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Hi!
>Allowing his collar to be taken on cue is something he has previously learned but usually something he still has to think about. He was actually enjoying the game so much he was starting to allow quicker collar grabs.>
Incorporating collar grabs into action games is really helpful for building love for collar grabs 🙂 I no longer teach collar grab games on their own… I slide collar grabs into fun action games so the pups really enjoy it, as you saw here.
You don’t even need to use a verbal at this stage – you can just be quick about getting the collar, delivering the treat, throwing the toy. That way he doesn’t even think about the collar at all.
He was SO CUTE scampering around with the frisbee! He parading it around you and it was just the cutest thing ever.
He has a lot of drive for the disc – have you ever tried rollers? That way he can be chasing it while it is rolling on its edge, which will get even more speed. He was getting faster and faster a the distance increased, and I think using rollers will be super fun for him too.
>I left it in because we had an interesting moment. He caught an interesting scent in the air and I decided to wait to see what happened.>
That was really cool, thanks for leaving it in. I think he legit smelled something that his brain had to lock onto (turns out that the amygdala also has a section devoted to olfaction, so we might see olfaction responses as reflexive the same way we see other reflexive responses that override the prefrontal cortex (which is not fully developed at his age yet anyway).
>I wasn’t sure if we had played too long and he was done or it was just something he really needed to check out and he would come back after. T>
I don’t think the session was too long, and I don’t think he was having an arousal struggle… it was just a big enough distraction that his brain needed a moment. You were great to just wait and see what happened. Perfect! He came back and finished strong!
If he was stressed or tired, we would probably see sniffing or maybe barking (I don’t know him well enough to suggest one or the other). But we can track it and see if air scenting is indeed a stress response or a response when he is tired.
The cone wrapping went well. He noticed your change in position to standing but was still very successful. Yay! His right turns seemed very easy here – left tuns were a little harder (that is where he missed the wrap on one rep and smacked his face on the cone on another rep LOL!).
>but adding distance is definitely harder for him.>
Because he is small, adding distance will happen in small increments – so when he is going to his right (from your left to your right hand) you can move it out a couple of inches. But then when he is going to his left (your right to your left) pull it in closer so it ends up moving away only an inch or so at a time). We don’t need a ton of distance on this game, so you can take your time adding distance on both sides.
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
This was a good resilience walk! Lots of good world watching – trees, cars, birds, noises in the sky, etc.
>She wanted to go up to a house with a dog that is a known barker. I think she got a little scared, but she recovered.>
It was perfectly fine to keep her from getting close to the barking dog house – she had no idea it would suddenly get weird! But she did recover really well.
>Everything is new to her.>
It is really interesting to see the world as viewed by a creature where everything is new! So fun to see!
Nice job 🙂
TracyGood morning!
He did great reading the blinds in the great outdoors! Lovely engagement even with all of the distractions that come with working off leash and outdoors. Yay! And he loved it when you were running 🙂 So definitely keep adding running to this so he can have fun driving to you 🙂
He did well with the wing wrap foundation here! A couple of next steps to add:
– you can move the targets a bit further back now, so they are behind your knees (closer to where your feet are when kneeling) so he has more room to turn around to get back around the wing– We will also want to get the wing a little further away, gradually adding more distance between you and it. Since that variable will be harder (and distance is always bigger for small dogs than big dogs 🙂 ) you can use a single upright or the original smaller prop you used, so it is easier to go around. That way we dial back the variable of size of wing while adding the challenge of more distance to move around it and away from you.
– When you get a little bit of distance, you can pull the object back in next to you (to make that variable easier) and we can change your position (which might be harder for him). The goal is to get you standing up, and sitting on something low is a good intermediate step. A low chair or big inflatable ball or even an agility table are all good options to sit on 🙂
I think you will find that he can progress through this pretty quickly!! It might all even happen in one session, or in 2 sessions. He is very smart about figuring out all of these games 🙂
Great job here!
TracyGood morning! I am glad you are feeling better already!!
>I tried to film a resilience walk which I’ll show after this. Used a chest harness as I wasn’t sure how to film it otherwise. She does stop and soak in things.>
They are definitely hard to film. But I am glad she is able to do some world watching! It is really good for baby puppies.
