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Good morning! This went great!
It was hard to see your face so we will assume you were looking at him 🙂 He was definitely looking at the line around the cone – small head movements to turn his head and the camera angle showed his eyes looking at it.
You can add a cookie line up at your side so you don’t need to move him into position. And be sure to work the other side in the next session too.
The first several reps were really easy for him, he was focusing forward really well.
Great job moving the bowl around the cone pretty quickly – it kept the game from getting too repetitive and introduced good challenges quickly. The bowl got most of the way around the cone, so the next session can have the bowl starting where you left off, then keep moving it around so basically he has to look past and move past a cookie in a bowl that is right next to him 🙂
And you can swap out the bowl for the toy, so he has to eventually look past/move past the toy on the ground next to him.
Nice work!
TracyGood morning!
He did really well with you standing and with a little distance between you and the barrel. That takes us perfectly into tonight’s new game 🙂>. Reviewing it now, when he’s looking to me for information – it seems reasonable to cue him to wrap the barrel. He transitions from auto-wrap to checking in for information – first at 27 seconds, then again at 46 seconds. Probably similar to my previous comment – could use words or signals to help him out.>
For this game – I think the hold up was that he was chewing the treats, and lost his train of thought for a moment. I can relate to the ‘wait, what was I doing?’ feeling 😂
And since this game is an offering game and he is 13 months old with a strong learning history, it is perfectly fine at this stage to *not* help and let him think through the puzzle. Just wait and see what he does. He might get it right and get a big party… or get it wrong and get no party (no reaction other than no cookie). That can actually be the most informative and motivating rep of the session – the one where he offers a behavior and does NOT get a reward 🙂 Of course, too much failure means we need to help him… but one or two errors is perfectly fine to help him learn very specifically what gets the reward. And letting him offer rather than helping really builds up confidence and independence.
If he was 13 weeks old, I would probably suggest breaking it down more so it is easy to solve the puzzle. But he is old enough and super smart, so I bet solving puzzles is super fun for him 🙂
My only suggestion is that you use treats that are less chew-able and more slurp-able, so he doesn’t have to chew them as much. Little bits of cheese are usually perfect for that.
Of course we will be adding cues to the wing wraps, but the offering games are where he can solve the puzzle without waiting for our help 🙂 Sometimes in agility, we are too busy running the course to help with everything, to empowering the pups to solve the puzzle on their own really helps.
And the one cheating moment (he went between you and the barrel) was when he saw you put the treat in the bowl, so he was just following the cookie. You delayed the treats until after he made the wrap decision on the other reps, and that was perfect!
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
Great question and I share your goal of wanting her to work for treats AND toys.>However, when I use a toy to reward the recall, she runs around….essentially “taking a victory lap” before engaging with the toy.>
To be sure I understand correctly: after grabbing the treat, she is not coming directly to you but instead running around a bit, as you do the recall?
If that is correct: try a flyball-style recall to begin with. Have a huge, long, fluffy, furry toy 🙂 and as you call her and run away, let her see you drop one of the toy and drag it as you run, bouncing it around. That can help direct her excitement to the toy and not just to running.
It would look like this:
Cookie recall to long toy (you can make. the toy more exciting and visible sooner): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hmgT7OKs8Y
I can’t find video of me dragging a toy after a cookie recall, but here are some visuals of the big visible toy after a restrained recall (the dogs had just eaten a treat for lining up for the person).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-5Ge3pTS8I (this toy can be longer so it reaches the ground for a smaller puppy)
https://youtu.be/iIIbLmjmNIQ?si=efmHVXx-HHiFdEZo&t=16 (this one has a longer dragging toy – apologies for someone’s dog screeching in the background LOL!)
Let me know how this goes! And if it is *not* what you meant, let me know and I will send more ideas 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
She did really well driving to you – her engagement in the great outdoors is really lovely!
>And, my arm is still too far away! >.
I felt it was only far away on the 2nd rep of the decel without the pivot – you were reaching it out to her there, probably because you had to lean over to get the hand low enough. But on the first straight line rep and all of the pivot reps, your hand was close to your leg.
The pivots really helped her come in tight to your leg without swinging her butt out. Plus your cookie hand was right next to your leg on those, which really helped!
