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Hi!
These blinds were gorgeous! Even the 2nd rep which was late had great connection, so she was able to change sides immediately. Super!! Well done to you for getting your arms all the way back so she could see the connection.
Both of you are moving fast on the blind, so you might have seen her skid a bit wide on the pivots – be sure to add in lots of decel so she knows the pivot is coming, the pivot while still decelerating.
She did great hitting her mat with the novel- exciting game! My only suggestion is to mark with a ‘get it’ type of marker for a tossed treat, instead of ‘yes’ so she looks at you less.
The cookie bag was a lovely distraction here – she was definitely having to process it! There was a cookie throw at :44 that was near it and you can see her look at the bag. We can almost see the gears turning in her head as she ignored it LOL! Good girl!
For the next session, you can have the novel-exciting object already in the environment before you bring her into it. Then go directly to work and see if she can ignore it 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
>I struggle with the balance between letting him have his victory lap, and being worried if I ask for the toy too soon and he blows me off that I’m reinforcing him blowing me off.>
It is a hard balance that might not resolve until after adolescence. But I have found that the victory lap then a trade always turns out well in the long run.
>The knee was not better this morning… went to the physio, thankfully nothing’s torn but it would seem my patella has a slight tracking issue, and everything went in the wrong direction. Physio reckons i should be feeling better after a week. I currently have a crutch. (I don’t need crate rest but I’m only allowed “on leash” walks) haha.>
Ouch! Yes, only leash walks for you LOL!! I am amazed that your healthcare system got you in so fast… it would take weeks here! Jealous!!!
Tracy
Hi!
>The collection sandwich is challenging to get the reward in the correct hand. >
True, you do need 6 or 7 hands for this game 🙂 When adding the toy to drive ahead to, you can have the toy as the only reward (no cookies for those) so you only need to worry about 1 reward and not 3.
The blinds looked GREAT – nice job with your connection!! And the decels to pivot were good too! You started moving faster and then when you added the toy throw, your decel was not as strong so she was wider and you were a bit off balance trying to decel. So remember to give yourself a nice big decel to keep her tight and so you can turn easily.
The rep at 1:00-1:02 was a lovely example of spot on decel! That allowed her to turn really tightly with you. Then just remember to maintain eye contact with her as you pivot before throwing the toy – you broke connection to throw, so she read it like a blind. You can delay the throw for another step or two (more like 1:21 and really well at 1:43!) until you see her fully on the correct side and facing the correct direction.
>I let her run around and just sat down.>
She came right back when you stared singing the circus music too LOL!!
>But, it’s not efficient using toy rewards when playing with me isn’t rewarding to her.>
I think toys are rewarding, and tugging with you is rewarding… we just don’t have a retrieve yet 🙂 But she had some reps where the run away moments were not that long! 2 ideas for you:
– have you tried a ball instead of a tug. Throw the ball then as soon as she gets it, run the other way presenting the tug toy
– you can make it a bit of a loop: after you throw the toy and she gets it, you can immediately show her the start cookie then toss it to begin the next rep. Don’t worry about driving to the first toy – you can have a 2nd toy and throw that one then pick up the first toy for the next rep 🙂
Nice work here!
Tracy
Hi!
The play at the beginning of the blind cross video was very engaging: you were backing up and kind of inviting her into your space, and she seemed to really like it!
On the first blind:
>I know we didn’t get the first one and my mechanics seemed off in the others. Turning to the right is my bad side so I’m often guessing when she’ll show up.>
That ‘guessing’ feeling is all about arm position on the blinds. At :10, your arm is down at your side which closes your shoulder forward, so she doesn’t get to see the connection which cues the new side.
To create the big connection, have the new dog-side arm (left arm here) be pointed all the way back to her nose (rather than pointing to the spot near your side) and try to make eye contact. The arm back and eye contact will show her the new side immediately.
Then your arm can draw her into your side when you decelerate and pivot.
When your arm was a little further back (like at :52 and 1:36) she could see the side change sooner. So think of cueing a blind as cueing it with your eyes and not with your hand 🙂 You can have your reward hand (which was also the original dog side hand) across your body which also really open up the connection.
