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Hi! This is a great update on all levels!
It makes TOTAL sense that the toy play and higher arousal would help the distractions fade into the background. If you get bored during your recovery, google Yerkes-Dodson and performance, to see how higher arousal is actually desirable!
It is also possible that the breeder is working her on simpler stuff with a higher rate of reinforcement, which really helps too! Can the breeder send you videos?
I am so glad you are enjoying the class!
>I will still be doing the games with her which I need to make a priority list- or do I just start from week one and do them? dont think it’ll take her long at all to learn them. We just have to generalize them. >
Yes, work through them in order. Some will be ridiculously easy, and you will fly through them. Others will be harder 🙂 and also do the NFC progression – that will really help!!!
Tracy
Good morning!
He was so cute on the first drive to handler reps – he was surprised that it was your hand LOL! He got it on the 3rd rep and was then perfect. You can make the hand a bit more obvious for him by shaking it or moving it up and down a little, as a focal point. The rest went really well, and the pivoting was lovely – slow enough that he could stay nice and tight to you. Yay!He is ready for you to be running a bit after he gets the start cookie, as long as you decelerate no later than when he is halfway to you.
You can mix in a little tug here between reps – just to add a little arousal – then back to the food for the actual game. I like to slide arousal self-regulation in as much as I can, so we are constantly helping the pups rehearse it.
Toy races – this is a high arousal game and he did really well!! One thing I notice here is that he is all about needing a focal point: and that focal point is you, unless the other focal point is very obvious. When the toy was the focal point, he was great about grabbing it then immediately bringing it to you (you are his favorite focal point :))
He reminds me of my youngest dog, Jitterbug, in that way, and shares that same initial impulse to be SO QUICK to bring the toy back that they basically grab it, pivot back to us, and lift it up to us, all in one heartbeat.
I love when the dogs do that (grab and bring it back so fast to play!). Part of it is that it is an indicator of engagement (“let’s play, mom!!”) and part of it indicates really tight turns in the future 🙂
So ideally you can try to grab it to play tug when he returns it (like you did at 1:12, that was perfect) because that appears to be what he wants in terms of engagement. When you don’t grab it immediately, he takes the toy for a short spin (no worries) and then sometimes forgets to bring it back (but brings it back when you ask for it).
This is all good – yes, he is aroused but not overaroused, and he was fully engaged. And he didn’t seem to think about any humpy or bitey thoughts during these reps. Yay!
Speaking of focal points, there were a couple of times where he was not sure what the focal point was so he jumped on you or didn’t always get to the toy:
At the very beginning:
>0:01 jumping but got him on toy >>
I think he just didn’t know where to look so he jumped up on you. You can start the tugging by directing his focus to the toy, just like started the focus forward game: hold him, put the toy down, and when he looks at it, you can move it and he can grab it. That will give him a focal point and should help to eliminate the jumping on you.
>>1:29 I tried to push back but then my throw was late??
On this one, he looked away and then you started running, so he was in catch up mode a bit but still went to the toy. Yay!
>>1:51 tried cookie toss to pre-thrown toy – think I should have delayed the thrown until after he went for cookie?>>
You can set the game up like you did early by holding him, throwing the toy… then try to get him to eat a cookie you toss behind him rather than race to the toy (you are trying to cheat to win LOL!) I think on this rep he was unsure of the focal point so let him lock onto the toy then try to toss the treat behind him.
>>2:05 tried delaying the throw but think I went overtime and he is overstimulated>>
Two things happened here that drew him to you a bit more than the other reps:
– he hadn’t quite locked onto the toy as the focal point before you starting running
– you were VERY exciting with a higher voice and repeated get it cues (that seems to draw him towards you and gets more jumping)And yes, he was very stimulated from the previous rep 🙂 So what you can do is emphasize the focal point of the toy longer by holding him til it lands, letting him lock onto it, then run forward with a lot of verbal excitement. If that is too much, you can quiet the verbal excitement and see how he does.
