Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Good morning! Lots of good work here! No worries about post it all at once: you got your training in and she is looking strong! And she gave us some good feedback about what she likes and doesn’t like, which will help us set up future sessions.
Movement and noise: she was keen to work here but she says the wobble board is toooooo hard by avoiding it and then not wanting to really get the toy either. Let’s make it easier for her to offer by making it a bigger playing field and also less movement/noise. I think you can put that wobble board in that dog bed that was behind you in this video 🙂 That gives her more room to offer getting on it, and it will move less/ be less noisy too. If the wobble board still moves a lot, you can stuff some towels in there too. And try this with food, tossing food back and forth so she can get on it, get off it, get on it, etc. That should help her want to get on it more, and then eventually we can start fading out the bed (no rush, though!)
She really liked the plank! Once she got rolling, she was offering beautifully and seemed super confident. I think when you started the session, sitting down and leaning over seemed like more of a down cue, so you can start by standing and tossing a cookie so she is moving right from the very beginning. The treat tossing worked great on the rest of it! On the next session, you can see if she can turn around on the plank (use a slow cookie lure for that to help her out :))
Backing up is also going well!!! Two ideas to get more distance from her:
– start with the couch right behind you, so when you put the cookie between your feet she doesn’t go all the way through LOL!!! She will back up immediately because a couch is there 🙂
– you can change the placement of reinforcement for backing up now, to get more and more steps. Instead of handing her the treat, toss it low and between her front feet so she scoots back more to get it. If you hand it to her, she will want to stay close to you. But when you start tossing it, she will want to back up more and more because the cookies will be further back.Focus forward is going well. I will divide it into 2 things: the focus forward and the collar holding.
She did well with the driving ahead! Your timing on the 2nd rep of letting go was perfect: you let go for her so she could drive forward just as the toy hit the ground, and before she looked back at you. Perfect! More of that!
About the collar grab – the transition on the first rep was AWESOME: tug tug tug, cookie, collar hold, game on. So definitely keep doing it that way, but also you can have a one-and-done approach to the session so she doesn’t start to overthink the collar holding. Do that one rep, then go do something else, then maybe come back later. When you were not doing the transition, then when you tried to do it again later in the session, she got anxious about it. So, one-and-done will go a long way to helping her not be anxious. Don’t worry about the driving ahead game, we have other games that work the driving ahead without a collar grab 🙂
And if she worries about the collar grab elsewhere: don’t use the collar grab or restrained recalls. It will poison whatever you are trying to train, and we don’t want to build anxiety. So you can start from a cookie toss then run away for a recall, or you can skip the game, or you can start with the barrel wrap that we use in other games. We want her to LOVE training so we can take out the collar grab for now. Just to let you know, my Contraband (the blue Merle in the demo videos) had the same concerns at the same age as Flux, so I took it out of the training and let him slowly learn to love it with a lot of one-and-done, and now he is happy with it 🙂
The wing wraps are going well!!!! She took a moment to remember with the toys… but then she rocked it. Super! I think you are ready to move to the turn and burn game in week 3, which is SUPER fun. Just remember to be patient and don’t move til she is all the way around (at the beginning).
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! Lots of good work here!!
Backing up looks terrific. It looks like she was sometimes stopping before the click, so can be more variable in your clicks, sometimes asking for fewer steps and sometimes asking for more, ping ponging back and forth (and also you can keep moving if that is part of the cue).
Since she is so great at this, you can add an arousal element! Either add a little tugging before and during, or getting her amped up with cookie chasing. Then ask for the backing up 🙂 this challenges her to produce the form and body awareness in a state closer to what she would be in at trials.
I would only do this for short bursts because it is hard! And this is not a conditioning game, it is a multi-sensory integration game 🙂
Backing up to the plank also looks really strong. Did I read it correctly that this was her first time in this context? NICE! My only suggestion for now is to deliver the food lower so her head stays in that lovely neutral position she had it in when she arrived on the plank. When you rewarded with her head high, it was throwing off the balance a bit and that might be part of why she did a sit on the plank towards the end (anticipating a high reward?)
After she sees this game one or two more times, you can add arousal to this one too!
The wobble board game is the only time she seems a bit “I don’t like this” (her tail set tells a fun story here LOL!!!) She wasn’t entirely comfy, so two ideas for you:
you can expand her playing field by spreading out the discs and stuffing other stuff under the wobble board so I barely moves.And, rather than feed her in position of being on the wobbly stuff, you can mark the interaction then toss the cookie ahead of her so she moves across the rest of the stuff to get the cookie. Then you can have her approach from another direction and get a tossed reward for interaction, then run across it the other way.
