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Hi! She did really well here! The poles are basically straight, based on the photo – maybe one more inch to go. Her drive to them is looking good and her striding is looking good.
>> Took a long break, chased squirrels (the chuck-it kind) and a long walk in the woods. >>
One thing to try to do between sessions is to let her sleep – there are recent studies that say play then sleep allow the behavior to cement in the dog’s brain better between sessions! My youngsters had training this morning and are now literally snoring hahaha
She did look less energetic on the last reps, not using her body as well. It might have been that the poles were tighter, but it also might be that she is not ready for 2 sessions in the same day. That is fine, especially as the poles get tighter and harder – 1 session is great, because doing it in sequence like this requires a lot more energy and running.
I think the next steps should go as like this: using the exact setup you had here in terms of tightness of poles, change the sequence so you can adding harder angles of entries from jumps, so she see more challenges around the clock (and you can also add some handling challenges like rear crosses, running laterally, etc.)
Then if that goes well, the session after that should be about easy entries but with poles 5-6 added, working through that progression.
And somewhere in there we will sneak poles 1-2 to straight because they are oh-so-close now, I don’t think she will even notice 🙂
The hardest part is getting to 6 straight poles, so it is worth it to take our time here. Once she is on 6 straight, getting to 12 is actually pretty easy 🙂
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyApril 17 was the end date! But here is the link to sign up for continued video review:
https://forms.gle/xHZwvYLsQhseBS4W8Hi Jill! Great job on all of these, he looks great!
Looking at the videos:
The minny pinny session looked good in both directions and also turning away from you 🙂 You can add in the neutral position now, seeing if he can find the correct direction even when starting between your feet in the middle 🙂
Zig Zags – also looking good! And a really good stay too, will he let you go all the way out to the 3rd wing? That is the ideal next step: leading out to wing 3 and trying to get him to bop back and forth without you moving back to help him. His form looks good here!
Send-and-serps:
Your motion and running line was spot on in the first video! You can ‘open’ up your shoulders and show the serp arm sooner – as he exits the wing wrap – to help him drive in sooner. And the FC was great, lovely connection so he knew where to be. Super!!
He smoked you a little on the send and serp 2nd video – you can send to the wing from further and take off, letting him chase you through the line. On the 3rd video, your front crosses looked good! You were too careful on the first one so he blasted past you, but then you left sooner on the 2nd one and nailed it 🙂You can add distance to these and also move the wing back so the jump is a little bit of a backside!
Finding the Jump – he was so good about finding the jump!!! This is great! He was great about finding his line to the jump and you had a nice timely throw, so he didn’t have to look up at you. On the 2nd rep – also great with him driving ahead, and another nice throw to support his choice And you and he were perfect on the 3rd rep – it looks like he is looking totally straight and your throw was spot on 🙂 Great job getting him to be independent AND fast! NICE!
Great job on all of these, you can go to the next level with all of them. For class tonight, the first game is the ‘Wind In Your Hair’ setup with a wing and jump about 15 feet apart. If your weather is good and you can be outside, we can set you up to go first while there is daylight and before the mosquitos eat you!
See ya later, great job here 🙂
TracyHi! Where else have you seen it? In this scenario, it appeared to be just a setup to snatch the toy 🙂 so experimenting with the other things will let us know if she needs more balance in her jumping or if the toy creates it 🙂 Videotaping from behind also helps us see pelvic rotation. I don’t think it is anything to worry about but we will definitely look at why she does it 🙂
TracyHi!
>>I can for sure make a compilation of “cooking with Lennan”!
I’m not the least bit concerned about him getting fat. I’ve been monitoring and we’re good so far. Also, he certainly doesn’t overconsume food in general, lol.>>I think I gained 5 lbs just watching his videos LOL!
>>One question about the downhill to ground. I should reduce the tip at first as shown in the instruction video, then increase the tip again and then move to the uphill/downhill?>>
Yes – that takes out the variable of the amount of tip while you tell him that the game now includes targeting on the ground. If he is all fine and dandy with the new variable, you can then increase the tip again (which will go pretty quickly :))
T
Hi!
He did really well here – I think his only question was when he ran around the tree before going into the poles LOL! He was a really good boy about driving to the entries and staying in them, with the poles touching him too 🙂 Yay! I am happy with what he did here. I do think he was a little ‘short’ in his left hind and using his front end more than his rear end. When you mentioned he was sore after this session, what did you see in his movement?
