[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi –
This is leash off/engagement on – also looking great! He doesn’t seem to think about anything other than offering engagement when you take the leash off, and that is perfect.

Keep rewarding it in all environments, just to maintain it. Looking terrific!

T

[Tracy Sklenar]

Double gold star to you for playing the game properly AND having the correct music going!!!! Ha! Love it!

It certainly put him into a higher state of arousal (look at how hard he was breathing!) but he was perfection with his stay. Nice! A little twiychy but did not break. You might not need to use it on the start line at a trial, but you can certainly play this in training to get him into the higher arousal state he will be at a trial. That can be useful for start lines, and also weave poles and contact criteria – getting him more stimulating will help his brain and body feel like it does at a trial 🙂

Great job!

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

I think he did really well here! Yay! Most (all?) of my suggestions are about trusting him more and using better position on course, so that you can easily get to all the positions on the handling cues. He seems to understand how to stay on the line, so now you can use that to your advantage.

One overall thing: you can use more placed rewards or early throws on the lines, especially the ending lines. He is looking at you a lot, probably because the toy rewards are coming primarily from your hand after he is finished. If he has trouble bringing it back, you can use a less exciting reward and then trade for a more exciting reward 🙂

On the simply pinwheel circles where he is going to the tunnel on his line, you can send to 4 sooner and use more accelerated motion 5-6 and earlier tunnel verbal. You were quiet and decelerated, so he was looking at you and curling towards you over 5 a lot (:09 :24, :37, :54).

Also, since he is doing so nicely on his line: you can totally use more lateral distance away from 4 and 5 and 6 to more easily get the BC on the tunnel exit and the serp on the landing side of 7. You can do this by sticking closer to the edge of the 3 wing, sending to 4, and staying on that line to accelerate to 5-6. Then as he is locking onto the tunnel, you can easily start the BC for the exit (or the FC as you did here, but that takes longer to finish, which makes cuing the next turn a little harder).

For the serp on the landing side of 7, you can go past 3 but still be laterally away from 4 and 5. That way you can commit him to the 5 tunnel from pretty far away and easily get further across the landing of 7, so when he exits the tunnel he sees you on the center of the bar with serp arm/shoulders.

At :37 you had gone a little too close to 4 and 5, so when he exited the tunnel you were on a straight line path so he jumped long over 7, making the turn after landing.

He is reading the RCs at :26 and :57 really well (thanks, Jen!!). You can set them up differently so he reads them sooner and so you can actually be further ahead: rather than remain lateral, you can get closer to the 4-5-6 line and drive more to the tunnel, so as he exits the tunnel he will see you accelerating to the center of the 7 bar – that can set the RC sooner and he will drive past you, so you can cut across to the new line sooner too.

The other sequence went well too – this is where you can strategically use your position to set up the crosses 4-5.

For the RC at 1:06, you can send him to the tunnel and get further ahead and closer to jump 4, to decel then set the line of the RC to 5.
At 1:07 and 2:14, you were on the left wrap wing and so he was setting up to turn slightly to the left – then as he took off straight you said switch and gave the physical cue. He got the RC after landing, but setting it form the 4 jump and moving to the center of the bar will set it sooner (so he turns before takeoff) which also keeps you further ahead, without potentially diluting the wrap cues/position on the wrap wing.

When you were doing the FC 4-5 (like at 1:19), you used lateral distance more strategically and that really helped! You can keep playing with trusting the 3-4 line even more to get closer for 5 for the FC (or a BC :)) – those can ideally start when he has landed from 3 so being really lateral will make that easy.

He did well with the throw back especially considering it was a new cue! On the first one at 1:22, the collection was good but you needed to look over your left arm to get the collection finished not your right arm. You made that adjustment on all of the other reps there and he was great! Yay!

Great job here! I think the main takeaway is to trust his understanding and use your position on course to set up the turns and crosses. Let me know what you think!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]


Good morning!

>We’re wrapping up our big trip to Florida (from California) for the US Open. >>

Hope you made it home safely and are getting some rest! I am sad that I didn’t get to see you and Ripley more than just waving a hello as I was running by LOL!!!

