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Good morning!
The chewing of the strong cheese was hilarious but I think he liked it a LOT! That was a brilliant choice on your part to make a big impact on the collar grabs!
Lining up between your feet requires a lot of slow lures at this early stage but you were getting it really well! He seemed happy to line up at your side or between your feet, so keep building that up with the collar grab then throw the reward. You can add in lining him up for a treat then throwing a toy – 3 hands might be required for that š but I also use my armpit to hold the toy.
Stealth self-control/folding it in is off to a great start! He was very happy to have his collar held while he focused on the food bowl and especially on the toy! Brilliant! I love how he was picking up the toy and finishing the cone wrap to bring it back to you – it is not required but it is sure lovely that he did it!
Since things here went so well with the bowl and toy, you can add in the hand point in the next session: as you are holding him and the toy or bowl are in place, point to the line yo want him to take to the cone entry with your other (empty) hand. He might look at your hand for a heartbeat, so hold him til he looks at the bowl or toy, then let go.
When that is going well, you can start to move the bowl or toy around the cone, to add more of the self-control challenge of going around the cone to get to it.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning! Bummer about the snow š I am ready for spring!!!
>feel like he knows what to do with the wrap- heās just so focused on the treat.>
I think what you were seeing was more of a side preference question and not a āgive me all the cookiesā question š
He is a lefty – all the reps going to his left were really strong (from your right hand to your left hand). No problem going around the barrel and ignoring the treats.
The right turn reps were where the challenges were (going from your left to your right hand). That is where he would hesitate or slide between you and the barrel, and get frustrated and smack your left side (I donāt think that happened a single time on your right side).
Side preferences are normal in dogs like they are in humans, so we will definitely help him think through it and solve the puzzle.
Two ways to help him on those right turns:
– Keep the barrel close to you for now so the option of sliding between you and it is not available. You can have it close to you for both directions at first, then you can move it a little away for his left turns (your right to your left) but then pull it back in for the right turns (your left to your right).
– You can make the bowl target more visible on the right turns. Yo can put it just past the halfway point, so he can see it a little when he is turning to his right. That visual aid will help him organize the right turns, and then you can gradually slide it back to where it is located in this session.After a couple of sessions, the side preference will even out and he will be a happy wrapper in both directions š
Shaping getting him into the box went well! He was such a good boy to get all his feet into the box at the end!!!
Great job here! Stay warm!
Tracy
Good morning! I am happy to hear you are excited about the new stuff – Bandit was definitely ready for more!
Collar grab went well! A lot of small dogs (and Papillons/Pap mixes) do not like collar grab stuff, so I like to build the love early. You did a great job here sliding the collar grab into the middle of a bigger game, so he was very engaged!! You can see a little bit of him backing up when you reach for the collar but that will go away with more practice of this type of game.
>He was a bit confused at first on how to turn to get next to me, but he started getting it at the end.>
To help the line up be even smoother, you can step back with your dog-side leg as your hand is leading him to position.
>I touched his collar longer than I think you wanted, but he didnāt seem to mind. >
I thought you were really good about it: super quick hold then release!
And, to help build the collar grab love even more: you can line him up with a treat but then after you have his collar, throw the tiny ball that he loves! It can end up being a loop of : line up (cookie) – collar hold – ball throw – ball retrieve – line up (cookie) and so on. You can also do this sitting down if it is easier to do the collar holds/ball throws.
SSC/Forward focus: He had a little trouble tugging when th empty bowl as already there (bowls have a lot of value :)) so you can put the bowl down last after a bit of tugging at the very beginning.
Nice job incorporating the line up/collar holding here too! He seemed very happy to be held because the game was interesting and easy for him!
He did well with the toy too – the more you wiggled the toy, the better he got engaged with it so keep that toy moving or use a bigger, furry toy š or the ball.
>I was probably confusing Bandit a bit with my inconsistent target pointing. >
I thought the pointing was good! For the next steps, you can point to where he would approach the cone. He was definitely focusing forward, which is great. He looks ready for more challenge in the next session of this game: move the bowl or toy further around the cone, bit by bit. That makes it harder because he can easily go directly to it so the forward focus and pointing gets more important.
The inflatable disc shaping went well! He is very confident and it was cool to see how when he was really pumped up from tugging he was able to get right on with both front feet. Super!
