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Hi!
The 4 lazy game videos were great – the first 3 were perfectly lazy 🙂 No tugging needed on those- it is more about the pup making the effort to find the lines with minimal help. And she did!And the 4th video was a great ‘putting it together’ session: she was finding the lines independently, with speed, no questions, and not needing help. YAY!!!
>After watching this video I felt like I should have tugged more.
Was this crappy rewarding on my part?>I don’t think any of the games had crappy rewarding! You can tug before and after the lazy game and the teeter shaping stuff game here, and you used a toy for the 3rd level of the lazy game.
The teeter session was also really good. You can add tug before and after, but the clicks and cookies worked great here. She loved the slam and then started offering 2o2o, so you went with it beautifully and ended uo doing backing up onto the board. Perfect! She was really thinking about her hind end and not worried about the slam at all 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi!
I agree, this all went great! Yay!
For the backing up: he seemed to really be figuring out to back up to the dog bed, especially when he stopped a little short and you asked for more 🙂He might have been stopping short because your hands were high so his head was high. If you can lean forward a little, so your hands are just above your knees, that should keep his head lower and get more steps back.
He was impressive with his ability to chew and back up! It is like tapping your head and rubbing your stomach 😆 do you have a cookie that he can slurp down to make it easier?
The large running contact mat looked pretty perfect 😀 He is looking ahead and hitting it with all 4 feet brilliantly.
The smaller mat is harder, of course – I think we wasn’t always getting all feet on? That seem fo be the case especially when he was going from your left to your right. You can try him again on the narrow mat and see if he can get all 4 feet on. If not, we can use a wider mat for now 😀
Great job!
Tracy
You can always add a food plate – duct tape is very useful and easy to fade.
For the color – I aim for anything relatively close to yellow. It is already elevated so we don’t need a sharp color contrast (we want to be able to fade it easily)
T
Good morning!
This was a really interesting session! I don’t think he was hesitant or concerned about the wobble board, it looked more like he was offering his nose touch/chin hold. Maybe there was something about the context which looked (or smelled 😀) like something in nose work?I think for the next session, the main goal would be to provide context cues for getting on it/touching it. That can be something like taking it outside or putting it next to other stuff that he’s been rewarded for getting on recently 🙂 You can even put it between 2 jump wings, or put his prop on top of it – all of tuat should read as more of a “hit it” and not a “sniff it”.
Let me know if that makes sense! Your rewards were spot on here but he was pretty convinced he should indicate it rather than touch it 😀
Nice work!
TracyHi!
>We did see the vet yesterday. Most likely she has an iliosoas tendinopothy>Huzzah, an answer! And a nicely straightforward answer that can explain things. I’m guessing they felt something on exam?
I swear, she’s so similar to my dog Hot Sauce at around the same age (Hot Sauce is almost 8 now).
Similar behavior including the freezing up and Hot Sauce was also diagnosed with a psoas tendinopathy at a relatively young age.
What I learned from that is that in a young dog, something else might be causing it (because a sports psoas injury is often a repetitive use injury or a traumatic hyperextension injury, neither of which seem to be the case with Jazz)
With Hot Sauce, the root issue was a luxating patella that was not found on a normal exam. She even had a top Board certified Orthopedic veterinarian say her patellas were perfect. Nope! She had to be flat down on her side to be able to feel it – when standing, she was strong enough to clench her knees in tight 🙂
I mention it so that when you see them again, see if they will do an exam with her flat on her side to see if they find anything. If it is a different issue causing it, finding it now will hopefully make it so you don’t waste 6 months looking at psoas if that is not the actual issue.
Hot Sauce also has a transitional vertebrae but that seems unrelated. I think Jazz has spine xrays? We can see if there is a lumbar transitional vertebra which might be a root too. There is a cool group of vets on FB that will read rads for free!
Side note: despite the patella and bilateral psoas issue, Hot Sauce healed up brilliantly, overcame her worries, and went on to be a national finalist in agility and a fantastic fltball dog too. Jazz has a bright future ahead!
> won’t have a confirmed diagnosis until they do an ultrasound Frustrating as I know that is what was needed at this visit, but have to step through their process.< Well, that IS frustrating!!! But things are in motion so that is good. >Once that is confirmed they can start shockwave therapy treatment>
Shockwave is great! So is laser, PEMF, and therapeutic ultrasound. All the things!