The pivots looked great, nice and tight! You can add more decel into it by running more as soon as you send her to the treat so you are further ahead. Then you can do the blind as soon as she starts moving towards you which also gives you more time for the blind.
On the 2nd video:
>Rou sends the prop sliding sometimes.>
She is fast and strong! You can tape a yoga mat to the bottom of it so it doesn’t slide.
>I’m not sure with the parallel path if she knew the prop was the game and it wasn’t a pattern game. >
Based on what she did here, I think she knew it was about the prop: when you started moving, she looked directly to the prop, went to hit it, then didn’t look at you til you said ‘yes’ 🙂 Super!!!
So you can add more distance laterally away from it. Also, you can start with her and be right next to her to see if she will drive ahead to it. That will set you up nicely for the rear crosses.
>She did great on the send until I accidentally was rewarding before she hit the prop. She figured it out again pretty quickly.
Yes! She was GREAT with the backwards sends! And also yes – you reward earlier once or twice so she was anticipating turning sooner. But then you maintained criteria and she got back into it. A nice resilience moment for Rou! You can add a little more countermotion by starting to move forward sooner as long as you see her really hit that prop.
Great job here!!! Have fun at the trial this weekend!
Tracy
Hi!
>Everything from last week (three training days) shifted to slow-mo after 10 seconds. While it’s informative, it’s also pretty tedious.>
Oh no!! I hate when that happens. You can post them and I can watch them at a higher speed, so it is still useful!
I was able to play them at 4x speed so they were just about normal.The sound was a little off but that is fine.
On the wing wrap foundation game, he was doing well with the 2 bowls! It went well and he was getting into the groove really nicely.
With the 2 toys: I see what you mean about the left toy being very interesting but he was able to leave to go to the other toy! That is huge! And he was able to follow the toys as you moved them, which is also great considering they re not as valuable as food.
Since the food was the main motivator for this game – you can take the food bowl version and add in a cone or small barrel for him to go around.
Looking at the other videos:
Drive to handler is looking great! He loved coming to your side and pivoting: easy and fun! You added a bind cross and that was easy too. I think the hardest part for him was finding the start cookie LOL!You can use a mat or something to toss the cookie on so it is easier to find, which will allow you to then start to run away: that will cue more speed from him, and when he is almost halfway to you then you can show a big deceleration so he decelerates too.
The goat trick video looks great too! He was more than happy to get right on the tray. Do you have a variety of different things, even if he has already been on them? You can use a bunch of stuff to get a big pile and big playing field, to get him climbing around on it and using his hind end too. He was not really using his back feet here to get on it: slippery? Too small? Hard to know, but a bigger pile will give him more room to get all of his feet on it.
Great job here!!
Tracy
Hi!
>We didn’t get to do the games from last week due to snow on the ground. >
Fingers crossed for good weather coming up – your area has had terrible weather recently!
He was so funny starting the game without you. I guess he remembered it LOL!
Sending him in both directions looked super strong, even on the harder angles of entry.
In the ‘challenge your brain’ moment of having him turn away – it was hard!! I think he is a righty so the left turns were extra hard. Yo can help him on the lefts by setting him closer to the bar like to did on a couple of reps, and also by placing the toy between bars to give him a focal point to turn away towards.
The right turns looked great, supporting my theory that he is a righty 🙂 Only one question on a harder angle that he fixed immediately. Then he was perfect when you went back to the left turns. He did shake it off a couple of times during the left turn sections (and never in the right turn sections) which also tell us that his brain was working hard 🙂
Looking at the morning session:
He got right into the left turn away. Super!!! What a good boy!!! A good sleep does help solidify the learning. He was quite excellent in both directions even on the harder angles. It was cool to watch his head looking at both the left and right turn options (when he was on your left) and get it right each time. So fun! That last one was especially challenging and he nailed it!!!You can let him sleep on the a bit too, then try it from the neutral position where he is between your feet 🙂 You might have to start right in front of the bar so he understands how to move into it from that different start position, then work your way back to the center position where all the wings meet.
