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Hi!
>> started working with Merlin inside turning away from the placed reinforcement to do something (in this case hand touch) then cue go get the toy. Is it OK to meet him halfway after he picks it up? because the harder the thing is or the more thinkey he gets… he stops shorter and carrys the toy off instead of back to me…>>
Yes, totally OK to meet him!! Basically, if the turning away to do the hand touch is hard, you can make the next thing easier by just engaging with the reinforcement without also expecting a retrieve.
T
Good morning!
The a-frames are looking great here in practice, especially that first one!! The next step is to bring this procedure into the ring to really get the amazing a-frame performance there too! I believe that UKI and USDAA are the only venues that allow thrown toys, so try to find some local UKI (Paws For Thought has them) and spend some trial time training this. It can be transformative!!
>>When you were doing your leash work, are you telling him to go to his leash at the end of his run or do you just run over with them, put it on and then ask for tug?>>
I always use some type of “we are done, head to reward” marker like the “let’s go”. Sometimes I cue the bite for the tug, sometimes I put the leash on and run out for the cookie, it depends on which dog and which situation. The younger dogs have seen all of it so I can use any of it – I want them to be able to be wearing the leash and tug, and I also want them to be happy to get the leash on before tugging.
On the video:
The leash tugging was really good! Will she tug like this at trials! This can be a nice toy to take into the ring as a remote reinforcement.
On the proofing game with the wings – move the cookie hands more as if you are repeatedly presenting the food or reaching into your pocket, She did well with the stationary distractions, so we can go to motion-based distractions.
And one important thing here – because these games really focus on the difference between when food (or the toy) is available as the reinforcement and to otherwise ignore it: remember to use your various markers and not praise. And if you were saying the markers – don’t praise til after she is on the toy or eating the treats so the marker really stands out from the praise. That way you can say “snacks’ for when the cookie is available in your hand. If ‘yes’ and ‘good’ are the markers, she is going to sometimes make mistakes if you say ‘yes’ on course, like for hitting a great a-frame position,
The dig dig with the toy moving was HARD and definitely one to keep working – you can probably make it easier at first by holding the toy higher and just moving it a little… then work back to having it kind of dangle there. And, as with the food – use your marker. Dig dig dig means wrap the wing, and there should be a distinct “bite”-type marker for when the toy is available. That will really bring clarity!She did a great job in the weaves with the leash dragging! So now… drag it the other direction, opposite of the weave direction – countermotion in the weaves 🙂 Yes, evil, haha! But start on 6 poles so it is easier to be correct and harder to be wrong.
>>What else do you think I should focus on?
– bringing the leash tugging to trials so you are effectively having a toy in the ring, and teaching her the remote reinforcement with the leash.
– when things are moving fast and are high energy, remembering markers not just saying yes or good (we all need to remember this!)
– planning to find more FEO and NFC opportunities to transfer these skills to the trial environment
– Making a general list of what you want to train or improve, and work through each list item in terms of planning how to approach the training and which reinforcement procedure to use.Great job here!
Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
On the handling combos:
You were definitely quicker on the FCs! Yay! On that first rep, you were not connected enough: At :03 note how your left hand is next to your knee while he is behind you. To make the best possible connection, extend your hand all the way back to his nose, elbow locked back. When you bring your hand down to your knee, it turns your shoulders forward and he cannot see which side to be on when you are moving faster
And if ends up on the wrong side, you can reward that! Any time he ends up on the wrong side of you, assume it was a handling error (because it was LOL) and reward him for his effort.Compare the hand position at :03 to your hand position at :11 and :27 – all the way back ad connection was much clearer, so he had no questions.
On the decel/pivots, you can be earlier on the decels to so he has more time ot make the adjustment. If he goes wide or looks at the toy, try not to mark when he is not quite right or still making a decision like at :30 (you were late so he was wider there and not sure). Just stay connected and see what he does 🙂
>> I also was wondering about being on Ronin’s line here – and I was in some other reps also – if that may also cause a side error?? Do you think he even knows what his line to the toy is at that moment? If so, do you think that fact that I’m totally in his way contributing to the confusion?
Being on his line will cause him to bubble out to get to the toy when you drive ahead (not a big deal here, no worries!) but it will not cause a side change question – that is all about the connection.
