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Good morning! Nice work on these!
Foot targeting – good value going here! You might have added a bit too much distance too quickly, but the next set of games will help that (coming today!). You can toss cookies both ways, so she comes back towards you on some of the rewards to get the cookie, and you can toos the cookie apst the target so she hits the target on the way back to you. For next games, you might need to get the target to be stationary – either tape it down or put it on a surface where it won’t slip as she whacks it LOL! Also, you had really good play breaks, she is doing really well continuing to play even with the target out there AND with distractions of the videographer talking and the barking dog. Yay! She will be ready to add the new games that will be posted later today.Dual training – I think terriers believe they are exempt from having to wait their turns hahahah! I feel your pain. You can increase the rate of reinforcement for the terrier during the waiting process, either with more tossed cookies or a chew bone. You can also be less exciting while she has to wait, doing stationary behaviors instead of moving ones. Lanna, on the other hand, was a really good girlie!!! Stayed focused even with the little big sister joining the fun AND waited her turned on the cot. It is a good game to add, as it is also a stealth self-control game combined with a coping game – Lanna will learn to chill out while watching others work, without needing direct engagement from you. Yay! Good start to your dual training here!
Nice work! More coming later today 🙂
Tracy
Super YAY!!!! I love it!!! It is especially great that you were able to get him to repeat it – not a fluke 🙂 And I like that he brings it to you then hops up on you on cue – that will help keep you from being pummeled with flying BC. Ha! Great work!!!!!!! I know it can be hard to get video with little sessions squeezed in throughout the week, but it is really terrific to see the results coming together 🙂
Tracy
Yay! Good boy ignoring about 10 million distractions everywhere! Wowza! 2 ways to advance this game:
First, take it on the road so you can use real life distractions like people he knows and other dogs (maybe practice with Christine and Josie :))
Second, start to leave earlier so we introduce the concept of countermotion (you sending him away while you are immediately moving in the opposite direction). I suggest using 2 toys for this so he doesn’t choke on a cookie:
Have a toy in your pocket. Hold him and throw a different toy- when he is locked onto it, then send him, telling him to get it.
Just before he gets to it. Start running the other way and calling him. Ideally, he finishes his job of getting then chases you with it while you run.
If that goes well, you can start leaving sooner and sooner (just be sure to tell him to get it so he has permission to get it and not chase you :))
Let me know how it goes!!!
I will be posting more about the clicker stays sook, glad they are helping!!
TracyGood morning!
This is a terrific application for the backing up! He might need help with the transitions, maybe a hand target so he knows when to come forward and also to help keep his head straight and down – he likes to watch your cookie hand and pocket (poor starving Aussie hahaha!)
Now about being straight – you can use some props to help him for now – have the bone perpendicular to a wall (so the wall helps keep him straight on one side of you) and then use a broad jump board or part of a wall jump (on their sides so they are providing a 6 inch or so barrier) to create a channel. The bone is between the wall and the broad jump board – and you start him right at the bone like you did here, then gradually work your way forward. The channel helps keep him straight! Backing up straight is really difficult: dogs have a stronger or weaker side, plus they are multitasking, plus they are watching the cookies LOL!! I personally don’t think I could walk backwards in a straight line either LOL!Nice work here! I love the bone idea!
TracyGood morning!
She was a good girl on the backing up and I think the flyball slat is a great choice- visible but not too hard to step over. I think the bit of confusion had more to do with reward placement – by clicing when she was at/just over the slat then rewarding from your hand, she was likely thinking you wanted her to go to the slat and stop. Now, that is not a bad thing for getting more backing up, because you can gradually increase the distance the slat is away from you so she has to back up more and more to get it. This would work if you used it to create a backing up to put front feet on the slat behavior.
The other thing you can do is change the reward placement, to help get those front feet past the slat – click for getting to and going over the slat, then toss the treat through her legs so it ends up encouraging her to continue backwards (not stopping at the slat or coming back to you).
Her form is looking good so you can pursue both of these, with different props: back up past something like a jump bump (throw rewards) and back up to front feet on slat (hand her the rewards).On the perch: A Dick Francis novel? Best shaping session ever, teaching a behavior AND creating literacy. Yay! I love Dick Francis!
