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Great to see you too, as we ran past each other trying to get to all the various rings! LOL!!
Wink looked GREAT at the Open! Congrats!!!!! And she should get some well-earned time off for sure.
>>I don’t think I’ll be done by the end of November so will you offer this class again (right after :-)?
I am heading home from a flyball tournament so I will look at the calendar tomorrow. Other folks have asked the same question. I won’t start it from the beginning again any time soon (the MaxPup class has started and it becomes pretty full time with something like 180 registrants, eek!). Maybe we can do an extension through Jan? I will take a look 🙂
>>How long will the material be available after the class closes?
Lifetime access! Available forever or you can download it too.
T
Hi!
Super nice session here! She definitely did not mind playing in the drizzle and also her victory leaps were HILARIOUS! Love her!
Great job with the transition to the hold Yes, the treat was definitely the winner and she was good about NOT moving away from you. Also, a big click/treat to you for not moving her around by the collar if she was sideways: most dogs do NOT like when we do that and you were great to just start her from whatever position she was in when you started the game.
>>I don’t think the treats are taking away from her toy drive, but I’m aware of it as a possibility now after watching & listening to the live class.
I agree, she appears to have pretty balanced food & toy drive! The toy was exciting and that really helps, and we will definitely keep an eye out to make sure she doesn’t have any reduced toy drive when food is in the picture.
Since this went so well, you can totally add more of your motion. You were walking forward, and she was fine with that. So now try to run more, and build up to trying to race her 🙂 You might win! OK, probably not, she is very fast haha, you might have to cheat to win LOL!!
Great job here!!! Onwards to the races!
TracyHi!
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Hope that helps!
Tracy
Hi! This session went well too, far better than you described it LOL!!
Yes, have your cookies ready before you do the send at the beginning.
>>I tried to engage in play with her before I did the send position but she was offering to target the hat before I cued it.
It just means she ha sa lot of value for the hat, so you can reward her for sticking with you during the ready dance with a cookie 🙂 Then be sure to make crisp clear send – I think you were good on the sending. And when you are sideways or backwards, be sure to look at her and then as you send, look at the prop so she goes past you to it.
>>Should I play with her with a toy and then send her.
Yes – you can play with a toy, then do the ready dance (reward her for staying with you) and then send. You can reward the send with toy play (be sure the send hand is NOT the hand with the toy, the send hand should be empty for now).
>>She seemed a little distracted and I gave her a potty break but that wasn’t the issue.
I think right at the very end she was looking around a little – it could be that she had too many cookies in a row and she prefers the action of the toy. In that case, you can mix in toy play between cookie rewards. It could also be that she doesn’t understand the value yet of engaging with you during the ready dance, so definitely add more dance parties and reward her for staying with you til sent 🙂
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! This went really well overall – the main thing is that you can pivot more slowly 🙂 It is a decel cue so you should be decelerated, not pivoting fast.
Your first rep had decel then pivot, that was great!
>>early on she once came between my legs instead of to my hand and side.
Yes – that was rep 2 where there was no decel, only pivot LOL so she read it as a blind cross.
>> I just gave her a cookie and started again. Is that the right thing to do
Yes, that was totally correct – reward her effort because it was handler error.
>>was my position the reason that happened? I
It was that you were moving and then suddenly pivoted. On the reps after that, you had more decel then a pivot and she was great!
>>Then, I tried to do it with no food in my hand and a toy reward at the end. The first time it worked and the next time I had food in my hand which I gave her but I think I should have gone ahead and played with her with the toy. >>
Either way, you rewarded her and sorted it out. Part of the reason we do these simple games to start with is to sort out handler mechanics before we add speed and fanciness 🙂
>>Then I think I tried to turn too much before giving her the toy. The last two times I didn’t try to rotate all the way before I played with her and felt like that was more successful. >>
Yes – you did a couple of full 360s and you didn’t need to. I agree that the last couple of half turns looked great!
>>I feel like my reinforcement timing or placement is just off a little and not sure exactly what I am doing
You are sorting it out and click/treat for you to add in the reinforcement markers!! I hear some very good “BITE!” Moments there. You don’t need “ok” then bite, just bite is good because ok is a release from a stationary position.
>>Am I trying to go to quickly with adding more difficult things or is it something else.
I think you were just handling all the moving parts and sorting it out. Remember to move slowly and have your rewards planned in advance. This was a good session.
>>I might have been talking too much again and not being quiet.
No, you were good here! Stop beating yourself up!! LOL!
On the next session, just add pivoting more slowly and planning the reinforcement more and you’ll be perfect!
Tracy
Good morning!
>>She wasn’t super excited about this game
That is actually a good way to start – if she was too excited, she might blast by you and not decelerate. So having things be a little chill is helpful for getting the decel!
