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Good morning!
>>Good reminder that someday we will be back in person and with other dogs doing things around us. So I put his harness on and got him tugging (it took a few tries before he really grabbed the toy) and then asked for a few tricks and ditched the harness in the middle before setting him up.>>
Perfect! I am trying to make lists of all the things we would normally have shown the pups by now without even thinking about, so we can show them before they have to go out into the world LOL! My dogs have been basically off leash for a year, so…. I need to get going with leash games LOL!
The decel games look really good!
He thought doing it from a stay at the tunnel exit was STOOOOOPID so I am glad you went to the sequences pretty quickly. He was great with his collections! The one time he did not commit was at 1:19 – I think that was just a matter of being too disconnected. He was fine on all the other reps where you had a tiny bit more eye contact.
When you added the sends:
he had a question at 1:32 and rear crossed: 2 ideas for you:
– don’t say go (use your left wrap there) – I think you said go or maybe jump? But the wrap verbal you used on the other reps is better suited (I don’t think the verbal was the source of the question, though)
– step more to the wrap wing and be a little more upright. On that rep, look at your feet and arm on the send, they were definitely moving towards the center of the bar which is more of the RC cue.
Watch is in super slow motion (Youtube let me put it into 25% speed) – he was heading to the wrap wing until your arm got involved at 1:32 with the point to the center of the bar, which then pushed him to center of the bar and to the RC line. So he was already considering the RC – then your left leg at 1:33 pointed to the RC line and that affirmed the RC decision for him. Really interesting to see in slow motion! So, standing up more an sending to the wing more than the bar will help, then push off the send leg to step back and do the FC element.You can see the difference at 1:48, where you were a little more upright and not sending to the center of the bar as much and he was great.
On the other side at 1:59 – really nice mechanics on the send and wrap verbal, he was great.
The Go balance rep looked good !
Nice simple decel at 2:35! More connection will make it perfect when you are trying to handle ‘for real’. I am super glad about his nice tight turn!
At 2:49, doing the bigger drill on the other side -this was similar to the send at 1:32 with too much pressure into the RC line there – is he a righty? The extra bit of pressure on the send might be turning him to his stronger side – note that you are pointing to center of the bar and when he is approaching the jump at 2:50, he changed leads preparing for a right turn.
He ended up turning left because nothing else about the handling said right turn, so he decided to wrap left (good boy).>> And got one send where I was getting really excited at how tight he was turning and then realized he was trying to get something off the floor! (maybe a dropped treat?)>>
That was great! LOL!!! Just think of it as a well-placed reward for his good decision there!)
I liked your send mechanics at 3:17 – he never considered right turn there (but the pressure of the initial send cue did cause him to shape a wider line to the wrap jump – interesting! So keep doing the softer send cues that are to the wing and a bit more upright. That is where he does his best 🙂
Overall, though, it was really cool to watch him be able to read the decel and sending soooo nicely!!!
Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>Are you still accepting videos?>>
Yes 🙂 Bring it on!
On the video:
The Go versus left in the beginning looked good! With the first left cue he went straight – I think you were blocking his line, a little too far up the line – so he didn’t know how to toss you out of the way to make the turn 🙂 The rest looked good!!And the backside through the box also looked really good! And the FCs also looked good- great connection, nice tight turns, he never looked in the wrong place. Nice!!!
Getting the backside on the inner wing in the middle of the box is REALLY hard. The trick is to NOT roll your shoulder while trying to cue it – move to position and keep your arm back and say the verbal. When you also rolled your shoulder to point to it, it added a bit of a motion cue which blocked the line a bit and also pinged him back out to the other jump.
Positional cue is important on these so he knows which backside you mean. The positional cue is heading towards where the bar meets the wing, so he sees the full wing.
For example, at 1:24 you were blocking his line/view of the wing you wanted. But at 1:31, your position was good and he nailed it:) And having good position plus arm back – lots of good reps when you did that!