And a strong transition back to tugging worked great: high energy run to get the toy and then swinging it around got her engaged with it immediately.
>The last two reps had no food in the turning hand.>
Super! We build on this tonight in the live class!
>She’s still having some trouble finding treats.>
She was poking around the grass but did immediately come when you called her name. So when she can track the cookie, she might be eating it immediately but then sniffing a bit because it probably does smell interesting! And, she is still inexperienced enough to not realize that the cookie toss is actually a context cue to eat it then engage 🙂 No worries 🙂 You can use a towel or mat outside to toss the cookie onto, making it more visible and less interesting to sniff. And, we build on the eat-the-treat-and-engage-again tonight as well.
Great job here!
TracyHi!
He did a lovely job wrapping the flower pot and the primo pad! And it looks like the bowls are faded out. Fabulous!
There are 2 next steps that will lead you nicely into the new game coming tomorrow:
– get this wrapping behavior onto something taller that is free-standing, like a giant cone or laundry basket. Anything that is taller than him 🙂
– getting him wrapping the taller thing with you standing upBased on what he did here, I am confident this will take only a few reps in your next session. You can begin by sitting like you were in this video, and with the taller object. Then when he is in wrap mode after a couple of treats, you can stand up and continue the game. We can also add a little more distance between you and the object, but that is less important than getting the taller object in and you standing.
> but if I run here he kind of jogs with me.>
I totally see what you mean about how he He is a polite little guy! He drives really well when you send him ahead and don’t move until he has the toy. So we can take his strength (sending to it) and slowly add your motion:
– get him wild for the toy, hold his collar, throw the toy like you did here on that first rep. Then as you release him and he starts to move, you can start to walk forward slowly until he gets to the toy (then party with him like you did here :)) As he gets more comfy with you walking slowly, we can add more and more speed.Also, does he like balls or frisbees or things that roll? If the toy is still in motion, he will probably drive really hard to it even when you move. So you can use something like a tennis ball stuffed into a hollee roller, or a frisbee rolled on its side. If he doesn’t like balls or frizzers, ignore this advice 🤣😂
Nice work here! Let me know how he does with you moving very slowly on the toy races!
Tracy
Hi!
>I do have taller barrels! A narrower hamper and a larger leaf! I’ll have them on standby for tomorrow!>
Perfect!!!
>The wobble board got harder as he got older as it has lots of movement now that he’s much bigger! It makes a loud noise on the carpet because it’s tile underneath!>
Yes – part of it is that he is bigger so he has to scrunch himself up more to fit on it, and that probably feels weird. Plus, he is entering the development phase where is might get more sensitive to noise and movement for a short time, so keeping it fun and easy is key.
> Since he was showing some hesitancy I put it on his old donut bed!>
Perfect! And if you have a couple of other things you can put around it, you can expand the playing field so he doesn’t have to scrunch up as much.
On the video:
Wow, it is not often that I see a Golden clacking like he did at the beginning of the video! Ha! My whppets and whippet mixes clack like that, BCs sometimes clack. So I guess Quill is blazing a new trail in Golden clackers LOL!!
He was offering a lot of good behavior here even on the smaller wobble board. Because it was small, and because he was looking at your hands a lot – toss the treats back and forth so he can chase a treat and come running back to get on the wobble board again.
Plus that will get him offering even more feet on the wobble board: he was a bit glued to watching your hands and when your hands didn’t move, he was having a big mad LOL! But if he is moving to get the treats, he won’t be watching your hands as much. Plus, getting him moving a lot will add more stimulation… which usually helps the dogs not be as concerned about noise or movement.
> I introduce the Sheltie sized fit paw which he had never seen! He did great!>
The fitbones are fun! Because it was small, he definnitely had to scrunch up, making getting on the fitbone was hard with all 4 feet. You can help him by deflating it a bit for now so it is easier to get on. And you can toss the treat here too – he was following the cookie hand but running back and forth will get him to offer more feet on the bone.
Plankrobatics are going well! He had an easy time moving back and forth, and getting on and off. Super! He was not hesitating to turn around, but he was a little off balance. So when cueing him to turn around, keep your cookie hand lower: we want his chin no higher than parallel to the ground. Lifting his head up to reach a taller cookie will throw off his balance, which makes it harder to turn around without losing his footing.
