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Hi Tracy,
I picked one game from Week 4 and an easy one from Week 5 since our Barrel Combos and Serp Tunnel Entries aren’t working yet.
Ladder
Mason liked the ladder. Hi likes all things that have cookies on them. The video has a few reps from the middle and the end of the session since in the beginning I forgot that we wanted to keep his head low. I figured this would be pretty easy for him since he’s a lot older than some of his classmates and he’s a climber. I have to put him in his crate if I get the step stool out otherwise he’ll try to climb up right behind me. He might be part mountain goat.
Parallel Path Commitment
This was going so well that I pushed the distance a little too far and then Mason missed the upright on the last pass. After the video ends he ran off for about 10 seconds, but came back so I immediately started up the game again closer to the upright. We never quite got back into the swing of it though and after another minute I gave up. I’m wondering what you think I should have done at the end of the video once he ran off. Should I have taken a tug break before giving it another try? Should I have stopped the session and given him a break in the car before moving on to a different game? Once Mason ran off I was was making up my plan on the fly and that didn’t seem to be helpful to him.
Jen
Hi Tracy,
Here are a couple videos of the lap turns and tandem turns from Week 4.
Lap Turns
Naturally, I started on my good side and my dog’s weaker side. Next time I’ll try to remember to start with him turning to his right. I noticed that when turning to his left, it seems like I might be luring his head too high and he ends up looking up as he’s making the turn. I can’t really tell the difference though in what I’m doing for the good ones vs the choppier ones.
Tandem Turns
Once again I started with Mason’s weaker side. The dog’s path is the same for the lap turn and the tandem turn, right? To me these always seemed like very different turns because the handler’s part is different, but then on the video I noticed that Mason is following the exact same path as he did for the lap turns.
Let me know if you see anything I’m doing differently for the better reps. I noticed that on one I might have pulled him in too close to me and I ended up crowding him. How far away from the dog will we be when we do these turns on a course?
Jen
Hi Tracy,
Strike A Pose!
Mason likes to either lick or bite everything, so we have a tooth target instead of a nose target. You can hear a little click as his teeth hit the tupperware lid. I tried to switch him to a nose touch for a few days, then decided to give up on that and move on. He got the game going pretty well, although I think I wasn’t supposed to move at all until he grabbed the toy. Also, the toy on the ground was really, really hard, lol.Jen
Hi Tracy,
My training buddy likes these games so much that she wants to take a class with her 8 month old working cocker. She asked me what class I’m taking. Is it too late to sign up for this session as an auditor? If it’s too late, is there another class you would recommend for her? Will there be a MaxPup-2 starting soon or is there something else she should take instead?
Little Tikka has her act together already. I think she skipped adolescence and got her full brain all at once so she’s picking up the games really quick despite my jumbled explanations.
Jen
Hi Tracy,
These are our last two videos for Week 3, then onward to Week 4!
1) Barrel Wraps – Turn and Burn
This is our third session with these. I kept thinking I was leaving early during the first two sessions, but then on video I saw that I really wasn’t. Mason liked this game a lot and I think I may have finally figured out which toy he likes best!2) BC Collection Sandwich
This is probably our third session on these too. Sometimes I can’t tell if Mason is really switching sides. Maybe this is because we are running on pretty much the same line. It looks like he is trying to follow the toy though.Jen
Hi Tracy,
Thank you for the detailed feedback on Mason’s missing brain in class. I hadn’t considered skipping the last 2 weeks, but I like the idea. The instructor is also my training buddy so we have already done more than 2 extra weeks of puppy games together which more than make up for the future skipped classes. Mason is such a nice, confident boy. I want to do everything I can to support his wonderful temperament. The stress reaction took me completely by surprise.
I have 4 videos from Weeks 2 and 3, but I’m splitting them into two posts to make the posts shorter.
1) Plankrobatics + Backing Up
The video came out dark, but you can get the idea. Mason loves climbing on anything and everything. I’m moving around a bit here to get him to get on and off the plank and turn around. When I tried to shape getting on and off he got frustrated and lied belly up on the ground. I guess I didn’t click enough. I’ve been teaching a back-up in heel position for rally for a while now, so Mason has seen this a bunch of times. He can string a couple steps together. Staying on a straight path is the hard part.
