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Good morning!
>Well that makes me happy lol! I very rarely told I am too quick in anything >
I figured that would give you a chuckle LOL Same here – no one has ever accused me of being too fast in agility LOL!!!
>Today I am finally taking her to an agility trial to start some resilience work since she’s all bee free. Will try to get video!>
I bet all of the bee trips to the vet did a lot more for her resilience than you realize. The medical side of things definitely stimulated her resilience systems (HPA axis etc etc) and I am sure there was some stress with being handed off to the vets… but also it looks like those vets and their staff made it a loving, happy experience for her. That is HUGE for her resilience!!!
So yes, have fun at the trial and make it happy and loving just like the vets did 🙂
She definitely enjoys turn and burn 🙂 Great tugging!!
I think this game needs to go out to the barn when you revisit it, so you have room to run run run and also so you can run to the sides rather than back to where you started her
When you take it out to the barn, add the line on the ground at her exit spot for the barrel – this is not for her, it is for you to tell you exactly when to do the FC and run to the side. That will allow you to move the line progressively back to the entry side of the barrel, so you are doing the FC earlier and earlier systematically and without being twitchy 🙂
And since she is doing so well – add your wrap verbals too!
Great job 🙂 Let me know how the trial goes with all of your dogs!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Ha, he is a crazy little ball. >
He is a perfect and fun little ball of energy 🙂
The backing up is coming along really well! Good boy! We are now really seeing him take deliberate steps with each foot to go backwards relatively straight, rather than shuffle backwards
He is so funny and cute when he sometimes just turns around and does a bow, the looks at you like he won the gold medal LOL! Love it!
Since this is going so well, we will start to build on its couple of ways:
– you can put the mat he is backing up onto on a very slight angle, so he is backing up on a small hill 🙂 But the angle is very very slight, because we don’t want any overextension on his shoulders or back.– we can make the ‘destination’ here move a bit (as part of teeter foundation, so he is happy with things moving under his hind end as he is balancing). For now, it can be something as simple as putting a small rolled up towel under the mat, so there is a tiny bit of instability as he backs up.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>I haven’t really started teaching thing in a thing. That works great to pick up and drop an item in a box. It’s on the list.>
It is a great way to give her a mental workout on those 100 degree days! You can start with thing in a thing, then transfer that concept to thing in your hand! She is a smartie and you will both enjoy it 🙂
Strike a pose is going really well!!!
And she did really well on both sides in terms of hiring the target then going to the toy – although I admit to laughing out loud at 1:11, watching her think through the puzzle: is it the toy? Is it a between-the-feet-lineup? AH! It is the target! Good girl! When she has to pass the toy to get to the target hand, you can shake the target hand to make it more obvious.>Don’t ask what my feet are doing at the end of this video! Jeez. Strike the wrong pose!>
This was interesting, though!
On that side when she had that question, your feet were pointing to the target hand so it is possible that she reads foot position as a key element of the cue about where to go. She *might* have figured out the context cues that the feet point to the reward, so go to the other side first.
When your feet pointed to the toy reward, she always went to the target hand. When the target was in right hand at :42, your feet were pointing to the toy she went to the target not the toy. Same at :53, coming in from a harder angle.
Compare to that rep at 1:11 where your feet were pointing to the target so she went to the toy first… maybe she is reading the foot position? She changed her behavior on the next rep and went to the target first, but it was interesting to see how she might be reading things.
For the next sessions, when you have a moment to revisit: try it with the toy on the ground and see how that goes!
And the retrieve at the end was great 🙂 Yay!
Nice work 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
The balance of work and puppy training is hard when work takes up a lot of time! But you are doing a great job and there is no rush with a baby pup – he isn’t even 6 months old, right? The skills ARE progressing even if you can only train in little bits, here and there. Tons of good stuff here on the videos!! And I totally relate to the whole survival mode and keeping the pup alive and happy, rather than training. Alive and happy IS training plus it gives him time to grow up a bit and he is doing really well 🙂>I know I have to be patient with him, he is a pretty smart little dog>
Yes! He is definitely a smart little dog 🙂 The difference you might feel between him and your last puppy is that Ikaika does not struggle with overarousal at this stage of life (which should make surviving adolescence easier for you both!). He can think his way through the puzzle without the physiological or emotional challenges of trying to regulate internal arousal. Quite lovely 🧡
So yes, it feels different! But works out GREAT in the long run as he grows up. When I had my first dog like this, I had all sorts of intrusive thoughts like “OMG, he has no drive for the toy, I am doing everything wrong” etc. Nope! There was nothing wrong and he grew up to be one of the fastest dogs in his height (20”) during his career. Most of my young male dogs are like this now (thinky-puzzle-solvers) and I love it because the end results have been soooooo awesome in terms of great performance in the ring without conflicting emotional baggage or arousal regulation struggles. So hopefully keeping that in mind takes away from of the pressure or concern you might be feeling.
