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Actually – if she is on your left, throw it slightly to your left so she goes in a straight-ish line to it. And as you let her go, you are going to move to your right, to encourage her to get the toy and turn right to get to you. Let me know if that makes better sense 🙂
TracyHi!
>> I did start initially with a little higher object but she was just going around it. I wanted something she could just run across. I’ll try something a little higher when she gets this better.>>
Starting with it low was the correct way to start – and thanks to her feedback, we can raise it to help encourage a little bit of feet on it LOL! Part of this early shaping stuff is trying to figure out how she thinks so we can plan for future shaping stuff 🙂 Going around it and stopping in front of it is great feedback from her, so now we can help her realize that she can use her feet to get on it too 🙂
She did really well with the wrap foundation games!!
The food game looked great – you might want to do 5 or 6 treats then break it off for a mental break – she would sometimes forget what she was doing (like at :40) because she is so young, so 5 or 6 treats, then maybe 10 second of play, then 5 or 6 more treats, etc should help her out with that.
I think she is ready for the upright (Advanced level) to come in now! Start with a quick refresher of the pattern with the bowls, then after a few treats, bring in the upright. It will be right between your feet with the bowls still very visible. I am sure she will have no trouble with it 🙂She did well with the 2 toy game! To help her begin to go back and forth like she did with the food bowls, you can let the toy in her mouth get passive for 2 or 3 seconds before bringing the next toy out – the passive/dead toy will predict the next one is about to be available, so she will begin to offer going to the other side before the other toy begins to move. She is a smartie!!!! And for now, keep the toy sessions very short (30 seconds) because she is so young and wants to lie down and chew LOL! Now, that might have been because of time of day or when the session was done relative to the other training, so you can also try doing the toy sessions first.
When she is going back and forth with the toys like she does with the bowls (probably in the next session), you can add the upright to the 2 toy game as well.
Great job!!
TracyHi!
It looks normal now – glad it was not any excessive caffeination that caused it 🙂Generally, I tell handlers they are late in their handling and that is what is causing the dog to ask questions… but in this video, all of her questions were because you were too early LOL!!
By too early – you were moving the arm & leg back for the lap turn when she was still pretty far from you, so she either zig zagged or (correctly) read the cue as a throw back.
So to be later on the timing, remember the 2 inch rule: don’t start the cue til she has gotten to about 2 inches from your hand (and looking at your hand/following the hand with your eyes as you move it) will really help her drive right in for the turn too). That will get rid of the zig zags and also help her know which side of the wing to go to.
She was sometimes ending up on the other side of the wing because when you are really early and looking at her, the cue looks like a throwback (countermotion FC) like at 1:16 and 1:24 and 1:58. When that happens, just reward like you did at 1;26 because it is handler error especially when there are no verbals attached. Note how she got a little frustrated at 2:04 and grabbed a tunnel: ‘human, you keep cuing a left turn on that wing then you tell me it is wrong, so I need a moment right here in this tunnel’. LOL!
So try the lap turns being later – done correctly, you will feel like it is in slow motion and quite late 🙂 but she will read it beautifully 🙂
Nice work here!
TracyHi!
The tandem turns went well! I think you had the smoothest starts when he was coming in from a stay so you could line things up. When you were starting the next rep from wherever he was eating the cookie, it was harder to set up the angles and line.
>>On the tandems, I know that some of these are actually probably lap turns because I’m facing him.>>
Yes – I think that was just at the early part then you were moving forward more, like after 1:50. Things went well! He did his best on the tandem turns (in both directions) when your dog-side hand was also involved. I don’t think he can see the opposite hand when it is being used by itself (like at 1:52 and 2:22). But when you dog-side arm was also very visible to him like at 2:07, 2:40, 3:07 and especially 3:30 (last rep), he was perfect! So I think a 2-handed tandem turn cue is what works best with him.
I think the transitions are going well! They are getting very distinct and he is committing in collection, ready to turn tight and drive . SUPER!!
He had a question about commitment at 1:29 – there was not enough connection and also it looks like your angle might not have been directly towards the jump. At 1:48 and the rep after that both better connection but that side is harder for him – either because it is a right turn, or maybe because you were angling away from the jump and toward the other stuff out there? Or both? LOL! But you were able to get him to do it nicely on that side! And the left turn wraps all looked great.
