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I’ve heard people use all those verbal cues before. Whether in the same or similar instances. I’m definitely not at that point yet with either dog, I don’t think, but maybe eventually! For now, I wont introduce a verbal. I’ll just follow the Max Pup examples.
I practiced a few short lessons since my last video. Kashia seemed to understand it a lot better this time! I also emphasized it a ton with my hands though. Either way, I was pleased with her performance so I decided this was a good one to share. Hopefully we are ready to move on to the next lesson! Of course, we will continue to practice this sporadically as to not bore Kashia but continue forward progress.
Thanks for all the help!
I knew turn aways were going to be challenging for us…but I didn’t realize just how challenging they’d be. I watched your video several times. You made them look relatively easy in positioning. But it didn’t feel that way for me. Not sure why. The mechanics aren’t overly complicated but getting that hand motion with my eyes felt hard.
I decided to do it in my house since you said speed and distance didn’t matter initially. I wanted to stay warmer. 🙂 Even going at snail speed, we struggled. Or more like I struggled.
My dogs and I have practiced a lot of front crosses in the same pattern as this sequence so it was very hard for them to go straight to perform a turn away after the first front cross. Kashia and my other dog kept wanting to do another front cross.
We had a million bloopers. I cut a bunch out that were repetitive as to not waste your time. I don’t know why this was challenging except that I’ve never really done it before. It was hard to shift my eyes from the dog to my hands. Kashia spun away from me but didn’t always make it completely around the wing. I rewarded her anyway since she still did the spin, like you said.
Was I doing something to have her pull away from me to the other side of the wing to set up for a second front cross instead of a turn away? Was it muscle memory for Kashia since we’ve done a similar exercise a lot or did I not pull her into me enough?
What can I do better? This felt very sloppy and messy.
Do you ever associate a verbal cue with a turn away or is it all just in the hands? I watched your competition track video again and I’m just amazed at how that hand motion automatically tells the dog to turn away from you. That feels like an impossible skill for us at this stage! Lol
Thanks for all the help!
P.S. I just realized my video has a lot more reps on one side than the other. I promise we didn’t practice it that one sided. I just edited out the duplicate mistakes and forgot to make it a little more balanced on each side practice. I blame my long day tiredness. 🙂
Thanks for the wonderful feedback! I’m really enjoying our conversations! And learning so much! It’s incredible!
<<<< Yes she liked it 🙂 and it must be warmer there because you didn’t have to wear 57 layers of clothing so you could run faster which she also liked 🙂>>>>>>
This made me chuckle!!!! It was about 32 degrees…that’s a heat wave compared to 0 degrees but still cold! I just got so sick of trying to practice in bulky clothes and boots that I told myself I could shed some layers and survive the cold for 15-20 minutes while I work with both dogs. I was cold by the end but it was so much more comfortable for me! Now I understand why Kashia also prefers I take off her coat for training practice. lol
<<<<<<<<<For the hard wrap stuff, you can try having her do one rep and then your other dog does one rep, so she gets an unwanted break LOL That might help keep her pumped up more.>>>>>>>>
This is a great idea…also a hard one to execute! It’s so hard to quit after just one rep! It would be as hard for me as it is for Kashia! lol She gets excited after watching my other dog so I know this trick would work great. I’ll try it out!
I guess I need to listen to Kashia more! If she does it right, then I must be doing something right too even if it doesn’t feel right. Ha ha
Up to this point, I’ve done the competition track exercises because Kashia has been doing some jumping and I figured she would handle most of it fine. However, the week 3 lesson looks incredible difficult and new to us so I think I’m going to revert back to Max Pup. I think that’s how we will be most successful. I’ve done some of the flat work you mention about having the dog circle away from me using a treat. But I’ve never applied that to anything in agility so I really don’t think she’ll understand at first. I haven’t even really taught my other dog this skill to this precision, anyway. It’s a great lesson for us. I just wanted you to know we will be going back to the foundation lessons for this one.
Thanks again for your time, wisdom, and great feedback!
I re-watched the shifting connection lesson several times this morning to try to really understand the concept now that I understand the basic steps. I definitely don’t think I did it right in my above video. I did not emphasize the landing spot with my eyes or shoulders. I just kind of made sure Kashia did the circle wrap and then took off forward. It feels like I broke connection with her at the circle wraps even though she still followed through with what I asked.
