[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

[agilitywawa]

I have not gotten back to the sad rear cross yet. And our weather reverted to normal MN, so it’s cold and now there’s snow on the ground.

Here’s our first attempts at strike a pose – start with 3 reps on each side for food then switch to a toy. I remembered by about rep4 that I should be rewarding her farther from my body (the go out part) so then I tied to fix that. There’s on rep with the toy where she starts to go to the toy and then remembered she was supposed to touch the thing first. LOL

Then we did the start of the Handling Combo – I have very limited space inside so I’m probably in her way most of the time. I started off all wrong – doing a post turn (I swear I can’t go from the kitchen to the basement and remember what I’m supposed to do!), but at least I was using her verbals (check for left and dig for right). Then I remembered the front cross, so I have some video of that. And I think it ended up being mostly on one side since I did not want to do too many of them.

Thanks!
Joan

[agilitywawa]

I have tried (in vain) to work on the rear cross with the prop. I’m giving it more room and starting right away – she always turns the wrong way and starts spinning around before we get to the prop – like what are you DOING BACK THERE? It’s like Mari has told her she will never see it in real life, so just pay no attention. It’s bad. And I’m pretty sure I’m rewarding her in the wrong place, but so it goes.

On a slightly better note, we’ve been playing around with baby retrieves. I have 2 udder tugs. I have her strike a lot and do short tugs and then do a few where she can chase and bring back to hand. She likes this game a lot and it is strengthening her strike too – she gets pretty vigorous about it. Slightly different than your lectures, but I have done a lot of toy work with her and this seems to be what is working the best to get her to return it to hand. She’s not this good with every type of toy yet, but she used to not be able to return anything to my hand (she’d willingly drop it on the floor in front of me).

If you can draw me the wrap diagram from a couple of days ago, that would really help too so I can sort out my words.

Thanks!
Joan

[agilitywawa]

The toy I used for Turn and Burn was quite long – I will drag it on the ground and see how it goes. I also have another couple of long toys that would work. I was not really focusing on the toy placement, so thanks for pointing out that I don’t want her jumping up.

Question about the verbals – the way I use “check” now with Mari is for a wrap and coming back 180 degrees. When I look at the wrap of the bucket and the exit it is not the way I picture a wrap – it is more of a left or right since we are running off at 90 degrees (I hope I’m making sense). I only bring it up since I am guessing you have a different word for the 180 back (and I mean 180 with one jump. Jump wrap tight and go back the way you came from, like with a throwback type move).

We redid the BC to pivot – with more space! That was all I had time to video today. We were herding in the morning.

I will get back to the RC and prop tomorrow. There’s a bunch of weekend projects in my training area at the moment 🙂

[agilitywawa]

Tried to clean up my motion on the Turn and Burn and leave earlier. Might be the last nice day to do much outside. I did not use any words yet – I have not decided what I want to do. I use “check” now with the adult dogs, but it means wrap and come back – it’s not side specific.

I tried out the first steps of the blind cross to pivot game. Since we were outside and treats would be hard to find in the grass, I left her in a stay instead.

Then we get to the more problematic parts of the session. I tired the rear cross with the prop – total fail – she turned the wrong way every time. I must be doing something wrong.

When were outside, I wanted to try the parallel path with more space. She did the first one correctly, but after she got the HR the first time, she lost the ability to do anything. I don’t know if it was the combo of the HR and being in the yard, but she could not touch the prop anymore and she got really sticky. So I cut it short – just a little video to give you the flavor. I went back several steps and tired to get her to just touch the prop for the HR, but she just could not do it (not in the video).

[agilitywawa]

Hi!
When I watched the video again, I could see how high her head was when backing up. I went back to the floor today and it’s somewhat better. I used a fit bone and then a small wobble board. I’m not sure what’s up with the funny head toss she sometimes does.

The toy returns are interesting – I was surprised that she is so willing to bring those HR back. She is pretty good with the udder tugs type toys too. Anything with any fleecy stuff on it is a no way. And she does not run around with it, she will lie down in front of me and chew it. If I handed her a toy, I don’t think she would just run off with it, but we can see…

I could see on the parallel path video that she was checking in with me. I got rid of the clicker and just started walking and I think it went better. And I used treats instead of gum 🙂

I watched the class video last night which clarified the send to the prop with me sideways/backwards. I started with cookies and then did some reps with the toy which got her a little more amped up. I think I forgot to use any markers though (or I may have used it with the toy).

Then, when it’s 50 degrees on December 2 in MN, you take a work break and take the Turn & Burn outside. I don’t have a fancy laundry thingy (LOL), so I grabbed a bucket. And Dellin was like, finally, we get to do the running. Thanks. So yeah, she had great fun and we had some space. As you had people do at class, I tried to leave progressively earlier, but in real time, it’s hard to know if I actually accomplished that! In looking at the video slowed down, I may have succeeded.

[agilitywawa]

Plank – yes I can raise it more – we have 2 tables I can use.

