[Jill Seamster]

Good morning, here are our 1st 2 games:

The Lazy game: the treats were a bit hard for him to find which slowed it down a bit. I added a little motion at the end which made it much easier for him. Next time I will have larger treats and try seeing if he can find the jumps without any motion on my part.

1 Step Sends: I thought he did pretty well with this.

[Jill Seamster]

Good Morning Tracy, As I am sitting here sipping my tea and over thinking things I thought I would ask a question. I know you covered this in soft turns but when does the left right turn go away and a name call used in stead. Also OMG Independent wrap verbals is proving very difficult I have definitely have a few more grey hairs this morning. LOL I send a picture to clarify my question 🙂

[Jill Seamster]

Hey Tracy thank you so much for these two games this week. Just what we need right now. In the Remote Reinforcement Game You give the cue Let’s go – return to the reinforcement Do you tell the dog how you are going to deliver the reinforcement? Snack (food from hand cue or get it toy cue) or just leave them out for this game?

[Jill Seamster]

Hey Tracy, Contraband looked AWESOME yesterday!!! I wish I had a photo from the box loaders angle of him powering down the lane to you…Breath taking. Also Give a Big THANK YOU to Nacho for putting up with Watson’s naughtiness. Maybe an extra cheese stick from me.
Quick question Levy is now a year and I have intro him to the flyball jump. How often do you recommend I have him do a little jump work of no more than 7 inches at his age? Should I hold off a bit now that he has seen them and reintroduce later? When did you start Contraband? I am trying not to compare as his litter mates are running the whole flyball lane now. 🙂 Operation be patient LOL

On another Note: We are struggling a bit with a toy on the ground as seen in our last session. He is a bit faster than I am and is getting the toy faster than I can and getting a little party of one. Any suggestions on how I can modify this, so he isn’t getting rewarded for getting to the toy. I think it is turning into race to the toy.

[Jill Seamster]

Hi I hope your travel is going well. Waldo is still grounded. I am finding it hard to get anyone to look at the generator. I want to thank you so much for all your help and I am sorry to miss Hot Sauces Debut but I could see from the stats she was amazing. I am so happy to see your long recovery with her has really paid off!

I was able to get out for a bit between the rain showers. I played around with Standard course 2-1. I struggled with the opening and getting to the serp. after the 1st tunnel Watson was past the jump and missed it 2 times so I went in to show him the jump before the tunnel. I never got the middle serp at all. I think I will have to have more independence so I can be further ahead. Coming off the dog walk was also challenging for us. He got the turn and the 1st jump but I wasn’t able to show the next jump. Overall it was a fun session and Watson stayed in the game.

[Jill Seamster]

Hi Tracy Watson and I did Sequence for Success challenge 3. I took out the tunnel to shorten the sequences and have a little less speed. There were gun shots in the distance so he had trouble staying focused so I only did 2-3 jumps at a time.

Here are the comparisons:

Over all I think the slice is faster but our skills are weaker on the backsides. Once we get these skills a bit stronger I think I would like to try this again.

[Jill Seamster]

Sequence for Success Challenge 3: OMG!!!

I knew this one was going to be a bit of a challenge. I just haven’t gotten the push cue at speed. I am going to finish the backside course that I started this spring when Watson was injured so I know our skills just aren’t there yet. I broke this sequence down but we struggled with every part. On the first push I may try to lead out past the wing and BC on the landing side on my next attempt. I tried to show the tight turn out of the tunnel but he still came out wide. I thought I was showing the turn with my feet before he went in but Watson said no I didn’t. What I learned if Watson is at speed backsides don’t exist. LOL

[Jill Seamster]

Hi I got to play with Sequence for success challenge 2: I did a quick session of right and left turns. I didn’t realize the last jump was not in the camera shot so I will tell you that Watson did turn back towards me and missed the lst jump on the Go cue the 1st time barely got it the second time on the right turn sequence. I did not show the line and was pulling out the reinforcement as he was running.

