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Hi!
I love how his tail started wagging faster when you put the bowls down to start the wrap game 🙂
SUPER nice job with the cone here!!! Great job waiting and letting him offer going back and forth. Try not to lean or look at the bowl anymore – see if he can sort it out without needing physical cues. And you don’t need to mark with ‘uh oh’ if he slides through instead of going around, just wait to see if he fixes it. That will help him problem solve independently. Because he is so tiny, keeping the cone in close and moving it out an inch at a time will help build up the distance.
>Drive to handler with rotation at the end – I thought he did very well given Copper was barking right outside the door.>
This was the same as the wrap video, can you repot the drive to handler? I am excited to see it!
Toy drive video: This was great! His forward focus and drive to the toy was fabulous. He brought that little ball back to you and the other toy brilliantly! You can start adding more of your motion now too: when he is chasing the original ball, you can start racing him to it (he will win LOL!) Then as soon as he gets to the ball, you can turn and run the other way to encourage him to bring it back.
>had to work a bit to get him to bring it back to me (he was playing chase with it under the camera).>
I think if you are running the other way, that will be very enticing and he will bring it back pretty quickly.
Goat game video: He was great about targeting different things here! The toy play at the beginning got him pumped up and in the right zone 🙂 The offering went well and I chuckled when he went behind you to get on the scale. Clever pup!!
The metal sign was a challenging texture and noise for him, which is actually perfect at this stage and age. We want him to interact with all sorts of different things so this was a great choice.
Great job breaking it up with toy play – the balance of toys and food is looking good!
You can add things he can climb into for the goat games now – do you have small suitcase? Maybe a box big enough to fix him but with a low edge that is easy to step over? That will help begin the concept of getting in things to go along with what he has learned about getting on things.
New games coming on Monday which will build on all of this. Great job!
Tracy
Good morning! The cute socks and sandals are key!
He was thinking his way through this puzzle! Good boy!!! I think the position change of you standing was hard because we can see him doing calculations about wrapping the big pop up with you standing – but he got it! Yay! And got faster and faster. Super!! So now let him sleep on this (latent learning for the win!) and do one more session with you standing in a day or two. That will set him up perfectly for the new stuff we are adding 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
>I didn’t record but I tried to cheat in Toy Races. She still beat me every time! Definitely one of her favorite games right now>
Super! We want the pups to win, even when we try to cheat 🙂
Looking at the video:
Her wagging tail on the wing wrap foundations was so cute!
These are going well! She was waiting a bit for you to help by putting the cookies in the bowl or pointing at it… so now you can just wait and don’t help. Let her sort it out. You can drop a cookie in the bowl when she is a little past halfway around the upright – but let her make the first move of going around it.Letting her make the first move will set us up nicely for the next set of games!
The double fit bones definitely made it easier for her to get her hind end up on them. Yay! The blue one looked to be very inflated (less stable) so she was balancing by keeping her back feet on the ground. You can take out some of the inflation so they are a little under-inflated. That should result in her having an easier time standing with all her feet on them as she builds up the balance and core strength.
It was super convenient that the dog walk was already low like this for Ingot to play on! She did great getting all her feets on it.
I agree – she did best when you were moving around rather than cookie luring because she was able to sort out her feet better rather than think about the cookie 🙂 You can add in position changes (like stand to down, down to stand, stand to sit, etc) as well as doing full 360 turns on the plank.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>I can’t imagine what new challenges there will be. >
The sport is evolving fast and the judges are pretty clever even with the strict AKC course design rules.
>When do you use your look command? Is it at the start line? >
At the start line – there are many lateral lead outs happening and openings where the dog has to jump away from the course (seeing this in novice now!). Those are ideal for the look cues.
>I have not noticed any sound sensitivity yet. I can take my lower wobble board and put a blanket underneath it on pavers or concrete to start. >
Perfect! And sometimes you’ll see a little noise sensitivity in early adolescence (totally normal) so we back off the challenge for a bit then revisit it.