Retrieve – sometimes these early sessions are ‘exploratory’ as we figure out how to make a good plan. I think the dead toy at the beginning was not enticing enough – maybe start by tossing the toy and making it more alive – then reward for grabbing it, lifting it, and so on. The food value versus the dead toy value was not balanced here, so you can try making the toy more lively and using the most boring possible food if that even exists for him LOL
The ball was a great choice! And when he was interacting with the ball, you can reward the interaction and not wait for more – use successive approximations to get the behavior first of interaction, then grabbing, then lifting, then carrying, and so on. And rewarding with another toy works nicely too! That might even be easier than using food for now.
Parallel path looks great! A rolled up towel is BRILLIANT and I am totally going to suggest that in all future puppy classes!
Yes, a couple of clicks were a little late (he was between the uprights on those) but for the most part, your timing was good! You can throw even earlier s he is driving to it. Note how he kept getting faster and faster – that tells you that he was getting VERY clear info. Yay! You can take the clicker out now and just toss the treats. The click tends to get the dogs looking at us, so we can avoid that by just tossing and not clicking. You can mark with a get it before the toss but the early toss will be the best info for him 🙂Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
TracyGreat suggestion!!! When Crusher was a tiny baby and weighed 2 pounds, I used shredded cheese – it was tiny, easy to eat, and quite visible!
T
Hi!
The to and through both looked good, in terms of building up the value very quickly! The next step on the ‘through’ is to get her to not look at you (MUCH easier said than done LOL!) One of the things that will help is to minimize your arm motion on the throws – when your arm starts to move, she watches it and then tracks the throw, which builds in more watching your arm. So, have treats in each hand and flick them from the wrist (the rest of the arm stays relatively still). And, to flick the treat, use the arm closer to the direction she is heading in and not across your body. At the very end you dropped the clicker and were using ‘find it’ – that can also reduce looking at you, because clickers often elicit looking at you.>>. I have a manners minder I’ve never used. Is that the next step?>>
Yes, as long as she likes the MM 🙂 do a little introductory session to see how she feels about the noise of the grinding gears. And if she is happy with the cookies while it is grinding, you can add in the beep. If she is happy with that, you can have her move through the box to the MM – it really helps the dogs to NOT look at us 🙂
>>Filmed some sends with just an upright and she’s hitting it. Of course, I didn’t see it on the backwards sends. So, wrapping tightly, but hitting object. What, if anything, do we do about that at this stage?
I don’t worry about them hitting it at this stage – we look at mechanics to help them out. I prefer the bigger rounder things for now, like the barrels, because they have to bend differently than just an upright. Try it with less motion – walking instead of jogging or running – and see how it goes! Or, it might be a timing issue – leave earlier. Or it might be a reward placement issue causing it 🙂 Post a video of her touching it and we will figure it out.
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
>> As we have done this before I had really hoped it would go better. I got a little frustrated as you will see. I know I have to work the dog in front of me, but realized we need more foundation work still before I can try to put so many pieces together.>>
I am glad you posted it!! Almost all of it went super well, so *most* of the pieces are in place! I have one training suggestion and one handling suggestion for you, then I think it will be perfect and far less frustrating. You did a great job with the physical cues, the verbal directionals and making great choices when things did not go as you wanted.
As a fellow puppy trainer, I totally know how it feels frustrating in the moment but then when someone else sees the video, that person thinks it was pretty darned good! (This is the case here – a pretty darned good session!!!) And I think that every puppy session should have at least one F bomb and maybe a jeeeezus in it like you did at 2:19 and 2:32 LOL! And if you get frustrated and feel the need to drop the f bomb, give him cookies while you do it so he doesn’t mind it 🙂
The training suggestion: the naked cookie in the dish was too hard for now, he just doesn’t know enough about how to ignore it and that was the source of most of the questions and frustration. So for these handling combos, use an empty dish or the MM. That way you can have some element of the distraction but not as much – and there is no access to eat the cookie, til you say he can eat the cookie. It might not make for the smoothest drive ahead yet, but I am not worried about that at all! He will sort out that your acceleration towards it means you are going to say “dish” and drop in a treat, or beep the MM. (So yes, don’t send to the dish, accelerate to it).
Separately – you can work the cookie-in-the-dish game with the cookie in the dish up on a chair – let him see you plop a cookie in but it is high enough that he can’t snag it – then walk away without your hand on the collar and reward him for coming with you (cookies from your hand at first, then eventually, you can use the dish marker and run back to it). Since this class is pretty advanced already, I am going to add a game to work this skill specifically.
