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Very cool games here 🙂 He did great of course – he was able to use what he already understood and apply it really well to different contexts as well as expand on it.
A couple of things the video shows that might not have been as obvious in the moment:
During the toy countermotion games, he was turning to his left pretty consistently… even when handler position and motion indicate a right turn (:24). When changing the turn direction (whether it is after a bunch of left turns, or having him turn towards a crowd of people and not away) you can exaggerate the line to help indicate the right turn there.And on the rear crosses – the toy placement was doing the heavy lifting to get the turn away on one jump, it is really hard to get a rear cross on one jump when starting with the dog. The handling didn’t really indicate a rear cross (2:45, 2:53) so be sure to get right on the RC line on those and, with the toy on the ground, balance with not doing RCs. We don’t want general pressure towards the jump or something interesting on the other side to cue the RC, so the balance will smooth that out really well. We have a bunch of RC stuff to play with so we can do it there 🙂
Sounds like camp was both fun and worthwhile!!!
Tracy
Hi!
>Yes, I agree he was tentative during the wrap verbals. I’m not sure if this was everything that was going on in his head, but we were playing on and off between some rain yesterday, which did help cool things off a bit, but we started that game right as it started drizzling. Keeper is not a fan of rain. I think that’s why he ran for the door, but I wanted to see if he would work through it.>
Could all be part of it! You can engage with play and tricks before asking for skills – that will center arousal and engage for the game.
>Collar grabs are another enormous challenge with him.>
You can change when and how you hold the collar in situations that require it. If he is moving away from you recing for it: don’t reach for it 🙂 You can bring him into a fun lineup position (at your side or between your feet), put a finger on the collar, then immediately throw something and release him to go get it.
You can also teach him to shove his head through a leash opening – that is a very fun way to make it a trick to come back and not skitter away, without you having to reach for him or move him by the collar.
Here are ideas:
>We are in another puppy class with a couple of his siblings, and I have been very hesitant to work with toys there as it takes him way over threshold.>
Toys might be a great motivator for keeping him engaged, and using a combination of toys and food might be the sweet spot.
> He is running over to them any time there’s a break in action and it is impossible to get him back with the whole collar grab thing. And it’s all very stressful. >
Yes, it can totally get very stressful so dial it back: if he has a history of leaving (for any reason), dial back the level of challenge and work on leash with super high rates of success and far simpler behaviors. Do short & sweet sessions then get him outta there to rest for a bit. Working with siblings close by is hard enough, and then if there is an element of trying to get him back… yes, that will create all sorts of stress and it is also his way of communicating that being off leash in that environment is simply too hard for now.
> But I also think as he’s building more understanding for agility he will be less likely to run off as I think part of it is avoidance when he doesn’t know what to do yet.>
Yes, which is why in that very hard environment, you want to ask him to do only the things he knows how to do. Don’t leave room for things he doesn’t know how to do, or might fail – the environment with other dogs that he has to ignore is really hard!
>I am wondering if some of this stuff is adolescence, but still a big training focus right now!>
Yes, adolescent brain development is definitely in play – and they get stressed more easily, they have more ‘approach’ behaviors, they take longer to recover, and they are not great at having cognitive decisions override impulses. All of that is normal 🙂 Adolescents are also in an important period of developing associations, such as the vibe of a training environment, etc. That is the main reason why I suggest easy/fast/fun games in the class that are only on leash for now – the creates a super position association in the environment and takes out the stress association of having to ignore other dogs (littermates!) or being caught with collar grabs. It all comes together pretty quickly when the positive associations have been established (and those associations are far more powerful than operant learning/decisions at this stage :))
Keep me posted!
Tracy
Hi!
Looking at the set point – the 4.5 foot distance is good for now, and I am guessing we will expand it to 5 feet shortly.
>starting with treats on a target and on his second go he did a little stutter step in between.>
Food on the stationary target will tend to produce the more casual movement, which is what we are seeing here – he was pulling with his front end and kind of trotting over the bar at first, then alternating a canter over the bars and some trotting over the bars as you added both jumps. In other words… the food on a stationary target was not that exciting, plus it cued him that he was going to stop so he didn’t blast himself headlong to it. No worries at all! We use the stationary food target to teach the dogs the general concept without asking for them to blast through it. And he definitely has the concept!
