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Hi! Both of these games went great!
Prop sends: Yes, the turns were perfect with you a bit more lateral! Super! And she added a level of difficulty each time by hitting the prop and sliding it further and further away 😆 but that didn’t create a problem- she kept driving to it. Great job convincing her (with a cookie) to come to you for the ready game when she wanted to stay out and be sent again.
Only 1 small suggestion – when you send to the prop, try not to say Go. Because there is a turn at the prop, we want to save the Go for when she is continuing straight and the reward is thrown straight. For now, you can say something like “hit it” – we will be adding more directionals soon!
The goat game went well too 😀 In the video, you mentioned that you should have had the cookies with you so you could reward her sooner – yes, that will definitely help her at the beginning.
She seemed perfectly happy to get all of her feet on the lower objects. Super! She didn’t immediately interact with the couch cushion and you had some spot on reward moments when you rewarded even brief interactions.To help get her onto the cushion, you can have it pointing perpendicular to you and brace it with your feet (one on each side) so it is very stable and she feels comfortable hopping on it. Towards the end of the session you did have more support by having yourself closer so she interacted with it more.
Great job here!
TracyPerfect, that sounds great! Keep finding places where she can confidently lead the way on these walks, to help expose her to a variety of different things in the world 🙂
T
The wrapping went really well here! Standing was no problem and she was happy to wrap the hamper.
We will be building on this game soon but for now, you can keep switching objects for her to go around, and take this game to new locations. When you are in a new location, you can have the object closer to you to jump start the game, then move it back out as soon as you see she remembers the game 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi! She did really well here! The cookie recall game was really easy for her, which made it a great choice for the stealth self-control stuff.
She was able to ignore the novel-neutral object- good girl! Because she saw you put it down, she investigated it immediately. So the next level would be to have a novel neutral object already in the room before she comes in so she doesn’t investigate it. You can have it visible but off to the side so when you bring her in, you can get the game started right away and see what she does.
Nice work here!
Tracy
Good morning! These games are looking great!!
The collar grab game went really well – she seemed to think it was the easiest thing ever with the treats! She loved the tug break, so you can add the tug toy into the game: line up with treats, then throw the toy.
I bet she would also really like lining up between your feet because it provides a lot of social support.
The folding in game went well! Lovely session!
She had a little trouble tugging at the beginning – I am not sure if it was about wanting the cheese or if she was hearing the loud noise (motorcycle?) happening at that time. You can see her almost flinch at :03 when it was really loud. Our human brains don’t really hear that stuff but her puppy brain sure does! The cookie bag was in the same place in the previous video when you were tugging so it might be able the noise more than about the cheese 🙂
And note how when you did your first tug break, she tugged with no problem even with the cheese right there.
Going to the food was good, though, because it helped her engage really well! Collar grab went great here too and she focused forward brilliantly.
Because she liked this game (and, as you said on the video: cheese is the BEST haha) you were able to hold her collar longer and get the bowl moving around the cone too.
It looks like you were using your cookie toss hand to also give the forward focus cue to the bowl. You can make it even more obvious to her that the hand is part of the cue by tossing the treat into the bowl then moving the hand back, then pointing to the bowl again.
Since this went so well, you can keep moving the bowl around the cone until she has to pass it to go around the cone to get to the bowl.
And you can repeat the game with the toy instead of the bowl, I think she will like that too!
>Biggest issues seemed to be on my part: 1) Keeping treats in the correct hand – and ONLY the correct hand 2) Keeping the games to 2 minutes>
I think you had really good mechanics for these games where having 3 hands would make them easier LOL!! You didn’t rush and you stayed engaged with her, so she stayed engaged with you. That is HUGE!
