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Sounds good! That is why I put the moment of engagement in before the send – yes, to get the pup excited but also to make sure I am facing the right direction LOL!! The pups see all the things with our arms and feet so I like to be careful and precise in the beginning so they tolerate any potential less-than-perfect moments when I am running courses 🙂
T
Hi there!
>> It was soooo cold yesterday, lol, 19* when I walked out my door and barns are always much colder. The poor little guy’s fur was cold to the touch 😱.
I think the coated dogs do better with the cold than we humans LOL! And my Whippety dog thinks this cold is RIDICULOUS so he has many coats and pajamas hahaha!!
>> I need so much help and will incorporate it into our next session.
You’re doing great! It takes a village to train our puppies 🙂
>> In the mean time, should I concentrate on distance with one barrel until I have more room?
Boooooo on the bad weather!!!!
Yes, you can add distance on sending to one barrel. You can also add leaving sooner on one barrel (start closer for this).
And focus on adding more toy play too!>>I’m super pleased with his work ethic, as I was a little concerned in the beginning.
I think that it is far, far better to let the pups grow up a little before we start formal training. And that formal training starts with establishing simple behaviors and reinforcement. You are right on track and he looks great!
>> It has me wondering what will come after this course for him and will it be in this same format? I am willing to hit the road a couple of days a week if needed.>>
We have an entire program that will take you through to Masters LOL!!
After this, we have multiple courses spread out to bring the pups into adulthood. Next up is MaxPup AF (Agility foundations, which is more specific to teaching them about jumping and sequencing and such) and then MaxPup Putting It Together (sequencing). After MaxPup Putting It Together, the dogs will be old enough and skilled enough to do the Masters-level handling classes and transition to trials classes.Separately from the handling classes, we also have obstacle classes: MaxPup Weaves! Is a start-to-finish weaves class and MaxPup Terrific Teeters is a start-to-finish teeter class. Jordan Biggs teaches the running dog walk and running a-frame class. I will probably dig out the stopped contact class if there is interest (for a 2o2o on the dog walk).
So, there is plenty to look forward to! The next MaxPup will begin in mid to late March, when this one is fully wrapped up, which means the Putting It Together class will be a summer class.
Have a wonderful Christmas! Onwards to a great 2022!
Tracy
Good morning! I am glad you found a little bit of remaining green grass to play outdoors 🙂
This looks great! He definitely likes his leash!
A couple of thoughts and suggestions to keep moving forward with this:
– A small detail: Right and bite (I think that is what you were saying) sound a little alike so maybe don’t use them in combo in the warm up games (it should not be a problem on course because he will read the context ). And when you get into the pattern of the left or right spin then tug, he is anticipating the tugging so try not to get into that pattern too much, and remember to cue the bite marker. It is not a huge concern but you want to make sure that he knows when to grab the leash and when not to.– he got better and better at giving it back as you continued to play! It could be that he was figuring out the game with the leash, or it could be that he was really aroused at first. Will he eat a treat then go back to the leash? You can get the ‘out’ then give a treat reward, then back to the leash tugging. That can help improve the out in those first reps and it will help keep his arousal balanced.
BTW, the improvement of the ‘out’ is why we want to keep his arousal high and not try to calm him with just food or very calm behaviors. He does really really well when we let him go into his natural higher state of arousal for work! And this is supported by the science.
The leash tugging built into a nice stay at the end of the first session! Super!
The second session went well too – you had a ‘hand’ moment and that as good too. I think he prefers the ‘bite’ on the leash but the hand will get fun for him too! I was just about to suggest you try it in front of a jump but there it was! Great!
A detail about the release from the stay: there are several releases you can use and that will help him know what to do next. “OK” is the release into work – when he is in the stay, you would use “ok” to start the run. “Get it” is a release to get the toy (you tossed it to him at the end) so you don’t also need the OK before the get it because it confuses the moment about what to do next.
With that in mind, you can totally now start the remote reinforcement with the leash – the marker to go back to get it, or using it as an ‘anchor’ setting it behind him and sometimes turning him back to get it (you’ll see the week 4 games have that) and sometimes releasing forward into the work.
