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Good morning!
Very cool to hear about the resilience walk! She is a perfect age for it, so being exposed to it especially at different times of day is great!
>I have more length in the upstairs hallway into the bedroom but it’s narrower and I have to sidestep a dresser so was worried I’d run into it while BC-ing. >>
OK then, don’t use that hallway, I’d be worried that you would break a toe or something! Eek!
>>I also have a longer living room but it is wood floors with an area rug so footing isn’t quite as good. >>
Since she is so little it might be fine, but if you think she will slip then you can have her tag along to Kaladin’s classes and do a bit of this in the training building.
>>If I am throwing the toy after the blind is it being thrown with the arm that is across my body to indicate the blind?>>
Yes, if it is not too awkward feeling 🙂 A smaller toy will be easier to hold and throw.
Looking at the video:
The decel game is like Sheltie heaven – eat a cookie, get a cookie LOL! She was perfect, of course. By the end she was really grabbing the cookie and driving to you before you even called her. So cute! Easiest thing ever!You can bend a little more to try to keep her chin parallel to the ground as you decel and add the pivot. And, you can use boring cookies (if such a thing exits) and after each decel/pivot, you can whip out a crazy tug toy. The goal of that is partially to keep the arousal higher than what food-alone would bring, and partially to keep working the toy-and-food alternating that we love to do as the training gets more advanced.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
He is so cute with his bouncy self and I love his name song you were doing at the beginning LOL!!
Great job getting him to go back and forth to the toys! He was definitely distracted by your shoes for a moment LOL! And he had trouble getting over your legs which was the cutest thing ever.
But his tugging is looking wonderful! It was a short fast fun session which is absolutely perfect for a baby dog. At the end, when he wins the toy and takes it for a lap, stay engaged with him while he does it, then call him back into you for more play as you go to turn off the camera. That will help him understand that yes, sometimes he can have the victory lap with the toy (it is a great decompression for a baby dog) and then he brings it to you and you play more. It will begin the retrieve and the engagement with toys.
Try to get big fluffy enticing toys and bring this game everywhere – it is perfect for 9 weeks old. And by ‘everywhere’, I mean it can be a different part of the training building or a different room in the house LOL!! The more you do these little controlled tugging games, the easier it is to have great tugging everywhere.
Because he is 9 weeks, you can do one more official session of this game with the 2 toys, then using the bowls or the toys, you can go to the advanced level and put an upright in front of you for him to go around. You might want to sit on a low stool or something for this, so you can bend your legs and the upright can be touching you (so he can’t really squeeze in between you and the upright).
Terrific work here!! He is just a fantastic little dude 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
Some tugging ideas for you!
Check out these 2 videos – they are oldies but goodies LOL!
>>So one thing I’ve noticed with tugging is that if I don’t move the toy much, she will either let go or just hold on stationary (often plopping into a sploot).>>
You can keep it moving a little, like a slow squirrel so she can chase and pounce, alternating with big fast moving moments so she chases it. And have it attached to something long, so you can drag it for her to chase and grab too!
To get the pup pulling back, try keeping the toy just below her chin level and you an add in very gentle touching of her sides and face. See how she likes that and we can go from there!
>>But you’re saying I can move it a little, but not as much as in the video, so I will definitely try that.>>
Correct! You can see it in my video above, with the Papillon puppy. Enough moving away for the puppy to be enticed and grab it, but not so fast or up/down or side/side that he loses his grip.
>>If she does let go or lose grip, what should I do?
Drag it away on the ground to let her grab it and chase it 🙂 Keep it enticing 🙂
>>I’m very low confidence in using toys, and worried I will mess things up, but I’m going to really try to improve my abilities!>>
There are some tug mechanics to consider (the 2nd video). 2 guidelines for toy play: never towards/always away. Side to side, not up and down. And long soft fluffy toys are really desirable!
Let me know how it goes!
Tracy
Hi!
>>Annalise did such a good job of not stopping >>
I agree!! Staying in motion and rewarding like everything was perfect was spot on! It was a connection error – as you were saying you left cue, you were looking forward and talking to the jumps LOL! So Prytania was behind you and it looked like a blind cross, so she came to the new side. Good girl! The more you looked at her, the better she did, especially on the last rep 🙂 Yay!
