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Hi!
That is amazing news about the B12 and how he feels better – wow!!! Really amazing and I am so glad to hear it!
>>We saw our rehab/chiro vet the Tuesday in between -> he found zero issues with the little guy
Is that normal, or are there sometimes little issues? Just interested in hearing more about how the B12 might be helping.
>He had a fantastic class training session this past Monday. So…I think we’ll keep on the B12 inj for now, maybe find some B9 to orally supplement. >>
Wow! And since he is feeling good, all of the training games will be much easier to teach.
>>Retest both & maybe thyroid in like 2 months.
If he is not showing any of the behavioral signs that we see with thyroid issues, then probably no reason to test.
>Subclinical levels can definitely be a thing (personal experience),>
That is so true!
>>You may have touched on it, or maybe it will come up, but what about pressure? ie those *awesome* starts that have the dog facing the start area/fence for a wrap back to the course?>
We start sliding in the pressure by adding one novel but neutral thing to the environment when training the skill… then adding more and more exciting and challenging things like people! I like to work pattern games through crowds, to help pump up the rehearsal of processing and ignoring people nearby and looking at the dogs.
>> I have a bit of catching up to do & it looks like the weather is going to turn to winter next week :(. I’ll probably have more questions as I work through things.>>
Yeah, I want it to be warm and sunny for another 6 months! Keep me posted on how he is doing!
Tracy
Good morning!
This went really well!!!
She was hilarious backing up on the first stay when you looked at her – maybe thinking you were going to toss the reward!>>I kept it easy by not doing the straight line first and leaving the tunnel out. >
That was a smart way to set her up for success!! You be moving towards the RC line (center of the bar of the purple jump) even sooner here – you were running straight til she was about halfway between the jumps then pushed in – but when she is running full speed, that will end up being late for the RC (or she might add strides on the straight line waiting to see if it is a RC or not). Plus getting on the RC diagonal sooner helps her get used to handler pressure and keeps you from getting too far behind her after the RC 🙂
The backside looked good! The BIG cue helped her – it is possible the fence right there added some pressure which made it harder, so the bigger cue helped support the line.
And the go line at the end looked fabulous 🙂
>>After dinner we did some tricks with her “slightly squashed skunk” toy and she gave me really snappy responses when I asked for a sit and led out so I did an inhale while looking back at her and her ears snapped forward and she released faster. Tried a 2nd one when I did 2 tip toe steps and she thought that was great fun too. >>
Yay! I am glad she liked it – the games should make it super fun and a bit silly 🙂
>Then Kaladin (who was lounging on the couch) decided to join in and she dropped the skunk and started jumping on him instead. >>
Ha! Cartoon games are irresistible!
>I think she may fall into the camp of liking the cartoon mashup. We’ll see.>>
The “we’ll see” approach is spot on – my guess is it will depend on the environment, so it is good to have all the options in your toolbox 🙂
>>I am laughing at your spot-on response that boinging at meal prep is annoying to household life. (how did you guess that was a likely scenario?)>>
Because it is annoying AF for me too, with 9 dogs to feed LOL!! And a little overstimulating for the other dogs too 🙂 The dog that wanted to do it (Jitterbug) now has access to his crate with the door open, so he now just goes and stands in his crate til the meal is served. So much less annoying LOL!
>>Test results came back and the ACTH Stim test was normal so the unlikely possibility of Addisons is ruled out. Thyroid was also normal (and on the higher end).>>
Hooray for clean test results!!! And it is great to have a thyroid baseline!
I love that your vet has a really detailed rehab program after the spay. So many vets tell people to return to regular activity was soon as the stitches are out in 10 days (that’s crazy, of course). Even with the lap spay – there is a long healing time! I had my gall bladder out laparoscopically and it was at least 6 weeks til I felt normal again. I mean, it might have been a little earlier if I had done a rehab program LOL but still –
Great job here! See you in Jacksonville!
Tracy
Good morning!
This was very impressive! Sooooo many amazing moments on this run, and complete focus in the barn. I loved it!!!Holy WOW look at that lead out – he was calm during the stay then EXPLODED forward when you released him. SUPER!!!
Looks like he didn’t read the side change on landing of 3 – you can give him a really big connection with your arm back so he sees where to be. You made the big connection at :40 after the cross and it was lovely!
Excellent job continuing, though – both of you were great with getting right back on track!
