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Good morning! I hope Casper had a great birthday and the rest of the family had a lovely Christmas!
MASSIVE PROGRESS on the retrieve! Yes, his toy races look amazing but the retrieving was the real stand out of that session. Even on the very first toy race, note how his first impulse was to turn back to you (he did take that toy on a short run but the other retrieves had shorter and shorter runs, looking like real grown up retrieves! So mainly the toy races can be a fun framework for retrieve games at this point 🙂
The any toy any time game was great too – partially because we could see what appears to be a true motivator/reward, and what definitely is not LOL! That ring toy is a definite win for him. As you saw, the sock monkey toy that was a big NO. He knew it was there, but something about it (texture?) was something he wanted to avoid. He knew it was there when you asked him to get it (looked at it) but definitely did not want to touch it. Good to know! The smaller toy was somewhat fun but in the face of the other 2 toys, not as interesting. Good to know! And retrieve in the game being weaker than in toy races makes sense, because there isn’t as much action as compared to toy races, so he might be created some of his own action or perhaps the retrieve doesn’t predict more action like toy races. Either way, no worries, the retrieve is progressing nicely so it is fine to not worry about it in this context.
The lower hierarchy toy will come up in value with a little more use. And the icky sock monkey toy is good for shaping a retrieve so it is a behavior when that toy is involved, and the toy is not a motivator or reinforcement (just an object to pick up).About the hand grabbing when playing with toys… longer, bigger toys can sometimes help (like tying the rubber ring to a longer toy) but sometimes the pups just need to learn to NOT grab out flesh. I have found a specific marker to give permission to grab a toy in my hands helps a LOT: when I added the “bite” marker (as in, bite the toy in my hand), the dogs are all so much better about not grabbing flesh. I also did some videos a while back about teaching dogs not to bite our hands during tugging:
Part 1
Part 2
Have fun!
TracyHi!
>> While I envy Susan Garrett, Ann Braue and others who can train one dog while another one waits patiently, I do not envy the amount of time and attention to detail that this training requires.
Totally relatable LOL!!!! And I also teach all of my dogs to bark on cue, which contributes to the sound effects when they offer it gladly 🙂
And hey, if memory serves: Happy birthday to Casper, tomorrow! Christmas puppy!!
Looking at the video – his target sending was really good especially in the face of a high level of distraction! He either hit it perfectly, or hit it really well, and had a couple of “almost hit it” mixed in there. The almost-hit moments were close enough to hitting it (in that distraction level) that they were rewardable for now and also in his adolescent brain that was processing a lot: it is entirely possible that he though he hit it LOL!!!
I think the weaker link was the motivator/reinforcement. He drove to the target on both the sending and parallel path, but the click didn’t drive him back to you on the sends, for example – possibly because he knew that the available reinforcement was food and that was lower value in terms a of handling the Enzo-distraction (Enzo was not that loud at all, really!). So in this situation, try a toy, even for the games that initially start with cookies. The toy will change his arousal state and probably help him ignore the Enzo distraction in favor of the training. You won’t get as many reps because toys take longer to use, but the quality of reps will be terrific.
He sometimes ended up on the wrong side of you on the reinforcement after the backwards sending, for example, so a little more connection will help there too.
For the rear crosses: it is probably the hardest skill we are showing the puppies to this point, so try it again after you have another barn session on the parallel path where he drives ahead of you to get it. Then you can add in the RC: cut in behind him ridiculously early to get into his line of vision on the new side, and reward if he turns the correct direction (and even if he doesn’t hit the prop). The trick is to get into the pup’s line of vision on the new side when he is still 2 steps away from his hat – that often produces the rear cross. I say “often” because sometimes the pups don’t even know that such a thing as a rear cross can even exist! So we can try the cookie toss game, or I have one other game up my sleeve for it 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think, and have a great Christmas!!
Tracy
Omg! What a great photo of the one and only Patt ❤️
>>I am finding that it is a challenge to find training time but the bigger challenge is getting my videos ready>>
I totally relate!!!! Especially at this time of year, with multiple dogs, more than one sport, when life is busy and there are significant weather challenges.
