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OMg he is growing so much! This is looking really good! On the first session here, I think he lost his chain of thought for a moment when the cone got further away LOL Great job moving it back in and then keeping it close the next day, for 100% success. NICE!!! He is doing so well! Yes, keep inching that cone out, bit by bit. But also, you can change the picture a little bit sitting on the couch instead of on the floor. That will get us moving towards having you be able to stand up š
The other thing you can do is change the object from a cone to a laundry basket to a…. whatever you can think of š that will help generalize the behavior really nicely too.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
It was hilarious when the person in the chair handed you the clicker without taking his eyes off the TV. Ah, what the other people in our lives do for us when we are training puppies HAHAHAHA! Love it š
He did well here with his front feet but I think he was telling you that he is not comfy with his back feet on this yet – he was doing a whole lot of things NEAR the board but not ON the board, after the first hit of the back feet. It is possible that he does not love the movement at the moment. So in case that is what he is thinking, you can break it down to build up the back-feet-love by putting it on something really big that makes it barely move but easy to get his back feet onto. You have those big lovely dog beds right there, maybe plop it right into the middle and see how he does with getting all feet on the wobbler without it moving as much? When he is very happy to get all feet on, we can fade the dog bed support and just put some towels under it so the tip is there but minimal. Youāll know how he feels about it based on how much behavior he offers on the board, versus near the board.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! I mentioned stuff about planks above, I am excited to see her do so well here! I really love her confidence!
The plank on the ground was easy for her, so she wants to go fast when you elevated it. For now, with the elevated plank, stick close to it so she doesnāt try to go fast. You can even straddle it or step over it, so she turns slowly – we need her to slow down for now so she can keep all of her feet on it, then you can click for her keeping back feet on when she turns. You can even have her do a full 360 degree turn, a complete circle – you can step over the board to help her do it.
Because she likes to do everything fast, she was happy to drop a back foot off here and there. So by saying āPearl, slow down for a minute and follow the cookie and think about your feetā she will learn to keep her feet on and then she can go fast again š And hopping off the middle as it gets higher will help her learn how to be safe on the big tall DW.And if you do have a 2nd plank, working with 2 planks side-by-side can allow you to add speed AND click for her back feet staying on as she does a circle.
Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
TracyPerfect about the fit paws and wobble board stuff – keep revisiting it as she grows, so she is always being reminded of where her feet are and how to balance. The more you can show her, the better – you can set aside a once-a-week session for āwhere are Pearlās feetā on all of the āstuffā š
T
She totally has no fear! I love it! She is still sorting out how to get her hind end involved but she did a great job hopping up on the thing, even when it was a little unstable under her. YAY! When she is on it and balanced, you can lure her around in a circle so she gets used to moving and balancing.
Because she is a larger breed, her āchassisā might end up to be as wide or wider than the dog walk plank – so in the beginning stages, have 2 planks side by side so she learns to place her feet on the wood, turn around, jump off. Then we will get her on a normal width plank, teaching where to put all of her feet and how to dismount safely (just in case she loses her balance), then we add speed. She will be amazing!
Great job here!
TracyI am glad she likes to tug but OUCH for your hands! You can take the longer toy and have a big, obvious thing on the end – like a big ball or hollee roller or something, to draw her focus to it and away from your flesh. Then use the toy for the very beginning stages of the driving ahead game, where you just drop it (no running, just dropping). When she gets the big end and not anything near your hands – BIG tug party! And we then work than concept up to you being able to hold it and she doesnāt touch your flesh. When the dog bites me by accident, I just stop the game for a moment (no verbals or anything, just stop tugging) as a response to irresponsible teeth use LOL! They learn pretty quickly not to bite us š
TI agree – bigger cone will help. Plus, she is only 6 months, so she will get more coordinated with wrapping stuff as she matures š
Good morning!
Work gets in the way of the fun LOL!>>Will it be OK to still submit stuff for week one?
Yes, you can submit in any order.
>>With the wrapping game if I was to use food can I use something other than a bowl since in one class we are learning how to work without driving to the bowl that holds the cookies.>
Question: does the bowl with cookies have a marker cue, like āget itā or something? If it does, you can use it here – say āget itā then drop into the bowl.
If not – you can totally replace the bowl with anything that helps the pup see the treats: plastic lid targets, 2 pieces of paper towel, little plates, lotus balls, 2 manners minders LOL – anything at all. Or even just on the floor, as long as the pup can find them easily. We donāt stay with the bowls for very long, so anything you can think of will do.
Have fun!
TracyGood morning! I hope you are feeling better, that ER trip must have been scary!!!
