[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

I feel the pain of YouTube continuously changing settings on new videos, old videos… such a pain! And yes, the latest software upgrade here has taken out some of the edit options – I will talk to the tech managers and see what has changed. The link in the text is generally getting embedded by just copying the link text into the body of the thread – sometimes it shows up as a live link instead. Either way, works fine for me, but all of that is on my Monday morning list for the tech folks to find out what changed and why 🙂 I don’t think it is your cache as it works that way on all of my devices as well. Let me know if you see anything else that is different or annoying 🙂

On the video:

Commitment to barrels on the turn and burn looks great – he was being a bit careful on the footing, so it became more about ignoring the toy that was *right there* or dragging. He was brilliant (easier to do this turning to his left than to his right but he was really good both directions!

At around :47 you did the FCs on both barrels. As he finishes the first barrel, he is waiting for more info and looking at you, so two thoughts there:
He is ready to process the next cue sooner, so you can start giving it to him as soon as he rounds the barrel, before he even finishes the wrap fully. This will be even easier when you have more motion involved, but he is ready for you to cue sooner.
On the other side of things, though, we want him to keep driving towards you even if you have not yet delivered the next cue (as opposed to that moment of hanging at the barrel, waiting for the next cue). Driving hard should be the default behavior, rather than hanging further away (which is kind of opposite what BCs are wired to do). So you can mix in some decel/drive to handler in the rocking horses where you decel and don’t cue the next barrel – when he gets to you, have a big tug party. That way he will always be driving around the barrel to the next thing, rather than slowing down to wait for the next thing.

The RDW mat looked great – lots of spot on clicks for the back feet! He had one miss moment, more because of the angle being a bit to hard. You can add a little more of your motion here and definitely a get it marker so he doesn’t look at you after the click, to help condition that the reward after the mat will always be ‘out there’ somewhere. There are a lot of different ways to build on this – I elevate the mat a bit at this stage as I add more of my motion, to make the mat more salient and rehearse the footwork specifically. I elevate it by attaching it to a small board (same size as the mat) that won’t slip out from under the dogs.

Serps looked really great! He was generally perfect with adding motion to it, yo were nice and slow with it so it was challenging but not brain-explodingly difficult. Just when I was thinking “I bet she can move sooner”, you did! That was at about 2:54 and that was the rep he had trouble with. On that same ‘position 3’ angle on the other side, he did go over the bar but hit the upright – so you can add motion sooner, but more on the position 1 angles so he can set up the turn (and then he will be more prepared for the position 2 and position 3 approaches).
The other thing you can add to this is the toy on the ground as the reward – first with you stationary, then with the motion. The toy gets placed where his next line would be if there was another jump.
And the last thing to add on: the reinforcement marker can now be used when he makes the 2nd turn. Your markers are happening when he is committing to the jump, coming towards you – perfect! Now that he is showing strong commitment, we can solidify the rest of the chain by marking when he turns his head to the next line (the ‘out’ of the in and out turn on a serpentine) which will also conveniently have him looking towards the reward 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

(oops I was wrong, the next tunnel threadle game is next week, not this week, but we can get it going early 🙂 )

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi and Happy New Year!!

Hi! Sorry to hear that you are still having a CA mudfest! Fingers crossed for great weather for a long while now to dry out that mud!!

His grunting noises when he is tugging are hilarious. I just had to say that LOL!

>>Tunnels (lots of slipping, made me pretty nervous asking him to go fast)

Oh yes, totally see what you mean about the slipping! This floor is really slippery. He was a really good boy!

