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Good morning! Lots of great work here, he is doing really well!!! And gawd he is cute, it is a distraction to me LOL!
Look at the videos:
Set point is going well – because he is short but long in the back, it is hard to find the comfortable distance. The lower bar on jump 2 (first video) looked like very comfy form, more so than when you had the bar higher on the 2nd video. So you can do 2 things to help include the bar: on that 2nd jump, use 2 bars as cross bars: one end in the low jump cup, the other end one the ground. That way he still gets challenged with jumping a bar but he cen develop his form over a slightly lower bar. And the other option is to move the distance to 4 feet (or a couple of inches less) as the bar gets higher to see if the little bit of extra room produces the great form.Wind in hair – His commitment looks strong! He loves to wrap wings and I think that is transferring VERY nicely to the jump. SUPER!!!! On the first 2 clips, you were working out the timing of the throw or handing it to him but then on the 3rd and 4th clip, you had it: long throw of hte reward and he was driving to the jump without looking at you. That is exactly what we want! Good boy!
So – add in the next steps of starting very close to the wing and staying there til he is done, then accelerating forward (and throwing the toy) so he drives ahead of you. That will build in really nicely to the rear crosses we did last night (and the backside wrap pushes that are the Advanced Level of last night’s game :))Proofing: I am not surprised that he was perfect here. He loves loves loves wrapping the wing so he is highly unlikely to ignore it in favor of the tunnel. And I am super happy to see that he is doing the tunnel even with the wing right there. Nice balance of skills!!!! And you are using the verbals too, which is lovely to be able to add them everywhere. So now: you can move to the advanced game with the curved tunnel so it is tunnel-wrap with you moving, or even tunnel-tunnel- wrap š That is to proof the verbal AND the motion, because sometimes the dogs get so ramped up when we run that they can’t process the verbals and don’t “see” the wing with the tunnel out there š
Smiley Faces: Very nice connection! He can see your upper body very clearly so he is finding the lines beautifully. YAY! On the first clip: You don’t need to meet him at tunnel exit, you can get ahead while he is tunneling and head more to the wing. You helped him more than he needed at the first tunnel exit and he had to slow down and look up to get more info. Compare it to the 2nd video: you were further ahead when he exited the tunnel but still beautifully connected, so he powered through the line to the wing with speed and forward focus. Perfect! You can add more distance between the tunnel and the wings now, to add more challenge for both of you š
Last clip: His tunnel exits look good here! He turns naturally very tight on those tunnel exits, so emphasize the go on the tunnel exits when you work him, so he gets lots of value for driving out straight when cued. You don’t need to put a lot of value on the tight turn exits right now, because that is his natural inclination (good boy!). The figure 8 front crosses look great š
Lovely work here! He is doing well is ALL the areas! Great job – let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! Really lovely work here!
First part, backing up – nice!!!!! You can try it with the plank and the teeter board! Get nice and low (I sit on the ground to start) so as he backs up onto the end of the teeter board (no tip tp start) his head is low and not looking up at you.
I love the tugging on the wobble board, it is an excellent weight shift game. If he likes to ‘win’ the toy, you can have him hop on the board, then you start tugging – then if he can lean back while tugging on the board, let him win the toy and come off the board. Remember to keep your hands lower or even bend over a bit so the toy stays low. It looks like he was coming up high off the board because the toy was high (and also dogs do that as a little bit of avoidance on this game, because it is a hard game :))
For the targeting, he is off to a good start here. I think this is going to be the effective way to teach him where to put his feet. The TnT was something that he loved to look at but didn’t help with choosing foot position. The TnT can come back in eventually 6 or 8 feet away from the end of the board (more on that later on down the road :)) A couple of things to get more of a low head position:
You can start in front of him with the target in your hand held maybe halfway between the floor and his natural head position, so he moves into the 2o2o and touches with his nose and not feet, and you can reward it. Then you can stay in front and gradually lower the target to the ground while still rewarding head position. Then we move you off to the side with the target on the ground: as he gets into position, you can drop the rewards in right on the target before he even looks at you. Try to click as he is looking at it and not at you – the clicks were coming when he was looking at you. If the clicks encourage looking at you (because dogs often look at us when we click) then don’t click š Just mark with a quiet yet and get the reward in – then release when he offers another look or touch of the target (try not to release when he looks at you).
To be able to get in all of that quick reward for head position in these early stages, don’t add in as much distance away from the board yet as that is drawing his eyes to you and delays the reward – stay close and make it all about the targeting with tons of quick rewards on the target (first with you in front then with you to the side). You will see the shift to look down at it start to happen pretty quickly, within a couple of sessions: and at that point we can add more variables in terms of your position and motion.
