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Hi!
>>10 days post-spay and so far she hasn’t gone completely stir crazy yet. (Luckily she does like to snuggle on the couch so I’ve been catching up on Outlander episodes since there is way too much drama going on in the USDAA & UKI worlds. And a lot of egg cartons and paper towel holders have been destroyed)>>
She looks very cue in her outfit! Yay for not going stir crazy and the destroyed cardboard… but no yay for the weird week in USDAA and UKI drama. So much weirdness!
>>I have been playing around with some offered stand stays (no video) and the leg weaving. My original thought was that she would weave a leg or two and then stop in the stand and I could use that as a way to get from taking the leash off up to the start line. Well she started offering sits after one leg weave and they were really happy & snappy sits lined up next to me so we played with leading out from that or throwing the treat back to catch.>>
Perfect! I think a lot of these ‘tricks’ lead into the dogs telling us what *they* want to do. And the scientist people tell us that allowing agency (letting the dogs make their own decisions) is great for self-regulation and building resilience.
>Then I thought that I could evolve the leg weave into a behavior where she would keep weaving if I kept stepping another leg forward but would stop and sit if I stopped and stood with my legs together – incase the leash off point was further from the startline. Well then she started getting confused and either sitting after 1 leg weave while I was waiting for her to weave again or hesitating on the sit and swinging her butt out more. (you can see this when I ask for more than 1 leg weave near the end of the video even with a hand cue which makes it clearer for her). So I went back to just 1 leg weave since that seems to make her happier.>
Right – my guess is that she thinks it is a really fun line up thing and when you keep moving, you are preventing the part that she thinks is the fun part. So she is like WTF STOP MOVING hahahaha So if this becomes a great line up trick? Fantastic! You might eventually be able to get multiple leg weaves going, or decide you want to leave it as one weave to a sit.
> I also experimented a bit with leash off, let her shake, move forward and cue a spin next to me before a leg weave. That didnt’ seem to flow so well with her because she started having trouble with the leg weave after the spin. After thinking about it a bit, I decided I wasn’t sure I wanted to work on it that much more since I have used a spin and then I take off running to start in the past and I don’t want her to be second guessing whether she should come out of the spin blasting forward to chase me or collected to weave between my legs.>
It might be a bit too soon to sequence in another trick before the new leg weave trick – she might think the spin is followed by something else, and the leg weave trick takes a bit more processing because it is new. I bet you will eventually be able to sequence them together with no trouble.
On the video – she totally loved the weave then sit! Was your cue hand empty? If so, great! It not, see if you can cue the leg weave with an empty hand.
You can also add a wing of a jump in front of you to get this behavior to transfer to lining up in front of something.
She seemed fine with going to the leash on cue, after getting the spin – it was more of something for her to observe because there was no particular behavior for her in that moment. It was more of a ‘after you do a thing, I will say leash then we go get it, then you will get treats”. She seemed to think it was just fine. She might eventually start running to it when she hears the leash word, but it was fine that you were the one going to get the leash.
It will be fun to build on the weave-to-sit when she is cleared to do more things!!!
> am looking at the MYOB Puppies/teenagers one since I am guessing it has a bunch of relevant stuff for Ms Lift. I audited MYOB last December/January but was super-busy at the time so didn’t really do much with it.>
It has some really good stuff – there is some overlap to what you’ve done here, but also plenty of new games/variations that we haven’t done here or that come from the flyball world 🙂
Nice work here!
Tracy
Good morning!
Great tunnel session Mary! She was able to find the tunnel entry from pretty far away without any help besides the verbal! And you did a great job adding the verbal cue before you let her go, then marking with the ‘get it’ and tossing the reward nice and early. Big click/treat to you for setting up a great session!
She seems ready for you to start the tunnel threadle element, where she is between you and the tunnel and has to turn away from you to get into it. It might be hard (especially to the right side as you mentioned) so start it relatively close to the tunnel entry (and use your tunnel verbal for now). When she gets it really well, you can add your tunnel threadle verbal to it, doing exactly what you did here: hold her, say your tunnel verbal 3 or 4 times, then let her go (then mark and reward).
