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Straight to the MM was a struggle, for sure. I ended up rewarding going to MM over hitting the target at first, but we did eventually get in some good reps, showing the latter part of that session in this video. We also tried a static toy, which brought out a lot more drive forward but we did get a little accuracy drop, I edited out some of the reward and toy reset time on those.
Today’s session with two treat machines and a tug. We’re getting more speed, even without the collar holds. He sometimes misses, but it’s clear that he knows the criteria and I see the hits getting more deliberate with each session we do. 🙂
So we did try the collar hold this morning and it did generate a lot more speed and excitement. In fact, just me being more wound up helped. And I was pretty happy about how well he maintained criteria. Not perfect, but not terrible either.
So we recently did an online weaves class that had some exercises where there were restrained release from the collar, and he actually was offended that I would take hold of his collar while he was “working” and just tried to melt into the ground. Even our crate games are very slinky — slink into the crate, slink out of the crate (then run around like a banshee). He has a great startline and a lot of explosion off it (lots of value for the agility equipment), same with a stay and release to a toy I’m holding (but not to a toy on the ground, or food in a toy or manners minder…creep, creep). I’ll give it another try…
When I read your last comments, I laughed, and then I cried. Pounce? I don’t think I’ve ever seen Q pounce on anything. I took your advice and started using a slightly smaller elevated target and we’ve been working it for the past few days. I am really struggling to get any more speed, which is really frustrating as his ground speed when doing agility is pretty darned fast. When I get close to the target, he seemingly slows down, and when I move further away his accuracy drops. Ack.
In this next session I stood up and added a little motion. Also added in the treat machine. Still not getting a lot of speed though.
Oh, boy! I was guessing that you would send us back to the elevated target. This was where I was seeing the biggest struggle with that 3rd front foot! We went into this exercise this morning with your advice on switching between toy and food AND we started with the big target. We did this exercise a lot in the first couple weeks, but it had been a few days and I was happy to see how well he did with the big target (the 3rd foot off problem seems to be gone here). However, the foot issue crept right back on the smaller elevated target, as you can see. Again, we have done a lot of reps with this and I think that he might be slowly getting better, but if there is progress, it’s slow. It sounds like you advise us to go back to the bigger target for awhile longer as we continue to go through the exercises.
You probably won’t see this in the videos I’ve submitted so far, but Q’s speed definitely increases with distance from me so a lot of the close work is going to tend to slow him down and introduce creepiness. He’s the kind of dog with a big bubble and that loves to work out away from me in agility (he has no issues with layering multiple obstacles). I definitely appreciate the need for him to get more comfortable with me working close, so hopefully these exercises will also help with that.
(A side note, it’s interesting to go through this with a second dog. She has a completely different set of struggle points and a different approach to the exercises. If this is offered again, I may have to get her a working spot.)
Target Proofing – Adding Distractions
Q is a little stalk-y with toys, as you can see here, but he has good impulse control. This was our second sessions on this exercise. I get this kind of behavior — where he looks and waits — with him and any shaping work.
Sorry for the delay in posting anything. I have to admit I wasn’t quite sure what I should be posting and when so I am just going to take the plunge…
First, homework from lesson one.
Reward System Homework 1: I think that tug has to be his jackpot reward. I hesitate to say this because he is sooooo bad at bringing the toy back (we’re working through some lessons on this), but he gets so jacked up when we tug, more so than any other thing I’ve seen so far. I think a long toy, where he can get good leverage to tug is the best.
Reward System Homework 2: With the shaping, I’ve been doing differential food rewards based mostly on quantity (a lot of sessions consist of rewarding using his morning kibble meal) sometimes mixing it up with tugging for an extra good hit. I want to continue to experiment with this maybe adding in food rewards of different value.
Next, a video from lesson two.
Lesson 2: Inverted Target. We have been diligently doing the lesson one exercises since the beginning. Everything has gone very well and Quirk has been making good progress. Now that we’ve started on lesson two, I thought I’d bring up the issue of the “third foot” that has been cropping up on all the exercises. This is where Q gets three feet on the target but misses one (almost always a front foot). We’ve done enough shaping on these exercises now that he knows to correct it when it comes up and it is coming up less frequently over time, but it still comes up. And I worry that I’m not addressing it adequately.
Thanks!!! I WILL get this FF!!! 🙂
FAST issue is a combo of the send and getting the additional points. Last Saturday it was the send, and most dogs didn’t get it. The time before, the send was jump, tunnel, weaves and he got that part without issue but I couldn’t figure out a plan that would accumulate enough points in the time allotted. He’s actually a decent gamble dog in USDAA (has his masters gamblers title and almost has finished his gamblers championship).
Yup, I uploaded the wrong video, that was his FAST. Here’s his JWW: https://youtu.be/7RUFX6ZRtSg
Thanks for the reminder about pre-run routine. We do have one but I’m not always super regimined about it, and I think that Max really likes things more predictable. Actually, all dogs seem to like it and it can be challenge for me since I run multiple dogs in the same small height class, so it’s something that I’m going to work on harder going forward. (As a quick aside, I’ve been using a lot of the drills and techniques from this class on my other faster but distractible dogs, with even better results than Max. Thanks!)
Videos from this week’s lesson. I think the drills went a little better than last week. I apologize for the quality as my training buddy went off to pick up a new puppy (the nerve!!!) and I had to use a mini tripod.
