[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

This game is looking really good! Your shoulder position after the blind makes all the difference to him. Shoulder slightly back? Great connection and he reads it perfectly. Shoulder slightly forward? He doesn’t see the connection and doesn’t read the side change, like on the 2nd rep. When you added the additional eye contact, your shoulder position was perfect – so keep doing the extra eye contact. His pivots looked great!

You can add more speed to this game by using a toy reward and by starting him further away (with a stay or a further cookie toss). That will allow you to show him the transition from running to decel for the turn/pivot.

If you are feeling behind, you can work the games in combos: using your barrel/cone wraps, look at the handling combos which combine the cone wraps with the Flatwork games, and they include toys races as well 🙂

Also, take a look at the strike a pose games if you haven’t already – the serps are a bit of an unnatural border collie behavior, so these are a good game to focus on at this stage. All of your other games are going really well!

Nice work!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>> I laughed so hard at “bend” & “snap”! LOL

Me too, it is the best set of verbals ever and I might need to steal them LOL!

>>Also, thanks for the encouragement on the last session! I almost didn’t send the video but wanted to be honest about our session progress.>>

I am glad you sent it! Sometimes was feels icky in the moment turns out to look strong on video! And if it is really icky, then we can figure out how to de-ick it 🙂

>>I think I need to work on cleaning up my markers or is it ok to cheer the puppy on after the initial “yes!”? I’m saying a lot to her.>>

It depends on what will happen next: If it is a yes & quick delivery of reward, and she should continue working or offering, then you will want to be pretty quiet. But if it is a marker and then play & engagement before the next rep? Then totally cheer her on 🙂

On the backing up video – yes, I think she was definitely using her back feet and moving backwards! It all happens so fast with her little feet, but when you slow the video down, most of the reps showed very clear back foot movement. She was building in a bow behavior on the mat, which is why on some reps she was using her front end too. But by the end of the video, she was very distinctly backing up.

I think the bow position on the mat was partially her thinking that she needed to do that (front feet on the mat and bow LOL!) because it got a couple of clicks, and partially because of you being bent over and feeding her low. So, you can try it in a chair so you are low but not bent over (less pressure when we are not bending as much). And, deliver the cookies so she has to lift her chin above her shoulders to get it – that can help her use her back feet even more. And clicking a little sooner can help her realize that she doesn’t need to get into the bow (you can click for back feet just arriving at the mat) but if she ends up in the bow, no worries, it is SUPER cute!

The rocking horses are going well!
Big swooshy steps and arm movements help propel her when she is coming in from a standstill after a reward especially if she is taking a moment to chew the treat LOL! But overall her left turns are pretty perfect. She still has a question or two on the right turns, so you can stay a little closer to the barrel on those. You can try for doing a couple in a row now, and definitely bring the toy in too 🙂 More motion and the toy will probably help her be perfect on her right turns too.

Strike a pose in the kitchen looks great! She was driving directly to the target hand and your reward placement was spot on, creating the second part of the turn. I was going to sugges you add the jump, but I see you already did 🙂 Yay!

The concept transfer to the jump looked really strong! Since she did so well with her stay on the mat in your kitchen, maybe bring her mat outside so she can stay on it, on the grass? She was driving in really well to the jump, and your reward placement was spot on again. You can see her beginning to line herself up to make the turnbefore she even arrives at your target hand, which is exactly what we want! If she lines up to make the turn and doesn’t fully touch the target, that is fine because we are going to fade the target and the touch 🙂
One suggestion for your position relative to the jump: try to be closer to the jump, so she starts her turn before arriving at the bar. She is little (obviously haha) so tha means you should be able to touch the jump wing with a bent elbow. That will create a nice tight turn. Your position relative to the wing at the end of the video was really good (your belly button was lined up with the wing). Early in the video, you were lined up more with the center of the bar, so you can move over to line up with the wing on both sides. Most of you will be behind the wing, and she should see your serp arm and part of your leg over the bar.

Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!
You can work the serp foundations a little differently, to get the impulse control a bit stronger. Serps are actually all about impulse control, because the dogs have to drive in towards the handler, do a series of turns… and basically ignore the motion that would be much easier to run parallel to (and ignore the obstacles out ahead).

He was doing well with the toy in your hand in terms of going to the target hand first, mostly 🙂 but to get the toy to be able to be on the ground, we can step back a little to teach that skill separately.

Definitely use your get it verbal so the marker cue gets stronger (as in, you can’t have it til I say “get it”). And for now, sit on the floor with him, and put the toy on the ground next to you. Then, just ask for a hand touch (using an empty hand or the target in your hand) by putting your palm out and looking at it. If he touches your hand with the toy on the ground? Woohoo! Say ‘get it’ and play play play. If he goes directly to the toy, just cover it with the other hand (scrunch up the toy or use a small one to start) and present the hand again.

Start by sitting on the floor, then when he is happy with that, you can sit on a chair or something, then we get you standing up again – and that will very easily build up to the serp game.

>>He’s also breaking his stays A LOT. Have to review the sit stay games and work on a stronger stay.>>

Yes indeed, he was having trouble with the stay. Take the stay out of this game for now – using a stay AND trying to move that far away, get in position, put a toy on the ground… too hard for him, for now. So for the toy on the ground and the hand touch, he doesn’t need to be in a stay, he can be milling about in front of you because it is a very up-close game.

The rocking horse game looked really strong!! And I think he likes it a whole lot 🙂 Really strong mechanics at the start, then great job with the connections and the excitement of the turn-and-burn element too. Great fun to watch!

>>The couple of fails was my fault for not connecting with his eyeballs 👀>>

Correct – the bloopers were connection issues, like at 1:20. As he exited the cone at 1:19, you were already pointing forward to the next cone so all he saw was your back… so he stayed on his line then got confused. He was *not* watching the toy – I know it appears that way – but he had no connection so he was guessing bout which side to be on and stayed on his line. Good job playing with him, because he was a good boy there!

Same thing happened at 1:50 – then he got deflated – so always, always reward when there is a handling error (even if you don’t know what the error was LOL!!)

And since almost all handling errors are connection errors, you can ramp up the connection if he has a question. His questions here were a classic case of being able to see him, but not actually being connected. I am pretty sure you could see the flying blur 🙂 But he couldn’t see your eyes and chest, so you were disconnected. Connection is more about what he sees, than what you see.

I like visuals, so here are screen shots from each moment around that right turn cone: the first and last rep were connected (he could see your eyes and chest) so he nailed it. The middle 2 reps were disconnectied: note how your right shoulder is more forward and in line with your body – on the connected reps, your right shoulder was back towards him. Subtle – yes! But dogs see all of that 🙂

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MFO7XuHz0Sv1hc8dBzkSCSl4N6S5nQyKsGCswWMESIE/edit?usp=sharing

And speaking of visuals, since we are getting into more and more high speed handling now: One thing I am trying to get agility people to do is look at video in the moment, for a slow motion replay. It is something we do in flyball after each rep, and it is insightful, allowing us to make adjustments instantly. So especially if something has gone wrong – reward him, then go play the video in slow motion or frame by frame, freezing the moment when he makes the decision to stay on the ‘wrong’ side: what does he see? In this case, he didn’t see side info in the form of that Hallmark moment of connection. Yes, these slow motions replays take a little moe time but that is fine because it leads to a lot more success 🙂

Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

Her wraps look great in both directions – she seems pretty balanced with her left and right turns. Yay!! And commitment looks fabulous.

On the second video, you started her next to you so you could indicate when to go to the barrel – keep doing that line up, that was smoother than the first video where she was offering on her own, plus it will let you start to move sooner and sooner because you’ll have more time as she approaches the barrel. You can use a cookie to help her want to line up if she wants to start without you 😂

Since she is doing so well, you can add more angle of exit on your running line, so she will basically be doing a full 360 around the barrel: on 2nd video, you had the leash on the ground – send her to the barrel on your right like you did. Then do the FC and run parallel to the leash on the ground (towards the camera, in this setup) so she sees more Countermotion. I think she is ready for this added challenge 😀

And if you have a 2nd barrel like this, definitely try more of the rocking horse games.

