Congratulations! You got till the last list!
1. add duration and distractions to heeling - try it in different environments, reward a lot there, but apart from that, start adding more duration, reward every couple of steps with a small reward first, then do a really long distance and big jackpot for it - then a couple of steps for a small reward and long distance for a great reward again - vary it a lot for them to be able to see the pattern that the longer there is no reward, the better!
2. pick up the object to hug it - if the dog can already hold an object independently, put it on the floor and see if he can solve the problem and pick it up with a muzzle to get a hold of it with a paw
3. get a ball for kids, hold it with your feet so that it doesn't move too much at first and click for front legs on - then release your feet a little bit so that it starts to move and the dog needs to balance on it. Now click for little steps on the ball, the final goal is the dog walking ahead with hind feet on the ground and front feet rolling the ball. Great for balance and coordination and for getting used to objects moving under the feet.
4. "sit up" to "stand up" and back and "down" to "sit up" and back - great for strength in the back, especially important for those who will be doing agility. Down to sit up and back should go easy, use a hand signal together with your verbal cues. First, reward even if the dog goes into sit for a second, but then try to get rid of it and go for direct transitions from one position to another. Sit up to stand up is easy too, you can use a lure for that one. Going back to sit up (without falling in sit first) is hard, so offer your hand as a support so that the dog can lean on it and then click for any knee bending until actually going into sit up. This is conditioning exercise, so you can help some more with lures if necessary, but as always - don't do it so much that the dog would be sore after, you need to build muscle and balance gradually.
5. another great warming up exercise to stretch the dog before the run: spins to left&right and figure 8 forward. I teach it with a nose touch, putting a hand for a nose touch on the right spot (somewhere at the dog's hip) to get a spin, then getting more&more spins in the same direction in a row, fading the hand and putting it on verbal cue left &right - very useful also on a course! I also do figure 8 forward with a nose touch, putting a hand so that the dog comes between the legs, rewarding at the side and then again the other direction. Fade the hand then into hand signal and then completely, using just a verbal cue. I simply use cik&cap.
And yes, sure, that nose targeting is almost as luring and if you wanted, you can also shape it instead. I will sometimes lure as sometimes, it is the easiest way to the goal. I never lure with a puppy because I want them to understand the concept of shaping first because many things simply can’t be taught by luring, so at one point, you need a dog who will offer behaviors. If you always help with easy tricks and then count on simply going to shaping when needed, you’ll get in trouble. But I don't have a problem with going the other way around: first only shape, but later on do some luring or targeting when teaching something like figure 8, spins or sit up to stand up.
6. limping: click for one paw in the air (front or rear, whatever you prefer), add a little bit duration and then start clicking for any movements or weight shift of other 3 legs. Shape towards a real step and slowly add more&more to get limping on front/rear foot.
You again have 2 weeks to work on those exercises and post videos to comment and give suggestions for improvements. After those 2 weeks, your very last assignment before graduating puppy class is to make a video of everything you learned in this class - so don't post training sessions as such, but finished version of tricks, some breakthrough moments, some playing, city walking and everything else you did with your dog for this class (using what you already taped or taping some more). If you allow, I will then publish your videos on my website. Those videos will be your graduation work, you will get a "LoLaBuLand puppy class graduate" certificate and as a gift, a download link to a training DVD of your choice (see the training videos website to choose one).
For everybody asking for "advanced puppy class" - I will try to think of a good program as it was so cool to work with you that I would sure love to see some more of your dogs in the future 🙂 But I think that won't be doable before autumn, so the plan is to hopefully open advanced tricks class in September or October. Another option is Agility Foundation class that will start end of June - I will put a description on my website soon.
I’m very sad, that our puppyclass is over. It was so much fun, and so inspiring, and we learned so much! Alice is a great trickser. She loves thinkingskills. The trick hug the bottle, is one of her favourites. She is loooking very concentrated when she picks the bottle from the ground, goes in the situp position and does the hug. This is so cute! Feline has problems with the bottle, because the bottle is diagonally in her mouth, what makes it quite impossible to make a hug. I think she finds this exercise daft(?).
Limping I trained before. Alice does it with backleg, but only one or two steps. Feline learned in the course to lift backlegs, and I’m beginning with her limping with backleg.
Skateboard works fine by now with Alice. I rewarded everything she does, with a high clickrate, and now she moves the skateboard sometimes with one frontpaw, and sometimes with backpaws.
