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Good morning!
Thanks for posting this! There are a couple of things that can help a lot – all of it is human training 🙂 Chase is doing great and providing fantastic feedback 🙂>I don’t want to obsess on it unless we need to deal with it if that makes sense.>
We need to deal with it 🙂 He is indicating he is frustrated and after some analysis of the video, I can see why! That also affirms that video is soooo helpful because without it, I don’t know if we would understand what was happening.
>It’s fairly minor now and of course you can’t “feel” the energy in the video. He hits harder he grabs the toy when not asked and he mainly doesn’t want to wait.>
I understand the energy and he gives really good feedback. This is frustration behavior that comes from two things:
– too much punishment
– Lack of clarity on the line up and start, especially if he is already frustrated>This happens when I first get him out. Usually we have 3-4 fails before we succeed. >
He is probably very excited, which is good! And you are not clear with your mechanics – so you are marking a lot of behavior as him being incorrect when really, he was doing the best he could with the info you were showing. Then if things improve, it is likely that your info is improving because that is what happened on these 2 videos.
>This can be skills he knows too. If I ask for tricks he’s wild about them too.>
Tricks probably come with really super clear cues without motion that could imply different answers to the cue. For handling, he can only respond to what he sees – so he was correctly wrapping that start wing every time. What was being marked as wrong was which side of you to go to… that was all handler error (connection). To get connected as you move, you needed the dog-side arm back and to be looking at his eyes very directly as he exited the wing.
When you did that? Gorgeous!! When you did not do that? He often ended up on the other side of you when you were moving. Those all got marked as him being wrong but actually… handler error.
Here are screenshots:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1GdKcWvrHGSz3OGTdI5sUwbNUORDCBtJDs1-2TyJcQRU/edit?usp=sharingMy philosophy is this: if the dog is told he is wrong about something in handling but then the handler fixes it by changing something with handling in the next rep… I don’t think the dog was the one who was wrong! Reward the dog!
And if the dog does the same behavior more than once and it is not the behavior we want… handling adjustments need to be made and watch the video. You did try to adjust by slowing your movement down at the wing, but then when you added the movement back you got the same behavior.
When a dog ends up on the ‘wrong’ side, it is super important to crank up the connection with the dog-side arm way back and BIG eye contact so the dog could see the new line.
On the first video, on the first 9 reps, he was marked as wrong 6 times (33% rate of success). And I don’t think there were reset cookies or anything, but even then the rate of success was low enough that it might not have helped.
All of the errors were connection bloopers (yours, not his :)) so you got frustration behavior: At :13 he jumped up for the toy likely because of your response to the error on the first rep – at :06 you turned away from the jump and disconnected to throw the toy, so he went past the jump. Even though he got the toy, the physical response indicated it was wrong (then video was edited so I can’t see what was next).
At :54 – the connection at the wing exit was not clear to show the side you wanted, but you said GO and he got the jump anyway, saving your butt – REWARD! You did not reward (that was the 6th indicator that he was wrong) so in that moment I predicted that he was going to bite you and sure enough, he jumped up at you at :59.
After that you did 5 quick reps that all got rewarded so that brought the session rate of success up to about 57% (as opposed to 33& when he jumped up) – it was better to end that way but overall we want closer to 90% rate of success.
On the 2nd video we can also see the connection versus lack of connection on the 2nd video (where we only see the wing) – at 1:37 your connection was not clear (he was marked as wrong). Compare to your adjustment at 1:48 where he saw much better connection and got to the sided you wanted. See above about my philosophy of handlers fixing things to get the correct behavior 🙂
On both videos, there is more clarity we can get on the line up and toy transitions. It is especially important to be very clear if he might already be frustrated (not that we plan to frustrate him).
He lines up well between your feet! You can use food rewards for that and use that a lot.