Great job here!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Two videos in a week? Keep ‘em coming!!

His commitment looks great! And every time I was going to suggest a like tweak to mechanics, you did made the adjustment on the next rep (like using the arm next to the barrel rather than across the body like at :07, and looking back to the barrel rather than at him, like at :24.)

And he made an excellent adjustment too – he moved the barrel rushing to chase you at :30, and then adjusted to NOT touch it on all the other reps, even with identical motion and excitement from you. SUPER!

This means you can go to the advanced level of the rocking horses. Also, use this game to bring in more arousal and excitement. His impulse control looked great (always ignoring the toy in favor of wrapping the barrel) and his turning looked great, so now we embrace the arousal 🙂 and get him higher for this game with more tugging, more “ready ready ready” before you step/send to the barrel.

Before you start to twitch, there are two reasons to do this at this point in training:

– he is going to be really stimulated in the agility environment, so we use this game to teach him how to self-regulate and handle himself in that internal environment. He is going to need to learn how to do this, so let’s set him up for success now 🙂

– The neuroscience behind learning says GEEK ALERT that if he learns (encodes) the behavior in the same state that he will need to retrieve it in, he will be better able to retrieve it. In other words, if he learns it when he is “high”, he will be able to respond to the cues to do it when he is “high” at a trial. Fascinating stuff and helps prepare the pups for the excitement of trials!

So, get him higher 🙂 and also, if he is fine with that, we can start adding your wrap verbals too!

Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning and happy holidays!

Hooray for the first tunnel!! He definitely had no trouble and was super confident. So fun to see! And he was really good about not running away with the toy, which made it easy to engage with it. Super! He also was happy to do the tunnel from various angles, so the next step of trying it from the threadle angles (with him between you and the tunnel, so he turns away from you to get into it) will be easy on this shorty tunnel. And yes, scrunch the 15 footer a little so that you can start using it too, I’m sure he will quickly learn to run through it when it is fully extended.

Strike a pose: He is reading the cue really welI, the only hard part is getting him to find the tossed treat LOL! I think it will be easiest if you start with yourself already in position and toss, like you did at 2:50. That allowed him to see the cookie toss better, so he doesn’t lose it as much and forget what he is doing LOL! That way you can engage, have all the treats ready, then show him the cookie you are tossing. That set up the best position and mechanics for you.

The other option is to replace the tossed treat with the MM: he starts next to you, you trigger the MM, then he comes back to you to do the serp. That can make it smoother because there is no cookie hunting in the dirt 🙂 You’ll have to move the MM to change his start position, but that should still be smoother that waiting for him to find the cookie.

Stays:
These are coming along! I know I recommend NOT using the clicker a lot… but you might want to use the clicker for this game 🙂 That way he can wait for the click, followed by the catch. Make it variable… sometimes the click is pretty immediate, sometimes you delay a little. Two other suggestions:

– rather than face him during the stay, turn slightly away as if doing a lead out. That will begin to simulate an agility lead out, and also he won’t think he needs to keep offering because you are standing there, facing him with direct eye contact which is the internationally-known position for “offer behavior “ 🙂
– Have him be the solo dog, no helpers: he is not likely to stay if there is another dog showing any interest in his treats (food competition will override the stay impulse control). He did a lot better and they sit was more settled at the end when he was solo dog 🙂

>> Ive been able to increase my duration, but any movement back on my part and he moves.

Did you mean movement back, as in movement away from him? If so, another idea: using the clicker, be moving away (as if doing an agility lead out) the whole time- and still do the variable schedule of the click, but you’ll be moving the whole time. It is what I did with Hot Sauce who had a ton of trouble sorting out the stay (should be in the demo video). It is possible that when you add in standing still, there is too much anticipation and pressure so he moves. By moving away the whole time, but still clicking and tossing back to him pretty immediately, you’ll be able to add more distance and duration quickly.

