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Well I did a better job of not decelerating but crap… did not even feel myself take the early step in the direction of the turn 😱 We’ve done some Left/Right training previously, different method and quite awhile ago, but I was pleasantly surprised that a lot of it is “in there” 😊 Going to play this again tomorrow assuming we’re not snowed in….anything else I should change in addition to being careful about the lateral step too early?
Yes…..I kept trying to “manage” my motion so as not to help with any handling/decel, hard to do in the smallish space and I always think I’m doing better at it until I start to edit video and then it’s like…..not quite as good as I thought 🙂 I do find it to be really good training for me, to manage more than one thing for me to do with “me” based on what I see him doing.
Rewatched all the Week 2 videos, couple of questions. Do you use your Left and Right for all your soft turns – ie. straight(ish) tunnels and running dogwalk or do you have a different verbal for those? Or maybe the better question is: Is that what you use them for primarily and do you also/ever use them over a jump, like in a Gamble? Does that question make sense? Also, in all the videos your Left and Right is to the side that you are on, when you cue Right you are on the dog’s Right side and vice versa. Are your left and rights not relative to you and later on in the training you add in training for when they are a turn away from you? Thanks as always….off to play with Game 1. By the way…I was smart enough to print out the Field Guide this time and it’s great!
Sly says to tell you that I’m dangerous when I have a MM clicker in my hand and have to use it for more than one thing! I loved your idea of using the MM for the Wraps but I kept clicking it as soon as I saw commitment to the Wrap instead of waiting for him to come back to me and then sending…after I did that 2 or 3 times, I had the poor boy SO confused!!! Short session today of Wraps and Gos and Wraps and Gos….with the MM only for the Gos. I was really pleased with how this went 🙂 On to Week 2’s games!!!
Kind of a where we are update video. The “waiting” to hear THE word as opposed to just hearing A word is hard!!! My husband would say I have the same problem 🙂 We did several short sessions this week working up to this session today. Most of those sessions started with just working through “Oh I heard a word, blast to my MM! I think he’s definitely a rightie. Next time I do this I need to make sure to start with wrapping to the left just to sort out why this side is harder….right vs. left, 2nd side in the session or brain getting tired because we were further into the session………..or maybe this is him saying it would be helpful if you had different words? Anyway…..there’s a LOT about this session that I loved. The toy we are playing with is his leash :), I was smart enough (although a few reps late) to switch him to food when playing with the leash got hard…and the exercise (now turning to the left was hard), loved how with the switch to food and backing up to the wing instead of the 2 jumps he was 100% back in the game. And he definitely knows what GO means 🙂 We’re headed out tonight for a 2 day seminar so we’ll be “absent” for few days. Have a great weekend and we’ll see you next week.
Wraps, Part 1 with me waiting to see his head turn on the verbal before I complete my turn. I think this might have been harder for me than him 🤪
Got it! So, just to make sure I understand….. I’m not going to “help” him make the correct decision to Wrap by finishing my cross as soon as I see commitment to go forward? I don’t finish the cross until I see the head turn for the Wrap? The idea is for him to process the Verbal and respond to it even if my body isn’t clear? This is going to be really hard, I think. Doesn’t my body not turning on commitment to go forward to the wing cue continue going forward?
From your last comments…..
“I think people are getting RCs on those types of intended wraps because of the step-to-takeoff part of the wrap cues” I totally agree that this is what’s going on with Sly and why he reads the fronts as rears. I worked hard to get that “step to takeoff down” 🙂 and I don’t think it was ever much of an issue with Mags cause I didn’t do enough rears with her for them to be part of her “options”. Thanks for the suggestion for changing my handling to “fix” this. I’ll play with it, I’m sure it will make all the difference. Now to “retrain” me!!!And oh yeah, I know “shtick” 🙂 Mine is tieing and retieing my shoes. By the end of a trial day my shoes are so tight that my feet hurt!!! I appreciate that thought. I need to think about it as if I don’t give Sly the chance to “tie his shoes” it’s all he’s going to be able to think about until he gets to. I so get that! Seriously, if I don’t do that final “tie” I can get distracted by how my shoes feel while running!!!
Didn’t make it to the trial…..just getting too old (or finally smart enough) to want to drive home in bad weather in the dark. We have been working on continuing to put together all the pieces of this class. I think we both have learned SO much from this one and it’s been a lot of fun. Attached is a video from today. Don’t remember where I got this course but have set it up as a “Christmas Challenge” for everyone this week. Lots of interesting sections for training. Thought you might enjoy seeing Sly go!!! Incorporating (still fine tuning) our start-up and end of runs routines is getting easier 🙂
Tracey, thanks again for this class. It really has been eye opening. Have a wonderful holiday season and I’ll look for your email with 2022 classes. Until then I’ve got LOTS and LOTS of things to keep Sly and I busy with things we never got to in All Things Tunnel and Master the Challenge.
From your last feedback…….”It might have appeared that he was distracted or heading for the leash or reward at :43, but when you freeze the video – your feet and line of motion cued a rear cross. Good boy!! He was reading the handling correctly, not leaving for distractions.”
