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Hi!
<<Either we get out there at 6am, or we don’t get out there. Last night was pleasant after the massive storm blew through! But too wet to do any agility so we just toodled around while the whippets raced LOL!>>
I’ve tried the early mornings, but everything is usually soaked with dew until about 9 or so. I managed to get a couple of days of training in, but it looks like this tropical storm rolling through this week is going to get us further behind. It wouldn’t be so bad if I wasn’t trying to keep up with Max Pup 3 at the same time, as well as get in some fitness work and jump training for both dogs, lol. I need about 20 more hours in the day plus an indoor training facility where weather and time of day doesn’t matter! 😂 Whippet toodling sounds like fun, lol!!
<<One note for all of the sequences – since a lot of the big lines and layering is setup with a tunnel before it, you should cue her to go jump *before* she enters the tunnel. You were cuing the tunnel but then getting quiet and the jump cues were coming as she exited. If you cue it before, you will get more locking onto the next line (and throw lots of rewards out on that line).>>
So, I have a question about this. I get the concept of cueing before going in the tunnel, and I should definitely have been doing that. But…. recently someone watched me running (I can’t remember if it was for something I videoed or not), and they told me that Nox often jumps when I give the verbal jump cue. Is it possible that she’s relying on my verbal to tell her where to take off? If so, is something that could be helpful and reasonably sustainable? I hesitate to become responsible for that skill since I’m not sure how good I would be at it. I don’t even know if this really is happening consistently or if it was just a coincidence. But if it could help support her, I’d be willing to consider the idea.
Well, the Hot Topics games for package 3 were quite challenging for us! Driving lines and circle wraps are two of our weak spots, and these had both, lol. I did not include all of the training we did in the video, of course, but just so you know what we worked on, after there were two failures on the circle wrap on #3, I just practiced the circle wrap and rewarded on her line several times before putting it back together. Also, even though I am wearing the same shirt (I have two of them, haha), these clips were taken over the course of 3 days. The first one is obvious since it’s getting dark (sorry if it’s hard to see!), but the other two days with the same shirt are smushed together. I did the circle wrap independently on both of the daylight sessions. I would get some really nice circle wraps when it was just the one jump, and I got a couple of good ones in sequence, but then right after that I would get the barking and refusals. I watched the videos to see if I could see something different in my body cues, but I am a bit baffled about what was going on. Do we just need more practice with the skill out of this context before adding speed and obstacles before? We are much better with the backside push wrap, but I couldn’t get down the line fast enough most times for that.
<<The #1 thing will be to throw rewards all along the jumping lines… not just at the end of a sequence and not for the tunnel (she has plenty of value for the tunnel at this point).>>
I needed to be better about this on the last two jumps especially in these sequences. I did it a few times on the 2nd to last jump, but not always. I also know I should have thrown it earlier on the last jump to get her to not look at me.
Hi!
<<So for her, as an adolescent dog, I do not recommend having another dog nearby watching – that adds too much pressure and takes up too my valuable brain bandwidth >>
I have been trying to work on some FOMO feelings with stationing one dog and having the other do some relatively unexciting things while the other waits their turn and then switching after a very short time. I’m not sure that it’s actually helped at all (Katniss still usually throws a fit if I take Nox outside in the backyard or out of the car to work…), but that wasn’t my goal here. I was just being lazy by not putting all the other critters away, lol. Clearly it worked so well! You can see the look of defeat on my face after the first few seconds. I realized it was a bad idea (yet I still tried. Hmmm…. 🤣).
<<One of the things you can add now to get the hind end isolated it so start her on a the board in a 2o2o position>>
Done! Here is round 2 of the teeter slam game. She seems pretty confident with it. 🙂
This is the motion override game again. I think it went better than the first time, but it’s still a work in progress for sure! I had a hard time getting her to stop focusing so much on my hands even when I wasn’t trying to use them as part of the cue. I also had the issue of her sitting but then getting up as I continued to move away if I tried to get even a couple of seconds of duration. I didn’t want to keep releasing and throwing the food instantly since I thought it would be hard to add in duration if I did that too long.
