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Hi! Hope you, Karl and the dogs had a lovely Christmas!
>>Don’t tell the red squirrel but I started parking in the driveway again so I can have room to train in the garage. It’s not perfect but more than in the livingroom.>>
Definitely more room! Lots of good stuff here! The red squirrel will forgive you 🙂
>>Training space is hard to come by. Everyone is desperate for it here.
Ugh! Maybe a bunch of MaxPuppers can get together 🙂 Covid makes things harder too.
>>Our toy skills are basically non-existent. It’s been a struggle with her. With food too but that has gotten alot better. Toys have too but so far from where I want to be. We keep making progress. It’s just as a snail’s pace.>>
I am glad you left in some of the toy play! We can add some things to get it where you want to be 🙂
>>At what point should I consider the lesson completed – when we have the Advanced skills down?>>
When you have done 2 short sessions of the Advanced level at about 85% success or better. The games don’t need to be perfect, they just need to be pretty good and she has to be happy to play them 🙂
On the video:
>>I used string cheese – easy to see and quick to eat.
Yum! It is a very easy food reward to use.
Get it for cookies at the beginning looked good! Remember to let go pretty quickly so she doesn’t look up at you, and also switch sides so she is great on both sides.
And idea to make the food games a bit more exciting: I also use food for driving ahead differently than toys! Toys are so visible that we can just toss them. I like to have the food either on a plate or mat or some type of super visible target. It is hard to reliably get cookies to land there so you can start really close to the target, holding her harness, let her see you put the delicious thing down… then slowly move her back away from it (using her harness or hands on her chest) so she is basically pulling towards it when you release her to drive to it. That tends to get the driving ahead for food as driven as it is for a toy.
Barrel wraps – she is showing good commitment here!!! Instead of backing up to feed – do a front cross and have her chase you to get the reward. Dogs will slow down when we face them (even if we are moving backwards) but they will speed up if we run away from them. So when she started on your left, do a FC as she is committing and then reward from your right hand.
When you switched to your right at about :55, I think you were too far from the barrel and also too quiet – you can give her a little ‘ready, ready…’ then step with your leg and swoosh a little (think of it as bowling) with your right hand.
Check out the difference in her commitment and speed at 1:07 when you did a little ready moment – BOOM! Very nice 🙂Turn and burn – commitment looks good here too! The cookies as rewards are de-burning her because she has to decelerate to get the cookies. And, since dogs are exquisitely efficient… she is not going to blast for a few steps to then have to slam the brakes. You did it with the toy at 1:48 and she was already much more interested! Do turn and burn only with toys now – we have the turn and now we will get the burn too 🙂 You can throw the toys to get engagement or you can use a really long toy like this one so you can get it moving away from her so she can chase it.
At about 2:00, you have some toy play going – yay! One thing I notice is that as soon as she gets a hold on the toy, you lift it up pretty high. It is not a comfy neck position for her, so she either tugs very lightly or she lets go of the toy. When the toy was lower, like at 2:15, you were not really tugging, it was kind of hanging there. She did seem to like that little bit of smack da baby that you did there! And she definitely liked when you were moving the toy… but you need to let her grab it LOL! Every time she tried to grab it, you whipped it away or lifted it – so she opted out (2:30).
So I think you can get more tug drive by changing your mechanics and being a lot less clean about it all LOL! It is easy to put control on the toy play, but it is harder to *get* the toy play. The best way to get it is to just be dirty with mechanics for now 🙂 Here are two old videos of how I built tug drive with Matrix – the main difference between Matrix here and Saphira is that Matrix didn’t mind that head position with her chin tilted all the way up – bIt Saphira does not like it at all. So stick to the lower positions with the toy, let her pull back, let her win by pulling it out of your hands, make it a squirrel but let her grab it, etc.
She did the drive-to-handler for the cheese, but it puts her totally into chill mode. So you can file that away from now (her drive to you looked great) and we can focus on the faster, dirtier stuff like toy play going into these games. One other thing – what else does she like to play with? Balls? Frisbees? Paper towel rolls? You can add toy play starting with anything she likes and we can build from there!
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning! Hope you had a good holiday!
She is doing well with the sending, lots of good value for her prop already! Yay!
