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Hi!
The strike a pose here went really well, he got it nicely from both of the hard angles you had here. Your position was spot on and he had no questions. I am glad you moved to the next step with the manners minder, because that is what I was going to suggest 🙂 He was definitely ready for more. Yay!
T
Hi!
The rocking horses are off to a great start here! You were very specific abour the mechanics – nailed it! One suggestion as you send – Be sure to not step past hte barrel, because that blocks his line for where to go like at 1:03. Compare to 1:29, for example, where you stepped to the barrel and he had no questions at all.
He really lit up when you got the toy involved: that made it all muchy more exciting! He had a couple of questions about going to the barrel after that, but those were more about connection than the toy. When you sent to the barrel on the reps where he curled in towards you, the arm point blocked his view of your eyes. So you can point less (letting your hand follow his nose) and look at his eyes more. That will turn your shoulders to the barrel and he will go very smoothly 🙂
Great job! For the next session, you can add more distance between the barrels and also you can add more of your motion too 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
Great job here – this game does sort of require 3 hands LOL!! It took him a moment to realize that you wanted him to offer behavior on the mat after the tugging at the start, but then he did really well and was offering going across the mat as soon as the toy was out of his mouth.
The cookie trade to get the toy back was perfect, and you used your tug marker too. Excellent!
For future sessions of this, you can attach the mat for something low that he has to step up onto – that will allow you to see all four of his little feet going over it, and he will make very deliberate choices about getting all 4 feet on it. I use duct tape to attach the mat to a small riser 🙂 Nothing fancy needed as long as it doesn’t slip around under him.
>Afterwords I realized the mat was closer than you had suggested.>
Having it a little further away might help you be able to see his feet even better, especially as he continues getting faster and faster acoss the mat.
>I think we have Dublins tummy worked out better which is good since he lost one tooth during this tug>
Perfect! He has lovely toy drive so that takes some of the pressure off of finding treats that don’t upset his belly, but it will be nice to have a variety of treats as rewards too!
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Thank you for getting nerdy with me- I LOVE that stuff >
I love it too! The nerdier we get, the better we understand how to train our pups. It is great for all of us!
>Sunnie was having fun, it was really more for me LOL!!>
Yes – a lot of the handling games are for us humans and the dogs are wiling to teach us as long as we keep it fun for them 🙂 Mission accomplished, she did great!
Your turn hands were very clear so she knew exactly where to drive to. Super! I think she was hitting the prop more too – she definitely knows it is there and is able to hit it AND look at you. Only one rep where you were too early and quick (:16) but you made it clearer on all the others, and one rep where she lost her cookie 😂 but the rest were lovely.
>I am lucky in that my dogs have really solid GIs and don’t get upset stomachs, but I also introduce the food in tiny quantities.
I think I just need to cut the cord & start trying new stuff! When you say small quantities, just try a few pieces of a new food items in a training session & see how the poop goes with that particular food? >Yes – short session, tiny pieces mixed in with food I know they can digest easily. Then I wait and see what comes out the other end LOL! I introduce high value treats early in life so their developing bodies get used to the miracle of cheese, chicken, meatballs, etc.
>So silly asking this, but like I said she’s different than the others who had the typical lab iron stomach LOL!!>
Not silly at ALL!! Mixing it in bit by bit will let us know if she has any food sensitivities.
>Heading to a private agility lesson tonight in a new location – dirt arena! >
How did it go?!?! I am sensing she did great.
Nice work here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
I think she really liked this one-on-one tugging time with da momma!!! Terrific play and cuddles. And you had an excellent amount of time playing tugging after she brought it back – we want the time spent tugging to be SUPER rewarding, so longer tug sessions are perfect. She was hilarious when you were giving kisses though LOL!!!
The retrieving was spot on: she went to the toy immediately and brought it right back. Perfection! And she was still wanting to play at the end. So you can keep adding more distance to this, and changing your position to sitting and standing. And you can try trading for a different toy, so you can throw the 2nd toy after she brings the first toy back and tugs a bit.
Lovely session!!
Tracy
Hi! We can totally transfer you over 🙂 For the working spot: we have the forum working spots like you are doing here. But we don’t have the live zoom classes for MaxPup 3 (although we might add some, folks have been asking :)) Let me know if the Forum working spot is what you are looking for.
Thanks!
TracyGood morning!
The decel session went well 🙂
Good job helping support the commitment here by decelerating and facing forward until she was collecting and at the jump. Super! She had some really good collections and turns! She liked the tugging but definitely liked the thrown reward too – collection is more fun when she gets to run run run after it. Throwing the reward is not as efficient because she takes the toy on a victory tour 😂 but the power of that reinforcement will ultimately result in more commitment and collection.Her only questions here were on the straight line jump – she would sometimes go past it, next to you.
