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Good morning! These look really good!
Yes, she is definitely a little more fluid to her right but the left is going well too! I think your hand position on left turns was good, but she might have had a little trouble because she had to turn away from the cookie. Try it with an empty hand (everything else the same!) and have the cookie in the clicker hand for cookie tossing after the click 🙂
Tunnel threadle and double whammy looks good!!
You can get more reps with cookies… but using a toy will be a lot more fun for her 🙂
When you started the double whammy – click/treat to you for NOT using your arm to flip her back into the tunnel and instead letting her find the tunnel. She was super! So you can add more of your movement by sending her into the tunnel and meeting her at the exit with the threadle cue as you move forward.Only one little blooper was when you might have been a little early with the threadle verbal and she came back out of the tunnel 🙂 But other than that, she was perfect!
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
>>I’ve noticed as Kótaulo is entering his teenage timeframe, he’s noticing sounds more than he did before. >>
This is 100% normal for teenage dogs! The brain development in this time frame makes them “notice” things more (like noise) and also it takes twice as long for them to ‘bounce back’ to baseline (aka be resilient!). So that basically means they notice scary things more and they can recover twice as slowly as a baby puppy or an adult. EEK!!!
>> Am I correct to assume that just like the visual items you added to the weirdness gauntlet, sounds in the environment could result in something similar where they process the weirdness of a new or unusual sound?
Or even a previous sound that perhaps as a teenager they have a different reaction to? >>Yes, but be SUPER careful to not over-do it because otherwise you end up scaring him. So a quiet random sound, sure! Anything big and scary that would startle him? Nope! I guess my line would be at start response. I would consider letting him hear something he would notice (raise head, ears swiveling) but not something that might potentially cause a startle response.
>>Do you treat sound any differently when thinking about resilence than visuals?
It depends on the dog, but basically once they hit adolescence, I tend to be more protective because we know how their brain struggles to respond. So I have all of my little pattern games super strongly in place, and then do tiny exposures to other things (but not anything scary). And if something scary *does* happen? No worry – we go into residence mode: Pattern game if possible in the moment, get the pup away from the scary thing, comfort the pup, decompression, completing the stress cycle.
Resilience is not something the pup learns operantly… it is a flex of their neurobiology which is a weird thing to try to “teach” LOL! But if the body rehearses that neurobiological flex, it helps the pup throughout their life (and we practice these games to keep the flex strong :)). But even with practice – an adolescent dog will take twice as long to return to baseline, so we try not to stress them (the study on that is cool, I will see if I can find it!)
Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>The only way I was able to make those happen from a standstill was by getting him to drive forward the way I did.
Right! I figured he would not go without motion forward, but also all that speed and motion made the RCs harder. So the cookie toss t get you both moving can help. Keep me posted! And I think he has enough of the concept that you don’t need to worry too much on the prop – we will be moving to a jump in a little while then it will get really solid.
T
Hi!
This looked really strong! He has made tremendous progress with this skill – it is quite impressive, especially considering how young he is! Wow!!>>We are working on the same skills, because I have no time to read new material posted.>>
No worries! Life gets busy!!! You don’t have to do everything in order, you can skip around a bit! You can try grabbing a video and watching the first few minutes, to build on what you are already doing – for example, his turn and burn game has been looking really good, so you can look at the video for the rocking horse game:
Or if you only have a few minutes and want to play and run around a bit, skip ahead to the reverse retrieve:
Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
They are a little too small here plus the mats are a little too slippery for his speed. But even though they are small, he is already not smashing through them LOL!! So that is good! Ideally the thing to wrap would be taller than his head – I prefer solid barrels if there are some at the barns! Really tall cones are another option.T
Hi!
The camera angle is fine here! He was out of frame on some sits but that is fine because the rest was clearly visible.It looks like he had no questions about the serps versus threadles here! Nice! And you had your directionals and markers going, also very nice!!!! You can try this with bigger visuals like cones or uprights, but I am sure he will be fine with those too. We add more to this next week, stay tuned 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi!
