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Good morning!
The wrapping game is going well! No need to add more distance to it, we will start adding in cues soon as we add distance. You can move to the wrapping different things (see Games Package 2 for that).
He had a question about the beginning of the session – I think he mistook the first cookie for a down reward. You can either bring the bowls back in for the start of the session, or you can use a moving reward to get him started so he doesn’t offer a down.
Decel to handler is going well too! You can decel sooner so he can decel sooner too – note how he was popping up a bit as he arrived next to you. That was his momentum not quite having enough time to stop pr shift his weight into his hind end. So, even in a small space, start your decel no later than him being halfway too you (and getting your hand nice and low too :)) You can also take this game outside, to add more room to run for you both!
Driving ahead: so fun! Nice toy drive too! He was happy to leave you in the dust here 🙂
One suggestion about the start of each rep:
He doesn’t love it when you move him into position next to you by using your hands to move his body (he was a little mouthy and a little wiggly), so try to line him up without touching him (can be with a cookie lure) then hold him, then throw the toy.Take this one outside too to give yourself more room, then you can add in the toy races from Games Package 2!
Prop game – he loves his prop! Yay! For the ready dance – keep your feet still because if you take a step to the prop then yes, he was correct to go to it. So you can do the ready dance with just your upper body, then do the big step and arm send. Try not to say go because eventually we will be using turn verbals 🙂
He was great about going to it when cued, so you can add in using a toy and also add in the advanced level with sideways and backwards sending!!
Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
He did really well here 🙂 What a cutie!!!
On the decel game: Moving super slowly helps him lock onto the cookie hand even more – be sure to keep that cookie hand very visible (rather than have it in front of you or tapping your leg) so he has a focal point. When the cookie hand was visible – he was perfect, great job keeping your hand low! When you didn’t have it visible, he was not as locked on or as sure of where to be – he was looking up and even popped up at once point.
For the toy play and driving ahead: moving the toy away always get engagement. He backed off when you moved it towards him, so keep moving it away to get the engagement (rather than pushing into him.
And because he is so young – release really quickly when he is looking forward. If you held too long, he was not sure of what to do (like at 1:00 approx, where you were adding more chatter and he lost his train of thought a bit :)) So you can line him up, throw the toy, and let him go to it as it is landing.
>we’re struggling a bit with the toy release (my boy can really clamp his jaws shut!!). So I added some food, which allowed us to work on the switch from toy-food-toy because that’s been really hard too.>>
Perfect! Working on toy-food-toy is a good thing to work on (there is some new info on that in the reward procedures in the Week 2 set of games). You can use lower value food (lowest value that he will release the toy for :)) and a higher value toy, if he struggles to go back to the toy after treats.Or, vice versa if he struggles to eat when a toy is present. He did really well here so I am sure you will be able to convince him to let go of the toy even more smoothly.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
This is going well too!
One suggestion at the start of the session and in the in-between moments: Have your cookies and bowls and toy with you (maybe on the klimb or near it), so you can end the tugging and go right into the training. He seemed a little confused as to why you walked away after the tugging or when you walked away to get the upright. Everything should be nearby so you can make quick transitions.He is doing well with the bowls – no sits or downs here! Yay! So the next step is to quietly place the treat in the bowl, so he is not following the sound of the cookie drop. You can lean in and place it there, or use soft treats. Then, you can wait til he offers going to the next bowl before adding the treat to the bowl.
Adding the upright went well! So definitely emphasize fading the sound of the treat so you can get him offering even more.
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
The nose targeting is going well – you can help prevent the default sitting by rewarding sooner – mark and toss the cookie as he is moving to the target rather than waiting for him to touch it.He did well going back to the toy after the cookies! Super!
For the toy play – a longer toy that can move more will help get engagement. You can slide it across the floor for hims to chase, which will get better engagement than waving in front of his face where he is less likely to engage.And remember to listen to your timer LOL!! If it goes off, end the session within a rep or two. In that last minute, you ended up getting more sits and not as much targeting, so remember to keep the sessions short and sweet 🙂
Nice work here!
TracyHi!
>>We struggled in the early stages of this, as standing as you directed, as she’s been taught to go around, then through my legs when I stand that way.>>What you did here to get her started was perfect – You had a great start to this here!! One thing to change – rather than reward from your hand, you can toss the treat before she stops moving (and pitching the treat on the ground so it kind of rolls through her front feet will help her keep backing up). It looks like she was stopping and offering other behaviors (the bowing and stretching was adorable!) because she was getting rewarded from your hand, which was causing her to stop moving.
