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This is looking really good! The tub in front of the elevated target was very smart. Good thinking! Overall she did very well with both exercises. The elevated target really emphasizes more precision from them so with her let’s use the elevated target quite a bit to help build more understanding while we are adding distractions and all of that (you will see this in the upcoming lessons). Her understanding with the target on the flat was really good too. I agree, she did fix her misses really well.
This will be coming out in the next lesson but I think she is ready for it now so here you go 🙂
Adding distractions to the target is probably one of the most valuable exercises we can do because when doing running contacts there will always be distractions and we want the dog to learn to ignore the distractions and focus on their job; hitting that target.
I like to use toy distractions with my dogs but it is always important to vary the distraction based on the dog. For example, my Chinese Crested is sometimes in the mood for toys and sometimes not. Knowing that, I need to gage her excitement for toys and decide which distraction tool to use first. I have also found that she is much more likely to play with me (and toys) if she already has done a trick/behavior before so I often start with food because of that.
To add toy distractions, the first thing you want is a toy that is a low level of distraction (or food). Then you will put the toy out in front of you pulling the dog’s attention to the toy rather than the target (the toy should barely be out in front of you in the beginning). On the first few reps I always have the toy balled up in my hand so it is less distracting then gradually start to make the toy more and more distracting by opening up your hand, putting it on the ground, and eventually shaking it around. I start by holding the dog by their collar off to my right or left and “offering” the toy in a minimally distracting way, then saying “go” to the dog (my generic word that tells the dog to run to touch the target) and letting them choose if they are going to find the target or if they are going to try to get the toy. If they go for the toy I ball it up in my hand so they can’t get to it and wait a couple seconds to see if they will offer the target. If they do offer the target, reward! If they don’t, just try again from the beginning making the rep a little bit easier by bringing the toy closer to your body. After each successful rep, you will very slowly add a tiny bit more distraction from the toy; in the beginning, it is as simple as making it slightly more visible. With many dogs in the beginning I will start with the toy hidden off to my side then slowly make it more visible. Then continue to build on that until the dog can see the toy on the ground and even see you moving the toy around.
In the video you will see examples of both toy and food distractions. For food distractions, I go through the same steps as the toy distractions. Again, it depends on the dog if you will do toy or food distractions first. We want to work through the easier distractions first then move to more challenging distractions.
This is in the next lesson but you are ready for it 🙂
Here is what you need for adding distractions to the target. I think this will be a super valuable skills for her and might be a little challenging in the beginning.
Adding distractions to the target is probably one of the most valuable exercises we can do because when doing running contacts there will always be distractions and we want the dog to learn to ignore the distractions and focus on their job; hitting that target.
I like to use toy distractions with my dogs but it is always important to vary the distraction based on the dog. For example, my Chinese Crested is sometimes in the mood for toys and sometimes not. Knowing that, I need to gage her excitement for toys and decide which distraction tool to use first. I have also found that she is much more likely to play with me (and toys) if she already has done a trick/behavior before so I often start with food because of that.
To add toy distractions, the first thing you want is a toy that is a low level of distraction (or food). Then you will put the toy out in front of you pulling the dog’s attention to the toy rather than the target (the toy should barely be out in front of you in the beginning). On the first few reps I always have the toy balled up in my hand so it is less distracting then gradually start to make the toy more and more distracting by opening up your hand, putting it on the ground, and eventually shaking it around. I start by holding the dog by their collar off to my right or left and “offering” the toy in a minimally distracting way, then saying “go” to the dog (my generic word that tells the dog to run to touch the target) and letting them choose if they are going to find the target or if they are going to try to get the toy. If they go for the toy I ball it up in my hand so they can’t get to it and wait a couple seconds to see if they will offer the target. If they do offer the target, reward! If they don’t, just try again from the beginning making the rep a little bit easier by bringing the toy closer to your body. After each successful rep, you will very slowly add a tiny bit more distraction from the toy; in the beginning, it is as simple as making it slightly more visible. With many dogs in the beginning I will start with the toy hidden off to my side then slowly make it more visible. Then continue to build on that until the dog can see the toy on the ground and even see you moving the toy around.
In the video you will see examples of both toy and food distractions. For food distractions, I go through the same steps as the toy distractions. Again, it depends on the dog if you will do toy or food distractions first. We want to work through the easier distractions first then move to more challenging distractions.