>> Is it ok to toss the leash like I did a couple of times?
Yes, 100% fine to toss the leash. You can consider two different types of tosses: tossing it back to him as the reward like you would do with a toy. Also, as you build up the stay and the remote reinforcement, you can toss the leash (or place it) off to the side or behind him like you would do at a trial. For example, at trials I either toss the leash to the side or I hand it to the leash runner if he/she is nearby (I am weird, I feel it is rude to throw it if the leash runner is there BUT this appears to NOT be legal in AKC so you will want to drop or toss the leash in AKC). So be sure he sees you remove and toss/place the leash like he would see in a trial, so he is fully prepared.
Great job here! Have a fabulous holiday season!!!
TracyGood morning!
>>Ok, to be sure I’m understanding. Do I still let her approach the bang end any way she wants, or am I trying to get her to jump up and move a little as you did with Hot Sauce? I’m assuming we’re not ready for the jump on the side and head down to the end as you did with Matrix.>>
Think of it as a 3 step progression:
First is to simply interact with the moving board by touching it, moving it, etc. When that is something she immediately offers in a couple of short sessions in a row, then you can do a bit more like that 2nd video with Hot Sauce. And ultimately, you will want her to jump on the end heading down, like Matrix. That can take a week, a month, several months… the dogs guide the speed. Doing the one hit wonders, it usually takes a couple of weeks because we don’t do it daily at this time of year and the one hit wonders stretch out the progression.>>>Just wanted to add a bit from today’s class. First, a bit of background. There are 2 doodles in Keiko’s class in the arena. They each have a handler, but sometimes only one handler brings both dogs. When that happens (and it’s been happening a lot recently) the dog not running cries and barks non-stop while the other dog is running. They do nothing to calm or quiet the dog. >>>
Not my favorite thing! Sometimes unavoidable but definitely not easy for the other humans or dogs to handle.
>>Needless to say, the barking and upset in the other dog is concerned to Keiko, and she watches them both carefully. She takes treats during this time and will use her snuffle mat, but I don’t think it’s good and have started taking her to the car when she’s not running.>>
Good choice. She doesn’t need to listen to it if she is worried by it. Does it happen while she is running? We don’t want the anxiety to bleed over to agility in general in that location.
>>Once she was running, she was great – until we headed back toward the others. More “find its” got her connected again, and we ran.
She is getting very good about clearly communicating her needs and concerns! Amazing she can do it without speaking English when so many of us can’t do it even with our English-speaking abilities LOL!!!! Was she avoiding them while running, like when the course turned back towards them? Or was she avoiding them when the course was done?
>>>After the others left, I went back in with Keiko and her frisbee, to try the bang it (board touching ground so no motion). We walked into the ring and I walked near the seesaw. Keiko saw the frisbee, trotted up to the seesaw, I didn’t even get a chance to say “bang it” – she hit it up about 6 inches in and then poised for the frisbee run. She was delighted. >>
I am glad she moved the teeter but I am THRILLED that she played with the frisbee! The teeter is secondary to getting her to play with the frisbee or balls in that environment. If you can get more frisbee or balls, the teeter will get much much easier and so will handling the barking of the other dogs.
>>I did a couple of the sets we were supposed to do in class – she was flawless and fast. >>
Good girl!
>>I’ve tried the frisbee in the indoor class without much success, but I think I’ll give it a try in the arena. Bigger space, more chance to run – and run away from the pressure. I was pleased at how well she responded to banging the seesaw. We did come home, and do one bang with motion. It was also a definite (not timid) bang and a race for the frisbee. Then on to other stuff. You’re right – it’s going to be a bit frustrating for me to only do “one and done” but this definitely looks like the way to go.>>
The one and done approach has worked over and over for the last 15 years, I have total faith in it! It builds value without giving the dogs a chance to overthink it. When we do too many reps, the dogs reach a threshold and we often don’t know when it is… but we know that is is not likely to be one rep LOL! Keep your eyes on the big prize of great teeter behavior, that will help make it easier.
