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Hi!
Happy birthday, Spirit! Welcome to class! He is super fun 🙂
He did well with the pre-game here! I agree – he did a great job especially if this was the first time! Since this went so well, you can move to the next steps for your next session: do a quick review of the foot targeting and if he is fine with it, move to the sends we posted in the week 1 games.
Nice work!
TracyHi!
Wing wrap foundations are looking great!He seemed to have no questions until the cone got a little too far away – that was the threshold until you kind of pointed it out to him but he still had a couple of questions. You worked the cone back out to that spot slowly and then at the end, he had it! Fantastic!!
Thinking about next steps: we want to get you to be able to stand up, so you can do that for the next session with the cone close to you. The cone is short, though, so you can stack a bunch of them up to make a taller cone. And the new stuff for today includes adding different (bigger) things for him to go around – that will help when you are standing, and it might also help when adding distance because a bigger/taller object is more salient. But based on where we take this in week 3, being able to stand up is a top priority (and then we can fade the bowls too!)
Great job!
TracyThe toy play here was fun to see!
On the first ready moment at the beginning, he was perfect in terms of being able to regulate his arousal. Then you can see after the first rep, the toy brought a new level of excitement so he was jumping up more and it was harder for him to regulate the arousal.We can help him by having you think of your ‘ready’ dance as being on a volume dial (have you ever seen the movie Spinal Tap?) What I mean by that is we can dial up or dial down the intensity of the ‘ready’ based on what else is happening in the session. A calm, quiet ‘ready?’ with no movement from you and no toy play happening before it is probably a 1 on the volume dial of excitement here. If you were tugging like a crazy person then did a big READY READY READY with a lot of movement – that would be more like a 10 (or 11 haha). You did *not* have him dialed up to 10 – it was more like a 7 or 8, with the word being repeated and fun body language.
So since the toy play brings him up and the volume dial being at a 7-ish got jumping up, you can dial down the ready game a little by using the word maybe once, with more relaxed body language. After he tugs, that level of ready dance might feel like a 5 but that might be perfect!
It is fun to noodle around with just how much we can ask for as their bodies learn to self-regulate. And starting it now helps us tremendously through adolescence and into adulthood.
Using the treats as part of the transition from the tugging back into the session worked GREAT. Your mechanics were lovely and he did great!!!! The yoga mat works well until he added more speed, so it will be fun to see this outdoors!
Nice work 🙂
TracyHi!
> We’ve done some set points to keep working on jumping, worked on weaves (he’s doing amazing), and his RDW.>
Yay!!! That is exciting!
> I’m feeling the pressure of summer ending and there being too much to do.>
This is relatable! Prioritizing what needs to get done outdoors is important (weaves and RDW, probably) so the other stuff can wait a bit.
> We saw our conditioning guy yesterday and we talked about jumping (and showed him) and adjusted our exercises. Judge is well muscled, but he tends to use one of his rear legs more, so we want to address that.>
That is great! It is really cool to have someone who can pick up the small details and adjust.
>I’m not sure if Max Puppy 4 will work out for us – stating at the end of October means weather could start to be a factor after a few weeks. BOOOOOOOO! I guess I’ll see what kind of Fall we have…>
Yes, the weather is a pain in the patootie! MaxPup 4 has a slightly different format – a lot of it is devoted to trial-prep behaviors that can be done anywhere. And for the folks who might not be able to train outdoors, we adjusted the format to look at indoor training. The MN folks in recent years have posted videos of sequences from ring rentals or seminars/classes so they could get more ideas (rather than being locked into the class sequences).
Great job with him! It is so much fun to watch you and Judge work!
Tracy
Hi!
Beautiful job with your yes tunnel-no tunnel game! Your connection and verbals were super clear and he had no questions – having your dog-side arm pointed back to him and not pointed forward on the reps where he had to go past the tunnel made the line REALLY clear. It would have been useful to see you make a connection mistake so we could compare how the connection changed the line… but nope! You were spot on, so he was perfect. Yay! Well done!!!!!!!In the middle of the session, he was indeed slipping a bit in the tunnel. You can stretch the tunnel out as much as possible so there is not a lot of curve – that helps the pups avoid slipping. And a zillion tunnel bags will help too 🙂
I hope to see you in person soon! You and Max are looking great. There is a league at Close Enough Farm in Louisa, VA which is super wonderful for young dogs getting started! And you can of course keep going with MaxPup 4, as we get these youngsters ready to trial.
Great job here! I am excited for the future of Team Max!!!!
Tracy
Hi!
These are looking good!
She is strongest with her GO exits and I think that is perfect! We want a tiny beast like her to drive out of her tunnels like that! She was also good with her left turns, that was the perfect amount of turn. She seemed a little wider on her right turn exits – they were still good turns, so maybe she is a little more of a lefty than a righty at this stage. Her last right turn (2nd to last rep) looked great!!You did a rep of a rear cross at :54. She didn’t pick up the side change, but that was because she was already in the tunnel when you started the RC so motion overrode the verbal. Try to get right on her tail so before she goes into the tunnel, she already sees you cutting behind her.
