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We’ve been doing a lot of puppy stuff (collar grab, touch, stay, stationing/mat) while I figured out what to do about these last lessons. I had to review MaxPup1 where we last had success, break it down, hide the tunnel, etc. I think we worked through some new skills. I also think I need to jog a bit in the serp reps because running in the German turn reps blew his little brain. Maybe there’s a step in between.
I had a leash on the ground (for my line) and used the toy target. On the ground was tough for him and the tunnel was impossible when we tried earlier in the week. So much to improve on here. Let’s hear it.
Accordion grid: rep 1 (I had the toy too close), rep 2: repeat of rep 1 with toy farther; rep 3 moved jump 3 by 3’; rep 4 moved jump by 3’ more; rep 5 raised bar of jump 3 to 8” (first time ever jumping any height more than 4” because I was curious to see his form. I don’t need to repeat it); rep 6 reduced spacing; rep 7 return to initial spacing, but I did shrink the spacing a smidge because I thought that 6’ spacing on first two reps might have been a little long. Then, looking at the video, I agree with my real time thoughts but I think I didn’t get them evenly spaced. Regarding Crescent, I think his form was good given my spacing issues. He looked good leaping over the increased height, but since it did look like effort, I really won’t repeat that. From what I read in your notes he was supposed to bounce the closest spacing and 1 stride all the others (2 FF hits = one stride) and I think he is doing that. From prior cavaletti work, I am under the impression that the bounces should be in the middle of the jump space, and he is not, but having this spacing, does that cause him to stretch out a little (extension)? Let me know what else I should be looking for. Thanks!
Ha! Yes (you’re good!)
I do think that was a little stress (his slower response to the cue) and distraction (looking away at a sound behind the fence) from not being totally engrossed in our activity (mild stress).And at the club field, the tunnel was indeed all by itself, not even part of a course set up and I had food for the set up and toy for the reward (in hand). He was brilliant there.
Sorry, I had a mini course set up for Prism at home and the AF is a beast to move around the tunnel. It goes away today.Tunnel Threadle: POW
He had failures with the wing wrap looking right at the tunnel. Watching my videos, I could have pre-cued the threadle verbal, but he doesn’t really know it yet. In a new session, we backed up to stationary work just getting the idea of what I want.That’s this video.
Prior to this, He did really well at the club field, but no video. But I put him around the wing wrap the other way, so he wasn’t looking at the tunnel coming out, but he did really nicely going into the tunnel without the extra looking around. He just turned 6 mo. So I’ll have to build this up.Where was my brain!?!
Oh how tragic!
Yes, he did have a BIG MAD!
Yes, I did have a ton of questions on this.
Yes, I often wake up having worked out some thing i must have been processing in my sleep.
Yes placement of reward is HUGE! And can help so much it feels like cheating. A pre-placed toy and Prism is a superstar! Methinks CM too.
I’m TRYING to use snatch and run vs grab and tug cues, but I struggle with so much thoughtful planning! Now there’s an even bigger goal for me (pre-walk the path, the verbals, and the reward-EVERY TIME, GAH!) Wasn’t that part of summer CAMP (get it right the first try…)
Thanks for the big pep talk! I appreciate it.
I was stressed about the failures and lost my head. Good news is that I did 3 reps of the GET OUT game tonight (one GO, one short distance OUT and one longer distance OUT but neither very far lateral) and CM was brilliant!
His favorite reward is frisbees which we used. (Redeemable?)For your viewing pleasure…all the early reps of Get OUT and RockingHorse Lap turn in all their puppy glory. 🙂 He did pretty awesome on the right hand (left turn away) and pretty sticky on my left hand for the right turn away. He wanted the toy so badly. I still think my throw timing is questionable.
For the record, I think luring is a good thing so long as it is advanced as the pup is ready, no easy feat. I was asking because I think the INTENTION of what I’m doing is important. If I am unsure of my goal and the intended reward criteria, I can miss a lot of rewarding opportunities (especially if I’ve chunked too much for a rewardable behavior).