I feel so silly! I get so focused on certain things that I forget other things. Sometimes I focus more on the practical application than the actual concept. Or I focus on what I’m doing with one part of my body but I forget the other part. I look forward to the day this all becomes natural! LOL
In this video, I think I was so focused on not side stepping that I forgot to keep that connection with my inside shoulder. Unless I’m wrong, Kashia actually seemed more forgiving of my mistake than my other dog since Kashia did the wrap more successfully without pulling off of it to continue forward.
I look forward to your feedback. There’s so much to analyze every time. Just when I think I get the concept, I pick apart something else in the video! ha ha
Thank you for the feedback! We will keep working on those sends!
I tried shifting connection one more time with distance and the feedback you gave. Kashia was super energetic to start training but I could feel myself losing her throughout the exercise. I stopped several times to keep it fun. We did tricks, straight line jumping, and jumping throwing the toy. I definitely can’t practice this game again any time soon because I could feel her becoming bored. Which is really so funny because my older dog loves this exercise. She was racing around the jumps and cone like a barrel horse!
Anyway, Kashia did pretty good I think. She started wanting to only follow the toy so I had to hide it in my pocket by the end. Did I fix the cone maneuver you mentioned in your last feedback on this exercise?
<<<<<<<<<< One small detail on the circle wrap – when you were sending her around the cone, you were stepping to the side then continuing on your path behind her. See if you can use shifting connection instead of the step to the side – that will be a lot more challenging for her because there will be no motion support, and it will rely on the connection shift entirely 🙂>>>>>>>>>>
I sure tried. It’s a lot harder than it feels like it should be. I pulled my other dog with me before she got around the cone a lot. I think Kashia only did that twice. I saw a few reps where I still stepped a little but it seemed maybe a bit better. Or just less exaggerated than before. This lesson was more for me and than Kashia. I wanted to see if I could get that shifted connection at the cone.
By the last couple of reps, I really had to cheerlead Kashia along to get some speed. I immediately stopped after that and did something fun before ending. I didn’t want to push either of us too much. She still did really good though.
I look forward to new lessons this week! Thanks for the help!
I’m excited to try your feedback on the shifting connection again! I wondered if you meant 18-21 feet between jumps or between the cone and each jump. I wasn’t sure so I opted for the easier route. I’ll definitely try the bigger distance next time. She loves to run so I think she’ll like that extra distance even if it also presents challenges.
Here’s our second recording of serpentines. Kashia’s enthusiasm was great! Unfortunately, our sends were pretty not great and sloppy. I left all the bloopers in. If I’m critiquing right, I think I did a couple things wrong. I closed my shoulder from her a lot by putting my hand too far ahead of her. I forgot the magnet to nose a lot. Each time she didn’t send, I tried to remember that and fix it the next rep. It worked on most of them. Once or twice I shifted my weight back too soon and pulled her off of it. I think some of the reps I had my arm/hand way too high. It’s so hard to break the habit of wanting to point to them where to go. I understand why we don’t because it totally closes the shoulder but that just seems more natural to my brain! LOL
Even though the sends were sloppy, I still felt like the serpentines were pretty good! I was happy with her progress!
Thank you! I’m going to try the running feedback when we do serpentines again!
In order to prevent boredom, I wanted to change it up again so we went back to shifting connection. She was pretty engaged today again so I was happy for that! I put the jumps about 23ish feet apart. Maybe a little less but somewhere around there. I wanted a challenge and I wanted to give her a chance to open up her stride just a little bit. We didn’t have any issues with it! I’m sure there are things I could improve on but as for Kashia following all the commands and lines, she did really well!
I look forward to your feedback! I got a little carried away the last rep and just kept going. 🙂 I threw in some random jumps and driving forward to mix it up for her like you suggested. I think she liked that so it didn’t get too repetitive and she could just have fun running a straight line.
Thanks for all the help! I’m so impressed with Kashia’s progress so far. Your exercises and feedback have been great and are to credit for that. Thank you for helping us out so much!
