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Good morning! Great job with Goat Games: AirBnB Edition LOL! She found the pillow to be really easy to get on, which made it a great opportunity to work on offering behavior in a new environment, with Pick around, etc. Pick was interested but not intrusive, so that was good. You can make little mountains and trails out of any pillow for couch cushions that are available to keep things different and exciting!
She was trading the toy for treats really well, and working for each with what appeared to be equal value. Super! You can also give her the toy back when she lets go of it – it is not as smooth of a segue into the next moment of shaping, but if can be a surprising (in a good way :)) and super high value reinforcement for letting go of the toy even in a high arousal moment.
>Left in a bit at the end of just playing with her and she did some nice retrieves. I prefer the longer toys too, but this one was in her colors soooo… priorities. I can attach a leash to it I think.>
Glad to know that I’m not the only one influenced by toy colors LOL!! She definitely liked this toy. Wild At Heart (vendor here at the Open) has some amazingly perfect toys for whippety types – just the right length, bungee, furry, but with the hollee roller things too.
The shaking/chomping on the toy at the end (rather than bringing it back immediately) and the tiny bit of launching up at you is likely a bit of decompression on the toy. I don’t think there was anything in the session (other than some thinking) that required decompression, but it is likely that the travel, the event, all the new things this week – that is requiring a bit of decompression. So we can direct it to help her out – a quick treat scatter at the end of the session followed by a long treat scatter in the grass so she can sniff and find treats for 10 minutes or so. This can happen after the toy play, but definitely build it in if you haven’t already. She is being terrific on this trip so a bit of decompression will seal the deal of her awesome adventure 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi!
She did great with the leash off, engagement on game! Easiest game ever, according to Bazinga. For the leash off element, you can ask her for a line up and add in short stays before giving her to the cookie. She was also really good when you put her down after carrying her in – I love when she automatically turns to face you!
It took her a moment to sort out how to get back into the leash even with cookies in your hand, but she did! Yay!
So for both of these games, you an add in doing it with cookies in your pocket. Then if she is happy with that, you can do it as a remote reinforcement game – no cookies on you at all (and leash tugging can be a reward for that).
On the driving ahead video: She definitely liked driving ahead! She was flying!
You can put the toy another 10 feet or so past where it was here – she is coming in with a lot of speed, so we want her to land, take a stride, then get to the toy. And one way to fade the toy is to keep moving it further and further away, til it is gone and replaced with a thrown toy.
And you can definitely do the sequences that use this (with the balance reps of NOT driving ahead on a couple of them :))
>>For the End of the Run toolbox I’m trying to decide on the best option for us. I love the leash & get it game but in AKC the leash runners tend to put the leash in a chair or sometimes in a bucket so it can be unpredictable.>>
You can make finding the leash a fun part of the game: where is it? Let’s run to it!
>> I still want her to play with the leash when we come in & after the run but I’m thinking that I’d like ot teach her to put her head thru the leash as I hold it. >
Yes – and also let her get used to you clipping it on her collar, in case she doesn’t love putting her head into it. You can have a slip leash on one end with a clip on the other 🙂
>If I make it a great game and she’ll run to me & pop her head through, that would be great. What do you think? Is it compelling enough?>
I think yes! But she gets the final say 🙂 Build it with a lot of rewards and fun, and I bet she will like it too 🙂
>I’m kind of tempted to teach her to jump up on me. I did that with Frankie but she tweaked something doing it once and never wanted to do it again. I think Bazinga is much more of a I JUMP ON YOU spirit, so I think she’d love it.>I think a cue to jump in your arms to be caught is great! But we don’t want her coming at you when you don’t expect it and getting hurt or hurting you. Some dogs are great about waiting for the cue, but some just fling themselves at us LOL so the leash as the end of run behavior is a better idea. Yo can start teaching her to jump in your arms by having her jump in your arms while you are sitting, and she how she likes it
Great job here!
TracyHi!
