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Nice job on the 2 runs here! Just add more repeating of the GO verbal so as he is moving up the line he is hearing it to support the entire line: Go Go Go Go rather than just one one Go. Without the added verbals, he is driving to the bowl which will make it harder to get turns on a straight line.
Good morning!
Well, getting into a standing position was certainly not a problem – she was just as zippy and focused on the wrapping as the previous session! And you added more distance – a pretty significant amount – and after she took a heartbeat to think about it, she was perfect again. SUPER BIG HAPPY DANCE!
>>She got lost once but then not again!
I think she was chewing and lost her train of thought… I can relate, I too sometimes get wrapped up in chewing delicious food then forget what I am doing LOL!!!! You can try softer treats that she can slurp down rather than chew. But she got herself back on track without your help, which is actually a HUGE moment. Any time a pup can have a failure then reset without frustration? That is a big win in the resilience department. Yay!
Yes, she is totally ready for turn and burn – that will involve toys, so you don’t need to worry about chewing 🙂 Start nice and close to the barrel. Have fun!
And also, time to start thinking about what you want your wrap verbal(s) to be (agility has a LOT of words nowadays). Ideally you will want 2 different wrap verbals: you can go with one verbal that indicates that she should wrap to her left and a different one that indicates wrapping to her right. Or, you can choose a wrap-towards-me verbal and a wrap-away-from-me verbal.
Commonly used verbals for this include ‘checkcheckcheck’ or ‘digdigdig’ – any short consonant-heavy verbal that is easy to repeat.
And if you are thinking “OMG SO MANY WORDS WHAT THE HECK” that is relatable! No worries, we slide them in and then it is easy for both you and Mingo.
Great job here! Let me know how turn and burn goes!!
Tracy
Good morning! I agree, the first session went well! She is so much fun! She definitely liked the toy – you can try a longer toy (or tie this one to something) so you can swing it around more so she can grab onto it rather than just chase it 🙂
>>I am still resisting the temptation to lure as that is how I taught Djinn’s mom>>
You did a great job *not* luring! There is nothing wrong with luring, it just depends on what the goal of the session is. Since this is about getting her to think about interacting with various objects, it is good to not lure.
With this in mind, you can change the delivery and placement of the reinforcement to get more interaction with the object. One way to think of it is:
if you were going to lure it, where would you place the food to get her to get into the box? I would place it right in the box so she goes into the box to eat it.
That is where you can place the food here too, just change the timing of the delivery of it to put it down after she interacts with the object. And interaction in this shaping session can be anything like looking at it, sniffing it, moving to it, etc. When you see that tiny slice of behavior, you can toss the treat into the box 🙂 Then is she gets into the box or on the object and wants to stay there, you can toss a treat off to the side to reset her position for the next rep.
In this session, your timing of marking the behavior was really strong!! You were delivering the treat to her mouth from your pocket, so she was wanting to hang out near your pocket and didn’t necessarily realize that you wanted her in the box. So, in the moment between the tugging and the box going to the floor, grab a couple of treats from your pocket so as soon as you put the box down and she goes to it, you can drop a treat in it.
Let me know if that makes sense or if I need more coffee to explain it LOL!
>>The second round didn’t go as well, I tried to give her a 10 minute break, work with her brother and come back. She seemed almost scared of the prop so I will try it again another day.>>
That is odd! Do you have it on video? She certainly did not seem worried in the clip here. But, puppies do stuff like that as they enter adolescence – suddenly seem concerned about something that was perfectly fine 10 minutes ago LOL!
>>I had an issue with her brother (I didn’t video since I only have one spot) where he was so amped up with the toy that he wasn’t interested in the prop. I put the toy away and he frantically looked for it instead of being interested in treats. So that’s something to work through!>>
That is great information from him! You can do some games that help his body learn to self-regulate his arousal state. You can play with a lower value toy and then trade for higher value treats. And instead of just one treat, you can scatter a bunch around so he sniffs around to get them: sniffing helps bring the arousal state back to center so he will be more settled and less frantic.
If needed because even with high value treats he has trouble ignoring the toy, you can do this in 2 different locations: toy play in one location, then leave the toy there and go to a different location to play with the treats. I have done this with several of my dogs and it really helps the dogs learn how to go back and forth between food and toys, regulating their arousal. Keep me posted about how he is doing!
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
>>I used a couple of flexiness bricks that were just under 2″ high and he was doing well.>>
That sounds perfect!
He did really well getting on and turning around on the plank!
>>I noticed turning right on the plank was way harder for him than turning left.>>
Yes, he’s a lefty 🙂 But it is a slight side preference because he is able to turn both directions. Some pups can only turn one direction at this stage LOL!! And it will balance out pretty quickly.
