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Hi!
>Took off a day from “training” yesterday and threw bumpers.>
A day off of ‘learning’ things and just having fun together? Heck yeah!!! Love it!
> I had 2- threw one, once she was on her way back to me, turned and jogged the other way , threw the 2nd bumper once she got back to me. did this a few times. once ahe was running back to me, started waiting for her to come to me. Sometimes she came straight back and Sometimes a wide circle. I stood still when she did the circle and waited for her to come to me..we celebrated when she came to hand.>
Very fun!!! And you can ping pong – sometimes you wait for her to come back, sometimes you immediately run away, sometimes you run away when she has started to come back. Making it random and unpredictable will keep her coming back faster and faster 🙂
>I have observed this before –better about coming to me with bumper than with fluffy toy>
The bumper might be higher in value, so you can totally have it in your toolbox for training agility games too! It is a great toy for toy races – either as the thrown toy, or the reward for coming back to you, or both! Just be sure to mix in lots of other toys, so she doesn’t become obsessed with the bumper and ignore other toys 🙂
Thanks for the update! Sounds like it was super fun!
Tracy
Hi! She did great here!
> Cheese works much better! She caught on pretty quick since she wasn’t having to chew as much.>
100% yes! The cheese allowed her to move quickly and she was very quick to zip back and forth. She startled herself when she pulled the barrel over but recovered really quickly. It was almost like she was considering offering other behavior on the bucket, then after it fell over she said “definitely not *that* behavior” hahaha She is a big personality!!!
> I moved the bucket back two times. The second time I used my knee to partly block her path, but left about 5 or 6 inches open. You’ll see her think about cutting through, but makes the right decision to go around.>
Yes, she was really good! I think she might be a lefty: all of the left turns (going from your right to your left) were very smooooth and quick! She had to think harder on the right turns (going from your left to your right) so that might be telling us she s a lefty. This is useful info!
> Haven’t tried it again with toys… Look forward to seeing how we progress from here.>
What you can do is a little bit of tugging before you start, then cheese for the reps, then break it off after 6 or 7 treats for more tugging. That way we get the excitement that tugging brings… but we don’t tip over into bitey excitement during the shaping. And you can be quieter in the moments where she is offering… and praise when you reward. That will also help her find the wrap as we add challenge.
Since she is doing so well here, 2 things for the next steps:
– you can use something bigger & taller for her to go around, like a pop up basket or big cone or laundry basket.
– when she is happy to go around the taller object, we are going to start transitioning you to standing up – a short session with you sitting in a chair, then if that goes well – you can start the next session with you sitting then stand up and see how she does.Great job here!
TracyHi!
He did really well offering getting front feet on and walking across. All 4 feet on was harder but then you did a trail of treats that helped a lot! After that, he offered all 4 feet easily and you were able to get him to turn around too.
Your hand position for the turn arounds was great, nice and low! Turning to his left: easy! Turning to his right? Harder 🙂 He would either step off and then back on to get the right turn, or he was super creative at 1:57 – he turned left then got back on the board to get the cookie. Ha! So to smooth out the right turns, try them on the flat without the plank first – see if you can convince him to turn right in a tight circle, using the low and slow hand lure you had here. When he can do that smoothly on the ground, you can ask for it on the plank.
HIs confidence level seems really high with the plank, so you can elevate it by a few more inches to add challenge (as long as it stays stable and won’t slide off).
Great job!
TracyHi!
The position changes went really well – that takes a lot of body control (especially after all the exciting tugging!) and she made it look easy for such a young dog! It looked like her hind end was a little tucked under her in the stands – just puppy stuff 🙂 You can try moving your hands forward a bit to see if that helps balance the stand more.
> I’m using a Galician backside bump. Figured could be a good one? I don’t have and of those pop up baskets/crates.>
Clever!!! That is a great use for it. And if you have a 2nd one, you can stack it so it is taller – that would be the next step, wrapping someting taller. This session went really well and she seemed perfectly happy to keep wrapping with you standing. She lost her train of thought for a moment in the middle when the bump was further away – but it might have been more than she needed a tug break, and less about the distance because you returned to that distance by the end of the session and she had no questions. So you can break up the session with tugging after ever 5 or 6 treats, so she doesn’t have to stay super task focused for the whole time (she can have a party moment sometimes too :))
She looks ready for you to move to the Turn ‘n’ Burn game we started last night!
