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Good morning!
The drive to handler/decel/turn is looking great! A nice by product of this is excellent attention and engagement outdoors, she did so well!!
Great job with your early decelerations, that helped her begin to coordinate her collection. You will see her get more and more coordination as you play this, and as she develops more coordination in general š
>>I think sheās doing great with this but I need more practice. I can definitely go further and faster. Iām finding it harder because sheās still so small but super quick and I donāt want to trip over her.>>
I agree, she is doing a great job!!!! So are you! And she totally figured out that the mat was the starting point. So with that in mind, you can put a cookie on a mat (while holding her) then move her away from the mat (carrying her while she is still portable like that LOL!) and the sending her to the mat. That should give you an even bigger head start to add more running before the decel.
You can also try it with a cookie on the mat, and a tug toy as the reward – this will work in going back and forth between food and toys quite nicely š And empty hand as a focal point as you decelerate will help her collect, then you can use tugging as the reward.
Driving ahead also looks great! She is definitely driving nicely to the toy! She seems to like the bigger red toy, possibly because it is more obvious and easier to grab.
She doesnāt quite know what to do with the dead toy when she arrives at it yet, so you were great about getting to her and tugging with her. That will help build up the grabbing of the toy and bringing it back. To get more grabbing the toy, you can mix in some up-close toy drops so all she has to do is grab it and then play with you.
>>Iām using my verbal āGet itā which is my Marker for chasing a thrown toy. Maybe I should start using āGo, Goā instead? Means drive ahead of me to the next obstacle on course.>>
Yes, the get it worked perfectly for now! You can do the get it marker for one more session, where you add a little more of your motion forward: when you let go of her, start walking forward immediately as she drives ahead. If she is happy with it and continues to drive ahead, you can add faster walking and maybe a little jogging (you can add running when she is bigger and can run faster LOL!)..
And when she is happy to continue driving forward as you are also moving forward, then you can add the GO verbal. The handler motion is part of the GO verbal, so I want to make sure she is happy with that before we add the word.
Wing wrapping is looking good here! You can refresh the back and forth rhythm at the beginning by doing the cookie drops without waiting for offering – then you can fade the drops out and let her offer. Think of it as a warm up LOL!
She did really well when you added the Kong bag! Super! And it was a very clever way to add more distance on the wraps without also making it easier to slide between you and the wrap object. Click/treat for yoU!!!
For the next step, you can replace the current wrap objects with a pop up barrel or hamper or giant cone (something that we will be using as we build on these games). Refresh the back and forth with that new object with you sittingā¦ then when she is in the groove, you can stand up and see how she does! If standing is too hard, we can find a middle ground of having you sit on something taller (she is still really small, so having you stand up might be a big challenge for now).
Goat tricks video:
>>I think I should maybe take some air out of this large disc for her? I have a giant fitbone that might work better. >>
Yes, the inflatables should be mostly deflated to start – fully inflated things are hard for adult dogs and definitely hard for puppies š And you can use the fit bone and the giant disc together, so she has a bigger playing field to get all of her feet on, not just front feet. This will also help her as she grows, so she has room to put her feet on the objects.
One front foot was easy here, and you had really strong click timing! Two front feet were harder but she did well! She did go across the disc when you tossed the treat to the other side but you can see that she had trouble figuring out where to put the weight in her rear to balance and couldnāt hold position. Part of that was the inflation of the disc, and part of that was the smaller size of the disc (she would have had to scrunch up to get all 4 feet on it, which is really hard). So you can use all sorts of your fitness stuff – several discs, the fit bone, anything that is easy to stand on, to create a big playing field for her to comfortably get all 4 feet on and standing a naturally balanced position.
>>The last weekend of April she stayed with my friend when I was away. My friend has a teeter out in her yard set to tip with just a 4ā³ drop for her older puppy. She wasnāt expecting Gem to interact with it but she did. On her own she was running back & forth down the whole board and loved the tipping!!!! >>
That is good news and bad news LOL!!! Good news – super confident little pup that is willing try things! Bad news – super confident little pup that is willing try things LOL!!! Because she was confident enough to run back and forth, I strongly suggest that you now block off any access to the contact equipment because we donāt want her to get on and have something scry happen (like falling off or a surprising loud sound). I have the contacts all blocked off in my field because my 2 pups (4 months and 9 months) are at the pre-adolescent life stage where they put themselves in precarious positions like wanting to climb up the dog walk LOL!!!
