Reply To: Curt Leitz & Mo

[Alana McGee]

Week 3

This looks really nice curt. We love his long pause duration of foot on target. It’s very still and in control. Very impressive for a little fellow. Nice reward sequence and attention you give him after a find.

Mo is a super smart pup and the two of you are excelling. We think this level of challenge is perfect for Mo. Nice varying the configurations.

The hide at 0:55 is great. It really shows nicely his awareness of identification of odor! Yay Mo! He’s drawing some really nice associations. Good work Curt! That was an excellent search- also because it was nice and short.

At 1:18 that was a perfect time to practice waiting for the clearer alert. If he had left source, we would say go back a little bit and don’t wait so long for the stronger alert- but that was really nice and you can see him thinking it through…

We want to commend you on your container set ups in geographical space. You are conditioning him at a perfect level. We want to make sure that Mo doesn’t need to learn about failure, or incorrectness when it comes to truffles, so we think this is perfect level you are at. How you are positioning the containers is smart, and a level that Mo can handle but he has to use his brain a bit more to problem solve.

For learning about failure (and here we mean offered alerts which are not what you want) use a trick that means nothing to you for Mo to learn about it in. In very tiny doses of course. For example you can play the 100 things to do with a box game- or with any object really. It is about small doses of shaping. Example:
set out any object and click/ treat for any interaction but mouthing. Everything else is acceptable. Keep it short.

2:05 perfect when you start to move your feet and direct your body towards the more hidden target. Mo is doing an EXCELLENT job here of working the space and trying to expand the search area on his own- but that is a very good impulse from you.

2:13 is also excellent- You can actually “see” Mo thinking about if this container meets criteria when he picks up his foot. Clever clever pup. You are going to have so much fun with him.

The position of the crate door and your body creates a bit of a pressure block that acts a bit like a wall, so just be conscious of when you create narrow passageways or tunnels when your objective is to try and have him come towards you.

2:17 was PERFECT though Curt, good shift in your body movement and intention even a few inches, as that brought him past the physical barrier of the crate. We would have given him an even bigger party on that one, because he really had to work for it and that took a lot of puppy brain power! Remember he’s just a wee pup, so keep it really fun with a fun attitude. If you aren’t doing it yet, follow each hide- after your affection/ reward and play a bit. Gentle personal play even if Mo likes that as puppy. Fun Fun Fun is the name of the game for Mo.

You guys look great. We don’t see it as him being bored at all. This looks more like added pressure in complications of the game- but you are both excelling. Well done.