Little tweaks to the mechanics –
– after the sends (forward, sideways or backwards), be sure to bring your arm and leg back when you feed her (with the same hand that sent). You were tending to leave your leg back at the prop rather than stepping out of it, which might be why it felt a little awkward. The leg coming back underneath you will help you get ready for adding countermotion too!– in between each rep, add in a bigger moment of engagement to get her set up and ready. You will want to do a big ready dance til she looks at you, and you can even feed her for that. That will make the sends very crisp, and she won’t start without you LOL! Also a bigger ready dance moment will avoid errors like at :20 whre she ended up between your feet LOL and also at 1:27 where she was at your side (we want the pups in front of us for he sends). And it will help you be able to be more upright and benind over less – you were bending over to keep her focused on your cookies, but you can work on more engagement so she looks at you more before the sending.
Keeping in mind that she is just 14 weeks old… you can end this session at about 1:45 on the video, where she was playing. You did more after than and she was able to do more reps… but her mind was definitely wandering by about 3:09. Set that timer to be done before she is done.
Driving ahead – This looked really food! The walking was a really good start here, she drove ahead and went directly to the toy, and didn’t try to run off with it, and she didn’t seem to feel any handling pressure. Yay! You added a bit more speed and that was fine – stay at this level for a few more sessions til she is totally leaving you in the dust 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi!
>> She had trouble on the “easy” angles coming around rather than take the jump. Thoughts on helping her with that? She didn’t do that on the most extreme angle.
About the 2 bloopers on the easy angles –
I think on the first rep where she did a threadle, she might have just be on an angle where the jump was less salient and your hand target has more value, so she just chose to go directly to the hand. You fixed it by adjusting the angle perfectly. The blooper on the easy angle on the other side was more expected, because it is easier for most dogs (especially herding dogs) to want to run parallel to the jump in this setup – but you got her going really nicely and then she seemed to have the idea 🙂
The extreme angles are actually easier if the value for the hand target is high, which it is 🙂 She did really well bending her body on those!!>> Also, I started getting drive by nose touches towards the end. I know you ultimately get rid of it, but when do you decide that’s ok?
We decide it is ok when we start to see understanding, aka drive by nose touches LOL! Basically, she was saying ‘got it, come in got out’. So now you can start marking and reinforcing sooner – as soon as she is coming in and turning her head to go back to the new line.
And part of fading the hand touch is getting the reward to the ground – you can use a food bowl with the cookie in it (or the Pet Tutor) so that now she comes in and lowers her head, which will help her drive the lines.
>>I tried with Gemma and a toy on the ground. She knows a serp behavior, but couldn’t do the nose touch. Interesting info!
Could she do it without the toy on the ground? The toy on the ground is a nice distraction/discrimination that we add in very early. I’ve trained a lot of my dogs to do serpentines… the older generations all had trouble coming in on the serps when there was a tunnel out ahead as a distraction. The youngsters have no problem because we added in this distraction so early. This has become really useful because jump-tunnel discriminations are very stylish right now on course!
>>Also, I struggled with the out exercise. Keeping hips and feet straight are hard for me. >>
I feel that pain, that out prop is almost magnetic and draws me to it LOL!! So that is why I put a leash on the ground so I can move along it and not get drawn across it 🙂 I didn’t see any outs on the video, feel free to post!
Great job on these! Have a lovely Christmas! Things are very quiet here too 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
>> Pearl has clearly told me that stationary exercises require food, while moving exercises can use a toy.
That is fine for now, no worries! She is getting a lot happier with the stationary toy in the handling combos, so I am sure her love for toys in stationary exercises will continue to build.
The cheese balls were a big hit! And she has high value for the jump already, that is great! The food-in-hand reward session looked great. If she spends too long looking for the tossed cheese ball, you can call her back. She did really well on all the angles here – and just as I was about to write the that you can get closer… you did! Fabulous! She had no trouble making the bend when you were closer so yo can stay closer on all the reps now.
She also did really well with the food bowl reps. Do you think she would be successful if the food was already in the bowl? That would be the next step to begin fading out the actual target touch and getting the in and out in one smooth motion. The other option is to use a Manners Minder or a remote feeder of some sort if you have one. If you go with the food bowl and you think she will go directly to the treats without taking the jump: you can cover it was a lid resting on it so she can’t quite get the food until you slide the lid off with you foot.
