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Hi there!
For the wing wraps, you can use a bit of all of the above! Yes to the cone and the single upright, and yes to shaping it on the wing as well. It is a matter of generalizing and that’s a good thing 🙂
Nose touches:
Nice play to start! You can work a transition from the toy to the touches by getting him to give the toy back rewarding that with another tug moment or a treat. That will help want to give it back more easily and not eat it lol
On the touches- I think there was already a treat in your hand, so I am not sure if he was thinking about touching or thinking about the treat. So, the touch hand should be empty, and the other hand can plop the treat into it after the touch. Also, have your hand a little lower, at his nose level (bend over if needed) so he can move straight to it rather than go up to it. That will produce an even stronger touch.Focus forward:
He really loves that toy lol! It is a perfect toy for the back and forth of release it then tug as reward then release then tug as reward. The focus forward is looking really strong! You can move to the next steps from a sit and see if he can hold the sit while you dangle the toy then move to putting it down and so on all while building focus forward.
Nice work on these, he is doing great!!
TracyHi!
I agree that there are elements of the 2o2o criteria that are easier to maintain (perhaps easier to teach!) and that is a definite gold star for 2o2o! It took me about 6 weeks to decide what to do with my youngster, so keep pondering til it feels right LOL!Great list of verbals! You reminded me of the different release words too – release to work, release to visit, etc. And verbals for slackers has the easiest way to teach left and right that I have ever used and it works really nicely – the ‘minny pinny’ LOL!!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>> I’m conflicted about this. Sending to a target is one method of teaching go-outs in obedience and although I’ve not used it in the past, I am considering using it for Wolfie.
Good point for discussion. See below!
>> If I do, I would want her to have a specific action to take when she gets to the target and not just hang around out there.
We very quickly move away from hanging out on it (that is already included in these preliminary games). But, also, use different targets for the different skills. For this baby agility targeting, use something completely useless (I used a hat LOL!) because we are going to use it for a bit then never really go back to it. For the obedience foundation, use something different like a box – go to the box, get in, stay in. Pups are brilliant discriminators so she will be fine with both.
>>So I think I will redo this, have her put her front feet on the target and then sit.
That is an extensive chain, which is fine, but use a target that will promote this (like the box I mention above) and of course start all the elements separately: get in, get in and sit, send to it, send & get in, then eventually send and get in and sit. But don’t use that specific target for the agility games.
>>But where are we going with this for agility? Would this mess up the purpose of sending to a target in agility?
We are moving into countermotion and commitment games for agility with this (you’ll see it past the initial shaping steps) so yes, sending and sitting and staying is not what we want. But, using a different target (like a random shoe or something) will serve the purpose just fine and allow you to train both behaviors. The obedience target will result in get in and sit, and the agility target will result in hit and go. She will learn both easily, same way the dogs learn the difference between jumps and tunnels and tables, etc.
On the video:
Cone work – she definitely has a ton of value for the cone, well done! Now we need to change it up to get her going both directions equally and so it doesn’t turn into repetitive circling (I am not a fan of repetitive circling of any obstacle with a puppy). So, after each reward, call her back to you, reward her for coming back, take her collar, reward, set her up on the side you want her on, then do a little ready set release of the collar to give her permission to move. That way she will begin driving away from you to the cone and it you will be able to get it going in both directions (because she is starting on your side rather than offering it repeatedly at a million miles per hour LOL!). This also begins an element of stimulus control – don’t go til permission granted 🙂 – which gives you time to have rewards ready. Start this really close for now but then we will quickly be able to add distance. We are looking for only 1 time around the cone, not multiple times.Plank – yes, it is common for us to have it going nicely then the puppy grows then it looks totally different LOL! Try to stand perfectly still and let her get herself on without help, then reward (there was a lot of motion and cookie moving from you while she was getting on the plank, so she was watching you more than thinking about where to put her hind end). Once she is on, reward, and then it is fine to lure a bit to get the turning on the plank – you were perfect in how you did that at 1:44, slow but clear. Yay! And as she continues to grow, getting her on lots of different planks will help too 🙂
Focus Forward to the food – yummy! I think she is doing just fine but be sure she is looking ahead before you release her to it. The 1st 2 reps were god, but on rep 3 and rep 4 she was looking at you. Because she doesn’t find stationary things to be super exciting yet, you can hold her and then toss the treat onto (or near :)) the target – then as it lands, if she is looking at it, let her go. If she isn’t looking at it, toss another one 🙂 You can also try a lotus ball or treat hugger, so it is moving a bit as it lands to help her want to look ahead. She will get happier looking at stationary things over time, but for now we will go with her love of moving things to build the value.
