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This is an awesome update! he sounds like a really good pup 🙂
And yes, at his age, the amount of energy (brain and body) he uses in a short session will certainly set him up for a good nap 🙂 I don’t guarantee that will continue through adolescence LOL! But it sets up a good routine, happy crating, and good learning.
Great job with your structure – it sounds so perfect!!
Keep me posted on how he is doing!
Tracy
This is good to know at this stage! And we will use this game to help teach her self-regulation.
Do a minimized version of it, like a slight bend in your knees like a “game on” crouch, just the tiniest bit… and then use a ‘get it’ marker and toss a cookie off to the side (the movement to get the treat will be a nice way to help regulate arousal.If that goes well, you can gradually build up to adding more arousal and stimulation, a quiet ‘ready’ word, etc and continuing to deliver food for the absence of jumping up/grabbing.
We definitely want the arousal regulation to be one of the biggest pieces, so for now you can use a toy for the prop sending, which will include some arousal regulation but will also give her an outlet for her mouth 🙂
Tracy
Yay! Thank you for the update! It sounds like everything is going really well 🙂
The blinds are hard because we have to turn away from the pup (hard!) and reward across the body (really hard!) so yes, adding practice without her is smart 🙂 Keep me posted on how it goes!
Tracy
You can deliver cookies to him for staying in handler focus, that will help if he has trouble with it. 🙂
Hi!
The Decel is looking good! And there were some crazy-sounding distractions in the distance! The only hard part was getting enough of a head start. Yes, you can put the cookie in a dish to make it more visible on the grass. Or, you can do it as a restrained recall where someone holds him as run away – then you call him and the person lets go so he can start running to you.When he gets to you, try to have your cookie hand even lower so his chin is parallel to the ground or even pointed slightly down. I know, you will half to bend in half to do it LOL! But he will grow fast so you won’t have to bend as much for long 🙂
Great job!
TracyHe was great with his driving ahead outside, what a good pup!!! You can let him start running to it before you start running to it, so he gets used to being ahead of you. Then you can check out the new version of it added today – now, with that in mind, you will be able to win the toy races because he is so small, so you don’t want to win a lot – maybe just once – then let him win all the time to keep his confidence high like it was here.
Great job!
TracyHi!
>>No, she likes being held and is cool with doing flyball recalls, why I thought this would work. I’m just not fast enough, plus Paul’s timing was off on the release *and* he was trying to video. Lots of misfires. >>
Think of it as a flyball recall, with a side change 🙂 While he is holding her, you can give yourself a massive head start. Then when you are really far away, raise your hand and call her (the hand raise will cue Paul to let go) and then when she starts moving, you can start the blind. You might not be able to get it on video, but it will be good to get her to read the cues while she is more stimulated with the running and tug.
Tracy
Hi!
The stays looked really good here, which helped set up a ton of success with this game!
First video:
Very nice reps on the first video – lovely! She was lined up straight and you were very clear with your release, cue, and reward placement. Lovely!Good stay reward when you went to the other side of the wing – she had no trouble finding the jump there and had a gorgeous turn. YAY!!
2nd video –
>>If I didn’t line her up facing the jump we didn’t have success, video 2.>>
Yes – she was lined up sideways, from what I could see, so it made sense to her to stay on her line (because that is what the jump cue means). If that happens (where she does not take the jump), you can assume that the handling was not clear, give her a cookie for her effort (rather than walking away from the jumps) and then try again making it a shade easier either by setting her up straight to the jump, and/or moving her closer to it.
Third video: she was straighter here and could see the bar more clearly, so she found jump 1 really well and that allowed you to handle jump 2 3 different ways, and she read all of those really well too! Super!
>>When we moved back in my yard she was distracted by a noise, which turned out to be a bird playing in the roof gutter. I couldn’t get her attention back until we went to the corner and investigated together. Then got her back by tugging/playing. But after that you can see she kept looking in that direction while holding her sit>>
Yes, the weird little things in the environment can require a detour into looking at them before returning to work. More toy play can help and even the pattern game, but she seems to have worked through it and that is great!
