayed his response because he had to first figure out where the heck I was before he could sort out the towards or away element haha! He found it frustrating, so I went to cues for ‘wrap left’ and ‘wrap right’. I wouldn’t bet a million dollars that he knows them completely in all situations, but he does pretty well and is far less annoyed with me 🙂 Lanna is also very fast, so it might help her to consider starting left/right rather than towards/away.

And yes, the games in MP 3 and 4 will all be perfect for those ages – when we get into MP 4, it will include some sequencing and jumping but in an introductory format of low bars and heavy emphasis on safety & understanding – stuff I think is fine with a year old small/medium sized dog.

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi there! Nice sessions here! I am glad you made the choice to stick with food because the tugging was unlikely… we do NOT want to ever fight with the pups about playing, so food for now is great because the barn looks pretty distracting, plus HORMONES lol!!!

OMG – the cows…. she gets a double gold star for ignoring the cow audience. What a great distraction to have during training!

On the plank:
She seems to not be super happy with the restraint part of the recall – I feel that pain, my youngster Hot Sauce *hates* that too. She deals with it now, but I only use it sparingly because I don’t want the dislike of the restraint to bleed over into the conditioned response to the plank.
So, separately from the plank, you can do quick hand offs: hand her off, someone pretends to grab near her (without touching) and then you call her and run. Then you build up into someone lightly touching her, then someone holding her for a heartbeat, and so on, all with you doing very fast recalls so she doesn’t have to be there a long time. She will build value and like it better. She might never LOVE it the way that I love coffee, but at least she won’t avoid it 🙂 It will also help get her happy to be very close to people while working without wanting to avoid at all (or visit haha!)
And in the meantime, on the planks – do it from a stay 🙂 I bet she has a stay that is just fine and dandy 🙂 I do some of my flyball training from a stay rather than a restrainer, because my dog likes it better and WOW it has solidified by agility start stay LOL!!
On the plank – she is doing well staying on it! When you are way ahead, you don’t need to run as fast yet because that is when she is tending to come off the plank. But she was fine and successful with you being just a step ahead and moving fast! I think you can also elevate the plank at this point, just a foot off the ground or so.

On the wings – on the first video with the step back, you had the right idea/mechanics and after a few reps, she did well doing it! My only suggestion is to start it with a bit of a warm up where you send her by facing forward, then sideways, then ease your way into the backwards position. That will help her figure it out right away to generalize the behavior. You can also add in throwing the reward back behind the wing as you add distance and move away – maybe a tennis ball? Or a food toy, like a lotus ball or treat hugger (it will get skanky in the dirt, but totally worth it).

Same on the 2nd video – nice work! As with the 1st clip, you can add in more rewards thrown back to the wing as you leave so you can start leaving earlier and earlier. But she is doing well on this one, it is easier than the backwards stepping so she is doing a great job driving to the wing.

Question – have you chosen wrap verbals for her? I suggest adding them in at this point in both of these games, because it is an easy way to name the behavior 🙂

Nice work here!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi there! She most definitely thought this was so fun! Cookies and action! Wheeeee!
The diagonal RCs (from the stay) are really looking good… you had more action and faster releases, so it was really fun for her. And the circles/spins are also looking good – the best ones were when you moved your hand cue slowly and at her nose level, making the cue very clear. And that is totally ok to do, because that is what the agility cue will look like for real 🙂 When you were too high or too fast, she wasn’t as sure.
You can add in motion to these – walking forward with her next to you, then cue the turn away while you are walking (slowly) – she can either do a complete 360 at your side or you can do a RC on the flat and turn and head the other way.
You can also do these with an empty hand as the cue – I think these had a cookie in the hand which is great way to start, and now we can try empty hand (rewarding from the other hand) to develop the cue even more.
nice work!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi there!
I totally understand how mixing up treats into the toy play can get rid of the toy play – keep working them separately and I know they will come together. Using just the toy on the wing was fine! He is getting the idea on the countermotion but he is also really wanting to move with you so it is hard to add more motion. A few ideas:
Yes, keep moving very slowly for now, but we can also work out reinforcement off your body and behind the wing (rather than from your hand). The more reward you throw behind the wing as you leave, the easier it will be to leave.
So yes, you can do food-only sessions where you toss a giant cookie out past the wing as you start to leave – toss early, as he is looking at the wing, before he hesitates.
On the toy only session, a couple of ideas – you did toss the toy out past it on one rep towards the end of the video, which was exactly what he needs more of. Yay! Now, if you trust his retrieve, you can toss it and ask him to retrieve it as you keep moving away – that reinforces the countermotion and the drive back to you.
If you don’t think he will retrieve it, you can use a SUPER long toy and toss one end in as you leave, then drag it as he rounds the wing. Or you can use 2 toys – throw back one toy, he gets it, has a party… then you recall him to the 2nd toy.

The box shaping looks good, nice value-building session! For now, try not to move other than maybe change your position between reps. You can add in sending him now rather than only shaping back and forth. Have you introduced the manners minder? We will be progressing this pretty quickly, methinks!

