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Good morning!
>.My bad thing about teaching Woof and Quiet is I’m super bad at putting that into a behavior chain. They woof, so I can say quiet so that I can reward for quiet. So I kinda teach my dogs to woof when I’m teaching them quiet… LOL. Bad Trainer! But I’m sure he will learn it quickly!>>
It is not that you are a bad trainer, it is more like theory and reality don’t match 🙂 In theory: if we put barking on stimulus control and never cue it, the pups won’t bark. In theory. In reality… they don’t shut up bark bark bark hahaha! I don’t mind it because the barking as a trick is SO helpful to get focus in dog sports. All of my dogs bark on cue (and yes, there are times when my house is noisy because PAPILLONS hahaha)
>>This boy has the attention span of a knat. LOL. Like 5 seconds. 😀 but it’s something to build on!>>
Yes, but it is fine. He is doing brilliantly and I wouldn’t change a thing about his perfect little self.
>>I will do some more of the arm/leg send to the target too, and the barrel, to help him understand.
I had to go back to that a bit too with my pup, who is basically the same age – it is like they had a moment where the skill broke down but then it came back.
>>Not only does he have a short attention span, is just so immature too. So I’m trying to enjoy the cute puppy age. But sometimes he tries my patience! He was chewing up the rug this evening so he was put in the crate with a bully stick instead. He’s so busy!>>
Yep! Totally relatable. If I can’t directly watch the pup, I will put him in a crate with something to do. They are busy AND still teething AND they don’t know the rules of life yet (although my other dogs are VERY helpful with that LOL!)
>>I did get a working spot in Max PUp 2, but now I”m not sure if he’ll still be too immature for that class. Think he’ll be okay? I figured I can puppy stuff down for him if needed.>>
I think he will be fine for MP2 because there area handful of us with dogs the same age: Casper, my Ramen, the baby Goldens Audie & Prytania, and a couple of others. They will all be in the 7-8 month range in that march time period. What happens in that time span is they make massive leaps forward in transferring the concepts and they are not yet fully in the throes of adolescence – so we might start them all with a puppy-version of the game then build it up.
And because I will be training my pup alongside, I will be able to break things down for the younger dogs so we all advance together. It will basically be 2 tracks – our baby babies, and the pups that are going to be over a year old when we start.
>>Today at flyball practice he LOVED the circle of love and seeing All The people and getting treats and then chasing me for a toy.>>
YAY! I love it! And he engaged with the toy on the recalls? SUPER!
On the video, he was interested in the crunchy bottle tug when it was moving (but it was a little too much pressure when it was kind of dead in front of the person who was very energetic LOL!). So you can attach it to a long toy so you can drag it (or she can drag it) and he can chase it.
After an circle of love experience or two, I stop doing the circle of love stuff with my dogs and move to the pattern games and engagement with me, so that they learn to ignore the other people and dogs. If he leaves you to visit, no problem, the other folks should still cheerfully greet him and give him a cookie – but we start to shift the games to more momma focus pretty quickly.
>> That pretty much burned up all his brain cells. LOL.
Well yes 🙂 Flyball training is a really high energy level and it burns a lot of glucose. And basically the brain is powered by glucose so literally, it might have burned up his brain cells LOL!! You will see the mental stamina improve but even with the adult dogs, our flyball training sessions don’t go longer than 5 to 7 minutes (with rest breaks built in) then a massive break between sessions. It is an intense sport (but super fun).
>>But we tried some counter motion… and I put a harness on him for the Super Fun Place and he didn’t even seem to know it was on. But All The People are SO COOL that he couldn’t really do anything but be a puppy. Which is okay, it’s all fun! Man he LOVES that training barn!>>
Perfect about the harness, and perfect about how much he loves the training building and people. Yay!!! Those are the most important things: positive emotions 🙂 And now you can start to bring in othre games he loves to shift things towards more engagement with you! Flyball doesn’t start any real training on the box or jumps until the pups are well over a year old, so engagement is really all you need at this point.
Great job here!!
TracyHi!