>Today’s videos -Plankarobics. I am a big fan of teaching this, as I’ve had 2 Dobermans fall off the dog walk and 1 Vizsla as well. >
Glad you like it!! I agree with you about how important it is – especially with taller, deep chested, high center of gravity dogs like your Dobe and the Viszla. My whippet is in the same boat: 22” inches tall or so, deep chest, high center of gravity and super fast. So knowing how to safely get off the dog walk if he slips or gets off balance is KEY!
She did well with the board here!
> It helps Rou to do some position changes to see where her feet are. I was using boring kibble, but she was very animated. >
Boring kibble is perfect – if she is that animated for kibble, she might be too animated to think about mechanics on a narrow plank when she is eating cheese or meat 🙂
>didn’t care when I tripped and almost landed on her. >
You had excellent balance! I would ave totally landed on my butt there LOL!
>I added a slow hoover to try to get her thinking a bit before turning again.>
When the board is nice and low like this, you can keep her in higher arousal – get the tug toy out! We want her safely practicing the skills in high arousal. And then the hoover can come out at the end 🙂
She did well with the wraps! She already turns really well, and we haven’t done a whole lot yet to teach her how to turn! Yay!
If she gets stuck on a bowl or slides between you and the cone, try not to help her. Let her think through it and keep offering without you helping her out.
>It took me a bit to get coordinated and send with the correct leg.
No worries! We build on this very soon and work in the sends (and get rid of the bowls!)
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
She did great here! Super speedy and super confident driving ahead. Excellent!
>She was not happy when I won! >
Ha! A little cheat-to-win can bring a new gear of speed and focus to this game! When she realized you had snuck away to win, she was BIG MAD and drove really hard to the toy!
>It’s still taking too long to find her treat to give me a head start, so I only tried that twice. >
In this situation, I think it actually worked in your favorite because you could sneak off a bit and get ahead. She got quicker about watching you on the 2nd rep with that – keep your eye on the human, or the human wins the toy! LOL!
>You can see toy possession is still a big thing. We are working on it. But, it still needs a ton more work. Not much value for returning to me in a large space.>
She was not actively bringing the toy back, but she was not actively running off with it and being un-catchable. So that is good!! One thing you can do is have a 2nd toy come out after she has the first toy, then call her to line up between your feet (I think she does that happily, or did I make that up in my brain?). When she is lined up, you can hold her and play the game with the 2nd toy. When she wins, you can go get the first toy and continue the game with another lineup and so on.
Nice work here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>And yes, in the previous video a friend arrived and came into the field. I’m so proud of Phire’s work ethic!>
I am so proud of her too! Good girlie!
That first send on the video was FABULOUS – she just nailed it. That set such a great tone and the rest of the session was fabulous too. You had great engagement before the sends here and that got her really pumped up. She is serious about her job 🙂 so she was happy to engage but didn’t want you to touch her during the ready moment. It was as if she was saying “No Hugs, Just Work” hahaha
On the backwards sends, she was turning right – that was correct when you sent with your right but when she turned right when you sent with your left… that tells us she is a righty 🙂 Good to know! To get her to turn right more, you can be a bit more laterally away, off to the side, on the backwards sends so she hits and has an easier time turning to her left as well.
Cone wrapping is going well here! You got her started by putting a cookie in the bowl, then she got rich into the rhythm. She turned really well in both directions here!
Since this went really well – next step is to get you in a chair (halfway to standing :)) The cone can be closer to start it, in case the change to a share it hard for her. And if she has no questions, then you can go to standing in the same session (then adding more distance as well).
The 2 blind cross videos looked great! You can have someone hold her to give you more of a head start – she caught up really quickly, which is GREAT!
Nice work here 🙂
TracyHi!
Great job getting him playing here in between cookie reps! He was offering brilliantly, played brilliantly, then went back to wrapping brilliantly. Super!
He does take a moment to watch you if you are moving the noodle or if you are reloading treats – no worries, because he does go right back to the wrapping really well. Look how far that cone got!! And I love the winner winner the end to let him run around.
This is the “Supersized” class where games are released every 2 weeks. I wonder if the Fast Track (games released weekly) is better? He is definitely ready to move on in this game, but it will be a few more weeks here before we do. Do you want me to switch you over?