This will also allow you to increase arousal (which helps get her ignoring the movement) and the tossed treats build in an element of relief, where she feels empowered to interact with it because she isn’t required to stay on it 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>Here’s a little retrieving outdoors this morning.
This looked good! She is definitely faster driving to it than driving back to you, but she was getting faster and faster by the end 🙂 I think that you were standing still and she will drive faster back to you if you run away from her, and maybe even present or throw a second toy the other direction when she gets back to you.
>>We worked on parallel path, rear cross, countermotion this afternoon but I want to redo tomorrow. At first when we were doing parallel path I was marking her hit on the prop with a “yes” which made her look at me. >>
A get it replacing the yes or click will totally help, plus you can mark and toss sooner: just as she is arriving, a little early, and before she looks back at you.
>> The rear cross was more difficult because of the looking at me and she was stopping on the prop. Maybe I was slowing down and I’m wondering if I was too slow to toss the treat or not tossing it at the right moment. I realized after we did a few that I wasn’t doing a 90 degree turn eithe>>
My guess is that you were late 🙂 it is easy to be late at this stage, which is why we train it on a prop. So start further back, 15 or 20 feet, and get the parallel path going… then cut in behind her when she is halfway to the prop and keep moving forward after the rear cross to support the line to the prop. And send video of it, in case I’m wrong about it being a timing thing 🙂
Nice work!
TracyGood morning!
>>do I still pop the ready treat open if it isn’t correct? I called her back and gave her a reward.
Target position was probably off on this I’m guessingYes. And also, yes 🙂 if something goes wrong, you can still click the ready treat and then try another rep. If she has the same question, adjust things for the next rep (or stop and look at the video or phone-a-friend LOL!)
And yes, I think part of the question was the reward placement – it required a turn, and this should be a straight line for her. I think the setup was fine but the questions were about how to stride based on the target. So try the target on a straight line, 10 feet past her landing spot, and see what she does.
The wrap organizers look great! Next step…. Fading the plank 🙂 the video shows 2 ways to do it, I suggest working both ways in separate sessions and then we will be able to fade it out entirely 🙂
The backsides are also looking good! The reward was in a better position on these so she was straighter.
My only suggestion is that you stay in motion the whole time, til after she gets to the toy. You were stopping between the 2 jumps, which should cue a decel, and she did have questions on that (like at :35 when she collected and looked at you). So on the next sessions, try jogging forward the whole time and see how it goes! If she is fine with it, you can go faster. If she thinks it is too hard, you can dial back the speed to a walk.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
The first part of the session with the softer angle looked super duper! Using that softer angle, we can add in more distractions that he might see on course. Normally I’d say “run faster” but that’s hard in a smaller space. But, we can add other distractions like talking over the bar (because he might be hearing his verbal over the bar and needs to remain organized). And you can also swing your arms, disconnect, etc – anything he might see on course as that will add challenge.When the angle got harder, we saw the added strides.
It is possible he was fatigued, so it was smart to let it go and finish. It is also possible that his start position angle was awkward so he had to add a balance step? Next time, start closer to the wing if possible, with his hip right at the wing. If he doesn’t have room, try going the other direction with the same angle and let me know!
Nice work!
TracyHi!
Yes, I think he was uncomfortable with the barking because it was more of a frustration bark which can be anxiety-inducing. Some barking is perceived as cheerleading and can be exciting, but in the case of that session that’s not how it seemed to be.
He did great with the blinds! Yay! You can totally do them sooner, as soon as he takes one stride back to you after the cookie eating. And since you have a nice long ring, you might even be able to get 2 blinds in!
And good job allowing him to decompress after the session. Even a highly successful session in a quiet environment can be really hard and require a decompression moment 🙂
>>Lanna also worked hit the target in high arousal. This is part of her running contact issue and hopefully this will her to put the missing pieces together.>>
It is possible that the behavior was encoded in a lower state and so she can’t retrieve it in a higher state! You can go back to square one and fly through the progression again, doing short sessions in super high arousal 🙂
Great job!
TracyThe chomp chomp chomp was adorable but she was totally losing her train of thought LOL!!! I can totally relate. 😀
Hi!
She was jumping this nicely! You can totally use a sit verbal cue:
For the organizer on the wraps, keep asking for the sit because without the sit cue… she is allowed to not sit and that is part of how we fade the plank 🙂On the next session, use the sit cue and do a FC instead of a post turn. That should allow you to rotate sooner so you are rotating and moving the other way, like you would on course, while she is getting organized for takeoff 🙂 If she is happy with that, then we can start fading the plank!
