Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Hello and welcome!!! I’m glad the surgery is behind him now, so you can totally start the fun games! Enjoy!!!
TracyGood morning!
>Today we went to a CWA meet not far from here, for visiting and puppy socializing. She even got a tiny chase on the lure. Lots visiting, some tugging, some treating. So a mainly work free day. I’d forgotten I do have another longish, fluffy tug in the Expedition, so that’s also on the agenda. I want to get these going well before the next game.
Sounds like a great day!!! I am sure it burned a lot of mental energy for her, so don’t be surprised if she is a bit tired or a bit less perfect in any training today. If she seems mentally tired, just do easy stuff 🙂 It is amazing how much mental energy these pups spend on those field trips 🙂
>So, I will try both with a tiny toy first. I think that will work. Paul holding would work too because he can yell, “You are turning the wrong way!” >>
Let me know how the small toy goes! And you can ask Paul to yell “AWAY!” to remind you to turn away from her for the blind, rather than towards her for a front cross 🙂
Have fun!
TracyGood morning! He did well here! He ended up being a bit more stationary than we need him to be, so a couple of ideas for you:
Have the cookies in your hand – keeping them in a pocket creates a delay where he stops moving and looks at you. Plus part of the challenge of the game is that he has to ignore cookies in your hand to go hit the target.
You were actually rewarding the down a lot on this session, accidentally – with the placement of reward being stationary, he settled in to hang out near the target… so you brought cookies out to get him out of the down. But based on the frequency of the down behavior increasing, he thought the cookies were for doing the down 🙂 So, to keep him moving and offering on the target, no more stationary cookies when he is in a stationary position 🙂
You can switch the placement of reinforcement so he doesn’t hang out by the target – Rather than feed him at the target, you can market the target hit then toss the cookie to the side.So he will be going back and forth, chasing cookies in between hitting the target. He is still pretty small so you will likely need to bend a little lower so the target is just below his chin level so it is easier to hit.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>The metal tin wasn’t a great choice.
I thought your mechanics of holding it away were good and you were looking at it, so either he didn’t want to touch metal, or it was too small, or he didn’t quite realize that touching it was what brings the food out. My guess is that it can be a bigger target and also he was looking at the cookies so hadn’t realized how to get you to deliver them LOL!!
So you can use a bigger target, but also for the first couple of reps, tweak the placement of reinforcement: as he goes towards the target, the cookie hand can deliver the cookie right onto the target. I am guessing that after 2 or 3 reps he will have an a-ha moment and lock onto the target, then you can go back to tossing the cookies to the side to reset each rep.
Decel to handler – I honk the hardest part for him here was finding the cooke on the first rep! But then he came driving back to you on each of the other reps. Because he is so small, you will need to bend at the waist a little to get the cooke hand down to his nose level – ideally, his chin is parallel to the ground or pointing slightly down to the ground. It will be easier when he is taller 🙂 He was definitely happy to drive to the cookie hand so get the hand in position as soon as he starts heading back to you – and you can add in the pivots now too!
The bowl game is going well! He had to go past the cookies in your hands to get to the bowl and he was great! He was definitely thinking it through so I bet he will have even more speed in the next session. For the next session, start just as you did here, and do a quick refresher. If he remembers it and gets right into the pattern, you can side the upright into the picture right in front of you.
>>with guest cameo by Thor who always shows up for cookies.>>
Ha! I was expecting a Cocker! LOL!! Thor was very polite 🙂
Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! Great job with Maui here!
Prop game:
He did really well here! The cookies are a really powerful motivator for him, so he was wanting to look at you a bit (totally normal!) So two ideas as you move to the next steps with the prop:You can click the first step towards it (before a foot hits it), then toss the treat to the side to empathize moving towards it without looking at you 🙂
You can start to change your position – staying pretty close, try this from a chair as a middle ground between sitting on the floor and standing. And if he is happy hitting his prop with you in a chair, you can move to standing up – which then allows you to start the sending game.
The forward focus/driving ahead game is going really well too! You did a great job splitting it into small pieces so he was super successful. When you are starting each rep, you can throw the toy a little sooner: he doesn’t have to look up at in the air before the throw, he just needs to look at it when it is landing then on the ground.
He is driving forward to it really well! You can keep adding more distance gradually and then your motion by walking towards it then building up to jogging (this will take a few sessions, probably).He was happy with his foodie toy here – are there toys without food that he likes too? Any fur toys or balls? You can mix those in too.
Nice work here!
TracyHi!
>>>>He got super amped with the toy in prop game, so I only got one or two good reps in before he started biting me (ouch!) or not giving the toy back/snatching at it>>
And that is why we start using the toy on the prop game – to hash out the arousal regulation part of training before things start to get too fancy 🙂
The bowls are going well with the upright – no need to use a yes marker for the cookie drops into the bowl (more on markers coming later in the class). When we add the toys, you can add a toy-specific marker and when we fade the bowls, we will add a cookie-specific marker (using “yes” for all the things is confusing, stay tuned for more on that LOL!!)
