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Hi Tracy!
I can’t believe Westminster is almost here!! I’m feeling pretty positive about Frankie’s state of mind at trials. We did Saturday & Sunday this weekend at a more distracting location, but one she has always done well at. I’m looking forward to your feedback. I included lots of video here but please, please fast forward to see what you want to look at.
She did still slow down as each day progressed. She sniffed the ground in one run. Even though she was bouncy & happy at the gate, as soon as I picked her up, I felt her shift and her excitement level went way down. I wish I had tried walking her in, instead of picking her up for one run, but I didn’t think of it at the time. Not sure what I should do for Westminster.
New things: We have barking on cute command “Who’s gonna play?”!!!! It is a cute bark too, but I may be biased 🙂 She was doing it at the gate & everything! YAY!
We did our bowls, up and down game, and practiced moving away from reinforcement, engaging & going back to the reinforcement ringside. We also barked for treats. She was very engaged and excited about it all. I threw her frisbee for her before and between runs as her jackpot. She even did some hand playing with the frisbee with me ringside. Sometimes toys are not her thing when we get ring side so I was happy to see that. She was really relaxed & happy ringside for every run.
She was super happy for the FEO runs for the first runs of each day. Saturday we ran Premier almost back to back with our FEO run and she was still pretty amped. She did well in all her runs, but I can see the difference in her speed and on Sunday her motivation in the later runs.
We had a checkup and her bloodwork looks good. We’re getting her b12 tested next Wednesday too just to see, it can’t hurt. She has an appointment to see the chiropractor tomorrow so she’ll be in alignment for Saturday!
Here is the avalanche of videos – thank you for watching & for all your help!
Saturday – FEO T2B
Saturday – Premier Syandard. Run 2 of 4.
Saturday – Standard run 3 of 4. With warmup. NQ – I broke connection & looked ahead. GAH!
Saturday JWW – run 4 of 4. She sniffs & starts slow
Sunday FEO T2B run 1 of 4
Sunday Premier STD Q run 2 of 4 – warmup
Sunday STD Q – with Barking! Run 3 of 4
Sunday JWW run 4 of 4. Slow start
I can’t thank you enough for the help. I feel like we are making progress!
Have a great day!
KathyBazinga
Hi Tracy!
The seminar was SO MUCH FUN! Bazinga had a blast. She slept the whole ride home!
It really upped my confidence about my connection with Bazinga in longer sequences. I was so happy that blind crosses and exit line connection happened! Thanks so much for a great experience!We trialed Saturday & Sunday and she did FEO in novice jumpers each day. We did a lot of games outside the ring and in our crating area. We took long walks around the grounds too. I tried a lead out on Saturday and a very short lead out on Sunday.
Warmup before FEO Novice JWW – Saturday
Here is a clip of some of our warmup ahead of the run. She seemed pretty comfortable before we went in the ring.
FEO Novice JWW – Saturday
I see her glance at the judge when the judge moved before we started, but I don’t think it concerned her. She ran around 2 jumps in this run and also I think 1 jump in the run on Sunday! She was going really fast. This is a first, if she runs past a jump, she usually does it on the side close to me. What do you think?
FEO Novice JWW – Sunday
I couldn’t get video of our outside the ring tricks for this one but we did them 🙂
I forgot her fuzzy leash too. In this run (day 2) she seemed interested in tugging on the leash in the ring like last trial. Next trial, I will remember her fun leash!
Thanks for watching!
Hi Tracy!
Frankie had such a great weekend! We had 3 runs today.
Jumpers was first & we ran it for real and she was clean!
Time to Beat was second and we ran it FEO. She was on fire!
Standard was last and we ran it for real and were clean!I warmed up with the bowls and up & down. We did tricks & ran to the remote reinforcement in a few spots in the building.
She BARKED! She did it and I marked it and gave her a treat and she had a light bulb moment!She was sleeping pretty deeply when I woke her up to run the third run of the day. So maybe there is some fatigue there.
She started a little slow and kicked in to gear.Our body warmup before a run is:
Down to stands, sit to stands, sit to stretch up on my legs, paw gives, side steps, backwards steps and the nose stretch yo hip, middle & shoulder and neck up & down. I do 4-5 reps of each.Here are our videos. I wish I got the barking on video. It was so cute.
