[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!
Is it back to sunny and warm and green grass yet? Winter is annoying LOL! The Ladder work looks good – you can put bowls out at the end, approx 5 or 6 feet away, so she doesn’t finish then turn back to you.
You can also add in backing up through the ladder, starting her so her back feet are in the last rung and her front feet are facing the rest of the ladder, so she only backs out one step (you will be straddling the ladder). Then gradually build up from there, probably over the course of a number of sessions. Let me know if that makes sense or if you want a visual.

Strike a pose:

>> And I may have moved (lol, totally moved) the target to try to help her be right (I was not sure if that was the right thing to do).

Perfectly fine! The scientific term for this is “shakey shakey” haha! We need to get the behavior and that little help is perfect.

>>In terms of words- “strike” for toy in hand, “get it” for dead toy on ground, “chase” for thrown toy.

>>For the food in hand, I was just saying yes when she hit the target. I don’t have many food markers cuz I never needed them for her. I started to say dish for food in bowl (that was new to her).>>

Add in a food in hand marker for now even if it is something silly like “yay!”- anything except “yes” because we use “yes” in so many other places that it will cause the dog to have errors (ask me how I know this LOL!). You were using it for the food, and you also said yes-dish and yes-strike sprinkled throughout, so we really want to avoid yes since it is easier to not use it than it is to try not to say it everywhere 🙂

On the video – this was a fun session to watch! She did really well and is super smart – she already has figured out that there is a turn involved in this position, so she was already lining herself up to turn. Brilliant! And very rewardable if she cheek touches the target LOL!

One big thing that I think will really help: when you release her, make a big display of looking at the target and not at her. Let her see you turn your eyes from her eyes when you release to look at the target. You were looking straight at her, which is part of the reason why she didn’t know which hand to look at, necessarily. I have found that the big dramatic shift of your eyes to the target can really help.

She was good with the food from hand and from the bowl (new marker, but she as happy to eat it. Yay!) and she really liked the ‘strike’. As you noted, the toy on the ground was a bit of a brain exploder at first – I think her thought bubble said “WTAF” hahaha. You worked through it really nicely! And you can, away from this game, introduce the toy on the ground to anything else – for example, put a toy on the ground and do the backing up. Or toy on the ground near you, and she stands on a plank. Start introducing it to different places, where you can reward with food then you can tell her to get the toy 🙂
Overall, though, really nice session!!! The toy on the ground concept will get easier and easier as she sees it more.

Handling combo looked great! The left turns were just about perfect. She did still have slightly wider right turns and one right turn where I though you looked connected but she tried to get to your other side. So with that in mind – work lots of “turn and burn” for the right turns, because that is a more exaggerated turn (almost a 360) to get her bending better on the right. And, on this game, you can stay closer to the barrel for those to make the connection with a little less motion when she is turning right.
On both sides, you can totally now move to the next step and add in the decel with that toy out there. Be prepared for some brain-exploding moments, and also fight fire with fire in terms of reinforcement value: have a strike-type toy scrunched up in your hand for when she decels/pivots (not just decel, as that might be sticky, so we want to reward the first moment of turn with the toy out ahead). A strike on a toy will be a higher value reward for her in that situation (as well as the opportunity to go wrap the barrel again :))

Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Does he eat raw? Can cook meat and use tiny bits of that as part of his meal allotment? I have trained with raw but it is harder to use in puppy games.

T

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! Most of puppy training is about mechanics, so this is a good time to sort it out. You can put a sheet down but I think the problem here was two-fold:
First, if there was more than one cookie thrown and also if crunching causes crumbs to drop out, then he will continue to look for cookies. So, the choice of food gets really important. If you can’t use bits of his meals, I recommend tiny pieces of very cold cheese or chicken, so it is easy to see, easy to eat, high value and does not crumble.