But overall, even though he had some jumping up moments, he did really really well in a super high arousal game! And yes, you can mix in snuffle mats between sessions, especially as you do the wilder reps. But the more you give him that extra moment to lock onto the toy as the focal point, the more I think he will be able to drive to it beautifully.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
The bowl game is going well, little Hazel has the idea of this perfectly. You can definitely go to the next steps:
Because she is little, you can add in sitting in a chair as she goes around the upright to the bowls. If that goes well, the next step would be to try it with you standing.
Separately from changing your position, you can also add in going around the other things like a barrel or giant cone 🙂The two toys for wrapping went well too! It is harder work for her because it is higher energy, so she took a break at about 1:00 to ask for food. So with the toys, you can do fewer reps (maybe 3 or 4) and then take a break.
Since both the food and toys version of this game went well, you ca start to progress to the Turn and Burn game:
– with the food bowls, work your way to standing up and to wrapping something bigger.
– when you can stand and she can wrap something bigger, you can bring the toys back and try this week’s turn and burn game.It will probably take two or three more short sessions to get there, or less! She is figuring this out really fast : )
Driving forward looks great too! The hardest part was lining up at the beginning, but then when she figured out the game on the 2nd rep, she had a much easier time moving to position to start it. Super! You had excellent timing of the release to the toy and she was totally focused on driving ahead.
She is ready for the next steps here too: you can throw the toy further, and start to add your motion (walking at first, then jogging). If she still drives ahead as you move… onwards to toy races! And if her retrieve is not great you, you can turn and run the other way as soon as she gets the toy, to help encourage her to drive back to you with it.
Nose touch – lovely! She was great on both sides of you. We build on this game next week and she looks ready for it 🙂 If you wanted to play it again, you can use a toy as a reward instead of food: she touches your target hand, then you give her the toy from the other hand.
Prop game is looking good with both the sideways and backwards sending! She is able to hit the prop AND look at your hand… so now you can move a step or two away so she can either look at the prop or look at you hand. A little more distance makes it harder to do both! And looking back at the prop (especially on the backwards sends) will give you a better visual on if she touches or not.
She got a little jazzed up in the ready dance and delivered a tooth hug. No worries – you can add in giving her a cookie for not jumping up during the ready dance. That moment is designed to help the pups self-regulate arousal, so you can use food rewards to mark the moment she is able to be excited but not get toothy 🙂
You can also add a toy as the reward for this game!
I think she is showing enough value for the prop that you can add on the parallel path game.
Backing up is going well too! And she is relatively straight as she does it, which is unusual (in a good way!) for a puppy. You can add a ‘destination’ now, such as a mat or a very low board, for her to back up to. Starting her with all 4 feet on the mat, you can lure her front feet off by standing close to the mat and placing the treat between your feet like you did here, and reward when she backs up to put all 4 feet on it.
Then we gradually move you further away, so she comes all the way off the mat and backs up to it.
>>I definitely need to work on my tug mechanics and her understanding of tug.>>
You can use tugging as the reward for the prop sends, toy races, and for turn and burn, which will help sort out mechanics. And you can do tug breaks during any food-based game, so she is working in higher arousal and also to keep tug mechanics sharp.
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
>>I hope you ate too much food today like I did!>>
I tried not to eat too much food… but yet, I still ate too much food LOL! YUMMY!!!Nice job here with turn and burn! And she gave you really good feedback about connection as part of the cue:
At the beginning, on the first rep, I think she was not quite ready for the send – you were playing and then went into the send and she went “wait, what?” On the later reps where you had a moment between the end of play and the start of the send (and sometimes said ‘ready’) that totally helped! And it also helps associate the word ‘ready’ with exciting things 🙂
About the connection: as strange as it sounds, if we look at the puppies more, they look at us less and at their ‘work’ more. If we look ahead of them or point ahead too much, they tend to look at us to figure out what we want. Part of the reason why is that the looking ahead turns our shoulders away from the line we want, so it is less clear to the pups.
