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Good morning!
He is doing well with his perch work! When using the hand cue to keep him moving into your side, keep your hand lower so he doesn’t reach up for it – that shifts too much weight into his rear which makes fluid movement harder (you can see him lose his balance a couple of times). The hand can be at nose level (with his jaw line parallel to the ground) to help him balance his stance.
The next step for him is more independence and less help from you (fading your hand cue and your movement :)) Because he already has such nice value for moving to your side, you can approach the added-independence so he pivots to your side as the end goal. Think of it as a clock: you are at 6 o’clock. Toss a cookie to 3 o’clock, and stand still – let him get the cookie and see if he can pivot to your side by getting on the perch from that angle. If so, you can change the angle of the cookie toss, to 2 the n1 the 12 then 11 and so on, all the way around the clock so he pivots more and more. And then changes sides so he does it in both directions like he did here 🙂
If he struggles without your movement or hand cue, you can add a hand cue but try not to move. The goal is that he eventually does all the pivoting without needing the hep 🙂
When he can do that, we add in one bump or bar (taped to the ground) for him to step over. The build up to 2 then 3.
This can all take multiple sessions spread out over a few weeks, so no rush 🙂 Or it might be the easiest thing ever and he gets it all in one session LOL!! He will let us know.
>>Do I need to add a verbal at this point?>>
Good question! I never add a verbal to this, because the perch is the cue (and one less word to worry about is happy-making haha) You can add a verbal to it, but I would wait until he is pivoting without your movement/hand cue – right now the movement and hand cue are driving the behavior so it makes the verbal harder to attach.
His threadle slices are looking great! And he was able. To do the harder angles too – most adult dogs can’t do that LOL!! Good boy!!!
One suggestion is to stay perfectly still and don’t praise until he gets to the PetTutor – that is the true end of behavior (committing to the jump as part of the threadle slice) so the early praise or early movement can end up cluttering the cue.
And since he did so well, two next-step ideas for you:
(Ok, 3 next steps – use a wing on the entry side because he will only see these on wings and I think these were wingless)– balance the threadle slice with the serp by changing your position every couple of reps to sometimes cue the threadle, and sometimes cue the serp. The PT can be placed in a spot kind of on the line where it can reward both (almost on the same line as the exit upright) so you don’t have to move it between reps.
– you can start to fade out actually touching your hand on these by clicking the PT as he is approaching your hand but before he hits it. So at first, it is an earlier click. Then, when he gets into the groove, you can click later: he will come in and start to turn to the bar, and you can click the PT when he turns to the bar. That is the desired end result behavior.
As with everything, these added steps might take multiple sessions over a few week (that is normal) or he might produce the behavior instantly (NOT normal LOL!!! ) and that is great 🙂
>>I believe training the pattern is the easy part (at least based on my own experience training Robie who got the box turn, ball carrying, jumping the jumps, etc. down very quickly but for the life of me can’t pass.) >>
For an adult, experienced, agility dog who understands his body – the pattern and box turn is not that hard. That is why Robie picked it up so well (and so did Nacho, for example). It will be different with a puppy 🙂 and I have been waiting for my youngsters to have more adult bodies before starting the box turn stuff (Ramen is 15 months old and just starting now).
As for the other stuff… I believe we all trained it backwards: we worked the box turn and pattern stuff and then we were like “btw, there is going to be a lot of passing and arousal and reward strategies and all this other stuff” So trying to add it in after the pattern was learned was REALLY hard. (We need to also do this in agility, but yet agility seems to be trying to sterilize the environment more and more LOL!!)
My goal now is to add in the passing games and arousal regulation and all the other stuff before the pattern is started, then show it to the dogs at every stage of training. So for example, while Ramen is just beginning his box turn work, so many other pieces are in place that he will carry into the full pattern.
>>What I am really interested in working on is dealing with the environment and learning to work in high arousal around other highly aroused dogs.>>
Small slices built into every step 🙂 and being able to function in that environment (pattern games and volume dial) before adding in fancy skills like box turns. The Skidz seminar really helped solidify this and I hope to get folks together to work these skills too. And, same with agility training. It all works together quite nicely.
