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Hi!
He did a great job with the box of toys as a distraction. It was a good challenge in that I am sure his brain had to process it, but he didn’t struggle or make big mistakes. Good boy!!!>I don’t know if the idea was supposed to be a moving distraction >
It can be stationary like it was here, or easy movement. Nothing tooooooo hard yet. You can even bring in some leaves from outside if he might be very interested in them at this time of year – that would be a good ’slice’ because it adds a big challenge, but indoors and in a controllable way.
>but I don’t have that unless I coral my husband to be in the vicinity doing something. My husband is EXTREMELY exciting to Brioche…>
So, your husband walking around is a huge challenge? We can use a slice of that by maybe have your husband in a chair, reading something or scrolling on his phone or watching TV, so he is present but not that exciting 🙂 And if Brioche might find that hard to ignore, you can have him on a leash and further away so you can set up success and get lots of reward to him without him pummeling your hubby. Then we can ramp up the level of challenge – so yes, maybe you can get your husband to play or maybe you can play in real life moments?
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>I’m a bit conflicted about adding more verbals than I currently use.>
This is entirely relatable – there are SO MANY WORDS (directionals, obstacles, reward markers, etc)
My goal is to prioritize which verbals I will need and teach those effectively so they are very useful, rather than try to have a zillion verbals that the dog doesn’t actually know.
> I only do AKC and have no plans to do anything else.>
That helps us prioritize.
> And I don’t do much premiere course work at all. >
There are some premier elements that you will see in regular courses, so we can teach that too.
>Benni does know back sides and “in-in” to come to me on the take-off side and then take the jump.>
The threadle slice cue is good to have. I have not (yet) seen a threadle wrap in regular AKC courses so you can teach the puppy foundations of it, then shelve it. The independence of the skill is worth teaching!
And backside slice versus backside wrap is actually something you will need in AKC – I have seen it on those courses plenty of times.
>I have always just used “tight” to mean wrap the wing towards me no matter which side I am on. >
As courses expand and there is more distance and layering, it is worth it to consider a directional on the wrap rather than a single cue. You won’t always be close enough that he can rely on your position to know which way to wrap.
>The one thing I have recently thought would be useful in AKC is for me to have a rear cross wrap cue separate from “switch”. I was thinking “flip”. Words have to make sense to me in relation to the movement I’m asking for otherwise I will make mistakes in my verbals.>
Having a directional on a wrap (to the left or to the right) will solve that question because then the verbal already exists. The rear cross verbals are a bit vague, in my opinion, because they don’t tell the dog how much to turn. A wrap rear cross cue would need to be added but it might be more efficient to use a verbal that can be used in more than one context – that way you have a useful verbal and don’t need to have multiple verbals for the same behavior.
>I use “back” for any kind of backside although in regular AKC it would most likely just be a backside slice. >
*Highly* recommend you add a circle wrap backside verbal – you will see this in regular AKC and the separate verbal tells a fast dog a lot sooner how to jump the backside. My backside slice verbal is for when the dog enters and exits on different wings of the backside. The wrap is for when the enter and exit on the same wing. It has made a massive difference to all the dogs we have taught it too, in terms of the turn they produce and their jumping.
>I use “switch” for rear crosses. “Right” and “Left for directional turns on a jump. “Turn” on the flat as in tandem turn. “By” is my bypass cue for the non-obvious end of the tunnel. Of course, I use “go” and “out” in the traditional ways.>
These sound good- my only suggestion is to clarify the RC cue so he knows exactly how much to turn and you can use existing left/right/wrap verbals for that.
>So I am undecided about the additional verbals. Benni does fine with my current vocabulary. Not to say he doesn’t turn the wrong way sometimes but that could be more about my mechanics than my words.>
Course design is evolving, so adding the backside circle wrap would be a good one, and think about adding directionals to your front side wraps too (that you can then use with rear crosses).
Let me know what you think!
TracyThe backside slices are off to a strong start! He was being thoughtful about it probably because you were moving slowly – then when you added the verbal, he was not sure of what to look at. So you were correct to take the word off and build the behavior more. It will be easy to add the word when the behavior is easier.
When he was on your left, it was a bit easier for him! But both sides did go well. To help him understand that yes, he can blast up the line: you can go faster 🙂 Keep the start cookie, and keep the connection you had, keep the reward placement, and keep your line up motion: that was all spot on. But can walk faster or even jog so he understands that he can move fast too 🙂 You can move the barrel/ bump set up further away so you have even more room to go faster.
