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Hi!
Backing up through the leg channels worked nicely! One small detail which will actually help in a big way: Try to be quiet when you reward, if you intend the session to continue rather than give big praise in that moment. When you give effusive praise, he is not sure of what is coming next and looks around a bit. But if you mark, deliver the reward, then cue the next thing, he will have more clarity and keep going. Then you can give the big praise when you break off for tug breaks. For example, he was not always sure about the release to come forward for the treat, so you can mark the moment his back feet hit the object with the marker to come get the treat – that can set up a nice little loop by telling him what to do next š
And, since this environment is really hard for him (hard for any puppy!), you can totally give him the toy break when he asked for the toy break – it is a decompression skill of self-regulating his internal state and I LOVE that he asked for the toy break as opposed to all of the other things he could have done. It was not a naughty moment or anything, it was a “mom I need a moment here” moment – that environment is hard, he is doing a challenging behavior with a ton of distractions so plan for more frequent toy breaks and build them in… and if things go too long and he asks for it, give him a toy break to decompress then get back to the session.
His doing well with the pivoting! A couple of ideas for you:
So now it is time to pick markers for the reward placement. You were using “yes good” or no marker, and a marker can clarify where and how to get the reward. I think a “get it” or simple marker will really help him know where to look for reward when you throw it, versus when you hand it to him (which should be a marker different from the tossed treat marker).To get more steps around the perch, you can move to a variable schedule for the # of steps before you reward. That will look like rewarding 1 step then 3 then 2 then 1 then 3 then 4 then 1 then 3 then 2 then 5 and so on… that way you are gradually increasing the # of steps. When you were waiting for more and more steps, he got confused and offered less, so you changed reward placement which caused a few more questions from him. The variable schedule works well to increase the duration of the behavior (as in, more steps š ) and we can also add in some destination work to this to clarify it as well.
And be sure to break off for frequent tugging when you are working in that environment – it will keep his arousal state higher and he won’t split his attention between the other things happening in the environment and the training. At home or in a quiet environment at LU, I am confident that he can do a 4 or 5 minute cookie only session. But when there are other distractions added in, he had some questions about the environment after about :30 seconds (fewer steps, more looking around, especially when he was not getting rewarded for what he had been previously getting rewarded for). Tug breaks and the variable schedule will help that a lot š
T
Hi there!
Parallel path on the prop looked good! Do you have a yoga mat you can put under it so it slides less? I want her to go fast without thinking she should ride it like a skateboard hahaha!You read my mind about going to the toy when you started the countermotion š
She is incredibly task-oriented, as in āI AM GOING GO HIT THAT TARGET!!ā LOL! So I think you can also add in some rewards for NOT going, meaning when you are in the āready setā moment you can reward her for NOT going before the cue. This will add a tiny bit of balance in terms of impulse control and self-regulation (she doesnāt need much of this, only a little).
One big thing to remember is that you can (and should) reward the effort of the āalmostā hits when she is going to the prop and within and inch… but doesnāt quite hit it as perfectly as the other reps. This was happening particularly on the left turns (2:10, 2:39, 3:12, for example) and she was getting frustrated (barking, as her parents will do, which we want to avoid).
The 2 reasons to remember to reward the effort of the oh-so-close moments are:
– it is entirely possible she thought she nailed it (the joys of adolescent dog processing!) so telling her she is wrong is confusing and frustrating. We want to build in the joy of the effort and make sure there is no frustration conditioned in, so if she is oh-so-close, reward her and then get closer on the next rep (see below about that). The arousal regulation and frustration reduction is why we do this all on a foot target rather than starting with a wing: that way, all of the kinks are worked out before we move to the actual wing, and the conditioned responses are all relaxed and happy in high arousal, which translates to amazing behavior on course š– it is also possible that you reached the edge of her current commitment bubble when she had the almost hits. What I mean by that is you were just at the edge of where she was comfortable going past you, particularly with you rotated and working in some countermotion. So, reward the effort and get a little closer to the prop for the next one, so you are in her sweet spot for longer and get better behavior. You can also ping pong distances, rather than always getting further away: sometimes be closer than you think you need to be, sometimes add a little more distance, then get close again… making it variable like that will actually help expand her commitment bubble š
Great job here! Let me know if it all makes sense – it is fun for me to be able to look at Musoās training from the perspective of knowing her parents and her lines! I have been fortunate to see what helped her parents really excel, and what frustrated them. So we can take the parts that built the excellence and reduce the parts that created frustration to have some amazing results. Yay!!
