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Hi! I think the waits are coming along really nicely! The cookie tosses are helpful for when you want to be further ahead and she might break the wait.
Have fun!
TracyHi! We don’t go past basic ladders and body awareness in this course because cavaletti work is more about conditioning and these pups are a bit too young for formal conditioning. We do some jumping foundation in the next class but I leave conditioning to the sports vets 🙂
Tracy
Good morning! Hope you had a great holiday weekend!
Plankrobatics:
OMG her little happy feet, so cute!!!! I like how she sorted out getting her hind end on. I think the struggle she was having initially was that she wanted to look at you and that high head position made it hard to get her back feet lined up on the plank. So she could do it running back to you but it was harder from the side when you wanted her to get on, when she was facing you. So to help her be able to hop on from the side (great for body awareness) and then to add in the turning around on the plank, you can move the plank over to a couch so you are sitting and can help her turn around with a low hand (you can do it standing but you’d need to bend over and your back might protest LOL!). I do a lot of couch sitting with really small pups so we can get the behavior without having to end up bending over too much.Sounds like she ignored a lot of sirens too! Good girl!
Stays:
Her happy dancing feet make stays harder, I totally feel this (been through the happy feet with the terriers and the papillons LOL!). I am glad she is doing well with this technique, I definitely don’t like to battle dogs about stays. You can reward faster and earlier – I think on the first couple of reps you waited to long and she was twitchy, so after that you rewarded earlier and that really helped! She was very successful!!
For now, because her release forward is really explosive, you can balance that with most of the stay reinforcement being thrown back to her as you get gradually further away. For my happy feet littles, I had 75% of the stay reinforcement thrown back to them – I really like stays LOL!! I think you had the get it marker going for both the throw back and the release forward, so using a different marker for throwing back will really help. I use catch and that has REALLY helped the happy feet dogs love to stay 🙂 More on markers will be coming today, stay tuned!Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Great job here, she was totally figuring it out! Yes, the bumps were very enticing especially when you were not moving or when you were on the other side of the bumps but I loved how she figured it out and was moving away on cue. The bumps put the behavior more into context, I suppose: move away from the obvious line to pick up the other line (the prop, in this case).
To help add more motion and also show the line from ahead, you can start from a cookie toss instead of a stay so you are already in motion and further ahead on the line – starting next to her was harder especially with the bumps in play . And she is ready for you to add more speed to this too 🙂
On the 2nd video, no bumps, she did well too! For the non-out reps, call her as early as possible – if she gets one step out of the stay, she is locking onto the line – I think ‘bingo’ is your release, so you can do bingoside or bingopearl almost as one word for this 🙂Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi there!
The tunneling looks great! Because she is tall, try to stretch the middle of the curve more so she doesn’t push it too bent as she runs through. When you were relatively close, she was perfect. As you add more distance away from the entry, she was not entirely sure that she was allowed to leave you for the tunnel so you can repeat the cue a couple of times before you let go of her collar, so she has more support verbally. Too much quiet seems to make her question whether she has permission or not 🙂
She was also easily able to do the tunnels on the inside/threadle line – have you decided on what you want your tunnel threadle verbal cue to be? We will be adding it soon!Great job here!
TracyHi!
Yes, I am being highly reinforced for having moved south – you are welcome to head on down any time you get sick of snow!She did well on the videos. I have a few ideas for ya!
Contact mat – I am guessing you are planning on training the RDW, so a few ideas for you: for now, don’t worry about her looking at you – lock onto her back feet and click that only (2ndback foot hitting the mat. You can also elevate it by attaching it to something higher (maybe 2 inches tall) so you can isolate the back feet because she lifts them to get on the mat. Trying to get her to not look at you will cause you to click early, but then we are not isolating the criteria (back feet).
Out – she is doing a great job of leaving for the prop. Yes, the balance is harder because the space is tight and also the prop is really salient and high value. It think the “don’t do the out” will be easier for her when it goes into context in a sequence. The main thing here is your lower body: Keep it moving! You were stopping and sending with your feet and arm, but this send is an upper body only behavior. Your lower body should be identical to the balance reps, where you were walking forward. On the out reps, walk forward and use your upper body and verbal to cue the out but tell your feet to stay in motion. If you send with your feet, it begins to look like a rear cross on the flat.
She was doing the retrieve nicely but she seemed to think the paychecks were not all that exciting LOL! She has a lot of big opinions 🙂 You can have the retrieve to hand trigger a ball launch or tug cue from your other hand – that might keep her really engaged and less sticky, so it is more action-packed.
Nice job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>That answered my running DW question about the loop. Thank you! I’ll likely do a stop as I don’t have space and equipment, but training the box can’t hurt regardless.
