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Hello and welcome!!
You do indeed have a working spot, I am glad you got started!! She is SO CUTE!!!
First video:
Shaping the prop value is really all about handler mechanics – one suggestion at the very beginning is to get the cookies ready before you put the hat down, so you can get that first reward in right away. She is showing good value, and that will make things easier in the next games!>>sometimes I am not exciting enough and she leaves. Defiantly had too much in my hand and not enough rewards.>>
She was definitely into the toy! Yay!! And yes – you can take an extra heartbeat to make the transition to have to cookies ready, put the toy down on a table right near you, or something close by. And when you do play with the toy, be sure to be fully engaged and a little wild during the play, so she can totally get into it – this might also mean that you don’t have anything else around or nearby, because it might draw her focus away from the game with you.
When you switch to the sends, you might need to tuck the toy away so it is not hidden behind your back or put it on a table that is nearby – having it tucked behind you was too tempting for her so she had a hard time taking her eyes off it LOL!! I like to have a chair or table nearby so I can grab something or put something down to make clean transitions and so the pup can focus on the game we are playing (and so we don’t feel like we need 27 arms LOL!)
One more suggestion is to replace the ‘yes’ with the get it marker so she learns get it means the treat will be tossed. That will help her stop looking at you, and looking more at the prop.
Food bowl game – she is definitely happy to eat the cookies! Two suggestions that should make things feel more comfortable and help establish the flow: this is a game that should be started with you sitting on the floor or a low chair, so it is really easy to get the cookies into the bowls fast. And have your treats ready in both hands so you can quickly drop them in to establish the rhythm – going into the pocket was interrupting the flow. Have 5 or 6 in each hand, to get her going back and forth.
Baby retrieve: she is doing well!!! You might need to have fewer toys available because she might not know which one is “in play” if there are bunch – she was bringing it towards you really nicely! You can also reward bringing the original toy with switching to another toy, if that is her current preference (that can really help her maintain this nice retrieve!!!).
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! These games are also going well!
For the backing up – start him with all 4 feet on the mini teeter like you did at :23, I think that really got things rolling. For now, don’t use your verbal cue – his current form is lifting from his front end more than using his back end independently, so we don’t want to name it til his form is more fluid (will take a few sessions of keeping things up close to the board so he only has to step back onto it, because it is so hard!)
I think you ended up up moving a little too quickly in terms of increasing criteria by getting further from the board, because it was really hard for him to ‘find’ the board with his back feet – you can stay closer for now and so his back feet just have less than an inch for stepping back onto it, so his form is good (backing up straight, head lowered, feet each moving independently). You might find that sitting on the ground for this is easier than bending over, because he is so little 🙂>>curious about your thoughts on whether I should avoid this object for backing up if I plan to teach running contacts??
This is fine to use, even with running contacts on the agenda in the future 🙂 Anything that helps him understand where his feet are (especially back feet) on planks will be super useful for the dog walk and teeter! And he won’t be confused about what happens on the real contacts when that training begins.
Collection sandwich:
>>Wow, this was hard to coordinate those hands, run straight, get my timing down, etc.!
Totally agree! It is one of those games where a 3rd or 4th arm would be so nice!
This is going well – the pups give us feedback about our mechanics and connection on this, which is really helpful. There were times where you are really connected, and he found the side change really well on the blind! And then if you were not connected, he couldn’t find the side change – like at 1:00. That is a great example of you probably being able to see him, but he could not see your eyes so he did not know where to be (you can totally reward those moments because it is good info from the pup :). To get great connection, look for his eyes more by reaching your arm way back to his nose – it was nice and low here but also it was at your side, which closes your shoulder forward so it is hard from him to se your eyes and shoulder position.
The only other tweak here is to decelerate after the blind, before the pivot. That will help him be prepared for the pivot so he can turn nice and tight to you – that little decel worked really well! When you were moving fast the whole time, he had a harder time making the turn like at :47 or 1:15. That deceleration will also help set up nice turns when we add in wings and jumps in the future!