Parallel path is also going well! She had an easy time doing it on your right side at first (maybe because that is a left lead?) but she also did get lots of good reps on your left side too. She really had to think about it on your left side!
You don’t need a ‘yes’ marker, you can just use your ‘get it’ then throw the reward. “Yes” tends to get the dogs looking at us – and ‘get it’ tells them they are correct AND to keep looking forward because the reward will be tossed out ahead.
Since she is doing really well, you can add more lateral distance away from the jump on your right side. I think for when she is on your left, you can stick a little closer to the line for now, to support her commitment. It might feel a little weird to be further on one side and get closer on the other side 🙂 but it will build the commitment nicely. And it will end up balancing out pretty quickly so you can add equal distances on both sides.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
The tunnel game went great! Great job having all those tunnel bags out there – he is powerful!
And also – very nice timing on the get it marker especially when he was on your left side. You were marking as soon as he turned to the tunnel with the get it, so he could drive directly to the toy. Super!!!He is ready for next steps here too:
Repeat this game but have him on the inside (between you and the tunnel) to begin the threadle entries. You can use your tunnel verbal for that. As soon as he says “got it, I can turn away into a threadle entry” you can start your tunnel threadle verbal: hold him, say it 3 or 4 times, then let go so he can move to the tunnel threadle.Great job here!!
Tracy
The parallel path was great! The most important thing for him here was to get him to STOP looking at da momma (boy dogs and their mommas… it is a love fest LOL!!)
Nice timing of the clicks and he figured that out VERY quickly. SUPER!!! You can also now fade the clicks – mark the smack of the prop with a ‘get it’ marker so he knows the treat will be tossed ahead (and will look at you even less).
Sideways sending looked great and his prop smacks are adorable and hilarious! The poor egg carton LOL! Great job using the hand closer to the prop to send him to it, that will make the countermotion very easy.
His commitment on the backwards sending is also looking great – he turned away to his left at :20, reading it as a rear cross. So you can send backwards a little more laterally offset from the prop, so there is no rear-cross-pressure on the line to the prop.
Since this all looks so good, a couple of “next steps”:
For the parallel path, using the prop – you can start to add in the rear crosses (the advanced level :))
For the sending (sideways and backwards) you can add in countermotion – send to the prop and start sliding the other direction as he is moving away to it. You can also use a toy for this.
And for the parallel path, you can add in the concept transfer we added last week – using 2 uprights and a jump bump! Same concept of driving to it on a parallel line – but the timing might be a bit different on the get it marker: you can mark when he is looking at and moving towards the setup and toss the reward so it lands on the other side before he goes through the uprights. The goal is to keep him looking forward. If he gets to the uprights and you have not marked yet, he is likely to look at you 🙂
One other idea: I think when your arms move up and down in the ready dance moment, he thinks you ant him to also jump up and down (we do not LOL!). So you can keep up the chatter but change the body language to not move as much, keeping your hands low. It is more about the ‘are you ready’ muscle tension to get the explosive drive into work (and arousal regulation) so you don’t have to move as much.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
This is going well – he is showing really great commitment! We can smooth out some small details:
>I didn’t do well on my side – don’t think I ever walked instead of run >
Ha! You didn’t really walk but you were definitely calmer and very connected. He did super well!
>but it ended up being a really good exercise for us as he is all about flinging himself to whatever thing I have set out without waiting for a cue and this turned out to be a great place to work with that. >
Yes! I think he is both very keen to work (yay!) and reading subtle movements as the cue to work (also yay!) so we can clarify for him when it is NOT yet time to start offering things 🙂
For the ready dance – try not to step towards the barrel because that is an indication to go to it. You can bob back and forth without moving your feet, so he can get into the game but not see any bits of the cue to go to the barrel.
