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Perfect! The camera angle looked like a wrap but since she didn’t cross the plane to get to the tunnel, then the left verbal was spot on.
T
Good morning!
>> Yes, you were correct earlier – the camera is reversed.
Got it! And tell the white stuff to hold off for now!!!!
This one is reversed too so I turned offer the sound LOL! Only one question – you were saying left but it is more of a wrap – if I remember correctly, left is your soft turn directional and you have a different wrap cue? Maybe I am remembering it wrong, though.
When you used your line of motion to present the RC pressure, she was perfect. It was harder for her to turn away without the footwork – you did a really nice job of presenting it and fading as she worked through the session.
She was beginning to read the footwork from further away (yay!) like at approx 1:00 and 1:25-1:30ish at the end. You might want to consider using more upper body/arms/hands – it looked like you were using your outside arm to throw after she turned away but you can also get it involved as part of the cue, so she gets more info than just footwork. I use both hands to grab attention and flip the dog away – something to consider adding in. You might be doing something already (harder to see from the camera angle) but you can make it bigger/more obvious to help as you fade the footwork. She was really perfect on the Go balance reps – that is unusual but also fabulous!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>> Curious seems like your dogs go for any toy/food at anytime. How do you adjust to choosey um yeah that’s not reinforcing today? It’s not like you can carry all food choices or toys.>>
A lot of that is built up over time, as well as trying to make good choices in the moment. In the very beginning level puppy class, the demos have more of an imbalance of food and toy reinforcement use for each dog, then it gets balanced out as they grow up. Also, I have an ever-evolving list of reinforcement hierarchies so I know which reinforcements to use in different situations. I generally have more than one toy or one or two different types of cookies, if I am not sure what the dog will want in that environment.
>>Stopped a frame. Understands stick at the bottom but doing the a frame disconnects the brain and either a) slow a frame or b) super a frame. Neither come with a stick. Teeter and dog walk works fairly well. Thoughts?>>
The reinforcement procedure for ‘catch’ can definitely help stopped contacts! I have a demo of that coming on Monday with a 2o2o on the teeter.
T
Good news about tugging with the Outfox! You can take his favorite tug procedures and install them into different environments, without worrying about inappropriate eating of things. A leash and an Outfox can help us get these going in all sorts of different places which will make it easier to fade the Outfox.
T
I am so glad you are having fun! Breaking it down for the puppies allows us to build up to some spectacular behaviors 🙂 I love puppy training!!!
TracyGood morning!
>> I used a different bowl to pivot. So, she’s generalizing.
Smart girl!!! You can use a different prop so it doesn’t look at all like the pivot bowl – something silly like a hat or a shoe or anything completely random so it is a front foot smack 🙂
>> I’ll try it again as she doesn’t want to stay with me. She’s going to the target on her own.>>
That is good news bad news LOL!!!! You can give her a cookie for staying with you – so it would be cookie for the ready dance, send to the prop, reinforce, reset with a cookie for the ready dance, and so on. We want to put a little impulse control on the send prop because conceptually, it becomes a wing or a jump and the impulse control on the prop (don’t go til I send you) transfers really well to stay behaviors.
The 2 bowl game is like Aussie heaven LOL! She was brilliant – figured it out right away. The jump upright was easy for her too! Try to resist temptation to move it out too quickly – it doesn’t need to move out more than once in each session otherwise we get errors or questions. The other thing you can do is replace the upright with something bigger like a barrel or laundry basket (starting it up close to you).
Since this game is going so well, you might also want to try it with 2 toys!
One thing that I really love is that she is leading with her head around the upright – note how she is turning her head to set up the turn. That is an early indicator of future tight turns 🙂 Yay!!!
Great job here. Let me know what you think!
TracyHere is wing wrap. Not sure why the camera is jumping. Sorry about that!
Hi!
>> I may have to try that somewhere other than my training room. He seems to have some trouble tracking food thrown on the ground. If he even notices that it’s been thrown in the first place (sometimes he’s kind of oblivious) he gives up almost immediately if he can’t see where it is. The carpet in my training area adds an extra layer of challenge as it is not easy to see treats. Someday I will finally get around to tearing that carpet out and laying down matting, but that’s not going to happen soon.>>
Yes, that is pretty normal (difficulty tracking treats). I taught the skill separately to my BC-types by saying get it, chucking a piece of white cheese, then when they got it – saying get it and chucking a piece of white cheese the other direction. First it was on mats or concrete, then I moved it to grass and more difficult surfaces to help them learn to track in all sorts of environments.