Ok back to dog training haha!
Because the c/t were all coinciding with front end behavior, she was offering a lot of front end behavior and I think the hind end behavior was coincidental (particularly on the first set before the tug break). To help her settle on the perch, you can just feed her a few times for standing still (no clicks needed): cookie cookie cookie cookie cookie to remind her to just stand there, then wait to get an offered hind end movement – that will produce the c/t. That way she will get settled onto the perch sooner and you can really isolate the hind end. She was totally recognizing that there was a slat there to interact with, which is PERFECT!! She is an active girl so the more she recognizes hind end things needing to happen (in any situation) the better! You are still doing a great job of making transitions in your training, getting a nice balance of food & tug, and a high rate of reinforcement. Click/treat for YOU!Cart video:
She is a total mountain goat LOL!
The first part of this video was really all about getting engagement with several distractions: all of the ‘stuff’ and the new people coming in – good for you for making it a priority, because it really is the most important thing 🙂
In your transition, she offered the cart really quickly and so you did get the reward in fast – maybe have the treats in your pocket so you can be even quicker and she recognizes the situation as “offer now” rather than hop on when momma isn’t looking LOL!
The offering of the cart looked great and she seemed perfectly fine with the movement, and she was happy to do it when there were peple (and maybe dogs?) nearby. Mission accomplised! Add some noise to the car, maybe some noisy keys or jingle bells added to it so she begins to learn about the joys of things that move AND make noise. You can also have the cart sitting on bubble wrap so there are crackles and pops as she hops on it 🙂>>She also is having trouble if I move away and tug without picking up the object.
Yes – so pick up the cart. Ha! Just kidding LOL!!!!! That would be funny, though 🙂
Since you can’t pick up such a big item, distance is your friend: running away and getting her to chase the toy can help a lot. Or enlisting a friend/student to move the cart for you can help!>> As you can see, she finds jumping on stuff highly reinforcing:).
Goat! Love it!
>>I have been very careful to make sure I am waiting until she has engaged with the toy and I can signal the end of tug. Should I be building in another delay? I just know that self serve “agility” can create issues.
Yes, keep making that the top priority – engagement! You can do play sessions near the obstacles without any shaping involved – just play with the toy, chase the toy, etc. That can help maintain the value of the toy play and the engagement as the distractions of obstacles/people/dogs get added. If she has trouble engaging, you can do toy throws and toy races, as well as attach the toy to something like to swing it around. Then add back in a little bit of shaping, then back to lots of yeeehaw engagement fun.
You can also build in a delay of cues where you move away from the bigger props – get engagement, get the toy back, give it back to her, etc, from maybe 10 or 15 feet away. Then, if you want to go into the shaping from that distance, you can add a send to the prop (permission to leave you to begin). In the early value building stages, remain close to the prop by running back to it after getting engagement with the toy – then we add sends later on (the foot targeting assigment today begins looking at that, specifically).
Self-serve agility, where the agility obstacles and running are more reinforcing than the engagement or toys/treats, is indeed undesirable. So your focus on getting the engagement is great! You can take the baseline games into the different environments: any toy games, toy races, etc – and that will make a lifestyle of engagement even as more distractions get layered in.
I think you and she are doing a great job!!! Let me know what you think.
TracyGood morning!!
Yes! She did really well with all elements of the countermotion: maintaining focus on the task, the retriecve, and the drive to you. Yay! You can mix up the reward – sometimes it is as you did here, presenting a new toy (I would delay the presentation a few more steps at this point) and sometimes ask her to bring the retrieved toy to you for a game of tug (then let her win the retrieved toy).
My only tweak is a connection detail which we will add more of next week: reward across the body (a la Tereza Kralova and Jenny Damm) not with the dog side arm. So if you are looking over your right side here as you run away, the toy is in your left hand being presented across your right hip. The drive to handler we get on that is pretty amazing plus it really opens up connection.Pivoting is going well! I looks like she is thinking of it as a ‘pivot to side’ which is perfectly useful and also accomplishes the hind end goal. One thing to move to now is fading out your movement, so you can stand still and she pivots back and forth without you moving. You can help cue the direction with a step/reach towards her with one foot or wait to see if she offers it (she might or she might be waiting on your motion). Eventually we can add a finger cue, like mini air traffic control LOL!. This will further increase the independence of the hind end and allow you to incorporate the ‘step over’ element by putting a jump bump on the opposite side of the perch from where you are standing (we can work it up to several bumps to step over). This is not only terrific for coordination, but it is a great strengthening/warm up tool for the hind end (psoas in particular, from what I have been told).
