[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! Lots of good work here, she is picking all this up beautifully!

The physical cues on the rocking horse game are looking good and your connection is really strong! Try to reward after every 2 or 3 wings or 4 wings, mixing it up to create a variable reward schedule (which makes the behavior really strong)

Also, try to add different verbals 🙂 Everything here was go go go so I will bug you to add your wrap verbals 🙂

Looking at the get out game:

>>The get out, we finally got after many tries, mostly failed by two things, me stepping it, though trying to go straight.>>

The bar might have helped bit also for the get out, you might find it easier to use your outside arm to cue the behavior. The dog-side arm doesn’t provide the shoulder rotation as easily (or as quickly as whippets need to see it 🙂 ) So as you are saying your ‘out’ verbal, you can use your right arm in this case to point to the jump (and your eyes on her as you say the verbal). That can turn your shoulders very clearly – on the 2nd video, you can see she was going straight with the left arm up and then turned away as soon as your right arm came up. Yes, you were throwing the treat 🙂 but the arm motion got the behavior before the treat was visible.

>>And my cookie throwing wasn’t working. She was just missing. >>

Cookie throwing in grass is hard! You can use a lotus ball or treat hugger – both of those carry the cookie and are easily seen by the pups, so you can throw it like a toy but it lands like a treat and she can grab the treat out of it 🙂 A kong stuffed with a tiny bit of cream cheese can work perfectly for this too.

The zig zags are going well! On this setup, you can add another bar in the gap between the 2 jumps (you can rotate the wing of jump 1 so the jump cups are facing the other way, and the bar basically hangs off of all 3 wings). That way she really has to zig and zag back and forth and it will be easier for her to see the bars. I think you can lead out more (as far as possible) so you can be showing the cues from ahead and not needing to run as fast 🙂 She seems to have a lovely line up and stay, so you can totally use that to your advantage.

The decel on the transition game went well!!! She had a nice turn on both reps! You can mix in lots of true “go” reps so she accelerates past you more, which will make the decel even easier. You can exit the wraps with a front cross: after you decelerate, you will turn towards her and pick her on on your other side. You did a spin (FC to a BC) on. The first rep and a blind cross on the 2nd rep – those work but they are harder than the FC 🙂

On this game too, try not to cue the wraps with a ‘go’ verbal. Add in your wrap verbal as you are slowing down, so the wrap verbal gets attached to this and we can save the go go go for the straight lines.

Great job here!!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

The race tracks looked great here, no problem at all – you can send her away more to the wing before the lap turn, so you don’t have to run backwards more than one step. The lap turns looked great!

For the tandems – the single wing tandems looked good!! When you added more speed with a wing wrap before the tandem – the upper body and verbals need to override the motion which is hard with small dogs. If you were not clear enough with the hands not visible or not enough verbal info, she stayed on her line to the other side of the wing like at :47. But when you were clearer and used verbals like at :53 and :57, she got it really well. Yay! So definitely use a verbal (you used her name at :53 and here here at :57, so you can use her name to get her attention then the threadle wrap verbal). And also make your hands really visible – I recommend using both of them nice and low, and shaking them really helped make them visible.

Great job here!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
Super windy!! But the session went well!!! Pre-breakfast training is good to add into the rotation (especially for simpler behaviors or behaviors with a lot of movement) because the physiology of working for food when you are hungry is an excellent little pressure to add in! The more I learn about dopamine neurobiology, the more we see that little pressures like that are the best preparations for the neurobiology of being in the ring. But with a puppy, you might not want to do anything new or too challenging pre-breakfast, because it could all go sideways very quickly 🙂

She needed a little bit of motion to the jump to ‘put it in play’ because of the increased distance at first – good job helping her out! And you were gradually able to help less and less. Then she was able to find it more independently on the last rep, which made. The FC after it much easier 🙂 Super! You can also have the wings in a little closer so the jump is visible sooner before she gets locked onto your motion.

Also on that last couple of reps, you can see the value of the start wing beginning to wane (she was not moving to the wing as smoothly and seemed to be anticipating the direction change to the jump), so you can randomly throw in surprise rewards for the start wing. That way the value stays high and she is less likely to have BIG MADZ about going to it when the high value jump is behind her 🙂 A BIG surprise would be the rest of her full breakfast for just wrapping the wing – the best kind of pop rocks moment!!!