Yesterday I buyed a ball, and shaped them both with frontpaws on it. Its the same as with the skateboard, Feline is just moving a little, Alice tries to stand on it without the ball moving, but she doesn’t fear about movement. She just didn’t get the task until now.
Situp and standup I did before, and it took a long time until they were able to do. Feline is very good in it, for Alice it is a little harder. I think its because her back is longer than Felines.
Heeling is great with your method! I had always the problem how to add duration, but with your advice its so easy, and so much fun for the dogs. When I remeber how we trained it in the past in our training club! That was no fun, neither for the dogs nor for the people.
I’m looking forward to Agility Foundation Class, and if the advanced puppy class starts, were definitly in there. The next class we’ll join with camera, I have one now 🙂 I’m looking forward, and can’t really wait until the next longdistance class starts!
Interesting, small dogs usually don’t have much problems with stand up to sit up. And yes, most dogs don’t mind the movement of the ball under their feet -- even those that don’t like the skateboard… Not sure why.
Here’s a funny vid of me in my PJs -- trying the bounce trick w grace. This is the 2nd session. I tried w her jumping over my leg but it was hopeless, she kept bashing into my leg! I think we got one good one where she actually jumped. She kept crouching as tho she was going to leap and i’d accidentally say ‘yes’
Any advice would be greatly appreciated … 🙂
Grace has been having a great time walking on the ball. H/e, unfortunately my camera is broken
Hm, how about jumping over another object (vs. your leg) -- that will give you landing on front feet first, but you can then shape for more of a four feet land. You could also go in the direction as in the video, but I don’t like landing on hind feet first too much, I think it’s not good for their back as they can’t absorb it as well as with front feet…
Thanks Silvia, yeah i obviously missed the pt there 🙂
I started trying w her jumping over a pole tonight..it was so bad that it was hilarious! She was bashing thru it or just jumping her front legs really high over it and not moving her back legs at all. If you didn’t know her you wld think “oh my god, this is the most uncoordinated dog in the world w NO rear end awareness whatsoever!” Because this isn’t the case -- any ideas why she wld find this so difficult? She has always been really uncoordinated when i have asked her to jump something that she doesnjt see as a jump. ie my legs -- i’m surprised she didn’t dislocate my knee 🙂 It’s so funny bc it is only ever the v easy things that are difficult w Grace. We ended up getting about 3 good jumps, so I’ve got something to work w 🙂
That’s a really very interesting problem… How is she with jumping in a car, on a sofa etc.?
Yes it is v bizare! She takes a flying leap onto the sofa, into the car and over the top of any dog she is playing with. She even decided to jump into the car when the door was shut but the window was open! I’m actually wondering if it’s because the object is so low she doesn’t register that she needs to jump it or bc she’s so busy looking at the treat that she forgets her back legs (we prob say yes bf her back legs leave the ground)
This a v embarassing vid but I’ll post it anyway.. (this is actually after she was just running thru it(i think she might have actually been trying to target it w her feet initially) 🙂
Well, that’s a good start that she can jump on things! 🙂 You’re getting there with the pole, but this exercise would probably be easier outside with more room and speed. Try to find some logs and benches on the walks, try jumping over everything you can find 🙂
Thanks -- i tried it on a walk last night and it was much much better 🙂
I’m keen to do agility foundation but I’m trying to work out the logistics ie. space, equipment, time (it will be winter so dark when i get home from uni)
Just wondering if you think my backyard will be big enough to do it in? Grace is running around my yard at the start of this vid…
Yes, I think that’s enough room. Time problems can be more of a problem 🙂 but I think Foundations won’t be as time consuming as tricks, you can’t work with full speed that long anyway, so you need to keep the sessions really short anyway.
Thanks Silvia, If you think i’ve got enough room I’m just going to sign up for foundation and try to do the best i can w the time i’ve got 🙂 I was thinking i wouldn’t be able to do it but that just made Grace and i too sad!!
I’m REALLY looking fwd to it. The equipment is going to be my post-exam present. Perfect timing bc my last exam is 25th June 🙂
Oh, then you really must join in if we got the timing so well!!!
I’m all signed up -- very excited!! Unfortunately it’s not exactly my last exam, just the last exam for the semester. Another 2.5 yrs to go!
Uni is moving me to a small country town for all of next year and providing my accom. The rule is no dogs but in my interview i spent most of the time talking about grace and that there is NO way i wld move without her. They contacted me yesterday to say that they want me to have this position+ that grace is v welcome ++ bc she is a therapy dog there is a chance she will be able to work at the clinic&hospital w me. How cool wld that be!? 🙂
Wow, that’s GREAT news that she can come! I can’t go anywhere without the dogs, we only went for vacations once without the dogs and even my boyfriend that is not really into dogs missed them so much that we never go anywhere without them again.
