And here comes your last list! If you have question on it, please post till 11th June, we'll then take a break from 11th June to 25th June as I'm away and I think many could use a "catch-up-break" anyway 🙂 Then I'll be advising on your videos for one more week and in July, you're hopefully all graduating (see below)!
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 - but with 2 weeks break in between, when I'm away. After that, your very last assignment before graduating puppy class is to make a video of everything you learned in this class – without 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 October. But there is Agility Foundation class starting end of June – I hope to see you there!
Here is our Lesson 6 so far. You will see my friend David and his dog Dai in the background. They come over for tea a couple times a week and I always have Leia do something with me before she has her visit with Dai. We started out by working on her being able to hold a sit inside the house (rather than bounce off of the walls) while he was outside, then worked up to playing and tugging in his presence, we added shaping for a min or two, building it little by little over the past couple of months. Today we did a full session of shaping for the first time so that I could get some lesson 6 video and I was very impressed with how well Leia did 🙂
1. I will post heeling later. Progressing slowly still but still a long way to go…
2. we are still on the first stages of hug the pole. My dogs both scratched the noodle too much so, I’m back to a hard object to shape more of a hold before trying to noodle again.
3. ball rolling is started and seems to be less scary than the skateboard for leia so far.
4. down-situp-down is coming but situp-stand-up-sit up is harder for her.
5. spins and figure 8 forward are going well
6. the pee trick is working for us this week so I went for that but will try limping at some point too.
So many tricks, so little time…
Hope you had a wonderful vacation!
Mara
She sure likes Dai a lot! 🙂 It’s amazing how well she can focus and cooperate with her friend right there! Great job! And yes, ball rolling is usually less scary as skate-board. She is doing really well, even on a smaller ball. I think you could get many steps already if you stand up -- if you are sitting, she puts her weight on a rear end -- good for drumming 🙂 -- not so good for ball balling. For ball rolling you want her straight up, not in a bow position.
GREAT down to sit up and back, getting there with stand up to sit up. It’s a hard one, so I think she is actually doing really well, no problem if she sometimes puts one paw down. You could also try having her stand up just a little tiny bit and go back down immediately, as I explained in that discussion that some participants had. And yes, hugging needs some more work, but no worries, you don’t need to master ALL the tricks till the end of the class! The rest of the summer would be too boring then 🙂
As usual, I learned a lot from Mara’s video and your comments. I stood up for ball rolling and it was like MAGIC! And they think it is one of the best games ever!
Thanks Silvia! Yes, it was love at first sight for Leia and Dai. They both really like each other and play very well together so, I thought it was a good goal for us to work on focus in his presence. I like that she has the opportunity to play with another dog as I see how much joy it brings her and my older dog does not play with her. I want her to be able to experience that but, I also want to make sure she can focus on me. I have heard from other trainers that they do not let their dogs play with other dogs or let them play but only for very short periods of time.
How do you feel about dog play with your dogs? Do you ever limit the amount of free time they have playing together? or Do they have free access to each other so that it becomes less special over time? Do you do something in particular when you bring a puppy into your home to ensure that the bonding happens between you and the puppy rather than just the puppy and your other dogs? Sorry for all of the questions but everything you do with your dogs seems so easy and natural. Just curious how you handle dog-dog play, I always find your approach to be simple, logical and refreshing.
Thanks,
Mara
I let them play, I think it’s important for their development. I only advise limiting a play when I see the dog has no relationship with the handler and is only interested in other dogs. But it’s not because they played too much with other dogs -- but because they played too little with their handlers!!! I always say puppies can play with other dogs as much as you want -- as long as you play with them even more as other dogs do 🙂
My puppies are allowed to play with other dogs as much as they want, but then, La and Bu won’t play with puppies… Le and Bi play A LOT and Bu and Bi also sometimes play. But they will all forget about everything else when they sense I might be interested in doing something with one of them 🙂 It’s nothing specific that I do to get that attitude, I guess it’s just a consequence of the fact that they think working with me is the best fun ever… And learning that while they might play with other dogs anytime, I only have a limited time to spend with just them. Of course, it happens with puppies that they wander off and find something else to do -- and I just let it be, I always have another candidate anyway 🙂 Eventually, they learn they definitely don’t want to loose their opportunity.
Love your approach, totally makes sense.
