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.
Sylvia Can you tell me when the Foundations class starts? I want to sign up but need a start date please Val and Play
It starts on 27th June.
Wonderful I am signing up then!
Hi there must we all post a video, even auditers, so you can see if we graduate? thanks
Sure, everybody who wants to graduate needs to show if it’s well deserved! 🙂
Great i would love to, just need a little more time to get a little further, but will do. Thank you so much this has been the start of great things i have loved and learnt so much!
Great, nice to hear that! Take your time with the video!
I want to start by being totally clear: this is not my dog, I got sent this video by a friend who found it on Youtube (so I have no idea whose dog it is)…. with that said this does seem like the next step in the hold/hug trick (if your dog is picking it up with it’s mouth and then holding) and could be an idea of one way to continue our studies after class!
Plus it’s super-cute and who doesn’t need another video of a cute dog!
Apparantly that didn’t post, let me give it one more try… otherwise you’ll have to copy/paste, sorry!
Ok, so if you don’t want to copy/paste the link it’s a video of a beagle catching a ball… with his paws (while in a sit-up)… very cute, and certainly something we could train!
hi Jennifer,
could you please look for the correct link? I would like to see the video, but can’t find it. Thanks!
Susanne
Thank you, Jennifer, this is really a very cute trick 🙂
oh my goodness! that was so cute! and I watched few times! (Its in Japanese and it was just so funny!) thank you for the link!
what is he saying, Emi?
The problem in your link is the middle part “embedded etc.”. But yes, very cute!!! La knows to catch the teddy bear like that, but jumping up in the air, it’s on my first YouTube video I think, called Dog Tricks. I never tried it in a sit up position, but I think it shouldn’t be too difficult.
Here’s half way through lesson 6. After meeting the sheep yesterday I really can see that he’s not into it this morning.
Nancy and Nero
Dang it--I forgot to put the “v” in and know the vid is goofed up….. again. I wish we had a feature where we could go back in delete our mistakes.
Nancy
Ball rolling is great! Wraps are getting tighter too, left wraps are pretty nice already, he seems wider on right ones so do some more of those. Heeling position is nice too, but yes, he looks pretty absent this time… Try to make the sessions really short and intense, with lots of playing in between, starting with tricks he doesn’t like that much and then progressing to those that are more fun for him.
Ok, so for our final video you want final behaviours right? So you don’t need front paws on a target or circling the target with hind feet, you just need heeling, right? Or the whole process?
All listed, these should be the tricks:
-food refusal
-playing/recalls
-4 in a box
-frog
-sit up
-crossing paws
-back up
-2o2o with release
-handstand
-cavalletti
-heeling
-side legs
-door slamming
-one bowl into another
-hug
-stays with distractions
-figure 8 forward / backward
-skateboarding
-cik&cap
-front feet rolling a ball
-sit up to stand up / down to sit up
-spins left and right
-limping
right?
Am I forgetting something?
We don’t have all the tricks at the final stage though, but will surely work on them even when class ends.
Laura, Thanks for summarizing all of this for the rest of us.
Nancy
🙂 I think it’s easier this way!
Yeah, I think that’s pretty much it 🙂 It’s normal all the tricks are not completely finished, include whatever you got so far!
Wauw it has been a great class and we still have a lot to work on. The last weeks we have mostly worked on the running contacts. And we haven’t work so much on the tricks.
I’am looking foreward to train the trick during the summer and the holidays 🙂
Here are first part of our homework 🙂
Great job! Loved how well she was shifting weight to push that skateboard! Some very nice ball rolling too, very cute! Very cute sit up to stand up and back too, some more work needed to get some more fluency now. Nice heeling too!
hi Gitte,
I love Zushis videos. She is so cute and such an amazing puppy. I could steel her out of the videos 🙂 . Will you join Agility foundation class too?
yep we will join the agility foundation class too 🙂
I realized that my last video wasn’t so much week 6 as it was week 5 catch-up. So here is an actual week 6 video including forward leg weave, drumming, zip/zap, pick-up and hold, sit to sit-up to stand-up back to sit-up and of course rolling on a ball!
We’ve been adding time/distractions to heeling but with just me videoing it would have been hard to film!
Feel free to add comments/suggestions/criticisms, it’s always hard to see when it’s your own!