And about the arena – to get her really happy in those environments, we need to control the distractions more. Is there a different class or location you can use that allows you to reduce the distractions like barking dogs for a while? Or definitely don’t bring her into the area when the other dogs are barking so she can build up her confidence there without the barking of the other dogs.
Keep me posted!
TracyGood morning!
Look at him tugging on his new leash!!!! YAY!!!
For now, only use it for tugging in places where he will tug. So if he doesn’t love it on grass yet – no problem! Keep it super fun in the other places and it will transfer to grass pretty soon.>> Since it does have a clip end (slip leads for him scare me) do you eventually uncover the end and expect the learn no bite here?
yes – the dogs get really good at knowing where to grab the leash, especially if his harness is attached to it.
>>He’s so thrilled he’s randomly tugging while walking I’ve just gone with it for now. But what’s a non offensive way to say not just now?
Yes, I am thrilled too! And just go with it for now. If you want to walk him and NOT have tugging, yo can use an old, more boring leash 🙂 I have tug leashes for agility and boring leashes for when I need to go somewhere without tugging LOL! Or, you can trade for a treat and see if that helps. But we don’t want to dampen his spirit for tugging on his new leash 🙂
I will keep you posted about upcoming classes!
Tracy
Good morning! This is a great session to have on video!! Super interesting.
>> You’ll notice she was very “polite” about touching the seesaw sometimes.
Yes – I think we have gotten to the root of her struggles with the teeter by isolating the noise/movement at the end of the board. If you look at how she does the full teeter, she is looking to minimize and control the tip by slowing a bit after getting on, going past the tip to the top of the down contact, then carrying on after it moves/bangs. And she is very happy with the home teeter, but she also doesn’t drive all the way to the end throwing caution to the wind because she knows how to control the movement and noise of this one. And on different teeters? She doesn’t know how to do that and it causes worry.
>> I could tell she was eager to get the frisbee.
Yes! Frisbees are LIFE lol
>>It was almost as if she was afraid I throw it before she touched the seesaw and then she wouldn’t be able to catch it.
I see it differently: she was afraid to touch it now that there is noise and movement, and was offering behavior to convince you to throw the frisbee. Very brilliant! And very helpful for future sessions!
>> I was thinking she was being tentative about touching it, but then she started doing something odd which you’ll see in the last 3 clips.
Yes, you are right – she was definitely tentative about touching it and she is very clever: offering the jump to see if that worked to get you to throw it (nope!) and then offering lining up a bit straighter (which works for now). Very clever way to avoid making it bang LOL!
>>She seemed to want to have motion to the seesaw, bang it, and then run for the frisbee. She has always run to the seesaw, so maybe just standing next to it seems odd to her? >>
Yes – the bang game idea is new and it totally isolates the noise and movement at the end of the board. She is offering established behavior which is clever! But it doesn’t help us solve the problem, so for now, take the jump out of the picture and keep working up to getting her to move the board by getting onto the side. That isolates what she is worried about AND helps build value for the end of the board.
Also for now – just do one rep of it, throw the frisbee, then go do something entirely unrelated like tunnels or something 🙂 Then maybe come back a few minutes later and do one more rep. By doing it one rep at a time, she will be a lot less likely to think about it. Those first, single reps are often fabulous… then the dogs get to thinking and the behavior deteriorates when we keep asking for more reps. That seems to be what happened here. I call that approach “one hit wonders” where you literally go do one rep for super high value reinforcement, and that is the entire session. I have spent many a morning in the field in my pajamas, doing one rep of the bang game and the reward is the dog’s breakfast 🙂 It is a game changer for the dogs and it makes fast positive associations without any pressure to do more.
>> Do I start running with her, or have her do a jump and run to it for the bang game?>>
Nope, just keep isolating the end with single high value reps.
>> I know we’re setting up a sort of pattern here, and want to be sure what I’m rewarding is appropriate. What do you think? >>
We are not really setting up a pattern here, it is more about pairing to get a classically conditioned response that teeters are amazing 🙂 We literally want her to drool when she touches the teeter 🙂
Let me know if that makes sense!
TracyGood morning!
