O.k., I'm publishing lesson 3 already now as we're then going for a 2-week-catch-up-break. I like those breaks as they take some pressure off and I can always see a huge progress after the break! It's a great timing right now as it gives you time to really master that pivoting before going to lesson 3. Focus on getting really independent, fast and fluent circling in both directions. Lesson 3 can wait, we'll start with it after the break and you'll have 2 weeks for it then, so no hurry with that one. You can also revisit recalls, playing and spend some time on socialization. We'll be discussing this lesson only after 25th November, with no video commenting in between, I only posted it now so that you can see what is the plan and you can start working some in that direction. But no videos and questions during the break please, otherwise there is no point in the break 🙂
1. take your dog to a city center, a store that allows dogs (pet store?) and on a train station. Do some easy tricks and tape your tricks in a new environment this time.
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.
A word of warning: when you position yourself next to the target, you need to stay at it's side, NOT behind it (so at 3 or 9 o'clock, not 6!), meaning that you need to move from one side to another every time you ask the dog to come to the other side. If you stand behind the target, you're practising wrong position as the dog is too much in front. The dog's paws should be were your heels are, his shoulder at your knee and his rear end completely straight - parallel to you.
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 
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 (maybe just a folded blanket or a low pillow first!), 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 or cavaletti 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 a 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 and check if the puppy will stay in 2on2off position until "go" even with distractions (toys and food flying around) - we'll need that for next lesson!
See you back in class on 26th November!
2on2off progression into handstand:
Can we talk about frustration in our dogs and how to deal with it? I don’t know if others are seeing it in their dogs but I see it in mine on occasion. Ex. I feed my dogs in crates in one room. Before feeding I will put everyone in their crates and do some training sessions first, one dog at a time. The other day with Trumpet, he started getting vocal when working on closing the door. He doesn’t seem to “see” the target and couldn’t understand what I wanted and was getting frustrated so he ran to his crate. I think he was telling me “this is too difficult, just give me my dinner”. What do you do in this instance? Do you stop your training session? Do you call the dog back out and ask for an easier behaviour? or do you call him back and try to work through it?
I also find it difficult to work my puppy Tat at this time. They know dinner is coming so they seem to just want dinner instead of having to work for food. I thought it would be a good idea to train when hungry, but these are usually my least successful training sessions because they’re just thinking about going in their crates for dinner.
Any suggestions?
Interesting questions -- Bisou also starts singing when it is not fast enough and throws one million all-mixed-up tricks at me. for her, it helps if I stand up and do something she will definitely succeed with -- since this lesson: Slamming. Then she calms down again and works more concentrated. Could it be that your dogs are very much into routines? Do you feed once or twice a day? Maybe it would help -- if possible with your daily schedule -- to do more short sessions at different times throughout the day. My dogs never know when I call one of them for a short excercise and they are always willing to work for some food 🙂 I don’t keep them extra hungry, but as they are small/medium dogs, I need the whole amount of food for training and they know that I will reward it during the day from hand.
I have the same combination, a puppy of 5 months and an adult dog and I wonder if you have the same experiences -- the funny thing is that if differs a lot who is faster in learning a trick. Crossing paws was an easy one for the adult dog whereas it was a plague for the always moving puppy, the trick she sings most and still does more a stepdance on the floor than coordinated paw crossing like Garlic eg. Slamming was Bisous favorite from the start -- within 1 session, she tried to slam whatever her little feet could reach whereas the adult dog (who is usually not easily scared) acted very carefully and found it scary when objects move. Also transferring pivoting to a better heelwork was not a challenge for the adult dog but Bisou does not understand it yet.
I do other training sessions in different places throughout the day. My best ones are usually when I first arrive at the office in the morning (right after they’ve had breakfast)! I will sometimes do impromptu sessions in the bathroom just before taking a shower before bed. Perhaps the problem is training in the dog room (where they eat), or close to the dog room, just before dinner, but still, shouldn’t they learn to work through that? You work for me now, and then you can have your dinner.