The next step on these is to the transitions the same way, except make the front cross sooner on the jump: as he is approaching the jump but before he takes off, you can be starting the FC and moving away.
>>Has anyone asked you yet what comes after MaxPup2? I’m assuming there will be a part 3? >>
Yes, people are asking LOL!! There is a MaxPup 3 coming and it starts June 14th (I believe). The info should be posted in the next day or two, and registration begins in May.
>>Will we be working on weaves or contacts?
We do contacts foundations in MaxPup 3. The weaves are a separate class, currently independent study because there are not enough hours in the day to run it as a working class:
>>Baxter is coming on 15 months – can you believe he could actually be competing next month?>>
It is UTTER insanity that 15 month old dogs are allowed to compete! These adolescents are totally not ready, and we know that now 🙂 We all started a dog (or two) too young at some point, and we learned that it was a bad idea 🙂
>>Also lastly, any suggestions on improving his endurance? He certainly is not the dog that can go on and on forever.
He is still really young, plus it is getting hotter out, so endurance will need to be built.
The main thing to do is go to a veterinarian who specializes in fitness/PT/rehab and who also knows a lot about dog sports. That way you can get an assessment and they will build you a fitness plan specifically for Baxter. There are a LOT of people out there who are ‘fitness certified’ but very few are actually experts that I would trust. If you want someone to meet with you in person (HIGHLY recommend at least one in-person assessment), I use Dr. Marie Ballengee of Pawsitive Steps in Burlington, NC. I know it is a bit of a drive but she is worth it! Dr. Marie has been keeping my dogs sound and happy since 2019 🙂 and she works with a TON of agility and flyball dogs.
https://www.pawsitivestepspetrehab.com/
I can also poke around and find recommendations closer to you if you want.
My favorite online fitness profession is Dr. Leslie Eide. She is also a high level agility competitor, so she understands the needs of performance dogs, And her programs are highly individualized. She is based in the Seattle, WA area so online is ideal. Here is her website:
https://www.thetotalcanine.com/>> treadmill their dogs regularly.
Treadmill is only a small piece – a great program includes core, balance, flexibility, strength training, and explosive cardio as well.
Great job with the videos! Let me know what you think of the other ideas!
Tracy
Hi!
This went well! You were able to get her to do the out AND start the FC and BC.
On the FC reps, you had a little decel on the get out cue which actually helped with the FCs, making it easier to rotate because you were already decelerated and a little turned towards the jump.On the BC reps, that little deceleration made it harder to get the blind because after slowing down, you had to speed up again. So when planning the blind, stay in motion the whole time so the blinds feel smoother.
You can do both the FC and BC sooner. You were waiting til she was jumping, but now you can move up the timing to start as soon as her head turns to look at the jump. This will definitely challenge her commitment skills!
>>I turned the wrong way towards the end of this video.
I think the spot you are mentioning happened at :29, so she turned to her left. That was because on the out cue, you decelerated and then slightly turned back to the takeoff spot – which read as a rear cross to her (good girl!). So definitely keep moving forward through the FC and BC as you deliver the out cue, and trust her to find the commitment 🙂
Great job!!
TracyHi!
>>We tried bowls with tiny kibble and was going well, then after several treats she vomited them all up. >>
>>She gets full quickly, picky on treats, and sometimes vomits them up.>>Oh dear! Talk to the vet about the vomiting. That is something to get checked out because she should be able to eat some treats without immediately vomiting. Does she vomit after meals?
Getting full with a tiny dog might not be getting full… it might be she is nauseous! Most dogs eat til they explode (except sighthounds LOL!) so if she is turning off food relatively quickly, it could be a different issue, like being nauseous or tooth pain. And you can also try tiny strips of soft food like cheese, if the kibble is not working. We don’t want her to develop an aversion to training or treats because she pukes during training.And, with this in mind – every session with food should be 30 seconds then done, so let her body go into ‘rest and digest’ mode to avoid vomiting. And if she does *not* puke after meals, use her meals for a little bit of training, just a little, to develop a puke-free pattern 🙂
>>Compared to my other pups, I haven’t considered Mochi very operant. >
She is indeed very operant! She just does it differently than your other dogs and also the reinforcement strategies have not been sorted out yet with her making it harder to train. As soon as that gets sorted out, everything will be super easy 🙂
>>So maybe I haven’t figured out what SHE needs yet to be successful at shaping.
