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Good morning!
>> it has taken several days to get Dellin back doing the threadle – she took A LOT of offense at my stepping on her (memo to self – don’t do that again).
OMG that is a LOT of grudgement (judgement plus grudge-holding for one tiny error) LOL!
She was great here, so here are a couple of ideas for the next steps:
Try to fade the ‘break’ cue which is generally associated with taking the front of a jump – in in can totally be a release word and it will tell her what to do sooner than break-in in does. Also, will she hold the stay if you put the threadle arm in position before the verbal cue? That will help too – and we don’t want her to associate the release with the arm movement.You can totally add in the 2nd wing for this. And the in-in threadle behavior does imply getting the toy on the line, but you can also use a get it marker as soon as she turns her head to the bump, which will mark & solidify that moment of the finding the bump independently.
Reverse retrieve – while she was technically correct, she literally made me snort with her passionate (not!) trot to you during the retrieve portion LOL!!! She is a big personality and cracks me up!!! She was fast and happy to get the toy that you dropped and asked her to get – explosive! But then she was all like “I will get there when I get there” when bringing it to you LOL!! I don’t think more running room will help that – you were pretty energetic and I don’t think increasing your energy or speed will be more convincing.
So we can convince her to run to you by doing doing reverse retrieves: start like you did here – and then when she gets close to you with toy #1, immediately throw toy #2 past you for her to drive to as the reward. At first, that can be the end of the rep – the reward thrown past you. Then, that #2 toy can be the middle of the rep: when you toss it, tell her to get it and you run the other way (snagging toy #1 on the way) she retrieves it, chases you, and then you throw toy #1 as the reward.
We can also split the behavior by throwing toy #2 before she gets to you, as long as it doesn’t become a lure.
The goal is that she goes faster during the retrieves, but you do not need to go faster as well 🙂 Let me know if that idea makes sense.>>Is position 2, like the middle of the bump? and position 3 where the second wing would be if it was a jump?>>
Yes – position 2 is more of a line to the center of the bump, and position 3 is more like a line to where the wing meets the bar on the exit side of the jump.
Before moving to position 2, though, try position 1.5 🙂 where you are halfway between the barrel and the center of the bump, where she sees a tiny bit of the bump but still goes around to the backside.Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
He did a great job ignoring al of the distractions – that is the best trial prep ever (thanks, neighbor kids LOL!!!!) During the holidays, my neighbor had 3 or 4 little kids running around, shrieking, with 2 Lab puppies and he also has a field of cows that were running around too… all on the day that I was out there doing my UKI At Home trial runs LOL! It is a bit annoying but I figure it our youngsters can ignore all of that, then trials will be super easy peasy 🙂 I am jealous of your camels, it would be great fun to train around them!On the video:
>>he seemed to be picking it up pretty quickly
1000% yes! He has the behavior, brilliant boy! You set him up to get it really well with helping just enough to start, then starting to fade out the help by the end of the video. Great session! So now we can obsess on the handling 🙂 I like ‘chute’ as the verbal, it sounds incredibly different from the tunnel cue and I think it can be said at a run in a way that is very attention-getting which is good for a turn cue.
>>The non-flipping arm cue here is new to him and me so not quite fluent
Yes, it is definitely an evolution from previous tunnel threadle arm cues, thanks to the course designers putting the handlers further and further away LOL! And also too many of us had imperfect timing on the flip-away to the tunnel, which messed up the dogs – and the dogs basically told us they didn’t need the arm flip anyway by turning themselves away.
