[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>I think she needed the sniffing break because I was getting frustrated.>>

That still counts as a resilience flex! We are human, we are going to be stressed, frustrated, nervous, etc…. allowing her to see it and process it as part of a bigger picture is actually incredibly useful. Outwardly, you appeared calm to me 🙂 But I am sure she could smell/see changes in you when you were frustrated and that is part of building resilience! And even if you were frustrated, you were still motivating and made it a good experience for her. I score it a big win in ways that are more important than RCs.

>>I know when she is going to turn the wrong way, but I feel like I set it up the same each time and I just can’t get there before she starts turning; she turns her butt as she’s eating.

it is the line you were moving on (the 90 degrees versus the parallel line, like in my super fancy artwork LOL!). Change the line and you should see the RCs percolating more. There are other ways to show her this game but this is an excellent challenge for you both!

>>For some reason, this one is bringing up some rage. It’s really not that complicated.>>

Actually, it is far more complicated than we give it credit for!! I spoke to the neuroscientist DVM about this game and the sighthounds yesterday, and she totally agreed that it was hard AF for dogs in terms of the multi-sensory integration- especially for sighthound types where the brain prioritizes motion. It goes well beyond the operant conditioning way that we look at it, but it is sooooo good for teaching the dogs to process and through things. So if it feels hard – yup, it is because it is hard 🙂 I find rear crosses to be one of the hardest agility moves to really solidify with youngsters 🙂

T

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!
This is looking really good – really nice exploration and engagement here! Yes, there were some distractions but definitely nothing overwhelming: smells, noises, etc. You can use this game when you enter a training area and when he engages, you can start the training. It is kind of a sign from the pup that he is comfortable and ready. He did this at the beginning and at the end, in the area closer to the camera. If you didn’t want to train and just wanted to wander around like you did here, playing this game in different parts of the building is great!

Only one suggestion from the processing perspective… tape his tags together so there is a lot less noise from them. It might not seem like a lot, but his brain still needs to devote bandwidth to processing the noise, and with teenagers we want that bandwidth devoted to processing other things like the cues and training 🙂

Great job!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! I love your training yard!!!

Really lovely session here! She is showing good commitment to her prop 🙂 which will allow you to move through the games quickly!

One thing to add across the board will be a couple of reward markers. You can use the ‘yes’ marker when you hand her a cookie, but I think a ‘get it’ marker will help for when you are tossing it. Both markers tell her she was correct, but they also tell her where to look for the reward which helps develop even more independence. When you were using yes, she was looking at you before going to the tossed treat – a get it will help her look forward and not at you.

And with the toy, you can use a “toy in hand” marker so she knows where to look and when she can come grab the toy (versus a softer mouth for a cookie) – this is especially important when you have AND cookies in your hands LOL !

>>Once thing I notice when I’m using the toy, it looks like I need to get it lower for her.>>

Her tugging looked strong here, and the nice long toy was an excellent choice: you gave her the option to grab the fancy end of it and kept that end nice and low… but she wanted the skinny boring part of it that was higher up LOL! So yes, I agree in general that a lower toy is good but she was choosing to tug higher up on the toy, so don’t worry about it too much 🙂 As long as she is close to the end of it and not grabbing at your hands, it is fine for her to play how she wants to play.

A couple of small details for you:
The tug break was great after the cookies in the beginning! Try to pick up prop during tugging and keep it up during the transition from tugging to the cookie reload, so she doesn’t start offering behavior when you are not ready – she had a great hit during the transition at :51 and we don’t want those to go unnoticed

The various positions looked really good: forward, sideways, backwards 🙂 On the sideways sends, you can be further to the side so she always turns the correct direction (she did a rear cross a 1:24 because it looked like you cut across her path behind her).

The backwards sending all looked strong!! She had one question at 2:07 where her hit was not as strong – it was still rewardable even though it was not as strong of a hit, because the cue to go to the prop was not as clear there. So remember to engage with her with eye contact and a bit of ready ready… then make a clear and snappy indication 🙂 On that rep, you didn’t have the engagement piece so the indication to send was not as clear.

Based on her value for the prop here, you can add more countermotion/moving away as you send to this game, as well as the parallel path games and rear cross games after that.

Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

I love that you do a trainalong during the class!!!