Nice work!
TracyHi!
> The “boring” food….hmmm…unfortunately there is no such thing for a Sheltie. LOL!!!>
So true! You might need to see if tiny crumbs will make it boring LOL
Hi!
Super fun session – Yay for her, leaping right onto the wobble board! She did really well with that, and went right back to tugging after the treats thanks to your movement.
>I had two toys tied together here, but she got them apart.>
That was probably very reinforcing for her, a big win and a surprise in the best way! Ha!
She might be a little too young to feel comfy tugging on the full wobble board – that requires more balance/stability and coordination than standing on it for cookies does. She seemed to be communicating that she was happy to tug and was fine with the movement, but didn’t feel fully comfortable doing it with all 4 feet on the board.
So for the full wobble board, keep going with cookies. And for the tugging, you can shove towels or padding under it, so she can feel more comfy and balanced while tugging on it. Then as she grows more, you can take the towels etc out so she can tug on the full wobble board 🙂
> A trip to Home Depot where she escaped the shopping cart, bad Mama.>
That’s hilarious 🙂 She is small and spicy!!
Great job!
TracyHello and welcome!
The email address is support@agility-u.com but I will put the instructions here so you can upload your videos.Also, if it feels confusing or overwhelming, we can hop on a zoom call and I can walk you through it on your device! I personally get overwhelmed with new tech sometimes and I don’t want you to feel that way if you have never used YouTube this way before.
The first step is to create a personal YouTube channel (if you already have one, scroll down to the next step :))
– Sign into YouTube with your Google/Gmail account (really easy to set one up at http://www.gmail.com if you don’t have one).
– Click your profile picture (usually in the upper right corner, depending on which device you have) and then Settings .
– Go to the Account section and select Add or manage channel(s).
– Click Create a channel .
– Choose a profile picture, type in your name.
– Click Create channel.When you have a channel and you are logged in, here is how to upload videos:
– In the top-right corner, click CREATE then click Upload Videos from the drop down box
– It will take you to a screen where you click on Select Files
– Choose where you want to see your files or which one you upload (this varies depending on your device).
– Choose the video you want and click upload. While it is uploading, you can add the title and other info for YouTube, such as if it is made for kids (click No) and if you want it Private, Unlisted, or Public (click Unlisted)It will load and then YouTube will provide a link, or you can find it if you go to your channel or Youtube Studio by clicking on your profile picture and choosing an option from the drop down box.
Let me know how it goes!
Tracy
Hi!
He is great on the plank here! He was happy to get on, hop off, turn around, all the things. You can add in position changes, like cueing sits and downs on the plank.Since we are talking about his chewing… you might have been a little too fast with most of the treats here because he was basically chewing the entire time LOL! He will be able to offer more if he has finished chewing, so you can slow down the cues to turn and the reward delivery. Let him finish the treat and he will probably look at you, then you can cue the next thing or let him offer hopping back on the plank if he is off it.
You can also incorporate a tug toy to raise his excitement level and see if he can still work all his feet as well as he did here 🙂
For the next session, you can raise the plank if you have anything that it can rest on while still being as stable as it is here. We can think of it as mini-parkour hahaha!
Nice work!
Tracy
Hi!
The Pink Panther has replaced circus music today during tugging LOL!! Love it!She is finding the prop really well now – I think she is ready for the next step of the prop games! You can stay nice and close, and add in the sends 🙂 Yay!
She also did well with tugging, even with the treats close by – keeping the toy really active helps a whole lot. One thing I notice is that you are bending over while tugging (which is perfectly fine) but then standing up always precedes getting a treat out… so she stops tugging as soon as you stand up. Since she will (eventually) be tall enough that you can be upright, we will want you to be able to tug standing up. Two ways to do that are to attach this toy to a leash, so you can be fully upright and playing. And, sometimes stand up but keep playing – then lean over and play more. Or get the toy back with a cookie trade while you are leaning over. That was she doesn’t pair standing up with the drop the toy cue.
Great job here!
TracyHi!
You are totally on the right track! Thanks for the video! It looks like she really likes the food, so she doesn’t initially drive to the toy because there might be more food around. But you were great about getting the toy moving so she could chase it, keeping it nice and low… and she totally latched on to tug!You can actually double the length of that toy by tying it to another toy, and that will be even more exciting for her – and easier for you to get it low so she can chase it. And keep going with using the most boring possible food (with no other treats in your hand or pocket) – and if you have a long hallway or outdoor space, that will give you room to make chasing the toy even more exciting!
