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Hi!
>>. We can’t always get such detailed input when we’re in a real-time class.
Very true – the video aspect gives us a lot of time to really look at what is happening! So fun!
>> To respond: In the first video, I was purposely throwing the item close since I was hoping to (ha!) maybe beat her – or at least tie. Didn’t really happen.
Ha! We are going to have to cheat to win the race here – stay tuned for more on that in coming weeks 🙂
>> I wanted to see how she’d respond to different items, and this was a perfect exercise to test that out.
I think it is perfect that you did that – we can really see how a hand position changes behavior, as well as what the current hierarchy of reinforcement is. All very useful info!
>> I have tied strings to a couple of different tug toys so we could tug together after a set. This worked only partially.
I have found that a lot of the foodie dogs turn onto tugging when the lotus ball or treat hugger is a moving target that needs to be grabbed in order to get the food – at first we move it til they grab it only a little, then it progresses us to full on tugging on it. Then I tie the foodie toy to a real tuggie and transfer the game to it. It is kind of a ‘best of both worlds’ approach 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
Blind cross videos – I think this went extremely well and you were probably just feeling the awkwardness of the arm-across-the-body rewards. Those are indeed weird at first! It might feel easier with a toy when you reward across the body, if he is happy to alternate between food and toys in the same session. On the less comfortable side, remember to put your dig side arm a little further back, kind of like pointing to his nose. I think you had it down at your side which makes it harder to show the connection and might just feel weirder too LOL!!
Your timing looked good, he had plenty of time to make the side change and he looked pretty confident on those, getting it right every time! Nice!!Wing wraps – this is also going well!! Good job bringing it to new locations (and added a well-behaved audience LOL!) When you are in the new spot, start the pole right up on you so he cannot squeeze in between you and the pole (especially when he is warming up in the back and forth – he might not notice the pole until after a failure so having it very close to you at first will help that. Definitely keep moving to different spots!
>> Oh, I tried this with two toys and it was a failure. I think I might be able to incorporate toys when there is more distance/action, but he just wasn’t interested in switching between two toys.
What was he doing? Locking onto one toy only? Let me know and we can help him out – it is a useful skill so it will be fun to figure out.
Sends – ALSO looking really good!
>>although sometimes I think I don’t deserve a clicker>>
Ha!!!! And that sums up why we start this on a meaningless prop! With each new puppy, we humans have to undergo a learning curve and basically relearn the timing and technique. I realize that shaping also relies on our ability to predict/recognize exactly what the pup will do, so we kind of have to relearn that with each new puppy until we can do it subconsciously. My shaping is MUCH better with my older dogs than with my 16 week old pupster!
So, we start with conceptual work partially for the puppy and partially for us LOL! You are doing a great job.The sending is going really well. He is showing strong intent, great smacks of the target, and he has figured out that it is actually a chain: hit then come back.
The ready dance adds a layer of arousal which is perfectly fine for this stage – basically asking Presto if he is able to produce the behavior even when he is more stimulated (he even barked at one point here!)
There was a couple of moments where he looked up at you (like at :45) on the send – it was hard to see your face but I think it might have been because you were looking ahead on the send and not at him? It looks like your body was turned a little away from the Santa hat so the send was not as clear. A little more connection to his eyes there will smooth it out 🙂
Great job on all of these! The games coming later this week will build on them.
Have fun!
TracyHi there!
>> use it a lot when I want to cue a behavior. When she does that behavior, she gets a burst of energy when I cue her.
Yes! I could totally see that burst! The clarity of the cue lead to a passionate, crisp response, it was great 🙂
>>You should see her eyes bug out waiting for me to give her a cue. It’s hilarious.
OMG please get a camera angle on that, I would love to see!
>I’m afraid of the ready/ready game because her front feet will be off the ground and all over the place and I’ve worked hard on keeping them down. It’s a good thing she’s small!!
One of the “joys” of tiny dogs is that their little front feets move REALLY fast and it is way too easy to build in front foot movement when we do not want front foot movement! I totally feel that pain. We can split the ready dance – You can do a quieter version of the ready dance: without bopping back and forth (which might elicit feet-in-the-air) you can begin with just a word, and then a sideways glance/eyebrow lift, a little muscle tightening in posture… and then cue early before she moves. I also do a lot of ready dance down on the ground with the littles, sitting or kneeling, which elicits less popping up with the feet. I install a lot of it because it is also ultimately a great arousal modulator which is very useful later on.
