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OK, it’s just me. I looked right past the pdf – the purple link on my monitor was very hard to see – I have a glare on the screen earlier today.
Below the crcd code was a set of what looked like it should have had pics – I was trying to click on those and that’s a no go.
All is well now – thanks!
weird! I noticed him bouncing more on a couple reps but didn’t make the connection. Thank you! Will work on that.
We did the teeter sequences. I started with reminding him what a target was. As we progressed through the exercises, if he gave me a really good teeter I stopped and rewarded. When he was turned extra far to the side I stopped and reminded him to look for his target. I included those reps.
Question – if he’s going to the end and doing a 2o2o but turning to the side a bit is that something you’d work really hard to fix or is straight on necessary (read as – I’m lazy and i don’t want to do all the work to fix this!)
I tried to not use ‘go’ and not use a negative marker, but still did some. Seems like on these tight sequences where he’s not moving fast I feel the need to cheerlead. And, when he went backwards on the teeter I just flat out forgot to not respond. Admitting you have a problem is the first step, right? 🙂
On the last teeter sequence, we pushed to the back side of the second jump. I did a wrap and an slice rep to see which I liked better. Not sure if it was because he was tired from doing all this or if the wrap was a little less motivating, but he seemed better on the back side slice from what I could tell. What do you think?
Here’s the teeter sequences…
I set up the sequences with the weaves first – will do the first few with the teeter next. I had just taken the dogs for an hour walk, so toward the end of these I didn’t have that much dog and switched to treats to keep his interest. I had to modify one thing on a couple exercises where you ran it with a slice after the weave to the outside, but with my dw in the way I had to wrap to the inside with a FC.
I tried not to do too many reps of each – one set I repeated more than a second try, but I tried not to obsess and have him lose interest.
Apparently I didn’t pay enough attention to the fact that the jump straight in front of the weaves wasn’t bidirectional. LOL! Didn’t realize I took the wrong side of it a couple times till I came in and started posting these. He was a good boy to do what I asked of him.
I totally understand not giving release looking cues without really releasing now. Will there come a time when you proof that later when the training is more solid for those unforeseen things that happen at trials?
And, if my dogs are distracted tomorrow and smelling the ground as we train I think this might be why… (only watch this 30 sec video for entertainment if you have time – it’s not really course related, just fun!)
OK, gave it a second try with Spot on the teeter with a target. On one rep the target had shifted back under the board and he turned to me. Will keep the target out for a while when I’m asking for harder teeters. I added a word to get a treat thrown straight away and before adding it to the teeter, just did reps of it on the ground this morning. I’m assuming he can release on that word. ‘zing’ in my case – one of my students has lots of words for different treat placements and I’ve worked with her dog enough that her word is engrained for me. LOL! So for progressing to the sequences, should I use the weaves only or do you think I can do the teeter with a target for that?
I worked with Wager on the transitions stuff again. Once we were walking out to the jump and he was focused on me I didn’t include all the time walking out – it’s a long video, breaking the 3 minute law by a couple seconds, sorry. Only had one old habit Wager moment and it was when I traded sides. I started back with super easy ones because I was adding a new marker phrase. ‘Way to go!!!’ I used the leash as a reward a couple times and he already has a go to your leash phrase from team in USDAA ‘get your leash’. He was able to start to figure out the treat cue was different than the leash cue but doesn’t seem solid yet. We’ll keep working this.
And, this might be a way to fix the releasing himself to his leash on course – the dreaded run to the leash instead of the last jump. I can throw the leash, use one cue for it and a different cue for the food reward and teach him to bypass the leash for treats unless he gets the cue for leash play. This is a really good exercise!
<< So for clarity, if the leash is the tug toy, you can also have it be the reinforcement. That helps him know what he is working for, and when/where. >>
Couple questions about this
– does he need to be ‘controlled’ on the way out or can we play tug on the way out before we stop and sit/do trick or whatever?
– If I’m using the toy to tug as the reward, then do we just play wherever we are when I reward or still pretend the run out of the ring?I like your idea of leash off before the sit. He’s so conditioned to amping up as soon as I take the leash off once he’s sitting. In the old days I needed to make sure he was going to stay in the ring with me, so I didn’t take the leash off till he was sitting, now it’s a habit that i don’t need to have. Wouldn’t it be fun if we could break that old trigger and have a controlled Wager at the start line? 🙂
I’m pleased with how Spot is coming along. It must be all that great instruction I got on his foundation and progression to sequencing. 🙂 Will add a target for a while. Thanks!!
I did these over two days. Day one Spot was out there alone, day 2 Wager joined because my hubby was on a call and Wager was too loud to stay in the house (jealous butt!).
I actually did the transition to trialing with Wager since he has such trouble with start lines. I rationalized Spot being naught as a distraction that would make Wager be a bit more like he is at trials. About the third rep I took of Wager’s lead and when I moved he did too. He stayed focused on me, so I did the release to reward, but I didn’t try to add any more difficulty past that much till he showed me he could stay still. Anyway, here it is – I should have added some circus music for Spot’s antics in parts. LOL!
