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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
Hi!
Pillbug game:
She did a great job of following your line and more importantly… NOT jumping up or sharking even when she caught up to you. Fantastic!! That is an important element of this game and she did really well!>In the beginning I was holding the toy with both hands and switched later on to just one, which I think helped.>
Yes – holding in one hand and having it scrunched up helps because it is one less visual for her to have to sort out. Great job with our connection here!!
She did GREAT on the tunnel exit game – the first section (pre-brain-fart) was perfect!!!
The funniest part of the brain fart was Sol in a down while you were figuring it out, and totally judging you LOL!
There was a small blooper at 1:12 – You just turned too soon (your shoulder movement looked like a blind cue) but she made a good choice to grab the toy and not grab you.
At 1:21 – she got a little ahead of you on the way to the wing but then didn’t know what to do with herself so cut in then you lifted the toy when you cued the tunnel so she went to the toy. Still better than biting you! Great job breaking it down on that side with the thrown toys. You can really amplify the connection on those right turns and run all the way to the wing before turning to help her sort out the commitment.
Going to the left on the 2 wings during the last sequence was GREAT, no questions – she might be a lefty so it is easier for her to coordinate that and she doesn’t need as much support.
The Wind In Your Hair looks super strong! You were nice and early with the toy throws which helped lock her onto the jump. You can add more distance now and stick with the toy throw – you can wait one more stride before throwing to see if she will continue to the jump even when the toy is not immediately visible out ahead.
She also did great with the set point! The moving target keeps her head low and she is driving to it really well. And she was really working hard to hold the stay 🙂
What was the distance here? We want move it in a little closer to see if she will bounce the distance. She was doing a nice balanced one-stride here, so maybe shortening it up by a foot will promote the bounce. But also, she is just about 6 months old, so there is no rush on this at all! You can revisit this once every couple of weeks for now – the current distance will likely be perfect when she is closer to a year and has more of her adult body 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
He did well with the various collar games here! Having you take the collar before a quick toss was easy peasy. Offering the collar came along with the sit at first and he was cool with it 🙂 It did indeed look like he was starting to move his collar to your hand which is awesome!!
Moving him with the collar with the cookie magnet is great – I don’t add it in as part of the lessons at this stage because many pups are avoiding the collar hold or folks skip directly to pulling them around by the collar 😂 But he was happy with it – you can add in a combo of the cookie magnet/moving him with collar pressure then the ready-set-go of a toy or treat toss.
The rewards for stillness were great! And the middle lineup was good too – a bit of stillness can help you set up things like the hand & feet positions needed for the middle lineup.
We will be doing the head-through-loop and more leash games here soon too! Stay tuned!
Two things about this –
He had a low tail set and low/slow wag during these games (different than his norm) – might be that he feels a bit of pressure so you can intersperse these with letting him run around with a toy or having you be more upright (bending over can be pressure).
And, you can repeat all of these games after having him move more or tug a bit, so he learns it in a higher arousal state too. That will make the behavior more accessible in the higher arousal states which is when we need it for sure.
> I am struggling with the concept of holding with dog side arm and indicating with off arm and off leg. My body wants to indicate with dog side arm and leg. >
Yes, I agree that this stage is *awkward* because I also use my dog-side arm to cue focus forward when doing it for real. Since we don’t want to bring a stay into this yet, the options are to either hold with the dog-side arm point with the opposite arm, or to hold with the opposite arm and point with the dog-side arm. My arms are not long enough to hold with the opposite arm so I use the dog-side arm. And it has been a super easy transition to pointing with the dog-side arm when the sit comes into this 🙂
>Also struggling because he’s offering the cone wrap and I like that and I keep forgetting it’s not about that, it’s about the SSC. >
It is about all-of-the-above! It is mainly about multi-sensory integration and teaching his brain/carve out neural pathways that prioritize looking at and going to the cone wrap over anything else.
>The session today I ended up reinforcing and then naming and then standing to show the 2 wraps and forgot it was about passing the treat bowl or toy, not getting the actual behavior. >
Still sounds like a good session, though – and will make the SSC control element even easier because the wrap behavior is even more strongly encoded. Let me know how adding the SSC element goes!
Very nice toy switches and retrieving in the video here! He is definitely a lefty and we will keep that in mind as the games get more complex. He seems to really gravitate towards physical contact and hugs which makes the retrieve a lot easier. You are also doing a great job of NOT making it about taking the ball away, because that is where retrieves disappear 🙂
Great job :)
Tracy
Hi!
