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Hello! I hope you had a fabulous time at the Open and are having a safe/uneventful drive home.
I have a question about the Power Pattern game when the leash is in use.
In real life, the rewards will be outside the ring, so like you mentioned in the lesson even for some FEO we can’t leave without the leash on. I want to get Reacher used to the rewards being outside the ring but also used to getting the leash on first.
My question is about the best command structure and sequence to use for this. I know you mentioned in the video about having a different command for the leash, but how do you best stack that and the “Let’s Go!” to teach the dog that the reward is coming. It’s SO LONG between finishing the work (even if just starting out with one jump) to get the collar on and then the Let’s Go so how do you keep them excited through all that and understanding that the reward is coming?
Like when I finish the run do I just jam those two commands together like “Collar! Let’s Go!” then leash up and exit the ring (or the treat station bowl to start in this case)?
I’m just trying to think of what is most effective here while he’s still learning. I don’t want him all deflated by the team we end the run, get the leash on, then run to the reward even while just starting out. Thoughts?
Thanks!
KristinThanks for the great feedback, Tracy!
We tried a few things in class on Monday and although in moment I might not have remembered all the details, I did really try!
First, just a little end of course action showing he is going out ahead at the end, so I think it’s working! I wish I’d had the camera turned more to get that last jump in, but he did burst out ahead and I got the thrown reward. It was fun!!
Here’s a little decompression documentation to show what we’ve been doing between rounds in class. I really think this helps – wish I’d started it sooner! When it’s nice out sometimes we run outside a bit but no more “nice” days until Spring now.
This is some leash off, engagement on work combined with engaged chill. He loves doing this standing up on my legs and LOVES hugs in this position so I’m hoping he’ll do it in a public place. I was not forcing him to stay up there. For the leash off/engagement on, in viewing the video maybe I got the engagement more because I was messing with my pockets for the treats too quickly. Should I have paused more like on the last rep?
Finally, some remote reinforcement / empty hands combo work. I did do two reps of that but they were in different rounds so hopefully that’s okay. We had a sub instructor this week so we were kind of doing whatever but Reacher had never met Danielle before so I was a little surprised he chased after her for the lotus ball! But once I got him back it didn’t seem like his running of the course was different because I didn’t have the ball. Oh, and on the first rep on the video I do usually take the leash off first before lining up so it was messy because I forgot (that’s not my normal! I mean, messy is normal but not forgetting to take the leash off first 😁)
Good luck at the Open this week!
KristinHello!
<<That was at 2:18 – you were late getting on the RC line>>
Yes, definitely was! Before I posted the video I knew you were gonna see that.😀 After how many years and rear crosses are still one of my weaknesses for sure, so your reminders for how to do it are so helpful. Probably annoying and repetitive for you, but I appreciate hearing it!I did do another round of the sequences before I got your feedback (didn’t want to waste the day!) and think I was a little better on the rear cross this time. Marginally.😆 It was so windy yesterday and today that I did drop the sound down on the editing to not blow your eardrums out but might still be a little loud, so start low!
For the first try, I had already placed the toy and then started the video and clearly it proved too irresistible so he went for it. Thus, I did not do more toy placements yesterday or today. If I get another chance outside I’ll try a manners minder instead!
For the first sequence we actually got through, I did forget momentarily what I was doing between 3 and 4 hence the weird little hop on my part at that point.
Second run – better rear cross I think. He’s still a little slow on the first 1-4 and always seems to be like this in tighter spots. Not sure how to get enthusiasm up for that or maybe the little bit of lack of clarity or hesitation on my part is causing it?? It’s probably not one reason.
And the jumps blew down, so we were done with running sequences for the day!
We worked again on this today. I know we’ve been doing a lot of the sequences despite instructions to spread them out, but the weather is looking to take a turn more towards winter this week, so this might actually be the last day I’m going to be able to run anything in my backyard. And I’m splitting our class time with any last minute running contacts training I can get outside before winter too. We’ve been pretty lucky to go this deep into November still being able to do agility! I should be able to rent ring time at the same place Chaia and Khamsin go but usually it’s hard to get things moved around, training done, and then move things back in the timeframe I’m willing to pay for there. But we’ll see how the weather does!
