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Good morning and welcome back! Tons of great stuff on your videos!
Collar grabs: he was a super good boy here! As the games get more intense and exciting, try not to lift or pull up on the collar – when he is in a calmer state like he was in the video, he will let you do it but in a more aroused state, he might avoid it because pups are more sensitive to that feeling. You can see that bit of avoidance in the toy race video.
You can also line him up at your side or between your feet, hold the collar, the throw the treat – that helps the collar grab get associated with movement and fun stuff, plus increases arousal from the cookie chasing 🙂
Goat tricks:
Very clever to have the yoga mat to help add grip to the upside down bosu!! He already has good balance (not surprising, you are a pro) so you can give him indoor ‘hikes’ to do by spreading out all of your random stuff that he can trot over, climb on, turn around on, etc – make a different trail each time 🙂 We will be building on this soon!Wing wraps w/ forward focus:
He loves that flirt pole at the beginning! And it was VERY cool to see him go back to the toy at the end, after 2 minutes of cookies *while the cookie bowls were still on the ground*!! That was a huge happy dance moment!!During the session:
You can ask him to line up at your side (cookie lure and hand cues are perfectly fine for that) so he gets even more value for lining up. At 1:21 you sent him for a ‘search’ cookie which helped line him up, which I think he preferred in terms of clarity over being swung into position. At 1:41, you had a hand cue/cookie cue and that was lovely!!He did well going past the bowl when he was on your left side, pretty perfect! It was definitely harder when he was on your right but he worked it through really well by the end!
So on the easier side, dog on left, especially since you were able to stand up: you can add a verbal cue to this if you want a verbal on it. Because he is going to look at the cone when you point at it, you can line him up, hold him, say the verbal, point at the cone… then when he looks at it, release to the bowl.
He might not quite be ready for the verbal when he is on your right side, or latent learning might kick in and he will be perfect next time 🙂 You’ll definitely want to hold him, though, because he needs to hear the verbal and see the hand cue before he starts to move.
If you don’t want to add a verbal, no problem – lots of folks do this without a verbal.
And on both sides – you can keep move the bowl around the cone so it eventually ends up right next to him 🙂
Toy Races – he totally smoked you even without a lot of running room! Good boy! And it was a good win for you on the 2nd to last rep – he might have thought that something fell out so he stopped short of the big prize: you win! He was not going to let that happen again haha and smoked you on the last run.
This was easy peasy – when the weather is clear, it is a good one to take outside. And we can always have you cheat to win if we need him to dig in more 🙂Proprioception cavalettis: This was an interesting session to watch!
He was very smooth and balanced on your right but rushing when he was on your left. Of course we always look for a side preference or an imbalance in the dog, but I don’t think that was the case here. It is entirely possible that the rushing had to do with the raised dog bed as the target, and no wall behind it. He was getting excited to hop on the dog bed! And with the wall & smaller bed on the dog-on-right side, he was not inclined to rush to hop onto it.
It would be fun to test the theory if you can use a small bed & wall with him on your left! You can also see how he does when he is more excited by the big bed without you moving – I am a big fan of working proprioception with arousal, but we want to find the starting point where things are super smooth before adding more 🙂Plankrobatics: I loved his limbo moment at the beginning LOL! Then his between the feet moment at the end 🙂 So clever!
Once he was on the plank, he was happy to move across it and turn around. The sit was easy, the down was good too once he realized what you wanted haha Can he go from a sit to stand, or down to stand on the flat? That would be a good one to add to the plank!Getting on the plank was a harder – he wanted to use his front more than his rear, so in a separate session y can use the top of the klimb (no legs) and the plank so he can practice jumping onto the plank without as much height. That can get more hind end involvement.
He seems to be showing us a side preference here! Turning right? Easy peasy!!
