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I have been working the two barrels with fronts and blinds, but I have been taking her to training barns and using whatever they have. I used cones at one place and the laundry barrels at another. She is not wrapping the barrels consistently, but jets out straight. I think part of it is if my arm goes a little forward, she is looking for thrown food. This has only been a problem since I started the thrown food catch release on sit stays. I think it’s also a generalization issue because she doesn’t do it with the known items in the small space of my basement.
I have concentrated on keeping my arm completely back, but that doesn’t always solve the problem. Any thoughts? I have video, but wanted to ask you asap, before I had time to upload.
Also, I haven’t been posting video because we have been spending a lot of time on focus work in the two training barns. Leash on and off. Coming out of the crate. Control unleashed patterns games. It is going well, but wasn’t worth uploading because of what it was. I have been training the dog in front of me, as we must. I realized my grand plans of working xyz fun game on any given day needed to take a backseat to what she actually needs right now. The games will be there. 🙂
Thank you. I was experimenting with the ready dance last night and she is much more aroused when there is a toy in my hand, rather than food. Just seeing the toy can send her into orbit, especially if I am kneeling on the ground. Any suggestions for the best way to do this? Thanks!
Thanks so much. That all makes sense. I have added in the resilience games and a sort of snuffle mat thing at the end of each session. I need some feedback on the rear crosses to the prop, please. I tried it yesterday and it wasn’t working well, so I left it alone and tried again today. She doesn’t understand what I want and I am not sure what I can do differently. Two sedate ready dances earned me some instant feedback. She nibbled at my knee! And then later grabbed my pants. I feel bad that I am frustrating her, or causing whatever emotional state that generates the gentle attachment of poodle teeth to clothing.
After three sessions today, I just left it. I really wanted to get it, darn it, but my better angels prevailed and I moved on to shaping backing up, which is easier for her. (That’s Riot vocalizing upstairs. Not Caper.)
Here are the three sessions, in order. Thanks!
We had fun today trying a bunch of games at a barn I rented. Apologies in advance for sounds from the FOMO poodle gallery of Riot and Stevie Odessa.
I used one of the resilience games to lower her arousal after she grabbed my pant leg. I am still way too much for her. I think I need to walk and not run for some of these. I do love her focus, though. And her ability to switch from food to toys. She is such a fun puppy. I just need to be more cool!
Thank you! I have been doing a toned-down ready dance and it is definitely helping her control her arousal. Here are three unedited videos of some of our games practice. Her arousal level was too high and she ran off with the prop. She did that once before, now that we have moved the game outside, so I wanted to get your thoughts on it. Part of it is me just not remembering she is a baby who needs very short sessions. I should give her more time in between games. She also has a history of running around the yard with toys. She enjoys it and I enjoy watching her, but it’s not ideal when we are in a training session, as opposed to a burning-off-energy session.
When I have her come to hand, she sometimes blind crosses on me, so I was trying not to turn too soon. Let me know if you think I am waiting too long to turn.
I have worked separately on touching her and giving her treats since she likes to dance away if she thinks she is going to be restrained. I have also been touching her when we tug. Not in a rough way, but just a gentle touch. I like how that’s progressing.
The ready dance is creating heightened arousal — too heightened. She is jumping up and grabbing at my clothes. I don’t want to build those behaviors into the games. What do you recommend? I have been toning down the ready dance and separating it from the games and then rewarding a less aroused state with food. Thanks!
Thanks for the great feedback! I will definitely work those pieces. We are headed to a scentwork trial later this week and another one the following weekend, but we will squeeze in some agility, too. 😀 Riot’s not a shoe biter! LOL. Not sure what he was doing there. My shoe biter is 18! Retired from agility and enjoying long naps and plentiful food!
When I signed up for the class several weeks ago and went to the live class page sign up, there was no place to sign up. Does that mean they are all filled for the entire summer? Thanks.
Thanks so much! That all makes sense. I could feel I stayed too long on the wrap and I plan to work that as a separate skill.
We did Jumping 1 this week. We had the field to ourselves and that gave me time to tinker with some things. We don’t have all the pieces we need for this course, so you’ll see a lot of training moments on my video. I need to work 1-2 in my yard. And backsides at speed and with another obstacle close by. I really shouldn’t have reinforced when he went around the back on my push cue, but then didn’t take the jump. That’s a small piece I can work in my yard, too.
