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Great to see you here! Have fun with the games, I think they will sharpen up skills for many of the challenges we see on course lately 🙂
Tracy
Hello and welcome!!!
We can totally adapt to your space. It might mean a smaller tunnel or weave poles as jump bars, but we can make it work! And sure, share trial videos especially if there were any juicy discriminations 🙂Have fun!
TracyHi!
This looked great! What a good girlie!!!! And your marker was nice and clear. Super!>So well that I think she may have thought that I had a treat in my hand. >
Nope, I think she was just being brilliant 🙂 Their noses are sooo good that I am pretty sure she knew there were no treats in your hands. Were there any treats or toys in your pocket? If so, you can do the next session with nothing in your pockets at all.
You can play this game in the house too: the the treats on a table in one room, for example, and have her move with you into a different room… then mark and run back. It makes it all really simple and fun, and is a fun way to teach this critical trial skill. And you can try it with a toy too, because she does love her toys 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
>Sprite will NOT tell the pip to big off. She’s hiding in a crate or behind the sofa these days. Dot is only out on a leash with me. She relentless with dive bombing Sprite.>
This is where you can be active in the yes-or-no process. If she dive bombs Sprite and is over the top? You can gently remove her and she is back on leash with you, just hanging out. If she can peacefully co-exist, toss some treats for both of them. It is all very passive but as black and white as possible.
>We need to talk trade training. What’s the best way to start it? >
The thing that helps the most is having quick access to toys/chews/treats. This can be on the floor for toys/chews, or up on a table (or in my pocket especially if I am outside). Yes, I have toys/chews on tables and counters, appropriate things to pick up on the floor, and there are usually treats within easy access. So if the pup puts something in his mouth, I just say “can I have that?” and offer up the trade. If I want to trade for a treat and I don’t have one, I go get one from the kitchen or wherever the treats are. Very calm, no chasing, and no time out for the pup (I mean, he doesn’t know he should not put *everything* in his mouth hahaha). And the trade is either something that re-directs him into a better activity (toy or chew), or a treat then I go get him something more acceptable to do 🙂 It is very consistent, he doesn’t get a bit reaction or a lot of attention (which might be why he doesn’t pick things up to get my attention) and results have been great!
I do this outside as well – there is no way I can remove all the sticks/toys/etc from 3 acre so when I take the pup with us on a walkabout, I am armed with treats and toys 🙂 for the “can I have that” moment.
And yes, the other dogs might come over to investigate what I am trading for – and I give them stuff too, because social learning is HUGE! It brings all the dogs towards me rather than any moving away.
>What I have is Dot grabbing and running away as fast as possible and not returning for any reason. When I do catch her she’s removed. So, no fun for either of us.>
It sounds like it might be a cycle that is getting more grabbing/running away, rather than less – if you chase/catch and then remove her (time out/negative punishment), you will see an increase in running away with whatever the precious object is. This might be happening outside too. So you can move the needle with the ‘can I have that’ trades.
Bear in mind when I say “can I have that” to the pup, I have ZERO expectations that he will bring it or give to me at this stage. But he doesn’t run off and often comes towards me so I can present the trade options. Basically it is a marker that something is coming (the trade) so he doesn’t move away or continue to overly covet whatever is in his mouth. Plus he is really good about letting me dig around in his mouth to make sure there is nothing in there, like toy fluff or anything I don’t want him to swallow because it is all followed by some sort of trade/re-direction.
T
Hi!
>Also, THANK YOU about him getting his back feet on the mat. Never thought about that.>
Usually for a Sheltie, we look for back feet to hit the mat for running contacts. I like to stare at the mat (not at the cute dog :)) and count in my head for each foot I see: 1-2-3-mark! That way I am saying ‘get it’ when the 4th foot (2nd back foot) is hitting the mat.
>Another thing I noticed with him is when he does this exercise he knows I have treats and he jumps to my hand to get them.>
That is part of the training here: teaching the pup to ignore a reward in your hand and commit to the obstacle. It is a bit of self-control 🙂
Keep me posted!!
Tracy
Hi!
He loves his Ace bag, totally starting without you LOL!!
He had a lot of really good reps here – the rotation is HARD but he was getting it! He might have been stronger to his left here (or he was figuring it out because it was his second side)
It was hard to see where you were looking (the camera cut off your head 🙂 ) so be sure to look at the there side of the back on the rotated sends. It is a shift of your connection: just before the send, look at him. Then as you send, let hm see your shift your gaze to the other side of the bag. That can help him commit to it even with you fully rotated. If you look at him, the direct connection might override the arm/leg cue to go to the bag.
