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Hi!
This is a the rocking horses plus some race tracks and a little turn & burn 🙂
As with the earlier rocking horse video – make a bigger connection after the crosses and before the send, so he knows where to be – very direct eye contact will help a lot.For example at :48, you had clear connection, so he knew where to be and did not look at the toy. At :51, your shoulder was closed forward and you were not looking back at him so as he exited the cone, all he saw was you back and ended up on the wrong side of you. You marked it as him being wrong and whipped the toy away… but in reality it was handler error (no connection = no side info).
So he was not being naughty, he was just guessing – you should reward those moments. The dog ended up on the wrong side of us indicates a connection issue, which is a handler issue 🙂 The same thing happened at :58, but he had slowed down and was being careful. The video at :58 is a great view of what happened. Your arm is at your side and your were looking down towards your side, so you could probably see him in your peripheral vision. But he did not see the connection clearly (he can really only see your back there). Seeing him and being connected are two different things 🙂 So to be connected, have your dog side arm back, fingers pointing to his nose, and look directly for his eyes. And if he ends up on the wrong side, don’t mark it as wrong (the oops marker is a “you’re wrong” marker). Either keep going and give more connection, or reward him for trying to figure it out, then give more connection on the next rep.
As with the earlier rocking horses… time for wrap verbals so you don’t end up over-using the go verbal. 🙂
Great job!
TracyAdding the bump/bars to the minny pinny:
He was great here too, easy peasy 🙂 and that is exactly what we want. Nice reward placement! So now we need to get you to stop saying “go” and use your directionals 🙂 what do you want to use for left & right soft turns? The GO directional will be used only for the big straight line extensions, and before you get into the habit of using it on turns, we will get into the habit of turn directionals. This is a really easy one to add the directionals too – just be sure to hold his collar, say the directional a couple of times, then let him start moving through the turns.
Nice work!
TracyThis is minny pinny part 1 with just the wings: easy peasy! He did great! Nice job with the reward placement here. My only suggestion here is to always line him up straight and hold him til you are ready – that way he doesn’t end up offering the wrong direction or turning away into the setup. I see you added bumps below! Yay!
Hi! This is the rocking horse game. His commitment is looking good! I think he definitely needs something taller than these cones, so you can use big barrels or something for now until we transition him to the wings.
2 suggestions for you – connect more as you send him to the next cone, so he knows that you want the cone and not the toy. When connection was really strong, he didn’t look at the toy. When connection was not as clear because you were looking forward, he was not as sure of where to go and looked at the toy more.
Time to add the wrap verbals now! What do you want to use for the wrap verbals? You were saying “go” on these, and we definitely want to replace the “go” with the wrap verbals. He is definitely ready for it!Nice work!
TracyGood morning!
Looks like you had a fun group at the barn!
Recalls – remember to always start with the running around the holder, and get further from her before the holder releases her so she can really run fast and long, more like what you did on the last two reps. I like to call the dog or raise my hand to indicate I am ready for the release. Also, you can let her ‘run through the toy’ (meaning you let go when she grabs it so she keeps moving forward and so there is no torque on her neck) – then you turn and run the other way so she drives right back to you with it
>. On the last one, we had a dog standing to the side but he isn’t shown on the video. I think it might have been different if the dog had been moving but she was happy to chase me on these. What would be a good way to introduce dogs moving while we worked on this? I want to set her up for the best chance of success>>
I am assuming she has no aggression issues, correct? She seemed perfectly lovely when I met her. And I am assuming that the helper dog has no aggression issues? If both dogs are happy with other dogs, then you can have the helper dog just walking back and forth for now as she does her recalls. The worst thing that will happen is that she will pay a happy visit to the other dog, which is no big deal. If that happens, you have a laugh, gather them up, and try again with the helper dog a little further away. And when you are doing high energy recalls like this, it is NOT likely she will leave to see a dog that is just walking.
Then it gets built up to side by side crazy recalls, opposing recalls, etc. More on that coming soon! It is really easy and fun… and VERY helpful for teaching focus and engagement in crazy distractions. Here is a recent one of Ramen and a puppy who had never done this before, not sure if you can see the video or not:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1044614745608895/permalink/8665555503514743/Minny pinny –
She is doing well! No problems here with responding 🙂 Yay! Two little suggestions: Take off her coat so she can move normally – coats are a little restrictive and we want to rehearse proper mechanics for her. Also, you can hold her a tiny bit longer so she hears left and right 3 or 4 times before you let her go (she was hearing it maybe once here).>> since we spread them out slightly on our second go at it>>
No need to spread them out yet, we have lots more crazy stuff to do with them before we add more room LOL!
Rocking horses – also looking great and her commitment is great!