Or, did you mean going back to deliver the treat to his mouth? If so, no worries, don’t go back to him for treat delivery and keep doing what you did in the video.

Send frequent updates on this stay training so we can figure out what best helps him!

Great job on these 🙂
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

Wow, I love the photos! It is like she realized she was a 4-legged goat and not a 2-legged goat 🙂 She is growing up!!!

Her body is definitely maturing in the last week or so, I can see the difference! That means this is a great time to add a little more body awareness, as you were doing, because she is developing a better sense of how all of her feet/legs move 🙂

Backing up on the flat and onto the Cato boards is looking good. Try to move into her more slowly, so she can be a little more deliberate with her back feet – when you were moving fast, she was trying to go fast so her feet were not as precise. When you were slower, she was more precise (like at the very end) and she had better footwork.

Also, do you think she will offer backing up without you moving? You can try doing a couple of reps with you moving, then stand still and see if she offers back up onto the Cato board like she did here.

You can definitely start to add this to something that moves, like an inflatable disc or a wobble board, to help begin teeter prep 🙂

>>I’m glad she has found her rear feet! That should come in handy.>>

Absolutely!!!! And perfect timing for it – now that the backing up is developing nicely, she will be ready for the more independent game we start next week 🙂

Great job!!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>Keith, hanging his head, sys, “I didnn’t think I was telling Bob no.” But after reading your detailed KeithSplanaation, I get it! I will pay closer attention. I certainaly do not want to frustrate SB.>>

Each time you stop him without a reward, or tell him he should not have done something (no reward), that is the SB equivalnet of being told no. He picks it all up!

>>PS. I told my boss (Suzie) you said Bob was Fast, Fast, Fast. And she was like, whatever. I think in another year the in-house rivalry will be ON! Lol

BRING IT! At least you will be in different height classes, for now, until Pizza 2.0 comes along…

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

OMG that barrel video was hilarious! It will be hard to steal the barrel, though, if one of them is standing on it LOL!

>> I read the Verbals lesson and I see that we will have a verbal for frontside wraps and different verbals for backside wraps..

Yes – as courses evolve, and there is more and more distance, we need to make sure the dog gets the info super early and a big piece of that is more verbal directionals. So, ideally, you have 3 different wrap verbals: front side to the left, front side to the right, and backside circle wrap. They don’t all need to be added at all once, though, otherwise it gets overwhelming!

>>If you use directionals, do you also find that there is still a need for a turn towards me cue?>>

Nope! And the dogs are happier, because they don’t have to figure out where I am before being able to turn towards me 🙂 I am slow and unpredictable!

>>I don’t use directionals, only a turn towards me. I have never needed a turn away from me cue, but that may mean I have just always had to figure out how to get to a spot on course when I can have her turn towards me.>>

Turn-towards-me is indeed a directional – it involves your position. I moved away from the towards-me and away-from-me when courses got really big, and the dog walk migrated to the center of the ring – I was often not close enough for the dog to immediately process where I was, so they had to first find me then sort out the towards or away turn. That was causing delayed info and delayed responses, and they were frustrated. When I switched to-the-dog’s-left and to-the-dog’s-right, the dogs were MUCH happier, more independent, and better with the turns 🙂

>>Currently, I use “wrap, wrap, wrap” and it means take the jump & turn 180 degrees back towards me. I use “dig, dig, dig” for a turn towards me cue (not a wrap but a 90 degree turn where there is an off-course option.)>>

Yay! So basically you already have the framework for a wrap and a ‘soft’ turn. More on those later in the class.

>>I am very directionally challenged and left & right terrify me,

Relatable! You don’t need to use left and right, you can use any word. I have heard “gee” and “haw” from sledding, or “bend” and “snap” (from Legally Blonde LOL!!)

