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Yay for smoother lines!!! Can you grab a video of the switch away on just the one jump? I want to see what she reads so we can then apply it at a distance. Just one jump is fine; I know it is 150 degrees out right now!!
T
Hi!
Thank you for the update! The video is looking really good!
SUPER nice blind cross 2-3 at :06 and :17!! Lovely!! Smooth, fast, and connected šOne thing we are going to start talking about in CAMP this summer is being the āwindowā of commitment where you know you can then go to the next thing. Basically – he will cue you that he knows what you want, so you can go do the next line š This will help spins, sends, etc.
For example, a suggestion for seeing his commitment on the spins and any send with a countermotion (where he has to go one way and you have to turn and run the other way, like at jump 4 on this sequence):
Keep moving towards it, decelerating, until you see his feet lift off the ground. Then you can finish the spin š At :09 you did the decel and spin all at the same time, so he didnāt go to 4 (he never got his feet lifted so he didnāt cue you yet LOL!) The rep at :19 was MUCH better where you sent to 4 for longer and then started the spin when he was taking off. He committed nicely!
So if you know to keep connected to him until you see that, the bloopers like at :09 will go away.
There is a similar commitment window on jump 6 for the wrap to 7: I think you wanted a slice there, but he ended up doing more of a wrap. So you can keep moving towards the slice wing of 6, decelerating & saying your verbal – when you see his feet lift off for the slice, you can run to 7 š I think you were trying to leave too soon here which is why he was not sure.
It is easy to leave too soon or rush with a really fast dog like Timber, so looking for the moment where he cues you to go to the next spot will really help!!!
And for now, the feet up is easy to see – my guess is you will end up seeing an earlier cue from him, such as looking at the jump š
Great job! Let me know what you think!āØTracy
Hi!
Doing serps and threadles in the same session does get complicated! I see what you mean that sometimes it was hard for her to tell what you wanted – she was offering a lot of good stuff!! When she was having trouble with the threadle in the 2nd half of the video, I think that she just didnāt have quite enough room to fit in between the wall and the wing comfortably.
It will help if you clarify the mechanics, as you mentioned, so the main thing is to think about the things that will stay the same on both the serps & the threadles, and what will make them different.
The things that are the same for both are:
* Line up your belly button facing the wing for both of these
* Have your target hand fully extended away from you, elbow locked, so it it not near your leg.
* You are looking at your target hand as she starts to move towards you, rather than at her.
* You are one armās length away from the jump (you can touch the wing with a slightly bent elbow)
* You strike the pose and you donāt move til the pup is at the reward š
The things that are different are what tell her if it is a serp or threadle:
* Hand position: For a serp, your hand target is over the center of the bar. For a threadle, your hand target it outside of the wing so she can see it clearly
* Foot position: Pointing to the reward š You can also think of it as pointing to your non-target hand, or pointing to the line you want her to take – or pointing away from the. Target hand š
* Reward target is past the wing, in the direction you want her to go. At this point, definitely have a reward target on the ground, like a toy or food bowl or Manners MinderSo the first thing to do would be to get into the belly-button-facing-the-wing position. Then decide if you want a serp or threadle, and that will tell you where your hand and feet go š
Then you can plan to do maybe 2 of one, then switch to 2 of the other, and so on. She reads them well already, so it is a matter of you choosing which one and having super clear position.
Let me know of that makes sense! You are on the right track :)āØ
Tracy
I will look and see if I have videos, but to introduce it: start by using it as a giant target without the noise or the gears or the beep. Put a cookie in the bowl and let him go eat it a few times in training, so he gets used to seeing it.
If he is happy with that, you can turn it on but turn off the beep part of it – that way he only hears the gears and not the loud beep.
Start him 10 or 15 feet away – you can click it so the gears grind and a a treat drops into the bowl, then send him to it. He will either think it is the best thing ever in his world, or he will think it is weird. If it is the best thing ever, you can start using it (but without the beep). If he thinks it is weird, keep sending him to it from a distance til he isn’t worried about it (but not using it in training yet).
When he is happy with the gears grinding, you can add the beep on a low volume, repeating the process of starting him far away, clicking the MM so it beeps and grinds and drops a cookie into the bowl – then send him to it.