She was sniffier on the tossed cheese balls here so you can definitely add her name to call her back after she gets it.Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>> Second video – I’m not getting much distance on send to barrel (with lure of toy on ground). Is the lure of the toy why she’s ignoring my “side”? Or am I still not connecting enough? I’m thrilled with the drive to the toy…..thought we had lost that!>>
Yes! I loved her toy drive on these 2 videos, it was super high! That did have an impact on the handling but I have some ideas for you:
First video:
Nice long toy in that first video!!! Love it! OMG she was SO FAST on these reps! She did a great job of committing to the barrel on all of these even with the toy on the ground behind her.
On this video, the bloopers were connection bloopers: Freeze the video at :21 as she exits the barrel – you have turned your head forward so she think you are blind crossing to get her on your right, which she does at a million miles per hour 🙂 Same thing happened at :45 – you did try to reconnect with her but she was too fast.
Compare it to your connection at 1:05 as she exited the barrel – perfect connection! She then had her big victory lap LOL! You might need to use that 10 foot leash on the toy to prevent the big victory laps when she is this excited for the toy!2nd video:
On these, I think she was so excited for the toy that she was reading motion and not connection. There was a little connection blooper at the beginning: at
:14 almost had her til you looked forward then she read BC and cut behind you. Then I think those few bloopers and the joy of running fast made it harder for her to find the correct side even though you were pretty darned connected on the other reps – she was reading motion (you were running fast) and she thought it was just run to the toy as fast as you can. So even though you were pretty connected, you were moving really fast and she was only watching your feet and speed.
Then at 2:53 and 3:35, you stuck closer to the barrel and got the connection and the new side – then ran forward when she say “oh hi!” And came to the new side. Perfect! So one option is to keep doing that: stick close to the barrel until you have her on the new side then run run run to the toy.The other thing you can do is add more motion without the toy out on the line ahead of you. Instead, have it in your hand, the hand that is next to her when you send her around the barrel so it ends up in the opposite arm when you did the front cross. Then, as you run, show it to her across your body like we did for the blind cross exits – that can really open up the connection and help her to see the side change when you are running fast 🙂 Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! I am glad the retrieves and rear crosses are going well!
She is so funny on the serpentine LOL! So joyously hopping to get a cookie 🙂 She did well on both angles and all start positions here. A couple of suggestions to build on this:
Change your setup slightly so the jump is rotated 90 degree – it will be parallel to the long plank on the ground instead of perpendicular to it. That will give you more room to get the reinforcement to the floor and also give you more room for when we add movement 🙂
Before adding movement though – she is hopping up a little to touch the target, so let’s start to fade the actual touch. We don’t want her to touch your hand when you are actually running a course, and I don’t want you to have to get lower to keep her form hopping up. The behavior is strong so we can fade the actual touch. As soon as you see her coming in over the bump to your target hand, give your reward marker to indicate that the reward is available in your other hand. I don’t think you had one going here, but you can start with the cookie-in-hand marker. Then you can move to a dish or MM on the ground on the exit line of the serp (and use your dish marker or just beep the MM :)) And then you can easily incorporate the toy, first in hand then on the ground. We are going to add movement (yours, not hers LOL) as soon as she is happy to serpentine with the reward on the ground.I agree, rocking horses are big super fun and we are only at the beginning! The single wraps on the warm up looked great (well done getting your verbals involved!) and then she really did well on the doubles too! Since this is going so well – add a toy. Cookies are nice and I am so happy that her food drive is looking strong… but toys in handling are the way to go 🙂 And since she is doing so well – do you have any access to footing where she can really dig in? I am guessing there is snow on the ground but maybe you can take this to On The Run or something so she can really enjoy driving around the cones.
I think your orange cone is taller then the bucket, so you might want to use that so she has to bend her head more during the turns as we add speed.
And you can throw in some turn and burn exits to the wraps so she really drives out and bends on her turns.I agree that the get out is super effective. When I originally put it into the puppy training, I thought it would only get seen when the dogs were running masters. Well, I was wrong – my youngsters are seeing it in novice on jumping lines. Glad to have it available, they read the cues perfectly. Whew!
