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Not sure if a file link will work here but here’s the latest CPE DTIR rules (just got these today for a trial that starts tomorrow). The first 2 CPE shows I ran DTIR I was not following all of these rules. 😒
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0eyrjrsdtnm9hra/FNG%20and%20DTIR%20for%20WAG%20CPE%20Shows.pdf?dl=0
This is the reason I need to work on my blinds (and make smarter decisions) –
https://www.facebook.com/1191483957/posts/10229092838884232/I learned if he breaks his start at all I may not make the blind, once he knows where he’s going (these were double runs – same course 2 times) I may not make the blind, and when there’s no jump hang time and mostly straight lines I may not make the blind.
I definitely want to get better at doing them and smarter about when to do them because I do like them.
Yeah that Pole Position game reminds me of barrel racing as a kid (but I’m working a lot harder running a dog instead of just sitting on the horse 🤣).
We worked on the Lead Out concept transfer today. I’m trying to increase his arousal on the start line a little at home (and in classes) to mimic what he’s like at an actual trial. So, we’re doing some tugging and I let my 13-year-old BC be in the yard next to us barking her head off (which I used to avoid so that he could concentrate on what we were learning but now appreciate as a great distraction).
These are all of our reps – just cut out some tugging in between.
He’s not the hugest fan of me tossing a toy behind him or to him on the startline. It’s not really reinforcing for him (same with a dead toy behind him that he could be released to). Manners Minder behind him is okay to be sent to instead of release but kind of an annoyance it seems. My first fast border collie was like that and if given a treat on the start line would spit it out and didn’t want to go back to or catch a toy, just wanted to be released forward. Normally I always give a cookie for the sit on the line but I’m playing a little with weaning off that because I feel like in trials I don’t have that (even FEO/NFC). I could release him forward to tug but haven’t really tried that yet.
I did the gradual distance lead out but totally forget to do the handling to 3 and just sent him ahead to a pre-thrown toy. Also on BC reps I moved into position before releasing him and re-reading the instructions we should have been running into that as they were released. We’ll keep working on this.
In the trials he’s done so far it feels like we start out where we are at home on day 1 and generally early day 2, but then towards the end of the trial he gets more and more focused on/locked onto the first obstacles and doesn’t want to sit. We get more barking waiting for his turn and entering the ring and then he just looks on to the obstacles with me in his peripheral vision. This past weekend the 3rd day I ran him off the line on some courses where you started mid-course into a u-shaped tunnel so it made sense anyway and at the very end when he couldn’t sit on the line I just had him wait in a stand and he did fine (but I also didn’t ask for a long lead out since we haven’t really trained that in a stand).
We are continuing to do a lot of offered sits for reinforcing things (Premack) especially for playing in the hose since that is VERY arousing for him and he’s doing well on that.
I completely appreciate that it is a good problem to have that the dog is too focused on me and the equipment versus some alternatives, so happy to work through this in whatever way keeps him confident, optimistic and wanting to play the game with me versus a battle of wills before we even start the course.
We’re at a show so no official homework to post but wanted to share this new CPE “Speedway” game called “Pole Position.” Max Puppers have a HUGE advantage here. Rip was fastest of all the dogs at any level and I think I even got a little spin in there. 😁
We worked a bit on mat/tunnel discrimination. We’ve done a good amount of building value for the mat but not much recently. I did a short session just making sure he could drive to the mat on a verbal and from between my legs.
Later we did a session of mat vs tunnel.
Hi Tracy,
We’ll definitely keep increasing distractions for his 2o2o (and we’ve doing lots of training runs with toys at shows – sometimes me knows I have it, sometimes not, sometimes no toy) to help proof.
At shows I’m trying to keep running as he moves into position but watching the videos I can see a lot of the time I’m still deceling and stop just before or just as he does. I’ll keep working on that. At home I feel like I’m better about it.