Then you can make a smoother transition to lining up with a cookie lure with slow movement for now, so he doesn’t confuse you facing forward with the cue to go to the barrel (he loves his barrel!) On the last rep of the second video, your line up cue was SO CLEAR that he had no questions about what to do there.
>I’ll come back later to work on walking to get a cleaner circle and be able to leave sooner.>
You might not need to add walking if you are this clear and connected! But to get started on leaving sooner:
Work turn and burn with a line on the ground so you don’t do the FC too early. That will give you a focal point so you don’t start the FC too soon. You can start it as soon as he is at the barrel, but not yet before he gets there – so for now, the line can be at the barrel kind of where the jump bar would be, and you would start the FC when he is arriving at the line. Then you can move the line to being before the barrel so the FC can be sooner and sooner.
At :17 on the first video and :14 on the second video (the first rep on each one), you started the FC before he had finished the first step to the barrel so he did not commit. When that happens, use a reset cookie to reward his effort and to line him up again. I suggest this for two reasons:
– with handling games, there is a strong likelihood that the error was produced by human error and the pup was correct, so rewarding him is a good thing 🙂 That is what happened here.
– He is jumping up at your face-level a lot, so the reset cookies will give him something to do with all of that extra energy (especially if there is frustration) rather than jump up.On the other reps, you held your FC position for one more heartbeat (til he was arriving at the barrel and he was great! And you had great connection on the exit of these wraps too!
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
Fingers crossed for a December warm up!! It is definitely too cold.>The first 2 reps, the cookie was in my hand that was guiding him, so that threw everything off. By the end of the session, he seemed to be getting the idea.>
Actually, it was not the cookie in the hand that made it probably feel off-kilter… it was that the lap turn hand was the ‘wrong’ hand for the prop being there. Since this is a threadle foundation game, the lap turn hand should be the one next to the prop to draw him past it like a threadle. You were using the hand on the opposite side – which is probably why when you finished the lap turn, it felt weird to get him to hit the prop because it was not on the natural line.
So for the next session, if the prop is on your left side, the lap turn hand is also the left hand. And vice versa – prop on right, right hand cues the lap turn (you had right hand here for prop on left, and left hand here for prop on right).
He did solve the problem really well though, in what I am learning is typical Malinois style: give them one rep to look at the puzzle then they have the answer and it doesn’t matter as much what we do LOL!!! That can totally work for us if we have our mechanics ready to go for the first rep – makes everything much easier (I am really enjoying seeing this in training my half Mali and watching Judge do this too!)
When you changed sides at :35, remember to have your lap turn hand more fully extended and elbow locked (not bent) when you begin the cue. If your hand is up high and your elbow is bent, the hand cue gets hidden by your torso and he doesn’t really see it. When the hand is fully extended and low, it is so much more obvious to him.
Nice work here! Stay warm!
Tracy
Good morning!
>he seems to only dislike when it’s actively raining while wet ground seems to be ok, >
Me too, Checkers, me too LOL!!!! Today will be 30 degrees and raining. Bleh!
>he’ll spend some time at my Aussie’s scentwork trial so will get some more dog life exposure there!>
This is just as important as any training games!
Looking at the videos:
He is reading the rear crosses really well when you can get to the new side in time. You did it at :24 and 1:24 to the left, and 1:02 and 1:13 to the right. On the reps where he turned the other direction – he is just danged speedy getting to that prop so he was already turning the original direction by the time you got across the rear cross line.
I like his speed, so we won’t try to slow things down. But what you can do is, instead of starting next to him (because he accelerates to the prop so well) you can actually start with him behind you on the RC by tossing a cookie a few feet back – then as soon as he eats the cookie, you start moving forward. He will pass you but you are also going to be showing the RC pressure towards the center of the prop as he passes you, then you can step to the new side immediately to get the turn.
Let me know if that makes sense or if I need more coffee to explain it better 🙂
>. There’s a few reps in there when he makes it almost but not quite to the prop and then turns, I wasn’t too worried in the moment >
I am not worried about this either, he will commit to the jump when we transfer it to a jump.