Great job here!!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>>Yes, he did have a BIG MAD!>>

Generally when they leap up for the toy or at us, it is a BIG MAD (frustration) and not a toy impulse control issue.

>>Yes, I often wake up having worked out some thing i must have been processing in my sleep.>>

There is a lot of science on this, both latent learning and passive search and all sorts of reasons why our brain does this overnight 🙂

>>Yes placement of reward is HUGE! And can help so much it feels like cheating. A pre-placed toy and Prism is a superstar! Methinks CM too.>>

No such thing as cheating in dog training! We get the behavior as quickly as we can, using reinforcement to the best of our abilities. The welfare of the animal is always front and center, and efficient, reinforcement-based training is next 🙂

>>I struggle with so much thoughtful planning! Now there’s an even bigger goal for me (pre-walk the path, the verbals, and the reward-EVERY TIME, GAH!)

Yep, everything is highly planned and choreographed at first with a puppy… then it becomes second nature and you won’t have to think about it as much. That is why the end result is far less important than the process.

>>I was stressed about the failures and lost my head.

The 2 failure rule is what keeps me from getting stressed. It means that I have the opportunity to sort out better communication. Again, the end result is not entirely relevant, it is all about the process. Good process produces the end result 🙂

>> Good news is that I did 3 reps of the GET OUT game tonight (one GO, one short distance OUT and one longer distance OUT but neither very far lateral) and CM was brilliant!
His favorite reward is frisbees which we used. (Redeemable?)>>

Awesome!!! And my dogs tell me that frisbees are LIFE so I am sure CM loved it 🙂

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

Looking at the ladder game – it was hard to see what the jumping form was because a to of the session was about the stay (which is fine to look at the stay more than jumping for now). Just be sure there is a reward target out past the 3rd jump, so he doesn’t have his head up looking at you.

>>I don’t want his start line stay only tied to getting a treat first. Any suggestions?>>

I don’t think it was about the treat, I think it was about too much testing of the stay and possibly he isn’t quite ready for a 3 jump lead out. He had a good stay going on that first rep until you swooshed both of your arms upwards at :13 – that sudden movement definitely seemed like a release (because sudden arm movement is often paired with the release). He had a negative punisher there, and I think that set the session a bit sideways because he lost confidence in the stay. He was able to hold the sit when you did a little arm movement on the next rep, but then failed again at :53 and 1:08.

So rather than try for all 3 jumps on the lead out, you can put him between jumps 1 and 2 and do a 2 jump lead out. Try not to test or proof the behavior with sudden movements. Instead, just lead out and release separately from your movement. That can clarify things for him with less failure.

Looking at the zig zag game: Since we are talking about the stay, be super consistent with releases here too! You had some releases that happened at the same time as re-connection and arm movement, which can lead to stay errors in this game and the other games.

>>I am not sure why he had more trouble when he started on the left side. I did some back-chaining from the middle wing and he did a little better. Your thoughts?>>

There were a couple of factors in play there:
One was his line up position was a little far from the bar, so you can start him even closer the wing, just past the feet of the wing. That makes the bar more visible and also makes you more visible, while adding the challenge of having to immediately lead change a he exits the stay.

Also, be sure to show the physical cue *then* release. Don’t release and cue all at once for 2 reasons:
– It messes up the understanding of the stay 🙂
– He doesn’t have a chance to look at the line because he is looking at you walking away
Showing it to him for a couple of heartbeats before the release will help him look at it and move to it.

For the last bar, I think it was a little ‘invisible’ in that it didn’t have a wing on the end, perhaps? It was little hard to see from this angle. You can cue with a big shoulder turn to get him over the bar and that will totally help. The back chaining helped too, and you had more obvious handling when you did that. On the reps where he ran past it, he was staying on the parallel line that the handling was supporting there.

Nice work!!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

He is reading the lap turns really well in both directions! Super!! And the FCs and race tracks also looked really good 🙂

>>I like these lap turns, although I can’t imagine how I would ever be so far ahead that I would get to the jump before Mason! >>

Sending to the previous line makes it pretty easy! That is why we also work on big sends 🙂 You can spread the 2 wings out even more, to get the big sends involved so you can easily be at the lap turn wing without having to back up.