He totally thought weaving into the darkness and a wall was WEIRD. Looks like you gave him a reward for a great effort at 1:10, which is very appropriate!! He was trying super hard and that was a really difficult setup for a youngster.
The blinds on this run looked great too! Looks like he didn’t take the 2nd to last jump – probably because after the blind you said “yes” and looked forward, so he looked up at you 🙂 He definitely is an all business dude who likes info and connection (and praise at the end :))
Because this went so well, maybe he can join a league team?
Great job!!
TracyGood morning!
>>We worked on the leash up game again tonight (no video) but he was really starting to get into with continued luring. >>
Super! You can start fading the lure by making it less obvious and then starting to show the treat after he shoves his cute face into the leash 🙂
Looking at the video – I love his snappy line up! He was definitely jazzed to go, so you can mix in lots of throwing the reward back to him to help him remember the joys of staying 🙂 I like that he was so pumped up, so shorter lead outs and more reward will help.
The other thing I would recommend is to watch him as you lead out – I think he is anticipating the release coming when you look back at him. So the easiest thing to do is look at him the whole time for now 🙂
>>Something *between* cartoon mashup and calm server do you think?>
I think this will depend on environment (internal and external). If he is feeling pumped up? You can definitely be calm, smooth, connected. If he is feeling concerned or the environment is hard? The cartoon mashup will totally help! So we want to teach him both so that you have them both in your toolbox.
Great job here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
This went really well!!! He seemed to have no questions about the discriminations here. He did not quite drive to the tunnel after the teeter on the very last rep here – I don’t think you did anything too different other than being not as far ahead when you released him from the teeter, so you can keep moving forward when you are not as far ahead til he is really locked onto the tunnel.
>>in hindsight, I didn’t give him a good line to the frame so i did shape it a bit on the 2nd rep.>>
That was a good adjustment and set a much better line!
Looking at this setup – you can actually use this to enhance the discrimination options: by starting with what was the exit of the yellow tunnel/blue tunnel bags here, he can exit with the tunnel facing straight the a-frame. Then you can use discrimination handling to get the tunnel under the frame, or send him straight to the frame, and even push him out to the weaves!
Or, start on the a-frame heading to the tunnel – and use discrimination handling to get him into the non-obvious end and balance by sending him to the tunnel straight ahead.
That can offer a variety of options without having to move the course setup 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
For the toys, I think the best answer for now is keep going with the toy on a long line so you can engage her and play without a lot of pressure, but also so there is not any rehearsal of the running off or guarding behavior. Rehearsal builds neural pathways, so we definitely want her to not rehearse taking the reward and moving away with it.
>> This was her second round and she ran into the building and straight to the ring with eyes on me>
Which is why you definitely want to play 🙂 We don’t want her to be totally locked on the ring at this point – locked on you, yes, so playing will keep her engaged even when you are not in the ring and also helps balance the value so that being in the ring is not the most reinforcing thing 🙂
T
Hi! I am looking forward to seeing you at the Open!
>>I’m using a tongue click to mark it. I do have a verbal as well, but I find that I can do the tongue click faster, so I typically use that.>>
I could hear it! Something to experiment with is if you can do that as precisely while you are running so we know if that will be useful in those scenarios or if you will want to pump up the understanding the eat-from-hand marker. We have a lot of running games coming up 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
>>I am not liking my prop. It’s big enough it not easy enough for her to place her big feet.>
I think the prop is good and she was able to get her feet on it – and having a smaller space for collection stuff will help you 🙂
>>I used really good food so she was a little stuck this session.>
High value food is great!! I think a couple of little tweaks in mechanics will make it easier:
She was having a hard time leaving the food in your hand, when the hand was part of the send. So two approaches to play with to help her watch the hand less and move away from it more:
– Use empty hand on the send hand (food in opposite hand) so you can use the hand to send and not just a foot. That might be easier.
– When food is in the send hand, use a boring treat in it (and then you can add in rewarding with a higher value treat between the boring treats 🙂 )
You can also toss the treat more: rather than feed from the hand, we can switch it up to getting the treat tossed to the prop more so she look at it more.
And remember to do some yoy play before and after because we want the arousal built in from the start.
Her forward focus is looking good! She had a good resilience moment after the wind blew – nice bounce back for the next reps and no residual concern about it. Super!
You had lots of distance and she had great forward focus while leaving you in the dust. SUPER!!!
What is her status with toys? This looked like a lotus ball and that is useful, but I really want to get toys involved. Plus she is taking the lotus ball and moving away from you, so we want the interactive value of the toy too!