Thank you! Your feedback is so encouraging! I felt it was a pretty good session especially compared to some of the bad sessions we’ve had the last two weeks. I didn’t know it was as great as you made it sound though! I guess we are improving then! I can feel it, no matter how subtle it may be, so I don’t doubt it at all. Sometimes it’s just also nice to hear from others because I don’t always see it as clearly. 🙂
I’ve re-watched my video several times and I’ve watched your video several times and I’m just now realizing I never dropped the toy at the landing spot! I suppose that may have made a difference too! I’ll try that next time! I think I sometimes forget to drop it because her drive for it isn’t super yet. In fact, in this whole session I basically just used the toy as a treat dispenser. LOL I think I only dropped it once for her. She gets annoyed trying to undo the velcro after like 3 reps so that’s why I usually just feed it out of the ball. I try to put the velcro loose so it’s easy and quick but apparently not loose enough. We are still learning it though. She seems a little more interested in the toy each time I bring it out so I’m going to keep trying!!
On the moving piece, I always get into a conundrum with myself. I want to run fast and ahead of her but I’m also trying to use sending skills to send her to the wing so I try to match her speed as well as run ahead. How do I balance that? I’m afraid if I run too far ahead, I won’t actually be sending her to the second wing because I’ll be right up at the wing waiting for her but if I don’t run, that slows her motion down too. How do I balance this better? I saw her picking up speed quite a bit more than other sessions. I was super happy with this. But I also felt myself going half way to the wing before she committed to the send which is why my motion started out slow. Once she committed to the second wing, her speed was great! I just need to figure out how to get my motion better in the beginning.
Thanks for all the help!
Yesterday’s serpentines were a bit more challenging for both of us! I was focusing on keeping my dog arm back to keep my chest open, which I still didn’t do great but I’m always thinking about it and trying to magnet to her nose! Kashia was tested a bit with the sends but I think she’s made some improvement with those too! I kept the bloopers in so you can see where I errored. I’m pretty certain I know what I did wrong on the reps where she missed the jump….pretty certain my body language didn’t even cue her to jump! I forgot to pull her into me (landing spot) before taking off forward from what I could see.
I’m anxious for your feedback on this one. It took more mental focus from both of us than the last lesson did but I think we did alright for our first attempt! I wasn’t able to get ahead of her quite as much as you seemed to with your demo dog. I also didn’t get that super tight turn around the jump but I realized timing is key in this one. My other dog did better with the tight turns. So maybe it’s just Kashia still learning and having that excitement to follow me with speed around the corner?
Thanks for all your help!
Thanks for the feedback! I wasn’t sure the distance for this lesson. I didn’t see where you specified feet between jumps like you did on the last ones. What is a good distance to move the jumps to?
Should I send videos of this one again or move on to the last lesson for week 2?
I’ll still keep practicing it all. I just don’t want to bore you with duplicate-like videos if our sessions are going well. 🙂 Maybe increasing the distance will create more bloopers and we will need additional help though. 🙂 I’ll try that out and see.
<<<<<<One thought here – You can spread things out so there is more distance and more running. As the distances get bigger and even more commitment is required, you can throw her reward to the landing side of the wrap jump as you shift your connection and move away from the send. That will help develop even more speed and commitment.>>>>>
On this, I want to make sure I understand right. I throw her reward to the landing side of the jump but then what do I do? Do I keep running to the next jump or cone? I guess I’m just a little unclear on what you mean by “so you shift your connection and move away from the send”.
<<<<<<When the weather warms up, remind me to send you a like to the game where you improve keeping your arm back to the dog by running with a drink in your hand. It is effective and entertaining, but you might end up spilling water and it is way too cold for that right now LOL!>>>>>
Ooooooo yes, I’d love this! It’s definitely a bit too chilly in Northern Idaho for this right now though! I’ll be reminding you as the temps warm up…if they ever do! Reminds me of when I was a kid and learning to ride a horse. Someone lunges you on the horse with two cups in your hands, arms out like a bird, and cups full of water. The goal is to not spill any water. It’s a balance game. Ha ha Anyway, sounds fun! I look forward to learning it later this year!
Thank you! I’m just over the moon happy that Kashia is back to being excited. It was a fun lesson to practice yesterday!
