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:
We got “heel” and “side” positions today with LOTS of enthusiasm!!!! I’m noticing that he really likes words. Something the breeder told me about Tervs a long time ago, but it just didn’t sink in I guess. Once I started giving names to some of the tricks, everything was different. It seems to give him direction and he tries really hard to get it right. We’ve been to a couple pet stores to “perform” our tricks and he is doing great. Yesterday, he met a 7 week old Pug…today, he met the most massive Mastiff I’ve ever seen! Tricks in front of people are going well and he is getting more confident. Wooohooo! I’m going to try the train station, but our isn’t all that loud or busy. Someone suggested a bowling alley that will allow a dog inside.
I’ve noticed a big difference in his social skills the past week. He is still cautious, but much more comfortable . He was hilarious with the Pug…she would weave between his legs and he would pick up those back feet to step right over her very carefully. Great hind end awareness exercise!
This class has been so good for us, Silvia! Thank you.
Kristin
Sounds great!!! 🙂
Thank You Tsuey & Cheryl for your help on getting my pig to stay!! I will try some of that advice this weekend. I think I was making the training time too long, like Cheryl mentioned keep them short.
John
Hi Silvia,
Thank you for your advices. In fact, I’ve started your classes (28th of March) when Karmen was 10 weeks old. Before (2 previous weeks only) I was trying the Sirius method that hasn’t convinced me. Since you explained me that I shouldn’t help her so much (1st of April), I stopped. Since then, she barks much less. Thanks to your 2nd advices about making lesson more intense, we are practicing 4 tricks (2 min) in just one lesson (less than 10 min). Since then, she almost doesn’t bark anymore.
My question yesterday was much more nuanced/fine: on your video “Bi showing puppy tricks at the age of 3 months” you’re actually showing Bi how to cross her paws with your hand (4:26). Here was my question. So, I reformulate it to be clearer: How can I see the difference between a physical/verbal cue (as Shenna says) and luring?
Thank you
Homework:
2. I’m trying to improve my rewarding to get her head straighter. Normally, I use both hands but for the video I forgot! I’m showing her weak side to get advices because she doesn’t stick to my leg.
3. I haven’t found any other box until yesterday. So I’m showing her 1st try with lower objects and her 2nd time with this cavaletti trick.
4. Since she is really young, I prefer going really slow on this trick. I forgot to show the “pee trick”.
5. Considering your last message, I’ve tried this trick without telling either showing anything.
Thank you for your comments always so useful.
Céline
I’ll be on a business travel abroad all next week. I guess I’ll be sending my lesson 4’s video only the week after.
So sad :_(
Celine
Well, the difference between physical/verbal cue and a lure is that a cue is cuing a dog which from already known behaviors he should do and a lure is making the dog do that or another thing that he can’t do without you guiding him. For example: when teaching cik&cap, if you go around a pole with a hand and have the dog follow it, the dog does it because of what your hand is doing and wouldn’t do it otherwise. If you use a hand to signal to show which pole to go around and the dog does it independently from your hand, it means he knows the behavior already and you’re just cuing. Also, I’m cuing puppy Bi which paw to cross, but I’m not luring her into it -- because I have no idea how to lure a dog into crossing paws 🙂 But I can easily lure any puppy who has no idea about anything into sit, down, sit up, cik&cap, figure 8 between my legs etc. in few seconds. They will do it because of my lure, but will of course have no idea what to do if my hand is not there.
Anyway, sounds like things are going in the right direction if she is barking less and offering more! That door slam was sure great! 🙂 And a good choice for starting with shaping: easy enough + you definitely don’t want to lure the dog in potentially scary situations! I also don’t see any problems with her heel position, it looks perfectly good to me! Definitely more parallel as the last time! Why aren’t you happy with it? Cavalettis looks good too! For 2on2off, try using objects of different heights (a pile of books maybe?) vs. an angled plank, as an angled plank promotes climbing (one leg after another) vs. hoping up with both legs at the same time -- what you eventually need for a free handstand.