>Tried one more time with the toy and he seemed all good with a little more excitement and energy,>
Was this on the last 2 reps? There was a big difference in his movement and he did well! Was. The toy stationary, or moving? Based on what he did in the moving target pre-games, and his understanding of the stay and the concept here: let’s move forward and combine them 🙂 Add the moving target to the set point. That will give us the best idea on if the distance is good and what his form looks like (so far, I am very happy with his form :))
The wind in your hair game went really well and gives us more good insight into his feelings about rewards: it seems that *action* is the most rewarding thing for him 🙂 when you really moved, he got excited but was still able to find the jump (no worries about the missed jump n the first rep, he was figuring out the game).
Action plus toy seems to be his second favorite reward, with action plus food being his 3rd favorite (based on his speed and excitement here).
The placed toy was challenging for him when you were stationary or walking away from it – but as soon as you got moving and drove to the jump (action plus toy) he was very fast and had great forward focus 🙂 YAY!!!
He was also focusing forward nicely when you were throwing the toy – you can throw it earlier, as soon as you see him look at the jump after exiting the start wing.
He was watching you more when you were throwing food – you can try throwing the food earlier, and also using a food-carrier like a lotus ball or treat hugger. That is also more toy-like so he might really love it too!
But overall, based on his love of action + toy, I would stick with toy rewards for this game 🙂 And when using food rewards for other games, you can add action in by getting the behavior then either running to deliver the food reward, or using a treat carrier to throw so it is really toy-like 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
Keeper is a gorgeous dog! Thanks for the videos! It is fun getting to know him 🙂 Feel free to fill me in on anything you are seeing and want to work on.Looking at the pre-game videos:
He did well with the wrap verbals! He started off a little tentative then got more into it as the session went along. He liked the food rewards but maybe he would prefer a toy? Or, for the food rewards, you can take off and run for him to chase you, and see if that gets more excitement for the wraps.
He did well with the moving target, both on the flat and over the jump. YAY!
He was interested in the toy for the moving target game but took a moment to get really into it – he got more into it as you started moving faster 🙂
You can start each session with getting him a bit wilder and doing some toy chasing before you start the actual training – when he gets more stimulated, the speed to the toy and the excitement for it really blossoms.His stay looked great so you can make the toy dragging even wilder & faster, maybe even bounce it up and down. And like many dogs, he wanted the part of the toy closer to your hand (of course haha) so you can tie more toys together or put a really big toy on the bottom to direct his focus to it? It looked like a really good couple of toys so it is possible that he just needs a bit more action before the actual training 🙂
It might be possible that the food in the picture was dampening the toy love at first, so you can also try doing toy sessions without food and see how he does!
As we sort out how to get lots of jazzed up feelings about the rewards, you can also move to the next games!
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
I agree that she did really well here. The concept of line up, do the ‘work’ then get the toy is really locking in and she is really looking fantastic <3>1. Stop forgetting your reward marker cue
2. Keep moving your butt and the dog will move her butt!>Ha! Yes to both of those 🙂 And you can add more movement on the find=the-jump game after the tunnel. Part of the challenge with young dogs is when we move, that is distracting and sometimes they can’t find the line. So feel free to move as much as you want there 🙂
>I have a mental note to work on left side mobility. When she is excited, she runs down the hallway spinning, and she only goes to the right. She will spin 7-8 times down my short hallway before we go outside, and every single time, it is to the right.>
I totally feel this with the spinning! My whippet does the same thing (often with a shoe in his mouth ) – during exciting times, he spins his way down the hallway to go outside. The other dogs know to just stand back and let it happen so they don’t get accidentally smacked with a flying shoe LOL!
It gives us great insight into side preference for training: start to the easier side then go to the harder side. And carve out time to do cookie stretches in both directions, as well as simple exercises to the harder side too.
Looking at the videos:
She did really well with the rear crosses! She is finding the jump really well overall – the little bloopers will go away as she sees more motion from you and when you moved the wing over a little bit to set a better line.
