Zumi 16 Month Video!
Made Duckie a new video! Still working on lots of little pieces but some of them are starting to be strung together now.
Showing posts with label tricks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tricks. Show all posts
Zumi 10 Month Video!
Zumi's 10 month video!
On the positive side it makes Vito look downright masculine next to her, for the first time ever in his life.
Rat 2x2s
In happier news, the rats continue to learn weave poles! Or at least Penelope. I think Evee is actually at the point where we could be making progress if I were to be a good trainer and do separate sessions. Evee comes pretty eagerly now for the treats for at least a few. And then she runs off to eat Penelope's stash. I only tried her once separate from Penelope and she was more nervous but did do a little. So mainly I'm just luring her and doing crappy training while I focus on Penelope.
Poles are starting to be straight! And then Penelope actually did it for one completely straight set of 4 poles the next day! The 2 sets of 2 poles were straight, but still with a bit too big of distance between the 2 sets. And sadly the very next rep couldn't do it and then the poles actually snapped :( I need to make new weave poles apparently. This time I'll do bigger spacing as the current spacing was actually really tight for Penelope to squeeze through!
Have a new setup for the rat playtime. Penelope continues to climb the xpen regularly but is content for a little while. Her biggest motivator to climb is to try and get on Adam's desk so by moving back the xpen this has cut down on the amount of climbing. She still tries though as she has started to become brave enough to climb to the top and then scale down the other side.
Zumi is supposed to baby sit...
Evee climbs too but not as often and easily gets scared off.
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Rat Agility Progress
Penelope is starting to get angled poles in her weave pole training! I realized after making this video earlier this week that I should move the 2nd set further away from the 1st set. That helped a ton and now we have even more angle than shown below.
And look, Evee is playing more! Really I should train her separately since she is further behind than Penelope, but eh.
Interspecies interaction is always interesting. Kitty is mostly behaving himself.
And somehow Zumi was lucky enough to actually get to play with Penelope! Only happened once but super cute!
World's tiniest set of 2x2s
Why yes that is a new weave pole set!
Of course it has a velcro base which allows the configuration of 2x2s. And it might be safe to say that this is the only set of tiny 2x2s in the world?
Let the training beginning! Method will be a highly butchered version of 2x2's, channel, and luring. My plan was to start with the 3 sets of poles squished together to form a tiny channel for the first lesson, gradually pulling them farther apart but not angling them in any way. I thought this would be the easiest as it would kinda be like a tunnel for Penelope.
I quickly learned that Penelope is bigger than I thought! But thankfully the spacing will still work, just not as ample room as I was picturing as I cut the wood. I also learned that it's way easier to reset a rat than a dog! And discovered that weave poles taste delicious to the ratties!
But Penelope did learn the "reward line" :) And for the most part she's rockstar at 3 sets set up in a channel even if there's room in between to cut out. So recently I started angling the sets. Lots more errors!
Oh and Evee occasionally pokes her head out and wants a free cookie. I try and lure her a little bit, she's certainly not ready to offer any behavior! But Evee is getting a bit more pushy about the treats each session so I have hope!
Video of a session earlier this week, I think it was her first time with anything angled and you can see I'm super indecisive of how I want to progress.
Zumi 8 months
Zumi turned 8 months old today. Feels like such a grown up age to me. 7 months still feel so "puppy" like but this milestone is magically mature.
She finally got her new big girl collar. Lime green and blue to match the boys, but Zumi's sparkles :)
Training wise we're focusing on big girl stuff. Still major props to me for continuing my motivation on scent article practice. For the most part Zumi can work pile of 5 metal articles with me right at the pile and has had one session with me at a distance. Only rarely do I need to interrupt frantic grabbing. Zumi recently graduated to doing a set of leather bracelets. I will need to build distance on those, and continue to build confidence on the types separately. Current plan is to start new metal and leather objects but not combining the two types for awhile yet to prevent her from developing a preference.
More focus on heeling recently as well. Starting to work on forward motion now more than just a few steps. Focusing on building up a rhythm so worrying less about precision and more about focus and drive. She has pivots and sidesteps down fairly solid so I know I can eventually merge that back in and get precision with the forward motion too.
Of course in agility I've already written about starting her running dogwalk training. And doing a little bit more work on short sequences. Discovered that the Duck needs quite a bit of work on call to hand as she easily slips into wide orbits and thinks nothing of going behind me in her orbits.
No new tricks. Resuming some work on getting back some of the earlier tricks I taught her that I haven't done in months. Sad, Scootch, and shame all are broken and unfortunately all are currently supposed to be done from a down position which makes working on them harder. I try not to do 2 tricks in a row from the same position with an inexperienced dog, especially if the tricks aren't well known. It just makes switching between behaviors harder.