Strike a pose with cookies looked awesome! It looked like she was giving a strong nose hit to the target for most of the session – that is great but if she gives a cheek hit, that is fine too because it means she is understanding the turn (based on the placement of reinforcement). You can see that happening towards the end of the session, and that is fine because we are going to fade the target soon anyway. She only had one little blooper but I think it happened because she picked a treat up on her line, then forgot what she was doing LOL! The rest was perfect.

So the next session on this can be with a toy instead of cookies as the reward (toy in hand) and if that goes super well…. you can move to the reward on the ground, on the line she wuld be turning to if it was in your hand. That will either be the easiest thing ever, or a head exploder 🙂 So you can start the concept with an empty food bowl on the ground (to drop the cookie into) or a MM. And use your markers to help her know when the reinforcement is available.

Barrel racing: The rocking horse game is looking strong! This game is designed to produce the balance of super high speed and super gorgeous turns, so your methodical approach here was perfect. I am glad you ended up putting the toy in your pocket at the beginning, because her question at :13 was legit: it was not clear if it was a toy moment or a barrel moment.

When you have the toy in your hand, keep is squished up and don’t switch hands – partially because the switching hands delays the info and causes her to look at your hands, and partially because it is good for her to learn to read handling cues even when there is a squished up toy in the hand (which is different than the dangling toy at :13 :))

The next step is adding more distance and then more motion (the advanced level of this game has more of that). You can do it in the snow if she has really good grip on the footing and won’t slip or slide, otherwise you will want to maybe take it to the barn if it isn’t too cold.

Onwards to rear crosses!
You’ve got definite progress on these!!! She is reading your position/motion perfectly: if you are in her line of sight on the “new” side, she will do the RC. If you are in the line of sight on the original side, she will do the FC. The first video reps all had you in her line of sight on the original side, so they were all front cross responses. On the second video, you set the mechanics up a little differently and got to the line of sight on the new side for all reps except the last two, so she got the RC on all reps but then (correctly) did the FC on the last two.

Keeping all the other mechanics the same, all we need is an adjustment in your line on motion then you should be able to get her to do it just about every time. And since it is really hard to describe in writing, I made pictures LOL!!

Basically, you are moving at a 90 degree angle behind her, which does not always get you into the line of sight on the new side in time. So if you can go to her other side and move on a parallel path forward, you will get to the new line of sight more easily.

On the video, when she started on your right, you were coming towards the camera when you wanted her to turn right (on your left side). But if you could switch sides, put her on your left and then move along her right side towards the wall (towards the well-placed Canadian flag :)) then you will be more in line of sight.

So go to this link to see the drawings about your path, plus screenshots of when he got the RC versus when she did not (based on what she saw in her line of sight):

https://docs.google.com/document/d/17PKEDdvmQruWCyOCz0oGQkSk3d5exiHJF0MB8bJKpIM/edit?usp=sharing

One other thing to note that I could see in this second video in particular – it is a really hard skill for her! She needed a little decompression moment (sniffing around) midway through video 2 of the RCs – check out the decompression stuff posted last night. That is fine, and also great that she did it! You can let her do that for a few seconds, don’t call her out of it… then she will come back and be even more ready to learn the skill. She just needed a moment to clear her head because this is a really hard skill to process 🙂

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

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>One, is IYC now passé?

The two reasons that I don’t use those IYC exercises anymore are:
– too much failure for the pups, too much frustration. Those exercises often set things up so we tell the puppies they are wrong wrong wrong a lot more than we tell them they are right. Bleh.
– they didn’t translate to impulse control in the real world. They translated to some fun tricks where we decorated the dogs with treats (not sure how fun it was for the dogs, though), but for real world stuff? The dogs had no clue and were again told they were wrong a lot.

So…. I approach things differently by using more of the ‘real life’ set ups by stealthily sliding the impulse control into the games, and finding ways to tell the pups they are correct! It produces better real world impulse control and a whole lot less frustration for pups and their humans 🙂

>>Two, where do I find the recorded seminars from Brain Camp to buy? Maybe they haven’t had time to post yet on Clean Run?>>

I don’t think Clean Run has had a moment to post them yet – they were trying to get everything done for the Christmas rush and then the owner went in for a knee replacement. I think they will be posted in early January.

