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Hi!
For the toys, I think the best answer for now is keep going with the toy on a long line so you can engage her and play without a lot of pressure, but also so there is not any rehearsal of the running off or guarding behavior. Rehearsal builds neural pathways, so we definitely want her to not rehearse taking the reward and moving away with it.
>> This was her second round and she ran into the building and straight to the ring with eyes on me>
Which is why you definitely want to play 🙂 We don’t want her to be totally locked on the ring at this point – locked on you, yes, so playing will keep her engaged even when you are not in the ring and also helps balance the value so that being in the ring is not the most reinforcing thing 🙂
T
Hi! I am looking forward to seeing you at the Open!
>>I’m using a tongue click to mark it. I do have a verbal as well, but I find that I can do the tongue click faster, so I typically use that.>>
I could hear it! Something to experiment with is if you can do that as precisely while you are running so we know if that will be useful in those scenarios or if you will want to pump up the understanding the eat-from-hand marker. We have a lot of running games coming up 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
>>I am not liking my prop. It’s big enough it not easy enough for her to place her big feet.>
I think the prop is good and she was able to get her feet on it – and having a smaller space for collection stuff will help you 🙂
>>I used really good food so she was a little stuck this session.>
High value food is great!! I think a couple of little tweaks in mechanics will make it easier:
She was having a hard time leaving the food in your hand, when the hand was part of the send. So two approaches to play with to help her watch the hand less and move away from it more:
– Use empty hand on the send hand (food in opposite hand) so you can use the hand to send and not just a foot. That might be easier.
– When food is in the send hand, use a boring treat in it (and then you can add in rewarding with a higher value treat between the boring treats 🙂 )
You can also toss the treat more: rather than feed from the hand, we can switch it up to getting the treat tossed to the prop more so she look at it more.
And remember to do some yoy play before and after because we want the arousal built in from the start.
Her forward focus is looking good! She had a good resilience moment after the wind blew – nice bounce back for the next reps and no residual concern about it. Super!
You had lots of distance and she had great forward focus while leaving you in the dust. SUPER!!!
What is her status with toys? This looked like a lotus ball and that is useful, but I really want to get toys involved. Plus she is taking the lotus ball and moving away from you, so we want the interactive value of the toy too!
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
She totally loves her bowls! Yay! She was super great here!!!!
Two suggestions about mechanics:
Be ready with the treats before the bowls are placed on the floor – that way the reinforcement can start immediately. You might need 3 hands (sorry haha) but you will want to pull the treats out and then put the bowls down, so the first behavior gets rewarded. This also folds in some self-control, because she has to see the treats and ignore them in favor of going to the bowls. It is a small detail but might be a big moment for a food-driven dog.
You can also break this off more often (every 5 or 6 treats) with toy play by pulling the bowls up and throwing a toy around and tugging. This can help her learn these skills in a higher arousal state, which is really helpful for future course running and trialing.
Because she is so tiny 🙂 you can add 2 things for the next steps:
– move the bowls further back behind you, lined up by your feet when you are kneeling, so she has to make a bigger arc and has more room to turn around
– move your position to sitting in a chair and if that proves to be easy peasy for her, you can change to standing up (bowls can be back your feet too on those)
Fantastic job here! She is so fun!
Tracy
Good morning! Great job with these – she is a super smart puppy! And cute too 🙂
The foot targeting looks great – she was adding in some nose targeting to it too with her feet, but I think that was just her being very emphatic about it, and the nose part will go away as we add more action. You can switch to a verbal marker on these rather than the click here (using a ‘get it’ marker for the toss, and a ‘yes’ or ‘snacks’ 😁 marker when delivering from your hand). The clicks were all really good, so my suggestion about verbally marking instead of clicking is more about freeing your hands up for other things and also building up the understanding of the verbal markers.
She looks totally ready for you to go to the sending game we added on Tuesday!
The nose touch the target in your hand looked great too – she was starting to look up at you towards the end, so rather than click (which often builds in looking at us in many cases), you can mark the nose tap with a verbal ‘get it’ marker and toss the treat. Dogs almost automatically look at us when we click when they are puppies, then they watch us throw the treat so that is where the looking at us gets built in accidentally. Since you have now established the behavior with the clicker, you can use your verbal marker to tell her both that she is correct and also where to look for the reward.