>> The problems I ran into are a) I used my “get it” cue and he started searching all over the place for a treat and b) the dead toy didn’t seem very exciting to him so then I had to shake it around and make it fun. >>
You can try using ‘get it’ and shaking the toy, or using a “grab” cue of some sort: I say “bite” when I want the dog to grab the toy from my hand. Starting with it being dead at first is helpful to get the impulse control, then you can add in shaking it and see if he can still offer impulse control on it.
>>I figured I’d hopefully get some ideas of a different cue word for get the toy on the ground in your webinar tonight. >>
Tonight is about directional cues on obstacles, so we won’t be talking about reward markers as much. You can use something like “toy!” and then point at it or move it, to help him understand what you mean in that context.
>>Also, do you have any suggestions for a dog that has an extreme preference for only one toy? He has one very favorite toy, one or two okay toys, and a bushel basket of toys I would really like him to play with. I mean, these are really nice long, furry, expensive dog toys that any respectable dog would go nuts over, but he says no thanks, I want my one squeaky toy. My fear is that I will lose it and we’re up the creek, and it’s also very squeaky which I envision not so great at trial time. Let me know your thoughts.>>
If he has one magic toy, try to buy more of them LOL! Sometimes puppies really love that one magic toy! Do any of the other toys squeak? You can mix in more squeaky toys during play. I also like to tie toys together, so you can tie the other toys to his favorite squeaky toy, making one big giant crazy toy. Anything else he likes to play with, like crunchy water bottles or a broom or anything?
Backside slices – having the MM there made it a lot harder because you were trying to train impulse control AND backsides at the same time, which prouced too many failures on these 2 sessions. I don’t think it was a connection issue, but more of a question about where to go (MM versus backside). So a couple of ideas for you:
To work the backsides, use a tossed reward to the landing side of the bump from your hand, so he only has to think about the backside line and not also ignoring the MM.
That will also allow you to work in more independence – You are blocking the line a bit to the backside by moving on his line. You can see it more on the 2nd video, where you you are walking directly towards the cone, rather than moving to where the bump and the cone meet so he can see the full cone. Your leg is visible outside the cone 🙂 Yes, that gets him to the backside but it also adds a lot of reliance on your being right there on his line. So, the first line of motion is to where the cone and the bump meet. Then when he has that, you can go to the center of the bump with lots of connection. Take the verbal off for now, and you can add it back when he consistently finds the backside line.
Separately, you can add in the MM as a potential placed reinforcement for him to ignore, using a behavior he has more of a reinforcement history with (like a barrel wrap, where he can wrap the barrel then go to the MM behind you).
Eventually you can put the MM back into the backside behavior too.
Reverse retrieve – he had one little question at first but then figured it out really well! Rather than running backwards, you can drop the toy and run forwards each time now. This is a good one to take outside as well, to get the lovely retrieve in a variety of contexts.
Great job!!!
TracyGood morning!
VERY Nice session here on the threadles, especially when he caught himself and corrected his line to the threadle side, SUPER!! Remember to keep your shoulders locked in position til after he is at the MM (you were closing them forward and that will makes things harder when we add more motion.
You can move the MM more to the slice exit line, so he is jumping more on a slice and not as much of a U-shaped turn (this slice line exit simulates more of what he will see on course with threadles and also begins to help him get organized for that sideways jumping effort he will have to do on slice lines.
Have you decided on your threadle slice verbal yet? It is time to replace “break” with the threadle slice verbal cue 🙂
The head turning is definitely looking good! Much clearer mechanics and we can see him turning his head in that exaggerated way that indicates he is getting the idea. Your clicks were timely on the left turns (clicking that head turn moment and can even be sooner on the left turns). You were late with the clicks on the right turns in the 2nd half of the session – the clicks were coming when he exited the barrel wrap and was facing you. So remember to be clicking basically as soon as you finish the hand cue and you see his nose turn away from you.