I’m working 6 dogs through all the tricks and it is interesting to see each dog do better with different tricks. I think that is just individuality. You can certainly see which dogs are thinkers and which ones are doers. The doers are the ones who start throwing a lot of behaviours at you when they’re not sure. The thinkers tend to freeze. That’s been my experience with my dogs.
My natural reaction would probably be to let him go in a crate, work with another dog and then try again later. However, if you noticed that they have hard time focusing before a dinner, I would try to find another time to train. I often do tricks for their dinner as I use kibble for training anyway and then I’ll just prepare as much as they should eat in bowls and then ether spend it all for tricks or give the rest right after we’re finished. When they’re puppies, they will sometimes loose focus during a session and wander off: and I’ll just take another dog to train. That helps them grow out of this phase very quickly 🙂 and I never have them quitting again, BUT I am known to reward a lot, keeping things easy enough for them to succeed, so they never get really frustrated and will just keep trying. However, La and Bi will sometimes go into frantic mode of offering 101 behaviour with an intensity that really doesn’t allow them to think anymore, La even starts to breath really loudly as she has collapsed trachea and you can hear it a lot when she gets nervous. When this happens, I’ll tell them to lie down, wait a little and then try again and they always reset nicely. Hope some of that helps some.
It does help. Thanks Silvia.
Of course they get frustrated! I have noticed however that the two dogs that got clicker training as puppies (Rufus, Pippa) get frustrated less easily and work harder and longer than the dog that didn’t get clicker trained. Reggie Sheltie lies down and just barks if he doesn’t get a click for the first or second behavior he tries. Rufus and Pippa just start throwing behaviors at me. They are absolutely certain that they have something clickable to offer!
When they don’t settle down right away, I just start clicking and treating for something that looks interesting — jumping up on two hind legs, raising one hind leg, anything! Once we get “in the groove” -- click/treat, click/treat, click/treat -- I can change the trick; get out the plate for her pivots, or set up the cushion for backing up, or get out her contact box and she settles right in.
I try to avoid feeding meals at exactly the same time each day, so they don’t get too dependent on routine. Food comes sometime between about 5:30 and 6:30, but you never know when! Once I get the bowls out, though, and start preparing their dinner ….. best not to stop! 🙂
By the way -- I like both of the topics that suddenly sprang up. I would love to get some new ideas!!
When I present Ruby with a target, regardless of how small or how high the target is, she goes on it with all four paws and will try to pivot. Without a target, she pivots to my sides quite nicely. However, when I want her to pivot around by herself, she does not stay on one spot as she would if she where on a target. This trying to stand with all fours on the target is something new since she learned to pivot on a round cookie box. What should I do?
So now she does 4on also on that cookie box you originally used? Can you reward before she puts all 4 on and not reward 4 on at all -- it should go away if you never reward it. Meantime, you can do it without the target, to your leg, if that goes well.
Hello students,
I need your help please! I’m so uncreativ with the cues. 🙁 Which cues do you use for the different tricks? Maybe we could create a list?!
Here my current cues for your tricks in this class:
slaming door: ?
pivoting left: ?
pivoting right: ?
paw crossing left: “drüber” means over in german
paw crossing right: “drunter” means under in german
frog: “Frosch” means frog in german
sit up: “süß” means sweet in german
back up: “back”
4 in a bowl: “korb” means basket in german
paw target: “touch”
@Silvia: stepping back into 2on 2off -- could we use the same cue as back up? Or for slaming door, same cue as for the paw target?
Furthermore I have often the problem to find the right point to adding the cue. For example she pivoting at the moment clockwise good. Should I add a cue and then take the other direction?
I’m looking forward to hearing from you :-).
Nice greetings,
Mona
Hi Mona,
pivoting to the left leg is “Fuss” for me as it is basically what I want for obedience basics (Begleithundeprüfung): Stay as close as possible to my left leg, no matter what. The right side is “side” although I must admit I am a little worried it might cause problems during Begleithundeprüfung -- I think I must get the cues very clear here, but still 10 months to train until she is allowed to take part 😉
Slamming is “slam” and I use “criss” and “cross” for paw crossing both sides.
