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Min – Games 3 – Std 2 – 8/8/21
Well this one was a hot mess and it was too muggy for us to want to try it again later.
I kept going too deep to the tunnel and finally got an ugly weave entry by running the other side. Then I got lost and left out the middle part which she did nicely later. Experimented with the last line but it was hard to make it smoother.Kaladin – Games 3 – Jpg 3 – 8/8/21
It wasn’t as hot as it’s been but it was so muggy that we were all dying after 1 run. Did his instant focus and some of the pattern game around the course while Chaia was walking. Then did just the 6 poles to make sure he remembered how to do them outside of my yard. First try on the course he ran over to Chaia who was standing about 10ft back from the #2tunnel. Got him back, did more tricks and tried again. Ran over to her but came back and we kept going. Really happy that he stayed on task at the end when he had to go by her again.Min & Kaladin – Skills 4 – Running Past- 8/9/21
Min did really well 2 days ago with the warm up skills so here she is doing the more advanced ones. The first threadle wrap ran afoul of me having to duck to avoid the tree and knocking some rain off the leave anyway which landed on Min’s head and got into her ear. We had to stop to help her shake/rug it out.
Kal – cue one “get out” tunnel and he decides it’s super fun and keeps doing it when I’m trying to wrap the wing. Maybe I should have used his tunnel threadle instead. The last rep was after a break (with tricks) while 2 pedestrians a stroller and a mini schnauzer went by. I was happy with how he re-engaged after it.
Kaladin – Skills 4 – Running Past – 8/7/8
Sadly our UpDog was canceled due to Thunderstorms which of course stopped right after that decision.
First session for this one. I had already planned to stop where I did and then he ran back into the blue tunnel to chew on his half dead frizzer. Then left it in there for me to fish out. Stinker!
How should you cue the jump to the purple tunnel on the left. It feels like a flick if you use the left arm but you’ve already run past the other tunnel entrance so it seems a bit weird to cue it like a tunnel threadle.Kaladin & Min – Threadle wraps with jump – 8/5/21
Kaladin was hesitating before turning away from me to the jump in an earlier session so I switched to a tug toy that I could throw back for him. (If Nemo gets tossed back to a position it turns into a boring dead toy that he startes at. A tossed back tug toy usually works better)
I am noticing that both dogs are looking up a me (or my outside arm) instead of where they are going. They are also better at this with me ahead of as opposed to with or behind them Do you start to work on them driving ahead by tossing the toy on the backside take off spot if they work ahead of you?Kaladin – Games 4 – Seq 1 – 8/4/21
I decided to try the most straight forward sequence as a walk-run with Kaladin. Biggest distraction was his Nemo which I had left on the dogwalk middle section back by the phone so it was up in the air staring at him as he was doing his 180. He did better when I stuck Nemo back on the steps to the house. I really overestimated his speed in the tunnel for the walk through. I think I may try parts of the other 2 sequences, but probably not do the full walk and then run the whole thing with him. I want to get to the skills games before I head out to CA for 5 days next week for some hiking and the West Coast Cup (flying so just Min gets to come)Walk through
Run
I don’t usually do a walk of just the dog’s path in big events where the courses are huge and complex. For the Open I checked the dog’s path at certain spots but went straight into decision making since those 7 or 8 min go by so quickly. I also often run out to the middle of the course to get ahead of the crowd.
Min- Games 4 – Seq 2 – 8/4/21
I need to figure out what I can do to get those overlap or side by side videos. I have Movavi Clips on my Android phone but confirmed that it doesn’t have that functionality. The desktop version does, but I really don’t work off my laptop with videos much. I also used Coach’s Eye years ago but it looks like they changed it and now it wants an account login and money so I’ll have to sort that out. Chaia has an Android to so I need to check with her on what she’s doing.Walk
Run
So the old fashioned way of timing by video:
Walk – 14.6 sec
Run – 16.6 sec (she was wide 2-3 in the opening)
I also tried to watch them simultaneously on my phone and laptop and am pretty sure the difference is from her wide turn 2-3. I run my Gamble openings in the walk through and usually I’m pretty close on where we end up when the buzzer goes.Kaladin -Volume Dial & Engaged Chill – 8/4/21
Did 2 sessions today. First one was before breakfast when it was cooler out. He had just watched Min run a sequence. I used Nemo as the reward which not surprisngly got him in a pretty good state after 5 tricks. 2nd session was over lunch when it was warmer (low 80s so not as bad as its been). Used cheese as a reward with more motion and got a lower state of arousal this time. Not bad though. Then experimented with having him lean against me and be petted for his engaged chill behavior. I think it’s going to end up being some variation of that as he likes being in contact with me, but doesnt’ default to standing on his hind legs so I’ll either lean over or crouch down with him. There wasn’t much going on, but he was still pretty engaged after it. Then tried a volume dial with Nemo again and got more arousal than the food.
