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Hi! I’m so glad you came to the live class! And also, we will play some games where you don’t have to be super energetic and she will learn patience haha! We worked a bit of that in with some of the dogs last night, like Snap the white terrier mix and the prop sends.
Have fun!
TracyGood morning!
Great session here: snappy nose touches! And snappy rewards. Mai looked great! At the very end, you tossed the cookie: with this game, the next step is to toss the cookie as the reward for each nose touch, so you can do that too especially since she likes it. No need to do more with this game for now, she looks great and we will revisit it soon when we build on it.Is she happy to tug as a game or reward? Just curious to know what she thinks of tugging 🙂
Great job!
TracyHello and welcome! How is his recovery going? Fingers crossed that things are smooooth and he will be back in action soon.
TracyHello and welcome! She is a fabulous puppy!!
The video is looking good! One thing that will help her is if you look at the target, and don’t look at her 🙂
When you were looking at her, she was not really seeing the hand target item and she was perceiving things as “do tricks for treats” LOL! But I bet if you hold the target hand all the way out from you body (arm extended, elbow locked, leaning over a little so the target is nose-height for her) and if you make an exaggerated head turn to look at it when you present the target… she will go directly to the target 🙂
And if she gets caught in the trick offering, you can bring the target back in and put it back out, with the exaggerated head turn to look at it. She had a lot of good hits here!!Let me know if you want to upgrade to a live spot tonight! We have room in the Thursday classes 🙂
Great job here!
TracyHi!
>> I should be quiet until I have ended the targeting or should I be quiet only when I am asking for the behavior and then speak or play with her when I throw the treat? >
Think of the moments were she is offering the foot target as “work” and the tug moments as “party”. Be very quiet during work except for reward markers, so you can mark and toss the cookie but be quiet as that is still a work moment and you want her to continue to Target after getting the cookie. When you want to take a targeting break or end the session – the tug comes out and you should be as noisy and silly as you want during the tug dance party moments 🙂
TracyHi!
Sorry I missed this last night! You two were great in class last night!This session went well – the paw hits went away when you held the target a little higher, so it was easier to move touch and harder to paw hit. Yay! She wants to look at you a lot here, so two things that will help:
– you can toss the reward away rather than hand deliver (using a get it) so she looks for the reward then for the target rather than for you 🙂
– you can look at the target rather than at her, which encourages looking at the target and not at you 🙂Remember to break the session up and play tug after every 5 or 6 cookies, to help shape her to work in arousal even with these easy games.
Great job 😀
TracyHi!
Yes, if Maze is the self-elected fun police, then he does not get to insert his opinions when the puppy is training or playing 🙂
>>Should I submit more videos of these games?
You don’t need to submit more of the pre-games. After the live class tonight, there will be a bevy of new games to get started on (one of which uses Pre-Game 1). Have fun!
TracyHi! I think it posted twice, but it was great either way 🙂
She is doing super well with her foot target! Nice job with your clicks and tosses. Try to stand totally still and also, try not to talk to her while she is offering behavior on the shoe 🙂 You can be very quiet in the shaping part of things, and then you can be wild and silly and talkative during the tugging 🙂 Speaking of tugging… was she able to play with the toy before and after the cookies?
Great job here! You can take the clicker out of it now, and go to using a marker like ‘get it’ then toss the treats.
Have fun! See you in the live class!
TracyHi!
She is adorable! It is never too late and a dog is never too old to start foundations. And she did really well with these games. Good job making the sessions really short – she did really well 🙂For the nose targeting – she wants to look at you a lot, so we can tweak the mechanics to avoid that 🙂 You don’t need the clicker at this point – instead, you can have the cookie ready in your hand. when she touches the target, you can say “get it” and toss the treat to the side. That way it is fast, she moves away – and she doesn’t watch you between the click and getting the treat out for her. All of that watching you can get built in, so we can shape her to look at her “work” at this early stage. And to make things easier – you don’t have to have the target low, it will never be on the ground when we use it in the future, so you don’t need to bend over 🙂
She was REALLY good about the foot targeting as well! And she also wants to look at you… so you can do the ‘get it’ marker and toss cookies here (don’t click, just say get it). And talk to her less 🙂 The clicker and the praise draw her focus to your face, so you can be quiet during the shaping then use the praise and verbal engagement during the tugging.
She did a great job playing with the toy! I bet if you made that toy a little longer so it was twice the length, then slid it around the floor for her to chase, she would engage with it even faster. And when yuu do that, pick up the foot target so she doesn’t try to offer more targeting – that way she will be clearer that you want to play with the toy 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! What a good boy in his first video here!!!
