[dlbannasch]

Tracy

Little break there. Taq got sick again but is back on the mend. It took me two days and a crashed finger to build this course!!!

Ok no crying in agility. This video shows cricket 1st and only run through. I deleted my happy dance when she layered the dog walk!!! Woohoo. Then I showed some short sequences with Taq. I know she was not weaving (she tried) and I rewarded her effort!!

[dlbannasch]

Tracy

These were all the runs we did. I ran them first with Cricket who aced everything of course. I love how these helped Taq gain confidence being further away.

[dlbannasch]

Tracy

Teeter- I wondered if it would be more clear for her if both obstacles were the same. I wanted had her at a full height teeter but she was stopping early (high yellow) or coming to the bottom and breaking before release so I worked on not self releasing but she is not coming to the end of the board. I would love to hear your thoughts.

Re the forward focus. She is a quick glance kind of girl not a herdy stair. That seemed fine until it wasn’t! Lateral was hard. I made it easier by giving her a preplaced target.

[dlbannasch]

Happy holidays! You said see you on Thursday. Do we have another live?

I got the family to step outside and watch us run. First run 4 people then down to one. She was definitely focused on me. I think the people bothered her less but she was hard to handle because she was not driving to the obstacles.

I was wondering if maybe her dial would be better with a toy rather than treats?

[dlbannasch]

Tracy

Ok added in leash and my husband standing next to the teeter. I forgot to put the leash back on-duh and seemed to me she felt the pressure of his presence. First run remote toy next runs with a toy. I knew the threadle was going to be hard. Cricket has spoiled me.

[dlbannasch]

Tracy

Thanks for that. Perfect start lines: she stays in a sit for a 1-2 jump lead out and release on a verbal cue. She always releases fast. Good start lines: 1-2 jump
Leadout but maybe release based on distance or physical cue.

I do throw rewards along lines away from me at home- pretty much exclusively.

Taq and I got a brief sunset session.

The first rep I left the toy in the bag and we ran past it and then ran to it with her reward cue. Now this is her first work in a week so she was pretty hot! The next two reps I had toy in hand.

[dlbannasch]

Tracy

It is bomb raining, and the ground is soaked here, and I was away from my puppy for a week, so I am cranky. But I Got some amazing learning done while at the I and wanted to drill down on this since I think it might apply to Taq. I started doing the pattern games and volume dial with Cricket. Pattern games worked super well to bring her arousal down around hairy barky competitors. She had some tricks so I did volume dial before runs. Over the course of a few weekends I got perfect startlines (EMPHASIS HERE- perfect) and a very sticky dog. By this I mean she did not want to go take things (uber handler focused). So, in the last 2 weeks, I worked with her ball (no treats) and did 180s and pinwheels; she was on fire. I attended to her physical needs before we left and was sure this was nothing physical. I go to the event, and Vol dial before my first 3 runs, and she is super sticky and has perfect startlines. The volume dial tricks with her are fast spins, but after thinking about this, I realized for her they are also pivot into heel. So I think the Vol dial was not done correctly by me and instead I jammed stay with the momma thoughts into her head. On the last day I stopped the vol dial, and there was a subtle difference on the first run, but on the last run was a much bigger difference. By the way the start lines were still good. Sorry, for you to have to read all that, but I kind of geeked out on it and thought you would.

My questions are about Taq. I don’t tend to have focus on me problems and I think that Taq’s vol dials are as you would want- at least the spins (I may lose the hand touch and keep the cute kiss). But I wonder if I should decrease to 2 spins and then run to keep her up and not increase the focus on me? Are there other ways to handle dogs that are VERY handler-focused? For Cricket, the game is almost 100% about me; Taq, it is less; she enjoys moving her body, but with all of our training, I see her becoming more focused on me. With the environmental issues she is more focused on me but we have tools for that 🙂 I am adding in people and strange places I promise.

Thanks for the feedback and hopefully we can show you some videos before the quarter ends.

[dlbannasch]

Tracy

Thought I might get back to the U today but too much packing! We fly out at 3 am to go to Florida.

So I used her hollee roller number 2 fav toy and we ran a seq with the teeter. As I watched the unedited video. I thought here Tracy enjoy yet another video of my big butt as I play with my dog 🤣

I know this course is not about this but taq so schools me in connection;)

I wanted to have some fun running with rewards in hand. Interesting I did a third run which did not record which was pretty nice. She comes further down the teeter if she is on my left side. Always not just in this video. The dog is so very sided!!!

Last run dog on left

Be back on Monday!

