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Hi! He was such a good boy here!!
> Once he locked in the toy on the stool want an issue…>
He was super good about not going over to it, but it was totally on his mind – the toy on the stool was definitely hard and you can see his brain was split! You can really see it on the barrel sends to his left that were both closer to the toy and turning towards the toy,
On those, be extra sure to connect to give very clear info. For example at 1:23 and 1:41, you didn’t have enough connection to him (too much arm pointing with a cookie possibly in the pointing hand, not enough eye contact) so that combined with the toy on the stool was causing errors. I am not sure is there actually was a cookie in the hand but he definitely thought there was – it was much easier for him when you had the open hands on the sideways/backwards sending. And more eye contact willl turn your shoulders directly towards the line you want, while pointing tends to turn our shoulders away from the line (and towards the toy in thise case). Starting closer to the barrel can help too!He had a much easier time committing on your left side, turning to his right. You had better connection on that side too – looked really good!
At one point you said to him “get used to shitty handling” 🤣😂 and the way to do that is to use a lot of reset cookies. It is basically our way of saying: oops, my bad, here is a cookie, let’s try again 🙂
Nice work here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>she still likes to back up a bit sideways so we took a couple steps back to basics before we tackle the added steps for this week>
She is coming along very nicely with the backing up!! It is pretty normal to get a bit of sideways movement as they learn this skill – it mainly happens because we humans almost always use the same hand to reward. So the pups learn to lock onto that hand. They end up backing up straight from that hand, which looks sideways to us 🙂 That is what was happening here in the beginning – your left hand was delivering all the rewards, so smartie Macklynn was backing up straight from that hand 🙂
2 ways to get her going straighter:
– you can make the mat a little smaller so she has less room to get on it. Folding it in half might be perfect!
– reward from both hands, alternating, keeping both hands down in front of you. Let her back up then just use a flick of the wrist to toss the treat rather than move your hand to her. Your hands should stay as motionless as possible.
> I found that just a very light hand/arm under her belly (no pulling, pressure, directing…just light touch/support- if that makes sense…) helped her back a straight line. Hopefully I didn’t make a poor choice in that….>
I dn’t think it was a poor choice, but it might not have helped as much – she was sometimes hopping back or going sideways the other direction, thinking more about your hand than about her feet. Try the smaller target and using both hands to reward and I bet you get the straighter backing up.
Looking at the rocking horses:
>You will likely watch me correct my errors in real time on this video. As we progressed through repetitions I would catch myself – “Too much hand direction,” “No connection,”…etc. 🙂 I’m learning! LOL>
Good for you! Analyzing handling while also rewarding her is hard but you did a great job!
At the very beginning, you didn’t have as much connection – as the session went allong your connection got clearer and clearer. I think the connection will be espeically important on the right barrels – that is her harder side so if you look at her more as you send from your left side, she will find those right turns better. You can really see the difference when you added the connection at 1:55 and 2:20 and after that: she had no questions on those left turn barrels!
The left turns (dog on right) looked great on each rep – they ae her easier side and you also had lovely connection on that side too! Super!
You can keep adding distance between the barrels and also check out the Advanced level 🙂
The strike a pose session went great! Your cues were very clear and she understood the assignment 🙂 She understood is so well, actually, that she was side swiping the target a bit. That is actually a good thing for the next steps – it means that your placement of reward has been consistently showing her that it is an ‘in-then-out’ behavior. We need to fade the actual touch anyway so this is the first part of that. And it gives you one less thing to have to carry during training 🙂
So in the next steps, add a reward on the ground in the same spot where you are throwing your treats here. It can be an empty food bowl, a manners minder, or the tug toy. Any of those will add a nice element of self-control and also get more of the serp behavior. What you will start to see with the reward on the ground is that she will not be touching your hand as much and that is GREAT as long as she does the in-then-out behavior.
The only other suggestion is to put pool noodles on the inside of the upright here, so they cover the jump cups. She is likely to start going faster and faster (especially with toys involved) and there are turns right near the upright – so a pool noodle will protect her from making contact with the metal jump cups.
>We are trialing this weekend, so I’m hoping to spend some time with her between runs working on resilience games. She’s been successful there before, and there are options for varying levels of intensity. I’m optimistic, but a little nervous to be honest.>
FUN! It will go well – remember to bring her favorite toys, mind-blowing treats (does she enjoy rotisserie chicken? Or perhaps an Egg McMuffin? Small amounts will keep her belly from getting upset. ) and start as far from the ring as needed to get success. Keep me posted!
Great job here!!
Tracy
Hi!
