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Good morning!
This went super well! It looks like it was a really easy transfer from what you did in your in person class, to adding the toy and the verbal. Yay! She is a little stronger to her left than to her right (as we can see on the turn away threadle-side entries) but was able to find the entries on both sides really well.You can add in running with the toy to help her really explode out of the tunnel 🙂 and also you can be facing the tunnel more (on the regular tunnel entries) so that you are less rotated and your dog-side leg and step to it even more.
She seemed to have no questions about the threadle-side entries – yay! Have you started thinking about what you want your threadle verbal to be? I highly recommend that it is the same as the tunnel threadle you use with your other dogs 🙂 as long as it is different from any jump threadle verbals. On the next session, you can do a quick refresher of the threadle side entries with then if that goes well, then you can add your tunnel threadle verbal (holding her collar, saying then verbal 3 or 4 times, then letting go so she can find the tunnel and get her toy :))
After one more session to add the threadle verbal on the short tunnel, you can move to a longer straight tunnel – scrunched up at first, then gradually more and more extended 🙂
Nice work! Have fun!
Tracyhmmm that is weird – they worked well for a few days but now they won’t. I will sort it out over the weekend, no rush, your spot is held 🙂
TracyHi!
Starting her with the cookie under the Klimb worked really well here! Yay! You got several strong steps and good head position as soon as she got the cookie out from under it. Super!!! And using your legs as a channel does indeed help keep her straight.
You might not need to use gates (you are welcome to, but you might not need them, she is doing great).At the back of the pink mat was a smaller red mat of some sort. It looks like she was beginning to target it with her back feet? You should totally move into the back foot targeting stage of backing up now – starting with something big/wide/low (maybe the red thing is big enough) so it is easy to start her with all of her feet on it, then lure front feet off to get her to step back on – then you can have all four feet off for her to step back on.
After that quick intro to the target, you can combine the rear foot targeting concept with what you’ve got going here – sitting on the Klimb but with the rear foot target within a step or two for easy targeting. Then over time it can be moved further and further back.
The rear foot targeting will help with moving board foundations and contact foundations, so it will be great found to see her work through it!
>>I’ve been using my marker cues with Gem. I’m used to this from Morgan. >>
Your marker words are great! I like that they are distinct: one cookie of search versus multiple for scatter, and toss versus get it versus take: all of that really helps!!
>>I’m not using all of these with Gem yet>>
That is fine! You can start putting them in wherever they make sense and we can keep building them up 🙂
Great job here!
TracyHi!
This went really well with Rich holding him! Thanks, Rich!!!
He is also a very wise man:
“By the time I let go, you gotta be doing your thing”Yes 🙂 As soon as Reacher starts to move, do the blind so you can then start the decel even sooner.
“Go further away maybe, get more room” was also excellent advice! It buys you some time to make the blind, connect, then decel.
Overall it looked great. Yay! Your connections were clear and the earlier you did the decel, the better he could stay low on the ground and make the turn. And he did well going to the frisbee after you tossed it (he prefers that you interact with him with it, so running to it helped a lot and it was much better than sending him to it with you not running to it as well.
When you did the decel Ince and early, he was better able to set up the turn. And because he is a shortie, keep you hand low as you do the pivot. When you raised your hand early in the session, he jumped up a bit. Later on, like at 1:05, you kept your hand low and he was great about staying on the ground and turning (no leaping).
>>I used the wrong hand on the decel a few times and in that case he would often lunge at the toy on the turn. >>
Which hand to use is not as important as your connection, and your connection was great here! The jumping up might have been that the decel was a little late or that the toy got too high, or you needed to scrunch it up in your hand so it is less right in front of him. That will totally help him out too!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!!
