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Good morning!
First – OMG!! Changtse is the CUTEST!!!!!!!!! Thank you for the video, it is a great way to start the morning <3 The toy play looked great :) You can make silly noises when you slap the new toy on the ground to help pair your voice to it and help get her attention too!
>> I do not understand the meaning of the antecedent. It seems that it should mean what comes before what you would be installing.
Sorry for any confusion! The antecedent is more of the cue for the specific behavior, so for the weaves it would be how/when/where we deliver the actual cue to weave. So the tugging/ball chasing and obstacles before he weaves are things we can do to get to the antecedent (preparing him for the antecedent/cue in terms of focus and line to the weaves), so the antecedent in the loop here in this situation is the cue to weave. Let me know if that makes better sense or if I need more coffee 🙂 More coffee is always an option!
He looked SUPER happy to do the poles here with the reward behind him!
You caught yourself mixing up the markers but he was reading the context 🙂 You can say “yes” after the marker, I don’t think that dilutes the moment 🙂
Now since we don’t want him to weave every day (hard on the body!) you can generalize this concept to different behaviors (moving the treat chair further away) and to new locations (starting with the treat chair nice and close for now) with the goal of general understanding of “do the thing, reward is outside the ring” which will help him relax more – which will also improve weave performance.Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>Contraband looked AWESOME yesterday!!! I wish I had a photo from the box loaders angle of him powering down the lane to you…Breath taking.
Thanks! I got to watch the videos last night – he was doing great on his box turn, thanks for helping with that! Now I need to teach him to power down the lane to me AND carry the ball haha!
>>Also Give a Big THANK YOU to Nacho for putting up with Watson’s naughtiness. Maybe an extra cheese stick from me.
Nacho says it was great fun and he is happy to eat free cheese any time LOL!
>>Quick question Levy is now a year and I have intro him to the flyball jump. How often do you recommend I have him do a little jump work of no more than 7 inches at his age? Should I hold off a bit now that he has seen them and reintroduce later? >>
7 inches is easy for him, maybe once or twice a week? But no need to do more for now. YOu can keep doing what you are doing with them – that is a good shaping game. And maybe a recall over 2 or 3 or 4 every now and then.
>>When did you start Contraband?
He just turned 2, so I probably started shaping jumps at a year and then doing rows at 15 or 16 months?
>>I am trying not to compare as his litter mates are running the whole flyball lane now. 🙂 Operation be patient LOL
Yeah, that is hard – doing a whole flyball lane at a year old is NOT recommended. The year old birthday is not some magical thing that says the dogs are now full grown and should do repetitive jumping behavior (especially large males).
To give you a frame of reference about Contraband’s littermates:
Queso (Shelly’s pup) debuted in flyball in July, I think that puts her at 21 months old when she debuted? And Shelly didn’t do a lot of work, just small pieces like she is teaching us, and it came together really fast (and amazingly well) when Queso was over 18 months old. Solo, the other blue merle pup from the litter, debuted at CanAm when he was 2. Salsa, the other girl, debuted at NRR so she was 2 years and 1 month old. Contraband and the other littermate, Helix (Emily’s dog who was there yesterday) are probably going to debut some time in early or mid-2022.These dogs all started doing their jumping stuff at well over a year old, maybe 15 or 16 months old. No rush!
>>On another Note: We are struggling a bit with a toy on the ground as seen in our last session. He is a bit faster than I am and is getting the toy faster than I can and getting a little party of one. Any suggestions on how I can modify this, so he isn’t getting rewarded for getting to the toy. >>
2 suggestions:
teach the concept using food, and not a toy, so he has a reinforcement history of doing the behavior first and then going to the reinforcement. You can do that using the strike a pose game with an empty food bowl or manners minder if he likes that – he does the hand target behavior, then you either drop a cookie in the empty food bowl or click the MM. He will have an a-ha! moment on that, conceptually 🙂
Then go to toy in hand, with it dangling (not on the floor) – what is his word for grabbing the toy? So as soon as he hits the hand target, use your “bite” word so he can grab the toy. Then gradually lower it to the ground…. but either have it on a leash or use a super long toy, so you can hold the other end and eliminate the party of one festivities LOL! And he if makes a mistake, no worries, just chuckle, remove the toy, try again. If he makes 2 mistakes you can reward with a really good treat in your hand while the toy in on the ground, to help him understand that the toy is not available until he hears the marker. I think I see you for puppy stuff on Sunday, so we can work specifically on that!!Let me know if that makes sense. See you this weekend!