>my last puppy was neurodivergent shall we say>
There is some emerging science on neurodivergence in dogs! It is a bit too soon to get a full picture but there are some really interesting things happening in the study of dogs!
>He still doesn’t like to tug with the intensity I would expect…..issues or just be patient.>
About the toy play: no issues. I think there are some things you can do in terms of mechanics to build more tugging. But also – he just reminds me soooo much of the dogs that grow up to be great tuggers without the emotional baggage or conflict we struggle with sometimes with the dogs that are high arousal tuggers at this age. Again, it is a pleasure to train an adolescent/adult dog who is great at tugging and also happy to give the toy back, retrieve it, etc. (Also some cool emerging science about baseline reinforcement arousal in dogs and how to utilize that in training to get the best learning – basically, what you are doing is correct in terms of adding play before/during/after).
So ideas about mechanics and tugging:
How much non-contingent tugging/toy play does he get when you are not training? In your free time at home, you can just play some tug, throw a toy around, etc – no thinking or contingencies or context cues required. You might have to find a way to have it just be him and you in the room, so other dogs don’t interfere.
Watching the toy play in the video:
Keeping the toy low and adding smack da baby (gentle taps on his sides) was a big winner! You were kneeling to do this and go GREAT tugging!When you were standing, you can still keep the toy low and play smack da baby. The tugging as reduced when he would try to get a grip but you lifted the toy up – he would let go and back off a bit, because he just couldn’t get a grip on the toy.
For now, you can hide it during moments when he is working for food – stick it in a pocket or up on a table so it is not on the floor and his brain doesn’t have to ignore it. Then when it is toy time: you can take it out and make it really exciting and the full focus of the tug break.
Eventually having it on the ground for him to ignore during food sessions will be fine but in these early stages I like to have the toy tucked away so when I bring it out, both the pup and I can ooh and ahhh over it then get tugging going.
Bear in mind that his puppy brain is not as good about ignoring things as his adult brain will be, so shifting focus specifically to the toy is very helpful for getting more toy play. If the game is about ignoring the toy then driving to it, then yes the toy can be part of the game (more on that below in the handling combos). But if the game is not about that? Tuck the toy away so he can focus on other things and then the toy can make a big entry onto the stage during tug breaks 🙂
So with that in mind: when using the prop game, you can have the prop more out of the picture when you are releasing from the cot to play at the beginning of the session. Having the prop behind you when you released was a huge focal point, so he was heading to offer behavior on it more than he was really seeing you present the toy at first. You can also release him off the other side of the cot so the prop is not in the picture, then tug tug tug then head over to the prop 🙂 That way there is nothing distracting from that initial play.
Working on the prop skills –
Finding the cookie in the grass with the hardest part at the beginning. What type of food are you using? He was chewing and then looking for more in the grass – it might just be that puppies will chew their treats more and outgrow that soon 🙂 and also the food might have been slightly too high in value 🙂 It does take some time to get the right treats for throwing in the grass! And you can also add in eat-the-treat then an immediate reward from you (tug or another treat) to reward lifting his attention off the grass.That will also make the start of each rep be more systematic which will get snappier responses – you can get him tugging and looking up. Otherwise he is sniffing and looking for treats at the start of the rep, which delays the initial response.
Since the responses were already pretty strong, I am exciting about how well he will respond when he is not thinking about food 🙂 And we start to transfer these concepts to the barrel as well!
2nd video:
The strike a pose is also going well! You can be facing him a little more, so your upper body is fully rotated towards him. He was doing well zipping in to the target hand then to the reward, so you can move to the next steps which involve having a toy in the reward hand, and then the reward (toy or bowl or manners minder) on the ground under your reward hand.
