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Perfect! I am sure it will transfer to a regular tunnel – start with a small one. Maybe you can sneak her into a small, light-colored tunnel at Level Up?
T
Hi!
The videos came through, thanks!!!The toy races are looking strong! After you won the race on the 2nd video here – what happened on the next rep? Did she win by a mile? You can throw the toy even further to see how far ahead of you she will drive 🙂
I love that rainbow tunnel! And she seems to love it too 🙂 It was hilarious on the last tunnel video when you triggered the MM by accident and said “sorry” to her… she was NOT sorry about it at all hahahaha! But she did great! You can send her through the tunnel to the MM, the call her back past the tunnel to your hand on the opposite side of the tunnel (so she doesn’t think you want her to go into the tunnel again). She can have cookies for coming back and not taking the tunnel.
She seems to love the tunnel enough that you can add the next steps:Add the verbal cue by holding her, saying her tunnel 3 or 4 times, then letting her go to run through it.
Ask her to find the tunnel from the inside, meaning she is between you and the tunnel (which sets up the tunnel threadle skill).
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
What a fun setup with all the STUFF here for him! Love it!! And you had different configurations which was also super fun.
It was interesting that he didn’t want the treats in the first session! In those moments, you can ask him: is it the value of the treats, or is it the value of the treats in this context- is the context hard?
You can ask that question by moving him to a different spot, away from the setup, and offering the treats. If he takes them there but not on the setup, it is useful info about the value of the treats versus the challenge level of the setup! He did play wit the toy here but was also hopping up onto the couch which might have also his way of saying, ‘this is hard!’
So the food value for something hard and new might need to go to mind-blowing territory to help convince him to stay on a new setup and eat the treats 🙂
Was it the same treats on the 2nd session? He was definitely happy to eat them and stay on the ‘stuff’ there, so it is interesting communication about how he feels about the challenge and the treat value, which informs future training too. What I mean by that is if you are presenting something challenging, you can start right away with the toy or mind-blowing food, then move back to the normal treats after he has seen/used the set up a bit.
He was cracking me up with strike a pose: he provides very clear info about what the reward should be in each moment LOL!! I like that you tried to reward with the longer toy after he said no to the shorter toy (I am pretty sure I heard him say “THAT IS NOT A REWARD, HUMAN!” Haha) but yet – he would take the toy happily on the tug break for a moment then said nope. He might be teething which is why he started tugging then backed off of it a bit.
You can adjust things a little to use the toy as the reward by throwing it for him to chase – that way it is still exciting and fun, but he doesn’t need to worry about tugging as much if his teeth hurt.
But the strike a pose itself went great! He had no trouble driving in to the target hand and your rewarding was perfect. You can try an empty food bowl on the ground for the next step, to drop a cookie into it after he hits the hand target. You can also try a toy, but he might not be into the dead toy on the ground so the food bowl might be something he drives to independently.
I think he really liked the barrel wraps to the auntie chase!!! Great job adding more connection as he exited the barrel so he knew which side of you to be on.
You can also run and use your GO verbal when the auntie starts to run. And to add challenge… she can be running the whole time (ok, maybe start with walking haha): can he till wrap the barrel even with the excitement of the toy moving? That will add a little bit of impulse control challenge 🙂Great job!
TracyGood morning!
>Too many things to worry about and THEN think about hand and arm. WHEW!>
Yes – puppy training requires 5 arms sometimes LOL!
This session went well! He is great with his forward focus! I don’t know if he could see the dog-side arm as part of the cue, because it was harder to get it extended to really point the cone. Using the opposite arm in is setup might make it more obvious as a cue.
You can use the bowl for the more challenging parts of this, where it gets all the way around the cone. At :57 the bowl was there and you gave the bowl marker but then gave him the toy, so he was not sure where to look. The bowl might be slightly easier as it gets all the way around the cone – the toy was harder 🙂 At 2:13 and 3:00 when he was heading to the toy, he hadn’t looked away from it and at the cone so he went to the toy 🙂 He did have successful reps with the toy, but I think having him learn it with the bowl first in the really hard positions will make it easier to transfer to the toy in terms of still getting the forward forward to the one.
