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Hi there!
This is a hard skill and I think it is going well! A couple of ideas for you to help smooth it out so you don’t have to move into the jump as much – and that will also add more distance (which, with her speed, we will totally need :))And, speaking of speed: when she sees you moving fast and being exciting, she wants to go fast too and was not seeing the upper body cue – which is why she wasn’t getting it unless you stepped in a little towards the jump. So, to get this smoother, slow down your motion and walk for now rather than run. That will allow you to show her the line without having to step in towards the jump. Plus moving a bit more slowly will give you more time to figure out the arms and stuff 🙂
And when you give the get out cue with the outside arm, don’t swing it back and forth: leave it up, pointing to the exit/furthest wing of the jump, until you see her leave you to go take it. And look her square in the eyes when you do it, to really exaggerate it. I think swinging the arm back and forth was too exciting so she just chased you 🙂
>>. I think I am thinking, what hand to throw the toy with then. And had the toy in the get, get hand. lol.>>
I think it worked best when you had the toy in the dog side hand and cued with the empty outside hand, then tossed the toy with the dogside hand.
This is off to a good start! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! This was a really strong session – super upbeat even when she had questions. She was working hard to read it all correctly 🙂 You might get a laugh here, but you were actually early on most of these reps 🙂 and that is why she was a little sticky. What I mean by early is that you were moving your arm and leg back when she was still a little too far away so she was questioning if she should continue to come in for the lap turn or go out to the other side of the wing.
So being on time on the lap turns will actually feel delayed here: extend hand to her and hold it there, keeping your feet together and also stationary: until she is 3 inches from your hand… then you can draw the hand back and step back to cue the lap turn 🙂 It might feel late at first because you will need to stand still but the turn itself will be lovely 🙂When you add in the moving and the other wing – you can use your send more to the other wing so you don’t have to back up or run backwards, you’ll already be at the lap turn wing . Or, you can run forward to the lap turn wing and then turn to face her. more like what you did at 2:47. She liked that! It was really speedy! You just needed to be one heartbeat sooner on the rotation to face her to get your arm and feet into the position. Lap turns definitely have a ‘hurry up and wait’ element to them LOL!!
She really liked the figure 8s and race tracks, so keep playing with those! Wheeeee! And try the tandem turns too, I think you will be more comfy with them because you can keep moving.
Nice work here! Have fun!
TracyGood morning! You did not anger the training gods today hahahahaha!!!
Good work here on the elevator game – mechanics look good and he is looking forward, shifting his weight and also seems very confident! YAY!!!!
I do think he needs the visible target for this game. He was trying to figure out the target position based on your foot position on the first couple of reps. So you can leave the target in to start, a nice big one (a bit of a billboard LOL!) and then fade it out later on (I leave the target in on the elevator game until after the dog can do them complete teeter without the elevator game.Towards the end of the session, you started to drop the board then use the target cue – remember to reverse that by giving the target cue then drop the board. Eventually he will know to just target not matter what, but for now it is helpful to do it in that order.
On the end position isolation game, it is always a good idea to revisit that! It showed us that he definitely will still benefit from the target being visible. So, keep the target in and to emphasize his head position, you can throw the reward back while he is looking at it as he moves into position and also to emphasize holding position, you can mix in some hand-delivery. It is like a ping pong game, we are responding to his behavior choices by tweaking the reinforcement placement to help him understand what he needs.
But those are small details. His overall confidence and relaxed attitude towards the training are looking GREAT!!!!
I think with the bigger target visible, you can warm up the elevator game on the next session then try a couple of crazy elevator reps.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyWow, there is a LOT to love about this session! The bang game warm up looked great and so did the crazy elevator with all the motion! I think he indeed enjoyed watching you scramble to get to the top of the board in time to catch it LOL!!! The first rep of the crazy elevator game doesn’t tell us much… it is the 2nd rep and the ones after that. Happily, he was even better on the 2nd rep and all the others and he did not seem worried at all about it. And this particular teeter has a lot of side-to-side whip especially as you were trying to run and grab it: he seemed completely cool with it 🙂
I see the ball in your hand – did you do lots of ball throws between reps?So since this looked great, I think you can move the next session of the crazy elevator game to adding the tunnel before the teeter. YAY! Fun times! We are so close to the full obstacle!!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
The billboard target seemed to really help with the motion! She did MUCH better stopping here. You can use the billboard on the other games where you will have motion too, like the elevator game. Just be sure it stays nice and close to the board, she likes to push it – so you might have to reset it for each rep 🙂
Before your first rep – remind yourself of the reward and release words. You got them going later in the session, but the first couple of reps were vague and I think that confuses her
One thing to add now: since you are a musician, I think this will make sense: you are in a rhythm that is predictable of tee-catch-ok. It is almost a 4/4 rhythm 🙂 Sometimes there is a 5/4 too. We don’t want her to anticipate the reward or release, so try to change the rhythm of the catch and ok on each rep – mixing in some praise is something that can help: tee! Gooooooood…. catch.The crazy elevator game is going well! Be sure to warm up the insanity with normal elevator especially with motion – I think when she broke position it was more about seeing your hands move to get ready to throw the treats. Dogs see EVERYTHING lol!!! So keep your hands totally normal until after you give the reward marker.
