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Yay!!!! This is really looking great and she is searching out the target and not looking at you as much! Yes! She looks like she is ready to work on the target without the bowls on either side. You have built up her looking to the target really nice (and with great distance) so I don’t think that you will have the original problem of her looking at your hands too much. Gradually start adding in small amounts of motion and distance as she is successful. This is really a great start and starting to come together!!
This first video with him hitting the target with distractions looked very good! He was hitting off to the side with his rear feet a lot. He was doing this really well before so do another session just like this and see if you get the same thing and if you do do a session with the inverted target. That can really help get them more precise. So anytime they get a little sloppy I will go back and do a session with that 🙂 That happens to all of them from time to time.
Something I want you to try with your toy distraction is to roll that ball he really likes and let him go while the ball is still rolling. I think that will create a lot more speed from him and be an additional proofing thing for him as well. In the long run I could see us using this on the DW as well to generate more speed forward. So it would definitely be a good thing to test here!
Bummer about the plank! I hope this other one works for you!
The second video to the PT looked pretty good but with more speed he seemed to do better with the larger target. So lets continue working with the small target with less speed and more speedy stuff to the large target to keep his success up and keep him moving faster. As soon as he is hitting the smaller target with more success and confidence (and gradually more spped) then we can add it back into these speedy approaches
I am confused why you felt this was not successful? Because this actually looked really good to me! Some misses here and there but overall this was really good and she showed great intention to hit the target but was still sorting out how to do that. I would like you to try this exercise again with the inverted target in place of where your target is right now. That will often help them generalize the behavior to the plank then we can fade the inverted target. Great work!
Well she had some really amazing hits in there!!
So I would not use the cone there at all! Because that can be so hard to fade and shes not hitting on the side of the DW or on the ground at all right? It is just the very top of the target rather than in the middle. When this does happen again you start her slightly farther forward from her sweet spot as that should help her get a tiny bit deeper. I will do that if we are towards the end of their sessions where they are not as likely to be running as fast. I think that these are they types of exits that we need to be working on with her so it is not too hard it will just take time to build it. One thing I really want you to try with her at this stage is putting the inverted target on the DW where your current target it. Just secure it to the DW. She does not need to hit with all 4 feet although if she does still reward. But that should really help her build more understanding on these soft turns. Start with the pole load up for the first few reps then do a couple from the sweet spot. With the pole load up you can go farther around the clock with the MM because it is a bit easier for her right now. Continue doing session like that as well so she is getting a better idea that she must hit all around the clock.
Wow!!!! The wing to the MM looks fantastic!! Have you done this all around the clock starting to add turns? If not, that is your next step with this amazingness!
The toy work is looking great too!! When you drop the toy on the ground gradually stop helping her as much because right now you are helping by walking to the target and we want her to learn to go out of her way to find the target independently from you and your motion. Otherwise she is doing an amazing job working with the toy and dealing with the toy distractions! Especially from where she started!
Inverted Box – These sizes both look fine for the amount of speed that you are doing in the house. I think it is perfect for gaining understanding and figuring out what we want her to do with the target regardless of size. But if you start to add more speed I would use a bit larger box. Try to reward/toss sooner so that she doesn’t have as much “hang time” in the box. She may get a few more missed in the beginning, thats okay, just JP with extra cookies on the really good ones and say nothing on the so so ones (but let her get the tossed cookie you already threw). Same thing with the outside session. Great size for building understanding that she must hit with all four because she needs to put a lot of effort into hitting with all 4 in that tiny box. And I am SO HAPPY with how she did in that outdoor session.
B&F with motion – This looks great!! You should be moving away basically at the same time that you give her the go word. Yes, you could start working on this with the smaller target. You could also start working on the lesson 3 distractions with the bigger target. Anytime that you are adding something new (like new distractions etc.) I would use this larger target to keep the success rate up higher and not add too many new things at one time.