Sorry to hear the camera was off LOL! I hate when that happens and now I am obsessive about checking, double checking, triple checking 🙂
The video you got looked good, she was more than happy to get out! Good job balancing it – you will want to indicate the balance and reward as close to your leg as possible on the balances, so she doesn’t bend out in the hopes of being sent to the prop LOL!
On the get out cues – you can now add staying in motion and tossing the treats out ahead, to prepare her for staying out on the new line.Great job on these! Happy holidays to you, Terry and all the dogs 🙂
TracyHi!
>> think the issue is I’m starting sideways with Sprite and she’s not really lined up so I’m not either. It looks like a habit from this video. Hmmm….I’ll try to be straighter. Partly it’s the angle, but I’m not completing the hip rotation.>>
Actually, after watching this session – don’t worry about it too much 🙂 When we add more space and movement, it will all feel a lot better. Her commitments here were terrific so we don’t need to obsess about anything other than hoping Mother Nature cooperates soon to let you take this outside 🙂
The TV trays were very clever! Sorry about the rain and mud – the weather is crazy on the West Coast!
This session went well! Great job warming her up with just the one FC on each TV tray 🙂 She was really good with her commitments on both the forward sends that you started with and the sideways sends and also later on with the backwards sends! She only had one little question on the sideways sends at :44 but then she was just perfect on the rest. YAY! And you are doing it very precisely but also letting her commit on her own: fabulous! Our goal is that she commits on basically any indication to go to the wing, and she was great here.
Doubles looked great, both the traditional forward sends and all the variations! I loved the handler focus in the middle, she was perfect with that and more importantly – she left the cookies and went to the wing, oops I mean the TV table, when cued 🙂 That was a great transition from line focus to handler focus then line focus! You did a FC to a ‘throwback’ (backwards send) at the very en and her commitments were strong there too. I am very excited about this session!
And massive click/treat to you for also having your all of your verbals in place. At some point, the weather will clear and you can take this outside to add more speed and distance, as well as the turn and burn exits from the wraps.Great job here! Let me know what you think and I hope you have a lovely holiday 🙂
TracyGood morning!
>> I am not ready to add the threadle verbal yet as I don’t think he has the commitment to the tunnel yet that I am looking for. But when I do it will be “Heeerre”.
Sounds good! Based on how quickly he learns things, he is going to be ready soon. He is definitely like a sponge, absorbing things so quickly!!!
He was hilarious with the jump bump! Lots of success here, the session looked great. So fast and definitely loving the dish marker. He was focused, thoughtful AND fast – what a great combination!!
He had one little oopsie at :30 when he looked up from the cookie and saw your position and just came to you – he wasn’t ready for that rep, but all of the other reps had better mechanics before and after that so we will ignore the oopsie. And I agree – stop saying yes (SO HARD, I am a big YES-sayer too.) I have more about the markers coming on Tuesday.
You can add more challenge by double dishing it (one dish on each side of the jump) so you can send him to a cookie in one dish then start moving up the line so he can pick up the jump behind you, or you can start close to dish #1 and then move up the line so he drives ahead. I don’t think he will be sad if you have 2 dishes out there. If you think he will play with a toy, you can replace the dishes with early toy throws. Or use a treat hugger to use thrown food rewards, so we can then fade the dishes out.
He actually offered a sit stay at one point, so if he offers the sit, release the sit like you would at a start line.
Adding angles is good – if he is facing it, it is not a lead change away from you so you can face him straight and work the out skill with the lead change.
If you do the out on a jump bump don’t balance it with NOT taking the jump (because that becomes a Backside threadle or bypass which we don’t want him to consider right now – we want him to love his lines and we will teach the threadley stuff separately.Cone commitment work looks fast and bendy. Your an hear him digging in on the turf, I love it! He really wants to dig in and drive around the cone, so you can let him do it because he is retaining his thoughtfulness even when going fast. You can do that by leaving sooner on the forward sending (turn and burn style) and letting him chase you for a few steps before you throw the cookie.
Be sure to take a moment to re-engagement (and maybe say a little ready ready) before each send. Two reasons for that: one is that he will be more ready for the cue. For example, he had an Oopsie at :15 where he was not fully ready for the cue so didn’t go to the cone.