The disc was small and moved a bit, so he was not offering his hind end on it. If you have a second disc (or more!) you can put them all next to each other so he can walk across them. Also, for now, take some of the air out so they are under-inflated. They will still move but not as much, and he will be more interested in getting his back feet on along with his front feet. If you donāt have more discs, you can use pillows or couch cushions or even upside down dog beds to expand the playing field to encourage him to put all 4 feet on.
>He got bored with his toy once he figured out food was associated with the disk! But he got back on track with a different toy.
>I see what you mean! He did get on the tug toy but now that food value is coming up, you can go to a bigger longer crazier toy to maintain the toy value too: a long thin toy that might have some fur on it will be engaging even when treats are around. The 2nd toy was definitely more valuable here and that was great! I am happy his food value is high now, and that means you can bring out even crazier toys š
Great job here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Yes, I feel you on the āadolescence is coming.ā >
I personally think you will not see anything too crazy other than maybe a normal moment of sensitivity here and there, but I donāt want to anger the Gods Of Canine Adolescence š
>Even without microplastics I do suspect this pup will hit it earlier than expected. >
He seems mature in many ways for his age, such as how he uses his body. That is good, though – if he naturally uses his body well then less brain energy will be devoted to that and more brain energy can be devoted to all of the other things it needs to do during adolescence. And that way you can keep training the stuff that requires good mechanics – for many adolescent dogs, we have to shelve things that require mechanics for a bit because the brains just cannot do it all at that stage. For the dogs that have naturally āeasyā mechanics, we can fly right through adolescence.
>I wasnāt shocked he was able to work at the trial only because heās had this weird tune out the background focus on training since the day I picked him up. >
Weird = AWESOME in this case as I am sure you agree with!
>We have also done classical conditioning to the loud āreadyā voice over the past few weeks (hear the thing at a distance, cookies appear, then closer to where the speakers are. >
Perfect! And I bet you can build on that where you take the conditioned response and change the food delivery to be next to you, to turn his head towards you (if you arenāt doing so already) so the ready voice builds in the conditioned response to look at youā¦ then you get an automatic attention/engagement response when he hears the ready voice. Super useful for entering the ring and lining up, in terms of arousal shifts. I mean, since Pavlov is always on our shoulder AND Pavlov can sometimes be a pain in the butt, might as well use it for our own benefit LOL!
>Itās cold here (for CA) but I know itās worse in many parts of the country right now so Iām not really complaining. >
I am in Florida and hiding from the winter – the high today will be in the 50s so I am FROZEN haha but it is only 7 degrees at home in VA, so I will survive.
The movement element of the game is going well and it was super fun to turn it into a send! He has a nice little flyball box turn going there š Seems like a lefty based on how well he moved through the left turns. The right turns were good too but not as coordinated as the left turns on the sends.
He was HILARIOUS when you showed him the movement/noise and he was like āwhatever, I got thisā then pounced on it before you had the toy.
The position changes are going well – it was the only part that looked a little hard and he had to really think about. You read my mind about helping him with a hand cue and trying to get him to move from a stand to a down. This is the only thing that looked like a big challenge to him, so it can be something you do on the plank pile you used in the 2nd video (plank on top of 2 catos)
Side note: the text program tried to autocorrect 2 catos to ā2 catsā which would have been a really interesting game LOL
>Since heās getting that concept pretty nicely I figure we might as well start to show him that picture in a variety of different settings and with different props that arenāt yet important Agility things. >
AGREE!! That is why we use un-related props: get the mechanics sorted, positive associations, cues started all before we add it to the important stuff š
>And yes, he apparently does think heās in the flyball training class instead of the Agility class. >
Ha! I wrote that above before I even saw this š If you lived closer, I would totally drag you to a flyball practice š If nothing else, it creates dogs that can focus on high intensity responses and precision, regardless of what madness is happening around them. I donāt think there is anything local enough to you that I would recommend though.
Plankrobatics also went great – I thought he was going to get on the board before you even put it down š
Having it on the 2 cato boards was fun and easy for him. You can see if he can do t he stand to down to sit on this setup (hand lures can help) You can also separate the boards a bit so the plank is more of a bridge, with air space under it – this can begin introducing the concept of space between the plank and the ground.