So with that in mind, the threadle arm cue is not intended to actually indicate the obstacle but rather indicate the behavior. That is different from the send arm, when we do actually indicate the obstacle. On the first reps here, your outside arm was indicating the ‘chute’ entry, which was turning your body towards the tunnel. That primed him for tat very last rep, where your outside arm was engaged but your motion and and arm indicted the behavior without needing to point to the actual tunnel entry. He was perfect 🙂 Yay! So since he is getting the behavior so nicely, you can change the threadle arm position to something that is easier to do at a run – I personally prefer to have my threadle arm at shoulder height, elbow bent and across my body, palm pointing towards the dog – all to indicate the behavior without needing to point to the tunnel (while saying the verbal too, of course LOL). Your last rep at 1:26 had your arm pointing towards the tunnel entry, fully extended. That might be harder to run with when we start adding more and more speed, so you can play around with how you want to use your arm to indicate the behavior (while still being able to run fast :)) Since he is easily able to process behavior cues while also running (HOORAY – thoughtful processing at high speed? YES PLEASE!) the sky is the limit with how you want to cue it – a combination of salient for the dog while also allowing you to run fast is going to work best.
Great job here!! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
The reverse retrieve is going really well! She is doing a great job of getting it and bringing it!!! I am really excited about how much you have gotten her to enjoy retrieving!! One little tiny detail is to call her once (Beka!) and be quiet, mainly so you can breathe and also so the extended name call (Bekaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!) doesn’t become the cue – because breathing needs to happen LOL You might not even have noticed your were holding her name call as long as you did 🙂 it was cracking me up – lungs of steel!
On the rep where you took out the 2nd toy, I think it was a little confusing – you might have ben trying to prevent her from heading into the living room but the name call helped her there. To use the 2nd toy, you can clarify with an ‘out’ verbal then present the other toy, if she has an out verbal. Otherwise it went perfectly well with one toy so you might not even need to incorporate the 2nd toy.
>.And she really isn’t ‘giving’ me the tug yet, I am still really just taking it as she gets close enough to me. Need to work on that separately but since it’s more of a shapped thing it’s a bit harder since it involves food mostly.>>
No worries on that at all – she is bringing it directly back for the most part and bringing it close enough for an easy grab and play session. That is AWESOME! You can shape the retrieve-to-hand with food, yes, which makes tugging harder but you can also play shaping games with other objects being placed in your hand for food rewards, then build the tugging back in. You can also shape it with toy(s) only but having her placing it in your hand be the ‘button’ that gets you to throw that same toy or a second toy. I do this will balls and toys.
About the reverse retrieve:
>>1 – shouldn’t we use ‘get it’ or whatever our command is to have them grab the toy all the time on this since we are leaving the toy, like we do in the first part?
If you feel the get it is strong and ready to be used, then yes – totally use it. But primarily, to prevent them from chasing us, start without a lot of motion.
>> Otherwise, shouldn’t they ignore the toy and follow us?
Not necessarily – they recognize the context of the game. We are dangling the toy, making it salient, using a release verbal if they are in a stay – so the context of the game means they can get it. I know that a lot of people like to proof that, but that sets the dog up for failure and dampens the excitement of the game. I mean, in what other context would we use this setup and NOT want the pup to get the toy? If we wanted to place the toy as a reward for something else, the context would be entirely different. I liken it to tunnels: yes, I try to say “tunnel” when I am running at a tunnel with the dog – but in the context of doing a sequence and I am running at a tunnel, the context of the motion and situation means “take the tunnel” even if I don’t say ‘tunnel’. If I don’t say tunnel and the dog is on the line to a tunnel that I am running towards, should the dog *not* take it and just chase me? Nope. So allowing the pups to read teh context as we develop our various verbals (or remember to say the right ones LOL!) will allow us to play all the games with high success.
>>2 – Are you wanting us to move off at a lateral angle from where we drop the toy, or more of back to where the dog is, or on the the same line we left the dog, or ‘all the angles’ so they get used to finishing a behaviour before coming to us how ever we move away??
Starting with moving off at a lateral angle is a bit easier because it is a little less countermotion. Then move back towards where the dog started. “All of the angles” is the eventual answer because that simulates what they will see no course – but it takes a while to get there.
