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Hi!
This one was the focus forward/driving ahead. He definitely likes the toy! Try not to pull him back or up by the collar (that can get him off balance), just hold him and let him get excited without the pulling 🙂 And to help him bring the toy right back, you can run the other way as soon as he gets to the toy.
I can’t see your face on this video, so be sure you are looking at him (connection!) and not at the toy 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
This was the decel to handler – nice start here! It was hard to see what he was doing but I could ee him driving in really nicely to your hand and pivot. You can add more distance to this and you can be moving into the deceleration as well.T
Hi!
The new prop looks good – good size and doesn’t slide 🙂 He was definitely getting good value for it already! In the next session, let’s get him looking at you less by either dropping the treats on the prop rather than overing from your hand, or tossing off to the side. That will also get him moving which will lead nicely to the sends 🙂
The wraps foundation games looked good! The bowls looked great and I am glad you added the stanchion – he was great there too! Next step: change noir position to sitting in a chair so we can start working towards you standing up 🙂
The Blinds were not a disaster ta all, we just need to sort out the cookie versus acorn issue. What if you used a bowl: holding him, place a cookie in the bowl and show it to him. Then carry him a few feet away, send to the cookie bowl, and then you can run away and start the blind nice and early without worrying about acorns? That can help him know what to grab and also get you a nice head start to do the blinds sooner. Or, have Jamie come over and hold him so you can do this as a restrained recall 🙂
Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
He is definitely the cone master! Yes, keep trying to get the cone in as the very last thing so you don’t miss that first reward.
Before we move to having you stand, let’s add a taller upright (like the stanchion of a wingless jump) while you are still in the chair. And then you can add in a barrel or laundry basket or something even bigger. When he is happy with that (won’t take him long at all!) then we can get you standing up 🙂When you used the two toys, it was not cheating at all to add the squeakers LOL! Check out the new Any Toy Any Time game I posted today, that will help too. For now, you can make a giant fuss about each new toy that comes into the picture, so he will also make a big fuss and switch to the new toy 🙂
>>I also tried some of the blind cross exercise by tossing a treat, then having him chase me with a nice long toy I dragged. But he did not really want the toy, he kept looking for the treats. This was right before dinner so maybe he was hungry? I’m not sure, because he’s always hungry. Oh… I bet it was because the treats were higher value. I probably should have used kibble. >>
Yes, it is probably a value issue: hungry pup, good treats so his brain probably didn’t even register the toy 🙂 Try it after a meal with the most boring treats you can find 🙂 and the best toy you have.

>>I can show you that video too if you like. I can have my husband hold him instead of tossing the treat. But we’d still need to use treats to get ahold of him. >>You can post the video if you like! And yes, you can have the hubby hold him, offering a super boring treat to grab him LOL!! Do you have any long toys with fur or anything wild attached to them? That can help!
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
The blinds look almost perfect! Yay! He was reading the side changes perfectly and your connection & toy placement was great!Only one suggestion – when you are running away looking over the dog-side arm before the blind, try to have your dog-side arm back & down towards him to open up your dog-side shoulder. You were holding it perpendicular to your ribs, which closes the shoulder forward so he will have a harder time seeing the connection. Ideally your dog side arm is extended back & down towards his widdle nose 🙂 with your elbow locked. The toy placement across your body really opened up the shoulder after the blind, so he read it really nicely 🙂
Nice attempt at the catch reward LOL! His surprise was adorable LOL! He got it nicely the 2nd time 🙂
Great job on all of these! Let me know what you think!
Have a great Thanksgiving!
TracyWhew, this looks like a big workout for you both! LOL! Having the whole floor looked FUN! Shorter stays worked better, I don’t think he is fully ready for the long stays yet. Or, if the weather is good, have Kevin hold him so you can do big distances as a restrained recall into decel!
Be sure to show a very clear and early decel. When you were a little late, you would get him hopping up trying to stop (1:24) or running past you because he wasn’t prepared to stop (3:56) or going a little wide (4:15 and the last rep).