Have fun!
Verena
Hi Verena,
thanks for your answer. At which time do you add the cue for pivoting? When you get full circles or when she is pivoting to the different legs?
I put it on cue when she was circling the different directions fluently and I even asked for one or the other direction, but I didn’t take it too seriously. I say FUSS or SIDE as soon as she touches my leg and remains glued to it for some seconds.
I handle it a bit like Pascal, I don’t take it too seriously with the cues, I prefer that she reacts upon my body language or the objects I put on the floor.
Why would you think THAT??? -- I’m replying to Verena and her concern about heeling on the left side for the BBh. I know some old school Schutzhund people are afraid to teach the dog to heel on the right side as they think that will somehow ruin their left side heeling, but hm, well, my dogs can heel on both sides better as theirs on left side 🙂 Just got this video of my puppy student who passed BBh with 100% today. I think her heeling was pretty good considering she can heel just as good on the right side too 🙂 🙂 🙂
And my other puppy class & Advanced Tricks student -- who can of course heel on right side too 🙂
I hope that makes you believe me that old school jerk&pull Schutzhund people don’t have a clue about heeling 🙂
Oh nooooooo, Border Collies don’t count 😀 😀 😀 They live to please…!
No, honestly, I am JEALOUS, these are the best presentations I have ever witnessed -- I did it with 2 dogs before, Szia just passed the test a few months ago, but it was not comparable to these. I hate old school Schutzhund methods, I always clickered the trainings, but more the classical way and not based on pivoting.
Yeap, those were both trained with pivoting. They’re actually competing in agility and only do some obedience for fun 🙂
Wow, very nice job by both teams!
Wow, this heeling is AMAZING! Silvia, I think your foundation of teaching heeling as just another trick is the BEST! You can see the joy in a dog who’s been trained with your method! 🙂
And I have been having so much fun training Zephyr the “heel trick”. Yesterday we went into town to work on tricks in a new environment. As we were doing pivot work in front of the Post Office (he was doing great--totally focused even with lots of distractions), a woman who must be from the “old school training” said to me, “Well, that’s great, but can he do it without all the treats?” I tried to explain to her that I’ll slowly add duration once he really understands “glued to my leg” but she was not impressed. 🙁 She said my dog should not be getting all these treats—that it will spoil him! I don’t understand why some people are so against using treats for training 🙂 especially when you get results like in these videos!
Oh well, I hope I run into this woman next year… 🙂
Kathy, that would be SO cool if you compete against her dog once 🙂 My old girl placed first in her (and my) first ever exam and had beaten a Schutzhund from the German Army -- that poor thing has been trained with a shock collar. (btw, no compliments, as it was NOT my achievement at all, I was so nervous and so focussed on counting steps etc, it was my dog that decided to say “relax, I know what to do, just walk beside me…” and she did better than ever before) When it was over, I had a smirk in my face because it was a Schutzhund judge and many Schutzhund spectators that were astonished. The judge started my exam with the words “what is that?” -- my Tibetian was too little and too fuzzy for him to take it serious. But he was cool enough afterwards to admit that he had underestimated little Gina 😀
If Bisou ever learns to walk like these two dogs above, I will sign up for many Schutzhund obedience tests just for the fun to amaze the Schutzhund people with a fuzzy, little dog who walks better than they ever dreamed of, hehehe…:D
The funny thing is that they usually quickly find an excuse. I was asked for a demo at Schutzhund WC when it was in Slovenia 7 or so years ago and they were very impressed first, but then I soon started to hear “but that’s not a real dog, like our GSD/Malinois, so it’s easier”. 🙂 I have a friend who does Schutzhund with a Croatian Sheepdog, doing really well using no corrections and they agree she is good, but explain that no corrections were only possible because it’s again, not a real dog. She can do everything their GSD/Malinois can much better, just that it doesn’t count in their eyes, because she is not a real dog 🙂 But yes, happy dogs in Schutzhund trials are very important and make at least some of them think, so I really push my students out to compete too, I think it is making a difference!
