Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Hi Carolyn,
Your warm up look good, I would interject a few obstacles in there.Okay, now to the fun stuff 🙂 First off, he is a speedy little guy!!! That is obvious in the warm up. In agility, deceleration is our most valuable turning cue. I am going to share with you a segment from lesson 4 that I have shared with a couple other students at this point:
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 https://youtu.be/nzPUsP3XzlMI think this will help significantly! You will have to work harder right now, but once Trooper is confident, you will not have to work so hard for speed. Let me know if you have any questions.
Hi Margaret,
I would like to see you run the other direction with the second toy when she goes to get the first one. You can see that you are chasing after her a bit, I would like for her to chase you for the second toy.
Regarding the opposition reflex game, yes, if this is her play style, that is completely fine! I would roll with it. The video looks good! There is the clip where she is doing a lot of sniifing. Was that after the LBG? Does she use a lotus ball. Yes, it is more time consuming, but it might be better for her if the treats aren’t dropped directly on the ground!
I am not seeing the segment with the LBG?She caught onto to that real quick! Couple questions on that game. Should say anything when she takes the jump? I’m so used to verbal praise with her that on occasion I did verbally reward her too in addition to the cookie. I feel like Kelsie was taking these obstacles because she knew I had food 🙂 or did she really grab them on her own because she wanted to? Or doesn’t it matter at this point, she’s still ‘learning’? When I was putting away the tunnel, she followed me and was even taking jumps, lol! I had no cookies on me, so I just verbally praised her, not overly excited like normal, but acknowledged her. Was that Ok to do?
No, you don’t say anything to get her to take the jump, this is more about her engaging with the onstacle herself. Yes, you can mark the behavior and praise her, absolutley! Taking the obstacles because you have food is completely fine at this point, we will delay reinforcement later. Please resend that video (or if I missed it, let me know 🙂 )
From here, I would love to see some speed circles. You can just do circles with no handling. Keep it quick and easy 🙂
YAY! I am VERY glad the LBG went so well!
Honestly, I play that game, but have a hard time with my softer dogs… They are not big fans of it and even if we only play it 1-2 times, they are not overly eager. It works well for some dogs when building drive, but I feel the dogs that are over thinkers have a harder time with it.
Good for you for ending early! That is great dog training on your part!
Hi Laura,
First video: At 1:01, you are very connected, but I am curious why you didnt say anything to him while he was IN the tunnel so that he knows to come into handler focus. I believe this is why he flanks out so far when he exits the tunnel. What are your cues to get him from obstacle focus back into handler focus? As elementary as this sounds, you could also back chain this sequence to build drive to the reinforcement station. It wasn’t until 2:30, that you called his name and he took the jump after the tunnel. I assume you have a good understanding of handler focus vs obstacle focus? He’s got FANTASTIC speed and you are doing a great job with the toy play! What tricks does he know? I’m asking because sometimes when you are trying to start, you are calling him over and over. I would like for you to get him to engage with you with let’s say a hand touch, then you can once in a while send him back to his toy or a spin. Does that make sense?
So on the second video, when he doesn’t want to leave his toy, when he engages with you, have him engage with you, then send him immediatly to his toy. He never knows when it is coming. Also, when you are trying to get him to release his toy, hold the toy firmly against your leg. If it is away from your body 1:04, there is still a bit of tugging going on. Seems to me that he consistently disengages when you put the toy down? I would like for you to have another toy on you and the minute he reengages with you, you play. I feel like it is his way of saying “exercise finished”, but we still want him to play with us. You could also grab the toy and take off running in the opposite direction and get him to recall to play. I think for him this is where I am seeing the biggest shut down in the two home videos. Do you always start him in a sit? I would consider a cone wrap start or a wing wrap start in the mix.
I am so glad you send these! In my opinion, I think Flynn has a VERY hard time going from obstacle focus into handler focus. He needs more value for his name and he needs to be reinforced EVERY time for coming into you. I know this because in January, I went and did a seminar with Tamas Traj with my young dog Keen and we were dealing with exaclty the same thing! Very good obstacle focus, but not as much value for me. I would play the name game a lot. Name + cookie or coming in for a toy to tug (no throwing at that point because it is all about coming into you). He is REALLY trying to do the right thing and he is VERY fast! He just doesn’t like to come into that pressure. I would also avoid looking directly at him at all costs and really trying to focus on looking 2-3 feet ahead of him at his line.***Any advice for teaching tight turns at speed? He’s good on the flat, but straightens out when you add speed. We’ve done lots of jumps wraps, but when you add speed he’s back to being the school bus.
