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Hi!
Really good first session here, looks like he got the concept transfer right away! Yay!!
>>So for this first session with the wings I decided to leave my mat between the wings rather than introducing a pool noodle or towel.
Because this went so well, you can definitely move to a pool noodle or tiny bump for the next session. And you can try it outdoors too, as long as he can find the reward in the grass (or use a toy).
>>I noticed that as soon as he crosses the plane he looks back at me – does that mean I’m throwing the treat too late?>>
Yes, at that point there is nothing else to look at 🙂 So two ideas for the next session:
– mark and throw sooner. Watch his head, and mark the moment where he looks at the jump and then toss the reward.
– when you mark, use a location marker like “get it” to help him understand to look ahead for the reward. The “yes” markers will tend to get him looking at you, especially when you are very exciting 🙂
The next session can totally be in a bigger location, so you have more room to add lateral distance.
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
This session went really really well! Fast, fun, connected & engaged, and well-timed MM clicks. Yay!! I think he also did really well on the moments when you did NOT want him to go to the MM but rather wanted him to turn with you on the flat – no problem at all, he was easily able to turn with you, no problem SUPER!!!
>>I also learned that setting your timer on the phone causes your video to stop!>>
It was actually hilarious towards the end when you were basically like “WHY HASN’T THE TIMER GONE OFF YET” hahaha!!! Being more engaged like this with the line ups, etc, means more running. So you can totally end before the timer!
Well done here! We build on this will new stuff coming tomorrow :)
TracyHi!
The tunnel games went well too – she was very happy to drive through it to the toy! FUN!!!
Adding more length to the tunnel and more motion from you were not a problem at all, just be sure to watch where she is looking before you let go of her. You can also use the MM with the tunnel games (it is a great foundation for using the MM in weave training eventually).
You can add more angles of entry to the tunnel now (using the MM or toy as the reward, but the MM is easier to control access to the reward if she skips the tunnel) And on the easier angles, you can go ahead and add in the threadle side entries (and start adding the threadle verbal if she ha no questions about the threadle side entries 🙂 )
Great job on all of these! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
The MM intro went well. She seemed interested in it and happy to eat the cookies, and that is exactly what we want at this stage.
Helping her with the barrel at first was great because it got her started and then she could figure out the pattern on her own: around the barrel to make the MM click. You might have to help her out so you get more left turns and not as many right turns LOL but overall it went well. You can incorporate the MM into the baby dog RDW training by having it replace one of the bowls.
Nice work!
TracyHi!
She did really well with this!>>I’m not sure exactly what method I’m going to use yet so I smooshed then altogether lol.>
Ha! Perfect! You don’t want to choose a method yet – now is a good time to play with the concept foundations and se how she responds to it all because that will help you decide on a method eventually. Some dogs do better with a rear foot targeting method, some dogs do better with front foot targeting, etc. These foundations will help it all get sorted out.
Next session with you on the floor – try this with 2 toys, no food, one toy in each hand. That will ask her for proprioception in a higher arousal state, which will be incredibly useful later on!!
And the next food session can have you sitting on the couch with the bowls next to your feet – and the pads/mat moved a little further away from you. That will add a little more distance to the game, which is also useful! Start with exactly what you did here – back and forth to the bowls by going over the pads/mat here. When she gets into the groove of that, you can start to mark back feet (2nd back foot in particular). Staring at the mat will really help you see that 2nd back foot.
Nice work!
TracyHi!
Parallel path is looking really good!! Yay!!
As you ad more challenge to this, two tweaks for you:– No more clicker, because it gets her automatically looking at you 🙂 Just use your get it marker and toss a treat or toy. The toy will be easier to use when you move this to grass.
– Change the timing of the marker so it is earlier: watch her head so you can mark her intention to move to the jump (instead of marking arrival at the jump) then toss the reward, so that the reward lands before she gets between the uprights. Intention to move to the jump will look something like she looks at it and takes that first step towards it. That marker moment will really help build up commitment.