My terrier-types did not need to learn this. Treat-tracking is a natural skill for them. HA!
Tracy
Good morning!!!
Looks like you are safely home – yay! Wish I could have spent more time with you at the Open but things were nuts fir all of us.
First video – nice tugging to start! This is where we start to see puppy play preferences. He didn’t seem to like when you smacked the toy on the ground. It was a little too dead for him as you noted. He called an Uber then almost went on a puppy zoom! But when the toy was moving? Heck yes! So for the driving ahead game, skip ahead to just flinging the toy 10 feet away and letting him drive to it. You can already see how much he likes the movement that the flirt pole brings! So, we can adjust the style of play to fit his likes at this stage, and gently build in other play styles too 🙂 I really liked his engagement here!!
Decel video – the overall shape and mechanics of this game look great and he is driving to you like a wild man! The pivots are easy for him – yes, I see how hard it is to bend over to keep him on the ground. I think that was the hardest part of the game. It will get easier as he gets bigger but he is always going to be small, so a few ideas for you:
If your knees permit it, you can do this on your knees 🙂 Obviously, don’t run LOL but you can do the decel to your side and the pivots (slowly). My knees would allow for maybe 2 reps before they protest 🙂
The other thing you can do is get a long wooden spoon or long dowel, something long enough that it ends up at about his nose level when you hold it down while yo use standing. And, use that instead of a cookie in your hand – it is a not a target, but it is a reinforcement delivery: you can put a little dab of cream cheese or something on it, so he drives in and licks the reward. That can get the behavior while preventing jumping up and saving your back so you don’t have to bend over.Goat games – he is so quick on his feet LOL! You are already an expert on getting dogs on these things so it is no surprise that the session was great. You can build in a little duration with a couple of treats on the thing before releasing him off to the side, and you can also build in a little bit of movement on the items, like a balance disc. That is skipping ahead a little but he seems perfect on these, so a little additional challenge is a good thing 🙂
About the toy use in these games: when the food-associated item is in play (like the fitness bone) – the toy play will be too difficult to do right there. So, try the toy play in a different location like another room. Then after a cookie (one single boring cookie) run to another room and fling the toy around. He is such a confident little goat that we can use these sessions to separate the toy and cookie play to get both, with the goal is eventually building them back together. Literally separating them – as in, different locations – really helps!
Cone wrap – his light bulb is totally on with this one LOL!!! And I am amazed at how quickly he can move his little feets 🙂 What a good boy! So, we can start to add challenge – move your bowls a little further back behind you knees, so there is more of a wrap element, a tiny bit more bending.
And when that goes well… two options for adding challenge:
– move the upright a little further away from you, maybe 6 inches, so he has to choose to go around it rather than scoot across it in front of you.
– switch to a cone or laundry basket so he has to go around something bigger (but it will be right up against your legs when you start it).Great job here! He looks fabulous on all of these!!! Let me know what you think.
TracyGood morning!
>>Well, we haven’t really played any games enough to figure that out, but when she is just out with toys on the floor and she grabs one she will often run around with it, squeak it, or chew on it, just generally play with it. don’t think there is a built in retrieve with this one.>>
That is fine! The retrieve will. Get built in. She is really cute and fun with her toys!!
>>On this game, you can drop the toy to the ground sooner after you get it back, almost immediately – holding it in the air is not exciting and she is not likely to focus on it but dropping it is very exciting and will draw her focus to it. << >>Even if I don’t really have her by her collar or chest yet? She doesn’t really understand the set up part yet since this was our first time on the game. I would think she would just take off for the toy right away if I drop it sooner and not be focused on it. Not a big deal right now?>>
Gently take her collar or chest while she still has the tug toy, then you can take it and drop it more quickly.
>Hmm, sitting and getting in to move the toy aren’t really compatible??? Ahh, so ok if I grab the toy and make it move before she grabs it, I thought she needed to grab it before I get in there.
Puppy training mechanics are hard to sort out at the beginning because so much depends on the individual pup. For her, sitting and a really long toy that is easy to squiggle around should do the trick.Eventually she should grab it first, but for now you can split the behavior to get the toy exciting to reinforce the decision to go to it, before she arrives.
