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Good morning!
>he comes charging to jump on me, which with his size is pretty dangerous. He often comes with an open mouth and he is going towards my face which makes it extra scary!!! Sometimes he nips at me. (He might go for my boob or butt)>
Alrighty then! I know he loves to run free on the beach but I agree – it is a safety issue. So the place to start is stopping all the rehearsal of it. That means no off leash privileges at the beach – think of it as kind of like taking away the drivers license of a teenager who has crashed the car. Putting him back on leash after it happens might not prevent the rehearsal so I think a full stop to that is important. Side note: it is basically the same behavior you see in agility, so similar neural pathways. We don’t need those to continue to strengthen, so we have found that not allowing any rehearsal of it anyway is a great way to eliminate the behavior everywhere.
A parallel example is dogs that charge dogs on the other side of a fence in the ring at a trial. That behavior is usually seen elsewhere in life, such as fence fighting with the neighbor’s dog or lunging on leash on leash walks. When we stop the rehearsal of fence fighting/leash lunging, the incidence of the charging at the ring gating in agility reduces almost immediately and then it is far, far easier for training to take hold and eliminate the undesirable behavior entirely.
So while thankfully he is not aggressively charging at other dogs, I think we should use a similar approach of not allowing rehearsal of the behavior anywhere to help eliminate in the ring.
Plus, OUCH! He could easily nip somewhere or ht you hard enough to accidentally really hurt you, which is definitely not what we want.
But since he will need a lot of exercise as an athletic young dog, leash walks on the beach are still great! And he can be offleash to run around anywhere that he will not charge you. You can also add in active fitness stuff like cavaletti work which are fulfilling for his brain and his body 🙂
He did a great job with the find my face game! He was looking for engagement when something unexpected happened (you disconnecting/turning away) but he kept all of his feet on the ground. Yay! He did spend some time looking for a treat that got lost but then re-engaged. Good boy!!
This game can go with you on leash walks (just randomly play it and toss treat) and you can add a bit of tugging before it to add a little bit of arousal.
>and then used it after a REALLY bad/late cue for a tunnel after the dogwalk.>
It is not quite ready to go into course work yet, because he did pummel you here. The number one thing for now in course work is to keep going *no matter what*. Doesn’t matter if you think he made the error (he probably did not LOL) – keep going to another line then reward as if he was correct. That falls into the ‘don’t rehearse the behavior anywhere’.
You will have to ignore all the seminar presenters and instructors that will want you to stop and ‘fix’ his error – it was probably not his error and any indication that he was incorrect might lead to you getting pummeled. The indication here on the video at 1:41 was when you stopped moving, turned your back – and when he came to you, you said “where is your tunnel” – he did not know where it was so he jumped up at you. Yes, he sat and got a cookie, and then the pattern game changed his arousal state – but we really want to eliminate that initial jumping up at you. So keep going no matter what, reward, then reset the next rep without any indication that something was wrong.
On the next rep here: he went to the tunnel on the line you set at 2:38 – rewardable! The tunnel was not visible on the video, but he went where your line sent him. I thought it was what you wanted until you indicated it was not correct. Was it the DW contact? So be super clear about what you want and reward his effort so you don’t get the jumping up.
>The May 4-6th dates will work for JAG. There was a meeting tonight and several folks were asking for the dates…so it should be fun!>
Awesome! It is on the calendar! Thanks 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
You and Bokeh rocked this game!
I think she was a little surprised on the very first rep, but then after that you had just the right amount of connection as you moved up the line.When she was on your left, she was also doing great after a quick check to see what was in your hand LOL!!! So for both side, you can keep the dog side hand empty and drop the reward in with the other hand.
We can really see independence developing already: there were multiple reps where we can see her moving to the backside without you needing to be that close – clear daylight between you and her! Very cool! So as you revisit this, you can move up a parallel path that is increasingly further across the bar – and keep the great connection you had. You also had your push backside going here which is great: you can say it multiple times rather than once, so she can really process it as we add more independence. It also helps maintain connection: say push push push push to her eyes as you move up the line, until you see her heading to the backside.
Great job here!!
Tracy
Hi!
Serp: He is coming in really well to the target hand on both sides and seems to have no trouble at all with the ‘pressure’ of being that close to you. Super! You can get the reward on the line but extended away from you so he can move fully over the jump bump.
Since this went so well, you can proceed to the next steps: a reward target on the ground on the line (can be an empty food bowl that you plop the cookie into, or MM, or a toy, whatever you think he will drive to on a marker without you needing to move). And you can also show him the threadle version of this – I think that will be very easy for him.