Tunnel Double Whammy game:
She is doing really really well here too! I think the main suggestion I have for you is to take the TnT out, it was too confusing for her. Great job getting her to read the difference between the 2 cues and to turn herself away on the threadle part!>>This is not easy to do on a short tunnel and get the words in at the right time,>>
yes 🙂 Quickness is part of this and verbal timing – I think having the TnT in the picture made things much harder – she had too many questions about it, she wasn’t sure where to look and that made the timing harder too – so take it out and use a toy for now. Eventually you can add in a ‘go’ verbal on tunnel exits to cue the drive to the tnT but for now, it muddies the waters (too many errors) and we don’t want to reduce the value of the TnT by calling her off it a lot for now.
>> On the second last rep she started to turn to me out of the tunnel and then turned to the TnT,>>
It is confusion about when it is available or not, the body language looked similar enough as at 1:09 when she came to you then you sent her to the TnT. For now, so you only have to focus on one thing, taking the TnT out will help. You can throw a toy after the 2nd tunnel and use a ‘get it’ to let her drive to it. or a name call to let her come tug from your hand (I think throwing it is better because it maintains driving straight out of the tunnel better after turning to come in for the threadles).
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! You both nailed it here! And Ronan was happy to do this for both of you LOL!
Great job letting him find that tunnel entry independently – it is hard to not use body language to cue him but he was fabulous about finding it on his own. You can really see the independence brewing like at :17 when Karena was pretty much moving away from the tunnel (ended up out of frame!) and he still nailed it. And on Mike’s reps, he drove ahead of you to the tunnel – perfect!
Since Ronan seems to really enjoy this game, you can add on a bit: changing your line by moving away from the tunnel, or getting ahead of the threadle entry, or staying close to the exit so he drives ahead. And, mix in some balance: send into the tunnel, do a FC but do NOT cue the threadle – just move away from the tunnel and reward him for NOT threadling. For the non-threadle reps, you might need to move away from the tunnel a lot so we don’t set him up for failure. But eventually you can do both cues pretty near the tunnel: arm & verbal for the threadle, and name and connection while moving away for the non-threadle/chase the handler. Let me know if that makes sense or if I need more coffee haha!Great job here! Have fun!
TracyGood morning!
>>>>See if you can line her up and get to the release in 4 or 5 seconds – I bet the releases are snappier when you do that!<< Too many things in my hands with adding the remote for the TnT, will have to make some adjustments for next time.>>
You can narrow it to the target and the remote, one in each hand. When using the MM, you don’t need to also have treats in your hand. If you are planning to reinforce the stay on a particular rep, you can put the remote in a pocket and take out a treat.
The tunnel threadle video looked really good!
Starting stationary “me me me” went really well – she turned away and did the tunnel on her own without needing help. Yay! That is exactly what we want.
Later in the video you added motion AND the arm – adding both variable might have been too much or the first rep or two but she figured it out really quickly and did really well there too!
>>but I did notice a couple of times I started to turn in a bit and once when I was using the threadle arm she kept looking at me and didn’t turn, I think maybe I wasn’t turned in quite enough for her and maybe the arm was harder to see.>>
I think for almost all of the reps, you were really awesome about letting her turn to the tunnel before you turned or relaxed the cue. I don’t think you did anything that was too ‘helpy’, she was finding it independently. Perfect!
She had one question here where she came to you an didn’t turn to the tunnel, at 2:21 – that was also the only rep where your motion was not as clear. you were moving away from the tunnel, pulling your shoulders away a bit – so it confused her. Compare that line to the rep at 2:32 – you had a better line of motion (pretty much parallel to the tunnel and maybe a little towards the entry but not in the ‘too helpy’ way – and she nailed it. And same thing at 2:42, nice clear line of motion but she did the baby dog thing of considering getting between the tunnel bag and the tunnel entry LOL!
For the advanced level double whammy:
>>Debating using the TnT for that but even though I wouldn’t be triggering it on the first time through and I would call her name, I suspect she will head for it anyways. Just ignore it I assume?