>>My biggest priority was to try to make sure Ripley had a great time. I kind of had in mind that this year our goal was fun without a ton of pressure since we’re still such a new team and need more mileage to push to be super competitive. >>

Mission accomplished! He looked great in the videos!

>>I think he had a great time and was super surprised (and happy) that all of our focus on “Transitions to Trials” stuff and recent NFC stuff at home really carried over.>>

That is fantastic!!!! YAY!!!

>>Our biggest challenges this past year in shows (vs at home) have been sits on the startline, startline stays and contacts. Over the 5 days of the US Open he sat on EVERY startline with no or minimal delay, only broke 1 stay (and just a partial break – moved forward but didn’t take the first obstacle) and only missed 1 contact. >>

Super! He looked really good on the start lines in the video below – moving into position quickly and holding them pretty well even though he was definitely excited. Maybe a little more soft connection on the lead out will help support the “don’t move” criteria but otherwise, I wouldn’t change anything.

For the contacts, he has gone to moving contacts – not quite stopping, not quite running 🙂 So you will want to choose which you want to be able to clarify it and be consistent with it.

>>since I don’t want to rush him right back into too much training the next few days.>>

Between the length of the event and the air travel, I would give him a week off from any ‘training’ and just let you both clear your heads and rest, with some hiking, playing, running around, etc.

>>He did some amazing work and only had 1 run where things really fell to pieces. >>

Considering the challenge of the courses…. Only 1 run coming off the rails is GREAT!

>> but he always immediately found my face to get better direction and immediately got right back on track with no fallout or frustration.>>

That is critical! Yes, there were a ton of Es at this event so be sure to minimize frustration was really great.

>>Posting our last run of the event on day 5 because I was so proud he was still able to do everything I asked after being here for a week. >>

LOVELY run!!! It was a nice course too!

>>On the video he does look like his tail wrapping the wing on the tight wrap was what caused the wing to wobble and the late bar drop. >>

What happened in that moment was you were ahead so you decelerated – then sent him past you and accelerated. It is what I call a ‘reverse transition’ where we decel so the dog is thinking collection then we accelerate so the dog thinks extension but we are accelerating through a turn… so the bar comes down. The dropping of the rear/tail is his effort to adjust over the bar.

Two things will help that: strategically not getting as far ahead so you can show the turn cue and still get to the next position (this will come with more experience on these whopper courses).

And, using the brake arm to cue those ‘soft’ turns as you keep moving.

>>I’m not sure what to do about that as it does seem like a good number of his bars this is what’s happening.>>

Three ideas for you:

– from the handling perspective, start your turn cues sooner, with brake arms for the sort turns, and strategically thinking about using motion to support the cue rather than trying to accelerate and turn all at the same time.

– more plyometrics and conditioning to get more power from his rear. A Cato board for organizing the plyo helps and so does the zig zag grid. He is probably in fabulous condition but just needs one more notch of plyometrics so he can have more effortless power over the bar as he is processing handling cues.

– a bit of jump proofing in high arousal, where you show him late cues or sudden bursts of motion and reward heavily for not touching bars. This is done from the viewpoint of setting up success and I live by the 2 failure rule (2 failures in the session means I need to make it easier). Here are some ideas on video, oldies but goodies starting with low bars:

Let me know what you think!


Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

He did really well getting stimulated with the toy play but then giving it back and offering behavior on the mat. YAY!! The mat behavior here is not that important – the important behavior is that he could regulate his arousal and interact with the mat… after letting go of the toy then ignoring the toy in favor of shaping. I was so happy to see him do it!!

You can see how much brain energy this burns: at about 1:00, he was a bit exhausted by it (mentally) so it took longer for him to respond to the “thank you” cue and he was rolling on his back. So while he was very successful here, you can keep these arousal regulation sessions shorter (45 seconds) and then end with tossing cookies on the ground for him to snuffle around and eat 🙂

You can repeat the session with you standing and being a bit wilder with the tugging. The goal is the same: getting him to be able to relinquish the tug and offer behavior when he is very stimulated.