The head turn game went really well. Excellent mechanics of the nice low hand to catch his attention and turn him away – he was really turning his head into the turn nicely 🙂 You started tossing the treat from the other hand (rather than the turn hand) and that seemed like it was easier mechanics? And using the toy as the reward was fun to see: the toy brings more excitement but he did not lose the precision of the turn. SUPER!! You can move this game forward to the advanced level of marking the head turn as he approaches the upright for the first time – then if that goes well, try the 360 backside circle wraps 🙂
Threadle wrap foundations with motion: also very nice! He seemed to be perfectly happy to come to the hand cue then turn away, both in the turns and the full circles.
Since this was very easy for him, you can move forward to adding something to wrap around – posted yesterday!Great job here 🙂
TracyGood morning!
>He likely has teething stuff happening. He’s been extra chewy the last couple of days. His teeth seem to be very slow growing and it seems some teeth still are not fully grown in yet. He also possibly has a couple of adult teeth that are fully missing. He is 7.5 months now and the vet recommends an xray at a year old if teeth have not grown in to check that they are just missing and not impacted.>
Interesting! And good to know. Maybe the vet can get the x-ray earlier than a year if the teeth are not where you want them? We don’t want pain to be an issue at all!
>. When I offered other toys after he turned off the first, he seemed interested when I first offered but wouldn’t fully engage so that seems to indicate more something with teeth I think? >
Entirely possible and something to keep an eye on for sure!
>He has been extra interested in his food the last 2 days though, where previously he would turn off food when teeth were bothering him. He does seem to like to change things up on me, lol, so not a huge surprise if he’s not being consistent with that.>
We can probably file some of it (all of it? LOL!) into the Joy s Of Adolescence file 🙂
>I will get him a lotus ball as it seems likely it will be helpful for him. I have to acquire one as my other dogs never needed it, so hopefully we can try that out next week.>
He might like the regular one, but they also make ones that are fur-covered! My toy-driven dogs really love that one.
>Just to clarify on adding distance and speed to rocking horses. Is this done separately or at the same time? >
I think for him, add the distance and let him sort out the speed. He might need to think about it at first but then he will be flying.
>Am I running between the barrels but also still sending? >
There are 2 variations in th advanced level:
– yes, you can be sending and not running. That is where you will only want to add little bits of distance so the sending stays easy enough for him to go to the barrels.>Or, doing the running reps and building out distance to send in separate sessions?>
There is also the option of you moving more so you can show him the earlier FC rotation – it is like a moving version of the sideways sending. The dogs like the movement but the rotation getting earlier and earlier is challenging.
>His stay is not stellar yet. In fact, he was doing well with it and then turned anti-stay which seems typical for his age>
Probably because of a combination of 2 things: the other games where he goes and does a thing are more valuable! Plus, adolescents just need to move more in general.
So add movement into the stay games (I know, sounds weird LOL!!) All of the rewards involve movement by either throwing a reward back for him to go get, or releasing forward to chase you.
>I actually haven’t been working on it at all recently and definitely not in combination with other things.
You can protect it by playing with the stay as a separate game 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
The platform game looks fun and definitely helps with a nice tuck sit. You can eventually fade out the chutes. And the tight sit work is something we all re-visit throughout their careers.>For the 360 game, I just used a cone because my barrels are so big.>
The cone works well! I use cheap pop up laundry baskets from Walmart. I think they were $2 LOL!!!
The 360s went really well!!! This is a hard game because of all the countermotion and I think he was super!
You can line him up to start with a cookie – he knows the toy is involved and is very excited, which makes it is a little harder to get the lineup. Plus, you can start adding the backside circle wrap verbal – and the way to do that is to have him at your side, hold his collar, say the verbal 3 or 4 times… then let him to go star the wrap. The cookie line up will make it all easier to begin that process.
>He seems to much prefer wrapping to his right.>
Yes, he seems a little stronger to his right but I think he did well on both sides. A big click/treat to you for a session that was really good: you were gradually progressing the skill by changing where you placed the reward. Super!
The right turn reps all looked strong.
When you switched sides, you were too fast on the first rep to the left but when you slowed it down to start like you did on the right side, he did really well! I think you did a lovely job progressing it gradually – for the left turns, keeping your motion a little slower worked well and the food rewards were very effective! Then going back to the toy at the end was lovely.So for the left turns, moving a bit more slowly totally helps. You will be able to crank up the speed soon enough 🙂
Great job!!