>Jessica did a fantastic job with these puppies!>
She sure did!! They are all brilliant and so much fun!
Great job!
TracyHi!
> I don’t remember how I taught Sprite to bite the toy in my hand. I’m not sure Dot is there yet.>
You probably added it in situations where you were confident she would take the toy: right before presenting the toy, you might have said the marker then presented the toy from you hand.
She was absolutely brilliant about leaving you in the dust! However… I think she was heading to the giant ball on the reps coming towards the camera! LOL! She was locked onto the toy on the rep at the end going towards the tree- you can remove the other toys from the playing area, or throw the toy the opposite direction from the ball.
For this game, you can use a bigger toy so she can scoop it up more easily. It can be a big hollee roller or anything that sits high enough off the ground. That way she doesn’t need as much coordination to run to it and grab it 🙂 She might tug on the other end of the toy because it is flatter, but something larger will be a good focal point and easier for her to decelerate into 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi!
Finding the prop in the new environment was a challenge at first! You helped by getting closer to it and adding even more tugging – proximity plus increased arousal can help with environmental distraction.
He was being very thoughtful about this behavior – probably because there was SO MUCH stuff to ignore in the environment and because of the toy in your hand that he had to pass. But he was able to do it, which is great!! Super! You will see his speed increase when there are fewer distractions in the environment.
Have fun on the ferry! And since he had a big weekend (travel, trial, new places to stay, travel home) – he will need a few days to rest and reset his nervous system. It can be a minimum of 72 hours for pups to bounce back to baseline (HPA axis and all that good nerdy stuff) so I would give him a solid day to sleep and do nothing structured – running in the yard, play, chew bones, etc. Then as he rests, you can add in simple training and then in a few days – new stuff to train.
He might not *appear* tired 🙂 in fact he might appear over-active! But the weekend adventures definitely activate the stress response in the HPA axis, which will take a few days to come back to baseline/normal. Now, stress is not a bad thing – it is just a physiological activation. Fun things activate it too! I am sure you had a great time this weekend but your HPA axis was activated too and you might be tired today 🙂 So letting everyone rest and recover will help him learn all the new stuff coming later this week.
Great job!
TracyHi!
He did well here too! New environment, the rest of the family on the other side of the door, etc – this is all a high level challenge for a pup! Plus add in the challenge of travel which is stressful on their bodies – he indeed coped with a lot.
And he did great! He recognized the setup as “please offer behavior on this red bag” and he was super! Then he tugged with his toy even with the little bucket of treats basically at eye-level (and nose-level :)) Then right back into the shaping.
>If there’s a better angle, let me know!!!>
The angle was good! You can also add in shaping games like this but with you standing up and see how he does.
This all is really great experience and exposure for him. Yay!!! Well done!
Tracy
Hi!
Look at this baby dog being brilliant in a new, giant, outdoor place! I am so proud of him!! And you were a perfect momma: clear cues, super connected, and great rewards. You showed him just enough decel that he could turn with you, but there was a lot of running so he was able to open up and fly 🙂
It seemed like he was having a grand time and tuning out all of the distractions in the environment: people talking, I think I heard a teeter slam or something similar, and some dogs barking nearby.
Finding the treat in the grass while the other dogs were barking seemed to take the longest amount of time. Perhaps his brain was processing the distraction of the dog barking? But he drove to you 100% of the time when you called him, so it is a big win in terms of him learning to stay engaged with that distraction.
You had a leash dragging as a bit of a safety net, but he was basically off leash and choosing to engage with you. I love it! Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
>No video on toy races as I had the camera set up at the wrong angle… she smoked me – not sure if I’ll ever beat her to the toy.>
Excellent! We can always set up ways you can cheat to win LOL! But I am glad she is winning right now 🙂
>Also did the wrap foundation with toys waiting till she was off the dead toy before activating the other toy. she did great. >
Super!!!!
Thank you for the bitey video! This provides great visuals!! She loves her toys. She loves to play with you! And also – ouch! It almost seems like she thinks your hand/arm/flesh is an extension of the toy 🙂 or better than the toy.
