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Hi! More lovely work here!!!
Dead toy versus live toy looked great! Good boy! He very quickly figured out that when one toy goes dead, he should head to the other side. And I love how you were singing to him at the beginning, then being quiet to let him choose, then being very exciting with your praise again – perfect!
The cookie bowls game went really well too – try to have several cookies in each hand, so you can do a quick drop with the cookies without having to reload. He was watching your hands a bit because he saw the cookies moving as you grabbed the next one 🙂 If the cookie hands barely move, he will focus no the bowls more.
He did well with the little wing too! You can start each session with the cookies dropped in the bowl t help jump start the back and forth rhythm of the session, session, then let him start offering.
For the next session, move the bowls back to be parallel to your knees so he has a little bit more distance to travel. And, you can also replace the bowls with the dead toy- live toy version of this, starting just as you did on the first video here on the flat.
Great job! Keep me posted!
TracyHi!
>>but because you stop and looking at the dog dog stops and you getting Refusal
So important to practice, stop motion, looking at the dog, but asking him to by path you and touch the object ( jump the jump)>>100% yes!!! We are teaching the pups to drive past the handler to commit to the obstacle, whether the handler is stopped or sideways or backwards – the pup will learn to go to the thing 🙂 For now, it is just a foot target (because a foot target is easy!) but it transfers incredibly well to wings and jumps when the pups are old enough. The pups raised this way have turned out to have excellent commit and gorgeous turns <3
He did really really well!!!! I think you can be a little closer on the first rep of each session - you were a little far so he had some questions at first. And, for this game, you don't have to send him away to get a cookie to start: you can have him in front of you, doing a silly dance (ready ready ready....!) then show the send arm/leg/connection. That will increase his commitment by teaching him the difference between handler focus (the ready dance) and the send cue (commitment).
With all the pups at this point we begin to see a side preference... are they a lefty or a righty? He is a lefty 🙂 I say that because when he was not sure which way to turn to find you, he *always* chose to turn left even when the right turn is what you wanted.
So on some reps when you started him on your left, he would turn left to come back to you which is turning away from you. since we want him to turn towards you on these (like a FC), we are going to set him up to see the right turns more clearly by having you line him up on your left with you further off to the side, Then send him to the prop with your left, and as he hits it, step to your right as you do the FC to encourage him to turn to his right.
And if he turns left when starting on your left? No worries, reward anyway, and move further to your right on the next rep. All puppies have a side preference at this stage and it balances out later on.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
He was a super good boy with this drive to handler game! Yay! He was driving directly to you beautifully on all 3 videos here. Super!!!!One thing to add: when you are recalling him, be sure to let him see you decelerate (you can go from walking to standing still) then pivot slowly. You were going fast and pivoting fast, so he didn’t always have a chance to adjust his striding to slow down and turn.
On the 2nd video here, you moved more slowly in your pivots and he was at his best, making a great turn. Yay!! He was able to bend him body and turn precisely with you.
On the first video you had a little too much speed on the pivots, and deinitely on the 3rd video things were moing very fast LOL! So, as he gets to you, pivot at the slower speed you did on the 2nd video and it will be perfect 🙂
When you add the FCs, be sure that you are turning towards him and he is turning towards you – he was turning away from you (which will will add later :)) so for now move slowly enough that h ecan read the turn cues. As he gets bigger and more experienced, you will be able to add back your speed 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! Another fabulous session! She is so fun to watch 🙂
I *think* we are seeing the tiniest bit of a side preference here: she seems to find it easier to do the right turn (heading from your left hand to your right hand) than the left turn (heading right hand to left hand). The left turn was the one where she offered going between you can the cone, and on a couple of other reps she had to think a little harder about it. The reason I love to find the side preference is because it helps inform our training: I teach new concepts to the strong side first, to reduce the multi-tasking. We’ve seen that this will speed the concept learning, then it is much easier to transfer to the non-dominant side.
So for this game, start the sessions with her no your left so she turns to her right first, because it is a good way to refresh things and then for that first rep of moving the cones further away, have it be when she is on your left so she is turning right.
>>You can see that I helped her once by placing one of my feet forward for a sec when I pushed the cone further away to get her started. I might not have needed to do that…>>
I think it was fine to do that, it was super subtle but also salient, and it certainly didn’t hurt anything! You increased the challenge by moving the cone further away so you gave her a little help. That was a right turn, so she might not have needed it, but definitely feel free to help as needed when she is turning left.