• This reply was modified 6 months, 2 weeks ago by dlbannasch.

[dlbannasch]

Tracy

Ok noted on the reward. Did I understand that I should use a slightly value toy when training in my yard and save the balls for remote reward?

For these videos I had sparkle ball in my Tracy pouch (aka go banana slug hoodie). I knew this would be hard. I also had some high value treats which I used a few times. No acclimation she peed on the way from the car and then I did our warm up. The only thing that happened between these videos was long breaks.

During the week there would be many people here. I may just bring her and see if she is ready to work?

I thought she did great. I felt like there was huge improvement. I do not think it was just this toy.

I will try it again somewhere else too.

Danika

[dlbannasch]

Tracy

Ok tomorrow the U is planned with Ginger
I was planning on having her outside the “ring” watching for a first rep and then maybe sitting in the ring and then standing.

Maybe that is too much?

Today we went to the dog show and practiced standing still (super hard). The. Came home and had a break then did reward station and leach on off with just a jump and then with sequences.

I thought this went really well. She is not quite as quick with the ball at the station so definitely need to PRACTICE more.

We had angry barking mom in the background which Taq did not seem to care about.

I feel a little confused about where I am in class so please let me know if there are things I should be working on more!

[dlbannasch]

Tracy

Work keeps getting in the way of agility!

This is new location at my place so no people and quite but two buns on the field and she was happy to be engaged with me.
I need to try the U sat or my mom’s place. Invitationals are next week so I also need to focus on momma dog😀

She was a bit reluctant to sit but that was the off side start line that we noted was a problem
A few weeks ago.

Tester and A frame are at full height and I am adding in sequencing for those. Working on her mat which is going really well now.

Danika

Ps do I need to do more of the ping pong between food bowls?

This leash seems to be working well for her.

[dlbannasch]

Tracy

There will be more trial/ practice ops coming up in the spring. In the meantime I am going to baby bear things. I have two major changes right? Novel environment and loss of her fav reward (sparkle ball- I know she would be wicked a flyball- she even recalls to me when her house mates are running full tilt away)
I digress

So I will work on these separately. In my 2 yards I will continue to build the reward stations and the power up. I will also slowly add the distractions. I assumed that since I take her to all these environments it would be ok but she is a little marshmallow. I knew this when I decided to keep her but her structure was so nice and she was so fast…

Last night I asked my husband to sit in a chair while we worked for a toy on jumps. She wondered why he was there for a moment ( no vid) but worked beautifully. Ginger said she is happy to come over and drink wine and watch me run 😉

So I can add some people distractions at home. I also have 40 acres. At this time of year that is about 10000 PRACTICE spots . Once she can work well in 5-6 of those then I will go into town (20 mins away) and do some set ups there, then my moms, then the U with more people then there is CPE nearby too.

I think the baby steps will work.

Here is step 1-

Danika

[dlbannasch]

Tracy

Yes I used the pattern games yesterday and today. Today we did some play at the PRACTICE jump

We also had lots of potty walks and some time sitting in the stands. She loves all the people and dogs. She easily refocuses on me. I tried to let her watch dogs run and she was not stimulated by that at all.

I had her right where I wanted her and they called us back out of the ring because an inexperienced novice person combined with a gate not paying attention meant that a 4 inch dog needed to run.

I just went back to the stash and did more patterns.

I kept it short and sweet. This was the first time she noticed the nice people in the ring. 😁

The judge perfectly ignored her and I figured this must mean she is taking in more of the environment.

I was super happy with this run. We both improved!

We have no runs tomorrow.

This afternoon she got a long decompression walk.

Danika

[dlbannasch]

Tracy

Ok we did nothing before the trial but decompression walls. Got to the site today. Walked her around. Asked for for tricks for treats. Did a brief couple practice jumps for the toy. These were all over the course of the day. For our run I took her to my stash and dialed her up. She was nicely engaged.

Then the video

I have another run tomorrow

Danika

[dlbannasch]

Tracy

Safe drive home from UKI.

So much rain here. We headed to the garage to work on remote reinforcement. Taq is not feeling like eating (skipped dinner). After the video she curled up on my lap and her gi sounds were quite impressive.

She did not seem unhappy otherwise. So I am trying to momma bear the toy play. You told me not to loom over her so I asked to come up on me to tug then you said I was holding the toy to high🤣

So I know she likes to grab things and you wanted long so I could drag it. I think this worked well.

I may have underestimated how crappy she was feeling. Now I feel like a horrible dog owner. She often skips meals so I did not think too much of it.

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