He was great with the driving ahead!!! This video shows how small he is – totally a sports car size! I love it!!!

>>would you look at how useful camera recording is — I saw I’m not looking at Obi when releasing at all! He bailed me out here …>>

Yes! You can totally look at him more as you throw the toy. And also yes – video shows us that errors are 99% our fault, which is why I reward the dogs when something goes wrong : )

You can now start to throw the toy further and further, and start going into the toy races where you try to get to the toy first 🙂

Bowl game is going well! You can keep the bowls in your hand until you are seated and ready ,so he doesn’t offer any behavior before you are ready.

He figured this out really well! The hardest part was going past the cookies in your hands (or behind you LOL!) By about 1:00 into the session, he totally had the idea. SUPER! So for the next step – you can be sitting in a chair or something that is halfway between sitting on the ground and standing up.

When you are in a chair, and if he remembers the game, you can add in an upright for him to go back and forth around.

And if that is easy (and I am guess it will be :)) you can add a little distance between you and the upright.

Then for the next session, you can keep the upright close to you and stand up 🙂

Great job on these! Let me know how he does with the next steps!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
The bowl game looked really good – easy peasy!

If things are going well, you can change what you are doing after about 30 seconds so things are not as repetitive – rather than drop the cookie in the bowl so he can hear it, you can quietly put it in so he starts to offer. Then break off for some tugging (which might need to be in a different room if it is too hard to tug in a pool of cookie scent), then later on try again and see if he can offer it without hearing or seeing the cookie drop. That way you can make fast progress without things being boring 🙂

On the blind cross video:

>And today we did some blind cross foundations. I think I need a little more space for this, because I couldn’t really move much, but it maybe wasn’t the worst way to start with a baby?>>

I think it was a great way to start! The session was not so much about blinds, because you know how to do them and your mechanics are good (and if you do it right, he will do it right, which he did) – this session was more about ignoring the distractions in the space, and also going from food to a toy. Perfect!!! He did great 🙂

Yes, you can bring this to new places but because he is so small, don’t move so fast that he loses you. And you can also add in people holding him as restrained recalls with the blinds, which builds in a nice little element of ‘people are cool but ignore them.”

>>Also, I realized we’ve been doing tiny resilience walks around the neighborhood! I’ve just been taking him out on leash and doing little short exploration walks, letting him lead the way – he’s largely been great! >>

Yay! This stuff is far more important than we realize.

>>A little bit of initial stranger danger, where he wants to back away, so I’ve been moving with him, and he typically gets over it once the person is closer.>>

If he wants to back away and you go with him? Perfect! And in coming weeks, we will be adding games to help him deal with anything that concerns him in the environment.

Great job here! Let me know what you think!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
Nice job here!! He definitely loved the running 🙂 You can be moving faster away from him so he sees you go from fast to slow (slowing down before he is halfway to you).

It possible, try to get your cookie hand even lower as you are pivoting, so he keeps his feet on the ground and doesn’t slip as he turns. It is hard to get our hands low enough for the small pups! Your hand was just above your knee here which was a little too high – if you can keep the cookie hand just below your knee, I think that will be perfect for him to keep his feet on the ground and have an even tighter turn.

Great job on these! Let me know what you think! 
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! He is doing well here!!! Yay! The bigger cone was easy for him. Super!

>>I need to get faster on my rewards but he is getting better at this.>>

Yes, he is moving really fast so you can be more ready for the start of the session so he doesn’t offer a whole bunch of good stuff then stop because the rewards didn’t come. Most importantly, have all of the treats ready to roll so you can just drop them into the bowls.

I think he needs the bowls a bit more visible around the cone at the beginning of the session here, so he can refresh the skill without you needing to help or point.

Also, try not to praise 🙂 The praise draws his focus up to your face so he stops offering for a moment. It is a pretty quiet game, unless you have a marker for “food in bowl”.