He did really well with his paw hits and was also a great little tugger 🙂One thing that can help him look at the target more and less at you: have the target in the picture only when you are actively shaping, so it is very salient.
Try to have the paw target stuffed into your armpit and not on the ground during the tugging sessions, so as soon as the tugging is finished, you can put it down – that will basically guarantee a first hit as when he says “what’s that?” LOL !Then when you break out for a tug break… pick up the foot target and move away as you present the toy, so he is not looking at the target for the cookie potential 🙂
For the next session, if you are indoors in particular so it is easy to find the treat, you can go to tossing the treats off to the side. So when he hits the target and you mark it (I use ‘get it’ like you do) then toss a treat to the side to get him running back and forth and not looking up at you (or your magical cookie hands) as much. He was having a little trouble finding the tossed treats in the grass, which is why it will be easier indoors on a carpet or something.
Excellent job here! Looking forward to seeing more!
TracyHi! Super nice sessions here – she is so keen and adorable!
The foot target session was great! She was pretty perfect 🙂
With the clicker, you don’t need a yes, you can just say “get it”. Also, you don’t need to click at this stage. The value has been built up nicel yalready, so you can move directly to marking the paw smack with a ‘get it’ followed by the cookie toss, because it will tell her sooner where to look and where to go for the reward (and then you won’t need to grow a 3rd arm :))The sail cloth was smart for now! She will get better at finding treats and then you will be able to get her back onto the rug.
Hand touches also looked really strong~ good job getting rid of the paw smacsks. I think you can leave the target hand out to the side (rather than bringing it back in closerto you then moving it back out) so it is stationary and present when she looks up from eating thecookie, more like what you you did at :49.
My only suggestion is to do more frequent tug breaks. I am sure she is happy to eat the whole time LOL but the tug breaks allow you to change hands, give her a mental break, and assess what you want to do next.
I really liked this without the clicker when you got rid of the clicker haflway through. She looks at you less without the clicker (which si good, we don’t want her looking at you too much) and the ‘get it’ works great when you toss the cookie (you don’t even need the ‘yes’ at all if yo uare saying ‘get it’ and tossing).>>’ BUT when I then taught FOOT target to the collapsible colander, she started pawing at the target in my palm. So here’s an entire session of each where I think we were able to isolate NOSE from foot.>>
Yes! There were very few paw targets here – the only paw hits where when the target was too low. Any rep where she went straight to the target or lifted her chin to hit it had zero paw hits. Any rep where the hand target was lower than her chin so sh ewould have had to reach down for it also had some paw hits. So easy answer – keep the target high enough that she lifts her head a little to hit it 🙂
Great job!!! See you in the live class!
TracyHello and welcome! I can attest first-hand that he is adorable! Just because he is a little older does not mean you are further behind 🙂
>>Stitch is great with food and toys which makes it nice when training.
Yay! That does make it super nice in so many ways 🙂 It expands the training toolbox!
>> He will lunge after some dogs… I am working on rewarding him for looking at me before he has the choice to lunge and this has worked well, he will also listen (if I miss the opportunity to reward) to a correction. He will take advantage of me if I am not fully focused on him and find a dog to get mad at.>>
This type of behavior is usually rooted in underlying anxiety about the other dogs… it all goes back to the fight or flight basis of behavior. His reflex happens to be more fight-based LOL!!! So yes – be SUPER fast to get cookies to him before he lunges – you don’t even need to wait til he looks at you for now, just drop cookies on him and move him away. Ideally, you never correct him as that can add more fuel (anxiety) to the fire – it might appear to suppress the lunging in the moment, but the root of it is still there. So for now, keep him at a distance where he doesn’t feel the need to lunge so it is far easier to get the cookies or tug to him. And if you happen to get a lunge? Just scoop him up and get him outta there. (I can provide the science behind why the corrections can be problematic). I do have some resilience games coming in this class that will really help too 🙂
Have fun! See you in tomorrow’s live class!
TracyHi!
>> Having an expert eye on the situation helps GREATLY, especially with a pup that didn’t seem operant at all to begin with!
Video is magic, we can see things that we don’t see when we are actually training. And Sid is VERY operant and brilliant!
>>Yeah I kept rewarding AT the target, makes soooo much sense to toss it more away and build independence.>>
Rewarding at the target was the 100% correct way to begin. And since it went well, we can move to the next step. And since I haven’t told anyone else what the game turns into, it makes sense that you wouldn’t realize we want more independence LOL!
>>BTW, I named him after Sid, in the movie “Ice Age”. because his silly factor is quite high. I love that about him………>>
I love it! The silly factor is perfect 🙂
Have fun!
Tracy