>>The main thing I noticed on the video is that Mason is leaping at the MCH. Did I hold my hand out toward him for too long?>>

I see a little bit of him looking up and popping up to the hand – in those instances, the hand cue was actually a little late and a little too high. An example of that was at 1:00 – 1:02, where you were backing up and your hand was about a foot over his head when he got to it. That draws his focus upwards for sure. Ideally, when he exits the previous wing, you would be near the lap turn wing with your arm fully extended towards him and your hand down at nose level. And when he is about 2 inches from your hand, you can start the turn cues (hand and foot moving back). That should smooth things out.

The tandem turns also went really well! I think the same timing and lower hands suggestions can help here too:

>>Maybe I need to move my hand faster on the tandem turns too?>>

Yes, showing him your hand sooner and also lower will allow you to also turn him away sooner. A ‘choppy’ moment was at :42, where he was already passing you when you turned him away.

Compare that to the smoother moment at :51: Your timing there when he exits the wing was really good, the hand cues had already started, and then you turned him away just before he got to you. That was super! And very smooooooth looking 🙂

On the wrap video: You can do it without verbals for now, to get feedback from Mason about the timing! And he gave great feedback.

You can throw sooner for the GO so he doesn’t look back at you over the jump. As soon as he is looking straight at the bar after exiting the wing, throw the reward. And keep moving, even race him to it so you don’t stop moving – we don’t want him to race past deceleration!

>>Once I figured out my part, then Mason got it too. I don’t know why he knocked the bar on the first wrap to the right.

Yes! He is very responsive and he says your decel can come sooner.

You were late on the first rep, with decel starting when he was taking off at :11. He tried to save it and turn in the air but that took the bar down. The timing was similar at :31 & :44 where he ticked the bar.

The reps at :18 and :38 were a stride sooner, so you already can se really lovely turns! I think you can be even earlier, especially as the bars get taller: you can accelerate to the jump until he exits the wing wrap. As soon as he has finished the wrap, you start the decel (doesn’t matter if you are near the jump or not, you can keep moving forward on the decel but it needs to start that early). The rotation can begin when you see his feet lifting off (for now), to help be sure he is committed. The rotation timing will get earlier as he gets more experienced, but the earlier start to the decel and continuing forward til his front feet are up lifting off is a good starting point for commitment.

Great job!!!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>>Mostly because it was too windy for my wings to stay upright and I was too lazy to take them to the barn…>>

This is totally relatable LOL!!!

She did great with the banana line – the further away you got, the more she seemed to hit it with all 4 feet really clearly. No worries about the one miss, the rest were great! You can add more and more speed to this – can she still hit it while you are jogging? And you can do this at home, with treat tossing on carpet.

The extra wobbling did add a lot more challenge! But, teeters (and even some dog walks) can wobbly weirdly so it was still a good practice! And she is very food-driven so she was more than happy to sort it out and eat treats 🙂 I agree – she figured out how to balance on it and ended the session really confidently! Super!!!

>>We have access to full size contacts at the arena we practice at but I wouldn’t have anything to prop the full size teeter up so this is the best we can do. >>

You can bring a couple of step ladders, perhaps? Also, you can put the teeter into as many sequences as possible, so she gets used to it and that will help prepare her for trials.

>>Next time I go to the arena I’ll have to bring the cream cheese to build up that value again.

Great idea! I am sure she will be happy to eat the cream cheese 🙂

Nice work here!!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! Great job on these!

>>but I had set the jumps at 18 feet on the dogs line I thought, but I will check it out. It might have only been 15 feet.>>

She was taking one semi-extension stride between the jumps, so I am guessing it was 15 feet? The lower bars here definitely helped and it also gives us ideas to talk about timing for collections (see below).

Video 1: Looking good! You can do a FC on the tunnel entry and then stay on your left side for the landing side of 3 – that will cue the turn on the tunnel exit and it is fewer moves for you to have to do 🙂

2nd run – nice timing of the FC to the takeoff side of 3! She didn’t take 4 at :32 – your arm was out and you turned to face 5 as he as jumping 3. Compare to :53 with more connection and a step to 4 and she got it beautifully. Super!

Video 2: Also looking really strong!