When you revisit the rear crosses… time to remove the toy reward on the ground and throw it instead. This is for a couple of reasons:
– the make sure she is looking for the jump and not just the toy
– To make sure that your cues are setting the go or RC, and not the toy positionWhen you do the RCs with nothing on the ground, the left/right cues can come sooner, both physically and verbally: as she exits the start wing, you can quietly repeat left left left (or right :)) as you move towards the center of the bar to set the RC line. If she does not turn the new direction, reward anyway in the direction you wanted because it is highly possible the info was late 🙂 Your best RC timing was at :42 – you can see that you were really pressuring to the center of the bar before she took off on that one.
She also did a super job finding the jump after the tunnel!! This was so successful that we can immediately add in the next steps.
There are a lot of variations so you can mix it all in and have a good time with it 🙂 The variations include:
– sending to the tunnel (she was fabulous with that) and get ahead of her and past the jump when she is exiting the tunnel
– getting further away laterally: can she find the jump with you supporting it with more distance?
– getting really close to the tunnel entry, so she has to drive ahead of you when she exits the tunnelAnd you can delay the toy throw slightly too – throw it when she is approaching takeoff, so we are sure she is locked onto the jump and not onto the toy throw (your throws were pretty impressive!!!)
Great job here 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
> I def need to make some changes and look forward to your feedback. >
I think it overall went well! Many, many good parts!!!!
Going through it chronologically:
The up and down pattern looked good at the beginning – he only looked away when you looked away towards the ring (“mom, what are you looking at over there” probably) but was overall quite fabulous when dogs and people walked by, and when your helper person came up to you. Good boy!
There was a lot of pressure & distraction in the entire environment and he was a Super Good Boy. Truly!
Snuffle box near the ring – I do admit to saying “whyyyyyyyy” when the other person brought the black & white dog pretty close you and PoweR while he was snuffling LOL WHY they gotta be right there? I thought maybe she was next but nope! You were next.
If people get too close, you can maybe step behind those barriers he was next to? He was really good and yes, he looked at the other dog a bit but didn’t obsess, he was completely appropriate, and overall stayed engaged with you.Does he need the snuffle mat *before* the run? I don’t know yet – we will have to compare with runs that do not have the snuffle before it. The snuffle might put him too much into rest-and-digest mode… or not, it might be perfect. Time and experimenting will tell us 🙂
Moving to the entry gate – that is a tight little channel! We can add more volume dial game stuff that can be done in a very small space to get him moving and grooving. I think your order of festivities was good, though, and he was engaged. He did like the toy even in that smaller space!
Side note: He was a little distracted by loud deep bark. You can see him looking away a little and hear it on the video (starting at 2:07ish) but it didn’t seem to cause a big issue.
>We struggled with to much time on start line because they realized they had not changed the aframe height. In hindsight I should have taken him back out of the ring and regrouped with some cookies.>
>When I read this before watching the video, I thought something bad might have happened where you lost his attention. Nope! It might have felt like a freakin’ eternity but you played with him and he was fine. I didn’t see any concern from him at all.
He was great about ignoring all the people scampering about! I mean, there was a LOT going on in the height change and people were jogging around. That is a lot of pressure and weirdness and baby dog was great! You can move more with the toy on the start line, do some more tricks- he played really well though, considering all the weird stuff happening around him and the leash runner being a close talker, people saying “no” after the go, etc.
Yes, you could have run out, gotten a treat, then run back in – but I don’t think you needed to.
The one thing I would change is to work on the leash off, engagement on game more so you don’t feel like yu need to grab him when the leash comes off. And also so he automatically looks at you when the leash comes off.
I liked his tour of the ring 🙂 And I love that he played with his toy toy! Was FEO time only 45 seconds? He probably needed you a little ahead to get the frame – he was looking at you when you released him there so didn’t see it til it was too late to really get on it. Same with the jump after the tunnel – in this environment for now, he needed you a little further ahead. But he locked right onto the teeter! And I love how you still got the teeter and the jumps on the way out, even after time expired. Yay!
Overall, lots of good stuff! When you look back at it, what things do you want to change?
Tracy
Hi –
>I may go to wine country to try but will have to see since it’s all outside the environment may be too much. We got a month to decide!!>You should go. Waiting for the perfect environmental opportunity will only result in more waiting. Wine Country has plenty of room to work as far as needed from rings – you can park far away do play really far away.
> He has a most giant size holy roller but I really have to throw it.>
Cut a small section of the Hollee Roller and shove a tennis ball into it. Makes for a more exciting toy that is also very easy to throw.