Just for a little laugh -- that’s what the German WC team chef also said about your running contacts -- La would be an exception, you would not be able to realize it with other (real) dogs, hahaha. It was a few years ago, when Bu was not competing -- well, maybe he would not repeat that today after so many dogs have RCs 😀
Yeap, I think everybody said that 🙂 But then, I always liked to prove people wrong 🙂
🙂 People are sometimes really funny with their advises. And yes, I’ve heard that one before: jerking them on leashes is o.k., using treats isn’t 🙂
OMG! These are soooo gorgeous! Silvia, can you comment on how to modify your heeling so that it will work in the USA where the dog can not actually touch your leg? I’ve ordered your heeling DVD, so if this is covered in that DVD I can wait until I receive it.
Now I am so excited to re-train Secret’s heeling so that she looks like this. When I bring her back out to work on her OTCH it will be so much fun to look like this. But I need to change it up slightly so that she stays a uniform distance from my legs instead of bumping up against me. As I am sure you know, in the USA we take a 1/2 point deduction every time the dog bumps your leg.
Whoa…I didn’t know they take off points for bumping your leg in the US! It’s been years since I competed in obedience & back then I never had this type of precision heeling so I doubt they ever took points off for being too close. 🙂 Seems like a crazy rule! 🙂
Ideally the dog is suppoed to be a little bit away from your leg. I am not sure exactly how the rule reads. Certainly if your dog was hugging your leg you would not NQ, but you would be “out of the ribbons” in the B classes. The dogs are now so very good in the B classes that it is some tiny details that separate the placements. One of these tiny details is bumping against your leg. It is considered “an aid” to your dog to have them target your leg. And as I am sure you are well aware, it is very difficult to train them to maintain a consistent position. In some of the classes I’ve seen, some of the heeling points were lost due to the dogs head movement up and down even though they maintained consistent heel position…and that is not even in the rules! This past weekend I saw a 200 score in Utility and it was just spectacular. The dogs are just getting better and better all the time as we learn more and more how to communicate to them. Very exciting!
I beg to disagree about not being NQd for perpetual leaning/bumping. I did obedience in the USA for 20 years, training all my dogs to heel (properly) 1″ (2.5 cm) away from my leg. At that time, I had the #2 obedience PRT in America.
I took him to the UK and joined a top club, and we were laughed at for “not heeling properly.” In UK heeling, they told me the dog MUST lean against your leg like crazy, head resting on your knee, so that your knee actually bumps him in his head with every step. Their dogs hated this, but were trained via force, screaming, scruffing and shocks to never take the head off the handler’s knee. They ridiculed me, despised me, etc. for having a PRT (only non-Border Collie in the club) and for him not heeling “correctly.”
I did teach him to heel closer, but he only touched me at halts (I trained this with C/T).
Also, they told me our flip finish (dog jumps in the air and lands in heel position) was stupid and “illegal” in UK obedience.
At our first and only obedience trial, we were in a class of 32 BCs and my PRT. The judge asked me where my competition dog was when I was lined up with my PRT to enter the ring. After he stopped laughing and judged us, we ended up in a 3-way runoff for 6th place, and won… with our “incorrect” heeling and flip finish. In fact, the dog didn’t touch me at all in the heel, not even at the halt. Turns out, it is NOT required by their rules--thank you judge for knowing that! Anyway, my Parson Russell beat 27 Border Collies at that show, and I retired happily from UK obedience and returned to the USA.
Now I’m in Turkey, and everybody is telling me again that my dog (this time a BC, USA multi-HIT obedience dog) can’t heel “correctly” because he’s not forging and leaning on my leg. I’ll see if the European judges insist on this or we can compete with U.S. style heeling.