So on the 2nd rep here, you were pointing ahead and high, and not really looking at her, so she didn’t go the cone. On the 3rd rep, you got lower with your hand (so she could see your face better) and also more connected by looking towards her more: Boom! She did it.
The more connected you were on the other reps, the better she went to the cone. The rep that started at 1:18 was my favorite – you were perfectly connected on your send (some eye contact without staring 👀 at her too much) and she went directly to the cone and wrapped super tight. LOVE IT!
So keep adding your connection on the sends and starting the FC to run the other way sooner and sooner. Have you decided what you want your wrap verbal(s) to be?
Great job here :) Tracy
Good morning!
>>Would a Cato board be about the right height for Venture to back up to?>>
Possibly – how tall is he? It might be too much of a step up with a back foot at this stage, so maybe something that is an inch tall or a little less is better for that for now. The board in the video here looked like a good height!
>>So I pulled out a tug with lotus ball on the end and started showing him how to get the cookie out of it. Didn’t see much in the video but we are working to understand/love that toy away from training right now. >>
I love the lotus ball toys! They are a great balance of interactive fun like a tug, but food delivery for the dogs that love love love food 🙂 The treat huggers are great too.
>>Wondering if I should try the entire blind cross exercise with food to make it easier for him.>>
I don’t think you need to do this as a food-only game – I think the BC exercise is actually a great game to add the lotus ball toy into. There is running and it is relatively easy. The only blooper was on the rep that started at 1:38 where you were late doing the blind (he was almost at your side) so he didn’t see the side change. The others all looked good!
You can throw the toy on the exit of the blind here: when he gets to the new side, you can throw the toy ahead and let him drive to it to get the cookie out of it without you 🙂 The focus forward/driving ahead games are also useful for that, and so is the collection sandwich.
>>The Cato board at the beginning is just to make it easy for him to find the small cookie so he doesn’t need a big treat that takes 30 seconds to chew.>>
That worked brilliantly!! Yay!
Great job here – let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
He definitely has good prop value here!
>>His first attempt was good, but then he started looking at the hand (where the treats might be). >>
Yes- when he was offering at the beginning and when you were a little further away, he was NOT looking at your hand. On the sends, you were closer to the prop and so he was able to hit the prop AND look at your hand (very smart LOL!) It seems like you were a little too close, so you can try being a step or two further away – just far enough away that he has to go past your hand to get to it and can’t target the hand and the prop at the same time 🙂
At 1:48, you were a shade further from the prop, your hand was closed & pointing at it, and you seemed to be looking at it… so he went to it really well! That is a good starting point for the next session, adding a little ore distance so he passes your hand to get to the prop.
You can keep rewarding back towards you unless he really struggles, then you can switch back to rewarding on the prop to help solidify the understanding to go past your hand to get to it.
Great job here! Let me know how he does!
TracyGood morning! Hope you had a relaxing and tasty Thanksgiving!
>>Apple pie and cranberry sauce are done over here and we’re doing the Blue Apron Thanksgiving box so it makes for much simpler prep for the feast.>>
OMG that sounds yummy and Blue Apron has good stuff. I am hungry again now so I think I will go dig out some leftovers LOL!
>>She had a mellow few days at home with Dean and Demi after her farm stay but she was probably a bit worried about Kaladin and I not being there.>
Quite possibly, then the excitement of you coming home… the neuroscientist vets tell us that it could be 3 weeks (eek!) until puppies are back to baseline. I don’t think it will take her that long, but it could definitely be why she had a Tasmanian devil moment.
