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I have been thinking of you all week!!! The photo did not come through – is the danger past? What can we do to help? It all looks so disastrous!!!!
T
Hi!
Max did great with this! You cracked me up – I was going to suggest layering the pole, and then you did it LOL!!! Ha! He had no trouble with that at all, so you can keep adding distance. My only suggestion is to stay more connected by looking at him more as you go back and forth. The only error was at :45, when you were looking totally forward and not at him, so he came to you and didn’t take the jump. Also, you don’t need the clicker any more – you can switch to your ‘get it’ marker and throw the treat sooner. That will help keep him looking forward and not back at you.
> My 3 year old Manchester terrier who does not like the trial atmosphere, did horrible at this.>
Interesting! What did the terrier struggle with? It is a great game to teach the dogs, to help them love jumps š
Nice job here!
TracyHi!
Yes, the head turn game simple but definitely NOT easy. 3 hands are needed LOL! Your clicks and rewards were really strong!
Turning left – easy!! She is definitely a lefty on this game. You were able to move your hand pretty quickly and she was turning her head really well, which created a nice tight turn around the cone. Yay!
Turning to her right was much harder for her. You can help her out by moving your left hand more slowly to get the turn away – think of it as using your left hand to lead her through the turn slowly.
When you were using a quicker hand movement, she would default to trying to turn to her left again.The threadle wrap foundation game looked really strong I both directions. The turns to her right here were just are strong as the turns to her left, so something about the complexity of cone wrapping made the right turns harder on the other game. Stay tuned for the next steps of threadle wraps coming on Tuesday!!
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
>The Cato board was the closest thing I had that adds some height and is a bit narrower for backing up.>
It is a tiny bit narrow for her, yes – but it was a great challenge to think about where her feet and booty were! And it helped her get her back feet under her more and less outside the line of her body. So it can be something that goes into a rotation of these body awareness games- for now, I think one step back onto the plank is great so she rehearses that precise hind end use.
>seems like itās just a little too high and a little too narrow.
I donāt think it was too high, but something wider can make it easier when you are adding distance, for example.
>if you canāt lower the platform, raise the floor.>
CLEVER!! Yes, it would almost be like walking backwards up low stairs.
>Close enough to work with or should I see if I can get Jim to make me something? >
If Jim can make something maybe 3 or 4 inches wider, I think it would be perfect! And since I am putting in request ššš¤£ can he make it wobble too, for the future steps?
The serp concept transfer is going really well! She was driving in then collecting to turn to the reward, which is exactly what we want. The more she gets the MM as the reward, the sooner she will start to turn herself to it before you click it.
What a fun moment at 1:21, when the start cookie was on a really hard angle and she actively had to avoid the obvious like to the MM in favor of finding the line to the serpentine. YAY!!! That made the next rep really easy š Super!>Not sure why I was holding my hand with the target so high! >
I think your hand position was really good – that is probably where it will be when you are running sequences. And we are fading out the actual touching of the target, so having the hand a little higher is perfect!
The threadle concept transfer went well too! You can move the MM a little further away so she doesnāt stop over the bump to get to it – you can move it about 5 more feet away on the same angle (as long as it is still visible through the uprights when she comes to the threadle side).
The next step here is to add your threadle verbal as the release cue – you can say it a few times then say your āOKā cue to help her understand that it is fine to move on the threadle verbal šAnd when you have added the threadle verbal (should only take a couple of reps), you can move to the advanced level where we show her the serp and threadle in the same session š
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
>I have been working on a āgo to placeā cueā¦.so the Cato board might be a portable place!>
I think this can help clarify what is happening next and keep the training ācleanā (meaning, he knows what to do clearly at every step). He has a great sit stay on the flat, but the station can actually be more useful because it is just so clear about where to be and what to do.
Thinking about what he is trying to tell us with the jumping up – As a teenage boy š he doesnāt have a lot of resilience yet or impulse control yet for when things are unclear. So finding ways to help him out with super clarity will help. It might mean fewer reps as you set everything up carefullyā¦ but the quality of the reps will be very high so you donāt need a lot of reps! And the in-between moments will also be high quality, leading to more smoothness there too!
