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Hi Tracy,
>> He was feeling spicy in the videos! Yay! Lots of speed!
Yes he was. Pretty sure he’d slept a lot of the day at the groomers. Today I had to work in the office so again he got extra sleep time in his big crate while I was gone. He was demanding to work long before the yard had shade.Thank you for the answers. I’m going to stick to the verbals we have and if it becomes an issue, we’ll revisit / teach tunnel specific cues later. I use “tunnel” most of the time so I’m going to try to only use that as my verbal for close end and drop tun-tun. I also found a source for a 9′ tunnel. That’s longer than the 3′ but 6′ shorter than my other tunnel. I think that might be better for us. I have not been able to local anything other than 3′, 4′ or the 9′ for tunnels shorter than minimum regulation size.
I’ll try reducing the setup when we do that exercise again. For tonight, we started on the lead out exercises. I’m just giving you the first session / side. We did work the other side which he actually did better on. Not sure if that’s because he’d seen the other way or just his preferred side. My big question is my handling. Am I connecting enough? It’s pretty tight in the yard and he’s getting it well but is it going to hold up on full size course?
Jean-Maria and Venture
Hi Tracy,
Thank you for the screenshots – that really helped me see what I was doing. We worked serps again last night and I’m still struggling with my handling so I didn’t upload the videos. I decided to give latent learning a chance to help Venture and give myself some time to practice without him so we moved to Wingin’ It: Tunnel Entries And Exits. I think we hit all the options across these 2 sessions. I don’t think I see any side preferences in these exercises but I do suspect we are seeing some in the serp work.I have some questions about verbals for tunnels. Right now I use tunnel or tun tun for closest entry and here here for threadle tunnel entries. I use come for threadle jumps so here-here is unique to the tunnel. I’m using go, left, right for the exit and trying to give the exit command as close to the entry as possible. If I wanted a really tight turn out of the tunnel I would be inclined to use my wrap commands or a hard call of his name. At our class this week, the subject came up about having unique entry/exit commands for tunnels and not use the same commands as jumps. Do we need this? I don’t mind teaching/learning multiple verbals but right now this is feeling a bit like overkill at this stage of our training. Thoughts?
Jean-Maria and Venture who is wild tonight
Hi Tracy,
Adolescents are so weird. Tonight he was happy to work for his ball with kibble in it. Go figure.It was 104 so we were moving pretty slowly between reps. Two videos. I have a question related primarily to the second video but the progression in video 1 is related. In the second session, Venture missed the second jump twice going towards the tunnel. I then adjusted the angle on the second jump and he was successful. We had already worked through the jumps being angled and then gradually closer to a straight line. Should I re-angle the jumps as we progress through the exercises and then go through the steps to straighten the jumps in a line at each stage or do you think latent learning will cover this?
1st session
2nd session
Jean-Maria and Venture
Hi Tracy,
I’m back from Colorado and we started back to work tonight. Venture’s massage therapist did find a tight tendon in his right rear leg while I was gone so that might be why he was struggling in one direction. She re-checked him Saturday and he was good to go.My first attempt this evening to work Concept Transfer – Serpentine didn’t go well. He wasn’t engaged, didn’t even eat treats out of his lotus ball, and it was super hot and humid. So we bailed. About an hour later, I was hungry and got a stick of cheese out of the fridge and he was all about that cheese so I took advantage and out to work we went. This video is the last chunk of our work. I should warn you that I twisted my back while I was gone so I’m not moving well. Hopefully a few more days and I’ll be able to run / move better. I chose this exercise because it needed less movement to get started.
Hi Tracy,
>> OMG! That is way too early to start work
Only by the power of Dr. Pepper can I do it after staying up to train Ven.>> I bet you felt like you were working REALLY HARD to support his commitment!
Yes! I was beginning to despair ever being able to run UKI as hard as it was going.So here is a couple minutes of video from our second session working baby level threadle wraps with tossed lotus ball. First session I wasn’t sure the ball was going to work because he was still focusing on my hands since the ball was in my hand. So I went simple “lazy” with one wing and worked getting him to do a thing and then get his treat from the ball away from me. What do you think?
I could also try what we do in his agility class where the treats are up high out of reach and not on me. We run a few obstacles and then run to the bowl on the shelf to get his reward. Of course it’s not 105 degrees there.
By the way, I am out of town for a week starting Saturday so Ven’s brain (and you) will get a break while I’m in Colorado.
Jean-Maria and VentureHi Tracy,
3 wing ladder work. The brief reprieve from the triple digit temps has ended. It was 100 at 8pm tonight. There are 4 short videos where we worked FCs on both sides and blinds on both sides. I tried really hard to keep the energy up and make sure his tail never dropped. We had several spots where we struggled so I’d like your thoughts on how I handled those.FC – Dog on left
Blinds – Dog on left
FC – Dog on right
Blinds – Dog on right
I’m surprised we struggled more on the FCs than the blinds. What do I need to fix to help Venture with the FCs?
Jean-Maria and Venture
FYI – we can’t work in the mornings because my work day is starting at 6am so I can train my new analyst in India. By the time I get a break, it’s already in the 90s and no shade in the yard.Hi Tracy,
Here is the video from our last session today. I think I picked the speed back up too fast on the circles?
Getting the opposite end of the tunnel was hard with only a 3′ tunnel so I didn’t worry if I got the blind in but couldn’t get him past the close end of the tunnel.We have started playing a game of tug BEFORE we go outside to work. It’s so hot and muggy that he’s panting too much to play tug but at least we’re able to work engagement before we start.
Should we work this level some more before we move to the 3 wing exercise?
