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Oh yeah….I sort of forgot all about our hand touches, what I call (With Me) which is a hand touch to a flip into a loose heel sitting at my side, also his sits and downs are more games and are really solid and comfortable behaviors and then there’s his “through” which is between my legs. I think I forgot about them because anytime he can’t go directly to tug we immediately go to the hand touches. I guess without even thinking about it. So yes, absolutely all of the above outside the ring with food if he can’t tug. Question…..so if he can’t get to tug but he can do hand touches could I “hand touch” him into the ring? If he can hand touch he can almost always do through. And at least in that 2nd run at Data Driven where he was pretty distracted once he did the 3 straight jumps to the tunnel he could chase and tug his favorite toy like a demon 🙂 I think I’ve got a plan for tomorrow. I’ll let you know how things go. And I finally got a chance this afternoon to catch up on most of the videos. And maybe I can kill 2 birds with one stone 🙂 I’ve always wanted to teach either a High Five or a Give Me Five…..just never found/made the time. If I did it with some sort of funny target could that work as both his moving behavior for the Verbals with Arousal and as a Instant Focus Game? Gotta run…..living on a lake in Maine and my recently retired husband are really cutting into my dog training time!!!! Have a great weekend!
Thanks Tracy. In hindsight I was actually pretty proud of myself for walking out of the ring 🙂 We’re entered in just a Starters Gamblers class this coming Saturday. It’s a BARK USDAA trial at AK9C so it’s a place where we’ve had lots of opportunity to train. But no doubt that the class setting is a LOT different than a trial setting. The training opportunity is going to be the actual standing in line with other dogs and other people. My plan (and thank goodness for the COVID protocols that give us a lot more space!) is up and down game and if he can focus with the distractions with that then see if he can tug with his favorite toy while in line. If he can actually tug in line, we’ll tug into the ring. I think if we get that far he’s probably going to be able to stay focused so the plan is then a few jumps and tunnels and his teeter if it’s easy to get to in flow as its a teeter that he’s now been on a fair amount and he LOVES his teeters, play, and out. My plan is that at any point in time if he isn’t able to focus that we abort at that point and back up to what he could focus on and call it good. I’m thinking that is most likely to happen when we switch from up and down to tug while standing in line. We’ll see. I know he was able to do it last weekend at DataDriven, but we were outside and able to really spread out and the trial was so small that there really wasn’t a lot of waiting in line. This time a familiar venue but not going to be able to spread out as much and will definitely have to stand in a line a little more. What do you think? Suggestions? Hoping to watch the Week 3 videos today…. Hope all is well in your neck of the woods.
Well……change of plans for yesterday. It was raining, so I got Val to let me move him back to 12″….figured that the addition of running in the rain was enough of a change that we weren’t going to do anything else different. Things sort of fell apart after that though. VERY small trial and some scratches meant we were 2nd dog on line and the person in front of us did 6 obstacles and left. Sly was already a little cranked as a former student that I hadn’t seen in 2 or 3 years with a big German Shepherd kept wanting to talk and I was too polite 🙁 Next thing I knew the gate was yelling for us so we attempted up and down from crate to gate, sort of had him but only sort of, in my rush I grabbed the wrong toy and he wasn’t even close to being able to tug with it as we were heading in so we walked out of the ring and I scratched him. Of course the friend with Shepherd runs over to ask if Sly is OK and he’s immediately on his way to “talk” to the Shepherd 🙁 Not all bad though…..as soon as I yelled HEY! he backed right off from the Shepherd, friend finally figured out she needed to get her dog away and within less than 2 minutes of up and down Sly was totally focused and I have absolutely no doubt that he could’ve run just like on Friday. All in all not what we had planned and I was pretty bummed as he had done SO well the day before and mostly I was pissed at myself for “being polite”….but now I’m actually kinda pleased with both of us 🙂 I was able to control my desire to run and walked out and he was able to screw his head back on MUCH, MUCH quicker than he ever has before in a situation this charged. Onward!!!!! 🙂
