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Hi!
>>She goes after food like she has NEVER been fed – and she could NOT believe there was only ONE cookie at a time. Outrageous.>
Ha! She did look stunned that you would only deliver one cookie. I mean, she clearly deserved 40 for each rep 🙂
>I’ll take the drive to handler game outside. throwing cookies in the grass doesn’t work so well for us right now.>
That is perfect! I also teach my dogs how to find treats in the grass by tossing an obvious treat nearby (like a piece of string cheese or Charlie Bear, both easy to see) then BIG rewards when the dog returns their attention to me after finding it. That speeds up the finding it and also helps them learn to NOT look for all the cookie cousins that might be hiding in the grass 🙂
Looking at the sends:
>In this send to object neither one of us was enjoying the “ready dance”. Even I can’t tell what I’m doing here>
For the ready dance – use lots of muscle tension and eye contact, but less swinging/stepping back and forth. I think she was confusing that with the send cue (they do look kind of alike). So for the handler engagement/ready game, you can have tense muscles, bent knees, quiet ready… then a big obvious send.
That also add a bit of arousal and pressure (in a good way) with the goal of the pups learning to self-regulate. She was doing that here: you had a little sniffing at the beginning but then she sorted it out and did great!! By the end you had dialed back the ready dance so there was less similarity to the send and also she was recognizing it as an engagement cue. You can add the backwards sending now!
Since you asked her in the video:
She went around you at 1:24 when you turned forward/away from her to reward – that closed your connection forward and opened up your left shoulder… blind cross cue! She sees everything 🙂 Compare to 1:35 where til kept looking back at her, so she knew which side to be on. Connection for the win!
The long toy was awesome here, look at her tugging!!! And yes, driving ahead is a much easier game if we humans are not worried about where the pup will take the toy LOL! Her forward focus was fabulous 🙂
So you can now throw a little further, and also add your movement. At some point, you will throw far enough that you have to let go of the entire toy, but that is fine: you can grab one end of it and encourage her to bring it back as you move the other way (while also disabling the party of one opportunity :))
Great job here!
TracyHi!
She did lovely job sorting out the wing wraps with you in the chair and an upright there! You helped her by getting the cookies into the bowl quickly, and she then got right into the groove. Yay!
Next session: no chair! You are standing 🙂 And you can break things up more frequently with tugging (every 5 or 6 cookies) so she remains in high arousal and doesn’t go on autopilot 🙂Nice session of drive to handler! You are the only person here who does not need to deliver the cookies lower LOL! She was definitely getting the idea of the decel and driving right into your side. And you were very clear on the pivots and she was lovely with those too – nice and tight to you!
Because she is going to have a large stride, you can decelerate sooner: no later than when she is halfway to you. As she started to run more, the decel will end up being late if you start it when she is within a stride of you.
You can definitely do these on your other now too! Great job!
Tracy
Hi! I have found that Staffy mixes all train like Staffys 🙂
Whippet brains: VERY smart! But also will check out if we don’t have our sh*t together LOL or tell them they were wrong when they were correct. They don’t need to do a zillion reps because of how quickly they learn. But also, latent learning is beyond incredible with them – they might not appear to have learned *anything* in the training session but no worries – they will sleep on it and come back having learned it AND also knowing the next 5 steps. Incredible!
Tracy
Hi! You’ve been busy!!! But great job getting the training in, Spotlight looks great!
Forward focus: He is doing great driving ahead to the toy and even better: bring int back! SUPER!!! His tugging looks great. You can look at him a little more before you release him, to help establish that, yes, the momma will be looking right at you during a forward focus cue and he should look ahead and not back at you.
Interestingly, he turned to his right on all the reps here, even on the reps where he started on your right (which should get a left turn). It could mean that he is a righty, or that you were very close to his line and even a little behind him on the reps starting on your right (reading like a rear cross, he could see you over his right shoulder in his peripheral vision so he turned that way) – or both!
So for the next session – run a parallel line to him and the toy (rather than driving in towards the toy) especially when he is starting on your right – then when you do the FC, peel away more dramatically in the direction of the turn you want (instead of straight back to where you started) to see if you can get him to turn in both directions.
His commitment to the toy is looking great – your FC was starting right as he arrived at the toy. Since that was fun and easy, you can now start the FC and move away *before* he arrives at the toy (maybe 2 feet before it) so he starts seeing countermotion here.
Drive to hand: love your happy dance when bringing him out with the food! Great job getting your hand nice and low to drive to you! We will ignore his fuzz investigation on the fist rep LOL!
