Time for a new to-do list!
1. take your dog to a city center, a store that allows dogs (pet store?) and on a train station
2. position yourself next to a high target and now only click for circling all the way to your leg (don't click for steps in between) - name it with heel for one side and something else for the other and have a dog follow your leg when you move in a circle around the target away from the dog - then tell him to come to the other side and have him follow the other leg. Use different targets, try it on a very low one too.
3. build your own cavaletti and walk the dog over it - you can use the drawers or boxes of appropriate size and height, put them in a row and walk the dog through, just as you can see on this video
4. try the other version of 2on2off: instead of having them go on an object and off, stop in a position and wait, let's try stepping back into 2on2off this time. Position your dog close to a low object behind his back, cue him "back" and reward for stepping on an object or trying to. Slowly, you can have a dog step on higher&higher objects, this is beginning of a handstand, but with young puppies, don't overdo the height. Instead, you can have them back up stairs for example, to challenge them some more without making it too physically demanding. You need to build balance and strength slowly enough for the dog to never be sore after. You can also teach them a "pee" trick: click when they heave one leg, searching the object - before they find it and name it, it's a fun one.
5. put your paw target on a drawer or doors or simply shape the paw touch to a drawers/doors and then select for stronger&stronger touches/pushes. The goal is to have the dog slam the doors or drawer with power, to teach them that they control the movement under their feet and the sound and that it's FUN - my favourite trick for a great see-saw!
6. don't forget on recalls and playing!!! Also, slowly add duration to a sit up, teach crossing paws with the other paw and fade the target, check if the puppy will stay in 2on2off position until "go" even with distractions (toys and food flying around)
Have fun!
Final version of 2on2off:
Exercise # 5
With this exercise I have a problem in my apartment I have no drawers, only doors, so for now just close Obelix doors …. jejejejeje
Well, it works great with the doors too! No fear, nice slams!
I took Da Vinci out to do tricks away from home today. A field with a covered picnic area and no one around was the first stop. Took him a moment to figure out what we were doing and why I was sitting there with my bucket of treats and a clicker. We started with offering anything for ignoring the treats to get him in the frame of mind. Then backing up, scooch and sit pretty. Followed that with a game of frisbee rollers. Then we went to a pet store to visit and try some tricks in the store. Silvia, I’ve never seen him so comfortable with what was going on and this was a new place for him. There was a cluster of people who would visit him one at a time and he showed off some sit pretty and scooch. He even followed one of them when she left. 😀
Sounds great! Especially as Belgians are sometimes somewhat uncomfortable with new places and people. But usually, giving them something to do (like tricks) helps a lot!
My puppy Arcade seems to be very one-sided in that he only likes to pivot one way. Is it ok if I position the prop on a specific side to let him know which way to turn? Or name both directions?
Sure, you can do that. How much of the other direction are you getting? If you’re getting full circle, you can simply use it for heel position now and just name it heel and side?
Hello Sivia and Classmates!
Here is our progress so far on our lessons:
#1 – Busy Place: We weren’t able to go anywhere exciting this week, but here is a post from a while ago of little Bean at a crowded agility trial – sorry it is a bit long. Maybe we will go somewhere fun and crowded this weekend!
#2 – Pivots: Question: Bean seems to sit and scoot her butt along sometimes and hop up sometimes to get treats. Should I try to get her to stand?
#3 Cavaletti: Our first time through a row of boxes. She was more inclined to trot and bounce. We surely need practice on this!
#4 – 2o2o: This has been a riot! Bean loves doing this and will try to get her back feet up on anything!! Yesterday she backed up to a rhododendron bush and tried to do 2o2o 🙂 She sometimes puts one foot then the other. I am trying to capture the times she lifts both at the same time. Any suggestion?
#5 – Paw Touch: We are having a tough time with this one. Bean is very enthusiastic, flapping her feet all over the spatula, sometimes pouncing on it with both feet – it makes me laugh and we start over, so we have not made a lot of progress on this. We are no where near taking this on the road to drawers and doors yet, but we are keeping at it and having a lot of fun!
#6 – Stay Put: We are working on Bean staying in place until released. She is doing pretty well with that.
Sit Pretty: She is able to balance for a longer time.
Happy playing and training everyone. I love watching everyone’s videos! And thanks for any suggestions!
Diane and Bean
Ok -- let’s try these links:
Looks good! Her pivoting is beautiful, I love her high head! It’s because of her high head that her rear end is lowered and almost in sit, but the lowered hind end is what you want 🙂 so just leave it as it is, it looks great! To make the cavaletti easier for her to succeed, put the boxes further apart, so that the gaps between them are as big as the boxes -- that will make it easier and once she gets the idea, you can vary the distances some more. The paw touches look good to me, definitely good enough to start door slamming! She has good style for a handstand, just keep working on vertical objects for now -- ideally somewhat slippery, so that she can’t really climb 🙂 -- or “empty” objects like tables where she can’t climb either. Pay attention to reward low (ideally from the floor, between her front legs) and as close to the wall as possible, so that she is really vertical -- if she is too much diagonal, she can’t balance and needs to lean on an object a lot. Nice sit up and nice focus in crowded places too!