First rep – call her, ignore going to the MM if she does, and then give her a BIG reward for coming to you when you call her out of the tunnel. If she goes to the MM again a second time, move it further away and reward for coming to you. If she goes to it a 3rd time? Do it without the MM and throw treats or toys as the reward for the threadle. Each attempt to go to the MM is a failure and we don’t want too much failure.
>>Will use a toy also but figure a good chance to help her understand the TnT only gives her something when the tone happens. Not positive she actually gets that yet.>>
I agree! It is a great opportunity to make a stronger connection between the MM and the beep fo treat dispensing.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Great session here – She is doing really well!! Yay! The stay helps for sure, great job rewarding it a TON (I am always amazing when dogs chew their treats. I mean, my dogs don’t chew at all during training LOL!!!) I think the MM will be even more stimulating when she has more experience with the magical cookie dispenser, and then you will see her offer turning away to it without looking so surprised by the beep haha!
She jumped up on you at :59, kind of a frustration behavior. The session was at a super high rate of success (100% at that point) so I am not sure what she read there versus the rep at :45 (where she was perfect) and the rep after it. It could be that at :59, you were less ‘snappy’ with the presentation of the target, so maybe it kind of faded into the background a bit? Also, you ight have been looking in a different place on that one – I couldn’t see your eyes but sometimes if we look directly at the dog instead of at the target, the dog comes to us (or vice versa, depending on the dog). Or maybe she needed a bit of a toy break party: this game is really very controlled with the stay, and she might have just needed a moment to explode 🙂She did well tugging when you changed side, even with the MM right there and after all the cookies!! That is a MASSIVE happy dance moment 🙂 And she was perfect on the other side as well.
I think another session like this will be next – and you can start changing her start position, bit by bit. You might have to take this on the road somewhere so you have more room. The MM lives in my car so I can train in different places 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
She was definitely feeling spicy here! Love it! She is such a big personality, so much FUN!>>wondered if I’m still circling too much?
I don’t think it was too much circling, but I do think you were having her first wrap be harder than it needed to be by pulling her between you and the upright rather than letting her just scoot around it on the other side of you.
Look at the very first rep, where she was on your right side (just as the video started) and she turned to her left around the upright – moving away from you and putting the wing between her and you (rather than putting herself between the wing and you). That is the correct start, then you can pull her through between you and the upright and turn her away (with the left hand, ideally, but your right hand might feel more comfy and can work nicely too!)So think of the start of each wrap of the double wrap as a sandwich:
– start of the first wrap has the upright in the middle of the sandwich, with you and Zhara being the bread on the outside and the upright is the tasty filling 🙂
– start of the 2nd wrap (where you are turning her away) has Zhara as the middle of the sandwich, so she squeezes between you and he upright to be the tasty filling in the middle 🙂 before going around the wing again.But either way, she is turning her head into the turn really nicely on all of them, and I think her extra saucy spicyness means she is having a good time too! Yay!!!
>>Should I be throwing treat straight left/right vs in front?
After the turn away, throw the treat to the next line she would be turning towards around the wing. So if she turns her head to turn to her left, toss the treat out to that side so she continues turning left. the mechanics of it are the harder part, I often feel like I need 23 hands: so usually use the dog-side arm to both start the first wrap and pull her between me and hte upright and turn her away for the 2nd wrap – which leaves the other hand free for cookie throwing. But, as long as it is comfy and smooth, you can use whatever mechanics feel comfy!!!
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>He is tall+long and I am short, so it’s hard for me to avoid getting a chin-up and even some jumping up during the turns,
I feel this SO MUCH! LOL! On a big hair day, I reach a whopping 5’2″ which makes for some interesting mechanics LOL! So we will sort out the mechanics that will get things going for him easily.
