Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Good morning!
She is doing well with the threadles!
>At first she didn’t seem to understand to go over the bar. >
It was the reward placement that made the difference for her here. The reward target was originally placed so it was more visible on the takeoff side than on the landing side of the bar. Then after the chase game (at :20 and beyond) the reward target was more on the landing side so it was an easier read for her and she got it really nicely. You can make the reward target even more obvious on the landing side (it doesn’t need to be tucked into the wing as much).
One thing that will help is moving your position more to the start wing and less on the enter of the bar. Ideally, you would line up your stomach with the start wing at least half of your body (threadle arm and torso) is visible outside the entry wing. You were located more on the center of the bar here so she was able to read the threadles on the position 1 (easier) start angles but not as well on the harder angles.
So if something goes wrong, no need to mark with an uh oh or nice try if she doesn’t read the cue – it is entirely possible that the cue was not salient enough in time for her to read it, so it is better to just reset with a start cookie rather than mark her as wrong. At :49, most of you was visible between the uprights which is a serp cue, so th threadle cue was not all that visible to her especially on that angle… so she was not necessarily incorrect.
At :54 you made your cue more salient and 1:12 was even better in terms of you being closer to the entry wing and less on the center of the bar. So she got it perfectly on both of those 🙂 So if something goes a little sideways, you can just throw a start cookie and as she is getting it, check your position to make sure you are showing her the line clearly. Marking her as incorrect if there is a chance that she was correct can be confusing(this is my general philosophy for handling: the dog’s response is really always a reflection of the cues they see).
>>I think I’m moving too much though and not staying totally frozen in the pose.>>
Maybe the tiniest bit of extra movement? But overall really good! You can stay totally frozen until she arrives at the reward 🙂 And you can also start to add your threadle verbal (I think you were saying an interim cue here?). When she can threadle in both directions and you’ve got the verbal added, move to the advanced level where we show her the serp and the threadle slice in the same session, by changing your position and your verbal.
Great job here!!
TracyGood morning!
>>We are going to a trial tomorrow so I will try some of the pattern game in the warmup area, away from the craziness to start.>>
Have fun at the trial! If he has not yet done the pattern games at home to develop the framework, don’t start them at the trial. It might be too hard. So do stuff he has already seen at home, like tugging or hitting his hat with his cute little feet 🙂
He did really well with wrapping the bucket! Having the klimb behind you was the only hard part of when you were standing up – so next time you can start by standing so the klimb isn’t there. You can totally start the turn and burn game 🙂 And also, since he is getting taller, you can transfer this game to something taller like a barrel or big cone so he cannot lift his head over it (like he can with the bucket here).
For the backing up – this is a hard skill especially for pups who are still learning how to use all of their various body parts LOL! The reason he wants to sit is because you are standing up after the start cookie, so he is looking way up to your hands and that produces the weight shift back into the sit. Ideally, your cookie hands would stay at his nose level the whole time so he can use the hands as a focal point to move away from – and the neutral head position should help eliminate the sit.
The easiest way to do this is to have you sit on something so your back doesn’t get angry from being bent over 🙂 So try it sitting on the klimb and see if that helps him!
>>I think I should try something behind him that feels different for him to target with his back feet?>>
Yes, I really like using a destination for this. Here is more about it
For the destination, you will still want to be low and sitting on something. And start him with all 4 feet on it, then lure his front feet off with the start cookie so he only has to put his front feet back on 🙂 Then when he can do that, you can lure all 4 feet off with the start cookie and reward for putting his back feet on the destination.
On the retrieving video – the first rep was pretty perfect! He brought it close enough that you could reach it easily. On the 2nd rep, you were on the ground rather than standing – so maybe standing up has been built into the retrieve cue? Definitely something to experiment with. And also if he was tired, it was good to end the session and try it again another time.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
It is really cool that he has had so many life experiences!!!