Even if you don’t end up training a RDW, it is a great learning experience to train the behavior on the flat. Learning to watch for the specifics of the hits and developing the loop – that has really sharpened up my eye for everything else! And splitting things to maintain a high rate of reinforcement – definitely a good challenge. Highly recommend if you like nerding out over training 🙂
On your serp video:
One cool thing about this session is that her toy drive was really on fire here, she seemed totally happy to get that toy even though it was ‘dead’ and then she brought it to you for tugging. That is the best part! The other best part was towards the end when she was starting practically next to the toy and still did the serp then went to to the toy. Super!It is fine that she is not nose touching, we fade it out at this stage. In the next session or two, you will see her begin her turn before she arrives at the jump ‘bar’. Right now she is doing the turning on the landing side. :57 was the closest rep to making the turn before take off. When she consistently does that, we can start to add your motion. That will probably happen within a session or two – she just needs more experience with this with the toy on the ground and without the hand touch. I think she is right on track! her little bloopers like running past the jump are normal questions about how to get to the reward (it is more efficient to NOT take the jump LOL!) but she was incredibly successful here.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! The rocking horses are going well here!
The first couple of FCs as a warm up went really well! Funny, just as I was thinking that maybe you should have the barrels a little further apart, you went and moved them further apart at :16 LOL!
All of the reps looked really strong, there was really only one moment where she had a question:
Freeze the video at :44 – you lost the connection while she was still behind you when you pointed forward, so she thought you wanted a blind and tried to adjust but ended up running into you.Compare it to :55 and :58 which were both lovely connections so she had no questions. Yay! It feels a little counterintuitive, but you definitely want to watch her as you send rather than look forward to the barrel.
She really likes the turn and burn exits and went right to the toy after all the cookies! That was exciting to see and also a great way to keep the toy as part of it even when using treats.
She had a little trouble ignoring the toy when you reached for it on the last rep, so you can have it squished up in your hand the whole time – and then she can learn to ignore it right there in your hand and still commit, which will make it easier to carry the toy to reward when you are working sequencing and stuff.
Great job here!! Let me know what you think!
TracySo true! That is why we teach concepts at this point – we need to let their bodies grow up. When they are fully grown, it is totally easy to transfer concepts to coursework 🙂
T
Good morning! I spent my day off doing the UKI at home trial with Contraband – working on some US Open bye stuff since I can’t get to a lot of trials. He just kept nailing it so we we got 6 clear rounds on Friday and Saturday LOL! He is fine, I am exhausted now. Ha!
>>To get her better grip to dig in on the rocking horse, I could do a ring rental and work on the rocking horse and revisit some of the tunnel game.
Perfect!
On the serp video:
She did really well on this session – I think the hardest part of her was NOT being sticky for the dish on the ground 🙂 She definitely liked the toy better and the toy on the ground was an excellent challenge for the harder angles! She did really well – a couple of little questions that she answered herself quite nicely. My only suggestion here it that you should be closer to the jump – she didn’t really have to make a 2n turn to get to the reward, which means you were too far from the jump. So you can put the reward in closer to the foot of the jump upright and you can be close enough to touch the upright with your hand and a relaxed arm with a slightly bent elbow (no fully extended arm or fingertip touching lol). That will challenge her to bend in for that 2nd turn on the serp. There is handler pressure for that so she might ‘offer’ skipping around it to the toy LOL!If she can do this with you closer and standing still, we can begin to add motion! Keep me posted on how she does with you closer.
Nice work here!!!
TracyI think slanted might be too hard of a visual to get started with for her – you can take pop cans and kind of crunch them so there is a ‘v’ in the middle – then take weave poles and set them in the pop cans as a ladder. Let me know if that makes sense. Weave poles are a bit skinnier than jump bars so will work better for ladder work. And the pop cans (or soda cans, depending on what you call them where you are LOL!) can elevate each side of the weave pole just enough and hold them steady so they don’t roll around under her.
Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Hooray for the Manners Minder (or Treat N Train or whatever it is called now LOL!)
>>as I’m still shopping, I’m curious regarding PVC ladders versus the cavelletis cones versus just doing low jumps, that I already have.
Ladders and cavalettis are slightly different – but you can set up the cavalettis to be close like ladders to get the trotting going (if your cavalettis have relatively wide bars). If you don’t have a ladder, I don’t suggest buying one so you can use the cavalettis. I definitely do not recommend doing this with low jumps with puppies – puppies can be ‘scattered’ with their feet and end up touching the ladders or cavalettis, so I don’t want them touching the jump bars. Also, the mechanics of approaching a jump bar are different, so we want to keep the trotting for ladders or cavalettis.