T

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>Your timing on marking the second rear foot is impeccable! After trying the raised mat myself with a clicker (below) and then re-watching you with verbal ‘yes’ with Electra, I am going to ditch the clicker and stick with verbal.>>

The trick is to stare at the mat and not watch the dog – then it feels like it is in slow motion and you can see the 1-2-3-4 footfall pattern of the dog – then it becomes 1-2-3-mark-toss. If you watch the pup, you will really only see her front feet and it is all a blur 🙂

Also, you can switch to a ‘get it’ for tossing treats, to reduce looking at you even more. The stronger these placement markers got, the less I used a clicker (and the dogs are really good about NOT looking at me too much).

>>So how long do you continue with elevated mat?>>

For eons LOL! It teach it to a pup, then I put it away until the pup is fully grown and muscling up (13-14-15 months, approx). Then I do a quick refresher… then I start the progression for the RDW or the flyball box turn. The problem with doing too much with a baby dog is that they are learning to move and use a body that is very different from the body they will end up with, which causes trouble! So it is better to get the concept going, then put it away for a bit – then come back when they are more ready for the grown up stuff. The 2 demo pups in MaxPup didn’t have their contacts or flyball box turns completed until they were about 2 years old and wearing their adult bodies 🙂 and now they look AMAZING! And the behavior is holding up in competition, no deteriorating or criteria shifts.

The video is marked private, can you reset to unlisted?

Thanks!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good list!!! I also use a “wanna catch” verbal to see if Contraband will give me the frisbee or not LOL!!!

The Say What session will add more directionals for jumps/tunnels to this list – and Amy has a TON already in place with Promise, so I am sure she can help with ideas!!! It will be fun 🙂

[Tracy Sklenar]

This is one of my absolute favorite pieces by one of my favorite composers – I conducted it at my senior recital about 150 years ago LOL And of course Marin Alsop is an icon!!!!! What a great way to start the day 🙂

[Tracy Sklenar]

This was so fun to watch!!
Yes, she is a puppy genius and also you did a GREAT job of ignoring foot smacks and nose bops, both of which she offered 🙂 I think out of all of the offered behaviors, there was one reward for what was probably a nose bop: but everything else was open mouth behavior of approaching, touching, grabbing and then lifting the toy. SUPER!!! And the jackpots for the lifting were great because they were probably a bit of a surprise (in a good way) – which produces a LOT of learning (hello, dopamine!)! Yay! So definitely keep going down this path, she looks great!

And I loved that she made sure the camera was filming her brilliance. Ha!

>.And I *swear* the music at the end was just what was playing on the radio in real time>>

What song was it? I could only hear the very beginning!

Great job 🙂
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

He definitely has a lot of gusto!!!! So fun!

>>Thanks for describing how to move away slowly while he “explodes” the other way LOL. I’m definitely struggling with that and not just feeling like I need to “react”.>>

Most of it is pretending that you are calm and reminding yourself to move slowly LOL!! It is not easy but definitely helps the pups see the details of what we are showing them.

T

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>I know this just hasn’t sunk into my head clearly. Could you describe a spin again for me?>>

A spin is a FC-BC combination: The FC happens on the wing/barrel/jump (like a regular FC) and then you do a BC on the flat, which is after the dog has committed to the jump/wing/barrel. So think of it as doing a FC and moving to the next line then doing a BC. The exact timing will depend on the course – for this barrel stuff, do the FC just as he is arriving at the barrel, and the BC as he is still at the barrel.

>My second question is regarding how close I should start these combos to the cone. I know earlier you mentioned starting closer to the cone in order to help him understand and balance out the right/left turns. Is it easier to start closer to the cone?

It is easier for him to commit and for you to make clear connection when you are both closer to the cone. If you are further, he has to think more about commitment and also can’t see your connection as clearly for the exit.

>>In my head I’m thinking (for me LOL) I need room to get all of the handling changes in, but then as I think more about it…. If I start closer and there is less distance/motion does that help both of us figure all of this out?>>

yes – you need room to get all the handling in but that is causing rushing. The connection at the exit of the barrel is the most important element, so staying closer for now will help you show it and him see it 🙂

T

[Tracy Sklenar]

Yay! Happy dance!!!!!!

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>>Nope nope nope nopety nope 🙁

Only because the mechanics were not quite correct and everything was happening too quickly – so she was correct to turn the way she did (like a FC instead of a RC) on all the reps where she did that, due to what she was when it was time to make the decision on which way to turn (it all happens really fast with whippety creatures where the brain prioritizes motion).