Since this is going really well, you can begin to vary your position and motion: get more lateral, get further ahead (by moving ahead of her while she is chasing the cookie) or go all the way to the tossed cookie with her so that she drives ahead of you to the jump. And you can start moving from a walk to a jog and build up to a run!
Great job!
TracyHi!
Very nice job here! These are challenging and she did really well! Make sure you don’t block the barrel 🙂 Pretend it is a jump wing and let her see all of it 🙂
Things went best when you were really patient so she could get committed. If you moved too early, she was not as sure.
If something goes wrong, don’t tell her “no” because at this stage it is allllll handler error LOL!! For example, compare the difference between reps 1 & 3, and rep 2 in terms of your movement:
Rep 1 and rep 3, you held your send position until she was about halfway around the barrel, then said get it and moved. This was the same for all the successful reps after that too! Super! At this stage, she is committed when her head it turning to the other side of the barrel, so wait to move until you see her do that.
Rep 2, you moved just as she arrived at the barrel and you started to say ‘get it’ – so of course she came to the toy hand. You told her she was wrong but it was handler error and she was responding correctly at this stage. So, you can reward that 🙂 but be more patient like you were on reps 1 and 3 . At 1:01, you had a similar moment of moving too soon (backwards sending is HARD! And backwards sending to a left turn was REALLY hard for her) .
The super patience you gave her on the last rep was perfect! So for now, you need to hold position til she is turning her head and almost halfway around, before marking or shifting your weight forward to move away. As she gets more experienced and more reinforcement, her commitment will come earlier and earlier (less patience required :))
Nice work!
TracyHi!
>>Usually I struggle with these exercises but i think you explained it in a way it finally made sense to me! >>
Yay! That is great! I think you rocked it!! Lu seemed to have no questions, and turned away on the lap turns beautifully on each side. You had a nice little loop going
First tandem turn – you moved a little too fast and she was like “wait, what?” LOL! You slowed down a bit on the others and that really helped. Since you are using your outside arm/hand with the tandems, you can show her that hand sooner so she locks onto it. You were putting that hand in play at the same time as you were starting the turn cue, so she was not as as able to process it quickly (especially on the right turns in the first part of the session). I think the best timing of getting that outside arm involved was at 2:19, when you had it visible for her for a few steps and then started the turning. Perfect!
Both of these went super well…. Time to move to the advanced level and add the prop!! Great job!
Tracy
Hi! It sounds like you and the dogs had a wonderful weekend!!! YAY!!!!!
Overall, these are going really well. Some ideas for you to keep moving forward with the games:
Retrieving is a challenging behavior for puppies!
Looking at the shaped retrieves – things are moving along well. 2 suggestions for you:– More splitting of the behavior will really help, especially in the face of food reward right there. For example, on the first video: you can reward her earlier efforts to interact with the disc such as following the disc, mouth near the disc, open mouth towards the disc, etc (affirming that yes, interacting with it is the road to getting the treats!) Then you can she your way to her mouth on it and holding it. That is likely to take multiple sessions.
– You can also have your food rewards up on something, like a table, so they are not in your hands or pockets (that was confusing to her: where are those cookies?). So a small bowl of cookies on a table that you can reach up to get one from will both move the cookies a little further away, and also make it very clear for her where they are, exactly.
>>When we went to phase 2-3 it was a disaster with the treats. JJ became obsessed with the treats and could not handle focusing on the toy at all so there was no advancement in getting a retrieval. >>
It was probably too soon to move to the next steps, she likely needs another session or two of the first level before you move to the next steps.
She did well with the 2 toy video – you can reward with the 2nd toy for bringing the first one back, That will also help with the ‘release’ cue because you can cue the release and immediately toss the 2nd toy.
>>I barely tried to see if this transferred to the other type of minidisc that I had at that time and JJ was not as interested in it so I did not push it with her. That is as far as we got on this game.>>
I think a bit more room to toss the toys will be more stimulating for her to go get the one you tossed, which can totally help!