>>I really like doing this with food because I will get a lot more reps doing it and I can control the starting position better. But I’ll play with it a little with toys. She’s pretty good going back and forth between toys and food. She loves both!!
Eventually, back and forth with food then toys is great for both the precision/efficiency side of things and the arousal too!
T
Hi and welcome!!!! Which breeds are in his mix? I love his name! If he is a food piggie, there must be a lot of terrier LOL! We can definitely give you lots of ideas to go back and forth from food to toys 🙂
Tracy
Hi! I think it is great that the kids are involved! They are welcome to handle/train the games too if they are interested in that.
Excellent video work and editing! OMG I feel the pain of trying to find the right treats with tiny mouths! You sorted it out with the cheese nicely though, by waiting til she was ready to see the next treat plop. Perfect. She was really picking it up beautifully and offering the back and forth so nicely! You can now move the bowl targets a little further away to add challenge, placing them a little closer to you so she has to move further around the pole (just an inch or two will add a lot of challenge) then if that goes well, the pole can move a little further away (again, just by an inch or two – she is so little that even an inch is a big difference.Toy drive: who is the drummer? Impressive drumming, I was a little distracted listening LOL!!! Happily, she was not distracted – one of the great things about all of this home training is that the dogs will get to ignore so many MASSIVE distractions they would not necessarily encounter in face-to-face puppy classes, such as dummers and Remi and cameras, and such. She did a great job here!
She dida great job covering a lot of gound here and driving ahead! My only suggestion is to watch her a little more (to get connection to her eyes to be second nature) – you looked at her for a moment, but try to look at her the whole time (it will indeed feel weird). Try to look at her even as you throw the toy.
We will be building on this game soon – for now, you can take it to different places around the yard or house, and you can try it with food! I like for the pups to drive ahead to ALL the things 🙂Having Remi hold her on drive-to-handler was perfect. I don’t introduce this as a restrained recall only because so many folks don’t have access to a good holder. But since Remi is perfect, then yes you can totally have him participate. And I love that your videographer is also timing your session 🙂 Nice!!
You are correct, she was a little wide at the beginning when you were standing still but as you progressed, you got lower sooner with the treat and she figured out that decelerating next to you would lead to treats. When you were pivoting, I thought she did a GREAT job of sitting into her hind end to collect before getting to you – that is EXACTLY what we want to see. And, she is close enough to you, just a couple of inches away, as you pivot, which is great. I am happy with how she figured out that driving into you was a very good thing, so being a couple of inches away is fine. We don’t need the tiny dogs to be quite as close to us because we don’t need them to collect as much on course to create great lines as, say, Standard Poodles. So while I get my big pup to wrap himself around me like a noodle, I don’t do that with the little pup or the Papillons – what Poet was doing here was perfection.
On this game, you can take it to indoors and do food toss starts on carpet, mainly for the self-control element of ‘eat the cookie then hurry back’. You can also have Remi be the holder and add more distance plus you can add motion: be moving when you call her and decelerate as she starts moving towards you.
Great job here!!!!! Let me know what you think.
TracyHi there!
He is doing really well! Yes, adding the wing was a bit too much momentum to start this (plus there is a connection trick we will be using later so he drives to you tighter and to the correct side), so going back to the earlier stages was the right move for sure! If he does end up on the other side of you, reward anyway because it is likely that there was a connection break so he didn’t know which side to be.
He is still learning the value of driving to your hand, so do a couple more sessions with the treat in your hand to really condition driving right to you (he will be happy with all the treats LOL!). When you start with him behind you and with motion, decelerate sooner, almost as soon as he starts moving towards you: you were doing it a bit late so he was shooting wide past you.
Then, when you transition to no cookie in the hand, you can hold your hand in the same position (closed as if there is a cookie in it) and when he arrives to the empty hand, pass a cookie to it from the other hand. You had you empty hand open so he wasn’t driving to it as much – having it closed without a cookie will be a good way to bridge the gap and build the value of the decel/turn – and eventually he will be so conditioned to drive in that it won’t matter what your hand is doing 🙂 Let me know if that makes sense – I think it will get him to drive right in tight to you on that cue.Great start here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! He is doing a great job on this game!! The focus forward and drive ahead was lovely: he seemed very comfortable leaving you in his dust LOL!! A tweak for you: hold onto him for a longer time. You were letting him run before the toy landed and he did a great job. So now you can hold onto him until after it has landed and then let him go. This will give you the heartbeat of time needed to connect to his eyes before releasing him, it will add a little more duration to the focus forward (and anticipation which will get even more speed) – plus it will give you a chance to try to race him more instead of being left in the dust 🙂
He was happy to grab the toy but didn’t always want to bring it back – you can make that more fun by running the other direction when he grabs it, so he gets to chase you after he races you, and you can reward with another toy when he chases you with the original toy.
