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Hi! He did really well with his turns here 🙂 He did best when your hand moved a little slower and when he wasn’t chewing when you started moving your hand 🙂
You don’t need to say left or right yet, we add those verbals later on as they apply to turns on obstacles (unless you want them to mean turns on the flat?)
Nice work!
TracyHi!
He is definitely getting the idea of the toy races! Yay!For the treats versus toy…. leave them separate for now. For anything where we start with a treat toss then need to go to the toy, you can ask someone to hold him to do it. He is about to start teething and I don’t want to muddy the waters of treats versus toy for now.
On the 2nd and 3rd videos, it was toys only and he did a good job winning the toy! Yay!!!
2 ideas for you to increase the toy drive even more (the ideas are related :))
– use a longer toy, or maybe tie these 2 toys together so you have a toy that is 3 or 4 feet long. That is very exciting for puppies and he can really chase and tug! Plus it helps with my 2nd idea:
– you can let him do more of the tugging with you a little further away and with less body pressure of leaning over him. He can pull back more and your hands can move a little to swing the toy, but otherwise you can lean back and not as much over him. When you were leaning over and had the smaller toy, he was not as comfortable tugging. But when you had a quieter body language and leaned away? He was a great tugger!
A great example of this is at 1:05 of video 3: he was backed off the pressure and didn’t want to tug with you leaning over him. When you sat back and used quieter body language, he started tugging again 🙂 Yay! Dogs all have play style preferences, and this video is showing us his preferences.
Great job!
TracyHi!
>>He’s very weird about training treats – what he’ll eat one day he’ll absolutely refuse the next. I’ve turned myself into a pretzel trying to find and/or make things he’ll actually eat and the most consistent is kibble. Strange dog>>
Ha! That is funny LOL! Seems like pretty typical teenager behavior LOL! So… we go with kibble. And you can point it out to him if he can’t see it, because he is probably more easily able to track something moving than to find something stationary.
>>he absolutely did not want and I did not want to give up on it.>>
I give you full permission to give up on it LOL! If he doesn’t want it, then it is not really a reinforcement so for now, it is fine to move on to the next toy. He might end up tugging on it, but it is more of a frustration thing rather than play, and we want to avoid the frustration. I think he wa sa bit frustrated at 6:06 when he bit your ear.
We can incorporate the pup’s preferences into the game by letting him choose which toy to start with… then switch to the next one and see what he thinks, or whip out two other toys to let him choose. Thatr can build pay drive by giving him more agency.
He defniitely has an ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’ approach and wants the one that is not availble 🙂 Ha! The ones on the table were very tempting 🙂
He also has distinct play style preferences, and that is good to know and also good to use! He does not get engaged when you tap the toy up and down, or when you slide it around or do a lot of hand play with him.
But when you throw it? Oh heck yeah! He loves thatr, it is true play. So we go with it!
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> This is great – you can put a long line on the toy (or get a flirt pole) and incorporate the playing as a chase game to start… then you can more easily get interacton and get the other toys involved too!
He seems to like squeaky toys too (like when he was squaking that grey furry squeaky toy and being swiffered LOL) so you can use TONS of sqeaky toys. And you can organize each toy by play style:
Not squeaky> It is a chase toy. Throw it and flirt pole it!
Squeaky? Tug and swiffer 🙂>> but has a very very light bite. If he does bite down on it and slight tug or pressure (either purposefully or inadvertently if we’re running/chasing the toy) he lets go.>>
That can improve over time (he is only 8 months old) and by keeping your hands low, and by letting him win the toy and take it on his own after you get a decent “pull” and grip. Over time, you can progressively wait til he pulls harder and harder before you let him win the toy.
>> He LOVES to retrieve if I throw the toy and that’s really my go to right now.
Do this and flirt pole and swinging toys for all non-squeakies 🙂
>> His other preference is to grab it with his front feet and try to chew on it or, as you see in some of the video, lay on the floor and be dragged like a swiffer LOL.>>
This is good for squeakies and he can have it to chew on a bit after a good pull, a good clamp 🙂
>> What I’d really love is to have him drive and bite the toy and do some weight shift tugging. Any suggestions?