This video below is from this weekend, we traveled out of state to a brand new location and he was pretty excited about it. At the end of the 2nd day he was struggling to sit on cue at the start and wanted to just stand and stare at the first obstacles (especially if he could see a contact on his line). So we’re working on being able to sit on cue or offer a sit (Premack) when he’s in a higher arousal state and really wants something – like to go out on the agility field, or when we play with the hose to get me to start spraying it again. Any other ideas on that part? In general he’s super good, low latency about cued sits and has an automatic sit for his side, close and middle line ups just sometimes when he’s really excited he can’t quite do it (when that happens I ask for a hand touch and then a chin rest and then he can sit or I move him and restart the line up – that works about 95% of the time to unfreeze him and let him think again).
Today we did a little of the newest Serps exercise. No real issues on 1 or 2 jumps. On the tunnel exercise I set things up just wrong enough that it wasn’t really what you demonstrated so we’ll redo that tonight or tomorrow AM.
Note to self – do not work on a skill with Ripley for 30 minutes without balancing it with the opposite skill – even if it’s in a class setting. 🤣
So, I was hopeful this was just a dog’s line, logic, extension vs collection, no physical cues, tunnel turning away kind of an issue yesterday.
Maybe partly, but Ripley’s answer in last night’s training was no, I mostly just think I’m supposed to always find the hardest tunnel entry after working on the skill for 1/2 of his Wednesday IRL class.
In this session below I can see some reps where I give him a little excuse by thinking he’s committed and starting to move off but I’ve always been able to do that with him. Some of these reps I am 100% supporting the correct entry and he’s veering around me to find the opposite end. 😝
So, concept dog score 1, Cindi score 0.
Guess who’ll be doing lots of fun regular tunnel entries for a couple of days?
I continue to be fascinated by this puppy.
Editing this post to add this morning’s quick tunnel/play session. This is all the reps we did (just edited out some toy play between). Only got 1 unintended threadle tunnel and when I looked back at his line I realized the tunnel on the right had shifted a lot and so was aiming out at the highway which did put that far tunnel entrance on the left on his direct line once he turned back onto the course. I’m also trying to keep my arm back and low so my chest is pointing at the correct entrance with more connection and more purposefully than I’ve had to in the past with him (before the wonderful world of threadle tunnels opened up to him this week). Makes it hard to run fast but I think we’ll end up in a happy medium on this soon.
I’ve been meaning to circle back to threadles – tunnels, jumps and all the things since I feel like it’s a hole in our training so far and haven’t really done it. Last night in his IRL class we did a LOT of work on tunnel threadles. He had not seen that concept in many months and I had not ever built a solid foundation on it (so he’d seen it like 2-3 training sessions over the past year) – partly because I struggle with some of the murkiness of it. In class he was still a bit uncertain but starting to remember the concept (at least without any speed into a tunnel threadle). So, that’s your background on today’s session.
First video – the good. We worked on MaxPup style threadle on jumps cueing and then I realized that the jump I was practicing on was a jump that I think the package 1 asks for a threadle on so we backchained to doing just the first 3 jumps from that course (if I remembered it right – I haven’t looked at it for a while).
Then things got weird. I tried to work on the sitting jump tunnel discrimination on verbal only exercise. My tunnel was not straight and I was too lazy to move it out of the corner to straighten it (especially since I want to do that actual package 1 jumpers course tomorrow and it’s part of it). We ended up with some really interesting logic/choices from little Ripley that I think I kind of get, but not 100%. You’re up!
Almost able to use the full Jumpers course on my field at home (just gotta get the darn A frame out of the center of it).
In the meantime some more weave work. He hasn’t really had any issues with popping out of the weaves before but in his IRL class last night he popped a couple of times on a long set so I decided to work on commitment to the poles/exits today.
I’ve got a bunch of his tug toys in front of and after the weaves and am marking for the last pole here while adding in some seeing me doing handling moves or being at a distance but staying in the poles. Last night I think the big challenge was the weaves were aiming straight into the center of a U shaped tunnel that was the next obstacle and the instructor really wanted a front cross before the tunnel in a tight space. Next session I’ll work on more crosses on the exit end of the poles.