There seems to be an advantage to having a multi dog household in the sense that their time together is plentiful and their time with you alone is precious. Now I just have to convince my husband that we need to continue to add to our family…:-)
Yeap, you’re probably right. It’s no big thing for my dogs to see another dog 🙂 Good luck with your husband! My boyfriend gave up in being against it after we added a fifth one 🙂 -- I guess he stopped counting then 🙂 But I have enough young dogs who still needs lots of training for now, so I’m working on my self-control now and try to not get another puppy for another 3 years 🙂
Hi all,
It was a busy morning in town today so I took the opportunity to work on heeling with distractions at the public landing. You can’t see it on the video but we are at the corner of the town parking lot & there were cars coming & going, people walking by, and a couple of dogs milling around. This was the first time I’ve ever tried to work with Elsa here. She was very distracted when we first got there but by the end of it she seemed pretty comfortable & we had a lot of fun.
Also included a clip of sit-up to stand-up. Elsa still can’t balance yet so is still leaning on my arm. Is there any trick to fading the support or does this just take time for some dogs to get used to using different muscles?
Thanks!
Her heeling is sure just beautiful! Glad to hear she can do it with distractions too! Try some slow motion heeling too and lots of tempo changes, she sometimes just keeps going in her own speed and forgets she needs to adjust to your speed, not the other way around. Very cool changing side move too! 🙂
I think she is actually doing really well with sit up to stand up and back! It was good idea to try it without a hand then, but letting her lean on your legs: she can’t lean that much that way, so it’s a good way towards fading it all together. As the next step, I let them lean on my hand with their nose: holding a hand and treating them so that they can lean some with their noses, but can’t put the paws on it. That way or another, it definitely takes time (other than with some small breeds that can do it really easily right from the start).
Thanks Silvia! Yeah, I totally forgot about tempo changes! The whole time we worked in the parking lot I felt Elsa was a nanosecond away from bolting towards Main Street so I did a lot of fast walking & running away from her to get her attention. I suppose I could have held the leash as a safeguard but I’m not used to holding a leash 🙂 which is why it’s dragging on the ground. Neither Elsa or I like those “stinkin’ leashes”! 🙂 But we are going to do more practice in town so hopefully we can both get more comfortable working there.
Where do you live, Kathy? Looks like Maine, where I live! 😀 Your dog is SO pretty, beautiful heeling!
Amy—You’re right, it is Maine! I live on Vinalhaven, an island 15 miles off the coast from Rockland. Where in Maine do you live?
Cape Elizabeth! 😀
I am working on the graduation video when is that due? I just read we can still have you watch a few things. What is the last date for that? I will send you later the following problems. Figure 8 backwards is still a problem, I will film for you she is afraid I am going to step on her.
She was hugging a golf club without a head, now she is afraid of it, so I went to a long toy. The hand stand I can’t get it off the wall, my leg didn’t really work.
I will do a new page for graduation videos next weekend -- and you can send in videos any time then, no dead line 🙂 This week, you still have time to post videos for comments and then next week, we start with graduation videos.
Ah, good, I was wondering about that! My internet has been down for some days so I need to catch up with the class activity when it’s fixed. (Just checking in quickly from work right now!)
Hi all,
Well here it is..our graduation video. Not as long or full as some, but it does show what a wonderful, educational time we had in this class. Thank you so much Silvia. You are a wonder!
Mary & Supr
Nice to see Spur again, she is just too cute! The plan was actually to still send in videos for me to comment this week and then I will open a new page for graduation videos, so it would be good you post it there again so that we have all at the same place, I will also be sending graduation certificates then. If you have another trick you want to show by then, you can still include it too, but even in this video, there is A LOT of tricks -- and very well finalized tricks! Great job!
Ooo good. I will do that. Maybe I can add her skateboarding skills and cik/cap progress. We just didn’t have time to video that yet. (Also what a flattering still YouTube chose for my video 😉 )
O.k., great!
How long can we view the plans/info comments here? I got wayyyyy behind because of other issues
Don’t worry, I’ll leave it up for a while: at least a couple of months, probably longer 🙂
Hi Silvia,
Karmen and I had a bad time: both have been sicks but at different times so we couldn’t play tricks as much as we’d have liked to.
I´ll try to post the 2nd video of lesson 6 this week-end. Hope it’ll give us time to improve enough ourselves because I don’t want to loose any piece of your wonderful advices!
Céline
PS: Now that we have big kibbles, she needs a while to eat each piece before she can walk again !!
What a cool hug! Heeling looks great too, but I would definitely try to shape for even higher head and even closer position and then go for high legs (see the last step of a Heeling video) -- it would look really good with her long legs!
She got the exercise sit up to down and back right -- you do want a direct sit up from down position, no standing in between… -- Oh gosh, I just realized why are you doing what you are doing… By back, I didn’t mean the exercise of backing up!!! I meant going from down position directly back into the sit up position!!! -- The same for stand up and back to sit up! -- See the videos of others, they show this exercise well.