Handling ideas – try to make connection after the crosses more about eye contact and less about come to hand – come to hand is not as clear as having your arm back and making eye contact. The little side change bloopers were connection bloopers, like at 1:32. Note how at 1:42 and 1:57 you had more eye contact and he read it really well.
At 1:05, you were really close to the cone and he is really fast, so the blind connection was late but you were REALLY quick at 1:27 and he nailed it. Yay!You were also making good adjustments in the moment. When your pivot was too fast, you made great adjustment to slow it down at 2:05 and 2:12. And same with the moment at 2:24 – you had crisp, clear mechanics without rushing and he was great!
And then after the food dish frustration – Good job finishing strong!!! Clear, crisp mechanics on that last rep!!!
So overall – we can fix the one thing leading to the frustration and you already made the adjustments on anything else that was challenging. I still put this in the “lovely session” category 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
>>>>So make sure she sees clear transitions from the toy to the treats – she was starting to drop the toy as your cookie hand moved after that (you kind of pulled the toy away, moved the cookie hand, so she started letting go). We don’t want to lose the toy drive, so be sure to have a clear play-release the toy-move the cookie process for now.<< >>OK, will try to keep that in mind, more mechanics that I have gotten lazy with over the years.>>
I don’t think you are lazy at all 🙂 I think the dog training world has been emphasizing fast transitions, clean loops, mechanics, etc etc…. but the trick to all of this is actually slowing down each step of the session to make it crisp not fast. Fast gets muddy. Slow is crisp, precise and accurate! The dog can be the fast one, we just need to be clear. I taught an in-person puppy seminar yesterday and the one thing I kept telling everyone: slow down your mechanics.
>>I might need to be a plate like I used for the wrap foundation as she likely would still IYC a food bowl. Maybe I should work on a word that (like ‘bowl’) that gives her permission to get the food from the bowl?>>
Ah yes, I forgot about her bowl self-control skills. When you are releasing her to eat her dinner, what word do you use? You can use a marker for a bowl for sure. I just use a get it, same as I would for a dead toy or dead cookie on the ground but admittedly, I haven’t worked any formal IYC on food bowls 🙂
>>OK, so stick with only using the ‘catch’ option for a bit and probably do separate sessions for the two options for a while also to help with her understanding.>>
yes, and the choice depends on the goal of the session – so have a goal 🙂 If I am training with the goal being “duration on a stay as I move away” – use your catch. Releases forward are easy. Stays are harder! If the goal is your session is to ask her to stay so you can lead out and release to a decel, for example – then you can release forward with your release cue and then reward the pivot. There is not much need to release forward from a stay for a get it right now as long as you work with different goals in mind.
>> She has of course figured out that someone in the kitchen tends to mean food might be available – LOL! >>
Ha! Smart dog 🙂
Speaking of slow mechanics:
On the first video, you were asking her to tug at the beginning but your hand was in the cookie pocket so she was not really tugging. Then she let go, you put the toy down and immediately flung the cookie *then* said get it. Slow all that down and make it crisp: tug with both hands, really engage her, no hand in cookie pocket (too distracting for a puppy and the tug is not as strong). Then ask for the tug back, then praise her, then reach for the cookies (one to toss, one for the lap turn), then say get it… then toss the first one.The magic cookie hand should be extended towards her in that “do you want a cookie?” pose. You had it down by your knee, you got quiet and look down at it so she was unsure. You can have the cookie hand reaching towards her, which makes it even easier to draw her in to you.
Timing of the turn away was good, you were really patient about letting her get pretty close to the cookie hand, then stepping back and drawing her through the turn. NICE!!!!!
I think these were good little lap turn loops on the flat! A little easier to the left, yes but she did well on the right too! Your mechanics were generally strong – every now and then your leg but either step back too soon or not step forward, but that was rare and your cookie hand was perfect each time.The left tandems went well! On these, you can add in continuing to move forward as you are turning her, try not to stop. One small mechanics detail – Tug without food in your hand for now – tug versus beef liver diminishes the tugging because beef liver is YUMMY lol! You can keep the two separate for now especially if she is teething.
On the right turns, slow this process down to really show her – that was when it worked best. When you were trying to go as fast you did with the left turns, you are extending your left hand out away straight and that kind of draws her across your body but doesn’t really turn her – so have the arm extended back to her so she arrives behind you and then turn her away – and slow it down (that is the theme here today LOL!) Most pups have a side preference, so we make the harder side easier for them by slowing down to be super clear for now.