1st attempt: https://youtu.be/bXPkX5KyOTY

2nd practice attempt: https://youtu.be/iUa2j7zaVCA

[Jill Seamster]

Waldo is a Thor Majestic

Practice the last challenge Course 1:

I did the last section with the Aframe. I am embarrassed to say he hasn’t seen this obstacle since last fall. I haven’t spent much time with it so overall and I was surprised at how well he did. I think he is hitting the yellow too high. I am thinking a strider and his mat when I go back and work with this. Your thoughts?
Handling: I could just kick myself for not connecting and showing the dog walk. I kept losing connection and the dread arm came up. LOL he nailed one exit on the dog walk and missed the second so I put the cone back out.

Practice serp checking handling cues:

I practice the serp that we struggled with earlier. I tried to zoom in so you can see. I think I my body cues are better. On the baseline run Watson took the backside but did make his right turn.

[Jill Seamster]

“Are you coming to the PA flyball tournament next weekend? I think we can play the pattern game/transition to trials game with Watson to help him learn to acclimate to new places! ”

Yes I plan on going to PA next weekend. I am hoping Waldo will be ready. I was supposed to pick up the RV last week but not quite ready… fingers crossed. We have been playing games at home, it would be nice to see if I can play them in a new location. Better fine my ear plugs LOL

Tried the teeter challenge course 1:

I am super happy with the teeter performance. I really did not have to go to the end of the teeter but I wanted to see that he met criteria. I was able to easily send him to the jump and tunnel. The struggle with this section was the push and the serp. I think I need to open up my shoulders a bit more. I was trying to show the tight turn at the end of the serp. Do you just use a verbal here? He usually serps quite well so I was surprised we missed this.

PS I just love this course and am so happy I took the time to set it up. It has everything I wanted to tackle this summer in it. Are you a minder reader? How did you know?

[Jill Seamster]

Challenge 1 weave independence:

not yet but making progress;

“Weaves: Weave repeated until performance is completed.

Be sure he can do it when yoU are quiet too, so you have time to breathe LOL!”

Watson is having trouble completing his weaves so I repeat the cue till the end. I plan on gradually fading it away to one clear cue. His weaves as you will see today are not independent yet. We had a set back after his injury and I went back to 4 poles and have gradually gotten back to 12. One of my summer time goals is to get them more independent. Today I decided to see if I could get the poles and make it to a BC at 5. 1st time I stopped to try to inch over to the tunnel and you can see he stopped and came with me. He still needs my motion to help him in and through but I was able to get to BC at 5 so progress is being made. Yea! I proud of myself for not doing it one more time. Watson got it. I barely made the BC so we stopped and partied. LOL

[Jill Seamster]

Verbals:

Here is where we are with vebals:

Forward cues: name of Obstacle or Go Go

Turn Cues:
Wrap to right: check check with ch being the loudest part of cue
Warp to left: Dig dig
Soft turn Right: Right right right …
Soft turn left: left left left said slower and slightly lower tone than the turn to the right.
Slight turn away to take and obstacle: Out Out repeated until committed with inside arm extended.

Back side slices:
Taking outside wing and slicing back towards me: Push Push
Threadle on jump: In In taking backside jump slicing away from me.
( On my list but do not have yet)
Threadle on a tunnel: Will be close close. thought about just using In In but I think another cue might be more clear. I may switch jump and the tunnel as in in make more since going in a tunnel LOL Writing this down make you think doesn’t it

I do not have a backside wrap around the wing I have just been using body and feet position and motion for this. I may add round later I thought about push dig dig and push check check. 2 cues I am not sure I like the idea but having a lot of verbals is a bit overwhelming as well.

Teeter: just teeter repeated until full performance is complete release with break or next obstacle name.

Dog walk: Walk it with turn cue as he is finishing will add the turn cues earlier once he is confidently hitting his running contact and then turning

A Frame: Frame and then turn cues. I need to finish training this obstacle

Weaves: Weave repeated until performance is completed. I haven’t added the turn cues at the end as we are in a retrain of his weaves. After his injury this past March he stopped doing weaves so I put them up for a few months and started over with 4 and have gradually built back up to 12.