Nice work!
TracyGood morning!
She was so good here!!!!! She is a faster learner for sure. There were the normal outdoor distractions (fallen leaves are a big challenge at this time of years!) but she had the added challenge of construction noise – and did great!!!
She was excellent about sticking with you and starting on cue. You can see on the first video that she was circling you a bit, moving around, before you lined her up. I think this is fine because it gives her an outlet to move around when she is excited as long as she doesn’t start without you.
Finding the jump was great – she stuck with you during the ready game then exploded to the jump and MM as soon as you started – tons of speed and driving ahead! Love it!
Using the Cato board helps a lot – you can bring it to classes and different locations to help provide structure to those sessions too.
Great job!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>She definitely doesn’t bring stuff back to me. It’s more like run away and chew. >
That suggests the trade will be your best bet to get her coming towards you – trying to grab the original toy risks her getting faster and more creative about keeping it away/getting past you.
>The other day I out 4 chews out and she took them all. So, maybe a resource guarded as well.>
I am glad she is liking the chews! It would only be resource guarding if she shows body tension or growling or something, so it is probably just normal gathering of ‘stuff’ 🙂
She did great with the pivoting! It looks like the second side was a little harder but both sides are going well! You can tart wit ht eh 2nd ice on the next session to see if it is smoother when she is fresher.
You can build this up 2 ways to get even more independence: using the pressure into her, you can fade moving towards her down to just reaching your foot towards her back feet to see if she will start moving without as much pressure.
And you can also try the cookie rewards being tossed off to the sides, so she pivots from different angles back to the front.Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
>(Yeah Virginia!!)>
Heck yeah! And my small super rural county had a swing of over 950 votes in a good direction compared to the last time we did this. VERY happy with that!
>I had a hard time getting her interested in the toy and tugging. She may have some teeth coming in.>
Totally could be! She is at that age! You can try for smaller, flatter toys with something like rabbit fur on them to help her mouth feel good on the tug. Dragging the toy sure helped her get interested in it!
There were also significant noise distractions (different than I normally hear no your videos) in the environment which can contribute! We humans don’t hear this but puppy brains sure do!
Look at the section of the video from 1:13 (where you start to move the toy to engage her and she is heading to it) to 1:19 where a child (?) screams in the background. She freezes and licks her lips then appears to put her nose down to sniff. My guess is that was a significant noise challenge for her! And you might not notice because it is probably a nearby school or something, and you are habituated to it (but she is experiencing it all for the first time in her young life and her brain is devoting bandwidth to it so she couldn’t also tug).
You can help her get tugging with the nose distractions by just going outside to play and chase toys and run around while the kids are making noise 🙂
But she could still eat! Switching to food worked well here. On the reps where she went behind you to the bowl, I bet she is seeing an element of disconnect and shoulder turn that somewhat indicates the bowl (1:59 for example). When you were super connected (2:10 and definitely 2:23 for example) she did not consider going behind you. You can see it on the last 2 reps as well, when she had to go past the bowl: on the 2nd to last rep, you pointed forward which blocks connection and turns your shoulders so she went to the bowl. On the last rep, you had more eye contact and less arm cue – and she went around the barrel. SUPER!!!!
So definitely keep working the BIG connection – it will get easier as her experience widens.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning! I think overall this went great!
Position 1: these first reps where you were moving fast and connected went great. Yay!!
Position 2: He was not as sure about sending to the wing without motion/on verbal alone when he was right next to the tunnel and the jump –
>We had a bit of a struggle when another training team showed up. Jackpot noticeably struggles in his start position. >
Was this position 2 challenge also coinciding when the other person shows up, at :50-ish? You were holding him there – would he have gone over to check out the new person/dog? You can use a pattern game or even tugging to help him stay engaged even with the new distraction.
When you were cueing the start of each rep, you added a little more motion and that helped a ton – he was still wildly successful with the jump versus tunnel part of the game.
Position 3 – easy because you had great connection and timing!
At 1:14 he circled the wing without a release and you noted it as worry on the video – concern about the other person? He might have been using movement to alleviate his concern, which is good! A back-and-forth pattern game can really help with that too: lots of movement but within the framework of processing the distraction and engaging with you instead 🙂
Position 4 with the disconnections: SUPER! I am so proud of him especially for finding the tunnel, because it is NOT on the line as he exits the wing so he had to rely on verbals-only. Good boy!!