Second, the target hand was too high here, so he didn’t really know what to do so was continuing to find cookies 🙂 Since he is so small, you can either bend way over so your target hand is at his nose level (ewwww, you back will be angry) or you can do it sitting on the couch – feet and reward and target hands all held the same, but you are on a couch so the target hand is right at his nose level.

And you don’t need to toss the reward cookie – you can feed it from your hand, then toss a get it cookie to reset (or use a stay if he has a long enough stay). Fewer tossed cookies for now can help build the behavior faster too!

Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>> The udder tugger is a toy I’m trying to build more value for. It’s just so much easier to stick in my pocket.

He has a lot of value for “work” and you can set this game up with a toy that he loves when it is stationary, like the HR you mentioned or the fleece toy. Then when he likes the game a lot and understands the whole “in and out” element, I bet you can put the dead udder stick in and he will dive on it joyously: basically using the value of the game and the trained behavior of grabbing the dead toy in this context to bring up the value of a different toy. Start with just a few reps mixed in with the higher value toy – I have found it to work like a charm 🙂

The leg bump video was hilarious 😆 It is clearly a game for a baby puppy when only one person plays it LOL! But you did get some nice bending in and some he got some slurps in LOL!! If you can enlist another person, you can do a 4 bump “grid” – sit with your knees 6 feet apart to form a bounce grid for him! He can hold a stay on one end, a foot from the first knee – then bounce through to the other end (placed toy is easiest). It is a nice puppy balance grid and also a great way to help him learn to ignore people who might be *right there* 🙂

Great job here! Have fun!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! Yay for band!!!! I grew up as a band kid too 🙂

>> Skipping to planning and implementation. I NEED a start line stay.

Excellent choice to focus on the stay! It is a juicy behavior.

>>End result- I want Promise to go between my legs, sit and then hold her stay till I say Free

Yes – and with agility in mind, this includes you walking away and obstacles in front of her.

>>A- shhhh or saying place

Is shhhhhh a reward marker to follow the cookie, or the cue to line up? It should not be both, or she will get confused. You can say place then deliver a cookie.

>>B- rewarding the stay with either cookie, catch, or release word then get it, or release and shhh>>

Delivering the cookie to her causes her to move a bit (she pops up to get to it), so if you do go back to deliver the cookie be sure to deliver it really low so she doesn’t move. Another thought on delivering the cookie – you are always next to her after having come back to her to deliver it… which is the one place you will not want to be in agility LOL! So this might not be a reinforcement procedure you need to include.

And, fewer reinforcement procedures will build the behavior faster – so I think the catch primarily (to build the behavior) is best, and sometimes the release forward (but then reward right away).

>>
C- meatballs in this session

She seemed happy LOL!

>> I upped the reward a ton. I realized yesterday that she thought kibble was just not worth the wait

You had to fight fire with fire LOL!!!! High rate of success with high value reinforcement is great.

>>I could not use a toy also in the session, because I discovered meatballs are the key to life

HA!!! At some point, I do recommend a toy because it will build up more arousal for her and that way you can work the stay with higher arousal.

>We will have to work that behavior separately.

Same exact thing using the catch and release forward, but with shorter lead outs and maintaining a high rate of success.

>>>I also have plans to use other tennis ball all on its on. That is also a super high value reward. The chuck it is all powerful. Too bad I can’t run in the ring with one >>

You can start her career in UKI and use one! I will be using one today with my 2 youngsters at a UKI trial 🙂

.
>>So here it is.

The session went really well and her success rate with the stay was really high!!! Yay!

>>One question on the cookie reward. I wasn’t quite sure if this correct command. I want to reward duration of position, but I don’t not want cookie to mean move. All the other reinforcement commands signal moving from position.

The cookie reward could indeed mean movement – but I think when you presented it lower later on on the session, she didn’t move. So as long as you present it low, it can still be useful and a general “cookie in my hand” marker. You can also add a separate marker but you might not need to.

>>Also, I wasn’t sure on always starting with shhh, so I did say place a couple times. I did not want her to think shhh was the place command.