>>45 sec? That is likely only going to be about 1 – 2 reps given starting the time, getting her engaged, doing a rep and playing in between and setting up again…>>
Yep! Probably more than 1-2 reps, but yes – not many reps. At 16 weeks old, it is important to be done before she even realizes how long the session is. Do 45 seconds, then have a little break. Then 45 seconds, then a little break.
>> So are you saying use food instead of tugging to get engagement when we start a game so we can transistion into the game faster? Not positive if that is what you mean?>>
No, the toy play to engage was fabulous! The place where the transition can be quicker is that the food can be right there in your hand or pocket already, and coming out during the tugging. In this session, you got the toy, then had to move to the place where the food was, get the food, etc – in puppy time, it was decades LOL!! And she wandered off a little. So engage with the toy but have the food ready so it is less than a second from end of toy play to beginning of food play.
>>
>>She had barely gotten her mouth on the toy when the other one was already banging – be less quick so she can engage with the toy for a couple of seconds. Count to 3 in your head before banging the other toy<< Ahh, so it is ok for her to play a bit with the toy before I start with the other toy. Got it.>>Yes, playing with the toy is totally fine.
>>Question – with a toy being used would you expect her to turn away from the toy she is at and head back to the other toy if the other toy isn’t being banged? >>
Yes, because dead toy, things have stopped, in this context is the universal sign for ‘offer me something’ and the rhythm we have taught her in this scenario is the back and forth.
>>Using treats the treat is gone after she eats it so there is nothing on that side to keep her there anymore.
True about the treats! But also another reason why I don’t do the traditional IYC anymore – the presence of the treats or toys should not keep the dog there, offering on that item. Being able to move away from the toy is a great way to fold in self-control behavior in a more realistic setting.
>>>EEK!!! No IYC?!? NOOOO!!!! LOL!! We have been doing all the IYC stuff I’ve done with Rayven and Ziva in the past, so for food bowls, treats in bowls on the ground when we are training, placed/tossed on the ground, etc. So none of that for her for now sounds like?>>
I know, right?!?!?! LOL!!! Over the years, it has proven to have too much failure and not enough transfer to real-life situations. So, my approach is very different now and the dogs are doing better with it 🙂 This is what happens when I get 3 puppies in 2 years and spend over a year at home in a pandemic LOL!!! Everything gets re-evaluated and re-assessed to figure out how to get better and how to help the dogs that struggled in the past.
>>So if I try this game with treats again I should probably toss it to the side rather than into a plate? Sort of like I was describing we did in puppy class on Wednesday night, toss to one side and as she turns back toss to the other side, then as she starts to pattern that delay the toss to the other direction?
Yes, that is a good adjustment for her. We know that she likes that 🙂 and we know that she is going to generalize IYC on the fold bowls, so we can take another approach.
Keep me posted!!
TracyGood morning!
This was a really strong session! At the beginning, it was interesting that he was offering getting on the balance disc that was leaning up agains the wall – possibly because it is conditioned to mean food and he loves food 🙂 I can relate LOL!
Working on tugging with the disc visible was GREAT because we do want him to enjoy tugging even when food-related items are in the picture – the disc was just enough in the environment that he noticed it but out was perfectly positioned so it was not too distracting.He was a perfect little goat on the big disc, confidently getting right on it. His confidence is fantastic!
And doubly happy that he got right back on the toy- that is often really difficult after cookies for many dogs and he was fabulous 🙂 Your were great with t he mechanics of getting the disc out of the picture while bringing the toy in. SUPER!!!!
If he ever struggles with that, yo can run to a spot further from the cookie location or cookie-associated think (like the disc) to engage him with the toy.Great job here!
TracyThat’s really interesting! Maybe he has never had tugging and frizzing paired before? Definitely worthwhile to work that little tug-then-friz because he doesn’t always like to tug, so this can he useful in harder environments. Plus, it will be a useful concept for getting him to respond to cues to go do something even when there is something else reinforcing nearby.
THi!
I agree, it is a part of your process and she is happy with it, so definitely don’t change it 🙂
And after thinking about it, saying snacks at the food bowl seems to mirror that, so you’ll probably both be happier saying that too!
T
