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Good morning and welcome! Hope you are having a fun Thanksgiving!
He does have a nice long neck LOL!!! And it sounds like he is just a super fun pup 🙂 Yay!
I am glad you have gotten pattern games and forward focus going, those are both really useful games. And I totally relate to life on the road – it is HARD to get video! Maybe Artie can be bribed with a chewie or something while you train Ringo, so you have 2 minutes of Ringo time for the video 🙂 Also, a lot of this can be done on leash so you can do it outside the RV while she is inside.
Looking forward to seeing you!!
TracyHi!
He is doing great with his prop games!! He has a ton of value which is great because we can now really dig into the higher level handling concepts. YAY!!For the parallel line: you can add more lateral distance and walk back and forth (don’t run yet as this is drawing his focus to you). As soon as he is running to get the treat, you can be moving over and walking along the parallel line, so he sees the motion cue as soon as he turns around. And sometimes you can go all the way to the treat with him so he drives ahead of you to the prop.
And rather than praise, use his ‘get it’ marker for a tossed reward to help keep him looking ahead.
No worries if his hits are not perfect on this parallel path game: it is cuing extension so if he strides over the prop a bit, that is fine and rewardable.
Skipping ahead to the rear crosses: You were a little late 🙂 as we all are when starting the rear crosses LOL!! At 1:16 and 1:28, he is turning towards you and about to hit the prop as you are just starting to cross behind him. Good job rewarding him anyway, to help him recognize that the handler pressure on that line predicts the rear cross is coming (so we don’t always have to be perfectly on time :))
So to be more on time with him: do some warm ups with the parallel path game where you go all the way to the reward cookie with him before turning and moving forward, so he is driving ahead to the prop. When he has done that a couple of times in a row, you can then start crossing behind him as soon as he is past you. Then, keep moving to the prop on the new side to support him hitting it. The goal is that you are fully on the new side while he is still 2 steps away from the prop, so there might be some running involved here because he is fast!
For the countermotion – at this stage, you can use one send step only to cue him to go to the prop and then as he is moving past you, you are moving the other way. The key to this will be calling him back after each treat, getting the engagement with a bit of ‘ready ready’ silly stuff… then making a BIG send cue. You had a lot of motion which made it harder for him to read the send cue as you got further away, so starting with him next you to before each send will both clarify the send and help him shift from handler focus to obstacle focus, while making it easier for you to move away as he is committing to his prop.
Great job here! Happy Thanksgiving!
Tracy
Good morning! Hope you are having a fun Thanksgiving!
>Arrow already knows to back up on cue – although maybe not quite fluent yet, as he did a bit of complaining in the video. I taught it to him with a mat for him to touch with his back feet. Lmk if you think this is OK.>
I agree that he already has a very strong foundation in backing up! Nice job!!! I think what you were seeing here when he barked and couldn’t quite back up anymore was a combination of higher arousal (from doing a few reps, nothing bad, all good) and the pressure of the other dog. When he was backing up away them where he could face them at the beginning, no problems. When you had him backing up parallel to them, a little more towards them… much harder!
The pressure is simply the presence of the other dogs – puppy brains have to process that AND produce behavior and all the neuroscience tells us that it is HARD for puppy brains! So he was a little frustrated but we can embrace the and help him process his mechanics while also processing the environment. It is something that happens in the neurons more than a ‘choice’ of behavior, but the brain can definitely learn it!
Since they were being perfect citizens here (thanks Matrix and Yowza!) so you can use this setup to teach his brain how to process mechanics/footwork while there is pressure in the environment. Start where he can be successful with backing up (further from them and also backing up away from them). Then throw in a rep where he is closer . Then go back to easier spots (further). You can ping pong this over a few sessions until he can happily back right up towards them 🙂 If at any point he says “this is hard, I can’t do it, I will bark and offer easier things” or if the other dogs make it harder with noise or movement, then you can make it easier for him by adding more distance.
