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Howdy! Do you mean on course when doing 12 weaves? It depends… some dogs are better when we are quiet and some are better when we keep saying the cue 🙂 I am trying to give the initial cues and then be a little quiet so I can breathe… all of those months of sitting on my butt this year have caught up and I am out of shape LOL!
Hi! The foot target for the down is not as critical on the mountain climbers yet, because the dogs will still be standing when they get to the top of the board here. When we get into the uphill downhill merge game, then yes: target for the down. Let me know if that makes sense!
If you think she is happy driving through the pivot of the board, you can add more tip 🙂 Yay!Hi! She is doing so nicely on these!! Because of her course running experience, she understands the joys of tunnels more than the puppies do, which makes the game harder for her. My adult dogs all had a REALLY hard time with these and the puppies had a much easier time LOL!
I think the turns to her left on the first section look really strong, very nice quality to the turn and she was adding collection before she arrived at the wing. NICE 🙂 And she seemed to have no trouble ignoring the tunnel when asked and also no real trouble when you had her do it from the tunnel. She did have a question about the turn when you did it as a post turn, like at 1:13: you were cuing the wrap and she was collecting but then doing the post turn instead of a front cross caused the handling to support the wide line (she looked at you there and was like: wait, what? LOL! But good girl, still didn’t go into the tunnel. So for this game, do the FC or a spin on the wing.When you switched to the other side: she seems like she is not as good at turning to her right as she is turning to her left. Is that something that you have seen? She doesn’t seem as ‘bendy’ to her right and had more errors (like the tunnel right at the beginning). But then she got into the groove and nailed it. Yay! So you can keep focusing on the right turns and you can also do things like puppy stretches or leg weaves to get her even more comfy turning to her right.
Because this session was so lovely, you can add one more level to it: Run! Wheeee! Cue the tunnel and run towards it and run along it so you are at the exit with her – then show motion into the wrap cue 🙂 try to show good motion and be on time…. but this is also going to help her process the verbal even if you are not perfect (she is waaaaaay to fast for us to rely on perfect timing on handling!)
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi again! I think she looked pretty balanced and organized here too. As with the straight grid, try this at 4 feet and see what she does 🙂
About her looking at you: from the video, it looks like she was looking at you on the lead out but then when you released her, she only looked forward at the grid. I am happy with that 🙂 She can see the grid peripherally and over time, you’ll get more focus forward in the stay (or not, she might be fine looking at you til the release :)) Did it look different during the training – was she looking at you over the jumps?
One thing you can do is you can adjust your position to be closer to the MM – first right next to it, then parallel to it laterally rather than being a few steps back from it. You can also move the MM another 6 feet away so she can power out of the grid too!
And yes, you can continue to click the MM right as you release so she looks forward, that will help too 🙂 but for now, don’t worry about where she looks on the release because if you wait too long to release (waiting for the forward focus) she might get confused.Separately you can encourage her to focus forward by going back to the toy races from MaxPup 1, the first game: warm her up with the baby level but then let’s do the grown up version: start her in a sit, place the toy on the ground, and release her to it when she looks at it. Then you an transfer that to a jump 🙂
Great job! Let me know if this makes sense 🙂
TracyHi there! She is doing well on this grid!
I do agree that the 3.5 looks a little cramped for her too. You can try 4 feet (and I bet when she is older, she can do 5 or 6 feet).Watching her work through this – I think I liked the MM best for now – she was thinking about her striding more. You can have it further out and also place yourself right next to it so she doesn’t sprint past you. I think starting her on the MM will let her think about her striding more than the toy would – she brings so much natural speed that We don’t need it here 🙂
She did look really good on the last rep with the toy as well, so after introducing the new 4 foot distance to her and also the angled jumps with the MM – you can then play with the toy! That way she can layer in the speed after she has learned the striding.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi Donna! She is looking really good here!!!
The blind crosses are really starting to come together; hopefully the don’t feel as weird LOL! You are getting early and more comfy, and she is now really driving into the turn. Super! Your timing was generally good – most of the blinds start right after she arrived at the wing. A couple in the middle started after she exited the wing, so they were a little late but your connection was solid so she still got the turn. On the reps that were earlier, she looked great! At :02 and :11, I liked your timing and she was good about figuring out the turn. And then at :34 and :42, I liked your timing there too AND she knew what to do with the turn, so she was much tighter 🙂
Now, to be a total pain… you can try being even sooner: trust her commitment more and start the blind before her nose arrives at the wing 🙂 That will be perfect!She is doing well with the RCs too! I think she was asking some questions about whether you wanted her to go straight or do the RC – you can see her turning her head back and forth LOL! Watching your running path, I think that on the RC reps at :11, :24 and :31 you were just a little late getting onto the RC diagonal. You ran forward a few steps on the straight line and then cut over into the RC. At :31 she was already committing straight then got the turn over the bar. But compare those to :46, when your toes were already pointing to the RC line (center of the bar of the jump) as she exited the tunnel – that was a very clear cue! Do more like that, loved it! She was surprised by your speed there but your line was super!
