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Hi there! I am so glad you could join us last night!
She is a very clever little food hound! She reads the placement of reinforcement and learns very quickly from it… which means we have to be careful LOL!! She hit the target very nicely and the yes and cookie delivery were from your hand in front of you… so brilliant Bazinga locked onto the cookie hand and started offering behavior on the cookie hand (and in bulldog style, added in pummeling you a bit due to the WHY IS THIS NOT WORKING moment).
So, we will look at reward placement for everything we teach her and then it will be smoooooth sailing. You were very good about giving her time and help to sort it out, and she sorted it out very quickly.
Since we want her to focus a lot on the hand target and not the delivery hand, we can change the reward placement to a “get it” where she hits the target, you say “get it” and toss the cookie in the opposite direction. Then after she grabs the cookie, she will run back and hit the target – and you do the ‘get it’ and toss again. This will give her a more distinct placement of reward that has nothing to do with you or your hand 😂 and will really highlight that hitting the target gets the cookies flying, while setting up a little loop for the next rep to start. You don’t need to say “yes”, you can just say “get it” because that is both a “you are correct” marker and a “cookies are over there” marker. I will have more info on these markers coming soon.
Great job here!!! I just love watching her work!
TracyHello and welcome!
I think you will find this pretty different than B’s MaxPup class 🙂 Have fun playing the games! Let me know how they go and what she thinks of them!
TracyHi!
He is super cute and MaxPup was originally developed with terriers in mind LOL!
The focus forward is looking really good…. and yes you are talking too much 😂 but just a little too much.
Nice toy for him!!! Keep it super low so he doesn’t have to lift his head up to kill it, I mean tug on it LOL! And when it hits the ground, say get it and let go of him so he can drive to it immediately. You were adding a lot of “readyyyyyy readddy” which can cause him to lose the excitement of the moment.
All of the other talking during the tugging? Perfect! Keep doing that 🙂
You can start this game with you standing next time and add some of your motion (walking forward).
So basically you can talk during tugging… but any other time, just juse reward markers. So on the hand touch video, just a quiet yes is perfect during the targeting section – all of the good boy stuff was causing him to look at you. You can also say “get it” and toss the treat, to help him look at you even less. Then when you play tug, or end the session? That is when all the good boy chatter can start 🙂
So for the next session on this game, try it with you sitting in a chair so you are taller and the hand is higher, but you are not standing yet.
Great job here!!!!
Tracy
Hi!
This went really well too! I can’t see if you are looking at him or not, but based on his response I am going to guess you were connected. He was great!
You were definitely concerned about him NOT bringing the toy back so you were racing for the toy… which was causing him to drive ahead even more (yay!) but also it diminishes your chances of grabbing the toy 🙂 On the 2nd to last rep you let him drive ahead and called him back, and he was perfect! On the video I posted with my baby Ramen puppy, I was turning and running the other way as soon as he got to the toy, so the retrieve went well! This is definitely something to try with Casper too (going forward and just before or as soon as his mouth is on the toy, run the other way).
And on the last rep, he turned and lifted the toy back to you. Super!!!! AND TRADED FOR A COOKIES!! The video ended there – you were making a big fuss about the cookies, he was eating… and to raise the cookie value, you can then give him his toy back to walk off with you. I let my young dogs carry their toys as out the sessions as a trophy LOL!
Super session here! And yes, you can definitely take it to the barn for more room 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
I will go find the videos – they are all in one place, I just have to remember the name of the folder….Both pre-game sessions looked great. The only suggestion for both of them is to clarify the reward words:
If you are tossing the treat, you don’t need a yes, you can say ‘get it’ and toss. If you are rewarding at the target, you can say yes then hand it to him.
Both of these are designed to tell him where to look for the reward, so it is all very fast & precise (more on that coming next week). And all of the silly conversation about how brilliant he is can come during the eating and tugging 🙂Is he happily able to tug before and after the cookies? Since we are building food value with him, you can insert a tug moment after every rep: hit the hat or hand target, eat the treat, tug tug tug. Sure, you won’t get as many reps of the hat or hand target… but that is fine because we care more about the food value than we care about the hat or hand target 🙂
You are definitely ready to have the hat game turn into the send game that we started last night! Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
>> For today I put him in the bedroom where he can’t see or hear anything so won’t participate!