This is the Wingin’ It: Countermotion Commitment Game. I think I could have left a little earlier on some of the reps, but other than that, I was pretty happy with it!
Hi!
We’ve been back from our vacation for almost a week now, but it’s just been so darn hot that we haven’t gotten too much done. 🔥🫠
We started with the Live Class Sequences all the way back from package 2. She did pretty well on most of the skills, but we had a few trouble spots. The backside was tricky the first couple of times, but then we got it on attempt 3 (when I got it right, haha).
The layering of the jumps was the hardest part, but I think this goes back to her difficulty with jumping in general. She prefers that I’m near her and then she’s happy to take the jumps. She’s much more likely to go out to a tunnel or something else on her own, which is partly why I think it’s her jumping confidence. I’m not sure how much progress we’ll make with layering big jump lines. I haven’t given up on the skill, but I would never ask her to do that in a trial, so I will have to keep working on other ways to handle things when that’s not an option for us.
We did not put the whole thing together for sequence 2 because she was melting by the end of our session. It was after 10pm, but it was still super hot and humid, so I called it a night for her. We should be able to play with this set up one more time and include sequence 3 with the tunnel layer sometime in the next few days weather permitting. 🙂
Hi!
I will work on the exit line connection more! I feel like it’s better than it used to be, but I definitely have a ways to go! It’s funny that all the dogs I’ve run in the past have somehow made do with my terrible connection that I didn’t even know was a problem. I’m sure their turns were wide and such, but they always figured out what side to be on. They were all quite a bit slower, so I guess that probably helped them to see the line by the time I was done with the cross. They could also all do rear crosses with me, lol!
We played the teeter slam game. We started on a wobble board, which she has been on as a puppy, but it’s been a little while, and we never isolated her rear feet on the board. The first 50 seconds are really just a long blooper reel, lol. I guess we were working on distractions at the same time? I thought I’d do some training inside one night since it had been too hot to do much outside. I then remembered why I don’t train in the house much, haha. Nox was supposed to be on a Cato Board a few feet away, but she heard me say “break” to Kat and thought it was for her. Then the cats came over to see what they could scavenge. The black one was trying to sneak cookies from my treat pouch. We then took the game outside yesterday to the teeter since she doesn’t seem to have any concerns about movement or noise, and there were no cats out there. 🤣
We also did the Go Straight, Four Ways game. Most of it went well, but I still failed pretty hard at rear crosses, lol. I think I’m just going to make sure I never ever have to do one in a course. I’m just going to get ridiculous distance and layering skills on my dogs and not do any rear crosses. That’s a legit strategy, right?? 🤣 I’m so sad I couldn’t go to your rear cross workshop you did a couple months ago. I think I need an entire class or private lessons on them, haha.
We didn’t get to do the backsides in the sequence because she got too hot and needed a break.
Hi!
<<She had some of the best distance work and commitment I’ve ever seen her do! Yay!!>>
Yes, those runs felt really good despite not being clean! I was so pleased with her!!
<<Small detail for a tighter line: You can give the get out cue with the upper body and opposite arm on the jump after the a-frame as soon as you release from the frame so she turned directly to it, rather than going stride for a couple of strides then turning to it.>>
I think I was worried about getting the backside of that jump, so I was a little more conservative with my handling there. I didn’t need a threadle cue or verbal, but I did consider it when I walked it depending on where she was looking coming off the frame. I wouldn’t have thought to give an “out” there. Interesting point!
<<you accidentally pulled her off the jump>>
Story of my life, lol!
<<She had a question on the RC at 17 at 1:02 – the cue looked like a decelerated FC wrap then you pushed in and she was confused (and gave her opinion 🙂>>
I felt like I got stuck right on top of the jump. I was so worried about getting there on time that I didn’t handle the line, and since it was my nemesis (aka rear crosses), I wasn’t able to think on my feet to save it.