I suggest working the right turn away on these without your motion just facing the correct direction more like what you did at 1:37 – not really moving forward, just having her at your side to turn away from you.
Advanced tandems:
Left turns were really smooth here too!>>Also kept missing the target for the left turn, think I had it too far over?
When she was missing the prop, it was a matter of following the magic cookie hand and too much cookie in her face because your were finishing the tandem turn right on top of the prop and she didn’t have a moment to change her focal point – so be further from the prop so that she can turn, and then see it and not still be looking at the treat. She was not deliberately missing it, she was still focused on your cookie hand which was about a foot above her head – that hand needs to be out of play and not above her when you want her to focus forward on the prop. You can turn her, feed the treat, then move to forward to the prop. And you can also add in turning her with empty hands and when she has turned, move forward to the prop without your hand still over her head.
>>turn to right is an issue, but a different one, she keeps heading to the target, something she doesn’t do on the other side.
She was not ready to do the advanced level on your right (she was still having trouble with the baby level) so keep working the baby level on the right and don’t go to the advance level until she is closer to 100% successful. It is perfectly fine and normal to have one side progressing faster than the other side.
And, keep in mind the 2 failure rule! If you have one failure, a giant warning light should start blinking in your head, If you get 2 failures (in a row, or in the session) – it is too hard so you must break it down and make it easier. She was getting reset cookies here but she was having a lot of failure on the right turns, so break it down so she can be successful.When you go back to the advanced level, you can also reward her for coming into you (rather than going to the prop) before you turn her away, so she gets 2 rewards for the tandem turn element 🙂
>> I was trying not to use her name to get her to come in to me but I finally did.>>
The name is fine, and you were using it on the left turns too a bit 🙂
>>>>Lap turns to the right went better, but I think I had the target in the wrong spot as she kept missing it.
She did well on the right turns here for sure! Yay! And the left turns also looked good!
About the prop hits – she did not consider it as ‘in play’ because your cookie hand was moving over it and you were saying get it/tossing the treat as soon as she turned, before she had time to change her focal point. To get the prop hit added in, you will want to cue the turn then move forward and when she hits it – mark and toss. Otherwise, like with the tandem turns, your cookie hand movement above her head and the toss won’t give her time to look for the prop. Spreading it out a bit so she has to pass the prop more to get to you and then has more room to look for it after the lap turn will help… and slowing down so you don’t toss too early 🙂
So yes, slow down the mechanics is the theme of the day 🙂 Let me know what you think! Great job here!
TracyHi!
>> don’t remember if you specified where the MM should be placed so I left it out in the open where Cowboy could easily see it instead of hiding it behind a wing. I started out doing a two-jump sequence and then switched to a longer one. >
Yes, when using it as remote reinforcement, it should be visible to the dogs 🙂 but also behind them, as if outside the ring. In this setup, I would put it but the white fnecing behind the blue jump.
You can start by having the remote in your hand or pocket, then fade that off your body too! (I had it on a necklace at one point when I was teaching this to the Papillon LOL!)
>> I don’t know if doing this added an extra layer of complexity as opposed to pressing the button at the very end of the sequence.>>
It probably added a bit more of a delay, so you can have the remote with you. If you put it on some type of “let’s go” marker than you can fade the remote entirely. When I was using the MM at trials, I left the remote in the MM and just used the marker – then ran back to it, lifted the lid and delivered the goods 🙂
When you marked with “treats” after the weaves at the end of the video, then ran to the remote, then to the cookies – it was a little delay, true – but it was more of a reward for running the course and not specifically for the weaves. You can leave the leash with the remote, so it develops the pattern of running back to the leash, then getting the reward – that is incredibly useful for AKC trials! And ASCA too! And if you want to specifically reward the weaves, for example, bring the remote with you so you can mark and beep as soon as he finishes the poles
The first rep was hilarious when the thing beeped as you did the blind LOL!! He was happy and so that is fine LOL!!!
Be sure that the remote reinforcement beep almost never happens when he is going to towards the MM (the accidental beeps don’t count LOL!)- we want to make it about moving away as much as possible, like he would be doing at a trial. That way he does not associate any possibility of running the line towards the MM as being the cue for going to the MM.