>>but your description of being able to memorize the direction we are going to call when we walk the course makes sense, so I’m feeling brave enough to try it, especially if it makes things easier for Bazinga.

Yes – with some practice it becomes second nature! Definitely not as hard as it sounds (plus the dogs are very forgiving when we mess us LOL!)

>>I like the idea of using a sound for each direction.>>

The sounds are really easy to spit out while running!

>>Also, if I use directionals for wraps, I guess I should also use that concept for my softer (90 degree) turns, but with different words/sounds?>

Yes – and we will work on that specifically in this class in a couple of weeks.

>>I’m thinking about adopting your noises for wraps. It is interesting that they are softer to cue to the collection. I am always extra loud with my wrap verbal to be sure she hears it & because the direction changeis so dramatic.>>

I found that my yelling was adding too much energy to the situation, so I was moving faster and the dogs were not collecting. With my noises, I have forced myself to calm down, get quieter, and decelerate… which lowers the energy and gets great collection 🙂 The dogs can TOTALLY hear it too, because the noises are sharp and really cut through.

>>For my 90 degree turns I think I will do “check, check, check” (left) & “dig,dig,dig” (right). I’ll just need to remember that Frankie only has dig, dig, haha.>>

Perfect! And for the sake of sanity, do the same verbals with Frankie as you are doing with Bazinga, even if she technically doesn’t know them 🙂 It will keep you sane and then Frankie will know them. My 10 year old dog was not formally trained to all of these verbals like the youngsters, but he learned them because I just started using them LOL!

>> One thing I need to phase out is I used an aleternating verbal for each of the weave poles for all 12 poles (weave, yes!, weave, yes). It is exhausting! I’d like to not do that again.>>

OMG, totally agree! You can teach her to weave while you are not saying anything, which gives you a moment to breathe as well 🙂

On the videos:

>> I totally messed it up.

Did you post the video where you messed up? Because this one looked good, there was no messing up LOL!!!! It went well, and she had a great time doing it.

I think she is not yet great at tracking thrown cookies, so you can try a toy – is there something she will love to chase and bring back relatively quickly (or you can trade for another toy?) I thought your timing was good- you were trying to get the treat tossed before she looks back at you, and you accomplished that mostly (she just couldn’t find the cookie LOL!) Do you have a lotus ball or treat hugger? Those are great for throwing treats as well.

>> I used wings without thinking about it! I should have used a wingless jump.

It was fine to use wings, they are a nice big visual.

>> I also did not use a clicker.

Actually, it was better not to – clickers often get the dogs looking at us, so I have been telling everyone to get rid of the clicker after the first session and use the ‘get it’ and a thrown reward (which is what you did here).

>> I can do another session with the clicker & a wingless.

You can try it with a wingless (she will see those in AKC and ASCA and maybe USDAA) but no need for the clicker. And when she is better able to find the thrown rewards, you can add more lateral distance so you are further from the jump.

>>She is also jumping after the treat. Is that a problem if she is doing it on her own?>>

It was fine, and it was adorable LOL! It wasn’t anything formal and she was not going to hurt herself.

The rocking horses looked great!!! She was fast and turning beautifully. Yay!!

>>Maybe that toy drive is coming back.>>

Yes! She is off the ‘roids and back to killing the toy 🙂

>.She did still have a few hiccups on the left hand turns>>

Yes – she was perfect on the right turns, and your mechanics were perfect on the right turns. She had only 2 little questions on the left turns:

On the one at the beginning, you didn’t step with your right leg so she was not sure if she was supposed to go to the barrel. Then at :47, you stepped and sent really well, but I think you were a bit too soon and she was still chewing her cookie and not quite ready LOL! She probably can’t multi-task sending and eating, which is highly relatable and also after surgery, eating might take a little more focus for now as she heals up fully.

But all the other reps looked great, especially the toy reps!!! You can add more distance between the 2 barrels, maybe another 2 or 3 feet, then definitely try the advanced version of this now
Right leg on the left turns

Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Yes! It totally works now. YouTube likes to change things all the time and so we have to jump through hoops to find it all.