OMG toy races, isn’t it funny how things come together when we have finally resigned ourselves to something else?!?! HA!! Love it 🙂 Latent learning plus no pressure = great behavior. So fun!
Rolling toy appears to be something she really enjoys! Great timing of the roll then release on the first rep – a bit of teasing before the throws also really got her excited 🙂 You can let her go for the race before the ball rolls too far, because she is trying to go and ends up looking up at you when you don’t let go fast enough. So, roll it a bit further or throw it underhand so it lands then rolls, and let her go just before it lands. I am loving her excitement for this now, well done!!!Great job! Let me know if the idea about the obedience versus agility targeting games make sense 🙂
Tracy
Good morning! And hooray for death-defying pill bug games LOL! I feel your pain.
BTW – I am totally fine with a bit of a lure in the form of a toy being dragged on the correct side so that you don’t get run down 🙂
And yes, shadow Handling in the form of the pill big games is never boring LOL! Holy bananas that is WET!!!!
First one looked great, just let him grab the treat for one more heartbeat before you leave so you don’t get too far ahead.
Second rep was perfect!
3rd rep: OUCH! I am in a public place and might’ve shouted OOF! And now people are looking at me funny hahaha! I think the slam wasn’t so much a product of bad handling but it was more of a moment of “please don’t hit the momma even if things aren’t perfect. Now, you were actually pretty connected and not trying to race him – he was just having a young dog moment of jumping up at you (a tiny bit, but still was happening) and managed to hit you in just the right spot to take you down (perhaps a professional wrestler in a past life?) So we need to teach him to stay on the original shoulder and not come up at you, especially when you are far ahead. So – get really far ahead with that cookie throw but walk for now – so he won’t rush to get caught up, then you can give a massive reward for coming to the side where you are looking and for NOT hitting you or coming up the wrong side. If he does jump up on you, even a little, just ask him to sit, tell him he is cute, then try again. If it happens twice, don’t get as far ahead.
The pill bug games are where we teach the dog the “Don’ts” of don’t bite me, don’t change sides without permission, don’t jump on me, don’t cut in front of me while heavily reinforcing the “Do” of staying on your shoulder as it turns.
He was much better on the next rep about NOT touching you (GOOD BOY!) but ended up cutting to the wrong side. On the last rep, you had the toy on your dog-side arm and that is fine for now, to really exaggerate the connection of which side to be on.
I am glad that he didn’T seem to enjoy smashing into you and was more careful on the next reps. Some dogs seem to enjoy the jumping on the momma but he was definitely happy to not hit you again 🙂On the planks: this is a good plank to start on – narrow for him but since it is really low, it is fine! This is all about teaching the balance and gymnastic ability we need for the full contacts, so I am happy with how he did! He is closer to full grown than back when you first started this stuff, and he also has more development to do because he is still a baby dog – but he did a nice job of finding his feet, getting both back feet on, offering behavior AND staying with you when the brother chased the bird! Extra goodness there.
To continue to build the hind end stuff, good job putting the board up on the bricks – you can now up the ante and only reward for 4 on. Turning in a circle is wicked hard for the big dogs! I like how you broke that down a bit at about 2:50. You can also try position changes: sit, down, stand all with 4 feet on the board. Circus dog! LOL!Have you made any preliminary decisions on what you would like him to do on the contacts? Running, stopped, etc?
Nice work here!! Hope your field dries out 🙂Tracy
Good morning!
On the foot targeting – you are off to a good start!
