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Hi!
Yes, the target value is high and that is great! He had good questions here about which to go to (turn cue or prop) – in the narrow space where you were moving with him, there were conflicting indicators so he was not sure if it was hands or target. Motion was often saying ‘go to the prop’ when the other cues were not as clear or visible.
A good example of this was :43. -:47 where he started next to you: your hands were up but not that visible (he was a little too close to have a good view of them without your shoulders blocking them) and your motion was identical to the parallel path motion with very little room to not go past the prop. So he looked at you, processed what he thought the important cues were, then went to the prop: motion overrode the hand cues here.
At :59 you were talking to him (and in other spots you had the cookie very visible) and that helped!
Lap turns when you were already facing him were easier because you were facing him which is a stronger cue with no motion to the prop. When you were moving backward – motion indicated the prop and there was not a lot of room to go past it (1:40, 1:55 where you were further away but moving backwards and the hand was not visible when he had to choose handler or prop).
When there are conflicting indicators, motion often wins 🙂 and the dogs do what motion tells them. Even when it is backwards motion 🙂
So we can help him see which indicator we want by having him start further from you (cookie toss starts work best so you are ahead of him) and as he starts moving to you, the turn cues are very obvious: hands cues for the tandem, and you facing him/stationary with the extended hand cue for the lap turn. That way he sees the cues before he reaches a decision point: to prop or not to prop?
And giving yourself more room will help too 🙂 I think 4 o5 5 feet away from the prop will definitely help clarify things! Taking this outdoors or into a bigger space would be the easiest route.
Nice work here!
Tracy
Good morning!
Really strong stay session here!On the first part with food – great job ping-ponging the timing of the catch reward! He was so funny – he can’t chew and respond to a sit cue, which is why you sometimes had to cue the sit twice. No worries, we can let him finish chewing LOL!!
The food session is definitely more calm and by about 90 seconds his attention was wandering so you brought out the clicker and things go exciting again. Super! He was definitely indicating something to his right, maybe a toy on a table? Good communication LOL! Using food is great but fewer reps of the same behavior and mixing in tugging can help him stay more engaged in the food only sessions.
I was going to suggest switching to the toy… and then you did 🙂 Yay! He was VERY good with the toy – sitting really well and not trying to re-grip the toy! Good boy!!! It seemed like he really liked the toy version of the stays.
You were releasing him forward to the toy, which works well. To easily add more distance, you can add in throwing it back to him (I use ‘catch’ for both food and toys being thrown back, the dogs have not shown me they need separate markers for that, they know exactly what I am throwing :)) For the ‘catch’ remind yourself to say it then move your hands a second later – if it comes too simultaneously or the hands move before, he will read and movement as the release.
One other idea – when you are adding duration – put some praise into the long duration moments where you are standing still (and looking away or moving further away) instead of silence because the long silences where you are looking at him are going to cause him to want to move and offer something else (like the release) – silence and eye contact can be very exciting and increase arousal.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
>Added the challenge of the frisbee ON the ground in front of her and the drive to get it.>
She did great! She will do anything for the frisbee… even hold a stay for it LOL!!! And it looks like she was staring at the frisbee too, which is great for the forward focus we want on the obstacles.
Her ‘almost’ break on the 2nd rep might have been because she predicts the rhythm you will say the release – about 1.5 seconds after the frisbee hits the ground. Dogs are BRILLIANT at predicting rhythms 🙂 So make sure you mix it up: add in slow calm praise, add in you slowly moving forward, add in some very immediate releases, sometimes count to 5 in your head, etc… that will help us be unpredictable in a good way so she doesn’t try to guess that the release will happen in 1.75 seconds LOL!! She sure is smart enough to figure that out so we have to kind of stay one step ahead of her hahaha!
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
She had a good time with the two toys for sure! And she figured that it was a game where you can just go to the next toy: easiest game ever!!!! She was really zipping around that barrel 🙂You can also play this by having her on one side of you, holding her collar – then tossing the end of the super long toy so she can see it in front of her… then letting her chase it around the barrel as you slide it away. That can be a fun transition into turn and burn!
>I’m still really struggling with sends. >
The prop sends? Or the send to the barrel for turn and burn? Both? I have ideas for both, let me know which one or if it is both and I will send them along 🙂
>I’m not really sure what I’m doing wrong.>
I think it is probably a combination of young age, mechanics, and ‘cracking the code’ of what makes the most sense to her to get her to do it. We will get it sorted out!
Nice work here!
TracyGood morning! The hand targeting went well! It looks like you were getting the nose touch AND the foot hit at the same time. No worries at all – keep rewarding, that foot hit is a bit of a ‘superstitious’ behavior and it will go away. To help isolate nose-only to the target, you can change the angle of it a little bit for now: have the target in your palm but angle your palm so it is a little higher and facing downwards. That will cause her to reach up with her nose to get it, so hitting it with the foot is not as easy or efficient to get the reward.