Turning left was harder, whether it was getting on the plank or turning to the left on the plank. He would either choose a right turn, or his feet would not be quite as coordinated on the left turn. When he was getting on, he almost always chose the right turn like at :53 when a left turn would be the most efficient way to get on the plank but he jumped up, turned right, then got on the plank. At 1:13 chose the right turn side to get on, even with your body position indicating that the left turn (blue klimb) side would be easier.
You can help him more on the left turns, showing him which side to jump up on and using slower hand motion/body cues when you are indicating the left turn on the plank. That way he gets to practice the left turns too.
Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Haha. Everyone wondering what’s in my hand. >
The brain is wired to focus on what is being hidden from view LOL!!! And I guess my brain-state is similar to a baby puppy 😂😆
>I’ll try the food toss. In the past, she wouldn’t come back and step on it. But, she seems to have a better understanding now. >
She has had really rapid development in understanding. Part of it is the pups learn how these games are played, including that cookie toss being a context cue to come back and get on the thing again 🙂
>I do believe she’s a thinker versus a doer at this stage in life.>
That is good! I believe that pups that fling themselves at things can be grappling with an internal franticness or overarousal. She is a really lovely balance of offering behavior and playing 🙂
On the video: a lot of what we teach puppies at this stage is the transition in-and-out of ‘work’, and I think this session really looked great in this respect – and she was also great about offering the barrel behavior, which we want for future stuff too! YAY!!!
That long toy was PERFECT – nice and long to get maximum squiggle and chase, but also flat enough that if fits in her mouth.
When you went from the toy to the shaping on the barrel, she was great about getting into the offering for the treats! She was definitely working that puzzle and did some lovely back-and-forth offering!! Yay!
Then the energy of you going across the room to grab the toy got her right back into toy mode after both shaping moments.Her second transition back to the shaping was even quicker – she was like “I got this!” even with the slightly different picture of the barrel being fully expanded and on the ground.
And the last transition back to the toy was great! That energy burst to go grab it really shifts her focus away from food and back to play. And you didn’t even have to run too far away LOL!!
So much good stuff here!!!! With the other food-to-tug games, this setup will work well too (moving across a room to get the toy play). You won’t have to do it forever 🙂 but it is lovely for now!
For the wing wrap foundations… let this one sit for a day or two to give her brain some time to lock it in 🙂 Then pick up where you ended: sitting with the upright barrel. And if she ‘remembers’ it in that session, within a couple of treats you can add a tiny bit of distance. Separately (keeping the barrel close) you can add in you standing up. Which one you do first (standing or adding distance) is totally up to you! We need both but we don’t want to add them both in the same session.
Great job!
TracyHi! Hooray for her smoking you in the toy race game!
Ah yes, I remember the backgammon game! Little Dot did GREAT here! I am very happy with the instant offering. The next step before sending to it will be to have you standing up as she is offering to hit it. That might make it hard to place the reward right on it or deliver from your hand, but that is ok – you can use your ‘find it’ to toss it off to the side so she hops off then comes racing back to you. And if she does a good session of hitting it with you standing? Onwards to sending!
And she did well with the toy after the food! She and I were both drawn to your hand behind you back – we both were looking at it, wondering if you had cookies in it LOL!! So rather than challenge her with that (at least, not yet), you can toss the last treat for the offered paw hit, then tug with visible and empty hands, then you can end with a scatter after reaching for a few treats from up on the table. I think she will eventually have zero trouble tugging while you have treats in your hand, but for now we can take baby steps to get there and keep things a little more separate.
Great job!
TracyThank you! It is a free webinar on using video, so I am going to play it without the sound first, then turn on the sound so folks can hear what was going on and how well she did!! I will send you the recording of the webinar 🙂
T
Hi!
The shaping in arousal went great! The goal is to convince her brain to still be able to use her body well, even when she is more stimulated (many adult sporty dogs struggle with this!). She did great! It looks like she offered interaction with the dog object really well – and when there was a moment when she didn’t get the treat (it looked like she thought you had tossed it?) she gave you a super deliberate “look I am smacking my paw on it!” at 1:12. Ha! Brilliant girlie!
