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The downhill event looked fabulous: he was running to the end and shifted his weight to stop very close to the end (not looking for the pivot). Thanks to the glory of squeeze cheese, he did not get distracted by your motion or position. Super! So….. next step: add a tiny bit more tip! Just a little, to maintain this performance because it is exactly what we want.
Question – do you have any access to other teeters? I know covid has made things so much harder, but these games can definitely move to other teeters if you have safe access to different locations. If not, moving the teeter to a new spot in the yard can make it feel really different too.Great job!
TracyHi!
>Don’t know how you edit all our videos and run classes and seminars, too!
Coffee, lots of coffee 🙂 Coffee helps get it all done haha!
He was really good with the backing up here! It looks like you were wanting him to get his front feet on too, and that is fine – for the next session, you can wait for him to get his front feet on then click the MM. The only other thing I would suggest is that now you can move the MM another foot further from the teeter, so when he comes off he has room to keep his butt straight, which will both make it easier to back up straight and more challenging because there is more distance. He was totally thinking about his hind end here!!!
I totally panic too when the dog starts running up the teeter LOL! And my dogs give me the same “no big deal” look that Nuptse gave you haha!
Great job!
Tracy
Hello there! Happy Monday!
>>Oh he’s going to be MUCH happier the more he gets to run!!! I’ve got a short, 6′ tunnel, could I do tunnel to the teeter with him? >>
Yes! As long as he doesn’t lose his head and go dock diving, you can definitely get him wild with a tunnel to teeter combo 🙂
He did really nicely on the back and forth here! He was doing it without you when you were moving the tunnel bag LOL!!!! And turning around to both direction with zero issues, from what I could see. He had his head straight and low (looking for cookies :))
When you ran out of food, he got mad! LOL!! The tapping on the board was also a little startling for him, so I am glad you got the cookies. When you added a bit more of your speed, he immediately bought up his speed AND his tail came up higher – both of which are great! Yes, he is still very much in it for the cookie (I can totally relate, I love to eat too :)) but that is definitely not a problem because when we put it in a course, he will be happy to drive through it. Yay!
When the teach it arrives, play with this same set up to introduce it – the different visual might be distracting? Or not 🙂 And then you can move the table slightly further out, so only the last 6 inches or so of the teeter are resting on it – that gives him a longer board to run, and more speed.Great job here! If he is happy with the teach it tomorrow, you can start adding more tip!
Have fun!
TracyHi!
I am so excited about his achievements at the trial! That is huge, because we simply have not been able to give the youngsters the same exposure as we would in ‘normal’ times. Good boy, Presto!!!!! And great job with the girls too!
>>OMG, Presto is my curse for telling my husband that I didn’t want a Min American Shepherd (because he loves Aussies) because they are “too barky at their handlers.” God and all my mini Aussie friends are laughing. But, on a serious note, I also have a chin rest on hand behavior that would work nice here because it will better position him for the next rep!>>
HA! I mean, he is definitely not a curse but it is funny that he is loudly opinionated LOL!!! And yes, the chin rest will be very useful 🙂
On the video:
He was great with driving forward with you hanging back! Yay! The motion of you moving a was a little distracting, so yes:>>– Should I keep doing the same kinds of things in the next session until he keeps his focus forward even WITH my motion?>>
Keep working this set up, but two things to help him with the motion:
1 – move more slowly 🙂 You were pretty brisk, which is exciting. Be sluggish LOL!!
2- And also, you can try leaving him in a stay, leading out past the end of the plank, then releasing him while you are standing still out ahead. That can introduce the element of moving ahead by standing still first then very slowly adding in moving when you release him.>>– I’m wondering if I should remove the target for his feet? I think he’s pretty confident in knowing what “spot” means – but I’m wondering if he’ll drop into position a little quicker since. Or I could go back to taping the blue strip of yoga mat so at least it’s lower? But if you think that target is still helpful at this stage – totally open to keeping it!>>
I think he is dropping into position pretty fast! You can play with reducing the size of the target so it starts being faded and see what it does – but don’t work on fading it and adding motion at the same time. Leave the big juicy target in for the motion challenges, and fade the target with you standing still behind him. Let me know how it goes!
Great job!
TracyHi! We are just gearing up for in-person seminars, fingers crossed for big improvements in the Covid situations! In May, I will be in Quad Cities (Iowa) and then in the Chicagoland area. In June, Muncie (Indiana) and Minneapolis are on the calendar. In July, fingers crossed for the Seattle area (although the thought of flying right now is NOT happy-making for me!)
If any of those are near you, let me know and I will send you contact info 🙂
Nothing else is planned yet – but when it is, you will see it on the Facebook group.
Hope to see you soon!
TracyHello! Happy Monday!
This is going well!
The FCs are looking super nice: she is committing beautifully and your connection was great on all of them. In fact, I thought her commitment and your connection were great throughout the whole session. Yay!!
I see what you are saying about spin versus a regular blind: At :16, 1:04, and 133 – yes those were regular blinds where you turned away from her and picked her up on your other side. At :34, :52 and 1:16, you did the spin (which is the front cross/blind cross combo move). The good news is that she read both of them just fine LOL!! So as you get going faster and faster, remind yourself which way to turn on the spins (towards her) before each rep and then it will be perfect.
