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 week 6 and others tricks I hadn’t done from other weeks.
Backward figure 8 was most difficult, she is so worried about getting stepped on. She was too tired to do handstands, I found a outside chair with out the pillow that should work well. Have to get her off the wall.
Ha, ha, what a big ball to roll for such a small dog! Great job also with that heavy ball! And yes, that’s exactly how I start figure 8 backwards! Very good video of the whole process, I hope I can refer my future puppy students to this video to help them with “how to”? Keep working like that, reducing the rewards, to then get even more fluency and then add a new cue for it, but it sure going great!
Cik&cap is used for tight jump wraps. The exercise you do on cones is the next step, but I think it’s a little too early, she is too wide. I would do some multi-wraps on one cone, when it’s good send to another cone for a reward, do some more multi-wraps there and then send back to the first one -- just to make her see it’s still the same exercise and that staying close is important.
Some very nice side legs! Almost there with limping! The sit up to stand and to down and back are GREAT, she even does one sit up from stand up all on her own when you are practising down to sit up! 🙂 And wow, I see hugs are going really well also with both legs now that she mastered one leg hold! Great focus with heeling too!
A real joy to see her work, really amazing how far you two took all the tricks, great job!
Backward Figure 8. Doing the circles as I step my leg back was the only way she would go under me, then I just stopped turning much changed reward from front to side. Sure you can always use my videos.
Ok I will go back to multiple circles 1 cone, should I use a jump with no bar instead of a cone?
As you can see I start my heel work with circles & side stepping, really helps.
I have referred 2 people that are in your puppy 3 tricks. 1 min pin puppy had to have FHO she is auditing her dog just had sugary. I am referring her to Lexus videos. The other women saw Lexus @ puppy semiar. I tell everybody about your online courses! I want to do the contact course. How much flat space do we need? Just for boards? My dog walk & a frame are a horse arena we rent it is a 40 min drive (can go 2 wk) should I audit? Or could I do it?
Thanks so much! It really forces you to play & spend time with your pup! & wow look what she has learned.
Great, thank you so much for spreading the word on the classes! And yes, you can as well do multiple circles on a jump stanchion! For running contacts, you would need a space for a board -- with some place before and after: 50 feet all together would be nice, but you can easily have some less for smaller dogs -- it also doesn’t need to be completely flat, you could use the not-flat area for raising the board, as you can see at 1:40 (and on) of this video:
What a great video of the process! Was that board the size of the down plank or the entire dog walk?
No, this board is see-saw length and our DW ramps are somewhat longer as that: FCI DW is longer as US DW -- only learned that in this RC class, when wondering why US BCs have longer stride as European 🙂 -- and then found out they’re running on shorter DWs 🙂
A new place.
Skateboard -- surface rougher than normal
Ball -- first time on tarmac, her weight seems in the wrong place.
Cik&Cap -- first time around cone outside, need to introduce toy, after 1 1/4 turns?
Sit & Wait & release
Very cool! She will make a great skateboarder! Jackpot for 3 legs, those were really great! Great wait too! With ball rolling, you could maybe first try with a bigger ball, it’s easier to balance there. If not, keep trying, rewarding her high to keep her head up. It’s quite a challenge for their balance and as she is still so young, it’s not an easy one.
When you work cik&cap with food, try to reward lower to get lower head. You can also use a toy, of course, but for now keep throwing it at the base to make sure she understands it’s about staying close to that object. You can do a circle 1/4e first and then also more, two or three circles, rewarding them with a toy thrown to the base.
SAD! Can’t believe this is our last homework video. Thankfully though, there was SO MUCH to do throughout the course that we will be busy for months working on the things were didn’t get to start or finish! 🙂
NOT shown- both dogs working on hugging still with the pole. Any advice on getting duration? They both grab and release so quickly even when I try to click for duration.
Shiver the BC is learning limping- advice on moving from a seated limp to a standing one? Really good at holding one front foot like it’s broken but only in a sit.
Otherwise…We’ve been working a LOT on heeling- the video has a pretty long segment on that. We’ve practiced everywhere with great results. To date though, my own backyard has been the trickiest (verrry distracting) so I am pretty happy with her level of attention here.
I liked practicing the strengthening exercises (great for a leggy puppy!) so we’ve been doing a lot of that recently. Trying to get smoother transitions now.
I thought the ball idea was terrific too, so I’ve showed our current status on that. Very hard to get her to look at what she is doing- Best set-up was starting her under me so it was harder to watch me. It’s not great, but getting better. Might have to bust out the clicker. Thoughts?
Last we showed our left and right turns. We’ve moved on to using them for handling maneuvers so she’s lost the full spin a little, but she has a good understanding of which is which at least.
Thanks for watching! Love everyone’s videos, and seeing all the changes from day one.
