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Good morning! Great job in class last night – she was hilarious about the toy.
>>Wow she was in quite the mood this morning – just couldn’t keep herself on the ground – leaping up at me and Kaladin and rather barky for her. >>
>>Is it possible that she’s going through a phase of “I’m absolutely crazy and my brains fall out of my head first thing in the morning”?>>
Yep! Totally possible!
I think this falls into teenager-ness, based on what the sciences-types tell us. The dog behavior scientists tell us to expect and up-tick in the youngsters being a bit restless and moving more. And, from what I understand about people & dogs, cortisol levels are naturally higher in the morning and lower at night as part of the normal daily cycle, so it makes sense that we would see different behavior at different times of day during adolescence.
It sounds like you did a good job of giving her things to do. Another possibility is that if her training times are predictable throughout the day, then her arousal level comes up in anticipation of training time so that is playing into what you are seeing. The fix to that is to be less predictable and don’t begin training when she is presenting the high arousal behaviors.
And training in shorter bursts through early adolescence will help prevent getting to the point when she gets jumpy. You might set a 30 second timer then take a break, them come back a few minutes later to do another 30 seconds. Ideally we never see the jumpy behavior because the arousal regulation is happening “under the hood” and she never gets to the point where the arousal level tips over sideways LOL!
The straight cavaletti work was quite lovely, especially for such a young dog! She looked very balanced to me and was able to do the whole thing pretty independently.
She was looking at you a tiny bit at the end… because there was nothing else to look at. LOL! So a small target on the ground about 6 feet past the last pole, or an empty bowl, can be a really good visual target to keep her looking ahead. And I think it will be a good challenge for her to look ahead without hopping or skipping ahead 🙂 You can start her at the end of the cavaletti then have her trot out to the target to get that started. The target can be empty to start with and then you can put the cookie in it – a cookie in it to start might be too hard for her to stay balanced in the cavaletti.
>>I reset the cavaletti into a curve. She wanted to drift out going to the left but I am not sure if that was me not turning my shoulders along the arc or actual difficulty at curving to the left.>>
I think that she was just adjusting to the visual difference, perhaps? She looked at it like “whoa, this is new”. She did really well, so give her another day to sleep on it and see what she thinks when you present it next time. I bet she nails it 🙂
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
He did really well at the seminar! Good job to you both!!
>>He had a VERY hard time when we brought out the food for Casey to reward him with, but we worked through it.>>
I wouldn’t call it a very hard time, I would call it a normal response LOL!!!! I mean, he is a baby dog, he likes people, he likes food, and it was HARD. And he definitely worked through it really well. Super star!
Yes, remind yourself to use your dog-sided leg to step to the wing to wrap. Because you were so close, he didn’t have a lot of questions about it but when you add distance, the dog-side leg will be a valuable part of the cue.
The other suggestion is on the go lines – having him go from extension to a sudden stop for the toy is hard on his shoulders/back. You can see that his front end tries to stop but his back end keeps going, so he is having a lot of impact on his body trying to stop for the toy. You can see it on the video, especially in slow motion. So, a way to get the go line skill without the impact on his body is to have someone be dragging the toy til he gets to it. The instructor can be at the end of the line and start moving at the toy when he is moving to the first jump. Or, enlist a friend to do it (I am happy to do it!). You will get a faster/more extended go line and he can save his body as he scoops up the toy without having to come to a sudden halt.
He did really well with the retrieving! He was bringing it back really well and I think he was figuring out that if he wanted it thrown again or wanted to tug again, he had to bring it back to you. It was a little harder when the other frisbee was there on the ground – he was interested in it and migrating towards it, which made the retrieve to you a little slower.
>>There were a couple of lengthy “party of one” out-takes.>>
When you say lengthy, how long? What feels like a long time might only be 10 seconds LOL! For example, at the first edit, how long was he having a part without you?
You rewarded with cookies at 2:34 – he liked that! You can totally do that: when he brings the toy back, reward with food, then throw it again.