Tracy
Aha! Here is the reward on the ground. Super! (And be sure to reward stays like I mentioned above so he doesn’t think hand movement is the release).
He did really well here, especially on the harder angles! Since the MM helps provide line info, as he is coming in for the threadle, you don’t need to close your shoulders to point to it – you can keep your shoulders open and move parallel to the jump so he doesn’t rely on you pointing to the bar after a threadle.
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
He did really well here too! Yay!
For these backside slices, you can add a wing to the entry side of the backside – that will give him a bigger visual to go around as we add more challenge to the game.He did really well sending to the backside here, so you can move to the next level. Rather than step and send, we will have you set the line from further back with the parallel line motion. Start him from a stay facing the line to the backside (at least 10 feet away) – then you begin moving forward *then* release him with this backside verbal. That way he can see the line of motion before the release and will stay on his line to it. Your line will be towards where the wing bar meet.
When he can do that, you can start to add lateral distance and independence by moving up the parallel line further across the bar, bit by bit. That can help us teach him som really big independence on his backside lines!
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
Strike a pose:
He was really good with his engagement here even with the distractions in the great outdoors!!He was reading the serps cues really well! When you changed sides – it was 100% correct based on what you were doing: showing a threadle cue so he threaded and took t he jump. Be sure you reward all of that so he doesn’t get confused.
He is ready for the next steps where the reward gets placed on the ground before he begins the rep, so he learns to come in then go out all by himself:)
He did a great job holding his stay – just be sure that your reconnection and hand movement is *not* part of the release. I think he might think it is, because your release and hand movement/looking at him are coming at the same time. So mix in a couple of things to solidify the stay:
– get to position, put your hand out, look at him, praise….. then release
– get to position, put your hand out, look at him, praise….. then throw a reward back to him.That will help him know exactly what the release is.
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
>I used to think I was a decent trainer…. So many errors on my part. >
You are an excellent dog trainer! The hard part about puppy training is that it is not as systematic as we want it to be. I feel like we are all basically re-learning mechanics every time we get a puppy because we are also learning about the puppy’s specific needs and preferences. Our adult dogs have trained us already:) so it feels easy but those mechanics might not apply to the new puppy.
>Toys are tricky now as she only likes a few and it changes, But, I’ll see what else I can find that she may actually play and tug with. Dot likes chase better then tug so far.>
I think the tugging will get easier when the teething is less a part of the issue. For now, chase and grab is a good way to go and we will gently and gradually get more tugging.
The first parallel path (cookie rewards) was a really good session! She was fast and accurate, finding her jump. YAY!! And yes, there was a good noise distraction that she overcame. Plus, the session was short and you broke it off for tugging. A click/treat to you both! Keep revisiting this here and there, with you adding more and more lateral distance.
On the retrieve video: I am not sure she was retrieving to you as much as you had very fast hands to catch the toy as she was running past with it. Then when you reached for it on the 3rd rep, she was like “nope!” And went the other way LOL! Smart girl LOL!!
So to get her coming to you more and not trying to go past you – use a 2nd toy as a reward. When she picks up the thrown toy and turns to head in your general direction, only one step or two – you can be running the other way and whip out toy #2 to engage her with. She might drop toy #1 at that point but that is fine for now: getting her driving to you is more important>No hackberries were harmed in the making of this video. So this is huge progress.>
Excellent! These were lovely sessions!
Great job!!
Tracy
Good morning!
The Ace bag makes me smile every time I see it 😂 😆
This went great too, he was finding the line to the backside very well and the verbal is added. Super!!!
As you add more independence where you are further across the bar on the backside, you can toss the toy down to the landing side behind you so he looks back for the bump even as you are moving past it. I think he is ready for you to be moving up the line to the 2nd position (center of the bar) and further over to 3rd position (far side of the bar). It might need to happen outdoors or at your training facility to give you enough room.
It is possible on the front side balance reps that there was not quite enough room for him to see the difference in your line: it still looked enough like a parallel path line that he was going to the backside. So having a low hand cue really helped, and you can also save the balance reps to where you have enough room to really change the line and move away from the parallel path.
Seems like he got your hand (hard to see but seems that way based on your reaction at :41 when you were reaching for cookies). The transition of letting him keep tug while you reached for cookies was probably part of that – a little moment of disconnect and a ouchie re-grip!
