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Tugging –
I would stop asking for the tugging. GIR did a very similar thing, and we decided to stop adding pressure and just let him choose. Sometimes he had a stuffie he wanted to play with, sometimes he wanted a tug or ball, and often food was the winner. Kiki sounds very similar. I’m betting if you stop asking, she will one day ask for tugging. Make it insanely fun, but end quickly. Leave her wanting MORE (versus her saying, okay enough I’m done). I also love to have an arsenal of tugs, furry tugs, bottle, squeaky, grunting, you name it – I find the novelty can often keep a dog that isn’t intense with tugging into the game. I challenge you to have a timer on your phone/watch or a handheld one, and limit your sessions to 2.5 mins. See what she thinks of that. I average 5-6 mins for a full training session with most dogs.Kick Back – try these two alternatives and let me know if neither work for you.
1. Send to retrieve tug
2. Kiki returns so tug on the tug. 1-2 seconds of tug (fast), say YES!, give cookies.
3. Ask her to tug on her tug.1. Send to retrieve ball.
2. Kiki returns ball. 1-2 seconds tug on the ball or moment it touches your hand say YES!, give cookies.
3. Ask her to tug on her tug.Backing up – nailed it. Loved the individual steps!
Pivot – WOW on the pivot on the flat – that was really neat. The inflatable was much more of a challenge – which makes sense because inflatables add difficulty.
Bow – smooth! Looked great.
RSO – Mat – Tug = Those first two reps are TERRIFIC. She slipped on the floor when you switched directions on the lineup. I don’t know if you saw that in the video. So she stepped forward and you took it as her not listening and tried getting her back into position. But she was really upset you thought she was bad. So I would say anything with her training – you will have to be her cheerleader. Mediocre effort = low level cheerleader. A+ effort = throat sore from woohoo cheerleader. It will be so exhausting because everything will take something from you. But if you do it for a little bit – I am curious to see how it builds her up and she might be a little more eager to try and toss things at you. You have the perfect understanding of this exercise and I’m glad you let criteria slip a little after she struggled switching directions.
Mat time – I did not think this was bad. At all.
I saw her wondering a few times – but I didn’t see that as a stress response or a quit. It seemed more unclear on what was expected. And can we compliment her for how well she is driving away from you to the box. Right now she’s going a$$ over kettle at the box when she gets her ball versus decelerating and getting it cleanly – so we will keep an eye on that. I’m not overly worried about it transitioning because her mat work looks so good. The only change I could think of is maybe shorter distances for her catching you (like maybe only work from box to where jump 1/8 is) so that’s less of the environment she has to scan and move through. But honestly I was impressed with how she handled that.Also – I was cracking up when she literally FLEW out of the side and into the camera view at the beginning. She is a hoot!
She really nailed this one. And because you did both sides you now have a really nice figure 8 you can use as a warm-up before sports!
You can start to add in Ready Up, Hands go down to hold, and send her to a toy or tossed cookie. The continue building into the pattern that will look like real Flyball soon.
She seems to be very committed to the right. I honestly had an impossible time with my last dog picking her turn. She most often turned left, but would go a little wide like Soozie versus a pinwheel whip back turn. And so I just trained her to do a box turn box directions.
1- She stayed balanced because we didn’t just do one side the whole time
2- She showed me which turn she was able to decelerate into the box better
3- She showed me that once I added the ball one way got sloppy and the other stayed clean/high.At the end of the day because all things were equal in the testing experiments, I picked the turn that gave me better deceleration/setup for the turn as well as gave me the higher feet. And her turn is magnificent so I did not ruin her teaching her to get a ball off the board and box in both directions.
PS – at the end of the day, I have seen enough people pick a direction, train that only, and then when we add speed it’s very clear that was the wrong direction and owners feel like the last 3-4 months were wasted. I didn’t want that – problem avoided when you just teach both!
He’s quite the latent learner – I can’t wait to see you both running soon!! This is a fabulous foundation he has and he has a complete understand of all the pieces.
That Klimb was a great way to add incline and height for the beginning of the hit-it board work. I will also share my instructions on how to make the hit-it board in case you have someone handy.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-XMlpFSWMLbI3NGXb76X1aIZbsYPzztxTw1kN211irk/edit?usp=sharing
Majority of them you took the time to set him up to stride into the Klimb. Be careful not to have him too close to you (and he has to step away before he can lineup and then fit himself onto the board) like 0:32 and 1:33. He does it, but it’s harder and we want to make it easy.
