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Good morning!
>I am renovating so lots weird things end up on porch but will try and get inventive not my strong suit.>
If their are new things everyday then you don’t need to add different things 🙂
He is doing really well with his cone here!! You can move through the next few steps:
– let him offer going around before you put the cookie in the bowl he is moving towards
– move the cone a little further away
– change your position to sitting on something so you are taller (working your way to standing)This will probably only take one or two sessions. Then we can add in a taller version of the cone, and have you stand up.
The markers are going well! Be sure you are saying the word before your hands move – that will solidify the markers. On most of the reps here, you were moving your hand/treat before saying the marker.
While you are actually tugging, you can say lots of praise but try not to say more markers as that will make them a bit muddy 🙂 You were saying bite and get it during tugging but you can stick to praise and even silly noises there.
Nice work here! Let me know how the next games go!
Tracy
Good morning!
>So if I get the longer tug does he seem good to tug more then?
Yes – he seems ready for that and also, he will let you know if he is not ready by not engaging as much.
>There is one larger ball that I can put on the wobble board but I think he likes this one. I can increase the wobble later.>
I agree – this ball is perfect and we can go to the larger ball when he is also larger 🙂
>For the plank goat games he is doing well at this height plank to move and do turns. should I put it up on something to raise it? I can also support the two ends of the teeter board to create a little higher plank.>
Yes – if you have something that can raise is a couple of inches while keeping it very stable, that would be great! We don’t need it to be more than a few inches off the ground at this point.
>I will try to get a picture of him watching the videos. He is the 2nd dog I have had that watches TV and stuff. Aspen goes crazy watching even cartoon animals.>
So cute!!!!
>Next wing wraps. Do you want us to stick with tall cone or if I can unload my pop up hamper use that? It is round and about 2 feet tall.>
You can go with whatever is a little taller – maybe the tall cone? But also, the soft hamper will be good in case he hits it by accident when we add speed in upcoming games. So maybe use both a bit?
Have fun!
Tracy
Good morning!
I see what you mean about her not being into it. She was trying to communicate *something* to us but it is hard to tell exactly what she was saying.
It could have been that she needed more physical cues – Her biggest successes here were when you were moving along with the verbal. This included using your dog-side leg to send her to the wing and the tunnel – she doesn’t always move smoothly to the wing or tunnel when don’t use your dog side leg to support her line.
She definitely had a hard time when you were standing still – which tells us that revisiting the wing wrap and the tunnel sends in isolation without you moving at all will help too! We can bring out a bowl to put on the other side of the wing as a little refresher to drive to it even without you moving.
>a lot of sniffing, jumping up and also stalling out. Could be because I had an appointment in town this morning, so instead of having our usual morning session she spent the morning racing around the yard with the poodle boys while my partner did gardening work.>
This absolutely could have been part of the question! If she spent a lot of energy running around, it is entirely possible that she had not recovered yet. And if the session is a a different tie of day it might have been weird (dogs do have circadian rhythms like we humans do).
Also, the last time we saw this freezng up was when she was sore (towards the end of MaxPup 1). It is possible that she is doing racing and wrestling and partying with the boys then gets sore from slamming around the yard 🙂 So it is a good thing to get her checked often to make sure every part of her is feeling good! Baby dogs are not good at taking care of their bodies and often these communications (freezing, jumping up, sniffing) are ‘tells’ that the pup is a bit sore or chiropractically ‘out’.
Nice job here staying patient and helping her out! Let me know how she does in her next session!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Aelfraed does not mind the cold, especially when running. He’s going to be sad when the snow goes. He currently rarely drinks water as he prefers to eat snow. When we’re at home he will ignore the water bowl and ask to go outside when he’s thirsty.>
That is so funny!!! He is truly a winter dog.
>we did try some tunnel distance here and he seemed to think that was great.>
I love that you taught him the tunnel-tunnel using the tunnel under the dog walk! That is a HUGELY important skill nowadays: take a tunnel under the DW and continue on to find an obstacle. This session had the tunnel out there which provides a lovely foundation for finding the weaves or teeter in that spot in the future. The first reward was masterful: throwing it out there answered any question he might have had about staying out on the line or not. He was terrific finding the tunnel on the next reps!
