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Good morning!
The restrained recall at the beginning looked good! She seemed to want to grab the part of the toy that Annalise was holding LOL!The strike a pose looked really strong – very nice mechanics, Annalise!!! The mechanics are the hardest part and you nailed the foot position, the target hand, the cookies, a;; pf it. Yay! For the next session, you can a ty instead of a cookie in the reward hand 🙂 For the target hand, you can also have the target hand out before you call her and remember to look at the target and not at Prytania (that is hard, because Prytania is SO CUTE!!!)
Nice work!
Tracy13th video –
Tunnels sending, maybe done before the threadles? He was very happy to go through the tunnels 🙂 He only had one question, which was a 2:01 when he took the tunnel behind you. You can reward anyway in that instance: that tunnel entry was closer to him, and he was looking at it when you said tunnel and let go, so he was a good boy 🙂 Be sure he is looking the correct direction before saying the cue and letting him go (adding more connection will totally help him out there too). There were approx 13 reps in this session and by the end, he was slowing down too.Like with the Threadle session, 13 reps is not too many reps if it is part of doing one or two sessions in the whole day. But as part of all of these videos, it was too many and we got slowing down. Even if these were done across 2 days, it is still a lot of sessions for a 7 month old puppy. Less is definitely more, in order to really maximize learning and to allow time for sleep consolidation and latent learning.
So a few ideas on structuring the training so you can get all the training in without doing too much in one day or in one session:
Since we know that sleep is when puppies consolidate their learning, it is better to spread these sessions out and do one or two short games per day, rather than 13 sessions in one day 🙂 The sleep that works for learning is the deep long (like overnight or during the day when the house is quiet) sleep, not a crate nap, so we definitely want to spread these out. You will get better long terms results!
And, by the end of the sessions here (I don’t think they were posted in the order you did them, but I can see where he was getting tired in the earlier sessions plus the longer sessions) – puppies use a lot of physical and mental energy in training, so shorter sessions/fewer reps/fewer sessions will go a lot further in terms of learning, as opposed to lots of sessions or reps.
Bearing in mind that you don’t need to do the advanced level at the same time as the baby level games, you can tape the baby level games and submit them for feed back, unless you he did so well that you can add in the advanced level (like on the tunnels or ladders). That way two things will happen: he can consolidate and cement the learning, and we can make sure the handler mechanics are in place before going to the next step. That will help make the advanced levels even stronger!
There are a lot of different types of games to play, so you can create a calendar to schedule them at this point. This is especially important if you are also training obedience or other sports, so you can train bits of everything and make great progress in everything. For example, you can do 1 or 2 body awareness games on Saturday. And then on Sunday, do 1 or 2 handling games. Then on Monday, try to add in one of the games you didn’t do on Sat/Sun. By scheduling like this over the course of a week, you get everything done really progressively, he never gets tired, and you both make tremendous progress. And if life gets busy and you miss a day or two or more? No worries, you can just go to whatever is next on the calendar to stay on track.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy12th video: ladder foundations (I think this was done before the session posted above)
Nice intro here with the ladder! He did a little better with the ladder a couple of inches off the ground – when it was flat at the beginning he didn’t really perceive it as something to place his feet over but when it was a couple of inches elevated, he did really well! Good choice to turn it over, that really helped him realize what it was about. He is a big boy, so it the ladder being a couple of inches off the ground was no problem at all.
Video 11 – this is the tunnel threadle foundation game (maybe done after the tunnel game below?)
He is doing well on these – you moved a little too fast on the first one so he missed it, but then the rest were all good in terms of getting into the tunnel. What I see here, though, is that by the end he was trotting where he had been running more at the beginning. It was a 12 rep session, which is technically not a lot of reps until you add in all the other reps he had been doing with everything else. So to keep him moving fast on these games and not getting to the point of being tired and slowing down, definitely keep sessions shorter and do fewer sessions per day (more ideas on that below).
10th video: This was the resilience pattern game with a distraction on the ground. He was definitely looking tired here, his movement was more scattered and less coordinated as he walked into the session. He was still able to engage nicely and ignore the distraction (yay!) but I am not sure how much gets retained when we work the pups when they are tired. For the mechanics, have 4 or 5 cookies in your hands already so that you don’t have to get more out of your pocket each time: I looked like he was cuing off the hands going to the pockets rather than making the choice to re-engage each time. Ideally, you would not move your hands at all til he re-engaged, and having the cookies in your hands already will help that.
You can also add in walking back and forth with you moving forward rather than backing up. This will help him be able to apply it to the real world stuff coming later this week 🙂
9th video: Good ladder video, although I think it was done after the ladder video posted below. You did a great job of moving slowly and placing the reward low: both of these really helped him sort out where his feet needed to be and he did really well without rushing his footwork. Nice!!!
8th video – handling combo with the barrel – this started really nicely! He did well with the barrel commitment, with the toy on the ground behind him (nice impulse control!) and then he drove to the toy really nicely. You can start a little further from the barrel and that will allow you to do the turns a bit sooner (which will straighten out his line to the toy). When you were late, he was a good boy to watch you to see which side you wanted him on.
Earlier I mentioned that the length and # of sessions was impacting his behavior a bit, and so on this one you can see it for sure. After about 3 minutes he was losing the crispness of response and having more trouble with the impulse control (looking at the toy more, going to the barrel more slowly). So to help build up the skill, do a much shorter session. This game has both a lot of running and a lot of thinking, so setting a timer to 2 minutes will make for a fast and fun session, and no drop off in behavior when he gets mentally tired. He seems to be the type of pup who will keep working when he is physically or mentally tired, but there is a change in what he is doing: less impulse control, he moves more slowly, muddier responses. So keeping sessions short will definitely help all of that!