To get her to take the straight line jump, connect to her eyes more s you move past and don’t reach for the toy. When you were looking forward and going for the toy to throw, that would turn your shoulders away from the line a little and also draw her focus to the toy hand 🙂 You can even leave the toy in your pocket and throw it a little late, to help maintain connection and build commitment.The lap turns are going really well too – the timing and motion of the cues were generally spot on so she was able to execute them really well. She particularly liked it when you had her run a bit of a race track around the wings before asking for the turn away. Fun!
You were a little early at 1:38 – she was only about halfway between the wings when you started the motion back, which indicated the other side of the wing (like a rotated send). If that happens, no worries, you can keep going to the next wing or throw the toy. If you walk away from her and stop the game even for a couple of seconds, she gets confused because she read you correctly. You were a little early at 2:19 too but compare to 2:38 and 2:51 and the rest of the reps, where she got just about to your hand and she easily found the turn away. Yay! She really liked when you praised and ran a bit after the good turn away: super!!!
>At the end of this video she sees a person walking a dog on the road. She will often run over to the fence. I stoped trying to do the turns and held her collar for a few seconds but then pulled out lots of treats and started to do basics with her.>
That is super!!!! Great job to you for engaging her with fun trick and stuff – that makes a big difference! In our yards, most dogs practice going to the fence when a dog and/or person goes by. So to be able to keep her engaged with you is excellent! The simple behaviors are perfect, and you can also do pattern games.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>He is very good at communicating.>
This is true, he is always very clear with his opinions and I love it LOL!!
>He got to do tunnel running beforehand. Today’s version of tunnel running I thought might be a little bit too hard but he said it was perfectly fine.>
He did great on relatively complex challenges! He is really locking into staying on his line which is one of the biggest course design trends lately: stay on your line, even at a big distance. It was fun to see him find those lines!! Good boy!
He also did a greta job with the accordion grid – he was holding the stay beautifully and that helped you be able to use the moving target. As he gets more experienced with this context of stay, you can lead out further and move faster too. I am happy with his jumping decisions here:
He was a little ‘upwards’ in his movement on the first release to get to jump 1, but then he adjusted and pushed forward rather than lifting up (hope that makes sense, there is not a lot of coffee on board yet haha). His striding between 2 and 3 was also really good, as jump 3 moved out and back in. Yay!As you continue to show this to him, you can have jump 3 start further away, so it ends up even further on the 3rd rep. If it begins at 5 feet from jump 2, the next session can have jump 3 start at 8 feet away, so the biggest distance is 14 feet (or 15 feet if you like that distance better :)) Then you can keep playing with showing him bigger and bigger distances so he gets experience with all sorts of distances!
Great job here 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
Nice job with the lateral lead outs! And yes, thank you Kathy for keeping you on track with leading out to the side before moving forward to set the line 🙂 All she had to say was “sideways” and it was cracking me up LOL
The wing and jump set up went really well, and so did the 2 jump set up. Leading out next to another jump is a big visual draw for the dogs, so it is not unusual that she will want to come directly to you. Yes, moving sideways then leading out straight will help! And you got your toy throws in early, which also helped a lot. It was easier when you were on the landing side.
But most of her questions were because she was looking at you, so we will get her looking at the jump before the release which will increase the success of finding that jump. Ember has the same homework 🙂
The way to get her looking at the jump is to have her in the stay, and put a reward target (toy or food bowl or lotus ball) on the landing side of jump 1, tucked in where the wing and bar meet. When you lead out, slowly raise your hand (so she doesn’t think it is a release) and point to the jump.
When she looks at the jump/reward target, even if it is an eyeball flick, release her. As she gets better and better at looking at the jump/reward on cue, you can start to fade it out by tucking it more and more behind the wing, so she can’t really see it (but trusts that it is there) and still looks at the jump. Then when she is good at that, you can fade the reward target out entirely but still cue her to look at the jump, then throw the reward when she takes the jump.
Looking at the accordion: She is reading the distances well, but you will also have the same homework as Ember on these: moving target time 🙂 so you can get her powering off her rear and not driving from her front.
>The initial jumps were 5’ apart. Does that look ok or do you think it should be bigger?>
I think the distances are good for now, but we might change that to 6 feet when you add the moving target. By using a stationary target, she is working to slow down on jump 3 rather than power through it, so she is shifting forward to her front end. At :57 and 2:53 she added a little chip stride to be able to slow down (she will be able to bounce that distance). The other distances have better striding but she was thinking about stopping at the target, even with you in motion. Those were the correct jumping decisions so now we can ask for different ones 🙂
So, for the next session: use a toy or lotus ball that is on a line so it can drag on the ground as you move. Her stay looks great so you can lead out to where the reward was here, put the reward on the ground then start to drag it as you move forward after the release. I bet we see more hind end and power!