He doesn’t fully understand the line up at your side so you can do more of that with lots of rewards – and yes, when you were trying to get that he was trying to go to the wing but that is all frustration behavior from the low rate of success. He was frustrated because of the errors in handling and also in the 2nd video at :54 he was expecting the release (he was in that ‘ready’ collar hold for a bit) probably because it was the timing you normally release on, and everything in that moment said it was coming. If that happens, just line him up again between your feet, give a reset reward, then try again and and don’t make him wait so long LOL!
And you can also work on toy transitions: rewarding him for letting you lift the toy without him trying to grab it. That can be a cookie reward tossed to the side as you lift the toy, then call him into lineup position to make a clean transition into the next rep. That also means there will be 2 rewards that help offset any frustration (not that we want to frustrate him at all!)
And remember the 2 failure rule in handling: if the pup does something that is not according to your plan? Adjust the handling immediately to clarify the cues. If he does it twice? Watch the video. Freeze it in the moment of error: are you connected? Are you on time? Without stopping to sort it out, you might end up in a low rate of success which builds frustration behavior.
Let me know what you think! I am grateful that you posted it because analyzing the sessions that are harder gives us a lot more insight into what is happening and how we can help!
Tracy
What error are you seeing? It looks like YouTube was having a hard day yesterday – I saw errors on the YouTube site itself, and it took longer than usual for videos to load on this site. The first thing that came up was a YouTube error message, followed about 10 seconds later by the video. Hopefully that all goes away but let me know if you are still seeing weird things.
T
Good morning!
>They have two beautiful enclosed areas. >
Wow, what a cool thing to have access to and fantastic opportunity for young dogs!!
The pattern game went great here – new area, distractions audible in the background… she did really well! You can see the slightest delay in her engagement as the sound distractions amped up (sounds lime a dog was running in the trial ring) – that is an indicator of her brain processing it. Good girl!!!
You can bring her closer to the ring area and play this game. Since she will need to be on leash, you cookie tosses can be shorter (not as far from you) but it is a really valuable opportunity to get her closer to the ring environment.
The blind cross game looked great! As with the pattern game, she was exposed to trial noises and good smells, and earned lots of reinforcement for engaging and playing. Love it!
>Not taped we worked on toy races, and bringing her toy back.>
How did these go? She looked fantastic in the videos here!
Great job 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
>Morning sessions are always after breakfast. I just hold back some of her meal for training >
Good! I don’t like training hungry pups, they get a little frantic. I mean, I get hangry, so I can relate 😂
Because she is really young, we might need to experiment with you long after breakfast you train with toys. It is possible that her nervous system is in ‘rest and digest’ mode for a certain time after a meal, so food sessions make more sense to her brain and body. Toy play is in the more stimulated nervous system mode, so you can try it at different times of day that are further from meal times.
>I have 2 wrap cues: one to wrap to the right, one to wrap the left
Can I use 1 word for either direction? or does it have to be 2 different words?>Yes and no :). It really depends on what your agility ‘tastes’ are and where you think the future will take you in agility. What I mean by that is if your favorite parts of agility are the local flavors that we find in AKC and CPE, for example, then 1 wrap cue meaning “wrap towards me” is great – that course design almost always has the handler visible so a cue that says ‘wrap towards me’ will work great!
If you think your agility tastes will take you more into the UKI, ISC, or International styles, or NADAC with the big distances – then wrap directionals (each direction gets its own verbal) are highly recommended. Those flavors of agility have more distance where the dog will need to work independently so we use more independent verbals too 🙂
We are very fortunate here that we can pick and choose what flavors we like, just like ice cream LOL!!!
She did really well with the pattern game in the new location! I think part of what you saw was investigating the new area where she was finding all sorts of interesting things. She was able to return her attention to you pretty quickly though, making the session super successful!
>I used kibble that’s why there is a bit of a scatter while she is looking for the pieces. >
Were you throwing more than one piece? It was hard to see 🙂 She might have been looking for all the pieces, so throwing one piece will help her grab one then engage again. Yo can also keep the treats a tiny bit closer so they are easier to find. And a big visible treat will help too.