> Weirdly ( or not) he has been into the lotus ball but haven’t brought it out in a while.>
Bring it out! Attach it to something long so you can swing it around.
> I was talking to chrnstine that I was going to do that and run with a toy not use food bc he will hate me lol!>
Perfect! Build up some fun non-food games!
T
Hi!
>I kept seeing what looked like a post turn to me and a couple I questioned reverse spin.>
The blind might have looked like a post turn, because it starts with turning away like a post turn, but ends with the connection on the new side. Here is what I mean:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1g5qj95GRbMKAwgUB8zxWXrUn8xg2w96fDXOEbvyDO9Y/edit?usp=sharing
>I am glad this is a smaller set of games this week. Should I try to do the wind in hair RC again before trying the tunnel version? >
Yes, you can do another round of that, then add the tunnel in.
>Also question if we should go back and play with right and left mini Pinny before moving on to more.>
You can do a warm up with the minny pinny then in the same session, try the more advanced levels.
>Will we have extra time at the end of class to post like last session?
Yes, there will be a few extra weeks 🙂
Have fun!
Tracy
YAY!! Try attaching a strip of paper to it, up high, so it blows around. And let’s play some pattern games with that visual! And we can get recordings of bird noises too from your yard. Do you have the Merlin app?
T
Hi!
>I did 6 reps in a row of the exercise – was that too much before I gave her a break? >
Nope, 6 reps is a good number! Having the fenced area is allowing you to get some fun agility stuff done without worrying if she will take off, and when she does check out it does not seem to be with the same prey-drive/racing after birds intensity that I have seen in the past. And she comes back pretty quickly and by her own accord, which is great and things are definitely going in the right direction!
> since she left me for the corner on rep 3. When I give her free time & she comes back (especially if it’s from one of the corners- looking for birds) I run & toss the LB. I feel I should reward her anytime she comes back to me, no? I’ve rewarded so many check ins in my yard that she doesn’t just go run. Well she runs – to her corners and comes back.>
Yes, we want lots of rewards so she doesn’t take off at high speed but also no, we are going to keep working towards not taking off at all. I don’t think the big check out after rep 3 had anything to do with the session being too long. It think there were a couple of factors at play:
In between reps, where the video is edited: was it cookie transports back to the start wing? She was checking out on those to varying degrees. They were not as stimulating as the environment. By checking out, it wasn’t necessarily a bird thing. There was some general looking around and some sniffing, as well as some checking out the corners.
She was able to re-engage but ideally we can help her not check out at all because then when you go back to work (1:10 is a good example) she is not really ready to work the game.
Plus there is a bit of a chain happening: she leaves to check things out, you wait, she comes back, she gets the same reward she would get if she hasn’t left in the first place. It is still better than her taking off at a sprint and not being able to come back without you have to go get her. We can start to change that chain up now!
I am very happy that she is coming back relatively quickly and that the almost obsessive bird seeking you were seeing in the big part of the yard is greatly reduced. And on this video, her checking out did not have the big sprints where contribute to the ‘feel good, want more’ physiology which gets more bird chasing. So overall things are moving in the right direction and we can shift them even more!
A couple of suggestions, using this game as an example:
Looking at the setup:
– You can put something bar-like on the jump to act as more of a focal point for her to drive to (like a jump bump or pool noodle or something)
– Use only one wing as the start wing (so it is perfectly clear which one to go around) and send her to the inside of the wing (the side closer to the jump) so your front cross there can line her up to the jump. She ran by the jump on the 2nd rep mainly because sending her to the outside set her up on the wrong line and she is inexperienced enough to stay on the line and not find the jump. Good job rewarding that anyway.
– you can use the other wing as the start wing on the other side of the jump. Here is what I mean by that:Since we want to reduce the long cookie transport back to the start jump which gets checking out after it, after a reward for the jump you will be basically at the next wing. You can start on that wing for the next rep, going the other direction over the jump. That keeps things active and relatively immediate, instead of cookie transports which reduce the arousal in a way that makes distractions in the environment more obvious (arousal being a bit higher for the game is helpful for us :))
> you meant don’t allow it during the in between times >
Yes, we don’t want to see it during the in-between moments or the start of the next rep which happened a couple of times.
So the 2nd start wing on the other side of the jump can help with the in-between moments, and you can have a 2nd LB pre-loaded so there is no disconnect there.