I was thinking about this too – shhhhh is a follow the reward in my hand and you will get it marker, so I definitely think “place” was a better choice as it cues the position.

>>Trying to fix her default behavior of offering a down as I say wait and step away. I thought it was cute, but it was just not working. I thought hard about this yesterday. She was moving “offering the down” when not asked which in turn made her think she did not have to stay since she was choosing the down, not me.>>

I think she offers something different when she does not know what to do next or what is happening – so you can praise and stay connected, and have less duration on the sit.
The other option is to just use a ‘stay’ (as in, don’t move!) cue and let her pick her position. Any position is fine on the start line, and many dogs do better in a down. I use that with one of my dogs – she often picks a stand and that gets a great stay. It is collaborative, indeed because she gets to choose the position LOL! But it can lead to pretty amazing stays and far fewer failures.

Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
I think the cookies marker will end up working just fine, as long as you are consistent (which you were here :)) She looked like she was a happy dog during this session:
Starting with just a couple of tricks and then building up looked good, and I think it is great that you used contacts as well! You did some ping ponging too, and some moving past the cookies so that she doesn’t think this is about running to the cookies every time she goes towards them.

So, the remote reinforcement is definitely something to mix in every now and then, so that she always stays ready to run without reinforcement in your hands or pockets. And when she is feeling back to her normal self in her class (hopefully today!) you can very gradually incorporate it in tiny increments, every now and then (but the bulk of the training is still with reinforcement in the ring).

You can also now start to incorporate getting the leash back on at the end of the run before the cookies marker.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
Lots of praise is great, as that creates a valuable conditioned reinforcement that we can bring to the ring! I just try to use it after the marker – it is hard not to say it all the time, though 🙂
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning, hope you are having fun at the trial!

>> Background noise: “Do the dogs find it aversive?” They definitely did, especially Buccleigh. It sent him into a frenzy.

That is interesting – it might have conditioned agility to be paired with that aversive, and you might be seeing the fallout of that in some of the frustration behaviors. Definitely keep pairing it with the cookie scatters and pattern games, to keep tipping the scales in your favor and try to make their conditioned responses as positive as possible.

>>“Can he relax in a crate?” Yes, sometimes. He is fine in the car and at trials as long as he is not right by the ring. >>>

This is great! Regular car breaks to rest and little meals will help them be able to maintain their focus throughout the day.

>>I reviewed the lessons on using the leash as a toy. I don’t think we are ready for that. I do have a “tugging leash which I bought but never used so I am going to use that for some of our trying to get them to tug play-maybe I will get surprised.
I am going to work on your suggestion from the Zoom meeting of getting Buccleigh to put his head through the loop of the leash. I think that might be a more realistic goal that getting him to think of the leash as a toy, for now anyway.>>

I agree that this is a better use of the leash – it stills brings a reinforcement value to the leash, but in a different way 🙂 And it is still incredibly useful for beginning and end of runs!

Keep me posted about how the trial went. Have fun!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! It was good to see you there for a few minutes! I will be putting up the recording in a few minutes.
Thanks!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>>, might try tossing with my off hand for a bit to see if that helps and then go back to the dog side hand.>>

Yes, totally try that! And it takes a bit of time for the markers to lock in, so we do get some looking at us in the early stages especially with simple behaviors.

>> I’m seriously starting to feel like I am falling behind on course work – Week 4 has started and I have only got a couple of things worked on at all in Week 3…

Things build on each other a lot, so you’ll find that you can layer games on top of each other and you won’t feel so behind. Like last week’s collection sandwich and turn and burn build into this week’s Handling Combos 🙂
On the videos:

Wobble board: Yes, I agree that it was too much for her to start with nothing under the wobble board at this point, you were smart to go back to the easier level for now. It might have also been that she has an expectation of how much it will move on that first approach, and it was very different here – too much change on that first rep.

