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Hi!
I have post it notes on my fridge for stuff like this, and it is very satisfying to pull them off and crinkle them up after something gets done! And I can move things around if the schedule changes. Plus, pretty colors make me happy LOL!!!This looks like a great schedule for the week!!! You will be amazed at how the less-is-more schedule actually produces faster results. Our human brains struggle with that A LOT but it really does work 🙂
T
Good morning!
Back & forth and the tricks look awesome! What is your schedule looking like, where you are bring these games to new places? She is ready for that 🙂
>>Sit pretty??…>>
Avoid sit pretty for 2 reasons:
– when there is a lot of action and a lot of arousal, she might not really be able to balance properly without wrenching herself
– my sports vets all agree that sit pretty is not great for the spines of our sports dogs. If the dog offers it? Ok, but don’t reward it too much. And don’t use it on cue.Standing on back legs is good! And leg weaves, bowing, backing up, and high fives are all good action tricks.
Sequence 1: wow, look at you running with lovely connection all the way through!!!!!!! And she nailed it, of course. Click/treat to you both! You can start the FC on 3 a shade sooner, when she is about halfway between the tunnel exit and the jump. Nice connection on the exit of the FC! You can maintain that connection all the way through to 4 (then you got back into great connection to the end).
The GO verbals were great on the GO lines, but remember to mix in turn verbals for 3 and 5. We want to keep GO as the cue for extension only, so plan to add in the verbals for the turn and try not to say GO for every commitment.
Sequence 2 also went well! Look at her great stay! And I love the long play session at the end of the first run – so fun and motivating!! And on the 2nd run, where you ran into the blind? I am doing a massive happy dance about her stay!
Lead out push:
On your lead out at :17, you were on the wing of 2 closer to the tunnel. To cue a clearer turn line to 3, you will want to be more on the center of the bar of 2 – and start moving at the same timing you did here (and with the same connection – timing and connection were great!)Timing of the blind cross on the 2nd run was 🤩🤩 fantastic, and you had plenty of time to show clear connection on the new side. This was a great run too, and I think the turn 2-3 was better because of your position on the blind.
One detail: Use a wrap verbal on 3 at :20 and 1:27 instead of GO 🙂 As you walk the courses, start planning those verbals so you don’t end up saying go or over for everything.
>>(toller national was not enough so I drove 5 hours south for agility)>>
Ha! Sounds exactly like something I would do LOL!!!
>>Hairy Barky ran 4-5 dogs before us while we were at set up.>>
Bwahahaah great description!
>>Cricket immediately got STIMULATED, tail all a quiver, inner terror coming out, and I did back and forth pattern with cookies. It took exactly 2 cookies and she was 100% at a perfect state! She has an adorable little dial.>
YES!!!!!!! This is great!
>>YOu are brilliant by the way. >>
Credit really goes to Leslie McDevitt and her original Control Unleashed program. We just take the patterns and add/build/tweak/etc to get them into dog sports 🙂
Great job here!
TracyHi!
>>Okay yes but I also she her when we first come out running around offering stuff before I am anywhere near the equipment and she does alot of running over stuff with Robyns dogs. I work hard to prevent this now as I want to make sure I am part of the picture and I am not always.>>
I am glad you are preventing this! It is definitely an undesirable rehearsal. I think at this point, you can eliminate free running around the obstacles (especially with other dogs, as that can encourage chasing other dogs) and have her wait in a crate or on a platform, then bring her out on a leash. That will really help you direct the reinforcement and build value for more desirable behaviors.
And when you are working on sequences, be sure the other dogs are not also on course. On the first video below, the other dog was running with you and that is far more distraction than either of you need (and can also be dangerous!)
On the video, incorporating the food went really well! It looks like she was able to eat the treats and go back to the tugging really well. And her tricks looked good too!
>>Interestingly enougn latency doesnt change with environment (until get to high level of doing agility) if anything more focus higher environment>>
Her latency was generally good (low) here! And yes, the more stimulating environment can actually optimize arousal state for a lot of dogs – especially these purpose bred mixes.
