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Hi!
Great seeing you on Thursday – Yuzu looked great!!Strike a pose looks really strong! Great job working the angles, and your body position was great too! Very clear serp cue.
I only have 3 small suggestions:
– make sure your hand is not in your pocket, especially when using food. It draws him into looking at you, and it delays the reward. Note how when he was targeting to your right hand midway through the video, he was super smooth with the in-then-out because the reward hand was not in your pocket. He was not as smooth when targeting to your left, because your right hand was in your pocket 🙂– throw the start cookie further away, so he has more room to run back to the jump (adding more speed!)
He did well with the toy!!!! Nice job getting him engaged with it!
That’s the other suggestion: try it next time with the toy on the ground. You can bridge the gap between holding it and having it on the ground by dropping it when he is coming over the jump. If he likes that, you can move to it on the ground.
Get out is also looking great! Yes, you can definitely add the verbal. The best reps were when you were on the other side of the line on the ground, so your feet were not accidentally moving towards the prop. So keep that line in place for now as a visual to help you walk straight up the line.
>>When I am trying to get him to just walk parallel to me and not hit the prop, is it okay to sort of lure him with the magic cookie hand?>>
Totally yes! A lure is your friend here LOL! The prop and the movement has a lot of value, so being able to fight fire with high value fire will help him know to NOT go to the prop 🙂
Your Jeopardy ottoman sessions sound so fun! A really relaxed way to work the retrieve 🙂
Next step – on a warm day, sit outside with a book and a beverage and work it outside 😀
Great job!
TracyGoooood question!!! I’d wait an extra long time, until you’ve got the behavior with you being able to move and he is consistently hitting with all 4 feet on his mat or box. You’ll want it to look pretty awesome before you name it, so take your time 🙂
TracyAwesome!!! And I’m glad he still loves his prop: that will transfer to Awesome jump commitment!!!
TracyHi!
The parallel path game is going super!!!! I see that little tiny bit of looking at you that you mentioned – try moving back up the line sooner while she is eating her treat, so when she lifts her head up she can already see the next info. When you were next to her and not really moving, she was glacing up at you looking for more info. So moving sooner should help get the info to her sooner, even when you are further away laterally. She might still glance at you when she is re-orienting to the line after eating the treat, and that’s fine as long as she then looks at the line.I agree that she thought the RDW session was easy 🙂 and it sounded like you were marking back feet by the end of it too. Yay!
You can make the mat a little smaller by folding it in half. And you can also elevate it so she is stepping up onto it and across it – making it really obvious, especially when you are marking rear feet.
>>Experimenting with having her chase me for food before and after the session. Then going to another room to play. She did tug without leaping after this. >>
This is great! I think she liked you running back and forth at the beginning! And we haven’t seen the leaping up in the recent sessions, so it sounds like the bridge behaviors are helping her with arousal regulation.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! He looks terrific- I think he enjoyed this a LOT lol!!! You can add slightly harder start angles, so he finds the entry from different approaches. Then go back to a really easy approach (and squish the tunnel up so it is shorter) and do the threadle side entries, where he is he between you and the tunnel, turning away from you to get into the tunnel. That will allow you to start setting up the tunnel threadle verbal.
Great job!
TracyHi! She figured this out really well! Yay! Let her sleep on it for a day or two, then add slightly harder angles of entry for the threadle side.
>>initially she was a tad unsure, but not for long. I started with the collar hold…idk why it feels yucky to me. She doesn’t seem to hate it. Maybe it’s just not something I normally do so I >>
She does do a good job of waiting then moving after the verbal, but the collar hold is worthwhile to add for 3 reasons:
– it is a great ring skill! Being gently held around agility equipment is a great “chill” behavior that requires very little impulse control and gives you both a moment to breathe.
– the collar hold start allows you to see where she is looking before you let go of her. That can help raise her success rate for hard skills (don’t let go til she is looking the correct direction 😀). This will be especially useful for when we do harder discrimination skills
– the collar hold can help get her jazzed up and then you’ll get more explosive behavior. You’ll be able to do a ready, ready, READY… pass pass pass then let go so she explodes to the tunnel.
>>The last couple of days we don’t seem to have a retrieve any more. She either lays down and chew the toy right away or runs around with it. Any suggestions?>>
Could be a couple of reasons:
– in training sessions, be sure the play sessions are long after she brings the toy back, and even then don’t always take it away for the next rep (let her run around with it sometimes). If you take it away too quickly, that might be accidentally punishing the retrieve, so it is deteriorating.
– often we see this happen when the pups need more decompression time. The less is more approach is a big help: fewer training sessions, more decompression time. She might need more mental breaks now that she is moving into adolescence. I tend to back off the training time when the pups hit 5 or 6 months old – maybe one little thing a day, and lots of decompression time. Bear in mind that even long walks or runs every day can be depleting, so she might need some more rest time from those too! Adolescence is a crazy time LOL!!
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Tugging in close went really well once he got onto the toy! To get him engaged with the toy quicker, you can swing it around or drag it fast away from him, then go into the tugging close. You might want to add a carpet or yoga mat so he has more traction too.