Overall she is doing really well here, I am especially happy that she is thinking about the weight shift at the end and not trying to leap. Yay!!! So go ahead and add the wing wraps before the board now, I think she will be fine adding the additional layer of speed 🙂Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! Nice session here!! You did a great job catching the board!
You might notice that he was a little better on your left side than on your right – that was mechanics and cookie placement. When he was on your left side, on most of the reps you caught the board with your left hand (dog side) and rewarded out at the end of the board with your right hand, so he was straighter and closer to the end.
When he was on your right side, you also caught the board with your left hand (which is now the opposite arm) and rewarded from your right (dog-side hand) so he was further back and curling a bit because that is where the right hand cookie placement was.
So if possible, try to catch the board with the dog-side arm on both sides, and reward with the opposite arm to maintain the straight drive to the end of the board (I had to actively think about this before each rep when I was training to make sure the cookie was in the correct hand :))He was perfect with his riding down and staying in position! And he seemed perfectly happy when you added moving away after the paw cue at the end. So for the next session, start with the mechanics and also add your motion right away. Then in the middle of the session, just give him the paw cue as he gets on and keep moving slowly past the board, so he does the full teeter and you don’t catch it – then reward, even if it is not perfect. Then do a few more crazy elevator reps 🙂
Nice work here!! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
I think this session went well!!! I like how he responded!!! And OMG they started a daycare…. eek! But it is a great distraction for him 🙂So on the session, he did really well here even with the added height. Your mechanics were strong and I agree that he did focus ahead better when you cued the target and then dropped the board (rather than at the same time).
Only one thing to add to it: be more consistent with using the yellow target. We are keeping it there for the forward focus it brings, but it will lose value if you don’t have reward on it. So you can reward in position and then release and toss a reward to it. Then you can fade out rewarding in position and just release to the reward on tossed to it. You can see him looking around a lot here: look at mom! Look at cookies! Look at target! Look towards daycare! So using the yellow target will give him a very very sterling focal point.
I think he is ready for more variables and since this is mostly review with just a change in when we want the down – you can move through the variables quickly. Begin with adding motion to the crazy elevator game – everything the same as you did here except you get to move as you drop the board.
And then I think you can easily go to the crazy elevator game, with the tweak that he goes into the down when he arrives at the top, reward, then do the countdown. This would start without your motion just to establish it.
And this can probably be done in one session – the normal elevator as the warm up then a couple of reps of crazy elevator. Of course, if he struggles with normal elevator then don’t go to the crazy version, but I think he will be just fine 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHa! Each online class should also come with a wine delivery subscription (or chocolate, whatever the handler prefers).
I think it is smart to standardize verbal cues for all the dogs. It gives you one less thing to have to remember 🙂
Hi!
>> So more 1 rep sessions
Yes – super high value, highly successful, short sessions on games you think he will like.
>>If I start session and he refuses to go to near teeter what is my response… just don’t try that session and train something else?>>
If he refuses, he is showing a concern about the environment. I would immediately move him further from the teeter and work on engagement, which is basically tricks for cookies and tugs. I wouldn’t necessarily go do other agility obstacles because I think the issue is more about how to get him comfortable in an pressure-filled environment, and engagement/play is the key to that.
>>He is my challenge as I’ve never experienced this kind of behavior>>
Yes, it certainly is a totally different training track. I am “lucky” in that I experienced it with one of my dogs so I learned a lot about handling it. Then he went on to have a great teeter for the next 10 years of his career 🙂 That taught me a whole lot about that whole conditioned response thing.
T
Hi!
The wing wraps at the beginning went well, with you rear crossing the poles. He did look at you like you were a little nuts but he did the poles correctly, which is great! And rear crossing the weaves is a useful skill so keep working it. I think you did a great job sending him around that first wing, I am not sure why you thought it was bad other than maybe it was weird feeling? But it looked good!!!
