Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Hi!
He did well here!! The forward focus looked great. He was doing ‘almost-retrieves’ where he was driving back to you then doing a fly-by at the last minute. So it is a good start and we can build on it:
When he is almost to you with the toy, whip out another toy as a reward. You were becoming stationary when he was almost to you, so he kept going past you. The 2nd toy as a reward will help him come right to you. Just keep toy #2 hidden til he is less than a meter from you so he come all the way to you and doesn’t drop the other toy too early.Great job!
TracyHi!
This went really well – watching the video, you can see she is actually offering the wrap more than you think, because the toy was not really luring for most of it. But don’t be twitchy! Stay totally still til she is more than halfway around, then takeoff and run. When you were twitchy and moving too early, she was not sure if she should move with you or not (2:33) 🙂And the lineups worked best when the toy was tucked into your armpit – you can use both hands to line up: the opposite hand to deliver another cookie while the dog side hand holds her collar.
>So, next steps?>
Put this game away for 2 days to let her brain lock it in, then do the exact same session and see how she does. If it goes great, we have you start leaving earlier.
Great job!
TracyHi!
Lovely lap turns in the park! I agree, he didn’t care about anything in the environment 🙂 Your mechanics made it super easy for him! Cookies were nice but the toy was nicer when it came out, according to Aelfraed 🙂 Since this all looked so good, you can move right on to adding the prop in the advanced level!I think all of the help from the Auntie really helped the toy races! He drove straight to the toy, did not measure himself to your speed or act polite about it all LOL! He was really racing to win, and you were running for real! Super!
Does he have to be on a leash in the park? If not, you can bring a barrel and do the handling combos with the barrel in the park! I bet he would love that.
>because earlier this week he got to practice tricks for apple pie crust!>
HA!!! I bet he loved it! You always have the best rewards for your dogs!
>His interest in food went way up as soon as that tooth was gone.>
Poor little guy! His mouth must have really been bothering him. I am glad he is feeling good again!
Great job here 🙂
TracyHi!
Cookie on a mat or in a bowl to start. Then toy attached to a long line… thrown on her line past the jump as the reward.T
Good morning!
>It’s hard to know if she was hungry or just unhappy with the different crating arrangement the other night.>
It is so hard to know! Change is hard for sure. I am glad she slept through the night!
She did really well with the parallel path game! Try to throw the reward sooner: think of it as rewarding commitment and looking at/moving to the setup, rather than arriving at the area between the wings. It will be easier if you have treats that are more visible. These were hard for her to find – so either giant chunks of white cheese or orange cheeseballs 🙂 or use a toy (toy on a line so you don’t have to worry about retrieves outside).
For using a toy – you can start with a cookie in a mat or bowl and send her to it, then the toy is the reward for committing to the line to the setup. And you can have a mat/bowl on each side, so you can work both side by gong back and forth. Or, keep it on one side and change your position relative to the jump to work both sides.
Nice work here!!
TracyGood morning!
Stays:
I love that you enjoy training stays! They are so fun to train! He did great here. You had a nice mix of short ones and long ones. The only thing I would add is throwing rewards back, so he has doesn’t start to anticipate releasing forward for all the stays.>At the seminar last weekend he freaked out when Soshanna took him and he was fine with her until that moment. I felt awful!!! Christine took over but hoping we can help him with this.>
It might have been the transition to a new person was too abrupt and he wa not comfy with that – I see this when people just grab hold of a puppy and try to restrain them. Or it could be that he just is only comfy with one person right now. So you can play a game from flyball 🙂 where we teach the pup to line up for all sorts of different people. I am sure I have video somewhere but it is a gentle, food-based game where he first runs to all the different people when they call him and he gets a cookie. When he is comfy with that, they lure him into a line up with a cookie trail, building slowly to being able to hold him and you call him.
Handling sandwich also looks good:
He was reading the blind and the decel/pivot really well (plus super happy to drive ahead to the toy :)) Just stay a little more connection and slow on the pivot – he sometimes would lose you a little so more eyes and less motion would help.You can throw the treat onto a mat so he can find it more easily 🙂
When you added the toy out ahead – you were late with the pivot so he went to it at 3:47, he was not actually wrong: you had decelerated (so he decelerated) but you were still facing forward and quiet, so off he went to the toy (good boy). You turned earlier on the next rep and he did really well!
