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Good morning!
He was VERY happy to focus forward on the food here! He had no questions when you added movement, or when you delayed the release so you got a bit of duration on it. Super!!!
>I tried using a toy without much luck. >
Was he not interested in going to the toy when it was stationary on the ground? You can try throwing it long and low, and releasing him to it before it lands so he is focusing on it in motion.
>Rusty just lost his two front teeth yesterday – might have something to do with it. >
Totally yes! Poor baby is teething! We can revisit the toy for this soon.
>Also, I need to consistently use ‘yes’ as my marker word.>
You were saying ‘get it’ here as your marker, which I think was perfect. It was shaping ‘get it’ to mean ‘drive forward to the reward out ahead’ which will be super useful in training! Then you praised him when he got to it – all lovely!
One thing I see here is a bit of him avoiding the collar grab when you reached for him. That is pretty normal is pups, so we can build the love for collar grabs a couple of ways:
You can use cookie rewards to keep him moving with you to your starting spot, then let him follow a cookie into a lineup position next to you.
Then, after he is next to you, hold his collar and throw the treat. That way he will associate the collar hold with something FUN happening.
And resist temptation to move him or line him up by his collar – most pups don’t love that and start to avoid the collar holds.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
> it’s a bit harder to nonchalantly steal the toy away. We’re working on a “ready” cue to drop the toy for a throw or re-bite offer and getting a bit better already.>
Stealing the toy away, even nonchalantly, might increase his grip on it 🙂 So the ‘ready’ cue that predicts a throw (or a cookie) will help avoid any potential conflict when we try to get the toy back.
>We have done some collar grab work during normal food training and he’s been fine but in arousal and tug he’s less a fan of that so we’ll keep working on it and in the interim I adjusted to move of a cross chest or under chest gentle hold.>
It is pretty normal to see that when they are more aroused. I use the focus forward game to build in the love of the collar hold: it starts off simple and quick, with cookie trade for the toy, then the cookie delivery also lines the pup up near me, then a very quick hand slide to touch the collar, then a very quick toy toss then release the collar. Will you need 3 hands to do it? Maybe 😂 but it helps the pups condition a ‘good things coming’ when the collar hold happens, and then we build in more duration to it.
The beginning of the forward focus video here, you had his collar before the toy was out of his mouth, so he grabbed at you a bit: that can also mean the collar grab predicts the toy being taken out of his mouth, which can create avoidance of the collar grab.
You can also use a treat lure to line him up before touching him or holding his collar (rather than moving him by the collar or body) – most dogs don’t love to be moved like that so. They avoid it a bit, but the cookie lure into position allows you to hold the collar or body, and also get the game started quickly to make the association that collar grab = fun games.
Plus all this adds in a tiny bit of food into toy play, which helps create a nice balance for both! The forward focus and drive to the toy all looked great, so we can stealthily add in other elements too 🙂
>Started with his long drag toy but when it came time for him to bring it back it’s a bit too big and cumbersome and we were getting some “rolled it” moments.>
I see what you mean! Smaller toys will definitely be easier until he is bigger. He was also shredding the toy a bit but that might be a good thing (see below).
On the 2nd video, the small toys were definitely easier to snatch and carry back. Good boy! The two toy switches help him release and also reward the retrieve: a double whammy of fun!
He might have a left turn preference – even starting on your left side, he was turning away to his left on a bunch of reps. I love to watch for side preferences because it helps inform the training in the future!
>By the end of the small toy session he was pretty aroused and we were getting some more bitey behavior so we transitioned to a bit of chill out and chew on nylabone instead of mom’s hands and sleeves just to practice that arousal modulation skill a bit.>
He was a little chompy at the beginning when you took hold of him before he had really disengaged from the toy – so the hold was paired more with the toy being removed/tug stopping. You can flip that by letting him grab the toy, then getting a clean release (this is where I like the cookies), then gentle hold followed by the quick throw – that pairs the hold more with the immediate presentation with the toy, and not with the removal of the toy.
You can build in little decompression moments into the training, so he self-regulate a bit before getting chompy. It is entirely possible that the moments of shredding the big toy in the first video were decompressions – that shredding is something I have seen over and over as an in-the-moment decompression. Any repeated, rhythmic mouth movements are generally decompressions.
It is an expensive habit (those toys are expensive 😂) so you can buy cheap toys to let him shred or direct the decompression into a sniffy mat or lick mat or chewing on a bully stick or even repeatedly chomping on a squeaky toy – the trick is to let him do it before he feels the need to take it himself or before he gets mouthy. The small toys worked great for the game here but they don’t provide the same decompression that the big toy did, so you can mix that toy in a bit or you can mix in food in a snuffle mat, etc, after every couple of reps.
Then at the end of every session, a nice long sniff walk or snuffle mat or licking food from a Kong are lovely decompressions too!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
Great tugging with Roulette here – be careful with your back as you tug with her. Have you tried a bungee toy with her, where she can bounce around on the end of the toy but there is no bag on your back?Her forward focus on the toy looks great too 🙂 She had no questions when you added movement too.
She was not running off with the toy (yay!) so you can encourage her to bring it to you more by running away from her and calling her as soon as her mouth is on the toy 🙂
Since this went so well, you can keep increasing the distance on the toy throw so she drives ahead more and more 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
He is even cuter on video than in photos!Very nice sessions here – the foot targeting is going great. He is very happy to smack it 🙂 You can switch from your ‘yes’ marker to a ‘get it’ type marker which indicates that you are throwing the reward.
You can start the new game posted today with the prop!
The hand target also looked great! You can change your position for the next session (working towards eventually standing up) – you will still want to keep your hand low, so you can be in a chair or sitting on something so he can still easily reach your hand.
