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Hi!
Super nice facility!!!
>I did it a little different; I went to my facility that he is very familiar with, and that has its “furniture” changed around with things added and subtracted every few days to work recall.>
That is also a great way to do it! He is obviously very comfortable there. The novelty of the furniture being moved is useful for processing impulse control, and also has useful implications for resilience. And you can place random objects in this location or any location, really. The key is the novelty, and he did great here!!
You noted that he was not gripping the toy as well as he could have in the earlier part of the video when you were standing up – he might have been letting go of the toy because it was coming up high, lifting his chin up which was making it harder to hold (especially with baby dog teeth). He was able to grip and pull back when you were sitting and the toy was lower.
He is doing so well with the transitions from tugging back to cookie games!! That ‘aus’ at 1:41 then back to the cookie toss was especially crisp!
Great job! Keep adding novel-neutral challenges to the environment or to the games.
Tracy
Yes, for now, move slowly, lower hands, and let him lead the way – but if he is having any questions about where to put his feet, it is also good to have it even grippier for now. That can really help him understand where his little feets are 🙂
T
Good morning!
These sessions all looked lovely, you are going to be bored by hearing “great” and “super” all the time hahahah!!! Plus she easily went back and forth from the toy to food to the toy – YAY!Goat tricks went great! She was happy to tug, happy to get on the object, happy to tug again. Super!!! For the next session, you can having something bigger for her to step up on, and maybe combos of whatever random objects you have so she can climb around on things.
Plankrobatics: she was super about getting right on the plank! And also super about hopping back on after grabbing her cookie. Turning around? No problem! She was pumped up but also using her body really well, ev en after the tug breaks. Excellent!!! Do you have anything you can elevate the plank on a little – as long as it is stable, it can be higher to add challenge.
Aha! The combo of random stuff is on video 3! Sounds like you wanted more movement on the objects at first, but she did great goat-ing around on them. The small disc was harder – I don’t think it was too hard, but it is possible that she couldn’t figure out how to stay on it AND tug without smacking her toes on the raised edges. The end of the session was great with it because the toy was not moving as much. You can pair it with another thing (like the cato plank that was under the cot) so she can get all 4 feet on the two of them combined. A larger wobble board would be great too if you have one.
>also did SSC Focus forward,camera wasn’t on🤤>
How did it go?
Great job here!!
Tracy
Hi!
>. He seems completely back to normal so we will be able to do more exciting play next time.>
Great! I am glad he is feeling better!!
>At the end I think there’s a good chance he was judging me, lol. He had started this session by barking at me to tell me I was being way too slow while I was turning on the camera and had the prop folded under my arm.>
Ha! I have found that Shelties are excellent at issuing judgement LOL!!!! But he kept working, so you clearly were up to his high standards of excellence 🙂
T
Good morning! He did so well here!!
At the very beginning, he was assessing the environment a bit (windy day!) but then he really locked into the game when you make the barrel big. And he did GREAT tugging for a moment with the barrel and bowls right there. It looks like at 1:15 he barked and stopped playing, possibly wanting to go back to the barrel/bowls – but it also might have been because the toy was a little dead/dangly 🙂 So keeping the toy more active for him to chase can keep the tugging going until you are ready to switch back to the cookie portion.
Then he barked when you reached into your pocket to get a treat towards the end – excitement? Arousal because of the pocket distraction? Judging you because the cookie might be late? Shelties sure can judge hahahaha. No worries, it is good to note and see if there is a reason for it or if he was just excited 🙂
Great job! Using this barrel, you can start to add a bit more distance. I think this barrel is going to be ideal for the game we add next Tuesday!
Tracy
Hi!
Great job with this session! The play breaks really keep things interesting so he doesn’t lose interest by doing the same thing over and over.
He did well going around the bucket! Nice job breaking it up with toy play and moving the bucket away during the play, which made it smoother to get right back into the session with adding distance.
It was interesting that it took him a moment to realize the blue/yellow box was something he should go around – it was pretty different looking than the other stuff he has gone around! That is why we change up objects at this stage, to help the pups learn to go around whatever we put in front of them LOL! So keep changing up what you present in this game, because it is a way of generalizing the concept and it will make things easier when he eventually sees all the different types of jumps.
>I initially was going to use one of the large cones I have but decided maybe you would rather we used something totally different than stuff we actually train with eventually.>
You can throw a cone in there sometimes! And a laundry basket or taller barrel too. We are working up towards getting the pups on a jump wing, but we have another layer or two to add before we go to the wing.
Nice work!
Tracy
Good morning!