Great job here!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyWow, this is looking good! He was a confident little dude and was even running back up the board to restart!!! He was perfectly happy to ride the end down on the bang game, and he was going about as fast as possible on the full downhills even without the momentum of running into it (the dogs can’t go that fast on the downhills because of how they start on the board). This is exciting!!!
Question – for the bang and downhills, was there a target right past the end of the board? I see the cookie bowl, and I think there is something at the end of the board for the 2o2o but he wasn’t really using it, he was looking at you a bit (especially on the bang game). If the target was there, you might want to make it a little more obvious for a few more sessions to help with the don’t-watch-the-momma element š And if there was no target there, maybe put in a tiny bit of one. When the cookie bowl was out ahead, he was definitely watching you less š I think it was there on the early bang game reps but further away.
And the only other detail is as you are running, be sure to keep moving for 2 or 3 more steps without decelerating after you are sure he stopped – the decel was happening as he was stopping so we don’t want him to rely on any physical cues for the stopping.
Great job here! Onwards to more tip and also the elevator game š
Tracy
Hi! Remember that the dogs develop preferences about which games are favorites and that can shift over time… I think he currently loves the bang game so your training should focus on that more than running down the board. And also, the bang game cousin of Elevator Game is something he will probably love and is one of the most important pieces to get us to the finished product.
And, as with the RDW, we can’t really train ‘fast’, we can only train accuracy and passion and that comes from the dog being able to consistently predict reinforcement… with that in mind, your new mantra for the teeter should be: less is more! I think the first 2 reps of the downhills where great! Quit there. 2 Hit Wonders LOL! No more running down the plank – when things are fabulous, it is always better to stop and do something else because the only place to go is backwards to less fabulous. You can do more bang games, and also add elevator games – but don’t ask for the full downhills again because he might not replicate the excellence, then you will be tempted to keep trying and then there is a vortex that never gets back the fabulousness in that session or that day (which I think is what happened here).
Thinking of the consistently being able to predict the reinforcement and also knowing what the board will do – By trying all sorts of different things to get more speed going down the board, you were changing a lot of variables on each rep so he slowed down more to figure it out, plus there is more pressure, which can slow them down too, which led to the vortex.So replay the first :27 seconds of this video – that is where the session can end, or maybe bookend it with a few more bang games. He has come a really long way with the teeter and it is an up-and-down progression (pun totally intended) for all of the dogs. So plan your next session to be more like the first :27 seconds of this one: bang, a downhill, bang. No vortexes š And if he doesn’t want to run fast downhill that day? Ok then, do bangs and elevators and target fading as those will all still get you to your goal of a fabulous teeter.
And no worries if he weight shifts a little bit in the middle of the yellow contact and not right at the end – the elevator game progression will take care of that.
You are doing great work here!!! Less is more š Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Lots of good work here!Wobble board – this is going really well!!
>>Iām not exactly sure by rewarding forward if you were meaning to release to the reward ahead without rewarding to the target, but I did some of that.<< Yes, that is what I meant, sorry for the lack of clarity. So now on your thrown/forward rewards, wait one more heartbeat to be sure he is holding position not just arriving there otherwise you will get a bit of hit and go rather than hit and hold. You can add in a heartbeat of a quiet "good" praise marker and see what he does. And I like that you mixed in feeding in position a bit towards the end too. Keep adding in excitement - the next important piece is you being able to move faster, building up to a run over the course of a bunch of sessions. Plank work indoors - this is also looking really strong an the toy out front was challenging but not mind-bending: he rose to the challenge by going faster without losing accuracy. As with the wobble board, you can add in more of your motion and build to running. Plank work outside - the great outdoors was a pretty massive variable change so I think he did best on the reps where you didn't move and didn't use the toy as much, feeding in position more (making the other variables easier because the environment was so much harder). He was starting to sort it out with the toy out ahead at the very end, good boy! On the next session outdoors, start off with all variables pretty easy (not a lot of motion, not toy on the ground, feeding in position) and see what he does with the variable of the environment. If that is easy for him and he is super successful, you can add in one variable, I would say your motion is the next choice: walking by but using cookie rewards. Because you are installing the other variables in the other games, they should be easy to add here too! >>Do you think he can try the bang game on the teeter (small tip) yet?>>
Yes! The tip and teeter are the new variables, so keep everything easy: target visible, no motion, cookies in position and let him lead the way with how quickly you can add more. I think he will be fine with it and you can build it up quickly, but I want to be sure š
Uphills:
OMG THE ICE CREAM that was just too funny! Brilliant! I admire your self-control because personally, I would have eaten the ice cream. All of the one hit wonders looked great, keep adding tip, keep adding ice cream LOL!!!! I think Lennan might also enjoy sprinkles on his ice cream cone.Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
The target fading is on the plank in the previous games package, I think you will find it easy for him šReally nice work here!! On the elevator game: It took him a moment to get the target position (new teeter, new location, new-ish game) but then he got it and the scratching came back! Good boy! I was going to suggest you stop feeding him while doing the countdown (he still gets a hop on cookie) to encourage him to begin to look forward to the target – but then you did and he was fine with it and beginning to offer focusing ahead on the target. Yay! So…. add a little more height here! He is doing well!
