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Good morning!
>.! Its funny once you start to break it down, how much you can glean out of our training!
it is the magic of slow motion video paired with coffee and obsessing LOL!
>>Should I keep with these Organizers or bring in the Backside Wraps and Slices now?
You can pick a theme for the session: slices or wraps. Then do one or two warm up front side reps, then go to the backside reps. Don’t do both slice and wrap in the same session: the mechanics are a little different and we want to hone in on one or the other for now.
The zig zags are going well! We can tweak it now so that there is more side-to-side zig zagging as the jump angles get flatter.
The main tweak will be his stay position: his stay had him facing the bar perpendicularly, so he was finding a straight line over the jumps which is good to get the game going. So now we can change where his start position is: he should be parallel to the bar, with his shoulder next to the wing, so his first step is actually a turn.
At the very beginning, your stay position was great before you moved him, he had been tucked in parallel to the wing. And as you set him up, ask him to sit but don’t help with your hands. You can use a cookie lure to get a tight sit here in the spot you want – that will get his back legs under him for proper takeoff 🙂 When you helped him sit with your hands, he was not as balanced and he rolled onto his left hip (1:22 and 2:20, for example) which makes for disorganized takeoff. So a little cookie lure will help get him in the spot you want and sitting properly 🙂
>>On the last rep, I think he knocked the bar because I didn’t move the toy away fast enough. It was too close to the bar and he didn’t have room to get over.>>
Yes, I think that was what happened. You can also tie the toy to something longer so you don’t have to bend over – he finds that VERY exciting – GAME ON, MOM!! – and we don’t want him to think this is too exciting right now LOL!!
>> But he adjusted nicely and I think next time I will start with the bars’ angle large and let him do once back and forth and then lessen the angel after and finish the reps like that.
Yes! Good plan! He has a ton of power so I think this will work really well. I also think you *can* continue with the ball play in between, because he is learning to organize his jumping in a high state of arousal. If he is making a lot of errors, or getting disorganized, we can back off the ball play. But he is doing great, so you can continue partying between reps.
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
>>. I haven’t used that in the ring after some kind of scary moments when leash runners did a zombie walk towards him with the leash held out in front of them looking a look like an invitation to tug at the end of his runs and I slow mo watched in horror as he relatively gently (for him) launched toward them to try to tug (inclduing some pretty old not so sturdy looking folks). >>
Oh dear, that gives me anxiety just reading it! It will depend on what venue you run him in, I guess – in UKI you can have atoy at the end, even on a ‘real’ run, to help direct his focus. And I have never had a leash runner hand me a leash in UKI, so that might be a good area to focus on.
>>but at shows coming in the ring he kind of tunnel visions on the obstacles and is no longer able to respond to most cues. He’s sweet about it and gently wagging his tail but can’t really be bothered to do things like hand touches, chin rests, sits, etc. >>
Definite arousal shifts and lots of stuff going on “under the hood” 🙂 It is more of a processing issue – the agility and motion and obstacles is VERY BIG and the hand touches etc are very small, perception-wise. It is a bit counterintuitive, but it helps to ask for more arousing behavior and tugging. I also do a lot of pattern games and breathing/sniffing stuff to help balance things, pre-run.
>>And, at the end of the run he needs to express his opinions on it (good or bad) and launch toward me (like the “arousal error” launch at my face I slow mo’ed for you during Argus).>>
Probably his way of completing the stress cycle, but we can 100% guide him towards something else to do that. The motivational down then into the leash means the run is not over yet… then after safe leashing, onwards to completing the stress cycle (tugging, treat scatter, whatever works best for him). I did a motivational down at the end of the run with my BorderStaffy who was a bit bitey as an adolescent, plus she was not good around other dogs. So after the last jump. I kept running to the leash but cued a down – she splatted to the ground, I released her, she ran to the leash, then we both left together: no momma bitey and no interaction with other dogs.
The answers reveal themselves after adolescence is finished (adolescence is, um, unpredictable LOL!) and plenty of NFC runs to establish the behavior will be super useful!
T
Hi! Thanks for the video!