>>Yes, I had the food in my hoodie pocket. There is a bowl of kibble on the mantel for easy grabbing. So he was looking at that to see if he could help himself. LOL>>
Poor, starving puppy hahahah! So you can keep the food and toy play more separate for now – it is possible that even kibble is very high value! And, you can try training him after meals when (theoretically) he will prioritize food a little less.
>> Which he’s been up there many times. He’s such a goat. He’s been on every surface in this house. Walks across xpens with covers and wire crates no problem. If it wobbles and falls no big deal. Teeter should be easy. >>
Ha! His confidence is excellent! Keep letting him (safely) goat around on things to maintain that confidence through adolescence.
>>He’s got great prey drive and he’s good at tugging.
You can also increase the excitement of the toy presentation by having a toy tied to a longer toy so you can swing it and drag it for him to chase. That can be more exciting (prey drive!) and can help him ignore food 🙂
I think the backing up started off really well – my suggestion to that would be to have you sitting in a chair or on the couch, so it is easier for you to remain bent over to deliver the start cookie and reward cookie faster. Standing up then leaning over then standing up was changing his head position a lot (up and down) so that was probably distracting from him processing what his hind end was doing. Then when you knelt, the picture was very different and he was not sure of what to do.
>>I think I should use ‘get it’ instead of ‘yes’ and that might help him not be mugging my hand. And maybe bigger treats?>>.
Yes to the ‘get it’ and also yes to bigger treats. And I think having your hands stationary more (rather than moving up and down) will help him stop mugging you because he can use your hands as a stationary focal point to move away from, rather than be distracted by the movement.
So try sitting on something (with another room for placing the start cookie) and also yes – use a destination for him to back up to. Use something nice and big so he can start with all 4 feet on it. Lure his front feet off with the start cookie then let him step his front feet back onto it. Then you can work up to luring all 4 feet off with the start cookie (move the destination mat a little further back so you can remain seated) and then reward him for his back feet stepping back on.
Great job here!! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Not normal, in the best way 🙂 Keep revisiting these behaviors in new places so she doesn’t lose that skill during adolescence. It sounds like she gets to go to classes in different places, and that is GREAT!!!
T
Good morning!
>>Two rainy days. We took yesterday off, but did a few short exercises today. He is a little energizer puppy, so I thought we could do a few exercises today. >>
Yes, the weather has been GROSS!!! He did well with his sessions here and if still had energy to burn, you can do hide-and-seek games in the house (where you distract him with some cream cheese on the floor, then you sneak away and hide and start to call him). Or you can do searches in the house – hide something really smelly and delicious and have him search for it (maybe even wearing his harness!). These games can burn off energy without burning his brain up the way the training sessions would.
>>He is wearing a harness in these videos as I am trying to desensitize the harness, as he has made an association between the harness and the car. He gets car sick and fights me to go in the car. If he saw me with the harness, he would hide in his crate. I am trying to work through the motion sickness problem.>
Poor little guy!!! Yes, using the harness is other contexts is smart!
Strike a pose looked great – I agree, he totally remembered what to do. Yay!
You can use a ‘get it’ instead of a yes for the cookie toss, so he looks towards the landing spot more and at your hand less.
You can add this to a jump now: using 2 uprights and a bump or rolled up towel as a bar, you can put yourself into serp position and have him come in over the bar. You can see it here:He did really well with the backing up – we are starting to see one independent back foot movement, and that is great! Yay!
>>had to resort to the Wobble Board, which was just an incline, not a step up>>Yes, the wobble board was on a good incline for him and it worked really well.
To jump start the backing up session, start him on the wobble board (you can put stuff under it so it moves less if he is not sure about getting all 4 feet on it) then lure him off so he can offer backing up to it right away. That will streamline the start of the session where he was not quite sure what to do, plus it will eliminate the need for you to move his hind end into position.