Jumpers run 1 of 3 first run of the day
Time to Beat FEO 2 of 3
Standard 3 of 3
Thanks for watching and all the feedback!
We are driving home!Eeeeeeeeee! Look at Bazinga!
She tugged with enthusiasm & let go!
She did an easy start line stay & we ran lots of obstacles and I pulled the toy out at the end!Warm up tug fest!
FEO
So. Much. Fun.
Eeeeeee! Frankie had a blast today!
We ran FAST first as FEO. Then Standard for real and she was into it so I ran JWW for real too. I carried her in & we dropped & ran!
Here are clips with our warm-ups outside the ring.
We played a lot of the bowls game and remote reinforcement outside the room with the ring.Warmup before Fast
FEO Fast
JWW with warmup
Standard. We didn’t get video of the warmup.
Can’t wait to hear what you think!
Hi Tracy!
Bazinga had fun! We tried a start line stay and did a rear cross!!
She had zero interest in the leash today. It was a different leash than we’ve been using lately, but she’s been tugging on different leashes.
Thanks!!!HI! Thank you for the great feedback!
In & Out
>>Yes, and also yes
The in and out will be best in places where you can run over, get the reward, then go back in (UKI and USDAA). And after you get the reward, come back in with it. In UKI, have someone stand just inside the ring with the toy to give to you so you are not leaving the ring to get it (it is against the rules to leave the ring, but totally within the rules to have a helper give it to you in the ring :))>WHOA! I didn’t understand that was what was possible in UKI!
So we step inside the ring with a helper and do our volume dial tricks & take the first jump and then run back to the helper (“let’s go!”) and get the toy and then take more jumps?The leash tugging & out
>>Well, it might take her a few seconds – 5 seconds might feel like 3 hours to you, but it won’t be long at all. Plus it is great arousal regulation to have her let go of it. That will tell you how ready she is for her run.>We tried again today and she was really good about dropping the leash when it was unclipped.
Here is our video:Weaves & fading the MM
>>Have you tried tucking the MM in behind a wing so she can kinda see it? Then we keep fading it by moving the wing further away, and then make it a jump with the MM behind a wing, then you mix in throwing a reward rather than using the MM.>BRILLIANT progression!!! THANK YOU!!! ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I’ll keep you posted on this weekend! I’m excited to get to play with her again after this break.
Have a great weekend!!!>>The first step is to get her to bark elsewhere in life, then give her what she is barking for. It can be getting her to bark for her treats or meals, or to go out the door, or if your doorbell rings. You can use ‘trigger’ phrases – examples would be something like “READY READY READY” or “are you hungry?” or “who’s there?” and then those become cues. At first, she can totally have treats for it 🙂 but then it is really easy to fade because barking can be somewhat self-reinforcing 🙂 Apologies in advance for any extra barking in regular life LOL!>
“Whos’ there?” will totally work! But that is a crazy-bark-at-the door-bark is that ok?
Maybe I can transition it to Who’s ready? Once we get going!>>I think the slowers runs might be happening for several reasons:
The first FEO run is super fun and the bubbles over into the next run. And those runs are both likely at a higher energy time of day for her (I can TOTALLY relate to this!).
Then later runs: she probably predicts there is no reinforcement in the ring, plus they might come at a more settled or even tired time of day.>>Interesting! She does rest pretty well between runs but maybe she needs some pick-me-up snacks & hydration! I’m going to think about what I can do since she’s on a prescription diet.
About transitioning treats from being the cue to do tricks, bark & agility…
>>That is exactly right – with the remote reinforcement games. You can do this in different rooms in your house, not just in the agility context. My guess is that treats are part of the cue to do agility, which is part of why it is so hard to do it without food present in the ring.This made me think about what our routines are in the house. I have treats on the counter and the dogs report there for “treat-duty” whenever they come in from going potty and Frankie really goes there whenever she feels like she has performed something “treat-worthy” during the day. Maybe this is reinforcing that need to be right near the treats?!
I’m going to shake that up a bit. My first thought is to make them move away from the treats and do a trick & then go back to give them their treat. Also maybe I need multiple places with treats in the house, so there is not 1 major location?>>And of course she can opt-out at any time by leaving when the leash comes off.>>
Thank you for this. She totally can. That takes some of the pressure I put on myself that I’m asking her to do something she doesn’t want to do. Frankie most certainly will only do what she wants to do. Heh.
