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Good morning!
Yes, I hope your mom feels well enough that there are no more hospital stays!!
And I am glad that she likes tugging! Super!
>>You can see some of her love of tug (I had to use treats to get her to let go—she has a strong bite on her).>>
Perfect – trading is a great way to get the toy back without frustration or conflict. When you were pulling it to get it back, she thought it was more tugging 🙂 So to get it back easily, she can tug tug tug, then you can use an ‘out’ cue and whip out a cookie to trade. That way you can have really efficient training.
Looking at turn and burn – lovely session!! It took a moment for her to realize it was not a line up game 🙂 Then she totally had it and was wrapping brilliantly!
Because she was wrapping really well and tugging really well too, only one suggestion to help make it smoother (and to help us get ready for upcoming games :)):
To help her turn each direction equally and so she knows which way to go around the basket, you can line her up at your side (with a cookie) and then send her around on the side you want her to go around.
When the line up was not as clear and she was in front of you, she was guessing about which direction a bit and then grabbing for the toy. So you can use a cookie to line her up on your left side, for example, then send her around with your left arm and leg (she will turn to her right when you do that). You can stay really close to the laundry basket for now, so she doesn’t squeeze in front of you 🙂
>>tried it from two different angles (far and near) so you will have to let me know which one is better for you to analyze.>>
Both angles were really easy to see, thanks!! So the angle will really depend on whatever is easier for you for setting up the camera – I had a good view of the game 🙂
Great job here!! Let me know what you think! Have a good Thanksgiving!
TracyGood morning!
>>Do you use “get it” for both a thrown reward and a “go get the dead toy” marker?>>
I do! Admittedly, I am not one of the people who has a TON of reward placement markers. I have maybe 5 or 6 total? They include get it, bite (toy from hand), yesssssssssss (cookie from hand), catch (reward thrown back to dog, can be food or toy) and a shhhhhhhhh noise where the dog can chase a dragging toy, let’s go for remote reinforcement, and maybe one or two more that I will need more coffee to remember LOL!)
And the feedback from my dogs and student dogs is that it is fine 🙂 because the dogs are not frustrated and learn the skills quickly.
By having fewer markers – yes, I am relying a bit on the dog’s understanding of context and how humans work, plus I need to have a high rate of success in my training sessions, split the behaviors into small pieces, and good mechanics, but I aim for that anyway. And, by splitting the behavior in the early stages, the cue and context very quickly come to predict the reward placement (such as the GO games will never predict reinforcement from my hand LOL!).
Also, by having fewer markers, I am far more likely to use the *correct* marker. That keeps the markers meaningful, rather than using the incorrect markers and having the dogs just learn to ignore them LOL! And if I don’t have to expend brain energy on remembering al the markers, I am far better with my mechanics and other verbals 🙂
So use as many or as few as are comfortable for now – and if she has questions, we can always add something to help her out.
>>Kaladin does understand yes (contextually) as meaning look to my hand for a treat.>>
Yes – and he probably understands it really well, in context! In a shaping session? “Yes” is powerful as a marker. During regular conversation or when he hits a good RDW? I am betting he understands that “yes” does NOT mean come get a cookie from our hands. Dogs are brilliant!
Looking at the videos:
Toy races:
>>She beat me to it when I’m heading away from the camera but didn’t grab the toy so I stole it.>>A little healthy competition can create some good drive to the toy LOL!! I think the rep where you won was because the toy landing someplace weird so she didn’t want to run into it, but then she got over it for the next rep 🙂
And it will also help her not leap in the air as much, because if she leaps in the air then you are likely to get to the toy first. I mean, the leaping is FREAKING ADORABLE but for the future running dog walks, we want less leaping. And when you start the mat work for the RDW, remind me to send you how I de-leaped Hot Sauce in the early stages.