You can mix in the non-out reps earlier in the session, maybe even start that way, before he gets locked into focusing on the prop. I think mixing it up will help him see which cue is for which behavior. I bet he sleeps on it and is perfect next time 🙂
T
Hi!
>I found it interesting how much he lost focus when toy around>
For the shpile game – yes, there will be changes in how he moves when he is more stimulated and that is good! We want him to think about how he is moving even when he is stimulated. After tugging, though – help him less 🙂 You were trying to move around too much so he was not sure of what you wanted. Let him offer behavior and you just drop a cookie in. You can have the toy tucked into a pocket or armpit in those moments – putting it on a chair or behind you added a self-control element that he was not ready for yet.
So with the pile: get him tugging then after a few seconds, tuck the toy away and just stand next to the pile. Reward anything he offers. Then after a couple of treats, go back to a bit more tugging. Do this back and forth a few times – it will help him think about his body. And it is also good for going back and forth between food and toys!
Backing up – he is sitting because of the reward placement/hand movement. On those reps, he saw your hand get high as you moved into give him the treat, so he sat. That also happened during the in-between moments when your hand got high to reset or reload, so he sat.
On the reps where he did not sit as he backed up (:33 and :55 for example) the reward hand was nice and low. He saw after those rewards, because your hand got high and he was patiently waiting for the next cue. So keeping your hand nice and low to deliver the rewards will help. And if sits while you re-load, no worries: you can cue him to come forward towards you (off the mat) then start the next rep.
Nice work here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>I had time to look at the video in slow mo.>
Slow motion video is sooo helpful!
On the sends, I think you were tossing the treats too early so she was stopping short which was making some of the sending a bit harder
>I was also thinking am I creating too much emphasis on my hands by showing her they are empty after I set her up?>
She was not really looking at your hands here after you started the send. But what was delaying things was that you were keeping yoursend arm up until she arrived at the prop… so even as you hustled to the new side, your shoulders were still cueing a turn in the previous direction if you were a shade late.
On the reps where you got it? You got the send arm out of the way pretty quickly. On the reps where she didn’t read the rear cross? You were late getting to the new side. So you can step and send… but then bring your send arm back to your side so you can get your shoulders to the new line. You can see that in particular on the left side videos (how long the send arm stayed up which effected how quickly you can get up the line).
>is she turning the correct way because she is looking at my hand reaching for the pocket?>
I think it was mainly she was turning the correct way in both videos because she could see you on the new side, but yes – don’t put your hand in your pocket that early 🙂 to test out what is getting the correct lines.
>I was thinking – should I try this with a dead food toy instead? Like a tree hugger, that will give me time to get up there & cross while she’s eating or is that cheating on my part?>
It is not cheating 🙂 and it will definitely get you there sooner! The prop gives better feedback on timing so you can alternate the too!
Nice work here!
Tracy
Hi!
Strike a pose concept transfer went great too!
>. I have to say that your course design makes him look brilliant when really it’s the step by step process of your exercises that build from week to week.>
Well, he is quite brilliant! And yes, we try to make it a step-by-step progression but he figures things out really quickly.
One handling suggestion: After you get into position – show your hand then after a heartbeat or two, say the release word. You were using his name at the same time as moving your hand, which can get tricky (he was starting to leave the stay when your hand began moving, before you said anything) so I think ‘break’ or ‘ok’ after you will work better.
The next step here is to have the reward on the ground – it can be an empty food bowl that you drop the treat into as he turns to get to it. You will see that he starts to side-swipe the hand target and that is perfectly fine 🙂 We will be fading out the actual touch very soon by getting the reward on the ground.
Nice work!
Tracy
Good morning!
He definitely seemed very confident climbing on the pile!
And since he was so confident, we can make an adjustment so he is more precise with his feet 🙂 You were getting him really pumped up while he was n the pile, so switch that to getting him pumped up when he is on the flat. You can do recalls on the flat, throw his ball, throw treats, all away from the pile. Then when he is pumped up, move over to the pile and quiet your body language to let him think about where to put his feet on the pile. If there was too much pumping up while he was on the pile itself, he was tripping on the objects. So you can be stationary and quiet while he is offering behavior on the pile, and to reward place the cookie on the pile near him so he doesn’t leap off anything to get it 🙂 Then after a couple of rewards, you can call him away from the pile and pump up the arousal again, before going back to the pile.
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
The shpile looked really good – high arousal, a couple of treats for proprioception exercises, back to high arousal so he continues working in that state. He seemed to be really thinking about where to put his feet, which is what we want rather than him flinging himself all over the place 🙂 The pile was challenging and the cato plank was not moving enough to concern him. Yay! You can revisit this here and there, and make the shpile different and random each time to add more challenge.