I am so glad he had fun in scent work class! I am not surprised to hear he did great – you’ve prepared him well 🙂Those are really cool pods!! Much better than the prickly things we have here. He was brilliant about getting right up on them and I loved the deliberate foot placement at the end!!! He figured out that it was better to carefully place each foot because knocking the pods over would not lead to more rewards. And click/treat to you for breaking it up with toy play. Really excellent session here!
Do you have 2 more pods? You can try to get one foot on each!
Tracy
Hi!
>possibly because reinforcement is clearer and the handler is out of the picture>
YES to both of these 🙂
Hi! Both of these games went great!
Prop sends: Yes, the turns were perfect with you a bit more lateral! Super! And she added a level of difficulty each time by hitting the prop and sliding it further and further away 😆 but that didn’t create a problem- she kept driving to it. Great job convincing her (with a cookie) to come to you for the ready game when she wanted to stay out and be sent again.
Only 1 small suggestion – when you send to the prop, try not to say Go. Because there is a turn at the prop, we want to save the Go for when she is continuing straight and the reward is thrown straight. For now, you can say something like “hit it” – we will be adding more directionals soon!
The goat game went well too 😀 In the video, you mentioned that you should have had the cookies with you so you could reward her sooner – yes, that will definitely help her at the beginning.
She seemed perfectly happy to get all of her feet on the lower objects. Super! She didn’t immediately interact with the couch cushion and you had some spot on reward moments when you rewarded even brief interactions.To help get her onto the cushion, you can have it pointing perpendicular to you and brace it with your feet (one on each side) so it is very stable and she feels comfortable hopping on it. Towards the end of the session you did have more support by having yourself closer so she interacted with it more.
Great job here!
TracyPerfect, that sounds great! Keep finding places where she can confidently lead the way on these walks, to help expose her to a variety of different things in the world 🙂
T
The wrapping went really well here! Standing was no problem and she was happy to wrap the hamper.
We will be building on this game soon but for now, you can keep switching objects for her to go around, and take this game to new locations. When you are in a new location, you can have the object closer to you to jump start the game, then move it back out as soon as you see she remembers the game 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi! She did really well here! The cookie recall game was really easy for her, which made it a great choice for the stealth self-control stuff.
She was able to ignore the novel-neutral object- good girl! Because she saw you put it down, she investigated it immediately. So the next level would be to have a novel neutral object already in the room before she comes in so she doesn’t investigate it. You can have it visible but off to the side so when you bring her in, you can get the game started right away and see what she does.
Nice work here!
Tracy
Good morning! These games are looking great!!
The collar grab game went really well – she seemed to think it was the easiest thing ever with the treats! She loved the tug break, so you can add the tug toy into the game: line up with treats, then throw the toy.
I bet she would also really like lining up between your feet because it provides a lot of social support.
The folding in game went well! Lovely session!
She had a little trouble tugging at the beginning – I am not sure if it was about wanting the cheese or if she was hearing the loud noise (motorcycle?) happening at that time. You can see her almost flinch at :03 when it was really loud. Our human brains don’t really hear that stuff but her puppy brain sure does! The cookie bag was in the same place in the previous video when you were tugging so it might be able the noise more than about the cheese 🙂
And note how when you did your first tug break, she tugged with no problem even with the cheese right there.
Going to the food was good, though, because it helped her engage really well! Collar grab went great here too and she focused forward brilliantly.
Because she liked this game (and, as you said on the video: cheese is the BEST haha) you were able to hold her collar longer and get the bowl moving around the cone too.
It looks like you were using your cookie toss hand to also give the forward focus cue to the bowl. You can make it even more obvious to her that the hand is part of the cue by tossing the treat into the bowl then moving the hand back, then pointing to the bowl again.
Since this went so well, you can keep moving the bowl around the cone until she has to pass it to go around the cone to get to the bowl.
And you can repeat the game with the toy instead of the bowl, I think she will like that too!
>Biggest issues seemed to be on my part: 1) Keeping treats in the correct hand – and ONLY the correct hand 2) Keeping the games to 2 minutes>
I think you had really good mechanics for these games where having 3 hands would make them easier LOL!! You didn’t rush and you stayed engaged with her, so she stayed engaged with you. That is HUGE!
The cone game did have a longer session so you can set a timer to help keep it shorter. But you did a GREAT job of breaking the session up with tugging! So while it was a bit longer in length, it was still had a fast & fun feel because of all the toy play 🙂
Great job here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Fog burned off so we have sun this afternoon!! Really helps my mental health!>
Yay! Blue skies are soooo much better 🙂 And I love your wing setup as the replacement for the second tunnel 🙂
I am so glad you two had fun with the pill bug! She was fabulous with her quick responses and your connection was lovely on the outside turns! And the blinds went really well.