Rat training
Ratties are doing well. I joke that Penelope is my pet and Evee is Penelope's pet. The little girl is still very easily startled and when out of her cage she doesn't venture too far from under the cage or behind the tv where it's safer. But yesterday for the first time she did start "grooming" my fingers! Lots of little rat kisses and a few tiny nibbles.
Let us out!
Penelope continues to be a little rock star and I finally started a little bit of trick training with her. We're working on offering interaction with props :) Going in the little tunnel, 4 feet on a little box, and standing on the teeter. PP is starting to get the concept of it but gets stuck a lot with trying to just mob me directly for the food. She's so cute as she runs off to eat the treat and then runs right back. And after a few treats she just quickly runs to stash it away but is so food motivated she will keep coming back forever! Sometimes she just stores a little piece in her mouth and then tries to tell me I didn't give her one.
Evee is still working on coming to the recall noise. And sometimes I can get her to lure onto a prop.
Super boring video of a training session a few days ago:
New xpen setup is working alright. But I was a fool to think they couldn't climb it without the horizontal bars! I've removed Penelope about 30 times the first night. Thankfully she seems to be climbing it less and less each day. I don't doubt that it will need to constantly be watched, but I am hoping that she will mostly give up.
Kitty is behaving himself. He has not been allowed to interact with them, but I'm not too nervous that he would injure them if chaos happened and they ended up meeting. With the (wild) mice we had in our house last fall (eek!) Kitty sadly only toyed with them and was of zero assistance to our problem. Still, based on how he played with the ferrets I think he would be too rough with the girls.
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Zumi 5.5 Month Video
Another video!
Zumi turns 6 months old pretty soon and weighs 26lbs now and maybe 17in tall? Still not sure what height she is going to end up as but I'm now hoping she gets another growth spurt that she gets closer to 19 rather than 18 considering she's not going to stay under 17.5!
I've been happy with our continued training in teaching her to stress UP instead of shutting down. Not that she's had any opportunity to shut down, but if she's failing a little bit with a concept more than once I try to get her sassy with shoves and high hand touches and then resume training either at the same level or a tiny bit easier. I love that it's so easy to keep her in the game and coming back with greater intensity and confidence to try again. Vito responds pretty similarly to training if I just make fun of him for being wrong, but depending on the situation Lance can actually need more hand holding.
I skipped on continuing scent article work so she's still only had the 2 unsuccessful lessons. Maybe this week I will resume, still with plan B in mind. I have never been motivated to teach scent articles!
Mitten thief.
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Hugging Tollers
Earlier this month I decided to have another go at Vito learning to hug a toy. Gracie learned it very well, Lance learned it to the best of his stubby paws ability, but Vito just could not hold his bear without spiking it to the ground. Vito learned to wrap a paw around a toy very nicely as long as he was in a sit and only needed to use one paw. And Vito has a very nice beg. But Vito has always begged with paws straight up to the sky, a clearly incompatible behavior with hugging his new friend.
So I resumed training this month and new that it would be difficult to get Vito to learn to beg with his paws down. I went back to using a pole that I had used with the other dogs. But Vito was back to clawing and just being more frantic than actual thinking. Definitely couldn't balance in a beg position while wrapping feet around it. As I went back to training just a single paw I tried some reverse luring to help calm the franticness. Improvement. And then I switched to using my leg for a thicker object to grab, but one that he didn't need to actually balance with. More progress. At the end of a few lessons I did try briefly using a stuffed toy again and we had much better success! That being said, I know Vito is not yet ready for the toy and we will keep up practice on my leg and gradually making my leg higher and higher. Video for those who like video!:
Zumi is also learning to hug a toy and during one session when Vito was close by she offered whacking him :) I seized it and now we have Hug Your Brother! Her third session of training this trick is below:
Tricks!
Love the snow being gone and the ground not full of mud! Certainly already doing better than 2014 where winter lasted forever and skipped spring, and then summer gave way immediately into winter again.
I also realized that I have practically no pictures of the dogs doing some tricks. Lots of video, no pictures. Remedied.
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Zumi 4.5 Month Video
Made a new video of Zumi at 18-20wks of age! A full week still until she turns that mythical 5 months and turns into a bratty teenager.
Environmental worries continue to get better too with much faster ability to potty outside on the arrival to a new place and as she started taking food in public again she stares a lot less at things. Zumi did resume a tiny bit of reactive barking this past week at work towards people approaching the gate. Very low percentage of the time the situation is set up though.
Overall, jumping up and flailing at people is still her biggest issue. Zumi is capable of offering a down if she's restrained so that physically whacking people is not an option. But very, very hard for the Duck.