>>In other news, we attended a seminar with Sheyla and Annette yesterday. He was quite brilliant, and I am pleased to say he worked for the tug the whole day!>>
SUPER!!!! So fun!!! And in a new environment too – happy dance!!!
>> As you might imagine, both Sheyla and Annette broke things down for us substantially to ensure success. >>
They are both terrific <3
>> He took the opportunity to LEAP across the 4 foot (or more) barrier to check out what was happening in the other ring.>>
Zoinks! Well, I guess 20” or 24” will not be a problem LOL!!!! And he was probably just having a grand time with no bad intentions but definitely watch him LOL!!!!
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
I totally relate to being distracted and unmotivated to train lately – busy times and terrible weather. Fingers crossed for good weather soon! And doing SOME training is actually better than doing a LOT of training, because more rest gets built in… and rest is a huge component of learning.
This session went really well! At first there were so many things to offer behavior on (the mat closer to the camera, the open crate) that she didn’t know what the target behavior was. But then you made it obvious but getting closer to the mat and Boom! She had it! Look at the distance and how she was ‘looking’ for the mat with her feet as she backed up. Yay! And it sounds like you haven’t really obsessed on the behavior recently: latent learning is so nice 🙂
>>What should be out next step with this?>>
There are 2 next steps for this:
You can add a little more height or an angle to the destination, so she is stepping up onto it, or backing up at a slight angle. The angle never gets extreme (we are NOT going for a hand stand or anything like that because it is back for her shoulders) but a bit of height or angle is definitely challenging.
Then the next step is motion of the destination:
How is she doing with getting on wobble board and things that move? If she is still happy with them, the next step is backing up onto something that moves. Definitely re-visit the wobble stuff first to be sure she is still happy with things moving under her feet 🙂
Both the angle/height and motion should be started at the very beginning steps of her being all 4 feet on the destination, luring front feet off then letting her step back on, then luring all 4 feet off, then back feet stepping back on, etc – the same progression you used for this destination, but it will happen MUCH faster 🙂
You can see it here, down towards the bottom of the page (and on the video):
>> Will the verbal help her generalize so we don’t always need the mat?>>
Yes 🙂 You can also start to fade the mat by making it smaller – keep a destination in place as much as needed to keep her backing up relatively straight. And you can also change up the destinations so she backs up to all sorts of different ‘targets’.
Great job here!!!
TracyPerfect! Try the Egg McMuffin 🙂 It is a little messy but oh-so-good as a training treat. When I was training my little Elektra in new places, she was not really all that confident as a puppy. So I would do a drive through on the way to class: coffee and Egg McMuffin for me, Egg McMuffin for her (she prefers the Sausage Egg McMuffin LOL!)
Let me tell you that she was very engaged (the magic of high value motivators!) and is now SUPER confident and engaged, everywhere. Maybe McDonalds will offer sponsorships? LOL!
Have fun!
TracyHi!
>>it seems like at least in the beginning of the walk there is a bit of arousal/stress for him.>>
Yes – any new environment will increase arousal/stress and that is normal and fine. Arousal and stress are not good or bad… they just are physiological changes. Yes you can see some changes in emotional state too but mainly it is physiological, especially when the trigger is something exciting like the park with all of its sights, smells, sounds, etc.
>> His drive to mark is a lot stronger than it was even a couple weeks ago and I couldn’t get his attention with the pattern games.>>
Welcome to adolescence 🙂 And it is fine! My question to you is…. do you need to have that level of attention/engagement when you first arrive at the park? It might be kind of impossible and trying to get it can create frustration for you both.
>> The 1-2-3 game did get him to stay on the greenway when walking past things though. >>
If you didn’t try to keep his attention with the 1-2-3 game, what would he otherwise be doing? That can help answer the question of whether you need to be doing it, or if the first few minutes after arrival can just be spent sniffing around the perimeter of the parking area and peeing on things 🙂
>>I couldn’t get his attention with the pattern games>>
Question – what motivator were you using? In a fighting-fire-with-fire approach, if the environment is very stimulating then the motivator needs to be more stimulating at first. So, something like an Egg McMuffin might be the way to go rather than dog treats 🙂 or a frisbee!