Great job 🙂
TracyGood morning! She is doing well here overall, especially on the right turn side!
One suggestion to get her processing the verbals better:
Hold her collar longer so she hears the verbal 4 or 5 times before you let her go. You were letting her go at the same time (or just before) the verbal started, so she was reading the physical cues more than processing the verbals.
That will help on the blooper moments – she was moving before truly processing the verbal, so she needed the physical cues to help. When you were trying to get her to wrap on the 2nd side, you were using such a strong physical cue that it was pulling her off finishing the wing wrap. Then she went into wrap mode so going back to the tunnel was harder because she was tuned into physical cues and not verbals. Adding the verbals before she moves will let you fade out the physical cues.
>There’s was tugging before we started but should have also done some when I switched sides?>
Yes – definitely break it up with tugging during the side change and also, this is a great game to play entirely with a tug toy!
Nice work!
Tracy
Good morning –
He did a great job here! One of the most helpful things is that the tunnel cue and the wrap cue sound sooooooo different, it makes things easier for him to discriminate.Remember to hold his collar here so you can start the verbal before either of you start moving. That will help us build up the verbals and fade out the physical cues, plus he will know where he is going before he starts to move. For example, when he had the semi-bloopers at 1:42 & 2:19 & 2:37 where he was wrapping then realized you said tunnel… that will go away if he processes the verbal before he starts to move. He was basically wrapping then when he didn’t get a reward response he went back out to the tunnel. Clever! Ha! So definitely let him hear the verbal 4 or 5 times before letting him move.
Nice work here! Let me know how the other side goes!
Tracy
Good morning!
I agree, she is looking good! Her stay looks solid which helps so much! Yay!
I wonder if she will be even more comfy if we asked her to do this with a 5.5 or 6 foot distance? It looks like she has a little more power to give and has to hold back a bit. So you can try this with at 6 feet and let’s see what she does! If she seems like she has to stretch too much, we can try 5.5 feet.
Since her stay is looking so good, you can lead out even more so the moving target ends up being even further from jump 2 when she gets to the jump.
This is something to revisit maybe once a week – since she is just getting to the 10 month old range, time is on our side and her muscles are still developing 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
Hi! I am sure you don’t suck at blinds crosses! You either need to do them sooner (like as soon as he starts moving towards you) or be more connection (looking directly at him on the new side, with your arm out of the way so you are not blocking his view of your connection. Or both! Early timing makes it easier to show strong connection 🙂
But also yes – we will be working on rear crosses here too! We start them with this week’s prop game 🙂
Tracy
Very cool! Thanks for the info, I will definitely be spending more money than I need to spend on that stuff!
T
Hi!
Plankrobatics went great! He was quite brilliant about getting on the plank, sitting, and turning around. You can add in having him run across it, and also see if he will lie down on it then stand up (cookie lures are fine for this).
Do you have anything that is stable but can raise the plank up off the ground by another inch or two?
He was SO CUTE sitting on the wobble board while you were turning the camera on LOL! He definitely loves the wobble board- the tile of the bathroom is probably louder than the living room floor, but he was still happy to slam it around. Super! You can add in tugging here – tugging will get him shifting his weight into his rear on the wobble board, which is good practice for doing the teeter eventually.
Looking at the folding it in session:
>he would pit stop on the way to the bowl to smell my hand because I had treats in it.>
I think part of that is him learning to go past your hand so you can cue the focus on the line with an empty hand. Also, be sure that before you release him he is looking at the line/cone and not at you hand – if needed, you can move your hand a little further away so it is easier to see if he is looking at your hand or the cone.
By the end of that left turn side, though, he was doing really well going past your hand!
He was feeling very ready to wrap the cone to the bowl so he was avoiding the collar hold on the line up – you can line him up with a cookie each time so he doesn’t move away from the lineup.
