[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! Great job on the videos!!!

First up – the wrap foundations:

>>Also, we just worked on an online class where we put control on a dish and did a collar grab to look at us for permission to go to the dish. The send to the dish was on a verbal. So I think that is why she keeps looking at me when I am not putting the food in the dish right away. So I might have to think on this to see if that will conflict with what we are doing there. It’s R+ control games foundations for bitey sport dogs. The setup is different though and I’m not sitting on the floor.>>

It is possible that looking at you is more valuable than the bowls here, but I don’t think it was the other game causing the issue especially if the setup is different – she probably just needs a session or two of you going faster with the cookie drops – do 2 or 3 short, fast sessions (30 seconds or less) of practically immediate cookie drops so she doesn’t have time to look up at you 🙂 and then on that 3rd session, you can start to delay a tiny bit more. She was starting to get it like at 1:02 and 1:27, so I think she just needed a little longer to get into the rhythm 🙂
You can probably do this all in one evening, taking short breaks between each session 🙂

>>Can I use a cone for this? We’re doing cone wraps in our in person class and we’re not progressing very quickly so this might help there.>>

Yes, this totally can be the cone! Start with something less obvious at first, like a skinny upright of some sort, then go to the cone. I have personally found this style of shaping it to be easier for the dogs than the way we used to shape the cone wrapping.

On the hand target video:
She gave you excellent feedback about placement of reinforcement and mechanics 🙂 Your mechanics and placement were building value for the cookie hand, not the target, and she let you know LOL!! When you work on this, don’t let the the target hand move. Leave it out to the side with your elbow locked. Have the cookies ready in the clicker hand so when you click, you can then bring the cookie over to the target hand to build value for that – plop the cookie right on the target. Moving her away from the target hand by tossing the cookies off to the side was not building value because the movement of the cookie hand and the delay in the toss and the placement was what was getting the value (as you can see because she would always return to look at your cookie hand, and not at the target And then when you didn’t reward, did you see her go back to where the cookie toss was? She is SMART!). So – no reset loop here for now! Just build value on the spot for the target by marking and putting the cookie right on the target (you can turn the wrist of your target hand up so the cookie lands on the target on your flat palm. When she has value, we can reset her more but for now, build value in position). And if she is stuck, don’t pull the target hand away because it is a negative punisher every time you remove it – you could see she was getting frustrated when she jumped up! Just leave it out there and look at it, maybe eve wiggle it to help 🙂 But I think the change in mechanics and placement will help a lot too.
For the toy play, you can get her chasing the toy a bit more as well to have her come back to toy focus after all the cookies. Having Mazi in the room was a little too distracting for the toy play in this session, so you can do a couple of sessions without Mazi where you stand up, run around, drag the toy, get her chasing you 🙂

Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
He was rocking and rolling right at the start here, which caught you a little off guard with the mechanics! Have your cookies and everything totally ready before you put the bowls down so you are clean and quick with the rewards – it took you about 5 seconds to get sorted out and that is a long time in puppy time LOL!
This was a great session, he appears to have gotten the back & forth rhythm – yes, you can break it off sooner because it this behavior is so repetitive. You can do a little toy play after every 5 or 6 treats then go back to the back and forth. Or, you can bring the cone in or use a skinny upright. He looked ready for it here, I think you can do it on your next session – warm up with the bowls like this for a couple of treats then as soon as you see he has the rhythm – get the upright in (send him away to get a cookie using a ‘get it’ and have it nearby so it is easy to put in while Risk is getting the tossed cookie and get right back into the flow).

Great job here! I am looking forward to seeing him do this with the cone!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>I think you should frame this response.

Ha! I am actually cranky at myself because I thought it all the way through on the long drive home last night but didn’t type it until this morning – and it was not as clear as what I had in my head last night.

I love the question because it made me think about exactly why it was different and be able to outline it.

And also from the Zoom last week when you asked if I trained the go-to-bowl and the dead toy differently (I think that was the question) with different markers and I answered yes. I think I left out the most important reason why: because they are two entirely different behaviors (decelerate to eat from bowl versus grab and retrieve), different functions, different mechanics for the dog to the best latency comes with treating them as 2 distinct behaviors.