Be careful with the releases from the cato: he might be telling you there is an accidental pairing between reconnecting and the release. On that very first rep, he was aroused from tugging (YAY!) then that first rep was immediately hard with toy thrown, handler disconnect, food moving. And he released as you turned back towards him. So be sure that you are connected, add a little praise… then release.
>I have always used my left hand for nose targets, and right hand is to get a paw or the object retrieve that I’m teaching >
No worries! This skill fades the actual touch out soon enough and transitions to an in-then-out behavior. I see a little confusion between the nose touch and paw hit to the right hand, he was offering a bit of both LOL! Clever! But the game will progress away from a hand touch and it adds the visual of a jump pretty soon, so it won’t be any issue (and the nose touch doesn’t have to be perfect, so don’t worry too much about it :))
3rd video was the handler combo – he did well finding the barrel wrap, good boy!!!! You can be a bit more consistent and systematic about how you structure the session to get more speed and both to the barrel and to the toy. By moving the reward to different spots, it accidentally enhances focus on the toy and he is more likely to go to it when you don’t want him to. And enhancement learning is quite powerful! Here is what I mean by that –
For example, at :44 (and again at 2:16) – you threw the toy off to the side. He (and I!) both immediately were thinking about it and looking at it a lot – and not thinking about or looking at the barrel. I was chuckling about how I was having the same experience as the pup LOL!! I was way too focused on where the toy was thrown to because it was a big change from the previous reps,
So when you let him go, he went to the toy. Then he turned the other way around the barrel on the next rep. When it was off to that side more consistently, he got better at ignoring it – til you changed sides and the toy was off to the other side (2:16). On that rep, he started towards it then you clapped so he came back, but dialed his speed way back. Basically, it is hard to ignore the toy and do the mechanics of the wrap/following the handling, and the changing of the toy position made things harder to predict so everything got harder. That cognitive load caused him to have a couple of errors and slow down. So we can reduce that load so he can process the mechanics/cues and go fast!
Ideally the toy is behind you for this game because and it is in the same spot for each rep – there is still a self-control element but it gets easier to process because it is more predictable. And that way he can add in the speed both to the barrel and the toy 🙂
4th video: tunnel fun! He was very happy to run through the fully extended tunnel here. In future sessions, you can start to gently curve the tunnel. It is a fun game to mix into the more ‘cerebral’ games 🙂
A thrown toy reward would be great fun to add now – he likes the dish but a toy will add even more ‘woohoo!’ to it 🙂 You threw it towards the end but I don’t think it registered on the first rep (he was eating and didn’t quite see it) but did better with it on the last rep!
You can add more value to the verbal by holding him, saying tunnel a few times before letting him go… then release to the tunnel.
And since he was happy to turn away into the tunnel from the threadle side, you can add your tunnel-threadle verbal.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
Welcome back! She is doing really well!
>Here is my 3rd session of handling combos and tunnel games. In my head I think I’m doing a front cross but when I watch the video it’s a post turn>
Yes, those were post turns 🙂 I usually have to give myself a walk through before I bring the pup in, just to be sure I am not messing it up LOL!
But in terms of what you were teaching Roxette, the handling didn’t matter – the session went great! She nailed the ‘ignore the toy, do the wrap and side changes instead’ part of it all! And she drove brilliantly to the toy. You can add in having her move away from the toy on the ground with low value cookie rewards – this will both help her balance cookies and toys in the same session, and also let you fade out moving her around by her harness.
And she is ready for you to add more front crosses and complex handling such as decels and pivots 🙂 As you do that, be sure to almost over-connect to her eyes by keeping your arms back and looking downwards to her (connection with tiny dogs is harder than with big dogs!) Her only real question in that session was at :44 where you can show more connection as you exit the spin – your hand was blocking her view of it so she didn’t see the new connection until you exaggerated it more.
The tunnel session went great! She was all in for going through the tunnel then to the manners minder 🙂 Easy peasy! The next time you re-visit the tunnel, you can add in her tunnel-threadle verbal to differentiate it from the regular tunnel verbal. And you can fade out the manners minder and go to a thrown reward (food or toy) as well.
If you have easy access, you can go to a longer tunnel too and even start to curve it a tiny bit.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
Separately from agility, I am also working on some neuroscience projects and writing articles about learning studies that involve dogs… and the one I am working on right now made me think of Benny! Yes, I did wake up at 3 am thinking about Benny’s stays LOL!!!!
