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Hi!
Good session here! I think she is really getting the idea! She moves. Really quickly, which means we need to speed up the mechanics a bit. A couple of mechanics ideas:
Try to have 2 cookies ready in your hand: one to drop between your feet, and the other to throw for the backing up. Then after you toss a cookie for backing up, you can reload 2 more cookies into your hand and do the next rep.
What was happening was that as she was backing up, you were plucking the next cookie and you were standing up a bit, which delayed the delivery slightly and lifted her head high, which changes her mechanics and reduces the backing up a bit.
That would mean it would be helpful to have you remain bent over… which might make your back really angry 🙂 So you can sit in a chair as long as she has enough room to get the treat from between your feet 🙂 That way you don’t have to go up and down, you can just rest your elbows on your thighs and toss treats around.
>>Then I put a sanded board down and she struggled with backing up on that. I moved a little closer and just had her back up with her front paws onto the board which worked and then tried a bit with her hind feet. I think she thinks the behavior with the board is to turn around and come over it again.>>
Totally agree that she seemed confused about offering backing up or getting on the plank and doing plank games. She raises a valid point LOL!! So, try this next time on a low, large dog bed – it should be large enough for her to stand on with all 4 feet and low enough that it is easy for her to step back on. Start with all 4 feet and lure just her 2 front feet off… then let her offer backing her two front feet back on it! Then we can progress to having her back feet come off too, then have her back up onto it with back feet.
>>Finally, in watching the video I think I am supposed to be quiet other than the marker word when shaping. >>
Yes, ideally you just mark and then toss the treat if she is meant to continue offering or looping into the next rep. If you are praising, she is likely to look at you and stop offering. So you can praise during the tug breaks!
Nice work!! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! Just checking in really quick – I am offline this weekend for the most part, teaching the Brain Camp in North Carolina. I will look at these fully when I get back on Monday. Sorry for the delay!
TracyOh dear, 10 inches of snow!!!! But I totally agree – she is SUPER FUN!!! I am enjoying watching you two 🙂
>> I haven’t been wearing a treat bag or a training apron but what are your thoughts on that? I wonder if it would help me be quicker getting treats for her.>>
Part of the fast cookie action is having them accessible, so a treat pouch or apron can help! But choose the most subtle thing, so it is easier to fade the visual in the future.
T
Hi!
>>
I love Audubon and I have to remember he is not Roulez. i.e., she would not be distracted by other items lying in the area.Almost a little freaky how focused she has always been. Not that it’s bad with Audubon, only different.>>I think what you are seeing is that she is in a different arousal than he is, in this early stage of development. While the higher arousal brought you that high focus in the early stages, you also had to learn how to help her manage that high arousal when she was really aroused. He is pretty normal in that things in the environment are distracting, so you will find that he is probably going to be easier to teach to manage his arousal 🙂
>>While Roulez was waiting for me to throw the frisbee this afternoon, Audie mounted her and started humping her. She was so focused on me, she totally ignored him. I took him off of her. When he did it again, I placed him in crate. Should I have done something differently?>>
Was this during a high energy play session with running and stuff? He probably just needed to be redirected to something where he could run around and and burn off some energy, separately from Roulez. The humping is no biggie, so you can just redirect him or have him come out for his own high energy play session. At his age and size, you probably don’t want him loose when Roulez is chasing frisbees, because he doesn’t know how to manage himself yet and we want to help him.
Turn and Burn:
This is going really well!!! Yes, totally a righty 🙂 Try to face the barrel when you send and use your leg too, to step to it. And remember to be patient – let him finish the job more before you turn and run away. When you were patient and quiet? Perfect! When you were too early or too chatty? He had questions. For example, at :50 you tried to run away way too soon and so he didn’t finish the wrap and didn’t get rewarded. You can reward his effort, reset, and try again.
At 2:10 you cheered and tried to leave too early, but you rewarded anyway and that was correct 🙂Also, you can hold his collar but just let go when yo bar ready and don’t pull him forward by his collar 🙂 When he was on your right and turning to his left, you were pulling him forward towards the barrel a bit, which creates a bit of opposition reflex so it is harder for him to leave you.
He was great in this collection sandwich game! I want you to reward him every single time even if something is not perfect, though – this is a handling game so if something goes wrong… it is your error and not his 🙂 The main thing that was causing challenge was that you were pivoting too fast, so you were breaking connection and he didn’t know which side to be on: total handler error! So, reward like he was correct (because he was LOL!) and then slow down the pivot and add more connection.