Great job here!! Let me know what you t think!
Tracy
Good morning!
That tunnel is DELICIOUS, according to Bazinga!! She is getting the idea of finding the jump in the face of the tunnel being right there. Super! And she is moving when you say jump and not needing a different release, which is also great.
When you cued the tunnel at :49, I think she was on jump autopilot and caught herself after she moved – I love how she came back to you and reset: “try me again, human!!”
She has the hardest time switching after she gets to do the tunnel or des multiple jumps. But she is starting to catch herself and process, even if it is after she has started moving. And that is great because she is having a lot more success and not getting frustrated by any errors. YAY!!!
I think at one point you said “your brain is braining” and that is the funniest thing I have heard in a while LOL!!!!!!!!
Since this is moving along really well, you can definitely add in the handling games where you are both moving to work the discriminations with motion!
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>The off course at the end of that for real run caused by crap handling was a tiny bit intentional. I had to abort the handling plan for a blind because of having to stop and gather him after the visit. >
That makes sense! Sometimes we do just try to fling the dog out on a line and hope for the best LOL!! Pick was a good boy! And it seemed like he remained confident, so it was indeed a win 🙂
> I think they’re both a ways off from “fight to save the run” status yet and I’m quite ok with that.>
Do you mean fixing something? Yes, especially after an off course. Sure, if you can circle back around in flow and try to fix the handling so the pups think it is part of the course, it is doable. But stopping to fix? Not yet – not until after they are both incredibly fluent in the levels of the Find My Face game 🙂
> It’s at a barn where Pick has never worked before, so it will probably be fully “just like at home” for both of his runs,>
Perfect!
> but I’ll start working on running with the toy stashed on my person at home. >
Also perfect! One thing I noticed with the sighthounds (BWs and full whippets) is that they did a lot better in the empty hands/toy hidden stage than in the ‘just like home’ stage. For whatever reason, they preferred to NOT have the toy in hand in trial settings and looked at their lines a lot better. That is exclusive to sighthound-types, though, which is why I mention it for Beat because you might end up moving to the ’empty hands’ stage very quickly – all the other breeds & types (terriers, herders, etc) all thrive with seeing the toy at first then we fade it out.
>He’s visited plenty of times when I’ve had a toy on me (usually worse at dirt trials and better on turf, which is why I gave him a shot at running for reals when we were on turf).>
Add in tracking the arousal-resilience-engagement games you play before the run and at the start line, such as pattern games and the volume dial game and even decompression before the run. Track what you did and how the run went – it might help unlock some useful trends!
> The set up that seems to be hardest for him is a long line towards a person where I am probably falling behind. Do you think he might feel an element of disconnect when he finds himself pulling away from me?>
Absolutely yes. He might feel distracted by the lack of handler visibility, a little uncomfortable with the independence needed on the line in that environment, or he might even perceive it as an error. All of that can contribute to the stress response of visiting. You can make up courses that set lines where you can drive him from ahead for now – then we can add in ways to help him love lines where you are behind. This can be placed toys on the line, or a helper throwing it, etc – hooray for UKI for allowing SO MANY options!
> Maybe the find my face game might be more crucial than getting the toy out of my hands?>
Both are useful. But he does need to know how to cope if something unexpected happens and the find my face game is soooo useful for that! Then we get him playing it as we fade rewards to outside the ring.
Let me know how it goes!
TracyGood morning!
>he comes charging to jump on me, which with his size is pretty dangerous. He often comes with an open mouth and he is going towards my face which makes it extra scary!!! Sometimes he nips at me. (He might go for my boob or butt)>
Alrighty then! I know he loves to run free on the beach but I agree – it is a safety issue. So the place to start is stopping all the rehearsal of it. That means no off leash privileges at the beach – think of it as kind of like taking away the drivers license of a teenager who has crashed the car. Putting him back on leash after it happens might not prevent the rehearsal so I think a full stop to that is important. Side note: it is basically the same behavior you see in agility, so similar neural pathways. We don’t need those to continue to strengthen, so we have found that not allowing any rehearsal of it anyway is a great way to eliminate the behavior everywhere.