>Is this a bad habit that I am creating? Should I just keep it to visible treats? I>
I don’t think it is a bad habit, it is just a little inefficient 🙂 So one treat (especially visible ones) will really help.
The SSC game went really well!
>Looking back at this, my observations – started with the toys & jar too close to the prop? >
Based on her value for the prop and her responses here, I don’t think they were too close. And she was very successful!!!
>I should have preplaced the Novel object prior to? Not while we are in the session?> Does it matter if she sees me from confinement (crate or xpen) placing the Novel object?>
Yes, I think placing it without her seeing will make a difference. When she sees you put it down, that actually enhances the object and encourages her interact with it. So that made it a little harder to ignore at this stage.
If you can have it already placed off to the side, or put her in a crate/xpen for a few minutes, you will see even better ignoring of the object.
If you do put her in the crate and she sees the exciting object get placed, you can then let her see you place the prop to hit *after* that. Placing the prop after it will enhance the prop and draw her focus away from the exciting object to ignore 🙂
>I’m not brave enough to use a BAG of treats LOL!>
I bet you can put it on a chair to start with and she will do great!!
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Scholar is doing great with his games!!
I think he has the idea of the wraps – he was offering back and forth really well in both directions. Good boy!!!! And he didn’t seem to have questions when you moved the wrap object a little further away. The only delay was him chewing his treat LOL!!!
At 1:28 you moved it further away and when he was not quite correct you marked it… I think that actually distracted him a little and he had to take a moment for kisses LOL! So you can try being totally silent if he has a blooper (lack of reward will let him know it was not quite correct). And that will give him a moment to sort it out and wrap the object again.
Since this is going really well, you can add the next 2 steps:
– him wrapping a cone or a barrel or something a little bigger (I use a pop up laundry basket)
– you sitting on something a litle higher, like a low chair or inflatable ball or something. We are slowly but surely going to get you standing up, but because he is so small and young, we are going to do it very gradually.>For the hallway one I used a mini trash can as the neutral object and he could have cared less >
This is perfect! We want his brain to process and ignore a distraction, making it appear as if he doesn’t notice it. But we know his brain noticed it (he had t ago around it to get to you on a couple of the reps). He really likes the recall game and did well going from the start cookie to the tugging 🙂 You can take this game to different places with different novel-neutral items. And in a comfortable place, you can add in the next step of something a little more exciting to ignore.
Very nice transition from the tugging to the box shaping here! We can see him working his brain, I love it!! I cheered for him at 1:01 when you put the box back down and he got right into it!! Superstar!!!! And doubt cheer for when he got hs back end in towards the end of the session – good patience on your click to wait for him to offer!
And super nice job getting the toy play involved throughout the session. That is great for keeping engagement high and the shaping games exciting.You can see him responding to the reward placement here: you were delivering to his mouth, which he interpreted as “stay here”. Smart boy! Then at the end, you started tossing the reward and that was the ideal next step. It got him moving more in and out, which got more feet in the box ) Click/treat to you for remembering to add that!
So for the next session, start where you left off here with the tossed rewards. You can keep using the clicker if you like, or you can replace the click with a ‘get it’ marker then toss the reward.
>For the box, next time I will get things to make sure it doesn’t slip. I wasn’t thinking it would.>
If you have a big rug to play this on, it will allow you toss treats and he won’t slip and the box won’t move. I have a ton of cheap rugs and yoga mats in my house over wood floors, specifically for puppy shaping LOL.
You can also do a shaping session on a different object, like shaping him to get on a mat, or something low that is easy to interact with. And you can shape him to foot-smack (front feet) a random object too!
>I kinda feel like I combined two games into one with this.>
In a good way! You added the next steps and that is exactly what we want 🙂
>I am still trying to get down all of the first games before moving on.>
He is doing really well and the games build on each other, so you can totally add the next steps and new games 🙂
Great job!!
