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Hi!
This was a really good video to watch and learn about Audie from!!
>>. Looking at the video, I can see how our failure rate increased in the 2nd session. too much for him to have done a 2nd session or I should have rewarded stays more before moving to the exercise. also wonder if I had started the 2nd session with pattern game if that would have made a difference>>
Normally, as you know, I am all for short sessions where we don’t over-work the pups. After watching the video here… he was fine. He was totally engaged, not brain tired or disengaged. All errors were human errors of reinforcement choice, mechanics and connection LOL!!! More below:
In the first part of the session, watching with the sound on… there was a LOT going on in the environment! Barking dogs, people, jangling tags. etc. Good job at the beginning doing some pattern games and some stay rewards. He did really well!!! I would definitely use more toy play. This section (the whole video, actually) was all food reward – using only food reward ends up resulting in too many reps, easy handler disengagement (meaning, you don’t interact with him enough), not enough play, and not enough excitement. So after every treat or 2… get the toy involved and play and engage 🙂
The collection looked great on the first release! And he was able to do the parallel path in extension too, going back and forth between that and the decel.
Three details for this game:
– try not to say “yay” for the cookie thrown ahead on the parallel path, he didn’t know where to look when that was happening.
– for now, stand still in position for the decel before you release, rather than moving into it – there was not enough difference between moving and decel for him to read it fully, so we need to keep it very different looking.
– both the decel and the parallel path can (and should) be rewarded with a toy, not a treat 🙂
I am guessing the 2nd session was at about 3 minutes when things were quieter (and you were doing the serps).
To help solidify the stays during the serps, move to position, show the arm cue… and then throw the reward back to him.
His errors here were mechanics-induced: when you released and didn’t really show a big connection shift to the landing spot (an arm cue to match it), he didn’t know where to be (like at 3:53). This was especially true when it all happened at once, like at 4:40 when you released, moved, put the arm and eyes in position all in the same moment – too much to process!
When you made it clearer by showing the arm and connection shift separately from your motion like at 4:16, or later on when you were moving THEN showed the cue and released (5:16 for example) then he got it every time.
And when you were fully engaged and working each step of the rep (like the rep starting at 5:34, for example), he was terrific! But when you were disengaged (not looking at him, or talking to yourself) – he failed like at 6:06 when you walked away without connection and discussing doing the serps again so he failed. Same thing happened at 6:48 when you turned your back on him and said something about eating clover – he was like “wait what does that mean?”
And on those failures on the serps and stays, he definitely got a ‘sad trombone’ response to the errors… but those were really human errors, so resist the temptation to mark the failure or drop your energy with a sad trombone “nice try”. Just give him a yay and hurry back to reset and start again.
So cleaner training will really help – I don’t think the amount of training was too much for him, I think it was just being sure that you were fully engaged in each rep and showing all the correct mechanics. And definitely get the toy play involved in all of this – there was over 7 minutes of video here and not a single rep with a toy. The toy brings higher arousal, which is great because then he learns it in higher arousal. And the studies behind learning & arousal say that if he learns the skill in the same state (higher arousal) as he has to recall the skill (higher arousal at a trial) then he will have more success. If he learns it in a different state (lower arousal) than he will need to recall it (higher arousal) then he is more likely to fail and be unable to recall the skill and execute it.
It is great to have this on video – it was overall a really nice session and it is fun to see how he gives such great feedback on mechanics!! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Very very nice job on the countermotion session here!! You can add more motion (walking faster, the build to jogging) – two suggestions to get rid of her questions that you saw when she was on your left side.
She was pretty perfect on your right arm at the beginning!
She had questions on the left side but I think she was actually reading your line correctly in a very literal way:At :49 and :57, by the time you released her, you were actually converging onto the rear cross line which presented right turn into. I am pretty sure that you were probably trying to not step on the stuff on the floor so your line was no longer straight. That convergence was causing the right turns when you wanted the left turns. Good news: she pays close attention to all of your cues. Bad news: she pays close attention to all of your cues 🙂 HA!
