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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!
TracyHi 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
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!
TracyGood 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!
TracyHi! 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!
TracyHi – yes, better engagement to start for sure! When he saw the target, though, he let go and waited to do the thing… so I definitely think we pursue the idea of getting engagement in the presence of the thing (even if the thing has to be on the other side of the room). And, during the targeting, reward him at your side for coming back to you – what might have felt not quite right was that he was facing you and backing up to it, and not wanting to come back to you to reset for a send. So the come to you, get a reward, reset, will help the send and also getting engagement without doing the thing til there is permission to do it with a send. So you might find that you are actually shaping less or doing less of the lessons and just spending more time playing and doing tricks in the presence of the various ‘things’ 🙂
T
hi there!
The foot targeting was a really interesting session. The foot targeting itself if going fine, and you can balance it by rewarding him for coming back to you and then sending him to it. But what was really interesting is something that we have seen in other places… when there is a “thing to do” he doesn’t want to play tug or engage as much with you… he wants to do the thing! LOL!! While this is great in some ways, this is not great in others LOL!! We want engagement with you to have the MOST value and then engagement with the ‘thing’ (like a tunnel or jump) to have value but not as much as you. The reason is so he can follow your cues and not simply seek out ‘work’, if that makes sense.
So, a new game: get play near ‘things’ without doing the things, just in the presence of the thing. For example, getting him to tug while you hold his target. The tug should be more active and moving, and it might take some sweaty moments! Same with treats – can he play with you and do tricks in the presence of the ‘thing’ (tunnel, target, jump, etc.) And sometimes you can send him to the ‘thing’ as a reward for really playing. That will help in a lot of ways.
let me know if that makes sense!
TracyHi there!
Paw touch along with nose (or even scratching at the duct tape) is actually fine 🙂 It just adds more “things to do” in position while waiting for the teeter to fall. I wouldn’t want *only* a paw touch but paw touch/scratch plus head bob to target is great!>> On the running we have put some work into touching target with all 4 feet running back and forth for both flyball and running contacts over the past few months.
Perfect! I am excited to hear she is also training in flyball, SO FUN!! The 2 behaviors will diverge though, so we need to plan: the flyball mat will become a turning thing and the RDW mat will become a split rear feet run-through-based-on-verbals thing. My pup is training both so I used different mats and got the flyball mat onto the board pretty quickly (she was about 14 months old at that point).
>> I dusted off the manners minder, but it is taking a little time for her to decide it’s okay.
You can try having it turned off and tossing the treat to it as more of a target and less of a remote rewarder. Plenty of dogs think the MM is haunted so we use it as a treat or ball catcher at first 🙂 There are other options that the dogs find less weird, such as the clip & go single dispenser thing and also there Pet Tutor (which people LOVE but it have resisted because of the cost).
I am not surprised that the terrier was happy to partake in the Manners Minder hahaha!!!!!
Keep me posted!
Hi! The PVC box is a perfect solution!
And plenty of dogs have a 4on for the teeter and 2RF on the other contacts as well so that will work nicely!T
Good morning!
I think the wing work is going really nicely on the video! He is definitely building the value and he was figuring it out as you added the sideways angle and being backwards to it (his expressions were pretty funny: “OK, I guess I will go around the thing” haha!)
At this stage, I think the next thing he needs is the permission to start, as in when he can leave you to go to the wing. As you are adding distance and changing your angle, he wasn’t entirely sure of when to start heading for the wing. That is easy enough to change by starting with him next to you, hand on collar or on his chest, give him a little ‘ready, set…’ then one a step towards the wing. Now if you are facing forward, you would step forward with the dog-side leg towards the wing (staying connected to his eyes). If you are sideways or backwards to the wing, you would step with the leg closer to the side of the wing you want him to go around. You can use your hand too, using the hand closer to the side of the wing you want him to go around. And as you add the counter motion, turning your head to look at where you want him to go helps when you are sideways or backwards to the wing.
This will help him go really fast to the wing to match the really fast you are getting when you turn and run 🙂On the pill bugs (and about the jumping on you and biting) – the jumping/biting/slamming is something we do indeed see from high drive youngsters, particularly herding breeds. Aussies seem to really enjoy the biting/slamming! We humans do not enjoy it LOL! So a few ideas away from the pill bugs that will then be applied to the pill bugs:
* use a longer toy, so when you go to reward you can drag the long toy behind you, directing his focus downwards to the toy and away from your flesh.