Tracy
Good morning!
I think we can clarify how you want to handle serps then it will be easier! The goal is to that you keep moving without rotating your feet: your feet are facing and moving towards the reward the whole time, and the upper body cues her to come in. That can be by swinging the dog side arm back, or using a cross arm – either will work as long as you keep moving forward.
Bella and I were surprised about the serp dance 💃 move on the very first rep and a :49 – it acted as a stop sign with both arms out so she didn’t think she was supposed to take the jump.
1:08 and 1:18 you used a cross arm which is fine and but more importantly, kept your feet moving forward to th reward. Yay! These reps were MUCH better about cueing the in-then-out of the serp and you kept moving – that made so much more sense to her.
I grabbed a few screenshots so you can see the differences:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1maGUCM5yLnxkS4MwsXEmmGYKmGqlK1GGO2ar5zZH2GI/edit?usp=sharing
She seemed to have no questions about finding the jump after the tunnel! Super! You can start adding motion where you are running ahead of her (can she still find the jump, or does she chase you?) and you can get in close to the tunnel exit and add more motion to see if she drives ahead too. And feel free to add verbals at this point.
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
Working on the scent stuff sounds like fun! And also it is really great to do with dogs. Does he love it?
>And I have supplies coming and time set aside to make wing jumps in the next week >
Perfect!! Send photos!!!
He looks so cute in his coat!!!!
The first session went really well – he was not sure at first of what to do after the exit of the barrel, but caught on really quickly.
You can say the Go Go Go sooner and get ahead of him even if you don’t have a lot of running room while waiting for the snow to melt. So as he is halfway around the barrel, you can already be moving to the jump and saying the Go cue. He was checking in a bit because your body was not moving but the voice was saying to move 🙂 If you are walking forward at a steady pace, the body will match the voice and he will blast to the jump.
>This is a little tight in this setting. I think I still see his questions on the rear crosses. If I understand correctly, I probably need to build drive to “go” more than practicing the rear cross?>
Yes, the main thing that helps get rear crosses is the Go drive – then it is easy for him to read rear crosses. What was happening on the video was you were waiting for him to pass you, and he saw you stop moving so he was waiting for you to move as permission to go to the jump.
I think his drive to the jump is strong enough that this rear cross game can wait til you can be outside – that way you can stay in motion and show RC cues with more space. He seems to have the concept here, but you both needed a little more room 🙂
So for indoors til the snow melts, you can do the GO and you can also skip ahead to the Mission Transition version to cue wraps – that will work in a small space too!
>Is it ok to use wrap verbals here?>
Yes! You can use them on the barrel and you can use them on the Mission Transition game too.
>It’s clear he doesn’t recognize “Ok” as a release. I could also use “toy” to chase a dead toy. I’m a little bit hoping he’ll figure out “ok” as a release with more practice. On the bright side, I’ve flopped from having a dog with no stay to one with a little excess stay.>
Do you mean when he was stopping at the barrel? I think that was more about him reading your motion. And no worries about having a little excess stay at this stage – it is much better than have not enough stay 🙂
Great job!!Tracy
Good morning!
I am glad you are having fun with the zig zags! Both of you are looking good 🙂 He entirely has the concept of it and you are cueing it really well 🙂 Yay! You can put a wing on the last bar so it gives the visual of a complete jump. The progression for this game is to add weave poles as the bars so there is a 3 foot distance, then eventually we overlap the wings with the goal that he bounces (and yes, the bar height does eventually come up).
But he is a little too young to work all the way to that, so put this game into the rotation of jumping stuff that we do tiny bits of. The next thing I would want to show him is different surfaces – I don’t think grass would be available in your area any time soon, but are there any ring rentals on turf you can do? You can take the very basic level of this to turf and see how he does.