His commitment is looking really good here on these, which makes it easier to work out the different handling!! One thing that was particularly excellent was that even if the handling was not perfect… you rewarded him anyway because you were working out what you needed to do. I wish I could convince EVERYONE to reward their dogs like that – big click/treat to YOU!!!! It made him very happy to keep trying all of the different moves 🙂First video – super job on your FCs and the race tracks! Your connection was super clear and he had no questions.
You added the spins on videos 2 and 3. On the second video, at :03, your spin was good when you turned towards him like a FC then did the BC. The spin is a FC-BC combo 🙂 so starting it like a FC then doing the quick blind is what gets the tight turn. Your second one was a blind cross (:22) where you turned away from him instead of towards him. You can see the turn was a little wider because of that (although we do use blind crosses to get crazy tight turns sometimes :))
On the 3rd video, you were getting the smoothness of the spins: :23 was correct (FC-BC combo) and so was :38, which was also really smooth and quick. You are definitely getting it! Yay!
2 suggestions to add:
– add your wrap verbals, so you don’t say “go”. Since go will mean big huge straight line extension, we want to get the wrap verbals on the barrels at this stage.Also, you can stick the toy in your pocket so you don’t switch it from hand to hand. Switching it delays your timing and draws his eyes to you instead of the barrel (like at :04 on the 2nd video). And since the rewards for this don’t have to be precise (you can whip the toy out of the pocket as you keep moving), having it stuffed into a pocket will make it easier for you both.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>This is soooo weird, this will be my third try at loading my week 10 videos……
Were you getting an error message? and what type of device were you using? Sometimes Apple devices and the WordPress software don’t get along. Or, it could be a connection issue because there are a lot of videos in each post. But 3 posts did come through! Let m eknow what was happening and I will pass it along to the tech folks.
Left/right minny pinnys – He figured out the setup really well on both clips, with juts on elittle bar and then all three bars – no problem! The tone/rhythm of the verbal was perfect (sounds different from your wraps and from the loud GO GO GO verbals. And your reward position was great – he liked the treats but I bet you can use a toy now too.
One suggestion – hold him lined up at your side, start saying the verbals, then let him go. This will help him process and attach the verbals better than moving then hearing them. And it will also help you double check your words – on these clips, you were saying left when he was turning to his right. and vice versa. So either YouTube mirrored the clip, or you had the verbals bsed on your hands (he starts on your left, so you say left), or you had them backwards (I have done this – oops! LOL!!) So that moment of holding his collar, saying the verbals 3 or 4 times, will allow you to spot check if you are naming the direction correctly.
The stays look good! He seems very happy holding his stay as you lead out. Interestingly, when you said ‘stay’, he went into a down. When you didn’t really say stay, he held the sit.
Based on his responses here, he doesn’t need th stay cue – he seems to understand that sit means stay! That is great! You did these all on your left side, so be sure to all set him up and lead out on your right side – I did too much left side practice with my puppy so his right side understanding is weaker. So be sure to show Sid the right side line ups too 🙂
Adding the prop was of course harder 🙂 But he did really well – I cracked up when he took his toy to the prop LOL!! When you very clearly lined him up, he seemed to understand that he should sit and not head for the prop – perfect. And he was definitely jazzed up by the value of the prop: he was leaning forward a little more. This is great and it allows you to work the skill of the stays in front of the ‘jump replacement’ which will make it easier to do this in front of the jump. Good job throwing back the rewards before he brok the stay, I think you were at 100% success on both videos. Super!!!
As with the previous video, remember towork the stay on your right side too. And he is totally ready for the week 12 lateral lead out game.
Find my face game – on both videos, he did beautifully. He was perfect at patiently finding your face when you disconnected (great acting LOL!!!)
Try not to say yay, try to use your tossed reward marker (if you do a lot of praise, it is not as clear if he should go find the reward or keep looking at you. You used “get it” more frequently on the 2nd video and that was clearer.When you completely disconnect, try to keep half of an eyeball looking for him, so you can see if he is finding your face – he was very patient 🙂 He doesn’t have to come all the way in front of you, he can be at your side or a little behind you.