Sends to the prop: He is doing well with the sends!! One suggestion:
When you do the sideways sends, shift your connection from him to the prop. You were looking right at him AND the toy was around your neck (might be too hard for now). Shifting your connection to the prop is not as important on the forward ends, but it is really important on the sideways sending where it has to override the body rotation. The forward sends looked great!A little hard to see everything on the turn and burn game – the camera was focused mainly on the turf right in front of the camera. I think there was a line on the exit of the wrap – was there one on the other side too when you changed sides? Your timing of leaving to do the FC was a little variable (you were starting the FC at different times) and being more systematic will allow you know when to leave sooner and sooner – in other words… use the line on the ground and move it around to give yourself the visual of when to move for the FC. You were not really doing the FC sooner and we want you to do the FC sooner 🙂
>Plus I was thinking about how he wasn’t sure when to go and I wondered if adding a word would help.>
The word was great to add! And he really cued off your foot stepping to the barrel and your connection. When he went to the ‘wrong’ side of the barrel once, it was really because you didn’t step to it so he was not really sure where to be. So definitely keep stepping to it, that worked really well!
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
Rotated sends: He has a ton of value for the barrel, which is great!! Yay! And he had no trouble with the rotated sending – super great! Nice job adding your verbals!
Be sure to connect with your arm back and eye contact on the exit of the barrel – on the first rep, he saw no connection (your toy hand was at your side, so he could not see your face, and the toy is not the cue because we don’t want the pups just focusing on the toy). I want you to assume errors are handling errors and reward him even if he ends up on the ‘wrong’ side of you – he was not wrong there! And you made a big adjustment on the second rep, so he saw big connection and came to the side you wanted 🙂 Same with the exits pf spins – make the big connection. That is on more of a natural line, so he will go there without connection but then that rehearses you not connecting 🙂For the stays – look how NOT twitchy he was and how far you could move away!! SUPER!!! He is so funny, leaning back to see you after the sit cue 🙂 I think you did a great job with your mechanics: clear sit cues, praise, moving away, marker, reward. YAY!! You can fade out a little of the praise so he doesn’t need it the whole time – you can praise when he sit, then be quiet as you lead out, then if you stop: praise, then reward.
>I mentioned to Jessica about what she is looking for as far as hitting the mat. I have a lesson today so I guess we will go over that.>
Perfect!!
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
She is doing really well with these games! A couple of suggestions to help smooth things out and then head to the next level:
Handling combos:
She did well with the handling game here! I was not always sure if she was on the side of you that you wanted her to be on – it was hard to tell if you were doing a spin or FC.She was correct on all of these based on what she saw (your back and a lot of motion), so give her more connection with direct eye contact so she knows where to be. So if she gets the toy even if it is not on the side you wanted? Party and praise so she don’t think she is wrong and take the toy and leave. You getting quiet and moving towards her or not interacting is a definite “that was not right” marker, so assume it was handler error and reward her 🙂
You can also have a second toy in your pocket so after she gets the first toy, you can move away and call her back for the 2nd toy.
2nd part of the video had better connection on the FC after the barrel and I liked how you walked her away with treats to the barrel! But also – when you get to the barrel, hold her collar, connect, start the verbal… then release and step to the barrel. You surprised her with the send at 2:48 (she was looking at the toy) and before she had a chance to look at the barrel, you moved away so she went to the toy. Keep your mechanics clean and smooth, more like the last rep!
Backing up: She is off to a good start with this! Only one reward needed if she is standing still after backing up- otherwise you are rewarding standing still 🙂 So you can add more steps by using the mat as the target by increasing your distance from it, bit by bit it.
She and I were both surprised that it because the front foot target at :50! I think you should use separate targets because they are very different behaviors (front foot versus backing up to it).
For the rear crosses – you can start a little further back now and see if she can move ahead of you to the target without the search marker – then reward the turn. The search basically signals “end of rep” so she didn’t turn to the left side, which is why we don’t need that marker.Also, to get the left turns: keep moving forward on those so you are past her/ahead of her and more visible on the new side. You were stopping behind her, so she really could not see your line to the left turn side and turned right to where she could see you. (The last video is the same as the end of this video).
