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Hi! Definitely a good session!!! The skills looked strong and he looked very engaged even with distractions all around. Yay!
The minny pinny work is going really well! He is pretty perfect on the right turns, and the lefts are harder (as expected). So, for the lefts, you can help him out with some targeting lime a toy placed between the jumps as a focal point.
Interestingly, he was much better about being held for the right turns and was more frantic for the left turns. I know you are not hoisting him, he is self-hoisting LOL and on the left he was using your legs as a push off point!
So, separately and without jumps there, you can line him up on your left side, put a target down, hold his collar, then quickly let go to send to it (to help him learn the joys of standing patiently at your side, which will definitely help the left turns when you do it in front of jumps.He did really well on the grids!!! Having the holder feed him while he was being held was really useful – he went from a bucking bronco at first, to being able to be held and sit! Yeah!!! And that allowed you do have the moving target and motion, which produced a lot of lovely powerful jumping! Yay!!
The sends to serps are coming along nicely too. Keeping the upper body open to him and arm back definitely helped!
On the right turns, you can angle the jump to face him a bit more so he can see the nar after he exits the start wing. Then I bet you can start the session with a lot of success, then angle it back to flat like it was here.
On the left turn side, definitely angle the jump so he can see the bat very easily. Since this is his harder side, you will probably want to leave it angled for longer.
Your line is the same even with the angled jump, so the motion looks the same as the jump changes position.Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! This is also going really well!!!
At the start of each rep, line her up at side with a cookie lure to exactly where you want her then take her collar… she most definitely does not want to be moved by the collar.
The barrel wraps went great!!!! She was super about ignoring the toy til cued – so you can add in a FC on the barrel and running to the toy, so it is clearer to her that she can have it 🙂
2 other things to add in:
Use a higher value toy, it will make it even more fun!
Don’t train this when she is hungry, because that food interest will override the toy drive.Great job! Have fun!
TracyHi!
Her target value looks good here.
We want that target hand to be further away from you, not near your leg at all, so extend it all the way away from your torso, locking your elbow out away so it is a serp arm that is perpendicular from your body.How to do that with such a tiny dog? Sit on something 🙂 you can sit on an inflatable donut or on a stool or something so you are bending less. Then as we fade out the touch, you will be able to move to standing.
For now, rewarding from the opposite hand is a bit better than tossing the treat because we can really teach her the in-and-out movement.
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
These are off to a good start!
The mechanics are the hardest part for sure and they do feel awkward at first.
On the lap turns:
I think the hardest part was getting her to find the cookie you tossed LOL! That made the timing of everything else a little more tricky.Waiting for the 2 inch spot is definitely needed, so don’t change that! The only suggestion is to extend that cookie hand directly towards her, locking your elbow. It looks like you might have had it next to your leg – but having it fully extended towards her will make it easier to draw her through the lap turns when she gets to it. Everything else looked good!
Tandems are also going well – definitely not easy with such a tiny pup! She is reading the turn away mainly from the opposite arm, so you can get it in place sooner (in front of her, for a few steps) then move it slowly as you turn her away.
I think both of these are ready for the prop to be added!
Great job!
TracyHi!
You’ll want to wait for MaxPup 3 until after MaxPup 2, otherwise it is too much of a leap forward for the pups 🙂 The MaxPup 2 for this crew will start a few weeks after this MaxPup 1 is finished – stay tuned for exact dates 🙂
TracyHi!
>>. I think these sessions went a little better.>>
Yes! They all went GREAT!! You can basically go to the next step on all the games.