Hi! So pleased with this little puppy!
Crescent showed real learning in this session. These are his very first reps of both of these. I felt like we had better connection than other sessions where we played at the drill one day and filmed the next. Is he learning how to learn? Am I learning him?
I was very unsure of the verbal cues for the NON-OUT line, so I didn’t use one, but it felt weird. And on the FX I did not use a verbal because I wanted the handling to be pure. I executed each part sooner (like I would with Prism) and CM showed nice jump commitment (I thought).
Should I have tossed the reward sooner on ALL of these? I recall you telling me to do so for “WindnHair-part1-GO-line”, and “find-the-jump-after-tunnel”, as well as the instructions for this one, “as soon as their head shows commitment to the out-jump” and I think I was late for those too. I’m struggling with Reward vs Lure where the late throw is a reward and the early throw is a lure (sort of). Can you explain the desired goal/timing?Did you just call Prism an “adult”??? I was thinking he was still an adolescent….;-) 🙂
He just LOVES these exercises.It’s like, you’re in my head when doing the zig-zag and wondering if the wings go sideways/vertical (like SERP jumps) or horizontal. I like barrels so there’s no question, :-). Puppy likes to go *through* the wings, so we are advancing the “around” component of wings, tee hee.
And again when I realized I was using his release word on the threadle reps. His training minutes were up, so I didn’t do any reps with the threadle verbal cue. He doesn’t know it yet anyway, so that would be a whole new training session. He is not as “wordy” as Prism (yet/for now/too young to say).
And again when not remaining parallel with the bar on the SERP reps. I feel pressure from the tunnel. Can I separate the wing farther from the tunnel?
(You have the Eye of Sauron” vision. You see all) 🙂So sad I didn’t think to turn the tunnel end down. I was so proud of myself for making the challenge easier and by blocking, and stepping past, the opening. He needed more than that. I appreciate the support telling me it’s all fine—-Baby dog issues.
Just saying I’m going to miss your input until we find another class for us with you. Congratulations on the newest pointy dog. SPOINTY (speedy and pointy) or SHPOINTY (sharp and pointy). You’re going to kill it in Flyball. Is that the idea?
Yeah, we’re meeting our puppy brain ability. So we played at a few things. Crescent reviewed some prior skills and did advanced level. And we made the layered tunnel quite a bit easier for him.
And then Prism had a try at these. I found that I was handling him WAY better on the wing handling game. I could finally “see” and feel how to push the line based on where he was (farther away vs closer to me). It’s not just “faster” changes. I thought I would just include him for fun, but I’ll bet you will have comments on me with him too.
[… you were decelerating at the wing then accelerating through the blind – the acceleration sends him wider and makes it harder to get the connection and timing.]
I had no idea that doing that would have such an effect!! I have been pondering my ability to anticipate handling needs in sheep-herding thereby being in position without having to rush and how that translates to smoother movements by me the handler and less stimulation of racing from Prism, and how all this smooth movement between acceleration and deceleration would be better for our team in agility as well.And yes! I TRY to rehearse the verbals before each rep.(have to move this to a more weighted value system-not just DOING it, but also OWNING it). It really matters. I edit out the shadow handling I do to make sure I get the correct turn (blind to Front, yikes) I’m capable of forgetting something important in the 2 seconds between set up and obstacle 3! I’m very sad about this. Some of my biggest discussions on walk-through is the degree of the turn, whether it’s a tight turn or a soft turn, what line to create. Sometimes, it LOOKS like a soft turn, but with an off course further out, I need to cue a tight turn. Many questions on this with a powerful jumper.
