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OMG OMG OMG YES!!!! You have got it!!!
These were perfection. And I was going to say you can do more lefties and then that last right one was also just stunning. I am thrilled with this – and your criteria to have her look ahead and then send – LOVE IT!!
I would do 2 more sessions like these and then maybe try to add 2″-4″ of height to the prop in front. And then honestly she will be ready for the slant board to start adding some steepness and keep building up higher until it is the slant of the box itself.
BRAVO!!!!
Well done on the setup and video skills! Now let’s make some tweaks to make it snappier.
Watch it back in slow-mo and see how on the hit its without a ball her head is high and already turned to look for the thrown cookie. Yay for speed but not the head position we will need down the road. On the ones with the ball she just comes in with a lot of gusto – which is common because it’s still new and she loves it. So it’s not so much that she is “going wide” but she is also trying to control a lot of speed.
I also wanted to note your send and reward path – when you toss the cookie it’s straight back. When you are asking for a hand touch it looks more like the letter V and that is also encouraging her to go wider versus back the back she came. You counter motion coming up will help with that (or you can still use a cookie toss when she gets the ball – you will not ruin her ball to hand for a few sessions).
Place her right in front of you – so it’s going to be really close to the jump prop. I might even have you lay that prop on it’s side in the beginning so she can think a little bit more about decel. Start with just a hop onto the Cato for the ball and you either take a step towards the center of the “racing lane” or throw a cookie where you would have been running towards like you have been doing. Then when that’s looking snappier move back to her front feet 5′ from the Cato. 9-10′ is probably too far to manage speed on a slicker Cato – maybe just your carpet would have better grip. Usually when we get to that distance we start slanting on a board and then it’s GO GO GO!
Don’t feel like you can’t share a video of the struggle bus activities – I am wondering for the ball on the Cato – if you need to either pull the prop out from the cato a little bit – or add some height to your prop because the Cato makes the ball visible when it adds 4″ of height itself.
That was a really fun session. And to keep her interested and not predicting the pattern – you can sometimes zig, and sometimes zag. That very first rep when she did the loop around you – I would have immediately gone left when she went to the right. See ya – come find me. She got a reassuring picture that you will stay with her and be there when she is ready – which isn’t a bad thing for confidence – but I think she is ready for a little more of a challenge and I want to keep building that drive/punch of the ball to your hand. And the louder/sillier you are after you give that strike command is going to make her want to pile drive it into your hand more and more. Luckily I don’t have to wear gloves anymore but for a while I was getting front teeth shoved so hard into my hand it would puncture.
I think she has the need for speed!
What I saw was when you were slow, centered up, looked back and called – she took the jumps. She was thoughtful and didn’t feel a panicked urgency. But when you were running in motion…. she did NOT have the time to be bothered cause she needed to HUSTLE.
I would want to proof her taking the jumps (with or without seeing the pass) with you in motion. You can do that by making the jumps into double widest (take apart 4 jumps and combine them in the middle parts to make 2 mega jumps). Or you could use gates to funnel her in and then fade them out quickly.
I loved how you setup this exercise! If you did the exact same with the double wide jumps I bet you could run for all of the reps.
I think your link is directing to the wrong place – it keeps trying to pop me over into Stealth Self-Control Game 3: Novel-Exciting!
So you can see what I see – when she turned left she had a LOT of speed and kept going straight before turning back. The right turn you did first was tight with nice deceleration. My sample size is low – but as you are sharing reps I am observing which will make for a better box turn.
The Cato I would do flat on the other side of the prop. The ball on either edge of the Cato directly in the middle to encourage the swimmer turn on the board. You can add you “racing her off” the Cato in the center (so you run as soon as her rear starts to lift in the air. I would also be fine if for the learning part you had wings/gates on the edge of the prop so she doesn’t practice skirting it. I feel like your counter motion will cause her to whip back. But again, seeing where one direction is tight with a nice rear push whereas the other side might always go wide around the prop – that is still feedback I tuck away for turn preference.
Special note – if you use a Cato instead of a slant board [either would need to have Velcro and your squishy Ball needs Velcro] I recommend to wrap the feet of the Cato board. It marks up walls when you add the slightest bit of tilt to it. And always test it with a foot first to make sure it has zero chance of slipping and burning up confidence.
I am curious if you agree – her personality seems like the type that gets better with an exercise as she repeats the reps and the criteria or reminder is fresh.