Accurate! And that is normal, she is VERY young. And that is why we start with several easy, no pressure shaping games, to mainly sort out what the pups need from us in order to train effectively 🙂
On the video: She did great here, TOTALLY figured it out! Super!!!
It was harder for her to leave your left hand – but easy to leave your right hand and go to the left (maybe she is a lefty?). But she did a great job going both directions and she definitely loved the toy!!
Only one suggestion: during the warm up when you are establishing the back and forth…
Let the toy that goes dead be stationary for 3 seconds before you start moving the other one, so the stationary predicts the other one will move!On the next session, go the advanced level: start with the back and forth warm up to re-establish the pattern… then after a few successful reps of going back and forth, grab an upright to put right in front of you for her to go back and forth around (like we did with her classmates in the live class :))
Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! The oven mitt is perfect!
She did really well in the warm up.>>Not sure what’s going on here. Not hungry? Gotta pee?>>
A couple of observations for you – she gave great feedback!!
Then when you went into the sending, you changed a lot of things in the picture by moving really far away and moving the prop somewhere else. That is a lot of a baby dog!
So it gave us some good insight int the mechanics of training her. She was happy to send to the prop, but try not to be as far away yet. Stick to maybe 2 feet away so she doesn’t have to travel too far yet.One thing I notice is that she does not love it when you do a lot of hand tapping during play. When she has a toy, she tolerates it more here but let go of the toy when you pulled it up high and fast (watch 1:55 – 1:58 to see it) so she lets go. Then when you reached for her and the toy was relatively stationary, she sniffed. Good info!! So, use a longer toy so you can drag it around and bend over her less… and don’t do any of the hand tapping/smacking/touching her during play.
And same with the food – the food has a little less value (especially if she might be teething and the kibbles are hard) – so when you tried to do the ready dance and your hands were coming towards her, she turned off a little especially on the first rep where she didn’t know what you wanted. So, the ready dance can be hands free – she moves away each time you do it, which is great info about how she likes to play.
So the prop game is going well, and the tweaks to mechanics and staying closer to it will really help!
Tracy
Good morning!!
>>She didn’t mind me holding her collar at all.
Perfect! Keep going with the gentle holding – we need the tiny pups to be happy with us holding onto them and not squirting away when we reach for them. You made the transition from the collar hold to the toy toss very fast, which really helps!

>>She wouldn’t take food in exchange for the tug. I don’t think she was much into food this afternoon. IThis is something good to work on separately from training – back and forth from toy to food to toy. What kind of food was she refusing? You can go to something a little higher value. And taking the skill away from training will mean she is less stimulated (which is helpful in this case). You can sit on the ground or a chair and just play the back and forth game, like this:
And the quick transitions will help her let it go as well: she was figuring out that letting it go meant you were going to throw it again, so she was getting really good about letting it go LOL!
>>Towards the end my watch thought I fell so I had to reset it before the paramedics came.>>
Ha! That is the sign of a high energy session LOL!
You can now let the toy land and hold her for one more second before releasing her to get it (to slightly extend the duration of focusing forward.
Bear in mind that she doesn’t have to retrieve the toy on this game – it is as big as she is LOL! So you can go to her and play like you did at about 1:56.
You were adding your motion by the end and that went really well! So on the next session, add more of your motion: holding her for another second or two, you can let her go and move at the same time.
Great job here!!!
TracyHi!
>>We switched our prop because the bag I used yesterday was really slippery and I thought she might kill herself on it if she was turning for a toy. We switched to an oven mitt.
Good call!!!
The warm up looked good, she seemed to transfer the understanding very quickly to her oven mitt.
>>I really struggled with the mechanics of this, more when I was using food. I also was having a hard time seeing if she was really touching the prop so I missed some clicks.>>
If you felt the mechanics were hard, it is because the mechanics are hard on this game LOL!! So many moving parts and things to do and look at. I think the session went well!
She quickly figured out that the game here involved going to the thing and turning back to the momma. And she did it nicely in both directions!
