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Okay, we were able to get that covered ring for 1/2 hour today. I wrote down some things to work on, but not all the details, so some of this is probably a little rough.
We worked on tunnels – on-side send and across my body threadle send (for MaxPup and also since it was introduced in his real life class last week – just a slightly different set up). We also did a little turn and burn and a little handling combos. We also did some week 5 commitment (I used an 8” jump since that’s what I have him doing in his regular real life class – I just forgot to put the bar on the ground and they didn’t have jump bumps – sorry about that) and some week 5 rotated sends.
Thanks for this feedback. I’ll incorporate in our next sessions.
I was able to get a covered ring for a little bit tomorrow afternoon. I’ll try and figure out which exercises most need some space and preferentially do those.
I’m thinking Tunnels homework for sure (since what we did over the weekend was before I’d read and watched the actual homework). I’ll see what comes out for tomorrow and pick the things needing more space.
Cindi
I totally agree. It was such an awesome opportunity for a puppy to get to actually play in the ring in that environment with a lot less stress. I knew he was probably ready for the Puppy Garten side (even with the noise, people, dogs and a tunnelers run happening on the other side of a ring divider on the right of the screen) but also knew he really wasn’t ready for a full Tunnelers course. We just haven’t run enough sequences for me to know how fast he is or what his tendencies are the way I’ve known my older dogs before something like this. I was trying just to read him every step of the way and adjust – asking questions as we went. Can you walk around here and focus on me? Can you do your normal on leash behaviors on cue with minimal latency and accurately? Can you deal with being in a line with other dogs and people? Can you enter the ring and focus on me? Can you play with a toy in the ring? Can you focus on me with your leash off? Can you wait on the Startline (we actually didn’t do a startline wait his first run, I just played and ran him off the line)? Can you take a tunnel and come back to me? Can you play with a toy after doing a tunnel?
That’s about as far as I had imagined. I didn’t want to expect too much and pressure him or be disappointed in him. It’s always so hard when you are starting a baby dog. Especially if you’ve had some really good dogs in the past and people have expectations of you. I’m sure you’ve felt some of that. Anyway, I was just blown away when he was like “tell me what’s next” in a tunnel sequence.
I really wish there were more opportunities like this out there for young and baby dogs to play with low stakes to get used to everything about agility beyond just obstacle and handling skills. I try to remember to train the bits and pieces along the way but there’s nothing quite like an actual trial scenario and entering the ring alone.
Anyway, here’s a bit of lap turn and rear cross on the flat. It is VERY rainy here so not sure when we’ll be able to get outside on our agility field at home. I’ll try to get some indoor ring time (but CA not many options for that).
Sounds good on next steps on ladder work at home.
One of our local agility clubs, where lots of trials are held and where I’ve spent many weekends taking Ripley out to watch trials and practice some skills in that environment, held a Christmas party yesterday. Part of it was a NADAC style tunnels course (about 2/3 of the ring) and the other side was a “Puppy Garten” with puppy equipment.
We did the Puppy Garten side and just for fun I signed him up for some tunnelers runs. I had planned to just go in the ring and play with a toy and maybe send him through 1 or 2 tunnels or maybe do the shorter inner loop of tunnels in a nice flow sequence.
We have done a lot of playing and training out here during shows. We’ve tugged and played toy races and reverse retrieve a lot in the area where dogs line up to go in during walk throughs and at one fun match we even went into the ring and tugged and had toy races and reverse retrieve while they were walking their courses.
He ended up being super focused, able to play and ready to work when I asked him and so we ended up doing the full little sequence of 12 tunnels. He has done single tunnels in our training but I don’t have them set up sequenced tunnel to tunnel, so it was a little mind blowing for him but he did pretty amazing.
Anyway, here’s a little video of our Puppy Garten work there – small wobble board, big wobble board, ladder, low teeter, low wide dog walk, tunnel and some start line stays. Then at the end his little Tunnelers course run. I know there was a lot here that wasn’t perfect (and that I need to learn to run faster and get some distance verbals in there) but I was so proud of how well he did and how much fun he had. Plus, not horrible speed for a baby just learning (12 tunnel sequence in 19.7 seconds 😁).
Yep, he enjoyed Leg Bumps, just took advantage of me being slurp level.
Here’s a short ladders clip from yesterday.
We’re heading to an agility group Christmas party this morning. He might get to do a little bit of a tunnelers game or puppy play area they plan to have out. 😆
Thank you for the feedback on that last session. 😊
“yes” is my move to food hand and take food LSM so that part is probably okay.
The udder tugger is a toy I’m trying to build more value for. It’s just so much easier to stick in my pocket. It’s working okay for tugging when it’s in my hand but looks like it doesn’t yet have great value as a dead toy. So, I’ll keep working on that and next session sub in his hollee roller on fleece tug. I also have a couple of udder tuggers on fleece or other handle coming from clean run hoping they are better for him and easier for me (the plain ones get really slippery as we play 😝).