7th video – sits with toy – this was definitely harder for him! (Also it is the 7th session so it is likely he was tired mentally – he kept trying hard but wasn’t quite able to get it).
He was offering downs which is fine for now… but ideally we would get a sit with you standing. You can help him a bit to jump start it: I think he has a good sit verbal so you can use that at first. Eventually he will be able to discriminate the sit and down verbals when is really stimulated, but we can help him for now.
6th video – this one was clicker stays 🙂 He already has some really lovely stay behavior, so you can change your position to be facing away from him and moving away as if you are leading out, rather than facing him or backing up. As long as you stay connected, I think he will do well with this. And as you move away, you can keep your hands low (but have the cookie ready) rather than up high in “I’m gonna throw it” position 🙂
I think he is also ready for you to ping pong the # of steps you take before you click and toss – you had a lot of instant clicks for the sits, which was great! So he is ready for more: you can do a step then 2 steps, then 1 step then 4 steps before each click & toss, which will allow you to gradually extend the duration of the stay.The 5th video – these were lap turns on the flat (no prop), you can be later on these too. When he was a couple of strides away from you and you started the turn, note how he pops up at your hand (:25, for example) rather than turns on the ground. So be sure to be facing him as he is approaching you, feet together, cookie hand fully extended towards him. And hold that position til he is about 2 inches away, then you can step back and move the arm back to starting cuing the turn.
4th video – a-ha! This one if the tandem turn video without the prop, I think they are posted a little out of order here. As with the video with the prop, you were pulling him across your front to get him on the other side of you. So as you move to the camera with him on your left like you started, you would turn him away (to his left) and then head away from the camera with him on your right. The tandem turn sets up that U-turn on the flat, which should feel smoother than pulling him in front of you to change sides.
3rd video:
This was the lap turn without the prop – he reads these really well! He did better when you waited til he got almost all the way to you before turning him away. Those tended to be the right hand reps (turning to his left). You were earlier on the left hand reps and he was wider on those, so keep totally still with your magic cookie hand extended, til his nose is almost at it: then you can turn him away.Hi!
2nd video: This is lap turns advanced (with the prop), but I think one of the videos further down here is the baby level.As you add in the rewards with the prop where you are moving forward, you can reset for the next differently: throw the treat, then tug with him as you go back to your starting position, then start the next rep, That will allow you to be set up for the lap turn, rather than moving backwards into it.
The prop position should be slightly different here, think of it as a sandwich with him in the middle 🙂 If he is coming to your left hand, the prop should be on on the other side of him so he passes it on the way to you. And then when you turn him away to his right , he will see the prop on a straight line ahead of him and will drive to it. It was a little in front of you here, so he had to cut in front of you to get to it.
For the tandem turns in the 2nd part of the video – think of these as a ‘u-turn’ so you both end up going a new direction. So in this setup, you would start heading away from the camera with him on your left, then do the tandem turn to flip him away to the his left, then you both turn and head back to the camera with him on your right. You were heading towards the camera and pulling him across your front so he would end up on the other side. Try this without the prop to get the mechanics then add the prop back in in a different session, with the prop on the other side of him as it would be in the lap turns.
Hi! There are a lot of sessions here (13 in total, i believe)! I think the number and length of sessions had an impact on the results, so I have more ideas for you below (last reply) on structuring things to really get the best results in the training).
Video 1: This is strike a pose 🙂 As you work this, remember to look at your hand target very directly, and have your hand more fully extended away as far from your body and not next to your leg. Your elbow should be locked – you might have bend over a little to be able to have the arm extended and locked, and still low enough for him to touch (eventually we do fade out the touch :))
He had some questions about the toy (whether to grab it or not) – you can definitely use your marker for when he can have the toy, so he understands when it is in play for him to grab, versus when he needs to ignore it. When you didn’t give permission, he waited at the hand target (good boy!) so you can use your toy marker as soon as he hits the hand target. You can also do this against a wall if he at all thinks it is similar to the “go behind the momma” style of reinforcement that he has learned (he asked that question during the session). You can also have the toy a little more in front of you, so he knows it is definitely not the go behind you reward.
Because this skill is pretty repetitive, you don’t need to do as many reps. You can set a timer for the session to 2 minutes, or just do 3 or 4 reps on each side. That will keep him better focused and faster on each rep.
Onwards to video 2!
Good morning!
It is possible that the only reason she doesn’t want to be super tight to your side os because she doesn’t want to be super tight to your side 🙂 It is possible that you could have done things differently in her puppyhood and she would still not totally love this game yet LOL! So, no worries at all – my Voodoo was the same way, and we see this in many many many pups especially herding dogs and very small dogs.
When you started the session by tossing the treats directly back for coming to you, that was great! That has helped a whole lot ion teaching these skills. You can do a lot more of that with treats but also, does she like toys or balls better? For example, have a ball on your hand and just as she arrives at your hand, step back and throw it back like you did with the treats.
Do 2 or 3 more short sessions of that before you try the lap turns so she drives hard to you. She was a little stronger driving to your left hand here, which is good! And when you did add the lap turns, be sure to step back with your leg (especially on the left side). You were tending to use your hand only, which makes it harder.
You can also skip the lap turns for now and go directly to the tandem turns which might be easier – there is less pressure because you are not facing her or standing still, and she does really well when you use that style of movement in the decel gamers. Try those and see how she feels about it 🙂
Nice work!
Tracy