Parallel path – the first couple of reps did have rear crosses (you being close to the line then changing sides) but then things smoothed out significantly when you moved away laterally. Yay!
You can do parallel path and rear crosses in the same session, no need to do separate sessions. Your handling will cue the line. That you want, plus it will help him differentiate the cues for going straight versus RC.
Turn and burn: He is definitely loving to drive around the barrel and is maintaining his commitment as you do the FC sooner and sooner 🙂 YAY! So keep getting that FC sooner and sooner, bit by bit 🙂
I think the hardest part here was the line up and initial send. Because he is little, it is harder to get a smooth line up than with a big dog – with my bigs, they are tall enough that I can hold the collar without bending over!
With the smalls, I think it is harder to hold the collar but it is helpful to try it (collar or a harness) – it allows you to have a moment before the send, plus it allows you to start adding his verbal wrap cue by saying it then letting go and sending to the barrel. Ideally the verbal gets added before you move.
You can lure him to line up at your side with a cookie then gently hold him, before starting the cues. The big clear step to the barrel helped him get the left turns at the beginning (he tends to offer right turns if the cue is not as clear). You can see this at the beginning at also at 1:24.
For him, the most important part of the cue is going to be the connection. If you look at him while you send? He gets the left turn every time. If you look forward? He offers the right turn (like at 1;34)
I think the line up at your side will also give him something to do other than jumping around – I think he was doing that because he didn’t always know what else to do and the toy was visible. Lining up at your side as part of the start of each rep all really clarify that for him and you can bring the toy out more in between cookie reps 🙂
>I didn’t notice!!! I THINK he was going over there to either get a quick drink or to look at his cookies (both are in the direction he trotted to), and if I had been paying better attention I probably should have taken a quick break or some other kind of reset or just stopped the game, because our next reps were not the best.>
I think that moment was when you were moving the line to a new spot, so he went to look at something, no biggie. The next reps being a little off-kilter were more about the line up than him being disengaged. You can keep him with you with a bunch of treats tossed in the grass or talking to him, while you change the line. But yes, you can totally build in breaks for him too, that is always a good thing.
He is definitely understanding the value of the box! And also yes – he is FAST LOL!! You can try tossing the treats further away so you have half of a heartbeat to be ready to reward again before he looks at you LOL!! You were going pretty darned fast 🙂 And also, as you build the running contact behavior as he gets older, you will have something else out there (manners minder, or a jump wing, or an empty bowl, for example) to help keep his focus forward. For now, you can introduce an empty bowl 10 feet away on each side (you toss the cookies in it or towards it) or you can introduce a manners minder if you have one!
If he has not yet seen the MM, introduce it separately without noise or movement of the gears – just as a cookie holder. Then you can dd the gears and eventually the beep. Many dogs are afraid of it at first so we want to introduce it gradually.
Strike a pose with the dish went really well! Nice timing of the dish marker (when he hit the target). When you revisit this, you can have your cookie hand out above the dish (rather than behind your back) to make it easier for treat dropping 🙂 And you can also use a toy!
>My uncut video was super long, a bit over 10 minutes, but when I cut it down it’s about 6.5 minutes of training and 3.5 minutes of toy play and resetting the games. I’m impressed with his stamina but wondering if we should play fewer games in a session so that he doesn’t fizzle out, but also watching the videos he looks ok for each new game, it’s just when I played too long (barrel wrap) is when his brain needed a break?>
I think 6.5 minutes of training can be fine, depending on how it is laid out… was it 10 straight minutes of doing things? Then yes, it is probably too much in a short time frame because he doesn’t really get a break and you don’t really get a moment to look at what just happened and plan the next thing. 3.5 minutes of toy play is not really a break – the break should be rest and decompression, like sniffing or chewing on something.
If it was 6.5 minutes spread over 30 minutes or more, with breaks, and planning, and peeking at the videos? Then it is going to be much better – but also he will let you know.