Thank you for the feedback! I think Kashia and I are starting to connect a little bit better on the sends so I moved on to the next drill. Obviously, I’ll continue to practice all these drills as we haven’t perfected any of them. 🙂
Thank you for the link to commitment games! I’m definitely going to try the jump one. I have areas I can do it where the treat won’t fall in sand. I’m sure that’ll help her a lot since she likes treats, most days.
I think Kashia did really good on the shifting connection drill. Or at the very least, she had fantastic focus, engagement, and enthusiasm! I was thrilled! It’s so much more fun for me when my dog seems to be having fun too!
After watching my videos, I think I’m still closing my shoulders off to her too soon. I tried to think about it during the drill but once I watched it later, I think it still needs improvement. I turned my back to her a lot. Having that said, she read it all great. We really didn’t have any bloopers. I think one rep she sniffed and nose booped the cone when I asked her to go around it but that was it. I think I tried every sequence you showed but the very last one.
I’m very curious what you think. It felt really good and Kashia seemed to respond really well. I just need to get better at keeping my shoulders open to her. For some reason it’s hard for me to keep the arm closest to the dog back! I just need to remember the magnet to the nose mantra.
We had to use a cone because I don’t have an extra wing. I ordered one yesterday though so I will have an extra if it’s needed in the next lessons.
Thanks for your time and help!
Thanks for the feedback!
After watching several of my practice videos over again and really thinking about it while I’m practicing, it is very hard for me to not turn my back to the dog, apparently! I’m trying really hard to think about the magnet between my arm and the dog’s nose. That’s what I found myself telling myself over and over again this last training session. I recognized myself turning away from the dog too soon each time Kashia or my other dog would turn into me instead of going over the jump. It is definitely something I’m working on now!
I also notice that I point with my hand and arm to each obstacle I want the dog to take. I was trained that way with my first dog so it is habit now. However, I notice you and some others don’t do that. Or at least not to the same degree I do. I tried to think about it with Kashia as I was doing some reps. I tried to keep it low and not use it as much. But if I didn’t point to the jump, she wouldn’t take it. What am I cueing or not cueing to cause this? For you, it seemed like you were able to just run by the jump and the dog would automatically take it and you only put your arm out for the send. I didn’t have that same type of success. I try to tell myself to keep my arm down and only use it when I need it, which works better with my other dog than it does Kashia.
Anyway, here is another try at the sends. I think the last two reps I did a little incorrectly. I couldn’t remember exactly how I was supposed to be positioned and usually I’d just pull my phone out to watch your video again super quick. But it was about 0 degrees out so I was not about to do that. It was bad enough having my gloves off! LOL
My lotus ball toy arrived. I did two different sessions of throwing it 2-3 times for Kashia before and after going outside to train. It had chicken in it. She was super excited and went after it. After a couple throws in training, she wasn’t super thrilled. I chalk part of that up to the cold and part of that up to her still learning it. I’m going to keep trying in the house and outside and during training to see if I can’t build her drive for it more.
This video includes more than 4 reps. I was trying to show as much of the sends lesson as I could in the short time we practiced. It isn’t perfect but it’s progress, I think. She’s still slow and lacking animation but I’m not really concerned about that at the moment. I know it was largely due to the cold. I also recognize I was moving at snail speed. I was just trying to match Kashia. I don’t trust her so I’m afraid if I run faster, she’ll just follow me and completely bypass the obstacles. I think she still needs me to be close in order for her to take them. Or it’s all my incorrect body positioning? Either way, I know I need to move out and run. I do that with my other dog!
On two of the reps where we started incorporating obstacle 3, Kashia jumped on the wrong side of it twice. I was pretty certain I did something to cue that so I just rewarded it like normal. I’m just not exactly sure what I did except maybe pulling away before she was committed so she took it from the inside instead of the outside.
Thanks for all the help!
I only tried your first picture sequence of the sends game. I figured we’d have some issues and we did. I have a lot of frustrations with this training session but I’m going to wait to hear your feedback before I express much.
I will say I think I know several things I could/should have done to fix my failures. I was so overwhelmed by the notion of rewarding failures that I just stopped at our 1 minute mark and didn’t bother to get a success before ending. It was really frustrating for me. I did a lot of things wrong. I got so one track minded on the drill that I didn’t think about what I needed to do to make Kashia successful. I messed up. She was trying. I didn’t know that at the time. I was just getting upset I couldn’t get any results. Hopefully, I didn’t kill the little bit of drive she gained from the new reward.