Most of the reps were really good and he was shifting to the left and the right well. there was the section in the middle where he wouldn’t come through the gap and seemed like he had questions, so he was less certain. You were also quieter and using smaller arm movements in that section, so maybe that was part of it? When you were using more verbals and bigger/earlier movements, he was back to being perfect. So hopefully his questions were not avoidance questions because something was ouchy and just questions about what you wanted while he was learning a new skill.But definitely bring this video to the massage person, maybe she can see something? Hopefully she finds nothing wrong and he enjoys a nice massage 🙂 Keep me posted!
TracyGood morning!
He did well here! And yes, lots of rewards did make it a lot more worth his while. He was doing well, especially with you closer to the plank. The more he realizes that the sit behavior will cause a ton of cookies to happen, the happier he will be to move into the sit 🙂 One thing that might make it even easier for him:
You can elevate the plank so it is more of an obvious “thing to get up on” with all 4 feet. He was really good when you were close to the plank, but having the plank 4 or 5 inches off the ground will help him realize that his front feet need to stay on it (and that it is not a 2o2o behavior like a contact board).
With the plank a little more elevated, you can try move to the next step, in front of the wing and then it will be quick progress to the jump 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi!
This was a really good session!!!! She was dong a great job of thinking about her form even as you added more speed and the jump bar. Yes, the sits were a little harder when she was turning to her right towards the end of the session, so be sure that you are totally patient and don’t give her the release til she is actually sitting 🙂She was lookin up at you a little, so now the next session can have a reward target on the ground like a food bowl or Manners Minder. Place it just past on the outer edge of the wing, and on the takeoff side, so she jumps the bar and goes mostly around the wing to get the reward without looking at your hands.
Remind me: does she like toys? I think you can add arousal into this by playing with toys before and after (but keep using food rewards during the session). The more we add in the arousal at these early stages, the better she will learn to handle herself in arousal when she is doing the more complicated stuff.
How is she doing with her zig zags? Great job here!!!
TracyGood morning!
>>First we did some zig zags under the lights with a moving toy. When I watch this, I think she looks better when the jump is on her right vs on her left. She is a righty, so maybe this makes sense. But maybe I’m imagining it. In both directions she’s still landing close to the first bar, but I might be obsessing.>>
What, us, obsess? Never! Ok, always hahaha!!!
I think she looks slightly better when she is jumping right to left than left to right, but really she is pretty balanced on that. Yay! One thing we can do is start her closer to the wing so she cannot tap her front feet no the ground before takeoff for jump 1. You can line her up so that her shoulder is just a few inches from the wing and foot of the wing, as is she is coming in from a backside approach. That should encourage her to push from her rear right away, rather than tap her front feet then take off. That will allow her to land more centered – which will help her have a better arc over the 2nd jump too!
We can always overlap the wings by a couple of inches, but thatmay or may not make a difference – the hind end power is what will get her landing more centered. Landing a little close to the first bar is fine if it was just one jump, but it puts her arc a little too close on the 2nd bar and might be indicating that she needs to push more from her rear. Let me know how she does with the slight change in setup position.
On the plank –
The sits looked good from all the different angles of approach! Even Dr. Cat agreed and didn’t judge much at all.>.How much do I need to worry about straightness and form here? >>
Straightness is different from form; you don’t need to worry much about straightness 🙂 She is going to be angled towards you mostly because there is nothing else to angled towards 🙂 So when you were straight, she was straight and when you were off to the side, she was angled facing you. Her form of the tight sit looks good, so you can move her to the next steps of adding the wing and then the jump. The wing and the jump will provide a focal point so she will be straighter. You might see her angling herself a little to set up the turn, which is also good as long as she retains the tight sit form.
Great job!!! Let me know how the next sessions go!
TracyGood morning!
Bummer about going back to work, but at least Promise is well-rested LOL!The cat provided an excellent distraction LOL!
>>, Enjoy my misstep where I manage to fall off my pool decking that is only raised one inch from the ground
OMG I literally gasped and startled my dogs! I am glad you are ok!!!
She did really well with this – yes, I can se a bit of the teeter behavior 🙂 Does anyone local have a Cato plank you can borrow? But also, you can move to the next step and bring the plank to the wing and start the turns, so I think that she will recognize the different contexts and have no trouble with it. She is organizing her hind end well, so you can definitely move to adding the wing to wrap (so the plank is right in front of a wing and she wraps a wing, gets onto the plank, sits, then is released to wrap the next wing), then the full jump.
Great job! Have you tried any of the zig zags yet? That will be helpful too!
