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Good morning!
The games are going really well!
On the decel and pivot game: he did really well! You had clear connection and a nice low cookie hand, so he had no trouble driving into position. You can add in more of your movement: as he is moving towards you, you can show him deceleration into the pivot, which will set the framework for handling games.
You can also start it from a cookie toss rather than a stay. That actually gives a little bit of countermotion commitment foundation, because you are sending him away to ‘do a thing’ 😁 even though you are clearly going to the other direction. It is super easy at this point but a useful foundation.The cookie toss also gives a bit of impulse control and marker foundation too by teaching the pup to get the ONE cookie and return to engagement, rather than look for the cookie cousins that might be out there.
>> left side, not sure why.>
Yes, add the right side 🙂
Really nice connection on the blind crosses!! You made it very clear so he was able to change sides with no questions. Super! You can let that toy dangle a bit more as you present it to him, so he doesn’t jump up to get it (he will be taller soon so it won’t be a question 🙂
>>It was originally hard to get the timing on this because the cookie throw ended up being him far more invested in the floor,>
This is a good game to work the cookie throw impulse control! Starting with him next to you, you can use a marker to toss it away (such as “get it”), then as he grabs it, you take off running and calling him: big party when he returns engagement to you! Then you will find it easier to get the blinds in. If he is having trouble finding the treat, you can toss it onto a mat so he can find it very easily, making engagement after getting it easier too.
He is hitting his hat prop really well! The left turn side does not seem quite as perfect as the right turn side, so he had a couple of close hits then a couple of questions. So on the right turn side, you can start at the same distance and also add the sideways sending. On the left turn sides, start closer and set up more success so he doesn’t have as many questions. If he fails twice in the session (meaning there are reps you don’t reward) then it is too hard and it is his cue to you to make it easier.
>>we also struggled with getting him excited, because excited at his age means biting, and that kind of takes away from the work there. Maybe I should just hold his collar loosely and verbally get him excited versus using physical play?>
We definitely want to work on the arousal regulation that the ready dance brings… but definitely don’t use physical play 🙂 Most puppies really don’t like physical play and I think he falls into that category for now – it can be overstimulating and/or frustrating.
Instead, the ready dance is more about you showing muscle tension, bent knees, eye contact, silly words 🙂 I don’t touch the dogs during the ready dance, so it is not really physical play in that way 🙂 And if he can reflect that back to you, you can either send him to the prop or reward him right there for being engaged without any tooth hugs. No need to hold his collar because we do want him to have some agency with the impulse control there and the collar hold might suppress that.
When he did grab your arm here, it looked like a frustration behavior linked to the session have a few too many reps on the hard side, and definitely too many failures. So at 1:15 when you weren’t quite as connected, he bubbled over into grabbing. If you are seeing that elsewhere in training, be sure to keep your sessions super short with a high rate of success – no more than 2 failures in the session.
He did great with the wing wrap foundations!!! You can move the bowls back with you as you add distance, having them just behind your knees – that will give him more room to turn around for the next wrap.
The next steps here are to:
– add different things for him to go around, such as a single upright, a big cone, a barrel (I use a laundry basket) or any big random object
– move yourself into a standing position. When you stand up, start close to the object again so we don’t have 2 challenges for him. And when he is happy with you standing, then you can add a little distance away from the object too.Great job on these!!!!
Tracy
Hi!
>>With this game how do I know when to continue to progress the bowl? I’m not sure at what point she goes into oh this is the game you go around the come to get the thing vs look at the line>>
Keep progressing the bowl, bearing in mind that the key to getting the bowl is looking away from it (and at the line around the cone). This is easy at first because the bowl is also on the line, but we very quickly progress to the bowl being visible opposite of where we want her to look. So don’t let go of her until you get at least an eye flick towards the correct side of the cone (and away from the bowl).
>( I may also be asking for a friend who is red and is struggling with FF and totally looks at the cookie bowl but will still go around the cone to get it vs be lining for the cookie itself>
This is a good game for the red friend 🙂 because the criteria is not about going around the cone, it is more about where she looks 🙂
T
Hi!