Be careful of saying break and moving your hand at the same time – he was moving when the hand moved. You can stay break then after a couple of steps, move your hand into position. Or you can challenge the stay by slowly moving your hand into position, then saying the release.
He did great driving to you with motion! He is a speedy little dude, so decelerate sooner so he can set up the collection for the pivot and be super tight. Your decel was about a step or two before he got to you – you can change the timing to decel when he is no more than halfway to you.
Blind cross foundation – fun! I think he likes the big running!!! And it is great to have a holder to help out 🙂
The ‘halfway rule’ applies here too – do the blind before he gets to the halfway point between his release and you 🙂 And you don’t need to change the toy from hand to hand, that delays the blind a little – you can leave it in the original hand and then open up connection back to him when you do the blind to get the fast side change.
Prop work:
>our prop game which clearly we need to do more of at this level>SPOTLIGHT DEMANDS A BOX OF WINE! Ok, maybe a juice box of wine haha
Actually, I think we are seeing a side preference here and it is in line with what we saw on the toy race video too.
All of the sends at the beginning were to the right turn side and he did great! The left turn side was harder – at :42 he didn’t quite hit it so you didn’t reward – note how he then turned to his right to be able to hit it. He did something similar to that a couple of times – shape the left turn to be able to turn right. Then he slowed down a little and got the mechanics of the left turn – super!
For the backwards sending (and all the sending :)) – take a moment between getting the tug back and sending. It all happened so fast that I think he missed the cue on the first one 🙂 Those were right turns so he figured it out fast. The left turn backwards needed more processing (thus his delayed responses) but he turned left and got the big reward.
Since the dude seems to be telling us he is a righty, you can add the harder stuff going to his right (distance, backwards sends, etc). The left turn skills will lag behind for now – don’t be as far away, do the forward and the sideways but not the backwards yet. And, for the left turns, you don’t need to be as centered on the line to the prop – you can be off-center so finding you will be a more obvious left turn. His left turn skills will catch up to his right turn skills pretty quickly, so then you can handle everything the same way.
Great job here! See ya soon!!
Tracy
Hi! She is so much fun to watch! And you are doing a great job with her!
The wrap bowl game appeared to be Spaniel Heaven! She was so happy to run back and forth between the 2 bowls LOL! Her exuberance might require a small arts & crafts project of taping or gluing rubber to the bottom of the bowl, so she can’t slide them LOL!!
Since she did so well, there are 2 ways to progress this:
– Using just the bowls, you can start to raise your position to work up to standing. You can sit on something low, then in a chair, then stand up. This might all happen in one session because she loves the game so much, or she might have questions about the new position. She will let you know how quickly you can get get to standing, based on how quickly she continues to respond.
– While still sitting, you can introduce the upright to go around. Start the session by refreshing the game to make sure she remembers it, then slide the upright in right in front of you and see how she does. I am betting she will find this VERY easy, so you will be able to start moving the upright away from you very soon.The drive to handler game went great too – she loves to do ANYTHING with you and it really shines through! She was a little wide on first rep (probably because it is a new game and she had to figure it out). The second rep and the reps after that were great because you got her nice and close to your leg. She had no trouble with the pivots either – great job getting your hand really low!!
You can add in moving forward while she is getting the cookie, then showing deceleration before the pivot. You will probably need a long hallway or go this outside to give her room to run 🙂 And my guess is that she will be VERY fast so you will want to decel really early, like no later than when she is halfway to you (or even sooner).
Great job here!!!
Tracy
Hi!
>I used a placed lotus ball wth treats. I need to start fading the MM out of our weave training (we are on 4 2x2s and just added poles 5&6. I think I waited too long to start to fade it, but she is so motivated by the MM).>
It is an easy fade: you can move it a little further away and while it is out there, throw the lotus ball towards it (rather than trigger it). Then keep moving it further away, and throwing the lotus ball to where it used to be. Then you’ll end up with the MM pretty far away and she won’t need it as a target anymore, so you can remove it entirely.
On the first video:
She definitely loves her tug leash! You can shop for a whole bunch of them (I am a bad influence hahaha)>I think my mechanics were not the greatest in this session because I just sent her instead of running with her but letting her get ahead. She wasn’t sure what to do after jump 1. >
Two things that can help:
-more motion from you (you can run forward) and you can start right outside the wing, so you can run on a parallel line without getting caught behind the wing
– and use a ‘get it’ marker as soon as she looks forward to the first jump. That can get her looking for the toy immediately.You used the get it marker when you worked on one jump and she drove directly to the reward.
