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Hi!
> The “boring” food….hmmm…unfortunately there is no such thing for a Sheltie. LOL!!!>
So true! You might need to see if tiny crumbs will make it boring LOL
Hi!
Super fun session – Yay for her, leaping right onto the wobble board! She did really well with that, and went right back to tugging after the treats thanks to your movement.
>I had two toys tied together here, but she got them apart.>
That was probably very reinforcing for her, a big win and a surprise in the best way! Ha!
She might be a little too young to feel comfy tugging on the full wobble board – that requires more balance/stability and coordination than standing on it for cookies does. She seemed to be communicating that she was happy to tug and was fine with the movement, but didn’t feel fully comfortable doing it with all 4 feet on the board.
So for the full wobble board, keep going with cookies. And for the tugging, you can shove towels or padding under it, so she can feel more comfy and balanced while tugging on it. Then as she grows more, you can take the towels etc out so she can tug on the full wobble board 🙂
> A trip to Home Depot where she escaped the shopping cart, bad Mama.>
That’s hilarious 🙂 She is small and spicy!!
Great job!
TracyHello and welcome!
The email address is support@agility-u.com but I will put the instructions here so you can upload your videos.Also, if it feels confusing or overwhelming, we can hop on a zoom call and I can walk you through it on your device! I personally get overwhelmed with new tech sometimes and I don’t want you to feel that way if you have never used YouTube this way before.
The first step is to create a personal YouTube channel (if you already have one, scroll down to the next step :))
– Sign into YouTube with your Google/Gmail account (really easy to set one up at http://www.gmail.com if you don’t have one).
– Click your profile picture (usually in the upper right corner, depending on which device you have) and then Settings .
– Go to the Account section and select Add or manage channel(s).
– Click Create a channel .
– Choose a profile picture, type in your name.
– Click Create channel.When you have a channel and you are logged in, here is how to upload videos:
– In the top-right corner, click CREATE then click Upload Videos from the drop down box
– It will take you to a screen where you click on Select Files
– Choose where you want to see your files or which one you upload (this varies depending on your device).
– Choose the video you want and click upload. While it is uploading, you can add the title and other info for YouTube, such as if it is made for kids (click No) and if you want it Private, Unlisted, or Public (click Unlisted)It will load and then YouTube will provide a link, or you can find it if you go to your channel or Youtube Studio by clicking on your profile picture and choosing an option from the drop down box.
Let me know how it goes!
Tracy
Hi!
He is great on the plank here! He was happy to get on, hop off, turn around, all the things. You can add in position changes, like cueing sits and downs on the plank.Since we are talking about his chewing… you might have been a little too fast with most of the treats here because he was basically chewing the entire time LOL! He will be able to offer more if he has finished chewing, so you can slow down the cues to turn and the reward delivery. Let him finish the treat and he will probably look at you, then you can cue the next thing or let him offer hopping back on the plank if he is off it.
You can also incorporate a tug toy to raise his excitement level and see if he can still work all his feet as well as he did here 🙂
For the next session, you can raise the plank if you have anything that it can rest on while still being as stable as it is here. We can think of it as mini-parkour hahaha!
Nice work!
Tracy
Hi!
The Pink Panther has replaced circus music today during tugging LOL!! Love it!She is finding the prop really well now – I think she is ready for the next step of the prop games! You can stay nice and close, and add in the sends 🙂 Yay!
She also did well with tugging, even with the treats close by – keeping the toy really active helps a whole lot. One thing I notice is that you are bending over while tugging (which is perfectly fine) but then standing up always precedes getting a treat out… so she stops tugging as soon as you stand up. Since she will (eventually) be tall enough that you can be upright, we will want you to be able to tug standing up. Two ways to do that are to attach this toy to a leash, so you can be fully upright and playing. And, sometimes stand up but keep playing – then lean over and play more. Or get the toy back with a cookie trade while you are leaning over. That was she doesn’t pair standing up with the drop the toy cue.
Great job here!
TracyHi!
You are totally on the right track! Thanks for the video! It looks like she really likes the food, so she doesn’t initially drive to the toy because there might be more food around. But you were great about getting the toy moving so she could chase it, keeping it nice and low… and she totally latched on to tug!You can actually double the length of that toy by tying it to another toy, and that will be even more exciting for her – and easier for you to get it low so she can chase it. And keep going with using the most boring possible food (with no other treats in your hand or pocket) – and if you have a long hallway or outdoor space, that will give you room to make chasing the toy even more exciting!
