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Hi Tracy,
Hola and I played some games this afternoon and then again this evening. Some of these games are from week 4 even though I haven’t done all the prior games. Tomorrow I’m going to get more organized and make a list of what we need to do, although some of the games I still won’t be able to do until my back is completely healed. It’s doing much better by the way but don’t want to take any chances on a setback.
We repeated backing up game inside so that she wouldn’t back all the way over the prop like she did outside. I used a cato board by itself first and then propped it up against the big disc. What is the next step with this, something even more wobbly? I am noticing a bit more sensitivity to noise and putting her feet on new objects lately so I have on my list to get back to doing more of this sort of thing like we did when she was much younger.
We did the strike a pose game demo’d in live class since I figured that was fairly safe (no serious twisting or running). She caught onto this game fairly quickly I thought. I was wondering after watching my videos if I need to have both of my arms extended out? The one with the target and the other pointing ahead of me? Didn’t have too much problem adding the toy. 🙂
In the turn away game we worked on this 4 or 5 times before getting a better rhythm and part of the problem I realized was that I was stepping back too soon. As soon as I kept my feet together until she got closer as you explained it worked much better! The prop also took a little work. I know now that I should have done the parallel prop games first, but this was fresh on my mind from last night so we did it. I’ll go back and do the other in the next day or so and then repeat this game again. I did the exercise before seeing your response to my question and realize I shouldn’t have been pointing at the prop and that makes perfect sense, especially since this is the next step after the parallel prop games. I just wasn’t sure at the time whether to indicate it or not. In a few of the reps I don’t think I did point and she still hit it. A couple of questions: am I flipping my hand too fast on the turn away and I should try to throw the treat on the line past the prop, right? That exercise did take more work than the others for both of us!
Late this evening decided to do the beginner retrieve and tug games. She LOVES to tug, retrieves pretty well in the house, retrieves her ball in the yard, and sometimes retrieves a tug toy in the yard quickly sometimes not so quickly. It’s usually much quicker if I have a 2nd toy but I don’t always use one and she eventually does bring the toy back to play with me. I just haven’t been able to do much of that with her lately.
Tracy, is the cue to take the prop in the MCH exercise a hand signal indicating the prop as you walk towards it after the lap turn?
Perfect, Tracy. Thanks! We’ll work on those things.
And no, I wasn’t saying anything outside so I’ll start saying “get it” when I toss the cookie and will do that as soon as I get a glance my way. I did work a little retrieve with “bite” and “out” in a corner with a Wubba last night (no tugging involved). It’s amazing how quickly she picked up on the “bite” cue. 🙂
Looking forward to tonight!
Hi Tracy, you have the best feedback. Thank you for the tip on smaller arm movements and longer toy.
First the bad news. That twist I did last Friday really screwed up my back and got worse over the weekend to the point I was in so much pain it took my breath away any time I tried to stand up, sit down, lay down, bend over, you name it. I couldn’t even put my socks on or tie my shoes. Yikes! The good news is that I got in to see my Osteopath yesterday morning on a cancellation and she was able to work on it. She said my Sacrum had slipped. It was about 8-9 on the pain scale over the weekend and it’s already down to 4-5. Hopefully it will keep getting better after a few more days of rest. Now I know what crate rest must feel like. 😉 That said, I can’t do anything with running, turning or tugging until I’m 100% sure my back is better. BUMMER! That barrel game was so much fun we wanted to do more! The poor dogs are so bored but I’ve been doing a little nosework with them so that keeps them happy.
I did get little Hola out for some backing up and patterns today. Question on the backing up, should I drop the treat between her front feet instead of handing it to her? I’m still trying not to do much bending. Thinking I can continue to work on prop sends and maybe do the parallel lines walking exercise, too. If you think of any others we could work on let me know. I’ve been sticking close to home.
Backing Up 2
Patterns
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Hi Tracy, this is the first thing I’ve done in about a week and now I”m feeling pressure, LOL!
I already taught Hola backing up using the method where her hind feet are on a mat, I’m fairly close and put a treat by my feet that she eats and then backs back up to her mat with me eventually moving farther and farther away. It worked great for her. I tried teaching it tossing treats towards her and it was a complete mess so I found the mat method on YouTube awhile ago. Hola has already done turning around on a low plank, wobbly fitness disks and fitbones, tugging in different environments. She seemed to really catch onto the word “bite” for the toy when we played a little of that the other day! I can get video of any of these if you like.I wanted to try one of Wednesday’s games with her so we did the Turn and Burn today since that looked like fun. Now I’m sitting here at my computer with ice on my hip because I pulled a muscle when reaching the toy across my body, ugh. I knew I was out of shape and that if I wanted to do agility with Hola I needed to start exercising and this is why. So that goes on my to do list, too. After I did that things didn’t go quite as well but we did a few more reps. 🙁
I hope we did this game right and not sure if we got to the advanced stage or not. I think I was too close to the popup barrel at first and I think I’m too slow leaving. I was using the word “push” but is that a wrap cue? Do you use a different word for wrap left vs wrap right? I’d like to know some of your suggested wrap cue words. At this point I’m going to have to wait a few days before I do any more running so we’ll concentrate on some of the other things from weeks 2 and 3. Can you tell any right or left turn preference after watching her on this video? We did both ways in 1 session with just a short break in between so she was a little hot in the second half when turning to her left. I was having trouble myself moving at the end, but did a few more reps in that direction.
