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Good morning! Lots of good work here!
1 Lily transitions – really good! You had good patience, waiting for her to lift her head up and then nice timing on the tosses. Yay! It sometimes took her a moment to lift her head but I think that was because she needed to swallow the treat before lifting her head. Movement was no problem for her – the swinging toy was a little distracting for me to haha!!! That is a GREAT distraction! But then she remembered and looked really good! Nice timing on your ‘get it’ cues! You can totally take this on the road to any classes or trials.
2 – both girls: This made me laugh so hard! Rosie thought this was the BEST EVER (like going to a drive in movie haha). Lily appeared to have no problem at all. You were completely focused on her and she was great, despite some great distraction LOL!! Good girl!!! Rosie was also fantastic, she came away from the free treats and was able to focus beautifully. I think both dogs will benefit from doing this around moving dogs, that might be a bigger distraction. Kim was an excellent distraction 🙂
4 (Lily Motion Override):
Good job started with a low level of motion so she could be super successful – a good ‘next step’ for her can be fading out the wait hand signal. You can say wait if that is part of her stay cue, but you can also move your hands as if you ar running (fake running at first) and see how she does. I love that she was able to get into the sit as you added more motion! And you can use the wait verbal while you move more (without a sit cue so it is more of a stand stay). When you went back to the waits (after the spins), she was really doing it on the verbal and not the hand, so I think you can fade out the cue and keep doing the crazy things (she was great with it). The spins looked really strong! No problem! She found it relatively easy to process these verbals with all the movement. YAY!!!5 Lily verbals
She is also doing well here – she was watching you a bit too much on the first rep so missed the pole but then got on track really nicely. One element you can add to this game is more crazy motion like you did on the motion override (arms moving around, etc) so she isn’t seeing handling all that much, she is seeing you do crazy things like jogging in place or flailing your arms – and responding to the verbals. That way she will go around the wing even if you are too quick to move away (like on the 2nd to last rep) because the verbal will override the body motion 🙂 I think she is ready for that here!6 Rosie motion override – you started off moving a little too fast for her then slowed yourself down, which was really helpful for her – she got really successful after that. You can also throw the reward back to her on the waits to help her want to stay back where you cued the behavior (you can do this with Lily too). And because she did really well, you can fade the wait hand signal and just try the verbals. She also looked fabulous with the spins – I think for both girls you were using a hand signal too, so this is another good place to go to using just a verbal and see how they do (start off by moving slowly though, because this will be hard).
7 Rosie verbals Since this was the beginning of the training to get her verbals to match Lily’s verbals, I think you used the exact right of handling help for her. At the beginning. Since she is just learning them, we don’t want to ‘proof’ them yet. She is a little sensitive to you moving away too quickly (when you tried to step away faster, she didn’t wrap the wing) so for a couple more sessions, be more patient so she gets more experience with the verbals… then you can start moving away sooner 🙂 She did really well here and that will help transfer the new verbals to the behavior.
8 Lily Sequences. I see what you mean about her coming in to you a lot more than needed like at :39 on the 5-6 line. It happened a couple of times on that run! Any time you got the tiniest bit disconnected (looked a tiny bit forward) she would come off the line and come into you. And your motion was good, so it was not a matter of your running to weird places LOL!
