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Hi!
I admit to laughing when he went rocketing by the prop (like Kramer from Seinfeld entering a room), did not get the click, then rage barked at you LOL! He is so fun!I totally see what you mean about the hits being clearer and more obvious on your right side. When he is on your left side, he looks at you more – it might be a value question where he has also gotten value for looking at you (informal heeling or loose leash walking) on your left side.
To balance it – keep marking/rewarding for hitting the prop when he is on your right side, that was great. And when he is on your left side, you can mark/reward for looking at the prop on his way to it. You had some good clicks towards the end of the session for that, and it really helped! If you are marking for looking at the prop, it will be earlier and he doesn’t have to touch it (for now). Soon you will be able to mark for hitting it on your left side too.
And to keep him looking forward, having the treats ready to toss and using the ‘get it’ without the click will help him look ahead more on both sides.
He did well with the turn and burn here! Love the new door behind him too 🙂 It is possible that he hasn’t wrapped this particular basket at first, so he couldn’t quite sort it out with the toy excitement. The food lure helped and then he did really well. There was something on the table that was distracting him a bit but also those were left turns, which we know are harder.
For the next turn and burn session, start with a little warm up and when he says “yes, I remember the barrel” you can add more countermotion: when he is wrapping, you will do a FC and move away on an L-shaped line. In this video, it would be towards the door or towards the camera, depending on which direction you are going.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
It looks like he was great at the seminar! I love the song too 🙂>Tribute was a little stuck at first. However, when he got going he was fantastic!>
Yes! He had a big lightbulb moment then did great!
> Following the handler – Tribute is still not overly thrilled with driving to a dead toy. However, my forward movement helped a little.>
To help jump start the driving to the dead toy: if you have other people around like at a seminar, you can have the toy on a line and as soon as you start driving to it, the other person can drag it for him to chase. Then you can fade out the dragging more and more until it is stationary.
> Reverse wrap on a wing – These went reasonably well! I was less coordinated than he was!>
Yes! And based on how well he did when he was offering the jump, I bet he will offer the wing wrap for that game too.
> Lead changes on a series of wings – Tribute does not have a working startline and has an issue with collar grabs so I couldn’t do many of these.
It looks like he was on a line so he didn’t have to have a collar grab, and that worked well.
> developing a startline stay (work in progress!)>
Let me know how the stay is going or if he is having trouble!
Nice work here 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
She did GREAT with the toy on the ground here!! Well done! I think she had a tiny bit of trouble processing the verbal: is it a cone directional, or a get the toy marker? So sometimes she would choose the wrong behavior based because she hadn’t really processed the word before she moved. What you can do for that is after she walks back to the cone with you, gently hold her collar so you can say the verbal 3 or 4 times, then let her go. She still has the agency to do the wrong thing, but the collar hold will help her process the verbal so she is likely to get it right 🙂
For the next session, keep going with walking away from the toy like you did here. And you can add in doing a FC after the cone: can she process a side change? And if that goes well, add in a decel and pivot before driving to the toy.
She did great with the parallel path game! Yay! At this stage, we can change the timing of your ‘get it’ marker: rather than reward for getting over the bar, you can mark earlier. Basically, you are rewarding commitment now: mark and throw as soon as you see her approaching the bar, but before she gets to it and before she looks at you. This will strengthen commitment even more and keep her looking straight ahead 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
> tried using shorter throws. 90% of the time, he still turns back towards me. he puts himself perpendicular to the wall then turns back to where I was. seems he’s almost afraid of my sneaking up behind him. not sure what to try next.>
Two ideas for you:
– If you were working on one direction (such as getting him to rear cross to his right), try switching sides to get him to rear cross to his left. You might find one side easier than the other for him.
– if he is turning the wrong way, it is entirely possible that you are not visible on the new side early enough for him to turn towards you in the new direction. He might be a fast eater 🙂 With the goal being that you get all the way past his shoulder and eyes on the new side before he finishes the cookie, you can throw several cookies to keep him busy for longer, so you have more time. And you can also use a bowl with a small bit of cream cheese in it for him to lick – that way you have more time too 🙂 That way, it won’t matter if he is perpendicular to the wall because you will have several more seconds to be fully visible on the new side to get him to turn the new direction.
