I miss videos from some participants... I hope you're still posting it, it really doesn't matter if you're not finished with the trick just yet, you can always do that later - but it might be easier with some directions, that's why I would like to see everybody's videos!
But well, it's time for a new to-do list, I'm again underlining the ones you want to focus on in case you run out of time for all of them:
1. see in what situations your dog gets really crazy and exited or runs as mad and name it - my "magic" word is "ajde, ajde" and you can really see how much speed they add when hearing it - in agility or when running in the fields. I got it by saying anytime they would be playing the BC games, chasing each other in full speed or go crazy and run in circles on a wet grass.
2. make the front feet target lower&lower and smaller&smaller and then fade it completely, still circling away from the dog and have him follow your leg. Then, add movements to the side, forward and backward and reward your dog for being glued to the leg.
3. side version of 2on2off: try to get side legs (the two left or the two right legs) on an object. The easiest is to choose an object that is angled (I put a pillow/plank/drawer under the angle against the sofa or a wall), so that the dog can't climb on it with all 4 feet. Because of 2on2off, they will probably try hind feet on, but position yourself next to an object so that the dog is parallel to it and will probably first try just one hind foot (it helps if you have a pee trick down already!): reward a couple of times so that he keeps it there as opposed to try to put the other hind leg on too and then see if you can get front foot on too. You can tell them to paw touch your hand that you keep close to an object and eventually fade the hand to have both feet on an object. Jackpot if the dog puts both feet on at the same time (vs. first hind, then front). Do it with both sides right from the start, you want to build muscle and balance on both sides.
4. one object into another: shape the dog to pick up an object, then to carry it around, then to carry it in the direction of another object, then to let it go close to it and eventually to actually put it in another object. I usually start directly with two bowls of the same size, but to make it easier, you can also use a toy and a box or something similar. Do try it with a bowl too, though, they require more precision.
5. hug the pole/umbrella trick, first clicking for any paw touch, then for sliding to the side and then for going more&more around the object, the final goal is a firm hug with one or both front feet around the object - see 
6. stays with distractions: tell the dog to sit or down and continue with proofing the stay until the release word as we were practicing in 2on2off position already in the last lesson: have them stay in a position with you running passed them, throwing toys and treats, making different hand gestures etc. - then say "go" (sometimes standing still, sometimes while moving) and reward, preferably with a toy as you want a fast start out of the position on "go"
Hi Silvia -- these people who have posted video look like experts and some at each lesson are doing more than the requirement for that lesson. Have some of these done this before? I feel embarrassed that I am way behind as my young Agassi is testing me at every point. He has even seemed to forget that he has a recall that was great a month ago. I also work full time so fitting in several small sessions a day is quite difficult. I try for an early morning session which is limited by time and the afternoon he is very distracted. At the weekend I can do some more. Does anyone else have these issues. I will try and pluck up the courage to show my inadequacies as a trainer once again and hope that you don’t all laugh too much. He is funny though and we are having fun playing.
Yeap, it’s hard to fit in many short sessions when you are at work most of the day… But still, try to spend his meals (morning, afternoon, evening) for doing some tricks. Once he gets more food motivated (and it definitely comes when you’re feeding his meals for tricks!), it will be easier to have his focus and then you’ll be able to do less and longer sessions instead. Also, you can skip the tricks that are not underlined and only focus on those that are -- the rest, you can finish later on, I’m giving you such a long list only because some dogs already know some of the tricks, to still give them something to do 🙂 But yes, it’s A LOT of tricks to master, so don’t worry about it, it will get easier once you get better focus from him, so keep it short and fun for now. Looking forward to see the video of wherever you are!
Hi Silvia, I feel the same than Lyn… some tricks are difficult… I can´t do Lily do the other way around… but we are having fun… And doing the cross paws we also have problems, because she stands up… and she is so exiting that do not touch the objet with teh correct hand…
I had to readjust my thinking as I was feeling frustrated and like a failure progressing with somethings! I told my self to cut it out as I joined the class to have FUN WITH MY DOGS! So I apologized to my dogs for my attitude and started to have fun with it like when we first started! What tricks we learn or where we end up will just be a bonus! Just be proud that you are involved parents to your pups as so many people aren’t. Stacey & Heidi & Rocket
What a nice way of thinking about it!! Hugs to you and your dogs 🙂
Exactly. It’s not about teaching as many tricks as possible… I’m only giving you such a long list because some dogs already knew some of this, to keep them busy too -- but as I said, you can always finish them later, focus on the ones that are underlined -- and mainly on just having fun. I know that with my puppies, for first 2 or 3 weeks, it feels like that they will never get not even one trick… I have nothing to show for first two or three weeks -- other than some first attempts of shaping something. But then, once they get the shaping, things get easy.