I like to prioritize – top one is carve out time with the puppy, without or without official class work 🙂
And I will watch/edit/ppst any videos that had trouble spots. The others can go into the feel-good pile – and those can get edited/posted for those times we just need to show off our puppies strutting their brilliant selves 🙂
Have a great holiday!!!
TracyHi! Hope you are enjoying a great weekend with the family!
For the zig zags – having the PT further definitely helped. I think the initial question was also motion based – you are relatively stationary between the 2 jumps on the release on the 1st rep, so he said “collection!” then after that, he was like “oh yeah, on this one, we bounce”. So to get that very first rep in a situation where you can’t be running the whole time, try leading out as far past 2 as possible and see if that helps.
The fading looked great! He was nice and powerful, and organized 🙂 You can add more motion to this, and then a higher bar… and then bye bye to the plank 🙂
On the 2nd video:
>>He sits as soon as I say it so when I delayed the cue he started sitting closer to the bar. >
Boy dogs LOL!! I love them: “MOM I SIT RIGHT NOW BECAUSE YOU SAID SIT RIGHT NOW”. Girl dogs sometimes just ignore us and do what they think is correct LOL!
Also, it shows how well he is recognizing the setup and processing the cue. We used to have to be super early because the dogs all needed the processing time. But with the plank there, he no longer needs the processing time and sits instantly.
By contrast, without the plank – processing time DEFINITELY needed LOL!! I saw some “WTH” and “Wait, what??” thought bubbles happening and that resulted in a little bit of a delayed response (fascinating to see the difference in response time with the plank and without the plank). You did a great job of being patient to let him sit! On the reps at :54 you were a shade too quick to turn after the release, but the rest were great. My guess is that when you get back and try it again, he will be quicker to get the sit (latent learning) and then you can fade the sit too.
Great job! Have a wonderful (and not-too-cold) holiday weekend!
TracyGood morning!
Get out:
>>Does the off side arm work to send the dog away even if it is a long ways a way or would you use something else?>>Yes! It is a really visible cue and works well at a distance too. But when the dog has to go a LONG way away, it will be the verbals that do all of the heavy lifting for you 🙂 as well as the trained understanding to stay on the line. The parallel path game is a really important piece.
The get out with you stationary looks fine and dandy so I am glad you added in the motion. And now that you know that you can consistently produce the behavior… adding the verbal was correct! She did super with it and you were also getting a lot better about using your thrown cookie marker. Super!!!! And the balance reps were no problem at all for her. When you have more space, you can add more distance to this.
The rocking horse game looks great too! I think at :06 you wanted her to stop and eat the cookie in your hand, but she continued to the barrel. What happened there was that as she exited the first barrel, she saw motion to the 2nd barrel and did not get a clear indication to come eat the cookie (the cookie-in-hand marker would do it, along with a more more obvious presentation). So…. good for her! We do want her to ignore food & toys in your hands and look at the lines instead 🙂 so you were correct to reward her then get more obvious with the next reps. What is your “reward in hand” marker? Definitely add that in at this stage.
She had a little trouble on the right turns when you sent a shade too early. She did better when you send her to right turns a little later. It sounds strange, but she needed to get almost all the way to you before sending her to do a right turn on the barrel next to the pole – that will get easier as she gets more experienced, and she was already improving in this session! She did NOT need you to be later on the left turn wraps, those were smooth like a fresh jar of Skippy 🙂
And SUPER well done to you, adding in the verbals and the mechanics of the sideways sending – that is some seriously challenging stuff and you made it look easy! Woohoo! My only suggestion is to do it with empty hands: you were switching your cookies back and forth between hands, which delayed the cues and was causing her to look at you (because cookies were moving and nothing else was happening). The rewards on this game don’t need to be ultra precise, so empty hands are fine then you can pull out a toy or treats from a pocket.