We will build on this game in a few weeks 🙂
Super job here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>>Giving him some more room helped him to turn the correct way. I will say that when he chases toys outside that almost 100% of the time, he turns left after picking up the toy – even if it would be easier to turn right. >>
This is good to know! When you get in to more complex skills, train them going to his left first so he has less to process – then it will be far easier to get them going to his right. And it will even out in both directions, plus the conditioning people can help a lot too!
>Darkness prevented us going out for the driving ahead- so tomorrow!
The early darkness is a bummer!!!
>Question on the cone work. We have worked through all of the baby steps, starting the same way – with bowls. He is now at the point where he does multi wraps of cones, wings, trash cans (I don’t use cones anymore because he’s so big). >
Yay! One thing to consider is *not* doing multi wraps. The main reason is that when the pups are doing multi wraps, after the first approach to the cone (or whatever you are wrapping) they are pulling from their front end and not driving into the wrap with their rear. And what is collection? It is a hind end behavior. So multi wraps end up rehearsing what we do not actually want them to do on wraps, and their earliest neuronal memory is about, you guessed it, approaching tight turns with their mechanics focusing on front end use. That then takes a while to undo, so I prefer to not build those front end neural pathways and stick to the hind end engagement we get with single wraps. More on that coming soon.
Plus a lot of dogs just get bored LOL!! I am not sure if Judge gets bored because I think Mals can work forever and ever, so I am thinking more about getting fatigued and building a behavior in a direction we don’t want. I think multi wraps are popular because it looks like we are producing tight turns… but they are not tight because the dog is driving in with collection, then are tight because the dog is not moving fast. Food for thought!
>He can can that with distractions- me holding food out in my hands. I’m at the point where I’m starting to name the wraps. Should I wait a couple of lessons to do anything or do you want to see any of this now?>
You are welcome to post it if you like! My suggestion is to take what he already knows and use it for the Stealth Self-Control games – the first one is REALLY easy and it is posted in the Week 1 stuff. There is more coming of course and that will include forward focus, etc. And then we add more speed and excitement to it all 🙂
>We did a few forward send with the toy – he got a bit sloppy as his arousal went up so I need to figure out the correct balance of cookies to toy. >
I think he did great with the added arousal of the toy! Yay!!! Don’t avoid that – he was still really super good. As his brain and body get used to working in arousal, you will see the mechanics get crisp again. So yes, it is ok to sacrifice a bit of mechanics as you teach him to do it in arousal – because he is going to need to do it in arousal and these early days will go a long way to helping him be prepared for that.
If the behavior goes all to poo, you can back off the arousal a little but he still had really good hits here and was sorting out his mechanics nicely. His hits were not that different than the hits with the food-rewarded sideways sending. I bet he has slept on it and figured it out and will be very clean and crisp now with the toy!
You can try using toys and food in the same session (he seems to like both a lot, and that is great!) Do the ready dance, send to the prop, mark and play with the toy, deliver a treat by tossing it away, then back to the ready dance for the next rep. Or, you can flip that: reward with food, then a bit of tugging after every rep or two.
>>I need to figure out the correct balance of cookies to toy.>
You won’t really know until you and he are almost through the wild ride of adolescence 😂🤣 You will see subtle shifts back and forth for a while – this is normal and we embrace that and help him out.
For the sideways and backwards sends – he did really well and being further from the prop totally helped him turn to his right. You can be one step further away, almost where the treadmill is here, to give him even more room. And when using the food, remember to dirty up the loop with the ready dance before each rep – the arousal is actually the most important piece here 🙂 You can bring the toy into this game too (and every game :))
>I re-did the decel exercise and circle – trying to make sure he kept his rear in.
He was beautiful with those and had no trouble getting in very tight to you! Yay! Remember to keep your hand lower so his chin is parallel to the ground – it might be easiest to use your knee as your guide and have the treat placement happen down at your knee.