Tracy
Good morning!
Lots of great stuff here!Front side wrap:
>>I used a bowl at the wing to try to get Street to stop focusing up on my hands so much. I think it helped with his organizations, especially on the right side.>>
Yes! This was helpful for him. The next step now is to move the bowl to the outer edge of the wing, then to the takeoff side of the wing, so he finishes the turn more and more.
One thing I noticed about his organization was that when he was on your right side (2nd half of the video) and was cantering into the plank, he skips on his right hind when approaching the plank (2nd rep 3rd, 1:43 and last rep). He did not do it on the other wide, but he was trotting in on those reps. It is hard to know why he is doing it, so 2 ideas for you:
– if you have a soft tissue person or massage therapist or chiro person, have them check him to see if he is tight or out somewhere, or has a trigger point. He might need something “released” or his pelvis straightened out 🙂
– add in a wing wrap before this setup on both sides to ask for more speed, so we can see if he does this on both sides, and if he sorts himself out. It is entirely possible that it was a organizing behavior and latent learning will kick in to sort it out.The only other thing to add in is putting the food in target before the reps starts (or at the latest, before the release) so he is looking down more.
Front side slices:
These looked really good too. As with the front side wraps, the only suggestion is to have food already in the target bowl before the rep starts so he doesn’t look at you as much 🙂 It does add an element of challenge because he has to sit til released rather than dive into the food bowl LOL!
If he is fine with that, you can move to the backside slices 🙂
>>My aerobic step does not have a deep enough cutout underneath to straddle the leg of the wing. If you look closely, you can see that the step is slightly tilted in the set up. I do have another set of “legs” for the aerobic step to make it taller. It is currently 4 inches tall and would be 6 inches with the additional legs.>>
I thought the slight tilt was fine, he didn’t seem to have any questions. But you can totally try the other legs and see how it goes – and the bar can go up to 8 or 10 inches too!
He definitely liked the action of the backside zig zags! The left-to-right lines at the beginning were particularly strong!!! The right-to-left lines were harder for him… maybe because right-to-left is harder, or maybe because he was physically tired, or both 🙂 The pretty flat angle on the last 2 reps was definitely hard so he was adding strides.
There were 9 reps total here – you can structure the session to be easy-hard-easy by doing 2 reps left-to-right (hard angles), then 2 reps right-to-left (easy angles), then 2 reps left-to-right (easy angles). Over time, you will be able to get the hard angles to be easy, so everything will be more challenging without depleting him. Let me know if that makes sese!
Great job! Fingers crossed for more days with no rain 🙂
TracyGood morning!
Based on her response, this is the correct setup! She was zigzagging beautifully here. You don’t need to handle as much by changing sides, you can stay on one side or the other (your started with her on your right here and ended with her on your left, so you can be either all dog-on-right or all dog-on-left). At this angle of jumps, you can also add in jogging, she looks ready! And you can start to ‘flatten’ the angles a bit too by moving the outer wings away from center.Great job!
TracyGood morning!
So much good work here, and a big insight!!!Plank to wing is looking really good on the right turns is looking good! He was pretty straight. He strides like a big dog, so the early sit cue relaly helped him. Adding speed? No problem. And the reward target heled him keep his head down.
On the left turns (2nd video) I see what you mean about him coming in a bit more angled. I think this is him shaping his line a bit, which is fine. Part of it has to do with the cookies (“MUST WATCH COOKIES I AM STARVING” ~ Grumio) and part of it might be that it is harder for him to turn to his left, so he is sorting out the mechanics.
And that is great – when the dog plays an active role in sorting out their turn mechanics, they end up faster and more powerful than if we demanded they do it a certain way. I know this because we literally put timing lights up on sequences where we demand a certain turn versus letting the dog shape the turn a bit… the dogs are consistently faster when we let them set up the mechanics provided they have the knowledge base he is using here. For example, my terrier mix, Hot Sauce, will never have turns that look as tight as a smaller bendier dog like a Sheltie because of how she is built. But, she is now an educated jumper at 4 years old, knows how to sort herself out and is faster than the dogs with the pretty looking turns when I just show her the line and get outta the way 🙂 I think Grumio will be the same. Will he look the same in his turns as a Sheltie or Papillon? No, he is built very differently. Will he be able to move faster through the turns than other dogs will, because he is educated and can organize himself? Oh heck yeah!