This is the next part of adding distractions to the target –
Toy Distractions – Continue to build their understanding of hitting the target with the toys anywhere. In the beginning, face the dog right at the target and toss your toy off to your right or left (opposite of the dog) in a way that if the dog were to go straight to the toy you could easily step on the toy. Then as they start to understand they must touch the target (with all four paws), you can gradually make it more challenging by tossing they toy more and more in their line of sight until eventually the dog is facing the toy but still touches the target when cued to do so. You can even see them go out of their way to make sure that they touch the target.
Handler Distractions – We are going to be gradually adding handler speed, building independence and distance when working on the target training. You can work on this with the Treat & Train or a static toy (whichever is better for your dog). I like working on it with the Treat & Train because generally that helps build a more thoughtful target behavior. When you are adding handler distractions here is a list to work on:
*Independence – Handler moving away from the target (first slow then faster)
*Handler lead-outs (right and left) in all different places around the clock
*Lateral motion
*”Funny” motions – this is where you get to have a little FUN. Start making funny dancing motions then asking the dog to do the target to the Treat & Train, adding more and more motion, making a fun game out of itYour questions about verbals – Yes, I have 5. 1) straight ahead 2&3) soft turns right/left 4) Collection exit tun into me 5) collection exit turning away from me. However, Kirbee basically has one. For him because he learn the new methods a bit later it was better for him for me not to change that much. So his straight exit and soft turns are the same and he should just pay attention to where my motion/body is headed. If it is a soft turn with an off course I will say a very quiet “kirb kirb” when he is at the top of the DW that means he should come to me and I have built this up so that he understand he must still hit even if I am calling his name. So all I am getting at is that it is possible to have less verbals and still have good understanding.
The next thing I want to get you started on is the half DW to the wing. I use this A LOT when I am teaching the running DW and we will definitely get to it in later lessons but she is ready for it now 🙂
I use a wing to have the dog drive to it at the exit of the DW. It is such a helpful transition from the MM to an obstacle because this allows you to use a toy as a reward and it starts to put the obstacle into the perspective of the course. So I want the dog to learn that in order to get a reward they much hit the target no matter what I am saying or what is happening after the DW(or what direction etc). So like I said earlier, only one verbal and let her think through the problem. After you do a couple session with that to the MM (and start moving the MM all around the clock) I want you to go to the wing. So the dog will start half way on the DW like she is now. and with one verbal you will send her down the DW and to the wing. If she has a hard time finding the wing in the beginning just put it fairly close and you can give her a quiet wing wrap verbal in the beginning but try to start fading that (we will bring all the verbals back when she has a really good understanding). Start with the wing at a straight exit and gradually in very small increments move the wing to the right/left (depending on what side you are on — NO turn aways right now). Every session for now you will start straight again and only move the wing after she has had 2-3 perfect hits where she was at then only move the wing by 2-3 ft.
Okay that is a lot of info. Let me know if you have any questions!
Hello!
Most of her mistakes were in that one direction (going from your right to left). Going into the next session knowing that you can help a lot by tossing the cookie starting her on that side in a bit more of a straight line with the platform so she is running towards it with her FF rather than her RF. If you toss the cookie a little bit farther away in general that will help a lot because then she will need to turn all the way around to go back to the target rather than back up to it with her RF. Is that making sense? So starting by tossing it farther away and in a straight line then gradually moving the tossed reward back to being closer and closer to your side creating more of a turn. When she gets stuck in the 2o2o position, instead of waiting for her to get all 4 feet on, I would ask her for a hand touch so that she will get out of that position and you are setting her up to try again. I have found, sometimes when they start to get stuck it just gets worse so it is better to get them out of that and in a position where they can try again. If you keep having trouble on that side just move closer to her again.
Feet in the box looked great! Yes, a little rusty but you can tell that she has a pretty good overall understanding of what she should do with that box. Keep playing with it and getting that body awareness/balance/understanding back because it is definitely in there!
Great work! 🙂
Miss smarty pants! She figured this out very quickly. For her I would do very similar to what I said with CB. Keep building up her understanding so that you are getting more consistent 4 on hits then start throwing in some toy rewards to bring more excitement into the game. Keep in mind when you do, you might start getting some hits that are not as good. So just be patient and if that starts to happen go back to using food or do a combination of food and toy rewards to keep the thoughtfulness but bring more excitement into the picture. I will often mix the toy and food rewards a lot in the beginning just to keep both. But mostly they both need a few more sessions with what you were doing first 🙂
Oh my gosh watching him think through this was hilarious! “I am really good in dis direction want to see..?”