>Thanks for fitting these feedbacks in—you must be at UKI?>
No problem! Yes, I am at UKI. Note to self: do NOT say jump to a dog that has a nice grasp of verbals when what you mean is tunnel LOL!! OOPSIE 😂🤣
The blind crosses look great! Your connection was especially excellent 🙂 You can start the blinds sooner now: as soon as he is on the way to you, that very first step – do the blind 🙂 The will help prep your timing for when he is a full-speed adult on course.
The stealth self-control game looks good too! He checked out the object a bit, but that was mainly because there was a break in the action and so he just took a look. He was able to tune it out really well on all the other reps.
Great job on these! Onwards to week 2 games!
Tracy
Hi!
I agree, she did well here! You can see her change her gaze a bit to look forward. Even if it is not perfect focus forward yet, it will be soon because of how the indication was paired with going around the line.She does not appear to be a lover of the collar hold in all cases? So you can do more of what you did on the last rep: line her up at your side (cookie lure is fine!), gently hold her collar (but don’t move her at this stage – she doesn’t seem to love that), then plop the cookie in the bowl. That can make the collar hold element even smoother and more happy-making 🙂
Next step: try this with a toy!
Great job 🙂
TracyHi!
>My bad – I misunderstood and thought we were supposed to toss the cookie relatively close to the object.>
Nope, that is MY bad, I clearly didn’t make that obvious in the explanation or video. Sorry! He still did a great job!
>Typical of the breed, he has no issues with things that move or make loud noises. He loves to bang the tippy Cato board. he can also get onto 4 pods – front feet were shaped and back feet were lured (to cut down frustration for him).>
Remind me if he is your first Mali? My have Mali is an absolute joy to train. What a fun breed!!
>I have also taken a class with him just on markers. I found it lowered his frustration quite a bit.>
Yes! Markers and clear reinforcement procedures mean clarity, which definitely reduces frustration!
I love that you already have a lot of markers. In this class format, most people come in as a blank slate so I introduce them slowly. Since you already have a big vocabulary, I am excited to see you use them!!
>Have fun at the US Open – too late in the year for us to get there and back in the RV without hitting bad weather.
>We miss you! But yes, the weather is iffy and you would have hit a big storm on the way home. You can just drive up the east coast and stay in the warm parts of the winter LOL! I am not sure the 5:30 am course builds qualify as “fun” LOL!
On the video:
The pivot on the donut is both brilliant and hilarious! Then when you moved back and he kind of straddled it and looked at you: nailed it! LOL!!!Since he is confident and doing really well with his shaping to get on things, I want to add a little spice to it for him: getting him to offer good proprioception behaviors and balance… in high arousal. Easy peasy! And starts to train his brain for what he will need to do in the ring.
Take a bunch of stuff that he can offer behavior on: wobble board. Donut, plank, cot, table, low inflatables, anything at all and kind of make a low pile and trail out of them. You will need to enlist a helper (hi Terry!)and you are going to do a loop:
– starting on the pile, reward interaction with the stuff with cookies.
– After 5 or 6 cookies, hand him to the helper and do an exciting restrained recall to a tug.
– After the recall, go right back to the pile and into the shaping. Arousal should be spiked now: can he still think about his feet, balance, etc? And after 5 or 6 cookies… another exciting recall.
Do that 4 or 5 times in a row (probably takes 2 minutes or so) then let him sleep – he might not appear tired (Mal!) but his brain needs to percolate on the body awareness in arousal.We are doing this to help develop state dependent memory: in other words, can he be highly aroused in training like he would be in a trial, and be able to use his body appropriately – like we will want him to do in a trial 🙂 I have video of my 9 month old puppy doing this recently, I can find it if you want a visual.
