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Yes, initially it is about working the dog we think he is. But that went great so you can add more arousal to it. The environment will add the arousal at trials, so you can be all business but playing the crazier games in training will re-create the internal environment he will feel at a trial.
T
Hi!
Nice work on this course! It went really well overall – lots of speed and very few questions.
Looking at the opening:
>. Tried 1, 2, 3 two different ways. Doing the push on 3 felt smoother.
Do you mean the push the rear cross on 3, in the 2nd full run? I timed the difference (of course 🤣😂) and the threadle at 3 on the first run was much faster – dramatically! He was faster from 2 through 4, and that speed carried all the way through to being a lot faster through the landing of 6 (that is when I stopped timing). This doesn’t surprise me because his #1 favorite thing is to chase you, and there is no chasing through the rear cross.
Overall, the opening went great! And so did the middle section with the threadle at 9.
There were really only 2 questions spots: at 10 (which led to what happens at 12) and 17.
For the jump 10, sending and leaving as he exits 9 is the key to getting up the line to handle the threadle wrap at 12.
At :24 you ran a little deep to 10 so you were not able to get far enough up the line to show the turn at the tunnel exit for 12 – he saw a lot of forward motion and continued straight.
You sent to 10 sooner which allowed you to leave even sooner at 1:17, which got you ahead of the tunnel exit at 1:19. That put you in great position for the cues for 12 when he exited at 1:20. Just remember to decel a little and it will be perfect.
The only thing to add to the send to 10 is to use brake arms – send him with 2 arms and he will naturally add a stride, which will tighten the line while you get way ahead.
The only other hard part was getting the left turn at 17. I think he just needed to see more pressure to the center of the bar to set it up as a rear cross. On the first and 2nd runs, the motion was heading mainly to the right turn wing. On the last rep, you were definitely moving across to the rear cross line more at 1:47. Yay! You were rotating, which might be why he had some questions, so you can face forward more on that. Then he got to chase you through the ending line and he really liked that 🙂
Great job here and throughout the summer!!! It was really fun watching you tackle these challenges, and seeing your connection and teamwork really blossom!!!!!
Tracy
Hi!
Really good info gleaned from this course!
First – check that you’ve got the numbers on the correct – 1 and 6 were on the other side of the jumps 🙂
And 2 other main things: to get threadles setup, a very strong turn cue on the obstacle before it will do the trick. But that leads to the 2nd main thing: any time you are tempted to rotate your feet to get her to change her line for that, it is probably better to use a brake arm (both arms) so you can keep moving. More on that below 🙂
Having the dog walk there makes the weaves extra spicy as a layer! If the DW is there, then consider it as being in play as an off course so adjust the handling and also uncover it 🙂 She was actually correct each time she took it 🙂
The opening looked good and getting the weaves in the layer was great!
On the first run, getting the threadle at 9 was hard. In the walk through, you called her name and went into the threadle slice, but it was not strong enough of a turn cue on 8 for her to have the threadle cues override the motion forward during the run.
You rotated your feet there at 1:43 & 2:06 which brought her in (she probably thought a FC was coming) but then made it really hard to send her back to 9 and also harder to get 10.
This is where the brake arm and strong turn cues can be very effective: as you are running down the line to handle 9, you can be showing her 2 hands to cue 8 as she exits the tunnel and calling her hard or using a right verbal. The brake arms can override the forward motion and take out the foot rotation, and get the turn on 8 needed to then go into the threadle cues.
General rule of thumb: don’t give a threadle cue until you see her facing the correct line (this will help the 12 jump as well).
Foot rotation on the threadle bit you on the 2nd run at 6 – you turned towards her to get the threadle then you were behind for getting down the next line. At :18 you said tunnel but your entire body was turned to the jump, probably feeling the pressure of getting across the ring to the threadle 🙂
And the 10 jump is a great spot for brake arms as well. From the exit of 9, send to 10 with both hands and a right verbal or a hard name call, as you move away up the line to go handle 12. Even without the DW there, I think 10 requires a brake arm and having the dog walk there makes the additional turn cues even more important- a regular send puts the dog walk directly on her line.
Sending to 10 with 2 hands up while moving away will allow you to get up the line to be past the tunnel exit, and show her 12. When you decelerated r rotated your feet or did a spin at 10, you were totally smoked for getting up the line to 12 – and accidentally showed her acceleration before entering the tunnel which set the straight line on the exit.
