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Good morning! Lots of good stuff here.
Backing up: I believe you wanted her to back up to the mat, but she appeared to be avoiding it for the most part 🙂 The backing up itself is going nicely! To get even more steps, throw the cookie further (try to think of it as a hockey puck and you’re trying to get it past her front feet so she doesn’t stop – she ideally keeps moving to get it). For the mat – I think jump starting it at the beginning of the session will help by helping her get into a 2o2o on it – with you very close – then release her forward to you and give her just enough room to step off then step back on. Then jackpot 🙂 Your jackpots when she did hit the mat were terrific, but you were positioned a bit too far from it so I am not sure if she was really understanding that you wanted the mat. Once she gets the hang of step off, then step backwards onto it, you can then gradually add more distance by moving away from the mat.On the self-control – nope, I think you aren’t being too picky 🙂 It is OK to shape her to not come forward to assist you with the treat delivery LOL!!! But we can help her a little so she doesn’t have as many errors – rather than the traditional feed from the hand (which is where she wants to come forward), you can pick up a treat and toss it to the side (giving her a verbal “get it”). The reason I suggest this is response cost – she is not going to want to waste her time coming forward for a cookie when that same cookie is going to end up 10 feet away 🙂 So she will remain backed off rather than coming forward, and this can also raise the rate of success!
On the paw pods – nice! She was understanding that it was about feet on the pods. My only suggestion was that you were a little too far away from her on this first session, so it was hard for her to remain on the pods. So the only tweak is for you to start within a few inches of the pods, then gradually move yourself away from them as she gets more comfy standing on them.
Her tugging looked lovely throughout! And she seems to go back and forth between toys and cookies really nicely – yay!!!! Nice work!
TracyGood morning!
Yes, that is exactly what toy races should look like LOL!! Good boy 🙂 Keep playing with them every now and then – they lay the ground work for acceleration on course and drive to obstacles. He is still getting coordinated so he will get even faster as he grows up 🙂The sit tug sit is looking really good!!!! He was able to do it in a new exciting place AND the home game looks REALLY good. You are adding in a bit if duration and distance, which is nice too! He had one frozen moment in the home game but then was great for the rest of the session. The main goal isn’t about the sit stay for him, I’d say the main goal of this game is to be able to offer behavior when the toy is right in front of him (rather than stare at it :)) so there is a lot of improvement already! And you can do any type of shaping with the toy – feet in a box, tricks, etc – just to continue to sharpen the skill of “offer behavior when you see the toy rather than stare at the toy”.
I am so happy to hear that he is relaxed in the trial environment! The coping skills will help keep him that way, it is soooo much better for him to be chill there than for him to be over-stimulated. Good plan to start with a Kong when livestock or other difficult things are around. A snuffle mat or food throw in the grass can help too. It sounds like he things they are WEIRD (understandably!) so getting him to relax is a great plan. Keep me posted on how he does!
Nice work here!
TracyHi there!
She did a great job here – she was offering self-control AND was offering eye contact! Smartie! We will be moving quickly through these games because the pups learn them so fast. You can try this game with higher value food and also when she is really hungry. Great job on the tricks – those a really nice ones and she was able to execute them even with her brother wanting to join in on the fun LOL!! You can also reward the tricks with tugging.
It will be great to take thee tricks and games into the trial environment! See if you can get her to play tug and also eat cookies, then ask fo tricks, etc. Have fun and keep me posted!
TracyGood morning! I think the backing up session went really well! She is a SUPER cutie too! No worries about the other toys around, it looks like they were not a distraction to her. At first it looks like she thought coming between your knees was a little weird 🙂 but then she got it and you were able to reward some good backing up!! My only suggestion on the backing up is to toss the treat (roll it between her legs) rather than place it down in front of her – the goal being that she keeps moving back to get it rather than stopping to get it.
Great job on the toy break! She was able to get right on the toy after the treats, and that is great! I think it took her a few extra seconds to return her focus to the treats after the toy break, but she was able to do it and that is a big deal! Going from a precision behavior (backing up) to a toy party and then back to a precision behavior is difficult and she did it. Yay!
