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Good morning!
>The problem I created was arousal without the ability to think. It’s a huge obstacle with her Aunt because I can’t even get the leash off at a trial without her flipping onto a non thinking zone.>
I don’t think you created it, it is just a matter of finding the right tools to help her out. How old is she now? We do have things that can help her! You should play all of the arousal/resilience games here in MaxPup 1. I am also going to add a game that addresses the leash off situation directly. Stay tuned!!
>For forward focus I think I can stand and use a toy. I’ll see how hard she pulls my back.>
See how it goes – or maybe someone else can hold her as you throw? That is fun element to add, if she doesn’t mind being held by other people.
>For the wobble board I’ve named it her teeter command since I’ll be doing a 4 on. When we play games should I just be silent and have her get on?>
For now, yes – silence is golden. When she can reliably get on and hit the position you want, you can add the teeter cue.
Toy races went really well! The first rep was perfect! She looked at you a little bit on the next rep and then when you were in ‘cheat to win’ mode with the cookie tosses. That might have been because she was watching you move and the toy was not as visible. A bigger toy might help that (easier to for her find when it is not moving). And just revisiting it in a coupe of days to see how latent learning kicks in 🙂 She was driving ahead really well and NOT going for your feet, so that is a big win.
She was also grabbing the toy and immediately turning to you to bring it towards you – that is a big win for the retrieve! Super!!!
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
She did really well offering front feet on the inflatables! It is hard to tell about her back feet because the inflatables are over-inflated here. That is good for adult dog training but she probably doesn’t feel comfy balancing on those yet because they are really unstable. She did offer getting her back feet on one of the round discs then decided it was weird – plus the other disc was far away, so her front feet there and back feet on the other probably felt off balance.
So to help get all 4 feet on – the inflatables should be under-inflated and put them all next to each out (touching) so she doesn’t have to stretch to have front feet on one and back feet on another.
She did a great job offering getting on the wobble board! She got all 4 feet on but like the inflatables – it was too hard to balance. She is only 6 months old, so it is normal that balancing on it would be really hard!
>I can’t tell if she was a little worried about the wobble board. I>
I don’t think she was nervous about it – it was more that she was leaving her back feet on solid ground to stabilize herself to offer behavior on it. Smart girl!
While she is developing the core strength to control the movement of the board, you can shove some blankets/towels/dog beds under it so it moves but is a lot easier to stabilize when she is on it. Or, you can flip it over and just put one towel under it so it moves, but moves less.
Nice work here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Watching this back apparently Aelfraed was not happy waiting his turn to be in the ring! In case you couldn’t hear, lol!>
Ha! Aelfraed has BIG opinions LOL!!! He was probably saying something like “Shelties should have ALL the turns!! No sharing!!” It is fun that you two can train together!
>I definitely have a tendency to end up with my hand pointing at the ceiling, lol. One day when dogs can levitate, it will really come in handy, lol.>
Yes this is so true to all of us, it is like we are handling a giraffe instead of a little BC. When the weather warms up, I have another ‘keep your arm low’ game for you but it involves water and I don’t want your hands to freeze 🙂
>I do need to keep in mind to keep going even when she breaks her line! Good advice. >
One of my philosophies on helping dogs stop grabbing us is that they can’t grab us if they can’t get to us, so keep moving 😂 Plus staying in motion helps eliminate the frustration (Canine Road Rage :)) when there is a handler error, because the opportunity to earn reinforcement is still available. I have found that dogs prefer this to stopping and rewarding, because they already understand that agility is a game of movement – so stopping means something is wrong.
She will outgrow the road rage as her brain develops from adolescent to adult, as long as we don’t rehearse it and accidentally develop the neural pathways that trigger the behavior.
On the video:
Your connection on that first run was perfection! And she agreed because she found the line and didn’t really have to look at you for more info. SUPER! One little head check on the wing-to-wing soft turn but that was tiny. You were basically saying all of the verbals directly to her cute face and that worked brilliantly.
You repeated it on the 2nd and 3rd runs here, nailing the connection and by the 3rd run, the soft turns had locked in and she had no questions.
The dog-on-right side (her left turn) was a little harder as you mentioned – you were not quite as connected at :35 so there was a small road rage moment But you kept going as if it didn’t happen so she immediately got right back to work. That was great and you were able to reward for what you wanted.
Throwing the ball past the next wing was a great idea – it helps because it focuses her forward on the line even if you are not perfectly connected.
It might have been easier to start the dog-on-right rep from the tunnel to get into flow, so that is something to consider as you add more distance between the wings and the tunnel. I think she is ready for that!