“Working Ripley” is the problem and he barks, begs, throws a tantrum, leads me to the door (or the cabinet with his training) stuff if he doesn’t feel like he’s had enough training. Then everyone else in the family pays – including all the other dogs (and my wife).
I remember you mentioning the soccer coach help years ago at a Power Paws camp. Made total sense, I just haven’t ever gotten serious enough to train myself.
As far as this exercise, yes, this is the first time he’s done it. He literally is a sponge and loves concept training. I don’t do tons of luring but when I do I add a lot of small pieces of variety and fade the lure as quickly as possible and I think he appreciates that. He doesn’t appreciate being babied or talked down to. He just wants me to explain the concept and then get out of his darn way.
I feel like we’ve seen that in Max Pup where you’re like – “Okay, now do the cha cha, followed by the rumba” and I’m like “What?” while Ripley’s like, “Got it, cha cha, rumba, now what.” 🤣
Yeah 1:13 on that last video cracked me up. This kid of mine. 🤣
He was a bit jacked up before bed last night so we did some quick behind-the-back start training so that he would hopefully sleep and not drive us all nuts.
I like the idea of more options to not start flat-footed with him. I feel like my 0 to 60 is much slower than his (it’s one of the reasons I think I’ve been avoiding too much decel on course – since too much and it’s really hard to get back up to speed).
With the heat my agility space is getting all cracked with ruts and divets so need to drag it to get it safe again. In the meantime here’s a first shot at the weaves independence exercise.
We’ll circle back to jumpers courses when the field is good to go.
Okay redo of ESC package 1 sequences 1,2 and 3 plus first attempts at 4.
I’ve got the jumps back up to 20” which he hasn’t seen much of the past few weeks since I’ve had him at 16” a lot (but he’ll jump 20” “for real”).
He’s knocking some bars here and there and feels like we just need to fine tune cues, timing, motion, etc.
I am using way too many “go ons” here watching this back and not giving him the info he really needs. Also feels like I’m coming in too hot to the wing wrap in sequence 4 and should be showing some decel and giving the verbal sooner instead of a go on for the jump after the tunnel.
I’m totally behind in CAMP so will look for that verbal discrimination game there or here as I catch up.
We did CAMP stuff in the AM when it was cool out and Rip is bugging me like crazy to play with it 100+ degrees out so we settled on a slightly longer lazy 2o2o game to try to amuse him.
He’s good at offering 2o2o when he thinks there’s any chance that’s what I want. Basically once he’s in position he’s going to stay there (especially in this kind of game). I tried a few different positions and played with toy reinforcement in addition to his normal kibble treats.
Okay, I tried to get caught up in MaxPup 3 so we could dive into CAMP stuff a bit.
This is Package 1 ESC Sequence 1, 2 and 3. These are all of our reps just cut out tugging and lineup between reps since I know you’ve seen plenty of that in MaxPup lives.
This is definitely the stuff we need now to try to figure our timing out together. I really like how some Decel and a tiny bit of tunnel break helped him find that tight right out of the tunnel on sequence 2 and 3. Also seeing that veering in toward him to get the line 4-5 on sequence 2 was slightly annoying to both of us and layering that middle jump of the pinwheel gave him a nice straight extended line to that 5 jump.
He’s going to that single jump after the tunnel with some collection each time. I think it’s because my dog walk is there and a fence and he’s preparing for a sharp right onto the DW or just slowing to avoid the fence. I can place a toy out there to show him he can extend at least to that point but wanted your input first.
Thanks for the feedback on that last session.
This morning we worked on the countermotion exercise.
Pup’s feeling a bit nutty today and had a lot of fun. We took a break half way through for some hose play then finished up since it will be too hot later.
Watching it back and knowing him, I could be leaving earlier on the wraps but just ended up distracted by which verbal, which wing, etc.
Was there a “Verbals” exercise somewhere in our content (I saw Levy working on something that I don’t remember seeing in what I’ve looked through so far).