>>What’s the best thing to do if I get the over arousal/over tired jumping up at me behavior in the future? Switch to some pattern cookie toss games and call it quits? Give her a snuggle and call it quits? (she usually calms down if I hold her quietly as opposed to holding her and revving her up)>>
Ideally, we never see it again 🙂 So to make that happen, you can help her come back to center by adding in pattern games/snuffle mat/grass scatters after every couple of reps. It will interrupt the flow of the shaping, but that is not that important because it will wire her physiology to come back to baseline after high arousal. So it could be something like:
– behavior
– tug
-behavior
-tug
-Snuffle mat
Then another round of it. Then call it quits. That will generally take under 2 minutes and that is perfect!There are actually a bunch of pups in this class we are taking a similar approach with if you want to follow along: Elizabeth and Yuzu, and Shasta and Westley are the two that spring to mind.
Now, if the plan is not good and we get the behavior, then yes, you can just switch to a snuffle mat to decompress. In that moment, it will likely help more than a pattern game because pattern games are still pretty active. No need to keep training after that, because the change in physiology told us we went too far or too long (oops!) so once she is back to baseline-ish, we can take a break and plan for the next session.
>>For backing up onto a mat, do you mean like a yoga mat or something almost flat to the ground?>>
Almost flat but something that is salient enough to step up onto – maybe a folded over yoga mat, or a low-edged crate mat? Maybe something half an inch high (she is really little :))
The goat tricks video looks good! She is very happy to climb on one disc, 2 discs, all 4 feet, etc. And she was very balanced standing on the discs: SUPER! The bosu disc is really hard and she was GREAT! Brave and balanced, very impressive!
VERY interesting moment in the middle here when you switched back to the toy and she jumped up on you and made interesting noises – the food-to-toy might be frustrating/arousing (she might not even know, so many things happening inside a puppy’s brain and body!) so you can make a different style of transition and see if that helps: after the focused cookie work, you can just throw the toy and let her chase it and run around with it for a moment, before you try to engage with it as well. That victory lap moment can both get her engaged with the toy AND release some of the energy that the arousal brings. She might even be able to bring it back to you without you asking for it, as a way os saying “I am ready now, hoooman.”
This is all part of learning about her, and the best ways to support and train her. She might need a decompression moment as you transition from stage to stage of a training session to help balance her internal state. This is pretty normal and all good! It different than what Kaladin needed, if I remember correctly, but both approaches are great. I see the same thing with my 2 youngest dogs: one is more like Kal and never loses himself to arousal so I can be wild. One is more like Lift, and so I help decompress him a lot during any high action training. Both are training beautifully though, constantly reminding me that there are all sorts of different ways to get the behavior we want 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Great job bringing the collection sandwich outdoors!
The blinds looked really strong. Remember to decelerate and turns very slowly on the pivot, so he can stay tight to your leg (you were turning early fast so his butt was swinging out wide). Driving ahead to the toy looked terrific – your mechanics were really strong and you didn’t even need 3 arms LOL!Then yes, something totally caught his attention, I see what you mean!
It was pretty significant (whatever it was – what he can see/hear/smell is totally different that was we can)) so in those moments, it is perfectly fine to stop the training session and let him investigate or world watch for as long as needed until he has sorted it out. What you were seeing was the divided attentional state, where his brain was trying to process and prioritize the input from you and also the input from the environment… and the environment needed more processing because whatever it was that caught his attention was pretty challenging. My guess is that he could hear something (based on his body language) but either way, it is fine to stop for a moment so his brain can process.
He was able to play the pattern game but with a relatively high latency (took him longer to look at you) and could not fully tug. That is great feedback from him that he needed a moment, which is perfectly fine 🙂 His response was normal and he was not freaking out about anything, so in those moments you can let him look and investigate. When the pup is ready to re-engage, will often see the pup take a deep breath, or do a full body shake, or come back and pounce on us as if saying “what are you waiting for??” LOL!!
Taking a few minutes break was great and whatever the distraction was seemed to be mostly gone. The basket wrapping looked great! Nice job with the transition from tugging him back to the start spot, then getting the out while he was in the line up position, then starting the next rep. to the line He was able to finish wrapping as you were leaving earlier and earlier in both directions. SO COOL! He is fast and a tight turner.
