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Hi!
I like the wrap to retrieve, it is getting him driving past you while you are running 🙂 And it looks like you were running fast the whole time and he was really driving 🙂 Yay!
I think the only question he had was on rep 3 where he didn’t see the toy throw, so didn’t know where to go The rest were solid! And you can add the running away after he gets the ball if you like but he was also seeming to pick it up and wait for you/retrieve it, which means you can play and don’t need to run away 🙂 If he is really far ahead of you, then yes you can totally run the other direction so he races back to you 🙂Great job!
TracyGood morning!
He is doing well here! Before adding the bar on the ground, see if you can fade out some of your movement and let him offer more – you can fade out your movement by taking a gentle step towards him, then rewarding him for moving his back feet without you continuing to move as well. He seems to have good experience on this so I bet he will be able to figure out the offering really nicely!!! If he can offer more without as much movement from you, then you can add the bar taped to the ground. The reason to get more offering before the bar is that he will be thinking about his back feet more, and about your movement less 🙂Great job!
TracyGood morning! He is doing well with all of these, so an overall comment is that you can move to the next step on all of them 🙂 That means either the advanced level, or the game from the next week. Here are some specifics:
Wing wraps – The next step here is to be able to get standing. Because he is small, you might want to sit in a chair for a session and if he can do it with you in a chair, then you can try it standing up. When you can stand up, the next step would be turn and burn!
Nice job with the slow turning on the plank! You can move to a longer plank as well as a slightly taller plank (maybe 6 inches off the ground or so). The taller plank is important so that he can jump on and off from the middle of it, as well as start to get used to some more height.
Turns on the flat – these were tandem turns. He is turning well from next to you, but now the next step is to have him start where he is NOT next to you – begin by tossing a cookie away for him to go get. Then as you are walking forward and he catches up, you can do the tandem turn. I am sure that will go well too, so you can move to the advanced level where the prop gets added in.
Strike a pose – he was coming in nicely to your target hand, but you were moving it. Try to look the target hand out and away from you, so he is a couple of feet way from you when he hits it… then don’t move it 🙂 After he hits the target hand, you can show him the reward in the other hand. Because he is so small, you can do this one in a chair to establish the in-and-out line for him without having to bend over as much 🙂 It will also help if you have a target in your hand (not a cookie) so that he can bop the open hand rather than stop for a cookie 🙂
Backing up: He is starting to get the idea of this one too! To get more steps backwards, two suggestions:
Keep your cookie hands lower (down at the top of your thighs) and toss the treats under his front feet after after he backs up. That way he begins to move back more and more – if the cookie is high and comes from your hand, he will take one step back and look up at you, like he did here.Nice work on all of these! They are all ready for the next steps 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
>>She is going to be so excited to see her dustbin!
Ha! It will be a joyful reunion LOL!
BIG thanks to the hubby for holding her – it allowed you to get a lot of speed on these 2 games, which looked like fun!
>>I think I may have been moving too fast during the parallel path. I got excited to get ahead of her! It is kinda cool that I need a helper to get ahead of this tiny muffin! <grin>>>
I thought it was great! Yes, you were going fast, but she didn’t seem to have any questions about it – in fact, she just went faster LOL! Nice job with. The toy throws, because she was not looking at you over the bar. The next step is to be a little further away, laterally, so she finds the jump even when you are 2 or 3 or 4 feet away from it.
She read the blinds on the collection sandwich perfectly!
>>I think I did not give her time to see any body language that communicated decel before I actually slowed down.>>
Yes – you had a little too much acceleration after the blind, so she thought you were going to keep moving forward which is why she ended up past you on the first rep, and jumped up a little on the other reps. So, after as you are doing the blind, you can also be decelerating so she sees it coming a couple of strides before she gets to you. That way she can decelerate sooner and turn – I think the jumping up was a version of stopping her forward momentum 🙂 She was pivoting beautifully when you started to turn, so it is just a matter of showing her the decel sooner.
Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
So if he is getting stuck on the mat or crate, you can put it in front of something he likes to release to: like a barrel LOL! Or going outside 🙂 So that he learns that he can hold position AND release to something as well.T
Good morning!
yes – you can see how the blow drying is working so nicely! So a consistent “trade ya” can help condition him to bring things and drop things, rather than grab stuff or run off with stuff 🙂
Good morning!
He is doing a great job with his backing up!! Very clear foot movement and he is isolating each step. SUPER!!!At this point, you can ask him to back up onto a very low, under-inflated disc or low wobble board that barely moves – that will add a good challenge. The disc or wobble board should be low because he is still small and we don’t want him to have to lift his back feet up too high! And it should barely move, so he doesn’t get startled 🙂 But I believe he is ready for the added challenge!
Also, last night I posted the perch work/pivoting games – he can totally start that too, based on the strength of his backing up here.
Great job!!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! It is always so fun to see your Wednesday night train alongs haha!
The backside slices are looking really good, no problem going to the backside of the barrel! Nice! I bet you can start her from a stay as well.
It looks like she had no trouble with your line of motion to position 1 and position 2… so onwards to position 3 where you are on the far side of the jump bump (where the other wing would be).Threadle slices also look great! You can use a jump wing so she has something bigger to threadle into. One mechanics suggestions:
Try not to move at all with the “bowl” verbal, keep your shoulders locked in threadle position. :22 was perfect, you didn’t move at all – we don’t want to build in any shoulder motion to the jump on these.Starting from position 2? Easy peasy! Sitting closer to the bowl was a brain exploder for her but she made great choices especially at the end!!! Yay! So keep gradually inching towards the start position next to the bowl. And you an also go back to position 1 and replace the bowl with a toy on the ground 🙂
On the 2nd video, she did well on the other side too! As with the first video, don’t move your relax your shoulder position til she is actually eating from the bowl – that way she doesn’t think there is a shoulder cue to take the jump (because on course you will be cuing it and running away, trusting her to take the jump on her own 🙂
You can add the advanced level here too, contrasting the threadles with the serps 🙂
The head turn game went super well!!! She is bendy both directions, and you got her to turn her head and create that lovely bendy shape. She seemed pretty balanced in both directions, maybe a little better to the right? And when you were clicking the head turn on the first send, the leading-with-the-head concept was beginning to transfer there as well. Yay! So keep revisiting this here and there, to really get her leading with her head. And you can check out the advanced level with the 360s!
Great job here!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Baby boy is getting really good with his barrel wraps!
He was hitting the barrel a little when you are presenting the toy right there, so you can start to add more distance and also delay showing him the toy til he is around the barrel (like in turn and burn, you can be moving away and then show the toy when he finishes the wrap.He was happy to commit even with you backwards! At 1:14 and 1:36 you were doing them more as threadle/lap turn, but on the backwards sending he is still going to go to the other side of the barrel (not a threadle).
He also did well with the rocking horses! Because we don’t need precision reinforcement on this game, you can stick the toy in your pocket or under your shirt, so your hands are free and you don’t switch the toy from hand-to-hand (which causes him to look at you and also delay the info).
On the rocking horses, remember to have that connected Hallmark moment 🙂 before sending him to the next barrel. If you don’t connect, he has questions about where to be like at 2:17.
Since his commitment is going well, I love that you are adding your verbals here! You had dig and check going here… but I couldn’t tell which was for which because you used them for both left and right wraps 🙂 So is dig for one direction and check for the other? The is ideal! Just remember to use both in the rocking horse, because the pup is turning both directions.
He is definitely loving his tunnel sends! For now, you don’t need to add the dig for the exit because it is going to be late (the exit verbals come when the pup is still 6 feet or more from the entry, but he was still hearing the “tunnel go” verbal there.
For the threadle entries… he is relying on your hand signals which means he is not ready yet for the verbal cue (we don’t really have the behavior yet, so we don’t want to name it yet). To help him turn himself away, start him in threadle position and hold his collar while you say tunnel a few times. Then when he looks at the tunnel, let go of him (and reward for tunneling). The collar hold gives him a moment to sort it out and also it takes out you needing to use arm cues (because we don’t want this behavior to require you to use big arm cues to turn him on the flat to face the tunnel).