So since Gemma is showing interest in the teeterā¦ the teeter can do on puppy lockdown for a while LOL!!!
Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! Lots of wonderful things happening here, she is doing so well!!!! Yay!
On the plank – I love how you got the plank in place and IMMEDIATELY got a cookie in to jumpstart the game. Perfect! She was all pumped up in a good way, and the cookie directed her focus really well. Then she was able to offer lots of good behavior and get rewarded. The power of that very first cookie set a great tone for the rest of the session.
One suggestion for mechanics:
When asking her to turn around, keep your hand low and slow – the high head position caused her to lose her balance.
And the sit on the plank at the end looked good!
You can add in toy play before (you might have done this), during (after every 4 or 5 cookies) and after so she rehearses the mechanics of the body awareness on the plank while in higher arousal too. She is ready for that!
You can bring this game to a longer plank, or put two planks next to each other side by side, to get her moving back and forth a bit more and adding in hopping on and off.
As a side note: she did BRILLIANTLY working for food here! You are doing a great job raising the value of food as reinforcement during āworkā and training.
She did well tugging on the wobble board! The hardest part is getting the pups to shift their weight back –
I liked your mechanics best in the section that started at :29 then again at 1:01, when you held your hands relatively still so she could balance and weight shift while tugging. Letting her dog the tugging with your calmer hands also allowed her to comfortable weight shift and balance. At the beginning, your hands we too active so she couldnāt really get herself set up into a good balance. And great job adding the āreliefā moments of releasing her from the board.
You can try moving the wobble board to a location where there might be a little more noise when it moves (but start by putting towels or something under it, so the noise is very gradually introduced to be sure she is happy with the noise).
Wrapping is going well too! She is bending nicely in both directions here.
Since your markers are in place, be careful not to do too much āyesā or āyeah!ā because those draw her focus to you (like in the very beginning when she came to you instead of bringing the toy back), and also the āstrikeā marker without the āyesā before it will help her look at the line and not at you as much. It is HARD not to say āyesā a lot, I feel that pain LOL!!!!!
At the very beginning, she took a moment to figure out what was happening. To jump start the wrapping, you can tap the toy on the other side at the very beginning on that first rep. Then she will have the āahaā moment and start offering more.
Once she got into the rhythm, she did really well! Very nice!! Moving the barrel further away was the right choice (at :58) but I think you moved it a little too far away so she had a lot of errors – try just inching it out, literally by an inch each time, so it is barely noticeable.
Also, she is ready for you to transfer this game to something a little taller like a pop up laundry basket – that gets us moving towards using a wing and also gets you standing up too!
So the next steps for her would be:
– Introduce the taller thing like a barrel
– Change the game to you standing up (with the barrel close to you, since the standing might be a challenging variable)We will be adding more to this game this week!
Great job here!!
TracyHi!
The thing about temperament tests is that while they are snapshots of the puppy in the moment, they are not the full picture and we can expect behavior to shift š So what might have looked to the humans like a retrieve, was probably not a retrieve – it was probably play solicitation. That is great though, I prefer play solicitation over a retrieve š
>But if thereās an object just on the ground somewhere, if I say go āGet itā, she usually doesnāt respond.
That is normal – she doesn’t even really ‘see’ it because it is not moving and it was not something she was focusing on.
>>I donāt think she fully understands what I want, Go Get that Thing and bring it to me, and donāt know how important it is to get this skill.>>
It is unimportant right now for her to go find something that is not something she was interacting with. The adult dogs have figured it out and she will too as she grows up, but it is not important to focus on for now – it is more useful to work the engagement games for now.
T
Hi –
>>So when working with the mat, Iām understanding you to say have her get on with all 4 feet to start before she comes forward to me, to then step back.You can do all 4 feet to start or at least the back 2 feet so she can step back onto it. More on that coming today!