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>FYI. I’m tunnel-less at the moment (wasn’t paying attention to the needed equipment)…but should have one in the next couple weeks. Good thing, because I have tunnel exercise envy – watching this week’s games. Pretty sure Skizzle will love it.>
I think he will definitely love it! For now, you can simulate a tunnel by putting several barrels together or cones or even roller suitcases LOL! And he can run around the outside. For the proofing game, you can use that tunnel replacer to show him the difference between the wrap verbal and a soft turn (left or right verbal where he would not come back around the original barrel but continue to the next one.
>My knowledge of a dog’s jumping form is novice, so it’s nice to know we’re ok at this point.>
It is easiest to watch his jumping using the slow motion setting that YouTube has on the setting icon. Otherwise it is hard to see because he has quick feet! Mainly we are looking for his head to be lower than his shoulders and his spine should look a little rounded. Plus he will be efficient over the bar, meaning he will be sliding right over it without a lot of air between him and the bar. It almost reminds me of a dolphin leaping through the waves 🙂
The first video was great – he held the stand stay perfectly and had the dolphin form over the jumps. Super nice!
I am happy with his form in the 2nd video too. Plus, there must be something that feels great about proper form and movement because he was VERY keen to play this simple game!! FUN!!!! We want him to love jumping, especially jumping with good form 🙂
Since he was very keen to play, he also wanted to release on the toy movement. Nice work rewarding the stay after you put the toy on the ground! Two other things you can add to the stay maintenance:
-Be sure to throw rewards back after you start moving the toy, so he doesn’t release on the toy movement.-And, move the toy for 4 or 5 steps before releasing him so the release is distinct from the toy starting to move.
>Maybe next time we can try a bar at the lowest cup for one of the jumps.>
Yes – he is old enough and doing really well, so you can add a bar at 4 inches (unless you can add it at a lower setting) for the next session. It might take him a moment to adjust, so keep rewarding even if he touches the bar.
Great job here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
This session was terrific: he was VERY happy to focus forward on the treat and then drive to it, even with you running. You can definitely keep adding the Go cue and even repeat it a few time like we would on the agility course: “Go Go Go Go” until he reaches the treat.You can also do this with a toy of course, and the next steps for now are to keep adding more and more distance on the toy and treat throws.
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
Yes, adolescent brain days are definitely a real thing! It is possible that at this stage she needs 2 days or more before you repeat a game?
The pill bug game went great! It is deceptively hard! You were really emphasizing connection and that really helped her know where to be.
>Should she be running parallel with me, or should I be encouraging her to pass me? >
On the outside circles, she can be moving with you and turning with you, which is basically what she was doing. Super!
For the blind cross timing, with her speed you should probably do the blind as soon as she begins moving towards you so the blind is finished and reconnected while she is still several strides away from you. When you did that (like at 1:34) th blind went well! When you were later than that (1:55) she either hit your leg or shot past you.
She is SO FUNNY when you drag her by the toy LOL! !
>I only have these two tunnels so I’m not able to set this up for the more Advanced Level. >
You can use a barrel or a couple of barrels squished together as a tunnel replacer!
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
Mojo was great here too 🙂 He was focusing forward really well then going to the cone when released. You had a nice loop going where you sent to the cone then lined him up again between your feet. That made for a smooth transition into the next rep.
You can keep moving the cone around the wing – he was happy to wrap with it almost all the way around the wing so now you can keep moving it closer and closer to you so he has to pass it on the way to the wing.
This game is also good for adding a gentle collar hold too. You held his chest a bit and he was fine with that, so when he is at your side you can gently touch/hold his collar as you indicate forward focus, then let him go to drive to the wing.
Nice work!
Tracy
Hi! He did super well with letting you reach for his collar here!!! He did the full session of you reaching towards him *without backing away* and that is HUGE!! You can keep building on that in this incremental way, adding in getting more and more of a hold on the collar.
He did well with the lining up and then going to a tossed treat? He really loves the line up so this game is super fun! You can add more holding of the collar to this game as well.
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
He did really well wrapping with the pop up crate here! He kept wrapping even as you were getting it fully expanded LOL!! Super!Since this went so well – onwards to the next steps! I think he is ready for you to begin working towards standing up. You can use this pop up crate as the wrap object, and start the game with you sitting in a chair. Then if he gets into the rhythm like he did here, shift to standing up. That will lead us nicely into upcoming games!
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
>Arousal – I am so scared of that word at the moment. I will focus on Rou being Rou and not her Aunt who simply cannot trial because she loses her mind. >
We have really good tools nowadays to help with arousal and prepare yung dogs for trialing! Also, arousal is our friend 🙂 We need relatively high levels of arousal to be successful in sports, so we are going to help her work in higher arousal without losing her mind 🙂
She was super on the wobble board!! Since she is so confident with the movement, you can see if she will change positions: stand to sit, sit to stand, stand to down, down to stand.