She was REALLY liking the race tracks! Wheeee! She was getting to add speed and seemed to think it was really fun. So…. let her go faster on those, by you running more 🙂 It is a challenge for you to go faster but still maintain your connection.
She did really well with the food rewards, there seemed to be no thoughts of barking or tooth hugs 🙂 You can add in a little toy play before and after, then cookies in the actual training, to start getting her to be more excited while still keeping her calm enough to not deliver any tooth hugs.Great job!!!
TracyThat is great info! Feel free to leave that in the video or make a note as you post – it will change the next steps. Since he was uncomfortable enough to go lay down far away, I suggest that game (teeter-table) goes into the One Hit Wonders mode for at least 5 sessions. What I mean by that is: you do one single rep for a MASSIVE reinforcement value. Then done! Then entire session on that setup is one rep. (I know, it is SO HARD to do only one rep LOL!!). And the reinforcement value should be sky high – what is his favorite thing? It can be one rep for an entire meal. Or one rep for his most favorite ball or toy or…. swimming? Whatever he adores is perfect 🙂 The point is to make it more about pairing in super high value and then stopping before he gets a chance to think about it too much or show any avoidance. It is kinda of like if I wanted you to be happy with a spider, I would should you the spider one time, give you a million dollars, then end the session and go do something else for a while.
After 5 sessions of that, we can re-assess and see if he needs more one hit wonders or if we can change the session structure again.
let me know what you think and how it goes!
TracyGood morning!
I think it is Monday there: wobble board day! Fun!!!>> You convinced me about the weaves, I will sign up with Hero. I should have done the combo package. DOH!
>>You can still do the combo! I can hook it up for you via email if you like. There should be enough savings with the discount to pay for lots of dog treats LOL!!!!
He did really well on all 3 games here – I am SUPER happy with how he is approaching them: no worries about the movement, no worries about the noise – all happies to play the games. YAY!!
On the downhill game – I am doing a little happy dance here about how he is driving with a huge stride across the board then doing a fast weight shift right at the very end of the board. That is EXACTLY what we want him to do and he is offering it naturally. YAY!!!!
I agree – he was happy and getting faster on each rep. You started to add in moving with him towards the end of the session, so definitely add that in for your next session – moving with him from a stay, starting with him and moving all the way across the board, starting with him and sending him ahead without you (the cookie will already be there).
If he is as happy with that as he was here… the session after that can have a little more tip! He is making really nice progress 🙂The wobble session was great – he is TOTALLY efficient and found the best way to balance hahahaha! Smart dog. He is really liking it, looks like he was trying to get back on at the end – so you can reward by tossing the treat off to the side and letting him leap back on into a balanced position. It will be easier with the wobble board but this setup works too, because it is entirely unpredictable and he has to be prepared for any possibility of movement.
The targeting is going well, Good job challenging him to Ask for more feet and less focus on the food 🙂 Part of the food focus is because you are in front of him. And since he is doing well, 2 ideas –
You can change your position to the side, to see if he can get into the position parallel to you (and not facing you).And, add the tape strip target to a plank – do you have a short plank that he can use for end position? The tape would go right at the end – you would introduce the setup like you introduced the tape but now he is going to be 4on the board and targeting it (which might actually be even easier).
Some dogs do better when we slightly elevate the target for this – meaning, put the strip of tape over a strip of cardboard (same width and length) or something similar, so it is a more salient target to put feet on. That can be helpful to transfer the behavior as he moves to the plank. Let me know if that makes sense!Great job here!!
TracyHi! Peanut butter is magic! “Mom, do what you want, I’ll be running to peanut butter position.” Good boy! He was super strong on all the things except going without you – he shifted his weight earlier on that one at the end. No problem, I don’t think it was anything other than your motion is stimulating and going without you is less stimulating. So, you can mix more sending ahead in, because the magical peanut butter properties will help build it up to being as strong as the others.
Interestingly, he also had to run PAST a stash of peanut butter (I think it was on your hot water heater?) in order to get to the smaller reward of peanut butter. No problem! That is so cool – shows the value of the task.
The setup looked and sounded good – a little movement but not a lot of noise. So, since this went well… add a little more tip! Just a little, see how it goes, and if he gives you the thumbs up… add a little more.If you are able to bring him to a new place or different teeters, or when this teeter can live outside for the summer – definitely bring the peanut butter! It is a high value reward, but also the smell will be strongly associated with these confident performances which should help him generalize that to all the new places 🙂
Great job!!!!
TracyGood morning!
These games are looking good – he seems to have no issues with the movement or the noise at any point! Yay!!!
On the bang game: he definitely was fine moving the board, hearing the bang, etc. That is great! You can add in a little more tip, I think he is ready for it. For now, though, don’t wait for him to offer target position (because he doesn’t have the focal point of the actual target) – so stay close to the end and get the reward in fast 🙂 When you were behind him, he was curling because he needs the focal point of the target for now (which we will add soon enough, when there is more tip to the bang game).
