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For this session (which was on Tuesday when it was snowing) I started out trying to use the toy as a target for her, but she mostly skipped the poles to go straight to the toy – so I went back to throwing the toy, but I tried to throw it down before she exited the poles.
Tomorrow, I will do try the Find ’em games, as you suggested.Today we repeated the Downhill game, using your suggestions of a very high value treat at the end of the board, and getting her to start from the very end of the board (using a low value treat). It took a bit of organizing to get low value and high value treats and toy all to hand for the exercise – I left the beginning of video unedited so that you can see that I really did put the liver on the target plate. Once we got started, I thought it went alright, and she was quite happy stopping to gobble that treat, before going for her toy 🙂
As you suggested, we took the end position game to the Bang game. You will see she had more difficulty on the R side of the teeter than the L side. I tried to help her get the correct position, but I’m not sure if this was the most effective way.
These are our sessions from yesterday and today.
Well, I thought I had already posted these videos yesterday, but they seem to have disappeared – so will post them all again now – they are from the last couple of days.
For Mountain climbers 3 – I don’t have a donut, so I tried to improvise with my 2 fit-bones and a disc. I didn’t put the foot target on this, as I think we are only looking for dog putting weight back – but also wondered if this exercise is necessary for dogs with down as end position, as weight will be thrown back anyway.
I repeated the End position with the foot target, this time including a toy for reward on release, as you suggested.
And then we also tried the Downhill track – Teeter tables 2 –
I now have a Teach-it – this was our first time using it. Again, I did not put the foot target on this, as I think we’re supposed to be looking for speed on the board, as the tip increases. When I increase the tip with this, should I lower the end with the chair (will have to find something else), or lower the Teach-it bar?
OK – so I will not do the 2x2s for the moment – will try some backside sends round a cone – hopefully tomorrow.
Here are 2 videos of the channels – moving them slightly closer together in each one. The first was from yesterday, the second from today. I am a little unsure as to whether she should be starting to “swim” yet, as she is hitting the poles some of the time.
Today I tried your suggestions of using a target for Yowza with the 2x2s to encourage her to look ahead, rather than at me. I first tried putting toy down as target, but she skipped one of the poles. Then tried food bowl without food in it – that worked better, but I was not very good at throwing the food to land in the bowl – but it was still better than with no target. Eventually I was able to put food in the bowl for many of the reps, and those were the best for focus forward. Overall, I thought the session went well, and I got in plenty of running and front and rear crosses.
So today I put the foot target on to a small board that where i placed one end on top of 2 fit-bones to make it slightly wobbly. Although she is going down when she hits the target, she is not doing it immediately. Your comments on this appreciated, as I am not sure about what we are doing – should I be aiming for a faster down? – does she need to be more accurately hitting the board with her feet (i.e. not extending them over the board when she lies down), should she be doing this with no motion from me?
We did 2x2s again today – this time moving the second set to the 8-2 position. I forgot to do some fake running on the L side, but I did try some of the handling moves that we hadn’t really tried much with the 2x2s. The rear cross was the most difficult, but she was successful when I dialed down the motion – I probably should have started out more slowly….
With the channels, I started to move them together – so they’re slightly closer, and we worked with 6 poles with working up to front and rear crosses. I totally forgot to try the fake running, as you suggested – so will try that tomorrow.
Hi Tracy – thank you so much for your feedback here. I looked at Christina’s videos with her foot/down target, and saw how this could work. I couldn’t make a nice wooden one like she had, but realized I could cut out some foam matting to about the same size and stick a couple of pieces together to give it some thickness. This has worked really well! – she soon got the automatic down with it on the ground (sorry I didn’t get video of that). I had intended to put it on a board on a fit-bone first (as Christina did), but today we were out by the see-saw, so decided to try it there – lmk if you think we need more work on a board.
So I must apologize for posting the wrong video in my last post. That last one with the 2x2s was the same as my previous post, which you had already given my feedback on. So you must have been wondering why i was still using the clicker, when you had advised me not to use for these exercises LOL! So now I will send you a new video – of us doing the 2x2s, with mostly R side entries, using meatballs for rewards, and aiming for her not to be hitting the poles – I thought she did quite well – I hope you agree!
We did the channels again today – still working on getting the entries on L side with motion. I found that when she missed an entry when I was running, she would get it if I then walked. For my last post you suggested that I add crazier handling for the more solid entries, so I will try that tomorrow.
We repeated the 2×2 game with 2 sets of weave poles. I was supposed to be working on the R side entries, w/out her hitting the poles, but ended up focusing on the L side bc she started off missing some of them. Will repeat this tomorrow, with more focus on the R side.
We also repeated the channels – this time our focus was supposed to be on L side, so we did these with motion, and I slowed down when she missed them.
Still struggling with the end position – I made a foot target by covering a strip of cardboard about 12″x4″ with blue tape. She was doing well touching the target wherever I put it, and then lying down, although I have not been able to put it on a wobble board, as I only have a very small one – I could try it with a platform though. In this session, I was trying to sit on the ground, so that she wouldn’t cue off my position – she wasn’t getting the down at first, but then she got it. I still don’t think this behavior is very strong – any suggestions welcome. I’m thinking maybe I should get more of an automatic down on the target, and maybe I need to make the target bigger (maybe more of a 12″ square).
Thank you for this feedback – I had not really noticed how she was hitting the poles from the R side. So we today we tried your suggestion, repeating the same game, this time throwing a food reward (meatball halves). I thought this went well – although she did still hit the poles sometimes – I noticed that she seemed to hit them more when there was more motion from me – so I tried to dial it back a bit when she was hitting. Throwing the food reward was definitely a good idea, as she was very happy with the meatballs, but not losing her mind….
We also repeated the open channels today, with motion, as I realized I needed to repeat this exercise with motion without pausing before running – b/c the motion definitely distracted her from finding the entrance, especially on the L side (we did this exercise previously, unfortunately without videoing it – and she missed almost all of her L side entries) – today she did much better – she missed her entry from about 8 o’clock, so I went back around the clock until she got it again. Wondering if it would have been better to have just repeated the same position with no motion.
I just posted 2 clips of our first sessions with straight poles, which we did last Sunday. So then today we tried adding the second set. Have to thank you for pointing out my habit of waiting before moving during the sends “with motion” – so here I tried to make sure that I ran immediately, though I think there might be a couple of times when I forgot.
