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Good morning!
I love the world watching video!!! Pickle ball is exciting! It was interesting to see him: it looks like he was breathing fast, and definitely lots of air scenting – all is great! And it was SUPER cool at the end where he got up, wagged his tail, and was ready to move on. That might seem like a small thing but it is actually huge in terms of teaching him to flex his resilience muscles: he got to observe, process, then have agency over what to do next. Good job to you for allowing that!!!!
>> attempted a food scatter in the parking lot next to my car as an experiment – absolutely no interest. Food is just not important enough to him to override other distractions.>>
Ok this is interesting!!!! I think part of what we can do is figure out where he will eat, and what he will eat (in terms of type of treats and value). For the treat scatters, what type of cookies where you using? The reason that this is worth looking at is that not eating gives us a little insight into how he is feeling about the environment (that it was challenging!) and also about value of food (not that interesting, as you noted). So if we can figure out what/when he will eat, we can use that to help him learn about the world and transfer his sporty skills from home to other environments too!
He did well with the sandwich game! Yes, it is a rainy gross week here in the sunny South so indoors is perfect 🙂
Looking at the sandwich video: This was super fun to watch!
>> The first couple of times he went shooting past me in the collection part >>
That was handling timing, not lack of puppy response 🙂
At the beginning, definitely decel sooner and let him see more of a transition from you moving fast to slow. That will help him set up his collection because he was going fast fast fast then he was surprised when you pivoted. For example at 1:03 you were fast then pivoted (no decel before the pivot) so he was wide on the turn because he never got the cue to collect til after the pivot started.He read the blind cross addition really well! And you did better decels after the blind like at 2:18 and 5:38, and look how tight he was on the turn! Super!! So keep that big moment of slowing down before he gets to you (he should still be at least 6 feet away from you when he sees you decelerating).
And adding the go after it was strong too – I couldn’t see the blind or the pivot on most of those because you were a bit off camera, but the driving to the toy looked great 🙂 And based on what I could hear, he was doing well on the blinds and pivots as well. Super!!!
>> About his laying down. I haven’t worked a lot of downs with him so I’m not sure why he’s offering them. I have worked with him on a place station but that’s always on an elevated bed station. He does like motion, there’s no doubt. He did it again today when we were working inside on the connection sandwich drill. Any suggestions?>>
Looking at the down behavior again, I think that 2 things were happening:
Part of the down was with the toy, so he might have been taking a bit of a decompression moment by chewing the toy for a few seconds. Perfectly fine to let him do this, count to 5 and if he looks like he is ready for the next rep? Call him and do the next rep. Pups (and adults!) need those decompression moments for self-regulation of their arousal when they are working these types of games, so we let them do it.
The other down was an offered down at 4:25, not a decompression moment. You got the down because your hand was right where he wanted to bite the toy (at the squeaker) so he was actually being pretty polite LOL!! Good boy! So you can squeak it then toss it to get engagement.
>> About the wing wrap foundations and you suggested a taller prop for him to go round, would a big traffic cone work? I’m looking around the house and can’t find much else >
A tall traffic cone would totally work! I think they are 3 feet tall or something, which is perfect. Of a pop up laundry basket, if you have one (or if you end up at a dollar store or walmart, you can get one for a dollar or two but definitely not worth spending more money than that for now 🙂 )
>>I could always use a wing stanchion
Soon…. but not yet. LOL! We want the behaviors to be soooo solid before we move to a wing so that the sessions with the wings have almost no errors or questions.
Great job here! See ya tonight in class!!!!
TracyGood morning!
I am so sorry to hear of your back pain!!! Ouch!! I am glad it is down to a more manageable 4-5 level but we can still protect your back by doing all the things that don’t require a lot of back movement. The barrel games are fun, yes, but we have plenty of stuff that doesn’t require running or tugging. You can do the rear crosses on the prop, for example, as that can be fully cookies and not tugging. And we build on the patterns tonight and that will be easy to do without tugging.