Tracy
Hi!
Good session here too! If toy-only was too hard, you can use the toy before you switch to cookies, and after every 4 or 5 cookies, to build in the arousal work in every session. You made the cookies pretty darned excited too, which is great!
Using the yellow mat over the wobble board was very clever and worked nicely!!! That wobble board is definitely harder – a bit small so to stand on it without compression she really only can put her back feet on… but then it was moving a lot so she was sitting to stabilize it. That will all get easier with experience and when she gets her adult core strength (it is easy for forget how young she is because she is such a superstar!)
So using the wobble board, just add in some tugging before, during, after and keep using the cookies as the in-the-moment rewards.
Super job! I am really enjoying watch you and Muso work!
TracyGood morning! This was actually a perfect session for our purposes! And laughing while training is always good LOL!!
She was working hard to do the backing up AND self-regulate her arousal, which is great. You were helping a little bit by giving a known cue and getting closer, which is also great (and you rewarded all the things, which is also great because adolescent dogs tend to think theyāve nailed a movement even when we can see that they have not LOL!!!)
So even though there was not exactly backing up perfect on all reps, there was plenty of good backing up and more importantly – an arousal regulation session where you both seemed to not be feeling any frustration š
You can remove some of your help next time by starting her with all 4 feet on the bed (having the bed up against a wall so it doesnāt slide when she pushes off) – use a hand touch to help lure her front feet off, and see if she will offer front feet back on with the higher arousal state. Then if that goes well, you can move away and use a hand touch to get all 4 feet just barely off the bed, so she backs up onto it.
Let me know if the goals of this kind of work make sense – yes, we a can teach her to back up but the arousal self-regulation is the much more critical piece and she is doing AWESOME with that!!!
Tracy
Ha! She is so funny! And you were like… thatās a good girlie, why donāt you come over here instead LOL!!! I promise she wonāt think the broad jump is a goat game when she is running courses for real LOL!
Tracy
Good morning!
I am glad the plankrobatics wen well even though the video didnāt work – the best sessions are never caught on video LOL!!!! And your clip of the plank looked good – wider is better for baby dogs – you might want to use a yoga mat and some duct tape (fancy, I know haha) to give him more traction because if he is already super confident, then he is going to want to move faster so we can provide the traction for him!
Backing up: I think you mentioned trying it from a chair at the very end, and I think that would be a perfect next step! You need to do this from a chair so he doesnāt look up at you as much (and so your back doesnāt get angry). I can do it standing up in the demo because I am really short and my puppy was tall by that time LOL!! He is very short and you are tall, so we put you in a chair with a frosty beverage š That way you can be totally still and let him offer. You were moving back and forth, which draws his focus to your motion so he was just following motion and cookie hand more than offering. By sitting, he can focus on your low hand which keeps his head in a little more of a neutral position, which will make it easier to offer backing up.
He is very confident on the board, so it is now a matter of letting in choose the behavior more with a little less help from you – he is ready!
Rather than go outside with xpens, try it in your inside training area with you sitting in a chair and letting him offer, starting with all four feet on the board, luring his front feet off, then letting him offer with you stationary so all he needs to do is offer putting his front feet back on. Yes, the xpens will help him get the backing up behavior and that is totally a good game to play! But trying this in a chair will encourage more of the body awareness and offering we are looking for š
For the tugging, getting the toy moving helped! He was a good boy to get on the toy so nicely after all the cookies! And you can run him away from the cheese plank to help jump start the tugging – getting tug near the cheese plank is like asking me to do push ups near a charcuterie board LOL!!! He did awesome and was a tugging fiend once he got on it after 2 or 3 seconds. Yay!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
I love the world watching video!!! Pickle ball is exciting! It was interesting to see him: it looks like he was breathing fast, and definitely lots of air scenting – all is great! And it was SUPER cool at the end where he got up, wagged his tail, and was ready to move on. That might seem like a small thing but it is actually huge in terms of teaching him to flex his resilience muscles: he got to observe, process, then have agency over what to do next. Good job to you for allowing that!!!!