Rear crosses – this started off really well! First rear cross was nice and early, 2nd one too! So he nailed those beautifully. Things started to get a little later after that, so he started asking questions and then it got harder to convince him to drive ahead – which made it harder to be early with the RC. So, mix in a lot of reps of going straight to maintain the driving ahead, and then you can throw in a rep or two of being able to show the RC as early as you did in the beginning here. When you are nice and early, he reads them beautifully!
Nice work here!
Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Thanks for the fitness info, it sounds really interesting!!!!
He did well with the parallel prop game here! He is so fun!
One important thing is to NOT mark when he misses – we don’t want to build in any markers that might lower his rate of success or end up as punishment markers (that can increase stress of frustration) – he knows that it was not quite right based on lack of cookie throw 🙂 . If he has an error, just keep moving and head back the other way, getting a little closer in to help set up success. To help make it feel smoother, you can adjust the mechanics of the session: toss a treat away to get started and use visible treats – and then when he hits it, you can use a ‘get it’ to toss so it helps him predict looking ahead (you made the adjustment to tossed treats later in the session and that worked a lot better).
You can reduce the lateral distance a bit – when you were really far, he would go near it but not hit it. So, if he has 2 errors, get closer and stay in flow, rather than mark the error or stop.>> one of the biggest was keeping his attention enough not to leave for the prop without me.
I see what you mean, he definitely was ready to go! This is a good question because leaving without you can often set up an error. So for this game, you can toss the cookie further away to give you time to reset – then when he grabs it, yo are ready to start moving into the next rep. And if you need a moment to recombobulate, you can toss the treat, ask him to come to you for a treat, then start over. He won’t be sad about all the treats LOL!
Countermotion –
This is a good game for him to also get a cookie from your hand so you can reset – that cookie from your hand can build value for handler focus while giving you a moment to get the next rep ready,
He did really well here!!! I think the hardest part for him was hitting the prop when you moved away fast in the first part of the session, When you moved away more slowly after 1:20, he was very successful in terms of hitting the prop AND being comfy with you moving away – perfect!!!!
Something caught his focus right at the very end, no worries LOL!Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
She was pretty funny, turning around on her own – probably following cookie smells 🙂 Nice that she offers but also good to know that she starts without you LOL! I don’t think she realized she was supposed to follow your hand on the plank on this video, so you might want tp show her that on the flat then add it back to the plank, especially if she had trouble turning one direction over the other. I am guessing the turning around will be easy for her as soon as she fully realizes it is about following the hand.
Backing up:
She is definitely starting to get the idea and the food placement is definitely better here with the stool!
On the first video: Using this stool setup, you can start to delay placing the backing up cookie (from your left hand here) to see if she will begin to offer more backing up.
Skipping ahead to the part 2 – the backing up is looking good here because you were dealing the reward! Yay! I agree that she is may not know it was the mat (or maybe she does know?) because the mat is not that salient. You can try raising it a bit by piling under mat on it so there is a little step up. And if that goes well, start a little further away from the mat – that will let you know if she is actually “reaching” for it or if it is incidental. Either way – we are getting backing up and that is GREAT!!Parallel prop –
She is doing really well with the commitment! Yay! You can add a little more lateral distance here in coming sessions so you are further from the mat and she remains on her parallel path.>> Only thing is she is checking in with me for the treat when she touches the bag. Should I drop the ‘yes’ and just toss the treat?>>
Yes, drop the yes LOL! It is acting like a clicker: telling her the behavior is correct but not predicting where the reinforcement is coming, so she defaults to looking at you. So rather than “yes”, you can say your ‘get it’ marker and toss the treat out ahead. She might still look at you a little here but she will very soon begin to understand that get it means look ahead – just be a little early with the get it, you can almost anticipate that hit of the feet, picturing a jump replacing the prop so the goal is that she is looking ahead.
Great job here!
TracyHi!
I am really liking the frizgility approach! Normally 4 minutes would be too long but I don’t think it was too long for him here. YAY! I think he had a grand time here. He did sequences, he even has a little fix moment, no problem. Just be careful about him smashing himself trying to get the frisbee, we don’t want to break him 🙂And nice work ping ponging how much behavior you asked for before the ‘let’s go’.
