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Good morning!
>We are playing a pattern game where I am placing food on my shoe. >
Yes – that is a good one too! There are lots of good pattern games. This one is ‘up and down’, which is super useful for tighter situations and also for resetting certain brainwave patterns. I am glad it helped him tune out distractions!
Try to be perfectly stationary when you play it – you were moving your feet before he looked up at you, and we don’t want the foot movement to become a cue by accident.
The back and forth game (with the tossed treats) is great for exploring the environment and for letting him move more, which is super useful especially for adolescent dogs 🙂
>Blind Cross: I need to do more work on my throwing mechanics,>
Your placement was really good – you just needed to throw the cookie further on the 2nd rep so you had more time to do the blind cross 🙂 You were stationary on these reps – he is ready for you to add movement. As he is heading towards the thrown treat, you can be walking forward then when he eats it: run! That will give you plenty of time for the blind and also make it easy to add the decel when you play the next game 🙂
>Goat Tricks: This was brand new for him. I am using three different objects.>
On the first object, I didn’t see the transition into the shaping session – he was sitting and looking up at you, so he might not have been immediately sure he was being asked to offer getting on it. You can start the session with a cookie toss away from you then out the object down – the cookie tosses in the next part of the session worked beautifully to get him moving and offering!
>Tribute grew since then so, even though he can place all four paws on the platform, it wasn’t easy and my treat placement wasn’t helping>
I think it was a little too small and he would have had to crunch up to get onto it – but you can combine it with the other object you used here to make a bigger playing field, so he would have more room to get all 4 feet up on it.
He got all 4 feet on the longer step you can use the step – so now you can challenge him to stand on it and turn around (following a cookie lure hand).
And you can squish all of these objects (and any other random things you can find) together for him to walk across and climb around on.
The smaller round bowl is perfect for front feet – we will be teaching pivoting pretty soon, so that seems like the perfect object for it!
The retrieves at the end looked good!
>He is bringing it back somewhere between 55% and 60% so I don’t think it is a solid behavior but there appears to be some understanding.>
To get the rate of success higher, you can add your motion – when yo throw a toy, take off and run the other direction so he chases you with the toy 🙂 He might think that is super fun, which will help entice him to bring the toy back 🙂 And if he is really loving tugs, you can reward the retrieve with a 2nd toy 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
This is exactly right! Super! She was able to maintain her speed and commitment, even with you running the other direction. She seemed surprised at how tight the turn would be – she might have been expecting that you would throw the frisbee on her line on the first rep so she was heading that way.
She was already tighter on the next rep – yay! The more you show her the countermotion, the more she can tighten her turn and chase you line.Looking great!!
TracyHi!
>Are you good with two videos per post? If not, I’ll go back to one. >
Totally yes! My motto is: if you have ’em, post ’em! So if you have a couple of videos ready to post, put them all in. No one-video-per-post rule 🙂 and you’ll get quicker feedback that way too.
Parallel path – the Flintstones was today’s tug song hahahaha! Cracks me up!
This went pretty well overall – I think during the early part of the session, she was thinking it was about looking at you. But when that didn’t get rewarded (looking at you and passing the prop), she offered a lot more looking at/towards the prop and touching it. Yay! I agree that she had a harder time on your right side – no clear reason why, other than perhaps you had less room moving that direction, or it is a mutual side preference 🙂 So you can stay close on the right and add a little bit of distance on the left side reps.
>. I tried outside which was an epic fail for parallel path. She couldn’t touch the object at all. Walked right on the outside of it. >
The prop might not have been salient enough in the outdoor environment, so you can make it more obvious by placing it up on a rolled up towel or something similar. Or have her do it on leash, on the sidewalk so there is no grass distraction (before the sidewalk gets too hot). And she might have needed a refresher on just hitting it outside, so you can always start with that.