Spot did the independent sends to teeter and weaves. Day 1 with the teeter went pretty well, but Day 2 with Wager out there he had a little trouble getting focused. On Day 2 after he had a hard time being forward on this 2o2o I put a treat on the ground at the end of the teeter. He really wasn’t perfectly straight in any rep, but was better than the first rep. I think I’ll put a target down for some reps or a manners minder and work this more.
We then did weaves. I didn’t include the first rep where he didn’t stay in the weaves. I was just reminding him what weaves were and he popped out. Tried to fix it and he still popped out. Turns out there was a sticky weed growing right where he needed to put his foot at pole 10. As soon as it was gone he did great! LOL!
One question – he completes his weaves each time but then looks to me. I’m assuming if you are moving that far laterally you’d want him to turn that way toward you to move on down the course, but should I throw his reward earlier to prevent that?
Was a great class!! Thank you for letting me join. 🙂 There was definitely some stuff I needed (and still need) to rework with Spot. I like some of the new approaches you took here. You’ve kept us going in a down time and Spot is very grateful too.
I love the changes since the last MaxPup and I have found some things that Wager is doing too to fill in gaps in our foundation. Thanks so much for letting me play! The dust is settling and I think I’ll get some videos of the ones we’ve done so far that need some input soon. 🙂
I”m back in action! Slow action, but moving 🙂 I worked on the tunnel stuff. Started with 2 toys and went to treats when he was hot and not happy with a toy. He went out there and started offering a tunnel a few times before I could get him to aim at the wing which was pointed toward the fence instead – I didn’t include that on the video. It made me think, I’ve not asked him to do any funny starts much so far. You know – aiming away from a course, etc. Anyway, at first I had bars on the ground at the 90 degree turns, but decided I really shouldn’t ask him to do more than a soft turn vs wrap and adding some place specific to go on to (a jump on the ground) is a little above our pay grade. We’ll continue to work on these.
You can’t see it, but there is a wing I’m sending to to wrap around before doing the exercise.
Here you go…
Thanks! I think that positive punishment I got associated with a fc without a good decel will be enough to remind me not to do that again! Ha!
Looks like I”ll be getting some good practice on those small skills for a while. Yesterday was ice and 2 crutches. Today down to 1 crutch. I think I might have torn that cartilage a little more. Sigh… No way to avoid surgery when it gets stuck like that.
BUT, this dog will send like a dream with all the work he’s going to get with me not moving much. Only thing I have to figure out is how to get him to bring me the dang toy back when I throw it. :-/
Was looking at the tunnel stuff for this week. Do you think I can do this with my tunnel shortened a good bit so I can be more stationary? Do young dogs need the time it takes to go through a longer tunnel to process the info they get before going in?
I think this is my last set of sequences. I’ll work skills after this, unless I do it with Wager. You’ll see why. sigh…
First one, I couldn’t drive him on to the last jump but I was happy with our start. Here’s Master’s sequence 2:
I did the third sequence also. I tried a blind before the last tunnel and wasn’t close enough to the jump to really cue it. I figured I’d do better with a front cross, but it didn’t work out very well for my knee. BIG ugly pop. I had Spot just do something afterward because I didn’t want to end on a bad note.
Thanks!! Will give being on the take off side of the jump some practice. I remember having trouble with Wager on that same skill. Seems the thing in common is me. LOL!
I had a chance to work on the first Master’s sequence this morning. I couldn’t move fast enough to get the second back side nicely. I tried to not go all the way to the first back side jump but still wasn’t moving fast enough. Wager made an appearance while Spot was taking one of his breaks. I included it because I’m so happy with how far he’s come on just everything about agility, well, maybe not the start line but everything else. 🙂
Spot doesn’t really get the back side serp yet or how I’m cuing it is off, so after I did the sequence I went back and worked that. It looks like I did a zillion reps in a row, but it’s actually 3 separate sessions. With the toy was during the sequence work, then he had a break and worked with food because the toy wasn’t fun anymore. Stopped in the middle of those reps and came back to finish out. You may want to mute the back side work. It annoyed me when I was editing it – so many of the same things over and over. I wonder if it annoys Spot also… LOL!
OK, I went back and tried the last Novice Wk q sequence with a slice at 3 vs a wrap. You were totally right! Over a second faster with the slice. I started to not include the first two ‘oopsies’ then thought you could tell me what the crud I was doing wrong so I don’t do it again in the future. He hasn’t had trouble with this wrap on in other sessions.
I just need to trust my dog. I thought he’d either take the back side of 4 or just bypass it if I did the slice, so chose the wrap the first time I did these. He did it really well IMO. I think he’s turning his head when he turns, but what do you think?