You can certainly add in more running/racing him off as well. He’s still young and growing so I wouldn’t do a ton of these while we wait on those growth plates (and I love that you are doing both sides so he stays balanced). Give him a few reminders of these games over the next 2 months and then we can really start to ask for more power and speed!
Those passing drills are a ton of fun too if you have a friend with a docile dog – I thought you would enjoy hoping they would be different than your normal agility foundations.
That last rep was perfect!! You held the one you wanted her to out still, brought the next one to life, and cued the YES. She switched perfectly. She seems to have a really nice grip and I can’t wait when you start adding distance + motion to this exercise next to make it even harder!!
Apologies for taking so long to respond!!
Target Mat – Don’t stress about picking a way. We are going to do both for now so you have a balanced puppy. So I took away that decision and you don’t have to worry haha.
Pointing to the mat with one hand, rewarding with the other. If I have time, I will sometimes point, and then toss the tug into that hand quickly. Either of those options are fine – you looked good from what I could see. We are going to pick her turn based on collection and rotation of her spine. Good job keeping it on the cato – you can use that until she moves to the low slant board.Bow – I trust the form was better on the flat or you could even use a Cato or similar platform. She seems very good at “place me and I’ll hold it” so she was set down with wide rear and didn’t reset. With her breeds – she will be more likely to have that wider stance in the rear so you do want to work on exercises for stabilizing the rear pelvic limbs.
Toy Retrieve – 100% supportive of the gutter etc. You have all the time in the world to teach jumping. This keep away behavior – I see it now. Here is your plan. We are going to change the training loop for her. It will now be
Send to toy – bring back toy – cue spit to eat cookie (Or tug and then release/cue spit at the same time). Then start to tug again.You can do this just like the two tug game, except it’s one tug and cookies. She tugs with you….. and YES spit the tug and get the cookie. Game can’t start again to win the cookie until we tug again. So now her desire will be to give you the tug (or at least engage near you) to get the cookie.
You have to decide whether you want your criteria for the retrieve to be a hand target, little bit of tugging, or just close enough in your bubble. For now since she knows two tug game – I would opt for a little bit of tugging and then your criteria can always slip just a little.
So in the video when she left you, she recalled and got the cookie, then you sent her to bring it to you, then you tugged, I would have added in the “YES” here is the cookies you wanted. It’s not going to make her want cookies over tug – if anything it builds value for tugging cause she’s getting double the rewards. For softer dogs that you want to build tug drive – it’s a way to have them “WIN” the tug with hard pulls and then the cookies come out. Makes them want to be tough. So many different applications for this modification to the game. Let me know if that helps or you have questions!
This is the first time I have seen her open up and RUN. She’s going to be so fast – wow!!
Her recall is stellar – there were like 18 other times she had auto-check ins with you. But she’s not blind to the environment. She was taking it in, observing, and then quickly looking back at you to see what the next step was. Well done executing this game.
As a Flyball dog, I can just see her hanging out with you in the runback not running amuck, as well as blazing back after she got her ball because she heard you call her! I cannot wait!!
I am going to share this video too – so much of what I was trying to explain can be seen in here. Like the throwing the toy for over-rotation (0:53), and the teasing with the toy before sending (1:35). Vinnie LOVES his ball and would chase it. He wanted to tug, but only when the ball was stationary.
I just wanted to share in case it was helpful.
I’m so glad you are feeling better and I get to see Yumbi videos again!!!
Hit its on the board – these are looking very lovely and I’m glad you sent me these. It changed my feedback for what we will do for the box.
Jump Commitment – you are excellent at giving her the bare minimum help needed to problem solve and figure it out. I feel like it might take a little longer for dogs to troubleshoot – but when they have that lightbulb moment it is smooth sailing. She made so many decisions ON HER OWN which is how I know she is learning and building the value for HER deciding to take that jump when she has the choice not to. I can’t wait as you build up more distance.
Box Work – I went back and watched against the July video and so much faster already. But we need a few more things. Comparing the box position of the hit it wall against the box, I want to take that gutter and turn it on its side so it will be 3 deep and 1 gutter tall. Why Shelly? Look at the width of her back legs on the slant board – she doesn’t have that narrow whippet stance – she has them spread out for a little more power. She’s not able to get that same spread on the box right now. I also believe that might be impacting the rotation and why we don’t see her landing back to center off the box.
I am going to assume that when she gets the ball off the slant board it looks perfect and she lands pretty much centered off that. If that isn’t the case – we need to change course – but I am going with the assumption it was beautiful at that stage.
So my hope is to give her more room to get that push off the box and execute the rotation off back to center lane. I also want you to throw that toy a little more towards the camera person – so a slight over-rotation off the box. You don’t have to do it all the time, just every now and then.
