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Hi there!
He is doing really well with this game – I have some ideas for you to keep advancing it too.On the first clip in the parking lot – he did really well when you were close to he target. Lots of offering! When you were far from the target, he was not sure what to offer (he did offer engagement, which is great). So try being closer to the target so he knows what is in play, or picking it up after each reward and moving it to a new spot. And you can hand him the treat here rather than toss it – when we toss it away, he might be confusing it for the pattern game where looking at you is what gets the next treat toss (and we want him to look at the target here).
In the cemetery session – I think I notice a pattern, he assesses your hands (cookies or not? Clicker or not?) and then he offers a behavior – which might be why he has trouble in situations (start lines at trials) when there is nothing in your hands.
So I suggest a tweak on this game now that he has value for his target:
Start with nothing in your hands, no clicker (the clicker is a big tipoff that treats are also nearby), no treats – he comes out into the new place on a leash, you place the target down – and if he engages with it, then you can use a verbal marker and run back to wherever the treats are. I think he will benefit from these games and tricks having a lot of experience with the reward not being in your hands, building in the very first transition to trials game but in the instant focus version – he ideally doesn’t even know rewards are around at all 🙂
The treats can be a little delayed as you go get them from wherever they are hidden (you can use praise the bridge the time gap between correct behavior and treat delivery) because the game is partially about offering behavior in environments where there is no obvious reinforcement coming, and also about handling delayed reinforcement.It will be fun to go to the next steps! Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi there!
Looking at the instant focus and tricks at the beginning – he is dong them really well but one thing I notice is that he is watching your hands move to get the treats – and then he does the behavior. So we don’t want the treats moving to present to be the cue to do the behavior (because you won’t have treats in your hands or moving at the start line) – so when you play these games, have your hands empty and completely stationary, no treats, til after he offers the behavior. The reinforcement can then come out – the reinforcement does not have to arrive super quickly in this scenario because it is more about getting behavior without the obvious presence of reinforcement.
>> The #5 wrap was the choice outcome. The #5 Slice won by 0.64 sec!
I thought they were both well-handled and my timing agrees with your timing. When you walked the distance, the slice should have been the choice outcome… the decision is:
1 point for the extension line line landing spot of the slice
1 point for the exit line to the next jump from the wrap
distance was either a tie or slightly shorter on the slice side – so if it is a tie, the win generally goes to the slice line because extension is faster than wrapping. When you walked the distance, what numbers did you get? I would walk from the landing of the jump after the tunnel all the way through to the landing of the last jump to figure it out.Tracy
Hi!
These are going well! With Kaladin there were a couple of reps where the cues were mashed together – but then he was perfect on the rest and so was Min. For Min, on the first rep or two, you can throw the cookies more dramatically back to remind her – this skill is more alien to her LOL!Your hand cues looked really good – very subtle movement and lots of independence from both dogs. That tiny hand flick is fine as part of it because they are not relying on it to complete the behavior.
For both dogs… time to take it outside and add more motion (you’ll need more room so the can have more space to come to the correct side of the wing). Try it with the dogs in a stay and you moving a little bit, mainly so they understand that this is not a stationary thing with you next to the wing 🙂
Great job here!!!
TracyHi!
The Instant focus went well, take it on the road now 🙂 It is only an instant focus game for the first treat or two, so the more places you can go, the better it will work to help with instant focus 🙂 And his tugging looked great!
Mulberries provide the PERFECT opportunity for the pattern game! I know you were thinking about the sequence there but it is a great time to shift gears and do the up and down game – distractions are hard to come by, so if you find one, you can work it through and then go back to the sequencing.
One thing you can do with the sequences is stretch out the spots where you are timing transitions – for example you can open up the distance between the tunnel and the jump so you have to run for real 🙂 On the first sequence, it was tight enough that you were stationary or in deceleration early (exaggerating by leaning over then standing up) on the wraps to his left. You can also run in closer to the tunnel so you are running when he exits and then downshift into the turn. He will like that a whole lot!
