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Another good skill building exercise! These are all the reps from this session, well I did cut out the couple where I sent him to the backside of the first jump. I started with his toy, switched to his favorite food (liverwurst) near the end which messed up my throwing š, but he was working hard and thinking so I made the reward his favorite and easy those last couple of reps. Lots of good learning for both of us!
“The timing should be as soon as he is past the commitment plane of the backside jump and turns his head to the bar. You might be leaving too early and pushing him off the line, or he might need more reinforcement tossed on the landing side as you leave to maintain commitment and not chase youā¦ or both”………….. I’ve always thought of moving once he passed the commitment line but I’ve haven’t really thought about the and turning his head to the jump. I’ll have to pay attention to that. I’ll look for some sections of a Jumpers course and set this up. Although I suspect that some landing side reinforcement is in order as well š
I went back and looked at a couple of the layer videos and it’s crazy how just that little bit of change in line (me getting out of the way) on the landing side of jump 2 was worth .3 of a second!!! .3 here and .3 there and the next thing you just took a couple of seconds off your time!!! Planning to reset the equipment tomorrow and play with the layering exercise with the straight tunnel and I’ll have to see if I can find a section of a Jumpers course with a Reverse Wrap. Thanks as always!
Thanks Tracy…I was pleasantly surprised how quickly and how much motion he was OK with with the weave exercise š I was going to ask about the preplaced reward as it really helps clarify/confirm for him what the desired behavior is. I’ll try leaving it out and when he can have it give him his Get it cue and no cue when I want him to come towards the tunnel and not take it. I think he’ll be able to do this with his toy, if that’s too much of an ask I can always switch to the MM. I’ll let you know how it goes. Does this exercise eventually add to a full set of 12? Not in any hurry, but I’m thinking that the longer the set of poles the more of a challenge to keep going away for the mama.
Also, you picked up on when there was a little bit of pressure on his way to the poles he flicked away and went to the tunnel. We have this same thing happen on our Reverse Wraps….my timing of when I can leave is pretty critical…if I put a little pressure on the line “too early” for him he’ll flick off just like he did here. Sort of like he thinks it was a rear cross? Is this something we’ll be doing anything with in Camp?
We played with 1 to 4 of the first Standard course yesterday and today. My firsts thoughts for handling were blind between the tunnel and the takeoff side of jump 2 and stay in to cue the line to the tunnel. I then tried the blind in the same place but then moving “out” to layer the jump on the way to the tunnel. I didn’t like this at all as I thought my motion to get out for the layer actually cued him to come in and take the layer jump. So, then I did it with a landing side blind on #2 jump and the layer. I actually liked this…we had to do some training for the layer. This is a really hard layer for us, he definitely defaults to the serp and coming in and taking the jump between he and I. The video has about 2/3rd of the training reps, hopefully enough to give you a good sampling of the process but not too much repeating. Once we figured it out this felt pretty good and I thought it would be faster than staying in and not layering because I thought it would be a better line to the tunnel, so I timed a bunch of the reps and except for the very last rep of the layer this morning, which was like .3 faster than any other rep, both of the handling choices ended up being essentially the same time. On the first day I timed from tunnel entrance to tunnel entrance, on the second day I timed from tunnel exit to tunnel entrance. Fun exercise!!!
Hope your trip was uneventful. Agree, challenges are good but not at every obstacle! š³ A friend of mine and I were looking at the maps yesterday and talking about handling options, her favorite option became āand a miracle happens hereā š
We played with rear crossing the weaves this morningā¦ Lots of thinking in this session for both of us. I tried to be careful about allowing only 2 failures and then making it easier, in general preplacing his tug did the trick. Lots of reset cookies to keep a really high rate of reinforcement, you can almost see smoke coming out of his ears a couple of times š. Video has first 3 reps, last couple of reps and a little more than 1/2 of the in betweens.
Thanks Tracy. I could not have been any more proud of him, he SO stepped up š And yes, totally agree with your comment about some of those starts. It was one of those things that I saw happening in the moment (him getting a little slower off each start as the day/weekend went along) but I wasn’t able to process and adjust. As I’ve thought about it since I think we’ve worked really hard on dialing back his arousal level at the start so he is able to stay and focus (and I think he still has to work pretty hard to do that) that as the weekend went on it definitely took him a couple of obstacles to really kick the speed on. We haven’t done much at all this week. A lot of quick releases, throw the treat so he can chase it from sits around the house and class with Lo on Wednesday where I didn’t have to do a lot of leadouts (which was good) and on the few we did do I ran and rewarded with his tug after the 2nd jump and then did the sequence. We’re not trialing again for 3 or 4 weeks so my plan is to put “the fun” back in those starts. I’m also thinking that I may need/be able to put a little more arousal back into our to the line routine…..we’ll see. But I got tools!!!!
Love the focus of Package 2 and thank you for the mini sets. My area is only 40 wide so these are perfect. The selection of skills in this package “takes care of” 2 of the items on my Top 5 Training To Do List – verbal discriminations and rear crossing the poles. Our soft side entry is getting pretty good, here’s a short clip from Lo’s class on Wednesday….
adding the rear cross is perfect for us to start working on š Hope you are having a great weekend! And if you are by any chance looking for some freaking challenging courses checkout the ISC ones they are running at The Fieldhouse this weekend. Whoaa!