Diane--Wow, great 2o2o! I love your cue of “bums up” 🙂 I’m curious--did you keep slowly raising the level of the 1st box before trying the crate, chair & wall or did Bean just go from one object to the next? And at what stage did you add the cue?
Thanks.
Hi Kathy, Yes, that is exactly what we did -- started with a lower box, then taller. I also put a pillow next to the couch and she did 2o2o on that and then put her feet up on the couch. It has been so well rewarded that she tries it everywhere!now She is the one who tried it first on the crate door on her own! I started added the cue once I was sure she was going to offer the behavior. As Silvia mentioned as well, I have been capturing the “pee” trick as Bean wanders around lifting one of her back legs as a start to the BumsUp. Isn’t this fun!!
Diane
In the first video are you at the Rhode Island agility trial?
Laura
Yes -- the video from week2 where she is doing pivots and backing up! Bark usdaa trial a couple weeks ago. Love that venue! You have a good eye! Have you trialed there?
Is it worth trying to get sit pretty by a nose target? Why do you recommend a paw target for this?
Yes, it’s easier with a nose touch. I like a paw touch as I like to challenge their balance some more and I like the paws up in the air that paw touches give you.
Hello all -- enjoying your videos (maybe not comparing my snow-covered ground with that person who trains next to the beach, and we are very jealous of anyone with green grass too 🙂
Now it has been 6 weeks since Sen’s operation for her leg breaks, and so we can finally start to do something in this course. Still not sure about her long-term condition.
I attach some progress/our attempts to catch up. In addition to the video, we have been working hard with socialisation to address the 6 weeks of isolation she just had. The only busy place near us we can get to at the moment is an airport, so we have been meeting flights. She has been coming to work with me too.
She is very good with people of all shapes and sizes, terrible with other dogs. We have gone a few times to dog clubs but no real improvement yet. Early days I suppose. She also has physiotherapy exercises to do, and all other basic stuff you can’t do with an immobile puppy (toilet training for example!)
Some of the homework exercises (like sit up) are still not possible for her. The video shows our first lessons for in a box, 2on/off, heeling, door closing, and cavaletti work. She did try in the box and 2on/off a few times pre-break. I see that I lure too much with the pre-heel work. One good thing I did was with the door-shutting. First I had it wide open, but then I realised that if it was just a little open she got to hear the bang as soon as she did something -- this seemed to speed up the learning process.
Our playing efforts are a bit weak, but I’m just thrilled she is somewhat toy motivated as my older dog is not at all. I am travelling for my job for 2 weeks now so I suppose we will get further behind 🙁 I hope we can persuade Silvia to leave the feedback option for a few weeks after the last class??
Happy training!
Great to see little Sen is back! She is using her leg amazingly well, considering how long it was immobilized! What’s her problem with other dogs? Fear aggression?
That sure was the cutest slam ever! 🙂 Her 4in progression was amazing too, from a cautions touch to a very nice 4in. 2on2off is great too, time to try stepping back. For pivoting, you are helping somewhat too much with the hand yes, try it with hands behind the back. For cavaletti, I would try less poles, bigger distance and less speed first as she is hoping over with hind legs -- you want her to step over one leg by one. But it could be she does that to avoid putting the weight on her weak leg.
Playing looks great too, so you definitely want to build great toy drive too. Make playing as active as possible, experiment with different toys, some chasing games (a toy on a string) would be great too. It’s just much easier to get full speed with the dog who loves to play and chase.
Happy training and fast and full recovery!
Yes I think its fear -- she has a barking fit when too close to other dogs. Even if I find friendly dogs who don’t mind her “in your face” snapping she seems to get worse over time, not better. On the other hand its just her first week out so lets see what happens. Good thing is she will play quite close to other dogs (say within 10 m)
Did you try walking with her in a sherpa bag on your shoulder around other dogs? I like to give them a safe place to be in while getting them used to potentially scary things. But might be she is already so much in her “attack is the best defense” mode that she will be snappy even in a sherpa bag? Can she be nice with other small dogs or puppies?
Thanks Silvia. No, not nice with small dogs -- still looking for a puppy playmate for her (yet another problem of living in an isolated place). Last night I had her in a crate with my older dog at agility training. That seemed to help and she was a little better. Before her leg break she was not like this. It is possible that it was broken while she was playing with her litter-mates (I don’t know for sure and she was happy at the time, but it was after that night I noticed the problem). That could be the reason for the attitude change, but probably its just the isolation. I must work hard on this issue. This whole leg-break thing has been really disappointing because I really wanted to give her a good start. My older dog has some issues from poor early socialisation and I really did not want to repeat that!
Hi,
Here’s Dynamite’s lesson three video.
For #1, no video- but she goes everywhere I go and works with 100% focus no matter where we are. She loves every person and every dog (have yet to find much she doesn’t love) so I am lucky there. 🙂
#2, only up to leg taps, she is not yet understanding following my movement. I think she really liked circles and sometimes barges past me to make a circle when all I want is the stop at the leg. Not sure what to do exactly.