>>I am planning a running a frame-need to make a box for the game. And doing 2o2o on DW.>>
Sounds good!! And sounds like you have a playground set up so she can practice all sorts of planks and wobble board games 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
>>For the tunnel threadles I use ‘me me me’. I’ll assume there will be a game on adding that so will wait for that to come up,
Week 9 is the official adding-of-the-verbal game 🙂
Both videos looked great – it looked a lot more ‘hands-free’ and she was more relaxed and focused on the game. Super!
The sending went really well!! She was immediately able to do this from more distance, it was pretty impressive how quickly you could move away from the barrel!At :48 she missed the connection and ended up on the wrong side of you, so an extra heartbeat of connection will fix that like you did on the other reps. Her right turns were a bit harder here so don’t be as quick to leave for the FC on those, face the barrel for a little longer – that was most helpful to her here (and on the next video too). When you were more patient, she was pretty darned perfect!
Decel reps (2nd video) – normally her left turns are really strong so she definitely was looking at something in the furnace room! Her right turns looked great here – you were patient and connected, she looked great. Very zippy around the barrel and really digging in for the turns! She is also giving you feedback about your timing of the decel:
At :34, you were late on the decel, starting it as she was arriving at your leg but she was already committed to going straight. Compare to :42 where you started your decel as she exited the barrel – perfect! She was able to drive right to you (and it looks like she did super well ignoring the distraction on the ground!)Since these went so nicely, you should move to the rocking horses games 🙂
Great job!
TracyGood morning! Hope you had a good holiday!
Lots of good things here! Some ideas for you!
Shaping the uprights and the bigger object (mop bucket LOL!) –
She seems happy to offer the behavior now, so you can wait on the cookie drops. You were doing them early, so now hold back in the timing: let her offer and then plop the cookie into the bowl. Be sure you have your cookies ready – each time you reached over to get the back, she stopped to watch your hands. So have 5 or 6 cookies in your hands then when there are no more, break off, play tug, have a moment to reset. That way when she offers, you are ready with the reward (she did some good offers but you weren’t ready here)I noticed she is on leash here and in the backing up video: unless she can escape the building or something, take the leash off 🙂 Yes, she might leave you but as long as it is safe and she won’t run off somewhere – her decision to leave (if she does that) is a reflection on the rate of reinforcement. So, giving the pup the opportunity to opt out will shape up your mechanics really quickly and that is great info from the pup at this stage 🙂
Plus, she won’t get the leash tangled in the upright if she is not wearing 🙂Next step here for both is to get you standing up. Stay close when you do that – then add a tiny bit of distance. After she can do it with you standing and with maybe an arm’s length worth of distance, you can move to the next games which involve sending.
Discs/goat games – she seemed very happy to walk around on the discs! Nice! You can squeeze more things together so she has a bigger play area to get all her feet on – with only 2 discs, she really has to compress so 3 or 4 items will help get all feet on the things. That way you can really isolate her back feet – I think she didn’t quite have enough room here to get all 4 feet on. She is getting big 🙂
One thing with the disc game here and the wing wrapping above – be sure to mix in lots of tugging before, during and after the cookie sessions! That will help keep her really engaged and will also help the retrieve.
Speaking of the retrieve – I am not sure why she was uninterested in the toy in the first video – it looks like she was more interested in chewing both toys and not as interested in tugging on them? It could be that she is in a chewing stage, or maybe she was just in a chill time of day. So the real question is – how is her tugging going in general? I think strengthening the tugging will definitely help with the retrieve. On the next video, standing was definitely better – possibly different time of day but it was better tugging for sure! And she was lifting it towards you, moving to towards you, and that is a great start! I think strengthening playing with you in general will help, so feel free to post more videos that have tug in them so we can sort that out (there is one below, I have some ideas for you there too)
You can also shape the retrieve as a trained behavior (more on that in the Week 5 games) both on toys and on other things like bumpers or dumbbells.Backing up – take the leash off here too 🙂 Let her freedom give you feedback on your rate of reinforcement (again, if she has access to the great outdoors or anything unsafe, leave the leash on but it if it safe – take it off). Good tugging to start! Keep that toy lower so she can pull back on and really get engaged with it. You were lifting the toy really high, so she had a hold of it but she but you are lifting the toy high and not really tugging so she is having trouble engaging with it.
When you were having her use the platform – you were too far away, you caught yourself and moved back, good catch! I think the platform is a good thing for her – she has a good value for it so you can start with all 4 feet on it (you might need something bigger) and lure just her front feet off – then let her offer stepping front feet back on, Tat way she will get the concept that it is backing up to it rather than turning around to get back on it. When she can step her front feet back on, you can then work up to all 4 feet off then stepping back feet back on.
Sitting down with your legs in a V went well! I think she was avoiding the purple platform when you sat down, so you can remove it so that she is backing up straighter and not around it.Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