Tunnel: Tunnel tunnel with physical turn cues coming as dog is entering and verbal when dog is inside tunnel.

[Jill Seamster]

“he did struggle with this and left to chase flies(not on video) 2 times. >>
Tell me more about this – when did it happen during the session? Which trick or game were you asking for? Let me know and we will game plan.

He left when I disconnected to turn and go to the cookie jar. Disconnect means game over I think.

Transitioning to Trials Challenge 2
I tried to use the Flyball practice to help with transitioning to trails this past weekend. Unfortunately Watson went over threshold as soon as I parked the car. 1st mistake I should have parked further a way and just lugged everything in. I did manage to get him settled for a moment but most of the day was barking in the crate as I am sure you noticed. LOL I left his harness on all day and that did help. He was a bit upset and would not come out of the crate because of the leash but once it was on he did got over it pretty quickly. I was happy at his recovery overall. He usually does not engage that well after screaming episodes. However, he was working even through challenges so that went well. I have used the game we are doing this week before as part of my warm up I played it with the leash at first and then with out and I think it really helped get him engaged and working with me and helped him focus less on the environment. I did it a little bit outside the building and he did play so that is hopeful. I didn’t feel I could play inside in the crating area. Too many dogs staring at him. He just not ready for that yet. I will play this once he back at small group classes when he hasn’t lost it before ever entering the building. We have a long way to go before he is going to really be able to handle a trail environment. I will say being crated away in the car or RV does make a difference. However I really did not have the set up and had to crate inside this weekend such is life 🙂 Still I felt we can get there it is just going to take a while. Your thoughts?

PS your dogs were amazing this weekend. I haven’t seen the young ones practice in a while except Flyball Man Nacho and they are really picking it up quickly. I keep putting Voodoo in with the puppies but he is young at heart so he will remain forever young 🙂

[Jill Seamster]

I am glad you decide to disconnect for a day or two. I hope you enjoyed every moment. The weather here has been awesome so I wanted to get a little video. I played around with the Transitions to Trail with a harness and a leash. I started by showing Watson were the rewards were. I felt he was having some trouble with the harness and the leash so I started the game with rewards on me and transition to getting them from the table. I stayed close to the rewards. he did struggle with this and left to chase flies(not on video) 2 times. My session was too long but I did end with lots of play no harness and his favorite toy. I want to make sure I don’t lose value for the tricks. He wasn’t able to play the loop game. I am not sure if it was because we were outside or the leash and harness was involved. either way we are not ready to add that to the tricks run to the treats game yet. Note: the video is long so just skip through it. https://youtu.be/1lBskiR3bLY

Dog walk:
“The last rep looked really lovely – he might be more confident working the DW off your left side? He seemed happier to drive ahead coming towards the camera than moving away from the camera (on your right).”
I think he was less sure driving away as he had mistake that way, so he slows down until he is certain. Also he is still developing confidence on the dog walk. I had him on a different one last week and he wasn’t driving. I think this will come with positive experiences on a variety of dog walks. I will throw a toy during our next sessions as well as cheese straight ahead to build up his speed and confidence before asking for harder turns.

[Jill Seamster]

“He did want to curl in when you were lateral or stopped – when you originally trained his teeter, did you use a target? You can put it back out on the teeter for the training reps where we add the independence.” Yes I taught this with a foot target and will tape it back on in our next session. I think one or two more sessions with the MM and target will really help out.

You know it is going to be a good day when you have finished your training goals before 9:30 AM
I did sequence for success with the dog walk this morning and am super happy with Watson’s performance. I added a cone at each end of the dog walk to help him finish the dog walk and then turn tight as I have only done soft turns with him. I plan on fading them with small cones and then no cones. We had one bobble in which he stopped and turned around on the DW he was following my movement but he worked through it quickly. I shorten the sequences as it is already toasty here.

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