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Hi!
This is going well – it is really hard so might feel weird in the moment, but there was lots of good stuff! You can move away sooner and throw the treat further to give yourself a more of a head start 🙂 You did not have much lead out then she was smoking you 🙂When using shorter distances between you and her, the timing of the blind or decel individually can start as soon as she starts moving towards you after she gets the cookie. More distance gives you more time of course 🙂 and in that situation the blind or decel would start no later then when she is halfway to you.
I thought she read all the blinds here pretty well, but the decels can definitely be sooner and more exaggerated – she did make the turns with you but you were accelerated so she didn’t have time to really organize a collection. So, let her see you go from moving fast to a more exaggerated moving slow, as soon as she starts turning back to you after the cookie toss, or immediately after the blind if you are doing the blind then the decel. That will definitely help her predict what it coming and response sooner.
Nice work here!
TracyHi!
Good job starting with the parallel path here (same thoughts as above about having the prop in yur hand ad not on the ground until you are ready to start, so it doesn’t fade into the background)
When you wanted to start the RCs, you put your left hand into a heel position so she paid extra super attention to you (which made the RCs extra super hard LOL!) and because you were limited on space, you moved slowly… so she moved slowly which also makes the RCs hard 🙂So to help get the RCs rolling more easily, a couple of ideas:
– use a lot more space, so you can be moving up the line at a decent speed and she will have room to get ahead of you. You’ll probably need at least 15 feet between you and the prop to start.
– with the parallel path warm up, add in starting with her so she is getting more and more ahead of you on the parallel path games. When she is happy to get 8 or 10 feet ahead to the prop as you move forward, the RCs will be much easier because then you will have plenty of time to scoot in behind her 🙂 Getting her to drive ahead will involve tossing the treat for the first prop hit, then going to her and starting with her on the next one so she has room to get ahead. The parallel path looks good, so it should be pretty straightforward to build up with more room 🙂Nice work!
TracyHi!
You might notice that she offers a lot of attention to you and behaviors involving you here (and not the prop). Having the prop on the floor before the session fades it into the background and then when you enter the room, it makes you more prominent… which is why she pays more attention to you than to the prop especially in the early reps here. You can see all of the offering revolving around you and less about the prop. So we can reverse that – keep the prop in your hands until after you are entirely ready to start… then put it down. That helps make the prop more salient and so she will interact with it more readily (rather than offer thins involving interacting with you).As with the parallel path, you can take the clicker out of the picture now and just use a marker for the reward delivery. Do you have ‘reward in hand’ marker? I use “bite” for a toy (and you can totally use a toy for this game!) or “yesss” for a cookie in this scenario. And before each rep, take a moment to engage with her, ask her if she is ready, get a little eye contact, then do the send (arm, legs, eyes to the prop). Adding that engagement before hand can really help get snappy behavior of her moving to it as you move away, because she is more ready for the cue. That will really help build up the countermotion because she will be driving to it a little more.
Nice work 🙂
TracyHi! Glad the countermotion and wraps went really well!
Thanks for posting the combo videos! There are one or two tweaks we can make that will make them go more smoothly 🙂
In both videos, he had trouble finding the tossed treat so he either spent too long trying to find it, or he didn’t bother trying to find it and came back to you. That caused your timing to get off with the blinds and the decels, because it was hard to know when he would start moving back to you. So, you can use a food bowl or manners minder as a visual target for him to get that initial treat from, and that will make the blinds and the decels all easier because you know exactly when he will be moving towards you.
>>Treat + toy in same rep no worky – doesn’t care about the toy in that case so will try something different next time>>
I think he did have some interest the frisbee but it ended up in the same spot where there were probably still treats on the ground, so that made the toy play harder. Sothe clearer start so he can find the cookie will help, and also you can try to fade out the cookie from your hand on the decel – just use and empty hand as a focal point, and turn slowly, staying connected.
That should also help him stay on the correct side of you as you pivot after the decel – you can finish the turn with connection, then throw the frisbee. He was ending up on the wrong side on a couple of reps because you were too quick to turn and start throwing, which broke connection.
On the rear crosses – he did really well with those left turns! Latent learning definitely kicks in!!
He did have lots of questions here, though. Be sure to warm him up with several straight parallel path reps to get into the groove of finding the line to the prop, and to help you set up your timing. And mix in parallel path reps throughout to keep the value of driving to the prop really high. You were a bit early on several of the first reps in the video, so then he started sticking to you more because several were not rewarded.Bearing in mind that the goal is to have no more than 2 failures for the entire session (he definitely had more than that here, I believe he had 8 failures out of 17 reps), you will want to really pump up the driving ahead to the prop with lots of parallel path before the RCs and mixed in after RC reps. Because he had failures (no reward moments) he ended up looking at you more and driving ahead less, which made getting the RC harder at the end even on his stronger side.
