[agilitywawa]

Happy New Year!
I see our crap weather has made it all the way to the East coast!

Got it on the above. It may be a while before I can get back to a big space 🙁

Ha – “Dellin seems like a dog who speaks in ALL CAPS when she is working 🙂”
Yes, and I think she was also thinking STOP TOUCHING ME, I’M WORKING! She has some definite opinions. And when she’s not working, she is otherwise very cuddly.

I forgot to show you the remote reinforcement – her marker is “candy”. I did a couple of simple just walking away from it to remind her and then we did some simple behaviors. Note the extreme chewing on rep one. LOL. In the other class we took, she had gotten to the point of more “work” before the reward (she was quite young when we took the class). I have also used toys for this.

Then back to the contact mat. Started with the mat raised and then took it away to see if I could get the timing of the click correct. She was a little bouncy this morning – I think she usually keeps her rear feet separated better.

Thanks,
Joan

[agilitywawa]

Happy New Year!
On Friday we had the opportunity to train in another new place.
We did some more rocking horses and turn and burn – trying to remember to do the front cross, not the post turn. I think I only forgot once 🙂 Dellin did cut behind me once – was not sure why.

The we returned to the tunnel – some sends and a couple of threadles. My threadle word is “here”, said like heeeeeere with the adults.

And then we had better space for get out with the prop – I tried to remember to keep moving and it was easier to bypass with more room.

Thanks,
Joan

[agilitywawa]

Thanks for that! I may have another opportunity on Friday to work in a bigger space and I’ll focus on those comments.

Here’s the serpentine – I actually touch the wing so I know I’m in the right spot. LOL.

Then we did a little with the contact mat. I started with it on the floor for a number of reps then I put it on a plank. Wondering if you see any visible difference in the reps.

I started watching the new videos. Dellin has a marker for remote reinforcement – “candy”. And we took a 6 week class on using it with both food and toys, so she has some history (although it has been sitting for a while). Now that she is more happy about food, I bet it will looks different!
Thanks,
Joan

[agilitywawa]

Hi,

Question about the contact mat – I’m not sure what this would look like:
“You can also elevate it by attaching it to something higher (maybe 2 inches tall) so you can isolate the back feet because she lifts them to get on the mat.”

Thanks – I’ll keep moving on the go out. Otherwise it looks like that awkward moment where you are stuck on the gamble line attempting to direct the dog…

I’ll also do that serpentine exercise standing closer to the jump.

Last night I got a chance to do the rocking horse in a big space and on a new surface – dirt. I also did a little with the tunnel – a few sends with her on the outside and then a few with her on the inside like the threadle (and I used my word).

Since we were in a new space, new surface and there were people behind us, I started off with just some single wraps and worked up. And also did a little turn and burn. She had some trouble ignoring the toy in my hand at the beginning, but seemed to work through it.

[agilitywawa]

At home trials – not jealous at all as we head into days where the high temp is below zero.

Thanks – I’ll get closer to that jump. Tonight I have the chance to work in a larger area (barring bad weather), so hoping to do the rocking horses. I may have to use cones since they are more portable.

After a break from the contact mat, I got that back out – I was really working on throwing the treat sooner and not having her look at me and I think there has been some improvement.

Then we worked on get out with her prop. Bypassing it when she was on my right was much more difficult for her. I guess optimally, I’d need more space – that’s a pretty tight bypass!

Then a little retrieve to hand. She was getting a little sticky toward the end of this, so I cut it short.

Joan

[agilitywawa]

I hope you enjoyed your day off!

To get her better grip to dig in on the rocking horse, I could do a ring rental and work on the rocking horse and revisit some of the tunnel game.

We did the next steps of the serpentine – the dish, then toy in hand and then toy on the floor. I took the target out of my hand. I just worked this one game in our session.

Thanks,
Joan

[agilitywawa]

I have been working, but no video -did another session of RC following the above directions – waiting for head turn, moving prop to correct location, etc. and that went pretty well.

Retrieves – I sat on the aerobics step and that went well – no problems.

I wanted to try out the new games after watching the video of class. I found some treats that she is really crazy for (at least now – the novelty may wear off) and she worked happily for those. Her attitude toward the food has definitely changed quite a lot in the last 6 weeks.

Here’s the serpentine one – we did 2 reps from each position on both the left and right:

Then we did the rocking horse – super big fun 🙂 – here are the baby steps.

