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Oops, I left out the best part! The league at Close Enough is NOT the AKC League. It is independent – so Max does not need to be neutered. My mixes run at league there, and the boys are intact 🙂 Plus, you can use toys and food in the ring, repeat stuff to train – it is a really lovely supportive place.
> I would take a discrimination class if you offered one (I know you are busy).>
That is a great idea! Maybe that can be the ‘winter camp’ this year!!!
T
Hi!
> I really wasn’t sure I wanted to do agility with Ellie but it has been fun seeing her develop and enjoy the training.>
She is really fun and you two make a lovely team!
>I have a question about MaxPup 4. It says that participants should have access to different training and trial environments. And I don’t really have that. Which is going to hurt us when we eventually start to trial (if we start to trial). Do you think we can still benefit from the next session?>
One thing we can do is to take *your* home training environment, and creatively make it ‘different’ so you can achieve the same goals. I also don’t have easy access to different training environments or trial environments, so I spend a lot of time making the home environment seem different and new 🙂
Plus, Ellie did so well at the match you went to, that I am not worried that she needs to go to a million different places – we can prepare her for success without needed to run around the planet finding new locations!
>If nothing else, I need something to keep me motivated to do stuff (IYKYK).>
TOTALLY relatable!!! Keeping things funs and entertaining 🙂 while moving you both towards maybe going to trials can be very motivating! Of course, competing at trials does not actually need to be something you do. But the training elements of preparing for it are really fun, and she is a sponge for all of the training!
Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>I can sit on an ottoman and see if that helps. She definitely doesn’t understand it’s put the paw on the thing. We can’t do any of the send work until this part gets understood.>
Sounds good! As soon as she has the lightbulb moment that is a foot behavior, things will move along really quickly.
Looking at the collar grabs:
Because she is so tiny, I think you can sit down to do any reps that involve reaching towards her for her collar. That seemed to surprise her and she was moving away a bit – it was probably just the hand coming in from up high.On the other hand, she seemed to really like lining up at your side!!! That allowed you to deliver the treat and touch her collar in a smooth motion without any big reach towards her – super nice!!!!
Lining up between your feet is something to add when she is bigger. Dogs seem to LOVE this game but then they spend a lot of time trying to get between our feet at first. She is such a tiny little dot that she might get stepped on LOL!! So I think she will like it a lot but it can wait 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi!
>So I started working on the blind cross outdoors because I thought it would be easier running; however, when I threw the treat, he glanced, did not see it, and just went after the toy–I did not have time to get ahead. >
Finding a treat in the grass is definitely a learned skill! For outdoor training, you can put a mat or towel down to toss the treat onto to make it easier to see. If he has seen and liked a treat’n’train, you can use that too! For my herding dogs and sighthounds, I actually had to take them outdoors and teach them how to find pieces of cheese in the grass LOL (Not surprisingly, the terriers and Papillons did not need this lesson :))
>. I considered throwing a second toy, but thought getting the basic idea first made sense–thoughts?>
Yes – getting the basic idea is the most important thing. And you can revisit outdoors with easier ways to find the treat, or throw a second toy if he will retrieve it as you run away (and not take it on a victory lap :))
Indoors is so much easier to see that start treat! Which made the whole thing easier.
>Next, I chose a longer toy, but it seemed to make it harder controlling his behavior around the toy and it made it harder for me to control the toy.>
He was a leapy dude for the toy on that first rep, but using the food to both get the toy back and loop right back to the start of the next rep was GREAT!
I have concerns for the safety of your flesh on your hands if you use a smaller toy 🙂 He is coming in fast for the toy, and I don’t want him to accidentally grip your hand while trying to get the toy. Ouch! He has no intention of biting you, it is just that he is a baby dog still learning where to put his mouth – so we don’t want your flesh to be too close to his chompers. The longer toy will make it easier for you both. You can fold it a bit in your hand as you throw the start cookie and as you begin to move away from him, then deliver it fully extended so he is sure to grab toy and not your hand. For young dogs with strong tug drive, I like to attach something big and crazy to the bottom of the toy to help direct their focus (and teeth) away from my hand. A hollee roller is a fun one, or a fur tug at the end of a toy.
You were late on the reps at 1:03 and 1:10, as you noted, so he stayed on the original side – he can totally have the toy on those reps, because he was correct. Pulling the toy away and being reset with a cookie can be confusing for him (becomes a relative punisher rather than a reset reward as it is intended to be) so you can give him the tug, then reset with the cookie. I remind myself all the time that the pup’s reward is not contingent on whether *I* was correct or not 😂🤣
Timing was great at 1:15 and after that – you started the blind almost as soon as he started moving towards you and that worked great 🙂
And it sounds like you did a scatter at the end to help him relax after a high energy session. Super!!!