You can also get her tugging on the wobble board – tugging really helps her shift her weight to stay on it and we will want the weight shift for the teeter eventually.
She was a forward focus star on the wrap game! You had a look verbal added here – you can also add a hand cue (pointing to the line yo want her to take). She was looking forward beautifully and did a GREAT job of ignoring the bowl to go to the wing, even when the bowl was almost all the way around the wing! Yay! You can keep moving the bowl further and further around until she has to pass it to get to the cone.
Since we are discussing arousal – this is a perfect game to use a toy because it builds impulse control on the toy into the game right from the start! I am glad you did it. To get a better hold on her, you can try it standing up. I can imagine that kneeling and holding her was hard because she is so strong, but standing up might make it easier?
Great job here!!
Tracy
Hi!
I see what you mean here about arm & leg! It is a bit awkward at this stage because we are holding the collar – you were holding the collar with the dog side arm which frees up. The opposite arm t indicate forward focus. Ideally your dog-side leg is also forward and that is where it was on the 2nd side (when she was on your left). But when she was on your right side at the beginning of the video, you had your left leg (non-dog-side) video forward.
In this case, you had arms and legs indicating forward focus, which she did and she also had nice impulse control to wrap the cone even as the bowl moved around it. So for now – which arm and which leg doesn’t really matter as long as you are comfy and she is looking forward when cued.
When we add a stay to this behavior, you’ll probably want to use dog-side arm and leg to indicate the forward focus.
She looks ready for next steps where the bowl continues around the cone and she eventually passes it to get to the cone.
>Once the bowl was further around I think I said go. Not sure what verbal to use as “bowl” in theory means go to the bowl and she might not go around the cone.>
You can add the wrap verbal! And then when she is wrapping the cone, you can say bowl if you like.
> Pretty good toy and food switch today. It’s a new day with a puppy!>
Yay! Every day is a new day with an adolescent 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
>We are giving the wing wrap bowls another session tonight, so hopefully a bit of latent learning helps>
I am looking forward to hearing how it goes!
>I will definitely try to cheat and beat her…but I do not think I stand a chance.>
Best of luck 😂 😝 you might be able to beat her once but probably not more than once 🙂
>I have a second fit bone I will add to widen her playing field a bit for another round of Goat Trick 2 as well as picking it up for Goat Tricks #3.
Great! Keep me posted!
Tracy
Hi!
He did really well here – pretty perfect about ignoring the stuff on the ground! When he gets to the thrown treat, you can call him back right way so he drives to you even sooner!You can add this to any of the games – there can be a novel-neutral object sitting out there when you do the blind cross game, or forward focus to a toy, etc.
Nice work!
Tracy
Hi!
>He seemed a little more tired. He played pretty hard with Aspen earlier today so thinking that might be it. We also did an outing yesterday afternoon to a local dog friendly mall>
These were fun things but yes, could totally have tired him out. You can try a bit of training before an outing or play session with Aspen, so he is less tired out.
He was fantastic with the wrapping – you were able to be standing and add distance AND had fun tug breaks. And he got right back into the game after the tug break. Super!
Do you have a large/tall cone, or a laundry basket? Those would be the next thing to get him wrapping in this game.
Sending to the prop with the toy reward also went well – he is hitting nicely and ignoring the toy to do so! Trading the toy for a treat is helping to get the toy back too. On the sends, be sure to look at his eyes, take a moment… then send. That was when you got the best foot hits on the prop. If you were too quick and he was not ready, his went to the prop but didn’t really hit it.
I think he is ready for you to do the sideways and backwards sends with the toy!
>oh he has been a real challenge. He will be a good trick dog though. Loves to pull Kleenex from a box. He is also teaching my husband to watch where he puts the remote and his glasses>
Ha! That is too funny to hear he is training your husband too LOL!
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
It was very cool to watch the temperament test! He is just so cute and brilliant! Thanks for sharing it 🙂
>When we do multiple things like the blind to the deceleration turn is that considered one or two games. >
I think of it as one game, because it is 2 elements done in flow. We build up and combine games as the puppies grow up 🙂
>Wondering when I take these on the road of if I can do that along with one of the other games? Trying to not over do with him but also take advantage of any rentals or classes.>
You totally can! When you take him to new places, the first order of business is to just play with toys and treats to see if he can engage. If he can engage, then you can do a short version of any of the games. I like to start with something the pups is really good at at home so it is pretty easy in a new environment because new places can be hard.
Tracy