His head was a little high watching your cookie hands and I think that contributed to him losing a little bit of balance especially to the right. When he was turning left, he was lowering his head (this was right before you made the plank wobble :)) and it was really lovely and balanced!
The plank movement did not seem to both him at all – he needed a little bit of help with the right turns so you can keep your hand lower (nose level) to help him out on the right turns. He doesn’t really seem to need that on the left turns, he seems to have figured out how to balance easily on those. It ps perfectly fine to let him do the left turns on his own, and help him with the right turns with a low cookie hand for him to focus on and keep his head a little lower.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Backing up is looking good! This is a game to revisit every 2 or 3 days, just to keep building it up. You can also check out the game where we get the pups backing up onto a moving board (posted on Tuesday).
Sending is going great – you are beginning to add countermotion by doing the FC before she arrives at the prop. SUPER! You can add more to this by sending sideways, so you are already halfway through the front cross and can start moving away a little sooner 🙂
>>I tried a toy reward with the prop and it did not go well in this space so I went back to click and treat.>>
Yes, that will go better when you have more room, so try it again in your yard and see how it goes there.
Rear crosses are the hardest skill so far, because they are the least ‘natural’ for the pups. They are build off of the parallel path game, so do a warm up of the parallel path for a few reps with you starting pretty close to her, so she is driving ahead to the prop – then as she is getting ahead of you, you can slide in behind her to change sides before she arrives at the prop.
What was happening here was a combination of a high arm send being a little confusing to her (you were sending and trying to go behind her, so she was looking at you) and then she you did use the parallel path, you were still on the FC side when she arrived at the prop.
>>Hopefully in a large space???>>
Yes – more space will help, especially a longer space so you can both start further from the prop 🙂 That will give you more time to get her moving forward and give you more time to get to the other side behind her 🙂
Turn and burn with the barrel is going really well!! I love how she tried to go over it early in the session LOL! Clever! By the end of this clip, you were able to do the FC and move away when she was about halfway around the barrel. Super!
I think she is ready for you to start adding your wrap verbal(s). Ideally, she has a verbal that means wrap-to-her-left and a different verbal that means wrap-to-her-right. What wrap verbal(s) do you use with your other dog?
Great job here!!
TracyGood morning!
He was a most excellent goat here 🙂 A brave little dude for sure – and it sounds like he has had plenty of exposure to getting on various things already. Super!!! And it is fun that you took this game to Home Depot and he was being a goat there too LOL!! Love it!!!A couple of ideas for you:
– you can slow down the food delivery now so he keeps offering. When you were rewarding really fast and talking to him, he was ending up stationary. So you can deliver a treat in position then wait for more offering (try not to move or use your body as a lure). Or, you can toss the treat off to the side so he can reset and then hop back on 🙂– for the toy play, he was trying to get his mouth on it but didn’t always latch on. You can tie the toys together to create a longer one, so your hands are not as close. It is possible that he is being careful and doesn’t want to grab you hand by accident (thanks, Maui, we appreciate that!). You can also move the toy more slowly so it is easier to grab – or throw it so he can chase it 🙂
Throwing the toy also helps get him away from the delicious food smells, which make it harder to get tugging (more on that below :))
Looking at the different objects:
He did really well getting on the scale – it was a little slippery but he still got on and off easily. YAY!!
The green spinny thing was definitely harder – his body is bigger now so fitting his body on it was a little more challenging. I don’t think he was worried about it, I just think he was figuring out how to get his rear end on it 🙂
When it was between the 2 fit bones (I think that is what they were), you can move the bones a little closer together so he is not quite as stretched out in his stand.
The plank on the 3rd video was great, he got right on it and you did the food tossing so he could reset – then stand still, try not to lure with your body. Let him sort out getting all 4 feet on. And when he has all 4 feet on, you can get him to slowly turn around in (this is where I do recommend a cookie lure). And you can also go to a slightly higher plank so he gets more experience balancing up in the air.
>>By three he was tired of me.
I don’t think he was tired of you 🙂 I think he was having a hard time going back to the toy with all of the food smells around – you can try throwing the toy or moving to a different spot to play with the toy, separating food and toy play as much as possible. I have found that adding distance between the food moments and the tugging really helps!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>She does seem to switch to the toy easier if I pick up the food bowls.
That makes sense – the bowls are both highly paired with food and also are a ‘cue’ to wrap… so it would be hard for a baby dog’s brain to ignore that.