>>We have a dickens of a time trying to get her to work with me at Amy’s. We end up just playing pattern games trying to get her focus on me. >>
Bearing in mind that she is an adolescent, you will want to take a less-is-more approach to getting her to play. The agility skills are not that important – the no pressure, big fun approach is more important. Can she chase a toy that you are dragging on a line? Can she run through a tunnel (maybe Amy can hold her) and chase a toy? Be careful to NOT put pressure on her to engage, because that adds stress and causes less engagement.
Think of it as a series of questions: can she chase this toy you are dragging around? Can she chase you and the dragging toy? Can she eat a treat then chase the toy?
I think more motion might help her a lot. And you can gradually add treats in, but they don’t appear to be a high value motivator there which is why I suggest moving toys or balls for now.
>>She likes being in her chair, but sometimes we put her in an expen to give me and her a break and she learns to self regulate. But she definitely doesn’t like the expen and settles better in her chair.>>
What does she do in the xpen? If she doesn’t like it and can’t settle… then you are potentially making it harder for her because the xpen might be stressful, which bleeds over into how she feels about the environment as a whole. Does she like a crate better?
>>The night before I had worked her before group class, then went to group class where we also had trouble focusing at first, but then got her away from the group and had better success. Then the next morning went to Amy’s and she was mentally exhausted. >>
Yes – her brain needed time to rest and replenish. That can take a couple of days, so be sure to spread out her training and also if she has gone someplace new, you will want to let her rest after that too because it is far harder than it appears for adolescents.
>>When it was our turn we did recalls, pattern games etc. Sometimes the pattern games don’t work. But recalls and finding me do.>>
Motion is definitely something she likes! If she is not engaging in the pattern game, move further from the distractions and she where she is willing to eat treats, then you can start the pattern game there.
>>It gets discouraging that we can do all this stuff at home but not elsewhere.>>
It is entirely normal. The training you do at different places needs to be a lot easier than what you do at home, because the environment is so much harder. So for the lateral lead outs you posted above, for example – she probably can’t do that yet in a class setting, so ask for stuff that is much easier. It is important that she is very successful in the harder environments, so she has a happy and relaxed conditioned response to being there.
It sounds like she did well with the trial environment! And double hooray for Posh!!!
That is a hard environment for Mochi, so keep the training short and successful. Try not to expose her to dogs barking and lunging at her – even if she does not seem affected by it, there is a physiological response and we don’t want her making any association that scary things might happen. She is indeed resilient, but we don’t want her to have to make withdrawals from that resilience bank account in her brain!
>>yet remains hyper-vigilant in our back yard. And has trouble in class or at Amy’s.>>
When there are fewer distractions in the environment, the distractions that are there will pop out more. That is why we want to carefully introduce her to those environments and start as far as needed from distractions, with no pressure.
I personally put my young dogs into classes and seminars that are at least 2 levels below what they can do at home, all so I can really make it a happy, successful, place while sorting out the environment. That is key 🙂
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Wow, big congrats on all of your successes at Nationals!!! JJ was brilliant, and so was the entire family! That is so impressive and so exciting 🙂 You must be floating on Cloud 9 🙂
That is a great team at your local facility – JJ is getting plenty of top notch education there, especially from Jen who is fantastic. She is going to be an amazing agility dog!!!
Thank you for the update, and keep me posted on how the games are going!
Tracy
Good morning!
Doing the proofing from a chair was definitely harder but he was great! He had an error on the first rep of the left turn video and then it looks like he got it right on all other reps (including the last one, but the video ended a little. early
He also did really well on the other side – perfect here too! Yay!
On both sides, try not to move the cookie hand on the wraps til after he makes a decision so that way he is not cuing off the subtle movement of your hand.
You can add your motion back to his one, and do the advanced level where you start with a tunnel and then as he exits the tunnel, you can either cue the wrap or another tunnel.