I’m not surprised that catching/chasing Nemo amps him up more than chasing me for food, but the issue with Nemo is that it can cause him to circle around me after he’s caught Nemo while the food keeps him in closer. I plan to try a tug toy next, but if he’s really not engaged at first, I don’t expect that to be a reward in his mind if it’s an active environment.I was thinking about how on earth I was going to practice bringing him down from being over-aroused and then realized I can work with him when I come back in the house as that gets him really amped up. Didn’t get video, but I left a treat by the door so I could grab it when I came home. He was barking some (typical), but having him do more stationary treats (HT, wave, sit) for a treat did bring him back down to less feral behavior within 3 tricks. I will try this on a walk too instead of just the pattern game.
Another thing I am thinking of is teaching him to bark on cue (I know – crazy that I have never taught that to my Shelties). Barking is very self-reinforcing for him so I think it would help amp him up. I’m also wondering if that may have the side effect of getting him to bark more while running. He’s nice and silent now, but that may change anyway as he gets more confident (or not as Min started out quiet and stayed that way on course).
Oh and good news on the UpDog this Saturday. I hadn’t entered him in Frizgility because it was listed at the end of the day when it would likely be hot, but the schedule changed and they put it first. Lucikly they were amenable to swapping out his afternoon Greedy run for a morning Frizgility. It will be his first UpDog without the longline and it’s a new location, but I’m excited to see what he does since 3 jumps to a frizzer is a lot like how we train.
The arousal-state management/engagement games are fascinating to me. Tari could have benefitted a lot from this if I had started doing similar things with her as a puppy instead of in middle age. (she did really well with a more stationary pattern game where I crouched and dropped/placed a treat on either side of me so she would move back and forth to one side and then the other to get them). Min is a unicorn and she also tagged along everywhere with Tari and I from an early age so she naturally got used to different environments a bit at a time. We also have a routine while we’re waiting to go into the ring that involves spins for treats and some waves. Then I either crouch down near her to scritch her or she jumps into my arms and hangs out there for a few minutes before we go in. The interesting thing about the pandemic pups is realizing how much they missed out by simply not going to all those shows that they normally would have and learning about environments in little bits at a younger age. I thought a bit about doing UKI at home with Kaladin, but then decided not to exactly because I wanted him to be in Novice (not Sr or Ch) when he starting doing real trials. Plus the 30×30 which fit best in my yard aren’t really the best option for Mr I need longer lines to have fun extending.
Kaladin – Engagment games & Games 4 -Seq 1 – 8/3/21
I had the Sequence set up for Min tomorrow, but decided to see what Kaladin would do with some engagment games (with Nemo) tonight. (I’ll do the walk then run thing with Min tomorrow) It was still a bit muggy, but in the low 80s so better than it’s been during the day most of the summer. He had a half hearted catch for the first trick, but then got more engaged. Kept the engagment when I took the leash off so I decided to try part of the first sequence and he really ran! So then we did more of the first sequence and then I remembered to quit while it was going well and we just played with Nemo some more. I thought he could have lined up faster and he did flick his gaze off to the side as I was leading out, but this was way better than he’s been in weeks. Mulberries are still at the back of the yard but he ignored them.Kaladin & Min – Threadle Wraps with more motion- 8/2/21
Yay for less smoke and lower 60s in the morning! (enjoying it until the heat comes back in a few days). This was our 2nd session with more motion, by adding the barrel. I’m noticing both dogs looking up at me more on the left wraps. Not sure if it’s because I tend to use the inside arm cue more on the left because I know it’s their weaker turning direction? Planning to add a low jump bar next.In other news, Kaladin has been doing better in very short sessions in the backyard. I brought Nemo back out plus meatballs and he was even doing short easy jump/tunnel sequences right over the mulberries last week.