Nice work here!!
TracyGood morning!
That is so funny about the tunnel! She trained herself, makes it easier for all of us LOL!! She is so clever!!! And it sounds like the toy races went well too 🙂
The videos for the MM didn’t come through – can you repost?
Thanks!
TracyGood morning!
The handling combo went really well!
You started with regular blinds on the barrel – be sure to keep your hands in tight on the blinds – no airplane arms 🙂 – so he can see the connection on the new sides. You can see there is a bit of a delay because your arms blocked the connection and at 1:29 you didn’t show connection at all so didn’t change sides. The key is the eye contact, not the arms, so keep the arms out of the way 🙂You then moved to spins for a bunch of reps – he didn’t need to change sides but they still looked great!
He also did really well moving away from the toy – the cookie magnet helped. Now you can fade out the cookie a bit by rewarding every couple of steps rather than having the cookie in front of him.
>I got delusional thinking I could add the decel/pivot.>
Ha! But if you hadn’t written this, I would not have known you wanted the decel/pivot because you were running straight at the toy. So to get the decel and pivot: The decel starts the instant he exits the barrel, so he sees it and can adjust. If you run forward a few steps, he will (correctly) lock onto the toy.
Your expression when you dropped the cookie at the beginning of the stay session was hilarious LOL!!
He did well with the stays here but the next step is to make sure he doesn’t think the cookie hand is the cue and he doesn’t follow the cookie hand. One wya to do this is to not make the cookie hand so obvious as part of the cue or reward. It was very prominent and he was locked on to it.
Instead, can you let him offer, or just use a verbal sit cue? By having the food as the lure in your hand, he is completely locked into your hand and where the hand goes, he goes. And if you move the hand, he will move with it. You did you catch nice and early on a lot of the reps but you can see him leaning forward and getting ready to move when your cookie hand moves forward.
I think the twitchy-ness is because he thinks the hand position is part of the cue and he should follow it.
So to be able to add more distance – you can have a cookie ready in the other hand, but use a verbal as the cue or let him offer the sit (don’t worry if it is straight or not, that can be added later). And then use your hands naturally, not held up in front of him and then surprise him with the cookie toss from the other hand. You can also use a toy!
>His sit is very sloppy posture- wise…not a good tuck sit. Should I work on that?>
Yes! Separately from stays, you can start a tight sit on a small platform – it should be a small stable platform that is only big enough for him to do a nice tight sit 🙂
The retrieve is going well!! Keep working it in the small space, adding in you standing up too! I am pretty happy with his retrieves in your basement – he has a lot of room to take off with the toys so while he doesn’t bring it back immediately, he doesn’t run away with it and need to be tracked down LOL!! So I know the retrieve will keep getting better and better. In the basement, you can add more moving away and reverse retrieving (posted today!) to help him grab it and run back to you.
>He is going up to MA with his handler on Oct. 16 and coming home Oct 26. That will be right as week 6 starts. Will there be a catch up week before the next session begins?>
Sounds like a fun adventure for him!!
This course goes for 12 weeks 🙂 so you will have plenty of catch up time 🙂 And then a month or so between MaxPup 1 and MaxPup 2 (which will start in early January after MaxPup 1 ends in December).
Great job here!
TracyHi!
Yes, the target value is high and that is great! He had good questions here about which to go to (turn cue or prop) – in the narrow space where you were moving with him, there were conflicting indicators so he was not sure if it was hands or target. Motion was often saying ‘go to the prop’ when the other cues were not as clear or visible.
A good example of this was :43. -:47 where he started next to you: your hands were up but not that visible (he was a little too close to have a good view of them without your shoulders blocking them) and your motion was identical to the parallel path motion with very little room to not go past the prop. So he looked at you, processed what he thought the important cues were, then went to the prop: motion overrode the hand cues here.
