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Hello! 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.
Hi so, it was an interesting night last night and training day!
<<Roadkill! No, just kidding hahaha >>
You might have been joking but I’m not kidding that probably about the exact time you were typing that the BELOW happened. I just LOVE looking for fleas and giving dogs a bath at 10PM to get blood out of their beard. 🙄 😆
In any case, I ordered some furry toys today to see how he might like them. Good Lord those rabbit fur ones are expensive!!
I did just 1 more rep today with the Sequence 1 – decelling better on the jump with the front cross and that worked much better. Then we tried Sequence 2. For both I took your advice and attached a rope to the flying squirrel toy to see how he’d like that. I’d say he REALLY like that play a lot more! Took me a minute to get sorted out at first but I think it made for a better play experience. Thanks for the advice there.
Sorry for getting the start line set up out of frame on Seq 2. Doh! He did break his stay but I don’t care right now, he was motivated! For rep 2 of Seq 2 I wish I’d put the toy in my other hand. My handling wasn’t great, but also I truly think having the toy in the left was pretty distracting and contributed to missing jump #3 (plus he really did also think he thought he saw something in the field one time, but I’m sure my lateness contributed to that). His speed off the line both times took my by surprise – but that’s awesome!
I’ll for sure put any toys on a longer rope in class on Monday as well. He seems to like it! Let me know what you think.
Kristin
Hello!
>>clarity also really helps confidence blossom, meaning he knows what to do and is almost always correct. So the 2 failure rule might end up being the 1 failure rule in the class setting, along with a TON of effort rewards and reset cookies. And avoiding complex sequences and sticking to “go fast have fun” will help too.>>
YES, exactly. I just got back from Fenzi Camp and one instructor said the same thing about for now going back to super simple courses that are fast and fun. I agree completely because I’m definitely not worried about the skills. Thanks to past MaxPups 🙂 he has LOTs of skills for his age, but what I really want is a fast, happy dog firstly! And from a very young age this time around I’ve worked very hard to keep the 2-failure rule in mind and reward all the efforts, staying super positive throughuot. He shouldn’t be getting many “your wrong” vibes from me, and also agree that your 1-failure rule is brilliant in this case, at this point. I will put that into practice immediately.
Oh, speaking of FDSA Camp, I have to give Reacher credit for hanging in there like such a champ all three days in that crazy environment. We did a variety of working sessions, not just agility, but for the agility sessions he did get faster and happier the more we did there. So it seems like the more exposure he has the more comfy he gets in a space he does perform more joyously, rather than shutting down from over-exposure. Side note, he was a dream in the hotel situation and is probably the most well-adjusted dog I’ve had since 2010!! Just need to loosen him up a bit.😂
<<Will he chase and enjoy a tennis ball? Or empty lotus ball?>>
He’s not a huge ball fan and he will certainly chase an empty lotus ball but would be super disappointed to then find it empty. I do have a furry lotus ball that I tried but it’s super hard to get open to quit. I could maybe bring it out to try empty to see what would happen. Where do you get your furriest exciting toys that the whippets like? I think Reacher does have a penchant for fur so perhaps I should invest in some better ones.Good news – the UKI trial I entered him in WILL have the food box available. So we can make a plan for that. Julie H. was kind enough to remind me of that!
Here is a video from our regular class on Monday that is probably a mix of Volume Dial game and Tricks testing. I’m trying out my husband’s new 360-degree view camera to keep the flow consistent moving from outside the ring to inside. Jury is still out (it’s really best for closer up action and gets fuzzy with too much distance – he uses it on his drifting car normally to video runs) so forgive any weird looking editing. Reacher wasn’t as jazzed about the toy like he is at home and even at the end of the run he left it to chase me instead. But let me know what you think of the porridge-heating.
This second run, same session, I switched to the Lotus ball with treats.
Here is our first try at Sequence 1. I was using the Flying Squirrel as our toy reward (no food this time, to see what would happen). I rewarded the error as that was definitely not great handling on my part. He was slower than I expected. Part of it might also be the footing. Although it looks like nice grass, it’s actually kind of lumpy right now and super hard. It’s been so dry here (most of MN under fire warning) that we’ve not been able to really keep that ground smoothed out and the worms really make it uneven. But also, he’s just not as fast in the backyard as he’d be inside in the basement.
Let me know what you think!
Kristin>>And when we have the optimized arousal and fantastic experiences in place? The confidence blossoms>>
Okay, I see your point about thinking of it differently. I definitely need lots of help with figuring out how to get that optimal arousal and help to learn what will make it a fantastic experience for him specifically. I can’t crack the code for that in 90% of our agility situations.
>>Will he play with toys or frisbees or balls? If so, then signing up was fine and we can make a plan to create the fabulous experiences>>
He loves toys, frisbees, tugs, etc. AT HOME. But not so much in class. Food is ultimately the top reward for him at all times, but at home he can get extremely jazzed about the toys. And he gets extremely excited about chasing and biting my sleeves (ouch! I need a bite suit!) It just doesn’t transfer to the rest of life.