Using brake arms at 10 so you don’t get stuck down there will allow you to be ahead and show her the turns before she enters the 11 tunnel, then you won’t have to pull away as much to show 12 (and get the off course to 13) – she will exit the 11 tunnel already turned and you can show the threadle wrap cues more easily.
And one other place to use brake arms… the exit of 16 to set the line to 17, so you can keep moving forward without pulled her off the line.
That is the main takeaway here, thanks Muso for the info! Look for places where she needs to be strongly turned to get onto the next line (threadles, mainly) and replace rotation or having to decel with brake arms to set the turns. You can isolate those sections and see how hard you can run while cueing the turn with 2 arms up. This is a perfect time of the season to take those big ‘run across the ring then turn’ moments and break them out of the full course: justt what is needed to get the turn to the correct line without you having to rotate or decelerate. Cracking the code on that will make a MASSIVE difference when you do need to put it in the context of a huge course (spoiler alert: brake arms haha)
>After both attempts, I tried it without the toy in hand and nearly got the whole thing correctly…so that’s interesting. >
You can test that theory for the next course when she doesn’t have any experience on it: do the first run without a toy in your hand and see what happens!
Nice work here!
Tracy
Good morning!
The Drive to handler game is going well – this is a new enough game that slowing down is a bit of a new concept.
>On this one how should I change where I have the treat to get her to straighten up when she stops?>
It is not so much an adjustment to where you put the treat, it is more about when you put the treat hand out. The treat hand is an important part of the cue so you can get your cookie hand in position sooner so she can adjust to the collection sooner too – when the treat hand was getting in place as she arrived, her butt swung a little wide. But when it was earlier and she was still several steps away from you (like at 2:15 approx) you can actually hear the collection and weight shift. Yay!
For the toy play – it was GREAT to have that much toy play! It keeps things exciting and works the game in a higher arousal state (this is really important). I think a longer, flatter/slimmer toy will be a better option so she can grab it and lean back and really tug. This was a thicker toy (hard to really grip, especially when you hold it close to you). She wants the handle because she can’t really grip the big part of this toy and it is too close to you to get a grip and weight shift to tug (note her trying to hold it with her feet LOL!). So use a longer/flatter toy, and let her have the full length of it to tug on 🙂
She turned off the tug toy a bit around :50 because you were saying ‘tug’ but not moving the toy or playing… tug is a two way game 🙂 so be sure you are moving and engaging and playing the whole time (and not immediately getting treats or planning the next rep).
Looking at the blind cross video:
This looked to be a longer flatter toy! Yay! But you can give her a lot more of it to tug – at the beginning, she had about 6 inches LOL so I think she ended up hitting your hand by accident. You gave her the full length of it after the first blind and she worked her way to the end of it nicely. You can use a tug that has something attached to the end for her to grab, rather than being entirely uniform across the length of it.
Having more of the toy that she could grip was a lot more fun for her and you can really see her digging in and weight shifting in the tug. Your mechanics were good (connected across your body) and good job rewarding her even when you were late 🙂
Set a timer for these games – at about 3 minutes, she was a bit launchy and lost her mechanics, then splatted herself onto the bed. She still played, but all of that loss of mechanics show fatigue. Since we don’t want her working while fatigued, set a timer for 90 seconds so you are finished by 2 minutes. You can always do another 90 seconds or two minutes later on, which actually results in better learning anyway 🙂
>Not really enough space to do this upstairs unless I stand still, which might help with not being late on doing the blind, which I was at least once.>
The space here worked well! But you can also take this game outside. You can use a big towel to toss the start cookie onto so she doesn’t lose it in the grass.
And since you are at a trial this weekend – if she is comfy with people, you can play this game as a restrained recall. Hand her off to a holder then run away. The person lets her go when you call her name, and you do the blind the instant she starts to move towards you.
Pre-game foot target – this toy is hard for her at this size (she can’t really grip it so she is using her feet to try to help with that, or grabbing your hand by accident on the 2nd video). When she is bigger, this toy can probably work well but you can also give her the full length of it – you hold the end of the handle instead of the blue part and move it a lot, rather than just a little in front of you.
On the send video – when using the treats, sending with an empty hand (the reward can be tossed from the other hand) will make a big difference at this stage as she is learning it. She did well with her sends when the toy was present, especially because it is a new game and tugging has a lot of value!
