Millie--Article work

February 22, 2025

Worked with Millie and articles in a larger room today, trying two variations. In the first I scattered 7-8 articles around the room and then took her in, and waited for her to look at each and indicate. The second is a little more along the lines of what Mary Ann does in her video; I walked Millie around in the room where I had dropped something, and waited for her to indicate, then threw another article (hopefully while she was busy eating the reward from the first one), and repeated. I liked the second one better, although the timing of my clicks and rewards still is really off on many articles (although spot-on in some).


 

Comments

  1. JudiFebruary 22, 2025 at 5:16 PM

    First article—stop with the foot cue. DO NOT move the article with your foot (or hand). In this video she kinda knows the game is down…but has no idea it’s the article she’s supposed to down on. And you are moving to the article to give her a hint—not a great plan.
    MaryAnn’s “oops I dropped it” drops the article BEHIND the handler as the dog and handler walk away. It’s sneaky—the dog should not notice. They should be well past the article before it’s DROPPED (not tossed) behind the handler. This exercise does get better—please look at the video and watch RALPH—ignore Millie. Can you, by just watching you, tell where the articles are? If so, you are cuing them. Either by stopping next to them, or turning to face her, pushing them with your foot—she is offering a down on the article, but I’m very concerned she’s offering it response to your behavior, not the article. Does that make sense? PLEASE, watch Ralph in the video, and look for the cues you are giving (sighing might be one of them). Please care less about ‘getting her to do it’ and more about her CHOOSING to do it—no help from you. Go ahead and do outside tomorrow…but with you sitting, silent, no pointing, sighing, or pushing with your toe. Set the next article down while she is eating—we don’t want her to see you placing it. If you have to pick it up because she’s not indicating, pick it up, toss a treat away, and while she’s going for it, set the article back down. This has got to be her idea, not yours.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
 Two new article tracks, one from Thursday and one from today. 3/20. Slightly sketchy start, but stuck to the track nicely throughout the session. Did have to work a bit at the one corner, but found the correct direction. As an article track, we have a long way to go--she did find each and every article, but only twice, later in the track, did she give me a good automatic down. Her mind was clearly on getting at the food in the article. My timing is still off as well--it's more like two or three seconds between her starting to nose the article an me saying "Down".  3/25 (starts around 10:13). ≅300 yards, 1 turn. Good start and work on the track all the way through, although once or twice she had some difficulty recognizing the article when it was among debris or in the only long grass on the track. This time I had one piece of food in each article: if she gave me a down only after the command and gesture, she only got the one piece of food. If she gave me an automatic dow...
Read more
Image
 January 14, 2025 Millie in Class Tuesday. Judi asked me to post this one. This one actually precedes the one for 1/16, but I had problems downloading the video from my phone (I hate Apple!). No commentary necessary, except for Judi's comments. A lot to absorb.
Read more
Image
Millie -- Obstacles Practice AM, Article Game PM Two different sessions with Millie today, since the weather was beautiful. Morning--5-turn (4 open, 1 90°), 275 yard track with changes of cover and two road crossings. Sunny, 56°, calm. Low humidity. Food drops every 30 yards or so, and high-value food drops after negotiating challenges.      The start and most of the first leg were mediocre--I thought that distractibility was going to be a problem all along today--she was sniffing hard at everything but the track, and she seemed to lose it for a bit after the transition from medium to short grass. But she made the first turn ok, and about a quarter of the way down the second leg she started working the track nicely. She had to work a bit on the first road crossing, but made got to the far side about 2 feet wide left. She made a nice transition from medium grass to the rough stuff with no hesitation, and negotiated the second turn and the long third leg through the brush w...
Read more