Also, latent learning will help here: I am sure he slept on it and will be more equipped to handle the pressure in the next session. It is a good thing to embrace in small doses with behaviors he is already strong with 🙂
>At the end I did some “cookie rolls,” which is like your pattern games – I usually do these before and after most of the exercises. >
The cookie rolls are high action which can stimulate arousal, almost like tugging. So for the pattern games, you can make it more chill, less movement – and wait longer before each toss to give him time to full re-engage. The pattern games should settle arousal a bit, so you can play them with less energy. And the cookie rolls can be a more energizing game designed to bring him into higher arousal. He will be able to tell the difference based on context and body language.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning! He is doing really well with his games here!!
Good thoughtful session of the wing wraps!
To get even more movement around the upright, you can move the cato plank out of the way – you might not have noticed it there but his puppy brain did 🙂 The slight pressure it adds into the environment inhibits movement a bit so having a more open space will make a big difference to his movement around the upright.Start the next session the way you left off here: you sitting with the upright near you, with him going back and forth between the bowls. When he gets into the rhythm and does a few strong reps in a row, break it off for some tugging and so you can change your position into sitting on a chair or something low. And if that goes well? We get you standing up! This might happen in one session or two sessions, but it will happen quickly 🙂
Separately, you can remain on the ground and work on getting the upright a little further away, inch by inch.
>I had to switch away from the hat because Phoenix taught him that hats are very cool toys and he would not be persuaded otherwise. >
HA!! Yes, she is right, Ramen agrees LOL!!!
He is doing well with this new prop. He wants to look up at your magic cookie hand, so we can tweak the reward placement to get him looking forward more: be one step further away, so it is harder to hit the prop AND look at the hand. Then, send with an empty hand by have a cookie in your opposite hand. When he is just about arriving at the prop but right before he looks at you, toss the other cookie onto it. Yes, he might not hit it very precisely but that is fine because we are isolating where he is looking.
Also, remember that this is not a looped behavior in that we don’t want to re-send as soon as he comes back to you. Be sure to add in the ready dance silliness 🙂 so that you are getting the higher arousal in place (brain training!) and also so he learns to shift from handler focus to obstacle focus. I think that moment of shifting after the ready dance will also help you isolate the looking ahead.
Great job here! Have a happy Thanksgiving!!
Tracy
Good morning!
I am glad the vet visit went really well – that is so important!
>>Because we got home late from the vet, he got dinner late… usually he gets an early dinner plus a small night snack. So guess who woke up at 2am STARVING????>>
I mean, I can relate. I too am always starving hahaha. With a couple of my pups, I fed 4 or 5 really small meals throughout the day to help with the starving factor. You can experiment with him and see how he feels about that, in terms of not being as hungry all the time 🙂
Toy retrieves: he was really into it and was really good about bringing the toy back! The toys were hard to pick up because he was exploring the texture of each a bit, but that is fine 🙂 When he decided where to pick it up, he brought it back pretty quickly. Super!! I like how well he switched back and forth between the toys. You can change your position in this game (standing, or being in a different part of the room). And you can also bring exactly one kibble 🤣 and feed it to him then see how he does with going back to the toy (I think he will be fine).
The folding it in cone session went really well. The big wins here were:
– he settled into being stationary next to you and not moving around as much pretty quickly! He would sometimes look at you while doing so, but that it fine for now because he was generally looking at the line really well and was happy to be restrained a bit at your side.
– He is doing well with the dish marker, so now only say it after he makes the correct line decision. It is is like a click, so we don’t want to use it til after we get the behavior. You can release him quietly then use the dish marker when he gets to the correct side of the cone (after looking at it)
– The empty dish went great! So give him maybe one more session where the dish makes it all the way around to you, where he has to run past it before getting to the cone… then start over with the cookie in the dish 🙂 That is the next level impulse control for sure!
Wrap game: the bucket was interesting so yo can help him out and start by putting the cookies in the bowls to establish that back and forth, rather than ask him to offer right from the get-go. Once he got into the rhythm, he was great – it was just at the very beginning then after the scatter that he had questions about offering it. The bucket is a big variable change!
