[Kyla McNeill]

Thanks so much!
He did well with rear cross with the prop previously but had to do straight ahead reps in between as he started to want to slow down to watch me. Will revisit that one this week.

Haha, he probably did stomp his feet through!

Yes, planning on running dogwalk. I am currently planning on training with a mat, mostly because I’m familiar with the process and already have a training mat.

We did some training at an agility trial. Started with the toys as earlier he had said he did not want anything to do with any type of food in this environment. He was into the toy as long as it was the right one at the right moment and then decided he could do some food pattern as well.

[Kyla McNeill]

Hello,
Here is our second attempt at the alternate rear cross game. Also first try with cooked chicken as a reward and Aelfraed says he’s a big fan. I told him I’m not cooking fresh for him every day so hopefully he’s still a fan of leftover chicken.

Box with arc session. Also had to figure out which toy was acceptable in the face of chicken.

[Kyla McNeill]

Thank-you! That makes sense!

[Kyla McNeill]

Intro to stepping in/walking through a box.
This was a very interesting start. Yesterday he said these particular treats were delicious. It is entirely possible that he did not think they were as delicious today but he didn’t try to bury them or turn away with a disgusted look which is typically what he does if he doesn’t like what I’m offering. However, it took a few tries to actually eat the food. He continued to seem interested and engaged. I think he was really just more interested in the box than the food at first and then managed to be convinced that the food was part of the game.

[Kyla McNeill]

Thanks so much! That makes so much sense about the backing up. I actually selected that platform as I thought it would be “easier” compared to some others I have as it is lower, but did not consider the narrow width. That is very cool he had that proprioception to judge that though.

Will definitely separate the sitting and backing up exercises for now. I recognized that was probably a lot of hard body work all at once and also appreciated that he wanted to communicate.

Thank-you for the suggestion with the bowl for the barrel. Will definitely try that.

Question regarding the parallel path with the jump. How much distance laterally should I be working towards? Specifically wondering how will he know the difference between when I walk forward past the prop with distance and don’t indicate that he should move with me and not go to it, but when I move forward past the jump when I am a distance away, he should still take it? I expect he will figure out the difference easily right now with each of the different props, so I guess it’s really me that needs to understand the difference, lol.

The clarify our end of training outside, we do not usually have a problem ending sessions. Most often I let him run away with the toy a bit or tell him we’re done and he will go sniff. On this day, I actually did give him a small treat scatter when I was done with the jump but I forgot that he actually doesn’t like treat scatter very much right now, especially in the grass, so he left some of the food and I believe he thought I was resetting for another game. Since he looked so eager and I probably didn’t indicate the end well enough for him, I felt it was fair to do one more game. I was not expecting that game to be “not work” but did intend for it to be something easier. Also, at the end of that game when he settled down to chill, he actually hung out there for a minute or two and then was quite calm after. We also went for a big walk around the area after putting our stuff away.

[Kyla McNeill]

Aelfraed was very happy he got to do extra training today as we had extra time. We did indoor training in the morning (when it was dull and wet outside) and outdoor training in the evening.

His pile of stuff he was pretty unsure about at first. It was maybe too hard and should have been spread out more but he was quite excited when the extra delicious food (ice cream) arrived.

Tried to see if he was ready to step back onto an item. He said not quite but he was trying.

Sit on a platform. He was working hard and then said he was tired and done (and was very adorable).

Training in a new field. Played some pattern game first. Unfortunately he doesn’t always think that string cheese is delicious which is very inconvenient, lol. Today was apparently a cheese is not delicious day and he tried to bury it on the 3rd toss so had to switch treats.

He seemed quite into the reverse retrieve, although for some reason didn’t like when I tossed it in the one direction at first.

Some more barrel wrapping. He definitely seems to find left harder which is interesting since he has preferred left turns on the plank. Looking to the side he needed to get to helped and he also seemed to enjoy added excitement and motion.

Parallel path with jump seemed easy today, he just paused to watch some people halfway through.

I said we were done after the jump…but he said what’s next? So, I agreed to one more game, lol. Toy play with some pattern game when he was interested in what was happening at the playground, and then just chilling.

[Kyla McNeill]

Thanks for the pictures! Will try that adjustment next time!

[Kyla McNeill]

Hello!
I brought out the barrel with the intention of working rotated sends but Aelfraed did not seem convinced about that. Auntie showed up as we were working so we added some Auntie chase at the end.

Introduced the out concept to the prop. Apparently it is quite difficult to stop my feet from helping.