T
Hi!
Yes, part of the art of puppy training is being an observer in-the-moment and making little adjustments.
>> I could tell I was using Yip prematurely or incorrectly.
And it is also a very simulating marker, which will draw her attention towards you – so using other markers will help shift her attention to different locations when we need that.
>>On resilience markers, itās a fairly new concept to me to have so many words. Not quite sure how to go about it, but will give it a go!>>
We will be very gradually introducing a whole lot of words in the coming weeks š
T
Good morning!
Fingers crossed for easy answers from the ultrasound! Are they looking at both sides? (Yet another thing I learned the hard way – aways ultrasound BOTH sides because only one side only gives half the picture LOL!)
Reacher dd well with the toy races! He definitely likes the flying squirrel frisbee and he was NOT going to be fooled by a cookie toss LOL!! Game on! And I love that he liked the toy. The big win on the 2nd to last rep was probably because he was looking for the treat – and the last rep got frozen in the video, I canāt get it to play that part (but it shows the tugging afterwards).
So since he is loving the racing elementā¦.
>>He was even trying so hard to get it one time that he totally flipped over trying to stop. OMG speaking of not wanting orthopedic issues Reacherā¦>>
Yes, he was so driven that he was splatting himself! But we can change the toy to help this – do you have a big hollee roller toy? That is perfect for the pups to run to and scoop up, no splatting. I have also shoved other toys inside it, like a tennis ball or a lotus ball or soft frisbee, to enhance the value of the hollee roller š
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
He is doing really well here! He is driving ahead beautifully š
Because the environment has a lot of distractions, he did best when you tossed the toy immediately after he was lined up, then you grabbed the toy and got it moving after you got to it.
That really jump-started the session and helped him ignore the environment and totally focus on the toy! When you have his focus like that, you can throw the toy further and further away so he can drive ahead more and more. Be sure to hold him by the collar like you did at the beginning, so he knows which side to be on and can watch the toy land – that sets up the driving ahead perfectly.Great job!
Tracy
Good morning! Lots of good work here!
>>The first video is Get it food. I do not see a problem with this. I do have to be careful how I offer food from the hand when JJ is in a heightened state. She wants to lunge at the food and can be quite demanding. I found that turning my hand over so that she comes in to the hand is a better situation for me.>>
I donāt see the get it with food link here, but I can totally relate about the drive to the hand for food- my youngest pup comes in hot for cookies, like something out of the Jurassic Park movies, ending up with my whole hand in his mouth. Ouch!!! He does this even when he is not in a heightened state LOL!! I think he simply doesnāt have a lot of body awareness with his mouth, so I have to train it like we train hind end body awareness š So I have done a lot of work with the food markers and getting him to take food from my hand gently in any state – and also figuring out ways to present the food (like in an open flat palm, or tossing it) so he can be successful during shaping when stimulated. So yes, be sure to turn your hand over for her so that you can deliver reinforcement while protecting your flesh.
Toy switching – she has lovely toy drive and yes, the 2nd toy was VERY EXCITING š One thing that really helps get the pups to focus on the āotherā toy we want them to switch to is if *we* focus on the other toy, ooh-ing and ah-ing over it, and completely ignoring the pup and the toy she currently has (you can gently hold the current toy, or have the pup on a leash so you can let go of the current toy). When we shift our focus to the new toy, we are using enhancement learning and the pups will come over to check it out, āforgettingā the current toy. When we try to engage the pup and focus on the pup, we actually enhance the toy they have so they keep playing with it š Enhancement is one of the non-operant forms of learning that we use all the time with pups š
And since she loves food, you can totally trade the high value toy for a low value treat (if there is such a thing :)) This is what you were doing in the toy-food video and it went really well! I love the trading as a no-fighting way to get the toy back, even after high arousal tugging like she did here. And it helps us rehearse going back and forth from toys to food to toys, which is incredibly useful for training and for working in different arousal states. This session went great!!!