Novel exciting:
You made this a little harder than we want it 🙂
She did well with the pattern game at the beginning and ignoring the toy… until your motion set a line to the toy and she grabbed it. You got quiet (marks it as wrong) so off she went.Remember that the distractions on thee just exist off to the side, they aren’t intended to be something she has to walk over 🙂 She did better when the toy was next to your foot – but still that can be a little muddy at this stage, about which to focus on. So if you are using the toy as the distraction – the same toy that is the reward – have if further away. I prefer a distraction that is not also the reward, as that can be a little confusing at this point for a puppy if you step towards it.
Nice work here!!
Tracy
Hi!
He did really well reading the turn aways here! And the stays were an added bonus!! Good boy!Lap turns:
Your hand cue was great, nice and low and slow for him to follow – the only thing to add is using your leg too. As your hand moves back, your leg can also move back to pull him forward then the hand turns him away. He was pushing to the side a bit and jumping up because he didn’t have a ton of room to turn with your feet togetherFor the tandems – these also went well and you sorted out the hand position and timing beautifully. It might feel easier for you to use both hands and not just the outside hand? Totally up to you – it is whatever he can read and feels super comfy for you both 🙂
For both of these turns – you can move to the next level of adding the prop for the advanced level.
Great job!
TracyHi!
It sounds like a crazy week for you!! Hopefully the workload and weather are better this week 🙂He did well with the novel-exciting game here! For the next session, you can be more stealthy about adding the toy to the environment by having it already on the ground when you enter the area to start the game.
He had a little trouble playing with the toy after all the cookies for ignoring it (several of the pups have the same question about that!) – he was like “wait, I thought we were ignoring it?” so you can have a different toy to play with that way he won’t ask if he was still supposed to ignore it.
Nice work!!
TracyGood morning!
>I didn’t hold her collar/harness for these as she is still biting/resisting when held back, especially when excited. >
You can revisit the line up game where you line her up hold the collar for half a second, then throw a cookie or toy. You can do that randomly throughout the day so you can build up the behavior in a less stimulating environment which will make it easier when you are in a more stimulating environment 🙂
>Using food helped when I left the toy behind. >
Yes! It definitely helped! You can feed her the cookie at the barrel before you send her to it, so your hand is empty when you run to the toy. She was not sure if you were indicting food or toy when you also had the treat in your hand. An empty food bowl can be the destination for cookie rewards, and the toy will work better with empty hands (or the cookie can be in the opposite hand instead of dog side hand).
You might notice that on the sends to the barrel, she sometimes doesn’t move immediately or she jumps up at your hand. What is happening there is that you are pointing at the barrel and not connecting to her eyes as much, so she is less sure of what to do. On the reps where you used your hands only a little and were very connected, she did great! So before each send, make eye contact with her and then maintain it as you step to the barrel with your foot and a low hand. That should make her sending even sooner 🙂
>And the BC was horribly late… need to have more distance before sending so that there is enough space/time to get a timely blind in. >
Yes it was late but your connection after it was great, so she found the correct side and was happy to do it! Yay! And I agree that more distance will give you more time to get it – she is fast!!
Great job!!
TracyGood morning!
>When I first started teaching him things, whatever reward I used to start the behaviour was the only reward he wanted. So, certain things were associated with toys and other things with food. He has become more flexible overall now about accepting different types of rewards but he still has strong opinions, which is usually totally hilarious.
>Really interesting! I do know plenty of high level sports dogs who attach a specific reward to a behavior and that is the reward for the rest of their lives LOL!! It helps us plan rewards more carefully in advance. And I am glad you have already worked on getting more flexibility with him, that will be really helpful!
Looking at the stays – that park is absolutely gorgeous!!
I love that you allow him choice of which position. I totally support giving the dog a voice in what the start line position should be (plus it gives us insight into how they feel or think in any given moment). That choice provides a lot of agency to the dog, which is great for resilience and building in confidence and joy in the behavior. He held the down really well here and seemed very happy to play the stay game – and that is exactly what we are looking for. You were able to get a lot of distance and duration, in an environment with a LOT of options available! Good boy!!! And great rewarding from you. I couldn’t really hear the markers but baed on his responses, it all looked pretty clean!! Click treat to you both.