The weight shift will come when you start letting him win, whenever you feel a good pull on the toy. Start off by letting him win a LOT, just a little pull… then you can build it up over time to Malinois-level tugging LOL!
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>What is the difference between sleeping between trial runs and decompressing with your relaxation techniques?>>
GREAT question!!!! Sleep and decompression are both important but they do different things… Sleeping in that trial situation is not really an effective type of deep, REM sleep. Dogs are mostly dozing so not really sleeping, and that doesn’t bring the HPA axis back to baseline. Good sleep is great for refreshing the body and consolidating learning & memory – but not really great for decompression or HPA axis baseline. The decompression games specifically teach the body to regulate the HPA axis hormones.
The backside wrap session went really well!!! Only one suggestion about the mechanics: you can now move the reward bowl past the end of the plank so she doesn’t go over it and so she can focus on it as she exits the wrap (you can move it to where you were tossing the treats)
Looking at the last 2 reps:
“Changtse was tired or I was moving too fast around the wing when she had to sit or both?”
I don’t think it was a fatigue question, I think it was a handling/cue question:
At :42, she took the jump nicely! Your cue there had your right leg still on the landing side and your right shoulder opened up and pointing to the landing spot. (You did a similar thing at :55 when you helped her take the jump after she didn’t take it).
At :51 and on the last rep, your feet were on the takeoff side (past the wing) and your shoulders were forward, so she didn’t take the jump. Because we are trying to get it so that your feet *can* be on the takeoff side, you can help with your arm & shoulder: as you move past the wing and release her. use your right arm (or whichever arm is closer to the wing) to point back to the landing spot, and also look at the landing spot. That should open up your shoulder and help her commit as you move past. You can also do a few reps with the reward bowl on the landing side to help her sort it out.
Great job here!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Nice job with the fading process for the front side wraps!!! As you mentioned, he did really well on the right turns at the beginning. When you switched sides and he was doing the left turns – I see what you mean about him sitting a little further away. I think it was because he is very literal and was responding immediately to the sit cue LOL! He was cueing off your left arm (opposite arm) for the sits on those… so you can ask for the sits one step later and then he should be perfect. Bringing the plank back out was great too, because then you don’t have to worry about perfect timing at all.
One suggestion:
When fading the sit on the plank – if you say sit, be sure he sits, some of them were half sits LOL! And when you don’t want a sit, use your wrap verbal so he moves over the plank and then over the bar.Looking at the first session of the Backside wraps – this went really well!!!! I was going to suggest moving the MM a little further away… then you did just that 🙂 Having the MM further back made it all easier for him.
Your mechanics were spot on and he did really well! He had a little trouble when you added moving past the wing, but then he sorted it out and finished strong (good job to you for rewarding his effort, so he never got frustrated :))
Try another session or two of the backside wraps like you did here, then you can start fading the plank like you are doing with the front side wraps 🙂I am so glad you enjoyed the class – it was super fun to watch Torrin learn it all, you did a great job with him!!!!!!
>>I plan to keep going with all these exercises through the winter.>>
Perfect! They are great conditioning and coordination exercises!
Have fun!!! Keep me posted!
TracyHi!
Sorry I missed this yesterday!! She did really well!!!She did a GREAT job on her zig zags!!!! And this was a new environment, yes? It was smart to start easy but she also had no questions when it was harder. She was going FULL OUT but yet very accurate in her jumping. SUPER!!
>>After a break, we did some moving toy on just one angled jump, to see if she could keep the bar up with the motion.>>
This was very smart dog training, click/treat for you! Where was she going on that first rep? LOL! The reps on the video looked good.
>.There are 2 reps that didn’t get recorded because I don’t know why (smh) where she ticked the bar pretty hard.>>
I wonder if she was just a little too close to the bar and ticked it with her front feet? You can move her back a couple of inches to see if that helps.
Looking at the plank sits – I agree, she was great here too! She was very snappy in her sits an then pushed off over the bar beautifully! So this started at 10″ and ended at 12″? for the next session, you can start at 12″ and go to 14″ 🙂 You did the handling as post turns here, you can also try the handling as a FC as you release her to take the jump.
Great job!!!
TracyHi!