> You recommended a station, crate for those times, I can do that if I think I can’t multi task >
And when you do have to re-load… yes, a station or crate so the taking off doesn’t get baked into the behavior.
If you cue a rep to begin and she checks out (like at 1:09), rather than wait for her to come back here is what you should do: finish the handling without her. Run an invisible dog (I have named that invisible dog “Spike”), do all the cues, praise and reward the invisible dog. I bet she comes right back into the game. If she comes back fast and tries to join the handling – cool, include her on the reward. If she comes back while you are rewarding the invisible dog – keep rewarding the invisible dog then run back to the start wing and see if she wants to play on the next round 🙂
This presents opportunity for reinforcement in a really exciting way but also – you are not going to wait for her to come back to deliver the reinforcement. Spike can have it! Yes, you will feed and play with the invisible dog 🙂 Then go to your next starting point, do the next rep. Be loud and fun and praise Spike (he really likes the cookies and praise LOL)
It takes out the chain of her leaving, then coming back and getting the same reinforcement she would get if she hasn’t left… but we also are not punishing Sunnie for checking out. We are basically saying “the game carries on with or without you, the party is here, join if you like or not”.
Here is a video of what I mean, from a seminar. I took the sound off but you can see the dog doesn’t engage (for a different reason than Sunnie, but same general checking out). I am telling the handler to take off the leash and just start to run Spike The Invisible Wonder Dog 🙂 So she does… look at how quickly her real dog rejoins and has a grand time!
The 2nd run at 1:07 was immediately after the ‘run Spike’ moment and the dog here was totally engaged 🙂It is totally ridiculously fun and sporting dogs/bird dogs REALLY love this game, probably because the action of the handler is more exciting than the environment in that moment. And having this happen in the fenced in area allows you to do it without worrying about what she is doing without you.
So if she checks out as you are cueing the beginning of a rep? Run Spike! If she checks out because of a transition that took too long or she was on her own time… you can call her back.
>When I do allow her to have free time, can she can do whatever she wants?>
Yes, within reason of course 🙂 Inside the fenced area, she can check out corners etc – what she did here seemed perfectly normal and didn’t tip over into obsessing on birds. We don’t want her racing after birds even though she is fenced in – she was not doing that here. You can reserve the ‘go run’ cue as a super high value reward after a bit of work (so it is work first even if it is just one rep, then go for a run)., Running around is a nice outlet for sure! You can keep rewarding checking in during those – it is during ‘work’ that we don’t really want the checking out then checking sequence.
>Also you meant no chasing birds in my yard (unfenced part) however she can look at them & then I say my Get It & toss the LB – like I have been doing?>
Correct, we definitely don’t want the high speed chasing in the unfenced (or fenced) yard. If she looks at them, try to go to the ‘get it’ before she fully gets locked on. And remember you can still have her baskets and boxes out to send her to, she loves those and all of this stuff is combining to shift things the right direction!!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Rusty has some peculiarities including becoming easily overaroused by the environment. >
Yes, that can totally happen when something hijacks the cognitive process and shifts the brain into being unable to respond to cues. A lot of that can be attributed to the joys of adolescence. He is quite brilliant but also quite young, so we see these struggles at this age for sure. I currently have 2 adolescent male dogs and it can be challenging to say the least LOL
>When I took him out this morning, it was impossible to get his focus. I don’t know what had been out there, but it was impossible.>
Question: was he able to eat a treat? If he couldn’t eat in the area where he was distracted, could he eat it 20 oe 30 or 40 feet away? I ask because in those really challenging focus moments, the pattern game (back and forth) from MaxPup 1 is the tool that I go to. Super high value food and that simple game can break through whatever the distraction was. I am sure it was a legitimate distraction or maybe even a pile up of distractions.
And if we simply cannot help the dog in that moment, stopping and trying again later is also a good option 🙂
The session here went well! Since he had been struggling earlier in the day, you kept the reps short & sweet. It all looked great!
The blinds at the beginning went really well. As he exits the tunnel, you can use your left/right verbals right away to commit to the wing as you do the blind. Nice job getting the connection especially at :14 and later at 1:02 & 1:19 on the blind cross exit in the sequence, and on the FC exits too.