Looking at the plankrobatics video:
The plank part for cookies was lovely, of course. Easy peasy!>>but ran into the issue of her not wanting the toy and trying to jump up at me instead. She did this a bit when I first brought her home but she would stop if I acknowledged her by giving her a little hug and then it faded away and I hadn’t seen it in a while even if I was switching back and forth between toys and treats.>>
My guess is your are seeing a very tired puppy, mentally 🙂 I don’t think anything in this session was frustrating to her, or too hard. But if we look back across the last 10 days or so… lots of changes that stressed her body (HPA axis firing, extra cortisol, etc). Not bad stress, but the body doesn’t necessarily know the difference. Stress is stress! I am sure you can relate and you also probably still feel tired, even with the good stress of big success 🙂 The difference is your brain is highly developed so you can use coping skills to help out, and her brain is entering the wild ride of adolescence LOL!!So that is all very ‘expensive’ for the brain and when the brain is depleted, we get overarousal behavior especially after the toy race session which gets her into higher arousal with the running and tugging. Add in that she is a baby and doesn’t have the executive function in the brain yet to help her through the brain-tired-times. No worries!!
It takes about 72 hours for the body chemistry to reset for most pups, so in that time you can totally help her with lots of sleep, lots of sniffy walks, cookie pattern games, snuffle mats, chewies, and training that doesn’t ask her arousal to come up (because the depletion might push her into overarousal). So simple cookie training games will be great, you can take the toy out of it for a couple of days. And also running around the yard and playing is great too and might be a good decompression for her.
Looking at the backing up:
I agree, this is an easy method for most dogs (and easy for us humans too :)) She did really well with the backing up! She still looked a little depleted at first when the toy came out but she did get back onto it. It was smart to just end the session there after getting lovely behavior with the backing up and the toy play.For the backing up, you can add the mat as a target/destination, and start having her back up to it (starting all 4 feet on then luring her front feet off, then letting her step back onto it). Then you can lure all 4 feet off, and let her step back onto it, and so on. That will lead nicely into getting her to back onto things that move in coming weeks.
Great job here! Let me know what you think! Happy Thanksgiving!
Tracy
Good morning!
This is going well! It is a hard skill and he is getting it – yay!
Your mechanics are very clear and that really helps him. One tweak for the next session: wait a tiny bit longer before your reward hand moves forward to reward him, so he offers a few more steps backwards before the cookie moves towards him. That will start creating more and more independence.>>>>I’m not seeing weight shift so I video’d from the side.>>
He isn’t really weight shifting because he is really balanced – which is GREAT! Ideally, it looks just like walking backwards (like he is doing here) so you won’t see any super obvious weight shift. We will be able to start getting his head a little higher soon, which would be the most ideal for future conditioning (head in a neutral position, chin more parallel to the floor). But for now, keep the reward placement you had here and as he gets more and more independent, he will change his head position naturally.
Because he s so small, feel free to use a chair or something to sit in, so your back doesn’t get angry with all the bending over to have good reward placement 🙂
You can use a higher mat for him to step up onto as his destination as well, I think he is ready for that!
He did get a little sideways at :55 and towards the end – that can sometimes be fatigue after a few reps, so you can do one or two reps then let him move around for a few seconds (chasing cookies or chasing a toy) then try a few more reps.
Great job here!! Let me know what you think. Have a good Thanksgiving!
TracyVery cool! Half sisters! So far little Calibri is cute and charming and fits right in – good thing she is going to my parents’ this weekend or I would be tempted to keep her!
Have a great Thanksgiving!
Tracy
Good morning!
Isn’t it fascinating when the dogs clearly show us a side preference in the turn and burn game? It is like they understand what we are asking but need to tell us that they have to do it in the other direction. Good for you for listening to her and changing sides – she did really well!
>>I think with some time to process it, she will understand better the next time.>>
Yes – some latent learning will help for sure (and I have found Whippets in particular to be magical in terms of latent learning). And also, if she still asks that question, you can put a bowl out on her line as a helper to give her a focal point as she figures out her coordination to her right.