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning! You had two really good threadle wraps (coming towards the camera) and a few that caused him to go to the other side of the wing (moving away from the camera).
The difference was in how you cued them: on a threadle wrap, we humans have to turn to move parallel to the line the dog needs to take to get to the threadle side of the wing. This is a subtle adjustment in line which generally needs us to pull away from the wing (or jump). And while we are setting the line like that, we also decelerate which cues the collection – and we continue those cues until the dog locks on and turns to the correct side of the wing (or jump).
So on the threadles that went great (:05 and :32) – you turned to be parallel to the line you wanted him to take and decelerated, showing the hand cues and using the verbal. Nailed it! He didn’t find the tunnel on that first rep but no worries that will be easy soon 🙂
Compare to the 2nd threadle wrap at :19 – he went to the other side of the wing here because you turned towards the wing and used your outside arm to show the wing, so he read it is a rotated send/throw back.
At :50, you converged towards the wing and accelerated, so he read it as a normal wrap there too.
You almost had it at 1:11 where you did turn to move parallel to the threadle line! But before he could get past you, you accelerated and converged towards the wing, which pushed him back to the regular wrap side.
So turning to move parallel to the line he needs to take (and not moving towards the wing) and decelerating more will get the nice threadle wraps on the left turns there too 🙂
I think there was one other spot where he did something you didn’t intend but you kept going beautifully: He was a good boy at :45 and 1:04 to go straight after the tunnel. You said the ‘right’ verbal after he exited and you were facing straight, so he thought it was ‘go to the wing ahead then turn right’. Good job continuing! So if you didn’t want the straight-ahead wing, remember to cue your right verbal before he enters and let him see your turn your shoulders. If you wanted him to go straight, you can use your go cue and then continue the right verbal and handling when he exits the tunnel like he did here.
Great job here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
The lateral leadouts are going really well! The first session with the wing and jump was pretty perfect 🙂 The possibly second session was a little harder, because the jump next to you was ore of a visual draw for her – but she figured it out really quickly 🙂 The stays are looking strong and she found that first jump really well. Super!
The only suggestion is that we can get her to look at the first jump more, so she doesn’t take a step towards you (especially as you add more and more distance). You can do that by placing the toy on the ground near where she would land on the way to you. Then led out, slowly lift your arm so she doesn’t think it is a release: then when she looks at the toy, release her to the jump (and to the toy). That will get her looking at the jump on cue, then it is easy to fade the toy out by tucking it behind the wing so it is harder to see and she looks at the bar.
Looking at the accordion: She was reading the distances here but also jumping looking at you – the reward was far away but you were stopped before it, so she was not sure if she should go to the you or the reward. You were moving towards it on the 3rd nd after that, but the stationary reward causes her to shorten up on the 3rd jump so she is using her front end more than her rear. Easy fix! Use a moving target reward 🙂 You can lead out to where the reward was in this video, and use a toy on a line or a lotus ball on a line that os long enough to be on the ground while you are holding the other end and standing up. Then as you release her, start moving forward/dragging the reward. This will help her use her rear and look down to the target, really powering through the jumping.
Nice work here!!!!
Tracy
Hi!
He was very good about going to get the toy AND bringing it back every single time. Most puppies his age might go get the toy but they don’t bring it back like he did LOL! 😂😝🤣
Since he is happy to get it and bring it, there are a couple of ways we can get more exuberance 🙂 I think the smaller space with you facing him was getting him to be a bit calmer about it. So you can add more excitement: in a bigger space with grippy footing – hold his collar. Then toss the toy. When it lands let him go get it… and when he has it in his mouth, you can start moving the other direction, encouraging him to bring it back. When he gets to you, you can play a bit of tug then hold him and throw a 2nd toy in the other direction. The retrieve might not be as perfect as it was here, but we can balance that with the excitement of the moving toy.
I recommend holding him until the toy lands so he doesn’t chase a moving toy and accidentally twist himself or splay.
He definitely liked the ball a whole lot! He was fired up for it! This is good to know – we need to be careful when using balls so that he doesn’t splat or splay himself trying to get it and hurt himself. You can hold him before a ball throw as well – it makes it safer to let the ball land and stop moving. The pups tend to jam their bodies when the ball is moving unpredictably so I always let the ball stop moving before sending the dog.
