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Hi!
I think this was actually very successful because it is an incredibly weird setup LOL! He was GREAT about continuing to run up the board even with all the movement and instability. GOOD BOY! I don’t think he was avoiding the weight shift… I think it was more about the reward placement and trying to figure out what works best to produce the weight shift. For example, at :46 when he offered that bow – perfect! That counts as weight shift. When the cookie was on the table – he was weight shifting to stop but then had to streeeetch forward to get the treat. But even then, he was still getting value for remaining on all that wobbly stuff without bailing off.When you switched the cookie to the peanut – he was much better using his body there. I think the ideal reward placement will be center of the peanut, kind of between his front feet – and you can even do a little peanut butter smear there so he licks it and has to weight shift to do so (yes, gross on the peanut, but totally effective hahaha)
So keep playing with the reward placement to get him into the weight shift at the end, it will end up being somewhere near the middle of the peanut (you can also tape a target to the peanut to give him a focal point). Then you will see him more consistently do it (rather than stretching forward). He is off to a good start here, and I bet the teeter itself feels a thousand times easier for him after this crazy setup LOL!
Safe travels to NAC, and have a blast!
TracyHi! Nice work on these sessions! I think her original trepidation might be linked to her stopping a bit short on the teeter, so this is a goond one to work through. Using your original setup that she hated, you can play with it as a parkour game or random hop on, hop off stuff 🙂 to build as much confidence as possible.
On the setup you used in the video – great job getting her happy on it! And it was very smart training to use her dig dig to get her happy, she really lit up! It gave her something to think about other than the movement. Note how at about 1:07 she hopped right up onto the end with a waggy tail, wobbly board and all. Yay! And then she continued to build confidence so at the end, it was more about getting the dig dig and not about worrying over hte wobble 🙂Great job! This is something to revisit here and there, with high value rewards, and keep building the love for that wobble at the end 🙂
TracyHi!
>>Thank you again for the wonderfully aromatics!You’re welcome. Thinking of you!
This session went really well, he was driving down and on that last rep had a good weight shift too (you can hear him sliding into position a bit). And I agree – he didn’t care where you want (I mean, he cared, but not that much hahaha) and he seemed positively patient to wait in position for the cookie delivery. Yay!
With the board parallel to the ground to start and almost on the ground when he arrives at the target, we want to get a few more sessions of this with maybe a tiny bit more tip under his belt – and to complement it, how is the bang game going? You can have him leap from the ground into target position at the end of the board and ride it down, at this level in this setup. If it is too hard, you can have the end of the board a little closer to the ground but I think he might be able to do it here! Doing the bang game up high will really solidify that weight shift. And if that goes well, we will be blending a couple of things together.
Great progress here!!! Let me know how it goes!Tracy
Hi!
He did really well on both games here!!Did he start without you on the first rep of the uphills? LOL! Good boy LOL!
He seemed to like coming in from the tunnel – just be sure to give him a perfectly straight line up so that he doesn’t have to slow down to find the balance (and also so he doesn’t slip or worry himself) – we will add line ups later on. When he was turning to his left out of the tunnel, he had to slow down to find the board but when he was turning to his right- he had a nice straight line entry.The added tip seemed fine! Yay! So… onwards to a little more tip 🙂 with all of the excitement of running in from the tunnel.
He had to think about the downhills on the first rep, so you can make the first rep more predictable by moving with him rather than sending . At :55 you made that a really exciting rep and that is a great way to start the session too – get him a little wild then run with him 🙂 For the downhills, stay at this amount of tip (and you can add in toy play or ball throws before & after each rep) until he drives through that first rep and doesn’t look for the tip. That is the signal that he is ready for more.
Great job here!
TracyHi! He is doing really well here, he even adding a little scratching at the target 🙂 He is looking down to the tsrget and shifting his weight really nicely. Super!!!!
