Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Went out with the Ball today and bam Bindi was back. I tried to stay stationary on most and then ran on a couple. Tried adding more distance and went a little further around the clock. I will add the harder entries and try the wing wraps coming up. Non-stop storms from now until Friday (my shelties Reba goes crazy so I am
Guessing no sleep) but hopefully she will remember in a couple days lol.Yes I need to look at the games from yesterday yet!
She was driving out nice for the poles until the two mini sessions I did yesterday so not sure what slowed her up but I did start with the Pet Tutor which may have put her in “think” mode. I also had to move where the weaves were and it was 85 degrees out so may have been a bit of a combo of things. She generally thinks and doesn’t kick it in until I have some kind of movement in general when training (and then she can really open up and fly and I am somewhat sure I am going to get taken out at some point lol.) I was happy to see she was excited about running out to the weaves for the last week so was a bit sad that she slowed up getting into them here but was happy once she got in she picked it up.
I will try the next session starting with the ball again and see if that changes her drive to them.
I worked a couple more sessions with Bindi and watched my verbals a bit. Like you mentioned before and what I thought may be happening was my “Yes” was always like a click with an reward immediately after. However, somewhere along the line, I started using “super” and “Yeah!) as a nice now let’s run forward and party tour verbal. Didn’t plan it that way but somewhere it happened lol and while I did it subconsciously Bindi figured out the difference! Hence I would sometimes say Yes and she would then look back at me like where’s my treat lady! These dogs are too smart.
The first session I did with my Pet Tutor and Bindi did it but never broke out of a trot even with me running. Not sure if she was just thinking too much or what. Sadly the wind blew my camera over so all I got was footage of grass.
The next session I switched back to the ball but really watched my verbals. She trotted out to the weaves but as soon as she got to them she drove through and kept her head looking forward down the line. I can try another session increasing around the arch with both the pet tutor vs the ball to see how that goes.
It is fun watching them start to putting this together.
Okay I did two quick sessions with Bindi today and I have to say I am so proud of this little girl! She worked through so much craziness.
I apologize in advance for the bad camera angles cutting me out in a few reps. The wind was so strong it kept blowing my Tripod over so I had to get creative.
Session 1
Insane strong winds! The last couple sessions I rolled cheese into little balls and tossed it and it worked perfect. It would land and keep rolling like the ball but Was actual food and Bindi didn’t have to hunt for it and since it rolled Bindi seemed to kick
It in more. Today well the wind was so strong it blew my 15lb Reba off her cot so you can imagine what happened to my cheese balls. Bad bad me. Even so Bindi ran the through the poles towards where the treat or toy should be which was an awesome thing to see but not good because she was like where the heck did it go on a couple throws. I did both stationary (man that was hard to mental note not to move) and movement reps. Reba was also out in the yard and generally if I Toss her a treat she stays out of the way but she decided to join me running a couple times and Bindi still nailed the entries and drove through.Session 2
Still insane winds but learning from mistake earlier I brought her ball back out. Of course my neighbors were dirt bike racing down the street (you will probably catch that on audio lol) but Bindi was like who cares mom has cheese for the weaves. Right on the entry that tripped her up most a big plastic wrap blew over the fence towards us. I saw her look but she kept going for the weaves and got the entry! Then we did a couple sessions where I raced her through a bit. She got pumped but stayed focused. The very last rep on the video you can actually see her hit the entry hard and then work to wrap the pole and burn. Loved her attitude in general with all the craziness. Time for a day off to work on contacts tomorrow and then if you think she is ready I will try closing the weaves a bit more.One thing I noticed is if I say yes (which is essentially my marker word instead of a click) to reward the entry when going to pole 3 she will continue going forward but glance back knowing a treat is coming whereas if I use super or awesome, which are more of a general praise terms, she tends not to do that glance and looks more forward even if ai toss late. I didn’t even realize I was doing different things with that I until these two sessions. Since Yes is my true marker word would you continue to use that even if she does glance in my direction?
So I worked with Bindi on more motion and added the second 2×3 weaves this weekend but my phone was pretty drained because of watching NAC so didn’t get video. She she had already been doing the channel partially closed so she picked up on the second set quite quick so I moved then both into 1 & 7 positions today and here is that video.
I felt she did really well with these! She has one new trouble spot instead of the 3 O Clock miss she is missing at 9. I think that is because we really worked on the 3 O Clock wrap so she knows to wrap right next then go whereas the 9 O Clock one she never really had to collect much once she hit the poles. She worked through it but I could see she had to slow up and really think about it. The rest were fine even with movement. Actually her last rep I sent from a distance and you could see her turn and turn on the speed as she approached the weaves! Yeah!
Would you recommend spreading the bases out further and treating inbetween for the 9 O Clock entrance? She seemed like she is really starting to drive more for the rest.