He did well with the other handling too – his only questions seemed to be on the middle wing (like at :54 and 1:51). He was lifting his head a bit and scoping/smelling something in the distance (especially at :54). This might be a residual of whatever the distraction was in the morning. It is entirely possible that there is *something* in the woods that was kicking his nervous system into high alert in the morning. I have seen this happen with my own dogs sometimes, living in the countryside 🙂 On one occasion, the dog could not focus at all and it turns out there was a coyote in the woods. And on another occasion, there was a dead deer that they smelled (I did not smell it until a day or two later, ewww). Neither of these were close but these dogs have great noses of course!
>I am looking forward to not having to work through two weeks content next week.>
A brain break is a good thing! And also week 5 is something of a break week, so you can add a tiny bit of new stuff but also revisit anything you want to do again.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
I totally hate moving tunnels around so this Diamond setup worked great!
I agree that the mechanics of tight blinds are hard! At the beginning, the wing wraps were front crosses then post turns – all beautifully connected and he was fast, happy, focused. You had the toy reward across the body correctly (exit line connection). The thing to add is turning away from him to set up the blind cross. You can practice it without him at home, walking up and down a hallway, to convince your brain to turn away from him for the blind 🙂
He does an absolutely brilliant job of ignoring the toy until you present it as a reward – it might be easier to scrunch it up, in terms of running with it? Or using a shorter toy (easier to scrunch up) as long as he doesn’t accidentally grab you hand when coming to it as the reward.
On the 3-jump diamond version (jump wings replacing the tunnel) he was showing lovely commitment even with the BIG distances here!
>one got cut short since the had to go poo lol.>
Poor buddy! Nature was definitely calling and he was checking out to answer the call LOL
When you came back to it in round 3, he was back to feeling focused and engaged, finding the lines with the big distances. Super!
So the main challenge here for next time is adding the blinds. It is harder than it sounds because taking our eyes off the baby dogs and turning away from them feels so weird at first! On t his setup, as he is exiting the tunnel or the wing that replaces it, you can see him committing to the next wing and tell yourself to turn away from him. That will start the blind then I think the reconnection after it will be super easy because you are a very connected handler already 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
I love the story about your daughter! It is so fun that you two are training side-by-side baby Border Collies 🙂 and it is fantastic that she is a natural. Having two adolescent Border Collies in training and in the house (even half the time) keeps things busy and exciting 🙂 but SUPER fun!
One of my favorite things about playing flyball is how entire families are involved. The team I run on has one family where all 3 generations play. Agility can and should be like that too! If she has any interest in looking at any of the online classes or webinars, let me know and I will put her in for free. We love to support our junior handlers! And at 13, she is probably more tech-savvy than any of us haha. It is a great age 🙂
Looking at the videos:
Scholar did a great job with the zig zags – he held the stay really well at the beginning (except when you took longer than expected on one rep then when he got a little frustrated, see more below). Holding the stay so you could set yourself up to show the line was really helpful because then he was happy to do the lead changes (many border collies think lead changes are weird so they don’t often work this as smoothly as he did here).
He missed one lead change at 1:56 but that was mainly because the cue was a bit late: he was already at almost at you when you showed the cue. You were much earlier at 2:22 and he found the gap nicely. He came back to the other side of the wing (he was watching your cues). You can reward both of those moments – he was following the cues and then he got frustrated when he didn’t get rewarded and didn’t really know why.
When he got frustrated, the stay behavior went away. So if you withhold a reward, you can reward the next stay and then maybe do an easy rep for a reward. That can help him handle the arousal that comes with frustration. You set him up for success at the end, and that really helped him!
The 3 jump grid was probably a bit visually daunting for him (which is why he ran outside of it on the first rep). Breaking it down helped a lot and then on rep 3 he totally had it. Super!
The last rep (after the cat removal haha) gave us a good look at his form: super nice! Do you remember the distances between the jumps? I think 6 feet between jumps will be his sweet spot for this exercise.
When you revisit it, you can be facing away from him instead of towards him (as it there was one more jump out ahead) as you drag the toy. And if he is smooth over the 3 jumps like he was here, you can start to angle the jumps a little too: his line will still be straight but the jumps being angled will provide a different visual for him to process.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>His vibes were good! >
Great! I thought the vibes were good too but wanted to check that we were on the same page 🙂
>And the “who are you was me asking chase where did this happy, all in, kind of guy come from.>
Perfect! He was a happy monkey for sure!