Staying straight in the backing up games is SO hard! One thing that helps is to be up against a wall and create a channel with a brod jump board (turned on its side) or part of the wall jump. Start by having her back out of this channel at the very end, then gradaually work her up closer to the beginning so she has to back out of the full channel (3 or 4 feet). You can also have her back up through a ladder, starting the same way: begin with her at the very end and have her back out of it, gradually adding more and more of the ladder to back out of
Her backing up form looks good with the cookie! As soon as the toy came out to play, she went to the bunny hopping at approx 1:13 (pushing off her front) or sideways (which was better form than the straight back bunny hopping). The form improved a bit but her head was still up (toys!) so I recommend sticking with food rewards for this and gradually incorporating the toy – the excitement of the toy changes her form (excitement does that to form in a lot of things LOL!) so you can still use food but have the toy present – off to the side, then in your pocket, then in your hand. If her form remains good, you can tug a little before the food rewards and eventually work up to the toy being the reward. Introducing it gradually will build up to being able to maintain excellent form even in higher arousal, which is a great skill for dog sports in general.Ooh, backing up the incline is harder!!!! She was able to get up it but losing her form (the last rep was pushing off the front). So start it at the top of the incline so she only needs one step of good form to get to the top for the reward. Then if that form holds, start a couple of feet below the top – get the good form, then progress gradually to the bottom of the incline. The goal is to maintain form closer to what you had at :52 (which is really hard for a pup 🙂 )
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! He did really well here! You can call sooner and urn away to introduce more countermotion, and you can also add in a more active distraction by letting him see you put something down, like tossing a toy off to the side. If treats are a really high level distraction, you can introduce them by doing something like a closed bag of treats on a chair 10 feet away – he can see you get a treat from the bag and then move away to start playing. I think he is ready for that! And if you can do it with people around, it is a great way to introduce stealth self-control around people 🙂
Keep watching your toy transitions – when he gets a good grip, you tend to lift up and turn away so he loses his grip. The best toy play is coming when you keep the toy nice and low and continue to face him, so be careful to do that then ask for an out, then reset for the next rep.
Nice work here!
TracyGood morning!!
His backing up is looking really good and is also very festive sounding hahaha!!! Adding the verbal is appropriate for him now because you can pretty much be sure he will offer the behavior. I like how he is independently using his feet (also like the head toss right as he starts the motion hahaha!!! What a character).
I think, specifically for him, this was not too long to go before breaking it off for a toy party. It was a little under 90 seconds of thoughtful behavior – perfect for him, because he is a drivey little dude. We don’t need to build drive as fas as I can tell 🙂 and prolonging the thoughtfulness and body awareness is on point for him at this stage.
To get straighter, add more challenge: have him back up over a single jump bump – very close at first, just behind his back feet. Then we can get that bump moved further and further away as a target. You can do the same with a mat/dog bed or into a soft crate 🙂 Targeting backwards (and not turning around haha) is really hard but I think he is ready for it!
2nd video – nice retrieve, right to hand! I think you can hold off on the verbal out cue, because when you say it he is tugging harder LOL!! So… no need for out verbals yet. Because the retrieve is so good, we can work specifically on the out element. Generally I don’t put this in the puppy class because often the toy drive isn’t strong enough…. but his is certainly strong enough AND many of his classmates also have great tug drive.
Step 1 for the self-control will be to get him to release the toy without fighting you for it 🙂 Here are two games to add to your play with him:
Game 1: Getting Relaxed Releases, Part 1
Let’s begin by teaching you how ask the dog to give the toy back, without having to wrestle it out of his mouth or lure with a toy or treat.
