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Hi!
>>So he does do this during the day and it is chasing other dogs, people who walk by and birds. When it was dragonfly season he would also leave work to chase those. While we do play frisbee and ball in the yard, it’s a sporadic activity. >>
My guess is that the rehearsal of this behavior is high in value and overriding the behaviors you are trying to train, so when there is a little bit of frustration (incorrect response, value of available reinforcement is not high enough) that he defaults to the undesired behavior because of the inherent reinforcement value (and hacking his dopamine/endorphins). Is there a way to eliminate his access to that while you are putting the training in place? That will help shift things!
I agree with your assessment that, at night, the triggers for the running are far fewer so you see the behavior less… which also means that the value for the training has risen. Yay!
Very nice progression on your serp session! It is a look at what type of agility dog he will be, which makes it totally worthwhile to train through the distraction 🙂 He needed a little more verbal and a little less motion on that first rep where he ran past the jump – and that is exactly what you gave him on the other 3 reps. Perfect!!!!
Since that went so well… as far as a game plan, is it possible to do the handling and other stuff at night, where he finds it easier to engage? And save the engagement training for the day? That will reduce frustration for both of you, I think! He still learns the agility skills while you also teach him about working through distractions, and then down the road we meld it all together.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! Hope you are having a good weekend!
I guess it is a matter of how individual dogs respond, but I generally try to take the smaller steps in training, and perhaps try to move through them faster, rather than taking bigger steps then have to backtrack. The other way to look at it is: add one new element as quickly as you can – but not two new elements at the same time. For example – 2 jump flat jump serpentine. Motion is the new element, so you can angle the jumps a little and leave the toy in a helpful place. Do that for a rep or two, then change something else (flatten the jump or move the toy position, not both). That way you can progress quickly without jumping ahead too quickly. Let me know if that makes sense!
TracyGood morning! I am sorry to hear she had a stressful week, I hope she is feeling better!!!
The rocking horses are looking really good! Looks like Santa sacrificed himself for the greater good of dog agility here LOL!!! She really likes that toy! You can play some toy game to get her to give it back, there are a whole bunch over in the Toy Transitions group on Facebook. In general, when the pup drops the toy, I give it right back so the don’t think that bringing the toy back means they will get it taken away.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1074089192764113It is possible that the random barks mean she wants you to send sooner, maybe just before she gets to you? She appeared to know where you wanted her to be and came immediately to that side, so I think your connection was fine and your Hallmark Moments were in place LOL! Your mechanics looked good and she did really nicely committing and coming to the new side. So… she might just be a little pushy haha! No worries, some dogs just like to ‘talk’ during agility. You can try giving her the send one step sooner and see what she does.
Also, if possible, you can separate the stools by a few more feet and that will add more ‘action’ of you moving – she will like it AND it will be pretty challenging 🙂
Great job here!!
TracyOopsie, that was left over from last year – that was a puppy class, this group won’t need it 🙂 I took it out, thanks for seeing it!
Tracy
Hi!
He did really well finding the entry to the plank at speed! The bowl one the table was perfect for stopping him so you could run by.
>> I wasn’t sure just how much I wanted him running up the ramp and slowing to stop on the table>>I think that simulates the teeter nicely and also is helpful for table training – and won’t have any negative fallout for dog walks where we tend to back chain more.
He looked really confident and speedy, easily finding the entry to the ramp when he was on your left. When he was on your right at the beginning, you helped a lot with handling. Try to help less and see if he can find it – but don’t add too much motion to that for now, because it is a really hard angle coming from that side of the tunnel.
On your serps: one jump serps looked great! At the beginning of the 2 jump serps, I think it was too big of a leap in difficulty to have more motion, 2 flat jumps and the toy on the wrap exit. So angling the 2nd jump made a BIG difference and really helped him. Yay!!!! That allowed him to figure it out so you can angle it back. I think the jumping effort on that 2nd jump is really hard for the dogs, and pushing themselves to the backside might actually be an easier jumping effort. Another way to break it down a little is to have the toy on the landing side of that second jump – it will encourage him to find the correct side of it, while also adding a bit of challenge for coming in on the serp jump (as opposed to running parallel to it and grabbing the toy :))
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyOops, almost forgot to answer this!
>>Also what household items might work for a channel?>>
Depending on how much help you think she needs, or if you are indoors or outdoors:
for outdoors, I have found long jump boards to be the easiest, or even laying jump uprights on their sides. Indoors, you can use pool noodles or laundry baskets 🙂 Let me know if that makes sense!Tracy
Hi!