For his next session, you can start where you left off here but with the bowls a little more visible – and when he gets into the groove, you can stand up and keep going (everything else is the same, except your position changes :))

Great job!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
Thanks for the tugging video! He does indeed have plenty of drive for the toy, so here are some ideas on how to get it more consistently:

– you can adapt your play style to fit his play style. He definitely likes to chase and bite the toys so to get more tug engagement: tie the toys together into one long toy (6 feet long!) and then while you are standing, you can put one end of the toy on the ground and swing it for him to chase. That will let him do what he enjoys while eliciting more tugging, plus it removes the pressure of being close to your hand or you leaning over which can be causing him to back off of the tugging.

– keep the tugging session SUPER short, like less than 15 seconds and then be done. Tugging is exhausting for puppies because of all the movement (and we humans are not really doing much so it is easy to go on for too long). So short, sweet, end-before-he-wants-to sessions will be perfect. By about 2:30 on the video, he was backing off the tugging (getting tired) and then by 3:00 he was pretty much done (tired!)

– if he grabs the toy and gives it a good tug, you can let him win and run around with the toy. It is easy enough to get retrieving later on down the road 🙂 so you might find that bringing in victory laps intensifies his tugging even more!

– you can do a lot of throwing of the toy to get initial engagement. A long toy would work well here – you throw it and then pick up the other end, to play with him.

>>I found a couple he seemed to really like including the lotus ball without food in it. >>

The lotus ball is a super fun toy! You can attach it to a longer toy so it too can be something your slide around o the floor for him to chase and tug on 🙂

>>I look forward to your suggestions on what to do to maintain the toy drive – I will start using the lotus ball to throw rewards but are their other games or approaches to take to get him to switch back and forth?>>

Distance is your friend when putting together food and toy drive: literal distance in terms of the food and toys being very far apart, and value ‘distance’ – super low value versus super high value.

For the literal distance: you can have the treats in one room or one side of the room if it is a big room (not in your pockets or hands yet) and play with the toy as far away as possible. Then after some too play, you can run to the treats located as far as possible, give him one… then run back to the toy play area.

Also, if you are shaping something with food – do no more than 3 or 4 treats, then move as far away as possible from the shaping area and start throwing a toy around. Trying to get toy play in close proximity to food or a pool of food odor will probably not happen yet, so running someplace else and throwing the toy can be very helpful!

For the value ‘distance’ – you can have one single super low value boring treat (just one!) and multiple really high value toys or balls – and get him chasing one, then give him the boring treat, then back to chasing the toy.

It requires a pretty significant investment of human energy to run back and forth, or to get the toys really moving, so be sure to do this when you are not feeling tired 🙂

Eventually it all comes together, but keeping them a little more separate and the toy games super active will help. And some training can be done entirely with toys, in a location that is *not* associated with food.

Let me know how it goes!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>I am still working on the mechanics of throwing the cookie under him. >>

I think you were trying to use the toss to create the behavior, but you can use it as the reward: start each rep with a cookie placed between your feet and slightly under the klimb, then when he backs up, toss the cookie reward. Then reset after each tossed cookie by placing a cookie between your feet/slightly under the Klimb. That should get even more backing up.

>>BTW, the training room has become so reinforcing, he no longer wants to leave it when we are done.>>

Ha! Lots of cookies and toys happening in that room LOL!!! But that brings up an important point: rather than doing multiple training sessions in the training room, it is super important to do sessions in a variety of different locations. This can be different rooms in the house, outside in the yard, taking a field trip somewhere… this will go a long way to helping him generalize and be able to do things everywhere!

So for this week – yes, you can do a session each day in the training room (especially any new games). But make it a goal to do at least one session in a different location. Using easier games in new locations will work best for now.

Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
Yes, a name call will help 🙂 He was doing well driving back to you and following the pivot! One tweak: you can pivot more slowly. As he is coming to you, decelerate and then turn slowly as he gets to you – quick turns made it harder for him to follow so the deceleration into your low hand will allow him to set up the turn at your side.

A good example of the slower movement from you was at :54, where you were decelerated and slower in your turn, so he was nice and tight! Compare to 1:18, where you whipped around really fast so he was not able to turn tight.

Take this game into different places, so he has longer distances and can add more speed followed by collection. Plus. It is good to take all of the games to different locations to help generalize the learning and to help get engagement and play in all sorts of different places.

