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Good morning!
He was very excited to interact with the tote bag when you put it down! Perfect! That was a good choice and he got lots of good hits! And nice tugging at the beginning!
>>As an FYI, Teagan’s default position is a down. As I have big dogs, I like a strong down.>>
With that in mind, be super careful about any stationary reinforcement where he is sitting or downing in front of you… That all get more sits and downs which is exactly what was happening here 🙂 So even for targeting gets, emphasize the placement of reinforcement off to the side.
And you can split the criteria even more as you shape this to NOT get the sits or downs. Reward him for going towards the prop (don’t always wait til he hits it) and place that reward by tossing it off to the side so he is moving the whole time. If you wait too long and he sits or downs, just pitch a cookie to the side as a reset, and reward sooner on the next rep.
And to also help keep him moving… after revery 3 or 4 treats, pick up the prop and take tug break.
Nice work here!
TracyGood morning!
>>So…outside, with the little ball, no go. No real exercise yesterday meant total yeehaw, running a million MPH. No focus, just running. Been there, for 10 generations worth >>
Yes, sometimes they just need to run run run especially after a day when they didn’t get to run 🙂

>> Back inside we regrouped. Better. *I* finally got it, with much coaching.>>And yes – you nailed it! You asked at the end if it was better and the answer was hopefully “yes!” Looked good to me!
If the weather is still clear, maybe Paul can hold her outside while you run and do the blinds – start close so you don’t build up too much speed, then gradually increase the distance. You will want to start the blind as soon as Paul lets go of her (other breeds can start it before the dog reaches the halfway point, but with whippets we start it a lot sooner because, well… whippets! The ground speed requires timing to be sooner 🙂 )Prop sending:
You mentioned it being pretty snappy and I agree – when you did the little moment of ready, she was very ready and fast very quick to do it. YAYAnd doing it while moving away from the cookies behind you… that was hard and she did it really well!
She wants to turn to her right a lot when you were on the left turn side. When she starts on your right side, we want the left turn – it might have been that there was limited space on that side, so she was turning away based on that. It is also possible that she is a righty 🙂 So be sure to give her more room on the left turn sides, so you can send and move away from the prop to help her turn to her left more consistently. She would be starting on your right for those, so you can send to the prop then take a step or two to your left to help exaggerate that line.
Next with this game… use a toy 🙂 You can send, reward with a toy in your hand, trade for a cookie, and so on. And you can also go into the advanced level, where you are sending sideways and backwards 🙂
Great job here!
TracyHi! Looking at the two bowls:
>>now that she gets the concept, not to reward when she went behind. She clearly understood what I wanted.>>
Keep count of failures and also which direction they happen in – for puppies, we don’t want more than 2 failures total in a session, especially if they happen with the same skill. On this session, I think there were 3 failures and they were all going from your left side to your right side. So when she is going from your left to your right , keep the upright in a little closer for now. And when she is going from your right to your left, you can keep adding distance but moving it away a tiny bit.
>>Two inflations a bit better, but ultimately food works at this point. On to the next games.>>
Yes, food is easier at this stage and we will add the toy back in when we get to the next step. The food helps her, but when we want to add more speed we will go to the toy 🙂
You can break up these cookie sessions with plain old regular tug breaks after very 4 or 5 cookies. She slowed down with the repetitive nature of all the cookies at the end and wandered away, so tug breaks throughout the session will keep her more engaged.
And definitely keep working on trading between the 2 toys, separately – it is a good skill to have. You can do it as toy 1 – cookie – toy 2- cookie and so on.
Great job on these!
TracyGood morning! The toy mechanics are going well! I looked at these mainly to see where he was getting your shirt or hands, and I think both are accidental.
Video 1 –
The back and forth between the toy went well here! He did more of the tugging and. The toy stayed nice and low so he could weight shift back
The shirt grab was accidental each time – when you went back behind you, he lost his grip a bit so when he re-gripped, the shirt was part of it. So you can give him more length to the toy, so he is pulling back on it and is further from you (less likely to grab a shirt by accident).Wrapping the upright with the 2 millers went well too – but these toys are too small, I think, to keep his teeth off your hand right now (especially when your raise your hand off the ground). He is being asked to drive in hard to something small (your hand is actually bigger ) so puppies will often get our flesh with small toys. It is unintentional and he might not realize he is doing it. So what to do? Bigger toys, more like the first video. Big, fluffy toys that are bigger than your hands 🙂 The milkers will be fine for when you are placing a reward or throwing it, but I don’t recommend using them in your hand because you’ll get his teeth on your hand by accident.