>>I’m not sure if this would be considered a pattern game. You just repeatedly say “1-2-3” (a pattern?), giving the dog a treat on “3”. We use it to walk past oncoming people without jumping on them. I think it’s for predictability and impulse control. Do you think that game could work in place of the pattern games?>>
Yes, it is indeed a pattern game and there is a definite spot for it in the toolbox! But in some ways, it is a management tool because you are basically managing what the dog is doing with the counting and food delivery. The other games send the dog out into the environment a bit more and that is also useful for your training toolbox.
Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
Lots great work on this video 🙂
Perching is going well!!! You can stay closer to the perch so she is not leaning forward to reach the cookies 🙂 And since it is so hard, you can reward each step or two.
At the end to the video you revisited it with the 3 bars on the ground – it was definitely harder for her! Try it with just one bar and reward each one – she was more fluid moving to her right than to her left but was still tripping a bit over all 3. Breaking it down to just one should help her get smoother in both directions.
You can also play with letting her offer the movement without you moving – start with a cookie toss to the side and let her pivot back to center in front of you. That can get even more independent foot movement here and help fade out your motion too!
The threadle game looks great – she was nailing it especially from the harder angles! Do you have a wing to add to this? She will really only see threadles with a wing jump, so we might as well introduce it now since she did so well here. And she had no trouble reading the difference between the threadle and the serp – super!!!
Question about verbals:
Did you switch from “in in” to “back back back”? We can definitely clarify all the verbals for her since she is understanding the handling so well. Most folks have in in as the threadle slice and back back as the backside push slice – so many words LOL!!! But very helpful with fast dogs like Roux 🙂Head turns are also going well! Be sure to use the same hand as the start/send hand like you did when she started on your right side (the right hand cued the first approach to the upright then also cued the head turn). That produced really great head turns! Plus I think that is her stronger direction(turning to her left).
When you started with her on your left and then cued the head turn with your right, the turn was not as fluid (possible because her right turns are not as fluid in general yet, which is totally normal).When you added marking the head turn on the approach to the upright on the single wraps – it was definitely harder for her on the right turns (starting on your left). She is a lefty LOL! So work the head turns more on that side (turning to the right) with the 2 turns in a row and cuing the head turn, before trying to mark on the first approach, to really maximize the head turn skill.
For the wraps on the barrel after the head turns: is “around” your backside verbal? You did use it as a front side wrap later in the video, so at this stage since there is a bar in the picture, you can clarify the different verbals: backside slice, backside wrap, and front side wraps.
For the backside wrap, you can be coming more towards the camera to create the full 360 turns (you were on more of the turn and burn angle, which is a front side FC) To get the backside circle, you will send her around the barrel then get right behind her tail and walk towards the camera.
The backside slice game looked strong here! She seemed to have no trouble going to the backside and ignoring the bar on the ground. Yay!! For the next session, I think using a toy and a ‘get it’ marker here will help her look for the bar more after she gets around the barrel. The click was getting her to look at you as you moved away parallel to the bar, so you can keep that line of motion but say “get it” and drop a toy in on the landing side of the bar. That will get her looking at the bar, so you can then add more and more lateral distance.
The front side wraps followed that on the video – she had an error the first rep probably because are verbal and same line of motion from you meant something different now. It was a legit question from her LOL! So be sure to take a break and reset so she can have the extra moment to process the differences. And different verbals will help too, so “around” can have a super specific meaning.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!!!
TracyGood morning!
Hallway rear crosses are looking good! And yes – some of the tosses were ending up with her perpendicular to the wall, so you had to be fully visible on the new side in order to get the RC turn. When she didn’t fully end up in that perpendicular angle, the RC was easy to get 🙂 You can try a food bowl up against the wall so she is more likely to go directly to it rather than rotate to face the way (the cookie can be placed in the bowl in advance).
>>However did you see the tug before and after?>
Yes! She was happy to tug before and after! As a bridge into the tugging afterwards, she seemed to like it when you got low, held her close to you, and started swooshing the toy around on the floor. She was able to go back and forth from cookies to the toy and that is great!
>>We also did a short session of shaping into a box a bit later in the morning and she was able to tug before, during and after and even worked around the unplanned distraction of Demi wandering around and getting in the way.>>
Super! And thank you to Demi for lending her skills as a distraction LOL!
