Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Hi!
>I am thinking that I should probably work asking for the stay around a the serp setup and reward that some before doing the actual serp work.>
I was literally about to type that you should just work the stay a bit around the serp setup without actually doing any serps LOL!!!! Great minds, thinking alike LOL
>I have been thinking about teaching her a sit on a board so she has a clearer idea of staying in place.>
Is she struggling with the stay on the flat? Boards can help but they can also be very hard to fade out.
Excellent use of arousal in the shpile session here!
You were actually a little too quick on some of the rewards – you were dropping them in before she offered behavior. So you can delay a little bit and let her offer putting her feet on different parts of the pile.She did really well bringing the toy to your hand! I think the stick toy was an excellent choice. And the hand position with the palm facing up can become a cue for her to put it in your hand without tugging. You can try adding in different toys too!
Great job 🙂
TracyHi! Send my regards to Mary and JP!! They are so fun 🙂
That tunnel was definitely exciting on the first video 🙂 Nice job getting him engaged again with the toy. The tunnel distraction was hard, and the struggle he had might have also been that he needed to turn to his right (away from the tunnel) to put the skill together in the new place. I noticed that in the rotated sends video, he offered wrapping to his right so maybe he is just a righty 🙂
It was much easier in the 2nd video (no tunnel distraction :)) I think all you need to get the blind more easily is more distance to the toy: he caught up to you really quickly here, which made it harder to show him the blind cross. So you can totally throw the toy a lot further away, which will give you lots more time.
Looking at the parallel path game:
On the first video, he was finding the jump brilliantly and your click timing was great! I see what you mean about him not always finding the thrown cookie.The 2nd video also went well – more good commitment from him, and more good timing from you! Super! And you were adding a little bit of distance which was no trouble for him at all.
Since this is going so well, we want to keep adding distance. That also means we want to find a way to throw rewards so you can be further away – what would he do if you threw a toy? That would be easy to see, then you can reward him for bringing it back. The other option is to get a lotus ball or a treat hugger, so it is a big visible treat carrier 🙂
He did well with the rotated sends too! He had to think about turning left on the 2nd rep but then did well with the left turn cues.
You can be closer to the line you want him to move on around the cone to clarify things for him – sometimes you were a little far from the cone and line so he was not sure which way to go around the cone. The reps at :24, 1:13, 2:04 were ideal: you were close to the line so your arm & leg were very clear about where you wanted him to go, and he zipped right around the cone.
The last video was rocking horses: that looked great too! You were super clear and precise, which made it easy for him to be correct. YAY! So now you can start building in more and more distance between the cones. You can also check out the advanced levels for more challenges 🙂
>(Will we be doing much more with barrels? >
Yes, we have lots of barrel games with 2 barrels coming up 🙂 Or – does the club have taller cones? He did well with the cones here but they are kind of short, so taller cones or barrels will work well.
Great job here!
Tracy
Awww, baby dog’s first video! So cute!!! He did really well!! Nice tugging at the beginning of the video 🙂 For him, use a longer toy so you can be standing up and the toy reaches the ground without you having to lean over as much.
He is super clever to go over you to get to the bowls LOL then he was not understanding to go around the upright yet, so you can make a simple adjustment to help him out:
Make the bowls more visible on either side of the upright (and keep the upright close to you, no need for distance yet)
If you put the bowls out past your feet so they are more visible and he can see them more, he will not use you are a jump to get to them when they are tucked in behind your feet like they were here (that was hilarious :))
I think that will be easier for him to sort out! Then as he figures it out, you can gradually move them back to where they were here.
Great job!
Tracy
Hi! Bummer about canceling the USO trip but definitely a good choice.
>He hasn’t done any RDW plank work yet. I wanted to go really slow on introducing actual contacts as I have visions/fears of him knowing what they are before he’s super savvy about them and just flinging himself around.>
Totally agree! I figure the plank can go on hiatus so he doesn’t learn to leap around on it as you are working foundations for the RDW.
>I have your teeter class in my library from years ago, so just starting the 3 tracks now>
There is a 4-on track with that class, and it applies to the big dogs too 🙂 The only thing I’d add to that class now is more arousal 🙂
He did great with all of the wobbly-board stuff you did on the video! Movement, noise… no problem at all. He offered great behavior all the way through. Check out how he used his tail on the Galican gizmo – so cool to see that monkey tail assisting with balance 🙂
2 suggestions:
Play these games in higher arousal – tug tug tug insanity (or water hose :)) even if you are rewarding just small bits of behavior. Working these small bits of proprioception in super high arousal has made a tremendous difference in the abilities of the youngsters who debuted this year. Because their mind & bodies were prepared to have good mechanics in high arousal, they were able to execute hard behaviors at speed in the trial ring… with no problem, same or better than at home, even with the increases in arousal in trials.
