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The next class is called MaxPup 3: Putting It Together and it will begin in mid to late June (date will be finalized soon!)
Hello and welcome! Feral is my favorite! And she seems spicy too, also a great thing 🙂
>. She doesn’t love training yet.
She will learn to love it, we will convince her that it was all her idea LOL!!! She was GREAT in your video below!!
>>She will lose interest after 3 reps.
She did really well in the video here – you had lots of good fast clicks/treats then went to the toy really quickly. Does she lose interest after 3 reps with food only? Or also with toys? We will take a look to see why this is happening.
>> Loves toys, not really food. Will NOT train for kibble only special treats>>
It is pretty normal for BC babies to not have a lot of food interest (the 2 demo dogs in this class both did not start with a lot of food interest, I built it up). So to help build it, play tug after every 1 or 2 cookies in training especially these introductory shaping sessions. Sure, it might take longer to shape a behavior like the foot target, but it is totally worth it to build up the food value.
And will she eat kibble from your hand or on the ground (not in training, just if you offer it). We can play a little game of “swallow the kibble, get your toy” to raise the value of kibble too! But she needs to swallow it and not put it in her mouth to spit out later LOL!
The pre-games looked really good! Great job with your clicks/treats – it is hard with baby dogs! As you move to tugging, be sure to get the foot target out of the picture immediately, so she doesn’t have to ignore it in order to tug.
With the target in your hand, you can make things more efficient by dropping the ‘yes’ and only using the ‘find it’ marker – this will also strengthen the find it because it means both “you are correct and cookie is over there”.
Great job! See you in class later!
Tracy
Hi! So fun to see him in action, what a cutie!
Foot target – he did really well! I am glad you got down closer to his level in the middle – stay low (you can sit on something) so he doesn’t have to look all the way up at you. And being low will make the foot target even more visible!
Before going to much further with the foot target, you might consider something bigger so he can get 2 feet on it when as he grows 🙂
At the end, he was still looking for the target and didn’t realize you wanted to play without the target or food. You can make that transition into play by using cookies (just toss a few on the ground, kind of as a ‘game over’). And you can also try to see if he likes toys!
He did well with the nose target too, especially in the 2nd session. Yay! It really helped that you were nice and low to the ground. It was hard to see where you were looking, so be sure to look at the target rather than at his cute face 🙂 And hold the target out to the side, so he doesn’t look at you AND the target 🙂
At the end of the 2nd video, you tried to finish by petting him… he had the same response as with the foot target session. He doesn’t seem to think cuddling is a great way to end a training session LOL!! Note how he kept moving away and sniffing (I don’t think he was looking for treats, I think he was trying to figure out what was going on).
So, definitely try ending differently: tossing a few treats on the ground and petting him, or moving away to play with a toy, or having him move with you away from the training spot.
With both of these targets, as you are getting set up for the session, keep them hidden behind you or in a pocket until you are in position, cookies ready… and then BOOM! Target can come out. That will get him focused on the target right away and he can hit it in the very first moment. In both of these sessions, he hit the target a few times before you were ready, so be sure to be ready before present the target so he doesn’t it it then stop hitting it.
>>I seem to forget my words a few times
No worries! Your timing was really good and that is a lot more important than which words you used at this point 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
Hello and welcome! She sounds like a really fun puppy, and she is already off to a great start!!
Have fun!
TracyHi!
SUPER nice session here!!! You did a great job with your transitions, including adding in the rotation earlier and earlier. All 3 elements seemed very clear & distinct – and a rear cross at the end: Huzzah!She only had one question, which is when she ended up on your other side exiting the wrap at 1:07. The Court Of Video Review rules in her favor: your shoulders were closing forward as she exited the wrap, so she had to guess about which side to end up on (connection was not as clear as it was on the other reps).
So definitely keep your connection open to her, and in the next session add in more of your motion – both in terms of rotating and moving through the FC with more speed, and staying in motion for her to chase you (only throw the toy once she catches up to you).