>>Both Susan and I (of course Annalise too) are periodically are having trouble with enthusiasm from her. Typically goes like this… 1st turn great lots of enthusiasm. We keep short. Max witb me is 3 minutes. She gets break in crate 5-10 minutes. 2nd turn completely disengaged >>
A couple of things about the enthusiasm…
She is really young, so it is entirely possible she is not ready for another handling session in 5 or 10 minutes. The brain burns a lot of glucose when working hard, and that is expensive! It is like a bank account that gets overdrawn 🙂 and she needs more time to recover. So after 10 minutes, she is unable to engage because the recovery has not been long enough.It is also possible that the motivators are no longer motivating on the 2nd run – they are same ol’, same ol’ 🙂 So you can use a good motivator on run 1, and a GREAT motivator on run 2.
And one other thing to consider, that I learned about from the whippet people – dogs can cramp up after their first run, so if they are going to run again soon, they need to be kept moving and hydrated. It is possible that being crated causes her to cramp up and that is painful!
Or… all of the above. She is only 14 months old, I think? So longer rest and shorter turns are definitely better. More pressure to work will backfire.
>>’m trying looooong breaks 3-4 hours with her to see if that helps!
Long breaks are likely to help a LOT!! She can recover better and be more ready for the next session.
If you need to do a bunch of things in one session and don’t have 3 -4 hours to give her a break, take a one-and-done approach. Do something once… then give her a break for 10 minutes. That will take a LOT of human self-control but it will help prevent her from getting depleted.
>>We want her to have the love for agility that she shows in Other areas. Right now with agility it’s just not there.>>
Well, she is only 14 months old and agility takes a lot of brain power and body power.
>>She got a dock session this weekend and there was no issues with greeting or enthusiasm. She’s like a kid on the water slide >>
I am quite sure that dock burns far less glucose in the brain than agility does LOL!! Sure, her body might eventually get tired but her brain won’t because she doesn’t really have to process anything for dock. Agility is all about processing and much much harder, therefore more depleting. So, a less is more approach will help, while she is growing up. She is still in the early adolescent stage, so we have plenty of time.

She really liked the go go go line! The toy placed at the end made it really easy and less mentally “expensive” for her, so there was a ton of speed :). The tunnel threadles and more complex handling are NOT like that, so keeping those sessions really short and easy will make a big difference 🙂Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyOuch! Poor Rip!!!! Turf can be really hard on fast dog feet. I use powerflex to wrap feet when running on turf – UKI allows it!
>>before USDAA changed their jump height cut-offs >>
Wait, they changed their cutoffs again? I totally missed that!
The sequences went well here! I think the most important thing is to still use clear motion cues, even when there is a tighter or simpler line. When you were not moving as much, the motion got a little reversed, meaning you were decelerated then suddenly accelerated so he had to switch from reading a collection cue to trying to extend.
Here are some more specifics on it:
On the first run, to set up the RC, you can drive closer to 3 for your decel rather than send, so you can drive the RC and get more speed from him and you further ahead after it. Everything was a bit decelerated so he was waiting for more info.
Run 2 – good blind! You had to sent and hustle, so he read that really well. Then, after the tunnel – you can get way ahead and stay connected, or you can drive in closer to the tunnel so you can accelerate without running out of room 🙂 You had a bit too much decel on the jump after the tunnel at :26 so he touched the bar.
Compare to the rep at :44 where you had no decel, and he didn’t touch the bar 🙂
Good boy having a nice chill between sequences! Yay! 🙂
Next sequence had that hard turn on 3! The closer you were to the 3 jump for the FC and BC, the better he read it 🙂 It is a pretty tight turn, almost wrap—like, so the further you were on the FC or BC (like at 1:08, 1:32 and 1:52), the wider the turned (and grumbled at you 🙂 ) . You got in closer to it at 1:23, and that was the tightest rep. So you can handle that type of turn almost like a wrap! Or, send way away to it and BC on the landing of 4 before the tunnel.
He had some bars down (jingle bells, jingle bells LOL!) but I think they were all about that reverse motion issue: slow then fast. You were in decel then suddenly accelerated so he was trying to adjust.