>I realize I shouldn’t raise my arms up – unconscious response to her biting behavior but only encourages jumping and biting. >
Correct! But also – ouch!!! I don’t want you to leave your flesh there (more on that below). So here are some ideas for you to help protect your flesh while also still maintaining toy drive.
The toy: the toys here are small and a little low in value (believe it or not LOL!) so she leaves them to bite you (flesh is very high value LOL!). So you can switch to a longer/bigger toy that is higher in value – something like a bigger hollee roller that you can stuff a fur toy inside of. That will be really exciting and more grab-able than your hand, plus the bigger visual should direct her focus away from your flesh. I have a few of these for these for my whippety dogs because they are absolute sharks as puppies!
And – attach the bigger, more enticing toy to something longer so the enticing side is squiggling around for her to chase further from you flesh. In this video, your hand was so close to the toy that it was easy for her to leave the toy and grab your hand. And the gloves help protect you but I think she also likes to tug on them or above them.
You will see that my toys are pretty big and furry in the demo videos, especially for the whippet. That was all part of Operation Don’t Bite Me 🙂
So with this bigger more enticing toy that is further from your flesh – let’s also add more food into any/every game that involves the toy. That is mainly for arousal regulation – the play biting is all about arousal regulation/impulse control, and puppy brains are not developed enough to self-regulate yet. Food is excellent for arousal regulation and getting the food on the ground where there is also a little bit of olfaction to find it is ideal!
Arousal regulation and impulse control in puppies improves as their brain develops and as we help them develop neural pathways – it is really not an operant conditioning thing, but we can help her through operant-looking additions to the games 🙂
In transitions where she releases the toy and you’d like more behavior offered, you can insert a treat or two tossed off to the side the let her sniff to find it – that will both redirect her away from your flesh and give her a framework for self-regulation.
For example: on the 2 toy version of the barrel wraps, you can tug on toy 1. Let it go dead and when she releases it – toss a treat to the side. Then when she goes to the other side, tug on two 2. Then let it go dead and when she relaxes her grip on it – toss a treat to the side, and so on.
Another example: a lot of our games here begin with toy play then move to shaping with treats. In that transition after a short bit of tugging, tossing a treat or two away from you (using a ‘get it’ marker) will redirect her away from your flesh, allow you to remove the toy without any re-gripping, and helps her self-regulate. Then onwards to the shaping with treats.
Will you need 3 or 4 hands to do this? Potentially LOL! It might be challenging on your mechanics but you can try having a treat in the hand holding the toy, or in your pocket.
Will it be worthwhile to sort the mechanics out, even if they are a bit awkward at first? Totally yes, because flesh preservation is at the top of our list.
So any place you can insert food into toy-based games… awesome! And no worries if her toy-drive diminishes a bit for now, we can always balance it back when the bitey behavior is gone.
And if she does move from toy to flesh and bite you? You can deliver feedback in the form of a high-pitched yelp (because it legit hurts!) and then take a momentary break from the game. You were using a lower sound to give her some ouch feedback, but the higher pitched yelp might be more useful for her, in terms of info. She is not a terrier, so I don’t think she will come back harder after a yelp LOL!! But the yelp followed by an immediate stop of the game (I usually put the toy away and do something else for about 5 seconds, then back to the game) for can be valuable info for the pup about how biting affects the availability of the toy and the ‘work’.
If you find that you are doing the yelp a LOT, then using more food in the transitions will be more helpful.
Have you found that you get bitey behavior more at certain times of day? Puppies definitely have a cycle where they are more or less stimulated at different times of day (9pm here is a crazy time LOL!) So you can play the higher arousal toy games, in the morning after breakfast for example, if that is a better time of day. And food-only games in the late afternoon or evening.
>We do lots of recalls with collar touch and I’m still having challenges getting her leashed up.>
Thanks for this too! She was definitely stimulated here. The food really helped! And since we don’t want to create any avoidance of the leashing up process – 2 ideas for you!
One is a fun game is to convince her to put her own head through the leash. I have video of it *somewhere* but I can’t find it, so I will film it with my puppy later today when there is more coffee in my system. I do a TON of this because it is a fun way to end sessions and I want them to love running to their leash.