The same thing was happening on the #9 video. From what I could see, if you looked a little ahead of her she came in and then wanted to cue behind you. So yes, it could be a preference for being in your right side and a ton of value build up there. I also thing she is a ‘lefty’, if I am remembering correctly? She wants to turn left (my Contraband is the same way) so she will slide over to the left turn side if possible. And this Sequence 1 is all right turns, which is harder for her. So any tiny break in connection would lead to her wanting to pick up the left (easier) turn side. I would be curious to see how she does on Sequence 2 which is basically all left turns.So yes, try to be 1000% perfect in your connection. Never take your eyes off of her. But since that is basically impossible for any of us, especially when running a really small dog, we can train her more to turn right on the lines. On this sequence, don’t worry about the handling (your handling is good!). Instead, let’s put some value on the lines on the right turns, with a lotus ball: as you move through the sequence, toss the lotus ball with treat (or whichever treat hold she likes) out of the line, so she gets really into looking ahead at the line based on your motion and not needing as much connection. And same with the tunnel – she didn’t really want to go into the tunnel as much (maybe she doesn’t love tunnels that much, especially when there are right turns in them?) so you can even get your manners minder out and placed somewhere past the exit of the tunnel to use as a reward on the line. You can spend several sessions throwing the rewards on the line especially on the right turns so that she builds up a TON of value for that and so you don’t have to be perfect 🙂
9 Rosie sequences: Because she mis more experienced, this session was a good look at what cues she really understands and which ones were harder. She really seems to understand when you are sending to the jumps without a lot of moving: that is when you are most connected and she is working well on the lines, even at bigger distances! When you are moving next to the line, she is not as clear – like at :13 and 1:14 where she came off the line but stayed on it really nicely at :33 when you did a big send.
When she stayed on the lines, the handling looked really good! You can try leaving sooner on the wrap at 11 to show her the line to the tunnel (she had a little hesitation there from 11-12 on those reps, so that is a good place to send and leave so she sees and hears the tunnel cue as she lands from the jump).
So as with Lily – do a couple of sessions where you move close to the lines (like on the 4-5-6-7 pinwheel) and just run past, but without a lot of strong connection: and throw a reward for her to taking the 6 jump in particular. She was demanding perfection connection there 🙂 so yes, when handling for real like a trial, really be sure to maintain that eye contact – but since it is sooo hard for any of us to be perfect, we can put more value on the line based on your motion (I thought your line of motion was spot on for the reps where she didn’t take the jump, she was watching the slight disconnection). So basically jog past that jump without a lot of connection and toss a reward straight ahead when she takes it. Everything else looked great!The list of verbals looks really good 🙂 Does she had a threadle cue that is specific to tunnel threadles? That might be something to add to the toolbox (so she has one for jumps and one for tunnels). The reason is that judges are putting jump and tunnel threadle possibilities right next to each other, so using the sane cue for both an confuse the dog about which obstacle we want. And teaching these to Rosie will also be good, because it expands her list of verbals and it keeps you from having to remember 2 different sets of verbal cues.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
This was interesting to watch – I read your post, then watched the video, then read it again. Some thoughts for you!>> At first I struggled with 3-4-5 with him ducking into the wrong end of tunnel. But in reviewing the video, I think I found the solution to that when we went out to train again (more lateral distance and better timed tunnel cue).
Yes, I think you found the answer, hooray for video review! Yes to the lateral position and better timed tunnel cue, and also you changed your arm position and that made a WORLD of difference 🙂
I often do this video review at trials too if something if happening and I need to adjust something before the next run.>> But since he was not running with much drive, he was not committing to jumps in the pinwheel, which led to various issues.
I thought his was running with good drive – but yes, on the pinwheel, asking questions (it was a handling question, more on that below). And if your frustration level was bubbling up, he might have been getting stickier because he could feel it. It is possible that he was running with plenty of drive here but the stuff you mentioned about the reinforcement issues was on your mind as well, so that was muddying things up a little.
>>>As I reviewed the video, I did appreciate that Presto was giving me more effort than I was crediting him for. I tried to remember to maintain more connection by keeping my arm back more…but found I got lazy about that as the session went on, which may have contributed to some of the misses.
Yes, yes, and also yes 🙂 Keep reminding yourself to lock your arm back so your fingers point to his eyes.
>>And I know pinwheels are often harder for dogs since handlers don’t show as much motion, so I should be more patient with Presto on that skill.>>
I think a handling adjustment will fix it! Onwards to the video:
First run
On the opening, when he was having trouble finding the correct tunnel entry: At :07 and :20 , you can use more eye contact by extending your fingers back to his nose so he can really see your upper body and don’t say tunnel til you see that he is looking at the line you want (typical young dog for to go to the first tunnel they see).The FC gets it done but not desirable because you had to wait for him to really see it then do the RC – the original plan was good and you worked it out when you trained the next day – at 1:01, I agree: lateral position totally helped and you made a better connection and didn’t call the tunnel cue til he was more on the line to it.
