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Hi! That sounds like a really hard environment! Yikes!!! I like your idea to keep her in the car more the next time you go there – we want her to be able to rest and relax 🙂
>>I was surprised how well she responded to the pattern games & the find my face game, but any delay in the game & she was back at it. >>
I’m glad she could respond during the pattern games!!! She was probably too close to the action/noise to be able to cope when they stopped, so keep playing but also add distance away from the massive distractions to help her out. It will get easier with more experience and a lower level of distraction 🙂
Tracy
Thanks for the update!! Hopefully her paw is all healed up and she can get back out on course! I’m glad the remote reinforcement games are going well 🙂
Tracy
Omg! This is such a great update about class!!!! You were supporting her and you can see the pieces coming together – SO EXCITING!!!!
Mix it up! Do the hard stuff like the engagement and leash stuff. But also balance that with easy, fast, fun sequences. The main goals are play and having fun 🙂
>>I will stop putting any demands on her for a start line and just make it all a game.>>
I think turning the pressure off on the start line will help a lot, and then you can add back the start line when she is ready.
>>Do the webinars you have this weekend address any additional games?>>
We have Brain Camp this weekend – some of it will be familiar, and some will be different, plus all the science stuff is amazing! The Advanced Sporty Brains will have the most new stuff.
And the MYOB webinars that start Dec 18th will also have a lot of new stuff and higher levels of stuff she knows.
Keep me posted!
TracyGood morning!
Yes – a baby puppy at a busy time of year does lead to video hoarding but at least you are training and getting stuff on video!! YAY!!!! Click/treat to you. He is doing really well and right on track for his age.
Prop videos: – A hat is a great choice! And to get toy play, the bigger longer toy was definitely better and you can also get up and run around a bit. To get more hat hitting, a couple of shaping ideas for you:
– How to help more: Reward placement! Either toss the treat to reset his movement away from the hat so he then moves back to the hat, or put it right on the hat. Mixing in both is great! But the main thing is: no more feeding from hand or delivering to his mouth for this shaping because he then comes and stares at your hand. Even luring with your hand might not get the desired result because he is watching your hand more.
– How to help less (and get more success): be quiet when he is offering, verbally and physically. Talking or tapping or moving the hat draws his focus to your hands and face. So be super quiet and let the reward placement do the talking. Markers are good but everything else can be quiet til you break off to play tug.
– How to help more: jump start the session by bringing him into the environment and then put the hat down. That will get him to look at the hat immediately because it is novel in the environment. If the hat is already on the ground, he is more likely to look at you.
Toy races: Because he is so young, I think some of what you are seeing is puppy coordination struggles (moving all the legs and the mouth is HARD lol!) and also he is being polite (enjoy it while it lasts 🙂
Maybe there was a little too much throwing him back and running here LOL Try it with just walking for now – let him win more with you running less. I think when you are bending over, he is backing off the pressure and not grabbing the toy as much. He is definitely keen on the toy and the tugging, so a little less motion and quicker transitions to throwing it and letting him go, then letting him grab it before you reach in to take it will help too.
Blind crossy stuff:
>>FOOD IS LIFE FOOD IS LIFERetable! And blinds are not that hard for handler or pup, so getting him to go from food to toys is far more important! Don’t move the toy too fast when he gets to you, because he doesn’t know how to control his speed yet and goes flying ass-over-tea-kettle LOL! So you can treat the toy presentation as part of the decel game – slow it down really early so it is still moving a little but he has time to coordinate himself 🙂
>>Here he is with the cat donut, both on top and inside>>
That as SO CUTE!!! Love it!! He is brave and confident which is great – keep getting him on random moving objects regularly, continuing through adolescence, so he doesn’t lose this bravery 🙂
>And yeah, he was playing with a rock. No judgment.
Ha! It is an inexpensive, accessible, high value toy. I call it a win!
>>He has spooked and alarm barked at a person walking a dog across the street (after the dog made noise at us). This isn’t really a behavior I want to let him rehearse, so looking for some advice on that one?>>
Check out the resilience game in week 3 – the pattern game. Teach him that at home (it is food-based, so I think it will be EASY lol). When he can do it in the house, do it in the yard, then on walks when nothing weird is happening.
And bring treats on walks so if something weird does happen like random dogs barking at him – you can whip out the pattern game. It really helps reset the pups!
