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Next video, shaping! Good work here! Nice transition from the tug to the shaping! It took him a moment to get back on the toy (because… cookies!!) but you got him engaged. Yay!
I like how you were waiting for him to offer more (I think you were waiting for back feet) – that was good to see if he could offer it! But, during the waiting… be quiet LOL! You started talking in an exciting way (“whatcha gotta do” or something like that) so he became interested in what you were saying and he stopped offering. Be quiet in shaping is really hard (trust me, I feel that pain, because I personally never shut up in real life HAHA!!!)
So, be quiet and wait… if enough time goes by, you can break off the session and change something – you can use a bigger prop for example so it is easier to get his back feet on along with the front feet. Or, rather than place the cookie in front of it, you can try tossing it as the reward to encourage him to sort of run over it rather than stop on it.. Keep me posted on how he does!1
TracyHi there!
On the backing up, we can tweak the cookie placement to get more backing up. On the cookie that goes between your feet – put the cookie further back (under your bum, past your heels rather than between your toes) – that way he has to come further forward to get it and will instantly offer backing up more steps. Your cookie here was not far enough under you so he really only needed to take one step back to back up.
The other placement tweak is that the actual reward for backing up should be tossed low and long (between his front legs) so he continues to back up to get it. What was happening here was that you were feeding him from your hand the instant he got out from your feet, so he was only taking one step back then stopping and raising his head to the reward. A tossed cookie will get more backing up and keep his head low, rather than looking at your hand. You were tossing treats or moving him backwards with a treat after the reward, but the initial reward when he steps out from under you was stopping him – so if we tweak that placement, you will get more backing up. Let me know if that makes sense!Tracy
Hi there! I am glad it all came through – I am not entirely sure why it didn’t go through the first time. I will ask the tech crew to find out if there is a size limit that we don’t know about.
>>Dogs – (confident) he is confident but not overly alert meeting other dogs, kind of matter of fact, except for 1 dog we met. He kind of bowed up at her (more alert, hard eye, tight mouth) then when she came right up to him he barked twice. Later that dog had a puppy approach and she snapped lunged at the puppy, so I put this one down to Spot was reading the dog and warning. He met a nice aussie yesterday and she could have already been in our pack the way it went. Yay!>>
Great! Confident and dog neutral is perfection! You can add the coping stuff as he gets around more exciting things like dogs running agility, particularly when he begins to understand what agility is all about 🙂
>>People – (neutral) He goes up to people calmly if I allow him to. Usually smells their leg. Accepts a pet – most people pet on the head and he is fine with that. In puppy class he is able to loose leash walk around a person acting goofy (funny poses, flinging arms, etc). Has gone past a person in a wheelchair and just looked, but walked on with me. During Thanksgiving dinner he laid on a bed about 10′ from the table, didn’t bark when people came in. Yay!! >>
Whoa, that is lovely! Again, confident and people neutral. Keep rewarding that!
>>Different environments – (confident and alert) in wide open spaces he tends to lose his ability to hear for a couple minutes as he runs around and sniffs stuff, but after a couple minutes I can call him back and reward him. In tight spaces where he has to go through a small gap in a barrier he hesitates like he doesn’t know what to do, but once he understands will go thru fine.>>
So these environments will be great for incorporating his favorite coping mechanisms, just to help him chill out and be able to hear you immediately 🙂
>> I can make the bed with him in it and he doesn’t move for a bit – once he tries to get out he does so without getting stressed.
Ha! That is funny 🙂 I bet he likes snuggling up in the bed!
>> In general, outdoors and stores he tends to look more at his surroundings but out of curiosity not stress from what I can tell.
Yep, sounds perfectly normal. You can totally get him to these different places to learn to chill, not because I think he needs any intervention or help at this moment, but in case he might need it in the future. If he does ever need help, we will have the foundation in place. If not? well, then he has had multiple great experiences in many places 🙂
>>Noises – (Neutral) when the lid off the trash can fell right next to him he jumped away not to get hit, but then just turned and smelled the lid. I had the people at the feed store drop my keys from a height and he didn’t quit sniffing the treats below the counter. A baking sheet fell in the kitchen when he was laying by me relaxing and he jerked his head up at the noise, then laid back down. He reacts, but gets over it quickly. He’s alert and interested when he hears agility videos playing on my computer – will come over, perk up and tilt his head.>>
Again, normal stuff here. So exciting! I love normal reactions! LOL!