> i also don’t know what to do about collar grabs. we practice them and he is fine, but when we add the game to them, he won’t come for the cookie, no matter how high value. he just wants to get on with the game. >
Awwww he loves to play with you! Cool! Ok looking at it from the perspective of he is enjoying the play and the ‘work’, you can lure him in with a cookie (a GREAT cookie) and maybe even a hand touch. And as soon as he comes in close to you – send him into a game. Then you can lure him in close to you, add in the barest hint of touching the collar… then boom! Right into a game (can be as simple as a chase-the-cookie game 🙂 ) And definitely don’t move him around by the collar, lots of pups don’t like it and will avoid that happening. Lots of quick fun reps with quick releases into the game will help build the collar grab into a fun thing!
Keep me posted!
TracyGood morning!
She did really well with the sideways and backwards sending, even with you holding the big toy. Super! Your connection and verbals were spot on so she did really well. Yay! You can start moving away a little sooner, to add countermotion – when she is just a couple of inches away from arriving at the barrel, you can slowly start moving the other direction.
One thing that I noticed is that she doesn’t always know how to release the toy then NOT re-grip or jump up for it when you are getting it into position for the next rep. Using the treat like you did at 1:10 and 2:17 worked well! You can also reward with the toy if she doesn’t jump up, using your ‘strike’ marker, like this:
She doesn’t have to sit like Jitterbug did in the 2nd half of the video – she just needs to not grab it 🙂>This is round two. The first round she snagged the toy out of my hand after the third rep and went leaping and zooming all over the couches, living room etc. When I finally caught here I put her up and played with Sprite for a bit. I’m working too hard to try to engage her. She isn’t naturally wanting to engage and is more interested in her environment.>
I think you will get more engagement if you don’t give a time out for that 🙂 The catching her, time out, then hearing/seeing Sprite play is significant enough of a punisher that I think it is actually increasing interest in the environment and decreasing engagement, rather than decreasing running off. Instead, if she starts to have a Living Room Zoomfest, just don’t react at all. Either wait for a few seconds and see if she can chill herself out. Or just offer her a better toy or a couple of treats scattered on the floor to come back 🙂
Will the treat scatter or new toy reward/increase running off? I am thinking it will not – it will reduce the pressure by reducing the possibility of punishment/increasing the availability of reinforcement, so she is more likely to engage!
Nice work here!
Tracy
Oh crud, I am sorry I missed it!!!! Apologies!! Thanks for the poke to come find it!
You two did a great job with the turn and burn – it was an excellent combination of a super structured session (great setup, short, very successful) and SUPER FUN!!! It is unusual that puppies can generalize the game as well as he did! Your timing, connection, and fun factor were spot on.
He also did a great job with his parallel path game! I love his focus and engagement and even as you added speed, he was still finding the prop. You might notice that when you were going faster, he was leaping over the prop rather than smacking it: for this game, that is perfectly fine! If you want to train a running dog walk, we will use a different target to get him hitting it with back feet.
The pattern game was easy and fun for him too. You can try playing it with more people walking around and maybe a another pup on the floor! He might need to be no leash when another pup is out on the floor, but that is good because it is also a real life scenario.
The handling combo with the blind to decel also looked great. Excellent job keeping things fast and fun, while also being super connected.
> I did a few of those wrong with too much of a turn before the go.>
No worries! Part of the goal of the game is for the pups to stick with us, no matter what happens 🙂
>Got picture of Dublin watching your videos lol. Added picture of Dublin and Brighton doing happy crating>
Adorable!
>We went for a little walk with my friend and her Tri-pod Vizsla and went for lunch at a microbrewery. Dublin did great for both experiences.>
That sounds wonderful!
Fantastic job here, and apologies again for not seeing this sooner!!
Tracy
Good morning!
The collection sandwich videos look great! It looks like the baby level was very easy! He was surprised in a good way when you threw the toy on the first rep of the advanced level! And he did great going from the cookie back to the toy, no problem at all.
The only question was a handling question – how much of at turn to make before you threw the toy for the go go go at the end. You can do a “u-turn” and throw the toy back to where he got the start cookie, I think that will be smoother. You were doing a full circle which was harder to get the toy throw out in front of him.
For the next session, we can add more speed and distance! You can start running away after you send him to his treat, so he sees you moving then decelerating into the turn – that will get the turns even tighter 🙂 And more distance will allow for longer toy throws, which helps get him driving ahead even more. If the weather is good, try it outside! To find the start cookie, you can bring out a towel to toss it onto so he doesn’t lose it in the grass.
>We have been working on the turn and burn for several days as well. He didn’t get it at all initially, but is starting to understand the game.>
He totally is! Yay!
