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Hello,
Here is a video of some improvised head turn training while we are away (with very happy dogs and mostly taking a break from training things). Lennan seems to totally get it when he is turning to the right but not quite yet turning to the left.
Also, when does this course end for posting videos? I’ve lost track. Thanks!
Thanks so much!
I watched the video and thought how normal it looked too! Lol. It wasn’t quite normal. We all wore masks for walk throughs and practiced physical distancing unless already in the same social bubble. It was all very relaxed and fun. I can imagine things are different for you though.We did have times of watching and checking things out as well.
Recently, Lennan has been overwhelmed in situations with groups of dogs. Even though he likes dogs, when arriving in a situation with many dogs, he acts like he doesn’t like anyone at all until he relaxes and remembers that he does in fact like dogs. If I ask him to do specific things too soon it takes longer for him to relax. He also will not at first be able to engage in toy play even though generally for training he would prefer toy to food. He will eat cheese though, even at the beginning.
What I did for the fun match was first of all I didn’t even enter Lennan. I entered my older border collie, Niamh. 4 runs total. I planned to take Lennan along to experience the environment, then if and when he was ready we could try some training, and if he was really ready, he could have the last turn in the ring instead of his sister.
First when we got there he had some time in his crate to just process the new environment. The first couple of times he came out he was allowed to watch everything, periodically being asked to turn away. He’s not big into sniffing except to sniff stuff to pee on it, lol, so we also practiced appropriate places to pee. He told me when he was ready to do things by helping himself to a toy from River’s bag when he was just hanging out.
At different times he got to watch people and dogs moving about, dogs in the ring, got to greet some people, also had to learn that you can’t always greet someone right away even when you know and love them. At one point I was distance chatting to a friend, Lennan had greeted her, and then just lay down and chilled beside me.
I actually think he would have been happy to go in the ring on an earlier round but I kept with my plan of him going in the last round.
I hadn’t thought to take two toys in the ring. That sounds good. Not sure when the next time will be but will keep that in mind! He really was bringing the toy back quickly mostly. He ran off with it after the tunnel mistake and took it to visit the auntie who was filming outside the fence. I was like, that’s fair, I messed up. I totally did take off too fast on that tunel and was like, sorry! Then he found the other end and I thought that was clever.
I was very happy with our day overall!Good morning,
Yesterday, we went to an agility fun match so got to practice tricks and sits with real life distractions! We were there from 9am until 2pm.
I only took Lennan in the ring once but had him out and about a few times and he was also practicing being in his crate. Overall he was a very good boy.
This video, we worked on tricks and sits mostly farther away from distractions.
This video was when we went into the ring. Working on tricks outside the gate, I wasn’t properly prepared with the cheese. Lennan was a good boy waiting for the slow cheese prep.
Thanks so much!
Setting a timer is a good idea. I had meant for the wing session to be shorter but I hadn’t realized the length of time was the reason he was having more trouble at times. It is hard to see in the moment. Will definitely work with shorter sessions.
Thanks for the suggestions on the serp training. I will work on that next time.Good morning,
Thank-you for the feedback on the wing wrapping.
This is a session working on one wing with throwing toy back.
Also, this session we worked on transferring serp to jump.
Hello!
Thanks so much!
He really has been throwing his body around a lot recently. We’ve had several, omg please don’t break yourself moments. Will definitely try as you’ve suggested for throwing the toy back.
This is a session we did with wrapping two wings and front crosses.
Hello,
We tried some more prop training. I decided to try without putting the prop on anything to start with.
I still didn’t get the timing of the rear cross at first but Lennan was a good boy. I think we had some good success.
Thanks so much! It all makes sense. I felt like I wanted to reward him both when he did what I asked but jumped over the prop as well as when he realized he missed it and went back to hit it. I wasn’t sure if that would give him the correct information or not.
I was not trying to use a specific marker when he was “wrong” but will definitely try to be mindful to not indicate the error.
I will try your suggestions with the turns.Hello,
Thanks so much!
Your suggestion to tie the frisbee to the long toy sounds great. I will try that!In this video we worked on some prop training and following toy in hand.
What should I do when Lennan successfully moves in the direction I want when working with the prop but misses actually touching it? He was definitely losing enthusiasm when he missed touching it and didn’t get rewarded. He almost quit working with me a couple of times. He wants to go faster now which I think makes it more difficult for him to actually hit the thing. Is my prop too small?
When following toy in hand for turns, he seemed to be starting to figure out some of them. For some reason he seemed to get it better when toy was in my right hand.
Hello,
Thanks so much!
That makes sense about the conditioned responses to the toy. We will work on your suggestions.
Sounds good to add a verbal for the turn away. I agree he probably would appreciate that info.This is a session that we did yesterday evening. I opted for super fast and fun exercises for this session and no hard thinking. Lennan had already had a small brain explosion earlier in the day as we visited an agility trial (where he was overwhelmed at first but then eventually relaxed) and also took a walk in a new urban location (where he behaved excellently).
On the parallel path with jump, added go and running. Apparently the torn up frisbee toy turned out to be much higher value than his tug so switched to only using one toy for that session but he was bringing it right back to go again. It also took me a few times to figure out how to throw it where I wanted it to go.
Good morning!
Lennan really does seem to have value for that hand target. I’m not even sure why he loves it so much. He learned it right away when I first taught him to touch it. He’s never been that enthusiastic about targetting to my hand without the target. Apparently he loves the target though.
Lennan does have a go around behaviour for a disc, however I wouldn’t have expected him to think it was being cued at that time as the situation was different than when he would be asked to do it. I think he was trying to see if he could get the reward faster or was trying to figure out what to do.
When doing the parallel path with toy he was actually bringing the toy right back. He’s normally quite consistent at this point about bringing toys back. If he doesn’t bring the toy back right away it usually means that whatever I was rewarding him for he found difficult (or something new that he really had to think about). I just let him keep the toy until he’s ready and he tells me when he’s ready to go again by coming back.
I’m posting two videos here. We worked on some sits with distractions, and turns using toy instead of cookie in the first video. The turns were more challenging using the toy.
In the second video, worked on the strike a pose again but not with a jump yet. Lennan still seems to be having trouble putting together to sit and then touch target. He started to be unsure, trying the going around behind me again. He can do it perfectly when I start with a cookie toss.
Lennan thought it was very exciting to play parallel path with two toys. He went faster!Hello,
This is some training we worked on yesterday. Lennan seemed to have a hard time with the nose touch to target starting in a sit when I was using toy reward but was great with starting with a cookie toss.
Parallel path with the jump, I didn’t have a bump but the jump I was using had a fixed bottom bar so hopefully that was ok. I was using cookies to start but ran out partway through so we switched to toy.
Hello,
We did a bit of prop training where I was working on throwing the reward back to him (except the first couple of times because he was ready to start and I wasn’t ready to throw). He is very enthusiastic about hitting that thing now.
Also some wing wrapping. He definitely likes some excitement to start.
Hello,
Well last week was pretty crazy and we didn’t get a chance to do much training, but we will be getting back to some stuff this week. Thanks so much for the last feedback. I will definitely work on that. Here is a video we did of some wing wrapping as well as wrapping other things. We also tried the rear cross.
