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Good morning!
She is off to a strong start with the rocking horses! And there was some distraction in the environment – what was that beeping? I am sure that her brain was devoting some attention to that.
>I discovered she can turn much better to the right than the left.>
Yes, I totally see what you mean! The turns to her right (off your left) are pretty easy for her!! At the beginning, she really wanted to turn right on the left turn wing too 🙂 She had some creative ways of offering it LOL!
> Not sure if it’s from obedience where she’s more comfy on my left,>
This is a possibility – be sure you do all obedience exercises on both your left AND right side (I know, I am a crazy person haha) so she is balanced with that.
>if it’s just her stronger turn direction >
It might jut be a turn preference – most dogs have a turn preference at this stage. You worked it out really well – clear, slow mechanics produced a bunch of lovely left turns by the end!
>Going forward should I do more reps on her weaker side or keep it even?
>Keep it roughly even. When doing 2 in a row, start with the harder side then after the FC send to the easier side. That will make for easier mechanics for her and get more success on the harder side. And keep the mechanics slow and clear on the left turn side.
Rotated sends: I agree, these went well! She committed with you forward, sideways and backwards! AND you got a bunch of left turns! They were harder so you can be closer to the wing on those and hold your position longer. When you stayed in position until she was about halfway around, she got it. But if you twitched an moved a little too soon (as she was arriving at the cone), she came back towards you.
The left turns will catch up pretty quickly so keep showing them to her and she will sort out the mechanics.
The strike a pose concept transfer went great! And she turned smoothly in both direction 🙂 Only one tweak in mechanics: your feet should point towards the reward hand (where you would be going next) and not to the serp hand 🙂
Since she did really well here, you can add in using a toy as the reward – first in your hand like you did with the treats here, or on the ground so she comes into your hand then out to the toy. You can also use an empty food bowl on the ground under the reward hand then plop a cookie into it. The goal would be that she comes in then turns herself back out. You might see her side-swiping the target hand at this stage and that is perfectly fine because it means she understands the in-then-out.
Great job!!
TracyGood morning!
>By self control fold in game are you referring to the remote reinforcement game? Which game do you mean? There are tons of games.>
It is the one involving forward focus and wrapping a cone while the toy or bowl gets further around it until she has to pass the toy/bowl in order to get to the cone. I know she has done the first parts really well so it would be good to keep advancing this game:
>I tried toy remote reinforcement with the new high value toy. She struggled and stole it off the table. Later, she tried to jump on the table and fell over backwards hitting her head. Stunned her. So, I had to move toy toy to the fridge top. This is HARD for her.>
The good news is that the new toy was purchased to be high value and easy to hold onto – mission accomplished! It looks like it has fur on it and that takes it to a whole new level. And that probably made it too hard for this game at this stage (novelty plus fur). So an easier less interesting toy will work better.
Also, if the toy is very high value, you can split the behavior a bit by giving her cookies for walking away from it. The remote reinforcement game might not have enough value in it yet for her to understand why it is good to leave a treasure behind. Putting it on top the fridge helped but I think using a little bit of food to help build value for leaving toys is a good way to split the behavior at this early stage.
She was able to sit at the end, so she is definitely making progress!
>The jumping up is becoming a problem. Today she leapt into the chair in the kitchen. She’s going to hurt herself.>
She is persistent! Puppies are really active at this point – I often remove chairs if they might get up on them even if I am right there, and I also get a zillion chews that I rotate through (so there is novelty plus an outlet for some of the activity level). Plus lots of getting the pups put running around, leash walks, etc. to burn off some of the steam so they are less ‘busy’ at home.
>This clip is long as she didn’t want to release the toy.>
The toy was super high value, so be sure you mix in rewards for releasing it – it can be cookies, or giving the toy back. If the toy goes up on a table or something after she releases it, she is less likely to release and more likely to hold onto it.
Nice work here!
Tracy
Dude! This was a great session!