Bang game:
Watch your toes! I am not brave enough to play any of these games without shoes LOL! The bang game looks really good! Your motion past the end position was not a problem, and the ball right out in front was a great reward without being too distracting. Super!!! So as with the elevator game… more tip! He is getting closer to these games beginning to merge into the full teeter, fun times ahead!
Great job š
TracyGood morning!
What, River doesn’t get ice cream? Hmmmmm… LOL!Target fading – she is very watchful of your motion here, so two things to consider with the motion:
move very slowly, for now, don’t be too exciting so she can think more about target position and less about you. But also… keep moving š If you are standing still, great, remain stationary. But if you are moving as you cue the target position, keep moving for at least 2 more steps after you would guarantee she has chosen to hit and hold the position (or until she totally doesn’t LOL!) I think here you were changing your motion and stopping with her or just before her, so she was cueing off of that. When you didn’t stop, she didn’t stop š So – keep moving slowly and then we will be able to build it up to running by.
You can also prop one end of the plank up on something to encourage more weight shift – that will help her choose to stop too with or without the target there. She is getting close to being able to to it without the target, probably just another session or two.On the donwhills, she is super confident (yay!) and that is making her weight very forward as she goes into position. A couple of ideas for that, now that the teeter is outdoors and things are getting really fun š I think with you moving past the board, she is shifting forward because it is exciting! So we can do a couple of things to encourage the weight shift:
First, do a bunch where you are not moving – sending her to position (I am not concerned if she slows down :)) Or standing still off to the side. Separately, do some bang game where you move away past the board and keep moving til she is fully stopped (it was hard to see when/where you stopped on this video) and also elevator game part 2 has the same challenges of moving while the dog is getting into target position.
Then when she is shifting her weight back on all 3 of those elements, we merge them back together into running downhill to end position while you continue to move past. She is super confident, so it won’t take her long at all.Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! The start of this clip on the original side looked great too, just remember to keep your chest facing the bar as you add more motion.
I think turning to her right is easier for her on this game than turning to her left is, which might be why she had trouble when you switched sides. Even when you broke it down to one jump, she still thought it was hard. You can keep the left turn side (when she starts on your right) one just one jump with you walking. But the right turn side from the beginning her and from the previous video can be the one with the barrel and the running š The left turn side will catch up šYou can also angle the jump a bit on the left turn side: when she exits the barrel, you can have the wing of the jump that is closer to the MM pushed out towards the fence, so she can see the bar a lot more easily – that way it is easier to take the jump and harder to pass it š I didn’t see anything wrong with where the MM was, but she thinks this is a harder side (totally normal) so we can help make it easier š
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! I am so glad the seminar went well! I am not surprised, Ruby is a superstar of course š And getting her to learn to work around other people and dogs is soooo important. Yay!!!!
She did awesome with the send and serps here – great job warming her up! Then calling her in and making the serp arm obvious was great, and then you were a little less obvious and moving more: also great. She was lovely and seemed to know exactly what to do on all reps.
>Should she be coming more to my hand First? Maybe not. >>
Correct – she does not need to drive to your hand anymore, she needs to serp like she did it.
The only thing to look at is the verbal cue for the different sections. you were using dig dig dig for the barrel: if that is your soft right turn cue, perfect! If it is a wrap cue, you won’t want to use it here because she is not wrapping – use your soft right cue. And the angles were soft enough that I don’t think you need your backside cue here yet, you can move the barrel further away to get it to be more of a backside.
Great job! Onwards to the next video!
Tracy
Good morning!