>>Thinking for the next session that I will remove only 1 of the 4 mats and see how that goes. Probably one of the mats on the side that touches the floor. Not sure that I need to replace it with a towel as an extra step but will probably have one handy in case. Then remove individual mats until they are all gone.>>

For the next session, start her with a very comfortable first couple of hits, back track a lot so there are no surprises – put all the mats back in and maybe a couple of towels like you mentioned. Then after a little bit of play to gauge her comfort zone, take one out. Her success and confidence (and your session timer :)) will guide you about how quickly you can remove the stuff under the wobble board. And each session should start with whatever was really comfy from the previous session, rather than with anything that might surprise her.

Turn and burn is going really well! One suggestion that should help get rid of what you were saying about her looking at your hand or not being able to go: give her a moment between taking the toy out and the sending, your transitions were too quick for a puppy 🙂 You were basically taking the toy an starting the send in what was practically one motion, so sometimes she did it and sometimes (like at 1:21) she was like, “wait, what?” So – tug tug tug, try to either tug her into position or have her follow your hand to line up, try not to physically move her into the line up. Then either do a moment of ready dance, or hold her collar for long enough to say “ready…” then send. That will be cleaner and will help her a lot.

Only one other suggestion: keep your line of exit to the 90 degree L shaped angle – on the 2nd session, you were doing U turns which are good but don’t present the same amount of countermotion.

Prop Game – a lot of this prop stuff is about mechanics, which si why we are using a random object 🙂 so looking at the mechanics here, you can take that extra moment before the send, same as with turn and burn – it was all moving to fast for her to be able to switch her focus consistently (like at :15 where she was not ready, or at :54 where she started without you). That is why I ask people to insert that silly ‘ready dance’ into this game: give you and the pup a moment to get connected, get ready.. then a clean transition into the send.

>>Dropping treats for Beka almost always gets her focused on checking the floor for treats which causes issues as it lowers her arousal,

I liked what you did at the beginning which was toss a treat (be sure to use your get it cue) then immediately tug, as that will help teach her to get that one treat and re-engage for the tugging. And use boring treats to reduce the smells 🙂 There is a lot of movement in this game, so boring treats should be fine at this point.

>>t I feel like I need the treats to toss on the bag for the time being to build more value for touching the bag. T>>

I think she was waiting for the cookie to drop on it in order to go to the bag, so that might have inadvertently been keeping you closer than you wanted. So for now – don’t drop the cookie on it but also don’t add more distance yet – you can be very close, get her hitting it and also slowly moving away as she is moving towards it. Then if you want more value on the prop, you can toss the cookie back to it.

Handling Combos – these are going well! As you noted – the decel is really the only thing to add in.
The baby level is going well – I think she likes this game LOL! And yes – add a decel as soon as you finish the blind so it is blind/decel all at once, for now. That will help her line her butt up earlier.

And to make it easier to get the blind and the decel (she was moving FAST! LOVE IT!) – Both of you can start closer to where you want to end up on the other side of the room – hold her collar, toss the cookie all the way away and send her to the cookie from there so you have a nice long head start.

The advanced level is also going well! On these, you can start further away and toss the cookie all the way across the room, and focus on the decel here too. And a longer head start will give you more time to get the eye contact on the new side after the blinds – she was flying! I was really excited to see how well she drove away for the last cookie on each rep!

For the bouncing cookies:
If the treat bounces away, just give her another one in that spot right away so she gets the reward and doesn’t worry about the wandering cookie LOL! Would little bits of cheese be less bouncy?

You last one was your best one, great combo of all the things! Yay!

Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>> I’m left handed. But, I learned most things with my right hand.

That is really interesting! It might be a combo of both of your comfort zones 🙂 And I am lefty too – lefties rule! 🙂

>>More rain predicted, so we shall see on the tunnel.

No rush – it is a ridiculously easy behavior 🙂 And fun! But we don’t want her to wipe out in a wet tunnel.

