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Good morning!
She was awesome here! Was that a toy on the ground, placed but not thrown? It worked really well!
>.Should I make it a toy race to the toy on the ground when I combine the barrel with the other?>>
Yes, as long as the toy is still on the ground and not with you throwing it (because she will watch you throw it and that promotes more looking at you, which we don’t want). To mak eit more of a toy race, you can start closer to the barrel and/or have the toy further away, so when you accelerate to it, she can leave you in the dust 🙂
>> As much as she loves her toys she was less interested in the toy when I had a piece of hot dog in my hand.>>
Hot dogs are great because they don’t need to be chewed… but the high value of them makes the value balance shift a bit. So you can go to the highest value toy in the face of such a high value food reward… or you can split the difference and find something lower value that doesn’t need to be chewed… like a small kibble mixed in with hot dogs in a bag, so the small kibble smells good but is not a full on hot dog 🙂 Balance of value of challenging and will probably take some experimenting.
One other thought: On these games, it is safe to assume that all dog errors are caused by human handling errors of timing, connection, etc. For example, 1:25 when she blew past you… it was because you were really late with the decel and she was past you already before you even made the connection for the decel 🙂 She smoked you LOL! So you would need to start the decel while she is at the barrel when you are close like that – more like what you did at 1:45. It is perfectly fine to play for real when that oopsie happens and either adjust your timing/connection, or look at the video in slow motion to figure out what happened.
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>I can always rely on Jamie!!!
Ha! Training partners are so valuable 🙂
Strike a pose looked good at the beginning! I could not see where you were looking but he drove straight to the target hand for the first part, so you were probably looking at the target and not at him. At :48ish, he started looking at you and not targeting: so my guess is that was when you were looking at him and not at the target. Try to get your face in the camera shot so I can see where you were looking to test the theory, and on the next session: when he turns towards you from getting the tossed treat, let him see you switch from looking at him to looking at the target.
And if he has a question and a couple of seconds go by and he hasn’t gone to the target, you can reset with a cookie toss to start the next rep and exaggerate looking at the target hand.
And remember that you don’t need to wait for a perfect hit of the target, you can totally can totally reward “roughly right”. I would have rewarded at 1:07 – it was not perfect but it was still correct enough to get a cookie especially after the previous rep. Withholding reinforcement there was confusing: you could hear him chuffing then offering other behavior. Since we are shaping, you can reward the approximations that aren’t perfect, especially if he had a question.
He was super about going back to tugging here! You can also play this game with the toy as the reward – just be sure to look at the target 🙂
>> I had trouble on parallel path getting him to have forward focus.>>
A couple of ideas about your mechanics to get him looking forward (because this game is all about handler mechanics to learn how to get the pups looking forward :))
Two of the most critical things are:
– have the cookies ready in your hand (so you are not getting them out or delayed in your tosses). If he starts the behavior and then you have to get the cookies out of your pocket, he will look at you… then when the cookie is thrown looking at you gets built in. So, in the transition from the tugging to the prop going to the ground, get the cookies out and ready before you put the prop down. That way, on his very first motion towards it, you can mark and toss before he looks at you.
– about the marker: “yes” is built in already as a ‘look at my hands for the cookie’ marker (it is not entirely intentional yet we all do it, and that is how he understands it based on his reaction here and in other games). So…. don’t say yes. Plan to say get it and toss the treat. He is beginning to understand get it is a ‘look ahead for reward’ marker so using get it (along with having the cookie ready) will really help!
Part of the parallel path game is that you can reward sooner: reward his intent to move to the prop rather than after you see him hit it. When he is moving to it. you can say “get it” and toss the treat (the actual hit is not entirely important because this develops into jump commitment, the looking forward is more important). And to be able to see intent a little better, you can be a little further away, more like 2 or 3 feet so he has a more distinct choice of what to look at and you can more easily see it. When you are close, he can easily move to the prop AND look at you! So being a little further away will help. And the earlier timing will help too – if he touches the prop, he will look at you because there is nothing else to look at (“Mom, I nailed it!” haha) so the earlier timing will get him moving forward without looking at you.