And then you can gradually draw him further and further off, so he has more distance on the backing up 🙂
He definitely liked the squeaky toy here!!! And he was also happy to play with it on his own LOL! So the answer might be in having 2 of these squeaky toys 🙂 Throw one, he gets it, then you can start moving the opposite direction with the 2nd squeaky toy. He will get into the groove of going to get it then coming back towards you – and then we can get him bringing the original squeaky back towards you by gradually delaying the presentation of the 2nd squeaky toy 🙂
Even though I totally like trading toys for treats, using food was a no-go for this because as soon as the for came out, he started offering behaviors to get the food and the toy was forgotten LOL!!! So try it with 2 squeaky toys and let me know how it goes!!! His retrieving instinct will kick in soon 🙂
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
He is doing well with his perch work! When using the hand cue to keep him moving into your side, keep your hand lower so he doesn’t reach up for it – that shifts too much weight into his rear which makes fluid movement harder (you can see him lose his balance a couple of times). The hand can be at nose level (with his jaw line parallel to the ground) to help him balance his stance.
The next step for him is more independence and less help from you (fading your hand cue and your movement :)) Because he already has such nice value for moving to your side, you can approach the added-independence so he pivots to your side as the end goal. Think of it as a clock: you are at 6 o’clock. Toss a cookie to 3 o’clock, and stand still – let him get the cookie and see if he can pivot to your side by getting on the perch from that angle. If so, you can change the angle of the cookie toss, to 2 the n1 the 12 then 11 and so on, all the way around the clock so he pivots more and more. And then changes sides so he does it in both directions like he did here 🙂
If he struggles without your movement or hand cue, you can add a hand cue but try not to move. The goal is that he eventually does all the pivoting without needing the hep 🙂
When he can do that, we add in one bump or bar (taped to the ground) for him to step over. The build up to 2 then 3.
This can all take multiple sessions spread out over a few weeks, so no rush 🙂 Or it might be the easiest thing ever and he gets it all in one session LOL!! He will let us know.
>>Do I need to add a verbal at this point?>>
Good question! I never add a verbal to this, because the perch is the cue (and one less word to worry about is happy-making haha) You can add a verbal to it, but I would wait until he is pivoting without your movement/hand cue – right now the movement and hand cue are driving the behavior so it makes the verbal harder to attach.
His threadle slices are looking great! And he was able. To do the harder angles too – most adult dogs can’t do that LOL!! Good boy!!!
One suggestion is to stay perfectly still and don’t praise until he gets to the PetTutor – that is the true end of behavior (committing to the jump as part of the threadle slice) so the early praise or early movement can end up cluttering the cue.
And since he did so well, two next-step ideas for you:
(Ok, 3 next steps – use a wing on the entry side because he will only see these on wings and I think these were wingless)– balance the threadle slice with the serp by changing your position every couple of reps to sometimes cue the threadle, and sometimes cue the serp. The PT can be placed in a spot kind of on the line where it can reward both (almost on the same line as the exit upright) so you don’t have to move it between reps.
– you can start to fade out actually touching your hand on these by clicking the PT as he is approaching your hand but before he hits it. So at first, it is an earlier click. Then, when he gets into the groove, you can click later: he will come in and start to turn to the bar, and you can click the PT when he turns to the bar. That is the desired end result behavior.
As with everything, these added steps might take multiple sessions over a few week (that is normal) or he might produce the behavior instantly (NOT normal LOL!!! ) and that is great 🙂
>>I believe training the pattern is the easy part (at least based on my own experience training Robie who got the box turn, ball carrying, jumping the jumps, etc. down very quickly but for the life of me can’t pass.) >>
For an adult, experienced, agility dog who understands his body – the pattern and box turn is not that hard. That is why Robie picked it up so well (and so did Nacho, for example). It will be different with a puppy 🙂 and I have been waiting for my youngsters to have more adult bodies before starting the box turn stuff (Ramen is 15 months old and just starting now).