This was worth waiting for 🙂 Lovely session! He was basically perfect on the get outs and I loved that you mixed in a “Sid!” moment to NOT get out LOL! His only question about the get out was right after that moment, where he was really in handler focus so it took him an extra moment to remember the get out. Everything else looked great! My only suggestion is now you can toss the rewards more directly to his line after the get out, so he stays out on that new line (rather than coming back to you for the reward).

Great job!!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

It still says it is private 🙂 You might have to click on ‘edit video’ to change the settings – YouTube likes to make it hard by changing things all the time.

T

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
I totally relate about the “yes” thing – it was a hard habit to break and took a lot of practice, but it is totally worth it to switch to new words 🙂

Hope you had a good Christmas!!!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>.I apologize, I’m probably not at my best here. My C3 and C4 vertebrae have a pinched nerve and it hurts pretty much constantly. But Sid is the best, despite his handler!

Oh no!!! I am sorry to hear that! Definitely no need to apologize – that sounds painful 🙁 We can tweak some things to protect your back, or choose games that are easier on the back. For example, the parallel path and rear cross games don’t have a lot of twisting so they might be good choices for now? And I am sure tugging is painful, so tossing treats or toys are still very rewarding for him 🙂

The rocking horse games looked good! He had 2 little questions at the beginning:
at :02 when he might not have realized that the pole was for wrapping 🙂

at :06, he might have needed a little bigger step needed, or more connection.

But after that, he got in the flow really nicely! Great job with your verbals, that is great rehearsal for when you will be using them on course! You can reward more often by tossing a toy or treat after every 2 or 3 wraps – when you are feeling better, you can do a turn and burn or some tugging, but I am sure Sid will be happy with a tossed reward too 🙂

The get out video is marked as private, can you reset it to unlisted? The get out motion also has a bit of a twist to the upper body, so if it is painful, we can skip it for now.

Serps are looking really strong! He has a lovely stay, which is super helpful here. My only suggestion is to use a verbal release from the stay, not just the hand cue, because we don’t want him thinking a hand movement is the release 🙂
Your position and rewarding was great, even more impressive considering that it probably hurt to twist like that. You can have a toy on the ground, or a manners minder if you have one, to help get rid of some of the twisting for this game.

Great job here! And I hope you feel better soon!!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning, hope you and the whole family had a great holiday weekend!!

OMG, mimosa on the turf LOL!!!! Oopsie!

The rocking horse game is looking really good! His commitment is really strong and he is turning beautifully. You can add more room between the barrels for sure, and move to the advanced game. That is good news! And the bad news for you is that his commitment is super strong, he is turning beautifully, and he is fast fast fast: so you need to be hyper-aware of your cue timing, and not tell him he is wrong to go to the barrel if he goes to the barrel, even if you thought you did not send him

(Narrator: Because, Keith in fact DID send him each time when Bob went to the barrel). Ha!

So what I mean by that is: any indication towards the barrel is a cue to go to it. So that first moment, when he was not in a stay or not tugging on a toy and you took a little step to the barrel: well, that is the cue and you should have told him he was a good boy for going, reward, then reset with a toy or hold his collar til you are ready. At :06 he was not trusting the cue as much, so when you tried to rotate earlier, he stopped – “dad, I was just told I was wrong to go on this cue, so I am not sure if I should go or not”.

The same happened at :29 – he exited the barrel, you clearly stepped to the next barrel: that right there was the cue to go to it, which he did at :30. At some point as he was committed and passing you, you stopped and put and empty hand down, then told him he was wrong to go to the barrel… but there was not indication to decel or not take the barrel (no decel, no toy/treat, no marker) so he was correct.

Sending him (even by accident) but then telling him he is wrong to go is frustrating, as you can hear on the next rep when he was vocalizing.

