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Hi!
Great job getting him playing here in between cookie reps! He was offering brilliantly, played brilliantly, then went back to wrapping brilliantly. Super!
He does take a moment to watch you if you are moving the noodle or if you are reloading treats – no worries, because he does go right back to the wrapping really well. Look how far that cone got!! And I love the winner winner the end to let him run around.
This is the “Supersized” class where games are released every 2 weeks. I wonder if the Fast Track (games released weekly) is better? He is definitely ready to move on in this game, but it will be a few more weeks here before we do. Do you want me to switch you over?
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
He is doing well with the prop sends! Be sure to get him all pumped up by engaging with several seconds of ready-ready-ready before each send. That can add lots more speed to the prop as well!One other thought: Stay a little closer for now – I think you were a little too far so he went close to the prop but not all the way, then he got concerned (note the stress yawn at 1:01). So be just a bit further than one arm’s length away – close enough that he can drive to it easily, but far enough that he has to go past the cookie hand.
You can also play this game using a tug toy.
He did well with the stealth self-control game. I would like to see you using lots more toys in the training instead of just food – it will be more engaging and his brain will be less distracted by the new stuff in the environment.
You can keep switching different novel-neutral stimuli in the environment. No need for anything too exciting yet, we want his brain to process the neutral stuff really well first and we have a different game coming soon to help him process exciting stuff 🙂
Nice work!
Tracy
Good morning!
>was wondering if you’d notice those. I have two pair- they are my change out of work clothes pants- they are super large though.>
They looked cute and comfy! I will have to shopping LOL!
>His self control- used a VR as well- curious and I really think he thought he needed to interact with it to get the treat. Plus my house is kinda cluttered so hes used to random things being on the floor.>
He did well here! The key to the self-control is to have novel things appearing, because that is what catches their brains and gets more processing: the brain learns to prioritize the trained behavior and ignore the distraction. The VR was a great choice! Having it placed right in the center might have made him think you wanted him to offer behavior on it 🙂 So you can have it a little more off to the side. And you can change to something new/novel each time you play any of the game that he is good at.
Looking at the wrap – I think he figured out the frisbees as targets really well! And yes, it might have been too many variable changes at once. You can keep standing but have your back up against a wall (for now) to eliminate that option.
> Think you said put them behind your knees before and I had no idea what that meant. >
Aha! Sorry about that! It was just to move the targets a little further back so he had room to wrap.
>AND I used a wing… >
The wing is the last thing we add, because I am obsessive about getting a ton of understanding (and being sure we don’t have unwanted behavior) before we transfer to the real stuff. And then the transfer to the wing is super easy peasy 🙂
>shaping he did well I think! different presentation of standing up and in the garage so not sure if that all >
mattered- it helped when I went on my knees.>I agree, it totally helped when you kneeled. It was like he said “got it, we are shaping!” So you can also try it with you standing but reward smaller pieces of the behavior: sniffing the box, looking at it, stepping towards it, etc. This is mainly for him to understand that he can do shaping games with you standing and not just kneeling 🙂
Great job here! Stay warm through this gross weather ahead!
Tracy
Hi! These were lovely walks 🙂 He got lots of good world watching and leading the way to explore.
Being cautious is good – I-95 is busy!! And watching people go about their day without needing to interact is great: he can sort out how the world works! Being at O&G opens up all sorts of different smells and visuals for him to explore.
You can continue bringing him to places where people might be walking by. And you can see if he is interested in eating treats or playing with a toy as well, just to get a sense of how relaxed he is in the environment.
Nice job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
I love your giant cone: brilliant!And yes, he was STARVING 😂 😜 but working through the food in your hands while continuing to offer behavior is key. He was so cute and figured it out! Super smart!! Yo were good about just letting him figure it out without helping too much.
You can also add in more toy breaks 🙂 I know it is easy to get into cookie mode with this game, but we want to keep him pumped up and moving fast. He gets a little chill when there are a lot of cookies in a row 🙂 So you can start with tugging, then after every 4 or 5 treats run away from the setup and do more tugging, then end with tugging. That will start to layer in some more running and less walking.
The engagement before the sends looked great! You can see how getting him pumped up more brings more speed 🙂
>then I think I did something wrong and he was following the hands with the food.>
I think him watching your hands a bit was him working through shifting from handler focus (cookies!) to obstacle focus. You can reward a ‘close enough’ hit of the prop if he goes past your hand, even if the hit is not perfect.
