Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Good morning!
The wider gaps looked great, she was using her body really well! I was going to suggest adding the countermotion to do the turn&burn exit so she gets a bit of the feel of turning away from you on these too… but you already added them and they looked great. Super! Plus she was working in pretty high arousal (tugging and barking) but still quite accurate. Yay!You might not need the ready word unless you are holding her, because she takes it as a “get started” cue (then gets a little mad when you don’t want her to start). So you can hold her, say ready, say the verbal, then let go so she can do the thing. Or you don’t need to say ready, because she seems to be always ready 🙂
The only other thing to note on this session: either Youtube or your camera mirrored the video… or you were saying left when she was turning right and right when she was turning left. It sounded like you were saying left or right based on which side of you she started on, but I believe you use your verbals to mean her turn direction and not your side. No worries either way – I have had my camera mirror things and I have also done an entire minny pinny session at this stage with my verbals backwards LOL!!! Oopsie! Definitely double check that before the next session.
Nice work here!
TracyHi!
>>To make sure I understand, should I have a physical cue for Julie (like a raised arm) and then when she releases tell Caper to come or does the physical cue to release and the verbal to come happen at the same time?
Usually there is a lot of noise when these recalls are happening, so the raised arm helps the holder – but also, at the same time, you should be calling her (just use her name, no need for a Come cue).
>> In regards to the other dog, Caper loves other dogs and the dog we used is also lovely. My concern is how motion sensitive she is when other dogs are moving, she has poor recall when heading to another dog and once she has noticed them can get stuck watching them.
Well then this is the perfect game for her LOL!! The other perfect game is the pattern game – she needs to learn to play that game while other dogs are moving, and while she is moving past other dogs. Start as far as needed so she can be successful then gradually get closer. You will end up being able to play it ringside with other dogs running, and she will be able to ignore them.
Have fun!
TracyHi!
You were definitely wild and fun on the recalls! Yay!!!! He was perfectly engaged. Even the holder seemed to be having fun LOL!! Great job letting him run through the toy as the reward then bring it back to you 🙂 It was a perfect choice of tug toy, too! And yes, you will be VERY out of breath haha but it is worth it, to get this level of engagement and excitement 🙂My only suggestion is to ask the holder to gently hold his hips too, so her fingers don’t get twisted in his collar. He is powerful and was very excited , we don’t want him to break her fingers off haha!
If you have other people or other dogs around, you can add them in as distractions 🙂
Great job on all of these!
TracyHi!
This is minny pinny with directional verbals – super!! YAY!!!I want to add one more thing here so the verbals get stronger: before each rep, line him up at your side, hold his collar, start quietly saying the left or right 3 or 4 times… then let go of him so he can move through the setup. That way he can hear the verbal get attached to the setup before he moves. When you were moving and doing the verbal all at once, he was only really processing the movement. And also, if you start with him at your side, you won’t say go by accident 🙂 I think you were trying to get him more ramped up and faster on this, but bear in mind that this is a turning/collection game. When he was faster because you were trying to get more excitement, he was wider. So let him be chill on this so he can work on his collection skills 🙂
T
Hi!
This is a the rocking horses plus some race tracks and a little turn & burn 🙂
As with the earlier rocking horse video – make a bigger connection after the crosses and before the send, so he knows where to be – very direct eye contact will help a lot.For example at :48, you had clear connection, so he knew where to be and did not look at the toy. At :51, your shoulder was closed forward and you were not looking back at him so as he exited the cone, all he saw was you back and ended up on the wrong side of you. You marked it as him being wrong and whipped the toy away… but in reality it was handler error (no connection = no side info).
So he was not being naughty, he was just guessing – you should reward those moments. The dog ended up on the wrong side of us indicates a connection issue, which is a handler issue 🙂 The same thing happened at :58, but he had slowed down and was being careful. The video at :58 is a great view of what happened. Your arm is at your side and your were looking down towards your side, so you could probably see him in your peripheral vision. But he did not see the connection clearly (he can really only see your back there). Seeing him and being connected are two different things 🙂 So to be connected, have your dog side arm back, fingers pointing to his nose, and look directly for his eyes. And if he ends up on the wrong side, don’t mark it as wrong (the oops marker is a “you’re wrong” marker). Either keep going and give more connection, or reward him for trying to figure it out, then give more connection on the next rep.
