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Okay – so with both the mat work and the jump work: I want to see a little less hand holding from you. If a tiny tug or ball held behind your back is helpful you can use that instead of food to get some pizazz from her. But just make sure SHE is the one that is making the decision to take a jump, or she is the one that is deciding to put her rear feet on the target mat. She is doing it now with luring – but I want her to start to offer it on her own. You can help her by moving closer to it, turning your body (like you were doing in the jump video). Eventually I want you to be like an agility star where you can point to the jump and she flies ahead to take it.
Also – I bought my dog an air fryer because one time he ate someone else’s chicken and thought it was great. So I get going to the store and buying anything to motivate them. My dogs favorites are the frozen meatball bags (heated up) and the store $5 rotisserie chicken – so you can try those too. I will say I often make the food part of the game too – often putting them in a food bowl and swirling them around in front of the dogs nose to really tease them.
How fun to get to stretch out for chase recalls! I agree with you she was on the right lead for this one. And I am assuming she is right preference for things at home too – it’s always funny to see how often they prefer a direction when you start to focus on it.
I appreciate your energy and effort! It’s going to pay off!
Let’s keep her elevated instead of going back to the flat floor (and you can just stay on that until you graduate to the slant board and make it steeper on a box). I like to use a square Cato for a dog her size (or a similar piece of equipment, about 4-5″ tall). Then I might have you add in a prop in front of the Cato board as well (Snorkel got the same recommendation so she can likely help you set it up at your next practice). This will help her head look a little more forward. She’s doing a great job at swinging her rear around – I just want a little push up.
If you gave her the treat, and then played with her does that pump her up? Like even just playing rough with your hands without a tug. If I shove and tickle and even just act like I’m going to scary monster wiggle finger grab my dogs they start barking and get jazzed up. I was wondering if we incorporated some play…. do the activity, get a treat to know you did it right and then hurry back so we can play some more. And if you did incorporate the tug in that play break, that might be her favorite.
The tall cones and cavaletti is going to be just fine until you get to the part of challenging her more with a side angle. I just want to prevent her from being able to slice through it like agility dogs do.
So I have a question for you – does she get out of her mind excited to eat breakfast or dinner? Is she a little on the heavy side or thin – I know puppies vary by the week on looking fat or skeleton.
I am wondering if we changed to a meal would that help with the food drive. Or cutting her meals back to make her hungrier for training snacks. She could also just really not be into treats – which I do know a few BCs that are like that.
Let me know and then I will make some recommendations.
Backing up was perfection! Even steps and she really stayed straight too.
I am loving that both of you are bringing your best to the table and she is enjoying home-school more!!
To help with her bringing the tug back to you – work on following her up as she goes towards the tug. Or you can start her closer to that blue 5 gallon bucket. So you can take 4-5 steps away once she has the tug in her mouth. That gives you a little more room to work backwards and encourage her to move towards you – and you don’t have to take that step towards you.
And if you play this in the house (when you don’t have camera constraints) I will legit play a version of easy hide and seek with my dogs. I toss the toy, let them see me as they look up with it, and then I take off into another room. Sometimes that might make them spit but often if they come find me and have nothing in their mouth I race them back to the tug and steal it. And then I would make it easier too (maybe don’t go out of sight until they are closer) and once they do get close I will PARTY. You are jumping and giving 140% of your energy to try to entice her back to you – but I want to flip it to be opposite.
You can call and clap to get her interested in engaging – but then when that tug hits your hand – that is the moment the FUN and explosion of praise and tugging happens. Cause – tug touches your hand, Effect – best tug party ever.
Try out different rooms too – sometimes if I throw into a tiny closet they will take the tug and try to run it out back into the bigger room and I can catch the handle on their way so it inadvertently becomes a game of tug – I tend to use this more for dogs that prefer a party of one. She isn’t bad about that – but wanted to see if getting her in motion that way might help.
