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Hi! I am glad you are having fun!
I don’t have any running contacts classes here, upcoming or as independent study courses (just not enough hours in the day to add running contact training LOL!)
Two of the classes that have been getting great reviews are from Katarina Poplipnik Capuder: http://www.funtasticdog.com/on-line-classes/
and Kirstin O’Neill:
Tracy
Hi!
This is a great update!! Modifying the leg bumps to be slower/calmer for now with the 2 bowls was terrific! And I am glad you are both enjoying the 2 head down trick 🙂Here is something to try while she is recovering: teaching her to pick things up and put them into a basket or bin or something. It can evolve into teaching her to put away her toys, or even stacking rings on a toy like this:
It s a calm, controlled game where you can shape her with the clicker to take something out of your hand or pick it up from the floor and put it in your hand. Then put it in a bin or bowl, then eventually onto the ring toy 🙂
Here is kind of a finished product – this dog was learning to bring a ball back for some flyball work, but for Kishka you would not want to throw the item yet because we don’t want her running. You can just put it down and shape her to pick it up.
Have fun!
TracyHi! How are you feeling? Hope all is well!
>>With Robie, I have always used the name of the first obstacle to release him on course, and I was planning on doing the same thing with Yuzu. When I taught the stay to Robie,
When I taught the stay to Robie, I used “get it” to release him to a thrown toy, food bowl, manners minder, etc. Do I need to teach a specific release word?>>This all sounds great, plus you already have experience using the verbals consistently with Robie. So it is great to do this with Yuzu too, and no, you don’t need to add another release to the mix. You can add a ‘catch’ marker for when we throw the reward back to the pup, if he doesn’t already have one.
Keep me posted!
Tracy
Hi!
Fingers crossed that all is good with his toe! He was moving really well here and tugging beautifully too!
He did really well with the focusing forward and driving ahead.
He wanted to turn to his left even when you were on his right side (when he was starting on your left), so you can be moving away from him more (towards your right) to help convince him to turn to his right.
When his toe is cleared, you can add more distance and running to this! Try it outside if the ground is not too wet or slick!
He also did really well driving to you with the decel, You can have your magic cookie hand in place sooner – let him see your hand in position as he begins moving towards you, so he can lock onto it – that will help him decel more and also help him predict the pivot is coming. When you do the pivot, you can start the slow pivot just as he is getting to you (rather than feeding him then pivoting) – that way he can keep his butt in nice and tight to your leg as you are pivoting. He swings out a little wider when he stops for the cookie, so the pivot should help him bend into the turn.
This game can go outside or into a bigger space as well – you will see we add in handling combos in weeks 2 and 4 which use the acceleration, the decel-then-pivot, and also the blinds.
The blinds looked terrific! He had no trouble finding the new side and your connection was lovely. Ideally, a toy reward would be best for this but you would definitely want to have more room to run when you add the toy.
Wing wrapping with the bowls looked great – so if he in the groove really quickly like he was here, you can change something more quickly. Pushing the upright out a little was pretty easy for him but then he hit a bit of a wall where he could wrap to his left (moving toward your left) but had a little trouble to his right (scooting between you and the wing a lot. We seem to be seeing a left turn side preference! So when we see that, you can move the upright out a bit on the left turn reps then back in when he needs to go to his right (you can move the upright while he is eating :)) That way he can be equally successful on both sides.
Next up for the wing wrapping, separately from adding distance: you can start changing your position to standing. You went from low kneeling to high kneeling here, so the next session can start with you on the couch (and the upright very close to you) and if he is happy with that, you can move to standing up (with the couch still behind you, so he is less tempted to go behind you :))
Great job here! Keep me posted about his xrays!
Tracy
Hi!
>>the couch+standing gate made for a good chute and we’re doing flat and inclined klimb right now. He loves it.>>
Terrific! I am glad he loves it!!
Wow, his turn and burn is looking awesome!! tight turns and super fast!!!
Because he is doing so well, the next step is to add your wrap verbals. Iedally, you would have a verbal that means wrap-to-his-left and a different one that means wrap-to-his-right. Or, you can do a wrap-towards-me and a wrap-away-from me. Short sounds or short words are best for wraps, like checkcheckcheck and digdigdig (those are 2 of the most popular ones).
When you have chosen the verbals, you can then hold his collar, start saying the verbal… then send him to the barrel to start hte turn and burn.
You can also add the wrap verbal to the handling combo – send to to the barrel with the wrap verbal, then use your go go go to accelerate to the toy. He was great with the wrapping and ignoring the toy, when you tossed it behind you!! It was mentally challenging for him, when he took the toy for a quick run and then couldn’t quite bring it back at the end: “mom, I need a moment, that made my brain work REALLY HARD!” LOL! He was terrific, and those impulse control moments do often require we let the pups run around to help reset their brains after that difficulty of the game.