You had to run run run to get the blind and the wrap on the other side (to his right) – these were faster 🙂 I think it was a combo of better line back to the tunnel, and more motion from you in and out of it 🙂On the second sequence: the last rep with the wrap to the inside (left) was well-executed and at the moment… fastest but maybe 1/10th. The FC-FC and the BC-FC were not in the groove with timing yet, a little late. But…. really not that much slower than the wrap! I think ultimately, the BC to FC will be fastest of all the options – start it when he lands from the previous jump (the jump after the tunnel). As you mentioned, it might just be a matter of shaking off the rust a bit 🙂
I think you were thinking about being sooner at 2:13 but ended up disconnected as he was jumping the jump after the tunnel and also said the left cue was too early – so he dropped the bar and came into you. He was paying attention, good boy!!
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Bummer about the job offer, but glad you don’t have a big commute!!!! Something better will come along soon 🙂>>To answer your question, ready, set, GO! Yes, we want to RUN. Here is the handler working on it! We still have some angles on the jumps for success.
Angling the jumps is good for now, it helps teach her the lines. This was a great session – I loved it! Look how well you could get up and down the lines, both directions. And with the ‘open’ shoulders and arm back, she never had to kook at you or ask a question. Yay! It will be easier when she is grown up and jumping full height, because you will have some hang time LOL! Running full out on the flat is hard but you did it! I think you can gently start to close the angles of the jumps here, a little bit. Loved the barrels too!!!
On the tunnel turns: I think she did well here, not too soft on the turns. Some questions, yes, but overall really good. Remember to tell her all exit info when she is still a solid 6 feet from the entry – you did that perfectly on some reps, but you were late on others.
Starting with the GO cues at :05 and :10, you told her to go right before she exited (the throw helps but you want the cues sooner too). Compare that to your really good go timing at 1:12!
I think you are more comfy with your right verbals than your left verbals, you were late on your lefts in general but on time with your rights in general 🙂
The at :18 was just as she entered, so it was a little late. You were better at :31 and 1:08 but still late 🙂
I think her exits were good but you were pretty stationary, so she was drifting to wait for more info. Whenyou were moving more, she was nice and tight to the line. (These left and right exits will not need to be super tight, because we don’t want her to have to slow down).When you switched sides for the right cues: Your right at :41 and :52 were nicely timed – and she turned when she exited but then you were standing too still with a closed shoulder so she had questions about where to go next.
Compare it to how at 1:19 you were moving more, gave a good right cue and kept moving so she found the wing a lot better at 1:20 – yay!!!! Staying in motion gave her earlier info for what to do after the tunnel.When you added rear crosses – at 1:27 you cued the tunnel with a series of GO cues and did the rear cross maybe a tiny bit late then said one more go then the left verbal happened while she was in the tunnel – she didn’t hear that so she turned right on the exit I think which is correct based on the go cue. Then you locked into great RC cues: on the next rep, your physical RC was earlier and you said left (not go) and she got it nicely at 1:36!! And then you got 2 more really great
RCs at the end! Nice ! You were a little late on the left at the very end so she had a question but then figured it out when she saw you after she exited.Great job on these! I think the main things are to keep moving, and to remind yourself to time your left cues as beautifully as you time your right cues 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
>> I was tempted to use my outside arm for the middle jump but I see a lot of people just moving their shoulder back while turning their chest towards the jump so I am trying to learn that skill.
Yes, you totally don’t need the outside arm – just opening up your shoulder so your upper body faces the jump should work well for him. He is doing well!
He also did well on the countermotion exercises, this is hard for him! When you were sending him backwards to just one wing – he was significantly better turning to his left than to his right. He might be a lefty! I can’t remember if we saw this before with him or not, I need to keep a list of which dog is lefty and which dog is righty LOL!! On the right turn sends, you can show him more of the wing by moving yourself over a little. You can also toss the cookie to the other side of the wing – he had a little trouble leaving your hands, so having the cookie in your hand already would serve a dual purpose: it would be a distraction AND it would make it easier to toss to the other side of the wing, to shift the value to the wing and away from your hands.
He definitely liked it when you were facing forward when you added the second wing and committed really well! So now you can send and rotate sooner on that second wing, so he learns to go past you as you are decelerating and rotating: you were holding the send/facing forward til he got all the way to the wing and ideally you are already turned and moving away as he arrives at the wing. So you can add in deceling and rotating slowly as he is passing you, then throwing the reward to the other side of the wing. That will help build even more value for the commitment.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! This was fun to compare!
I think the dropped bars were a combination of you needing to keeping moving to get out of the way (you had dropped bars on the reps where you seemed to be asking for more collection) and then towards the end – probably fatigue because she had already done a bunch of reps.One happy thing: her turns all looked great, which supports our current theory that she no longer needs massive turn cues – that makes your life easier on course!