>> I did not notice in the moment in class (I call it the Nancy Gyes effect that I lose about 50% of my brain when I train with her

Ha! That cracks me up! She would probably crack up too 🙂

>> but the difference was she had us using a threadle arm/tandem turn arm with the verbal send to the tunnel entrance.
When I’ve done these so far I’ve just said the verbal no tandem turn arm. We’ve only trained tandem turn arm on the flat to his prop so far.>>

Makes sense! So now, let’s start making some stylistic decisions about handling! We do begin more advanced threadle work on tunnels this coming week but we can get the decision-making part of it going 🙂
There are a TON of different styles of threadle handling (on jumps, tunnels, etc). You can use the dog-side arm swinging back, you can use the outside arm as that check mark with motion (kind of what you were doing), or you can use the outside arm as a stationary arm (no pull & turn, it comes up and stays up, and does not indicate the tunnel at all with any additional motion).

I personally use the outside arm up but NOT with a check mark/pull & turn move, for a couple of reasons:
– the outside arm is very visible, more visible than the dog side arm
– I want the dog to respond immediately to it and just leave me for the other end of the tunnel rather than way for any further indication, I ‘release’ the cue and move to my next spot as soon as the dog turns his head to the desired tunnel entry – my arm cue does not indicate the head turn to the tunnel entry, it is a trained skill similar to the trained jump threadles
– I do NOT want the dog to think he needs to wait for the turn away cue (like he does on tandem turns – the dogs need to wait for the turn away there).
– My tunnel threadle arm position is different (higher) than the tandem turn arm cues (lower, 2 handed).

Now, you don’t have to do what I do, but I figured I would toss it out as an option, along with why I do it.

On this clip with one of my youngsters doing a UKI At Home run, at :19 I use the tunnel threadle verbal (kiss kiss kiss) and the outside arm – he nailed it (never looked at me or waited for an indication, he just went to the correct tunnel entry and I was late releasing the cue and leaving because I was surprised LOL!)

>> In class when I did that beyond about 4′ from the entrance to the tunnel he literally turned and looked at me like I was an idiot and then jumped up onto the tunnel turned 180 degrees and hopped off on the other side. It was funny/frustrating/embarrassing in the moment but after the fact I realized he was completely doing what he thought I was asking based on what I’d taught him – when you see my arm do this, turn 180 and go the other way. He 100% is a concept dog.>>

OMG that is hilarious! Embarrassing in the moment, but a scrapbook moment that we will look back on and laugh about when he is standing on podium someday. He is an honest critter! And plus the pressure on the line was possibly too many variables changing at once (line pressure, arm, etc).

Speaking of the pressure on the line: it is a great exercise! I’d start it with a shorter tunnel with a placed reinforcement – I placed the reinforcement inside the tunnel when I started teaching my pups how to do this LOL! A toy about a foot past the entry worked like a charm to get the behavior going, then I was quickly able to move the placed reinforcement to the tunnel exit on a slight turn because that pressure on the line is a turn cue. And definitely use more than one tunnel verbal there, the verbal repeated will provide a lot of support.

>>The other issue we had was when she had us work on tunnel commitment (not distance, he’s seen that) but with any pressure on his line as he went into a tunnel (like approaching a rear cross) or a front cross visual as he was entering. Again, he just hasn’t seen this yet and we’ve only done straight tunnels in class before. So, I tried a little of the side and backward send to the tunnel during this session to start to show him what that will look similar to how we’ve been doing barrels.>>

I thought that was brilliant! Concept transfer! He was great. We will be getting to the crosses on the tunnel entry soon enough, it is definitely something the dogs need to see – I give the dogs a lot of speed going into it, so there is a ton of commitment (like a wing wrap before it, 15 or 20 feet away), and use placed rewards if needed to support the commitment.

>>I feel like my mechanics are a bit dirty here just because I got a little scattered trying to do so much in 1 session on new equipment in a new place, but he was really good and his focus was surprisingly good.>>

I think the mechanics were mostly clean but the reward markers were not as clean. An idea I mentioned to someone else today – I have a small white board that lives in the training area (but has also traveled with me) that I use to bullet point my mechanics for each session – you can do that while he is chilling on his mat!