> I went ahead and did a few minutes of it just to see how he was doing with his new spider legs that heās growing.>
This is something to revisit in the rotation for the next many months – a weekly revisit to the simple goat games because his legs and brain are basically different every day š
The treat ball at the end was interesting – his first response was to get back on the plank because he didnāt know what the heck the ball was – but then it looks like he was able to sort out how to get the treats out. It is a good puzzle but I am sure he figured it out quickly.
.>Weāve continued to work on āget measuredā ā he loves it ā and he was about 15ā with an official measure device yesterday.>
Very cool! How tall are his parents?
Great job here! The toy play is going well too. Does he do any single paw lifts (like a high five trick)? That would be super fun to add to the plank games – starting on the low stationary plank you can see if he will give you a front foot (probably left front) and challenge him to do a 3-legged stand. If that is too hard you can see if he will put one front foot on a small raised target. If my memory is correct (and caffeine intake is high enough) I remember that he has seen putting both front feet on a target on the plank, so now you can challenge him to do one front foot.
Tracy
Hi! Your set up is clever – excellent use of barrels and trash cans to create the pillbug!
When you were connected, he had no questions about where to be on the line and to stay on it. There was a blooper at where he ended up on th other side of the tunnel, but that was all about connection: you were not really connected on that rep so he was not sure where to be.
Nice work with the blind! You can decelerate a bit when you do that, so he can see the cue and read it in time to set up the inside circles (turning away from you). He knew to change sides to your inside, but it was hard for him to bend away so decelerating will help him get his mechanics smoother for the turn.
Great job!
TracyHi! This went really well!! She was easily able to follow your line on both sides. Great job with your connection! That really helped her find the line and stay on it at high speed. Easy peasy!!
Since this went so well, you can add the blind crosses and also you can bring out another tunnel (if you have one) or use a barrel for the games that involve both of them.
Great job!
TracyHi!
I am glad you got this in before the rain – it looked great and that toy is AMAZING!!!
Did you watch this in slow motion? It is really cool to see his form and power. NICE!!! I think the bar on jump 2 can come up 2 inches for now, just to give him a little extra height there. We need to proceed slowly became he is young, but his form looks lovely so we don’t need to worry about anything. Great job!!
Tracy
Hi! I am glad she is feeling better!!!
>We played two toy game and she was better. Itās better, but she still wants to stay on one toy.>
Identical toys are not identical in the eyes of the dogs LOL! But she did really well here switching, especially considering you were stationary. Handler movement (running back and forth a bit) can help make the toy more active and get the original toy to fade into the background a bit. She did really well doing the repeated strikes at the end!
>I played toss the toy and she actually returned it to me several times. I was smart and didnāt push it. I only did a few and it was all very successful. Itās an N of one..but the first time sheās done this in the backyard. Yay!>
Super!!! This sounds like great fun! Does she show any interest in tennis balls? Short ball retrieves are also a great way to build up bringing the toy back – toss a ball then have her bring it to you for a second ball or a treat. I donāt suggest doing it outdoors because we donāt want her to splat herself chasing a ball, but you can sit in the living room and roll a ball, send her to it, then have her bring it back. Easy and fun, while isolating the ābring it backā element.
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
>I hope you are still in FL & avoiding āthe weatherā!>
Oh yes! Still in Brooksville and completely avoided the giant ice and snow storm (but did not avoid the anxiety of hoping the power would stay on at home so the pipes wouldnāt freeze – so far, power is still on!)
>We have a ways to go on getting him ready to travel to do agility, happy crating & he has to get over car sickness too (poor baby). I got a prescripion for Cerenia and we tried it out this weekend with mixed results ā one perfect & one better but not perfect. Fingers crossed it works once we get the dosage right.>
Cerenia is good stuff. I know a lot of people who have had tremendous success helping with car sickness by feeding the pup a ginger snap before the drive. Simple but effective! I can find out exactly which brand and how much, if you want (one of them is a vet so I trust her advice)
I love his fancy harness! Great color for him! Great job getting his attention off the harness hold and onto the toy! The only delay was letting him finish chewing but he didnāt seem concerned about the collar holding at all. Super! Since he focused forward and drove to the toy really well, you can add more of your movement by walking forward as soon as you let go of him.
>He did so great!!! He surprised me and was really driving to the target! BUT I FORGOT TO RECORD! >
Oops! The best sessions are the ones that end up not getting recorded! But the re-do here looked fabulous! He had had no trouble with the sideways and backwards sending, plus he was great about transitioning from the ready dance (handler focus) to the send (obstacle focus). Super!!!