Great mechanics with the cookie session! She saw a definite transition from you moving to you stopping and then the pivot. She kept her butt nicely in line. And yes she was not totally stimulated but that is great for a first session – I prefer the dog to be a little chill to learn this then we can easily stir them up 🙂
The dance party before the cookie tosses in the 2nd session definitely helped bring her to a higher state but not too high, so she had a really good reps on the first couple. Then you brought the toy out – perfect. It added *just enough* excitement that she was more stimulated but did not lose her good decel and pivot. YAY!!!! And having the toy play happen before and after food rewards will also increase the value of the food rewards.
So for the next session, start with the toy play, then toss the first cookie further so she has more speed coming into the decel. Then go right into the pivots – I don’t think she needs you to stop her straight anymore.
And if that goes well, you can use an empty hand to help get her into the decel & pivot, then reward with the toy!
Great job here 🙂
TracyGood morning!
>>I get her crunchy treats for nighttime snacks just to laugh.
Ha! it is really adorable 🙂
>>I know right!!! Paw on cone, paw in bowl hahaha We had been playing, then filming other stuff, and yes this was probably a little boring/easy/repetitive for her. I can definitely raise criteria more quickly–I was purposefully going slower than I usually do.
I don’t know her that well yet, but my guess is that you can probably raise criteria more quickly while abiding by the 2 Failure Rule. If she has one question/error… ok, we take note and try again. But if she has a second failure error in that session, we can dial something back a bit to get success and keep that rate of reinforcement really high. With the baby puppies (like my 16 week old pup), I like to slice things much thinner and for longer, but I thinks Mai is ready for us to move forward faster 🙂
>>I laughed when you said “…if she remembers”. I’m pretty certain she’ll remember but I’ll back off on criteria to get us started and raise criteria more quickly. Thank you for the ideas of where to go next.>>
I always remind myself that teenagers may not remember something because they wake up with a different brain that day LOL!!!
T
Hi!
>>She was less pumped up for the prop sends, I think because that was the last thing we did. Maybe the session went too long. I felt like I wore both of us out with all the jumping in my dance. So yeah, definitely will try a calmer dance nest time>>
I think she was so focused on the dance and leaping around that she was not as focused on the prop. The quieter dance to build anticipation will help get a snappier prop send 🙂
>>So when I do the send with a toy you mean send her to the prop and reward with the toy?
yes – the toy is the reward rather than food 🙂
Let me know how it goes!
TracyI am so glad you are enjoying her, she is definitely a joy to watch on the videos! So fun!!!
>>That said, I’d say she’s full blown adolescent now at 10-1/2 months and every so often working through some confidence issues when exposed to certain things so I did sign up to audit the Teenage Brains and Arousal, Resilience and Engagement workshops.>>
OMG this adolescent stuff is fascinating and has changed my approach to teenage dogs entirely 🙂 It will be such a fun webinar!
TracyHi!
She definitely loves her toy races!! Good luck trying to win, we might have to cheat haha! She felt the pressure of you running the first time you did the toy race, so she was a bit wide on her path, but then she was VERY straight on the last rep. We do see some victory laps on the toy races because there is actually a bit of pressure for the pups. So if she needs a few seconds to run and shake the toy – perfectly fine! You ca n mentally count to 3 then call her to chase you. I think she did really well here! You can do another session of this and then we will try to figure out a plan to cheat so you might be able to win LOL!
Decel and turn – you were a little late o the first rep so she was surprised but then you were earlier on the other reps so she nailed it. She is powerful terrier, so definitely add in the pivots so she can keep her butt in straight And the pivots should be slooooow for now – you were going fast and you don’t need to – partially because we need the decel for turns, and partially so you don’t get dizzy 🙂 The double pivots looked great too!
Prop sends are ring all too. You can do. The ready dance but you don’t need to get her jumping up as much because we don’t want her to think any bitey thoughts LOL! We want her muscles to get tense but it can be a calmer ready dance so all four feet stay on the ground. That will make the sends even clearer and clearer for her.
Her sends were lovely! Try this with a toy 🙂 and if she is fine with that, add more distance 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! Great job on all of these sessions – he is so fun!
Toy drive right side: Either my computer was acting up or there was no sound on these videos. So I will assume you said all the right things because he looked GREAT! AND he was great with the retrieve, what a good boy. My only suggestion is to look at him more (connection) before you let go, to practice the connection you will use on course.
He is DEFINITELY ready for more action here, you can add more distance, add your motion, and go to the advanced level of racing 🙂
Very clever to do the decel from crate games! He was fabulous here too – when you were stationary, he came in straight with no butt-swinging to the side. YAY! Excellent hand position when you were standing still AND when you were adding the pivots. He looked great on the pivots too, very bendy.
You turned a little sooner when he ws on your left (for the pivots) and that was great – you were a little later on the start of the pivots on your right, so you can be earlier by starting them just before he arrives at your hand.