>>The wrap turns are still very wide. I know that much of that is my timing, but also needed to include my verbals not just her name.>>

Yes, the collections on the wraps are rooted in the timing of the deceleration. On these distances, she is going to make a takeoff decision when she lands (this is typical of AKC and possibly CPE distances). With that in mind, you will want to start the deceleration as she is in the air over the jump before the wrap, so it is visible and in progress before she lands so she can adjust the takeoff point. It will feel early but on those distances, it is correct 🙂 And yes, add in her wrap verbals as the can help too (also starting no later than when she is in the air over the previous bar).

For UKI (and maybe USDAA too) – you will generally see bigger distances like 30 feet so you can start the decel when she lands from the jump. And sometimes in AKC and CPE the distances are bigger, so you can make the timing decision based on the distance coming into the wrap.

So on this sequence, you had a too much acceleration on the RC wrap, so she read the RC but jumped wide, reading the accleration. The FC at 1:12 had more decel so she was tighter on that jump.

The rest looked great! On this sequence, you did a FC right before she went into the tunnel and picked her up on your left after the next jump: perfect and quick handling!

Video 3: this had more decel on the wrap at :03 and earlier rotation so she was tighter here too. With the goal being that she can collect before takeoff, you can begin that decel while she in the air of the previous jump (but don’t rotate until you feel she is committed, which might be when you see the collection on the wrap jump. You an also use exit line connection (dog-side arm back, toy across the body and lots of eye contact :)) to tighten the turn even more

The RC wrap had a lot of acceleration so she was wider on that. She is reading the RCs really well, so decel will tighten them up too.

At the start of this rep, you did the post turn to the blind, and it was more handling for you so getting to your left was later. Compare that to the quick FC you did on the tunnel entry and getting to you left side sooner at :17 – super nice!

The RC at :13 had some decel so she was tighter – starting it as she is over the previous jump will help here too!

At :20, you had decel over the previous jump (yay!) but then a bit of over-helping pulled her off the line. You stayed on the line better at :26 but the decel was a tiny bit later (she landed).
That was a great way to fix, btw: keep going and try it again in motion while adjusting the handling on the fly. Excellent!

Great job here! Let me know what you think!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>> That will be an online camp or in person????>>

CAMP is online! It is our annual summer class for the dogs that are not puppies – I think this is the 12th year?

>>We still struggle with running wild at times…the highest peak of perfection and then free fall into the bowels of hell.>>

It sounds like you are getting more of the peak of perfection nowadays?

>>How about start line training? That is probably super high pressure?>>

I think start line training is as hard or harder than a lot of agility skills! SUPER high pressure and add in the element of being stationary for dogs that are wired to move move move move 🙂 So hard! We are actually focusing on the start line element in the Under Pressure webinars, there is an entire track devoted to dealing with start lines and all the pressure involved 🙂

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

I think the jumping games went well with the bars! She did well with the moving target (had one release before the verbal when you bent over to pick up the toy, but that was legit because she probably thought it was the release and has never been shown other wise LOL!

One thing to look at here – when she was lining up at your left side, she had her right front foot a little forward (like at 1:44 and 2:28) so she did a foot tap before jump 1 which threw off the step-in for jump 1 a bit. Compare to :43 where you faced her on the line up and her feet were more even, so she stepped in perfectly. It could also be that she was a little further away from the jump when lining up at your side.

So having her front feet together and being a little closer to the jump was more effective, but I don’t want to give her BIG MADZ but fussing with her during the line up. For now, line her up with you facing her and not at your side, so you can get the right positioning and not have to fuss with centimeters or exact foot placement at your side. It won’t make a big difference when lining up for sequence, when she has 15 feet or more to organize before the first jump. And you can separately work on lining up at your side with feet together.

Mission transition is going well!! She was able to commit really well while you decelerated! As you decelerate, maintain connection as you decel. You had great connection coming around the wing, but then tended to look forward as you decelerated so she looked up at you before committing.
The go reps went well!

>>Had some feelings about the wrap even when I was trying to connect with her and have her facing the wing before asking for the wrap so switched to a leadout from the jump instead and then she decided she could start with a wing wrap after that. (SO MANY RULES!)>>

Adding the jump before the wing definitely helped! And you can surprise her with reinforcement for just the wing wrap – I realize that there is soooo much value on the jump now and we have not really rewarded the wrap in this context enough to make it worthwhile for her to adjust her rules LOL!