She definitely liked the action!!! So you can add a little more distance between your barrels 🙂
Strike a Pose – She had no trouble coming in over the bar from any angle here. She also appear to think the reinforcement was dullsville when you were using the cookies – the toy was more fun for sure, especially when it was on the ground! Wheeee!
Also remember that we are fading the target touching so if she comes in and goes out without hitting the target? Reward! That is closer to the eventual end behavior. When she did that at 1:26, she was not cheating 🙂 2 things happened:
You didn’t look at the target til she was already over the jump, and your position was too far from the jump so she didn’t realy have to turn. More about position:I think you are a shade to far from the jump on these which is why we didn’t really see the turns happening: she was able to fit her whole body straight on the landing side. At :15 you fully extended your arm and couldn’t really put your hand on it. Your position should be close enough to put your palm on it with a slightly bent elbow – that will cue more turning for her and you will see her begin her turn before arriving at the jump so she “lands” pretty much turned.
This is also dramatically harder for our herding dogs LOL! A terrier is going to drive right in and hit you but a BC is going to want to move away from the pressure. So since we know that she doesn’t already love driving in with you are stationary with cookies, start this with the toy in your reward hand rather than treats. She will like that 🙂 And then you can do the toy on the ground again – when you are closer to the jump and the toy is on the ground, any behavior where she comes over the bar and turns to put herself between you and the jump is rewardable, even if the target hit is not perfect, because we are fading it out anyway. Two behaviors she offer are going around the jump to the toy, or going over the jump and behind you to the toy 🙂 You can use a reset reward on this – either a cookie as you bring her back to the start position, or a gentle short tug is she has the toy then a cookie to the start position. A BIG tug party should erupt when she gets it right.
Great job on these!! Let me know what you think. I hope you, Brad, and the dogs all have a fabulous holiday weekend!
TracyHi! Hope it isn’t too cold! Is brutal here but at least the wind has died down.
>> Tried the wing wrap with send to toy. I should have let her have a romp around before we started anything. She grabbed the toy when I set it down for the exercise and spent a lot of time having a party running around the field. Usually she comes back for a game of tug but didn’t do that today. >>
She might need more deliberate decompression built into her days, where all you do is send her to run around with a toy, and zero training. It is a good thing for an adolescent brain.
And sometimes, the youngster “just can’t” that day, and the scientist/vet types tell us this normal and the best plan of action is to stop trying, and try something else or come back later or the next day. It is a relief to know it, and less frustrating for all involved.
>>I was trying to use the more visible toy for her to “go” to and that one was hard to resist vs. the smaller toy in my hand. We worked a few turns around the barrel with “go” to the toy and I decided best to stop there because I was starting to feel a bit frustrated with the run offs.
Yes, it was too hard for that moment for whatever reason, so stopping was best. With my teenagers, if they are unable to engage from the start, then I just abandon plans and do something else.
>She also flipped herself over grabbing the toy once so I think she was overstimulated and probably should have done something less exciting first like the parallel path or rear cross. I suspect I still haven’t found the right balance of which 2 toys to use, or toys & food (was using 2 toys today) and need lots more work on the retrieve. >>
Or… it is not a training issue, not operant at all, and just how her brain is developing at the moment. The more I learn about operant conditioning, the more I understand that it is a tiny piece of the bigger puzzle.
It is also possible that you are asking for too much in one day for a teenager 🙂 if she did all of these, plus obedience earlier, and does stuff like that daily…that’s a LOT. I find that baby puppies and adults are fine with that, but adolescents do best with one or maybe two things a day because less is definitely more on their brains 🙂 I can actually do more with baby Ramen (just turned 5 months) than I can do with adolescent Elektra, but I expect that to change as Elektra gets into adulthood and Ramen hits adolescence in a couple of months. Elektra gets more decompression built in and fewer working sessions.
Add in the change in temperature – it is COLD there, which her brain has to process and that’s is a new sensation for her!