And this game would be a fun one to play entirely with a toy – no cookies needed!
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning! Big party!
Overheard on the video:
“Who’s the bestest boy? Well, except for you know” hahahaha so funny!
He did great here!! Part of what was effective (and fun to watch) was that there a bit of a surprise element when you partied and presented the reward (helloooooo dopamine when there is a happy surprise – you could almost see it on his face).
One suggestion is to try to do ‘cookies’ or the toy marker as the first order of business, before the yays and praise – moving the marker to being first can build the marker to have tremendous value and it won’t get lost in the excitement of it all.
The only time he had a small question mark over his head was when you were waiting for offering with the toy and food on the ground (nothing in your hand) and coinciding with a vacuum in the background – that was hard! Brain split processing so much! He did great 🙂 The toy or treats in the hand might be a bit of a context cue to offer behavior so it might be easier to introduce one thing on the ground at a time.
Have fun at the trial!! I am sure he will think it is a blast 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
The tunnel turns are looking really strong!!
The soft turns on the tunnel exits and on the wing-to-wing sections are going well. Your cues were timely and connected so he was really driving the lines beautifully. You might notice he was not necessarily super tight on the turns – what he was going was setting up the turns more like a race car: slider wider lines so he can maintain a higher speed/more extension. I love that with smaller dogs on the soft turns!! It ends up being faster on course. Yay!
The GO lines are generally going well – that is harder for most pups!
There was a blooper moment at 1:01 – your connection was a bit soft (he probably couldn’t see it based on how small he is and where he was behind you) and your line of motion was moving to the left and not forward as much, so he migrated to your left side (perhaps he saw the connection shifting as he exits the tunnel and read it as a blind cross cue). That is a rewardable moment – either reward as if he was correct (because he was 🙂 ) or keep going back to the tunnel. The pups are almost always correct when they end up on the wrong side of us – there is something in the cue they are reading or the connection is unclear so they are guessing. He had a Big Mad when you tried to fix it and asked for a hand touch. He practically stomped his little foot in outrage LOL! He did come in and do the hand touch but then he got in the last word by jumping up and barking (he cracks me up!) So better to just keep going and reward the next thing, then look at the video to see what happened.
My go-to when something like that happens is to just connect more, which is what you did:
Compare to the connection and line of motion at 1:19 and 1:39, for example – even though yo uwere not as far ahead as the previous rep, you had very clear connection and you were moving straight up the line so he got it really well without holding a grudge
The moving target game is going super well too! Great job breaking it down for him to teach him about the joys of the moving target while also maintaining the stay. He did seem to have a blast chasing the target and was really exploding towards it!!! If you feel the stay is strong enough (we want to protect that stay like GOLD), you can move to the set point. Or you can do a few more sessions like this, to keep rewarding the stay. The moving target understanding is strong enough so it is really a matter of how you feel about the stay.
Great job here!!
Tracy
Good morning! This went GREAT! She was going fast but also paying close attention to your cues.
She was doing the GO section brilliantly – usually puppies find that to be really hard. Your position was good (a little ahead of her) and your motion and connection were clear, so she was able to get it each and every time – even after having done a few soft turn reps.
Then she got the first left pretty easily after the GO reps – SUPER!!! She had no questions about transitioning from Go to turn to Go, and her commitment looked strong too!
You got all of the verbals out nicely too! You can add in saying them a little earlier – aim for her to arrive at the 6 foot mark on the ground before she enters the tunnel to begin saying the verbals.
>When she stopped behind the wing she had hacked up the treat I just fed her.>
Oops! Ha! She got two treats for the price of one haha
Great job here! Have fun with the right turns too!
Tracy
Hi!
>Last night at star puppy class they had low wood box that the dogs could get on or in. He had no issues of course 🤣>
I am not surprised LOL! He is at least 50% goat LOL
>I think there are cones at Dash and I can bring my bowls. If I go it will be Saturday or Sunday.>
Yes, I am pretty sure there are cones at Dash.
>For the wraps is the idea to have something round? I might have a pop up round basket but have to look. I have a variety of wings in the basement and other uprights. I have a few bigger boxes too.>
Something a couple of feet tall (as tall as a jump wing or a little taller). Round is good or square/rectangle is fine too. We don’t want to get a wing involved yet because we want the understanding to be really solid at this level and when we start adding running 🙂 in case they accidentally hit it or smack it with their feet.