You will see that she will get happier and happier to play with the toy even when food is around.
Nice job here!
TracyHi!
She was absolutely super at smacking that hat with her front feet! Nice! And great job with your click timing!>not as much understanding of staying on it.>
The good news if that she doesn’t have to stay on it! She can smack it then after the marker, she can come back and get the treat from your hand. Think of the prop as a jump-bar-replacement in these early stages of training. She goes to it and turns, but doesn’t need to stay there. More on that in tonight’s class.
Right before you send her, add a little of that ‘ready dance’ where you were asking her if she was ready but without holding her – then send her to the prop. That hands-free ready dance helps her learn to transition from handler focus to send/obstacle focus.
Plus, it is great for arousal regulation: the ready ready ready with you bopping around a little will get her more pumped up, but then she has to self-regulate to NOT jump up at you and instead, go find the hat to smack 🙂 If she does jump up, then you can do a quieter ready dance to get her excited but not as excited 🙂
>I realized most of the time I’m not stepping with my dog side leg before sending.>
She has a ton of value for running to the hat, so using your leg did not matter that much in this session. For the next session, the ready dance will give you the chance to add your leg into the send cue. Plus you can move to the advanced levels, where you are sending sideways and backwards – this is where the leg as part of the cue becomes very important.
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
Toy races looked great! I am impressed with your long distance throws!!! That is a pretty perfect toy for throwing.
He did GREAT going from food to the toy!! On the last rep – you totally could have won that race LOL! Don’t be too polite – you can win sometimes and have your own party of one, because the he will drive even harder to get past you when you are running hard like that!
He was doing a short victory lap when he gets the toy – you can reward with another toy for bringing it back in your general direction. As soon as he gets to the toy you are racing towards, you can do a FC and run the other way. As he is running towards you with the first toy, you can whip out another toy and reward him for coming directly back towards you.
Nice work here!
TracyGood morning!
Driving ahead is going really well. Great job connecting to see where she is looking! You don’t need the break cue because she is not in a stay – you can just use the get it or you can add your ‘go’ verbal.
The 2nd to Last rep took too long before the release so she gave up waiting and just went without you LOL
The last rep and the other reps looked great!About the retrieve:
>The retrieve needs serious help. But to be honest, between the heat and Roulez and Tchoup, I’ve had trouble getting motivated and the energy enough to work on it.>
No worries at all about the retrieve! Life is busy, to say the least, and she is doing really well with all of her games.
I have found the best way to get a retrieve is to not think of it as a retrieve. I think of it as a trade or add an additional element to the game. Here is what I mean:
The long toy helps, because you can grab the other end. When you grab the other end, start moving the other direction so she begins to automatically grab the toy and move toward you.
When she is way ahead of you and gets to the toy first: just before she arrives at the toy, you can do a front cross and go the other direction, calling her name – and as soon as she looks at you, pull out another toy or treats so she comes back. She may or may not bring the original toy at first… but that is fine for now because the first step is getting her to come back to you rather than leaving with the toy. Then we can start to delay when you show her the other toy or treat, to get her bringing the toy further and further back to you.
We do work more specifically on retrieving in the next couple of weeks, but this will keep it fun for now! I also play these games in a hallway where there is really no place else for the pup to run to with the toy 🙂
Plankrobatics looked great! She was able to balance while tugging which is really hard!
When you cue her to turn around, keep your hand low and slow, so she doesn’t have to lift her head (high head makes balancing harder – and a fast hand makes it harder to be coordinated.
She was convinced there was something under the plank LOL! There might have been a good smell, so you can always move the plank over to a new spot – sounds like it was raining or something? Maybe that was bringing up new and interesting smells?
For the planks, you can maybe take the plank off your dog walk so she has a longer plank to play on, and you can also raise it a little so she has the challenge of more height.
SSC:
She was focusing on the bowl really well!! Good job adding the end cue and verbal. The bowl made it just past halfway around on both sides here – excellent! So on the next session, you can start with the bowl halfway around (as a reminder rep or two) then keep moving it closer and closer to you so that she eventually has to focus past it and move past it to go around the cone 🙂 And you can also play this with a toy!Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
>He actually already has been to an outdoor restaurant patio once and he did great!>
Perfect – learning to be a restaurant patio dog is important prep for future big events!!