>> You’ll also see in the video where she stopped and got distracted by a car turning into a driveway down the street in our neighborhood. I am wondering if teenage sensitivity is in full force kicking in now? She never used to notice things like this and even ran to the fence and barked at someone walking past our house twice this week. Always before she just looked and stuck with me. She seems to be noticing things including noises more than she did before. I could use some advice on what to do in these situations. I know from experience terriers can get hypersensitive about things and hope I can avoid that if at all possible. >>
It is highly likely to be adolescence: the neuroscientists tell us that in adolescence, the dogs become more sensitive to noises and stuff like that, less receptive to reinforcement, more receptive to punishment (but not in a good way) and it takes them twice as long to ‘return to baseline’ in terms of stress hormones than baby pups or adult dogs. So the things you see are all in line with this. That is why we ramp up our resilience games and dial back the more intense training for a while. So you can take her out to the yard/fence line and do your cookie pattern resilience game, and decompression games, and also do those resilience walks so she can watch the world from her newly adolescent brain perspective 🙂
These are to help give her the tools to bounce back from the startle of a car going past, or someone walking by. I also give the adolescents a little less freedom in situations where they might have trouble – like being alone in the yard, or around other dogs that don’t provide social support in a positive way.
Looking at the videos:
Turn and burn is looking good! She is committing beautifully and driving ahead beautifully. And I see what you mean about twisting to get the toy – eek! So you have a bigger toy, like a jolly ball? Something bigger/taller will help her decel more. If not, try it with a food bowl or Manners Minder, and no more toy so she doesn’t pretzel herself while driving ahead.
The rocking horses are looking good, her commitment is lovely!! She did a great job ignoring the toys and treats in your hands. Yay! Once you get into 2 in a row, keep it to 2 or maybe 3 in a row then a turn and burn to exit the setup and reward, otherwise it gets too repetitive (you had 6 in a row which is a bit too many.) You can add challenge in the advanced level with different motion 😀
Strike a pose:
The portion with food went well – she was a bit far from the jump but your position and the stimulation level got her to drive in and set up the turn really nicely.
Your position was slightly better on the left turns at the beginning and a little too centered on the bar for the right turns, so she didn’t turn quite as well. Being one step further towards the wing so your Serp hand is not centered on the bar will help.After the 2 minute mark, you went to toys and didn’t reward the first rep (she broke the stay, from what I could tell, but I think you withheld the reward because the hand touch was not strong). Bear in mind that we are training in approximations, so when one variable increases we can dial back criteria expectations on other variables. Plus, this game does fade the hand targeting as the pups predict reward placement: we want them to start to come in over the bar, slide past the hand (not touching it) and head to the next line (where reward is… so she was 100% correct to do that LOL! Having her go back to hit the target is not needed at this point – if she begins to side swipe it as she creates the serp chain, perfect! Reward that 🙂
>> but when I tried using a toy she kept doing drive by’s past my target hand. Can you give me some advice on how to work through that?>>
So basically, go with it as long as she comes over the bar, because it is the correct next step. If she does NOT come over the bar, then you can moves your hand to get her to look at it more.
The wobble board video was really interesting! She was perfectly happy to get on the board and move around on it – you can use a low hand for her to follow when you have her turn or change positions, to keep her head lower for better balance and weight shift (chin at spine level is probably the best head position for her). Her tugging is what was interesting! Instead of tugging, it was more like thrashing… which is more of a decompression behavior and less of a play behavior. I generally see her playing and not doing the prolonged thrashing. This can lend support for building in more decompression moments before, during, and after the training so she can sort things out better during training.
Great job on these! Let me know what you think! And have a great holiday weekend!
TracyGood morning!
I’m glad she is zipping around her barrels! She seems to train like a sighthound: perhaps the first session isn’t perfect as we humans sort out mechanics, then BOOM! She has it and she is fast. So fun!For the mechanics on these crazy games, try doing it at a walk or ask one of the older dogs to play if they know how to go around barrels. I think the baby dog handling games are harder than real courses sometimes, because everything happens so darned fast and we have to be pretty perfect for the baby dogs 🙂
Have fun! And have a great holiday weekend!