I think the most common mistake people make is that they want to have something to show as fast as possible, so they first wait too long to get more than just a little something -- and then they end with nothing, the dog just looses all the interest… So then get into the trap of helping and then the dog learns to wait for help and then it’s hard with tricks that can’t be lured and require shaping… Many people cheat at first to get to the results faster and then count on being able to shape when things get too difficult to lure -- but by then, the dog learns to rely on help. You need to teach them the concept on easy tricks like paw targets, 4in and similar.
Once they get the concept, everything gets easy as afterall, every trick is trained the same way: click for a head turn in the right direction, wait for a step, then two, three, four…, click for interaction with an object, jackpot the paw on/in etc. You just need to be patient at first and be happy with little things -- the dog learns much more if you click him for every small step in the right direction as when you just wait and wait -- no click, no learning.
To picture that better, I’m copying the post I made on Sloppy the pig, the guest star of March puppy class:
In this first video, you can see how important it is to keep reinforcement rate high, especially when the dog (or a pig!) doesn’t know the system just yet. His focus improved magically when the criteria got easier to understand for a puppy pig:
Slower is always faster! -- The more you want, the more likely you lose the dog -- and happier you are with little things, faster you will get to big things!
And here is Sloppy 2 weeks later:
These videos were absolutely fascinating to me. Thank you for sharing! What a great trainer and a great little pig. I especially liked the demonstration of how you can’t “force” a pig to sit. 🙂
Yeap, Sloppy rules 🙂 The funny thing is that we had exactly the same story with the BC who was officially taking the class, Sloppy just joined in: he had huge focus problems -- until we started to reward more generously and with a toy (vs. food that was not very interesting for him) -- focus problems magically disappeared then!
How cool is this! yes here you can really see what shaping is good for!
I will take more focus on that , too! Thanks for that great posting!
If you still can’t get the other direction with the help of the wall, you can maybe cheat some for a lesson or two, help with a lure and then fade it quickly so that she doesn’t get too dependant on it. Paw crosses you can leave for now and work on stays in down first, it will be easier once she understands the stay better. But you can start working on touching the target with the right paw already now, in stand position -- she can’t touch with both then 🙂 Hope that helps some!
Silvia, I’d be curious to hear your thoughts about speed as we are working on our puppy tricks. I know you are a proponent of speed before accuracy in general, at least in agility. I’m not seeing the speed that I expected in some of these tricks. Do you think that comes with time, as they “learn how to learn” more? Or if it were your puppy, would you spend more time getting more enthusiasm before moving to the next challenge? Or do you just not think about any of that at this point?
Well, speed before accuracy is not really the best description… What I’m going for when it comes to agility is speed -- and then adding elements of agility so slowly that it remains so easy that the dog can keep full speed the whole process. That’s why I prefer my running contact and channel weaves over any other method for those two things: as it can be done full speed right from the start WITHOUT sacrificing accuracy but instead making the task so easy at first that the dog can succeed without really thinking: and then GRADUALLY add difficulties to challenge them and make them think some -- but always making sure the successful rate is high enough to not loose the speed.
With tricks, I don’t care about speed so much and let them do it as they choose: with La and Bi, it means FAST, with Bu and Le, it means slowly, thinking first before doing something. But I will shape them towards faster, jackpot faster responses and even reward some off actions just because they give me more action.
OK, so maybe “speed before thinking” is a better term?? 🙂 I think I’m gathering then that you are working on a love of running and chasing and going fast separately? I did notice that there is always a small part of each assignment around this. How much time do you spend on shaping tricks relative to playing and encouraging running and chasing and playing with you? And how much of that time is one on one with you vs with the rest of your dogs? I know we all have different amounts of time to spend, but I was just curious of the amount of time available how is it divided up? 1/2 and 1/2? Or ???