At :59 you were talking to him (and in other spots you had the cookie very visible) and that helped!
Lap turns when you were already facing him were easier because you were facing him which is a stronger cue with no motion to the prop. When you were moving backward – motion indicated the prop and there was not a lot of room to go past it (1:40, 1:55 where you were further away but moving backwards and the hand was not visible when he had to choose handler or prop).
When there are conflicting indicators, motion often wins 🙂 and the dogs do what motion tells them. Even when it is backwards motion 🙂
So we can help him see which indicator we want by having him start further from you (cookie toss starts work best so you are ahead of him) and as he starts moving to you, the turn cues are very obvious: hands cues for the tandem, and you facing him/stationary with the extended hand cue for the lap turn. That way he sees the cues before he reaches a decision point: to prop or not to prop?
And giving yourself more room will help too 🙂 I think 4 o5 5 feet away from the prop will definitely help clarify things! Taking this outdoors or into a bigger space would be the easiest route.
Nice work here!
Tracy
Good morning!
Really strong stay session here!On the first part with food – great job ping-ponging the timing of the catch reward! He was so funny – he can’t chew and respond to a sit cue, which is why you sometimes had to cue the sit twice. No worries, we can let him finish chewing LOL!!
The food session is definitely more calm and by about 90 seconds his attention was wandering so you brought out the clicker and things go exciting again. Super! He was definitely indicating something to his right, maybe a toy on a table? Good communication LOL! Using food is great but fewer reps of the same behavior and mixing in tugging can help him stay more engaged in the food only sessions.
I was going to suggest switching to the toy… and then you did 🙂 Yay! He was VERY good with the toy – sitting really well and not trying to re-grip the toy! Good boy!!! It seemed like he really liked the toy version of the stays.
You were releasing him forward to the toy, which works well. To easily add more distance, you can add in throwing it back to him (I use ‘catch’ for both food and toys being thrown back, the dogs have not shown me they need separate markers for that, they know exactly what I am throwing :)) For the ‘catch’ remind yourself to say it then move your hands a second later – if it comes too simultaneously or the hands move before, he will read and movement as the release.
One other idea – when you are adding duration – put some praise into the long duration moments where you are standing still (and looking away or moving further away) instead of silence because the long silences where you are looking at him are going to cause him to want to move and offer something else (like the release) – silence and eye contact can be very exciting and increase arousal.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
>Added the challenge of the frisbee ON the ground in front of her and the drive to get it.>
She did great! She will do anything for the frisbee… even hold a stay for it LOL!!! And it looks like she was staring at the frisbee too, which is great for the forward focus we want on the obstacles.
Her ‘almost’ break on the 2nd rep might have been because she predicts the rhythm you will say the release – about 1.5 seconds after the frisbee hits the ground. Dogs are BRILLIANT at predicting rhythms 🙂 So make sure you mix it up: add in slow calm praise, add in you slowly moving forward, add in some very immediate releases, sometimes count to 5 in your head, etc… that will help us be unpredictable in a good way so she doesn’t try to guess that the release will happen in 1.75 seconds LOL!! She sure is smart enough to figure that out so we have to kind of stay one step ahead of her hahaha!
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
She had a good time with the two toys for sure! And she figured that it was a game where you can just go to the next toy: easiest game ever!!!! She was really zipping around that barrel 🙂You can also play this by having her on one side of you, holding her collar – then tossing the end of the super long toy so she can see it in front of her… then letting her chase it around the barrel as you slide it away. That can be a fun transition into turn and burn!
>I’m still really struggling with sends. >
The prop sends? Or the send to the barrel for turn and burn? Both? I have ideas for both, let me know which one or if it is both and I will send them along 🙂
>I’m not really sure what I’m doing wrong.>
I think it is probably a combination of young age, mechanics, and ‘cracking the code’ of what makes the most sense to her to get her to do it. We will get it sorted out!
Nice work here!
