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I think his teeth have been hurting him, because he keeps kinda trying to tug with Phoenix and then giving up. Because of that, I’m setting toys aside from training for a week or two. He’s right at five months, so hopefully he’s done soon. Pattern went through this same phase at this age and I absolutely panicked thinking that I had ruined him and he would never tug with me again.
Needless to say, he tugged with me again.
I’ll try the toy again next week and see what he’s thinking about it.
Okay, finally back to training my puppy maybe?
He was definitely feeling some pressure from the cabinet on the one side.
Tunnel exits:
Essentially, if I’m giving him a “tunnel”, I want him to just blast out in full obstacle focus. It might still require a bit of handling (ex if heading to a backside or threadle that is clearly on the line), but he should not really be looking for me. If it’s a dead obvious choice (contact, tunnel, front side jump extension), I’ll give a go as he’s committed to the tunnel.
If I give a “chute”, I want him thinking about me. This can mean that it’s anything from a minor turn to a 180. If it’s something more than around 45 degrees towards me, I’ll give a directional as he enters (“left” or “right”). I give an “out” if he’s turning away from me out of the tunnel, but I try really really hard to avoid this if at all possible because I think it’s super hard to get both the speed and accuracy that I want when my dog is blind to me in the tunnel.
“Go” is full obstacle focus – head to the next thing, do it hard and fast, I am irrelevant. “Hup” is keep going straight but keep an eye and an ear on my handling. I will use it for jumps where I want him to wind up turning a bit (think like a gentle curving line like you often seen at the end of a speedstakes course), but where there aren’t other reasonable options so I’m fine with him figuring out his own line. I’ll also use it on completely straight lines where I need him to keep me in the back of his mind because he’s heading into a handler focused section.
I’ve been using my “out” as a way to turn away on the flat. Pattern is really good at flipping into obstacle focus so if I get his head turned, I can get him sent on the new line. It’ll be interesting to see what Phoenix and Storm wind up needing, especially as courses continue to change.
This is from a couple of weeks ago but I forgot to post it. Been sick for the last half of the month so haven’t really felt like training.
Verbals, curious on your thoughts with them. This is what Pattern is trained on.
Loop – wrap wing left
Kiss – wrap wing right
Check – soft turn left over jump
Dig – soft turn right over jump
Chute – soft tunnel turn
Left – turn left on the flat/off a non-jump obstacle
Right – turn right on the flat/off a non-jump obstacle
Tunnel – straight tunnel exit
Hup – jump in extension
Walk it – dog walk
Climb it – A-frame
Teeter
Poles – weaves
Push – backside slide
Wrap – backside wrap
In – jump threadle
Seek – wrap threadle
Slalom – weave threadle
Flick – tunnel threadle
Zip – far bypass
Bye bye – close bypass
Table
Out – lead change away
Easy – sprinkler
Go – take the next thing in front of you in extensionI’m feeling better this week finally, so should be able to get back to doing stuff with him!
Indoor games: more morning tunes, thanks! I had yesterday’s tunes in my head all day
Happy to help! Getting myself extra psyched for this weekend – going to go see her final concert in Vancouver on Sunday.
Really pleased with how he did today! He lost a tooth on the last toy race, which is probably good because it made me stop after just those reps. Prop sends went so much better with that bit of extra confidence about what I was asking him for. Did a little bit of sending to the cone for food – I’ll take it outside next time so that I can actually ask him to run out of it. I had already reached my quota of Way Too Cold for the day after the toy races, though.
I didn’t read your reply first and I also know you said before that this isn’t a loopy exercise, but I was going back and forth in my head last night about the prop sends and I decided to turn it into a bit of a pattern game to start and then start very slowly reintroducing my send body language, then a quiet ready set go, and continue to amp it up from there. I basically grabbed a small handful of treats, did those reps, played tug for 20-30 seconds, and then repeated with something a little more challenging.
I, unfortunately, didn’t press record on the most important part, which was the prop sends. Hopefully I can get some video tomorrow because I’m really struggling with it. He’s happy to run ahead of me for a toy, but he absolutely does not want to go ahead of me to target an object. The last time we worked on it, he jumped up and bit me and I reflexively yelped and swore, and even though it wasn’t intentionally directed at him, I think that really got into his head with the sending picture.
I’m working on remembering to tug lower, though I’m super sore from my workout yesterday and that made it … tricky. On the blind cross reps, he seemed better at grabbing the tug when it was on my right. I was holding the food in my left hand (no pockets), and I wonder if that contributed? Or just something else with the toy presentation? Hard for me to adjust to tugging with him versus Pattern and Phoenix, but both of us will keep adapting.
Happy Thanksgiving to you as well!
Quick post herding training session here. Last 30 seconds of both wing wraps and beginning sends. I had to switch away from the hat because Phoenix taught him that hats are very cool toys and he would not be persuaded otherwise. This is bigger and easier for his gigantic paws to target anyway.
I opted for food for the blind since he was tired, but I’ll definitely bust out the toy next time when I haven’t asked him to do a bunch of stuff first.
And thanks! Not too shabby for a first year of competition for us both. (Also let’s not forget that Pattern’s foundations are all MaxPup!)
Quick, high intensity stuff tonight. He struggled with the hollee roller – I suspect he’s never played with it before and he couldn’t figure out how to bite it. I’ll have to work on that toy separately because it’s my favorite toy to use for agility, but not going to use it as a reward for now. I was really pleased with how well he switched between the food and toys – that was hard for him a couple of weeks ago. I suspect it’ll be hard again soon as he starts teething, so something for me to keep in mind over the next couple of months.
My dogs don’t wear collars (just slip leads and martingale/leash combos). For Pattern, I utilize a chin rest, comfort with being restrained by the chest, and a fluent put your head through the loop behavior to achieve the same things. What would you suggest I work on for the purposes of this class as a substitute for the collar grab?