One thing we add with pups who want to look at us is marking and throwing the treat for the forward focus and intent to move to the prop – mark and throw on the line, just before the pup actually hits it and before the pup looks at us 🙂 Hitting the prop is not terribly relevant here because we are teaching the pup to stay on a line to a ‘thing’ as we get further away. The ‘thing’ will eventually be a jump or tunnel 🙂
>We are still not great at send to the prop or going around things. I’m not sure if it’s my mechanics or she’s just a little young still.>
I think it is coming along nicely! She has more and more value and commitment each time you try it. And nothing needs to be perfect in order to move forward – it is all about exposure to concepts. And also we are developing neural pathways, and the first ones she had to develop were all about how we humans like to structure our sessions! Then the brain gets to work on the concepts like wrapping a barrel. An 8 or 9 month old pup has the benefit of “this is how we work with humans” pathways already developed and the 10 week old pups are starting from scratch 🙂
She did well with the novel-exciting objects here and the pattern game. On a couple of the reps, you were saying ‘find it’ while she was looking at the object at the beginning – I think some of that was you getting into a rhythm 🙂 So you can wait a heartbeat longer until you are seeing her head lift up and orient towards you.
You might have noticed that she approached the novel-exciting object first thing when you let her out of the xpen. That was probably because she was released and there was something new and exciting, so she went to it of course. Since we want to avoid her going directly to new/exciting things, you can change up how you release her into the session:
– you can release her from the xpen, get a reward or two in for a behavior like the pattern game here, then toss a treat off far enough that she has to really go find it – then you put the novel-exciting into the environment and continue the game as if it is not there.
– you can bring her into a room with the novel-exciting already in place, and begin the game as you are entering the room.
Great job!
TracyHi!
He did really well touching the prop here! He was being thoughtful about it, and it is possible that he was processing finding the treat in the grass (and chewing it haha) and ignoring outside distractions. And figuring out if he should look at you or not – so much to consider! He did really well with all of that! So you can add some toy play before the session and after every 3 or 4 treats here, so he can be really ramped up for it – that will help the environment fade into the background and hopefully help him gobble the treats LOL!The other thing you can add now is to switch from a ‘yes’ marker to a ‘get it’ marker, so he can look forward after smacking the prop. And then you can throw the treat further away, because he is already looking towards the line expecting it to drop out ahead.
Great job!!
TracyHi!
He looks so cute with his new hair style!!!The forward focus to the toy is looking great – he was more than happy to look at it, then run to it and tug tug tug. Super!
I think you can now throw the toy further – fling it as far as possible and when it lands, if he is looking at it, let him rip to it. That will also add in the toy races, where you try to get to the toy before him (and if you do, have a toy party without him haha). I believe he will get there first, and you’ll see some big big acceleration. I am also excited about how easily he went from toy to food to toy! Yay!
Great job!
TracyHi!
Yay for youtube! The videos look great!!! And I agree – Goose is super quick to learn and so much fun!! Who are the two cuties right in front of the camera?She is driving around the object with a ton of speed here, I love it! No questions from her at all – the frisbee is VERY motivating 🙂 Towards the end she was not sure which side to be on – that is where you were pointing forward more than looking at her. As soon as you looked at her more (connection!) she got right back to going around. Super!
The next step is to change your running line – if she starts on your left side, as she is going around the object (moving to the left hand side of the screen), you will do a FC, running back towards where you started (towards the right side of the screen, instead of towards the top of the screen :)) That will add the challenge of countermotion, where she needs to complete the wrap even with you already going the other direction. And then when she catches up to you, throw the frisbee or let her tug from your hand.
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
She is getting the idea beautfully here!! She looked at you a bit on the first rep, perhaps surprised that you were running too. But then on the other reps she drove ahead perfectly. Super!!! You can keep adding distance (maybe do long distance rollers and hold her longer before letting her go, to get the toy even further before the game starts). And you can expand the reward toolbox and try this with other toys too!
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
The teeter plank was perfect for this!! She started off really super but then got distracted by something under the board… at which point her feet were going every which way LOL!! She got back to focus and balance really well after that though. Turning around was easy! The down was harder for her but she was able to do it.
Lifting her to stack her actually put her off balance (she almost fell off at the end LOL!), so you can let her find the stack with her own balance.