You made a big adjustment which was fantastic and much cleaner after that, to help protect your flesh: at 1:09 after a tug reward, you did some outs and then a cookie toss to make the transition into the next rep. It was even cleaner and smoother at 1:50 – 2:13 for example. This adds extra focus to that transition out of tugging and I think it is great for protecting your hands!! He has improved a lot with this and seems to be hand-gripping a lot less, so definitely keep going with those clean mechanics!!
Great job 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
This is the advanced level where we mark turning the head as the pup approaches the upright: I like how he was immediately offering the head turn as he approached the upright! Good boy!!!
You can mix in helping him turn away from the second wrap (like we did in the first level), so he completes the circle and isn’t anticipating the cookie placement when you click. And you can also give him an arm & leg step to the upright so he knows that he has permission to start. Without the cue, he was sometimes lining up at your side and waiting. But with the cue, he was lovely and smooth on the way to the wing like on the last rep, that was lovely!!
He looks ready for the next step, where you are doing the 360s with your movement: a backside circle wrap.
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
Good session here! I agree – she seems to know that it is about getting her front feet on the perch. And she was thoughtful about it, which I love!
So why was she having trouble with it? I think the perch might actually be too small to let her be able to put both front feet on it in a comfortable stance. She could get one foot on it comfortably but not the 2nd foot. If you look at where she had one foot one (like at 1:44), the 2nd foot was either up in the air or on the ground next to it. When both feet were on, she had to squish the together a bit – and that probably is what her brain was devoting all of the bandwidth too: getting feet on and staying balanced.
Easy solution: you can make the perch bigger by just enough than she can get both feet on very easily. This can be 2 or 3 inches – do you have another perch like this and you can duct tape them together? We don’t want it to be massive 🙂 but it should be wide enough that she can easily step onto it without having to think about it too much.
I think the height of the perch is really good – we just need a little more room for her front feets. 🙂
Then it will be pretty easy to get her hind end moving by tossing treats to the sides so she can circle with her hind end back to front.
Nice work!
Tracy
This is so true about the peer pressure. Be sure to hang out with supportive people only! And I have found that staying off of social media helps too, so I don’t see all of these young dogs doing adult things. Even though I know it is not what I want to do, it can still mess with my head! Social media is bad LOL!!!
T
Good morning!
>>The 80% rule is a good one but I like to be a little more like 90% with adolescent dogs due to their ever-shifting adolescent sensitivities LOL! This stuck out to me – good to know, and makes sense as they start to process/remember more things.>
I believe that 80% rule came from Bob Bailey as something he taught trainers in his chicken camps. It was perfect for chickens (and trainers-in-training) because chickens are intrinsically motivated to do the tasks asked of them with the chicken feed we are holding. Plus the chickens were not adolescent and honestly, I am not even sure if hens have an adolescent brain development period like dogs/mammals. LOL!
And dogs are different from chickens – I don’t think a Dalmatian, for example, is intrinsically motivated for agility so the reinforcement needs to be really great and paychecks need to come pretty often 🙂 Or a Papillon and flyball… I don’t think there are any genetics or epigenetics or intrinsic motivation there! So being as close to 100% rate of reinforcement as possible while also leaving enough failure for the help in learning and motivation that failure is useful for.
>Skizzle and I participated in a nosework trial this past weekend. It was a great “trial weekend” for him – just 15 months now. He handled the dogs, site, people, environment quite well – not without some moments of distraction, but very good considering his baby brain. It was also a bit of a break from agility things, which is ok.
That is great! The behavior people have been telling us for a while that scent sports are great for dogs, and now there are studies confirming it!
>IDK – seems like through the legs is valuable for setups/training for agility (and obedience, etc) – where maybe I need to incorporate it more into multiple settings instead of reserving it for fetch? >
I think setting up between our feet is a good lineup for sports! I use it as a way to come into me for some control before whatever we do next – basically, the dog lines up and waits, and whatever happens next usually takes a short while (no immediate explosions LOL!) If it is only for fetch (like go between ight feet then run because we throw it), it becomes less of a line up and more of a run through to get the toy – same as a behind the back skill that people use for disc throws, it becomes associated with the high value fetch or chase game so the dogs start looking out ahead for that.
>I still haven’t sent him over a jump bar yet (only cavaletti) – so he cracks me up with his hops over the bar on the ground.>
That was so cute!!! And he did a greta job finding it! He is old enough for a bar so it is on the radar for being adding to this game soon. We do add jump organization work in MaxPup 2, which will help him get over the bar efficiently.