TracyHi! I heard about the rainy weather you are having!! Hopefully it does not last long and you are back to sunny weather 🙂
This session went well! Having the toy so close does make it harder but this game does have a pretty massive self-control element to it so we do get some bloopers and crimes of passion for the toy 🙂 He did really well on all of it! The timing of the ‘go’ or get it as soon as he finished the barrel wrap on the FC was perfect, that gave him the best/earliest info for driving ahead to the toy. And your FCs and BCs all looked good – when you are back outside with more room to run, you can delay the BC a bit more (you’ll be further ahead) so he can make a more distinct side change.
The decels were harder as you mentioned – partially because the GO and get its to the toy are so fun for him, and food is not as exciting 🙂 Great job working through it, showing him the food a bit and also talking to him – just as your timing of ‘go’ or ‘get it’ as he exited the barrel was useful for him, calling him to your side was super useful for him too. Using the toy was helpful but by then I think he had it figured out 🙂
On one of the pivots, he ended up wrapping the barrel again because you were so close to it – good boy! That is not incorrect. You were a little further away on the others and you also had your hand lower and more obvious, so he did well on those. He was nice and tight on the pivots, even with the toy distraction!
Great job here – I bet you find it even easier when you are outside, because the toy will be further away and less of a distraction.Tracy
Good morning!
The tunnel sending looked great! She only had one little oopsie of “GOING TOO FAST, MOM” but was great with using her body on all of the others.
One most of them, I could clearly hear the “get it” 0 you can give that cue as soon as you see her about to enter it, as it helps cue the straight exit.
On the threadle sends – she did really well! It looked like she had a harder time on the very last one, turning to her left (counterclockwise) so you can keep her closer to the entry on that side for now so it is not as difficult.Question: have you decided on your tunnel-threadle verbal? She is ready for you to add it!
>>I was struggling with my mechanics (which way to turn), so then I ended up just working more on the decel piece and trying to focus on where I was holding the toy so she would not be launching at it.>>
I probably should have left the walk throughs in the demo video – I totally walked through each combo a few times before trying it with the dogs LOL!!! You might need a walk through like I did 🙂
>>It seemed like no matter what I tried to do, I ended up doing the pivot clockwise (like I had been sucked into Dellin’s vortex – she heavily prefers clockwise in herding).
OMG it was like magic LOL!!! I mean, they looked really good! but yes, you were clock-wising it most of the time LOL! The decels looked good there (she was tighter to you, which is what we want) and she was not jumping up for the toy (yay!) You can also mix in having the toy out on the ground ahead so she gets the driving out as part of the reward for the pivot (and not the toy in the hand).
The counterclockwise as harder for her – but only in terms of getting her to your right side, she just doesn’t want to spend time there (like at :51 and :58, where she drifted wide after the barrel wrap). Once she was on your right side, she was great! So, looking at the drifting at :51 and :58 – it is possible that she was anticipating a BC to get to your left for the clockwise pivot, because you had just done a bunch of those really well. I think she can use more Turn and Burn going counterclockwise, where you start her on your right and FC to your left, on that super tight almost-full-circle wrap and run. When she is really digging in to get to your left side on those, you can add more distance like we have in the handling combos.
“”I promise to stop ignoring the rear crosses and get back to them 🙂””
I will keep bugging you LOL!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
The tandem and lap turns are looking strong so far! A couple of mechanics suggestions for you, but you can definitely move to the next steps:
Tandems: these look really good left side to right side. Right side to left side are not as comfy. When you did left-to-right, you used 2 arms. On the right-to-left, you sometimes used two, sometimes one… be sure you decide which you want so you can show the arm cues consistently.
One other thing that I think will get them even smoother – if you are using two hands, have a cookie in the outside hand only so he can focus on that for the turn. When he was on your right, you had cookie in your right and left hands – so he was focusing on the right hand cookie and didn’t know where to look to follow the turn.
For this game, add in starting from a stay or cookie toss, so he is not right next to you the whole time – a little more distance will let you set up the mechanics even better.
For the lap turns:
These are going well too! As with the tandem turns, ask him to start from a stay or a cookie toss, and stand still as he is approaching you (don’t move backwards) – doing it with him right next to you each time got the turns started but didn’t let you have enough time to set up the mechanics fully. Be sure to keep your feet together until he is about 3 inches from your hand, then the hand and leg can move together. Your leg was moving early and sometimes the hand was coming across to the other side, so he was not always sure which to follow (like at :27).You can definitely add in the prop now too! Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
>>I have a quick question about the collar grab. I was waiting for him to look at the tunnel before I released, but if I’m understanding correctly, you want me to release whether he is focused on the tunnel or not? I’m sure he would be a much bigger fan if that than what I was doing.>>
Correct! He has really good drive to the tunnel, the prop, the barrel… so I am not worried about his focus forward right now at all! He looks great! That way was can take a quick detour into collar-grab-love, so he doesn’t need to focus forward first. Just line him up so that it is easy to be successful, so he might need to be right in front of the tunnel to start.