TracyGood morning!
Yes, I think you’re right that the steroid is making her extra hungry. The toy drive will be back when the steroid is gone 🙂
The parallel path looks strong. She is nailing the concept of driving to the prop on that parallel line, from ahead of you or parallel to you or a little behind you. For the next steps:
We will get her looking at you a little less. She’s only looking at you after she arrives at the prop, so a timing change will help: Switch from the clicker to a “get it” marker. Instead of marking the hit of the prop, we are going to fade that and mark her intent to go to it. So when she is on the way to it, a stride or two away, say “get it” and toss the treat ahead so it lands before she looks back.
She might not hit the prop but that is fine because it sets us up for the next thing:Try out the concept transfer for this game, where we take the concept to a jump. Yay!
Rear crosses to the left were working pretty well, and also she was HILARIOUS at 1:38 when she got to the prop and just stared at it: “I’m not sure which way to turn yet, so I’m just gonna stare at it” LOL! Brilliant!
The reason the left turn RC worked was your timing: you were in her left side and appearing in her line of sight. The right turns are harder because she isn’t a righty, so getting into her line of sight as early as possible will help. I think that alternate RC game will help because it makes it harder to run left and easier to turn right (theoretically, because RCs are HARD!)Turn and Burn looks amazing! The left turns were just about perfect. The right turns required more patience – it looks like her current commitment on the right turns is that you can start to move when she is halfway around. Any earlier pills her off the barrel for now, but that is fine because you can keep expanding her commitment inch by inch.
I think she is ready for the rocking horse game we posted on Wednesday! That will help balance the left and right turns, as long as you are patient on the right turns as you start.
Great job here! Hope you have a wonderful holiday weekend!
TracyHi! I think overall your mechanics are going really well! I have a couple of suggestions but overall things are going well.
Ladder:
She is doing really well with the ladder! Try to keep her moving slowly and have your hand nice and low – on the rep at :32ish, you had a low reward and a hand in front of her, so she was straight, accurate, and didn’t look up. Yay! When she was moving faster (sometimes when she was behind you, or when she was not sure of where to look) her feet would click the ladder or fall out of the ladder, or she would look at you. So you can drop the reward in the ladder itself, that will help her move more methodically and look straighter.Handling combo!
Nice toy release at the beginning! As she got more stimulated, she got more leapy for the toy – so you can leave the toy low and still as she releases it, and toss a treat on the ground as a reward. The higher the toy, the more she leaps, so definitely keep the toy low as she works through the impulse control and arousal.And nice wrap of the stool, she has good value for these!! And your handling is looking good 🙂
The FC to BC looked good! Nice connection and rotation! As you add the decel and pivot:To make the pivot more smooth, do the blind and decelerate immediately (not time to keep running forward :)) Keeping your hands in tight to your sides will really help too, because you can be super quick with the blinds when you have your arms in tight. But overall, looking great!
Rocking horses: Also going well!!!
The toy is really big and she really likes it, but it gets in the way 🙂 so you might want to stuff it into the pocket of your hoodie as you do the handling. It is not a precision reward in terms of timing or placement, so you don’t need to have it immediately available. One other thing that will help is more room between the stools: give yourself another foot or two (or three) between the stools because she is really long.
Overall, the handling and connection looked great. There was one blooper of no connection (1:04) but you kept going and had an adjusted to great connection again at 1:08. Yay!
Remember to use your leg on the send: arm and leg move to the stool, and let her offer. Don’t help her with your arm to draw her around the stool 🙂
Nice turn and burn with the toy at the end!Lap and tandem turns:
She had a little trouble getting into the toy at first, but the dragging of the toy for her to chase really helps.Tandem turns at the beginning looked good – putting the toy in your pocket will help because otherwise you can’t use your arm fully 🙂
You were doing the tandems with one hand which is fine, but if it felt weird, you might want to try using both hands so you can turn her more easily. One other detail of the mechanics is to decelerate as she is heading towards you on the tandem turn, so she is prepared to turn.On the lap turns… these might have felt awkward because you were too early 🙂 You were doing the arm and leg movement while she was still several feet from you, which is why it was hard for her to get close and make the turn, and it was why your arm ended up high. Hold the position (feet together, arm extended towards her at her nose level) until she is literally about 2 inches from your hand… then you can step back and draw your hand back to pull her through the turn. That should feel much smoother!
