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Good morning!
>Quill’s focus last night in the brand new environment was exceptional!!! I was SO impressed! >
What a good boy!!! Boy dogs do have hearts in their eyes for their human mommas so we do see lovely engagement 🙂 I am excited to meet him someday!
Looking at the video:
He was very happy to drive to you, and pivot with you. Super! He seems to really understand that there is value in decelerating with you. Good job building that up!!Two little tweaks in mechanics to add as this game expands:
As he arrives at your side, we want to keep his jaw/chin parallel to the ground rather than pointing upwards. If his chin is up, he will pop up to the cookie hand (which doesn’t allow of the weight shift into his rear). So the easiest way to get that is to lower your hand position – your hand was at the top of your thigh here, and you will get the better head position if your hand is at your knee. That will probably mean leaning over for now, but that is perfectly fine 🙂 And fortunately he will continue to grow and your hand position can move up so you don’t have to lean over 🙂
The other suggestion is to decelerate sooner – this will make more sense when you add running into the game! So when he is getting the cookie, you can start running. Then as he takes that first step or two towards you, let him see you shift into a big obvious deceleration: running to walking. That way he has plenty of time to prepare his hind end to tuck into collection at your side (with the low hand helping him too).
You can also have someone hold him for this (Annalise, I volunteer you LOL!!!) because that way you will be able to show even more running before the big decel.
Great job!
TracyI forgot to add that I loved your energy of the ready game before each send to the prop! Great job!
T
Good morning!
Are you using a tie-dyed shoe as your prop? I love it!!! LOL!!!
He did great of course 🙂 Good boy! On the reps here, he did a little better when he started on your left side (turning to his right). He was not quite as perfect on your right side (turning to his left) – so he might be a righty, or he might need more experience working on your right side, or both 🙂 So on your right, you can start closer to the shoe for now so he looks at you a little less. And on the easier side (when he starts on your left) you can add the harder elements like being sideways on the send 🙂
>for the food in the bowls on either side – we are doing Vito’s game for an in person class but in that we don’t cue we just let the puppy go back and forth and the energy is low and calming. I assume this is different?>
For the wing wrap game, it is great to be able to play same/similar games in a group setting! I am not sure exactly how the in-person class has you playing it, but I am sure it is relatively the same 🙂 with the food bowls, it is pretty low energy and once the dog understands to go back and forth, don’t cue it (just letting the pup offer, which sounds like what you are doing in class). We add the energy to the game soon enough 🙂
> Since I’m not sure I’ve just been doing it with 2 toys which has been a lot of fun.>
Using 2 toys is a different approach because some dogs are not interested in food enough to keep offering the back and forth between bowls – and because 2 toys can be more fun than the food for dogs that like toys :)So it begins to bring in the higher energy level. I am glad you and Dean are enjoying the toy approach!
The 2 approaches will merge in another week where we fade out the bowls and go to higher energy fun. This week (starting tomorrow) we start to add things between the bowls for the pups to go around, so that is definitely something to add for him. I save the wing itself until the pup is fantastic about going around things in both directions.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
I am glad your covid recovery is going so well!!!The toy game went really well! 2 suggestions for mechanics that will be more important as the game gets “bigger”:
She seemed perfectly fine with your motion! Super! After you release her to the toy and you start to move, try to run parallel to her rather than behind her. Running behind her will possibly cue rear crosses which don’t want quite yet 🙂 So you can throw the toy on a line straight in front of her and yo stay a little off to the side.
She had a question about the restraint element on the 2nd rep – wiggling and trying to pull. For the restraint, I think the arm position on the 2nd rep didn’t give as much support to staying in position. There was a slightly different hand position: It looked like your palm was facing down on her collar on that 2nd rep, as compared to the first rep at :14 where you palm was facing up and the restraint was more stable.
If she wiggles around not matter which hand position you have you can mix in shorter tosses and shorter toes before the release so the distance and duration of the hold gets longer more gradually.
