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Hi! You did a great job here, and so did he 🙂
Yes, rewarding across the body with the opposite hand feels WEIRD at first, right? But what it does is that it opens up your shoulder very fast on the exit of the blind, so he sees connection immediately. This helps you make a fast connection and he picks up the side change immediately. Perfect! Think down the road when you are doing those crazy tight blind on course – this connection will really help!You can also do this with a toy in the reward hand, he will like that 🙂 And, if you have someone to hold him, you can do this as a restrained recall: rather than tossing a cookie, you can have someone gently hold him while you run away. Then call him, they let go, and you do the blind.
Great job here!
TracyHi! This was such a fun session!
Her drive ahead to the toy was great here and you were effectively counterconditioning her desire to run off with it but running the other way with a new toy. Super! You can see if she will bring it a bit further by moving away sooner, before she even arrives at it. But even if she does not bring it further, no worries, because she is NOT running off with it. YAY!>> getting some drive which she does not have much of at this point. I will hold off on some things I was doing (RDW, channel weaves). We will do the touch game with the toy, too.>>
I think she has plenty of drive! Is she a deranged loony tune? No, thankfully hahaha! She is doing GREAT. And, as you build up reinforcement procedures and teach her body awareness, I would totally wait on the RDW and weave stuff. That is really complex stuff that requires retrieving, forward focus, body awareness, etc. It will be easier to teach all that when she is more adult and more experienced. She is doing great!
TracyGood morning!
He looked great here!!! Since he says that this is now easy, we can add challenge two different ways:
– open up the angles a little bit so the yare easier… and raise the bars 2 more inches 🙂 Everything else remains the same, no need to tighten things when the height is harder.
or
– open up the angles a little bit, leave the bars where they were here… and add more motion to the moving target 🙂 You can be jogging and eventually build up to running. The challenge becomes: Can he stay organized like he was here, but with the added distraction of more motion?
They sound like subtle changes but they are not LOL!!! And eventually we will merge the 2 together, ending up with higher bars AND you running with the moving target 🙂
Great job! Let me know how he does!
TracyHi!
>>It was very windy.Yes! Eek! But she seemed to ignore it 🙂 She was great here!!!
>>She did well so I tightened the angle.
That was the correct thing to do. She did super well with it – the only hard part was she wasn’t always sure where to look for the reward. Sometimes she looked up at you, sometimes had to look for the reward. So, if she will hold the stay long enough (the stays looked great here!) you can go to the moving target/dragging toy. That will also add more stimulation and challenge for her – she is ready for it!
And you can also mix in going back to 2 jumps and raising the bars just a little bit. That will be harder too, but again – I think she is ready for it.
>> I think she is really learning from this course and has gained a lot of muscle 🙂 Not sure if she is using her rear, though.>>
I am glad you see the difference in muscle! Much of this is based on conditioning exercises, so the dogs should be gaining muscle and also gaining core strength. And yes – she is using her rear 🙂 I think she looks great!
Let me know how she does with the moving target!
TracyGood morning! She did really well on these!
You made a good adjustment to move off her landing spot when you released her, on the first rep she couldn’t release because you were standing in the landing spot LOL! the rest all looked good.
>>Although Changtse’s rt rear foot is off the plank in the last 2 clips, #8 & #9, it looks like she is lining herself up for the turn.
Sometimes this happens because they are fatigued or they don’t understand… but I don’t think that is the reason here 🙂 What happened on those 2 reps (:54 and the last rep) was that you were blocking the wing then stepping to your left so for a heartbeat, it looked like a slice cue and not a wrap cue… so she was setting up a slice. Good girl! Then when you cued the sit for the wrap, it was too late for her to adjust.
Compare your position and movement on those, to the first two reps (especially the rep at :17) – on those, you were where the wing and bar met, so she could see the wrap wing, and you didn’t move to your left at all. So she nailed the wrap organization. Good girl!
So as she comes around the wing, even if you are moving forward, be moving to where the wing and bar meet so she has the visual of the whole wing. She doesn’t need you to step outside of the wing to show it to her, because that changes the cue and she correctly should change her approach.
And if she does end up with a back leg off the plank, ask her to get on the plank fully before you release her, so she can push off equally with her back feet.
Nice work here! Do one more session like this but with you showing her the wing, then I think we can begin the fading process!
Tracy
Good morning!
She is doing well on all of these! As you move to the next steps, I want you to be a total stickler for mechanics and reward placement, because they are super important to get the correct form.Wrap organization:
She did really well with you facing her – nice organization! And she has the concept of th eplank and the sits. Super!! Because this is a wrap collection, you will always be close to the wing (at 2:36 you were in an extension position several feet past the wing so she was confused about the collected sit). Since she did well with the sit here, we can move to the next step:
Instead of facing her on the landing side, you will be in the wrap position where you are on the ‘takeoff’ side of the wing (basically next to her). If you visualize where a bar would be, you can tuck yourself in between the plank and the wing so you are both facing the same direction with the bar in front of you. And, rather than let her loop herself back around to the plank, start her either from a cookie toss or a stay so she can approach the plank straight on with you already in the wrap position. The demo videos have all this if my words don’t make sense LOL!