The next step here is to get something taller like a barrel or giant cone to transfer this game too. When he can go around it with you sitting, you can add standing up! That will likely happen in 1 session – which will set us up nicely for the Week 3 turn and burn game 🙂
On the backing up video:
>Some mama struggles with clicking the right thing>He is off to a good start here!! I highly recommend *not* clicking for this – the click brings their heads up (which is why he kept whipping his head up to look at you and we want a lower/neutral head position – so you can throw the cookie rather than click, and you can use a marker instead of the click (or no verbals at all to get the cookies thrown sooner. He was getting the idea but I think getting rid of the clicker will make it a LOT easier. These small dog feet move SO FAST that we often get better behavior with well-timed reward placement as the priority, rather than clicks or even verbal markers 🙂
Sounds like you have a super fun weekend ahead!! Have a blast! Happy Thanksgiving! Great job here 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
>In Goat Tricks, you talk about over/under arousal. Rip gets both.>
This is pretty normal that we see arousal shifts in training (and life). Here are some ideas:
>> He goes into over arousal quicker. It feels like frustration to me — and he barks! OMG does he bark. Any suggestions? I see this a lot when I’m working on shaping or asking for one behavior and he gives me another (and of course, doesn’t get paid).>>
When this happens, a couple of things could be causing it:
– most often it is because the rate of success is too low and there is too much failure/not enough clarity on how to earn reinforcement. That means the behavior is too hard if he is not getting rewarded at a high rate.
So to help him with that (especially because he is only about 17 weeks old :)) three things will really help:
– slice the behavior more thinly when shaping or training. Ask for an reward smaller pieces. Yes, we would like the pups to put all 4 feet on something in goat tricks but we start that with looking at the object, one foot on, 2 feet on, etc. If you wait too long or withhold reinforcement, you will see frustration.
– Live by the 2 failure rule: if you withhold reinforcement twice in a session (twice total, not just twice in a row), then the behavior is too hard for a baby puppy. So the first no-reward moment should be a yellow light of caution, that things might be too hard. The 2nd no-reward moment means you need to to make it easier for the rest of the session.
– Keep your sessions very very short (under 2 minutes) and break off to play a lot. That will help keep the rate of success high and the puppy engaged without frustration.
This all holds true for behaviors you are cuing and not shaping: make it easier and you can use physical cues to help as well. Usually the pups need clear physical cues at this stage to respond correctly, so you can help the pup with that and also maintain the 2 failure rule there too.
Let me know what you think! Happy Thanksgiving!
Tracy
Hi!
Ooh, that is GREAT that your daughter could help like this!!!! And your other dog helped with lots of good vocals LOL!!! What a great session!!!!
Yes – I agree that this was HARD but Roux did well with her pattern games. Fabulous engagement even with the excitement and barking and obstacle sounds.
It was harder for her to really tug – partially because you were moving the tug up and down really fast so it was hard to get a good grip, and partially because she was a little distracted by the action in the ring.
But she seemed able to do tricks for treats with a lot of
The down was not comfortable for her at all – she did backing up and tricks, but the down by itself was hard for her. It is not an intuitive behavior in the scenario (being in a stationary down) and it gives insight inter her arousal level (high arousal but not over-aroused), so keep asking for the tricks but don’t ask for a down.
For the trial environment, I think the winners will be your high value food for pattern games and tricks… but Roux will give us the final word on that based on how she does in that environment. So you can bring a toy with you and ask her to tug and see how it goes.
Did she go into the ring here? If so, how did she do? That is something to practice: the remote reinforcement (and TSA game added this week) for going into the ring as another dog is exiting.
Great job here!! Happy Thanksgiving!
TracyHi!
>Back to putting a glass of wine in my hand. >
Yes, I highly recommend a glass of wine 🙂 Or you can start with water because we don’t want to spill wine 🙂
>Today I did the TSA set up. Sort of. With a a gate, plus two chairs. All went well until I tried incorporating it into one of the sequences. Then at jump 4 she hightailed it to the treat chair.>
Where was the gate/chair placed? It might need to be further away for now, so it is not on her visible line and then she will be less tempted to run to it.