>In a week or so she might be okay outside with the distractions.>
You can see how the tugging goes outside, and start with the basic dropping it down in front of her to move the game to the great outdoors 🙂 I am sure she will do great!
Nice job here!
TracyGood morning!
It is so fun to be able to train in a group! This was a good choice of game to do in a harder environment: fast and fun fun fun!
And these reps looked great – very nice connection on your side change and great toy placement 🙂 Quill REALLY liked it when you ran more, so feel free to add more distance so you can run more. And sometimes you can do a ‘regular’ recall (no blind) so he keeps reading the info and doesn’t guess that it is always a side change.I also liked how he was laser focused when Carrie was holding him! It helps him learn to ignore people in the environment and work with da momma. He was a rockstar!!!!
Great job 🙂
Tracy
Good morning! Her personality is really coming out now and she is so fun!
She was totally into those duck nibs! It makes sense that the toy would drop in a value when faced with so much deliciousness 🙂 but you can start with the toy before the treats come out, then after a few reps you can go to a new spot with no treats and bring the toy back out 🙂
She was driving to your side really well!
>Finding tossed treats is a work in progress.>
Yes, but she liked the treats a whole lot so she was game to find them fast! The best finding treats moments were when you showed her to the treat at nose level for a second or two, then let her follow it in your hand then you tossed it (:27 and :47 for example)
>I need to keep my hand closer to my leg especially on the left side. >
Yes, and also a few inches lower. The lower hand helped her glide directly to your side and set up a nice pivot. I think the best hand position is at or below your knee. Anything higher was causing her to pop up a bit. The low hand and a slow pivot produced lovely work, like at 1:19 – 1:24 and the empty hand rep after it. Those were terrific!
Fortunately, she will grow so you won’t have to have your hand that low forever 🙂
Great job!!
Tracy
Yay!!!! I am glad it is working! It looks to be a YouTube issue – I am seeing the same error messages with embedded videos on other sides. Maybe they have resolved it?
T
Hi!
She is off to a great start here!! It is an excellent choice in props, and you were smart to move this to where it would not slide.
You got lots of rewards in and she is figuring out that hitting the pillow gets a paycheck 🙂You can be a little closer to the pillow for now – I think with you being a few feet away and the cookie tosses being pretty far, she was not sure if she should hit the pillow or if she should scout out the perimeter 🙂
For the next session, start with a quick refresh on the pillow and if she remembers it, you can move to the send game we posted on Tuesday!
Great job!
TracyHi!
Cookie recalls were good! He was responding to his name really well and driving to you. For the toy play, have a bigger party 🙂 Take a few moments and let him really engage with you and the toy when he gets to you, before bringing him back to the start spot. That way the play is the big reward, not just the toy.
Nice job with the toy races too! Your connection was spot on and he did a great job looking forward to the toy.
>r he literally went off and looked for Ella. It was funny except you couldn’t see him on video just standing there looking around like where did everyone go?>
That was cute! And also tells us what gets built into behavior which is why I am a pain in the butt about environment LOL!!!
You can keep adding distance on this game so he drives ahead more and more. And like with the cookie recalls, you can take more time to really play with him and the toy, before heading back to the start spot. Tug, tell him how cute and brilliant he is, and have a big party 🙂
>He’s not a super fast runner. He has what I feel just enough drive for now. I think he will kick in to gear soon>
I think he is plenty fast – but he is not frantic. And that is good, we don’t want frantic 🙂 Sometimes frantic looks fast but I definitely prefer a level-headed boy who moves really well. He is doing great!
Tracy
Hi!
>this is the best I can do for now if I have to train at hkme. Outside is worse. Ella will scream If they are away from me nothing will keep them from barking and I only have 2 crates in my car.>
Definitely something to work out to minimize home screaming! Do you have an xpen or something so that if they have to be in the room, they stay in one spot? Moving around with the lick mat was the biggest distractor.
>One reason my dogs struggle is because they don’t get a class setting and so they never learn to handle the distractions. >
Adding distractions is different from teaching the behavior, and they can learn to generalize after the behavior has been taught to some degree.