I am curious to know what the chiro vet says! Hopefully she/he will look for soft tissue soreness as well as anything ‘out’ in his alignment. And hopefully she finds nothing more than a little out spot 🙂When we hear from the chiro vet, we will plan the next steps. I think if he is cleared and feeling good, then we can proceed with tightening poles 1-2 to get them straight. Let me know!
TracyHi!
>> I put the wing back in position as a distraction and you can see that at the very left of the frame in the video. However, today that didn’t prove to affect Ruse. I thought I had a theory that when I did a post turn, she went wide, then if I did a reverse spin she tightened up, but that wasn’t true either. The best turns were the first two where I rewarded after the turn out of the tunnel.>>
I think she is learning the turns nicely here, which is why her tunnel exits were MUCH better than they were last time. I think the exits when you did do the spin were a little tighter but she was fine on the post turns too. One theory to consider is that on this small setup, she can hear you stop moving (and perhaps can see your shadow there) while she is in the tunnel so she exits turned & looking for you, whereas a post turn on a big course will get a wider turn because she can hear the running.
She also did well on the wing wraps here, finding them successfully each time!
At 1:24, she wrapped the wing when I think you wanted the tunnel. I believe she was correct there: you said tunnel when you released her but then did a FC and switched to the right cue all before she arrived at the wing: so she read the rotation and processed the verbal to apply to the wing, not the tunnel. In other words, you were too early and she was paying attention 🙂 The rest all looked good!
She is off to a good start with the head turns! When you want her to wrap twice, be sure to cue it (I always cue each wrap so the dogs don’t just circle – they lose form pretty quickly that way). When you cued it, you were able to get a clear mark in for the moment when she turned her head away. When you didn’t cue it as clearly, the click was tending to come late – she was looking at you or turning to you rather than turning her head to the cone. So watch for that very first moment when she turns her head away to the cone and click that 🙂
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Were these set at 5 feet? It looks really really good – each rep was centered and balanced, and she maintained that form for all of the reps! YAY!!! You can keep that distance and also now angle the jumps for the different visual 🙂 I think you found the sweet spot, both in terms of the distance between the jumps and where to set her up in her stay. Nice!
>> I swear sometimes she’s jumping sideways on these things. Do you see that on the last portion of this video? If so, should I worry about it?>>
Do you mean when she was coming towards the camera? It looked to me like she was just lining up for the most efficient way to grab the toy 🙂 Is she a lefty? She looked exactly like a flyball dog getting lined up for a box turn to the left (she is very natural with it, so you might want to consider adding flyball to her career!!) It is also possible she was lining up to grab the toy and bring it to you (good girl 🙂 )
To check to see if it is anything we should worry about, we can test the theory by getting a head-on video with you on the other side to see if she turns to her right there (most agility dogs will :)) And you can also try having the toy another 6-8 feet further from the jump, so she can land and get 2 full extension strides in – my bet is that she jumps straight over the jump then angles to get the toy 🙂
And one last thing to play with to test this: lead out to halfway between jump 2 and 3, release an walk forward to the toy: she should jump completely straight on that, because the stationary physical cue might have something to do with her wanting to turn towards you (which is good and bodes well for her turns on course!!)It would also be interesting to see a view from behind with the camera placed behind her. If she is doing weird rotations of her pelvis as she is jumping, then we can worry about it. I don’t see that from the side view or the head-on view, so I think she is fine.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! The setup here looks really good, with you out by the MM and then the toy. Her focus ahead looked lovely!
The 4 foot distance is definitely better than the 3.5 foot distance but she is still cementing it. On some of the reps she was perfectly balanced in the middle between the 2 jumps, and on other reps she was landing a little short to the jump. I think that is just because she is so young – she needs more experience with this to stay balanced and centered, plus she is still developing all her muscles. So keep this same setup and try it again maybe over the weekend. She will probably have sorted it all out in her brain by then LOL!
Nice work 🙂
TracyGood morning!