Countermotion went well – I am glad you took the verbals off of the game briefly because there was a lot of auditory stimulation in the environment and in that context I am not sure the verbals were helping (might have been making things harder!) You were able to add them back later in the session and she did well there.
.>She stalled out a bit on one of the sideways sends to the left. Should I have been looking more at the barrel than her there?>>
That was relatively early in the session when there was a lot happening (play it at a different speed (super slow and super fast) and you will hear how many different sounds there were in the environment). So it was probably just a processing moment where her brain was working to filter out the unnecessary info.
>>I didn’t try for too much countermotion as I wanted to make sure it was easy for her since I was mainly experimenting with whether she could play during and after the session.>>
She did well with her playing! Yay! The low, swooshing toy movement with you down low were definitely part of the magic for her during these sessions. And I bet the countermotion will be easy to add at the advanced levels of the rocking horse game, where there is a lot more action 🙂
Great job here! Have a safe and easy travel day!
Tracy
Good morning!
Hope you are enjoying the holidays!
The sending to the prop is going really well! You were generally getting the dog-side leg involved and he was happy go to the prop. You can change the reward placement so he drives back to you after hitting the prop, because this type of send eventually transfers to the collection back to you).
That reward placement back at you will also let you line him up and start him from near you (rather than off to the side. That will make for cleaner sends with snappy starts, and allow you to add in some ready dance to get him more pumped up 🙂 Sending him away to the prop and rewarding him from your hand with a toy would be a great next step!
I think you added a little too much distance here because he was asking a lot of questions at the end. If you see a question, you can reduce the distance. Distance is less important than value (and value is what brings the speed).
Cone wrapping is looking great! He was happy to go around it even when it was relatively far! So the next step is to bring it back in closer… and you standing up 🙂 If he is happy to do it with you standing, then things can get more exciting with the turn and burn game 🙂
He was super good about getting on the plank and walking across it! He was able to do a nice tight sit and happily hopped off. Yay! He was very clever about turning around on the wider areas LOL!!! Turning around o the narrow part of the plank was hard for sure so feel free to use a slow & low cookie lure to see if he can follow it and turn around. If not, you can see if you can put 2 planks together to create a wider playing field so he has a bit more room to turn around.
His focus and drive ahead to the toy was really good, with the distraction of the other dogs and being outside! You can get more explosiveness to the toy by having it a little closer so he only needs to take a couple of quick, fast strides to it and can get the feeling of winning 🙂 When there are fewer distractions for him to process, you can add more distance and see if he can still leave you in the dust.
>>Also – we’ve been doing a bunch of resilience walks in lots of different places. Most recently at my cabin, where he got to do a ton of sniffing and exploring and other stuff with some support from Mochi (who literally takes everything in stride) and some on his own. He’s still a bit wary of some stuff, but he recovers really nicely, so I like that a lot.>>
This is great! And you can add in the pattern games from the resilience track. Those games are an easy framework for him to process new things in the environment and re-engage with you.
Great job here!!!
TracyGood morning!
The rocking horses looked great! Yay! Lovely connection and verbals from you, and she did a GREAT job of running past the toy in your hand (it was hard at first, she had a little hesitation, but then she had no questions) SUPER!
So… onwards to the advanced level where you start to decelerate and rotate earlier, so she is basically being sent backwards to the barrels. With her speed, you will probably need to spread the barrels out a little more so you have room to run forward, decel, then rotate. Remember on the backwards sending to look back at where you want her to go (to the barrel behind you)
If the weather is cooperating, you can also take this outside! Begin by re-creating what you did here, then try the advanced level outside too.
>>And at the end I let her take the toy and she brought it back! Woohoo!>>
That was super!! It is fun to see her asking to do more – and as far as we can tell, these games are not mentally “expensive” for her in the home environment so she wants more more more 🙂 Yay!
Great job here!!!
TracyGood morning!
>>Been practicing, just behind on videos. I’m sure these are all out of order and random, but by the time I organized them, i’ll be 3 more weeks behind!>>
I am glad you posted them! Practicing is more important than video editing so feel free to when you can and not worry about which order they are in 🙂 And it was fun to see the progression of skills.