But when you were pretty early and he had time to get coordinated? Beautiful collection! Good examples of the earlier timing were at 1:59, 3:15, 3:40 – you were early so he was nice and tight to you. Yay!!!
So even though he is little, use big dog timing to be earlier, starting the decel before he is halfway to you.
Great job!
TracyHi!
His prop commitment looks really strong, and I admit I miss seeing the box of wine though. Ha!
He was a good boy to ignore the student talking to you – he was great with the unplanned distraction.
The distance away from the prop is good, you don’t need to get further because he was getting unsure in the final step or two and sometimes turning the wrong way. So, stay a little closer for now and rather than add distance, try to drop your send arm sooner (before he arrives at the prop) so that he sees the beginning of countermotion without distance. We will work up to having a TON of distance but not quite yet.
Also, place yourself a little more off to the side so he has a clearer picture of which way to turn. When you were squarely behind him, he wasn’t always sure which way to turn so he sometimes defaulted to turning to his right. So you can be further off to the side towards the direction you want him to turn, especially when he starts on your right to make a left turn on the forward sends.
>>I tried sending him from me facing the other way. He was funny on this, he was like, this is strange.>>
Well, he is not wrong, it is strange LOL!! Did you show him any of the sideways sends? I think the video above this was all forward and this video is all backwards, so the sideways sending can help bridge the gap so he thinks it is less weird haha!!
He did really well though on the right turns at the beginning. The left turns in the 2nd half were definitely harder for him!! He is not quite as fluid or coordinated when he has to turn left – it even takes him a moment to get started on the left reps! No worries, it will all balance out and I think he turned correctly each time. SUPER!!! But definitely show him the left reps starting sideways so he can have fewer questions and more success (I swear, there was steam coming out of his ears). I think the right turns can also see a rep or two of sideways, then go back to the backwards for the right turns which are turning out to be his stronger side.
Great job!!
TracyHi!
I see what you mean about the toy versus food! He did it for food but he wasn’t that impressed with it. He was a wild man for the toy and the touches were definitely better!!
So two ideas for you for the next sessions:Put yourself in a low chair or on an inflatable peanut or something – so you aren’t standing but also not in a high chair (too high, too much bending) and not on the ground (too low for the next steps LOL!!).
And, sometimes you can do the session with just toys. But we can also build the excitement for food by making a loop out of it:
Tugging – target – cookie – throw toy. The toy sandwich will get the great targeting AND raise the value of food – double winner!!Great job! Let me know what ya think!
T
Hi!
All sorts of good stuff on your videos!
Blind cross:
>>I tried to keep the toy closer to me as suggested and in one of the sessions I used a longer toy. I don’t think I did as well as I should have but when she’s racing towards me and grabbing for the tug I’m more than a little afraid of her tripping me up. Did the best I could. Any other suggestions?
The long toy is definitely the winner! And, you can do the blind sooner which allows you to present the reward sooner. You were presented it as she was arriving at your leg, which might be why you were worried about her tripping you! You can start the blind when she is maybe halfway to you – and as soon as you finish the blind, dangle the toy at your side. That will give her a good focal point to drive too and she won’t curl in front or trip you 🙂
Decel:
>This is the decel and turn with moving a little more at first into a decel and hopefully with my hand lower as suggested.>>
I think this session looked great! You had a clear transition to decel, and to the pivot, nice low hand: she was perfect! He collected and was able to bend really well. Super!!!
Prop send – she did really well here too, I think you might actually have too much distance away from it (the behavior is still relatively new LOL!)
>>should I have rewarded her back at me if she was a foot or so away from the prop?>>
Yes, still reward back at you, and on the next rep, get closer so she is inside her ‘bubble’ of distance where she will still be correct 🙂 For now, you don’t need to add more distance, just add more of the sideways and backwards sends 🙂
>>I also tried the prop send with a slower ready dance to see how she did. Getting sends from side and back are definitely mroe difficult and will need to keep working on those.>>
She did really well with the calmer ready dance 🙂 And she drove to the prop really nicely! You are a little far from it here too for the beginning – towards the end, the last 2 reps (especially the last one, which was a backwards send) were closer and I think that is the perfect distance for now. It looks like the prop was maybe a foot or two pat your fingers, which is great for these sideways and backwards sends 🙂
She did well with the wing wrapping! Before doing the next session with the toys, take a look at the resilience game about markers that I posted today – adding a marker word to the toy will help her drive in even more to the toy after she wraps the wing. I think she was a bit uncertain about grabbing it especially with you sitting.
