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!
Hi Silvia,
Here is our 2nd take for lesson 6.
Of course, your were right about sit up to stand up, she could make it !
For rolling a ball we still have balance-problem. Last week I was helping her with my feet (you couldn’t see it because I mistoke in my video !) and now with a finger. Are we in the right way?
For limping, by shaping steps, I c/r when she moved front feet and know she thinks the trick is to put side legs off. How can I make the difference?
For heeling: we are still working on head higher and closer to the leg.
Looking forward for your last comments!
Thank you,
Céline
Cool, she can sure do a really nice sit up from down, so maybe she can also do stand up to sit up, just don’t let her stand up completely, but just a little bit. For ball rolling, I think the major problem is that you often click when her feet are static and then she keeps them static and a ball rolls her off 🙂 Only click when she is moving front feet as that’s what you want. And yes, limping can be somewhat similar to side legs first, so don’t click front foot lifting -- you do so at 4:14 -- but do click for steps forward -- like at 4:07, you didn’t click that, but should jackpot it. As it’s definitely similar, it requires a lot of precision: it’s great observation&timing exercise for you! 🙂
Cool, I understood all your comments. We can go forward! Thanks again
I have a question about #4. When Tibby sits up she always backs up first and then sits up. I’ve tried having her sit against a wall, with me standing behind her,kneeling down in front of her. She will turn her body so she can back up a few feet before sitting up or try some other twisting movement so she can back away from me first.
I don’t know when this started, but I don’t know how to make her stop. I didn’t notice it until we tried to do #4.
So for example I have her lie down and then ask for a sit up -- she stands up, backs away and then sits up.
Hmmm just thinking about it now, maybe I can go sit up and then to a down.
If I ask for down to sit she also does the back up and then will sit.
What would definitely help is to make her more in a hurry to go to the sit up… Maybe a strong hand signal or even a lure? On just verbal cue, most dogs will go into sit first (even if they’re not backing up before sitting up). Practising fast changes of positions, especially into sit, would be definitely good… Maybe try it with a toy?
Hi Silvia,
I can’t believe this is the end of Puppy Class. 🙁 It has been so much FUN! And what a difference it has made with Elsa! Before we did this class I would let her out the door in the morning & she would take off to explore, now she goes out & immediately turns to me as if to say, “Hey, what cool things are we going to do today?” It’s so wonderful to have this new focused relationship with this otherwise independent trouble maker. 🙂 Thank you so much for this GREAT class!
Here is a video of our ball rolling progress. We have been working on this for awhile & have gone through several balls--Elsa wants to bite them all! 🙂 But here we are with the newest ball & I’m wondering how this looks to you & if I should be doing anything else to encourage her to roll it more.
Thank you!
Kathy & Elsa
Elsa sure looks like she loves the tricks training a lot! But I’m sure she will like agility just as much or even more, so I’m happy to follow her progress in Foundation class!
Looks like you’re getting there with ball rolling! At the beginning of the video, she doesn’t quite understand if she needs to make little steps on it or just try to stay on as you sometimes clicked for static legs: it’s important to only click for moving front feet. Also, you sometimes throw her off balance by rewarding too much forward vs. straight up, but in general, things are definitely going in the right direction, she is definitely rolling it nicely by the end of the video! And yeah, I had the same problem with Bi, she killed many balls while learning this trick…
Some stuff we’ve been working on..
Leg weaving forward and backward -- picking up behaviours quite quickly, now to fade the hand signals/lures!
MAJOR BREAKTHROUGHS with heeling (on both sides)!! She is moving with me! Head is still not up while heeling, even though she makes good effort. Am beginning to believe that it may be something about her structure (and HD) that makes it difficult for her to heel heads up. Even though her head is not vertical, she is watching me all the time..
P.S. This video of heeling really shows her back-end sway from her Hip Dysplasia 🙁 Makes me sad..
