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Hi! Welcome back, hope you had a great trip! You’re not behind – the new stuff builds up from what he was already doing.
He definitely figured out the pivot to center concept for the perch work! He wanted to skip the part where he put his front feet on the perch after each treat 😀 so you made a great adjustment to feed him on the perch at the end.
For the next session, we can do everything the same except add in a cookie reward in position when he returns to center on the perch, then another cookie tossed to the side to start the next rep. That can help remind him to get his front feet on the perch after his back feet pivot 🙂
The 2nd video here is also perch work, can you repost the head turn video?
TracyHi!
This looks great too! She’s going back and forth between food and toys so nicely!My only suggestion here is to decelerate sooner: after you do the blind, start to slow down immediately so she can also decelerate before getting to you. That will allow her to turn even better!
The driving ahead to the toy looks strong here too 🙂
I think she is ready for the next game here too, where we add the barrel wraps to this 🙂
Great job!
TracyGood morning!!
She’s doing super well with her prop games here!The parallel path games at the beginning look great. You can do the concept transfer to put the parallel path on the puppy jump.
She was also really strong with the sideways and backwards sending! She was hitting the prop strongly and even the not-as-perfect hits were really good. Your mechanics of sending were good, and you also did a great job of keeping her with you until you sent her (she would be happy to start without you lol!!). You can give her treats for staying with you before the send.
She is looking pretty balanced, turning both ways really well. There was only one rep where she turned the “wrong” way (to her right when she should have turned left) but that was caused by your position being a little too centered on the prop, so the pressure turned her away.You can add the countermotion to this too, moving away before she reaches the prop. And I bet you can do the concept transfer to the barrel as well.
The rear crosses were harder for her, because she’s going fast (that is a good thing!) and that makes it harder to be on time. You had a couple that were on time on the right turns (like at 2:05) where you were visible on her new side before she arrived at the prop. On the left turns, you were late getting to the new side so she saw you on her right as she was arriving at the prop, so she turned right.
With her speed, she might be making turn decisions early (this is a good thing!) So try the rear crosses with the alternate game using treats, where she won’t be moving quite a fast and you can get to the new side sooner.
Great job here!
TracyGood morning! Looks like the snow went away (at least for now!)
There was no sound on these videos for some reason – not sure if YouTube is misbehaving – so I am just going to assume all verbals were perfect 🙂
First video:
Serps looked great! She generally nailed them, based on your position and her value for the jump bump. Nice!! And she was turning really well from the different angles – super nice impulse control on the toy, especially on the serp and threadle reps where she was starting really close to it 🙂Threadles were harder for sure, but she did well too. Good job keeping your shoulders pretty frozen and hot closing them to the bump as she came in for the threadle! Two suggestions to help keep developing the threadles:
The threadle toy placement can be on the more obvious line over the bar and not quite as much on the angle past the wing. She didn’t always see the one to the toy, so having it more obvious (a little more centered on the bar) will help that and help create the default looking for the bar.
When getting into threadle position, move around the wing and then give her a moment to look at the threadle cue before you release her. You were sometimes too quick coming across the bump and releasing as soon as you arrived, causing errors. For example: At 1:53 you stepped across the bump which drew her eyes to it, then released almost immediately at 1:54 – so she was still looking at the one you moved across the bump and she didn’t get the threadle. To set up more success, get into position not by stepping over the bump, but instead go around the wing, get into your position with your hand visible, look at your hand, shake it perhaps… then release her. That should help her differentiate between the serps and threadles.
She is doing well on the wraps too!!! This first session did not have a lot of motion, which was great to help set up success and get understanding. For the next session, start closer (probably less than a meter away) to the upright so that you can be on the “takeoff” side of the wrap (if there was a jump bar) to show her the countermotion (you were on the “landing” side on these). I think you can also use a barrel so she has something bigger to go around now, which will also help you get to the takeoff side.
Her left wraps are looking strong so you can add a little more motion 🙂 The right wraps are not as strong yet so stay slower on those for now especially as you add more countermotion.
Backside slices – she had legit questions on this one 🙂 A few ideas for you to help develop the really independent backsides:
Rather than use a full visual of a jump (2 real wings and the bump), go back to one barrel and the bump – that makes bit looks less like a potential front side, so you are more likely to get her going around the barrel to the backside.