So a few more weeks before the wing comes out and then it will be really easy.Tracy
Hi!
He did well here! And he even got on the tug toy with you sitting and not running around!
You can keep him moving by tossing the cookie away from the suitcase rather than multiple in the suitcase. Tossing a bunch of them in is making him think you want him to stand still, so tossing the treat past the suitcase will help him drive back to it and keep offering movement.I don’t think he fully understands ‘break’ yet when you are not moving, so you can say break, wait 1 second, then throw a cookie. That will help him understand that he should move when you say the release.
>I’m pretty pleased I kept this to ~2m despite me forgetting my timer haha.>
Yes! Your internal clock was keeping tabs on it!
Great job here :) Tracy
Yes! He is really great about switching. You can limit yourself to 4 or 5 cookies by only putting that number in your bag! Then go reload after a tug break 🙂
Good morning!
A first for MaxPup: a video featuring multiple camels as part of a game LOL! He did great!
It was really interesting to see the intro to the big critters. I think he was very confident but also smart about not flinging himself into things.>I am literally not able to not speak to him when we walk on leash so apologies.>
No worries 🙂 The higher pitched chatter already has a +CER for him (and adding the specific phrases in that tone helps too, as you mentioned) so it was useful in that environment and possibly has a social learning element as well. Letting him lead the way at this age is great (I tend to not let adolescents lead the way in this type of context) and he gradually got interested in going into the their pen LOL! Nice recovery from the snort too 🙂
Really cool video to watch! Thanks for sharing it!
Tracy
Hi!
This was a good review for her! She was cracking me up when she was hitting the bowl LOL! She got back into the rhythm nicely here. For the next session, you can start off where you ended here (getting her into the back and forth rhythm) and then after a couple of reps you can add the cone. Our goal is to get the cone back to where it was (18” away or so) and then get you to move from being on the ground to sitting on something to standing up. It will maybe take 2 or 3 short sessions to do this? She will let us know how fast or slowly to move through the steps, depending on how well she remembers about wrapping the cone.Great job!!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Apparently I’m still on the video struggle bus, but think you can see the progression>
Not at all! These videos were great!
Good for her for driving to the toy in the new environment AND bringing it back! You did a great job of letting her start moving before you started really accelerating as well, so she seems very comfy driving ahead and directly to it. She go faster and faster on each rep.
Because this went so well – you can add starting to move as soon as you let her go to start to move – and race her to it a little. If you get to the toy first, you win the race and you can have a party with the toy (kind of teasing her). Then immediately start the next rep and she is likely to find a whole new gear of speed 🙂
She also was great with the decel and pivot! As she is going to get the start cookie, you can run away from her a bit more so she accelerates to you – then be sure to let her see you decelerate no later than when she is halfway to you, so she can set up her collection to your side.
Was she ignoring an auntie while she did this? Yay! What a good pup!! And it was a fun reward to send her to visit at the end 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>We had done a fun run the other day and played musical tugs in the ring. I honestly think he will tug anywhere. I will see if I can get ring rental at Dash or the farm this weekend. It is supposed to be brutally cold >
Fun! What a good boy!! And be careful in the cold and ice. The weather forecast is NUTS!!!!
> Let me known if you think I should try anything different or if you have suggestions for plan. Not sure if I will have helper to hold him but can check around.>
You can bring the bowls for the cone wrap! And you can try some cookie toss starts and blind crosses!
His prop sends are going great! He was hitting it beautifully in both directions! The only thing I would add here is a bit of engagement with you (having him come to you to do a bit of ‘ready ready’) before the send, That all get him more pumped up leading to even faster sends and snappier hits of the prop. Plus it helps him shift from handler focus to obstacle focus which will be super valuable later on down the road. And you can use a toy as the reward for this as well.
He was so funny trying to get into the basket when you were getting ready to do the wrapping game.
He did GREAT wrapping the new objet and he had no questions about it when you were standing. SUPER!! To help us prep for the games coming up, you can start using a tall cone or tall pop up laundry basket with you standing. I got my pop up tall laundry baskets at a dollar store (for 4 dollars LOL)
>Do you suggest repeating same side vs every other side?>
I like to mix it all up as long as the pup is not having trouble with one side. He did not seem to be having any trouble at all. Good boy!!
Great job here! Stay warm!!
Tracy