From Germany:
Thank you Silvia for your explaination. This time I got the difference btw luring vs cuing.
I think it’s important to get the right handling behavior/method ASAP because I have noticed with my equitation past that errors generally come from the handler ! That is why I’m so demanding.
Good news for the heeling position so far!
… From now to friday evening, I just have to wait for coming back home…
Classroom,
Your videos for lesson 4 will be the only things I have to prepare myself. So, be generous !!
Thanks to all and especially to Silvia for your genereous responses that always include details and example to make it easier to understand.
Céline
Have a nice stay in Germany and a safe trip back home! It looks like everybody is still busy with lesson 3 though 🙂
Hi everyone,
We did pretty well with Puppy II Lesson 3, but we still need a little more time with two of the tasks:
1) We went to an ice cream store (Dairy Queen), the college where I work (lots of car and student noise, also some construction going on for a building), and the vet (for a weight check -- we are working on her losing some of her winter weight- she is down from 54# to 51.4# since early March 🙂 No train stations around here at all for miles 🙁
2) Slow at this -- we just got a fluent pivot in both directions a few days ago, so I am just starting to work on the Heel and Side w/her. I think it won’t be too dificult for her…
3) Cavaletti -- she likes doing this so far. She is just walking through different size boxes and box tops and one drawer. Yesterday I tried using those long colored styrofoam rods that people buy for swimming pool fun for her to walk over and she did fine with that. Today I will try a combo of them and the boxes just for variety 🙂
4) We are not doing very well with 2on2 off stepping back exercise. She does not like to put her back feet on something without turning around, getting on with all four, then coming off with the front feet. Then she looks at me like, is this acceptable? lol… I think she understands that I want the back feet on, she just doesn’t like to do that without seeing where she is backing up first… ?? We’ll keep working on this one, I hope we don’t get too behind on it…
5) Cosi is doing great with the “Tap” drawer and door touch. She was afraid of the sound at first, but she got used to that and now she just loves tapping so the door and drawers slam shut 🙂 She will tap more than once if it does not close all the way.
6) Cosi has a good recall so far, and she is crossing both paws now! Left paw I say “cross” and right paw I say “Other”. She likes this one now and offers it a lot very time I ask her to Down, lol. 🙂
7) I ordered a Chase-It and we are using this for play as well as the big and little balls outside now. She will sit up for about 5 seconds max. I will keep working on duration for this. Her Frog is great, she knows “Paw” now and will offer the right one for it and the left one for “Other” pretty well. We try it in sitting, lying down, and standing postions. She will stay in 2on2 off position with distractions inside for quite a while now… I haven’t tried it outside yet…
Overall, I am happy with how we are doing. We love this Puppy Tricks class!! Will you be doing the Foundations class again at all after June? We can’t take it this next time, because we are signed up for Advanced Obedience and another Tricks class at a local training center, but we would LOVE to do another Advanced Tricks class with you, and also the Foundations class if you are offering it again after June… *Please let us know* :-))
Thanks so much for this wonderful class, we are learning a lot with shaping, and having fun too!!
Well, ice cream store sounds even way better as a train station!!! 🙂 And yes, once you get independent pivoting, it’s very easy to get nice heel and side. Many dogs don’t like stepping back on something behind their back… Did you try with something like a blanket? They usually don’t mind that and you can then simply fold the blanket, then put a book underneath and then build from that -- it usually goes really fast and smooth that way.
There will definitely be another Foundations class, but probably not before winter, maybe spring, we’ll see… I’m sure you’ll be a star in your obedience and tricks class! 🙂
Thanks for the blanket idea, Silvia 🙂 I did try backing her with her mat, but she preferred to lay down on it as that is what we have done before in other classes 🙂 A blanket sounds better (something completely different). Do you know when you will be starting the online Advanced Tricks class? We want to be in that if we can.. Thank you
Cindy and Cosi
Probably September/October… Not sure yet.