A couple of little observations: The strike on the hard frizzy: yes, his mouth might have been sore but also as soon as he touched it, you moved it up hard and fast so he really couldn’t get a grip on it so he gave up, He was able to grip the soft friz better but still don’t move it up as uh: let him hit it and pull back, getting a good grip, before you move it.
You can also do a roller away fro the ring because he is not likely to get a throw in to the ring at a trial 🙂The leash going back on did not look punishing based on how he came towards it with happy body language – nice! And I like how you walked off at the end – lots of attention and I think heard something about “swim swim’ 🙂 Yay!
Really nice session! So keeping building this up with more and more behavior ping ponged in at home, and little versions of frizgility in other places to build up the behavior there too.
Great job!
TracyHi! Great job here!
>> Reilly did great on the get it game, so I tried in front of a tunnel. He glanced at the tunnel a couple of times, but stayed with me, is that ok or should I back off a bit.
He did really well! Would have normally sent himself into the tunnel? I don’t think you need to back off, I think he was just asking if your motion meant you were cuing the tunnel. If tunnels are very stimulating, you can play this with Reilly on a leash and 30 feet away (or further :)) from Jackson doing some tunnels!
He picked up the toy toy game REALLY nicely! “OK get it” might be muddy from when ‘get it’ was used for all sorts of things, so don’t say get it – you can say ok or toy toy, but no get it because he might get confused. The “ok snacks” at the end was perfect. You can also make his leash a toy and use it to ‘anchor’ his stays on the start line at trials. We will work more with the leash starting next week, so just picture it as the toy replacer here 🙂
>>At the show last Sunday Reilly was a perfect gentleman outside of the ring doing everything I asked. Once a the beginning he struggled and then had some good runs. Coming along I hope!>>
This is terrific news! I think he is coming along really nicely.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>Should I feed on the floor for backing up?Yes, you totally can a that will also help tb build more distance. But still have your hands (as focal point) nice and low she is not looking high and tracking the treat toss.
She picked up the value for the new prop really easily! The hat is working well!
For the parallel path work – she is the MASTER of being able to hit the prop AND look at you. So, since we want driving ahead to NOT having looking at you:
don’t click anymore for this game, it is building more looking at you 🙂 Instead, use a ‘get it’ marker and toss the treats like you were, so she is looking ahead.
And, if needed, you can marker early: as she is on her way to the prop with this game, you can mark with get it and toss before she hits (and therefore before she looks back at you) And then we can add in hitting it again, but hitting it on the parallel path game is less important than looking at you (and the cue differentiates the behavior of this game versus the sending).
And the sending is looking great! It is fine to click for this game because we do want her head to whip around back to you 🙂 And yes – since she was fine with the forward, sideways and a little bit of backwards sends, you can start to leave earlier – move forward when she is 1 inch from the prop, then 2 inches, then 3 inches, and so on 🙂Great job here! Let me know what you think and enjoy the trial!
TracyHi!