At 1:48, your “fuck yes” almost made me pee from laughing LOL!!!!! Please warn me so I can potty before watching your videos LOL!!! LOL!!! But yes, it was worthy of that marker 🙂 Nice position an connection, you didn’t roll your shoulders until after he was committed to the line.When he had trouble, it was the shoulder turning as you were also moving up the line that was causing the question: he was feeling your motion as sideways motion to the line (same as forward motion) and it ended up blocking the line. The best reps were when you were moving more directly to where the wing meets the bar, rather than downstream (which presented the line more towards the off course jump). Let me know if that makes sense.
>>One thing I noted on what I think was our very last rep was that he was on the correct line and changes. I’m assuming I did something to make him question his path.>>
That was the combo of turning/rolling your shoulders to indicate the backside before he was past you, with the slight sideways motion on the line produced by that shoulder turn. It pushes him off it.
>>Is there anything from the class that you’d like to see is revisit- I realize you are instructing several classes and students and if nothing jogs your memory 100% okay.>>
I drink a lot of coffee so my memory is decent LOL!!!
I would say the two things are:
the collection and left/right soft turns (not the minny pinny, although that is always good to revisit, but the proofing games before that with the 2nd jump as the distraction 🙂 Those will be SUPER useful for a young dog at the start of his career.
and also doing the serpentine on this through the box game – where you are on the serpentine/landing side of the jump so he drives in to you and doesn’t stay out on the line – that is a good one for him!Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! Sorry for any confusion!
Using the set up that you have at the beginning of the video, you can tweak it to add height – raise the teeter to full height or closer to full height. And use a taller table on one end and a taller thing on the other end (taller lawn chair? LOL!) So the teeter is higher and height is in play – but the tip is the same or less (you don’t want to add tip AND height as new challenges at the same time).
The demo in my video is the full height teeter and very tall things supporting it – so there is lots of height without a lot of tip.
Let me know if that makes sense or if I need more coffee 🙂
T
hi! I think the teeter class has a lot of different elements – the stuff we did here is the foundation for the early stuff but there are a lot more advanced games to play 🙂
And the weaves class will be fun!! There is a bit of a double discount – you can sign up for both as an auditor for the combo discount and also be sure to use the coupon code – and then if you wanted to bump up to working in the weaves class, I can do that separately.
TracyGood morning! He is doing well here! The cone helped with the generalizing for sure! The other thing to do on the wings to help strengthen value is transfer the earlier games to a wing (like the game with the 2 bowls using the wing instead of the cone, and also a bit of shaping where he gets rewarded with a cookie on the other side of the wing to help him leave your hand. That will allow you to build up the wing value very quickly, which makes the sends even easier and then the cone is easy to fade.
On the sends, be sure you are connected by looking pretty directly at him – he did brilliantly when you were looking at him. But when you looked ahead, he questioned – compare the send at 1:01 (where he didn’t go to the wing) versus 1:07 (where he did) – it was all about connection 🙂 When you looked ahead and not at him at 1:01, he was not sure. Connection was great at 1:07 so he went to the wing. Often, when we are not connected, pups will grab for the toy or treats so sometimes the oopsie is blamed on the toy distraction when it is just lack of connection. So keep that in mind on the next session.The horse distraction sounds really hard for ANY dog, not just a puppy LOL!! Being able to call him back is a massive triumph 🙂 Yay!!! He will be able to work through it in the future, but getting a recall was a great start 🙂
Nice work here!
