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Hi again!
I think this is going well – it looks so easy but it is actually pretty complex, so many different elements for handling and toys and food. These were strong sessions!Some ideas for you:
Handling combo round 1: All of the pups are having at least one good blooper – this is a hard game! No worries about the party of one, it is all stuff we work through in these early games. It might have felt like an eternity but the romps were pretty short. And she was a good girl and did the barrel wrap first on the 2nd rep and 3rd rep.
At 1:26, she ended up on the left side of you and I think you wanted her on your right side – if you freeze the video at 1:26, you will see that as she is exiting the barrel, you are looking ahead at the toy so she thinks it looks like a blind cross cue. Great job rewarding her anyway, she was correct! Compare that to the moment she exits the barrel at 1:45 – look how at how you were looking at her eyes, so she knew where to be. Excellent! And she gave the toy back to you immediately on that rep. YAY!!At 2:01, she didn’t quite commit to the barrel (you moved away a little early) and she was heading to the toy: don’t grab for her, as that will cause her to move away faster LOL!! You grabbed her this time, but next time she will be quicker and we don’t want her to avoid any collar grabbing. So if she gets to the toy? No biggie, tell her she is cute, take the toy, reset the rep. You help the send more at 2:09 and she committed nicely!
For the party of one moments, you can make the tug toy bigger by attached a leash to it, so as she grabs one end, you can grab the other and tug with her. Or, you can have a 2nd toy in a pocket so you can reward her with the 2nd toy for coming back. She did have little party of one romps but they were short and sweet, and she was good about coming back, so I am not worried about it 🙂
Round 2: this one had the food bowl! Yum!
On the sends, hold your position forward until she is just about at the barrel, If you move away before she arrives at the barrel, she doesn’t commit (like on the first rep and at :44 and 1:01). When you hold the send until she arrives at the barrel, she is GREAT! A perfect example is at 1:13: you were pretty far from the barrel but you held the send until her nose was at the barrel, then did the FC: perfect!
The blind cross elements looked really good too. The food bowl was a good focal point but not too distracting.Round 3 – after the food, it was hard to go back to the toy so that helps us plan the sessions… all toy work done first, then food then take a long break before going back to the toy. Then when you do go back to the toy, make the toy really wild – when you get to it, throw it and be crazy and.
When you added the decel with the cookie, she was not interested in the toy anymore as you noted: so when working with the toy, do the decel with an empty hand 🙂 When working with the food bowl, you can have the cookie in the decel hand. If she struggles with the toy and the decel/pivot, you can work that skill with a food bowl only til she likes it more – then you can work in the toy without also working on the food, it can all be worked separately for now 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Ugh, I hate when iOS does a fancy update then nothing works anymore!!!
No need to edit the start or end of the videos, it will save you some time if you don’t need to worry about editing.This session looked good!!!
She did well hitting her target here! It was a good mental warm up to have her hit it a few times before you did the strike a pose. Nice job having her drive in to the target hand and then really strong mechanics with the reinforcement! She has a TON of value for it and was hitting it pretty hard!!! Yay! She had one question at the end, where she ended up going to the cookie hand and not the target – my guess is that she lost her train of thought perhaps? Or was anticipating the turn from the target to the treat? Either way, no problem – you can wiggle the target hand a little to keep her focused on it.
I think the hardest part of this game was finding the tossed treats in the grass. So, you can try different things:
You can put a big towel out on the grass and toss the treat onto it, so she can find it easily.
or, you can use a sit stay if you think that will be easy for her.>> This wasn’t very “energized”…..but will wait for some feedback before I push ahead.
This particular piece of the strike a pose puzzle doesn’t need to be very energized 🙂 We are looking for precision here, so we don’t need her to be too excited about it. Finding the cookie more easily will help her come back quicker to the target. And, if you want to use her stay, you can add more excitement now with a toy! She starts in a stay and the toy replaces the cookies. Because there is not a lot of movement, you will not want to have any food in the picture at all here, so the toy has maximum value.
Hi!
I totally understand how hard it is to juggle ALL THE THINGS especially at this time of year! You are doing a great job! And a break here and there is actually a good thing for the puppy 🙂
I think you will find that the games build on each other a lot at this point, so it is relatively easy to catch up and add the new stuff – so definitely train with no pressure! When I am feeling pressed for time, I always set a timer for the session. That helps me curb my tendency to want to do ALL of the things at once – when the timer goes off, the session is over (and there is usually no need for another session that day). Plus it helps me figure out what the puppy needs for the next session 🙂
So no worries if you take things slowly and reduce the pressure, that is the best choice! Onwards to the videos 🙂
TracyGood morning!
