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Hi!
As with the earlier video, she is reading those lap turns really well. She drives right in and turns away beautifully. That is a really strong skill! And she had no trouble transitioning from the wraps or racetracks into the lap turns. Yay!! My only suggestion is to call her so she exits the tunnel looking for you on those turns, rather than looking for the wing then turning when she sees you rotated.
Tandem turns are harder! She looks to be consistently coming to the correct side, but not turning tight on those reps as you mentioned. You can play with adding a little bit of deceleration so she reads more of a tight turn, a wrap cue, and also earlier turn aways with your hands. I think the decel might be the winning option (along with quiet wrap verbals), but she will let us know 🙂 If you are earlier without decelerating, she might read the motion as a cue to stay wider. You can try using both hands too, that might be a strong cue. She was tighter at 1:44, but she was also a little slower in that section to begin with. So try the decel and 2 hands with a quiet wrap verbal, and see what she does!
Great job, let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Nice work on the lead outs!
The blinds look good, definitely a better running line and that helped her line up her turn nicely. You can begin to turn sooner now: when she has fully landed from 1, start the blind and allow motion to support jump 2 (and you can use a jump verbal if you like as well). You can see that she is already turning on the correct part of the bar on the BC reps on both sides.On the FC – she read this line nicely too! On one rep, she stood up as you arrived in position so be sure to maintain her stay. At this stage, you can stand totally still on the release and see what she does – you were giving a step forward towards 2 after the release and that was putting her more on the center of the bar of 2, so the turns were not as tight as the other handling moves. I think she doesn’t need that step to support commit, I bet she easily finds the line – but she will tell us LOL!
The push lead outs were lovely too, they set a nice line (especially to the backside of 3) and she drove into them nicely!! It is a good option to have in the toolbox for the tighter turns. She read it really well, collected but didn’t slow down excessively. And great job maintaining your connection as you moved away and sent to 3!
Great job!!
TracyHi!
She did really well here! It is a difficult skill to do on a verbal without motion! I think she is also processing different energy levels of the verbal: ‘mat’ is quiet and low key and ‘tunnel’ is loud and repeated on the reps where she gets it right. And that is fine, because the cues for the a-frame or dog walk will be pretty different sounding than the tunnel cue. We will be adding to this game in the next games package 🙂
>>You’ll notice that Keiko seemed to prefer her mat, or at least a few times she’d go to it first, then go to the tunnel.>>
It might be because the tunnel cues are generally given with motion and not standing still, and mat cues are almost always given with motion.
Plus, it is easier to earn reward on the mat (closer!) and more work is required on the tunnel (the rewards are further away)Great job!
TracyHi! Looks like she is having no problem finding the angles of entry! So you can push the planks in closer to the board so they don’t extend out as far from it, so there is less of a visual aid. When the MM is out there on the table and you are marking the angle of entry, she is keeping her head up and losing the weight shift when there is more drop to the board. So, you can keep the angles and board to help her but as the teeter adds more movement, go back to the targeting and rewarding for that (rather than the MM) – so she goes across the board, lowers her head, and shifts her weight 🙂 The angles look great so you can remind her to shift her weight as the board drops.
Great job!
TracyHi!
She is doing well with these: The lap turns looked good from the stay and from the tunnel – just call her sooner when she is in the tunnel and be slower on the movement of the arm & leg turn away portion of it (to tighten the turn). For example, at :34 you were a little early and too quick with your leg back so she was wide. Keeping your feet together for longer will get a tighter turn on those, especially when she is flying 🙂
Tandem turns from the stay: she was a little careful on these, so you can move before the release so she moves a bit more too! She is ready them well but didn’t power into them as much as she did with the lap turns. And with these, you can also call her sooner from the tunnel to get her focused on the driving to you, which allows you to turn her away sooner.
Nice work! I see there are more of these below, so we can see how she does 🙂
TracyGood morning!
On the serpentines:
Really strong reps here! He seemed to get all of the reps on the sequence 2 with the correct side of the jumps and figuring out the jumping form. Yay! Getting the jumps gradually closed was helpful to him. It looks like sequence 3 was harder, good job breaking it down. Finding jump 1 on the slice angle is difficult, so breaking it down was REALLY helpful for him! Yay! The jumping effort on the flat serpentine jumps is challenging – you can see it when he hit the bar at 1:31, that was a jumping question. So for now, leave that angle a little more open, just an inch or two, so he can get the jumping form.