We’re still here!!! We’re at DataDriven, did a lesson yesterday, short sequences, 12”, lots of food rewards (he wasn’t able to tug) but on his last turn he was able to do 6 weaves, chase his HolyRoller ball and bring it back and tug with it 😊
2 Runs today UKI, FEO, 12”. Had entered 3 classes but decided to scratch the 3rd one, dealing with the heat was frying 😆 both of our brains. One was a Speedstakes course, other was a Jumpers. He was AWESOME!!!! I’ll post the videos, unfortunately I didn’t get the “on deck” stuff. Used his favorite tug toy, jumped 12”, played up and down from his crate to where we got in line, continued to play in line and then got him to switch over to tugging with his favorite tug toy, tried a little leash tug but no go but he was able to switch right back to his toy, tugged all the way in to setting up, couple of hand touches and he sat right up between my legs on the first run. Second run the dog before us pooped in the ring so we had to “kill” a lot of time. Used what I had for treats playing up/down and then we sat on the ground and tugged. He wasn’t quite as comfortable at the start of this run and actually broke his start line as I was leading out. In hindsight my bad… should’ve recognized how “hard” the extra time waiting was and not done the big lead out but as soon as he moved we went and he recovered really nicely…straight run to a tunnel and then play. The videos aren’t the best but I think you can get a feel for how things went. We’ve got one run tomorrow, Starters Gamblers. My plan is same as today… try to setup a course with primarily jumps and tunnels… and maybe a seesaw towards the end. Only change (at least in theory) from today is going to be jumping at 16”. I’ll let you know how it goes
1st Run
2nd Run
Getting Started with the Verbals with Arousal 🙂 I’m good with a stationary behavior, we’ve got tons of them but I’m realizing that I don’t think I’ve taught any moving ones “on a verbal”. And I’m assuming I don’t want to do this (at least not to start) with an “agility” one….like Back, or left or right, right? Way too hard, I think. Would go to your mat be considered a moving behavior? We’ve got it on pretty well understood verbal and usually when I cue it I’m not moving and he does have to move from where he is to his mat. Would that work for this game?
Good Morning! Well, almost afternoon I guess. Just wanted to let you know that even though there’s been no video we’ve been doing a lot of playing with the Up/Down Game but in real life day to day type stuff so no video. There are some things that really crank Sly up and I’m finding that Up/Down helps him crank down and screw his head back on quicker than anything else I’ve tried. He can get so excited going to a door that sometimes he can’t do any of his hand touch games or settle on his mat, or sit all of which are REALLY solid behaviors. A few reps of tossing a cookie is bringing him back to Earth so he can then do hand touches 🙂 And sit and wait while I put a leash on 🙂
Also we’ve got a couple of “real life” training opportunities in the works. Headed to DataDriven next weekend for UKI on Friday and entered him in one (Starters Gamblers) run in the USDAA trial there on Saturday. This will be a challenge for us…outdoors, next to road, someplace he’s never been….but fully fenced and I’m guessing going to be a pretty small entry since it’s the weekend after Regionals so thinking it’s a good time for us to go play and test the waters. And my sister lives about 45 minutes away so can see her and her husband for dinner 🙂 Then have a couple of AKC T2B runs at AK9C that we’ve entered…I guess you can run T2B FEO 🙂 Any suggestions/recommendations?
Truly… The Transition to Trials games are wonderful!! You’ll get a kick out of this, I think I mentioned that Mags and I had finally been able to work out something when we went back to trialing during/post Covid that was helping so much…. It’s the Up/Down Game – really!!! With the social distancing and all the space AK9C put in place because of Covid there was plenty of room for me to toss cookies for her while we are in the cue to enter the ring without worrying about/disturbing the other dogs in line. It has made a huge difference in how we enter the ring, totally eliminated us both getting pissed off at each other as we wait. She still gets a little worried from gate entry to the first jump but most of the time quickly overcomes it once we start running because we just start from such a better place 😊
Yep! All makes total sense. I really like the idea of occasionally having the hidden rewards on me and the big surprise 😊. How/when would you start to add in these distractions when this training is not the main focus of the session? How/when to you decide to add say a toy on the ground distraction when you are doing one of the skills sequences?