>> I am in a reinforcement vortex right now in which all I read and think about is reinforcement, and I “know” less with every second that passes.

I feel that pain 10000% and I am currently in the “the dogs will lead the way” mode and also – we don’t have to be perfect, because dogs also live in that reinforcement vortex and only think about reinforcement. So, they have it all sorted out and as long as we are as clear as we can be, they will be super happy 🙂

>>It is sometimes hard to put a fork in it, so to speak, and just train my puppy, knowing full well that I’m going to break him and then unbreak him.

Ah yes, puppy training paralysis. You have full on permission to be sloppy in some cases and make mistakes as long as the puppy gets a wicked high rate of reinforcement. You know that ‘hand on pocket’ being the out cue for Hot Sauce? Yep, I screwed that one up! But I go with it and sometimes I totally put my hand on my pocket as the out cue LOL!!!! She is happy and successful and still gets a cookie when I do the hand on pocket cue LOL!

>> I could totally relate, as Wingman has a stellar recall on a hand-going-in-pocket cue. LOL.

I don’t think you ever my met Rat Terrier, Rebound – he passed away a couple of years ago at age 16. I was able to shape entire behaviors just by touching my pocket as a marker, like a clicker. Ha! Oops!!!

>>For the “coming in hot” part of the stationary toy reward, I think I’m going to incorporate this into the recall practice in fenced areas that we do every day. Moonshot is accustomed to getting a cookie from my stationary hand at my side when he comes in hot on a recall, sometimes sliding into a sit and sometimes getting the treat immediately. I’ll start using my “yum yum” verbal here to tell him when he can have the cookie.>>

I like it!!!

>And I’ll start having the toy at my side and saying “bite.” I think he will get this quickly, because it’s a small tweak of a game he already loves. Video soon, I hope!>

Perfect! Dogs love to come in hot to toys!

Have fun, and feel free to just jump in, mess up, have a laugh, edit video with a glass of wine 🙂
T

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hello and welcome! 1 year old is a great age! Some of this might be stuff she has experience with, but it is a different process than most puppy stuff so it should work well with things she already knows.

>> these types of exercises are expensive for me – Dellin does not particularly like food, so it’s not hugely reinforcing.>>

This is good to know, and so I think our #1 priority at this point is to increase food value. It is quite doable! We are doing it in our Reward class, so I will pop that video into this class too – several folks are struggling with food value (BC owners, shocking! LOL!) so we can all work on it.

https://youtu.be/4-uZkjphjV0

3 of my dogs came to me with no real food value and now they are all piggies, so we can build it up.

And a general suggestion for any/all food use in training at this point:
don’t think of the cookies as a reinforcement, think of eating the cookie as a behavior. So, with the foot touch to the thing: yes you can click then give her a cookie (I personally would not click if the cookie is not very reinforcing) but then after she swallows the cookie, play tug. Do this on a 1:1:1 ratio – foot touch, cookie, tug. She is going to be loving cookies VERY quickly. The tug is the reward for now, the touch and the cookie are behaviors… but both with take on the value of the touch and then the cookie will become a valuable reinforcement.

So on the foot touch prop – she had some good touches and some where she was near it but not touching it, so I am not sure if she knew it was a foot hit behavior or a back & forth behavior. And, since she is not a foodie yet, try this:
mark the foot hit with a yes
deliver a cookie with her standing on the thing
then throw a tug toy (or ask her to tug with you, whichever she likes)
then: lather, rinse, repeat until she is demanding her cookies 🙂

And same thing with the hand target – we can incorporate toys to build the food value:
She was so dainty wih the target LOL!!! A suggestion about the mechanics of delivering the cookie- leave the hand with the target stationary and extended away from your body, locking your elbow. And then the cookie hand can bring the cookie over to the hand target and reward right there (no ned to click for now). By moving the target away and rewarding from the other side, you can see she is orienting herself to the cookies and not to the target.
Then after a cookie delivery: party time with the toy! Do it on the same 1:1:1 ratio that I suggested above. Yes, you will get fewer reps but they will all be higher quality with the by-product of raising the value of food. And when food is high value? EVERYTHING is much easier 🙂