What a cute gentle drumming! 🙂 GREAT pick up and hold too! Getting there with ball trick, I think you would get more rolling and less leaning on if you simply stood up, that would give you the same effect as the hand up in the air. Stand up to sit up is going really well already too, keep practising with your hand there for a support. When you feel she is ready, you can try it with you standing up and bringng the hand in from above, so she can only lean on it with a nose, not the paws anymore to then eventually get rid of the hand -- no hurry though, it’s a hard one, especially for bigger dogs. For cik&cap, do you have a thinner object that would allow you to see the tightness better? A table leg? Try several circles in the same direction and reward for tightness and bending her back around it. You can’t expect much speed with that exercise, that comes with sends to cik&cap -- for multi-wraps, tightness is your focus. Very nice forward figure 8! Great job -- as always! 🙂
This is why I really needed this class… the 1,000 small but brilliant insights I never would have thought of (in this case standing up and progressing the sit-back-down by having her lean with her nose instead of paws).
I’ll try her wrapping around something thinner and see what I get, I’ve always done it with things like trash cans since they are easy to stand up!
Thanks again for your great insights, genius!
🙂 I guess that with every new trick you teach to the dog, you learn a small trick how to make tricks easier too 🙂
Wow doing great Jennifer and Mabel! Just too cute how she plays drums! 😀 Will we see you at the next class too? (AF?)
Ok, I’m in trouble. Shape discovered the lizards, and now everytime she’s in the garden she’s obsessed by them. And everywhere we go she tries to find where they hide. Even when we work she can’t focus like always. I try to keep sessions short and play a lot and use the premack principle, but it’s hard. It’s a very recent thing, she’s 6 months now… It might also be due to her age (and to some BC’s obsessions).
Anyway, heeling is pretty fine on the left side, but on the right side it’s like we never did a thing. When on the right side she doesn’t look at me and walks far from my leg. Therefore when I stop she doesn’t see me and keeps walking. If I keep my hand in front of me, like you saw a few videos ago, she follows me; but I don’t like to do it. So on the right side I’m back to pivoting.
All the other tricks she learned are fine.
Any suggestion will be very appreciated. Thanks.
Laura & Shape.
I have the same problem with squirrels. He is always looking for them, and also started watching trees. I don’t know if I can do cikcap around trees. He stops at every tree and looks up to the branches to check for squirrels.
He used to do the same thing with lizards and then “graduated” to squirrels and birds like cranes and egrets. I don’t know what to do, his obsession is definitely very strong and there are squirrels everywhere.
This probably doesn’t help you, but I know how frustrating it can be 🙂
With those self-reinforcing behaviours, it’s very important to stop them immediately by refocusing the dog and keeping him busy. Exercises for self-control in other exciting situations help too.
Could you give us some examples for self-control excercises?
Do you mean “Leave it”, I sure could practice that some more.
Laura, do start now with stays and redirecting etc. because it’s just going to get harder the more she practices and then also when she gets bigger. Buddy ran into my mountain bike after a lizard and crashed me into a tree. I almost broke my arm, had a skinned bruised knee and a broken tooth and other scratches. not fun. he was fine of course 🙂
Oh, gosh, that’s scary! Yes, “leave it” exercise with more&more interesting things, stays with more&more distractions etc. It’s important the dog can hold a stay and focus on a handler in any environment, also with lizards and squirrels around -- but of course, you need to add those distractions and test their self-control VERY slowly, so that the dog is almost all the time successful.
Thanks for sharing, Jennifer. We have a lot to work on! 🙂
That was good to do, back to pivoting on the right side. For the lizards obsession, teach her to drop in down and stay when highly excited away from the lizards first and then bring the lizards in the game: can she drop and stay in the presence of lizards? Keep her on a leash so that you can immediately remove her from a situation if she can’t and practise it some more away from it. If she can, that’s a good start, will she release to a toy then? Or be able to do additional trick when in down position, like head down or paw cross or something? -- If yes, just go from there -- if not, practise some more in another exciting, but not THAT exciting environments 🙂 And never let her alone in the garden so that she can’t practise her obsession!
Ok, thanks. She can drop in down position if she’s not too excited in the presence of lizards. For example in the garden at home she can do it most of the times but not for a long period; and if released to a toy most of the times she chooses to go back to the lizards instead. When we are outside or at the training center it’s harder to get her attention when she’s thinking about going to chase the lizards. She closes her ears and won’t listen to you. Until a few weeks ago I could call her away from any situation, now when she really wants to do something, she just chooses to go and there’s nothing I can do. We are working a lot on recalls, but sometimes she’s just very stubborn.
It’s very hard to never let her alone in the garden for me. Even if I take them all for a walk everyday, and they stay at home with me (she found out how to open the door and go outside), and we play and work, there are times when I need them to stay outside (when cleaning the house or sometimes when I’m not at home). I have two huge kennels outside but I don’t like to keep them there if I don’t have to. And she’s a dog full of energy, she is never tired so the garden is a place where they can play even if I’m not there. But I know it would be much harder if I don’t keep her away from lizards.