The bells are more of a marker for you than for him (he is mostly ignoring them, I think) so if you are going to stop him for a bar, I wouldn’t use the bells because you need to stay connected enough to see the instant that he touches the bar and instantly halt the sequence. When you stopped at 1:58, the stop came as he was finishing a really lovely collection on the next jump. At 2:06 the stop came after he exited the tunnel… so neither stop is directly correlated to the foot he hit the bar with. So if you are going to stop, it has to be super fast or it can get confusing. I personally only stop a dog for bars if I can do it instantly AND I am willing to bet he was not trying to save my butt from handling that was unclear 🙂 So, I almost never stop for bars LOL!!
Nice job here! When do you leave for the Open?
Tracy
Hi!
>>All of this is fascinating!
It is mind-blowing, pun intended 🙂 LOL!
>>We tugged to the line. When I took the leash off she stood there for awhile, but she did ultimately line up and sit. >>
Good girl! When you say a while, how long? 10 seconds? 30 seconds?
>>The instructor had her dog out literally right where we needed to sit which was extra pressure. >>
Booooo 🙁 That is a lot for a young dog! Is there a way to either ask the instructor to move the dog, or you start in a different spot? Sprite doesn’t need to think about lining up while being stared at by another dog right there. Her brain is gonna have a little struggle with that!
>>The second round didn’t really require a start line so I didn’t used a leash and just started her. >>
Yay!
>>Sprite did pop the weaves after nailing a hard entrance where I layered a tunnel. She does pop occasionally and I taught her with 2×2. She jumps over guides, but I might need to teach those to her. After an error she gets super slow in the weaves so she doesn’t seem to know what the issue is.>>
Is she getting the entry then falling out between poles 2 and 3? You can try putting an open set of 2x2s in front of the straight poles, to help her out. Or, if you have access to channels, you can use channels to help her stay in the poles in the really challenging weave skills.
>> My instructor wanted me to use a NRM, but I declined. If I send her back to weave she already knows there was an issue.>>
Yes, I am with you on that, no need for a marker because she already knows.
>>I also had her out a bit while two of the calmer 16 in dogs ran. She was in a down and I used food particularly if she glanced back my way after watching. I was seated.>>
Good girl! She is doing well! You can try having her dog a snuffle mat while some of the wilder dogs run!
>>P.s. my friend Danika and her adorable DSFD puppy Taq are in your max pup one class! I sent them your way.>>
Thank you!! Taq is adorable and doing a great job!!!!
Tracy
Hi!
I think this went really well – she is *definitely* aware of where the toys and treats are, but was able to do lots of tricks.
Try to ping pong the number of tricks you ask for – sometimes 4 or 5, sometimes only 1 or 2, sometimes 10, etc. You were doing well with the marker! And she was not really anticipating it, but she was sure running to the reinforcement fast when you said it LOL!!So now, you might hate me for this:
with the chips on the rock and closed so she can’t run over to grab them: move away on leash, ask for a trick, then take the leash off. If she sticks with you? CHIPS! And run to the reward. We gotta get you both happy taking the leash off. And then we can build in taking the leash off and doing a couple more tricks before the chips marker. Then it we will add in putting the leash back on, then the chips marker.if you take the leash off and she runs to the rewards? No worries, she can’t access them because they are closed up, you can just put the leash on and try again. If she fails twice, you can try dropping the leash instead of taking it off, and see how she does 🙂
Have fun!
TracyHi!
It is all good to put everything into one video. You two are looking great!
Is that the ocean behind you??? Can I come for a visit? LOOKS AMAZING!!!
And yes, because she is 7 months old, there might be games we can skip to the advanced level or add more to.
The driving forward looks really strong. Be sure to watch her as you throw the toy, and don’t hold for too long… if you held her too long, she glanced back at you. So you can let go just after the toy hits the ground so she doesn’t look up at you.
One thing to add to this: keep running forward like you did until she just about grabs the toy… and then you can do a front cross and run the other direction, encouraging her to bring you the toy. When you stopped or kept moving towards her, she moved away. So we can add in a bit of a retrieve element by having you run the other way as she is grabbing the toy.
The deceleration is looking really good! She is a bit better turning to her right (on your left side) – that might be a slight side preference, or you might have done more stuff on your left side. Either way – you can balance with a few more reps on your right (turning to her left) so she comes in as tight to you on your right as she does on your left.