>He does much better on my right side than the left, but it starting to get it. You will see that if he is not properly lined up on that left side he runs behind me. But when I line him up he is about 80% consistent.>
Yes, totally agree that the lineup is a key element here. You can line him up with precision at your side on both sides – a cookie lure is very helpful to get him to come in close to you, and then you can hold his collar/harness until you are ready for the send to the barrel.
When he was on your right and not lined up (kind of off to the side), there was a little hesitation on the send to the barrel. When he was on your left side, the line ups really helped and also you can stay more connected on the send: as you send to the barrel, watch him more with your eyes (instead of looking at the barrel).
That will mean a little less pointing forward with your arm – your hand can be low and giving a gentle ‘swoosh’ to the barrel, and your leg can step to the barrel as you look at him. A good exmaple of that was at :59 on the video – he was lined up and saw the connection so went to the barrel really well! When you pointed and didn’t connect, he showed us his left turn preference: he know it was something with the barrel but went to his stronger side 🙂
As you get more comfy with the line ups and sends on both sides, you can totally add in a wrap verbal (instead of the ‘go) and then add in the line on the ground, because using it will tell you when you can do a FC and run away to reward.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning! Thank you for the seminar snippets 🙂
His pop up ears are just the BEST!Vibe did great in the new environment, might even be easier for him than the busier environments he has trained in. He looked HAPPY and filled with joy to be working with the momma.
Super fun to see him and Rou passing each other and ignoring each other 🙂 And he ignored the big Golden who came out to work too. And then all 3 MaxPuppers were out, I am so proud! Good baby dogs and moms!
His little tail was wagging a mile a minute while you were sitting in the chair while he was on the cot LOL!!! And it was definitely nice start line work.
>Still a great opportunity to work around other dogs in a brand new location and he had fun. 😉>
YES! And I trust you to advocate for your dog and know nothing bad would happen. Just wish you didn’t have to advocate and protect him!
> (where Vibe was sure the tree stump was a new parallel path prop 🤣)>
PARKOUR!!! He was reminding you that the Parkour Era is not over 🙂
>” it was HEAVY on control, medium on focus, and not much drive work.>
Sadly, “drive” work tends to be all about suppressing/controlling arousal in much of the dog sport world. Too much control is no fun for anyone and not really helpful either.
>Lots of mild to moderate to serious compulsion, coercion, punishment stuff in the explanations and demos. I really don’t like it when frustration and extinction bursts are used as a primary tool for training.>
UGH!!!! The science also doesn’t like it when punishment/frustration/extinction are primary tools (or, in many cases, tools AT ALL). With so much available information out there, I struggle to understand why people still use these tools. And don’t get me started about the social media thing that went around a while back about how we totally should just let the dogs fail repeatedly and let them get frustrated (turns out that was written by AI which explains why the ‘scientific explanations’ were actually not correct). Sigh.
>When a forward focus was demoed with the facility’s owner’s 18 month old dog and the dog repeatedly did the cartoon yoink where the dog bolts to the end of the long line, the instructor steps on it and the dog’s body goes flying forward while their neck jerks back, I don’t really find it funny or instructive.>
I find it sad and upsetting. Ok, horrifying. Poor dog, especially in a critical adolescent age. When I teach in person puppy seminars, I never let people step on the leash for exactly that reason.
> A bit of Serenity prayer mantra on my end.>
Yep, totally understandable and I have done that many many times and still have to whip it out sometimes – but generally I am old and cranky so I can’t keep my mouth shut.
And I am very limited with who I will take working spots with my young dogs anymore here on the East Coast. SO MUCH COMPULSION and punishment! So far there are only 3 instructors that I have worked with relatively recently and am comfortable bringing my baby dogs to for classes/seminars – Casey Keller puts on lovely young dog seminars and I have never seen anything icky from her. And the other 2 are flyball instructors but the concepts are the same for agility foundations 🙂 I think there are more on the West Coast in terms of instructors who are wonderful and safe 🙂 but I am also picky about how they do with non-BCs because not all dog brains are wired the same.Anyway – good job to you for making a fantastic day out of what could have been an icky situation!!!!! Vibe looked amazing!!
Tracy
Good morning! Hope you had a great weekend!
She did really great driving away here! She drove away with speed but then collected brilliantly to hit the prop and turn. BIG YAY!!! That is what we want!