Zig zags – she is doing well here too but she is too far from jump 1 and facing straight, which changes the form. Remember to start her right next to the first wing, with her shoulder next to it, so she leaves the sit when released and begins the jumping as a slice immediately, rather than taking a few strides straight into it.
This starting point will be significantly harder, so you can open up the angles a little bit and you don’t need to make things harder on each rep like you did here. The progression to the flatter angles will take a few sessions because starting up close is harder.
Also, this is a good spot to add in the moving target rewards (dragging toy) so she gets to practice her organization with more motion added, which simulates what will happen on course.
Slice organization – She is doing well with her sits here too! On the next session, a reward target will help a lot – she is organizing on the plank nicely but looking at you (because the reward is in your hands: so her jumping form is upright (ideally she is looking down and not up). A reward target will help that – you can place a manners minder (or food bowl or toy) about where you were tossing the rewards, but not more treats from your hands on this game 🙂 All rewards come in the reward target. That will also allow you to add more of your motion.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>With the toy in each hand, do I tug lightly/calmly then wait for her to let go or ask her to release and wait for her to go to the other side?
Tug a little, then let the toy go “dead” and if she has a great ‘out’ cue, you can use it. Otherwise, juts wait. You can practice this on the flat without the upright, to establish the back and forth like you did with the cookie bowls.
>>Put the dead toy away on my lap or under my arm?
Nope! They can stay out there, like the cookie bowls were. Doing it that way is also a nicely stealthy way to add self-control 🙂
>>Is there any benefit to using a real wing rather than the upright? I have wings I could use, too.
It is too soon for the real wing 🙂 We have things to add before we get those added 🙂
>>We plan to do the blind cross foundation today outside. I tried it in the house this morning but there just wasn’t enough room and I came too close to walking into walls when looking back at her. It will be safer for me outside>>
Oh yes, safety first! You definitely need room to run with the blinds 🙂
Have fun!
TracyPerfect! It is great for his brain, and then will also be useful when you are cleared to go to more exciting areas 🙂
Tracy
Hi! She is such a fun girl!!!!
She did well with this game. You can help her out with a couple of little adjustments:Try the shaping stuff with you in a chair or sitting on the floor – that lowers you so she is more likely to look adown at the thing and less likely to look up at your face 🙂
Also, hold the prop in your arm pit 🙂 til she gets to you at the start of the session… then put it down. That moment of putting it down will immediately draw her attention to it, so you can then get that first reward in right away. If it is already on the floor when she approaches you, she is less likely to notice it and interact with it.
Once she got rolling, she was great about hitting it! It think there are a lot of visual distractions in the training building, so you don’t need to toss the reward quite as far LOL!! And be sure to break up the sessions with some tug parties 🙂
Nice work here! You can do one more session of value building like you did here, then move to the send game 🙂
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
She did really well with the wrap foundations!! She got the back-and-forth rhythm established really well on the bowls and cone contraption, and easily transferred it to the jump upright. Super!!!You don’t need to add any more distance between you and the wing upright at this point, but we can add 2 other things:
– brng the wing upright back in very close to you, and replace the bowls with a toy in each hand 🙂
– bring the wing upright back in closer, and try this with you standing up 🙂 but still using the cookie bowls.The reason to bring the wing upright in closer to you is because the addition of the other variables (the toys or you standing) will make things harder at first, and we want her to set up for success.
Great job with the pivots, she looks amazing!!! We can build in more fun stuff as we add the pivots here too 🙂
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Nice work with the foot target prop sends! She did really well!At :31, you started from a little ready dance moment and look at how fast & snappy that send was! Nice! This is the best rep here!
So be sure to start each rep very systematically: get the reward ready, engage her with the ready dance… then send. I think you were sending before the reward was ready and without that moment of engagement so the reward was delayed and sometimes she was unsure of when to go to the prop. The ready dance makes it very clear with a “ready, set… NOW!” rhythm.
You can also reward the effort of getting her feet near the target even if it is not a perfect front foot hit or if it is hard to see – I think you were questioning some of them but they all looked good to me! This will eventually turn into jump commitment so you don’t need perfectly precise front foot hits as long as she is hitting it somewhat decently 🙂
>> We had started some ‘go to mat & get some rear feet’ so there is some confusion there.>>
Actually, I don’t think she was confused about the RDW mat – what she was doing here was hitting with front feet while setting up the turn back to you, which is very clever! Perfect! The RDW mat is trained a bit differently – and to make sure there is zero confusion, I suggest skipping the RDW stuff til after we are finished wit the prop games here 🙂
And you can also play this game with a toy reward – probably a smaller one than the fabulous green toy you had here but you can reward her from you hand with tugging instead of treats too!
