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No updog in LA. I did look and there’s some in AL during the week but unfortunately I have to work.
I have a friend who does disc and it seems like it would be a more friendly learning environment. I also see you can use a long line for the beginner stuff.
How much longer do we have to submit videos? Anything you’d like to see us do more for feedback?
I was left to my own devices and kitchen shears seemed like a bad idea. I ended up going with a diamond circular cutting bit on my drill that I use on my plant pots 🤷♀️
He was pretty excited about the frizz. I can see him clearly saying, you brought a leash to a frizz party? WTH?
I can see him anticipating a throw here. I’m really sloppy with my words because I’m excited about the tug. I do think I can keep building the tug. I may need to attach it to his leash and use a separate frizz with it to throw.
My suggestion is to get a disc he really loves… and ruin it by punching a hole in the middle
Ha yes, I get this part and am totally okay with that. What type of sharp pointy instrument did you use because that’s where I’m hung up?
Have you tried punching a hole through a friz and attached it to a long toy or leash so it flings around like a roller gone wild? He might like that too!
I have been trying to figure out the best way to do this without ruining the frisbee. He really likes chuck it squirrel, frizz and the donut one but those fall apart after one session or so. I have a chuck it saved for our next event somewhere other than home.
Any suggestions?I love the roller gone wild comment, except most of my frizz throws and rollers are inherently wild
It’s been terribly isolating and emotional. Honestly it started a terrible depression that can still be a struggle because I just adore Fever so much and he’s so talented. I had further setbacks emotionally after being at the open and Cynosport because I’m still not sure he can ever handle that. It’s been lovely in my brain 😅.
Locally Amy and Carrie are my support crew.
It’s much more expansive if I travel to Texas. I’m seeing a theme here. All my problems are solved in TX 😅We played with building value for the leash and then switching to the frizz. I had a frizz that exploded on the tunnel and it fell. You can see him think about it for a second. I think he did better when I had both reinforcers in my hand but man that was a lot for my brain to try to handle.
Does he like hoses?
I could see why you would ask that question because he loves water. He thinks that hoses exist for border collie abooose while Sarah McLachlan’s arms of the angel plays on repeat.
What happens at seminars when he sees movement? NFC has toys in the ring. And you can have helpers
We haven’t been at a seminar where there’s been a ton of movement ringside. Honestly seminars are very hard to come by unless I go to GA or TX 6 hour minimum but mostly 8+ hour drive.
Most of my obsessiveness comes from an incident we had when he was really young- 22 months or so, I tried to enter him in AKC. They had really weird Covid precautions so people formed a line outside of the ring. He was running novice as another dog was watching and spinning ringside (border collies 🙄). He jumped the ring gate and started staring down the dog. The judge (who is also an AKC rep and was judging when they let go everyone) threatened to write me up and basically I’ve been traumatized since (Well she said she was writing me up but nothing came of it.) No contact was made. He was really fixated on the movement of the dog spinning but I now have severe trust issues.
If you want to have another discussion about rules not applying to everyone I watched a dog bite another dog in front of this same rep at NAC and no action happened because it was a finalist team.
I’m not sure if I can have a helper in AKC but I have done that in UKI. They just watch the ring gate for me. In the times recent where I have put him in a ring for NFC or a seminar, he’s been super attentive to me and been a very good boy. Unless he has to poop and he gets sniffy. He’s the worst about pitying and we have gotten that by accident too. He’s had opportunities to be an ass and has not. Like last time we showed there was a dog fight in front of us as we were coming out of the ring and he just kept his eyes on the mama.
I really you reinforcing them team approach because that’s kind of been my strategy even if i didn’t know it.
Oh lord. I still don’t have a quote button and apparently I don’t html well. I’ll need to fix this on a computer so that may need to wait until tomorrow
Feel free to put that on hold
How does he normally do at seminars? And how did the off leash dog affect his behavior afterwards?
He hasn’t done many seminars as of late, but the last few that he’s done, i feel like he’s been very focused. Even at the seminar when he was charged, He recovered better than I anticipated but was just overly hyper-vigilant and reactive. It happened 3 months ago. He continues to be a bit more reactive and specifically in training at carries he’s been prone to running off and sniffing even prior to work or if a mistake has been made. He will also if not swimming do the things I ask but not really be into his reward.
<p> is he intact or neutered?
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He’s still intact. I am so undecided on whether neutering is something I should pursue because it’s permanent and we are in that devil you know situation. Maybe I can pick your brain about it more over oysters in January. I do think it contributes largely to the sniffing and he does have a good bit of dog-y behaviors.<p> So after he got his swim… he ran fine with your original plan and did his sequences? Did he run off for the pool again?
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After swimming he did 100% of what I asked him. Although I may have lowered my plan to make things super easy and have him be successful.
Pool works very well. Sometimes the pool person will be there and he can’t swim because of the chemicals… Carrie is anti dogs swimming if it’s super cold… that doesn’t bother me much if he wants to swim but it’s not my house 😅I guess my other frustration is that the pool has to be first in the behavior chain right now. I haven’t been able to really get frizz, food games or agility first.
<p> Agility can be quite isolating, which is also very emotional. So let’s flyball the sh*t out of these issues and get him into the ring!
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It has been so terribly isolating. I am comfortable showing him nfc in Houston because the barriers are solid. I don’t think he’s quite ready for gating that is see through because if he’s not engaged or I make a mistake, he can easily see movement. Unfortunately Houston is 6 hours away so it’s not ideal for putting all my eggs in it. In a perfect word]led, I’d be there at least monthly and have him in group classes, but I’m doing the best I can with what I have.