> Should I do a couple more sessions of the pre game foot target and tossing to see if that helps getting her to stop looking at my hand?>
Don’t worry about where she is looking yet – as we add distance on the sends as well as add the other games, she will learn to not look at your hands 🙂 So let her sleep on this game and when you revisit it, you can start to add more distance (just as little) because that requires her to look at you less as well.
>I have a question about the Shaping in Arousal game.
Kyrie is already a pretty good size (she really needs to stop growing! LOL!). She’s been on pretty much everything I have that would meet your criteria for the game and be something that I can move in and out easily.>If she can get on everything while in high arousal, you can take a few things and make a trail of them for her to walk along, or pile them up for her to climb on 🙂 That adds a bit in instability and unpredictability, in a good way!
>My only thought of what I have that she hasn’t been on that would be decently easy for her to get on would be one of the pillows we have for the couch but not sure it’s a great choice.>
Fun! I bet she would love that. Or you can pile up the dog beds that are on the floor 🙂
Have fun at the trial! Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
I agree, I hate being nailed. It is not malicious on the part of the pups, of course, but still – OUCH and it makes me tentative when playing to avoid the ouch.
>I’ll definitely let go of the toy. Is that still my “strike” marker? >
You can set this up by doing little cookie recalls: send her away to a cookie, call her to chase you without a ton of speed, present the toy… use your strike marker just before she gets to you and let go of he toy as she is opening her mouth. I like to show it to the pup in isolation first so they don’t fall on their heads when surprised at high speed 🙂
I use the strike marker even when I let go, because it matches the location and style of delivery. “Strike” basically means “toy from my hand” without contingencies on what happens next. I mean you totally *can* add another marker word 🤣 but I don’t recommend more words right now for any of us 🙂 Using the same marker has created NO confusion for the dogs we do this with.
>What are your toy sites again? >
I just a saw a bunch of new toys posted at Twisted Bliss, including bottle cruncher toys that she might really like:
https://twistedblisstugs.com/
https://www.facebook.com/TwistedBliss4DogsI think 75% of my toys are from TugawayCUWin. They have all sorts of fun stuff!
https://www.tugawaycuwin.com/
The only toy my dogs didn’t like was the coyote face tug – it was given to me because it was toooo stimulating for a house full of terriers LOL But my dogs got the ick from it – just too weird. So I gave it away.My young dogs are obsessed with the toys from Roadkill Emporium:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61580531600604They are a little more expensive but they are VERY long-lasting and the dogs LOVE them. The person who owns this company just had surgery, so I am not sure what her turnaround time is at the moment. Tell her I sent you 🙂
I also really like the Floramicato toys, and you can get them from Jaimie Weber here. They are imported so I don’t know what the current prices are:
https://www.facebook.com/floridadogsports> But, shes targeting the red bungee part by the handle.>
Bungees are kinda fun so
The bowl to bowl video looks good! She recognizes the pattern and that is what we want to see as the cue for us to move to the next steps. Adding the barrel was easy! Super!
One suggestion is to break this session up more with play so there are not as many treats in a row. The play moment allows us to keep her in a higher arousal state (critical for learning and memory) and it is during the play moments that you can inch the barrel away a bit.
One more suggestion: I don’t think she needs to hear the treat drop into the bowl anymore, so you can go to a softer treat that she doesn’t have to chew as much – that way she can move faster 🙂
Next session: pick up where you left off here (starting with the barrel close to you) but you can sit on something low like an ottoman or low stool or something. We are going to start working your way up to standing! And if she is happy wrapping with you sitting on something taller, you can add some more distance too (after play breaks :))
Thanks for the send video! I see why she is doing hand touches on the forward sends – your hand is totally in hand touch position 🙂 (next to your body, flat palm facing out) You can see that at :06 and :33.
When you did the backwards sending (1:13 and 1:26 for example, and 1:30 and 1:37 on the other side plus the last few reps) the arm was pointing more and she had no questions at all.
So for the forward sending, try a closed fist and pointy finger that is ahead of your torso and not next to it. Think of it as you have just bowled a 10 pound ball to the prop, so momentum would pull your arm forward.
