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Inverted Target with Raw Food Distraction – 2/28/21
OK – I found something that gets him jazzed up. Too bad it’s not practical in all situations even if you are smart and separate the raw in to smaller pieces before starting (Sadly I had a big hunk of ground raw that I was trying to get on to a spoon so that he didn’t wolf down the entire dish). I did this at meal time so he was really amped up from waiting his turn while I fed the other three. Earlier in the day I had more success rolling the ball off to the side and releasing him as it was almost done rolling. He hesitated once, but went to the inverted target each time instead of pouncing on the ball.
I’ll be trimming down the edges of this box next.I also did some more of the target on the flat plank. Got some beautiful running hits with separated hind feet. Got 2 launches (each time I was a bit further ahead, along the back of the board, although stationary). Got some trotting (usually the rep after the launch). I worry about him not learning how to handle the coordination of hitting the target when he’s running at full speed if he won’t consistently run faster in practice. However in all things so far, he’s started out slower and more deliberate and then picked up speed as he figures it out and if he thinks it’s worth his while. (thrown balls, chasing me and raw food are at the top of his list). Since he’s not ready for me to start sprinting while he’s hitting his target, I think I need to make a bigger deal out of the running hits and go run up to the Pet Tutor and jackpot him with more treats or a ball toss.
And a question for the future. I am considering getting a dogwalk but am not sure it makes sense for a running DW behavior when the diagonal in my backyard only measures 63ft. I borrowed one last summer and put curved tunnels at either end and it worked for Min but she is 12in tall and 10lbs. Kaladin is about 16in.
Inverted Target – 2/27/21
The box is a bit longer than he is. I have a slightly smaller one but thought I should start bigger. Apparently casually tossing his ball off to the side is too much of a distraction while it’s still rollling so we’ll work on that.Target on Plank – 2/27/21
This is a 7ft plank. (after sawing off the rotting part, the remains fit in my SUV!)
I did this after the inverted target session. He started out trotting deliberately and then I discovered that if I released him from a sit stay, he would run! Even if I stayed back. Got one launch with me moving forward a bit. Then the next one was careful and a trot, but then he ran again when I stayed back and let him go do his thing.Back&Forth w/DW – 2/26/21
I had an opportunity to get ring time at a different place and one with a DW. He’s definitely getting a bit sloppy with the inside hind foot so I’ll be sure to bring his inverted target to the other spot tomorrow.
I should add that this was his 2nd time ever working at this location (and the first was several months ago.Wobble Pull off with treat- 2/22/21
Shoot! Thought I had posted this a few days ago. I blame my old phone.Tried this with high value hotdogs and realized I wasn’t sure on exactly what I was doing. 4 on the wobble board? 2 hind feet on?
And yes – I was referring to that shoulder injury inducing 1 jump exercise. I’ll work on tossing the toy sooner at a lower height to see if he gets more comfortable at extending on the mats and I’ll keep his jumps no higher than 8in in class for a while.
Serps & Threadles – 2/21/21
Ooooh yes -run harder and get ahead plus spread them out (I need more space!)
Since we hadn’t done any threadles in a while I decided to add them in. And yay! He remembered them even when I was late cueing them.Adjustable Stride Grid – 2/21/21
I’ve been playing around with different distances but like you said, he’s not really letting his hair down and extending. Sometimes I can get 1 stride at about 13 or 14ft but he doesn’t extend enough so takes off long, overjumps and then scares himself a bit so chips on the next rep. Yesterday I didn’t like how he wa turning his head to me in anticipation of the thrown toy so I used the Pet Tutor today. He stayed focused forward but wasn’t as good with extending his stride. I’m not sure how much is a confidence thing vs conditioning vs feeling like it’s not worth his while to stretch out more. He is perfectly capable of beautiful long strides when running in the yard playing (and can collect and extend well) I’ll go back to a thrown toy and before he takes off to ses if that convinces him it is worth using his rear more.What do you think of the One Jump work that vets them to arc over the jump more? I have always just done the Salo set points and grids but the One Jump stuff is popular at Agile Canines.
Straight Exits – Lower target – 2/20/21
Moved down to a smaller and lower box but almost as long box (appropriately enough a “Dogopoly” board game box). Unfortunately I forgot my gorillapod and my makeshift bungee to a pvc barrier plan did result in the phone slipping and chopping off our heads partway through. Luckily the mat is still visible.