This is our attempt at Package 2, Standard Course 2. It was not nearly as pretty as the first one, lol, but there was some good stuff in there for sure. Since she got the opening with no problem and it was quite hot, I did not worry about doing the whole course again in its entirety. (That’s a really big step for me just so you know, lol!!) She was not as strong on the commitment in the weaves, but she finally got them. We ran this a couple of days ago, and she got adjusted soon after this run, and she had 4 ribs and a shoulder out (probably thanks to a little football player who goes by the name of Katniss!), so that might have been why she wasn’t as happy to do them.
I did not get to the jump early enough to show a backside at 7 the first time through, so I just went with it. We got the threadle wrap the first time, but after that it was tricky. It is not a skill we’re super strong in, but she usually will at least come in for the threadle slice even if she doesn’t turn the right way when I give the verbal. I think I had too much forward motion going into the tunnel, but I also couldn’t get her to look at me for anything, lol. She was like “I got this! Go fast!” In the spot where we missed it a couple times, I ended up calling her name and giving her hand touch cue, and the touch cue is what got her attention. That’s obviously not the way I’d like to continue training that, but it’s good to know it’ll work in the moment, lol. I know the threadle wrap after the tunnel under the dog walk was ALL me, haha!! I wasn’t in the right spot at all and just showed forward motion.
It just occurred to me that I can take full advantage of her stopped contacts to get forward focus on the next obstacle just like a start line. We often have issues after the stop because she gets handler-focused and won’t look at the line. I’m not sure why it took me so long to connect these two ideas, but it will for sure be used in the future! I do release her a lot faster than at 1:12 typically, but since I knew she wasn’t looking at the line at all and it was a rear cross turn moment, I took the extra time and steps forward to show her.
I won’t get a chance this summer to try this course again since it has been dismantled to mow the grass, but I may come back to it at some point. It was super fun and worked a lot of challenging skills! We are going out of town today for a week, so I won’t be posting for a little while. I’ll start back up with the next Hot Topic sequences when we get back. 🙂 I hope your trip to Canada is a lot of fun!!
Hi!
As for training with other people and having them throw the toy, I unfortunately don’t get to train often with other people, and most of the people I could possible train with don’t use toys or thrown rewards (I’m trying so hard to convert them, lol). Every now and again the stars line up just right and I get to run with Nicole Davilli, and she uses toys, but she’s also very likely to hit me in the head with it. 🤣 There’s a story behind that, lol!! I will have to work on planning the reward throws ahead of time and then actually do it!
I’m glad you’re extending camp a bit this year! It’s either been too hot to play outside, it’s been raining, or there’s so much dew on the ground in the morning before it gets super hot (but then it rains or is hot by the time it’s gone 🤣). There seems to be no in between except at 2am!! I haven’t been able to do a lot of the MaxPup 3 games for the same reason. It’s so frustrating!
We did the standard course from package 2 since I did the jumpers one from package 1. I figured I’ll probably try to alternate between them this year since the weather is just not cooperating!
I am soooo happy with how well she did on this course! We didn’t run it clean out of the 3 times we did it (two different days), but there were only 2 trouble spots. Not surprisingly, they were both with the tunnel under the dog walk. I’d get it in one direction and then mess it up in the other, lol. Her lines weren’t perfect, and she had to get back out on the right line a couple times, but I’m just happy she went out and did the things by herself with so much distance! I know that I pulled her off the line when she didn’t take the things. I was anticipating getting to the next spot too much, so I was turning early.
I included the first time we attempted it, but I didn’t add the 2nd run since the video quality wasn’t great; I waited until it wasn’t quite so hot but that means it was getting dark. The second run in the video was our 3rd and final attempt.
Hi!
<<Remember to use your markers for the thrown rewards, so she is continuing to look forward. You did sometimes but add them all the time>>
I still need to be more consistent with this! I’ll keep working on it!
We worked on the fluffy blinds again since there were some spots I needed to work on connection. I think it went better this time! I also added in the front crosses.
We also did the Send and Go and Blind to the Tunnel games. It went well overall. I think she was getting hot in the first couple of reps. She took a break in the AC while I worked Nox and did much better the last couple of reps.