~Shenna and Dynamite
Beautiful heeling! Just try to vary the position of your hand, I like to be able to move my hands freely and make sure they watch my face, not my hand. Getting there with ball rolling! Great understanding of directionals! Great balance at strengthening exercises -- use the hand signal if you want a quicker transition to direct changes of a position -- it’s much harder without a hand signal as on verbal cue, they don’t see why not to make it easier by sitting in between. For limping, are you saying she is already moving forward, but in a sit position? When teaching limping and clicking for rear feet movements, I often get a sit first, but as soon as I get that front foot to move, it goes away -- for sure when adding more steps. But if she can’t hold a paw up in a stand position, you first need to shape that. You could also start with rear foot limping first, she can’t sit then 🙂 and it might make front foot limping easier to train then when she knows the concept of moving with one foot in the air. Rear foot limping is often easier (for those who know to lift hind foot, of course). Can you deliver a reward for a hug fast enough that a paw still stays on? So that you can then click&reward again for duration (even if the paw loosens up a little -- just to give them the idea) without having them move the paw much -- that’s for me the easiest way to get really good duration really fast. Happy training, looking forward to see your graduation video, you’ve sure done A LOT!
Hi everyone,
Here is our last video before graduation. I’ve combined parts of lesson 5 and 6 on it. I’m happy to report that Maia learned how to ‘stack’ bowls! She’s not as good as some of your dogs, but for a dog that did not want to pick up even her toys, this is great progress and I am happy.
For the left and right spins, I first had to teach her how to follow a target stick, since I’ve never lured her before -- this was the first. She was and still is very noisy and barks a lot at the stick.
She is learning how to skateboard and is not afraid of the noise it makes when it hits the wall.
Her heeling is coming along slowly. What I find is that she will go back and forth infront of me like a windshield wiper if I do not reward her fast enough at my side.
Here is our video (sorry it is so long)
Oops, forgot the video of her figure 8 forwards:
Beautiful heeling, I love her head position! I think changing sides without a cue will go away, just make sure you don’t reward it. To get more ball rolling, I think you just need to stand up and reward with higher head, so that she doesn’t go into bow position. Only click when front feet are moving. For left&right, try several spins in the same direction already, showing every next one less to then slowly get rid of a stick. Nice skateboarding, bowl stacking, figure 8! 🙂
Hi Silvia, we did sit-up here because in the last video we hadn`t any duration -- so here we are now. Have you got any tips for our limping? Is the ball o.k.? Can we post a last video of the last tricks this evening or is the class already closed then?
Well, I think limping is going really well! Juts try to slowly fade the hands and put it on verbal cue instead. Ball rolling is great too! Nice duration on a sit up! And sure, you can still post videos this weekend!
Here is our Lesson 6 video. I think we go everything but the limping in. We haven’t started that yet. I included the box trick so you could see how small of a box Da Vinci is getting into. We are having fun!!!!!
Great job! He is too cute in that small box! AMAZING balance on that ball, I was very impressed how well he stepped on it without you holding it and he still stayed on, it didn’t roll out of under his feet. Very cool, it’s much harder with small balls/big dogs. Very nice heeling, he is offering you some nice high legs, you can select for that to get them even more pronounced -- from some reason, Tervs and Groenendaels are really good at it. Nice spins and figure 8s, slowly fade the hand now and name it. Getting there with strengthening exercises, very good for such a big puppy!
Having lots of trouble loading video’s so here is the first part which is a follow on from my last one. Think the cik&cap work is looking better she seems to be getting what I am asking for. The ball work goes better on the rough surface. The 2o2o was a practice of things that are easy to break up the session with somthing other than play (most of that I editted out)
Yeap, cik&cap is definitely starting to look good now! And yeap, GREAT ball rolling! Love her style! What a progress from one session to another!
Managed to get a connection and here is the second half. Back to videoing myself so quality not brilliant.
Sideways -- first time onto a verticle cushion and then the wire on the gate, we usually use a carpet covered board.
Back Bum -- she is going verticle and can hold the position with the support, still needs to climb a bit -- so we are just practicing at this level while her muscles strengthen.
Goes from a down to a sit to a bunny to a walk -- can hold the walk with out hand support for a short time (she stepped out of the video frame for that). Not able to go back down into the sit position yet -- going slowly on this one.
Spin with a hand cue.
Great side legs, not far from fading a support! With handstand, it takes longer, so yes, take it slowly. Stand up to sit up is very difficult too, so first focus on going from sit up to stand up and from down directly to sit up and then from sit up directly to down -- no sit in between!
Hi Silvia, our last video for this class before graduation -- it was a great class, thank your for it!!!!!!!!!!!! For graduation I try to fade out some luring and hand signals if there is enough time for training (we have a lot to do with foundation and RCs). Looking forward to your comments and tips!
Very cool! Really nice, independent figure 8 backwards, BEAUTIFUL heeling, perfect sit up to down and back, nice stand up, no problems! Fine sure looks to love the tricks, love her wagging tail and her summer look, too cute! Great job, doesn’t look like you need any more help! -- Definitely time to graduate 🙂
Hi Silvia,
This is my second session with the ball. At the beginning of the first session Deusty didn’t want to touch it. Then he touched with the nose. There is progress.
For other exercices on the second video I lure a lot. I will try to shoot other tricks tomorrow.
Wow, some very nice ball rolling! And he seems to really like it now! To fade the hand with spins, only show the first one and then have him keep spinning without so much help. Nice sit up to stand up, can you also get him to sit back? If not, try letting him get up just a little tiny bit and immediately have him sit up again. Sill, it’s a hard one, maybe you can first try down to sit up and back, that one is easier.