Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Hi there!
The first couple of pill bugs were great, you were connected and I think she had fun chasing you! At :35ish, you ended up a little disconnected so she wasn’t sure which side ot be on. Same on the next rep – you were getting far ahead but disconnecting so she ended up on the wrong side of you. You can reward sooner so that you don’t have to tempt death-by-pillbug LOL!! But overall keep rewarding and go fast for short spurts and short distances – that keeps it easier be connected and she will have fun chasing you.Dog walk planks – The recall was great! The first rep where you had your cookie hand in her face was not helpful for her because she was following the cookies and not thinking about the plank. BUt when you switched to recalls, she nailed it! You can do more recalls, adding 2 things – rather than facing her, face away from her so she is chasing you more than coming to your front. And also you can add leading out halfway then releasing and walking so she is doing the plank with you moving. Then you can work it up to jogging then running! She seems happy on it and confident!
While you are still walking, you can raise the plank so she can get the hang of it 6 inches off teh ground, a foot off the ground, and so on.
Nice work, she seemed super happy on these!!Tracy
Hi!
Good tugging to start, he was engaged with you til you got ready for the plank. Nice!
And if you feel like you need 32 hands for this, I feel your pain! When he gets on the plank, you can have the cookie hand hold his collar like you did at 1:24, then put the target in then let go (and when you run out of cookies in the hand, release). It takes some mechanics at first but you did get it on that last one especially! And I think at this point you can try putting the target on the ground and that will free up one of your hands.
Nice work here!Tracy
Hi there! I think it is safe to say that he loves his wing wraps 🙂 Yay! He cracked me up – as you were getting ready, he went and did a wrap then stood there all like, “DUDE I DID THE WRAP WHERE IS MY PARTY” LOL!!! Love him!
These were really good – excellent speed, no hesitation, you had the verbals going, all great. Nice! I think at this point you can start the next session as you ended this one: with the jump wing already out there and playing with a toy – then send him to the wing and reward with tugging. That will be really fun to add more speed and excitement. When you get more room, you can add a little more distance and also more running from you – but that might need wait til you have less snow and more grass 🙂Nice work!
TFound it!
Hot Sauce really hated the teeter for a long time – you can see she didn’t like it when her back feet touched the teeter on the first few reps, then she offered getting and turning around (I rewarded all of that). Then I was able to gently massage the shaping to the point where she was backing up onto the board. And I did some targeting to help keep her mind off of the teeter element. Lanna is a lot more confident about the noise and movement from what I can see of her, so you are likely to be able to get more backing onto the board. And you can do the targeting with 4on if you want, or 2o2o. This vide was filmed when 2020 was on the radar for me (last July).
T
Good morning! Wait, you haven’t trained your box turn and doing full runs yet? LOL!!! I am confident she will learn her box turn in a heartbeat when you get it rolling. Flyball training is great for agility dogs (and vice versa). Can’t wait to see you at CanAm, maybe?
First video – she seemed like a super happy monkey to slam it and get her toy. I didn’t see anything that looked like worry or concern to me! Yay! One thing you can do with this set up is have her back up onto the teeter, to help her realize that her BACK feet are useful here too LOL! I have a video of it somewhere, I will find it – I think Lanna’s backing up is strong enough that you can do it. She was primarily doing front feet here which is great, but we can add the back foot element as well.
The mountain climber video was a cool progression to watch! She looked like she felt it was weird at first – tentative and also note the style of tail wag. But after a few reps, I think she caught on and was outrunning you to the end. Perfect feeding position from your helper person! This is the type of game to put on as many different teeters as possible and full height teeters. We build it into a full teeter eventually by combining it with other games.
Nice work here! Let me go find the backing up video.
T
Good morning! Where we you in the wobble board video, and can I come visit? LOL!! Looks beautiful!
On the wing wraps – I think you can add in more excitement for sure! That can be in the form of revving him up more before the send, and then as he is finishing his wrap, start to run so he can chase you. His value and understanding is definitely building up nicely so now we can add back the layers of motion.