TracyGood morning! This is looking really good!!! I think your connection looks really good, he seemed to have no question about that here. Yay! And good job mixing in rewards tossed back to the barrely-things 🙂 I think his only questions had to do with the treats:
at the very beginning, he didn’t commit right away – because the treats were moving 🙂 Your right hand reached for the cookies in the left hand and he totally found that distracting. That is pretty normal, so an adjunct game (perfect for indoors in the crappy weather coming later this week) is to sit right near a wing or cone or something that already has a ton of value: and fiddle with the treats, move the treats, etc. – and when he offers the wrap, he gets a treat. It is basically taking the wrapping with the bowls and adding cookie movement as a deliberate distraction, so he learns to ignore the hands moving.And then the only other thing was that he had a little trouble finding the tossed treats. You can try for treats of a contrasting color (bits of string cheese is perfect for that) and also a get it cue of some sort – that way he won’t get confused about when he should look for the treats that are moving, versus when he should not. Let me know if that makes sense!
And if you have green grass… add in more distance and see how he does when you are moving faster 🙂
Nice work! Have fun!
TracyHi!
Her stays are coming along nicely! The Pizza moments make me smile every single time LOL! I just love that word for it LOL!!!!
One thing to do as you build up getting past the jump – be extra sure that you release from a different spot each time. Dogs are brilliant at figuring out our patterns and I think she is anticipating that you will release her when you get about 2 feet past he jump LOL!! So sometimes release before you get to the jump, sometimes at the jump, sometimes 2 feet after it, sometimes 6 feet after it… mix it up so she can’t guess LOL!>> She like lifts her foot, but then she knows she has to stay and puts it back down. I was wondering if I could put this on Facebook? I want to show her breeder.>>
OMG that was funny! “Oops, I didn’t mean to move my foot, let me put it back” Ha!
You can totally put any of this on Facebook! She is doing awesome and you can show her off to the world 🙂Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
I think the rotated sends are looking fabulous! You had some decent distance from the barrel, which made it harder but she got it. Nice! She is really good turning to her right but it was much harder turning to her left at first. I think the difficulty was more the reason she was jumping up and not the toy (she didn’t jump up for it on any of the reps where she had to turn to her right, and she didn’t jump up for it when she figured out the left turns).
But she did figure them out really nicely, so you can start to add a bit of the countermotion: when she is arriving at the barrel, you start to move away the other direction. Slowly at first so she maintains her commitment. Then move away earlier and earlier, so she is committing while you are already going the next direction 🙂
Great job! Have fun!
TracyGood morning!
>> It’s fun. lol. >>
Exactly! It is fun and totally worth doing a few times. The thing that agility dogs need to do on course is find the line in front of them, so this is GREAT to build value for!
On the video:
this looks really good! I think on the one error at :25, you didn’t hold connection long enough before you started to move away so she didn’t quite have the time to connect with you before you turned your shoulder. You can move but the connection must be crystal clear with baby dogs – you were moving and turning forward which broke connection. Adult dogs are likely to not have a problem, but baby dogs are every literal and will end up on the jump 🙂Otherwise it looked great. The only thing I would add now is more motion from you! You can jog as much as possible at home, or try it at Bonnie’s where you have more room. The goal of adding more motion from you is two things:
– can you stay connected AND move faster? Sounds easier than it is haha
– can she keep her lovely thoughtful behavior while you move faster? What I mean by that is, will she find the jump? Or, will she get too excited by your movement and just chase you (and this is where some pups jump up or bite the handler). If she does get too excited, you can slow down a little to wherever she can handle it. If it is easy… then go faster 🙂 Wheee!
Great job!
TracySounds good! I personally try to make things as much the same as possible for all my dogs, because I think later this year I will be running 4 maybe 5 dogs at trials… and I don’t have the brain power to remember all those different things. LOL! So it has to be the same for me or I will screw it up 🙂
T
Hi! We talk about it here and there in this class – but you will find a lot of info and demos in this free facebook class:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1074089192764113/
>>On another note for the upcoming classes do you have a working spot + audit combo.>>
On the teeter class and the weaves class, we don’t have live working sessions same as we did here – but everyone is welcome to join the live Q&A sessions where we will give in the moment feedback, either live if possible or on video. More info on that soon!
And great news about the teeter progress! Yay!!!!
T
Hi there! Lots of good work here!