One thing I think you can add with her at this stage is to click earlier so that you get the click in as she is on her way to the target but *before* she looks at you. This can help us in the future as we start to get her to move away from you on lines. Then after the click, toss the treat onto the target. For the next session, add in the next step of going to the send – have her line up next to you, a little ready set then step and send. It is a great opportunity for a slightly early click then toss the reward to the target. I think she will catch on really quickly and drive to it without looking at you, she was already doing that with the back and forth to the target here 🙂Nice tugging to start the next session! I’ll give you the same advice I gave the other folks – move the target hand less after the touch – just leave it there for her to eat her cookie then hit again. By moving it so much, she is getting twitchy like her classmates LOL!! And, because she loves to make eye contact, you can help her drive to the hand target by looking at the hand when you put it out there (instead of looking at her).
On the cookies overhead section: a quick fix of mechanics – have the cookie hand out first then put the target hand out… and put the target hand out a little lower so she has to target a bit downwards (the target hand was a little high so she was not sure what to look at).
I think shifting your gaze to look at the target hand will really help when the cookie distractions are out.Also, take the verbal off – you are saying a lot of touch touch touch and she isn’t exactly sure what it means – so it is diluting the word. Silence is Golden haha! And you tend to say it more forcefully when you repeat it, or use her name, and that makes things cloudy.
Now, she definitely finds cookies (or possibly even your hand) overhead to be really distracting – so there were lots of failures and we didn’t have her usually waggy tail. So break it down – have the cookies off to the side (or an empty hand) and then as the success rate increases, you can add in an empty hand overhead then a boring cookie overhead – and you can drop in the treat when she looks downward a little for the target.
Focus forward – the actual focus forward looks good, so keep that up! But, be very careful of your reward mechanics… she was GREAT about retrieving it but when she brought it back, you immediately took the toy away (mine!) – and that is actually a punisher (removal of reinforcement). Note how the retrieve got progressively slower even in this short session. So, make sure you play play play play play when she brings it back!! Then get the toy back then play again! I think you were already thinking ahead to your next rep of the focus forward, but remember that the play with you is a massive element of the reward for her, so build in a lot more play rather than take the toy away and restart.
Nice work here! Let me know if the ideas make sense 🙂
TracyYay for the RDW and RAF! SO fun!!!! I recently went through all the stages of obsessing on teeter criteria for my 20lb dog (2o2o versus ??) after an 11 year career with a 2o2o teeter on a different 20 lb dog. The 2020 teeter, properly trained, is incredibly fast and we can teach her to basically slide into position (like my Export did) so it is fast and balanced and safe. But, I ended up deciding on the 4 on for Hot Sauce: not because I thought the 2020 was a bad thing, and not because I thought the 4on was safer (as many tried to convince me despite absolutely no reasoning or proof), but for a potentially faster *exit* from the teeter to the next line. She will hit criteria (4on) a heartbeat sooner and so in a big event moment, I can release her a heartbeat sooner without sacrificing criteria. And, in USDAA, the ideal 2020 teeter (where the dog puts the front feet in the air and lands in 2020 when the teeter hits the ground) is called as a fly off by some judges. And, admittedly, we all sacrifice criteria on our 2o2o teeters in big events 🙂 which either morphs the behavior or slows the teeter. Or both. I believe these are the reasons why the top Europeans have gone to the standing 4on and abandoned the 2o2o.
But either way (4on or 2o2o) it is trained as driving to the end of the board t on standing position with elbows tucked tight (not reaching forward). Some folks tried to convince me of the down position in a 4on, and I just didn’t like it at all in terms of speed or balance. Bleh! LOL!
Just food for thought as you finalize your teeter adventures 🙂
About the toy versus food on the wrap – yes, isn’t it funny how dogs can be like “dude, this is a COOKIE game” LOL!! She sorted it out nicely 🙂
T
Hello and welcome! Doing the work is more important than doing the videos 🙂 But glad to see the video here too!