When we add this to the full game with you standing, she won’t hit the target with her foot 🙂
She had a little trouble hitting the target when it was in your right hand – it was not as strong as when it was in your left hand. One thing that will help is if as she is coming toward you, you shift your gaze to look at the target (not at her cute face 🙂 ) That will help direct her to the target hand and away from the toy and cookies. Then when you switch to tugging, you can use the full length of the toy to really swing it around for her to chase. When it was squiggling around in front of her without a lot of chase action, it keeps her thinking about the food and the target so she didn’t lock onto it as immediately.
Nice work here!
TracyGood morning!
This looks good! She seemed happy to drive in to your cookie hand and was turning well in both directions. She REALLY liked it when you tossed the cookie as the reward 🙂 so definitely keep doing that. And since this session went so well, you can add her prop placed off to the side – so she comes past it to your hand cue, then after the turn away, she can hit it on her line.Great job here!
TracyHi!
Tandems went great here – he seemed comfortable turning in both directions as you moved. Perfect! When you get back from your adventure, you can add in turning with him so you both turn and move the new direction (he would only be doing a 180 when you do this, not a full 360). Then add the prop for him to move past when you cue it and to hit after the turn away.>alas all I can maybe get him to work on is the stays.>
That would be good! Working on stays would be beneficial and a good mental workout for PoweR 🙂
Have a great time!
Tracy
Good morning! That sounds like a SUPER fun day!!! And playing tug and pattern game stuff in that environment is perfect for Jazz!!
The video is marked private – can you reset to unlisted so I can watch 🙂
>I purposefully gave her a break from any prop games/exercises and will try those again tomorrow. >
That is great – you will want to alternate ‘flavors’ of games so you don’t do the same thing every day, and also sometimes give her a day off from any ‘structured’ training and just let her run and play 🙂 The learning gets coded during sleep, so we do need to give the training a day or two or three to really sink in and blossom 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
I think he had fun with the collection sammie 🙂 he was reading the cues really really well – just needed them to be earlier on the early reps. Ideally, you would blind as soon as he starts moving to you, then decel as soon as you finish the blind and pivot slowly when he gets to you. When you were really running and the blind was late, the decel was late so he would go wide past you. Or if you pivoted too fast, he lost which side to be on.
But you got your timing earlier and earlier – and the ideal timing of everything is what you did on the rep 1:56 to 2:04 and it was perfection!!! NICE!!! The next reps like 2:41- 2:48 and the last couple were also really good, but that 1:56-2:04 moment was my favorite!
The prop with the NN thing out there started off nicely. He is hitting the prop really well!
Yes, going towards the toy added a level of challenge and the fan was probably not even in the picture for his brain 🙂 But he also did great when you moved the toy!>What interested me was that second set he literally was like oh hi fan!>
Was that in a different session? He seemed to look at the fan a little but didn’t go to it here that I saw (unless I missed it and need more coffee haha)
He was looking around a little bit but I think he was getting bored – something like 10 cookies in a row of the exact same back and forth thing, so on the last 2 reps of that he was looking around, slowing down… so you can definitely break off to play tug after every 3 or 4 treats and then change something to keep it interesting.
And after all the food, remember to get the toy dragging away like a crazed squirrel 🙂 to get him to engage. You started by dusting his face with the toy 🙂 and then he got right onto it when you started moving it away.
>I’m doing my prop parrallel/sneds/ rears. The parallel went amazing ! I’m avoiding the sends bc of the issue I had initially.. thoughts?>
Go back to the sends and see what ya got! Just a couple, and also keep working on the parallel path and rear crosses.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
This is the frisbee/strike a post game video. Let me know if there is a separate link for the turn aways.T
Good morning! She was a total rockstar here, going directly to the target hand and ignoring the frisbee! That is fantastic!! She seemed to have no questions about it 🙂 If she can also that on your other side, you can add challenge by dangling the frisbee… then when she targets the other hand, you can cue her to grab the fries or you can throw it to the side. I think she will really enjoy that 🙂
And you can also put the frisbee on the ground on the opposite side of the target hand – and then cue her to get it after she hits the target hand. She might think the frisbee on the ground is boring, or she might think it is really hard to ignore but it is a good challenge to see if she can still touch your hand and not go to the fris.
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
Yes, the potty training adventures sound interesting for sure! It will work out, but I totally agree that you don’t want to rehearse keep away (or peeing in the kitchen). It might be the substrate preference for your backyard, with familiar smells (Sprite!). Maybe you can have a certain spot for peeing (in the back, or if you have grass on the side or at the front of the house) – and Sprite can make a contribution 🙂 to add smell, and then Dot goes to that spot first thing in the morning on leash, to help develop the substrate preference you want and peeing without chewing on a leash or line. Let me know how she does – it will get so much easier as she gets older and develops more control.
I love the giant stuffed dog idea! That must be so cute also!!
T
Hi!
Editing videos is the hardest part 🙂 but it looks like the training is going really well!