>>Can you do the weekly games in any order? I assume so, but thought I’d double check.>>

Yes! And mixing up the cookie/shaping games with the running games would be ideal to keep things fun 🙂

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

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>>One thing that you mentioned in the zoom call is that my ready to work protocol may be too boring
Continued engagement is something we still continue to struggle with. He has gotten much better but I still have instances where he will go off on his own and sniff or check out. I suspect continued behavior loops will help with this but was looking for ideas on assessing whether he can work.>>

That is a massive complicated topic but basically it comes back to the Yerkes Dodson Law (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yerkes%E2%80%93Dodson_law). I think the ready to work procedure that you described simply puts him on the wrong part of the Y-D bell curve. Each dog needs a different way to mentally warm up, so trying different behaviors to see where it puts him, and in different environments, is the best way to go with it 🙂 In order to do the relatively complex task of agility, he has to be relatively high – and it sounds like the stuff you are doing lowers his arousal so he is on the left side slope of the bell curve, and we need him at the top of it. Experimenting with different things and tracking what works is the only way to figure it out 🙂

>>This weekend we had a session in Carrie’s yard. Three other dogs and Roulez in standing heat. While this may have been too much to ask, prior to starting sequencing, I had him on leash heeling and walking with me. 100 % engagement, great eye contact, taking food well, and whining with excitement. He was responding to commands without hesitation. As soon as I took the leash of, immediate disengagement and sniffing (pee licking too).>>

I would say it is being on leash is a less complex task so he didn’t need to be that aroused and probably has a stronger reinforxement history. Coming off leash in that context is predictive of more complex tasks coming, so he was showing you a stress-based conditioned response. Heeling and walking, in that context, did not get him ready for the more complex tasks.

>>I was able to get more focused sessions once Roulez and the other dogs left the yard but don’t really know where to begin when faced with a situation like this. Ultimately this left me super frustrated in the moment and after that one session fighting for his attention, I put him up until everyone left.>>

It was better to put him up – I would want to first know if he could handle being around other dogs working before I added in a bitch in standing heat. Did you ask him to play frisbee with the other dogs moved further away?

>>Once everyone left, we swam first, played with strike, tugging on the frizz, retrieving the frizz and adding agility in between. I was happy with his action and attention at that point.>>

It was probably easier because the task was less complex (doing things without distractions) and you had more exciting behaviors going. You will need to work on adding complexity very gradually while continuing to play with what gets him high enough in arousal. I think the much of the dog sport world has moved waaayyyyy tooooo much to towards calming behaviors which is surprising to me because the science suggests that is really doesn’t work like that.
Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>> They run behind the gates and bark like mad, she gets higher than a kite.

What is her rate of success in training in this scenario, especially if you do not have food or toys in your hands?

>>If I’m in a class/seminar setting then tugging brings her arousal up much more than if I was using food and a lotus ball. >>

Same question – what is her rate of success with each, particularly if you are not carrying either in the moment? This will help us plan.

>>When I’ve done FEO with a toy, it’s hard to get her back working and off me if I’ve stopped and played. She wants to just keep barking at me. Some of that is the time limit too. I can get her back working and focused if we have the time.>>

I think the installations will really help, because she will have to get right back to work in order to get the next reinforcement – especially installation 1 (the wing work). Establish it first with cookies then get her into increasingly higher arousal with toys and such, over the course of several sessions. The goal is that the first impulse after a reinforcement is to look for work, not to look for more reinforcement 🙂

>>Whenever we have to repeat something, I really get barking at me. I can’t even walk forward without stepping on her cuz she’s right in my face telling me I messed and I’m the reason we are going back.>>

Repeat an obstacle on course? Then yes, she is correct LOL! She is really young – don’t repeat, just keep going and develop flow. The barking in your face is a high frustration behavior – stopping in that scenario is a negative punishment for a behavior that she could not have done successfully, and the punishment bubbles over into barking & frustration. And then being in the ring can get frustrating, so you get more barking and more arousal in a cycle. So – no fixing! Just running. If you are stopping because of, say, she pops a weave pole or misses a contact then I would say that she should not yet be weaving or doing contacts in competition.