I really feel like this is value for the handler and as I mentioned going from OF to HF. He is a SUPER nice dog! I actually LOVED his “selfish bastard” run WAY better than his other run where he was a bit shut down at the beginning. He is fast and really trying HARD. I can’t remember, is food valuable to him? If so, I would get some very high value treats and work with him there. Does this make sense? I see a TON of potential in you two…. I think there is an amazing dog in there!!! And you are a good handler!
Hi Mel,
Some great work here! I would just like for you to make some minor tweaks. In the first video, where you are playing, this is GOOD!!! What I want you to do is to get her drive up and then send her into the speed circle. So remove the “formality” of what we do at the startline 🙂 Does this make sense? Then on your second video, you threw the toy the first time and then did a running reward the second time. I would like to see your rewards constantly moving. She struggles a bit with the environment and reengaging with you after obstacle focus, no biggie here, we just need to make you the “bunny”!!! Run around and have her chase you. You do a great job in your warm up, I want you to incorporate it into your runs. Does that make sense?Yes! Exactly! The more movement and “play” you can make it the better. When I am trying to build drive and motivation, I constantly use moving rewards.
Hi Carolyn,
No worries, glad you posted! I like the active tricks in your warm-up! I would definitely take that to the course. What I mean by that is play, tricks, get Trooper revved up and then immediatly send him to an obstacle. The speed circle was great, I would have just gone the other direction to avoid that discrimination (that’s a hard one). The more you can locate speed circles, the better. How do you feel his speed is on the speed circle compared to what you normally run?Very cool! Again, it is beautiful!
Sounds good! I do you understand the startline release while in motion? I think that will really help too!
This was excellent!!! I feel like your handling cues were much more clear to Prue. She was REALLY trying and working hard to get things right! My dog Keen, if I work on backsides too much, he gets “creative” too. I thought you handled this well. I also like how you broke it down for her. Very nice job!!!
Hi Amy,
So is it only the weaves? She looks very fast in all other parts of the course and she weaves nicely at home. Here are my thoughts: There are three parts to the weave poles. The entry, the exit and everything in the middle. As handlers if the dog does not get all three parts correct, we reward nothing (typically). Think of it like contacts (although there are only two parts to a contact – the contact itself, then the end behavior). As trainers, we break those down and teach the board (comfort on the board, body awareness and so on), then we teach a 2o2o or a running. In my opinion, again there are three parts to the weave. I teach the entry (generally 2-4 poles), then proof the exit and then add everything else (distance, independence, counter motion, converging the weaves, all the crosses and so on). Does that make sense?
Are you planning to enter any trials or do you have access to fun runs or places outside of home? A well respected dog trainer once said, “always reward the effort”. I would spend some time asking for the weaves at a trial or better yet a fun run or class and if Char engages with the poles in any way, I would have a BIG party. She doesn’t have to do all 12, she just has to engage with them. If she doesn’t I would just go on and skip them. I personally had a dog that was very “stressed at the poles” and after several trials of doing just this, he began engaging with them, then eventually he weaved perfectly. If and when she weaves perfectly, make sure you have a BIG party. Even if my run was perfect up to that point, I would exit the course and get to my rewards ASAP. Build on that behavior and she will do it again. Let me know if you have any questions.Hi Susan,
First off, wherever you are IT IS BEAUTIFUL!!!So the course looked good! I have two suggestions I would like for you to try. One is to always release him while YOU are in motion. In the second video with the startlines 0:36 to 0:38, you release him while you are walking and he comes right off the startline. He would be a dog that I would ALWAYS release while in motion whether you are walking or jogging. Remember, movement is motivating. The other thing I would like to see if you reward in motion. So at the end of your run getting him to chase you for his reinforcement. This will make the game more exciting and allow you to do more obstacles at speed when the sequences get longer. I am however impressed with your ability to run in rubber boots :-)!!! Let me know if you have any questions.
Hi Margaret,
Okay, couple things I would like for you to try is to get a second toy and rather than change from the food to the toy, I would like for you to go from one toy to the other. Does that make sense? I like your movement and Kelsie is very happy and engaged! I would also like for you to add a jump or a tunnel. She can just run through the uprights and the tunnel can be straight, but I would like for you to interject some easy obstacles into the mix. If you’re comfortable with it (because of her spay), you can play the lazy bastard game in week #2. Let me know if that makes sense.Hi Laura!
Thanks for that information. One of the games I really want you to focus on is the lazy bastard game in week #2. I also would like for you look at Kathleen Holland”s post where I talk about handling more aggressivly. I think rather than sending Flynn to places and leaving, I would like to see you driving harder to the individual obstacles. Let me know if you have any questions!