Bear in mind that these games are mentally ‘expensive’ – they burn a lot of glucose and oxygen in the puppy brain 🙂 So while the body might look ready to go for more, the brain might not be. It is like my bank account – if I go shopping all in one burst, my bank account appears to be fine but turns out it can get overdrawn LOL!
Rather than think of it as playing fewer games, you can try to mix in other things to extend the break times. For example, I will often play a game for two minutes, then let the puppy have a break while I throw in a load of laundry or do something with another dog. Then give the pup another quick session – then a coffee break for me while I edit the video or try to straighten up the rugs in the house that are always getting moved :). So I can mix the little trainings into every day life – and eventually get a lot done in both life and dog training LOL! I tend to leave a tripod set up so it is very easy to slap the camera into it and start a session, making it easier to pop in and out of training.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Oh wow! He is nailing this!!! Super!!!! Great job to you for getting this behavior going!
He does best when you keep your hands lower. At the beginning here (first 3 reps) you were bringing your hands up past your knees, so his head was coming up a bit and he was not backing up as much or going sideways.
But then after that, you kept your hands at your knees or just below your knee, and he had a more natural head position – so he was able to back up straight and further and further! YAY!!!!!
So definitely keep your hands a low as possible. This is hard on our back (staying bent over) so you can sit on a couch, giving him just enough room to come forward between your feet then back up. That might be easier than bending over while standing!
Great job here – we build on this later this week!
TracyGood morning! He totally does love the barrel games!! YAY!!!
His commitment looked strong in both of these videos. I think he only had one blooper, when you tried to start the FC just as he arrived at the barrel (making it a little sooner than he could handle at the moment).
He was also hitting the barrel a bit on the reps where you started the FC sooner.
So to be able to the FC starting sooner and help him not hit the barrel, you can try 2 things:
– when you are planning to do the FC pretty early, you can walk through it instead of run 🙂 Running is a distraction for him (gotta get to da momma!!) and he was rushing his mechanics to drive to you. So by walking through it for a session or two, he can focus on his mechanics to both complete the wrap even when you do the FC really early, and to not touch the barrel.
– I love that you were getting him pumped up!! Keep doing that – then before you send (and ideally before he jumps up on you), line him up at your side, hold him for 3 or 4 seconds (you can start you verbal at this time) – then send him to the barrel. That extra heartbeat or two of looking at the barrel will help him get organized and ready, which also allows you to be able to do the FC earlier and earlier 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
Shaping the retrieve went great! It is a good place to use a clicker because it actually benefits us that he looks at us!Since he was lifting the toy and bringing it towards you really well here, you can go to the next step: teaching him that getting the toy to your hand is what gets the click 🙂
You were reaching for it here, so you can switch that a bit: have your hand out and visible, like a target (palm up). Then when he touches the toy to your hand, you click.
Be careful to not reach for the toy – it is now part of the criteria that he brings the toy to your hand with you trying to reach for it. You can click any part of the toy touching your hand initially, so he associates getting the click the toy touching your hand (basically, the toy hitting your hand will become the click :))
As he sorts it out, you can delay the click:
– the toy needs to rest in your hand to get the click
– you need to be able to close your fingers around the toy to get the click
– You can tug on the toy first! Then click 🙂
Then you can add a verbal cue!> He did quite well, but not yet bringing it to hand – I feel that he still needs to learn the concept of “holding” the object until I can take it from him. >
By making your hand the target, it won’t be long before you can have him holding it for a longer and longer time. When you want him to hold it, you won’t present the hand until you are ready for him to deliver it to you 🙂 But that is a couple of sessions away.
This might take a couple of sessions but I think he will figure it out really quickly!!
Great job :)
TracyGood morning! Lots of great work here!!
>I thought Arrow has the hang of this – I hope we were doing it right.>
I think he had the hang of it AND was having a great time! YAY!!
Good marker use here with the get it and thrown reward!
You can switch what you mark: rather than marking as he arrives at the jump, you can mark for that first moment of forward focus and moving to the jump – then throw the reward so the reward lands before he gets to the jump.