>>>I just feel at this point if she skips a pole going back is only going to mess up the rest of her run. She knows her poles and unless something becomes a trial behavior I let it go.>>

Better to let it go but I personally don’t want the dog to skip poles and carry on… so it is a fine line – if I bring the dog back then they get super frustrated, which usually means that they really don’t know the obstacle that well.

>>At home when I need to repeat, I toss cookies on the floor as we walk back to where were starting. That has made the biggest difference in training. By the time we get back she is calmer and ready to listen again.>>

Yes, but it doesn’t do anything to develop flow on course and reduce the frustration you get in trialing. And it might increase the frustration because in a trial, the one thing you cannot do is throw cookies on the floor. So after an error, when she is expecting the procedure of cookie toss and it is not there – I can see she might struggle with that. And I think training her in lower arousal might actually set her up for failure at trials when she will definitely be in higher arousal. So set up the higher arousal and do shorter practically fool-proof sequences. And if something goes wrong, just keep going – get on a line and run til it is smooth again, and then reward.

The remote reinforcement procedures will also really help – how is she doing with moving away from the reward?
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi1
This is looking great! Easy peasy for him! When building up to the new reinforcement procedure, you can have this more literally on his nose for him to follow. Right now your ‘let’s go’ is more of a focal point so for the reinforcement procedure, you can place it right on his nose because it will be used a little differently (stay tuned for next week :)). Based on his response here, I bet he thinks it will be the BEST THING EVER LOL! He clearly has a strong understanding of the cookie as focal point here, the transport and the set up cues both looked fabulous!!!
Personally, because the transport and set up both look so good – I would not change the cues for that. We can add the additional one, and it will seem different to him because it will be right in front of his mouth and not higher up by your ribs.

Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
He is so tiny and cute! Great job on all of these, he is a smartie!!!!!

He did a great job with the forward send work – check out how he was beginning to set up for the turns by the last couple of reps based on your reward placement. YES! I think it worked better for him when you did not have a cookie in the ready dance hand 🙂 because he could engage with you and be more prepared for the send element. Everything else looked great so for the next session, start nice and close again, warm up with a couple of forward sends, then start to rotate to where you can send him with you sideways or a little backwards – the beginning of the fancy countermotion stuff!!

Blind cross – also fabulous 🙂 One tweak: as you are moving away, you can connect on the original side with just your eyes, you don’t need to lock him onto the original arm – getting him locked onto the fully extended arm is making you late for the blind – by the time he locks on, it takes a while (in dog years) to make the blind happen so you end up being late. So the dog side arm can be tucked into your side as if you are running and that initial connection can just be eye contact – that makes the blind quicker (because you don’t need to bring in the original dog side arm) at which point you can lock him onto the other side of the body. Let me know if that makes sense 🙂
The next step on this one is to move to a bigger space so you can get running! Maybe hubby can hold him for restrained recalls outside? Or, if he likes other people holding him, you can do this game with other people you enlist as holders, so you can get a nice big head start 🙂

Cone wraps – super! As a nice by-product, this is really embedding some nice self-control because he has to work away from your magical cookie hands and that is HARD. He gave you some funny looks at the beginning because he wanted the cookies LOL!!! He did a super job here too. One little detail: when adding distance between you and the cone, do it after a little reset moment: toss a cookie away so he doesn’t really see you add the bit of distance. I think he was seeing yu move and that drew his focus to you, so he would have an error on that first rep after every little addition of distance. But if you reset him and he doesn’t see it, I bet he is perfect!

This is going really well with the food. One thing you can do is take the cone to a neutral environment where there is no existing food association, and try it with 2 toys.
And, separately from that, you can work up to standing up and dropping the cookies into the bowls. They might bounce around but I think he will like that 🙂

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

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! Congrats on your new puppy! I am excited to hear more about Changtse! Are all of your dogs named after mountains? Very cool names!

I am glad he is doing well at trials!!

>>AT this trial, although Nuptse could not do any tricks except sit when we moved to the start line,

It is entirely possible that he has turned into an ‘all business’ dog who is focused and ready to run, and tricks disturb that focus. Some of my dogs are like that and it is perfectly fine 🙂 His runs are looking good!

