Thursday, March 30, 2017
Good Anniversary
Just checked the calendar and as of Saturday (March 25th), Gimme has been seizure free for one year!!! Needless to say, this makes me very happy. She seems to have adjusted to this dosage and there aren't any obvious signs of it affecting her thinking. So she's still twice as smart as any dog we know. Just sayin...
Tuesday, March 28, 2017
RallyFrEe practice (39)
My goal for this week's sessions was to get back to some of the basics, working toward more precision. We made it through the false pregnancy without any notable loss of performance - which is HUGE. The only real loss was the precision, which I let slide to preserve attitude, knowing we'd have to go back and address it. In addition, despite Mommy-brain, we were able to use the time to do some videos for the MDSA workshops. We also did all the performing we needed in front of a witness to earn Gimme's Novice Trick Dog title. Have I mentioned this is her 23rd title?
I set the alarm on my cell phone for a shorter time, so I did a much better job this day keeping the sessions a reasonable length. They were 7½, 8½ and 7½ minutes.
Session 1 video - Gimme was a little distracted, but came out of it quickly. I used my own movement away from her to remind her the idea was for her to heel with me, not vice versa. I have a tendency to get stuck on one thing for too long, so I tried to change it up more. We did a little bit of "Otto" and I clearly need to spend more time in the wire guides at home. I also need to be careful to not unknowingly reward a sit at the end of "Otto", since it's not part of the final behavior. For a break from brainwork, I tossed treats and then had her find a position. We also did some "thru-side", "thru-heel", "right" and "left". We hadn't done "right" and "left" in awhile, so I was happy she remembered them and the distinction between them and the very similar "thru" behaviors. She did well with the "out" for a figure 8, which we'd just worked in parkour. The distraction during "pivot" was because of 2 dogs walking by outside our space. I thought her right "side" heeling was too wide, so decided I'd focus on it for our third session. We put some rewards into the being still bank account - never her preference, as well as a short "wait" practice. We ended with a "bacon", just because she likes them so much.
Session 2 video - We did some brief heeling warm-up before starting the intermediate level RFE course. I used to always lose her to the distraction of corners, so getting her back with just her name is such an improvement. She started out nicely and the first sign was a free choice so we did up-for-kisses. I was pleased she was able to get back down readily and get into "side" on cue. The next sign was right-paw-lift, which we haven't worked on in a very long time. After working it at home in the evening, it occurs to me part of the problem I have with getting paw lifts on cue may be the cues I chose. They are "high" (right paw) and "five" (left paw), which sound too similar; don't know why I never thought of it before. I'm going to try "fi-VER" and see if it makes a difference. Its interesting how long it takes her to recover after the frustration built up by the paw lift confusion. She is just certain there should always be more behavior-doing than waiting for cues. I did the backward-walking-weaves wrong, so she was on the wrong side of me for the next station. I went online since then and watched the example video on the RFE website. So now I need to practice it. The pivot in the corner would probably not get high marks because her front feet are supposed to be the pivot point and I taught it with me as the pivot point. I'll have to think about whether there is a way I can do it to get her as the pivot point, otherwise will just have to take a hit in points. Clearly we need to get back to work on the "take-a" bow. Since its also her tracking indication, it has gotten out of position - she is supposed to stay aligned in "heel" or "side" position, not turn out 45°. The alarm on my phone went off as we were working on the "take-a", so on our way to the leash I stopped to do a bit of "thru" figure-8.
Session 3 video - My goal for this session was to work at tuning up her right "side" position, using the clicker to capture and reinforce the best parts. [By the way, Gimme is laying beside me on the couch as I review the video and write this - she's absoluely certain I should have a bowl of treats beside me to reward her for all these clicks she's hearing.] In the video, I have to laugh at how she manages to still get one foot onto the low bench as we go heeling by. Props are always a biggggg distraction for her. She does better when I move further away and then go close while moving faster. After a couple times, then she gets it. This makes sense, since the props themselves become a big part of the cue for some behaviors. This is something we work on a lot in parkour in a way - using the same prop for multiple behaviors. Notice later as we approach a big cone and she goes "out" around it, since its almost always what we do with cones. We take a break from heeling with some tossed treats and position finding, sometimes mixed with behaviors. Near six minutes you'll see her momentarily distracted and then come to me - there are strange dogs working in the next area over. I always reward her for coming to me when she sees other dogs. We end with some behaviors as a reward for all her hard work.