The earlier marker will help him not look back at you as he arrives at the jump. Plus, it sounds like he was hitting the bump when he was on your left, which might be a product of looking at you combined with not quite being organized in his movement on that side (puppy stuff). The earlier throws will take care of that.
Plus the earlier throws will allow you to move away laterally to add more distance – I think he is ready for that. If you have decent weather and no snow on the ground, you can take this outside to be able to get even more distance!
The barrel wraps look great – he is showing great commitment! There were only 2 reps, I think this is where you had forgotten the video on the other part of the session) what do you have that is taller? It was a forward send with some countermotion and a lap turn – both were really strong. You can incorporate this into the Handling Combos game!
The barrel is a little short as he is getting taller – do you have a taller barrel? Laundry basket? We take this to wings pretty soon but showing him a taller barrel will be a good bridge to the taller wings.
On the RDW section:
>(I just got this fancy blue mat from Mark Bills)>Mark Bills has so much great stuff!
Arrow did a great job getting his feet on the mat – it looked like a specific effort to get his feet on it, which is exactly what we want. I agree that the 2 rear feet criteria is not useful for all dogs and handlers, so I bet Euan’s method will work great!
It looks like you were staring at the mat and not following him through it. This is good!!! If you stare at the mat, you will see the feet a lot better than if you are watching him.
One thing I see here is that yes, his feet were good on most of the reps…. but he was also looking at you. You might not have seen that because you were busy staring at his feet 🙂
We really don’t want looking at you to get built into the RDW behavior (it makes it handler dependent and changes his striding) – we really want him to look ahead. So with that in mind, here are a couple of ideas to get him looking forward:
– use a verbal get it marker and don’t click. Clickers without a visual target for the reward almost always get the dogs looking at us, then the looking at us gets built into the behavior.
I am sure we can train with the clicker and get him to eventually not look at you… but I am not sure if that is how you want to spend your time LOL!!!! I like to spend my time doing other things so I just don’t use the clicker for stuff like this after the initial introduction to the behavior.
– use the get it marker like you did, and add a reward destination that is both very visual and very consistent in terms of the reward arriving at it. It can be an empty bowl (a big one 🙂 about 10 feet past the mat on each side (2 bowls needed) that you toss the treat into. It is fine if the treat bounces out as long as the treat is near the bowl, because it is a visual aid to get him looking forward and not at you. You can also use a towel instead of a bowl on each side. Eventually I switch to other visual aids to keep the dogs looking forward and not at me, but a bowl or towel is a great start.
(Side note: I also use these visual aids to start teaching turns off the mat :))
– you can incorporate the MM on one side of it and a bowl/towel on the other side. I know some folks use a placed toy on the ground but I don’t start with that because there might be too many errors.
I am not sure what Euan does to keep the dogs looking forward so you can ask to see what his progression has for that. Looking at you for a session or two early on in training is fine… but he is at the point where we need him hitting the mat and not looking at you 🙂
Great job!!!
Tracy
Good morning!
This went well!! She loves her wraps!
I thought the line ups went better and she had a clearer idea of when to begin each rep. Try to be quick with the line up so she doesn’t guess and start without you 🙂
You can also divide this session in half – 4.5 minutes of sustained engagement is expensive on a puppy brain! So you can do 2 minutes, get about 5 reps to the right. Then take a break and do another 2 minutes and get 5 reps to the left! That will get plenty accomplished and balance both directions.
>She’s pretty comfortable at 12:00, next time we’ll work on a little earlier for the cross. And damn, but my brain is so programmed to drop the toy on my first step 😮 Gotta work on letting her complete going around the barrel before I drop it.>
Two ideas for you that will cover both things here:
You can try walking through it rather than running. The when she catches up to you, you can take off and run 🙂 As you tried to do the FC sooner, you were exploding with motion and that wa harder. So if you slide away without a sudden blast of speed, she will figure out that to finish the wrap (motion can be distracting!)
And sliding away instead of running (for now) will help her not hit the barrel as she finishes the wrap.
