[Kim Tees]

I’ve been trying to think of how to change the setup to help him figure out the ZigZags starting off his right and after rewatching a bunch of the videos I wondered if I made the distance between the 2 jumps smaller if that would help so…. instead of wing in the middle I just used a couple of stanchions. I think it helped. I should’ve stopped at 5 reps but just had to do one more – bad trainer, it was a bridge too far 🙁 I let him try one more and he actually figured it out a little bit so stopped at that one. Now I’ve got a bunch of questions…..

I think I need to stop at 5 reps all the time – no matter what.

What do you think about this setup?

Should/can I use this setup for both sides? Or should I stick with the “harder” setup with the wing in the middle for him when he’s coming off his left first?

Jumps are at 6″, seems like a good height for this?

What would you suggest for going forward from here…..do more off his right than his left for awhile as that’s the side he’s less comfortable on to help him get more comfortable? Or continue to work both sides about the same amount and just let them both progress at however they progress?

Thoughts on how often….I’m kinda thinking 2 sessions of 5 reps with a break in between – and I’m going to count! and stop! 2 or 3 times a week.

Apologies for the “engineer/planner” brain going into overdrive!!!!!

And too funny but I was thinking the same thing about the Organizers to the Plank……he’s really getting focused on looking at my hand – the POWER of the placement of reward especially with a foodie 🙂 I played with this some yesterday and really had to break all the pieces down. No food/hand, he couldn’t stop on the platform, so put the MM right in front of the platform to get the stop and then slowly worked it around the wing a little bit. Didn’t even try to add any speed…… Plan to see how he does later today with ability to stop on the platform with no speed coming in and if that’s good then we’ll give it try with the wing. Video later, I hope 🙂

Hope you guys are having a great time at the Open… fingers and paws crossed that the storm turns out to be not much!

[Kim Tees]

Organizers to the Wing….both sides. This felt pretty good. Time to add a bar?

[Kim Tees]

Zig Zags with the moving target. With the same angles as our last session. I thought went really well, so flattened out the angles just a little bit. Starting to his left went well but starting to his right….not so much. We were at our 9th rep so stopped. One thing I have definitely learned from this class is that he is much more comfortable turning to his left. Would you expect this much of a difference? Thinking I should get him in for a massage just to make sure something physical isn’t going on. Thoughts?

And some Organizers with a Wing. Took a bit to figure out how to let him know what the game was and sort of sort out my mechanics. I’m guessing you’ll have some suggestions on this one 😊

[Kim Tees]

It’s a REALLY easy dogwalk to move, one of the old Atomics made by Jeff and Tracey Lacasse back in the day. Not sure I have enough width to keep the 2 jump 180 but I bet I’ve got enough room to have one jump out there and wrap it back to the tunnel. Hmmmmmm….I’ll have to look at that 🙂

And yeah, I could see him looking at me on the start like “you must be nuts wanting me to get on the dogwalk like that”. And yep, releasing on his tunnel verbal would have helped a bunch. Here’s the yeah, but 😉 (I hate yeah, buts!) Somewhere along the way I created some confusion for him with his startline and the “fix” for now is releasing only on his OK. Also, me being very, very careful and aware of not pairing it with any motion. It’s working and he’s getting very secure/confident about his startline and release (like in the Motion Overide Game) so for now I’m going to stick with always using my OK before any other cue and probably add back in releasing on a few other obstacle names, down the road. But for now, I think we’re better off not to risk creating any confusion for him. Does that make sense?

• This reply was modified 2 years, 8 months ago by Kim Tees.

[Kim Tees]

Hi Bobbie, just wanted to say Thank You for this class and all the information that you have shared. I have learned a lot and have a lot more to think about and “process”…..there’s a LOT here!

I’ve tweaked our crating setup at trials. More time in the car, even if it means more times going in and out of the building (entering the building has always sent him over the top) but by making this change we’re doing more “entries” with lots of pattern games and I’m finding that we can get much closer to the door before his head explodes and he’s able to regroup much, much quicker. 😊 I’ve also changed where we crate when inside. I had always tried to crate somewhere as out of the way as possible, thinking that less traffic was better but what seems to be better is to crate where it’s busy…. he settles in quicker and seems to be more relaxed. I also am using a bigger crate so he has more space to be further away from the front….back and sides are covered. Anyway, thanks again!!! We’re off on a 4 hour road trip…. time to listen to the last 2 Wednesday night meetings 😊

[Kim Tees]

Thanks Tracy. I’m thrilled with how he is figuring out the Organizers to the Platform 🥰 Day off tomorrow so we’ll give it a try with a wing on Thursday or Friday.

And yep….I think with the leading with his head it was a combination of both… too much repetition, and some fatigue. Also I think this is a hard exercise for him so it “wears his brain out” quicker than some of the others. We also did this about 8:00 last night just before we went home and even though he’s gotten to be very comfortable hanging at the Training Center for the day (sleeps a lot) it does still wear him out a bit and I need to remember that. It’s not like being at home all day.

[Kim Tees]

2 really short fast and fun sessions of the Moving Target Game.

[Kim Tees]

I teach pretty much from 8 to 8 on Mondays with a couple hour break in the middle of the day, so Sly and Mags get to “hang” at the Training Center for the day. So……Zig Zags at 7:30 – 4″ and I shortened up the distance by taking out one of the wings and sticking one of the bars in the lattice 🙂 Came straight off his rear every time 🙂 And we did both directions.

Organizers during our lunch break 🙂 And then a nice long walk 🙂

And a quick session of Leading with His Head before heading home.