The cone game did have a longer session so you can set a timer to help keep it shorter. But you did a GREAT job of breaking the session up with tugging! So while it was a bit longer in length, it was still had a fast & fun feel because of all the toy play 🙂
Great job here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Fog burned off so we have sun this afternoon!! Really helps my mental health!>
Yay! Blue skies are soooo much better 🙂 And I love your wing setup as the replacement for the second tunnel 🙂
I am so glad you two had fun with the pill bug! She was fabulous with her quick responses and your connection was lovely on the outside turns! And the blinds went really well.
For the double blinds:
The good news/bad news is that she is already crazy fast! OK, that is all good news 🙂 It makes this game so much more challenging for timing because she needs to see the info earlier. She is reading everything perfectly, so you can try two things to be earlier:
– As soon as you send her to the start cookie, you can start running. Get way ahead and stay connected.
– Then when she starts running towards you- do the first blind pretty immediately. That gives you a lot more time to get the second blind in and decelerate to set up an inside turn if she is between you and the tunnel.
Being earlier might lead to some bloopers because the earlier cues might sometimes be too early (depending on where she is relative to you) so she might end up seeing a cue that sends her to the other side of the tunnel. That is still rewardable, though, because she is still responding correctly to what she sees.
She read the blind to the inside turn on the last rep really well – partially because the BC was earlier and partially because you decelerated into the inside turn. Super!!
>I left a few “swifter” moments in there for yo>
Thanks! She is just so cute when she does that!
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
Using the cabinets was smart! She got lots of really good steps backwards – yay Dot!
She is ever-so-slightly backing up on an angle. That is because your right hand is delivering all the treats, so she is locking onto your right hand as the focal point to back away from.We can change that before it becomes a bigger angle with a small mechanics tweak: You can alternate delivering the treats with your left and with your right hands, so the focal point is more centered. To do that while also maintaining the flow/loopy feeling of the session, you can take the clicker out of the game (use a verbal marker) and have treats in both hands, with both hands in front of you – then flick a treat to her from alternating hands.
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
>Yes, it was Carol. We actually live on other sides of the US but have had dobes from the same breeder.>
What a small world! So fun! Carol is a BLAST so hopefully you two can train or trial together!
>Rou and I took the weekend off from specific training. We had an off-leash run and some socializing outings. >
Click/treat to you! Life with a puppy is about more than sport training. The outings and the run do a lot to support everything in her development.
>On Sunday, I was at a seminar with my older Doberman. I giggled when she asked if I had a look/forward focus cue and if not, how useful it could be.>
It is a hot trend for sure! You can teach the older dog to focus forward the same way Rou is learning it here. I don’t think Dobes are dogs that are wired to stare at things (like Border Collies are) so it is perfectly fine if she glances at it just to acknowledge that she sees the line.
She was super confident with the wobble board! Since our goal is to get her to shift her weight back, keeping the toy low like you did will go a long way to getting that weight shift. You can try letting her grab the toy that you are holding with one hand, then gently tapping on or near her shoulders with your other hand. That is something that often gets the weight shift because the pups pull back as part of the play.
You can ‘test drive’ that away from the wobble board: tug nice and low with one hand and tap near or on her shoulders with the other. If she leans back and pulls harder? Great! Onwards to the wobble board. If she drops the toy or is offended? Ok, we won’t use that on the wobble board 🙂>She seems to rotate on what is highest value tugging.
Yep, adolescence 🙂 They have a preference for novelty and that means ever-changing reward sensitivities. Yesterday’s favorite toy might be the most boring toy ever today LOL!
Turn and burn:
Yes, the toy might have been high value and very stimulating but I think she was actually telling us she is a righty, not a lefty. We see. this a lot from the dogs on the first rep of this game: they go behind us and offer a turn to the stronger side. It appears to be a toy distraction but it might just be that she needed to start this turning to her right (on your left side) and not to her left.She did not do any toy leaping when she was starting on your left side/turning to her right – was it because she was better able to coordinate herself on that side? Or was it because she had already gotten a bunch of good reps in? The next session will tell us!