>>Funny story, someone was getting rid of the PVC square so I bought it today for $10 for this activity. It can also be used for contacts on the a-frame when we get to that point if we need it.>>
That is perfect!!! It is great for a-frame running contact training!! And also for starting the concept running dog walk training.
As soon as you build value for getting into the box, you can change the reward placement so she has to leave the box to get it – that can mean either tossing it past the box so she comes back towards you through the box for another reward, or handing her the reward from your hand so she exits the box, gets the reward, then leaves to go back into the box again. You did this at the end (after the yoga mat) and it worked well.
For the yoga mat, you did go to the back-and-forth cookie tosses and that was great! Next step on the yoga mat is to make it smaller by folding it in half. Then if that goes well, fold it in half again so it is even smaller 🙂
For both of these, the next step would be to have you walking back and forth while she is going into the box or to the yoga mat.
>>I spent about 10 minutes getting some of the first sits out of JJ (not on video), and i really had to wait her out. >>
That is a long time! Definitely try to get some video next time so I can see what is going on. If she is not getting it right, you can help by having her offer a sit on a platform or something similar so she can figure out what to offer, then fade the platform.
>>(this would not work earlier in the day even though she knows the command well, but tonight I got her to sit most of the time on a verbal command>>
This is typical of adolescent dog brain development: a cue response with a history of reinforcement can simply disappear for a day or two… totally normal part of their brain development. No worries, it comes back 🙂 so you can either help with a prop like a platform or just try again another day. And sometimes it disappears because what we thought was the cue and what the dog perceived as the cue are 2 different things LOL! Either way – if an adolescent dog can no longer do something, the neuroscientists advise us dog trainers to remain chill and try again in a day or two 🙂
On the first video here – She sat when you stopped moving and then after a little backing up, she started offering the sits more and got faster and faster with it. This went well!
Free/get it and catch markers both went well on the 2nd video – nicely done! Try to say ‘catch’ then throw the cookie so that we strengthen the word even more by separating the verbal from the cookie toss.
She sometimes needed a 2nd ‘sit’ cue. When cuing the sit, try not to cue it until she is all the way back to you, looking at you, finished chewing, and you have already loaded the next cookie into your hand 🙂 When she needed more than one sit cue, it was because either she was still chewing and moving towards you (I can totally relate, I cannot chew and process at the same time haha!), or your hand was moving to your cookie pocket. In both of these instances, she was not able to process the sit cue until the other elements had stopped 🙂
These are going well, so the next step is to try them with a toy! You can help the sit get going with a Cato Board or something to jump start the behavior if needed. The toy will be more stimulating which is GREAT in that it adds a little more impulse control to the sit/stay behavior, and also in that it begins to develop the stay in the arousal state she will be in when you need her to stay (a higher arousal state). The state-dependent memory science on this is really cool, and tell us that training these skills in higher arousal states (even if we do smaller bits of behavior at first) is VERY helpful for transferring the skills to the ring later on 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>Lord help me. I can’t believe I’m going to do this again.
Because it is SO FUN (even when it is not hahaha!) My guess is that her smaller size will make it an easier adventure.
This was a really strong first session! Hooray! It was all about value building and she had a whole lot of great interactions with the “thing” (future mat hahaha). Part of these early stage sessions is figuring out what mechanics work best in terms of transitions from the reward to the start then back to the reward:
In this session, tugging to the start spot then letting her go do the thing seemed to work best, in terms of both going directly to hit it, and not looking at you or your hands. Compare to the middle of the session when you had her do a hand touch/tried to put the toy on the couch – she looked at you a lot more than on the other reps, and we don’t want to build in looking at you.
Only 2 little suggestions:
– take longer before presenting the toy after the MM treats, so she can finish chewing (unless you have treats that can work in the MM that don’t need to be chewed – soft tiny zukes maybe?) She was a little delayed getting back on the toy or didn’t quite grab it because chew chew chew swallow LOL!!