Nice work!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!
Putting it on carpet with a pad helped… but I think the wobble board needs to be propped up more so he is super comfy getting all four feet on it confidently (he was still not entirely sure about putting him back end on it). Put so many towels under it on all sides, so it barely moves – and so he happily hops on it with all 4 feet 🙂

And to help with that, you can get him engaged with the toy by dragging it around fast and crazily on the ground, before putting it on the wobble board 🙂 Then on the wobble board, keep it moving a bit so he stays engaged. He is not that into ‘dead’ toys, so keeping the toy moving will help him get on and stay on the wobble board.
Nice work!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

Looking at the video:

>.First question is am I still talking too much? >>

Yes, a little LOL! A general rule of thumb is to be very quiet when he is offering, limiting your verbals to just reward markers (like ‘get it’) and no extra chatter or praise (because that draws his focus up to your face). And then during tug breaks, lots of chatter and talk and praise 🙂 You can do more tug breaks on all of these food sessions – see below on that because you might be (understandably) avoiding it a bit.

Two other general things for shaping:
– try to stand still more while he is offering. Yo can use your position to help but moving around can draw his focus to you more than needed.

– try to deliver the food with his head lower, generally with his chin parallel to the ground or pointed slightly down – that will help him keep his balance. The rewards were a little high on these sessions, so he was reaching up and ending up in a sit a lot to maintain balance.

He is great about getting on random things with the goat games! You can use a ‘get it’ marker to reset him when you want him to get off the stuff 🙂

Yes, you can brace the wobble board like you mentioned so he is not surprised by it 🙂 You can also brace the donut with your feet/legs on either side so he can find his balance on it (it is a hard one!)

You can move the 2 discs closer together (or add more discs if you have more) so that he can add the next step of getting all 4 feet on various objects, at the same time 🙂

Backing up – he is definitely getting the idea of this! Yay!

>>for the life of me I couldn’t figure out how to throw a treat between his legs when he was so close. >>

A couple of ideas for you:
You don’t need to use the clicker at this stage, because it stops the movement and causes him to lift his head up, making it hard to get more steps.

Also, to get the treats between his feet and keep his head lower so he back up more, you can remain a little bent over and keep your hands down low by your knees so you can just toss it as he starts to back up. I like to rest my elbows on my thighs to do that. And then after every 3 or 4 treats, you can break it off and tug so your back doesn’t get angry 🙂

Standing up each time was causing him to back up only enough to look up at you and the cookies 🙂

>>Also, not surprisingly, he often backs up at an angle.

Backing up to a destination will help! To start backing up to a destination like the mat you had here, you can tart him on the mat with all 4 feet (perfectly fine to lure him into position on it :)) Then lure his front feet off a bit then let him offering backing up. That can help straighten out his backing up as we gradually get him to step more and more forward off the mat, then immediately back on it.

Plank – he seems very confident here too! Super!!!

>>he thinks he is enormous and can’t possible fit on smaller things.>>

I think this was about reward placement being a little high, which can get him a bit off balance. So delivering with his chin pointing slightly downward will totally help him remain balanced. You can also get him on as many different planks as possible. And if you have one that can be elevated a bit more, go for it! That way you can add turning around, jumping on and off, etc.

>>I thought I was filming a session of tugging, but apparently I didn’t so I’ll just have to explain.>>

I hate when that happens! Darn cameras! Definitely try to get as many sessions on video so we can figure it out.

>>even when (and I almost think especially when) the toy is really long he keeps jumping in the air to grab the handle/my hand. Like, leaping. He got me good a couple of times today. >>

This can be a combination of mechanics (yours) and overarousal (his).

A couple of ideas for you to help out, because it is good to work through this now rather than avoid it.

>>When that happens, I feel like I shouldn’t give him a correction because I don’t want to discourage the tugging, but damn>>

I am not that concerned about discouraging tugging, but it is possible that a correction will create MORE overarousal which doesn’t help. I am perfectly fine with stopping play if he disengages from the toy to grab your clothes or hands. Not in a nasty way, just in a “game over” way. But, that is a last resort after doing the ideas below.