On the speed entries…. on the first couple of misses, I think he was looking up at your right hand – it was moving up and down, and hand something in it (PT remote?) so he was drawn to it (perhaps thinking it was a reward?). He was able to get those entries when you had less movement. So on the next session, don’t lead out as far – be maybe halfway between the jump and the weaves when you release him to the jump. Then move slowly up the line so he can figure out the collection into the entry. His speed is a separate variable from your speed, so you can walk as slowly as possible til he can nail it. Then we add back your speed so he can nail it when you run too 🙂
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!!!
TracyHi!
Yes, nice session here! 8 poles was no problem at all. He can do 8 here and 6 at home, it is all fine either way.
We want to stay on track for the 90% success for another session or two to pump up the average success rate – but then we need to start tightening the poles because his striding here is still a little in the awkward in-between stage. And it is not him, it is the channel width. He is swimming but with his head up, so his reach is shorter. If he gets one more 90% Or above session, the next session should be the ‘find the proper striding’ session where you tighten the poles down to 1.5 or 1 inch width and see if he gets the full swim, head low, legs reaching.I think that is also why he was double tapping at pole 5 here and there – partially due to more poles, partially due to it being hard to find the rhythm at that width.
>> Is there a point at which I should throw in any of the find ’em challenges – or still just focus on getting 90%+ in the next few sessions?
>>You can throw them in at any time, with the goal being to maintain the 90% success – you might notice that I did the harder Find Ems with poles that were easier and more open than I had been doing when I was working only on the poles 🙂 The variable change is the handling challenge, so I made the poles easier. The only one I did with straight poles was the very last one, which is ideal on straight poles but is also great with open/easy poles 🙂
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! Nice work here! I think the early toss is not helping him take poles 5-6, it looks like he was going to do them anyway – but the early toss does keep him looking forward! One thing about the frizzer, from someone who uses the frizzer a LOT now as the weave reward: throw it really long 🙂 Try not to let it land that close to the weaves, let it still be airborne so he can chase it before it lands after he exits. I think he will LOVE that 🙂
The angles you ended at here were causing him to think about his footwork (I swear, he is Hot Sauce in a Sheltie suit!!! Same exact progression!). So stay at this exact set up now, for as many sessions as needed until 2 things are happening: you can RUN (he will also love that :)) and he can bounce without having to think about it.
It might happen in 2 sessions, or 4 or 5 or 6 sessions – that’s fine, because as soon as he gets the bounce here, everything else comes together REALLY quickly 🙂 Yay!
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyGreat! This looked like he had the bounce going really nicely in the poles! He is sorting out how to get into that, watch his front feet LOL!!! He was like “this foot leads no wait this foot leads no wait this one” LOL!!! But that will probably be sorted by the next session – he was going fast and doing the striding so now he just needs to practice that. Onwards to 6 and 4!!!! You can do them a tiny bit open like this set is.
Tracy
Hooray for striding! Hooray for the AC repair guy!!! And hooray for the birdbath for cooling off LOL!!!!
Nice session here, it all looks good! Weaves, wraps… happy dance! So one word for you: tighter. Let’s take a couple of sessions to focus on tightening the poles up. Keep throwing early like that to keep his head down. You might have to do easy entry sessions each time the poles get tighter but let’s really work to get them to be almost straight.
And yes – add the real weave cue if you are pretty sure he will be successful.
>> I have a weave related question for Callie. I find that in competition, her weaves are SIGNIFICANTLY slower than in practice. My suspicion is that it’s due to delay of reinforcement in addition to ring stress. Would you have any guidance on how I could improve her speed in trials by practice at home? This one has been a head scratcher for me because I can’t replicate the scenario. Even in FEO or a match with a toy- blazing fast weaves. She’s a two foot strider and usually hits her entries 99% of the time. If she’s stressed or sore, she may pop and I usually have her seen by the chiro and it resolves.>>
It is probably ring stress, as you mentioned. How does she do, otherwise, in the ring? Confident?
For FEO in the ring… don’t let her see the toy in advance. Surprise her! I hide toys on me all the time for FEO. Or have a helper throw it (UKI allows this for sure, possibly USDAA. AKC would probably not like this lol)
At home – remember the game where we had the dogs weave away from the Manners Minder? She needs to start there. Then add the reward further and further away. Then build up to adding pressure in the environment. That can really help!
Let me know what you think! Stay cool!
Tracy