>Looking at the videos and seeing the correlation of frustration and jumping makes a lot of sense! >
I think that is the trigger for it – a little bit of frustration. This happens even when you are working at a really high rate of reinforcement for the skill, so it is more about the in-between moments like lining up, or getting ready to work, etc. It is a pretty normal adolescent behavior and we can definitely help shape him towards doing things that donāt involve jumping up š It will take some planning but that can be totally fun! And you can bring your plan to classes/seminars – instructors are totally on board with a handler have a plan that leads to smooth happy transitions and in-between moments!
>He really is a good boyā¦just a bit on the wild side!>
I agree, he is TOTALLY a good boy and he is actually an excellent communicator. He makes his feelings VERY obvious LOL!!! I appreciate that, though, because it helps all of us in the long run.
Looking at the video:
Yes, the winter coats are a pain LOL!!! They make us humans feel clunky!
You can connect with your arm back to him as you run away. You can see him not being sure where to be when your elbow is bent and shoulder closed forward – the reps were better when he could see your face more š You can see his zigzag line questioning where to be on the first rep, and also at 1:42, for example. He pummels you a bit when he arrives, partially because he didnāt know what else to do.
I think having your dog-side hand back to him and holding treats (or empty) can clarify where to be, and the other hand can hold the toy for the driving forward moment>Watching how late I am in stopping (he is already there when I FINALLY stopped in the early ones!>
Yes, the decels were late, he was getting to you before seeing any really change in motion. When he did see the change, he was GREAT though (like at :59). One thing you can do is put a cone out as a visual marker for you – when he passes the cone, you decelerate. Because he is big-strides and fast, the cone will be placed maybe one stride away from his start stay position – that is how early you can show the decel. And being connected back to him more will make that moment even more visible to you.
He rehearses a bit of jumping up on you as you walk back to start the next rep (1:46, for example). It was a transition where he didnāt quite know what to do – this is where a station can be GREAT. You can send him to his station, move to your start position, call him into the next rep. Very clean and smooth without any jumping up on you getting rehearsed. You can also move him from place to place with the back and forth game.
You did a bit of up and down but that was after he was already jumping up (and he jumped up again after you did it, because it was another transition and he was unsure of what to do). I think the station work or the back and forth can happen immediately after the reward for the previous rep so there is no jumping up – it gets replaced by a more clear āthis is what we do in between repsā
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
He approached all of these sessions as if he had been practicing without you and he wanted to show off what he had practiced LOL Hooray for latent learning!!!!
Backside foundation is going well! He is going to the barrel much more smoothly now on both sides and really that helps! So cool to see!!
You can start moving sooner, ideally you are moving up the line before he looks at you after the start cookie (so he sees the cue in progress). And as you start moving, you can start repeating the verbal – I think you were saying ābackā once, but you can say it several times as you move up the line to support the commitment.
Since this went so well, you can start inching over so you are a little further away on the parallel path. Be sure to tape the bar down so it doesnāt roll under his feet – we donāt want him to tweak his wrists!
Backing up: looking fabulous!!!! And great job breaking things off to add toy play. You can slide further away from his target bit by bit – start the next session where you ended here and when he gets into the rhythm of backing up, you can scoot yourself back by an inch or two. If he can still back up, you can scoot back a bit more!
Another option is o stay close to the target but change your position – you can sit on something low, then stand up/bending over. We donāt want his head to get too high, so keep your hands low as you change your position.
The Pivot Trivet – hilarious! I love it! I think it worked really well – he had to control his movement to get on it otherwise it would move and that is great – we want him to think about controlling his movement. Tossing the treat to the side helped him get on and pivot back to center, so you got several good steps when he got back on the trivet š He was slightly stronger with that going from your left side towards your right side, so you can alternate sides for the cookie toss to build up the other direction too. He didnāt do as well when you were waiting for him to offer it – he might have been thinking you wanted him to remain stationary? So you can reward in position when he pivots back to center, then release with a tossed treat to the other side.