WOW she had so many BEAUTIFUL hits with the straight and turn exits to the MM. I am SO happy with that session. So in this session what she is doing in perfect IMO. With the amount if speed that she has right now hitting with all 4 makes sense. As we increase speed she will start to hit with 2 feet and I would accept that. You can see the beginning of her hitting with 2 feet on the straight ahead exits where she is running forward with a bit more RF separation so I wouldn’t worry about it at all. In the beginning I look for the all 4 hits because it builds better understanding of how to hit the target AND it requires the dog to put more effort into hitting the target so I believe it helps with some impulse control with this skill (because later running at full speed this requires a lot of impulse control). Then at some point with adding speed (slightly different for each dog) they will start hitting with 2 feet because it is more comfortable for them. But usually by then they have great understanding and impulse control with it so I just keep rewarding the 2 feet. It also depends a lot on the dog. If we are trying to get the dog to run faster with the target work I will accept both 4 and 2 foot hits. Right from the beginning. If we need to build in better understanding or if the dog is a bit “hot headed” and likely to blow past contacts we will only reward 4 foot for a long time. With Sophie — she is somewhere in the middle. She has great understanding right now so I would probably keep up with exactly what you are doing all the way to the plank work unless she starts giving you amazing RF hits (I will pretty much always reward those as thats what we are looking for later). Rear foot hits in the long run are usually the most comfortable for the dog so I try to encourage and reward those a lot. Again, I wouldn’t worry about it until you get to the plank and we are adding more speed. The target size you are using is perfect I wouldn’t go any smaller. Keep your criteria to all 4 for all the proofing exercises. On the plank you will start accepting the 2 RF hits (or 2 FF). When adding speed to the straight exits you can also accept 2 RF hits but I wouldn’t worry about encouraging it what she is doing in the video is perfect.
Yes, I will use the inverted target on the DW for some dogs. This can help some generalize the behavior to the plank and have better understanding in turns. Yes, on the plank I only use the inverted target because I have found it is easier to fade. I typically use a cardboard box and start taking off edges of the box to fade it. The edges help teach the dog to hit in the middle of the target which is really good for turns where as the elevated target they can push off the edges of the target too much. But she is showing such great understanding here you may not even have to do that at all and go straight to the flat target on the DW plank.
Sorry lots of answers are a bit of “we have to wait and see what will work best” but that is so much how this process goes. They all are so different and need such different things that it is at this stage where we may deviate slightly 😉 It is a process of figuring out what works best for each dogs while building understanding and consistency in their hits.
Awesome!!!!! This is looking A LOT better!!!! Continue working like this. Try to mark a bit earlier so he doesn’t get as much hang time on the target. Yes, just you being more excited helped a lot. In the beginning of the session you said go and near the middle started saying “get” I would just stick with one or the other 🙂 This is looking SO MUCH better already!! Yay! Continue working like this through all the proofing exercises.
Overall I am VERY happy with this session. She is showing a lot of great intention to hit the target. For a dog like her, that is huge! Yes, a bit early for adding in motion but at least you weren’t moving a whole lot or adding a lot of speed. So that is good. Next sessions less motion, especially when you start working on turns. The treat bowl could be an addition 2-5 feet farther away. I try to keep it pretty far away so they don’t think about slowing down on the plank at all. She is not doing that here but if you were adding more speed she could with it where it was at. Next session also vary the starting position a bit more. You want to find a “sweet spot” of where she is hitting with perfect RF nearly every time so we can start building in that muscle memory. If she continues to hit high on the target you will stop rewarding that and start only rewarding for 2 foot hits. For a dog like her that (this is an assumption based on everything you said so if I am wrong that is fine too!) is more likely to want to go as fast as possible and will try to cut corners as much as she can to rush through something I would start being VERY consistent of only 2 foot hits — after a few initial figuring it out sessions. You can also put the inverted target on the DW with the target in it as well. A lot of times that will help them understand to hit in the center of the target a bit better. I will often do this when adding turns so they do not learn to hit off to the side of the DW. Great first session!! Good job thinking Zeal 🙂
No not as small as the feet in the box. Probably slightly less than her body length would be perfect.
Oh no!! Give a try but stop if you start to see these same behaviors. You might have better success with you on the ground in a less agility like situation. We shall see. We could also try to work on the target from the crate then too…. So like put the crate at the angle that you want then release him to go to the target from there (or a platform). That might be a way to get the speed as well. So if you get to your session and the collar hold isn’t working try that!
So with the RF separation — I actually wouldn’t worry about it too much at all. The elevated and inverted target kind of promotes that type of hit but in the beginning I don’t really care at all because most of the time as we build speed they start naturally hitting with more separation but they understand the target so well because of the elevated and inverted target so well. So not a big deal to me at all. And after watching more of the session you can see already that when she is running that RF separation is coming so natural. So don’t worry about it at all.
I am thrilled with this session!!!! She showed amazing understanding will all of the different types of commitment that you were working on in this session (going to an obstacle after the target, MM around the clock (she also does great with the treat bowl — love it), a bit of handler motion, etc.). Try not to reward those one FF hits as much as you can catch them. They are hard to catch sometimes. Continue adding more distractions and handler motion to this and she is ready for the plank whenever it thaws! Continuing to work on sessions like this until you can work with the plank is perfect.