Yes, they always have a good way and a bad way so not to worry at all. You can toss the reward farther away in the bad direction (and straighter) to give him an easier approach. Especially for the first few sessions I would do that in the beginning then gradually throughout the session make it more of a challenging angle. I think that is what you did but it was hard to tell from the angle of the camera. Do a few more sessions like this, building up some distance and understanding. Then try a session (doing everything the same) with toy rewards to build up some more speed and excitement with it. I think doing exercises on the elevated target will be really good for him because he will need to learn how to adjust his stride when running the DW full out and the elevated target does help with that.
Well all in all she has a pretty good understanding but we can definitely improve on a lot too 🙂
Elevated target – She is doing really well with this. If you are doing straight exits, to me it doesn’t matter if they hit with all four or only two but I would not reward one. And I would NOT worry about the FF hits that she is tending to get right now because as she builds confidence and overall understand they WILL change to rear foot hits. You can already see that on the dog walks that you are doing. So right now I would reward all of those FF hits and JP the RF hits and I would not worry about discouraging the FF at all. She will get it no problem, seriously! From here I would use the elevated target to get a better understanding with turns. So I would put your MM back to the farther away distance and start with soft turns rather than straight. You will find she will be a lot more likely to do all 4 hits in turns than in straights. Again, totally fine. JP for the really nice RF hits with separation. The other things that I would use the elevated target for is distractions. I don’t think that I have added the videos with distractions yet but I will send them to you tonight (I am about to run off for a puppy meet and greet with my litter). But the distractions will help build more understanding of hitting regardless of what is happening at that moment. Again, this will all be with the elevated target.
With your DW – Same thing I have a lot more information for you on this which I will send tonight. I will often use tunnel bags to help stabilize my down plank. I’ll put like 3 on top of each other right by where you have the mental part and push it all in there so it is really snug.
One thing that I have found very important for myself and my dogs is taking away all motion and all verbals in the beginning and really allowing them to think through the problem. So like when you are working on the half height I would just say “run” once and stand still and let her go and either reward or no reward. That helped Kirbee SO MUCH when I went back to fix his DW. Because I had originally encouraged him to run faster by yelling go go go but that actually made it A LOT worse. And yes, he slowed down more in the beginning but then as he started truly understanding what I wanted him to do and how I wanted him to hit he gained confidence and he came back so much faster with WAYYYYY better understanding. So that would be one thing I would change right now in your half height sessions. Just really letting her think through the problem and as she is more confident with what you are wanting her to do then add back your verbals and motion. The other thing to think about is that by the time she is half way down the dog walk you should be telling her the next obstacle so later in this exact situation you will not even be saying run anymore but instead whatever obstacle is next. So why practice that now?
I have a lot more I will add later tonight.. 🙂
Nice work!! She’s doing great with this. Both with adding distance and just her overall understanding of this behavior. Yes, you are correct, watch the target NOT the dog 🙂 One thing that I did that helped me a lot is actually trying to place which feet where hitting and where on the target. In the beginning I would point that out to the camera and go back to see if I was correct. It was something that really helped “force” me to be on top of it.
She did a really nice job of fixing with all 4 at the end there! Try tossing your cookies farther away from the mat in all different directions now so you are both building some additional speed and generalization for the trick because she will be hitting from all different directions.
Nice work! With the stickiness, it does look like you moved back a but too far too quickly. So you can start closer to the mat for a little while and as soon as you see him immediately running to the mat every time then move backwards by just a little bit. I also think that building distance is a little bit easier with the elevated target because you can see if the dog hits with all 4 a lot easier and it is a bigger target for the dog as well (so a bit easier for them as well). So try this again with the elevated target staying close in the beginning and adding distance a bit slower.
The color of the mat does not matter at all. It it mostly just something that is different from the floor. Great work!
Oh FUN! I love seeing litter mates and the differences. Looking forward to having you and Stark in class 🙂
Hello! Welcome to the class!
It doesn’t matter to me too much if they hit the very edge of the target as long as they are hitting it with all 4 feet. As they target gets smaller or we put it on the dog walk any hits on the very edge usually go away especially because we will teach them how to hit the target even with all the turns that are possible on the dog walk.