The one-and-done on the wobble board was great! You can add tip in the tiniest increments. And if there is a wobble board in class, do just one rep only, just like this, with basically no tip – this is important if he got concerned with it at class.
For the ‘out’ – he did really well with you stationary! Also, he seemed to have no questions when you were adding movement on the ‘out’ cue. Super! Mixing in the non-out reps was hard – you don’t need to say his name before the out (‘Dublin out’) because we don’t want him to tune out his name when you need it for the straight line. The non-out reps worked best when you were a little ahead, so you can start moving away while he is still eating the treat rather than waiting for him. I think he will still do well with the out cues even when you are ahead.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
The rocking horses looked strong here! The distance and being outdoors were not a problem at all. Super! 2 things to bring you to the next steps:
– Your set up is in kind of a triangle, with the 2 barrels in line and your position is offset from them. You can make it into more of a line: barrel – you – barrel. That will help add challenges in the advanced level (which he is ready for :))
– You can add your wrap verbals here too. You were saying ‘out’ but that might mean something different when we turn this into jumps.
You can also add more toy play – that will help get the two of you on the same page with the smiley face game at the start too. The tug is really great for connecting and ideally we use toys more than food in the handling stuff. On the smiley face game – he is understanding the commitment! When he had a question on your left side, it was because your left leg was not stepping forward. So be sure to step to the barrel with the dog side leg and it will be very smooth.
Looking at the get out videos:
He DOES love that board LOL!!! So cute! And his tricks were very cute too 🙂
He went to the board really well with the out cue – when you mark and reward, you can use a ‘get it’ then throw the reward, as this will solidify moving away to the line wihtout looking at you (the ‘yes’ marker gets the pups looking at you).To start the rep, you can use a stay cue so you can get a little ahead. A cookie toss start will work nicely too if you have a bit mroe room for him to get it without automatically ending up on a straight line to the prop.
On the 2nd video where you added motion, switching sides totally gave you more room to be able to send him out. You might see that he was looking up a you a bit – that was because you were looking at the prop. If you shift the connection to look at him when you give the out cue, he won’t look up at you (strange but true LOL!!). The reason for this is that looking at him turns your shoulders to the line you want, so he doesn’t need to look at you to double check – he sees the info immediately.
Since this is going really well, add in the balance reps of releasing him to move along with line with you and NOT cueing the get out 🙂 You can call his name and move forward, but not other cues needed. It is a hard challenge to NOT go to the prop but excellent practice to ignore things that are not on his line, unless you cue them.
The strike a pose serpentine concept transfer went really well too! Your position and mechanics were super clear and he didn’t have a question about where to go. On the first video, we can clarify the release – for this game, you will definitely want a verbal release and I think ‘break’ suits it best. You used touch a few times but we are going to fade out the actual touching soon, so break will be better to give him permission to move into the game 🙂
Great job adding the toy in the advance level – we do want lots of toy play in these games. It made the stay harder so you can throw the toy back to him as a stay reward too! You can reward quickly for lining up, then reward again for holding position when you put the toy down – those were the main questions in this session. You can mix in treats as the reward to throw back to him: when you put the toy down, you can throw a treat to him for rewarding the stay.
Then use your ‘break’ to give a clear release – the ‘go’ verbal will be something we use for big extension lines so the ‘break’ will fit the serp turns better.
You mentioned in the video that he is going into a down when you say sit – so you can cue the down as the start opsition, that is perfectly fine! And that way you don’t end up diluting the sit cue because he thinks sit means down 🙂
Only one suggestion for the serp position – point your feet to the reward 🙂 You will find that will make things easier when we add motion soon.
>I filled out the intake form for Copper to start working on running contacts via 30 minute lessons. I am fine sending videos asynchronously, with you responding at your convenience. Not sure if that is easier than a 30 minute live session, so let me know either way.>
Perfect! You will hear from the office some time today. I look forward to getting started!
Great job here!!
TracyHi!
> I am assuming just do one or the other? Would I do it every couple days or daily?>
One or the other is good, and every couple of days will work well.
>For the cones. Would 28 inches be ok?>
Yes, those should work well.
> Has anyone used those collapsible ones?>
Do you mean the tall ones that you can get in car emergency kits? If so – yes, they are great 🙂
>How do you use the fresh pet as reward? I had thought about freezing some in my larger dot pans.>
I get the rolls and get them really cold in the fridge: then I cut them up into treat-sized pieces and freeze those. I take them out just before I need them so they are slightly defrosted but not too warm or mushy. One of my dogs thinks it is the best thing ever LOL!! Gross!