>not being distracted by Dream who may be helping out a bit in her directionals.>
Grace did well learning to ignore Dream, it was hard! Dream might have distracted both of you, because I think that you switched to saying right on some of the left turns at the end 🙂
Overall, these are going really well in terms of her tunnel commitment and how well she is getting the exit cues. Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
>This was so much better (cookies were on the table).>
I agree! This went great and supports the idea that it was the treats making it harder in the previous session, and not the session length. I think this session had more reps and more running, and he was perfectly happy & engaged all the way through. Super!
At the beginning (approach :22) he did look at your hand as you moved your hand towards you leg. But then you opened your hand to show him it was empty, so he focused on the toy. Yay! And it was smooth sailing after that.
He had a couple of questions towards the end on your left side – might have been the distance or the toy being a bit under other stuff or the motion. He did not have a question on the last rep, where he was on your right side, so it might also be a slight side preference plus as you mentioned, you dialed back the motion.
So in the next sessions, you can add little bits of the motion: standing up, stepping forward, walking forward, etc. It will be easier when you have more room, so this game can go outside too!
>At the start, for some reason I kept waiting for him to bring the toy back, he doesn’t really know retrieve so not sure what I was doing haha>
Ha! He might have brought it back, after he found the correct squeaker spot to chomp LOL!
Great job 🙂
TracyHi!
The drive to handler and pivots looks great here! He was more than happy to drive to the magic cookie hand and pivot with you. You did a great job getting your hand low, so his chin could be parallel to the ground. If your hand is too high, you will see him popping up.
Plus, he was moving in an area with all sorts of visual ‘clutter’ and he acted like it was not even there!! Yay!
He is ready for the next steps, with more motion: you can move faster when he is getting the start cookie. Then show him a big decel as he starts to move towards you (then pivot). This might work best outside, which is a harder environment of course – so you do a few reps of what you did here outside to see how it goes, then add the motion in. I think he will really like the motion!
Great job!
TracyAwwwww those were really good times in Napier!!! I miss New Zealand (I actually looked into moving to NZ but I am not qualified). Hope to come back someday!
Good morning! She did really well here!
The blind cross looked great! Yay! The mechanics were spot on.
Her gator roll is so cute!
With the prop – nice job with the ready dance moments! Very engaging and helped make a nice transition from handler focus to the prop. She did grab the toy on one rep but I think that had more to do with her question about the cue:
>Toy stuff with the prop changed the picture. At times I felt like she didn’t know what to do, sit, grab toy or what. >
Correct! The toy changed your mechanics, which created the question about whether to go to the prop or not here: it was because there was conflicting info in the cue. Your leg stepped to the prop which says ‘hit it’ but your hand/arm stayed in front of your chest… which says ‘don’t hit it’. So she took a step away and looked at you as if saying “waiting for more info, please”. She didn’t get mad or frustrated, she was just waiting for more info.
She did hit it especially when you got closer, but using your arm as part of the cue will really help especially on these rotated sends: after the ready dance, your arm and leg can move together to send to the prop, and the other hand can hold the toy.
Then you can mark the hit and party with the toy like you did here, that was super!!
One other suggestion: don’t say ‘go’ when you cue the hit 🙂 We will want ‘go’ to mean full extension on a straight line, and this game sets up a turn cue. So you can either send without a verbal, or you can say something like “hit”. I personally have trouble being quiet (shocker!!) so I make noises LOL!!!
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
She is doing really well with going around the upright with you close to it: nice and fast!!!I see what you mean by her having more questions when you add distance No worries, she is only 16 weeks-ish! The distance will come pretty easily soon.
Two suggestions:
– Stand with your back against the fence, to take out the option of going behind you. She started offering that when she was not sure what to do, so not having that as an option will help her be more successful.
– Instead of moving yourself away, you can stay where you are and can move the wing away from you by an inch or less 🙂 That can help her understand that is not about going back and forth in front of you – it is about going around the upright. And moving the upright keeps it salient for her.
It is also possible that the thin upright is not salient enough for her, it fades into the background as compared to you and the bowls which have more value. This week we add “bigger” objects to go around, so we might find that a bigger, more obvious object is what she needs 🙂
So try this week’s game and let me know – there is one other option where we keep the bowls closer to the upright/barrel to really emphasize the value of the upright/barrel. But we can see how she feels about a bigger object first 🙂
Nice work! Keep me posted!
Tracy
Hi!
She is doing well hitting her prop here!! She also really likes her ‘ready’ word 🙂
I think we are seeing a slight side preference on this game, with the right turns (sending from your right side when you are rotated) looking easier for her than the left turn (sending from your left side when you are rotated).
