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Hi!
I think you can start her with the backside zigzags at this stage, if she will go to the placed reinforcement (since you can’t outer her to drag it :)) and also, open up the angles of the jumps so the line is easy 🙂Have fun!
TracyHi! I think her sit position contributed to going around the jumps on that first one – she could easily see the line past the jumps and could not really see the line over the jumps. So you can move her over so she is almost touching that first wing and see if that helps!
T
Hi!
Bummer about the snow 🙁 Countdown til spring is ON!!!!!For the trax game, I don’t think the actual disc matters because it is more about the olfaction. So they can be different 🙂
T
So much fun to be training both agility and flyball!
To post the videos, load them to YouTube first, then copy the YouTube links here in the forum. YouTube has been down today, though, so don’t be surprised if it gives you hassle 🙂 I think it is back online but I am not sure. See you later!
TracyHi!
A lot of these early games are to establish trainer mechanics and not really train the puppies LOL!! So with that in mind:
>>I was struggling keeping the clicker and treats organized and I know some of my clicks were late.>>
The most important thing here is the quickness of the reinforcement delivery… so get rid of the clicker. You were clicking then digging out the treat so it was delayed and that builds in more looking at you.
And yes since we are training her a bit too 🙂
>>It totally depended on where I threw the treat as to whether she put all 4 feet on. I will keep working on this. Is the goal for them to understand to offer all 4 feet regardless of where they start?>>
Yes – we want all 4 feet on the plank, So you can wait for her to get all 4 feet on rather than reward for only 2. The other option to make it easier to show her that we like all 4 feet on is to put two planks side-by-side so that she has a wider playing field. These teenage dogs need a lot of room to move all those legs LOL! And a wider playing field will help her turn around t because that is definitely challenging 🙂
I think she is doing really well with all this body awareness stuff! With young dogs, our motto is definitely “Progress Not Perfection” so re-visiting these skills once a week or so will lead to great coordination.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>I probably went too long with this, I realized the camera wasn’t capturing me, so I changed the perspective. I did start at the beginning with rewarding her for interest in the prop, (not shown), then changed to a toy.
She did overall really well here, and I don’t think her questions at the end were because the session was too long. How long was the session before you changed the camera angle?
She is doing really well with her prop sends!!! I think what happened is that at :43, you got too far away and ended up outside her ‘bubble’ (the distance she is comfortable going past you), so she didn’t go. You can totally reward her for her effort, because she did go *almost* all the way, good girl! Then get closer on the next rep. You were still too far at 1:04 and 1:23, so she didn’t get rewarded so was not sure about going towards the prop. She was still engaged and tugging, so I don’t think she was tired, I think she was just asking questions.
So, be watching for that bubble 🙂 You can start close, then move urthe away, then get closer again, then move a little further away… to keep gradually building up distance. And if you hit the edge of the bubble and she is not quite perfect, you can reward her and get a little closer. The bubble gradually expands over time, she is going great here!!! Your ready dance and connection and sending was all fabulous, so you can just stay a little bit closer for now.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
The skills in these games are nice but learning about the pup’s play style is probably the most important part 🙂
So looking her play style and at baby dog tug mechanics – I am not sure she likes being pushed, she didn’t tug as much when you pushed her while tugging, and also she preferred having all four feet on the ground when you tossed the toy versus being in the area and plopped down
She likes being sent to the toy and the retrieve looked great when you moved away from her – maybe being in the RV is a little too confined when you are facing her? She was really good with the retrieve on the 2nd video when you moved away!
How does she do with toy play when there is a little food in the picture? You can stay low on the floor to get the retrieve, and if she is teething you can trade for a cookie for now – the tugging won’t disappear if we trade, and it will help solidify the retrieve too!
>see on the second video, the last rep, I waited too long to send her and actually released her when she was looking at the side and not straight ahead.>>
No worries! I think you made a little tiny noise and she looked at you. The rest were really good!