>>The toy I used for Turn and Burn was quite long – I will drag it on the ground and see how it goes. I also have another couple of long toys that would work. I was not really focusing on the toy placement, so thanks for pointing out that I don’t want her jumping up.>
You might need to attach something big to the bottom of the toy – for a while I had a hollee roller with a frisbee in it to keep the focus downward and not up at my hands 🙂
>>Question about the verbals – the way I use “check” now with Mari is for a wrap and coming back 180 degrees. When I look at the wrap of the bucket and the exit it is not the way I picture a wrap – it is more of a left or right since we are running off at 90 degrees (I hope I’m making sense). I only bring it up since I am guessing you have a different word for the 180 back (and I mean 180 with one jump. Jump wrap tight and go back the way you came from, like with a throwback type move).>>
It depends on what the behavior looks like on a wing, so mentally replace the barrel with a wing:
any time collection where the go comes back across the plane of this wing, for me, is the wrap verbal. In turn and burn, they are coming back across the plane of the wing immediately so it qualifies as a warp because my other 2 turn verbals are the ‘soft’ turn (left or right) where the dog collects but makes an “L” shape and does NOT come back across the plan, or the backside circle wrap which is a full 360 degree turn (and turn and burn is not the 360 degrees). So I use the wrap because it fits it the best and I don’t want to add more cues 🙂 I can draw it when I get home on Monday 🙂The BC to pivot is looking good – more room to run makes it more fun 🙂 Only one suggestion: decelerate sooner 🙂 You were tending to decelerate for the pivot when she was just about getting to you, so doesn’t have time to decelerate, shift her weight and turn really tight – you can see she is a little wide at :32 when you turn towards the camera. So, using the same distances here, do the blind at high speed like you were, then decelerate almost immediately – she will still be about 10 or 12 feet from you when she sees the decel, so she will have time to organize and turn wicked tight to you 🙂
Great job here! let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Great job with turn and burn! The longer toy was perfect in terms of being long to keep his head down, and you did a great job presenting it so he drove to it with a nice low head. YAY!!! For now, yes – start closer to the barrel. I suggest this to get hi going to the barrel faster. By starting a little further away, he is not as fast driving to the barrel as he is driving out of that, So to keep the balance of speed going to the barrel and well as chasing you out of it, start closer so he can explode to the barrel then chase you out of it 🙂 Then we will gradually back you up to add more distance.
Rear crosses – These look GREAT!!! The parallel path warm up looked good and then Was really happy to see that he was reading the RCs both directions when you were early enough (which you were on all but the first rep) – very cool! And also unusual, it normally doesn’t go this well LOL!!!! he was indeed a little calm here, but that is fine so he can process it – when you take it outside or have more room, you can get him more jazzed up and tat will challenge him to process the cues with more speed.
And you can alance with NOT rear crossing by moving in some parallel path and some of the sending more frequently – you did this at the end but you can totally mix it in sooner so you can keep him reading the cues each time.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHello! I am glad you are having fun and hope Mike feels better soon!!!
>> I also was finding it difficult to just send him around and WALK at a 90° angle away from him :).
I feel this pain. Welcome to Team Fake Chill where we pretend we are calm LOL!!! With calmness early in training, we are able to be NOT calm later on and the dogs still commit 🙂
>>WALK at a 90° angle away from him :).
You can run as soon as he gets to the spot you want but be chill until then.
One thing that might be pulling him off a little on some of the reps is when connection is not perfect, so try to look at his eyes a bit bit more even as you send forward. Also, since we don’t want to rely on perfect connection, you can start closer to the cone so it is easer for him to go to even if you are not fully connected.
You can also draw lines in the sand, where you hold position til he reaches that line, maybe halfway around (like at 1:49) so you don’t twitch til he is committed. He did well with all of the commitments where you held position til he was halfway around, and also when he was 1/4 of the way around – super!!! When you tried to leave as he arrived at the cone, he pulled off – no worries, he will be able to maintain commitment more and more in each session. That is the one place where you should walk – when you are ding the FC as he arrives at the cue, walk out of it til he completes the wrap, the run – that will help him maintain commitment while you move.
>> Earlier before we took this class we did some operant work with him where he was offering going around a cone and that is why he occasionally does that in the video clips. I grabbed some cookies to bring him back to me so he wouldn’t keep doing that. >>
I see what you mean, like at :48 – then he got frustrated and nipped. So, have a reset cookie ready and if he offers, call him back and use the reset cookie so he doesn’t get frustrated by the ‘rule change’ of no longer being rewarded for offering. You did that at 1:10 and it was GREAT!
The collection sandwich is looking good! There is a lot that happens in a short amount of time LOL!! He is reading the blinds really well and is going to handler focus on the pivot then to line focus with the going REALLY nicely! My only suggestion is that after the blind, you decelerate before the pivot, so he is more prepared to the turn turn on the pivot. Giving yourself more of a head start will help this (longer cookie toss to start or a stay or Mike can hold :))
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>We have for a toy and treat toss “get it”. Should we have different words for toy versus treat? For taking a treat from my hand I say “be dainty” because he was grabbing so much initially that it just turned into every time he takes a treat I say it. When I want to reward with a toy from my hand I just say tug because usually I am tugging with a tug toy or a holee roller ball. Do you have any verbal suggestions?>>
Those are good! I have variations on all of those, plus a marker that means “chase the moving to” (it is just a sound, I say shhhhhhhhhhhh).