So for now – reward every.single.barrel commitment. If he wants to start before you are ready, either hold his collar or have him tugging on a toy. If he goes to the barrel and you thought you were decelerating or cuing him to NOT go – reward anyway (even if you think he was wrong) then *before the next rep* watch the video of that rep in slow motion, isolating the moment he is exiting the previous barrel: what does he see? Chances are he is seeing a cue to go to the barrel, so if you want a decel you will need to be showing him that picture as he exits the previous barrel, not after he is committing to the next barrel.

Things happen very fast with him, which is why the in-the-moment video reviews are really helpful! And, it is ALWAYS better to reward even if you think he was wrong, in the interest of making sure that frustration is not built into the game. Thanks to slow motion video, it turns out the dogs are almost always correct 🙂 and withholding reinforcement/stopping them (aka negative punishment) is frustrating for them.

The turn and burns looked great! He ended up in a tunnelat :45, which is correct: it was on his line, you were accelerating that direction, there was no “take the toy” marker,so he was correct to go in the tunnel. Good boy!

Parallel path is also looking really good, Bob was MORE than happy to drive to the jump. You can use a ‘get it’ verbal marker now (no more need for the clicker) and you can moev more – both with a little more speed, and further away (laterally) from the jump to build up a little more distance.

He had a couple of misses, so a little more connection can help. But the difference between ‘through the uprights, get the cookie’ versus ‘not through the uprights, no cookie’ was very clear, and you didn’t stop or tell him he was wrong, you just went the other way. That was clear to him and not frustrating, so he was happy to adjust for the next rep.

The ‘get out’ also looked really good – the Sponge really likes his commitment games!!! Be sure to cue the get out before he is released from the holder, and also balance in some “come to me” and NOT hit the prop 🙂

Great job here! He is looking great!!!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!!

>> Thanks! I tried a little tugging in the bathroom today but the room is actually too small and he got kinda weirded out and didn’t want to play. I also tried the hallway, but I forgot to block and end off so he ran off with the toy. LOL, So next time I will do better. >>

I think blocking off the hallway into a short area should do the trick!

>>Sounds good about clicking for bringing me anything else too, with food. Just like scooting away from me he usually runs when he has something.

It is a good life skill training opportunity – you can keep a clicker on your wrist, and if he even looks at you when he has something, you can click and then run to a kibble cup and scatter treats on the ground. It will help to stop his reflexive response of running away, which is the first step for a retrieve (and very helpful for not running off if he has something dangerous :))

>>He is getting better at realizing I’m not just going to take it, sometimes I will play with the thing in his mouth and then let go and let him keep having it.

Perfect!! That plus trading for something better will really help.

>>Letting him have a chew after play to help calm him down sounds like a great idea. He loves bully sticks so that will work well.

The neuroscience stuff I’m learning about tells us that dogs find it soothing to do something repetitive with their mouth (we knew this anecdotally, but having studies to back it up is nice!), so chewing is perfect.

>>used a clicker and that did seem to help, though I will have to get my mechanics better when using the clicker. I felt a bit awkward.>>

It will get easier! Watch his feet, so you don’t accidentally click any pitter patter toes 🙂

>>Casper is getting so stinking enthusiastic about my laundry basket that he’s running the thing over!

Omg! He was definitely excited LOL The good news is that he is very excited for his toys, and for his training! Doing the toy two game with the wing is a good way to start transferring the concept to the wing, and it was smart to go to the two toy game. Keep the barrel in the picture too, for now. With the barrel, put some stuff in it to weight it so he can’t tackle it and make it move. My barrel has 4 or 5 foot pods in it, so it doesn’t really move. Then do some turn and burn where you are very calm, and reward when he goes all the way around it without tackling it. If he tackles it, just reset it and try again. This is actually a useful jumping foundation skill, to teach the pups a bit of respect for the wings of jumps (as in, don’t touch them!). It is easy to isolate this on a barrel, because it is easy to see if it moves or not, and it doesn’t hurt if he runs into it 🙂

Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

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