She definitely liked the excitement of the toy here and was great about sending to the prop!! Definitely keep playing this with the toy. And since the toy is so exciting and she knows it is coming from your hand, stay a little closer to the mitt for now – she was not quite as good about fully touching it when you were 3 or 4 feet away, so for now stay in the 2 foot range.
The only thing to add here is the ready dance before the send 🙂 This gets her fully into handler focus (with you looking at her, saying ready ready ready… ) and then she has to switch to obstacle (prop) focus on the send. That will help build up that skill and also the dogs find it really fun – making the send even snappier 🙂
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
She did a great job with the focus forward and driving ahead! I don’t think she had any questions and she is definitely ready for you to add more and more of your speed like you started doing at the end. She has a good retrieve too!! Nice!!
One thing I noticed is that she seems to be a lefty – even with starting on your left side, which should theoretically cue her to turn to her right towards you, she was mostly turning away to her left. This is GREAT to know, it is very helpful to know their natural turning side preference!
So on the reps of this game when she is in your right side to start, she should turn left, no problem. This is the side (starting on your right) where you can begin adding in all of the speed and distance.
When she is on your left, we want her to turn to her right – so break that side down a bit for now so she is not as far ahead or feeling as much pressure from the motion. When you throw the toy, throw it further out to the side, away from you, so she almost triangulates to get to it. That opens up the peripheral vision so she can see you off to the side better and is more likely to turn to the right towards you.
Now, if she turns left, still reward as if she was perfect (because she was). And on the next rep, start even closer and with less motion. Let me know how she does with turning to the right! Many of mine pups have VERY strong side preferences at this age, which is great to know and easy to balance out 🙂
Nice work here!!
TracyGood morning!
I literally gasped when she came on the video – so cute, so tiny! And she is so smart too!! This was her first time shaping?!?!?! Impressive! Yay!
She was perfect with her nose touches! Very strong session: you had great timing, high value rewards, and she had a ton of success! For now, sitting on the Climb was perfect because it kept you nice and low for her current size.
For the next session, you can switch to tossing the reward away with your ‘get it’ marker (I think you say “search” for this) after she hits, so she can then come running back to the target. No rush on the next session though, we don’t use this game for a couple of weeks 🙂
On the 2nd video: she was great! You did a lovely job of splitting things to so that she got reinforcement for tiny bits of the behavior, and using placement of the treat to really emphasize the prop target. Lots of success! By the end, she seemed to know that it was something about the prop to interact with – but she was leaning toward stopping and looking at it rather than foot tapping it. So, 2 ideas for you:
– you can raise it up, put it on something (like a book or something, we only need it to be maybe an inch higher). That way she can step up onto it with a front foot. That can help her realize “aha! It is a FOOT thing”. When she realizes that, you can remove the book from under it. My guess is it won’t take more than another few reps to get that going.
– you can create a little loopy chain to get her feet on it: toss a ‘search’ cookie to the side. Then as she is heading back to the prop, before she stops moving, put a cookie on the prop, kind of on the other side of it so she gets her feet on it to eat the cookie. Then after she eats it and has feet on it, feed her again with her foot/feet on it and her head up (to help emphasize the whole “be on the thing” idea :)). Then toss a search treat to start the process again. When she is getting on it, we can fade the cookie that is on the prop, then we fade the cookie fed with her head up. But no rush on that, she is a tiny baby dog 🙂
Let me know if that makes sense! You have excellent mechanics so I know you can nail my crazy pre-coffee ideas 🙂
Feel free to add in toy play breaks to the shaping sessions! That will keep the arousal higher and gives her brain a break in between reps. If she is not ready to go back and forth between food and toys, no worries, you can break off the shaking and move to a different room and throw the toy around a bit 🙂
Great job!!
TracyGood morning!
>>Very sorry that my camera was in auto zoom mode>>
it made for very dramatic cinematography! LOL!!!! No worries, we could see the important parts 🙂
This session went really well! You were really good about keeping your feet and line of motion pretty much the same on all reps, letting the upper body and verbal show her the different cues. Yay!
On the go reps, you can soften the connection more but not having your arm as far back, especially on your right side ( keep doing it more like what you did at :59 when you were just running :)) That will also make the get out look really different – the opposite arm was in a good position on these! She had a couple of questions on your right side, mainly because your right arm was so far back so it was causing your feet to rotate more than needed. The dog-side arm on the get outs can just relax at your side (hard to think about all the mechanics on this game!!)