And when he is Tugging in close, you can go to throwing the toy a bit for a retrieve to you.The backwards sending looked great here, he was having some light bulb moments and didn’t appear to try to grab the prop 🙂
I couldn’t see your face, but I think you were looking back at the prop when you sent. If you were not looking at it, add in looking at it.
He is doing much better about moving away from the cookies in your hands – that is the hardest thing for him, so this session was a big win! Keep revisiting this here and there. My only suggestion is to mayhe have most of the treats in your pocket, and only one in your hand for each rep – that might be a little easier.Great job here!!
TracyHi!
The rocking horse game looks terrific! She definitely had no trouble with her new barrel 🙂 Nice job with the wrap verbals and marker verbal!For the next session, you can have the barrels further apart. And if she likes that, you can move to the advanced level 😀
About the toy in your hand: that was definitely harder for her than the empty hand! So a couple of ideas:
For the easy reps, you can have the toy scrunched up in your dog side hand so she passes it as you send her. That’s a great layer of impulse control 🙂And for the hard stuff, like more distance and the advanced level, you can have to toy in your pocket so she only needs to focus on the new layer of difficulty.
Great job here!
TracyHi! These are going well, and I’m glad she did well with her tugging too!
As I was watching the beginning, I realized that you can use your mat as the destination after a lap or tandem turn! That can be a fun way to streamline the session too, especially since the mat has so much value. Using the mat, she would hop on and get a cookie (rather than run through it).
Looking at the lap turns first – I really love how she drives very straight to you magic cookie hand. The turns looked strong too (nice mechanics to cue it!)
Looking at the tandem turns – note how she bows out away from you rather than driving into your hands. My guess is she is doing it because being further away allows her to see more of you as you are moving, so she’s expanding her visual field.
Because we want her to drive in super tight to your hands on the tandems, you can add in feeding her from your hands as you move forward (walking slowly as you feed). And then you can throw the reward straight forward past you – anything fun for driving in tight to you.
Then after she drives in tight, you can add the turn away. The turn away was easy for her here, so you can really emphasize driving directly to you like she does with the lap turns.
Great job here!!
TracyHi! Hooray for not hoarding videos 🙂
Bucket game is looking good! The thinking moments are great – you can also make the bowls more visible by moving them a bit furth from you, so it is easier for him to get around the barrel without losing his train of thought 🙂
Give him one more session like this, and if that is feeling good then the next step is to be standing up! To split the difference between sitting on the Klimb and standing for real, sit on a couch first then if he is happy with that, you can stand up in that same session).The prop sends are going well! He has definite value for it 🙂 I think his question was because you were not using your leg as part of the send. Upper body was sending, and the dog side leg was hanging back which basically was saying “don’t send”.
So, add in your dog side leg along with your arm on the send and I bet he goes to the prop with more conviction. And when he does, you can also reward the hit back at you to get the turn going. But that’s a lower priority, because he is already setting up the turn really well – so it is perfectly fine to reward at the prop while you work the send mechanics.
>>he offers this all the time on his own, but when I wanted him to, he was acting like ‘eh.’ Not sure if it was a pressure thing or…?>>
I can see what you mean! I think part of it might have been that the rewards were held high enough that he was looking up – so when he needed to tip the board, all his weight was forward and head high, so he was unprepared for the tip. It might have felt like he was falling, so he started getting careful.
So try this: brace the tip with towels under it so it doesn’t move much, and let him offer running back and forth while you toss the treats long and low. Don’t feed from your hand at all – and if he still looks up at your hands, you can put empty food bowls at either side to toss the treats into, so he has a focal point and watches you less.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
OMG, puppy Roomba is the CUTEST THING EVER!!!! Thanks for sending the videos 🙂
>>I have demand barkers and “FOMO screamers” as I call it. Djinn demand barks and also will bark if she knows that I am out with her mom in the yard – I’d love to hear your opinion on how to address that.>>
Puppies often have some frustration about being in a crate or in the house when there is exciting stuff happening!
For now, try to crate her away from the action, with some music or something on the background and with something for her to do – a stuffed Kong or Toppl, a bully stick, anything she really likes that will keep her busy. And if other dogs will bark, it would be ideal to have her separated from them so there is no chorus for her to join in 🙂I also teach my dogs to hang out on a mat or bed while another dog is doing something – this is built very slowly but is very useful for quiet 🙂 We will be starting that with the pups – Stay tuned for that game to be posted soon!!
For the backing up: it makes sense that she would continue past your feet or turn around – that is far more efficient and easy than backing up LOL! So to help her understand the backing up, a couple of ideas:
Try giving her less space to go behind you after the initial cookie toss. I think having you sit on your couch and put the treat between your feet, right where the couch meets the floor, will help her out at the start of each rep.
Then have a big destination for her to back up to – I think the mat you were using is great! You can turn it lengthwise, so she has more room to get her whole self on it. And, have it close to your feet (while sitting on the couch 🙂 ) so that she starts with all 4 feet on it. Then, put the first cookie in between your feet so only her front feet come off the mat – then reward her for putting her front feet back on the mat. Do that a couple of times and then if she is happy with that, move the mat back a little, just enough so the start cookie can draw all four of her feet off the mat, barely, so you can then reward her for that very first step back onto the mat.