He does like his cookies, but I bet he will also like the version of this game with 2 toys. You can have a toy in each hand – and when he finds your face, you cue him to tug on one of the toys. Then ask him to release the toy – you then disconnect – when he finds your face, you ask him to tug again. This version of the game might be more likeyl to be effective near the ring for him, if he likes toys more than food.
Great job here!!!
Tracy
Hi! Glad you are having fun 🙂 The pattern game in this environment was GREAT!! Excellent choice of game, and she did a great job of being able to re-engage even with all the noises and smalls and being in the great outdoors. You were nice and patient too 🙂 allowing her to take a moment to listen to a sound when she needed to.
When the environment is really distracting, you can just do regular pattern games (no need to turn away from her). So if she is comfy, you can get closer to the ring area today. And if you are on dirt (hard to find the treats) or it is too close to other dogs to toss a treat, you can bend over and put the treat on your shoe! Or, if she prefers movement, you can walk back and forth more.
Super job! Have fun!
TracyDarned agility dogs being balanced and turning both ways LOL!!! When she is pumped up, which way does she turn on the first rep? That way she won’t be tired and will be too pumped up to think about it much 🙂 And you only want to do 5 reps at a time, then take a break. Otherwise yes, she might get tired and turn the other way.
I scrolled back through her thread here and the only times were noticed a side preference, the preference was to her left (one reference to it on December 5th, and she was better to her left on the rear crosses). So I think left is a good call for now!
T
Hi –
>>The only MAX pup games I am going to use is “Take a Breath” and I need that too…LOL…
Oh yeah! I forgot about that one LOL! It is perfect!
>>I am pretty stresses and worried. Being left over the weekend waiting for the radiologist report is very mentally taxing.>>
I totally relate. I shed many tears over the luxating patella issue. I am still neurotic about it.
>>I do have some puzzles and will find or buy a snuffle mat.
Because he is little, you don’t need to spend the big bucks on a real snuffle mat – you can go to a walmart or target and get a deep pile bath mat, it will work great!
>>He is doing good if with me and will do quiet time in crate a couple times a day. Then his little pen right beside my couch is working well too. Also my 12 year old pap is his best buddy and the old man will lay with him in the pen to keep him company.>>
Awww, yay for the old man helping out!
>>I don’t think there is a lot of pain and right now he is on Gabapentin and Medicam and since they maybe blocking some of the pain I am being super careful about keeping him inactive. He would go running and playing if allowed.
Gaba and medicam, good stuff! And yes, they are blocking any pain so keep him in bubble wrap for now.
Tracy
Hi!
This was a really good video to watch and learn about Audie from!!
>>. Looking at the video, I can see how our failure rate increased in the 2nd session. too much for him to have done a 2nd session or I should have rewarded stays more before moving to the exercise. also wonder if I had started the 2nd session with pattern game if that would have made a difference>>
Normally, as you know, I am all for short sessions where we don’t over-work the pups. After watching the video here… he was fine. He was totally engaged, not brain tired or disengaged. All errors were human errors of reinforcement choice, mechanics and connection LOL!!! More below:
In the first part of the session, watching with the sound on… there was a LOT going on in the environment! Barking dogs, people, jangling tags. etc. Good job at the beginning doing some pattern games and some stay rewards. He did really well!!! I would definitely use more toy play. This section (the whole video, actually) was all food reward – using only food reward ends up resulting in too many reps, easy handler disengagement (meaning, you don’t interact with him enough), not enough play, and not enough excitement. So after every treat or 2… get the toy involved and play and engage 🙂
The collection looked great on the first release! And he was able to do the parallel path in extension too, going back and forth between that and the decel.
Three details for this game:
– try not to say “yay” for the cookie thrown ahead on the parallel path, he didn’t know where to look when that was happening.
– for now, stand still in position for the decel before you release, rather than moving into it – there was not enough difference between moving and decel for him to read it fully, so we need to keep it very different looking.
– both the decel and the parallel path can (and should) be rewarded with a toy, not a treat 🙂
I am guessing the 2nd session was at about 3 minutes when things were quieter (and you were doing the serps).
To help solidify the stays during the serps, move to position, show the arm cue… and then throw the reward back to him.