The resting was great! And there was another dog nearby (in the mirror) that he was ignoring like a good boy 🙂

His outs looked great too. Nice job adding more of your motion, more distance, AND staying in motion!!! Putting the little prop right in front of the tunnel is actually a common course trend – do a thing near the tunnel (jump or weaves) that is NOT the tunnel. At some point, you can mix in the tunnel verbal to see if he can find it with the prop there!

>>(yes, I did forget to not send him out and I’m not always on camera 😝)>>

Ha! No worries!!

>>Turn N Burn, Rocking Horses, Running Contact Mat Work and Serpentines

This one might be private, it was getting a “video isn’t available anymore” message from youtube.

The parallel path game is perfect for this floor, he seemed to have no trouble with the footing on this one. It looks like you got nicely ahead and he had no trouble finding the jump either. You can try this with a toy, especially when you are way ahead because he will be more stimulating and more tempted to chase you and not take the jump. and you can run more too, especially on the better footing.
Stays looked great too! After a reward that you throw back, he was confused when you tried to reset from a distance. You can go back to him, reset, start it all over for the next rep. That allows you to do the lead out again, which is the most critical part 🙂

Great job here! Let me know when the other video is visible!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

She is doing a GREAT job of backing up to the board here! It was moving a little, I think there is an inflatable under it? If you have a lower profile inflattable, you can use that so it moves a little more!

>>I think I could help more if I remember to reward low…

Since I have decided that 2022 is going to be The Year Of Amazing Mechanics, here are a couple of ideas:

– anything that might require you to bend over to get the head position and reward placement, you should start by sitting 🙂 it is nearly impossible to reward too high if you are sitting on the floor or in a chair.
– For planning purposes and so I don’t forget anything, I have a white board that lives in the training area. I use it to jot down a list of things to remember for each session. It is just a bullet point list, but I can see it the whole time and that really helps me keep my mechanics on track.

She was keeping her head at hand-level here, using your hand as a focal point – you were bending over, so her head was not too high. But a little lower will be even better (doesn’t have to be more than a couple of inches lower) – a chair would be perfect and just kind of dangle your hands slightly lower than your knees. It is great that she can use your hands as a focal point! The behavior is going well overall, so we can keep it going and obsess on mechanics too!

Great job!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>Ok, I see what you mean on the mechanics and having the toys/treats in the dogside hand. Have been avoiding that as she does tend to think I am tossing a treat for her on sends and goes looking for one since the motions look so similar and not sure how to differentiate that for her. On the very first rep for the rocking horse she is looking for whatever I might have tossed before she goes around the barrel.>>

I think the context of the situation will let her know that you are not tossing the treat, when you are wanting to send her. When I am tossing a treat, I call it a ‘show-then-throw’: I show the dog the treat, then say get it, then toss it. There are no surprises that way, super LOL! And the treat toss is not something other than a way to reset the dog’s position, so I don’t need to fade showing the dog the treat. And you can also fade a lot of the treat tossing, if that has very high value and any hand motion might be considered a treat toss (my guess is that the mechanics can be clarified and then it won’t be an issue). By contrast, the send to the barrel starts with the moment of engagement then the send. That can help make it very clear for her!

>> I’ll use the ‘ready’ she seems to really pay attention to that when I use it when we play retrieve games.

Using the ready game also stealthily layers in an automatic ‘magic word’ for engagement, for when you don’t have cookies or toys. The power of classical conditioning 🙂

>>I thought she had regrabbed the toy when I corrected her but I see that she still had the long bit off the tug. Ouch.>>

Always err on the side of positive reinforcement 🙂 and slow mechanics. Slow mechanics are the cleanest and crispest!

>I was going to ask you before doing these about using the wrap words. Will start using them and try to clean up the rest of the words.

Perfect! She is totally ready!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning and happy New Year!

Yes, this what I had in mind 🙂 You can ping pong in more of the difficult ones – I love how, on the hardest angle, she really had to think about it. You can see the lightbulb moment – and then she was SUPER fast 🙂 great job doing easy ones after that – we don’t want to keep making it harder or have her overthink!