He did amazingly well over the weekend. He tagged along to the USDAA trial on Saturday and got to play in the big field with me. He was doing so well with the pattern game and motion override in the vicinty of the ring that we even did a few practice jumps for Nemo. By then it was hot and muggy so he wasn’t zippy, but he also stayed engaged and ignored dogs barking in a car about 20ft away. Sunday he got to do 3 runs at UpDog and didn’t blink at the soccer games (a field away) or the passing cars (closer and behind him but with a fence). In the first game my rogue roll ended up near the line judge so he kept going and sniffed her (she pointedly ignored him and he didn’t jump up) I went over to him and said his name and then he chased me back to the throwing zone and didn’t go visit anyone else after. In the next game another rogue roll sent the frizzer really close to his happy hour meatball container (which was 15ft away from the “ring boundaries”). He sniffed briefly but then spun around when I called and raced back. Before this weekend I had decided to not enter him in UKI at the end of August and now I’m questioning that…a bit. (mainly because the next local UKI is early October and then maybe Dec if the OTR trial happens. Min gets a solo trip to the Midwest Cup in Sept so that I can focus on her) Feel free to talk me off the ledge. He has 1 more day of UpDog next weekend and then he can also just tag along to Duluth and do more work on the practice jump and around the ring.
I pushed the distance and sends & goes more with Min at USDAA on Saturday and she was brilliant. In fact she was so confident I got an extra jump (and the backside which was on her line) in Gamblers when I didn’t spit out the wrap cue soon enough (only dog to carry out that far in Gamblers but she was correct). I will have to go re-watch my videos to confirm but I am pretty sure I didnt’ say yes or yay nearly as often as I normally do. She also put on her cape and launched off the DW (penultimate obstacle in standard) so we Fix & Continued for a brilliant running contact on the 2nd try and headed out for her happy hour meatballs.
Kaladin – Distraction Training – 7/29/21
This is our 2nd session with the mulberries. I did one a few days earlier but it was already pretty hot & steamy and I let it go too long so I started losing him. This one went better. Other than chopping off me getting organized at the beginning, I left the video intact because I wanted to make sure I was going about this the right way. He’s looking up more even as we walk through the mulberries. He was also better about playing with the toy this time. I was using the tug toy as a bit of a test since we all know he almost always will catch Nemo.
I don’t know if it’s the extended heat wave or some delayed hormones or just his age (21 months), but I feel like he’s been more susceptible to distractions in the last several months and less into doing anything that requires more thought (like agility). Or maybe it’s just that we’ve been able to get out and about more in the summer so that’s made it more obvious what he didn’t get to learn when younger when we were locked down.
On the bright side, the pattern game is helping a lot on walks and he’s getting pretty good at glancing at but not reacting to even reactive dogs as long as we are at least 10ft away.It’s actually getting cooler tomorrow, but now we have the Canadian wildfire smoke so I don’t want to run me or the dogs around outside so I may have to wait a bit before I try earlier blinds with a threadle with Min. It’s supposed to get blown away sometime on Friday (and before the USDAA trial on Sat and our UpDog on Sunday)
Min – Games 3 – Seq 3 – 7/28/21
We got a short storm with rain this morning which cooled things off marginally for about an hour before it turned into a sauna again. (If I liked this weather, I’d move back to Singapore!) I snuck in Seq #3 as the sauna was ramping up again and wisely quit instead of trying Seq 4.
I managed some reps without saying Yay! (and Don’t Say Yay also rhymes better). You probably can’t tell on the video, but I did notice that she was flicking her eyes up at me after the wing wrap in expectation of a yes or yay.
If the fence hadn’t been there, I might have needed a left for the 180 but cueing it and turning away too quickly clearly made her think she should come through the gap on the first rep. Then I cued the BC to get the penultimate jump too early and got the other direction. Whoops!Well given the heat indices for this week, walking around and tossing treats sounds like a great use of time.
The hard part for me is determining whether he’s fully engaged or only faking it and prone to get distracted again. He will do the pattern game and quickly turn his head up at me after each treat and then we’ll do some tricks which he does quickly. Then we try something else and he’s off cleaning up mulberries!
Sometimes I can tell because he is mouthy about a tug toy and not really grabbing on, but he doesn’t always act that way when he’s only partially tuned in.Kaladin & Min – Games 3 – Sequences 1&2 – 7/26/21
Got rid of the furthest out jump so I could get the other jumps at the real distances. Cropped it out, but we did the Instant Focus game 2x and he immediately engaged with the cap. Then did a few tricks. He was feeling poky about the wing so started in a sit stay and then promptly lost him to the stupid mulberries right at the tunnel exit. He was so busy scarfing them down, I did block him from them and then did the pattern game. Had mixed results with that until I did it walking back and forth through the edge of the mulberries by the jump. Should I proactively do the pattern game through the mulberry detritus right at the beginning?Min – 7/26/21
I had done these on Sunday with all the jumps set up and shorter distance which felt cramped even with Min. So I decided to do them again with the jumps at 18 or more feet apart.
There’s still a lot of “yes”‘ floating around but the “toss” cue to go get the food on the ground at the end sounds a lot like yes on the video so the “don’t say yes” program is slowly starting to work.