This was good! We had no added opinions LOL!!
>>Casper is such a thinker! I knew that when I picked him up from the breeder.
Thinkers are great! We prefer them to think at this age, rather than to fling themselves into things. You’ll see the pups in the demo videos were thinkers at that age too, slow and processing. They turned out to be very strong with the skills and SUPER fast. So, I like thinkers 🙂
>> he will run if you bend down to just pet him,
You can play games where you are backing up and rewarding for coming to you, and have him do foot targets to your leg to build more value in interaction, while reducing the pressure of bending over him. This is pretty normal behavior for TONS of pups!
>>and taking anything away won’t happen. I have been doing lots of trading and really trying to convince him that coming to me is super awesome. It’s a thing I think will take a while to fade. That being said, his retrieve is terrible and he’d prefer to run off with things rather than engage with me with things.
Trading is great! And if possible, give him back the thing he had so he can keep it (like a toy). I know it is not always possible to do this, but trade then giving back the original thing will really help. And, you can let him drag a long light line so you are not ever needing to chase or grab for him if he gets something, as that will cause more running off with things. You can pick up the end of the line and move towards him more easily.
>>This morning I started with Prop Game 1. I may need a bigger room. When just standing waiting for him to touch the folder, he did have to think about it for a while. And he was a bit confused when I pointed toward the folder, so I kept it short and stayed pretty close to the folder.>>
This was a normal and pretty great first session with a baby dog. He is the same age as my pup, right? And my pup had a very similar first session (I have the video and I will post it shortly).
Casper did really well with the sending! I think you can get rid of the clicker entirely: it distracts him when you use that hand to send, plus the clicks tend to cause puppies to want to look at us. Instead, do everything like you did it and use a “get it” marker to toss the reward off to the side after hitting the target on the send (eventually we will reward back at your hand, but for now you can send and toss to the side to get him to look at you less).
Staying close to the target was perfect! I figure within a session or two, he will totally have this game and we can add more distance.
Great job!
TracyHello and welcome back! I TOTALLY remember you and Kili – she was challenging and fun and taught us a WHOLE LOT OF THINGS 🙂 I am so thrilled about all of her accomplishments!
And congrats on Kenna’s successes… I would love to see a Grey at Worlds 🙂 Freaking Covid ruined a lot of big plans of we never know what the future holds so maybe Revel will decide she is on board! And Feldspar sounds like a fun little guy, fingers crossed he can play as much as he wants!
10 years later, I have a lot more sighthound experience. I am little biased and I think sighthounds are BRILLIANT and AMAZING. I am looking forward to more about Revel and Feldspar!
Tracy
Hi!
>> until we started the throw the cookie and come back to me as I do a post turn. (How’s that for nailing the name of the exercise. Good grief, I’m a mess.)
Ha! That is a very descriptive name 😂
>>Anyway Bob said, oh, I remember this game! And he proceeded to BLAST past me, at speed. >>
Definitely get some video so I can see. My guess is that you were moving too much. Two words for you… stand still 🙂 When he turns to come back to you after grabbing the cookie, you should be standing still with your hand down at your leg.
Let me know how the next session goes! This game is the foundation for the amazing turns we get from the MaxPuppers, so we want to help him understand 🙂
TracyHi!
Very nice session with the foot target! He was hitting very nicely!!!! And no downs. Perfect! Since you were using a ‘get it’ marker, you can a skip the “yes” and just say ‘get it’ and toss the cookie. That way he immediately knows where to look. We humans tend to use ‘yes’ too much and it is not as clear as a ‘get it’ marker for the dogs.
For the next session, do a quick warm up just like this and then yo can try the sending that we added last night 🙂
He was very clever with the hand target session 🙂 He was adding the paw and trying to look at the magic cookie hand LOL! So smart! So…. have the target a little higher so he has to lift his chin to get to the touch (that can reduce the paw hits) and have the cookie ready in the other hand. That way when his nose is approaching the target, you can say “get it” and toss the treat from the other hand. That can help him stop looking at the cookie hand and get better hits with the nose. He is SO clever with his reward understanding already, that we are going to have to stay one step ahead of him LOL!!