I am sending you a big click/treat for revisiting the Rear crosses – she is definitely getting the idea! In your next session (keep going with these, don’t put them away LOL!): Delay the release now til she is fully looking the new direction and you have passed her shoulders – she is anticipating the releasing coming as soon as you cue behind her tail so she is self-releasing and turning back towards you (especially when she is turning to her left) so delaying the release will help stop the anticipation and self-releasing from the stay. The prop was too far away to be salient because after the release, you were moving your cookie hands so she was looking at the cookie 🙂 So you can move the prop in closer to it is salient and don’t move the cookies til she hits it – the placement of the prop can be on the line she would be turning to after the rear cross, rather than straight ahead.I think she is ready to have the stay faded out of this, too (which effectively solves the issue of anticipation of the release 🙂 The prop can be out on the line , you toss a cookie back near you to get her moving, then as she starts moving forward, you cut in behind her super early and see what happens (hitting the prop is not terribly important here, it is just a focal point to get her driving forward).
The sends looked great, she loves the action 🙂 and her commitment looked great! Your mechanics were strong but you can slow down between reps (everyone is rushing a bit, so I am bugging everyone :)) Before each rep, give yourself a moment to get the mechanics ready, get the toy scooped up, remember the verbal… then send. It all happens so fast that sometimes the word is wrong, or she isn’t ready, or you twitch too soon, or the toy is flying around (and we don’t want her to smack your knee – OUCH!)
Yes, I agree that she is turning wider to her right – it might be a side preference thing, or it might be that she has more room turning right here than she does turning left. So you can do two things:
Give her less room turning to her right LOL! Move it closer to the wall – we don’t want her running into the wall, but a little less room can help her sort out her mechanics to be tighter, same as she is doing on the left turns where she is tighter because there is less room.
And – do lots of the turn and burn where you work turning to the right with the really tight exits, right near the jump. That will help! I have a couple more games coming for you as well, and that can help. Stay tuned!I am glad the retrieve is going well!!! YAY!!! And yes – the next step is to get you higher off the ground – I think you can repeat the process you are currently doing (don’t mess with success!) but change your position very slightly: sit on a pillow. Then sit on a low table or Cato board. Then on a chair, then the couch… then you can go to kneeling on a chair and then, eventually… standing. It might take a session or two, or it might take weeks LOL! But no rush, she is doing GREAT!! In just the last few weeks, her value for food rewards and for dead toys has come way up, giving you a much bigger toolbox of reinforcement for training. YAY!!
Great job here!! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! These games are looking good! A couple of little details about the sessions:
On the sends to the barrel:
To really get him to commit, slow down your mechanics 🙂 I am bugging everyone about this because everyone gets into a loop that is too quick for the dog and then the dogs make mistakes. His errors here were due to you sending him too quickly. After each reward, call him to you, do the ready dance moment, then send. It is not an immediate loop back to the send after he eats the cookie, you will want to reset his start position on each rep That allows him to be ready for the next cue and it also allows you to be clean and clear on the send and your position. On a couple of reps, he was not quite ready for the send so he had questions.
Also, stay closer to the barrel for now – the looping immediately to the send after he ate the cookie was causing you to move away from the barrel each time, which put you too far away by the end of the session. We can add ore distance gradually but for now, let’s get a higher success rate. So that reset back in front of you is a pretty important piece of the process 🙂
Mat work: You are off to a good start on these!!
The refresh video looks good, his value for going to it is pretty high! MM can be further away now to build up more speed. And, you can move to clic,Int for back feet now (not front) – most running contact methods (or maybe all of them?) click for back feet.Box video – you are welcome to use the box and the mat together… but you don’t have to 🙂 The box can be a standalone target, shaped like you shape the mat – that way he is not looking for a mat, he is looking for the box. By only using the box, the progression is simpler because you don’t have to fade out the mat AND the box, just the box 🙂
About how to begin the value for the box: standing still first and letting him offer is how I suggest starting. I am not sure if he was actively seeking the box or mat, or if he was following you back and forth. My guess is he was looking at the mat and your motion, and the box was incidental. So you can take the mat out and just shape the box, without moving.