Think of this as a processing game, where we need to be able to show the info early enough and quickly enough that she can prioritize it and process it to produce a movement that is unnatural (turning towards where you were last is natural, turning away is not natural which is why rear crosses are so hard!)

To do that – we have to use mechanics to slow her down for now, to buy you time to show the info with motion. That is why I was soooo methodical and had my full whippety creature go slowly… so I could show his brain the priority info before he made any decisions based on the info he had.

(side note: Slowing the pup down to teach the skill will not result in a slow dog 🙂 It results in a really fast dog who can also produce amazing skills at high speed. My Contraband is pretty slooooooow in all of the demo videos in this class (I mean, MY GOD he was slow haha) but he grew up to be amazingly fast AND accurate with his turns and lines. Pointy dog brains prioritize motion in a way that other dog brains might not, so we need to prioritize getting them to see the motion we want before we add speed to the equation).

With that in mind: The goal is that you are in her field of vision on the correct side *before* she processes which way to find you. So looking at the first part of the video, for example, on most of the reps you were behind her and while you did move to your right, you were not in her field of vision on her right side – you were still in the field of vision on her left so that is how her brain processed the info (turn left!)

The missing element of the mechanics? Hold the pup’s collar 🙂 It can be a collar or harness, but not a stay (because there are a lot of existing conditioned responses about turning towards you after a stay release that we don’t want to deal with here). You need to hold the collar so you can better predict when you need to move, as well as better control the distance between her and you so you can be close enough to get into the field of vision on the new side in time for her to process it.

Adding in the collar hold will make a world of difference:

– line her up right next to your leg
– hold her collar
– toss the treat very close to you, less than a meter (I suggest using the corner of the training room, where you can toss the treat to where the door and the white cabinet meet, next to the flag)
– when the treat has landed, let her go to it while you immediately start to move into her line of vision on the new side (trying to get to or past her shoulder on the new side, this is critical for processing).

This is going to be the key to jumpstart the behavior: when you were not holding her on the video, she was basically at the treat and finished before you were moving, which makes it much harder to appear in her line of vision.

Using a corner will help because if the cookie is in the corner by the brown door, and you appear on her right shoulder by the Canadian flag, she is going to find it easier to turn right. In theory, as her brain prioritizes info, her brain should see two things: You moving to her right shoulder, and a wall on her left shoulder. The brain should then prioritize to turn right because also in theory, the amygdala should be asking her to NOT run into a wall – but pointy creatures do run into things a lot, so I can’t promise her amygdala will be on board with this plan. It is not impossible to turn left, but easier for you both! Then when you appear on her right and she turns her head to her right: BIG reward! Make it bigger (and more surprising) than if she turns left. Left turn when you wanted right? A cookie. Right turn when you wanted right? Surprise! BIG toy or handful of treats or something. Science says that a surprise like that is a more powerful reward in terms of a dopamine release than a maintenance cookie.

The other thing you can do is use a bigger or crunchier treat so she has to chew it (or a couple of little treats for her to grab) – this also allows you more time to appear in her field of vision on the new side.

I would try all the things: collar holding, short throws, crunchy cookies or a couple of cookies, into the corner 🙂 The mechanics to start this are really methodical (and GREAT for us humans to sort out this type of methodical mechanics where both handler and dog need to move slowly) but then when she gets it, you’ll find it gets all much easier.

I love your blue leg extenders LOL!! She was better turning to her right, and at her best turning to her right without your hand target as a cue (when she was offering it to her right). That was when she was at her most organized, getting feet in each gap without touching the blue bumps. So on the right turns, just let her offer (the hand target was raising her head a bit and also introducing a bit of chasing, and the offering had a lower hand and no chasing of the hand/toy so her form was more coordinated).

To her left, she was able to get organized for the first gap but not the 2nd gap (she would either jump it or land on the last bump). So for the left turns, start her in the first gap between bumps 1 and 2, holding her collar so she can’t go til you are ready, then tap the 2nd gap, then move your hand out of the way, and let go of here so she can offer. Reward her for getting into that 2nd gap (with the reward past the 3rd bump). If she can’t get into the 2nd gap, 2 other ideas:
– start her in the 2nd gap, so she can exit the bumps with good organization, then after a few good reps try starting her in the first gap.
– do the left turns without the 3 bumps – use 2 bumps (or your actual legs LOL!) and that can help her focus on getting organized on those.

Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!
The resilience game in the garage looked great! The only thing to add is a ‘get it’ when you drop the cookie. You were very patient, which is great! You can definitely bring this game to new places – it is perfect for being the very first thing he does in all sorts of new places.

The get it game also looked really good – building the confidence to drive ahead to the toy and the quick transitions into it are the bedrock of driving ahead! You had good timing of releasing him to get the toy – he was looking ahead each time. Keep up with this game for sure! At home, you can start to play it with you moving forward a tiny bit more. In different places, you can keep it just like you had it here (short throws, quick releases, and not a lot of your motion) so he can transfer the value of this game to different environments.

That is a perfect plank for Huck! And since it was flat, he had no trouble getting all of his little feets on it: super confident! You can add in asking him to turn in a full circle on it, with a low, slow cookie lure 🙂
He got a little worried when the pointers started barking – in that moment, you can flip to the resilience game where he can look…. then get a tossed treat for looking back at you Don’t keep asking for the plank until he is fully re-engaged because you can see his focus was split and his feet were a little all over the place LOL! If he gets on the plank, great. If not, no worries, because he was sorting out something worrisome in the environment. The resilience game is great for those moments where he gets a little concerned, so you can flip into that game at any time to help build resilience to unexpected changes in the environment.

Backing up is making big improvements! Yay! He offered plenty of good backing up reps and zero downs, bows, or scooches LOL! Great! So the next step is to do two things:

– when he is offering the backing up, begin to toss the reward back to him (ideally between his feet and before he stops, so toss it early). By feeding from your hand, he quickly locked onto your hand (smart!) and that will cause him to step back and look up, rather than keep stepping back. The tossed rewards will help him continue to step back more and more

– be quieter while you are working the shaping element… you can use a marker like a ‘get it’ but try not to praise or chat with him – it causes him to look at your face, which stops the backing up. So you can be super quiet except for ‘get it’ when you toss the treat or drop it between your feet to start the next rep. then you can take a tug break and have all of the chat you want 🙂

Great job!!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>> Bazinga is doing great! We are ready to catch back up. I think we need to finish up Week 3. How do you think we should proceed from here?

She looks terrific, I’m so glad this is behind you both and regular fun can fully resume 🙂 As you get back into it, definitely work the resilience game, that’s a good one! And see what she is doing with the prop and the wrapping, those will move quickly. If I recall correctly, the hand targeting was going well, so that will be easy to build up in weeks 4 and 5. There is no pressure to catch up, because once you get into week 4, you’ll find that the games build on each other so you will not feel like you are behind.

>>We jumped back in with the new Alternate Rear Cross Game. I was surprised that we are having trouble with one direction. We only got 1 successful non-spin when she starts on my right & turns to her right. I’m so directionally challenged – does that mean she is left-pawed?>>

Yes, I think she is a lefty 🙂 Those reps looked great!

It makes sense that she wouldn’t be able to turn right – it is a processing thing! She wants to go fast, the treats are VERY motivating, and by the time her brain sees that you have crossed to the other side to get her to turn right, it is too late… because she’s already turned left (turning left requires less processing because it is more of a reflex for her). My puppy is a righty, so he had an easy time going right but a harder time turning left.

So basically we need to buy her brain time to prioritize and process the info LOL! To do that, slow the whole game down by holding her collar when you throw the cookie – you were not holding her, so she was in motion immediately which was fine for the left turns but made it harder to see the right turns. Throw the cookie pretty close so she doesn’t take that many steps to it (therefore not working up a lot of speed). Then, when the treat has landed and you are ready, let go and tell her to get it. As soon as she starts to move, you step behind her and make yourself visible on her right side, and call her. You might have to move quickly to get visible on her right, which is fine because she won’t be that far from you 🙂 that is what happened on the right turn rep that was successful!

That should slow things down just enough that she can process your movement in time to turn right. And you can try tossing the cookie into a corner, making it even easier to turn right and harder to turn left.

>>Also – I LOVE your treat ledges in your hallway in your demo video

Ha! The previous owner put those in to hold lovely family photos… I use them as treat ledges for puppy training LOL!

Glad you are back in action! Let me know how she does with the rear crosses and the other games.
Tracy

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