About the weaves –
One thing I notice on his runs here is that he is a bit slower, the further he is from the entry gate/rewards. He speeds up when he thinks he is approaching the reinforcement. You can see a distinct difference in speed when he is back by the rainbow versus the ending line. That is something we will work on with the remote reinforcement – more coming on that in the next couple of weeks. The further from the reinforcement he gets, the more likely he is going to be to get the cue to go back to it. I think the weaves are part of that – they are perhaps the most difficult obstacle so the most likely to fall apart. In the JWW run, I think your motion pushed him out but I didn’t see any reason why he popped out in Standard – so I think working the weaves with more remote reinforcement will really help!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
She was indeed a good girl here, what a fun dog!!!

I do think the training will be better served if you chop this into shorter sessions – one or two minutes at a time. Yes, she stuck with you but I think by having it as one long rolling session, you didn’t have time to plan for the next thing and plus, doing all the things in one session makes it harder to differentiate each one. So you can set a timer, do 2 minutes of one specific procedure or two that fit together, then give yourselves a brain break to plan the next one in terms of what you will do and the mechanics… then come back to the next session. So it will likely still total out to be the same amount of training but it will be cleaner and clearer.

At the start of the session, the get it and careful alternated really well together! And she was perfectly happy with the catch too – you can start her on a platform or a mat so she can be further from you when you start the catch.

With the food procedures, especially the careful – be sure to keep the cookie hand still til after you say the word. This is especially important when you are using the ‘please’ for the out of the toy – your cookie hand was moving before you said the marker and before she dropped it, so she was cuing off the movement of the cookie hand (I have totally done this by accident which is why it pops out to me LOL!) When you did not move the cookie hand, she kept tugign (like at 11:15 – you were super patient there with the cookie hand, so always work those mechanics so she doesn’t look at the cookie hand during the please moments).

Also, was careful also the marker for the toy in your hand? This is one of the times where I think 2 different markers will be useful – she has to approach the cookie differently from the toy (two different behaviors) and also if you have food and a toy in the picture at the same time as you did in this session, it might be unclear as to which one she should grab.

And I think you were getting a little session fatigue later in the session too – get it was marking toy in hand and thrown, plus as you mentioned you were saying ‘let’s go’ rather than jackpot – that is where the planning becomes helpful to keep it all clean.

For the remote reinforcement – I think you were making it harder than she could handle, so the rate of success was a bit low – placement of the food on an item (the inflatable) that might have associated food value for shaping and at nose level was too hard, so you can make it easier and more successful for her by using a bag of treats up on the bed. So it is there, and it is visible and interesting… but just far enough away that she is wildly successful and then you can add challenge.
I think the IYC on the food and the toy in this context was a little confusing to her, she failed more than we would like. So replacing the IYC with the food and toy just a little further out of reach will totally help! With the toy, she didn’t know what was happening so she kinda checked out (plus it was about 10 minutes into the session by then) – so the remote reinforcement can be simplified so get more success more quickly.
She seemed really engaged with the toy (yay!) so you can get the engagement, get the out/please, place the toy up on the bed and take a step away – if she engaged with you, a big ‘let’s go!’ and back to the toy. I think that will be clear for her (she was already being successful ignoring the bag of treats).
She wasn’t sure what you wanted at the very end? Was it ignoring the toy in hand? She did get rewarded when she looked at your other (empty) hand so you can clarify that by being a bit more stationary – I think the movement was confusing her there.

Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

The blinds are looking good and it is fine that she was really into the treats! You did get her back on the toy really nicely 🙂 Also, in terms of value, the toy you were using my be slightly too low in value compare to the treats, so maybe a more exciting toy (fur, dangly parts, etc) will help with balance. Balance of reinforcement is the hardest part with puppies!