The other reason is that the moment of engagement and ready ready gets him excited to drive to the cone. This has 2 purposes: it will get him running to the cone and get the behavior even snappier and fast (he will trot more if the loop does not have the engagement inserted into it after the search cookie) and it challenges the little guy to be able to commit with countermotion even when he is more stimulated like he would be in a trial-setting. Because he is so good at maintaining his thoughtful behavior as we add speed and excitement, I think he is ready for this and it will be a great layer to help build up to future trialing.I think he did really well with the cue hand also having a cookie in it!!! That is really hard because cookies are LIFE for him (for me, too hahaha) so I am very excited to see him learning to ignore the cookie in order to get the cookie. GOOD BOY!
And great job to you for working both sides, adding your verbals, showing him forward, sideways, backwards. Click/treat to you!
If he is super successful like this when you add a little more excitement, you can add more distance from the cone which will set you up nicely to be able to move the new direction even earlier.
Great job here! Have a fabulous holiday!!!
TracyGood morning!
>> So tried a new space to train in because my training room is occupied with kitties and I haven’t been able to get her to the building.
Perfect! New spaces are great!!!
She was all in for staying with me. All just good baby puppy stuff so I will make adjustments for her next time.
Drive ahead and focusing on the toy looks good when you were throwing it relatively close! Good girl 🙂 More on that below.
>> She was a little distracted so there’s some breaks In the video mainly because she was having trouble with tugging.
Yes, there were distractions in the new place there but you can also try a different toy so we can work out the tugging stuff – this toy looked a bit harder in texture and her tiny mouth didn’t quite fit the tennis ball (she was trying to get her mouth around it LOL!) so maybe there is something softer or has fur on it? With this toy, she wanted to chew it more than tug it, so experiment with different toys and see what fits best in her widdle mouth 🙂
And you can move your feet when tugging – so a longer toy for her to chase can help (and that gives your back a break from bending over LOL!) Get a long, furry toy and tie it to another long toy so the toy can swoosh around and you can save your back 🙂 She seemed happier tugging on the handle but also a crazier toy will help her tug – she seems to lose her focus on it when it stops moving or when she can’t get it in her mouth to chew on.
Back to driving ahead – for now, keep things closer and don’t run as much. There was a little too much distance at :40 and I don’t think she has enough understanding yet to add in you winning and teasing her.
She is also looking sideways at you when you really run for the toy – I don’t think she likes the pressure of all of the running and bending in to grab the toy (and note how she would like to grab the toy and leave because there is pressure but you are getting there quick enough that is doesn’t happen). So, do a couple of sessions with a toy that she really wants and a little bit of distance – and you walking. Let her win a LOT (it won’t be hard to get her to leave you in the dust when you run haha). Gradually add more of your motion but do it carefully enough that she doesn’t look at you when you move. When she is a complete crazy for driving ahead to the toy when you walk, you can add jogging then build to running 🙂
Great job here! Have a great Christmas!!!!!!
Tracy
Oops, I missed that note! Sorry! Was there another one, or are you referring to the one above?
2 file boxes would be entertaining if they are tall enough! You might have to weight them down so they don’t fall over if she brushes them. You can also use 2 wings for this. If you see any questions from her or frustration on the wings, back track to the barrel or the file boxes so we can sort it out before going back to the wings.
Have a great holiday!!!
Tracy
Sounds good! That is why I put the moment of engagement in before the send – yes, to get the pup excited but also to make sure I am facing the right direction LOL!! The pups see all the things with our arms and feet so I like to be careful and precise in the beginning so they tolerate any potential less-than-perfect moments when I am running courses 🙂
T
Hi there!
>> It was soooo cold yesterday, lol, 19* when I walked out my door and barns are always much colder. The poor little guy’s fur was cold to the touch 😱.
I think the coated dogs do better with the cold than we humans LOL! And my Whippety dog thinks this cold is RIDICULOUS so he has many coats and pajamas hahaha!!
>> I need so much help and will incorporate it into our next session.
You’re doing great! It takes a village to train our puppies 🙂
>> In the mean time, should I concentrate on distance with one barrel until I have more room?
Boooooo on the bad weather!!!!
Yes, you can add distance on sending to one barrel. You can also add leaving sooner on one barrel (start closer for this).