And if you do end up with 2 failures, make the rest of the session easy enough that he won’t have more failures. It can be something like finishing the session with a couple of simple parallel path reps where he is highly likely to hit the prop. More on that coming later today, but in general we wan to watch the failures like a hawk, in order to keep his rate of reinforcement really high 🙂
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyYou can totally post the lovely ones! But *definitely* post the ones where things go awry – those are the most helpful ones!!!
Hi!
I am glad he is doing great out in the world! Yay!! Sounds like he is doing really well in Boston!!!Looking at the backing up video: Look at him go! Yay!! Good boy!
>>Sometimes he is backing up not on to the mat – my gut is to still reward.>>
Your gut is correct 🙂 That mat was moving a lot, so I am not sure he is feeling comfy about stepping back onto it with all the movement. So you can stuff a bunch of towels under it so it moves a little and is more stable in general (it was in a different place each time here and flapping around a little LOL!)
Also, when it is more stable: start the session with him standing on it with all 4 feet (it is fine to lure him onto it with a cookie) then refresh the skill (of backing onto the mat) but having his front feet come off, then click treat for stepping front feet back on. Then you can draw all of his feet just off the mat (a cookie lure is fine for this too) and c/t for back feet stepping on.
>> Because of his size, I’ve found that sitting in a chair works best – should I start working this into a stand?>>
Yes, you being in a chair was spot on! And there is no need to work this to standing up – he has great form so we don’t want to change his head position. Keep sitting in the chair as he works out the rear footing targeting.
Looking at the prop video:
First up, parallel path!
>>In one direction it looks like he needs more distance – or does he not understand the game? >>
I think he understands it but is also trying to look at you… so he is trying to give himself more room to do both LOL!!! Clever LOL!
So a couple of ideas to get him to stop looking up at you the whole time:
– you can get rid of the clicker and just use your ‘get it’ marker. Clickers are great but they do build in a lot of looking at us in a lot of cases.
– you can change the timing of your ‘get it’ to earlier: as soon as he turns his head to look at the prop, before he gets there: mark and throw the reward past it. (No he doesn’t have to hit it: you are marking the intention to hit it, which includes NOT looking at you 🙂 He did look forward plenty of times here, so I think you will have plenty of behavior to mark. So watch his head as you move (not the prop) and mark/toss as soon as he looks at anything that is not you 🙂
Looking at the sending section: A couple of ideas for you to help him hit that prop more decisively:
– Shorten up the distance between you and the prop for now. I think you were too far from it, and there was no break in the session, so he didn’t know what you wanted for a few reps. You did get closer at 1:38 (good job recognizing that you were too far away). And that really helped!
– You can make it more salient but not having it on the rug there – the pattern is busy so it is possible that he loses the visual of it on top of everything else that is there. This will also help the parallel path game. The other rug is less busy in terms of pattern, so maybe it will eb better? Or you can do a couple of sessions somewhere that has more of a ‘blank’ floor color?
You can also make it more salient by getting it a little higher. If it was a few years ago, I would recommend taping it to a phone book but I don’t think phone books exist anymore LOL!!! So what do you have that is maybe an inch tall that you can tape it too? That will make it a more obvious target.
– You can definitely add more engagement before each and every send: gather up his attention by calling him too you, asking him if he is ready… then doing the send. There were some sends that started before he was ready here, so he was a little confused 🙂 And after every 3 or 4 treats, add in a toy play break to keep him pumped up! This was a solid 4 minutes without a toy, so he lost a little steam. In fact, you can play the send games with the toy as the reward and not cookies 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
The cone wrapping went really well here! Great job with your patience, letting her get to the line on the ground before you did the FC and ran away.You asked in your previous post if she is a righty or a lefty… the jury is still out on that one LOL!! She was pretty balanced, turning well to both directions. I bet we will see more when you start to leave earlier on both sides – she seemed a little smoother to her right but we will find out soon. Try starting with the left turns on the next session, and starting your FC earlier and earlier. If you hit a point where it gets hard and she has questions, you can make it a little easier so she remains successful.
Great job!
TracyYes, it is smart to keep her by herself til you have a perfect buddy to walk with 🙂 Will I see you in Minnesota? We can do a walk with Lu and Ramen!!
Oopsie! Totally a copy paste error!!!
Here is the actual reply:At the beginning, it looks like she was not sure of what to offer (lining up or pivoting or touching the prop), so things worked out better when you stood up and starting rewarding for moving back and forth. That got the parallel path game really nicely! 2 suggestions as you build this up, to help get her to look at you less:
– you don’t need to click anymore, you can say “get it” and toss the treat. That will get her looking forward more, and at you less
– try to have a couple of treats in each hand, rather than carry the entire bowl of cookes 🙂 That was a giant visual that made it harder for her to look away from you and at the prop 🙂You can add more lateral distance to this now too!