Only a little busy here LOL! The early mornings are the hard part 🙂
>> When we set the course back up, after the rain goes through, I want to move it to a different area, so it will actually seem new, but we can work on the same things.>
Great idea! Or you can reverse it, to work things on the other side too.
>> She’s a great worker, but also loves to run! Which really, after what we went through a year ago, is a good thing! >
Yes! I love that she loves to run 🙂 And breaking up the sessions with permission to run will help her continue to enjoy both agility and running 🙂
Keep me posted on how she does on the other side!
TracyHi!
The toy races are going well too! Great job connecting with him so he could focus forward. He drove ahead really well here, even in a smaller space. Was the other side looking good like this? If so, you can work this in a bigger space: it can be outdoors, or even a long hallways (with carpet ideally, so he doesn’t slip). That way he can really learn to leave you behind – then you can turn and run the other way to help convince him to bring the toy back to you. He was good about not going too far away with the toy, so you can give him more room to really bring it all the way back.Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
It might not have been the prop, but it was still an effective training session! He was focusing forward to the toy really well, you were using your get it marker, and you also stepped forwards and sideways AND backwards to send him to it. Super! I think it will be really easy to swap the toy for the prop, so no worries about feeling behind!You can try this with the prop, but you have accomplished the goal of the session and he did great 🙂 We will be building on it soon!
> I tried to videotape earlier this week, but my granddaughter was the star of the video so they didn’t work. >>
Adorable!!!
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi! She definitely is liking her toy races! Great job adding the verbal and also she was really good about bringing the toy back. I think the line up and transition to the game was very smooth with no collar grab concerns. Super!!!
You can add in turning and running the other way just before she gets to the toy, to build in some countermotion and get even more drive back to you with the toy.
One suggestion… don’t do this anywhere near lines of agility obstacles. Eventually the go go go will mean to take the jumps… so we don’t want her first learning to be *don’t* take the jumps. Do this entirely on the flat, not near obstacles, for now (or move the obstacles) so we don’t accidentally teach her to ignore obstacles when you start yelling GO and running.
Nice work here!!
TracyGood morning! Nice sessions here!!
Looking at the tossed cookie to toy game:
This went really well! He wa starting to drive back to you even before you called him!
>The main issue is that, right now, his cookie drive is way higher than his toy drive, so he will sometimes disengage from play in favor of hoping for a cookie. Wondering if you have any suggestions or games we can play to allow us to switch more easily between rewards.>
This is pretty normal and there are more games coming soon for that 🙂 Here are some ideas:
There is the tried-and-true boring cookies versus insanely high value toys… so in this case, a half of a cheerio versus a long rabbit fur toy that is easier to grab can do the trick.
Now, a lot of dogs have value for food that is so high that there is no such thing as a boring cookie 🙂 so here are other ideas:
As he is learning to balance food and toy games, you can have the cookies in a pocket or bait bag – having them in your hand was harder for him to keep tugging. A handful of cookies can be added in later.
Also, do you have a thinner/flatter toy? He was grabbing up by your hand (on the smaller part of the toy) so a toy that is less thick can help the tugging too (especially at this age when he is still sorting out all those new teeth!)
Try to end the tugging session quickly (before he lets go, and before you reach for a treat). And if the tug is in one hand, some dogs really amplify their tugging if you use your other hand to touch or stroke their shoulders. Some dogs LOVE being gently tapped but plenty find it offensive, so try reaching towards him and touching him first to see how he feels about it.
One other thing: keep the toy really low and let him do the pulling, with you gently moving it side to side. When you lifted the toy or moved it up and down or too fast, he let go pretty quickly.
Here are some visuals:
Looking at the cone wrapping video – lots of good work here! You can jump start the session by doing a couple of reps with the bowls (no cone) then bring the cone in.