On these relaxed releases, note how it goes from one-handed tugging into the 2 handed relaxing with your hands right next to his face, then ultra patience 🙂 Volt might need you to really go to your happy place, and just wait. If he pulls back, just move him closer to you, sit down, lock your elbows into a bent position. Think happy thoughts hahaha and don’t say anything. Then give permission to get it right after he has released it and not regripping it. Resist temptation to grab his collar or wrestle with him 🙂 No need to reward with food or another toy at this point, because we are working specifically on the toy in his mouth.
Game 2: Adding Self-Control
This will begin to help you work through common errors: re-gripping, grabbing for the toy, leaping up for it, and so on:
And here is a bit more about the self-control but don’t add this until he can release it pretty readily and he has lots of reinforcement where you give the toy right back.I am also going to post the full class page into the forum here, there is a ton of toy play info for the high drive tuggers 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi Jayne! This is important stuff – individual sports are very different than team sports sometimes, right?!!!
>>my whole team struggles with the idea that if one of us makes an error we are letting down the whole team down. We are a very tight knit group & we really try to be supportive, we all make errors and know that, but it can be really crushing!
A couple of ideas for you to apply to the team:
first, make sure they do 3 things:
* put in place their release valves & reframing techniques
* have “run reminders” and trigger words (mine is patience so I don’t pass early)
* be sure they are able to visualize their passing windows – this is SUPER important because it all happens so quickly that it is easy to be early or late! So the visualization should include the entire run of the dog they run after (or the start timing) so the handler can predict the passing window and see it as if in ‘slow motion’. I almost never get to practice with my team so all of my passing is done based on written notes about where to start and what the window is – and visualizing it.These 3 things should be done as individuals, privately, then maybe one-on-one with you as Team Captain.
Then, do a team building exercise where everyone shares their release valve and reframing thoughts! And that way you can help each other release nerves, have a chuckle in the lanes, and reframe in case of error. I also suggest your team members share their trigger words & performance goals for each heat/race and each dog. For example, my performance goals are to hit my passing window (and my ‘patience’ trigger word is helpful for that so I don’t rush my pass) and to drive to the line and back to get the most from the dog while staying connected to make sure he gets the first jump off the box if the ball goes flying away (he is really small and that ball is not easy to grab).
I suggest having team members share this so that in the lane, in the moment, you can talk to each other. We have a ‘coach’ telling us these things – she might look me in the eye and say ‘patience’ and it is great to re-center me 🙂Also, as a team building exercise, you can do a recovery-from-failure moment. The handlers and dogs are in the lane, ready to run: you tell them that they just bobbled the last heat and now to remember how to nail this next one… then let them race. Then analyze and discuss what happened, how it felt, etc.
Let me know what you think!
TracyHi there!
Good job on the perch work! At this point, time to fade out your movement 🙂 Try just moving your leg towards him rather than your whole body, and c/t for him stepping with his hind end. You can also see if he will offer it, because the perch might be enough of a cue that he offers it. You won’t get as much hind end movement at first without you moving, but fading your movement will get him really concentrating on his hind end and can also morph into lovely come to side line ups. It is totally normal that he is better going one direction than the other – chiro is a great thing but it might not be a chiro issue. I would definitely split it and shape it by starting him straddling the bump and then stepping over it with the one leg first to the strong comfy direction. Then, straddling it and with a little step from you (just reaching forward with your leg, not moving your whole body), stepping over it with the leg in the less comfy direction. When he can do that (you can lure him into the straddle position to start), then you can start him next to the bump and both legs step over it, then work back up to a lot more movement all the way around the perch. Going back to the ‘regular’ perch was totally a smart idea!
Backing up is coming along nicely! I think at this point you can add in backing up to a destination, such as a flat dog bed or mat. Start him on the mat with his back feet, then maybe do a hand touch to get him off then c/t for stepping back to it. You can also start with the same set up you have here but add in the mat just behind him, and c/t for stepping back to the mat. Then the mat will get gradually further away so you can extend the distance.
Nice work here!!!
TracyHi! Super fun session! And yes, EATING the treat during a toy-food exchange is always a good thing with Border Collies LOL!! They can be masters of the cookie spit haha!!!