Adding the jump video:
On a jump bar, having the dog come in slightly angled on wraps is a good thing because it means they are bending. He started on the left turns here, and did really well. He was definitely angled but I think it was the combo of setting up the turn to the left AND the cookies. He was less angled on the right turns, so I think what you are seeing is the right being his stronger side and easier to organize. The left turn side is not quite as strong yes, so he is still learning to organize (the right turns looked more fluid for sure but both looked good!)>> He also seemed to want to face the target, which he did and tried to steal the treat, but then was better at it!
This was more on the left turn side, which also fits my theory that the left turns are harder: it is easier to go for the treat target than it is to make the turn (smart!). He was fine when you tucked in closer to where the wing meets the bar, which protected the treats and helped support the bar a bit more.
>>Also, please note when apparently I had a piece of treat-looking gravel in my treat bag and he thank god refused to eat the rock.>>
That was funny! Good boy for turning down the rock LOL!
Front side slices – adding the stride on the ground was easier than pushing off for the lateral/sideways motion. Also note he is jumping to his left here, the harder side. To help him, you can move your position to be slightly closer to the center of the bar – when you were more visible in the center of the bar, he did NOT add the stride on the ground and pushed off from a good takeoff spot.
In the 2nd video:
On this video, he was jumping to his right, no taps of front feet on the ground. Your boy is definitely a righty! And the session was smoother when the treats were placed in the target before the start of each rep – plus that added a great distraction and amped up the level of arousal. He was really using his rear, the sits looked great even while you were in motion. Super!!!So a theme has emerged, and helpful insight: you can add challenge sooner to anything where he jumps to his right. When he is jumping to his left, keep things simpler for longer and you can help him more too. Things will even out really soon 🙂 I bet you see this to some degree in handling too. Next time you run courses, track where he has trouble and my guess is that the left turns are harder than the right turns.
>> I rewatched the Zigzag – Adding Jumps video and you had said we should limit to one session and over the jumps 6 times once a week?
Yes, 6 reps or so, but I think I said maybe twice a week? I will go take a look – you can do the zigzags twice a week for a young dog, definitely not daily and definitely not 4 or 5 times a week. That suggestion is to protect the form and develop the strength, while letting latent learning work its magic to help the dogs get themselves organized.
>> So no wonder he was tired when I added the backside zigzags. If so, I will just limit to one session this time and make sure to make my reps count!>>
The zig zags are like plyometric ski jumping exercises side to side onto things or over things, or even some of the fancier moves in human ladder work – a lot more exhausting than it looks, in the early stages. But when form is solidified and the strength is in place, we can add more.
Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! Congrats on your UKI success! Now that the West Coast Open was a big success, I bet you start to see more and more UKI in your area.
>>We’re also trying to work in some startline leash on/off and end of run leash on here and there>>
I worked a TON of leash on/leash off with Contraband before he started trialing and at the beginning of his trialing, including in high arousal – it is a pretty important part of things an da great area of focus. I have found it MUCH easier if the dog also likes to tug on his leash – Contraband does not like to tug on his leash, maybe Ripley does?
Looking at the videos:
He is doing well with the organizer in front of the jump. The hardest part for him might’ve been going past the MM for the wing wrap LOL! The sits on the organizer were really strong and he was wrapping well! With that in mind, we can add more to this:Using the exact same setup: You can incorporate tugging before and after, to ask the question “can you organize even when you are more stimulated?” I bet he can, so we can gradually ramp up the excitement using toys, and eventually toys will replace food.
We can add a bit more motion challenge by having you rotate through the FC of the wrap, as he is organizing for the sit. You would go to the wing, decel, rotate for a FC as he is getting onto the plank and moving into the sit, then release him to take the jump (move very slowly at first because this might be hard 🙂 And remember in this game, always stay on takeoff side of the wing because that is what cues the collection (going to landing side would cue a different takeoff point (extension versus collection).
He is stepping into the zig zags beuatifully! He is a little “head up” over jump 2, perhaps because he likes you better than the MM 🙂 We can solvethat by having a toy out there – either something big for him to scoop up, or placing it on top of the MM or a platform of some sort. And you can definitely go to the moving target toy drag when the angles are a little more open.