>I was looking ahead at the serp games that also include a backside. I’m trying to remember from MaxPup 1, did we do a backside game? I somehow don’t remember teaching him a “back” verbal. I will have to go back and review what we did.>
Yes, it is here:
Nice work here! Stay warm!!
Tracy
Hi!
Wow, he remembered this so well! Yay! Turning away was harder at first (he turned towards you then away on the first rep on each side). But then he figured it out and was great, including all of the angles you presented. I do think he was a little stronger to his right on these turn aways – do I remember correctly that he was also more of a righty in his MaxPup 1 games?
Using two toys to bring him back faster worked great: he had a lot of fun and the session was much more efficient
>Loved our in between legs rep where he went the wrong way but then figured it out! So impressed!>
Actually… I think he was correct on the first rep unless the video was mirrored or I was hearing it wrong. You were saying “right” and he turned right there at 1:41 – he corrected it to turning to his left when you marked it as wrong, so be sure you check the directional before each rep 🙂
> He does look strangled with the collar grabs but that is because he was raring to go each time lol! I>
Ha! That was funny – he understood the assignment and wanted to go go go!!
Great job :)
TracyHi!
That is crazy about the cold turning your camera off!!This went really well! I agree that holding her until she looked the correct direction was helpful – on the reps here, she was looking that direction really quickly so I am glad she was feeling confident about the directionals!!! You can revisit this sometimes to keep working over towards being in ‘neutral’ position so she can still respond to cues even when she is in the dead center of the setup.
Great job!!
Tracy
Hi!
The cone wrap game is going well! He is better to his right than to his left, so you can keep the cone in closer for now and move it out very gradually.
Don’t help if he is wrong – stay quiet and let him sort it out 🙂He didn’t seem to have any issues when you stood up – he definitely noticed the difference then went right back to the game.
The plank: He seems very happy tp interact with the plank! Tugging on the plank was exciting and fun but he was not thinking about his feet 🙂 Using treats was definitely more effective to get him to stand on the plank and turn around on it (delivering the treats right on the plank) and then you can release him to hop off and tug. You can slow down the hand movements to get him to be a bit more precise when he is turning around, and you can add in getting him to slowly do a full circle turn on the plank – a slow cookie lure will definitely help that 🙂
The wobble board is where you can do a lot of tugging because we don’t need the precision. You are correct that he doesn’t have enough strength yet to really control it, so holding the board helped a lot. You can turn the wobble board so it is across the pillow lengthwise, which will support the rockers more so it moves less. That can help him balance too!
Looking at the self-control game: This session was more about going around the cone and not as much about the forward focus and ignoring the toy. You were skipping some important steps which is why he had trouble 🙂 No sits are needed in this game (too hard) so the collar hold will make all the difference:
Line him up, hold his collar, put the toy down…. Then point at where you want him to look. When he looks at the entry line, you can let go of the collar so he goes to the toy.By asking for the sit and not holding his collar, he was either looking at you (not at the line) or he was diving on the toy.
So adding in holding him until he looks at the line (not at you and not at the toy) will help a lot!
Nice work here!
Tracy
Good morning! This session went GREAT!
>I’m thinking yesterday may have been due to tired pup in the afternoon.>
Entirely possible!! It is something to keep track of so we know for sure.
>She read the lead changes really well so I went ahead and added the third wing.>
I thought this all went really well. Check out that stay – super!! And she followed your cues brilliantly.
> She did stall out a bit on our first run, I think she was expecting a cookie, and when that didn’t materialize she trotted on through.>
I agree, she was thinking it was cookie time 😆 but other than that, she was perfect.
> As usual, I’m not sure about my timing with the line change cues; waiting too long, using the “wrong” arm, out of position?>
All good – you were subtle when it was easy and then you made the cues more dramatic which helped. Nothing to adjust!