Since this went well, you can try with a toy as the reward, no cookies needed (and you also donāt need the clicker anymore).
>Blind Cross foundationsāØa. I am so uncoordinatedāØ2. I am such a bad thrower>
Ha! Yo are not uncoordinated at all and try to get treats to land on the run is HARD! He did great here! And he was having a super fun time!
And you were doing a great job rewarding across your body so he knew where to be on the blind crosses. Because he is so tiny, he saw the connection the best when you dipped your shoulders down a little bit.
We are building on this game with ore handling added to it – yo can add decel and pivot after the blind, along with the other stuff we are adding in todayās new game š
He did great on the resilience walk – it is hard being a tiny soul in a big world! Letting him lead the way was great and he brought you back to the vet when he was mentally tired of it all. Good boy!
>He seems to pee whenever he is unsure or doesnāt know what to do. And also to mark, but I feel like a big percentage of his leg lifts are kind of obsessive. I have never had a boy that did agility. Do you & your boys have any tips for me on teaching appropriate pee habits?>
I have 7 boy dogs, 6 are intactā¦ so I have pee thoughts haha!! No worries about the peeing. He might have been peeing a lot here because he was stimulated, there were many scents to add to, and yes – sometimes when they are a little anxious, we get some leg lifting/marking.
I do give the boys longer pee walks than the girls before training and trialing, because they pee several times (they are pee camels!) and the girls pee once. I have found that most of my adolescent boys have tried to pee in the house once (marking) and I responded with shock and horror so they never did it again LOL!! But as far as peeing during work? No problem as long as I keep it fun and donāt let them wander around as teenagers š
Great job here!!
TracyGood morning!
>We had a great time. I think letting the two puppies play 1st helped him acclimate but he did well before that coming in to say hi to Tammy and Beth too. They commented how confident he seemed.>
I think the play and socializing definitely contributed to acclimation and helped the whole adventure become super fun.
>For the blind to the decel I think I am still confused since I have the toy in the off hard for the turn. Do I switch the toy to that other hand to try to use it?>
Because there are a lot of things happening in that game, you can do it empty handed: when you do the blind, you can use your arm to put an invisible toy across the other side of you. Doing that will show him the connection he needs to see for the blind. Then you can decel and ue your dog-side hand to bring him to you for the pivot – then you can whip out a toy or treat reward from a pocket š
>Today we went on an outing to one of the local agility trials. Said hi to people. Watched dogs run courses. I forgot to bring my toy in so we safely chased a plastic bag. Was another fun day.>
Fun! He has having so many great exposures to the world š
>I think the next lessons drop tomorrow. Do we need to work more of the other lessons to move on?>
Yes, they are posted š You will get an email soon. You and Dublin are ready to move on!! Have fun and stay warm!
Tracy
Good morning!
> I think I should be adding energy and movement with food rewards >
It depends on what the reward is for and what you are shaping – mixing in more toy play will be better in the long run.
>and he tries so hard it is easy to get to push just a little too far. >
You can set a timer to 90 seconds, that is a tried & true way to stop, play, and assess if you want to do more or not.
>I will look at using a toy as that will increase his motivation and energy. Didnt want to use a toy at start as he doesnt think as well when a toy is present but he has more fun.>
One of these reasons we use a toy at the start is because we are actively teaching them to think and offer behavior when in higher arousal. It sets up better learning overall – and if he has trouble with offering, you can split the behavior more and reward smaller pieces.
>Because I am lazy usually we train with lots of neutral novel things present ā training things (when doing stuff In Synch and fusion) clothes leads, often toys but boring ones , as one thing I have worked on from the start is playing with me regardless of what else is around ā although not alot with good toys as that is too hard.>
The usual stuff might not be novel, though š For example, I often have stuff around like shoes etc – so it maximize learning, I add something completely new and out of place for the brain to process š
Keep me posted!
Tracy
Good morning!
>We are getting buried under snow & Sunnie is taking a nap now
>I hope your snow has ended! We got ice ice ice at my house but so far the power is still on!
>If I bring out the food first, Iām finding the toy play isnāt as strong until later. >
That is normal and probably depends on how hungry she is in that moment or the value of the food. For my food-driven dogs, I tend to feed them a bit of their food before training so they are not STARVING š and also because they think better when they are not hungry.