>> I don’t know if we will be able to train outside the rest of the week or not, we are expecting snow tonight, but we can work on it the best we can in the training room.
I saw the weather reports! Ewwwwwww!!!!! I think your training room has enough space for at least the FCs 🙂
T
Good morning! The internet worked nicely!!!
Great job with the early clicks for the backing up – you got a lot of good clicks in for backing up without sticking the landing LOL!! Yay! I think he is pretty consistently offering this now, yes? So you can add your verbal cue right before he does it (I use “beep beep beep”). The reason I suggest the verbal cue is so you can fade the target. I think he is looking for the target which is creating the ‘stick the landing’ moments. So, easy fix: we fade the target so we can emphasize that it is about the backing up and not about the target. I think that will be no problem for him.
Strike a pose is going well! Really lovely emphasis on mechanics here, you had a nice progression from food in hand on the target, to across the body, to the toy. Yay! He did really well with the in and out of hitting the target and then lining up the new direction. Food was much easier for him – you can try the food being held out on the other side of you, where the toy was, and see how he does with that (this is a good self-control game too!). Toys were more exciting and, by extension, a little harder – but he was SUPER!! At :55 he almost went to the toy first but then corrected himself and went to the target, good boy! He got praised there but not the toy – you can totally use the toy reward there too for the great decision. He slowed down a little after that and we want him to dive in to decisions 🙂 so you can reward the great ones even with the hard distractions.
Since you already have your reward markers in place and he is doing well with the in-and-out, the next step: Toy on the ground! You might want to start with an empty food bowl then drop a treat in it, and build up to the toy on the ground. Everything else is the same: you strike a pose and don’t move til after he hits the target and goes to the reward.Great job here!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>> If this is not the right place to talk about this problem, I understand, and you can just tell me this is not appropriate here.
This is totally the right place! We are here to plan training and use reward to work through struggles!
>>I am working with both instructors to try to make the seesaw positive in class.
I think the focus in class has been operant, as in: do the teeter behavior, and we reward it. I think she needs a more classical/reflexive approach for now (see below)
>>As you know, Keiko loves the seesaw at home and will run to it and do it several times in a row. It’s fun, and she got tons of rewards when I was treating it, so it has high value.>>
Yes – so that gives you a picture of what is possible! Yay!
>>I ran with a whipped cream canister, and Keiko was eager and ran well.
Yum! I would also run up the teeter for whipped cream LOL!
>>! Then the bad stuff. Unfortunately, she jumped off to finish the whipped cream, the instructor forgot to grab the board and the end came down on the table with a bang
Ah, bummer 🙁 Darn it! Terrible luck in that moment.
>> Her breeder was there (Keiko loves her first human), and wanted to try some “jollying” with Keiko as another dog ran over the seesaw. Keiko watched and took the rubbing and excited praise from the breeder, but I really felt she was still very stressed. I’m not at all sure how I feel about the “jollying” routine.>>
Was she stressed by the interaction with the breeder, or still stressed from the teeter bang? Jollying is fine is she likes it but I personally would not have it happening while another dog is running across the teeter (more below on that) and it might make things worse.
>> It’s an experience that has made me very sensitive to a dog’s reactions and emotions. I don’t want to coddle Keiko, but I also want her happy and doing things at her own pace.
I think it is GREAT to be sensitive to the dos’s reactions and emotions, it is their only way to communicate!!!! The more I learn about behavior, the more I am fine to support and comfort dogs that need comfort. It works out well!
>>We have an opportunity to do a Saturday session at the indoor facility, with the seesaw (and others). The instructor wrote to say she has some ideas to try with Keiko. I’m wondering if seesaw unhappy last night, then trying the seesaw on Thursday in the arena is enough for one week, or do we want to give Saturday a go, too?>>
Noooooooooooooooooooo more teeters this week (Thursday or Saturday) til the stress has subsided and you have a plan. And it is great that the instructor has a plan, but hear it first before you do anything with it with Keiko, and when you do it – remember that you are working with fear so the session needs to be short and end before it looks like she wants it to end.
So let’s plan! I vote for starting over in some ways and then building it back up.
