Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOKEH!!!!!!! 🎉🎂🍰🤩
Welcome back! I hope she is getting amazing treats and toys for her birthday (I am sure she is :)) I am excited to see her play these games!
Tracy
Hi!
He was a very good boy here! He did find the jumps -ideally he doesn’t look at you as much, but that will come easily in the future.
The lazy game is probably the only MaxPup 3 level game he can do – mainly because he is just too young in terms of brain development and physical development and there will be too much turning using joints and soft tissue that are not developed enough yet. You are going to be sooooo tempted to do them, especially the wing games or handling games, soooooo tempted! LOL!! He is so fun and fast and keen to play! But it is my job to remind you to resist and go very stepwise at this age and at this early stage of training so that when he is old enough for MP3 games, he will find them super easy 🙂 and will transition to running sequences & courses brilliantly 🙂T
Hi!
I am stomping my feet now: I wanna go to the beach in NZ!!! I am very jealous 🙂 He was so great here! The leash off engagement was fabulous. Sitting (and the stay was hard too) was a little harder because something caught his attention but he played with AND brought the toys back. What a good boy! He was super keen to play with you: his arousal was definitely higher, probably close to where it would be at an agility trial, but he was fully engaged.
Looking at the shpile video:
>He’s much more careful than my other two. I think they have more value for targeting all the things with their feet so felt more confident flinging themselves over things.>
The arousal level was nice and high from the tugging! I think he appeared careful here because the cookies were coming too quickly – you were throwing them before he offered behavior on the shpile, so it looks like he thought the behavior was ‘look at the pile and a cookie will appear from above’ 🙂 So for the next session: get him wild with the toy again, but then wait: let him offer behavior of getting on something in the pile then toss a treat. So he will make the first move on all the things in order to get the treat to come out 🙂
He was so cute in the beginning of the backing up video, trying to line up from behind you then smacking you with his foot LOL! When he got going, the session went really well! Your timing was good! If you can keep your cookie hands lower, you will get more backing up. Lifting his head up inhibits the backwards motion – but if you can keep your elbows n your legs and kind of dangle the cookie hands a bit, that might be the perfect head position for him (because he is going to look at the cookie hands :)) and will make for quick cookie tosses here too.
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
>He seemed to be pretty much the same there as he has been other locations. No tells that he’s feeling unnecessary stress. Not taking the treats any differently, and>
Nice! I mean, we know that biologically his brain and body are processing all of this but wow, what a natural resilience (in terms of phsyiological balancing) and engagement. Love it!
> still working happily just for his puppy kibble that we use for most of his training.>
OMG working for his normal kibble in that environment… I love it!!!
>He also really enjoyed when we ended up on that overhang platform right over a set of weaves that dogs were blasting through. He thought that was super fun.>
Ha! Cool view from above!!!
>On the competition floor when we were wrapping the barrels, I definitely did clock the puppy doing the restrained recalls. And I noticed on the one barrel send that they were going to basically pass by each other. I wasn’t actually worried about it at all. When Vibe is focused on working, he doesn’t easily get distracted.>
Awesome! Vibe didn’t even bat an eyelash.
> I figured worst case the puppies might try to say hi to each other, but they are both very social so I wasn’t worried that it would be any kind of an issue.>
It was actually a great training moment for both puppies. Those opportunities are rare and t hey were great!
>I taped a tiny bit of hanging out and just doing some pattern games while they were doing one of the awards ceremonies on Saturday.>
Funny small world – the dog in the background at the very beginning of the video is my Elektra’s brother 🙂
He was such a good boy here! He was so focused that he was almost startled by the other dog walking behind him at 1:02-ish. But he also seemed very relaxed, as if award ceremonies happened all the time in at home in his living room 😂🤣 Great song in the background too!
What tricks does he know? We can add all sorts of tricks to his repertoire so he has more stuff to do in different environments. After all, agility is really a series of crazy tricks 🙂
>Yesterday, as Challengers was ending, and before the finals ring was in use, we also played on the turf with a drag toy. He was happy to interact with it and chase it and tug on it. I didn’t have anyone available right then to do any restrained recalls, and there was a bit much going on to try and do that. But he did enjoy playing with the toy there.>
Fantastic! He is really such a dream in these different environments!!!!