I LOVED your open arm cue at 1:09, he whipped right in! Also really clear at 1:47! Locking yourself arm back, fingertips to eyeballs, really helped him see the line.About the pinwheel: Looking at the sends on the first runs and the ones you did the next day, I think it is a matter of ‘one more step’: looking at it in slow motion, at 1:15 you are wanting him to go to the pinwheel jump: you are looking at him and saying the verbal (yay!) The physical cue does not support the line as much: as he is in the air for the previous jump, your arm or higher than your shoulder, which turns you chest away to the blind jump, and your lower body is already rotating away from the line – he is reading that cue and turning.
1:28 was a little better and then yes the FC was too soon, the rotation started as he landed.
1:35 was best so far! Low arm, your body was facing the line for the send.
To really make it clear, use an even lower arm – and take one step past the landing of the jump before the pinwheel. Don’t turn away from the pinwheel til he has reached the landing spot – then do a big leg send (arm can move with it as long as the arm doesn’t ge too high) and then move away. And when you send, send to the takeoff point of the pinwheel jump rather than turn with the line. It is like pitching a softball to the takeoff spot. On a smaller setup like this, you can run closer to the tunnel so you aren’t standing still for the send, but staying forward until he has landed from the jump before the pinwheel jump and then sending before turning away should make it smoother.And yes, when you get frustrated because he is asking questions: go to the video and see what the handling looks like 🙂 I have learned that lesson with all of my dogs LOL! And also, I reward the dog even though I am frustrated – I assume it is my fault even if I really think they should be doing the thing LOL!
So, cleaning up the physical cues will help! You don’t need the arm cue up for each jump – you can run more, arms down and back. Your arm want to get up high near your shoulders, and it blocks the connection and rolls your shoulders away.
>> But then I feel like I can’t keep up his motivation up once we are out there because he’s only mildly interested in what I have to offer. So, trying to work through these individual pieces a few time quickly becomes as much about working the sequence as trying to make sure he is feeling rewarded for his work.
This is a good thing to notice. It could be happening for any number of reasons: the heat? Hormones? Something is sore? I would maybe check his mouth, make sure his mouth is not sore (he would not want to tug hard if his mouth was sore). And if you have been doing a lot of a-frame or teeter work, there is a lot of impact – there might be something restricted in his movement that is making him less than enthused with sequence work. I think I would check all that out before switching up reinforcement. Then you can see how he feels about a MM in sequence (or a toy with the a-frame). I don’t know of any behavior reason why he would lose interest in rewards in sequences, so that is when I generally look at other factors (my Elektra has a lot of trouble in the heat, for example, and it has impact across her whole day.)
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>> I really liked the way moving through this box went with the blind. I am not sure if it went so well because of the line set or because he isn’t one to shop for jumps yet.
It went well because you handled it really well 🙂
>>this was evidence that I really should have ended the session sooner but kept pushing. Thankfully he stayed happy and recovered beautify .>>
Do you have a timer running on the session? You can set it to 3 minutes and then be done when the timer says so 🙂
>>Looking ahead to course 1 of standard with opening 1-3… I feel like my mechanics on a forward send from a stay are not the best. If they don’t have a lot of space to take off and you want to be on the landing side to serp, how do you get this done without moving backwards?>>
I try to avoid moving backwards. You can start further back from 1 with a short lead out (but not past 1) so you end up parallel to 3 and an just scoot along the landing side of it without having to move backwards.
>>Also, I’m having some trouble with the coordinate maps displaying?>>
Yes, the software and the CRCD are not talking to each other. Sorry! Try the PDFs – the courses are in first PDF (not the one with the handling ideas)
Tracy
Hi!
Yes, it is great that she is motivated by food AND toys – it makes training easier! Keep me posted on how she does in the new places with the evil challenges 🙂
TracyHi! Hope you are having a great trial weekend! Glad to hear she likes the treat huggers!
The rear crosses are very close to being perfect: you had good pressure at :06, :14 and 1:05 but you stopped short and never positionally crossed her line – so you physically remained on the wrap side, so she wrapped. Compare that to :26 when you followed through on the line and kept moving towards the exit wing (moving towards the camper) and she got it!