>>I think as he starts to understand the game he’ll be more stimulated near the ring, but at present he can be in the stands with me and watch. First dog I’ve ever had that can do that!
This is great! I agree that he might end up being more stimulated near the ring when he knows the game, so add the coping games even though he is fine now – let him chew a bone or sniff a snuffle mat or lick a kong. This will help him not matter how he ends up in the future, he will either remain a relaxed dog around the ring or he will be able to come back to being relaxed even as the game increases in excitement. He sounds like a very cool pup!!!
T
Hi there! Lots of lovely stuff on this video!!
First were the self-control games – when the cookies are in your hand, you can work on getting more patience from him by opening the hand before feeding rather than feeding from the closed hand – I think he is ready for that level now.
He had even more patience when the cookies are on the ground! Ping pong the duration between rewards when they are on the ground – sometimes reward immediately, sometimes stretch it out, rather than always making it harder & harder.
With both of these, you can add in more changes of location because the traditional self-control games get too easy when we humans remain in one spot for too long – and they don’t transfer to real life as well. So, get a reward or two, break it off to play tug… then go to a new place and – surprise! – start over. You can also take this game outside to help transfer it to “don’t grab things outside” And also the cookie recalls that I posted today are going to be great for the outside work as well – establish them inside and then we will take them outside.The other thing you can add with the cookies in the hand self-control: he is very helpful by trying to come towards the cookie to assist you in rewarding him LOL! So, you can reward by tossing the cookie away (using a “get it” cue) and that will help provide a response cost for bopping the cookie hand: why get close to the cookie hand when the reward will be delivered 5 feet away? So he will remain backed off of the cookie hand.
Next up: Collar grabs – easy peasy! My only suggestion is to be sure to leave your hand on the collar til he has swalloed it, so we are more certain that there is a direct pairing between the cookie and the hand on the collar. You were taking the hand off his collar just before you delivered the cookie. This is a good one for a general life skill and also good to add outside in case you need to grab him if he eats something 🙂 I believe you are generally ready with rewards so you can incorporate collar grabs into daily life really easily.
On the mat work – this is great to start! You can try to incorporate into places where you can sit and chill – standing up with a toy is not super relaxing LOL! The trouble I’ve seen dogs have with the Overall Protocol as well as similar games is that we humans look like we are ready to do something action-based (we are standing, treats are in play, there is a toy in the armpit…) so the dog doesn’t quite relax. But if you are sitting, looking at your phone or watching TV and casually tossing treats – you will be more relaxed and so it will be easier for him to chill out. He can be on leash to start this in case he is busy and leaves to do other things 🙂
Toy races – very cool he can do it with his outfox! He had no trouble outrunning you – yay!!! You can encourage retrieving by, as soon as he reaches the toy, turning and running the other way and calling him. I don’t really worry about him bringing the toy all the way back, I would be happy if he dropped it and came to you! Part of the goal is to shape him to play with you outside and not want to eat all the things, with the eventual goal being to fade the outfox. If he takes the toy and runs off a bit, you can try tying it to a leash. You can also trade for another toy or treat to help encourage coming back to you after winning the toy race 🙂
Nice work!!!
TracyHi there! I love all the high energy play with both the toys and food – it was really engaging! She seemed to be very happy going back and forth. Her reaction when you started shaking the container all around was hysterical (bucking bronco! LOL!) and also the oopsie ‘jackpot!’ moment Was super funny too. I see a couple of things on the video:
What is your out word for the toy? It sounded like you had 2 or 3 different ones, so you might want to clarify it – early on in t he video, “yes” seemed to produce the out then later on there was an out word and one more different word. To convince her to tug til an out, even as the food moves, try to clarify which word will mean an out. And she seems to have a bit of trouble maintaining her grip when you lift the toy (baby dog issue) so keep that toy super low for now so she can really latch on.
I really liked all of the words and excitement surrounding the food! Add in lots of exciting delivery to match the verbals as well – have her chase the food in your hand a bit or toss it away for her to run to get (you did a bit of this towards the end) so that the food isn’t just a stationary reward. And, on the flip side – try some stationary toy play too, meaning the toy hand does not move and she tugs in one position – for something like the end of the teeter if you are doing a stop on it, or on the table, where we want her to hold position but we want to reward with a toy. So basically make each a bit opposite: more moving food and more stationary toy 🙂 You don’t have to do too much stationary toy and you can reward her with more toy movement if she can tug with the toy relatively still, and that way you have both applications.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! This is all good info for planning!! You can definitely start the coping skills in the situations you describe here and also trial situations. For example, in the car: when you are NOT planning on going anywhere, let her chill in the car with one of the antlers or a snuffle mat. And add it to short rides then longer rides too. When someone enters the room, toss treats all over so she sniffs them out. The barking and hair raising is an indicator of a bit of uncertainty/anxiety, so this will help!