T
Hi!
> It was the first time with the pool noodle down. when first put down he ran away with it so funny.>
Ha! So cute!!! I bet he had a grand time with the new toy LOL
He did well here holding his stay and coming to the hand! You can add in a bowl or Manners Minder as the reward target so that he doesn’t rely on your movement to go back out after coming in to the hand.
These reps were almost all threadle slices (he came around the wing to you then back out over the bump), so be sure to also add in serpentines where your hand is over the center of the bar and he comes towards you over the bar then back out to the reward.The rocking horses went really well outside! He was fast and his commitment is looking strong! Only one suggestion: Be sure to make the BIG connection after the front cross between barrels, His only questions were when you didn’t look at him and he was not sure where to be (that is when he would go to the other side or jump up on you). So after the FC, keep your arm back to him and eyes on him as he exits the barrel, let him lock onto the new side then you can send to the next barrel.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi! You two were definitely getting in the groove in the 2nd video here!
Looking at what was successful when she was on your right to start in the 2nd video versus on your left in the first video: mainly, it was the distance away from the prop you started from.
In the first video, the prop was maybe one body length away. With it that close, she was already arriving at it and turning back towards you, before you even had a chance to start moving.
In the 2nd video, the prop was more like 2 or 3 body lengths away, so you were able to send her to it then start moving to the new side before she got to it and looked for you. That allowed you to be visible on the new side, so she figured it out really well.
When you revisit the dog-on-left side, have the prop 4 or 5 body lengths away so she has multiple steps to take to get there. That way you can move sooner and then you can more easily be visible on the new side.
You can warm up the increased distance with just some sends followed by cookie throws to get her moving ahead of you.
> I think it may have been helpful to say Get It to send her to the prop in the entire session?!>
The get it marker might be confusing because she might look for a thrown treat rather than realize you want her to hit the prop.
>, in later reps I started looking at her , she looked at me & then I cued the prop. Is this the correct way to do this?>
I think looking at the pups brings better connection which brings better commitment, so it was perfectly fine to look at her. And her looking at you was also perfectly fine to start the rep, because she was still moving really well to the prop when you cued her to go to it.
Nice work here!
Tracy
Hi!
> went to bend down, remembered what happened last time… hesitated… and barry won the toy haha. >
Yes, better to let him win than to break yourself!
>(LOLZ to that bloke in the background, i didn’t seem him on the day, but barry obvs did and he did a couple of barks and was generally a bit worried about him>
Yes, it was a weird thing happening that really stood out in an otherwise quiet environment, so his adolescent brain was had a hard time tackling it. He worked through it nicely! I think all of the toy play and high energy fun really helped with that.
He did a great job finding the tunnel and some hard entries, and also did a great job bringing the toy back pretty quickly! There was a good balance of letting him cavort with it, and getting him to bring it back in a reasonable time span. That is going to result in having a great retrieve that he LOVES to do 🙂 So much fun!
Great job!
Tracy
Hi! His engagement here looks really good 🙂 so you got a lot of good behavior on the jump!
He was having a little trouble watching you and not taking the jump on some reps – he got most of the reps on your right side but the left side was harder for sure. I think it had to do with watching the rewards, so try not to have your hand in your cookie pouch or holding the cookies up high as you walk by the jump, especially when he is on your left side. That draws his focus to you and away from the jump, particularly if you’ve done obedience or heeling on the left side. The cookie can be in the opposite hand and you can swing your arms as you walk. That will really help focus him forward on the jump on both sides equally.
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
That sounds like a really challenging environment! He definitely had a hard time at first but I like that you were able to end on some fun retrieves! To get engagement, you can work through 3 things:– Start with a reinforcement assessment – what is motivating? What type of food will he eat and stay engaged for? Same with the toys – what toy and how does it have to move (probably fast and away from him so he can chase it 🙂 )
– When you’ve got the rewards worked out and he has had a little break: Then do some pattern games and play. If you’ve got engagement, then you can go to the next step:
– an easy fun game that he really likes 🙂 The jump and rewards didn’t have enough value at the beginning, but the running contact mat did when you were further away.
The sniffy stuff in that part was probably him trying to regulate arousal/stress. And once he starts working: be finished very quickly 🙂 Training with distractions is incredibly ‘expensive’ so he probably doesn’t have a lot of reps in him before he gets lost in distractions again.Ending on the retrieves as trades were great and that can actually be a good starting point (on leash or long line) the next time he is in a really hard environment.
Nice work!
Tracy
