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Her getting that bunny ball and switching to the tug is adorable! She showed amazing impulse control to stay while you placed the bunny. She held still while you revved her up, and took off like a bullet. But then she also decelerated and turned on a dime – so many sighthounds continue forward with that speed and then turn when they slow down. I’m loving so many parts of these pieces together!!
Steal that orange Cato – that will be perfect – turn it longer side (like how the box is longer left to right) to practice with the turn. Your mat can turn sideways too – it’s on the skinny side right now.
As you keep progressing – see how much of you that you can fade out. I would love to have you be 1-2 feet away from the Cato and she takes that step towards it and turns and then comes back off. Less luring, and more her decision. I find that helps make box turns that are not prop dependent.
This one was the playing with the prop jump (over and back) I believe. You can still say YES so she knows she is doing it correctly – she started to doubt herself at the end when you were being so quiet.
You can also play this game with a toy – very informal and just have fun. Have her tug and chase you back and forth making her go over it. Or do a release and retrieve over it. Nothing structured – just the idea of carry something in your mouth over a jump.
Great job introducing the jump. Now as you work up you will just turn your body a little to cue/indicate they can go over and keep tossing that cookie ahead. I liked that you said the YES marker as she was over the jump.
I love that on “ready” she was offering the sit willingly instead of jumping or trying to get the toy. She liked that anticipation.
This was SOOO good. When you said YES on that last one and she whipped over expecting and looking for it before you showed the one to switch to.
Can she also have the new toy in sight but stay on the one you are tugging? (the proofing exercise?)
If you have a cato or some sort of platform (even a slanted hit-it board) you can leave the mat elevated on that. I have not found it beneficial to take the mat back to the ground, since it goes back on the slant board eventually when we add elevation.
Nice job keeping the strict criteria for the back feet!
I liked incorporating the leash. For Astra I loved seeing her drive away on the release when you held her. Those are fine. My goal for her (as I see coming up in her training) will be for you to be able to tell her stay/sit and then setting a toy on the ground (or later pointing/placing a ball in the box) and then sending to it. She also doesn’t seem to be one to melt if someone holds her – but as wild as she gets for a toy I feel like that’s going to be the hard part. Hold your body and your brain to do the activity with focus. Cookies dumb, toys mean LETS GO she says!
I agree she doesn’t quite have the ‘touch this get cheese’ lightbulb yet. But she is close because a few times she did her front feet and looked at you expectantly.
I do wonder if your movement is so much that it is distracting and her mind is thinking it’s more of a ‘recall/be near you’ and less of a foot target. She also has a strong preference to be on your right side (the treat hand). You could test out the treat throws reset, then have you be on the other end or off to the side on the other end, and toss the cookie continuing forward once back feet come on – very similar to how you were setting her up with the turn on the plank fitness exercise (just not the spin).
I’m also wondering if she will be a special nugget that we might add a prop next to her ipsilateral setup and have her hop over that sideways in both directions. That would be fine with me too – there are a ton of ways to teach a box turn.
BEAUTIFUL!! She has a very solid concept of getting on that Cato. It didn’t matter how far off the center line you set her up, or how far away you stood. She sought it out to stand on it. I liked that you started to incorporate more distance off at the end (so she was ‘pushing off’ the Cato more instead of standing and waiting. I cannot wait to see her start to incorporate the turn with the Cato!! And when she starts turning I imagine she’s going to be fast like everything else she does. It might be worth taping that mat to the Cato, or just using the Cato surface if you don’t find it too slick. I want her to learn to depend on her equipment and dig hard always – never have a slip and lose confidence in what she puts her feet on.
This is what I saw
1 – Right
2 – Left
3 – Right (then changed to a left to get onto the tug to turn into you)
4 – Right
5 – Right
6 – Right
7 – RightSo it’s a pretty good chance she’s going to be a right turner. However – I have had a LOT of success with just training both directions. It becomes super obvious when one turn direction stays higher/cleaner when you add 5-10′ of distance from the box. Doing both directions also keeps them balanced so one side doesn’t get overused early on in their training.
That’s a common problem haha – you have to keep moving to more and more distracting areas… which is the best problem to have because the end goal is a flyball runback with 7 other loose dogs and you CAN’T get your dog to leave you. BINGO!
Excellent timing on the calls and moving away from her. I was curious a few times if she could hear your feet first but she seemed very keen on the call. Well done.
This course is such perfect timing for her in regards to maturity. And I’m so pumped you are taking the intermediate fitness. What I’m seeing just from spins is she wants to reach a lot with the front, and the rear is often just an afterthought… along for the ride. I expect that the more you do these, the fitness, and she grows in the next month we are going to see a big difference in this coordination.