At 1:36 he offered a threadle – I didn’t think your shoulders were threadley plus there was no threadle verbal, so be sure that the threadle is not a positional cue. Meaning: he should not threadle just because you are in the gap between the jumps LOL! Your shoulders looked more like a 180 cue, so that is a balance you can add to this set up – not being that far ahead and keeping him on the 180 line, so he doesn’t try to read your position as the threadle cue. And if you are practicing threadles, definitely do lots of balancing wit 180s. And if you are not practicing threadles… cool beans, no need to add them at this moment LOL!!! I am currently *not* practicing threadles with my youngsters.
The next reps were better coming down the line – you were a little further ahead. It is also possible that the offering of the threadle was a jumping question – it is just easier to wrap the exit of the first jump and come to the takeoff side of the next jump from the threadle angle. Stay tuned for the jumping skill to help with that, fingers crossed for NO MORE SNOW so I can video it with the baby dogs! I have it with the adults so will post that if I can’t get decent weather in the next day or two 🙂He did a nice job with his mountain climbers! I see what you mean about rep 1 being a bit of a surprise and rep 2 being GREAT. So maybe on the next session – rep 1 can be half an inch easier than where you ended here? Rep 1 – still has tip but not as much. Then rep 2 can add more. And you keep ping ponging the tip back and forth so the first rep is a little easier then where you left off, then you add more in rep 2 until you see him become a raving lunatic for the teeter on rep 1 🙂 I know he is getting a really high value food reward – you can also add in more arousal before rep 1, like ball play before it so he is really stimulated (I think he likes chasing balls, right?) and then he might throw caution to the wind on rep 1: jackpot! Let me know if that makes sense.
Great job on these!
TracyHi! I think you were pretty close to the jumps here! I don’t think you need to be closer. And he did really nicely with the gradual angling of the jumps. Try not to move away from the line at all on the serp jump – not because that is a bad thing, but because when we move away we also then move back in, and I think that is one of the reasons these pups pop back out onto the backside line. When it was just the line of jumps, you were great! When he was exiting the tunnel on the harder angles, that is where we all want to move away a little – so rather than move away, slow down a bit so you can be really tight to the line and he can come in and back out.
I have more games for this coming this week, as several of the pups have the same question about the jump *after* the serp jump. So stay tuned for a jumping exercise to help them sort out how to jump that angle (in case that is the question) and also stay tuned for a handling game to help them understand it is the front unless cued to the back (in case *that* is the question LOL!!!)
Nice work on all of these!
TracyHi! Nice work on these!
The FC lead outs look really good, he is driving directly to position. No real challenge to add there because you are already standing still in position 🙂 The BCs also look really good – you can lead out less, run into it more, and start the BC sooner (when he has landed from 1) and allow your motion and verbal to commit him to the #2 jump. I htink a good challenge for him would be to hold his stay while you start to job up the line and then release while you are in motion.
Also, I think he is doing really well with his jumping on 8 inches. What has seen so far in terms of height? He is at the age where we can definitely start to move the bars up a bit on the ‘easy’ lines (like jumps 1 and 3 for sure on the BC reps on this set up) and then when that is easy, you can move up the height on the turning jumps (jump 2 on all reps and jump 3 when you do the throwback collection cue). Gradually showing him 2 inch height changes should be pretty easy for him! There is no rush (winter plus Covid restrictions) but I think he is ready for more 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! Yay, the PT definitely had his attention and helped! Crate games are SUPER high value plus the dogs learn them as baby puppies – I figure crate value simulates the running dog walk value and gives us a good basis for discrimination training. He did really well, especially when he was on the opposite side of you. Yay! We will build on this soon with motion, but in the meantime for home training: is there an object at home that he can move to on cue that is *not* the crate? A bed, or something, that has a different verbal cue? I think you can do some winter living room training with 2 different ‘obstacles’ to further solidify the processing of verbal cues! He is doing well so you can add a different object! And a fun winter brain game might be to work it up to 3 different things, if he has 3 distinct verbal cues!
Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! He is doing really well on these!
Looking at the lap turn first: he really drives right into these cues. The rotation is compelling! So when you are moving into a lap turn – I agree with your assessment that ideally you are closer to the wing. But, sometimes you won’t be able to get there earlier enough so I think being rotated and calling him before he exits the tunnel is more important than perfect position, so he can drive right to you.One subtle detail: He is a little sticky on the tandem turns, meaning he is eyeballing the wing and not exactly driving to you, choosing to stay out on the line closer to the wing: “yeah yeah human, got it, it is the wing.” LOL! It makes it harder to know exactly when to flip him back. To help him drive into you, you can get him to come all the way to your hands, NOT flip him back to the wing, but instead fling the ball back behind you for him coming to you. In the tandem turn scenario, I think the value of ‘go to the wing’ when you are moving forward is VERY high which is good, so you can use the thrown ball as a reward for coming to your hands. It will help your threadles eventually, because you will be able to see him coming in sooner and faster.