Basically, the study says that the best training results are when we match the level of arousal in the training and reward to the dog’s natural baseline arousal level FOR that reward. So if the dog is very high arousal for the reward, we need to train in a less-aroused state to get the absolute best results. If the dog is NOT high arousal for the reward, we need to train in a more aroused state to get the best results.
The study involved a thoughtful training task – and stays are pretty thoughtful.
The study suggests that each dog be assessed for their baseline arousal response to the reward in question… I don’t think we need to do that, I think we already know that Benny LOVES his toys and tugging, and food is fine but not as exciting as the toys. 😂🤣
So why did I wake up at 3am thinking of this? Because even though Benny loves toys more than anything, we will get the stay and the teeter bow faster and better using food for now. The toy can come back in as the reward for the stay soon, but not quite yet. More on the below.
And we are already seeing this success in the video posted here – his stays are coming along really well with food! Super nice session here!
The clicker seemed to help clarify for him what the release was. You were able to get multiple steps away – keep varying how many steps you take before the click, so there is a happy surprise: sometimes it is 2 steps, sometimes 6, sometimes 1 step, sometimes 10 steps, etc.
The only thing I would add is throwing the reward back to him with a different marker – the ‘yes’ and ‘ok’ both get him moving forward, so adding a marker that means “I am throwing it to you” will help solidify the stay even more. I use ‘catch’ (but the pups don’t have to actually catch it LOL)
That way, as you are moving away you can add in facing forward & walking forward (like a lead out on an agility course) and click/throw a reward back to him.
For now, use food exclusively during the stay rewards for 3 or 4 short sessions like you did here, spaced about 24 hours apart to let the learning consolidate. Then we can re-assess and decide when to start to bring the toy in as a reward to replace the food.
But definitely still use the toy before the session 🙂 and also after the session:
The study also says that extended, interactive toy play after the training sessions results in the best learning. So what you did here with about 2 minutes of training for food was great! Then after that, play play play play play with the toy. It can be regular play, throwing toys around, tugging, or even easy fast-moving agility games where he doesn’t have to think hard or learn anything new (like tunnels LOL)
Great job here! He is doing great!
Tracy
Good morning!
>I know the tugging wasn’t ideal but my back really isn’t happy with all the bending repeatedly and she seems to like putting a foot over the tugs, she uses her front feet a fair bit for playing, etc.>
The tugging was overall good and she was happy, but we definitely don’t want your back to be angry! To help protect your back, 2 ideas:
– you can keep using the long toy (maybe even a longer toy!) and engage it really low like you were. And to add more tugging for her without you needing to bend, how does she feel about gentle smack da baby with your feet? She was happy with you tapping her ribs during tugging, but that requires you to bend over. Many dogs love it if we are upright and using out feet for smack da baby and not hands.
– another great back protector is to let her run through the tug, rather than catch her on the tug (for when you are rewarding from your hand). Keeping the toy low, you let go when she grabs it so she gets moving forward (no slam on your back). Then because she is a puppy, you turn and go the other way and whip out the 2nd toy to help her bring the first toy back (you did this brilliantly in this session!)
One other toy mechanics thing: Do you have a Hollee roller or something taller/higher profile off the ground so she can scoop it up on the run rather than stop/splay low to grab it?
Looking at the video:
Great job working through the challenge of the toy behind her here! This is why we train it on just a barrel, because it is REALLY HARD! That last rep was GREAT and you were smart to end there for the session.One thing you can add in the next session is food rewards for walking away from the toy (high value food, lower value toy). You will place the toy on th ground then cookie cookie cookie cookie all the way to the barrel. That can shift her focus to handler focus for the barrel cue, and away from toy focus.
And when she can do that, you can change things up a little: start her close to the barrel, throw the toy behind you… but don’t hold her collar. Instead, cookies (or even another toy) for NOT chasing the toy you’ve tossed behind you.
>When we do again I’ll start with just going around with the toy in my hand again and then put the toy behind and see how it goes.>
Yes, a nice little mental warm up! And when you revisit it, you can also try wrapping the other way, maybe turning left is more comfy for this game? Right turns were hard. So it is possible that the game was hard PLUS the turn direction was hard. Maybe she is a lefty for this game LOL – the mental load of ignoring the toy AND trying to turn to the hard side might have contributed to the challenge. So turning to the easier side might make the whole thing easier.