He was fading his own bowls by moving them back LOL!!>He picked up easily, but there were a few failures. Not a big deal as I had been upping the difficulty and I listened to that, but I guess my question here is how to restart the game when there is a failure and if I am doing it right.>
A couple of things happened here – the first minute was very strong, but it also gets repetitive doing that many cookies in a row. You can break out of the game a lot more frequently with tugging or cookie dances, otherwise it gets too repetitive, and focus and arousal for the game wanes. I like to do a tug break or cookie dance party every 5 or 6 treats to avoid things getting too repetitive and to keep arousal higher.
So as that was happening and the challenges were getting harder – his errors coincided with the appearance of your other dog behind him, behind the gate at a little over a minute into the session. Puppy brains process all of that so he didn’t leave the session there, he just couldn’t keep wrapping with harder variables. The other dog being present, moving about, having a beverage *was* the harder variable. (The other dog was being good, just living his life – but Blast’s brain still had to process that).
Because it was behind you and your adult brain doesn’t need to process it, you probably didn’t notice it 🙂 But you can live by the 2 failure rule – if you get 2 failures (doesn’t have to be in a row, 2 total failures) you can make it a little easier and help the dog – then don’t make it harder again in that session. That way you can allow latent learning to kick in, and analyze if the session was too long, too hard, etc.
>I just started dropping cookies in the bowl to restart the game for him, and that worked well.>
Yes – it looked like you helped him out and moved the bowls in closer – that is exactly what I would suggest. Then you can end the session. I will often watch the video to see why things went a little sideways – sometimes it is part of the normal process and the 2 failure rule helps prevent things from going really sideways.
>Waiting him out usually results in him disengaging and walking off, because there’s no guidance as to what he should be doing>
I am with you on this! I don’t want to wait the dog out… if they have failed and don’t know what I want, then I am going to help (especially at this age :))
Prop game:
>>I know you said I could up the difficulty on one side and continue working with the other, but I felt that would be too confusing for me to keep track of,>>
This is entirely relatable LOL!!! It is also perfectly good to work at the level of the harder side, so the easy side is really easy and fun for the pups 🙂
>His arousal was at a much better level, but still on the high end.>
Yes, a bit of arousal is a good thing in the long run! And we had a cat visitation which added an additional element for him to process – but in the higher arousal state, his brain did not need to work as hard to process (and discard) the cat presence. Yay! You can direct the arousal a bit to a toy – it seems counterintuitive but it actually balances arousal really well (and gives his teeth something to do :))
He did really well here in both directions! I like how he was staying with you on the ‘ready’ cue and then driving away on cue. Super!!!
>I’d feel comfortable moving on with the exercise after this session.>
Yes – move on to the sideways sending. That is a significant variable change, so start closer to the prop for that. And if that goes well, you will be able to progress to the backwards sending really quickly.
Great job here!
TracyHi!
>We settled on a dusty old kneeler pad from the garage.>
This is a great prop for her! I guess it had good smells because it took her a moment to go to the first cookie, but then she was offering behavior really well!! When you are sending her with the arm and leg, you can send quietly and then say the find it after she hits the prop. It sounds like you were sending and saying find it on some of the reps, so she was not sure if she should look for the treat or hit the prop. Then you can call her back and reset the next send.
Adding the upright to the bowl game went well too! Yay! You can add a tiny bit of distance with the upright a little further from you – because she is so tiny, just a tiny bit of distance is a good start for that.
For both of these games with the food rewards – she was engaged but I think she loses her train of thought when she is chewing 🙂 Do you have a really great treat that she doesn’t need to chew? Maybe tiny pieces of cheese – that can be really high value without chewing required 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
Nice work on these!
First up, goat games!
At the beginning, great job getting the object in as he was chasing a cookie, so he could come back and offer behavior and get rewarded right away. You can do that for every change of object.
The paw pods might feel really icky – those little spikey things are hard on little dog feet – so you can turn them over and add them to the pile (see below :))
He did great with offering, so be sure you don’t jump in with a lure, let him sort it out 🙂
The suitcase was clever! He had no problem with it. YAY!