The head turns went really well! It is a challenging game in terms of mechanics – human and canine! Your markers were spot on. You were great about using the dog side arm to send him and the same arm to turn him away. The opposite arm can be responsible for tossing the treats – that is what you did when you changed sides and it looks like it was easier for you and also he found the next line really well.
For the next session, you can be a little closer to the upright, which will help get him turning even tighter!
Great job on these!!!
Tracy
Good morning!
These went really well! Your handling is NOT trash at all! You were prioritizing connection and that is why he was very successful. āØ
Also, these games require impulse control because he has to move away from the toy in order to get it – he figured that out pretty quickly on the first video!!At first, he had a bit of a hard time ignoring the tossed toy, so 2 ideas for you:
– rather than toss it, you can place it down (that can be less exciting than him watching you throw it)
– You can reward him with treats for walking away from it>Max had a harder time to one side than the other. Not sure if it was toy placement my handling.>
This was at :59, and it was a disconnection caused him to not end up on your left. You were looking forward as he exited the barrel, so he stayed on his line rather than change sides. He was happy to eat the treats at the barrel, but showing more connection like you did on the last rep was really helpful.
2nd combo: very nice shift into decel and collection even with the toy out there! Yay! He did a great job ignoring the toy and following your decel cues. You can mix things up and sometimes go straight to the toy, so he doesnāt get too locked into handler focus and the value of the toy stays high too.
Great job here! Stay warm!!!
Tracy
Good morning!
Nice work with his perch work! It looks pretty equal in both directions. I think he still needs the bowl, his footwork on the flat is not as clean and he tends to offer the sit on one side. So before fading out the bowl, you can work his footwork/balance by taping a jump bar to the floor (or a pool noodle, something pretty low for now). I tape it perpendicular to the bowl – and as he pivots into position, he steps over the bar. The bar is taped so it does not roll under his feet. If that goes well, you can replace the bar with a low jump bump. This is a more challenge game and also great for conditioning. We eventually have several bumps but for now, start with one taped-down bar and see how he feels about it š
Threadle – another nice session here too! He did well sorting out that yes, āin inā is a release (just make sure you donāt say it and move your hand at the same time) and also yes, he can go directly to the MM when it clicks without needing additional markers. He did well from the different angles!!
Two suggestions about the mechanics:
– you can move the MM further away so he can fully stride over the bar to get to it (and not decel over the bar) And make sure it is fully visible on the slice line over the bump, so he doesnāt go around the jump to get to it. You can delay the click to when he goes to the bump, but make sure it is an easy line for now.
>he started skipping the jump and circling, so I think he was bored. >
I think it was the placement of the MM more than anything – it was on the line he went to, and he was still learning that the āoutā element included the bar. The circling was probably just a bit of confusion.
>Bad mom, too many reps.>
To avoid this being a possibility, set a 5 cookie limit on each side. 10 reps is plenty! This session had 16 reps. The extra 6 reps might not seem like a lot, but it is a lot of cookie repetition so easy for the dogs to get bored. And be sure to build in lots of toy play between reps!
– keep your shoulders frozen in threadle position until after he reaches the MM, so you donāt accidentally build in a second cue to take the bar. The initial cue should be the in-then-out cue, so we donāt want him to think that he should wait for your shoulder movement in order to go to the bar.
Great job with the head turn game! I really like the nice rounded shape of his turn (it is my personal mission to develop fantastic turns in breeds that people say canāt turnā¦ whippets and Malis fall into that category LOL!!!) My only suggestion here is that you can mark with a clicker here rather than search – this is the one of the few times that I think the click would be more effective because it hits differently in the brain. It would be a bit of a surprise to him and that can be great for dopamine coding, more so than a search marker. Your timing was spot on, so do a session with a clicker and see if we can get even more precision.
For this baby level of the game – start him a step or two further back from the upright so he can come into the head turn with more speed. And you can also try the advanced level/360s.
