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Hi!
>>should we do a kennel tunnel discrimination or should I use his RC mat?>>Start with the kennel til he gets the idea that something else might happen in the presence of the tunnel, and then we will move it over to the RC mat 🙂
T
Hi! We don’t need all of it at the same time (there will be course builds haha) but you will definitely get more action and have more fun if you can get you your agility field! As long as there is decent internet there, I think that would be great!
TracyGood morning! And welcome!! He is a great age for this and he gives great feedback 🙂 Posting the sessions that are not perfect – that is the MOST helpful thing! Whenever something goes wrong such as losing motivation, I start to jot down rewards versus non-rewards (negative punishment) to look at rate of success: and I think that is what the problem was here particularly in the first session. Yes, there might have been a noise sensitivity factor that contributed but I think you can work through it with an eye on rate of success as well.
Normally I comment on sessions separately when they are posted separately like this, but I think we can look at these together because there were two things in common 🙂
First, the wing or jump is higher value than the tunnel. You’ve probably put a lot more reinforcement on the wing or jump, and he was definitely telling us that when he starting offering the multi-wraps towards the end of the first video LOL! Good boy 🙂
Second – rate of success is critical to him (especially if there are noises in the background). I did a general outline of the first session’s success rate, which includes cued behaviors and offered behaviors that were rewarded or not rewarded (neg punishment). He was at about 35% rate of success, which is a contributing factor to the mental check out. The offered wraps at the beginning where you called him back (no reward) count as negative punishment and can be deflating, so either hold him or sit him as you get ready so you don’t have to tell him he was wrong.
Now compare it to the serp session – he was closer to 80% success, so he was much more engaged. Yay!
Now, looking at the skills: since the tunnel is harder for him, you can help by using more motion for now (then we can fade it later). And for whatever reason, he was much better at the wraps on the first part of the session, maybe the wing was closer on the 2nd part of the session? Hard to tell exactly but definitely do another session and approach it by protecting the rate of success like it is gold or diamonds 🙂 On your next session, help him with more motion. And if he has an error, make it easier (get closer or move more) – we can really pump up the rate of success to over 95%. Then you can get the overall success rate really high, which allows you to challenge him more. So for the next session, don’t let him start offering til you are ready, and get in and help him out if he has an error. And if that goes well, you can return to the 2 failure rule in future sessions as that also protects the rate of success but also adds challenge.
Let me know if that makes sense!!!! Have fun 🙂
TracyGood morning! Things are looking really good here!
Game 1 – I half to admit that I always chuckle at the dog’s optimism when they go through the tunnel incorrectly and then drive in to grab the toy in such a celebratory mood. LOL!! He did really well here – it was not easy for him because if you wart he his head, he was looking straight as he wrapped the wing on both sides (on the first couple of reps) and he then turned after he got to the wing (or decided it was the tunnel). As he got into the game, he started turning his head earlier and earlier. Good boy! Yes, add motion to it – the success rate is high enough to move forward. You might want to do 4 reps of warm up: one wrap and one tunnel on each side without movement to help set up a high rate of success not he first session. Then in future sessions, if all goes well, you can start with motion (no warm up needed).
Serps: The only error was him wanting to serp instead of tunnel early in the session (he was so funny popping back into the tunnel LOL!) but in the grand scheme of thing, that is the best possible error and it only happened once. I say “best possible” because I think that your toolbox of handling skills has layering as pretty far down the list, so if the layering skill is a little weaker than serpentines for now: perfect! You would just need to lean in more like you did to get the tunnel in that scenario. It might have an impact on your tunnel/contact discriminations where he might want to come in closer to you, so we will tackle that separately. The serps looks fabulous, I like how he is making both turns on the serps. Yes… next session add movement 🙂 Yay!
Contact/tunnel – I think this is the hardest of the games because it is 100% verbal with zero handler help in terms of position or motion. VERY difficult! Being at 82% is fabulous and you are moving the right direction! Two ideas for you (they are linked):
You can start saying the verbal cue before he chooses one to look at, then let him go when he is looking at the right one. Right now he is looking back and forth and when he visually lands on one, you are attached the cue and letting him go. We will fade out releasing when he is looking at the correct one pretty soon so he doesn’t think it is look at one then go to it, as that might weaken the verbal.
And, try different tones for your different obstacle here, emulating what you might do on course. For example, my tunnel verbal is pretty loud and repeated. And my a-frame verbal is a lot quieter and not repeated as much. So you can try different verbal ‘energies’ and see if that helps. It would be something like TUNNELTUNNELTUNNELTUNNEL versus craaaayte-craaaaayte-craaaaayte. But again, 82% on pure verbal is GREAT so far!!!!!Great job!
TracyHello and welcome!!!! Have fun with these games and let me know if you need creative ideas to fit them into your space 🙂
TracyHellooooo and welcome! This will be great for her – we started these games with the MaxPup generation just after her cohort 🙂 It is a perfect winter thing for her! Have fun and stay warm!