You can play with a stand stay by using a plank like a cato plank or something low where standing is easy.
>I think the sit is physically challenging for him. He actually quite likes sitting and offers it frequently, but not for duration. His sit position has become tighter than it used to be though so it seems he is building up more muscle strength.>
It is entirely possible that he still has puppy butt and sitting for a while is hard. I am glad that he offers it frequently in everyday life! Have you started teaching him any tight sit games on a small platform? You can do short reps of tuck sit and roll back sits to build him up – by very very short reps because he is still so young 🙂 It looks like this (the dog here was recovering from surgery so you can see that she didn’t have a lot of strength):
He also did well with the handling game! If he had trouble finding the start cookie in the grass, you can use a towel as a target to throw it to so you know when you can start to run 🙂 And then after the pivot, that towel can be the go go go destination. Or, a Manners Minder can be the start cookie and end cookie too!
Your decel into the pivot looked great and he was tight to you as you turned. Yes, dragging the leash might have slowed him down a little but it looks like the session was still super fun for him!
You had the toy toss after the pivot which worked really well – remember that the toss is actually a toy race, so throw it as far as you can then try to beat him to it 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning –
Hopefully last night went better in terms of sleep!The resilience pattern game looked good! It is a great way for puppies to explore the world 🙂 You can add in slowly walking back and forth, to both add motion and expand her exploration area.
She was in a little bit of a ‘hang out and chew the toy” mode during the retrieving, so tossing it a little further helped her orient it back toward you. I am not sure it was a retrieve when you did that as much of a swinging back to hang out with you and chew the toy 🙂 but we will take it! And it is something to revisit when she is feeling spicy and more interested in running around. It could be something as simple as a different time of day.
>But, outdoors she snags the toy, runs away and has a party of one. Should I add a leash to the toy outdoors?>
Yes – add the leash. When she is retrieving it really well at home, you can also play the basic retrieve game sitting on the grass outside. At some point, she can have a ‘go for a run’ cue added to be able to run around with the toy, but that can be after she will bring it back 🙂
>Line ups are the bane of my existence. I rarely get it right!>
A game you can practice throughout the day without any formal session is the line up, collar hold, toss something:
It builds her love for it and allows you to practice the mechanics.
Nice work!
TracyHi!
He did well on his games here!Yes – the marker/throw can come sooner. Think of it as marking for commitment to the jump (not arriving at the jump). That way the treat is landing before he arrive at the jump setup. He started looking at you more partially because the markers were late, and partially because you gave him a “hey!” when he couldn’t find the treat. But that is on the human side of things (treats bouncing or crumbling or hard to see) so a white treat that doesn’t crumble would be better, or use the toy 🙂
Since he did so well, this game doesn’t need to be played much at all because he is still very young and we don’t want to add anything that resembles formal jumping.
>What is up with YouTube? It does not copy if I do two in a row and then I end up sending a repeat video.>
YouTube was having a hard day! It sometimes upgrades its code and then things take a minute to catch up. It seems to be working fine now thankfully, and the parallel path video showed up twice.
He is making HUGE progress on his stays!!! Super! He was great to respond to the first sit cue because you were walking and suddenly said “sit!” He and I both were like WHOA! Hahaha!! And he turned completely sideways to face you – then did a big shake off (yes, it was hard!) So you don’t need to be walking before the sit cue. You can be stationary and give him a casual line up cue so he expects it and doesn’t turn to face you as much – plus is simulates the line up at a jump.
You did a nice rewarding while staying in motion and I think he is really starting to figure out what catch means – he turns and looked behind him at the end. Yay!! You can add in stopping, praising, then rewarding with the ‘catch’. And sometimes mix in releasing him forward to come to you.
Looking at the retrieve video:
He is on to you for the 2 toy game… if he has the better toy, he knows not to bring it back for the less favorite toy LOL! Smart 🙂 So throw the less favorite toy as the reward – then the favorite lambs wool toy can be the reward. That worked GREAT!!! Eventually it all evens out and he will bring it all back. And you can get a bunch of fun/different toys (have you tried real fur toys?) because he might love those too!Great job on these!
Tracy