>>did a session of this running with her…and she was like…WHOA…what’s happening. So I realized I need to spend more time at the fake running / slow walk level.
Yes, I think just walking for now when you are in a small space. And in bigger spaces, you can add more speed because there will be less pressure. She is doing great!!!
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyThere are good lessons to be learned from the trash hat, in fact I don’t think you should abandon it 🙂
Her early questions had to do with the distance away from it (you were too far away) and also she was not prepared for the send: she was looking at you and you sent, and she was like “wait what?” So definitely do the ready ready dance moment, then send (and probably be 3 feet from it or less for now
Also, it is a great opportunity to work tugging into the equation with mechanics: when it is time for the toy break, grab the hat (because it symbolizes COOKIES NOM NOM) then drag the toy so she chases it like a whippet chasing a bunny 🙂 That can get her back onto it very easily!
You were a little closer to the new prop and that helped, but also be sure to start with engagement (that ready dance might seem silly but it helps the dog know exactly when to send, and it adds excitement and a crispness to the behavior). You got further away at :50 so she was not as sure – you can put a marker on the ground so you don’t end up more than 3 feet away for now.
Looking at the hat versus the box… her behavior is the same on both LOL! I think you just hate the hat LOL! And that is fine, but definitely add in the ready dane, shorter distances and the tug breaks 🙂
Nice work here! Fingers crossed that YouTube gets back on track ASAP!!!!
Tracy
She did really well with the wing wrap here! You can still use the mesh clothes basket – the pups need to learn to do this on pretty much anything, because jumps wings all look so different.
The tug at the end was really good! Move away from the wrap area (food-based!) and drag the toy all over the ground so she can chase it and grab it 🙂 That should get her back on the toy more easily. You can also bring her into the session on a tug, sit, throw the cookie, then you are ready to start when she is ready. She was offering behavior before you were ready to start so we can clean up the mechanics of getting into the session.
The next step is to do this with you standing up 🙂
Hand target:
>>she seems very detracted by food in my hand and her effort certainly declines with each rep. This is her “this is dumb” attitude when I’m failing to produce enough drive – or presence of food too distracting??>>
I think this was a mechanics issue so she didn’t know where to look. You were switching the target back and forth on each rep, which included the target going into your lap, treats being transferred, target going out to the side… so when she was approaching you, there was a lot happening and she was not able to consistently predict where to go or what to look at. So, she slowed down, which was pretty smart!
So to quiet the mechanics and make it more predictable, you can leave the target in one hand for several reps, then take a tug break, then switch. And look at the target, that helps her know where to go too! If the. Target and the treats are moving a lot, she is likely to lock onto your cookie hand more than onto the target hand.
Also – be quiet when she is shaping 🙂 – there was a LOT of conversation so she was not sure where to look. (At you, at the hand, or at the treats). You can mark and do a quick praise when you toss the treat, but be otherwise very quiet.
So, I don’t think she was thinking it was dumb, I just think she was uncertain about where to look and what to do 🙂
Nice work! Onwards to the next set!
TracyHi!
>>Broke the internet!! Agility-U crashes whenever I go to my “GOAT and Punch” thread so I am starting anew here. Sorry if posts show up both places!>>
It appears that YouTube is the culprit: Youtube is having outages today and that is messing up the youtube-laden threads here.
Ah yes, she likes the toy! Nice! You can keep it lower and pull on it a bit, so she pulls back – ideally her chin does not lift above her shoulders and she puts some weight into her rear.
She did really well with the plank too! Good job with the slower and lower cookie to help her turn around:
>>and makes her preferred turning direction quite obvious!>>
I am not sure if she has a left or right preference here, it might be more of a towards you versus away from you with the preference being towards you for sure 🙂 But you were correct to reward all of her efforts and she will continue to get more comfy with this game 🙂
Backing up onto the fit bone is going well – and it is challenging, you can see she really has to work and adjust herself! But she did really well and it looks like a nice short session – that is perfect for a challenging skill.