The left and right are looking strong, I love how different they sound (this is very helpful for the dogs)
As things get more complicated in terms of your position and turning away, hold her collar longer so she can process the verbal before moving. I like for the dogs to hear it at least twice before they move 🙂 At the end you were holding her, but she was moving as soon as she heard the verbal. And sometimes her choice was quite correct 🙂 So you can hold her til she hears the verbal twice, then let go: that will strengthen the verbals because she was be processing them more before moving.
She did well with the neutral position too! The first part was easy for her because she figured out to do the left or right regardless of your position relative to the jump. Things got trickier when you started alternating the verbals, after 1:19 – that is where you can hold her longer while you repeat the verbal,to basically say: listen to the verbal before you move! She would move then catch herself going the wrong direction a few times here, when the processing caught up to the motion 🙂
Sends and serps went really well too – excellent use of verbals throughout this session!!!
The serps look really strong on the first side. You were pulling away from the serp jump too much on the first few reps, but then you made a great adjustment after :31 and great serp lines (parallel to the bar) for the rest of it.
The other side was hard on that first rep! You had a lot of motion and maybe that is her harder side? You slowed down a little for a few reps then she locked it in really nicely on that side too. Yay!!
On the FC balance reps, one tweak to exaggerate the connection: point your fingers all the back to her nose and make a very direct eye contact. That will help her really see the turn cue the first time you do it. When your shoulder was a little forward, pointing to the gap instead of to her nose, she thought it was the serp jump on the first rep. The more she can see your eyes, the more she will pick up the FC – and pointing back to her will open up your connection.
The backside variation looked great too! Well done to you for adding it very gradually, so it was super natural for her to find the backside and take the jump. You can keep moving the wing further and further back, so the backside is more and more challenging.
Great job on all of these! Let me know what you think!
TracyAh! Here’s the advanced level! Also looking really strong – her understanding transferred easily to this and she was committing and setting up her turn brilliantly! That allowed you to do the handling on 2: FC (1st rep) and throwback (2nd and 3rd rep) really easily. So nice!!!!
The next step now is to start the handling for 2 before she takes off for 1. This will be especially important for the FC and serps (when you are on the other side of 1, landing side of 2).
Ideally, ypu are fully finished with the FC before she takes off for 1 or moving past the exit wing of 2 for the serp. Based on her commitment here, you can definitely try getting earlier and earlier to see if you can be fully rotated before takeoff. If she has any commitment questions, you can throw the reward to landing of 1 to help maintain the commitment.
Great job here!
TracyHi!
This looks great (and very theatrical lighting behind you, thanks to mother nature 😀)It looks like everything was in place: the stay, her commitment and forward focus, her collection on the jump. And your mechanics of the lead out and release and send were all spot on!!! Super!!!!
Onwards to the advanced level, since this was pretty perfect 🥰 when the 2nd jump is added, you can totally add in handling that 2nd jump too (crosses, serps, throw backs, etc – all the things we would use the lateral lead out for.
Great job! Let me know how the advanced level goes!
TracyHi! Definitely a good session!!! The skills looked strong and he looked very engaged even with distractions all around. Yay!
The minny pinny work is going really well! He is pretty perfect on the right turns, and the lefts are harder (as expected). So, for the lefts, you can help him out with some targeting lime a toy placed between the jumps as a focal point.
Interestingly, he was much better about being held for the right turns and was more frantic for the left turns. I know you are not hoisting him, he is self-hoisting LOL and on the left he was using your legs as a push off point!
So, separately and without jumps there, you can line him up on your left side, put a target down, hold his collar, then quickly let go to send to it (to help him learn the joys of standing patiently at your side, which will definitely help the left turns when you do it in front of jumps.He did really well on the grids!!! Having the holder feed him while he was being held was really useful – he went from a bucking bronco at first, to being able to be held and sit! Yeah!!! And that allowed you do have the moving target and motion, which produced a lot of lovely powerful jumping! Yay!!
The sends to serps are coming along nicely too. Keeping the upper body open to him and arm back definitely helped!
On the right turns, you can angle the jump to face him a bit more so he can see the nar after he exits the start wing. Then I bet you can start the session with a lot of success, then angle it back to flat like it was here.
