Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Hi Tracy,
Guilty as charged! Thank you for pointing it out. I know I did it at least twice on the course. Once was when you pointed out and another was when she had to do a right turn on a jump to get to the short tunnel (I raised my voice Rye-Rye and the tone changed too). Maybe I should just run with no verbals for a bit?
Yesterday, we did FEO runs at an AKC trial. She continued to visit. Not sure if it was an impulse control thing or stress thing or a combo of both. The regular AKC courses weren’t particularly hard.
Here is her best run from yesterday. It was not an FEO run. She visited once before 2nd obstacle. I didn’t want to use my voice to call her so I went to get her and had her take jump #2 and continued on. She was fine after.
Do you suggest that I just do 2-4 obstacles at a trial then leave to PARTY?
Tracy,
That’s fabulous! I’ll sign up for the online coaching so that Luna and I can continue with you.Today, we attended a 3.5 hr Threadle workshop. This was our last turn (3rd turn). We ran obstacles #8-#22.
I didn’t realize the person before me was not going to go, so I didn’t have much time to prep Luna apart from getting her warmed up in 2-3 mins only! After I removed her leash, I asked for an Up Up where she stood on her hind legs and then we started. She was focused throughout and I was so glad to see her so happy running agility! I wish I could bottle this up so it shows up everywhere!
There was a ball & treats in my pocket but ran empty hands!
Tracy,
I am learning so much in this course and I am sad that it will be ending in mid September. Work gets in the way of course..but without work, there might not be any agility!
So, I wanted to know if you actually do private online coaching for the stuff I am going through with Luna (I swear when she is not stressed and she is happy, she has awesome skills, minus her dogwalk/A-frame!!). I want to continue to work on building her good vibes when she is in class, in workshops, and in the ring.
Thanks!
Loretta
Hi Tracy,
The school started back up and I have been exhausted with work! Slacked off on the training from games package 3 quite a bit. But the last week or so, we have been actively working on the Leash Off Engagement On game so that she still engages with me when her leash comes off. I am also using the exact same leash as I use on her for trials.
Okay, last Thursday and then last Saturday, we did one AKC trial and an UKI one. In both, I did FEO and NFC runs prior (at least 1-2 runs before these ones shown).
I know in Games Package 2, you discussed using the snuffle mat as decompression. I have been using that with her before entering the ring (last week — our first trial back after about 4 weeks)…first we did all our warm up exercises, then we did bit of snuffle mat…and when we were about 2-3 dogs before entering, we went back to doing volume dial games. Is this okay? Seems to work for us.
Sharing 2 videos with you.
Although she E’d the AKC Premier one, I was super happy with her focus, drive, and overall state! https://youtu.be/09CEvZmWQRE?is=9kgad8ZmDGhUADZO
In the UKI Masters Agility one, she was a bit stressy there at the start as you can see…the scratches! But she loves the dogwalk, so I knew that once I released her, she’d probably do the first few obstacles at least. She actually had her first Masters Agility Q. The Q wasn’t what I was proud about…the fact that she came back to me and ran agility with me was something I celebrated with her right after this run.
We have lots of NFCs in our future still. This weekend, there is a small trial happening (everyone is either off in AKC land, enroute to Canadian Open, or at the Shamrock Cup in Barto PA)….so we will playing UKI on Cait Puskas courses here in Maryland. Doing Day of Show because I wasn’t entirely sure before last night if we were going to go.
Thank you!
Loretta
Hi Tracy,
Really good Zoom training session last night. I had to leave early because I had to go pick up my husband at the train station.
And when you were asking about Quantity va Quality…… I somehow misunderstood it. I thought quantity was rate of reinforcement. After 8 hrs of sleep, I realize you meant the amount of treats in that one reward! 😂
So, plan of action with Luna is to just do short sequences and reward. We do remote reinforcements in our backyard as well as in class. More successful in our backyard than in class when it comes to remote reinforcement runs.
I usually have 4-5 types of treats with me in class.
We start off with just regular mozzarella string cheese cut up into pieces.
Next tier is one of the Saint Roccos’s.
Next higher tier is the beef from Real Meat (it is soft and chewy).
Next tier is the smelly salmon brownies.
And then we have boiled/roasted chicken or bacon. She loves these. Well, she loves all of the above too!
Tier 6 is only at competitions, my dogs get meatballs after a run. They love the meatballs but I save meatballs for trials. So I didn’t have meatballs that night.
For this class, I went from Tier 1 to Tier 5 in the lesson. By round 2, it was Tier 5 treats obviously because she was dealing with the thunderstorm…it wasn’t raining at Get Revd, just thunder and lightning.
In response to your feedback above, yes, Luna took treats even when she was stressed about the thunderstorm. She’s such a greedy foodie that she won’t say no to food ever! But it doesn’t translate to being comfy enough for work though.
Thanks for the feedback!
Hi Tracy,
I didn’t set up the course for tunnel discrimination. But I wanted to share with you Luna’s success in an Either/Or discrimination….tunnel vs jump in our recent class session.
A bit of context, she is afraid of thunderstorms. We drove through one on the way to class (it was an hour 20 mins drive). While it was not storming yet where we were for class, she could feel the storm approaching and could hear thunder.
Her first round of the either/or sequences was filled with lots of visiting and looking super stressy, and 2 super slow runs. I seriously did not know what to do to help her. Tried 1-2-3 as we went to startline, it didn’t help. Tried the acolyte dial tricks at startline, that didn’t help. Sadly, I didn’t have that on recording. I recorded the next round thinking she might have similar issues then…
The second round (the one I am sharing here), while I do think she was still a bit stressy, we (my classmates and I) decided to do full on cheer leading while she was running. She managed to stay focus and got the tunnel vs jump discrimination for obstacle 3 and then later for obstacle 8, tunnel vs backside slice on jump.
Thanks for reminding me about Spike! So, I am always so conscious when Luna does not return to me when called…probably why I went to get her by the collar. And I knew that is a no-no! I need to do better.
I once ran an “invisible” dog at a trial before I learned about Spike…Luna stared at me from afar and did join me eventually but then the buzzer sounded and we had to leave.
For comparison sake, here is video of the starts for Rounds 1 and 2 at the workshop.
Even when we stopped and restarted, she stayed with me the entire time on the 3 rounds. The only time she visited Chris was at the start of that Round 3.
Hi Tracy,
I did this Find My Face game again yesterday while we were at a workshop in a newish place for her (this was only her 2nd time there). I didn’t get to incorporate a jump or sequence here. Also, it has been raining today so can’t do any of these in the backyard yet.
I did try to throw the treat a little further. She’s pretty quick and seems to enjoy this game. I incorporated it before we stepped into the ring to work with Chris Tucci at yesterday’s workshop. Usually, she visits the instructor and anyone else within reach and wastes minutes! Yesterday, out of our 15 minutes of total working time, she only visited for 14 seconds!
Thanks for feedback on the Find My Face game! I made an impromptu decision to play the game while I was waiting for Luna’s turn ….hence, the location! (For her first time)
I’ll add a jump and also move further when she searches for cookie. And perhaps do that in my backyard first.
Thanks for the clear, detailed, and actionable feedback! Really appreciate it and you so much!