And since he is small, if he is surprised by something, you can totally pick him up, give him a hug to soothe him, then continue on your way.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
I am glad she likes the ready dance – engagement and having fun together is the most important part of any of these games 🙂
For the RCs:
Her parallel path understanding is looking great! When you add the rear crosses, the goal is to be moving close to her then cross behind her before she reaches the prop, all in a smooth fluid motion. On the first couple, you were moving forward then suddenly went fast to cut behind her. Compare that to the rep that started at :23 and the next reps – you were moving quickly but it was also a steady quickness, no sudden bursts and she was able to get it! On the last rep, you were a little early cutting behind her so she almost turned too soon, but she was clever and went back out to the prop. Super!So keep going with steady and fast movement up the line pretty close to her, sliding to the next side behind her as she passes you.
To start each rep of the turn and burn game, she is now ready for you to cue it with an arm and leg step, like you did at :22 and after – that gave her to clear indication to start. Yay! She seems like a lefty here, with the left turns being smoother/easier than the right turns. This is good to know as the skills get harder.
Tonight we add some verbal cues and more games with the barrel 🙂
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
I am glad you have already started the pattern games. They are so useful! And adding the airport noises was really smart: distracting, yes, but not scary or overwhelming, and also probably not totally new. He was super!
>>I hope you’ve got a big cup of coffee to relax and enjoy the cronches of each half of a Fromm>>
Yes, giant coffee and happy cronch cronch noises LOL! Love it! He is a definite chewer and that might be part of his processing: extra long chewing as his brain assesses the environment. Very cool! The scientist folks tell us that there is a decompression element when we can get repeated mouth movement as well as olfaction – both of which are happening here. Plus, it is really cute 🙂
His tail is quite the barometer! When he is assessing the environment and chewing, check out how his tail is a bit bent. Then when things are all good and chewing over: high tail. Love it! We are always trying to figure out the body language of each individual pup, so it will will be really interesting to watch his tail position as he goes into different environments.
Great job here! See you in class tonight!
TracyGood morning!
OMG runaway barrel at the beginning! LOL!! I toss a lot of random stuff in the bottom of them to weigh them down.
She rocked this! YAY! And so did you – there are a LOT of handler mechanics and you were smooth as a fresh jar of Skippy.
>>She legit read my mind!!!>>
Well yes, she is brilliant and BorderWhippets are brilliant. But also you built up to this by training the layers of foundation before it, so she was well prepared for this level 🙂
>>And don’t mind me running the wrong way on the last set. And I didn’t change the angle even though I’m confident she would have been successful >>
No worries! The next step would be to start turning and moving the other way earlier and earlier. You can aim for the moment when she is just past halfway around, and see if she can continue to finish the turn. The goal is, over time, tobe able to do the front cross and run the other way before she even arrives to the barrel 🙂 but we have plenty of time to build to that.
>>I took my win and wrapped it up!>>
Heck yeah! Great job getting a few excellent reps then being done. That is the HARDEST part of puppy training, to end a session when things are going so well! Click/treat to you 🙂
I don’t really see a side preference, she seems pretty balanced in both directions. Maybe she is slightly more fluid to her left? Have you seen a side preference in your disc training?
I think I saw you mention on Facebook that she is not biting hard discs yet – since she likes this game and likes chasing the big toy, you can tie a soft disc to the end of the toy for her to grab. And if she likes that? Tie a harder disc to the end and see if she likes that! Just food for thought because I know she is going to be an amazeballs disc dog too 🙂
Awesome job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! I am so glad she did so well with the kids. She is just a lovely dog <3 Whippets rule!
>>the weather is terrible to try at the park>>
Winter has arrived way too early and I am not happy with it at all!! Brrrr!
The blind to decel game is looking good! Even in a smaller space, be sure to start the blind as soon as she begins moving towards you. When you did that, the side changes were very smooth 🙂 If you waited longer like until she was halfway to you, she had a more zigzag line. She read the decels really well and had lovely turns. You can move to the advanced level by adding in the toy throw and go go go at the end, she will really like that!
Countermotion: The food reps looked really good! She was going just about to the edge of the prop and that is all she needs to do in the first session. My guess is in the next session, she will be perfect with the food rewards
The toy was SO MUCH HARDER LOL! And that is why we use it – because it allows us to work through any questions about where to look or what to do when the toy is present. She definitely had to take a moment to figure out that yes, she CAN move to the prop when the toy was present (freezing and staring at the toy does not get the toy to move LOL!)
She had a LOT of good reps with the toy, and she was quite fast too! So 2 ideas for you with the toy:
– using pre-game 2 (the hand target game) you can work the concept of doing a ‘thing’ in the presence of a toy. The hand target should be really simple but it does require her to take her eyes off the toy to do it.
– let what she learned in this session percolate a bit so latent learning can kick in. Then do the exact same session (food first, then toy) and see what her brain remembers. It will be interesting to see if she has a much easier time next time!