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Overall, jumping up and flailing at people is still her biggest issue. Zumi is capable of offering a down if she's restrained so that physically whacking people is not an option. But very, very hard for the Duck.
Vito Tail Hold
I've actually been working on teaching Vito a new trick!!! I saw a trick on youtube several years ago and it's been on my to do list. Long to do list that only gets longer and not shorter. I wanted to teach Vito to grab his tail, hold onto it, and bring it to me :)
Kinda new in that I actually started the trick 2 years ago with Vito but gave up. At that time I did actually do quite a bit so my groundwork was already laid. With a few reminders, Vito remembered how to mouth his tail while lying down and I held it. I remember getting to that point was a pain in the butt as Vito quickly learned to target his tail with his nose, but then actually opening his mouth never occurred to him. I tried just pairing bite the pen I held at his tail with nose targeting his tail didn't make progress. At one point I even tried wrapping his tail in vet wrap to see if I could get a bite. That helped a ton once I left a little flap to hang down and then got rid of the flap and eventually the tape. But then I was stuck as Vito would either just mouth it or try to "tug" it with a quick bite and pull back.
So starting in late December I resumed work. At one point I had an epiphany that Vito did not know how to hold an item that 1) I still had in my hand (as I don't teach hold that way) and 2) at an angle where his head was not directly facing me. The first fix was really easy and I just went back to an object. The second fix was really hard for Vito. He has such a strong retrieve and reorientation to me that it was hard to convince him otherwise. Eventually did :)
And then I finally added back in his tail. I forget about my project often so I think I've done maybe a grand total of 10-15 sessions in the past 2 months. Today I did his very first session of grabbing his tail on his own from a stand (with my help in holding his body still) and holding. Once that step is better I have no idea how I would progress it to walking. I originally planed to do walking before a hold, but Vito just had such struggles in not biting and immediately letting go that I did the original switch. I'm not really a plan ahead type person anyway. I typically just start training :)
Just for fun I compiled this video of some of his lessons. I managed to find one old video of Vito from January 2013 when he was just starting to understand some open mouth criteria. The rest is current.
Zumi 17wks
Getting close to 4 months old! Very fun to age to have! Old enough that I really don't have to watch her constantly for house manner stuff and potty training. And young enough that she still cares about my opinion and isn't a bratty teenager!
Definitely in an awkward growing stage right now. Not coordinated at all and physically incapable of running in a straight line without her limbs going in every direction!
In training sessions we didn't do any new things this week. Actually a pretty slow week in getting meal training sessions in at all. But we did expand some of her current trick understandings.
Drumming her popcorn tin was revived.
Kinda understanding frog legs and will sometimes do the position without a prop helping to lift up her hips. She likes to flop on her side though and I'm trying to get her to kick both back legs out instead of just the one.
Toller only outings
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Zumi 14wks
The Duck turned 14wks today and is up to 16lbs. This last week was a big one in her development.
First, Zumi found her voice. A little bit of barking at noises at home and at people approaching at work. A mix of anxiety and excitement as Zumi still gung out about greeting any person she can actually see. Likely in a small fear period right now so my job is just to get her through it without pressing any issues. In training time Zumi is really starting to think. Lots more offering behaviors that don't involve the use of a prop. As such she's making a bit more progress with our frog legs trick and I've started shaping backing up in a down. A little sad as down-back was Pyra's favorite behavior of all time and one she just started doing on her own at 10wks.
But other back up tricks are going well now too. Reversing towards my legs is up to 1.5ft after maybe 3 lessons. And Zumi's kinda getting taking a step back to her 2o2o position on a box, although there is still lots of turning around to get on it with front feet first.
More snow!
Love this photo of her and Lance. Zumi's expression pretty much sums up Zumi.
Duck and Kitty still play lots. Hard to say who wins more. She goes for his tail and ears, he goes for her neck.
While she's not a super cuddler like Pyra was, Zumi still does a pretty good job of it. Likes to be about halfway in my lap and doesn't care who she has to climb over to get where she wants to be. Vito still doesn't acknowledge her presence much. She's barely worth a grumble apparently.
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Zumi 12 Weeks
Little Miss Zumi just turned 12wks old. Starting to be a real puppy now at that super fun age where everything just kinda clicks. That being said, we didn't actually do much training these last 2 weeks.
And possibly in a bit of a fear stage, or else just something that still needs to be worked through. A little Jekyl Hyde going on with confidence, still mainly noises with occasional dogs and people too. Overall recovery is pretty quick. We have enjoyed going to some parks a few times. Mostly she sticks close and checks in a lot.
The Duck really needs to start learning a stay!
Still loves playing with the Corgi!
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