The next thing to add is getting her to play tug right next to the board… then hop on it and walk across it. That will challenge her to maintain her balance and footwork even when she is more stimulated, and that is perfect for dog sports!
Nice work here!
TracyAha! Good catch here! I am glad she is really considering her markers – yay! So yes, being consistent will prevent confusion.
T
Hi!
Parallel path – this is going well! The only adjustment I’d suggest is to throw the treat further so she really chases it, rather than drop it. That will get her really driving ahead of you to the prop. A thrown toy might also work well to get her blasting ahead – I guess whether to use it or not depends on how long it will take her to bring the toy back LOL! But then yes – once she is driving ahead of you to the prop, you can do the rear cross. And when you start the rear crosses, be sure to keep rewarding even if she turns the ‘wrong’ way – we handlers are often late on the rear crosses as we begin them, so the pups are actually correct because they didn’t see the info in time to make the adjustment.
Countermotion – this went well too! Her better reps were when you started a little closer to the prop towards the end of the video. That is perfectly fine, because it makes the countermotion even more obvious as you move away right near her.
She did great with the plank here! You can add challenge to her mechanics two ways:
– play tug with her before the shaping part of the game. Adding arousal makes it a little harder, but also super useful because we want the pups to be able to have great body awareness even when they are stimulated!– she was happy to go to the end of the board and turn around, so you can add a little challenge by having her jump on in the middle of the board, then turn around right in that spot, doing a full 360 in both directions. You will probably need to help her out by letting her follow a low & slow cookie hand 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
> We’re getting in some practice, not always video.>
It is hard to always catch video, but it is fun to have it! Lots of lovely stuff on the video here!
Barrel wraps:
The back and forth at the beginning of the video looks awesome. You have just enough distance away that she was not always sure that she should offer it without a cue… which means she is ready for the turn and burn game!You did that later in the video and it went well! Be sure to have a line on the ground to give you the visual of when you should move – otherwise the timing of you doing the FC and running away doesn’t really progress the game, because you aren’t tracking if you are leaving earlier or not (spoiler alert, you were not leaving earlier to add challenge, you were actually leaving later LOL!) You can move that line on the ground to start off easy and then get progressively harder, adding more countermotion by doign the FC sooner and sooner. She seems to have lovely commitment so she is ready for more challenge in the game 🙂
On the rep where she didn’t finish the wrap, it was because her attention was split between the game and the noises outside – she got distracted then saw you in the new spot and you said yes, so she came to you. She was great on the other reps!
Forward focus: The forward focus went really well and I give yo ua big click/treat for moving that bowl around the cone pretty quickly! That keeps it from getting boring or repetitive.
Most of it was really easy for her. On the reps where she grabbed the treat without wrapping the cone, she never really looked away from the bowl or towards the cone. She was better with it after a couple of reps where you helped with an arm block –
She has a cute little head toss when she thinks she has locked onto the correct line… just be sure she is also looking at it because if you let go after the head toss, she will go wherever she is looking LOL!Backing up:
In the background, there was some beeping (construction vehicles?) so that was a little distracting to her in this session and she was looking away. In the next session, you can try having your back near a wall so it is easier for her to back up away from you. And also, keep your hands really low, as a focal point: if you stand up, she stops moving backwards and looks up – the higher head position inhibits moving backwards. But if you keep your hands lower, maybe juts above your knees, she will be able to focus on that, keep her head low and move backwards.Great job here!
TracyHi!
Yes, Ramen who appears in some of the videos is a whippet. My other whippet (Larry) came to me as an adult, so he is not in any of the videos. But you will see a number of lurchers in the videos too! I am just obsessed with sighthounds of all types 🙂
For the profile photo: Our agility-u.com website pulls profile images from a popular profile image service called Gravatar. In order to change your profile image displayed on our site, you can create an account at Gravatar.com using the same email address that you use on agility-u.com. Then follow these instructions to upload your profile photo over on Gravatar: https://en.gravatar.com/support/activating-your-account/
Let me know if you have any trouble posting the photo, and keep me posted on Carmen!
Tracy
Hi!