And taking her out without Wilson, her stable pony haha! At first, take her to comfortable environments without her brother, and let her chew or sniff or greet or get physical contact from you (loving physical contact is GREAT!). When you take her to new environments that might be more difficult to cope with, I suggest bringing Wilson with you so he can model confident behavior (because he is a pretty confident dude, right?). I did that with my Hot Sauce: I used Voodoo and Nacho as her stable ponies in new places when she was a baby, because she would notice their calm, relaxed state and then she would also relax. On the flip side… don’t let her hang out with dogs that will NOT be calm, happy critters in new environments because they might model behavior you don’t want to expose her to.
And, in the new environments (like a trial) you can bring bones and Kong toys and snuffle mats and also spend quality time just hanging out with her, petting her/providing physical contact. Start as far from the distractions as needed!
This can all help her learn to relax in new environments. She might be perfectly fine in them anyway, but helping her is always a good thing.
Let me know what you think!
TracyWow, what a weekend! So much happening, thank you for the report! It sounds like most of it was really good stuff that was also rewarded with some Qs 🙂 Some of it was also in the “more training needed” department (like the weave poles and ignoring family members LOL!) but I think it was SUPER fun that your family came to watch!!!! Most families don’t ever come so I love that your family was there to cheer you on – it might have cost a bit of focus on the first run when they were there, but that’s ok in the grand scheme of things 🙂
A few thoughts for the difficult spots:
it is possible that setting up and being part of the club of Friday was distracting enough and tiring enough that it threw you off. Now, we have to volunteer with our clubs (I host a big trial every year, it is exhausting!) but it is a good thing to plan for – either a different approach to your routine on the set up morning or maybe enter fewer classes on the first day so you don’t have as much to juggle.The 2 other things I wanted to mention were about seeing a course that causes us to think “we can TOTALLY q or win this one!” And then recovering when we don’t…
Any time you see a course that causes you to think that you can totally Q it (thoughts like “we can Q” or “we have done this a million times”), that is your self0talk focusing on outcome goals. The same thing happens mid-run, when we get through the hard parts of a course and then the voice in our head says “omg we are going to Q!” – at which point we promptly screw up haha!
So any time the self-talk focuses on outcome goals, squash Int 🙂 and replace it with reminders that there are no guarantees and the only way to Q is to execute your performance goals. That will make the Q more likely and also dampen the disappointment if you happen to not Q.
And speaking of the disappointment.. yep, that si a valid human emotion! And yep, that is when the dark voices pop up in our heads! That is the most important time to pull out your mental prep techniques – I personally use the reframing method when this happens. I remind myself that we are not curing cancer or delivering world peace, and also that no one is going to remember the run the next day. Then I put myself right back into the smile challenge: surround myself with people and be smiling and happy, and not allowing myself to talk about the disappointment (also not isolating myself because that is when the negative voices are at their worst following a bad run).
Now, you might find that this reframing works for you, or you might find that one of the other processes works better for you (the release valve, or the symbolic release of failure, etc) but using one of them and working through it will really help lighten your day and return you to a positive mental state very quickly 🙂 You did get back to the positive state, which is GREAT!!!
And I think is it AWESOME that the judge invited you back into the ring to try again after the family distraction – that is so wonderful!!!!!
Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! Thank you for the weekend update!!
>> On one of the runs, even though I visualized the course and knew it (or so I thought), I forgot to send her to a back side on the second to last jump. I think this happened when I am not 100% focus, instead of handling from my unconscious mind I am still thinking and getting surprised when Lilu executes well. I know you mentioned to me that I need to visualize that she does well, but there are so many things I need to remember to visualize that I am getting overwhelmed (gauge the tunnels, reconnect and see her take off, etc., etc., etc. – sounds like “The King and I”).>>
It is entirely possible that you are trying to remember too many things and that is making it too hard to execute. Are there things you can eliminate from this list? Such as – something you do well and from your unconscious that you don’t have to actively think about?