Keep me posted on your drive home!
Tracy
Hi!
Yes, he was really focused here, good boy! I was distracted by the water behind you, looks lovely!
The wrapping went really well.
He was confused on the first rep where he wrapped the barrel then you said YES! He thought you were rewarding 🙂 But then things got very smooth and he did realyl well! My only suggestion is to make connection and look at him longer as he is finishing each wrap. You can look at him til he just about gets to you, then send him (and shift your gaze to the barrels).You can add a bit more distance between the barrels (2 or 3 feet) and then add more of your motion. That challenges you to stay connected and challenges him to continue to commit to the barrel.
The get out went great! He had no questions about the balance reps versus the ‘get out’ cues. Really super!!! You can use ‘get out’ as the release verbal so the info comes even earlier. And your line of motion was spot on! You can add more distance between you and the prop, maybe another 3 on 4 feet, to see how far away he will send to it. You’ll need ery direct eye contact as you do the get out cue for that, so remember to make a big connection there too.
Great job with these!
Tracy
Hi!
The pattern game at the beginning was a great way to help him work throughall of the delightful smells! The wind was probably causing the cookie smells to swirl around which might bave been catching his nose You can also add in playing with a toy: that will sharpen his focus even more outdoors because it increases arousal in a good way.
Once he got moving, he did great! Lovely commitment! And that is why toys can help sharpen focus: they get the pups moving and pumped up to work. When you went back to the cones after tugging, he was going faster than ever even though the cones were further apart and we wouldn’t blame him if he was tired by that point in the session.
> I believe my lack of connection with him/looking at the cone is the cause for the miss.>
Yes, in only 2 spots. It is subtle: you looked forward a step too early, so he had a question at 1:56 and 4:13. Compare to the next reps at 2:11 and 4:30 where you adjusted to connect to him for a step or two longer, and he had no questions on those reps. Yay! You had clear connection on the other reps, so he did really well.
You can add in more distance so you are working on running more 🙂 He will love that!
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
>Scotch is out for a couple weeks due to a nasty fall off the dog walk. Ugh!>
Oh no 🙁 That darned dog walk!!!!! Ugh. I hope he feels better asap.
Phire was very happy to go back and forth on the mat 🙂 The first few reps put her into a bit of a zen food zone so I am glad you got her on the toy! Since she is hitting the mat with no problem, let’s spice thing up and get her running more while keeping the skill independent of your motion:
Instead of being near the mat, let’s change your position so you are about 10 feet from the mat, in line with it: it will be you then the mat then the MM which can be further away too. Start each rep with tugging on the toy. Then send her away from you to the mat – and when she hits it, click the MM like you did here. After she gets her cookies, you can call her back to you and the toy by being a bit off to the side so she doesn’t have to go back over the mat (no worries if she chooses the mat anyway :)) Then tug again, then send, etc. That will get her super pumped up and even more independent. Because there will be more tugging and running, she might tire out more quickly so you can keep the sessions shorter.
The parallel path went really well too – going towards the MM was super easy of course, but she was equally as perfect moving away from it for the thrown reward! Super! You had good lateral distance here, so another step to play with is getting close to her while she is getting the reward and waiting – then start moving when she finishes the treat, she should drive ahead of you to the jump. You can also use a throw toy as the reward.
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
>giving me a heads up on what’s coming up – age wise – and what to do in this stage of life. >
I think that all puppy owners need a heads up about adolescence as well as a support group LOL!!
> We have company coming soon from Germany, my niece, her husband and 7 y/o daughter. >
FUN!!! That sounds wonderful!
The get out is going well!
>I feel like I was mushing every thing together. Moving, tossing and saying Get out all at once smh!>
It does have a lot of different things to do with arms/feet/ etc! It will feel less weird if when cueing the get out, you can start ahead of her which makes it easier for her to see the cues (starting with her makes the cue a little late). So having her in a stay or throwing a cookie pretty far from you can give you a nice head start.