Driving ahead is looking strong! Even with Torch being so small, she was focusing forward and getting ahead of you (yay!) Great job to you for keeping that toy low even when you are tugging – that really allowed her to continue tugging. You can take this game on the road and add more distance so she can get ahead of you even more 🙂
The bowl game is also looking good! You can scoot the two bowls further back (behind your knees when you are kneeling like this) so she wraps even more around the cone. And that will also help her not slide between you and the cone when you add distance – the bowls will be less visible in that spot.
It looks like she was only sliding between you and the cone on the right turn reps – she went around the cone on the left turn reps. She might be a lefty! So you can add a little more distance when she is going to the left, and keep the distance less for now when she goes to her right (from you left hand to your right hand).
The next steps can also include you sitting in a chair and then standing up while she is wrapping.
Stealth self-control – she definitely had the idea of look at and go around to the cone LOL!! She was like “LET ME GO, HUMAN!!” She was great with it as the bowl got around the cone – on that last rep, she could have easily gone directly to the bowl without the cone wrap but she looked at her line when you pointed at it, then went around the cone perfectly. GOOD GIRL!!
Keep moving that bowl around – the goal is that after a couple of sessions, the bowl is basically next to her and she needs to focus forward then go around the cone to get back to it. And work both sides, of course 🙂
It sounds like you were clicking here, but you don’t need to – the click was happening after she got to the bowl, but the marker had already happened and that is all she needed here.
Plankrobatics – She knew to offer getting on the plank but with you a step or two away, she s also trying to orient towards you. So you can be right there, inches away, so she can get al 4 feet on.
She followed your hand to turn really well! The plank is super narrow, so you will see her be able to move more freely if you put a couple of planks side-by-side (or any other objects) to make the playing field bigger. That will help her feel more comfy learning where to put all her feet 🙂
Backing up: She is off to a good start here! To get more distance and more steps, keeping your hands lower – at nose level for her – will help. When you stand up, it raises your hands and her head follows. And when her head is high, moving backwards is less likely to happen.
Because she is so small (for now :)) you can sit in a chair for this – that will make it easy to keep your hands really low without making your back angry 🙂 You rest your elbows on your legs and just leave the cookie hands right in front of her. That should get even more backing up.Parallel path game is going really well! She really liked that furry lotus ball 🙂 and that really helped her look at the prop and not at you. You had really good lateral distance here! And your throws were great, getting the toy out ahead before she looked back at you.
You can keep adding lateral distance, and you can also add getting her to drive ahead to it by starting right next to her and about 15 feet from it. And when she will drive ahead of you… it will be easy to start the rear crosses!
The sideways sending to the prop is also looking great! She has a ton of value for the prop. To start each rep, give her a little bit of the ready dance so she is fully engaged with you – then the send will be very snappy! And you can start moving away as soon as she starts moving to the prop. The only thing to *not* do is don’t say ‘go’ 🙂 We are saving ‘go’ for getting her to drive forward, and we will add verbals for the wraps/turns soon. So for now, you don’t need to say anything or you can make a silly noise 🙂
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
Really nice session here!
His body language of being very alert followed by the full body shake off at the beginning tells us that the environment is definitely stimulating! Sounds like there was all sorts of interesting things to look at, hear, smell, etc.He was able to return his engagement to you pretty regularly, which is great. It is not happening at super high speed yet, but he is really just at the beginning of taking this game on the road. More practice and the best possible treats will speed things up in terms of engagement – as long as he won’t get an upset GI, you can use stuff like chicken or little bits of hamburger or any high level food rewards.
>I like the time this pattern game gives Skizzle to check things out, though I can see he still needs more time even by the end, as he’s no faster to return attention to me.>
Yes – one of the goals of the game is that the dog has the opportunity to check out the world, without pressure from us humans, and within a framework of how to get rewards and engage with us. You were super patient and that was GREAT!! He will get faster and faster with practice, and you can still practice at home (with normal value treats, nothing mind-blowing needed) to continue to build value for the game.
You can also try this game as you are moving – either moving back and forth, or walking somewhere. That gives him even more freedom to move which is really beneficial for adolescent dogs too.
Great job here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
The blind crosses are looking great! Yes, I agree that feeding across the body is weird feeling t first 🙂 But it really opened up your connection to him and he was able to find the new side change immediately. Super!!! You can go to the next step, which is the collection sandwich (adds in deceleration and pivots and driving ahead, kind of all the puppy handling games 🙂 And you can use a toy to reward for blind too!
He did great with the goat games! He was confident on the donut – it is one of the hardest objects because it takes a lot of adult strength to balance on it, so it was smart of you to just do a little then move to the wobble board. He was super confident and especially adorable when he got the toy and went and got on the wobble board by himself LOL!! That still counts as a retrieve LOL!!
You can put all of the various items together and make a giant playing field for him to walk across the various surfaces.
For the bowl at the end – he was happy to get on it. You were far from it, so he didn’t quite have the balance to turn to you without his feet slipping off. That is only because he is so young 🙂 so to get more balance on the bowl, be closer to it. We start working on pivots soon and we will definitely have you nice and close so his feet say on.
Great job here!! Let me know what you think of the webinars when you have a change to listen to them!
Tracy