Then the get out. I have seen a lot of this recently with tunnels and use the off arm with the older dogs to get the correct end and it’s really effective.
I started stationary very close to the prop and then found out that the camera was not on! I had done some stationary get outs and a few bypasses that were not on video. The bypass is very hard for her. Once the camera was on, I just did a little for you to see – we were near the end of the session, so I did not want to go on too long. I was tossing treats behind us – so much chewing that she does not return quickly (and it was the end and she probably had enough treats) – I edited out most of that.

[agilitywawa]

I’ve been working on the rear cross for the last couple of days. Today I started without the prop, but moving and giving her the “break” to move. Then we added her prop. She’s already starting to turn her head in anticipation, so I think she’s beginning to understand.

Then I put the garbage can out with a leash on the ground as the bar and worked on the sending with the step back. Then I added some motion out of it. Still turning wider to the right it seems. On one rep, I did use the wrong word (oops). She hit me hard in the right knee toward the end of the session when we were tugging, so I might look a little gimpy – was still walking it off on those last few reps.

We’ve also been working on the retrieve to hand and it’s coming along. I do lots of fast reps where she drops the ball in my hand and I roll it off my hand on to the floor so there’s a little movement and she is picking it up quickly. I’m still using primarily the small red ball and the bigger HR. She has managed to return them to my hand from several feet away when they rolled off. At this point, I’m still sitting on the floor. Is the next step to get more upright?

[agilitywawa]

We tried the next step of the rear cross progression. I started where we left off yesterday for a few reps per side, then backed up 6-8 feet and walked into it.
I think I’m rewarding in the right place now- thanks for pointing it out!

Contact mat – I was able to eliminate some of the looking at me. I think the click causes her to turn her head and look at me. I tried to stay upright to throw the treat (by the end I may have succeeded). I used cheese so it would not be so bouncy. Again – thanks for the mechanics -I want to do it correctly!
Cuz good mechanics = happy informed dog.

Retrieve:
“She had high latency on getting the red ball and hollee roller, meaning she did not get it right away and we can shorten the time between cue and response.
I do that flyball-style, with a little bit of ball wiggling, passing it back and forth between my hands, getting the dogs jazzed up”.

My bad – I thought this was supposed to be a dead toy/object. I tried again doing a little rolling of the toy – Dellin was acting a little unsure about what to do – like it was a trick. She did have one rep though where the toy rolled away and she went after it maybe 6 feet and delivered it to my hand, which is huge for her. I feel like there’s a fine line with her with the toys- too jazzed and she’s biting and tugging and then delivering to hand goes out the window. That’s why I started with those 2 toys. She had no history at all with the small red ball (it’s one of Didi’s favorite retrieve objects). But I probably have some more room to be more exciting before we cross that line.

Garbage can: “So now a question about handling style: you cued the sideways sending with the arm across your body (the arm furthest from the barrel).”
Well, I did not know I was doing that, but no I don’t do that. I think part of MY problem is that when there is one thing (can/wing), I get confused about which wing it would be on the jump and what move I’m doing. When I do that move with Mari on a real jump, it is always the hand closest to her cuing it when I step back.
Yes, Dellin has seen wings, so it sounds like I can use one in place of the garbage can. I think if I actually put both wings out, you’d be able to follow what I was doing (or maybe I could follow what I was doing. LOL)

[agilitywawa]

Thanks for that new video on the RC – SO much better for us! My space is very small and this works well there.

Parallel path – I was still having issues with her looking at me. I started with a toy – the first rep was OK but then she got overexcited and was turning back to me- THROW THE TOY. I tried sending to toys on the ground but it was chaos. I switched to food. As long as I was ahead of her, it went better. I think the small space does not help game. Maybe I should just go one way (so the jump isn’t in the middle of the space) and start trying the manners minder at the end (?) I feel like she’s looking at me a lot.

Another short session of the contact mat and trying to click the rear feet (and look at the mat, but my head got cut off, so I can’t confirm that I actually was. In my head, I was. LOL)

Did some more with the retrieve to hand. To pick up the thing = “get it”. “Give” to give it. Those are my very sophisticated cues for Mari’s dumbbell too, so I sue them for a lot. Dellin did well with the little red ball. I tried the hollee roller for a couple of reps. More difficult, but she did a couple and we quit.

After all those treats, she was happy to blow off some stream with the toy and her garbage can. Trying the backward sends.

Thanks,
Joan

[agilitywawa]

OK- I went back to the RC and I was trying hard to mind the RC line and cut behind her early, but nothing. She gets away from me too quickly and when I tried to slow her down, she thought I was trying to do some type of heeling game and started walking next to me. So not really sure what to do. She has never had any success turning the correct way and has now been rewarded for doing it wrong a lot. She goes to touch the prop and is like where are you??