>> I wasn’t sure how to get her set up again to restart the loop.

2 options: you can use the cookie hand to lure her back to position, basically transferred her from the reward side to the send side like you did at 1:13 (that seemed pretty smooth). Or you can pull your ottoman (or whatever you were sitting on) further from the couch, so she has room to go behind you – place the reward bowl further back, almost behind you. So deliver the reward back there (or toss it, you don’t need it to be in a bowl at this point) – then connect on your other side (left side in this case) and call her back to you on the send side. It is like doing a blind cross, while seated LOL! Just do it slowly, so you don’t crank your back by accident 🙂

>>Do I get this side better first or do left in the next session?

You can go to the left turns in the next session – I have seen too many dogs think that the right turns are the only turns, if we do too many sessions of only right turns (and vice versa).

Great job! Have fun!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning and happy New Year!

All of the games are looking really strong here, which is particularly nice because she was not in her home environment. Generalizing is hard and she was great!

On the rocking horses – really nice! Her commitment looked great, her turns look great, and you had your verbals going too. Yay! I Really loved the turn and burn reps you added towards the end! I think she liked that too, she seemed to say “BRING IT ON” haha!

Adding more turn and burn like you did will keep her really driving but also tight – when you get into the rhythm of too many simple rocking horses in a row, things are not as exciting and you throw in random post turns LOL!

She did have the one oopsie at :13, where you sent forward to the next upright too soon, before she changed sides – you were in a rhythm so you didn’t wait to see if she a making the side change. She never really considered the side change there – it is possible that she was looking for the side with the toy in it? I believe on all the other reps where you wanted her on your right side, the toy was in your right hand. So make a stronger connection to be sure she is making the side change. I also reward across the body a lot, because that emphasizes the connection for the side changes and not the toy as the connector.

Tunnel games looked great –
I snorted when she tosses her head back for you to let her go. “I GOT THIS, HUMAN, LET ME GO” hahaha Dellin seems like a dog who speaks in ALL CAPS when she is working 🙂
My only suggestion is to give the go verbal or get it marker before she enters so she knows to exit straight. She is going to exit straight because the toy is there, so we might as well indicate it especially because you are not moving. And of course, you can add motion now because her commitment looks really strong.

Adding “here” was easy peasy! You can add more distance from the entry for this, working your way back to practically the exit!

The Outs looked good too, you did a great job of staying in motion! You can add more of your motion, and you can also start a little ahead of her (instead of parallel to her). You don’t needto stop and place your reward on the prop: the ultimate goal is that she lead changes away then stays on that new parallel path, so tossing the reward will help that (and actually touching the prop is secondary to it – the prop is more of a focal point and not a stopping point).

Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning and happy new year!

>>FIRST: I must apologize for the music on the last video. I like to music it when I’m training but I forget how close the speaker is to the camera….oops!

Don’t apologize, I love the music and it cracks me up when it gets dramatic at big moments in the session LOL!

>>Also THANKS for the reminder to help her to shift her weight back a bit during tugging. I’m also training her for conformation, and there I’m trying to get her to shift her weight forward, over her shoulders, but of course, it looks WAY different than this. So we’ll figure it out!>>

Yes! And conformation is a food cue, right? That will eventually be a GREAT game: tugging means weight back. food means stack with weight forward.

Her plank work is looking good! I think that covering the klimbs with the plank towards the end was perfect – in the first 2 sections, she was using the klimbs to turn around and get on/off (SMART lol!!) So having the longer plank fully supported but also covering most of the klimb was great – she was comfortable with the height but also was learning to do the things onthe plank and not on the klimb 🙂 I think starting with the visible klimbs worked nicely because it built up her confidence but now she is totally ready for the setup you used at the very end.

She seems to prefer turning to her right over turning to her left, so when you are working on turning around, you can use cookie lures to help get her happy turning to her left.

Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! Happy New Year!

>>I have a question re the TreatnTrain – what store bought treats have you used in it?