It will be interesting to see how this goes after she sleeps on it for 48 hours to let the brain lock in what she learned, especially on that last rep!
Great job here 🙂
Tracy
Good morning! This is great to focus on – toy mechanics are so important!
> She likes to regrip a lot! Thoughts on her grabbing lower and keeping that hold? She really targets the junction on the toy with my hand or the junction of the toy to the handle fabric. A longer toy doesn’t matter>
2 suggestions here (and more below):
The desire to grip up high is likely linked to her wanting to have a good angle to really shift her weight back. The re-gripping is hwhen she doesn’t have the good grip or weight shift, but we can work on things to prevent the re-grip:– the re-grip in the video here was when the tugging went from interactive play (with the toy low so she could get a good grip) to it not being interactive (you were looking away, moving to a new spot, possibly thinking about the next rep). That is when the toy mechanics slipped, the toy got high, she tried to grab it and got you hand. So…. keep play super interactive: be all in for the 10 seconds or so when you are tugging. Not only is this more of a reward but also it is cleaner (safer on your hands :)) mechanics. Then when you want to move to the next rep, make a clean transition where the toy is not in her mouth or in your hand. Keeping the toy low to maintain the grip is probably going to be key – I am guessing a lot of the re-grip happens when the toy moves up higher.
– during the interactive tugging, you can tug with one hand and see if she likes a bit of ‘smack da baby’. Of course, don’t actually smack her haha but many, many dogs like gentle tapping on their sides during play. And it results in them happily shifting their weight but more importantly: they can’t really re-grip! There is more weight shift so if they let go, they are not in a good place to re-grip.
Now, the smack da baby needs to be spot checked because I don’t know if she will love it or not. Tons of dogs love it! And some find it offensive. So you can start with a gentle stroke of her side while she is tugging. If she likes it, go to gentle rib taps and see how that goes.
> Many toys she’ll tug with me. But, if I toss it she’ll chase and and then start plucking the toy. The higher value toys have fur. She loves them, but not so much to bring back.>
You can choose the toy that best fits the occasion. Since she (like many dogs) likes to pluck/shred when she is in full possession of the toy, you can use those toys for non-retrieve games where the reward is in your hand (or you are using it to get her excited to train) where she gets to tug on that high value toy but won’t take it and shred it rather than retrieve it.
>She’ll pretty consistently return a French linen tug. It’s my go to toy with Sprite. I’m not how high a value it is, but she will return it so it’s more fun for me. Do I mostly work that toy for now?>
That toy can be great for any games where the retrieve is helpful! So yes, it is the best choice for those for now. It is a smaller/shorter toy, so it is probably not the best choice for the games where she comes in hot to the reward.
The other suggestion is when you are indoors working retrieves: move the dog bed out of the way. The dog bed is a bit of a context cue to lie down and chew 🙂 so she was definitely interested in bringing the toy to the bed to chew on it. This was particularly true when you were not moving and when you were throwing the toy towards the bed. When you were moving and throwing the toy the other direction (like the fun reverse retrieves) she was less interested in the bed as a chew spot 🙂
Have you been playing with shaping any pick-up and retrieve on other objects? That is a different approach to solidifying toy retrieves during play, but it definitely helps build the love for bringing all the things to you 🙂
Nice work here. Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
Yes the heat at CanAm SUCKED but did you see they changed it to be in October next year? That is a relief!>I will keep plugging away at games and trying to catch up though I’m not sure I can at this point.>
You will catch up! This week is a ‘calm’ week and then there are other breaks built in. No worries!
The wing game with the bowls went great! She is doing the wraps really well and you are standing and there is a decent amount of distance away from the wing. Yay! That means: onwards to turn and burn!! That is fun 🙂 You might want to start turn and burn on a barrel instead of a wing, in case she hits it as she is running – we want soft impact in the early stages LOL
For the blind then decel: the blind looks strong each time! When she flipped to the other side of you – the reason was that you were just moving too fast 🙂 Good examples are at :48 and 1:20. On those, you got her locked onto the new hand after the blind, but that as you did the pivot you were really quick. That broke connection and it actually looked like a quick blind cross! So she changed sides. Good smart girlie!
Compare to the successful reps (like :33 for example) – you got her locked onto your hand and then the pivot was nice and slow, and you maintained connection. Gorgeous!