– the other reason she didn’t quite grab the toy was that it was a bit lower in value than the mat-to-MM chain. So for now, use a higher value toy so she really grab it (fur toy? What is her favorite?) Normally I would also recommend having you get lower with the toy but I think you are also protecting your back which is GOOD! No back pain wanted! So use that super long toy (the length was great) and maybe tie something higher value onto the end of it 🙂 If she clamps on it and won’t let go, you can always trade for a cookie: show a cookie, when she lets go of the toy, toss the cookie away from the mat and then start the rep after she gets it.Onwards to more RDW fun!!! I figure you can start delaying the MM click til you see the first rear foot on, then the 2nd rear foot on, but the toy-treat-toy mechanics take priority for now 🙂 No need to worry a lot about footwork til she is closer to her adult body 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi!
He did really well with the threadle side entries in the tunnel! Now it is time to put the verbal for it on (on the easier side). At the beginning of the next session, start on an easier angle, almost facing the tunnel entry, so he doesn’t spin towards you then turn away to the tunnel (as a warm up).
After a rep or two then you can move to the new verbal and then to the harder entries.
When you start his harder side (left turn side) start on super easy entries so he barely has to turn and still sue the regular tunnel verbal. His success level will tell you how quickly you can move to the harder angles or add the new verbals… no rush though, the coordination of turning away into the tunnel is more important than the level of difficulty.Looking at the handling combo:
>>but it was much too long a session>>
Set.A.Timer. 😂😁😂😂⏰🤣
Timing the sessions is especially important on any session with a lot of running. If you do a lot of running reps, both handler and dog get tired and then mechanics get sloppy… which is what happened here on the human side of things LOL! Setting a 2 minute timer will make a world of difference!
>>also I didn’t like the lack of engagement with the reward due to using the Treat & Train,>>
He was not disengaged, he was really good! You can build in reset rewards and line up cookies along with the MM, and that can totally build engagement up! The MM does lend more of a relaxed approach to the session but that is fine. You can call him back after he gets the MM cookies, like you did at 2:23 – the only thing I would add there is a line up cookie to start him, when he runs back to you.
>>Despite that “thinking time” by the end I could not run in a proper straight line and confused the heck out of him as far as what side I wanted him to be on. In fact I wasn’t really sure either, if I was doing a blind cross or not.>>
Part of this game is definitely handler mechanics for the humans. It is really important to be clear with the puppies and it would be better if you could be perfect. HA! But since we cannot be perfect, we can assume all errors are human errors, and reward the pup for the effort. For example:
At :26 he went to the side of the start wing you didn’t want. But, he went the direction your body turned to when he was starting to move, and also that happened to be a right turn side (stronger side for him). You can use a cookie to reset the line up for the next turn, that is both a reinforcement for the effort and a line up for the next rep. You can be closer to the wing and step to it more clearly with the dog side leg, especially on those early reps in a session.
At 2:29 he was great about figuring out a line considering the info given, but did not get a reinforcement. That was all handling confusion, not puppy error, so you can (and should) totally reward all of that.
Overall, yes, you can plan the handling moves more but the shorter session will help that. Start with something really easy to refresh his memory then you can build up from there.
One other suggestion – when he is driving ahead, you can click the MM sooner like what you did at :52 – as soon as he is looking forward – to both mark the looking forward and have him accelerate past you.
>>“WHY, OH WHY do I tell people these things because they never listen to me!”>>
Ha! I think people listen when the mechanics click in – setting a timer is really hard for some reason but then the dogs tell us they need it… so then we start to do it 🙂
Great job!!
TracyHi!
Yes, jump 3 gets moved out and stays out, then the height changes.
And yes, you can do the ladder separately (those heights stay low) and you can revisit it every now and then, maybe do one day a week of a grid, any grid. 🙂
Tracy