However, the thing that most concerns me is that he is neutered. According to FCI obedience rules, the winner “must have 2 testicles, if male.” I don’t know if that means my neutered dog can’t compete… or just can’t win.
Eek, forgot what I wanted to say! I talked to some AKC judges after returning from the UK, and they told me that they would NQ any dog that continually bumped or pressed against the handler (for instance, an FCI/UK competition dog). They said that’s considered “helping the dog.” It is considered much harder to heel 1″ (2.5 cm) from the handler’s leg, neck even with the handler’s leg… than simply leaning and putting the head on the handler’s knee. When a dog does that, they don’t need to really think at all about maintaining position. I agree American style heeling is much harder.
Just click&reward BEFORE she is all the way to your leg with the pivoting trick! You can do everything the same, only that you’re rewarding a desired position only. Here, you get points off if they’re pushing you or leaning on you or if you can’t walk normally in any way. But as long as you can move normally, they like them really close and because of the coat, they can’t even say if the dog is touching or not.
Hi Mona,
I don’t want to subsitute to Silvia advices. But for me it’s easy to decide
whether I will use or not a cue for a trick. But not easy to find a new cue !
I use a cue only for “final” trick that I decide to keep for a long time.
Other tricks are only kind of play without toy ( you don’t need a cue for
playing with a toy ! ).
How to find a new cue ? Some are easy like “fait la grenouille” in french for frog trick ! I frenquently copy on other student !!! For important ( to me ) and dynamic tricks like heeling, I will use onomatopoeia : perhaps I will take “beep” “beep” for one side …
No distintive for left and right : too complicate for me and perhaps I reserved it for agility.
slamming door = touch
pivoting left / right : not a final trick, only for playing
paw crossing left/right = cross
frog = fait la grenouille
sit up : no cue because it is a “normal” position to get attention or get a treat ! I have an other dog that can stay during minutes (or more) !
back up = recul ( back in french )
4 in a bowl: only for playing
paw target: touch
2o2off = zone, zone then Go !!!
Have a nice WE !
Great topic!
My dogs tend to learn visual cues far better and far quicker than verbal cues. I am terrible with verbal cues. So for sit up it’s usually my hand over their heads. For crossing paws it’s my finger pointing next to the pas. For pivoting I just tap my leg on the side I want. I do use the verbal cue “frog dog” but more often than not they offer it before I get a chance to say it, lol. I really need to clean my cues up!!
I use “beep beep beep” for backing up, and “back” for backing up onto an object. Although whether an object is there or not, is usually what tells the dog what we are doing, so again I wonder if they really pay attention to the verbal cue. Sometimes just a wave of the hand gets them backing up.
Pascal -- what is a good cue in French for going around behind the jumpand jumping back towards me? I am out of English words , and my agility coach doesn’t like the Spanish “atras”. Says it isn’t strong enough.
O.k., replying to Mona now: I name the tricks that I use a lot (for conditioning, warming up or just because I like them: like heeling) -- others I show or have them guess it, clicking the first thing that goes in the right direction. To be able to come up with enough cues, I use Slovenian, English and French cues and some that don’t really mean anything -- like cik&cap 🙂
For door slamming, I simply use a paw touch cue and point to the object I want them to touch. I use “back” for backing up straight and far from me and “two” as “2on2off” for stepping back on an object -- but then switch to “legs up” (in slovenian) for a handstand (pushing up with hind feet, without an object). I don’t have a cue for pivoting, the target is their cue to pivot. I only name it when I position myself next to the target and they are already coming in a perfect heeling position: at that point, I name it “heel” in slovenian for left leg position and “heel” in English for right leg position. You can of course name pivoting as such too, but you need two new names then 🙂
I don’t name all of them, and so far Pippa and I have very few tricks that I think are ready to be named! 🙁
But, for slamming anything, we use “bang”
for sitting up, it’s “sit pretty”
for backing up, it’s “beep, beep” (like trucks backing up)
for using one paw or the other, it’s “foot”
and for 2o2o, it’s “contact”.
Just about everything else is presenting the set up to her and waiting for her to guess.