Yeap, that’s better 🙂 I’m working on thinking vs. running separately first, with even some more time spent on playing, chasing and running as on tricks -- something like 60%-40% maybe? I do some of it (again probably about 60% of it -- but depends on a day) one on one with the puppy (chasing toys on a string, eventually joining it by sending them around trees or posts) and on every walk (with all the dogs together), we do some “ready-steady-go” crazy sprints and lots of recalls with chasing: I wait the puppy gets distracted (other dogs or sniffing), run away to get some advantage, call as I run and have them chase me.
OK, I definitely need to get out and play with my puppy more! I am doing some, but not that much. Of course, I think when she knows how to send around things, that will help! 🙂 Thanks for the good info.
Hi everybody,
I’m just going to break the ‘silence’, with our first session of hug the pole/umbrella (a bottle here). Penny is great as always but as you can see I’m a little unprepared. My criteria is not clear in the first part (do I want her to try with both paws or just one?) and the treats should come from my hand. After figuring that out it goes a lot smoother in the second part. But hey, we’re having fun and it’s just a trick 🙂
Even though it would help me, I’m not good on planning my training ahead and I just tend to try instead, figuring out what works and what doesn’t on the way 🙂
I’m a little stuck on some of the previous tricks (especially lesson 3). Penny has grown A LOT in the past month and her balance sucks and she tends to get sore, so we just take it at our own pace. But I guess we’ll make it at some point and I know for sure that we’re both having fun and getting to know each other very well along the way 🙂
Hugs to everybody and please post videos also of the struggles, nobody will laugh. Promise! We will all learn and benefit from it 😀
Very cool, thanks for posting to show the first step! You’re doing it right, you want one foot first and the dog in no particular position (don’t put them in sit, let them move freely!). Don’t click when she goes for your hand, only click when she goes for the bottle (easier when you use an umbrella or something longer so that your hands can be further) and click any pawing of the bottle and even when she misses it as that’s when her paw is actually going even more in the right direction -- that is around vs. on the bottle. Looks like you’re almost there! Nice stays too! 🙂
And yes, it’s through problems that we learn the most!
Hi Silvia, I am very sorry but I am so far behind every one!!!! Its my first time with clicker so I am going really slow and because of work I can only work with Lily at night… I am having trouble right know with the cross paws, I dont know if you can give me some advise. She is already touching the target ewith the paw, but when I put it closser to the other hand she moves and put that hand under her… and then if I put the target next to the other hand in order to made the cross she moves all her body, so the target now is in the middle and not at one side… Thank you for your help…
The target in the middle is a good start. Move it VERY gradually towards the other paw. To prevent her from moving, you can position her next to the wall. Another idea would be to first teach her to cross paws in sit position (as it’s harder for her to move then) -- once she knows it, it will be easy to get it in down too. And don’t worry, just train at your own pace -- this is just a class, not a competition!!!
Hi Silvia, I am writing this as my Lesson III Video is being processed --yes I’m one of the late posters for that lesson:-) I appreciate the comments by Lyn and company as I personally can feel a bit intimidated from time to time by posting video that simply isn’t as “advanced” as others. But after assembling my lesson 3 video and getting to read these comments, I feel more likely to post more raw progress, plateaus, and even stumbling blocks. I loved the Sloppy videos — they made me laugh as I saw a bit of Gemini in Sloppy!
Although it is much easier to wait until they know the trick before filming, this time I intentionally tried to include some of the steps along the way in case it is helpful to anyone. Videoing training sessions is definitely helpful but its a lot of work/time to process it all and edit it down to a few minutes. I have a greater appreciation for those who make training videos!
This is lesson 4 in progress.
He seems to be wrapping around behind me during ‘heel’. Any tips?
And I am not sure how to get from paw around pole to hugging pole .. baby steps probably. If I let go of the pole it hits him in the head! Do I hold on until he is a lot closer to the pole?
Thanks!
