[Mary]

Thanks for all the advice on Week 1 and the verbal reward markers. I’ll revisit the areas that need work.

Yesterday I had a chance to start Week 2 with Pill Bug. Here’s my first attempt on that. We didn’t do much—-just enough to start getting a feel for it. Mainly I wanted good footing, a good tunnel, and to see if my knees could handle it. Here’s the link to that exercise:

Of greater concern, I started looking at tunnel exits this morning. I took out my short tunnel and put TNT’s on right and left sides of tunnel exit. I already suspected that he has no concept of left and right yet on tunnel and that he decides exit direction based on his position next to me, so I prepared the training to take baby steps rather than even try the week 2 set up. I started by cuing a left exit out of the tunnel with him starting on my right side. He was 100% solid on this. The instant he was in neutral (lined up centered between my legs in front of tunnel entry), he didn’t know which way to turn at the exit. And if he was on my left, he would turn to the right 100% of the time despite the left cue. I recognize that setting him on my left while asking him to turn left out of the tunnel created a rear cross situation, making the exit that much harder. But if we want a true verbal, and he only understands left or right based on his position relative to me, then I think I need to do additional work to better prepare him for cued directional tunnel exits that aren’t reliant on which side he’s on relative to me. I have worked these right and left verbals on barrels/cones/wings, so he has heard them before. Even on the b/c/w, he has the reliance on handling side. On those I can create the rear cross well enough to get the desired turn but I never feel like it’s without resentment on his part that I’m spewing the wrong verbal. It’s quite vexing. I’m wondering if I’ve missed a step somewhere along the line or if you have suggestions for how I can make this more clear. Or perhaps I’m wrong to expect this side independence at this point. Any advice is truly appreciated. I’m quite willing to go as slow as possible to get this right, and especially prevent frustration, which he feels in a big way if things aren’t always smooth (like he does with any situation that doesn’t suit him).

[Mary]

Week 1 Exercises

I often use the wrong verbal and need to work hard to correct this. This goes for my obstacle cues as well as my reward marker cues. You’ll hear plenty of mistakes in these videos. My verbals are Under Construction right now so are likely to evolve. I know I will have questions on this, but it’s too early right now with anything specific.

For now, here’s my library of verbal obstacle cues…
Wrap Left: Loop Wrap Right: Wrap
Turn Left: Li Turn Right: Twiz
Tunnel: Tunnel Tunnel Threadle: Look

And reward markers…
Take It, I deliver food to dog
Yep, dog moves to me to take food
Get It, I throw the food away from me and dog (sadly, I say “get it” for almost everything)
Catch, I throw food to dog (my new favorite deleivery since he’s getting so good at catching flying cookies)
Chomp, I deliver toy to dog
Tug, dog comes to me to interact with toy
Chase It, dog releases to both stationary toy or chases toy that I drag. I probably need to add a stationary toy marker.

All four exercises, all in their early stages, are shown here. These were great fun and I look forward to working on them again to improve. I give JP tons of credit adapting to my mistakes and oversights while learning.

Wrap Practice

Intro to Set Point

Wind in Your Hair

Smiley Face

[Mary]

Thanks. I have started some pattern games to help with the arousal. I’ve also gotten some of the Brain Camps. I’m going through those as time permits. I’ll be doing all that I can to tackle this and might even share an example for advice, if that’s ok.

[Author]

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