Speaking of cookies – your voice was exciting on the cookie delivery, but the delivery was always passive (very stationary). Compare the delivery of the cookies to the delivery of the toy or the shaking of the cookie box – you can incorporate some more movement of the cookies too. Yes, cookie delivery has to be exciting when it is passive/stationary but we can also have moving cookie rewards. She tends to get calm (watch her tail change positions) when you deliver several cookies in a passive way, so you can deliver one stationary treat, then have her chase you for a treat, then stationary, and so on – alternating/mixing it up so the food reward is as exciting as tugging (not an easy thing with a BC, right?)
Yes, you can reward the sits (you already caught yourself on that). You can also make the self-control element of this game less formalized by starting her from a cookie toss so she moves away from you, then after she eats the treat she is already in motion back to you with all of the good distractions out there (including you running :)) You can also start it with a toy throw, so it incorporates retrieving – she can get the toy, drive it back to you with you running – then either get rewarded immediately or turned and sent to the other thing on the ground. The only thing to be careful of is that there are not obstacles remotely on her path during all of this crazy running – not because I am worried about her taking an obstacle, but because I don’t want her to learn to ignore obstacles when you are running 🙂
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi Caren!
>>I find it difficult to upload pics and videos, but this one, with a written assignment, I can provide Fraser’s response (13 week old Aussie).
I think the best way to upload videos is via YouTube, let me know if you need help figuring that out – youtube links then can be copied and pasted here.
>>Different locations: Whole new locations, both open areas, outdoors and tight spaces. Fraser was confident and inquisitive. A lot of new smells in the potty area, but I could keep him focused on what he was supposed to do. No problems walking down a close hallway. Head-up, strutting his stuff. He has also been to the local hardware stores riding in a basket and loves checking out everything and welcomes all the attention. Love our Home Depot. They always welcome all dogs and help with socialization.
This is great! He sounds really confident in new locations even with a lot of different distractions.
>>New People: He believes everyone should love him. Goes right up to them confidently, head up and should sit until they pay attention to him (not always…still working on how to greet people). Even won over a lady who was ignoring him, by just sitting there staring at her.
Ha! This is great! Who could resist him? I love that!
>>New Dogs: A little timid around the bigger dogs, and is not enthusiastic about dogs jumping at him and will back up. Will try to meet them calmly, but if they are a little much, he will back up to my lap or beside me. Once the other dog calms down, he will approach cautiously to say hi.
This is pretty appropriate behavior! Good boy.
>>Noises: Head up, back straight and inquisitive. If the noise is close (something falling, car door slamming, etc) he will check it out. If it is in the distance, he will become alert, but never shows any fear. He loves watching low flying airplanes and helicopters.
This is also super appropriate: interested, inquisitive, but not freaking out.
>>This weekend I noticed he watched everything going on with the training of the other dogs, like he was studying them. He laid patiently in his crate, didn’t really chew on his toy because he was focused on what was going on in front of him. But he was totally calm. I was able to play with him, roll him on his back in my lap (cradle) in this environment. During our turn, even with other dogs in the ring, he stayed focused on what we were doing.>>
Terrific! Sounds like a really successful weekend. Because he is confident and happy, I suggest adding in some things for further down the road, when the game, people, and dogs become much more exciting and it might be frustrating to watch:
He didn’t want to chew his bone in the crate, so you can see if he will chew his bone when out next to you, sitting in a chair or hanging out on a bed. You can also try some sniffing games like a snuffle mat or licking from a Kong. These are designed to prevent frustration in the future, but building in a ton of resilience/coping/relaxing at this early stage, when he is easily able to be calm and relaxed 🙂 So that way, if he ever says “wait, this is frustrating!” you will have a bedrock of resilience already in place and can whip out one of the tools to help him.Let me know if that makes sense – he sounds like a fabulous little guy!
TracyHi there!!
>>Switch locations for toy game: This has worked great. She loves the excitement of running to another place. I have also been doing better quality tugging with her (I hadn’t realized before watching your video that I was doing most of the tug work and she was happy to just chew on the toy while I held it) and now she really pulls back on the tug. She is doing better on switching without changing locations now also.
This is great!!!