Jean-Maria and Venture
Hi Tracy,
Good luck this weekend!
After a ridiculous amount of time walking the Ladder – tunnel to 2 wings in my yard, talking to my phone while watching your video, I think I finally got it. Then much to my surprise, I discovered I had taught Ven dig dig. I do not remember doing that.
Another muggy day/evening so I broke our session up into little bits. Here are the short videos with my questions
Beginning to work the course – after rewatching this morning, I think I start with Ven on the wrong side coming out of the tunnel?
Working the hard side (dog on left) – I’m sure I’m doing something wrong/less effective here but not sure what
Working through errors / back chaining a portion – better error handling?
Jean-Maria and VentureThanks Tracy,
I will keep trying not to let him know if I or he make a mistake. Old habits can be hard for old brains to break 😀
Venture had his regular quarterly chiro appointment on the 8th. He got a few adjustments, nothing major. I had already messaged our canine massage therapist but she’s out of town through the weekend. I’ll get him in to her next week. I have been giving him massages in the evenings to help him wind down at bed time and to get my hands on him to make sure he’s feeling good.
I am confused on what to say for the steps in the tunnel with two wings drill. What command do you use for each obstacle in the sequence? I have watched the video several times but just not getting it.
89 degrees feels like 97 tonight due to humidity so I picked the tandem turns drill so we could do something less complicated and a bit less intense. Here is the video of the only session we did. I was surprised he remembered the two hands tandem turn from the flat. Were we ever supposed to put a verbal on it or not yet?
Jean-Maria and VentureHi Tracy,
So maybe I was doing a lot of things to help him. When he said he couldn’t work, we played. We had lots of impromptu short games of tug that he often instigated. I fed him out of a treat bowl for breakfast most mornings. He’s had extra naps because I have to go to the office twice a week now. I had never seen him stress down in training before. He’s also peeing on EVERYTHING (no sign of UTI) and getting into EVERYTHING.We were able to do two short sessions this evening, worked Wingin’ it – tunnel to jump. You’ll see in the first video, we started with a little game of tug but once work began, he made it very clear he expected that Ziwi Peak in my pocket. It was super muggy tonight so I’m pretty happy with how he did. We came in between sessions just to cool off a bit.
Jean-Maria and Venture
Hi Tracy,
Need some help. Venture is struggling with focus for about a week now. He’ll be all excited to work, do one or two reps and then just stand there looking at me like his brain has left the building. He just turned 14 mos old. Is this normal?
Another example, at his weekly class yesterday, his first turn he did the easy sequences. Second turn, we started back chaining threadle out of the tunnel and he couldn’t stay engaged or even hold a stay.
Help please
Jean-Maria and VentureHi Tracy,
Why do I always forget that when he’s slow responding he’s processing? Thanks for reminding me again.
It took a full 48 hours for him to sleep on it. I tried to work the exercise again last night, he was all gung ho to play and as soon as I asked him to wrap he just stood there with his tail at half staff. I tried one more time with food and I clearly had no dog to work. So we bailed last night.
Tonight he brought me a tug to play so we used the highest value tug for the first part of our session
His enthusiasm was dropping so we switched to food and here is the middle rep. I added the circle because he really perks up when he gets to move his feet.
And final rep
Do you think we need to continue working this exercise or should we move to this week’s Wingin It that adds the tunnel to build the ladder exercises? He might benefit from the tunnel to get him moving.
Jean-Maria and VentureHi Tracy,
I’m going to rewatch the videos from this past weekend to see if the rear cross issues were connection. That’s helpful info to go look for.Here is our first work on the Wingin’ it – counter motion game. I hurt my back today when I picked up 30 pound case of chicken necks in a hurry. I just couldn’t deal with trying to play tug with him so I used food and we just worked individual wings. Ven seemed a bit unsure so I don’t know if I’m doing something wrong or it’s just been a while since he saw this game. I think he also knows I’m not feeling too well because of my back screaming at me. Thoughts on our work?
Jean-Maria and Venture
Hi Tracy,
Venture is tired from the weekend seminars so no video. I do have some questions/observations after walking courses and running him this weekend.
1. Pinwheel – what verbal should I be using? I used right/left. With past dogs I had a turning cue (sprinkler sound). Do we have something like that with MaxPup or is it not needed and we use something else?
2. Rear crosses – discovered Venture responds to the “wrong” arm for rear cross. No clue how I taught that but will be working to use the correct arm closest to the dog. At our lesson yesterday we worked on my hand motion drawing a C and he started getting it.
3. 3 jump serpentine – I used my 180 around command going in. When I fell behind he turned to me and missed 3rd jump. We experimented with using the around command repeated as he takes the second jump because at that point, it’s a 180 and just happens to come towards me. He read that perfectly.
4. Social boy – a row of people at one end of the room was a huge challenge for him the first day but we worked through it and by day 3 he ignored the people and played with me all 3 turns.
5. Over tired = naughty adolescent. We have work to do for him to learn to chill between turns. He only protested being in the crate a couple times but he didn’t lay down and rest either. Covering him didn’t help.
Jean-Maria and Venture who wants every day to be agility dayHi Tracy, greetings from the surface of the sun. Goofy Ven demanded to work this afternoon for his favorite bun bun tug. So short video of the first couple passes of dog on left for straight lines.
Second short video, weird issue I’m unsure how to handle. Venture started jumping the blue wing. For today I switched the blue wing for one of the big PVC wings but wonder what if anything I need to do about this.
Third short video, we really struggled with rear cross and back side with dog on left. How should it look to Venture and what tells him the difference between these two? Only the verbal or should I be showing something clearly different?
Jean-Maria and Venture