When you put yourself outside the wing at about 3:20and 4:20, she read the line really well! That set a much better line 🙂
>Hysterically, I think I need a sports bra for tugging! Bwahahaha!>
HA! I admit to only watching her but can totally relate about needing to strap the girls down when I am tugging LOL!!
The leash games are going well! She is really focused on the food in your hand, so you can start having the treats in a pocket so it is less and less in the picture (but still easily accessed as a reward).
She did have trouble letting you pick up the toy after the out for the cookie, but I think you did a great job adding in getting the leash before giving the cookie 🙂
>I really do need to make some progress on her “out”. There is a tiny bit of progress, but she needs to know that I have treats to be reliable.>Two ideas for you:
– if she will out the leash or toy when she sees the treat, you can start to delay the timing of seeing the treat: don’t have it in your hand when cueing the out. You can cue the out and when she even relaxes her grip on the tug, you can reach for the treat. Then when she can do that, you can wait longer: when she lets go of the toy entirely, you can then reach for the treat, or reward her by letting her tug more.– her is another option, using the toy only:
>>Remote reinforcement game question: I have been playing the game indoors and yesterday moved it into the yard where we practice. Is it muddying the picture if I play the “Let’s go” game in the yard, but then after we do 5-6 reps, I put treats in my pockets to then go do sequences?>
No problem at all to do this. Dogs are brilliant and can differentiate the skills and cues very easily. I am guessing she had a great time and had no questions? If she has questions or looks stressed, we can change things but I bet it was easy for her.
>I’m thinking that may be un-doing what we just did.>Not at all! It is just practicing a different skill. It is like practicing collection and extension in the same session: different skills with different cues.
>Should I separate the game from practice for now and then I am anticipating that we will be progressing the game to longer & longer sequences before returning for treats.>I don’t think you need to separate it (plus there are not that many hours in the day to separate it and train things LOL!). Let me know if you are seeing any stress or questions, but I am guessing she is doing really well with the different skills.
>How often do you warm up your dogs at a trial? I have been doing a warm-up before every run since sometimes we have hours between runs.>>
Definitely before every run: full physical and mental warm up. The only exception would be if there is less than 20 minutes between runs.
>Our usual routine is that we take a potty walk and I get her to trot a little to loosen up. We do some warm up exercises inside (sit/stand, down/stand, shake front paws/high fives, tall stetches, spins, side steps). Then we do action ganms while we wait our turn.>
Perfect! Do you do dynamic puppy stretches – cookie on the nose, then luring her nose to her shoulder, to her ribs, to her hip, for example. That is a stretch that my doggie PT people have added for my dogs. And you can add in engaged chill if there is a long wait, and pattern games if the environment is challenging.
Great job here!!
TracyHi!
Your ring entry setup looks awesome!!!! And he definitely found it challenging – he was not as snappy and quick to respond on the first rep, maybe even a little distracted. It is rare that we can reproduce trial struggles at home but you did a GREAT job with that setup!He found the 2nd rep with the cone easier, almost like he had a bit of a lightbulb moment: same game he had been learning, but with more pressure.
Overall, he was very successful even if he was not quite as snappy in his responses as usual (like when you have cookies in your hands). So yes – keep going with this. As he finds it easier and easier, you can add more outside the ring distractions: can you get family members to be an audience, sitting the in the chair outside the ring? Maybe they can be enjoying some snacks?
You can also add challenge by playing music or even playing YouTube videos of agility in the background – that can add a little challenge too 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi!
>>Definitely a brilliant training plan! And so efficient too!>>
Yes! My course maps are merely a suggestion – the concept is important, not the specific map 🙂
>>I totally took the last tunnel in the first rep for granted and she was quick to tell me about it. And in my mind I was saying right for the turn out of the tunnel way in advance of her going into it but it was clearly as she was entering and too late so the wide turn. >>
At some point soon, that will all be fine as she gets more experienced. But young dogs need a high level of precision and perfection in handling (which is why we train them to cope with our errors haha)
>I felt like I was going too deep to the jump before the wrap but that she needed it to not 0ull off.>>
Nope, you gave her exactly what she needed on the wrap rep!
>At home when I inhaled on the leadout her ears pointed forward more and I could see her tense her muscles. At Fusion I didn’t notice the muscle change from the front but can see it from the side in the video.>
It was pretty subtle when the muscle tension was not as clear – it is almost like she was holding her breath 🙂
>>If she is having trouble lining up in a sit due to arousal (or whatever), I have been either asking for a motion trick and/or tossing the treat to have her chase it. Is that a good approach if she gets sticky? >>
Yes – I think the motion tricks will be a higher priority in that context so she doesn’t rely on a treat being in the picture.
