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Good morning!
The indoor countermotion game looked great! My only suggestion it to be clearer that you are about to start by making eye contact and saying “ready” or something. She was sometimes still in play mode when you were beginning to send, so the start ofeach rep was not always smooooooth 🙂
And since she did well, you can add your wrap verbals and also move a little faster.>>I first attempted to do the start line work outside, but there was a pheasant moving around in the driveway and it had Caper very distracted.>>
Well, that is understandable!
>. but I did want to mention that I did the pattern game several times with her and that definitely brought her attention back to me and what was happening and not on the pheasant.>>
Super!!! So the session was still a ‘win’ even if you didn’t really work stays. You worked on attention with a BIG distraction!
The indoor stays looked good! Easy peasy. She seems to anticipate that when you stop and look at her, you are about to release… so you can be a little more variable about the release by sometimes doing it while walking or sometimes standing still.
You can also play this game with a toy – that will create more internal stimulation, which will make the stays more challenging! And you can take the game outdoors again – but rather than move directly to the stay, yo ucan start with the pattern game and see how she does in terms of focus with distractions, then ask for the stay game if she is able to ignore the distractions.
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
Looks like lots of games in new places! Yay!
The rear crosses to the left are starting to come along nicely. The rear crosses to the right are still really hard, with the success rate a lot lower. 2 ideas for you on that:
– definitely try the flatwork games from the stay that I posted above so you can specifically isolate that right turn without getting left turns first.
– also, use her name call a later – when she is heading to the cookie you tossed, you are already calling her name so she was hearing it strongly in her left ear… which can cause more left turning. So on the right turns in particular, call her name after you are on her right side (but do the stay game foundation work on this before trying again with the movement).Parallel path is going really well! And your best toy throw was on the last rep – nice and early, so she didn’t look at you at all. You can be moving more on this game, so she is finding the line while you are in motion rather than from a stay. She was driving ahead of you here, so you can be further ahead of her to see if she can find it from behind you as well (without just chasing you).
Tunnel threadle: she is definitely loving the tunnel! Yay! On these, you handled the threadle side by facing her like a lap turn. It mostly worked (more on that below) but since we don’t want to build foot rotation into the threadle cue, the next step is to get her to do the tunnel threadle with you facing forward (feet not turned to her but instead you are moving forward on the same line of motion you would be if she was going into the non-threadle tunnel entry). Have her between you and the tunnel (closer to the entry you want) with you both facing the same direction, to help her learn to find the threadle entry without you facing her or handling it with hand or foot cues.
When you were facing her but neither of you were closer to the threadle end (like at :46 and :58) she did had a legit question about which side you wanted. You had shoulder pressure to the entry she took, plus facing it strongly and without a clear arm cue to come into you. So to handle it by facing her, give her a really strong lap turn arm to help her know to come to you. And, also practice it without the foot rotation so she begins to understand how to threadle past the obvious tunnel entry (although it might take a few sessions to get her to be facing the obvious entry but NOT take it).
Get out: She really thought it was the parallel path game based on the setup! Resist the temptation to put this on a jump yet – I have a concept transfer coming to help add it to a jump but in this session, but it was more like the parallel path game here because your feet were turning to the jump when you cued the out and even when you were calling her past it (your videographer was correct to note how you were cuing the jump unintentionally). So she took it on a relatively straight line… but then was confused when you didn’t want her to take it. We don’t want hre to bypass jumps that look like they are on her line so for now, leave this game on the prop and I promise we will get it transferred to the jump soon 🙂
Nice work on these! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
This is part 2 of the rocking horses , with lots more distance.
The first rep was a matter of sorting out mechanics so he was looking at you a little bit but then you nailed it at :27 and he saw you accelerate, decelerate, then rotate to send him to the cone. You had a perfect connection shift there – letting him see your eyes move from his eyes to the ‘landing spot’ past the cone. That is why he drove to the cone so nicely!
So definitely keep playing this rocking horse game 🙂 And have you thought about what you want your wrap verbals to be? I think you can start adding them now.