I set the alarm on my cell phone for a shorter time, so I did a much better job this day keeping the sessions a reasonable length. They were 7½, 8½ and 7½ minutes.
Session 1 video - Gimme was a little distracted, but came out of it quickly. I used my own movement away from her to remind her the idea was for her to heel with me, not vice versa. I have a tendency to get stuck on one thing for too long, so I tried to change it up more. We did a little bit of "Otto" and I clearly need to spend more time in the wire guides at home. I also need to be careful to not unknowingly reward a sit at the end of "Otto", since it's not part of the final behavior. For a break from brainwork, I tossed treats and then had her find a position. We also did some "thru-side", "thru-heel", "right" and "left". We hadn't done "right" and "left" in awhile, so I was happy she remembered them and the distinction between them and the very similar "thru" behaviors. She did well with the "out" for a figure 8, which we'd just worked in parkour. The distraction during "pivot" was because of 2 dogs walking by outside our space. I thought her right "side" heeling was too wide, so decided I'd focus on it for our third session. We put some rewards into the being still bank account - never her preference, as well as a short "wait" practice. We ended with a "bacon", just because she likes them so much.
Session 2 video - We did some brief heeling warm-up before starting the intermediate level RFE course. I used to always lose her to the distraction of corners, so getting her back with just her name is such an improvement. She started out nicely and the first sign was a free choice so we did up-for-kisses. I was pleased she was able to get back down readily and get into "side" on cue. The next sign was right-paw-lift, which we haven't worked on in a very long time. After working it at home in the evening, it occurs to me part of the problem I have with getting paw lifts on cue may be the cues I chose. They are "high" (right paw) and "five" (left paw), which sound too similar; don't know why I never thought of it before. I'm going to try "fi-VER" and see if it makes a difference. Its interesting how long it takes her to recover after the frustration built up by the paw lift confusion. She is just certain there should always be more behavior-doing than waiting for cues. I did the backward-walking-weaves wrong, so she was on the wrong side of me for the next station. I went online since then and watched the example video on the RFE website. So now I need to practice it. The pivot in the corner would probably not get high marks because her front feet are supposed to be the pivot point and I taught it with me as the pivot point. I'll have to think about whether there is a way I can do it to get her as the pivot point, otherwise will just have to take a hit in points. Clearly we need to get back to work on the "take-a" bow. Since its also her tracking indication, it has gotten out of position - she is supposed to stay aligned in "heel" or "side" position, not turn out 45°. The alarm on my phone went off as we were working on the "take-a", so on our way to the leash I stopped to do a bit of "thru" figure-8.
Session 3 video - My goal for this session was to work at tuning up her right "side" position, using the clicker to capture and reinforce the best parts. [By the way, Gimme is laying beside me on the couch as I review the video and write this - she's absoluely certain I should have a bowl of treats beside me to reward her for all these clicks she's hearing.] In the video, I have to laugh at how she manages to still get one foot onto the low bench as we go heeling by. Props are always a biggggg distraction for her. She does better when I move further away and then go close while moving faster. After a couple times, then she gets it. This makes sense, since the props themselves become a big part of the cue for some behaviors. This is something we work on a lot in parkour in a way - using the same prop for multiple behaviors. Notice later as we approach a big cone and she goes "out" around it, since its almost always what we do with cones. We take a break from heeling with some tossed treats and position finding, sometimes mixed with behaviors. Near six minutes you'll see her momentarily distracted and then come to me - there are strange dogs working in the next area over. I always reward her for coming to me when she sees other dogs. We end with some behaviors as a reward for all her hard work.