So the main thing to do is put the pressure on the RC diagonal then keep moving to go to the other side of her line, which should solidify the rear crosses.And when she went to the backside, it was because you had too much pressure and turned your feet to the backside line before she could pass you for the RC (at :38. :47 and 1:30 for example). So the reps where she wrapped by accident were better in terms of rear cross pressure, just be sure you keep moving to the exit wing to make the side change. Let me know if that makes sense.
On the second video, the
Go looked great! And her wraps are going really well too – you can leave even sooner! Once you begin the FC, stay connected but keep moving through the cross so she chases you up the next line.And I agree – nice backside pushes! Yay!!!
Great job here!
TracyPerfect! It is a spoon attached to the teeter, I love it!
This also went really well: she is going to have a fabulous teeter!! The wing wraps tp the board looked really great: fast & confident. I think she is ready for one more thing – move the upright that is holding the teeter buy maybe an inch towards the end of the board, so the board moves the tiniest bit under her as she runs up (the board should only move maybe half an inch or less. Then do all the same games – and reward a LOT so she is really happy with the teeter. This is the beginning of training the real thing!! So fun! And yes, after she drives to the treat, she can look at you:
“What’s next, Mom?” LOL!
As with the previous game, my only suggestion is to have her turn around and then call her off the side so she doesn’t run straight off the board, through her eventual end position. That will keep her from thinking she can just run off the board (I am guessing you’ll teach her a 2o2o of a 4on at the end of the board.Great job!
TracyHi!
This is looking really good! She seemed perfectly happy to run up the board and start without you LOL! And she realized she has a great view from up there haha! Things were smoothest when you had her wait for you to get to the top of the board before you released her, so definitely keep doing that. It also looked like you had a target attached to the end of the board – that was helpful for getting her to drive all the way up. She seemed nicely confident!
So yes, add more motion and distance too, you can even start moving past the end of the board and add more speed with the wing wraps 🙂 She looks great here!
The only suggestion I have is that rather than let her run straight back down the before through the end, you can have her turn around then cue her to hop off the side. Running straight through the end of the board might eventually dilute her end position, so we want to be sure she doesn’t just run off. And she did seem to like turning around to walk down the board better than she liked being lifted off the top.Nice work 🙂
TracyYay! I am glad the class is giving you more ideas on how to use the MM!!! Fingers crossed for cooler weather ahead!
Tracy
Hi there!
This was great, I love using the clicker board! He was great and the noise of the instant click really helped. You can use the bang of the teeter board in this situation as the click: when he backs up onto it and it slams, you can drop the reward in (rather than click then drop it in). The bang is looking good!!On the full teeter – I think having the MM out there is a good focal point (he was not a thing you at all, YAY!) and your clicks were good: as soon as his front feet hit you clicked it – he was TOTALLY on board with that and then was great! You were able to add more motion too ,and he as also excellent. YAY!! You can move the MM a little further away but for now, definitely leave it out there while the behavior solidifies. Great job!!
TracyHi!
>I am struggling to work out whether I should be working on calming him down ie using calming quiet behaviours or using a toy but then he gets aroused… Calm behaviours I am more likely to get shut down, exciting behaviours like toys get overarousal- pebndulum shiufts so quick and seems to bypass the moderate in the middle. Releasing him to run he tends to think he should do agility equipment and then gets pissed when he doesnt get rewarded or I am not participating.>>
It is not unusual for dogs to shift back and forth in states of arousal and skip that lovely optimal state. Because he seems to prefer to be moving and doesn’t prefer for us to try to calm him… I think we should focus on the pattern game with The treat toss – offered engagement – treat toss. That way he is moving but also doing calming work, so it might be a really nice balance!
..I havent been to one for many years- last one was with my old dog after a car accident when went as protest about disabled handlers in the ring. Thought was going to be permanently on crutches or a walking stick and had judges refusing to judge me at local trials as they didnt think disabled handlers was a good look for the sport. Got a ruling from ruling body just prior to nationals so went because I could…
That is amazing!!! Good for you!!!