When you went to the toys – I am not sure he understood the back and forth with the toys well enough, so he had some errors. Because he is young, you can let him have the toy on the first error then move the upright back in closer to you (and make. The toys more visible on the outside of the upright) so there are no more errors for a bunch of reps. Be sure to get the groove of the back and forth going, before adding the upright in – you can start each session with a quick refresher before the upright goes in, so you know what he remembers that day 🙂
On the prop game:
I like how his book is an atlas of the world – he will be a very well-educated puppy LOL!! HE did well sending to the book in both directions here. Super! Make sure that when you engage him with the ready moment that you keep him with you and get some eye contact before sending him – he was starting without you and if you can engage him first so he doesn’t go til you cue it, you will see very snappy behavior and running, and less rounding of the line and walking.
Was the jumping up and biting what he was doing in the first 20 seconds, before you switched to food? It was hard to see because the camera only shows your legs 🙂
I think the jumping up and grabbing was more of a mechanics thing and easy to help him with. Try this progression the you use the toy as a reward:
– tug tug tug nice and low
– put a cookie on his nose
– When he lets go of the toy, toss the cookie to the side for him to get
– As he is getting the cookie, get the toy ready for the next rep.Use low value food so he can get right back into the tugging. And be sure to get the toy back before you lift it – when you were lifting it up, he didn’t understand that it was not still in play so he was jumping for it. Developing a routine of tugging then how to get the toy back and reset will help you be able to use toys a lot more in any of the crazy games 🙂
>>I put a little bit of video of tugging once we finished the exercises just so you could look at my mechanics.
The mechanics of keeping the toy nice and low were good here! Let him do more of the pulling so you don’t have to move it as much (that will get him having a stronger mouth). Some dogs like gentle tapping on the sides or stroking on their sides to get even more tugging going! And when you let go, pull forward gently a tiny bit, so he is balanced when you let go, If he is puling back hard and you suddenly let go, he falls backwards and that might discourage the hard pulling back.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
He did well here! Part of this game is ignoring the handful of cookies you have which seemed harder going towards your right hand than it was going towards your left hand. But he was really terrific in both directions, offering going back and forth between the bowls. And you did a great job quietly putting the next cookie in 🙂
So he looks ready for the next step, where we put an upright between the bowls. Start with a little warm up, where he is only going back and forth between bowls for a couple of cookies to make sure he remembers it that day.. and if he is looking strong, you can add the upright directly in front of you.
Have fun and keep me posted! Great job!
TracyHi!
Because of the bitey factor, try two long toys so there is plenty of room between her teeth and your flesh 🙂 I worry that the inflations without the fleece will cause your hands to be too close to her teeth. The little black puppy in the video was ALL TEETH at the time, so the big fluffy toys were very helpful 🙂T
Hi!
The racing is fun here! I can’t wait to get my baby whippet into it!
>>I often get the wrong hand, or turn the wrong way.
You can prioritize the training: make sure you are turning the correct way (away from her, not towards her) as the top priority. Then when you are comfy with that, we can add in the toy placement. No need to try to do both at the same time as you are learning this!
>>Now, since my space inside is limited, but a small treat will take time to find, might a tiny toy work? Since she has a good ball to tug, and it’s mainly me getting the footwork down. Though something like a Charlee bear would be okay, as it’s easy to find in grass.>>
Do you mean as the start cookie that you send her to? If she will pick up a small toy and chase you with it – sure! That will be great! Or a Charlie bear is great too, but that might take a moment to crunch and swallow. I use small pieces of soft cheese. The other option is to have Paul hold her so you can do it as a restrained recall. He holds her, you start to move away – when you call her, he lets go and you start the blind as soon as she starts to move towards you.
Tracy
Hi!
The driving ahead on the first video looked great! She was fast and happy and pouncy 🙂 You can keep adding more and more of your motion here, building up to the toy races where you try to win 🙂 And you can start to incorporate different types of toys, to help build up value for a lot of different toys. The game brings a lot of value and that can transfer to other toys!
Looking at the 2nd video:
>>And partway through this is where the wheels fell off the bus a bit and she went on walkabout.>>
I think that she needed a longer break and less to do in this session – the sniffing around while she comes into the new environment plus the work in the previous session burns a whole lot of glucose in the brain and that does not recover quickly. That becomes even more true as they begin to enter adolescence – eek! LOL! So that is why she had a harder time here, based on the full itinerary of her evening:
>>I let her take her time sniffing things as we walked into the arena room. (If there are people/dogs there I typically carry her in, but we had it to ourselves). Then we did a short send to/release from her mat with a toy followed by this session. >>
Then the driving ahead session, then this:
>>We did a short play break after the Drive to Toy and then swapped out for a smaller and easier to throw toy. >>
Then the long distance chase the momma, which requires a lot of physical and mental energy (for dogs and humans LOL!)
So I would say she was depleted and didn’t have the bandwidth to be fully successful. She did have a couple of good reps in there but you don’t want to add pressure when she is depleted So change up your strategy and maybe do one game when you get to the building…. Then SUPER long break and maybe one more game right before you leave. And if she struggles pivot to a smaller, easier game that requires less bandwidth.