As with the earlier rocking horses… time for wrap verbals so you don’t end up over-using the go verbal. 🙂
Great job!
TracyAdding the bump/bars to the minny pinny:
He was great here too, easy peasy 🙂 and that is exactly what we want. Nice reward placement! So now we need to get you to stop saying “go” and use your directionals 🙂 what do you want to use for left & right soft turns? The GO directional will be used only for the big straight line extensions, and before you get into the habit of using it on turns, we will get into the habit of turn directionals. This is a really easy one to add the directionals too – just be sure to hold his collar, say the directional a couple of times, then let him start moving through the turns.
Nice work!
TracyThis is minny pinny part 1 with just the wings: easy peasy! He did great! Nice job with the reward placement here. My only suggestion here is to always line him up straight and hold him til you are ready – that way he doesn’t end up offering the wrong direction or turning away into the setup. I see you added bumps below! Yay!
Hi! This is the rocking horse game. His commitment is looking good! I think he definitely needs something taller than these cones, so you can use big barrels or something for now until we transition him to the wings.
2 suggestions for you – connect more as you send him to the next cone, so he knows that you want the cone and not the toy. When connection was really strong, he didn’t look at the toy. When connection was not as clear because you were looking forward, he was not as sure of where to go and looked at the toy more.
Time to add the wrap verbals now! What do you want to use for the wrap verbals? You were saying “go” on these, and we definitely want to replace the “go” with the wrap verbals. He is definitely ready for it!Nice work!
TracyGood morning!
Looks like you had a fun group at the barn!
Recalls – remember to always start with the running around the holder, and get further from her before the holder releases her so she can really run fast and long, more like what you did on the last two reps. I like to call the dog or raise my hand to indicate I am ready for the release. Also, you can let her ‘run through the toy’ (meaning you let go when she grabs it so she keeps moving forward and so there is no torque on her neck) – then you turn and run the other way so she drives right back to you with it
>. On the last one, we had a dog standing to the side but he isn’t shown on the video. I think it might have been different if the dog had been moving but she was happy to chase me on these. What would be a good way to introduce dogs moving while we worked on this? I want to set her up for the best chance of success>>
I am assuming she has no aggression issues, correct? She seemed perfectly lovely when I met her. And I am assuming that the helper dog has no aggression issues? If both dogs are happy with other dogs, then you can have the helper dog just walking back and forth for now as she does her recalls. The worst thing that will happen is that she will pay a happy visit to the other dog, which is no big deal. If that happens, you have a laugh, gather them up, and try again with the helper dog a little further away. And when you are doing high energy recalls like this, it is NOT likely she will leave to see a dog that is just walking.
Then it gets built up to side by side crazy recalls, opposing recalls, etc. More on that coming soon! It is really easy and fun… and VERY helpful for teaching focus and engagement in crazy distractions. Here is a recent one of Ramen and a puppy who had never done this before, not sure if you can see the video or not:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1044614745608895/permalink/8665555503514743/Minny pinny –
She is doing well! No problems here with responding 🙂 Yay! Two little suggestions: Take off her coat so she can move normally – coats are a little restrictive and we want to rehearse proper mechanics for her. Also, you can hold her a tiny bit longer so she hears left and right 3 or 4 times before you let her go (she was hearing it maybe once here).>> since we spread them out slightly on our second go at it>>
No need to spread them out yet, we have lots more crazy stuff to do with them before we add more room LOL!
Rocking horses – also looking great and her commitment is great!
On the rocking horses, since you are turning and facing the next barrel – you need to be SUPER clear if you want her to stop for a reward at your side. At :02, you turned, stepped and put your hand in there with a treat.. but that was not a clear indication to stop. A marker and a more obvious hand movement/connection will make a big difference, more like :09 and when you were using the toy and said “bite”. She is really understanding this game, so if she is not supposed to keep going you need to be very clear about it 🙂>> I included my first effort at Race Track where I look like I am drunk (I kept forgetting that I was just doing post turns).>>
We have reached the stage where the humans will need to start walking these ‘courses’ before trying them with the puppies 🙂 We have a lot of handling moves happening! So be sure to walk through what you are planning to do before bringing her into it 🙂
>> She does make contact with me at the turn and burn on one of them, and I hope that was just due to my timing being off.>>
Was this at :46 where it looks like she hit your leg? Then yes, your timing was late and you were running towards a wall, so she was trying to get the toy and not run into the wall 🙂
And since you are doing handling and you might mess up and she might not be sure of what you want… definitely do the newest pattern game (Find My Face) so she knows what to do when the flow of information stops or gets wonky 🙂 We don’t want the pups to be left without a coping device for when we screw up LOL!