You did more of that on the 2nd video here with the box, and he was great! As with the mat, you can now go to clicking for back feet in the box (he will be entirely in the box). And, for now, no movement back and forth – just stand at one end with the MM at the other end, so he leaves you to go through the box, gets a reward, comes back through the box, gets another reward, and so on.The clicker mat is a really cool thing! But…. it will click no matter which foot hits it. So be sure that you also learn to watch for his back feet hitting the mat because that is what we want! The noise-maker mats tend to click on front foot hits and also sometimes when the dog walk vibrates, so the click might be info for you but not for him – you will still want to watch carefully to reward back feet hits. And you can use the mat by itself, it does not need to go in the box.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>> Well I’ll never be caught up until March lol I think I better mostly use the time in the hotel to be catch up.>>
I think you will find that things build on each other a lot at this point, so it is easy to play the games without feeling too behind. We still have plenty of time 🙂
>>Also, one of Tali’s littermate is wanting to start, with no experience and having trouble finding a place for her intact male indoors in St Augustine. Do you think this class would be good if she doesn’t have a tunnel? She will evidently, so would have skip tunnel stuff till she gets one. I’m not sure how much a tunnel is needed. She can still learn alot. Just wanted to check with you before telling her about it.>>
Sure! This is a good start and the tunnel stuff is relatively small, she can skip it. We have auditing available if she wants to join in 🙂
TracyHi!
>>When I first read this…I thought…no problem, I know how to shape her to “get on the thing” but I do it with a FOOD LOOP, cookie toss “reset.” But That’s not the point here, is it !!! So, thank you for explicitly pulling this out–shaping in arousal, switching from food to toy. This is a weakness of MINE, my dogs don’t normally switch well….so guess whose problem that REALLY is! *I* get too much reinforcement using food, and forget to switch.>>
You are 100% right – food loops are good for some things… but we need to be able to get more stimulation involved (so the dogs grow up to remain “thoughtful” while in the higher arousal elicited in the sport environment) and we also need to get the food-and-toys back and forth established 🙂
Plus this is great for working on handler mechanics!
It is a pretty universal struggle for all of us 🙂 which si why starting it simple with getting on a mat is the best way to do it.
>>Not sure how much arousal there is here, but it is baby steps!
There was enough arousal that she tried to grab the toy as you moved it away! And that is good, because there is also a self-control element: yes, you are excited, now ignore that toy and offer small foot movements 🙂
She did well here! Note how she was beginning to NOT grab for the toy by the end! And she was able to go back to food to offer behaviors, then back to the toy – perfect!
Mechanics were really good, just one little suggestion: You can take an extra moment between the end of tugging and target being place on the floor – you can try taking the toy back, getting the treats out and then putting the target down. That way you can be totally ready for that first offer, and have several treats in the hand so you don’t have to go back into the pocket for another. You can keep playing with this style of shaping, getting her to offer on just about anything you can think of in terms of climbing on or getting into 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHa! I don’t blame him, I would not want to lie down in the mud either LOL! He was a good boy in his sits here!
TracyHi! He is doing well here!
One thing that can makes things go very smoothly if you had more ‘ping pong’ of when you marked behavior and went to the remote reinforcement – the sequences were pretty long, so be sure to mix in some shorter sequences and easier reps, so he can get reinforcement earlier. That can help him be even more engaged because his rate of success will be higher so that as you extend it to add longer courses, he will stay engaged better because the reward could happen at any time. And, try to mark and then run back to the reward when he is moving away from it and not towards it – if you consistently do it when he is moving towards it on course, he will anticipate that and run for it when he sees it.One thing to train – can he stop on the DW without you rotating to face him and without reward on you? He had a little trouble with that, and it is a great winter project to get him to stop on the DW with you anywhere 🙂
The enxt step of true remote reinforcement wouldbe to not have your bait bag on your waist 🙂 (I think that is what it is!) So there is truly nothing on your person, it is all remote.
And good job adding in the balance of the toy in your hand.And with the handling – he wasn’t being naughty about the jump versus tunnel on the line closer to the camera when you wanted the jump but he was taking the tunnel – your physical cues and position all said tunnel. so he was being a good boy 🙂
>>Do you have a blooper roll with your dogs I need more Tracy says and does this when her dogs mess up?
I do include the bloopers but I ping pong a lot, so there are not a lot of bloopers 🙂 One thing you can do if you get a blooper during the remote reinforcement is bring him back to start again on leash! It is easier than waling him back by the collar and also it helps get hte leash into the picture as part of the process.
>>And I finally found a none squeaky ball he will fetch consistently outside we’ve been doing a few blow steam off fetches at the end of these.
Awesome! A bit of running around is definitely a great balance for him!!!
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>, I observed a few dogs that had been trained to get their leash from a chair after their run. This should help with diverting focus on the ring gate where treats tend to happen.>>
I am not sure if those dogs were actively trained to do that, or if they were experienced enough to have made the connection by themselves LOL! Either way – I agree that it gives the dogs a focal point that starts the reinforcement process 🙂
TracyHi!