But this was overall cool to see:
for most of the reps, the wrap to the inside was the wining line (I was timing it from landing of jump after the tunnel to the landing of the last jump. The 2nd rep of that inside wrap was fastest, when you used less brake arm and also got out of the way more after the wrap so she had a clear straight line to the last jump.She did have the off course to the last jump at :25 – your left physical cue was late and turning your shoulder does seem to support the line out ahead – on the successful reps before it, note how you were facing forward on those and not turning your shoulder, you were mainly letting her run across your feet and it worked really well.
I think the serpentine handling produced GREAT wraps to the last jump, but it was hard to get a good ‘soft’ left – when you insisted on it more, she did better and it was almost as fast as the wrap. But the crosses produced better turns on the soft left than the serp did – the FC was good but the BC was great! Especially when you did the BC to the FC – that was the fastest option (bearing in mind that they were all really close!) Now she also dropped bars on those, so it would be interesting to revisit the wrap versus the BC to FC – but do the BC to FC first, then the inside wrap 🙂 And on the BC to FC, keep moving the whole time – the crosses control the turns so you can just let her chase you.
One overall thing that I thought was really good too: you didn’t try to control the turns a whole lot – and you got great turns and ZERO accidental backsides. YAY!! (also, lovely work with your connections and timings and verbals, you are really getting so good at that!!!)
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
I agree, Huey was totally fabulous here!! He is so fast returning his focus up to you, that you can have more cookies ready so you can toss sooner. He was pretty perfect 🙂 How old is he now?
Question for you about the toy on the ground – does your “get it” cue mean only cookies, or could it also mean toy on the ground? (My get it cue could also mean a toy tossed on the ground) That might have been why he was looking at the toy as you moved towards it. If so, you can change the cookie toss cue to make it really clear (you can be silly and do something like “snacks!” LOL!). If not, no worries, it was just the value of the toy providing a big temptation.
He is ready to see this game in new places – do you have any trials or classes coming up where he can play this on the sidelines? If not… feel free to take a field trip somewhere, like a store, so he can play in the parking lot or something 🙂 And glad to hear his brothers Bob and Pete were great too – this game is an easy way to prep for trials without having to go to trials 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
This is also going well. The oopsies seemed to come when you moved and said the verbal all in one motion: he would process the motion before he processed the verbal, so would end up on the other side of the wing. To help fix that, you can ask for a stay then move then say the verbal (which is the release in that moment too) so it doesn’t all happen at the same time and is easier to process.
You can also repeat the verbal – you were saying it once, quietly, which makes it easier to miss and harder to process. So you can say it a couple of times so it can sink in more.I agree, his right turns were better than left, is he a righty? Can’t remember, I need to keep a spreadsheet LOL I think part of the oopsies on the other side might have been that he was trying to set himself up to turn right – either it is his stronger side, or he just did a bunch of right turns, or both. So you can make it easier when you change sides by starting him more on the turn-away (takeoff) side of the wing, so it is harder to end up going the wrong way around it (like what you did at 1:05) then gradually move him back.
He also did well with the hand cue! If you are going to use the hand cue, you can show it to him on all the reps as that will help really solidify the meaning too.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
This was fun to see, and it went really well! Looking at the 2 different areas that you were training:
>> I played with the 2 different ways to handle 5 and tried to time a couple of them off the video, tunnel exit to tunnel entrance. It looks to me like they are very close in time.
I timed it 2 different ways: from landing of 2 to landing of 6, and also from landing of 4 to landing of 6 (it is easier for me to see landing than it is to do tunnel entries/exits). It was close, but the send-and-go reps were consistently faster by about a stride. And if he is a stride faster on just 3 or 4 obstacles… that is about 2/10ths or 3/10ths. Now generalize that to 3 or 4 spots on course, and now his course time is over a second faster 🙂 YEAAAAHHHH! I will take that 🙂 Send-and-go for the win!
>>Also worked on my timing at 11.
