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Hi!
He did great here with the parallel path!! He was pumped up to find it!
When he was on your left .moving away from the camera, it is possible that he needed more connection/eye contact. On the reps where he missed the jump, it looked like you were looking forward so he was just moving with you (as if going back to the starting spot and not realizing you wanted the jump). So try a bit more connection and we will see what he says!Since he did so well, you can replace the clicker with a “get it” marker to keep him looking forward.
You can also take it outside for a couple of reps with more space.
The rocking horses went great too!
This was funny: at the very beginning then towards the end, there were 2 reps where he was not quite ready for the send forward but when you swooshed your arms back to line him up: he totally thought it was a backwards send hahahaha good boy!He was a little stronger on the left turns here but it is possible that it was because he could see that barrel better. Try being a little further from the barrels so he has a clear view.
You can definitely add more distance here as well as try a rep or two outside – but bring him inside before he gets hot – leave him wanting more!
> I did some reps with Bazinga while he watched before his turn. Hahaha>
Abuse! hahahahaha I’m sure it pumped him up!
Nice work here!
Tracy
Hi!
She is doing great with the rocking horses! And your connection and verbals are spot on. Super!>. To get her back focused on me I said Get It and did a couple throws of the back & forth game, but I really need something better than kibbel for those times! She needs to see it & make it worth her while, no?>
Yes- birds are a big distraction so the pattern games was an excellent choice!! And also yes, to higher value cookies when the environment is harder.
And also – she’s ready for you to use more toys and tugging here! That might be all she needs to overcome the bird distraction. You can add a little more distance between the barrels, add on the advanced level, and tug more to make it really exciting.
Lots of good work on the strike a pose videos!!!
When you were holding or throwing the reward/lotus ball, she was pretty much perfect from any position. Yay!The lotus ball on the ground was definitely harder! I think she was seeing you put it down which kind of enhanced it for her, drawing her focus to it.
So we can switch the order of festivities:
Have the empty lotus ball or food bow in the reward spot the entire time. Then put her in the stay, lead out – and when you release her you can look at your hand and even shake it. That should draw her focus to it more and away from the reward on the ground (hopefully 😉)Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
> I did some similar things with her. I was wanting to work on jump commitment so I had practiced a three jump pinwheel and actually did it with out my hands too because I wanted to work on looking toward her and her, letting her find the jumps, and not having her be distracted by my wonky hands and arms. I also did it with a tunnel as the 4th obstacle, and practiced doing some wraps without my arms. So in the video I wasn’t very good with throwing the treats because she was moving along>
It went great! Having previous experience helped for sure. She was happy to find the jumps without needing a ton of help from handling. Super!
You can definitely move on to parts 2 and 3!The wing games looked really strong too: she was flying out of the tunnel to the wing! There was one rep (:37) where you were looking forward at the wing and not at her, so she stopped and looked back at you. Compare that to the previous reps and the last rep after it: you connected to her eyes when she exited the tunnel and that was a big part of the cue to go to the wing. She’s ready for more of these games too and you can expand the distances as well.
She did a great job on the plank! She’s a big fast dog but still knew where to put here feet, both when she was going back and forth, and when she was turning around.
For the turning around – if you have access to a really low dog walk, you can have her hop on in the middle , turn around, hop off.
For moving across it, you can ask for more speed before we increase the height but throwing the treats further, or throwing a toy 🙂
>Side note because it’s embarrassing, the reason I have a ton of ugly sandbags in my yard is that we had flooding from rains that happened after a wildfire in the mountains a couple years ago>
Not embarrassing at all! They served an important purpose and are now leading a 2nd life as tunnel bags! Brilliant!!
Great job here!
TracyHi!
>. Since Ella I swear I still can’t send to the top of a pinwheel. I either just run the circle so to speak or launch my arm out and shoot the dog off!>
Most of the pinwheels here were good! The last few were weird – possibly a combination of fatigue, a little extra fling from you, and he might have been thinking you were throwing the toy out there (which was probably mental fatigue too).
But overall, he did great! Finding the lines, turning, etc. My only suggestion is to say the left/right verbals softer (like a quiet question) and a few times. That will help them contrast with the GO and also help right not sound like bite (sounded identical to my old ears LOL)
The next handling gets posted soon and he is ready. In the meantime, try the wingin’ it games! Interestingly, no one has done them yet 😆
>I have a challenge that’s bugging me. Chases stay is good but the lurching is starting and/or he will cross a pay leaning towards me.>
Based on what he did here, it is a non-issue. He was really solid. You can let his feet settle before leading out (there was one rep where he moved a front foot) but the leaning is not bad at all and his is not moving a muscle on almost all of the reps.
He did a weird jumping effort when you were weird about the sit – you were leading out and you said sit in a I REALLY MEAN IT voice and he was like… huh? I am sitting? And then was distracted from the bar.
It is entirely possible that he doesn’t even realized that he is a tiny bit crouched. He is holding the stay really well and not leaning forward too much.
