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Hi!
One of my young dogs had almost 18 months(!) away from training due to a luxating patella that was originally misdiagnosed then had to have surgery, etc. So yes, I have ideas for you 🙂I recommend no MaxPup games – there is too much movement. Plus, if Seren is in any pain, we don’t want to build pain into the foundation sport games.
What I did with Hot Sauce was a lot of puzzles: all of her meals were in Toppls or Kongs, generally frozen. So she was VERY happy to stay in her crate or pen and work through those. And she did some of those food puzzle toys that should could use her front feet or nose to work through. I also recommend a snuffle mat, to hide some crumbs in. Sniffing is hard brain work and Seren will be exhausted!
I also made sure that she and I would have some quality alone time together – I sat in an x-pen with her on my lap, watching Netflix and giving her gentle massages or letting her chew a bully stick (all the other dogs were banished to their crates or another room so there was no chaos happening, and no jealousy)
I also found that Trazodone was a very helpful thing in the early days, especially post-surgery. It chilled her out so she didn’t require the same physical activity and was happy with the mental activity.
Does he like to shred things? You can let him shred up old milk cartons or paper towel rolls – just be sure to supervise while he does this so he doesn’t eat any of it.
Keep me posted about how he is doing!
Tracy
Hi!
Her wing wraps looked super lovely! Seems like she had no problem transferring to the wing – and you were getting great turns in both directions. Hooray for left turns that are now as strong as her right turns!!! (Remember back in November when the left turns were so hard? She is fabulous both directions now 🙂
You were leaving earlier and earlier, which is great (especially on the last rep!) You can play with starting further away, so you can do the FC and run the other way before she even arrives at the wing. And if you haven’t added the verbals yet (it was hard to hear), you can totally add your wrap verbals.
My only suggestion is to let her run through the toy rather than let her grab the toy – when she grabs it, she is letting her momentum swing her up in the air and there is a lot of torque on her spine. Letting her run through it gets rid of that – plus, as soon as it is in her mouth, you can turn and run the other way to work on the retrieve too! Yay!
>>How long to we have to post video?
Til February 28th 🙂 

Great job here!!
TracyHi!
Thanks for posting it – looking really strong! He seemed happy with the short and sweet collar grabs here before the send!
He is definitely turning to his left perfectly… and when he ended up on the wrong side of you at :13, it was because you looked forward a tiny bit (broke connection) so he read it as a blind cross to his easier side for the left turn. No worries – your response was perfect! You rewarded and then you made an adjustment to very strong connection and then he was perfect on his right turns too. Click-treat for you!!!!
The right turns will get easier but for now, keep making that really big connection, it really helps him.
>>I am working full time this week.
So training him just a little early mornings.>
Sounds good! We have til the end of February for posting 🙂
>>Spend time with grabbing collar and rewarding with food 1st then send to a tunnel.
He loves his tunnel by now. Still easy turning to the left and not as good to the right.
Will fix that.>>
Excellent! That is big progress in a short time. And I know he will get those right turns, he is doing awesome!!!
Enjoy your weekend! Great job here!
Tracy
Hi! I saw Muso’s daddy at a trial today! I didn’t actually get to see him run because I was running back and forth to switch dogs LOL!
I admit to being confused by the sound at the start of the video til I realized it was me in the soon class LOL!!!! But the session looked great – stay was lovely, parallel path was lovely, and I did a BIG HAPPY DANCE that she transitioned into the decel effortlessly. Nice collections! This is going to be so cool to build on and it will make great gorgeous turns so easy. There is not a lot to do with this game other than get her more stimulated with wild tugging, and revisit the skills 🙂
The German Turn/countermotion game looked great too. You really nailed the mechanics on just about all the reps so it was really easy for her. The right turns were perfect. She had a little trouble with the left turns, but that is normal in terms of one side being harder. You made a really good adjustment to just slow things down a little – you moved a little later and threw the toy really well, so she figured it out and the last 2 reps looked super strong. Start with the left turns on the next session and see how she does with those being first!
The lateral send session went well too. I think she moves SO FAST that she needs to see the cue sooner: instead of release *then* send (which was resulting in a slightly delayed response on most reps), you can lead out, point your leg and foot… *then* release. That way she sees the cue before she starts moving and has more time to process it. Just be sure that it is arm/leg, take a breath, then release, so that she doesn’t start to release with the arm & leg movement. I have a video of this somewhere, I will go dig it up and post so you have the visual 🙂
>>I thought the stays were much improved here.>>
Yes! Fabulous! There is a lot of control happening in these games and she was lovely with all of it, and maintained the speed & turns. YAY!!!