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
She totally loves her bowls! Yay! She was super great here!!!!
Two suggestions about mechanics:
Be ready with the treats before the bowls are placed on the floor – that way the reinforcement can start immediately. You might need 3 hands (sorry haha) but you will want to pull the treats out and then put the bowls down, so the first behavior gets rewarded. This also folds in some self-control, because she has to see the treats and ignore them in favor of going to the bowls. It is a small detail but might be a big moment for a food-driven dog.
You can also break this off more often (every 5 or 6 treats) with toy play by pulling the bowls up and throwing a toy around and tugging. This can help her learn these skills in a higher arousal state, which is really helpful for future course running and trialing.
Because she is so tiny 🙂 you can add 2 things for the next steps:
– move the bowls further back behind you, lined up by your feet when you are kneeling, so she has to make a bigger arc and has more room to turn around
– move your position to sitting in a chair and if that proves to be easy peasy for her, you can change to standing up (bowls can be back your feet too on those)
Fantastic job here! She is so fun!
Tracy
Good morning! Great job with these – she is a super smart puppy! And cute too 🙂
The foot targeting looks great – she was adding in some nose targeting to it too with her feet, but I think that was just her being very emphatic about it, and the nose part will go away as we add more action. You can switch to a verbal marker on these rather than the click here (using a ‘get it’ marker for the toss, and a ‘yes’ or ‘snacks’ 😁 marker when delivering from your hand). The clicks were all really good, so my suggestion about verbally marking instead of clicking is more about freeing your hands up for other things and also building up the understanding of the verbal markers.
She looks totally ready for you to go to the sending game we added on Tuesday!
The nose touch the target in your hand looked great too – she was starting to look up at you towards the end, so rather than click (which often builds in looking at us in many cases), you can mark the nose tap with a verbal ‘get it’ marker and toss the treat. Dogs almost automatically look at us when we click when they are puppies, then they watch us throw the treat so that is where the looking at us gets built in accidentally. Since you have now established the behavior with the clicker, you can use your verbal marker to tell her both that she is correct and also where to look for the reward.
We will build on this game in a few weeks 🙂
Super job here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>>Giving him some more room helped him to turn the correct way. I will say that when he chases toys outside that almost 100% of the time, he turns left after picking up the toy – even if it would be easier to turn right. >>
This is good to know! When you get in to more complex skills, train them going to his left first so he has less to process – then it will be far easier to get them going to his right. And it will even out in both directions, plus the conditioning people can help a lot too!
>Darkness prevented us going out for the driving ahead- so tomorrow!
The early darkness is a bummer!!!
>Question on the cone work. We have worked through all of the baby steps, starting the same way – with bowls. He is now at the point where he does multi wraps of cones, wings, trash cans (I don’t use cones anymore because he’s so big). >
Yay! One thing to consider is *not* doing multi wraps. The main reason is that when the pups are doing multi wraps, after the first approach to the cone (or whatever you are wrapping) they are pulling from their front end and not driving into the wrap with their rear. And what is collection? It is a hind end behavior. So multi wraps end up rehearsing what we do not actually want them to do on wraps, and their earliest neuronal memory is about, you guessed it, approaching tight turns with their mechanics focusing on front end use. That then takes a while to undo, so I prefer to not build those front end neural pathways and stick to the hind end engagement we get with single wraps. More on that coming soon.
Plus a lot of dogs just get bored LOL!! I am not sure if Judge gets bored because I think Mals can work forever and ever, so I am thinking more about getting fatigued and building a behavior in a direction we don’t want. I think multi wraps are popular because it looks like we are producing tight turns… but they are not tight because the dog is driving in with collection, then are tight because the dog is not moving fast. Food for thought!
>He can can that with distractions- me holding food out in my hands. I’m at the point where I’m starting to name the wraps. Should I wait a couple of lessons to do anything or do you want to see any of this now?>
You are welcome to post it if you like! My suggestion is to take what he already knows and use it for the Stealth Self-Control games – the first one is REALLY easy and it is posted in the Week 1 stuff. There is more coming of course and that will include forward focus, etc. And then we add more speed and excitement to it all 🙂
>We did a few forward send with the toy – he got a bit sloppy as his arousal went up so I need to figure out the correct balance of cookies to toy. >
I think he did great with the added arousal of the toy! Yay!!! Don’t avoid that – he was still really super good. As his brain and body get used to working in arousal, you will see the mechanics get crisp again. So yes, it is ok to sacrifice a bit of mechanics as you teach him to do it in arousal – because he is going to need to do it in arousal and these early days will go a long way to helping him be prepared for that.