>I understand the concept of the pressure, but most people learn things in a class setting and puppies are able to be off leash together and work or on leash too lol. And just from the years of watching they do well. Not every dog of course but the basic norm. So im a bit conflicted with it all.>
Yes, that is the norm. But as you know, a lot of ‘stuff’ gets built in: arousal issues, criteria questions/lack of precision/understanding of the behavior, frustration, etc. That slows the rate of learning because their brains are processing a LOT at once, plus other things get built into the behavior that eventually need to be undone or the handler has to live with it. That is how both of us make a living LOL!! For most people, it is the only way to be able to train so they are willing to sacrifice the end result a bit (or they are blissfully unaware of the sacrifice).
For your dogs, you can get the behavior itself to be great by tweaking the learning environment. And you can introduce working around other dogs by doing games that allow the dogs to devote bandwidth to handling the environment without also having to learn new skills. And when other dogs are added to the environment, use a behavior the pup is strong with and also control the environment so you can really limit what is competing for his brain bandwidth.
T
Hi!
>I am not good with managing a handful of food so I kept it between my legs to reload which was distracting for him.>
That is part of the training – the self-control of ignoring the cookies in our hands or laps! He did great! I don’t think he was distracted by the food all that much. He was starting to look at it a little later in the session, but that was more because things were a little too repetitive.
You started off using just your right hand to go back and forth, and I think things got smoother when you used both hands. Overall your mechanics might have felt uncomfortable in the moment, but they looked really good on the video! He totally had the idea of what to do.
One suggestion for this game:
You can break it off to play a lot more frequently – you were thinking about your mechanics, but it gets repetitive and a little boring for him to do 3 minutes of back and forth between bowls for cookies 🙂 You can see he was slowing down a bit as if saying “is this all there is?” LOL!! So after every 5 or 6 cookies, toss a cookie to the side for him to chase, scoop up the bowls, and have a tug break. That will keep it more exciting for him, and then you can also make changes like bringing in an upright for him to go around.>I think we need to do more of this before adding the prop. >
Nope, let’s add the prop because he will get bored if you do more of just back and forth on bowls. Start the session with a couple of treats to refresh the bowl back-and-forth. Then add the upright nice and close to you. If he does great? Cool! Move the upright out by an inch. Don’t move it out much because we don’t want failure, but you can keep things exciting by bringing the upright in and then adding the tiniest bit of distance.
Nice work!
Tracy
Hi!
>Allowing his collar to be taken on cue is something he has previously learned but usually something he still has to think about. He was actually enjoying the game so much he was starting to allow quicker collar grabs.>
Incorporating collar grabs into action games is really helpful for building love for collar grabs 🙂 I no longer teach collar grab games on their own… I slide collar grabs into fun action games so the pups really enjoy it, as you saw here.
You don’t even need to use a verbal at this stage – you can just be quick about getting the collar, delivering the treat, throwing the toy. That way he doesn’t even think about the collar at all.
He was SO CUTE scampering around with the frisbee! He parading it around you and it was just the cutest thing ever.
He has a lot of drive for the disc – have you ever tried rollers? That way he can be chasing it while it is rolling on its edge, which will get even more speed. He was getting faster and faster a the distance increased, and I think using rollers will be super fun for him too.
>I left it in because we had an interesting moment. He caught an interesting scent in the air and I decided to wait to see what happened.>
That was really cool, thanks for leaving it in. I think he legit smelled something that his brain had to lock onto (turns out that the amygdala also has a section devoted to olfaction, so we might see olfaction responses as reflexive the same way we see other reflexive responses that override the prefrontal cortex (which is not fully developed at his age yet anyway).
>I wasn’t sure if we had played too long and he was done or it was just something he really needed to check out and he would come back after. T>
I don’t think the session was too long, and I don’t think he was having an arousal struggle… it was just a big enough distraction that his brain needed a moment. You were great to just wait and see what happened. Perfect! He came back and finished strong!
