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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!
oh that right turn is sexy!!! Look at how the back feet are positioned to be pointing down ready to push her off the box and drive ahead. She has to do more body turning when she is to the left and it’s a little more awkward. I love the higher prop and how hard she is pushing to get up.
Is there anything that would be impacting her offering that left with the environment? Are you standing a certain place? I would be fine if you stood off to the right (if you are facing the board) and pointed with your right hand to help indicate a right turn.
Focusing on you and staying put – let’s ask some training questions to break down where is the gap. I love making a giant list of questions to see what if…. so what if:
-She was on leash by the lanes and one dog runs down and does the pattern. What does she do? What if you were tugging hard core with her (someone else holding the leash for safety)?
-Someone held her by the box and she did a recall to you after two dogs did a 1 v 1? Does she drive straight to you or visit the other dogs?
-When she does want to leave you – is it the motion of the dog or their toy?
-What does she do? Run along side them? Nip and herd like a BC? Run outbound and watch while playing keep away from you?
-Does she do any chasing behavior with passing drills to you? Passing drills away from you?As far as in that moment I would have made adjustments where you ran by the dogs lined up… played. Leashed up, maybe went behind a visual barrier and gave a thumbs up – then that would be the cues to send the lineup. It was a little too much noise to motion for her at this moment. I have had several dogs that cues off a READY SET…. and it will trigger them to look around for a dog that is getting ready to run. Lots of work desensitize to vocals and most success with making the environment so loud that it tunes out the other people.
I know you are going to have a little gap before your next video so these notes will be here when you are ready.
Backing up – still looking good and I would like to add in some motion from you as well (if you are okay stepping towards her as she backs up). I often find since backing up is a great warm up exercise I want my dogs to be able to do this on leash after we have pottied but before we are getting wrapped – so it’s part of our dynamic routine. Sidestepping is another one I do with my motion so we can walk and warm up together (or warmup as we are hustling into the building).
Retrieve – I would admit having one hand of treats behind the back makes it much harder so I was still happy with her progress here. I do tend to make the criteria black and white with a ball to hand target. I don’t find it makes them slower because they HUSTLE to target because that unlocks the treats. Traditionally my steps are to tease with the ball and add my motion (or be silly if I am on the ground) and clap my hands or tap the ground. When ball touches hand it is an immediate YES and that is when the cookies come out. Right now you are marking the YES for a ball pickup off the ground, so it would just delay on your part so she is taking steps with the ball. And if for some crazy reason she was still struggling with the ball, swap to a tug and get the tug to hand… make that fluent and then ask for that behavior with the ball.
And since we are chatting balls and she is a teeny thing – I would put her on either a squishy or a semi/low pressure tennis ball just to make it easier when we go down the road of asking her to grab as fast as she can while defying gravity on a turn board/box. I usually have my puppies retrieve the squishy balls so they think they are fun and not some nasty poisonous bomb.
I love using the puppy ping pong back and forth game from Raising Rockstars with her with the jumping! It is fine to teach her the value of Flyball and to love the game away from the factors that make her uncomfortable. I had a scared sensitive border collie that learned the sport solo and with her one dog best friend for 6 months and she loved the sport enough she could push past her fear of strangers on the box, men existing in the world, someone making strong direct eye contact. Hopefully we can do that with Snorkel so that she can just use practice as a way to show off her skills and no one will be tempted to interact with her.
Striding – right now I do not have any preference for forcing her to single or double stride. I want her to experience them both and see what feels comfortable. I could easily see her being the type that comes off the box, doubles back all except the last two jumps in which she will toss in a single because she made up so much ground a 2nd stride would actually slow her down. Her striding is going to depend entirely on where she lands after the jump and how much momentum she has to carry her through. That is pretty neat that such a tiny tator tot can power with that little bit of running. I won’t pretend to guess how many singles she might toss in on the way down to the box when she is hitting the line with full speed!
Mat work – nicely done – she very quickly understood that her “good” marker came from the rear feet and was moving into position faster each time – I can’t wait to see her with the next step where she approaches and exits on the same side (and you can use a prop intermittently for that too just so she sees it on the flat before we ever ask her to see it with a slant board).
Two Toy – I felt like that was a lot of fun – I was smiling watching that. You were much more interactive and her body position looked really into it. I loved it!!! On a recall to a bottle tug does she ever miss the tug or does she most often hit it and stay on it? Curious about the type of type/size in relation to her mouth.
Retrieve – minus the almost choking she looked super focused and stayed with it even as she enjoyed her second chance treat.
Backing Up – You teach it exactly how I do for my fitness classes! I have a lot more success this way with dogs that understand the equipment and have value to foot targets so I love that you integrated what you knew would work best for Kat. Don’t ever feel like you have to follow “my way” cause there are TONS of ways to teach Flyball, arousal, impulse control, fitness, etc! I try to be extremely open and only want to do whatever is best for Kat!