>This was a morning session, I saved a portion of her kibble for this training session.>
Perfect – treats that are good but also she was not toooo hungry (hopefully :))
>The there are times that switching back & forth between food & toys are no problem. I just go woth the flow and never force the toy.>
It can be hard for puppies to tug in the same spot where there was food and where the food scent remains floating around. In those moments, you can move her away from the food smells and get her chasing the toy in a different room or area – the movement of the toy plus being away from food smells can really jump start the toy play. More on that below.
The longer toy was great on the first video! She was playing really well until you tossed a toy in to the toy areaā¦ and she noticed all the other toys so it took her a moment to get back onto the long tugger you had.
She was very interested in the toy when you threw it but then was looking for the food – part of that might have been that the ādeadā toy is not as exciting as the moving toy, and part of it might be that she caught some food scents.
On the 2nd video, great job keeping the toy moving away for her to chase and she did get on it! She was tugging brilliantly! Then you got a great rep of the driving ahead.
Driving forward for the food is no problem at all for her, and she also drove ahead really well for the toy! So we donāt need to worry about the skill at all, that is going great. We can focus on the food to toy transition to balance it out a bit:
For now, keep it a bit separate in that you can have empty pockets and empty hands when you are playing with the toy.
And you can make the toy crazy fun by moving it away and squiggling it and sliding it around (like a crazy bunny :)) for her to chase and grab. You can even tie multiple toys together for the craziest possible toy š
The movement of the toy away from her is key: When she did not get back on the toy at the end – you were very engaging but the toy was not moving as much, so she engaged with you and not the toy.
And we can set up a separate game to build in food and toys together:
>When I wanted to set up FF I realized I had nothing to help her (me) release the toy! At that moment I also realized is now the time to teach her an out? Up until now Iāve switch toys or just had a cookie in my hand.>
This is where you can have boring cookies up high on a counter and trade the toy for one cookie. Toss the cookie as the reward for releasing the toyā¦ then when she gets the cookie, take off and run to a different area, dragging the toy and being wild with it. It might mean you run to a different room or a hallway so you are pretty far from the food – but this can really help get her right back on the toy in a fun way. Just be careful not to run into anything!
Prop game went great! She drove right to it – having the cookies not in your hand helped a lot, plus latent learning helps build up the behavior while she sleeps š
>Iām sure she can smell the cookies when they are in my hand or sees me reaching for my pocket!>
She totally can, and also she has a longer of history of getting treats from your hands than she does for hitting the prop, so it makes sense that the cookie hands would be distracting.
You can start to add the sideways and backwards sends here!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning! Thanks for the video, it looks like a super fun weekend at the trial!
He was so happy to hop on his mat/cot. So cute! And he was great about ignoring the noise in the background – the āreadyā was really loud and then there were barking dogs, then he was able to do his back up with dogs running and someone talking to you. That was actually pretty hilarious: you were chatting and he was offering 10,000 behaviors LOL!!! That is where you can reward stillness a bit more – toss a treat to the cot while you are not full engaged with him. Because he is so keen to work & offer, I think we will fast track the engaged chill game for him in a couple of weeks so he knows when he doesn’t have to offer and can just chill.
So far his puppy brain seems to be wired to naturally ignore distractions in the environment, balance internal arousal, and offer behavior. Happy dance! A combination of genetics, training, and life experience. And youāre keeping a high rate of reward without pressure, which totally helps. I say āso farā because, well, adolescence š and I donāt want to jinx anything š š
Great job!
TracyHi!
Doing a āsimpleā behavior with some freedom and lots of play with any type of flyball around is HUGE! Flyball is noisy and active, so it was a great opportunity to work with him in a very stimulating environment. Great job with the active, fun toy play – but then holding onto him when the āmadnessā of flygility started. I think he did well watching but not flinging himself around while you were holding him.
And also, when you did let him go and cued the tunnel: he was distracted so didnāt quite get himself into the tunnel but alsoā¦ he did not run away to the other dogs/people, he came right back to you. GOOD BOY!!!! I was proud of him!
Thanks for the flygility video! Super interesting! The dogs looked very happy and the box was really interesting š How many runs do they do? I agree that all of those weave reps can really add up. The independent skills were impressive though!! I admit to cracking up when the dogs blasted past the weaves to just go get the ball LOL!!
Tracy