And yes, definitely just assume it will go well so you don’t get distracted by success 🙂 When you are successful, tell yourself something like “that is just like us!” rather than “omg I can’t believe she did it!”You can also visualize the distractions in your practice at the gym 🙂 Visualize a run going really well, allow yourself to say “omg that was great!” But then tell yourself to refocus and finish strong. I use trigger words on course any time my mind wanders: “Connect!” Focus!” Kind of like I am yelling at myself for letting my mind wander LOL!
>>>– I did have two clean runs, 2 with faults and one NFC (Std). The other errors were about rushing and not following through (one of my mental affirmations: handle one obstacle at a time, focusing on the moment).
Patience 🙂 I have a love/hate relationship with the word patience but telling yourself to be patience, handle each moment, etc, will really help 🙂
>Lastly, this morning at the gym, I purposely reserved the last 5 mins for visualization (instead of listening to my book). And IT WORKED GREAT!! When I looked at the clock it was past the 5 mins. I visualized the first run from Saturday, the only one I did not video. I did have to take a look at the course map to remember the second half of it, but I could visualize the entire course!. I am planning on reserving 5 mins every day for this activity, I think that since I had success today and I liked it I am going to follow thru (we’ll see 🙂 ).
This is great! It is kind of like meditating 🙂 All of this visualization is basically training your brain, just like going to the gym is like training your body. Carving out those 5 minutes is going to have big payoffs!
>>I am grateful to be able to participate in the AU class with Tracy as the teacher, I am grateful and feel extremely lucky to be able to receive such great feedback from my friend and coach Tracy 🙂>
Awwww 🙂 So sweet!~ Made me a little teary-eyed and I am in a public place LOL!!!!!
T
Good morning! Lots of good stuff here.
Backing up: I believe you wanted her to back up to the mat, but she appeared to be avoiding it for the most part 🙂 The backing up itself is going nicely! To get even more steps, throw the cookie further (try to think of it as a hockey puck and you’re trying to get it past her front feet so she doesn’t stop – she ideally keeps moving to get it). For the mat – I think jump starting it at the beginning of the session will help by helping her get into a 2o2o on it – with you very close – then release her forward to you and give her just enough room to step off then step back on. Then jackpot 🙂 Your jackpots when she did hit the mat were terrific, but you were positioned a bit too far from it so I am not sure if she was really understanding that you wanted the mat. Once she gets the hang of step off, then step backwards onto it, you can then gradually add more distance by moving away from the mat.On the self-control – nope, I think you aren’t being too picky 🙂 It is OK to shape her to not come forward to assist you with the treat delivery LOL!!! But we can help her a little so she doesn’t have as many errors – rather than the traditional feed from the hand (which is where she wants to come forward), you can pick up a treat and toss it to the side (giving her a verbal “get it”). The reason I suggest this is response cost – she is not going to want to waste her time coming forward for a cookie when that same cookie is going to end up 10 feet away 🙂 So she will remain backed off rather than coming forward, and this can also raise the rate of success!
On the paw pods – nice! She was understanding that it was about feet on the pods. My only suggestion was that you were a little too far away from her on this first session, so it was hard for her to remain on the pods. So the only tweak is for you to start within a few inches of the pods, then gradually move yourself away from them as she gets more comfy standing on them.
Her tugging looked lovely throughout! And she seems to go back and forth between toys and cookies really nicely – yay!!!! Nice work!
TracyGood morning!
Yes, that is exactly what toy races should look like LOL!! Good boy 🙂 Keep playing with them every now and then – they lay the ground work for acceleration on course and drive to obstacles. He is still getting coordinated so he will get even faster as he grows up 🙂The sit tug sit is looking really good!!!! He was able to do it in a new exciting place AND the home game looks REALLY good. You are adding in a bit if duration and distance, which is nice too! He had one frozen moment in the home game but then was great for the rest of the session. The main goal isn’t about the sit stay for him, I’d say the main goal of this game is to be able to offer behavior when the toy is right in front of him (rather than stare at it :)) so there is a lot of improvement already! And you can do any type of shaping with the toy – feet in a box, tricks, etc – just to continue to sharpen the skill of “offer behavior when you see the toy rather than stare at the toy”.