The RCs are definitely looking better! I think the sudden explosion of movement when you release from the stay is making it harder for both of you: you move fast which draws his attention towards you and away from the prop and line. You are compensating by saying ‘go go go’ and using a swooshy arm – we definitely want to take out the go verbal because it is not a go and we don’t want to dilute it or confuse him when we add go on a go line.
So the easiest thing to do is play with ways that you don’t have to explode forward: you can try starting with a cookie toss away from you and the prop instead of from a stay) so that he turns and starts moving up the line – and you can also be in a steady motion at that point (rather than sudden acceleration) and see if he will go past you to the prop while you cut in behind him to the new side. That will help build up even more success!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>> Do you have different verbals for Tunnel threadle, Threadle slice, and Threadle wrap?>>
Yes 🙂 They are 3 entirely different behaviors and require different cues.
Tunnel threadle: kiss kiss
Threadle slice on jumps: close
threadle wrap on jumps: in inHaving the same threadle verbal for jumps and tunnels doesn’t work anymore, because course designers put the jumps and the tunnels right next to each other. And if the verbal is the same, the dogs cannot use the verbal and will rely on our physical cues.
T
Hi!
This is the Volume dial arousal game – He definitely looked engaged here and was doing well managing his arousal! He had a little bit of trouble differentiating some of the cues.
He might need a hand cue for the spin/twist cues – I think he was confused as to whether they were downs or sits or spins, so feel free to use hand cues too! And also, it looks like he would down or sit if you leaned towards him – so try to use verbals and hand cues, but no body pressure, to help him differentiate the cues when he is more stimulated 🙂Great job on all of these!
TracyHi!
This is the Reverse retrieve – easy and fun! He really liked this!! Since this was super easy for him, You can go to the higher level of this where he is in a say facing you – you release him, drop the toy next to you, tell him to get it… all while you are running away before he even passes you to get to the toy. If that proves to be too hard, you can dial back your motion and just walk forward while he passes you to get the toy.T
Hi!
These are more Backsides, starting on the other side. As with the previous video, be sure to start with him in a stay so you can be moving before he starts to move and before he makes a decision about where to go – he ended up on the front on the first rep because you didn’t set it with motion from ahead.
So try it with him in a stay so that your line of motion can start to get further and further across the bump – start with your line going to where the bar and the bump meet. Then move over so your line of motion is straight to the center of the bump (but keep rewarding like you did on the landing side) and eventually you can be all the way across the bump, where the 2nd wing would be 🙂T
The Perch work here is going well too – he generally has the idea of lifting his feet over the bumps while moving around the perch.
He is sometimes having a little trouble (landing on the bumps a bit) and I think it is because he has to process his footwork AND process your movement… so I think it would be good to fade your movement now (especially if he is also doing obedience), where you want the pivots without your movement. So you can either stand still (or move very very little) and reward him for offering, or you can use the angled cookie tosses to let him return to center. He seems ready for us to start taking out your movement!
T
These are Backside parallel path lines – he is reading these well too!
Now we can start adding more independence in the form of lateral distance, so you don’t need to move to the barrel as much to get him to go to the backside. Setting the line with motion is the key: To be able to get further across the bump (adding independence), start with him in a stay facing his line to the backside barrel entry. He will stay while you walk forward a few steps, then you will release him (as you stay in motion) and let motion support his line to the backside. Be sure to remain connected back to him, and keep dropping the reward on the landing side of the bump.And if he is fine and dandy with that… you can add your backside slice verbal 🙂 The backside slice verbal is a release too, so you can start moving then release with the backside slice verbal.
T
Hi!
These are threadles the other direction – also looking super good! I will keep bugging you to look at your hand and freeze your shoulders LOL!
Have you chosen your threadle slice word yet? You can replace your “break” verbal with the threadle verbal now, I think he is ready for that! The threadle slice word is also a release so it can be used in this situation.
He also had very nice focus on the game here – it sounds like there was plenty of activity happening around him and he ignored it! Good boy!!!
T