Background – my dog Export (he is now 16 years old) is the most sound sensitive dog that I have ever owned, and he was TERRIFIED of the teeter! He would run away if he even saw it in the vicinity. He went on to have a really high level career and a great teeter. So I have a lot of ideas for you 🙂
It is a two-fold approach. Because this is a fear reaction and not a lack of criteria understanding, we begin with changing her emotional response to the noise. (And no other work on the teeter until this is firmly in place)
It is straight on counterconditioning and also pattern games: another dog can be doing the teeter 30 feet away (or however far away she needs the dog to be so she doesn’t get upset) and you can be playing the ‘get it’ game with engagement installed using incredibly high value reinforcement (2 cans of whipped cream, or meatballs, or anything she likes :))
Do super short bursts, and you keep doing it as far away as needed until she basically stops reacting to another dog banging the teeter. So for example – the other dog is running the course, you know a teeter is coming up, so you start the pattern game. And keep doing it til a few seconds after the other dog has left the teeter. She can look at the teeter or flinch at the noise, the pattern game continues no matter what. We are working on classical conditioning and not operant behavior for the teeter noise.
Distance away from the teeter and high value food are your friends here, start as far away as needed so she recognizes there is teeter noise but not reacting to it and not worried. And don’t have her near a teeter that might bang if you can’t play this game.That is all that should be happening regarding the teeter in class, for now. And jollying should not be used in place of high value food reinforcements (unless she has turned into a Golden Retriever, then maybe LOL!)
Separately, at home, I suggest adding more ‘tools’ in her tool box for the teeter, specifically the bang game followed by the ‘shhhhh’ reinforcement of the frisbee. Basically, the teeter is propped up so it is a tiny bit off the ground, you start her at the very end – she moves it, it makes noise, you do the shhh style reinforcement where the prize is moving away from the teeter.
At home, the bang game can grow so the teeter eventually gets higher up.
When she is happier with the teeter noise in class, we take the very beginning levels of the bang game into the class and those loud teeters (no teeter tables, as that is too loud for now). The she steps on the end of the board so it moves a little and makes the quietest noise, and the you do the shhhhhhh or get it and she can chase a meatball – she does not need to remain on the board. You do one or two, then be done with it.
Let me know what you think!!!
TracyHi!
I am VERY glad that things are getting back to normal! Yay!>>>. Turn your volume down
Ha! Nice and quiet LOL!
She is doing really well here, superstar contacts!
But….
>>I’d say she is in trial mode. >>
I don’t think she is, because she is seeing 2 things in the environment that she will not see in a trial:
At :12, before she had to make a decision on the DW, you moved your hand to your pocket and pulled out the lotus ball. That is the international sign for “hit your position!” LOL!
She was also good with her position at :53 and 1:07, but you had the toy in in your hand on both of those.So this was a good training session, but to really get things to be trial-like in a way you can transfer to the ring, you can’t reach for the reward or carry it with you. If she is really solid with these games like you had on the video, you can up the ante here:
You can leave it outside the ring somewhere (remote reinforcement) – close enough that you can run to the reward while she waits on the contact and throw it to her.
Or you can have it well-hidden on you, someplace you don’t normally have your toys, as long as you can guarantee you don’t move your hands to til after she hits and holds position.
Or enlist a helper to throw it to her from outside the ring while you continue to run 🙂She is ready for this next step of craziness 🙂 because she looked great here! Let me know what you think!
TracyPerfect! All body awareness stuff should be done slowly, which is personally hard for me because I am pretty twitchy LOL!!
T
Hi! Lots of good work here!
On the sit stay video – be sure to watch his butt so he is fully sitting, I think he was only half sitting on first rep 🙂 The rest looks good! He has a good stay already, so you can add more duration to this! Bear in mind that he does not actually have to catch 🙂 Throw it towards him and definitely use easily seen treats – I think that was the hardest part of the session 🙂 Maybe tiny bit of cold white cheese? Easy to throw, easy to see!
Tunnels – you mentioned that you have done a few more sessions, how is he doing now? He was not 100% sure about it on this video, so my first suggestion is to see if you can shorten up the tunnel so it is maybe 2 feet long – short and sweet and easy! And when he is consistently finding it, you can add the verbal and stretch it out.