So the next step is to start thinking about what you would like you wrap verbals to be! If you have a bother dog doing agility, you can use the same verbals. Or, you can use completely new ones 🙂 I recommend short words you can easily say over and over, like check check check or dig dig dig. When you have chosen your words, you can use them in this game rather than saying “go”.
The other recommendation is that you have one word for wrapping to his left, and a different word for wrapping to his right. Agility has evolved to the point where this has become necessary. And since we are starting it early on in training, it is pretty easy to do for both the pup and the humans 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyShe is sooooo good at the backing up! It is unusual for a pup this young to be able to do it this well and add the verbal cue. Big happy dance!!! My only suggestion is to keep your hands a tiny bit lower – ideally, you would hold your cookie hands just above her nose level (when she is standing naturally) so she doesn’t have to look up – the more she looks up, the harder it is to back up. The natural head position should be perfect to get more and more backing up.
You can play with this every couple of days – the goals would be to add more distance backing up to the destination (doesn’t always have to be a wobble board, it can really be anything :)). And, taking it to different places to challenge her to think about her body even when the environment is a little more distracting.
Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>Holidays don’t stop puppy training>>
TRUTH! My two puppies and the puppy that I am hosting over the weekend all agree LOL!
The wrapping to the toy is going well – she is definitely liking to wrap the barrel and was not too bitey with the tug toy 🙂
She was not very patient about letting you get ready to start her and she would go without you or look at something else. No worries! You can use a cookie to line her up at your side by having her follow the cookie into your position (heel position, basically, but on both your right and left side so she turns both directions). You did have cookies coming out towards the end, so you can just have her follow the cookie in your hand to line up (she might not have loved it when yo moved her into position).
Also, the cookies will help balance the tug arousal – tug is really stimulating and cookies and help her stay more centered in her arousal and not overaroused (aka less crazy LOL!!) She was not tugging that hard here, but that was probably due to the smaller space and already having had some good exercise. And that is great because as you mentioned, she was able to train for a tug toy and maintain her focus. Love it!
So for this game, keep trying to do your front cross earlier by moving the line around the barrel closer and closer to where she starts going around it.
The other thing to start thinking about is what verbal you would like to use to mean “wrap”. Agility has a LOT of words right now (so many words!!!) so start off with something simple that will mean “wrap towards me”. Popular words are things like “check check check” or “dig dig dig”, anything that is short and you can say fast 🙂 When you have chosen a word, you can say it as you send her around the barrel, to start adding the wrap cue to the behavior.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>>I need to get better grass treats. Ordered and should arrive on T day.>>
Yay! I use bits of cold white string cheese, which is easy to see and easy to slurp up and not hack up 🙂
For both of these games, you can use a toy as well. The toy as the reward for the parallel path will be very exciting (you can use a ‘get it’ marker and toss it forward, ahead of her, after she hits the prop). The only downside to using the toy for the parallel path game is that you will do fewer reps in the session (because using toys tends to take longer to play and get the toy back before the next rep) but that might actually be an upside: fewer reps that are very exciting is a good thing 🙂
Very nice parallel path session outside! I think the hardest part was finding the cookies in the grass 🙂
This game will also help you stay connected and she gave good feedback about that (including a moment where I swear she put her hands on her hips and gave you a look LOL!!!). Connection is a relatively direct eye contact (you look at her, she looks at her ‘work’ as you move forward). And if you are connected, your shoulders will present the line. If you are not connected (looking forward, or only watching her peripherally) then she is likely to look at you. I call that look at you “information seeking” because connection provides so much of the info at this stage.
Looking at where she had a couple of misses: at 1:05 and the next rep, you were walking forward and looking forward so she looked at you, not sure what you wanted.
If something goes wrong, you can break off and have a tug break to keep arousal pretty high. If she is looking at you too much, it is probably due to lack of connection (or too much distance from the prop).