Toy races – first rep went great! Rather than try to get her to bring it by moving towards her (which moves the dogs away from us :)) you can move the other direction and trade for another toy or a cookie
She drove past you nicely even with the cookie toss starts! Make sure she sees the toy thrown before you toss the treat – on the 2nd rep of that, the toy was thrown a lot later and I donāt think she even realized it was out there. But the last rep had the toy toss first and then the cookie toss, so she TOTALLY drove to the toy LOL!
>>JJ would get free from me before I could get her collar so that was a bit of a challenge,
It looks like she was getting more stimulating (which is part of the goal of the game, to teach the pups to āworkā when they are more stimulated like they will be in sports later on in life), and with that stimulation came some Herdy/circling behavior which made things challenging for mechanics because she was slippery!
So in the mechanics before each rep, you can slow things down to emphasize the line up: tug tug tug, get the toy back (cookie trade makes it easy), tuck the toy into the hand that will throw it, use a cookie in your hand to line her up at your side (she will probably be happy to follow a cookie), gently take her collarā¦. Then throw the toy to begin the next rep. That builds cleaner transitions to the next rep, and it also allows you to help her rehearse lining up even when she is very stimulated. Using the cookies as a focal point in the transition make it very very easy for now, and we can fade the cookies out eventually.
On the wing wrapping video – I think the amazon box was so tall and wide that she had trouble seeing you and seeing the bowls, so she had not quite established the back and forth and was waiting for you to drop the cookie – so moving it further away was causing the freezing behavior as she waited for the cookie drop. So using something smaller will work better like the laundry basket you mentioned. That will make it easier.
Offering going behind you is rewardable for now (we actually havenāt told the dogs anything to the contrary, and it is a moving offered behavior, so we take it for now LOL!). And since we actually donāt want her to go behind you, yes – sitting on a couch or standing against a wall will totally help her stay in front of you.
Great job here!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>I didnāt realize I named my 1st forum post Sue and Grady
Ha! Old habitsā¦
Lots of good work here on the videos! She is doing really well. I love her tug drive!!!! Most of the feedback focuses on ideas for mechanics so you won’t need 3 arms and so you don’t miss that all-important first offered behavior in shaping as you are getting ready.
1st video – good job getting the back and forth rhythm started! One suggestion for the mechanics:
Try to have the bowls in your hands and put them down when you are ready – that way she wonāt have several interactions before you are ready. And at the end, pick the bowls up right away so she doesnāt continue to offer the back and forth.2nd video – she didnāt cheat LOL The upright was too far away at first, she should not be able to fit between you and the upright š Yo can also move the bowls out a little bit so they are easier to see as she goes back and forth, making it less likely that she will squeeze between you and the upright.
She found the rhythm nicely by the end of this! For the next session, start with the upright in really close to you to refresh the back and forth behavior. Then you can start to inch it out away a bit more – she is small, so move it away in tiny increments so she doesnāt slide between you and the upright.
Goat tricks – hooray for the tugging! She did really well going back to the toy after the treats!!!
Try to use an even longer toy, so she can keep her head low during the tugging rather than her chin lifting all the way up (that can be uncomfortable and she might let go of the toy).She did really well offering to touch the disc. It was fully inflated, so she was not comfy getting more than one foot on. To help her offer more feet, you can deflate the disc a lot and also use more than one disc, so she has a bigger playing field that is easier to get on. And as you transition from the tugging to the shaping, put the disc down after the treats are ready so you donāt miss any good offering. And then at the end, pick the disc up as you take the toy out, so she knows you want her to stop offering on the disc and start playing with the toy š
Looking at the blind crosses:
The reward across the arm looked great on the first reps here! You were late at 1:24, so she ended up on the āwrongā sideā¦ but reward anyway because it was handler error and not puppy error š
She was distracted by the food here – the smells on the ground and in your pocket – so she had trouble tugging from you hand. A longer toy will help too so she can chase it as you drag it around. And, lower value food will help too!Wobble board: she did well getting on this and tugging on it! She seemed very confident! Yay! The longer toy will help here too, so her lower jaw can stay parallel to the ground and so she can shift her weight back and stay balanced as the wobble board moves. She didnāt love when you did the āsmack the babyā moments of pushing her with your hand or fast spins with. The toy in her mouth – it threw her balance off as she moved away and ended up off the board. So just tugging is great for this one š
As with the other shaping games – have the object to offer on as the last thing she sees. The wobble board was the biggest visual here, so she started offering because she was fully engaged, so it took you a moment to get her on the toy. You can have the wobble board leaning up against the wall, for example, get the tugging going, then bring the wobble board into the picture.Plankrobatics are going well too, she did really well offering getting on it. If you stand closer to it, she will get on it even more – the distance between yo and the board was just enough that she spent time in front of you on the ground rather than on the board.