The lap turns are going really well! I think the chin up was fine here – what will help is to actually not do it as a quick loop, because you didn’t have time to reset your position in a small space. Ideally when he is coming towards you, your hand is already extended towards him so he can drive right into it – that was happening a little late here because he was able to get the cookie and turn around really quickly to head back to you. So, you can either throw the treat a lot further to buy some time and be in the position when he turns around, or reset each rep with a stay.
The tandem turns are also going really well. It was on the tandems that you were getting more of that little hop up – I think it had to do with the turn cue starting late, which was causing him to be a bit wide of you, which made the turn harder to cue. The camera angle was perfect for this: as you were moving away from him, he didn’t see any info about where to be so he widened his line to get a better connection. As he arrived next to you, you started the turn away but he was a couple of feet away from you at that point, so he popped up a little on the turn. To help smooth and tighten it up, you can show him that outside arm (or both hands :)) sooner – the instant he starts to move towards you, in this setup. That way he will see more connection (because showing the outside arm sooner drops your dog-side shoulder back and opens up connection) and he will drive towards you an dbe ready for the turn. When he arrives at you, he will be very closer to you which should make it easier to show the nice low turn cue, making for a tighter smoother turn.
Adding the prop went really well in the 2nd video!!! He got all his turns and hit his Thing really well too 🙂
>>After the turns and on his way to the prop, Leo keeps turning his head towards me (even tho it’s pretty clear he understands he should hit The Thing)
I think that falls into the “Nothing Else to Look At” category LOL!!! The ‘job’ was complete so he was looking at you, nothing else to look plus looking at us is a ‘cheap’ behavior, meaning it is really easy for the dogs to build in.
But no worries – my only suggestions are to use an empty hand to turn him (not sure if there was a cookie in the turn hand or not?) because then he will look forward a bit more and not at the turn hand quite as much and you can throw sooner with the other hand when you think he is definitely committed to heading to the prop.And, keep moving forward past the prop after you turn him because that will keep him looking more forward (but he still might look at you after he hits the prop).
But overall – no worries at all about him wanting to look at you when he is ‘done’ with the behavior, no need to add the MM. The goal is that he turn away and go do a thing: mission accomplished! Yay! When we transfer it to a jump, it will be easier to reward sooner and also in sequence, there will be more things to look at after the jump (the jump will replace the prop).
Lap turns looked great! He was beginning to turn even sooner, recognizing the cue. On the tandems, you can keep moving forward after the turn away. Also on the tandems here, you had the opposite arm showing earlier and he was much tighter (no feet on the ground. He was also recognizing the cue and was turning his head away with a lower chin towards the end of the session.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
I loved when you checked to see if the camera was on at :15 – I feel that so much LOL!!!! It is sad when we have a good session and the camera is not on LOL!
Really good toy play here and I was glad she continued with the toy play after she got the cookie for the out!
She was finding the threadle end of the tunnel really well too. Super! You were helping her with the outside arm turning her back into the tunnel – let’s fade that help now and see if she can do it on her own: as you are saying close close close and using the threadle arm, keep moving forward towards that end of the tunnel but don’t use your arm or foot rotation to turn her into the tunnel. Kep the cue going until she turns herself into the tunnel and then you can turn and reward. The goal is that when she hears the verbal and sees the hand, she leaves your for the correct tunnel entry (rather than wait for your hand or feet to send her to it).
>>Something changed when I switched sides. She kept going to the tripod. Maybe there was something I was doing>>
I didn’t see anything that happened in terms of handling that caused her to run to the tripod – maybe she was looking for the toy? She was pretty convinced there was something over there. I think it was tucked up under your arm in those reps and it was in your hand earlier in the session, so that is my best guess? You can experiment and see if there is a difference when you carry it versus when you hid it a bit. She worked through it nicely at the end (you were SUPER strong with your connection).
