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Good morning!
Sorry about the weather! Hopefully it goes back to being good soon!
>I have previously done a couple of sessions on back up without much success.>
Have you tried it with a target mat? That can be vey clarifying for some dogs.
He did well here – sitting on the stool was helpful because it saved your knee 🙂 and also kept his head in a natural position for moving back, o you got a lot of really good reps! You can toss the treats even further back so he keeps moving backwards to get it (or he can turn to get it, that is fine too). If the treat is too close, he will stop too close to you 🙂 I try to fling it between the pup’s front feet as if I am shooting a goal past a hockey goalie 🙂
Great job here!!
Tracy
Those are fun! I think you should keep the one-leg-on-arm barfly trick, that would be hilarious!!!!!!!! And good boy, ignoring a BIS!!!!
Good morning!
The wing wrap game is going really well! The only hard part was the chewing factor 🙂 On the first few reps of each video, he had to chew the treat before he could think about going to the next bowl. You slowed things down to let him chew and then he got it really well.
He did really well wrapping the object in the 2nd video. Yay! We saw a bit of a turn preference: he might be a lefty! This is based on him going behind you a couple of times, because it is possible that turning to his left there felt more natural that turning to his right. This is good to know for future game. You responded really well by making the bowl more visible for him. You can also it with your back up against something to take out the option of going behind you.
Since this went so well, you can start the next session where you left off there, but with the object pulled in close to you again as a reminder. Then if he does well, you cn dlay the timing of the cookie drop to see if he will go back to the other bowl on his own (then drop the cookie in). Once he can do that you can move the object out again and also change your position to kneeling or sitting on something low.
Great job here!
TracyHi!
Looking at the toy-barrel game: I agree, ignoring the toy on the ground was HARD!
Since he is food-driven too, have you tried rewarding him for walking away from the toy on the ground, without you holding him or picking him up? That will be very useful and then you can line him up and send to the barrel. His commitment is looking good, so teaching him to ignore the toy on the ground with food rewards will be very helpful.He did well with the food rewards in the 2nd video while there was a toy on the ground. This makes me more sure that the food in the barrel game will help a lot. The toy was a little too close, though – so when you were not using food, he was pouncing on the toy. Have it further away so he can ignore it entirely.
On the BC video – these went well! The first one was great! The othersneeded you to throw the start cookie a lot further away so you had a chance to get the blind in. You can also do the blind earlier: start it the instant you see him take a step towards you. He was reading the side change really well.
>. I did try previously with a toy but couldnt get away from him. he just chased me because I had the toy.>
Do you mean he was skipping the start cookie because you had a toy? You can hide the toy under your shirt or something so it is less enticing 🙂
For the treat tosses – wait a bit longer before you toss them, be sure he is really looking at you. On a some of the reps, yo were a too early so he didn’t look at you. The last rep was perfect! Do them all with that delay to be sure he had really turned his head to look at you.
Prop video:
He has a lot of value of the prop! Yay!
For the parallel path games:He is finding it really well, so you can keep him looking forward even more by using a ‘get it marker. Have the treats ready in your hand and a soon as he hits it (or even just before!) say ‘get it’ then throw the reward. That will help him look forward more, so you can add even more lateral distance. You don’t need a sit for this because I think the releases were a little muddy – the cookie toss will work better for the start.
The sideways and backwards sending is looking really good!
The reps where you sent with your hand AND your foot were super! If you only sent with your hand, he was not as sure, so definitely keep using your foot too.He was finding it hard to go past your hand on some of the reps here! So be sure there are no cookies in it, and you can mark and reward for when he passes it (even if the prop hit is not perfect).
Nice work here!
TracyHi!
I watched it a couple of times to see if he was losing enthusiasm of the pouncing – he was actually really happy to play on all of these reps of parallel path and the other 2 games as well. Good boy!I think what you were seeing about less pounce was because of 2 things:
– he was realizing that the parallel path is not a pounce/stop behavior, but instead it is a ‘keep moving’ behavior. So he adjusted his striding accordingly. He still had a lovely pounce on the countermotion sends!
– the other thing was that the reward was coming while he was looking at you for a few steps, so he was looking at you more on all of the games.
So for all of these games, let’s get the reward thrown ealier so he looks at you less and at the line more. You can do this by having the treat already in your hand, then mark with a ‘get it’ and throw it as earlier as possible. That will tell him where to look and he will look his line more.
>He did do a few of the rears ending on the proper side without the spin but I got the sense that he thought the prop was his cue to spin. What is the best way to address this issue?>
I agree that by the end he ws really figuring out the RC!! What was happening was that he was looking at you a lot by then, which made it hard for you to get to the new side early enough to show the turn before he got to the spot (that is when he spun the wrong way at first).
So the RCs will really benefit from having the treat already in your hand and then throwing the treat early before he looks at you. That will get him driving ahead more, so you can get to the other side before he gets to the prop, which means you will get the correct turns.
This might mean he doesn’t actually hit the prop all that well, but that is perfectly fine! We are starting to shift away from the prop and onto lines/baby jump concepts, so hitting the prop is not that important – but looking forward and fast rewards are very helpful.