Weāre back! We went āupta campā over the 4th, home for the day last Wednesday and then Sly and I were off the the New England Regional. We did 17 runs over the 3 days and Sly was FREAKING AMAZING!!! I knew I was asking a lot (this was only the 2nd time heād run in a 2 ring trial, and has never done this many runs). I entered everything with the idea that I could always run FEO, do a couple of jumps and tug all the way outā¦..we did end up pulling from Biathlon on Friday night, he was antsy on the Startline and he had been solid as a rock all dayā¦. Released him, did an off course tunnel and out we went. He was fine on Saturday and Sunday. My motto for the 3 days was run with the intent to winā¦.had a blast. Sly had 17 perfect, calm, focused Startlines, perfect weaves, dropped only one bar over all 3 days. Dog walk was about 50/50 which pretty much duplicates training. We had the best time and I could not have been prouder of the little guy. Hereās our local GP and Steeplechase runsā¦.. Planning to take another day off and then weāll start to tackle Package 2.
Oh yeah, he definitely loves chasing my line! Hereās the 3rd sequence with the different handling, definitely faster. I went back and checked and our best time āgoing in on the pinwheelā was 11.4 vs. the 10.8 on our 2nd rep with the send and blind. š
And then we did the 4th sequenceā¦.2nd Rep was faster but only by .1
Have a great 4th!
The first three sequences. The first time, best time theme is going to be really good for us. I tend to be too much trainer and not enough competitor š
Hey! Sorry to have ādropped off the face of the planetā. On our way home from a RV trip to Florida for a mini family reunion. The 4 sisters were finally all able to get there at the same time to spread my Momās ashes. It actually all worked out well, Motherās Day weekend and the first year anniversary of her passing, it all just seemed right ā¤ļø Lots of opportunities for Pattern Games and instant focus with the car keys, quick hand touches and sits in all sorts of new places with all sorts of new distractions. Thanks for another great class! See you at Camp!
Changing subjects on youā¦.do you have any interest/availability for āseminar tour of New Englandā? Jennifer Johnson and I are trying to figure out how to work with you on person! She loved the seminar she attended in Florida. Hope all is well with you and yoursPlanned a session yesterday to get some video. This is coming into the Training Center straight from the car. Pattern game on the way inā¦.some RR, nothing in my hands but surprise treats in pocket. I think Iām learning that fast hand touches with me moving might be a good volume up game. Is it possible that hand touches with movement can be a volume up and hand touches without movement can be a volume down? He really is a pretty clear little communicatorā¦ when he grabs his leash and tugs in the middle of the quick hand touches and plops his butt into a sit ā¦. heās ready š
We’re still here! And I think definitely on the right track with some of the suggestions for class. Unfortunately, I drove off and left my piece of cardboard in the garage so had to improvise with a couple of jumps. The video is a series of short clips from this past Wednesday…..first clip is about 5 minutes after he went in the crate for the first time, last clip is about an hour later.
I have a “new plan” for next week. During this time of year AK9C leaves the doors to the arena open with a baby gate in front so dogs can’t get out. There’s a door in the corner of the arena not very far at all from where we are crated. Assuming it’s not raining, I’m going to set his crate up just outside the door. A step between crating upstairs (where he really is quite comfortable now) and ringside. We also get to sort of simulate the whole stand outside the gate, come through the gate when it’s our turn, vs. come out of your crate and go to the line (which is a LOT harder for him). I’m thinking this is a good interim step for us in class. And if it is raining, we’ll crate inside and continue with what we did this week. Thoughts?
We’re also doing lots and lots of leash on, leash off and quick sits and quick releases, mixing in remote rewards and having fun weaving between my legs….just not a lot of video. But we’re here!!! And thanks for the comment on the run I posted on Facebook from last week š It really is fun when all the pieces start to come together š He’s such a fun little dog. Have a great weekend.
Yes!!!! All makes perfect sense, as always š I love the piece of cardboard idea. The first clip where heās breathing hard is very shortly after heās entered the building, hasnāt run yet. He comes into the building that way and then settles over time. Usually by the end of the hour and 1/2 class he can start to relax a little bit. But you shouldāve seen him 6 months ago. Seriously, he would be so over the top between the car and the door, not even inside yet that he couldnāt even take a treat. Pattern games have been SO good for us. I think the other thing that helps him is familiarity, or maybe itās distance from the action. Weāre trialing today and tomorrow (Iām building courses for the Brittany club). And hereās a couple of short clips of him hanging in is crate upstairs.
You know how you have ah-ha moments! Your feedback about letting him offer the engagement was like āduh, of course!ā Pretty typical is I can regulate him after we walk in the gate with hand touches, and he stays engaged for the sit but the moment I reach to take off his leash or collar he consistently looks away, gets sniffy, says Hard, Hard, Hard and unfortunately I think because I feel the pressure of time I havenāt been giving him the chance to breathe and then choose to reconnectā¦..down the proverbial rabbit hole we go š„ŗ Todayās fun while hanging upstairs is lots of release from crate, sit, reward from treat bag on top of crate (sort of remote), reach to remove leash, wait for him to reconnect, reward, release back into crate, reward. Depending on how that goes Iāll add in actually removing the leash. So far he likes the gameā¦. Still disengages as soon as I reach for leash but reengages much quicker. What do you think?