>>You can try carrying her in and then seeing what she does when you put her down – does she automatically turn to you? Then you can see if she likes it when you say something like “ready ready” or ask for her favorite trick. It might take some experimenting because it really is a conversation. And if she turns to face you, she might NOT want to do any tricks (all business) and just want to line up and go.>
I tried this today to see what she did. I probably should unclip the leash before I put her down though. I think she gave me pretty good attention. What do you think?
I’ll keep you posted on how this weekend goes & get video of our outside the ring & runs.
Thank you so much!!!>>Adding the serp-to-blind to the 5 jump: you can send to 4 from further away so it is easier to get across the 5 jump while also showing connection to the landing side. She got the jump at 1:00 because you were not as far ahead. I thought your position at 1:14 was better (in terms of being ahead) but you were looking ahead so she took that as a cue for layering. You can get her to do the serp while you move to the blind by looking at the landing spot as you fly through (your serp arm can also point back to it).
I’ll try this sequence again. I was really impressed that she turned from 4 to take 5! Wahoo! I see what you mean about me looking ahead at 1:14. Thank you. So I should be showing Exit Line Connection at that position/time as soon as she is showing commitment to taking jump 5?
Tug
>>
I will help support you! Here is the easiest, laziest way to do it (and this is how I have taught all of my recent dogs): get the tugging. Then after a short while. relax your tug arms, say out, and literally put a treat on her nose, then when she lets go of the leash she can eat the treat
I think she will trade the leash for a treat! And you don’t need to set up specific traning sessions – you can just do it when you train other things. And then at the start line, you can take the leash off and see if that becomes a context cue to let go of it and line up. This is all stuff we can play with in your yard and figure out.Thank you! I’ll try this! And start randomly doing this and work on it. I’m working on taking off the leash being a cue to stop tugging. I am terrified that we are going to be at the line & she won’t let go of the leash! LOL
I currently carry Frankie’s leash (pocket) so we don’t have to worry about a leash runner distracting her. I have also been carrying it with Bazinga so I can be sure to catch her at the end! I can keep carrying it, if it is a motivator & getting to have a “toy” in the ring. I do think she’ll be fine with me throwing the leash too but I guess I can play around it with & go with what works best as we get going.We have a 2 day trial this weekend! Then our next event is your seminar!!!! I am so excited to meet you & for you to meet Bazinga!!!
This weekend is indoors, turf, 1 ring in a “private agility room”. We have 1 run each day.
Our last 3 trials we did FEO with toy in the pocket. We were working up to doing more obstacles before pulling out the toy. We haven’t done a start line stay yet.
Do we keep working on more consecutive obstacles if there is a good line?
When we start doing In & Out will we want to do more than 1 run in a day? I feel like she may be disappointed if we leave after 1 jump.We are not ready to add weaves at a trial. We are on 6 + 4 for weaves, but I am also working on fading out the MM with the weaves and that is making things harder. I may go back to just 4 poles and work on fading the MM and then work up to 6 poles again.
Thanks for all your help!!!!!
I am BEYOND excited to hear your feedback & ideas & get started working on this with her!!!!!!!
There is so much, I basically copy & pasted your reply & added answers & questions. Sorry this is looooong!>>She gave you a little bark… does she bark on cue? Can you get more of that going? It is the best volume dial game ever!!!! Sorry/not sorry about all the noise LOL!
She will bark at the gate when she is really excited. How do I put it on cue and get her to do it without treats?
>>You can mix in marking that moment where she comes through the gate by running back to rewards! Make it variable and random mixed in with marking various spots on course. She totally knows where the treats are! Her brain is probably split: thinking about the treats and thinking about the agility. You can do this variable schedule of running out for rewards at trials too: run out just for entering the ring! I recommend UKI or USDAA for that, much less expensive LOL!>
When we do this at a trial, would I do that for 1 class & then stop? Or would I do this randomly for 1 class and then do FEO and even run for real in other classes of the day? Are the dogs disappointed that they don’t get to run?