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
I think this session went really well!
>I hope I am not giving too much thinking time, but it did seem like he was thinking and not frustrated–although he did need to zoom a bit after.>
You were good! We want him to be able to think through things like this, and I agree – he didn’t show frustration except maybe the one spot towards the end where he smacked the bowl LOL! That was when you were waiting for him to do a right turn on the cone (going from your left to turn), and he had more questions about offering the right turn. The left turn (going from your right to your left) seemed much easier for him!
And zooming after was a really nice outlet after that level of focus and concentration.
2 ideas for you:
He would lose his train of thought a bit after you moved the cone away each time and reloaded treats, so you can break the session off to play tug or let him chase a cookie – and while he is doing that, move the cone a bit then reset to be ready for his first offering. And part of that momentary stop in the action might have been that you moved it further away on what would then have to be a right turn for him (:30, 1:34 for example) – so adding distance on the harder side might have made it a little harder. So after breaking things off, you can bring him back and have him start on your right side, to go to your left, as a way of jumpstarting success on the new distance.The other thing to add is delaying the dish marker until he is almost all the way around the cone so there is movement as a big piece of that. He did great later in the video when you did that! Earlier in the session, he was trying to sort out if it was a ‘looking at the thing’ behavior because a lot of the markers came for looking – looking at the bowl, looking at the cone, etc. So now we can keep the markers and food delivery to moving and not just looking. He is very smart 🙂
For the next session, move to a different object – he is ready for something different and something taller 🙂 It can start a little closer to you because it is different, but you can start moving it away as soon as he recognizes it as something to wrap.
Nice work!!
TracyHello and welcome!! If you train at Level Up, I will probably get to meet you and Carly in person someday! I live down the road, near Fork Union.
> I printed them off and pasted them onto index cards for use during training sessions.>
That is absolutely brilliant!!!!! Love it!
> I placed a high value treat behind the target and got her to nose touch the target. I marked and rewarded. I did this on both sides for a couple of repetitions, and then faded the treat from the target. She is now touching her nose to the target.>
Also brilliant! Well done to you for breaking the behavior down into smaller pieces and building it up with reward. Yay!
My guess is that the tugging gets her excited (which is good) and then when you wanted her to stand still and do a precision behavior like nose touching something? Well, she didn’t see the point of that LOL!! That is why you got running and barking. But then you showed her the reason why it would be worthwhile to touch the target: Cookies! And because she is smart AND a Sheltie… she was happy to touch the target to get the cookie.
Excellent job to you both!!!!!
Tracy
Hi!
>. After watching the video I didn’t do as bad as I thought I had done.>
Interestingly, a lot of folks here and mentioned the same thing: they thought it was kind of a bad session until they looked at the video, then they saw it was good! I am thankful that everyone looks at their videos 🙂
My guess is that there are SO MANY mechanics for the humans here, and the pup really has to think about it, that it just feels weird for us humans. But it was a really good session indeed!
He was definitely thinking about the game here! Usually hands have cookies, so he was trying to ignore the hand and hit the prop. Good boy! You can show him that your hand is actually empty by sending with a more open hand. And using the toy here worked really well – you can also lessen the visual of the toy by sticking it into your arm pit between each rep, so it is not a visual distraction during the send. But he was sorting that out too – on the last rep, he went directly to the prop even with the toy moving in the other hand. And you had a huge party, which was GREAT!!! YAY!
Nice work! Let him sleep on that for a day or two, then try it again and see if he will let you add the sideways and backwards sending.
Have fun!
TracyHave fun at Purdue! It is a great school!
And yes it is weird traveling without dogs… I wouldn’t know what to do with myself LOL!!!
T
Hi! This game went really well – he focused forward really well and he showed really good impulse control as the game got harder! Super! And he did really well with the bowl and the toy. Nice!
>One time I tried using the dog side arm to send which is normally what we do but was kind of awkward…it wasn’t planned, it just happened that way!>
Using the dog-side arm works great here too, and that is generally what we use when they are in a stay at a jump – as long as it doesn’t feel too weird to hold him with the opposite arm (that might be why it felt awkward :))
He sometimes would nose bop your hand like a hand touch, so you can also indicate the forward focus with a closed hand and a finger pointing, so he knows it is not a hand touch cue.
For the next session, you can continue to move the bowl and toy around the cone until it is basically next to you and Brioche – asking him to focus forward past it to the cone, then go all the way around the cone to get it (rather than just dive on it because it is right there 😂)
One other thing to add in, since we are also looking at collar grabs and lineups – try to line him up here for this game rather than grab and pull him into position. You can see him leaning away and avoiding the hand moving to his collar a bit when he had the toy and thought you were going to grab him (even though you were feeding him) – so using the lineup then holding him without moving him will help him not want to move away.
