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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).
Hi!
We did sequences 1-3 again with your suggestions.
I don’t know why I didn’t think to use my threadle cue on jump 3 for sequences 1 and 2! I could see her head turn to the correct side of the jump as soon as I said it. 🙄
For sequence 2, I tried staying a little closer to 2 and 3, and that part went well when I was showing her enough information. However, we struggled with forward focus out of the tunnel (0:56). This is a common problem for us. I can get the forward focus on the first obstacle consistently, but I often can’t get her back off of handler focus during the run, and she just stares at me and barks while curling in. I feel like I was decel’ing and maybe that’s what pulled her off the jump, but because she was barking and staring at me as soon as she came out of the tunnel, she wouldn’t drive forward to the jump, and I ran out of room by the time we got there. I could not get her back on obstacle focus. I know I can throw or place a reward out there, but that doesn’t help me during a bigger sequence, so I’m not sure how to fix this common occurrence.
For sequence 3a, I layered the jump as you suggested, and it did work as long as I was in the right spot (imagine that!).
For sequence 3b, I tried to connect better to get a tighter turn after 5, but I’m not sure that I did a good job. It looked about the same to me, lol.
We also did sequences 4-6. I think they went well overall. I noticed she had a hard time jumping #3 in sequence 4, so I tried to give more physical support on the second attempt. She still jumped early but maybe not quite as much?? For the sequences where I did a blind after the serp opening, I think I waited too long, and that gave me a very big turn since she thought she was going to the tunnel. It didn’t feel that wide when I ran it (I guess because I couldn’t see her behind me, lol), but when I watched the video, it was very clear. I think I’m worried that she’ll knock a bar if I blind and leave it “unsupported,” but she does tend to do much better with jumping in collection on the wraps and backsides, so I can probably give her more independence in those spots.
I plan to move on to the jumpers course next rather than do another round with sequences 4-6, especially since the main point was the forward focus, and I think we have that down, at least for the first jump, haha!
Hi!
<<handling from behind as needed, so you can support jumping AND get the hard challenges AND get her to drive ahead.>>
That is exactly what I need! It’s been a difficult change of mindset for me to shift from figuring out how to get ahead of her and doing a lot of blind crosses and big lead outs to walking courses to be there to support her jumping efforts. I can do this on a jump here or there, but it’s proving difficult when it’s more than one in a row since I obviously can’t run as fast as she can.
We got started with the first 3 Hot Topics sequences. Nox is very good at looking at the first jump. I do not really know how I taught it, which is unfortunate because I’m trying to teach it to the puppy, lol! She does not always continue to stare at the jump, but she always acknowledges it if I ask her to.
The challenge we had was on the first 2 sequences, she kept taking the backside of #3. After the 2nd time, I changed the angle of 3 slightly to make it a little easier, and I set her up at 1 so that she wasn’t taking it on such a hard slice, thereby changing the line from 2 to 3. It seemed to help, but there were a couple of times when moving to the 2nd sequence where she took the backside again. I did not get these other two reps on video, which I realized when I went back to watch them, lol.
Hi!
We played the Backside Challenges game. We haven’t done backsides since they were first introduced, so it was a bit hard. She wanted to GO FAST, and the idea of slowing down to take the jump was just silly! I was able to try out the German turn and the crosses after the backside, but it wasn’t very fluent since she wasn’t really taking the backside on her own. Definitely a skill to keep working on!
Quick question about contacts. Do you have any advice for deciding if a person should train a stopped vs a running contact? Katniss is going to be quite fast I think, so keeping up with her is a concern, which makes me lean towards stopped. But I know that to be more competitive, running is preferred by a lot of people, and there’s the idea about a running a-frame being easier on their bodies. I’m not sure how to make the decision, but I’d like to start working on the foundations of one or the other soon. I know this can probably be a complicated answer, but just a brief comment would be appreciated. 🙂
Thank you so much for another amazing class! We are signed up for Max Pup 3, and I’ll be signing up for Camp with Nox. Can’t wait!!
Hi!!