Then we tried out some of the new games.
Parallel path with jump bump:

Baby contact mat. She has done some of this before, so I started with the treat toss going back and forth since she already has the attraction to the mat piece.

Then I played around with some retrieve skills – return to hand. I started with a ball, dead on the floor, no throwing anything. And it went quite well – I have not really worked this in this way before (eliminating all motion for toy, me and Dellin). In the past, I had tried being in a very tiny space and rolling a toy a couple of feet, but I never had any success (but that was before I did all the toy work). Then I tried part of an udder tug and that also went well. I have been working on a hold (no pick up yet) for obedience, so maybe some of the skills are crossing over. Progress!

Thanks,
Joan

[agilitywawa]

I promise to stop ignoring the rear crosses and get back to them 🙂

Dellin has done tunnels before, so I skipped the very first baby steps. I did most of the reps with her on the outside (of me) and a couple with her in between me and the tunnel, but I did not want to do too many in one session. The toy is always back there for reward – sometimes it’s off the screen.

Then I tried to do some handling combos. I was struggling with my mechanics (which way to turn), so then I ended up just working more on the decel piece and trying to focus on where I was holding the toy so she would not be launching at it.
It seemed like no matter what I tried to do, I ended up doing the pivot clockwise (like I had been sucked into Dellin’s vortex – she heavily prefers clockwise in herding). Then I managed a couple going the other way at the end of the video.

It was nice to have more space. Winter stinks!

Joan

[agilitywawa]

I’ve been playing around with your recommendations for a couple of days.

Here’s strike a pose without me moving to the reward and Dellin going on the verbal. She has caught on to the “dish” marker and even looks mildly excited about it. I do find myself lowering the target a little to help her.

We’ve also done a few sessions of the pivoting with the toy folded up. I have a few of those on the video and then today I tried to incorporate it back into going around the barrel. I realized when I watched the video that I sent her both ways around the barrel but I messed up the handling so we were only pivoting with her on my right side which seems like the more difficult side for her. And she seems like she’s still launching herself at my toy hand. I think there was one rep that looked significantly better and I believe I may have had the toy up by my stomach, so maybe that’s a better position for now(?) Upon further video review, I see that I was using the hand to “guide” her and that was causing the leaping up for the toy. OOOPS 🙂

I rented a larger space tomorrow for Dellin and Mari to work on some things so we will finally get to try the tunnel game which I think she will really love. And the handling combo should be easier with the larger space.

Joan

[agilitywawa]

“Is it back to sunny and warm and green grass yet?
Well, the foot of snow we got last night probably means no 🙂

I started the ladder back up – short clip to make sure I’m doing it correctly.

Thanks so much for the tweaks on strike a pose – looking at the target made a huge difference! I just used “dish” for the food and dumped the “yes” I feel like this session was a big improvement over yesterday. She did go for the toy on the ground twice, but generally she was really good.

I went back to the barrel and worked some right turns trying to tighten them up a little. Then I tried the handling combo with a pivot. In the first reps, there is a toy on the floor, but it’s off camera. In the later reps, I move it closer to us and start rewarding the pivot earlier. She did not ever leave me to grab the toy on the ground, so that was really good.
I felt like my mechanics were a mess and I was not sure about the placement of the toy reward. I know I was not telling her early enough because her turns were wide.

[agilitywawa]

Thanks for the RC visual – working up the courage to get back to it 🙂

Here’s a little ladder work – we’ve done this before, but not in a while, so I gave her a couple of refresher reps.

Then back to strike a pose.
I moved the arm off my body. I did catch myself moving the target a little as she came in. I did food, then food bowl, then toy, then toy on floor. She did have a couple where she ran right to the bowl or toy. I found that, especially with the toy, she got sticky at the start and needed a little more encouragement to leave. And I may have moved (lol, totally moved) the target to try to help her be right (I was not sure if that was the right thing to do).
In terms of words- “strike” for toy in hand, “get it” for dead toy on ground, “chase” for thrown toy. For the food in hand, I was just saying yes when she hit the target. I don’t have many food markers cuz I never needed them for her. I started to say dish for food in bowl (that was new to her).
If I get to a place where she likes food more, the markers I use with the other dogs are “yes” – they can come get it as I hand it out (I guess it does not really connote any position or place; dish – for remote reinforcement – go to bowl; “floor” – food on ground in front of you (usually dog is in a down); “snack” for I’m bringing it to your face, don’t move.

Handling combo
I switched to a giant trash can to go around and then worked the sides in the order you suggested. Super high value toy – raccoon tail with tennis ball.

Thanks,
Joan

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