Anyway, it was super windy again today (even more so) so the volume is edited down, and those wings are staked like crazy this time!😀
First run, I think I should’ve decelled and cued that turn sooner so it could’ve been tighter. Whether that would actually have been faster in the long run I’m not sure since he’d have slowed to get a tighter turn but still, I’m thinking more decel there, yeah?
For the second run I messed up my plan so I just stopped and rewarded.
Third try was what I meant to do on the previous attempt and yet the serpentine felt kind of awkward. I think I was less sure how to cue it from that angle considering I didn’t want to go so deep close to the jump. Recommendations for that? I decided not do another one of those, but I think if I’d tried this one again I’d go with the double-cross considering I’m usually ahead of him. I did like the independent backside and worried that I didn’t have enough exit line connection there but it seemed clear enough to him where we were going back up the line.
I was sensing that he would slow down if I did one more that was “complicated” so decided just do one last fast and fun straight up the line run with me trying to reward out past the last jump sooner. My throw wasn’t too horrible so I think it made sense to him and he liked it!
Last minute tonight we did some Remote Reinforcement work (Step 1-ish still) in preparation for maybe trying some in class tomorrow night. Let me know what you think!
I appreciate your thoughts!
KristinThanks for the great advice. Will follow that as next steps for leashing up and releases. 😀
Today, we worked on the sequence. I had already placed the toy then started the video after that. I think the session went pretty well for the warm ups. I had forgotten the maps exactly so realized later I did a few extra warm up, but that’s okay he had fun. I was pleased that although it’s hard to see on the video due to the perspective he was actually going out ahead of me and beating me to the toy every time. Definitely getting the point of this game thanks to the placed reward!
Let me know what you think.
KristinHi Tracy!
Thanks for the previous feedback on adding more bad handling to the lazy game. I’ll definitely do that while staying close to jumps. I think this will help his commitment a lot, and just plain build resilience. Yay!
We worked on the leash up game again tonight (no video) but he was really starting to get into with continued luring. We did it in a different part of the house tonight too.
We also worked on Releases. Wow, I failed a lot in my job despite all your warnings, but that’s okay now I can re-baseline.😀 Honestly he caught me by surprise because Reacher used to have a really solid stay but since we’ve been working so much lately on bringing the volume up and doing running starts I think we lost a little reliability on that stay. No worries, I’ll go slower with it next round. Something *between* cartoon mashup and calm server do you think?
Let me know your thoughts!
KristinHi!
I went back and reviewed the lazy game and do think that will help us a lot with what we’ve been struggling with in the courses in this package. Although technically this is not part of the games package, I am submitting a super quick video of that for any feedback. I’ll plan to keep leveling that up to raise his commitment if you think that’s a good idea. Extra hard since Rich was making noise in the shop again (air hose this time). We are for sure desensitizing to noises around here!
I also tried teaching the collar game for our end of run plan. I found a super soft leash and made the loop extra big to start. Having not taught that before let me know if these mechanics seems okay or what tweaks would be helpful. I think this might be our best thing to teach for end of run since I don’t want him to come down from that competition high instantly just because he doesn’t enjoy being leashed. Or worse, have him feel like it’s a punishment!
Thank you!
KristinHi!
For the RR, yes, I’ll put the toy even higher next time to make that easier. And if I use food I’ll start out with something boring. Good point about the marker word for RR sounding too much like the on course marker. I think I’ll just change it to the same as yours and start using “Let’s Go” since that will work for both and makes more sense for a running to reward scenario.
Regarding the tunnel sequence, I definitely see now that you pointed it out that he was reading blind cross yet again. Doh!!
So today I didn’t do a specific course from class but using the same pinwheel setup to practice empty hands. I really thought I was staying connected this time without accidentally cueing a blind cross and he still missed the pinwheel jump. I just can’t see what happened this time unless it’s a matter of being too far ahead and dropping my arm too soon??