You can now start to reward her for staying on the plank, and for getting her to slowly follow your cookie hand in a full circle.
Backing up – she was starting to figure it out by the end for sure! To help her out, you can reward even quicker after she eats that first cookie between your feet – look for the first movement back after the treat and then toss the treat back towards her feet. She was offering that first step or two but not getting rewarded, so she started thinking about other things. And tossing the reward rather than handing it to her makes a big difference, as it keeps her head low which gets more backing up š
Focus forward: that first toss was a bit too far, she was thinking about something right next to you LOL! The 2nd rep was much better after you got her running on the first rep and the last rep was good too – you need a stronger grip on her collar LOL!!
Toy races – I think the cheat-to-win element with the cookie toss behind you has come a bit too early in her toy race understanding, because she was not really understanding that you wanted her to outrun you to the toy. So take out the cookie toss start for now, and just work with the toy to get her driving further and further ahead of you to it. After a few sessions of that, we can bring the cookie toss back in – but when you do that and you get to the toy first, you need to dance around and tease her with it, rather than let her get it š then go directly into the next rep with no cookie toss.
Wing wraps – she found going behind you a little easier than always going in front of you on this one! You can try this with a wall behind you, to help convince her to go in front of you and not behind you š And no need to tell āoopsieā or withdraw the treat in those moments, just keep rewarding her – she is not wrong, necessarily, because she is just learning the game with a brand new element of the barrel. If you see 2 errors in a session (going behind you), make a change so she can be successful. At the end, you were doing some rapid-fire rewards with the bowls more in front of the barrel and that really helped!
Markers video 1 – the get it looks good and she has a really nice retrieve! That first toy was high value so she had a little trouble doing the ābiteā to the 2nd toy, but she did get to it nicely when you made the toy move a little more š and put the other one behind you. You might have to hide the 2nd toy under your shirt for now, because it was still distracting when it was behind you and we TOTALLY want her to love toys like she did here (and not tell her she should not grab a toy :))
The food markers looked good too! You mentioned not being sure if you were doing it right (maybe because it felt so easy :)) but you were totally doing it right! The search to go get the cookie and then the snacks back at you looked great.
One thing about the āsearchā – you will want to define if it means one cookie, or a scatter of several cookies. You used it here as one cookie, which is great! I mention it because a lot of people use āsearchā to mean both one cookie and a scatter of multiple cookies, and that can be confusing when we use it in the future.Great job!! Let me know what you think!
TracyYay!! Thank you for the update!!! He knew he was at THE BIG SHOW so he brought his A Game š (Also it is possible that the excitement of that environment brought him to a higher arousal level which helped him focus in the best way – that is GREAT!!)
I am glad he had a great time!!! Fingers crossed for some dry afternoon weather ahead š
TracyHi!
She did well here with the lateral lead outs! I think getting into the release quickly helps her: when you got to your position and released pretty quickly, she got it right each time. When you were delayed to much (like the rep starting at :18) she had too much time to watch you and watch the cookie, so she didnāt take the jump.The other thing that can help you add even more distance is to toss all rewards onto the landing spot of the jump and nowhere near you. š If they are all out by the jump, she will lock onto the jump and not curl into you š
She had a little trouble when you tried the backsides – Yes I can see how the push cues were confusing at first with the same setup as the lateral lead outs she did, then with the tunnel right there when she exited the wing wrap. So if you want to change skills, give her a break so you can change the setup and start with a clean slate š
>>Am thinking of signing up for MaxPup 3 again, because we need to get the contacts and WPs under our belts. The Teeter has been particularly difficult because of Changtseās skittishness with motion and noise together. Thot that max Pup 3 would beagood place for her. What do you think?>>
MaxPup 3 has only a little bit of teeter work (foundation stuff) and no weaves – have you looked at the weave and teeter classes? Those might be a better fit!