>> attempted a food scatter in the parking lot next to my car as an experiment ā absolutely no interest. Food is just not important enough to him to override other distractions.>>
Ok this is interesting!!!! I think part of what we can do is figure out where he will eat, and what he will eat (in terms of type of treats and value). For the treat scatters, what type of cookies where you using? The reason that this is worth looking at is that not eating gives us a little insight into how he is feeling about the environment (that it was challenging!) and also about value of food (not that interesting, as you noted). So if we can figure out what/when he will eat, we can use that to help him learn about the world and transfer his sporty skills from home to other environments too!
He did well with the sandwich game! Yes, it is a rainy gross week here in the sunny South so indoors is perfect š
Looking at the sandwich video: This was super fun to watch!
>> The first couple of times he went shooting past me in the collection part >>
That was handling timing, not lack of puppy response š
At the beginning, definitely decel sooner and let him see more of a transition from you moving fast to slow. That will help him set up his collection because he was going fast fast fast then he was surprised when you pivoted. For example at 1:03 you were fast then pivoted (no decel before the pivot) so he was wide on the turn because he never got the cue to collect til after the pivot started.He read the blind cross addition really well! And you did better decels after the blind like at 2:18 and 5:38, and look how tight he was on the turn! Super!! So keep that big moment of slowing down before he gets to you (he should still be at least 6 feet away from you when he sees you decelerating).
And adding the go after it was strong too – I couldnāt see the blind or the pivot on most of those because you were a bit off camera, but the driving to the toy looked great š And based on what I could hear, he was doing well on the blinds and pivots as well. Super!!!
>> About his laying down. I havenāt worked a lot of downs with him so Iām not sure why heās offering them. I have worked with him on a place station but thatās always on an elevated bed station. He does like motion, thereās no doubt. He did it again today when we were working inside on the connection sandwich drill. Any suggestions?>>
Looking at the down behavior again, I think that 2 things were happening:
Part of the down was with the toy, so he might have been taking a bit of a decompression moment by chewing the toy for a few seconds. Perfectly fine to let him do this, count to 5 and if he looks like he is ready for the next rep? Call him and do the next rep. Pups (and adults!) need those decompression moments for self-regulation of their arousal when they are working these types of games, so we let them do it.
The other down was an offered down at 4:25, not a decompression moment. You got the down because your hand was right where he wanted to bite the toy (at the squeaker) so he was actually being pretty polite LOL!! Good boy! So you can squeak it then toss it to get engagement.
>> About the wing wrap foundations and you suggested a taller prop for him to go round, would a big traffic cone work? Iām looking around the house and canāt find much else >
A tall traffic cone would totally work! I think they are 3 feet tall or something, which is perfect. Of a pop up laundry basket, if you have one (or if you end up at a dollar store or walmart, you can get one for a dollar or two but definitely not worth spending more money than that for now š )
>>I could always use a wing stanchion
Soon…. but not yet. LOL! We want the behaviors to be soooo solid before we move to a wing so that the sessions with the wings have almost no errors or questions.
Great job here! See ya tonight in class!!!!
TracyGood morning!
I am so sorry to hear of your back pain!!! Ouch!! I am glad it is down to a more manageable 4-5 level but we can still protect your back by doing all the things that donāt require a lot of back movement. The barrel games are fun, yes, but we have plenty of stuff that doesnāt require running or tugging. You can do the rear crosses on the prop, for example, as that can be fully cookies and not tugging. And we build on the patterns tonight and that will be easy to do without tugging.
The backing up looks really good – you can totally do this from a chair so you donāt have to bend up and down for food delivery. And then yes, from a chair, you can just drop the treats down at your feet. So she would back up, you mark and drop the cookie at your feet so she comes to get it… then she backs up again.
When you were outside, she was backing up past the platform and ending up with front feet on and back feet off LOL! You can put the platform with a fence to wall behind it so she has a stopping point. The big disc at the end of the video had stuff behind it, so she didnāt want to go past it and that is fine! You can reward her for the 2o2o at this point, as it really isolates the hind end and also provides a good 2o2o contacts foundation :). You can work the big disc from a chair too, having her back up then releasing her forward to the cookie you drop at your feet.