The handling combo looks great, so other than adding the wrap verbal, you can also do the FC to get a side change at the barrel before running to the toy – and you can also try the advanced level with the decel/pivot .
Great job!
TracyHi!
Congrats on your super successful weekend, both with Kaladin on course and with Lift on the road trip!!On the video – good girl for ignoring the massive disraction of her brother chewing a treat at the beginning! That is hard!
I think the initial setup was too hard – new location, space behind you, brother on the bed chewing, toy bin was a little too far from you. So when you reset it an took out some of those options, she was able to get things rolling and offered some good wraps!
At around 2:10, she asked for a decompression moment by trying to take the toy on a walkabout 🙂 You can help her reset the arousal there (because it is a hard challenge) with a bit of tugging and throwing the toy around, then you can ask for more wrapping. Those decompression moments canhelp her think through the challenge, especially in new locations. She had some really good turn and burn moments at the end too – that was really lovely because doing it all in the new place with new distractions was hard!! Good girlie!
When you get home, you can start with the turn and burn using her familiar barrel – and if she is happy with it, you can start adding your wrap verbals.
Great job here! Safe travels home!
Tracy
Hi!
I think the collection sandwich is beginning to take shape, and we can definitely help him out with somethings to get more hustle.If he is having trouble going back and forth from toys to cookies to toys, you can split that part out – start with a toy , then put it away and switch to cookies for the rest of the session (then go play with the toy at the end, but far from the cookies smells :)) That can help build up that skill – it is a hard skill!
For the game, I think clarifying where to find the start cookies and giving him the visual target to drive to at the end will make a difference – and a food bowl might be the answer to both!
You can can start each rep with the cookie in the food bowl, and you can send him to it from 6 feet away (or further, if he really loves to drive to it). As he is arriving at the bowl, you can start running away – he DEFINITELY liked the more motion i nthe 2nd video than the calmer motion in the first video! That way, when he sees the added motion, he will drive towards you with a lot of speed and that will allow you to do the blind followed by the early decel, then pivot.
Then after the pivot to drive ahead:
he definitely liked the prop but didn’t really have to accelerate to get to it, probably because it is hard to throw LOL! Instead yu can use the empty food bowl that is already there: accelerate to it and the cookie reward goes into it.Let me know if that makes sense! I think that can smooth things out for him 🙂
Nice work!
TracyGood morning!
> I have added in the resilience games and a sort of snuffle mat thing at the end of each session.>>
This is great! And sometimes you can just go back and forth between tugging and a snuffle mat, so her physiology ‘rehearses’ bouncing back to baseline/
Looking at the rear crosses:
>>She doesn’t understand what I want and I am not sure what I can do differently.>>
If you freeze the video on each rear cross moment (see below) you will see that for most of them, she had already arrived at the prop and started turning towards you before you started the RC info. So to her, it looked like the turn and burn game (front crosses) on the prop. Which is why she had the same response as when you play turn and burn 🙂
On 2 of the reps (1:16 in video 2, 1:32 in video 3) the RC info was starting before she arrived at hte prop, so she turned the correct direction.
So in the next session, move the prop further across the room so there is more distance between your starting point and the prop. And do a bit of parallel path warm up like you did here, that looked great! Then try the rear cross, with the goal being that you cut behind her sooner, so she sees you on the new side when she is at least a full stride away from arriving at the prop. That should help! And if you are too early and she doesn’t touch the prop? No worries 🙂 reward anyway 🙂
Here are the RC moments to freeze on the videos:
Video 1 –
:36, :44, :54, 1:08 124, 1:34Video 2 –
:59, 1:08, 1:34, 1:46Video 3 –
:33, :44, :55, 1:12, 1:43, 2:03, 2:14>>Two sedate ready dances earned me some instant feedback. She nibbled at my knee! And then later grabbed my pants. I feel bad that I am frustrating her, or causing whatever emotional state that generates the gentle attachment of poodle teeth to clothing.>>
She probably needs an outlet for the ready dance, which can be practicing it with a toy in your hand so you can then let her tug hen the arousal state changes. That can protect your clothes and flesh 🙂
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! You are doing great – definitely not behind! And it is good for the pup’s resilience to take days off – it helps the body rest and reset 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
She did really well in the new location! Her engagement and responses were basically the same as you have at home: SUPER!!!
After the blind crosses on the first video, be sure you decelerate almost immediately. You were running til she was very close to you then doing the decel into the pivot a little bit at the last minute, so she had to slam on the brakes. Decelerating sooner (after her first of second stride towards you) then doing the pivot will give her time to coordinate the collection into the turn.
She did a great job with wrapping her box then driving to the toy! SUPER!!!
On the 2nd video, the parallel path looked really strong too. For the rear crosses being close to the prop made it easier for you to show the rear cross line, and she did great! YAY!! When you don’t want to do rear crosses, you can practice this game with more and more lateral distance.