You can keep showing her different things to offering behavior on – this will bring you into the various goat games too!
>My partner was doing yard work so I “lost” Jazz at one point but moved my location (saw your feedback to Ginger) and got her back.>
Yes! She seemed to have a visual distraction and then she caught a scent. Your response was great, to move yourself and the toy to a new spot to get more movement in the toy and more engagement. Super!
>Next up will be toy races – when the yard cools off. The challenge I’ve run into with this is that she becomes very bitey when highly aroused. Sharp puppy teeth and old skin don’t go well together.>
Show me all the bitey moments! There are a lot of ways to teach her to not get bitey but seeing them in context will help. For toy race, you can use the bigger possible toy. For general tugging, super long toys help keep little teeth off of our flesh 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
>We laughed so much about him telling me to go fetch his toy!>
It was so funny! IF he could snap his fingers or ring a bell to have his staff gather his toy up, he totally would have LOL!
It sounds like the big city trip was fantastic exposures for him!
> He had a great time exploring and had one startle moment when a tent side suddenly flapped in a gust of wind right into his face but he recovered quickly and was right back to exploring the same spot a few seconds later. He really was not a fan of super loud motorcycles (I don’t blame him for that) but otherwise handled all the busy places well too. >
This is all good, even the stuff that was new or startling.
>He thought it was quite concerning to see a dog tied to a tree outside a shop without its human present. The dog was calm, Aelfraed likes dogs, and we had also passed a couple of dogs with their people as other points in the walk which was fine so I don’t think he was upset about the dog specifically. However, seeing this dog all by itself caused him to issue one single sharp bark and was the only time he barked during our whole outing. It was very interesting.>
Super interesting! I wonder if he has never seen a dog without a person? And the tree was a weird looking person LOL!
>He has only met my sister once before so far, about 3 months ago, but he was quite happy to play tug and some version of fetch with her (indoors) which I thought was great.>
So awesome! It sounds like a really great adventure for the little dude. I love it! The next step is to bring him to outdoor cafes 🙂
Tracy
Hello!
These are a series of superstar sessions 🙂Wing wraps:
That first video was GREAT – there was a party in your yard and she ROCKED it! There was a toy behind you so she brought it over, then went back into the game. Much to be proud of here, especially how well she engaged with you!! Can I borrow this video to show people as a great example of a baby dog staying engaged, even with big distractions in the background?Scrolling down to the 2nd barrel wrap session: much easier, no party in the background LOL! She did great! And I am glad you were standing, that was the next step .She wrapped really well and did get back on the toy even though there was good food smells around. You were so fun, re-engaging her with the toy. Super!! This game is ready for the next steps coming on Tuesday.
Looking at the collar grab video: Lovely! She was half nose-touching here, which was also great because she was very happy to be next to your hand and have you reach towards her. You can add in lining her up at your side, then taking her collar. But I think she will be perfect there too.
I loved the crazy wobbly setup for the goat games! You read my mind – I was going to suggest taking the toy out of her mouth and see if she would hop onto it by herself… and that is exactly what you did. Yay! Super! Yo can keep showing her crazy setups for her to walk around on.
Great job on all of these!
Tracy
Hi!
>I wasn’t going to go straight into standing up, but he went straight into it!>
It was great! He said he was ready! He was a good boy zipping back and forth around it.
I loved when he worked through the frustration of not being sure of what to do, when you moved it too far away so he didn’t get rewarded for a couple of rep – you brought it back in a little closer, he barked at your for a heartbeat… then put himself back into the game. SUPER!!! And that was a good way to handle it: no need to mark his miss with an oops or anything. And when he missed twice, you moved it back in a little and waited. It was a big resilience moment for him, to be able to regulate the frustration and get back into the game. YAY!!!
Do you have anything taller? That would be the next object to wrap around, and we can use it in the new game coming on Tuesday 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi!