2) Prop Games – Parallel, Countermotion, Rear Cross
I couldn’t figure out how to get the lateral distance on the parallel reps. Mason would start away from me on a Cato board, but would come right to my side when released and then go lateral to touch the prop. I’m not sure how to get him to get out and stay out. For the rear crosses I believe you said we didn’t need to worry if the dog turned the wrong way … so I didn’t, lol. Someday I’ll learn how to do a rear cross, maybe.
Jen
Hi Tracy,
Since it’s Brain Camp week, I figured I’d send you a brain issue! Mason is 4 weeks into his first in-person class and he is having an issue with getting over-excited. Each week gets worse. This class turned out to be a jumps and tunnels class, which is not what I expected for a foundations class. Luckily, the trainer is very flexible and she added some Maxpup-type games at the beginning of each week for us.
Mason will usually do the exercises, especially if they are stationary type games like the Vito game, but his head pops off anytime motion is added. After each rep, he zooms around or jumps on the trainer. Lately he has been running to the fence (4.5 ft tall) to try to jump on the other students standing behind it. Once he almost made it over the fence, but he hit the top of it in the gut like a failed Lambeau Leap. During the whole hour his eyes are as big as saucers with his tongue hanging out the side of his mouth, even if I put him in the car between turns.
My questions are:
(1) How to survive the next 2 weeks of this class. My previous dogs were sniffers, not zoomers.
– Should we skip the sequences and just do the foundation games? Or just do the games and single obstacles?
– Should we work as far from the fence as possible? Or should we acknowledge the fence and play Look At That with it?
– What about the toy? He’ll run to a toy in my hand and tug, but he releases it after a second and takes off. He often runs past a toy on the ground and zooms instead.
– Should we use treats only for a while in class? Should I try the Treat and Train for Get-Its instead of a toy on the ground?
– Should I put his leash on him in between reps?
– Should I reward him for coming back to me after jumping at the fence?(2) What to do for the next session of classes which start in January.
– Should we skip the January session and just train at home and during private arena rentals?
– If it’s important to be an in-person class, would it be better to take a low-key class that is in a classroom, e.g., rally or tricks?Thanks for your help!! I’m still putting the Week 2-3 videos together. Next week I’m going to set a 2-minute timer so I don’t have to edit so much.
Jen
Hi Tracy,
No need to review this while you are away.
Mason and I are not in a hurry. We just finished up most of week 1 and aren’t moving on to week 2 until probably Saturday. I decided to skip the goat tricks since Mason will put his feet on anything you put in front of him. We’ll pick this game up in week 2.
The first new video is the wrap shaping game. This is our third session. The first two were slow and boring. He figured it out better once I added the toys. I wasn’t sure what I should do when he got stuck staring at the dead toy.
Next we did the bc foundation game. The way the camera is set up I couldn’t really tell if he had his eye on the toy before I did the side change. At the time I thought he was looking at it, but in the video I wasn’t really sure.
Jen
Hi Tracy,
It’s been a challenge to get motivated to train agility after losing Annie, but Mason and I had fun with these games. I think it helps that we’re not doing obstacles, so we’ll probably follow the baby track for a while and see how that goes.