>>she came back and offered up a couple more. This was very exciting for me.>>
Yes! She was terrific, that was a superstar session. And letting it percolate for a few days will help grow the behavior so she will be even stronger in the next session.
Great job!
TracyHi!
>>For now I’m letting it rest>>
Yes, I like to let things rest and try again in 2 days or so – whippets in particular are amazing latent learners, so letting things rest and percolate is always a good idea.
The plank work looked great – she was very happy to get on and turn around! You don’t need to click this, because she likes the motion a lot – you can just deliver the treats and also do tug breaks between reps. The tug breaks will help her body awareness when in higher arousal (like when she is eventually running across the planks :))
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
She is hilarious with her play style – she loves it when you mop the floor with her LOL!!
Great job with the wing wrapping! 2 next steps:
While sitting on the stool (which was perfect), you can slide the bowls further back by your heels, so she has a wider arc on her wraps and has more room to turn around to find the upright (I think that is why she had the one little oopsie moment – the upright had moved out and was harder to see).The second thing to add is, after a couple of back and forths with you sitting on the stool – bring the upright in closer to you (so that variable is easier), and change your position to standing 🙂
>>. First I tried with an inflation toy on a bungee, but after the first rep, she wasn’t picking up the toy.>>
She drove to it really well but then either she doesn’t like the inflation or she got a little turned off when it hit the wall on rep 2. Try it in a different location to see if she likes it again 🙂
She TOTALLY loved the other toy, driving ahead to it beautifully and even bringing it back (mostly LOL!)! So using this high value toy, you can move to toy races (posted today). Have fun!!
Great job here!
TracyThis is an awesome update! he sounds like a really good pup 🙂
And yes, at his age, the amount of energy (brain and body) he uses in a short session will certainly set him up for a good nap 🙂 I don’t guarantee that will continue through adolescence LOL! But it sets up a good routine, happy crating, and good learning.
Great job with your structure – it sounds so perfect!!
Keep me posted on how he is doing!
Tracy
This is good to know at this stage! And we will use this game to help teach her self-regulation.
Do a minimized version of it, like a slight bend in your knees like a “game on” crouch, just the tiniest bit… and then use a ‘get it’ marker and toss a cookie off to the side (the movement to get the treat will be a nice way to help regulate arousal.If that goes well, you can gradually build up to adding more arousal and stimulation, a quiet ‘ready’ word, etc and continuing to deliver food for the absence of jumping up/grabbing.
We definitely want the arousal regulation to be one of the biggest pieces, so for now you can use a toy for the prop sending, which will include some arousal regulation but will also give her an outlet for her mouth 🙂
Tracy
Yay! Thank you for the update! It sounds like everything is going really well 🙂
The blinds are hard because we have to turn away from the pup (hard!) and reward across the body (really hard!) so yes, adding practice without her is smart 🙂 Keep me posted on how it goes!
Tracy
You can deliver cookies to him for staying in handler focus, that will help if he has trouble with it. 🙂
Hi!
The Decel is looking good! And there were some crazy-sounding distractions in the distance! The only hard part was getting enough of a head start. Yes, you can put the cookie in a dish to make it more visible on the grass. Or, you can do it as a restrained recall where someone holds him as run away – then you call him and the person lets go so he can start running to you.When he gets to you, try to have your cookie hand even lower so his chin is parallel to the ground or even pointed slightly down. I know, you will half to bend in half to do it LOL! But he will grow fast so you won’t have to bend as much for long 🙂
Great job!
TracyHe was great with his driving ahead outside, what a good pup!!! You can let him start running to it before you start running to it, so he gets used to being ahead of you. Then you can check out the new version of it added today – now, with that in mind, you will be able to win the toy races because he is so small, so you don’t want to win a lot – maybe just once – then let him win all the time to keep his confidence high like it was here.
Great job!
TracyHi!
>>No, she likes being held and is cool with doing flyball recalls, why I thought this would work. I’m just not fast enough, plus Paul’s timing was off on the release *and* he was trying to video. Lots of misfires. >>
Think of it as a flyball recall, with a side change 🙂 While he is holding her, you can give yourself a massive head start. Then when you are really far away, raise your hand and call her (the hand raise will cue Paul to let go) and then when she starts moving, you can start the blind. You might not be able to get it on video, but it will be good to get her to read the cues while she is more stimulated with the running and tug.