Welcome back, it looks like it was so fun!!!
>>Road tripping and practice hasn’t worked.
Understandable and relatable!
>> I could actually catch the live class tonight, but I haven’t done anything from last week and 1 from 2 weeks ago 🤦🤦 So would it be better to use tonight to catch up or watch the live class?
Come stop by the live class for a bit! And then when you are home and rested up, you can catch up!
>> Is it better to go in order?
Yes, it is better to go in order for most of the games we are adding tonight. But there is one that you can do right away. Plus the other games will give you an idea of where we are going with things 🙂
>>On a positive Steve’s 4th place finalist, won $50 J & J gift certificate and $100 from AKC, so I’m using it for a manners minder 🙌 I just have to find the gift certificate……>>
WOW! CONGRATS!!!!!! That is so exciting!!!!!!!!!
Tracy
Good morning!
This all looked great!Rotated sends – He was totally getting the hang of this! As you cue the send, your arm doesn’t have to swing, it can indicate on the entry side of the barrel without circling around it. I think he was more comfy with the sideways sends by the end of the sesison here, so on the next session start with those them go to the backwards sends.
Contacts – This is going well too! He has plenty of value – the cookie makes it a little boring but we kind of want to keep it in the not-terribly-exciting zone for now 🙂 If you have a MM and he likes the MM, you can do a bit of back-and-forth by having the MM on one side for him to go get the reward, then when he hits it on the other side, you can toss the cookie. As you keep clicking, you can stare at the mat so you can see the moment his back feet hit it – that will make it easier to see as he gets faster and faster.
Parallel path – this is going really well too. Your Papillon running fast the other direction was so funny!! As you add more and more motion to this, try to click for his intent to move to the jump, not his arrival at the jump. You were clicking when he was arriving between the uprights, which was getting him to look at you. But if you click intent, meaning he has made the decision to move to the jump – and then toss the treat far to the other side – he is not going to look at you. So his ‘intent’ moment might be a solid 10 feet from the jump, and that is fine 🙂
I also think you can add more of your motion and use a toy reward – he is working beautifully for the cookies but I bet a toy would really mak things more exciting 🙂Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Sorry for any confusion – it has to do with the rotation of the lower body relative to the wing, and also that we don’t want your arm to ever need to cross your body to the opposite hip on a cue for a wrap (yes, we do that for threadles or certain styles of reinforcement but ideally not for rotated sends for crosses or wraps).So if she is turning to her left:
on a forward send, your belly button would be facing the wing and you would send her on your right arm.
On a sideways send with her turning to her left, your left hip would be next to the wing and you would send with your left arm/leg (as if you were already done with a front cross and you were going tp pick her up on your left side after she finished the cross)On a backwards send with her turning to her left, your back would be facing the wing and you would send with your left arm/leg (also if you were finishing a FC and picking her up on your left)
So with the left turns that started at :35 (and also at :41) – as you sent her, your left hip was facing the wing but your right arm and leg indicated the wing and that caused you to almost fully rotate but not entirely (your left leg stayed planted). It is possible that you were thinking of this as the forward send, so used the right arm/leg – but you were rotated to start it so ideally the left arm/leg would be more useful there.
At :47, you did a fully sideways send to perfection – so what might be happening is that your lower body is starting in roughly the same (sideways) sending position at both :35 and :47, but you were thinking of :35 more as a forward send? If so, face the wing more directly on the forward sends so your toes and belly button ar facing the wing.Hopefully that makes more sense. If not, I will get a visual for you.
Tracy
Good morning!
>> I do actually wear different clothes everyday, I just always throw on this grey dog training sweatshirt (or the black one) with tons of pockets when it’s time to train and it’s cold out.
Ha! I didn’t think anything of it… we have so much red clay and mud here that I always throw on whatever is old and already dirty LOL!!! And pockets are a MUST of course 🙂
The tandems with the prop look great! The earlier you called him to you, the better the rep was
like at :15 on your right side and at :46 on your left side and the last several reps on your left. If you waited til he was on his way back to you, even for a stride, he was (correctly) focusing on the line (on the prop). When you called him as soon as the cookie was in his mouth or swallowed, he came directly to the tandem turn. Nice!!! Eventually, on a simple tandem turn on course, that early name call with do the trick. Or, you’ll find that the threadles work similarly in terms of timing but we would use the threadle verbal.Nice work here! See ya tonight!!!
Tracy