Goat tricks video:
He was great about immediately going up and over the pad over the folded laundry basket. Standing on it might have been harder because he had to compress himself a little bit but he did it really well by the end of the session.>The balance disc he has also worked with before but still has not been a huge fan of rear paws on it.>
His response is pretty normal with pups and this type of disc – happy to get feet on it, but not really offering to stay on it. He didn’t look worried about it, but it looks like the fully inflated disc is too inflated for a puppy to feel comfy standing on it – they don’t have the coordination, balance, core strength to be able to hold position on it. That is why he would go over it or circle it, but not stay on it. Take out about 50% of the inflation and I bet he has a much easier time staying on it. Then you can gradually re-inflate it as he grows up and gets stronger and more balance/coordination.
Tippy board: nice job getting that first reward for moving the board, not just getting on the board. He acknowledged that and was sure to move the board on all the next reps. SUPER! The tugging got him even more excited and that is fine – he slammed the board more before looking back at you. I think he was making up his own obstacle course by the end: tippy board to the dog bed by the fireplace. Ha! Good boy 🙂
Since he is happy with the tippy board at home, you can start to change the picture. In this spot on the rug, you can put something under the board that adds a little more noise (like a small metal food bowl). And you can bring the tippy board to new places, such as outdoors, the training facility, etc. In those new spots, start each session with lots of padding under it – I’d rather have it be too easy, than have it be startling for him in new places. And we will revisit this game throughout puppyhood and adolescence to maintain the love of movement and noise even through sensitive brain development periods.
Toy races: when he did these with someone holding him, he looked at you as you started moving so I was wondering if he was thinking of it as a restrained recall. He answered that question here: Nope! He was looking at you on that first step too, so the motion is just really stimulating. He drove ahead really well! But we can convince him to maintain his forward focus by adding 2 variations:
– you can let him move without you moving, then you can walk slowly forward. That way he rehearses continuing to look forward with less motion distraction
– you can also win the game 🙂 Using a favorite toy, get to it first! And then have your own party-of-one with it 🙂 He is going to probably have a BIG MAD which is fine so you can start the next rep right from where you are having your party. Winning the toy race game can change arousal state (in a good way) and really direct focus to the toy – while eliminating behaviors like watching the handler or going out a little wide from the handler when both are running. So you can win that first one, then not run quite as hard on the next rep so he can feel the joy of the win 🙂 He has a lot of love for the toy, so I bet he dials it up when you win a rep LOL!
Great job!
TracyHi!
>Omg it’s like you know things bahahaha>
HAHA!! My dogs have trained me a lot over the years 😂 😆
He did great driving for that ball! I think the hardest part was when he was trying to figure out how to get his mouth on it! He was able to pick it up at the end 🙂 And you can use different sizes or types of balls so they are easy to pick up.
And the good news is that he didn’t mind that you were running too! YAY!!! Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
Plankrobatics went great! She had an easy time getting all 4 feet on the plank and was REALLY great about turning around without losing her feet pretty equally on both sides. Impressive! She had one foot come off towards the end, but that was also when you moved more quickly and she dropped her head to look for a potential cookie on the ground.
On this low plank, you can add in position change: stand to sit, stand to down, sit to stand, etc. Feel free to lure because she might think it is weird to do those on a plank 🙂
And if you have something to raise the plank on, she is ready for a slightly higher plank! Just be sure it is really stable so it doesn’t slip out from under her.
Driving ahead: this also went great! She was focusing forward and leaving you in the dust. She was not exactly retrieving the toy but not exactly running off with it, so having the 2nd toy helped! And since she is leaving you in the dust, you can turn and run the other way just before she gets to the toy and call her – this can help the pups retrieve the toy. That way you won’t be reaching for it as she gets to it, which can cause her to move it away or accidentally grip your hand when she is picking up the toy.
You can add in your “go” directional! Now, if her name is pronounced “BOkeh” and the BO rhyme with GO… it might be good to choose a different verbal for Go so she doesn’t get confused. A common choice is “RUN” and it doesn’t sound like BO. And be sure to be connected and looking at her when you say it.
Great job here!
TracyHi!
Nice job with the prop game here! He has good value so it was a good transition into the sending.He was sending really well, so rewarding him back at you like you did in the 2nd part of the video worked really well to help him set up the collection into the prop. That will help us teach him how to collect into and drive out of turns. You can start to add the sideways sending now!
One suggestion: Rather than hold him before starting each rep, add the ready dance. That allows him to shift from handler focus to obstacle focus, and allows you to use a big step to go with the arm send too. You will see more driving away with that big transition because the cue is even clearer and he is more pumped up 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