I grabbed screenshots because visuals might explain this better than words:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1W106BXrYd-3-56Ig4K5V_a-7k3_Cuwnmxgl8GI8BBVQ/edit?usp=sharingShe definitely liked the ready game, and the moments when she started without you built even more drive to it when you did send her! She did great here!
Nice work 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
It is very fun that you are camping and can play in a new place!
I am VERY impressed that he ignored people on bikes! There were a few that were actually very close. The 2 people walking very close were much harder to ignore but he came right back to the game. Yay Benny!
His driving ahead looks great as expected and you did a great job of turning and running the other direction before he got to the toy. The only challenge was picking up the toy that was so big 🙂
For more fun with this game, you can change the angle that you run away on, so he starts to have distinct turns in each direction. You were running forward to the toy and straight back to where you started, which went well. Now you can run forward to the toy then run away on a 90 degree line to your left or to your right (you can do it as a blind cross or post turn or front cross). This will cue him to turn to his left or turn to his right, which takes a definite amount of coordination and mechanics to pick up the toy AND turn the correct direction.
At the end of that fun session, he didn’t want to come to your hands to be finished – he might have been very pumped up from the game and did not want to stop. So you can wind things down at the end of a high energy session like this by sitting on the ground and having him tug on your lap, then maybe scatter some treats in the grass. That way he can relax at the end of a fast & fun session 🙂
He did well with sending to and hitting his target! He was a little ‘sticky’ (not as sure about sending) when you were not stepping forward with your leg at the very beginning. But when you added your left leg stepping forward, he sent much better!
And you did a great job stepping forward with your right leg as well here and he sent really well on that side too.
He was turning to his left a lot in this session when he was on your left (ideally he turns to his right when he starts on your left side). I think that might have been because there was a distraction to his left (people walking). He did better when there was less distraction but we will help him see which way to turn (see below).
He was also good about showing you that a BIG send motion sends him far – you did a BIG send at 1:37 after a couple of ‘ready ready’ so he went pretty far. It was adorable and hilarious!
For the next session if you get a chance to play again: To help him always turn towards you on these sends, you can send him to the prop and then step away to help indicate the turn (like you can do in the driving ahead game).
For example, if he is on your left, send with your left arm & leg then as he is arriving at the prop, you can mark it and step strongly to your right so he turns to his right. And when he is on your right, send with your right arm/right leg and step strongly to your left when he is arriving at the prop.
Sending to his platform: he did well getting on it and sitting when cued – definitely a little harder in the new place but he was super about moving into his position and holding it without barking! You delayed the click on the last rep and that is what your next step here should be: start to delay the click more and more to add more duration. You can add a bit of very quiet praise in between the sit and click to help get more duration too.
One more thing to add in sometimes: letting him wear a very light leash. This will be good for when he is training in places where he can’t be off leash, so he gets used to training with a leash on and in your hand. And it will make thigns easier to transfer to trials (eventually :)) Wearing the leash will be good for some of the games where he doesn’t need to run run run, like the hand target game. No need to use it when he is doing the forward focus game where he is running, as long as he is sticking with you like he did here 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
The toy is indeed very exciting 🙂 Pretty normal for his age. He was fully engaged but didn’t know how to take his focus off the toy yet. His wagging tail was so cute!!!!
Here is what I suggest: do a shaping session (or two) where you begin with tugging like you did here. Then put the toy under your arm or behind you, and let him offer some behavior on the prop for treats. After 3 or 4 or 5 cookie rewards, back to the toy play. Then repeat the process. That will build the critical ability to offer behavior and think about mechanics even when in higher arousal and with something really exciting in the picture (toy!).
When he is able to readily offer behavior for cookies when the toy is somewhat in the picture, we can then bring the toy in more and more.
Side note: rather than cookie-only shaping, every shaping session should basically have this structure (toy involved, cookie rewards) to generalize the ability to offer behavior in high arousal and to help him learn to ignore the toy in favor of interacting with things. It makes a massive difference in the long run!
Bowl game:
He was super with this game – lovely in both directions. He had a blooper when the barrel got too far away. No need to move it back in immediately, see if he can work through it. I also think the sliding of the barrel (and the noise) was more distracting than intended, so any moving of the barrel should be done during tug breaks. Speaking of tug breaks:Even when you sit to get this started: do some tugging 🙂 And in the in-between moments… more tugging 🙂 It is truly the thing I consider the most important for baby dog learning. And since he will go from food to toys to food, we can start this right away!