He did well on the decel game! The first rep is exactly why we are doing this. Wheee! He is getting better and better on each rep here but he totally thought the lack of connection and help was silly LOL! Adding the FC exit so he chases you will also help by giving him an incentive to hurry back after the decel cue:) On the one jump games, turning left looked better than turning right but might just be the learning process as turning left was second.
When you added speed from the tunnel –
at 1:21 you had wrong verbal but he turned correctly, so definitely reward!
His turns after the tunnel looked really good, in both directions! He was giving really nice collection without you having to rotate – really great! And it is a nice progression of understanding all in one session, very cool to see.
Keep mixing this silly decel game into the training, throw it into sequences sometimes, so he keeps the deceleration understanding nice and sharp 🙂Tunnel threadles:
Good job warming up with the Double Whammys – he did well here! You can give him a directional before he enters the first tunnel, so he can exit the tunnel with more of a turn. Then also meet him more at the end of the tunnel so you don’t get too far ahead on the threadle – that way you can keep moving forward til he makes a choice.on the double whammy and on the jump-tunnel, you were using the threadle arm to both pull and send him back – if you do that, the send away has to be precisely timed or he might go back to the other tunnel entry like he did at :41. I suggest just leaving the arm there in threadle position as you move to the correct tunnel entry, and don’t use it to flick him back – you just keep moving that way until he turns himself to the tunnel entry, then you can release the arm and move to the next line. It is hard not to help but the payoff is worth it!
When he was coming to the tunnel threadle over the jump – be sure that you are rotating your feet to face the correct tunnel entry before he lands (you can also use a direction like a left or right to help him land turned). At 1:01 and 1:06, your feet were facing the straight end of the tunnel, as compared to 1:13 and 1:20 where your feet were facing he threadle end of it. The line of motion will really help clarify it for him as the verbal gets more and more independent.
Obstacle discrimination:
:31 was very cool, he was looking at the mat, you said tunnel, he looked right at the tunnel. That is definite progress!!! It is a really hard game!! But I agree – definite progress happening!
The MM makes it hard because it has probably never been associated with the place cue – so you can click the MM when he does arrive on the mat. That way the MM doesn’t tip him off to one or the other.
Another way you can raise the rate of success is to use a physical cue such as one leg step or one arm point… provided you can be completely stationary while you say the verbal, then a full second later, do the movement. That will be the new cue – old cue routine where the verbal predicts the physical cue so it strengthens the verbal. But the trick is to have the cues completely independent – we humans are notoriously bad at standing still LOL!!!! I literally have to count to one in my head before allowing myself to move 🙂A-frame box – this was an interesting session to figure out why some were good and some were leapy. I think he was trying to watch the toy 🙂 Have you done toy distractions on the box, where he is offering the box behavior while you are swinging the toy around? It doesn’t have to be in this grid set up, just the box on its own – toy is swinging or slapping on the ground 🙂 When he could see the toy and you were ahead, it was easy for him! But when the toy was moving or not far enough ahead, he was having some trouble. I am about to go do this with my dogs, I will post video when I get it in case my explanation makes no sense LOL!
Separately. I suggest the MM out there past the end so he is looking forward and not back a you for the toy throw. That can also help him to ignore you and the toy 🙂Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>What am I doing incorrectly for her not going to the opposite side of the tunnel? Am I way to late with verbal? And position? My body is not showing her the threadles?>>
I don’t think it is one thing in particular that you are doing incorrectly, I think that you might just be moving with too much speed for her current level of understanding (not even 11 months old :))
Even when you are on time and saying the verbal and showing the hand: if you were moving fast, she read it as stay on the line to the tunnel in front of her.
When you slowed it down and showed her the cues more deliberately (like at :41) she totally got it. You mentioned there that it was faster and you started moving – it was not that you were moving fast, you were just moving to the correct end of the tunnel sooner.She isn’t saying ‘screw you’ LOL! She was just reading motion 🙂
So two ideas for you for the next session:
Put the wing more in the center facing the curve of the tunnel and not the entry. That way it will be less tempting to go straight.