This is something to ask her at the start of the next session. Bring out a super fun toy, and start her on your left side/her right turn. See what her first response is: does she wrap the cone to her right? If so, she is probably a righty. Does she leap up for the toy? If so, that toy is too arousing and you can use a lower value one or treats for the first few reps of each session.
Once she got the idea, though, she was absolutely brilliant! Excellent commitment and really right turns!!!! And great job to you for using your verbals too.
Nice work here!
Tracy
Hi! A couple of goat ideas for you:
>I have not tugged on the wobble board. >
You can definitely add in tugging on the wobble board! The first time you do it might be hard, so make it easier to start by putting folded up towels under the wobble board so he only moves the board a little. When he can confidently tug on it, you can gradually begin removing the towels that are bracing it, to add more movement to the board.
You can also great a large playing field of all the different things to climb around on. This can include the wobble board, rocker board, paw pods, couch cushions, cato and wood planks, anything you have that he can fit on.
As he grows, the donut and the peanut will be really weird feeling (too big to fit on them comfortably and not enough strength developed yet to be compressed on them and balanced). So you can set those aside to revisit when he is bigger.
Have fun!
TracyGood morning!
The chewing of the strong cheese was hilarious but I think he liked it a LOT! That was a brilliant choice on your part to make a big impact on the collar grabs!
Lining up between your feet requires a lot of slow lures at this early stage but you were getting it really well! He seemed happy to line up at your side or between your feet, so keep building that up with the collar grab then throw the reward. You can add in lining him up for a treat then throwing a toy – 3 hands might be required for that 😂 but I also use my armpit to hold the toy.
Stealth self-control/folding it in is off to a great start! He was very happy to have his collar held while he focused on the food bowl and especially on the toy! Brilliant! I love how he was picking up the toy and finishing the cone wrap to bring it back to you – it is not required but it is sure lovely that he did it!
Since things here went so well with the bowl and toy, you can add in the hand point in the next session: as you are holding him and the toy or bowl are in place, point to the line yo want him to take to the cone entry with your other (empty) hand. He might look at your hand for a heartbeat, so hold him til he looks at the bowl or toy, then let go.
When that is going well, you can start to move the bowl or toy around the cone, to add more of the self-control challenge of going around the cone to get to it.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning! Bummer about the snow 🙁 I am ready for spring!!!
>feel like he knows what to do with the wrap- he’s just so focused on the treat.>
I think what you were seeing was more of a side preference question and not a ‘give me all the cookies’ question 🙂
He is a lefty – all the reps going to his left were really strong (from your right hand to your left hand). No problem going around the barrel and ignoring the treats.
The right turn reps were where the challenges were (going from your left to your right hand). That is where he would hesitate or slide between you and the barrel, and get frustrated and smack your left side (I don’t think that happened a single time on your right side).
Side preferences are normal in dogs like they are in humans, so we will definitely help him think through it and solve the puzzle.
Two ways to help him on those right turns:
– Keep the barrel close to you for now so the option of sliding between you and it is not available. You can have it close to you for both directions at first, then you can move it a little away for his left turns (your right to your left) but then pull it back in for the right turns (your left to your right).
– You can make the bowl target more visible on the right turns. Yo can put it just past the halfway point, so he can see it a little when he is turning to his right. That visual aid will help him organize the right turns, and then you can gradually slide it back to where it is located in this session.After a couple of sessions, the side preference will even out and he will be a happy wrapper in both directions 🙂
Shaping getting him into the box went well! He was such a good boy to get all his feet into the box at the end!!!
Great job here! Stay warm!
Tracy
Good morning! I am happy to hear you are excited about the new stuff – Bandit was definitely ready for more!
Collar grab went well! A lot of small dogs (and Papillons/Pap mixes) do not like collar grab stuff, so I like to build the love early. You did a great job here sliding the collar grab into the middle of a bigger game, so he was very engaged!! You can see a little bit of him backing up when you reach for the collar but that will go away with more practice of this type of game.