She did really well with the double whammy game! She only had one question, which was :17 when you didn’t quite get connection to get her on your left side. But then you got great connection on the other reps and she nailed it!
On the first part of the video, I think you were cuing the turn back to the tunnel too much by turning your feet before she turned. For example at :09 and :25, you were turning your feet before she past you. Ideally, she turns herself to the tunnel based on the verbal cue, so try not to turn your feet at all til she has turned to the tunnel. This is what you did on the last rep at :33 – you kept walking forward, she turned to the tunnel, then you turned and went the other way. Perfect!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
With the stays: He is a good age now to start working on these! We can definitely help you find the rhythm! I try to do one stay session every day with my pup, just for a minute or two.Because you were walking back and forth, it seemed like he was not sure of what to offer. So you can stand still, cue the sit (or let him offer it if you don’t have a cue yet), then you can start to move away. As you add moving away, remember to move slowly and release to the reward before he breaks. So at first, this will mean clicking and throwing the treat back to him immediately! then you can gradually add in delaying the click, so you are moving away a little more each time before the click and reward.
And if he has questions, we can add a small platform for him to sit on, because it might help him understand to remain in that one place.
Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
I think we can smooth out the mechanics here to make his turns smoother too for the 360s – it seemed like you were both feeling a little awkward with it. Since he only goes around the upright twice in each rep, remember to start with him lined up at your side, facing forward to the upright (like you did at :25). Then send him around one time but don’t click that, just let him come around the upright. Then as he comes around it, use the same hand that you started him with to then turn him away and click that moment… followed by throwing the cookie to the other side of the upright (instead of handing it to him). Then after he gets that cookie, play a little, then line him up again to do the next rep. Because the cookies are thrown, it might be easier to do this on your deck, where you were training the stays in the next video 🙂
Let me know if that makes sense! He is turning really nicely so it is just a matter of smoothing things out.
TracyHi!
He did really well with his tunnel intro! You can have better treats in your hand to balance out the draw of the MM so he comes back to you even faster for the next rep 🙂 And for now, you can turn your feet to face the tunnel after you let him go, to help support the line to it.
That way, you can also call him back to you through the tunnel after he gets the treats from the MM 🙂 You might need to shorten up the tunnel to do that back-and-forth, but it is really fun!
Tracy
Good morning!
Super high energy on these, loved it! His commitment is looking good! And he did well with the countermotion moments too when your transitions were smooth (more on that below). Nice!>.start with a tugging toy and had boring cookies to line him up. Right after he eat the cookies he refuse to play with toy. I finished exercise with cookies and start over with ball>
Yes, he definitely had a struggle after the food.
You can work this skill separately (because it is definitely a trained skill!). Away from trying to train anything else, you can teach him to alternate between food and toys – have a bowl of VERY boring cookies in one room of your house, and an AMAZING toy (long, furry, etc) in another room. Give him one very boring cookie then run run run to the other room with him, and start swinging the long toy around. The running, length of the toy, and the swinging it for him to chase will really get him on it. Then after a bit of tugging, urn back to the first room, give him a boring cookie… then run back to the tug toy game in the other room.Only do this for a minute or two because it is going to tire both of you out 🙂
And for now, when working on training something (like rocking horses), use one or the other – food or the toy, so he doesn’t have to worry about going back and forth between the two of them yet. Eventually we can put it all together 🙂
On the 2nd video (FC to spin) – be sure to decelerate into the FC at :10 so he continues past you as you turn earlier. It will look more like sending him past you with the dog side arm, then turning and using the other arm for the rest of the send to support his line to the cone. When he didn’t go to the cone, it was because you had stopped too quickly and not sent him past you, and ended up facing him before he was past you, which was a little too hard (this happened at the end of the first video). So you can go fast then decelerate then rotate as he is passing you. And you can also have the toy in a pocket, because going past the rotation AND ignoring the toy is really hard 🙂
On the 3rd video, also note what worked for the sending at :04 and :07 then later at :32 and :35, in terms of a little deceleration: You decelerated a little, sent with the dog side arm, then rotated. Really nice transition and he committed well! On those, he was passing you and you were moving the other way with good countermotion.