When he is able to turn himself away, then you can add the verbal and the arm signal, but the arm signal is more of a threadle arm and not a tandem turn where the hands turn the dog (the pups turn themselves on threadles).
And after an error on any of these handling games… don’t mark him as being wrong (a bunch of oopses were slipping in there :)) and use an immediate reset cookie so he doesn’t get frustrated when he is old he messed up something he doesn’t understand yet. He was getting grabby with the tunnel threadles but as soon as you started doing the reset rewards, he was less frustrated. When a dog fully understands something, the reset rewards are less important… but that is more like when the dog has been competing in Masters LOL!!!
Great job here! Looking forward to seeing you tonight!
TracyGood morning!
Looking at the retrieving videos – I see progress here!!!!! This is especially cool to see because he is an independent critter 🙂 His toy play is looking strong and he is starting to bring the toy back sometimes (and NOT running off with it is a big win too).
On the first video:
He definitely liked the squeakers when the toy squeaked, but he didn’t like it when you squeaked LOL! The human squeaking must sound like a distress call to some extent, because my 10 year old dog was sleeping on a bed across the room, and he got up and came running over to make sure things were ok LOL! And Casper responded similarly: ARE YOU OK MOM?!?!?On the 2nd video – he actually had 2 little retrieve moments! Hooray!!! I am excited!
And yes, he thought your noise here in this clip was strange too – he wasn’t sure if he should rush to your aid or to get the toy. So…. No more noises LOL!!!! They are confusing him.I bet he would like it if you squeaked the other toy, though! When he picks up the first toy and maybe turns to you or at least doesn’t run off: Squeak toy #2. He might not bring the first toy back but squeaking the new toy will reward him for at least considering it and for not running away.
>>Even when I went to the breeder when I got him, and I ran away from him in her back yard, he just stood there and looked at me like I was a weirdo, I thought… oookay, we’ll see how this goes. LOL
Some puppies are born very independent… my Export was the same way as a puppy, and so was my Contraband: when I went to meet the litter, Contraband was the puppy that took his toy and went under the breeder’s deck with it LOL!!! But, because we are not pressuring the pups and we are developing this play relationship with them, they will be even more bonded to us and great with retrieving, chasing, etc – without losing that independent spark that we love 🙂 So, I see Casper as like my Export and Contraband – sure, he doesn’t automatically bring the toy back at this age but he doesn’t need to, because we know how to develop that play bond and he will grow up to be an amazing partner 🙂
>>I’m not sure if he’ll pick something up and place it in my hand yet, he still tends to just run off with things. :p>>
2 ideas:
– shape with a clicker, just like it was a trick to pick something up. He loves clicker shaping games!– since you have kibble bowls scattered around, you can set up lots of trade moments by putting something down he might want to pick up and when he does: you scatter a bunch of kibbles on the ground. That will help him NOT run away and also start to condition him to bring stuff to you 🙂
Stay video:
Yes, he is definitely trying to figure out what this “stillness” is about LOL!! To help clarify for him, don’t click any downs otherwise he will keep going back and forth between sits and downs. You can also help him with a small platform? That might give him more boundaries for hitting and holding the sit. Also, to help hm understand still need, you can try crate games. They are very effective to help these fast-footed creatures figure out stay behavior. The trick is to do a TON of reinforcement. Let me know if you have played crate games in the past, or if you would like me to dig up some videos 🙂 The first two steps are:Teach the dog to NOT bolt out when you open the door by feeding fast and in the back of the crate (no sit needed yet):
Then you shape the sit by putting your hand on the door: when the pup sits, open the door, deliver a treat, close the door:
You can also take a rapid-fire approach to the sits, like here:
The tunnel shaping is going well! He id driving back and forth really well!