>He was a bit confused at first on how to turn to get next to me, but he started getting it at the end.>
To help the line up be even smoother, you can step back with your dog-side leg as your hand is leading him to position.
>I touched his collar longer than I think you wanted, but he didn’t seem to mind. >
I thought you were really good about it: super quick hold then release!
And, to help build the collar grab love even more: you can line him up with a treat but then after you have his collar, throw the tiny ball that he loves! It can end up being a loop of : line up (cookie) – collar hold – ball throw – ball retrieve – line up (cookie) and so on. You can also do this sitting down if it is easier to do the collar holds/ball throws.
SSC/Forward focus: He had a little trouble tugging when th empty bowl as already there (bowls have a lot of value :)) so you can put the bowl down last after a bit of tugging at the very beginning.
Nice job incorporating the line up/collar holding here too! He seemed very happy to be held because the game was interesting and easy for him!
He did well with the toy too – the more you wiggled the toy, the better he got engaged with it so keep that toy moving or use a bigger, furry toy 🙂 or the ball.
>I was probably confusing Bandit a bit with my inconsistent target pointing. >
I thought the pointing was good! For the next steps, you can point to where he would approach the cone. He was definitely focusing forward, which is great. He looks ready for more challenge in the next session of this game: move the bowl or toy further around the cone, bit by bit. That makes it harder because he can easily go directly to it so the forward focus and pointing gets more important.
The inflatable disc shaping went well! He is very confident and it was cool to see how when he was really pumped up from tugging he was able to get right on with both front feet. Super!
The disc was small and moved a bit, so he was not offering his hind end on it. If you have a second disc (or more!) you can put them all next to each other so he can walk across them. Also, for now, take some of the air out so they are under-inflated. They will still move but not as much, and he will be more interested in getting his back feet on along with his front feet. If you don’t have more discs, you can use pillows or couch cushions or even upside down dog beds to expand the playing field to encourage him to put all 4 feet on.
>He got bored with his toy once he figured out food was associated with the disk! But he got back on track with a different toy.
>I see what you mean! He did get on the tug toy but now that food value is coming up, you can go to a bigger longer crazier toy to maintain the toy value too: a long thin toy that might have some fur on it will be engaging even when treats are around. The 2nd toy was definitely more valuable here and that was great! I am happy his food value is high now, and that means you can bring out even crazier toys 🙂
Great job here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Yes, I feel you on the “adolescence is coming.” >
I personally think you will not see anything too crazy other than maybe a normal moment of sensitivity here and there, but I don’t want to anger the Gods Of Canine Adolescence 😂
>Even without microplastics I do suspect this pup will hit it earlier than expected. >
He seems mature in many ways for his age, such as how he uses his body. That is good, though – if he naturally uses his body well then less brain energy will be devoted to that and more brain energy can be devoted to all of the other things it needs to do during adolescence. And that way you can keep training the stuff that requires good mechanics – for many adolescent dogs, we have to shelve things that require mechanics for a bit because the brains just cannot do it all at that stage. For the dogs that have naturally ‘easy’ mechanics, we can fly right through adolescence.
>I wasn’t shocked he was able to work at the trial only because he’s had this weird tune out the background focus on training since the day I picked him up. >
Weird = AWESOME in this case as I am sure you agree with!
>We have also done classical conditioning to the loud “ready” voice over the past few weeks (hear the thing at a distance, cookies appear, then closer to where the speakers are. >
Perfect! And I bet you can build on that where you take the conditioned response and change the food delivery to be next to you, to turn his head towards you (if you aren’t doing so already) so the ready voice builds in the conditioned response to look at you… then you get an automatic attention/engagement response when he hears the ready voice. Super useful for entering the ring and lining up, in terms of arousal shifts. I mean, since Pavlov is always on our shoulder AND Pavlov can sometimes be a pain in the butt, might as well use it for our own benefit LOL!