This was great fun to watch. Thanks for your help, Sprite! Dot was like “we are getting on things now? Cool!” so you got a ton of offering then continued offering while you put Sprite in the x-pen.
Yes, the disc didn’t have as much offering on it but that might have partially been that it was further from the other stuff, and also that it feels weird (that stubbly surface) and it moves. You can cram it in among the other stuff more, and cover it with a towel so the surface is not as weird.I wonder if, for now, the square blue thing would be good for the prop games here? We don’t need to use it as a prop for long, then it can go back to being used for conditioning stuff.
> I’ll see what I can do with separating the toy and food. I’m not sure how to film that though.>
Part of it will probably be off camera, so you can choose one or the other to get on camera. Or, you can do it outside where the camera can cover a wider area.
Have fun! Nice work here with the ‘stuff’!
Tracy
Good morning!
> I feel like I’m playing “catch-up” with my videos so I hope I’m not overdoing the postings. >
You are doing great! And feel free to post multiple videos, if you’ve done multiple sessions of stuff 🙂
>All my cones are in our RV so I may try using a bucket for her to wrap around.>
Perfect!!!
>Here is our Blind Cross Foundation session from two days ago. I feel like my timing is off (gee… I haven’t heard that before LOL). >
Ha! Yes, this game works the dual-purpose of working on our timing, and teaching the pups that we humans might be late with info LOL!!
>Should I be rotating right when she leaves the treat? >
She is a speedy pup, so yes – as soon as she starts running towards you, you can start the blind. She was running toward you as soon as you said her name.
>I’ve been waiting till she is actually running to me so I’m late with rotating.>
That was making the blind happen when she was about halfway to you, which is maybe one stride late – but the timing will matter less if the reconnection is super quick, which comes from reward placement:
> Also not sure which hand I should have the toy. I start with it on the original side and then transfer it when I rotate. Not sure if that’s the best approach.>
The best way to let her see fast, clear connection on the new side is to place the reward across your body (opposite arm) and not in the dog-side arm. You would start with the toy in the dog-side/original side like you did – but don’t transfer it to the other side. Keep it in the original side and put it across your belly as you finish the blind. This pushes the new dog-side shoulder back and really opens up connection!
Yes it will feel weird LOL!! But the toy in the dog-side arm when you finish the blind actually delays the visible re-connection after the blind, and you can see her responses were delayed on those. Visible connection is what produces the side change and the toy across the body is the best/fastest way to do that.
On the first rep, you had the toy in your original dog-side hand (right hand) and as you finished the blind, you kept it there and showing it across your body. Her side change there was super snappy, even though you probably had the shortest head start (and therefore late blind, she was almost to you) on that rep. On the other reps, you showed the toy with your new dog-side hand and even with earlier timing – she was later in seeing the new side.
So keep doing what you did on that first rep! If you freeze the video at :05 you will see absolutely beautiful connection and she knew exactly where to go. Yay!
>Worked on the Shaping in Arousal game this morning. That will be our next post.
Looking forward to it! Great job here!
TracyHi!
She is an excellent goat 🙂 She looked very happy to interact with the upside down thing in the first video and even got her back feet on it when you waited for more. What a good girl! She was even getting spicy and offering MORE when the rewards were not coming fast enough, in her opinion LOL!
She offered all 4 feet on the moving object, but was close enough to you that it didn’t move. You can help her move it by standing and walking around, so she is moving it a lot! You used your reward placement to get her to rock it back and forth (that was ADORABLE, she was surfing LOL!!) so adding your movement as you walk around it will get her smacking it even more and approaching from different angles.
In the coming weeks, keep adding different objects for her to walk on, slam, move, etc, so we can maintain this confidence though adolescence and beyond.Great job here!!
TracyHi!
Yay! She is totally getting it, zipping around the barrel. Super!!
You can let her see you putting the treat in the bowl after she arrives at it, because that will help affirm that she was correct.She didn’t always seem to know to look at the bowl to find the cookie when she didn’t see you put it in there LOL!