Did I ever send the Toy Not Flesh game to play with him and the tug toys? When you have both hands on the toy, he seems to get your hand by accident a lot. Ouch! I teach all of my good tugging dogs to have “tooth awareness” 😂 with this game: grab the toy, even if you only have a small part available, and don’t touch my flesh 🙂 Here it is:
Explanation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4JxWLS2CuM
Recent session with my half Mal 🙂 He never touched my flesh even with just a tiny bit of the toy available:
Great job here!!
Tracy
Hi!
He seemed to have no questions about the parallel path game here – yay!
A couple of suggestions for the next steps:
– you can take the clicker out and stick to your ‘get it’ marker. He often looks at you when you click (especially at the beginning of a session) but does not look at you with the get it marker, so we can stick to get it sp he keeps looking ahead.– you can add more of your motion, jogging a bit!
– you can add more arousal by tugging after every couple of cookie rewards, to challenge him to still find the jump when he is more stimulated
– you can throw the cookie rewards on slightly different angles instead of straight, so he gets the reward then has to go ‘find’ the line to the jump as you are moving.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
Super nice session here – he really loves that bumper toy and had absolutely no trouble picking it up!
He was happy to eat the treats but the toy might have been more valuable. The treats almost interrupted his flow of the retrieve and play. He was bringing it back really well (you only had to grab it to prevent a run-by once at the beginning :)) I wonder if a second toy would have been a more valuable reward? It can be another bumper toy like this one and when he puts the first bumper in your hand, you can mark and throw the 2nd one (sometimes tug with the first one a bit before marking and throwing the 2nd one).
He was eating the food which was GREAT because the toy was really exciting 🙂
I admit to snorting in laughter when he slid the toy back to you with his nose. So funny!!
Great job 🙂 Tracy
Good morning!
Yes, he was happy to do the forward sending but the rotated sends to his left were a no-go in that session. It is possible. That you were looking at him very directly so he needed you to shift your gaze to the other side of the barrel to help him commit to it when you were rotated. You can also try rotated sends on the right turns – those were forward sends and looked great! And of course he loved the chase the auntie game 🙂Out video:
He was responding really well to the out cue! Yay!! Even hitting it with his outside leg on both sides! I am VERY happy with how he was using his feet there!Moving straight past it was hard in a smaller space, so helping him with a hand cue/leg tap was fine here. When you have more room outside, you can try it by just moving forward (which should indicate going straight and not shifting away to the prop).
>Apparently it is quite difficult to stop my feet from helping.>
Yes, it is so hard to convince our feet to remain straight! Once you started moving, your feet were really good! When you take this outside, you can put a leash on the ground as a line for you to move along which helps keep your feet straight.
Alternate RC video: He is getting the idea here – but he is also looking the ‘wrong’ way first before seeing the right way. That is because after the cookie toss, you were moving more on a 90 degree line behind him so I am not sure he saw the RC as well. You will want to move diagonally behind him so you are past his nose on the new side when he finishes eating and he will turn to the new side immediately 🙂
I made pictures of what I mean, in case words are not making sense 🙂
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1_63s5_PKgaw5RAbEWqGYmE49qwMMy9a8Lv25PisQJG8/edit?usp=sharing
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
>We won’t be doing anything outside tomorrow… it’s a severe weather warning… winds gusting up to 140kmh (87mph according to Google). >
OK that sounds crazy!! We only have 40mph winds here so I will stop complaining now LOL!!
>I need to hold off on the weightshift a teeny bit longer but he’s so good.>
Yes – especially at the beginning, stand perfectly still until he gets to the line n the ground. And if something goes wrong – reset with a cookie so he doesn’t get frustrated and try to grab the toy. And if you run away too early – you can play tug as you go back to reset. From his perspective, he was correct to follow the handling so the reset cookie/tugging will really help keep frustration away.
He seemed stronger turning to his right today? So you can work an entire session with the right turns and moving the line on the ground around the barrel bit by bit so you are doing the FC and running away earlier in tiny increments. Use the line on the ground as your cue: don’t move a muscle til his feet are over that line 🙂
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
> upped her food by a LOT (had to laugh when you mentioned the skinny teenagers last night) as she was getting quite skinny overall>
OMG these pointy dogs eat SO MUCH just to keep them even remotely NOT too skinny.
Interesting to see the big changes starting between 15 and 16 months! Makes total sense, though. Sounds like she is developing really well!
>So probably give it another month at 12” and reassess?
I think you can probably play with adding some 14″ with no problem – it will be a minimal change for her and you can add the 14″ bar in the set point and on really easy straight lines. It moves things forward but it is relatively insignificant in terms of challenge-level.