The backyard parallel path session was definitely his best one so far!!!!! YAY!!! He is looking for the jump now almost perfectly. You can put a pool noodle or low bump between the uprights so he has a bigger visual there and it is a precursor to a bar.
I see the rep where he went between your feet and took off running for the toy throw… he didn’t take the jump there and it looks like he ran *next* to it and jump an invisible bar hahahaha So yes, I think the between-the-feet lineup might be something you stay away from around the jump for now. A different type of lineup, like being at your side, will provide a context cue that we are doing jumps rather than the between the feet lineup which is a context cue for chase the thing 🙂
For the backside slice game – he did well staying on the parallel line to the backside! Yay! Great job adding the verbal. And he was easily able to find the ‘front’ of the bar when asked too. To add more lateral distance (where you are moving to the center of the bar) it will be easier if you are a step or two ahead. You can use a stay to get a couple of steps ahead if you think his stay is strong enough for you to release while you are moving a few steps ahead. If you want to protect the stay, you can send him to a bowl with a treat in it so you can be moving up the line just before he moves up the line.
Great job here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
OMG – BASEBALL sized hail – EEK!!! I am glad you didn’t get any damage at your house. I like the non-dramatic Spot doing his thing. This went really well!>I see that you use 2 hands for your threadle wraps. I’ve been working with Lee Gibson and he has made me stop using the offside hand I used to use.>
That is perfectly fine! It is really handler’s choice, based on feedback from their dog(s). There is no one-size-fits-all approach. I found that one hand worked perfectly for all of my dogs, big and small, when I was comfortably ahead. But when I was parallel or behind? They didn’t see the one hand as well – especially the smaller dogs (I have 2 dogs running in the 12″ class) and when I was behind. They saw the 2-hand cue perfectly no matter where my slow-running-butt was 🙂 so, 2-hands it is for Sklenar doggos. And it has to be the same for all of the dogs, because I do not have the mental bandwidth for different cues when running 4 or 5 dogs LOL!
But the other elements of the threadle wrap cue involve line, motion, verbal – and that is important regardless of hand preference.
Looking at the video:
Well done on the push to backside versus front side reps!!! Your running line was basically the same (as we wanted it to be): to the wing closer to the tunnel. But the cues as he exited the wing wrap were different: there was a bit more shoulder turn on the front side of the jump cues, a bit of a softer connection and a different verbal of course. Compare to the backside push cues like at :26: more intense, bigger connection, more urgency in the verbal. LOVE IT! That easily cued the backside will allowed you to nail the timing and position of the blind at :27. Click/treat for you and Spot!!You were a little late with the push cue at :36 – he was a stride past the exit of the wing wrap and looking at the front of the jump, but he did respond to the push cue and went back out to the backside. You got the FC really nicely (good timing!) and then had a good running line and verbal to get to the TW on the wing at :39. I did not see the dog-side hand clearly as part of the cue, so you might need to emphasize it more when there are other options out there or you are not as far ahead.
The next rep of that sequence :43 – :53 was even stronger, because your ‘push’ timing was better and the blind set up the TW more easily. I think you were trying to get the TW dog-side arm cue in, but in the moment he would need it you were switching the reward to the other hand, so a reward in your pocket will make it easier for the quick hand cues.Play the next section without the sound:
Compare 1:02 where your line of motion which looked exactly like a front side cue
versus the runs at 1:11 and 1:19, where your line of motion was a big pull away and your dog-side arm swung back then dropped forward, and he got itYes there were TW wrap verbals on all 3 of those reps but the physical cue overrode it on the first one (you can see him looking at you to figure it out).
So definitely keep the shoulder turn that changes the line of motion to indicate the TW. I would like to play with getting it, without having to pull away laterally because that negates one of the reasons we like TWs: they can get us really far ahead on course!! Plus the lateral pull away in this setup put you almost in the tunnel 🙂
Things to consider – instead of pulling away laterally as he exits the wing, you can turn your shoulders and feet parallel to the line he needs to take to get the TW while you continue to move forward. That can cue the line AND keep you ahead! And of course, use your TW verbal and dog-side arm. Are you doing the arm cue as a straight arm, closed hand, kind of punched down at your side? That can fit really nicely with turning your shoulders to the line!
Because words might not be as effective in describing this, I made pictures of what I mean by the line, versus what you were doing. It is here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CTxU0pZJM-9LixMdUBtkzBQ61tEd2By4YhcvjfQI7J8/edit?usp=sharingLet me know what you think!
Great job!Tracy