>> Need a better object.
I use a cheap pop up laundry basket that I got at a dollar store 🙂
>>I have a tug toy with a ball on the end of it, but it always looks like he’s gonna knock himself out when he plays with it!
Ha! I don’t know why dogs love to smack themselves in the head with their toys…. LOL!
I agree that the human element is harder in terms of the mechanics, and our pups are all really good with being patient as we learn LOL!!!!
And I am confident that Sid will have a great stay, just like Race 🙂
Feel free to send along any video of the loss of focus because there might be a small adjustment we can make. And yes, set a timer for a short period and finish early. Also, you can extend her focus in that environment with easier behaviors (because the environment is SO HARD) and a super high rate of reinforcement with great rewards 🙂
T
Good morning! Hope you are feeling better!!!!
Thanks for leaving the session unedited! It was fun to watch! You got a ton of good play and some really good terrier shaking on the wubba and some of the other toys too!
>>But I have more trouble keeping her on the toy, especially when it stops moving.>>
The toy can always be moving a little bit, and also you can use longer toys, more like flyball-style and less of a small toy that fits in your hand. With the very small toys, there is a lot of pressure with you leaning over and not a lot of room for her to grab it. The longer toys, like 2 or 3 feet long, will relieve that pressure and it is easier for them to not go “dead” because she can move them more 🙂 and won’t rely on you moving them. To get longer toys, you can also tie several of your toys together rather than go buy more toys 🙂
>She did the best with the Wubba (which surprised me) and the fur tug in staying on. She doesn’t seem to like giant mouthfuls of fluff and she is tiny.>>
This is all good to know! She gets to tell us which she finds reinforcing 🙂
She also was very interested in picking a toy from the pile! So you can also let her pick from the pile as part of the game, if the pile is on the ground – pushing her away was not as much fun and it might potentially telling her engagement with the toys was incorrect. So you can use her enjoyment of the toy pile to your advantage: lift the main pile up out of reach for now and then drop a couple down when it is switch time and let her pick. Dogs love to pick!
We can eventually go to having a low value pile and a high value pile. And when switching, you can make a big fuss over the new toy, focus all of your attention on it, marvel at it, ooh and ahh over it… all before giving it to her 🙂
One other small detail I noticed:
She doesn’t seem to like the taps when she is standing on you (she drops the toy), but she seems fine with the body taps (and seems to enjoy them!) when she is all four on the ground. That is good to know, so for now don’t smack her when she is standing on you to tug LOL!
>>I have a habit of shaking the toy, which I tried not to do here. >>
I thought your were really good with how you moved the toy!!! I saw no shaking 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
So much nice work here!!
She did well with the wing wrap foundations! One suggestion is to have the cookies in your hands before you even sit down, and definitely before the bowls go to the floor. The bowls are basically the cue to start the game – note on the first video she did two great back-and-forth moments but didn’t get rewarded because you were getting the cookies out. Then she stopped offering. You got her going again by dropping the cookies in the bowls, but we don’t want to miss those first couple of great offered behaviors
The stealth cookie drops were harder for her at first but she figured it out quickly! God girl!
>>She would probably be more engage and excited if I used toys, so we will try that next.>>
You can take tug breaks after every 4 or 5 cookies, to keep her pumped up! She was doing well with the treats, lots of thinking and figuring it out nicely 🙂 For this shaping game, you don’t need her to be too excited because the game we add tomorrow to buil on this skill will DEFINITELY be exciting 🙂
2nd video – good girl with the big wing! She was very quick to get started here, and it is much harder because she has to move further from the cookies 🙂 Super!
One thing I notice on both on these sessions is that when you are quiet, she is very quick to offer the next rep. When you praise… she looks at you and gets distracted. So…no praise for now on this game 🙂 It is pretty normal that pups are distracted by praise, so I like to stay quiet during the offering/shaping then I can get chatty and silly during the tugging.
She did a great job when you stood up! The video ended after a rep or two of that – for the next session, start with you sitting on the couch then move to standing: that will set you up perfectly for the next set of games coming tomorrow.
