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Hey Tracy,
Another couple of short vids for your expert eye!
I figured out a way to get a small amount of tip on the seesaw. My adjustable plyo box! I just put a piece of yoga mat under on top of the box so the seesaw wouldn’t crash too loud onto it. Hero can be a bit weird with loud noises. I made a new treat target with sides, now the treats don’t roll off! I don’t think Hero cares about the small tipping movement, do you? Lol, he did a typical cat jump right onto the end of it!
Here is attempt number 1 with my number 8 wire solution to a wobble board. Board covered in a yoga mat to prevent slipping, on top of a wobble cushion! I was going to use foot pods but they weren’t really suitable with the longer board. I really need a squarer board and then I would be able to tape a foot pod to the bottom of it. But since you said we will need a wobble board for the next set of games, I just purchased one. Should be here on Monday. even though Hero got this creation sideways, he still didn’t care.
Thanks for the information about the weave course. I assume this would be good for a retrain of both my dogs to solidify in their brains entries and exits? Is it too much work for Hero to do this course now, alongside seesaw training?
L.
Hey Morning!
Thanks for the feedback! I think Hero is confident on a plank because he has done so much of it for RC. The interesting part will be when we get to the tipping!
Duh, I totally didn’t think about reward placement encouraging the down. I will try another short session today and reward a bit higher. That makes sense re the cookie toss to the side if he tries to be in a down. I was using the cookie toss to move him off the target yesterday to see if he could offer the position again. He is all about the treat so I can see how doing a down would be inefficient for him if he realised the cookie was moving!!
I can probably borrow the round style wobble board. I know a friend had one to rehab her ankle. Failing that, I will come up with something kiwi number 8 wire lol (that means a mash up of whatever I have. In NZ you can fix anything with number 8 fencing wire lol).
Hero turned 4 in December. I haven’t pushed him through agility, and we have mostly been concentrating on RC. This is why he got the target so quickly I guess, as we used to target a mat for RC.
Hero has moved up the grades in agility and we now find ourselves not being able to do some of the intermediate classes because I haven’t taught seesaw! I wanted his dw performance to be solid first and not questioning if it was going to be a dw or seesaw in the ring. We Still need tight turns off the dw, but we are getting there.
We also need to revisit weaves. He was a beautiful weaver and now he is early releasing. He loves to chase and is easily aroused. We are always learning! This is why I am enjoying this course so much, as the performance is stripped right back to teach very incremental layers. I think when we are done he will always remember what to do. I am training Ruse in the background because she still likes to fly 🙂
Good evening!
Today Hero and I played 3 really short games across different tracks in different sessions. We started with the Downhill Track and having him turn circles in the middle of the seesaw as suggested. He had no problem with that! Then I did a couple of recalls across the plank and he was solid as. Notice the cat jump onto the plank at the beginning of the video lol. Pyrsheps love being up high and are usually very nimble 😉
I am trying to think of something a little lower than my step ladder that I can put on the downhill end of the seesaw to make a very slight tip. I will see if the wooden saw horses I have a low enough.
I thought about what you said about the target being a strip. The easiest way for me to do that is with duct tape! I can teach Hero to Target that and then transfer it to the plank. I put the tape on my lino 300mm wide and two strips deep. Hero is used to shaping, so as soon as he touched one paw and got rewarded for it, he knew what the game was about. He was offering really nice two paw touches in a crouch within a couple of reps. I think I carried on too long though, because he started adding a down when he thought the game must be more complicated? I didn’t watch my reward rate closely enough.
When is it ok to give the behaviour a cue? I really want him with two paws on and head low and crouching, not lying down. Should I name it once it’s actually on the plank or seesaw, when the behaviour is closer to the end product? I want my target/seesaw cue to be “slam” like Ruse’s cue. That way I won’t get confused when I swap dogs at a show.
Lastly, I don’t have a wobble board, but I tried Hero out on the fit bone. I’m embarrassed to say he hasn’t see enough of this equipment, but we did quite a bit when he was a puppy. He hasn’t forgotten and seems to balance easily in the middle with 4 paws on. I will do further work on that and also get him to stand long ways.
We are really enjoying the games and the learning, and the fact that we don’t need to rush!
Cheers
L.Thanks so much for the feedback, I will have another go with the uphill and get a better treat holder. Don’t be too jealous of the weather, yesterday and today were particularly nice, 25-30 celcius, but tomorrow is predicted to be 15 and rain. Story of our summer 🙁
The seesaw you see in the videos is full height. However, to meet regulation I have to shorten it by 20cm on each end. The new regs have just come in, but won’t be manditory until 2024. Most clubs have already lowered the seesaw, some have shortened as well. So it’s going to be a bit messy for a couple of years. I am hoping that if I build a strong end behaviour, the length won’t matter. I want Hero to drive to the end and stop with four on.
A very short and sweet training session today. Hero is very confident walking the plank. It was a little skew wiff and a bit rattley now I look at the video, but definitely stable. I did not realise at the end of the video he had jumped back on as I went to turn off the video!
(Hopefully the link works, it’s not bringing a up a preview)
I didn’t do any tipping, as we have not played the bang game, or done any target touching. I felt like I should teach these things first? To get him to touching a target, I was just going to use a plastic lid that I can transfer to the end. Should I be shaping him to touch it with his nose?
Cheers,
Lucinda