>I used the superbowls for him (from MYOB) the other day in the parking lot of Cabelaās (a place we go to train other skills) and he did not even notice 2 guys who were talking about 7 parking spaces away from us (of course, he noticed them, he sees everything, but he was able to MYOB). And he had a terrific outing.>
Thank you for this update!!! What a great okay to use the super bowls game. Yes, his brain ānoticedā the 2 guys but also his brain was able to process them and not need to prioritize them as something to respond to. So cool!!!! Yes, his breed and age will lean towards being watchful of the environment so using super bowls in that environment goes a long way to carving out the neural pathways you want in adulthood. Yay!!
Great job here!
TracyOne other thought – you can use a station like a Cato board to give him a place to go between reps, to use as a lineup spot, and a reset place! That can help clarify things for him and reduce the jumping up.
T
Good morning!!! You are pretty far north of the fires, yes? I am worried about all of my California peeps!!!
> driving, hotel, canopy setup crating on the show grounds, no off leash time at all, and tons of unfamiliar dogs around. He was pretty overwhelmed and started to get barky at dogs in the distance, I mostly just did my best to support his emotions (lots of get it pattern games!!). >
Good for you for recognizing that and helping him with pattern games! It sounds like it was a HUGE show and challenging environment. Plus all the travel is hard too.
>So we got back late Monday night and Tues & Weds were total rest days, no pressure to do anything.>
Sometimes the best dog training is when you choose to NOT do any dog training š Good for you!!!! Rest and recovery are critical.
>He actually pooped in the house Tuesday for the first time ever, thatās how out of sorts we all are.>
Poor buddy! I believe it is a minimum of 72 hours for a puppy to bounce back after a big trip, and can be longer. When I imported one of my pups by plane from Europe, the neuroscience vet told me to be chill for 3 weeks so allow for recovery. Eek!
> Heās coming up on 5.5 months old and feeling very much like an adolescent so none of this surprises me- but feels like such an adjustment for ME from the cute happy baby to the āaware of all the thingsā teenager.>
Yes – probably hitting early adolescence where the brain does CRAZY THINGS lol!! It is the craziest period in terms of the brain reconstructing itself, heightened responses to things, longer bounce back periods…. at least he is small and adolescence won’t last as long as many of the large breed dogs š
>We did training today (Thurs), high reward and just having fun. I gave myself a talking to about putting pressure on the baby- currently trying to just reward every approximation and make everything super happy. He was really happy to train today>
Perfect! Ease back into things and maintain a high rate of success. That high rate of success is a great lifestyle when training anyway š
Looking at the videos:
The parallel path game with the 2 dishes went well! It looks like he was able to grab the reward very quickly without having to search for it. And he was looking forward more than looking at you, which is great. You can add more distance between the dishes and the jump now – that will allow you to move more (in terms of more speed, and more distance away from the jump). At this stage, you can shift the marker and toss to happen on his first step towards the jump, rather than when he is arriving at it, to really emphasize looking forward.Strike a pose also looked great! Your mechanics were spot on, in terms of being ready and in position before sending him away to the cookie toss. That allowed him to see the info immediately after getting the treat, so he was super successful. YAY!! Earlier this week I posted the threadle concept transfer – he is ready for that.
Backing up: this went really well, using the mat as the target. He definitely has the idea of backing up and targeting to the mat! Super!
He was ever-so-slightly sideways, with his right hind leg not being on the mat. It might be a side preference for him, or it might be the angle you were presenting the cookies from using your right hand (he was straighter when you used your left hand sometimes). So you can help him target with his right hind too, by giving him something slightly higher (maybe 2 inches high?) to step up onto so that right hind can say “aha! I have to touch it too!” You can also havve boths hands in front of you and mix up which hand tosses the treat, so he is not locked onto only your right hand.Perch work –
> I didnāt realize until pretty far in he was trying to offer going back and forth,>
That was hilarious and also brilliant! Bowl wraps! LOL!!! Good boy!