About the offering of the jumps… the easiest thing to do is not have any jumps around when you are doing other stuff (just removing the bars and putting the wings together). That way he can’t offer it – because he isn’t necessarily wrong to offer based on where you were, but we don’t want to reward him for leaving you to offer a jump (because that will encourage more offering of jumps without permission which makes it harder to put it all on stimulus control, develop criteria on turns, and also harder to get stay behavior or get him to NOT take jumps) and we don’t want to NOT reward or worse, tell him he is wrong to offer it, because that reduces value. So for now – avoid the opportunity entirely 🙂 And if he leaves you to take jumps far away, just have him on leash or in a stay as you are getting ready. He doesn’t need to be doing his own course design LOL!!Wobble board – the scenery is distracting! Yes, he got startled but it also shows us that we can build more resilience to things moving differently or loudly – super important for all the variations in types of teeters and noises he will encounter! Even on the seesaw, he was a bit careful. My Hot Sauce was like this too, at the same age. So a few things to try: one hit wonder sessions, where all he has to do is kinda interact with the wobble board and he gets a jackpot (like a meal) then the whole session is done. By “interact”, I mean even a gentle touch LOL! He doesn’t have to move it much or make it slam at first. With the massive jackpots, he will get more and more excited about it. The super short sessions really help. On the teeter slamming, you can also do the massive jackpots and one rep sessions (then go do something else, then another rep 20 minutes later, for example). If he has a toy he REALLY loves (ball? Frisbee?) or a treat he adores – reserve that for teetering 🙂 For example, my pup loves disc more than life – so her teeter work is done with the disc and as she was building value, it was the only time she saw the disc. In other words: the teeter became magical because it produced the disc 🙂 With my oldest dog, he loved the Cuz balls and also Vienna Sausages (ewww!) so the teeter was what produced those in his world. The one hit wonder high value sessions on the wobble board and on the teeter games is what got both of these dogs to love the teeter and super resilient to all of the different speeds and noises the teeter produces.
Blind cross foundation is looking really good! Nice job of getting clear connection and (generally :)) rewarding across the body – he read them all really well! This might be a god game to introduce the back-and-forth between food and toys – send to a boring cookie then he can chase you for a crazy toy. I know that toy versus cookie is hard for most of our dogs so this might be a good place to install this!
Nice work here!!
Tracy
Hi! He did really well on this – the goal was that he doesn’t look up from his targeting an he doesn’t try to follow the cookies: mission accomplished! Yay! The travel plank might be a little slippery for that angle, so the next step would be a reduced angle where he could step into position… with the cookies already over his head. You can also put a target in your hand if you like (I think you had the empty hand here). He is doing well! And yes, tugging before and after every few cookies will keep him from going into cookie mode 🙂 But it can be hard to get on video 🙂
Nice work!
TracyHi there!
>>When you talk about and L shape for wrapping a wing do you mean the handler goes toward the jump then turns 90 degrees away from the jump and the dog goes 270 degrees instead of 360?
Depending on the angle, the dog might be going 360 but the handler is doing this:
The box shaping is going well! Next step: get the click in before he looks at you 🙂 Note how he was looking at you earlier and earlier – so you can click as he is on the way to the box and throw forward before he looks at you. You can also use the MM for this now, calling him back to you to reset after each reward.
>> I did a nice session and he was running happily on it then when I went to turn off the camera I hadn’t turned it on,
I feel that pain of “oh crap I didn’t turn the camera on” in fact, that happened today LOL!
He is super happy on the planks, so you can put this on the backburner for a bit – just revisit a bit of hopping on/off/turning around, and maybe a restrained recall if you have someone who can hold him. We can go back to plank running when you get to more of an end behavior to add to it.
He is doing better with his commitment on the wing wraps! And yay for verbals! I like the very distinct tones of the verbals. My only tweak here is to let him see more of the wing – on many of the reps, you were blocking the wing so he had to you around you. So, you can hold his collar and be on an angle so he sees the wing – then let go, he starts to move, and when he is past you and looking at the wing, you can move. That will also add more excitement and energy to it, which of course increases challenge 🙂
On the running contact foundation video – yep, it is easy to go too long because we are obsessing LOL!! He did really well here! The goal is to basically teach the pups how to get the MM to trigger by going away from it and doing something completely different from looking at it or moving towards it. He did really well for the first time! He got a bit distracted at about 1:30 (adorably hitting it and gazing up at you) so he was probably at his time limit (lots of thinking is exhausting). Next time set a timer for 60 seconds and he should be fine.
I am super happy with how he tugged in the presence of the MM! That is a heavy food thing and he was a good tugger!
I will be adding more to the running contacts/MM stuff this week, he looks ready for more challenge!Nice work!!
TracyHi there!
Verbals are good! The GO verbal is incredibly useful.
>>He’s also getting around and swing for wings and poles.Are those wrap verbals? Those are useful too.
>>Tunnel he really likes 😁.
Haha I am not surprised 🙂
>>I like the left and right idea, as well as a threadle. It’s always interesting to listen to some things people come up with for different things.
If AKC is probably going to be your main competition venue, I suggest a tunnel threadle verbal as that is a popular challenge. And left/right will help too!
T
Hi there!