This is the Smile Face: Tunnel Threadles game. We admittedly have not worked on tunnel threadles in a while, and we didn’t spend much time on them. I had one session before this one where it did not go well, so I abandoned the game and went back to the baby level of putting her near the tunnel entrance and just using the verbal with a collar grab. That went pretty well so a couple days later I incorporated it into this game again. It was definitely hard, partly because she doesn’t know the threadle well enough and partly because she doesn’t seem to have a grasp on the difference between a turn and a wrap verbal yet. I tried my best not to rotate towards the tunnel, but I did catch myself doing it a few times. I did not do the whole sequence since I didn’t think she was ready for that yet.
We did the Accordion Grid. I wasn’t sure what her spacing should be now since the last suggestion you gave for the ladder was to go to 4.5 feet, but she’s grown taller and gotten more strength since then. I tried her at 5 feet, but I’m wondering if that’s a good starting place. There is a food bowl with a pre-placed cookie at the end of the line; it’s a bit out of the frame on some of the reps.
Hi!
I am able to move quite a bit better, so I tried out a few more games. Although I posted 4 of them here, I would mostly like feedback on the last video. The others went really well!
This is the Get Out proofing game.
This is the Zig Zag, Part 2 game. She did great with it! The hardest part was not anticipating the stay, which I need to reinforce more before releasing her.
This is the Wind in Your Hair Game- Mission: Transition.
Finally, this is the Rocking Horse Turn Aways Game. I think my arms were a bit flaily (apparently that’s not a real word, lol), especially on the tandem turns. She still figured out what I wanted for the most part as long as I was not on her line. It went pretty good overall, but I’m not very familiar with lap or tandem turns, so I’m less confident in my mechanics.
Hi!
<<Or, the universe is making sure you take your time, no rush 🙂>>
Stop attacking me, lol!! In all seriousness, though, we took a couple days off from any training, and then when she was bouncing off the walls, we did some trick training. I was able to walk without much pain after a few days, so we got back to work on some games.
This is Layering Foundations. It went really well!!
This is the Concept Transfer: Rear Crosses. We still suck at rear crosses, lol. I think I just better plan to always be ahead of this dog somehow so I never have to do a rear cross on course. 😂
Hi!
I’ll keep working on the rear crosses!! I’ll figure it out one day, haha.
This is the Diamond Game. I felt like the “tight” blinds in the beginning were not as tight as they could have been, but I think I was late in showing the cross since I wasn’t trusting her to commit to the wing before I left.
In the moment, I really thought she was getting distracted by the toy in the race track reps, but after watching the video, I think it was a connection issue (surprise!). I also don’t know what the heck I was doing with my arms, lol. I was attempting to use regular connection as opposed to extreme connection, but it seems that I ended up with flailing instead. I KNOW I should have given her the toy or a reset cookie at least and then either stopped or made it easier. This poor puppy! I think the sequences went well at least.
I managed to injure myself at a trial this past weekend (it was such a beautiful premier jumpers run with Nox until 3 jumps from the end, ugh!). I think it’s just a bad strain, but I can’t run just yet. I had already recorded this video before I did that, but I’m hoping I can play some of the remaining games before the end of the class. I know some of them would work, like the layering game, for example. But I might be doing some of them on my own sadly. Between being sick so many times this year (thanks to the germ factory I work in, i.e. a school), the weather, and now this, I think the universe just doesn’t want me to train this pup, lol!
Hi!
We did the Wind in Your Hair game with rear crosses again. It definitely went better than the last time thanks to your feedback. It was still uncomfortable for both of us, though, I think. I really wish I could have gone to your rear cross workshop that you did at LU!! There was one spot where I messed up and then didn’t reward her. 🙁 I kept a funny blooper at the beginning just because she’s cute and makes me laugh, haha. Clearly I need to keep using a leash even in the backyard!
This is the serp and threadle proofing game. It went really well overall! I could see the wheels turning in her head on this one, lol!
Hi!
We’ll go back to the find the jump game to work on looking ahead!