The backing up looks really good – you can totally do this from a chair so you don’t have to bend up and down for food delivery. And then yes, from a chair, you can just drop the treats down at your feet. So she would back up, you mark and drop the cookie at your feet so she comes to get it… then she backs up again.
When you were outside, she was backing up past the platform and ending up with front feet on and back feet off LOL! You can put the platform with a fence to wall behind it so she has a stopping point. The big disc at the end of the video had stuff behind it, so she didn’t want to go past it and that is fine! You can reward her for the 2o2o at this point, as it really isolates the hind end and also provides a good 2o2o contacts foundation :). You can work the big disc from a chair too, having her back up then releasing her forward to the cookie you drop at your feet.
She did well with the pattern game! I can’t hear if you were saying a ‘get it’ or not – if not, definitely say it 🙂 You can also toss the cookie sooner, as soon as she looks at you. You were waiting longer, so she was moving back to you and then she was offering other behaviors because she was not sure what was going to get the cookie. So, the cookie moment here is for just looking at you – yes, it is really easy LOL!! We build on it with today’s new games, which is why the first level of it here is so easy 🙂 So, when she looks at you – toss the cookie the new direction rather than waiting for her to move back in front of you (because in harder situations, she may not be able to offer moving back in front of you :))
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyWoot woot, Stitch TV! I am going to drink lots of coffee, look at the single video posts, then sit down to watch StitchFlix with all of these. And the game we add today will also help him look at other dogs and be comfy about it! Be back shortly!
Good morning!
>> Maaaah I feel super behind. After an agility weekend and then a barn hunt weekend I haven’t had time to do much.>>
You are not behind! These games all build on each other in terms of concepts, so you are right where you need to be 🙂 Plus, a weekend away doing trials is a great exposure opportunity for him – he has to learn about the great big world too, and that is just as valuable as these little puppy games. We have a ton of time in coming months for the games, so try not to feel stressed about being behind. You are doing great!!!!
He was a fabulous barrel wrapper! Click/treat to you for NOT rewarding that ridiculously cute sit up behavior. (I mean, that was SO CUTE but when he sees something to wrap we really don’t want him to be offering to sit pretty LOL!!!!)
This was a really strong session. The main thing I see here is that he is a lefty. Going to his left around the barrel? Easy peasy. Going to his right around the barrel? SO HARD – he was frustrated and trash talking LOL! This is completely normal so we will help him out by just letting latent learning kick in with a couple of sessions about 24 hours apart with a gooooood long sleep in between (for him, but you are welcome to have a good sleep too haha!!). Sleep consolidates the learning, so having a good session like this then letting him have a deeeeep sleep is incredibly useful.
So on the next session, do everything the way you did it here in terms of the mechanics of getting everything set and bringing the barrel in last, that was great. One change is to start him on your right hand, so the first thing he does is wrap to his left. Keep the barrel in close, so he can then immediately sort out wrapping to his right – it is harder than it looks (I am 52 years old and I still cannot write my name with my non-dominant hand!!).
What is likely to happen is that as he gets stronger, the left turns will progress more quickly than the right turns, so you might be able to add distance on the left turns more quickly and then pull the barrel in to you for the right turns, so they stay easy for now. And as he gets older, it will balance out.
And when you start the turn and burn game, start with him on your right so he can turn to his left to learn the concepts.
And yes – squeaking the toy is part of the reward, so let’s do it!
Great job here! let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>Before I added the uprights to the RC’s, Sid would stand on his prop and pivot ON it. So changed out the prop making it smaller at first. Little booger could still pivot! Even on very little things. So I dragged out a jump, we worked on very short jumps-8 inches and we lost the pivot. I didn’t want to work him very long on jumps so I took the bar away and he liked that better with the prop! No more pivots, or spins.>>
Ah! Got it! So he was thinking it was a pivot game. Great job to you to help him understand that it was a hit-and-go game. Brilliant! It looks like you helped him out by finding a way to reinforce the behavior you wanted without frustrating him by telling him was wrong. That is a HUGE dog training moment and excellent problem-solving. I am sending you a MASSIVE click/treat!!! Yeah!!!