Nice work! As you keep working on this, add more and more distance to the food tosses to encourage her to back up more, and also wait for an extra step or two of backing up before you reward it – ping pong the number of steps: sometimes 1 step, sometimes 3 steps, then 2 then 4 and so on.Tracy
Good morning! She is so adorable!! I love terriers 🙂
Her toy play is looking good – she definitely has a lot of love for playing with and chasing the toys! I think she might be having trouble actually clamping on the toy, though – tiny mouth 🙂 She had really good ‘clamp’ when you got low and used your other hand to tap her a bit. I think a flatter toy for now can help too, so she can get her whole mouth clamped down on it.Tugging with food present was a bit harder at first (or was it coffee? Totally looked like a coffee mug. Terriers do like coffee LOL!!). But then when you whipped out a flatter toy and got it moving at around 1:23, she was really tugging until she was literally right above the food – then it was too hard for a bit 🙂 So go for a more boring treat or a single treat, and also further away from the treat by a few feet. That way the game won’t be as difficult and she can lose herself in the tugging and not even think about the food 🙂
Shaping on the box – she did well here too! It is possible that she was not totally comfortable with the box moving under her feet a bit, so she didn’t offer as much because of the movement (she backed off a little each time it moved) so you can start with either holding the box steady with your feet or weighting it so it doesn’t move. She was pretty happy to just do 1 foot, so you made a good adjustment to place the reward a bit further away so help encourage more feet which she did offer after that. Yay! You can also feed with her head a little higher, so she doesn’t try to look down at or sniff or nose tap the box – this can also help encourage 2 feet.
On the resets, this is a good opportunity to release with your release word (ok or break or whichever you’ve chosen) to get her to play off the box, then reset for more shaping. It also provides another opportunity to play tug with a bit of food around,Hand touches are a good one ot shape! So useful! She got a bunch of good touches in, which is great! Yay! When building on these, you can try adding 2 things: as you put the open hand out for touching, try looking at the hand and not at her – the pups often follow our eyes and go right to the hand. And, when she taps it, leave the open hand still and bring the cookie over to it and plop the cookie into it. That can build every more value for the open hand and also lets her focus on it for a bit before it moves again.
Recalls look great! I love her drive to you and her speed!! On the reps where she ended up behind you – possibly just a break in connection so she read it as a blind cross cue. Note no the first rep how she drove to you with the arm across the body, and the connection was perfect. On the 2nd rep, you were closer so it was easier to see the connection and you kept the connection. On the 2rd rep at 6:12 you looked forward (watch your head) which is a blind cross cue even for dogs that have never seen a blind cross LOL! Plus on that rep and the last one (couldn’t see your head on the last rep), your toy was at your side – try having your dog-side shoulder opened up back to her more or show the toy across the body like on the 1st rep – both of those can really open up connection and convince her to stay on that side as you add more distance to the recalls.
Lovely job on all the games! She is so fun to watch!!!!!!Tracy
Hi Diane, thanks for the update! Yay for Friday!!!! Happy dance! And Sunday was a good day too, because you were able to add in some good tools. When flustered, meditating is good, some music, and also centered breathing!
I also have a relaxing visualization technique to bring my heart rate down learned from Greg Louganis: close your eyes and picture yourself in the calmest, most soothing thing in your world. So I picture myself curled up in bed with one of my dog, having a nap. That always brings my heart rate right down and my blood pressure down too – I know this because i have done it wearing a heart rate monitor and a blood pressure cuff on different occasions 🙂 So that might be something to add to your toolbox!Tracy
Hi!
>>– Out of curiosity, at big events where do you park your dog so that he/she remains calm and stress free? How do you juggle noise, space and personal time? Not that we are trialing at huge concourse spaces at the moment. But curious none the less. I take it this is part of periodization that may take months?
This is something I start early on in training – getting the dog used to crating anywhere. Ideally, I crate in my car but that is not always possible – so I crate in a lot of places and give the dogs chew bones or bully sticks to help them relax. And sometimes I crate them in near the action for a short time before taking them out to the car to relax.
>>– Fore example an area like concourse and arena area at Chicago convention center, Some areas are really quite large and echo. How do/did you prep for that/these/those outside of looking up video of what it would look like for visulaziation?
Yes, that is exactly what I do – google search for video or photos. And I can’t find them, I will use my imagination and try to get there early so I can check it all out.
>> Also, some venues have microphones or boom cameras. How does everyone acclimate their dogs to something unexpected as that?
If needed, you can ask friends or classmates to use a broomstick or something to simulate a camera or boom mic. Or you can attach fake mics to places (using little boxes or something) so the dog gets used to running the obstacles with little weird things attached.
>>and also the hubbub of curious people asking questions before you run, stopping you heading to the ring?
Smile, answer the question if you have a moment, then execute yourself to head to the ring. It is an honor to be able to run in front of a crowd, so a gracious smile then just let them know you are expected in the ring.
>>I would think some dogs not experienced or even those experienced to the commotion may come off equipment or chase some of these hover craft things waving and flying around as they run . Yes have seen hover crafts at some locations in adjoining arena.
Truth! All of the dogs need to be exposed to weird things and different environments before going to one of these big events.
>>Right now, basic two ring trials. Those are a bit much for us to juggle for sure. Knowing where to be, where to crate, and where to move among the for sale items, other vendors etc. It’s hard to know it will be like the with additional objects to navigate just to get to the course!
Truth! those trials can be really big and busy! And noisy. The more you can expose the dogs to this in a positive way, the easier it would be – tricks and games and treats and toys in a variety of new places will really help this.