The distance you got here was perfect – the next step is to do this exact same session, with you standing up 🙂 That will lead us in perfectly to what is being added on Tuesday!
Great job 🙂
TracyHi!
>Yes, I randomly hum tunes. I’m not sure why the circus one popped in my head.>
Singing, humming, and pajamas are all important parts of puppy training videos hahaha!!
> Sometimes she really doesn’t want the toy as you’ll see in this session. I don’t want to force her. >
I think the challenge her is balancing the food interest with the toy interest. And to keep the interest in the toy high, it might need to be presented in a different location because the food presence really drew her attention away from the toy here. She did tug, the interest is there, so it might just need to be set up a little differently so we don’t have the competing stimuli of the food and bowl.
One thing you can do is start the toy play in a different spot, away from the smell/visual of the food. Then run into the food area, do a food session…. Then leave the area and get back into the tugging 🙂 That also gets the toy really active! With my Papillon, I used to run down the hallway to play tug, then back into the original room for shaping, then back down the hallway. It was an excellent work out hahaha! But it maintained the interest in the toy play without having to worry about food as the distraction. (It was hard to video, but totally worth it).
>I’ll try to remember tying them together. She’s better with smaller toys to grab onto. Most of my stuff is too thick at this point for her.>
Yes, the toy in your hand is perfect! Yo can put something longer on it as a handle for you to take off and run to a different spot, dragging it for her to chase and grab 🙂
She did well with the forward focus and stealth self-control here! That bowl got pretty far around the cone, she was super!
Something we can consider is delaying the marker because I could see it potentially get confusing. If you say bowl when she looks at the cone and then you let go… she might not be wrong if she goes directly to the visible bowl and not around the cone 🙂 It is not an issue when the bowl is on th obvious line around the cone, but when things get harder and he will need to pass this bowl… it might be better to let her start moving (the collar release or a yes can be the context cue for that) and then say the bowl marker when she is at the cone and past the bowl.
You can also play this game entirely with a toy, no food at all, so you don’t have to worry about balancing interest in toys with interest in food!
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
>I was surprised by her interest in the food as she wasn’t really food motivated when we played it in the past.>
She was definitely interested in the food here, that is great! And that helped her pick up gong back-and-forth really well! She spent some extra time chewing LOL so you can try small slurp-able bit of treats, like tiny pieces of cheese. She won’t hear them plunk into the bowls but I don’t think she needs that anymore.
The next step to this would be to put an upright in front of you, to get started with getting her to go around objects. I am sure she will find it easy!
>I included switching off the “dead” toy as the previous times I had a really hard time getting her off the dead and onto the live. No problem with that this time. I guess there is something to be said for latent learning.>
She did great here!!! Yes, latent learning can be magical 🙂 The next step here is to get her to let go of the toy by making it dead – but delay activating the other toy til she starts moving towards it. That can establish the back-and-forth pattern she was doing with the food – and as soon as you have that pattern established, you can put the upright in here too.
Great job!
TracyGood morning! I love having people hold puppies for this game! And the auntie was so cute, cheering for him 🙂 He did great!!
Has he also done restrained recalls? When you started running, it looked like his first impulse was to look at you, and that might be him asking if he was supposed to do a recall or run ahead to the toy. So to give him the feeling of leaving you in the dust, you can be moving but not as fast – pretend you are running for real, but only run half speed.
And you can use a marker to indicate the toy is in play o he doesn’t have to watch you (‘get it’, for example, if he is familiar with that one). He was beating you to the toy (good boy!) so now I want him to feel the joy of leaving you in the dust without looking at you first.
Most pups do what he did, which is take the toy on a short victory lap before coming back for the next rep. I have always considered that to be a bit of a decompression, where they are moving off the pressure of us humans running hard next to them – and I think it is great!
His little barks were HILARIOUS when he was finished with his victory lap and was ready for his staff (you haha) to pick up the toy for the next rep. He has such a big, fun personality!
Great job!
Tracy
