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Now I see how these short quality sessions are leading to better focus, effort and skills. Seriously ~ in a real agility run, all I want is 30-40 seconds of intense focus. I don’t need five to ten solid minutes of “work”, so why do my training sessions need to be any longer? If I keep trying to push his limits to teach one more new thing, it’s only going to backfire and have the opposite effect; he’s going to shut down. Maybe when he’s a lot more mature (like 4-6 years old) he’ll have the maturity and I’ll have “banked” enough positive session that I can start working longer, but there’s no rush.
Thanks for all of your help! Stay safe and have a great summer!
Laura & FlynnOkay ~ here’s a 2 minute and 19 second training session with Flynn doing a speed circle. I wanted to work those pesky weave and tight turns. There is about 80% play for 20% work in this very short training session (I timed Flynn’s actual “work” at 29 seconds total).
Here’s another try. I dropped the bars to 12″ to make is super easy (even though he’s not a bar knocker) and I staggered the serp jumps. I was still rewarding too much while stationary. I’ll keeping working on MOVING even more. I can see that he’s “checking out” prior to two minutes. I ask for easier things and reward everything (like the wrong turn out of the weaves when I rear crossed), but I think I need to keep the training sessions to less than 90 seconds or even less than one minute.
Here’s a video with lots of enthusiastic tugging at the start. After we begin “working” he becomes stressed (slow to respond to cues or completing ignoring me; example: refusing to “line up”). He rebounds and we end on a good tugging session but the handling and/or dog path was crappy (wide everywhere, lots of off courses). He’s not sure what to do and when he’s not sure what to do, he stresses.
At the trial he had great contacts, never dropped a single bar over 21 classes in five days, but he stressed prior to going in the ring and he stressed at the weaves. He has great weaves, but he was “two-timing” me all weekend (he’d be perfect on the second attempt; even when I did a Fix N’ Go with the same challenging approach). He managed to get one JWW, one STD one FAST and one T2B over five days (ever two Qs on the same day). Glad my entries are paid in exchange for my course building!
When I set the course up, I left like Drill #1 was a bit too easy for Flynn, so I went straight to Drill #2. I accidentally set my 20′ tunnel at the wrong “intersection” so I aded a jump and made up a similar (…it is just too hot and muggy to move a tunnel again). I started using a braided rabbit fur leash for his tug toy. This is something that I can take in the ring. Now the AKC will even let me wear it as a “belt”. He’s really starting to like this. I need to move from holding the leash in my hand to wearing it as a belt.
Thanks for allowing me to switch out jumps for the tunnels. I have three tunnels, but they take so much time to set up and move around. I kept the food reward, since he really likes that and I want to “jackpot” the weaves.
Here’s our homework with the jumps and some weaves at the end, for some “weave confidence building”. I tried to “touch” each station, but Flynn has a really big bubble. He is nearly perfect with these weaves, but we’ll see what happens this weekend.
I hope I understood your goal for the four weave pole exercise. Here’s what he can do (he couldn’t do the “no motion” send from the opposite side; that would be tough for most experienced dogs). Let me know if you were thinking of something completely different. It’s clear that he understands his job, he just can’t do it under pressure, yet.
Stress:
I’m not sure about his stress “cycle”. I think he’s more environmentally reactive than on a set cycle. Two of his biggest triggers: 1). he’s distracted by high energy intense barking or spastic dogs; 2). he’s stressed when the handling cues are not clear and there’s a mistake.Weaves:
I’ll try the chair for practicing clock entries on the weaves today, as well as the other skills (speed, distance). I have four days to practice and then I have a five day trial coming up (Flynn has never been to a five day trial; I’m a chief course builder so I will be busy). I will keep a chart for the five days to log his weave success, noting the approaches and other challenges (speed or lack of speed).FYI: For the map you posted for Drill #2, the number for the second tunnel is on the tunnel exit instead of the tunnel entrance (…I”m sure people will probably not notice, but it makes for a REALLY challenging entrance and subsequent threadle approach to #3 if you follow the map. Sometime CRCD messes with up the numbers when they are moved around because of the auto adjust feature).
Were they on different days? Or were the runs on the same day?
– All of the runs were on Friday the 26th.Are there just certain dogs that he responds to that way (as he did the sheltie) or is that more normal?
– Dogs with “stress energy” stress him out. He’s fine with “laid back dogs”.You might see if you can find those single serving peanut butter cups for your pretrial routine. Does that make sense?
– Yes, that makes sense. Maybe I’ll buy one of those “licky mats”.Weaves: how did your train them and how did you work the entries? Just so we can build on what you already have. You showed him a lot more deceleration at home than the trial. Have you proofed him finding the entries?
– I am a Susan Garret 2×2 fanatic. We also used channels to work on single striding, after he mastered weaving (…as Susan G. suggests in her videos).I added a few jumps to the sequence, as suggested. I even through in some weaves so that we could practice for this weekend. He NAILED the entrances at great speed (but today, missed every single entrance, even a super easy entrance off a table; completely emotional rather than skill issues).
Here are two videos of our pre-run and runs. He followed an “intense” sheltie for several runs. The sheltie was not concerned with Flynn, but Flynn thought it was “Game On” every time the sheltie got excited. Flynn is great about switching into working mode. I did a lead out and he was listening, until the weaves. I lost connection at the end, but he finished strong.
Another run where he was clean until the weaves. We’ll figure this out eventually. I still think that he could run faster, but the outside of the ring distractions really impact his mental state.
He gave me some REALLY nice tight turns on this exercise. I also wanted to work on asking him to switch between two toys. He would not switch to I brought out two of the same toy (different colors). He still piked ONE of the two and would only really “enjoy” playing with one of the two. It’s like he’s actually pouting when he does not get the toy that he wants, even when they are the same.
I’m not sure what you wanted with running around, so I tried it once and he “back jumped” because I was so close to the jump.
Week 3 ~ Drill #2
I’m still trying the toy station. You can almost see him pouting (stressing) when he has to go away from the station to work. He gives me two good repetitions and then goes on strike. It’s like he’s saying, “I already did this”. Kelpies are supposed to be bred to work ’till they drop (ha, not this kelpie). I want to encourage engagement at the start line, but it seems like the more I ask for simple things (spin, hand touch), the more he disengages. Maybe a slingshot start would be best to prevent stress, even though he has a great lead out. Also, maybe I should not repeat a sequence more than once. After running something once, maybe I should run it backwards. It’s like repetitions are seen as punishment by him.
At around 3.5 minutes, he tries to mentally “check out”. I worry that if I neutered him, this shy timid personality would be made worse. I wish they was a way to “try it out”. I think he has a brain, he just chooses when to use it and I have not figured out how to control that, yet.
Yes, Flynn definitely needs information 2 to 3 obstacles early. I always walk the dog path first when I walk a course to make sure that I see the off course options and where the course requires a tighter turn. I used to let my cavalier turn wide when there were no off course options, because if he could stay in extension his course times were significantly better (he could not power out of a tight turn). Flynn defiantly can power out of turns.
When he disconnects, he’s sulking off to stand on the front porch and pout. It’s his way of ending the training session. He’d rather go inside than continue to run without a toy in his sight <sigh>. For the next drill I’ll aim the camera so that the porch is in view (he does this often when he’s had enough). Usually that’s my cue that my rate of reinforcement was too low, the behavior was too hard, or I did too many repetitions and he’s had enough. I feel like I’m being very positive and upbeat, but Flynn is a softie. That’s why I had him come back and do one easy thing, then try to end the session on a high note with lots of reinforcement (throwing the ball is his favorite).