You can add some toy place to this one too – he seems to have a great head and handles arousal well! So you can tug a little before every rep or two, then do the game with food like you did it here. That brings in the arousal bit by bit – so useful for the future, especially if we can help him sort it out *before* adolescence hits hard 🙂 We add more to this game soon.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
I am glad you are turning your rage into action! I am still mostly in rage mode LOL!! Sigh.
And it also sounds like he is getting a lot of good class and seminar experience!!
>>I don’t have specific video of this, but we have been doing the ’empty hands’ for a while, mainly because I am not good at running with a toy in my hand. So it gets put elsewhere (and I really need to switch to smaller toys because his giant holee roller octopus thing makes my pants fall down). But he’s pretty solid at running without seeing the toy at this point, so I’m not sure if we need to do anything else with that.>>
Great! You might find that his version of “Just Like Home” is the empty hands level, because it is his normal, and that is great!
>>Question for you. I have the opportunity to enter him FEO in a trial in January. My thought was to try that and to just work on some of these A.R.E toolbox exercises. Would that make sense?>>
Totally do it! He likes toys and he has probably been to the trial site, so go for it!
>> I have zero interest in trying to actually run a course at a trial, I just want to play with startlines and whatnot. Too soon? Or do you think he’s ready to test some of these behaviors in a trial environment?>>
Start lines are a real buzzkill and also are the easiest thing to go wrong… so I never ask for them in the first FEO. Tricks, tugging, simple fun sequences – heck yeah! Hold off on the stays til you know he is very comfortable in the trial ring. Then the stays will be easy. Putting stays in too early can lead to a lot of errors and frustration, because the dog is working in a higher arousal state and with more distractions than ever.
>>we’re going to work on the send-ahead stuff because he tried to unalive me at class the other day – he’s speeding up, but then he’s turning around to see where I am and coming to a dead stop out of a tunnel. >>
Placed rewards will be your friend here, or actual real human friends who can throw the rewards for you – that way looking at you is not something he will want to do.
On the video: his leash off, engagement on looked great! That is another reason why FEO should be fine to do – he can play this engagement game even with another dog right there at the practice jump and lots of distractions around, as well as in class in the big ring. Yay! You can make this a remote reinforcement game by leaving your toy outside the ring while you do this – see if he can engage when the leash comes off, line up, take the jump, the mark and you go to the reward.
Great job here!!
Tracy
Hi!
>>That makes total sense to only “mess up” once when playing this game. I would imagine this isn’t a game you’d want to play super often so as not to build in too much frustration??>>
Yes – there is a lot of arousal regulation, and we don’t want the pups to slide into overarousal.
>>I definitely practiced them, but I think because I walked all of the sequences at one time before I brought her outside with me, I got the verbals mixed up.>
That could definitely be why. You can refresh each sequence before you run it, by jogging through it with the verbals. That will also build in more break time for her (but not for you, sorry LOL!!!)
>>she was pretty quick to come back to work for most reps.>>
Herding dogs will generally come back quickly to work even if they are exhausted LOL So don’t let her drive your decision on that because herding dogs will go and go and go and go…
>> Doing a working spot keeps me motivated to get the work done, but I also feel the pressure of “deadlines.”
That is why there are two weeks between sequences, so folks can battle the daylight issues and poopy weather and still get everything done.
On the video – this went well!!
The warm up went well. She did better on the full sequence when you gave a turn cue on the jump before the tunnel threadle. At 2:03 she jumped long (no turn cue) but at 2:29 and after that, you were cuing a left turn so she turned really well, making the tunnel threadle easier 🙂
I think her only question here was on Seq 3 on jump 5, where she needed to turn left to get the jum and not take either side of the tunnel. At 3:36 she came off the jump – you were turning a bit too soon, which brought you to a stop and you disconnected a bit. On the next 2 reps, the left verbal was timing but your shoulders were facing foward til she took off – it was a conflicting indicator (turn or go straight?) so the bar came down on those. At 5:47, she got it – you can turn your shoulders sooner there – it is a fine line between turning your shoulders away no later than halfway between the 2 jumps and also maintaining connection so she maintains her commitment.
It was really good to end where you did – look at how ginormous her tongue is LOL! And she was very successful, so stopping was a good call.