>> With regard to your comment about the quiet environment, We do attend a noisier class and we have bee working our way out of the back room to the main room. We will continue to work on that.
Perfect! I think the more she can work these games and have a blast playing agility in a noisy environment, the better! Maybe you can enlist classmates to help be ring crew!
>>I have been trying to keep her from barking but I am going to ease up on that a bit. I worry she will annoy other people but she really wasn’t too bad especially compared to Buccleigh.
Well, dog sports are noisy! LOL! And if they are annoyed, that is more their issue than your issue. If their dog might struggle with the barking as you are getting ready for your turn, then you can maybe be further or outside til they are finished to help their dog be successful. And trying to keep her quiet might be stressful for her, and we don’t want to add any stress. So… let her sing 🎶 🙂
>>We also have a fun run on Jan 2 which will be a relaxed but noisy trial-like environment. I will make sure she can see and hear some of the action.
Perfect! I am excited (and jealous) about all of your run through opportunities!!!
>>Thank you for the plan for the run thrus. I can do this. I will write it out and make sure I have everything organized. I love the idea of the first run being a fiesta and I think they will like it, too.>>
Writing it out is a great idea. I also tell friends what I am going to do, to help keep me accountable so I don’t change plans in the moment. My friends are very good at reminding me to reward the dogs 🙂
>>This course has been a game changer for my attitude. I am having a lot more fun and really starting to enjoy the element of play this has added to our training.>>
Hooray! That is great!!!! All of our agility goals are attainable with play and reinforcement 🙂
Enjoy the holidays! Onwards to a great 2022!
Tracy
Good morning!
>> The place where she had a question was because I made the treat hand more visible on that rep.
Yes, that is one of the elements we are training here! “Ignore the cookies in my hand and go do the thing” LOL!!
>> Unfortunately I still don’t have a stay. My criteria for proper sit (obedience) slowed us down….but this has kicked me back to stay training!>>
You can also use a mat or something to get the stay for these as you develop the great stay for obedience too!
Have fun 🙂
TracyGood morning!
>> we worked on all 3 games from last night working up to more advanced levels from the games where he was ready.
Great! The pups in class are all doing so well that I am going to need to add some super advanced levels too!
>>This was a longer session than normal since I’m kind of trying to tire him out but only about 3 minutes per game.
I feel this LOL!!!! Did it work? I am currently trying to tire out all the younger dogs while keeping them relatively separated because 2 are in season and 2 are intact males and one is a neutered Papillon who is wanting to breed the BISs. Dear lord! Ha! So far, I have only succeeded in tiring myself out LOL!!!
The little distractions at the beginning were hilarious, like a neighborhood alert went out: COOKIES ARE AVAILABLE lol
Rotated sends looked fabulous and so did the forward sends with more distance. You can start to combine these by rotated as you send him past you, so you are indicating with a bit of a forward send as you decelerate, and rotating to the next one as he passes you (so the final picture before he arrives at the barrel looks like a rotated send. You were starting this when you moved to the rotated sends leaving sooner and the sideways sending with more motion – especially at 1:53. So you can build on that by adding more distance between the barrels so you have to run forward more then decelerate then rotate. This might be skipping you ahead in terms of upcoming games a bit, but that is fine and we can add more when he needs it 🙂2 other little details with the rocking horses:
Since we will be moving fast and having rewards in hand, you can use your cookie-in-hand marker for when you are decelerating to reward. We want him to know when the cookie is available on the decels, or when he should continue to ignore it, so the marker will help. You were saying yes and good boy, but we can get more precise by using markers since you have them in place already 🙂And you can also use a toy for these now! I like to start with cookies to establish the mechanics and precision of the behavior… then with toy driven dogs, I add the toy in pretty quickly because it is very valuable to the dogs, and also because it stimulates more arousal. And that allows us to help him understand the commitment even as you rotate away, in that higher level of arousal. He is totally ready for that! And, as with the cookies, use your toy-in-hand marker when you want to reward so he learns about when to look at the toy and when to ignore it. Fingers crossed for good weather ahead so you can take this outside 🙂
The “out” is going really well! It has turned out to be the #1 most useful cue at trials for 2021 (even in Novice!) so I am glad everyone is jumping into the training.