One other option is to cue a stay in any position… and lead out. That is an exciting game for most dogs because it is unexpected in a good way, plus it turns off the pressure of us hovering over them at the start line waiting for a stay 🙂 I do this with 3 of my dogs right now – so much easier for all of us.
>>And I’m assuming it is not an issue that I do sometimes do the tip toeing to lead out and then reward the sit by throwing the toy back?
As in the cartoon mashup doesn’t always precede a release forward but can be a release out of the sit to catch the toy.>>No issue at all! It brings a spicy fun element to it and makes the reward exciting.
>>We just drove by Fiery Gizzard Trail in eastern TN. Such a cool name. Might have to stop sometime to check it out.>>
That sounds fun!!! So many cool things I want to check out on these drives, never enough time!
Tracy
Hi! Lots of nice work here 🙂
Backchaining the send went well on the first video!!!
When you changed sides it looked like you were not quite far enough ahead to set the line and he hadn’t had the backchaining on that side, so he curled towards you but got it really nicely on the next rep!You can affirm the moment he looks forward/drives forward with a toy marker like get it, to reward the choice to drive ahead.
With the toy outside the ring, he is off to a good start – and was a little distracted trying to sort it out! It is a hard game!
I think taking the leash off and going directly to a line up on the first rep was a bit unclear to him and his attention was a little divided. Add in a bit of volume dial with some tricks as you move to the line and take the leash off to be sure you have engagement before trying sequences. You will see his attention shift more to you and less thinking about where the toy or treats are.
Running past the jumps was a combo of him not quite being ready (more volume dial needed) and his brain being a bit divided between the sequences and where the toy is located. I think more volume dial tricks will bridge that gap 🙂 He was definitely sorting it out by the end. Yay!!
Looking at the sequences:
>>which feels a little like a cheat, but it’s what fit, so we went with it)>
It worked out really well and added a different challenge, and was much better than dragging the darned tunnels around!
On the backside sends –
>>I feel like I wasn’t connected enough and/or I was flicking at the jump, so I pulled him off it or got a bar. >
It was connection! On the first rep, he was confused about the closed shoulder because that was pointing to the front of the bar. Your dog side arm was forward and your were looking forward, which showed front side then you hit the brakes to rotate which pulled him off for sure at :08.
You got closer to the entry wing at :59 so he got it but then you were in his way a bit on the spin (didn’t quite connect on the correct side soon enough) so he dropped the bar.
Looking at the backsides on the last video – much better connection at :08! You can see your arm was further back and you looked at him, which turned your shoulders to the backside line. You can now add in decel as you move forward to help support commitment. Keep moving forward in decel, and don’t rotate until he is basically at the entry wing. When you hit the brakes and rotated at the same time, he pulled off at :10 and 1:45. You had decel at 1:07 and 2:17 and that worked really well!
Running down the big line went well! He lifted his head a bit on. The first rep there as if asking “ARE YOU SURE?!?!” But he kept looking forward and did really well!
On the 2nd sequence be sure to call him before he enters so you can get a nice tight turn on the exit to set the ending line even sooner.
Back to the last video – the backsides were better on this one! You can give him earlier tunnel turn cues will let you get to the RC diagonal more clearly on the jump after the tunnel. It was a shade late so he dropped the bar adjusted.
When you changed the RC to the 2nd jump after the tunnel you were facing straight (left turn side) til just about takeoff on those reps, so he turned left (because the takeoff decision had been made even though he was not in the air yet). So you can get the right turn there by running to the center of the bar as soon as you get past the wing of the previous jump.
Great job here! We will miss you in Florida!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>We were too lazy to move the tunnels so tweaked the drive ahead course to be 2 jumps to another tunnel>
I think having a tunnel at the end of the line is great fun for the pups and also important learning too! So we will call it a brilliant training plan, not lazy 🙂
Nice leash off engagement on, on that very first rep! The bark on cue is almost becoming a game on moment for her and she is really ready to run.
On the runs: The cue to turn on the tunnel exit was a little late (I don’t think she saw the physical cue) so she was wide at :46 (also bear in mind that mats have less grip so she is likely to go a little wider on them for now). You can start further from the tunnel so you can still give her the cues when she is 6 feet away before she enters. And on the hard exits, you can meet her at the exit to set the line – the wider tunnel exit messed up your line, which messed up the line to the tunnel.
She gave you a little feedback before the last tunnel 🤣Your connection was too far forward and she let you know (note how the camera can really only see the back of your head when she was still behind you)
Your line and connection was better when you broke it down, really clear!!
She let you know when you walked away without connection at the 2:02 mark. Supporting the stay with a little more connection and some praise really helped her. You set up a very nice rear cross on that run!
