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Wow, big congrats on all of your successes at Nationals!!! JJ was brilliant, and so was the entire family! That is so impressive and so exciting 🙂 You must be floating on Cloud 9 🙂
That is a great team at your local facility – JJ is getting plenty of top notch education there, especially from Jen who is fantastic. She is going to be an amazing agility dog!!!
Thank you for the update, and keep me posted on how the games are going!
Tracy
Good morning!
Doing the proofing from a chair was definitely harder but he was great! He had an error on the first rep of the left turn video and then it looks like he got it right on all other reps (including the last one, but the video ended a little. early
He also did really well on the other side – perfect here too! Yay!
On both sides, try not to move the cookie hand on the wraps til after he makes a decision so that way he is not cuing off the subtle movement of your hand.
You can add your motion back to his one, and do the advanced level where you start with a tunnel and then as he exits the tunnel, you can either cue the wrap or another tunnel.
The tunnel game is looking good too! Your verbals were timely, so we can look at what was happening in the left versus right turn exits:
>>is he not turning left as well as he turns right?
The left turn was definitely a little harder for him, but it might have been more about the information and not as much about a side preference.
When you were cuing the feft tunnel exit – I think he was hearing the left verbal but seeing you step forward as he as entering, so the forward motion (which looked the same a go cue) overrode the verbal and he was straight on his exits on that side.
On the right turns, you didn’t move forward. Instead, you leaned to your right side which supported the right turn verbal – so his turns were really good on that side! Yay!
So for the left turns, try letting him see you moving laterally away from the tunnel and not forward, to help support the verbal.
The GO reps looked great!
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>. I will keep working on getting my body cues and verbals to match. It feels like I am doing it (or in my mind I am), but I can see that it isn’t happening in real life.>>
That statement is true for all of us in the sport LOL!!! Our handling is always a work in progress 🙂
She did really well on the video! On the first rep – it was unclear if she was in a stay or not so she came with you. You were much clearer info about the stay on the 2nd rep and after that so she was pretty perfect 🙂
And it was fine that she went to her leash nest to you on some of the releases. She was doing it as a way of offering engagement, it seems – it is a good response so don’t try to catch her or prevent her from it. Go with her to the leash (like you would at a trial) so you can engage with it and put it on.
What a good girl with her speed loop, both in terms of ignoring the leash AND finding all of her jumps. YAY!!!
I don’t see any questions from her about the end of the run, but it is still good to rehearse it sometimes. She was super here!
Great job 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
>>I have had dogs choke on the cookie if I call before they swallow.>>
Eek! We definitely don’t want her to choke!
The blind crosses are looking good! She is small but VERY speedy already, so you can start your blinds sooner. Try to start the blind no later than when she is halfway to you – that will start to feel like you start it after the first stride or two towards you, and that is fine 🙂 She was doing a great job of reading the side change so doing it sooner will help her read it sooner as well.
Looking at the Goat game
>>Apparently I have trained this game since there was little shaping involved!>>
Ha! Yes! You have clearly done shaping games with her because she was like “got it, feet on the thing, gimme cookie.” And she was great about tugging on the different toys. Super!!
And being able to do it all in the higher arousal state that tugging brings is fantastic – all of the science we are learning about the dogs’ brains tells us that this will help then when they are in the higher arousal at a trial!
So keep adding in the different things for the goat games, like the bin you mentioned and the brick (you shouldn’t need to say brick, so it shouldn’t hurt the break release word :))
The next step on this would be to use a different placement of reinforcement to get her driving back to the object, which will also help encourage her to put more feet on it (back feet would be great!). You can do that easily by using a reward marker such as ‘get it’ so she is simultaneously marked for the good behavior offered and told where the reward is. For some of the harder objects, you can reward her in position for standing on it, then use your get it to toss a treat away off to the side.
Great job 🙂
TracyGood morning!
Yes, he is wild for his freezer bag! Great job building the value for it, and also great job with the ‘ready’ dance so he doesn’t leave to go hit it until you cue it. You can start to fade your hands out of the ready dance, and keep the crouchy engaged body language and eye contact – that will be a good challenge to see if he can stick with you in handler focus til sent to the prop.
It looks like you were able to do sideways and backwards on both sides, turning wet in both directions. Good boy!!! You can try this with a toy too and in other locations (even if it is different rooms in the house :))
Stay tuned for more games coming today. Great job here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
Nice session here 🙂 The driving ahead warm up here looked really good! Nice job calling her early (she caught on really quickly that it was important to grab the treat and run to you LOL!!) and then showing the decel really early so she was super organized coming into your side for the pivot. Nice!
At 1:32 you stopped running and waited for her, so she smoked you on that rep, making the decel a little late 🙂 I like it when they kick in the speed and smoke us! I think you can keep yourself further ahead by tossing the cookie further away and also staying in motion the whole time while she is eating it, even if you are just walking.
Great job here and safe travels to Florida! Bring your wet shoes!