For the last 8 months or so, I have been doing 1 FEO run as the first class of the day (Time to Beat or FAST) and then run Jumpers & Standard & sometimes Premier for real. Sometimes if there is a games or premier class in the middle of the day, I’ll do FEO there too to keep her guessing. I find that the first “real” run after FEO is her best and she slows each consecutive run after. But it has really helped her engagement in the ring. Maybe this alone is not enough or the right way to help change her feelings.
>>Getting her to bark and spin and do that stuff as she moves into the ring without needing to see treats in your hands will also be very valuable. Treats can be the cues for those behaviors, so we want to be able to get the behaviors without treats in your hands or pockets.>
Obvious question, how do I transition this? Go to no treats on me, but have them nearby & transition to further & further away from the treat location? We are kind of doing this with the remote reinforcement games where we put the treats down at a station & move away & get engagement/ask for a trick & say “let’s go!” and return for a treat. Just keep transitioning this & ask for the bark?
>>Question:
Does she like being carried? Have you played with mixing in carrying her into the ring?>I used to always carry her in & she is ok with that, but then I felt like I needed to let her opt-in before we got into the ring. Especially when I thought it was shut-down based on fear. Carrying her was better for positionng her where I wanted her on the line – hahah. With letting her walk in, I kind of know what to expect from her based on how readily she come with me into the ring. I’m not opposed to carrying her in again. would I put her down & ask for some volume dial inside the ring? Interested in your thoughts!
>>For the next 2 trials, you can experiment with different things outside the ring: patterns, tricks, etc and see how the run goes! And do short easy fun runs, so she gets her groove back >>
Should I keep everything FEO? Or switch it up & do some real runs? We have 4 trial days before Westminster, so I am thinking I want to do enough FEO to pump her up but maybe a little bit of real runs so I know where we are for when we get to NY. Is that greedy-human thinking?
After Westminster, should I do all FEO and In & Out runs with her for a while?Also, since she was very shut down in the last 2 trials, you can consider getting her looked at by a soft tissue vet or chiro – maybe something hurts? And you can look at maybe putting in a probiotic, to help her system handle the stressors of trials. For example, one of my young dogs is on Purina Calming Care probiotic and he is very confident!!!!! And we added folic acid to my girl Hot Sauce’s diet and she is also a healthier happier dog now (there is actually a test for B12 and folate levels in dogs!)>
Thank you for all these suggestions & insite! I have had her checked out. She does get things out of alignment and there is a spot on her back that knots up if it is out. When she is feeling ouchy, she will walk out of the weaves in the middle. So, for the last 5 months we have been getting a monthly chiro adjustment and we’ve been building up her butt & rear leg muscles a bit too. It has been keeping her feeling good. Much better than only getting her adjusted when she is showing signs of being out of alignment.
I will ask about the B12 & folate level test! How did you figure that out for Hotsauce?
I do give her a probiotic from Vetriscience that has the “bifidobacterium longus” that is in Calming Care. If DEFINATELY helped her! I started it when we got teeny Bazinga as a pupper! Ha!
Congrats on Westminster! My dogs are not AKC agility eligible but we did try to get into the flyball event – they only took 15 teams and about a gazillion applied… and we didn’t get in
But you can expect Westminster to be crowded and busy. Are you flying or driving? You will want to leave a buffer for her to get some decompression. Does she like a snuffle mat or a chew bone? Those can help, even right inside the event area! And we can make a plan for Westminster based on what she tells us at the next 2 trials.Dang AKC & their dumb rules! That would have been so cool if you guys were there for Flyball!!! Dang!
We are flying in. We actually got to go to Westminster before (when it was at the mansion and the tennis center – that sounds braggy – lol – we got so lucky & got in) and she was pretty comfy there. Fingers crossed!!!
I just ordered her a proper fancy snuffle mat to bring with us! Thanks for the suggestion.THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hi Tracy!
I hope you had a happy holiday & are still holiday-ing!!!The MYOB webinar was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We did our first session of the TSA game and man, I was blown away by the reaction I got from both dogs!