So for example, if the MM is behind the blue jump on the first part of the ideo, you can mark and beep for going away from it over the red jump. On the 2nd part of the video, you can mark and beep when he goes over jump 3 towards the a-frame, like at 2:13, or after the weaves like you did later in the sequence. Ping pong when you do the remote reinforcement so that he continues to drive around the course and doesn’t anticipate going to it at any specific time.>>I found that having a MM randomly set in the middle of a course was a bit of a distraction at first but we worked through it.
Yes, he did really well!!!! Having it in the middle of the course simulates the ring crew or other dogs that might be a bit distracting. Since we can’t always have ring crew around, you can use the MM 🙂
>>In your video, you stated to use the verbal marker cue (in my case “Treats”) before delivering the reward instead of a lot of excessive praise so that it was clear what was signaling the reward….well, I need more practice with that too>>
I feel this pain LOL!!!!! Keep planning to use ‘treats’ separately from praise – you were doing well! We all get excited and say “YESS!” and stuff, so it is a big habit change for ALL of us. We need a support group LOL!!!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Darned snow!!!>>A few days ago tried moving the chair backabout 15 feet farther back then in this video. N was much more hesitant to run to the treats. Thus, moved chair back to current location.>>
15 feet might have been too big of a change, so the more gradual approach seems to be working better! He did well in this video! Based on your comment below, though, yo ucan move the remote reinforcement chair back very gradually and sometimes reward him right a tthe end of the poles – leave the remote reinforcement there the whole time but sometimes have a reward with you so the balance of reinforcement helps the behavior remain strong.
>>While he is running the WPs, he is not replicationg the enthousiasm that he did the first day, ~ 4 or 5 days ago. He is not driving into the WPs as he did before.>>
Reinforcement is such a delicate balance… things can shift so easily! To maintain the enthusiasm, there is a balance of reinforcing immediately and right there at the end of the poles mixed in with the teaching him how to do weafes without the reinforcement in your hands. If you balance too much one or the other, you will see the shift: too much reinforcement at the end of the poles, right there, and he can see it in your hands will make it very hard for him to be able to do the weaves without the reinforcement right there. But too much balance of remote reinforcement, where the rewards are never delivered right there at the end of the poles, will deflate the value of the poles so you will see slowing down in the poles or less drive towards the poles.
So, balance both! You don’t need to stick to one or the other, exclusively. This is particularly important with behaviors that are not easy or naturally self-reinforcing. Tunnels are easy and fun for most dogs… but weaves are hard and not naturally fun for most dogs. The goal of reinforcement right there at the end of the poles is that he understands the behavior and to keep the value high. The goal for teaching him the remote reinforcement is that he can also do the poles when you do not have the reinforcement present, like at trials. So if you see value shifting too much one way or the other, bring the other type of reinforcement back into the picture to maintain a pretty good balance. I mean, it would be GREAT if he was better at the poles with the remote reinforcement that he was with the reinforcement right there in your hands 🙂 but that is highly unlikely 🙂
>>While auditing the puppy class, may I set up a thread for asking questions?
Yes, absolutely 🙂
Stay warm! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>No updog in LA. I did look and there’s some in AL during the week but unfortunately I have to work.
I have a friend who does disc and it seems like it would be a more friendly learning environment. I also see you can use a long line for the beginner stuff.>>Totally friendly environment! And I used a long line when Contraband did his first disc event, because I was not entirely sure he would ever bring the disc back LOL!!!!
And, because it is so user friendly (as is UKI), local folks have just started hosting them (seems easy enough to do) and I am the local who hosts UKI to be able to do more of it. I don’t host out of any great love of hosting… I host so I can work my dogs in that specific environment.
I am also doing the At Home UKI trials – and it has allowed me to work specifically on the remote reinforcement in a comfy environment. CB doesn’t care, he is fine with the remote reinforcement tat is needed for the At Home stuff but HSM *totally* cares and so it is similar to working in a slightly easier version of a trial environment. Highly recommend it, not so much for the Qs but because it is forcing me to teach HSM more about remote reinforcement!
>>How much longer do we have to submit videos? Anything you’d like to see us do more for feedback?
Last day for videos is the 23rd. I think what we should spend the week doing is planning for the next several months, making a general outline of what you want to train/work on, and then quite literally wrap a plan or map it out. Writing it down helps us be progressive and systematic, but also allows for flexibility! You can bullet point it, you can put it on a white board, or index cards… what is the easiest way for you to be able to outline this stuff? I am a bullet-pointer LOL but every learns differently and perceives things differently.
