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Hi!
>He was unwilling to sit, >
I think sitting in the presence of the prop was challenging, because of the value of the prop! No worries, we work on that specifically very soon. And if you use the sit, be sure to use a release word separately from the hand movement (not simultaneous at all) so the release stays clean.
He did well finding the prop with the opposite arm here! The only question he really had was when you were sending forward to the prop on your right side, so be sure that you are parallel to the prop (but ahead of him). Things worked better when you used a start cookie toss, so for the next step definitely start with the cookie throw – that way we can add motion of you moving up the line and giving the cue (along with he balance of sometimes *not* giving the cue so he does not go to the prop).
Nice work!!
Tracy
Hi!
It might have just been that being outside was the challenge for that game, so starting with a bowl on the line to help direct his focus can help! And lots of rewards for that in the more challenging environment!T
Good morning!
>I didn’t know I had verbals for both all the way and soft turns. 😉>
Ha! Yes, so many words LOL!
The parallel path game looked really good here in the garage! He had an easy time finding the line to the jump, even when coming in at an angle.
>. First, I tried it in the backyard, with me running a little. It didn’t go so well.>
He was on fire for the toy in the outdoor session! And adorable with his hops 🙂
So why wasn’t he finding the jump?
If I had to guess at why… the toy was eliciting the response of running out, anticipating that you would throw it, so he was moving away to where it would likely be thrown. It looked like the same behavior we might see when just playing fetch in the yard, or throwing a frisbee. So the presence of the toy, if that toy (or a similar one gets thrown for fun games), elicited the running out response because that is his learning history with the toy in the yard, perhaps. And the presence of the toy doesn’t indicate that he should offer behavior (like find the jump), it indicates get ready to chase the throw 🙂
>Would you handle the running outside the jump standards as I do here?>
It was GREAT information about how he sees the presence of the toy! Behavior is communication and he definitely thought this session would be about throwing the toy 🙂 You handled it well, trying to help and not getting mad at him 🙂
>And maybe my shoulders are pointed to the outside of the jump standard?>
It was not your shoulders – it was the conditioned response to that toy in that environment.
It is worth trying to use it for shaping because he definitely loves it 🙂 So to be able to use it for shaping, a couple of ideas:
– you can start with a cookie toss away from the jump so you are ready and moving, before he starts moving
– throw a food reward then have him come back for playing with the toy
– bring the toy into the garage and use it for the game because he might not have the same conditioned response to the toy there. And if that goes well, bring the toy back outside and see how it goes.
I also look at where conditioned responses come from. For example, my dogs LOVE frisbees and tennis balls! But one of the youngsters has a conditioned response to a tennis ball where he just runs waiting for it to be thrown (and not offering behavior). Looks exactly like what Skiz did here LOL!! Same with the frisbee and a couple of the other dogs. So if I want to use those toys to reward or shape behavior, I make sure I don’t spend a lot of time throwing them without getting offered behavior, until the dogs can recognize the different context: the presence of the jump means offer the jump, not just obsess on the frisbee for example 🙂
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
She is doing really well with her rocking horses!!!
The right turns were harder for her here – it might be that you were pulling away a little (like on rep 1 and at 1:00) so stay close to the barrel and keep facing it til she gets to it.And be sure to connect between the wraps – make the BIG eye contact and keep your hand low, then as she catches up to you, you can use a soft arm send to cue the next barrel. At :38 you did not make the big connection (all she could see was your back, not your eyes) so she had a question.
When you did make good connection, she was great about finding the new side and the next send. Yay!
Get out – yes, it feels weird when we are standing still but she seemed to totally understand it on both sides!
You can add more movement now – start her behind you with a cookie toss so you can be walking forward. Sometimes cue the ‘out’ before she gets to you, and sometimes just move straight without cueing the ‘get out’ so she does not go to the prop. Be sure to give yourself a ton of room though, so she doesn’t see motion towards the prop as the cue to go to it (this is what was happening at the very end of the video :))
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
>Just an FYI I am going to be getting a partial Knee replacements on my left leg Nov 14 and right leg Dec 19.>
It is going to be a busy time for your knees!!! Thinking ahead, I bet it will make a big difference when PoweR starts doing real runs and sequences – and as you recover, we will work on getting more distance skills and verbals because those are definitely needed nowadays!!
>I have no idea what I’ll be able to attempt training wise with PoweR but hoping you will help me modify as best we can.>
100% yes! We will modify so you can rehab the knees after surgery and keep moving forward with his training.
The rocking horses with the rotation/countermotion looked GREAT!! And yes, you did get a really good rhythm going and he was great about moving past you on the send even when you were already rotated.
>As per his usual, going counterclockwise produced more barking and slower performance.>
I totally see what you mean! He did a lot of good reps but also it does look harder.