Sunday, March 26, 2017
Parkour (3/6)
As I mentioned on the recent nosework blog post, my camera was acting up and I didn't know it. It was saving the videos in a different file format and they are much harder to edit. It takes about five times longer <sigh> and the trims aren't as accurate.
Distance "out" w/props video - This was about sending Gimme "out" around something a few feet away. Clearly she knows this behavior with cones, so Jo changed us up to do it with a chair. Gimme remembered her makeup lesson where we worked on this so much. Since it wasn't a challenge, Jo brought us a low bucket (very "table" and "hands" worthy). What I discovered was if I stepped up closer so my foot was a bit alongside the bucket, then Gimme understood what I wanted. I was able to move my foot back a bit. I would teach this differently myself. Since she understands the concept with a cone, I'd place a cone next to the bucket and cue it - much like the way we teach backside jumps in agility. Gimme did it well many times and then the first time she goofed was when Jo was watching - naturally.
Crawl trainer video - We haven't done this since we first started in parkour classes. As you can see, Gimme didn't forget.
Scaffold sequence video - The challenge here was to slow them down when they got on the scaffold, since they couldn't see what came next as they were jumping up. Gimme had no problem with this, though only pausing briefly. The second time I added several control points to encourage her to be more thoughtful (and hinting perhaps I can drive the train just for a moment).
Classmate Ruby is super sensitive and her handler reflexively said "no" to her when she got on the scaffold and just jumped down and they couldn't get her on the scaffold again. Jo is patient and slow, so they'll get it, but it's still sad to watch such a sweet dog deal with her confusion and lack of confidence. The moment of jumping down was probably her most confident behavior and poor baby got what she perceived as a huge correction. I look forward to seeing her grow. The other dog is like Gimme, a bold and natural doer-of-things.
Multiple uses video - We were to take a chair and see how many things we could do with it. We had "out" in both directions, "hands", "table", "below" and "bacon". After the first round of doing them, Gimme was pretty certain my job was only to hand out treats. She is also certain she'd get a whole lot more treats if I'd just go with the flow and watch all the cool stuff she's showing me. Just sayin...
"hands" with sit video - The goal here is to have her "sit" and "stand" on cue while simultaneously doing "hands", not taking her feet off the prop. This is both a physical and conceptual challenge. We tried to do this with the bucket, but it was just too high. When we switched to the lower prop she was able to do it, but it was still hard. Her tendency was to just "sit" halfway, so when I gave her a treat I pushed it toward her to encourage her to drop back into a real sit. I thought the physical challenge was going to a "stand" again, but as you can see, Gimme pops into a stand with no problem. I had her do some "box" (out of sight) and "bacon" to break it up for her. I have the perfect prop here at home for her to work on this some more.
"thru-out-thru" video - The sequence seems simple enough, but with a fast moving dog like Gimme, getting the "out" cue in a timely manner is very challenging. It really needs to be "thru-out" instead of "thru" "out".
By the way, this is the first time Gimme ever headed toward one of the other dogs in class. I didn't intend the "No!" Likewise stepping on her leash at exactly the right moment was also an accident. My reactions are not so fast, so it was a happy accident. Fortunately her "delicate" psyche was none the worse for wear.
Distance "out" w/props video - This was about sending Gimme "out" around something a few feet away. Clearly she knows this behavior with cones, so Jo changed us up to do it with a chair. Gimme remembered her makeup lesson where we worked on this so much. Since it wasn't a challenge, Jo brought us a low bucket (very "table" and "hands" worthy). What I discovered was if I stepped up closer so my foot was a bit alongside the bucket, then Gimme understood what I wanted. I was able to move my foot back a bit. I would teach this differently myself. Since she understands the concept with a cone, I'd place a cone next to the bucket and cue it - much like the way we teach backside jumps in agility. Gimme did it well many times and then the first time she goofed was when Jo was watching - naturally.
Crawl trainer video - We haven't done this since we first started in parkour classes. As you can see, Gimme didn't forget.
Scaffold sequence video - The challenge here was to slow them down when they got on the scaffold, since they couldn't see what came next as they were jumping up. Gimme had no problem with this, though only pausing briefly. The second time I added several control points to encourage her to be more thoughtful (and hinting perhaps I can drive the train just for a moment).