>>It NEVER occurred to me about the hand placement for his backup que!
It is harder to see the head position in the moment while training, but easier to see on video – that is why we video as much as possible because the video acts as a second set of eyes LOL!!
>>I will definitely try it AND his BIG wobble board came in, so far only three feet on it, but the towels around it is a great suggestion! It’s much higher than the baby one. Towels will be perfect>>
3 feet on a new board is great! Yes, stabilize it with the towels and I bet he gets that last foot on 🙂
>>He loves to play with his toys, I just wish he didn’t hit himself in the head with some of them.>>
For real! Why do they enjoy that? But, they do, so we let them and try to use toys that he won’t bludgeon himself with LOL
You’re doing a great job with him!!!! Have fun!
TracyGood morning!
>> I wondered if there might be a change in adolescence, in which I shouldn’t take anything for granted. I’ve been surprised at how she bounces back from her little crashes and unfortunate events.
Yes, I have been fortunate enough to have gotten a lot of info about adolescent dog brains from a neuroscientist veterinarian recently… and it turns out adolescence is unpredictable LOL! Dogs can get more sensitive to sounds or movement, and they take twice as long to ‘bounce back’ to baseline of emotion than puppies or adults do. So, we tend to get a little more careful in adolescence LOL!!!
>>Outside the scope of this course, I have to keep her from climbing onto the patio table, she has nabbed all sorts of things including my iPhone, twice.>>
She is definitely an adventurer! LOL!! When she hits adolescence, we might bubble wrap her a bit LOL!
>>I pulled out two fit bones last night, and the nubs on those didn’t bother her at all, they’re smaller, so she was all over that. She was oddly suspicious of stepping on the disc, I have no idea why, it was nubby side down. But it was losing air, so maybe if I put more air in it, it won’t be so smushy. Or maybe she’ll get used to smushy.>>
Excellent about the fitbones! And I bet if you put the discs in a larger field of things to walk over, all squished together, she will be fine with the discs too!
Have fun!
TracyGood morning! These look great!
She had no trouble seeing the side changes because you emphasized the connection on the new side with eye contact and the reward across your body. Super!!She also really liked the frisbee reward. Using the friz made the mechanics a little harder because you had to over-rotate back to her to give her the friz. So you can also try it with a long tug toy so that she has a lot to latch onto without needing as much rotation from you.
You can bring these blinds into the collection sandwich game, and also if you have a bigger space you can add more running room for you both. 🙂
Great job! Have fun!
TracyHi!
Focus forward looks great! He definitely likes his toys 🙂 Try this with a collar or harness on so you have a better hold on him – otherwise he is slippery! You can also add in a ‘get it’ verbal – and when the races begin, you can also be saying go go go as you run too!
Prop game – yes, small soft treats next time will add a little more efficiency to the game and fewer crumbs/smells on the ground LOL! He is definitely doing well with his prop value, so now it is time to stand up 🙂 If he can offer as nicely with you standing, then you can move to the send games with the prop. And, when you are standing and doing the send games, you can also use a toy 🙂
Blind cross with toy:
>>However I know why my dogs and I don’t do blind crosses well. I suck at teaching them >>
This is not true at all! The blinds went well! It was the cookie-to-toy element was harder: use a lower value and smaller cookie or sure on these, because the big crunchy cookie was too distracting. He did get back on the toy when you made the toy wilder so he could chase it! So use boring cookies that are small and easy to swallow, then when you do the blind, make the toy reward wild by dragging it all around so he can chase it. You might need more room for this, so maybe wait on the toys til you can be someplace bigger?
The blinds with 2 cookies went well! Just do the blind sooner: as soon as he takes one step towards you, do the blind. You were starting it a little later, so he didn’t have as much time to respond. But when you were doing it earlier, he was perfect!
Great job 🙂
TracyHi!
Nice shirt at the trial!!! And it was a particularly lovely run!!!!!!!! The question she had on the line from the table to the tunnel before the DW was just that your position put her on her left lead, and she needed to be on the right lead to get the tunnel. So a “get out” cue would help there, or you can handle that on your left side.