>>2 reps of a rockinghorse/tandem turn in the pratice jump area at Fusion over the weekend during a course walkthrough. Also got some good tugging for tricks .>>

Yay! It sounds like it was a great weekend!!

Nice work here!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Goos morning!

Zig zags look good! You can add a 3rd bar, and gradually work your way back out to it (no need to start on the 3rd wing, you can start closer to the 2nd bar then work your way backwards). It is a big jumping effort, so you can put it into a rotation and visit it maybe once a week, so she has recovery time between reps on it (especially because she is doing other jumping stuff too :))

Get out – there is a definite upper-body-versus-lower-body challenge here for us humans! The more you give her the BIG connection, the better she can do the get out. You can fade out facing the duo with your feet by starting closer to the wing so your line is more parallel to hers. Then as you walk or jog forward, you can look at her immediately as she exits the wing wrap and start the upper body cues while keeping your feet straight. That will be much harder for her, so throw the reward past the jump the instant she looks at the jump (rather than waiting for her to take the jump).

Mission transition is going really well!!!

The first rep at :38 was timely, decelerating when she was about halfway between the wing and jump. :44 and :49 were a little late, decelerating as she was passing you (but you were closer to the jump, so she was close to her takeoff point). :56 was very timely but didn’t have quite enough connection – the reps at 1:00 and 1:05 were the sweet spot of timely deceleration AND strong connection. Yay!!!

Good job sorting out the RCs on the jump after the tunnel:
For the GO lines as the balance reps, you can tell her go before she enters and be sure to keep running forward. That way she is not moving in extension past decel and also not seeing you face the RC line while saying “go” (which also means you don’t want to say ‘go’ on a RC because it conflicts with the physical cue and desired behavior).

The first RC at 1:16 was a little early but then you were really good about moving forward on the RC line to cue the jump and the RC, especially at 1:30! Super!

Lap turns on one wing in both directions looked great! So did adding the wing before the lap turn! My only suggestion on that is to send to the wing from further away, so you don’t need to job backwards 🙂 Onwards to the tandem turns/advanced level!

Great job here!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>Your puppy is adorable. Please bring to MN when you come!!

Thanks! He is totally coming to MN!!

He is doing well with the serps! I think that he was able to find the jump when you were not as far ahead (nearer to the gap or entry wing). When you were further ahead, he ran past it. So you can send to the start wing from further away, and slooowlllllyyy walk past the jump so he comes in when you are ahead on the serps.

Also, be sure to clear the environment of anything that might be a possibility of the placed reinforcement. In this session, there were toys out on the line and he looking at them. They were in a spot where they definitely could have been the placed reward, so I can see his argument there. So for the next session, pick up the other toys so there is only on visual to process.

>>We played with a couple tunnel exits too. I need to do more of these, Mochi helpfully reminded me how important they are at our UKI trial last weekend. >>

Totally agree – the days of deceleration or spins or physical tunnel brakes are long over… it is now the Say The Thing And Run The Other Way Era 🙂 He did great!!! You can move the wings further away so there is more handling visible as you run away for the next wing.

You can also clear the environment on the tunnel exit video – when he exited the tunnel and went to the first wing, there is a soccer ball (I think) and a jump bump that was visible on his line… so he didn’t know what to do there. You removed the ball which totally helped the next rep (try to have it completely out of the picture, not even in your hand, so he knows which reinforcement is in play).

Looking at the rear crosses:

>>And we tried rears. Again. I was determined to get him to turn left. I cut out the multiple attempts of me doing the same thing and expecting him to do something different>>

Try to keep the total session to 2 failures or less, so you can top a session and revisit it another day. Also, there was a high pitched squealing noise in the background, and I am sure that was not helping his brain trying to process the hard mechanics on a rear cross.

Tossing the toy helped but he was looking up and watching the toy and not the line as much on those reps. The placed reward was the right way to go here! At :25 and :39, it was too visible outside the wing. But placing it behind the wing, just past the bump like the last 2 reps, was perfect!