Tracy
Hi!
The stays looked really good here, which helped set up a ton of success with this game!
First video:
Very nice reps on the first video – lovely! She was lined up straight and you were very clear with your release, cue, and reward placement. Lovely!Good stay reward when you went to the other side of the wing – she had no trouble finding the jump there and had a gorgeous turn. YAY!!
2nd video –
>>If I didn’t line her up facing the jump we didn’t have success, video 2.>>
Yes – she was lined up sideways, from what I could see, so it made sense to her to stay on her line (because that is what the jump cue means). If that happens (where she does not take the jump), you can assume that the handling was not clear, give her a cookie for her effort (rather than walking away from the jumps) and then try again making it a shade easier either by setting her up straight to the jump, and/or moving her closer to it.
Third video: she was straighter here and could see the bar more clearly, so she found jump 1 really well and that allowed you to handle jump 2 3 different ways, and she read all of those really well too! Super!
>>When we moved back in my yard she was distracted by a noise, which turned out to be a bird playing in the roof gutter. I couldn’t get her attention back until we went to the corner and investigated together. Then got her back by tugging/playing. But after that you can see she kept looking in that direction while holding her sit>>
Yes, the weird little things in the environment can require a detour into looking at them before returning to work. More toy play can help and even the pattern game, but she seems to have worked through it and that is great!
>>We have a dickens of a time trying to get her to work with me at Amy’s. We end up just playing pattern games trying to get her focus on me. >>
Bearing in mind that she is an adolescent, you will want to take a less-is-more approach to getting her to play. The agility skills are not that important – the no pressure, big fun approach is more important. Can she chase a toy that you are dragging on a line? Can she run through a tunnel (maybe Amy can hold her) and chase a toy? Be careful to NOT put pressure on her to engage, because that adds stress and causes less engagement.
Think of it as a series of questions: can she chase this toy you are dragging around? Can she chase you and the dragging toy? Can she eat a treat then chase the toy?
I think more motion might help her a lot. And you can gradually add treats in, but they don’t appear to be a high value motivator there which is why I suggest moving toys or balls for now.
>>She likes being in her chair, but sometimes we put her in an expen to give me and her a break and she learns to self regulate. But she definitely doesn’t like the expen and settles better in her chair.>>
What does she do in the xpen? If she doesn’t like it and can’t settle… then you are potentially making it harder for her because the xpen might be stressful, which bleeds over into how she feels about the environment as a whole. Does she like a crate better?
>>The night before I had worked her before group class, then went to group class where we also had trouble focusing at first, but then got her away from the group and had better success. Then the next morning went to Amy’s and she was mentally exhausted. >>
Yes – her brain needed time to rest and replenish. That can take a couple of days, so be sure to spread out her training and also if she has gone someplace new, you will want to let her rest after that too because it is far harder than it appears for adolescents.
>>When it was our turn we did recalls, pattern games etc. Sometimes the pattern games don’t work. But recalls and finding me do.>>
Motion is definitely something she likes! If she is not engaging in the pattern game, move further from the distractions and she where she is willing to eat treats, then you can start the pattern game there.
>>It gets discouraging that we can do all this stuff at home but not elsewhere.>>
It is entirely normal. The training you do at different places needs to be a lot easier than what you do at home, because the environment is so much harder. So for the lateral lead outs you posted above, for example – she probably can’t do that yet in a class setting, so ask for stuff that is much easier. It is important that she is very successful in the harder environments, so she has a happy and relaxed conditioned response to being there.
It sounds like she did well with the trial environment! And double hooray for Posh!!!
That is a hard environment for Mochi, so keep the training short and successful. Try not to expose her to dogs barking and lunging at her – even if she does not seem affected by it, there is a physiological response and we don’t want her making any association that scary things might happen. She is indeed resilient, but we don’t want her to have to make withdrawals from that resilience bank account in her brain!
>>yet remains hyper-vigilant in our back yard. And has trouble in class or at Amy’s.>>
When there are fewer distractions in the environment, the distractions that are there will pop out more. That is why we want to carefully introduce her to those environments and start as far as needed from distractions, with no pressure.
I personally put my young dogs into classes and seminars that are at least 2 levels below what they can do at home, all so I can really make it a happy, successful, place while sorting out the environment. That is key 🙂
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