>I dug out the ladder. She’s definitely staring at my hands more than I’d like for the reward. But, I wasn’t using markers as it’s basically a pattern game. Should I add in my bowl cue?>>

I think you can mark the balanced trot with your bowl cue, towards the end of the ladder. I think that is is a simple behavior for her, so she looked forward nicely and then towards the end, she looked at you and your hands for the cookie. For this type of thing – that is fine 🙂 Marking the bowl will help as long as she doesn’t catapult herself to it and splat all over the ladder (my guess is that she will not do this). You can also add challenge by raising the ladder another inch or two – you can put books under each leg to do this. The harder it is, the less she is likely to look at you. But, overall – the looking at you at the end is not a big concern because almost all of the behavior is strongly in place. And this ladder behavior doesn’t need to go anywhere on the ladder, it will remain like this – so using your bowl marker when she is finishing will help, or if you have a pivot bowl or something she goes to step up onto will help too: she can do the ladder to step up onto a pivot bowl.

Nice work! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!
Great job on these! And excellent taste in background music, the brass was very triumphant at the end! LOL!

The prop sending looks terrific. Before adding more distance, add in the sideways sending. And if that goes well, add in the backwards sending 🙂

The wing wrap foundations also look really strong. I like the fire hydrant you used at the end because it was tall enough that she was able to really turn her head and neck into it (which is the precursor to amazing turns on course :)) She did well! Yes, she had questions when the cone or hydrant moved further away (I think the question was: this is the shortest path to the cookies, why would I go around it?” LOL!) and also when you were more upright. But, that is why we work through it like this – to answer all of those questions before we go to the real wing.
So on your next session, work one variable at a time: start taller like you ended here, but get her into the groove of it with the hydrant closer to you, close enough that she cannot fit between it and you to get to the next cookie bowl. When that is rolling along nicely, you can move the hydrant out a little but don’t change your position (that might happen in that same session, or might take an additional session).
Then, the next session can be introducing something even taller like a laundry basket – I am thinking ahead to the turn and burn game where the hydrant might be too short.
Introduce the taller thing with you in the same position and the thing closer – then in that session or the next one (her rate of success will guide you for that), you can work to standing (the object still pretty close) then work the object a little further away. The wrap object does not need to be more than an arm’s length away, for the purposes of this game which is all about offering the wrap and resisting the pull of the cookie bowls 🙂

Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! I am glad the feedback made sense!
For the Strike A Pose game:
I realize that I need to make adjustments to this game for the really small dogs so the handlers don’t have to spend the whole session bent over LOL! You can do this sitting on the couch, as long as you get the correct pose – that way the target is lower and you don’t have to bend as much.

The food session was strong and starting from a stay was MUCH more helpful for him!!! Plus it is great to teach him to hold a stay til you are in position and release, very useful for future course running 🙂 Getting the target in nice and low before the release really helped him (and nice cookie reward placement after it too!) He had a little trouble in the beginning ignoring the cookie (adorable!) so two things:

be sure you are looking at the target and not at him, and feel free to shake the target a little so the movement helps draw him to it.

Same thoughts on the toy session – I think starting from a stay will help here too. These were from cookie tosses, and he didn’t know where to look on all of his returns to you.
When he is on the way to you and you have both hands out and you are looking at him, there is not a lot of information about which hand you want. So, as he returns to you, make a dramatic display of looking at the target hand 🙂 I think starting him from the sit gives him the moment to look at what to do, so definitely start there before going back to the cookie toss starts.

And when he is really comfy with starting from a stay with the toy reward (he consistently hits the target then goes to the toy), you can go back to the cookie tosses and use where you are looking as an indicator of where to go 🙂

One more thing to add: a marker that says: that toy in my hand is now available for you to take 🙂 So rather than saying ‘yes’, do you have a marker that tells him to turn to the toy? I say “bite” 🙂 That can help him understand how to ignore the toy until he hears the magic word! I have one for cookies too (‘snacks!’). We haven’t discussed it yet in this class, but I am thinking I will need to add a game for it because everyone is ready for that!

Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Ha! He is very smart but we already knew that 🙂 The finger wagging is funny and also you do a little wrist movement/flick right before you say careful so that is also indicating that the food hand is now available (I recognize it because it is something that I also do, reflexively, dammit. LOL!!!)
So for pure verbal – keep the hand totally stationary until after you say the word and he takes a step to it.
I also think that he was not sure what he was supposed to be doing to earn the ‘careful’ moment here, so he was offering a lot of different things – which might result in him getting more stimulated and less ‘careful’ with his mouth. You can set up the environment so there is something really obvious to do (or you can cue something) so he can have the ‘aha!’ moment of ‘this is how I get the “careful” hand to present the food’. Because I think part of what you were looking for here was for him to stand still and back off the cookie hand a bit, you choose something like standing on a balance disc. That is a stationary behavior (stillness is really hard!) and he won’t be near the cookie hands… and a balance disc will require enough concentration to, well, balance 🙂 that he will have to center himself, offer stillness, and is less likely to come in hard to the cookie hand.

Let me know if that makes sense! Nice work here!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>> So struggling to see a difference between quiet means doing a good job and just good building of duration? >>

I think it means good job AND helps build duration. Being stationary, quiet, facing her… that is all you continuing to engage in the moment which is all basically a “nice job, keep going” signal. And if she has an error – you would probably not be quiet, facing her, standing still 🙂 You would probably reset her or something. So the quiet position and continued engagement in the behavior is both the “woohooo!” And the keep going to build behavior.

>> I really liked most of this session 🙂

Yes, me too!

>>Her release is great and she did well with remote reinforcement. >>

Yes, and yes 🙂 Yay! I think you were changing things too frequently, though – you went from a stay with the stuff in your hand, to on the bed, to swinging it around… from the human perspective, I stopped thinking about the “don’t move” element of it and starting thinking about “where is the toy going next” element. And I have not had a lot of coffee yet, so that was my lizard brain, which is more like how my dogs would think LOL!!! It made things a little less predictable, and I have found predictable reinforcement to be a great way to train stays.

Since your training goal here is stay duration while you are quiet, think of the different toy presentations as criteria: and do a short session with each one, separately:
– building some duration with you holding the toy, then a catch cue
– next session – put the toy on the bed, cue the sit, build duration with toy on the bed and then you can use your remote reinforcement or you can pick up the toy and release her to get it from your hand
– separate session – building duration with the swinging toy.

At some point, you’ll have all the elements introduced separately so you can meld them all together but for now, keep them a little more separate. And by separate, I mean just a couple of minutes apart. A few reps of one set of challenges, take a short break, reset to the next set of challenges, and so on.

One other thought is to be as clean and quick as possible in the transition from the ‘catch’ and ‘careful’ back to the stay – sometimes you were very quick to ask for the next sit and I think she was very strong in those moments. Sometimes you were quiet and didn’t ask for anything, so I think she was not sure what you wanted there – you can totally cue her sit behavior to get the next rep started, as she seems to have a really good response to it (if she had a poor response to the sit cue, I would suggest letting her offer but I think she is doing well with the sit cue :)) This is especially important after the ‘catch’, which is generally a release cue so she will need to be asked to begin the next rep.

>>I think I started tossing for the catch once or twice early…but I caught myself in my head and quietly said Bad Beth without it impacting the training 😂😆

Ha! You were really good about having to multi-task all of the cues, markers, placement, and trying NOT to move the reinforcement too soon LOL!

>>I also should probably have used remote reinforcement word instead of careful…>>

Do you mean when the reward was on the bed? You can choose before the session – will you release her to it and then pick it up off the bed? If so, remote reinforcement. Or, will you pick it up then mark the behavior? If so – careful or catch or however you want to place the reward.

Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

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