Enjoy your weekend! I wish I lived closer or I would have loved to join in the fun and learning at Brain Camp!
Glad I signed up for Sessions 1 and 2 Brain Camp today! I am looking forward to learning even more about this aspect although I may need to watch after the fact.
😀 😀 😀 I guess I was thinking more in terms of the tug anywhere type thing. We will do more do nothing walks from now on. Thanks for the great explanation it makes so much sense now. I needed that!
Edited to add: and work on just chill and watch dog agility when we visit local trials. She was pretty good at that in the stands at the US Open. I remember years ago just starting out with Topper we couldn’t get anywhere near the rings, he would scream with excitement, LOL!
I wanted to report on the past few days. I took your advice and we are taking 2 or 3 days off of any formal training exercises. What I wanted to share is related to the resilience walks and tugging anywhere exercise.
A few days ago we went to a park where I wanted to train nosework with Gingji and while we waited awhile after I set her hides I took Hola for a walk all around the park. There were lots of things to sniff, bleachers and concrete stadium seats to climb on, and a big playground with kids! A few of the kids were sitting in the window of a pavilion near the playground and when they saw us I could see they wanted to see the doggy. As they hopped down and came running towards us Hola got really excited so I moved her farther away and gave these kids a hand signal to stop. They came closer slower, and I asked them to wait until Hola could calm down a bit and then I let her visit. She was good, no jumping or mauling and the tail was going a mile a minute.
Today we went back to the same park and walked around again. At one point I really needed to go if you get my drift so we went into one of the park restrooms, which I normally try to avoid. I let Hola peek in these the other day, she wasn’t thrilled about coming into the handicapped stall with me but she put up with me and did. If she didn’t come along in a hurry I was going to wet my pants! Anyway, she wasn’t freaked out and even tugged with me just inside the door before we left, lol.
On the way home we stopped at a busy WalMart and tugged in the parking lot where forklifts were zipping around with boxes they were removing from a truck. We went into the garden center to see the pointsettias and tugged there, then walked around to the other end where there were bicycles and other things lined up for sale. People walking by also pushing carts, she tugged with me everywhere. I even held her by the collar and tossed the toy for a send a few times and she was totally into it (of course this was on a 6′ leash). I had my GoPro head harness on to try to get it but since she was so close tugging, couldn’t really see anything on video so not worth sharing. I feel lucky she loves tugging so much, and seem to always be able to engage with the tug easier than treats, but we do work on that, too. She does want to say hi to people if we are just walking, but doesn’t care if people walk by if we are playing.
We’ve visited agility trials and the World Equestrian Center when horse shows are going on quite a few times. We actually went to the UKI Open in Jax when you were there a few weeks ago and although she was a little overwhelmed when she got out of the van and couldn’t take a treat we did end up walking all around the outdoor rings getting some tugging in, walked around the vendor/food area, visited with Beverly (wish I’d been smart enough to pre-schedule a massage!) and finally sat in the arena seating together where she watched dogs running (the finish jump was right below us!) and she tugged with me while sitting in the stands and also did hand touches and other tricks, as well as chilling. I do try to hit the local agility trials and get her where she can see the dogs running and engage in tug with me but don’t get very close to other dogs/people or to the ring. Now that the weather is decent (not HOT) and trials have started up again we can get back to doing this. If you have additional advice for Hola visiting trials I’m all ears!
As far as tugging on low value and high value tug toys, I’ve probably done too much same value tug toys and need to work on this and see what happens. Anyway, long story short, we have done this quite a few times already and are open to suggestions. Wish I had some video to share, but I think she’s done pretty well so far. I’m trying to be super careful because she’s in that age of the 2nd fear period.
Thanks! 😀
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Hi Tracy, based on your great feedback I did do-overs of some of the exercises.
On the blind cross foundation I tried to keep the toy closer to me as suggested and in one of the sessions I used a longer toy. I don’t think I did as well as I should have but when she’s racing towards me and grabbing for the tug I’m more than a little afraid of her tripping me up. Did the best I could. Any other suggestions?
This is the decel and turn with moving a little more at first into a decel and hopefully with my hand lower as suggested.
I wanted to try the prop send with a toy to see if she could send away from me if I was holding a toy, and she did. A few times she stopped short of the prop but I held my position and she went to the prop, but should I have rewarded her back at me if she was a foot or so away from the prop?
I also tried the prop send with a slower ready dance to see how she did. Getting sends from side and back are definitely mroe difficult and will need to keep working on those.
We ended up late this afternoon working on the wing wrap standing up (using larger bowls as suggested) and also with two toys. I thought it went pretty well and was able to push the jump standard out a little farther than on our first session the other day.
We still need to work on the Goat Tricks!!!!!
Hola, Gingji and I wish you and yours a Happy Thanksgiving!
Here are a few more games we did this afternoon.
Decel & Turn, hope it was slowed down enough.