His errors here were mechanics-induced: when you released and didn’t really show a big connection shift to the landing spot (an arm cue to match it), he didn’t know where to be (like at 3:53). This was especially true when it all happened at once, like at 4:40 when you released, moved, put the arm and eyes in position all in the same moment – too much to process!
When you made it clearer by showing the arm and connection shift separately from your motion like at 4:16, or later on when you were moving THEN showed the cue and released (5:16 for example) then he got it every time.
And when you were fully engaged and working each step of the rep (like the rep starting at 5:34, for example), he was terrific! But when you were disengaged (not looking at him, or talking to yourself) – he failed like at 6:06 when you walked away without connection and discussing doing the serps again so he failed. Same thing happened at 6:48 when you turned your back on him and said something about eating clover – he was like “wait what does that mean?”
And on those failures on the serps and stays, he definitely got a ‘sad trombone’ response to the errors… but those were really human errors, so resist the temptation to mark the failure or drop your energy with a sad trombone “nice try”. Just give him a yay and hurry back to reset and start again.
So cleaner training will really help – I don’t think the amount of training was too much for him, I think it was just being sure that you were fully engaged in each rep and showing all the correct mechanics. And definitely get the toy play involved in all of this – there was over 7 minutes of video here and not a single rep with a toy. The toy brings higher arousal, which is great because then he learns it in higher arousal. And the studies behind learning & arousal say that if he learns the skill in the same state (higher arousal) as he has to recall the skill (higher arousal at a trial) then he will have more success. If he learns it in a different state (lower arousal) than he will need to recall it (higher arousal) then he is more likely to fail and be unable to recall the skill and execute it.
It is great to have this on video – it was overall a really nice session and it is fun to see how he gives such great feedback on mechanics!! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Very very nice job on the countermotion session here!! You can add more motion (walking faster, the build to jogging) – two suggestions to get rid of her questions that you saw when she was on your left side.
She was pretty perfect on your right arm at the beginning!
She had questions on the left side but I think she was actually reading your line correctly in a very literal way:At :49 and :57, by the time you released her, you were actually converging onto the rear cross line which presented right turn into. I am pretty sure that you were probably trying to not step on the stuff on the floor so your line was no longer straight. That convergence was causing the right turns when you wanted the left turns. Good news: she pays close attention to all of your cues. Bad news: she pays close attention to all of your cues 🙂 HA!
She has a lot of whippet in her, and I have found that whippety dogs are GREAT at processing visual info incredibly fast (sighthounds, right? Makes sense). I have found my whippety dogs and student whippety dogs to be able to respond to visual cues faster than any other type of dogs… again, it is good news/bad news because it means we humans don’t have as much leeway to show subtle changes in motion in the early days of training.
She sees everything and as a young dog, she is incredibly literal – good girl!!!
Compare your line at :48 and :57 to your line at 1:36 where she had no question: you were moving straight after the exit (no convergence) so she knew it was a left turn.
I thought your line was 1:43 and 1:50 was good too (nice and straight, no convergence) but you were looking at her instead of looking back at the landing, so she didn’t commit (normal baby dog question – eventually you won’t have to look at landing but it is important for now).
On the last 2 reps, you nailed it (1:58 and 2:03) – srtaight line of exit, looking at landng and no convergence. She was perfect!!!
So – keep going with the straight line of exit, give yourself enough room so you can be very straight and not show convergence. And keep reminding yourself to look at landing.
Your toy placement was fabulous!!
Out of curiosity… if you have played with any ball retrieves or foundaiton box turn for flyball, which way does she turn?
Great job!
TracyI can see why you are happy with her, she is AMAZEBALLS. And it looks like you are doing some flyball too which makes me happy 🙂
Hi!
One of my young dogs had almost 18 months(!) away from training due to a luxating patella that was originally misdiagnosed then had to have surgery, etc. So yes, I have ideas for you 🙂I recommend no MaxPup games – there is too much movement. Plus, if Seren is in any pain, we don’t want to build pain into the foundation sport games.
What I did with Hot Sauce was a lot of puzzles: all of her meals were in Toppls or Kongs, generally frozen. So she was VERY happy to stay in her crate or pen and work through those. And she did some of those food puzzle toys that should could use her front feet or nose to work through. I also recommend a snuffle mat, to hide some crumbs in. Sniffing is hard brain work and Seren will be exhausted!