Finally, we did the rear crosses with this same set up. The rear crosses to the right were hard at first, but then I broke it down and just did the rear cross without the speed, and then it went much better when I put it all back together! Turning her to the left was much easier. Do you think her turning the wrong way was due to me not showing the line well (or on time), or is this still just a training issue?
Hi!
I have some videos of the package 2 games that we ran last week, but the videos are all mixed together and copied in different time and in multiple places, so those will be forthcoming soon after I sort them all out. Not sure how that mess happened, haha.😵💫
This was our first attempt at the motion override game. She wanted me to tell you that she thinks this game is super hard and dumb, lol!! What she really wanted to do was run and GO FAST, but since we had to wait until it was “cool” enough to play anything outside, this is what she got, haha. We haven’t done a lot of training on the front porch, so she was a bit distracted by the neighbors talking on their porch across the street and ALL THE BUGS (super fun toys and snacks!). I could not get her to sit on just a verbal. She typically will sit without a hand signal, but with the distractions of the environment and my movement, she just could not do it. I tried adding in the hand signal with the hope of fading it out quickly, but even that was hard. We will be trying this one again for sure!
Hi!
We did sequences 1 and 2 and the bonus sequence from the live class. It was too hot to attempt the warm-up sequences again, but I tried to apply everything you mentioned to these. specifically, I tried to keep my arms lower for the brake arms, and it felt more natural. On sequence 2 with the circle wrap at 2, I was showing her the line to the other jump. She corrected to the backside, but it took her a while to know where we were going. How should I have shown that differently from the other sequences where it WAS the other jump? I felt like if I turned my shoulders more towards the jump, it would have broken connection and gotten me an angry dog, lol.
<<Remember to throw the toy miles away here too, lots of reward was dropped near you.>>
I was successful a couple of times with this, but not every time. On the last rep, I realized I threw it really close, so I took a couple of steps back (not really on purpose, but my brain was telling me I was too close to the toy). Does that count? 😂FYI- I mislabeled the last sequence as “Sequence 2, attempt 2,” but it was actually the bonus sequence at the end.
This is our attempts at the Hot Topics from Package 2. I am obviously not at home in the video, and the sequence has already been taken down, so I won’t get a chance to do the last couple of sequences, but I am very happy with how well she did on all of these!
We had to review the German turn and the threadle wrap (which I am now thinking I called a circle wrap in the video, whoops!) a couple of times, but then we were able to apply it to the whole sequences at speed. I’m not sure how much ahead I really got doing the threadle wrap since I had to support it a bit longer than I would have liked, but we really haven’t practiced that one too much.
I did a terrible job throwing the reward away from me. I’m going to get it right at some point, lol, I swear!!
I apologize for the dog barking about halfway through. She was probably 60 feet or more away from the camera, but it sounds like she was right next to it. Ugh! She’s not my dog, so not much I could do about it in the moment. 🙃
Hi!!
We finally got to play some package 2’s games! It has been sooo hot, even in the morning. Kat also hurt her shoulder last week (wiped out pretty hard when she was being a goof), but she looks and feels good and has been given the all clear by her chiro.
This is a video of the lazy game parts 2 and 3, wraps, and “fluffy” blinds. We didn’t get to do the front cross thanks to it being hot and the rain was rolling in. We’ll try that when we do the other half of the games in this package, though. I’m most excited about the forward focus she’s giving me when I ask her to look at the jump!! That’s a skill that we’ve just started working on in the last couple of weeks with set point, and I think the lightbulb has finally turned on, and it’s transferring to the obstacle and not just her toy!
Hi!
<<She went to the other side of the tunnel at 2:14 and that is also rewardable out on the line, even though she did not make it all the way out to the jumps>>
I didn’t really think of that as a way to split the behavior, but it totally makes sense.
You gave me lots of good things to think about. I don’t know why I can’t get the reward placement thing down when I’m running my own dog! I see the right placement when other people are running, haha.
This is our attempt at the Live sequences. I have never really used brake arms purposefully before, so it felt a bit awkward to run with my arms out, lol. When I was trying to get the 180 or the wrap out of the tunnel, I got a few refusals (a couple are not included). I didn’t intend to do a front cross on the very last rep for the wrap instead of the tunnel exercise since that sort of defeats the purpose of the exercise, but it was too hot to run it again. We didn’t do the last sequence either for the same reason.