I thought the connection up the line at 3:24 was lovely and the decel into the FC wrap was ESPECIALLY lovely, made harder with the tunnel out ahead – great connection, great timing of the decel, great patience on letting her commit – and brilliant to end the session there 🙂
Engaged chill went well. Yes, the chair was not comfy – definitely bring her a big cushy chair 🙂 But she might also need to move around when learning how to chill in harder environments, so the pattern game worked really well for her here. She looked relatively chill in her movements and body posture. And she was able to handle the party happening in the ring and still be engaged and chill. This is great practice for waiting her turn at a trial! You were smart to speed up the pattern game in the harder moments, but she also didn’t get overaroused or lose her chill when there was a lot of excitement in the ring.
She didn’t seem to dislike it when you had your hand on her… but she did start moving away a bit so that is good info. She did move towards you when you asked her to hop into your lap and she seemed very comfy there, so that is another great thing to add to the engaged chill toolbox!!
Looking at the lead outs: No hurricane in the forecast! It broke up somewhere over the Yucatan.
>>First lead out is the inhale. (I had more a of a reaction from her when I did this at home).>
I could see a change in her muscle tension here, in a good way! Very cool that he held her sit in that moment too, because she was definitely ramping up to go go go! What did she do at home?
She liked the cartoon tiptoeing too – held the stay perfectly then exploded forward. Yay!
>, but had to tell me about what she thought about lining up>
Yes, she was pumped up and lining up was getting in the way of the party LOL!
Great job on these! Have a safe trip and see you soon in Jacksonville!
Tracy
Good morning! Lots of a good work here!
Putting wing on that last jump way up the line really help her see it! She did really well with it once the wing ws on it. The warm up on the straight line went well.
Sequences: The tunnel exit set the line better when she saw and heard the turns cues before entering. When you were quiet and forward facing at 1:25 and 1:43, for example, the turns were wider on the exit which made the next line harder. When you began to call her and rotate before she entered (like at 2:03) she exited turned. Yay! You can meet her closer to the tunnel exit to really set the line to 3, especially when setting up for the RC. If you were too far ahead, the line got wider which made the rc line a bit of a zig zag.
For the RCs here and later in the video – remember to keep your feet pointing to the center of the bar on the RC jump. When you did that, she nailed it! When your feet pointed to the backside wing, she would get pushed off the line (like at 2:20 and 6:04). Plus we don’t want her cutting in front of you to take the front, when you do want the backsides on a line like this. But also, don’t pull too much towards the straight line – feet towards center of the bar til she passes you should work like a charm 🙂
She had really good commitment on the wrap jumps! You don’t need a Go verbal before it, you can start your wrap verbal as she is landing from the previous jump, and keep moving forward towards it as you decelerate. If you pulled away, she had questions (3:41 and 3:58). She was quite smooth when you kept moving forward in decel – then as she is collecting for the wrap, rotate and tell her what is next. When you said “yes” to her, she got wide and looked at you because she didn’t know where to go next. She definitely just likes the facts on course, not the praise LOL!
Going back down the line looked good on all of those!!!
The double RC worked well – nice backside and driving back down the line!
Good job with the BC timing at 5:26 and 6:34 and 7:00 and 7:34 on that sequence. You can add in making a bigger connection back to her using exit line connection so she knows which side of you to land on. She was wide there because she really only saw your back. Getting the dog side arm way back to her nose so she can see your eyes and front of your chest will help that a lot to set up a nice tight line.
Then decel and wait for her to catch up a bit for the RC at 5:30 and 7:03 like you did at 6:36 and 7:35, so she can find the front of the next jump and not the backside.
She didn’t drive the ending line as well at 6:40 – partially because she is tired and partially because you were reaching for the toy and doing a rear cross. You drove the ending line better on the last rep, but she was toast by then (adding extra strides) so remember to keep these sessions nice and short so she can be at top speed throughout.
Great job here!!
Tracy
Good morning and welcome!!!
>>Most of the dogs I have had in the past stress down and are very triggered by the environment. Pesto is my first stress up dog and so I am finding different challenges. >>
Dogs all communicate their frustration and arousal levels differently 🙂 I appreciate the communication from the dogs because then we can help them and fix what we are doing 🙂
>>With Pesto if there is a blooper and I make him re-do it, he will jump up and sometimes try to bite my clothes.>>
Yep – that is a pretty common frustration behavior. Stopping the dog to ‘fix’ assumes that the error was a DOG error and not a handler error. And, because we have such easy access to great video – 99% of the time it is handler error and the dog was doing the best he could with the info we were providing. And stopping is a punishment – so if he was correct based on the info he got, and you tell him he is wrong? Well, that is pretty confusing and frustrating. Some dogs sniff, some dogs get slow, some dogs get zooms… he gets bitey (I mean, he is part whippet… LOL!)