Oh yeah….one last question. Do you have a “specific” agility “tug” leash? Or is your goal that the dog will tug with any leash, but only when it’s offered/cued?
All makes complete sense! I really like the suggestion to throw his ball when I release him towards me. He does LOVE his balls….hmmm…not sure that came out just right….hahaha!!! And yes, these teeters were without a target. I think we’re going to take a little break from teeters for a week or two. As you said his is pretty awesome and I/we are obsessing over those last couple of inches. He’s definitely a dog that likes to let stuff simmer awhile. His weaves were that way. We struggled with helping him find his rhythm…got close, took a couple of weeks off and inside the first session back he “had it”. Anyway….. have a great 4th.
This is actually our 3rd or maybe 4th “formal” session with the Transition to Trials game. This is GREAT! It’s the biggest mistake I made with Mags…..long story but we “fought” outside the ring before going in for way too long and it definitely transferred over to our performance in the ring. In hindsight it makes me sad that I wasn’t a better partner for her but ….. we’ve finally figured out something that works (COVID was actually helpful with this) and we’re both having a lot more fun, right from the start of the run 🙂 That said, I’ve been trying to put together a fun start routine with Sly from pretty much the beginning and also working with him being happy working with toys in both of my hands and with no reward on me and with reward visible but he wants to “work” to go get it. All works in progress. Here’s a video of some stuff we did yesterday. Like most everything we’re pretty good with this “at home” but on the road it’s all a lot harder. As much as I already love the rest of stuff we are doing in camp…this may just be the most important part for Sly and I. It’s the part that I’ve never been very good at doing. This is going to be SO helpful 🙂
Two different Sequences for Success…yesterday with the teeter, this morning with 6 weaves. Both had the opportunity to handle the 3rd jump with a “throw back” and I really didn’t remember at all what I was doing!!! I remember doing these in one of the MaxPup classes but it’s not something I’ve done a lot of and would definitely like to add them to my toolbox! They seemed like a good handling choice in both of these sequences…but maybe not? or maybe it was an OK choice but the execution was not so good! Anyway….. He’s figured out his weave rhythm 🙂 and is getting quite comfortable and confident. Hope you somewhere where you can stay cool.
Thanks Tracy,
Hope Elecktra’s foot is feeling better!I was wondering about having a cookie preplaced on the target, oh yeah…he’ll like that 🙂
Seminar was perfect for us. A place we’ve only been once before, outside, lots of traffic, new people and new dogs, short 8 to 10 obstacle sequences with just enough handling and lots of opportunity for a very high rate of reward……exactly what I was hoping for. One of the sequences had a teeter, a MAD Agility one which is a style he had never been on before so that was a great opportunity for us. The presenter was cool with me doing Bang Games and Elevators and Crazy Elevators before we did the whole thing….you’ll probably be getting some emails from a couple of folks that were there asking about when you’re going to offer Terrific Teeters again 🙂
He was a good boy, able to for the most part to keep his head screwed on and didn’t over-react to any of the other dogs there. It was exactly the confidence builder we both needed to now go find a “real trial” and do some FEO runs 🙂
We did the first 2 sequences with the teeter yesterday….just one side. Warmed up with a couple of Elevators again, this time trying to pay more attention to the location of my “reward” hand. Kept the target and went in and rewarded him in his target position with me way behind. He seemed to get a little confused about being able to stay in target position after I rewarded and then moved back to position on the landing side of the jump so I played a little bit with “bang game” with me behind him instead of beside him. Thoughts? Going to our first “big dog” seminar tomorrow……. Have a great weekend.
I think some of what causes him to stop just short was how high my reward hand is on the Elevators. When we did them in Terrific Teeters you had me adjust to a low hand position…sort of almost below the end of the board and it helped him drive further to the end. I need to remember that!!!! And yes, on to some sequences 🙂
