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Good morning!
>>My big issue is getting him to want to come back to me.
Yes, I can see it here – your mechanics of grabbing/moving/lifting him are stressful. More below.
>> Perhaps this relates to the keep away from the Momma. HOWEVER I am starting to see the chase me game where he gets me to chase more generally.
>>when I attempt to get him he thinks it’s a game.>>
This is all stress behavior – it is not a game. He is not being naughty. See below! We can changes this, though, so he doesn’t find being touched so stressful.
>>I’m wondering if I need him leashed whenever he is out of the crate.
Nope! Because you will then use the leash as a control tool when you need to make the recall happy for him. Separately from training, you need to NOT grab him (see below) and you need to use a lot more food and toys to make coming to you happy (and NOT being followed by grabbing, because being grabbed is aversive enough that he will stop coming for toys or food.
The main thing I am going to ask you to do is be a lot more hands-off with him. Here is why:
Note how at the beginning you put him down, then crank him into position with your hand on his collar (:05). That right there contributes to him avoid being touched by the collar because it is a correction and it is icky.That correlates to the stress behavior between :19 – :38 (fawn, back away, shake, sniff the chair, lowered body, ears back…)
He offered to play with you, but you grabbed him and dragging him by the collar then picked him up. Then at 1:01, you were lifting and holding and he was actually mouthing your hand because it was uncomfortable. Then at 1:17 you rich for him and he flattens to the ground and you pick him up and he dangles. That process repeats a few times and he really doesn’t like it at all and at the end he checks out entirely because the being grabbed and lifted is so icky for him.None of that will help your training so we need to make a complete change to how you interact with him. It is easy enough to make that change, but we need to make it immediately! He is showing a ton of stress signaling here.
So bring him into the session on the ground like he is a Great Dane. You are not allowed to pick him up, ever. Period. And also never move him or drag him by his collar.
He can enter the session playing with the toy on the ground, like he weighs 80 lbs. Then trade for a cookie, then gently take his collar (do not pick him up, do not move him to face a different direction. Then drop the toy and let him drive to it. Let him drive to the toy without you also driving to it – he doesn’t yet like the pressure of you running and grabbing for it, and we want to develop more happy feelings in training before we add that pressure.
And you can do this whole session sitting or kneeling, so there is no bending over him (lots of pressure!) and you won’t be tempted to pick him up.
Don’t worry if he doesn’t bring the toy back, that is separate training. Just trade for another toy or treats! Don’t chase him or grab for him.
So – the main thing is to work out the mechanics of coming to you and lining up without being grabbed or lifted. The actual game is secondary to that (in other words – I don’t really care about the game). Making the change in mechanics will make a massive difference for him, in training and in daily life!
Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
>>I just introduced the Lotus ball, separately from these exercises, to see what he thought and I think he might like that too once he figures out how to get the velcro open.
I am sure he will grow to like it! Before you get too heavily into food-only training, though, let’s get more toy play involved. Food training is good but having toys in the toolbox will help with a lot of things! So for balls – maybe a small tennis ball? Or have you tried some cat toys (without catnip of course LOL!!)
Focus forward looks great and that glove is a winner LOL!! Great job remembering to connect with him so you can be connected while he drives forward. Love it! The next step for this game is to try it in different places – different rooms in the house or a hallway if you have carpet, or even outside!
Prop sends – you mentioned not having a collar for this one but you don’t need a collar for this one 🙂 Your ready dance was great!! And yes as soon as you indicated the send, he was quite perfect and you already have some nice distance going!!!! Yay! This game can also ‘go on the road’ to other rooms and other places so that he can start to generalize it a bit. And when yo ugh someplace new, you can start a lot closer to the prop to make it easier.
Both goat trick videos looked good , he is happy to get on random things and eat cookies LOL! It doesn’t seem to matter to him if the thing is moving – perfect! So the goat tricks can go on the road too, getting him on new textures and items, in new places. And at home, you can do a goat trail: line up a few different things and have him walk across them all in a line 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>I’ve watched this video a couple of times but I’m not sure why Baxter went left on the first rep?