I don’t like to name things until I’m absolutely sure that she has the final performance down -- AND until I’m sure we are going to need the name for a long time. After all, there are so many, many words she has to learn: “right”, “left”, “close”, “side”, “cik”, “cap”, Hup, teeter, “get in”, “climb”, “walk it”, “weave”, “behind” “go on” ……… and that’s just agility! No rush!
Thank you all for your feedback. I see it is an interesting theme for you too! 😉
But for now you helped me a lot! 🙂
Mona, this is a great question and it has given me a good idea. Since I am training adult dogs, they already have so many cues that I am having troubles coming up with new words that sound different from my existing cues. At one point Silvia suggested using a different language.
Can you please make a video where you say this commands several times so that I can see how to pronounce them? I’d also love to hear a person correctly pronouncing commands in French and Italian.
This will give me some good new commands to use. I am finally about ready to add cues to Secret’s behaviors and really need to decide what cues to use.
I have finally got full circles on the pivot with Tat, in one direction anyway. Here it is.
So I decided to try pivoting to my leg. This is what she gave me, before walking away, lol. She gets bored quickly.
And Close Door. You see her try to walk away from this session too, and offer other behaviours.
Sorry for the multiple videos. I don’t know how to edit 🙁
No problem sending multiple videos, doesn’t matter to me in what form they come 🙂 I’m thinking what to do with her walking away habit… The funny thing is she will come back and work more, she just doesn’t see to think it’s important to keep working. If you take another dog when she walks away and then try it with her again, does she stay more focused then? Also, what if you try using her whole meals for tricks? When you don’t have time, you can do it really quickly and feed a whole fist for one click. But maybe, is she gets all her meals from your hand, staying with you will get more important? With my puppies, I always feed everything from my hand when they’re young as they eat so little and I have so many tricks to teach 🙂 I don’t do it all the time later on, but I think it really helps with their food motivation.
The tricks as such are going great, that was some serious slamming and she seems perfectly happy about it, no fear! You can keep working on heeling position like this yes, just wait for one step more, so that she is really completely parallel to you, no swinging out with the rear end. I would still work on just pivoting too though, to get full circles without rewarding in between in order to make them really fast and fluent: speed and fluency in pivoting helps with speed going into the right position -- and the faster they go, the more likely it is they come all the way to the leg, without stopping one step too early as she sometimes does now.
I do often put her away when she quits, work the other dogs, then Tat again. It doesn’t seemt to make much difference. It’s usually dependant on the actual trick. She’ll work for those she likes doing, and get bored with those she doesn’t like. She usually does well for the first few reps so I try to change tricks a lot with her. She is certainly challenging me :-). Perhaps I need to put her away EVERY single time she walks away.
I feed raw so it’s hard to feed her meals by hand, but I could do some of her mushier meals by either spoon feeding as each reward or dividing it up into 5 or 6 smaller portions and have her work for those. I will try it tonight.
I was clicking early on the pivot to keep her with me, lol. So I will go back to pivoting full circles to try to get them more fluent. I need to teach her to go the other direction as well. Our progress is slow but steady 🙂
I just had some great success I want to share. As I mentioned above, I have on occasion put Tat away and worked another dog instead but I never did it in a systematic way. I would often call her back to get her to work some more, and after awhile I’d finally switch her for another dog.
So today, taking Silvia’s advice to heart, I decided that every time Tat walks away, I will put her away and work another dog. The training room where I do a lot of my training has two crates, so I put Tat and her mom in there. I took Tat out first to work on pivot. After 3 reps she walked away. She usually comes back when she does this so I usually just call her back but this time I simply put her in her crate and worked her mom, along with a great game of noisy and fun tug right in front of Tat’s crate. Then I took Tat out again, got about 5 reps before she walked away. Back in her crate. Mom back out for some pivoting and another fun, loud game of tug. Then Tat again. This time I got quite a few good reps so we had a big party and I stopped there. Meantime her mom also learned to pivot a full circle :-). Making the training sessions really short helped her mom too.