Great job!!
TracyHi! He is definitely figuring this out and moving to the end nicely! It makes sense that he isn’t go to blast to the end with a ton of speed, because there is no place to go, lots of visual distractions and not a lot of room to get a head of steam before getting on the board. But he is moving up the board with independence and doesn’t look worried! And adding the tip at the end was great, he seemed fine with it. Yay! The board has a noise and movement even when there is no real tip, so he is getting a lot of yummies paired with that already.
>>Do I stick with the tiny drop for a few more sessions before trying either a slightly bigger drop or removing the towel from the chair? >>
I would say that the towel should stay because it will get really noisy without it – the set up provides enough noise, so add gradually more and more tip and you can even add a fluffier towel because the board will be hitting the chair harder. Most teeters nowadays are not that noisy, so let’s add more tip and keep the noise a little quieter for now. Keep me posted!
Tracy
Good morning!
>> I started doing super short sessions per your suggestion and that has seemed to help a lot. He’s wanting to work and offering the behavior before I’m ready. >>
Perfect! Make sure you reward the reps he offers LOL! And you can add a crate or a cot or mat for him to stay on while you get ready.
>> Ironically I don’t get the running off when I do dog walks and a frames with him and I think it has to do with the value I’ve built for those obstacles and also maybe the clarity of the criteria. He seems to have less frustration with contacts once there is value. The teeter and contacts are also in the other half of the yard where he does less running around and the yard doesn’t border the street so that may contribute as well.>>
Could be all of those reasons: soooo much value, clear criteria, very obvious-looking obstacles, less stimulating environment. All good!!!!
The start line work is going well! Clear transitions, lots of rewards, lots of connection! The lead out push on the 2nd rep looked great (first rep was a nice reward moment). At 1:16 you did a lead out push position on the release then a blind, you can also lead out with him on your left on the other side of the jumps and move into the blind. Your arm waving was cracking me up! Very nice session and because he was nicely settled, you were able to show him really clear, smooth handling. It all looked lovely!
>>he in my ran away once but came right back when I used my collar to hand cue. Baby steps!!!>>
Yay for coming right back!! Do you remember what happened right before he ran off? If you can track triggers, it is easier to either avoid or work him through them. He is making terrific progress!!
Keep me posted! Great job here!
TracyHi! The set up is good here but the value of the MM has increased. And in this set up, it will be soon be fine to come in and go directly to the MM. So, you can help him out on the initial spoon hits by shaking it or waving it as he comes towards you. That way the little spoon becomes more salient relative to the giant MM 🙂 He did well on the various angles, getting a nice bend in the body!!!
Don’t get mad at yourself about spoon height, it is still a tiny bit high but he is growing into it LOL! Plus we move forward with it (literally haha) this coming week so as long as he is coming towards it to hit it for now: perfect!
Positionally, I think you can still be closer to the wing. He should only have room for his front feet to land straight, his back feet should turn before he gets to the ‘bar’ – he can still pretty much fit all of himself facing you across the bar so try being so close that you can casually reach out touch the wing, with a bent elbow. It adds more emphasis on the “turn before takeoff” and I think he is ready for that now 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi! It is the generation of dogs before these pups who taught os the importance of getting them to move away from us. Yay! He is doing a great job here on each of the cues you presented (out, sends, come to momma). So now you can add motion: instead of standing still on the out send, you can be walking up a parallel line to it. From his perspective on this set up – the destination on the parallel line is YOU so the prop is moved off to the set. In order to hit it, he has to move away from you when cued. That way your feet keep facing straight so you don’t need a rotation to get him to out. And sometimes you cue the out, sometimes you don’t and he gets rewarded for coming to you. Let me know if that makes sense. Walking is a good place to start, so he see motion but can still process the cue.
Have fun!
TracyGood morning! He is doing really well with his turns and burns! Yay! Keep doing that angled L-shaped exit like you were doing on the reps coming towards the camera (he was turning to his right). When you were going away from the camera (he was turning to his left) you had some reps where you moved back more towards where you started, which is fine but you can add more challenge with the L turns because there is more countermotion.
You were also starting to leave earlier and earlier, which is terrific!! His commitment looked strong. Woot! So…. keep mixing in an early departure here and there, working up to leaving just before his nose gets to the barrel set up. And to keep him committing, as you start to leave really early for the FC, toss the reward back to him at the exit of the wrap, so the value of commitment stays super Hugh.
Great job!
Tracy