Ha! He wants to stay on the planks and eat cookies LOL!!! My 18 month old pup went through the same thing. I am glad he loves the plank so much – the desire to stay on it now is fine, because when he has to stop in position with a tunnel out ahead (later on in training) then we will be relying on his love of the plank LOL! He seems happy to do all of the crazy things with the cookie – so you might need to move further away from the plank to get toy engagement. Does he like balls? You can use a ball or a bumper to help get play in the presence of the plank, if he likes those!
You can also do tricks for treat *near* the plank but not on the plank, so the plank doesn’t become his sole focus 🙂
NIce work!
TracyOMG I just saw this post from Feb 10! I don’t kow how I missed it, sorry!!!! Feel free to poke me if you don’t hear back within 24 hours!!
He did great on the offering the wraps on the first few reps. It distracted him when you moved further away, so you were smart to move the chair a little closer. You can move it further between sessions. Nice job breaking it off with play (and starting it with play). Yay!
TracyHi! She was just so funny, trying to pick up the target 🙂 This is going fine and I think there is enough value to change it up a bit by having her hop on the side of the plank into her 4on target position, with you standing and to the side. It is kind of like the teeter bang game: the target is already on the plank, you and she are next to the plank, hand on collar getting her excited – then give the target cue, let go, and reward for hopping into target position. That can allow you to add more independence to it – I will be posting ideas on that this week! Let me know if that makes sense 🙂 You can also do the demand for targeting game from yesterday, I bet she finds it really easy to do 🙂
Nice work!
TracyHi there!
It is always great to train in new places!! She seemed to have no trouble at all in a new environment in terms of focus and engagement. Plus the pill bugs are a good workout LOL!
She had a hard time staying on the correct side when you were going around the curve of the tunnel, she wanted to put herself between you and the tunnel – it worked best when you were ahead but not moving that fast yet – you were best able to show her where the connection was so she could get rewarded for staying on that side. You will be able to add back more and more speed and she gets the hang of staying on your side and not migrating towards the obstacle 🙂On the wing wraps – she definitely was anticipating the chase-the-momma moment when you were trying to move (understandable, it is super fun!) and she was fine if you weren’t really moving, so we need to shift the balance away from you and back to taking the wing without you. Totally normal! You had the best results when you held still til she was almost all the way around the wing, but she wasn’t going to let you leave earlier or use a lot of countermotion yet. So, no problem! As she begins to wrap, drop the reward in on the exit side (where you want her to go) and keep moving slowly. The goal is to be able to stay in motion while she completes her job. You can drop a toy in and then have her come to you for a 2nd toy (unless she is happy to retrieve it) or you can drop in a giant cookie (might as well break in the new turf with cookie crumbs hahaha) but the goal is to keep moving and drop it in early so you can keep moving.
Good girlie on her stays for the RC! I know you have worked hard on the stays, they look GREAT! She did well with the hard RC skill and also with the toy on the ground. Since she wants to watch you and is craning her neck (impressive!) and that is causing a bit of front foot movement, you can leave something out ahead to focus on, such as a toy or an empty food bowl – then release and toss the reward in there, depending on which side you release her on.
Great job here!
TracyHi there!
There was one moment in here that made me think that your running contact training is going to go really well: it was when you were trying to pick up the mat and she was insisting on getting on it LOL!!!!! Too funny but a gold star for being tenacious about the darned mat LOL!!I think she was ending up interacting with other stuff because that stuff was salient in the environment when you moved the mat further from the MM, plus the whole “offer stuff” has a lot of value – and the mat itself doesn’t have a lot of value quite yet. So a clearer space will help that not be a problem.
For the mat – looking good! I think you were clicking for her front feet generally (a little hard to tell when the mat was off screen) so now delay it to rear feet only, ideally for the second of the 2 back feet to hit. Welcome to the exciting world of obsessing on split rear foot hits hahahahaha! You can start her at a bit of an angle, almost 90 degree, so you can see very clearly front feet then rear feet – and then work back to sending her straight over the mat (and back and forth).
Nice work here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>>I did some plank work elevated with a sit stay and a toy in a lower distraction environment. It worked well.
Yay! Sounds good!
>>I have started using step/flip as right/left. The bigger question is can I think fast enough to use them as left/right
Yes! I feel that pain – I do a lot of planning of the newer verbals because they are not all at my fingertips yet. I spend a fair amount of time reminding myself of which directionals to use 🙂 It is getting easier and easier with all the practice 🙂
>>Here is mat work with the MM. It was our second session with this random mat square. I am sorry I pulled it just out of view when I backed it up. I thought it was interesting she started interacting with other objects when I moved. When she went out of screen she was on a different platform. We seem to be over MM is scary.
Yay for being over the scary MM! But this was a video of a lovely session of ‘give me your collar’ (really nice work, btw, I love how she is offering up her collar!). Please repost the MM video 🙂
Thanks!
Tracy