I personally add in higher heights 2 inches at a time, bit by bit on certain lines (like straight extension lines first) rather than set a whole course at the new height. I also show the dogs the harder turns like soft turns and wraps on one jump at a new height before it goes into a sequence. And more complex jumping like backsides and threadles are last to see full height – but that is perfectly fine because the youngsters won’t see backsides or threadles in a trial environment any time soon.
I figure you will see a LOT of development in the next 2 or 3 months and by 18-20 months she will look entirely different. Do you take stack photos? It would be cool to see the development every month!
Keep me posted 🙂
Tracy
Hello and welcome! Congrats on your success at Cynosport with Artie!!!!!!
I am looking forward to seeing more of Ringo 🙂
Have fun!
Tracy
Good morning!
>We don’t play much unstructured fetch in the backyard, or anywhere, but I agree with you that it’s exactly what his behavior looks like.>
Certain behaviors can have one repetition learning – fetch/toy throws/tennis balls/frisbee all seem to be in that department 😂
>He’s not toy-obsessed. He enjoys playing with many toys much of the time. But I don’t have a toy he’s motivated to play with all of the time. And sometimes he prefers to work (play) for food.>
Most dogs, especially adolescents, really do best with variety and new stuff, so your 6 different toy session was a great idea!
>It was similar to what I posted here from yesterday. I was hoping a lower value toy would lead to more thoughtfulness. Skizzle was thrilled with the new version of the same game.;)>
It might just be a context cue of being in your yard meaning the toy indicates running around and not offering behavior like he would indoors (the indoor sessions are all about offering behavior, so the context indicates offering and not running around). You can mix food and toys together: food to jump start the offering in the yard, and toy breaks to keep the excitement level high.
He did well at the park here, finding the barrels with all the environmental distractions. At the beginning, he was offering “go that way” in response to the cues and not necessarily full wraps, but that is great because he was still with you enough to try the game. Then he was able to offer really focused/fast wraps with the toy and especially with food!
When offering the toy as the reward – he was engaging but the play was very short so it was hard to tell if he would stay engaged – you can play for longer and move away from the barrels to engage the play, keeping the toy moving so he can grab it before heading back to the barrels
The bark from your other dog was definitely hard for him. Two ideas for you on that, for when he is in situations where you might get barking:
– for a harder game like rocking horses, try to be further from the car or have the car closed up more if it is not too hot, so the barking is dampened a bit
– you can also work through the barking with easier games – set up scenarios where the other dog might bark (this can be at home, or in a park) and ask for very easy behaviors (like tricks or a cookie recall) with super high value rewards. That can help him work through the surprise/alert element of the bark nearby before asking for harder games.
>I felt like I was decently connected with Skizzle from the 1st barrel to the 2nd.>
Yes! Good connection! The only mechanics suggestion I have is for you to step to the barrel with your dog side leg on the first send – that will really help support the cue to go to the barrel.
>To do over again, I would’ve given him a couple minutes once out of the car here, with some pattern games before starting the session – to help him acclimate.>
Yes, great idea – that will get the first couple of reps on the barrels to look smooth like they did in the 2nd part of the session. He was playing with game at the beginning here, but his brain was definitely split: processing the environment and processing the cues.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
I am glad you are feeling better!!!
Video 1:
The running contacts game is going well with both the mat and the box. His rhythm and striding all look really good. My only suggestion is to use a ‘get it’ marker when you throw the reward instead of ‘yes’ to help keep him looking ahead and not at you. For the mat, try to mark when his back feet are on. You can add more distance away from them too!Video 2:
The cone wraps (rocking horses) are also going well! Try to do only 2 wraps or maybe 3 before rewarding. That way we humans are more likely to maintain connection and the dogs don’t lose focus because of the repetition.
You can add your wrap verbals to these now! And you can also add a little more distance between the cones 🙂Video 3: excellent start to the threadle/serp game! He is driving to the target hand really well and your reward placement is really good too! You can hand him the treat rather than throw it, so you don’t need to move your shoulders. When using the stay, be sure he doesn’t self-release when he sees the hand target. You can reward him for holding the stay (by throwing a treat to him) when you get into position and he doesn’t self-release. You can add the toy to this and also start moving to the reward to the ground (advanced level :))
Video 4: Parallel path – he is doing really well when you are close to the jump, almost perfect! When you were further ahead, he was having more misses by coming to your side rather than through the uprights. So you can add being ahead very gradually and keep throwing the reward like you did – he was really getting the idea by the end of the session so I know adding more distance by being ahead of him (and also being lateral) will be easy for him 🙂 And as you mentioned, maintain connection because that will help too!
Great job on these!
Tracy