Oh no, poor buddy!!!! I am glad he is feeling better, that must have been scary!!
Using the toys here certainly helps prevent more GI upset and I think he enjoyed it too! He did well letting go of the toys and NOT trying to re-grip the toy or your flesh 🙂 He was better letting go of the toy from your left hand (really quite good!) and not as good at letting go from your right hand to go back to your left. That might just be a bit of learning history, maybe he gets more tugging from your left hand, so needs more practice with the out of the toy from your right hand. It sounds like you did cue the out on your left side a bit but not on the right, so maybe the cue will help.
He did really well going back and forth, especially from your left to your right (possibly linked to being better at letting go of the toy on that side). The next step would be to have you standing – then onto the turn and burn game. Because he is speedy, try the turn and burn in the grass so he can really dig in without slipping.
Nice work here!!
Tracy
Hi! This is going well! She has a lot of value for her prop and you were able to get good distance away from her line!
She is a little stronger on your right (looks at you less, moves faster) so that probably means she is getting value on your left side for being close to you. This could be stuff like obedience foundations or even just your side preference, so be sure to balance the left side with working away from you 🙂
One suggestion to help with that:
Swap out the ‘yes’ marker (which causes her to look up at you) with a ‘get it’ marker which indicates she was correct and to look ahead for the reward. When she hits the prop and before she looks back at you, say your ‘get it’ marker then throw the reward. That will get her looking ahead and driving ahead even more!>with an attempt to get the tug toy back by making it dead. Well THAT was a fail. Journey is a persistent little bitch. The give without treat is gonna take some work.>
We like persistent in a pup! That leads to great things, even if it is hard to get the toy back right now 🙂
The passive/dead toy actually worked pretty well! She was a little persistent but not too bad – definitely loosening her grip on it and totally on the right track! She was still able to tug so what I suggest with the dead toy is to have your hands lower, one on each side of her mouth, so when the toy is passive she can hold it (boring) or let it go (big party!) rather than re-grip.
You can also reward sooner: when you feel her relax her grip on the toy, you can either mark that with a tug marker and tug again, or mark it with a cookie marker and whip out a treat. That can split the behavior and reward it quickly, to help her learn the joys of letting go of the toy 🙂
Nice work here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>We can try the parallel path. However, on a walk she cris crosses all over the place.>
I don’t think that will be an issue in the game – the prop creates her path, and your line is parallel to that. On a walk. there is nothing that indicates the line and she is probably exploring the world.
The pattern game went really well! She was able to easily return engagement to you, even after the useful distraction of the cookie that ended up under the water bowl LOL You can reward even sooner, the instant she engages in your direction, even if she is not in front of you yet. Rewarding engagement from the side will be super useful when you are moving during this game, out in the real world.
>That game hurts my brain with trying to figure out which hand to use so it’s correct for the blind cross.>
True story, this game has a lot of hands going every direction. I plan it all out in advance, like a mini walk through without the pup LOL! But the most important thing is that the puppy enjoys the game, and I think she had a grand time playing here! Two of the goals of this game, besides the handling elements, are to convince the pups to go from food to toys to food to toys, and also that humans can be unpredictable in their movements but that means more fun is coming 🙂
The session went really well! You used all 3 of your hands perfectly! 😂🤣 You got the blind in on time so she was easily able to make the side change, then you showed early decel so she drove right into your side – nice job with the pivot! And I love that she was immediately able to get right back onto the toy after you threw it. GOOD GIRL!!!
Were you giving her a treat during the pivot? It looked like yes at least on the first few which makes it even cooler that she drove to the toy. And maybe no treat on the last pivot or two, but her behavior did not change. Lovely! If you were still giving her the treat, I bet you can fade it out at this point.
My only suggestion for this game is that you can call her as soon as you are relatively convinced she ate the cookie off the mat 🙂 It looked like she was finding the treat then optimistically looking for me (there was probably some good scent too), but she responded the instant you called her. So you can call her sooner rather than wait for her to start moving towards you. I figure in another session or two, she will grab the treat and move towards you immediately.
Great job!
Tracy