He is doing really well here too 🙂
The downhills look great – at this stage, he understands the targeting really well so you can move to no more treat on target – reward him after he arrives there (we start that sooner with the 4on dogs because they don’t have to step off the board). And, you can start to fade out the stool so the board gets closer to the ground, and goes to the ground. I am not sure if you have something the teeter can land on so it is a little closer to the ground? If not, you can just try going to the ground and see what he thinks about it 🙂
The elevator game is also looking really good!! Yes to the sandbags on the teeter at this point 🙂 He appears to have no concerns with the board up really high. And his scratching is getting more intense LOL!! So for this game – do another session or two with adding more of your motion, then you can move to introducing the Elevator Game Part 3 (added yesterday :))
Target fading:
>> I wondered if the fire was too hot for him and he was worried about standing so close to it?>>I read this before clicking on the video, and I thought you meant the internal fire of wanting to do the behavior… nope, you literally meant the fire hahahahahaha
Yes, I think that is exactly what was happening – he literally did not want him bum in the fire. He did not seem to be fighting you on the other side at all. So try not to do this when the fire is on LOL!
Very cool to see the difference in his understanding of his end position – he is doing a great job with the position and your motion with that target soooooo much smaller. Keep fading it out, he is definitely ready for more 🙂
>>To me I think it makes sense to make the strip across the plank skinnier. So the mat will be the same width as the plank still, but not as deep onto the plank, til eventually it is a strip right across the end of the plank. Is this sensible?>>
Yes, that totally makes sense! And then eventually it will just be a tiny ‘dot’ at the very edge. I think you will be able to fade it reasonably quickly. We don’t need to fade it a lot yet on the elevator game, so the next place to begin the fading process is the bang game.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>For Crazy Elevator part 3&4, does it matter which hand you catch the board with or just use whichever you are more comfortable with so you don’t drop it. >>
Do whatever allows you to catch it reliably and feed him 🙂 I recommend practicing without him: run up to the board, grab it, feed the invisible Sheltie. The neighbors will think you are nuts LOL! And you also need to figure out where to put the Nemo ball for the releases (armpits are useful…)
>>>In the earlier stages of Elevator game, I’ve been using my outside arm so the inside is feeding. With the crazy variation it looks like you are catching with the inside arm and coming around with the outside to feed.
yes, because I was not quick enough to get the inside arm in front of the dogs to feed the cookie and it was ending up pushing them off the board as my elbow got in the way (Voodoo and Nacho allowed me to experiment because it has been a while LOL!). So if the dog is on my right heading up the board, I catch it with the right (keeps my arm out of the way) and my left feeds outside in front of them – which also assists the weight shift in the early stages because it acts like a bit cookie-laden stop sign.
>>It occured to me that using the inside arm to catch is probably better so that in the future there is no confusion on your outside arm starting to come up if you do a FC very close to the end of the board.>>
For a stopped contact, it should not matter – an early FC or a FC right at the end should not change the behavior at all, they should not consider it til after they hit and hold target position (otherwise they end up targeting off the side of the board)
T
Hi!
>>I noticed he hit one pole really hard yesterday- around 54 seconds. He actually pulled out a stone from his paco collar there- I’m still sobbing. His angle with his back looked weird too. Not sure if that was just a fluke from hitting the pole or not, but I didn’t like it. It was ugly.>>
Paco will fix that, I believe 🙂
>>Other than switching to the channels is there anything further that needs to be worked on this? I feel like his striding here in the 2×2 is much better that it was the first time I trained them because the feet work is more intentional, but I don’t want the shoulder slamming to be a habit. I have no preference on one footed or two footed weaves- whatever works is fine for me.>>
For now, I would just leave the 2x2s alone for a bit. It is possible that something about the channel base produces better behavior than the 2x2s, and/or the thrown toy is causing him to life his head in the 2x2s because there are only 4 poles so it is a little too easy for him. The channels might be a little harder so he keeps his head lower.
>>>Because I’m super literal and need definitive plans, I should plan to close the channels some and work all angles.
Yes!
>> Should I close any more than one finger width per session?
No 🙂
Since you like plans: use the field guides to track the sessions (you can do this after the session, using the video). Count the # of reps and # of successes: is he at 90% success or above for 2 short sessions in a 90? If so, move to the next step (add harder angles or more motion or tighten the poles, depending on what you just worked on). And use the field guides to write down what the next session should be, either ‘same’ or specifically what to add. That will systematically allow you to get through the progressions very quickly.
>>I feel like other than that one bad session we had recently, I have kept him super successful. Also, at this point since I’ve focused on entries so much, I should shift focus to striding?>>
Correct, which is why tracking the sessions is so important – you will see if you are taking too long to move forward, or if you are moving forward too quickly, or if there are angles/challenges that need extra focus.
T
Good morning!
>>1) Is it catch board and then feed as you lower it a bit before your countdown? Or is it catch/feed at about the same time so that they might get some food as the board is dropping before you catch it?