And since he is a big dude, you can also go to something taller to wrap around like a laundry basket to garbage pail 🙂
Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
TracyThis is strike a pose – looks great! On the first couple of reps, he wanted to leave the stay when you arrive in position and re-connect so try to walk to position as if you are serping the jump, staying connected. He settled into the stay nicely after that, so he probably needs the extra connection when he is most pumped up.
Good job looking at the target after the release, that helped him. He did a great job coming in to hit the target even with the toy visible in your had – good boy!!!
The next step here is to have the reward on the floor to get the in-and-out action even smooth. It can be the toy if you think he will successfully resist it 🙂 or you can start with an empty food bowl or manners minder to help him maintain his great serping even with the reward on the floor.
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
He is doing really well with his cone wraps here!! The hardest part is ignoring the big toy LOL but he did that too. Make sure to have a longer moment of connection after the wrap, o he is 100% sure which side to be on. On the 2nd rep, you looked forward really fast and he almost ended up behind you. That extra moment of eye contact will smooth that out so he knows exactly where to be.Nice work! I see more of this below 🙂
Tracy
Yay! Thank you for the stay update! And the tunnel work sounds lime it was fun and he did great!!!
Looking forward to seeing you this weekend!!
TracyGood morning! Happy New Year!
Looking at the cone wrapping videos:
She is doing well on all of these! And committing really well!
Small details to add for the next session:Let her finish chewing before you give the next cue 🙂 She was a little slower to get moving when she was still chewing 🙂
You had cookies in your hands on the 3rd video, and she was fine with that – you can leave them in the same hand rather than switch from hand-to-hand and that will help her focus even more on the cones.
I couldn’t see your connection but she seemed to know exactly where to be, so keep up the good connection!
She is ready for more distance between the cones, to add a little more speed 🙂 I think you can think of it in her body lengths between cones You can go to two body lengths between the cones and if she is happy with that, you can go to 3 body lengths. And if you have taller things to wrap, like laundry baskets or garbage cans – she is ready to see that too.
Have you thought about which verbal directionals for wraps you want to use? Common ones are things like “dig dig dig’ or ‘check check check’. She is ready for her verbals directionals to be added!
Get out also looks good! She has really good value for the prop and seemed to have no questions.
This first part if definitely awkward when we are standing still, so you can totally add motion now – adding motion will keep your feet straight, so your motion is on a parallel line without stepping towards the prop (and your eyes, outside arm, and verbal deliver the cue :))Placing a line on the ground (like a leash) will help you keep moving forward straight without migrating towards the prop. It will feel weird – you are basically walking straight forward and upper body sends her to the prop.
The stay session was definitely stimulating for her – the toy makes it spicy for sure! She had some trouble with the stay position while the toy was involved and her arousal came up, so two ideas for you:
– after you get the toy back, give her one more heartbeat to settle into the stay before you move away.
– release her from the stay then move the toy (ideally after she moves), so she doesn’t pair toy movement with the release (I think the toy movement is what she was locking onto here, so got frustrated when the toy was moving but she was not supposed to move).And since the toy is so stimulating, you can bridge the gap using food: start with a little toy play, then play this game with food rewards and the toy in your pocket, to bring in a little more arousal but also help her understand how to stay when she is stimulated. Then over time we can fade the food and she will still be able to hold position even when really stimulated.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning and welcome to 2023! He did a super job with the remote reinforcement games here!
The “let’s go” is a new marker for him, but he was keen to do whatever the momma wanted without looking back at the cookies on all 3 of these videos 🙂 Boy Border Collies just love to do ‘the thing’ with Da Momma <3
I am glad you went to the toy in video 3, I was going to suggest it 🙂 He likes the cookies just fine, but the toy certainly made things spicy! He was still great at it: he definitely knew the toy was there, and was interested in the toy... but remained fully engaged with you. He only had trouble at the very end, possibly because the session was too long (if all 3 videos were done right after each other) but also I think he was anticipating being sent to the toy when you moved that way: you were trying to cue a spin, but he had just done a couple of tricks and seemed to think the hand cue was part of the 'let's go'. So when the toy is the reward, you can do one or two things for now (because it is harder to have the toy there than it was to have cookies) and more gradually build up the number of tricks before you add the 'let's go' to the toy.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyI am going to figure out a way to do the puppy class for real live on Thursday, I will bring a couple of devices and tripods – it will be a FIRST if we can pull it off!!