When we did Annette’s seminar at Melody’s, the ring was solid on three sides and open at the front with obedience fencing. He did very well and never once thought about leaving. There was just one or two dogs as distractions. He made mistakes but stayed 100% engaged. I do think at some point I’ll have to trust him more but I personally need more positive reinforcement with him.
Okay. I need a bit of a therapy session tied in with training. I’ve been so down and negative lately. Normally I hate that from others so I really apologize. My emotions have been so high because I feel like we have just had a major set back from our progress. I do think some of it relates to the off leash dog charging him at our last seminar. Whether or not it’s causation or correlation or unrelated, I couldn’t tell you but I’ve been on the struggle bus since.
I do think I need to remind myself that he’s still very young and his focus is quite different than Callie’s.
That being said, I finally made it out to Carrie’s. I had been avoiding it because I had been feeling very frustrated with his focus there. It’s a battle and I don’t like fighting with him for focus. Then I avoid it because I don’t like it.
Anyway… I planned a sequence for us. Walked it. Got his toys ready, walked him in, let him sniff for a second. We then played the cookie toss and look back at the mama game. He was killing it. Arousal was up. I then took the leash off and continued to play this game. Pretty good. I tried to switch to the frizz, immediate disconnect and he squeezes through the fence and goes to the pool. He won’t actually swim without me tossing a toy but does find staring longingly at the pool reinforcing. I wait him out and he comes to me. I ask for an around and throw his toy in. He swims. Focus and arousal are great and he’s in a prime working mind. I’m able to run him with minimal distractions.
What I don’t know how to work through is this pool versus frisbee thing. I feel like his love for the frizz is so high in my yard. With the distraction of the pool, he really doesn’t pay much kind to the frizz unless he’s swimming.
So for the next round, I brought him directly to the pool to swim. We then played strike and tug with the leash and he went back up. The third time, swim, tug, really straight agility sequence which he did screaming fast and all in.
Should I just use the pool in the loop in Carrie’s yard and approach other places like my yard? He can’t always swim at her place, so I don’t feel like it’s ideal but I also don’t want to fight or be a crutch.
After I worked my dogs, Carrie and I instructed a few people in her yard. ALL of the dogs but the goldens were highly distracted and stimulated by the smells. I didn’t feel as bad watching them but It’s still not what I want.
Sorry for being such a negative Nancy for this class. I just want so bad to get him eventually to a trial. I feel like we’ve worked so hard and his skills are so good that my emotions just get high because I feel like I’m failing him. I also don’t have this on video because the tripod at the yard couldn’t capture the footage because it was really short.
Hope your UKI trial went well with the youngsters!
We played with remote reinforcers again. He’s working for me but he’s a little distracted in the moments in between. Overall he stayed in task and point. He’s not as snappy with commands as I know he can be but I’m proud he’s working.
I brought his normal leash in. He seemed happier with it than the other one. There was a moment where he had to pass over it, where he thought about it as a reward. There was also one, maybe two times where he bit it as I came over his head with it. I do need to work on my tug skills because I’m still pulling it before he’s got a grip.
I’m really starting to miss sequencing with him. It’s been several weeks and I’ve just been working to keep all this clean. These last few weeks have been rough for me with staying encouraged and motivated 😔. I’m really trying and he seems happy.
Also kind of feeling lost since we are approaching the end of class. What would you recommend we keep working or start working for more feedback?
<p> It can mirror the demo video I did with CB and the tennis ball, where it was a trained behavior that was stimulating AND associated with fast reinforcement – then the “new” reward (in your case, swooshing the leash around) – then a quick transition to the BIG reward (da friz!)</p>
can you direct me back to which video to follow for this? I’m having a brain fart.
Leash work
This one is hard for us. Again he likes tug, he doesn’t love it 🤣. He really likes chasing a tug down on course if we are going to play this game.
My goals for this session were to try it off him (new to him leash) and then see if we could get some bitey while it was on him.
I think starting out he looked good. Not super excited but engaged and working. I see a definitive shift in him once the leash goes on.
We played food games with search, whoosh, and snacks just to finish it.I also learned that I should never film in these pants because hello very visible cellulite 😳. I’m going to go starve myself now.
I was really happy how the leash played into the loop with the frizz so I’m assuming I need to modify that someway to incorporate the leash.
A couple of overthinking moments on my part. I felt like I always had to release him to for a let’s go versus at the start because that would be toy toy. Would you do toy toy on a surface? Is it really that big of a deal and I’m over thinking it? Would you sprinkle in toy toy at this point?
As you mentioned, this frizzgillity plan but it will be not the same at a trial. I’ve considered putting a frizz on a tug so I can at least get more movement with it in an acceptable manner at a trial but I’m open to other suggestions. Also open to suggestions on how to put a frizz on a tug. I’ve used the chuck it donut things but unfortunately they die after like one session.
I will keep building value for interacting with the frizz with me for sure. The other thing would be maybe seminar prep for one I’m going to in a couple of weeks… when we are in new places with new dogs I tend to not let him run off with the toy because I don’t quite trust him… he has done well just paying with tugs and staying engaged. Should I keep working the frizz or practice something else?
Unfortunately there’s not a safe fenced placed where I can really go practice this to see before the seminar. I’m really limited on new locations.He did get to swim swim after so he was a very happy boy. It was a good way to end our session too. Also super happy on how he handled the mistake.