So then I would take that nugget and be like, oh if she had a rough start to a real Flyball training session – I would try to give her the opportunity to make it better (maybe make it a tad easier – but she really likes to think and work through it). She doesn’t ever seem to blow you off when she is unclear or frustrated for any of the exercises we have done.
Like how her loops on the simple retrieves went from playful laps and got smaller and smaller. Don’t let anyone convince you to make a problem out of something that isn’t. She was retrieving directly to your hand with speed once she realized that was the new game.
That recall off the chuck it ball was excellent! I knew she wanted it too because she tried to convince you to throw it at the very beginning.
Keep up the great work – I can’t wait to see as she starts putting more pieces together.
* You could do some dead ball retrieves on the Cato if you wanted (with the prop there). I just place the ball in the center of the Cato off to the side – this lets her focus ahead, turn her body in preparation, and then reach her her DOWN and grab before pushing back on the turn.Turn prep on the Cato board – toss your marker cookie to the far side away from you (not near your side). So the last set the cookie is opposite the stairs. This has her eat, then turn and have a better setup to turn on the board. When the cookie is too close to your side she comes in straight to the Cato and has a harder time executing the turn efficiently. All the mechanics and what you setup were perfect. You can start to add a step from you left or right so you aren’t in the center.
Ball to hand – great session. I especially liked the 3 reps you did where you stood a little stiller and gave her a solid hand visual to target. I think running too much looks like play, chase. And that makes sense why she would blow past and outrun you. The signal to slow down and target is clear from the beginning when you are slow and I think that is helping her drive straight to you an nail it on the first try. I like how you were a little quieter on those too – and the explosion of excitement and vocals came after the ball bumped the hand. She picked that game up quick. And you did not look awkward at all – you look how I look LOL.
I sent you the video via Facebook messenger earlier today (so you had not missed it). Thank you for your patience!
If you want to show the tug the whole time, and have her out to switch when cued – but also want to do ball to hand (which honestly I love more cause that is black and white versus a “that was far enough” or my trap of “that was such an amazing box turn I cued the out early in excitement with my body and it’s my fault entirely so I still need to reward cause I loved it”. You could start adding in the ball target to hand while your hand holds the tug. So it is BALL BUMP to the tug in your hand – and can’t out until you say to switch to the tug that is already in your hand. This is actually the way Colleen Morita teaches her ball carrying. The tug is balled up and the dog bumps the ball to the first to have the hand open up and access the tug. It is really close to the video I sent except I use two hands. I have done all 3 methods with different dogs (the tug is visible until I say out, the ball to hand until you touch then switch to tug (my favorite and I think the easiest for dogs), and the bump ball to tug (probably the hardest I thought). Play around and see what you like and which one might work best for you both! There is no right or wrong answer – like I said I have done them all!
HERE – excellent – I love that you had to crop out a ton cause she knew to pay attention – and did well with so many distractions. If you are able to add in some jogging away before you call her I would start that now – so there is an extra bit of snap/urgency.
JUMP – well done – you were marking a little more back feet instead of front feet but like you said – she was getting it just fine. You can start moving away from the jump and now sliding side to side to be offset a little more!
For the hit its/retrieves I do want to work both sides. Just so one side is not over tight (from turning in) and one side is stretched out (the outer side). And once we start to add height on the board then it will cause an imbalance in muscling if we aren’t careful about counter conditioning.
Woohoo that is amazing! She looks so confident. The more we move and the less treats she says YES PLEASE!
Once change I would make is to move that PVC prop closer to the board. If she were to try to do a 2 legged turn instead of a proper turn – add something low like a gutter or FedEx prop out in front. Because the PVC prop is pulled so far out – she lands just a smidge low. And honestly if you left that distance for the PVC prop but backed her up to front feet 9′ from the board – that speed and momentum into the box would naturally allow her to hit and land higher on the board.
And she 100% knows to bring that ball back over the jumps!!!
Ball play – I thought this looked much more serious than the last session. I am going to make a video and send to you of my ball to hand target games that I do for my dogs. They are a smidge taller than Kat at 19.5″ and I am 5’2″ so might be shorter so I will try to bend a little to mimic your height difference. I focus less of the transfer of the ball into my possession and solely on using the ball as a key to push into my hand that unlocks what they want (food or tug). A big part of my game is a pivot/twist – which is hard to describe hence making you the special video.