Nice work!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! He seems perfectly happening running across the plank, which is exactly what we want. Yay! I think he does need something to run to when you are moving, so he can run past you and not leap up at the hand. An empty food bowl is also an option for now, and then you can toss the treat (or a toy) into it. He definitely looks ready for it to be elevated – when it gets a bit higher, be sure to remind him how to jump off the side so if can jump off rather than fall if he ever loses his balance. Then if that is all fine, onwards to running across then onwards to running 2 planks!!

Nice job!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi there!
She totally is a serious statue LOL!! She did really well on these. She has a good stay going, which helps. When you do start the rear cross part, don’t be tentative – move more quickly so she can turn her head quickly – you were moving pretty slowly so she was turning her head slowly LOL!!!

And when you do click and toss, use a release word – it can be “break” or it can be “get it” but you were tending to use praise which is generally not a release word.

Otherwise, she did really well! Your stay foundation has really helps make this super easy for her! Nice job!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
Sounds like he was a good boy in the vet office!!! The tricks for treats are fine in other locations – it isn’t all about the tugging, more about the ‘do a thing with the momma’, not just ‘do a thing’ LOL!!

>>> I know it’s going to take time, but sometimes I’m disappointed that for all the time spent trying to get him into me, that I’m somehow failing because I’m trying maybe too hard?

I don’t think you are failing at all! I think what we are seeing is a balance shift, not a relationship problem. I think they when you and he are together in a training mode, the balance has shifted into “do the thing” in terms of shape behavior on a prop or obstacle. That is pretty normal and still a sign of a good working relationship (which has nothing to do with your overall relationship with him, which has been fabulous since day 1!). So, my suggestions are designed to shift the balance into more ‘handler focus’ so he doesn’t see an obstacle or prop and think we want him to immediately offer behavior on it. We are going to put it all on stimulus control so you will eventually just cue it, and he will be able to play with you when not cued to do the thing.

I bring peanut butter and other yummies to the vet too, to help the pup feel comfy (or as comfy as possible) during the poling and prodding. My vet also supplies frozen liver pops on pretzels – my dogs say they are delicious 🙂

Thanks for the update!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! The zebra pants are AMAZING!!! I might need to get some for Hot Sauce LOL!!!

And brilliant use of the old chute barrel LOL!

First video: Did she hop on the teeter to get to her video buddy? LOL! She cracks me up. This game is looking good! I think she is anticipating the blind and coming in behind you before she is cued, putting herself between you and the tunnel/barrel. So you can mix in a lot of non-blinds, just keeping her on your outside arm so you keep yourself between the tunnel and her. Exaggerating the connection with the dog-side arm waaaay back will help that (and you can drag the toy too on the side you want her on, to help direct her focus in the early stages and help her stay on the side you want til cued to switch.

2nd video: you really worked her staying on your shoulder (not cutting to the new side) and she did great! It is definitely harder for her to stay on the outside circle, so much easier to cut behind you, but you really emphasized connection and she got the idea nicely. Yay!

3rd video, mat work: she is definitely getting the idea of split feet across the mat. Because the reward is coming from you, we can move to the next step and get her looking ahead for her reward. This becomes important because when she is looking at you, she might end up near the mat but not really hitting the mat, like the last rep. Since the MM is a work-in-progress, we can use 2 food bowls, one on each side of the mat – and the treats get tossed into the bowl. That will help straighten her head out (I recommend practicing the treat toss into the food bowl, or use really big food bowls haha!!). That way she can run through the mat – verbal marker then food toss into the bowl, eat the cookie, then go back the other way to the mat then the food bowl on the other side.
Using a rolling or tossed toy can work too, such as a ball. That is more exciting, but that can also lead to more misses of the mat as she might start racing for the ball.
And at this stage, start to train your eye for the split rear feet by staring at the mat and not at her (hardest thing to do!!) and then you can really set criteria. Youngsters do a lot of front feet hits and those are easy to see, but for the RDW it is the split rear feet hits we want. (For flyball, it wil be front-then-rear). You can give a cookie for one rear foot but shower her with a jackpot for split rear feet.

Nice work here!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! He is doing really well offering the wing – just be sure to keep your hands completely still after each reward, so he isn’t following your hands at all there.
Now, back to what I was suggesting above… he did play with the toy near the wing here which is GREAT!! Yay! Try to break up the sessions more into fewer cookies for doing the thing and lots more toy breaks to engage with you. And for this game, you can start to reward from your hand to help him come all the way back to you so you can engage and reset him (so he doesn’t send himself). That will allow you to change angles more easily and set up the sends too!
I think it might be hard at first to get him to engage in the presence of a fun activity, but it will be really helpful in the long run. Remember that you can start him as far as needed from the activity to get engagement, so he doesn’t struggle as much – and if he doesn’t engage with the toy or tricks… don’t just do the activity. That will cause him to learn to engage with you *less* in the future. Here is a context where it could be a problem: start lines. He sees all the “things” (jumps”) and wants to go do them… you want to engage him to get his focus and a sit stay! So engagement is key here 🙂
Let’s me know how it goes!
Tracy

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