I think I will do all of my training with Tat this way from now on. In fact, I’ll work all 6 dogs 2 at a time this way. It can only build desire in my other dogs as well.
This puppy has challenged me from the beginning but I am sooooo glad I discovered this course at the same time. It is really helping me learn how best to train her :-).
Yay, great 😀 😀 😀 I know people doing it in Agility, putting one dog in a crate on the court and working another and usually the dog in the crate is very motivted after he gets out. Very cool it was a success for both 😀
Great! That sure sounds promising!!! I would try to follow this regime for at least a month, maybe even together with trying to somehow feed her meals for tricks and see what that gives you.
I have not been able to get full circles on the pivot with Trumpet but decided to try the pivot to the leg anyway. How does it look? Should I continue trying to get full circles, or should I work on this now?
Close Door:
Great, he is mostly coming all the way to the leg! You did reward one step too early a couple of tries, but mostly it looks good. Getting there with slamming too, try to slowly select for more power, stop rewarding the gentle touches and jackpot the most powerful ones.
Silvia, one question for the sitting up -- in the video I see myself now that she is not always sitting. I didn’t see it during training as it is only cm. Is it ok like that or should I insist more on really sitting?
Bisou has great balance and strength!!! How old is she again? If she were mine, I would teach her to go from a sit to a stand back to a sit, while keeping her front paws up. If she is old enough. That is a great workout of the thigh muscles, and it looks like she could it. She is doing it already in this video.
She is 5 months by now -- how did you teach your dogs to stand up and sit down again? I tried to teach my other dog but I didn’t succeed. Standing up is no problem, but she doesn’t go back into sitting down… if I lower the hand with food she drops down on all 4s…
I haven’t taught my dogs to stand up and sit down again but I’d like to 🙂 They don’t have good balance like Bisou does. Maybe that is something that Silvia can show us in Advanced Tricks?
Oh, it’s coming in Puppy Class already 🙂 🙂 🙂
What a duration! She is too cute in her sit up and it looks she is sitting nicely, she just raises up some here and there and then sits down again, so yes, that sure looks like a good start for a stand up to sit up trick 🙂
This is where we are with heelwork from pivoting -- although she does both directions on objects, she can only do left side without object. As in Germany, we have to pass an obedience exam to be allowed to start in Agility tournaments, I am happy she chose left instead of right side, but I don’t really know how to make both sides working. If I ask for a swing to the right side, she doesn’t understand and offers sit-up or other things.
Hi Silvia, you probably overlooked the last one due to the many posting that came yesterday -- could you please advice what to do to also get right side? She does both sides on objects and she transferred left side well to the leg, but she fails do swing to the right side. Should I work more still with objects? Or only reward right side?
I’m replying in order it was posted and only got to your question today, but yes, go back to a paper target for right side. You can work her on your left, then go to the target to switch her to your right leg, then work on right side some, then switch her to the left side on a target etc.
Impressive! Great position and focus! For the other side, you can start on a target first.
Silvia, when you heel with all your dogs -- do they have fixed positions, like one always on the inner side or do they adapt to wherever you place them? When I try with both, Szia always tries to come to my leg and puhes the other dog away…
Yeah, they a kind of do… The pushiest in 🙂 Meaning La and Bi on the inner side and Bu and Le outside. If I insist, I can get them to heel in another order too, but if I just call them and say heel, that’s what I’ll get.
Heres some video over the last few weeks. When I work with Buzz outside he doesn’t really want to do things that require food, it’s just a big game outside for him and he’ll wander off at times to find his toys for me to play with instead. I think coz we do most of our tricks inside and agility and playtime outside which involves toys. So in the videos where he’s outside he’s alot more distracted. I also find when I video our training were not as good as we usually are coz I’M distracted by making sure it’s all getting caught on camera!