>> in my newly matted pole barn! – it’s small, but it’s big enough to do some of Yowza’s training games 🙂>>Wow! Congrats!!!!! It is so cool to have it especially in the winter!!
>>When I included the Manners Minder, I kept pressing the Manners remote by mistake when she was coming to me, so then I sent her right back to it – so seems like I have to get myself trained in using this thing if I’m ever going to train her properly>>
Ha! I feel that pain. Also remember there will be moments when the MM just starts dispensing treats over and over for no real reason. LOL! A sense of humor is important when using the MM 🙂 And she thought it was great – and it was totally the right thing to send her back to it when you hit the remote.
These sessions went really well!
On the mat-only session, I think the value is really getting into place so now make one adjustment: mark *rear* feet on the mat, not front feet. Everything else is the same, but just stare at the mat and for now, click when the first rear foot hits (then it will eventually be about the 2nd rear foot, but I think first rear foot is good to start for now).When you added the MM – this was also a good session, both on the straight lines and on the angles. Really nice! You can add more distance between the mat and the MM, plus you can add a little more arousal with a bit of tugging when she gets back to you. These were also mainly reinforcements for front feet hitting, but you can see by the end she was moving through nicely with rear foot hits too… so now on this one, wait for the first rear foot to hit then reward (again, stare at the mat and not at her – that is the trick to seeing which foot hits :))
Great job!!! The RDW will be FUN!!!
Tracy
Good morning!
Glad the foot is healed!!! I have found that my girls can work nicely when they are in season, and it looks like Eden did too. Yay!On your serps – I think the hardest part was convincing her to send to the first jump when she had to take it and turn right in the first part! A little more connection to her eyes and then waiting one more heartbeat to leave will help get the commitment. She was much better when you switched sides and you sent her so she turned left – it is possible that she is just stronger turning left for now on these types of sends.
I don’t think you held your serp arm for too long at all; in fact, with a youngster, I would hold it til she lands from the serp jump so that you get the turn to the jump after the serp jump (there was no jump there here, but you can still ask for the turn). That will help her read that the serp is come in and go back out.
I think she did GREAT job driving right into you for the serp. So many dogs (including mine!) want to run parallel and NOT come in when the momma starts running, and she was perfection: driving directly to you on both sides. Happy dance!!!
The tunnel – wrap game is looking really good, you really got into the groove on the rep starting at :55. The wraps cues that started when she exited the tunnel at :58 were lovely – perfect transition promoted independent commitment and a nice tight turn, and then great connection as she came around the wing.
>>suddenly she slowed way down (not on film). I think it may be me disconnecting, too much repetition or maybe not balancing it with some straight running. Just tossing ideas. Also I’m still not leaving and showing a lot of decel.>>
Possibly! Too much decel will cause that. Right at the very end of this clip, at 1:03, you got to the wing really early so she didn’t see a lot of acceleration to commit, so she decelerated a lot. I think it was similar to what happened at :36 (first rep of the wraps on this clip) where you were too decelerated so she stopped early.
You can set up more acceleration opportunities but changing this set up a tiny bit: straight out the tunnel and squish it a little so it is not that long, and put the wings out past each end as far as possible. That will get some serious running going. If she still slows down on that, let me know and we will figure it out.Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! It was just posted this morning:
https://agility-u.com/course/au-027-fantastic-contacts/
I aspire for my blue merle dog to have that lovely rear foot hit that Jordan’s blue merle dog is doing in the photo LOL!!!!Tracy
Good morning!!! She is doing really well on both games here!!! They are pretty hard 🙂
On your serpentine games – these are going really nicely!!! A couple of ideas for you:
I think she will do a bit better if you can help her differentiate by using different releases: ‘you’re free’ is for the serp, and tunnel is for the tunnel (no ‘you’re free’ needed before it). Otherwise she will have to wait to make a decision which will cause errors because she is not going to wait when she is that close to the obstacle. Sometimes you used both “you’re free” and then “tunnel”, sometimes not. In this situation, the ‘you’re free’ release should mean serpentine.I can see how the reward presentation at :34 would look like a ‘get out’ cue to the tunnel! We have taught her that arm motion 🙂 So you can use a marker like ‘get it’ or cookie or something so you don’t have to move away from the tunnel. Your position and line of motion on that rep was really good, so resist temptation to move towards the other end of the tunnel – stay as parallel to the bar as possible.