You did this with food and it went well… time to do it with toys 🙂 It is fine to start with toys on her easy side (if it is still her easy side next time LOL!) and use food on the harder side, and build up to toys on both sides.
The countermotion is looking good! The first part is to her left, and she had no problems as that is currently her preferred side LOL! And the right turns also looked really good – both left and right looked pretty equal here. So now you can add a little more countermotion by moving the opposite direction one step sooner: as she is passing you, you slowly start to move the other direction. Keep your pace very slow for now, so your motion doesn’t catch her eye and draw her off the prop.
Parallel path looked great too – nice work started each side the same way (cookie on prop) then building up to tossing. She really seemed to have now questions. Thanks to your terrific dog training skills, she has made significant advances in looking at the prop and not at your hands in this past week! Super!!!
This game went so well that I think you can add more distance away from her laterally. This might mean using a wider space so you might need to take it outdoors 🙂 It will be harder to find treats in the grass, so start up close and easy like you did here and then gradually expand the distance. Big white chunks of rewards like string cheese can help too!
Nice tugging at the end! She really likes that milker! You can get a milker toy where the milker is attached to a bungee or something, so your hands can be a little further away from her choppers 🙂
Great job on these! Have a happy Thanksgiving!
TracyHi! A spreadsheet is great! And you are definitely not falling behind – all the games build up on each other, so they don’t have to be perfect before starting the next one.
Happy Thanksgiving!
TracyHi! This video is drive to handler – very nice! She is following the handling beautifully!
If possible, lean over more so that your hand is lower. Ideally you would have your hand low enough so her chin is parallel to the ground or even pointing downwards (and so she doesn’t reach up for the cookies). That will make the pivots even smoother!
For the next session, toss the start cookie further away – and take off and run more as she is getting it 🙂 That way you can get more acceleration from her, and then when she is maybe halfway to you, make big deceleration and put your hand in nice and low, so she can collect and drive to your side.
That will set you up really well for the ‘collection sandwich’ game we added last night.
Great job here! Let me know what you think! Happy Thanksgiving!
TracyHi!
Super nice tugging here! And excellent transition into the driving ahead. Click/treat to you for looking at her and being connected to her rather than looking at the toy.In the this video, she did not mind at all when you started moving forward – you were gradually adding your motion and it was perfect! She seemed very comfy to have you running and she was great about bringing the toy back. So as you keep playing this game, add more and more of your motion building up to trying to race her to the toy (and try to win the race :))
Great job!
Tracy>>But, your voice is in my ear a lot! Haha. 😛>>
Ha! You poor thing!
Even if you don’t enter, is it close enough to drive to do some games outside the ring?
T
Hi!
He is driving ahead really well! Getting the wrap was a little bit of a Goldilocks moment:First rep at 1:09 – you said “go” a few too many times, making the dig dig and decel too late so he was wide. Try no to praise him in hose moments – that confuses him – just tell him where to go next.
2nd rep at 1:54 – dig dig verbal started with better timing, but youhad too much decel by slamming the brakes, so he came off the line.
The 3rd rep 2:47 was much better in terms of both smooth decel and timing of the decel and wrap verbal, so he had a better turn there. Yay!Then good job staying connected on the way back down the line to the tunnel! When you pointed forward, it pulled him to the other side of the tunnel because pointing forward turns your shoulders away from the line. But on the other reps you stayed connected so he found the correct side of the tunnel really well!
The 2nd video is marked private – can you reset to unlisted?
Thanks!
TracyHi!
Sorry to hear your knee is still painful! Hopefully it heals up soon!I think Gemma was adding some good background music here, to make sure Sprite felt like it was an exciting session LOL! I think it went really well – a strong rehearsal of the line up game and her sits were quick and solid! And the little moment of pink panther at the end was GREAT – she held her stay and was blazing fast on the release… but also turned beautifully. Exciting to see her executing so well in higher arousal!