I also made sure that she and I would have some quality alone time together – I sat in an x-pen with her on my lap, watching Netflix and giving her gentle massages or letting her chew a bully stick (all the other dogs were banished to their crates or another room so there was no chaos happening, and no jealousy)
I also found that Trazodone was a very helpful thing in the early days, especially post-surgery. It chilled her out so she didn’t require the same physical activity and was happy with the mental activity.
Does he like to shred things? You can let him shred up old milk cartons or paper towel rolls – just be sure to supervise while he does this so he doesn’t eat any of it.
Keep me posted about how he is doing!
Tracy
Hi!
Her wing wraps looked super lovely! Seems like she had no problem transferring to the wing – and you were getting great turns in both directions. Hooray for left turns that are now as strong as her right turns!!! (Remember back in November when the left turns were so hard? She is fabulous both directions now 🙂
You were leaving earlier and earlier, which is great (especially on the last rep!) You can play with starting further away, so you can do the FC and run the other way before she even arrives at the wing. And if you haven’t added the verbals yet (it was hard to hear), you can totally add your wrap verbals.
My only suggestion is to let her run through the toy rather than let her grab the toy – when she grabs it, she is letting her momentum swing her up in the air and there is a lot of torque on her spine. Letting her run through it gets rid of that – plus, as soon as it is in her mouth, you can turn and run the other way to work on the retrieve too! Yay!
>>How long to we have to post video?
Til February 28th 🙂 Great job here!!
TracyHi!
Thanks for posting it – looking really strong! He seemed happy with the short and sweet collar grabs here before the send!
He is definitely turning to his left perfectly… and when he ended up on the wrong side of you at :13, it was because you looked forward a tiny bit (broke connection) so he read it as a blind cross to his easier side for the left turn. No worries – your response was perfect! You rewarded and then you made an adjustment to very strong connection and then he was perfect on his right turns too. Click-treat for you!!!!
The right turns will get easier but for now, keep making that really big connection, it really helps him.
>>I am working full time this week. So training him just a little early mornings.>
Sounds good! We have til the end of February for posting 🙂
>>Spend time with grabbing collar and rewarding with food 1st then send to a tunnel. He loves his tunnel by now. Still easy turning to the left and not as good to the right. Will fix that.>>
Excellent! That is big progress in a short time. And I know he will get those right turns, he is doing awesome!!!
Enjoy your weekend! Great job here!
Tracy
Hi! I saw Muso’s daddy at a trial today! I didn’t actually get to see him run because I was running back and forth to switch dogs LOL!
I admit to being confused by the sound at the start of the video til I realized it was me in the soon class LOL!!!! But the session looked great – stay was lovely, parallel path was lovely, and I did a BIG HAPPY DANCE that she transitioned into the decel effortlessly. Nice collections! This is going to be so cool to build on and it will make great gorgeous turns so easy. There is not a lot to do with this game other than get her more stimulated with wild tugging, and revisit the skills 🙂
The German Turn/countermotion game looked great too. You really nailed the mechanics on just about all the reps so it was really easy for her. The right turns were perfect. She had a little trouble with the left turns, but that is normal in terms of one side being harder. You made a really good adjustment to just slow things down a little – you moved a little later and threw the toy really well, so she figured it out and the last 2 reps looked super strong. Start with the left turns on the next session and see how she does with those being first!
The lateral send session went well too. I think she moves SO FAST that she needs to see the cue sooner: instead of release *then* send (which was resulting in a slightly delayed response on most reps), you can lead out, point your leg and foot… *then* release. That way she sees the cue before she starts moving and has more time to process it. Just be sure that it is arm/leg, take a breath, then release, so that she doesn’t start to release with the arm & leg movement. I have a video of this somewhere, I will go dig it up and post so you have the visual 🙂
>>I thought the stays were much improved here.>>
Yes! Fabulous! There is a lot of control happening in these games and she was lovely with all of it, and maintained the speed & turns. YAY!!!
Great job 🙂 Have a great weekend, hope it is not too cold!
Tracy