So for the left turns/rotated left side sends, get closer to the prop so she doesn’t have to go as far. You can be maybe 2 steps away from it for now. Since the right turn sends looked easier, you can be a little further away on that side, maybe 3 or 4 steps.
You can also position yourself off to the side a little and not on a straight line – she was sometimes turning the other direction (away from you instead of towards you) and I think that was because she was seeing you almost changing sides behind her (like t :08 and 1:11) She was reading them like rear crosses, good girl!!!
One other idea: the ‘ready’ word works perfectly here, but try not to say “go” for the sends. We will want “go” to mean running in a straight line in big extension, and this is setting up turn training. So you can say something like ‘hit’ if you want, or no verbal needed at all 🙂
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
Have a blast at the seminar!!!
DASH did great here with the forward focus to the toy! This is a fun game to take on the road and do with short distances 🙂She was avoiding the collar grab that starts each rep at the very beginning – it might be that you were moving her around by the collar to get her into the position next to you and most puppies find that uncomfortable and avoid it.
On your last rep you tugged her back to the start spot, gently took her collar while tugging… then moved yourself into position next to her to start. That was PERFECT and she was very happy to line up! Yay!
Nice work here! We build on this game with new stuff posted today.
Tracy
Hi!
This is going well! Part of the reason we start with random things like a pillow is to sort out the questions like he had here:
>I am having trouble finding something that does not slide. I can try outside in the morning, but . . . there are deer tonight.>
Yes, definitely better to not have to worry about deer in the yard!!!
For indoor training, I got some cheapie rubber-backed rugs that I can roll out to train on, then roll up and put away. I also have some cheapie fake turf in one area (yes, in my house haha) so the pups can move without slipping. You can also try putting the pillow on a rubber-backed bath mat from the bathroom – that will probably not slip either.
I think the arousal regulation and mechanics elements of this are also going really well, with Gruffudd giving us really useful info!
The self-control element of ‘leave the cookie hand’ to touch the prop is a good challenge! He was thinking hs way through the puzzle and did great! He was looking at the send hand as you cued the prop hit, so you can play with cueing with a more open hand. The closed upturned hand might look the same as a hand that isholding or throwing a treat, which has a longer history for him and would naturally draw his eyes up to it. So a more open hand or even a finger point can be different enough to look more like a cue.
>I brought the toy in midway, but felt it was over-arousing him; I’m interested if you agree with the decision.>
I am glad you brought the toy in because working out how to use the toy and help him optimize arousal/regulate is definitely worthwhile at this stage. He loves toys and loves treats!
The toy definitely brings the excitement/arousal to a different level than food – I think he doesn’t really know how to transition back and forth yet, in terms of ending the toy play and getting back into the next rep.
No worries – he is only 5 months old, so that makes sense that he has not yet learned all of the transitions. He is doing great! I don’t think it was an overarousal question as much as it was a ‘let’s clarify how to end the tugging portion of the festivities’ moment 🙂 if it was a lot of overarousal, he would struggle more with getting back to hitting the prop and we might see other behaviors such as more toy grabbing, barking, jumping up, etc.
Since an element of this game is about arousal regulation (great job with the ready dance part of it, because that is all about arousal regulation!) you can add in a treat after each aus cue because when it was toy alone. The treat can be tossed like you did in the decel session transitions. That should set him up for deeper understanding of how to transition from the toy back to the next rep in a couple of ways:
– the treat can help reset the arousal that the toy brings, while giving you time to tuck the toy away to be able to be ready for the next cue. Tossing it so he can sniff for it for a moment is also great for arousal regulation.
– the treat can also be a context cue! What I mean by that, it can help him understand to be ready for the next cue (such as the prop send, or even a cue to get the toy again) and not try to continue the toy play moment. Context cues are hugely helpful!!
So I would still use the tug, adding in the food rewards for letting it go and resetting for the next rep. It would go something like this: tug, out cue, cookie, cue the next behavior (ready dance then send in this case) then you can cookie reward, tug, cookie for the out, next cue, etc.
And as his body develops the ability to regulate, you don’t need to use the toy on every rep. The regulation is not operant at all, it is neural pathways and brain development and history, so it takes a little bit of time and short bursts of training 🙂
>On one he failed to go. Did I wait too long to reset?
>I think you were really good throughout the session – he was working at a really high rate of success!
When he had the one error (perhaps he just lost his train of thought?), he did not get frustrated or change arousal state which generally indicates that your reset time was good: you waited a few seconds, he said “wait, what was I doing?” Then you reset happily with a treat and restarted, and he was very successful on the next rep. That last rep was great because he did not try to investigate the cookie hand or toy on the table – he went directly to the pillow. SUPER!!!! Sometimes the single error makes the biggest difference in learning, especially when handled happily like you did.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