She also did well with you standing – she was not quick as perky about it, so the standing might be a distraction but also if this was the last session of the day, she was probably mentally fatigued. She can have a break from these for a day or two – they are repetitive and we don’t want her to think they are dull LOL!!! She has the concept, so now we can let latent learning work its magic while she sleeps 🙂
I love the Thanksgiving card! Hope you and the family have a great Thanksgiving 🙂 

Great job here!
TracyHi!
No big problems here LOL! I think the food is lower in value as compared to a toy or the ‘work’. So, use both food and a toy in this game: use food to reward her for sticking with you for the ready dance, and a toy to reward the sending. That should get rid of her asking to use the prop as a toy LOL!!! She was a really good girl, but just wanted to play rather than eat 🙂
>>I was thinking I could use a small board with rough finish, but that might be too much like what I would use for training running contacts (not sure I am doing that but you never know).
I don’t think a board would be good here, because the board is needed for other things. The hat allows us to sort out things like reinforcement and mechanics, which will make running contact training a lot easier. So, keep going with the hat and try using the different rewards. Let me know how she does!
TracyHi~
I think this is one of the videos I missed? This session went well!! You had one late rep but you caught it and the rest looked lovely! Having Brad hold her added a LOT of speed!
My only suggestion is that you can present the toy sooner: the blind and connection look great, and you can dangle the toy as soon as you finish the blind. You were waiting til she got to your leg, so she was curling into you because there was no place else to go 🙂 Getting the toy out at your side sooner will give her a really strong focal point.Great job!
TracyHi!
Good job with the goat tricks video! Nice tug break too – you were smart to move away from the board because it was hard to lift it, or to have her tug with the board leaning against you – that is a great way to hep her differentiate when you are tugging versus when you are shaping for treats.
For this board, the next step would be to raise it so that she can step up on it and put all 4 feet on it easily.
On the 2nd video – do you have a 2nd balance disc? You can put two of them together to give her a bigger playing field, in hopes of her getting all 4 feet on it. Right now she wants to pivot with front feet on, so it is good to balance that with tricks to get all 4 feet on stuff.
The wobble board was extra noisy and you can see she was not quite as sure about it. But, she worked through it and offered nicely! She did not like the sliding, so definitely brace it so she can have a more predictable surface.
On this one too, she is mainly offering front feet on and a little pivoting 🙂 So the next step is to get bigger things for her to get on or get in, so she can get her hind end in stuff too 🙂 

Great job!
TracyHi –
>> I am only mentioning this because you had commented on 2 of the 4 videos I posted yesterday and I wanted to make sure you had seen the other two – one was on ready dance to the prop and one was our second try with Blind crosses. If you just haven’t gotten to them, no problem and enjoy your Thanksgiving.>>
I didn’t see them, I can scroll up and see if I can find them.
>>3. Is it better for me to add all new videos etc. at the bottom of the page or is it better to reply to the critique of a specific video by hitting the reply that is with that critique (hope that makes sense)?>>
Definitely better to add it at the bottom. In the high volume classes like this one, it is easy for something to get lost if you add it up above but also put new videos below it. So, adding to the bottom is great 🙂
T
Hi!
Your tug noises are hilarious! I guess we are all silly like that 🙂She did great here with the new objects! You’ve clearly done a lot of good value building for getting on/in stuff and she is super at it!! So you can add a little more action: rather than feeding in position on the item, you can toss the treat off to the side. That way she will get on it, balance, then get off for the reward… then drive back to get on it and balance. You should brace anything that might move with your feet, so she can hop on stuff without it moving out from under her.
And great job with the quick tug breaks! Perfect!
Hope you have a good Thanksgiving!
Tracy