She is definitely ready for the advanced level of this game where you add the crosses 🙂
Great job! Have fun with the advanced level!!
TracyHi! No worries – I could see from your facebook posts that April was crazy for you! And a training break is always good for adolescent dogs – I haven’t done formal training with my 9 month old puppy recently either! Between work and life and being a little lazy, Ramen has had a break 🙂 And it gives the pups time to mature, which is also great 🙂
>> I can get a pool noodle but he tends to think they are great toys and will run off with them. 🤣 So I may need something he can’t carry.>>
I put the jump bar inside the poodle noodle to prevent carrying LOL!!! Or you can do a bit of 4 inch PVC pipe, cut in half lengthwise so it is 2 inches high.
>>I’m looking over some of the lessons to see what we can do>>
Look for anything silly an fun to get back in the groove: I vote for the smiley face game! So fun! And then the Diamond. And the Wind In Your Hair games for the Go and the Mission Transition elements. That will get you both back in the saddle 🙂
Have fun!
TracyGood morning!
>>One is that I tend to do my cues really fast like the tandem turn flipping my hands. I am glad for the reminder and just need to try to relax and take more time. When Caper goes fast, I start thinking I have to react faster.>>
One thing that really helps is to think of it as a step by step process, and her behavior will give you permission to go to the next step. So for the tandem turn, for example:
You show the hands – then wait til you see her responding and arriving at your hands. When she does that, it is your cue to turn her head away with your hands. Just think of it as turning her head away – then when she turns her head away, it is your cue to show her the obstacle. Kind of like a tennis match! You serve, she returns, and so on.>>I also completely am in with the reward even if wrong or you think you are wrong or think the dog might be wrong and then somehow in the course of things I don’t do that. Not sure where my brain goes on that but again thanks for reminder.>>
I think it is muscle memory and focus on task overriding the concept of reward even if there was an error, which is much newer for all of our brains and bodies 🙂
>>I hope this is what you wanted regarding no editing. I am not very efficient with my time so not many reps which I actually think is probably better for both of us. Today was beautiful outside and every time I headed for the gate to go play a game Caper would run to the gate and start whining until I got there. Let me know if you want me to continue to do ~2 minute unedited videos. It certainly makes getting them up and posted easier.>>
Yes! The unedited videos are great! I think these videos/sessions were mostly on different days? That is great because we don’t want to train a lot of different concepts on one day – so doing maybe 2 games per day can work out nicely.
Get out video: This is going well! You can pay more attention to the line on the ground (maybe move it closer, or put a leash on the ground as the visual aid for you) so you don’t migrate to the jump on the get outs 🙂 Your line on those and your line on the go reps should be the same 🙂 And yes, thanks to Brad for suggesting you cleanse the palate LOL! and for being the timer as well.
Getting the toy back made things a little harder in terms of starting the next rep: will she trade for a cookie when she brings it back? That can help keep things moving along in the session 🙂
The rocking horse threadles are going well! The rhythm of the cues looked good! They look especially good when your hands are very obvious when she is moving fast, like at :39 when you seemed to be reaching your hands back to her. Try not to hide your hands in front of you 🙂
Lap turns – this went well too! At the beginning, you are too early in your movement on the first couple of reps, moving before she arrived at the 2-inches-away-from-the-hand position. After that, you got into the groove of better timing (being later) and she did really well on both sides! Yay!
On the jump grids – video taping from the side (not from the front) will give us a fuller view of what her mechanics look like. I like to play it in slow motion to obsess on movement 🙂 She looks good here but it is hard to see all of the feet at the same time 🙂 It looks like she had a very organized takeoff and was balance and powerful over the other jumps! You can flatten out the angles of the jump by another inch or two 🙂
The zig zags looked good too – and it looks like you were trading the toy for a cookie, which made things smoother in terms of starting the next rep. And great job moving back towards the 3rd wing more gradually. She did really well here! Note the little decompression moment she needed from about 1:54 to 2:10. You were great about letting go of the toy and giving her 10 seconds to ‘take a moment’. Then she brought the toy over and said “I am ready for the next one!” And the next rep (last rep) looked really terrific! Yay! So you can keep gradually moving back on these, revisiting it here and there.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