Kinda of a lot of stuff….but all the sessions were short – 2 or 3 minutes with all the rewards and playing in between. The Organizers was actually 2 sessions….first one was the Motion Override Game and the second one was the Organizers. Felt like some of the pieces were coming together. I’m especially pleased with how he’s really starting to figure out the Organizers 🙂 I’m beginning to be pretty sure that he is much happier turning to his left than to his right.

[Kim Tees]

Oh you’re right…..I didn’t even notice these were at 8″. The first time we did the Zig Zag exercise I had them at 6″, duh? I’ll pay more attention – bad trainer! When we play with this tomorrow my plan is to start with 4″, 4′ bars….jumping to his left first and see where it goes. And yep, he was watching my hands and not the toy. I usually keep my treats in a pocket but had on jeans and well……treats won’t fit in those pockets :0

The platform is 2′ or a little longer so yeah…I do think it will work for the next Organizer games.

Hope you had a nice weekend.

[Kim Tees]

Well, in hindsight I screwed up but learned a lot …. although I’m not exactly sure what.

I took the foot off the jump and set him up a little more in towards the bar to see if he would drop the front foot tap, “stupid” trainer combined this with flattening the angle between the 2 jumps….duh!!! 🙁 This is the whole session. I ended up backing back to the same (or maybe even more) angle than the last session where he did so well and then set him up close so he left out the tap, but he still couldn’t bounce them. If I set him up more like where I did in our first session a couple of days ago, he put the tap in but was able bounce. Thoughts? This also turned into more reps than I had planned….also wondering if some of the difficulties towards the end are fatigue ….as he was able to not tap and bounce one of the very early reps????

This is a very quick session of Organizers…..the broad jump boards, although a good idea, were a pain in the butt to take anywhere so Jim made me these cute little wooden sides 🙂 I’ve also taken an inch off the width of the platform. It’s kinda hard to see with all his hair but he’s getting much better at pulling his back feet in, almost in line with his front feet 🙂

[Kim Tees]

We were gone for 3 days at a USDAA trial…had a blast! Took our “organizer board” and played some at night in the hotel. This is really hard for him! But making progress.

I think you are right about the head turns, definitely impacted by my cuing hand.

Took the last couple of days more or less off with the exception of this short session of Zig Zags with 2 jumps…. 6” high, 4’ bars

[Kim Tees]

Zig Zags on the Flat. Started with wings about 6’ apart and then a few reps at about 5’

And then we did a little more Leading with The Head. This time I thought he looked more comfortable turning to his left and less comfortable turning to the right…the opposite of last time 🤷‍♀️ We did a few single wraps towards the end. Should I move this to a wing?

[Kim Tees]

Leading with The Head, Take 2…… Better 😊

And absolutely agree that he’s a natural wide sitter. I looked for a little wider platform and all I have is quite a bit wider so I got the idea of a couple broad jump boards on the side to help him sort out the mechanics. Tried a few reps to see if this might work. What do you think? I can probably get Jim to cut me something on the table saw to use as a little bit wider platform if you think that would better than the broad jump boards, just might take a few days to get it on his “To Do” list 😉

[Kim Tees]

OMG! I already love this course and I’ve only done 2 exercises. Here’s the end of our first Lead with The Head session….I cut out all the stuff with me figuring out my mechanics!

And then we attempted the first Organizer exercise. Holy crap, not very many functioning brain cells today in the presence of food and a clicker! I’ll edit it down to the best parts and send…but for now I’ve got to go change my pants as he had me laughing so hard I almost peed them. This is going to be fun and exactly right for us 🥰

Editing this post…… I edited the Organizers session video but actually ended up leaving in most of the session as I think it might be helpful for you to see and you can always FF through it. I’ve been following Helen Connell’s thread and I think Sly and I were both stuck a little bit in shaping mode but in my defense 😉 seems as though he wasn’t much into me helping …Hey Mom, food, clicker, I know what this means…. Keep trying things!!! Anyway, we both definitely had fun but I’m not sure where to go. I absolutely think this is a much needed exercise for us so looking forward to your thoughts

[Kim Tees]

Hi Bobbie,
Just checking in….. yes, totally understand the no comments on the “intro” videos, I wasn’t sure if you wanted to see video as part of the intro for auditors or not. Initially I was really bummed that when I finally got my act together to register for this class that all the working spots were full, but I think now that’s actually worked out for the better 🙂 As you said there is SO much info, for me I’m finding that auditing is allowing me to focus on understanding the info and not feeling any “pressure” to do exercises and submit video. Anyway….. I’ve listened to last week’s Zoom, twice. The whole concept of mental resilience and the rainbow is exactly what I think Sly and I need to continue to improve our game and I look forward to more detail and improving my understanding of the 7 elements, especially completing the Stress Cycle. Will there be more about that in future weeks? I also have a question about crating out of your car, crating inside, inside long enough for a dog to “acclimate” before running and all that goes with all of that. I know that each dog and situation is different, so this is sort of a generalish question. If you’ve got a dog that does build stress over time when crated inside and is clearly more relaxed in their car but also can be “over the top” excited when first entering the building and has a need to take it all in and sort of process that piece; is one possible technique for helping them with both of those: bring the dog in (using pattern games, etc) have them crate for a little bit (as short as a few minutes initially) and then take them back to the car, a decompression walk or something to help decompress if able in addition to just removing them from the stressful area and then do it again? I’m asking for Sly and also for a student. Mostly for the student right now as she’s got a timid rescue Sheltie and is entered in her first AKC trial this coming weekend at a place where they train, have done run throughs, etc. etc. She’s in Novice so has a BIG time gap in between her two runs and was asking me what to do. I told her she should definitely crate in the car where her dog is pretty comfortable but was wondering if there was an opportunity to help “build some resilience” during all the down time? Thanks. So much good info to think about already!

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