>> So, lately, Iāve been working on getting distance a gamble foundations. Iāve been working on getting him to turn away from me (Switch) and go over an obstacle. I toss the reward to him and say ācatchā. This would be correct? I have him running to a target where he stays to receive the reward. Now, if he were continuing to run and I threw the toy that would be āget itā, correct?>>
This helps us really define your markers. So on your switch, he turns away and runs to the target and waits there for the reward? Then yes, I think ācatchā works nicely for that! If you wanted him to continue forward to a thrown reward – I agree, it would be a get it.
>>I really want Skye to get his reinforcement and connect with me instead of eat something. I think getting this into a loop will work. We do lots of loops, typically, itās a CU pattern game where his connection/eye contact causes me to deliver his reinforcement somewhere. So, what do you think of do an obstacle, I toss his ball, he gets it, then connects with me, which causes me to ? Iām not sureā¦. What the rest of the loop would be.>>
Loops are always good and for some dogs, they are critical! What if he went to his target then the immediate reinforcement was back at you (my shhhhhh cue to chase the reward in my hand) which both reconnects him to you AND sets him up to face the A (antecedent) of the ABC loop? I have videos coming with more info on that tomorrow – and to loop a catch or get it, you will want to follow it with a reset marker:
Switch cue – correct behavior which includes target – catch – reset cue. Eye contact is not necessarily part of the criteria, but you will get it naturally. The reset cue reinforces the choice to get the cookie at the target (an easy choice, but still a good choice LOL!) and it also loops in a reflexive reconnection back to you.>With Flurry, Iām using catch for contact behavior.>
Yay! Perfect.
>>>I think with Flurry taking a jump when Iām standing next to it, maybe wrapping, will be good. She still has the issue of when we get to a jump at the same time, she refuses to take it. Itās better, but it still pops up. So the toy placement one I think would be good for her. She would have to ignore the lotus ball and go around the wing. Iāll get video tomorrow.>>
I agree, this will ask her to ignore the distraction of the reinforcement by doing the jump, then get the reinforcement š And we can get your hands moving too as distractions later on down the road.
Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>> Get itā to the Manners Minderā¦.. He likes the MM but doesnāt LOVE itā¦.dispenses the rewards too slowly for his liking so I āpreplacedā some kibble so some was there when he arrived
Patience is a virtue haha hahahaha the pre-placed treats are fine as long as he doesnāt grab them without permission š
In this video he seemed to like the MM well enough. You can make it more desirable as a reinforcement in 2 ways:
– mix in stinkier grosser treats š I mixed in freeze dried tripe for a while LOL!
– after he eats the MM treat, give him something he likes better. My Contraband is underwhelmed by the MM, so for a bit the loop was behavior – eat from the MM – frisbee. I also place a frisbee on top of the MM so he grabs the frisbee rather than eats the treats. The MM is a great big obvious object but we donāt have to use it for only boring-ish treats š>>Would it make sense to do a few reps like this to start each DW session?
You could, he wonāt be sad, and it warms up the value.
>> Also realized that I need to pay better attention to the order of the way things happen ā cue Get It and then āclickā the MM.>>
Yes – the order is important so we keep the value of the get it marker.
>> Iām using Katarinaās mat method and Iāve put my mat on top of a Hit It board. I finally decided that I was driving both he and I crazy with trying to see and reward good split rear foot hits, couldnāt consistently see them in time to reward well. So I put the mat on the Hit It Board and decided that if I heard the board to reward. Itās helped a lot!!!>>
Smart!!!!! It is indeed hard to see those fast feet!!! Just be careful that the vibration of the DW is not triggering the Hit It board beep, as it does with Hot Sauce LOL!!! I like being able to hear the beep as a secondary affirmation that he did, indeed, hit the yellow š And it hopes raise the success rate!
Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>> Iām guessing on the shaping exercise around the wing that I should stay in the same place and let Reilly figure that out. Is that right? >>
Yes – it is shaping, so he gets to offer behavior while you stand there and give feedback with reinforcement. Otherwise you end up cuing behavior which makes him more reliant on your than you will want.
>>Also, in that exercise could I use āsnacksā for the marker word or should it be a word other than āsnacksā Iām confused about that.>>
It depends on how you want to deliver the reinforcement. If you want to deliver the reinforcement from your stationary hand then yes – snacks. It both marks the correct behavior and tells him where to look for the reward. You wonāt need a yes word, just the snacks word š
>>>Today I took Reilly into the agility area twice and did the catch game with him and he would happily sit when cookies were being thrown back at him. I could move to either side of the jump and he would keep his stay. When I was on the opposite of the jump I could throw a treat, say catch and then ask him to sit and he sat down perfectly.>>
Wait, so he was sitting after the thrown cookie? I am confused LOL! Bear in mind that the catch cookie is also a release, so while he might choose to offer a sit in that situation, he doesnāt have to and it is not part of the criteria. It is just a lovely by-product. If you are getting a stay in any position and then reward with catch and he is then offering up a sit? Cool!