I recommend using really great cookies at first, so he falls in love with it š
Let me know how it goes!
TracyHi! You aren’t doing anything wrong at all! You are starting a really hard skill with a baby dog š
2 ideas for you:
leaving the jump where it was at the end of the session, you can start the next session with the tunnel there but turn the entry and the exit down to the ground so she sees the body of the tunnel but can’t go in either end of it. That is a lot less distracting and makes the jump more visible. You can see a version of that here in Ramen’s first layering session:
You won’t want to reveal the tunnel til she easily finds the jump past it.
Also, lower the bar. I know 16″ is not that hard, theoretically – but it really is! If you look at Josie’s video, she is an adult dog who is experienced and even she was having trouble coordinating the mechanics to jump the jump š So baby dog Chata is likely having the same WTF moment on the processing LOL!! So, use a 10″ bar so it is visible but really easy to get over.
Let me know how it goes!
Tracy
Good morning!
He was doing a really good job finding his jumps here! This video is a good compare & contrast for the reward placement:
With the toy, you might notice he was looking at you a lot hereā¦ it was because all rewards were delivered from your hand so you couldnāt be all that lazy with the toy. So definitely throw the toy rather than tug from hand, but I find it more efficient to use food for this game š
Note the difference when you went to the food – he looked at you a lot less and looked at the jumps a lot more, so you could have a nice lazy stroll and he did the jumps š He didnāt really seem interested in the thrown bumper, but that might have been because there was a lot of food in the picture there. He seemed to think the rep was over after a cookie toss, so he would come to you – that is fine, because you can easily build up to all 3 jumps in a row.
>>I also have 2 videos of MaxPup 2 exercises that we worked- let me know if it is OK to post them>>
Sure! Post āem up!
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
You TOTALLY did the right thing with the teeter!! It was a good session and he was very resilient to the unexpected moments at the start.
He didnāt look too worried when he fell off (happy body language, trying to get back on) but I do agree with your assessment that he was offended by being picked up – that was when he looked worried (as your reward arm came towards him to give food on the next rep, he was moving away: āDonāt pick my up, mom!ā)
He got over that pretty quickly thanks to the fabulous treats you were using to help and you were helping him turn around – so he was only slowing down to get the food you were offering to make sure he was not going to fling himself off the teeter by accident LOL!
The tunnel to wings looks really good and I agree that it is coming together!! Baby dog is growing up (they are REALLY young!). And he was playing with a toy – super!!
You did a great job here of placing the wings close so he could easily lock onto them and no turn to look for you. And then finding the jump looks good too! The tunnel-wing game can easily be put into the Winginā It context (the first game). And yes, I think he can do the Lazy Game – have the jumps really close together and see how he does.Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
You two looked great in the live class!!!
The one step sends are going well – he seems to have no questions anywhere about going to the wing on one step, even when it was further. And adding the left/right was pretty easy for him too – the rights were all perfect. He had a question on the left at :56 but it looks like that was because you looked forward for too long, which acted like a disconnection so he came off the line. You supported it better on the next left reps – too a moment to get the timing of the FC but the last couple were great! Yay!
So 2 ideas on this:
Yes, keep working the left turns, those seem harder than the right turns and also see harder to him than the left wraps.
Also, he comes out of the tunnel looking for the line which is great – but to balance that, be sure to sometimes do a FC before he goes into the tunnel and call him (both happening early enough for him to see/hear it) so he comes out of the tunnel looking for you when cued.
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
The super lazy pinwheel looked good – a nice shady stroll LOL! He was re-engaging with you after the cookie toss rather than staying on the line, but that is ok, because you can build this up to all 3 in a row. He might have just thought of the cookie toss as ārep over, time to resetā. And when you didnāt reward, he did all 3 jumps – no problems at all.He was looking at you the tiniest bit but that is mainly the lack of motion so you throw the reward super early. You can move on to the next games now (like the bonus game from yesterday) and we can revisit this if it is needed in the future.
Nice work :)āØTracyHi!
>>So to be clear, you teach a verbal for a wrap right and a wrap left regardless of where the handler is in relation to the dog?
Yes. Because my dogs are so much faster than I am, they were frustrated when the verbals were turn towards me and turn away from me, because they had to first figure out where my slow self was LOL! But with the left/right directionals, they were happier because they didnāt need to rely on my foot speed.