It was actually a chuckle that you were trying to get him to bounce by moving the wings closer/overlapping more, and he was figuring out how to add a smaller stride in there LOL!! I think the answer for him would be to keep the distance the same but open the angle a bit.
He did start to figure it out after 1:30 approx and went back to bouncing, but I think the wings end-to-end will be a better distance for him when the bars get taller. Start with the comfy angle then very gradually flatten it – if he adds a stride, open it up the tiniest bit.
With the MM or a ‘dead’ toy as the target, you can also begin to move (walking forward after you release). Thsi should also help him look at the stationary reward target moe and at you less. With the moving target, your motion is built in and so if the forward focus for the dogs, which is why we can move him to the moving target pretty quickly 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
The backside zig zags are looking good! He definitely has no trouble with this setup and the harder angles.
>> think he ticked the jump standard foot.
I tried to see it in super slow motion but alas, too much floof haha! The deeper sound of the tick does make me think it is the jump foot not the bar (bar ticks are higher in pitch).
>> I am planning on going back to flattening out the 2-jumps on Thursday. With a UKI trial this weekend, I have 1 or 2 more opportunities next week before I hit the road on Sunday morning (Nov 6). Should I keep the bars down at 4in and just keep flattening the 2 jumps?>>
Gearing up for leaving for the Open, a couple of ideas:
leave the angles where you left them here, they are plenty flat for our purposes. Instead, we can focus on 2 elements in the next sessions:– low bars, you running 🙂 Wheeee! On the front side reps, you can be dragging the moving target. On the backside reps, you can add more of your speed and leave the PT out there. If he is fine with that, maybe switch out the PT for the Nemo ball?
– higher bars, but without the running. You can raise the bars a bit but dont add motion yet. Try to see if you can get them to 8 inches or maybe 10!
I bet you can do a bit of both in the same session:
1 rep, low bars, you running
2 reps, higher bar, you walking (bar can be 6 inches then 8 inches on these 2 reps)
then 2 more reps of low bar, you runningIf I am wrong and Kaladin thinks it is too hard, you can totally dial it back to one or the other, not both 🙂
If it is all SUPER easy without over-working him, you can add running to the higher bars but that is a lower priority for now.
The organizers were definitely fun to watch, he had a lot to sort out – most of it involving using his hind end to jump sideways LOL! But he did sort it out and the last reps were really strong!
>>had a lot more comic relief than his Zig Zag work. Bar is at 6in. After the first rep I watched your video again and realized I was on the wrong side. >>
I know the exercise has you on the landing side, but being on the takeoff side is also a slice jump so it was all good 🙂
>>Then I said sit too soon so he sat before the plank…. >>
Ha! He is so literal, always has been LOL! I believe I was saying “hop it up” to a couple of my dogs to tell them to get on the plank, so I didn’t have any sitting before the plank so feel free to add that type of ‘get on the thing’ cue 🙂
>>then too late and he ran right through and over the bar.>>
He wasn’t wrong about that LOL And he clearly had watched the videos about fading the organizer plank 🙂
>>Is he supposed to be putting his front feet down off the plank on the takeoff side before slicing over the jump?
Ideally, no, we don’t want feet on the ground at all til they land. Dogs sometimes do it to sort out how to use the hind end, and I think that is what he was doing when he put his front feet down off the plank before takeoff. But then by the end like at 1:27 and 1:39, he was great about NOT tapping his front feet (he was pushing more from the rear on those reps, which is what we want.
>> I think I saw that happening in your demo video, but he preferred to go from plank straight to over the jump.
In the early sorting stages, they might do it a little- I moved the plank closer to there was no room to d it 🙂 And you can practice the release with the wing only (no bar) as the warm up to remind him to use his booty.
>> I was going to go back to the front side wrap with a bit more of my motion on Thursday>>
Perfect! Keep me posted! great job here!
TracyHi!
It sounds like you had a great USDAA weekend!!!!Nice session here!! He has the idea of bouncing on these zig zags and seems pretty balanced in both directions (maybe right-to-left is stronger than left-to-right, or maybe I need more coffee? He is pretty balanced), so now we can start to make things even more exciting 🙂
The first thing I want to see if we can get him to do is to take off from his sit and NOT tap his front feet before the bar. It might be too hard with the feet of the jump (he is small!) but you can try moving him over so he is almost touching the wing. No worries if that is too weird for him, it is harder with the smalls to get them to do it because of the jump feet.