So how to fix this? The answer is to keep going, pretend it did not happen (because you know and he knows, no need to continue to discuss it). Reward a success later in the course. Then come back to the trouble spot to figure out what went wrong – I *highly* recommend that you watch the video before trying again if you don’t know what happened. Usually it is a connection error with young dogs (they need to see MORE connection and less arm pointing).
Stopping to watch the video will take a little more time… but your results will be so much better in terms of smooth handling and also eliminating frustration.
>>So the question is: if the error is mine do I ask him to repeat? sometimes you don’t know in the moment if you were late, disconnected etc>>
Just assume it was your error (because it probably was). If you don’t know exactly what it was, watch the video. That connection is the most powerful cue for young dogs and small dogs, so work on keeping your hands out of the way and big eyes on his eyes as you are moving and cuing. Better connection will lead to better timing and better use of motion.
>>but if you are trying to train a skill and reward them for not doing the skill that’s not great either.>
Withholding reward when info is not clear will actually do more damage than rewarding when the dog might had one of those rare moments of being incorrect. It takes a TON of rewards to build a behavior (think about the running dog walk haha) but only take a couple of punishments (which is what withholding is) to build up frustration and stress.
What you do after an error depends on the context:
If it is in the middle of a sequence, just keep going, reward something later on, then come back to the trouble spot. If things come to a big halt and you can’t keep going – reward him before he bites you. If there is already frustration built in (sounds like this is possible) then you can have the toy in your pocket. I know a lot of people blame the dog for errors on a sequence but the video doesn’t lie: we can pinpoint the moment when the handler messed up or the info was bad or late, so the dog had to make a guess.
If it is a training session, like you are training a threadle wrap or something – you can use a reset cookie to bring him back to you and try again. Before trying again, though. Make sure your info is very clear. And if he fails twice in a session? Whatever you are doing is too hard and you need to clarify it and make it simpler to reduce failure.
>>The more bloopers in a single training session the more jumping and biting. The more I ask him to repeat something the more he goes into lizard brain.>>
That is great communication from him! And he is correct to be like “THIS IS UNCLEAR I DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU WANT”. So limit the errors to no more than 2 in the entire session. My guess is biting and frustration starts when you are well past 2 bloopers and he is working at a low rate of reinforcement and is super frustrated at the lack of clarity. So the first blooper is the warning light, telling you to clarify the info. The 2nd blooper tells you he doesn’t know what you want, and you need to fix the info 🙂
Some folks will say “the dog has to work through that” which is utter BS: he can’t work through it if he doesn’t know what you want! Plus, why would we want to frustrate our teammate to the point they bite us, then tell them they have to work through it? We don’t want to build in frustration, so we are going to help him. Living by the 2 failure rule will be an absolute game changer 🙂 He will be less frustrated and he will learn the skills a lot faster too!
>>Pattern games – Pesto will need to work this a lot in a non trial environment. When he comes into the building he is immediately fixated on every dog in the room and my whole prep is about getting him focused on me. I will start working on these – the food is going to have to be super high value. He is not a foodie.>.
Yes – get these super fluent at home and in easy places. I have been using small pieces of meatballs and rotisserie chicken (thanks, Costco!) for the non-foodie dogs.
>>I have not been doing pattern games so I have just gone straight to tricks. I start him out with limited motion tricks to get him to tune out the environment(all the dogs he wants to be best friends with) and focus on me. I get him into a down and using food we do something I call cross paws. He crosses one way – treat, other way, treat. His spins are also good for focus. We may also practice his line up which is to go through my legs, come around and sit at my side.>>
These are good tricks! But they should come after the pattern games, and right before the run – they are going to add more stimulation and the pattern games are a better way to get him to handle arousal regulation.
Plus we use the pattern games to very specifically teach him how to NOT bite us when when screw up – we are human, there will be errors, so if he has good arousal regulation, then he will not bite you when you screw up.
Those games are built off pattern games, so make the pattern games the highest priority right now.
>>I think the tug actually balances him well. >>
I agree! It is very motivating for him and gets him into a good arousal state right before the run.