Usually we are all too slow in agility 🤣😂 but this is the one time you were too fast 🙂 So slow the pivot down and maintain connection, then she will stay on your right 🙂
Since this went so well, you can move to the handling combo game where we add this to the wrap games 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi! Thanks for the update, it sounds like he did great!!!
>It helps to have an experienced trainer around (I believe that she also took this course with her BC 2 years ago). >
Yay! Who is it? It is fun that you had good support!
>Everyone loves Charley!!
Of course! He is the CUTEST little thing and is so much fun!
>I also did the ‘get it’ game at agility class outdoors on concrete on-leash. >
Perfect! Did he find it pretty easy?
>Maybe that’s an option at home, to use the driveway on-leash. >
Absolutely! It is a great game for everywhere. And he will learn to ignore the squirrels 🙂
> even the string cheese was small enough to slip through the cracks.>
Ha! Poor Charley! Finding the right size of treats with small dogs is definitely hard. I am sure he was mad that his cheese was disappearing 🤣😂
Tracy
Hi!
>It’s the homemade plank from the short teeter I used for Rumor (do you remember her?) >
Of course! Blast from the past!!!!
You can use the taller board for the other stuff like going across, on and off, etc, and I am sure turning around will be easy for her very soon.
Keep me posted!
Tracy
Hi! Super nice work on the videos!
Because of his speed and drive, we want the stay concept to be VERY strong. The toy is very exciting! And he had a hard time processing the sit cue with you (and the toy) down on the ground, but could do it better when you were standing. He was moving a lot, so we can continue to clarify the behavior for him in these early stages.
>I also want him to listen to the specific cue.>
Yes! Totally agree. For now, though, with the toy, he is moving a lot and barking and not really processing, so the first thing we need to do is getting him thinking through the excitement so he can respond immediately to the cue.
The way to do that is to let him offer being stationary in any position (and not barking :)) – let it be *his* decision for now, because he I needing multiple sit cues to respond which will dilute the sit cue. For now, all we want is for him be stationary (any position) and not bark as much. He might be thinking the barking is what you are rewarding, which is why he was barking and moving a lot here 🙂 so we want to reward moving and *not* barking for now.
Eventually, I don’t mind if he barks as long as he can still do a perfect stay on the start and bow on the teeter. But for now, we need to separate them.
The goal is that when he understands how to hit and hold a stay position, then you can easily cue the sit behavior (or any stay behavior :))
The other thing to add is to say the release word very clearly (and choose yes or OK, you used both here) and before you move the toy – it was all happening at the same time and he was moving on most of the releases. So he might think the toy movement is the release.
The best rep is at 3:51 – you did say sit but you only said it once and you were standing, so he really thought about it and offered a great sit! And he was definitely NOT moving when you released. You did move the toy before the verbal here (because he is so quick, playing it in slow motion tells us which happened first: verbal or toy movement) but everything else on that rep was fantastic!!
To make it really clear for him, you can even use a clicker because he is already clicker smart 🙂 You can click when he offers the sit, then it becomes very easy to delay the click to add duration to the stay (especially as you move away).
Another thing that can help is to throw the reward to him (then tug after he gets it), rather than release him forward to tug. That can specifically reinforce the concept of “stay in that spot”.
>But I really want him to stay focused using the static toy on the ground. >
It will come! But it is too soon for that 🙂 Right now you are getting a lot of barking and movement with the toy on the ground, so get the solid stay first then we gradually move the toy to the ground. Make it easy for now because we want him to LOVE stays and bows, and not get frustrated.
His wing to tunnel game looked great! The placed toy worked out really well here, he only tried to steal it once haha 🙂
To add to this: you can add in cues for how you want him to exit the tunnel. You can add a GO cue for when you want the exit straight (like you did here) and you can add soft turn cues for when you want a turn on the tunnel exit. Do you have specific cues you use with your other dogs? If so, you can add those, and change the placement of the reward to match what you want: straight on the line for the go, and on a turn line for the turn.Great job here!
Tracy
Hi! I hope you are feeling good and the sore throat turned out to be nothing 🙂
He did great with the flirt pole as the tunnel reward! Fun! The normal sends and the threadle-side sends both looked really strong. You can add distance away from the tunnel and keep stretching the tunnel (and eventually curving it). For the treadle-side sends, you can add your tunnel threadle verbal now too!