Anyway, this video is a little longer since I kind of combined the empty hands practice with decompression and a little end of run question.
After using the mid-session decompression with the snuffle mat he did seem a bit refreshed before starting the weaves. I did the weaves because I know he uses his brain a bit more for that and wanted to see how he’d fare after working, decompressing, then trying them. He got further decompression after the entire session by sniffing around on the way back in to the house.
Couple of other interesting things to note. So for the first part with the tunnel where I was trying Empty Hands, I had thrown a treat twice two different times as a distraction while I sneakily loaded the ball back into my jacket. It was a big non-crumbly treat so there should not have been any left but he sure seems to think there was. Maybe I should NOT do that in the future (throwing a treat directly on the ground there)? What do you think?
We also had a little unexpected Find my Face action. He seemed a little confused by it but figured me out and got snacks so it ended okay. But was that too weird? Should I not have done it there?
And finally, I’ve been thinking about our end of run routine and what to do for that. I don’t really see Reacher wanting to go get his leash for a tug and a sit seems too controlling for his personality at that point, so was thinking about trying to make putting the leash over his head into a rewarding game. He’s never really liked getting collars or the slip leash on. In fact, even in the house when he knows he’s going to get to go out for fun things if I put the collar on he kind of cringes and avoids it but is determined to be a good dog so just puts up with it. You can even see this a bit at the end of the video after the food was gone from the mat and he looked at me for a sec, saw I was ready with the leash and then immediately looked away. He is not a fan, but maybe I can make it fun, maybe the start of the end of run, out of the ring, and off to get the treat stash routine. I’m not really comfortable running out of the ring without his leash on so maybe this is the best plan for making the end of run a happy thing. (?) If so, any suggestions for specific mechanics of how to make sticking his head through the leash super happy-making?
Thank you!
KristinHello!
The judge for the December trial is Lori Micheals and I’ve heard her courses are very nice. I think I’ll give it a shot 1 day. Will be fun to try the same procedure in another location.
We worked a bit on Remote Reinforcement and it definitely did not go as I expected. 😁 It was a lot harder for him to leave the toy than I thought! Particularly since we have worked on this before, but I think the toy has higher value now, which is good!
The we worked on the last sequence with the tunnel for this week. I did reduce the space between the obstacles like you recommended. Had a few mistakes and for sure I still struggled connection again like at 1:30 it was terrible! HA! Again, I do wish he’d just take the jump and I forgot to do Find my Face but anyway, we made the best of it. I think his attention was divided too because when I came out to move the stuff around I saw that a rabbit had been killed in the agility ring and there were…ahem…small remnants I had to clean up first. Despite doing a bit of a walkabout in ring on leash so he could sniff everything a lot, it was still distracting. We did just the 1 rep of this one because I don’t think he was too into it.
Also tried a little “Empty Hands” on something super short and easy. I threw a treat on the ground and then put the toy away while he was eating. It was just the two reps.
Let me know what thoughts you have for tweaks or next steps!
I forgot to respond to this comment:
>>As a dog trainer, I am supposed to remind you to expect an up-and-down road to the finished product, and that it won’t always be smooth sailing.>>
YUP!! Very timely reminder that I had just a so-so class on Monday (excitement-wise) and a downright abysmal one on Friday during rented ring time. Of course, it was all my fault for not setting things up well- rushed for time, too many reps of unfun things, a jump accidentally set too high was taken unexpectedly and not successfully. <sigh> Just had to shake it off and remember your teachings.Good news was that we had a GREAT class today also several were absent so it was almost too quiet! I’m starting to think Reacher might like a little environmental excitement as long as he feels safe.
Anyway, on to the homework.