On the sequence:
Very nice lead out and release to the tunnel, great connection there!For the 4-5 and 9-10 section, you can use threadle handling as you keep moving: your feet keep going forward, but your upper body and rotate back to her a bit by swinging your left arm back. You were using ‘here’ but if you have a threadle verbal, you can use that too!
And she read driving ahead to the 7 tunnel really well!
The threadle section (4-5 and 9-10) is a lot easier if you are ahead of her when she takes off for 4 and 9. Because she is fast, if you get close to the 3/8 jump then there is really no way to get ahead… so this is a really great setup to work on her distance skills! Those will be more important than the jump threadle 🙂
The two spots to use your distance skills are:
– On the opening line, lead out less and use your go tunnel cue to get her to drive away to th tunnel. Then you can layer the jump in the middle and be ahed for 4. And you can do the same for 6-7, sending her ahead and you layering to be ahead for 9-10.– Because I think it will be easy for her to do that, the real distance challenge is seeing if she can find the 3/8 jump after the tunnel! You can use big loud GO JUMP verbals and also ask Paul to throw a reward for her to taking that jump. If she stays out on that line, this sequence will be incredibly easy!
Great job here and have a happy Thanksgiving!!
TracyHi!
>is there a way to edit here? I got the wrong video>
Yes, you should see the words “Edit Move Split Trash” etc – let me know if they are not showing up for you.
There is tugging here! I think your toy is too short and moving too fast, so she was trying to grip but not really able to grip it (which is also why she was sometimes getting your hand). So you can use a longer toy and don’t swish it around as fast – move it side to side and let her pull back on it rather than you moving it really fast.
She was definitely into the treats here! She wanted to keep offering getting on the object which might also be why the tugging was not quite as strong as it had been. You can use lower value treats and also have the treats and the object a little further from the tugging spot – those can help her go back and forth from food to the toy more easily.
For the goat games:
She is offering really well, so you can keep asking her to offer getting on different things, even if you make small piles of things or trails of things. That keeps it exciting and she can climb on or walk along a variety of different surfaces in the same session.Great job here!!
TracyHi! The blinds are going well! The timing was a little unpredictable because I think she had trouble finding the treats 🙂 but you can start the blind as soon as she takes that first step towards you. Your mechanics and connection were very clear so she knew exactly where to be!
>For some reason on the blind cross game, she didn’t want the tug. There may have been a list treat somewhere but she didn’t fine with treats. I will probably go back again and try it with toys.>
It is possible that she was extra hungry and the treats are extra good 🙂 Plus if she was teething, tugging might not be her favorite thing right now. She is a great tugger, so I am not worried 🙂 You can use a higher value toy and lower value treats and see if that helps. And feel free to post the video of it so we can figure out why she didn’t want to tug.
Nice work!!
TracyGood morning!
New location and the bigger elevation of the planks definitely made it harder but this was a really strong session! A lot of good things happening here!!
>you will see he almost fell off, which scared him a bit, and he was a bit reluctant to get back on – but he did after a little bit, and seemed confident again,
He was great with being on the taller plank after tugging until he tried to twist too fast – oops! Then yes, he was cautious but got over it quickly. When he turned around after that, he seemed to be thinking about where to put his feet more (rather than just go fast :))
So that slip off the plank was a good body awareness moment – Arrow, don’t just go really fast, you also need to think about your feet. He responded brilliantly to that.
Also, it was a good resilience moment: losing his balance was definitely unexpected and a little surprising. But note how well he bounced back to full confidence, and how quickly he bounced back! Super!
He was definitely working to solve the puzzle of turning around on the plank:
One hind leg would slip off on some of the turns but he was really great about working the balance to not have it happen. You can really see this at the end of the video, where his last few turn arounds were really lovely.>where I noticed that he seemed to prefer L turns over R.>>
Yes, a little bit! He did turn to his right really well but when he could choose, he would choose left. That is good to know for when we get to more complex things, to teach him to do them to his left first then to his right.