Nice work here š āØTracy
Funny you should ask… the first retrieve game gets added tomorrow!
One thing I have done with my 2 youngest dogs is a LOT of trading to build up the retrieve, without actually working on the retrieve. I sit on my butt a lot, throw a toy or ball, then encourage the pup to turn towards me – and I immediately offer a trade so the pup comes back to me. It doesn’t matter at first if they bring the toy back all or part of the way, I just want them to bring themselves back! And you can trade for a treat or for another toy. Then you can either throw the new toy or go grab the other toy and throw it, and repeat the pattern. You can see some of it in the reinforcement strategies I posted and it is working better than any retrieve training I have ever done: the 9 month old and the 4 month old puppies have spectacular retrieves because it has been all about the trading (and of course built to ‘bring me the thing’ :))
Tracy
Hi!
Backing up is going really well! It took her a moment to get started, so you can start her with her back feet on the board, cue her to come off, then let her offer backing up to it.
Once she got started after the initial moment, she did great! Yay!!! Good girlie! And you were able to add some distance and she did well too. I think by the end she was either getting physically tired or a little distracted, because she was doing more bunny hopping backwards or ending up in a sit š So maybe a 30 second session would work better, especially as you add more and more distance.
Since we are talking about getting her to want to come into your hands and be happy with hands on her: when you feed her, you can deliver the treat and also slip a finger under her collar for a half second, then as soon as the cookie in her mouth, let go so there is no collar holding. We are just going to slyly fold in the collar touching. Let me know if that makes sense š
Great job!!
TracyHi!
>>Not much training has gone on in the past 2 weeks. This moving/house thing has had me exhausted. It showed when I brought her out to try the games we played the last time.>>
I bet it is stressful and exhausting! But things are moving forward and will be more normal very soon. The sessions went well!!
>>1st session of the prop game, I was not that happy with it. It also seemed like she wanted food more. So, later on i did the game again and just used food. Bingo! it was better.>>
So I watched both videos in a row, taking some notes, with this in mind. There were times when the toy was more effective, then towards the end of the longer video the food was more effective. What was the common denominator? Well, it was when you didnāt try to do any collar grab or hand play or even any big ready dance – she seems to perceive all that as pressure. When you played with the toy, got it back, then sent her to the prop – fabulous! When you clicked and tossed a treat, then sent her again as soon as she got back to you – also fabulous! Fast and snappy! She did go to the prop on the other reps that had the other interactions, but it was more of a trot. This is good to know!
So I think she has value for working for both food and toys, and can even go back and forth between them. But she is all business on the send – so all she needs is a bit of eye contact, maybe a quiet āready?ā then send her.
She likes a little bit of ready dance but not a lot (when you were more upright and bending over less, she liked it more and was even doing a little of the same monkey dance that Elektra does!!
She does NOT like the hand play when you would do a little smack-da-baby. She would move away from you and turn off a little. I think you felt that in the moment, because you stopped doing it š
And as you noted: She doesnāt like the collar hold and definitely does NOT like to be moved by the collar. She gives that a big š¤®š© LOL!!! So, since we need to train her to like it, a couple of ideas:
– take it out of this game and use the more casual interaction and all-business approach.
– try it in the driving ahead/toy race game: get her on a favorite toy or treat, slip one finger under the collar, drop the toy or treat and immediately let her go so she can get the toy/treat. That will make the collar touch into a game-starter and over time we can build it up. I also do a lot of scoop up, deliver a cookie, put down games throughout the day. And if you are doing something and she is not facing the right direction, no worries, donāt turn her – just adjust your direction and carry on.