Wow, that was amazingly fast how soon you got bowl to bowl! You actually got it in one session??? For everybody: don’t feel frustrated if you don’t, I never got it in one session either! 🙂 It’s actually quite an advanced trick and can take a while. If you want to cheat some and speed it up, it helps if you reward for picking up one bowl in another bowl 🙂 -- that brings their attention to the other bowl. I never did it with my pups, but it definitely speeded up the process for students from first two groups.
Getting there with pole hugs! Some tries are very nice already! The last one was GREAT! To go even more around it, he would need to be somewhat closer… -- they sometimes don’t like it when working with a pole. You can try some more and if you don’t get him any closer, you can try with a bottle, might be easier from now on. I like to start with a pole as with a bottle, you can cheat too much with bottle position, but at this stage, switching to a bottle might be a good idea, it will be easier for him to hold a bottle as a pole.
For side legs, it will be easier to get them if you actually have him lean on an object with a hind foot first, then go for simultaneous lifts and then fade the object. Pivoting is going well also without the target, some confusion on left side, but simply don’t reward it, turn some more in the other direction and give him time to figure it out. Try to avoid moves that make him do that at first to have some more time practising the right position -- and then challenge him more&more. I think for now, circles are the easiest: and then add side steps while still doing part of the circle -- and then less&less. back steps are the hardest, you can wait some more with those on left side. But I’m sure he’ll get it in no time, he sure is a very smart boy! Great job!
Hi all,
I am from Sydney Australia and run Agility with 2 Papillons and are training a BC. She is 18mths old, we have just discovered this long distance class so are starting now, (panic) there is alot of catching up to do, and HEAPS of reading. Thankyou to all who are posting results it will help me understand.
I do not plan to trial Tegan untill she is 2yrs, so have taken things very slow, also we have had lots of non-agility things happening so have been unable to train and some setbacks to our training path, so are really not that far advanced for an 18mth.
Welcome! Take your time, the class will stay open for a while after it officially ends, so there is no hurry! Happy training!
Thankyou Silvia, will video post my progress on each task of lesson 1. Should I post to the Lesson 1 page or here at lesson 4?
It’s best if you post lesson 1 under lesson 1, it makes things easier to find.
Okey dokey
Welcome, Stacy! There are several of us that either started late (I didn’t even know I was getting a puppy when this class started!) or have had time constraints pop up along the way. Class is a blast, so just enjoy!!! 🙂
Oh good , I am not alone in the “catch up stakes”. Thanks for the welcome.
Hi Stacey -- Welcome to the group -- Nice to know another Aussie is in the group -- I started on time but I am behind as well so dont worry -- its fun watching everyone else having a go and seeing the commments which is learning in itself -- Lyn and the Poodles 4
Hi Lyn, thanks for the welcome. Yes good to have another aussie.
Hi Silvia,
I have a problem with running and chasing. Up to now I tried to keep my borders calm the speed in Agility for me is nevertheless fast enough.
I want to trie your way now with ayoka. But if we increase speed and runnings she starts to keep me and pinches my feed. Do you stop than or how do you solve this problem without losing the fun on it?
Well, I train cik&cap to the degree that at the moment my puppies or students see obstacles for the first time, they have such great obstacle focus, distance and sends that I really never had this problem. Does she know cik&cap? Biting and spinning are always a sign that there is not enough obstacle focus!
Sorry we don’t know what cik&cap is. hope to learn it in your next course!
So you don’t just run around with your dog -- you are running and than sending your dog towards or around an objec Is this right? Is there any Video of cik&cap? Do you show it in the handling or in the agility foundation course?
Thanks yours Sandra
I do some “running only” too -- when they’re so little puppies that I’m fast enough for them 🙂 Once they get faster as I am, I have them run around objects yes, so that I can get some advantage over them and be more fun. We will start with it in puppy class already and then take it further in foundation class. I also have a training video on it, maybe see the trailer to get an idea on what cik&cap is all about.
o.k. I understand. But then I wait with more running until we learn the cik&cap. There are so many other things to teach ….
For now, you can work on running through restrained recalls, that’s a great exercise too. You can also do it when on walks and she gets distracted: run away then, call and reward as she catches up with you (either from your hand or throwing a ball ahead) -- before she goes into nipping.
Thank you Silvia for your advise, I will try it today, I let you know!!!!!!!!!!