Super job on these! Remember to build in a day off here and there so she isn’t doing this stuff every day – we want to let her brain reset in between training days (lots of science behind the physiology of stimulation so we want to give the body a day or two to not ‘work’ so it can reset itself for baseline.
Great job here!
TracyI am glad he did well with his bed in the kitchen!
For jumping up at treats or toys in your hands, you can try 4 things in the training sessions:
– in the transitions, like when you are removing the toy/treat and moving into offering or a cue, you can give him a bridge behavior of tossing a treat on the ground for example, which can give you a moment to get the toy and treats situated for the training or next rep.
– keep your hands quiet when you are holding the toys/treats during training and while he is offering. The quieter your hands are and the less they move around (for now), the easier it will eb for him to ignore what is in your hands,
– having the treats or toys less visually present can help too, even if it means putting your hands behind your back for now. Eventually we will be able to have them very visually present, but starting them a little less prominently can help him learn to ignore them
– add in specific verbal markers for when the reward is available from your hand A marker for “now you may take the toy” and “now you may have the treat” can really clarify when he should try to engage the reward versus when he should not engage it.
Let me know how he does!
TracyGood morning!
Good job getting toy play in the yard!
When you send to the barrel, stand totally still and let him offer – he was trying to figure out how to go around it and move away from the toy, so the more stationary you are, the easier it will be for him to offer moving.You had a lot of pointing and verbals and moving, which drew his attention entirely back to you, so he was watching you and not considering offering on the barrel.
>>I decided to take a step back and try the Wrap exercise using the tug toy, which I had not done in the past.>>
This was a really smart training moment! Yay! You recognized that there was a step that could help him and switched to that without abandoning the session, and then he was really successful. Click/treat to you 🙂
Note the difference on the second video, where you were a lot quieter and more stationary, and he was able to offer a lot more! He is better when turning to his right on this, so you can do a couple of reps in a row of turning to his right before asking him to offer to his left. He did get it really well! You were moving the visual of the toy away a little more and that helped too!
For the next session, repeat what you did here on the 2nd video (but with more right turns to get started before asking for left turns) and then I bet you will be able to add in turn and burn really easily.
Great job!!!
TracyGood morning!
Seems like EOTT is going well!!!
The first rep was super hard because between you moving to the position and the big toy, the had target was not as clear til after she was on her way to the toy.
You were clearer o the 2nd rep (and it was to her stronger side like you mentioned). On the 3rd rep, you were stationary before she finished finding the treat and that made a world of difference – she was not processing motion, so she could much more easily “see” the hand target. She drove directly to it on that rep, and also on the last rep where you were stationary and she was moving to her less-strong side. SUPER! And a big gold star to her for ignoring the giant dangling tug toy, in favor of hitting the little target. NICE!!!
You can move to adding an empty food bowl as a reward target on the ground and then the toy can eventually be the reward target on the ground.
How is she doing in the amped up EOTT environment?
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
Tugging on the first video then the treat scatter went well! And the strike a pose game went really well too – he drove right into the target hand on both sides, and good job getting the reward placement across you, so he got the 2nd turn of the serpentine line too 🙂 And back to tugging at the end (looks like throwing the toy was a good way to re-engage after all the cookies :))
I didn’t see any overarousal moments with the toy or any humping 🙂 on this clip – just really good transitions and training mechanics. YAY!
You can do th strike a pose game now with a toy as the reward – a cookie toss starts the game (or a stay) then the toy is the reward after hitting the target, placed just like you did with the treats here
Lap turns are looking good – remember to see your feet together until he arrives at your hand, then move the hand and foot back together to set the turns, When he as turning to his left, your leg was back too early on the first couple, which tends to get the pups turning towards us (and not away). Then after that, you starting moving your leg later, and he was Abel to turn the new direction easily.
Tandems looked great! You had one rep where you moved your hands too high and a little too fast, so he didn’t turn – but all the other reps were slower and hands were lower, so he was great!
Adding the prop went well too! He was able to find it easily after the turn away. With the lap turn here, delay the foot step back til he is a couple of inches from your hand – when you were too early, he didn’t turn away but when you were slightly later: perfect!
And the toy play looked harder for him here in this session, but he didn’t get overaroused from what I could tell (not grabbing or humping).
>>although I continue with my struggle to get him to tug with me. Sometimes it seems to me he is looking for the food.>>
I agree, I think it is hard for him to tug in a smaller area where there is sooooo much food scent on the ground and in your hands. You don’t suck at it! Even training in another room or moving from room to room to split the area between cookies and toys will help! And being able to train outside will help too. The main focus is the arousal regulation, and he did well here (bearing in mind that since he is entering adolescence, that might not always be the case LOL!).
Nice work!
Tracy