As for the other stuff… I believe we all trained it backwards: we worked the box turn and pattern stuff and then we were like “btw, there is going to be a lot of passing and arousal and reward strategies and all this other stuff” So trying to add it in after the pattern was learned was REALLY hard. (We need to also do this in agility, but yet agility seems to be trying to sterilize the environment more and more LOL!!)
My goal now is to add in the passing games and arousal regulation and all the other stuff before the pattern is started, then show it to the dogs at every stage of training. So for example, while Ramen is just beginning his box turn work, so many other pieces are in place that he will carry into the full pattern.
>>What I am really interested in working on is dealing with the environment and learning to work in high arousal around other highly aroused dogs.>>
Small slices built into every step 🙂 and being able to function in that environment (pattern games and volume dial) before adding in fancy skills like box turns. The Skidz seminar really helped solidify this and I hope to get folks together to work these skills too. And, same with agility training. It all works together quite nicely.
>>In other news, we attended a seminar with Sheyla and Annette yesterday. He was quite brilliant, and I am pleased to say he worked for the tug the whole day!>>
SUPER!!!! So fun!!! And in a new environment too – happy dance!!!
>> As you might imagine, both Sheyla and Annette broke things down for us substantially to ensure success. >>
They are both terrific <3
>> He took the opportunity to LEAP across the 4 foot (or more) barrier to check out what was happening in the other ring.>>
Zoinks! Well, I guess 20” or 24” will not be a problem LOL!!!! And he was probably just having a grand time with no bad intentions but definitely watch him LOL!!!!
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
I totally relate to being distracted and unmotivated to train lately – busy times and terrible weather. Fingers crossed for good weather soon! And doing SOME training is actually better than doing a LOT of training, because more rest gets built in… and rest is a huge component of learning.
This session went really well! At first there were so many things to offer behavior on (the mat closer to the camera, the open crate) that she didn’t know what the target behavior was. But then you made it obvious but getting closer to the mat and Boom! She had it! Look at the distance and how she was ‘looking’ for the mat with her feet as she backed up. Yay! And it sounds like you haven’t really obsessed on the behavior recently: latent learning is so nice 🙂
>>What should be out next step with this?>>
There are 2 next steps for this:
You can add a little more height or an angle to the destination, so she is stepping up onto it, or backing up at a slight angle. The angle never gets extreme (we are NOT going for a hand stand or anything like that because it is back for her shoulders) but a bit of height or angle is definitely challenging.
Then the next step is motion of the destination:
How is she doing with getting on wobble board and things that move? If she is still happy with them, the next step is backing up onto something that moves. Definitely re-visit the wobble stuff first to be sure she is still happy with things moving under her feet 🙂
Both the angle/height and motion should be started at the very beginning steps of her being all 4 feet on the destination, luring front feet off then letting her step back on, then luring all 4 feet off, then back feet stepping back on, etc – the same progression you used for this destination, but it will happen MUCH faster 🙂
You can see it here, down towards the bottom of the page (and on the video):
>> Will the verbal help her generalize so we don’t always need the mat?>>
Yes 🙂 You can also start to fade the mat by making it smaller – keep a destination in place as much as needed to keep her backing up relatively straight. And you can also change up the destinations so she backs up to all sorts of different ‘targets’.
Great job here!!!
TracyPerfect! Try the Egg McMuffin 🙂 It is a little messy but oh-so-good as a training treat. When I was training my little Elektra in new places, she was not really all that confident as a puppy. So I would do a drive through on the way to class: coffee and Egg McMuffin for me, Egg McMuffin for her (she prefers the Sausage Egg McMuffin LOL!)
Let me tell you that she was very engaged (the magic of high value motivators!) and is now SUPER confident and engaged, everywhere. Maybe McDonalds will offer sponsorships? LOL!
Have fun!
TracyHi!
>>it seems like at least in the beginning of the walk there is a bit of arousal/stress for him.>>
Yes – any new environment will increase arousal/stress and that is normal and fine. Arousal and stress are not good or bad… they just are physiological changes. Yes you can see some changes in emotional state too but mainly it is physiological, especially when the trigger is something exciting like the park with all of its sights, smells, sounds, etc.