The only thing I would add to this now is to move the cookie bowls a little further back behind you: they were parallel to your toes here, so you can move then back so they are parallel to your heels or even a few inches past that. The goal for moving them back is to give her more room, a full body length or so, so she can get the cookie and turn fully around to approach the cone wrap. This will lead nicely into the other games coming up soon!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGreat to see you too, as we ran past each other trying to get to all the various rings! LOL!!
Wink looked GREAT at the Open! Congrats!!!!! And she should get some well-earned time off for sure.
>>I don’t think I’ll be done by the end of November so will you offer this class again (right after :-)?
I am heading home from a flyball tournament so I will look at the calendar tomorrow. Other folks have asked the same question. I won’t start it from the beginning again any time soon (the MaxPup class has started and it becomes pretty full time with something like 180 registrants, eek!). Maybe we can do an extension through Jan? I will take a look 🙂
>>How long will the material be available after the class closes?
Lifetime access! Available forever or you can download it too.
T
Hi!
Super nice session here! She definitely did not mind playing in the drizzle and also her victory leaps were HILARIOUS! Love her!
Great job with the transition to the hold Yes, the treat was definitely the winner and she was good about NOT moving away from you. Also, a big click/treat to you for not moving her around by the collar if she was sideways: most dogs do NOT like when we do that and you were great to just start her from whatever position she was in when you started the game.
>>I don’t think the treats are taking away from her toy drive, but I’m aware of it as a possibility now after watching & listening to the live class.
I agree, she appears to have pretty balanced food & toy drive! The toy was exciting and that really helps, and we will definitely keep an eye out to make sure she doesn’t have any reduced toy drive when food is in the picture.
Since this went so well, you can totally add more of your motion. You were walking forward, and she was fine with that. So now try to run more, and build up to trying to race her 🙂 You might win! OK, probably not, she is very fast haha, you might have to cheat to win LOL!!
Great job here!!! Onwards to the races!
TracyHi!
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Hope that helps!
Tracy
Hi! This session went well too, far better than you described it LOL!!
Yes, have your cookies ready before you do the send at the beginning.
>>I tried to engage in play with her before I did the send position but she was offering to target the hat before I cued it.
It just means she ha sa lot of value for the hat, so you can reward her for sticking with you during the ready dance with a cookie 🙂 Then be sure to make crisp clear send – I think you were good on the sending. And when you are sideways or backwards, be sure to look at her and then as you send, look at the prop so she goes past you to it.
>>Should I play with her with a toy and then send her.
Yes – you can play with a toy, then do the ready dance (reward her for staying with you) and then send. You can reward the send with toy play (be sure the send hand is NOT the hand with the toy, the send hand should be empty for now).
>>She seemed a little distracted and I gave her a potty break but that wasn’t the issue.
I think right at the very end she was looking around a little – it could be that she had too many cookies in a row and she prefers the action of the toy. In that case, you can mix in toy play between cookie rewards. It could also be that she doesn’t understand the value yet of engaging with you during the ready dance, so definitely add more dance parties and reward her for staying with you til sent 🙂
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! This went really well overall – the main thing is that you can pivot more slowly 🙂 It is a decel cue so you should be decelerated, not pivoting fast.
Your first rep had decel then pivot, that was great!
>>early on she once came between my legs instead of to my hand and side.
Yes – that was rep 2 where there was no decel, only pivot LOL so she read it as a blind cross.
>> I just gave her a cookie and started again. Is that the right thing to do
Yes, that was totally correct – reward her effort because it was handler error.
>>was my position the reason that happened? I
It was that you were moving and then suddenly pivoted. On the reps after that, you had more decel then a pivot and she was great!
>>Then, I tried to do it with no food in my hand and a toy reward at the end. The first time it worked and the next time I had food in my hand which I gave her but I think I should have gone ahead and played with her with the toy. >>
Either way, you rewarded her and sorted it out. Part of the reason we do these simple games to start with is to sort out handler mechanics before we add speed and fanciness 🙂
>>Then I think I tried to turn too much before giving her the toy. The last two times I didn’t try to rotate all the way before I played with her and felt like that was more successful. >>
Yes – you did a couple of full 360s and you didn’t need to. I agree that the last couple of half turns looked great!
>>I feel like my reinforcement timing or placement is just off a little and not sure exactly what I am doing
You are sorting it out and click/treat for you to add in the reinforcement markers!! I hear some very good “BITE!” Moments there. You don’t need “ok” then bite, just bite is good because ok is a release from a stationary position.
>>Am I trying to go to quickly with adding more difficult things or is it something else.
I think you were just handling all the moving parts and sorting it out. Remember to move slowly and have your rewards planned in advance. This was a good session.