FF and OR: https://youtu.be/_Qv2sVg8ZqQ
Drill 1: https://youtu.be/FW-Lnq_8HWo
Drill 2: https://youtu.be/9gHD53Rt9IgWe did one trial day this past weekend (3 runs). That last FAST Q still eludes us but we did QQ. Standard felt pretty good, it was pretty windy and not a course ‘style’ that usually suits Mr. Max but he did well for 16 pts. I thought JWW would be super easy, after all, the design was so stright forward, speed circles, but I (along with a lot of dogs) had a lot of trouble building speed, maybe because it was hard to get out ahead? Someone also mentioned that the dogs seemed like they were waiting for handling to happen, fwiw even my fast-ish dog was slower than usual and only beat Max by 6 or so seconds (although she did have a refusal at the weaves that costs us a bit of time)… IDK, we did Q with 2 pts. Adding video and course maps for both runs.
STD: https://youtu.be/2BTOvYAc-nc (map: https://photos.app.goo.gl/em9nqBEEpDksVYpDA)
JWW: https://youtu.be/LofZXVkwf9o (map: https://photos.app.goo.gl/4TDmMJsrmGYX4ZXX8)Hey, I wanted throw this addendum after reading this week’s lesson…
Last Friday — since I wasn’t trialing Max — I brought him to my Friday classes and let him take one turn in each. The second class was a short sequence class and my instructor wanted me to run a sequence with a rear cross. This is a handling option that I almost never use with Max so it took a couple tries to try to get him moving out in front of me … but once he did and I pushed on his line from behind, he sped up significantly. I know that Max almost always moves faster when I am able to add lateral distance, especially in the weaves, but he still needs encouragement so I am usually running out in front but sometimes I sense that he might not want to catch up and get too close to me. In some ways, the is not too surprising with him because at home he has a pretty big bubble (he’s likes to be nearby the action but still at arm’s length). Thoughts on how to combine the idea of ‘space’/distance with aggressive handling?
For the most part I’ve been limiting his runs since last summer to 2-3 per day and one day per weekend with the occasional 2-day trial. We actually stopped doing CPE and as much USDAA because the fewer runs required for AKC seemed to suit him. He did surprise me last fall at a USDAA competition and stepped it up on his last runs of a long 3-day weekend, but that is not his norm. I definitely feel a lot of the stress he gets directly from me. When I stopped caring about titles, he runs better, when I start thinking about really wanting a Q it comes through and my attempts seemed forced. IOW, I can’t fake it with him. I was watching a handler I really admire this past weekend. She runs a very soft dog that requires a lot of cheerleading, yet they compete on world teams. I especially watched her per-run ritual. Very fast to the line and very sustained upbeat energy, nothing feels forced at all. That’s my goal. I hope to integrate some of that to our practice on the drills in the last weeks of our course.
Anyhow, here are videos from this past week’s lesson:
Drill 1: https://youtu.be/8_Y_nTKcJHo
Drill 2: https://youtu.be/hJl0H3skeewSo Tuesday did not go particularly well and I have some thoughts on that.
We started with FAST, it was a tough course to come up with a plan that would have nice flow and get us enough points in enough time. I also had to run a novice dog (totally different send and plan) in FAST with only one dog between. My handling was tentative and sloppy which cost us time and the buzzer caught us still weaving (the 3rd obstacle in the send). Been working on a final FAST Q for a title for awhile with plans to stop doing it with Max, so I was hoping for that Q (I’ll come back to that).
Next was T2B. I like this class and it always feels like a zero pressure class. We had a nice moderately paced run which was good enough for a Q and 8 points (and his T2B title to boot) despite the fact that there were a couple tough discriminations and a couple long tunnels.
Standard started off slow and we never really picked it up even though I was trying to be even more aggressive than usual. In fact I was so aggressive that I pulled him out of his weaves. We finished under SCT but not by a whole lot. JWW was had a tight technical section early on that sucked out any momentum we had at that point and we finished clean but 2-3 seconds OT. One of my brutally honest friends asked if Max even liked agility after that last run. It was a legit question because at the moment as he seemed pretty tired and stressed.
So my thought is that I think that I am starting to force it a little with Max. My attempts at fun and play, at trials at least, are starting to feel like pressure and Max really shuts down under pressure. I’ve decided to pull him from a trial this weekend and give us a little break from competition. Hoping to regroup in a couple weeks and try to take on a “no pressure” attitude for our next trial. Will plan to take that approach to this week’s lesson, especially when we have our time on equipment on Friday.
So no Qs today. I felt like we were running well in standard but his DW contact was called. Left 17 points on the table which is on the high end of our average. JWW was 1.5 sec over time, which was pretty disappointing. Courses were fairly technical and JWW had a pretty demotivating opening that I couldn’t make up for in the final speed line. I ordered videos but not sure when I’ll get them. We’re back on Tuesday to try again, different judge but also one known for technical courses…
Honestly, I’m not sure we are getting much more speed. Maybe he’s moving faster through the tunnels, hard to say. We had a chance to run in a fun cup at 16″ on Sunday. We had fun but I didn’t notice a big change in his speed, and certainly not in his placing among dogs he has competed against in the past. I am still determined to keep working the skills, have fun and keeping up the rate of reinforcement in our training sessions. We are going to a trial on Sunday and again on Tuesday, his times there should be a better indicator of any speed improvement.
Here’s a couple videos from the fun cup:
I also took him to Monday practice and did a LBG session (no video). It took a few minutes of wandering around and a few rounds of rewards before he finally seemed to figure out the game. (He’s so different from the BCs in that way.) Hoping some latent learning will set in and I will try that again this week along with FF standing up straight. 😉