And bummer that Annalise has to go to school, gets in the way of the fun 🙂
See you soon!
TracyGood morning and happy New Year!
>>doesn’t he have the cutest sit? His down is similar. He will kinda lift up both front feet and then plop into a down, which is just so cute. I would like a fold-back down but how can I resist such a cutie?>>
SO CUTE!!! Much cuter than a fold back down LOL!
>> I’m a weirdo retired person who prefers to meet during the week. Darn people with jobs, they get in the way. 😀>>
HA! Don’t they know we have puppies to train? LOL!
>> Since I’m crappy at training loose leash walking, I strap the harness on my little dogs and go. He pulls me all the way in. 🙂 I figure we’ll learn to walk nicely one of these days so I can get him a CGC.>>
Loose leash walking is not my favorite thing to train either LOL!!! I am just happy if the dogs aren’t choking themselves and aren’t pulling my arm out 🙂
>>I was trying to see if he’d take even a step towards me, which he did only once. Then he got bored of the toy. Afterwards I pulled out one of my own real fur toys, but the phone was set the wrong direction so I got 2 minutes of baby gate video. hahah gotta love that. Anyway he seems to just want to play with and tear up the real fur himself, so instead of interacting with me more, that causes him to play on his own more. What should I do? >>
He tugged on your legs really nicely! And nice job marking the moment of turning towards you with it (2 moments, actually!)
Since we want the retrieve to be fun play, there are a couple of things to try:
– you can definitely keep the sessions to 30 seconds or less, or switch toys more frequently (probably not the fur toy for retrieving yet, if he will just shred it)
– you can enucrage him to bring it back to you with a bit of silliness, sich as hiding your head under your hands on the ground, making silly noises, and tapping another toy.
– if you have enough room in the hallway, you can drop the toy the run the other way and clap and be silly, and see if that helps him turn towards you with it.The goal is to keep it part of a fun game at this stage, then we can shape it towards the full retrieve 🙂
You can also clicker train picking stuff up and putting it in your hand, like a ball or a sock or something LOL!
Stays – let him settle more in the sit or down – no feet moving (he had his front feet up in the air and moving a lot in the sits). Bigger dogs are slowing in their movements so we can get away with just watching their butts 🙂 But with the littles, we have to watch their front feet too otherwise they can move them at the speed of light!
So, let him settle into a position, any position, wait til all feet stop moving, then smile, breathe, maybe say a quiet goooooooood… then click and toss the reward to him.
You can also start adding a bit of moving away as you do this: while he is settling into a position, you can ever-so-slowly be stepping away, then reward when he has settled for a couple of seconds 🙂
I love that you got the tunnel thawed out to play in the house!
>. And I think I was using the MM more as a lure than a reward, but I figured that was okay for his first time. >>
PERFECT approach to getting started. Nothing wrong with a good lure to jump start the behavior, especially since he has to move away from you and the tunnel blocks his view of you. As the Manners Minder grows in value, this will be even easier. He was learning the tunnel and the MM here, and I think he did really well! The session ended up with him have a great time going back and forth through the tunnel, what a great intro to the obstacle!!
For the next session, start like you ended here to see what he thinks of it all. Then if he needs to repeat this session, great! Or if he remembers it completely, you can go to the next step of holding his collar before sending him through, so you can add the tunnel verbal 🙂 That is the gateway to the more advanced games.
Great job on all of these! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! Happy New Year!
>> I haven’t been recording them, but I will. I have been playing it when we go to trials or any new environment and it really helps her have something familiar to do.
