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That’s great! I first suggest trying the exercises in the course in class settings, seminars, and trial settings before working on fading out the toy.
In regards to fading out the toy, you should first practice doing this in class. Start by having the instructor hold the toy and throw it when it’s time to reward Wish. Then, start having the toy outside of the ring, rewarding your dog at the end the way you would at a trial. Make sense?
Hi Kim! I’m glad Addie is feeling better!
When the recording instructs sitting for ten seconds, she is referring to you handler (you), not Addie. Addie is to remain in a down position the entire time. 🙂
She is definitely more chill towards the end of the session. Keep practicing daily, if you can manage. There is so much potential!
Brilliant! Since she already has value and understanding of Go to Place, then it’s time to start practicing it in your front yard and back yard. If the looks good, do it in class, off to the side.
Also, in between runs, where do the dogs stay in a Flyball class?
It was! Thanks for checking in.
Love it! She looks focused and calm while eating out of her Snuffle Mat. I’d like for you to start using it in class. Do it at the beginning and at the end of class, 5 times in a row each session. I know you are being careful with the amount of food she is getting, so don’t feel like you have to put a lot of treats into the Snuffle Mat on each go around.
And regarding the chair, if Avery is comfortable under it, let her go there.
Hi guys! I keep trying to post but it’s not working.
This looks great! Now you no longer have to practice doing the Shadow Handling game around something. You can just do it freely. Practice in your backyard and front yard, on leash, and please take video. 🙂
Hi Julie!
Here it is again:
Pattern Games – Understanding the Concept
Bobbie BhambreePattern Games are designed to do two things. First, they create a strong reinforcement history for a particular behavior or series of behaviors. Second, patterns create predictability and therefore reduce anxiety. The intention is to change the emotional state while practicing a desirable behavior. The process is designed to be able to help the dog be able to think and learn even when under some pressure.
The first step is to teach a dog a new behavior, which we repeat over and over again so that the behavior and reinforcement follow a predictable pattern and the dog has a lot of history of having fun practicing the skill. This builds a positive emotional response and gives us a wonderful foundation from which to progress. Once the dog demonstrates the ability to perform a trained behavior (such as Shadow Handling), we will be using this behavior to tell us about the dog’s emotional state by measuring the quality of behavior. Any change in your pup’s behavior when exposed to their trigger will give us information about their underlying emotional state.Having a strong pattern game will allow us to do two things:
1. First, it will allow us to gauge a dog’s threshold so that we can progress forward while keeping the dog just within their window of emotional tolerance.
2. Second, practicing pattern games builds and strengthens neurological pathways associated with the emotional responses and behaviors we are looking for. When these pathways are strengthened, it will be easier for your pup to stay calm when exposed to a triggering situation.We will be exposing the dog to very low levels of their trigger(s) in controlled situations. With the foundation of a pattern game, the dog can now practice the skills and the ability to emotionally regulate themselves in triggering situations. As your pup practices staying in and returning to emotional balance, we can increase the intensity of the trigger until it reaches “real life” intensity.
Neuroscience – What’s Happening in the Brain
Dr. Kathy Murphy, Barking Brains
Attention is a brain function responsible for how the brain focusses and processes information, gathered by the five senses, from the surrounding environment. There are three types of attention, divided attention (where the brain focuses on more than one event), selective attention (where the brain reduces processing of other information so that it can pay more attention to one particular event) and sustained attention (where the brain focuses on one event, often failing to process other surrounding information).The ultimate aim of this exercise is to shift your dog’s attention from a potential trigger to you. This process shifts the dog’s brain from a state of divided attention between the trigger and you, to selective attention on you. These different attentional states – divided and selective attention – facilitate the allocation of cognitive processing (ie determine how much thought processing and decision making is focused on the trigger or you) ie when your dog is in a divided attentional state, the thought processing and decision making is divided between the potential trigger and you, and the dog won’t be able to focus on you. When your dog is in a selective attentional state, it will be able to pay attention to you and ‘tune out’ other distractors or potential triggers. Your dog’s brain will still process those distractors and potential triggers but it won’t allocate cognitive processing to them ie won’t react to them.
The selective attentional state is different to the sustained attentional state (super high focus) you often see when sports dogs are working. During sustained attention the dog’s brain may not process distractors at all ie the dog may be entirely unaware of what is happening around the ring, and can focus all of its energy, thought processing and decision making on the course. Sustained attention is therefore very useful but is also extremely tiring, so should only be encouraged for short bursts.
Helping your dog to practice selective attention (rather than divided or sustained), helps practice not responding to distractors and triggers and doing this in a relaxed state. Another way to think about this is that you will be helping your dog to increase its attention span, whilst remaining relaxed and not using up vital energy stores that will be required for the agility ring.
How does she feel about you holding her and feeding her treats while you wait for the other dog to exit? This is what I have to do for Marvel. He’s small enough to hold. It made a huge difference because it creates distance between him and the other dog. Another option, if holding her isn’t possible, is setting up a chair nearby and have Lit’l Bit stay in the chair until the other dog exits. Then release her and walk into the ring. The next assignment is the foundation for his option.
The regular mat is for the Relaxation exercises. The Snuffle Mat is for sniffing and rooting around for treats.
Try both exercises near the car. Take your dog out of the car and let her explore the area without getting to close to the action. Then do the Snuffle Mat exercise per the handout. Then do the Relaxation exercise. Then put her back in the car and don’t take her out again until you are ready to warm her up for a run. Let me know how it goes!