So far, I haven’t found that the dogs need a different marker for get it toy or get it treats, because they read the context so well and I never throw both 🙂 It is fine to have 2 separate words, but with all of the verbal directionals, I am happy to NOT have additional marker words if the dogs are fine without them 🙂
Tracy
Hi! I am really glad to hear you do NOT have covid! Yay! That must be a huge relief 🙂 You have plenty of time to catch up plus it will be easier now that the live puppy class is ending. And also, with puppies, it always feels like there are a zillion things to do LOL! So as you are recovering, pick stuff that requires minimal movement so you can get stuff done – how is he doing with backing up onto something? You can totally do that from a chair 🙂
You can also try the Turn And Burn game with you walking: you can build up a to of commitment without running, and that will get you on track without being too hard if you are still not feeling great.
Keep me posted!
TracyHi!
>>you mentioned that you might have a list of cues people have used that we might find helpful? If you do have that, I would love to see it!
I do have a big list! I will post it when I get home from teaching this weekend and feel free to remind me on Monday 🙂
The collection sandwich looks really good!!! And I love how he goes back and forth from cookies to the toy!!
This game has a lot of mechanics but you are doing the really well!!! You can decelerate sooner after the blind, so he is more ready for the pivot – you might need to run more after the cookie toss so that he see you do the blind then slow down, because the decelerate will out him into collection for the pivot.
He is driving off of you nicely after the pivot when you throw the toy! He got a little cookie focused towards the end, so I love how you “won” the race on the go cue, teased him, then di one more get it to get him back on the toy. Yay! It was a great way t say “dude, you need to get the toy” in a really fun playful way.Grat job!
Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
She definitely has good toy drive! So let her engage with it more and pull back on it, like she was doing at the end of this clip. You can use a longer toy and let her grab it before it moves and then let her tug and pull and win it 🙂 If you let her have the toy without you holding it, will she run off with it? She might like “winning” the toy too!Tracy
Good morning!
Looking at the 2 wrapping sessions, things are moving along really nicely!
First video: she seems to have that back and forth rhythm now so you can fade out the early placement and let her offer before you put the cookie in. You can place the cookie when she is halfway or 2/3rds of the way around.Second session:
>>I had the treats between my knees but not hidden enough even after the tug session in the middle so she kept looking at them.>>
This is a perfect setup to let her learn that looking at the cookies does not get the cookies. So hooray that she is liking the cookies… but don’t hide them. Better to teach her to ignore them at this stage and let her offer behavior then to hide them because you’ll have to teach this skill at some point in the future anyway, might as well do it now 🙂 And I think she did really well!
As with the single pole – delay the cookie going to the target until after she offers going to and most of the way around the barrel, rather than putting it out there early for now. She is doing well, generalized quite nicely to the hamper!
>>Question – the description talks about working to standing up – what do we do for treat placement at that point? I couldn’t find a reference for that – probably missed it.
Start by sitting in a chair, then standing… you can leave your little targets in and get the treats down to them either with a quick bend and drop, or drop from the heavens 🙂 We fade the, out soon, but we don’t want to change more than one variable at a time so the variable we change here is your position.
She is doing well with the plank – the next steps would be a longer plank, and different planks!
I agree that you don’t want her flinging herself off for a toy or treat but you can use this setup to work the release: say your release and when she steps off, deliver the treat or the toy. That is a little less flingy LOL! Do this on the lowest plank – once it gets higher, then yes, we don’t want repetitive jumping off of the plank.Try to have her turn around in plank, slowly, rather than walk back and forth to turn around. That is more challenging for balance because she needs to engage her body and not use momentum to keep the balance.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