Blind Cross Foundation I noticed on the video I edited for you that she’s mostly coming to the same side, but we did both and I didn’t see any problem with side change but can redo if you want to see. The first couple of tries, yikes I wasn’t ready!
She’s good with both food and toy and switching between the two but definitely way more intensity with the toy games. I still need to do another session with the prop sends and may try that with a toy and see how that works.
Two variations of the foundation wing wrap. I thought she seemed to do pretty well. When I was standing with cookies in my hand she did look up at cookie hand before it made delivery to the bowl. Do I need to change anything about how I did that? She had a few moments with the toy in my left hand where she laid down after it went dead but then remembered there was a toy on the other side. 🙂
Plan on working some of exercises we can do outside after lunch!
Great! With the toy in each hand, do I tug lightly/calmly then wait for her to let go or ask her to release and wait for her to go to the other side? Put the dead toy away on my lap or under my arm?
Is there any benefit to using a real wing rather than the upright? I have wings I could use, too.We plan to do the blind cross foundation today outside. I tried it in the house this morning but there just wasn’t enough room and I came too close to walking into wals when looking back at her. It will be safer for me outside. 🙂
Looking forward to trying the new variations of this!
Thanks!
PattiI’m going to have to try the prop send with toy when the weather clears up, too cold and rainy here in FL today, and I can’t say “ready” “ready” anywhere near Gingji or she explodes in excited barking. I have to take Hola outdoors to train any active exercises. In fact last night Gingji broke out of the bedroom when she heard me and Hola training the wing wrap foundations so I had to abort. Gingji was whining outside the door.
We did work on 3 sessions of wing wrap today, perfect exercise for a rainy day, so I’ll share all 3 for you here. EDIT: My apologies, Tracy! I probably should have combined these into one 2 minute video. You can just skip to the last one. Sorry!
I love session 3 especially where she tried to shortcut a couple of times coming between me and the jump, but after she thought about it got it right the next time.
The girls also played around with their pivots today for something to do so I thought I’d share. I did shape this rather than lure or use pressure, and this is pretty much what I’ve got. Both girls love doing this. This exercise has been super helpful in our obedience classes and earned Hola the name “smarty pants” from one of the instructors, LOL!
>>She definitely loves her toy races!! Good luck trying to win, we might have to cheat haha! She felt the pressure of you running the first time you did the toy race, so she was a bit wide on her path, but then she was VERY straight on the last rep. We do see some victory laps on the toy races because there is actually a bit of pressure for the pups. So if she needs a few seconds to run and shake the toy – perfectly fine! You ca n mentally count to 3 then call her to chase you. I think she did really well here! You can do another session of this and then we will try to figure out a plan to cheat so you might be able to win LOL!>>
So funny sure, we’ll do toy races again and I look forward to cheating! 😀
>>Decel and turn – you were a little late o the first rep so she was surprised but then you were earlier on the other reps so she nailed it. She is powerful terrier, so definitely add in the pivots so she can keep her butt in straight And the pivots should be slooooow for now – you were going fast and you don’t need to – partially because we need the decel for turns, and partially so you don’t get dizzy 🙂 The double pivots looked great too!>>
That’s good to know, I did feel like I was doing them a little fast and getting dizzy! Keep working on these?
>>Prop sends are ring all too. You can do. The ready dance but you don’t need to get her jumping up as much because we don’t want her to think any bitey thoughts LOL! We want her muscles to get tense but it can be a calmer ready dance so all four feet stay on the ground. That will make the sends even clearer and clearer for her.
Her sends were lovely! Try this with a toy 🙂 and if she is fine with that, add more distance 🙂>>
She was less pumped up for the prop sends, I think because that was the last thing we did. Maybe the session went too long. I felt like I wore both of us out with all the jumping in my dance. So yeah, definitely will try a calmer dance nest time.
So when I do the send with a toy you mean send her to the prop and reward with the toy?
Getting ready to work on the wing wrap foundations now that Daddy and Gingji have gone to bed, LOL!
I want to mention that Hola has been a joy to train because she wants to do things and switches so readily between food and toy. She also catches on to things pretty quickly. We have done pivots on a feed bucket started when she was really little along with other body awareness and shaping things, and have actually done some wing wrapping but I’ll hold off doing any more of that now that we’re in a real class. We’ve done more nosework and obedience/manners than anything agility related to date. I think it’s interesting that when we’re somewhere I can see she’s distracted enough that she can’t take a food treat that she can usually play tug. My other dogs were just the opposite of this. Even when she can’t take a food treat right away after she acclimates to a place she’s usually fine with both food and toy. We went over to the UKI Open on Saturday and walked all around the grounds, she did some tricks and we sat in the stands in the indoor arena and watched some agility, and she was great. That said, I’d say she’s full blown adolescent now at 10-1/2 months and every so often working through some confidence issues when exposed to certain things so I did sign up to audit the Teenage Brains and Arousal, Resilience and Engagement workshops. I haven’t had a puppy in 8 years! I do a lot of nosework with her and that’s a great confidence builder, too. I’m so glad this Max Pup class came along just in time when I wanted to get started on agility with her!
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