>. But, I had them in the yard today and I was able to call her off Sprite twice. Once she bites, she goes in a different yard. >
It sounds like Sprite is being very tolerant so far 🙂 She might at some point tell the puppy to stop biting her and that is fine too (I trust that Sprite will be very appropriate). My dogs have taught my puppy more about where to put his mouth than I have, and I am grateful for it because at 17 weeks he doesn’t chew on any of us LOL!!
>She had trouble finding the treat in the grass.>
Finding treats in the grass is definitely a learned skill! You can spread out a big mat or towel to toss the treat onto, making it easier to find and giving her a clear focal point.
Great job with the blinds! Your timing was really good and your connection was super clear so she had no questions at all. I think the distance away from her that you used was spot on: not too close, not too far. She could easily run to you and see the side change with enough time to change sides. You can gradually extend the distance you get away from her, as she grows and gets more coordinated.
>I’ll play around with different toys. The bending is adding pressure. If I’m on the ground she may try to. It’s my shoes or ankles.>
Part of the reason we play super simple games is to figure out the reward process! You had a really long toy here which worked really well! You can tie something to the end of it (like her smaller toy) which also gives her a focal point to grab instead of shoes/ankles and helps prevent bending over.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
Your focus forward game looked really strong and super fun! I loved your verbal chatter and singing in the in-between moments – it really brings up the energy. And then you were quiet in the focus forward moments, which was perfect.
The reps where you tugged her into position at your side then took her collar (like at :43 and 1:12) had the best transition from tugging back to the game. That will be more fun for you both than moving her by the collar which some puppies start to avoid. You can also use a cookie lure to get her to your side, which is useful for getting her to switch between food and toys 🙂
If you get a chance to do this game again before we add to it on Tuesday, you can throw the toy further and add more distance. But if you don’t have a chance, no worries, she is ready for the new steps that will get added 🙂
Prop game: she is so cute with her very deliberate front foot smacks! Love it!
Quality time in this session was spent learning the valuable skill of “finding treats in the grass” and figuring out the difference between the send to the prop and a cookie throw. Your mechanics were strong: fun ready game, high energy, ‘search’ marker for the treat, and open hand for the seed (plus a clear step. Really strong session!!!
You can use food rewards from your hand in this game, and you can also use a toy reward from your hand. That will incorporate a bit of self-control too, because she will need to move away from the toy to go to the prop.
Since this went so well, you can add the advanced stuff in the next session: sideways sending and if that goes well, backwards sending. Because those are harder, you can get closer to the prop again to start them.
Great job here!!
TracyHi!
>Again 4 min but includes some play so you can scroll thru that. I figure if it’s going well, it is worth trying the progressions in the session then can revisit anything that looks like it might need more work. >
We definitely want to work through steps quickly if is it easy for him – otherwise it can become boring and repetitive!
>Let me know if you think I’m doing too much and should break it up more.>
I think the energy level required in this session was higher than the drive to handler session, so he was actually kind of tired by the 3 minute mark. That is when the accuracy and crispness of the behavior started to wane, and he was breathing harder. He kept going, but for higher arousal behaviors, you can set a timer for 2.5 minute to be finished before he gets tired. For lower arousal games, 3 or 4 minutes is probably perfectly fine 🙂
Looking at the video:
Great job with the ready dance, because it really emphasized the transition from the engagement with you to the send. He was great!
The forward sends were great too 🙂
The sideways were a little slower, probably meaning he was thinking harder 🙂 He was still accurate, but you can be closer to the prop for those sideways sends to get the snappy drive to it.
You were close to the prop on the backwards sends and he was definitely fast and snappy! Yay! I think the backwards sends are starting to reveal a side preference: He was faster/snappier/more accurate turning to his right than turning to his left. This is good to keep track of because it helps us teach new things to the easier side first before asking him to do it from the harder side.
That was all in the first 3 minutes – then at right about the 3 minute mark, he was running out of brain juice so was not as accurate. He kept working, but you can note that and finish these types of sessions sooner.
Great job!
TracyHi! This went well and can progress really quickly, like you did here.