>> His drive to mark is a lot stronger than it was even a couple weeks ago and I couldn’t get his attention with the pattern games.>>
Welcome to adolescence 🙂 And it is fine! My question to you is…. do you need to have that level of attention/engagement when you first arrive at the park? It might be kind of impossible and trying to get it can create frustration for you both.
>> The 1-2-3 game did get him to stay on the greenway when walking past things though. >>
If you didn’t try to keep his attention with the 1-2-3 game, what would he otherwise be doing? That can help answer the question of whether you need to be doing it, or if the first few minutes after arrival can just be spent sniffing around the perimeter of the parking area and peeing on things 🙂
>>I couldn’t get his attention with the pattern games>>
Question – what motivator were you using? In a fighting-fire-with-fire approach, if the environment is very stimulating then the motivator needs to be more stimulating at first. So, something like an Egg McMuffin might be the way to go rather than dog treats 🙂 or a frisbee!
>>I’m not sure if this would be considered a pattern game. You just repeatedly say “1-2-3” (a pattern?), giving the dog a treat on “3”. We use it to walk past oncoming people without jumping on them. I think it’s for predictability and impulse control. Do you think that game could work in place of the pattern games?>>
Yes, it is indeed a pattern game and there is a definite spot for it in the toolbox! But in some ways, it is a management tool because you are basically managing what the dog is doing with the counting and food delivery. The other games send the dog out into the environment a bit more and that is also useful for your training toolbox.
Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
Lots great work on this video 🙂
Perching is going well!!! You can stay closer to the perch so she is not leaning forward to reach the cookies 🙂 And since it is so hard, you can reward each step or two.
At the end to the video you revisited it with the 3 bars on the ground – it was definitely harder for her! Try it with just one bar and reward each one – she was more fluid moving to her right than to her left but was still tripping a bit over all 3. Breaking it down to just one should help her get smoother in both directions.
You can also play with letting her offer the movement without you moving – start with a cookie toss to the side and let her pivot back to center in front of you. That can get even more independent foot movement here and help fade out your motion too!
The threadle game looks great – she was nailing it especially from the harder angles! Do you have a wing to add to this? She will really only see threadles with a wing jump, so we might as well introduce it now since she did so well here. And she had no trouble reading the difference between the threadle and the serp – super!!!
Question about verbals:
Did you switch from “in in” to “back back back”? We can definitely clarify all the verbals for her since she is understanding the handling so well. Most folks have in in as the threadle slice and back back as the backside push slice – so many words LOL!!! But very helpful with fast dogs like Roux 🙂Head turns are also going well! Be sure to use the same hand as the start/send hand like you did when she started on your right side (the right hand cued the first approach to the upright then also cued the head turn). That produced really great head turns! Plus I think that is her stronger direction(turning to her left).
When you started with her on your left and then cued the head turn with your right, the turn was not as fluid (possible because her right turns are not as fluid in general yet, which is totally normal).When you added marking the head turn on the approach to the upright on the single wraps – it was definitely harder for her on the right turns (starting on your left). She is a lefty LOL! So work the head turns more on that side (turning to the right) with the 2 turns in a row and cuing the head turn, before trying to mark on the first approach, to really maximize the head turn skill.
For the wraps on the barrel after the head turns: is “around” your backside verbal? You did use it as a front side wrap later in the video, so at this stage since there is a bar in the picture, you can clarify the different verbals: backside slice, backside wrap, and front side wraps.
For the backside wrap, you can be coming more towards the camera to create the full 360 turns (you were on more of the turn and burn angle, which is a front side FC) To get the backside circle, you will send her around the barrel then get right behind her tail and walk towards the camera.