Speaking of toys… the driving forward look great!! You can definitely add more distance and add your motion as well. Begin by sending her while you walk forward, then build up to jogging and running as long as she continues to drive straight.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! More lovely work here!!!
Dead toy versus live toy looked great! Good boy! He very quickly figured out that when one toy goes dead, he should head to the other side. And I love how you were singing to him at the beginning, then being quiet to let him choose, then being very exciting with your praise again – perfect!
The cookie bowls game went really well too – try to have several cookies in each hand, so you can do a quick drop with the cookies without having to reload. He was watching your hands a bit because he saw the cookies moving as you grabbed the next one 🙂 If the cookie hands barely move, he will focus no the bowls more.
He did well with the little wing too! You can start each session with the cookies dropped in the bowl t help jump start the back and forth rhythm of the session, session, then let him start offering.
For the next session, move the bowls back to be parallel to your knees so he has a little bit more distance to travel. And, you can also replace the bowls with the dead toy- live toy version of this, starting just as you did on the first video here on the flat.
Great job! Keep me posted!
TracyHi!
>>but because you stop and looking at the dog dog stops and you getting Refusal
So important to practice, stop motion, looking at the dog, but asking him to by path you and touch the object ( jump the jump)>>100% yes!!! We are teaching the pups to drive past the handler to commit to the obstacle, whether the handler is stopped or sideways or backwards – the pup will learn to go to the thing 🙂 For now, it is just a foot target (because a foot target is easy!) but it transfers incredibly well to wings and jumps when the pups are old enough. The pups raised this way have turned out to have excellent commit and gorgeous turns <3
He did really really well!!!! I think you can be a little closer on the first rep of each session - you were a little far so he had some questions at first. And, for this game, you don't have to send him away to get a cookie to start: you can have him in front of you, doing a silly dance (ready ready ready....!) then show the send arm/leg/connection. That will increase his commitment by teaching him the difference between handler focus (the ready dance) and the send cue (commitment).
With all the pups at this point we begin to see a side preference... are they a lefty or a righty? He is a lefty 🙂 I say that because when he was not sure which way to turn to find you, he *always* chose to turn left even when the right turn is what you wanted.
So on some reps when you started him on your left, he would turn left to come back to you which is turning away from you. since we want him to turn towards you on these (like a FC), we are going to set him up to see the right turns more clearly by having you line him up on your left with you further off to the side, Then send him to the prop with your left, and as he hits it, step to your right as you do the FC to encourage him to turn to his right.
And if he turns left when starting on your left? No worries, reward anyway, and move further to your right on the next rep. All puppies have a side preference at this stage and it balances out later on.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
He was a super good boy with this drive to handler game! Yay! He was driving directly to you beautifully on all 3 videos here. Super!!!!One thing to add: when you are recalling him, be sure to let him see you decelerate (you can go from walking to standing still) then pivot slowly. You were going fast and pivoting fast, so he didn’t always have a chance to adjust his striding to slow down and turn.
On the 2nd video here, you moved more slowly in your pivots and he was at his best, making a great turn. Yay!! He was able to bend him body and turn precisely with you.
On the first video you had a little too much speed on the pivots, and deinitely on the 3rd video things were moing very fast LOL! So, as he gets to you, pivot at the slower speed you did on the 2nd video and it will be perfect 🙂
When you add the FCs, be sure that you are turning towards him and he is turning towards you – he was turning away from you (which will will add later :)) so for now move slowly enough that h ecan read the turn cues. As he gets bigger and more experienced, you will be able to add back your speed 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! Another fabulous session! She is so fun to watch 🙂
I *think* we are seeing the tiniest bit of a side preference here: she seems to find it easier to do the right turn (heading from your left hand to your right hand) than the left turn (heading right hand to left hand). The left turn was the one where she offered going between you can the cone, and on a couple of other reps she had to think a little harder about it. The reason I love to find the side preference is because it helps inform our training: I teach new concepts to the strong side first, to reduce the multi-tasking. We’ve seen that this will speed the concept learning, then it is much easier to transfer to the non-dominant side.
So for this game, start the sessions with her no your left so she turns to her right first, because it is a good way to refresh things and then for that first rep of moving the cones further away, have it be when she is on your left so she is turning right.
>>You can see that I helped her once by placing one of my feet forward for a sec when I pushed the cone further away to get her started. I might not have needed to do that…>>
I think it was fine to do that, it was super subtle but also salient, and it certainly didn’t hurt anything! You increased the challenge by moving the cone further away so you gave her a little help. That was a right turn, so she might not have needed it, but definitely feel free to help as needed when she is turning left.
The only thing I would add to this now is to move the cookie bowls a little further back behind you: they were parallel to your toes here, so you can move then back so they are parallel to your heels or even a few inches past that. The goal for moving them back is to give her more room, a full body length or so, so she can get the cookie and turn fully around to approach the cone wrap. This will lead nicely into the other games coming up soon!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