Oh, this is the first time I’ve heard about an Advanced Tricks class — and I thought the things we were doing were already pretty advanced! *lol* I will definitely sign up for another tricks class by you, Silvia! 😀
🙂 You’re right, advanced is not the best expression 🙂 “More tricks” or “Tricks II” would be a better name. It would be really nice to keep following the progress!
I’m glad you assigned going to a city center, pet shop and train station. When I first got Charm at 4 months I used to take her some place new every day but now those places we always go are no longer new. I learned this week that she is afraid of small children so have been giving her more opportunities to see them and have positive experiences with them. It was very confidence building to take her to all of the above mentioned places. I am taking her to as many new places as possible now.
Regarding Cavaletti: is the goal to have the dog step all 4 feet in each space without hopping? Charm does this nicely when lured through PVC cavaletti at our agility field but she hops when not being lured. So I tried turning it upside down to make it lower because I thought it was too high. Then she stepped nicely without hopping or jumping. She has a very springy spaniel gait and wants to leap and bounce like a pogo stick. At home I had trouble teaching her to walk nicely through these boxes as they are a little high for her too, but she is getting the hang of it.
Exactly, the goal are all 4 feet in each space without hopping. But it’s true that the obstacles need to be very low at first with small dogs to avoid the hopping. She seems to be doing really well by now, it’s a good exercise for teaching them to move smoothly, with good hind feet separation -- much better for running contacts as springy gait! 🙂
Heeling trick is going pretty well. I’m trying to reward high and keep her head up, looking at my eyes. She used to drop her head to look at her feet when pivoting. I have used 4 different height/size targets to teach this trick but that has not made it easy to fade the target. Now I have lowered to the two lowest flattest targets, as you can see in these two videos. I wanted very good understanding of circling before adding myself in to the picture so I may have stayed at the first step too long. During the second step, since I added myself in to the picture, she has been doing very well but I’ve been working on trying to keep her head up so I didn’t want to move on yet. Now she is ready for me to fade the target but as you can see from both these videos she is GLUED to the target more than my leg from having been so heavily reinforced there for so long. You will see one time I clicked for touching my leg just as she turned her head away. That was an error on my part which did not reinforce head up/eye contact. How can I improve head up with eye contact as well as fading the target now?
Pivoting is sure going great! Her head position is perfectly fine for this stage, it gets easier for them to keep their head up once they’re targeting your leg, not the target anymore, so I think you will be getting a really nice head position as soon as we fade that target. I would go to a piece of paper as a target and then slowly make it smaller&smaller, rewarding enough times for touching the leg that she realizes that’s the important part of the trick and as the target will soon be too small to stay on and will be there just to cue the behavior, she will I think soon switch to the leg as the new target.
Nice work!!
This was a pretty exciting lesson for us…primarily because I REALLY wanted to get to the “heel” and “side” training. It makes me happy to see that we are getting it. This video is a bit of most things…not just lesson 3. This is where we are with it all.
“Scooch” -- just started happening so I’m running with it.
4-in the box -- Da Vinci is growing so, although our boxes aren’t getting smaller really, I guess they are relative to his body. I put a smaller box inside the one he knows and it seems to be enough of a challenge to get in.
2on-2off -- we are working on holding position until released. I don’t have this on cue, should I?
“Bottoms up” -- I started this one as the handstand training, but now I’m wondering if it’s really just a 2on-2off cue????? I’m not sure since he doesn’t really back onto the object. Should I start over and back him onto something maybe in a channel & name it something else?
I think we are doing ok with “back”.
With “heel” and “side”, am I rewarding in the correct head position?
I love doing the “sit pretty” trick with him because he’s so stinking cute…reminds me of a bear 🙂 Might take awhile for duration, but it seems much better than when we began.
“Cross” we just added a cue to and the hand signal helps too. He isn’t as squirmy now so we actually get some practice in without him getting up, scooching back or moving to the side as much.