And, one tweak to the mechanics to help set the line:
After you put her in her position on the line to the backside, you should start moving forward on your parallel path line for 2 or 3 steps and when you are moving and ahead… *then* release her. If you release when you are next to her and you both start moving at the same time… she doesn’t see the cue (the motion on the line) so she may or may not understand to go to the other side. You were compensating by moving to the wing, but we don’t want to rely on running to the wing to get the backside – so set a line on the ground in position 1 for you to move up to help prevent that – then start moving on the line, release, connect – and she should zip directly to the backside because she sees the motion cue.
The left turns are a little stronger than the right turns here too, so you will be able to move faster in this progress =ion when she is turning to her left. So you can be moving the line on the ground to position 2 and position 3, as long as you are moving before you release her for 2 or 3 steps and staying parallel to her line.
Great job here! Let the know what you think!
TracyHi!
Yes, the clicker helps the pups understand the stay stuff more clearly. And crate games can help too – here are the first 2 steps:
getting the pup to NOT bolt out of the door by feeding in the back of the crate:
Getting the sit in order to open the door:
have fun!
TracyGood morning! He did really well on these!
The plank was easy for him! He seemed to have no trouble with getting on, turning around, getting off, etc. He looked really confident! The next step here would be too get him on different planks in different places.
He remembered the wrapping with you in the chair after you jump started it with a hand cue. You can also help by using th two bowls so he looks at your hands less. For the next session, start in the chair like you did here, then when he gets in the groove, move to standing up 🙂
He figured out the tunnel nicely! I think the tunnel might be a shade too long for now, is there a way to scrunch it up more? That way you can start adding in your motion and sending. Your placement of the magic box 🙂 ready treat was great, definitely keep doing that!
Stays are definitely the hardest for him right now. I think this is a good game for using the clicker, because it is super clear and can help mark exactly what you want… without accidentally building motion into the release. So start with clicking when he sits, then toss the treat behind him.
You can then start to gradually delay the click after the sit, by just a heartbeat, to begin getting more duration.You can also play some crate games with him to help him learn to sit still 🙂 I can post some videos if you want to see the crate games!
Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Parallel path work is going really well! She definitely has the concept of “stay on your line and go to the thing”. You can mark the behavior and toss the reward sooner, to help get her eyes ahead and not looking at you (she would look at you after hitting the prop because there was nothing else to look at :)) So you can mark her intent to go to it and her focus forward to it (probably a stride or two before she arrives) and mark with a ‘get it’ rather than a clicker… then toss the reward so it is landing before she looks at you. This will keep her looking ahead nicely! And no worries about hitting the prop at this point – she is just about reward to do the concept transfer where we move this to a baby jump (with the same early timing of mark & reward so she doesn’t look back at you :))
Rear crosses are definitely harder for all of the pups! She was turning back towards the original direction because you were late getting to her new side – you need to be visible on the new side when she is till a stride away from the prop, so she can turn the new direction.
One thing that should help is starting further away from it, so you have time to get to the new side without having to run fast 🙂 You might try a coupe of reps of the parallel path game where you start 15 feet or more away from the prop, so she drives ahead of you. Then when she is happy with that, you can start 15 feet away and cut in behind her as early as when she is halfway to the prop! That should give you more time to get visible on the new side. And no worries if she doesn’t hit the prop perfectly, we will be happy if she turns the new direction 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyRear crosses:
Yay! He did well here too! You can get to his shoulder sooner after the reward cross, so that it is easier for him to find you immediately without looking the other direction first.The only other suggestion is to use the wall to your advantage: hold his collar (don’t let go until the cookie lands) then toss the cookie to the wall or into a corner. When the cookie stops moving, you can let him go to get it and go the rear cross even sooner. The wall will help him turn the new direction because it is less likely that he will turn towards the wall.
And if he has an easy time with that, you can get the prop involved with this – put the prop in a corner or next to a wall to help create the turn for the first few reps, and keep getting to his shoulder on the new side as early as possible.
Great job on all of these! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Very cool to see him happy to back up onto the disc with no worries about the movement! Super!!!! So now, like with the perch work… see if you can fade out your body language a bit 🙂 Start him really close so he only has to back up one step… and try not to move forward to help him. Let him offer that step back onto the disc and reward when he does 🙂 The goal is that he can eventually back all the way up to it without you moving at all 🙂 But for now, start with him very close so he only has to think about one or two steps.
Great job!!
Hi!
>>no movement on Release world!
I think you were fine here in terms of movement – your movement was not having any impact on the sit offering or the clicking here! And we do build handler movement into stays so you can move or be running the whole time and he will stay til released. The goal is that you don’t stand still and release & move at the same time.