>Soonest they could schedule to start this was 4/22.>
That seems far away but you can do a bit of prehab before that starts!
>Not sure how this will fit in with my treatment schedule (should have a better idea on how to proceed with me on 4/13.) Too much to sort out – Thankful to have this class to help keep me grounded.>
Ugh that is a LOT! I wish California wasn’t so far from Virginia, I could run Jazz to her appointments!
And in the meantime, we will keep you busy with training stuff 🙂
>The wobble board is left over from when I had standards>
OK this might make you chuckle: it took me a solid 5 minutes to figure out what you meant by standards. Moral standards? Ethical standards? Performance standards?
Nope – Standard Poodles hahaha 🐩I clearly need more caffeine.
The board size was good because it will be easy for her to get herself fully on. And yes, the tip seemed a little big for now but you can stuff a bunch of towels under it so it doesn’t move at all to start with.
Then you can shape her to get on it and stand in the middle 🙂
And holding that stand is a great little prehab posture game! So she can get on it, stand in a stack for 10, 15, 30, 60 seconds (built up over time).
Let’s leave the movement out of if for now because it requires hip flexors… aka the psoas. And we don’t want any pain associations. We can build in a movement game with the MM where she is near the board and you move it with your foot – then click the MM. All she needs to do is watch it.
And you can turn on a background video of teeter noises (Jack’s trial videos or a YouTube video of the teeter) can help her learn to love the sound too!Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
He was a super good boy here!!!
Question that i forgot to ask yesterday: how did you originally train the 2o2o? If it was with a target (like a plastic lid, for example), you can bring it back out for now ‘ and get him wilder when doing the teeter in practice. You can have him run through a tunnel 3 times then up the teeter – that increase in arousal will help things feel like a trial! And the target will help him be successful with the 2o2o (then you can go deliver the cookie :))One thing I see is that he stops just past the pivot point then finishes the teeter. Ideally he drives all the way to the end of the board ajd shifts his weight to ride it down- stay tuned for next week’s game where we work on that specifically.
Nice work here!
TracyHi! There are a lot of options. I personally use a thick strip of duct tape over some cardboard (attached with duct tape).
A recent MaxPup grad used a product from TugAwayCUWin:But she also uses a giant hair band that stays on the end of the board 😆 🤣 so none of us do anything fancy.
I have also had this at the end of the board:
https://nosetouch.com/Teeter-%E2%80%9CTeach-It%E2%80%9D_c_37.html
But I’ve also duct taped a spoon to the end with my Papillons.
I like the devices that I can easily leave a treat on or in to help develop a ton of independence. More on that coming soon!
Tracy
Hello and welcome!!!! Hope you’re feeling good again, and that we get some good weather too 🙂
This session went really well! He didnt quite know what to do with his hind end at the beginning but then you showed him by having hin follow your hand. That totally helped and he was able to go back and forth brilliantly after that. Super!! The next level of this will be to fo it in higher arousal: can he still find his feet this well after a game of tug?
Turning around on the plank was definitely harder for him – you can see if he will follow your hand if you move it really slowly 🙂 You can also ask for tight sits on the plank – those are useful to engage his rear and core.
At the end it looked like your were having hin pivot into position on the plank – that looked great too!
His head position was good here – nice natural position except when he was done or when you clicked. The lowered head position will solidify when ypu add the ‘end’ behavior.
Great job here!
TracyHi! These sessions went great!
The first clip was a nice introduction to the setup and he immediately figured it out. When ypu added angles in the 2nd video – you started off clicking for front feet for the first couple of reps, but then locked into clicking for back feet and the rest went really well.There were a couple of moments when he seemed to be waiting for permission to start – that’s fine, you can give him a little step to send him or even say something like “hit”.
This game can totally go outside now! That will give you more room for more angles. If the mat is flat and gets a little “lost” in the grass. You can attach it to a foam pad or something to elevate it a bit.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
Absolutely fantastic session here! He seems to really under the in-then-out of the serps. His stays looked great and your releases were super consistent. I agree that he figured out that it was about the jump first then the bowl – good bowl!!!Since this went so well, onwards to the next steps! A few suggestions for that:
– because we are going to be teaching him the difference between a serp and a threadle, you can put your hand in serp position here, wait a few seconds, then release him. This will come in very handy when we add the threadles!