I am so happy to hear that he is relaxed in the trial environment! The coping skills will help keep him that way, it is soooo much better for him to be chill there than for him to be over-stimulated. Good plan to start with a Kong when livestock or other difficult things are around. A snuffle mat or food throw in the grass can help too. It sounds like he things they are WEIRD (understandably!) so getting him to relax is a great plan. Keep me posted on how he does!
Nice work here!
TracyHi there!
She did a great job here – she was offering self-control AND was offering eye contact! Smartie! We will be moving quickly through these games because the pups learn them so fast. You can try this game with higher value food and also when she is really hungry. Great job on the tricks – those a really nice ones and she was able to execute them even with her brother wanting to join in on the fun LOL!! You can also reward the tricks with tugging.
It will be great to take thee tricks and games into the trial environment! See if you can get her to play tug and also eat cookies, then ask fo tricks, etc. Have fun and keep me posted!
TracyGood morning! I think the backing up session went really well! She is a SUPER cutie too! No worries about the other toys around, it looks like they were not a distraction to her. At first it looks like she thought coming between your knees was a little weird 🙂 but then she got it and you were able to reward some good backing up!! My only suggestion on the backing up is to toss the treat (roll it between her legs) rather than place it down in front of her – the goal being that she keeps moving back to get it rather than stopping to get it.
Great job on the toy break! She was able to get right on the toy after the treats, and that is great! I think it took her a few extra seconds to return her focus to the treats after the toy break, but she was able to do it and that is a big deal! Going from a precision behavior (backing up) to a toy party and then back to a precision behavior is difficult and she did it. Yay!
Nice work! As you keep working on this, add more and more distance to the food tosses to encourage her to back up more, and also wait for an extra step or two of backing up before you reward it – ping pong the number of steps: sometimes 1 step, sometimes 3 steps, then 2 then 4 and so on.Tracy
Good morning! She is so adorable!! I love terriers 🙂
Her toy play is looking good – she definitely has a lot of love for playing with and chasing the toys! I think she might be having trouble actually clamping on the toy, though – tiny mouth 🙂 She had really good ‘clamp’ when you got low and used your other hand to tap her a bit. I think a flatter toy for now can help too, so she can get her whole mouth clamped down on it.Tugging with food present was a bit harder at first (or was it coffee? Totally looked like a coffee mug. Terriers do like coffee LOL!!). But then when you whipped out a flatter toy and got it moving at around 1:23, she was really tugging until she was literally right above the food – then it was too hard for a bit 🙂 So go for a more boring treat or a single treat, and also further away from the treat by a few feet. That way the game won’t be as difficult and she can lose herself in the tugging and not even think about the food 🙂
Shaping on the box – she did well here too! It is possible that she was not totally comfortable with the box moving under her feet a bit, so she didn’t offer as much because of the movement (she backed off a little each time it moved) so you can start with either holding the box steady with your feet or weighting it so it doesn’t move. She was pretty happy to just do 1 foot, so you made a good adjustment to place the reward a bit further away so help encourage more feet which she did offer after that. Yay! You can also feed with her head a little higher, so she doesn’t try to look down at or sniff or nose tap the box – this can also help encourage 2 feet.
On the resets, this is a good opportunity to release with your release word (ok or break or whichever you’ve chosen) to get her to play off the box, then reset for more shaping. It also provides another opportunity to play tug with a bit of food around,Hand touches are a good one ot shape! So useful! She got a bunch of good touches in, which is great! Yay! When building on these, you can try adding 2 things: as you put the open hand out for touching, try looking at the hand and not at her – the pups often follow our eyes and go right to the hand. And, when she taps it, leave the open hand still and bring the cookie over to it and plop the cookie into it. That can build every more value for the open hand and also lets her focus on it for a bit before it moves again.
Recalls look great! I love her drive to you and her speed!! On the reps where she ended up behind you – possibly just a break in connection so she read it as a blind cross cue. Note no the first rep how she drove to you with the arm across the body, and the connection was perfect. On the 2nd rep, you were closer so it was easier to see the connection and you kept the connection. On the 2rd rep at 6:12 you looked forward (watch your head) which is a blind cross cue even for dogs that have never seen a blind cross LOL! Plus on that rep and the last one (couldn’t see your head on the last rep), your toy was at your side – try having your dog-side shoulder opened up back to her more or show the toy across the body like on the 1st rep – both of those can really open up connection and convince her to stay on that side as you add more distance to the recalls.
Lovely job on all the games! She is so fun to watch!!!!!!Tracy