A parallel example is dogs that charge dogs on the other side of a fence in the ring at a trial. That behavior is usually seen elsewhere in life, such as fence fighting with the neighbor’s dog or lunging on leash on leash walks. When we stop the rehearsal of fence fighting/leash lunging, the incidence of the charging at the ring gating in agility reduces almost immediately and then it is far, far easier for training to take hold and eliminate the undesirable behavior entirely.
So while thankfully he is not aggressively charging at other dogs, I think we should use a similar approach of not allowing rehearsal of the behavior anywhere to help eliminate in the ring.
Plus, OUCH! He could easily nip somewhere or ht you hard enough to accidentally really hurt you, which is definitely not what we want.
But since he will need a lot of exercise as an athletic young dog, leash walks on the beach are still great! And he can be offleash to run around anywhere that he will not charge you. You can also add in active fitness stuff like cavaletti work which are fulfilling for his brain and his body 🙂
He did a great job with the find my face game! He was looking for engagement when something unexpected happened (you disconnecting/turning away) but he kept all of his feet on the ground. Yay! He did spend some time looking for a treat that got lost but then re-engaged. Good boy!!
This game can go with you on leash walks (just randomly play it and toss treat) and you can add a bit of tugging before it to add a little bit of arousal.
>and then used it after a REALLY bad/late cue for a tunnel after the dogwalk.>
It is not quite ready to go into course work yet, because he did pummel you here. The number one thing for now in course work is to keep going *no matter what*. Doesn’t matter if you think he made the error (he probably did not LOL) – keep going to another line then reward as if he was correct. That falls into the ‘don’t rehearse the behavior anywhere’.
You will have to ignore all the seminar presenters and instructors that will want you to stop and ‘fix’ his error – it was probably not his error and any indication that he was incorrect might lead to you getting pummeled. The indication here on the video at 1:41 was when you stopped moving, turned your back – and when he came to you, you said “where is your tunnel” – he did not know where it was so he jumped up at you. Yes, he sat and got a cookie, and then the pattern game changed his arousal state – but we really want to eliminate that initial jumping up at you. So keep going no matter what, reward, then reset the next rep without any indication that something was wrong.
On the next rep here: he went to the tunnel on the line you set at 2:38 – rewardable! The tunnel was not visible on the video, but he went where your line sent him. I thought it was what you wanted until you indicated it was not correct. Was it the DW contact? So be super clear about what you want and reward his effort so you don’t get the jumping up.
>The May 4-6th dates will work for JAG. There was a meeting tonight and several folks were asking for the dates…so it should be fun!>
Awesome! It is on the calendar! Thanks 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
You and Bokeh rocked this game!
I think she was a little surprised on the very first rep, but then after that you had just the right amount of connection as you moved up the line.When she was on your left, she was also doing great after a quick check to see what was in your hand LOL!!! So for both side, you can keep the dog side hand empty and drop the reward in with the other hand.
We can really see independence developing already: there were multiple reps where we can see her moving to the backside without you needing to be that close – clear daylight between you and her! Very cool! So as you revisit this, you can move up a parallel path that is increasingly further across the bar – and keep the great connection you had. You also had your push backside going here which is great: you can say it multiple times rather than once, so she can really process it as we add more independence. It also helps maintain connection: say push push push push to her eyes as you move up the line, until you see her heading to the backside.
Great job here!!
Tracy
Hi!
Serp: He is coming in really well to the target hand on both sides and seems to have no trouble at all with the ‘pressure’ of being that close to you. Super! You can get the reward on the line but extended away from you so he can move fully over the jump bump.
Since this went so well, you can proceed to the next steps: a reward target on the ground on the line (can be an empty food bowl that you plop the cookie into, or MM, or a toy, whatever you think he will drive to on a marker without you needing to move). And you can also show him the threadle version of this – I think that will be very easy for him.
The head turn game went really well. Excellent mechanics of the nice low hand to catch his attention and turn him away – he was really turning his head into the turn nicely 🙂 You started tossing the treat from the other hand (rather than the turn hand) and that seemed like it was easier mechanics? And using the toy as the reward was fun to see: the toy brings more excitement but he did not lose the precision of the turn. SUPER!! You can move this game forward to the advanced level of marking the head turn as he approaches the upright for the first time – then if that goes well, try the 360 backside circle wraps 🙂
Threadle wrap foundations with motion: also very nice! He seemed to be perfectly happy to come to the hand cue then turn away, both in the turns and the full circles.