Next time with your setup – tease her with that ball/toy you are throwing. Make her try and chase it but you won’t give it to her, grab her collar and bounce or roll it in front of her (also sometimes nice to have someone else hold her if that’s okay with Yumbi). While you are acting like a fool, the box loader casually and no big deal loads the ball. Sounds like you don’t ever need to make a big deal about getting that ball off the box – we are not worried about her being a spitter. Make the time between the teasing, the lining up to go, and the release very fast and quick. So you get fast and quick for the box. Quick does not mean sloppy – because this is all very planned. I often use a bean bag on the grass to mark where I need to stand cause I’m all over the place LOL.
Hello!!
Prim – who said she has to tug all the way back to the box for the next recall? Tell them that sounds like a tired dog to have to run full speed to you, tug, and then tug all the way back to repeat. If I am doing repeatable recalls, I will do multiple dogs so the owner runs with their tug and leash. Once the dog hits the tug, you play, and then leash up the dog. The dog can carry their toy back, or just eat treats walking back to the box. This motion back is also a great distraction for the other dog that is now recalling. I know there are several houses of logic for the automatic lineup. Skidz will actually send their dogs down (versus the handler going down, handing off the dog, and then walking back) and boy does that save a LOT of time at practices. So if you have a large team – that might be beneficial. I also hear on the other side that if the dogs are doing anything less than 100% down the jumps it’s patterning slowness… I don’t know how much I buy into that – I think dogs are smarter than we give them credit for and they know the difference between setting up to hit the box versus setting up to do a recall.
So to break that bad habit of her leaving you before you tell her she can go lineup (cause that is annoying) I would not start walking back to the box until she is leashed up. Or you can start to add in some proofing of walking back to the box. Maybe take 2 steps while tugging towards the box, have her out, and then cue the tug again. She doesn’t get to go send herself back to the box until you have her collar and say Ready, Set, Go lineup (or whatever you want). My personal preference with mine is to do a recall, we play tug, and then we out and you eat cookies walking with me back up to the box (just as easy on leash or loose). Because if you can imagine I just did a warm-up in a tournament and I need to walk back to jump 8 cause the slat popped out I need my dog to hang with me, not think they are doing another run. So it might look like we are walking back to the box – but we aren’t. So add some spiciness/unpredictability. Sometimes you tug again after walking to the box, sometimes you do a random mini recall when you only made it halfway to the box loader. Sounds like she is a smart cookie and picks up patterns quickly.
Paisley – sounds like she is a foodie (me too Paisley!) so use that to your advantage. You know what a foodie loves? Their food bowl. I bet if you had that up in your hand (same hand/visual like a tug) she would blast like the word was ending and that was her last meal. I will also have some of my foodies make a special bucket that means all the amazing treats of hotdogs, rotisserie chicken, meatballs, etc. And I hope you are using these high value treats and breaking them into many tiny bites so it feels like a lot!! The food bowl can be hard around other dogs because ALL dogs know what it means and they might try to visit your bowl, so a special Halloween trick or treat bucket might be perfect. I will often pre-load a few treats into my bowl before the release too. I circle the treats around, tease my dog telling them they better go fast so they can hurry up and get back to this bucket of treats. See if that helps give her a target and redirects that focus. I am of the mindset that your dog should only be rewarded with what they find rewarding – so substitute tug for food in all the exercises except the retrieve. If you have any questions on those modifications please let me know!
6 minutes of time well spent!!
She has some very serious rear control. There were a few where she slammed her rear onto that mat and I was so impressed! I’m glad you took it down to the ground to ensure she has a solid understand of it. You lure so little – she 100% knows what the job is – and I can’t wait for you to see the results when she needs minimal props and keeps her tight turn because the box turn is just a foot target!
The one where she was confused as you added more distance, I wonder if you had gone further in the turning “lane” (closer to that white trash can). So standing between the silver fan and the wooden platform in the video, and maybe halfway between the white trash can and the black mat. It would look more like she was trotting away from you with her head away, she targeted the mat, looked at you expectedly, and then got called back to basically your feet. Hopefully that makes a little more sense than the first two times I tried to describe this poorly. As the dog is approaching the box and then returning, we are always behind them which gives them the agency to do it on their own (which she is nailing) and then the urgency to get that snap back turn. You will continue to add distance and urgency/motion so you are on a great track!!
For the rest of the exercises in future Units – ignore where it has it on the ground. I want you to keep it on your platform like you had. I have a new theory I am noodling around with, and I feel the rest of the exercises will benefit with a small elevation (like your platform, or a Cato, or a slant board).