For shaping these precision behaviors, you can use reward placement to get you to the behavior pretty quickly. I think the early reward placement was getting more of him not being on the bowl, because it w3as being delivered when he did not have fet on the bowl. . You can mark the interaction but then place the reward over the bowl so he has to step up onto it to get it. This is what you did at 3:35 and then he got another couple of treats with his feet on the bowl – that all really helped!
> I donāt think just trying to free shape a foot onto the bowl was working.>
I think it will make sense with the placement – so if he investigates the bowl, you can mark that but then hold the treat over the bowl so he has to step onto it to get it.
> He was quite happy to follow my hand lure when it made sense to him.>
Nothing wrong with a lure in this case! A lure is a sibling to reward placement, in terms of clarifying for the pup what we want. A lure happens before offered behavior, to create the behavior. Reward placement happens after offered behavior (even a small approximation of it) to also create the behavior. Lures are helpful to jumpstart something, then can be quickly moved to become reward placement.
>. We started the threadle vs serp stuff,>
Perfect! Based on the video from 12/31, he was ready for this. And he did really well! Your mechanics were really good here too! It is a hard game but he was really looking at the info and making great decisions.
About the verbals: for the threadle, use your ‘dish’ marker and stay completely frozen in position until he turns to the dish. That way we get the automatic in-then-out behavior without you needing to move your shoulders – shoulder movement can accidentally build in a 2nd cue to take the jump after the threadle, which we don’t want.
> I didnāt add in the verbal because Iām still torn what I want to use.>
Do you have a threadle slice verbal with your other dogs? It is easiest to keep it the same of course LOL!
Looking at the volume dial video:
The touches for treats went well! Spin is also a really good trick for this!>. I can see the last sit took longer- I assume itās baby brain processing?>
Yes, processing… but not in a bad way! Note how he sat without jumping up on you!! So that is good š You can also play this with a toy – it really can help with arousal regulation for the him to get really stimulated, then do a few things… then have a scatter to decompress. It helps to ‘train’ their physiology for the up and down feelings of arousal they will have when doing sports! And when doing life LOL š
Great job here!!!
Tracy
Good morning! Excellent question and definitely something to nerd out on a bit.
>Pony heads hanging out of stall doors (which honestly Iāve never seen a dog NOT at least look twice at disembodied, floating horse heads the first time they see them) and sheās running under them like they arenāt even there.>
That is really impressive!
> But if something (human, dog, bird, etc) enters a space unexpectedly she canāt stay focused, hence why I was VERY careful in the entryway of the training building. I understand itās totally normal for dogs to find sudden environmental changes distracting.>>
Yes – totally normal. *Nerding alert* It falls into 2 categories that I try to keep in mind when training youngsters:
– multisensory integration, where the brain has to receive, process, and prioritize the info that it is being bombarded with. So in a busy environment (like all the floating horse heads, or in a crowd of people), she is better able to prioritize the info you are giving her. But in the quiet environment, with a sudden appearance of *something*, that stimulus can actually appear bigger to the brain. As in, literally giant-sized compared to the other things in the environment. The new, isolated stimulus is so salient that her brain prioritizes it over other things (like cues you are giving her).
– the prefrontal cortex is relatively underdeveloped and also, it is the part of the brain that tends to drive ‘good decisions’. And to add to the fun – in adolescence, the PFC signaling/communication to the areas of the brain that are associated with impulsive responses is, at best, incomplete. So the executive function area of the brain is not telling the impulsive areas of the brain to ignore those responses. So…. we get bigger responses to random salient things.
So what we are trying to do is to help the adolescent brain out with all sorts of helpful tools, while we wait for adolescence to be finished (spoiler alert: it is a long wait LOL!!!)
It sounds like she is responding in a way that is “This is interesting, I want to go interact happily” and not in a fearful way? Although occasional fearful responses are also normal in this phase and nothing to worry about unless we see an inability to bounce back or more generalized anxiety.
>But I struggle a little to find a way to āsliceā that practically.>
Yep, it is hard because part of the issue is that it is a surprise to you and her. But we can get creative! And also part of it will involve being prepared in case you do get surprised.
