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Welcome to MaxPup 3! He was leaving you in the dust here!!! Love it!!! The only blooper was when you were too early with the rear cross (:33) and that cued the backside (good boy Lew!) This will set you up well for the MaxPup 3 games 🙂 Fun times ahead!!!!!!
Tracy
Hi!
The lazy game went well!
> was having a little trouble getting him to take the last jump in both directions, but he seemed a bit more stuck on the winged jump maybe?>
Was it mainly when you were rewarding after jump 2? It might have been a little too close to jump 3 for him to shift focus from you back to the line, or he might have needed you to change the line of motion a bit by moving as soon as he finished the treat – not getting too far ahead but also not waiting too long to move (it is a fine balance LOL!)
By the end he was locking it in really well, so you can expand the distances as you move to the more advanced levels. If you are at your training field, you can use all 3 jumps and get the distances bigger and bigger. If you are at home, you can do this with 2 jumps, to give you more room to expand the distances.
The plank game looks good too –
it took him a moment to get his hind end across it, but then it locked in and he was happy to go back and forth. Your motion was no problem, he was able to get all 4 feet happily across it and go even faster 🙂For home training: Do you have 2 Cato planks that you can put end to end, to create a longer plank?
>Hopefully there’s something more standard we can use at the field the next time we go.>
Yes – he is definitely ready for a taller, longer plank 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Welcome back! I hope 2026 finishes on an easier note for you and onwards to a great 2027!
Have fun 🙂
Tracy
Welcome! It is fun to see you and Jenny Wren here. I totally remember Pirate! I cannot believe that those dogs are 7 now… eek! But they all grew up to be fabulous <3
And letting Jenny Wren mature before doing a ton of training is the right choice - I totally agree that there is never a reason to rush things.
Have fun!
Tracy
Hi!
>Oh…I like the havkberry distraction idea. You think of everything.
>Ha! I admit to being a little annoyed with myself that it took me THIS LONG to add them into training LOL!!! Better late than never I guess 🙂 I love that you added leaves – go for the full effect 🙂
Remote reinforcement:
I think she likes this game! She did great with the toy, seeming perfectly happy to move away with you. She was aware of where it was, of course, and did look back at it – but that is all fine because she was still very engaged.You can take this game outside and add the barrel (or inside, since we are doing just one barrel): toy on table, go to barrel, wrap it once, then to the toy. You can incorporate the leash into that as well! This is something to revisit here and there as we build up more skills with other games too.
For the SSC: Hackberry Edition – it was indeed challenging! It is literally the forbidden fruit LOL but she did really well, even when the treats rolled under the couch. It must have been challenging because she had your hand while tugging at the end of round 1! Ouch!
Round 3 went great. She was a tiny bit slower on the rep where the treat landed right near it (you could almost see her brain processing the ignore-the-hackberries moment!) but overall she did really well!!We add slices to the SSC games tomorrow and we can get creative on how to use the hackberry distractions. Since the berries are not going away, we can embrace the challenge and use them in games 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi!
Looking at the rotated sends: the leg made a big difference! Super!! She was happy to wrap with the arm plus leg cue, no problem. Leaving the toy was a little challenging at first of course but that is part of the challenge 🙂
Onwards to the rocking horses! And you can add your wrap verbals (I think you were pretty quiet here to focus on the physical cues, unless you were saying them very quietly :))
The parallel path session was also very successful – lots of distance! Yay!
>She is looking at me a fair bit on the turning around to the next rep – a couple of the times I was out of view on the video when it was close to the camera. Suggestions on dealing with that?>
No worries on that – she is looking at you to wait for you to move to start the next rep. That is better than her taking off without you! She was looking ahead as soon as you cued the rep by moving forward. You can start to move sooner (as she is eating the treat) so you are already in motion as she finishes the treat. But no worries about her looking up at you before you cue it.
We build on this game tomorrow!
About the retrieve:
>I am finding she is doing a lot of mouthing of the toy and such because she is playing. Not sure how to get that to fade out and get a cleaner give to hand? Or not even worry about that for now?>
You can teach the cleaner give with a non-toy object (something with no tug history). That can jump start the concept. Then eventually you can ask for cleaner gives with a tug toy, but I would recommend a different cue for that when you do it so she is not anticipating tugging. But it is another ‘no worries’ situation 🙂 Bringing the toy back is great, even with mouthing!