The backside slice game looked strong here! She seemed to have no trouble going to the backside and ignoring the bar on the ground. Yay!! For the next session, I think using a toy and a ‘get it’ marker here will help her look for the bar more after she gets around the barrel. The click was getting her to look at you as you moved away parallel to the bar, so you can keep that line of motion but say “get it” and drop a toy in on the landing side of the bar. That will get her looking at the bar, so you can then add more and more lateral distance.
The front side wraps followed that on the video – she had an error the first rep probably because are verbal and same line of motion from you meant something different now. It was a legit question from her LOL! So be sure to take a break and reset so she can have the extra moment to process the differences. And different verbals will help too, so “around” can have a super specific meaning.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!!!
TracyGood morning!
Hallway rear crosses are looking good! And yes – some of the tosses were ending up with her perpendicular to the wall, so you had to be fully visible on the new side in order to get the RC turn. When she didn’t fully end up in that perpendicular angle, the RC was easy to get 🙂 You can try a food bowl up against the wall so she is more likely to go directly to it rather than rotate to face the way (the cookie can be placed in the bowl in advance).
>>However did you see the tug before and after?>
Yes! She was happy to tug before and after! As a bridge into the tugging afterwards, she seemed to like it when you got low, held her close to you, and started swooshing the toy around on the floor. She was able to go back and forth from cookies to the toy and that is great!
>>We also did a short session of shaping into a box a bit later in the morning and she was able to tug before, during and after and even worked around the unplanned distraction of Demi wandering around and getting in the way.>>
Super! And thank you to Demi for lending her skills as a distraction LOL!
Countermotion went well – I am glad you took the verbals off of the game briefly because there was a lot of auditory stimulation in the environment and in that context I am not sure the verbals were helping (might have been making things harder!) You were able to add them back later in the session and she did well there.
.>She stalled out a bit on one of the sideways sends to the left. Should I have been looking more at the barrel than her there?>>
That was relatively early in the session when there was a lot happening (play it at a different speed (super slow and super fast) and you will hear how many different sounds there were in the environment). So it was probably just a processing moment where her brain was working to filter out the unnecessary info.
>>I didn’t try for too much countermotion as I wanted to make sure it was easy for her since I was mainly experimenting with whether she could play during and after the session.>>
She did well with her playing! Yay! The low, swooshing toy movement with you down low were definitely part of the magic for her during these sessions. And I bet the countermotion will be easy to add at the advanced levels of the rocking horse game, where there is a lot more action 🙂
Great job here! Have a safe and easy travel day!
Tracy
Good morning!
Hope you are enjoying the holidays!
The sending to the prop is going really well! You were generally getting the dog-side leg involved and he was happy go to the prop. You can change the reward placement so he drives back to you after hitting the prop, because this type of send eventually transfers to the collection back to you).
That reward placement back at you will also let you line him up and start him from near you (rather than off to the side. That will make for cleaner sends with snappy starts, and allow you to add in some ready dance to get him more pumped up 🙂 Sending him away to the prop and rewarding him from your hand with a toy would be a great next step!
I think you added a little too much distance here because he was asking a lot of questions at the end. If you see a question, you can reduce the distance. Distance is less important than value (and value is what brings the speed).
Cone wrapping is looking great! He was happy to go around it even when it was relatively far! So the next step is to bring it back in closer… and you standing up 🙂 If he is happy to do it with you standing, then things can get more exciting with the turn and burn game 🙂
He was super good about getting on the plank and walking across it! He was able to do a nice tight sit and happily hopped off. Yay! He was very clever about turning around on the wider areas LOL!!! Turning around o the narrow part of the plank was hard for sure so feel free to use a slow & low cookie lure to see if he can follow it and turn around. If not, you can see if you can put 2 planks together to create a wider playing field so he has a bit more room to turn around.
His focus and drive ahead to the toy was really good, with the distraction of the other dogs and being outside! You can get more explosiveness to the toy by having it a little closer so he only needs to take a couple of quick, fast strides to it and can get the feeling of winning 🙂 When there are fewer distractions for him to process, you can add more distance and see if he can still leave you in the dust.