As you cue the out, keep moving (try not to stop parallel to the target) because you will be running on course. And, you don’t need to mark it with a good, yo can mark it with a get it and toss the reward. That will keep him looking forward and not at you, because there will eventually be another obstacle out ahead on his line.Because he is so brilliant, add in the balance reps more regularly. He is anticipating the out and not looking at your line of motion before you cue it, like at 2:49 when the prop was behind the wall
You got some really good balance reps later in the session like at 3:35.
We want him to be looking in your direction until cued, then he turns away just like he did at 3:51. You can mix in the balance reps after every 1 or 2 outs at this stage, to help him avoid anticipating the out.Serps looked great! Good boy ignoring the pet tutor it is SO HARD . That PT is in the same place a judge would put an off course tunnel nowadays, so it is a great distraction to introduce at this point. After his question on the first rep, he was pretty perfect after that, from positions 1, 2 and 3. You can work this from a stay, and yo can also add in tugging before the stay (or cookie toss) to add in a little more arousal. The PT can be in the same place, but the toy will add more stimulation to challenge him to still find the serp and not go directly to the PT
Watching this session, you can actually use the PT position to loop back into the serp from an even more challenging position 3: after he gets the treat from the PT, you can strike your serp pose and see if he can find it from that extreme angle!
Using the PT, you can start to add some motion, walking through serp position now. The lower body moves slowly to the PT and the upper body holds the serp pose til he arrives at the reward. He is not likely to hit the hand target now and that is fine – time to fade it while we keep the in and out behavior.
And, of course… you can add in a toy for this too. The toy can replace the PT and you can work the progression with the toy on the ground.
Great job here!!!! Let me know if he ended up being at least a little tired out LOL
Tracy
Good morning! I am glad you could come to the live class – it is a great group of puppies and people, and it is fun to have so many of the other folks join us too 🙂
Great job with these games, I love how Kiwi the Papillon os supervising at the beginning 🙂
Strike a pose:
Both the Mike reps and Karena reps looked really strong! Yes, he did skip the target a bit on that 2nd rep but we are going to fade the target soon – so you can start rewarding that now. As long as we get the same behavior of ‘in-then-out’, you can reward. And as you present the toy, try to keep your upper body as stationary as possible so that the target hand shoulder doesn’t move forward – the goal is that the center of your chest faces the bar the whole time, even as he is bending to get the toy. It is easier when the toy is on the ground, so you can start moving to a toy on the ground. If you think that might be really difficult, you can start with something much more boring like an empty food bowl then work up to the toy on the ground.We are going to be adding more about markers for the toy next week, but since this game is going so well – you can replace the ‘yes’ with your ‘get the toy in my hand’ marker if you have one. If not, we will create one! I use “bite” which means the toy in hand is now available for grabbing. That has allowed me to have the toy dangling and visible while the dog ignores it in favor of doing the behavior. And when the toy is on the ground, you can use a get it cue for that.
Rocking horses:
Mike reps: excellent job focusing on the mechanics to get this started! It is a slow game at first because we need to get all the human and canine mechanics in place. Then we add some serious speed to it 🙂 You were almost perfect with the mechanics – one little detail to look at:
At :44 as he is exiting the basket, you have your right hand down near your knee and you are looking a tiny bit ahead of him. I am sure you could see him but he couldn’t see the connection. Note his response: It looks like he stuck his head into the planter which is both hilarious and a strikingly honest indication of where your shoulders were pointing. He will eventually not need you to be perfect but for now, keep your dog side arm further back, pointing to his nose as he exits the wrap and make a more direct eye contact before you bowl forward into the send.Karena reps: also great job focusing on the mechanics here! We had a really good camera angle at 1:03 of the connection: he is finishing his wrap of the planter and your right arm is back, your shoulder is open, and he could see your face. You did the same thing on the basket at 1:05 – very nice! It is harder when you add speed of course, so one little detail is to leave the toy in whatever hand you will want it to end up in, so you don’t switch it from hand to hand. The speed reps with the turn and burn looked great (I think he really liked those) but the good news is that he is already too fast for you to have time to switch the toy back and forth (it might be subconscious :)) So, leave it in the hand it ends up in and it is ok if he has to pass it on a cue to wrap the wing (great little self-control element!) For example, at 1:20, you exited the turn and burn with the toy in your left hand, so you can start the entire sequence with it in your left hand (it looks like it started in your right and you switched to the left after the first send).