>One other thing – I was looking for a class calendar and found the spot for it in the course but there is nothing there.>
Hmmmm, weird! Try refreshing the page/server? It should be there, and I just refreshed it too to be sure it shows up. Here is the link, let me know if it does not appear:
You will see there ends up being about 5 extra weeks built in, so you will have time to play all the games 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
>Ted Update: gave up on the play pen purchased another one. He is a bit whinny in it because he is used to being with me in the kitchen. I am giving him short bouts in it while the other two adjust to him in there as well.>
Will he chew a bone or lick something from a Kong or Topple while he in there? That might help.
>Toy Play: he is now running out for the other toy when throw, thank goodness, and bringing it back. (sort of) He loves long bungee cords with a soft toy tied to the ends. He is still switching back and forth between toy and little snacks.>
Great!!!!
>Resilience games: playing up and down in new locations. I have had him at CEF and he was able to play in the barn when there wasn’t much going on.>
Awesome! And add the back and forth pattern game, so he can be moving around too.
> the back and forth with the 2 food bowels is going well except he jumps over my lap instead of going around my body.>
Ha! Clever!!!! You will need to add an upright for him to go around to avoid him jumping over you LOL
> when I tried on my knees, he went behind me LOL I will have to play this next to a wall next time and will try to get video and a cone. 🙂>
Ha! Yes, back to a wall and get that cone involved. He seems ready!
>I am patting myself on the back for being 7 weeks behind in a class and being quite chill about it>
Well, he just came home so it is not like you were being a slacker LOL. Take your time and have fun 🙂
Tracy
Thanks for the questions!
>For the plank should it be flat on ground or raised a little? It looks like your DW plank is off the ground a little>
Yes, it can be raised. It can be wrist-height or higher for him.
>I was thinking for the love the slam what to start with. I have the big fit paws wobble board, Fit paws rocker board, Cato tippy board, mini teeter and then full size teeter that I can adjust low.>
So much fun stuff! Based on what you said, maybe the wobble board because it is a little unpredictable and easy to move to new places (different sounds) or to brace up if needed to diminish the sound (teenagers can be suddenly sensitive to sounds). And we want him to get his full body on if possible – the Cato board is probably too small for him now (without him having to really scrunch up). How big is the mini teeter?
Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Welcome back!! This seems like perfect timing for Roulette – she is starting to do some really grown up stuff now 🙂 Yay! That is very exciting news about the fun match!!
I am looking forward to seeing her tackle these games 🙂 Have fun!
Tracy
Welcome to you and Dublin! He is getting so grown up!
For giggles, I looked back at his first puppy video. Look at how cute & tiny he was!!!
Looking forward to seeing you and Dublin do the grown up stuff here 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
Looking at the toy placement & side changes:
>What didn’t work – hiding the static toy behind the barrel. I tried to connect , I tried to call him – no way. When he knows where is his toy – and I don’t have the toy – he just ran straight to the barrel, ignoring my side switch. >
Actually, it was a connection question, he was not ignoring you 🙂
Remember that connection is what HE can see, not what you can see 🙂 and he is low to the ground so the connection needs to be obvious to him at this stage. You might have been able to see him on all of those reps but he did not see the connection. Here is what I mean:
On the side changes – when the toy is visible on the new side, he goes to the new side. When the toy is not visible:
When you are connected and he sees your face (:32, 3:20, 3:39) and your arms are low and not blocking the view or pointing forward: he also finds the side change. The key is to get connection and get the side change before you try to cue the barrel. That is what you did here and it worked well even with the toy out there.
But when you are not connected and he can’t see your face (your arm blocking it, like at 2:47 & 2:55 & 3:04 & 3:24) he does not see the side change. What was happening on those was you were trying to cue the side change AND send to the barrel at the same time, but that ended up with your arm blocking connection and him not being able to see your face at all. So he stayed on his line, good boy!
Having the toy past the barrel can confuse the issue though, so I am happier to not have it placed out there: he was not wrong to stay on the same side when there is no clear connection, but then not getting the toy reward can be confusing to him. So work more on getting connection then cueing the barrel, then throwing the toy (the barrel commitment is not a problem at all, so connection can be your main emphasis for now).
Another thing that will help is to use a clear consistent marker to get the toy. That will help him from getting it when you don’t want him to get it 🙂 You were using a lot of praise which is great! But a consistent marker like ‘get it’ will help him have more success with the placed toy rather than running to it.
No need to place the toy on the RCs either, because then the toy becomes the cue (he just goes to the toy) and the handling doesn’t matter as much. But the handling needs to be a bit clearer to get the RCs more consistently.