>>We are having difficulty playing with a toy outside of home and our own yard. She ignores my efforts to make the toy exciting.
This is pretty normal – new environments can be super distracting and many dogs can’t play tug in them. You can work on her relaxation/coping games in the new environments. Also, you can use ‘other’ things as tug toys. What does she like to grab? Paper towel roll? Broom? When one of my dogs was a pup, she would not play with a toy but she would totally tug on a broom, so I bought a little hand broom and played with that until she was comfortable enough to tug on normal toys. Also, you can tie a food pouch or treat hugger to a long toy and see if she will chase it for a treat – that is relaxing and fun!
>>Restrained recalls: We are definitely not doing this enough. She tends to jump on and lick the restrainer. If I am holding her she wants to bite me.
There is a fine art to holding for a restrained recall. I have found that the flyball-style of arm under the belly, hips between my knees, hand on chest is really stabilizing and the pups don’t feel the need to wiggle or jump around. They can relax and focus on da momma.
>>She seems to do better when I am holding her with the restrained cookie toss game and when I show her the cookie she is much more focused. She also is not a fan of the collar grab game so I think this is part of the problem.
Yes! Good for you to recognize this might be linked. You can do a quick collar grab then a cookie toss to start the game – showing her the cookie first to get it started, then gradually switching things so the collar grab comes before the cookie toss.
>>>In the house, she already has a pretty good retrieve where she brings the toy within reach but not to hand. If I am sitting, she climbs into my lap with the toy. I tried holding out my hand for the toy, but she tends to drop the toy and then do a hand target.
Awww that is so cute that she climbs into your lap!
One thing to try is having a giant empty bowl as the target instead of your hand. One of my dogs had the same struggle – he just didn’t get it that I wanted him to plop it into my hand – so I used a huge empty water bowl. When the toy got near the bowl, I would click/treat. Then when the toy touched the bowl, then I worked it up to the toy landing in the bowl (I was holding the bowl).After a couple of sessions, I faded out the bowl and now he drops the toy in my hand.
>> Also, when I have given her a treat once or twice (low value kibble) she often becomes focused on getting more treats, ignores the toy and then starts going through all her tricks to get another treat.
You can reset the game after each treat by re-throwing the toy to retrieve – it is kind of like saying “we are working with this right now, kiddo” LOL!
I think I have video of the shaping to drop into a bowl somewhere, I will try to find it. Let me know what you think!
TracyI personally think it is fine, and we can teach the dogs the parameters. For example, my dogs seem to understand that it is OK to jump on me with a toy to ask to play at any time… unless I am holding a cup of coffee in the morning. Do NOT spill the coffee!! Ha!
Hi Lisa!
She makes me snort with laughter! She was so funny with her toy tossing.
She is definitely ready for more – You can reset the game with the toy by tossing it again after each c/t so she remembers that it is the toy we want her to pick up (so she doesn’t offer things like backing up, etc.) And I suggest adding your empty, open hand as a target for the toy (now that you have the carry). You can switch to the “toy touching my hand makes the click happen” criteria and see how it goes! Clicking a carry without a target to bring it too can sometimes lead to accidental clicks for dropping (or throwing) it, but she is beginning to carry now so you can have a hand out there for her to drop it in. I also used a giant water bowl for one of my dogs as the drop target – when the ball hit the bowl, I would c/t. I did it because he wasn’t exactly figuring it out with my hand LOL!On the toy retrieve clip – she was doing a good job bringing it back! She still has some thoughts about NOT bringing it back LOL! but I like that you did convince her to bring the toys back. One thing to add to this is that after an ‘out’, give the toy right back to her as the reward for the out (“out” – good girl, get it!) so that she gets some immediate reinforcement for the out – which will get her to want to bring it back faster, because you won’t be taking the toy away at all. Now, you weren’t taking the toy away in a bad way, but many dogs perceive the out cue & response followed by having to re-earn the toy as a punisher for the out, so they don’t out or they don’t bring the toy back. So, lots of instant get its following an out really help this!
And, the retrieve to hand along with this chase & retrieve game are almost ready to be melded together, where she will be able to get the toy and bring it to your hand for a cookie or more tugging.
nice work here!!
Tracy
