Watching this and it just looks like good dog training. Not great, maybe not even good. I’m sure you could “get it” faster. But get what? What exactly did you see here? Was it what we did? Did you see what we were trying to do? What were we trying to do anyway? Questions Come Before Answers It’s true, LuLu Du and I were working the pedestal. She Gave Attention. We jumped the gap. I told her Off, and we did it again. That’s what happened. Is that all that happened? Watch again… it should take you 2 seconds to see the question, then another 2 before there was an answer, then a yes-wait… at 5 seconds and another question. From 7-9 seconds there was a question, that resolved into gap jump that LuLu was unsure of. I gave her the answer. No more questions really, unless you want to get pedantic or clinical about it – it’s questions as far down as answers and one step lower. I can get the dog on the pedestal and give them cookies, that’s pretty easy. I can get a bunch of reps, telling the dog that the Answer is ‘C’. But if I make it happen, the dog didn’t learn it, the dog was either handled into it or took a guess. It will take many reps for each with tons of cookies to learn it. Enter the Answer Dog Knowing the answer or being able to do the thing is not learning, and knowing the answer does not demonstrate skill. It simply means you know the answer is ‘C’ or that you can do the thing. The Answer Dog can do the thing. They’re so so sure of the answer they can do the thing before the handler even asks. Boom-Pow! The dog is on the 2nd pedestal. Dog eats the cookie Boom-Pow! dog is on-the-first-on-the-second pedestal. Perhaps you can relate? Inhibition and cooperative engagement is a skill, it must be learned. You can’t do it for the dog. The dog must learn to hear the question before giving an answer in oder to work or cooperatively play with the handler. Bringing the Dog Into the Process What I’m doing with LuLu here is bringing her in on the process of Play. And this is play, it’s a Primal Game. PLAY+ Primal Games highlight the principles of Play. The First Principles of Play. And I mean play in general; applicable to dogs, people, sports teams, etc. To do the thing, like to know it, and do it with the handler, on cue, the dog needs: Awareness, Attention, Intention (Cue), and a Trigger. If you have those things from the dog, you have the Initiative. The Wait Cue and Attention (Eye Contact) as behaviors may or may not communicate those first principles to the dog. Odds are the handler is telling the dog,”the Answer is C, kid,” on at least one of these. At least one of these probably gives (or has given) all handlers fits or is a nagging issue. Bringing the dog into the process is the answer to the question you didn’t know you had cuz you were too busy doing it. Trigger, Initiative Transfer, and What’s Next? This-Wait…Next!, the game we’re playing here is riffing off of: Where is the Trigger? The Fount of Skill The Primal Game that introduces the Cue-Trigger process: the cue creates the Awareness of an imminent Trigger, all we have to do is find it. The gap between the Cue and the Trigger affords dog and handler Awareness and Intention. All we have left is to find that Trigger. The dog looks for it – paying attention, not giving it. Paying attention means you’re aware. Giving Attention means you’re already engaged. Attention is a behavior, an Action in PLAY+ and giving it happens. The intentional use of Attention within a given situation is a Skill. A Skill is an action or behavior adapted to fit the environment or opportunity. If you and your dog are doing things in multiple situations, those things are not behaviors, they’re Skills - adapted to fit. When LuLu hears the Cue when she gives Attention, she reads the situation and waits for the Trigger. This read is a question, my Trigger is the answer. The Trigger Process is the ground of intentional Skill and cooperative work. Initiative Transfers – The Essence of Teamwork Think about basketball or any team sport. The game starts with a question, usually about Initiative. A Face Off is a jump or a scuffle for initiative The one who has the initiative controls the ball. Either by being the Offense and deciding where and when the play will happen, or by the defense who may force the offense to cough up the ball. The “aggressor” is one way to look at it, but that’s not quite right. It’s the one who has the opportunity to act or take charge. LuLu is learning what Initiative is about while playing This-Wait…Next! In addition to all the stuff you guys thought LuLu and I were working on above, she was learning how to follow me, to give me the Initiative. She passes it to me, like a ball when she hears,”Wait…” or,”Yes!” with no cookie (Expectant Marker). Expectant Marker Maintains Handler Initiative Yes followed by a pregnant pause elicits a question in the form of eye contact. That’s because when I give the marker and give no cookie, I have the initiative. I have the ball. The defense has to look at me. Boom! Attention paid, not given. Initiative is what Awareness uncovers, or discloses to the dog while cooperating with their handler. The, “Yes-Wait!” is an Expectant Marker. A cue, “Through!” freeze… is too. The handler reserves the right to give the cooke whenever they feel like. Not to say you should do that, or do it often, but you reserve the right. We give the marker for asynchronous timing – you got 2 seconds before having to cough up a cookie. Taking your time creates drama, value, and the practical application of a Wait. Positive Marker Gives Initiative to the Dog The Terminal Marker is a normal Positive Marker followed by prompt discrete cookie or release from duration hands initiative to the dog. When I toss the cookie it’s all LuLu Du. I’m out, at least according to her, I am. If I buy that and watch my pretty dog I’m in trouble. When I toss the cookie the Play emerges. What’s Next? The Next Now Cycle is a cyclical pulse of play. Now is the part where we do the thing, we shoot/snap/pass the ball. Next is emergent interaction; the rebound/the play/the team movement – all of which can’t be planned and isn’t even a thing, it’s a happening or an opportunity. What’s Next? Is a Primal Game that is unveiled during This-Wait... Next! It is a series of Initiative Transfers: a transfer of initiative to LuLu, after she gets off the pedestal, followed by me reading the information from the environment, so I know where, when, and how to wrangle the initiative back from her by becoming an opportunity or she’s gonna go jump straight up on the 2nd pedestal because she already knows the answer. Yet she does not know the process. Primal Games of PLAY+ | Embodied Play Experiences What’s Next? is the formal Primal Game for the handler, but the game we watched LuLu do IS What’s Next? for the dog in an embodied play experience fashion. We as handler’s miss this, much like y’all missed what was actually going on in this video–because we know what we’re doing, and we’re too busy doing it to pay attention (demonstrate Awareness) to the process. All of the PLAY+ Primal Games have been designed to disclose information to dog and handler and ask both to look to the shared environment and to co-create opportunity for and through play. There are 8 games in total and they nest together to afford exploration of the solution space to shape and develop not simple decoupled behaviors, but intentional Actions adapted to fit this very opportunity as Skills. Join my classes by becoming a Patron of Pawsitive Vybe - it is embarrassingly cheap. Stay tuned here. 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