When he was on your right side, he was pretty straight. When he was on your left side, he definitely wanted to curl in – so when he is on your left, reward with your left hand and see if that helps. He might be curling in because he is tracking the cookie move from your right hand, and turning to face it. The left hand reward will be quicker and he won’t have time to track it 🙂
But next session, add in a little more tip with you right up near the end and see how he does 🙂His backing up looks good!!!! It was smart of you to try it again after the bang game, looks like he needed the warm up to think about the place where the rewards come. And you can use that in this game too: have him start in the 2o2o position (he can move forward into it with you facing him) and then draw him off (cookie lure or release to a hand touch) then cue the backing up (or wait for the offer). The only questions he seemed to have in this session were about when to start – so beginning with the 2o2o will help put him in the rhythm of position, forward, back to position, forward, back to position, etc. Let me know if that makes sense 🙂
As with the bang game… add a little more tip to this and see how he does! Not a lot of tip, maybe half an inch – but overall I think he is doing super!!!!Great job! See ya later!
TracyGood morning!
Mountain climbers – there is some tip added and he is doing well! And the added speed from the wing wrap before it looked good: he was fast and you were able to blast by, do crosses… he never looked away from his task.
The sending without you was not quite as perfect as when you were running by, he stopped a little short on the way to the top and was not as fast driving up it. So for your next mountain climber session, 2 things: start with this little bit of tip and do 3 quick reps:
1 – warm up & reminder where you move with him and past the end
2 – sending him ahead
3 – either sending him ahead if he needs to see it again to get more speed & confidence, or if he was as strong on rep 2 as he was on rep 1, you can add the rear cross to the game here.After those, add a tiny bit more tip to the board and do the ret of the session with you running with him, running past, etc. Those elements are ready for more tip.
The 2nd game (teeter-tables) was really interesting to watch! He is not yet 100% happy with this game – he was really having to think about where his hind end was and how to balance (and that is fine, because we want him to think about that!). He lost his back foot off the board when you got excited – which might be why he sometimes was having trouble with the teeter when you were running or during a course. It is hard to multitask body awareness and balance, when da momma is running/cuing/etc!
I am confident that he will sort this out very quickly though – using the same tip as you had here, give him 2 more sessions of just back and forth across it and let him guide you about how he wants to pick up the pace. When you see him leaping on faster, turning around fluently and moving down the board faster… you can add more speed too 🙂 And when he says “I got this” and is going faster than you, turn the game around so he starts at the top and only goes downhill, with him running (either with you or as a recall). As soon as he sorts his body out on this, things are going to move very quickly. Yay!!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyPS – I forgot to add in that when she comes down the board, you can ask her to hop off the side, on cue – so that she doesn’t build a habit of running down the board and hopping off the contact zone 🙂
T
Hi and welcome! I am so happy to see you here 🙂
This is a really strong session! I see what you mean about the little bit of wobbliness. – she didn’t seem overly worried however, I agree – more stability will bring more confidence. A different jump wing would work, or a couple under the teeter to hold it up – look like you had 2 there?
The other thing you can do is tape a spoon to the underside of the teeter so she goes one step further to get the cookie out of the spoon, which also opens up you not having to face her (she might have been slowing down a little early because you were facing her).
But overall, this is going well! If she has another session where she is going straight up the board like this, definitely add in some of the challenges of you moving past, sending her, etc. She is off to a great start!
Have fun 🙂
TracyHi! Did he start without you on the first one? LOL!!!
Also notice how he sits and stares at the end of the board when he is in a sit LOL!
He was well with no tip but he did GREAT with the tip added! I think that part of the video was the best part! When you had some tip and came in from the wing – he drove right to the end and didn’t seem to be crouching at all (I did see sone crouch earlier in the video, but not when he was coming in from the wing).
So now as you add tip (and as the teach it arrives) you can also go for the wild and crazy routine so he is too pumped up to think about the tip: if you have a tunnel and some jumps available, do a crazy sequence where he can fly… then bring him over to the wing-teeter set up and see how it goes! His response will of course guide us as to how quickly to add tip, but he is making big progress!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyAh! She is so fun! This was a great lesson in “Emmie needs to sort it out first then goes fast.” She totally needed to assess the situation in the beginning: “where does it tip? What is this setup? When does it move?” You were great: ‘come to the end, eat a cookie. Easy!’. You were perfect in your no-pressure, tons-of-cookies approach, it really helped.
Emmie’s response? “Game on!” I love it! She not only got fast and confident going uphill but she was also not concerned about the movement or noise going back down the board. She has value for her 2o2o position so was offering that, both when she was unsure of the uphills and then even after she was happy with the uphills.
When you had your back to her because you were planting the cookie – I could totally see her plotting to jump on the board. HA! So funny! But also great – very confident. There is no way a worried dog would do that, and since this game is all about building confidence: happy dance!!So at home, stay on this setup for another session or two, and then we will begin to add in tiny bit of tip.
And a question: what is your access to other teeters? It would be great if you can get her to play the first step games on different teeters in different places, but that is easier said than done!Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