You can take all of these objects and make a trail or pile them together, so he can offering climbing, walking the trail, etc. Be sure to tug before the session too, to get him into the higher arousal state we want him to learn the proprioception in.
Looking at the toy races video:
He is doing really well trading for a bit of kibble! You can say trade and relax the tugging but don’t reach for the treat til he has relaxed his grip. That can be the first step to fading the treats (but no rush to fade them).He drove ahead beautifully! Forward focus looked great! You can add in having him wear a collar so you can add in making collar holding the best thing ever (this game is perfect for that :))
>it’s pouring rain and my yard is half flooded so I can’t actually get enough throwing distance/human speed inside but when I can go outside again we’ll do some races for real.>
Yikes! Yes, whenever it is safely dry enough, this game is ready for the great outdoors so you can really run run run 🙂
Prop sends:
>I read your feedback and rewatched demo videos and… CANT TELL MY LEFTS AND RIGHTS, omg so embarrassing>
Ha! I can relate. A lot of these games are also about training us humans for lefts and rights (because we are going to add verbals to all of that too!) In the early stages, I always take a moment to ask myself if it is a right or left turn 🙂
He starts on the right turns here and did great!! A bit of latent learning, clearer mechanics from you, all good. He did well! And the left turn at the end was great – definitely a stronger side, he is able to look ahead and target his feet to the prop really well. The right turn side is catching up, though!
And it is stuff like this which is why we use a prop rather than a jump wing: let’s get the mechanics all sorted out so when we get to the wing, the mechanics are easy for the pups on both sides.
>There’s a moment in here where my Aussie had some words to say and we both kinda froze but if you can’t hear the barking on the video, that’s what happened there.>
That was a great resilience moment! Unexpected thing – process – bounce back – no problem. Super!
For the decel game – yes, I think the small space was making it harder. Do you have a hallway you can use to give you more room? He was reading everything really well, but it will be easier for you if you have maybe 20 feet. That way you can be moving and show a decel more easily. This can wait until you are outside again, fingers crossed the rain ends soon!!
Great job here 🙂
Tracy
Hi! Thanks for posting it!
>She was doing so well I just kept going. Then… puppy brain!>
She did do really well!! I think it was a hard brain moment for sure in a couple of ways – what happened was there was too much pressure in the environment and it stacked up… so she couldn’t really do the behavior. What I mean by that is on this session we had:
– the cat walking through the session (and not in the background like in the decel session)
– a dog in the crate (Snap?) very close by, staring/barking
– Handler pressure (ready dance)
– Lower arousal (food-only)
– Handling challenges with sideways and backwards sendingSo put all that together and she started to opt out. With all of those things happening at 4 months old, her brain couldn’t process the skill.
Fewer variables in the environment will help that:
– Snap should be in a different room while Chaos is trying to learn something new, so there is less pressure on Chaos. Eventually of course you can add the other dog back when she is a little older and more experienced, but having the other household dog in the training session can impede processing which we don’t want to do
– Add a little more arousal with toy play before and during the session. That can help diminish the distractions in the environment! I have a feeling the cat will probably leave the session so you don’t need to worry about that 🙂
– Save the backwards sending of a different session, to build up more value for the sideways sending for now.And let her sleep on it – whippet brains are great with latent learning so even though you might not see the full behavior in the session, you are likely to see it really nicely in future sessions!
Nice work here!
TracyHi!
>>Haven’t been able to catch any of your runs at UKI but it isn’t for lack of try! Courses look fun but tuuuuffff….>
I am easy to miss, I haven’t entered a lot – leading the 6 ring course builds and tear downs every day makes it hard to compete on all those crazy courses, so I just entered a few things. I think I have 2 team classes tomorrow with Contraband 🙂 The courses I have run so far were really nice! I managed to screw them up but that has nothing to do with course design hahaha
>>He’s got a really strong eye contact thing going with me, from crate game releases, etc. so the focus forward is important and a wee bit challenging.>>
You can teach him to discriminate when you do want the eye contact, versus when you don’t want it. So crate releases, conformation stacks, etc, can all be eye contact moments. But anything with agility obstacle stuff can be forward focus moments. The context is part of the cue.