You were late 🙂 That is generally the answer to all of our handling questions 🙂 You were good about getting close to him on the RC line. But then watch :14 – :17 in slow motion (Youtube has a slow motion element if you click on the little gear symbol) – when he was getting ready to take off at :16, you were still on the left turn side of him. You did the side change while he was in the air at :17, so you can see him look back at you and say “oh wait! She changed sides!” So Mr. Athletic changed directions in the air. GOOD BOY!!!
And that is why I tell people to reward the less-than-perfect handling reps (like you did here) because almost all of the errors are human errors 🙂
Compare :16 to :34 where he is getting ready to take off and you are already on the other side, and he is already turned to the new direction. Yay!!
The pushes are looking good! You don’t need his name on the tunnel exits when you do the push reps, we don’t want him to turn towards you 🙂 And keep throwing the reward to the landing spot – you can look at landing a little sooner (before you throw the reward) to help commit hm to the jump but overall he is doing really well on one of the hardest skills in agility!!
He ended up on the front of the jump at 3:53. You had a disconnection moment which made it look like you were doing a blind cross, so he did the blind cross (again, reward it, when something like that happens especially after a number of successful reps, it was definitely handler error). And when you were more connected on the next rep, he went to the backside 🙂
The tunnel threadles went really well too! He is really paying attention to the handling!
On the first side, the threadles looked good and he responded well!!! One little detail: at 1:02 – he did not cheat by not taking the wing, you were too early on the cue and yelled tunnel before he had a chance to commit. Reward that too! He went to the tunnel when cued, so he was correct 🙂
On the other side, you were doing front crosses instead of threadles so remember to get him between you and the tunnel on those. And on the FCs, he sometimes ended up in the tunnel – a little more connection will definitely help there.
>>Verbal cues are not my friend LOL.
Actually, you are doing a great job with the verbals! We have added about 10,000 new verbals for Baxter and your rate of success in spitting out the correct verbal at the correct time is VERY high!!!! Great job!!!
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Good session here with the tunnel threadles! The first side went well (you were very clear with your upper body :))On the side she had trouble with – when you were turning your shoulders away she had a lot of trouble seeing the chase in line. It worked better when you changed your pace (slowing down when you did the threadle cue, which we will want to make she she can also do it when you are staying in fast motion) but worked best when you turned your upper body to her more and she could see your entire threadle arm. Yay!!! Is definitely keep the highly visible threadle arm rather than turn your shoulders away from her or change your pace.
>>It’s hard to see, but it was the leash and harness on the ground that caused the initial brain fart! I think her nose just overpowers her sometimes. We kept super short and she was leashed in between breaks.>>
Yes, the leash/harness was distracting LOL!! But also – in between reps, she is tugging the whole time.. which means there is very little time for breathing 🙂 Dogs tend to not breath much (very shallow breaths) during tugging so when you took the tug toy out of her mouth in 2 spots, she was like “whew, I need to breath”. These were both after 2 moments where you were planning/discussing the next rep while she was tugging.
So, I don’t think of it as disengagement as much as she wanting a moment to take a breath 🙂 In between the reps, you can tug as the reward and if you are going to take more than a second or two to get into the next rep, switch to holding her collar and not tugging so she can take a breath – then tugging to start the next rep.2 other smaller details:
She is moving fast with a lot of power… time for more tunnel bags so she doesn’t move the tunnel or slip when she is in it. And, when she is very comfy with the tunnel threadle verbal, you can fade out the tunnel verbal after the here here, so the here here also means “take the tunnel” and she won’t need the additional cue.
2nd video – she totally smoked you on the first blind! Love it!!!
2nd rep – not enough connection on the tunnel exit, which pulled you away from the wing so she didn’t know where to be.
3rd rep – much better connection so the blind looked really good! The left verbal is perfect for the tighter turn on the blind. She doesn’t need it on the racetrack though, because that is not a tight turn for her. Note at 1:01 you were saying “left” and she was trying to turn tight and not find the middle wing. So, a go verbal would be better there to keep her in extension.Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyI am so glad it went well! Sorry it hurts 🙁 but onwards to healing up and getting back to the fun!!!!
Tracy
Hi!
Nice job getting right on her tail for the RC line! On both reps, you were very clear and timely so she read it well! Looking at the 2nd rep, for example: by the time she was arriving at the bar (but before takeoff), you were already on the new side and she had already turned her head/changed leads to make the turn the new direction. Perfect!