For the next session of this: starting with the barrel really close, change your position to sitting on something taller. The goal is to start to get you off the ground and (eventually) standing. No need to add distance from the barrel when you are changing the variable of your position.
Hand target: He is quick to come back after the thrown cookie LOL! This session also went really well – nice job transitioning from placing the cookie reward on the target, to tossing it away so he can drive back to it (I think he MUCH preferred the action of the thrown rewards :))
Next steps on this one: Like the wrapping foundation, change your position to sitting on something low so we can start working up to standing. And mix in tug breaks after every couple of cookie rewards 🙂 We don’t use this game for a couple more weeks, so there is no rush on it.
Forward focus:
“Best game ever!” ~ Drift, probablyThe driving ahead looks terrific 🙂
And he brings the toy back! He might think this circle toy is either a throwing-only toy or it is too hard to tug on right now, because when he did bring it back he didn’t really want to tug at first. He did get into the tugging on the 2nd rep and after that, but the toy is small and it was cranking his neck up during tugging. So while this toy is perfect for throwing, you can change up to a longer tug toy. It will be harder to throw in terms of distance, but that is OK: I think he gets a gold star for the distance element here 🙂 A nice long toy with something big on the end (like a hollee roller) will be great for tugging because he can keep his head lower and shift his weight into his rear more.Great job here!
Tracy
Hi! Keeping session short in the new environment was smart! He did really well and was very focused even though there were a ton of distractions (and opportunities :)) all around him. The harness and light line were good for peace of mind in that environment too 🙂
>And I don’t usually keep a collar on him because he shows and I don’t want a collar line. But I can put one with his training gear and use it for training to hold him back.>
Keeping one with his training stuff is a great idea!
>Well I failed at keeping the prop closer hahha. He was doing so well I moved it too far away! Next time I’ll just keep it close the whole time.>
He is totally getting the ideaa! But also yes, you were being a little greedy 🤣😂 but also I don’t think it needs to be close the whole time. A couple of ideas for you:
Break the session up more – after every 3 or 4 or 5 cookies, break it up by getting up, throwing a toy, throwing a cookie… anything that is stimulating and breaks up the repetition. Otherwise it can get boring and he might look for other things to do.
Also, when you break it up… that is the opportunity to move the cone out a tiny bit. Just do it inch by inch, but probably not more than once per session.
And if he has an error: don’t react at all, be completely neutral. Nothing happens when he has an error of sliding between you and the cone. Let him try to figure it out! If you have a big reaction like you did here, he might either find it icky or rewarding (attention! And more exciting than the repetition of too many treats in a row). We don’t want either of that, so if he doesn’t wrap, don’ do anything. And if he doesn’t figure it out within a few seconds, you can move the cone in a little and let him figure it out from there.
Drive to handler was easy peasy for him! You can add in running! When he is grabbing his start cookie, you can take off running. When he starts running to you, decelerate so he can collect to arrive around your side. You started a bit of this on your lat rep and it went really well.
Since he likes people and you are around people this weekend, you can also do this as a recall: have someone hold him as you run away. Then they can let go as you call him (then decelerate and do the pivot as he gets to you). You can also do the blind cross game as a recall. It will get even more speed and it teaches him to ignore people 🙂
Great job here! I am so excited about his focus in that big open area with all those people and dogs!
Tracy
Found it! Video of letting go of the toy with baby Jitterbug (and the exciting part of the toy being low to the ground):
Hi!
>She’s not understanding the send. When I use my arm she starts nose touching it or licking it>
Definitely get it on video – closing your empty hand and doing a pointing finger can help, and also be very close to the prop. It is possible that your hand has more value than the prop so you can shift the reinforcement to shift the value: throw it to the prop with the other hand, rather than reward back at you from your hands.
She read the side change of the blinds really well! Yay!
>Why do my dogs all want to bite the handle? She’s nailing my hand and Mama does not enjoy that. >
It is because agility dogs have most of their value up by our hands: the toy is uniform in terms of value across the length of it, and tugging happens close to us with their mouth close to our hands. I also do not like my hands being nailed! So two things to add to the toy play here, rather than just lengthening it:
– put most of the value and focal point of the toy into something big and exciting at the end of it with something more boring leading up to your hand. It can be a high value LONG fur toy, or a hollee roller with something else inside of it – anything big and bouncy that will draw her eye to it. And that part should be extended down to the ground.