When you were slower on the pivot and connected? He was perfect 🙂 And he did a great job alternating between cookies and toys! Super!!! And I am already seeing a pretty massive improvement in his ability to pluck the cookie off the ground and return engagement to you!!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>this is the first thing I’ve done in about a week and now I”m feeling pressure, LOL!>>
Ha! No pressure! Some weeks we can train every day… some weeks we train nothing at all. It is all good 🙂
>>I already taught Hola backing up using the method where her hind feet are on a mat, I’m fairly close and put a treat by my feet that she eats and then backs back up to her mat with me eventually moving farther and farther away. It worked great for her. >>
Perfect! So you can skip to the advanced level of the game we added this week, where we add motion to the thing she is backing up to – like a low inflatable disc, or a wobble board. Anything low enough for her to step back up on easily will be perfect! And since she has been a lot of different moving things, I think this will work nicely for her 🙂
>>I wanted to try one of Wednesday’s games with her so we did the Turn and Burn today since that looked like fun. >>
The session looked GREAT!!! You had a ton of success, she was super strong. My only two suggestions are:
– You can use less of a big arm movement when you send her , because that twists your body a little as you try to turn and run away. You can do a low small send, no need for your arm to go more than a foot past you body.
– You can use a longer toy, maybe with a big something at the end, to direct her focus away from you hands a bit – the smaller toy was getting her to grab it near your hand and there was a big ouch moment for you.>>Now I’m sitting here at my computer with ice on my hip because I pulled a muscle when reaching the toy across my body, ugh.
Oh nooooo! Ouch!!!! I think smaller arm movements and the long toy will have you twisting less, which should keep your hip happier.

>>I hope we did this game right and not sure if we got to the advanced stage or not.You nailed it! You can keep moving your line so you can start running away earlier and earlier.
>>I think I was too close to the popup barrel at first
Nope, you were good!
>> and I think I’m too slow leaving.
You can leave earlier and earlier – I think the big arm send was making you feel like it was harder to leave early, because you kind of had to unravel the send arm because you could run the other way.
>> I was using the word “push” but is that a wrap cue?
It can be if you want it to be! Many people use it as a backside cue.
>>Do you use a different word for wrap left vs wrap right?
Yes 🙂
>>I’d like to know some of your suggested wrap cue words.
I vote for anything that is short, lots of consonants, and easy to repeat fast: checkcheckcheck or digdigdigdig are two very popular ones! I use noises (choochooochoo and tsstsstss)because they are quiet and keep me from yelling the wrap cues LOL!
>> Can you tell any right or left turn preference after watching her on this video?
She looked super balanced in both directions! I couldn’t see a preference.
She looked great!Great job here! Hope your hip is happy tomorrow!!!
TracyHi!
>>And the Trash hat is looking a bit less trashy.
Ha! I love that Trash Hat!
Because the struggle is particular (and real!) to me, is the “Nose to Target”, the white-target in handler’s hand to be used anywhere else besides the hand?
Nope! This game never has the target leave the hand 🙂
>> Or is this basically a nose to hand-Target and the ‘white thing’ fades away?>>
Yes and it gets built in a SUPER FANCY handling move that we start very soon 🙂 Stay tuned!
Tracy
Hi!
>>That would be fun. This is the first dog I have had that I think has the right personality for that. I’ve never played it but there is a league about 3 hours from me in Jacksonville Fl.>>
She seems like she would love it! 3 hours is far though – which part of FL are you in and maybe I can find something closer 🙂
Turn and Burn:
Her first effort was VERY good! So even though it wasn’t perfect, you can totally reward her anyway. This game is what I would consider agility handling, which means there is a potential handler error that caused her error, which is why I like to reward effort 🙂I think the question she had was you had a BIG arm motion on the first rep, so thought you were throwing a ball or something. On all of the other reps, you had a smaller arm motion and she was PERFECT!
She had a question on the first rep on the other side – probably because it was a harder side and tried to run away early – which was too hard on that side at first. But then you settled into a lovely patience and waited for her to ‘finish the job’ – and so she was just perfect there too. SUPER!!!
So keep going with the smaller arm motion to send her, and being patient – you can move her line more and more so you can run away sooner and sooner 🙂 And if something goes wrong, no worries, you can reward and restart.
Prop game also looked great = when she is in the rhythm of getting it, you can add more lateral distance even sooner! I liked how sometimes you were ahead, sometimes you let her drive ahead, and she was great 🙂
>>I mis-clicked when she jumped over the prop and she missed again a second time ( AND I mis-clicked again)
This was a really interesting part of the session! I don’t mind that she got clicks for those interactions with the prop – the prop is a jump replacement here, so if it were a jump she would have jumped it. But what caused her to change her behavior? I think that with you a little further away and her on your left, she is not as comfy yet – and at 1:39 you were looking forward ahead of her rather than at her, so she was feeling a little disconnection (note how she was looking at you).
Now if you freeze the video at 1:51 as she hits the prop, you were VERY connected by looking right at her, so she was perfect and hitting the prop. If you scroll back earlier in the video, you were more connected too so she was looking at her “job” more as well 🙂
The other reason she might have been jumping a bit is that she was trying to go faster (this does not surprise me at all LOL!) and that is fine! You can still reward it because it is indeed interaction with the prop.
Since she is so happy to drive ahead of you to it, I bet you can start even further back and try the rear cross version 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi!