>It’s cold here (for CA) but I know it’s worse in many parts of the country right now so I’m not really complaining. >
I am in Florida and hiding from the winter – the high today will be in the 50s so I am FROZEN haha but it is only 7 degrees at home in VA, so I will survive.
The movement element of the game is going well and it was super fun to turn it into a send! He has a nice little flyball box turn going there 😉 Seems like a lefty based on how well he moved through the left turns. The right turns were good too but not as coordinated as the left turns on the sends.
He was HILARIOUS when you showed him the movement/noise and he was like “whatever, I got this” then pounced on it before you had the toy.
The position changes are going well – it was the only part that looked a little hard and he had to really think about. You read my mind about helping him with a hand cue and trying to get him to move from a stand to a down. This is the only thing that looked like a big challenge to him, so it can be something you do on the plank pile you used in the 2nd video (plank on top of 2 catos)
Side note: the text program tried to autocorrect 2 catos to ‘2 cats’ which would have been a really interesting game LOL
>Since he’s getting that concept pretty nicely I figure we might as well start to show him that picture in a variety of different settings and with different props that aren’t yet important Agility things. >
AGREE!! That is why we use un-related props: get the mechanics sorted, positive associations, cues started all before we add it to the important stuff 🙂
>And yes, he apparently does think he’s in the flyball training class instead of the Agility class. >
Ha! I wrote that above before I even saw this 🙂 If you lived closer, I would totally drag you to a flyball practice 🙂 If nothing else, it creates dogs that can focus on high intensity responses and precision, regardless of what madness is happening around them. I don’t think there is anything local enough to you that I would recommend though.
Plankrobatics also went great – I thought he was going to get on the board before you even put it down 😂
Having it on the 2 cato boards was fun and easy for him. You can see if he can do t he stand to down to sit on this setup (hand lures can help) You can also separate the boards a bit so the plank is more of a bridge, with air space under it – this can begin introducing the concept of space between the plank and the ground.
> I went ahead and did a few minutes of it just to see how he was doing with his new spider legs that he’s growing.>
This is something to revisit in the rotation for the next many months – a weekly revisit to the simple goat games because his legs and brain are basically different every day 🙂
The treat ball at the end was interesting – his first response was to get back on the plank because he didn’t know what the heck the ball was – but then it looks like he was able to sort out how to get the treats out. It is a good puzzle but I am sure he figured it out quickly.
.>We’ve continued to work on “get measured” – he loves it – and he was about 15” with an official measure device yesterday.>
Very cool! How tall are his parents?
Great job here! The toy play is going well too. Does he do any single paw lifts (like a high five trick)? That would be super fun to add to the plank games – starting on the low stationary plank you can see if he will give you a front foot (probably left front) and challenge him to do a 3-legged stand. If that is too hard you can see if he will put one front foot on a small raised target. If my memory is correct (and caffeine intake is high enough) I remember that he has seen putting both front feet on a target on the plank, so now you can challenge him to do one front foot.
Tracy
Hi! Your set up is clever – excellent use of barrels and trash cans to create the pillbug!
When you were connected, he had no questions about where to be on the line and to stay on it. There was a blooper at where he ended up on th other side of the tunnel, but that was all about connection: you were not really connected on that rep so he was not sure where to be.
Nice work with the blind! You can decelerate a bit when you do that, so he can see the cue and read it in time to set up the inside circles (turning away from you). He knew to change sides to your inside, but it was hard for him to bend away so decelerating will help him get his mechanics smoother for the turn.
Great job!
TracyHi! This went really well!! She was easily able to follow your line on both sides. Great job with your connection! That really helped her find the line and stay on it at high speed. Easy peasy!!
Since this went so well, you can add the blind crosses and also you can bring out another tunnel (if you have one) or use a barrel for the games that involve both of them.
Great job!
Tracy