Let the RCs percolate for a day or two then try it again with the toy placement you used at the end here, and I bet he gets it 🙂

Nice work here!!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! It has been a crazy weather week with wind and storms! These were good choices for games and you both did great 🙂

The layering game went well!
Click/treat to you for excellent toy throws here! Layering a tunnel is hard for the littler dogs because they can’t really see us, so adding the verbals and the toy throws got him off to a great start to build up a lot of confidence. You can keep adding motion parallel to his line past the tunnel, and definitely keep up those well-timed toy throws 🙂

Great job with the pill bugs! You can add more connection to him behind you and looking down – he knew to chase your line but I don’t think he knew which side of you to be on. Turning your head to let him see your eyes (and your dog-side arm pointing back to his nose more :)) will help him know which side to be on, plus you can add the blinds too!

Diamond game: Looking really strong too! Two small details:

You can just run closer to the wings on the race tracks rather than send to each wing. That will get even more speed on the big speed lines around the wings. You can get closer to the tunnel so you don’t end up too far ahead on those that way you can connect and run.

He had some questions wrapping to his left at 1:12 and 1:46. It might be a combination of the left turns being harder for him and you were pointing ahead/looking ahead so he was confused about how to approach the wing. Compare to the better connection on the right turn at 1:25, no questions from him! So keeping your arm back and big connection especially on left turn wraps really helps set up lovely commitment.

Tunnel exits at the end – good reward throws! It was hard to see where he was when you started the cue timing, but you can use the physical cues sooner so they match the verbals.

Great job!!!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>>It was 80 degrees today, so we waited until it cooled a bit. >>

Somehow it is summer now! Eek!

>>I typically teach this with the jump perpendicular to the line, to work distance. Am I to assume we will start moving the jump angle, or is your Get Out cue different from mine?>>

It depends on the placement of your jump on the line. My ‘get out’ is a lead change away to find a new line. There often is distance involved but the lead change away is key. Otherwise, distance on a line without a lead change away is a ‘go’ or obstacle names. You can chance the angle of the jump, but for an out make sure it is not on a straight line.

At the beginning o the session, you wrapped him starting on the inside if the wing (first 2 reps) so the jump was a true “out” where he had to lead change away from you to find the line. He did really well! You can add in putting a line down parallel to the bar, so you don’t move to the jump as you cue the out.

When you changed sides, you sent him around the other side of the wing (the outside not the inside) – that put the jump on a straight line (not an out line) and going past the jump was a threadle not a straight line. He didn’t get rewarded when you sent the other side of the wing even though he was correct, and that was why he might have been sniffy (confusion can cause sniffing). He did do the ‘go’ and not take the jump when you dropped your hand and cued it more like a threadle, but be sure to send him to the inside of the wing (the side closer to the jump) and then do a FC so he exits on the side of the wing further from the jump. That will set up the true lead change for the out, and you won’t need to pull him off the straight line.

The turn aways are going well!
On the lap turns: starting him in a stay or a little further away will make the lap turns on one wing easier to cue without having to back up.

Adding the wing wrap before the lap turn went well, it was definitely easier to cue the lap turn! You can send to the wing from further away so you don’t have to jog backwards (I try to convince everyone not to run backwards because we all fall on our butts LOL!!)

Tandems on one wing – keeping him on your hands longer (til he was past the wing) really helped. The wing has a lot of value, so you can mix in rewards for staying on your hands by hand-delivering a cookie before you turn him away. I think this will help a lot when you add the speed coming from the other wing, because he needs to look at your hands for this cue and not at the wing. I am excited that he loves the wing so much that we have to reward him when we don’t want him to go to it for this cue 🙂

Great job here!!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! I love obsessing on reinforcement, and I love that you are also osbessing on reinforcement 🙂 I am actually working on a webinar about it all 🙂

>> I think luring is a good thing so long as it is advanced as the pup is ready, no easy feat. I was asking because I think the INTENTION of what I’m doing is important.>>

I think maybe rather than think of it as luring versus rewarding, think of it as timing of reinforcement (based on slicing the behavior and not lumping) placement of reinforcement. I mean, we have to put the reward somewhere so we might a well place it in a location that helps us get the next step(s) of the behavior 🙂 The choice of whether to place it in advance of starting the cues, or place it after getting a slice of behavior, will depend entirely on the behavior and context – that decision can be made before the session or when things go differently than planned.