We had time (and puppy-energy) for another session. Gosh he loves the handling game and the grids. I included my experiments on the handling. He does great when I use all his verbals. For instance, when I used the tight turn cue (tic and soc) on the tunnel exit (before he’s out) he took the barrel with commitment-and tight, versus when I tried to rely on line pressure only on tunnel exit, I had to go deeper and then didn’t have any time for the blind-X. And on the racetrack, if I used the soft turn cue, he totally took the far jump-2, otherwise went from 1 to 3, skipping 2.
Thank you for your detailed feedback. I re-read it a few times and I think I understand. You answered all my questions before I asked them.
We worked up the Rear Cross from the PROP game. I had forgotten about this. So we did a few reps of each challenge building up. He got sticky at ‘wrap to RX’ before I added the toy (treats in hand has a lot to do with that). He was a RIGHTY throughout all of it, but in the end, he really did a nice job on the LEFTs. He did MUCH better when I act all serious and add energy rather than treating him like a baby dog. He did the same when we did Diamond game (as you saw). The more reps we do, the better my timing gets.
Thank you for the comments!
Yes! He smoked me on the diamond game! At 5 mo! I’m in trouble. Prism loved this one too!
Rear cross: Wow! Yes he DID decide on the line as he was rounding the barrel. OMG.that’s early!!! I really want to sort this out. Do I hang back more to influence his barrel exit sooner?(pressure the line from the immediate exit with stronger connection?) Do I move faster? Do I look at him harder? Do I turn my body more? Apparently my feet need to continue to do what you showed in the videos and set the right line.
SERP: I have many questions/doubts about the release and not poisoning with motion and the tight space before running into the tunnel and if I release early- he’ll threadle. I re-read your comments- and I want you to wish me luck.
PUPSTAY-LEAVE WALKING-KEEP WALKING-RELEASE WHEN IN POSITION- KEEP MOVING-Week 4: https://youtu.be/ME0SkM0Qqsc?feature=shared
We struggled with rear crosses, not because he doesn’t have drive, but not reading the pressure and doesn’t know the verbals. So we went back to Minny Pinny turn-aways, then I did wind in hair without the wind (taking the wrap-extra motion out of it and placing dead toy target) then we played a moment on Minny Pinny with a barrel wrap. Let me know if any of the playful steps is advised. The grids were great and I played with a cadence change on the stay portion. I was clumsy with the Diamond game, but getting better. He is speedy!! It’s a lot of moving parts. His SERP/tunnel discrimination was great, he got a little sticky on the SERP to his right, so I extra pointed tunnel. I’m watching his happiness factor and breaking up the drills with frisbees and playfulness. He has just lost all his molars so everything is adjusted for that.
Hi there!
This is first attempt at Find the Jump. I love the way he found it on the left turn rep 1!! SERP went well once I remembered that we did this before and had all the instructions. Same with Minny Pinny toward-turns, but I have a question about the end. Post Turn or FX? And how do I keep him from banging my leg on the FX? He doesn’t know his verbals L/R. Maybe a few more reps will do the trick. I used a toy target for the turn-away reps, is that ok?
Lead changes on barrels went well, he’s a champ at his stays. We spent a few days rewarding stay away from agility equipment (more layers of challenges needed of course). And we also worked on set ups: between legs (PEEK), at the left(HEEL) and right(SIDE) and facing(FRONT). We had just not gotten to those yet with the added pressure of doing a thing. I think he’s killing it. I never would have thought we could do all of these skills so soon and yet, you advise advancing speed and distance in a few of our critiques. My stomach tightens. Is he really ready? I love your layers of challenges and how easily the dogs do so well with your method. The only real issues on our 1st rep is ME (my timing, etc), then he’s got it by the 3rd rep and we move on. No drilling, no overtraining. I had some trouble with my camera and storage and charging, but we’re up and running again. I tried to do the advanced session of tunnel exits where he sends to the wrap, and he did it. And I moved the spacing to 3.5” on the set point and ran a bit. Sorry no video saved. Also sorry I forgot to take my bumps to the farm.