And focus on adding more toy play too!>>I’m super pleased with his work ethic, as I was a little concerned in the beginning.
I think that it is far, far better to let the pups grow up a little before we start formal training. And that formal training starts with establishing simple behaviors and reinforcement. You are right on track and he looks great!
>> It has me wondering what will come after this course for him and will it be in this same format? I am willing to hit the road a couple of days a week if needed.>>
We have an entire program that will take you through to Masters LOL!!
After this, we have multiple courses spread out to bring the pups into adulthood. Next up is MaxPup AF (Agility foundations, which is more specific to teaching them about jumping and sequencing and such) and then MaxPup Putting It Together (sequencing). After MaxPup Putting It Together, the dogs will be old enough and skilled enough to do the Masters-level handling classes and transition to trials classes.Separately from the handling classes, we also have obstacle classes: MaxPup Weaves! Is a start-to-finish weaves class and MaxPup Terrific Teeters is a start-to-finish teeter class. Jordan Biggs teaches the running dog walk and running a-frame class. I will probably dig out the stopped contact class if there is interest (for a 2o2o on the dog walk).
So, there is plenty to look forward to! The next MaxPup will begin in mid to late March, when this one is fully wrapped up, which means the Putting It Together class will be a summer class.
Have a wonderful Christmas! Onwards to a great 2022!
Tracy
Good morning! I am glad you found a little bit of remaining green grass to play outdoors 🙂
This looks great! He definitely likes his leash!
A couple of thoughts and suggestions to keep moving forward with this:
– A small detail: Right and bite (I think that is what you were saying) sound a little alike so maybe don’t use them in combo in the warm up games (it should not be a problem on course because he will read the context ). And when you get into the pattern of the left or right spin then tug, he is anticipating the tugging so try not to get into that pattern too much, and remember to cue the bite marker. It is not a huge concern but you want to make sure that he knows when to grab the leash and when not to.– he got better and better at giving it back as you continued to play! It could be that he was figuring out the game with the leash, or it could be that he was really aroused at first. Will he eat a treat then go back to the leash? You can get the ‘out’ then give a treat reward, then back to the leash tugging. That can help improve the out in those first reps and it will help keep his arousal balanced.
BTW, the improvement of the ‘out’ is why we want to keep his arousal high and not try to calm him with just food or very calm behaviors. He does really really well when we let him go into his natural higher state of arousal for work! And this is supported by the science.
The leash tugging built into a nice stay at the end of the first session! Super!
The second session went well too – you had a ‘hand’ moment and that as good too. I think he prefers the ‘bite’ on the leash but the hand will get fun for him too! I was just about to suggest you try it in front of a jump but there it was! Great!
A detail about the release from the stay: there are several releases you can use and that will help him know what to do next. “OK” is the release into work – when he is in the stay, you would use “ok” to start the run. “Get it” is a release to get the toy (you tossed it to him at the end) so you don’t also need the OK before the get it because it confuses the moment about what to do next.
With that in mind, you can totally now start the remote reinforcement with the leash – the marker to go back to get it, or using it as an ‘anchor’ setting it behind him and sometimes turning him back to get it (you’ll see the week 4 games have that) and sometimes releasing forward into the work.
>> Is it ok to toss the leash like I did a couple of times?
Yes, 100% fine to toss the leash. You can consider two different types of tosses: tossing it back to him as the reward like you would do with a toy. Also, as you build up the stay and the remote reinforcement, you can toss the leash (or place it) off to the side or behind him like you would do at a trial. For example, at trials I either toss the leash to the side or I hand it to the leash runner if he/she is nearby (I am weird, I feel it is rude to throw it if the leash runner is there BUT this appears to NOT be legal in AKC so you will want to drop or toss the leash in AKC). So be sure he sees you remove and toss/place the leash like he would see in a trial, so he is fully prepared.
Great job here! Have a fabulous holiday season!!!
TracyGood morning!