>>I’m probably talking too much as usual.>>
I think for the most part, the talking was during the tugging which is great! You were pretty chill and quiet while he was deciding to bring it back (or not :))
>>PS: Flyball class starts in January!
Super! Have fun with that! Because he is only about 9 months old, you will want to spend most of your class time doing puppy recall and puppy passing games and puppy ball-love games. He is going to learn the box turn stuff really quickly – but his brain will be more ready than his body so you will want to take your time learning it (goal age for a finished box turn is closer to 18 months in terms of physical development, but all of the other games are great for pups and then it all comes together easily!)
Great job here!!!
TracyGood morning! She did really well here too, note how she started without you LOL!!!
Getting on it and off it was super easy. Yay! When you have her turn around, keep your hand lower so she can keep her head lower. Her head was a little high here on the turn when so she lost her balance a bit.
Because she was so confident here, you can also do position changes on the plank: using a cookie as a reward and lure if needed, cue slow position changes from stand to sit, sit to stand, and stand to down. That will require a lot of balance and body awareness.
Great job!
TracyHi! The goat games are looking good!!!
On the first video – nice tugging to start and as brain breaks (while you got the pod out of there so she wasn’t confused about what you wanted). And also great patience to let her offer interacting with the pod. She was definitely figuring out how that you were wanting her to touch the pod, so she offering feet on it and also a down on it – adorable! Since the pod is so small, you can get her to put more feet on it by putting another pod next to it, so she has a bigger playing field. You can also toss the reward off to the side more, so she is more likely to remain standing in expectation of the treat being off to the side.
On the 2nd video (donut!) she interacted immediately! Wow! And also wow, she got right up on it – the donuts takes some good balance and core strength, and she nailed it. You can see how hard it was by the wobbling as she was trying to keep her balance. The only hard part was when you added speed by moving fast ack and forth (she couldn’t quite maintain her balance to get back on it) so for now, you can be relatively stationary so she can work her balance.
On the 3rd video – tugging on the wobble board went really well – she was VERY happy to tug the toy and didn’t seem to have any concerns about the movement. So onwards to the next steps: when tugging on the wobble board, you can slow down the movement of the tug and let her pull back on it more, so she is shifting her weight into her rear and getting lower. That will simulate what she will be doing on the teeter. And, you can also use this with cookies: every time she moves the board, you can toss a treat off to the side. That will help her learn that she can control the movement of the board.
Great job on these!!
TracyGood morning!! It was indeed a fun and relaxing Christmas 🙂 Hope yours was good too!!
her tunnel value is definitely coming up – she was fast and happy to run through it even when it was longer. The next step for the tunnel itself would be to gently curve one end of it, so it is still mostly straight but we are progressing towards curving it. That will be easy! So before starting that, a few ideas about going back and forth between treats & toys:
>>>>The last 2 reps with the long fleece toy were after a short break where she sniffed around and then did the up& down pattern game.>>
She was super engaged with the thrown toy there!! Yay! Was there any food in the picture before the first rep with the toy there? I didn’t see any so maybe the toy needs to be separate from the good cookies for now, because she gave the toy a thumbs down in the early portion of the session that had food mixed in too.
She seems to really like the chase element that starts the toy play, so when food was in the picture, she *did* chase the thrown toy but went back into foodie mode when it was dead. With that in mind, I wonder what she would think if we maintained the chase element: does she like a ball? Or a hollee roller? Or a frizzer? Or a flirt pole with a crazy furry toy on it? And a ball or hollee roller can be attached to a line/flirt pole to stay in motion too. We can keep the toy moving for her to chase, and then begin to reel her in for tugging (rather than have it go ‘dead’ before you arrive for tugging – it is in that moment that her food love takes over).
For the RDW work, it was a little hard for her to not watch your motion at first. She did start hitting the mat really well but I think she was pacing herself off of you a bit (thus the trotting). This trotting at this stage is fine because it is so much better than leaping LOL!, but we can make it more independent of your motion. There are two different ways to structure this:
You can have the bowl-mat-bowl setup and you can be sitting in a nce comfy chair or on the ground, and let her work the game the same way she figured out the wing wrap foundation.