My nerd brain is not surprised because that’s what the science tells us. But my dog momma brain is astonished at how well it worked to transition to competition. The usual “young dog stuff” never happened.
The other thing to asd which kind of fits with the arousal, is a bit of low tugging on the wobble board so he can shift his weight back more. That’s a good body position to get used to (picture him riding the teeter board down with his weight shifted).
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
This went great! It was much easier to find the treats 🙂 and she did super well finding the jumps. She had one miss early on, but I think that was mainly because the distance was small and by the time she looked away from you, she was already past the jumps.Keep adding more distance and more jumps in a row, that worked well too. As you add more distance, your path will stay roughly the same: see if you can stay in a relatively small area while she zips around the jumps, further and further from you (so you don’t need to go as close to the middle jump).
You can also start part 2 and part 3, getting the tunnel and sends involved 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
>Also, it looks like my hand was maybe too high. It should be closer to her nose I think? So, I’ll go back to step one next session.>
You can play with adjusted the hand position to lower and slower/closer to her nose and see how it goes!
>I have a pole she can step over.>
That worked great! Her pivoting was balanced and had very intentional hind end work. Yay! Do you have a 2nd pole to add? Or a way to make it slightly higher?
Looking at Strike A Pose, threadle edition:
This went really well! I think the main thing that happened here was sorting out the structure of the game: she had to find the threadle hand, go out to the toy… all the words 😆 But she did it!Yes, the first side was easier and very successful.
The 2nd side wss harder – i think part of it was sorting out the new release word as you mentioned. But I think most of those questions were about the higher value toy. You can see her looking over at it, as if her brain was deciding whether she should hold the stay, release to the hand, or release to the toy. It is really cute to watch! But she did have some strong successes to start locking in the concept.
If the toy on the ground is still too hard, you can adjust to a lower value toy or a food bowl. But I bet she sleeps on it and the higher value toy will be easier.
Nice work!
TracyGood morning!
>Taking advantage of good weather and daylight>
I spoke with the schedulers at Mother Nature’s office, and have been promised good weather all the way through the winter. We have training to do! LOL!
He seemed to like the added distance on the lazy game 🙂 Speed speed speed and not checking in 🙂 So keep adding distance 🙂 and you can look at the one-step sends so you can send & go rather than move into the line at all.
And, for sh*ts & giggles, we can add a challenge for him (I will be adding little tweaks for him when something appears to be too easy) – you can take this lazy game and sometimes do the full American pinwheel… and sometimes cue a ‘soft’ turn on the after the tunnel so he turns to the jump before the tunnel on the other side and does *not* do the middle pinwheel jump. This would mean when he exits the tunnel, you are giving him your soft left/right verbal, and physical cues to support that (I use a brake arm so the dog sees the outside arm join the inside arm) and a shoulder turn. That can be a fun brain challenge for him!
He was very happy to get on the DW plank. That section needed a content warning because I almost snorted coffee out of my nose when he leapt on it at 1:07!
I am guessing you are going to train the RDW – have you decide what method you want to use? I don’t want to do too much more of running across the plank in isolation now with him. He is very confident, happy to do it, happy to turn around on it… and needs an end job to look forward to so he doesn’t look at you or leap up at the end.
The only thing I would recommend on the plank is to elevate it and have him hop on in the middle of it – then have him turn around with it elevated. Then have him hop on, get a treat, hop off. Then hop on, balance… hop off on cue. All of that is to help him learn how to jump off in case he ever feels he needs to abandon it if he loses his balance when running it.
Start that with the plank maybe a foot off the ground. Then if you have something to get it two feet off the ground, I would recommend a session or two of that as well at that height.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
He was a good boy offering the sit on the wobble board! It takes a confidence, coordination, and core strength to do that. He got happier and happier with it as he went along!
The board on the concrete in the garage was GREAT for him: TONS of noise and movement and he seemed perfectly happy to go back and forth. You can ask him to do position changes on the board (stand, down, sit). And you can also raise it a little and have him hop on in the middle, then hop off from the middle – but that might be hard to do on the concrete floor, if the board slips around. We don’t want the board to slide out from under him and potentially scare him.
Turning on the step & cato plank: he is doing well here too – you can try it with and empty hand leading the turn. He was stepping off the sides a bit because he was thinking mainly about the cookie (poor starving puppy hahaha) So if he is following an empty hand, he will be more likely to think about his balance.