#3, no video, but has been over cavaletti since early puppyhood.
#4, our favorite! I tried out a vertical surface at the end of the video to see what she would do and she did quite well, even managed a full handstand at one point. Since she is young I won’t do that again until her core develops more- but really happy with her level of understanding on this one. 🙂 She does crank her neck towards me a lot even with treating between her feet- do you think a nose target would stop that?
#5, Very hesitant to reward this behavior- she does it to me ALL THE TIME. She is really into manipulating her environment (yaaaaay things move!!) and doors and drawers are just too fun. It’s cute until she shuts my fingers in a drawer! 🙂
#6 Tiny clip included of her “monster” trick (sit up- she looks like a little monster when she does it.)
Having lots of fun- can’t wait to see what we get next week!
Shenna and Dynamite
Wow! Nice handstand work!
The last slam was great! Very good job with all the tricks actually, she has great style for a handstand, but you still need somewhat more vertical position, meaning that you need front feet closer to the wall -- her feet and treat placement should be so close to the wall that she is completely vertical as it’s only in that position that they can hold it without the support. But yes, don’t do too much of it for now, but, to keep you busy, you can teach backing up the whole set of stairs and the peeing trick!
Pivoting is going well, but to get a really perfect position (and prevent her passing you at the same time!), you need to stand a little bit to the side of the target, meaning that you need to move to the other side when you want her to come to the other leg. Basically, you need to stand so that her front feet on a target are where your legs are -- for now, she is too much in front. From this reason, she can pass you AND her hind end is still somewhat out when she is touching you, so stand enough to the side that her shoulder is at your knee and her back end completely parallel to your position.
Silvia- Is the drawer trick going to be build upon? I ask because
Blast has to throw his whole weight into it (8 lbs) and it is totally freaking him out. If it is just for the seesaw, I have an awesome one so I can skip this trick. I will upload some video later, I’ve been away…but practicing in the hotel.
No, we won’t need the slamming for anything else but the see-saw, so you can leave it, we sure don’t want to freak poor Blast out!!! Happy hotel training! I always do the most when in hotels -- nothing better to do as trick training 🙂
Does it matter if the dgo lifts his paws when taking the treat in pivots? I’m trying to treat him high but he has a tendency to get in a begging position when taking the treat. Dous it matter and is it something I have to adress?
No, that’s o.k. I often tell people to reward so that the dog needs to leave the ground with front paws when they have hard time understanding how high they should be rewarding 🙂
Hi everyone 🙂 We have practiced in the last week. Here are our results 🙂
1.Socialization -- Azja was very afraid of strangers when she was younger. Now it is much better. She can do exercises when there are many people around. She plays with me in big distractions 🙂
Sit up – outside she offers sit up for short time. With a toy she can sit up for longer, she is very focused then. With food – it is not so good.
2.Heeling position – We have a problem with this. Azja goes with me on my left side quite well but she doesn’t understand when she has to change side from left to right 🙁
3.We will show the exercise with cavaletti next time.
4.2on2off – this is very fun for us. Azja does this much better with a toy. Can I use higher object for 6 month old BC? I have noticed that Azja works much better with a toy. I think that at the beginning of the exercise I should reward her with food and then switch to toy when she starts to understand what she is expected to do.
5.Door closing – that was very fun. Recently I train with her the “hiding” trick. She likes it very much and she has offered me it when I were teaching her the door closing. But finally she understood this task.
I see you found that ball! 🙂 She sure looks relaxed and happy with all the people around now, great job! Pivoting looks great too, you can show the change of the side with your hands -- it looks perfectly o.k. to me like she is doing on this video… Nice peeing too! 🙂 Can she do it with both legs or just right? I definitely recommend teaching both! Great stepping into 2on2off too! I think you can go to higher objects too, just don’t do it too often. Slamming is going well too, go for more&more weight on it -- maybe find a heavier doors/drawers, so that she needs to use more power? Nice hide trick too 🙂
And yes, of course you can reward her with a toy! Most BCs prefer a toy over food and that’s great, even more useful as treats! It’s only at the very beginning stages of the trick that treats are easier and faster to use.
I ordered this ball from Germany. I really love my dog 😀 I have to say that she is OK to other people and animals (dogs, cats, horses) but she doesn’t come to strangers even when they call her. She ignores them. I was worried about that but now I think it is better that she is completely focused on me. She also doesn’t tug with strangers, even with my friends who she likes very much. She tugs only with me or my sister (she is a child). Azja likes kids 🙂
She can do “pee” with her left leg but she prefers the right one. I have to practice the left leg more often.
Yeah, I wouldn’t worry about that at all, I think that as long as she feels comfortable and relaxed with strangers around, that’s perfectly fine. She will probably get even more confidence with age, so that’s definitely not something to worry about, not all dogs are social butterflies and I never push them in interaction if they choose the ignorance -- that’s good enough for me! You at least won’t have problems with her jumping on strangers! 🙂