One idea:
To keep building the ‘mine’ cue, you can sometimes give her the toy back when she releases it (that is the ultimate reward for that behavior :)) You can do it when she release very quickly, to give a massive reward for the quick release of the toy.Also, the toy release is an indicator of the arousal level and if the session goes on too long – after about 2 minutes, I think she needed a break because the responses slowed down and she was looking around more. Set a timer for the session to be 1 minute total. Then take a break (even if she doesn’t appear to need a break).
The waits are going well!!!
Add a bit of praise before the stay release, and add in NOT moving when you say the release word. You are doing a fast & forward movement of body and hand on the release… which she might think is the release 🙂 She appears to know that the other movements are not the releases (hands up high or you spinning around) but the movement of the release looks different and he probably thinks that is the release. So lead out, stand still, praise, then release but don’t move til after she has take a few steps.On the sequencing video –
>>First video had an issue with robyns dog – one hassel when train somewhere else but thought In Synch handled well what was not great.>>
Yes, definitely contain the other dog so you have no visitors on course. Having to use a lot of brain energy to avoid the other dog is not something we want her to have to do right now, plus there is a collision danger for both of you.
Now that the waits are going well away from the agility, you should definitely add them to the first jump. It doesn’t have to be a long wait, but you will want to be able to stand still and say the release without moving, so she doesn’t start the run when you turn to face the jump. So ask for the sit, turn and face the jump (slowly, to help her understand it is not the release), praise, stand still, then release.
She ran the opening line really well, even being chased! Having to avoid the other dog (for both of you) leads to timing errors and that contributed to why she dropped the bar on 3 at :34. Nice connection on the second run and she found the lines really well, especially the big line to the last tunnel!
>>Second video I needed to stop and sort out the wait when she was close to the jump>>
The second video is the same as the first video, can you repost the 2nd one?
Great job here!
TracyHi!
I think 2 things were happening here and they were combined to make things go sideways:
>>Now lecturing myself that she is probably depleted from having to think for a few sessions over the last few days while the furry lotus tug is in my hand and that I should just post this and go find something else to obsess over that doesn’t involve training Lift.>>
Yes and yes LOL! And I don’t think that it was because of thinking or the toy, I think she had a very busy week of doing things and not enough rest or decompression, so things went sideways today. Scrolling back through the thread, she had something every day this week (home training or class or photo shoot) so that piles up the amount of hormones stimulated inside her. Plus, if your schedule has changed, her rest cycles are probably different too.
So one thing to do is schedule her week – and that needs to include days of no training at all (just decompression walks and rest and hanging out). Those days off are the absolute best thing for her mind and body, and sleep is the best thing for learning.
Try to limit sequence work over jumps to 3 days a week, maximum. Once you get into 4 or 5 or 6 days, then she is doing to get physically and mentally depleted and the sequencing won’t go well.
>>This morning she woke up with ants in her pants and raring to go.>>
That might have meant more that she was over-stimulated and needed decompression and rest, not necessarily training.
The other thing that was happening was your connection on the morning sequence was not all that clear. It was “soft” in that your dog-side arm was closed forward so you probably could see her but she could not really see the connection or which side of you to be on (like after the blind at :53, at 1:41, 2:01. Now, when you kept going like at :53? She went with it and didn’t have a frustration response.
But at 1:41 connection is unclear, she almost reads it as a blind then you stop and then the connection at 2:01 was unclear (she could only see your back) – and you stopped in both of those moments and withheld reward. That stopping after unclear connection is always a frustration trigger for her, so you got the BIG MADS especially after 2:01.
Add in being depleted from a long week, and she couldn’t really recover.