> I tried tonight to have one dog crated, work her a little, release the dog out of the crate to a snuffle mat, then work her some more but I feel like that is a very different scenario as I am breaking off her engagement, bringing the new thing in, then re-engaging her.>
How did she do? I am guessing she did really well? It is a good slice to work on – we don’t need to see the reaction to the new element, because we know the brain is processing it.
> Natural environments I wonāt have any control over the distraction as far as distance or how long we might be sitting there waiting for something. Thoughts on how to āsliceā that safely when I donāt have a class environment? >
Since I also homeschool my dogs through slices, a couple of ideas for you:
– I use video a lot because it can add sounds in a way that I can control… and the dogs totally *do* process it similarly to real world sounds (based on their physical reactions). So since we are looking for the happy surprise element, you can get a video that is largely quiet… then randomly, someone says “hello!!” or a doorbell rings, or a dog barks. That can sound like the sudden environmental changes that happen in the real world. And you can be playing a pattern game while this is happening… start it before the surprise noise, and then keep going. She might need to stop and process the sound, which is perfectly fine, and then the game resumes after she has processed it.
For example, different behavior to train but same slice concept: right at the beginning of this video, I was using a video of me running a dog and all of the sudden, I yelled “TUNNEL!” on the video. Very hard to hear (for us humans) but clearly very salient for him – watch him start looking for the dog running through the tunnel. This is in the first 5 seconds of the video:
>Clearly the middle of the town green from a few weeks ago where she wound up running up to a stranger and jumping up to lick her face (who greeted her warmly right back thank goodness!) wasnāt the right answer!>
And this is where I would say hello to adolescence, and goodbye to off leash privileges where she might run over to something/someone (even if it is a friendly departure). Her puppy license has been revoked LOL!! So in any environment where there is a possibility of sudden environmental change and she might leave to investigate it. she can be on leash. That can help you control the environment. You can see in the video with the ‘tunnel!’ verbal, my pup was on leash even though I am inside my house LOL! Controlling the environment allows us to shape those neural pathways the way we want them to go, rather than develop the neural pathways for the ‘run towards the distraction’ behavior. So as weird as it is to train with a leash on in my own house or yard, it totally helps in the neural pathway development department š
Another option is to enlist friends/people to help out. So if you know a client is coming at 2pm, for example, ask them to text you when they arrive but before they get out of the car or enter the building. That way you can get her out, doing pattern games or something simple, and you are ready for the suddently salient new stimulus.
And for the moments of surprise that you didn’t know where coming? You can go directly into a pattern game or you can mark her looking at the new thing (like Control Unleashed’s Look At That game). If she is off leash and runs to the distraction, ask the person to greet her normally then send her back to you. Ideally she is not off leash to have this opportunity, but life happens! And I always ask people to greet my young dogs normally (I am happy if they give them treats!) because the adolescent brain is forming associations in those moments: if the person is normal and maybe even fun, then the pup will have a positive conditioned response. If the person goes all weird (like getting stiff or turning their back on the pup or shooing the pup away or worse) then the pup is developing a more negative conditioned response. It is much easier to train with a positive conditioned response than a negative one, so I ask all of my friends/students/colleagues to greet and even feed my youngsters if the pups visit.
And, there is actually no increase in visiting, because the positive conditioned response relaxes the pup enough that their adolescent brain doesn’t need to investigate the sudden appearance of something new. The responses in those surprise moments are not operant, so we don’t need to worry about reinforcement all that much.
Over time, you will see that she doesn’t even acknowledge the appearance of new things in the environment, unless it is incredibly startling.
Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
I am so glad Max likes the snow! My dogs all think it is DUMB because they can’t really run on it – totally crusty and icy.
> I would get another Max, best, funnest dog I have ever had. He is up for anything.>
I love this! I agree that he is a fabulous little dude. So many fun times ahead!!!!