I love how you emphasized all the reinfrocement for the stay (and hitting him in the head with the toy on rep 1 was just hilarious 😂)
All the value in the stay made getting the serp very easy because you were in position and giving clear info, all before the release. Super!!! He was wildly successful. I think he had one question on a sit (you were a bit disconnected on the new side stepping over the bump) but you fixed all that immediately. Yay!For the next time you play with the serps, you can change his stay position to be in that center-of-the-bar position, then also to the harder angle of having to come in on a wrap approach.
Based on how well he did here, you can also add the threadle concept transfer that we added on Tuesday. It will be easy for him, I believe!
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
>I’m also confident that this baby grew while I was at work today.>
They grow like crazy at this age!
>I’m pretty sure my mechanics went out the window, I’ll watch the toy part of your video again.>
Using the long toy does require 3 arms but I think you did well and he was confidently blasting through the tunnel with no questions! He had a couple of different angles of approach too, which was great. There was a moment or two where he was a little sniffy but I think that was a bit of looking for a treat that might have fallen, and not any concern about the tunnel.
For the next tunnel session, you can add in walking back and forth – rewarding with the toy when he offers going through the tunnel.
Great job!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Not our best training session. We usually train before they run but we had to work around the mowers so she was a bit tired.>
I thought she did well here! The backside game didn’t have a lot of high energy because it was all cookies, which will produce a calmer session. Bringing the toy into the game will make it snappier 🙂
>Do you do most of you SSC with recalls to the toy? I want to do more of that.>
Yes! I do almost all of my recalls with toys if there is enough room, and try to get toys involved somehow in every game even if it is just tugging beforehand like you did with the head turn game.
Looking at the parallel path to the backside:
She did well finding the parallel path the backside! You can be adding your backside slice verbal to this (so you don’t say ‘go’ which is a front side cue) as well as being progressively a little further across the bar as you are moving up the line. And you can use a toy with this game – yo can throw a start cookie but then the reward for the backside can be a toy 🙂
>I thought she had great commitment to the backside but I’m not rewarding in the right place? It just doesn’t look right, like she would bypass the jump and not take it.>
Yes, the reward should be dropped on the landing side of the bump, closer to the center of the bump or even near the barrel. That way she makes a turn more directly over the bump (where the bar would be) and doesn’t go past it.
>Full disclosure I still don’t know what the next exercise is. I followed what you did. Tina showed me Julee video but what am I trying to get?>
Part 1 is basically what you did here, having her stay on the backside line to approach the bump from the other side, rewarding on the landing side. The next parts involve adding the backside slice verbal as you are moving up the line, and also changing your handler position. Your were in position 1, which is the line heading to where the barrel and bump meet. The next line would be you moving parallel to her, but more to the center of the bump (position 2 :))
For the head turn game – it worked really well when you used the dog side arm to send her and then turn her away. She did really well! Nice mechanics! Just be slower on the turn hand: you started moving it too fast at 3:25 and it was too far from her nose, so she was not able to lock onto it and follow it there and at 3:28. Compare to 3:42 where your hand was low and slow, and the turn was lovely!
When you were using your left hand, it looked a little less comfy for you so the is also a spot where you can get your hand right to her nose level and let her get to your hand before turning her away.Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
The perch session went well here too – he rotated more when you were moving too, so you got more steps which is great.
He really had to think about lifting his feet over the thing on the ground here – he was a little better moving to his left at the beginning of this session LOL! Tape those things down so he is not concerned about moving them – we want him to really trust his feet here. He was alternating stepping over them with kind of hippity hopping over them which an happen when they are concerned about the footing being unpredictable.Since this is going well, don’t revisit it for a few days – it is a bit of a workout and doing it a lot can actually make them a bit sore. For the next session, tape one weave pole to the ground for him to really step over – the weave will have a higher profile and will be a good challenge.
Threadle slice – overall this went well! And the MM does like to run amok sometimes LOL!
I think changing the orientation of the jump so it is lengthwise in the space will give you both more room to get this looking nice and smooth. That way you can throw the cookie further and on a slice line, and be visible before he turns back to you. The cookie throws didn’t have a lot of room, so he was almost always facing the front of the jump when he turned back to you. He did get the threadle correctly a lot, but having more room to set up the slice to to it will really help.