Get out session: This is going overall really well, when you give a big dramatic cue for the get out. And the go-straight moments are lovely on both sides!
The bloopers were handler errors of being too late to start the cue or not connecting enough. Not connecting enough turns your shoulders to the straight line, so the physical cue looks identical to the go straight cue. When you are starting the cue as he exits the wing wrap and making the BIG connection so your opposite arm is visible… perfection! If you started the cue a stride or two after the wing wrap exit, or your did not show the connection/arm in a big enough way, it looked too much like a straight line cue so he looked at you (not entirely sure of what you wanted).
If that happens, you can keep him in flow and immediately send him back to the wing wrap and then make the get out cue even bigger 🙂 Stopping and not giving a reward makes it appear to him like it as canine error and it was human error 🙂
I grabbed a screenshot of a blooper moment and a great moment so you can see the difference:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1f3xFvmaNfyTFgHsC3jGnawuSYZcoKPonYM-jsppeHBI/edit?usp=sharing
>On the tandem turns, I could not figure out if it mattered with the wings whether the jump cups were on a specific side or not.>
It doesn’t matter, because sometimes tandems are done on the front side and sometimes on the backside of a jump.
>Brioche is not all that thrilled with this kind of work but maybe because we did this last and he was getting tired.>
He did really well! When you wrote that he was not thrilled, I thought things were going wrong but nope, things went really well! I think both of you found the cookie reps kind of boring haha😴 🥱
You were both much happier when you got speed and a toy involved!
It was really pretty clear when you wanted the turn away, using the dog side arm punching down and low, plus you changed your line really well. Yay! You might need to dip your shoulder along with that when things are going really fast on bigger sequences so that dog side arm is really obvious – you can add a lot more distance between the wings to play with more speed and also we will look at that when he is running bigger sequences too.
>He ate a gently cooked food this morning by Raised Right. Have not tried his raw yet. And now Benni had me up twice in the night. But he does have a history of GI stuff. Not fun.>
I wonder if it was just a very mild GI virus he picked up and now Benni has it? Fingers crossed he eats normally again.
And I am seeing the snow forecasts for your area…. UGH! We should have all stayed in Florida!!!!
Nice work here! Stay safe in the snow!
Tracy
Good morning!
>We did the serp work with jump uprights but all you could see in the video was my back.>
Did it go well, in terms of her finding the serp?
The parallel path through the uprights looks really strong! She was happy to run back and forth – her increase in speed in this session makes me think she totally understood it and enjoyed it 🙂
For next time: add the bump so she can look for a bar 🙂 and also add in your motion.
You can do 2 things with the motion: add more and more lateral distance, and also start right next to her so she drives ahead of you (thinking ahead to rear crosses).
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
These games are looking super strong! The feedback is mainly about moving to the next steps since everything is going so well.I agree, the rocking horses looked great! Your connection as lovely and her commitment was really strong!
As you build this up, you can add more distance between the 2 barrels. And you can add in being more upright – I think as long as you make the same lovely connection and use your Hallmark moments like you did here, you can be more upright and that will allow you to run more when you have more distance between the 2 barrels.
When she was starting on your left side, you did the full front cross and that looked fabulous!
You can also add in using the toy for this game – it will be a super fun reward and also it will help her learn to ignore a toy scrunched up in your hand as you send to an obstacle.
She was so funny running around with the prop LOL! Great job with your attention to the detail of where your feet were pointing on the get out cue!! These reps looked great (even with big noises in the background). Yo can add in moving along the line and delivering the get out cue – she seems ready for that!
Super job with the backing up – she appeared to be targeting to the mat (good job resetting her on it when she lost her train of thought for a moment :)) You can inch your way away from the mat during the session – that will very gradually add more distance while keeping her going straight back to the mat.
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
>she DID watch the tutorial video and seemed a bit stunned and in need of emotional support (hopefully this link works):>
OMG that is so cute! I feel like she needed a note pad and a bowl of popcorn LOL!!