I have really started to love the planning because it is a FABULOUS way to reduce anxiety (MY anxiety :)) and shake me out of any training funk or depression. And I think we are birds of a feather, so the planning stages of skills —> plan —-> reinforcement procedure will really work nicely 🙂
Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! I like hose choices for verbals! Zazaza is really fun sounding LOL!
His pounces on the toy were adorable 🙂He did really well with the choochoochoo and also on the other side with the zazaza – nice commitment on both sides! You can start your front cross earlier on these, which will challenge his commitment and also give you more time for the blind or decel, depending on what you want to do after the barrel. By ‘earlier’, I mean you can do the FC just as he is arriving at the barrel so you are fully finished with it before he exits the barrel.
Your connection was also pretty solid – all great reps and one little oopsie at 1:35 where you looked ahead of him towards the toy, so he correctly read it as a blind cross and switched sides (good boy :))
And the decel looked really good at the end too! That was especially nice because he had one a lot of reps of driving forward, so it was great to see him immediately read the decel. You had good mechanics to catch his attention and get the turn. Nice!!!!He was DEFINITELY happier with the collar grabs here! Nice! So now two things with the collar grab:
When you want to get the toy back, try not to grab his collar – ask for the give without the collar grab and reward with a cookie 🙂
And after you put the toy down, you can hold his collar as you do that for now, but the next step to build in more self-control is to then let go of his collar as you move to the barrel, and have him move with you (you can totally talk to him while you do it, and you can also reward with treats). Pretty soon, you won’t need to hold his collar at all while you put the toy down.Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Rear crosses are definitely going well! At this point, no more clicker when she turns her head because she is getting up and turning towards you, which can make the placement of reinforcement harder. You can do the rear cross, and then keep moving up the line and release her before tossing the reward (cookie or toy)- that will set you nicely to add the prop in out ahead, so she learns to change sides then go hit the prop after the release (and when that is going nicely, we fade the stay :))
Contact mat – yes, good mechanics speed up the training and solve most of our problems 🙂
And here too, the click is causing her to look at your hand – it becomes a cycle where at first the clicker is paired with our hand moving, so then the click stimulates that and so they look at our hand, which gets more hand-looking. And because you started thinking about not bending over to throw, your clicks got early and they were for front feet. So the clicker mechanics cause some issues. You can totally play games with a clicker and targeting so she doesn’t look at your hand at all… since I can’t toss faster than a dog can look at me, I don’t bother with that – instead, I get rid of the head looking by moving my cookie hand the entire time as if I am going to fling the treat and then when the dog presents the behavior, I click and actually fling the treat.That can be done separately from this, though. For this mat work, for now, you can replace the clicker with a get it marker which means “reward is available out ahead”. It can be as precise as a click without getting the head turns.
>> My bad – I thought this was supposed to be a dead toy/object.
You are correct, it is a dead toy game but the wiggling of the toy and interacting with her like that a little is designed to increase arousal & interest, which shortens the time between behavior and response – which is TOTALLY did here, she was much faster to get it. You can make it more of a dead toy game by wiggling it then putting it down so it is stationary for a second or two, then cue the get it when it is stationary. The toy doesn’t have to be rolling at the is point, we just want it to be more stimulating before you put it down so she snatches it faster like she was doing here.
>>She did have one rep though where the toy rolled away and she went after it maybe 6 feet and delivered it to my hand, which is huge for her.
That is great!!!! Yay!
>>I feel like there’s a fine line with her with the toys- too jazzed and she’s biting and tugging and then delivering to hand goes out the window.
I think the excitement level was good in this session – she was excited but able to respond quickly and correctly. I prefer the lower latency (faster response) even if the toy is slightly more ‘alive’ at first because it is easy to transfer that excitement as the toys get more stationary.
>> I think if I actually put both wings out, you’d be able to follow what I was doing (or maybe I could follow what I was doing. LOL)
You can visualize where the jump bar would be, or even put a leash on the ground. Having 2 wings out is visually easy for us but opens up to many options to be incorrect for the pups, so you can try a leash on the ground as the bar for now 🙂
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
I think it was very clever to add the bed into the retrieve game! I think this can turn into a ‘stationing’ behavior where you build the retrieve into the other games by having her bring it to the bed as part of the loop you create. That can make for a really efficient session as well as happy retrieves of the toy! Yes, on the 2nd rep, you presented the 2nd toy a bit too early but you were more timely with the rest. You can delay the presentation of the 2nd toy until after she has gotten onto the bed, it looks like she is definitely going to do it! And the bed is a strong cue for the retrieve, so protect that – when you send her to be on her own with the toy and when you end the session to go turn the video on, lift the bed so she doesn’t offer the retrieve on it and get ignored.