>>Also – we’ve been doing a bunch of resilience walks in lots of different places. Most recently at my cabin, where he got to do a ton of sniffing and exploring and other stuff with some support from Mochi (who literally takes everything in stride) and some on his own. He’s still a bit wary of some stuff, but he recovers really nicely, so I like that a lot.>>
This is great! And you can add in the pattern games from the resilience track. Those games are an easy framework for him to process new things in the environment and re-engage with you.
Great job here!!!
TracyGood morning!
The rocking horses looked great! Yay! Lovely connection and verbals from you, and she did a GREAT job of running past the toy in your hand (it was hard at first, she had a little hesitation, but then she had no questions) SUPER!
So… onwards to the advanced level where you start to decelerate and rotate earlier, so she is basically being sent backwards to the barrels. With her speed, you will probably need to spread the barrels out a little more so you have room to run forward, decel, then rotate. Remember on the backwards sending to look back at where you want her to go (to the barrel behind you)
If the weather is cooperating, you can also take this outside! Begin by re-creating what you did here, then try the advanced level outside too.
>>And at the end I let her take the toy and she brought it back! Woohoo!>>
That was super!! It is fun to see her asking to do more – and as far as we can tell, these games are not mentally “expensive” for her in the home environment so she wants more more more 🙂 Yay!
Great job here!!!
TracyGood morning!
>>Been practicing, just behind on videos. I’m sure these are all out of order and random, but by the time I organized them, i’ll be 3 more weeks behind!>>
I am glad you posted them! Practicing is more important than video editing so feel free to when you can and not worry about which order they are in 🙂 And it was fun to see the progression of skills.
She was a goat trick rock star! Love how she is able to be fast and focused, but also really specific about where she is putting her body. Yay!
I think you were waiting for hind end engagement on the fit bone, but it is a little over-inflated so she is less comfy about standing on it freely. She did get her hind end on it when you got her going back and forth and did stand on it – note how she was holding her hind end there, not full balanced into all 4 feet
So to get her to stand fully balanced on the fit bone, take out some of the inflation and even under-inflate it a bit. That will get her happy to have all 4 feet on it. Then, over time, you can gradually add more inflation to it and maintain the balanced stance.
She was offering some pivoting on the fit bone – so you can jump ahead to the perch work/pivoting game posted on Tuesday. Since she was offering it, might as well add it in!
Plankrobatics looked super easy for her. Nice reward placement from you to encourage her to get all 4 feet on at the beginning. To get her to turn around on it without jumping off to turn around on the flat, try a slow moving cookie lure to jumpstart the behavior. If she still finds it easier to jump off, turn around, then jump back on (clever LOL!) you can add another plank next to it, so it creates a double-wide playing space for her to turn around on. If you don’t have another plank, you can add pretty much anything to create a wider playing field – the fit bone could totally work for that!
Wing wrap foundations with the toy went really well – she loves the toys and did a great job going back and forth especially when the barrel was a little further from you. There was one moment when she went behind you but that was the direction she s facing, so it was more efficient to go behind you LOL! On the other reps, you had her a little more turned to face the barrel.
Bummer about the doorbell interrupting the session! But since it went so well, you can go to the next step with the toy which is to see if she will offer going around the barrel without you tapping the toy first: get her tugging like you did here, then keep both toys stationary until she takes a step or two around the barrel – then the other toy can come alive for tugging 🙂 How is she doing with cookies with this game?
Strike a post is looking great too. When you said yes I don’t think she quite knew where to look for the treat at first, so moving the cookie clarified that for her really well. Her target hits looked good and your reward timing & placement looked lovely, so onwards to the next step: getting you closer and closer to standing up. Because she is little, the best next step would be to have you sitting on a couch or chair – at that stage, she might not be able to really hit the target without jumping up, so you can start fading out the target hit in favor or her using it as a visual aid to slide through the serp (we have to fade out the hit eventually, so with the smaller dogs we fade it sooner).