>This little one blows my mind sometimes – the very first time I dropped the hamper on the ground, she offered to go around it both ways before I realized what was happening.>
She is a brilliant girl! So fun!
Parallel path: this went super well!
She did a great job finding it and you were able to add more and more distance. She had an easier time going to it on your right side and when your arms were relaxed at your sides on your left side. When your arms were bent at the elbow on your left side, she seemed to read it as an informal ‘heel’ cue, which makes sense if you have rewarded her at all for walking with you.For her next session, keep adding lateral distance like you did here. And you can also start right next to her and move forward with her, to get her driving ahead of you to get to the prop. That will set us up nicely for when we add rear crosses!
The blind cross Into the pivots went really well! She is reading the side change really nicely, and you are decelerating rally well so she can be nice and tight when you pivot. On the last rep you started adding a few steps of running through the blind which made the deceleration even clearer. Lovely! So keep adding in more distance so you can run more and decel more too!
Well done with the turn and burn game. Too! She turned really well in both directions – maybe slightly stronger to her right, but also really good to her left. And she maintained her commitment even when you were moving earlier – love it! Super!!!
She had a question at 1:50 and was not as clear about going to the barrel in that spot. I believe that was because you were pointing ahead of her and not looking at her as much as you were on the other reps, which turned your shoulders away from the barrel a bit. That is why she also turned. Good girl!
You can start adding wrap verbals as you send her – do you have a wrap verbal with your other dog? If not, we can sort it out for Macklynn 🙂
>I know there isn’t set criteria or a black & white answer here, but generally speaking what is a good starting point for determining when to lure vs let them process/shape the action? A lot of what we are going over here is fairly new territory for me, so please forgive the very basic question!!>
This is a fantastic question – not basic AT ALL!! It really depends on the dog and how they learn, and if we can ‘split’ the behavior into tiny pieces so it is easy to offer.
I almost always start with seeing if they will offer a tiny piece of the behavior when shaping with an object or something that is easy to offer behavior on. An example would be like shaping the pup to get on something. If it is a behavior that is more of a concept but doesn’t have anything specific to offer behavior with, I will start with a lure. An example of that is in the toy races game: we are shaping her to drive ahead, and the toy thrown ahead is a total lure, but it gets the behavior very quickly!
>The backing up is getting better, but she’s still preferring to go sideways sometimes – so I will revert back to lure in the warmup sets just as a reminder.>
You can start with a lure for sure. There are two other ways to get them to go straight during backing up:
– they need a destination like a mat to back up onto, starting close so all they need to do is step back onto it
– they go sideways when we use the same hand to toss the rewards, so they lock onto that hand and back up from it which makes things sideways 🙂 If you have treats in both hands and alternate which hand tosses the treat, the pups will go much straighter 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
Nice work getting her to the left turns here! She found it hard at first then got into the groove really well!
She was a bit in food mode for sure – she makes it clear when she is not interested in the toy or she needs a moment to think 🙂 It is perfectly fine to train the harder side with treats but also we can also try to get her playing more. Question – with this a the morning session, had she had breakfast yet? If she was hungry, she might not have been able to think about tugging. You can save toy games to times where she won’t be hungry, if hunger might be part of the challenge.
You can also separate the food to toys to food to toys process from the turn and burn game:
– using a favorite toy, just work right turns on the barrel (the easy side) for a few reps with the toy. No food anywhere 🙂 That will take out the challenge of ignoring food. That will also begin to help her associate the barrel wraps with the toy 🙂 Have you ever tried a fur toy with her? She might love that enough that it overcomes the challenge of ignoring treats.
And when you are using treats, use low value treats (if there is such a thing) and then run to the other room to get her chasing the toy: throw it, swing it around, etc so it is exciting and away from food smells 🙂
>I don’t “officially” have a wrap cue yet so I just started to say tight.