Since this was very easy for him, you can move forward to adding something to wrap around – posted yesterday!Great job here 🙂
TracyGood morning!
>He likely has teething stuff happening. He’s been extra chewy the last couple of days. His teeth seem to be very slow growing and it seems some teeth still are not fully grown in yet. He also possibly has a couple of adult teeth that are fully missing. He is 7.5 months now and the vet recommends an xray at a year old if teeth have not grown in to check that they are just missing and not impacted.>
Interesting! And good to know. Maybe the vet can get the x-ray earlier than a year if the teeth are not where you want them? We don’t want pain to be an issue at all!
>. When I offered other toys after he turned off the first, he seemed interested when I first offered but wouldn’t fully engage so that seems to indicate more something with teeth I think? >
Entirely possible and something to keep an eye on for sure!
>He has been extra interested in his food the last 2 days though, where previously he would turn off food when teeth were bothering him. He does seem to like to change things up on me, lol, so not a huge surprise if he’s not being consistent with that.>
We can probably file some of it (all of it? LOL!) into the Joy s Of Adolescence file 🙂
>I will get him a lotus ball as it seems likely it will be helpful for him. I have to acquire one as my other dogs never needed it, so hopefully we can try that out next week.>
He might like the regular one, but they also make ones that are fur-covered! My toy-driven dogs really love that one.
>Just to clarify on adding distance and speed to rocking horses. Is this done separately or at the same time? >
I think for him, add the distance and let him sort out the speed. He might need to think about it at first but then he will be flying.
>Am I running between the barrels but also still sending? >
There are 2 variations in th advanced level:
– yes, you can be sending and not running. That is where you will only want to add little bits of distance so the sending stays easy enough for him to go to the barrels.>Or, doing the running reps and building out distance to send in separate sessions?>
There is also the option of you moving more so you can show him the earlier FC rotation – it is like a moving version of the sideways sending. The dogs like the movement but the rotation getting earlier and earlier is challenging.
>His stay is not stellar yet. In fact, he was doing well with it and then turned anti-stay which seems typical for his age>
Probably because of a combination of 2 things: the other games where he goes and does a thing are more valuable! Plus, adolescents just need to move more in general.
So add movement into the stay games (I know, sounds weird LOL!!) All of the rewards involve movement by either throwing a reward back for him to go get, or releasing forward to chase you.
>I actually haven’t been working on it at all recently and definitely not in combination with other things.
You can protect it by playing with the stay as a separate game 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
The platform game looks fun and definitely helps with a nice tuck sit. You can eventually fade out the chutes. And the tight sit work is something we all re-visit throughout their careers.>For the 360 game, I just used a cone because my barrels are so big.>
The cone works well! I use cheap pop up laundry baskets from Walmart. I think they were $2 LOL!!!
The 360s went really well!!! This is a hard game because of all the countermotion and I think he was super!
You can line him up to start with a cookie – he knows the toy is involved and is very excited, which makes it is a little harder to get the lineup. Plus, you can start adding the backside circle wrap verbal – and the way to do that is to have him at your side, hold his collar, say the verbal 3 or 4 times… then let him to go star the wrap. The cookie line up will make it all easier to begin that process.
>He seems to much prefer wrapping to his right.>
Yes, he seems a little stronger to his right but I think he did well on both sides. A big click/treat to you for a session that was really good: you were gradually progressing the skill by changing where you placed the reward. Super!
The right turn reps all looked strong.
When you switched sides, you were too fast on the first rep to the left but when you slowed it down to start like you did on the right side, he did really well! I think you did a lovely job progressing it gradually – for the left turns, keeping your motion a little slower worked well and the food rewards were very effective! Then going back to the toy at the end was lovely.So for the left turns, moving a bit more slowly totally helps. You will be able to crank up the speed soon enough 🙂
Great job!!
Tracy
Aha! Here is the reward on the ground. Super! (And be sure to reward stays like I mentioned above so he doesn’t think hand movement is the release).
He did really well here, especially on the harder angles! Since the MM helps provide line info, as he is coming in for the threadle, you don’t need to close your shoulders to point to it – you can keep your shoulders open and move parallel to the jump so he doesn’t rely on you pointing to the bar after a threadle.
Great job!
Tracy