The tunnel game is looking good too! Your verbals were timely, so we can look at what was happening in the left versus right turn exits:
>>is he not turning left as well as he turns right?
The left turn was definitely a little harder for him, but it might have been more about the information and not as much about a side preference.
When you were cuing the feft tunnel exit – I think he was hearing the left verbal but seeing you step forward as he as entering, so the forward motion (which looked the same a go cue) overrode the verbal and he was straight on his exits on that side.
On the right turns, you didn’t move forward. Instead, you leaned to your right side which supported the right turn verbal – so his turns were really good on that side! Yay!
So for the left turns, try letting him see you moving laterally away from the tunnel and not forward, to help support the verbal.
The GO reps looked great!
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>. I will keep working on getting my body cues and verbals to match. It feels like I am doing it (or in my mind I am), but I can see that it isn’t happening in real life.>>
That statement is true for all of us in the sport LOL!!! Our handling is always a work in progress 🙂
She did really well on the video! On the first rep – it was unclear if she was in a stay or not so she came with you. You were much clearer info about the stay on the 2nd rep and after that so she was pretty perfect 🙂
And it was fine that she went to her leash nest to you on some of the releases. She was doing it as a way of offering engagement, it seems – it is a good response so don’t try to catch her or prevent her from it. Go with her to the leash (like you would at a trial) so you can engage with it and put it on.
What a good girl with her speed loop, both in terms of ignoring the leash AND finding all of her jumps. YAY!!!
I don’t see any questions from her about the end of the run, but it is still good to rehearse it sometimes. She was super here!
Great job 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
>>I have had dogs choke on the cookie if I call before they swallow.>>
Eek! We definitely don’t want her to choke!
The blind crosses are looking good! She is small but VERY speedy already, so you can start your blinds sooner. Try to start the blind no later than when she is halfway to you – that will start to feel like you start it after the first stride or two towards you, and that is fine 🙂 She was doing a great job of reading the side change so doing it sooner will help her read it sooner as well.
Looking at the Goat game
>>Apparently I have trained this game since there was little shaping involved!>>
Ha! Yes! You have clearly done shaping games with her because she was like “got it, feet on the thing, gimme cookie.” And she was great about tugging on the different toys. Super!!
And being able to do it all in the higher arousal state that tugging brings is fantastic – all of the science we are learning about the dogs’ brains tells us that this will help then when they are in the higher arousal at a trial!
So keep adding in the different things for the goat games, like the bin you mentioned and the brick (you shouldn’t need to say brick, so it shouldn’t hurt the break release word :))
The next step on this would be to use a different placement of reinforcement to get her driving back to the object, which will also help encourage her to put more feet on it (back feet would be great!). You can do that easily by using a reward marker such as ‘get it’ so she is simultaneously marked for the good behavior offered and told where the reward is. For some of the harder objects, you can reward her in position for standing on it, then use your get it to toss a treat away off to the side.
Great job 🙂
TracyGood morning!
Yes, he is wild for his freezer bag! Great job building the value for it, and also great job with the ‘ready’ dance so he doesn’t leave to go hit it until you cue it. You can start to fade your hands out of the ready dance, and keep the crouchy engaged body language and eye contact – that will be a good challenge to see if he can stick with you in handler focus til sent to the prop.
It looks like you were able to do sideways and backwards on both sides, turning wet in both directions. Good boy!!! You can try this with a toy too and in other locations (even if it is different rooms in the house :))
Stay tuned for more games coming today. Great job here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
Nice session here 🙂 The driving ahead warm up here looked really good! Nice job calling her early (she caught on really quickly that it was important to grab the treat and run to you LOL!!) and then showing the decel really early so she was super organized coming into your side for the pivot. Nice!
At 1:32 you stopped running and waited for her, so she smoked you on that rep, making the decel a little late 🙂 I like it when they kick in the speed and smoke us! I think you can keep yourself further ahead by tossing the cookie further away and also staying in motion the whole time while she is eating it, even if you are just walking.
Great job here and safe travels to Florida! Bring your wet shoes!
Tracy
