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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 🙂
First Skills Sets session…..
Warmed up with a couple of Crazy Elevators, used his target to “help” as we really pushed the independence. His teeter is pretty terrific 😉Hi Tracy,
Thanks for the link to All Things Tunnel…….We’ve been working to bring the 2 sets of 6 closer together for a full set of 12, unfortunately no video…technical difficulties and lack of time! Anyway…..working off my right went really quickly, with almost no errors. But off my left when I got to a full 12 he skips a pole in the middle, always on my side and I think always in the same place….pole 5? or maybe 7? And then he re-enters and finishes all of them. I know it’s hard to “analyze” with video but I wanted to throw it out to you in case it’s something you’ve seen before. My plan is to just back up and lots of reward after the first 6 and bring them together more slowly. And add my speed more slowly. I think I just expected both sides to “go at the same pace” and for whatever reason that isn’t the case. Also we need to work through the Find It track so lots to do between now and when Camp starts 🙂 Have truly enjoyed both of these classes and we both have learned A LOT! Have a great Memorial Day weekend. See you in a few weeks for camp!
Loving his Holy Rollers and his weaves 🙂 I’ll do this same thing but from the other side in a couple of days and assuming that session goes as well as this one then I’ll start to bring the 2 sets together 🙂 A side benefit of these sessions….his retrieves are getting better too 🙂
Love it that all the courses have lifetime access!!! 🙂 I’ve found all the MaxPup ones but can’t seem to find All Things Tunnel. It’s probably obvious but ….can you help? Thanks and have a great weekend!
A lot of reps in this session….but I really wanted to see how me paying better attention to where I rewarded in the Elevators and continuing to run on the full teeters worked out. Wait til you see his last full teeter 🙂
Tracey, this has been a really good class. I’ve played this game a long time and seen a lot of different methods for teaching teeters over the years but never have I seen it broken down in such detail. I couldn’t be happier with Sly’s teeter 🙂 THANK YOU!!! Really looking forward to camp 🙂
Will do! Makes total sense.
Couple of quick questions….when does “camp” start? And how long do classes we’ve taken stay available to us to go back to after the class is officially done? There’s lots of stuff in this class that we still want/need to do and I was also wondering about All Things Tunnel. I’m finally getting my act together about what I’m going to use for verbal cues for my tunnel turns. I had sort of skipped that when we were doing Tunnels and would love to go back and play those games now. Are you going to offer that class again sometime?