I have used the mini Zukes and also tiny puppy kibble.

>>. I don’t really want to use the wheel with the bigger holes so it doesn’t over deliver as often just to not overdue treats with Beka.

Mechanics are important so use the bigger holes to avoid issues with treats dropping. I don’t mind if it drops multiple treats 🙂 The dogs love it! And it forces my sessions to be short, which they need to be anyway. With the MM, it is REALLY easy to go way too long because the dog and the MM are doing all the work – but if th MM is dropping 3 or 4 treats each time, then I need to set a timer so I don’t do 500 treats in a session 🙂

Speaking of mechanics, I think her commitment looks GREAT on these videos so I am going to bug you about mechanics (especially because she shows frustration behavior when things are unclear, sowe need to be as clear & clean as possible):

On the first video, when you were doing rocking horses –

Have the treats ready in your reward hand so you can finish turning and immediately deliver them to her, in position, clean and fast. You were stopping the rotation and plucking treats from hand to hand, which delays th reinforcement plus it changes your position: it puts you in her way of completing the wrap and you end up facing her too, so she is hitting the barrels. Finishing the rotation and immediately reinforcing where you want her to be will really help.

Her commitmenton the double wraps also looks great! Between the reward and the next send, take a moment to get eye contact, you can use a little bit of ‘crouched’ body language and a quiet ‘ready’, so that way she is ready for the next cue. If you send and she isn’t ready, she doesn’t always know where to look, like when she was not sure if it was a cookie toss or send to the barrel. And, when working with a toy, same mechanics apply as with cookies: it must be in the reward hand and ready. When it was around your neck, it was really delayed and it chains in coming in front of you.

The good thing about having the toys and treats in your hands throughout is that we are layering in self-control. In order to get the toys and treats, she has to pass them. It is worth going back a few steps if this is harder for her, because the self-control is worthwhile and also the clean placement is worthwhile.

>>Think I will use treats next time to get her into my side, she seemed to think that was the side send.>>

Yes – there is nothing wrong with using a cookie to lure her into her next start position – she got really frustrated when you were holding out a hand right next o t he barrel and she didn’t know how to earn reinforcement. She was definitely considering biting the barrel which is a big insight into how we need to be super clean in training sessions, so she doesn’t feel the need to bite things out of frustration. And you can spread the barrels out a bi tmore so you can have room to make clean presentations of the reward and resets.

Rotated sends:

She also has great commitment here! So I will continue to obsess on mechanics LOL!

>>she seems to be doing a bit of anticipication that if we are close to the barrel she should go around it.

I see her argument here – I like that you are engaging her before the send, but your engagement has enough back and forth motion that it might look like the send. So, for the engagement, bend your knees, talk to her, make eye contact, but don’t bounce back and forth at all, keep your hands tight in front of you in “squirrel hand” position (but with the reinforcement ready – I know, I am a pain in the butt hahaha) – that way she will see the difference between engagement and the send cue very clearly because the engagement is stationary and the send is crisp motion.
And take that moment to get the eye contact and take a breath between the toy play and the send – at :40 you sent but the toy was still in her mouth (the transition was not clean) then she got a ‘hey hey hey hey’ marker that she was wrong (but it was not her fault). At this point, try to resist any and all markers that might indicate she is wrong because there is a 99% chance she is not wrong 🙂

Because her commitment looks really good, you can also clarify things by addng your wrap markers and reward markers: as you send, use your wraps cues. And when you reward, use your reward placement markers rather than good girl. Those will add extra layers of clarity which will really help advance the game to hav emore motion and excitement.

Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning and Happy New Year!

Strike a pose is going well! On the first couple of reps, I think the visible remote was confusing as to which hand to target at first, then bending was hard with the MM so he went behind you – all normal stuff and he sorted it out so it was not an issue anymore.

A couple of ideas for you to build to the next steps:

You can fade out the actual touch of the target now – as long as he is coming towards it, if he wants to be bending towards the MM without hitting it – perfectly fine. That will also help you not have to bend down so much.