On those left turns/counterclockwise turns, you can shift your connection to the other side of the cone (‘landing’ side) as you send and as he passes you. Don’t look at his cute face the whole time LOL And you can also toss a treat or lotus ball to the other side of it too, to build more value for the left turns.But he did have a lot of good left turns, so I am really happy with how this went!
For the next session – start where you left off here then add a little more distance (but not more running – see if he can send to the cones). And you can add wrap verbals too!
Great job :)
TracyGood morning!
I am glad you two had fun with the shpile game 🙂 It is a flyball game, actually, because flyball relies on the dogs being able to have amazing body awareness and collection ability.
Jazz did great here! She seemed perfectly happy to walk all over the stuff, all 4 feet, offering sits, making stuff move…. PERFECT!!! You can alternate delivering from your hand with dropping treats on the pile – it is likely that dropping the treats will get her offering more movement and handing her treats were getting more stationary/balance behavior, so we can mix in both!
It was a really good pile – all sorts of textures and movement. And you did a great job breaking it off and playing to keep arousal high. She was so funny, leaping back onto the pile at 2:25!!!
>She didn’t seem to want to leave the pile until I gave her release word (Break), then she was totally into chase and tug. Would it have been better to use a reset cooking rather than the release word?>
I think she was having a grand time earning rewards for partying on the pile and was offering a stay (in the hopes of more rewards on the pile, perhaps). The release word was great to use and it seemed clear for her – so releasing from the pile to play tug worked beautifully.
You can revisit this game maybe once a week or so as she grows, so maintain this confidence and body awareness. She is looking great!!
Tracy
Good morning!
Welcome back from Cyno!!
>Thank you for cheering for me at cyno! That run was a dream! Promise and I have worked so hard and you’ve been a huge part of our journey! I got tears when we won!!! Thank you!!!>
I know how hard you’ve worked and I was screaming for you!!!! It really was a great run – so connected but also you were really going for it. That weave entry!!!!!! And the cool thing is that she is still young and you are really only at the beginning! SO FUN!!!!!
And it sounds like Quill was a good member of the support team 🙂
>he was having a great time attacking and rolling the barrel but not going around it. I was just about to go buy to large traffic comes when I decided to give it one more try! Wow! I think he’s getting it!!!>
Latent learning can be magical! And sometimes taking a short break from the behavior can make all the difference when we go back to it.
The session looked really good here – you were very precise with your connection and handling, and using food rewards was a good choice.
Left turns are definitely harder for him here – the smash moment he had was on a left turn when you tried to move faster. That was harder for him so he did the smash thing 🙂 On the other reps, you were smoother and a little slower into the left turns and he did great!
I was going to recommend starting with left turn wraps when doing 2 in a row – but you did that towards the end of the session and that went GREAT!!!! Starting with the harder side (left turns) often means our mechanics are clearer so the pups are more successful – then the 2nd wrap to the easier side is usually successful because the pups don’t need us to be as perfect with connection and mechanics and speed 🙂
For the next session, start where you ended here (with the left turn wrap then the right turn wrap) – if he is as smooth as he was here, you can add a little more distance and also a little more speed, cueing the wraps a little faster (but stay connected like you were here).
Great job!!
TracyGood morning!
>But, even after being in the crate all night she doesn’t leap out. I’ve used my chase the treat marker and she’ll just stare at me. It’s unusual.>
That is a little unusual but she is really young – she might still be in the ‘waking up’ process and that causes the delay.
>I do want and offered sit for the sit stay, correct? I don’t ask for it?
>At this stage, offering is preferred because it helps them cognitively override the leap-grab impulse for the toy 🙂 If she has trouble choosing a sit but is able to offer a stand, we can help her with a cue.
>We started with play and then the first attempt she came over and started chewing the pool noodle.>
Ha! The joys of puppies… everything goes in the mouth for chewing LOL!!!
She did well on the video! The serp element went great – I think the hardest part was finding the start cookie! That might be why she had a harder time at the beginning – cookie finding, not a side preference. She would look for it then I think she was continuing to look for more which was delaying her return for the serp. When she was able to find it immediately, she would return to the serp pretty immediately too. Yay!
We can get creative with ways to help her find the start cookie: a food bowl to toss it into (use a big one so you can get the treat into it :)) and then the food bowl can move to the different positions. Or a mat or even a Treat n Train if you have started showing that to her.
Great job here!
TracyHi!
>Ironically, I took an in-person course covering Movement Puzzles and we started with moving back and forth between two bowls before progressing to cones and beyond. Why I never made the connection is a mystery, especially since I watched the two bowl game video the first week of this course!>
yes – those movement puzzles are built off of the same concept as the 2 bowl game. The 2 bowl game has been around for a while and the movement puzzles are a really clever way to expand on them!