I don’t know if just going outside our gate was such a big deal that it amped them up but they were both AMPED after this short session. Like for over an hour afterwards they were just crazy-loco & chasing each other and just wild.This is off subject because it is about Frankie. Can I sign her up (in addition to Bazinga of course) for the “FEO support group” class that is next even though she is not a baby dog? I could use guidance on navigating helping her with remote reinforcement. I have been working on the remote reinforcement with both dogs just in the yard and working up to adding more obstacles and then the last 2 times, at step 5, Frankie just couldn’t leave the treat station to go to the jump. She just couldn’t leave the treats. That was big information for me. In our own yard. Couldn’t leave the treats. I didn’t do a lot of pattern games before I asked her to move away and maybe that was too much to ask of her. But I was still surprised. I’ve been focusing on her fears & getting her confident going in to the ring, but after hearing that dogs that shut down from the gate to the first jump are usually worried about reinforcement in the Mind Your Own Business webinar the other day and seeing her unable to leave her remote reinforcement at home, I think this is playing a big part in her engagement!
Here is Bazinga in the TSA game. She seemed fine that the last treat was gone & we were “going in the ring” to play. I kept it short & used our “let’s go!” I think she was like “hey lady, but we’re running!” She is really getting into tugging at the leash. She didn’t want to drop it in the second rep. That is what took so long for us to line up. I’m curious to see what you think about it in this video. Am I creating a tiny monster?
For our next FEO steps, I’ll follow what you listed out in one of your replies above:
Try a longer lead out & do more obstacles before rewarding.
Later on:
Try some quick In & Outs with no reinforcement on me
Try the weaves & reinforce after them – what do I do if she doesn’t get them? Keep going & then reward after the next obstacle?I’m going to rent the field where we do agility league and let her use the weaves there and practice some in & outs before I bring them to a real FEO trial.
Thanks for all the help!!!
HI Tracy!
Thank you for the weave advice & video! I will try adding the wing for the soft-sided entries.She got her 6 weave poles yesterday! Here is a shameless 14 second clip!!! <grin>
I’m putting together a montage video from day 1 that I’ll post on FB.This was the first time I’ve seen her be “careful” in the weaves (or anything else – ha). So I think it was hard and I think she was concentrating on her striding. I see some “2-steps” in the first rep and then she seemed to work it out and got her hop stride going. She was still being subdued though. I hope the next session has her usual joyful exuberance!
Back to MP4!!!!
> I might be down there for a full month so fingers crossed we can find something for the Baby Boston and Baby Whippet Trial Tour LOL!>
That would be so fun! Keep me posted! Thanks for the dates. I’m looking at the CPE trial in Jacksonville in January (10-12). It is only a few hours from me. I know Gill Chapman & she is the trial chair so I’ll know someone there.
We did Sequence 1 of the Adding Complexity sequences. I back chained the threadle to refresh it. I think we need to work on longer sequences of obstacles so we tried a revised course since we don’t have enough room for the full set up. We are not getting all the obstacles. Here are the videos.
Threadles
Sequence
Thanks so much!!!
Hi Tracy!
>>
Ha! I just typed how impressed I was then I read this. It is indeed impressive and I love love love that she seems to thrive in the ring when there is pressure. Biggest happy dance!!>>THANK YOU!!! I am just so excited about playing with her!!!
Florida Trials!!!!! OMG – super fun!!!!!!!
I can make the USDAA trial mid January! What days are you going? I can do Sat & Sun for sure and can even see if I can get Friday off.>>How are your weaves coming along? If she is doing well, you can do some FEO runs to reward the weaves.>>
We are close! It is interesting, the one entry that is hard for her is the “easy” entry of 11 oclock for on-side weaves.
We are working on closing poles 5 & 6 with the 2x2s! I’m going to do a session today & see how she does. She was progressing smoothly, but our last session she had some misses. I think the shadows on the grass that day may have been messing with her. I ended the session quickly & let her sleep on it over the weekend. I’m curious to see how she does next session later today!
We haven’t done any obstacle/wing to weaves or weaves to an obstacle yet and I’m still using the MM so we may not be quite ready to try them in the ring but I will start working on those pieces.
Could I ask some questions about the weaves progression?
What we are doing: We have been doing the 2×2 (I switched over to 2x2s from doing both tracks to step 3. She was having trouble with the entry on the channels at that time and was doing much better with the 2x2s.
