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Yay! I’m so happy. Things are really progressing. She isn’t 100% perfect but she is very close and if she misses it’s almost like she knows she did and will go back to fix it haha.
So I just moved my dogwalk and raised it a bit. Not positive it is 3/4 but maybe close enough and you can tell me when I video next. Question: when I start over with the MM again, do I do the pole method or put her halfway in the middle of the DW, like with how we finished with dog walk at 1/2 height?
We are getting there!!!
Yes, so I have been doing the wing verbals off the exits. So like my tight wing wrap to left and right is just left and right. So I’ve been saying “break” (cause she is on a stand stay half way on the DW, then I say “run”, and then I say “left”/”right” for which way to wrap the wing at the end of the DW. Does that sound okay? I haven’t brought up my verbals for exiting the DW yet (like tight turn or soft or go-go or whatever). Figured we would introduce that to her once she is on full height and getting perfect hits, am I still right about that?
So I added full dog walk in from lower speed (I had her wrap a cone close-ish to the end of the DW). Plus my backyard isn’t mega big anyways…I will have to go somewhere else to get huge full out sprints on DW later. So here is the video for that: https://youtu.be/6bZDEFbUh5g. I only did it a couple times anyways but I added in my video for the right side to wing wrap.
I still need to do very hard exits off DW to wing with her starting from halfway on DW. I will hopefully get those done this week, then the plan is to raise the DW to 3/4 the way, right? Do I redo process (Manner Minders, stationary toy, then wing) or just skip to wing depending on how she does?
Oh also, another question popped in my head: my dog walk is mega adjustable. After I am done with this half height, should I slightly raise it or would I just go to full height after this and redo what we’ve done so far?
Okay here is our video: https://youtu.be/V0TAdlZCcq0
Hey! Okay wow sorry it’s been a hot minute. Mercy went to stay at a friends house to work on some other things. Luckily my friend kept up with Mercy’s RDW. I got Mercy back this weekend and did some DW in a new facility, new DW, new surface (dirt) and she nailed every one. DW was still half height. And she was in her “sweet spot” halfway and she was going to hard and soft turns wrapping a wing. Before Mercy left we successfully went around the clock on all positions even ones with SUPER hard turns to a Manner’s Minder. Overall, I am feeling pretty good about her hit rate. Since she is back home with me now, I am going to video some soon and send to you.
Yes, she can pretty much nail those easy turns. We are on the turns now where the MM is 90 degrees from the dog walk or even more angled (so it is kind of behind the target on the dog walk). I am finding that she is way more consistent with great hits if I am totally still. But once I slowly walk laterally, she struggles. So I guess that is too much right now and she is telling me (by her hits) that she needs more muscle memory with no handler motion on those hard exits? And for these hard hits, her striding is really off as she is physically adjusting to hit the mat- I am assuming that is okay?
Ohhh yes I see. This is why I have you!
So at first the left was so hard for her but then we did that several days in a row and now she gets it a little more. So now the right is hard haha. I’ll keep working on the MM then hopefully in a week we will be ready for the toy. Did it take you this long? I don’t know if I am moving the MM in too small of increments: like a foot each time when she gets 3 jackpot hits in a row.
Hey! So I have been working around the clock with the Manners Minder at half height DW still. I have tons of video but got kinda video-overwhelmed/upload-lazy, but here I am now finally catching you up to where we are today.
-Here is a little snippet of video (mostly from today’s session): https://youtu.be/_ls0-QOQI8E
–Note: this is the first time for those hard left/right turns. It took us a while to get there (a week or so).
–For the right side tougher turns (almost, but not quite, at 90 degrees) she has slowed down a lot to ensure she is hitting the mat. I can tell she is really focusing, but it is causing her to be slower. I am assuming that is ok, and I should not worry about it? Also, keep in mind, that almost 90 degree turn to the right was her very first time to be at that angle.
–I feel like we are doing well with this MM around the clock! .. at least I hope.