Blind cross:
>> Little stinker stopped eating her cookie and rather charging after me then eating, hahaha. >>
That is one of the reasons why we play this game: to help build commitment to something that might be less exciting than chasing you LOL!!! Border Collies often choose chasing off the cookie… but we work on the cookie commitment because the cookie commitment translates to things like collection, stops on contacts, start lines, tables, etc. All of those are less exciting than chasing you LOL!
So for the cookie commitment: send her to the cookie and just walk away. Keep an eye on her: don’t get exciting or run til you see her *swallow* the cookie (you will see her open her mouth again). And when you think she has swallowed it? Then you can run run run and do the blind.
The reasoning behind this is that the cookie eating is just a behavior and we want to set & maintain criteria (swallow it, rather than leave it or just spit it out :)) This helps to build up the cookie value by pairing it with running and tugging – which will allow us to use food reinforcement even when things are REALLY exciting. This is something that most BCs need us to do (I had to work this criteria: swallow! with all of my BC-type dogs :))
And if she doesn’t eat the cookie while you walk away? You can have her eat a cookie from your hand, then tug with her, then start again with the tossed cookie and walk away more slowly 🙂 She is not in trouble if she doesn’t eat the cookie, we will just try to convince her to eat the cookie 🙂
The blind crosses themselves looked perfect – great mechanics, great connection, great timing and she read them beautifully 🙂
Goat tricks:
> I really didn’t like my mechanics at all after watching the video>What did you not like? I think the mechanics were mostly super strong! The only change I would suggest is to get the cookies out during tugging at the very beginning, then take the toy away, then put the target down. That will allow you to reward the very first interaction.
You did that or something similar to that at :56 – 1:10, for example (I didn’t even see you get the cookies out, which meant either they were already in your hand or you were insanely fast about it :). She was tugging, you got the toy, you put the thing down, she offered touching it and BOOM! Cookie was there. That was great!
She did try to grab the toy from the couch later in the session, but that is fine and actually pretty cute 🙂 It is all part of the stealthy self-control we are teaching the pups, it is a bit of “and now we ignore the toy” and she was really great!
So keep playing these shaping games on anything you think she can get on or get in 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! So much good work here!
Wing wraps are looking really good! You can give her even more wrapping room by moving the bowls back to an inch or too past your knees here so she has more room to get the cookie and turn around. Moving the upright out was not a problem, she had one moment of coming between you and the upright but the rest of the session was perfect 🙂
So for the next session, you can move the bowls back a bit and we can also start to change your position. The goal is to take a couple of short sessions and get you standing up: so you were on the floor here – start there and after she gets a couple of reward for getting in the groove, you can kneel (if your knees won’t be angry) and you can also bring something low to sit on. When you move to sitting and eventually standing, the bowls can remain and they can be parallel to your heels.
Good use of the long line for the driving ahead: you kept it loose til she started coming back to you, then you used it to engage with the tugging! Perfect! Retrieving is a work in progress for most dogs, and she is doing great! I like this pressure-free, playful approach to it because the pups choose to bring back the toys and results in a better retrieve when they are adult.
The driving ahead was no problem for her 🙂 My only suggestion is to throw it so it lands more directly in front of her, then you can converge towards her rather than end up behind her – when it is a little more in front of you, you end up putting accidental rear cross pressure on her line LOL! And she was reading it and turning the new direction. When you had it landing in front of her, she knew to turn towards you and not away from you.
Next step here: move to the toy races where you are running more and actively trying to get to the toy first 🙂 This was posted in week 2 🙂
Blind cross game – oh yes, Cha Cha liked the running 🙂 To save yardage, you can go back and forth: when she catches you at the toy reward, you can start the next rep there: toss the cookie to the back wall (on this video) then run towards the camera doing the blind 🙂
Good connection and mechanics on the blinds! You were getting a massive head start (which is great, it means the value of the cookie was high enough that she didn’t just chase you – this is not always the case with Border Collies!) . With that massive head start, you can try for two blinds! And to keep things spicy for Miss Sriracha, you can throw in some decel to handler reps where you have her go to the tossed treat but you don’t run for the blind: you move away, decel, and bring her to your side for a pivot 🙂
Great job on all of these! We add more tomorrow and she is ready for all of the next steps 🙂
Tracy
