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Awesome! I finally made my new prop yesterday. It is 8″ so I will take some videos and send them your way hopefully tonight and you can let me know what you think! I have some compression balls we just started using at home that I can cut Xs in them to make it even easier. We are SO looking forward to working with you in person soon!
Hi Shelly!
Can you help me with this box turn? Susan pointed out that she is changing her foot placement on the box before pushing off and I’d like to stop that before it’s become too patterned.
Here is the link!Here is Thistle’s Higher Prop Over & Back
I think it helped a lot to raise the prop and switch the target mat to something not slippery.
She seems to naturally offer lefts but then I feel like she looks better turning to the right. We will keep going with both ways.
You will see in the video that I joke about my reverse cue for a left turn. When we were introducing the new prop this week, we went back to no board to make it easy. She was consistently cueing a hit it and a reverse over it, even as we practiced with the angled wallboard. Anywho, tug made cues harder to remember so I did just give up. I will be sure to help her get it right this next week when practicing.We also had another episode this week at practice when Thistle was recalling out over 2 jumps into a 2 dog lineup. She was on her tug until she heard the “judge” call ready set go! Then she’d abandon the tug and tried to go run down the jumps with the other dogs. After the first round, it became harder and harder to keep her with me. Do you have ideas for how to keep her with me? I know retrieving a ball to me will help a little but I don’t want to be dependent on that step.
Thanks! I appreciate all your help!
Here is Thistle’s Slant Board Intro video.
My questions are:
1. She offers both directions. She had a laceration on her back right foot that’s healed up but it worried her weaker side might be the right for her career so I want to take that into consideration with her turn.
2. I was thinking I need a taller prop for her? How’s her turn looking?
3. The snappier turns are with a tug reward. She moves in slowmo when I do treat rolling rewards. I’ve noticed now that she works for treats, she is a lot more mindful of what she’s doing, but it’s usually slow.
I guess the last one isn’t a question, more of a thought!
Anyway, let me know what you think! Thanks!Hello!
Here is Thistle’s Jumping Foundations video!With her turns, she was making good progress but during our wait to have her evaluated, we worked a lot on fitness and body awareness. I was doing a treat toss release cookie and I hadn’t noticed I was doing it off to her left the entire time instead of alternating it. When we practice our uturn, she is now offering turning turning left. Ugh.
So we haven’t progressed past an elevated (Cato board over prop) turn. This week we are working on making sure she goes right when cued.Let me know if you have any pointers for this. I was thinking about giving her a different cue for turning left so maybe it will help her distinguish a little better?
Thanks!Middle + Tug
We have been working a lot on her Middle cue since we were waiting to be cleared by the vet to work on other things. This is her first time getting a tug reward for it and I’d say she loves it even more! Also our first time during training sessions doing this outside as well.Jump + Retrieve
This is our first time doing this outside and with a tug. She loved bringing it back but I can tell we need to work more on the over back to me. I would assume staying closer to the jump would help with this but she tends to want to chew her tug still if I am not in motion. Would love to hear your ideas about this.Jump + Distance (Indoor)
Here is Thistle’s Jump + Distance indoor edition. She is pretty solid on what over means inside WITH treats. Tug is a whole other game.. lol.I have started cutting her meals back to help with training recently and I think it has helped some.
She varies on the week. Right now, I’d say she’s on the thinner side, but two weeks ago, she was a chunk.
With meals, the three older dogs I have wait patiently in the kitchen while I make their food. Thistle is usually off rampaging on the couches or entertaining herself in some way. I would say food has been a challenge to keep her interested in. I have even gone as far as doing a late breakfast training session so she missed normal breakfast time and tried getting her hungry for that and she was still “meh” about it.
Cheese excites her. Steak is good but she really only wants it when there’s other dogs around. If there’s no competition for it, she doesn’t care much.This was our second round and I think she is getting the idea of it. I am going for more enthusiasm but not getting as fast of movements as I’d like. Do you have ideas on how to make this more fun for her?
We don’t have any upright jumps and you can see I am having to be more exciting for her to be more excited about doing it. I am excited to hear your feedback on how to improve this for the week ahead.