She was all in serp mode when you wanted the tunnel a 1:07 and 1:20 – she probably needs a little more obvious cue to reach across in that moment, as her arousal level was coming up which makes it harder to hear and process. So you can exaggerate the physical cues for now to help her process them through the excitement and arousal.
Wrap game:
She did well here! You were pretty much #TeamChill and using food, which helped. She did have an error at 2:31 when arousal was coming up and on the new side, but I think you worked through it really nicely! Arousal is going to be the biggest distraction for her, so you will definitely want to incorporate it. Start each new game with treats and being as calm as possible. If she can do two high success sessions, keep using treats as rewards but start to add arousal – you can do this by tugging a bit before you start, or getting her barking beforehand.>>We did the wrap drill a few days earlier at sotc, she couldn’t do it. Was so high, and I was using a toy which puts her at an even higher level. >>
I think because arousal is so hard, you can start all the new stuff at your home base, get it going there, add arousal there… then take it on the road where the environment adds the arousal. And, use food in the new places. I guess a good formula would be: if she is very successful with toys as the reward at home base, you can take it to the new place but use food there to get it started.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyOMG that first rep cracked me up – he thought about coming in, changed his mind, took the tunnel, then came back and serped LOL!!! The very slight change in your shoulder position really helped him see the difference between the tunnel cue and the serpentine. And the grocery list of foods before the release actually got him to pay *more* attention to the verbals, because he had to listen for the release which means he was listening for the release versus the tunnel verbal. Aha! I love that! So feel free to keep doing the shopping list, or praise, to get him in the listening mode before the release. You might have been doing it to help with the stay (which is a good think) but I think it helped the other elements as well.
He is beginning to get the idea here, so you can definitely add in motion. Motion for Potion! Ha! Because motion makes the serpentine harder, you can tweak his angle so he is facing you and the bar little more and facing the tunnel less directly to begin with success, before progressing to facing the tunnel again.
Great job!!!
TracyHello and welcome!!! How did he get to be 18 months already? I love it! He looks fabulous 🙂 And opinionated LOL!!
You are off to a great start:
Because he is a youth, he definitely found it easier when you helped with a bit of body language 🙂 So when you cued the tunnel with one step to it, that helped soooooo much! And when you cued the wrap with a little bit of rotation: also super helpful. Then you were able to fade it out by the end and he did a great job. Have you noticed if he was a lefty or a righty (probably would see this if you have started your flyballing with him?) He appears to be a righty here – note that in the 2nd half of the video, he was more easily able to set up the wraps to the right. Now, that could be because he is a little stronger going to the right… or that it was the second part of the session and he figured out the game 🙂 So on the next session, start with him on your left (turning to his right) and see how it goes.
Love that you have your verbals going, they are VERY distinct and that will be so helpful! He is a speedster 🙂 I am excited for you!!!! Great job 🙂
TracyHi Rosalie!!
>>We have been dealing with rain issues.
Ugh! Fingers crossed for good weather. But no worries, we have plenty of time and there are always several extra weeks at the end in case weather (or life :)) gets in the way.
Tees did a *great* job here!!!
>> She’s being purposeful but I’m more concerned with understanding than speed. Your thoughts on this?>>
I completely agree that being purposeful and having understanding is the top priority. I have two Staffy mixes right now (one is 2.5, one is 12) and I started agility with a Staffy rescue – both of those older girls were go-fast first, think-about-it later. So that led to problems. My younger thinks first then piles on the speed when she ‘gets it’ – and she is sooooo good one course 🙂 So if Tees wants to think first, and go fast when she fully understands: PERFECT! That is my favorite thing in an agility dog.
I also think that terrier dogs (all types of terriers) have to really think about collection and bending. So if she wants to think about it on these games – good girl. And that is what she was doing here: bending. Loved it! She was not fast going to the tunnel because you set up a great challenge: your physical stance looked to be just about the same as the physical stance for the dig cue, so she really had to listen to the verbals. All you would need to do to get more speed is support it with a little bit more body cue. But I give her a big gold star for NOT needing that support and for listening to the verbal. GOOD GIRL!
So for your next session, you can add more motion as a challenge and keep the toy hidden until she makes the complete decision (you had the toy presented before she was finished with the wrap). You can add more motion by starting further back and running into it, and also fast rotations (because speed = speed and sometimes the dogs only see the motion and don’t read the rotation or hear the verbal0.
And you can totally do the tunnel and then wrap as a mini sequence, that will add challenge too!
Great job here!!!
Tracy