First up, foot targeting! This session looks good, building nice value. The next thing to do for this particular use of the foot target is have her leave you to go hit it, rather than run towards you to hit it. We want to minimize looking at your and maximize looking at the target. So, on the next session, change your position and be about a foot away from the target – turn her to face it then let her leave you for it, tossing the treats to her. That will very quickly develop into the sends and all the other fancy stuff 🙂
Hand touches: nice start on this too! The next step is to leave the hand stationary for her to touch it more than once. Continue to reward after each touch like you did (good mechanics!) but don’t move the touch hand – you were moving it a lot and she was trying to anticipate it moving, so she was getting twitchy LOL! A lot of the puppies were doing the same thing when the mommas were moving the hand 🙂 Good job being nice and low, it makes it easier for sure.
Focus Forward:
I see what you mean by she looks at it but then isn’t interested when it stops moving. She seems perfectly fine to do this game with food, so yes to continuing it with food 🙂 But we do want to add toys into it (and build to toy races) so I have a few ideas:
First, when she begins to move towards it, you can get it moving again. The easiest way to do it is to probably have it attached to a rope or something: plop it down, she focuses forward, you let go of the collar, then as she begins to move towards it, you get it moving again with the rope for a big game of chase & tug.A variation on this is to be moving the toy on the string the whole time, so it never goes dead. That will probably require you to be a bit sideways to her so one hand holds her and one hand drags the toy, but it can work!
Second, try a toy that will keep moving (rolling) so she can chase it down. The first thing that pops to mind is to play this game with a small rolling tennis ball: hold her collar, roll the ball and as she focuses forward, let her go to chase it (you can roll it pretty far so that it is in motion as you let go of her and until she reaches it. You can also put a ball into a holler roller and have that rolling too!
I will keep thinking of other ways to keep the toy live 🙂 Eventually she will be just fine with it not moving, but we can build in moving now to help get the behavior rolling.
Let me know what you think! Nice work here!Hi there!
I suggest training the foundation for both stopped and running contacts – you may not end up doing the running contacts but the foundation is GREAT fun and really good for us trainers – not easy at all LOL!First up, the wing wrapping training:
Part of my job is to hold the reins tight and not let folks move too quickly 🙂 I know there are many young dog seminars and classes out there doing a million wraps and backsides and threadles but I want to see speed speed speed before we add any of that, plus I want to build the super relaxed working relationship with the pup & handler before any of that starts – it is so much more important and fun anyway 🙂
So I suggest not having the bar in the picture at all, because she can touch it or roll it – neither of which we want. So, just do a wing 🙂 Plus, it helps you resist temptation to try to do complex stuff like backsides because at this age we want value on the front. The backside versus front side is actually pretty complex, it caused an error, and it is not something you will need any time soon. Using just a wing helps us control our temptations hahaha!! I like to build the speed and understanding without any possibility of error or difficulty – that stuff is easy to add when the other elements are in place 🙂 She seems to have good value on going to it, so just work angles on a boring ol’ wing for a while, I promise the sexy stuff will be there soon enough LOL! By having the bar there, you did way too many backside stuff and not enough front side, when the ratio should be opposite. Easiest fix is to just keep it on a wing for now.The main thing is going to be cleaning up your transitions into the sending because that is what is holding her back a bit
The toy play opens up ALL sorts of good things to work on, though!!! Here are ideas for a plan of action:
Remember that good transitions and reading the dog will make EVERYTHING else in sport so much easier – that is why my HS has gone pretty easily from baby foundations to the competition ring, because I really read her and worked on the transitions. Here is what I mean:
>> . She does not like my hands on her when she’s tugging.
This is an important piece to work through. Start with hands “near” and hands “towards” like petting the air around her, moving in with a hand (but not touching) and following with a wild game of tug. And mixing in a release of the toy, hand near/towards, then a cue to get the toy and play again. That will be worked into touching her and so on. It takes as long as it takes, but it is an important element not only for sport but for life!
For cleaning up transitions while you are working on this, try this: play tug, release the toy, hand near, give a treat, hand touches harness, give a treat then let go and go back to tugging.