The trash can wrapping looks great – he seems to be pretty balance in both directions. He will be ready for more soon, but we need to prepare LOL!! Are you going to use the same wrap verbals as you use with the BCs? Also, he is not even driving hard around it yet and he is slipping… as we get to the exciting games, you will want to get footing he won’t slip on. You might notice I have turf indoors in some of the demos: that is long blade turn I bought from amazon and it is GREAT – no slipping! I also use thick carpet.
>These 2 toys are roughly equivalent in value, the green one may be a bit higher>
I also thought the green one was higher value – he was looking at it then he really pounced on it when you said strike… but then he really pounced on the other one when you indicated that one. So there is value in playing with you which is GREAT! With small toys like that, you might consider getting gloves so that if he comes in hot to a toy, your hands are protected from accidental teeth.
The food skills also look good!
I think you can use all of this for the Forward focus ‘fold it in’ game: markers, forward focus, impulse control all rolled into on (food and toys too!) That would be a good next step then we can add a verbal to look forward to the line if you don’t already have one.
Great job!
TracyYes, 4 month old baby dog and half whippet…. Short sessions! Whippety dogs really don’t need long sessions, they just need a quick explanation then they go sleep on it and learn it LOL!
Hi!
>trying to hold puppy, while putting the treat in the bowl was a challenge – you’ll see this at the beginning. >
Yes, I think this game should come with a warning that 6 hands are required LOL! He was definitely into it, so you can try to hold his collar before adding the treat to the dish. You can start close and the slide it away if needed.
Good job adding the hand cue to this – it was hard to tell where he was looking, so you can wait until he looks at the correct side of the cone before saying ‘check check’ and releasing him, followed by the dish cue when he is going the correct direction. That will be easy when the dish is on his line, and harder when he has to ignore it 🙂 I *think* he looked at the line and not the dish on the very last rep at 1:55? You were watching him really well, so let me know where he was looking.
Try this on the other side too and also use a toy: and when he is able to focus on the line, we can add a verbal cue to that if you like!
Well done on a super successful session: lots of reinforcement and only one blooper. That one blooper was VERY informative to him: without getting mad or anything, you were like “that is not it” and then he got the concept. Sometimes that one blooper mixed in with all of the successes helps really solidify the concept without any frustration.
Great job!
TracyHi!
This was great! I think he is going to be a dog that gives you instant feedback in the form of barking, so if he does bark you will know that you can connect more or help him out by getting closer 🙂This session went GREAT! He was focusing forward and driving to the prop beautifully. You can try it with a toy as well. He also seems to be very verbal – I think you were saying ‘paw’ on most of these which is great. A “go” might have slipped out here or there, so resist that because it is a turn cue not a straight line. And on one rep you caught yourself saying “get it” and sure enough – he tried to pick it up. Brilliant pup! Part of the goal is to get our verbals sorted out so this is a good game for this.
The other thing I notice here (which is a GOOD thing) is that he pays attention to your position in terms of which way to turn. When you are parallel to him or a little off to the side – he turns towards you. When you step in behind him, like a rear cross – he turns away, like a rear cross. That will make rear crosses much easier to train! For now, make it more obvious that you are off to the side so he turns towards you and we will revisit rear crosses in a few weeks 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi!
You totally had bad luck with the throws on the step 1 video LOL!! But Skizzle was happy 🙂 You can use a mat to throw the treat towards to have a more obvious landing spot for it – or treats that are sticky and don’t bounce or roll? I use bits of cheese. But having some unpredictability in a game like this is a good thing! And his recall was great – on some reps you didn’t call him, so remember to call him as soon as he gets to the treat.
You did a great job of showing him the treat before tossing it, so you can now add in a marker which means he can go get it (I use “get it” which is not very fancy but I can remember it LOL!!)
The can of corn was a bit of a party LOL!!! I guess he could smell the corn in it? I thought for a moment he was going to put his treat on it and start rolling it around the room LOL!
That is fine though, the game still went really well! And things like this all happen all the time: we *think* something is not interesting to the dog, but then it is utterly fascinating 🙂 No worries at all, the game remains the same unless he struggled to ignore it – he got right into the game here 🙂You can keep introducing various novel neutral (theoretically haha) objects to this game and any of the other games that you think he is feeling super comfy with 🙂
Great job here!!