And while he is sorting that out, resist temptation to help by luring with a hand or calling him, with you in the picture 🙂 that actually gets him looking at you more, because it asks for more handler focus. So for more line focus, move yourself out of the picture so he can show intention to move to the prop, then you can say get it and toss the reward.
Nice work here! Let me knw if the parallel path ideas make sense!
TracyHi!
>>So I can use yes with counter motion but stay close and say get it with parallel path is that correct?
Ideally, the marker words match the reward placement:
yes means ‘cookie in my hand; so you can use it with the countermotion as long as you feed from your hand 🙂 If you are going to toss the cookie past you, use your get it marker. The parallel path is always a tossed treat, so definitely only say “get it” for that one and not yes.>>Also no it wasn’t his prop it was Maples bumper in the dirt that she had grabbed and ran around with.>>
Ah! Got it LOL!
>>But on that game do you mean when you say bigger decel like to stop and then turn? So he knows?
Yes – make it more obvious that there has been a change in pace: let him see you going fast, then slowing waaaaay down to a stop so he can slow down too… then pivot. And that decel starts pretty early, so he has time to get coordinated 🙂
>> Sorry for the questions I just don’t want to practice wrong.
No apologies needed for the questions, I love questions! Keep ’em coming!
>>He LOVES the barn btw!!
Yay! He looked super focused and happy!!
TracyHi!
The lap turns are looking great – I think you were a tiny bit early stepping back with your leg, so you can wait longer with the step back (the arm was good, it was he leg that wanted to move early LOL!). Let her get almost to your hand (keeping your feet together) then as she arrives at your hand, you can step back and draw her through the lap turn.I think the tandems probably felt weird when you are standing still – when you added your motion of walking forward on the last 2 reps, it was much smoother (hopefully it felt smoother :)) You can also use both hands for these (definitely the opposite arm, but you can play with adding the dog side arm too, so both hands are involved in getting the turn away as you move forward.
You can definitely go to the next level and add the prop!
And seeing Annalise and Prytania playing in the grass at the end filled my heart with joy 🙂 Love them both!!!!Great job on all of these! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
I agree, they rocked the tunnel games- fun fun fun!! Prytty made good choices about going through the tunnel and not just running to the MM LOL!! Turning to her right was a little harder than turning to her left to get into the tunnel but she figured it out (she had to think HARD about the right turns! She also did really well with the the threadle side entries – great job starting close and systematically working your way further and further back. Super!! Have you started thinking about what you want your tunnel threadle verbal to be?
Next step… add a toy!!! You can throw a toy (to replace the MM) or you can send her into the tunnel and run run run run (she will like that a whole lot :))
Great job!
THi!
>>I’m not sure how Annalise convinced bouncy Prytty not to bounce, but I’m suspecting telepathy, lol!
Maybe telepathy, but also really fabulous low placement of reward and slow hand movement on the leg bumps. Looked great! Click/treat to Annalise for excellent mechanics!
On the cavalettis, Prytania wants to look at you (especially when she was on your right side) so you can use a target like an empty bowl – something kind of boring – close to the end. That way she can (ideally) keep her head straight, then you can put he cookie in the bowl. If she starts to rush and hop or touch the poles, just use 2 of the poles and not the whole thing so she can retain her form 🙂
>> However she did it, they got prytty good at it!
Ha! Love it!!!
T
Hi!
>>https://youtu.be/CFPp1HO9DW0
This is SO COOL! Thank you for posting it! And those new toys are amazing 🙂
Annalise did a great job adding the verbals. The 90 degree line of exit at :28 and :40 and after that was perfect and a good challenge for Prytania! She did well, committing beautifully so Annalise could start to do the FC and run away a little earlier each time. Just remember to use your dog-side leg to step to the barrel when you cue her to start. For example at :59, you had your right leg back when she was next to you, which is great! Then as you let go of her, you can step forward with the leg to support the send. You kept it back, so she had some questions about whether she should go to the barrel or not.