–I have a very small piece of cardboard so that she doesn’t cut in on the mat. Can you see it? I think it is kind of like the inverted target except just 1 side of it and it’s pretty short. Is this okay?Let me know if you want me to video something else in particular: i.e., more tight turn, more soft turns, etc. I tend to video every training session but if I don’t upload them that day then I get overwhelmed haha.
And I have been working the inverted target around the clock with the static toy – lots of good stuff there too! It’s nice because I can really send her to the pole method and get up the line for a blind or send her to the weaves or something. She totally knows “up up” means go to the pole method and hit your target haha – useful!
BTW, I also did your “Collection Exits & Turning Away” drills you did for Lesson 4. Really liked those. It brought back lots of end target thinking too that I liked. I have video but wasn’t sure if needed to post. It was all pretty good in my opinion.
Yes totally agree her hits are still good! I don’t know if I am being too picky. I mean she rarely “hops” the mat, if ever. And I do think she has knowledge in that she needs to run all the way down the DW. But her back feet occasionally hit the side of the mat. Here is a video from this afternoon with hopefully a better angle: https://youtu.be/FbczUmXRTOI. The manners minder is about 15 feet ahead of the dog walk in positions 11 o’clock and 10 o’clock. She is in her “sweet spot” halfway on the DW. I did play around with her positioning towards the end (a little closer) to see if that adjusted her hits. I haven’t pinned down anything solid on that yet.
For the inverted target on DW, how long is your target? I’m assuming long enough to get back feet spread in it? My one made out of wood with yellow cabinet liner is 16″ long and my cardboard box one with yellow cabinet liner is 23″. For reference, my red flat mat on the DW right now is 20″ (what we have been using for previous DW videos) and was half on the DW and half on the ground. Here is our intro video to inverted target on the DW: https://youtu.be/kynD14IHKZ8. Some good stuff for her very first time, I actually think she did very well transitioning from inverted target on flat to it being on the DW.
So the snow finally melted today (what a rough and boring week). So I plopped Mercy on the DW (still at half height). Did warm ups with our load pole method. Then did her sweet spot (half way- I have a piece of tape on the exact spot haha) and began around the clock with the manners minder about 15 feet ahead of the DW. I started straight off then moved it slightly to left as she got about 3 good hits per location. I came across this spot and had some problems. It looked like she was slightly hitting the edge of the DW more so than before. Here is the video: https://youtu.be/U9ik_gChqnc. Am I being too picky on this? I just don’t know if that is normal/acceptable for turns off the DW. The video is kind of far away – wanted to be able to show you her start and finish location. But let me know if you want close up video if that helps…
So snow has hit Texas hard, somehow. The day before the snow I was able to do this last thing on the DW: https://youtu.be/KJqAQTHAtX4. Both this video and the last one (trying to find the sweet spot) was to a manners minder about 20 feet straight ahead of the dog walk. I believe she hits with FF in the top 1/3 of the dog walk and has better success with RF hits in the halfway portion (like you guessed). Once snow melts, I will do more runs at half way to see her hitting percentage success.
Lateral turns off DW: sounds good! We will do that as a warm up to top ramp DW stuff.
Since we won’t get DW training for week or so, I did some of this in the dog room. Wanted you to watch to make sure this is a good idea: https://youtu.be/RY6yCeHauxs
For converting the inverted target to super hard turns later, will this be something I do at half height or full height DW? Or should I not worry about that yet lol, just focus on her success with that smaller inverted target on the ground? She does have a trained box method meaning front feet in turn, back feet in. Like complete turn back to me. I think like Silvia Trkman. Maybe that will come in handy haha!
Ohh yes good point about the lateral movement from DW. Begin working on that with the load pole method or with her in a stand-stay at the flat ramp portion (like in the video below)?
Hahaha oops my bad. No wonder, I was like shucks, this is hard. I briefly went out there today to video this to make sure it is right-ish before I begin this more intensely (going around the clock). Thoughts? https://youtu.be/Ga1KawlZnio Random question: At what point do I raise the DW?
Weather is supposed to be terrible here for the next week so we might not get tons of outdoor time. Maybe I can do some inverted target inside in the hallway :).