>>TIGHT, which means jump and wrap the wing toward me, and SWITCH TIGHT, which meant jump, turn away from me, and wrap the wing. >>
This is what I used to do.
>>However, it sounds like you teach the different wrap verbals always based on left and right for the dog, regardless of where the handler is?
Yes, because I am slow LOL!! I do have a āswitchā cue as well but I use the to ask the dog to turn away from me in a layering context.
Tracy
Hi!
The wraps are going really well!!! Good job with your very clear mechanics – you were connected and methodical and he was nailing it. Super!!!! He was going faster and faster too. So now you are ready to add your wrap verbals, and I think he is also ready for you to start using taller barrels (to her prepare him for when we start using wings).
The backside slice is also gong well – he had a lightbulb moment on the 3rd (aha! I go to the backside!) and that is when he started staying out on his path even as you got further away. Yay! So as you start moving u the line here, you can start saying your backside slice verbal to name the behavior. And you can very gradually start moving further away from the barrel too (and as with the wraps, you can move to a taller barrel to help the transition to using wings).
>>Having trouble moving beyond position #1.
By the end here, you were basically in position 2. So keep moving over gradually and he will keep building up the distance .
The backside slice to the left is going well too! It was a short video so you didnāt get quite as far away, bt that is fine: you can do each rep as one more inch further across and you will be in position 2 and 3 pretty quickly. As with the right side slices, you can start to add the backside slice verbal.
Head turns:
The mechanics are the hardest part of this for sure! You were definitely on the way to getting them smoothly: at :57-1:00 you used your left hand to send him then turn him away: that turn away was especially good here! 2:22 was also basically perfect.
You had the right idea by using the same hand (dog side hand) to send and turn him, so now move the hand more slowly: send then have the hand move slow to your opposite knee, then slowly flip him away (like at :59 and 2:22 When your hand was too far away, he was unsure, so I think having your hand on your opposite knee will help get his attention really well – then he can follow that hand through the turn. You are on the right track, and he got lots of good clicks for the head turn!Threadle 1:
He did a lot better coming in for the threadle when you exaggerated looking down at the target (if you were looking at him, he ended up on the front side of the jump. So you can exaggerate that even more: as he starts to move towards you, let him see you shift where you are looking from his eyes to the target – that should draw him right to it and then you will get the threadle behavior more reliably.>>I would like to introduce Manners Minder here. Any suggestions?
We can definitely add the MM! How does he feel about it in general? If he likes it, you can put in on the opposite side of the jump bar, just past where he would be landing if he was coming over the bar after coming in for the threadle.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>I realize we are almost at the end of the course and Iāve not posted in weeks. Iāll just say itās not been going well but Tina talked me off the ledge and told me to get you some videos! So here goes.>>
We still have a month or so – Iām glad you are back to posting! We all have crazy times with our pup at one point or another, so this is normal and we will get you through it!
>>I went away for a week and when I came back I seem to have lost all connection with Brisket (we had some issues before I went away but not this bad).>>
That is probably a result of the stress of you going away – she just needs a bit of time to settle back in. This same thing happened to a friend of mine with a 6 month old puppy: she was away for a week for work, and when she got back it was like the puppy didnāt even know her. It took about a week for things to return to normal. And this friend is a professional animal behaviorist, so she recognized it as a stress response (and tried not to get frustrated with her pup LOL!!)
>>Previously, I had used pattern games to get her out the door somewhat calmly and then tossing treats in the grass, but she is so distracted by the birds that she doesnāt even look at me for me to begin the game. >>
What types of treats are they? Mayne they need to be higher value? Or, does she like balls? Maybe tennis balls or something will work better when there are birds around? Birds are super distracting for a bird dog, so you can use the highest value reinforcement you can find. Feel free to experiment and see what works.
>>Tugging is a nightmare ā she gets super over-excited (youāll see in the one video) so I either avoid it or have to try to be really calm. >>
Looking at the video with the toy (tug/toy retrieve):
She definitely likes that toy and it is super high value. She is able to trade for food but then grabs the toy again immediately. This happened a couple of times and got a bit worse when you took her collar.I think there is a little tiny bit of resource guarding perhaps when the toy is involved (she wants to possess it) and then when you try to take it, she gets over-aroused and comes up at your face. You are NOT crazy to think this is TOO MUCH – you are correct! Eek!! So, thank you for getting this on film and a few ideas for you:
– you mentioned that you didnāt know what you did to cause it, and the answer is you didnāt do anything to cause it! She is just struggling with arousal and a little bit of guarding the toy (resource guarding it can manifest as leaping at you like she did here).