She did well with the pattern game! I canāt hear if you were saying a āget itā or not – if not, definitely say it š You can also toss the cookie sooner, as soon as she looks at you. You were waiting longer, so she was moving back to you and then she was offering other behaviors because she was not sure what was going to get the cookie. So, the cookie moment here is for just looking at you – yes, it is really easy LOL!! We build on it with todayās new games, which is why the first level of it here is so easy š So, when she looks at you – toss the cookie the new direction rather than waiting for her to move back in front of you (because in harder situations, she may not be able to offer moving back in front of you :))
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyWoot woot, Stitch TV! I am going to drink lots of coffee, look at the single video posts, then sit down to watch StitchFlix with all of these. And the game we add today will also help him look at other dogs and be comfy about it! Be back shortly!
Good morning!
>> Maaaah I feel super behind. After an agility weekend and then a barn hunt weekend I havenāt had time to do much.>>
You are not behind! These games all build on each other in terms of concepts, so you are right where you need to be š Plus, a weekend away doing trials is a great exposure opportunity for him – he has to learn about the great big world too, and that is just as valuable as these little puppy games. We have a ton of time in coming months for the games, so try not to feel stressed about being behind. You are doing great!!!!
He was a fabulous barrel wrapper! Click/treat to you for NOT rewarding that ridiculously cute sit up behavior. (I mean, that was SO CUTE but when he sees something to wrap we really donāt want him to be offering to sit pretty LOL!!!!)
This was a really strong session. The main thing I see here is that he is a lefty. Going to his left around the barrel? Easy peasy. Going to his right around the barrel? SO HARD – he was frustrated and trash talking LOL! This is completely normal so we will help him out by just letting latent learning kick in with a couple of sessions about 24 hours apart with a gooooood long sleep in between (for him, but you are welcome to have a good sleep too haha!!). Sleep consolidates the learning, so having a good session like this then letting him have a deeeeep sleep is incredibly useful.
So on the next session, do everything the way you did it here in terms of the mechanics of getting everything set and bringing the barrel in last, that was great. One change is to start him on your right hand, so the first thing he does is wrap to his left. Keep the barrel in close, so he can then immediately sort out wrapping to his right – it is harder than it looks (I am 52 years old and I still cannot write my name with my non-dominant hand!!).
What is likely to happen is that as he gets stronger, the left turns will progress more quickly than the right turns, so you might be able to add distance on the left turns more quickly and then pull the barrel in to you for the right turns, so they stay easy for now. And as he gets older, it will balance out.
And when you start the turn and burn game, start with him on your right so he can turn to his left to learn the concepts.
And yes – squeaking the toy is part of the reward, so letās do it!
Great job here! let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>Before I added the uprights to the RCās, Sid would stand on his prop and pivot ON it. So changed out the prop making it smaller at first. Little booger could still pivot! Even on very little things. So I dragged out a jump, we worked on very short jumps-8 inches and we lost the pivot. I didnāt want to work him very long on jumps so I took the bar away and he liked that better with the prop! No more pivots, or spins.>>
Ah! Got it! So he was thinking it was a pivot game. Great job to you to help him understand that it was a hit-and-go game. Brilliant! It looks like you helped him out by finding a way to reinforce the behavior you wanted without frustrating him by telling him was wrong. That is a HUGE dog training moment and excellent problem-solving. I am sending you a MASSIVE click/treat!!! Yeah!!!
>>It NEVER occurred to me about the hand placement for his backup que!
It is harder to see the head position in the moment while training, but easier to see on video – that is why we video as much as possible because the video acts as a second set of eyes LOL!!
>>I will definitely try it AND his BIG wobble board came in, so far only three feet on it, but the towels around it is a great suggestion! Itās much higher than the baby one. Towels will be perfect>>
3 feet on a new board is great! Yes, stabilize it with the towels and I bet he gets that last foot on š
>>He loves to play with his toys, I just wish he didnāt hit himself in the head with some of them.>>
For real! Why do they enjoy that? But, they do, so we let them and try to use toys that he wonāt bludgeon himself with LOL
Youāre doing a great job with him!!!! Have fun!
TracyGood morning!