Reacher is so serious and polite and a thinker I just wish I could give him a few strong drinks to loosen the boy up in public!😂
FYI – I have agility class Monday nights during the live chat so sadly we’ll like miss all of those. I’ll watch the recordings though! I did video at class tonight so have some material to share soon!
~Kristin
Oh man I’m so behind! What is the last day to submit homework? (I scanned the course overview page but couldn’t confirm the exact end date.)
We worked a few combo exercises. Not bad but a few mistakes on my part. Especially the last rep; I thought I wasn’t connected properly so I paid him anyway. The video certainly proved it! 🙂
I’ll try to get a few more practices in. It’s been crazy busy ’round here!
Let me know what you think on this one. Thanks!
KristinHello! Worked on a bit of week 3 homework in the last 2 days.
For the tandem turns we hadn’t done those in quite a lot of time so did a quick warmup then gave it a shot. Camera angle on the first round of rear crosses wasn’t that great but hopefully you can see enough. I tried hard to work on shifting the connection to my hands but it was hard to be very smooth!
For the sends there is a LOT going on here! For the wraps I can see it’s very hard for me to avoid bending over. The video sure doesn’t lie. 🙂 Balancing out the sends seemed to be a struggle so this was great practice for what it’s revealing we need to work on.
Let me know what you think.
KristinYour two ideas worked great to get the serpentine with dog on left. I also tried a bit stronger shifting connection to landing side to see if that helped. I think maybe so? But still, I think I’m gonna shelve this one for now, ’cause dog on left still no worky. Poor baby certainly is stuck in a rut on this one. 😂 Helloooooo adolescence, welcome to the party!
He’ll be okay (at least my threadles will probably be wonderful). Ha ha! But will let this one rest for a few sessions at least – maybe try again next week or something.
Take a look and let me know though if any additional thoughts come to mind.
Thanks!
KristinGreat, Tracy, thanks for the insights!
So I tried out the Serpentine connection and it did not go well. 😉
First rep on the send to the wing I had poor connection and can definitely see what happened when watching the video. Next rep was better so I stopped to reward.
Things went downhill from there – ha!! It has been a bit since we worked serps vs. threadles and for some reason he was absolutely stuck in his thinking we were doing threadles. Note that my serp cue is dog-side arm back. Threadle cue is the “Close” verbal plus off-arm back as well.
After two mistakes I made it easier. When that didn’t help I took a break and came back to it later. When we still had problems in the next round, I made it easier in a different way. When that didn’t work I just stopped to seek your advice before doing more. HELP! 😀
~Kristin
Hi Tracy, we’ve been busy so are behind but hopefully can catch up a bit with the skip week this past week.
Thanks for the great feedback last time. I tried to remember it on these next sessions, but seems I did forget to open up my arm a few times that would really have helped.
Sends – in reviewing the video I feel like I didn’t really send. I felt like I had to move somewhere/more and with it being so tight kind of messed with my head. But still was good practice. Let me know what you think.
Shifting Connection – I kind of enjoyed these exercises more.😀 I thought Reacher did great and I did okay on most, but did have a few mistakes. I also noticed that I was often taking an extra step back towards the landing side on the wraps that should not be needed. I recall I had this same habit in MaxPup so is a good reminder to knock it off! Ha!
~Kristin
Ugh, in some ways this next video seems to indicate that I had trouble incorporating your awesome feedback from last time, but I’ll keep working on it. I swear I read it and it all made sense on “paper”! 🙂
I admit a few things messed with my head that didn’t help like trying to remember which hand to keep the toy in, and the lack of space. I kept wondering if maybe doing this class in my basement with full size jumps with wings not my best idea. Ha!!🤣
However, I will tell you a happy story. Last week I had Reacher’s very first Novice-level class, at On the Run, after not even being in a training center since we finished puppy agility back in August or so. I wasn’t sure how it was gonna go… but he did awesome. But my connection story is the good part! We had one sequence that ended with a right turn followed by a long line of 3-4 jumps. The first time I tried it I didn’t make good exit line connection (because I was thinking “holy crap I have to RUN!”) and Reacher started to cut behind me to take the off course a-frame. I caught it and we continued but he was slowish. Next time I tried it I remembered my strong exit connection and he had NO question. I was a little ahead at that point, as is what I’m used to, but then he was like “I GOT IT!” and I kept my attention on his face which went from behind me, to next me, and next thing I knew he was confidently taking that line of jumps with me staring at his cute little butt! He was literally waiting for me at the end. I am pretty sure my face looked like those cartoons do when the character’s eyes bug out. I am sure the connection and a well-placed GO! was the key to that confidence. I was so proud!!
I had to keep that in mind as I watched my Combo video below to not get quite so bummed with my performance here. One interesting thing is that I thought he was much more happy and confident on the last 3-4 reps, but I did switch from toy to food and I think he was much more excited about a food reward.
Looking forward to your commentary!
Kristin