I just wanted to quickly chime in and say it’s amazing how far everyone has come! I know I’ve gotten a bit behind but it just means that when the class ends I know I’ll still have things to work on (where as before the class started I was totally out of ideas for tricks… now my list is so long!!).
I went back and watched some of the videos from Week 1 versus now and it’s amazing the progress, not just in the tricks but in how you can see the dogs (and owners) thinking and shaping!
Thank you so much Silvia, and I wouldn’t change a thing about the class, I for one am glad that you gave us a ton to work on and the feeling behind helped to keep me honest and practicing every day!
It’s been an honor to share a class with you all!
Thanks for the feedback Jennifer! I agree, it is amazing how much progress there is, every video is such a joy to watch, so I sure hope you’re sending some more too!!! 🙂
Yes, I also think this course has been brilliant!! Grace & I have loved every second and i think the amount of homework has been perfect.
It is a shame that we lost so many participants. Has this been a problem in the other puppy course too or just ours?
I have noticed a big change in Grace’s attitude towards working w me. We went to our 1st flyball comp on the weekend and Grace was an absolute superstar 🙂 Before we started this course there is no way she would have been that focused on me -- she barely even blinked at the other dogs racing past. We only started flyball in feb so it was v controversial that we were in the team (politics!) -- i was v proud bc she ended up having the fastest times! While we were waiting to start the race we practiced all our tricks from the course 🙂
Remember how i said that i had a problem at the park w her focus… The other night at the park she ignored the other dogs and kept ‘asking’ me v intently “what are we going to do next?”
I am so grateful to have been part of this course
🙂
By the way, i need to apologise in advance. I’ve got exams coming up so my graduation vid will be late. Last exams are the end of june,so Grace & i will make our vid 1st week july> hope that’s not too late
Wow, that’s great to hear! And yes, sure, you can post a video then. We had many people stop posting in the second class too… So far, there weren’t any complaints, I think it’s mostly just that the whole thing with training AND videotaping is somewhat more time consuming as they expected…
Hi Silvia,
We have enjoyed the class and I think the format works pretty well.
For us the homework was a lot, maybe you could shorten the lists and then add a few things for more advanced people and dogs (like Grace) as “extra credit”. It gets a bit frustrating when you always feel behind, even though we practiced almost every day. We just learned at a slower pace.
The videotaping, editing and uploading definitely takes extra time, and I didn’t include much outside footage, because I would always be running in out of the shot 🙂
But we learned a lot and we are coming back for more! 🙂
I hope we can graduate for “fairly good effort” 🙂
Yes, that’s what I was thinking about, to make some tricks optional, for those who have some time left. Thanks for the feedback! And well, you two definitely didn’t look behind at all on your videos!!!
YESS!! We Just signed up for Agility Foundations! I hope we can keep up.
It’s too hot here in Florida in the summer to do it outside, but I can rent the dog training club space once or twice a week, it’s indoors and air conditioned. We have V-weaves, will that work?
Although Buddy is probably not my competion dog, i am looking forward to learning your techniques and just having fun 🙂
When you come to Montana we can practice together!
Nancy and Nero
well, I don’t even know how to spell “competition” 🙂
Nancy, I would love to come out to Montana this summer, but also want to go home to Germany this year, so I’m not sure I can do both. But we’ll keep in touch for sure. Are you doing Agility Foundations class?
Yes, I did sign up for AF. I’m really excited. I have a good yard for basic stuff and then there are two competition sized publicly accessible outdoor fields that I set up over the last 10 years or so. Tomorrow Nero gets to work sheep again. My trainer will only work a pup once around major holidays so this is the Easter workout. He’s 6 months and pretty strong now so it’ll be interesting to see how it goes. I’ll have my Flip camera with me!
Happy trick training!
Nancy
I post here because I do not know where to put my message.
I try to register the foundation agility class but that does not work, the page does not open.
I want to register my young aussie 10 months.
you can keep me a place?
Hi Silvia and everyone else!
I’m really sorry I haven’t been active here lately. Have been having some computer-related problems and things have just been crazy so there has been little time to try and fix it. We’re a bit behind now but I’ll try to post as many videos as I can. Of course we’ve been working on some tricks anyway so hopefully we’re not too far behind. I am also sad that the class is almost already over. Time sure flies when you’re having fun!