She was a goat trick rock star! Love how she is able to be fast and focused, but also really specific about where she is putting her body. Yay!
I think you were waiting for hind end engagement on the fit bone, but it is a little over-inflated so she is less comfy about standing on it freely. She did get her hind end on it when you got her going back and forth and did stand on it – note how she was holding her hind end there, not full balanced into all 4 feet
So to get her to stand fully balanced on the fit bone, take out some of the inflation and even under-inflate it a bit. That will get her happy to have all 4 feet on it. Then, over time, you can gradually add more inflation to it and maintain the balanced stance.
She was offering some pivoting on the fit bone – so you can jump ahead to the perch work/pivoting game posted on Tuesday. Since she was offering it, might as well add it in!
Plankrobatics looked super easy for her. Nice reward placement from you to encourage her to get all 4 feet on at the beginning. To get her to turn around on it without jumping off to turn around on the flat, try a slow moving cookie lure to jumpstart the behavior. If she still finds it easier to jump off, turn around, then jump back on (clever LOL!) you can add another plank next to it, so it creates a double-wide playing space for her to turn around on. If you don’t have another plank, you can add pretty much anything to create a wider playing field – the fit bone could totally work for that!
Wing wrap foundations with the toy went really well – she loves the toys and did a great job going back and forth especially when the barrel was a little further from you. There was one moment when she went behind you but that was the direction she s facing, so it was more efficient to go behind you LOL! On the other reps, you had her a little more turned to face the barrel.
Bummer about the doorbell interrupting the session! But since it went so well, you can go to the next step with the toy which is to see if she will offer going around the barrel without you tapping the toy first: get her tugging like you did here, then keep both toys stationary until she takes a step or two around the barrel – then the other toy can come alive for tugging 🙂 How is she doing with cookies with this game?
Strike a post is looking great too. When you said yes I don’t think she quite knew where to look for the treat at first, so moving the cookie clarified that for her really well. Her target hits looked good and your reward timing & placement looked lovely, so onwards to the next step: getting you closer and closer to standing up. Because she is little, the best next step would be to have you sitting on a couch or chair – at that stage, she might not be able to really hit the target without jumping up, so you can start fading out the target hit in favor or her using it as a visual aid to slide through the serp (we have to fade out the hit eventually, so with the smaller dogs we fade it sooner).
You can also add a reward target (like a food bowl or manners minder) so as you get change your position, she doesn’t start looking up and she keeps looking at her line.
If she is happy with you sitting, you can move to standing 🙂
The front cross around the Home Depot barrel looks good! As you send her too it, add a little more eye contact so she knows to stay on your send she (and not possibly come in front of you to wrap the other direction).
Since she really loved the toys in your other wrapping video, you can totally use a toy with this game: tie one of her favorites to a longer toy so you can drag it for her to chase when you reward 🙂
Nice job on the wing and the blind crosses here! You can see that the extra connection on your send to the wing (especially when she is turning to her right, which might be the harder side for her and on the previous video) really helps: at :28 and :34 you looked forward a little too soon and that turned your shoulders a little away from the wing. Compare that to :38 where you had more direct connection and maintained it longer, so she got the commitment to the wing really nicely!!!
Nice connection on the exit 🙂 You were really working to get that clear connection on the exit! She really lit up when the toy came out so you can definitely use a toy for this game too! Even though it was a long toy, you can make to longer for her by attaching it to another long toy so you can drag it around for her to chase and grab.
Since her wrapping skills are looking really strong… have you decided what you would like to do for your wrap verbals? She is ready for you to add them. Do you have wrap verbals with your adult agility dog? If so, I recommend using the same ones (for the sake of trying to remember them LOL!) Or, you can add new ones for her – because she is going to be really fast, I recommend a wrap verbal that indicates a wrap to the left, and a different one that indicates a wrap to the right. A short, fast word like “check” or “dig” are popular choices (and very easy to say when you are running :))
The turn aways are looking really good too – super nice job using a low and slow arm movement. One suggestion here is to get your leg more involved: keep your feet together until she just about arrives at your turn hand, then have your leg and hand move back together to help create the turn. Your leg was back a bit too early on most of these so getting the tun was a little harder.