>>He really doesn’t like me to hold him or hold his collar, which I need to work on separately I’m sure, to make those good things instead of icky>>
When you gently slip a finger under his collar, what does he do? We can make the collar holding fun by putting it into this game:
He goes through the tunnel, gets a MM treat. Then comes back to you, gets another treat while you touch his collar (but don’t hold it yet) then back through the tunnel. You can build up to holding it by putting it into this loop with the tunnel and MM 🙂 That will allow you to start adding the tunnel verbal and changing position more, both of which he is ready for.How does he feel about you putting a hand on his chest, instead of touching his collar? That is an option as well, if he likes it better. Or, has he ever worn a harness? Some dogs like that better too.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!!
>>I tend to obsess over them a bit.
Ha! Same here! And people ask how I remember them… it is because I obsess. LOL!!
>>If she starts on my right side & ends on my left side, she is turning to her right. Is that correct?
Yes, that is correct for rear crosses.
The right turn rear crosses are coming along nicely!!!! You don’t have to be faster, you were good! She had a light bulb moment after the 2nd rep and then was all good!!!! Yay! Her only other question was when you went back to them after all the left turns… but then she remember to turn right. The left turns also looked good! Because the right turns are harder, maybe keep them to their own session, no left turns 🙂 That way she is not even thinking about those left turns when you want a right turn.
Here is an idea for next steps:
Starting with left turns because they are easier, you can do a warm up with the cookie tosses. And after a couple of successful reps, add the prop in again, placing it exactly in the same spot to where you are tossing the treats. And let’s see if she can do rear crosses with the prop there! Try it with left turns only at first, then we can decide if she is ready for the right turns too 🙂The stay session went well!!! I thought you were very clear with the clicks, very clear with the catch-then-toss, and you were also varying the duration (some shorter reps, some longer reps) – and she was highly successful! YAY!!!
So keep going with this theme – in a comfy location like at home in the house, you can start to get more duration. In harder locations, like your backyard, cut back criteria to 50% of what it is in the house, to help set her up for success. In really hard locations like a trial? Start with very very easy click/tosses for offering the sit, in case the environment is really hard.
Great job on these!
TracyGood morning! Great job in class last night!!
>>Quick question – if I am doing parallel paths using the jump uprights, can I then do the rear cross through the uprights too?
Not yet – we want the rear crosses to be more solid before we put them on a jump. The parallel path warm up for the rear crosses should be on a prop too, so you can do it in one session: some parallel path on the prop, then throw in some rear crosses on the prop.
Have fun!
TracyGood morning!
I am sorry to hear that she is still having trouble, I remember you talking about it over the summer.>>She is on a waiting list for a rehab vet just in case it’s physical, but I have no evidence other than her weaving and occasional slipping when turning. We called in July and are still waiting.>>
July and still waiting?? OMG that is insanity. Is there a different place you can bring her? Can you come to the States, maybe Buffalo or Rochester or Syracuse? I have a ton of places to recommend in those areas and also down here in Virginia/North Carolina if you wanted a big trip.
Based on what you are seeing, I would say it is physical and she would need a set of X-rays, ultrasound, bloodwork (thyroid and tick panels especially) and definite hands-on exams with a soft tissue specialist. Anytime we had a behavior and then it deteriorates a lot plus there is a change in the dog’s movement… it is a physical issue. A lot of those issues are well-hidden by the dogs but diagnostics find them.
>>If you can help, or know someone who loves solving weave dilemmas, I’d appreciate the help.>>
There are lots of folks who can help, the main suggestion will be to start over with a different style of training (like leave the 2x2s and use channels from the very beginning). However, if there is any possibility of it being a physical issue, don’t even try to work the pole because the pain and frustration is getting paired with the weave poles… which will make re-training them much harder. Pain will change how her brain works, which will make consistent weaving pretty impossible.
So, wait to start anything with weaves til after she gets the full workup (x-rays or shoulders/back/hips and ultrasound psoas and shoulders are my top two suggestions).
Is there anything I can do to help speed along getting her in for diagnostics?
Tracy