Cool, looking forward to see crazy Nyx again!
I would like to register for agility foundation class too. I can’t pay before monday. I have no paypal account anymore, because Paypal did some faults with my bank account in the past, and the risk became to high for me to loose money.
I hope you can keep me a place too.
Sure, see you there!
Did a video, it’s not all the tricks but shows where we are on handstand, back figure-8’s, hug/hold and putting one bowl into another! Some went better than others and she definitely gets confused at the end and tries to hug/hold the bowl!
Wow Jennifer again great video! Jin also got confused sometimes. Especially the side legs/ limping/ handstand. And she also wants to hug everything now 😀 (also the bowls ;))
Oh, Jennifer, that’s a great video! And I didn’t see it at all until now that I saw Jonina’s comment and went to check which video she is referring to… VERY sorry for not commenting it earlier and thanks Jonina for helping me find it! If it ever happens you don’t get an answer in 2 days (when I don’t tell in advance I’ll be away and not answering), send another comment so that I can find a video!
Anyway, that’s a really GREAT, fluent figure 8 backwards! And the pick up a bowl and hug it was too cute!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂
Almost there with a handstand too -- for others: that’s a great way to fade the object and get a free handstand! But again, it takes lots of strength and balance, so it can take a while, you need to take it slowly! For limping, you still need to add some more duration. Slowly delay the click more&more and then ideally sometimes feed her with a paw still in the air so that you can immediately click&reward again, without the paw going down in between -- that helps a lot with their understanding it’s about the duration!
For bowl to bowl trick, did you try rewarding her for picking up a bowl by throwing a treat in another bowl? It speeds up the process a lot!
Hope you can still find my comment, sorry again for the delay!
Here’s a little snippet from going herding this weekend. Nero worked great with me and was wearing and driving the sheep great with me, but noone to film that. No no sheep for another month to do some more growing.
httpv://www.youtube.com/my_videos?feature=mhee
Nancy and Nero
OK, I think I figured out where I went wrong…..
Herding Lesson Snippet
Very cool! And a really beautiful place!
Very nice! I like your instructor, Nancy.
I took Buddy herding last year and the instructor kept wacking him with a paddle until he just turned away from the sheep. She then said he was soft. I didn’t like her training method at all, it was all about punishment. When he came out of the round pen he kept jumping on me and pulling to the car. So we left and haven’t tried it again.
Oh what a bad experience. I really like Roxanne. At this stage it’s just letting the pup find their balance and learn to read the sheep. That’s why we just left him in the corner while he practiced pressure with where he was looking. Roxanne worked him for about 5 minutes to make sure he was turning and balancing before turning him over to me. When I started I was holding the stick horizontally which was too much pressure on Nero. She then had me start to hold it vertically and close to my body and only used the very bottom of it to bump him out when necessary. Her motto is like the Natural Horsemanship trainers around here and that’s to use the “lightest” signal possible.
Nancy
How beautiful! Emi does lots of herding w Niah -- he has a very similar relaxed style to Nero. I’ve been thinking about taking grace herding w all her BC friends. I’m sure the sheep will end up herding her but should be fun. Jennifer, that instructor sounds horrible! i’d want to whack her w the stick 🙂
PS I’ve always wanted to go to montana
Hi Camilla, I have a couple of videos on my youtube channel from our trip to Montana and Wyoming last year. I love it out there. When I lived in Oregon we would drive out every summer to visit my husband’s family.
oops, I only meant to post a link! Sorry.
Ha ha, I see lot’s of opportunities for that two hour hike!
Nancy
Ha! Beautiful country & good to meet mark 🙂 I can’t help but think he’s driving on the wrong side of the road!
Camilla,
Did you sign up for foundations class? I think I saw most our puppy class in the new foundations class; that’s cool that we get to see everyone’s progress! 🙂
Yes, I just signed up yesterday!! I’m very excited 🙂
I didn’t think i’d be able to do it bc of uni. Everyone has been telling me to cut down on all my extracurricular things (ie DOGS) but i just couldn’t bring myself to give it up
I’m addicted to our little online community 🙂
Me too 🙂 dog training is not such a bad obsession to have. Just tell them it relieves stress 🙂
I am sure you will do great, even if you don’t have that much time you’ll be learning a lot and just use that later.
me too 🙂 I’m sorry, that I am not as good in english, as I would like to be, but everybody who is writing about the long distant classes and what fun it is etc, is writing out of my heart :). It was great to be here in this class, I’m looking forward to agility foundation class, and can’t really wait till end of june…..