Or, you can get the MM involved so we can set up a nat to MM version of it, with a barrel wrap or cookie toss to get it started.
>>I realized when watching this that I probably should have put the food dishes on the line of the arc when I was sending her out away from me a bit.>>
I think the setup was good! We do eventually add arc work but in these early stages, straight exits will establish the behavior really well.
>>For the Remote marker word, is this the word that you eventually use after you leash up and run out of the ring to get the meatballs? That’s “happy hour” for Kaladin>>
Yes, ideally it is the same word because that is exactly what this builds to 🙂
Great job here!
TracyHi! Hope you enjoyed the holiday weekend! She did really well here!
Great job with the connection, that seemed very clear here and she knew where to be on the exit of each barrel. Super! The value of the toy is definitely coming up – her hesitations here (or turning to the left on the first rep) seemed to be about the challenge of ignoring the toy in your hand. She did work through it and was super successful on the last rep! To help that happen sooner, you can do a warm up rep with empty hands. When she is successful with that and the skill is fresh in her mind, then you can add the toy scrunched up in your hand like you had it here. Part of the goal of the rocking horse game is to get the pups focused on the ‘work’ (barrels) and not on our hands even when we have something enticing in them 🙂 You had the marker (“chase”) added so as the marker gets stronger and stronger, she will ignore the toy more and more. It is a matter of a little more practice as the value of the toy continues to rise (and high value toys are great!)
Nice work here!
TracyGood tugging at the beginning! It got him nicely engaged! And it was fine to put it away once the cheese came out – cheese is very high value s the toy was not as motivatnig, but he was not thinking about rabbit poop so it is still a big win.
And he is interacting with his prop really well (and not grabbing it!) but I totally see what you mean about him being super focused on your hands.
For getting him to focus on the prop and not on your hands, a couple of ideas:
– warm up close to the prop so you can refresh the value a little bit before adding the parallel path and the backwards sending.
– add reward markers, which will go a long way to direct his focus as to where the cheese reward will come. When you are silent or use a ‘yes’, he is more likely to default to looking at your hands (because cheese is life!)
So the 2 markers I would add for the food are a ‘get it’ marker which means “the cookie is being tossed out ahead” and a “snacks” (or any word you prefer 🙂 ) marker which means come get the cookie from my hand. Both of these will basically get him looking at his work (the prop in this case) and not at your hand, because watching your hand will not elicit the marker. And the clarity of placement will also getting him looking more at the work.
Add these to the parallel path game – ideally you would say “get it” and then throw the cookie. And the timing of that would be as soon as he looks at the prop (or the jump) and before he arrives at it, so he is still lokoing ahead when you throw it. I think you will have an easier time isolating that moment of looking ahead if you move ahead to the parallel path concept transfer on a jump (with a jump bump or rolled up towel as the bar). He *is* doing the look ahead on the prop, but it is all happening so fast that it is really hard to isolate. So try it with the jump and as soon as he looks at the jump, say ‘get it’ and throw the reward as far as possible.
The concept transfer game is here:
Let me know what you think! Nice work here!
TracyHi!
She is doing really well!!!She was very happy to commit to the barrel with you rotated – YAY! And you did a great job of shifting your connection back behind you to help her commit.
Since she was so happy to commit, we can make it easier for you 🙂 On the rotated sends, you can run forward to the next barrel for a few steps. Then before she catches up to you (probably as she is exiting the previous barrel), you can decelerate then as she is catching up to you – rotate and send her backwards to the barrel. That should be easier than running backwards.
She really only had one other question – we see it on the first video here and we saw it on the previous video. From Mingo: “mom, when exactly do I start the wrapping??”
Since she seems to think any movement towards the barrel is a start cue, we don’t want to frustrate her by stopping her… she isn’t entirely wrong, but she isn’t entirely right LOL! So we can avoid making it an issue entirely AND build up the strength of your verbals by adding this:
– line her up with a cookie
– Gently take her collar in your hand
– Say the verbals a few times
– Then let go of her collar and rep to the first barrel 🙂
That strengthens the verbals even more before she is hearing the new cue (verbal) separately and before the motion, so it will come to indicate what is coming next, therefore becoming the cue to wrap even without the motion 🙂Great job here! Happy holidays!