The most perfect use of your leg here was at 1:22-1:24 after you added the prop: note how your feet were together until she got about got to your hand, then you did a big step back as you started the turn. Lovely!!
When adding the prop – she loves her prop! Yay!! And it cracked me up to see the cat supervising 🙂
She did really well ignoring the prop to come to your hand – that is HARD because the prop has so much value! You can shake the cookie hand a bit to make it more obvious (the motion will catch her eye more) and using the toy to get her ramped up really got great a snappy response! Love it!!
She looks ready for the advanced level with the tandem turns.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>How do you take your adolescent male dog on a resilience conditioning walk without him lifting his leg on everything?>>
This is a fantastic question!!!!
>>I want to let Mason explore and sniff things, but he pees on everything he sniffs. This causes me to pull him away from things and tell him to leave it, taking away his agency. Should I only do these walks in open spaces and not let him approach/sniff anything except trees and shrubs?>>
You are correct – trying to manage where he urinates does take away his agency, so the walk becomes more about pee habits and management and less about world-watching and resilience.
It seems like leg-lifting is part of his world exploration and that is pretty normal. I personally don’t mind if my boys lift their legs to pee on pee-appropriate things like trees or a fire hydrant 🙂 so yes, I suggest limiting the resilience walks where he has a lot of agency to places there you don’t mind if he pees on things. So, that can be along a tree-line, or at a park, etc.
And when you are closer to man-made objects where he might be interested in lifting his leg, you can do the resilience walk from further away. And if you are close enough that he can possibly lift his leg, then yes – it is not a resilience walk so you can work on a pattern game, or doing little tricks, etc, so he is learning what to do (engage with you!) instead of leg-lifting.
Bear in mind that for many dogs, male and female, urinating is a sign of arousal/stress in that environment. So we don’t want to add to it by telling him is wrong for expressing how he is feeling. But we can help him with the pattern games, tricks, play, etc and that will help eliminate his interest in eliminating LOL!! And it will give him alternate behaviors in those environments (engage with you rather than engage with the environment).
Let me know if that makes sense 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
I love that you trained along with the class – so cool! She did great!!!
She did really well with her backside rep on the first video! She zipped right to the backside!
On the 2nd video I think she got mad because you were not ready at light speed so she grabbed the jump ‘bar’ LOL!! She is so smart and ready to do things that she doesn’t want to give you the extra half second to be ready (See below about ‘patience cookies’ 🙂 )
Nice adjustment on the 3rd video to have something that was not as much fun to grab so that rep was great and her tugging was great too. And good to know that the pool noodle can also be used as a tug toy 🙂
Because she is so quick to start, you can add patience cookies to help her understand that the start is cued and not offered. On this skill, you can line her up on your outside arm (in this case, it would be your right arm) so she has a straight line to the backside of the barrel (rather than coming across your front a bit to get to it then turning away). That will allow you to also do the advanced versions, where you move to position 2 and position 3 (further and further across the bar and away from the barrel). Ideally, you can use a cookie to line her up at your side, then the toy as the reward – it will let us know how she feels about going back and forth between food and toys! And if her belly is still a bit touchy about treats, low value bland treats can help or you can use tugging to line her up.
>>Djinn is in an “attack everything in sight” phase, and also seems to have built value in “if the person puts something on the ground, I should interact with it” >>
She has a lot of motivation to offer behavior which is great! That is why a cookie to line her up can help teach her that sometimes she lines up before offering behavior and sometimes she has to wait for the human even though humans do not do things at light speed LOL!
And, where possible, you can put the item to offer behavior on down after she is position to start. That works better with the prop, for example, but won’t work as well with the barrel – that is why the ‘patience cookie’ can help.