For the full teeter – this is coming along nicely too! He is stopping a bit too early on the plank (center of the plank on the first one to look for the tip point, then a little further down after that), so the game we have coming next week will help him move through the tip and go to the end of the board. We will also work on getting more independence on his end position (so you can keep moving past him where he stops but you don’t 🙂 ) in coming weeks too.
Nice work!
Tracy
Good morning!
His response was really interesting at the beginning: I didn’t see the board move or anything and only heard a small sound, but he definitely had a startle response when he touched it. Poor guy! Almost like it zapped him or something.
He ate the food but was definitely suspicious of the plank. Abandoning the food-only approach and trying the toy was a good choice, he definitely loves the toy! But still suspicious of the killer plank.
So since he had big feelings about this, we can make a plan for next time.
Before trying the big plank again, you can bring your Cato plank to the club and have him play around with it there.
Also, how does he feel about rocker boards and wobble boards? Re-visiting those at home then at the club will help us know if it was movement that he didn’t like, or noise, or both. Make it really easy for him at first, because he definitely did not like *something* here and we want to make it easy and fun for him.
When he is happy with the wobble/rocker board and Cato at home & the club facility: Does the club have anything you can put the plank on, like low blocks for each end and the middle? We want the board to be very stable but also, to look different.
You can (and should!) move the board to a new location so that there is no location memory from this session. But no need to do any of that yet: let’s see how he feels about boards that move and make noise first.
Keep me posted!
Tracy
Good morning!
I guess that answers the question of if it was the wobble board or the MM… it was the MM that he thought was weird! Good to know!
He was totally into the wobble board! You can take it to different places for different slam noises on new surfaces. And you can try getting him to play with a toy on it – that will get more weight shift as he tugs.Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
I think because he didn’t want to get off it (he didn’t like the whiplash when it moved as he jumped off), use more towels to start to minimize that. And have a massive reward (like a thrown ball, if he loves that) as you release him to get off the board. So it would almost be like a hit-then-go: he jumps on the board and you reward by throwing the high value prize away from the board. Let me know how he does!
Tracy
Good morning!
I bet it feels good to be home!!
>was pretty darn happy with that stay! Maybe I can incorporate it into some of the other games? Like the Strike a Pose? I guess if he fails once then I will know he’s not ready yet.>
Yes, you can use it for other games! For example, you can try it wth strike a pose but you can approach that mainly as a stay game. Instead of trying to get to position, get your hand in the right spot, then release… you can try walking towards position, stopping, then throwing a treat back to him. And keep rewarding as you build up to being able to strike the pose while he holds the stays: then add in releases forward (and still mix in lots of thrown stay rewards).
>I think I need help with his toy release.>
He is loving his toy play! Yay!
I think the way you are holding him is actually promoting MORE tugging and not more letting go 🙂 if I wanted more tug drive, I would do what you are doing 😁 and that is why he is not letting go that well. Physically restraining like that is what builds more tug drive and doesn’t really promote dropping the toy 🙂
So try different mechanics:
Tug tug tug tug tug. Then put one hand on each side of the toy, right near his mouth (so both hands are involved and you will have a hand on either side of his mouth). And just hang out there, very passive, not pulling up, hands at low so his chin is not cranked up to the sky. He will let go! Then you can reward with more tug, or a treat, or a cue to do a behavior.You can see me do it here with baby Plot Twist (lots of Malinois in there, so very good at NOT giving the toy back). The goal of this session was to get an offered sit after the toy was released, but you don’t need the sit with Fix:
And here is a bit more of that with a few of my other youngsters (ignore me petting Ramen at the beginning, I couldn’t help myself because he was SO CUTE haha):
And if you are using a high value toy, you can totally trade a medium to low value cookie:
It starts with saying the word then immediately pulling out the cookie. For my younger dogs, the cue is “do you want a cookie” and they spit the toy out LOLBack to Fix’s video:
The barrel wrapping looks great – he is committing really well with you in different positions and ignoring the toy to go to the barrel. Backwards sends were a little harder but he was totally getting them. You can add your verbal wrap cue – I think you were saying ‘go’ so we definitely want to save that for straight lines.You can now try the rocking horse game which incorporates two barrels (and even more fun :))
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
>I am behind a LOT and while I don’t use ‘out’ that frequently I always wonder if they see the physical cue when I am as far behind as I usually am.>
The outside arm cue is pretty huge and it rotates the shoulders, so if they can see you in their periphery, then they can see the arm cue (especially because it is eye-catchingly different than normal running/handling). But if you are completely out of their field of vision, then it would be a pure verbal moment for any handling cue.