Great job! Keep working this here and there, so you can keep starting that FC sooner and sooner 🙂
T
Hi!
>>Circled back for Annalise to do rears on the prop (that I was never able to get right, haha!)
I added a new game for it just now! That might make it easier. The cookie throws here were really earlier and Annalise was really fast which is great – but I am not sure if Prytania was reading them as rear crosses or just following well-placed cookies LOL! Either way, she did well, so you can try this new hallway/pajamas game and see how she does.
The parallel path looked great, and yes, it was much better to just walk 🙂 At this point, Prytty figured out the concept transfer SUPER fast, so you can start to throw the rewards earlier: when she is approaching the jump and before she looks at you, say “get it” and toss the treat. You don’t need to wait til she is between the uprights, because she might start to look at you. Throwing early when you see her intend to go towards the jump will help her keep looking ahead.
Great job!
TI am glad Annalise came back inspired! She did beautifully there! And she did a super job with these sessions!!
The start line work is going well. Ideally, Annalise does not return and feed from her hand, because that is when puppies make a mistake and get up either in anticipation of the cookie, or after the cookie. The catch game worked really well! Now Annalise can turn around and walk forward, like an agility lead out, rather than backing away 🙂 And you can totally add the toy in too! And yes, Amy is paying careful attention to the mechanics of staying in motion then saying catch, then tossing the treat 🙂 Super!!!
THe might be familiar with the environment, but he was still fabulous with the new distractions. As he goes through adolescence, you’ll see that sometimes even familiar environments can be hard. But having this framework in place makes it all so much easier 🙂
TracyI got my *ss in gear and got it on video! Here it is, complete with write up:
You probably just got the email about it too. Stay warm and let me know how it goes!
Hi!
>>Regarding using “Yes” as a marker, I understand the concept that you wrote about in your previous post. Unfortunately, I am concurrently training Gabby in rally and obedience since she can’t do agility anymore and I mark her frequently with a “yes”. So this is totally my issue and I will try real hard to remember to not mark “yes” with him during these training sessions. And I have to work on the hands>>
Can you add different markers to Gabby’s work so you don’t have to remember two sets of verbals? It is MUCH easier to add to Gabby (because she will figure out immediately :)) than it is to try to remember to say yes for one but not the other LOL!
>>He took off with his toy after the first wrap and it took a while for him to come back. You can hear him squeaking it in the distance and then he tried to bring it back but got hung up in a stick. You can see my hesitation – I was about ready to go help him out when he disengaged himself – then he’d lost track of what he was doing and kept looking at the toy and looking at me and actually came back with the toy. Good boy!>>
That seemed like a decompression moment, and he came back nicely! No worries about that. You can also cue him to go do it (“go for a run!”) because that actually helps reduce the running off 🙂
>>On the wraps, he was offering them on his own and then I remembered you saying to do nose touches and free cookies to keep him with me. That worked better. Hand targets need a lot more work since I have to be pretty close for him to do it.>>
Yes, that worked so much better because he was not wrong to offer when you moved towards the cone. Getting a little line up cookie going was great!!!
>>To be honest I didn’t feel like I was as far away from the cone as it looks on the video. Either my spatial awareness is way off (which is entirely possible) or the wide angle on the lens distorts distances. Regardless, sometimes he understood perfectly and other times he had questions, so we will continue to work on these after getting your feedback.>>
>> I realize it’s 7:30 minutes but there was a lot of play play play, tugging, and a pause for maybe a couple of minutes when he was off with his toy. Too long?>>I look at videos in terms of # of reps and rate of success, because using a toy does take longer than using treats. Also bear in mind that playing, running and tugging is actually more tiring than cookie training, so those sessions should be shorter because of the extra energy needed. He had 20 reps here, which might be ok or might be too many, but mainly the rate of success was lower than I would like it to be: he was at only slightly over 50% rate of success for the skill and he should be closer to 90% I count rate of success by counting the # of reps (cued or offered, because if he offers then he believes he is getting a cue of some sort). There were 20 reps, and 9 count as failures when either he didn’t go all the way to it, or you didn’t reward if he sent himself. On the reps where he didn’t go to the cone, it was mainly because the transitions were not as clear (not enough connection shift where you look at the cone, or you were too quick to get the toy and send). When you did make a smooth, clear transition, he was really strong (like at 6:05).