Great job here!
Tracy
HI!
>> First video is a dead toy.>>
I think this video is missing? Or I need a lot more caffeine 🙂
The MM runs looked really good! You can click the MM as soon as she looks ahead (no need to wait until she is over the last bar), closer to what you did at :43.
On the sequence video – she did great finding that big long line!!! On the first run, she wasn’t controlling her jumping as much but the 2nd run and 3rd run were great! Her hind end comes up a little as she decelerates to get to the MM, so you can move it further away so she has more room.
My only suggestion on the 2nd sequence is to tell her about the backside on 3 sooner – as soon as she exits the tunnel, you can let her know about the backside. You didn’t really cue it til she was past the halfway mark, so she had some questions there.
She also did well with the forward focus games! Yes, the left side is stronger – mainly because her stay is stronger on your left.
So keep working on building value for the stay on your right and releasing her when she looks at it. The magic sparkle ball can be close for now, or you can use a food bowl.
On your left, you can add in an arm cue (bring it up slowly so she doesn’t think it is a release) to help add more to the forward focus cue. And then I bet you can do this with a jump between you and the ball, adding lateral position to get her focusing forward on the jump! Her understanding on your right side will catch up pretty quickly, she was already getting the idea in this one session.Great job!
TracyHi!
Nice work on the sequences! The exit line connection looked great on the exits of the jump wraps. You don’t need to do it on the tunnel exits unless there is a side change – regular connection is fine there.
Looking at the Go lines – she had a little trouble finding that last jump when you placed the reward out past it. It is possible that it wingless jump was a harder visual for her to pick up, or that the toy was too close to her landing spot so she was not sure how to get it. So, you can back chain it jump on that last jump first, with the toy about 12 feet or so past it.
She did really well when you were moving up the line. You can start that a little closer to the end of the line there too to back chain the progress, but she was definitely sorting it out better with more of your motion and the thrown reward.
She had a lightbulb moment and was finding the line really well!!!There was a little blooper at 2:14 when you had a big disconnect sending to tunnel and turning your back on her, so she thought you wanted a blind and changed sides. Much better at 2:36 and the reps after it!
Sorting out the RC took a few reps – the key is what cue she sees as she is over the bar of the yellow jump after the tunnel.
When you faced straight at 3:25 – she thought that cued the straight line, and facing straight for a step or two there made the RC info late so she stayed on the “go” line.
Compare to 3:59 where you never faced straight (you faced the center of the bar of the next jump more) and you were showing the RC info as she landed from the yellow jump – better response for sure! She had slightly delayed processing of it (it was a little late showing the RC line) but she got it!
Then she totally had it by 4:29 – you were showing the RC info the whole time and you were driving up the RC diagonal sooner, which really helped.
I grabbed some screenshots of those moments so you can see the subtle differences that she reads as big cues:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1koJCQedymSUavEyXcqQjAJDaUvK6XegVDN9tgWg48sc/edit?usp=sharing
You can mix in straight lines there, to be sure she is reading all the cues correctly.
One other thing: all the backsides looked good but you had a REALLY nice long distance backside at 3:53!!
Great job here!!
Tracy
Hi!
I still love watching her FEO run! I loved her engagement when the leash came off and how focused she was in the run. Did I mention I thought it was a brilliant decision to do the tunnel double whammy at the begining? So fun!!!! And you had really excellent connection too.>>As gung-ho as she was, she was very happy to spend that evening & Monday on the couch with me after her big day. I feel like she was extra cuddley and smiling in her sleep.>>
She was probably enjoying some good endorphin feelings 🙂 And also her work in the ring was probably ‘expensive’, meaning that her brain expended a LOT of energy to process the environment, run fast, stay engaged so she was probably legit tired 🙂
> I did hide the toy and I realize now I probably wasn’t supposed to, but I run like that at home to doscourage her from jumping up & grabbing it.>
It went well, because she was used to it from the home training and I think you did it at the league training too. When is her next adventure in the ring at a trial?