The click timing was good here! You don’t need to say “ok”, you can use a reward marker like “catch” if you are throwing the reward back to him like you stated doing at 1:30.
So for the next session – delay the timing of the click a little more, just a heartbeat or two… then click and toss the treat back to him. Then you can sometimes delay the click a little more… and sometimes click right away to make it variable (and reward each time of course :)) As you are doing this, try to move a little – taking a step away (a slow step :)) and turning to face forward more rather than facing him.
Nice work!
TracyHi!
I like the wrap to retrieve, it is getting him driving past you while you are running 🙂 And it looks like you were running fast the whole time and he was really driving 🙂 Yay!
I think the only question he had was on rep 3 where he didn’t see the toy throw, so didn’t know where to go The rest were solid! And you can add the running away after he gets the ball if you like but he was also seeming to pick it up and wait for you/retrieve it, which means you can play and don’t need to run away 🙂 If he is really far ahead of you, then yes you can totally run the other direction so he races back to you 🙂Great job!
TracyGood morning!
He is doing well here! Before adding the bar on the ground, see if you can fade out some of your movement and let him offer more – you can fade out your movement by taking a gentle step towards him, then rewarding him for moving his back feet without you continuing to move as well. He seems to have good experience on this so I bet he will be able to figure out the offering really nicely!!! If he can offer more without as much movement from you, then you can add the bar taped to the ground. The reason to get more offering before the bar is that he will be thinking about his back feet more, and about your movement less 🙂Great job!
TracyGood morning! He is doing well with all of these, so an overall comment is that you can move to the next step on all of them 🙂 That means either the advanced level, or the game from the next week. Here are some specifics:
Wing wraps – The next step here is to be able to get standing. Because he is small, you might want to sit in a chair for a session and if he can do it with you in a chair, then you can try it standing up. When you can stand up, the next step would be turn and burn!
Nice job with the slow turning on the plank! You can move to a longer plank as well as a slightly taller plank (maybe 6 inches off the ground or so). The taller plank is important so that he can jump on and off from the middle of it, as well as start to get used to some more height.
Turns on the flat – these were tandem turns. He is turning well from next to you, but now the next step is to have him start where he is NOT next to you – begin by tossing a cookie away for him to go get. Then as you are walking forward and he catches up, you can do the tandem turn. I am sure that will go well too, so you can move to the advanced level where the prop gets added in.
Strike a pose – he was coming in nicely to your target hand, but you were moving it. Try to look the target hand out and away from you, so he is a couple of feet way from you when he hits it… then don’t move it 🙂 After he hits the target hand, you can show him the reward in the other hand. Because he is so small, you can do this one in a chair to establish the in-and-out line for him without having to bend over as much 🙂 It will also help if you have a target in your hand (not a cookie) so that he can bop the open hand rather than stop for a cookie 🙂
Backing up: He is starting to get the idea of this one too! To get more steps backwards, two suggestions:
Keep your cookie hands lower (down at the top of your thighs) and toss the treats under his front feet after after he backs up. That way he begins to move back more and more – if the cookie is high and comes from your hand, he will take one step back and look up at you, like he did here.Nice work on all of these! They are all ready for the next steps 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
>>She is going to be so excited to see her dustbin!
Ha! It will be a joyful reunion LOL!
BIG thanks to the hubby for holding her – it allowed you to get a lot of speed on these 2 games, which looked like fun!
>>I think I may have been moving too fast during the parallel path. I got excited to get ahead of her! It is kinda cool that I need a helper to get ahead of this tiny muffin! <grin>>>
I thought it was great! Yes, you were going fast, but she didn’t seem to have any questions about it – in fact, she just went faster LOL! Nice job with. The toy throws, because she was not looking at you over the bar. The next step is to be a little further away, laterally, so she finds the jump even when you are 2 or 3 or 4 feet away from it.
She read the blinds on the collection sandwich perfectly!
>>I think I did not give her time to see any body language that communicated decel before I actually slowed down.>>
Yes – you had a little too much acceleration after the blind, so she thought you were going to keep moving forward which is why she ended up past you on the first rep, and jumped up a little on the other reps. So, after as you are doing the blind, you can also be decelerating so she sees it coming a couple of strides before she gets to you. That way she can decelerate sooner and turn – I think the jumping up was a version of stopping her forward momentum 🙂 She was pivoting beautifully when you started to turn, so it is just a matter of showing her the decel sooner.
Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