If the behavior goes all to poo, you can back off the arousal a little but he still had really good hits here and was sorting out his mechanics nicely. His hits were not that different than the hits with the food-rewarded sideways sending. I bet he has slept on it and figured it out and will be very clean and crisp now with the toy!
You can try using toys and food in the same session (he seems to like both a lot, and that is great!) Do the ready dance, send to the prop, mark and play with the toy, deliver a treat by tossing it away, then back to the ready dance for the next rep. Or, you can flip that: reward with food, then a bit of tugging after every rep or two.
>>I need to figure out the correct balance of cookies to toy.>
You won’t really know until you and he are almost through the wild ride of adolescence 😂🤣 You will see subtle shifts back and forth for a while – this is normal and we embrace that and help him out.
For the sideways and backwards sends – he did really well and being further from the prop totally helped him turn to his right. You can be one step further away, almost where the treadmill is here, to give him even more room. And when using the food, remember to dirty up the loop with the ready dance before each rep – the arousal is actually the most important piece here 🙂 You can bring the toy into this game too (and every game :))
>I re-did the decel exercise and circle – trying to make sure he kept his rear in.
He was beautiful with those and had no trouble getting in very tight to you! Yay! Remember to keep your hand lower so his chin is parallel to the ground – it might be easiest to use your knee as your guide and have the treat placement happen down at your knee.
You can add some toy place to this one too – he seems to have a great head and handles arousal well! So you can tug a little before every rep or two, then do the game with food like you did it here. That brings in the arousal bit by bit – so useful for the future, especially if we can help him sort it out *before* adolescence hits hard 🙂 We add more to this game soon.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
I am glad you are turning your rage into action! I am still mostly in rage mode LOL!! Sigh.
And it also sounds like he is getting a lot of good class and seminar experience!!
>>I don’t have specific video of this, but we have been doing the ’empty hands’ for a while, mainly because I am not good at running with a toy in my hand. So it gets put elsewhere (and I really need to switch to smaller toys because his giant holee roller octopus thing makes my pants fall down). But he’s pretty solid at running without seeing the toy at this point, so I’m not sure if we need to do anything else with that.>>
Great! You might find that his version of “Just Like Home” is the empty hands level, because it is his normal, and that is great!
>>Question for you. I have the opportunity to enter him FEO in a trial in January. My thought was to try that and to just work on some of these A.R.E toolbox exercises. Would that make sense?>>
Totally do it! He likes toys and he has probably been to the trial site, so go for it!
>> I have zero interest in trying to actually run a course at a trial, I just want to play with startlines and whatnot. Too soon? Or do you think he’s ready to test some of these behaviors in a trial environment?>>
Start lines are a real buzzkill and also are the easiest thing to go wrong… so I never ask for them in the first FEO. Tricks, tugging, simple fun sequences – heck yeah! Hold off on the stays til you know he is very comfortable in the trial ring. Then the stays will be easy. Putting stays in too early can lead to a lot of errors and frustration, because the dog is working in a higher arousal state and with more distractions than ever.
>>we’re going to work on the send-ahead stuff because he tried to unalive me at class the other day – he’s speeding up, but then he’s turning around to see where I am and coming to a dead stop out of a tunnel. >>
Placed rewards will be your friend here, or actual real human friends who can throw the rewards for you – that way looking at you is not something he will want to do.
On the video: his leash off, engagement on looked great! That is another reason why FEO should be fine to do – he can play this engagement game even with another dog right there at the practice jump and lots of distractions around, as well as in class in the big ring. Yay! You can make this a remote reinforcement game by leaving your toy outside the ring while you do this – see if he can engage when the leash comes off, line up, take the jump, the mark and you go to the reward.
Great job here!!
Tracy
Hi!
>>That makes total sense to only “mess up” once when playing this game. I would imagine this isn’t a game you’d want to play super often so as not to build in too much frustration??>>
Yes – there is a lot of arousal regulation, and we don’t want the pups to slide into overarousal.
>>I definitely practiced them, but I think because I walked all of the sequences at one time before I brought her outside with me, I got the verbals mixed up.>
That could definitely be why. You can refresh each sequence before you run it, by jogging through it with the verbals. That will also build in more break time for her (but not for you, sorry LOL!!!)