No problems with the rest, great job!
You made me laugh ! The down-sit up will be smoother that way!
But still I think we won’t be able to show you the sit up -- stand up trick. It seems to be too hard for her. Could it be because of her long legs?
I think it’s her age, she doesn’t have enough muscle yet to do independent stand up to sit up. But I think she could do sit up to stand up… Did you try it yet? You can let her lean on your hand.
Yes I’ve tried while leaning on my arm. It seems she understands but she cannot do it neither from sit up to stand up nor the reverse…
Anyway, I’ll keep on trying this week and tape what we’ll get this week-end to have your comments.
Thanks again and see you
Finally a video on the last lesson, already. Time flies when you’re having fun! It’s a shame that our puppies grow out of their puppyhood at the same pace too! Anyway, lesson 6. I tried to build the basics for most of the assignments. We will have some work after the class finishes but that only means more fun.
The ball. I need a new ball, less slippery. I’ll get it one of these days so we can work on it some more.
Laydown-situp-standup. Whatever, Keen thinks its is fun. She forgets her “down” command during the process but I did not worry about that.
The limping trick is one I certainly would like to work towards a good final version. For now I do not get a lot of movement but I think Keen starts to know it has something to do with moving hind legs.
Left-right, again the start is made. In the last part of the video you will see how I normally teach it, using a toy. The figure 8 is not Keen’s favorite game…In the video she was distracted by the thunder that was coming closer. She is not afraid, just curious. 😉 But even without the thunder I tend to loose her sometimes during that exercise.
Last weekend I found out that Keen LOVES carrots! So in this video I’m using carrots as reward.It’s a bit more time consuming since she chews them but it helps with the problem that I sometimes ran out of dinner. 😉
Looking forward to your last tips on tricks!
I think I have a similar ball -- it’s fine when they learn to do little steps on it. I think you need to let it move more, when you’re moving it back with little tiny steps she sees no reason to do a step, stands still and then slips off. When the ball rolls naturally at one point, you are getting some really nice steps. Getting there with strengthening exercises and limping! She does seem to move rear feet on purpose -- and one you also get a front leg step, things get really fast. With strengthening exercises, make sure you don’t do it too much: that much as you show in a video would be about maximum per day, she does seem tired by the end. Left&right, you can keep working both ways, just make your gesture with a hand less and less pronounced -- if you keep it for too long, they start to reply on it too much. I like to do several circles in a row before rewarding, showing the first one enough to help with direction, but then just keep saying my directional and showing every next circle less -- they are usually fine with that as they’re spinning already anyway and meantime, they’re learning they can do it without a help of a hand too. Funny she doesn’t like figure 8… Most dogs love that one!
Great job!
Hi Silvia,
Thanks for your feedback and tips! I’m careful not to overdo the strengthening exercises. It’s just since last week that her situp is getting more controlled and she can keep up a bit longer. That also shows she almost looks like an adult but she is still a puppy. I have to admit I did not pick it up that she was getting tired though, thanks for pointing it out!
About the figure 8, I think I confused her… One of the first exercises I thought her was laying between my legs. I like to use that to correctly position them at the start line. I also used the exercise to take away some stress that Zen, our pyrenean seemed to feel at the start line. So I made it a fun exercise outside of the agility course. Zen loves it, he is circling around my leg many times and than happily sits at the start line.
With Keen I made the mistake to bring in the control part to soon. Well that’s what I think. She never liked that exercise either. Now she starts liking it a bit more because she loves her ball more and more and she anticipates a release after laying down. But now I asked the figure 8! Must be confusing, no? I’m now trying to start the figure 8 always from my left leg. The “laydown” is always around my right leg. I’m planning to also make her do the turns starting from my right leg, later on, when she sees the fun of it. Good idea?
Yes, sounds like a good idea, I did notice she is confused with the in between exercise!
Hi every one. I have gotten so busy I’m no longer participating in this class. Tomorrow I leave for 10 days so I wanted to wright and tell Silvia I think this class was great. I think you do a vary good job of helping us. Thank you for all your input!! I think all of the people in this class are amazing trainers! I was impressed. I learned a lot! I learned that you better make it fun when you train your dog and have a high rate of reinforcement when your dog is learning a new thing.
Thanks again for everything.
John
Hi John! Enjoy your trip, was nice meeting you, Zip and Sloppy. And yes, that’s pretty much all you need to know 🙂 -- keep it fun, reward generously!!!