>> I wanted to share the blooper because it shows her “parkour” behavior too – yes she seems to thing that’s what I want but she also does this all the time off the bed/couch/stairs/anything. Great for the future but right now I’m trying to discourage jumping on things and launching off them to protect her joints – open to your suggestions!>>
Yes, I can TOTALLY relate, I spend a lot of time each day making sure my teenage whippet doesn’t break himself LOL!! Any time I have a puppy or teenager in the house, I add protective measures to their world like extra portable gates (so they can’t go flying off the stairs, or leap on and off the couch) and I have so many yoga mats on the floor to prevent sliding into things as he goes zipping around the house (I have wood floors so they get covered). So you can ‘bubble wrap’ her a bit by adding gates or blockers (I have also used those tri-fold cardboard presentation boards you can get in the office supplies aisle at Walmart for 50 cents 🙂 ) It is annoying and ugly for a while, but I keep reminding myself that annoying/ugly is better than the puppy breaking himself LOL!
And of course try to direct her into better activities in the house like chewing on bones rather than parkouring, but active pups also need some bubble wrap for a while because more appropriate activities don’t seem as fun as parkour LOL!
Her head turning is going well: I think this might be a better cookie game for her because you can sit on the floor and use a cookie in your hand to turn her away, eventually just using a hand ‘flick’ to get her to turn away rather than the full hand movement. That will eliminate the need to find a shorter pole 🙂
You can practice that little hand movement without the pole but sitting on the floor and just using cookies to get her to turn away in a circle on a hand cue. I think she will like that! And then you can add the pole back in 🙂
>>about the winter camp that was advertised – if I bought one spot, could I try it with my older dog and if she’s not ready yet (we’ve only been working on herding competitions, no formal agility training) would it be ok if I switched back to Djinn for the videos?>>
Absolutely! And for your older dog, you can do the ‘puppy’ track which would be a good foundation for future agility 🙂 And Djinn will love the energy and movement of the games (and might tire her out enough that she doesn’t parkour around your house LOL!! I love that your dogs are so versatile!!!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
>>He is less interested in the toy lately especially if we are using food & the higher the value, the less interested he is. I am running across the room with the toy so that helps.>>
I see what you mean on the first video where the possibility of food on the plank outweighed the tugging. He did get right back on the toy when you took a tug break, which is great! Running to a toy spot totally helped 🙂 You can keep using those long toys (further away from anything associated with good if needed to get engagement) and you can also do lower value treats when training at home.
He was happy to get on the plank and easily turned around on it, even when it was a little elevated! You can elevate it a little more as the next step too, with both ends off the ground – it might bounce a little but I think he will be fine with that.
Serp on the jump looked really good, he really smacks that target LOL! And he was driving directly to it. Keep your shoulders totally still until after he gets the reward (because when running serps, your shoulders would remain in serp position).
Two next-steps for this game:
– add a reward target on the ground, so he can go directly to it after serving (rather than deliver from your hand). It can be an empty food bowl that you plop a treat into, or a MM, or a toy – whichever he will like but will also be able to ignore in order to do the serp over the bar first
– when he is happy with the reward target on the ground, you can start fading out the actual hit of the target. You can have your hand start to be a little higher and also use your reward marker/present the reward right before he actually touches it.On the get out video – he does indeed love his prop and that it great! He did well here! Because he is so small, the hand cues are harder to see so he was cuing off your motion/proximity to the prop. Adding more distance will make it easier for him to tell the difference: put a line on the ground about 8 feet away and stay on the line for both the get out and the stay on the line reps – that way proximity to the prop will not be the main cue.
For the hand/arm cues: when cuing the get out, use a lower arm (waist-height) so he sees it better and point it at the prop. The get out arm was above your shoulders and pointing out ahead, so I am not sure if she saw it. And for the stay-on-the-line reps, don’t use an opposite arm 🙂 That can get confusing in this game as to if it is a get out cue or a threadle. So you can use your dog-side arm for those., which will help make things look really different. And a lure in that hand is totally fine but I think the added distance will help.
>>I wasn’t sure how to proceed after a mistake other than a restart cookie.>>
Yes, a reset cookie is fine there – he didn’t have a lot of questions and was overall very successful!
Great job 🙂
TracyGood morning! Happy holidays!
There was a lot happening here but a lot of it was super good!!!He did really well with the tunnel!!!
Tunnels are hard for Berners because they have to squish down to get in and go through, so it is a collection behavior for him (as compared to a dog half his size, where the tunnel is an extension behavior). So when working tunnels, you can move the MM further away (about 10 feet away) so he can run more when he exits, since running is a great reward after collection.He did a great job ignoring the MM too, because that is HARD! The cookies in your hand can be higher value than the MM cookies, to help him come right back and line up after getting the MM cookies.