On the left turn side, definitely angle the jump so he can see the bat very easily. Since this is his harder side, you will probably want to leave it angled for longer.
Your line is the same even with the angled jump, so the motion looks the same as the jump changes position.Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! This is also going really well!!!
At the start of each rep, line her up at side with a cookie lure to exactly where you want her then take her collar… she most definitely does not want to be moved by the collar.
The barrel wraps went great!!!! She was super about ignoring the toy til cued – so you can add in a FC on the barrel and running to the toy, so it is clearer to her that she can have it 🙂
2 other things to add in:
Use a higher value toy, it will make it even more fun!
Don’t train this when she is hungry, because that food interest will override the toy drive.Great job! Have fun!
TracyHi!
Her target value looks good here.
We want that target hand to be further away from you, not near your leg at all, so extend it all the way away from your torso, locking your elbow out away so it is a serp arm that is perpendicular from your body.How to do that with such a tiny dog? Sit on something 🙂 you can sit on an inflatable donut or on a stool or something so you are bending less. Then as we fade out the touch, you will be able to move to standing.
For now, rewarding from the opposite hand is a bit better than tossing the treat because we can really teach her the in-and-out movement.
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
These are off to a good start!
The mechanics are the hardest part for sure and they do feel awkward at first.
On the lap turns:
I think the hardest part was getting her to find the cookie you tossed LOL! That made the timing of everything else a little more tricky.Waiting for the 2 inch spot is definitely needed, so don’t change that! The only suggestion is to extend that cookie hand directly towards her, locking your elbow. It looks like you might have had it next to your leg – but having it fully extended towards her will make it easier to draw her through the lap turns when she gets to it. Everything else looked good!
Tandems are also going well – definitely not easy with such a tiny pup! She is reading the turn away mainly from the opposite arm, so you can get it in place sooner (in front of her, for a few steps) then move it slowly as you turn her away.
I think both of these are ready for the prop to be added!
Great job!
TracyHi!
You’ll want to wait for MaxPup 3 until after MaxPup 2, otherwise it is too much of a leap forward for the pups 🙂 The MaxPup 2 for this crew will start a few weeks after this MaxPup 1 is finished – stay tuned for exact dates 🙂
TracyHi!
>>. I think these sessions went a little better.>>
Yes! They all went GREAT!! You can basically go to the next step on all the games.
>> Am (Tina too) worried her motivation for food (she goes crazy just for her basic kibble) is reducing her tug drive. Apparently, I wave food around a lot, so trying to be aware of that.>>
It is totally normal that value shifts around a bit, so we can keep food and tugging a bit more separate for now (especially because she is probably teething. She is definitely a foodie! So when you present the toy for tugging, make sure it is a high value soft furry toy, and that there is no food in your hands, and there are no food related items right there where you are playing (like the bowls, plank, etc). You can move away from those for now and go wild with the long soft toys, then go back to the other stuff when you are ready for more shaping. And you can do entire sessions with a toy only (like the wobble board or toy races) and no food at all. We have plenty of time to get the toy and food values balanced 🙂
Prop sends – These are going really well! She has really strong value now and she had good hits to it on almost the reps. Yay! And you had plenty of distance here, so you can now move to the parallel path game 🙂
Some of her questions were about reinforcement – she is still learning the clicker (she doesn’t yet immediately drive back to you when you click, she kind of looks around LOL!)) and still learning food value and leaving the hand to touch the prop. But things are going along really well!You can add a little more connection on the sending (looking at her more and at the prop less, when sending forward to it). But then shift from looking at her to looking at the prop on the sideways and backwards sending.
She had a question on the sideways sending the end, because she was behind you when you tried to send (literally behind your back, which is why she looked at you like you were nuts LOL!). Remember to start with her in front of you, like you did on the successful reps and at 1:38 – that makes perfect sense to her.