Now that you’ve added the speed and his commitment looks great, you can totally add your wrap verbals to this game too!
Get out: I am glad you jumped right into this – it is turning out to be one of the most commonly used semi-fancy cues on course! And BCs really think it is weird at first because lead changing away is just not how they like to do things LOL You can see it in his expression on the first rep – so funny! Great job rewarding it, Mike, even though he was very judgmental 🙂 And that first reward set the tone for the rest of the session – he got faster and more confident on each rep.
Karena, as you practice it, try to turn your shoulders a little less so your hips and feet don’t turn too – bearing in mind that you will be doing this at a run, the arm/connection/verbal will do the trick so your lower body can just run straight. You can play with a comfortable arm position too – your arm was really high here and that might be harder to do as you get moving, so it might be more comfy if it is at shoulder level (I am planning ahead to keep in mind how fast you will need to be running with him: all signs currently indicate that you will need to be running very fast 🏃♀️
Great job adding the movement at the end! You can be further from the prop (it looks like you drew a line in the sand, so you can now put the prop 7 or 8 feet from it). And be sure to d some balance reps of NOT going to the out, so he understands it is an ‘on cue only’ behavior.Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
She was a good girl going to her prop! I couldn’t see it but I could hear her hit it LOL! Definitely let her finish chewing before you send – chewing and sending is hard multi-tasking especially on your left. Or use soft treats that require no chewing.
I am glad you moved her closer to it, that was completely the correct choice. Interestingly, she turned left when you cued with your left hand at :55 (she should turn right). I am not sure if she is a lefty or if something caught her eye, we will watch for it in case she has a strong side preference.
On your next session, you can start pretty close and with her on your left side, then get further and put her on your right side. I think she is also ready for you to move to the other prop games, like parallel path or the sideways sends (or both :))Her barrel sending looks good too – and let her finish chewing here as well. You will get crisper, faster behavior if she is also not chewing (dogs are bad at chewing and running LOL!)
She definitely seems to check your left hand more for treats on the sends here too – possibly because there is more value for getting treats from that hand from other sports or training? If that is a possibility, then do lots of balance on the left side of sending her away from the hand so she doesn’t want to stick too close to it. She did seem much happier to send away from it on your left than when you were trying for the prop – my guess is the barrel is so much bigger and that makes the sends easier.
And I am glad to hear she likes the turn and burn game, it is super fun! It Doris require more space though – so you have a carpeted hallway? If not, outdoors or any training location you go to will work (my laundry baskets lived in my car for about 6 months 😂)
Have you started thinking about which verbals you want to use for her wraps? I think we are getting close to adding them!
And also – this is a great setup for adding the toy in: everything is the same except she gets a toy reward using your strike marker. The eliminates the chewing LOL and also helps teach her to work in higher arousal, using a behavior she already understands nicely.Backing up looks good on the first couple of reps! Then she started offering sideways. You handled it well: reward, reset. Her best reps after that were when you managed to get her to take 1 back foot off and then put it back on. That was precisely what we wanted and she often followed that with a good 2 foot rep.
So if you are able to precisely get her to take one foot off then put it back on: perfect!! It is not that easy to isolate it down to one foot but it will be VERY useful for body awareness, conditioning, etc. And when she is very precise with that you can add more distance away from the platform too.
The other options include making it easer to be successful to start this: a wider platform to step backwards to will help (although she might just go sideways around it more haha!). So other options include putting the platform she is stepping back up on into a location where it is very easy to go straight and very hard to go sideways: between a couch and a wall if there is room, for example. Or between 2 crates or x-pens. Anything that narrows the sideways area and isolates the go straight area will help you get her to go straight backwards.Great job on these! Fingers crossed for good weather so you can get outside for the games with more running. 🙂 The running will keep you warm 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
>> I have a friend that cues a rear with “switch.” Thoughts?