>> I wondered if there might be a change in adolescence, in which I shouldnāt take anything for granted. Iāve been surprised at how she bounces back from her little crashes and unfortunate events.
Yes, I have been fortunate enough to have gotten a lot of info about adolescent dog brains from a neuroscientist veterinarian recently… and it turns out adolescence is unpredictable LOL! Dogs can get more sensitive to sounds or movement, and they take twice as long to ābounce backā to baseline of emotion than puppies or adults do. So, we tend to get a little more careful in adolescence LOL!!!
>>Outside the scope of this course, I have to keep her from climbing onto the patio table, she has nabbed all sorts of things including my iPhone, twice.>>
She is definitely an adventurer! LOL!! When she hits adolescence, we might bubble wrap her a bit LOL!
>>I pulled out two fit bones last night, and the nubs on those didnāt bother her at all, theyāre smaller, so she was all over that. She was oddly suspicious of stepping on the disc, I have no idea why, it was nubby side down. But it was losing air, so maybe if I put more air in it, it wonāt be so smushy. Or maybe sheāll get used to smushy.>>
Excellent about the fitbones! And I bet if you put the discs in a larger field of things to walk over, all squished together, she will be fine with the discs too!
Have fun!
TracyGood morning! These look great!
She had no trouble seeing the side changes because you emphasized the connection on the new side with eye contact and the reward across your body. Super!!She also really liked the frisbee reward. Using the friz made the mechanics a little harder because you had to over-rotate back to her to give her the friz. So you can also try it with a long tug toy so that she has a lot to latch onto without needing as much rotation from you.
You can bring these blinds into the collection sandwich game, and also if you have a bigger space you can add more running room for you both. š
Great job! Have fun!
TracyHi!
Focus forward looks great! He definitely likes his toys š Try this with a collar or harness on so you have a better hold on him – otherwise he is slippery! You can also add in a ‘get it’ verbal – and when the races begin, you can also be saying go go go as you run too!
Prop game – yes, small soft treats next time will add a little more efficiency to the game and fewer crumbs/smells on the ground LOL! He is definitely doing well with his prop value, so now it is time to stand up š If he can offer as nicely with you standing, then you can move to the send games with the prop. And, when you are standing and doing the send games, you can also use a toy š
Blind cross with toy:
>>However I know why my dogs and I donāt do blind crosses well. I suck at teaching them >>
This is not true at all! The blinds went well! It was the cookie-to-toy element was harder: use a lower value and smaller cookie or sure on these, because the big crunchy cookie was too distracting. He did get back on the toy when you made the toy wilder so he could chase it! So use boring cookies that are small and easy to swallow, then when you do the blind, make the toy reward wild by dragging it all around so he can chase it. You might need more room for this, so maybe wait on the toys til you can be someplace bigger?
The blinds with 2 cookies went well! Just do the blind sooner: as soon as he takes one step towards you, do the blind. You were starting it a little later, so he didn’t have as much time to respond. But when you were doing it earlier, he was perfect!
Great job š
TracyHi!
Nice shirt at the trial!!! And it was a particularly lovely run!!!!!!!! The question she had on the line from the table to the tunnel before the DW was just that your position put her on her left lead, and she needed to be on the right lead to get the tunnel. So a “get out” cue would help there, or you can handle that on your left side.
As for the ending line? Honestly, that course design is a bit much for baby Open dogs LOL!!! A dog walk then 3 jumps on a straight line is HARD ASfor Open level dogs and I bet lots of them had refusals and/or bars or at least BIG questions. So yes, keep training these massive lines to the exit – she has good Go skills but this line from the DW to the end is MASSIVE! So focus on all the gorgeous elements of this run (there were MANY of those) and put the big ending line on the to-do list š She will get it, but that was really hard for a youngster in Open. The organizer wraps looked really good! You don’t have to do these at full height (you can save the full height stuff for the fading process) – but you can definitely go to the next step now:
– no more feeding in the sit position, as soon as he butt gets into the sit, you can release and have her wrap to the remote dispenser.
– you can try to stay in motion the whole time, maybe starting closer to the wrap wing so you can move forward, decel, turn… all while you still cue the sit š It will look more like what the actual handling will look like. And you an also move faster before the decel, I think she is ready for that!Great job!
Tracy