Classmate Ruby is super sensitive and her handler reflexively said "no" to her when she got on the scaffold and just jumped down and they couldn't get her on the scaffold again. Jo is patient and slow, so they'll get it, but it's still sad to watch such a sweet dog deal with her confusion and lack of confidence. The moment of jumping down was probably her most confident behavior and poor baby got what she perceived as a huge correction. I look forward to seeing her grow. The other dog is like Gimme, a bold and natural doer-of-things.
Multiple uses video - We were to take a chair and see how many things we could do with it. We had "out" in both directions, "hands", "table", "below" and "bacon". After the first round of doing them, Gimme was pretty certain my job was only to hand out treats. She is also certain she'd get a whole lot more treats if I'd just go with the flow and watch all the cool stuff she's showing me. Just sayin...
"hands" with sit video - The goal here is to have her "sit" and "stand" on cue while simultaneously doing "hands", not taking her feet off the prop. This is both a physical and conceptual challenge. We tried to do this with the bucket, but it was just too high. When we switched to the lower prop she was able to do it, but it was still hard. Her tendency was to just "sit" halfway, so when I gave her a treat I pushed it toward her to encourage her to drop back into a real sit. I thought the physical challenge was going to a "stand" again, but as you can see, Gimme pops into a stand with no problem. I had her do some "box" (out of sight) and "bacon" to break it up for her. I have the perfect prop here at home for her to work on this some more.
"thru-out-thru" video - The sequence seems simple enough, but with a fast moving dog like Gimme, getting the "out" cue in a timely manner is very challenging. It really needs to be "thru-out" instead of "thru" "out".
By the way, this is the first time Gimme ever headed toward one of the other dogs in class. I didn't intend the "No!" Likewise stepping on her leash at exactly the right moment was also an accident. My reactions are not so fast, so it was a happy accident. Fortunately her "delicate" psyche was none the worse for wear.
Friday, March 24, 2017
New Title - 23 and counting
Last week I submitted Gimme's application for a Novice Trick Dog title. To be honest they are pretty easy tricks and most of them are things a dog would learn in the course of learning to be an acceptable canine citizen. With Do More With Your Dog, you have to start at novice, so we've completed the first hurdle. She can probably do most of what she needs for the intermediate title.
Novice Tricks video - The 15 tricks we did were: come, down, doggie push-ups, fetch, figure-8 through my legs, follow a pointed finger, food refusal, kisses, paws up on an object, pedestal (pivot), shake hands, sit, spin, touch my hand, and walk on a loose leash.
This is title number 23, but who's counting... eh....
Novice Tricks video - The 15 tricks we did were: come, down, doggie push-ups, fetch, figure-8 through my legs, follow a pointed finger, food refusal, kisses, paws up on an object, pedestal (pivot), shake hands, sit, spin, touch my hand, and walk on a loose leash.
This is title number 23, but who's counting... eh....
Nosework (1/24)
We had nosework class this week, but
something happened to the videos. Dorothy was gone this week; so, I
don't know if the guy who was taking them for me didn't get them taken
or if it was something I did. But I did find the camera set to a custom
setting when I retrieved parkour videos for the following night. So
its hard to say what happened to them... or if there even were any
videos.
We had two sets of three searches... The first set was a 2 vehicle search, an exterior search and a 1 vehicle search.
3 vehicle search - This search was three big trucks. Gimme totally ignored one vehicle and found the 1 hide pretty quickly.
exterior search - The exterior search was an odd "L" shaped area. Gimme found both hides really fast.
1 vehicle search - Gimme nailed this hide in under ten seconds.