Edit to add I brought her back outside tonight and she ran over to the weaves and barked at me (the power of string cheese.) I Let her do two entries 10 O Clock and the 9 O Clock where she missed early. She flew through at 10 and then slowed down to an extended trot but got 9 so I jackpotted it and ended there.
Well I did videos for two 2×2 sessions and a channel session and 1 of the videos I accidentally hit slo mode on so you just get two lol.
I took your advice and brought my 2x2s inside during the rain to work on her 3 O Clock Entry. I have lots of distractions outside so I thought this would help. Yup did one session to really think about it without distraction and bam! I tried using a MM but that was a bit much when asking to work on that entry. This is my second session indoors. Nailed every entry with confidence in a pretty narrow room. I added movement at the end of this session. The next session that I did slow mo I added more movement and improved my throwing and she did really well. I didn’t “push” the 3 O Clock entry but as soon as I saw her start to bend I would walk forward and she was fine with it!
The Channel session I brought my MM back out and at first she tried to go right to it again. I didn’t panic though and let her work through it for a couple reps. Once it clicked again she was like let’s do it lol. We had squad cars go by, which totally fascinate her, but O got her right back and working. I ran with her and even did some tears. I thought she handled everything quite well.
My yard is hard as I sadly have a couple very aggressive dogs one one side of me and a not friendly and overly friendly dog on the other. I also live 3 houses off a highway so lots and lots and lots of distraction. Plus Bindi is a digger and likes to “hunt” for things outside. That has been my biggest challenge with weaves as there could potentially be a lot going on that is out of my control when I need her to think. Sequences and contacts she is running and doesn’t seem to notice things as much. I spent a lot of time building value for me so I can generally get her back on track quickly but I try to watch closely so there is no stress. Sadly my house is small so not much left for options.
OMG Yup your right I need more coffee not you lol. I blame the evil neighbor dog lol.
Ironically we are in the middle of two solid days of rain but it stopped for just a bit so on lunch I ran out and did exactly what you mentioned. I just worked that 3 O’Clock entry. I actually let me older dog rock it first (which Bindi did not approve of lol) and then I let her take a crack at it with the poles at 1 and 7. Did it 3 times and got huge jackpot. Flipped the weaves straight and she nailed it. HUGE party and then we stopped with her wanting more. No video as it was misting ever so slightly but hopefully I can sneak little things like that in and then do another regular session Thursday once it stops raining.
We started today with a short threadle session. Right as we started they ke there evil neighbor dog out and I could tell Bindi was stressing so I did like 4 reps and quit but I wanted to Include it here so you can see the start of our threadle work.
I came back out after dinner and do a session with straight weaves. She did really good overall. She did miss at the same position she missed at from our last video so I moved the weaves back out to 1 and 7 and she got it then. I actually looks like she was driving ou, targeting the cone and just going for it at first.
Storms the next couple days but hopefully we can sneak another session in between the rain.
We did another 2×2 session today. I moved the weaves to 1 and 7 so almost straight and worked on around the clock with movement (and Bindi insisted on adding a cone wrap on one lol.)
I felt she did really well with this! My movement did not seem to interfere with her at all. We had one miss on one of the harder 45 degree angels (3 O’Clock if remember right) where she went out and around both poles but got it on her second attempt.
Mental note pick up new Lotus Ball with Clean Run order next week as my Velcro seems to be popping open.
I noticed her looking back and then charging forward too and didn’t love that so had already mental noted that I need to work on that. Thank goodness for video as it didn’t seem that obvious until I played it back.
I did two sessions today one 2×2 and I also introduced her to channels.
For the 2×2 session I wasn’t sure if the MM would be too much or not yet so I set out cones to help me target the right line and also tossed a bit sooner. I think her performance was greatly improved here. The only thing I edited out was me getting the ball and refilling it. She hit every entry even with me lining her up on the wrong side creating a much harder entry by accident. I didn’t do too much movement as I was concentrating on my ball throwing lol but I think Bindi would have been fine with it.
I also did a super quick entry to channels. I don’t have channel weaves so turned 3 sets of my 2x2s to create a channel. For this I also broke my Pet Tutor back out as I figured the line was straight. I have to say I was soooo PROUD of my little girl. After the disaster that happened earlier this week Bindi absolutely rocked this. As a matter of fact the first two times down the Channel she actually started running past the Pet Tutor thinking she should do the whole line right away! She had to stop and backup some to get treats. Seeing this I moved it out relatively quickly. Then I went to reset her and wasn’t quite in the line and she took off down the channel so ai let her do some soft entries into the channel. Nailed them! Wrapped the poles to go down the line to the Pet Tutor! 100% success rate! I don’t know what I was more happy about, the fact the 2x2s seemed to transfer to the channel or the fact that she actually could think clearly enough to figure out how to get to the pet tutor to get the reward without cutting through the poles! The only thing I wasn’t sure about is she does seem to be jumping the bases. I am not sure if this would cause issues down the road?