He was focusing forward to the dish really well and you timing of the releases was good! On some of the reps, it was hard to see where he was looking because your hand was in the way but I am guessing he was looking forward.
As the bowl got further and further around the cone, the self-control and forward focus to the cone was came into play more. On the last rep, he really had to look away from the dish and at the cone – that is what we want. YAY!!!!>Not sure if I’m progressing correctly (too fast or too slow or >
Since he did so well, you can progress through the early easy steps(where the bowl is on his line) very quickly to get to where you were on the last rep… then make it even more challenging from there with the bowl getting more and more visible as a distraction from forward focus on the cone. Eventually I bet you can have the bowl next to your right leg while he is on your left side, and he focuses forward to the cone.
And definitely work both sides, and work it with a toy too!
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
What a good boy with his stay here! He got the hang of the pivots really well – the last 4 reps were super perfect, especially with no food in the hand! Yay! The connection you gave him on the release at :46 and the 2 reps after it was lovely, so remember to look back at his cute face as you cue the decel 🙂
For the next steps, we can add more motion: you can show him shifting into deceleration before the pivot. That will require you to run 🙂 so a cookie toss start might be easier so you can be running as he lifts his head – that will cue him to run. And since he is so fast, you can show a big deceleration when he has taken just one stride to you – any later and he might rocket by you 🙂
Great job here!!
TracyGood morning!
>Yes, he’s my first Mal – I am really enjoying him – he’s super fun to train. >
I am surprised at how much I am enjoying training my Mal mix! So fun, such a cool dog! All in for pretty much anything and very level-headed. I am thinking Judge is the same way.
>And I haven’t had a boy in quite a while. >
Are you finding him different to train than the girls? I have found the boys to be different (especially the intact males) but in a really good way!
>So nice to have a dog that likes both food and toys, unlike Dellin who spit out every type of food as a puppy.>
I remember that! She was definitely not a foodie LOL!!
>I will be using the same verbals for him that I use with Dellin – since I can finally remember and get them out while running.>
Smart! It will be much easier to use the same verbals, so we can start adding them in as soon as we have the behavior.
The plank work is going well – he is doing really well turning in both directions! He still has baby body 🙂 so falls off the side sometimes. To help him out, deliver your food a little lower – aim for chin parallel to ground. When he lifted his chin to get the treats, he lost his balance every time after turning around. I think chin parallel to ground or slightly pointed downwards as you get the treats in will help him stay balanced.
Before adding backing up, be sure you are adding arousal to the proprioception (tugging after every couple of treats) so he is learning it in an arousal state closer to what h will be in when you need him to use those skills. That produces better long term success!
>He can back up onto it without an additional target, so maybe I could build off of that.>
You can use a target or you can use a wider plank to get it started, like an a-frame plank.
For the toy races:
The look on his face when you held him to push him back was hilarious. He was like “nice try, lady, I am still going to smoke you” hahahaSince he is not going to let you win, you can add countermotion. Start the game the same as you did here, and add his marker to get the toy off the ground as he drives ahead of you… and when he is ahead of you and heading to the toy, you decel to do a FC and run the other way. That way he is seeing the change in handling before he gets to the toy – and we want him to stay committed to the cue and grab the toy, then run back to you.
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
He was a total goat here, perfect! He was happy to offer lots of behavior on the object and has great balance!
You can use a longer toy (tie several together :)) and be standing when you play, so you can move further from the objects to help him tug after getting the treats (and so he is not as tempted to offer behavior since the objects are right there).
For more goat fun, you can take a bunch of the objects, and line them up like a trail or make little piles so there are different elevations. Start with some tug, then move with him across the trail for treats or over the piles, then back to tug 🙂 That will get even more proprioception challenge in arousal. The objects can be anything – dog fitness stuff, couch cushions, anything at all 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