>I’m not sure how that will work with AKC and if you have any thoughts on how to fade the tugging let me know. I suspect that without the tugging he would sniff – and it would be harder to get his focus to line up. >
I have lots of thoughts! But that comes further down the road – no skipping steps LOL!!! Start with the week 1 games and you will see how everything builds together so by the end of class he can go into the AKC ring with focus and engagement (and not biting you if you mess up :)) Without the foundation steps, though, you will run into the frustration questions so be sure to work through each step 🙂
>I have found, however, that if I ask for a spin he knows that he should sit. When he is over aroused he just stands there staring at me looking like he just escaped the insane asylum.>
The games here look at what the dog needs in each context – pattern games and volume dial all build up to develop a ritual coming into the ring, as well as a toolbox of how to help him at the start line.
>What are your thoughts on coming into the ring – without sniffing (motion tricks?), getting to to line up, and fading the tug…I’ve thought about working on getting him to tug on his leash.>>
Tugging on the leash is great! Don’t worry yet about the other questions – looking at the week 1 games, get the pattern games going at home with high value food to the point where he can grab the treat and immediately re-engage. And take a look at the volume dial game – that will be great for arousal regulation and will also help begin to set up how to enter the ring. The specifics of how to enter the ring will come when those pieces are firmly in place (and will be a lot easier too!)
Keep me posted!!
TracyGood morning!
>>Indy can continue running the courses for this term when Jake goes to play.>>
Perfect! The Senior courses will have plenty of stuff he can do. The PhD courses will be harder but also they will have fast, flowing lines which will be super fun for him.
He drove ahead really well here with the jump line the beginning! He has a big stride for a little dude: the reward pile was actually a little too close to the last jump, because he had to collect on that jump to get to it (without landing on it LOL!)
I think maybe because the tug toy was ‘dead’ it was not that enticing. I know he does tug, but in this case the lotus ball was the right choice because it was so motivating for him. He was very good about not running directly to it (only one moment of considering that but then he didn’t go to it, good boy!)
Adding the tunnel – when it was a straight line exit to head up the ‘go’ line, you can tell him his go cue sooner – before he even enters the tunnel. And keep your arms down and run run run (looking towards him) – you were quiet and arm was up and down, so he was not sure if he should go straight at 2:22. You were earlier with your ‘go’ on the next rep and had lower arms, so he didn’t have the same question 🙂 Super!
On the last rep, you can cue the tight turn on the tunnel exit sooner – let him see you rotate and hear you call him before he goes in. The tighter he exits, the smoother the ending line will be there.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
Yes, the placed reward was definitely hard – it is a remote reinforcement game, in a way, so you can treat it like that. Let him see you place it and then reward him for leaving it there (you can send him back to it, or have treats with you to reward him).
>He’s still a little slow on the first 1-4 and always seems to be like this in tighter spots.>
The opening of the sequence was a little technical with the backside and the tight turn on the tunnel exit, so you were seeing collection and that is fine. But he had plenty of speed on the line after it both on the straight line and the rear cross!
And yes, the rear cross was definitely showing more of the RC diagonal on the last rep there, he seemed to have no questions.2nd video: On all of these, as soon as he commits to the tunnel at the beginning, head to your next handling spot and don’t handle the jump after the tunnel. Yes, be connected 🙂 but if you are showing the line he should take that jump without you needing to support it specifically because it is right on his line. Getting too close to it was and rounding your line to pass it was making you late for the next stuff.
With that in mind:
>>I think I should’ve decelled and cued that turn sooner so it could’ve been tighter. Whether that would actually have been faster in the long run I’m not sure since he’d have slowed to get a tighter turn but still, I’m thinking more decel there, yeah?>
Yes, you can be sooner – you can get there sooner by sending to the tunnel and heading directly up the line (letting him find the jump after the tunnel based on your connection and motion up the line). Then as he lands from. The jump before the wrap, start your decel. You started it closer to his takeoff point so he turned after landing. Starting sooner to get the tighter turn will be faster, because he will run less yardage and he will land ready to power up the next line.
>>For the second run I messed up my plan so I just stopped and rewarded.>
Perfect! He was happy 🙂
>Third try was what I meant to do on the previous attempt and yet the serpentine felt kind of awkward. I think I was less sure how to cue it from that angle considering I didn’t want to go so deep close to the jump.>
For the serp, you will want to be sliding across the bar before he has to make a takeoff decision – that means when he lads from the previous jump, he should already be seeing the serp starting. That means you need to get there sooner… which means sending to the tunnel and heading there directly, trusting his understanding to stay on the line to the jump after the tunnel (or letting him tell us if he doesn’t understand it).
He got a little careful when you were late – the independent backside looked good, but he was being sure it was correct 🙂 You were smart to end on fast and fun, he was definitely ready to have a break – there are a lot of strides for the little guy!