Great job 🙂 Have a great weekend, hope it is not too cold!
TracyOh no! I am bummed too!! You don’t know what it is? Hopefully it is an easy fix with some rest – sending healing vibes your way!!! Keep us posted <3
Tracy
She was so cute with her big rawr!
And I noticed all the right turns on the retirve video… so interesting because she is totally a lefty in other situations!Have a great weekend!
TracyHi!
>>In earlier reps, she really drifted on the parallel path & that would also be lack of connection.
Yes – one of the responses to lack of connection is that the pup might drift wide to look at the handler. Other responses include ending up on the wrong side of the handler (which is a good response!) as well as biting the handler 🙂 or sniffing 🙂
Thanks for the link! It looks like a program that is both strong AND afforable 🙂
Have fun!
TracyHi!
>> However, my Kromis have taught Casper how to bark. LOUD. UGH! And with all Casper’s energy, he thinks barking is super fun now.>>
You can totally put it on cue as a trick – super useful for engagement in distracting situations!!!!
>.( and I bet you are saying, wow, she has new jammies pants!>>
Ha! Pajamas are an important element of puppy training (and yes, I am still in my pajamas haha)
he had really nice tugging on the tiny toy at the beginning of the retrieve video and he 1000% retrieved the toy to you on the first rep! He didn’t run off with it on the 2nd rep, and definitely was bringing it towards you after that as well! It was great that you didn’t try to grab for the toy, so it seems like he never felt the need to take it away from you. Happy dance! And he liked your spider fingers tapping the floor too LOL!
I think this was all created through your pressure-less play. And the pajamas, of course LOL! Keep it up!
On the barrel video – he was definitely still pumped up for the toys! And he has good value for the barrel too. I think he was not entirely sure about when to offer the wrap versus when to look at the toy. You can give a cue to wrap the barrel by pointing your arm and leg at it (like you did at 2:22), so he has a bit more clarity of when he can mov away from the toys (or when he should obsess on the toys LOL!).
You can also add a ‘bite’ marker for when he should grab the toy in your hand – so when he wraps the barrel, you can say “bite!” then play with the toy. I have found that to be really helpful for teaching the pups when to “work” and not look at the toy, versus when the toy is available for grabbing.
Perch work looks great! You can alternate which side you toss the cookie too after each rep, so he starts to pivot even more (in anticipation of the cookie being tossed to the other side). He was stopping the center which was really goodm so you can toss the cookie to the other side of you and see if that convinces him to pivot past the center.
He was so funny during the sit session! He was not distracted by your hubby too much at all 🙂 I think the platform might actually bit a bit too small for him now – he has to sit rally tight to hold position on it, but that is physically demanding for him (it is actually something used in conditioning all the time). then when he got tired (muscle tired, not brain tired) he couldn’t quite get all feets on the platform for a good sit, and offered other stuff.
So, two things to help –
for the sits, make a bigger platform so he can stay on it even if his sit is not perfectly tight.for conditioning, keep this smaller platform and once a week or so, ask for these really tight sits – but only do about 5 reps at a time because it will be a conditioning exercises rather than a stay exercise.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
He is doing a great job of watchin the threadle cues here! Nice use of your verbal cue too! Your upper body was great, lots of connection and the threadle arm swinging back a tiny bit to bring him in. Try not to rotate your feet at all – try to keep your feet moving forward the whole time (very slowly, but definitely forward). You were rotating your feet on the first part (where he was coming to your left hand) and we want him to read the threadle cue on upper body and verbal, not foot rotation.
When you switched sides (he was coming in to your right hand), you did NOT rotate your feet and that was perfect! So try to make the left hand reps look just like the right hand reps.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
This one is the concept transfer of turn and burn moving to the wing – super! He transferred the concepts beautifully in both directions, maintaining his commitment while you left earlier and earlier. You can definitely add your wrap verbals (I don’t think you were using them but it was hard to hear).
There was one blooper at 1:56 when you tried to move away too soon, before he was fully past you. It was fine to try it and see if he could do it, he said it was too hard, so you changed your timing on the next rep. The interesting thing was his response to the error: jumping up, getting a little mouthy, etc. That is a frustration/arousal behavior that is pretty normal and also he did it again when you took the toy from him to line him up for the next rep.