>BTW..Tribute is backing up on a mat designed to train a running A-frame. It is not mine but I was planning on buying one. Before I do, is there any major advantage/disadvantage to teaching a running A-frame with a mat verses the PVC box? I ask because the mat is a lot more portable.>
I think you can train the a-frame with the mat or the box. I prefer the mat because it helps them dogs know where to put their feet very specifically but the box can be very effective too!
T
Good morning!
> I’m having trouble posting. If I just go to forums and scroll down my page it gives me an error message. When I try looking at others posts on their pages it gives me an error messag e. I’ve tried logging out and back in but no change. Only way I could post this one is going to your previous comment and posting>
That might have had something to do with the huge internet outage yesterday due to an issue at AWS, if your server uses that (ours does not). I am taking a course that uses that platform for its internet (Canvas) and it was out all day yesterday. I checked the Agility U sites and checked using your profile – all good here, so it might be the outage. If it is still being problematic today, trying clearing your cache. You can also send screenshots to our support at support@agility-u.com and they might have ideas.
The rocking horses are off to a great start!!! Yay! Your mechanics are very clear and precise, which totally helped her. There was only one spot where you were a little too early to send (she was still eating the cookie haha) but everything else looked good! She got faster and faster. So you can use a toy for this now (have it in a pocket then whip it out as a reward after one or two wraps). You can also add a little more distance between the barrels and take them outside to see how it goes!
Great job 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
>HA! I was trying to use more distance in order to get enough space for a blind but yea, it backfired.>
She thought it was *very exciting* 🙂 Since she thinks it is very exciting, you can be almost boring and calm during the actual reps: very precise mechanics and connection. Then you can be your normal super fun self during the tugging 🙂 That will lock her onto the barrels and then we can add more and more running 🙂
T
Good morning!
She did really well finding the tunnel here from the harder angle! Super! You can keep moving further back so she finds it from further away. You can also move to the easier angle but put her on the inside (between you and the tunnel) so she learns how to turn away into the tunnel.
With the toy as the target, you can add a bit of impulse control too: rather than bring her back to the start position by holding her collar, you can put the toy on the ground and reward her with treats for going back to the start spot without holding her 🙂
Stays – it took her a moment at the beginning of each to realize you were waiting for her to offer the sit but when she did, she held it brilliantly! You can also cue her to sit if that helps her.
As you move away – you are very exciting 🙂 Moving away slowing with a slight crouch and muscle tension while holding the toy up here might be creating a lot of excitement from her. If she has trouble holding her stays when you do that, you can add in moving away more naturally/more relaxed 🙂 with your arms down. Maintain the connection you had here, though, that was great!!Nice job!
TracyHi!
>just sharing this for completeness, I spend toooo long AGAIN! (Despite knowing at every level its the wrong thing to do, I keep chasing “one more rep”. I even set my timer!) >
This is a good assessment, especially if he had done other things previously. Where did this session fall in the order of stuff you posted? 1st, 2nd, or last? Knowing about his mental stamina can help you plan for next time
I am not sure that this one session by itself was too long… but if there were other things happening before he did this game, then yes it could have all ended up being too long/too much training.
One thing you can do is bring out exactly 5 cookies (instead a the whole bait bag) and reward each toy release with the cookie. When the cookies are gone – session over. And don’t ignore the timer LOL!!
>>I sped up the me playing bits. >
Speeding up the playing makes the session seem shorter, but as you mentioned: the play element is tiring for the pups so the more tugging you do, the shorter the session should be.
I think the left turns were a bit better than the right turns here, maybe he is a lefty today 🙂 He was able to do the wraps so now you can revisit it and see if latent learning has taken over! Then you can start to move the line on the ground, so you can do the FC earlier and earlier. And be sure he gets to the line before you praise and run – when you were too early, he came back to you. But when you waited til he reached the line, he was great!
Nice work!
Tracy
Hi!
He is doing well with his stay!! Be sure you say your marker before you move the treats – on the 2nd ‘catch’, it looks like he was moving when your cookie hand moved so tell yourself to be completely stationary for the marker, then after a second or two, throw the reward 🙂
The strike a pose moments are looking good too, he was great about driving into your hand and then turning to get the reward. Yay! You can move this forward to getting the reward onto the ground (toy or cookie bowl). Then it will be very easy to transfer to a jump!
The death roll is adorable!
Great job 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
>You know on an intellectual level that sometimes dog just “get it” once they’ve had a break from something and come back to it, but it’s always amazing when it happens. >
Yes! It is so cool! I understand the science behind latent learning but it is still really crazy when it happens 🙂
He was great here, got right on with no concerns. Turning around, hopping off then back on – all good! Super!
Since this went so well, we can add a little: you can put blocks or anything stable under it to elevate it a tiny bit! And you can also have him turn around in one spot, as well as change positions (sit, down, stand) – a cookie lure is perfectly fine for all of this 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