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
He is doing well with the prop sends! Be sure to get him all pumped up by engaging with several seconds of ready-ready-ready before each send. That can add lots more speed to the prop as well!One other thought: Stay a little closer for now – I think you were a little too far so he went close to the prop but not all the way, then he got concerned (note the stress yawn at 1:01). So be just a bit further than one arm’s length away – close enough that he can drive to it easily, but far enough that he has to go past the cookie hand.
You can also play this game using a tug toy.
He did well with the stealth self-control game. I would like to see you using lots more toys in the training instead of just food – it will be more engaging and his brain will be less distracted by the new stuff in the environment.
You can keep switching different novel-neutral stimuli in the environment. No need for anything too exciting yet, we want his brain to process the neutral stuff really well first and we have a different game coming soon to help him process exciting stuff 🙂
Nice work!
Tracy
Good morning!
>was wondering if you’d notice those. I have two pair- they are my change out of work clothes pants- they are super large though.>
They looked cute and comfy! I will have to shopping LOL!
>His self control- used a VR as well- curious and I really think he thought he needed to interact with it to get the treat. Plus my house is kinda cluttered so hes used to random things being on the floor.>
He did well here! The key to the self-control is to have novel things appearing, because that is what catches their brains and gets more processing: the brain learns to prioritize the trained behavior and ignore the distraction. The VR was a great choice! Having it placed right in the center might have made him think you wanted him to offer behavior on it 🙂 So you can have it a little more off to the side. And you can change to something new/novel each time you play any of the game that he is good at.
Looking at the wrap – I think he figured out the frisbees as targets really well! And yes, it might have been too many variable changes at once. You can keep standing but have your back up against a wall (for now) to eliminate that option.
> Think you said put them behind your knees before and I had no idea what that meant. >
Aha! Sorry about that! It was just to move the targets a little further back so he had room to wrap.
>AND I used a wing… >
The wing is the last thing we add, because I am obsessive about getting a ton of understanding (and being sure we don’t have unwanted behavior) before we transfer to the real stuff. And then the transfer to the wing is super easy peasy 🙂
>shaping he did well I think! different presentation of standing up and in the garage so not sure if that all >
mattered- it helped when I went on my knees.>I agree, it totally helped when you kneeled. It was like he said “got it, we are shaping!” So you can also try it with you standing but reward smaller pieces of the behavior: sniffing the box, looking at it, stepping towards it, etc. This is mainly for him to understand that he can do shaping games with you standing and not just kneeling 🙂
Great job here! Stay warm through this gross weather ahead!
Tracy
Hi! These were lovely walks 🙂 He got lots of good world watching and leading the way to explore.
Being cautious is good – I-95 is busy!! And watching people go about their day without needing to interact is great: he can sort out how the world works! Being at O&G opens up all sorts of different smells and visuals for him to explore.
You can continue bringing him to places where people might be walking by. And you can see if he is interested in eating treats or playing with a toy as well, just to get a sense of how relaxed he is in the environment.
Nice job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
I love your giant cone: brilliant!And yes, he was STARVING 😂 😜 but working through the food in your hands while continuing to offer behavior is key. He was so cute and figured it out! Super smart!! Yo were good about just letting him figure it out without helping too much.
You can also add in more toy breaks 🙂 I know it is easy to get into cookie mode with this game, but we want to keep him pumped up and moving fast. He gets a little chill when there are a lot of cookies in a row 🙂 So you can start with tugging, then after every 4 or 5 treats run away from the setup and do more tugging, then end with tugging. That will start to layer in some more running and less walking.
The engagement before the sends looked great! You can see how getting him pumped up more brings more speed 🙂
>then I think I did something wrong and he was following the hands with the food.>
I think him watching your hands a bit was him working through shifting from handler focus (cookies!) to obstacle focus. You can reward a ‘close enough’ hit of the prop if he goes past your hand, even if the hit is not perfect.
And this game would be a fun one to play entirely with a toy – no cookies needed!
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning! Big party!
Overheard on the video:
“Who’s the bestest boy? Well, except for you know” hahahaha so funny!
He did great here!! Part of what was effective (and fun to watch) was that there a bit of a surprise element when you partied and presented the reward (helloooooo dopamine when there is a happy surprise – you could almost see it on his face).