>>Navigating some other nutty stuff…. people yelling over aisles in attempt to quiet their dogs (rather than removing dog), people sissoring or giving hair cuts to their dogs..yeah……Self soothing for handler, complicated and cumbersome for others….
Eek! That sounds crazy.
>>all fun and games until someone loses an eye (lol).
Ha! That would be a great release valve!
>>However, there has to be an element of layering to successfully acclimate dogs from low to higher level stimulus over time (long term periodization perhaps?).
Yes, pretty much from day 1 – acclimating to as many new environments as possible. I don’t use periodization for that, necessarily, it is more about acclimation and desentization.
>>Finding the happy balance before dog is overwhelmed or mentally spent is tough.
If the dog is overwhelmed, move the dog out of the environment. It is too hard and it is possible the dog was put into it too quickly. It is a really gradual process indeed.
>>Performance 1st, possibly venue changes later once other bits and pieces are better in place.
Yes and no, it doesn’t have to be one thing then the other. New behaviors can be taught in one place then when they are solid, taken to another place. But, concurrently, the dog should be brought into different environments just to learn to hang out or do really simple things like tricks, to get comfy before you ask for more difficult behaviors in the new environments.
Let me know what you think!
TracyYes, I consider 2 minutes to be the ultimate! If we can prepare in 2 minutes, then 7 minutes will feel like an eternity LOL!!!
And yes, have to prepare for multiple dogs really makes things harder, so we need to plan for that.
T
Hi there!
Yes, it is difficult for sure, I think of mental prep for sports to be very much like therapist with a psychologist!>> I think there’s a lot of pressure placed on working the trial for beginners. What I’ve started doing is attending multiple days (if trial is close enough) and on the day we don’t trial I’ll work a bit and leave …I take trial day for myself to focus on competition.
That is a brilliant idea!!!! I love it!
Tracy
Hello and welcome! She sounds like a ton of FUN!!!! Yay! Keep us posted on how everything is going! As an auditor, you can post here, chat, ask questions, etc – basically everything except post videos.
Have fun!
TracyAha! Backing up onto something! The 2o2o makes the backing up clear because of the destination. You can start him further and further away to get more backing up. And, when you reward, just reward with his head lower. You did reward him with a low head on a couple of most were up high. A low head will help him shift his weight to get really good backing up.
Nice work here!
TracyHi!
The backing up is going well! Nice job incorporating the toy play, he did well getting back on the toy 🙂
On the backing up, he was really good about offering 2 steps back but then that was when the reward would come consistently… so he then would offer 2 steps back and then bow or lie down. So, now you can try to get more steps back. Ping-pong the number of steps before you reward, and throw the rewards further back (not right to him) – sometimes toss the reward after just one step, sometimes wait for 3, then back to 1 step, then 2 steps, then 4 steps… and so on. You might need to wait him out for the extra steps but ping ponging will help.
Another option to get more steps backwards is to have him back up to something, such as back up to get on a dog bed. Start it by having him back up one step to the bed, then 2 steps to get to it, to 3 steps and so on.
Nice start here, let me know how it goes!Tracy
Hi there!
He is adorable, trying to offer his paw during the collar grabs. He did well here! And great job adding some toy play, that went well too! Keep adding random collar grabs throughout the day, so having you reach towards him becomes a super rewarding thing and he will begin to move towards you hand when you reach for the collar.
TracyGood morning!
Nice job on both of these clips! You are doing a great job incorporating toy play into all of this – click/treat for YOU! It is not easy to go back and forth from shaping to tugging, and you are in a really nice flow with it 🙂On the collar grab video – Yes, she looked comfy with the collar grabs, great job already incorporating them! You can also do collar grabbing during the tugging game – it just adds more pairing of good stuff with collar grabs.
When you were adding moving her, I think part of her question was when you had your hand on the collar on the back of her neck – it added a bit of opposition reflex, and it might have seemed like you were wanting her to pull against it (we do use the opposition reflex in the get it games, toy races, etc.) So to differentiate it with just moving with the momma, try having your hand on the side of her collar or on the underside of her neck. She did really well with it for a first attempt and you did a great job of encouraging her to move rather than dragging her around 🙂
Keep reminding yourself to leave your hand on her collar as you feed to maximize the pairing – you sometimes would take the hand off then put it back on lol!The backing up is going well too! Because she likes to smack you with the paw 🙂 and also because she loves treats and moving away from them is hard – you can jump start this even more with a session or two or having her back up after you drop a cookie between your feet (while standing) – that is the 2nd demo on the write up for the game. That can get more reinforcement history into backing up while taking out the offering of the paw. Then go back to the seated position you were in here (or transition to it by kneeling and dropping the cookie under you, so she backs out from that).
Great job here! Safe travels to family!!
Tracy