The other thing you can do is reward with food – that is less visible and less distracting to see as she finishes the barrel wrap (so there is less touching of the barrel). Continue to tug in between like you did, but food can be the first reward after the wrap.
We can also go to something heavier so she notices it if she touches it. A plastic garbage pail can work, or do you have an old chute barrel? Those are harder to move when touched but also they don’t hurt if she touches them, to help her understand to not try to push through the barrel as she chases your line.
Great job!!
Tracy
Good morning!
> I guess 3 sessions spaced throughout the day weren’t enough for latent learning to set in, she needed overnight. >>
Correct – the overnight sleep consolidates the learning as part of t he dog’s 24 hour cycle. Another name for this magic 🙂 is sleep-dependent plasticity and it is mostly associated with REM sleep (as far as the science shows at this point – it is a field that is constantly expanding). So the dogs overnight have similar sleep cycles to humans (probably happened when they domesticated us haha) but they are shorter cycles than ours, so there are more of those cycles overnight… and that is likely not happening during the daytime sleeps/naps. I wonder if having more of those cycles and more short REM cycles overnight lead to more latent learning than humans how have longer cycles (therefore fewer cycles in the same time period). As far as I know, there have been no studies comparing human latent learning/sleep cycles to mammal latent learning/sleep cycles. Sleep is a hugely fascinating topic in humans and dogs!
> I captured a few sits that she offered on the bed and once she caught on to that, moved away from the bed, but I was still getting the “melting” switched off sits. >
Ah! The sliding into the down could have also been contextual! You can add toy play before/during the sit sessions – it will change her arousal state into a more optimized state for tighter muscles and no melting 🙂 I do most of my stay training for toys to build in the arousal, so it might serve two purposes for her too!
If you have a sit cue that is somewhat reliable (can be a physical cue) you can also cue the sit to help her discriminate.
The session went great! LOTS of strong sits and very little movement. She had a total of one early release, towards the end. But that moment is just as important as the reinforcement because it clarifies what does not get rewarded. You handled it perfectly of course 🙂
Just as I was going to suggest you add motion of walking away, you did it in the video. Yay! Nice job moving away while very very quickly getting the reward back to her. You will be able to ping pong your way to more and more duration over time. My next suggestion is to do this with a toy – the toy will bring more arousal to the game which is perfect: state dependent learning & memory is our friend! We are going to want her to be able to hold a stay in the most high arousal situations (internal and external) so adding the toy in these early stages will get her there very quickly.
It is possible that the stays will be shorter (for now) when the toy is the reward – or not. BWs are generally great at self-regulation so it is easy to add toy play. So start off with easy short stays with the toy and see how she does before adding duration and your movement.
Looking at the SSC game: this also went great! She is totally looking at the bowl; She is so funny: looks at the bowl after the cookies go in, looks at your finger point cue, then back at the dish. Yay!
After 1:05 when the dish got to a harder position, she had a slight delay for a couple of reps before looking at the dish. But then it go faster (back to normal speed from then the dish was in the easy position). And she did well when you changed sides too – same slightly delayed response when the dish got to the harder angle but she was successful. Yay!
She had one rep where you said dish and then she cut in front of the cone to get to it. Since ‘dish’ indicates that the dish is available to go to – no harm, no foul. But as the dish gets to harder positions where she is going to have to go past it to go around the cone, you can delay your dish marker until after she is at the cone and wrapping it. So the release to move to the cone happens when you see her look at the correct line (you can also use a wrap verbal if you have been playing with on). And the timing of the dish verbal will happen when she chooses the line to the cone.
A couple of ideas for next steps:
– work the game with the dish empty so she is looking at the line and still has the visual aid (cookies get dropped into it as the reward for when she goes to the cone). That is the first step to fading the dish. And you can try it with a toy instead of the dish!
– you can add your verbal cue for forward focus just before you point to the line, to begin to build up that cue.
– do you have a bigger/taller cone or barrel? We can move to something taller and have you standing up for this.
Great job here!!!
Tracy
Good morning!