Looking at the tunnel discrimination video: good job keeping it fun even though she was not getting the tunnel discrimination! I watched it and watched it to see what the handling was doing differently between the first rep at :20 where she got it and the others where she did not… I didn’t see a big enough difference, the handling looked strong on all of them. So my guess is her arousal level came up there and so processing the cues became harder after the first rep.
So try this: as she exits the pinwheel jump and is heading to the jump before the tunnel, give her a turn cue for that jump before starting the threadle cue. It can be a ‘left’ verbal if you think that is powerful in the face of a yummy tunnel straight out ahead. Or it can be her name (“BAZINGA MARIE!”) to get her attention. That can help let her know that there is a turn cue coming all before she takes off for the jump.
She had a little trouble with the pinwheel jump (those are hard for her!) so you can randomly throw a reward out past it when she takes it to keep the value high. And you can revisit the lazy game to be able to toss rewards for it, so she takes it without requiring perfection in the handling. I thought your handling was good there, so putting more value on the pinwheel jump will really help.
>>I loved that you said in the zoom chat about decompression that there is the active decompression (like shredding) and the calming decompression (like chewing or a snuffle mat). Do you need to determine which kind your dog needs or do they need both?>>
The dogs let us know which helps them – they don’t need both. In fact it would be GREAT if they didn’t shred because that gets expensive LOL!! And the more passive decompressions are easier to do at home. But if the dog needs to shred? We let her shred 🙂 Both the active and passive decompression have the same result.
>> It seems like sctive decompression like shredding lets them get their energy out so they can relax after & a snuffle mat would encourage them to focus & calm down.>>
In theory, yes, but it is very individual. My little Hot Sauce terrier doesn’t calm down after a snuffle mat at all – she eats all the treats as fast as she can then is ready to be wild again LOL!
>>I have been thinking about Bazinga these are my ideas:
Calm Decompression:
frozen kong
licky mat
topple with kibble>>These are great!
>>Snuffle mat? Maybe. I have not tried this yet but scatters in the grass make her focus on getting the treats>>
The mat would definitely make it easier to find the treats
>>long walks away from the busy area at a trial?
Yes – long sniffy walks are great!
>>beach walks – scheduled decompression
Perfect! Count me in LOL!!
>Active decompression:
Kill the towel (she loves to steal laundry)
Tug where she can kill the toy ($$$$)
Shred something? I’m thinking I can save paper towel rolls and put kibble inside & roll the ends & let her shred them. I have to WATCH her because of her histoy of eating stuff. I haven’t let her shred cardboard for that reason, but I bet she would LOVE it.>These are probably all good (but expensive LOL) decompressions and yes, they need to be supervised so she doesn’t eat anything inappropriate.
>>Would fetch at the trial site count?
That would befun for her but probably not decompressing – letting her run around with the toy (victory laps!) might be decompressing but that doesn’t really work at a trial. You can try it at home, though.
With all of the decompression stuff, observe her while she is doing it then after she does it – does she seeme relaxed? Is her next run really good?
>>I’m thinking about this question: Is Bazinga Volume dial or business?
As crazy as I feel typing this, I think she is all business. The look she gives me when we do a start line stay, is very serious. She really seems to take that part seriosuly. But she seems to be able to handle all the action tricks and still stay focused when we play them at the start line.>>It is too soon to tell – she might be all business, but she liked doing her tricks at the start line! She might be the perfect combo of both 🙂
>>Engaged chill.
I REALLY need to learn how to encourage this. We do not have this skill. It is either 100% attention on each other or she is looking for crumbs. She snaps out of the crumb search when it is time to play, but some engaged chill would be better. I’m not sure what to cultivate as engaged chill.>Slowing down the up and down pattern game using the 2 snuffle mats will help cultivate this!
>> I love Electra with her paws up on you. Can I shape that with treats & slow the treats down?>>
For the paws up, you can have her stand up on you and lick something (a lickimat is great) – that will encourage the behavior but also give her some decompressing licking to do.
It is possible she will like being touched during engaged chill and also possible she will NOT want to be touched. My dogs are divided: 3 like to be touched during engaged chill, 3 dog NOT want to be touched, it gives them the ICK haha! So the 3 that don’t want to be touched have learned the pattern game version of it, and they just stand next to or in front of me while chilling.