Nice work!
TracyA-ha! Got it! I thought you meant the full page, but it was the PDF. Thank you! The PDFs should be correct now!
Thanks again!
TracyNice job here! He definitely prefers the ‘touch don’t pull’ approach to his collar being used – at the beginning you were kind of pulling up on his collar and he started moving away. But then later in the session, you were lining him up and touching the collar without moving him or pulling up and he seemed to really be happy with that. He seemed to really like the between-the-feet line up and came driving back for more!
Then at the end you were holding without pulling him, and moving yourself into position – that was great!
> Need practice lining up on the side!>
A cookie lure going straight back or following a hand touch with a big step back can help him line up nice and tight to your side, like this:
Then you can add the collar touch when he is at your side.Great job!
TracyGood morning!
Looking at the prop video:
>Food value seems good as he had a harder time getting on the toy initially.>
Yes, he did great with food here!
I think he had trouble with the toy initially because it was not moving that much, and he was intrigued by what you were hiding behind your back 🙂 When the toy got moving more, he engaged better! And in the middle of the session, when you ran to the toy and really got it moving, he engaged really well!! And you can tuck the prop away a little more for now, like in your arm pit or on a window sill so it is less distracting during the tugging moment at the beginning.
He also did really well when you did the ready game before the send! Try not to have cookies on his nose (or empty hands right in front of his nose) for the ready game, because I think that might have been obscuring some of the other info at the end.
>is he bored? Too many reps?>
Nope and nope! He was asking a good question, easy to see why on the video but I would not have ‘felt’ it in the moment if this was me training my own pup:
On the reps where you used your hand as part of the send cue, he did great! The info was very clear about what to do.
For example, at 1:55 and 2:01, you had a very clear, crisp arm-and-leg step back to the prop. He was able to move to it really well, no questions. Backwards sending is hard so he was definitely thinking, but he did super well!
Compare to reps at 2:12 and 2:29 for example – your hand did not point at the prop here and instead your hand went behind your leg/back, with the step being subtle. That caused the cue to be less clear as to where he should look (along with hands being right on his nose for the ready game), so he kind of bopped your hand. Puppies see *everything*!!
He was still engaged and trying hard, just not sure what the cues meant. So do a big ready game without your hands right in front of him, then do a big arm point/leg step to the prop – and that is where he will smack it really well 🙂
He did great with toy races! Do you have a taller toy, like a hollee roller, that he can scoop up and run through so he doesn’t stop as hard on the turf?
He brought the toy back really well on the 2nd rep! Yay! Good job having a LONG tug moment after he brought it back which will help build even more love for bringing it back! Too many folks take the toy away immediately and the pups learn to stop bringing it back LOL!> I didn’t have his collar with me so made it as least invasive as possible lol!>
Girrllllll your homework right now is to put a collar or harness in your car, and one in the training building, so you are never without one. Do it right now LOL!! Yes, you were able to grab him but you were having to grab him, he still found it invasive…and he was moving away more meaning you had to grab for him more. So to get really clean transitions that he will move towards and not away, and allow for cleaner restraint… use a collar LOL that way you can just slip a finger under it as you tug and be ready for the next rep without having to try to grab him quicker than he moves away 🙂
Since he loves the toy races, you can take this different places as a fun way to get games happening on the road. And you can add a novel-neutral object too! And it is a fun way to get him engaged with the toy before any cookie-heavy games.
Great job here!!!
TracyHi!
Thanks for sending – I double checked on different devices and it looks like the game description/video is on the primary toy races page. It is possible that your server held onto a cookie in the wrong spot? You can try to refresh it by signing out then signing back in. then let me know if it is still showing up as duplicating the field guide for you, and which device and server you use – and we will check it out.Tracy
Good morning! She did beautifully here, driving to you and pivoting! She also got back onto the toy which is great – keep the toy nice and low in those moments so she can really get a good grip on it 🙂
Since she is in a stay, you can use your stay release word to ask her to move forward. You alternated ‘free’ with her name, but I try to avoid the name as a release (for the moments like when the gate steward says “why dog is this?” and I have to yell the dog’s name LOL!!)
Just be sure not to move your hand and release at the same time, because the hand movement can easily become the release, so either put your hand in position before you say ‘free’, or you can say the release and wait a heartbeat, then move your hand.
> I’m not sure if I am starting the turn soon enough?>
I thought you were good! And she was nice and tight to you.
You can also use the cookie throw start, because that allows you to add more running which is the next step to this game – as she is getting the start cookie, you can take off and run. Then as she starts moving towards you, show her a big decel (and pivot when she gets to you). That will be a fun way to show the fast-then-slow transition without her potentially breaking the stay if you start moving too fast, too soon.
Great job!!
Tracy