Tracy
Hi!
This is looking really good, from all the different angles! She is starting to turn before the bar which is great! Nice job maintaining the shoulder position so she would see the full serp cue and I loved her stay at the end.
So the next rep would be to add a toy in the reward hand instead of a treat, and then the reward eventually gets put on the ground (becomes a really great impulse control game too :))Great job here!
TracyHi!
I am super glad you included the videos 🙂 Seeing it was great!!
Yes, you had amazing treats, I am hungry thinking about it. I would run through a tunnel for smoked cheese! And my Papillons would sell a kidney to come live with you. But the whippety dogs would not, because they are more like Vesper:
You also have a puppy who is more toy-motivated than food-motivated 🙂 And I think your history as a trainer has been more about using food, which is why it felt so weird, perhaps, to have a dog say “no thanks!” to incredible treats.
Flip the script for a moment: if she was toy-motivated at home, but couldn’t tug in the new place (wandered away a bit when the toy was presented and could only eat), you would probably be pretty comfy with only using the food and have called the sessions a big win.
With her being so toy-motivated here, I think the conflicted feeling was more that it was out-of-comfort zone to use the toy so extensively and not use food.
Here are some thoughts on what I see (spoiler alert: she did AMAZINGLY well!!!)
>>I made some pork chops and chicken thighs and also brought some smoked cheese that she likes. >>>
YUMMY!!!! And it was good that you did that. But she is a toy dog at the moment (makes sense, being a whippet :))
>>She ate when she got out of the car. She was able to eat in the ringside space, but she wasn’t really into the food. She ate but I don’t think the food was really a strong reinforcer in that moment. >>
Good that she ate! And good that she let you know that it was not a strong motivator in that environment. I am confident that it will be eventually but it is not as strong as a toy yet.
>>I also brought 2 udder toys to try doing back and forth with toys but she didn’t want to play. She seemed excited and maybe a little anxious. >>
The udder toys probably did not have as much chase opportunity in tight quarters, so not as much interaction with them. And yes, she probably was excited and anxious being in a new place with new people and dogs.
>>Definitely wanted to say hi to the people and dogs. And to sniff around.>>
All good!
>>On our first turn, she really wasn’t interested in eating, either tossed food or from my hand. So then I pulled out her toy. I’m not sure if that was the right choice or not. >>
It was 1000000% the right choice (and seems like the instructor was very supportive about it!). Vesper really lit up and starting having a grand time! She was completely engaged, fast, happy, motivated.
>>So it did feel kinda yucky to me to sort of cajole her into engaging and working with me instead of letting her tell me she’s ready.>
You were not cajoling at all, she could have opted out at any time (she was off leash and free to do as she pleased). You had to find the right motivator, and you did. Note how at 3:04 she was so engaged that while you were talking to the instructor, she just sat and listened. Again, nothing cajoled about that LOL!! And then later on she was so happy and relaxed that she did her swiffering by being dragged by the toy… that is a sign of good things, not a dog that has been pressured into work.
She told you she was ready the instant she started chasing the toy 🙂 It is a different way of a dog telling you this than what you might be used to, but she definitely told you this 🙂
>>She liked chasing the toy around. We did two restrained recalls to the toy and two cone wraps.>>
She sure did! And her training session looked great, especially factoring in ALL the new things happening. I was so happy to see it!
>>On our second turn, she was eating outside the ring, doing back and forth, but again I feel like she was not really into the food. >>
Food is interesting in that context but the environment is harder, so she is not insane for it yet there. No worries.
>>Inside the ring, she again didn’t want to eat. She really wanted to sniff around. We did a couple tunnels with her toy and ended with some personal play.>>
At the start of the video, note how she was pulling into the ring, towards the instructor: “yeah! This lady was FUN last time! We are doing a thing!”