Interestingly, she turned to her left on all the reps here. The reps from :24 to the end (except the last one) should have been left turns (turning towards you). On the other side, from the beginning to :18 and on the last rep, she also turned left – away from you! I scrolled back to see if she had already told us about a left turn side preference or not, but I couldn’t find it (and I can’t remember due to lack of caffeine LOL!)
I love knowing the side preference! It is also possible that she was turning left because the right turn area did not have a lot of room – the wall and the treadmill applied ‘pressure’ on the right turn which might have created the left turns by pressuring both of your lines – it did look like a RC to her!
So, to get more right turns when sending sideways/backwards from your right arm, give yourself more room on that side (the prop can move to a new spot depending on which side you are on) and you can be further away, laterally, (nearer to the wall in this case) to encourage the right turns.
>wow what a difference when I gave her some room to “run” to start. I think this kid will turn on the after burners once we get outside and get to do all these fun running/chase games! 🙂>
It is very exciting! The end result will be a thoughtful, accurate dog who is also incredibly fast 🙂 Patience is the key – the speed comes with understanding so we are in no rush. You will have to ignore all the people on social media rushing their puppies LOL!!
> Maybe it is good thing that we are practicing in a small space first ?! 😀 I am itching & looking forward to when we can really run!!>
It is definitely good to get the understanding in a small space and make it fun. It all comes together really well!!
The beginning of the backing up video was hilarious – 10 seconds of absolute patience… then a reminder to ‘hurry up, human!’ She is so funny!
The session went really well! BIG progress with lots of steps back! She seems to understand the reward placement because even when the treat bounced away, she kept herself in position and moving backwards. That helps a whole lot because you will get more backing up if she knows exactly how/where to get the reward.
Because she is growing a whole lot, you can keep this at just a few steps back for now and revisit it once or twice a week. The reason for that is because she is basically waking up with new legs evrey day and will have to re-learn how to organize them at the start of every session 🙂 So each session can start with a reminder followed by adding another step or two to build up distance.
>s I didn’t want to load her up on charlie bears either, unless I just do like 5 or so C.B. “reps”?>
Yes, you can limit reps of break the CBs in half. Also, I think they are super low in calories and light in the belly, so she can have a decent amount (8 or 10 reps or so, depending on how much else you are doing in terms of training that day) without overloading her.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning! She did really well here!!! It is fun when they are a little wild and amped up 🙂 And that actually helps the RCs because you get more forward motion 🙂 You can add in more go go go straight line reps, to keep her really driving forward which gives you more time for the RCs.
The first couple of reps were all about sorting out the timing but then you locked in at 1:27 and after that, for a bunch of lovely RCs in a row! There was one blooper at 2:19 where you got a little too far ahead but the rest were really strong!
The reps at 3:09 and 3:32 were particularly great examples of acceleration through the RC line!
If turning the left is harder, you can get her driving straight first, then tart adding the RC info by putting a lot of pressure on the line to the center of the bar and see how she does.
>but I ended up spending a lot of time getting the toy from her because I didn’t bring treats out>
The extra time was totally worth it 🙂 She was on fire and was looking great!
Nice work here!
TracyGood morning!
>cuz right now I’m not understanding what she is trying to tell me with the release stall outs.>
Yep, it is information from her… but it is a puzzle we have not solved yet. There are two of us trying, we will gt it sorted toon!!
Looking at the video – her form is good so we don’t really need to need to worry about any of that. Yay! She was lovely on the straight grid and on the angled grid.
If I counted right, the first freeze up was after 5 reps. Then would not release to the toy. But released to food at the end!
>I could not get her to tug on that toy after that, but she was happy to chase her “flying squirrel”. >
Good observation – tugging a toy and chasing a disc-like toy are two different behaviors, using different mechanics. Tugging has a different grip & pull in the mouth/neck/shoulders, plus a different shift into the hind end to tug. Chasing the squirrel toy might be more about running and catching, which is different body parts than tugging. Have you taken a look in her mouth? Maybe she has a tooth issue or something in her gums, where catching is fine but tugging hurts?
From a purely-behavior standpoint, try a session with only food. Do exactly what you did with this session – but no tugging at all at the beginning, no tugging as a reward…. Food food great food only 🙂 No toy in the picture. Let’s see what happens! That will help us narrow things down more.
Because we don’t need to work on her jumping form, we can use this stay-then-release setup to see how she answers our questions 🙂
Keep me posted! Nice work here!
