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Yeah, the dude definitely does not let me get away with an “oops” if I click wrong – he feels he earned the treat! 😉
Catching up on my video editing after the weekend, so I have a few more updates. Plus, he was feeling feisty after his obedience class tonight and in a happy mood to train.
First, the one I’m finding more tricky right now – parallel motion. He is pretty good hitting the target, although sometimes just trots over. But he is definitely looking up at me a lot, and I hesitate to try to toss the reward sooner since I’m not sure he’s going to hit. Is the looking a problem at this point? I forgot to try this with a “jump,” although we’ve done some of that before class started so I think he’ll transfer to that pretty quick.
We’ve also played the collection sandwich game in a few different environments and with different rewards and he’s starting to get the “go, go” to drive ahead. But sometimes, when I’m wrapping him on my left, he slows down and once he tucked in the wrong side.
I did the shaping wing wrapping tonight with the green laundry barrel (those things are the best!) and then the plastic bin of dog food. Ha! But showing the video to make sure I understood the next step of rewarding from the hand.
And then worked to perfect my form on the serp/threadle game. It IS a post it note, and I forgot it got stuck on his nose in that video. It was pretty funny! I paid more attention to where I was looking and rewarding. But then maybe I had my hand too high because he leapt a little to hit the target. Poor Presto.
We also did tunnel again – not adding a video now. But the suggestion of giving him a treat to come in worked really well and he was also ok with me touching him lightly. We had a really great session where you could see him thinking through which was the correct end since that treat and train was high value!
Thank you!
Whew – can’t believe it’s been nearly a week since I posted. We were at the cabin for the last few days, so I could train, video and edit, but haven’t been able to upload videos until tonight…so I have a few.
I continue to work on his confidence with sends and he’s been much more willing to work on these. I started to add just a little counter motion. The video includes a few sessions over the week.
Also shaped wrapping a wing with a few different objects. I think this is going well.
Started the serps and threadles. I was able to do this with food and a toy. I think he was getting the idea pretty quickly, hopefully my own body movement is ok.
And final video for tonight is tunnels! I need to fill a couple of tunnel bags that are waiting in my garage to make the tunnel more stable, but we did our first session. He has already been introduced to the tunnel in some different environments, so after a couple runs using the Manners Minder (that was new), I jumped into the games. Going into the tunnel is not a problem, but he is not really liking me holding him. I started using the collar, but switched to holding him at the chest.
Thank you!!
ChristinaDefinitely making progress on sends! 🙂 This morning I had some training time at TCOTC and I tried out sends with ready/no clicker and clicker/no ready (and a super silent building since I was the only one there!). It was very helpful to work on isolating his concerns as you suggested. I think I’m the problem – he quickly disengaged when I was playing the ready game. So, I’m pretty sure at this stage, he is doing much better when I keep quiet and just use the clicker to reward. I think that may have poisoned the forward send just a bit (in the video you can see he disengaged initially even when I stopped doing ready), so I switched to the other sends (side and back) and that got him back in the game so that in the end, I added the forward in again and he was ok with that.
Later this afternoon back at home I played for a couple minutes to see if what I was seeing at the club carried through to an old environment…and it did. He never disengaged and actually started looking like he was having some fun again! I ditched the clicker partway in that session because I couldn’t find one without the stupid metal ring on it and it WAS loud – I had ever noticed that before!?!
My thinking is that I’ll keep building his confidence/enjoyment with this game by doing clicker/no ready for now?
We also took advantage of the time at TCOTC to work on a few of the new games.
The blind, decel and go game. We started with toys, but then those lost their luster so switched to treats. Other than string cheese sticking to my hands, I think this is going well. But am I trying to get too much distance in the Go part of the game at this point?
Start line. Also going well. He does have a cued sit and a pretty solid stay (I don’t cue stays, it is assumed with a sit/down – ideally!), so I added distance. After your response, I did decide to use the “catch” clue to clarify that the reward would come to or behind him to discourage any potential forward movement to get the reward. Besides – I think it’s a fun word 🙂
Hello! I did start practicing a little with the two toys on the wing wraps (no wing!). Using the bumpers and trading them faster was helping. I haven’t tried the balls yet – but I he does like them so I’m going to try that out too.
Quick question on start lines. I use “search” to mean I am tossing a reward on the ground and you are free to get it. I’m thinking of using the same word for this game…or would you recommend a specific release to reward cue for tossing back at them?