Great job here! Let me know what you think of the decompression ideas!
Tracy
Good morning!
These sequences went really well!
Nice job bringing her into the session with a pattern game then a bit of volume dial (she has mastered the bark on cue!)She drove ahead really well to the dish all the way from the tunnel! Yay! She totally smoked you on the last run and that was a great place to end the session. Click/treat to you!
I agree that she was enjoying driving to the dish! And also yes… her jumping form was a little interesting especially as she had the big long line. But not worrisome at all! I can’t remember ever exposing her to a line that long while asking for that much speed with you behind her. So she was almost perfect and I am sure she will sort out her jumping form because her jump form has never been an issue. We cna help her if she needs help, of course, but you can repeat this session in a couple of days (or after the Open :)) and see what latent learning has locked in.
And you can also repeat the session (back chaining) with the thrown Toppl – that might be easier for the jumping form, but it is definitely harder to throw when you are doing the full sequence.>> I was starting to run out of yard!). I didn’t drop enough treats for a better snuffle in the grass when I was done and she started jumping up at me as we were walking back into the house while on leash (side note – she will just jump up on regular walks too and not always because of over-arousal – sometimes it’s because we stopped (like to pick up poop) and she thought it took too long, but other times there is nothing going on and we’re just walking down an empty trail and she’ll start boinging. It’s like she just gets bored with staying on the ground!)>>
I have been thinking about this… I agree that jumping up is not always a frustration behavior and sometimes it might actually be an “OMG THIS IS AWESOME” or even an arousal regulation behavior. So in the OMG THIS IS AWESOME moments, or when she is regulating her arousal (like before a run or after a run), something to consider is that it might be perfectly fine to let her do it 🙂 It is a nice release and can even be an expression of joy. We can look for where it might be frustration and help resolve that, or look at where the expression of joy is really annoying (like if you are trying to prepare dog meals and she is boinging all around) and give her other things to do. That way all boinging is not something to be concerned about, because the boinging likely has different functions. And you can focus on the boinging that communicates frustration or is annoying to household life 🙂
>>I experimented it a bit with what she might like for engaged chill (jury is out but one possibility is that she likes to volunteer to pop into my lap as I am crouched down and just sits there on my thighs as I scritch her chest. This settles her but is obviously not the most comfortable chilling position for me!).>>
It is nice that she has some chill just being next to you! You can try carrying her sometimes to see if that works too (saves your knees from crouching) and also bring a chair that she can hop into so you can interact a bit while standing?
The one and done run looked great!
>> I got the front of the jump out of the tunnel instead of the back and am pretty sure I started rotating in too soon (hard to tell at a distance)>>
It was a little hard to see but you might have been a little too far across the bar and looked ahead too early? She was not expecting a backside cue there so needed a bigger physical cue. But the rest was great!! Great job throwing the toppl but I am also really excited that she was already driving ahead and looking ahead before you threw it. Super!!!!
Great job here! See you in Jacksonville!
Tracy
Good morning!
>>I got a bigger prop for him since he’s already pretty big (“we’re gonna need a bigger boat!”).
Ha! A tiny boat for a tiny Maligator, that is all you need 🙂
Prop sending is going well! He has great value and was hitting it really well!
You can add a little more room away from his line, maybe one or two steps away – you were pretty close and that might be what caused him to turn left away from you at :13. And he might be a lefty 🙂 So to help him want to turn to his right, being a little further away will to your right (when sending from your left) will help draw him to the right turn.Since this went so well, add a toy to these forward sends – we want him to start learning the arousal regulation right away because, well, Malinois 🙂 You can use the toy to get him excited before the ready dance and send – and a cookie as a reward if you feel he might get over-aroused, or the toy as the reward if you feel he is balancing his arousal nicely.
You can also move to the sideways sends (start with food first, then add the toy). And if that goes well (and it probably will), move to the backwards sending 🙂
The drive to handler is going well too!
You can present your reward hand sooner (when he is still 4 feet or so away from you) and lower, so he comes in straighter and his butt doesn’t curve away – by waiting for him to get all the way to you, he is looking up and swinging wide. Keeping your hand lower (even when pivoting) will help keep his chin parallel to the ground, which will make collection into the hind end even easier.He did well with the pivoting, just remember to pivot slowly so he doesn’t swing wide. And you can totally add this toy to this game too!