Good boy!! It is so funny this is such a hard trick for some dogs and so easy for others. Oh my gosh he did awesome with that small sized box! He is really starting to develop the RF understand. That is really good that he is learning about the rear feet. Keep playing with this from time to time to make sure he is still gaining confidence with moving those rear feet but otherwise, I am super happy with this!
Yes, keep moving the target to the ground before doing too much with the plank. You can do a session or two with the target on the plank to see how well he starts to generalize everything (its not going to hurt anything) but otherwise, work on fading the height of the elevated target. I will sometimes use the inverted target on the plank in the beginning so do a refresher on that now that we have more speed and better understanding as well.
In the session where you are sitting on the ground – can you hold him by the collar say excitement words like readdddyyyy then let him go to the target? Will that help get him to run faster? That could work! You would want to be somewhat close to the target though because he will be more likely to miss when you do that because of the extra excitement but I am excited to see how that goes. And at this stage nothing is supposed to be crazy fast we just want to make sure he starts learning he can jog to the target and jump on it. Once we get that building up more speed from there is somewhat easy.
Anytime that you are working on a session adding more speed, for now lets use the bigger target. I know I just told you to use a smaller one haha sorry! But any speed we are going to use the bigger one so that being successful at speed is easier for him. The b&F with the MM is actually looking really good. Speed wise this is my favorite session because he is moving through the target rather than stopping. Really the only thing that he is missing here is jogging rather than trotting. Same thing – try the collar, readddy, let go and lets see what we get.
Some dogs just over think things so we just need to find a way that works best for him so don’t worry, we will figure it out with some trial and error 🙂
Oh no, I am so sorry that I missed those earlier posts! I am not sure how that happened. SO SORRY!!
His hits with the 2/16 Inverted target – LOOOK AMAMAZING!!!! I am so happy with that session as well. He really worked hard to hit all 4 in on the target every time with the toy rewards and everything. AND he had great enthusiasm and no trotting! Super. To answer your question, yes, continue with what you are doing but you can also start adding more distractions, handler motion, obstacles before and after and work on the inverted target to the MM all around the clock.
Turning to the left — all of them have a good/bad way sop this could be that. Stinker, haahaa, I just want to bite you in the face. Silly boy! You will probably just need to do more sessions on the left and practice more on the left than the right for now until the two sides even out a bit.
Handler motion turning to the right looks great! When you are adding in the handler motion early start with just a tiny bit of motion in the beginning. When you were adding in the motion early you were taking off running so it was pulling him off as apposed to when you waited a bit longer to make sure he was going to the target then running. You want to start moving early when you don’t know if he will go to it or not but so slowly that he most likely will go to it. Then from there as he is understanding that, then start moving away faster and faster. That should help keep the focus on the target a lot. You can also start from the collar hold, wait for him to be looking forward before saying your go and leaving. Slowing things down like that may be a challenge for him in the beginning but it will be really good for him to understand things that way.
Wow he was so jacked up! I love how excited he was here. Yes, some work to do on thinking through the excitement BUT I love what he is giving you. Your big homework will be to practice in this environment as much as possible. And in the beginning of your session try to set him up for success a bit more (mostly with turning to the left). This is where the collar hold game where you are slowing things down for him will probably help a lot because it tends to bring out the more thinking side of things. Which, in this situation, would be a good thing. I don’t want too much of that from him but here definitely more thinking. All in all, I am super happy with how this session went and he really figured things out at the end! Just make things a tiny bit easier turning to the left and continue building it from there.
MM Session – This went really well! The collar hold/looking forward will probably help with the jumping up towards you. He is not always looking at the target in the beginning and the times that he isn’t are the times that he is jumping at you.
**Note for turning to the left – he is holding up one RF when turning to the left a lot. So as you work on more turning to the left, angle the target the long way to see if that helps him build up some more understanding to hit with that RF. Sometimes just adding a slightly bigger target will do the trick with that.
Inverted target – This is looking really good! Yes, trim the edges just a bit. This is so great for understanding! He is missing on the first exciting try about 50% of the time it seemed so try to bring down the excitement just a hair so he is successful the first time he runs to the target. And then when he is more successful on the first try start to add the excitement back in. You can also get a bit closer to the target when adding the excitement back into the picture because that should also help him with getting it right the first try. Some failures are completely fine but we don’t want him to find a pattern of missing then going back to fix it.
Elevated target is looking great as well. Play with your distance from the target – so getting closer to the target in the beginning, then gradually moving backwards a tiny bit after each successful rep. Again, I think he is missing on the first try to a bit so starting closer, then gradually backing up should help with that a lot.