>I am going to try and get a private with Carol, but it is hard.>
Tell her to put you on the friends and family program with Camper Kids! I don’t know if that program exists LOL but it seems like a good ideas š Since he is so quick, the main goal will be to develop all sorts of skills and verbals, so you can use a lot of distance. There is no way any of us can outrun these fast little dogs!
Max looked great with the strike a pose game! He founbd the target hand very nicely and was really good about *not* going to the toy on the ground until you cued him to do so. Super!!!
The only blooper was when he released from the stay before you were ready. That might be because you were releasing him as soon as you hit the pose position… so he might have been thinking that you stopping in positoin or moving your hand was the release. So to avoid that, you can get into position, praise, and then either release or throw a reward back to him.
Since this went so well, you can do the concept transfer with the serpentine (adding the jump) and I think you will also find it very easy to add the threadle concept transfer too (added this week).
Great job! Stay warm!
Tracy
Hi!
Since we are looking at the jumping up behavior, we also look for trends and things that might trigger it. I see a trend here! The line up! More on that below. Do you have video from the class where you tried to call him back to sequence the tire and he jumped up? I would be interested to see if it was the same trigger.
The threadle wrap foundation circles looked great! It is all a nice physical warm up for his body š His only questions were when he thought the hand cue when he was facing you looked like a go-behind cue, but that was not an issue when he was moving in from behind you.
For the threadle slice – he did well here! Yes, this one has both uprights so you can add the 2nd stanchion. Try to hold your threadle arm out the whole time until he arrives at the MM. That way you donāt accidentally build in an arm cue to take the jump and he learns to go do it by himself.
One moment of a handler error moment here, which can potentially lead to jumping up in higher arousal situations:
The angle of the cookie throw produced too hard of a line and not enough room for him to find the correct line to your threadle arm in time at 2:10. Rather than mark as incorrect (ātry againā) you can just throw the next start cookie. Throwing the next start cookie tells him pretty clearly that it was not correct but avoids any potential frustration by keeping the umbrella rate of reinforcement high and keeping him moving for the next rep.
Yes, he went back out and got it right, but that might not happen with a harder skill and/or in a higher arousal context. And ātry againā becomes a punishment marker (paired with withdrawal of reinforcement) so it in itself can produce frustration and an arousal shift.
Backside slice foundation: this game does not have the 2nd upright, because we donāt want it to look like a front side of a jump. Changing the placement of reinforcement will make it easier – rather than use the MM, use a cookie or toy and deliver it on the landing side of the jump, so he is looking for the jump bump (eventually bar). If you use the MM, you can wait til he goes over the bump to click
As you start each rep, remember to be moving forward to where the bump and barrel meet so he is seeing the motion cue here. He got it without motion, yay! But the motion will allow you to teach him the parallel path understanding and that way you can move to more lateral positions pretty early in the training.
And using motion will also take out the line up issue (see below) because you can toss a cookie behind you on the line you want him to take, so he doesnāt have to line up.
About the line ups:
The MM adds arousal, which is fine. When you tried to line him back up at 2:45, he jumped up. And it was an even bigger jump up at 2:57 during the line up moment. The cue was a ācome hereā and a small hand cue. Why was he a bit overaroused by that in a relatively calm situation? Hard to know – could be the cue was too vague, could be the line up is not reinforced enough, or it interrupts the flow because he doesnāt know what you want, or the line up has been paired with fixing errors, or all of the above.
You can make the line up a lot easier by using a cookie to lead him through a bigger reset cue and then reward the reset. He doesnāt really seem to know what the open palm cue is there and ends up looking up at your face. So a closed hand and leg stepping back can make it clearer, and a cookie can be in that hand for now. Plus, you donāt need to use a line up for everything – tossing treats makes for an easy start too.
At 3:10, he moved away after the MM almost as if avoiding the line up cue.
At 3:36 he was facing you and not lined up so you tried to cue the push – it was not a clear cue (dog side leg did not step forward and he was facing the wrong direction so he jumped up).
Look at the line up at 3:55 though – perfect! This is exactly what I mean about giving a clear line up cue and you can reward it with a treat.