Strike A Pose:
Your position looks good here – my only suggestion is to turn your feet a little more towards the reward hand and less towards the target hand (as much as possible without feeling like a total pretzel.
She did well hitting it then coming across the body to the cookie hand, she is definitely targeting that cookie hand after the hit (which is want we want in this particular behavior. And she did really well when the toy was out there too, she was faster so the toy was probably more stimulating.I think you caught yourself mushing the mechanics together like at 1:28 when she was tugging, facing you – and you tossed a treat and said get it. She was like, “get what?” So make sure she sees clear transitions from the toy to the treats – she was starting to drop the toy as your cookie hand moved after that (you kind of pulled the toy away, moved the cookie hand, so she started letting go). We don’t want to lose the toy drive, so be sure to have a clear play-release the toy-move the cookie process for now.
The next step would be to have the toy dangling so you don’t need to really move your arm or shoulder to present it, just use the tug verbal so she grabs it. Then the step after that is to get the reinforcement to the ground – you can start that with an empty food bowl so she sees the concept then yo can move to the toy on the ground.
Sits – She was great with offering the sits! At the beginning, it was hard to tell where the reward placement was going to be so that can dilute getting the stay behavior quickly – you had catch and get it alternating with the tosses thrown kind of off to the side. The predictability of this is what gets the strong behavior, and the reward placement was more randomized here. Get it is more of a move forward marker and catch is more of a ‘it is coming to you so stay over there’ marker – but the throws were kind of similar so it gets hard for her read the difference. Later in the session, you had more catches going and she was starting to figure it out – the last rep was the best one where she held the sit and remained in that area for the ‘catch’. So no need for a get it on this, it muddies the waters for her.
For now, to help her understand the “it is coming to you” element of the catch – stand still while you toss it back to her so she is less inclined to moved towards you. She was holding it beautifully as you moved away, so a couple more sessions without you moving as you throw will help solidify the procedure then you can add the moving back in.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
The video looks really good – the toy moving was a distraction for sure and she had to think – but you have worked on it and she was able to successfully respond to a lot of different cues. Yay! I think her only question was after you asked her to out the toy, she went over and bopped the snack hand. That might mean that you have a pattern going with the out-snack being closely paired, so she was anticipating. You can be a little less predictable, in that case 🙂>> You may remember seeing it when you were here. When I’m actually running a course and reach for the toy if she’s not already committed it will pull her off. Ex. If’s she’s already in weaves, she’ll usually stay in, but if she’s just about to enter and I’m early, it’s 50/50. So I’m wondering good ways to transition from what we have to eliminate the distraction of my hand reaching for the toy while running. >>
I see this with a lot of dogs! And sometimes reaching for a cookie ends up being the cue for the behavior, especially on the contacts – and in trials when the handler doesn’t reach for a treat, the dog doesn’t understand the contact behavior. To help her, I think that can be an extension of what you did here. Rather than the toy moving the whole time (she has got it quite nicely, and it seems clear to her what the training is about) – you can reach for the toy while you cue something. So the setup looks more like a regular training setup: toy tucked away and not in your hand, or cookies in your pocket. Cue something and simultaneously reach for the toy. Start easy with behaviors she does really well like her sits and line ups that you did in the video. Or wing wraps!
When she can do that, then move it to a simple, short, open set of weaves so the weave behavior is easy – because the distraction challenge is difficult. Then build it up from there! And, also, keep mechanics clean and try not to be moving to the reward as you are also cuing something 🙂>>The other issue is someone else moving the toy. That part you’ll probably remember since you had to give it back to me. LOL Someone else moving her toy is the hardest for her. I don’t think she believes they have read the toy rulebook .>>
Ha! I didn’t even know there was a rule book LOL!!! I think you can treat that as an extension of remote reinforcement. Instead of leaving the toy on the ground, for example, hand it to someone and move away. Approach this just like the very beginning of remote reinforcement- one step away, one trick, then go back for the reward. If she really struggles, you can also build this up by having rewards on you and just rewarding for leaving the toy with someone else.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