>> Am (Tina too) worried her motivation for food (she goes crazy just for her basic kibble) is reducing her tug drive. Apparently, I wave food around a lot, so trying to be aware of that.>>
It is totally normal that value shifts around a bit, so we can keep food and tugging a bit more separate for now (especially because she is probably teething. She is definitely a foodie! So when you present the toy for tugging, make sure it is a high value soft furry toy, and that there is no food in your hands, and there are no food related items right there where you are playing (like the bowls, plank, etc). You can move away from those for now and go wild with the long soft toys, then go back to the other stuff when you are ready for more shaping. And you can do entire sessions with a toy only (like the wobble board or toy races) and no food at all. We have plenty of time to get the toy and food values balanced 🙂
Prop sends – These are going really well! She has really strong value now and she had good hits to it on almost the reps. Yay! And you had plenty of distance here, so you can now move to the parallel path game 🙂
Some of her questions were about reinforcement – she is still learning the clicker (she doesn’t yet immediately drive back to you when you click, she kind of looks around LOL!)) and still learning food value and leaving the hand to touch the prop. But things are going along really well!You can add a little more connection on the sending (looking at her more and at the prop less, when sending forward to it). But then shift from looking at her to looking at the prop on the sideways and backwards sending.
She had a question on the sideways sending the end, because she was behind you when you tried to send (literally behind your back, which is why she looked at you like you were nuts LOL!). Remember to start with her in front of you, like you did on the successful reps and at 1:38 – that makes perfect sense to her.
Backing up – she is off to a really good start here!!! Lots of little steps backwards!! I think you were putting too much pressure on going straight 🙂 On these early steps, straight is not important: we just want a few steps backwards. And she did – looked great! Since this went well, you can go to the next week Backing Up Part 2, where we add some rear foot targeting which helps straighten the pups out 🙂
Wobble board – well, she certainly is a little goat LOL!! You can throw the treats sooner so she can basically run across the wobble board, bit overall she seemed very confident. Keep rewarding her for getting on random things, and you can even create a little playground of all sorts of things she can get on and walk over, of different shapes/sizes/textures/movements 🙂
She did well getting on the plank – when you started moving back and forth, it was easy for her to get all 4 feet on. She is also turning around really well and is happy tp hop no and hop off too! Yo ucan ask for her sits and downs on the plank (it is perfectly fine to use cookie lures to help her) and you can also elevate the board by a few more inches, if you have some stable blocks you can put under it.
She stayed on the plank really well here – we don’t need more than that 🙂
Wraps – nice toy at the beginning! Wow!!! She played nicely but let go as soon as she saw the bowls. So you can keep the bowls lifted until after you ask for the toy back – then you can place them on the floor. Then when you want to go back to the toy at the end, you can lift up the bowls and get the cookies put away, then move to a new spot on the floor before bringing the cookie out.
She did well wrapping the object! She was a little better going from your right hand to your left hand (no misses) and sometimes cut in between you and the barrel going from your left to your right. So you can move it a little further away when she is going from your right to left, then pull it back in when she is going left to right. That way she can be successful in both directions and you can add distance. But distance is a low priority at the moment.
You can also switch to a barrel now so it is a little bigger, and when she is happy wih that, you can move to the turn and burn game 🙂
The tugging at the beginning of the toy race game looked great! And she is giving it back really well too – super! And the focus forward is going great too – I love how at the end, you tried to push her back to win and she still smoked you LOL!!!! Nice! So you can keep adding more and more distance to this, so you can both be running.
Great job here! Let me know what you think 🙂
TracyHi!
Holding him longer so he can process the cues is always helpful!One thing I noticed here is that the verbals are sounding good, and he also needs the physical cues when he exits the wing wrap. When you were giving him the motion towards the tunnel entry you wanted – nailed it! When you were saying one thing by giving motion to the other end of the tunnel…. oops!
So for example – when you wanted the tunnel in front of him, you moved forward. When you wanted the threadle entry, your motion had to be towards it as he exited the wing (upper body was not as important). If you stepped away to it immediately, he got it right like at :15, :30, 1:09. But if you stepped forward like at :51, he did not get it. So moving away to the tunnel threadle side before he exits the wrap is super important!
Turning your feet to it in a more exaggerated way, as he arrives at the wing before it, will make a big difference. That way, he can follow the line of your motion the whole time. You can focus more on your feet moving to the threadle entry really early, even it turns your shoulders away from him a bit too – that might help as well!