Strike a pose: this looks great! It might feel weird because there is no motion, but it went well! You can have your reward hand hanging at your side in a more natural position, you were holding it tight and that might have felt weird too 🙂
One mechanics detail:
You are too far from the jump, so she is coming fully across it before turning. Be a relaxed arm’s length away from the jump upright so she starts to turn before arriving at the jump.
Since this is going well: Next time you can try this with a cookie bowl on the ground (to drop the cookie into) or a toy in your hand (then a toy on the ground).Great job here!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
I totally understand the feeling of needing to go slowly with the baby pups… all of the 4-5 month old pups in this class are in about the same place (weeks 3 and 4), including my pup who just turned 5 months old today 🙂We’ve got 6 more weeks of class games, then a few weeks after that so folks can finish things. Once you get past week 5, you’ll find that the games build on each other really quickly. The first 4 or 5 weeks of class is all about value building for a zillion different things… then the next 7 or 8 weeks are all about concept transfers which are easier than value building. So we’ve got til the end of February, which should leave the pups with being able to have played all of the games 🙂
Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
The play looks fabulous! Keep mixing in tons and tons of driving ahead of you and toy races, especially as we add more and more turning. 🙂Great job on these!
TracyHi!
First video:
This was a fun, high energy session. I love that the play was longer than the training 🙂 you were doing two things really well:– Doing the FC and moving away sooner
– Helping him less with the toy on the other side of the cone and letting him offer it more.Because of this, his commitment is definitely expanding and he is turning nice and tight!
Only one suggestion:
When there is an error, don’t whip the toy away… play with him then be more patient on the next rep. We want him to trust the toy placement so if you show it to him then whip it away, he will get confused: presenting it tells him he was correct on the cone, whipping it away tells him that he was wrong to come to you. So no worries, play anyway then reset and be one step more patient on the next rep.
The 2nd day video looked even better! This is very exciting! And his tugging looks really strong too. One thing I really like is that he is going to the cone FAST which is what we want (no slow walking LOL)
Since this is going so well, 2 ideas for you:
Use the cone for the harder games, but also add a barrel of some sort so he has more experience going around different things, and it will also give him more room to run around something because it will be bigger.
Since he loves this, it is time to a line up 🙂 you can try giving him a super boring cookie to get him to come to your side to set up the next send. That should get him in position (he wanted to hang out near the cone :)) and also keep the toy value really high.
Super job!!
TracyHi!
His backing up looks really good!! And if this was after tugging, then gold star for being so good even when more stimulated.You can revisit this game, just like this, maybe once a week as he grows. You can add in different things to back up to, but don’t make it too hard: he is growing a lot so he will have to find his back feet every day LOL! When he is fully grown, you’ll be able to add harder stuff very easily.
Onwards to the wraps!
Hi again!
The baby dog plank work looks great – she’s confident and fully engaged, in a new location 🙂 Super!!!
It took her a moment to find all the treat crumbs but I think that was crumb hunting and not stress. Something unexpected did happen about halfway through, the board moved in a surprising way or something but she recovered immediately – big resilience moment!!!
Walking across and turning around and the sit and the down looked great. For the next session, add in hopping off the middle (to rehearse bailing off the DW if she ever loses her balance). And, you can raise the board or use a bigger/taller board 🙂The decel game was so easy she looked shocked on the first rep: “thats all there is to it, mom?” LOL!
Nice timing with the decel and solid connection during the pivots, so she was perfect <3 For the next session, you can make it super spicy by adding in tugging, so she's faster which requires you to be earlier with decel 🙂Great job!!!
Tracy