Our second set was a search in the foyer, a search in the front half and and a search in the back half. One of the things about these searches were they were really all mixed container/interior searches, as the interiors had boxes, but we weren't told if there were any hides in them or not.
foyer search - When we entered the foyer there were 5 large cat carrier boxes. The hide was in the most central one. Gimme paid no attention to the others. When I encouraged her she checked around and quickly went back to the same box.
mixed container/interior front half - This area was cluttered with a lot of stuff. There was a hide in a brick shaped box, under a stool and attached to the mop bucket. Gimme raced around and found these very fast.
mixed container/interior back half - This area had a large L-shape made of tables with chairs all around. Some of the chairs had boxes in them. One hide was at the base of a book shelf and the other was under the lip of the easel.
Final speed-round search - For this search the prior hides in the back half were left in place and three hides were added in boxes sitting on chairs. Gimme raced around and got these sooooo fast.
In fact all her searches were very fast. The slowest was the first one and after it, she just got faster and faster. I'm inclined to think she is verrrrry interested in getting to the chicken nuggets and raw steak. I did a side-by-side preference test, three rounds. I showed her chickie-nugget in one hand and raw-steak in the other and then let her grab them. All three times she grabbed the chicken nugget first and then grabbed the steak.
Gimme thinks we should do this preference test a few more times, just to be sure the results are accurate. You know my girl - always working the angles.
We had two sets of three searches... The first set was a 2 vehicle search, an exterior search and a 1 vehicle search.
3 vehicle search - This search was three big trucks. Gimme totally ignored one vehicle and found the 1 hide pretty quickly.
exterior search - The exterior search was an odd "L" shaped area. Gimme found both hides really fast.
1 vehicle search - Gimme nailed this hide in under ten seconds.
Our second set was a search in the foyer, a search in the front half and and a search in the back half. One of the things about these searches were they were really all mixed container/interior searches, as the interiors had boxes, but we weren't told if there were any hides in them or not.
foyer search - When we entered the foyer there were 5 large cat carrier boxes. The hide was in the most central one. Gimme paid no attention to the others. When I encouraged her she checked around and quickly went back to the same box.
mixed container/interior front half - This area was cluttered with a lot of stuff. There was a hide in a brick shaped box, under a stool and attached to the mop bucket. Gimme raced around and found these very fast.
mixed container/interior back half - This area had a large L-shape made of tables with chairs all around. Some of the chairs had boxes in them. One hide was at the base of a book shelf and the other was under the lip of the easel.
Final speed-round search - For this search the prior hides in the back half were left in place and three hides were added in boxes sitting on chairs. Gimme raced around and got these sooooo fast.
In fact all her searches were very fast. The slowest was the first one and after it, she just got faster and faster. I'm inclined to think she is verrrrry interested in getting to the chicken nuggets and raw steak. I did a side-by-side preference test, three rounds. I showed her chickie-nugget in one hand and raw-steak in the other and then let her grab them. All three times she grabbed the chicken nugget first and then grabbed the steak.
Gimme thinks we should do this preference test a few more times, just to be sure the results are accurate. You know my girl - always working the angles.
Urban Tracking (23)
Nadine and I met at the Auburn Cinema for rural tracking work. Since the last time we did rural tracking there, I've been in an email conversation with Sil Sanders. One of the things we realized is, the spacing between the islands at this theater isn't big enough. There are one or two spots where its adequate, but not enough to follow Sil's plan.
So for Gimme's track, we laid her track, starting at an island and then moving into open spaces of the parking lot, before getting back to an island then into the open and to another distant island. Because we didn't have the benefit of working along a curb for most of this, I had Nadine lay out treats every two yards. Later, since we had time available, Nadine laid another track, with treats every three yards.
In both cases, Gimme did a good job. She's working hard at it. Because she's developed a tendency to "go visual" in this situation, she is having to learn how to track on pavement anew. I plan to gradually space out the distance between treats until she develops this skill. I know she can do it and given how much she loves to use her nose, I'm sure she'll figure out her nose is where-its-at here too.
So for Gimme's track, we laid her track, starting at an island and then moving into open spaces of the parking lot, before getting back to an island then into the open and to another distant island. Because we didn't have the benefit of working along a curb for most of this, I had Nadine lay out treats every two yards. Later, since we had time available, Nadine laid another track, with treats every three yards.