Great job!!!! Onwards the next games, he is ready 🙂
TracyHello and welcome!!! A Cavalier – so fun!!! Quite a change from the Labs but I think you will have a blast 🙂 Keep us posted on how thigns go with Crew!
Tracy
Hi!
He is doing well with the foot targeting too! I could only see video 1 because video 2 was marked private.
As with the hand target, he wants to watch you and the cookies. Tossing the cookies TOTALLY helped him look at you less, and he likes the action 🙂
Let’s take out the clicker too, as clickers tend to make the want to look at us (and then they what the cookie toss which builds in more looking). So, just mark with a get it and have cookies in both hands, doing a quick toss back and forth.
I think you moved the target away from you a little too quickly – he took a while to find it LOL! Cutie! Then he got frustrated (barky). So try to keep the target closer for a few more sessions.
If he will default to a down, you can change the size of the target: make it a little smaller so it is different that any possible bed or mat for a down, and smaller makes it harder to down on anyway. You can also attach it to something like a piece of cardboard, to make it a little taller, so he has to step up maybe half and inch to smack it. That can help him understand the front feet element 🙂
Great job!!! Let me know when video 2 is unlisted so I can check it out 🙂 On the next session, try some rewards for hitting it with you standing up. And if that goes well, onwards to sending!
TracyHi! We will miss you tonight!
You are correct, we are using the hand targets as the future threadle slice – the progression involves making them super independent in terms of the in and out behavior, so this is just the starting point (if you recall, it builds up to not looking at or touching your hand at all, just threadling in and out). By starting with a hand target, we build value for coming towards you in drive. And when we move to the threadle element in a few weeks, the dogs see the hand position as a cue for the in and out, and not as something to look at or touch. Gotta start somewhere 🙂
He did well in this session! It was a good value build start! He wants to watch you (and the clicker :)) so we can build value for driving to the hand cue by changing the mechanics a bit:
You can have your hand with the target fully extended away from your body, elbow locked, so he has to choose: look at you and the cookies, or look at the target 🙂 If you look at the target and not at him, that will help.And when he touches the target, throw the treat away from you so he goes to get it. It might be easier to use a ‘get it’ marker and not the clicker, so then your cookie hand can toss faster. Plus, he might like the action of the cookie chasing a lot as part of the reward, as you mentioned below.
Both of these will help get him working at driving in without looking at you 🙂 Eventually we will hand you stand up too, but I think that will be in a session or two. 🙂
Great job! Onwards to the foot to target!
Tracy
Good morning!
She is SO FUN! Great sessions here. I love her toy and food drive, and her engagement. Lovely!
The targeting refresh session and the sending session went well. I couldn’t see where you were looking when you were doing the sends, but based on her responses (which were very strong) I’m guessing you were connected with her 😀 super!
3 small details:
—When tossing the treat or having her tug from your hand, you can start adding markers: get it for the toss, and something different (I say ‘bite’ for toy in hand). That helps clarify reinforcement placement and I think you have markers already for the other dogs. I’ll be posting more about it in the classroom soon, but she is ready now 🙂—now that she has a lot of speed with the send, I think the target needs to be bigger and weighted a bit so it doesn’t move as much. Bigger target (twice the length) will help her maintain the foot criteria because when it is really small, she either went to nose bops or had to slow down a lot. So a longer bigger target will help her maintain criteria and go fast 🙂
And, putting something in it or attaching it to something so it doesn’t roll will help her be faster and precise because she doesn’t have to ask where it went when you send her to it. Having it move less will help make the send more predictable.—she only had 2 questions about sending to it… and both were after she did something else before the send (getting on the peanut, doing a leg weave). Since she is so young, use the same ready dance setup before the send, so she can predict what is next. If she offers a freestyle trick or something, tell her she is a good girl and reward her in front of you for being patient during the ready dance before the send 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