To get the RCs to be close to 100% successful, you can change your running line:
rather than pull away so he can pass you the try to cue the RC, you run forward to the center of the bar. That cues him to pass you AND to turn the RC direction. That is closer to what you did at 2:38 but that one still had a little pull away so he looked up at you to see what you wanted.
Here are visuals with the running lines on them:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/10Bh4M4P2PRcP5Id52dr3-Vw1UjQ5bD6hRX_u1G5If8s/edit?usp=sharing
Getting so far ahead then requires you to pull away to let him get past you, then rushing to push in to get the RCmight not always be on time and will put you far behind on the RCs that are not wraps (most RCs are soft turns or accelerations to the next line),.
For example, that is what happened at 2:09 – you pulled towards the right turn side then tried for the RC but it was too late and he didn’t see the turn. At 4:19 you pushed in too early and that pushed him off the jump.
The successful reps had you moving towards the center of the bar sooner! Yay! So you can set that up a lot sooner: start closer to the little barrel so you don’t get too far ahead. And be running forward to the center of the bar the whole time until he has passed you and locked onto the bar. Your acceleration forward will cue him to pass you, and your line to the center of the bar cues him to do the RC 🙂 Changing to the new side happens after these 2 other things – it is not the actual cue. You will be happy with how well he reads it when you get comfortable with it 🙂
Nice work here!
Tracy
Good morning!
He did great here! The only hard part was finding the treat fast enough LOL You can add wings to the jump (mainly to show him the different visual).You can also throw a toy as the reward – that will be fun and he can also practice retrieving it 🙂
How are the rear cross games going? We can add them to the jump if he is getting the concept with the simpler games.
You can also play with rotated sends and turn & burn… but using the jump! This bumps him a little ahead (the current versions use the barrel) but I think he is ready to see a more advanced level. And if my memory is correct, he is doing well with a stay – so you can use the stay to begin working on a bit of forward focus: putting a bowl or maybe a boring toy (if there is a boring toy in his world) on the ground then lining up into a sit a few feet from it, you can release him to it when he looks at it. And if he can do that, we can add the jump to the game.
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
Looking at the backing up: it was totally NOT an epic fail! Just needs a little tweak in spots.
When doing it on the flat, you can do this sitting on something low so your hands can stay low without angering your back 🙂 We need the hands to be low, so she can keep her head lower. When your hands are high (when you are standing), she lifts her head to look at your hands, which produces a sit. And sitting on something will help prevent her from going entirely through your legs, although that was really cute 🙂
And you can use the clicker to mark the movement, but to get more backing up we can change the reward placement: instead of hand-delivering it to her mouth (which causes her to stop & sit), you can toss it low through her front legs like trying to get a puck past a hockey goalie 🙂
Using the little platform as a destination totally helps – I think she is getting the idea of it but it was a little too small for her. Use something bigger so she can start with all four feet easily on it so she can stand without sitting or scrunching up.
Then instead of thinking about back feet at first – lure her front feet off the platform and let her step back onto it. Front foot awareness will lead to back foot awareness 🙂 so after a couple of reps of that, you can lure all 4 of her feet off and I bet she steps backwards onto it beautifully!
The lap turn work on the 3rd video was really great!
To get the tandem turns smoother with 2 hands, you can be facing the same way she is moving (instead of facing her like the lap turns). Just be sure the hands are super visible.My only suggestion is to keep your feet together for longer – move your foot back when you move your hand back Your hand had great timing and your foot was early 🙂 Being early can lead to questions about which way to turn (like at 1:02 and 1:16 & 1:28 & 1:38) because it makes your hands too early there too. That was your harder side, so slowing the hands down and letting her get also to your hands before moving will smooth that side out.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>We discovered that other puppies smelly treats at class and in the dog show ring may blow her mind a bit.>
Yum! You might have to fight fire with fire and bring mind-blowing treats for her too 🙂
She did really well with the out cue! The arm was very clear and she was happy to move away to the prop in both directions. Super!!!
The next step is to add your motion of walking on a straight line past the prop the whole time – sometimes cueing the prop, sometimes just walking past so she sticks with you.
>I think I need to use out.>
Yes, I think ‘out’ is perfect! You can add it now as you add movement.
The beginning of the threadle wrap went great too. She is more than happy to follow the hand cues, so you can now add your movement to this as well – moving forward cueing the U-turns as well as moving forward and cueing the full circle.
Great job here!
Tracy