Running a-frame foundation – you cued a line up at 4:54 and he jumped up a bit. More of that lining up trend! Aha!
He did well finding his way through the box, no problem at all! You can move your position away from the box so he looks at you less and forward more.
Since there is a lot of food being used, you are getting a lot of quicker reps in. With that in mind, you can add in more breaks in these sessions – there were a lot of reps in each of these skills. For example, in the frame session there were something like 27 passes through the box. More breaks will give him a chance to regulate arousal and decompress in the moment too, even if you help him with a snuffle mat or something similar.
Great job here!!
TracyGood morning!
Some more thoughts on this, because not all instructors are on the same page (and will go to punishment very very quickly without understanding what is happening).
Using the tire as an example:
>>We were teaching him the tireā¦which he was perfect with on its ownā¦.but he passed by it when I tried to put it into sequenceā¦so I called him back to start again and he started doing his over aroused jumping.>>
The tire is a pretty complex behavior because it is such a small opening for a big dog – and it requires a lot of mechanics. It is possible that he was not ready to add more speed to the tire approach because he had not yet fully developed the mechanics.
He is around 11 months old, yes? So even though he is in a LORG body š his brain is typical of early adolescence. And we know that the signaling from the pre-frontal cortex to the parts of the brain that control impulses is weak, at best. So if there is a moment of frustration or lack of clarity, he does not have the PFC telling the rest of the brain to be chill about itā¦ so he is not chill about it š All adolescents will present frustration behavior, his happens to be jumping up. Add in the higher arousal of being at a class location.
We also know that the adolescent brain will *think* it did something correctly when, to our eyes, it did not. It is possible his brain thought he did the tire correctly.
And add in the possibility of human error in handling cues (maybe the cue to take the tire in the sequence was not as clear as he needed it to be? That is a distinct possibility).
There are other things that can be going on too in the brain, but those are the important ones š
So bearing in mind his age – I suggest that if you *do* sequence, then you do *not* stop for errors and you reward at the end. And if you have to stop and call him back for any reason, call back to a reset reward (cookies or toys) and praise, like he was correct. Any indication that he was wrong and that reinforcement is being withheld seems to be a trigger for jumping up.
And if he starts jumping up – immediately go to a pattern game and bring him back to a more centered state. I suggest doing that anyway between reps.
A couple of other ideas:
Since he is so young, ask the instructor to cut his turn in half: do 2 minutes then come back out for another minute, for example. If they donāt do that, then shorten the turn and work on small pieces.
>we did a short tunnel-tunnel-jump-jump-jump which he loved but when we repeated it, he got over the top aroused and was jumpy.>
Donāt repeat things š He had a moment of overarousal, you got him back successfullyā¦ donāt ask for more š Same with the tire – he was able to be successful, you can end on success rather than try it in sequence, especially if it is a new skill.
>I frequently ask him to come into the middle so I can reward him there and massage his temples to help him relaxā¦.but I think I need to work on some remote sits & downs so he doesnāt jump on other people.>
Well, yes, but also structuring the situations differently will go a long way towards the jumping going away. Definitely taking a āless is moreā approach because of his age is important. Since there is nothing we can do about his age or brain development, we can focus on protecting his arousal state and making sure he does not experience frustration in training. And if he enters a training situation with high arousal to begin with, using food is the best option for now (because the environment creates the arousal, we donāt need a toy in that moment).
It will take some conversations with instructors to remind them of his age (he looks older than he is :)) and to end a session before things go sideways.
Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
How does he like the snow?The handling games are looking good here!!
First video: The tandem turns are going well! The target verbal worked better than the get it, probably because the target verbal cued him to look ahead for the target and get it means ‘treat’ to him šSecond video:
The lap turns also look great! You were perhaps a little early stepping back with your leg on the first rep, but perfect on the second rep. This video also had tandem turns without the prop and those looked great! This was probably the first video šSince these are going really well, you can take a look at the threadle wrap foundation games. Based on how agility is evolving, you will use the threadle wrap more than lap turns and tandems.
Great job here! Stay warm!
Tracy