She as totally engaged, not sniffing, her tail was wagging, play bowed, stuck with you when the leash came off. Then you offered food. Since food is not a big motivator in that context right now, she started exploring other options. You kept offering food, and she kept saying “no thanks.” You got the toy out… game on! She was fully engaged after that even in the in-between moments without the toy in her mouth.
I don’t think she loved the play without the toy… yes, she was jumping up at you but then she moved away. The jumping up might have been frustration behavior.So it is all very insightful and in the mode of TL;DR –
Right now, toys are the motivator to use in harder environments. Physical engagement without the toy? I am not so sure. Food? Maybe in certain environments but not all.And this is all good and totally normal (and relatively identical to how my Contraband was at her age). The food motivation will continue to build up as she gets more exposure to different environments.
>>But I’ve always let my dogs sniff and then waited for them to engage with me to start the fun in settings where thats possible like rentals or class. >>
It is fine in some contexts sure…. But also starting with the best motivator can get the fun started right away! I think if she had been very engaged with the food here, you would not have the same questions 🙂 Many dogs prefer food motivators over toys as motivators, so that is why a lot of these games are built using food. But she prefers chasing toys, so use the chase toys in the contexts you would use food! The sniffing you saw here was not necessarily “OMG this is so stressful” but more of a communication of “this is not the motivator, mom” LOL!
>>Rather than trying to get them to engage even if their brain isn’t ready. >>
I don’t look at it like that – it is more of a conversation with the pup: you want food? No? Ok, cool, how about the toy? YEAH! Let’s chase the toy.
If she was unable to engage in anything, then sniffing everything might be the only available option but also it is a sign of bigger issues that can be explored before the pup is asked to enter that environment again. (She does not have the bigger issues, based on what she did here. She just prefers toys at the moment).
>>At least with my past dogs, I’ve found that over time they don’t need to sniff anymore in these spaces because they’ve assessed that it’s safe and processes the info enough times>>
Yes, but also there might be underlying anxiety issues that needed to be addressed. Flip the script with Vesper here: if you had asked her to play with the toy and she said “no thanks” but she could work for the treats, I think you would be a lot more comfy with how it went! She was able to enter the environment and do things with confidence, with the correct motivator. At some point, food will match or even exceed toys as a motivator but we have plenty of time for that.
>> I brought her in ringside one more time to see if she would be more into the treats, but she wasn’t. She was more interested in watching people and the dog in the ring, though we were as far away from the ring as we could get.>>
Did you ask her to chase a long toy that you were swinging around? Flip the script!
>>I’ve never had a dog that takes toys over food, so maybe that’s throwing me off. >>
This! I think that is totally it! It is SO WEIRD at first! I am here to be your support LOL!! My BorderWhippet, Contraband was totally like that. I ended up teaching all of his pattern games with toys (frisbees) because they were the highest value motivator at the time. He LOVED it. And now food is pretty powerful too! It all builds up over time. And it is all good!
>>But I would like her to be able to eat in the ring. >>
It will come!
>>Though I was really pleased she was able to engage with the toy!>>
OMG yessss she was great! Go back and watch her body language with the toy – happy pup!!!
>>If I remember, the first resilience exercise was to let the dog walk around a space and just check it out, sniff, etc without using treats or toys.>>
Yes, world watching 🙂 But the pups are not expected to ‘work’ in that environment, plus we don’t have a handle on their motivators yet.
>> That’s my typical approach in new spaces. Can you explain a bit more why you’d still suggest immediate pattern games in a new space rather than letting them explore and take it in? >>
I think the MYOB webinar has more of the science behind it – the pattern games (food or toys, either are fine) can very quickly shift attentional states from divided (“OMG there is so much in this environment!!!”) to selective (“hi mom, let’s do a thing!!”). This accomplishes what sniffing/exploring can, and in a fraction of the time, by giving the dogs a recognizable framework.
This framework also contributes to a positive conditioned emotional response (classical conditioning) and helps regulate arousal levels. It also allows the pups to tell us what they are feeling about the environment in ways that world watching cannot.