I often will use the cookie when I am teaching a new behavior or I need them to be slower and more thoughtful. And tug rewards when the behavior is more fluent and I can expect them to be very fast and not lose the criteria. So for example if you brought out the tug and she couldn’t do a 4 footed turn anymore – then you know the underlying foundation wasn’t solid enough to handle the arousal of the tug.
I loved the snappier ones with the tug – I think you should try a prop that is 8-9″ in height (even a broom or mop propped up would be fine). If possible – I would like the board/mat to be less slippery/wiggly. Even if you have to take away the mat. She comes in confident and wants to do a snappier turn but it moves on her so then the next rep she is shifting her weight to compensate/slow down extra to avoid causing any shifting.
Let’s keep doing both directions for now – I think shortly we will have an obvious direction that she handles speed/deceleration better.
PS you made my heart stop leaving in that one where she sailed over into the kitchen.
OMG I am so happy with this jump work!! Everything is looking terrific the only challenge I would add in would be to release from both sides of the jump. After releasing you can center back up to help her make the jumps on the way back. It really proofs no matter where I let you go from, you have to find the jump and take it.
Two Tug – She completely understands the vocal cue to out and strike the next toy. Let your hair down a little and just play. Have fun, it’s not as much of a drill especially since she understands the concept. I would avoid patterning you tensing up/stalking a little of picking up the toy and switching to it. Just gather it easily while you are still playing and then cue the switch into another big party. Please don’t get caught up in the mechanics because what you have been doing has been flawless – so don’t second guess yourself.
Spin and Twirl – lovely rear end awareness in both directions. She is so balanced I have yet to see an obvious dominate side. Have you noticed she is a left or right turner at home?
Mat Targeting – I want to clean this one up. Your eye is going to be on the rear feet – and when you see the rear feet touch the platform – you mark/say YES. You can feed the cookie on the platform, but soon you will be tossing the cookie in both directions. If you have a Cato board – I love to use that for the platform (no mat) and then ignore the upcoming instructions that will say to take the mat to the floor – just use the Cato board itself. I noticed it’s easier to just stay elevated cause it’s going to a slant board and then the box.. so why add more steps!
Holy moly she has turned it into another gear. Even with the ball she is hustling back to you. I loved the way you set this up and worked both directions. Keep adding more of an offset angle as well as distance. I am perfectly fine with you centering up on the jump for the return – likely once she is lined up and you feel that she is committed you can lead out more. She isn’t behind at all – this looks like she is right on track!
AJ is the perfect helper and distraction dog! You can level up if you set AJ a little further out in front that would be terrific to teach KitKat to push PAST her and drive ahead to “win”.
And her impulse control with a tired brain looked amazing! I wanted to make sure to connect the dots that when you start your box work up close – you will say Ready, Set, Break to send to the ball when you are asking her to go past you (and if someone says Ready Set Go dogs are usually smart enough to generalize).
Four feet in a box – stand, sit, and down haha. You can tell she is quickly mastering the fine motor movements. EArlier the legs were more stiff/straight and she had a harder time controlling momentum to stop in the box when she came in with speed.
2-toy switching – the more engaging you were, the less likely you were to get those little regrips. I am guessing when you are standing that might help too as you can use your motion to add to that excitement. Growling really jazzed her up too! I’ll be keeping an eye to see if she loves that rougher play style with the pushing her side (that’s one of my preferred methods to play as well and it’s hard to fade it out with dogs that don’t love it as much as we do). I think she did like it in the recall video last time so it might have been more with you being stationary that it seemed to coordinate with the regrips. The behavior of “switch” was perfect.
Ready Set Break – New Achievement – you are the ring toss champion HAHA. You can also add in a fast 1-2 steps on Ready into Set which will have a pause, and then Break. That’s often a nice intermediate I find before being able to really proof that sit/stay. Food is perfectly fine! Whatever she wants is what we will use as the reward in the moment and I love that you aren’t making her tug with you notice less enthusiasm.
Side note – bravo on keeping everything balanced. Every exercise I have seen you work both sides and all directions which is excellent for mind and body.
Impulse Control – food – great job. She was intensely focused and didn’t make any errors as you upped the challenge. Then she did that hardest nose punch I’ve ever seen. When you did your “It’s your choice” hand open and she went for it I had the same thought that you were asking for a touch again as well since you had just done a bunch of movement games. I love asking for what I want (or at least giving more clues from my body language/hand signals) so I would have been fine with a “wait” or “stay” etc so she knew it was going to switch back to impulse games. Love her moving back and forth between those so well.
Typically a youtube link pasted in here works best – I wish there was a way to download the raw videos directly but right now there isn’t one. With the WeTransfer I have to download each video to watch and it is taking me 3-7 mins for each download.
The jump Commitment looks terrific! Several times there was the decision to do it all by himself it looked like! Will he drive ahead of you without tossing the toy first?
With the over and backs – think about it like a hit-it on the box (except this is on the flat). I think if you tossed that cookie a little further to the edge of your mat you will get a little stronger push off the rear back over the prop. This exercise really helps engage the proper muscle mechanics. Push up with the rear to get up, engage the core to rotate back, and push with every muscle to snap back quickly.