>>The super furry toys are VERY high value.>>
You can attach the milkers to a long fleece toy, so you have the medium value of the milkers but the long toy to protect your hands. Eventually the dogs do get better about grabbing just the toy, but I still prefer to present big long toys when the dog is driving to it, so there are no painful errors.
Decel and turn – He is driving in nicely to your cookie hand. When you were straight on the first couple of steps, his butt was swinging out 🙂 so I am glad you went to the pivots: no more butt swinging out! He was nice and tight!! And I think he liked the action!
Two ideas for you:
– use a bit of tugging between each cookie reps, to keep this exciting and to keep building the skill of back-and-forth between food and toys
– add in more moving forward as he is getting the cookie, so he can see you go fro running fast to making a big decel. You can also do this as a restrained recall, where someone else holds him while you run away and then release when you call him. Decelerate when he is halfway to you, so he has time to make the collection at a higher speed.Bind cross foundations -he is reading these nicely and you mechanics are very strong! Like with the decel, start the BC when he is halfway too you so he can change sides sooner (your timing was more like when he was 2 strides away so he was adjusting at the last moment). And… use a toy as the reward. He was happy to eat the cookie but was tending to trot or canter to you. Let’s get him running by using a toy as a reward for the blind (yes, still toss the cookie to get him started but then reward with the toy using the same great mechanics you had here).
Great job!! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
These games are looking really good and he is ADORABLE!!
Drive to handler/Decel is looking strong. Nice job with your reward hand position! You can stop moving sooner – show the decel when he is halfway to you so he can shift his weight into his hind end sooner for the turn. You can take this to a bigger space too, to get even more motion (and if there are any treats that he doesn’t chew, feel free to use those because that way he can run to you sooner LOL)Driving ahead – really nice tugging! Yay!! You can use a bigger/longer toy so he can tug it and you don’t need to bend as much. Great job turning and going the other way as soon as he had it because that totally helps build his retrieve up!
He is ready to do this in bigger locations so you can both run more 🙂 If you have a long hallway or a grassy yard, definitely move this to where you can gradually throw the toy further and further, and let him leave you in the dust 🙂Prop hits are going well! Try to add engagement in between each rep: after he eats the cookie, make eye contact, dance around a bit, say your ready ready word… and when he engages with you for a couple of seconds – do a big send. That can get an even more explosive drive to the prop, plus it gets hims switching focus from handler focus to line focus (and gives him time to chew LOL!!)
The bowl game is going great! At this stage, you can put the upright in front of you, nice and close, so he begins wrapping it. I believe the progression will be like this for him (over the course of a couple of sessions):
– put the upright in front of you so he goes around it
– move it away a tiny bit but he kept going around it
– pull the upright back in front of you and change your position to sitting in a low chair or on something
– move it away again, a little bit
– repeat the process with you standing!You will know when to go to the next step based on how easily he can establish his groove on each step. If he has some failures, no need to go to the next step. You can stay on the previous step for another session. If he has no questions? You will be able to move through the steps pretty quickly! He will let you know 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
I don’t think you needed to quit sooner, I just think his favorite toy was the toy in your right hand. The fur toy was the winner! To get him to switch, you can hide the squirrel toy a bit, then make the other toy really wild!
It is fine and normal that the fur toy is higher value 🙂 so you can start with the less exciting toy and reward him for tugging on it by trading for the better toy.
Then try trading for a cookie, then go back to the non-fur toy so it is kind of a loop: non-fur toy then fur toy then cookie then non-fur toy then fur toy then cookie. That order can pump up the value of the non-fur toy.
Great job here!
TracyHi!
>>She definitely struggles with playing on my left side, regardless of which toy I use (I’ve tried switching) Part of it may be that my mechanics of tugging are better with my right hand. >>
Could be that you are more comfy on one side, or that she has a side preference, or a little of both. No worries, it all evens out.
And yes, she is so cute 😍 💕
Looking at the videos:
Wing wrap with toys is going well!!
She is ready for the next step, which incorporates a subtle cue and reward for the “out” of the toy:
Tug with one of the toys for a couple of seconds, then let it go dead. Don’t make the other toy come alive until after she let’s go of the toy she had in her mouth. That might start with just a tiny bit of relaxing her jaw, then building up to letting go of it, then building up to letting go AND offering going around the upright. That can take a couple of sessions but it will help her with the wrapping even with high arousal levels 🙂With food – this went great too! You can keep moving the upright further away, it was easy for her here.
You can also pull it in closer to you and try it with you standing up! Bringing it in closer makes it easier as another variable gets harder (you standing up).
Prop on the road: hooray for having no questions in a new place! Yay Nadja!!!