So with the connection – if she pulls off a line, always keep going, even if you have to freestyle a sequence. Then go watch the video and freeze it in the moment before her question – you can see if your dog-side arm was far back to her nose and revealing connection, or if it was at your side (which blocks connection). Then before the next sequence, ramp up the connection so it is very clear 🙂
>>then got barky about lining up (not sure if it was lining up in the course facing out, because I was holding her new favorite lotus tug or just because.>>
Yes, possibly facing away from the course possibly, or the toy, or because you’ve been rewarding barking lately 🙂 But also it might have been an indicator that she was not really ready to train.
The decompression walk was a good idea! Then end her day on that – resist the temptation to figure things out with one more session. She did do the sequences, but she was slow and a bit frozen in between reps, so we don’t want to rehearse that. Probably physically tired at this point too. Remember that you can rely on latent learning – let her sleep on it even if you didn’t see the full behavior when you were training! The learning is encoded during sleep so that makes not doing more training even better! Less is more for dogs, especially adolescents 🙂
>>As I was heading back into the house, she started tugging like crazy on the empty lotus tug so on a whim I turned on the video again and did 2 easy sequences (aka no sending to a jump for a turn) with the lotus tug – no leaps – seemed really happy so called it quits and went inside>>
Resist those whims! The excitement with the toy was probably not a request to train, it was probably just letting off some steam – so it is best to not keep trying to figure out what was happening and just end the session instead. She ran the sequences but I think she was toast and needed a nap LOL
I think watching video between reps will be incredibly useful too – if she has a BIG MAD about something, you can keep going to finish the sequence then watch the sequence in slow motion to look at connection or anything else that might have contributed to her questions. That will give you higher quality reps and also give her breaks in the session too!
>>go find something else to obsess over that doesn’t involve training Lift.>>
Yes! Or, obsess on her training by making a calendar of what she does each day (and stick to it) to avoid depletion. That is on my agenda for tomorrow: dog calendars for 6 dogs LOL!!
Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
>>I don’t know why I keep missing the connection!>>
Maintaining connection is the *hardest* thing in agility!!! We humans make connection errors, not just with baby dogs… it was the number 1 error at the world championships this year too!
>>Here’s Indy’s run on the 2nd sequence. I should have tried a blind & a rear>>
The sequence looked great! Your connection looked lovely here 🙂
You did the lead out push here – you can be a little closer to 3 and less between the uprights of 2 to get the best turn.
Also, you can definitely try the blind here. The lead out push is a collection cue (standing still & facing him) and he doesn’t really need the collection cue in this situation. He is small and he turns really well, so you can let him blast on these lines – that is why I think the blind might be your best option. Even if the blind produces a slightly wider-looking line, I think it would be the fastest option for him.>>we moved on to the teeter. I realize that’s not in this class but I included the video of moving right into the teeter after the sequence. We are slowly dropping it & he could easily jump off but he does stay on.>>
I am happy to look at his teeter 😁 He is doing great!!!! You can add a jump before and after it, or even the tunnel before it, so it starts to be part of a sequence. That will making it even easier to put into courses when it drops all the way to the ground.
Great job here!!
Tracy
Hi!
Yes, the GetRevd games looked to be in sessions of maybe 90 seconds to 2 minutes or so. But even with that, the patterns were going on longer than needed. For example, session 2 started at 1:48 approximately – and at 2:07, he started to check out (20 seconds in) and then by 2:17 he was definitely wanting to check out (30 seconds).So with that in mind, aim for 15 seconds or less of a pattern game and then move on to the next thing. Higher value food will help him be super engaged and even extend the duration of the pattern games, but duration is not necessarily the goal at this stage.
You can also have him enter the ring in higher arousal – tricks! Chasing you!And the volume dial game. You can start with a short pattern game and then go into the volume dial tricks.
And to help make that happen, use food rewards that he cannot resist 🙂 When the environment is hard, I use rotisserie chicken or scrambled eggs meatballs or other crazy things that the dogs never get at other times… and that they are absolutely wild for. That will also help when you are doing the stay games like you started with – stays are very motivating when arousal is already a bit cranked up thanks to the volume dial game 🙂
Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
>>Getting ready for toy play for FEO – what do you recommend/what should I be trying to incorporate?>>
I was thinking of you today as I was doing FEO for the first time with the two whippets!! Larry The Rental Whippet really only trains for food and runs flyball for food… so for his FEO today, I attached his furry lotus ball to a bungee toy that had a raccoon tail on the other end of it. He totally loved it!!!! That is something that Bazinga might like too – bungee was very thin so she can get it in her mouth easily. I can send a photo if you like!