If he was stressed or tired, we would probably see sniffing or maybe barking (I don’t know him well enough to suggest one or the other). But we can track it and see if air scenting is indeed a stress response or a response when he is tired.
The cone wrapping went well. He noticed your change in position to standing but was still very successful. Yay! His right turns seemed very easy here – left tuns were a little harder (that is where he missed the wrap on one rep and smacked his face on the cone on another rep LOL!).
>but adding distance is definitely harder for him.>
Because he is small, adding distance will happen in small increments – so when he is going to his right (from your left to your right hand) you can move it out a couple of inches. But then when he is going to his left (your right to your left) pull it in closer so it ends up moving away only an inch or so at a time). We don’t need a ton of distance on this game, so you can take your time adding distance on both sides.
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
This was a good resilience walk! Lots of good world watching – trees, cars, birds, noises in the sky, etc.
>She wanted to go up to a house with a dog that is a known barker. I think she got a little scared, but she recovered.>
It was perfectly fine to keep her from getting close to the barking dog house – she had no idea it would suddenly get weird! But she did recover really well.
>Everything is new to her.>
It is really interesting to see the world as viewed by a creature where everything is new! So fun to see!
Nice job 🙂
TracyGood morning!
He did great reading the blinds in the great outdoors! Lovely engagement even with all of the distractions that come with working off leash and outdoors. Yay! And he loved it when you were running 🙂 So definitely keep adding running to this so he can have fun driving to you 🙂
He did well with the wing wrap foundation here! A couple of next steps to add:
– you can move the targets a bit further back now, so they are behind your knees (closer to where your feet are when kneeling) so he has more room to turn around to get back around the wing– We will also want to get the wing a little further away, gradually adding more distance between you and it. Since that variable will be harder (and distance is always bigger for small dogs than big dogs 🙂 ) you can use a single upright or the original smaller prop you used, so it is easier to go around. That way we dial back the variable of size of wing while adding the challenge of more distance to move around it and away from you.
– When you get a little bit of distance, you can pull the object back in next to you (to make that variable easier) and we can change your position (which might be harder for him). The goal is to get you standing up, and sitting on something low is a good intermediate step. A low chair or big inflatable ball or even an agility table are all good options to sit on 🙂
I think you will find that he can progress through this pretty quickly!! It might all even happen in one session, or in 2 sessions. He is very smart about figuring out all of these games 🙂
Great job here!
TracyGood morning! I am glad you are feeling better already!!
>I tried to film a resilience walk which I’ll show after this. Used a chest harness as I wasn’t sure how to film it otherwise. She does stop and soak in things.>
They are definitely hard to film. But I am glad she is able to do some world watching! It is really good for baby puppies.
>. But, I had them in the yard today and I was able to call her off Sprite twice. Once she bites, she goes in a different yard. >
It sounds like Sprite is being very tolerant so far 🙂 She might at some point tell the puppy to stop biting her and that is fine too (I trust that Sprite will be very appropriate). My dogs have taught my puppy more about where to put his mouth than I have, and I am grateful for it because at 17 weeks he doesn’t chew on any of us LOL!!
>She had trouble finding the treat in the grass.>
Finding treats in the grass is definitely a learned skill! You can spread out a big mat or towel to toss the treat onto, making it easier to find and giving her a clear focal point.
Great job with the blinds! Your timing was really good and your connection was super clear so she had no questions at all. I think the distance away from her that you used was spot on: not too close, not too far. She could easily run to you and see the side change with enough time to change sides. You can gradually extend the distance you get away from her, as she grows and gets more coordinated.
>I’ll play around with different toys. The bending is adding pressure. If I’m on the ground she may try to. It’s my shoes or ankles.>
Part of the reason we play super simple games is to figure out the reward process! You had a really long toy here which worked really well! You can tie something to the end of it (like her smaller toy) which also gives her a focal point to grab instead of shoes/ankles and helps prevent bending over.
Great job here!
Tracy