Yes, it was lovely! He turned beautifully…. so I timed it. Those pretty turns? Slower. The rep at 1:20 where you had less decel and less pressure down on the takeoff spot as you cued the collection? Yep, that was the fastest rep of all the wraps you did. And the very last run where you had really clear strong turn cues there and he had a “Clean Run Magazine Cover” gorgeous tight turn? Yep…. slowest. Good to know!!!! He is a member of the Masher Club: wider is faster. I don’t mean wider as in not knowing where he is going, but rather let him rip, tell him where to go with more acceleration and then stay out of his way – that is producing the fastest lines. The club is named for Masher the Papillon who was NEVER tight or pretty with his turns, but always knew where he was going and was SOOOOOOO fast 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>>As you said, he is pretty responsive, unlike Mags who I like to say “responds when she’s damn good and ready”
Ah yes, my 8 year old dog needs very strong turn cues, or there are no turns. That is why we have evolved in our training and now the baby dogs are great at turns! More specifics below 🙂
T
Good morning!
>>Cheese obviously was not as much fun as the agility field. 😉
I admit to being shocked that cheese is not more fun for an Aussie LOL!!! But I am glad she loves her agility 🙂
>>BTW, I have a question about another/next class. We’re half way through this session (how did that happen?) and I’m wondering if you will be planning another course specially for this group, or will you be offering other courses that follow-up on all we’ve been doing? I think Keiko and I need our Tracy fix.
For real, I can’t believe the summer is halfway over! I am in the process of planning classes for the fall (late September, probably). I have a couple of ideas but haven’t decided. Any suggestions?
Tracy
Good morning! He did really well here!!!
Looking at his little oopsies, I think it was because all the info came as you also started moving, so he just read the forward motion (like at the very beginning then again at 1:39). When you connected, showed the motion and arm and then did the verbal to cue him, he was great! Plus, it only seemed to happen on your right side (where he was turning to his right?) – he was great on your left where he was turning left, so he might be a lefty 🙂 I can’t remember if we saw a side preference previously with him? But that is fie, all dogs have a side preference and we even it out with training.
When he was on your left side and you were moving/cuing/connected then releasing, he was great! When you were close to the wing and not moving that fast, he would self-flck beautifully 🙂 He did need a tiny tiny tiny hand flick when you had a lot of motion and you were ahead (not as close to the wing) which I think is fine as long as it is small and you keep moving forward – my bet is that he won’t need that flick for long, and it was pretty subtle.
Welcome to the “don’t say yay” club at 1:11 🙂 A lot of our dogs stop doing the ‘thing’ when we praise on course, and that is what happened here: he turned his head away, you said “yes” or something, so he came back to you. I think we have accidentally taught the dogs that praise like that is a marker to come get reward (oopsie! Guilty as charged!) so we need to not praise when the dog needs to keep working 🙂 That is one of the reasons I have gone to more specific reward markers 🙂
For the next steps, you can put a bar in there to begin introducing the jumping effort too! And you can also show him the cue for the front side versus the threadle wrap versus the “don’t take anything” 🙂
Great job here!!
TracyHi! It did not come through 🙁 Let me know how you are pasting it in and I will try to figure out why they are not visible?
T
Hi!
>>I might be jumping the gun on this one and you are on the middle of writing a response but did you see these are for both dogs? First three links are Emmie and last three are Kippy. I’m just wondering if that changes your overall summary of who does what better?>>
Oops!!! That is what I get for obsessing on slow motion and not looking at which dog it was. SORRY!
The main thing is the step to the takeoff spot before you rotate: neither dogs needs it 🙂 Emmie reads it as a forward cue, so she actually jumps long when you do that, as she did on the first 2 reps. But when you decelerated and rotated like at :20, she automatically set up collection. A-ha! Good to know.
I think maybe with Kippy you are more used to cuing collection so you are more used to pushing into the takeoff spot – plus he is more experienced so he read the very beginning of it and collects. Re-watching his videos: you don’t need to get low and crunch down on the the takeoff spot with him either – he doesn’t read it as a forward cue like Emmie does, but it delays you from leaving for the next line and he does just fine without it 🙂 Running up there and getting low to the takeoff spot and then rotating makes it harder for you when you can already be running the other direction – he will read it but Emmie does not. I think with both dogs, you can decel, rotate sooner and then leave, letting them set the collection up (which they both do really nicely) and chase you out to the next line 🙂 )
The other benefit is that you can handle them the same way, you won’t have to remember different cues when you are running them on the same course – that will be GREAT for getting those runs where you don’t have to think, you just “do” 🙂Let me know if that makes more sense 🙂
Tracy