For the next session, you can move the wings closer by a foot each 🙂
>After a short play session I also “reviewed” her wraps from a stationary position about 3-4 feet away from the wing (no video). She had no problem with these to the right or left – just did one in each direction and then more play. >
Yay! Perfect! We add more proofing games with the tunnel soon.
Thank you for the update- sounds like she is learning fast and doing great!!! Keep me posted!
Tracy
Good morning!
He did great here – so much distance! No worries about any hesitation, he was great about figuring it out and zipping back and forth.We build on this in the 3rd set of games. In the meantime, you can revisit this in a few days and add two things:
– you can moving his targets further back, behind your heels. That is the first step to fading them out 🙂
– you can choose which tall object you’ll want to use for the next level games. It can be a tall cone or tall barrel of some sort. This setup in the video here might end up being too short as he grows 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
This SSC game looks really strong! I love that she got right back on the toy without needing you to get up and run around LOL! You were great about swooshing the toy around to make it enticing and irresistible:)
Her forward focus was fabulous 🙂 It was fun to see her deliberately look at the line even with a cookie right there in your hand. EXCELLENT! She had a double whammy of self-control happening there: passing the cookie in your hand and going around the cone instead of just diving on the cookie in the bowl 🙂 Super!!!
You can keep moving the bowl around the cone, picking up where you left off here with her on your left hand. And switch sides so she can do this on your right side too (but start with the easy reps to make sure she can do it on that side too.
Great job!!
Tracy
Good morning! She did really well here!
For these collar grab, try to come in slowly and from the side rather than fast and from overhead or over her face. There is a natural reaction of backing up/looking up when we reach over their heads or directly towards their faces.But when you reached in from the side (like at :35 and :56 and after that with your right hand) she was happy to come in to you and looks like she was even moving towards your hand! Perfect!
Great job here!!
TracyGood morning!
Plankrobatics on the teeter plank when GREAT! You had it braced really well so there was no movement other than a little bounce and a little noise: perfect!
>I did sense that he noticed the banging noise.>
Noticed, yes. But he didn’t seem concerned or tentative at all. The next session will tell you: if he jumps right on like a wild man, then there is no need to dampen the sound. If he acts tentative at all then yes, dampen the noise with some towels.
Rusty seemed more than happy to play on the plank. My only suggestion is to keep your hand lower for now, so he doesn’t have to lift his chin to get the cookie. Lifting up was causing him to lose his balance on the turns to when he was walking across. When he had his head lower, he was beautifully balanced!
So aim for having the cookie hand low (just at or above your knee) for him to follow when you are asking him to sit, down, or turn around. He didn’t need a cookie hand at all when going back and forth – that looked great!
>Also I assume that having the plank a greater distance off the floor would be advantageous, in which case I am going to have to fetch a dog walk plank which I can elevate further with cinder blocks.>
Yes, but no need for that any time soon. He is growing really fast right now so if you use this plank every few days or once a week, he will be bigger and have to organize his movement because his body will be a different size compared to the plank. And you might be able to lift is a little more with another couple of bricks. You can get the dog walk plank out eventually when he is more of an adolescent and less of a puppy 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
That pop up crate is perfect 🙂 And it is great that he can see through the middle – it makes for an easier transition as he learns to go around it and not always see you 🙂
As soon as he saw his bowls, he got right into the game. Good boy!!! And he was going fast too. And he was great about ignoring the tug on top of the crate even when it was dangling or when it fell in LOL! So it combined in a bit of the stealth self-control too 🙂
This went super well – the only thing to add here is to move the bowls a little bit back to be in line with your heels. That is the first step towards fading the bowls out.
The plank being a little raised up went really well. Turning to his left was harder for him – either left turns are harder, or it was harder because he was turning away from you at the beginning? So you can lead him through the left turns very slowly so he can coordinate his feet even more. Turning to his right seemed generally easier for him, so both of you were able to move faster on the right turns.
Using this plank (and while he is still small haha) you can ask for sits and even downs. Hand lures are fine for that because sitting on a plank or moving into a down might be weird at first 🙂 but the position changes are great for balance while he still fits comfortably on the plank.
Great job!
Tracy