And, you can get closer to the jump now – we want him bending on the’takeoff’ side and not on the landing side for the next steps. You should be close enough to touch the jump upright with a relaxed arm/bent elbow. If he has a question, change his position to an easier starting point but don’t change your position relative to the jump.

It is goodtp oractice the get it marker! The MM doesn’t need a get it because the beep is the marker, but it is definitely good rehearsal to practice the markers. The MM does misbehave sometimes LOL!!!

If you are starting from a cookie toss, you don’t need an “ok” release because he is already in motion and we don’t want him to stop and wait for one.
When the angle was too hard and he didn’t take the jmp (went directly to the MM) – I think it might help him to start from a stay, so he has a moment to see the setup before you release him into it. That way you don’t need to change your position to help him out there.

When he can do this with you closer to the jump and with the actual hit of the target faded, we will be able to add your motion in too!

Out Video:

>> I do wish I had moved in closer immediately upon getting a failure rep. I did practice another round after this (not on video) and I did so exactly that, although there was only one failure. >>

You were probably a little too far from the prop on these but there were a couple of other things that might have been contributing to his questi. The two things I see are:

– be sure you basically the whole time, but particularly before he turns back to you – after getting the cookie, if he turns back and see you standing still, he will make the decision to come to you. This happened a few times, because the stationary position was the first cue and by the time you did the out, it was too late, he was already committed to coming to you.

>>>> At 1:23 can you see why he didn’t get this one? Was I moving too fast do you think?

This is an example of you being stationary for too long. You were not too fast in your motion, you were not moving soon enough. . He had already made the decision to come to you because you were stationary for a little too long. Same thing happeend at 2:13. You might need to use cookies that he can just swallow rather than needing to chew if the timing of the chewing is throwing off the timing of when you can move again.

– the mechanics of the cookie toss rewards were throwing him off a bit too.

>> in this video, at about 1:01 I *think* he was going out and came back in as I reached with my cueing arm for the treat in my other hand – do you agree?>>

Yes, totally agree that caused his question there. Have the reward ready in the throwing hand because when you reached across to toss it (your right hand going to you left hand to get the cookie) – the movement of the hand changes the cue and distracts him. When you tossed the cookie from the hand it was already in – he was great! When you reached over to pick it up, that pulled him off the line at 1:01. I would reward that anyway – don’t withdraw reinforcement that you were about to deliver. If you didn’t love the behavior you just rewarded, take a moment to plan mechanics before the next rep to see if yo ucan get cleaner behavior. Plus if you don’t reward some of those (1:01) and do reward others (1:10) then he is going to get confused. At 2:26, you tossed with the hand the cookie was in (left hand) rather than trying to get it with your right hand and he did MUCH better!

And one last idea:

You can drop the ‘yes’ marker for this one too, and just say “get it” so he keeps looking forward.

>>I have a random question also. How do you train a toy release? I want to do that in a way that still retains super high value for toy but is a relatively prompt release.

It depends on the individual dog, of course, but I start it like this ( month old Hot Sauce here):

My marker to get the toy again has changed to “bite” but it is the general idea.

>>we also did a few super quick rounds of Rocking Horse with high success. He did really great keeping it easy and I think his confidence was high. I worked on not switching the toy in my hand and that confused him a few times, but didn’t seem to deter him too much from understanding. We’ll keep going with the simple rocking horse a few more times.>>

Perfect! The game advances quickly when the dogs understand the commitment, so keep working to get the commitment.

Great job!
Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>Next time I work him I will just try to use toys. I haven’t done that with him because I want him excited to work (that has taken work) and he is so food motivated.>>

Just add in some toy play, separately from doing anything with food – to bring toys into the training environment. I recommend doing this before you do anything with food, so he is at his most excited and doesn’t have cookies on his mind yet.

Fingers crossed for great weather! Happy New Year!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
She was too funny with the food bowl!!!!