In both cases, Gimme did a good job. She's working hard at it. Because she's developed a tendency to "go visual" in this situation, she is having to learn how to track on pavement anew. I plan to gradually space out the distance between treats until she develops this skill. I know she can do it and given how much she loves to use her nose, I'm sure she'll figure out her nose is where-its-at here too.
Parkour (2/6)
Jo was not there tonight, so we have the makeup instructor. She isn't as good as Jo, though the sequences are fun and its all good for Gimme to work in the presence of other dogs.
Sequence 1 video - She had us do the tictac board as part of the sequence to show the other students how its done. Gimme did pretty good on this for the first sequence of the night, though she wasn't especially focused on the first "below".
Sequence 2 video - This was a repeat of the prior sequence and Gimme did a great job, to include wearing her leash across her nose for a bit at the beginning.
4 pylon sequence video - The idea was to go out around each pylon in a cloverleaf pattern, with "box" between each "out". Gimme was a little distracted in the beginning, so I turned our 4 pylon sequence into 6 pylons. Getting the last four smoothly.
Raised ladder video - Gimme hasn't done the raised ladder in quite awhile, so I was so pleased to see her do such a nice job. I still want to see a design for this ladder with an intermediate difficulty between 6" and 2" wide steps. I have an idea for it and when my class gets going, I hope to get the guy who does the equipment building for Pawsabilities to design it for me.
Sequence 3 video - This was a nice sequence, with the 4 pylon sequence and the raised ladder. I was especially pleased with Gimme at the very end. If you watch, you'll see her glance over at the two young dogs and then turn her attention back to me. I gave her a lot of extra peanut butter for her "good decision".
I do have to say, these two new classmates are very new to the world of dog sports and I've been really happy with their efforts to keep their dogs quiet and relatively still when Gimme is on the floor working. Both dogs are handled by older gentlemen and its clear they don't have any prior experience, but they are really working to be good handlers and responsible owners.
Sequence 4 video - This was a nice sequence and Gimme did a great job with it, remaining focused the whole time.
Figure 8 video - This was really a simple thing to do, but we sure had our issues with the leash getting caught on the pylons and under my feet. Gimme totally knows how to do figure 8s and I know how to handle it, but she sure got more than her fair share of unintended leash corrections. Thankfully she is very determined and will work through such things.
Sequence 1 video - She had us do the tictac board as part of the sequence to show the other students how its done. Gimme did pretty good on this for the first sequence of the night, though she wasn't especially focused on the first "below".
Sequence 2 video - This was a repeat of the prior sequence and Gimme did a great job, to include wearing her leash across her nose for a bit at the beginning.
4 pylon sequence video - The idea was to go out around each pylon in a cloverleaf pattern, with "box" between each "out". Gimme was a little distracted in the beginning, so I turned our 4 pylon sequence into 6 pylons. Getting the last four smoothly.
Raised ladder video - Gimme hasn't done the raised ladder in quite awhile, so I was so pleased to see her do such a nice job. I still want to see a design for this ladder with an intermediate difficulty between 6" and 2" wide steps. I have an idea for it and when my class gets going, I hope to get the guy who does the equipment building for Pawsabilities to design it for me.
Sequence 3 video - This was a nice sequence, with the 4 pylon sequence and the raised ladder. I was especially pleased with Gimme at the very end. If you watch, you'll see her glance over at the two young dogs and then turn her attention back to me. I gave her a lot of extra peanut butter for her "good decision".
I do have to say, these two new classmates are very new to the world of dog sports and I've been really happy with their efforts to keep their dogs quiet and relatively still when Gimme is on the floor working. Both dogs are handled by older gentlemen and its clear they don't have any prior experience, but they are really working to be good handlers and responsible owners.
Sequence 4 video - This was a nice sequence and Gimme did a great job with it, remaining focused the whole time.
Figure 8 video - This was really a simple thing to do, but we sure had our issues with the leash getting caught on the pylons and under my feet. Gimme totally knows how to do figure 8s and I know how to handle it, but she sure got more than her fair share of unintended leash corrections. Thankfully she is very determined and will work through such things.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)