If memory serves, he loves his Manners Minder too, right? So you can play this game driving to the MM – it is not as exciting as a toy but I teach it to the foodie dogs for future use in contact & weave training.
Because he did so well here, you can add the duration of holding him longer, plus more distance on the throws – and as many different locations as possible. Great job!
TracyAwww thank you for starting my day off right with the ultimate puppy adorableness!!!!! I had to watch the video a few times: first to admire then adorableness then to look at it from a training perspective LOL!! She is so fun! And yes, at not quite 10 weeks old… work at your own pace (we basically have ALL summer to play these games!) and we can break things down or build things up, based on the information she provides 🙂
She did a great job with focusing forward and driving ahead to the toy. You did a great job connecting to her eyes as you tossed the toy, it really allowed you to see her focus forward and then send it. Yay!
She is still learning to release the toy, so that is something you can reward: with baby pups, I do a lot of tug-release-tug games to have smooth transitions with the toy. What I mean by that is, separately from training other things, I get some tugging going on a medium or low value toy (using both hands) – then I relax my hands, moving them in a little closer to the pup’s mouth. Then I wait 🙂 When the pup relaxes and lets go of the toy, I praise and restart the tug game (which basically rewards the release of the toy with more toy time :)) That will help this game (and the others) because Teak hasn’t learned how about the joys of letting go of the toy yet LOL!! And no need for verbal cue on it until she is understands the transition (neither of my pups have an out verbal yet).
For the driving ahead – in small bursts, add more distance and also add more of your motion. Because she is so tiny at the moment, if you have decent knees you can stay low and add a little motion by scooting along on your knees.
Her little whippet runs with the toy are really just the cutest thing ever 🙂 Great job here, you and Teak are so fun to watch!
TracyWe can work on them here! And you can also do double crosses (front blind or blind blind) on the threadle lines 🙂 The novice sequences/courses don’t have a million threadles 🙂
Hi there! Interesting view of him exiting the tunnel – he would look to his right even when you were on his left sometimes – my guess is he has a long memory for where the ball is LOL!
2 thoughts for you on this:
I think the turn cues to get the tight turns just need to be sooner, and that will get the turns tightened right up. It looks like you were starting them when he was approx 3 feet from the tunnel but because he is long and fast, he didn’t quite see the cue. He probably needs to see you starting the foot rotation while he is still 6 feet from the tunnel (so you are fully rotated before his head goes in) and then I bet he will read it perfectly. It is hard to see from the camera angle, but I think the cone closer to the hammock was probably around 6 feet from the tunnel entry, so you can start your rotation when he is just getting to the line the cone is on.
The other thing to consider is that when you are running, GO and COdy might start to sound alike when you are repeating them fast. So, you can use the same wrap verbals as you do on the wings here, which should be different-sounding enough that it is easier for him to hear them even with the roar of the tunnel 🙂
His GO lines look good – he is exiting straight, with maybe his head turned a little looking for the ball 🙂 and the earlier turn rotations should help him turn a lot tighter on the exit.
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi there!
These are looking good! There were many really smooth lines – she does her best when your arms are low and back, that is when she can really see your eyes. When you point forward to much or your arms are high, that is when she had questions. Here are some ideas for you:Course 2:
All 3 reps had REALLY lovely openings, 1-7 was pretty much perfect on all 3 runs.
On the 8 tunnel, your turn cue was a late on the first run so she exited wide, but the next 2 runs had the turn cues earlier and earlier so she got tighter and tighter on the exit. On run 2, I thought you had a great combination of turn on the tunnel exit and rear to the weaves. The rear to the weaves on the 1st rep was impressive at how well she sent out to the entry, independently!! On the 3rd rep, you had the tightest line out of the tunnel but you also ended up a bit too far past the 9 jump, which made it harder to get all the way back to 11 for the threadle.Based on how well she send to the 5-6-7-8 line, I bet you could hang out by 5 and send her around that loop and easily get a blind cross between 8 and 9! That would allow you to get to the threadle jump after the weaves more easily.