We did the Wind in Your Hair, part 2 game. The rear crosses were a struggle. I have had a lot of issues with trying to do rear crosses with Nox, so it’s no surprise that I’m struggling again, lol. Even when doing the prop game with Katniss, it was hard for her to go in the correct direction. I tried a few different approaches with changing the reward and where it was coming from; I had the most success with a placed reward based on your suggestion for the find the jump game. Hopefully that strategy applies here, too, lol. The backside wraps were easier.
Hi!!
<This game actually builds to a jump grid for slice and backside jumping, and that will make it easier to get the 5 wing added in too>
I guess that means we have to come back to it at some point for real then, haha!!
<She did well with the ladder grid, even when she sat backwards LOL!!!!>
She cracks me up!!
This is our attempt at the Find the Jump game. It went well for the most part. I was able to get a decent distance away from the jump laterally on several reps. After watching the video, I don’t think I showed her the picture with me ahead and lateral as much as I could have. It felt like a bigger distance in real life than what it looked like in the video, lol. Is it a concern that she’s looking at me on every rep instead of straight ahead? I know we’re in the beginning stages of this skill, but I want to start it out right since it has been such a difficult skill for Nox; I don’t want to mess it up, haha.
Hi!
<<There is no catch up week, per se, but there are quieter weeks and plenty of time at the end of class to finish up 🙂 Hope you are feeling better!!!!>>
That’s good to know! My plan to get caught up during spring break didn’t go well, lol. Thankfully, I am FINALLY feeling better!
<<OMG what a nut! She is hilarious!!! She is doing the Inner Pillbug Game – super tight turns LOL!!!!!!! And Nox was angry because it was against the rules LOL!!!!!>>
Haha!! Yes, she is SUCH a nut!!! She has quite the personality. And Nox very much tattles when anyone breaks the rules, except her, of course. 😂
We took another try at the Zig Zag game, but we still couldn’t get all 5 wings. When I added the 5th one, she just ran straight to me instead of going between any of them. I tried on another session to put the MM between the first two wings to reinforce staying on the line, and she was good with it until I tried to get to the last wing again. I didn’t get that on video of course. I like this game, and I think we’ll come back to it at some point because I can see some value in reading crosses from a distance, but for the time being, I think we’ll take a break from it for now, lol.
We also did the Sends and Serps game again. I tried the advanced level since she was doing well with the baby level. She did a couple of good reps with the wing moved back, but then she struggled with getting the backside. I realized we hadn’t actually done the backside foundations game in Max Pup 1 and she was really just relying on my handling to get the backside, so I went back and did the game with the barrel and the jump bump. She picked that up really fast, so then we did the send and serp game again. We definitely need to keep working on the backside to get it as an independent verbal behavior, but I’m pretty happy with how it is going so far.
Finally, we did the ladder grid foundations. It went well. No questions here really. 🙂
Hi!
I really like the Toys Not Flesh games! We have played them a couple of times; I think they will really help us if we keep practicing them.
Is there by any chance a catch up week built into this class like some of your others have had? I thought I’d able to do a couple sessions each day this week to get caught up from being sick and some bad weather, but I decided it was a good idea to get sick again (and on the first day of Spring Break, ugh!). I’m finally feeling better after getting some meds, but we’re a bit more behind now, so I need to figure out what to spend my time on.
We did the Serps and Sends game. We really had to start from scratch with this game since we haven’t gotten past the first strike a pose game in Max Pup 1. I started with using the target in my hand and standing still while calling her over the jump. I was able to very quickly move to fading the target and add some motion. (I didn’t include the very beginning steps in the video.)
We also tried the Zig Zag game. That was a fun one! I actually played it with Nox as well before trying with Katniss, and the issue must be me since they both did really great until I added the 5th wing. I think I was just too slow for how fast they were going. I’m going to blame it on being sick, lol.
Katniss played the Pill Bug game again, but she didn’t invite me. She thinks you should make update the rules of how to play, lol.
Turns out the tunnel was somehow filled with rain water that she was rolling in. She was very crunchy after this game of hers, haha!!