The threadle side looked good too when he was close to the entry. When he took the wrong side when you were a little further back/closer to the exit, you can still reward that because he wasn’t necessarily incorrect – then make your position easier so he has more of an idea of which side you want. Adding the tunnel threadle verbal will really help him differentiate
The cookie line up and cues on the first rep were perfect.>>1. The session made me realize Obi is not a fan of being held by the collar and positioned (before the video starts). So I switched to asking for a line up next to me and rewarding with a cookie for that. >>
I think you made an excellent adjustment to use the cookie to line him up – that first rep on the video was perfect! Most dogs prefer to line up *then* have us take their collar. They really don’t love being moved around by the collar, which might be what you experienced. So keep using the cookie to line him up.
>>I’m planning on working on collar asks and having him move while I hold the collar with two fingers (we haven’t done much of that). What do you think?>>
Yes! You can reward him for coming to an empty hand next to you, then reward him for letting you put a hand on his collar. Then when you hand is on his collar, you can reward him for walking with you as you hold his collar. He LOVES cookies, so I am thinking he will love this approach. And, always do a hands-free approach to moving him to position, so he doesn’t get any icky feelings from the collar holding.
>>2. For toy reward he far prefers and really leans into tugging with a toy that has food in it. I would like to have him be excited to tug with anything eventually. Any advice on how to transition to toy only tugging in exciting places? >>
He was *awesome* with his tugging here! Two ideas for you:
I think there was food in the lotus ball that he was tugging on, so you can flu the script a little and have him tug on it and *then* put the cookies into it. That way he is tugging on an empty lotus ball to get the cookie.
You can also get the craziest hairiest furriest toy and attach it to the lotus ball tug you have here – that can help transfer the value of the lotus ball to a ‘regular’ tuggie 🙂
And you can also attach a regular tuggie to a flirt pole or long line and slide it around on the ground for him to chase – he might love that too!
And since his tugging on the lotus ball toy was so good, you can definitely keep using it! It doesn’t really matter what toy he tugs on, as long as it is motivating and reinforcing for him 🙂
>>3. Obi’s arousal/excitement is all jumping up (you can see him trying to take me out). >>
Yes, I felt your pain when he body slammed you at 1:08. I literally said “OOF!” and my dogs started barking LOL!!!
>>Any ideas on how to channel this? He at least shows self restraint and doesn’t bite into me (we got there by me stopping play and leaving the room/going behind a barrier when he grabbed me).>>
Good for you for setting the boundary of “no tooth hugs, sir”. It seems like he has learned the arousal regulation on that, thanks to the ‘game over’ approach.
To help eliminate the body slamming, a couple of ideas for you:
– give him a ‘bridge’ from the shaping or whatever you are training, into the higher arousal tugging moment. What I mean by that is you can use a bit of decompression from the arousal of the training moment by tossing treats in the grass, or using a snuffle mat – then casually bring the toy out and start the tugging. It seems like if he is already in higher arousal AND then you get exciting and bring the toy out like at 1:06… BOOM! Body slam. So that bridge moment will help him regulate himself and NOT slam into you. You can also do the bridge at the start of a session if he slams you in those moments: rather than whip out the tug and just start, you can begin with a snuffle mat or cookies tossed into grass… then bring out the tugging. That helps us gradually bring up the arousal rather than have it come up all at once.
You did one of those bridge moments at about 4:05 – a sit, he had a little sniff moment (not sure if you tossed a treat or not, but you can definitely toss the treat to get the sniff because the sniff helps settle the arousal) – then you did a strike marker and onwards to great play without slamming.
– Practice the up and down arousal regulation with the volume dial game posted last night – perfect timing for our teenage puppies LOL!!! And you can maintain the same boundary as you created with the biting: if he slams you, game over/ He can jump near your… but body slamming causes you to walk away like you did with the biting. That is a last resort, though – the bridge moment between the training and the tugging (or before the tugging at the start of a session) should really help!
And as he gets more mature and less adolescent, you will see him get better and better at arousal regulation so he will have an easier time not slamming you 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