When we go to the next step of the 2x2s – 6 poles & add 4 poles, is it ok if I use my regular (non-2×2) 6 weaves for poles 1-6 and use the 2x2s for poles 7, 8, 9, 10? I only have 1 set of 2x2s. If I do use the regular weaves for poles 1-6, I’ll give her a session or 2 of 6 poles only on the new weaves so she is familar with them.
Also, I need to go back and do some of the ‘Find Em lessons. When I do, should I make the weaves easier & angle to 2x2s to match the lessons or should I stay where we are now with the weaves & add in those challenges?
Is there an advantage to try again with the channels and see if I can work both track simultaneously again?
We tried the Releases with Volume Dial & All Business. I think she’s going to be a combo. Volume Dial on the way in the ring (it’s fun and it doesn’t seem to put her over the top) and All Business at the startline.
What do you think?
Sorry about the video quality. I really tried to be a better cinematographer for this video but sun-flare foiled my plans!
Thanks so much for the feedback! I can’t wait to see how her private lesson goes tomorrow.
Hi Tracy!
Glad you got back safe! We took a couple days off but have been playing line up games in the house.
Here is our FEO run from this past weekend again. I published to YouTube so it is better resolution. She was really amped to run and I was glad she came back to me after running past the 3rd jump.
I was impressed with her ability to tune out all the people in the ring at the start line!
I got some feedback that in the 2nd half she was looking at the toy and that was why she ran past some jumps. I wasn’t worried about that since I did, indeed, have a toy in my hand. <grin> Maybe I should put it away again after we play so we can re-engage & do more obstacles. What do you think?
What should be our next step from here?
I signed her up for a private agility session next week. It is a new location to both of us but my thoughts were to set up the remote reinforcement pattern game and do some obstacles & “let’s go!” back to the RR. Maybe I can increase the number of obstacles & ping pong to an easy rep & see how she does.
Our next trial isn’t until Jan 25 & 26. I entered her in 1 run each day. So far we have only done 1 run in a weekend. This trial is like private agility! It is indoors, on turf, 1 ring. The ring is a room with 3 walls and the front area has gating. They only allow 3 dogs into the room to line up. (Frankie loves it there!)
It will be her first time in the ring indoors & on turf, but she has been here a lot and has used the practice jump in the building.We are coming to your Ring Ready Seminar on Jan 30th in Brooksville!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks!!!
Hi Tracy!
>Good job keeping calm! I am not sure if you wee quite ready or not, but you just went in and did great. Yay!>Thanks! I signed her up for FEO in Premier Jumpers because I didn’t want to expose her to the noise of the FAST scores being called out. I thought I was being brilliant, but there were only four 8 inchers and like three 12 inchers and Bazinga was an 8 and Frankie was a 12! Not great planning. Hahaha! The judge was super nice and we just handed dogs to each other but I was making sure I payed attention to Bazinga & she didn’t get shuffled around. I was hovering pretty close to the ring so I was ok with the timing. I’m that friend in the group who needs a “handler” hahaha my friends are awesome!
We are only entered in 1 class this weekend on Saturday. Hopefully it will be a good course to try starting at the startline & doing some more obstacles before bringing the toy out.
>There are a bunch of young-dog friendly USDAA trials in Florida over the winter, and starters jumpers is jumps & tunnels only. And the runs are cheap! LOL!! Something to consider 🙂 I will be in FL over the winter so I will go with you if there is one that fits the calendar.
>
OOOOOOOO! I would LOVE that if we could find one!!! Do you have any suggested dates/trials?We did another RR session & we did a sequence. Oh boy, she sure knew right where to go at the end of the sequence! LOL I will need to do a contrast session where we turn back into the course and not go directly to the bowl.
I only uploaded the beginning of the session because it was long. I took some time tugging with the slip-leash & putting it on & off with her. We have more work to do but she was letting me put it on more easily & also throw it (wow!). The thing is, when I put it on her & she tugs, she shakes herself right out of the leash!!!
I have to say, both her & Frankie really love this game and I can see how it will help them feel confident that they can go into the ring & run a course without feeling like they are “missing” their reinforcer. I’m really blown away by how powerful this is.And LOL – thanks for the advice about words & context! That put things into perspective 🙂
Thanks for watching!
Kathy