Toy races looked great, she is a tiny black blur LOL!! I like how she leaves you in the dust then turns and chases you when you go the other way. Nice! Take out the control position though (sit and down starts) – just make it a goofy fun high arousal game where you don’t have to maintain a control position or worry about her leaning forward too much.For the decel game: she is doing well with driving into the turn and not shooting past you! With her foot speed…. Decel sooner 🙂 As soon as she starts to move towards you, you decel and then pivot just as she arrives at you.
At :40 you did something funky (like a standstill blind that was a little late) and she was unsure – so you were 100% correct to reward and make it clear eron the next reps where you were very clear with the blinds!These. Two games look really good, so the next session should be the decel sandwich game that we added on Wednesday! That challenges the handler’s timing a lot, so be sure to be even earlier than you think you need to be 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi!
She did super well getting on the objects here! And nice transition between treats and toys, that all looked terrific!Keep changing up what you are asking her to get on – and use bigger objects too, so she can get all four feet on and not just front feet.
The next step as well is to toss the treats back and forth – when she gets on the object you can mark her as correct then toss the treat to the side so she gets off, grabs. The treat, then runs back on, That will help promote balance and back feet as well.
Great job!
TracyHi!
I agree – her blinds look great, tons of progress and yes: you need more room LOL! Can you take the game outside?
Great mechanics with the timing, the connection and rewarding across your body!
My only suggestion is to scrunch of the toy so it is more of an agility-style reward after she changes sides for the blind, and less of a flyball-style recall toy. Having the toy already dragging while you run away delays her response a bit because she is looking at the toy (correctly) then has to watch for it to move all the way across you.
Great job!
TracyHi!
The first session looked good with the treats – she was going back and forth so you can no delay the speed of the treats and let her off going back and forth more, so the treats become more of a reward and less of a motivator.
The toy game also went well – not only because of the wrapping, but also because of the dropping of the toy to go to the next one! That is an important skill for her because she loves her toys so much!>> These were done last week so a bit old and I think she has made more progress. If she is now in the offering stage where she will go back and forth before you present the cookie or toy, you can move to sitting in a chair and then standing up. That will give her an even better foundation for the turn and burn game that we start on Wednesday.
Great job!!
TracyHi!
Focus forward is looking good! For the next steps, we are going to add even more of your motion – ty to start him your side rather than between your feet, so he can both drive forward and turn towards you when he gets the toy.On the reps at the beginning where he was better you feet, he turned left even when you were on the right turn side, probably because he is a lefty. On the last couple of reps where you started him on your side, he turned correctly to his right. Yay!
You can also start to move a little more, but don’t race him til you see him really start to run to the toy.The decel looked really good too! Nice job getting your cookie hand really low so his head was low as he turned. Nice timing on the pivots! The game we added this week (the decel sandwich) builds on this and I think he is ready 🙂
I loved his little wagging tail on the wing wrap foundations! So cute! He did well here too! So since this went well, two adjustments for the next session:
– move the 2 plates further back, past your knees, so he has more room to go back and forth.
– when he can go back and forth between the plates with them further back, you can bring in an upright for him to go around too.On the prop game – he did really well with the foot targeting here! So before you add more distance away from it, start to toss the treats more – when you click, you can toss the treat off to the side instead of hand it to him at the prop. That will get him running to grab the treat, then running back to smack the prop.
If that goes well in the next session, you can then move to the first prop game (sending).Great job!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
I loved your super quick response when she got to the toy by running the other way and rewarding with a great reward – I am sure you will have a great retrieve very soon!
The other handlers were not as quick to do that, so Annalise and Amy can do what you did: turn and run away and trade for a cookie.
I thought it was a great way to make the retrieve SUPER fun! And you offered great advice about getting the toy back by trading for a treat – that makes is so much nicer for everyone 🙂The backing up is going well! After the first reward for backing up, you don’t need to keep tossing treats because I don’t think he is choosing to back up at that point, I think she is just eating LOL! I mean, she is not sad about it 🙂 but you will get more backing up by calling her into your feet for the next cookie drop, and then delaying the reward for backing up by a step or two. Take a ping pong approach to building more distance: You can sometimes reward for 1 step, then 3 steps, the n2 steps, then wait for 4 the n1 then 2…. which will add the distance more gradually 🙂 And you can also work this getting her to back on onto a dog bed – we added more about that the week.
Great job!!!
Tracy
Hi!
I am glad she is feeling good and back in action!!!! She looked happy to be working here!She was bouncing the line really well when you had the angles pretty open and she added strides as soon as you started to flatten the angles out. So to help her keep bouncing, 2 ideas:
– start her really close to the wing and bar so she has to liftoff from the sit
– overlap the wings even more to shorten the distance, or if they were already fully overlapped, you can use a wingless upright and have both weave poles sitting on it (maybe one In the 4 inch cup and the other in the 6 inch cup). We want to find the sweet spot distance where she will still bounce as the angles get flatter.Great job here!! Tracy