More below on this, because it sounds like there is some avoidance going on:
>>She also is a not a die hard tugger. If she’s tugging and we go to the leave the ring, she will just drop the toy. Or when we do recalls, she’ll be tugging hard and as we get back closer to the holder, she’ll drop the toy.>>
What you mention here isn’t about toy drive… it is about avoiding what she understands will be happening next. Dogs are *brilliant* at reading context. She is not comfortable about leaving the ring, and she is not comfortable about being held (for whatever reason, it could be a million reasons). So, you have to change the context in 2 ways to make the situation better for her:
First, be less predictable. She seems to be reading the collar grabbing or handing off to the holder or leaving the ring as a NOT reinforcing thing (for whatever reason, but mainly it comes back to withdrawal of reinforcement so she is avoiding it).
Things that cause this can be hui=man errors because we get very predictable:
“Yay, great session, now I tug you to the ring gate, take the toy away (withdrawal of reinforcement) and you go into your crate (withdrawal of reinforcement)” Even cookies in the crate aren’t good enough to overcome that.Or
“Great recall, now I will tug you back to be handed off to this person and I am going to leave again” (many many dogs do NOT like this, my HS was one of those dogs!)Or
“That was a really nice rep, I am going to grab your collar, take the toy away, and make you do this difficult thing again where you might fail”Can you see where there might be enough predictably of withdrawal of reinforcement and/or uncomfortable situations where she might avoid it?
So, to fix, you need to break those cycles. Do an easy session, tug towards the gate but then after a step or two, go back for another rep then let her run around with the toy.
Or don’t do long recalls – just play near the holder, or have the holder reach towards her (but not touch) and you take off and run.
Do lots of hand near or hand touching but *don’t* take the toy away after grabbing her. She was doing fine at 2:25ish when you were doing that – so keep doing that but don’t pair it with taking the toy away after grabbing her, for now – that is exactly what happened at 2:28 then later at 3:18: you actually grabbed then immediately took the toy away. So in that moment, the pairing of being grabbed was with withdrawal of the toy, which will produce a negative conditioned emotional response to being grabbed. Doesn’t matter that you sent her to the wing after it, the wing value is not near high enough to overcome that because she is a puppy. You were trying to engage her after a grab at around 3:15, but you can let go of her for that to get better play going.
That kind of attention to pairing and context can break the cycle of the avoidance.
>> I tried really hard in this session to stay engaged with her.
It isn’t an engagement issue, it appears to be an avoidance issue.
>> She LOVES tugging on the smallest things possible and often gets my hand when she’s regripping. Even when I use the 10′ long tug, she jumps up to get the piece that’s in my hand. Ugh.
On the let’s play with this one moment at 2:05, she was only kinda engage with the long toy and you tossed the small toy – so she went for it. No problem! Good retrieve. Placing the toy down will be less inviting or keeping it hidden for now too. I would have played with it big time when she brought it back because she was being a good girl (video edited there so I dont know what happened).
On the ouch moment here at 1:33, that was a weak transition so she didn’t know what you wanted and just did a bit of a frustration grab. That is why cleaning the transitions will help a lot (and not doing backsides yet LOL!!)and then at some point we can help her understand not to bite your hand or launch for the toy.
>>I’ve taken multiple ones for the team to get the tug drive, but geesh! The one time she backed off the ball was because I yelped.
More running when you reward will really help this – long toy dragging on the ground as you run and hoot it up will help direct her to the part of the toy you want. Plus it is fun!
>>>I’m also trying not to bend over her and have her tug in front of me. Sometimes physically that’s how I end up though.
See above about more running and toy chase helping this 🙂
>>I just wish I could get more on the toy around distractions. Last night I opened up the ring gating and tugged her in and out and kept her tugging along the crates. She will typically drop the tug around the ring gating and just run to her crate. I’m trying to reprogram that thinking for her and especially me.>>
It is just a predicting issue. And it will come – first step, close all crate doors LOL! Second step, be careful of your patterns so she doesn’t predict. For example, I would be the reinforcement history of going through the gates into the crate is sky high! And cookies happen outside the gates, tugging happens in the ring. So just do a few sessions of tugging and playing on the crating side of the gates. And don’t always end back at the crates when the session is done. Being unpredictable especially on taking the toy away will really help.
Food for thought! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi there!