>t I didn’t think he was ready for spins,>
You were smart to not ask him to go fast and spin again – but I think in the next session, you will be able to. Start that session where you ended here, letting him offer turning around at his own pace. And if he is feeling super good about it, you can cue the spin and see how it goes.
Great job!
Tracy
Hi! I am sad that we were in the same place for 5 days and I never once got to see you or meet her!
>We won’t talk about what happened when I leashed her up after this and went to leave said field and a couple of kids with a soccer ball came in right after us. Brain explosion! 💥 (Second time this trip kids with a soccer ball caused her brain to come exploding out of her ears, also happened when I tried to take her and Roots for a walk through a public park for some leg stretching).>
Ha! Noted: soccer ball is HIGH excitement! We can eventually use it (and kids :)) with the pattern game and with the stealth self-control framework. It is not the starting point, but we can totally work it in pretty soon!
Looking at the wing wrap video:
She was so cute and pouncy with the back and forth using toys! She did well letting go of the toy. You had a subtle hand movement that cued the out and that really helped. I think she did a great job being thoughtful to figure it out while in the higher arousal state that the tugging brings. Super!!!It looks like she thought the garbage pail was a little weird at first when you moved it into the game, so this toy game helped her work through that by presenting it as a puzzle – it was cool to see her work out offering to wrap it confidently! I love that you gave her both at the end LOL!
Looks like she was doing a little shredding decompression on it? So you directed it really well to a treat scatter at the end (much more cost effective than toy shredding LOL!)When you get home and get some rest and decompression for yourself… you can take this game through the next steps pretty quickly: have her going around a barrel or large cone while you sit in a chair or on a couch. And if that goes well (even after the first 4 or 5 reps), add in standing up. This can be with food because you will get a lot of quick reps in and it is easier to drop the treats than it is to tug when you are standing.
Once you can stand up? Then we move to the turn and burn game added last night – I think she will really like this one!!
Nice job shaping the collar grab! She seems very happy to put her harness in/towards your hand, I love it! Be sure to switch sides 🙂 And you can also ask her to do it with the treats not right there: you can have some in a pocket or you can have them in a bowl on the floor or on a table next to you – that way the treats are very accessible for speedy rewards like you did here, but you can be sure that the empty hand is the cue to target to and not the proximity of cookies 🙂
>Have not even looked at the week 2 material yet, forget week 3. Knew I’d end up way behind with the Open in the middle of this course, but oh well.>
No worries at all! The games list might be long but they are short & sweet, and build on each other. You will find it very easy to roll from week 2 into week 3 because each game just expands a little (and nothing needs to be perfect before continuing to the next step). And we have some calmer weeks ahead so you will easily catch up.
Great job here! Safe travels the rest of the way home!
Tracy
Hi!
He is doing really well on these games!
First video – He did beautifully switching from the toy to food here, and offering behavior on the mat! YAY! You can fade the click and just use your markers now (the clicker tends to build in more looking at us, plus not needing to click frees up a hand for other stuff 🙂 ) So you can mark with your ‘toss’ marker instead of a click then toss the treat (rather than feed him in position). Fopr the prop game, you can definitely go to the sending and then I think the games we added last night will be easy to do too!
He definitely likes to tug, but we can tweak your tugging mechanics a little to get the tugging even stronger. For his age & size, that toy is a little too short and moving a little too fast away from him, so he didn’t really get a good grip to tug on or have a way to shift his weight back. To help him out, you can make it longer (tie another toy to it :)) so he can keep his lower jaw parallel to the ground. That way he can pull back on it more and have a better grip. While he is doing that, you can tap him along the ribs and move the toy side to side, but no need to pull it up as that cranks his neck up and makes it harder to get a good grip on the toy.