>>I notice she does not like me petting her and the end (but she is so fuzzy!)
Many, many, many dogs do NOT like to be touched or petted when they are working. Kind of like when you are totally focused at work and someone wants to drape an arm around you and give you hugs and kisses: ewwwww! LOL!! So you can interact with her with tug breaks! That will create a nice break between the cookie moments and she can reset with some tugging on that long toy 🙂
I see the rest of the videos, but will answer them below here.
Great job here!
TracyHi!
>>I’ll try offering boring food in the next session. Is that to get her more focused on toys & less on food?>>
Yes, it is mainly so you can more easily go back and forth between toys and food, without one or the other becoming too exciting 🙂
>>I will keep the sessions short. I had not picked up on her getting hot during the sessions so thank you for mentioning it.>>
I didn’t see anything dangerous-looking (such as a very cured tongue or uncoordinated movement) but she breathes a little harder and doesn’t tug as much – tugging heats dogs up FAST! She will get more heat-resilient as she gets older too 🙂
Looking at the plank video:
She was great here!!
I think she his happy to put her back feet on with the platforms you started with, so be sure to wait til she has her back feet on before clicking – when you were early, she stopped with just front feet.
On the full plank outside, she definitely was happy to get all feet on, mainly because it was tall enough that it was easy to choose all feet on or not. She looked balanced and also happy to turn around and hop off. Yay! My only suggestion is to maybe add a yoga mat to the outdoor plank? She wants to go fast and that is fine with me 🙂 so a yoga mat duct-taped to the plank can give her really good grip for her speedy ways 🙂Great job!!!
TracyOMG he is so cute offering a little sit pretty while the bowls were going to the ground.
Nice session here! You hit the edge of his bubble when it got challenging with the added distance – great job letting him sort it out! One thing you can do to add distance is to take more of a ping pong approach: have the upright be close, then a little further, then close again, then even more far away, then close again, and so on. So you can gradually increase the distance but with lots of reinforcement for easy ones too 🙂
The next step is to get you standing too, so pull the upright in a little closer and try it with you standing 🙂
On the 2 toy game: “I really want to smack you” LOL!!!! And when you said “can I put you a little: he said no thanks LOL and dropped the toy. So yes – resist temptation to touch him for now. Eventually? Sure, I think he will like it more, but not at this stage.
He definitely liked these toys and did well going back and forth! I think he REALLY likes the squeakers, so you can show him the squeakers and even squeak them to help him latch on right away. You can also tie these two together to make a super long toy that we can use when you are standing up.
>>And, there is so much to do I feel totally behind! Do you have any of the exercises you recommend for us, that maybe I should focus on more?
You are actually not behind 🙂 You are about to be standing on the wing wrap stuff, which transitions perfectly to the week 3 games that are coming. You are doing the body awareness stuff. And you’ve worked the prop stuff – you can emphasize that a bit more if you want to prioritize things. And definitely make some time for the resilience stuff 🙂
Great job!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! Hope you had a fun time when you were out of town!!!
She was a toy BEAST in this session!! So fun! I love how you praised and chatted her up during the play, but then got quiet when it was time to switch.
Yes, you can be a heartbeat sooner with getting the other toy “live” after she releases the one she was tugging with, but overall I think it was a lovely session. You can definitely put the upright in now, so she can go around it to the toys.
Great job!!!
TracyThis was great! Nice!!!! The backing up of course looks good – you can toss the cookie even further back to get more distance, plus it gives him more distance to drive back to you 🙂
The hand touch was great, he seemed very very happy to drive back to you 🙂 In the next session, you can get the touch, gently stroke his chin for maybe a twelfth of a second, then reward the touch with the dropped cookie 🙂 The backing up is a nice skill but coming in close to you to get touched or grabbed is even more important.
Great job!
Tracy