For mechanics:
Low hand holding the toy and that hand doesn’t move a lot. The hand can be moving back and forth a bit but resist temptation to lift your hand or lift the toy as those will both draw him upwards for now. If he is leaping, the toy is too high before a transition out of tug has been made. The other hand can be softly tapping him on the side because that encourages pulling back (no need for heavy smacking or anything)

For his arousal: lets look at arousal regulation and transitions out of tugging:

>>And at the end of play when I told him “all done” and took the toy, he jumped at my back, mouthed me and then started humping my fucking leg! Is this typical adolescent behavior?>>

It isn’t really typical adolescent behavior, but it is definitely overarousal and frustration behavior. Rather than an “all done” (which can actually be punishing as it indicates withdrawal of reinforcement opportunities, plus he doesn’t seem to understand what it means) – work on transition out of tugging and helping arousal regulation.

>>I did get a few good seconds of actual tugging, where I wasn’t moving the toy and he was pulling backwards strongly. In these cases I always let him win. >>

Rather than let him win (which may or may not help), try making transitioning out of the arousal and into a more centered state for the end of the session:

End each session with tugging then olfaction of some sort, because the olfaction will help his brain self-regulate the arousal.

For the olfaction, the options include a snuffle mat, or a pattern game (back and forth). You’ve done both with Robie, so before your next training session of any sort, be sure to introduce both to Yuzu so he recognizes both when you use them.

Here is an example with a snuffle mat:

And when you end the session with olfaction, stay with him (too many people throw treats around and walk away) so you are part of the arousal regulation picture.

Another thing to add are the reinforcement strategies and markers found in the week 2 package. Here are the strategies:

Reinforcement Strategies 1: Getting Started

These can all be enormously clarifying for the pups, which helps with overarousal.

It is great that he is asking these questions NOW so we can get them all sorted out before we get into more active training!

So before anything else, let’s get the arousal regulation stuff going and then the rest will be easy! And definitely get it all on video 🙂

Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Bumping up – I will be offline on Monday driving home from the US Open. I will be back in the Forum either on Monday night or Tuesday morning.

Thanks!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

She is looking good in the set point! The hardest part is the moving target and the stay 🙂 You can try dragging a toy or a lotus ball attached to a leash – anything that she can use as a focal point will work. She was holding the stay pretty well and had trouble when you were bending over to pick up the MM’s leash 🙂 It looks like she was predicting the release as soon as you stood up, so a toy or something might be easier because you won’t have to bend down.

>>I did not give her a reset cookie for the breaks on her waits. I’m hoping that is the right way to handle it when it does happen. I’ll be adding in more “catches” to help her with this too.>>

Yes, that was good (just tell her she is cute and reset when she breaks, no cookies). But if she fails too much (more than twice), then you will want to make it easier so she can still have a high rate of success.

>>Adding a question: For the Accordion, If she is doing 30 inches for the set point, for the last jump in the accordion, I would add 15 inches (45 inches total) for rep #2 and add 30 inches (60 inches total) for rep #3. Is that right?>>

Yes, theoretically. But because she is so small, we also have the option of showing her striding distances as well – so you can put jump 3 at 6 feet away (probably at least a one-stride distance for her, maybe 2 strides) then move it out to 9 feet, etc. That way we can build up to competition distances.

>>I think my body language & connection is better here?

Totally yes! She was very successful! You can gradually start spreading out the jumps so she can see more distance.

>>start out throwing the toy in front of the first jump at first. That helped her.>>

You can now start to toss the toy on a slight curve towards you, so it ands somewhere on the line she will be turning on so we can get that tight turn going too.

>>Again, the “wait” was very hard for her.

She is probably predicting that when you are arriving in position, the release will be happening so she is probably anticipating and releasing when you are settled into position. So keep going with your ‘catch’ rewards. And also, take your time before the release or catch – get to position, make eye contact, praise her, move your hand… and reward for not moving or release to the jump. You can totally practice this away from the jumps so she gets used to holding position even after you are in our position at the wing

Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

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