Looking at the barrel wraps: the first side went really well!
>he seemed to be losing his umph by the end.>
About losing his excitement for the game:
Yes, the heat can cause him to tire out sooner for sure! This game has a lot of running and tugging, so the pups get heated up faster (especially if this happened after he had the tunnel session).But also – his questions might have had to do with the cue/send to the barrel. At 1:20, 1:49, 1:56 – you sent to the barrel but did not step to it with the dog-side leg. It is possible that with him on your right side (turning to his left) he needs the big step to support that send side. It might be his weaker side, and also he just got a lot of rewards for the other side so he might be thinking about that. You didn’t step to the barrel when he was on your left, but that might be his stronger side so he didn’t need the step. So definitely try adding the step and see what he does next time!
The towel for the start cookie worked well on the serp game! He very quickly figured out that it was was the starting point, which made the whole game smoother.
Hitting the target in your left hand: easy peasy, looked great! He was a little chill because it was a food-based game, so you can have the flirt pole in the other hand to make it more exciting.When you switched to him touching the right hand: he had more questions and looked at you more instead of driving to the target hand as well. I am sensing a trend: stuff on your life side is easy! Stuff on your right side is harder 🙂 This might be a side preference for him, but also it might be that there is a LOT of value on your left side 🙂 So be sure to mix in a lot of right-side games to help balance all of the left side stuff he is learning 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
>(I have the old house of many small rooms, and no hallways.) >
Same! I love my old house and all the rooms, but there is no such thing as a long hallway here either.
I am glad you got to take him to the club! This is so useful for him!
>I think that Charley was distracted there with people training in the adjacent ring, but he may get used to it as we continue.>
Yes, it makes sense that he would be interested and a little distracted by the new environment and people/dogs. He will totally get used to it. Start with simple fun games and then you will see his focus really blossom.
Keep me posted!
Tracy
Good morning!
He was so good about going to his barrel! And you were excellent about be stationary til he finished his wrap… then you started a BIG party. LOVE IT!!
Yes, more room will be useful so you can run run run – maybe outside?
>Not sure exactly where he was at when I did the front cross. >
Adding a line on the ground (like a light leash) will give you a focal point, so you can do the front cross consistently in terms of timing and also so you can gradually do it earlier and earlier.
>I tried handling him on my right side, be he scooted to the left anyway.>
If that is his harder side, you can use a bowl as a focal point for him to help him turn that direction when he is on your right. It is totally normal that there are side preferences for human and pup at this stage 🙂 so the bowl can help a lot.
>I did the Beginner Pattern Game on the back deck. Charley was soooo slow at finding the treats. I used string cheese to make them easier to see, but didn’t notice a change.>
Slow but finding the treats I a good start!!! You should see an increase in speed with more experience. He has to learn to ignore the distractions of the Great Outdoors 🙂 and find the food. That is all hard for a puppy brain!
> Then I moved to the grass which was disastrous. He had difficulty finding the treats, and maybe was distracted by smells.>
Probably both – hard to see the treats/smell them quickly, and lots of distractions. I have a video *somewhere* of one of my young dogs learning to find treats in the grass but I can’t find it 😭
>We play “find it” with kibble a lot. Maybe this is a skill that will come with time?? >
Yes! If he is good at this game in indoor and easier locations, there are ways to transfer it to the outdoors: you can make it easier for him to find the treats by taking the game outside, but playing it with the treats on a giant beach towel, or a couple of towels for the treats to get dropped onto. That will make for easier finds for him, while also transferring the game to the harder places. Then we can fade out the towels and he can find it in the grass.
>Maybe a different treat (hot dogs, etc), or if he’s hungrier. >
Better food that is also stinky will help 🙂 And larger chunks helps a lot too – the problem with that is he is soooo little! So you can do very very short sessions with big pieces of food – maybe as big as the toenail on your big toe LOL!! We don’t want to upset his belly, so just a few reps with giant treats might get the concept started, then over time we go back to smaller treats.
>He’s very good with eye contact, just the treat throws that are a problem.>
Right! And I am sure part of him understands that he need to find the treat then make eye contact, so he might even be a little frustrated when he can’t find it. Poor little dude! So the towels as treat landing zones and/or using giant chunks can help a lot.
Great job here! Keep me posted!
Tracy