At the threadle (#11) – you had a little too much motion into it on the first rep, not quite getting rotated in time to show her the forced front cross position (motion overrode your rotation there). The motion also contributed to the straight line after the 12 tunnel there too. When you have to get that line with a lot of motion, you can consider doing a blind cross while she is in the weaves (just before she exits) then it is easier to get her to the backside for a throwback. You got to the position and decelerated really well on the 2nd rep and had super hustle to get it on the 3rd rep as well! Yay!
The 12-13 line is a hard one!! The key will be using your turn verbal (I think your ‘right here’ on the 3rd rep was the strongest) nice and early as well as showing her your motion moving away. If you are running forward for too long, the motion will override your verbal. On the 3rd rep, you had the strong verbal – I don’t think you need the spin there (she was already in the tunnel and it takes a lot of footwork) so the stepping away to the new line should be fine an you can also add a soft brake arm! It is a hard turn to get with all of those other juicy obstacles being very much in her sight as she exits 🙂
Course 3:
Run 1 – On this opening, she can see the opening line nice and early so you can turn for the blind even before she lands from 1 – that will get you up the line even sooner. She barked at you on landing of 2 because you were a little late on the blind and your arm was a little high, blocking her view of the connection 🙂Good RC on 5 – 6 (5 is a backside on the course map, but you ran it as a front here). The RC is a great choice there because it is hard to get far enough up the line for the blind there.
After the teeter – You can be earlier on the blind at 8-9 with a lower arm (she barked there too, I am sensing a theme in her feedback to us LOL! )
On the RC at the #10 tunnel: this is a place to handle it without a pull to indicate the obstacle because that presents a go line to her rather than the RC. By pulling, she didn’t see it as a RC because you turned your feet and shoulders forward until after she was in. To get the rear cross info to her sooner, drive her line to the tunnel on a very slicing line so she sees your feet facing 11 before she enters.
When she turned left then had to come back, it messed up the timing a little on the send to 11, so that is a place to keep your arm down and back to connect to her even though you were pretty far away at that point, and maintain the low arm and big connection as she exits 13 to the 14 tunnel – you were pointing forward a bit there so she looked at you.Run 2 – Nice open line here, I think she was even faster!! You tried the BC 4-5 here – it was late (she barked) because it is just so hard to get to on time on this particular line. I liked your RC choice for sure.
She liked the timing and connection of your FC at 8-9, there was only a little bark and it was not a very convincing bark 🙂 It was earlier for sure!
The pull to 14 had the a left turn here too – for the RC, you will feel like you are almost running across her tail 🙂 Don’t give her too much room.
Nice connection to 11 and 12!!
The pointing forward to the 14 tunnel arm fling caused connection to break, so she pulled off the line with you. That is a definite arm back spot for her.
The ending lines are looking good!On the short practice clip – the FC was much sooner on 8-9, she gave it 2 paws up: no barking! Yay! It was also really connected. And on the tunnel at 10, you did not pull as much, you were facing the rear cross line so much more and she got the rear cross. Super!!! I bet you can be moving forward while you do that, which will put you even closer to 11.
Great job on these! She was very helpful in barking her opinion on the cross timing or when your arm was too high 🙂 Let me know if the ideas about the RC on the tunnel make sense.
Have fun!
TracyHi!
Yes, she definitely loved the food-in-hand delivery at the beginning! She was nice and tight on her drive to you and turns. Be sure to mix in some delivery to her mouth along with throwing it ahead – the handing it to her will develop a nice balance for driving to you on tight turns. Nice timing on your turns here too!On rep 3 when there was no treat in your open hand she was wider and not as sure of what to focus on. But when you had a bit of a ‘magic cookie hand’ (a closed hand) motion in rep 4 & 5 and after, she was much tighter to you on the drive in and turns. On the last rep you had your hand open too, like on the 3rd rep, so she was a bit wider on her turn. And it was interesting to see what she liked as rewards in each situation!! All this is good to know!!!
So, ideas for you:
when there is no cookie in your hand, you should still present it in the ‘magic cookie hand’ (closed) position – and on some reps, do have a cookie in it (and on others, same hand position and no cookie). We will eventually get it to a flat hand cue but for now, stick with magic cookie hand because it produces fabulous behavior.