The next thing would be to tighten the angles with the stationary reward target (like you had here) for a session or two… and then open the angles back up to where they are in this video and go to the moving target, followed by closing the angles again. I think he will figure it out really quickly!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Looking at the Leading with the head video – oh yeah, he is thinking all good head turn things! By the end, he was looking for treats on the floor so it was not quite as good but I am happy with what he did here 🙂 It will be fun to see it translate to the jumps! You can add even more challenge by doing this for a toy – the toy will stimulate him more, so the question becomes: can you still lead with your head, Marshal, even when things are exciting? I mean, food is pretty exciting to him but the toy might be even more exciting 🙂
Distractions:
>>I know I make “distractions” on the course when I’m running, but it’s almost hard to do purposely do it! LOL>
You were great! The session was exactly what we want it to be: a light-hearted, highly reinforcing way to say to him: Please don’t touch the bar even when I am not perfect 🙂 I saw you getting in the way, being late, being wild with your arms – he was great. Since he is so motivated for food and toys, you can add in reaching into your pocket for a cookie or toy right as he is lifting off (that is a hard one for the dogs to remember their jumping while seeing LOL!)
Plank to wing video, and wing to plan to wing video:
These are also going well, I love that he is keen to try ALL the games 🙂
>>I also need to take that breath and make sure he’s fully on the plank before rewarding.>>
Yes, both with the wing before or it or just the plank – let him get set into the sit before you move the cookie hand into position. I believe he is waiting for the cookie hand to cue the sit, but we can easily get him to sit on just the verbal (and when he gets into position, you can bring the cookie hand out). That extra moment to take a breath will help balance the sit independently of your movement (eventually you will be moving the whole time).
>. After watching the video I know I need to lower the treat a bit. Too high and it puts him off balance and slips off the plank.>>
Also yes – you will want to feed him with his nose no higher than the top of the wing. Your wing is a perfect size for that – if you feed with his nose in line with the top of the wing, you will have a perfect, balanced position. If his nose and chin are higher than the top of the wing, he gets off balance.
Looking ahead at next steps:
When he will sit on the sit verbal and doesn’t need a hand cue, the next thing you can now add is to NOT feed in position anymore. Instead, release to come around the wing and the reward can be in a reward target like a food bowl on the ‘takeoff’ side of the wing. So the rep would be:
get on the plank – sit – – take a breath to let him fully sit – release to go around the wing – toss a cookie into the reward bowl (or use a Manners Minder, and eventually a toy but that might be too exciting for now). That adds more movement and challenge by asking him to get in and out of the organization even faster.My guess is that he will be doing that in the next session, so you can then add the rest of the jump and the low bar to move to the next step too. Yay!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
It is great that you have this indoor place for winter training! Yay! These sessions looked good!
>>need to focus on placement to keep head down for both of these.
Yes – my suggestions after watching the video were both about reward placement for head position.
On the zig zags: do you have wings to add to the jumps? That will help with clearer visuals for her and also pave the way to the backside game, because backsides will have wings to go around to get to the bar. The left-to-right was easier for her than the right-to-left (that is when she went around jump 2) so you can open the angles a bit when her right shoulder is parallel to the bar, and leave them tight when the left shoulder is parallel to the bar.
She is doing really well, so the main thing now is the toy placement: always have it on the ground, at least 10-12 past the 2nd jump. before you release her to help rehearse the head-down form. When it was in your hand, she was jumping the grid with her head a bit too far up. So do the toy on the ground on all of the reps of the next session – and when that goes well, you can go to the dragging toy (moving target :)) And one more suggestion – don’t face her on the release, face forward like you did at :35 – that will get even more propulsion and facing the dogs tends to cause them to slow down or add strides.
Looking at the leading with the head video – I think that toy might be a little too exciting LOL!!! She was offering a lot of behavior… but not really turning her head. 🙂 She was having trouble ignoring it when it was *right there*, so you can add two things to this game:
– using food primarily 🙂
– add in the toy in between food rewards, to get her arousal high so she can still lead with her head when she is pumped up… but after a little tugging, put the toy back in your pocket so she can focus on the task (for a cookie reward).I bet eventually she will be able to do it with the toy in your hand, so the cookie-then-toy can help get her there.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