We’re back!
Snow gone check
Weaves with bases check
Lotus Ball check
Sheltie checkSo since we had a few days off due to Mother Nature I started this session of around the clock with just basic shaping and then added motion once she showed me she remembered what the poles were about. She had just had some dinner (I teach tonight so squeezed a quick session in) so not quite as much drive as before but not a single miss. She LOVES her new line up reward (stick of cheese) so thank you for that tip. She stayed connected with me way better this session and didn’t try going off and searching in the grass for treats when I refilled the ball which was a win.
Have I told you how much I love your class! Thank you! I really appreciate the training tips and suggestions. She has just been rocking her agility training and then bam I was like I ruined my puppy 🥲 of course we have a snow storm moving in as I typed but they said it will be gone in a day or so and we will get out there and take another crack at it with actual weaves.
We have real weaves! They are apart! Well for the next video we do. I had to wash all the WD-40 off them before I can use them next lol.
So this session confirmed something I had been noticing doing videos for another class I am in and that is food dispensers still blow her mind and makes it very hard for her to work. If there is a relatively straight line we are okay but she will do anything to get to the dispenser and will take the most efficient path to get there. Yet she knows something goes wrong and can do the behavior coming back okay. Eventually she starts to stress because I think in her mind she really thinks she should be moving towards it on an efficient path. Using it in sequences I have my movement to support her line, standing still or with minimal movement not so much.
She struggled with this when she was younger. Actually was obsessed with it and wouldn’t leave it to work at all. Now she will leave to to work but going to it her brain just blows. I left some of it in the video to show you what I mean. Several times she just went right back to the machine cutting behind me with no forward motion at all. It’s like she is so aware that it is there she can’t focus on anything but getting to the machine when offered a choice to do something else.
My running contact class is the same. I experimented with it a few days ago and removed the MM. she nailed every Mat hit around the clock with speed. Added the MM and she struggled big time.
I wasn’t sure if she was not understanding things here but she seemed to grasp the concept instantly yesterday. I had her out running tonight and had my treat ball I was doing some stuff with and Bindi ran out, barked and did the weaves. I was like okay let’s try this. No MM just me throwing her ball (which I know is not ideal) but she got every weave angle with speed (which I know not to expect here but was happy that she felt confident enough to move lol) on the first time and zero signs of stress. At a much further distance to boot so she does understands the criteria. I quickly plopped my camera down and just did a super quick video so you can see the difference. I only did a couple entries for the video as I did not want to over do things with her.
Soooo I am not sure what the best way to proceed is. Obviously this is a training issue I need to work on with her but I also don’t want her stressing and me having to constantly call her back off the machine while she is learning a new weaving skill. Would it be best to separate the two things for now and work on the MM issue and just use the thrown toy for now? I know it’s not ideal but not sure how else to tackle it. With her doing mat work contacts I think putting a target down she would run right to it and ignore the weaves.
Oh wise one any thoughts.
Well I have reinforcements coming tomorrow to help me separate my poles (fingers crossed!) I didn’t want to get further behind so today I tried my stakes in the ground and they went in! Not ideal but it works for now. Bindi and I got our first two sessions in.
Session 1 I could really see her brain working to figure out what I wanted. She has not done anything with weaves up until now. We did about a 2 minute session and the neighbors let their dogs out and I can tell it was affecting Bindi’s focus so we stopped and went back out a few hours later do session 2 which was about 3 minutes.
In session 2 I could tell she got the concept and looked more confident but was losing her treats in the grass so I added my Pet Tutor. Working away from the Pet Tutor was very hard for her at one point (she likes her food) so I did continue to reward for her going back through the poles for this session. I also started to change my position so she was working further away from me and on both sides of the poles. She takes time to chew her kibbles at the Pet Tutor so I did edit that part out so you didn’t have to watch her chomp kibble forever lol.
It was a heat wave today, only -10! Spring where are you. I need to move lol.
I loved your suggestion. Bindi LOVES food so I decided to test us and use the Per Tutor on the other side of the jump.
I honestly thought she would go right for the Pet Tutor (especially since she was doing some running contact mat work right before hand where she did go to it.) She blew my mind here. I even moved it closer for the last couple reps to test us more. Love the efforts of my baby girl here.
Full disclosure I had just gotten out of the shower so hair is wrapped up and comfy clothes on. I figured at this point what the heck, might as well provide some entertainment since we have all been together trying to keep our sanity and puppies trained the last 7 months lol.