>>AKC doesn’t let you throw the toy, so I usually do tug with Frankie but I only do it once on an FEO run – at the end. I’m thinking with a baby dog, I’ll want to do it more than once.>>
Right! I like to use tug at the start line, during the run to reward things (and for forgiveness when I screw up haha). The long lotus ball-bungee-raccoon combo was great for rewarding without throwing. I did throw it a bit because UKI allows it, but I also rewarded from hand too.
>>She likes to play tug and I have a bungee lotus ball that she loves. I can use it with no food for FEO.>>
Perfect! And the fur-covered one that I used today has never had food in it, and he liked it just as much. And Bazinga has better toy drive than Larry Whippet, so I think she will be happy.
>>Currently we are still trading & she is pretty strict about the rules – hahaha. She gets the ball open & then I give her 1 kibble & say “out” and pick up the ball. I need to fade out that 1 kibble. But how? any good ideas? Trade for another toy to start?>>
You can totally trade for another toy! And you can also change the game a little: tug on the toy and then relax the tugging and get her to give it back to you: and when she does, she can have the toy back. Because yes, being able to get the toy back right away will make your FEO runs MUCH more effective because you can reward multiple times, rather than once LOL
You can also move the kibble further out of the picture: it can be on a countertop next to you… then in the next room… then further and further away until she doesn’t need to have Trade Laws anymore 🙂
On the sequence 2 video:
>>I am not keeping good connection past the first few obstacles. >>You can try running slower 🙂 I know, that sounds nuts 🤣😂 but running fast can get very disconnected with arms pointing everywhere. If you give yourself a nice long lead out (her stays are looking good!) and then just run at a medium speed, you will find it much easier to be connected. Trying to out run a speedster like Bazinga is pretty impossible LOL so running super connected will be very effective.
>>Should we be doing the volume dial game before each rep?>>
Since you were throwing a toy, I don’t think you need to do volume dial every time – she was pumped up! You can add it in here and there, especially later in the session so she stays pumped up 🙂
The lead out work went really well!
On the lead out push – you can be more on the line you want her to take, so a little further over to 3 and not on the center of the bar of 2. Think of it as a serp so you will be facing 3 and showing the line by moving to 3 no later than when she is halfway between 1 and 2. You were a little too far over on the center of the bar at 2, so she jumped straight.
The send to 3 is where you can run more slowly – you were hustling and ended up being a little disconnected. So as she lands from 2, you can be super connected and not moving that fast (decelerate into it) and that will help her see 3. You were slower moving but very connected on the last rep, and it was perfect!
The BCs went really well! You had good timing of starting it at 1:06 and great timing at 2:18 and the last rep!!!! On those, you saw her landing from 1 and lookin at 2, so you were doing the blind before she reached that halfway point. Super!! You were a shade early at 1:46, it was finished when she landed from 1, so she was correct to not take 2.
On the last rep, the opening was perfect then you were a bit disconnected on 4 so she didn’t know which line or end of the tunnel you wanted. I think the connection is a little rusty because you had been focusing on other things lately, so you can sharpen it back up by tackling each sequence by looking at her the whole time (no arms!) and saying all the verbals to her cute face 🙂
>>We are traveling next weekend to a trial and to stay at a friend’s house so I’ll be able to advance to doing the games in new locations then.>>
Perfect! Her Back & Forth and Up & Down games are definitely ready to go on the road. Her responses are super quick and that is exactly what we want! You might need higher value treats if the environment is really hard, but she will let you know based on the speed of the responses.