Looking at the remote reinforcement video – he did really well here! Be careful that turning towards the reward station is not paired with the marker to go to it because he might pair turning towards it with the cue to get it. You can see he was thinking about that when turning towards it 🙂
For class, you can add this to something easy and fun, like a jump to a tunnel. And just one rep is al l that is needed on that environment (it is so much harder!) and you can have rewards with you for more of his turn. You can also hand a lotus ball or something to his instructor to be thrown somewhere on course – that will allow you to show him empty hands/empty pockets and surprise him (in a good way) with a big reward.
Great job here!!
TracyGood morning!
>>We did a lot today but in small doses, much better for all of us 🙂 >>
Yes! Short and sweet sessions are the way to go, with lots of sleep in between 🙂 And of course, days where you do very little are fine too 🙂
>He had another resilience walk – he saw and heard a passenger train from far away, that one was a bit scary, he needed to stand up on my legs and watch but he recovered really well. I suspected he might have been nervous of a train because he’s shown some worry (not scared just not fully confident) when he’s near cars moving when we’ve done parking lot outings, so I was prepared to support as much as needed. >
Yes, definitely support him and use distance as your friend if there is any possibility of concern. If moving cars might be concerning, get further away so he can watch from a greater distance where he feels more safe. We will be adding tools to the toolbox soon to help him process things that might be concerning. And make most of his experiences of the non-concerning kind of things 🙂
>>Bikes, NO PROBLEM, other people not petting him… missed opportunity to make new best friends, but he’s doing realy well focusing back on me for cookies. No video, I can barely manage puppy and leash and myself LOL, sorry!>
Yes, a third arm is required for getting video LOL!!!
>Really trying to back off the smack da baby stuff, you’ll probably see glimpses of it throughout, my older Aussie loooooves handsy stuff and gets really engaged and excited, so it’s pretty engrained in me and I have to very consciously stop doing it. You’ll see in here how much he loves ready ready dance!!!>
Yes, each new dog trains *us* on how to play with them LOL!!!
The decel game is looking good, I admire your knees and balance to be able to get the reward as low as he needed you to get it. Very nice!! He collected to your side really well, and the pivot looked great too.
The bowl game is going well too – look at how well he was going back and forth without needing you to show him th cookie drops! Super!! For the next session in a day or two, have an upright ready so he has something to go around. Start the session with a couple of reps with just the bowls to refresh the game, starting just as you did here. Then if he says he totally remembers it? Cool! Add in the upright to go around. If he doesn’t remember it and needs a longer session to refresh the game? This can happen with puppies 🙂 No worries, we add the upright at another time.
He definitely loves the ready dance! And he was able to leave handler focus (and the cookies) and drive to the prop really well! Super! It looks like the right turn was easier than the left turn here? That tracks with the bowl game, where moving to his right (towards you left) looked easier than moving to his left (towards your right). We will keep track to see if he is truly a lefty 🙂
Staying close to the prop, you can add in the sideways sends so we start building up the countermotion.
He did well driving ahead for the cookie!! And he reminded you to not smack him by standing still away from you LOL!!
>>he was struggling with wanting the toy today. >
It is possible that going right back to the toy after all the treats in that area was hard – there must have been a significant pool of scent from the food, and the toy was small/near your hands, which is less enticing. You can tie that toy to a longer toy, so you can be standing and dragging it around on the floor for him to chase: that is very enticing!
> I think my smart little puppy needs me to be really careful with my markers, because “get it” means GET FOOD, not get the dang toy! So when I used “toy” he went to THE TOY. Maybe coincidence but I’m still happy, he doesn’t really know/hasn’t really been trained for toy markers, but he’s started to pick it up because I add words a lot in everyday life.>>
It is entirely possible that he has learned ‘get it’ on the food context and was expecting food! So you can use the different marker for a toy and that can clarify things for him.
>> Also really pleased with the collar and chest hold- he’s also making progress on having his martingale slipped on over his head without trying to eat my hands (FOOD????) so all good things there.>
Yes! He was happy to move back to your hand for the next collar hold, and that is big progress!!!
The blind crosses are going well too. Your timing on the first part of the session was good (the blinds were coming as he was about halfway to you). When you changed the reward mechanics to the clearer connection, you were a little later – but the mechanics were so clear that when you were able to connect with him before he got to it, he immediately read the side change. Yay! So now combine that great connection (like on the last rep) with the earlier timing from the first couple of reps, and it will be perfect.
This is a good game to do with toys as well, to be able to use both in the session (and so it is not all about food). You can start with the cookie toss, then reward with a long crazy toy.
Great job here!!
Tracy