The other thing is that puppies often avoid leashing up because it becomes paired with ending the availability of reinforcement. Even if they get a cookie for leashing up… it is not the same as the big party they were just having 🙂
So be sure to add in *more* party action after she gets the leash on: you can give her a giant scatter of treats in the grass (this is also great for regulating arousal), or you can tug with her (I often cue the pup to tug on the leash, or I whip out a nice long toy).
Or, you can take the leash off immediately and go right back into a game. This was an absolute mind-blowing thing for one of my dogs, who was avoiding leashing up because I have accidentally paired it with the games being finished. When he realized that it didn’t mean that the party was over, he happily let me put his leash on.
>Really need to get the bitey behavior sorted out. She is a pretty willful girl – My Last three have been boys so bitch behavior is new to me!>
We totally will! My boys have been different than my girls, but we sort them all out. She is an absolutely fantastic pup and we will focus her teeth to the right spot 🙂 while building on all of her amazingness 🙂
Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning and welcome back! Tons of great stuff on your videos!
Collar grabs: he was a super good boy here! As the games get more intense and exciting, try not to lift or pull up on the collar – when he is in a calmer state like he was in the video, he will let you do it but in a more aroused state, he might avoid it because pups are more sensitive to that feeling. You can see that bit of avoidance in the toy race video.
You can also line him up at your side or between your feet, hold the collar, the throw the treat – that helps the collar grab get associated with movement and fun stuff, plus increases arousal from the cookie chasing 🙂
Goat tricks:
Very clever to have the yoga mat to help add grip to the upside down bosu!! He already has good balance (not surprising, you are a pro) so you can give him indoor ‘hikes’ to do by spreading out all of your random stuff that he can trot over, climb on, turn around on, etc – make a different trail each time 🙂 We will be building on this soon!Wing wraps w/ forward focus:
He loves that flirt pole at the beginning! And it was VERY cool to see him go back to the toy at the end, after 2 minutes of cookies *while the cookie bowls were still on the ground*!! That was a huge happy dance moment!!During the session:
You can ask him to line up at your side (cookie lure and hand cues are perfectly fine for that) so he gets even more value for lining up. At 1:21 you sent him for a ‘search’ cookie which helped line him up, which I think he preferred in terms of clarity over being swung into position. At 1:41, you had a hand cue/cookie cue and that was lovely!!He did well going past the bowl when he was on your left side, pretty perfect! It was definitely harder when he was on your right but he worked it through really well by the end!
So on the easier side, dog on left, especially since you were able to stand up: you can add a verbal cue to this if you want a verbal on it. Because he is going to look at the cone when you point at it, you can line him up, hold him, say the verbal, point at the cone… then when he looks at it, release to the bowl.
He might not quite be ready for the verbal when he is on your right side, or latent learning might kick in and he will be perfect next time 🙂 You’ll definitely want to hold him, though, because he needs to hear the verbal and see the hand cue before he starts to move.
If you don’t want to add a verbal, no problem – lots of folks do this without a verbal.
And on both sides – you can keep move the bowl around the cone so it eventually ends up right next to him 🙂
Toy Races – he totally smoked you even without a lot of running room! Good boy! And it was a good win for you on the 2nd to last rep – he might have thought that something fell out so he stopped short of the big prize: you win! He was not going to let that happen again haha and smoked you on the last run.
This was easy peasy – when the weather is clear, it is a good one to take outside. And we can always have you cheat to win if we need him to dig in more 🙂Proprioception cavalettis: This was an interesting session to watch!
He was very smooth and balanced on your right but rushing when he was on your left. Of course we always look for a side preference or an imbalance in the dog, but I don’t think that was the case here. It is entirely possible that the rushing had to do with the raised dog bed as the target, and no wall behind it. He was getting excited to hop on the dog bed! And with the wall & smaller bed on the dog-on-right side, he was not inclined to rush to hop onto it.
It would be fun to test the theory if you can use a small bed & wall with him on your left! You can also see how he does when he is more excited by the big bed without you moving – I am a big fan of working proprioception with arousal, but we want to find the starting point where things are super smooth before adding more 🙂Plankrobatics: I loved his limbo moment at the beginning LOL! Then his between the feet moment at the end 🙂 So clever!