>>We got a hi-10! The hi-5 is hit or miss, she’s giving me both paws for that. I must have lumped!>
She might be so excited that she wants to give you a high-20! LOL!! All of the tricks look good, and you have a good set of them! These can go on the road too – that will tell us which are her favorites and are easiest in hard environments: the spins? The high 10? Leg weaves? The easiest ones that are the most fun are probably the ones we will rely on when the environment is hard.
Great job here!!
Tracy
Hi!
His weaves are looking great! Wow!!!>>Couple of times left him ina sit stay for a bit too long – yes?>>
Yes, and I think that used up a bit of mental focus (when you were getting the bowl to use as a reward target) and he had a hard time get backing on track after that. But he did! Yay!!
During the in between moments, he had some free movement to go back and forth between her and you, which I think is fine. That gives him a chance to relax and not have to think about stuff as you plan the next rep. You can play pattern games during the in between moments too! Then when it is time to work, back to the hand touch game or the leg weaves (like you did near the entry of the weaves, those were great!)
As you moved to the line at the very beginning, great job getting him pumped up with the hand touches. That was a great application of the volume dial game and he was VERY focused and fast! Love it!!!
>>1st time meeting Ana so there was a bit of mugging especially knowing she had a handful of our cookies.>
Where was he going when people freaked out at :56? Towards her? Did she give him a weird noise at 1:33 when he went to her? I think that level of response to him checking things out actually makes him focus on that stuff *more* because he was like “that was weird, I need to look at that”. If people just ignore him and carry on, he is going to look at them less and less 🙂
I think he did really well here – very focused, fast, and accurate with a hard skill in a distracting environment!
Tracy
Hi! I hope you had a blast at Toller Nationals!
I loved watching her do the back and forth game! She knew it was back and forth… but sometimes she would skip the “looking at da momma” part and wonder why the treat was not thrown 😂🤣. You had great timing of waiting for her to engage with you, so keep going with that great timing.
You can add in walking back and forth, and also doing it on leash (because she will be on leash when you will need this game, outside the ring). In harder environments, you might need food that she can slurp down rather than chew, so she can re-engage more quickly.
>>Not sure about the up and down with a little but I got some squats in!>>
Ha! Yes it is more exercise LOL!!! I actually use this game as a bit of a hamstring warm up for my sorry self before a run 🙂 She did great on this one, appearing to have no questions at all 🙂 This will be very useful in tighter quarters!
This game and the back & forth game can go on the road, taking it to a variety of locations (basically, anywhere you go, you can try this 🙂 )
Great job!!
Tracy
Hi!
The distance you are working on now will serve you really well, even when you get back to full running 🙂 She is dong really well!!Great job comparing the 3 lead outs!
She had a little question on the first run and did not take jump 1. I couldn’t see where you had her set up, but my guess is it was off the line because she never even looked at 1 🙂 You can keep going when that happens rather than tell her she was wrong. At :48 (and all the other reps) she was in a better position and she got it nicely.
Looking at the lead out push from landing side of 2: To get a better line to 3, you can be positioned directly on the line to 3 (which also means closer to 2). You can decide what you want her perfect line to be… and that is exactly where you stand when you release her from 1 🙂 And so you don’t get run over: get moving to 3 no later than when she is halfway between 1 and 2.
On the runs, you were positionally too far from the ideal line: you were center of the bar of 2 and pretty far from it (backing up on some runs) so she was jumping straight over 2 and she was not sure if there was a turn to 3 until after she landed. You can see it ay :58, 1:33, 2:05, 2:36, for example. She did get to 3 on some of them but you had to push back pretty hard to get it (she yelled at you a couple of times LOL) and on one of them (;59) you pushed back a lot and she thought it was a rear cross. So being on the exact line then moving forward to 3 (think of it as a lead out serp) will really smooth out that line.
You did a couple of FC lead outs (3:07 and 3:55). Positionally, those work well because you are showing the line to 3 sooner. You can lead out further (her stay is looking great!!) so that you release her when you are already a couple of steps past 2. That will give you more time to do the FC (starting ideally no later than halfway between 1 and 2 – you were starting as she took off for 2 so she landed wide there).