– he was very successful from different angles here, so you can add the hardest angle of all: ask him to sit right in front of the reward bowl, then cue the serp. That cues a tight turn and is also a great impulse control challenge.
– speaking of impulse control, you can add more challenge by having a treat in the bowl before the release, or even putting his favorite ball on the ground/in the bowl. That .ight really increase the challenge of focusing on the serp cues and ignoring everything else.
Great job here!
TracyHi! This session went really well! She seemed to be really targeting the prop on the get out and not waiting on the cookie throw. Super!! And she had no questions about sticking with you when you didn’t cue the get out… but she was super cute heading to the prop on the way back to the start spot. Extra credit 😆
She is shifting her leads away to get to the prop and that’s exactly what we want. You can take this game outside if you want, or you can move to the other games.
Great job here, especially in a new spot and having to be quiet!
Tracy
Good morning!
I am glad you got your equipment outside! I am hoping that we get a nice long spring in terms of good weather, and don’t skip directly to a gross hot summer.
He did really well with the lazy game! We definitely want him to look for his lines and NOT at you, and he did a super job here! He was really driving to the jumps with very minimal looking at you by the end. SUPER!! This is a good game to revisit, especially after any handling that might encourage handler-focus. He loves his momma 🙂 so we will keep the value for looking at the lines really high.
Since this went so well, you can add more distance between the jumps – move them 3 feet further apart and if that is super easy after a rep or two, move them another 3 feet apart. And you can also add in levels 2 and 3 of the lazy game.
He does love slamming the teeter! Yay! He was figuring out the backing up – I think the angle and height of the board might have been what was hard at first, along with the narrowness of the plank? It is definitely a hard game. Have you decided if you want to do a 2o2o with him, or a 4on? He might be big enough to do a 2o2o if you wanted that but you can also do a 4on with him. If you want the 4on, as the backing up progresses: you can have him back up to the 4on position.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
OMG his coat is the cutest! Was the grass wet? He kept holding up a back leg when he was eating his treat. It was a different back leg each time so maybe something wet was feeling weird in the grass.
I agree, he did great with the plank! Very confidently moving back and forth, and building up speed. He found the cookies really well without excessive chewing 😂
Since this went so well, time to elevate the plank more! Do you have blocks or something stable that can get it to be up to a foot off the ground? And you can have him jump on from the side then jump off from the middle (for balance) as well as turn around in the middle.
>I’m back to my old habit of mostly clicking vs. “get it” – will continue to try to use my words.>
The click was good info so he definitely knew what you wanted. The ‘get it’ gets more helpful as we work on getting him to look forward, so this is a good place to practice it.
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
He was so good with the tiny wobble board! You can ramp up the balance challenge by asking him to move from a stand to a sit on it 🙂
On the 2nd video, he was definitely surprised by the noise so you can split that a bit: stuff some towels under it so that the sound is there but much quieter. And do one or two rep sessions with the highest value treats: favorite toy/ball or his entire meal 🙂 Fewer reps/high value will help create incredible love for the teeter.
>When we are with Jess, I have him load low from the side and move forward and Jess controls the drop which isn’t a lot but it doesn’t slam.>
Sounds like a variation of the bang game – the bang game has a lot of variations LOL!! And it is a great way to work the end position. We have a couple of variations of the bang game coming up in this class too (all will fit with what you are doing with Jessica and we will use the same target you are using in your training at UDog).
For the teeter in the basement: he did well!! The noise is pretty quiet which is a very good way to start it. He interacted with it pretty well for the food rewards but when the toy came out: game change! The excitement level increased dramatically and he was not thinking about it as much… we don’t really want him thinking hard about the teeter 🙂 So for the next teeter party: use the toy from the start. He will tire faster because the tugging is so energetic, but 30 fantastic seconds will be completely worth it! Side note: the teeter has a lot of impact on the joints and he is really young, so we are really going to minimize movement until he is a bit older. But we can do PLENTY of other stuff to develop his teeter skills!!
Great job!
Tracy