TracyWow Joni, she did a great job here! I agree – the foundation is paying off really well 🙂 She was not tooooo distracted by the barking. And you can give her a brain warm up with tugging before you start with treats, so she is a little more focused. But overall, she was terrific on her wraps here without the bowls and in BOTH directions. HAPPY DANCE!!!! The next session should be introducing the turn and burn, I think she will love that 🙂 Great job here, I am excited that she was so fabulous in a new location!!
Tracyhi! Sorry for any confusion!
>>I need to be able to SEND….her to the bag on these.
Yes! She leaves you to go to the bag… but only after you tell her to go with the send cues. She was sending herself in this video LOL!
>am I supposed to have a verbal for the bag? Or just ready, ready…get it or something?
You can have a silly verbal or a noise for now, but nothing you will use on course over jumps. I use sill stuff like “ready ready WHEEE!” haha 🙂
Hi! He did an awesome job here, he is a shaping maniac LOL! The box and the mat both looked good. For the running contacts mat versus a Control Unleashed mat… I use more of a dog bed with sides for the relaxation stuff, and a towel or yoga mat for the running contacts. The dogs are fine with knowing the difference.
Because the value building sessions went so well, for your next session you are not allowed to move 🙂 You should stand completely still at all times (it is a great lazy game for us humans :)) so that he looks at the box or mat and not at you, which includes initiated moving towards it. You can start perpendicular to it, then change angles or let him go forward to it, moving away from you then coming back to you. The placement of reward will get him out of the box to initiate the next rep, without you having to move. We add handler movement a bit later down the road and in a different context after he knows how to leave you in the dust for it 🙂
Great job here! Training running contacts will be FUN!
TracyHi! Oh crud, the sound is off on the video. I was clicking getting in it but the clicks are all over the place! Eek! I will try to fix it or replace it. Thanks for pointing it out!!
TracyHi Mea and Asher! It is pretty normal for dogs to be wary of the MM at first (especially Border Collies). For now, I suggest 2 approaches:
first, don’t turn it on and use it as a food bowl 🙂 You can feed him from it, or use it for treat delivery from your hand, or have a toy in it. That will help make it less scary.
Separately, you can have it at a fair distance away, turn off the beeper element – trigger it so it makes the grinding now and play tug with him (just to desensitize the noise). Then you can get it closer and closer, and eventually you can have him go to it for the treat.
You can also have it turned off and shape him to smack it or put his front feet on it, like a goat game 🙂 That can be fun and raise the value of it!
Let me know what you think, and keep me posted on how he does!
TracyYay, he looks fabulous!! I think it is a combination of one-hit wonders and also he had a couple of days of break from it (unless you took a teeter to the beach hahahahaha) so keep up that cycle: a few days of training for meals, then a few days off, then training, and so on. We will add more motion soooooon 🙂
TracyHi Patty, welcome!!! I love Corgis 🙂 They are adorable AND brilliant, the total package 🙂
I think you will find this good for all ages – on the demo videos, it was my oldest and “most experienced” dog that made the most mistakes LOL!!!
Keep me posted!
TracyHi!
>>Update on the prop 1 game. I think we played more which made her wait for the cue. She had no issues with the sideways or backwards cue.>>
Great!!!! That is awesome!
>>I was looking forward to trying this with her, I thought it looked like fun. She is doing great. I dropped a cookie between me and the jump, which initially made her not go around it. I also pushed it out too far too quickly. I have to watch myself!!! I brought it back it and we were back on task. I pushed it out again but not as far. She did go between me and jump a few times. I didn’t put a cookie in the bowl, she thought about it and did it correctly.>>
Do you mean the wrapping? She is only about 10-11 weeks old, so proceed slowly, you have plenty of time, and use a nice big barrel 🙂 Because she is so young, you only want to do repetitive wrapping maybe one session a week.
>> So my analysis is the pup is awesome and the handler needs to not rush the process.>
I agree on both of these 🙂
>>None the less, I am trying to do it as suggested and my brain is just getting in the way. (I know it shouldn’t, what you are asking for is simple).
Ha! Simple is not easy when it comes to changing muscle memory! It took me a while to get it into my bones when I was learning it.
>>I also tried it outside and with more room to move, I elicited the pant leg grab (instead of the shoe grab). I was also late because I was still thinking too much about what I was supposed to be doing! Second session, back indoors, I did much better. Third session was pretty good, but the handler regressed a bit.>>
Keep things slow for now in terms of your motion. You can do it as a restrained recall if you have someone to hold her, so you get a good head start without too much motion, because motion is so stimulating 🙂
>>>We did one session of the shaping goat work. I was using a large cardboard overnight envelope. She got 4 paws on during the session. I probably could work on playing in between shaping more. Is that object acceptable for now. I have other things (raised) for down the road…aerobic step, raised bed.>>
Perfect! I think it is a great object to start with! The more things you do this on, the better 🙂
>>(sometimes I think I cheat because we do some work before she gets her breakfast!!)
Not cheating at all! It is effective use of food rewards 🙂
Thanks for the update, it sounds like she is doing really well!
Tracy