He likes the cavaletti/ ladder exercise and is getting better with making noise.
At the end is a “bottoms up” on a different object…doesn’t really look anything like where we should be heading with the handstand trick.
We’ve been playing lots of chasing and fetching games as well as wrestling some. Trying to take him out to more places and meet more people/ dogs. I started checking with some local businesses that we frequent to see if they will allow me to bring him in. In addition to pet stores, our bank and pharmacy will allow it. We have also been to some agility events.
What do you think?
Looking forward to Lesson 4!
He sure looks very happy and confident with the slamming now! Great job! All other tricks are progressing nicely too. Heel and side looks great, I probably reward even somewhat higher (so that the nose is pointing up). And yes, for a handstand, you need him to step on the object directly with hind feet. So I would go back to a very low and wide object and try to get it and then go from there.
Hi Silvia,
Here is our Lesson update…. we did get to a pet store, since the weather is finally getting better here we are going into the city or a busy store soon.
#1 we are still working on the pivoting, we have it independent the easy way but not the other way, continue to work on it.
#2 have the paw cross with one paw but now working on the ‘other’ paw.
#3 cavelletti is going well.
#4 handstand is going well (included in our video) I started this when we saw you in Minnesota so he is pretty comfortable backing up onto his board. I could not get the ‘pee’ position since he was already pushing into the handstand. Any ideas on how to still get the pee trick? What is the next step for us on the handstand?
#5 pushing the drawer (included in our video) Wylie thinks this is very fun, he is now slamming it 🙂
#6 drumming challenge (included in our video is the 2nd session), boy does he lean towards me so I am feeding on the drum top which seems to shift his weight back, is this ok at this stage? I am clicking and sort of up and down foot movement. Thanks for your feedback Sara and Wylie
He sure looks like having tons of fun! He doesn’t seem quite sure yes if he should be moving hind or front feet for the drumming, he is so funny with that little hind feet dance at the same time 🙂 But yes, he needs to shift his weight back, so it was good to reward him as you do. Try to also keep your hands as far as possible so that he is not leaning in so much. For a handstand, try a pile of books or a box now, so that he needs to reach higher up with the leg. That will give you an opportunity to click for the pee trick when he raises his foot up to search for an object -- click before he touches it. Once the object is too high for him to reach it with one leg, he will need to start hopping up with both legs -- jackpot that as you will need it for a free handstand. Reward as close to an object as possible, between his front paws, to get him used to a completely vertical position as it’s only in that position that he can balance on his own. And then we’ll slowly start fading the object, it will be in one of your next assignments.
Hi Silvia,
I wanted to tell you that Wylie likes his tricks so much that he now goes and lays by the group of objects that I have gathered into an area 🙂 Sara and Wylie.
Hi Silvia, here lesson 3. The hardest part for us was the paw touch on a drawer. Now she does it. I hope you will excuse the format of the video. She did it for the first time here and I just send it. Next time better….
I think Fine has to work on handstand too, she always reaches out with one paw and then with the other, she never jumps with two legs on the target. That may be good for pee and balance tricks, so we will do them first and then I think we will start to work on handstand a little more.
Loved the peeing trick and the fact that she sometimes reaches up with one leg and sometimes with the other, that’s very good she can use them both so nicely! It’s normal she is not hopping up with both legs just yet -- it will come with more height, when she can’t step on anymore. I can see she is still a little bit unsure about the drawers, but well, you’re getting there! Try opening it just a little bit, so that she closes it every time and learns that’s what you’re going for. You can then slowly open it more&more, but only reward when she closes it all the way, to get her used to the sound.
Thank you for comment. All drawers in our house are very hard to be closed. So I opened it more and Fine was able to move it a bit. Her paw touch isn`t so shy as it looks like in the video but we will work on a more confident one for the next days. For getting a handstand I will try a higher target.
You could also start with doors, those shouldn’t be too hard to close. But yes, if she is not stressing over it, then it’s o.k.