The prop sends are going well! She was a little inconsistent with whether she turned towards you or away from you (ideally they turn towards us on this game). I think she was reading your position correctly through – sometimes she was seeing you cut behind her line like a rear cross (2:14 is a good example) so she turned away from you. SMARTIE!!! Love it!
So for now, think to you, Roux, and the prop as forming a right angle: Roux and the prop are on a straight line, and you are a little off to the side (rather than straight behind the prop) so Roux and see that the cue is to turn towards you.
She seemed perfectly happy to send forwards and you were also sending a bit sideways, which went well too! So now, get closer to the prop again, and send her backwards to it 🙂 As you send her backwards to it, let her see you shift your connection from her eyes back behind you to the prop (and your hand points at the prop too).
And since she seems to really love toys, you can totally play this game with toys too!
On this game, as you send, stay quiet for now – we will be definitely adding all sorts of verbals, but not for the sends to the props 🙂 Resist the temptation to say go, because go is a straight line cue 🙂
Cone wrapping – she has good value for the cone! As with the prop, don’t say go 🙂 Have you started thinking about which wrap cues you want to use, for super tight turns?
We have some games coming up soon that will get a lot of speed driving to and from the cone. For now, stick closer to it then take off running with the toy when she wraps. She was accurate with the bigger distance on the sends, but she was slowing down – so you can get herd really driving by using shorter distances for now and we will build it up over time.Blinds – nice job with the blind and connection! And super great reinforcement! I know it is harder and weird but it really opens up great connection. It was hard to tell if you were putting a treat down for her to get in the beginning – she isn’t eating anything LOL! So if you do put a treat down, be sure she eats it 🙂
The treat-to-toy is great for getting the pups to alternate within the session. If you were not putting a treat down, you can toss one so you have more distance to take off running for the blind which will be even more fun! Since she is 7 months old, you might have a stay you can use for this game too (ad feel free to reward it a lot too as you play).Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHello and welcome!
I LOVE the name Remy O Henry! And think of all the nickname possibilities! And of course, spotty dogs are perfect ❤️ He is so tiny and perfect!!!!
In true Dalmatian style, he went immediately to the food bowl when you put him down. Perfect! Good job rolling with that and getting the game started. He thought it was the best game ever LOL! He was moving back and forth brilliantly – really impressive for 9 weeks old (I mean, Dalmatians are brilliant and yes I am biased).
He did have a moment of losing his train of thought at 1:00… that is baby pup stuff, so you can count out 5 treats then take a tug break, then come back for another r5 treats… so you get the same length of session but it is broken jump a bit to keep him engaged. As he gets older, the session can get longer.
If he remembers this back and forth pattern at the next session, you can move to the next step of putting the food in quietly, then letting him offer moving to the next bowl before you put the next cookie in. You can add tugging before and after too!
Great job here!!!
Tracy
Hi!
It was interesting to see the subtle difference between the 2 sessions on the first video. Were both sessions using cheese as the start cookie?
I think what was happening was she might have been processing the blind (new weird looking move) but also, you were further ahead and therefore stopping a lot sooner on the morning session, and rotating towards her/bending over – so she was a little sticky. You were not as far ahead and stopping later in the afternoon session, so she was driving hard the whole time.
You can also throw the toy forward after a blind – walk into it so you don’t run out of room, then throw it ahead of her as she is catching up. And add the fast running when you get to the bigger space 🙂
The two toy game is looking good! She got better and better at realizing she could leave the first toy and go to the 2nd toy LOL! You can make the next toy more visible, a bit more in front of you, so it is easier to trade because it is more visible.She was not quire ready to offer going to the new side for a totally dead toy, so for another session or two you can keep the new toy alive for now 🙂
I think she is ready for you to add an upright (advanced level) with the food and toys on this game!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
The prop game is going well! Good job rewarding first on the target the moving to the ‘get it’ marker.
Sending went well too! You were nice and close, which is great because it set up a whole lot of success. Yay! She was looking at your hands a lot, so now add a little more distance and have the send hand be empty 🙂 Or, you can use a toy as the reward for the send!