On the front slices:
>> I’m guessing my organizer needed to be closer!>>
Yes, a little closer so she doesn’t need to put her front feet on the grass. That will really emphasize hind end! When you re-did the game with the toy, she was still adding that jumping to her right, but not to her left – she was jumping directly from the plank. Yay! So you can move the plank a little closer to the center of the bar and see if that helps her on the right side too.
She also did not add the touch to the grass when you were closer to the center of the bar when you released (and not past the exit wing). Compare :38 to :06 and you can see how she changed her jumping based on your position.
On the next session, keep moving the whole time, so you don’t decelerate or stop as you cue the sit. That will be challenging, so be sure to move very slowly 🙂 and release before you get past the exit wing. Then when she sits, you can release her (no cookies in position) so you are in motion the whole time but not too far ahead, Let me know if that makes sense 🙂
Nice work!!
TracyHi!
He did really well with the organizers on the slices! I know the space is tight, but I think on the next step you can add more motion by starting closer to him so you can move faster without running out of room 🙂 You can also raise the bar to the next cup! I think if he is happy with more motion, then we can start moving to the fading stages on the slices!
He totally had a WTF face when you rotated way on the wraps LOL!!! Ha! So when you release him, you can look to the landing and point at the landing. That can help – and the toy should be in the dog side hand, so when you use the ‘new’ hand (after rotation) to point to the landing spot after the release, your hand will be empty.
Those looked like 8 inch bars? When he no longer gives you the WTF look, you can raise the bars to 10″ 🙂
Great job here!!
TracyHi!
Yes, it was hard for him today – it looks like you started a little further away (your heels at the edge of the 2nd and 3rd square), whic hwas a little too far away so he was spinning then going to the mat. You moved back in closer and it helped because the last couple of reps were really good!I looked back at the previous video of backing up to see what was different, and you were not visible so it was hard to tell where you were. Once his back feet got to a certain distance he had trouble there too but his position was not all that different from today’s video.
So it is possible that it was just a typical young dog brain moment: they can do something one day, but can’t do it the next day. That is pretty normal! When you see that you can make the game a lot easier and get closer, then end the session so that his brain can rest for next time LOL!! then give the behavior a day off, and try again and I bet he is great! Start closer to the destination to make it easier, then you can gradually extend the distance over a series of sessions, rather than in one session 🙂
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
He did well with the retrieve game too – it looked like he was going to maybe take the toy for a run on the 2nd rep, but then you moved your position to maybe block the view of the environment he was looking at – and then he was perfect 🙂 So you can gradually move yourself over so that you are limiting his area less and less, while still convincing him to retrieve 🙂
You can also cue him to ‘go fo ra run’ and he can take a victory lap with the toy, then call him back. This is a great way for the pups to get a brain break in training 🙂
Nice work!
TracyGreat job getting the toy very exciting! He did well here! You can also give him a little boring cookie in the midle of the line of objects, and even have him slowly turn around in the middle, to keep working his body awareness. I think the barking of his brother i the background and his sister nearby was causing him too much distraction – his feet were a little all over the place on some of the reps unless you went slowly. So in order to add a little more speed, try to not have any audience unless they are quiet and not nearby LOL! Puppies have trouble focusing their full attention, so we limit distractions when they have to think about where their feet are 🙂
Nice work!
TracyHi! He is showing really strong commitment!! Yay!! 2 suggestions for you:
After you finish tugging and before the send, do a little ready-set dance with him before you send him, then you can do a big dramatic send. He was not quite sure when to start without that ‘ready’ dance, so he was a little tentative. And you can reward the ‘almost’ moments where he goes almost all the way to the prop 🙂 And then get closer on the next rep so he can go all the way to it.On the next session, you can have the toy in your hand the whole time. Yes, it will be harder 🙂 but it helps teach him self-control. So scrunch it up in your hand and b ecloser to the prop… and I bet her is perfect 🙂
Have fun!
TracyHi!
Very nice job showing a clear decel! You were walking with big steps then went to small steps, so she was able to collect nicely! And you did that nicely too when you added jogging.
And yes, reward nice and close to your leg as Lisa mentioned – but also, with BCs, we go to the pivot really early in the training because without the pivot, the BC butts swing out (as you saw LOL!) and with the pivot, she was perfect 🙂I mentioned this to Lisa too – train this handling flatwork stuff without jumps nearby – eventually she will be taking those jumps on her line and we don’t want her to learn to ignore them. So, a clear floor is perfect!
Great job here!
Tracy