I started looking at week 3 lectures and hope to watch class when the video is available. Looks like a lot of fun games!

Here’s our next step of backing up to a platform.

When we were working on this, I was using the HR just for tug and started to incorporate some of the baby steps for the retrieve into the play. She did a decent job of bringing the toy back to me for more tug (granted not a huge distance, but this is a hard skill for her). Here’s some video of that:

We tried a little parallel path with the prop (note how much time she spends chewing. lol.):

Then I tried a little of the send/commitment with the prop – I have the feeling I was not doing this correctly (and I’m not sure why all of a sudden she felt so oppressed by me touching her):

[agilitywawa]

Here’s some more of the plank – with less moving. At the end of the session, she is hopping up and turning around with the toy in her mouth. She definitely has a preferred way to turn. I was using teh small HR and alternating chase and strike with some tugging to try to get out of our rut of only using those toys for chase. She did fine with it.

On the toy races I was telling her to “get it” – I guess that’s my cue for a dead toy. I may also have said “go”.

We did some more backing up – I’m trying to get upright. The erratic bouncing of the treats is not helping at the moment – the treat never seems to end up in the correct place.

I keep trying the wing wrap with different methods of toy play. I feel like she is just barely humoring me and we are not really making any progress. Her first rep is generally the best, so I know I can’t do very many. But even after ending the play, she’s not very excited to work again. On the second rep tonight after both chasing and tugging on the HR, she went to one bowl and then sat and stared at me and would not move. The second rep on the video is the third (and final) rep. Not really sure what more to change.

Thanks for the video of working on the steps to return the toy to hand. Something else we can work toward.

Joan

[agilitywawa]

I dug out the big plank. It’s the width of a dogwalk and she had no problem turning around on it. Then I raised it a few inches off the ground.

I got outside for a little toy race too. We are expecting abnormally good weather this week, so I think I will have some additional opportunities to train outside.

“Rather than 2 categories of toys, you can work to have different markers that apply to all toys. So a frisbee can either be a thrown toy or a tugging toy and the marker indicates which, in the moment.”

I do have 2 different words – “chase” means I’m throwing the toy and “strike” means she should grab it and we will tug. In the toy class I took, one of the things I was working on was a kind of rapid fire striking where I had 2 toys, tell her to strike, tug for 2 seconds, let go of it and cue her to strike the second toy. She liked this game – it was high energy and I used udder tugs for this since they were easy to present to strike and she likes to chase them. I am working toward inserting some chase into this game. When she chases toys, she is good about coming back to me and dropping the toy, but she has a hard time delivering a toy to my hand (I’ve been working on it for a long time and I don’t know if I care anymore if she ever returns it to my hand). Just so you have some background of where we are at.

Right now, she is not used to striking the HR and I don’t mind tugging on it, but it’s harder to use than some other toys. I did get her tugging on the bigger round HR. I played around with mixing in the tugging with the chasing the HR again this afternoon and once I throw it, it is definitely harder to get her back to tugging on it. Maybe I should try the game I described above with the HR (and I may need to buy some large HR, lol) to get more reps of striking it with really short bursts of tugging…
I never knew playing with toys could be so hard until I got this dog. 🙂

[agilitywawa]

We did the sit to stand on the bosu/donut and that went well.

My second plank is behind a bunch of equipment, so I need to dig it out. I did go back to the same small plank and she did better on the turning around. And with both exercises, I released her and waited for feet on the ground before giving her the toy.

For backing up, the hand signal is the cue to do it. I started to work on getting the verbal more solid on its own.

“Remind me -will she tug with the hollee roller?
We never really have done much tugging with the HR – the 2 I use most often are the small football shaped ones, so there is not a lot for me to hold on to. I got out a bigger round HR and we did some tugging – she needed a little encouragement at first. I think I have had definite categories of toys – the throwing/fetch ones and the tugging ones. She will fetch and tug on the udder tugs, so I should get those out to use too. We played around with the tossing and tugging with multiple HR. She has such a strong preference for chasing that it was not always easy, but I think we made some progress.

[agilitywawa]

We did GOAT 2 with a couple of things. In the beginning, I was waiting a little to see of she would put all 4 feet on the donut. When that looked too difficult, I added a second thing.

Here’s Plank 1 – this plank is too small for her to turn around on now, but we have a bigger plank that I can try.

Here’s some backing up – we have not done this in a while and we look a bit rusty. We did have several toy breaks during the session (edited out).

Between yesterday and this morning, I have done several short sessions with the wing wrap and discovered a couple of things (at least that were true yesterday). Throwing the hollee roller was way too much. She brought it back and got all stalky, standing and staring at me to throw it again. I quit that session and when I came back to it, she was still sticky and not wanting to move. This morning, I went back to a regular tug toy. And I realized something else – I have been delivering the toy only on my right, so after the first reward there, she did not want to go to my left to that bowl. So I had to do some remedial work. So I seem to be going backwards in terms of progress on this one.

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