Speaking of toys –
>I don’t really know what I’m doing regarding tugging, since I’ve never had a real good tugger, so open to your feedback).>>
Let her do more of the movement with the toy than you 🙂 You can move your arms less in the tugging, so she is pulling on the toy. You can do a slow side-to-side with a gentle pull, so she can lean back and pull too. Let her do most of the pulling, don’t try to pull it out of her mouth or move too quickly up and down or back and forth, because she will probably let go.
The decel game is looking great! When you are standing still, try to have your cooke hand in position one stride sooner, so she can lock onto it a few strides away and decelerate. This will be especially useful in your right side (where it seemed like lining up was as a little harder). You had the hand coming in sooner when you started the pivots, which really helped her! Yay!!!
The blinds are going really well!! You can add in throwing a treat t start the game, then rewarding with a toy 🙂 And take it outside so she has more room to run run run :) >>I understand the “reward across the body” thing, but it feels so funny to me.>>
I think it might have felt weird because your dog side arm was in the way LOL! The key is to have your dog-side arm way back (as far back as possible without over-rotating at the waist). So when you do the cross arm reward, you can point the dog-side arm alllll. The way back to her cute nose 🙂
When you rewarded with the dog-side arm, the first couple of reps did have that arm all the way back (the last rep had it a little more forward) so you don’t need to use the reward across the body as long as you really emphasize the dog-side arm being back and pointing to her cute little nose 🙂>>So if you think I should try an exercise with toys as reinforcement, let me know. I do tend to just stick with food by default.>>
There should be toys involved in all of the games 🙂 Either the toy is the reward (like for the prop sends or blinds), or you can use it after every few cookies for games that are better suited to cookie reinforcement (like the 2 bowls). But get the toys involved in every session and you will be very comfy with them!
Great job here!
TracyHi!
The driving forward is looking good! Great job releasing him while he was looking forward at the toy. If you feed a treat, let him finish it entirely before you take his collar so he is not grabbing the toy while chewing LOL!!
>>He is not yet bringing the toy back.>>
That is fine, there is no retrieve criteria on this game LOL!! So when he gets to the toy, you can go over, pick up the other end, and play 🙂 You will probably have to keep moving your feet back and forth to get him tugging, he is in the puppy stage of wanting to lie down and chew it 🙂
You can add more distance to this game now, throwing the toy further and further (be sure to watch him as you throw it so you can see him looking at the to). And if he likes the distance, you can start adding your motion too, walking forward when you let him go, then eventually progressing to jogging.
Great job here!
TracyHi! He is so cute! This was fun to watch.
>>Teagan does not easily offer behaviors. He seems to prefer directions.>>
Actually… he offered a lot of behaviors but I think you were waiting for too much before clicking, so he offered looking at you 🙂 Rather than waiting for a foot hit, you can split the behavior a to more – click and reward for any interaction with the prop, like when he bobbed his head to it at :30 and 1:00 and 1:23 Those were good offers! When he didn’t get rewarded, he backed up and offered sitting and eye contact (good boy!) You also don’t need to wait of a perfect paw hit – if he touches near it, you can reward him.
And talk to him less, especially after a click – that draws his attention up to your face and we want him looking at the prop 🙂
We can change the structure of the session too, so you can more easily capture the offering on the prop:
Rather than have him interacting with it before you enter the session, hold the prop until you are in position, cookies ready to go. Then, put the prop down – he is going to immediately be drawn to it, so you can reward something right away.On this session, he was interacting with it until you walked over, and that all important first click was for looking at you, so he offered more looking at you 🙂
Also, the frisbee is a toy so it already has a history on it – try to switch to something with no history, so it is easier to shape him to touch it 🙂
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHello and welcome! He sounds like a ton of fun, and a little different from Mats and GSDs 🙂
>>I have a question about the first game. Driving ahead. Normally Rev loves to play and tug but he is teething. I noticed that he is not playing with much gusto. I imagine it’s not comfortable right now. Should I just continue and play gently, he will play just not as usual, or not play this game right now?>>
Great question! You can use a soft toy and play the game – and then when he gets to the toy, you can very gently tug, or just engage by dancing around with him while he holds the toy (goofy, yes, but pups like it :)) No need for hard tugging til his mouth is more comfortable. And, you can also play this game with food because I am sure he will love to drive ahead for a big cookie.
Keep me posted!
Tracy