It did take about a minute to warm up but then after the short tug break, she was in the groove and did well in both directions! I don’t see a side preference yet . And hooray for the fox barrel! It was a tiny bit harder for her to leave the bowls/cookies in your hand when you transitioned to the new barrel (new to her LOL) but then got back into the groove. Excellent! Really nice session especially since she hasn’t seen this in a couple of weeks!!!
So, planning for the next session: start where you left off here with the fox barrel 🙂 If she warms up into it easily, change your position to sitting in a chair. If that goes well – either in the same session or the next session – move to standing up.
Then if you can stand up and she continues around the barrel like she did here, you can build up to the turn and burn game. Yay! This might happen in the course of 2 sessions, or maybe 3 sessions. Adding distance to the barrel is also on the agenda but a lower priority for now – she is already seeing some distance and we can add it separately. I think she will love love love the turn and burn game!
Great job here!!!
TracyHi! I think she was GREAT and I think you might want to look for a good trial opportunity to add in a run or two.
The narration at the beginning of the first video was funny LOL! We don’t need her to be calmer, per se – just engaged, able to focus, not overaroused by the environment. She looked happy to be there and ready to play with you.
Pattern games, volume dial, engaged chill – all the pieces easily in place and in a challenging environment. One thing to add if you have another opportunity is working the progression leading up to the ring entry, including taking the leash off (without going into the ring :)) I do that with my young dogs during course builds – you’ll see more of that posted with tomorrow’s games.
The most interesting part of all of this the loose leash walking. I know you have been working on that and honestly, it is one of the hardest behaviors to get in that environment. And she was able to do it – hooray!
In the stands, wanting to see what everyone was yelling about was normal but she did well with her down and started having an easier time ignoring the yelling.
This is also good information that perhaps starting her in a ‘yelling class’ is not a good idea – the shouting of numbers is possibly too distracting and weird before/during her run. Note to self: start in T2B in AKC for FEO runs, or in speedstakes in UKI. I mean, she probably doesn’t experience a lot of yelling in her world so I can see why she needs more exposure to it in a trial setting before being asked to run agility while there is yelling LOL!!
So I call this a super successful weekend! I think it is time to start planning on adding in an NFC or FEO trial run if you want to (if you don’t want to, that is fine too, because trialing is not mandatory). What is coming up locally in a good facility with a good judge for baby dogs? Dang it would be so much better if this country was smaller, we have some GREAT opportunities coming up on the East Coast. Just a short drive hahahaha
I will also give the disclaimer/reminder that there will be some moments that are less perfect than these but that doesn’t mean she is not well on her way to success! It is just a normal part of the up-and-down joy of bringing young dogs into their trial career 🙂 This weekend was only up moments 🙂 and we will continue to slice the behavior and set up success like this! Yay!!
Tracy
Hi!
Wowza, we are beginning to see how explosively speedy she is going to be! Watch her as she exits the barrel to chase you – so cool!!!
When you are planning to run away fast, be SUPER patient for now and let her get almost all the way around the cone – marking it with a line on the ground will help you stay patient. If you moved too soon, she didn’t commit to finishing the wrap. Motion is exciting!
The other thing you can do is add in doing the FC and leaving sooner, bit by bit… but do it at a calm walk (or fake calm haha) so that your quickness doesn’t cause her to stop going around the cone. You can slide out to he new direction at a slow walk and then when she finishes the wrap, you can start running.
Left turns are harder for her, so add more connection like you did at 1:13 and 1:38 and keep your arm low (so you don’t block the connection). 1:38 in particular was fantastic!
She might have needed a warm up rep on the backing up at the beginning (a really easy rep to remind her) but then it was so exciting to see her reach back with her foot to find it! AWESOME! The board definitely helped her! You can start the board nice and close, then fade it out by just moving it gradually further and further off to the side, so she is backing up with less help from the board.
Because she is an adolescent, be prepared that some sessions like this will have great back foot use, and then the next day she might forget she has back feet 🙂 No worries, all normal, so you can use the boards to help her out in that case.
Great job on these!!
TracyHi!
> Still having trouble with the last, three step prop, one. We are working on it, but giving it a break.
No worries! A break is good – let her sleep on it for a day or two, then we can come back to it. Post a video if you have a moment!
>> Brought out the barrel for our new word, “wrap”, with treats first, then a tug. She took to that instantly! Just a very quick session, and speedy! Fun!
Perfect! And yes, fun – this is where the wrap games start to get really exciting for humans and pups 🙂
>> I will let that simmer for a day or two. I’m just so happy with this! After 1/2 hour of limited success (all on me, btw) with our last prop, video/training piece.>>
Yes, let it simmer – it is amazing how puppy brains can learn it when we let it simmer LOL!!! You are doing an awesome job!!
Tracy
Hi!