>I do use my off side arm straight out (but not moving towards the dog) for my threadle wraps. >
Separately from choosing threadle arms versus get out: we have done a TON of testing the dogs about all of these different off-arm cues, and they tell us that there is no confusion. The arm positions are different, motion is different, verbal is different, context is different. So it is perfectly fine to have a variety of cues using the outside arm. I think I have 5 different cues that incorporate it in some way.
>When I have tried the dog side arm low that I often see being used I find it doesn’t work well for me, not sure why, but the opposite arm straight ahead and not moving seems to work well.>
I have seen just about every variation of off arm in the threadle wraps (and some variations which use a punched-down dog-side arm. And they all work for those people, provided the dog has been trained to understand it and the handler cues it properly. I think it comes down to how we move when are running and what seems more natural to us.
I have seen folks use what you are describing VERY successfully! If I remember correctly, Tiffany Salmon uses that same arm cue? But maybe I am remembering it wrong. So if that is what makes you comfy – totally do it 🙂 And when we add the barrels to the threadle wraps, we will use that cue for Kyrie. As long as it is different-looking from other cues and has a verbal and physical cue (line of motion & decel) attached, she will learn it really well.
Looking at the videos:
She did well with the treats, even though they were a little bouncy LOL!! We are definitely seeing the in-then-out behavior and that is exactly what we want. She will start side-swiping the target hand and that is perfectly fine too: it allows us to fade the target and will also allow you to add movement.
Toy session:
Yes, I think using the tug marker here is ideal. We do want her to grab the toy only when you mark it especially if she wants to grab it a lot anyway. You can mark sooner (just as she is heading to your hand) to both get rid of the little hesitation before the toy and to start fading out the actual touch.When you changed sides, the toy was very visible so shaking the target hand really helped – you can do that on the first rep after a side change to keep the hand cue salient.
She is ready for the next step here, which is where the reward goes to the ground: a food bowl (for you to drop the treat into) or the toy on the ground. Both go on her exit line.
And adding that also bring the threadle concept transfer into play, so as soon as she is fine with the toy or bowl on the ground you can add the threadle slice variation 🙂
How is her stay going? It will make it easier to add the threadle versus serp if she will hold a stay and can look at the cue before the release. If she is moving fast after a cookie toss, she might not have time to process the cue before heading towards the jump.
Nice work here!
Tracy
Good morning!
The head turn game is off to a great start! The mechanics are the hardest part for humans and dogs on this game 🙂
The best head turn moments were when she was starting on your right and turning to her left (starting at :26) – your hand motion to get her to turn away was relatively small and she was very intentionally turning her head. YAY! Rewarding from the other hand worked out really well.She did well in the first part of the session (starting on your left, turning to her right) but it seemed like she was following your hand to turn away more and get the head turned. That might have been a product of thinking about the treat like you mentioned, or it was just harder/newer on that side. It will be interesting to see what she does when you revisit it after her brain processes it a bit 🙂
Clicking on her first approach at the end was good but I think you were getting better head turns when you were clicking after you turned her away.
Pivoting is going well – she is doing balanced pivots in response to your movement. Nice! Both directions seem pretty strong!
When you were working the return to center, you can start delaying the click (bit by bit) until after she has pivot more to center and maybe even past it – let’s see if we can shape her to pivot all the way around to your side!
And separately you can go back to the pivots where you are moving and add the step-overs. What do you have that you can put on the ground for her to take a small step over? Anything low that won’t move out from under her feet would be great.
Nice work here!
Tracy
Hi!
It is pretty normal for learning & memory to degrade in adolescent dogs, when whatever they learned early on hasn’t been used in a while (there are little little PacMan thingies in his brain that run around while he sleeps and eat the parts of the neurons that are considered to be no longer needed)
You can kind of see that here:
He started off great then got startled him at :40 when he got off it and the board did something weird under him. That happened again later in the session so he was like “ok, cool, I will just stay on it” LOL! CLEVER! So somewhere along the way, his brain ‘forgot’ that the wobble board does weird things. And he is bigger now, which makes the weird things bigger so it was a little more surprising.The teeter doesn’t do weird things when he gets off of it, so he was happy to go across it. Yay!
We want him to enjoy going across the mini teeter, so keep playing with that. And we want him to be happy when weird teeter things happen (because weird teeter things *will* happen, it is the weirdest obstacle in agility and has the most variation in terms of texture/speed of drop/movement/whip/noise/etc. So keep playing with the wobble board, but use insanely high value rewards: bring out the favorite toy or crazy treats! Prop it up with the towels under it so it is less weird when he gets off. And do just 1 or 2 reps then be done: that way he is pumped up, has a great time, then is finished before he can overthink it 🙂 And if he wants to do more? Resist the temptation! Adolescents often ask to do more then scare themselves LOL!!
Nice work here! Keep me posted!
Tracy