I think the blinds were the best option here! You were leading out pretty far here which helped too. They are easier to finish quickly, so timing was less important like at 4:11 and 5:09. You started the blinds as she was lifting for 2 on those reps but you were able to finish them fast and her turns were good!
The run at 5:39 was my favorite! You took a longer lead out, and you started the blind after she landed from 1 and looked at 2. That is PERFECT timing!!!! You were moving along the straight line past 2, so keep your line of motion heading to 3 like on the other reps.
She only had one other question, which was the bar on 4 (jump before the tunnel). If you disconnected, pulled out the toy, and said tunnel over the bar: the bar came down every time. When you stayed connected and were quieter, and didn’t pull out the toy while she was approaching the jump? She kept it up every time 🙂 For example, 6:24 – really nice!!! So on those ending lines, keep the toy out of the picture until after she finishes the jumping and stay connected to support the line. I think it will not be an issue when you are able to run more, because you can support the line with acceleration too.
Great job here!! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
The backyard sequences are going well!! You are connecting really well so he is finding his lines really well! The only place to add a little more connection is on the exit of the FC on jump 3, like at :15. You can finish the FC and look directly back at him, which will tighten up the line. You had more connection on the next reps and it was already tighter.He is sending beautifully to jump 5! You can turn your shoulders sooner so he sets up a turn stride. You were facing forward and saying go, so he went straight and turned after landing.
Nice job with the line back to the tunnel! You can accelerate even more so he can add more speed there too.
At the end, it looks like you were throwing a ball. Does he love balls? If so, you can definitely incorporate them into your sequences at the other locations!
Great job here!
TracyHi! Great to see you here!
>>Sieger had been doing really well and then about 2 months ago, he started to get really ‘sniffy’.>>
If it is a bit of a sudden onset, the first thing to do is medically clear everything. What I mean by that is to get some bloodwork done, looking for tick disease or low thyroid or anything else going on. Yes, we can see the earliest stages of all of that manifest with sniffing or slowing down in dog sports. One of my dogs slowed down and was a little weird in June, so the bloodwork revealed low B12 and folate! She is now totally back to normal thanks to supplements.
And separately from bloodwork, get his joints and soft tissues totally checked out and cleared so we know that it is not a pain issue.
From the training perspective, assuming that it is *not* a pain or illness issue, then I believe we need to sort out motivators. On the videos, he was a lot more motivated when there was movement: you moving, him moving, and the toy moving 🙂
Question: what type of food were you using? It is possible that the food was not high enough in value and you will want to go higher value. We can go up in value and also mix things up more, so the rewards are more surprising (in terms of being different a lot).
Also, tossing it on the ground can actually be dis-engaging and stops the movement (which is why he did better when you tossed a treat then called him back to you for another – that is more engaging and has movement). But in general, I would replace tossing treats on the ground during sequencing and use a lotus ball or treat hugger that you can drag for him to chase for super high value food.
He has a lot of good pattern games in his toolbox! But bear in mind that they are not very stimulating 🙂 so after about 25-30 of a pattern game, he checks out. So if the game goes well and he is engaged after 10 or 15 or 20 seconds? Move on to the volume dial game or so something fast and fun and crazy 🙂
>> I really want to focus on teaching Sieger more action tricks so that is going to be my focus for the next few weeks.>>
Yay! The volume dial games will help optimize his arousal state in a way that the pattern games do not. The other thing to consider is to get the sessions to be more fast and fun 🙂 and less controlled. For example, you don’t need to do the 1-2-3 game coming in and out of the ring at GetRevd. You can come in playing and doing tricks, or letting him looking around. I think all of the pattern games and the 1-2-3 game actually increased pressure there and also eliminated free movement – and that movement is really important for arousal regulation. Let him be a bit wild 🙂
He does like the toy as a motivator sometimes, so you can attach it to a long line and drag it for him to chase as a reward. And crazy high value food rewards can make a massive difference too 🙂
Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
It sounds like a great day at the seminar!>>I chose to work out of the car with him which is something I should probably do a whole lot more of – he was much m>>
I definitely encourage folks to work out f the car is possible (or have a quiet spot and a crate cover if it is not possible). The dogs get a chance to rest and rest in between turns in the car, making the class or seminar or trial go a lot better.