You will see that she will get happier and happier to play with the toy even when food is around.
Nice job here!
TracyHi!
She was absolutely super at smacking that hat with her front feet! Nice! And great job with your click timing!>not as much understanding of staying on it.>
The good news if that she doesn’t have to stay on it! She can smack it then after the marker, she can come back and get the treat from your hand. Think of the prop as a jump-bar-replacement in these early stages of training. She goes to it and turns, but doesn’t need to stay there. More on that in tonight’s class.
Right before you send her, add a little of that ‘ready dance’ where you were asking her if she was ready but without holding her – then send her to the prop. That hands-free ready dance helps her learn to transition from handler focus to send/obstacle focus.
Plus, it is great for arousal regulation: the ready ready ready with you bopping around a little will get her more pumped up, but then she has to self-regulate to NOT jump up at you and instead, go find the hat to smack 🙂 If she does jump up, then you can do a quieter ready dance to get her excited but not as excited 🙂
>I realized most of the time I’m not stepping with my dog side leg before sending.>
She has a ton of value for running to the hat, so using your leg did not matter that much in this session. For the next session, the ready dance will give you the chance to add your leg into the send cue. Plus you can move to the advanced levels, where you are sending sideways and backwards – this is where the leg as part of the cue becomes very important.
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
Toy races looked great! I am impressed with your long distance throws!!! That is a pretty perfect toy for throwing.
He did GREAT going from food to the toy!! On the last rep – you totally could have won that race LOL! Don’t be too polite – you can win sometimes and have your own party of one, because the he will drive even harder to get past you when you are running hard like that!
He was doing a short victory lap when he gets the toy – you can reward with another toy for bringing it back in your general direction. As soon as he gets to the toy you are racing towards, you can do a FC and run the other way. As he is running towards you with the first toy, you can whip out another toy and reward him for coming directly back towards you.
Nice work here!
TracyGood morning!
Driving ahead is going really well. Great job connecting to see where she is looking! You don’t need the break cue because she is not in a stay – you can just use the get it or you can add your ‘go’ verbal.
The 2nd to Last rep took too long before the release so she gave up waiting and just went without you LOL
The last rep and the other reps looked great!About the retrieve:
>The retrieve needs serious help. But to be honest, between the heat and Roulez and Tchoup, I’ve had trouble getting motivated and the energy enough to work on it.>
No worries at all about the retrieve! Life is busy, to say the least, and she is doing really well with all of her games.
I have found the best way to get a retrieve is to not think of it as a retrieve. I think of it as a trade or add an additional element to the game. Here is what I mean:
The long toy helps, because you can grab the other end. When you grab the other end, start moving the other direction so she begins to automatically grab the toy and move toward you.
When she is way ahead of you and gets to the toy first: just before she arrives at the toy, you can do a front cross and go the other direction, calling her name – and as soon as she looks at you, pull out another toy or treats so she comes back. She may or may not bring the original toy at first… but that is fine for now because the first step is getting her to come back to you rather than leaving with the toy. Then we can start to delay when you show her the other toy or treat, to get her bringing the toy further and further back to you.
We do work more specifically on retrieving in the next couple of weeks, but this will keep it fun for now! I also play these games in a hallway where there is really no place else for the pup to run to with the toy 🙂
Plankrobatics looked great! She was able to balance while tugging which is really hard!
When you cue her to turn around, keep your hand low and slow, so she doesn’t have to lift her head (high head makes balancing harder – and a fast hand makes it harder to be coordinated.
She was convinced there was something under the plank LOL! There might have been a good smell, so you can always move the plank over to a new spot – sounds like it was raining or something? Maybe that was bringing up new and interesting smells?
For the planks, you can maybe take the plank off your dog walk so she has a longer plank to play on, and you can also raise it a little so she has the challenge of more height.
SSC:
She was focusing on the bowl really well!! Good job adding the end cue and verbal. The bowl made it just past halfway around on both sides here – excellent! So on the next session, you can start with the bowl halfway around (as a reminder rep or two) then keep moving it closer and closer to you so that she eventually has to focus past it and move past it to go around the cone 🙂 And you can also play this with a toy!Great job here!
Tracy