>>Is there a good way to use this game to help with his start line?
Yes – if he is happy and relaxed, then we are definitely on the right path! If he is offering a sit then cool, but we will take a stay in any position.
Great job here!!
TracyGood morning!
The sofa as home base is so funny! She remembers her early training LOL!
She did really well here. And I agree, she is a tugger!
The various markers are all looking good – one general thing is to try to say the marker with your hands & toy completely still… then move the toy. Easier said than done! When youāre running courses, your hands will be in motion the whole time but for now, you will want to try to be as clean as possible so the marker can predict the placement. It was hard to see your hands on all of this, but it looks like the word and hand movement might have been happening together rather than word-then-hand.
Her bring on the disc is looking really good indoors! You can tug with her when she brings it to you, so bringing it gets instantly reinforced (and you can let her win it, you donāt need to ask for the out on each rep). And her outs are also looking strong, so feel free to reward those instantly with the toy cue again or by whipping out a different toy or a cookie.Great job here!
TracyHi!
Considering this is a new concept for him, he was GREAT here! Ignoring the ball on the exit side of the wing was easy for him, well done. He was successful even when you tossed it there and that was harder for sure! Just be careful that your left hand doesnāt hang out in the cookie pocket – that tips him off to the process in a way that we cannot do in the trial ring, so you can have the left hand not doing any cookies movement til you are ready to actually deliver it.>> Sending him past the ball to wrap the wing proved to be too much to soon, so we will keep working on it.
Yes, he will get it – just gradually inch the ball over to the other side of the wing in small increments.
>>Iām also switching back and forth between food and the ball here, never a problem for him. What can be problematic is getting him to tug if he knows a ball is in play ā something else to work on>>
You can isolate that skill by having the ball present, in the room, on a chair or table… and playing tug. Then pick up the ball, show him, put it back down, back to tug. And when he interacts with the tug: he can chase the ball, end of session (at the beginning stages :))
Then you can gradually extend your sessions to get more tugging in between the ball play. Ball play is high most favorite so we can reinforce more tugging with the ball play.
Nice work here!
TracyHi!
I think there were A LOT of great moments here and the little oopsies are ones that are particularly frustrating for you, and worth addressing for sure.
The remote reinforcement generally went well.>>When rewarding focus for moving away from toy, Iām guessing I shouldnāt get too far away?>>
I agree! The best moments were the short blasts, just one or two steps away. Those were great. When you got too far away, neither of you knew what to do š so for now stay close. And as you add distance (which also adds duration), you can add in interaction: talk to him and cue a trick, then mark and run back. Then 2 tricks… and so on š that will help it build.
>>He runs off with the toy and is trying to kill it.
He definitely ubers when things are unclear, so two ideas for you:
Plan each rep! And set a timer for the session to 90 seconds (don’t work 2 skills in one sessipn). You can even explain the next rep to him so he hears the planning lol! I don’t know if it will help him but it will for sure help you!And if he ubers… no worries, just call him back for a treat or another toy, and plan the next rep. It will keep success rate high so you can have a better overall session.
>>Thereās also a moment where he runs off, I call him back. This happens often in training and it really really drives me insane.
That’s why I suggest planning short sessions – it happens when things are later in the session and/or not fully planned.
When you went right from remote reinforcement to the wing wraps, it was just not enough time to mentally reset and plan for both of you, so they should be distinct, highly planned sessions. He did well, but the little errors that drive you crazy are mainly planning errors and length of session errors.
>> My assumption is that he feels like my movement is towards the back door and he will either have to go inside or his sister will come out but I could be reading it incorrectly. This doesnāt happen in other locations-which reinforces my suspicion.>>
Maybe! But you can continue the game indoors. It doesn’t have to be the end š and when you are done, don’t just leave him because he rehearses that running off when that happens (like t the very end of the video).
>>I am trying to figure out a better way to end the session. I tried to throw the frisbee but because I had been previously using food and a tug, he didnāt want to switch.>>
Cookies, toys, on leash, go for a walk and sniff, then hang out in the house – all things that can help him want to come back and interact at the end and will also bubble over into trials nicely too!
>>Thereās just so many pieces to this puzzle with him
I agree, reinforcement is a BIG puzzle!! I think they key for you is planning each and every rep, not freeforming any of it. The free form is where things go wrong! If he has a mat or station behavior, ask for it and reward it between each rep to plan and then loop him back in.
Let me know what you think!! Concentrate on all that went well and that is what we will build on š
Tracy