These are looking great. The sideways sends and backwards sends are particularly awesome!!!
On the forward sends, you tend to curl along the line with her, like a post turn, so that turns your shoulders and feet away from the prop a bit.She misses the prop sometimes when you do that, following your body cues which pull her past it. So for the forward sends, point and step forward directly at the prop and hold that position til she is just about at the prop. That will mirror what you do on the sideways and backwards sends when she is nailing it!
Driving ahead on the road –
She is really beginning to smoke you now 🙂 she is driving forward, focused on her line, with a niclow head. The only thing to remember is to look at her (connection!) rather than ahead of her at the toy.Since she is very keen for this game, time to start really running. Throw the toy as far as you can and as soon as it lands: if she is looking at it, let her go and run!! You can also add a verbal go cue if she has no problem driving ahead.
Drive to handler – using the Cato board worked well! She held her position better when you stayed connected as you moved away, so remember to keep an eye on her as you lead out.
Nice low hand really helped her drive to position and pivot with you. Super!!!
Being able to go from running into the decel was really good here – you can see how she was able to collect and use her rear to set up the turn. SUPER!!
And doing it with the toy was easy for her too.
To add even more speed, you can do this as a restrained recall: someone holds her as you sprint away. When you call her, they let go. You start the decel when she is halfway to you, then pivot.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hello and welcome!! She is adorable and also very smart!!
Pre-game 1 looks great! She was super about hitting her target. You can definitely move to the Week 1 Sends game! When she was moving faster, she was slipping a little when smacking the target, so you can add something like a yoga mat on the top and bottom to add traction. A cheap yoga mat cut to the same size and some duct tape should do the trick 🙂
Great job!!!
Tracy
Pregame 2 with the nose target looked great too – looks like she got excited and used a tooth hug. No worries! You can break up the cookie moments with a tug break as a good way to help regulate arousal.
For the hard target, the next step is to hold your arm out fully extended away from you, so she goes as far from you as she can to hit it. Because she is so small, you can bend down a little so her head stays straight. That will get easier as she gets taller. 🙂Great job!
TracyShe was brilliant figuring out the 2 bowls with cookies! We could see her brain working the puzzle and she was great about offering to go back to the other bowl. Wow! Be sure to keep your hands as still as possible during those moments if figuring it out, so that she doesn’t think that watching your hands is part of it.
For the next session, start the same way you did here – and if she gets back into the groove, you can add an upright in between the 2 bowls (and super close to you for now).
She was adorable with the 2 toys! She went back and forth really nicely – the toy in your left hand was definitely her preferred toy, so it was so cute to see her offer going back to it LOL! You were great in that moment, especially at the end, to keep engaging her with the other toy.
Since she liked the 2 toy version of the game so much, you can totally put the upright in, nice and close to you 🙂Great job on all of these! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
Driving ahead looks pretty perfect!!! She is very driven for the toy here, and your mechanics of letting go while she was looking at it were perfectly timed. Super!!!You can add more distance here, so she drives ahead even more (you might have to take this outside so she has room to run). And when she is happy with that, you can add your motion too – after you let her go, you can start to job towards the toy too!
If she doesn’t automatically bring the toy back, you can tie it to another toy to make a big long too – that way you can grab one end of it so that you can engage her so she doesn’t take the toy on a victory lap 🙂
Great job on all of these!
TracyHi!
Omg the first session was the cutest thing ever! Bringing you things to tug with – love it!!
The 2nd prop was definitely easier, because it was clearly not for tugging so she immediately offered foot targeting. NICE!!!For the next session, try this with you in a chair or standing – mainly to get the cookies further from her nose-level. That way she can focus on the prop, with you tossing the cookie off to the side after she hits it.
That will help you work up to do this standing up, which then leads directly into sending her to the prop.
Great job!
TracyHi!
Excellent job with the 2 bowls here! She is beginning to get into the rhythm of the pattern. Yay! And she is very food motivated which makes it easier 🙂For the next step – we are going to fade the movement of your hands and get both hands involved too!
To pull that off, have 3 or 4 cookies in each hand and the bowl can be up on the counter behind you (and you can reload the cookies in your hands as needed)
That way, each hand can plop a cookie into the bowl, so Djinn can move back and forth between bowls by offering it rather than seeing your hand go back and forth. I think she is ready for that!!
Great job!
TracyThe tricks video is so cute!!!! Thanks for sharing it!!
>>And, in class we had trouble…people, new dog, etc…hard to get her to work straight off the bat.
Were you able to try the pattern game? That can help get her engaged when there are new distractions!
Tracy