Yes, you can start the blind as soon as you see her take one step towards you. This will be easier if you start moving away as soon as she is really heading towards the cookie, more like what you did on the very last rep.
Good job with your connection and rewarding! Now if possible, go someplace where you have even more room to do this and you can also have someone hold her for a restrained recall start if she likes those 🙂

Goat tricks
>>Re the notes on this and getting the puppy into a higher arousal state, I definitely don’t feel like I am really getting her into a state of arousal that is conducive to shaping. She is naturally at a much lower arousal and intensity level then Rayven (understatement of the year!), and probably also than Ziva (harder to say that was 13 years ago now and she was miss perfect).>

I agree that she was not quite fully jazzed up when you started here- it might have been that the toy was small and you were leaning over. Try sitting down for this type of shaping (leaning over is a lot of pressure for little pups!) and use a wilder toy – long, furry, crinkly, etc

I do think she is improving in her shaping with cookies! A lot!!! She was offering, she was not checking out. You got a TON of good behavior here. Yay! We don’t want her to be insane for shaping, I like the thoughtfulness. Cookies are calmer for her so yes, I agree – break it off for tugging more frequently. And also, since she likes tossed cookies better than stationary cookies, you can toss them more and feed in position less.

>>I have been casually tossing treats and pairing with a game of tug and she seems to like that game, she is running out to get them faster it seems to me.

Great! I see a definite difference already. This was a good session!!!!

And good job timing your session – remember, it does not need to be 2 minutes go for short and sweet especially when shaping with food.

Send & Commitment: This is going really well. I would do one more session like this with cleaner mechanics on the transitions, then add more challenge by being sideways.

The transition at the beginning can be cleaner here – before starting the tug at the beginning, have the prop tucked under your arm and cookies in the other hand. That way she doesn’t have to wait in between the tugging and introduction of the prop. And we want the cookies in your hand for speed of delivery so you don’t have to reach into your pocket.
Her commitment is looking really good!!

You can replace the tug in this with the ready dance: rather than keeping her with you with the tug, you can engage her with the ready dance then send her. Being on the tug the whole time doesn’t give her a moment to get ready for the send, so when you took the toy and sent quickly, she was unprepared and failed. So, tug, then do the ready dance, then send her, then reward then repeat 🙂 Plus the ready dance adds in some engagement with you that does not involve the toy 🙂

Great job here! Let me know what you think!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Yes. If I use their release word, they should move forward to take the jump. If I say ‘catch’, they can stand up but they are going to stay on the takeoff side because the reward is coming back to them.

T

[Tracy Sklenar]

Yes! Catch is also a release.

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

Lots of great stuff here on these videos, he is SO FUN!! And it was fun to hear the hubby involved in the background 🙂

>> I’m not that sensitive and will not be deflated by your pointing out of all the places where I need to clean up my mechanics, follow instructions better, etc., so don’t hold back. 🙂>>

You know I won’t hold back LOL!!! But also, I totally understand that the hardest part of puppy training is the mechanics, so I am empathetic to the feeling like you need another 2 or 3 arms LOL! But it is just as important to point out all the good stuff because that is what we want repeated 🙂

Onwards to the videos:
Both pre-games looked really strong!
Pre-game 1 (prop) looked really good, good timing of the front foot hit and marker/toss! He is building really nice value. Try to have your cookies ready and so you can keep your hands pretty stationary and just toss treats – if you are moving the treats or hands a bit, it is distracting to the puppy 🙂 and he will end up looking at your hands too much. So, have a small handful ready to go, then be perfectly stationary as he is offering.

Pre-game 2, target in hand – also really good! One tweak to set you up for when we build on this: have the target in your flat open palm rather than dangling, almost like you are asking for a nose touch to your palm but now there is the target in it. And when you are waiting for him to re-engage after a cookie toss, keep the target stationary and don’t move it towards him, let him come to you – holding the hand out to the side will make it easier because it is more obvious being out away from your body. We will build on this soon!

Building sends to the prop:
He was a wild man for the prop LOL! He cracks me up!!!! This is also going well and you already caught some of the mechanics that you can clean up. One thing to remember is to keep his success rate high so there are almost no questions or errors- with this in mind, I think you added distance too quickly, as he told you when he didn’t go on a couple of reps or slowed down before finishing the send (you can see this at 1:12 and 1:24, for example). You can add distance by inches, not several feet at a time, stay at each stage until he is super confident.