>>Ok, to be sure I’m understanding. Do I still let her approach the bang end any way she wants, or am I trying to get her to jump up and move a little as you did with Hot Sauce? I’m assuming we’re not ready for the jump on the side and head down to the end as you did with Matrix.>>
Think of it as a 3 step progression:
First is to simply interact with the moving board by touching it, moving it, etc. When that is something she immediately offers in a couple of short sessions in a row, then you can do a bit more like that 2nd video with Hot Sauce. And ultimately, you will want her to jump on the end heading down, like Matrix. That can take a week, a month, several months… the dogs guide the speed. Doing the one hit wonders, it usually takes a couple of weeks because we don’t do it daily at this time of year and the one hit wonders stretch out the progression.>>>Just wanted to add a bit from today’s class. First, a bit of background. There are 2 doodles in Keiko’s class in the arena. They each have a handler, but sometimes only one handler brings both dogs. When that happens (and it’s been happening a lot recently) the dog not running cries and barks non-stop while the other dog is running. They do nothing to calm or quiet the dog. >>>
Not my favorite thing! Sometimes unavoidable but definitely not easy for the other humans or dogs to handle.
>>Needless to say, the barking and upset in the other dog is concerned to Keiko, and she watches them both carefully. She takes treats during this time and will use her snuffle mat, but I don’t think it’s good and have started taking her to the car when she’s not running.>>
Good choice. She doesn’t need to listen to it if she is worried by it. Does it happen while she is running? We don’t want the anxiety to bleed over to agility in general in that location.
>>Once she was running, she was great – until we headed back toward the others. More “find its” got her connected again, and we ran.
She is getting very good about clearly communicating her needs and concerns! Amazing she can do it without speaking English when so many of us can’t do it even with our English-speaking abilities LOL!!!! Was she avoiding them while running, like when the course turned back towards them? Or was she avoiding them when the course was done?
>>>After the others left, I went back in with Keiko and her frisbee, to try the bang it (board touching ground so no motion). We walked into the ring and I walked near the seesaw. Keiko saw the frisbee, trotted up to the seesaw, I didn’t even get a chance to say “bang it” – she hit it up about 6 inches in and then poised for the frisbee run. She was delighted. >>
I am glad she moved the teeter but I am THRILLED that she played with the frisbee! The teeter is secondary to getting her to play with the frisbee or balls in that environment. If you can get more frisbee or balls, the teeter will get much much easier and so will handling the barking of the other dogs.
>>I did a couple of the sets we were supposed to do in class – she was flawless and fast. >>
Good girl!
>>I’ve tried the frisbee in the indoor class without much success, but I think I’ll give it a try in the arena. Bigger space, more chance to run – and run away from the pressure. I was pleased at how well she responded to banging the seesaw. We did come home, and do one bang with motion. It was also a definite (not timid) bang and a race for the frisbee. Then on to other stuff. You’re right – it’s going to be a bit frustrating for me to only do “one and done” but this definitely looks like the way to go.>>
The one and done approach has worked over and over for the last 15 years, I have total faith in it! It builds value without giving the dogs a chance to overthink it. When we do too many reps, the dogs reach a threshold and we often don’t know when it is… but we know that is is not likely to be one rep LOL! Keep your eyes on the big prize of great teeter behavior, that will help make it easier.
And about the arena – to get her really happy in those environments, we need to control the distractions more. Is there a different class or location you can use that allows you to reduce the distractions like barking dogs for a while? Or definitely don’t bring her into the area when the other dogs are barking so she can build up her confidence there without the barking of the other dogs.
Keep me posted!
TracyGood morning!
Look at him tugging on his new leash!!!! YAY!!!
For now, only use it for tugging in places where he will tug. So if he doesn’t love it on grass yet – no problem! Keep it super fun in the other places and it will transfer to grass pretty soon.>> Since it does have a clip end (slip leads for him scare me) do you eventually uncover the end and expect the learn no bite here?
yes – the dogs get really good at knowing where to grab the leash, especially if his harness is attached to it.
>>He’s so thrilled he’s randomly tugging while walking I’ve just gone with it for now. But what’s a non offensive way to say not just now?
Yes, I am thrilled too! And just go with it for now. If you want to walk him and NOT have tugging, yo can use an old, more boring leash 🙂 I have tug leashes for agility and boring leashes for when I need to go somewhere without tugging LOL! Or, you can trade for a treat and see if that helps. But we don’t want to dampen his spirit for tugging on his new leash 🙂
I will keep you posted about upcoming classes!
Tracy