I am not actually lowering it after catching it on purpose – I am letting it drop/settle into my hand, so the board gets caught more softly and don’t have a jarring stop, if that makes sense. So my hand gets there pretty early by there is no strong contact until I am ready for it to stop. The early hand there (plus the verbals) is what tells the dog that it is the elevator game and not the full teeter. And I am catching/presenting the ‘hop on’ cookie (now the ‘drive up’ cookie) at about the same time in the early stages, maybe a tiny bit later as they get really good at it. So if the cookie is not yet in their mouth as the board is still moving, it is at least “in play” by being visible and moving towards their mouth 🙂 It all happens VERY quickly so try to get the board caught and have the cookie ready to roll 🙂 so it will end up being very close to simultaneous.
>>2) I think I missed when we added the “teeter” cue. I do plan to have a teeter plus a end position (bang it) cue.???>>
We add it officially in the Crazy Elevator game, specifically in part 4:
https://agility-u.com/lesson/uphill-track-the-elevator-game-part-4/
Let me know if that makes sense!
TracyHi! This was a good session to get us closer to the goal for sure!
Moving the MM closer really helped and just doing a bunch of reps really helped, so she could begin to predict where the reinforcement is going to be. One suggestion to also help: let the MM do all the “talking” – you can be silent and when she lands in position and looks forward, just click the MM (praise after she is at the MM). When you were praising and releasing, she was wanting to look at you. So, we take that out for now until there is more of a reward history for looking forward and not at you then it will be no problem to talk to her.One other thing you can do is click sooner – split the behavior a little more. She is very skilled at being able to down AND look at you LOL! So you can look for that first moment when she gets on the board, where she is looking ahead and beginning to move into the down: you can click that and she can go get the treat from the MM. Splitting it like that will isolate the choice of looking forward and balancing. Then you can gradually change the timing to get the full down while still getting the looking ahead. It will actually help the down behavior because it will be easier without looking at you 🙂 And is she is in a down and looking ahead but one foot is off the board, you can just call her off to restart so you can reward all 4 feet on the board 🙂
Another session or two like this one and I think she will be ready for us to move the MM further away and add more motion too!
>> She seemed to have more difficulty coordinating herself when she was getting on the R side of the see-saw and I was on her right.>>
That was just because she likes to look at the momma LOL!
>>I am in the process of making a wobble board (which may turn out to be more of a mini see-saw than a wobble board – but I think it will do) – just need to get a bracket to hold the pvc pipe underneath – then we can practice her end position on that too…>>
Perfect! That will also help 🙂
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyWelcome to needing 3 or 4 arms now for teeter training LOL!!! She is looking MUCH happier with this weird getting-on-the-board game with the board being relatively unstable. Yay! I mention the need for 3 or 4 arms because ideally you would have one hand holding her or feeding her so she doesn’t get on the board before you are ready, one hand holding the board, and then another hand to deliver a cookie for hopping on LOL!!! Since that 3rd arm is likely not available 🙂 you can have cookies in your ‘wait til I am ready’ hand (she can also hold a stay there, as that can build anticipation too!) and then the board holding hand is empty: so you can grab the board, ask her to hop on, cookie her for hopping on – then do the countdown and target cue.
>>. I wasn’t quite sure if I should actually count down or not so mostly I did not but I think during one rep I did.>>
For this early stage it was fine to just get her happy getting on to the board. She looks so much happier now, so we can show her more about the game and add end position – historically, she always gets really into any of these weirdo games as soon as we tack on the end position LOL! So try this now without the milk crate – the target will still be there for her to get into the 2o2o, and one hand holds the board, the other hand holds the cookies, so you can get her into the rhythm of hop on, get cookie, countdown, target cue, board drops, cookies for targeting, release.
Feel free to noodle around with the mechanics before you add her to the picture so you are comfy with which hand to use. You can hold the board with the dog-side hand and deliver cookies with the opposite hand, or vice versa, whatever feels easiest. I personally found it easier to hold the board with my bigger dogs when I was standing up a little straighter or bending my knees a bit – that way my legs could assist with the board and my back didn’t have to do all the work 🙂
Let me know if that makes sense! Adding the elevator game and getting her happy with it is basically the big step towards running the full teeter – she prefers it when we humans are SUPER clear with this so take your time at first, no rush as you sort out which hand goes where. And then you will see things come together very quickly after that. FUN!
Great job!
Tracy