The video is listed as private, so YouTube won’t let me see it. Can you change to unlisted?
Thanks!
TracyHi!
>>
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It’s about 2 hours and 40 minutes from me. It’s definitely doable.>>Perfect! Let me know when you might go and we can do baby dog NFC together!!!
>>I actually discovered it while on vacation at Lake Anna (because who doesn’t look for nearby agility opportunity when you’re on vacation with your husband and non-dog sport friends? >>
Well yes – isn’t that what vacation is for? LOL!!
>>I remember seeing some USDAA events there, but I think Katniss is too young to play in that venue yet. She just turned 15 months a couple days ago.>>
I *think* you can do FEO in USDAA at 15 months but let me check. I know you can do Speedstakes in UKI at 15 months.
>>We played the Pattern Game Foundations exercises. Although I’ve played most of the pattern games with Nox, I haven’t done too much with them with Katniss yet. She’s always happy to eat cookies, though, lol, so she thought they were pretty fun!>>
She totally rocked both pattern games! Easiest games ever, according to Katniss. You can take it on the road now! Any location is great: your yard, on walks, different rooms in the house, different destinations, etc If you have Nox entered in a trial, then Katniss can do this outside the ring. If the trial environment is very stimulating, you can be a little further from the ring and also use super high value treats.
Great job here!
TracyHi!
She is definitely getting the barking on cue as her new favorite trick LOL!! Going from the pattern games to the tricks went well here, she stayed engaged even when you had to go get her toy Yay! The FC on 3 went well – try to use a thrown reward so there is less stopping on course and more go go going 🙂 She drove the lines 4-5-6-7-8 really well: terrific forward focus and speed!
The 2nd run went really well too – I think you can use more of a send on jump 1 and jump 5, so she can drive away and then chase you up the next line.
O the 3rd run, you were not quite as connected or near the line to 3, so she never got a strong commitment cue for 3. Great job continuing!!!! You were much more connected on the 4th rep there. At that point, she had run is really well 3 times (and tolerated a handler blooper LOL) so there is no need to do it again – when you started her from the tunnel, the cue to 3 was not as clear and she came off the line. You were great to keep going, but ideally you end that session on the good note of the previous success. The layering can be added another time so you don’t end up drilling the same sequence by repeating it too many times.
>>I tried moving the lotus bungee toy around more and she doesn’t seem to get the treat out any faster, but she does stay engaged and pounces on it.>>
The dragging lotus is more about the chase and pounce (like a tug toy) and not about the speed of treat removal 🙂 So you can get her to chase and pounce on it, then let her get the treat out, and it will accomplish the goal of getting toy-like play with the food toys.
>>I’m not sure which marker cue I should use since I have been distinguishing between thrown food & toy for her.>>
Since the food marker likely indicates a treat on the ground, this would be more of a toy marker because the lotus ball is being used more like a tug toy.>>And does the value of chasing the furry thing eventually override needing to get a treat out of it?And does the value of chasing the furry thing eventually override needing to get a treat out of it?>>
Maybe? But it doesn’t have too – it can have a treat in it. The main goal is that she interacts with it more like a toy, so she can have more moving rewards in sequencing and not as many stopped rewards for tossed treats. If she likes it without food in it, then you can use it for NFC runs, If not, other toys can go in for those runs.
She did well in the video with the longer lotus! At the end of a sequence, you can take off and drag it like a toy, until she catches up and then you can squiggle it around til she get a bit pouncy – then she can have it 🙂 She will get better and better at grabbing it as she sorts out how it is being used – this was a really strong session and you will see her getting even more driven for it.
Great job here!
Tracy