Wow, she is a superstar rear crosser! The strong side was still strong and the harder side looked strong too! YAY! I agree, she is a rear crossing genius puppy. SUPER!! We add more rear crossy stuff tonight and that will help even more.
The backing up looks great. One thing I admire about all of your sessions here is how you set the tone and energy of each session to match what is needed for the behavior you are working on. The more action-packed/less precise games were more energetic and cuckoo 🙂 and this backing up session was more precise and calm, which totally helped her work the skill and process her mechanics. Love it! You can keep gradually adding distance between you and her mat. And you can also take a look at the next set of backing up games from last week where we adding backing up to something that moves a little.
>>She still hardly pulls back at all on the tug toys – is this something I should try to work on?>>
Yes, just as silly play though. She still has her puppy play style of wanting to be dragged around like a swiffer LOL!! It is adorable and she is attached to the toy when she does it! You can get more pulling back with something that she wants to run around with, like a cow milker maybe? Just play a little and when she gives a little pull, you can let her win it and run around 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Rear crosses are hard indeed and we do often see a side preference (takes longer to process info and coordinate mechanics on the non-preferred side, for humans and dogs :))
2 ideas for you:
– from the handling perspective to make sure she gets the info in time, give yourself more distance by starting further from the prop. That way she can drive ahead sooner and you can cut behind her to the new side sooner, so you are fully on the new side before she arrives at the prop. And if she turns correctly but does not hit the prop? Perfectly fine, big rewards! And have a video running – freeze the video the moment she is at the prop (or very close to it) and look at your line: where you already on the other side, or were you just starting the cues? If you were just starting the cues, try to be a lot sooner by getting to the other side of her earlier.
Be sure to warm her up with the bigger distance by doing some of the parallel path game so she leaves you in the dust moving to the prop.
– you can also give her a bigger visual reward to turn towards by putting an empty food bowl out on on the left turn side. That way when you cut behind her to cue the left turn, you can then put the reward in the food bowl. That makes the placement more obvious in advance of each rep, which can help her have a big ‘aha!’ moment and start coordinating the left turns.
Let me know what you think and how she does!
Tracy
Hi!
I was totally laughing too when he pushed himself between the barrel and you to get to the other cookie bowl, as well as some of his other freestyle moves to speed up the game. He gets a gold star for trying to be the MOST efficient in getting the treats LOL!!! And he was just trying to be helpful by shoving his nose in your pocket LOL!!! He is so funny and smart.You were very clever to put the barrel (is it a soft crate?) in your lap and get him going from there. Perfect! That is a good starting point. And since he is SO HUNGRY ALL THE TIME (I can relate LOL!) you might want to try this with you in a chair or even standing (or sitting on a couch) – that will move the cookies a little further away which might actually make it easier for him to think about the barrel and empty bowls. Let me know what he thinks about that!
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
The backing up session looked great! YAY!! You can start to delay the timing of your clicks a little now, so you are marking more steps backwards and not clicking as immediately.
I think the hardest part of each rep was having the next cookies ready because he starting going really fast! Since you start each rep by placing the cookie between your feet, you can give yourself an extra moment to get the next couple of cookies ready. That should help you feel less rushed now that he is getting the idea so nicely!
The hand target game is looking good – totally ready for the new game tonight! Your mouth click is pretty impressive, I would have thought it was a real clicker if I hadn’t read your comments first LOL!! My only suggestion for the hand target is to fully extend your target hand away, locking your elbow, and looking at the hand target and not at his cute face. Stay tuned for the game that uses this tonight!
Nice work 🙂
TracyGood morning!
>>When I was out in the field after Robie’s runs tossing the frizz, I was able to get some decent tugging with him and then I did a big treat scatter in the grass. The 10 second thing is eye opening!>>
Yay! It sounds like he had a great time!!
>>I thought I needed to wait until he really grabbed on and tugged, but I see now that the arousal management is far more important. >>
Getting the grabbing and tugging is mainly about figuring out mechanics and play style, but there doesn’t need to be duration on it. Each pup tell us what they need, and he very clearly asked for arousal management help 🙂 I appreciate his clarity of communication!
I think the sessions on the video looked really good! Excellent choice of toy, solid mechanics – and super playful and fun looking 🙂
>>I definitely went too long on the first try. Should have done the scatter BEFORE he jumped in the air for the tug.>>
I didn’t think you went on too long but you can count to 10 more (see below). About the jumping up – Do you mean at approx :18 when he was chasing the toy? The toy came up a little high, so he came up to it. I didn’t see that as overarousal, jut good boy following the toy and not grabbing at you 🙂 He didn’t lose his toy engagement and he didn’t switch to biting/grabbing/humping. It was really good!