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Backsides are totally clicking! Yay! It is a hard skill and he is getting it for sure – this was a highly successful session. You can start to add even more motion (running!) as long as you continue that great job of moving along the parallel path and maintaining the connection – that looked great on every rep here. Just remember to be careful with that bar on the ground! A leash can be a safer option LOL!As you get more running going, you might find that you don’t need the outside arm as much – you can get it based on motion, connection, & verbal (that is what was beginning to happen at the end like at 4:40, when you didn’t use nearly as much outside arm and he was still great!)
The countermotion also looked really strong! You were very clear indicating the landing spot as you went past the wing. As you continue working your way further and further away from the entry wing, you can combine the push with the countermotion to put it all together 🙂
>>And now we have to work the other side because right now we’re not very balanced.
On the other side, remember you can make it easy and angle the jump. Being able to do it this well on one side should make it easier to get the other side.
Great job! And the rooster is a lovely addition LOL!!!!
Tracy
Hi! Lots of good work here! And yes, being in the different part of the facility took out a lot of the visual distractions.
On the videos:
Focus forward is going well! She is driving to the toy really well!!! She is at her most focused on the toy when it lands, so be ready to run as soon as the toy hits the ground 🙂 No need to do a lot of ready ready ready as that seems to get her to focus up on you more than we need – she was great with driving directly to it when you let go pretty quickly after it landed. And when adding in the cookie toss before the race to the toy, you can toss the toy first then toss the cookie behind you. That will give her the toy as the focal point immediately after getting the cookie, rather than seeing you throw it.
She was very confident getting on and off the plank. You can move this to a longer plank so she can move back and forth across it more – maybe a dog walk plank that is on the ground? And you can raise it a little, so it is a few inches further off the ground to add a little more challenge.
>>She wasn’t very interested in a tugging with this exercise>>
She was more into the food for sure here, I see what you mean – looks like there was food in your hand, plus the clicker and previous associations with the plank were all food-based. So you can play with the tug before the shaping begins (and before the cookies are in your hand :)) , and have the plank leaning up against a wall or tugging further away from it, so it is not as obvious. That can help keep the tugging pumped up even when the plank is around.
The sideways sending looked really good! Nice job with the very clear arm/leg cue and also looking at the prop at the beginning here (she was on your right at the beginning, turning to her right)!
When you switched sides, your leg cue was not as clear so she was not as sure – you can have your feet together more so you can make a really exaggerated sideways step when she starts on your left (turning to her left). The left turns might be slightly harder for her, so the more exaggerated leg cue will totally help.Backwards sending: she caught onto this really well too! I think she was not quite ready for that very first send, it kinda happened as you were moving into position so it took her a moment to ‘find’ the prop. Good patience! You were clearer on the other reps so she found the prop a lot better. Definitely take a moment before you send to get her in front of you so she is standing still, make eye contact then send. That will get very snappy responses and allow you begin adding the countermotion games.
Forward sending on your right looked good, easy peasy!! She had a few questions on your left – at 1:22, your foot stayed back instead of stepping forward so she had a question – looked like she still had a rewardable behavior though, close enough 🙂 At 1:25 you were looking ahead of her a bit too much so she went where your shoulders were pointing (very literal pup!)
On both of those, you can give reset cookies to line her up again for the next rep.
The rest of the reps had more connection and arm/leg sending together so she was able to hit her prop really well. YAY!!!She is reading everything really well on the handling combo… so now you can pump it up and add more motion! No more walking LOL!!! When she is getting the start cookie, you can be running away – that way you will have more time to do the blind and also the decel will be very obvious. And then after the decel, you can throw the cookie and race to it 🙂 That will really help her understand the handling differences, while challenging you to do everything sooner because things are all moving so much faster 🙂
Wow, Grady’s run looked amazing!!! Confident and fast fast fast, totally focused!!! Well done to you both!!!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Very fun doodling here!!!!Looking at the different sections:
Starting with the wing wraps and wraps on the jump – he did well and his turns are looking really good! You can totally use a toy for this too, so he can drive back for tugging. The cookies will be good for lining up at your side, for a smoother start to the send and so you can use your leg too (things were a little wonky when you tried to to send when he was facing you LOL!)