For the double blinds:
The good news/bad news is that she is already crazy fast! OK, that is all good news 🙂 It makes this game so much more challenging for timing because she needs to see the info earlier. She is reading everything perfectly, so you can try two things to be earlier:
– As soon as you send her to the start cookie, you can start running. Get way ahead and stay connected.
– Then when she starts running towards you- do the first blind pretty immediately. That gives you a lot more time to get the second blind in and decelerate to set up an inside turn if she is between you and the tunnel.
Being earlier might lead to some bloopers because the earlier cues might sometimes be too early (depending on where she is relative to you) so she might end up seeing a cue that sends her to the other side of the tunnel. That is still rewardable, though, because she is still responding correctly to what she sees.
She read the blind to the inside turn on the last rep really well – partially because the BC was earlier and partially because you decelerated into the inside turn. Super!!
>I left a few “swifter” moments in there for yo>
Thanks! She is just so cute when she does that!
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
Using the cabinets was smart! She got lots of really good steps backwards – yay Dot!
She is ever-so-slightly backing up on an angle. That is because your right hand is delivering all the treats, so she is locking onto your right hand as the focal point to back away from.We can change that before it becomes a bigger angle with a small mechanics tweak: You can alternate delivering the treats with your left and with your right hands, so the focal point is more centered. To do that while also maintaining the flow/loopy feeling of the session, you can take the clicker out of the game (use a verbal marker) and have treats in both hands, with both hands in front of you – then flick a treat to her from alternating hands.
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
>Yes, it was Carol. We actually live on other sides of the US but have had dobes from the same breeder.>
What a small world! So fun! Carol is a BLAST so hopefully you two can train or trial together!
>Rou and I took the weekend off from specific training. We had an off-leash run and some socializing outings. >
Click/treat to you! Life with a puppy is about more than sport training. The outings and the run do a lot to support everything in her development.
>On Sunday, I was at a seminar with my older Doberman. I giggled when she asked if I had a look/forward focus cue and if not, how useful it could be.>
It is a hot trend for sure! You can teach the older dog to focus forward the same way Rou is learning it here. I don’t think Dobes are dogs that are wired to stare at things (like Border Collies are) so it is perfectly fine if she glances at it just to acknowledge that she sees the line.
She was super confident with the wobble board! Since our goal is to get her to shift her weight back, keeping the toy low like you did will go a long way to getting that weight shift. You can try letting her grab the toy that you are holding with one hand, then gently tapping on or near her shoulders with your other hand. That is something that often gets the weight shift because the pups pull back as part of the play.
You can ‘test drive’ that away from the wobble board: tug nice and low with one hand and tap near or on her shoulders with the other. If she leans back and pulls harder? Great! Onwards to the wobble board. If she drops the toy or is offended? Ok, we won’t use that on the wobble board 🙂>She seems to rotate on what is highest value tugging.
Yep, adolescence 🙂 They have a preference for novelty and that means ever-changing reward sensitivities. Yesterday’s favorite toy might be the most boring toy ever today LOL!
Turn and burn:
Yes, the toy might have been high value and very stimulating but I think she was actually telling us she is a righty, not a lefty. We see. this a lot from the dogs on the first rep of this game: they go behind us and offer a turn to the stronger side. It appears to be a toy distraction but it might just be that she needed to start this turning to her right (on your left side) and not to her left.She did not do any toy leaping when she was starting on your left side/turning to her right – was it because she was better able to coordinate herself on that side? Or was it because she had already gotten a bunch of good reps in? The next session will tell us!
This is something to ask her at the start of the next session. Bring out a super fun toy, and start her on your left side/her right turn. See what her first response is: does she wrap the cone to her right? If so, she is probably a righty. Does she leap up for the toy? If so, that toy is too arousing and you can use a lower value one or treats for the first few reps of each session.
Once she got the idea, though, she was absolutely brilliant! Excellent commitment and really right turns!!!! And great job to you for using your verbals too.
Nice work here!
Tracy
Hi! A couple of goat ideas for you:
>I have not tugged on the wobble board. >
You can definitely add in tugging on the wobble board! The first time you do it might be hard, so make it easier to start by putting folded up towels under the wobble board so he only moves the board a little. When he can confidently tug on it, you can gradually begin removing the towels that are bracing it, to add more movement to the board.
You can also great a large playing field of all the different things to climb around on. This can include the wobble board, rocker board, paw pods, couch cushions, cato and wood planks, anything you have that he can fit on.
As he grows, the donut and the peanut will be really weird feeling (too big to fit on them comfortably and not enough strength developed yet to be compressed on them and balanced). So you can set those aside to revisit when he is bigger.
Have fun!
Tracy