Here is an example with my (giant) puppy. His mouth is at the same height as my hands LOL! The long exciting part of the toy is low to the ground and he is definitely targeting that part of the toy and not my hands. You can see where he is looking during the slow motion:
– on these speed games, let her run through the toy. As she is approaching it, just before or just as she grabs it – let go! You can toss it a tiny bit forward at first, then she will figure out the game quickly and you can just let go. As soon as she has it, you turn and run the other way to encourage her to bring it back (for a food reward). True, you might get some victory laps when you let go of the toy but I prefer that over tooth hugs to our hands. I have video of this somewhere, I will find it!
Decel with food went great! Your decel was timely, so she was able to collect and get in nice and tight to you as you pivoted. Lovely!!!!! We build on this game soon.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
Poor Kida! I hope she has a fast & easy recovery.
Sol did great with her pattern games at the event! Holy wow, it was loud and busy! With big loud announcements & music playing, but she maintained her engagement with the game brilliantly. There were other dogs around and she was ignoring them nicely too. You can have her closer to the rings during walk throughs perhaps? And also get tug toys involved – she might be even more engaged when tugs are part of the reinforcement 🙂
Looking at the sequences:
Threadle cues are verbals and arms that need to override motion – in other words, upper body needs to override lower body. At :06 & :32 – even with good timing of starting it, the threadle did not override motion in the full sequence. Breaking it down definitely helped her see it in context, starting from a jump or two before it. Then you were able to put it back in context at 1:11 which went really well! Part of what helped it was you were earlier with the cue but also your arm cues were more exaggerated (the dog-side arm really pulled back and your opposite arm helped your shoulders rotate to her more).For now, you can keep it broken down a bit to just 2 or 3 jumps and show her the balance too: sometimes cueing the threadle, sometimes keeping her out on the line to the obvious side of the jump, so she can experience both cues and see the difference.
Sequence 2: went really well! Super nice application of the tight blind 5-6! You can start the blind even sooner – when you see her land from 4, start the blind so it is fully finished before she takes off for 5.
>Second sequence felt nice! A few bars were dropped. I think all timing issues?>
I think it was a little bit due to timing, but mainly due to the lighting – it was dark and the lighting was a bit uneven so she was processing both the cues and the visuals. She dropped bar 1, probably trying to sort out the line and lighting, She ticked a lot of bars as compared to the previous daylight session, even if the bar didn’t fall. When the bar did come down – yes, the cues can be earlier – you were a little late on the blind at :48 (bar down on 5) and the break arm was late at :26 for the turn on 7 – much earlier at :50 so the bar stayed up.
Great job here!
Tracy
Howdy!
Release video –
He did really well with his stays. Super!! All business is fine for trials but you can also play some of the other games in training to add challenge: can he hold the stay even when more stimulated? And you can do this in front of an obstacle, which automatically increases arousal at this point.A couple of things to consider:
– Will he give the toy back without you touching his collar? You have a lot of hands on collar during that transition from tugging to lineup and it is always better when we are not holding their collar 🙂
– Add more connection to the lead outs – you need to see if he moves or not, and you want to avoid accidentally pairing re-connection with the release. You can add some praise before the release too, so there is no predictable link between stopping/connecting and releasing. Dogs are very brilliant at finding these links, and we humans are totally predictable so that is how we end up with broken stays.
The remote reinforcement game went great! I loved his wagging tail during the transition from the tugging into the ring, and he seemed to have no trouble at all. Yay!
One question that might change the order of festivities:
At a trial: I don’t think you will really take the leash off that early (right at the entrance to the ring). In AKC, 99.99% of the people bring the dog to the first jump on leash, wait for the GO, then take it off, etc, especially in novice. So just change that section to going to the jump with the leash on, taking it off, tossing it back behind you, etc . It might not seem like a big thing to you, but it will totally be different for him! I mean, if you really are going to make part of the ritual taking off the leash as soon as you enter the ring then carry on 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
The pill bug game is definitely harder than it looks! The connection is very challenging in this game (all while we humans try to not fall over the tunnel LOL)
> Keeper seemed to be herding me a little or cutting behind me>
When he was cutting behind you, it was because he couldn’t really see the connection and didn’t know which side to be on (like at 1:49, he can only see your back so guessed that you wanted him on your left). Or, he saw the connection then you looked forward, so it looked like a blind cross and he changed side – good boy!
