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Finally had some dry space. We did skill sets in my yard and then headed to Carrie’s for the small sequence set. We haven’t had a teeter in an actual sequence in several months because Carrie’s is out of commission.
For the small sequences, man that #4 wrap was kicking our butt. I think some of it was spacing. It was tight and he really was trying. I did open it up a little to help. Since I used the tunnel I ended up hanging mostly by #3 to shape the turn out of the puppy cannon.
I thought about using my threadle wrap at 4- tried and failed but I felt like that was above the challenge of what was set up so mostly the challenge was in our build- yay course building!We had some bars. The one that kept falling was on uneven ground so I’m not super worried about it. It was also WARM.
Yay CAMP is here!!
My yard is still a little mushy so we started with transition to trials.
Rewards off the mama are HARD FOR US. I’ll admit, since it’s hard for us and there’s so many things I want to train, it’s not been super high on my priority list to work through. I tried to edit this video down as much as possible but it started out a little disjointed so I wanted your thoughts. It’s mostly just me tugging with him 🤣.
We started with leash play. Another thing that’s been harder for us. I feel like his tug skills are decent. They weren’t always strong but I feel like he has fun for the tug now (that I have worked on… a lot.) I have in the past shaped tugging on the leash for food in harder environments because it just wasn’t his favorite.So we start. I slip the leash over his head and he gets less responsive and less enthusiastic. I don’t dwell and switch to food. I get the energy level I want from him and we work. I do think it’s interesting that he was a bit disconnected when I asked for a wing wrap. He was unsure IMO.
To feel out the leash play, I switched to a clip lead to see if it was going over the head that bothered him. He played well for that leash. I brought the slip back out and he had a decent play session for that- not as good as the slip but acceptable for me.
I do think this is important to get right because it is a legal reward in the ring.Morning! I was watching your transition to trial video with placing your reinforcer. I have been using a station (cot or Cato board) with Fever when we are in unknown or less familiar environments. Would this be a reasonable place to place my reinforcers or should I keep it separate? (I have already been keeping them there) but just want your thoughts.
Last day of class 😭
I did three tiny sessions to get my last but in. I know we will continue to work on his striding.
I did a 2×2 session with the tunnel. I’m not sure if this is what you had in mind so wanted your thoughts. I do feel like the 2×2 require more collection for him but he’s getting his head down low. He preferred a two foot stride here. They were happening so fast, I couldn’t tell you what he was doing in real time.
We also tried the zig zags. Just wanted to make sure I have the concept correct. Man this was a hard one for me to grasp mentally.
I just want to say how much I’ve enjoyed this class, your content, and feedback. I truly is such an honor to get to work with you and you’ve been so helpful at problem solving for us. We have had a great time. Just a few more weeks until CAMP and we can’t wait!
Hope you’re surviving the mechanic.
I have zero cavaletti experience so I’d love a zig zag for dummies guide.
I was noticing him using his head more as well. He really is trying so hard. Such a good boy.
I’m intrigued by the 2×2 here. I almost wrote 4×4 because we were talking groups. We initially switched from 2×2 to channels to target the swim motion. I feel like they will need to be fairly open to get the swim? How open would you advise?
Tunnel weaves!
We had the drive byes but I thought he handled the fix well.
I don’t have cavilettis but will work those with him. He is still tending to cross his feet.
My treat and train remote is in my back pants pocket at the waistband which is why I look so awkward reaching behind me.
We did a dusk session split into two mini sessions. I have the tug toy and the MM placed. For the second session, we were having some handler mounting issues. Not sure why that popped up today, but since YouTube feels the need to ask me if my videos are safe for kids, I edited it out. Plus it’s just not a great look for me.
I opened poles 8-11. He’s still trying to sort striding out. I’m hoping once I start putting weaves in full sequences he will have more momentum. I’m not getting much out of him yet. I get he’s being thoughtful but I feel there’s a lack of enthusiasm.
One thing that was an issue prior to starting this class was drive by if he had momentum. What would be the best way to handle running past the poles should the issue return?
Third – he definitely gets hot easily!
In case you ever need validation, you’re just really really great at what you do! I am very impressed you picked up on this. It’s a constant struggle for us because we live in the south. He loses motivation when he gets hot. In agility he can stay level headed, but herding in the summer, he loses his brain.
Remembered one other thing – when he pops out and you fix starting at pole 6, I think ultimately that might be confusing (because it will be incorrect if he enters at pole 6 in other scenarios). So if he pops, start him back at 1. If he pops consistently, we can open up the 2nd part of the channels more 🙂 We don’t want to make him mad or tempt him to deliver tooth hugs 🙂
Thank you for this one! My logic was I wanted him to be super successful as quickly as possible because he just does better with not really being wrong and then if he is wrong, being successful. He’s making me a better trainer, I swear. Also, tooth hugs have been so minimal since starting this class. I no longer look abused on my arms or get strange domestic violence screening questions from my health care providers.