>>. There are two shows before it and I will see if she is ready to go in the ring for them and how she goes as to whether I run her or not.
That is great – those 2 shows will really help!
T
This was also interesting!
Note on the first sit cue, she didn’t sit right away but she licked her lips, salivating: so the sit cue had value (Pavlov/conditioned response) but it took her a couple of reps to get good at it. She seems a little better on your left than on your right, so maybe she is more experienced on your left? That loooooong stand was funny! But good girl to figure it out 🙂While still moving slowly, I think you can add the frisbee to this (yes, I am evil hahaha). And without the frisbee, you can layer in more speed. I agree that latent learning will help her out in the next day or two, so you will be able to add more and more speed.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! This was a really insightful session!! She was on fire LOL!! It was a bit head-exploding for her and challenging, but a good challenge!!It took her a minute to remember the around when she was really excited but the frisbee but she was figuring it out – love it! And yes, repeating the cue is great for this, til she offers a response.
So this gives us a double opportunity:
You can use this at home as a distraction, so she learns to process cues in high arousal.
And you can take the frisbee to classes or other distracting places, so she has a top value reward to help focus in harder environments.Great job here!!!
TracyHi!
Yes, part of the fun is figuring out which turns need to be controlled (like #11) and which don’t (like 5) and which need a little extra info (8-9). Going in deeper to the tunnel is to get momentum into the pinwheel so you can send and not have to worry about controlling it 🙂T
Hi!
This is great information,actually! On 3 obstacles in the 20” class, I will take a 1/10th of a second advantage 🙂 I think the common denominator for the speed was on t he lines where he could really turn tightly and chase you out of there: Jaakko exits and German/serp exits. Now, we want you to NOT be behind him at the tunnel, so I suggest working the Germans by leaving sooner – that way you can also pick up the advantage after the tunnel too! That tenth of a second on 2 leads to another tenth of a second further up the line – do that 3 or 4 times on course and you win by a mile!
So we can definitely keep looking at these options, especially on the bigger courses.Thanks for timing it!
TracyHi there!
>> I love the running lead-out idea and have already taken him down to the park and practiced that with him.
Perfect! Running on the lead out is a very European idea – and they get amazing speed from their dogs! Strike will love it 🙂
>>Run was at 1030 MDT so later than I would have liked. Typically I would like to practice about 0830-0900 MDT.
Is that to avoid the heat? I feel that pain – I live in SW Virginia, and at this time of year I need to get onto the field at sunrise or it is too hot! Eek!
On his run, looking for any questions he had to places to shave off time:
1-2-3: he had a little question 1-2, so his start angle might need to be straight. Be sure he can see jump 2 before taking off for 1, so he can jump right at it.
4-5-6: he sent to the tunnel really well but then you ended up too far ahead and he considered taking 14 at :10, based on your position. You can run deeper towards the tunnel with him (rather than send) and then drive out to send to 5, so he won’t think about 14 🙂
That will also make the 8-9 turn easier: by being ahead at 7, you pushed hard to 8 and he almost considered a backside there. If you go deeper to the tunnel, you can stay lateral to 8 and not need to run towards it – he seems to read turn cues REALLY well so I be you get a great turn without having to go near that 8 jump.
Nice turn at 11 and nice fast ending line! When you play with this again, try that nice tight turn at 11… then run it again with less of a tight turn. He is right at the size where the wider turn might be slower, so it would be fun to see it both ways and time it.
>>Otherwise I was happy with energy, listening, and execution on run.
Totally agree! He looked great 🙂 And your connection was lovely, which really helped him too 🙂
>> I should have stopped much sooner. Its something that I need to improve on. Stop on success, praise often, and watch for signs of stress. Love this dog and looking forward to success in the future.>>
There is MUCH to love about this dog! So yes, you can give yourself guidelines: run it once, then give him a break. Watch the video, walk it a few times for yourself, then maybe try it again. He doesn’t seem to like repeating things, so you can set it up as a one run session then he gets a break – you can run it without him a few times 🙂 then try him again. And if he runs it great, twice? No need to run it again 🙂
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