The best reps were at 1:17 to 1:23 for example, where you had great connection and a nice reward before he blasted ahead of you.
It might have felt harder to keep the connection on your right side, so you can really exaggerate it and look at him very directly. At 1:49 you exaggerated it and he did great! (and tapped your leg, but it was really the connection that got him to stay on that side)>. I had very little buy in from Keeper.>
Especially on these handling games, assume all errors are handler errors 🙂 and find a way to reward him with the toy even if the rep did not go according to plan 🙂 Then make the next rep more obvious with connection and reward sooner.
I think the reason that he didn’t buy into this game was because the rate of reward was pretty low: when something went wrong, you stoped and walkws away, no reward. Part of that might have been because it went wrong and part of it might have been you were heading back to the start to try again – but either way, he likely perceived it as negative punishment and deflated. So even if it goes wrong – have a bit of a fun party with an active reward before trying again.
He also didn’t necessarily recognize the framework that this is built on, of the start cookie followed by the recall – this is when we throw a cookie and call him and run away for a fun chase & toy reward. You can refresh that which will help him drive even faster into this game.
He did a really nice job with the minny pinny proofing here! It is probably the hardest game we have so far: all verbals, no handler movement. He did great! Very few errors. If he does have an error, you can call him back and line him up for a cookie to help motivate him for the next rep when the rewards are food. He REALLY liked the ball as the reward here – it brought in action (his favorite) even without you running. YAY!!!
Since you mentioned buy in and we know he loves action: the ‘action’ game (pill bug) had less buy in because the rate of success/reward was lower. But the game with minimal action (this proofing game) had a ton of buy in because the rate of success was very high!
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
>the challenges in this session were the same in the later session. One side is harder for him & me. >
The argument you and Lew were having here in the zig zag was about where to deliver the reward: you wanted to wrap him around the last wing, and he said he saw in the video that the reward should be delivered on the new side without the wrap.
He was correct 😂🤣 the reward should be delivered to the other side of the wing from where he was before it, he doesn’t have to wrap back towards you or away from you on the last wing. Trying to cue the wrap on that last wing is what made it harder for him to know what you wanted because there needed to be handling and timng and space for him to get there.
For example, when he was driving towards you, the reward at 1:12 was correct – a cookie for coming to the new side. He did figure out wrapping the last wing, but you don’t need to do that for this game.
> And patience on the stays. I’m going to add in some catches and keep working on those in general. >
Overall the stays looked really good! But definitely clarify the release: sometimes I hear an OK and sometimes his name, and at the end I think you were using arm cues as the release and no verbal. So be super consistent with the release cue and you can totally add in some catches too.
Have fun at the trial this weekend! Nice work here!
Tracy
Hi!
These games are going really well!
For the transition game: you can add a little height to the bar (another 2 or 4 inches), so he has to collect a little more before takeoff. This will give you more feedback on the timing – if the deceleration cues are late, he will turn after landing. I think you can start the deceleration sooner (for now, when he is halfway to the jump) as long as you don’t start the rotation sooner yet 🙂
As you do the deceleration and crosses, be sure to stay on the outside of the wings on the jump. You were tending to tuck in towards the bar a bit but motion towards the center of the bar is a rear cross cue and we don’t want him to ignore that motion because it means front cross here. You can also add your wrap verbals!
The turns away looked great! When you are facing him (lap turn) using one arm is easiest to use. When you are facing forward (tandem turn) you might find it easier to use both arms to get his attention on the turn cues – that is more visible than one arm when you are moving forward because our shoulders might block the outside arm from being visible while we are moving.
You and Rusty did a lovely job of putting the turn aways into the rocking horse game, and he was great about responding to the front cross cues versus the turn away cues. You can add in your wrap cues for the wings with the front crosses, rather than go cues – he is going to wrap a wing but when we turn this into jumps the wrap cues will be helpful because the go cues will mean to accelerate in extension.
>PS How many weeks is this class? What follows it? Will there be a break between? If yes, how many weeks?>
There are 8 weeks of t he class, with the last games being posted on September 14th, The last day to submit videos is October 5th. I will have the start dates for MaxPup 3 posted soon, it will be late October so we can get it in before winter hits 🙂
Nice work here!
Tracy