Great job here!!!!! Let me know what you think 🙂
TracyHi! Both games look really strong here!!!
On the bang game, he is doing a great job of staying in position! I think he is really very solid now 🙂 and you have a lot of motion going too. My only suggestion is that you line him up so his whole body is parallel to the board, so he can leap on going directly into target position. You were tending to line him up perpendicular to it, so he had to turn and then get into position. Line him up so his bum is next to the board 🙂 That will add challenge to the balance and weight shift, and he is totally ready for that.
For the next session, add a little more height!The elevator game also looks great and the scratching is awesome LOL!! He is not that heavy so if he wants to run to the end of the board and scratch it to get it to drop faster? Perfect! That gives him something to do rather than leap off 🙂 The challenge of motion was pretty easy for him – you were able to cue the target and move forward as the board was dropping and he did just fine! Nice!
So now yes, add more height – you asked about the board being parallel: yes, we get it to parallel on the elevator game, and eventually to pointing up! So you can take out the holder on the other end: start him next to the board with it pretty low, ask him to hop on. As you reward him for hopping in, raise the board a bit (elevator going up!). Then do your countdown and then cue the target. Only add a little bit more height, gradually, to see how he feels about it. And when you are adding more height, take out the motion and stay there to reward in position (like you were doing in sections of this video).
If you do a session with more height and he is fine and happy, you can add some motion back in 🙂Separately, if you have time: revisit the uphills/mountain climbers for a quick session or two. Those are coming back into play on Monday so it is a good time to get back to them a little 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Nice session here! He was happy to get into end position either from the elevator game or running down the board and is getting quite demanding about scratching at the target LOL! Perfect! The only question he had was after a reward when you disconnected, moved forward and started talking…. he totally thought it was the release. On all the other releases, you were much more connected and still clearly in “game still on” mode and he was perfect: so don’t be casual after the reward goes in LOL!The snow this weekend is indeed a PITA!!! Stupid snow. I think that as soon as that snow melts, the teeter needs to go outside because he will be ready for the next games that are coming on Monday… and they can’t be done inside 🙂 You need room to run run run before the board 🙂 Fingers crossed for good weather from here forward!
Great news about the teeter in the new location – it sounds like he was perfectly fine with it, and he is happy overall in class. Super!!! The whole ‘who is that person behind me’ question is probably going to be a pretty normal part of our training progression with all of our pandemic puppies. They simply did not get to have much (or any!) experience with that, and we probably took it for granted with previous generations because they had so much more early exposure. So my guess is we will have to work those exposures now or soon with these adolescent dogs and it will probably take a little longer to get them into the trial ring. Normally, my dogs at 18 months are ready to do some NFC runs on lower height jumps and tunnels and maybe a ‘for real’ Speedstakes or something. But not this year! We basically lost months and months and months of the exposures that we would normally have done by now, due to circumstances completely out of our control. But no worries, I figure they are mature, level-headed dogs and we will catch up and they will be perfectly fine 🙂
(Plus they will have better obstacle skills and handling understanding than any previous generation :))Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
The down at the end of the board changes the structure of the downhill games a little bit, because we don’t want her to stand at the end or run off, but we don’t want to add the foot target too soon. So it is a slightly different progression for the down dogs 🙂
Basically, we do the loaded target like you did here until she is super happy running through the end of the board. And it seems like she was pretty happy here! And, ideally, she stays at the loaded target longer, she was doing drive through (grabbing the food really fast and running off) when you were moving because the toy is still more exciting LOL!But because she is ultimately going to end up in a down, I don’t want to insist that she practice *standing* at the end of the board because then we would have to ‘untrain’ that. And that would frustrate her! So, because she is happy to run down the board and is not worried about the tip: we add the target for the down behavior. (The target position for the down dogs gets added sooner to this game than for the other positions).
That means that the next sessions here should have the foot target in position but no treat pre-loaded on the target. Have her move down the board (no speed needed yet) and assume the down position on the target – then reward her, then release. I recommend “warming up” the behavior of the down by showing her the target is there in the bang game for a couple of reps. Then if she is happy with that, you can go to the full board with you moving slowly. For her, I don’t think we need to ask for speed because her speed is always there as soon as she knows what to do 🙂 YAY!
Let me know if that makes sense – we are adding her down position at this stage in the progression because it will make more sense as the board continues to get closer to the ground 🙂
Nice work!
TracyGood morning! Lots of good work here!