Tug Retrieve – Having watched other sessions I think it is safe to say that she loves that tug and because there is only 1 object in play – she is making the most of her time with it. I do not think she is being naughty or bad – I really think she is wiggling and having a great time – and she is very successful at getting you to engage. So I do two things when the gallivants pop up.
1 – I will be a little quieter when she wins and has it. The goal is to bring to be so we can have an amazing time. I will often let them “win” the tug back to have a solo moment on cue. But I am a little quieter just giving my clapping hands, moving away, telling bring etc. But when that tug is in my hands I explode into a world of excitement that I hope my dogs are addicted to.
2- This one is fun for me and doesn’t feel like work at all. I teach “hide and seek” as a game with just me and cookies (my spouse holds them behind a door and has them search and I call their name softly until they find me. Eventually I am silent and it’s all on smell. They are WILD for this game. So when they get the takeoffs I run away and try to play “hide” – but usually I can’t get very far because they are ON ME. You might be able to turn a corner once or twice but then she isn’t going to leave your side LOL.Hit it’s – general note – you setup every retrieve and every turn to be to the right. Just a reminder to keep her balanced – I know it was for the sake of the video and the room you had. I would add in the prop for the next session – about 8-9″ tall and 2-4″ from the side of the Cato. You stand centered like normal and then step to the side just like you did in this one.
100% time to move to the next steps of the mat work and have it start to shape the turn (don’t forget to keep it elevated on the Cato). You can also add a little prop in front of it every now and then so she gets used to seeing it – but not all the time because I want her to have the agency to make the decision to get those back feet up there.
I can imagine the shenanigans with more ball chomping and silliness. I wonder if it was mostly because she was overjoyed to be back to work and moving around. And you were being stationary so she was like LETS MOVE. It almost looked like a slight combo of ‘maybe if I stay just out of reach I can get you to come and get me” and a slight bit of huffy frustration like FINE OKAY I’LL DO IT. I do tend to be more vocal in my training so I do cue “bring” out loud because I want it as a basis for when things are loud/crazy and it might fall apart that the default saying helps the behavior come through when I need it (hopefully that makes sense). But I also completely get what you are doing here hoping she connects the dots that the sooner she brings ball to hand… the sooner she unlocks the next best thing. I would start to integrate some of your motion away from her on the bring it ask. Sometimes that frantic “leaving” causes spitting so I like to proof that ball to hand with walking, jogging, then running away.
Are you sometimes tossing the treat to the (if you are looking at the runback) the right side of the lane? So it would over-rotate her off. A few times the treat is going to your left (looking at the runback) and she is leaning left to get it.
Sometimes when you are throwing straight back from your position (but you are off to the side on her ball side) so it would still pull her left off the box. Try tossing it further right and see if that helps with the over-rotation. So in that second angle where it was better – like you would aim for the direction of that Klimb leg. Try that and let me know!
I won’t lie – with her size I am THRILLED to see her launching her tiny self that far off the box. That is going to help her setup for her striding back over the first jump.
Let’s change that PVC prop to a 7-8″ high. Lower will help us get a more parallel on/off versus a dolphin up and over. I think she is ready to have the board be steeper too – with gravity fighting her there will be more urgency to push off faster. If she won’t blow of the ball every single time – you can say your YES sooner too for that extra nap – cause when you say YES she is GONE. I’m okay if she misses the ball a time or two while she is speeding up. And as a heads up I am likely going to put her on a semi/low pressure ball in preparation for seeing her in Oct. They are easier to grab so make for a faster and more confident turn than a regular ball in my opinion.
I loved this session so much (and I had seen your clip on Facebook earlier too and got so excited with that one as well).
I would likely recommend making that prop longer or adding “wings” to the edges/sides so the idea of landing wide on the edge to avoid the prop isn’t an option. You could also move the PVC a smidge closer but add a tiny bumper gutter 6-8″ from your board so that is what she has to jump over and the PVC is what gives her height – this would likely make her less likely to go wide if it was closer. Honestly I think what you have is working so either making it a little longer, or adding something to that right side as a visual of “don’t step here” would be sufficient to keep her tight. I am thinking that will clean up what you see as not pushing off or going wide – but let me know ASAP if it doesn’t.
As you back her up with more speed that will clean up too – her momentum will help carry her forward/up to the ball whereas right now she is having to pull herself forward and then pull/push herself up to the ball.
I had to go watch it again because it was so good – several turns that I loved!! When you were holding her to send her tail was so happy and ready!