You can also add a reward target (like a food bowl or manners minder) so as you get change your position, she doesn’t start looking up and she keeps looking at her line.
If she is happy with you sitting, you can move to standing 🙂
The front cross around the Home Depot barrel looks good! As you send her too it, add a little more eye contact so she knows to stay on your send she (and not possibly come in front of you to wrap the other direction).
Since she really loved the toys in your other wrapping video, you can totally use a toy with this game: tie one of her favorites to a longer toy so you can drag it for her to chase when you reward 🙂
Nice job on the wing and the blind crosses here! You can see that the extra connection on your send to the wing (especially when she is turning to her right, which might be the harder side for her and on the previous video) really helps: at :28 and :34 you looked forward a little too soon and that turned your shoulders a little away from the wing. Compare that to :38 where you had more direct connection and maintained it longer, so she got the commitment to the wing really nicely!!!
Nice connection on the exit 🙂 You were really working to get that clear connection on the exit! She really lit up when the toy came out so you can definitely use a toy for this game too! Even though it was a long toy, you can make to longer for her by attaching it to another long toy so you can drag it around for her to chase and grab.
Since her wrapping skills are looking really strong… have you decided what you would like to do for your wrap verbals? She is ready for you to add them. Do you have wrap verbals with your adult agility dog? If so, I recommend using the same ones (for the sake of trying to remember them LOL!) Or, you can add new ones for her – because she is going to be really fast, I recommend a wrap verbal that indicates a wrap to the left, and a different one that indicates a wrap to the right. A short, fast word like “check” or “dig” are popular choices (and very easy to say when you are running :))
The turn aways are looking really good too – super nice job using a low and slow arm movement. One suggestion here is to get your leg more involved: keep your feet together until she just about arrives at your turn hand, then have your leg and hand move back together to help create the turn. Your leg was back a bit too early on most of these so getting the tun was a little harder.
The most perfect use of your leg here was at 1:22-1:24 after you added the prop: note how your feet were together until she got about got to your hand, then you did a big step back as you started the turn. Lovely!!
When adding the prop – she loves her prop! Yay!! And it cracked me up to see the cat supervising 🙂
She did really well ignoring the prop to come to your hand – that is HARD because the prop has so much value! You can shake the cookie hand a bit to make it more obvious (the motion will catch her eye more) and using the toy to get her ramped up really got great a snappy response! Love it!!
She looks ready for the advanced level with the tandem turns.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>How do you take your adolescent male dog on a resilience conditioning walk without him lifting his leg on everything?>>
This is a fantastic question!!!!
>>I want to let Mason explore and sniff things, but he pees on everything he sniffs. This causes me to pull him away from things and tell him to leave it, taking away his agency. Should I only do these walks in open spaces and not let him approach/sniff anything except trees and shrubs?>>
You are correct – trying to manage where he urinates does take away his agency, so the walk becomes more about pee habits and management and less about world-watching and resilience.
It seems like leg-lifting is part of his world exploration and that is pretty normal. I personally don’t mind if my boys lift their legs to pee on pee-appropriate things like trees or a fire hydrant 🙂 so yes, I suggest limiting the resilience walks where he has a lot of agency to places there you don’t mind if he pees on things. So, that can be along a tree-line, or at a park, etc.
And when you are closer to man-made objects where he might be interested in lifting his leg, you can do the resilience walk from further away. And if you are close enough that he can possibly lift his leg, then yes – it is not a resilience walk so you can work on a pattern game, or doing little tricks, etc, so he is learning what to do (engage with you!) instead of leg-lifting.
Bear in mind that for many dogs, male and female, urinating is a sign of arousal/stress in that environment. So we don’t want to add to it by telling him is wrong for expressing how he is feeling. But we can help him with the pattern games, tricks, play, etc and that will help eliminate his interest in eliminating LOL!! And it will give him alternate behaviors in those environments (engage with you rather than engage with the environment).
Let me know if that makes sense 🙂
Tracy