As for the ending line? Honestly, that course design is a bit much for baby Open dogs LOL!!! A dog walk then 3 jumps on a straight line is HARD ASfor Open level dogs and I bet lots of them had refusals and/or bars or at least BIG questions. So yes, keep training these massive lines to the exit – she has good Go skills but this line from the DW to the end is MASSIVE! So focus on all the gorgeous elements of this run (there were MANY of those) and put the big ending line on the to-do list 🙂 She will get it, but that was really hard for a youngster in Open. The organizer wraps looked really good! You don’t have to do these at full height (you can save the full height stuff for the fading process) – but you can definitely go to the next step now:
– no more feeding in the sit position, as soon as he butt gets into the sit, you can release and have her wrap to the remote dispenser.
– you can try to stay in motion the whole time, maybe starting closer to the wrap wing so you can move forward, decel, turn… all while you still cue the sit 🙂 It will look more like what the actual handling will look like. And you an also move faster before the decel, I think she is ready for that!Great job!
TracyHi! Start the backsides using the 6.6″ spacing and see how she does! That is a good distance for her so I think it will also be a good backside distance.
T
Hi!
Retrieve games: he did really well on both videos here!! Super! I’d say he is a pretty natural retriever too – chasing the toy is super exciting! You made it really fun to bring it back, so he was bringing it back faster and faster inside on that first video!
When you were outside, you gave him less room so I think you can throw it a little further now, he was pretty perfect 🙂 Also, you were very quiet on the outside video, so remember to praise him when he brings it back (just like you did inside) and you can also use a ‘get it’ verbal when you throw the toy.
One thing to add to the next session: start him on your left side too. On all of the retrieves on both videos, he turned to his left (probably because you started him on your right as far as I could tell). So, remember to switch sides so he turns to his right as well, so we keep him nice and balanced.
Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
TracyHe was so cute here! The edge of this box was a little high so it too him a moment to figure out how to get hi sback feet in, but he did! Super!!!
OK since this is going well too, let’s add a discrimination game. Let’s teach him to assess the situation and determine the difference between *in* and *on*. Using this same white box (as long as it is stable and won’t move from under him), do a session where you start by rewarding him for getting in it like you did here… then while he is chasing a cookie reward, turn it over so when he approaches it again, he switches to “get on it” mode. That can be a good brain-bender for puppies! And when he gets on it (even if it is just a front foot), reward and while he is chasing a cookie, turn it over so he will need to switch to ‘get in’ mode for the next rep.
And if this particular object won’t work, you can do it with the large black bowl you have, I think that is big enough and stable enough.
Nice work!
TracyHi!
I love his goat walk over all the things here! No problem at all 🙂 And a nice 2o2o by accident hahaha
He is very balanced and coordinated which means we can add a little more! If you have a wobble board, you can add it with some of the other objects wedged under it.
Also, you can play this game with a toy instead of cookies, so he is more excited: that will challenge him to be coordinated while moving faster!
And, with the cookies, you can also be walking back and forth – that challenges his head position, because he will want to look up at you, but looking at the objects will make for better balance and coordination.Great job here! Let me know how the next steps go!
TracyHi!
The wing wrapping looks super! He had one moment where he was extra licking the bowl but then go right back at it LOL! And since there was distance between you and the wing now, we can go to the next step:
rather than use this short PVC wing, do you have a taller laundry basket or barrel or really tall cone? That will give him something bigger to wrap, but it is also softer because he might touch it when we add the turn and burn game 🙂So using the bigger laundry basket or similar item, do one short session just like you did here so he learns to wrap that new item… the onwards to turn and burn from week 3! We don’t want to use a real wing yet, so definitely try for the pop up basket or something 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi!
It was really cool here to see latent learning in action: after a few days away from the training, he was really great with the plank game here! Of course, his coordination will change as he continues to grow, but I am really happy with what he did here!!! You can move this game to wobble boards, or you can stay on this plank and add toys to it rather than cookies 🙂 Using toy rewards will get him more excited so he is going to be more challenged to stay coordinated 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