You can also use a much longer toy, so you don’t have to bend over her as much! The driving ahead game is easier for her (as you can see on the 3rd video here) and she was able to do the blind cross game, but definitely be careful to not ask for too much in new environments (physical or mental) so that she has full bandwidth 🙂 and there is no pressure.
O the goat tricks video –
>>I was surprised that she was hesitant with the shallow plastic lid since she’s never shown any sign of being hesitant about clambering into or over surfaces before.>>
I am not sure it was that it was specific to the plastic lid, it might have been more that she was not really engaged yet at the beginning of the session when you put it down. She was kind of looking around and not quite ready. Maybe looking at cookies or smelling them? Poor starving girlie LOL! She was fine with it after a couple of reps and then perfectly happy to pay with with the bigger one.
So, you can test the theory that it was more of an arousal/engagement thing and not a concern about the lid on the next session: get her really stimulated and engaged til she is looking at you – then put down the shallow lid and see what she does.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>Tomorrow there is fastcat right outside my RV so we may not be training puppy games.>>
Ha! Yes, fastcat might be too much of a distraction for now 🙂 And I am glad she is having a good puppy day at the trial!
Great job with the blinds! The happiest part of it is that she can go from food to toys easily – many puppies find that really challenging!
She had a little distraction on the 2nd rep (something driving by) so that messed up the timing a little bit. The rest looked good! The best reward placement was on the 1st and last reps, where you rewarded across the body to really open up the connection to her. Super!!!
I think after the cookie toss, she doesn’t know that we want her to snap back to chase you immediately – so feel free to add a name call 🙂 As soon as she grabs the cookie, call her as you run away and I bet she comes chasing you immediately 🙂
When you have more room to run, you can totally expand this! And since it is hard to throw cookies in a bigger field, you can have someone hold her as you take off running and they can let go when you call her name.
The handler focus game looked great – yes, the handling element looked great but even better was the opportunity to work with total engagement, in a big open field. I am so proud of her!2
It sounds like you were adding the name call here (after she got to the cookie) so definitely keep calling her – she is coming immediately when yo call, so you can call her sooner.
And she might be small, but she is fast fast fast! So start your decel no later than when she is halfway to you, and you will see even better collection as she is driving to you. Great job keeping your cookie hand nice and low, so she could drive in tight and fast.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
I agree, she was a happy hard working lady on these! yay!Great job breaking down the tunnel threadle! Remember to use reward markers – if you say “yes” or stuff like that, she might juts come back to you like on the first rep.
When adding the jump, setting her up on a better angle and using toy really helped her know what you wanted. Be sure that you also add balance reps of going straight to the tunnel, so she is listening to the cues and not just going. To where she was on. The previous reps 🙂
Starting straight on was really hard on one jump, because there really need to be a turn cue on the jump before the tunnel. Without the turn cue , it is harder to process the tunnel threadle cue alone. So as she is landing from the middle pinwheel jump, you can be cuing the next jump with a left cue and then right before she takes off (she would be turning left at this point) you can switch to the threadle cue.
Brad: “So should you quit on that one?”
Yes – high level success is always a good place to quit 🙂She was making a really great effort to find her jumps here! The only time she went around a jump (2:42) was probably because on the previous rep (2:37) you threw the toy really long and past the line for the next jump… and that is exactly where she is going at 2:42 (last placement of reward). So have all of the thrown rewards curling back to you, to help her keep curling towards you on these lines.
Find my face went really well – she is trying to get towards you which is what we want. You will need to find a place with no obstacles nearby to do this, because the table and tunnel were theoretically on her line so we don’t want her to avoid them if you are moving towards them. So keep this game on the flat for a while, then we will slow it down and put it back on the jumps, so she can learn to find the jump lines even when you are disconnected 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what think!
TracyYes, this is the first one! Yay! And yes – a turn cue before the jump will set up the tunnel threadle really nicely. She ready this well, so try adding the turn cue for the jump as she lands form the previous jump, so you can start the threadle before she takes off for the jump before the tunnel.
Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>We play the pattern games as well as the remote reinforcement every day. >>
Video please 🙂 These are critical games so we need to make sure they are solid and start including them on field trips to new environments!
>>Another note, she loves Find My Face, Up Down & Side To Side games because she gets rewarded quick. >
Great! Take the Up And Down and Side To Side games to some different environments, so she can get happy playing them everywhere. No need to take Find My Face to new places, that game serves a different purpose.
>>But I sometimes lose her during remote reinforcement even though the reward is still very close. >>
Video pleeeease 🙂 This is the key game for her, and if she is failing then we need to figure out what is happening.
>>She likes to do things but running to the reward doesn’t seem to keep her attention after she gets it.
Right – the reward is not designed to keep her attention – that falls more into the engagement and tricks and volume dial game as you move away from the rewards.
> I’ll take some videos next time so you can see it.>
Yay! I am looking forward to that!
T