Tracy
Good morning!
Poor dude! Sorry to hear about his toe!! I am sure he thinks he should just be allowed to run around and tug LOL!!
The hand targeting is a good game for him with the broken toy – it has a little action but not too much 🙂
Be sure that you look a the target – when you were looking at him, that overrode the target so he was offering sits in front of you. You can also shape this with more successive approximations – you can reward going towards it even if the touch it not totally perfect. And tossing the cookies away helps reset the game so he can move forward to it again.
The prop game is looking good! With the sending, you can get your arm involved – this will really help him power into the sideways and backwards sending. Your leg step was good, so extend your arm out to the prop at the same time as you step to it (and shift your connection to look at the prop and not at his cute face :))
As you work the sideways sends, you can move yourself laterally away from the prop, so he hits it and turns towards you. When you were too close (like on the last rep), he would read it as a rear cross and turn away 🙂 So a little more distance off to the side for your position will help him know to turn towards you on this game.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
She was super with her decel & turn game at the big field! Very engaged, eating treats, playing with toys – very exciting!! YAY! She does like to do the flop down while she is tugging (lots of puppies do this, it is super cute :)) so I cam glad you kept playing when she did that 🙂 And of course chasing the toy like it is a flirt pole is pure whippety fun LOL!!
Only one suggestion for this game: when working in the big space, she gets up to BIG SPEED so you need to decel sooner LOL!! She has very fast feet! So I think for her, as soon as you see her take one big stride towards you, you can start your decel. That will get really lovely collection into the cookie hand (nice hand placement here!)
Prop sending also looks great!! She is so much better about looking at and moving to the prop and ignoring your hand 🙂 So yes, you can move to the sideways and backwards sending. Stick close to the prop for now, and feel free to reward right on the prop because that was really helpful for her.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
The recalls into decel are looking really good! The earlier you decelerated and got the cookie hand in place, the easier it was for her to make the super tight turn – especially that last rep, such lovely collection!!
As you are running away, eb sure to give her a little more connection by looking back at her. If you are not looking back clearly on one side, she runs towards you but isn’t always sure which side to be on (like at :49, she was not sure where to be and almost ended up on the other side because the toy was more obvious there :))
>>but it took a couple of minutes to get her comfortable with the concept of him restraining her. >>
Yes, she was definitely sorting out getting comfy with it! One thing you can do it mix in quick releases from the restraint, using simple straight recalls because you will still be close to her. So something you hand her to the restrainer and do what you did here (bigger distance, fancier dance moves). And sometimes you hand her to him and call her immediately. That way she will gradually get more comfy with it and it won’t always require being restrained for a long time.
The two toy wrap game is going well!! She was able to figure out to let go of the toy AND go around the upright – that is really hard, because she literally has to take her mouth off of reinforcement and leave it there to offer a behavior. Brilliant! That is some high level impulse control stuff for a baby pup!!
Standing up with the food bowls and upright looked great. Easy peasy! You can keep gradually inching the upright way from you. And you can very gradually slide the bowls back by your heels, so they are further away creating more of an arc for her to travel along as she wraps.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Nice job with the blind cross here! Being able to do it on the flat with the pup right there is hard and you nailed it!
>>Paul holding didn’t work great,>>
What went sideways – was she not happy with being held, or was it hard to show her the blind?
The goat game – this went well! She was more than happy to touch the new thing. Super!!! Her early foundations with the cardboard box are probably what helped make it easy for her 🙂
Only one suggestion about mechanics: You can get the treats ready in your hand before the object gets presented (rather than after), for speed of rewarding her.
You can shift the placement of reinforcement so instead of feeding her for standing still on it, you can reward and simultaneously release’ her by tossing a treat off to the side, then reward again when she gets back on it. That way she is moving and offering more and more feet on the thing each time 🙂Keep changing up things that she can get on or in -you don’t need to get it perfect on any single object, it is better to work this game on as many different things as possible.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Yes, this is definitely ready to go outside! And indoors, you will probably need to get a carpet or something for him to run on, so he really digs in 🙂
His drive forward was excellent, and he didn’t mind that you were also running. Yay! And yes a longer toy will be good to be able to engage after he gets to it 🙂
I think the hardest part for him was letting go of the toy. So when you are wanting it back, you can quiet your voice and your hands til he lets go… then you can go wild with your ready ready chatter and start the next rep 🙂
Great job here! Let me know how he does outside!
Tracy
Having Shane restrain him worked out great! Thanks Shane!!
>>All I can say is LATE, LATE, LATE! I think I am incorporating all your great advice, and then…well…not so much. >>
That is why I don’t tell the puppies that they were wrong or wide on these… it is all about human timing 🙂
For timing, you will want to decel or start the blind no later than when he is halfway to you. You can put a visual marker off to the side, like a cone. And you will start running, call him when you are past the cone (keep running) and then when he is getting past the cone – you decel or start the blind (you would be way ahead at that point).
That will allow him to organize for the collection or side change.