Now, about reinforcement:
mixing in all the things – sometimes have the cookie in your hand. Sometimes have the cue hand empty and the cookie is in the other hand, and you can either throw it ahead or quickly pass it to the empty hand to deliver it to her.
And sometimes use the flirt stick (which is, I agree, a pain in the behind to run around with, but you did a great job and she loves it!)
You can also use your lotus ball or the other foodie toy, but tie them to a leash so you can swing it around – she likes to chase and she likes to eat, so that would be the best of both worlds LOL!
On the other toy, when it was presented in front of you and not moving, it was not interesting – so let’s save that particular toy, for now, for the chase games where that toy is in motion a lot. As she gets more experienced (not quite 8 months old, so young!) you will find that the toys/treat will equal out in value and you can use them more interchangeably.Overall, she looks fabulous! Great job working these games! Let me know what you think.
TracyThis is great, Kristie!!! She is so fun!
>>Keiko loves food
I can relate, I love food too LOL! She was terrific here.
She is driving ahead beautifully and I think she *really* likes your new toy – that last rep was especially good (fast!!!!)
Only one little tiny suggestion for you: try to let her go before you start moving, so she feels th joys of being very far ahead of you 🙂 I suggest it because she was looking at you as you started to move on these, then looking ahead again. You were doing it simultaneously so I think now we can add the step of you letting go, she moves, then you move. This way she gets to drive ahead and not look back at you.
You can also add more distance, work up to throwing the toy as far as you can. You can also take the game to different locations to generalize it in various places. She looks great!!Tracy
Hi!
Yes, putting the links on YouTube (or similar site) then post the link is the best way to get them here 🙂Great job on the video, she is so fun!!! Nice warm up to get her in the groove, then she did really well with the sending to the prop. Feeding her back at you and from your hand really helped, because it brought her back so you could be ready with the next send. Be careful not to say your ‘yes’ marker as you are sending (it was early a few times :)) be sure to wait til she hits it – it is ok for the yes to be just after the hit, it doesn’t need to be simultaneous.
Because she is soooo quick, two ideas for you:
add more distance to start your send to the hat, so you have an extra heartbeat between the send and the reward. You were nice and close which was perfect to start it… but wow you had to think fast LOL!!!
Take the game to grass or carpet – she is so quick to respond that she was slipping here, so carpet or grass will help give her better grip so she can go fast and not slip 🙂It looks like she is also ready for the sideways and backwards sends! Remember to use the ready ready dance on those so she knows exactly when to go to the prop.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>Haha you should see the vast crazy furry options I have after 3 Vizslas who don’t tug. I tried everything!
Ha! I feel that! My dogs with lower tug drive have the BEST toys, zillions of dollars of fancy toys… and my dogs with great tug drive have crappy toys from the dollar store LOL!
>>I will work on less contact and I have a tail on a line that might be that long.
I think it will be most important at the beginning of sessions when her arousal is coming up – but then when she gets rolling, she will be more engaged and it won’t matter as much.
>>If not I’ll add length. The good news is we tried the send game with toys and she was so locked on I couldn’t get her to go back and forth. Sitting in the send game is much less body pressure.
She was locked onto the toy? Cool!
Great job on the video here!
At the start of a new session to get it rolling, you can let her swallow the treat then drop the next one in – I think when pups are chewing, they don’t process anything else til they swallow LOL!
You were plopping the next treat in very nicely, but she was happily chewing and didn’t quite notice it as clearly as she would if she was one chewing 🙂
The cone definitely has value and it was really interesting to see her light up when it came out! And yes, you can totally see the wrap stuff you’ve already done, great job!!! She seems to understand it AND love it!
To help her not cut in between you and the cone (and not do a full circle), you can change the timing of the reinforcement placement ever so slightly – you were getting it in on the target as she was at the previous target, so now you can shift to waiting til she snakes her head around the cone. That way she will see you plop it on the target she is heading towards (as a reward) and won’t be as tempted to cut straight over your knees to the next target (because there will be no cookie on it LOL)For now – to make sure she doesn’t get frustrated with the circling versus 180ing, no need to move the cone away until you have a session or two with the tweaked reinforcement timing. And, you can also use something else to go around: a pole or single jump stanchion instead of the cone. We will be teaching her to differentiate very soon and don’t want to frustrate her in the meantime.
Great job 🙂
T