>> If I am unsure of my goal and the intended reward criteria, I can miss a lot of rewarding opportunities (especially if I’ve chunked too much for a rewardable behavior).>

Correct! Before starting with him, here are some things to live by and plan for all before the puppy enters the session:

– The goal is to start to get the behavior (or the next step of the behavior if it is not the first session) and not get the finished product, so plan the setup and cues accordingly (that is why the Baby Level games are separate from the advanced level)
– Look for the smallest slices to reward, splitting the behavior down so you can look for that split and reward it
– Choose the best placement of reward to get those little slices, especially if it is a new behavior. This might mean you throw the reward to a certain spot, or place it in advance, or deliver from your hand: all of that depends on the behavior you are working on. How can you reward the tiny slice AND place the reward in a place that helps produce the next slice?
– Live by the 2 failure rule with young dogs in particular (I like it for ALL dogs): you get 2 failures total in a session. Not in a row – it is 2 total. If you hit failure one, it is a yellow light that you might need to change something. If you hit failure 2, you need to change something to set the session up for success and ideally get no more failure. If you can’t get success? End the session with some play and figure it out from watching the video. Or, if you get success? End the session with some play and don’t keep going to the next steps or making it harder… you get more failure that way.
Why is the 2 failure rule so important? Too much failure will change the dog’s arousal state and bring in frustration. With many BCs, they keep ‘working’ but it tips over into frustration and frantic and over-arousal behavior which we don’t want of course – and that can get paired into the game, producing a generalized over-arousal that we also don’t want.

So looking at the video with this in mind:

The get out behavior here is not “take the jump”, the behavior here is “shift your line to look at a new line and lead change away to that line” which is what he did. So you can reward that even if he doesn’t take the jump, like at :16 – he looked a the jump and moved to it… reward that because it was the first slice of the behavior. And the placement of reward is to throw it to the other side of the jump. (He was already past the 2 failure rule there, so the red light in your mind should be flashing to set up success).
You did start rewarding that with earlier toy throws after a few more failures and moving the jump closer. I would end the session there – he was successful and then latent learning can take over.

No need to move the barrel back out in the same session or add more challenge, because this will end up being too many reps in total, and also risks more failure (he was already at 4 failures for the session and you got 4 more by making it harder – 8 failures in a session are too many.)

So there is definite human self-control in dog training LOL!!! That is why the 2-failure rule os great too… I stop myself from adding more challenge or more reps if I am already at 2 failures. I can add the harder stuff later in the week. And I am so in love with the power of latent learning that I love to put a skill away for a few days or a week, then come back to it and magically the pup knows everything 🙂

Looking at the rocking horses through the same lens:
If the goal is to come to your hand then turn away, placement options are to reward for coming to the hand, and the turn away can be rewarded with the toy or treat tossed to the opposite side of the wing. He was great about coming to the hand immediately so placing the reward on the other side of the barrel would be ideal.

It is also normal to see a side preference (canine and human LOL!) because we are all better on one side or the other. He was definitely better turning away to his left here, 100% success! Nice!!! The mechanics of turning to his right were much harder (could be a combo of his mechanics and your mechanics 🙂 ). He could do it very slowly but could not do it fast.

That is where the 2 failure rule kicks in: you had the 2 failures at 2:02, so you can stay at the ‘breaking it down’ level you did by doing it with him close and on one barrel (no speed into it). And the left turn aways can be done with the speed and fancy stuff.

Then in the next session or so, you can go back to the right turns and work them up – eventually the harder side does catch up to the easier side.

By continuing to ask for the right turn away with speed, you got more failure at 2:08, 2:18 and 2:25 and that was followed by frustration behavior (jumping up at you, circling you).

>>He wanted the toy so badly.

It was not that he could see the toy or wanted it more (the toy was in the same place as it was when he was turning to his left), it was that the failure was frustrating – that is important communication from the pup! If my pup says “I don’t get it, I am having a BIG MAD” then it is a good reminder to me that I need to break things down and stop asking for the hard stuff in that session.

So you can set up these sessions with the harder stuff limited to the left turn away for now (the FCs and spins seem great in both directions, because those are different mechanics). And the right turn aways can be done slowly and in isolation, so he can sort it out 🙂

Great job here! Let me know what you think!

Tracy

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