On the decel video – he is driving to the treat after tugging really well, then driving back to you really well too! This game can go to the stuff we added last night: cookie toss to blind to decel to pivot to driving ahead 🙂 You should probably do it outside LOL!
>> He struggled with the hollee roller – I suspect he’s never played with it before and he couldn’t figure out how to bite it. I’ll have to work on that toy separately because it’s my favorite toy to use for agility, but not going to use it as a reward for now.>>
I think he wanted to engage with it but it was too high up for him to get a good grip on it. So for now, attach it to a longer toy so you can keep it lower and move it around nice and low. He was gripping it until you raised it and his chin was pointing upwards – that was when he couldn’t really grab it as well. So making it longer and using the lower mechanics will really let him get into it, which will help make it easy to use it as a reward 🙂
>>My dogs don’t wear collars (just slip leads and martingale/leash combos). For Pattern, I utilize a chin rest, comfort with being restrained by the chest, and a fluent put your head through the loop behavior to achieve the same things. What would you suggest I work on for the purposes of this class as a substitute for the collar grab?>>
The chin rest and head through a loop are great for getting the pup to move into us. But in terms of lining up at our side and getting arousal/verbals/forward focus before a behavior for some of the games that are ahead, you can have a training collar or harness just for the games. He can slide his head into it 🙂 then you can have your hand on it for the games… then it can come off between games. That can fall into the category of things we use only for specific sport training, like a tracking harness, flyball wraps, whippet racing muzzle, etc – we don’t leave them on but we put them on for training and the dogs get super happy about it 🙂
Great job here!!!
Tracy
Good morning!
Poor buddy, that pad slice must have hurt! But he does look good dressed up as a flyball dog 🙂
He did a great job with his goat games here, especially if this was his first time seeing the bigger boards! 🙂 He sorted it all out really well – he was easikly getting on all of the moving objects, staying beautifully balanced, turning around, etc. And also it looked like he was going back and forth between food and the toy nicely too.
Since this went so well, you can give him more time to build up even more confidence by changing the setup so it is a fun adventure: you can add in making a bigger pile of stuff to climb around on, or stringing things together for him to walk across like a trail. That can get him offering behavior on multiple surfaces all in the same session without thinking too long abut any single object.
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
No worries about a new thread – iPhones and iPads sometimes don’t like to play with other software when the websites get too big (especially in the weeks after an update).Looking at both of the videos: she did best when things were predictable in terms of what was happening (leash, moving to the jump, stay, release). When things were less predictable, she was less sure of what was happening and not as engaged.
For example, on the first video:
When she got into the sit at the jump – you took the leash off at :34 then didn’t do anything other than stand next to her and praise. She seemed confused about that and left the sit. So once she is in the sit you can lead out or release or cue the leash, so she is not wondering what is going on.
It made more sense to her to get out to the jump and do some tricks, then do the next thing (like get the ‘reward’ marker).
When you did predictable thngs (like the stay and short lead out at the end of video 1 and during video 2) she did great!
I think I *would* keep the leash involved with this so the ritual of moving to the start line, leash off, line up, stay. etc, has clarity and predictability. That is where she thrives! When you were losing her (like at :34 or 2:19 on the first video) things were less clear so she was not sure what to do. The leash is a pain in terms of us needing 3 hands to deal with it but it is part of the predictability in the moment so you will find it super useful.
She totally did like the sparkle balls! They can be in your bag of goodies at the trial (treats, balls, long toys, bring everything haha!)
>>I have 2 more days before a trial feo JWW.
This is a good time to *not* train, then 🙂 No cramming! Let latent learning kick in, and let her brain rest to recover from any depletion (especially if her tummy was a little off this week). She can still have fun days, but I don’t like to train young dogs before a trial because we humans tend to cram and pressure and things go the wrong way 🙂 It is better for all of us to be chill for the 2 days before a trial – and it is HARD because I have 2 baby dogs entered for 2 days this weekend and I want to cram more knowledge in their heads so much! But it doesn’t work haha so I am being chill LOL!!!
Let me know how the FEO goes!!!
Tracy