The mountain climbers to cream cheese were interesting to watch – there is enough tip now that she was definitely thinking about it! You can see her shifting her weight early on the first couple of reps then getting better and better on subsequent reps. She got REALLY good at driving to the end of the board when you were moving especially when you were ahead and running. She was still not totally comfy with driving ahead of you, so you can definitely keep working that with the cream cheese yummies at the end 🙂 You can do reps of just sending her up the board to the cream cheese 🙂 The wing and the motion all were good, she seemed to have no trouble with the added speed and motion in terms of getting on the board and balancing.On the target fading session – I loved your creative way of adding motion! I don’t think she was releasing on motion, I think she was releasing because it was unclear if she was supposed to stay there after the tossed reward. I could hear the catch marker in the 2nd part of the session (couldn’t hear it in the first part, but it might have just been quiet) – be sure to define the catch marker specifically. For example, my ‘catch’ is also a release to get the reward because the throw will make it hard to stay in position (because, my throws can be a bit wild lol) – and I want to reward the dog and not enter into a self-control dilemma 🙂 You can define it that way, and so then you would either throw it back and expect a release (or release her if she catches it and continues to offer 2o2o) or you can hand deliver it or release her forward to get the reward.
Or, you can define it as ‘stay in position to get the reward’ in which case you would use your release after she eats the cookie, like you were doing later in the video. Your throws are good and she is very very good at catching them, so I think this is a possibility for you to be able to use.That will make it easier for her – the clarity in the marching band 🙂 section of the video is already super helpful for her and she was very successful!
And those reps had very little actual target, right? Yay! Keep fading, try to get it to super tiny or basically gone, I think she is ready for it to be gone now 🙂Great job!!!! Let me know what you you think!
TracyGood morning!
This is beyond exciting 🙂 I mean, usually in new places we do a little bit of the beginning of each game and expect small successes. But he had massive successes! (I would run down that board for DD hash browns too haha)
The first clip looked just about the same as it did indoors: he was fast, happy and accurate about jumping on the board and going to end position, even starting without you LOL! And also you had a lot of motion going and it was no problem. I saw a target for it but then did you also have it faded by the end? Great session!
The downhills were perhaps not as totally fast as indoors, maybe he was thinking a little harder? But they were plenty fast and he seemed happy – and that is the goal of this teeter tour adventure. Yay! Very fun!!!!!
It seems that the new location, the distractions, the different teeter: no issues, he worked in drive AND kept a level head for thoughtful behavior. Brilliant! The only suggestion is to keep doing these little teeter tours when possible – once a week if fine, if possible. Are there any UKI or USDAA trials near you coming up? We can start plotting some training in the ring 🙂Great job!
TracySounds good! I agree that the independence of the end position is one of the most important pieces. And because he is so confident with all the movement and noise and height, as soon as the end position is solid things will move very quickly to the full teeter. Fun!!
OK then maybe the 4 wheeler 🙂 And I have played the bang game with one hand on the working dog, next to the teeter, and the other hand on the reward dog 🙂 Only 2 or 3 arms needed LOL!
YES! We have bouncing. Super! So now we plan:
The missed entries from the 10 o’clock-ish angle doesn’t bother me at the moment – he was looking at the entry but couldn’t figure out how to stride it, so he didn’t get it. No worries: if we solidify the striding so he doesn’t have to focus on it, then that entry will be fine too (it really has never been an issue for him).
So now that we are in the striding part of the fun, I would change nothing about your setup here in terms of the poles. And I suggest keeping him going with straight entries (11-12-1) and your motion. So nothing about that changes, but you can get even more practice of the good striding by throwing a jump or tunnel before and after it (definitely before and then maybe afterwards if it is not too distracting).I recommend the same weave setup in a mini course (still rewarding weaves but you can throw towards the next obstacle) for 2 more sessions of about the same length you had here. If at the end of the 2nd session, he is finding the striding easily and he is a happy bouncer: then we move on to the harder angles. If he is not a happy bouncer, we can open the poles if needed.
You can probably do your 2 sessions in one day if you have a nice long day to be able to pull the poles out once in the morning, once in the afternoon/ evening. But there is no rush, of course, we are in the final steps now!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! This was a really good session, especially considering the dog and human distractions! Let’s look at it as 2 separate behaviors, the sends from your left (11-10-9-8 side of the clock) and the sends from your right (1-2-3-4-5) side of the clock.
The left side sends (11-10-9-8) look really strong and I think you can tighten up poles 3-4 a little bit and move them a little closer to poles 1-2.
The right side sends (1-2-3-4-5) are where he has trouble. He is doing a GREAT job of getting to the correct side of pole 1 but then had a little trouble getting in between 1-2. He would get in better when from 1 and 2 on the clock and when you were close to help him. But you won’t always be able to be right there (he is speedy!) so to help him, angle the 1-2 poles a tiny bit open so he has an easier time getting in between poles 1-2.
Because the sends on the left and the sends on the right will have a slightly different setup, you might find it easiest to do them in separate sessions so you don’t have to keep switching things around.
And when he locks into the 1-2 entry on the right side sends, then we can tighten up poles 3-4 there too 🙂
Great job with adding the motion, he is doing really well with that!!!
Nice work here! Let me know if the plan of action makes sense 🙂
Tracy