>He doesn’t come in lined up to my side with stage 1 of the exercise. Is that important?>
It is kind of important but not critical 🙂
The pivots in step 2 keep his butt from swinging out but on both sides: keep your hand tight to your leg (especially on your right side) rather than reaching towards him. And you can use a wall to help him come in straight, but being just far enough away from the wall that he can come to your side but he will also stay straight.He also did well when you added motion, so now we can do more 🙂 You can toss the start treat further away and that will allow you to run more – then show a bigger decel into the pivot. When adding more motion, you will also want to decel sooner because he is going faster 🙂 so you can decel as soon as he takes one or two steps towards you.
And it is a fun game to take outside too, because it also works the recall!
Nice work here!
TracyHi! He is super fun!
Decel is looking good on both sides! You can even hear his little feet padding into the collection LOL! He also did well with the pivots – if you keep your hand lower so his chin is parallel to the ground, he won’t swing his butt out 🙂 That would mean your hand position is at or below your knee for now.
You can add more motion to this: as he is eating the start cookie, start moving forward pretty fast, so you can show him big decel as he starts to move towards you. You might need to do this in a bigger space or outdoors so you have room to run 🙂
The prop game is going well – he wants to watch you, so I think tossing the treats to the side is the better route to get him to watch your magic cookie hands less at this stage 🙂
Great job tugging in the middle too, so it doesn’t get too repetitive with the treats.
The second part of the session was actually a little harder because the presence of the other dogs became more obvious. I think having both of the adult dogs licking food off mats might be drawing more bandwidth of attention away from the game than it might have felt in the moment. He didn’t go over to them, but it is still a distraction so while he did well ignoring it, I think some of the questions he had were based off of that (like being a little more frantic with the prop, not eating the treat at the end, ending up behind you at one point, looking at Julee a couple of times, etc). So… the girls can lick their mats elsewhere for now, to give his puppy brain chance to devote itself to the training session. I think the girls will be happy because they still get to lick their mats LOL!!
Warm up the prop in the next session and if he offers it pretty freely – onwards to the sends! Yay!
Nice work here!
Tracy
Hi!
Her forward focus and driving ahead is also going really well! She did a great job looking at the toy and driving to it. Yay!To get more tugging, keep the toy lower to the ground. She was really grabbing it when it was low but wasn’t able to keep a good rip when you lifted it. And you can tie two toys together so you can keep it low without having to bend over a much 🙂
She had the most speed when you kept your hand low on her collar rather than pull back or lifting up before letting her go. And we like the speed 🙂
She is ready for you to add more distance so both of you can move even more! You will probably need to be outdoors to do that or maybe in a long hallway 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi! It is great to see you getting back into agility and I am REALLY enjoying seeing a Dal 🙂 I love the breed so much! And I love her dad, Hudson… he is spectacular!
The wing wrap session went really well – she was in spotty dog heaven to go back and forth to get the treats! When adding the cone, you moved it out a little too far so the right turns (moving from your left to your right) were pretty hard for her – lots of shortcuts on that side, and mostly successful going to her left. She was VERY creative in trying to go under you LOL!!!
But yes, the cone was just a bit too far away for this stage of training, so you were spot on to pull it back in closer to get tons of success. She is showing a bit of a side preference – left turns (going from your right to your left) seemed easier. That is totally normal!
And you can use that knowledge in the next session: when she is going to her right starting on your left, keep the cone in closer. When she is going to her left (starting on your right), you can move the cone further away. That will mean some sliding back and forth of the cone, but that is perfectly fine to do 🙂 And that will help balance out her turns to be equal both directions.
Nice work!
Tracy
Hi!
>but I did such a bad job I needed to do the wing wrap to make myself feel better. >
Ha! You absolutely did NOT do a bad job!!! I think in the moment you might have been seeing her ask questions, and the mechanics might have felt uncomfortable – she moves fast so you don’t have a lot of time to sort mechanics 🙂 But your ready dance was awesome and she got a ton of rewards, so she was a happy, engaged girlie!