Great job here! Let me know what you think.
Tracy
Hi!
These are all looking good!>1. Backup to some stacked dog beds>
Really nice, and has a bit of ‘wobble’ to it.
>2. Backup to an elevated dog bed with the front feet off and angled against a chair>He did well here too, but I would skip the angle for now – my sports vet colleagues forbid this for puppies 🙂 because their shoulders are just not ready for it. Some (most?) say never to the angle/headstand to protect the shoulders especially in herding dogs, and a couple till stay it is OK in adult dogs. So keep the angle low and you can add challenge the of stepping over something
>3. Pattern game 15 feet from the ring then <10 feet from the ring>
Super nice! You can add in the cookies being up and down so he can get experience moving less and get ready for the tight quarters near the start area.
>4. Turn and burn around a big traffic cone>He loves this game! You did forward and back, and 360s, so don’t forget the right angles (your line will be L-shaped) because he will see a ton of good countermotion on that too.
>5. Some hand touch stuff 6. Voluntary collar grab>
Also really good! Have you shaped him to put his head into a leash loop yet? That is a fun one.
Also, does he do any goofy tricks? Those are great for being in tighter quarters too – thinking ahead to when he is getting ready to be in a lineup waiting for a turn in the ring.
Last question: does he sleep well at trials? Just curious to know if he can rest well. If not, we can work on strategies to get him sleeping he can rest & recover. If so – rock on! Woohoo!
>He had lots of fun and we also played with his tug toys in various places around the ring and outside in the grass yards.
We also signed up for some kind of little puppy training thing tomorrow and Ginger and her new puppy will be there too I think. >All of this is great! A fun, busy weekend 🙂 Keep me posted! Nice work here!
Tracy
Good morning!
OMG! Look at her being a pattern game rock star here! And this was after a play session WITH THE OTHER PUP STILL PRESENT!!! This is lovely! I would think it would have been harder because she would have been super stimulated, or focused on Rou, or… NOPE! She was quite brilliant here 🙂
You can add in walking back and forth more, which opens up more distraction opportunity as well as makes it easier to transfer to places (like classes/trials/seminars) where you would have to move her to difference places in the area.
>She does work in the living room and I’m trying to give her more freedom. But, she struggles to settle versus get into mischief.>
Yes, she is a high energy busy lady. She reminds me of my Jitterbug who was in perpetual motion at that age. The whippety creatures would be upside on beds wondering why the herdy creature was making up his own adventures in the house LOL I think the house tours will be fun because you can introduce a new area one at a time, using a pattern game or maybe even a simple prop game.
>Bonus…she peed twice in the backyard!>
This might be the biggest and most important breakthrough of the last couple of weeks. We really need her to potty in different places so you can expand her work by taking her places!
Great job here 🙂
TracyWow, first time in a class environment and he was able to do all of that? That is really super! I am proud of him for being able to ignore the challenges of being in a class and work with you 🙂 What a good boy! Click/treat to you both!!! What tricks is he working on?
Tracy
Excellent question! I would bring the pop up crate because I can’t remember him seeing a giant cone at home? But I haven’t had a lot of coffee yet so maybe I will remember after more caffeine hits haha!
That way you can try Turn And Burn with something familiar then ask him if he understands the concept applied the cone in the new place.
>If I do use the big cone should I do any of the earlier steps in wrapping 1st?>
Yes, since the cone is new. And if he says it is easy, you can move right into the turn and burn game.
>If I do the parallel path I am thinking I should do some basic hits on the prop 1st since we have not done that anywhere else.>
Yes – give him a warm up on the simple stuff and let him tell you if he recognizes it. If he doesn’t (that would be normal) then you can do a session of just value building for it there. If he does recognize it, then you can do parallel path.
Have fun! Keep me posted!
Tracy
Good morning!
>I wasn’t sure if I was on track to the jump and thought I could peek while he was wrapping the wing and even though I saw him exit the wing wrap and thought I was connected, he said that was not ok. He definitely reads eyeballs!>
Young dogs see everything! And they tell us all about it if we are not correct LOL!!
The concept transfer session went GREAT! This is actually a hard game that you and Aelfraed made easy peasy! His commitment is strong and your handling was spot on!
The only real malfunction was it looked like the food ball toy kept popping open when it landed. And having The setup mixed into all the other obstacles around on course is actually a good prep for what courses will look like when he is grown up: Stuff everywhere that he has to ignore to stay on his line!I think all of the RCs to the left were pretty perfect! And he only had one question to the right, at :46, which looked like you needed to move more to the jump after you changed sides. And that is exactly what you did on the rest of the right turn RCs. Lovely!!