>>Sid with fairly decent turns, think we worked too long
I think the length of session was good but maybe all the cookies chilled him out too much. So you can add more toy breaks – for example, do a recall to the pivot, reward with the cookie, then have a tug party to add more action and excitement to it all 🙂
Sending to the target looked great too. Your mechanics were spot on: good use of dog side leg and arm , and rewarding back at you for the turn. I think he can do this one with a toy too: The empty hand sends him and then the comes back for the toy in your other hand
One cool thing that was happening here was the beginning of coutnermotion. You were releasing the send before he got to the target on most of the reps, so he was seeing the commitment even though you were starting to move away a bit. He was QUITE good at going to the target on. These, I think he only had one where he stopped a little short when he saw you releasing the send arm and leg. You did a lovely job of sometimes tossing the reward to the target too. Yay!Try the next send session with a toy and see how he likes it!
>>Sid being, well Sid. AND yes he pushed it with his nose
OMG This video was great! He is so fun! I am so glad you got this on video, I love to see the pups being pups LOL! Then he got right back to work, backing up on it when cued and also sending when cued. SUPER! Good boy <3
Great job on all of these - let me know how he does in the next sessions!
Tracy
Hi there! Lovely session here!
At the very beginning, you made an excellent adjustment to wait til she was done chewing LOL! It always cracks me up when a dog chews.
She was a superstar to offer going to the other bowl without the cookie in it! I couldn’t really tell if she is a lefty or a righty, she seemed pretty happy to do both directions equally. That is great! My guess is that also has to do with your experience and skills in dog training – she is pretty coordinated 🙂
>>The session was a bit long given our other activities and training this morning so I stopped it at paw-in-bowl lol
The paw in bowl was pretty hilarious. And she had tried to whack the cone a few seconds before LOL! It is possible that the length of the session wasn’t causing the freestyle paw hits… it is possible that the behavior was too easy/reptitive and you needed to up the criteria. So on the next session, start with a quick refresh of where you left off here and if she remembers, add in the upright and immediately make it further away by a few inches, or try it with you in a chair to change your position. And if she is still doing well, you can add a little more distance between you and the upright, or change your position to standing up.
Because she is an adolescent dog, and not a baby pup we can change the challenges more quickly sometimes. But also because she is an adolescent dog, sometimes they wake up and their brains are totally different and they remember nothing you’ve taught them! No worries if that happens, just do something else and once back to it the next day 🙂
Great job! She is looking fabulous!
TracyHi!
She is such fun pup!! These sessions looked great!!!She definitely seems to think shaping = food! I can relate, a lot of my pups have been like that too LOL!!
So it is perfectly fine to use food in the shaping and build toy drive separately… and then eventually merge them together. No need to ask for toy play yet during food sessions, you can just give her brain breaks by being silly and having her follow your cookie hand to spin or run around.
The foot target looked great – nice value building to start and then the back-and-forth cookie tosses added action (which she really liked).
Based on how well she did here, you don’t need to repeat this session: you can give her a little warm up to refresh the value with the back-and-forth cookie get its that you ended with, then go right into the sending game we added this week.
The hand target also looks super. I think the cheese was refusing to leave your hand LOL!! But she was patient haha. Since she is a foodie, you can try a lower value crunchy food and I bet it is easier. But overall, lovely session! If you wanted to play with the gain, you can add different angles of cookie tossing so she comes to your hand from different angles. But then this can go on the back burner because we don’t need it for a few weeks. She looks great!
>>Is toy drive something we will go over in this class?
Totally yes! The ultimate goal is that the dogs have perfectly balanced drive for food and toys… that takes a while (my dogs often take a year to get that). And since it is all so individual, tell me what she enjoys to play with: anything that is not a toy? Does she still anything or do anything “naughty” like chase feather dusters (I mean, it is OK if you don’t have one because I don’t have one either LOL). Does she love balls or frisbees? Let me know what she likes and we can incorporate it into building up more toy love.
Great job here!! So fun to watch and I am looking forward to more! And oh, I forgot to mention: your timing was excellent when marking the behaviors in both shaping games, so definitely keep that up.
Tracy
Hi!
>>PS – Steve listened to last night’s replay and so he is now:
1) composing dance songs for the sends, and
2) translating her cursing into English for me>>OMG that is awesome! Every dog needs a theme song LOL!!! And I am sure she has big opinions about cursing haha
The session here was terrific – she was great with the cookie section and with the toy section, and you were able to get the upright in AND moved a little away. Hooray!
One thing worth noting: she has a right turn preference in this game (I can’t remember if we decided if she was a righty in the live class?). That is normal and fine – what it means for training is that you can increase the criteria more quickly on the right turns (in this instance, when she is heading to your right hand) and keep criteria easier for the left turns (heading to your left hand in this game). For the right turns, you can wait longer before presenting the food or toy reward. For the left turns, you can present the reward almost immediately, or if she gets stuck at your right hand you can help her out by plopping the cookie into the bowl or by tapping the toy to help her remember that she can turn left too 🙂
I think you will see this side preference even out very quickly, because by the end of the session here she was already turning to her left much more fluidly. SUPER!!!
So maybe dog one more session with you sitting on the floor like this session, and then if that goes well you can try it in a chair and work your way to standing up 🙂
Great job!! Keep me posted!
Tracy