>>I think I am mostly struggling with the space. In my head I feel like there is not enough room to execute properly, but I am certain that is wrong, lol!>>
I think this is a good amount of space, so if you start sooner, it will feel more comfy in that space.On the decels:
>>So on the Decel exercise, you want me to run forward, let him catch up to me, and continue to run forward with him right by my side BEFORE I decel, correct? >>
Actually, the decel should start when he is on his way to you, before he reaches halfway to you. So you would run forward til he hits that halfway point, then decelerate and as he is arriving at your side, start the turn.
Looking at the video, the rep at :25 had earlier decel than the others, and he collected really well! Yay! The other reps had deceleration starting as he got to you, so he would blast past by a stride then make the turn (because that is when he saw the info). So starting even earlier than the rep at :25 will make it even easier 🙂
I am not sure if he knows when to grab the toy on this game, so you can scrunch it up a little more so it is not as dangly, then as you pivot you can tell him to take it (we will be adding markers soon that will tell him he can have it).
Looking at the blinds – great job with the connection on the new side! He was able to changes sides easily, thanks to that. As with the decals, you can scrunch the toy up a bit and keep your arm touching your stomach as you show the new connection so the toy is a little visible but not flapping around as much til he is almost near you.
>>And on the BC I am still waiting too long before I switch sides, so he is doing a bit of the “drunken sailor.”>
On this flatwork game, you will see the change of line on the flat as he changes sides so that looked good! But yes, you can be a lot sooner 🙂 You can anticipate the halfway point and start the blind: Shane releases him and when you see Yuzu take one stride, you can start the blind.
Definitely keep up the great connection, though, as that is the most important part.
And the toy play looked good – I didn’t see any tooth hugs or clothing grabs, unless you edited them out LOL!
Great job 🙂
TracyHi Annalise and Team Prytania! These were great rainy day sessions 🙂
Very nice high energy session with the toy here! The Sheltie howling in the background was HILARIOUS!!!
She had a little trouble dropping the toy, so you can trade for a low value treat. Not being about to drop the toy means she is in a high arousal state, so the cookie trade can help balance that.
She has some really useful tricks for this too! The spin and twist are good ones! And she was super with her sit and her touch! The smacking her gets her super stimulated which is good to know but you don’t always need her to be that stimulated 🙂
The next step here is to take it on the road and see how she does is different places.
She also did well with the food version of the volume dial. The backing up is a great trick too! And the line up trick is good too – that might be her way of saying she is ready to work!
Try to feed her from your hand on this one, so she is sticking closer to you – picture this happening right outside the trial ring where you don’t have a ton of room to move around. So you can cue a trick then deliver the cookie from your hand – she can follow your hand to eat it so there is still some action, but you might not have enough room to catch it.
Remote reinforcement is also looking good! Great job with the let’s go marker! She found the version of the game with food to be pretty easy 🙂 Remember to mix in short distances with the longer ones too, so it is not just getting harder all the time.
The ball was harder for sure! I love how she picked up the toy – that was her way of saying “this is hard, I need to put SOMETHING in my mouth!”
She got better and better in this session – you did a great job of just doing short fun reps, so she was getting the tennis ball pretty quickly. That made a big difference and helped her a lot.
We have added the next steps to this game – I think she is ready!
Great job!
TracyHi!
>A question right off the top on engaged chill. This will be a big one for us as chilling is not his favorite activity and I haven’t found something he likes yet. >>
Most dogs struggle with engaged chill, which is why we just teach it now 🙂
>>I’ve already noticed he doesn’t really like being petted when work might be possible.
That is pretty common in BCs, so no need to pet him.
>>He does relax on a mat, but as you stated that’s not really him doing the chilling.>>
Engaged chill and actual relaxation are two different things 🙂 So if he can stand on a mat without intervention from you in the form of cookie parades or repeated cues, then it is a potential first step to engaged chill.
>>I started at home, with the food up and down game, and tried slowing it down just a bit. He started whining quickly and then ran down the hall and back. I tried it again with similar results..
Two suggestions: slow it down more gradually, and put him on a leash. He wants to move and we are asking him to self-regulate and NOT move… so hard! So the leash helps and slowing down more gradually helps.
>>’m going to try the snuffle mats next. (Amazon’s delivering a 2nd one tomorrow :),
Yay! I was using two cut up cleaner mats from the grocery store LOL!
>>but I wanted to ask you how I should handle the vocalization/running off. Do I try to time the cookies to prevent it or do I let him work through it? >
Both are feedback that he is frustrated. So alternate the pace so it is fast, slow, fast and gradually oh-so-gradually sloooooow down the pace a heartbeat at a time. And a leash keeps him with you so you can the chance to do it.
>>He’s responded well to the snuffle mat, so I think it may really help him.
The snuffle mats will also let you use several cookies, which helps slow down the pace. So you can use several cookies when you are doing it without the snuffle mats and see if that helps.
Keep me posted!
Tracy