Here’s some leg bumps for your amusement. 😁 I’ll go brave my muddy agility area to get our ladder later today if I can break off work for a bit. Training a puppy does horrible things to my work ethic. 🤣
Here’s a little bit of “Strike a Pose” this morning. Just using kibble as treats since he has in person class tonight and indoors since it’s a bit wet out.
Doing outdoor game first would be great if it works for your planned flow. I have daylight until about 5 PM these days. I do have outdoor lights that I can set up this week (if needed) and can use in future weeks. I’ll plan to have both an indoor and outdoor camera option tonight just in case and to really test my tech skills (and my country wifi 🤣).
Thanks for feedback on that last post. We did some more turn and burn on trees at a show (away from the action) and worked on speed in. He did well there and the longer toy continued to work. No video of that.
Here’s some stuff from last night – prop games – counter motion and rear crosses and then the send, blind, Decel, turn and send sequence. Really tough in this small space but he’s definitely trying. I’m late on the blind a few times and not always able to fit in a smooth Decel. Also, he’s not swallowing the treats on the send and turn so I ended up fading them out.
P.S. I have space and lights on my front lawn. Wondering if any of tonight’s class exercises would be better with a little more space. Let me know what you think. I’d like to try using that outdoor option for anything where it might be nice. Our barrel work seems to go more smoothly with some space. I could also just move some dog beds out of the way to give just a little more space indoors. Thoughts?
We did some more turn and burn. I wa trying to stay closer but I think I’m farther from the barrel than you wanted watching the video back now. I used a longer toy to drag and keep his head lower to try to get him less “hoppy.” 😁
We also did some rear crosses on the prop. Watching that back I see I’m not doing any ready dance or jazzing him up. I didn’t see that in your video showing this but was thinking a little of that might help him drive ahead. I had a bit of a hard time in this space so might take this outside next time.
Okay, fun class this week. 😁
Here’s some Turn N Burn from this morning. He has less consistent commitment when I send him from my left (which we also saw in his prop games). But, he does seem to be catching on that I want him to do the thing I indicated even if my path is changing while he’s doing it. Without adding more distance it’s hard to actually turn and get out of there after sending to the obstacle and letting him get past me and still have the front cross completed before he gets to the obstacle. I’m happy to add more distance if you think he’s ready for that.
Sorry we haven’t been posting in this class. All our time and cookie budget has been going to our MaxPup class and using this class’s reinforcement concepts there. 😁
I do want to dive back into these specific exercises.
We did some early remote reinforcement stuff here. We haven’t really worked on this specifically in a training context yet. I do have cookie jars holding kibble throughout the house and I’ll say “cookies” and go get some when a dog does something nice throughout the day (like going to a mat when Amazon arrives or when play gets too rough and I ask them to be more gentle). Here I’m going with “Let’s go get your…” cookies or toy in the future. I know it’s kind of long but I feel I’m most likely to actually use it in a training or show context vs just saying “cookies.”
This is pretty unedited with a couple of mistakes and a rep where I asked for too many behaviors in a row without reinforcement and got his nose coming up near my face instead of an elevated hand touch. That’s usually a sign of frustration, so I tried to increase the ROR at that point.
Another day out hiking yesterday, only 7 miles, so he’s not as tired today.
We started a new object for the sends since the tote bag was slipping too much (and lacked some clarity with handles and empty space). This is a non-slip silicone type potholder. So we just shaped the front foot touch to it, then added a forward send, then side send, then backward send.
We also did a bit of backup to wobble board and tried using a treat bowl to get his focus and head/neck lower.
I took Rip out to train this morning and realized he was pretty tired after a big day yesterday (my Fitbit says I walked 22K steps/10 miles on our hike yesterday and he was off leash with my older BC and easily ran twice as far as I walked with check-ins and exploring).
So, we started with a couple of minutes of 360 turns on dog walk middle plank, saw he was pretty exhausted and then put him down for a nap. 😁
I’ll let him rest up today and we’ll do something more fun tomorrow.
Great feedback to my last post. I’m on my iPad hanging out with the pup at a show so won’t quote and respond to each point but all things I’ll incorporate. I’ve used a nose target with my big dogs for a long time and do like it so think I’ll just go back to that for my teeter 2o2o. If Nancy fusses at me I’ll survive 😁
This morning before heading to the show we did some quick backup stuff. He’s seen this intermittently over the past few months but we haven’t done tons of it with super specific criteria as far as speed, distance or straightness.
Here we did backup to his Cato board flat, then to his wobble board with the edge propped on a low step then to his wobble board at a steeper angle. Just using clicker and kibble as treats (no toy play this session) since the older BC is right there and I didn’t want her to get all worked up. I do plan to do more polite taking turns in arousal but today is not the day. 😝