Also, have you ever tapped down her back to see if there are any twitchy spots? I take 2 fingers and start at the base of her neck, then gently tap a finger on each side of her spine, inch by inch all the way down to her tail. You can often see little spasms! I can make a video if the written word makes no sense 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
The RCs are off to a strong start! The first Go and first RC to the right were super good! Check out how at :09-:10 you had acceleration into the RC so he went forward nicely!
>At the end he didn’t want to go in front of me and decided to stay by me for the tasty treats lol!>
I think what happened here was that you ddi a FC at the tunnel exit to get him on your left, then had to hit the brakes – the FC then brakes then RC didn’t show the acceleration onto the RC line so he looked at you there. That kind of got him thinking about what you wanted so he was watching more – at :41 and :49 you were a little too far ahead and not showing acceleration, so he was not sure if he should drive to the jump or not.
So for the right turn RCs, you can get nice and close to the tunnel and acceleration into them like you did at the beginning of the session here.
>I will redo the lefts and have the same setup as the rights. The Aframe was where I needed to put my jump. I think that will help him on that side.>
Darned a-frame 😂 Yes, setting up so you don’t have to do the FC will make a lot more sense when you do the RC.
The ladder grid is looking good! I am happy with how he is stepping in, really working his rear into it. And his form is consistent (and fast, but consistent is more important). And NOT biting you is GREAT 🙂 👍😊. If you want to hold the toy a tiny bit higher maybe a foot off the ground, then his head position will be perfect.
Since his stay and form are developing beautifully, you can start adding moving faster – you were calmly walking here which was perfect, so you can go to a fast walk! That brings in the challenge of maintaining form while he sees more motion from you.
Great job here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
The photos on your title card are aways so cute! Did she have her Fetch event this weekend?The parallel path game is looking really good here! She was most definitely making the decision to go between the uprights! The reps on your left side were really strong and you were able to add more distance. The reps on your right side were where she had misses. So on the left side reps, you can be further away. And for now on the right side reps, tuck yourself in right next to the wing to help her find the line more consistently on that side. We will add distance to that soon too.
You can also do this with a ball or thrown toy – you won’t get as many reps in because of the play and retrieves, but she will really love it!
Nice shaping session here on the mat! She is very good at offering the behavior already. The next step is to have your treats in your hand already, so you can toss them immediately after the click. You were getting more and more looking at you because after the click, you had to get the cookie out – in that time, she was turning to look at you and that was when the cookie was delivered. So she thought: aha! Hit the mat and look at the mom!
So when you moved further away from the mat, you could see she was trying to sort out how to look at you AND hit the mat 🙂 So the best way to help her is to click then immediately throw the cookie before she looks at you. You can also drop the clicker and use a ‘get it’ marker, which will mark precisely and also tell her to look forward and not at you 🙂
For the wraps – she is looking for the barrel really well and we can see her commitment growing! Yay! She had some questions: on the sideways sending, you were having her turn to her left away from you (getting between you and the barrel) but actually for this game, it is ok for her to go to the other side of the barrel and turn towards you. She had some questions about it which is why she didn’t always find the barrel. Same on the other side, she can go to the other side of the barrel and turn to her left towards you instead of her right away from you. That will smooth out the questions she had.
There is still value to having her turn away (threadle wraps), and we will be adding that later in the class! Stay tuned 🙂
Working on the barrel alone might be a weird visual about where she should go, so you can picture a jump bar extending from the opposite side of the barrel and that is where you want her to go. You can also lay an actual bar on the ground too!
>We had some extra distractions again today with blow dryers going as my friend and training buddy is getting dogs ready for tomorrow’s show, but Ingy did a good job blocking it out for the most part.>
I agree, she was fabulous about blocking it out! Great job!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>But thinking it through, if I get her to walk away and engage with me, she’ll send better! >
Yes, for sure! And it is a great prep of elf-control for things tin the environment that you don’t see (but she does :)) If you think she might take off to grab it, you can have a leash on her to be able to get rewards in as you walk away.
>Here is some of the resilience game moving with a bag of charlee bears. We also did this out front with food on my hand vs pocket and she did great. I’m still learning my new camera and it didn’t record that session>
This looks fabulous! You were moving and she was still engaging really well. Super!!! You can play this game with exciting things in the environment, on leash walks in the neighborhood (if that is something you do). It is fine if you don’t, because I don’t do it either – too many loose dogs and animals floating around. And you can take this game on the road to trials, etc. You might need better treats than Charlee Bears but maybe not? She definitely liked them!
Great job!
Tracy