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>Twice this app on the phone wiped out my typing>>
Ugh that is so weird! My iPad had issues last weekend with loading the bigger threads – I think the software had to catch up to the iOs software? My Android phone had no problem at all, but it is not as “smart” as the Apple stuff LOL
This session went really well!!! I think the hardest part was getting her lined up again, and waiting til she swallowed the treat LOL! Normally we could maybe some type of loop where the reinforcement comes in the line up position, but I don’t want to introduce any ‘through the legs’ behavior in a potential sequencing moment. At the start? Totally fine! In the middle? I worry about offered behavior LOL! I might be acting a bit superstitious about it 🙂
I think the next step for her here is to work the skill in the context of motion: rocking horses! That will allow her to get the verbals going with rotation and some countermotion. Is your yard dry enough to do this outdoors? More speed will also make this more challenging for her!
Nice work!
TracyGood morning! These sessions went well! I think the hardest part was sorting out the release and getting the Manners Minder to behave itself LOL!
>>I added the ‘in in in’ it took a bit to get it to work and i don’t think it is quite there yet. I messed up when I used it relative to her release cue.>>
When adding the new cue (in in being the release), I generally add the new cue before the ‘old’ cue (OK) so the new cue predicts the old cue – then we can fade the old cue. On several reps on both sides, though, she was getting the idea that in in was the release so you might not need to add the OK release when you revisit this.
One other think that I think will help is to get to position faster and release faster. It took you a long time (in dog years LOL) and her attention wandered – she almost seemed surprised when you said in in on some of the reps. For example, on the second video: you gave her a cookie for the sit at :18 and the in in release started at :27. That 9 second delay is a lot for a puppy and she was thinking about other things. See if you can line her up and get to the release in 4 or 5 seconds – I bet the releases are snappier when you do that!
She is beginning to understand the in-then-out really nicely, so keep going with this. When she is really driving to the MM, you can also start to change her start angle (but keep her success rate high like it was here – it looked great!)
Her retrieving is going well! What a big impovement, well done! Which do you think she prefers: tugging or throwing as the reward? You did throws as the reward here (which is fine of course) but if you think she prefers tugging, you can tug the toy with her a bit before you throw it again. I love that she was bringing it back to you rather than having a private party with it, and she didn’t need the 2nd toy to assist with the retrieve. That will make training mechanics MUCH easier in the future: great job getting her to that point!!!
Tracy
Good morning!
This is going well! A couple of ideas to help build it up even more. I think part of the confusion about arms and, for him, whether to take the tunnel or not was that the threadle arm does not actually cue the tunnel entry on the threadles, it is just part of the total cue. I think you were trying to use your outside arm to indicate the tunnel entry, which caused you to stop moving and turn your feet, which caused him to also stop moving.
Try to use your threadle arm up high and not not pointing at the tunnel entry: the goal is that he turns himself away to the tunnel without you needing to flip him away with your hands and feet. So when he is between you and the tunnel, your threadle arm and verbal cues the behavior but are not used to point out the tunnel entry (position near the tunnel with him between you and the tunnel is what indicates the tunnel). Ideally, he would turn his head away and enter the tunnel, and then you would turn and throw the reward. For now, start than wth him on the inside and you can keep the tunnel verbal on it for now – whenhe is turning himself away, we can add the threadle verbal back to it.
>>I kept feeling a little confused about what arm to be using for the obvious tunnel cue.
This of it as a sandwich: on the regular tunnel sends, you are in the middle ot the sandwich: Ronin, you, tunnel. So on those, you use the hand next to the dog. For example, at :40 when he was on your left, the send arm is your left arm.
>>Had one little error where I started the reward too soon and he pulled out of the tunnel (same thing like one rep in your demo).
Yes, I recognized that LOL!!! I call it The Pitfalls Of Praise – the dogs often stop dead in their tracks when we praise, because we have accidentally caused it to be a “come get your prize” marker. OOPS! Guilty as charged! So praise only at the very end, try not to praise between the 2 tunnels. And you can use a marker like “get it” for a thrown reward, so he carries on through the tunnel.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyWheee! I am glad he had fun with this 🙂 it is supposed to be fun and add even more speed (mission accomplished for both!!!!)