* on the flat, revisit some recalls and blind crosses: toss a cookie for him to go get, then take off and run – call him, do a recall, do a blind, and start dragging the reward before he gets to you. You can start it at a walk, then go to a job, ideally to build success and value for NOT jumping up/slamming/biting when he is aroused. You can work up to really running too!
* Have a criteria of **feet on ground** and **no tooth hugs** and be strict with it! If he lifts his front feet off the ground and/or delivers any teeth on flesh, absolutely no reward. And, I suggest a game over moment when it happens – gently take his collar and leave the playing field, and his sister can have the cookie (gasp!!!). Now, ideally, we don’t have to do that more than once or maybe twice over the course of ALL of his training, so establishing the baseline of massive reinforcement for criteria at a slower speed/slightly less arousal will help that.
* You can layer in arousal by playing with the toy a little before you start then going to food rewards. If he has a really high rate of success, you can layer in more and more arousal. We cannot avoid the arousal, so layering it in will really help.During pill bug games: Starting him on a stay doesn’t give you quite enough of a head start, so try tossing a cookie away, sending him to it then running while he is getting it 🙂 I think these are going generally really well! One thing to avoid for now are the inside turns, where he is between you and the tunnel – try to keep yourself between him and the tunnel because it is easier for him to chase your line then it is to turn away from it. For example, at 2:02, you did a blind with him on the outside and it was great! At 2:15, you did a blind with him on the inside and he couldn’t quite read the turn away so he jumped up at 2:17. We can add those at a walk later on but the running will work be set on outside turns.
The reps that worked best were the ones where you rewarded pretty early, like after 1 blind. When you went to multiples like at 2:44, it was harder to stay ahead and maintain connection so he had a little more trouble.
At 2:55, he just didn’t see which side to be on so ended up on the wrong side of the tunnel – but you got it back on track for a really nice FC – I would reward that – it is hard to maintain the connection while running after it so he ended up on the wrong side. The next section with the FCs went nicely! He only had a question when you ended up on an inside turn.
So overall, these are off to a good start but things to remember are that we want him really chasing you (rather than staying at your side) so more of a head start will help! And doing 1 cross then rewarding will help keep it fast and fun and eliminate the jumping/etc.Let me know if this all makes sense. Good work!
TracyWith any dog bigger than my 9″ tall Papillon, I set criteria. Natural striding is not enough criteria, and plus natural striding is only good for straight exits. Plus, natural striding with a young dog will change as they get faster. So, I’m a big fan of setting and teaching criteria 🙂 and I use the split RF criteria.
TExcellent question! The answer is in what criteria you are training the dog to do in the box.
If it is a foot target criteria, then it doesn’t matter what size the box is or where it is located, although I would think lower is better in that case.If you’re teaching the dog to find the contact by striding over the top edge of the box, then I think it could be confusing to have the box top lower than the yellow, as that criteria might eventually involve the dog using the top of the yellow.
I personally use a foot target criteria, on a mat, so the target size is relevant (it starts pretty big then gets faded as the striding and understanding is built.
Let me know if that makes sense 🙂
TracyGood morning! Is that the new SOTC turf? Looks gorgeous!
These were supper high energy and fun sessions here!! She really responds to all or your readdeeeeeeeeee LOL! Love it!
Her speed is fine, she was running and happy (not trotting or sad). She had a question here and there about whether to go to the wing, but that can be answered a couple of ways:
In terms of handling, be sure to use your dog side leg to step to the wing on the sends. On the rep where she ended up cutting in front of you and going around the wing the wrong way, the dog side leg didn’t have enough involvement so that was the line of your body she was reading. Also, on the sends, make more connection with her – you were looking forward, which changes the line of the upper body. When you are up close next to the wing, the connection is not as important because the wing is so obvious and right there. When you are adding distance, that connection is more important so on the send – step with the dog side leg, use a little less dog side arm, and look at her more and it will be great. A lovely example was the rep at about 1:31, all the elements were in place and she rocked it.