One other thing that is happening on the prop game:
She kept turning to her left on the first part where she should have been turning to her rightā¦ but then when you switched sides, she would turn to her right when she should have turned left. So something about this is making her think she should turn away, so you can step off to the side you want her to turn towards rather than have her come directly back to you. Think of it as more of a triangle: you send from your left side, for example, then step to your right to reward to emphasize the right turn you will want there.Decel game looks great! She may be little, but she drives hardā¦ so you need to decel sooner š You were late (decelerating when she was 2/3rds of the way to you) so her butt was swinging wide. Try to start the decel when she is halfway to you, so she can get organized into the collection.
The blinds looked great! You can also add in a toy to this. We build on this game tomorrow š
Barrel wraps – yes, the collar pressure is obvious here when you hold for too long and say āreadyā and especially when you pull back:
Watch from :30 when you physically moved her then pulled her backwards with a lot of pressure – she started sniffing (stress response). Then you smacked her and she moved away. She did come back and do the barrel but we donāt want to build in any stress or frustration.>>You can see the avoidence behavior and her trying to bite me (not agreesive)to get my hand away and then she rolls. >>
Yes, this was from 1:14 to 1:28 – she rolled over when you reached over for her collar, then after you moved her physically into position, she gave a big body shake when you sent her around the barrel.
So, we can make all of the line ups much happier for her!
A few ideas:
To line her up facing the barrel, use a cookie to lure her into position. No more moving her by her body at this stage – top stressful and it builds avoidance behavior.
She is fine with the collar hold in the first instant if you are quick to let go and donāt apply any pressure;, so you can lure her into position, give her the treat, slip a finger under her collar, say the verbal and let go immediately. No moving her, no saying ready or pull back by the collar. That can make it fast and fun, and will eventually build to being able to hold her longer and pull back.
She didnāt seem to mind the body hold at :41 when you had your hand under her belly, so that can work if you donāt move her around physically (cookie lures are you friend for now, and also are very easy to fade :))
>>Maybe I just have her sit and say????>>
You can lure her to your side, cue a sit, give the cookie, then release with the verbal. But that makes it something you have to maintain, and also loses the one-finger-under-the-collar moment as a game starter, to build the collar love š
Since we are in the early stages and hashing out the mechanics, I think we can do collar-as-game-starter in tiny bits – it will build up really fast š
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>She is speedy fast and SOOOOOOO fun. I didnāt realize that you can buy that >>
HAHA!!! Quote of the day!!! And yesā¦ you can buy it and then it becomes our job to maintain it š
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>>I already want another one.Totally relatable, and also I am a terrible influence who would say to get another one š These pointy dogs are so fun!
>>She canāt do NFC in AAC until she is 18 months, so that would be the fall. I can go to fun matches, though. Is it different in UKI?
I believe in UKI you can enter at 15 months for Speedstakes, so you can do a bit of NFC over the summer (enter 2 heights lower, you wonāt need to be measured for NFC, and that way you wonāt be tempted to try to run for real). Basically, we go in and play with toys and do things that are insanely simple like some tunnels and simple sequences, so she thinks the trial setting is really easy and fun!
>>PLEASE let me know what you think I should do with her to get us to the top of our game.
The first thing to understand is that it will take you longer to get her trialing āfor realā because she really needs to be done with adolescence before we finish training the behaviors that have a lot of mechanics and before we add any trial pressure to these behaviors. My guess is she will have her first real runs when she is 2.5 ish? But plenty of NFC before then. And when you do the real runs, she will kick ass and you will be rewarded for waiting.
In the meantime, unfollow everyone on social media who has dogs the same age, as they start to trial. I am not kidding – watching that will mess with your head!
For example – I didnāt start training CBās box turn in flyball til he was over 2 years old. He debuted at about 2.5 years old and is doing SUPER well. And in agility, he started NFC at 16ā (he runs 20ā for real) and he was 23 months old in his first NFCsā¦ I continued NFCs with a real run here or there til he was 3 – now he runs a lot for real and is fast, confident, accurate.
>>I have a full set of equipment and I will do whatever course, seminar, etc. that you recommend.
There are a TON of good courses out there! But the key is to take your time, no pressure, no frustration.
>>Blunt feedback is fine if you think weāre off track or missing some foundations and need to go back.