Adding the tunnel and the smiley face went well – there was a little blooper at 1:01 you cued the tunnel but didn’t really connect and moved away, so he was unsure about which tunnel togo to. Compare to the next rep where you were MUCH clearer and he nailed it. YAY!
The Minny Pinny is also going really well! Two suggestions:
– Start all reps, even the easy ones, with a finger on his collar so you can say left or right 3 or 4 times before you let go and he starts to move. This will let him process the verbal before he starts to move. When he was turning towards you on the easy reps, he was guessing based on how it was set up. Things got juicier when you wanted him to turn away and he was trying to move as soon as he heard the word (like at 2:30 and 3:00). When you help him at 3:52 – he was able to process it and got it a lot better!!– Rather than try to do hand cues for the turn aways, use toy placement to help him out. The turn aways are hard! You can hold his collar, toss the toy to between bars 2 and 3, say the verbal,, then let him go. That can help him figure out the turning away element.
On the zig zags – great job recognizing the failures and going to cookie tosses rather than the stay – it is a hard game so taking out one level of difficulty and allow you to emphasize the lead changes without worrying about the stay. And he did great with the lead changes! Yay!
Great job here, lots of skills covered and he looked strong!
TracyGood morning!
Great job here! I am especially excited about how well he went back and forth between food and toys… that is unusual for young BCs and he was great. In fact, he got so fast getting the treat that you were almost late with the blinds LOL! So you can use more room to get further ahead – send him further away to get the cookie, so you are further ahead of him when he begins to drive back to you 🙂
Also, excellent connection and mechanics on your blinds! Using the toy across the body to make connection was crystal clear – he had no questions about where to be and changed sides immediately. The camera angle was perfect – note how well we can see your eyes before AND after the blind. PERFECT!!!
Great job here! You can definitely take this to a bigger place so you have more room and more time, and you can add in the handling combos now too 🙂
TracyHi!
Congrats on the wedding! I bet it was lovely!!>> He’s fast and I’m going to have trouble keeping up with him >>
I think he found a whole new gear of speed since your last video. Holy WOW!
Distance will be your friend, which is good because that is the trend in course design lately anyway! On the first rep, you were too close to the start wing and tunnel, so he smoked you 🙂 On the 2nd rep, you were already adding distance and got to a better spot than the 1st rep… and the 3rd rep was even further ahead so you got to a great spot AND got the turn away. SUPER!!! Same on the 4th rep, moving away from the camera. Nice!!!
After that, things went super well. You were able to get the turn aways really well (especially to the right, that seemed easy for him) and he also drove out of them beautifully back to the tunnel.
The only errors were handler errors 🙂 At 2:05ish you were a bit early on the cue so he didn’t take the wing (he got big mad when you said it was his fault LOL!) and then you were also a little early at 3:14, by being on his line a bit before he could get past you. Good reward there! And you tmiing was much better on the next rep. Connection looked great overall!! So you can add on more of the sequences here now, including getting the wing on the other side of the tunnel after the turn away 🙂
>I realize after watching the video that I got the wrong wrap verbal on the last reps >>
It is a good reminder to do a quick run through of the verbals in your head before you start the rep, just to make sure you have the correct words ready 🙂
>>Any suggestions on how to deal with his “freeze” or “hesitation” before coming in to me?
I thought he came back pretty fast on this video, pretty immediately when you called him to line up. It is possible he hangs out a little further away during the in-between moments because he can see you better! He didn’t seem stressed and he was quick to come back, so the line up cues seem to be helping. Stick with that for now and let’s see how he does with it over time.