> I do not want this!! I would like him to sit up with good posture like a good boy and like every one of my dogs ever have done lol!< What's that old song - "You can't always get what you want" hahaha On this video, his stay is focused, engaged, ready for action, but solid too! It is what i want my dogs to look like! So yes, if he moves a foot after you've started leading out? Sure, talk to him about it. But nit picking about a leaning is going to cause stress because he will have no idea what you are correcting. >Sometimes I wait a little until he settles but I don’t really love that. I think it sets him up to possibly break out of wondering why I’m just standing there.>
Exactly. Don’t do that, it is confusing
😆>Sometimes I go back and ask for a hand touch to lift him ( not literally).>
He’s probably like, ok that’s weird, wtf.
So don’t do that either lol>I’ve considered a prop>
If he is not moving his feet after you let him settle into position or breaking a stay… no props needed.
>Suggestions?>Since you asked… maintain the criteria of “don’t move your feet” and mix in lots of thrown rewards back to him… and otherwise give him the agency to sit how he likes 🙂 He is doing great!
Tracy
Hi!
He was a go0d boy here too!
Interestingly, the reps after the alerted to the voices were the best reps in terms of smacking the board. It was probably because he was more aroused… and thinking less about the board moving 😀 It makes sense though- even though distractions were causing the higher arousal, it did help optimize his engagement with the board.So with that in mind – use more tugging to get him into that higher state. Then do a cookie or two for board slams… then back to tugging. I bet he gets really into slamming it LOL!!! Arousal is definitely our friend in this case 😀
Great job here!
TracyHi!
This was a really cool session to watch – he started out with some questions so he was pushing away wide to get a better view of the i fo. Then he began to solve the puzzle and was finding jumps brilliantly! Good boy!The first jump was the hardest, especially when he was on your right. The reps that went the best were when he was a little behind you (like with a cookie toss start) – that way he could see the info and find the jump really well.
He also did well when the jumps got wider, but there was also some fatigue happening. You can do a minute then add more room then another minute then as more room, etc. That way the sessions stay at 3 or 4 minutes to prevent fatigue, but you also make really good progress!
You can add Parts 2 and 3 as well!
Great job 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
The 4 lazy game videos were great – the first 3 were perfectly lazy 🙂 No tugging needed on those- it is more about the pup making the effort to find the lines with minimal help. And she did!And the 4th video was a great ‘putting it together’ session: she was finding the lines independently, with speed, no questions, and not needing help. YAY!!!
>After watching this video I felt like I should have tugged more.
Was this crappy rewarding on my part?>I don’t think any of the games had crappy rewarding! You can tug before and after the lazy game and the teeter shaping stuff game here, and you used a toy for the 3rd level of the lazy game.
The teeter session was also really good. You can add tug before and after, but the clicks and cookies worked great here. She loved the slam and then started offering 2o2o, so you went with it beautifully and ended uo doing backing up onto the board. Perfect! She was really thinking about her hind end and not worried about the slam at all 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi!
I agree, this all went great! Yay!
For the backing up: he seemed to really be figuring out to back up to the dog bed, especially when he stopped a little short and you asked for more 🙂He might have been stopping short because your hands were high so his head was high. If you can lean forward a little, so your hands are just above your knees, that should keep his head lower and get more steps back.
He was impressive with his ability to chew and back up! It is like tapping your head and rubbing your stomach 😆 do you have a cookie that he can slurp down to make it easier?
The large running contact mat looked pretty perfect 😀 He is looking ahead and hitting it with all 4 feet brilliantly.
The smaller mat is harder, of course – I think we wasn’t always getting all feet on? That seem fo be the case especially when he was going from your left to your right. You can try him again on the narrow mat and see if he can get all 4 feet on. If not, we can use a wider mat for now 😀
Great job!
Tracy
You can always add a food plate – duct tape is very useful and easy to fade.
For the color – I aim for anything relatively close to yellow. It is already elevated so we don’t need a sharp color contrast (we want to be able to fade it easily)
T
Good morning!
This was a really interesting session! I don’t think he was hesitant or concerned about the wobble board, it looked more like he was offering his nose touch/chin hold. Maybe there was something about the context which looked (or smelled 😀) like something in nose work?I think for the next session, the main goal would be to provide context cues for getting on it/touching it. That can be something like taking it outside or putting it next to other stuff that he’s been rewarded for getting on recently 🙂 You can even put it between 2 jump wings, or put his prop on top of it – all of tuat should read as more of a “hit it” and not a “sniff it”.
Let me know if that makes sense! Your rewards were spot on here but he was pretty convinced he should indicate it rather than touch it 😀
Nice work!
TracyHi!
>We did see the vet yesterday. Most likely she has an iliosoas tendinopothy>Huzzah, an answer! And a nicely straightforward answer that can explain things. I’m guessing they felt something on exam?
I swear, she’s so similar to my dog Hot Sauce at around the same age (Hot Sauce is almost 8 now).
Similar behavior including the freezing up and Hot Sauce was also diagnosed with a psoas tendinopathy at a relatively young age.