More Distractions – 2/20/21
This is a smaller & lower box than the cato board. He had some problems with his inside hind foot missing the box. But except for one goof, he worked out how to do the target with his favorite ball on the floor off to the side and with me moving it around near him. Then I switched to hotdogs and he was a big fan of that.
Unfortunately getting an old DW plank in to my car hit a snag as it absolutely wouldn’t fit safely even with an end sticking out the back a bit. However the other plank from my old and defunct DW has a rotted section that I think I can cut off and then it will be about 8ft and should just barely fit in my little SUV. So hopefully I’ll be able to try out the target on the plank next weekend.
Cookies from Heaven – 2/16/20
Made it harder by using a toy and then Spiderball. He does tend to look back at me after the first touch if I am behind him. Not sure if that is an issue or not since he did go in to hitting the target first. He also did have to keep an eye on his ball in some of the reps but other than the one when his back end swung out too far and went off the board, he was pretty successful.
I haven’t been organized enough to get it on video because meal time is a bit chaotic, but he can nose touch my hand near the ground while I hold his dish of raw food above his head.I haven’t done much with it, but so far I haven’t gotten much more tug/pull back on a wobbly surface. I thought the bully stick would work well but he didn’t want to grab it. That may have been because it was later at night and I think he thought it was almost bedtime. I did confirm that he knows he can pull the toy away from me but he doesn’t always really tug hard unless he has just finished a sequence so I think I’ll work a bit more on that without the bosu or wobble board first. I may also see if the rented space has something wobbly I can use so I could do a sequence, get him tugging and transition to the wobbly thing.
Serpentines at 10in – 2/20/21
Yes it was just the 2 reps from the week before. It was so lovely I figured why mess with it.
Here he is with them a bit angled but at 10in.
He was jumping with his butt up in the air a bit in his class on Thursday (at 10in), but I think it might have been him still getting used to the footing (it’s that pelletless “turf” so new to him). I was thinking back to when he used to kick his butt up when we first started the set point. I haven’t seen him do that butt kick up on the mats in the rented space in either the sequences or the grids I’ve been doing.
Here he is doing a made up grid at 10 & 12in today.
Feet in Box – 2/17/21
We’ve been working on getting Kaladin to stand in a box for several sessions. He started with having trouble getting all 4 feet in a box slightly longer than he is. He was really confused about how to move feet independently so he’d move his back feet in at the same time he stepped his front feet out and vice versa. I also had to turn the box perpendicular to me so that the long direction faced me. Anyway, we’ve progressed to boxes shorter than him and turning them sideways to me so that he can’t face me to easily fit in them. Then tonight he surprised me by fitting himself in the white one at the end which I had out for Min (10lbs and 12in tall)I see that games 3 has the plank getting involved. I need to to get my slightly short DW down plank (it’s 9ft I think) down to my rented space, but luckily we are headed out of the deep freeze to a balmy 30 this weekend. Should I wait to try the plank until he has transitioned from a cato to a lower box to the mat on the ground?
Serpentines – 2/14/21
8in flat serpentines!In response to your other comments on distractions – Yes a lot of the fixation of dogs on walks is the unepredictability of them appearing, plus some of them are reactive (we are way far off the trail as fast as we can go and doing cookie scatters in those cases). His class only has 3 other dogs and since it’s a controlled situation with everyone being smart about managing their dogs, he’s quite good there. We’ll also be working with more dog distractions in class since all 4 of them are not reactive. I train/proof a lot of my end of run behaviors at meal time to test whether he can put his head in his harness or jump up when his raw food is right there being waved around under his nose with the harness off to the side. Once you have a dog like Tari, you maybe go a bit overboard training for the end of the run!
Deceleration – 2/14/21
Don’t worry about responding to these until you get power back. Just posting now before I forget about them.Got sends to 2nd jump and he collected and turned correctly since I was pointing at the inside wing. Hadn’t done these in a while so I tried a backside slice, Had a bit too much motion across the bar the first time but then he remembered to come in over the bar.
Straight Exits- 2/14/21
OK – no video fail this time. And got 1 rep of him sailing over the board.
More running thanks to the tunnel but his hind feet are often close together on the board and he is jumping up to pounce on board (see 2:05). Should I try a mat on the ground before he gets too happy about pouncing?