So you can add more distance between the wing and the jump to add even more speed! And you can mix in the GO reps and the backside wrap reps, to work on communicating all of the cues in one setup 🙂 Great job on all of these!!!
TracyHi!
Looking at these in terms of the connection to cue the backside – the warm up and the first rep both looked super connected! You can use your dog side arm even less on these – the more the arm stays back and the more you look at her eyes, the better she will go to the backside. I know it sounds incredibly counterintuitive LOL! But the connection without the arm opens up the view of the line to the backside, so the dogs read it brilliantly like she did here :) Nice work!
TracyHi!
Very nice backside wrap on that first rep!!! You were clear with your line and motion without rushing her on the first rep!
On the 2nd and 3rd reps, you started looking forward and pointing forward ahead of her (:29) so it turned your upper body to the front of the jump (and that is where she went). Compare to the first rep at :05 and the last rep at 1:06 – both of those very clear connection and your arm stayed back to her nose until after she was past you, so she got the backside really well.
So keep the connection going and arm back to her, so she sees your connection (arm pointing forward can block it) and that will help her find the backside wing.
Nice work!
TracyHi!
Lap turns rely on mechanics, and you did a GREAT job with the mechanics here!!! You were VERY clear with the arm position, connection and timing, plus you also had your eyes following your hand as you moved through the turn. Lovely! She nailed it each time.And you get bonus points for doing it in sleet, I think! The camera was fogging up!
You can add in the advanced level of this (tandem turns) as well as add the wing wraps before it to get more speed 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi! Actually, this went really well! The airplane arms were not too bad LOL!! But you will definitely feel more comfy with these blinds if you keep your arms in tight to your body (I bend my elbows and tuck the elbows into my ribs). I think you will also find it a little easier if you spread the wings out so you have a heartbeat more time to do the blind – your feet really wanted to rotate towards her, then your brain had to convince your feet to rotate away from her (the brain won! Yay!) but another bit of time will make it feel more comfy.
Excellent job with the connection!!! That is the most important element and you nailed it 🙂
Nice work!
TracyHi! This session looked great!
Perfect transition from the loud drops to the stealthy drops, to the offering and getting the upright in. And you were stealthy about inching it away: I looked down to type something and when I looked up, it had moved! Ha! That is great!
She is a little more fluid moving to her right than to her left at the beginning when you had the upright in place, but then things evened out and she was fluid both directions. Yay! And she had no problem when you pushed the upright out further and further away. Super! The hardest part was keeping her searching for treats while you tried to reload – she likes the game so came back very fast LOL!!!!!
So since this went super well – next step is to have you repeat the process, but the big change will be you are sitting on the couch. Do a quick warm up/refresher with just the bowls, then get the upright in nice and close, and her response will tell you how quickly you can progress with moving it away: either it will be the easiest thing ever so you can move the upright away, or the change in your position will be very challenging so you will want to keep everything else simple 🙂 She will let us know 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi!
He did super well here too! The hardest part is for him to let go of the toy at the beginning of the session – you can totally trade for a cookie there, so he lets go easily. He doesn’t have that same question in the middle of the session, he lets go of the toy right away.He was touching the target really well. You can play with this with you standing up and with your arm fully extended away from you as well.
Since he did so well, though, this is a low priority because we don’t use this for a couple of weeks 🙂 You can move to the other week 1 games and we will revisit this later.
Great job!!
TracyGood morning!
This went really well – you were emphasizing the transitions from toy to food to prop and it looked great! He was able to touch the prop really precisely with his foot (that is one of the joys of slightly older puppies – they know where their feet are LOL!!). Halfway through the session, you had more cookies in your hand so you didn’t need to grab more while he was working, that helped a lot! And he was great about switching to the toy during and after the cookie moments (and also great about eating the cookies after tugging :))
Since this went so well, you can go to the next game – the Prop Sends from Week 1 🙂
Have fun!
TracyHello! Great to see you here! I think you win the award for Best Dog Name Ever. I love it!!!!!
Looking forward to more Brisket 🙂
Have fun!
TracyHi! Could be a teething thing, or could be that she shallows it whole and then pukes it up 🙂 tiny tiny bits of cheese or meatball might be great!
And no worries about how far along she is – the more we learn about puppy development, the more we understand that going VERY slowly at this age is far better because we can set up so much more success!
Tracy