She seems really comfortable with this so the next question is: when is your next class or fun match or even a trial? It is time to start testing out different options on the road. I wish California was closer to Virginia, we could have some fun going to NFC trials together!!
>>he bar dropped because I deceled and I wasn’t clear which caused the back jump. She got rewarded for both as the point for Sprite is getting to the line and setting up.>>
Yes! The bar and the back jump were non-issues – just handling oopsies, so no worries (she did the best she could with the info :)) Great job rewarding!
Nice work here! Happy Thanksgiving!
Tracy
Hi!
Thanks for the update!!
>>We’ve been doing short leash work sessions – on with some behaviours, followed by off with easy behaviours. Keeping it short, empty hands, cookies in pockets. It’s been going pretty good. Introduced a jump into the picture today.>>
Awesome!!! Sounds like she is doing well!! You can bring this to class, keeping things short and fun 🙂
>>Her “engaged chill” I think it’s when she is leaning into me as we wait our turn at nose work or other places. We haven’t really had an opportunity to practice this at agility other than while watching dogs do agility at a trial. Do you think this is the engaged chill behaviour I should hope for when we are waiting our turn for agility runs?>>
It would be GREAT if this is the engaged chill! It sounds perfect! Next time you are around agility, try it and see what she says! Start far from the action and act like you are at a nosework class/trial and see what she does!
Have a good Thanksgiving!
TracyHi! Lovely work here, she is looking terrific!
The backing up is looking good! Backing up to the upside down bosu is really hard, so do fewer reps and then give her a break – you can see she was beginning to lose form on the last few reps (going sideways, not backing up as well) – it was probably a bit of fatigue when form changes. So, one or two reps, then a break, then a couple more reps, etc, will help her maintain her form.
The parallel path looks great, I love how she picked up big speed speed! Try to have your cookies ready, so you can throw then before she looks at you.
Because looking at the line is really important (and not looking at you :)) you can replace the click and praise with a reward marker like ‘get it’ so she gets the info that she is correct and to look ahead for the tossed treat. That should keep her looking at the line nicely!
Sideways and backwards sending and countermotion is going well too! You can start to leave sooner (not faster, just sooner because faster was causing her to not hit the prop as well). So as she is moving towards it, maybe one step past you, you can start walking the other direction – that way you can build up the countermotion even more without her wanting to chase the motion
The rep at 2:43 was nice example of earlier countermotion – you were going the other way sooner, but not too fast so she was very successful!
Rear crosses are the hardest skill so far – she was getting the idea here! Doing it on the prop gives us humans good feedback on if we are on time or not 🙂 At the start of the session on each side you were a bit late – the RC info was happening after she was just about arriving at the prop, so it was too late for her to make the turn. Then you started getting them earlier, and that really helped and she was able to get the rear crosses. Nice!
The trick for the rear cross on the ‘takeoff side’ of the prop is to start further back and closer to her, so you can show the rear cross pressure on her line sooner, as she is moving towards the prop. If you were too far away, either the RC info was too late or it ended up being like a rear cross/turn away on the flat (like at 6:40 for example). So ideally you would be very close to her so you can cut behind her tail when she is still a stride or two from the prop.
The collection games look really good! Super nice connection!! The more you decelerated before the pivot, the better she was able to turn – just be sure to pivot slowly (8:20 and 8:48 were the best examples of the slower pivots and she was super tight!) so her butt can stay in line with the turn.
Turn and burn also looked good, she is committing really well. To maximize the turns, two suggestions:
– use something bigger to go around, like a barrel, so she has to bend more to go around it (the jump upright doesn’t really produce as much of a turn).
– after your FC, keep your exit line parallel to the jump bar like you were doing at the beginning rather than moving away from it on a perpendicular line (like at the end of the session). Staying parallel will really encourage stronger collection, especially because there is countermotion involved.Great job here! Have a good Thanksgiving!
Tracy