And also walk the whole time for now – and when you cue the threadles. show the big upper body rotation and arm towards her as she is exiting the wing, and walk towards the correct end of the tunnel. Then as she gets more and more successful, you can add more and more speed. At first, add her speed only (you will be walking) – tunnel, wing, tunnel (straight ahead end), wing, threadle to the other end. Then when she can do that, we start to add more and more of your speed 🙂
Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! Lots of good stuff here! Working through the video:
He really likes the teeter – tables game! Lots of good reps here. He was pretty wild after the sequence in particular, which is good! We want more wild and less thinking when the teeter is involved. My only suggestion is that I don’t think I would have him jump on the end that is raised because it is hard to balance and we don’t want him to fall and then start thinking about it.
You can also have the MM on the table for him to run to, so he doesn’t use it like a trampoline hahaWobble disc: Personal crating room? Jealous! He is not a major fan of the wobble board but he is a major fan of food and toys, so he was doing it nicely!! Yay! Definite progress. I like that set up with the holder. I think the only thing he needs in that room is more traction for getting on and off. There were moments when it looked like he wanted to use his hind end more, but the floor is very slippery – so he wasn’t trusting the set up to confidently leap on the board (slippery getting off it too). A big yoga mat or carpet will help that so he is very confident on all of it.
Going up the teeter is going well. I think for him, though, he is looking for the tip because the height is a bit daunting. So, 2 things – don’t push him by running more (that is why he fell off the side, trying to run) – and if he does fall off, reward big time anyway (the video edit made it hard to see what happened).
Also, I think you can use the lower teeter set up from the teeter tables game and add more height that way for now – he is still running back and forth across the teeter with some tip and lots of wildness, but the teeter is full height – you would just need taller things like a full height table to support each side. We will revisit the mountain climber set up in a different way later on.One thought here and also later in the video – it might be time to have the other dogs not around while he is training. Spree almost got smushed on the teeter and Sizzle almost collided with him at 3:44, plus got on the teeter with him later in the video. I stopped having the other dogs loose during training the day that I was training Crusher to do the teeter and Export got on it before she did, which resulted in flipping her about 10 feet through the air. It was scary! And we don’t want anything to weird to happen with Stark, especially with the teeter involved. I don’t mind my other dogs nearby or in a stay or even barking their heads off – and if you want to have Sizzle help with tugging, you can release her to come in and join – I just am careful that they don’t run into each other.
The yes tunnel no tunnel games looked really good!!! The yes tunnel – no tunnel from the wing to the tunnel or bypassing the tunnel look fabulous, zero questions from Stark. Great connection from you! That backside tunnel send is HARD but he figured it out – you being a little rotated and not moving really helped to get the ball rolling, then he figured out how to use his body to get into it while you continued moving. Great job putting it together, he had no real questions on any of it and that is exciting!! You can replace the wings with jumps if you like, or even through in an element of “other tunnel” by having him wrap the wing and threadle to the other end of the tunnel.
Going back to the teeter: he had an absolutely brilliant rep on the teeter at 5:31 and you had a big party…. and yes, you should have only done one rep LOL!!!! Don’t be greedy 🙂 I know how hard it is to stop when it looks great – but save the greedy for stuff like weaves or the RDW which will be easy and I am sure they will look great.
Having Sizzle bang the teeter while he eats is good! You can use the MM with that so you don’t need 3 arms and also so you don’t risk him trying to jump on and possibly getting flipped off it by Sizzle.
On the handling: The RC looked really good! Nice job setting up the line and driving it to the center of the bar! RCs are hard so if you get it, you know you’ve done a good job!!! For the BC – you can use his independent skills to stay out on the line so you an get there sooner. You were not terribly late with the timing, only a little late – but I think the line/momentum was not directly to the jump, so he had trouble reading it. Good connection to help him get it the line!!!
Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