What I learned from that is that in a young dog, something else might be causing it (because a sports psoas injury is often a repetitive use injury or a traumatic hyperextension injury, neither of which seem to be the case with Jazz)
With Hot Sauce, the root issue was a luxating patella that was not found on a normal exam. She even had a top Board certified Orthopedic veterinarian say her patellas were perfect. Nope! She had to be flat down on her side to be able to feel it – when standing, she was strong enough to clench her knees in tight 🙂
I mention it so that when you see them again, see if they will do an exam with her flat on her side to see if they find anything. If it is a different issue causing it, finding it now will hopefully make it so you don’t waste 6 months looking at psoas if that is not the actual issue.
Hot Sauce also has a transitional vertebrae but that seems unrelated. I think Jazz has spine xrays? We can see if there is a lumbar transitional vertebra which might be a root too. There is a cool group of vets on FB that will read rads for free!
Side note: despite the patella and bilateral psoas issue, Hot Sauce healed up brilliantly, overcame her worries, and went on to be a national finalist in agility and a fantastic fltball dog too. Jazz has a bright future ahead!
> won’t have a confirmed diagnosis until they do an ultrasound Frustrating as I know that is what was needed at this visit, but have to step through their process.< Well, that IS frustrating!!! But things are in motion so that is good. >Once that is confirmed they can start shockwave therapy treatment>
Shockwave is great! So is laser, PEMF, and therapeutic ultrasound. All the things!
>Soonest they could schedule to start this was 4/22.>
That seems far away but you can do a bit of prehab before that starts!
>Not sure how this will fit in with my treatment schedule (should have a better idea on how to proceed with me on 4/13.) Too much to sort out – Thankful to have this class to help keep me grounded.>
Ugh that is a LOT! I wish California wasn’t so far from Virginia, I could run Jazz to her appointments!
And in the meantime, we will keep you busy with training stuff 🙂
>The wobble board is left over from when I had standards>
OK this might make you chuckle: it took me a solid 5 minutes to figure out what you meant by standards. Moral standards? Ethical standards? Performance standards?
Nope – Standard Poodles hahaha 🐩I clearly need more caffeine.
The board size was good because it will be easy for her to get herself fully on. And yes, the tip seemed a little big for now but you can stuff a bunch of towels under it so it doesn’t move at all to start with.
Then you can shape her to get on it and stand in the middle 🙂
And holding that stand is a great little prehab posture game! So she can get on it, stand in a stack for 10, 15, 30, 60 seconds (built up over time).
Let’s leave the movement out of if for now because it requires hip flexors… aka the psoas. And we don’t want any pain associations. We can build in a movement game with the MM where she is near the board and you move it with your foot – then click the MM. All she needs to do is watch it.
And you can turn on a background video of teeter noises (Jack’s trial videos or a YouTube video of the teeter) can help her learn to love the sound too!Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
He was a super good boy here!!!
Question that i forgot to ask yesterday: how did you originally train the 2o2o? If it was with a target (like a plastic lid, for example), you can bring it back out for now ‘ and get him wilder when doing the teeter in practice. You can have him run through a tunnel 3 times then up the teeter – that increase in arousal will help things feel like a trial! And the target will help him be successful with the 2o2o (then you can go deliver the cookie :))One thing I see is that he stops just past the pivot point then finishes the teeter. Ideally he drives all the way to the end of the board ajd shifts his weight to ride it down- stay tuned for next week’s game where we work on that specifically.
Nice work here!
TracyHi! There are a lot of options. I personally use a thick strip of duct tape over some cardboard (attached with duct tape).
A recent MaxPup grad used a product from TugAwayCUWin:But she also uses a giant hair band that stays on the end of the board 😆 🤣 so none of us do anything fancy.
I have also had this at the end of the board:
https://nosetouch.com/Teeter-%E2%80%9CTeach-It%E2%80%9D_c_37.html
But I’ve also duct taped a spoon to the end with my Papillons.
I like the devices that I can easily leave a treat on or in to help develop a ton of independence. More on that coming soon!
Tracy
Hello and welcome!!!! Hope you’re feeling good again, and that we get some good weather too 🙂
This session went really well! He didnt quite know what to do with his hind end at the beginning but then you showed him by having hin follow your hand. That totally helped and he was able to go back and forth brilliantly after that. Super!! The next level of this will be to fo it in higher arousal: can he still find his feet this well after a game of tug?
Turning around on the plank was definitely harder for him – you can see if he will follow your hand if you move it really slowly 🙂 You can also ask for tight sits on the plank – those are useful to engage his rear and core.
At the end it looked like your were having hin pivot into position on the plank – that looked great too!
His head position was good here – nice natural position except when he was done or when you clicked. The lowered head position will solidify when ypu add the ‘end’ behavior.
Great job here!
TracyHi! These sessions went great!
The first clip was a nice introduction to the setup and he immediately figured it out. When ypu added angles in the 2nd video – you started off clicking for front feet for the first couple of reps, but then locked into clicking for back feet and the rest went really well.There were a couple of moments when he seemed to be waiting for permission to start – that’s fine, you can give him a little step to send him or even say something like “hit”.
This game can totally go outside now! That will give you more room for more angles. If the mat is flat and gets a little “lost” in the grass. You can attach it to a foam pad or something to elevate it a bit.
Great job here!
Tracy