I wonder if you add a step away from her when you call her to the new tug and wiggle it? She holds it really well and doesn’t tend to ‘spit’ or drop it early – so you can add in some more challenging elements to help her switch a little more quickly when you are verbally (and physically by shaking the tug) cueing it.
Just make sure she doesn’t start dropping the tug based on your body motion – because that will turn into her being a spitter and we could fix that later… or we can prevent it now LOL.
This was her FIRST session!?! That is the most distance I have seen that quickly – she is great at shaping and offering it and your clicking for the commitment was spot on. No feedback on anything to change. Just keep working on changing your location (in front and behind her) so sometimes she is beside you, driving ahead of you (picture going to the box), or taking a jump while she is behind you (like the picture she would see in Flyball coming off the box).
YES!!! This way perfection. You can see she is looking at you and then she looks to the board and down to make sure she is calculating her landing.
You can add a little bit taller prop too – or prop this triangle tube up on some books/wood. This will encourage a little bit stronger push up and over, and get her working a little harder to get over/back. Especially being a little height dog – I will want her to really reach and push hard off that box (not drive down asap like we would a Ravi/Combo/Inky size). This will set her up better for striding between the box and the first jump back.
And it might be a good idea now to introduce a idea of a retrieve with this turn on the flat slant board. So you can use a tiny tug and just place it on the Velcro area (instead of using a ball). Less criteria about snappy feet, but do still care about it looking like a turn (no coming in straight or cheating with two footed grab). More focus on head position and understanding that you will need to reach your head in and grab something while also turning your body and also carry that thing back off the board. It’s a LOT of mechanics which is why I prefer to teach it to them earlier in this easier phase – especially given she doesn’t love carrying a ball yet.
I watched this 4 times to try to make a best guess on which one was better, but I just can’t make a call. A smidge quicker/tighter rotation the first way, but more coordinated steps the other way. So just going to have to decide when you put it on the Cato turn board (which way decelerates better going in and keeps a higher rear).
And I wouldn’t worry about the footwork too much here. We will get more critical on the rear foot placement on the Cato board mat work.
Good observation – and I’m going to say you have two choices you and Snorkel can make together for this one.
Depending on Snorkels comfort level, she could find chilling between your legs waiting while other dogs are getting ready a safe place. Then you would reach down last second to hold her when everyone is ready. I also love it for a “hey get really close in here so I can pick you up” so if she enjoys it you can use it that way too.
But what I’m thinking might be more realistic is you would hold her in one arm. Often that is READY, set is feet on the ground, and then go. It might be a safer spot, she can see everything, and it doesn’t hurt your back from a whole weekend. My sciatic nerve won’t let me hold a dog to the side but she’s small enough I might could do it in front like a baby.
If you played this same game at practice, maybe you moving back 10-15′ from her as she is asked to carry a tug back – what does she do?
She is very in tune to your motion – the ones where you were moving away she was almost frantic to catch you (and like the one where she dropped it and went back and then when she looked up and you were still and she was like… whew). For indoor fetch sometimes I sit on the other side of a doorway and toss down one hallway/room and then they have to come find me in the other room with the toy (so I am out of sight). That might be another version of this game she would enjoy.
I loved that you threw the tug a few times because I was going to ask if she would be more interested in grabbing if she had total possession (and she said YES). When she recalls to you like this, right before she gets to you – toss the toy ahead of you. Then clap her back, play like 2-3 shakes/tugs, then let her win and you back up slightly again. She really seems to like presenting you with the spoils of her victory. And then my goal would be that she gets used to running and grabbing the tug off the ground that you then do 50/50 throw the tug ahead and some where she grabs it and wins it from your hand. You still don’t tug with her until she gives it to you. I’m curious to see if that helps to continue building the toy play in public.
She LOVES that chuck it!! So does she do any border collie excited spinning in the house naturally? Mine will sometimes do it waiting for me to open a door, or for their food dish. It seems that she offers left and goes left more naturally – but majority of what you sent was right (which I wasn’t sure was because you were working on keeping her balanced).