>>He has done quite a bit of the driving ahead for the toy, including with my motion, so I won’t go all the way back to the very first baby steps. Which means I need to go outside to give him enough room – will do that later today.>>
Super!! Show me what you have and we can add extra spicy things for him to do 🙂
>> Full disclosure – he has been working through another online program, so this is not his first class. But I like how everyone has different skills and approaches and I know this class has a lot of things I can do in a small space as winter approaches here (sad face).>>
That is great (well, not the winter part LOL!) At 7 months old, I figure most folks have started foundation so we can build on what he knows, add different skills, etc, so everything comes together into an expansive foundation.
Great job here!
TracyHi!
I agree, the shaping element was not a challenge for her. Adding the pressure and arousal of the toy moving was a bit of a challenge and she worked through it really well with the bowls!
It was harder when the cone came out – you can start that part of the session with the cone very close to you as a bit of a refresher, then move it out when she gets it smoothly going
I agree, adding the 2 cones and mat and toy in the picture was tooooo hard according to 10 here 🙂 You did a good job dialing back the toy challenge so it was present but not moving – she had some success but it was still a little hard. You can take this level of challenge and add the excitement of the toy in a little differently: get the behavior rolling (2 cones close to you and close together and the mat behind them). When she tells you that she has it by zipping back and forth a few times – then you can bring the toy into the picture, and if that is easy, you can start moving it. Then as one variable gets harder (like adding more distance between you and the cones), you can dial back the challenge of the toy til she is zipping back and forth. That approach of getting the behavior first will also help you survive canine adolescence, where behaviors they knew perfectly well on a Wednesday might be totally gone on a Thursday (but they come back on a Friday LOL!!)
Since I obsessively try to figure out the pup’s side preferences… she looks like a righty here when you put the cone out. I say that because when challenged with the toy distraction, she was able to wrap it going to her right very easily and smoothly. Wrapping to the left was harder (but she was able to do it – super!!!)
To get more curve on her line, you can slides the bowls back behind your knees , to get more in line with your hips – that will also give her more room to turn around and be ready for the next wrap.
If you haven’t already done so, you can also work this standing up because we are doing to build it up pretty quickly.
Great job here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
I am looking forward to seeing you at the US Open!>> I leave tomorrow for the US Open, so I won’t be able to get to all of them.>>
No worries, you will have plenty of time to catch up when you get back.
The drive to handler is going well.
>>In baby mode, should I ask for her to be closer. Coming to heel and side “close” has been an ongoing struggle with us.>>
She was in a good location on these, coming in pretty tight to your leg when you were decelerated. She was a bit wider and slipping a little when you were doing fast circles, so you can flip the script a bit: Be moving forward as you release her from the stay (or use a cookie toss start). Then before she is even halfway to you, decelerate into the pivot, so she gets the cue to collect.
Then stay a decelerated as you do the pivot, for two reasons:
– the cheat moments might actually have been her correctly responding to the physical cues of a blind cross starting (it was hard to see your shoulders on these). When you were pivoting fast, if you were breaking connection – then she was seeing your outside shoulder start to engage back to her with connection moving to the other side. That is a natural physical cue for a blind 🙂 So keeping the pivot decelerated will maintain the shoulders and a little bit of connection so she stays on that side.– the super fast pivots caused her to accelerate too, which resulted in going wider on the turn and slipping a little. So adding the decel before and during the pivot will prevent that, then you can throw a treat or toy out ahead of her so she can accelerate forward too.
Since you mentioned coming in close to you has been hard (BCs might not naturally drive to our leg), you can add arousal to this game. She was really strong here so in the next session, get her all pumped up with her toy so she is VERY excited – then ask for the drive to handler. Be sure to show her the decel cues nice and early because she will be moving really fast 🙂
>>When I get back I’ll take her to our training building where she can really get moving.>>
Yay! And the upcoming variation on this combines drive to handler with driving ahead, to really balance the skills.
Great job!
Tracy