I also like to put a tennis ball inside a hollee roller toy – I cut one of the plastic lines on the hollee roller and shove a ball through the gap 🙂 That makes it easier to throw, it won’t bounce as unpredictably, and it is much easier for the pup to scoop up. I bet he will lov that too 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi! Sounds like a great weekend with Kamal! I bet Rusty had a ton of fun. How did Folger do?
Rusty thought the Manners Minder was a gift from the dog training gods LOL!! He seemed almost shocked in a happy way that some random robot would dispense easy cookies LOL!!
And he did well going through the box and over the mat to the manners minder.
Now that that has been established, we can do 2 things with this behavior:
– Isolate the criteria and only click the MM for his back feet hitting it (rather than front feet). The easiest way to do that is to stare at the mat as he moves and not at him 🙂 I literally count 1-2-3-4 for each footfall, and click when I get to 4. If I don’t get to 4, I don’t click 🙂
– Take out your motion! That will make it really independent 🙂 So for this game, you have 2 options:
* you can stand on the opposite side of the Manners Minder and just send him without you moving. When he drives ahead to the mat, click the MM when you see foot #4 hit it. Then call him back to you and reward when he comes back over the mat.
* Another option is to pull up a chair and sit a few feet away from the mat: toss a cookie to one side, then let him offer going across the mat (and reward from the manners minder).>Should I be using a yoga mat rather than the rug square and doormat.>
Anything that has good grip will work well! As he gets older and more into the training of this skill, we will be attaching it to something a little taller, so the mat is elevated.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
The tunnel running looks SO FUN!!! You can add it in between the more cerebral work of the forward focus, so he can let loose in the middle too 🙂He did really well looking forward! I am glad you started moving the reward target to more of a turn line – having it out straight was encouraging extension when the physical position was a strong turn cue. That is what his feedback was about at 1:02 😂 He was like “why do you want me to jump in extension when clearly you are showing a turn cue?” Having the reward target on a turn line made more sense to him.
You can keep tucking it in more and more behind the wing (where the wing and jump meet) to begin fading it out. Since the bar is really low, it can be relatively close to- making it less visible so he will look at the bar more without needing the target.
As the behavior grows, you can start to delay the release and add in some quiet praise before the release. That way he won’t anticipate the release (like at 1:41) by releasing as soon as he looks forward. He might hold the forward focus when you delay and praise, or might flick his eyes back and forth: both are perfectly fine 🙂 You can add a forward focus cue as well when you raise your arm: that can help cue the forward focus and it is also a secondary ‘stay’ cue for a lot of dogs 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
It was hard to see her cute face for the beginning ad towards the end (she was hidden behind the wing :)) but it looks like you made really good progress getting the forward focus! You can keep adding in your lateral distance, as well as moving the reward target further and further off the line – ideally, it gets tucked in behind the wing on the landing side where the wing and bar meet, so she can’t really see it 🙂 Then we fade it out entirely 🙂
When you put your hand up to indicate the jump and she looks at it – add in some quiet praise now and even a reward tossed back to her here and there, so she doesn’t anticipate the release from the stay. She was leaning forward at the end and we don’t want to lose the lovely stay 🙂 You can also add a forward focus cue when you raise your hand if you like, but plenty of people don’t use a verbal and that is fine too 🙂
Looking at the accordion grid:
>Is she started to close? She looks odd.>
She was not too close – what you were seeing was that she was adding a stride in between jumps 1 and 2 (instead of bouncing) on all the reps except rep 3. That could happen for one of 3 reasons (or a combo):
– If you were facing her when you released her, she might be shortening up because facing her cues collection (you were not visible so it was hard to see). Let me know if you were turned away and dragging the reward.– The distance might be too big. I scrolled back to her ladder grid and the initial distance was too big, but when you shortened it at :28, she was able to bounce. The session is here:
Was the distance used in the accordion a 5 foot distance, or a smaller one like the ladder grid (looks like 4 feet?)
– she might be sore in her shoulders, and jumping short because of it. A young Border Collie coming out of a winter with lots of snow & ice could very well have banged herself around 🙂 so if there is a massage therapist or sports vet you can get in with, have them give her a massage to look for trigger points and see if that helps her feel more comfy to power through.
The reading of the distances here went great, so we can focus on sorting out why she wants to be a little short in her striding in that first distance.
The backsides went really well! You were connecting brilliant so she was getting super independent on the finding the backside. That allowed you to get further across the bar which helped her commitment to taking the bar when she got to the backside. SUPER!!!! Great job with your reward placement! The tunnel was not a distraction at all.
Since she was so good about getting to the backside independently, you can keep working your way across the bar so you can easily slide past the exit wing – that brings the countermotion exit into play so you can build up to those fancy independent backside moves like the German turn.
Great job here!
Tracy