I should have moved the wing closer and/or I should have put a target bowl out. Neither of which I thought of during my 1 minute training session. Both of which I thought of hours later as I stewed on what went wrong and how I could fix it for next time. I practiced for 1 min or less on both sides and that was it. I used grilled chicken as her reward.
I’m such a perfectionist that if it doesn’t go the way I hope or want, I just shut down and don’t think about alternatives to still create a good experience. I need to get better at that.
Oh perfect! I’m glad you take weight into consideration as well. I am very obsessive about my dogs’ weight and exercise. I take their body image very personally as I’m the one in control of it and I’m the one to blame if they are fat! It is always on my mind. On any given day, I cannot relax if my dogs haven’t been given a workout. It just drives me crazy to think they haven’t burned calories or met their “step goals”!
Anyway, I’ll try your treat ideas tonight! I would think the grilled chicken would be a hit.
I don’t disagree. I don’t think many dogs would work strictly for praise either. Some of my coworkers are K-9 handlers. So I’ve gotten a close view of what works and what doesn’t when it comes to training police dogs. No way they would work for just praise. 🙂
I think one of the top goals in life for my oldest dog is to please me. All she wants to do is please me. She also is the biggest oinker on the planet and will work for anything if it’s edible. She would have made a great agility dog. Unfortunately, Kashia and my other agility dog do not have that personality. They love mama but they are not focused on pleasing me. They are extremely independent. Maybe you can’t tell in the videos of Kashia but when she’s doing anything else, she’s happy to do it alone. She also isn’t always a piglet for food. She sometimes has very little interest in food depending on the day and what she is doing (training aside). However, I have hope your chicken or salmon or cheese tricks will work!
<<Keep in mind: you might not be able to phase out treats as the number 1 reward. After all, I am sure most employers would love to phase out paychecks as the number 1 reward for humans but most humans would not tolerate that 😁🤣.>>
This made me laugh out loud!!!!!!! Ha ha so true!!! I get it. I may always have to reward my girls with treats. I just want to get to a phase where the rewards are further apart from one another. Rewarding bigger moments rather than the super small ones. I know Kashia is still learning though so I’m accepting of it.
I will google those suggestions. Thank you for sharing! I love to learn so I’m very interested in reading up on those two ideas.
I’m game to try anything out! I know Kashia can’t be the only dog like this so I’m sure your experience can help us turn things around!
Just to clarify, we don’t use the e-collar in training anymore. This was a basic obedience thing we did through Off Leash K9 Training when she was 6-12 months. She only wears the collar for off leash walks and hikes now.
An Egg McMuffin!? Who would have thought!? I’ll try the cheeses or Egg McMuffin or chicken. I don’t want to ruin the turkey frank connection to trials. It makes my other dog go crazy and her drive is amazing which is quite a turn around from her first couple of trials. The turkey franks are what make trials worth it for her. But I’m definitely open to all the other suggestions.
Side note, do you worry about your dog getting fat or overfed on not healthy things? I know I probably sound crazy when I ask that. I’m not a hippy or all-natural everything type of person. I just worry about high-caloric treats or lots of preservatives. My dogs are naturally quite active but that doesn’t mean they aren’t subject to getting chunky too. I was taught my praise should be the number 1 reward, treats or toys second. That doesn’t work for agility so I’ve had to adapt. Even though none of my dogs have much of a toy drive nor have I tried to create one, I’m really not a big training treat person because of these reasons. I get so worried about them getting fat and only working for food. Hopefully, I can get Kashia locked into the lotus ball so I can phase out treats as the number 1 reward.
I’m going to try the first game of this week tonight and see how it goes. It’ll be hard to keep my training sessions to 1 minute each but I will do my best! I definitely want to create drive and motivation so whatever it takes to get that. I’ve always just assumed my two agility girls are just slower than many other agility dogs. I didn’t think or know it was because of a stress response in the training environment. They are so chill in all environments that I thought it was just their nature to be slower. But they really aren’t slow dogs. They run the pastures like speed demons. They just don’t run the courses with those speeds. It’ll be fun to see them pick up speed and motivation in agility too!