On the rocking horses, since you are turning and facing the next barrel – you need to be SUPER clear if you want her to stop for a reward at your side. At :02, you turned, stepped and put your hand in there with a treat.. but that was not a clear indication to stop. A marker and a more obvious hand movement/connection will make a big difference, more like :09 and when you were using the toy and said “bite”. She is really understanding this game, so if she is not supposed to keep going you need to be very clear about it 🙂>> I included my first effort at Race Track where I look like I am drunk (I kept forgetting that I was just doing post turns).>>
We have reached the stage where the humans will need to start walking these ‘courses’ before trying them with the puppies 🙂 We have a lot of handling moves happening! So be sure to walk through what you are planning to do before bringing her into it 🙂
>> She does make contact with me at the turn and burn on one of them, and I hope that was just due to my timing being off.>>
Was this at :46 where it looks like she hit your leg? Then yes, your timing was late and you were running towards a wall, so she was trying to get the toy and not run into the wall 🙂
And since you are doing handling and you might mess up and she might not be sure of what you want… definitely do the newest pattern game (Find My Face) so she knows what to do when the flow of information stops or gets wonky 🙂 We don’t want the pups to be left without a coping device for when we screw up LOL!
She did really well with the double whammy game! She only had one question, which was :17 when you didn’t quite get connection to get her on your left side. But then you got great connection on the other reps and she nailed it!
On the first part of the video, I think you were cuing the turn back to the tunnel too much by turning your feet before she turned. For example at :09 and :25, you were turning your feet before she past you. Ideally, she turns herself to the tunnel based on the verbal cue, so try not to turn your feet at all til she has turned to the tunnel. This is what you did on the last rep at :33 – you kept walking forward, she turned to the tunnel, then you turned and went the other way. Perfect!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
With the stays: He is a good age now to start working on these! We can definitely help you find the rhythm! I try to do one stay session every day with my pup, just for a minute or two.Because you were walking back and forth, it seemed like he was not sure of what to offer. So you can stand still, cue the sit (or let him offer it if you don’t have a cue yet), then you can start to move away. As you add moving away, remember to move slowly and release to the reward before he breaks. So at first, this will mean clicking and throwing the treat back to him immediately! then you can gradually add in delaying the click, so you are moving away a little more each time before the click and reward.
And if he has questions, we can add a small platform for him to sit on, because it might help him understand to remain in that one place.
Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
I think we can smooth out the mechanics here to make his turns smoother too for the 360s – it seemed like you were both feeling a little awkward with it. Since he only goes around the upright twice in each rep, remember to start with him lined up at your side, facing forward to the upright (like you did at :25). Then send him around one time but don’t click that, just let him come around the upright. Then as he comes around it, use the same hand that you started him with to then turn him away and click that moment… followed by throwing the cookie to the other side of the upright (instead of handing it to him). Then after he gets that cookie, play a little, then line him up again to do the next rep. Because the cookies are thrown, it might be easier to do this on your deck, where you were training the stays in the next video 🙂
Let me know if that makes sense! He is turning really nicely so it is just a matter of smoothing things out.
TracyHi!
He did really well with his tunnel intro! You can have better treats in your hand to balance out the draw of the MM so he comes back to you even faster for the next rep 🙂 And for now, you can turn your feet to face the tunnel after you let him go, to help support the line to it.
That way, you can also call him back to you through the tunnel after he gets the treats from the MM 🙂 You might need to shorten up the tunnel to do that back-and-forth, but it is really fun!
Tracy
Good morning!
Super high energy on these, loved it! His commitment is looking good! And he did well with the countermotion moments too when your transitions were smooth (more on that below). Nice!>.start with a tugging toy and had boring cookies to line him up. Right after he eat the cookies he refuse to play with toy. I finished exercise with cookies and start over with ball>
Yes, he definitely had a struggle after the food.
You can work this skill separately (because it is definitely a trained skill!). Away from trying to train anything else, you can teach him to alternate between food and toys – have a bowl of VERY boring cookies in one room of your house, and an AMAZING toy (long, furry, etc) in another room. Give him one very boring cookie then run run run to the other room with him, and start swinging the long toy around. The running, length of the toy, and the swinging it for him to chase will really get him on it. Then after a bit of tugging, urn back to the first room, give him a boring cookie… then run back to the tug toy game in the other room.Only do this for a minute or two because it is going to tire both of you out 🙂
And for now, when working on training something (like rocking horses), use one or the other – food or the toy, so he doesn’t have to worry about going back and forth between the two of them yet. Eventually we can put it all together 🙂
On the 2nd video (FC to spin) – be sure to decelerate into the FC at :10 so he continues past you as you turn earlier. It will look more like sending him past you with the dog side arm, then turning and using the other arm for the rest of the send to support his line to the cone. When he didn’t go to the cone, it was because you had stopped too quickly and not sent him past you, and ended up facing him before he was past you, which was a little too hard (this happened at the end of the first video). So you can go fast then decelerate then rotate as he is passing you. And you can also have the toy in a pocket, because going past the rotation AND ignoring the toy is really hard 🙂
On the 3rd video, also note what worked for the sending at :04 and :07 then later at :32 and :35, in terms of a little deceleration: You decelerated a little, sent with the dog side arm, then rotated. Really nice transition and he committed well! On those, he was passing you and you were moving the other way with good countermotion.