Compare to :09 and :16 where the change in motion was a little too abrupt: you didn’t send him past but just rotated so he had questions. That smoother transition works really nicely with him.
And he really liked the race tracks! Yay!!!Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Yay! The tunnel session went great! You were very systematic about starting easy, then making it harder and adding the angles. Perfect! She was totally getting the idea about the right turns, just about perfectly! The only question she had was probably because she sniffing for a treat before you let her go 🙂
The best timing of the MM clicks were when you let her make the turn to her right, then clicked (for example a :28 and :47, and after that point in the video most of the clicks were for right turns). So definitely keep clicking for the right turns.
The next step would be to shorten the tunnel and put the MM at the exit. And then replicate the session you did here: easy straight lines to start, then gradually adding the angles of the right turns.
Her work on the minny pinney looks good! I think either youtube had the sound off kilter or your verbals were backwards – you were saying right when she was starting on your right hand… but she was turning left 🙂 And at :25 and :53 – she was correct based on the verbal LOL! I have a video somewhere where I did the entire session with the verbals backwards LOL no harm, no foul, the dogs forgave me LOL!
>>Am I setting her up fo the next rep in the correct postion like you mentioned?
>>>>She should be lined up at your side, facing forward (your toes and her toes should both be pointing to the bar) for now, so she doesn’t have to turn away from you to start – that might have been why she was not always entering the pinny the correctly and sometimes touching the panel jump slats (it was hard to get speed into it after turning away to start). So after the reward (your reward placement was excellent!) bring her out of that position, line her up at your side, then start the next rep.
>> Should I change them out to locked in bars?>>
I think a better option would be to get a couple of pool noodles and slice them in half, lengthwise, so they are like little jump bumps. That way they won’t roll around and she also has a little more height to jump.
Going to the mat has a ton of value now (yay!) so on the next session you can go directly to the back and forth through the mat. I think your timing of the find it markers was good!! Because she is sooo quick, she is able to hit the mat AND look at you at the same time (SMALL DOGS ARE SO QUICK! LOL!!) so you can change out the “find it” to the Manners Minder, so she is going to the mat then continuing straight to the MM. You can toss the treat to the other side of the mat when she goes back across it the other way (you can be standing in the center so she goes back and forth). the MM will help her get her eyes forward and not looking at you 🙂
>> Should I start Frankie on the tunnel beginner exercises Bazinga is learning to introduce her to the verbal & help her with the Tunnel Class?
Do you mean to the threadle concept to get the other side of the tunnel? Yes, that is smart because if I recall correctly, getting the ‘wrong’ side has been the struggle, right?
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Great job having your food rewards be so active!!! That is really important when working this game with food 🙂 This video was great – a classic example of how getting the pups into a higher state of arousal actually improves their responses! Note how at the beginning, her responses to your ‘touch’ cue were basically full on body slam touches LOL!! But then as you worked to get her into that optimal state, she was able to produce really lovely precise touches! And then the sit at the end was focused and lovely, and she definitely wanted to keep ‘working’ because she was still offering her paw touches LOL! Fun!
My guess is that you will find it most effective to use a balance of food and toys in the same session, so you can try this game with tugging then food rewards then back to tugging and see how she does!
The next suggestion is to take a short straight tunnel, get her volume dial into that optimized state like you did here… then send her into a tunnel (using the hand on collar, then start the tunnel verbal, then let go of the collar). Reward her for doing the tunnel… then do a bit of a cookie pattern game (from the resilience games) to balance her back to center of arousal. The tunnels get her very aroused so the volume dial an pattern games will help her self-regulate 🙂 Let me know if that makes sense!
Nice work here 🙂
Tracy