The Go reps were strong too, great job mixing them in! He glances at you sometimes so you can mix in a placed reward sometimes so you can kind of race him to it – and if you win, you party without him haha! That way he will recognize the acceleration forward as the Go to leave you behind and get to the reward first 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
>It seems that when she knows pork is in the picture she gets “sticky”. Reluctance to tug Could also be that she finally lost her last baby tooth (upper canine) last night and was a bit sore.>
These are both entirely possible! And it could be that right hip pain still being ouchy – at 1:38 she had a weird movement after coming around the wing. I don’t think she was looking for a dropped treat, it was more like looking back at her right side? Hard to know for sure, I wish she spoke English 🙂
One thing to try as we sort it out is to start a session with toy play. Then work the session with food. Then end with throwing the toy around and letting her chase it. We can see how that goes (keep the food portion short so she doesn’t get bored 🙂 )
>I’m not as timely tossing food vs toys so she was turning back to me after the jump looking for the reward.>
Since she really likes food now (do I remember correctly that as a baby pup she was not that into food?) you can also introduce a lotus ball as the food carrier for when you want to throw food. Treat huggers are great too.
I am also curious to see if you start sessions like this from a ‘ready dance’ instead of the stay.
Very nice rear crosses here! Right was a little better than the left turns, mainly because the RCs were later on that side. An example is at 1:25 – she is approaching takeoff and you were still on the right turn side, so she turned her head over the bar and turned left after landing. Compare that to 1:04 where you were on the new side a stride before she took off for the right turn.
The bowl helped her lock on the line and also yo were super quick to get to the new side on the last couple of reps!
The right turn RCs were also fresh off doing a bunch of Go reps, so you can mix in Go reps in between the left turn RCs too. When you do them, though, ave the Go verbal only for the straight lines, and the left/right for the turns. You were saying Go here for most of the line and left/right at the very end, which is possibly confusing if you want straight or a turn. For the RCs, you can be saying left/right or if you want to support commitment more, try a jump verbal for now (which we will eventually take off too and stick with left/right).
>Afterwards we took a “free-walk” around the park letting her sniff and just be a pup.>
That is a fun thing to do after training! Great job here!
Tracy
Hi! The reps here looked really good! When you got far enough ahead to be fully visibly on the new side, she was perfect 🤩 On the couple of reps where she turned back to the original direction, you weren’t quite as fully visible on the new side as you were on the other reps – baby dogs need rear crosses to be very obvious, and she was QUICK to grab those cookies and look up! It gets easier when she figures out the pressure of your line is the RC cue.
>I think it’s the allure of freedom in the other room.>
Yes, that was probably it! She had a high rate of success but the excitement of the new area was hard. She was able to hold it together for a couple of reps then had to take a run around in the forbidden zone 🙂 You can do home tours with her to get her to not consider new areas to be forbidden fruit 🙂 by doing pattern games in each new area in the house. And you can do them on leash so she can assess the new area without running around.
Nice work here!
Tracy
Hi!
She had a lot of good reps on the serp/threadle/tunnel proofing here!
One thing with this setup: you can turn the jump 90 degrees (which changes her start position too) so she sees directly into the tunnel (and doesn’t have to turn to get into it). That makes the tunnel entry easier and also more tempting relative to the jump 🙂
>We’re seeing the stall out on the start again. >
Two things can be causing it – either something hurts, or she is unsure of what to do and is abstaining until it is clearer. There is a stress element to it, like the moment at 1:39 when she froze then started to sniff at 1:49 when you dangled the toy.
On some of the frozen moments you were not connected, but on some you were connected, so I don’t think it is a connection issue.
>She saw the chiro on Tuesday, still some soreness in the right hip joint, but not as acute as a couple months ago. I am going to have her X-rays done to make sure there isn’t any structural abnormality that could be causing the soreness.>
Good job looking for any underlying pain! That is a source of the freezing that I have seen in dogs, so we want to make sure nothing hurts.
>(Should have let her continue and rewarded the threadle there as I probably cued that even though I wanted to cue the serp.) >
Yes, you could have rewarded in that moment: she released and the cue was a little unclear (body said threadle, voice only said release). In general, reward a LOT if she is close to correct on these handling games, because errors are almost always human errors 🙂 For example at 2:45 – she came to the correct side of the jump but then there was a disconnection after the threadle. You said tunnel but disconnected and that turned off the physical cue away from the line to the tunnel, so she was not sure what to do. That is rewardable because she was close to correct with the info she had 🙂
Another way to help her not to freeze is to do a rep or two, then switch to a different reward. Maybe chicken on one rep then cheese then a tuggie… keeping things super exciting will possibly keep her in higher arousal, to overcome the freeze ups.
>Also, not sure how best to indicate the tunnel when bypassing the jump – throwing my arm up in the air doesn’t seem like the best approach.
Do you mean the layering? If so, handle it as if the jump is not there – just regular connection and a bit of hand pointing to back to her. That will look different from the arm cue on the serp and threadle, where the arm is waaaaay back and your waist is rotated.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
>He is getting too big and pulls so hard. But that’s on leash so interesting that he would generalize it.>
Pups are excellent at generalizing things like locations/where the value is 🙂
> Is there something I should do differently on that side? Maybe not as far away or change up the distance to do easier and some harder?>
For the loose leash walking, make the cue very obvious with an upright posture and your arm bent with your cookie hand on your stomach. Your left-side training stuff can have an empty left hand, looser posture, swinging arms, more connection to his eyes – he will learn to differentiate the cues.
>Today is going to be break day. It’s nice out so we will go for a good walk. Maybe try the pattern game outside>
Have fun! Enjoy!
Tracy