>>I also did separate sessions for countermotion and rear crosses. Do you want those posted as separate?>>
If they have been video’d, you can post them! Looking forward to seeing them!
Great job!
TracyHi!
Her retrieving really looks lovely! What a good girl! Love it!
Here are two “next steps” for you:
– using a bigger room or longer hallway, throw the toy into a corner to help her turn both directions, equally. When you throw it straight, she is generally choosing to turn to her left. That is good to know! So you can stay in the center like you did here, and toss the toy off to the sides and a bit off-center, to encourage her to turn to her right as well. That can be a fun rainy day activity 🙂
– You can send her to the toy and start to move the opposite direction (asking her to bring the toy). When she gets to you, play, then trade for another toy and throw it in the opposite direction – so now she is sent off to retrieve the other toy from another direction. This can help balance the value of different types of toys, as well as add more motion to the retrieve (start by walking away, then jogging, the work up to running eventually :))And of course, you can work retrieving into all of the games we play with toys here – she has a great retrieve already so we don’t need to teach it, we just need to keep it fun and reinforcing 🙂 The most common way we ‘break’ retrieves? When the pup brings the toy back to us, then we take it away and put the pup right back to “work” by asking for the next rep. That can accidentally punish the retrieve, and the pup stops bringing it back. So, whenever she brings the toy back…. play play play play or throw it again, or trade for something else, to keep it really fun 🙂
Parallel path video:
This is going super well!! The first part of it had very clear foot hits!
>> JJ still does not always go to the prop on her path.>>
Yes – that was after :48, when there was more lateral distance and more handler motion. So she ended up going over the prop instead of hitting it with the foot. That is perfectly fine for the parallel path game! On the parallel path game, the prop is a jump bar replacer – so you are seeing her “read” the extension over the “bar” as you move, which extends her stride and takes her over it rather than onto it. She was still going to it and staying on her parallel line to it, so it was still a very successful session 🙂 You can totally add in the rear cross game now!
And on the collections (like the countermotion, etc), you will see her hitting the prop because she has to collect to hit it in those instances.
And that is what she was doing on the sideways sending/countermotion game here! Yay! She had good hits on all except for the almost hit on the last rep.
Workng on your left was a little harder for her than working on your right. It could have been food in your hand like you mentioned (moving past our hands is challenging and definitely part of this game) or that at :52 she was able to see behind you when you sent her (so she went behind you to hit it, very clever LOL!) Or it could have been that the hand play where you were tapping her with your hands drew her focus to your hands too much, which made it harder to shift her focus from your hands to the prop. Or a little bit of all of the above 🙂
So, an empty send hand will definitely help, and doing the ‘ready’ moment without touching her will help too. You can also try this with a toy in the non-send hand. Overall, it is going well and that countermotion will continue to build up more and more.
Decel games:
These are going well! And yes, there are a lot of handler mechanics to coordinate but you are doing really well!!First video: addnig more motion before the decel definitely helps her be prepared to turn. On the first couple of reps, you motion was steady, no change in motion. At :16 you mentioned she was a little wide – it was because you were moving forward then suddenly turning so she was surprised. When the pups are wide and their front end pops up, it generally means we either transitioned into the decel late, or didn’t show enough transition.
Compare that to the rest of the session – At :28 you showed her more motion and moved faster, then slowed down to a clearer transition so she was prepared to turn. Lovely! Same with the last 2 reps after the blinds – those looked great!
>>JJ was pretty obsessed with the food so I tried to integrate a toy for the go go go. This did not work out well at first. I went through a number of different toy options without success. She did not want to run ahead for a toy, but food was a different story.>>
Mixing in a cookie-from-hand to a throw reward is a good one to practice in your retrieve games! You can throw a toy to be retrieved, trade for a low value treat when she brings it back, then throw it again. That can rehearse going back and forth from toys to food to toys as needed here.
Looking at where she was looking at the cookie hand more than at the toy (2nd video, mainly at :24 and :39). Was there a cookie in the hand that she saw but didn’t get to eat? It is possible that was the distraction (‘why am I focusing on the cookie but not eating it’ LOL!). So you can totally eed her the treat while you turn, then throw the toy after she finishes it. Or, you can do the turn with an empty hand. If the hand was already empty, you can open it up a little so she can see it is empty.
One last though, although this might not have been the source of her question – maybe the value of the treat was too high, and you can go to lower value treats. Or, go to a higher value tug toy, like you did in video 3 🙂
The frisbee worked great in the last video!! She was totally happy to drive to it! The landing spot is little less predictable when it is thrown so you had to be careful not to run forward too fast but it was certainly a high value toy! So you can try to roll it away from you in the opposite direction, exaggerating a bit, so you can run forward without the frisbee (and JJ) running across your path.