What is your wrap cue?>I have 2 wrap cues: one to wrap to the right, one to wrap the left. They are noises (so I can’t shout them in a moment of excitement haha). “Choochoochooo” is the wrap right cue and “tstststs” is the wrap left cue.
The pattern game is going well! This was an excellent place to start it. Your timing was really good. I didn’t know why she was sniffing so much at one point when she was on your right side but it looks like a treat rolled under the door? LOL!
She seems to think you wanted her to stay on the mat on your left side – she lined herself up in a stay there ca couple of times 🙂 so you can remove that mat so she doesn’t get confused at all.
You can add a leash to this game, because when you take it on the road she will be wearing a leash. Adding it at home will help you figure out how to hold it and throw treats, and get her used to wearing it while also engaging and moving a bit.
>Sure would love to do this in the GRASS! LOL!! I’m going to take this one on the road & use charlie bears, >
Yes – Charlie Bears or pieces of string cheese are very visible. I use this as a way to help pups understand how to find one treat in the grass then resume engaging with me.
>not her kibble like I did in this session, which caused alot of searching rather than grab & go – right?>
It is possible that she as having trouble finding the kibble and/or thought there was more kibble 🙂 And it is also possible that the searching was her way of thinking through the puzzle, and she will search a lot less after she sleeps on it 🙂
Backing up is going really well, I think she likes it!
You can call her back in to you after each treat , reward her for coming in – then say the beep cue and let her back up. That will help name the behavior. On some of the reps you were a little early with treat throw after the beep cue so she stopped to get the treat. You can say it then let her move backwards before throwing the treat. I think you will get the most backing up if she starts closer to you then you throw the treat pretty far back after a couple of steps 🙂
Great job here!!
Tracy
Hi!
This also went really well!
>my send hand is too high. >
I think it might have felt like your send arm was too high because he was looking at it a little, but that might have been more about him having to go past the magic cookie hand to wrap the barrel 🙂 And he did! Yay! Super!
>I did add a verbal.>
Yes! He was surprised on the first one but then he did great.
> I think lengthening the run out also helped to promote some speed.>
Yes to this too – he loved chasing you for the reward. The other thing I really liked here was that you were moving away to the reward line earlier and earlier, and he maintained his commitment to wrapping the barrel. EXCELLENT!!!
You can keep working on moving away earlier and earlier. We will be working up to you moving away as soon as he arrives at the barrel.
Great job on these!
Tracy
Good morning! This session went great!
I think he really liked the extra runway!! Good job getting lots of ‘GO’ reps mixed in, so he was focused on driving ahead. That definitely made the rear crosses easier and he did really well. Super!!!
>I do realize that I am still often throwing too late >
I think he really wants to watch you because he loves treats 🙂 so the timing was harder to get him to not watch you as much. A couple of ideas to get him looking forward even more, which will come in handy as he learns more grown-up skills:
– You can add a ‘get it’ marker when throwing the treat, so he is learning to look ahead even more.
– Another option is to throw the lotus ball – I think he will LOVE that. You won’t get as many reps in because it takes longer to re-load it, but the value of the thrown lotus ball will make the reps even stronger because he will want to drive ahead more!
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
>For my set up he had to walk past in going in for me to start >
What a sweet good boy to bring it to you!! Resetting with better treats, getting the game started, then tossing the toy so it was leaning against the wall worked a lot better. Yay! Having the toy in a less obvious spot will make it even easier.
The backing up is going well! You might notice that he was starting to back up on an angle after a couple of treats. That was because the treats were all coming from your right hand, so he locked onto the hand and backed away from it. Clever pup! So you can keep him straighter by having treats in both hands and alternating which hand tosses it so he doesn’t lock onto one or the other.
>Wondering when or if I should add cue?>
You can add the cue when he backs up several steps onto the folded towel without you needing to move your hands at all. I figure you will have this in another session or two!
Great job!
Tracy