Happy to provide feedback! I will let you know if you are f*cking it up hahahahahahaha š
>>We audited a seminar on the weekend and they strongly recommended gates and fences near jumps to ensure success to shape the turns and wraps.
My opinion on that is: oh hell no. That is a LOT of pressure and will ultimately slow her down and/or cause frustration. She is a baby dog who is fast and happy – letās keep it that way! No pressure on adolescent dogs! And if she is wide somewhere, either she doesnāt understand or you were late or bothā¦ the pressure of gates/fences is not what helps you be a better handler or teach her cue responses.
Plus, 2 more issues:
– all the gates/fences add more visual āclutterā for her brain to try to processā¦ and we know adolescent dogs are not so great at processing at begin with! So we donāt want to make it harder.
– all the gates/fences absolve the handler of learning about timing and connection by forcing the turns on the dogs. Bleh. LOL!Alsoā¦ as an adolescent, we know more about her neurobiology and brain development: she is twice as susceptible to punishment/pressure than to reinforcement right now. So we need to reduce pressure, not add to it. Also, in terms of stimulating the HPA axis, it takes 3x as long to return to baseline in adolescent dogs than it does with puppies or adults – so more pressure like that is anti-resilience.
Also – I know her parents, and I also have a decent amount of sport mix and whippety dog experience at this point: pressure like that will not help (and it is indeed pressure). Let her rip! Trust the process (more on that below).
>> I think most of my cues are late at this point, but I am worried that she is āgetting awayā with turning wide and I donāt want to have to fix it later.
I officially relieve you from worrying about that! Sure, you might be late, but no worries, you are learning how to run this little pointy Ferrari. That is why we are still doing tunnel-wing stuff, to maintain the speed while figuring out the connections and timing.
She is not trying to āget awayā with anything – she is working as hard as she can to process info and respond as quickly and as correctly as possible. The concept of getting away with something assumes she is trying to put one over on you, or is naughty, orā¦ all of which is not true of course. She is processing and responding brilliantly. We are not going to tell her she is wrong, she is doing the very best she can (and he is pretty amazing!)
You wonāt have to fix anything later. Trust the process š
The other thing with small dogs is that often the winningest non-sheltie small dogs do not look like they are turning at all. But they are turning – it just looks different in terms of mechanics. The best thing to do is let her sort out her mechanics and then give her info as best you can and get out of the way š The sport mixes are then the fastest dogs out there! I hear this all the time with my Hot Sauce (sport mix, terrier/BC and a tiny bit of whippet). She does not look like she is turning tight at all, but she will lay down the fastest time of all heights (which includes a faster time than my BorderWhippet LOL!!!)
One thing we will do at some point (probably in a year) is get the timing lights out and see what is fastest – cuing a tight turn or letting her rip? The smalls almost always are faster when there is a little less collection.
>>So far, the channel weaves and guides are helping her confidence, but she also has springs for legs, so she is just as happy to jump over everything or run around the whole set up so that she can go faster! >>
Are you using a MM as a target? Using only 6 poles? Break it down so there is no frustration built in. She might not like the pressure of the guides, so maybe try without them.
She also might be a little too young for weaves (adolescence!!), you can try again in a month and see how it goes.
>>Itās the high head that is the main issue when she starts weaving; it messes everything up and she barks like a maniac. I hope Karen has some thoughts on that.>>
I donāt know what Karen would say, but a MM at the end or a toy gets the head position quite nicely! And I start with the MM on the base between poles 2 and 3, then 3 and 4, then 4 and 5, etc – gradually moving the MM to the exit then 15 feet past the exit while keeping the head down.
>>Karen says that she wants the dog to look at her as it exits the weaves to receive the next information, so the reward is delivered from my hand.
I lean more towards the Jenny Damm school of thought which is give the dog the next cue when they are at pooe 6 or 8 so they donāt have to look at you š The dogs can see us peripherally, plus nowadays the distance skills require the dog to not look at us directly.
>> Weāre starting about 4 weeks into the course, so I will have to balance my need to progress and the availability of feedback with her actual progress, and not rush things!
Exactly! Donāt rush!!! Have fun š
Tracy