We definitely want to help him regulate his arousal/frustration in those situations – so after a blooper like at 1:56, you can immediately use a reset cookie as you move back to the start spot for the next rep. As soon as you recognize that something has gone awry, you can toss a cookie on the ground with a ‘get it’ marker, go back to the starting point, then line him up again with a cookie – then do the next rep.
The reset cookies – especially being tossed onto he ground where he sniffs a tiny bit – will help him regulate internally and you should see far less pummeling you 🙂 And he is gets stimulated by the motion and the toy tugging and jumps up when you try to set up for the next rep (like he did at the end before the last rep), you can develop a little loop of tug – out – cookie line up – start the rep. That will help him line up rather than jump up. And I believe his toy play is strong enough that using cookies will not reduce the toy play at all.
One other thing that I notice – he is tall and fast (and getting faster :)) and the games are asking for gradually more speed, but the footing is a bit too slippery for him to run fast through turns. He is managing himself by holding his back feet together and being a bit more careful. It is entirely possible that having to do that was contributing to the frustration behavior/jumping up on you! And, as the games start going faster, we don’t want him to slip or have to get careful – fingers crossed that the snow melts and you can work him outside on these games! Or, any dirt or turf indoor places you can train in? He is just about getting to the point with this speed and understanding that we will start thinking about footing 🙂
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
Serps are looking good – your mechanics are good and he is happy to drive in over the bumps from all the different angles 🙂 Make sure you trust him and don’t overhelp by stopping to help him (at :51, for example, you kind of stopped but he didn’t need the extra help).He had a little blooper at 1:20 and 1:58 – I think he was going to do the serp in both spots but then you clicked the dispenser too early, so of course he went to the cookie LOL!! And if you click it too early, just let him have the cookie… it was human error, not canine error 🙂 And when you kind of dove on the treat to block him, he got a little hesitant. We want him to trust the click of the dispenser means that it is ok to get the treat, so if you click it wrong you can still let him have the treat : )
One suggestion: Be sure to stay connected as you move away from him in the first couple of steps of the stays. When you disconnected immediately, he would sometimes break the stay to follow you. So let him get settled into the stay an just maintain a little connection as you move through the serp line.
He did well here, so the next step would be to add a little more motion, and also the countermotion we added in the new games last night 🙂
Nice work!
TracyHi!
>>I did have a great couch day! With a long nap too.😉>>
Ahhhh, sounds like perfection!!!
>>I do think I have chained together coat, harness, car. So hopefully that will fade since I won’t put the stuff on anymore. I can put some super yummy freeze dried liver in the crate when I put him in the car so hopefully it’ll get better.>>
I am sure any connection will fade, because nothing aversive or traumatic happened 🙂 And I am sure the liver treats will help too!
>>That’s a great idea about having something he really loves after I put his harness on. I can do that at the training barn and then let him chase Dreamer though the tunnels. He would think that’s awesome fun!>>
That sounds great! As long as they don’t slam into each other 🙂 But yes: the sound of the harness clipping on should be immediately followed by a ‘go run around’ permission 🙂 Back when I used Gentle Leaders, I would have the sound of the clip act like a click: if the pup let me put it on, as soon as he heard the clip clicking I would then either throw a toy, or let him run, or let him dive into a bowl of food 🙂
>>I am bummed that this is the first year in years that we have so much snow and I can’t work on the backyard. But then again it’s a nice excuse to veg in the winter lol>>
Yes, snow is ANNOYING but hopefully winter gets over itself soon, so you can use your yard in March when the games get big and even more fun!
Tracy
Awesome! Thanks for finding the sizes!
I found the website, in case anyone wants to check it out:
The friend I was talking about last night in class used this during training with her young dog, so he could train and she wouldn’t have to worry about him grabbing mulch or mushrooms. The dog was a happy dude with it on, and could play with toys and catch a ball with it on. She would slide treats in through the side LOL!
Tracy
Good morning!
This was a really fun session to see – she drove fast to the ball each time, clearly she likes the ball a whole lot. But she was slow on the first return: “I got my ball, I chomp my ball, be back soon”. But you made it super fun to bring it back (cookies, play with the ball, praise, etc) so each return was faster and faster – no “be back in a moment” and not much chomping the ball. YAY! So definitely keep practicing these “ignore the cookies and get the ball” games – you can use a 2nd ball as a reward since she loves the ball, and you can also switch the balls out entirely to a different toy!
I think she turned to her right on all of these 🙂 Good to know! And a good reminder to be patient with left turns.
Was she mouth wrestling with you in the slow motion moment? Or practicing her dragon imitation? LOL! Nice teef happening there!
Great job 🙂
Tracy