Great feedback on the previous videos, thank you! I see exactly what you are saying with those pointers after re-watching.And I had to chuckle at this comment…
<<The other thing happening was that there was a weird noise in the background that his brain had to process out – like horns blowing in the distance??>>
<<You can hear them on the video but I bet you didn’t hear them in the moment…>>
Yes, I am so used to that sound I don’t really hear it! But what it actually is is that just off camera to the right is a building on our property that my husband runs his business out of. He’s a machinst and it’s got lathes, CNC machines and laser markers in there and that day he was CNC milling metal that was particularly loud. 😅 The dogs are generally used to that sound too when they are outside but not so much when they are doing agility – there it is SO close. So I can absolutely see now how that would be distracting to Reacher. Although..I still think he also wanted any excuse to eat that ice like it was a buffet. He LOVES to eat ice and I can’t even open the freeze door quiet enough to avoid him showing up like magic begging for ice!
P.S. if you ever need anything laser-marked just for fun let me know, we have a nice machine for that!Yesterday morning before it started raining we squeezed in a few of the next sequences. The mistakes were, of course, ALL my fault! I filmed this before getting your last feedback or I might have been reminded to take more care of my connection, which I feel was 100% the cause of our errors on this one. But he still got rewards like nothing happened so it’s all good. 😀
I found the furry lotus ball so that’s what I was using as a reward in this one. He likes it! But I did also have food in it so that helps! Also, he was doing a lot of tugging on my sleeve and biting it, which he loves and really gets him jazzed so I was happy he was trying that when wasn’t offering the toy. It’s kind of my what-I-don’t-have-a-toy “toy”. 😉
Also, I’d like your opinion on whether it would be a good idea to do another NFC day (just one!) at UKI up at On the Run mid-December. It might be good practice if have a good/fun plan but I don’t feel strongly one way or the other. Thoughts?
Thanks for the great feedback!
KristinHello! We worked on a couple of sequences 2-1 and 2-2 today. I think they went okay other than I was going to try and alternate handling choice for 2-1 one more time, but Reacher thought the remaining tiny bits of slush on the ground were just too irresistible and stopped to eat it so we just quit. Even really good treats were not luring him away! I’m sure he was eyeballing it the whole time and I’m lucky I got too runs. HA!!
Sorry the video is so long, please just fast forward. No time to cut it!
Let me know what you think!
KristinThanks again for all the great advice last weekend. I’m still feeling excited that we had success as defined by Reacher having such a good time!
I haven’t finished listening to Monday’s recording, but I had to laugh at the part about depletion and how it can make itself known in different ways, because when Reacher was a puppy it would get to a point in the evening just like a child where he’d get too tired and enter what hubs and I called “tantrum mode”. He would just turn completely feral and instead of settling himself down to nap he would get overtired and go kind of crazy like have a little tantrum on all the toys, his brother, whatever was near. That still happens sometimes. 🙂 We always knew then it was time to force him to bed!
Anyway, tonight we worked a bit on Find my Face. We have done some of this in a previous MaxPup, so not totally new, but definitely time to implement. Interestingly, he seemed to re-engage with the second video when I added a wing for something to “do” while I faked disconnection.
Let me know if I should practice it differently in terms of my mechanics or whatever else needs tweaking!
Kristin
Project “Don’t Ruin the Baby Dog” seemed to go well. Today’s run was decent. I think he may have been a slightly depleted so I only did the one run (Jumpers) and scratched Speedstakes. I didn’t have my handy videographer today to get the pre-run work, but it was mostly just a pattern game with boring treats and not tugging because the dog before us left the ring quite suddenly and there I was with no time. No biggie. I tried a line-up with sit at first to gauge his mood since he now generally thinks that is just a trick too.😀 It was pretty snappy so I thought we’d give it a go to run around the ring a bit. I intentionally ditched the stay of course.
It’s maybe hard to tell on the video but I had less good options for something fun and flowy compared to yesterday. Jumps were off into nowhere, or in an odd box or weird angles, but made it work. Tried to do more tunnels. We missed a tunnel probably because I felt I had to disconnect a bit there because I wasn’t sure the judge was going to move as I was barreling directly towards her path. But no matter…Reacher still got his rabbit toy and had fun. I had a jackpot of treats right outside the ring, so he got that too.