TracyGood morning! The hand targeting went well! It looks like you were getting the nose touch AND the foot hit at the same time. No worries at all – keep rewarding, that foot hit is a bit of a ‘superstitious’ behavior and it will go away. To help isolate nose-only to the target, you can change the angle of it a little bit for now: have the target in your palm but angle your palm so it is a little higher and facing downwards. That will cause her to reach up with her nose to get it, so hitting it with the foot is not as easy or efficient to get the reward.
When we add this to the full game with you standing, she won’t hit the target with her foot 🙂
She had a little trouble hitting the target when it was in your right hand – it was not as strong as when it was in your left hand. One thing that will help is if as she is coming toward you, you shift your gaze to look at the target (not at her cute face 🙂 ) That will help direct her to the target hand and away from the toy and cookies. Then when you switch to tugging, you can use the full length of the toy to really swing it around for her to chase. When it was squiggling around in front of her without a lot of chase action, it keeps her thinking about the food and the target so she didn’t lock onto it as immediately.
Nice work here!
TracyGood morning!
This looks good! She seemed happy to drive in to your cookie hand and was turning well in both directions. She REALLY liked it when you tossed the cookie as the reward 🙂 so definitely keep doing that. And since this session went so well, you can add her prop placed off to the side – so she comes past it to your hand cue, then after the turn away, she can hit it on her line.Great job here!
TracyHi!
Tandems went great here – he seemed comfortable turning in both directions as you moved. Perfect! When you get back from your adventure, you can add in turning with him so you both turn and move the new direction (he would only be doing a 180 when you do this, not a full 360). Then add the prop for him to move past when you cue it and to hit after the turn away.>alas all I can maybe get him to work on is the stays.>
That would be good! Working on stays would be beneficial and a good mental workout for PoweR 🙂
Have a great time!
Tracy
Good morning! That sounds like a SUPER fun day!!! And playing tug and pattern game stuff in that environment is perfect for Jazz!!
The video is marked private – can you reset to unlisted so I can watch 🙂
>I purposefully gave her a break from any prop games/exercises and will try those again tomorrow. >
That is great – you will want to alternate ‘flavors’ of games so you don’t do the same thing every day, and also sometimes give her a day off from any ‘structured’ training and just let her run and play 🙂 The learning gets coded during sleep, so we do need to give the training a day or two or three to really sink in and blossom 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
I think he had fun with the collection sammie 🙂 he was reading the cues really really well – just needed them to be earlier on the early reps. Ideally, you would blind as soon as he starts moving to you, then decel as soon as you finish the blind and pivot slowly when he gets to you. When you were really running and the blind was late, the decel was late so he would go wide past you. Or if you pivoted too fast, he lost which side to be on.
But you got your timing earlier and earlier – and the ideal timing of everything is what you did on the rep 1:56 to 2:04 and it was perfection!!! NICE!!! The next reps like 2:41- 2:48 and the last couple were also really good, but that 1:56-2:04 moment was my favorite!
The prop with the NN thing out there started off nicely. He is hitting the prop really well!
Yes, going towards the toy added a level of challenge and the fan was probably not even in the picture for his brain 🙂 But he also did great when you moved the toy!>What interested me was that second set he literally was like oh hi fan!>
Was that in a different session? He seemed to look at the fan a little but didn’t go to it here that I saw (unless I missed it and need more coffee haha)
He was looking around a little bit but I think he was getting bored – something like 10 cookies in a row of the exact same back and forth thing, so on the last 2 reps of that he was looking around, slowing down… so you can definitely break off to play tug after every 3 or 4 treats and then change something to keep it interesting.
And after all the food, remember to get the toy dragging away like a crazed squirrel 🙂 to get him to engage. You started by dusting his face with the toy 🙂 and then he got right onto it when you started moving it away.
>I’m doing my prop parrallel/sneds/ rears. The parallel went amazing ! I’m avoiding the sends bc of the issue I had initially.. thoughts?>
Go back to the sends and see what ya got! Just a couple, and also keep working on the parallel path and rear crosses.
Great job here!
Tracy