First up, weaves! The side wing entries with the channels all look really great. You can move them a little further down the line of poles, to add more challenge on those entries!The straight-ish entries are turning out to be harder for everyone except my dogs LOL I guess I emphasized angles too much and not enough 12 o’clock straight entries to you all, but I do tons of them with my own dogs. Looks like he got them better in the 2nd session, so keep adding them into the routine – maybe do one hard angle, then one 12 o’clock angle, then a harder angle, then a 12 o’clock angle. The collection on that 12 o’clock angle is actually pretty hard š
If you find yourself throwing poorly
then don’t throw the toy, use the MM then tug during the reset. I know the MM is not the favorite thing when the toy is there, but at least you won’t be rewarding pop outs plus the carry bag is very cute š You can also delay the toy throw until he is done weaving – it might mean you need to stick to handling challenges where you can guarantee he will finish weaving for a couple of sessions and then slide in a harder one here and there after that. I think this looks really good so when the straight line entries are closer to 90% successful and the rewards are not early LOL you can start to tighten up the angles of the poles.
About the RC – yes, the MM is a bit dullsville for him, but for now he is being highly accurate and not missing or leaping. And even in this session, he was getting faster. I guess I have seen enough dogs start off a little slower and more thoughtful on a behavior and end up insanely fast that I am not worried (Voodoo is a really good example in general, he was a trotter for the first 18 months of his life. And Hot Sauce was a trotter at this stage of the dog walk training, and then she was able to go to a full sprint without losing her accuracy).
But I do have some ideas that will help! It was a little confusing about the MM beeping and the toy being thrown, I don’t think he knew where to look for reinforcement and that was causing hesitation at the end of the board – so I wouldn’t do both. I would do the MM then reset with tugging. Does he drive to a dead toy? That can be more exciting than a MM if you can call him off of it when he misses.
One thing that I did with HS that really got her running when she as ready was I put a flyball jump 10 feet past the end of the ramp, and the MM was another 10 feet past that. I have a ton of video of her doing the dog walk ramp but for whatever reason not a single video actually shows the flyball jump. She loved it and it added more speed to the ramp after a whole bunch of work doing what you are showing here with Stark.
Now, HS really liked the MM so the other option is to use the toy with Stark but after something else like a flyball jump so the chain is plank-mat-flyball jump – toy throw as he is approaching the jump. I used a flyball jump because it promotes running, the dog only needs to go straight over it and it would not dilute anything on agility wings or jumps if I was throwing straight or yelling Go or something. And I also used it to train the turns, really helpful! I think Jordan uses a wing but I didn’t use the wing for a couple of reasons. I also used it for the running a-frame which worked like a charm. It all got put on hold due to the luxating patella, so I will get her going again when the weave & teeter class videos are done š
I think the worldwide accepted practice on RDW training is that you don’t really need running at this stage – the accuracy and understanding is more important. This is mainly because there is a lot of LACK of accuracy out there, and the full dog walk is needed for the dog to sort out striding anyway. I never really worry about it at this stage because the speed will percolate when it goes onto the fuller dog walk. I focus more on accuracy and independence so the dog is not looking at me.
Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Looks like lovely weather! Yay!
He is bending now… onwards to the real weave cue š Add in in a moment where you would bet the house he will 100% get the weave challenge right šHe did nicely with the channel set up here! No worries about the early pop out on the countermotion – you can delay the reward a big on those to help solidify it.
After adding the real cue: for the next steps, using this setup: leaving the angles of the poles just like this, add more motion (running parallel, getting ahead, and running away laterally). The RCs and countermotion are not as important now, you cal allow running to be the main focus for a session or two.
If he struggles? you can open up the angles a bit to get the running comfortable.
No struggles, easy peasy like this session was? You got it… tighten the poles by the width of a finger š This is exciting!!!! We are getting real weaving!!!Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
I think weaving is great for aerating newly seeded grass LOL!!
He did great here – the frisbee was not a head-exploder, and when you ran, he was also really strong in the weaves. He did look at you before going to the MM (perhaps in hopes of getting a frisbee throw instead?) His dreams came through at 1:07! The most telling moment was the last rep – he had just gotten the frisbee reward, then tugging. Note how he was still able to line up and then he nailed the poles. This is cause for a happy dance because he was able to remain thoughtful in high arousal. YES!
At :57 he missed, no biggie because one miss is fine. But be careful of the mechanics after a miss… call him back to reset so he doesn’t offer back weaving. At 1:00 he weaved back to you *perfectly* so if that happens, reward him. Ideally we avoid that, but if he reads your body line as a weave cue because you didn’t show a clear reset… then reward him.
I think on the next session, you can tighten poles 3-4 to match the 1&7 of the first poles and do everything else the same.
Have fun!
Tracy