TracyGood morning! He is so cute AND smart!!
His prop hat hitting was great! You did more ‘get it’ tossed rewards than cookie-in-hand rewards and I think that wa correct – it keeps him from looking at you as much. Just reember to be consistent with the markers – sometimes you said get it, and sometimes you said yes and tossed it. So you can use ‘yes’ for coming to you for the treat, and get it for the tosses, and he will know exactly where to look.
Also – great job breaking it up with toy play!!! I think he is ready for you to move to the week 1 send game!!
On the hand target game – I am impressed with how you were able to tug then seamless get right into the session with the target and treats. Great mechanics! It was almost like you had a 3rd hand! LOL!
He caught onto the hand target very quickly. And you had a search marker here for a thrown treat – so the only suggestion is to clarify the markers to he knows where to look: if search is for cookies being thrown, then maybe get it is for toys? Whatever is easiest for you will be great!
We add to this game in a couple of weeks – so for now, you can try to have the target flat in your palm for him to touch.
Great job!!!
TracyGood morning!
The blinds are going super well! Great job showing her the treat then throwing it miles away so you have a head start LOL!
You can start the blind even sooner: when you see her first step towards you, do the blind so she can see the reconnection really early. Your mechanics of showing the toy were really good, so definitely keep doing that!If there are people who can help hold her, you can also do this as a recall (it is a great way to introduce ignoring people :))
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
>>Can I just say how much I appreciate the field guides? They help lots!>>
Great! I will keep doing them!
The wing wrap game is going well! He was trying to go really fast and was slipping a bit, so you might want to move this to a thicker carpet or outside so he has more grip. YEs, there is a little side preference but nothing too big and things will even out really quickly.
I think the next step is to get you standing. You can start with just the bowls, and you in a chair. And if that goes well, just the bowls and you standing. That will probably take less than 20 seconds LOL!
So then you can sit in the chair and add the baskets. And if he is fine with that, stand up with the baskets – that might take a total of 30 seconds 🙂 Being able to stand will help move us to where we the game goes next 🙂
He did well with shaping the bed-side box! You can reward that very first interaction with his front feet, but he immediately put his back feet up on it so I guess he was fine without the reward LOL!! Gotta love it when the dogs understand the ‘international sign of offer me something’ (you standing near it with cookies) and he just started offering. Super!
You can make a whole goat games road by piling up a bunch of things for him to walk across like a trial 🙂Great job here!!
TracyHi!
>. I’m struggling to figure out what Katniss finds decompressing. She is a really chill dog for the most part, so I don’t notice a difference in her behavior when I try to give her decompression activities. >
You might not notice a difference in behavior, because it works “under the hood” in terms of physiology. But you will probably notice a difference in behavior if you don’t do it, especially as she start trialing
>What should I be looking for to know if I’m meeting her needs? >
You might not see anything til things go sideways, which we don’t want of course. So just keep adding in long sniffy walks, hikes, snuffle mats, cardboard destruction, etc so that she is getting the decompressions scattered throughout her week.
>Would you consider scentwork practice to be decompressing? It uses olfaction, of course, but I would imagine it could have the potential to build up frustration or a need for decompression on its own since it’s a game of puzzles.>
I think most dogs consider it training or work – so while they might enjoy it a lot, it is probably not decompression. For me, decompression does not have any cues that can result in rewards or wrong answers, or any expectations (like of finding the scent, etc).
>In the moment, what order the volume dial game and the pattern games were supposed to be in. I ended up with some sporadic version of both, lol. Part of this reason was also that I started playing the games too early.
>For most dogs, the volume dial is right before they go in the ring, and possibly on the way to the line. Some dogs need a decompression in that moment, but I like to try volume dial first and see what the dogs tell us.