Other stuff is going really well, except I think I broke our foot targeting 🙁 He has started checking out of the game after just a few half-hearted reps. He’ll go and sit by the stairs or door (depending on where we are). I’ve tried in a few different locations and also switched to a new target. But same behavior. I was trying it again today (um, that’s your Saturday recorded lesson in the background!) and got it on video. I don’t think he doesn’t understand, he just looks stressed/unhappy. (And he doesn’t need to potty – I checked that too!) I haven’t seen him do this with any other training, just foot targeting. Today I started with the parallel exercise and he was ok with that. But after we switched back to the send, he quickly got demotivated. Is there too much pressure from me? He was more willing to play when I got on the ground than when I stood back up again.
Ok, just pausing to say I love training with you 🙂 Always so encouraging with concrete and doable advice to keep us progressing. Life is so full of stress and anxiety these days – this course is a much needed bright spot. Thank you.
As always, thank you for the super helpful feedback! We were able to practice several of the games at my agility club last night after teaching, but stupid me forgot my tripod, so I don’t have video. But we’ll just say we were both perfect 😉
But I did another session today trying wing wrapping with a toy as a reward to find out what 15 things are going wrong there. I also included the first session in the video for good measure. Sorry it got a little long – 3 minutes – but I thought in this case it would be useful to see it all (cringing). For background, Presto can be hot/cold/lukewarm on toy play. He is most likely to engage with a retrieve involved (like the focus forward game). And he LOVES to chew things, so I think one problem I’m facing is he just wants to stop and chew the toy, not play with me with it. The first video I used longer fuzzy toys – that was WAY to easy to stop and chew. Second video I switched to using bumpers – less to chew on and I hoped would trigger a bit more of the retrieving drive (I have no issues with my older dogs tugging on bumpers even though we do hunt work). But then made the mistake that one of the bumpers had a string on it, so he just wanted to chew that. Overall, he did better in the second session, but it still felt like a mess. I could see in the first session I should have waited to add the stanchion and definitely moved it closer. So the second session I waited a little longer and put it right next to me, which was better for him too. I can see there are problems with how I am trying to engage him with the toy. Without further ado…
Thanks for the helpful feedback – I think it’s helping us to make some progress!!
First blind crosses – I think Presto is doing just fine, his Mom is a little awkward. In watching the videos, I noticed when asking to come to my right, I don’t think I turn my body as well that direction and my right hand is just weirdly hanging there. Luckily, Presto still comes in like a good boy (Nikko and Sole learned long ago to “save the mama” on late blind crosses!). Outside I tossed a treat and inside I just decided to incorporate it into some “place” training I was doing this morning. Defintely would appreciate feedback on body positioning! Here’s the video: https://youtu.be/R_mReqnsc4U.
Wing wraps. He’s doing awesome – outside he made a couple mistakes (cutting in), but inside he was 100% confident. I also was able to stand and he didn’t seem to notice at all. I hope I am not moving the stanchion too far away – it’s less than 2 feet. I’ll keep taking it to some new places, especially outside to increase his confidence. Oh, I tried this with two toys and it was a failure. I think I might be able to incorporate toys when there is more distance/action, but he just wasn’t interested in switching between two toys. Video: https://youtu.be/L3fJsW4m3NU
And the more difficult one – sends. I did do one session I didn’t video where I just worked the foot targeting with the hat on a raised surface to build more value as you suggested. This evening, I taped the santa hat to a balance thing and that helped (until the stupid balance thing kept sliding on the floor as he got more drive, so then I just put it back on the floor for the rest of the session). I tried to be more careful of clicking only front foot – although sometimes I think I don’t deserve a clicker 😉 I also did more of a ready party before sending. I think initially he is wondering what the heck I’m doing, but I can see with more reps he’s starting to get it. And I did feel like the sends were improving – hope it looks that way to you too! 🙂 Video: https://youtu.be/G-0RDumEx4Y
It’s humbling that at 5 months Presto is already way more competent than his handler!
Whew – Presto is a TIRED puppy today. During the online class he hung out and we worked on being chill in his crate, then he tried the games when the other dogs did. The videoing in the space I used was not fantastic, so we played the games again after a nice three hour nap. Presto seems to be picking up the games quickly – although I think our “send” is a little kerfuddled. He was front foot targeting (yay!), but from my right he had a harder time focusing on the target. Watching the video it looks a little better than it felt, but definitely would appreciate feedback on how I can improve there. We’ll give blind crosses a shot tomorrow!
Here are links to the videos:
Game 1: Drive ahead/Focus forward
Game 2: Drive to handler
Game 3: Sends
Game 4: Shaping a wing wrap