>>. She gets angry with bowls ( outside of training) when they run out of food. She whacks them expecting more so there was some of that happening which is why I was laughing at her.>>

Then this game is great for her – not just for the wrapping foundation, but for working through frustration! It sounds like she comes at things with her teeth or feet when she is stimulated or frustrated, and that might be why she is biting or smacking things 🙂 So when she smacks the bowls here – don’t help, be perfectly silent (no chuckling no matter how cute she is), let her work through it all. She did well here! She was only whacking the bowl when the next turn was a left turn, so it is possible that she is more of a righty than a lefty. Either way, this provides us with a great platform for training her to maintain her composure LOL!
You can add in more stimulation by breaking the session up with tugging – then do it with toys only.
The wrapping of the upright was really good, so after you add more stimulation and use toys, you can move it further away and, separately, start to get more upright by kneeling or sitting in a chair.

Great job here! Happy New Year!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>We are off to baby obedience seminar tomorrow. She has to learn early to switch back and forth!

I am certain that she will be perfect 🙂

>> I’m not much of a “trick trainer” so I didn’t have many things to string together!

You can use things like hand touches or spins! Those count as tricks 🙂

Have fun and Happy New Year!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>> put Dora’s food bowl down and she understands to move way with me and then I ask her to line up by my side and i release her and give my cue “dish”. Is this ok?

Yes! That is totally great and I am glad you’ve already started it 🙂

>> What else should we be doing?

Mix in all the things LOL! Because we will want her to be able to do all sorts of dog sports without reinforcement in your hands, you can mix things up such as putting the food bowl up on a table (or a bag of treats, or a handful or treats). And instead of a line up, you can move away and see if she offers engagement (I think she is already doing this). And you can ask for any tricks she might know, or any easy, fun behaviors. I like to put all of the behaviors into the remote reinforcement routines, eventually (my pups are now about 2 years old, and they are now practicing full runs with the reinforcement on a table behind them, to prep for competition).

Thinking about marker words: “dish” might be specific to the dish (the ‘zen bowl’ games that a lot of folks play) so you will want to have a different marker for when you are going to treats on a table, or toys – something you might say at the end of an agility run, for example.

>> I have not practiced this with toys yet.

She is probably ready for this! The toy should be up on something high so she can see it but it is not something she can grab or something too distracting. And then start it with just a little engagement, and then go to what you’ve already been doing with the dish (but with a different word – I use “toy toy” for something like this – very fancy marker LOL!)

>> Also, when you start adding more behaviors, like spins and hand touches and back up, what if they get one of the behaviors wrong? How do I react to that?

Great question! We do our best to only ask for behaviors we are very sure they can do… but of course, sometimes they can’t do it LOL!!! So if I ask for a hand touch and she can’t do it, I will happily move her further away and ask for another one, then reward. If she still can’t do it, I might ask for something else? If she *still* can’t do it, then I have made the setup too hard and will go back to a lower value reinforcement and working more engagement, and making sure that the behaviors that I ask for are things that are things she can do really easily in other situations.

I don’t add in behaviors til I am really happy with the dog’s engagement as we move away from the reinforcement, and happy with the dog’s understanding of the remote reinforcement marker. What I am looking for is that the pup immediately walks away from it, offers engagement, and it is not gazing longingly at it or moving slowly or tentatively. When you’ve got great happy engagement, then the dog is highly likely to be able to respond to simple cues.

Let me know what you think! Have a happy New Year!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! That sounds like awesome progress and a lot of fun!
You can ping pong things so she doesn’t have to work too hard to get it to you – sometimes, yes, run the other way. But also mix in reinforcement for just bringing it towards you or close to you, by rewarding her by tossing a second toy or a treat. Chasing you new directions or getting it close enough for you to grab is harder so we want to mix in lots of easy reps. And you can totally add it to the parallel path stuff in the basement!

Keep me posted 🙂
Tracy

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