If he is now finding it consistently… name it if you haven’t done so already. Remember to hold him so you can say tunnel tunnel tunnel a few times before he moves towards it. He seems happy with the manners minder now (great job training it separately!) so keep using it 🙂 And you can add in a layer of self-control by giving him treats from your hand for walking away from the MM or cookie plate without you needing to hold his collar.Rear crosses on the flat:
>>So actually the rear cross work on the flat WITHOUT prop I can’t figure out where my video went, but I swear it went way better than this! Here’s where the wheels start to fly off the training wagon. Again, without prop seemed super straightforward for him, but I didn’t feel like I knew what to do here very well.>>
This one had the prop! It is all about mechanics – there were some really good mechanics moments here – the mechanics are separate distinct steps, almost slow – and then a couple where things got a little mushed together and moved too fast, so he was not as sure of what to do.
The first couple of reps on the video had good mechanics! Those went well!!!
When you were trying to show him the prop but he was more focused on your hand, 2 ideas for you:
– if you have a treat in your turn hand: turn him and feed the treat after the turn, then indicate the prop with an empty hand
– and, to indicate the prop, keep moving past the prop as if it is the parallel path game rather than point at it. The turn puts the pups squarely in handler focus, so the motion will get them looking at the line again.One other mechanics thing – at :54 you tried to turn him and indicate the prop all at the same time, so he wasn’t sure what to do. Treat them as 2 distinct cues: turn away… then you move forward past the prop. So it is like you are 2 gams in a row: turn away on the flat, then the parallel path game when he is pointing the new direction (towards the prop). Let me know if that makes sense.
The handling combos are looking good!!! His commitment to the barrel looks really good 🙂 Before you do these with him, be sure you have the FC on the barrel warmed up – you did a FC on the 1st rep, a post turn on the 2nd rep, a couple of spin reps, then a FC at the end LOL! So, practice the FC with eye contact on the new side so he knows where to be. I think that is what was feeling so weird – all the different handling choices 🙂
At 1:32 – you said yes get it, he was right and it was hilarious when you realized it LOL!! Good boy 🙂
This is also a good game for self-control: don’t grab his collar and pull him away from the toy on the ground, try to teach him to walk with you! You can reward with a second toy for moving with you, or a cookie (as long as he will still go for the toy on the ground if you use cookies).
One other little detail: At 1:58 it looked like you wanted a FC but he ended up on the other side of you – more direct eye contact as you finish the FC will get him to the correct side.
Great job here!! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi again!
Cavalettis are going well! (is that Rachel in the background? Love her! LOL!) I bet you can add another inch between them to get a little more extension in the trot.As with the other body awareness games… slooooooow down 🙂 You were going so fast here that things come off the rails a bit and he ends up watching you a bit. To keep him looking straight, you can move the bowls a little further away so he trots out a few feet to the bowl (and you can then drop the treat in or toss it, rather than trying to get there before him). The trotting is looking balanced so we don’t want to have him start to rush!
Do you have another cavaletti or two? There were three here and I think he can do 4 or 5 (or 6!)
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
I love his toy play here! So definitely keep playing like with you sitting on the ground – but don’t do it repeatedly with the leg bumps 🙂 I think chasing the toy once around maybe twice around is fine, because he stays tight and balanced – but he starts to fling after that, goes wide, falls over your leg or his feet. Since this is all about body awareness – don’t encourage that loss of body awareness, so limit the number of go-rounds and make sure the toy is not in his mouth as he goes across your legs (he was not thinking about body awareness there). You can also work with food separately too!
You can do one or two go-rounds with the toy, then just play on the flat. The let him take a breath… and do it the other direction.
Nice work!
TracyHi!
Backing up is looking really good! He had his head up high in the beginning but you caught that and changed your hand position at about :25 – perfect! Having your hands just above the bowl worked really well!
He also wants to look up at you when you click, so feel free to stop clicking 🙂 You can just use a get it or a bowl cue if you have one. You will still want to mark the behavior – any interaction of feet with the board at first, then mark the 2nd foot hit – you were marking the 1st foot hit, but then when you wanted both feet, he was confused and going a little sideways. So after a warm up, make sure you mark the 2nd foot on the wood 🙂Great job here!
TracyHi!
He is a confident little goat! Because he is feeling confident, I want to slow down and let him offer with more body awareness and less ‘do things fast’ “_On the Donut – he is very confident but there was a bit too much falling off here. We want him to use his legs and core to move onto it smoothly, no splats or wobbling. So, you can help this two ways: stabilize it before he jumps on so it moves less under him, and so he doesn’t fling himself on and fall off. And, you can also have the bone next to it so he can step up onto the donut from the bone. Help him be smooth and balanced – we don’t need any speed here.
He is doing really well with the bone, it is easier for him to use his body to balance on. You can lure less on this, letting him offer more rather than having him follow your hands – he thinks more when he is offering and doesn’t think about his body as much when he is following the treat hand.
Nice work!!!!
Tracy