>not sure if my position was correct or whether >
On the wingless jump, you can be a little more visible outside the wing – let him see at least half of your torso outside the wing (he could really only see your arm and most of you was visible between the uprights).
>He also got very spooked by the guys here doing window washing in the morning. >
Yes, that would be weird for sure! I am confident my dogs would also be concerned.
>So after trying to get him to sit by my desk and settle on his cot, I decided to just put him in the car. No need to be heaping more stress on him. Benni was already out there because he is an alarmist and he doesn’t need to teach the puppy that!>
I think this was an excellent decision! He was already tired and recovering from a stressful week, and it sounds like he was not able to settle down poor little guy! So giving him a place to rest and relax was perfect. And I agree – we don’t need any social learning from Benni about how to set off alarms 🙂
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
The perch/pivoting is going really well – has he seen this before, or is he just brilliant (I mean, we already know he is brilliant 🙂 ) He is a little stronger moving to his right (coming from your right side) – it seems more fluid and he did more steps. It was the side both of you seemed more comfy with. He was able to do the other side, just be sure that you balance it and do that side the same # of times and possibly a little more.
Because he is small, I also wonder if using a smaller perch will get more movement. If the perch is too high, he has to have more weight in his rear and will often move less in this game. That rubber bowl is what I use for my 20” tall dogs 🙂 Do you have anything that is maybe an inch tall?
For the toy retrieve – yes, give him a reward for bringing it back: a 2nd toy or a cookie. It seems like he is reading the room and deciding if there is nothing available, he won’t bring it back. So we will give him a reason to bring it back, then we fade out the visibility of the 2nd toy or treats 🙂
Great job!
TracyWelcome!! I am excited to see you and Chaos!!! Have fun traveling and I look forward to you posts 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
>We have done a similar course before and I established that she is a bad guesser of obstacle names. Pretty sure we dropped out after the first couple of lessons.>
Many, many dogs are NOT super verbal – in fact, I am always surprised when a dog is great at responding to verbals LOL!! So we will work on the verbal skills with her to build the skill, there is one each week. And if the main thing she takes from the verbal-only stuff is that we would like her to process more than just motion, that will be a BIG win! But we aren’t only going to focus on verbals-only – I think you will find that all of the handling games will help with cue processing too, plus they are fun 🙂
>At least she tries – the others will not move away from me without my movement. I am their “engine”.>
Excellent point!!! She is motivated to try! And for the others, you can bring the obstacles in really close and maybe even put the Treat n Train out past them both, in the center – so they are more motivated to leave their engine and run to obstacles without you 🙂
She did well here! Good job rewarding the effort at 1:21 where she took the backside of the jump on your ‘over’ cue. The criteria is basically “not the tunnel” at this stage and it shows she was processing the verbal!
She seems to be the type of dog who wants to move & make a decision immediately, possibly before she gets the full info 🙂 To help her out and get her processing before she moves – line her up and hold her until you have said the verbal 3 or 4 times, and watch her head. If she is looking at the correct obstacle, you can let her go and reward. If she is looking at the incorrect obstacle, you can quietly say “that is not it” or something, then re-start the verbal (you are still holding her :)) She needs to look at the correct obstacle the first time to get you to let her run to it, otherwise she will flip her head back and forth to guess.
But don’t make this game the entire focal point of the class 🙂 Definitely balance it out with the handling games, which also have plenty of verbal processing challenges and she gets to run the whole time.
Nice job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
I think he is doing really well with the verbal game!!! Holding him until he indicated he was processing the cue seemed to help him.