Compare to :09 and :16 where the change in motion was a little too abrupt: you didn’t send him past but just rotated so he had questions. That smoother transition works really nicely with him.
And he really liked the race tracks! Yay!!!Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Yay! The tunnel session went great! You were very systematic about starting easy, then making it harder and adding the angles. Perfect! She was totally getting the idea about the right turns, just about perfectly! The only question she had was probably because she sniffing for a treat before you let her go 🙂
The best timing of the MM clicks were when you let her make the turn to her right, then clicked (for example a :28 and :47, and after that point in the video most of the clicks were for right turns). So definitely keep clicking for the right turns.
The next step would be to shorten the tunnel and put the MM at the exit. And then replicate the session you did here: easy straight lines to start, then gradually adding the angles of the right turns.
Her work on the minny pinney looks good! I think either youtube had the sound off kilter or your verbals were backwards – you were saying right when she was starting on your right hand… but she was turning left 🙂 And at :25 and :53 – she was correct based on the verbal LOL! I have a video somewhere where I did the entire session with the verbals backwards LOL no harm, no foul, the dogs forgave me LOL!
>>Am I setting her up fo the next rep in the correct postion like you mentioned?
>>>>She should be lined up at your side, facing forward (your toes and her toes should both be pointing to the bar) for now, so she doesn’t have to turn away from you to start – that might have been why she was not always entering the pinny the correctly and sometimes touching the panel jump slats (it was hard to get speed into it after turning away to start). So after the reward (your reward placement was excellent!) bring her out of that position, line her up at your side, then start the next rep.
>> Should I change them out to locked in bars?>>
I think a better option would be to get a couple of pool noodles and slice them in half, lengthwise, so they are like little jump bumps. That way they won’t roll around and she also has a little more height to jump.
Going to the mat has a ton of value now (yay!) so on the next session you can go directly to the back and forth through the mat. I think your timing of the find it markers was good!! Because she is sooo quick, she is able to hit the mat AND look at you at the same time (SMALL DOGS ARE SO QUICK! LOL!!) so you can change out the “find it” to the Manners Minder, so she is going to the mat then continuing straight to the MM. You can toss the treat to the other side of the mat when she goes back across it the other way (you can be standing in the center so she goes back and forth). the MM will help her get her eyes forward and not looking at you 🙂
>> Should I start Frankie on the tunnel beginner exercises Bazinga is learning to introduce her to the verbal & help her with the Tunnel Class?
Do you mean to the threadle concept to get the other side of the tunnel? Yes, that is smart because if I recall correctly, getting the ‘wrong’ side has been the struggle, right?
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Great job having your food rewards be so active!!! That is really important when working this game with food 🙂 This video was great – a classic example of how getting the pups into a higher state of arousal actually improves their responses! Note how at the beginning, her responses to your ‘touch’ cue were basically full on body slam touches LOL!! But then as you worked to get her into that optimal state, she was able to produce really lovely precise touches! And then the sit at the end was focused and lovely, and she definitely wanted to keep ‘working’ because she was still offering her paw touches LOL! Fun!
My guess is that you will find it most effective to use a balance of food and toys in the same session, so you can try this game with tugging then food rewards then back to tugging and see how she does!
The next suggestion is to take a short straight tunnel, get her volume dial into that optimized state like you did here… then send her into a tunnel (using the hand on collar, then start the tunnel verbal, then let go of the collar). Reward her for doing the tunnel… then do a bit of a cookie pattern game (from the resilience games) to balance her back to center of arousal. The tunnels get her very aroused so the volume dial an pattern games will help her self-regulate 🙂 Let me know if that makes sense!
Nice work here 🙂
TracyGood morning!