It depends on how you structure your verbals for him. You can use a cue to turn towards you and ‘switch’ to mean turn away for a rear cross. Or you can use directionals like left or right, so he can turn to his left or to his right, and those can be used for rear crosses as well. Either way is great!
He is so cute in his little coat! He is doing well with the rocking horses. Really nice commitment! Your connection is looking good and that is the most important part! So we can build up other elements of it since the important pieces are in place:
One of the goals of the rocking horses is that you do not run to the barrel, you basically stand in the middle and send him with one step like we did on the single barrel. So, you can fade out your running and do more sending. By the end of the video, you were sending more and that is what we want.
Also, you are doing too many wraps in a row. On the 2nd rep, you did 6 in a row, and that gets boring for the dogs – too repetitive. After that you did a couple of shorter reps where he had 2 or 3 wraps before a turn and burn – that is much more exciting for him, so keep the reps short and sweet like that. You did 5 on the last rep and he was slowing down, anticipating the repetition. By doing 2 wraps then a turn and burn, things stay pretty exciting because the chase element is activated pretty quickly.
Since you are using a lotus ball, try a variation in how you deliver it: when you do the turn and burn and reward, don’t drop it. Instead, throw it past you as you run because that will keep him running too! he was slowing down as you ran, anticipating that he would need to stop for the lotus ball. We want him to accelerate, anticipating the thrown reward.
Nice work here!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! That is a really nice barn, I am jealous LOL!
He was a superstar here – you had a nice loop going from you to the tunnel to the MM back to you to the tunnel and so on. YAY!! If I was being nit picky, I would suggest changing hands when you switched to the other side, so that you call him back to the outside hand to set up the tunnel send (the MM remote was in that hand). My guess is that your hands were cold so it was easier to keep things where they were LOL!
At the very end you did a threadle-side send, he was great there too. So since he was perfect on that, two things to consider now:
– you can line him up and cue it without arm or foot movement, just letting him find it on his own. That will set him up for your future tunnel threadles where you are going to want to use the verbal and maybe an arm cue, and he goes and does it without any other handling moves 🙂
– speaking of the verbal… have you decided on a tunnel threadle verbal? I think he is ready to start hearing it when he is on the inside between you and the tunnel. What verbal do you use with the other dogs?The other thing that is worth mentioning is his focus: what a good boy to be in a big barn and be completely focused on the task: not checking out the barn, not taking off to look at the MM. Good boy!!!!!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHello and welcome! She is so cute! The tech stuff is perfect 🙂
Prop game – good session here! She is so fun with her little toy and is doing really well going back and forth from the toy to the cookies to the toy.
When working the tugging, have your prop tucked away somewhere (armpits are useful) so that she is not confused as to what you are working on. If both the toy and the prop are immediately visible, it is less clear about what to offer as you saw when she went to it. When you went to the 2nd tug break and lifted the prop, that was a cleaner moment.
One thing you can start developing is a marker that says both “that was correct” and where the reward is placed. So, rather than “yes” which just means “that was correct”, you can replace the yes with a “get it” which means “that was correct and the reward is being tossed”. More on those markers coming soon, but in a nutshell: they help develop behavior faster because they indicate correct behavior AND placement 🙂Pre-Game 2: she is hitting the target nicely here! She does have her feet involved a little but that will go away really quickly in the next couple of steps. You can reward that – she was hitting nose-then-foot so you can reward sooner for now: as soon as the nose is *almost* at the target (and before the foot comes up) you can reward. And if you are late… reward anyway because otherwise her rate of success is too low and she will get frustrated. I am not worried if the foot is involved, so try to be quick and get the nose but no worries if we also get a foot. You can start getting more off the ground by doing this with you sitting on a couch or chair, so you are halfway to standing but you are not hurting your back by bending over 🙂
Great job on these! I am looking forward to seeing more!
Tracy