Yeah, I wondered about that and it’s something that happens more frequently than I would like….me cueing rear when I don’t mean to that is! Rears have never been my strong suit and honestly most of the time I’ve been able to get by without them, but it does seem that judges are getting pretty good at putting in at least one section in every course where either you have to do it with a rear or a rear is definitely a better way to do it so I’ve done a lot more rear cross work with Sly than any previous dog….and I need to be clearer about my mechanics!!!! Hey, sounds like an idea for a class to me!! Handler Mechanics for Fronts and Rears…..I’ll have to think of a fun name for it 🙂 I was thrilled with how well he did with the distractions. We’ll continue to play around with them.As far as the startline procedure. Contraband looked awesome!! That boy is going to have some speed!!!! I was reading your feedback to Helen for one of her remote reinforcer posts (I’m following both Helen and Kathy’s threads) and you said something about tugging being the only reinforcer available. I think I need to play around with breaking down the pieces of our setup even more. Remote reinforcement for giving up the “tug” leash. I pretty much always ask for a setup between my legs as soon as I get the leash back and one of the things I’ve noticed is that he starts to be less “happy” about giving it up. What I was doing was then doing a bit of Yours, Tug, Mine, Yours, Tug, Mine…. but I think I want to try some Tug, Mine….Let’s go to a remote reinforcer. What do you think?
And at least so far he’s not “all business” until I actually start the leadout. When we are moving into the ring is the point where he is most distracted, which is why I was wanting to develop a strong tug with his leash. He LOVES tug when he’s focused so it’s a strong behavior that I think we can build on. Right how we are doing a lot of hand touches which are pretty strong and last week in class I actually played around with a sit, I lead out to the end of the leash and then have hm come in to a hand touch. It took a little while but we were able to move 60 or 70′ without losing focus once. 🙂 Anyway…..lots to continue to play with. Have really loved this class!!!! If we don’t get snowed out, we’re entered on Saturday, AKC but they are offering FAST so we get to do a “real” FEO run and a couple of regular classes. I’m going to try to remember to setup my video so I can get all the stuff on the way into the ring before the run actually starts. I’ll let you know how it goes.
How’d your startline routine go? Definitely I need to play around with when the leash comes off, before or after setup? He can’t consistently tug on the way into the ring with a toy yet and we’ve still got aways to go with his leash in the trial environment. MORE than happy to do it on home turf and getting pretty comfortable with it in classes at AK9C but the trial environment is still very much a work in process. We’ve got a lot of good tools now and are making some real progress. 🙂 The really good thing is that once we get setup and I start to leadout he’s “all business”….
Short session today with some remote reinforcement and LOTS of distractions. We had done some dogwalks earlier and just off screen on the right is the dogwalk and in the corner (sort of behind him) is his MM. Plastic bag with treats in one of the chairs between the jump and the tunnel. Just did the 2 reps……
Congratulations on 10 years of AgilityU!!! This is another long video, 4+ minutes. It’s the whole session. The plan for the session was to start to meld some remote reinforcement with start line routine, leash tugging as he’s getting really comfortable with each individually. The leash is now a top 5 toy! I think one thing I need to work through is the pieces from when I ask for the leash to when he sets up between my legs and I take the leash off…
Hi Tracy,
Hope your seminar and all the travel went smoothly!“I love the Behind Ya cue!”…… Thank you! Just came to me in the moment and it’s going to be an easy one to remember….I like easy to remember 🙂 And thank you for the compliments on the Pairs videos that Helen shared. I do love the change to Combined Pairs and also love the “Covid” baton (or no longer baton) exchange – SO much safer all the way around. 🙂 I was thrilled with how well Sly was able to focus when he ran 2nd!!!
Catching up on the Week 4 games, the time has sure gone quickly in this class – I’ve had a couple of folks that take lessons from me ask if you are going to offer it again? So, I thought I’d ask? And do you know what your plans are for other classes you’re going to be offering this winter?
Hope to get a couple of leash tugging and some remote reward sessions videoed for some feedback. I’m pretty pleased with how they are going but am sure I’m missing some stuff!!!
Today was one of those days where all the little pieces started to come together 🥰🥰🥰 Ran at the last BARK USDAA trial at AK9C, lots of great pieces but the 2 biggest were an FEO run where Sly was able to tug with a toy at the start line and after he gave it back to me he immediately offered his setup position between my legs, a HUGE step!!!! Second one was a Pairs run where we were 2nd dog and he was able to stay calm and focused while Helen Connell and Nuptse ran first. It was one of the new Combined Relay classes where you get to run twice with the same partner, switching sides. I think Helen has video that’s she’s going to share where Sly and Nuptse smoked their 2nd run winning the class 😊😊😊
Now back to training…. two short sessions from yesterday, our first session with turning back for the reward. Decided that our cue will be Behind Ya…. Easy for me to remember. Second video is the wing wrap with a toy from Week 2. This time I sat on the floor and just as you suspected he quickly understood that this was a shaping game 😊
Distractions:
1) Anything unexpected or that surprises him.
2) Going into a new place/space, or even when he first goes into a place he’s been 1000 times before. The distraction starts as soon as he leaves where he’s been… think “been in his crate in the crate area at a trial, pretty comfortable and relaxed as long as passing dogs don’t get too close but as soon as he comes out of crate to move to new place becomes distracted”
3) Some loud noises, again I think the underlying factor is he didn’t expect it
4) Fast, barky, lots of movement dogs in the ring
5) Hollee Roller
6) Other toys and a ziplock bag which usually has treatsWe’ve done a LOT of the Get It Pattern Game with food (our go to treat for this is the Fromm CrunchiOs but we do it with pretty much whatever food we’ve got) and he’s able to refocus SO much quicker. We did a short session this afternoon entering my training center obviously a place he’s been a million times to give you an idea of what we are doing. I’m for the most part incorporating this pattern for entering the room if we are getting ready to train. Sometimes we go over and he and Mags just get free run to wander and be dogs when I’m cleaning or moving equipment or whatever…..