Great job here!
TracyHi!
>>Dexter came to me with a noise sensitivity issue. We have worked through it and is soo much better. >>
Poor little guy! I am glad he is doing better!!!! Be sure to have him checked for any possible pain sources, even something simple like a UTI – over the years, we have seen noise sensitive puppies struggle because there is something simple happening medically.
And since he has some noise concerns, definitely pay extra attention to the resilience games – those are incredibly useful for pups with questions like noise sensitivities! I know most are food based by you can totally play them with toys (I have video somewhere of my BorderWhippet playing the pattern game with 2 frisbees, one in each hand :))
>>I tried other night to use clicker and he lost it and now my training room is evil.. I know we will work through that too. I just change things and try again.>>
Eek! Ok, so no clicker needed (you really don’t need to use a clicker, ever, so no need to try to work through that – let’s just get him happy in your training room again. Probably lots of toys and play and hanging with the other dogs would do it. Burn the clickers! LOL!!!
>>I have to switch up to toys alot because I have not found the right high value food for him. he disengages with me during training very easily, but never during play time..>>
This is pretty normal for a lot of BCs – food value is lower than toy value. And the right high value food probably doesn’t exist yet, so it is more a matter of building up the food value.
So for now, you can do as much as possible in terms of training with toys only, and when you do use food – give him a cookie then play tug afterwards with a toy he likes 🙂 And when shaping with food, try to deliver only one or two treats and then break things off for a tug break. The cookie is more of a behavior (“eat this thing”) and less of a reinforcement, so pairing it with the toy will pump up its value and also help teach the skills. and since it is more of a behavior and less of a reinforcement at the moment – that is why you are seeing disengagement during training. You can modify all of these games to add in a TON of toy play as we very gradually add in a cookie here or there. The goal is to keep things very engaging as the cookie value gets built up.
Now, if he is disengaging when training with toys too… that might be because there is too much failure or the environment is too challenging, so you can make things easier 🙂
>>What is interesting is he will not disengage and tries even harder if there are other dogs around trying to do tricks for cookies. For the last few sessions, I have used that to my advantage and had successful trainings.>>
Yes, social learning is very useful and also the higher arousal of having the group around is helpful too! You can use social learning and social support to increase food drive for sure: I do group sits and downs and tricks for treats every night (especially when I am feeling guilty fo rnot having trained anything else that day LOL), and it is amazing how good the behaviors are getting with very few individual sessions 🙂
>>My question is what do you think?? Should I take advantage of this “group training” with Dexter?? Or is it a bad idea.>>
As long as there is no pressure, it can be very helpful particularly in building up food value. There is a LOT of science (particularly the neuroscience) that supports it with puppies! And you can balance in private time with toys and silly games, or maybe just one other dog. the only thing that I don’t think is helpful is if the other dogs are getting in the way, or if Dexter doesn’t get the rewards, etc. As long as he is having a good time, the group training can definitely be helpful!
And I use social learning to help dogs who might be concerned about things too – my younger pup is concerned about the vet’s office, for example. So I bring my whippet pup along to all visits, because the whippet models perfect happy social behavior… and then the baby pup also presents perfect happy social behavior. Which of your dogs can help Dexter out like this? It is really great for building confidence 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
Her retrieving looks great! You can totally add a GO to this but also be sure you move so the physical cue gets build in too 🙂She drives away to the toy really fast and brings it back at a different speed – so since she is bringing it back, we can work to get her driving back to you with it faster. The most fun way to do that is by making it a double retrieve game 🙂 You throw the toy so she goes and gets it in one direction. As soon as she is arriving at it, you can be running the other direction, calling her – then as she starts chasing you in the new direction with the toy, you can whip out a 2don toy (surprise!) and throw it ahead of you in the new direction for to get. Then you turn and run the other way again so she chases back to you with the 2nd toy. It should get her running back to you with it for sure 🙂
Great job on these! Le me know what you think!
Tracy