>>she was pretty quick to come back to work for most reps.>>
Herding dogs will generally come back quickly to work even if they are exhausted LOL So don’t let her drive your decision on that because herding dogs will go and go and go and go…
>> Doing a working spot keeps me motivated to get the work done, but I also feel the pressure of “deadlines.”
That is why there are two weeks between sequences, so folks can battle the daylight issues and poopy weather and still get everything done.
On the video – this went well!!
The warm up went well. She did better on the full sequence when you gave a turn cue on the jump before the tunnel threadle. At 2:03 she jumped long (no turn cue) but at 2:29 and after that, you were cuing a left turn so she turned really well, making the tunnel threadle easier 🙂
I think her only question here was on Seq 3 on jump 5, where she needed to turn left to get the jum and not take either side of the tunnel. At 3:36 she came off the jump – you were turning a bit too soon, which brought you to a stop and you disconnected a bit. On the next 2 reps, the left verbal was timing but your shoulders were facing foward til she took off – it was a conflicting indicator (turn or go straight?) so the bar came down on those. At 5:47, she got it – you can turn your shoulders sooner there – it is a fine line between turning your shoulders away no later than halfway between the 2 jumps and also maintaining connection so she maintains her commitment.
It was really good to end where you did – look at how ginormous her tongue is LOL! And she was very successful, so stopping was a good call.
Great job here!
Tracy
HI!
>> First video is a dead toy.>>
I think this video is missing? Or I need a lot more caffeine 🙂
The MM runs looked really good! You can click the MM as soon as she looks ahead (no need to wait until she is over the last bar), closer to what you did at :43.
On the sequence video – she did great finding that big long line!!! On the first run, she wasn’t controlling her jumping as much but the 2nd run and 3rd run were great! Her hind end comes up a little as she decelerates to get to the MM, so you can move it further away so she has more room.
My only suggestion on the 2nd sequence is to tell her about the backside on 3 sooner – as soon as she exits the tunnel, you can let her know about the backside. You didn’t really cue it til she was past the halfway mark, so she had some questions there.
She also did well with the forward focus games! Yes, the left side is stronger – mainly because her stay is stronger on your left.
So keep working on building value for the stay on your right and releasing her when she looks at it. The magic sparkle ball can be close for now, or you can use a food bowl.
On your left, you can add in an arm cue (bring it up slowly so she doesn’t think it is a release) to help add more to the forward focus cue. And then I bet you can do this with a jump between you and the ball, adding lateral position to get her focusing forward on the jump! Her understanding on your right side will catch up pretty quickly, she was already getting the idea in this one session.Great job!
TracyHi!
Nice work on the sequences! The exit line connection looked great on the exits of the jump wraps. You don’t need to do it on the tunnel exits unless there is a side change – regular connection is fine there.
Looking at the Go lines – she had a little trouble finding that last jump when you placed the reward out past it. It is possible that it wingless jump was a harder visual for her to pick up, or that the toy was too close to her landing spot so she was not sure how to get it. So, you can back chain it jump on that last jump first, with the toy about 12 feet or so past it.
She did really well when you were moving up the line. You can start that a little closer to the end of the line there too to back chain the progress, but she was definitely sorting it out better with more of your motion and the thrown reward.
She had a lightbulb moment and was finding the line really well!!!There was a little blooper at 2:14 when you had a big disconnect sending to tunnel and turning your back on her, so she thought you wanted a blind and changed sides. Much better at 2:36 and the reps after it!
Sorting out the RC took a few reps – the key is what cue she sees as she is over the bar of the yellow jump after the tunnel.
When you faced straight at 3:25 – she thought that cued the straight line, and facing straight for a step or two there made the RC info late so she stayed on the “go” line.
Compare to 3:59 where you never faced straight (you faced the center of the bar of the next jump more) and you were showing the RC info as she landed from the yellow jump – better response for sure! She had slightly delayed processing of it (it was a little late showing the RC line) but she got it!
Then she totally had it by 4:29 – you were showing the RC info the whole time and you were driving up the RC diagonal sooner, which really helped.
I grabbed some screenshots of those moments so you can see the subtle differences that she reads as big cues:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1koJCQedymSUavEyXcqQjAJDaUvK6XegVDN9tgWg48sc/edit?usp=sharing
You can mix in straight lines there, to be sure she is reading all the cues correctly.
One other thing: all the backsides looked good but you had a REALLY nice long distance backside at 3:53!!
Great job here!!
Tracy