He did really well immediately interacting with the plank! Super! And
You were really good about letting him offer getting all 4 feet on the plank instead of just two.To get him to turn around smoothly, you can move less – very slowly, and with small steps for now, so he is not trying to go fast. Also,
what is the surface of the plank? He was slipping a bit, so you might need to make it grippier if it has a slick surface. Attaching a yoga mat to it can do the trick!That will also help you be able to do things like add sits and downs on the plank, turning in a full circle in one spot, and hopping on and off 🙂
Nice work here!
TracyHe is HILARIOUS!!! I am glad he feels confident and it is great that he also brought his own reinforcement. It makes your job easier if he can practice the RDW while also delivering his own reward hahahahahahaha
Ah yes!!! Winds from the water, yes? Do I remember correctly that there is the super cool cable car? Wellington was so much fun!
Good morning!
The stealth self-control game went great – it had more self-control than you might have realized! Watch her right at the beginning, as you were turning on the camera: she saw the bucket of treats, looked at you, looked at them… but did NOT grab them. SUPER GOOD GIRL!
When you added the cone in: Nice job letting her decide where to look and then releasing her with her ‘get it’ marker. She was super strong about directing her gaze to the cone. Yay!
The bowl was a little past the halfway point when you stopped – so for the next session, start with it a few inches easier then see how much further around the cone you can get it. Can she work up to looking at the cone and going around it, while the bowl is next to her? I think she can! And be sure to work both sides too.
She got right on the wobble board – nice job with your reward placement to encourage her getting on it. She got all 4 feet on it more immediately as the session progressed: super!
When she has all 4 feet on it, you can deliver the treat in a slightly different spot to get her to move a little and shift her weight so the board also moves. Or, release after 1 treat to tug, then let her leap back onto the board. She did great with those tug breaks!
She was doing well with turning around on the board to get the cookie towards the end of the session (something in the environment caught her attention but she came right back to engagement, good girl!)
>I figure it’s a bit more loud inside, which we can progress too and I can add towels under at first. She has not seen it inside. >
I think she is ready for it inside, but also yes to adding towels under it just in case it might be startling. I’d rather be too cautious when adding noise, then have regrets about it being too noisy 🙂
>I had some open treats, which I often do, but this was probably first time with a shaping lesson outside. She tipped them a bit… good girlie didn’t eat them, so I scooped most up and then let her enjoy a grass scatter for the rest. I think worked out okay and lesson learned. No treats out next time!>
She did really well with the open treats indoors, so maybe outside have them up on a chair for now? She gets another gold star for NOT tin the all after tipping them 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
He definitely liked the ball as part of this game! And he did great with the cookies too. And good for you for balancing things with the right side too! Getting a line up on both sides (and between the feet :)) is really helpful.
Since he seemed happy to have his collar touched, you can add longer collar holding now – hold his collar, praise, then toss the reward. I think it will be easy peasy for him.
You can also try food & toy together in this game: line up with as boring of a cookie as possible, collar hold, praise… then throw the ball 🙂 Or any super exciting toy. That can be a great way to start toy races!
Nice work here!
Tracy
Hi!
>I thought I had chopped up the soft chewy cookies enough, but it took forEVER for her to chew each one before she went to the other bowl again. lol>
Haha yes, it was definitely about 15 chews for each cookie LOL!! That does slow down the back-and-forth progression of the game. Since we can’t do anything about teething, are there treats she likes that she can slurp down without chewing? Small bits of cold cheese can work – they won’t be noisy as you plunk them into the bowl, but she might not need the noise any more to help her.
She was going back to the next bowl after she finished eating the treat, so that part of the pattern is getting nicely established. With the chewing, though, it is possible that little bits were falling out of her mouth or the scent was moving a lot, so she was sniffing the turf a bit.
The upright was not a problem for her at all, but we definitely want to get treats that need no chewing for the next session LOL That way she will move back and forth pretty quickly, and then you can move the upright progressively further away and then move to a bigger object. I think finding the right slurpable treat will help a lot 🙂
Nice job getting the toy involved too! You can tie that toy to another toy, to get it to be 4 or 5 feet long. That makes it easier to swoosh around for her to chase/grab without you needing to lean over as much.
Great job 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
Nice work here with driving to you! She was more than happy to come to your magic cookie hand and you showed the decel early enough that it was easy for her to decelerate too. Super! And she got back onto the toy at the end really well too. You can mix in the toy between the reps – after she gets her cookie for the pivot, you can play tug on the way back to the start spot.
We build on this game soon! Stay tuned!
Great job 🙂
Tracy
Good morning! Super nice session here!!
Lining her up at your side and between your feet made the game about the fun of getting close and lining up, with the collar grab a small but fun part of it. Perfect! She seemed more than happy to let you take her collar then throw the treat.
You can start to add a little more duration of holding the collar (you can hold it, tell her she is a good girl, then toss the treat).
And you can also line up for a boring treat and throw an amazing toy, as a way to get her to enjoy treats and toys in the same session.
Great job here!
Tracy