<<There were a couple of spots that I think she doesn’t fully understand the skill (see below) so in those spots you don’t have to keep going: when she gets the skill or even part of it, throw the reward to really build up the skill. That is more important than trying to run the complete sequence.>>
I rewarded her several times when she struggled to take the jump, but this is obviously still a hard skill for her. I actually played the lazy game I have set up for Katniss for Max Pup to work on this skill. I never played that with her, and I can see that being a really helpful for her. She did well with the jumps for the most part (although she did skip a couple), but she really didn’t want to go in the tunnel initially even when I was right on top of it. I really don’t get her sometimes! She was perfectly happy to go out to the tunnel in the Live sequences, but when it was super easy to get in the tunnel and I was there to support her, she wouldn’t go. She’s mind boggling, lol!
Hi!!
This is our attempt at the 2nd jumpers course from package 1. There was only one attempt that I did not include, so this was pretty much all of our work on this course.
There were a couple of spots where things didn’t go as planned, and I tried to keep going although it was tricky in a couple of spots like near the weaves since there was really nothing else to send her on a line to.
Would our “conversation” at 2:35 be an acceptable TTFJ moment? I felt like during the run I was clearly telling her to get out to that line other than the decel and eventual stopping since she would not drive ahead, and when I watched the video, I still felt like I was showing the line. After she stopped barking at me, she did go take the line like I had asked her. There were also a couple of these at the #10 jump and #11 tunnel.
I know she missed her weave entry due to poor handling and on that same rep she didn’t finish the last couple of poles.
She knocked the bar on jump #3 a few times. I felt like I started my front cross early enough to show her we were turning, but I guess she disagreed. I did the front instead of a blind because I thought it would help her collect before the jump and NOT drop the bar.
I think we’re going to move on to the Live class Brake Arm stuff next rather than trying this course again. I’m ready for something different, and I really need to mow my grass, lol. I am very interested in the Brake Arm info!!
Hi!
We played the One-step send game. I had a hard time not running too far past the tunnel, lol.
We also did the mountain climbers game. I don’t love the techniques I’ve used in the past to teach teeters, so I’m excited to try out your way! I decided I am too short to pick her up from the top, lol. She was trying to eat the cookies in my hand while I was trying to pick her up, so that didn’t help either. But she seems fine turning around on her own although I feel better if I put my hand on her to make sure she is careful with her foot placement.
Finally, we did another round of the plank games. I put the plank on cinder blocks and made sure to have her jump on and off from the middle of the board. She didn’t seem to have any trouble with the added height. 🙂
We haven’t tried the lazy game again yet (too hot to do much outside!), but we’ll give that another try soon. I will move the jump out, not give any help for the middle jump, and I’ll use some cheese. To answer your question about what “search” means, it’s typically just one cookie. I think she was just having a hard time finding the cookie, and a couple of times, I think she was finding a cookie she missed previously. I do need to work on that skill more outside of the agility context. She does not generally snuffle around in the grass while we’re working except to eat the cookie I throw.
<<The class goes into the teeter foundation and some RDW and some stopped contact foundation, so you can start with these games here and then finish the obstacles themselves later in the summer. How old is Kat? Maybe start weaves in late summer/early fall so you won’t feel overloaded at all?>>
She’ll be a year in a couple of weeks. I’m actually not even sure when I’ll get the rest of my weaves to start that training. My husband got me a set of 6 poles for Christmas not realizing I will need all 12 pretty quickly. He got the 3-in-1 Clip and Go ones that can do channels or 2x2s (I didn’t even know they existed, lol). They are a bit different than other channels I’ve seen, so I’m hoping they work well for teaching using channels (something I’ve never done before!). Unfortunately, they are sold out at the moment, so late summer/early fall might be perfect, haha! As for the teeter and contacts, I’ll do as you suggested and play the games in this class before worrying about the rest of the skills. We have just started really working on introducing jump grids anyway, so between this class, grids with both dogs, and CAMP with Nox, I’ve got PLENTY to work on, lol!!