Also, I am not sure if he was offering a stay or you cue it, but for this don’t use a stay and don’t let him put himself into a stay (overachiever LOL!) I think he was waiting for a release in the 2nd session at like :35. Instead get him jazzed up by doing that goofy ready dance so he is hopping around and looking at you, then send him. The ready dance will also help you get your hand off his collar, and it will teach him to be kinda patient while engaging before the send.

And yes you caught that you were using the incorrect hand on a couple of the reps but then you fixed it at :49 and he had a smoother send on those.

By the end of the clip you had everything sorted out with nice mechanics and yes, remember to reward back at you to help him understand the turn element even more.

Decel and turn:
He loves his platform LOL! And yes, I agree – it was inetrrupting the flow because right now the platform has more value than the pivots. So, you can start him from a stay on the flat or a cookie toss so the platform is not in the picture.
One suggestion – as he is coming towards you, make more eye contact by opening up your dog-side shoulder more and looking at his cute little face. Then as he is arriving at you, your cookie hand can drop in and you can start the pivot. More eye contact will help him know exactly which side to be on. He is bending really nicely on the pivots! Good boy!

Because he is little, you can do this on your knees if your knees will permit it, or do it standing up with a long wooden spoon (with a little dab of cream cheese on the end) to replace your hand so you don’t have to bend over as much 🙂

Driving ahead:
>>yes, that X-mas tree has been up since last year, so I guess I’m all set now for the season! Ha!!>>

I love it! You are festive all year round!

It was smart to add his collar to the 2nd session here- he is too slippery to do this without a collar LOL!!
Question: What is he doing with the toy after he gets it? Looks like he is running off with it, so you can attach it to a leash and then engage with him as soon as he arrives at it so that way you can being to get him to bring it to you (or at least not take any big victory laps).
His forward focus looks great, and his toy drive looks great, and his little leap to the toy is ADORABLE!
He had no trouble at all when you added distance: he still drove ahead beautifully and you added motion with no trouble. And good job for working both side! Now move this game to an even bigger area so you can add in more of your motion, building up to running.

Wing Wraps:

>> Part of the issue is that I have been doing so much practice with waits, stays and impulse control that he kept thinking it was a trick and he needed and ‘OK’ to eat the food from the dish. >>

Yes, we are seeing that same thing with some of the other pups that have too much emphasis on self-control. I don’t do any of those traditional self-control games anymore 🙂 You can put them on the shelf for now, we will build self-control separately 🙂 and that way he won’t be confused when you are shaping or playing games.

For now, to help clarify things for him, you can put the cookie on the ground or tap it to help break out of the self-control and more into the ‘you can have it’. That will also allow you to talk to him less – we want you to be pretty quiet here for now, so just tapping the treats will help give him permission
In this session he had several errors where he squeezed in between you and the upright. The upright is too far for you if he can fit between it and you- if he has even one error make it easier right away because we don’t want him to have that many errors – try to be as close to 90% or 100% rate of success as possible.
He was getting it by the end of the video, in terms of getting the treats and going around the upright but definitely have the upright closer so he cannot fit in between it and you for the next couple of sessions. You can also do this with 2 toys!

The BCs are deceptively easy looking LOL!!! The toy placement mechanics require some practice to overcome the old muscle memory – try not to lean over and don’t switch hands 🙂 I think the leaning over was you being really good about presenting the toy nice and low, so you can use a longer toy that can drag on the ground to get it nice and low for him.
When you did keep the toy in the same hand and placed it across your body, the difference in connection was awesome! You can see it really clearly at :45. And even when you were late like at :57, he still got the blind because he saw the connection. Yay!
Speaking of being late- you are going to need a nice long head start like the one you had on the last rep, he is a speedy little guy! You can start closer to where you want to be nd toss the cookie further away, or have the hubby or anyone hold him to start it as a restrained recall (if he likes those) – that way you can get running and get way ahead, starting the blind when he is halfway to you.

Great job here!!! Let m know what you think 🙂
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! Not knowing all of how his weaves were trained, I think the remote reinforcement procedures will really help him get it at trials (we are looking at those very specifically in weeks 3 and 4).
And about barking at birds and also getting more relaxed entering the trial ring – those will be some installations of offered focus with distractions that we will look at too!

Tracy

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