I love her resilience walk! And the “hey shorty” was SO CUTE! She seems like a really happy, confident pup. Bombproof indeed!!!! And charming! She seems to have a natural resilience, which we will maintain through adolescence.
The targeting in pre-game 2 went brilliantly! Love her! And yes, she understood it immediately. When we build on this (on Tuesday) I think it will be easiest to have you on a low chair or cushion or stool or something, so you don’t have to bend at the waist as much.
The 3rd video here was marked as building sends, but it was the drive to handler game. It looked great! You can add motion to it – as she is chasing the start cookie, you can be moving forward. Then decelerate as she turns to move towards you, and get the cookie hand in nice and low 🙂 Then you can also add in the pivot when she arrives at your leg.
She seems to be a bit of a sponge, so feel free to move to the next level of these games pretty quickly. If she gets it right 2 or 3 reps in a row? You can try the next level and see how she does.
Great job here!
TracyHi!
>>Yesterday Venture said he just couldn’t work so we took a break. We had already had a couple outings to the pet store and Tractor Supply. He got lots of pets and love from all the shoppers and I think that was the limit for his adolescent brain. Black Friday with a puppy!>>
Depletion is real! Black Friday shopping takes a lot of mental energy for humans and puppies 🙂
>>I’m unsure about the “You can throw the toy on the exit of the blind here: when he gets to the new side, you can throw the toy ahead and let him drive to it to get the cookie out of it without you”. The timing would be? Throw forward as soon as he’s close to the toy or should he be at the toy before the throw?>>
I think as soon as you see him locking onto the correct (new) side, you can throw the reward forward so he accelerates past you to get it. So he will still be a few feet behind you when you throw it.
>>Backing up to the Cato board – it’s 4″ high when on a solid surface inside. In the grass it sinks and is quite a bit lower. Ven is about 14″ tall so far. I expect he’ll end up about 15″ tall. Is 4″ too tall or should I try it out and see?>>
I think in the grass it would be OK. But probably too high on a solid surface to start with. A one or two inch height will be easier for him 🙂
Keep me posted!
TracyHoly Wow, she was really zippy around the barrel here: “I GOT THIS, MOM!!” Perfect! Tight and fast in both directions, with no questions. Super!
Because she was so good, the next step is to work up to you standing while she does this. You can split it by doing a few reps in a chair, then moving to standing up (and still dropping the treats in the bowl). If she is happy with you standing: definitely move to the turn and burn game posted this week (that is where wrapping really gets fun). If she has questions, you can stay with the bowl game for another session (but somehow I don’t think she will have questions).
Great job here! Let me know how she does with you standing!
Tracy
Hi!
Mingo is getting big now! Fun!
Super nice job with the blinds here!! Lots of good running from you both and double happy dance for getting that last canine out LOL!With her speed, you can start your blind as soon as she starts moving towards you because she will be catching up fast LOL!! Whippets and BWs have different timing than non-whippety dogs 🙂
You were doing the blind when she was a little past being halfway to you, which is probably why they felt late. So if you start them when she begins moving towards you, the blinds should feel more comfy. You started earlier on the last rep, and that seemed to be the smoothest one.
It was hard to tell when she would start running towards you, so you can use a soft treat she can slurp up then call her name so she turns to you more immediately.
Great job with your mechanics and connection on the exit of the blinds – she had no questions about where to be! YAY!!
Great job here 🙂
TracyHi!
>>I can sort of feel him locking onto me and then remembering his toy sometimes – I’ll try next time giving him more time
Plus he is a complete newbie to the game – when he sees it once or twice, he will better understand where to look and then it will be easy!
Nice session here!! Your mechanics were really strong: fast transitions in and out of the toy play, you were holding the item so it would not move, and he offered immediately: and your treats were ready so there was really no delay with the cookie reward.
>> I picked this object because he has never used it before but in review of the video – I think this had too much movement-instability>>
Yes, it had some extra movement but you helped by holding it and he was very GAME ON about offering behavior. I think he was trying to offer pivoting on it? Good boy! You can start to make a goat trick trail in that hallway: all sorts of various items for him to walk across and on as you both move back and forth along the hallway.
>.Also we needed more space – he bumped his head tugging>>
Poor little guy LOL!!!! I am not sure he noticed, though LOL!!
>>since i didn’t have my clicker I should have made my verbal markers sound more like a marker with less chatter>>
You were generally quiet during the offering, mostly just saying “yes” then the marker with a “good boy” mixed in here and there. The majority of the chatter was during the play, which is fine with me 🙂 I like the various noises and chatter because it is very engaging! It was a really great session!
Side note: where did you get the rug in your hallway? I need rugs like that which won’t move under the pups 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