Not shown: right and left spins, walking on a ball, limping (all works in progress but video is too long with heeling!)
All comments welcome 🙂
Ohhh…Cheryl, your heeling is BEAUTIFUL & Summer looks so happy! And the backwards Fig. 8—WOW!! Great job! I hope we see you again in the next tricks class!
Kathy & Elsa
Great figure 8 in both directions!!! Backward version is definitely very hard for such a big dog and she is doing it great without you stepping back already! You might be right about HD and high head. With vertical head, you get lots of lowering in the rear end (GSD style), so that might be uncomfortable for her, so I wouldn’t push for it too much, but definitely reward when she offers it. She is adjusting her position really well, maybe she is sometimes a little bit too far, but that’s actually much better already by the end of this video, so it looks liek you’re on the right way!
A collage of all our favourite lessons for our (hopefully)…graduation video.
We still have lots of catching up to do, only because I’m not very skilled (yet) on shaping behaviours. We had loads of fun and continue to work towards completing each trick! Thank you!
Beautiful video!!! I’m posting another page for graduation videos today, so please post it there too to have all the videos gathered at the same place. Also, everybody gets the training video of their choice as a graduation gift, so let me know which of my training videos you want.
YAY!!!! We graduate! Thank you so much. If possible for graduation, the Tricks video that would be extremely helpful to continue to wrap my head around shaping behaviours!
I will look out for the graduation page to post there too.
O.k., it’s up now! 🙂 Which Tricks video would you prefer, Tricks for a great bond or Trick for better thinking skills?
Hi,
Here is my last homework video. I’m sad because I love puppy class too…
He sure seems to like cik&cap and spinning!!! Great for a start line trick! Try to lure some less for multi wraps, though. Getting there with a hug! Nice figure 8s and down to sit up, but some more work for pivoting needed: I think he didn’t transfer to a leg as a new target just yet, you need to work with feet target some more and then try to fade it more gradually, using a piece of paper next maybe and then making it smaller&smaller, always rewarding at your leg only. When he learns that, figure 8 backwards will be MUCH easier, so I would just wait with that till then.
Thank you 😉
I did the graduation video. But I kinda fell short on cik/cap it is not tight, HELP! It is at time 4:43…
Thanks
Laura
PS a bad cik/cap makes my agility foundation hw hard 🙁
Heehee, sooo cute! I love watching Blast!
Thank you. I love watching the videos after I make them, he cracks me up 🙂 I can’t wait to see your graduation video.
Did you try staying closer, so that you can reward closer, either throwing a treat at the base of a cone or reaching in with a hand quickly, rewarding so that your hand is touching a cone. You can also try using a table leg or something else more pole-like instead, maybe he would be more comfortable staying close to that? Click whenever he gets somewhat closer, keep circling him when he is too wide.
No Lesson 6 video from us, because we are still working on Lesson 4/5 stuff (oops!). But I’ve started recording videos of our “finished” tricks and current progress for the graduation video! 😀
Silvia, I know that we have finished our class but I have to show you something! 🙂 Couple months ago when Azja was a very little puppy she was afraid of everything. She was so sensitive dog. One of the scary things ware balls (for football or the very big big balls). I had a plan to habituate her for those things but there were many other things to do…When I saw our last lesson I reminded myself about her big fear for balls! Because we didn’t have much time last weeks I have started exercises with ball today. Below is our FIRST session. Where is her fear? She was so exited to work with me! I haven’t practiced tricks for 1 week (because we are so busy with AF class 😀 ) She was very active and brave! 😀 I haven’t had treats, because it was very unplanned training in completely new place for her and for me 🙂 I tried to shape her front legs on ball, but she offered almost everything! I can’t believe how much brave dog I have after this class!!!
Wow, that’s great! Tricks are definitely a great way to boost confidence and make them happy to interact with different objects. And having that wish to work helps too! Very happy for you two, you sure make a great team!