[Amy Sannes]

Thanks for the great feedback.

Here’s Skizzle and I trying a resilience game. Behind us, from L to R are fields, a playground with kids playing, and the school. Just before filming, and capturing Skizzle’s attention at the start of the video was a couple that walked past (from the road with the yellow median to the right side of the video) with two dogs.
I like the time this pattern game gives Skizzle to check things out, though I can see he still needs more time even by the end, as he’s no faster to return attention to me. Good information to have. And he is able and interested in looking at me, which is a very nice place to start from.

[Amy Sannes]

Thank you for your fantastic, positive, and constructive feedback. You are very gifted in this regard – so again, huge thanks for teaching these courses!

>What was your sport?
Long-track speedskating. Maybe the flyball equivalent in dog sports? Repetitive movement where good technique makes it look effortless and has a huge impact on performance.

>And using slow motion and freeze frame has really helped tons in agility and general dog training too!
I’ve been playing around with slo-mo for nosework to help pick up changes of behavior earlier. I hope to train the “it’s right here, dummy” alert from Skizzle…but while he’s young and everything is new, that’s unrealistic, and his specific changes of behavior are easier to pick up with slo-mo.

>So to get him to be *less* polite 🙂 and grab the toy, 2 ideas for you…
Thanks for these – will incorporate in my next toy races.

Also want to mention that I watched your Playback to Podium webinar – on-topic for me this week 😉 Really appreciated your suggestions about taking videos and editing, and also the general theme: Reward the dog, because it’s probably the handler’s fault! As a hope-to-be novice agility handler – important for me. I have so many mistakes to make before I figure things out!
I also appreciate your emphasis on pausing training to review video. I’m good at taking video, but almost never evaluate during the session. It seems like the efficiency should almost double by reviewing mid-session – because you can fix-yourself before the next session. I imagine Skizzle would also appreciate the break!

Ok – so I’m looking for your feedback on distractions. (There’s some handling issues, too – I’m late to run and late with the toy.) Here’s video from two different sessions away from home. The first is my norm – training at the Trailhead. I brought the (unplanned) distraction – a dog with FOMO in the car. The second part of the video is at a busy local park. I think there was too much going on for Skizzle to think/work.
The FOMO dog has been with us 3 months…and she’s here to stay. I mostly stopped working the dogs in the same area, because any time she barks or whines, Skizzle stops working. In this video, she’s quiet initially, but then whines when the intensity increases, and Skizzle reacts. It seems like this is something I need to start working on for our future sports career. Trials are noisy with barking and whining!
And the second part at the park – I’m glad Skizzle is able to do hand-touches and a little chasing. We haven’t done so much work in busy places, but I feel like we need to work towards it. I imagine I need to start with less distraction and/or more distance.
Happy to hear your thoughts on dog noise and level-of-activity distractions.

Thanks again!

[Amy Sannes]

Thank you for the advice for the retraining the backing up – and re-framing as a challenge.
>My advice is to stare at where you want his back feet only, rather than trying to see all of him.

I also really appreciate your suggestion to review in slo-mo. I’ve been videoing my dog training sessions almost daily for 7 years, but I’m not sure I’ve looked at them in slo-mo before this week. I was an athlete, and slo-mo was integral to reviewing video for my sport. I’m not sure why I haven’t used it in dog training yet…but I’m excited to start!
I’m also relieved to hear that I’m mostly not super early moving my hands 😉
And I agree – with cookies, there may be a component of impulse control affecting his response.

We went camping in the Arizona desert – and had room to run. So here’s our practice of a few running games. I cut out a bit of play as we returned to the dish. All of the reps started with releasing Skizzle to get the cookie from a dish – which gave me time to run away from him.
On the whole, I am really pleased with his enthusiasm here.
On the blind cross coming towards the camera – I start out with the toy in the correct hand, but then transfer it to the same side he’s coming to.
For the toy chase – really toy race – maybe he looks caught off guard by my presence close? I think this is the point, right, to get them used to running adjacent to the handler (for agility)?

[Amy Sannes]

Thanks for your suggestion to stay bent over – so he doesn’t have to look up/get awkward. And I will try to play with clicking precision…the movement is not as fluid as I’d like it, so it’s probably a good time for me to play with this 😉 [this is me trying to convince myself that I can use the clicker to bring the “pretty” back to his backing up]

Shifting a bit. Here is a session with Skizzle where we play around with reinforcement markers. At this point, the ones I think are most fluent include “get it (chase food),” “here (food in my hand),” “toy (dead toy),” “cookies (food in bowl),” and “chase (moving toy)” (not used in this session), though he seems to understand “catch (food or toy headed behind you)” by where he’s anticipating the treat going.
Besides saying the words in a voice that could be heard and waiting for him to finish chewing his food, what adjustments could I make to help make things more clear for Skizzle? For “cookies” – he misses the cue twice. It’s one I’ve practiced more with a pause, which I didn’t really have for these misses.

[Amy Sannes]

Thanks for discussing the relevance of this plank work to future dog sports.

Here’s a bit of backing up. I’ve been stuck on backing with him…relying on a platform. Here, we did a bit off to the side, which seems like a reasonable transition to getting the behavior on cue without the platform. Also, as an aside, he moved backwards really pretty as a puppy. I “broke” the behavior when I worked on single-leg lateral rear leg lifts, and it’s never quite been the same ;). In this video, he seems to dip his hips a bit, and reaches for the prop. I’m pleased with his responsiveness and that he’s moving straight back here.

[Amy Sannes]

Thank you for helping give my training direction!

