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Yes, you want that “urge” or pushback from the dog. Think of it like those little cars we played with as kids that the more you pushed them back the faster they sped away when we released them. Right now you are building drive for that! Keep playing with both and encourage the excitement!
In the first course, it seems to me that Prue starts off a little hesitant and then starts to speed up as the course gets going? I watched it a couple times to see if maybe it was late verbals, but it seems to me that she gets more confident (on this course as the course flows).
Now, on the second course…. Please don’t hate me 🙂 but I think you need to handle more aggressively! So yes, Prue can do all the things and has nice independence. I am going to skip ahead in the course and show you something: This is week #4
Running to each obstacle – As we continue to work towards building speed and fun on the course and less stress, I want you to remember to reinforce handling. In your courses, I prefer to see you break down and reward during the drill than try to make it 1-10 perfectly. These drills are relatively easy, so they are meant to build speed and excitement as well as give you the opportunity to handle, then reward, then more handling, then reward.
The next part of this segment requires aggressive handling. For thoughtful dogs, the more conservative we are the more conservative they are! Meaning the effort, you put into your run is going to relate to the effort they put in to the run. There is good dog training and there is good/aggressive handling. Even if you’re not a fast runner (me) you can still handle aggressively. When we were preparing for this year’s EOTT, I was working with an instructor online and in one of the segments, she pointed out that I was walking through the course. She said to me (and I think this will stick with me forever) that while I was demonstrating good dog training, I needed to be a better handler and go in there and show her the obstacles. The exercise she gave me was to go in and touch each of the obstacles. Of course, I couldn’t touch every jump, but I drove to every obstacle and in 4 obstacles, I saved 1.4 seconds!!! That is significant! That could potentially be 5-7 seconds on a course. What I want you to pay attention to is HOW I am moving to each obstacle.
Here’s the video: https://youtu.be/nzPUsP3XzlM
I think this will be GREAT for Prue. Yes, you will have to work harder, but I think it will produce more drive and excitement.
On the actual course (which looks like fun BTW)!!! at 1:31 you are asking for a push, but have already rotated off the line for the backside. Yes, I do like my independent verbals, but I also need to support the line to the backside. Not sure why she flicked off of you at 1:55 for the tunnel, but I think I would have pushed to the backside and gotten a blind on that course anyway with Prue. It will allow you to drive more aggresively into the tunnel and not make Prue question the line so much). From 2:40 to 2:42 you are getting a lot of headchecks on that line. I think the blind here would have clarified the line for Prue. Same thing on the push at 2:55. You again rotate your shoulders off the line to the backside and Prue pulls in. You did the blind before the tunnel at 3:23 and that made it more obvious for Prue.
Does that make sense? Independence and commitment is cartainly what we want to strive for, but we need confidence first. I would love to see you do more blinds and one thing that really helps me with backsides is to use the actual jump cups as focal points as to where I want my feet to point when cueing the dog. As the dog gets more confident and independent, I don’t have to be so deliberate. Hope that makes sense?Hi Susan! He is such a fun boy!!! Do you have a second toy that is equal value? It looks like once you release the toy he does a little party for one? My dog Pepper does this, BUT if I bring out the second toy and play with it, I can easliy get her to reengage with me 🙂 Try the second toy and see if that helps.