Compare to 1:24, 1:31, and all the reps til the end – you were connected and she got them all 🙂
So keep working the connection as you move up the line to help support the line.
For the prop sends with the FCs: she is sending really well and your click timing is really strong!! The grass smells were interesting when there was not a lot of arousal, but note how well the added arousal helped her out when you added the ready dance! 🙂 It is a silly game with so much science behind it LOL! The ready dance helps get her pumped up enough that she can ignore the distractions in the environment. Being close to it helped too (outdoors is harder!) and you can totally use a tug toy here for the reward rather than treats.
Great job here!! Keep playing outside and using toys and ready dancing, and you will see her being able to add more and more distance.
Have fun!
TracyGood morning!
>>For the sequence work we are still struggling to get the back side>>
Because the front side of the jump and the bar is VERY valuable, two things that can help:
Take the bar out and have her go to the backside of the wing.
When you put the bar back in, angle the jump so the backside is easier to see/more visible on her line, and the front side bar is harder to see.
>>and if she gets a head of steam up going through the tunnel it continues to be hard even with thrown cheese to get her to see that darn driving line again. I am going to try this again indoors hopefully on Friday.>>
Three ideas for you here as you build this “find the jump after a tunnel skill”:
– you can use the tunnel for the arousal but having her run through it once or twice… then put her in a stay at the tunnel exit and then walk up the line of jumps, rewarding each one. That way we still have the tunnel-induced arousal but more success on the jumps. And you can build up to jogging up the line, or doing it from a restrained recall as if she is exiting the tunnel (maybe Brad can hold her).
– you can do tunnel to just one jump after it, placed on the line as much as you can so she can see it. That way she only has to think about the one jump and you can add in more motion.
– One thing I do to help with jump commitment in higher arousal is use a ‘double wide’ jump – two 4 or 5 jump bumps next to each other, with a wing on each side, so the ‘bar’ is basically 8 to 10 feet wide 🙂 That is a much bigger visual and can help the dogs find it when she comes blasting out of the tunnel.
The leash off-engagement on game looks great! She seemed to be putting herself into a stay when you were doing it, which is fine (not required, but fine to do :)) You can up the ante here with toy play before it then taking the leash off, for more toy play. And you can add in taking the leash off, tossing it to the side… then rewarding her.
She also did really well with the crazy release game 🙂 I am pretty sure you won’t need to lead out like that in a trial , but it certainly is great for raising arousal in training which we do need to do! Yay! You can use this in simple sequences (and cookie throwing sequences) so that she has success working sequences in a higher arousal state.
Great job here! Have a good Thanksgiving!
Tracy
Yay! I am glad you are feeling good and ready to get back in action!!!
Have a good Thanksgiving!
TracyPerfect! Filming will give us a great picture of the entire environment. Maybe a friend can follow you, reality-TV-style?
Have a good Thanksgiving!!
Tracy
Good morning! Thanks for resetting it!
One thing that will really help is if you lead out more laterally away from 1 and 2, so you can be done with the blind on the tunnel exit sooner (:38, 1:51) and do the next blind to turn him off the line sooner (:40 and 1:56 ).
At 2:29 an 3:21 you had the blind sooner on the tunnel exit (yay!!) which made the blind sooner 4-5 (2:31 and 3:23) but still a little late so he was turning after landing. It is really hard to get that BC, so another option here is to lead out laterally but not ahead of him, so he drives ahead of you to the #2 tunnel – then you can get way ahead and serp the landing side of 4 to show the turn to 5. That requires less timing! And that can also give you plenty of time to do a blind cross after the backside and run the ending line with him on your left. And with enough of a tunnel send, you can do it walking and save your knee!
By running the straight line on your right, you will need to really drive directly to the tunnel entry you want because he has to turn slightly away from you to get the tunnel. He did find it at the end but it was harder to see on the first few reps.
Great job here! Have a happy Thanksgiving!!
Tracy