So, you don’t agree with the premack principle, do you? That more probable behaviours can be used to reinforce less probable behaviours… Because chasing a ball is a less probable behaviour for her when there are lizards around… Just curious to know what you think about it.
But thanks for all your suggestions, I’ll try to do what you said!
Well, yes, of course you can use it as a reward if you can release her from heeling to chase lizards and then recall back to heel 🙂 -- then it’s perfect, problem solved! But if I understood correctly, she won’t listen with lizards around, so I’m not sure how you could use them for a reward? If she takes that reward for ignoring you and you can’t control it, you first need to put it under control, so I would only work on it with her on leash and wouldn’t allow lizards chasing in free time. Can’t you leave her in the house when you’re away? Also, it’s very important to keep her extra busy and tired. Can you take her swimming for an hour every day or something?
I take them running for an hour every day. Sometimes we go swimming. But in the summer, unless they open a dog area, we are not allowed to take dogs to the beach 🙁 last year they opened it for the first time, I hope we will have it also this year.
Anyway, I make sure they are dead tired in the evening, Lucky and Nika just fall down asleep at 9:00 pm and they don’t care about the world anymore. But Shape… She is incredible! I play a lot more with her and she is never tired.
She comes when I call her back from the lizards when we’re at home, in the garden. But I can see she still thinks about going after them. When we are outside, like at the training center, that’s when she won’t listen at all if there are lizards around and that’s where I wouldn’t dare to send her back to them.
I’ll try to keep her away from lizards as much as possible. Thanks for your suggestions.
BCs are great dogs, but have this tendency for obsessive behaviours that are hard to fight with as they’re so highly self-reinforcing. If you put them under control, is o.k., but if you let them practice it, it only gets stronger… So you need to be very careful about it. 1 hour is not that much for a working breed… -- one hour of swimming or one hour of mostly full speed sprints MAYBE. We walk for two hours a day, all off leash, with lots of sprints on ready-steady-go game and then also do some agility or tricks with playing -- and Bi and Le still play half of the time that rests 🙂
🙂 thanks Silvia. I’ll treasure your words. ‘night.
This course has been a great learning experience for me!
Although, I have a lot to work on and practice yet, at least I learn where to start from…!
Thank you very much Silvia to share your knowledge with all of us! I have really enjoyed the classes and it has been something to look forward everyday, it is a shame it is finishing…! 🙁
I would love to join the agility foundations class but I am getting married in August and I dont know if I will have enough time to dedicate it.
Definitely I wont be able to graduate in August…
For me the homework was perfect, even although I have been behind quite a lot but it is only my fault as I am away all day from home and I am training only when I can and both of us (Darwin and me) are in the same mood.
I have to say I was lucky because Darwin has turned up being a quick and patient student with my mistakes…;).
Talking about mistakes here goes the next video….and I will be posting some more today.
I really love how you can see the dog thinking and throwing out behaviors, I definitely saw him trying to do side legs! That means that not only have you taught these tricks but future ones will be that much easier, congratulations! Smart trainer and smart dog!
Wow, Eva, amazing!
Thank you Jennifer…we are still working on some tricks…heeling got a bit mixed up with the 8 backwards…:)!
Are you going to join agility foundations?
Yes, I am doing the AF class, and we already have homework! 🙂
I think you did great in this class! You should watch your video from lesson 1 compared to lesson 6! 🙂
Yeah, it’s not uncommon, but it goes away, don’t worry, you will get the heeling back too 🙂
Congratulations for your marriage!!! The figure 8s are great in both directions!!! Getting there with ball rolling too, I think it will be even easier if you stand up. For cik&cap, try to have him do a full circle, doing a front cross while he circles if that means any? Some multi-wraps would be good too.
Thank you Silvia, what exactly do you mean with the front cross while he circles?
I would appreciate you feedback regarding my clicks..as my main goal at the moment is eventually learn! 🙂
Did you see any really really bad?
Yeah, it’s agility terminology… Easy to show but hard to explain. Let’s just say he needs to complete the whole circle -- if he is approaching the object from 9th hour, you need to be throwing towards 12, not towards 3 as you do now. And yes, the clicking was good. It has been really good for all those recent sessions, it was only on that occasion that you got very excited about that brilliant bowl stacking that you forgot about what you’ve learned already 🙂 But you sure did GREAT progress and Darwin is working GREAT with you now, no focus problems anymore!!!
This is a little taste of his spinning on the right side. He is very good at it and he loves it…I will be posting some better video with the spinning again.
Now we need to focus on the left side, he is unable to do it on the left…!!!
Gret hug, great spinning! But yes, you definitely want to do it to the left too!