She has a lot of whippet in her, and I have found that whippety dogs are GREAT at processing visual info incredibly fast (sighthounds, right? Makes sense). I have found my whippety dogs and student whippety dogs to be able to respond to visual cues faster than any other type of dogs… again, it is good news/bad news because it means we humans don’t have as much leeway to show subtle changes in motion in the early days of training.
She sees everything and as a young dog, she is incredibly literal – good girl!!!
Compare your line at :48 and :57 to your line at 1:36 where she had no question: you were moving straight after the exit (no convergence) so she knew it was a left turn.
I thought your line was 1:43 and 1:50 was good too (nice and straight, no convergence) but you were looking at her instead of looking back at the landing, so she didn’t commit (normal baby dog question – eventually you won’t have to look at landing but it is important for now).
On the last 2 reps, you nailed it (1:58 and 2:03) – srtaight line of exit, looking at landng and no convergence. She was perfect!!!
So – keep going with the straight line of exit, give yourself enough room so you can be very straight and not show convergence. And keep reminding yourself to look at landing.
Your toy placement was fabulous!!
Out of curiosity… if you have played with any ball retrieves or foundaiton box turn for flyball, which way does she turn?
Great job!
TracyI can see why you are happy with her, she is AMAZEBALLS. And it looks like you are doing some flyball too which makes me happy 🙂
Hi!
One of my young dogs had almost 18 months(!) away from training due to a luxating patella that was originally misdiagnosed then had to have surgery, etc. So yes, I have ideas for you 🙂I recommend no MaxPup games – there is too much movement. Plus, if Seren is in any pain, we don’t want to build pain into the foundation sport games.
What I did with Hot Sauce was a lot of puzzles: all of her meals were in Toppls or Kongs, generally frozen. So she was VERY happy to stay in her crate or pen and work through those. And she did some of those food puzzle toys that should could use her front feet or nose to work through. I also recommend a snuffle mat, to hide some crumbs in. Sniffing is hard brain work and Seren will be exhausted!
I also made sure that she and I would have some quality alone time together – I sat in an x-pen with her on my lap, watching Netflix and giving her gentle massages or letting her chew a bully stick (all the other dogs were banished to their crates or another room so there was no chaos happening, and no jealousy)
I also found that Trazodone was a very helpful thing in the early days, especially post-surgery. It chilled her out so she didn’t require the same physical activity and was happy with the mental activity.
Does he like to shred things? You can let him shred up old milk cartons or paper towel rolls – just be sure to supervise while he does this so he doesn’t eat any of it.
Keep me posted about how he is doing!
Tracy
Hi!
Her wing wraps looked super lovely! Seems like she had no problem transferring to the wing – and you were getting great turns in both directions. Hooray for left turns that are now as strong as her right turns!!! (Remember back in November when the left turns were so hard? She is fabulous both directions now 🙂
You were leaving earlier and earlier, which is great (especially on the last rep!) You can play with starting further away, so you can do the FC and run the other way before she even arrives at the wing. And if you haven’t added the verbals yet (it was hard to hear), you can totally add your wrap verbals.
My only suggestion is to let her run through the toy rather than let her grab the toy – when she grabs it, she is letting her momentum swing her up in the air and there is a lot of torque on her spine. Letting her run through it gets rid of that – plus, as soon as it is in her mouth, you can turn and run the other way to work on the retrieve too! Yay!
>>How long to we have to post video?
Til February 28th 🙂 Great job here!!
TracyHi!
Thanks for posting it – looking really strong! He seemed happy with the short and sweet collar grabs here before the send!
He is definitely turning to his left perfectly… and when he ended up on the wrong side of you at :13, it was because you looked forward a tiny bit (broke connection) so he read it as a blind cross to his easier side for the left turn. No worries – your response was perfect! You rewarded and then you made an adjustment to very strong connection and then he was perfect on his right turns too. Click-treat for you!!!!
The right turns will get easier but for now, keep making that really big connection, it really helps him.
>>I am working full time this week. So training him just a little early mornings.>
Sounds good! We have til the end of February for posting 🙂
>>Spend time with grabbing collar and rewarding with food 1st then send to a tunnel. He loves his tunnel by now. Still easy turning to the left and not as good to the right. Will fix that.>>
Excellent! That is big progress in a short time. And I know he will get those right turns, he is doing awesome!!!