She definitely figured out the parallel path! Yay! I think there were some other things in the environment so she had to ‘find’ it, visually. But she did and looks ready for more!
>>I’m going to need to find a bigger space to practice in!>>
Yes, that is a definite next step! You can clear the environment of the other visual stuff so the prop is more obvious. Then with more room, you can start to add more distance laterally away from the prop and tossed rewards, so she stays out on the line away from you.
>>She likes to use her little paws a lot and scratches me a bunch trying to grab the toy with her front paws. Aside from wearing gloves, what are some suggestions to build up a better tug with less hand shredding?>>
Ouch!! I like to use very long toys (3 or 4 feet long), so my hands and flesh are safe 🙂 You can take her favorite toy and tie it to a longer toy, so you can drag it around n the ground with you standing up. That way she will focus on the end of the toy and not accidentally get your hands. Then you can also save your back by standing up. The more you move the toy and the more you get her chasing it, the safer you flesh will be 🙂 That also includes when you are sitting or down low near here – a super long toy with the very exciting part at least 2 feet from your flesh can really help.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! Everything is looking lovely 🙂
The get out (push) is looking terrific! He seems to have the lead change concept really nicely 🙂
One suggestion: have your toss cookie ready in your hand for quick throwing, so he doesn’t look back at you. As soon as he gets to her prop, you can say your get it marker and toss the treat straight ahead of him. The goal is that he learns to ‘get out’ onto the line, and stay on his parallel path once he is out there.
And remember to balance with staying on the line with you and not getting out 🙂 this will be easier when you have more room.The pattern game variations all look good, in terms of his speedy engagement. Love it!!
Because the variations all elicit slightly different behaviors based on context, you can train them separately to enhance the context. What I mean by that is:
– the regular pattern can have you walking back and forth, or doing rapid up and down. That will get engagement and a lot of attention & excitement.– The engaged chill, can be slower moving for you both. Very small movements, lots of stillness as you slow things down… that can help him see the context to slow things down too 🙂 I think he doesn’t love the hand patting in this context, so your engaged chill can be hands free 🙂
– find my face is actually high energy, so do that in a separate session so he can easily figure out if he should chill, or if he should be offering movement. You can be watching him peripherally, because he often offers the engagement from your side or a little behind you, and that is totally rewardable. Yay!And since he is so comfy with this, add in a leash, just so he is used to that. And feel free to take these games on the road, to new environments.
The stay is going well too! You can add in two things:
– walking forward away from her rather than backing up. To do this, you can really split the behavior into rewarding with the toss back for holding the stay while you turn to face forward, then as you take one step away,etc.
– you can totally add in the toy version this game so we get more arousal (which means shorter stays before the toss back or release forward).
Great job here!!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>Here is our first stab at Rocking Horse. I added a basket as our 2nd prop for wraps>>
The video here is lap turns, can you repost the rocking horses?
Lap turns are looking really good here, I love how she is driving fast to you then finding the prop after the turn. Good mechanics!!! Yay!!!
Strike a pose is also looking terrific – I’m glad you added the reward target, she was totally ready for that. Only one suggestion: keep your shoulders frozen until she reaches the reward. The shoulder position is the cue to turn away, so you’ll want to maintain it til she has finished the turn away. That’s what your shoulders will do when you are running a course.
You can also now try the toy as the reward: first in your hand, then on the ground 🙂
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
Looks like you have a ring gate and a rear station set up at the entry. Very cool! He seemed perfectly fine with it.
First run looked good – the BC on the first run at 2-3 at :37 was earlier than the other 2 runs, so the turn was better! It it started just before he took off. Doing it one stride sooner would be perfection – so he has landed from 1 and you seem him look at 2 and start the blind, finishing it so you can see him jumping 2 on your new side.
On the other 2 runs, the blind started as he was in the air, so it was a little later and he had to wait for more info when he landed.
Lateral position really helps him see the turn, great job with that! And the turn on 3 was consistently lovely!
The loop around to get to the tunnel looked good – you can drive him forward away from you with a lot of verbals (go tunnel!) and then it will be even easier to get the backside after the tunnel. You did it from the landing side – you can be further across the bar to get the blind more easily (great job staying in motion when it went a little sideways on the 3rd run :)) If you need to be near the entry wing, the RC works better than the blind (like on the first run) because you can do a rear cross on the next jump and that looked like a really strong skill here!
He had a little question on the very last backside at the end – nice job letting him know it was NOT the tunnel there! To be able to get the blind to the end, this is a place to be further across the bar as well when you are sending him to the backside: be running to the center of the bar as you cue the backside, then move forward past the exit wing to be able to get the blind to the next line.
>>got the same off course twice not sure if I was disconnecting>>
Do you mean the jump after the last backside? You handled it so smoothly that it didn’t look like an off course! What happened there was that because you were close to the entry wing on the last backside, you had to run parallel to the bar to get off his line, and then the blind happened while you were still moving that direction. And that motion plus the reconnection after the blind is what cued him to take the jump.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