First video is pivoting the object. Playing it back I found I’m late with alot of my clicks and he’s turning too far behind me. We have been training alot lately to circle around me backwards which he loves so he does tend to turn his bum in a bit much when doing this exercise. A little bit of sit pretty in there aswell, I first taught it as ‘beg’ but have since changed it to ‘pretty’. Since that video his paws are a little bit higher and his balance is better, but he slowly starts lowering his paws and will only hold them up if I ask him to.
Second video 2o2o, he wasn’t as good as he usually is, kept breaking when I said ‘ready’. Also has back up to 2o2o which I think is going well. With the couch it is anyway, he tries to ‘climb’ other things like a chair etc.
Crossing paws I have named ‘criss’ for right over left, and ‘cross’ for left over right. He LOVES this game even though he’s still not perfect! It’s starting to become a default behaviour of his! He will constantly creep forward though to try to target my legs with his paws.
Wow, GREAT job!!! I love the crossing paws with you standing up! How did you get duration on crossing paws? I’m having trouble with this—every time I click, Zephyr uncrosses his paws. 🙁 And if I delay the click, he also uncrosses his paws. I think I’m missing something with the training. 🙂
PS—I know what you mean about getting distracted with the video camera running 🙂 This happens to me all the time 🙂
Thanks! Thats the only time I’ve done it standing up, I should practice more but I get lazy and want to sit down! Ideally I want to have it completely on verbal cue so I can stand next to him or in front of him and we’ll go the same way. To be honest I didn’t have to train for duration, he loves this trick so much he just keeps his paw there until I ask for something else! Silvia will probably have a better answer but I guess make sure you only treat in position, so if uncrosses get him back in position before rewarding him, maybe even use your hand a little to hold him there, then click and treat many times very quickly! You’ll get there!
Yeap, those are very good advices for adding the duration to paw crosses! But as I said, I would teach a concept of a duration with easier stuff first.
Well, I guess any kind of a duration is hard with puppies 🙂 Once they grasp the concept though, it’s very easy to add it to the crossing paws too. You could even use a “wait” cue once he understands it, so I wouldn’t worry about the duration for now and instead teach it with things like sit, down and 2on2off first. I’m sure he will transfer it nicely when you master it there!
Thanks for this advice, Silvia! I’ve been working more on sits & downs with more duration and have noticed a big difference with Zephyr. He seems to be understanding that he still gets the treats if he waits & doesn’t get so frantic & frustrated. 🙂
And he has been a little bear when I try to work with Elsa and wants it to be his turn ALWAYS! 🙂 But today I had him lie down & kept dropping treats to him while I was working on the “Penguin” with Elsa & he was great! Never broke his down or barked! YAY!!!
Wow, that’s a really advanced stay for a puppy! Great job!
Great job Buzz! Circling behind the back often affects their heeling position some yes, but it doesn’t look bad at all to me, his position is mostly beautiful and I really love how fast he is following your leg, that’s a really great rear end awareness! Sit up looks great too! Loved the speedy 2on2off! And paw crossing is just too cute! I would work on being able to work on tricks also outside though. Start with those that you can reward with a toy and then mix some thinking tricks in too. Would be great for agility and keeping the bars up if he can think also in the presence of toys and agility!
Thanks Silvia! Yeh I definately need to work on his focus outside, he’s in a different state of mind when theres toys around! I’ve tried rewarding a trick a couple of times with food and then give him a big reward with a toy but he just takes the food, holds it, and then chokes on it when he tugs! So I’ll try to improve his concentration with just toys. His main problem is when speed becomes involved, he loses most of his thinking! But at least he LOVES to work, he’s never lacking in enthusiasm!
Yeap, that’s definitely the most important thing! I sure love his enthusiasm! 🙂
We are a little bit behind as I had to switch dogs. Lance is having problems with his back and some of the exercises aggravate the problem. This is Lance’s little sister, Tessa. She is three years old and has started agility classes.
Tessa is adorable!!!
Getting there! She sure looks enthusiastic about her new tricks! Don’t forget to use your voice too to mark the jackpots, it really puts learning into another gear AND gives your voice lots of importance!