You can use where he looks as both an indicator of what he is going to do and when to let him go: hold him til he looks at the correct obstacle then let him go as soon as he looks at the correct one. He was really getting the hang of this – I love how he looked at the tunnel at :45 after doing a couple of jumps! After that, he pretty much looked at the correct obstacle immediately when he heard the cue. Then letting him go affirms he was correct. And if he looks at the incorrect obstacle? You can quietly say something like “that is not it”, then take a breath, then start obstacle cues again. We don’t want to necessarily keep repeating the same cue because then he will swing his head back and forth til you let him go 🙂
The sequences looked lovely!! It looks like he was 100% successful because the verbals and connection were very clear. You also added some disconnection at the end and that went really well too. My favorite rep was at 1:25 when you were pretty much disconnected when he exited the wing but you were saying tunnel… so he found the tunnel. HAPPY DANCE! And balanced it by asking for the jump on the last rep – he got that nicely too. Super!
Great job here!! You can definitely add the next sequences (especially the #3 set with backsides and threadley stuff 🙂 )
Tracy
Hi!
Thanks for the update!!
Getting the backside is actually pretty normal at this stage – she might be double- and triple- checking the info by looking at you which will widen the turn. No worries, I would still pay it (criteria at this stage is basically “not the tunnel” when you give a jump cue haha) and move to the other games to help balance that and keep things fun 🙂Tracy
Good morning!
>We worked up to him being between my legs and taking one or the other. Unfortunately my tech challenged self didn’t get it recorded>
Bummer!!! Getting 3 out of 4 right at this stage is great!!
On the video – I think he did REALLY well here! He was not totally ready for you to be moving fast at the beginning but the slower motion with softer/minimal connection went really well. It is interesting that he tends to default to the jump when he is not sure, I guess it is the first thing he sees after the wing.
>I have to laugh at the one where he didn’t get the tunnel, but didn’t take the jump either. The wheels were turning, just not all the way getting to the finish line.>
That was at :23 and it was GREAT!!! He was like… “wait, I don’t think you said jump”. The spacing on this drill is tight so he doesn’t have a lot of time to process the cues. But he was indeed processing!!
And you can really see him developing the skill at 1:01 and 1:26, for example, where you were moving faster and less connected but he was able to find the tunnel. Super!!!
>I even tried to speed up a bit at the end and he did it. I did have a little trouble remembering to say tunnel slowly and over quickly. >
I think you did well with that!
For now, you can let this sequence percolate and move to the next ones – latent learning after some good sleep will help him too.
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
I used the spin because I wanted the physical cue to be as similar as possible, so the dog can lock onto the verbal and connection. The FC and the spin both have the lower body rotation that is virtually identical – and so the dog can’t just watch our feet 🙂 they need to listen for verbals and watch the connection (or only verbals if we are softening the connection :))Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hello!
Once you got her to go around the upright, the 2nd head turn was lovely!
Nice job turning her away and nice timing of the click!She had a hard time sending to the upright, mainly looking at the cookie in your hand. The bowl game went well but I am not sure it is convincing her to send when you are standing (it does build value for the upright, so that is good!)
So 2 ideas for building the send:
– send with an empty cookie hand and turn her away with the empty cookie hand (toss a treat with the other hand). She might be a little too caught up with the cookie to think about the upright 🙂 Also, when is she training in relation to her meals? You might try feeding part of her meal so she is not as hungry, then training with food?
– based on how she approaches the wrap send games, I think the self-control ‘fold it in’ game will probably be the most helpful: it begins with the visual aid of a bowl or toy and builds forward focus to the upright… but then pretty quickly moves the visual aid out of the picture so you get her offering the wrapping after you cue the forward focus without cookies in your hand.
Let me know how that goes – I know she has done it before so now we can totally pump it up to get more wrapping.
>BTW, Sprite thought head turn gane was fun!>
Yay! I am glad she gets to play 🙂
Nice work here!
Tracy
Hi!
Yes, she was really pumped up to work here – she was very happy that you are home!
This went really well – she was able to lead with her head around the tree really well! It seemed liked she had an easier time turning to her left?
You can ask her for a tighter turn by getting nice and close to the tree 🙂 By giving her a little less room (be about a foot away), she will collect more and wrap really tightly. You can see that starting at the very end, where you were the closest to the tree and had good timing of turning her away, so she was wrapping tight!And I am sure your 6lb Chi can learn agility! We have one graduating from MaxPup 4 soon and she is amazing!
Great job :)
Tracy