On the video – yes, novice classes move slowly which is probably why you were out there for so long. He was able to do a bit of chill which is good – if you see you still have a long wait, you can move away from the ring, take her out for a pee, etc. I think you did that at one point (just before the 3 minute mark). She did well with the pattern games but was starting to get a bit bored 🙂
When you came back, you had the volume dial tricks going but still a long way to go before entering the ring. It was not the best possible thing, but it was a good experience for her to have to wait wait wait LOL!! You can do a lot more chill without food because she is going to be pretty full after 8 minutes of treats LOL!The toy came out at 8:00, into the ring about a minute later. That is good timing to bring the arousal up – but she was already a little tired due to the long wait.
>Once I got her in the ring, she did find it difficult to sit on the start line.>
I thought she did well there – not as quick as normal but the environment is different and she still did it really well.
Interestingly, you did hand play where you were touching her a lot and that is not really something you do at home when doing tricks. So try the hands-off tricks instead of touching her and see if that helps her line up quicker (but she really did do well there).
The run went well! Good job fixing the connection blooper after the first tunnel. She was a little surprised to be lining up again at 1:40ish mid-course, but that set up a great ending line!
Looking at the 2nd video!
Nice work on the GO line – she is figuring out how to drive ahead really well and also striding the line really nicely too!She did leave the stay a bit early at :30 and almost left when you were adding the tunnel, so be sure you are not getting into a rhythm of connect/arm/release because she will start to release on the arm cue 🙂 Add in a little praise
Adding the tunnel also added a lot motion, which was distracting on the first rep but then she got it on the 2nd rep. Super!
The backside needed more parallel path support – you curled away (turning your shoulders to the front of the jump) at 3:07 – great job staying in motion and showing a better line and connection at 3:14! The ending line looked strong there too.
You did the last minute curl-away at 3:52 – watch how when you point forward ahead of her with your arm, it turns your shoulders to the front of the jump and she comes right in to the front. When she got it at 4:08 and 4:25, your dog side arm did not point forward and she saw the line a lot better At 4:45 and 5:27, note how your arm did not point forward til after she passed you and was committing to the backside – nice!
>>. She picked up on the GO! pretty quickly, but even after she was driving well to the MM, she would still check in before the last jump, even if it was just a sideways glance with her eyes. >
She was just checking to be sure it was correct 🙂 If you are using the MM out there, you can click it (or throw the toy if you are not using the MM) when she looks ahead to the last jump and before she glances back – and before she gets to the last jump. When she is landing from the 2nd to last jump, you can mark the moment she looks forward and reward that, which should really help solidify looking forward.
Great job here!!
Tracy
Hi! The ring practice went well here – I think thoughtful is fine and also you don’t need to do too much of this – to much becomes a lot of pressure and not as much fun. Think of it as a skill she is learning and she will get faster and faster as she learns it.
>>I was thinking maybe I should go back to the other yard but do more obstacles? Or just relax?😂>>
Definitely just relax LOL!!! I think the sequencing looks good, especially the rear cross sequence: very nice!!
When you are tugging, try to keep the toy lower so she can shift her weight into her rear and pull in to. I think the toy was a little high here so she didn’t get as much grip as normal.
When you finish a sequence, you can praise and celebrate… but she suggests you do that on the way back to the leash and cookies LOL! She doesn’t leave you, but she doesn’t engage while you celebrate – she is basically waiting for you to run to the rewards. That is good to know! So you can praise as you run to get the leash on then get to the food quickly. She might not want to tug in that moment, and that is fine.
Bringing the toy on course at the end was great because we don’t want to make it all about the remote reinforcement. She loved it!!
About the engaged chill:
>>I sat down on the table in the video. She is on leash and I did not ask her for anything. She offered to put her front feet on my legs so I scratched the back of her neck and there you have it!>>
That was so cool to see! Both of you had a moment to chill and relax, then you both ran beautifully after that. Super!!
Great job here!
TracyPS – I will ask my AKC peeps if that bungee leash thing can be converted to something AKC legal! I have certainly seen variations on that!