Really nice job with the serp foundation! It looks like she had no trouble coming in over the little bar, so I think Prytania is ready for the next steps: having the reward on the ground on the line of exit. That way she will come on then turn tp the next line. You can use the Manners Minder or you can use an empty food bowl (to drop the cookie in) to start with – then eventually a toy on the ground! The MM and the food bowl will help develop the impulse control needed to ignore the reward in favor of going to the serp first 🙂
The GO recalls also looked good 🙂 They are a lot of running for us humans LOL!! I think Prytania was not sure where to look (verbals from the momma but Annalise was running) so to get the best line, whomever is running should also be yelling the verbals 🙂 You can add in letting Prytania ‘run through’ the tug, meaning that as she catches up to you, you let her grab the tug and you let go. she will keep moving forward to the tug… but you can turn and run the other way so she chases you with it. That will combine the recalls with the retrieve games 🙂
Really nice job with the left & right – your mechanics were spot on: holding her til after you stared the verbals, then letting go, then rewarding on the correct line at the end. Click/treat for you!!
And yes, I can totally relate to the how the tugga cue sometimes becomes the “ouch that is my hand in your mouth” cue LOL!!!
Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
The in in looks great!
When using the MM, you don’t need a marker if the MM beeps 🙂 One less thing to say LOL!!
The left turns were harder here for some reason – the right turns all looked super strong. She was a righty for that session 🙂 When you see her having a question about which side, you can start her on an easier angle to help the turn that direction be easier 🙂 What I mean by that is she can be on the same line as the jump bar, facing her line, rather than having to go around the wing to enter the threadle. Let me know if that makes sense or if I need more caffeine 🙂
The backside slice is going well too! Remember to keep our arm a little further back so you can make more direct eye contact – on the first session, Annalise was using her hand more than eye contact. On the 2nd session, Annalise had more eye contact (yay!) and Prytty nailed it 🙂 I always remind myself to deliver the cue to the dog, not to the barrel 🙂
And yes latent learning is a BEAUTIFUL thing – train a little then let the brain do the rest LOL!!!
She looks really strong on the tunnel threadles too! She is happy to do whichever you cue – going to the end of the tunnel she can see, , or coming to your threadle side. On the next session, add two things:
– your feet parallel to the tunnel and facing the entry side you want, rather than turned towards her (this will simulate the footwork she will see on course)
– the MM at the exit 🙂 That will accomplish 2 things: first, it adds challenge to the threadle approach because she will have toIGNORE THE MM to do it. LOL She will be fine because she can do it on the jump threadle game. And second, it will help make the in-then-tunnel of the threadle cue more automatic, so you don’t need to use hand signals or footwork to get her into the tunnel. >>Don’t feel like you have to rush feedback!
The first three here were easy feedback! And the next 3 are marked private so I can’t see them LOL! Let me know when they are unlisted. All of this is looking great!!
>>We also have named “Get Out” “Check” “Dig” “Sit” “Break” “BeepBeep” “WaHoo!” (remote reward) and markers “Yes” “Get It” “Catch” “Tuggawugga”>>
Fabulous! She is doing great with the skills and the words, so the more the merrier 🙂 And my favorite here is “Tuggawugga” hahaha
Great job :)
TracyHi!
He did well here getting into the higher arousal state! You had a good variety of action tricks and precision behaviors while playing with him, all of which really seemed to get him into a really optimal state (plus gives you stuff to work on in different environments, to see what helps him). The ‘reverse’ backing up was harder when he was more stimulated, so it is something to keep working on with gradually increasing stimulation.
And he was able to move into the sit immediately and hold it til released for reward. Perfect!
>>When I have him sit beside me more “formally” I tend to have him sit up straighter since he cues off of my hand position. When he sits more on his own, he tends to get into more of a hover sit. Does it matter?>>
Do you mean when he was in the sit here and you moved away, he would lean forward? It appeared that his butt stayed on the ground and he didn’t move any feet… so there is nothing to reposition or adjust. And if you did try to adjust him, he will probably not know what you are trying to change.
You can try to use the hand cue to cue a taller sit… but as you move away he might lower his head again. I have no problem with his head position here and he also didn’t move a muscle in the stay… yay!!!
The one thing to work on separately is a tighter sit so his back feet are more tucked into him. This is a conditioning thing and should be done separately from the stay: get a square platform that he can sit on easily but not too spacious so he can splay. And eery fews days, just do a session of sits on that platform so he pulls his feet in tighter to his hips.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyPS – >>It looks like his one ear up may match the side I lead out on when he’s excited.>>
SO CUTE!!!! I love it!!!
Hi!
>>f you could have seen his face when he looked up at me. He had this expression like “what the heck are you doing human??? Not paying attention to me???? You always should be looking at me”>>
HA! Yes, that is exactly why we do this game: he needs to learn that sometimes we screw it up and it is all fine LOL!!
he did well figuring it out, no problem here either. You can move more (walking back and forth a bit more) and also toss the next treat sooner – you can toss it as soon as he gets to your side, rather than wait ti he curls all the way in front of you. Arriving at your side to look at you is great.
Nice work!
Tracy