As to why she had questions:
This is exactly why we video our sessions and use the phone-a-friend option (the class forum LOL) if things go sideways. The video shows all the details which clarified why she had the questions. The questions were only created because of a conflicting indicator: you did not use your dog-side leg on the sends for most of the reps, you used your dog-side arm and a little bit of opposite leg. So her questions were mainly “arm says go, leg says don’t go, hmmmmm…..” So she checked in and curled into you for more info.Easy peasy fix: use your dog-side leg along with dog-side arm to send her to the prop. That will really help support the send! She has super high value for her prop, so I think she will sort it out really quickly.
I think she was also learning that the hand point and a cookie throw are not the same thing 🙂 so you can show her your empty hand before each send to help her note the difference.
>I can see why you do this one on a random object!>
Yep 🙂 I like to sort out all of the mechanics on something meaningless so if I mess up – no worries, the prop only sticks with us for a few weeks 🙂 Wings are with us for a lifetime!
And doing the wing wrap game was great – she definitely had a grand time even as the cone got further away! She bonked her head on the cone once, which probably means you can move the bowls so they are behind your knees so she has more room to turn around. You can also change your position – you can sit on something low, then working your way up to standing.
Great job!!
TracyHi!
>thanks for adding Dot’s name. Her identity crises is over>I saw that you made it official on Facebook, so I figured I’d make it official here too 🙂
I hope your Covid recovery is easy and you are feeling better! And it sounds like she is settling in really well, other than using Sprite as a chew toy 🙂
>However, it’ll need to be outdoors and there’s a lot going on there for puppy brain.>
You can do a resilience walk in your yard, just letting her watch the world. That will help with getting her ready to be able to play games out there. And it doesn’t require travel or a lot of energy as you recover from Covid.
She did a great job getting right on her plank in the video! You helped by getting the reward in early, but I think she was on the way to get on it anyway. Yay! And she indeed hopped right up when you put it back down after the tug break. Smart girlie!!!
She was having a little trouble gripping the toy during the tug breaks – part of that was because it was moving pretty fast, and also part of it was probably because the toy was small and she had to tug close to your flesh with you bending over. So to help her have a moment to get a good grip, you can tie a few of those toys together so more of it is available for grabbing (further from your hand) and swish it around on the floor a little more slowly so she can use her teefs to get a hold of it 🙂
>Looking for small soft training treats. Can’t go shopping at the moment. >
DoorDash some string cheese? LOL!!!
Great job!
TracyAh yes, I totally know Rosette 😀 Alena and Andrea are wonderful – they bred & raised Elektra, the little demo dog here in class 🙂 Now I need to see if Turtle is related to my dogs 🙂
Thanks for the update about the hand cue! It sounds like you’re on the right track. Keep me posted!!
TracyHi! Thanks for the update! I’m glad you’re having fun ☺️
> Still looking for that magic food that she can’t resist but using her toy drive to our advantage.>
The toy drive will really help! One way to develop the magic cookie is to pair cookie eating with a favorite toy 🙂 for example, she gets a cookie reward then immediately gets to tug on a favorite toy. Yes, it will allow for fewer reps in a session, but it is totally worth it because food value will increase dramatically.
> Should it be inside an environment or is outside good as well? We have a nice quiet rail trail near us with all kinds of things to explore and was wondering if that could be a good starting place or if I should explore something else?>
Yes. And also, yes 😀 you can do a resilience walk indoors or outdoors! Any place that is safe and interesting without being overwhelming is a great place for a resilience walk and to watch the world 🙂
Have fun! Keep me posted!
Tracy
Hi!
>I might’ve asked this before, but I’m gonna get serious about my tunnel exit. Should I use the same direction as I use on a jump or should I have different directional for a tunnel?>
That is entirely up to you 🙂 there are 2 schools of thought on this in the agility world – to have a whole set of verbals for the tunnel only, or use existing directionals.
I use existing directionals. Based on how we’ve taught them to mean “take the obstacle and exit turning as cued”, we can cue the tunnel then deliver the directional when the dog is 6-10 feet before the entry. Over the years, I’ve seen complete understanding and great turns on a multitude of dogs… with the added bonus of not having to train and remember 4 or 5 more verbals 😀
>And on a positive note, I almost have the weaves closed and Max is very fast and his footwork is looking great>
SUPER!!! He is a Rockstar!!!!
Tracy