Hi!
I was not happy with the work we did on the first jumpers course. I probably could have written most of what you said to me and saved you the time, lol. I KNOW I’m not supposed to go back and fix things, and I KNOW that it frustrates her when I stop. Yet, here we are, haha!
<<You reacted and put her into a down stay – that is likely to be perceived as a punishment to the dog >>
I can see why the dog might perceive that as a punishment even though I have used it differently than a lot of people. I’ve never yelled “down” at her like some do, and I always verbally praise her and throw cookies at her when I reset the bar. I then will often do a cookie scatter when I release her on the way back to restart. I didn’t put all of that in the video, but even with that, I suppose that it would still be negative to a dog who finds moving her body to be very rewarding. I don’t always put her a down (as in, it’s not a planned training response), and I’ve always thought of it as a way to stop the barking and keep her from leaving to run the fence and bark at imaginary dogs that could maybe possibly be outside in the neighbor’s yard. But I don’t want my training to be perceived as aversive to her, so I will stop doing this.
<<There was some confusion on jump 11 – it is a front side>>
Yep, it sure is, lol! Clearly I need to read the course map better. I thought it was a tricky line, but you’ve given us plenty of other tricky things to do, so I didn’t think too much of it. I should have at least checked the map when I was struggling with it so much, haha. (I did actually try to get her to do a threadle slice instead of a wrap in one of the attempts I didn’t include in the video, and I just couldn’t get from the wrap at 10 to the correct place in time.) It went much better as a front side. 😂
I took some notes before going out to train again (you can see them in the video as a reminder to myself for what I was working on when I watch it again later, haha). In the first rep, I didn’t show her the line to 4, and she curled in and barked at me, so I made up something else and then rewarded. She was still a little mad since she knew it was wrong, but probably not as mad as if I had stopped or argued with her about going out to the jump.
At :52, I was attempting to do a rear cross and turn her to the right, but as you know, I struggle with those, lol. She stopped, so I was able to do a wrap to the left and throw her back over the jump to go to the right instead. Hopefully this is an acceptable means to “keep going”?
She did her weaves beautifully although I’d like the threadle to be smoother to the jump after. She has a trained threadle, but it’s not something we’ve worked on for a little while. I think I was worried about getting the front side of the jump, so I was pulling her back too far before turning her instead of letting her find the line based on the trained skill.
I know she probably has the course memorized by now, and it wasn’t “clean”, but I’m still super happy with this run!!
Hi!
We moved on to the jumpers course, and it was not pretty, lol. The first attempt is broken into several parts because I kept having to stop because she was just so wound up. In hindsight, perhaps I should have ended the session and tried to do some pattern games or a snuffle or just come back to it later. She seemed extra barky and unfocused. When she screams at me constantly, it makes it difficult for me to focus on good mechanics and all the pieces of what I’m supposed to do (throw the reward far away, keep my arm back, decel, don’t decel, etc.). When I stopped her after knocking the bar a couple of times, my goal was not necessarily to mark the bar coming down but rather to try to bring her back down mentally. If she starts taking off miles before she should, it often leads to more of that if we keep running when she’s in this arousal state. I don’t think it was effective, lol.
I couldn’t figure out why she wouldn’t do jump 8 until after I watched the video multiple times and then later that night it dawned on me that it wasn’t a backside for her, and that’s the verbal I kept giving her. I think she was smarter than me and was confused about what I wanted. I got the other side of the jump a couple of times (not included in the video), which would make sense for a backside from her perspective I supposed. I finally realized that “jump” or “out” would suffice and she took it without a problem. I’m not really sure why she wouldn’t do her weaves with me far away. She used to be really good at weaves from a distance even with me behind her, but my best guess is that we have spent so much time working on jump grids the last few months that we’re a bit rusty with everything else. Since she wouldn’t do them independently, I couldn’t get to the right spot for a proper threadle. I tried handling the jump as a backside, but it put me so far behind that I didn’t have time to get to the right spot for the next section after the tunnel (again, I don’t think that rep is in the video).