2 other ideas:
First: stop saying GO! That will mean something entirely different when she is on jumps (straight line extension) so we don’t want it to mean wrap tight, which is what will happen by using it here. Now, all of us want to say *something* to our dogs, so I suggest either a silly noise for now, or just slap on your wrap cue. Have you decided what you want your tight turn verbal to be? Folks tend to use things like dig dig dig or check check check or something – she is ready for that, so you can add it at this point.Second: as you get further away on the sends (and as you add the countermotion games), you can throw the toy past the wing more to maintain the balance and excitement of leaving you (that will also maintain the speed of running to the wing). So using the toy she loves, or giant easy-to-see cookies, or a ball, you can send and as she is heading to the wing, toss it out past the wing as the reward (especially on the countermotion where you will be turning and leaving).
You can do the chair game, but do it right up close to the wing and don’t do too much of it. She LOVES the excitement of your interaction when you are sending and moving, and I don’t want to remove that (chair sitting is boring LOL!!!)
Nice work here!
TracyGood morning!
The wing wrapping is going really well! TONS of good value, so all of your position changes in the first half of the video didn’t phase her at all. She was able to continue her wrapping even when you were sideways or backwards, which will be great for cuing turns later in her training. You can use toys more with this now – the toy will make it even more exciting and also more difficult because the toy is distracting. The sending is also going well – I think she was surprising on the first one (when she didn’t go) because you were so far away but then did well on the second one. You can amp it up by starting with your hand on her collar and a bit of gently opposition reflex & ready ready ready – then step into it. As you step into the send, try to keep looking at her (connection) more than looking at the wing – that will really help as you add distance.
At this moment, she is a bit faster coming back to you than she is heading away to the wing (normal!) so you can change up the placement of the toy: rather than always tug back at you, you can toss it out to the wing so she gets it as she arrives or turns past the wing. This will help balance out the speed.
You can start back up close and add in the countermotion now! Fun!On the targeting: the travel plank works a bit better for the 2o2o, which might be why the 4on feels awkward on it. You are on the right path with it, particularly on the 2nd clip where you started her further back and she moved into the 4on at the end. Here is a suggestion on the travel plank – start her at the ‘far’ end 🙂 of it and ask her to stand & stay there, so you can go to the target end, then have her come forward to the target. Then after a cookie or two, release her off the plank, play tug, then reset the whole game (rather than having her back up on the plank or placing her there). That can make it feel less awkward.
But, as teeter prep (which I believe this is, if I remember correctly), we can tweak the game a bit to make it less awkward and more action-packed 🙂 The hand touching element looks good, so we can move to more of an actual target. So many choices here for a 4on: I personally use duct tape with Hot Sauce (so fancy, I know hahaaha). The duct tape started folded up so it was a 3-dimensional and more visible target, and then I faded it to flat (and finally faded it out). With my other small dogs I have taped a spoon to the underside of the board so the spoon was the target (and convenient treat holder). The spoon can either be just below the board (so the dog looks down for it at the very end) or it can be sticking up so it is a more visible target. A friend of mine uses a pipe cleaner taped to the end of the board, sticking up, as a target for her smaller dogs.The goal for the 4 on is that there is a weight shift into the rear and the elbows are tucked into her rib cage (so her front legs are not reaching forward) and she rides the teeter down looking ready to pounce.
Do any of these targets sound interesting to you? If no you have no preference, the duct tape is the easiest because she is closest in build & size to Hot Sauce.
After you pick a target, you can introduce it in a shaping s session or two, just c/t for nosing it in your hand then on the travel plank. Then when she is actively seeking her target and has value, we can put it on a wobble board. If moment serves, she really likes the wobble board! That will be a fun way to get her thinking about the posture/position we’ll want on the teeter while on something that is moving. That will translate nicely into the teeter games after that.
Let me know if it all makes sense 🙂
Nice work here!
TracyGood morning!
Yes, I am sure that there will be different challenges with Spot, but I admit that it is really nice for him to already be able to work & play in that environment <3The wing shaping is looking good!! Nice session here where you were able to rotate sideways and backwards - he really seems to have great value for the wing. So, onwards! Add in the next steps, particularly the sending: sending forward & leaving, and sending him backwards to it with one step (like we did on the little foot target). If that continues to go well, you can add in all the countermotion stuff too! It will take a few sessions but it looks like he will pick it up really quickly.
Nice work here!
Tracy