They can be challenging to video, because you need 3 hands or another person LOL!!! Each puppy needs their own reality-TV film crew!
>> We went to the Invitational in Orlando as a cheer-squad and she had an unusual day where she seemed afraid of a large dog off in the distance. I moved her away & we went back inside but, later, I took her back outside to the same area (dog was gone) and played that game and she relaxed.
Great! That environment is probably REALLY challenging, and she is an adolescent, so yes it makes sense she might have had a concern. Getting her out of there in the moment was smart! If you have cookies with you, you can also acknowledge her concern about the big dog in the distance and try the pattern game. That is a great framework for helping the pups!
>>I’ll start on the Part 3. I’m going to teach Frankie these games too – I think they will really help her with her fearfulness <3>>
TOTALLY yes!!! These games were originally designed for dogs that had worries or fear, and then we adapted them for puppies as a bit of a preventative 🙂 I am sure Frankie will learn them really quickly.
The stays are looking good! She is hilarious, backing up into the stay on those first couple of reps. Ha! It indicates that she realizes the reward is coming “back there” and it is pointless to move towards you as you move away LOL!
Remember to step away before you click like you did later in the video (you started by clicming then stepping away). That was great, you had good duration and distance added! And great job to you for clicking and THEN moving your hand to toss the treat, rather than doing it all at once. Your mechanics were very clean and clear 🙂
>>I let her offer a sit at first and then after a while, I asked her to sit.
Asking her to sit was the correct next step – she was offering the down, which was fine, but to isolate things to the sit was great and she seemed to have no question 🙂
>> I have a question on how to introduce the “Break”. This is a new verbal for her. I want to use “break” because my “ok” is sloppy – hahaha. I say it way too much!
TOTALLY relatable, I say “ok” and “yes” every 5 seconds LOL!
>>Do I just add the “break” cue at the end of the “Catch” sequence & run with her? Or should I also add the “get it” along with the “break”?>>
Use the break separately from the catch. For example, you can do what you did here: cue the sit, step away, click, ‘catch’, toss the treat back to her.
Or, you can cue the sit, step away, say “break!” then encourage her to move forward to you. Since she doesn’t know what ‘break’ means, you would say it then you can tap the ground or wiggle a reward to help encourage her. I teach the ‘break’ release with the tugging version of this game: tug tug tug, cue a sit, then when she sits, I say “break!” and tug tug tug more 🙂
After she sees the break game a bit, it is perfectly fine to do both in the same session because it is a fun way to help the pups discriminate between the words. Sometimes you move away and click then catch (toss a reward back), and sometimes you move away and say ‘break’ and she drives forward to you. I do both with a toy (tossing the toy back too) or both with a cookie, or even mix it all up (toys and treats) in the same session.
Rocking horses:
The first part (the warm up) with cookies looked great, very clear mechanics and lovely commitment!
The distance added on the next part was pretty significant for such a little dog (lots more strides for her :)) so when you add more distance, you can mirror the warm up where you reward each one to help get her moving away even more. Once she got the idea, she did GREAT!!At this stage, we can use the rocking horse game to clarify the verbals for her, because I think that will answer the questions she had.
The first thing you can do is add the wrap directionals as you send her to the barrel. When you are pointing forward, she is ready for them, and that will help when you add the sideways and backwards sends. And when you do add those, be sure to shift your connection from her eyes, to the barrel (letting her see the shift). When you did the backwards send, you had a GREAT connection shift and she was perfect! The sideways sends didn’t have quite as much of a clear connection shift, so she had a few questions including pummeling the barrel LOL!
And, you can clarify your reward markers 🙂 Instead of a ‘yes’ or quietly presenting the reward, add a marker that specifically tells her to come get it from your hand (like “bite” or something :)) This will really help her sort out when she should look for the toy, and when she should ignore it. For example, at 1:41 and 1:45 the toy was in your dog-side hand and you wanted her to get it, so you moved it forward and she chased it. Then the toy presentation looked similar to 1:48 (toy was higher, but same hand, similar motion) so she totally thought it was available and jumped up for it. Adding the marker for “now you can have the toy” will clarify things so that she will quickly sort out to NOT look for the toy til she hears the magic word, even when it is in your hand and in front of her.