Adding more motion on the FC will help her see the rotation even more (and challenges her to maintain commitment). And adding more running on the exit (rather than decel and throw) builds up the value of chasing you out of the cross, which is one of the ways we convince the dogs to turn crazy tight and power out without any wideness or scoping: the reward of chasing da momma!
I believe she is 14.5 months old now, or thereabouts, yes? So in that case, give her a little more height to collect over on this game. It looks like the bar was 4 inches here? Try her at 8 inches and see how she does! (My guess is she will be great). Because the bar is higher, do one “go” rep to show it to her before starting the wraps.
Great job! Let me know how she does with the taller bar!
TracyHi!
I think she has the idea go the get out versus the go, so now it is a matter of clarifying the cue. An idea about arm use:, because that is the only thing I think she needs see a little differently:
On these reps, you had both arms back and a lot of connection, which was tending to draw her into you – and that is way you ended up turning your feet and moving towards the jump on the ‘get out’ cues.
So, keep your arms back on the go reps, that worked like a charm!
On the get out reps, as soon as she exits the wing wrap, use your outside arm to point to the outer wing/exit wing of the jump (while looking at her). So the outside arm will actually be out ahead of your shoulders rather than behind you, which will show her the get out line pretty clearly. And that can help you keep your feet straight so you don’t need to stop to the wing.
>>Tossing the toy too early.
Keep the toy in the dog-side hand, so it is easier to toss on both the go and the get out, and so the get out hand is empty as you point to the outer/exit ing of the jump.
Let me know if that makes sense! I think that arm position will make all the difference.
Nice work!
TracyHi!
>>We had to abort the tandem turn due to a gopher tortoise trying to find his way out of our fence. Later there were two and I think they were having words about whose hole was whose so I just moved to another spot where Hola wouldn’t see them.
Ha! That is great!!! LOL!
The zig zags are gong well! She was definitely having to think about all the lead changes and she did some fancy footwork as she as sorting it all out LOL! She was doing lots of little lead changes on the line which means she was actively working to figure out the coordination of it and also go fast 🙂 The last rep was the smoothest one, which is great! Give her 2 days for her brain to think it over, then do another session and see what she does 🙂
Tandem turns are going really well! You were smooth and clear on the first reps on 1 wing, and you kept things smooth and clear when you added the other wing as well. Yay! The tandem turn doesn’t need to do any after than the slow, clear hand motions you were doing – and when you are running into them, you would decelerate a bit as you started the hand movements so help set up the turn.
She is definitely ready for more of the tandem turns with the other wing and race tracks too!
Great job here!
TracyHi!
Looking at these 2 videos from the perspective of trying to sort out his questions:
Video 1: The first 3 minutes of this went super well! Then it was like a switch flipped: right at 3 minutes, he didn’t want to come back to reset and then he had 2 misses in a row (on things he had done correctly earlier in the session) You were great about making it easier.
The first 90 seconds of the 2nd video went well too then he struggled with the same struggle as the first video.
>>He had real difficulty going to his right so with your voice in my head after two failures I made it easier.
That was great! I also think session length comes into play – on a game like this, it is a really hard physical game for the pups and we don’t really feel that because we are standing still LOL!!
>>Is it my body position I wonder? Or going to his right is harder? Or he can see me directly in front of him so why should he zig zag around the jump wings >>
I think this was part of it – the further away you were, the bigger and more dramatic the cues needed to be. So as you move further away from his start position, try to only add one step away at a time, rather than going to the next wing or end of the bar.
And, for this game – time your sessions to 90 seconds (or 5 reps) then be finished, and do something else. You can come back and do another 90 seconds later on, as long as he gets a break between. I think he might be ‘feeling the burn’ LOL! Which is why he turns off a bit after ra certain point.
So shorter sessions/fewer reps, plus being more visible and closer for now on the reps where he has to go to his right side should totally help! And as he grow up, you will see his stamina increases and the session can get longer.
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyThe software doesn’t have a way to post individual photos, unfortunately. But URLs and Drive links work really well for that!
T
Yes! Pearl the Super Berner! She is such a cool dog! Great to see you back with baby Hoodoo. !4 weeks is a perfect age to begin 🙂 Have fun!
Tracy