One small suggestion that will pay off in a big way: when you are handling the threadle – keep your verbal and threadle arm going until he turns his head away to the tunnel, rather than use your threadle arm/foot turn to flip him away. We want him to recognize the threadle verbal/arm and leave you in the dust to run to the tunnel entry you are cuing without waiting for the additional turn-away cue. For example, at :03 :10 and :39 you did arm & leg cues to turn him away (and at :18 when the cue was not quite right, he didn’t make the turn. Compare that to the reps at :26 and :44, where he was starting to turn himself away – perfect! That is ideally what we want. So you can keep moving forward (even past the tunnel entry, you don’t need to turn and face it) and let him find the entry on his own (then have a big party for his brilliance :)) In these early stages, I try to keep myself moving forward slowly with the threadle cues until I see the pup turn his head away – then the party starts and I can also turn to toss the reward. Let me know if that makes sense! I think he will easily be able to find the tunnel entry.
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
I totally see what you were saying here – she had more trouble with the release than the countermotion or retrieve. You were really super exciting (crouched in that game on position) so it is possible that you need to be a bit boring for now LOL! Using get it as a release is valid, so we can help her out by having you be a bit less fun to look at 🙂 I think what might have been happening was that the value shifted during the session away from the toy, and towards you & coming to you: so that made it hard for her to focus on the toy when you were in the game on position.I liked the rep you did at approx :10 where you sent her forward to the toy on the get it release. She also seemed to do well when you said it *then* dropped the toy (or placed the toy), and moved after she moved. So you can stick at those levels for now, to build up the get it – I think the ‘move after she moves’ element will be important and you can also be more upright and less crouched.
Overall, though, her toy drive and retrieve look good and so does the countermotion once she starts moving. So these ideas are more about cracking the code to help her understand she can move to the toy on the ‘get it’ when you are facing her – so you can also try less distance and adding motion in the form of walking for now (which is less exciting :))
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! This is going really well!!!
On the food reps: being able to have the cookie in the dish before the rep starts is very helpful! She was able to immediately line up her body to make the turn, without you needing to move. Perfect! And she did really well with the toy! Keeping the toy lower during tug really helps get her tugging!
>> I cut out parts where she took her toy and left.
That is part of the reward for her, I think: tug with the momma then you can have that party of one with the toy 🙂 You can make it contingent: she will need to pull harder and harder, for longer, into order to win the toy. And yes, training the retrieve will help get her to bring it back and do less party of one LOL! I prefer to have big tug drive before I worry too much about putting control on it.
With that in mind – will she still find the toy reinforcing if it is on the ground (like the food bowl) or dangling from your hand? That can help get the behavior as crisp as it was when the bowl was on the ground.
And a separate, additional tug game: can she tug while there is barking in the background (cough cough Mazi cough cough). Ha! I don’t mind if Mazi barks, I think you were making all of the party sounds and she wanted to play. It is a great opportunity for Saphira to play even when there is a bit of a distraction!
>> I tried to do both sides and had to think about it on the last one but I think I remembered wrong and did them all the same way.
You got some reps on each side, both directions looked good! My only suggestion is to start these from a stay (how is her stay coming along?). Starting from a cookie toss was less clean than a stay would be, because it was hard to get into position right away, plus she is was coming into the behavior while chewing so it was not as crisp (plus the toss plus chewing was making her come in from odd angles on some reps). A stay would allow you to put her on the line you want, get into position, then release for her to explode into it.
>>I dug out my uprights and a jump bump (goes back to puppy Letty days) but I haven’t introduced her to the jump yet either. She did see them in class once a month or so ago for a baby grid exposure. She’s doing parallel path for The Thing so I’ll go find the lecture where we add the jump.>>
Awww puppy Letty!!!! I think Saphira is ready for you to move this to a jump for sure. I think it will be an easy transfer for her! Here is the game:
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