You can let her hit the prop then throw the treat after she hits it. That will mean watching her more as you cue the get out – the connection very directly to her really helps turn your shoulders to the prop. Staying in motion as you threw the reward was really good because it helped you keep your feet straight rather than stepping to the prop.
She was SO CUTE at :52 on the first balance rep when she went to the prop but you didn’t use the get out. The look on her face said that she didn’t even know NOT going to it was an option LOL!! You used a release on the next reps and she did well coming with you on the balance reps after that.
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
These sessions went really well 🙂
The first video was handling combos:
The hardest part was getting him to find the start cookie so you could get away to do the blind! He was so tuned into you that on the first few reps, he drove to you as soon as you started running for the blind. Then the rep at :58-1:04 and the last rep were both gorgeous! He actually found the cookie and you snuck away 🙂 which gave you plenty of time do the blind. Nice job decelerating to get the pivot – and he was great about driving ahead to the thrown toy. You’ll see that this game gets added to a cone/barrel wrap so if he is happy to wrap, you can move ahead to that.Looking at the prop video:
Wow, what a huge improvemen with his prop commitment! He was hitting it brilliantly from a distance and outdoors. Super!! He was also really hilarious too – he was starting without you when you were trying to take a moment to get ready for the next rep LOL!! Ha! Good boy 🙂But he did really well with the cues and was lovely with the prop hits. By 1:48 and also on the last rep, you were already able to be moving the other direction while he continued to the prop. Yay!
He really wants to turn to his right on these even when that means turning away from you. To help him turn to his left, you can be a little further from the prop in terms of lateral distance. It will be kind of a triangle where the prop is in line with him but you are a few feet off to the side. That way it will be easier for him to turn to his left as well as his right.
He looks ready for the parallel path game and the other prop games if you haven’t tried them yet 🙂
>On a side note, do you have any suggestions on him wanting to chase every single car he sees? He’s driving me crazy with this! Or a good place to get information on it?>
Yes, a baby BC wanting to chase cars… they are very tuned into motion! A couple of ideas to start with – but first a question: will he eat treats on walks or when there is a car nearby? You can try amazing treats, like chicken or meatballs. If he will eat – I recommend the pattern games that are here:
You might need to be further from the cars, as far away as possible, to get him to eat and start this.
If he won’t eat, you can try using 2 toys and make a pattern game with toys! Here is a clip of this:
There are other resources if these don’t help. Let me know how he does.
Great job here!Tracy
Good morning!
> Yes this was the 1st time he wrapped those cones.
What a good boy!!!
> Do you think I am good to move outside and further apart?>
Yes – if you go outside, keep them close for a rep or two in case the environment radically changes things. But if it goes well, add the distance.
Have fun!
Tracy
I am excited to get him going here!!! The very first games coming tomorrow work on forward focus (not momma focus 🙂 ) These boys do love their momma but we really need them to take the jumps!
Tracy
It sounds like he did great!!! And it makes sense that finding the tunnel when you run was hard… I don’t think we’ve shown him that yet. It was really cool that you got to work on it!!
And he is NOT naughty 🙂 he is spicy and joyous and brings a smile every time. What a good boy and a successful day!
Tracy
Hi!
>Am I moving my hand too fast and surprising them? Sorry about the loud chicken noises>
The chicken noises were great 🙂 They were cheerleaders!
Yes, I think your hands moved a little too fast so she was surprised. You can let her get almost all the way to your hands, then start the turn away. Think of the turn away as a slow motion move as she follows your hands. The deceleration tips her off that it is coming, and slow hand movement gets the turn. It gets easier as they get more experienced but she is a youngster so needs the cues to be very obvious for now 🙂
Great job on these!
Tracy
Hello!
Looking at the sequence:
The turn of your shoulders/feet at :20 to set up the turn away for the next jump was SPOT ON! Great timing! You started it as she was taking off for the previous jump – click/treat for you!She came in to the correct side of the jump really well. To set up the turn away, you can let her see the outside arm a little more visibly (even using both arms to catch her eyes to ready for the turn away) to turn her away. But definitely keep that timing of setting the line, you absolutely nailed it!!
Tracy