Plus, there are elements of state-dependent memory that come into play, because we can help get the pup into a higher arousal state for encoding and retrieval. And, context-dependent memory which is basically the pups learning that the agility ring/facility is a place for chasing the toy, playing with da momma, doing the thing – and not a place for long sniffing. State- and context-dependent memory are sooooo critical.>>Where would you do that sort of walk like you did with baby Ramen in the video?>>
I really only do it in training facilities once or twice with baby puppies, then it turns into decompression walks. When the pups are happy in the world and I have sorted out their motivators, I bring them into training facilities with pattern games using whatever the best motivator is at the moment (food or toys, either are fine with me).
>>Do you think I should continue bringing her into this kind of setting? >>
Yes, using the toy as the motivator when you enter the ring and even outside the ring. You can also build the value of food in that environment with a bit of a toy-eat a piece of pork – toy pattern. I think she had fun! And especially in places where the instructor seems so supportive. Who was the instructor?
>>Work on pattern games in other interesting (but not quite as interesting as agility) environments?>>
Yes, but also working on eating as a behavior (toy – barrel wrap – eat a treat – toy, for example) so you can build up food as a tool in the toolbox.
Similar story for you: my 15 month old whippet did a 4 day seminar last weekend. 4 days is a lot for a bebe dog, but it was only 2 turns a day and I knew the instructors would be fabulous AND had whippet experience, so I did it 🙂 He ate his treats outside the ring. He ‘worked’ for them in the ring… but he WORKED for his toy in the ring about 10000 better. The toy was more motivating and since we wanted him to have a good time and build behaviors, we used the toy a lot more 🙂
And if food had been more motivating? I would have used food more. All good! Seems like Vesper is similar (shocker, racing line whippets loving their toys to chase hahahaha)
So overall – I think she did great! And I know it is uncomfortable to use a toy more than food, but that is her current motivator/reinforcement in that environment, so go with it and have fun!
Let me know what you think! Happy holidays!
Tracy
Hi!
>>Can your puppy offer behavior on a septic tank lid?>>
I feel like there should be a video here LOL!!! My puppy pooped next to the septic lid today, so I was pretty proud of that LOL!!!!
T
Good morning!
Strike a pose is looking great! You can definitely be closer to the jump so she makes the turn before arriving at the bar (and not on the landing side). You will want to be close enough to the jump that you can touch the wing with a relaxed arm and your elbow is still bent. It will be easiest to get into that position and then throw the start cookie – otherwise you have to hurry back to get to position and you won’t always be there in time for her to see the cue.
When rewarding, keep your serp arm back so you don’t ‘close’ your shoulders (your shoulders will be staying open to face the jump as you run through a serp). Because she is small, it is hard to deliver the food from you hand without moving your shoulder, so you can have an empty food bowl on the ground and then you can plop the cookie into it. Eventually the Manners Minder can be the reward target or a toy on the ground 🙂
The stays look great, easy peasy!! I want to start fading the big Cato plank now so she has a stay on the flat too. Do you have a smaller, low platform of some kind? Or, you can take a towel and fold it up so it is maybe half the size of the Cato plank. You would repeat the process on the new platform or towel, making the stay a little easier, as we progress towards fading out the plank/platform entirely. She is definitely ready for us to slowly fade it out – check out her stay at 1:39!!
Great job with your verbals on the barrels, and also the strike marker!! Her barrel games looked great, including the rotated advanced level at the end. Yay!!
You can repeat your verbal directionals as you are handling: wrapwrapwrap and turnturnturnturn because that will be easier for her to process while running. And you can also start saying them as you start moving: turn turn turn (rather than ready go).
She did had a question at 1:25 when you said “go wrap” and looked ahead of her (she looked up at you when you looked ahead). More connection will help with that – saying the ‘wrap’ cue directly to her like you did at 1:16. And I think she loses your eyes sometimes when your hair comes forward, so you probably need to tie your hair back so she can see the connection.
The toy was flapping a bit too on that rep, but I don’t think it was the toy causing the question – the toy was visible on the other reps too, but your connection was really strong so she had no questions.
Great job here!!! Hope you are having a great holiday!!
Tracy