Nice jackpots! Are you wanting him to just step on and off of it? I am only asking (and this pertains to movement in agility), because when I am rewarding movement, I want to click and reward when the dog is in motion (active rewards). If I am rewarding a static behavior (such as a 2 on 2 off stopped contact), I will click and reward static movement (or no movement). Does that make sense?Hi Margaret,
This looks really good! I would now just move with her! As you release her, and toss the food or the toy, you run with her to it. If it is a toy, encourage her to then get the toy, and chase you bringing the toy with you. I thought this looked good and don’t worry, you will get the coodination down 😉
Whenever I noticed my dog stressed ring side or as we go into the ring, I revert to opposition reflex and not using a startline stay. I ALWAYS use this for tunnel starts (the dog will drive hard into the tunnel). And fianlly, I have used this with every final I have ran in and at EO tryouts. BUT, here is how I do it. Once the dog understands the behavior (and I can trust it at a big event), as I am headed to the startline, I will put my hand on their chest, say “ready”, she pushes into my hand, then I say stay and do a running start (dog stays, while I jog out and do a moving release). (We get into startline games during week 2). I feel like this gets my dog into drive-mode and consequently play-mode. I want that kind of excitement and focus on me/the course off the startline. Let me know if you have any questions about that!I would love to see the footage of the pre-trial ritual and then the run that follows. When is your next trial? What classes do you normally enter? Give me an idea as to what your trial day looks like.
Well, she does a great job weaving at home! Do you have any videos at trials? Everything I have seen of her at home is really nice, but I know that tends to be low stress. Whatever you have to show me her behavior at trials would be great. Seems to me to be completely enviromental? Just trying to see where we go from here. Are you planning to trial any time soon? Not sure what is going on in your neck of the woods…..
Hi Laura,
So the nice part about the off course jump at 0:40 is that she was moving faster!!! I would attribute most of it to lack of connection out of the tunnel (on your part). But it could also do with the previous sequence you ran you rewarded at that jump, so that line was more valuable. In that case and if I was running something in training or trialing, I would make a mental not that more connection is required (on my part) the next time around. You stayed upbeat and she remains happy on the way back to the startline (which is GREAT)!!! But just keep those things in mind. Mistakes will happen and there’s no way to prevent them, but with a softer dog, they have a tendency to take those things more personal when they happen. Does that make sense?
MUCH better on your part with the connection out of the tunnel the next time (1:00)
Regarding the rewarding, I try to always reward with the dog-side arm. Do you see how a couple times you present the reward with the off-side arm? When we reach across our bodies to do this, we inadvertently put pressure on the dog because of the rotation in our shoulders. Think of a front cross, when I rotate for the front cross, that cues deceleration and the dog slows down. So, if the reward comes from the dog side hand, they should stay in extension as I reward them. This is what we are really aiming for.
1:45 was prefect in rewarding. I would have just ran a little harder out of it. She really likes to chase you for the toy 🙂
Yes, at 5:29, I do believe the toy was a distraction. You can certainly put the toy away until she is ready to be rewarded and pull it out. I also will ball up my toy (even if it is something like yours and “drop the ball” hanging on to the end of the rope to reward.
The last rep, she looked like she was getting a little tired.
Overall, I think this was a good session. I LOVE the toy and the drive you have when it is present. We will work later to get you to leave the toy, but for now, I would like for you to work with it.
Let me know if you have any questions.Good Morning Laura,
I think this looked okay and it didn’t seem to me that Flynn was stressed (just a lot of watching, but was engaged when you asked him to be). How did he run here? I would encourage you to do more active tricks rather than static tricks. So circles left and right, hand touches but giving movement to it, circle work (if space allows), roll over (which you did), weaving through legs, and on thing that Silvia Trkman encouraged dogs needing motivation was a “happy” bark. Not always great in an indoor trial setting, but it kind of “broke” her out of that overthinking state if there was stress ringside. Does that make sense?Hi Barbara,
Great to have you two here!!! Sounds like reinforcement stations for you and Jinn will be super helpful!!! Excited to have you both here!Hi Amy,
For some reason I cannot view the youtube link. Maybe the privacy settings are set to private?Hi Amy,
Great to have you both here! She looks like a ton of FUN!!! Do you have any video of her runs at trials so that I can see the difference? The biggest thing that I see is regarding your reward. I would like to see you do a moving reward (you getting her to chase you for the toy) rather than throwing the toy and the reward being more static. Does that make sense? I would also like to see a sequence with weaves if you have weaves at home or something from before handy?
