Lina and Aike, pumi, 7 month, Lithuania

I don’t think her toy drive decreased because her food drive increased. It is not how it works. Very young puppies are generally easier to motivate, because they are naturally “zooming out” the environment, because it is too much for them to actively deal with it. As they grow into a “teenager” phase, they notice everything more, they get curious about things and not everything you offer is always the best thing for them in that moment. Having a good enough food drive at this moment is advantage, not disadvantage, because without it, you would probably have nothing to motivate her when she doesn’t feel like doing anything.
Also, there are 2 very important aspects of this.
1. I can’t really imagine training agility just with toys, because you need different kinds/values of reward to bring out different emotional responses. Balls/toys are good for improving speed (if the dog loves them) once they understand the behaviour perfectly already. In the learning process you need less drive and more thinking = much easier to work with food. Also you can do more repetitions of something with food, because it doesn’t tire a dog that much.
2. Most small shepherds I know will not work exclusively for toys. Their toy drive is just not so strong. That is why they should understand the play trick mechanism very well – when you see the toy, play, because winning a game means food will come as a bonus. That means same speed and enthusiasm you normally get with ball + reliability that food gives you.

In my opinion toys shouldn’t be more interested than food. The dog should be able to switch between the two easily.

Also – a young dog should be exposed to distractions as frequently as possible, if not this situations can easily be overwhelming for them and they won’t be able to work for anything.

So… If you don’t agree with me and just want to focus on playing, I would do just that and only that for a while. Taking her out for small sessions in VERY different environments and just play. Short = 1-2 min max.

But what I would do is – improve her play trick. Teach her to chase ball in one direction and food in the other. And than three balls 1 treat,… Lots of tugging with food pockets and most importantly, try to expose her to distractions more, but ask only very simple things there, more or less just “playing” (with both food and toys) and not really working.

Good! Yes, combination of ball and food usually works very well, it is easy for the handler and it even encourages natural retrieving. 🙂 I wouldn’t have her jump though… running games yes, but with bars on the ground or no higher than 5cm. It is not only healthier, but also better for her flow. And when you start with the wrap, do it in the other direction, so from where she ends the wrap, she can see the tunnel exactly in front of her, in a straight line. Than you don’t have to watch if she enters or not and just run.

Yes, barking on cue can be challenging because of plenty of emotions. Some dogs actually don’t want to bark in “public” because they don’t want to drag attention to themselves. She also can have reservations barking at you, out of too much respect, but also could be because she was corrected for barking in the past. I am not sure if she ever was, but if she is overly barky in normal life I would guess she was. 🙂 And I don’t necessarily mean punished, just “no”, “stop it” can be enough.
Anyway – in normal life, is there a situation where she actually barks at you, to hurry you along with something? Or if you have both dogs in the room and ask Aike to bark, will Šnipe bark as well?
Anyway – to help her, I wouldn’t try to get her to bark as soon as you start the session, especially if it is around distractions. I would start with a very simple food throwing game or something, to get her into more relaxed mood and than see if you can get her to bark before throwing the next treat. But don’t wait too long, because the more they are tired, the more difficult it gets for them to bark. I would also play games that encourage her to be pushy. Hiding the treat under your hand, jump up,… First practise this cue where she is more relaxed, not at group agility trainings yet. And encourage it in every day life whenever she is barking at you, not at someone/something else.

So Aike is becoming a lady… 🙂 Taking breaks sometimes usually helps the dog somehow. So you don’t have to feel like you need to do too much in this time, especially since some females actually get more sensitive or lazy during this period. If you feel Aike is like that, give her a break and don’t feel bad about it. I wouldn’t do too much “agility” inside your apartment anyway, because what she needs the most is space to run, so she learns agility is done full speed. But if you have a small plank, you can create a little ramp – plank elevated on one side and teach her to go up and wait on the edge independently. You can also place a little target at the end, to help her define basic position better. You can also do a little cavaletti work, 2on2off and shaping her to go around the cone from further and further away. Without cues. Also teaching any other trick is ok. The more she learns, the faster she will learn and the more you2 will understand each other. 🙂 So plenty of things you can do inside, but if she feels tired or not in the mood because of hormonal changes, give her a break, they need it sometimes.

You can see an example at 1.13 here. He is not perfect, just learning, but it is ok to give you an idea. You can start with just 3. The distance between them should be Aikes shoulder height more or less. When you see how she does, you can adjust a little. The important thing is that she goes slow – in a nice trot without skipping the poles – and without looking at you. So I set up 2 bowls and throw treats there. In the beginning you can throw treats in between the little obstacles too to slow her down, or keep her on the leash. Start with very low bars. You can improvise with some baskets and stuff if you don’t have the cones… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaFS0vbieoI

The first distance is ok, but you need to encourage her to go faster, she needs to trot to get the right rhythm through those bars. So make sure there is enough room on each end and throw treats as rewards, further in the direction she is going. Also move along as much as you could. When she goes faster, she will get the right steps, don’t worry. 🙂
The second setup is also ok, but only for slow walking. You can do this exercise in many different ways, each distance/height encourages some other element in the dogs movement. But the first setup is the basic one.

Yes, it is very important that you don’t make a restrain stressful for the dog. Sometimes when the dog just mildly dislikes other people, you can manage if you are the one that holds the dog harness/collar at first, and bring the dog to the person that is just sitting passively. The person can give her a treat while also grabbing the collar/harness, but other than that remains completely passive. But if she totally dislikes being touched by other people, it will still be too much. For those dogs I use long leash, thin and without any knots, hooks,… you place the leash through the ring of her collar/harness (or the collar/harness itself) and the assistant holds both ends at the same time. When it is time for a release, the assistant just lets go of one end. The dog will be free and the leash will stay in the hands of the assistant. That way the assistant can stay behind and never get in actual contact with the dog. It is like the dog is attached to a tree, with a remote release. 😉

Well yes, she had some problems with unusual tunnel entries, but other than that not so bad, one nice acceleration on the second try. And yes, small shepherds are very often “sticky” – they prefer to bark at the owner than run somwhere on their own. 😉 It applies to all small shepherds, but yes, pumis are quite high on that list. To have good independence I try to avoid luring and rewarding from hand as much as possible. Because those 2 are actually reinforcing staying by the handler and looking at the hand/arm. In dog training nothing is black and white, so I wouldn’t completely stop rewarding with the tug toy, because nr.1 thing in agility training for me is speed – and if chasing that toy gets the best speed out of her – that is fine. But yes, I would also do some food throwing and balls when she is up for it, so you can reward her for running away from you as well. And shaping – remember how we did cavaletti – you can do the same with single jump. First just sitting next to it and shaping her to go over, than walking next to it without saying or showing anything, but throwing treats up and down if she offers to take the jump. Training cik and cap and sending to cik and cap from greater and greater distance. Static rewards (even if it is a simple bowl with food…)

See-saw – I wouldn’t take this approach. As I explain, the dog needs to deal with the fact that it moves and the sound very gradually. I always start with shaping on the tipping end. I want the dog to touch it and eventually step on the end of the plank with all 4. See.saw is fixed at the time. Than slowly allowing a little bit of movement. The “entry part” of see-saw is fixed in the air, so the exit part is 1 or 2 cm above the ground. When the dog is happily jumping on that end with all 4, you can make it slightly higher again and again. Making her go through the whole thing (even if lower) will only teach her to stop in the middle, wait for it to drop and than walk off. And I don’t like 2on2off with small dogs on see-saw, because they are usually not strong enough to hold the see-saw down once it bounces from the ground, so it puts them in a very uncomfortable position. I prefer 4 on.