We tried more plank work – adding cued behaviors and the tug. He does slide off with the tug – losing connection with his feet a bit. Glad he wasn’t concerned with that. He’s not following my hand target very well (fair judgement of what he thought of target without food), and after this, I switched to food for a short time.
How should I incorporate that he loses connection with his feet more when using the tug? Into future training? Is it about testing/training in different states of arousal?

[Amy Sannes]

Tracy –

Thanks for talking through this offering game, and the benefits of waiting for Skizzle to offer the behavior! My tendency is to help too much, and I need reminders to foster independence and confidence in the dog. Also appreciate that he’s still young, so extra chewing might break his train of thought…among many other distractions 😉

Here’s a game we didn’t get to during the first course: plankrobatics. Skizzle probably wishes I were more into parkour, and has no problem moving on the plank.

[Amy Sannes]

Thanks for the feedback. For giving permission to grab the toy – I need to use my words more in training, for reinforcement and the rest. Appreciate the reminder.

Here’s the wrap with me standing. Reviewing it now, when he’s looking to me for information – it seems reasonable to cue him to wrap the barrel. He transitions from auto-wrap to checking in for information – first at 27 seconds, then again at 46 seconds. Probably similar to my previous comment – could use words or signals to help him out. 🙂

[Amy Sannes]

Thanks again for the feedback – I will try not to get ahead of myself (and Skizzle’s) skill level by pairing difficulty and novel locations – better one or the other before combining.

I will try this exercise again in a spot with more room to run.

For now – I tried the wing wrap exercise. Started with food – Skizzle remembered working on this before, and is a pro moving back and forth. This is our attempt with toys. He loves his toys and tugging. Hi toy release isn’t as great as I thought it would be by this point (though it accurately reflects our training 😉 ). It’s a little awkward with his reluctant release, but I don’t think there’s much conflict here.

[Amy Sannes]

Thanks for the feedback! I appreciate your suggestion about taking it outside! I think I can either take the exercises to the higher levels and try them in novel locations – or both. That would hugely benefit Skizzle. I train too much at home with him, so feel free to remind me to get out there for this training!

We played at a scent work trial this morning. Just out of view are the 90 cars covered with shade cloth. There wasn’t too much happening at the edge of the parking lot, but I am proud that he settled into the work quickly in that environment. Cookie into bowl – I ran away – hand touch for tug. I gave a tongue click – where I should say grab (marker for biting tug in hand).

I should also try this – as you suggested – outside with room to run – where I make him work to catch up with me – really running (no leash/harness needed).

[Amy Sannes]

Your class is a great value! I look forward to taking it again and using it to keep me on track. I’m sure Skizzle will love getting back to these exercises with more movement.

Here’s Skizzle doing some hand touches and deceleration into turning. Looks like I’m turning a bit too quickly.

[Amy Sannes]

Hi Tracy

Had more life stuff. And we’re working on some tricks and nosework, so less agility work for a bit.

Here’s some baby serp exits. Pleased with Skizzle’s interest in circling the barrel and playing.

Thanks for the great course!

-Amy

[Amy Sannes]

Hi Tracy

Skizzle had his break. And watching the latest live class, I realize we really need a stay. It’s a work in progress…baby level at this point. And sometimes it’s decent, and then at other times the whole concept is gone. Which is ok at this age. When there’s no stay, I change to games that don’t need a stay, or just end the session for a while.

Here are a couple pieces of games we’ve worked on. I’ve been working on the Threadle slice. The stays and knowing the direction to the reinforcement are both coming along.

And we did Minny pinny with the poles to go over. This seemed easy. I didn’t remember to hold his collar, and he’s still not a fan of this (and I need to spend some time improving his emotional response to holding the collar). https://youtu.be/QouGAevFXNs?si=YbdPt1QE2EZVIzjg

Feel like I’ve fallen off the training wagon a bit, but looking forward to working towards the skills we need for these latest games.

-Amy

[Amy Sannes]

Thanks for the feedback – good stuff to ponder!

>lift of the front paw which can sometimes be a canine question mark
Didn’t know that – so now I’ll have to pay attention and see when this is offered. At baseline, he lifts his paws (any of them individually, even the back ones) semi-regularly. One of his (cute) quirks is drinking water with a hind foot lifted.

>What if you changed the vowel and make it “loo loo loo”?
Love this! Thanks.

>For rocking horses. He was actually playing find my face when the info was not as clear!
Great feedback for me – and fantastic to see this response from him! Thanks for pointing it out.

Thanks very much!

-Amy

[Amy Sannes]

Hi Tracy –

I’m busy with weekend travel this month – so intermittent training with Skizzle. The break is probably good for him. He’s getting spoiled by staying with my dad – who adores him.

We did a short pivot session. Latent learning seems to have happened here – I’m getting consistent lateral stepping with the back end. Very pleased with this progress. Have a little pitter-patter with the front feet that I will try not to reward.

We played find my face. So glad you have this integrated into the training now – because I thought it would be easier for him to approach my front – and it doesn’t appear to be. He is directing towards me – but just as happy to hang out behind me as in front.

We did a little Minny Pinny. I think I’m going to use “lolololo” for left (though maybe I shouldn’t because it sounds like “go” and “razrazraz” for right. I was pleased at this first attempt for the game.

And we did a little rocking horses – some with the bonus spin (maybe some in the proper direction). I cut out some of the tugging and tug-for-treat exchange for time. We are having moments of disconnection, probably exacerbated by my learning these skills. This is one I probably should practice without Skizzle first – my brain isn’t processing my movement very well. 😉 Through all of that, I do think his willingness and tendency to circle the barrels is improving in general.

Thanks Tracy!

FYI Skizzle will have some time off until early next week while I’m away.

-Amy

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