I had issues on 9. In order to get him to take it, I needed an extra step forward, which that put me out of position for a blind. Thoughts on that?
It’s been a gazillion degrees out here every day, so I am getting a lot less practice time than I would like. But this was a good session because I had all the time I needed to work on things and it was only a million degrees in the morning!
Thanks, Tracy. When I watched back my video before posting it here, I definitely had a “I should have had a V-8” moment. I also saw that I should have used the pattern games in that setting. Next time!
I am trying to find some other options for agility locally. It’s a challenge and living in an agility class desert is really impeding our ability to trial. I think I have an option starting in June in a basic foundation class. What you suggested is exactly what I did with Riot in scentwork. I put him in a new class with different dogs in a new location that was well below his scentwork skill set. It helped him so much because the searches were super easy and he was able to get experience and have success in a novel location with lots of people providing pressure by watching him in close proximity. I know if we can do the same in agility it will help.
Since the ASCA trial, I have seen some stress in him during our two practice sessions. In the first, we were outside, and he was wanting to grab at the grass again. In the second, we were indoors and he was spinning. Outdoors, there was only one other person and dog. Inside, it was just us and Stevie. So, I just did some pattern games with him, and then did some easy sequencing, and then did some relaxed chill. We played with his toy and just tried to have it be calm and fun. I suspect ASCA was a bigger withdrawal than I ever would have anticipated.
I confirmed there will be a UKI trial in June and another ASCA trial. Both with male judges. I may just end up practicing our “before we enter the ring” stuff and then play in the ring with his leash on. But I think I ought to enter and at least do something, even if we can’t run because he may bark at the judge. What do you think?
Thanks so much for this class. We are going to continue to work through all the exercises over the summer and I hope to see you online in camp!
We finally had a chance to do some FEO runs. We have been practicing agility in between scentwork trials and I have been really pleased with his progress. Last week, we trained alone, and he was so good. Happy and focused and fired up.
The video is long because I had two FEO rounds and I asked my husband to come with me to video. We have pre- and post-run film. Feel free to fast forward through the engaged chill, etc.
This is the Just Like Home FEO version, except we don’t live on a farm so it was, decidedly, not JLH. Chickens, sheep, a goat, as well as ducks behind a fence near the round two start line. We crated out of the car. The Novice class was tiny, so there wasn’t much time in between rounds 1 and 2.
In round 1, I planned to reinforce after the tunnel because we could be far from the audience. I did not expect him to run around the tunnel, but he came when I called, so we played and then did a straight line out.
He was less focused as we were getting ready for round 2, so my plan was to reinforce after the first jump. However, he kept going and went to check out the ring crew person. There was no ring crew in there for round 1, and the judge was judging from outside the ring. It was the hottest day of the year so far, so she was in the shade. He did come back after his visit. We did a couple of obstacles and then played.
I’m interested in your thoughts. I think if I had kept running in round 2, he may not have visited the ring crew, but I’ll never know!
I hope the scheduled June UKI trial is happening so I will have a chance to try again. We don’t have many options. I noted our August AKC trial will have two rings running simultaneously. Not sure if he can handle FEO under those circumstances. It has been many years since we had a two-ring AKC trial in Utah.
Thanks!
We had a great weekend last week at our scentwork trial. Many opportunities for engaged chill. He was a rockstar all around!
We have ditched the personal play. Thanks for your insight on that. In this video, when I was asking for the bark, my posture looked a little like personal play and he looked like he was about to spin, so I Immediately went over to the remote reinforcement station. There was no grass eating!
I used the bark on cue during rally league last week before our run. He looked like he was going to bark at the judge, so I cued him to bark. He did and then got right to work. He was not worried at all and got a perfect score!
Here is our RR+ tricks and our leash off games. Can I use the target stick for instant focus? I can put it on a stand so that I am not holding it. He has a lot of value for that behavior. Where are we going with the IF behavior ultimately? Is it something we will use before running?
Looking forward to your feedback! Thanks so much.
Thanks so much for your thoughtful reply. I appreciate having the opportunity to discuss these issues with someone who has thought about them so deeply. This class is so good and so unique. Thank you!
>>>>So for the pattern games, then, do more of an up-and-down with treats placed on your shoes and not tossed away (which is something that can easily be done outside the ring).
Do you really get the treats to land on your shoes? They just bounce off on to the ground when I do it. I need little bowls on my shoes!