>I won’t ever step on the leash. Christine and I always chat and if Chase were to leave I wouldn’t jump in it. >
Good – I ALWAYS tell people this because the neck correction is so unfair to the dogs.
>Took him about 15 seconds and he wanted to get into it but didn’t feel safe.>
Then don’t use it in that environment. To get engrossed in sniffing, the dog has to really trust the environment. We don’t want *any* pairing of environmental concern with something that is supposed to help him relax. Use it in the parking lot and do other things inside the building (see below).
>He Would eat but only out of my open palm on the snuffle. >
Because food is work for him, not a reward. Keep that in mind for planning. And it is definitely not motivating enough for him to want to tune everything else out to get it. His BFF Bella is TOTALLY into food (so am I, Bella :)) so she responds very differently to it. Chase is ‘meh’ on food in that scenario – keep that in mind 🙂
>Then he got into it a little and someone came over. Sigh. The person was very chill so he just stopped and went to say hi to the person.>
I am glad he wanted to visit with the person! It was more fun than eating in that moment LOL
>We did some tugging with Ella outside. It was not as good as at the park because there was a beagle out in the distance.>
Could have been the whole environment being different plus having just done the food indoors put him in a different state.
>We went in afttee and I brought Ella and he was more animated and ate food easily but not anything like wanting it yet.>
Eating easily is good – was Ella eating too? He doesn’t really want it but did the ‘work’ of eating because he was more stimulated and a bit of social learning. But it still models eating and that is useful.
>So my assessment remains echo space hard dogs hard ( he loves them. All of them. >
Yep. This can all be hard. Did Ella play with toys inside? He doesn’t have to play, he can watch you play with her.
>Except when they try to eat him in their crate).>
I saw your FB post. I hate the issue as much as you do! And the people who say they yell at their dogs or smack the crate after they do it… well that just makes it worse for everyone.
>I’ll change up the barrel. He doesn’t love props. He does them but he always found it boring. >
He has not issues with props… it is the food he doesn’t love. And most props are trained with food. And if food is ‘meh’ then it scientifically means the prop will be ‘meh’. I am not even being sarcastic about it LOL!!
The barrel is a prop… so why does he zip happily around it? Because it has been paired a lot with toys and with movement/running. Those are his faves as far as I can tell 🙂
So train a prop like a food smack on something and train it with a toy: does it make the approach to shaping different? Yes, yes it does 🙂 But it is only different in how you deliver the reward (brief chase for tug, of a toy throw) then back to the foot smack. You will see his love for props come way up!
>He likes to run so I may do something and take off and run for reward.>
Absolutely – for a NOT food reward 🙂 I would love it is you could get him into a ball of some sort, just as long as he doesn’t splat himself chasing it.
This is all totally normal for BCs, btw. There is nothing wrong going on, he is just communicating how he feels about food as a reward or motivator (it really isn’t in most scenarios).
Keep me posted!
Tracy
Good morning! This went really well and I like the barricade you used to simulate the dog walk 🙂 It definitely gave the feel we were looking for!!
All of the handling stuff went really well: the crosses, backsides, threadle slices, threadle wraps, and the RC on the tunnel entry at the end: super nice! I think a big part of all that success was because you were able to use some distance to get where you needed to be. Yay!
I think we can get more distance, though – and it will definitely help in spots like th week 5 courses where there are big challenges on the other side of the dog walk.
He was finding the jump after the tunnel well, but was doing little check-ins to be sure. This is where we can pump up the skill of finding the line after the dog walk even more!
He was at his best with driving forward and not checking in when you used your Go verbal before he entered the tunnel, and then did it again as he exited. He likes words – and that makes sense, because the verbals support the line really well.
When you were quiet before entering the tunnel and when he exited, he was checking in with you to be sure the line was correct. You can see that at :17, :34, :55 for example. It is a small detail but I think it will make a big difference on the really big courses 🙂
So definitely give your big loud GO GO GO before he enters, and do another GO and GO JUMP (or whichever verbal fits best) as he exits the tunnel. I think that will get him very independently looking at the line after the tunnel, so you can be even further away and don’t need to go in at all to help show the line to the jump after the tunnel.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