Drive ahead toy toss:
These went pretty well given that Mason prefers food over toys and prefers to play with toys by himself. I’m trying to build value for playing with toys with me, but we’re not there yet so I couldn’t get him rev’d up with toy play. I also have trouble getting the toy back. Mason just started bringing a ball back to me in the past couple weeks, but the ball isn’t very interactive and he doesn’t seem to care about a ball on a tug or ball with a handle tab. I still want to work on the toy drive though so that’s why I decided to use the toy here. I like that he looked at the toy, ran to get it, and that I remembered to look at him. 🙂 I’m open to suggestions on how to get the toy back and anything else that you see here.Deceleration and turning:
Mason liked this game. I kept the cookie in my hand and used it as a lure the whole time. Did he do the head turn, the weight shift, and change of focus from line to handler? I was so focused on my part that I couldn’t really tell if he was doing his part right or if I need to work on this game some more.Hi Elizabeth! We would love to train with you. Mason really likes dogs so far. He’s very close in size to Yuzu and he’s also a bit of a Gunnar look-a-like, except with a persistent quizzical look. 🙂
Hi Tracy,
Thanks for the feedback on that course map. Based on that info and this week’s Planning video, I think I might need fewer rights and lefts on course than I initially thought I would. I have a “Round” cue for gentle arcs toward the handler. Annie wants to be given specific instructions for every jump, so maybe I can use “Round” for the arcs and “Right/Left” for more of a 90 degree turn. I think she’ll get it eventually, but it may take a while. She seems to be big on latent learning. After struggling with the threadles so much in the Fall, out of the blue I tried using “Close” last week and Annie was like “duh, threadle”.
The tunnel exit tips make 100% perfect sense. I totally get it now .. I think. Right and left (and wrap) are jump cues in general, except for when we use them at a tunnel entrance. Then they mean turn at the tunnel exit.
Hmmm .. this all now makes me wonder though how I will teach Annie to turn right and left at the end of her brand new *running* dogwalk(!!!). Are these directionals still jump cues when I use them for running contacts? When would I say the cue? I’m getting way ahead of myself because we don’t actually have running contacts yet, but I think Annie would be much happier with them since she has become very creepy on the contacts due to being nervous about judges. Soooo, do you have any plans to offer a RC course? I know there are probably other great online options, but Annie and I are AU girls now so we’d love to learn them from you!
Jen
Hi Tracy,
I said it would never happen, but you’ve finally convinced me that I need Left and Right verbals. It’s been slow going and we’re still at the walking stage with Annie turning toward me, but there are moments when I think she might be starting to get it. To train myself to get used to using the cues, I’ve started adding them in courses this week even though Annie might not really understand them at this point. I’ve found that sometimes I’m not sure if I really need a left/right cue or not.
For example in the course map in the google doc link below, for the squares course would you say ‘Right’ for jump 3 and ‘Left’ for jump 4? Or do you think verbals wouldn’t be needed there? Most likely I would blind between 3 and 4. If it looked like it would be too hard for me to get around the far wing of 4, then I don’t know what I would do. Maybe I would try to change sides after 4.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1z56B3he4Rp3Xd5cKWo5hY_6ZAtWkHXW3ZZO7zWQOLdY/edit?usp=sharing
Update from class this morning: Today in class I used left/right cues for the first time for rear crosses. Big confusion. Annie turned toward me even though I was putting a lot of pressure on her line. I think she understands that left and right are turn cues, but she probably thinks they both mean turn toward the handler. Should I stop using left/right in classes until we are perfect on the games in the VOTR course?
Tunnel Exits: Today in class I also remembered that you use your turn cues for tunnel exits. I gave my wrap cue (check, check) 3 feet before a curved tunnel as I ran around the back side of it. Brilliantly, Annie did a tight turn out of the tunnel just like I wanted. She might have done it because she saw where I was when she entered the tunnel, but I’m still considering it a success because I gave the correct cue at the correct time.
I’m wondering though, what would you do differently if instead of a wrap at the tunnel exit, we wanted the dog to wrap a jump that was straight ahead after the tunnel exit? If I give my wrap cue 3 ft before the tunnel, then I want Annie to not take the jump, right? If I say Go 3 ft before the tunnel, then I want her to take the next jump in extension. How do I cue her to go straight out of the tunnel and wrap the next jump?
Jen
Hi Tracy,
Is there a way for me to post a course map in my message? I tried to paste a screenshot, but that didn’t work.
Jen
Love, Love, LOVE the field guide! How did you know that I forget what I want to do as soon as I step outside?
#1 Wish: Give the ball back. Please.
#2 Wish: Faster agility speed outside of the backyard. Annie is much faster at home than she is at lessons. While she tends to be a worrier, I don’t think she’s stressed at her lessons. I think she just has a history of mostly only being rewarded at the end of a course.
#3 Wish: Stay in the weave poles even if you think your mom’s hand moved slightly toward her pocket.