>>I train this skill, specifically: find the one treat in the grass and then re-engage. it is the first thing I train, pre-pattern games 🙂 Small, white treats work well and being able to find a treat in grass on cue and then immediately return to engagement after the cookie is a really useful skill!
Cool. I will do this with some small bits of string cheese in my yard.
>> But for all of the movement involved with waiting outside the ring and going to the start line, definitely focus on the patterns that can be done with no props – just your hands (and shoes haha) and him 🙂 Since there always seems to be such a huge list of things to train, I try to narrow the scope and prioritize.
I will practice more of the “snack” delivery because we can do that in a line up. I may try that at the scentwork trial this weekend.
>>> Then as I enter the training area, I will begin the pattern game.
I am having a hard time envisioning this. You enter the building where the agility trial is and just start tossing treats on the ground? Or you do the snack version or hands version? Video of this IRL would be great to see, if you have any.
>> I said: Maybe my fears are completely unfounded, but I really don’t want him feeling stressed when he comes out of his crate.
You replied: Are you seeing stress behaviors?
I didn’t see any on Tuesday, but I live in fear of grass grabbing because it means he is not having fun. And it’s supposed to be fun. You will see in the video of the leash game that when I tried some personal play, he grabbed my sleeve (that’s not the norm for him) and I spoke to the camera and he dropped his head and grabbed some grass. 🤬 I was trying personal play because we can’t tug because of the previous dental issues. And I tried to put toys on long lines, but he just wants to run off with them and do a lap. But sometimes when I do personal play he disengages because I am just too much, I think. It’s hard when you can’t tug and food is not his biggest love. It’s really the source of our issues. I am going to try some ball games because he can catch if I toss them under his chin, but not so much from above. If you have any other ideas, I’m all ears. The flirt pole keeps him safe and relatively close and I am a little bit of the picture. I tend not to fling the toy around on the pole for safety reasons. I’ll use the lotus ball with a handle the next time I video and see if there is a difference. He tends to bring that back after he has eaten the treat.
I also started teaching him to bark on cue tonight. 😳 There is also a little video of that.
I also bit the bullet and uploaded the one novice JWW attempt from January. The one that sent me scurrying to sign up for this class. I’m going to delete it once you have seen it because it’s so dreadful and I would like to forget it ever happened. The most inauspicious debut of any of my agility dogs and I’m not exactly new at this! I just thought it would help for formulating our plan going forward.
Thanks for the feedback. I keep switching out the IF prop because I am waiting to see where we go with it. 🙂
On Friday, I had done a little EC with him in an expen. It’s definitely harder for him when a dog is running. Mat with LAT works better for that right now. My training partner doesn’t like having Riot out when she is running her dog because it’s too big a distraction for her dog. That’s why we were trying it in an expen.
I had two sessions today with distractions behind us. Two people and three dogs. The dogs were in crates. One was noisy FOMO Stevie, his sister, but she was better when Aunt Suzie gave her cookies. In-season Amore was also in a crate. Really impressed with his ability to hold it together with Amore being so close.
I am using the metal tins for the pattern game because I don’t like when people throw treats on the ground. It’s not very fair to the next dog if there are treats/crumbs left in the training or competition space. Also, when we are outside, he has a harder time finding the small treats in the grass. The tins make it easier. Third, we trial on dirt and can’t throw food, so I thought the tins might be a nice visual cue for the game in new environments. What do you think? It’s basically a small space version of CU Super Bowls. I can modify it if you think my version isn’t as good.
I am worried that all this activity is going to feel like pressure to him. Coming out of his crate to a pattern game, in theory, should give him the opportunity to assess the environment. But it also feels like more of a requirement (play this game!) as opposed to, say, an awareness walk around the area. Maybe my fears are completely unfounded, but I really don’t want him feeling stressed when he comes out of his crate. I suppose time will tell how he feels about it. If he comes out of his crate and can’t play the pattern game, do you just put him back in his crate for a few minutes and then try again?
Second, should I teach him to bark on cue or play wabbits? Those were Pixey’s games and she needed them to raise her arousal in challenging environments. Riot is far more likely to be overaroused. Is it playing with fire? 🔥 When he offers a bark during agility practice, it is always a sign of a higher volume. But it also tends to accompany engagement.
Thanks so much. It feels like we are on the right track, but I just need to make sure I keep him at the optimal state of arousal. I was pretty surprised today that he did not leave me to go sniff his usual favorite places on the barn floor!