And be sure to break up the cookie moments and run down the hall to see if he will tug in a different location 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
So glad to see you back! It will be great fun to help both of your survive puppy adolescence 🙂
Tracy
Hi! He is so cute!!
The tugging at the start of the foot target video looked great! He loves to tug! You had a nice transition into the shaping element of smacking the hat 🙂
He tried to offer a down but you were good about tossing the treats off to the side to keep him moving.
He stopped offering at about 1:40 – I don’t think he was shut down, I think he lost his chain of thought 🙂 He was very engaged, but offering a down which you might be rewarding a lot in separate sessions.
>I am sure I am doing a lot wrong since Dublin seems to shut down on me.>
You are not doing anything wrong! He is really young so we are sorting out what works best for him.
So one thing you can do to keep him offering the behavior is break off the shaping to play tug a lot more often: after 3 or 4 treats, you can scoop up the hat then then play tug – then put the hat back down and reward 2 or 3 or 4 more times – then break it off to play tug. That will keep him moving and offering the hit 🙂
The nose target session started with great tugging too! You can tie a long toy to the toy you used here, so it is easier to swing low without bending over. Trading for a treat was a perfect way to get the toy back for now. The transition to the hand target was also great! He instantly offered and you were great about tossing the treats to keep him moving.
He turned in a circle then moving into a down after 7 rewards – so I think he was just tired and needed a tug break. For the next session, try breaking the toy out after 2 or 3 treats and see how it goes!
Great job here!
TracyHooray for the links! Macklynn is terrific!
Looking at the foot target video: Overall this is a really strong session. You made progress towards the end behavior we want, and we got good ‘feedback’ from her about what helps her get the behavior.
She is VERY engaged with you and happy to focus on you – I think she was offering her sit and down because she has been rewarded a lot for them 🙂 And also possibly because of how your hands were positioned up high, drawing her focus to you.To get more touching the foot target and less offering sits/downs, you can change the placement of your reward: if she interacts in any way with the target, use your marker (I think you were using ‘search’ for a thrown cookie?) and throw it off to the side. Then as she comes back towards you, you can throw the treat the other direction pretty early: try to mark the moment she looks at the target and not at you 🙂 and throw the treat.The treats being tossed to the side will help her realize that the sit and down are not it – it is about smacking the target.
>I need to increase my energy level>
Your energy level during the ‘offer me something’ moments was perfect. Calm and quiet! And I think you were lovely in the tugging moments too! Be your normal self 🙂
When you go back to tugging, you can hide the treats for now and use a long toy so it is easier to chase. When you got back on the ground and squiggled the toy around, she really engaged brilliantly!>I’m worried that I’m frustrating her by waiting to shape what I’m wanting.>
I think she was happy to work through it here, but any time she offers a stationary position when you want her to move to interact with something, you can switch to thrown treats 🙂
The toy you used for the nose touch game was perfect: nice and long and she really liked it 🙂 Her boop is going great! She seems to be very clear that hitting the hand is the key to the reward and you didn’t get any relaxed downs til the end. The tossed treats helped keep her moving so her down at the end might have been that all of the treats kind of chilled her out with you low to the ground. That is where breaking it off to play tug more will help, and you can remain standing.
This game turns into a handling game, so for your next session you can do the same thing but with some type of visible target in your hand (like a plastic lid or something like that).
Great job here!!
TracyHi! What a brilliant girlie she was here: tugging, driving forward, and ignoring all the distractions of the great outdoors! Add in the super cute pounce on the toy and it was a lovely session!!
Since this is going really well, we can keep advancing it: in the next session do everything the same except throw the toy a little further, and when you let her go to drive to it, you are also going to start walking forward. If this motion draws her attention back to you/away from the toy, you can move very slowly so she keeps focusing on the toy.
Great job!
Tracy
Hi! The links came through: yay!! They are marked as private so youtube won’t let me see them: can you set them to unlisted?
Thanks!
TracyGood morning! Hope you had a fun vacation after the huge success at the Invitational!!
Great job with the moving target pre-game! Lots of rewards helped his stay be super solid and it looks like he was looking at the toy and not at you when you released.
The toy was nice and long, so you didn’t have to bend over at all either. And he could easily scoop it up while running: perfect! Is it a sheep toy tied to a hollee roller? LOL!
Adding the jump was no trouble at all for him. Super!
Since this went so well, you can start with the set point game when it gets posted tomorrow.
>I have been working on his sit mechanics on a sit platform as well as his stays. I hope the improvement is visible!>
OMG yes!!! Big difference, his feet are nice and tight under him!!!!! Yay!
>I’m really conflicted about using 2 different words for the wraps right/left.>
We can prioritize the verbals based on where you think his career will take him (and how courses might evolve in coming years). For now, you can do one wrap verbal and it is definitely possible to add another later on. But, if you have a wrap verbal that means ‘towards me’, you will also need one that means ‘away from me’. There is no escape from all the verbals lately especially as the courses get bigger and there is more layering needed.
Great job here! Have fun!
Tracy
Good morning and welcome back!!! We might need a teenage dog support group – my pup is 9 months too LOL!!! I am excited to see Quill play these games!
Tracy
Good morning and welcome back!!! It will be fun to get back in gear – I am sure Gruff is ready to work & play (he is always ready :))
Have fun!!
Tracy
Hello and welcome back!! This will be great fun with Tarot: she looked lovely on the video! We can really focus on commitment to jumps & lines when she is ahead as well as add more distance too! FUN!!!!
You will be busy with both classes, so be sure to set a timer so each dog gets a short turn 🙂 Have fun!
Tracy