Backing up – she is off to a really good start here!!! Lots of little steps backwards!! I think you were putting too much pressure on going straight 🙂 On these early steps, straight is not important: we just want a few steps backwards. And she did – looked great! Since this went well, you can go to the next week Backing Up Part 2, where we add some rear foot targeting which helps straighten the pups out 🙂
Wobble board – well, she certainly is a little goat LOL!! You can throw the treats sooner so she can basically run across the wobble board, bit overall she seemed very confident. Keep rewarding her for getting on random things, and you can even create a little playground of all sorts of things she can get on and walk over, of different shapes/sizes/textures/movements 🙂
She did well getting on the plank – when you started moving back and forth, it was easy for her to get all 4 feet on. She is also turning around really well and is happy tp hop no and hop off too! Yo ucan ask for her sits and downs on the plank (it is perfectly fine to use cookie lures to help her) and you can also elevate the board by a few more inches, if you have some stable blocks you can put under it.
She stayed on the plank really well here – we don’t need more than that 🙂
Wraps – nice toy at the beginning! Wow!!! She played nicely but let go as soon as she saw the bowls. So you can keep the bowls lifted until after you ask for the toy back – then you can place them on the floor. Then when you want to go back to the toy at the end, you can lift up the bowls and get the cookies put away, then move to a new spot on the floor before bringing the cookie out.
She did well wrapping the object! She was a little better going from your right hand to your left hand (no misses) and sometimes cut in between you and the barrel going from your left to your right. So you can move it a little further away when she is going from your right to left, then pull it back in when she is going left to right. That way she can be successful in both directions and you can add distance. But distance is a low priority at the moment.
You can also switch to a barrel now so it is a little bigger, and when she is happy wih that, you can move to the turn and burn game 🙂
The tugging at the beginning of the toy race game looked great! And she is giving it back really well too – super! And the focus forward is going great too – I love how at the end, you tried to push her back to win and she still smoked you LOL!!!! Nice! So you can keep adding more and more distance to this, so you can both be running.
Great job here! Let me know what you think 🙂
TracyHi!
Holding him longer so he can process the cues is always helpful!One thing I noticed here is that the verbals are sounding good, and he also needs the physical cues when he exits the wing wrap. When you were giving him the motion towards the tunnel entry you wanted – nailed it! When you were saying one thing by giving motion to the other end of the tunnel…. oops!
So for example – when you wanted the tunnel in front of him, you moved forward. When you wanted the threadle entry, your motion had to be towards it as he exited the wing (upper body was not as important). If you stepped away to it immediately, he got it right like at :15, :30, 1:09. But if you stepped forward like at :51, he did not get it. So moving away to the tunnel threadle side before he exits the wrap is super important!
Turning your feet to it in a more exaggerated way, as he arrives at the wing before it, will make a big difference. That way, he can follow the line of your motion the whole time. You can focus more on your feet moving to the threadle entry really early, even it turns your shoulders away from him a bit too – that might help as well!
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Backsides are totally clicking! Yay! It is a hard skill and he is getting it for sure – this was a highly successful session. You can start to add even more motion (running!) as long as you continue that great job of moving along the parallel path and maintaining the connection – that looked great on every rep here. Just remember to be careful with that bar on the ground! A leash can be a safer option LOL!As you get more running going, you might find that you don’t need the outside arm as much – you can get it based on motion, connection, & verbal (that is what was beginning to happen at the end like at 4:40, when you didn’t use nearly as much outside arm and he was still great!)
The countermotion also looked really strong! You were very clear indicating the landing spot as you went past the wing. As you continue working your way further and further away from the entry wing, you can combine the push with the countermotion to put it all together 🙂
>>And now we have to work the other side because right now we’re not very balanced.
On the other side, remember you can make it easy and angle the jump. Being able to do it this well on one side should make it easier to get the other side.
Great job! And the rooster is a lovely addition LOL!!!!
Tracy