One more thing to add here are longer connection moments before the send to the next barrel. At 1:47 and 1:57 where she jumped up – she was behind you and you were already pointing forward, which broke the connection so she didn’t know where to be and got frustrated. You can hold that “hallmark moment” of connection til she is just about getting to you, then send her past you.
One thing that will help that is if you keep your dog-side hand pointing to her nose the whole time, so it is moving forward as she is passing you but not too early. Here is a better explanation of what I mean LOL!
The turn and burns at the end looked great! Yay! You can definitely add the toy marker to these 🙂
Rear crosses:
The left turn rear crosses looked great! On all of those, you were already on the ‘new’ side before she had to make a turn decision, so she turned to her left really well.
When you switched to the right turn rear crosses, you were late getting to the new side from :30 – :55 – she could still see you on her left side, so that is where she turned (especially after all of the other left turns).At :57 you got into her line of sight on the right side on time so she turned right: happy dance!!! And same for the next few reps – nice!!! You were a little late at 1:17 and 1:24 so she turned left but you nailed the timing at 1:26 so she turned right. Those last couple of reps are great for showing the difference in the timing: if she is making the decision about which way to turn (just as she arrives at the treat and she can see you on her left… she will turn left. If she can see you on her right? right turn! Yay!
And, it is possible that Bostons have a slightly smaller range of peripheral vision because of head shape, than a sighthound would, for example. My Staffy/Rat Terrier mix has slightly less peripheral vision than my whippet (which makes sense based on what their breed functions are LOL!) so it took her a bit longer to sort out the rear crosses as a puppy because I had to be more visible to her. I used this game to help her an it might be something Bazinga likes too:
The backing up looks great! I love that you have a “reset” marker! And you’ve added the beep beep cue which is perfect 🙂 She did a great job here!!! You can start to see if she will back up to something that moves a little – maybe a really deflated disc or super low wobble board. Having the deflated disc or low wobble board is needed because she is so small and we don’t want her to have to lift her hind legs up super high 🙂
>There was less bow-ing (as sad as that is really because it is so cute)>>
That is the only downside to this!! But I bet you could easily shape it now and put it on cue, since she has figured out the backing up so nicely!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Sorry to hear about all the snow – ewwww!!!>.We got hammered with snow and I am trying to think of something fun I can work on with her tomorrow in all the white fluff. I will think of something.>
If you have room for wrapping a laundry basket or barrel, you can try countermotion where you send her to it with you backwards, and you walk slowly forward with the toy dangling from your hand. Then if she wraps it, you can mark with the ‘bite’ marker then play. You don’t need much room for this, because you are only walking – you only need enough room for her to wrap something 🙂
Stay warm!
TracyHi!
Great job to Prytania and Annalise here!Ideally, the get out cue would come sooner (as Amy mentioned on the last rep) but it was hard to predict when Prytty would finish finding the treat LOL!!!! But, she read the cue beautifully and that is great 🙂 The next step can be to add more distance between Annalise and the prop, so Prytania moves even further away. I like to put a leash on the ground for us humans, so we can add distance without accidentally migrating over to the prop haha
The hand cue for the prop game is fine but as you add more distance, you will want ot keep your hand up until she reaches the prop (I like to point my outside arm at the prop, which eventually turns into a jump or tunnel).
Great job here! Do I get to see you all in Mississippi this weekend?
Tracy
Happy New Year! Sorry that I missed seeing this get switched to unlisted!
She is doing well with hitting the mat here. You can ditch the clicker if you like in favor of the ‘get it’ marker. She was watching your hands, which might partially be because of the clicking, but also you were moving your hands a lot as she was going back and forth. The main thing here is to be perfectly stationary for now, and have cookies in both hands – then say get it and flick a wrist as you toss the treat 🙂 You can stand up too, that will help her not be as locked into your hands 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