You did get rewards for the hand touches happening later in the video, which does keep the environment reinforcing too! But if you see 2 failures on the skill, make an adjustment so there are no more failures for the rest of the session. Bearing in mind that a failure is any attempt on the cone that does not get rewarded, you made one great adjustment (getting the hand targets going so he wouldn’t have any questions about when to start) – the other adjustment can be starting closer to the cone. Most of the failures were not going to the cone, so the adjustment can be getting closer to build up the skill even more.
The driveway was a great place to do the resilience game!!! It is distracting and that location isa bit of “forbidden fruit” because we definitely don’t want puppies running around the driveway without us or off leash!! So he was able to explore the environment and engage, in a really easy relaxed way. Yay! You can start walking up and down the driveway, and you can even include some cues to go have a sniff or a pee-on-all-the-things 🙂
Also, since we were talking about intact males: it is so much easier to get them to potty anywhere, any time on road trips! Girl dogs can be too picky LOL!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
He looked good on both sides here! Left and right turns both looked strong, great job balancing them. Nice!
Since he wants to be explosively fast, you can balance that by moving away slowly…. that way you can move even more! What I mean by that is you can send him to the prop and slowly slide the other direction, as soon as he starts moving towards the prop, walking the whole time. If you explode the new direction, he is more likely to chase you which makes countermotion harder. And if he doesn’t hit it… reset with a cookie so he can get practice hitting the prop while you are in motion (rather than with you standing still and sending).Try to have a wider shot so I can see where you are looking in case he has any questions about connection, as you add more of the backwards sending and countermotion. And to help him as you add more of that, you can have your feet closer together during the ready dance, so you take a biiiiiig step on the send.
One other small detail about the marker: I think your toy-in-hand marker is take, and it means both “that was correct” and reward is the toy in my hand, right? Snice you have that, there is no need for a ‘yes’ before it, just use your “take” marker to indicate the correct behavior and placement. The ‘yes’ marker is less clear in that situation 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! The mats look great and he is definitely happy to find the jump here! Easy concept transfer!
I could not really see what you were doing, so be sure that you are moving the whole time. You can either go all the way to the cookie with him, so he is parallel or driving ahead of you to the jump. Or, after tossing the cookie, you can turn and be moving the other way so he looks to find the line when he is behind you., or you can move away a little more laterally so he finds it a little further from you. Mix all of this in! And at this point, you don’t need the clicker anymore – you can just use your get it marker as you did here 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi! This was great! He found the tunnel entry on both sides of you, and used his body beautifully to make the turn into it. And fast fast fast!!!! You can add in the get it marker for the toy at the exit.
>>Watching the video I can see that I am late releasing him.
I didn’t think you were late, because you want him to hear the tunnel verbal 3 or 4 times before he starts to move. On the first couple, you could have held him a shade longer to be able get the tunnel verbal going. Were you seeing the possible lateness on the threadle side, where he looked away to the tunnel pretty quickly? Yes, you can let him go on that by saying the tunnel verbal one or two more times like you did was fine too 🙂
My only bone to pick is that you were whispering the tunnel cue LOL! I could barely hear it over the background noise! So definitely be loud – because tunnel cues are LOUD and if that causes him to struggle, then we need to sort it out now. I am 1000% sure he will not struggle, though 🙂
Great job! Keep these videos coming!
Tracy