>He did the first rep OK but then started skipping the cone.
He was very clever about going under the arm, though LOL!
Yes, it might have been a bit of brain-tiredness. Or a side preference thing: right turns are easy, left turns are hard. So next time start him on your right side to do the left turns and we will see what he says!
Overall, he is doing brilliantly 🙂 Great job!!
Tracy
Hi! This is quite the puppy playground!!
He took a moment to check it out at first – all of it in one place might have been visually imposing.
But then he locked into the game was was great about moving around on everything. I think the orange teeter is his favorite LOL! But really he was happy to do any of it and that is great! Wow! There must be something naturally rewarding about it because you were barely able to keep up to deliver the cookies. Good boy!
He was so funny trying to grab the toy and balance on the wobble board, you might need a longer toy 🙂The only thing that was hard to balance on was the purple-ish inflatable disc. It was a little over-inflated so he couldn’t balance on it. You can take out some of the inflation so it ends up being a little under-inflated and then I am sure he will balance on it easily.
Since he really enjoyed this, you can change configurations every couple of days to make the playground different.
>He watches all of your how to videos when I play them >
Ha! He is so adorable!!!!! Take a photo of him studying his homework LOL!
Great job :)
TracyHi!
He was totally fine with the collar grabs here and he figured out the rhythm of the game really well: come back, line up, collar touch, chase a treat. SUPER!! You can hold the collar for longer now after he lines up at your side.The line up is going great! You are using the luring correctly and he is more than happy to do this too. We will be able to fade the lures and put it on a cue very soon because he was obviously very comfy doing it! You can try fading the lure by having one hand empty and a cookie only in the hand that pulls him through your feet into position.
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
>Rusty playing with a tug toy for 2 minutes! Who knew?>
He thought it was great fun! He was getting tired by the end and it was absolutely adorable when he was chilling out on the wobble board and holding the toy LOL!!
And I agree, the movement and noise did not bother him here (especially because he REALLY liked that toy 🙂
The size of the wobble board is great for now and by the time he is too big for it, I bet he will be old enough to bang the end of the teeter itself.
For now, you can repeat this game on a surface that is a little harder to add a little more noise to it. But be sure to use this super amazing tug toy, so the increase is noise is no big deal to him.
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
> Things I’m doing… really working my reward markers for toy availability. >
This will definitely help in the long run!
>Offering a cookie for the drop when doing exercises. >
Yes and since he has lovely amount of toy drive, you can trade for a good cookie pretty immediately. Will we maybe lose a tiny bit of toy drive? Maybe, but that is fine for now!
>Grabbing both ends if toy for tugging. He tends to regrip a lot of I don’t. >
This is also good!
>He gets a lot of satisfaction in holding things! Of course right?! Golden.>
Yes, plus the running off and shredding can be a bit of a decompression behavior where he is self-regulating, in a very teenage way LOL!
> I went through a whole protocol of teaching return to my hand. He’s. Total rockstar with that.>
Super! You can of course use that protocol with agility-style toys.
Also, have you ever tried putting a tennis ball or small wubba in a large (or extra large) hollee roller? You can cut one of the rubber parts and shove a ball in. That is a great toy to throw as a reward and you can also use it as a moving target/tug toy by attaching it to a longer line. It is NOT a fun toy to shred though, so you can work on getting him to bring it back for a cookie or trade for one of the fuzzy toys that you hold on to. I have found that using balls like this gets retrieving going really well and it transitions nicely to the regular buggies as well!
Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
Yes, 10 months, that is definitely in the throes of adolescence and it is likely his brain is changing a LOT right now (along with his body). So breaking things down and using all sorts of different rewards will help through this sensitive period.
About the tunnel exit game: WOW! This was pretty perfect 🤩 Timing was great, your lines were great, and your connection was great! It was pretty impressive how well you could connect and run wearing a big winter coat!
I have no notes for improvement, it was great and he was flying 🙂You can keep expanding the distances and if you have a second tunnel you can put a tunnel out instead of the wing on the “go” lines!
Great job :)
Tracy