>>I am not sure how to gauge 10 seconds without a helper to time me, lol! >>
Feel free to count to 10 in your head. Or say it out loud as part of your playful chatter to him as you play for extra goofy factor. Or sing!
>>On the first try I included the whole time when he was snuffling because I wanted to ask if it was correct to wait until he was done and re-engaged with me.>>
You can wait til he is done, so he isn’t still looking for treats 🙂
>>I know you’ve told me to let the other stuff go for now, but that completely stresses me out, lol! >>
If you are feeling stressed about not doing much skill training, do this:
– go read the posts from this past weekend where Facebook was all on fire about dog behavior and arousal in/near the rings. Don’t get emotionally invested in any of it, just read through a bit. Most of those issues are because people didn’t take a little extra time to sort out arousal self-regulation and how to play at this baby dog stage.
– then get off of Facebook LOL! That is where we see 6 month old puppies running sequences which is UTTER INSANITY because of what we know about their brains and bodies. And even though we intellectually know that we don’t need to be doing that, those posts still mess with our heads. So… hide those folks or don’t scroll Facebook.
The truth is you are training the most important skill you will need for success in agility: arousal self-regulation. It is a part of every single foundation game and every single run Yuzu will have in any sport, for his whole career. So you are training the sexiest skill which will put you way ahead of everyone else 🙂
That is why I emphasize it more than any of the games. If he can do another session like you did in the video here, what I suggest is adding in one of the skills you want to play with: Choose food rewards for the skill then after 3 or 4 food rewards, break off for 10 seconds or less of toy play…. Then treat scatter or snuffle mat…. Then back to the shaping.
It is far sexier than it sounds 🙂 Let me know how it goes!
Tracy
Good morning!
I am totally here for the pajamas! They are an important part of success in puppy training 🙂
Turn and Burn is looking good! There was some noise distraction in the background and she worked through it so well!!!
She looked really strong in both directions here – it is hard to even know if one was stronger than the other. Yay! So now keep revisiting this game so you can slide through the front cross earlier and earlier… eventually you will be able to send to the cone and start the FC before she even gets to it!
One of the goals of this week is to start adding wrap verbals, so start planning which one(s) you want to use. More on that coming tonight 🙂
>>Then you can see smoke coming out of my ears as I try to remember what hand should be holding and doing what as we worked on blinds/collection and then sends in the last couple reps.>>
Totally relatable!!! Doing this games will make actually handling a course seem easier because you will have so much more time 🙂
I am sure the older dogs had fun playing this as you worked it out – all the dogs are happy to do this as long as the cookies and toys are flowing, even if we are doing crazy thing 🙂
She is SO quick to change sides with the blind! Fast feets!Because of her quickness, you can start the blind even sooner, so it is finished before she is even halfway to you. That will make the side change seamless. And that will make it easier to get the decel in a little earlier. One thing I notice about her is that she does not need a lot of decel in order to make a tight turn. This is great – we really don’t want to have tooooo much turn with small dogs. We want them to power through the turns and that is what she is doing here.
So you can add in even more running which will get her reading the side changes with more excitement from motion (and makes it harder for you too LOL!)
Stay tuned for a new game based on this and turn and burn being added tonight.
Great job here!!
TracyGood morning!
First video was sending to the prop:
Great job with the ready dance! That really gets her pumped up and ready for the send. Then when you send, remember to exaggerate the sending with a big step and arm sending – that was when she was most responsive and did a great job. If you were less clear or more subtle, she was less sure of what to do.
Make sure you use your leg along with your arm. When you did the arm and NOT the leg (like at 1:22) she didn’t go to her prop. When you did the arm and leg, she was perfect!
Smart choice to with to the toy – this starts to get exciting so the toy is a better place for her teeth 🙂 Delivering treats from your hand when she is moving fast can get ouchy for your fingers, which I think is what happened right before you switched to the toy.
Second video was changing your position:
The backwards sending looked fantastic!!! You can put a piece of yoga mat under the book so it slides less (she was hitting it pretty hard 🙂 )
Since she did brilliantly with this, you can start moving the opposite direction even earlier now, so she sees more counter motion. As she is passing you, keep pointing to the prop and looking behind you at it, but slowly walk forward so you are moving the opposite direction before she even arrives at the book 🙂
Great job here! Let me know how she does as you add more countermotion. It is easier to post it here as a reply, so we can keep everything together and so I se it sooner.
Thanks!
Tracy