I am very excited that his new long toys are a big hit! YAY!!!!
First barrel wrap video – he seemed to be a righty on the first two reps. I think his side preference changes daily LOL maybe based on what he did previously? But you can help him out but starting so close to the barrel that it is much easier to go the direction you sent him and not scoot in front of the other direction. That is what you did on the last rep here and he was great!
2nd video – weighting it definitely helped here! And also that clear step the side of the barrel you wanted got him to do the left wrap around it.
Big click/treat to you for moving your target line AND nailing the timing of your front cross at :42!!!
You changed sides on the next rep which worked, but I think you might find it more efficient for being able to leave sooner and sooner if you work the line all the way around on 1 side (like dog on right) then take a break and do the other side in the next session.
The next step will be to keep working towards doing the FC sooner and sooner… and using a toy as the reward 🙂
The PVC box intro session for running contacts went great! You can move to the next step which is to not reward in the box at all, but use a ‘get it’ marker and toss the reward past the other side of the box. Since part of the overall goal is to keep him looking straight and not at you, you will probably want to mark that first step into the box. And as he gets more experienced, you can delay the marker to mark for back feet but for now – mark front feet to get the thrown rewards tossed out ahead so he doesn’t look at you.
Like with the PVC box, the driving ahead on the parallel path and the rear crosses are built from the ‘get it’ marker so he doesn’t look at you. So don’t let any “yes” markers slip in (easy to suggest, so hard to do LOL!!) as those draw his focus back to you.
For the rear crosses, he was turning towards you on each one because you were still visible on that side (and not visible on the new side yet). I grabbed a couple of screenshots of what he was seeing:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1d9qSrBb_nvhjB_ayNLG9IJxnhMWECr-NmIVmm0vUv14/edit?usp=sharingIdeally you can be fully visible on the new side (after the RC) before he has to make a decision about how to hit the prop and which way to turn. So how to get to the new side sooner with a fast puppy? Start further away from the prop 🙂 That way he has more yardage to cover to reach the prop and before making a decision on the turn direction, which gives you more time to be visible on the other side.
> (so no food dish here)>
The bowl placed out on the turn side can help with a visual aid but he might still turn towards you – but totally worth a try! And the bowl suggestion from yesterday was for Strike a Pose, and he is ready for the bowl there for sure.
The concept transfer is going well! When you said ‘get it’ and tossed out ahead, he was looking forward and that is the main goal. He was definitely getting the idea – check out how he went and offered it at :41!!
To make this even more independent, 2 suggestions for you:
– add more connection to him by looking at him and not at the jump at all. When you looked ahead (like at :36) he didn’t really get on the line. And when you looked at him, he found the line between the uprights each and every time. Looking at him turns your shoulders to the line, which really supports this path.
– try not to start right next to him each time. You can toss the reward further and get ahead or move laterally away. Then mark with your get it and toss the treat when he is on the way to the uprights, and not when he arrives at them. That will really pump up his forward focus and lateral distance.
Great job here!!!
Tracy
Good morning!
“Breakfast with Tommy” HAHA!! I love it!
Video 1, wrapping with you standing: Perfection!
Video 2, wrapping the barrel with you standing: Perfection!
He was ALL IN on both of these videos and had no trouble with the wrapping.
Since these went so well, you can move onwards to the Turn And Burn game where both of you get to run more 🙂
Turn and Burn is here:
2 ideas for you when you add Turn and Burn:
– if he has any questions about going around the barrel without the bowl there, you can put a bowl out as a visual aid, but reward according to the parameters of the new game rather than put a cookie in the bowl (because you will be moving away)
– ideally, he doesn’t hit the barrel as he drives around it. I find that dogs hit the barrel when we get excited or present the reward. So during turn and burn, you can do the handling but be quiet (no big praise) and no big rewrd presentations until he is fully around it. My guess is that if you get excited and praise and whip the toy out, he will hit the barrel driving to you. So being a shade quiet for now will help him wrap as you are moving, without touching it.
Great job here! Have fun!
Tracy