This video is kind of long because it’s two days worth that I didn’t separate. I tried some new things to see if we had any changes. The first session, I used the MM. The MM has amazing goodies in it- funfetti cereal, dehydrated turkey, and dehydrated salmon bites. He seemed to enjoy the tasty treats.
The second session I used a toy on a string. One thing I noticed was he was pretty avoidant of any physical play. We tended to have some loss of motivation if I played rough. That isn’t always the case but it seems to be wrapped up in his sound phobia that sometimes pops up. I need to remember to not rough play with him right now.Poles are still a pinky finger width open. He was tending to pop out early on some of the sessions. I accidentally rewarded one early in the second session. I think it was the first rep.
This week of training has been so exciting! I forgot to tell you that last session I accidentally called 911 from my tripod my compressing a side button in the phone. I told them that while we were struggling with reinforcers, it wasn’t a true emergency.
Here please enjoy the footage of me slipping in mud in slow motion
After a few reps, I pushed the poles together. I watched the footage prior. He starts off with good striding and then is switching to the crossing feet method. It did look like he’s just really trying to sort it out. I was pretty cautious here because of the mud slip but did try to get him excited to keep the speed up. I also tried to stay ahead in the poles, I’m sometimes better than that than others. I need to remember that the first few poles are lava again. I do think the hard sends are helpful because I won’t go backwards 🤣.
What if you had him weave the other direction – it looks like there is more room for throws on the side of the yard by pole 1? So pole 12 can be pole 1 and he can get longer throws.
That part of my yard is the lowest, and the last to dry. Hopefully this weekend, it will dry out enough to attempt. He can be tentative to get into the bamboo for his toy if it ends up in there- he’s making this challenging. I may also try the MM and see if he would prefer that instead. I felt like we were having really good success with the ball previously and it’s now not working that well so I’m just curious if there’s something else I’m missing here causing him to not want it. Even when I throw the ball towards the back of the yard at full momentum, he’s just like mehhhh. I’ll wipe all the toys down too in case they are tainted. It’s just interesting, I feel like I’m missing something here.
So to outline the next steps:
I could hug you for doing an outline. It makes me so happy. VIRTUAL HUG
thank you!Second session this week! I was having some reinforcement issues here. I know you’ve noted that he likes the toy thrown versus dropped. I feel like I’m doing mild throw here. What you can’t see behind the video is my patio that is concrete, so I’m a bit cautious because I don’t want him slamming his body into there. He can be weird if the toy touches some things… I’m not sure if that’s what happened here.
Anyway we spend a good bit trying to find something reinforcing for him. HisWhat is an onlyfans account?
don’t google it 🤣
One of thing I was thinking about for him: what kinds of proprioception/body awareness stuff do you do with him? That can help his weave striding too
Despite the fact that he completely spazzes out for his toys (and me highlighting it in slow mo) I’m pretty impressed with his proprioception/body awareness. I will say I’ve done more rear end than front end. He has all 4 paws on a cue to pick up. He can back up the dogwalk or Aframe effortlessly. Since we are almost closed on the weaves, I’ve added a few fit paws sessions per week- front and rear end focused. I haven’t recently done putting all 4 feet into tiny containers but can revisit that.
I wonder if the change from swim to bounce has a fatigue component? I was hoping the front end exercises may help. I don’t have much lateral movement in that area since weave swimming is a unique movement . Any suggestions?
So to hit the high points, stay at the box cars for a few sessions?
Much better short training session today. I don’t have to make an onlyfans account to subsidize my future since dog training was working out. 😅
I suspect I need to not lean forward in such anticipating of him finishing the poles but it’s really out of excitement. I will try to contain my emotions.
Ever have one of those training sessions where it feels like the world is against you? That was today. Slightly difficult to post this because it was just a bad one. It started out seemingly okay- except mom was dumb and forgot we were working box cars and not all 12 poles at once. I remember and then pull them apart. As soon as I do that, fireworks go off and completely shut him down so we stopped. We went inside and relaxed a bit, and he asked to go out again which made me super excited! I rearranged the poles and then a super loud engine backfires and I have another sad shut down dog. Then I pull out the food- which is working but he was consistently popping out early. Rather than make it worse, I figured I’d surrender to a bad session and see if you had any thoughts on why he’s popping out. These are slightly open as recommended- about a little over the width of my pinky finger.
Also, he wasn’t asking to go out and train- it was because he had to poop, which he then did right on my rug because mom didn’t understand that he didn’t want to train and wanted to poop outside 🙃.
Now I’ll have some hard seltzer 😅
On the plus side, it was absolutely beautiful today and I got to spend time outside with my pups.