Once he was on the plank, he was happy to move across it and turn around. The sit was easy, the down was good too once he realized what you wanted haha Can he go from a sit to stand, or down to stand on the flat? That would be a good one to add to the plank!Getting on the plank was a harder – he wanted to use his front more than his rear, so in a separate session y can use the top of the klimb (no legs) and the plank so he can practice jumping onto the plank without as much height. That can get more hind end involvement.
He seems to be showing us a side preference here! Turning right? Easy peasy!!
Turning left was harder, whether it was getting on the plank or turning to the left on the plank. He would either choose a right turn, or his feet would not be quite as coordinated on the left turn. When he was getting on, he almost always chose the right turn like at :53 when a left turn would be the most efficient way to get on the plank but he jumped up, turned right, then got on the plank. At 1:13 chose the right turn side to get on, even with your body position indicating that the left turn (blue klimb) side would be easier.
You can help him more on the left turns, showing him which side to jump up on and using slower hand motion/body cues when you are indicating the left turn on the plank. That way he gets to practice the left turns too.
Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Haha. Everyone wondering what’s in my hand. >
The brain is wired to focus on what is being hidden from view LOL!!! And I guess my brain-state is similar to a baby puppy 😂😆
>I’ll try the food toss. In the past, she wouldn’t come back and step on it. But, she seems to have a better understanding now. >
She has had really rapid development in understanding. Part of it is the pups learn how these games are played, including that cookie toss being a context cue to come back and get on the thing again 🙂
>I do believe she’s a thinker versus a doer at this stage in life.>
That is good! I believe that pups that fling themselves at things can be grappling with an internal franticness or overarousal. She is a really lovely balance of offering behavior and playing 🙂
On the video: a lot of what we teach puppies at this stage is the transition in-and-out of ‘work’, and I think this session really looked great in this respect – and she was also great about offering the barrel behavior, which we want for future stuff too! YAY!!!
That long toy was PERFECT – nice and long to get maximum squiggle and chase, but also flat enough that if fits in her mouth.
When you went from the toy to the shaping on the barrel, she was great about getting into the offering for the treats! She was definitely working that puzzle and did some lovely back-and-forth offering!! Yay!
Then the energy of you going across the room to grab the toy got her right back into toy mode after both shaping moments.Her second transition back to the shaping was even quicker – she was like “I got this!” even with the slightly different picture of the barrel being fully expanded and on the ground.
And the last transition back to the toy was great! That energy burst to go grab it really shifts her focus away from food and back to play. And you didn’t even have to run too far away LOL!!
So much good stuff here!!!! With the other food-to-tug games, this setup will work well too (moving across a room to get the toy play). You won’t have to do it forever 🙂 but it is lovely for now!
For the wing wrap foundations… let this one sit for a day or two to give her brain some time to lock it in 🙂 Then pick up where you ended: sitting with the upright barrel. And if she ‘remembers’ it in that session, within a couple of treats you can add a tiny bit of distance. Separately (keeping the barrel close) you can add in you standing up. Which one you do first (standing or adding distance) is totally up to you! We need both but we don’t want to add them both in the same session.
Great job!
TracyHi! Hooray for her smoking you in the toy race game!
Ah yes, I remember the backgammon game! Little Dot did GREAT here! I am very happy with the instant offering. The next step before sending to it will be to have you standing up as she is offering to hit it. That might make it hard to place the reward right on it or deliver from your hand, but that is ok – you can use your ‘find it’ to toss it off to the side so she hops off then comes racing back to you. And if she does a good session of hitting it with you standing? Onwards to sending!
And she did well with the toy after the food! She and I were both drawn to your hand behind you back – we both were looking at it, wondering if you had cookies in it LOL!! So rather than challenge her with that (at least, not yet), you can toss the last treat for the offered paw hit, then tug with visible and empty hands, then you can end with a scatter after reaching for a few treats from up on the table. I think she will eventually have zero trouble tugging while you have treats in your hand, but for now we can take baby steps to get there and keep things a little more separate.
Great job!
Tracy