Good job building value for the cone, I think he is getting the idea. For the next session, you can move into having him come back to your side so you can re-start the game each time. We are not going for multiple wrapping or circling the cone without you (it kills the speed) so you will want to reward then re-start each rep – a great speed builder!For the toy play – he has trouble tugging when there are a lot of food smells around (and possible when there is a prop that has been associated with food, like the cone). This is normal, many dogs have the same question as puppies. So – when you are breaking off a food session to get tug, you need to ruuuuun run run run away from the food area, get him chasing you and the toy and away from the food smells. It is part dog training, part workout program hahaha!! And totally worth it. You will be able to fade that out as he understands the transitions better, but for now I suggest physically separating the food rewards from the toy play. Run away, throw the toy around, yeehaw!
For the cone wrapping… you can also shape this with a toy. Make it sooo much more fun 🙂 and we will be adding toys to the wrapping really quickly. The food helps us build value in the very early stages, and I think you have that – so for the next session, try using just a toy and see how it goes (don’t have any food present as that might be confusing).
Let me know! Nice work!
THi there! Time is moving quickly, the pups are growing up!!! She is looking good 🙂
First up: Hand touches!
Nice job with the transitions between the cookie element and tugging, it really keeps it fast and fun! She seems to have really nice value on the hand touching. She is a little twitchy about hit and turn, and I think it has to do with the target handing moving more than needed. So just leave the target hand out there the whole time – she touches, you plop in the reward, but don’t move the target hand so she can touch it immediately again. The cookies up high with the hand a little lower was definitely a challenge (as intended LOL!) but she worked through it! You had a good moment of re-presenting the hand when she was a little stuck and them BAM! Great hand touch. And nice job with plopping the cookies into the target hand.
Have you thought about what you want your contact criteria to be for each obstacle? Running or stop or a combination?Focus Forward to toy:
Looking good, remember to release before she looks during the collar hold element (she looked on the 2nd rep as you released) so super quick releases are good! The stay section looked really good. Yes, she looked up at you as you stood up – no big deal, because she looked at the toy while you connected with her and then got a release. Yay! You an progress this game into a trial position: You, Lanna and the toy form a triangle. She is in a stay, the toy is maybe 6 feet in front of her and you are lateral to the toy but 6 feet off to the side of it. Fun little game to get her to both hold the stay in the face of something exciting and focus on her “work”!Foot targeting: OMG that is FUNNY that she was trying to pick up the target!!!! I can see her thinking about it here at first. You can use something really big like a dog bed so it is less likely to get picked up 🙂
Good job moving the pool noodle away, we don’t want her to get confused about which is it.
I think cleaner transitions into the send will help this game a bit – she isn’t 100% sure when to get so she is slowing down. So, at the start of each rep, gather her into you – hold her with your dog side leg and arm bacl, rev her up a little, look at her – then send with one step forward. Maintain your connection while doing so – on the sends you were turning away a little so she was looking up at you to find the connection – for baby dogs, we maintain the connection the whole time.
The cleaner transitions will allow you to get more distance as well as lots of speed to it really quickly.Pole wrapping – glad to hear you have done a little but not a lot. She is just now at the age where we can ‘install’ this behavior 🙂 For now, you are too far from it – she has to travel a few feet to it so she isn’t quite sure. Start a lot closer, within half of an arm’s length so she can go to it without any questions. A couple of value building sessions is all she needs and then you can add distance as well 🙂
Have fun in NC, I think the weather will warm up for you!!!!
Tracy
Hi! Nice work here on these!
1st video:
Send to target – you can make a cleaner transition on the sends, so she knows when to start. So let’s talk about collar grab ideas and other things so it isn’t always about the collar grab 🙂
First, you can do a line up at your side and hand on chest as an idea for the send.
Or, you can collar grab *while* tugging then get the drop then immediately go into the send game. I think the transition of get the drop then try to line her up then try to give the treat then collar grab…. it might be easier to do it while tugging.
Also, you can do grab-release-grab-release during tugging as well, so it isn’t a stop in the action.