– there is no need to use tugging in her training games if she is doing the leaping thing! So, take the toy out of the training games and just use food and lotus ball/food carriers or a tennis ball for now – no tugging. We can add back the toy eventually when we sort it all out, and she has fabulous food drive so you can do all of your training with food! I think you will be happier that way š
– separately from training anything else, do short little tiny sessions with the toy. Set a timer for 30 seconds. Get a little bit of tug, then trade for cookies. Instead of trading for one cookie that you hand to her, you can scatter 4 or 5 cookies on the ground. Do that maybe 3 times then be done with the session – that way she gets to practice regulating her arousal with the toy (which is a good life skill anyway!) and you wonāt get climbed on or jump on or bitten!
>>I figure I need to get her to work with me before I can work on any of the handling games.>>
Does she leap up at you when you use food? If not, you can totally use food for the handling games š If she does leap at you like that for food, let me know and we will plan. Short fun sessions with super high value food might be the best plan for now.
>>These videos are simple words, patterns and also trying out the retrieve. Didnāt go well. >>>
The simple patterns and words went great! The first words video went well, and he pattern game went well too! She is a focused girl with good, especially when the food is moving. She also did well with the leg bumps! You had lots of fun little games here, ike the get it and the stays for the ācatchā cookie!
And on the 2nd video, she was great with the āsnacksā from your hand and the get it tossed treats. Both videos were really good! She had a little trouble sitting with you on the ground, and things worked best when you also gave her a hand cue.
The retrieve/toy video was not great but that is not your fault – that is a behavior thing we will be working through.
>>I know my mechanics are horrible and my energy is usually too high so Iām trying to work on that, >>
I thought your mechanics were good and your energy was good too! You were not being crazy or frantic LOL!
The ball pit is a great decompression thing for her! Do you have a snuffle mat? That can have the same effect and is easier to carry around š With a snuffle mat, you can do a bit of tugging then let her snuffle.
After the ball pit, she didnāt really want to tug so you did the right thing by starting with a food pattern then doing the clicker shaping with the toy retrieve. This was a good session – you had her attention and you got lots of great clicks/treats in! You can probably hold the toy to get more mouth on it for the retrieve in your net session!
And yes, I also would have TOTALLY clicked that adorable stretch thing that she did LOL! I think the session went a bit too long because she was not as focused after 2 minutes, so set a timer for 90 seconds and see how it goes. But the best part about it? You used a toy and she did not lunge for it or lunge at you. SUPER!!
So, let me know if this makes sense: All puppy class training can be done with food or food toys, or shaping the toy stuff like you did in the clicker video. No tugging as part of āworkā because she is not able to regulate her arousal yet.
And separately, you can do a tiny bit of tugging then a treat scatter or snuffle mat – this will help her begin to regulate her arousal! And the short sessions will help make sure she doesnāt tip over and start lunging at you.Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
āØTracyPS – I love the boat video!!! Yay!
Your google doc is gREAT!!
You can rephrase things to be more affirmative, such as the ;art where you say “we must be doing ok”. Change it to “we ARE doing ok” š
>>Titles donāt necessarily equate to skill level.>>
THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS
Qs, titles, wins…. this has nothing to do with skill level!!!!!! Keep repeating it to yourself. I love that you wrote it!
TracyHi!
>>I did the self-talk activity. I found that the negative talk column was easier to come up with the other ones, not surprisingly!
So true! One thing you can do to help with the negative is remind yourself that our brains are wired for the negative biasā¦ thanks, evolution LOL!!
>>I donāt do this nearly so instinctually with myself, though!>>
Aha! So can you. Talk to yourself like you would talk to a student? Instead of talking as yourself to yourself, you can go into instructor-student mode and see how it goes!
>>Now I just need to internalize this so itās more natural than the negative talk!
Yes – practice builds plasticity, so you can build those new neural pathways!
Tracy