>>unfortunately did not always keep her on the correct hand as you will see her sneak around behind me to chase to the toy.>>
The connection is challenging when you also need to use 3 hands for all the cues! I feel that pain! You can turn more slowly to help maintain the connection – since is a decel cue, turning slowly is something that is good for her to see too.
>. I hope that I will have a chance to play some of these games in a less restrictive space in the next day or two.>>
Yes, she is ready for a bigger space so you can both run more 🙂 Have fun! Great job here!!
TracyHi!
The rear end awareness/backing up was a really interesting progression! On the first video, the backing up to the stable surface looked good. She was foot targeting to the mats really well and shifting her weight into her rear. You can add in getting your left hand more involved, alternating it with your right hand to deliver the cookies. Because it was all right hand delivery, you could see she was starting to angle ever-so-slightly that direction. Alternating left and right hand, and keeping them both in front of you, will help her stay straighter.
Video 2 and 3 with the fitbones: this was harder for sure! The fitbones are very hard in and a couple of ways… too hard for now. On the first fitbone video, she was not fully comfy standing on them with all 4 feet in that context, which is why she was not offering much with her back feet on them. She did get a back foot on them 2 back feet on at the end but not much weight on those feet – most of her weight was forward in her shoulders.
She was very clever in video 3 to use the stable boards to get started with offering then she had some terrific rear foot targeting! Nice!!! Like in the 2nd video, though – she kept her weight mainly forward into her shoulders and not balanced and in her rear as well. That was why she was not offering more than the 2 on, 2 off position: more would have required more weight shift to the rear and using her core.So she was doing really great rear foot targeting! to get her more comfy and using her core and balancing her weight more, you can deflate the fitbones by about 50% and see if that helps. First get her happy to sand on them with all 4 feet in a balanced position, then work the backing up onto them. That will help her be able to evenly distribute her weight, and maybe even shift more of it into her rear.
It took her a moment to get that first wrap to her left, then she did a couple of good ones, then she had more questions. I guess we can officially say she is not a lefty LOL! Bu we can help her out…. take one of the bowls that you used in the original shaping sessions, and place it where the line and the barrel intersect. Send her around a couple of times to the bowl, dropping the reward in the bowl. If she is happy with that (and I am confident she will be) you can shift the reward: when she gets to the line, do the FC and run, ignoring the bowl, rewarding with the toy from your hand. That should be a good middle ground to help jump start the left turn wraps. Let me know how it goes!
Nice work here!
TracyHi!
The turn and burn game went well here! After the first rep where she figured out what it was all about, she really started blasting around the barrel 🙂 And she did really well in both directions (although I think she is more of a lefty :))
For the next session, add a line on the ground that you can move a little – that will give you the exact moment when you can move, so you don’t move too soon (you were moving a bit early on a couple of the right turn reps, which is why she froze a couple of times or starting coming back to you.>. it probably required a little more brain power for me because some of the reps I did the cross body reward and some I did not.>>
Ha! It was hard to see your upper body on the video, so yes you can keep reminding yourself to reward across the body. You can also bring this to a bigger space (outdoors would be perfect!) so you can run run run after the FC, she will like that 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi!
Looks like you all had fun at the Midwest Cup!!! And she did really well taking in the various sites and sounds.At 1:05 she looked at something and kind of said “oh heck no” and went the other way (right before Emmie barked at her from the crate LOL!) Do you remember what it was she saw? She recovered just fine from it.
>I spent a lot more of the weekend having her out by herself, wandering around and meeting people and checking the place out. She was able to hang out ringside and play with her toy too later on during the weekend. >>
Very cool! It is great to hear she felt confident by the ring and was playing.
>> In the video, that was the first time she met that person at the end which was very brave for her!>>
She did say a wiggly hello to several people she walked past! Very cool!
>>Some people and dogs spooked her a bit but overall I was really happy with her experience.
>>You can also take resilience walks if you have a buddy for her that is ridiculously calm and happy in all situations, so that dog can model calm happy behavior in all situations. For example, I picked up my Whippet puppy at flyball nationals, so it was a busy crazy place. And my 3 year old adult dogs sandwiched him on our walks, creating a resilience sandwich LOL: confident happy adult, 10 week old puppy, confident happy adult. He learned a whole lot! And now he pays it forward by being the resilience buddy for my 4 month old pup – he helps out at vet visits for the pup, new places, etc, because he models calm happy behavior. So, if one of your other dogs can do that, great! If not, maybe there is an adult dog that you can borrow who can assist?
Also, check out the new resilience game added last Wednesday (Patterns) because we will be able to use that in any place that she shows any concern 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