And don’t move her around by the collar either once you grab it, she no likey hahahaha – go the direction of wherever she is already facing.Her sending when you are facing forward is looking god, lots of good cookie tosses. I think toy tosses will also help her too! When you add the countermotion, start closer – it looks like you have added too much distance too quickly, so she isn’t sure (even when you throw the rewards). So stick closer for now til she is as fast going to it as she is coming back to you.
Focus forward – using some of the collar grab ideas above, here is another idea – do very quick transitions: tug, grab while tugging, get the toy and instantly drop the toy (holding collar) and when she looks at it (maybe even before it hits the ground) – let her go. That will really help with both the FF and the collar grab!! There was a bit too much time in the transition so she was thinking about the collar then looked back at you – speed is your friend 🙂
Don’t get toy then try to collar grab her, it is a buzzkill haha!!! So try the above ideas for the resets and collar grabs and see how it goes.
Also collar grab and release while continuing to tug – so you don’t always go into a restraint, sometimes it is a touch-and-release.
No need to add a word yet til you have the fast transitions and she doesn’t want to look back at you. Then it will be easy to praise or say “yes”.
Hand touches –
Looking strong!!
Nice downwards targeting, nice pushing on your hand, and nice transition to the toy.
Let her swallow before you tug LOL!!! Otherwise this looks good and we will be building on it. Have you thought about what you wanted for your contacts? Stops or running?Nice work!
TracyHi there! great job jumping right in!
On the focus forward – he is doing a great job of looking at it! On the last rep, you released him to it before he looked back at you – that was the best one 🙂 If quiet praise causes him to look at you, you can totally use “ready” but also add in the praise by dropping the toy sooner and releasing him to it sooner. The reason I think adding in the praise is worthwhile is, looking ahead, for that time when he *nails* an amazing weave entry and you praise him because you are 20 feet away… we don’t want him looking back at you LOL! So the praise can be built in gradually and you can alternate with the ready ready words. You can also try this from a sit, but keep the toy close to get it started and release with just the get it cue (before he breaks :))
I would add in letting him get the toy before you move it much, or toss it for him to chase & grab (you can use a long toy to hold an end if he might take off with it, or you can get him chasing it by moving your feet more in the play – that also accomplishes getting him away from the food smell, which might be inhibiting tugging because food is *yummy* 🙂 He did start to engage when you got moving at about :45! But then you stopped a bit short (I suggest throwing the toy for a good chase moment). He doesn’t seem to like being pushed on – he was biting your hand then left at :56. Same at 1:25ish, he was biting at you but not really playing. So, let’s take out pushing on him, that is pretty clear info from the dog LOL! I think throwing it and letting him chase it is a great way to get him to play, even if it is hot out. You can do some cookie play (spins, cookie chasing,etc) but I think it is worthwhile to get him back and forth between food and toys with more chasing/tossing of the toy. How does he do when it is pretty cool out (or indoors) with the back-and-forth? We can add in games to get him to be able to play with food and toys in the same session.Hand touch: you can train in the shade LOL! It is 20 degrees here so 83 sounds awfully nice 🙂
On the play/tugging – I think you might be moving the toy too much out of reach for him to get it, so he gives up grabbing it and just focuses on the food (:05).The hand touches look good, mechanics of reward by putting it in the hand he just touched were good! Having the hand a bit more out to the side can get him to drive into it more, but you can also add in getting the hand lower to the ground now so he has t goo a bit downward to touch it.
Foot target – jumper cables – hysterical! Clever item to use, and he immediately got into targeting it. Now as you started adding in the sends, you can ramp it up by starting him with a collar hold or gentle pressure on his chest then give him the send step for permission to go to the target. Do it as gradual, steady pressure, he seems to prefer that over fast hands on him. And, for now, keep him relatively close on the sends (like you were doing at 2:47ish and beyond) to get more speed to the target – when you got too far away (earlier) he was slowing down a bit too much.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyAwesome! Welcome back! Fun times ahead – and focusing on life skills is 100% more important than agility skills 🙂
T
yay! Welcome back to you and the fabulous red head 🙂 We will have fun! And I have a list of new things I want to add to this class, thanks to learning adventured with Hot Sauce.
T