Enjoy your weekend! Great job here!
Tracy
Hi! I saw Muso’s daddy at a trial today! I didn’t actually get to see him run because I was running back and forth to switch dogs LOL!
I admit to being confused by the sound at the start of the video til I realized it was me in the soon class LOL!!!! But the session looked great – stay was lovely, parallel path was lovely, and I did a BIG HAPPY DANCE that she transitioned into the decel effortlessly. Nice collections! This is going to be so cool to build on and it will make great gorgeous turns so easy. There is not a lot to do with this game other than get her more stimulated with wild tugging, and revisit the skills 🙂
The German Turn/countermotion game looked great too. You really nailed the mechanics on just about all the reps so it was really easy for her. The right turns were perfect. She had a little trouble with the left turns, but that is normal in terms of one side being harder. You made a really good adjustment to just slow things down a little – you moved a little later and threw the toy really well, so she figured it out and the last 2 reps looked super strong. Start with the left turns on the next session and see how she does with those being first!
The lateral send session went well too. I think she moves SO FAST that she needs to see the cue sooner: instead of release *then* send (which was resulting in a slightly delayed response on most reps), you can lead out, point your leg and foot… *then* release. That way she sees the cue before she starts moving and has more time to process it. Just be sure that it is arm/leg, take a breath, then release, so that she doesn’t start to release with the arm & leg movement. I have a video of this somewhere, I will go dig it up and post so you have the visual 🙂
>>I thought the stays were much improved here.>>
Yes! Fabulous! There is a lot of control happening in these games and she was lovely with all of it, and maintained the speed & turns. YAY!!!
Great job 🙂 Have a great weekend, hope it is not too cold!
TracyOh no! I am bummed too!! You don’t know what it is? Hopefully it is an easy fix with some rest – sending healing vibes your way!!! Keep us posted <3
Tracy
She was so cute with her big rawr!
And I noticed all the right turns on the retirve video… so interesting because she is totally a lefty in other situations!Have a great weekend!
TracyHi!
>>In earlier reps, she really drifted on the parallel path & that would also be lack of connection.
Yes – one of the responses to lack of connection is that the pup might drift wide to look at the handler. Other responses include ending up on the wrong side of the handler (which is a good response!) as well as biting the handler 🙂 or sniffing 🙂
Thanks for the link! It looks like a program that is both strong AND afforable 🙂
Have fun!
TracyHi!
>> However, my Kromis have taught Casper how to bark. LOUD. UGH! And with all Casper’s energy, he thinks barking is super fun now.>>
You can totally put it on cue as a trick – super useful for engagement in distracting situations!!!!
>.( and I bet you are saying, wow, she has new jammies pants!>>
Ha! Pajamas are an important element of puppy training (and yes, I am still in my pajamas haha)
he had really nice tugging on the tiny toy at the beginning of the retrieve video and he 1000% retrieved the toy to you on the first rep! He didn’t run off with it on the 2nd rep, and definitely was bringing it towards you after that as well! It was great that you didn’t try to grab for the toy, so it seems like he never felt the need to take it away from you. Happy dance! And he liked your spider fingers tapping the floor too LOL!
I think this was all created through your pressure-less play. And the pajamas, of course LOL! Keep it up!
On the barrel video – he was definitely still pumped up for the toys! And he has good value for the barrel too. I think he was not entirely sure about when to offer the wrap versus when to look at the toy. You can give a cue to wrap the barrel by pointing your arm and leg at it (like you did at 2:22), so he has a bit more clarity of when he can mov away from the toys (or when he should obsess on the toys LOL!).
You can also add a ‘bite’ marker for when he should grab the toy in your hand – so when he wraps the barrel, you can say “bite!” then play with the toy. I have found that to be really helpful for teaching the pups when to “work” and not look at the toy, versus when the toy is available for grabbing.
Perch work looks great! You can alternate which side you toss the cookie too after each rep, so he starts to pivot even more (in anticipation of the cookie being tossed to the other side). He was stopping the center which was really goodm so you can toss the cookie to the other side of you and see if that convinces him to pivot past the center.