One thing I’d change about today was my tugging…again it was way too much up and down like in practice once last week. He’s tough and I’m fairly careful about his neck but the adrenaline may have gotten to me here and I lost my head a bit. Should’ve done more side to side and stood up more.
I do think leaving it at 2 runs would’ve been just plenty, although the extra 1 run on Day 2 didn’t do any damage and he still had fun. That’s good info too. Although if we do this again anytime soon (no plans to tho) it will be only 1 day.
Both times after we got home (yesterday and today) I noted the additional amount of playtime Reacher instigated with his brother. They play often, but there was a much higher level of zoomies involved. I think it may have been a bit of decompression from the event! That’s okay and bro was happy to accept the invitation for extra play time. Just interesting to note.
Thanks for all the great advice and of course share any of my video with the class and say whatever you want about it, good or not!😀
BTW – Reacher almost caught another rabbit tonight before it managed to squeeze under the fence gate at the last second. It was quite a chase though!
Okay! That went pretty well! First agility trial and the goal was to make it as fun as possible. Definitely learned a few things, asked Reacher questions and he answered.
Biggest learning was that the food box was too weird and small for him to find that rewarding. In fact it was more like punishment so we skipped that in the second run. Hey, now I know! But great news that he really enjoyed the toy. I think considering until 2 weeks ago I could not get him to tug in public it was a victory!
Run 1 – Speedstakes
Run 2 – Jumping
Adaptations were: skip the food box and have it ready right outside, try to have a moment where I ran away from him so he had to chase more to get the toy (Chaia H. suggested the right away – so smart!) and also tried having him sit at the beginning before taking off – but not a startline-like a trick.
Plus here’s a little chill time we did before starting some tricks and tugging outside the ring before our second run. He really likes standing up on me and seems to find it comforting in all scenarios. Usually I’m standing up when he does it, but we’ll work towards that at a trial.
We’ll be back at it tomorrow, with essentially the same plan unless you have any additional suggestions.
Kristin
Thank you so much for the plan, and the videos you included are exceptionally helpful! I have a plan, and am excited to see how things go! The two classes I entered are first and second this morning. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes!
Kristin
I got some furs for Reacher! I thought I’d just try the skins first and shape them into some toys.
I could not find the furry lotus ball I know I have – will keep looking!
Tied the regular lotus ball to a string and tried to play with that, but it felt super awkward. The video is kind of embarrassing!😂 I didn’t know if I should put food it in it or not, if there was food in it how long do I tug it around before letting him open it. Ugh, it just felt weird!
However, I did try to keep the tricks/tugging time a bit shorter before entering the ring, per your recommendation, but I am struggling to get the timing right…I’m not always sure how long it’s going to be before going in, so what do you do if it’s longer than expected? Is that where the engaged chill comes in? I worry about getting him too amped up and then there’s a delay, or starting to mellow because I think it will be longer before going in and then not having enough time to get the volume dial turned up. Advice on handling timing, please!😃
In this practice I did try to stay more upright when playing but it’s certainly something I’ll have to get better at remembering. And I tried not to have any dead toys in class and I think that helped keep him feeling more rewarded and engaged.
Still felt unsure how to play with the ball on a string:
So in class I did end up switching out the lotus ball for the furry toy even though you recommended the food in class because OOPS! it just fell out of the back of my pants during class and he was like ‘Oh! What dis?!’ and seemed to like it so I tried it out. I still think food is king but I think he had fun with the rabbit fur.
Almost a relief to have the rabbit fur fall out as an excuse to try it.
For our NFC runs this weekend should I plan to use the food box even though we have not had much time at all to practice that concept? I remember that from MaxPup and also Nancy had it in her Glue Skills, but bad me I didn’t really work this much in the last year so I’m not sure if he’ll be surprised by that or if it will be okay because he also loves chasing me and I can just run over there really fast. what do you think? Otherwise I could try a toy at the trial and see if he’ll think that’s cool. Not sure which is more likely to be successful in this case. I’ve love to hear your recommendation given the situation.