Also tried the alternate rear cross.

[Kyla McNeill]

Thank-you!
Correct, only the tunnel verbal so far. Will work towards adding the threadle verbal.

Haha, not left handed, but I was trying to focus more on rewarding from left hand recently as I had been tending to feed too much from right hand. Perhaps tipped the balance too far.

Worked on parallel path to jump starting with a cookie toss. Seemed more difficult for him compared to when he was moving ahead but he was still happy to play the game.

[Kyla McNeill]

Thanks for your thoughts on the jump cues. Makes sense.

Aelfraed worked on tunnel with the auntie holding him this time.

Also some backing up with an incline.

[Kyla McNeill]

Thank-you!
Yes, we had tennis in the background yesterday.
Today we had people on skateboards in a skate park who were also playing loud music.
We did some more barrel game. Tried the front cross to blind cross first and then started to try some pivot but he seemed to be getting tired of the game so will try more decel to pivot next time.

Parallel path with a sort of a jump.

Retrieve game.

I have a question for you regarding cues. We are of course far from ready to start using them anyway but I’ve been starting to think about what jump cues I want to use for Aelfraed. My question is regarding backsides of jumps and threadles. With Lennan, I have a backside slice, backside rounded, threadle slice, and threadle wrap. I’ve been seeing some discussion recently where people are teaching backside directional cues that are specific to the side of the jump the dog must approach and then the direction to exit. It seems these cues are then used for both push backs and threadles with the explanation of them being dog dependent backsides instead of handler dependent. I’m wondering what your thoughts are on this?

[Kyla McNeill]

Hello!
Aelfraed took a few days off official training while we visited my sister and her family. He had many new experiences including befriending a tiny human. It was also his first time away without any other dog buddies. He was so super good with everything. Anytime something was new and he wasn’t sure, he checked in with me and then adjusted quickly. The two cats that live in the home are anxious around dogs so Aelfraed had to spend some solo time in his puppy pen both outside and inside and he was totally perfect with this.
https://youtube.com/shorts/R2QDaCTJ_hg?si=2Dsrnwwvg3sZ9c03

We worked on some barrel wrapping with a toy on the ground. He doesn’t usually love the toy as much when it’s not moving but he seemed pretty happy with this. Partway through he noticed some people exiting their vehicle so we played some pattern game.

We also tried some turns to the prop. At the end of the session, some walking dogs came into view. You can see one walk across in the video but there were actually 2 other dogs in different directions that Aelfraed was also noticing. I had just run out of cookies so I let him keep the toy instead and he was so good and just settled down and watched.

[Kyla McNeill]

Thank-you!
In the park, I wasn’t entirely confident before that he wouldn’t decide to play “you can’t catch me”, but he hasn’t shown any of that at all and has been very keen to do his work, so I think we probably can try the barrel game with no leash.

Worked on the tunnel yesterday. He was very excited about the tunnel but apparently we had the wrong toy to start. Got a couple of times with threadle position.

[Kyla McNeill]

Thanks for the sitting demo video. Aelfraed can now sit on a platform but have not tried with his front paws off the platform. Will work towards that.

We tried some lap turns and tandem turns today. A different park. It was noisy. He didn’t seem to care.

Also a few toy races. He seemed really happy to drive to the toy.

I forgot to say before, I laughed when I read your suggestion to train him using a bit of something I ate because earlier this week he got to practice tricks for apple pie crust!

Aelfraed lost one of the two remaining baby teeth a couple of days ago and although the other is still loose and waiting to come out, I guess the one he lost was bothering him more. His interest in food went way up as soon as that tooth was gone.

[Kyla McNeill]

Thanks so much!
Aelfraed definitely has opinions about his rewards! When I first started teaching him things, whatever reward I used to start the behaviour was the only reward he wanted. So, certain things were associated with toys and other things with food. He has become more flexible overall now about accepting different types of rewards but he still has strong opinions, which is usually totally hilarious.

He does seem to have a bit of a preference for left turns at the moment but is balancing out.

We worked on some stays today. He doesn’t like to sit much during stays yet, which is fine. I’ve just been working with position of his choice for now. I think the sit is physically challenging for him. He actually quite likes sitting and offers it frequently, but not for duration. His sit position has become tighter than it used to be though so it seems he is building up more muscle strength.

We also worked some collection sandwich. He had to have a line dragging as we were in a public park. He’s used to dragging that particular line during outings so he wasn’t bothered by it but I think it did possibly cause him to run a bit slower.

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