One suggestion is to try to do ‘cookies’ or the toy marker as the first order of business, before the yays and praise – moving the marker to being first can build the marker to have tremendous value and it won’t get lost in the excitement of it all.
The only time he had a small question mark over his head was when you were waiting for offering with the toy and food on the ground (nothing in your hand) and coinciding with a vacuum in the background – that was hard! Brain split processing so much! He did great 🙂 The toy or treats in the hand might be a bit of a context cue to offer behavior so it might be easier to introduce one thing on the ground at a time.
Have fun at the trial!! I am sure he will think it is a blast 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
The tunnel turns are looking really strong!!
The soft turns on the tunnel exits and on the wing-to-wing sections are going well. Your cues were timely and connected so he was really driving the lines beautifully. You might notice he was not necessarily super tight on the turns – what he was going was setting up the turns more like a race car: slider wider lines so he can maintain a higher speed/more extension. I love that with smaller dogs on the soft turns!! It ends up being faster on course. Yay!
The GO lines are generally going well – that is harder for most pups!
There was a blooper moment at 1:01 – your connection was a bit soft (he probably couldn’t see it based on how small he is and where he was behind you) and your line of motion was moving to the left and not forward as much, so he migrated to your left side (perhaps he saw the connection shifting as he exits the tunnel and read it as a blind cross cue). That is a rewardable moment – either reward as if he was correct (because he was 🙂 ) or keep going back to the tunnel. The pups are almost always correct when they end up on the wrong side of us – there is something in the cue they are reading or the connection is unclear so they are guessing. He had a Big Mad when you tried to fix it and asked for a hand touch. He practically stomped his little foot in outrage LOL! He did come in and do the hand touch but then he got in the last word by jumping up and barking (he cracks me up!) So better to just keep going and reward the next thing, then look at the video to see what happened.
My go-to when something like that happens is to just connect more, which is what you did:
Compare to the connection and line of motion at 1:19 and 1:39, for example – even though yo uwere not as far ahead as the previous rep, you had very clear connection and you were moving straight up the line so he got it really well without holding a grudge
The moving target game is going super well too! Great job breaking it down for him to teach him about the joys of the moving target while also maintaining the stay. He did seem to have a blast chasing the target and was really exploding towards it!!! If you feel the stay is strong enough (we want to protect that stay like GOLD), you can move to the set point. Or you can do a few more sessions like this, to keep rewarding the stay. The moving target understanding is strong enough so it is really a matter of how you feel about the stay.
Great job here!!
Tracy
Good morning! This went GREAT! She was going fast but also paying close attention to your cues.
She was doing the GO section brilliantly – usually puppies find that to be really hard. Your position was good (a little ahead of her) and your motion and connection were clear, so she was able to get it each and every time – even after having done a few soft turn reps.
Then she got the first left pretty easily after the GO reps – SUPER!!! She had no questions about transitioning from Go to turn to Go, and her commitment looked strong too!
You got all of the verbals out nicely too! You can add in saying them a little earlier – aim for her to arrive at the 6 foot mark on the ground before she enters the tunnel to begin saying the verbals.
>When she stopped behind the wing she had hacked up the treat I just fed her.>
Oops! Ha! She got two treats for the price of one haha
Great job here! Have fun with the right turns too!
Tracy
Hi!
>Last night at star puppy class they had low wood box that the dogs could get on or in. He had no issues of course 🤣>
I am not surprised LOL! He is at least 50% goat LOL
>I think there are cones at Dash and I can bring my bowls. If I go it will be Saturday or Sunday.>
Yes, I am pretty sure there are cones at Dash.
>For the wraps is the idea to have something round? I might have a pop up round basket but have to look. I have a variety of wings in the basement and other uprights. I have a few bigger boxes too.>
Something a couple of feet tall (as tall as a jump wing or a little taller). Round is good or square/rectangle is fine too. We don’t want to get a wing involved yet because we want the understanding to be really solid at this level and when we start adding running 🙂 in case they accidentally hit it or smack it with their feet.
So a few more weeks before the wing comes out and then it will be really easy.Tracy