He was so funny during the sit session! He was not distracted by your hubby too much at all 🙂 I think the platform might actually bit a bit too small for him now – he has to sit rally tight to hold position on it, but that is physically demanding for him (it is actually something used in conditioning all the time). then when he got tired (muscle tired, not brain tired) he couldn’t quite get all feets on the platform for a good sit, and offered other stuff.
So, two things to help –
for the sits, make a bigger platform so he can stay on it even if his sit is not perfectly tight.for conditioning, keep this smaller platform and once a week or so, ask for these really tight sits – but only do about 5 reps at a time because it will be a conditioning exercises rather than a stay exercise.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
He is doing a great job of watchin the threadle cues here! Nice use of your verbal cue too! Your upper body was great, lots of connection and the threadle arm swinging back a tiny bit to bring him in. Try not to rotate your feet at all – try to keep your feet moving forward the whole time (very slowly, but definitely forward). You were rotating your feet on the first part (where he was coming to your left hand) and we want him to read the threadle cue on upper body and verbal, not foot rotation.
When you switched sides (he was coming in to your right hand), you did NOT rotate your feet and that was perfect! So try to make the left hand reps look just like the right hand reps.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
This one is the concept transfer of turn and burn moving to the wing – super! He transferred the concepts beautifully in both directions, maintaining his commitment while you left earlier and earlier. You can definitely add your wrap verbals (I don’t think you were using them but it was hard to hear).
There was one blooper at 1:56 when you tried to move away too soon, before he was fully past you. It was fine to try it and see if he could do it, he said it was too hard, so you changed your timing on the next rep. The interesting thing was his response to the error: jumping up, getting a little mouthy, etc. That is a frustration/arousal behavior that is pretty normal and also he did it again when you took the toy from him to line him up for the next rep.
We definitely want to help him regulate his arousal/frustration in those situations – so after a blooper like at 1:56, you can immediately use a reset cookie as you move back to the start spot for the next rep. As soon as you recognize that something has gone awry, you can toss a cookie on the ground with a ‘get it’ marker, go back to the starting point, then line him up again with a cookie – then do the next rep.
The reset cookies – especially being tossed onto he ground where he sniffs a tiny bit – will help him regulate internally and you should see far less pummeling you 🙂 And he is gets stimulated by the motion and the toy tugging and jumps up when you try to set up for the next rep (like he did at the end before the last rep), you can develop a little loop of tug – out – cookie line up – start the rep. That will help him line up rather than jump up. And I believe his toy play is strong enough that using cookies will not reduce the toy play at all.
One other thing that I notice – he is tall and fast (and getting faster :)) and the games are asking for gradually more speed, but the footing is a bit too slippery for him to run fast through turns. He is managing himself by holding his back feet together and being a bit more careful. It is entirely possible that having to do that was contributing to the frustration behavior/jumping up on you! And, as the games start going faster, we don’t want him to slip or have to get careful – fingers crossed that the snow melts and you can work him outside on these games! Or, any dirt or turf indoor places you can train in? He is just about getting to the point with this speed and understanding that we will start thinking about footing 🙂
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
Serps are looking good – your mechanics are good and he is happy to drive in over the bumps from all the different angles 🙂 Make sure you trust him and don’t overhelp by stopping to help him (at :51, for example, you kind of stopped but he didn’t need the extra help).He had a little blooper at 1:20 and 1:58 – I think he was going to do the serp in both spots but then you clicked the dispenser too early, so of course he went to the cookie LOL!! And if you click it too early, just let him have the cookie… it was human error, not canine error 🙂 And when you kind of dove on the treat to block him, he got a little hesitant. We want him to trust the click of the dispenser means that it is ok to get the treat, so if you click it wrong you can still let him have the treat : )
One suggestion: Be sure to stay connected as you move away from him in the first couple of steps of the stays. When you disconnected immediately, he would sometimes break the stay to follow you. So let him get settled into the stay an just maintain a little connection as you move through the serp line.
He did well here, so the next step would be to add a little more motion, and also the countermotion we added in the new games last night 🙂
Nice work!
Tracy