>>I might have been talking too much again and not being quiet.
No, you were good here! Stop beating yourself up!! LOL!
On the next session, just add pivoting more slowly and planning the reinforcement more and you’ll be perfect!
Tracy
Good morning!
>>She wasn’t super excited about this game
That is actually a good way to start – if she was too excited, she might blast by you and not decelerate. So having things be a little chill is helpful for getting the decel!
Great mechanics with the cookie session! She saw a definite transition from you moving to you stopping and then the pivot. She kept her butt nicely in line. And yes she was not totally stimulated but that is great for a first session – I prefer the dog to be a little chill to learn this then we can easily stir them up 🙂
The dance party before the cookie tosses in the 2nd session definitely helped bring her to a higher state but not too high, so she had a really good reps on the first couple. Then you brought the toy out – perfect. It added *just enough* excitement that she was more stimulated but did not lose her good decel and pivot. YAY!!!! And having the toy play happen before and after food rewards will also increase the value of the food rewards.
So for the next session, start with the toy play, then toss the first cookie further so she has more speed coming into the decel. Then go right into the pivots – I don’t think she needs you to stop her straight anymore.
And if that goes well, you can use an empty hand to help get her into the decel & pivot, then reward with the toy!
Great job here 🙂
TracyGood morning!
>>I get her crunchy treats for nighttime snacks just to laugh.
Ha! it is really adorable 🙂
>>I know right!!! Paw on cone, paw in bowl hahaha We had been playing, then filming other stuff, and yes this was probably a little boring/easy/repetitive for her. I can definitely raise criteria more quickly–I was purposefully going slower than I usually do.
I don’t know her that well yet, but my guess is that you can probably raise criteria more quickly while abiding by the 2 Failure Rule. If she has one question/error… ok, we take note and try again. But if she has a second failure error in that session, we can dial something back a bit to get success and keep that rate of reinforcement really high. With the baby puppies (like my 16 week old pup), I like to slice things much thinner and for longer, but I thinks Mai is ready for us to move forward faster 🙂
>>I laughed when you said “…if she remembers”. I’m pretty certain she’ll remember but I’ll back off on criteria to get us started and raise criteria more quickly. Thank you for the ideas of where to go next.>>
I always remind myself that teenagers may not remember something because they wake up with a different brain that day LOL!!!
T
Hi!
>>She was less pumped up for the prop sends, I think because that was the last thing we did. Maybe the session went too long. I felt like I wore both of us out with all the jumping in my dance. So yeah, definitely will try a calmer dance nest time>>
I think she was so focused on the dance and leaping around that she was not as focused on the prop. The quieter dance to build anticipation will help get a snappier prop send 🙂
>>So when I do the send with a toy you mean send her to the prop and reward with the toy?
yes – the toy is the reward rather than food 🙂
Let me know how it goes!
TracyI am so glad you are enjoying her, she is definitely a joy to watch on the videos! So fun!!!
>>That said, I’d say she’s full blown adolescent now at 10-1/2 months and every so often working through some confidence issues when exposed to certain things so I did sign up to audit the Teenage Brains and Arousal, Resilience and Engagement workshops.>>
OMG this adolescent stuff is fascinating and has changed my approach to teenage dogs entirely 🙂 It will be such a fun webinar!
TracyHi!
She definitely loves her toy races!! Good luck trying to win, we might have to cheat haha! She felt the pressure of you running the first time you did the toy race, so she was a bit wide on her path, but then she was VERY straight on the last rep. We do see some victory laps on the toy races because there is actually a bit of pressure for the pups. So if she needs a few seconds to run and shake the toy – perfectly fine! You ca n mentally count to 3 then call her to chase you. I think she did really well here! You can do another session of this and then we will try to figure out a plan to cheat so you might be able to win LOL!
Decel and turn – you were a little late o the first rep so she was surprised but then you were earlier on the other reps so she nailed it. She is powerful terrier, so definitely add in the pivots so she can keep her butt in straight And the pivots should be slooooow for now – you were going fast and you don’t need to – partially because we need the decel for turns, and partially so you don’t get dizzy 🙂 The double pivots looked great too!
Prop sends are ring all too. You can do. The ready dance but you don’t need to get her jumping up as much because we don’t want her to think any bitey thoughts LOL! We want her muscles to get tense but it can be a calmer ready dance so all four feet stay on the ground. That will make the sends even clearer and clearer for her.
Her sends were lovely! Try this with a toy 🙂 and if she is fine with that, add more distance 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