One more thing to do on the plank before we move the game to the teeter: introduce the bang game concept to the target, on the plank here:
https://agility-u.com/lesson/the-bang-game-end-position/That will get your position off to the side and also start to add excitement and motion for both of you. I think he is ready for this! And it will prep him for being able to do it on the teeter 🙂
Great job here! Sorry that the feedback is a little boring, but the session was lovely and he is ready for the next step of the bang game LOL!
Tracy
Hi! He is doing really well here! I think he is really understanding to drive across the board and is looking for the end, not the tip in the middle. One more back-and-forth session is not a problem here LOL! Now you can add a little more tip – and now with all the tip, definitely go downhill only 🙂 We are all getting creative about things we can do to prop up the board LOL!!!!
Great job here! You can also jazz him up with some play before and after – tugging or disc – so he runs the board while it is still easy, but in higher arousal 🙂
Keep me posted! Onwards to more tip!
TracyPerfect! A One Hit Wonders Greatest Hits haha! What you will start to see is a shift in value over time and so much more excitement for the teeter. My one-hit-wonder dog is now trying to get onto the teeter without me there LOL!
Hi!
He did a great job here! Because he has done this before, this was an easy session 🙂 You can add challenge early on, with the harder entries and exits – you did a little bit and he actually had a couple of oopsies! That is good, because we will be emphasizing “stay in the poles no matter what crazy thing your mum does!” When you send him, try not to roll into the turn – send him from an angle then step directly away so he gets *less* body support on the sending and more challenge (sorry not sorry, Hero hahaha!)
And you can very quickly go to the harder challenges posted earlier this week, with the extreme rear crosses, motion, lateral distance, countermotion, etc. You can keep it a little easy but walking and not running but if he is highly successful… ramp it up! He might have trouble on the weaving away from the MM, it is a terrific “stay in the poles” challenge (and a slightly evil one too haha)Great job!
TracyPapillons can be very interfere-y! LOL! Good noise 🙂 Good transition back to you after the MM reward – all that made for a very efficient session where you got a lot done in a short amount of time. He is finding the entries, bending his body nicely, moving fast but also staying coordinated. Gold star! Great job systematically working the angles around the clock while also keeping things super fun and reinforcing.
With the poles at 2 and 8 here, no problems. So – next session, add your motion. You did have a little motion towards the end, moving laterally – but you can also get some running in on that parallel line. I am 99.99% certain it will *not* be a problem so you can add motion as the warm up with the poles 2 and 8 and kind of ‘spot check’ a few different angles for the first 45 seconds or so. Then, change the poles to 1 and 7, and work sends around the clock for a minute or two. And at the end of that… add in motion. Things happen very quickly at this stage, so you can do 2 or 3 sessions to get it all in at 1 and 7, then depending on your schedule, you can most likely have the poles at 12 and 6 for the weekend.Great job!
TracyOne other thing I forgot to mention: what will your eventual finished product verbal be? It sounds like you were saying ‘weave’ here – so if that is your eventual real verbal, hold off on using it for now, just use a noise or something. If it is your interim verbal, then great! Ignore this and carry on LOL!
Yay! Thanks for the update! Those fast/fun/short sessions are the BEST! I have figured out all sorts of ways to cover the camera in the rain, because we get a lot of rain LOL! She is doing really well, keep me posted!
T
Hi!
That was smart to put cones over the prongs on the base! She totally had no trouble here and the poles were just tight enough that she also had to think about footwork a tiny bit. I love how she is bending into the entry. Nice timing on the clicks too, she was getting clicked for HOLDING the entry, not just hitting it. Onwards to adding your motion in the channels, and after that the harder entries and then the crazy handling 🙂 This will progress very quickly.
Threadle entries looked good- they are harder for sure but she did well! It will be easier to start these on 2x2s, or you can put the MM at poles 3 in the channel for a bit 🙂 Interestingly, she was stronger on the 1-2-3 side of the poles for this! Good girlie!!! Really nice job on them though!
Nice work here (boring feedback, sorry! haha) so definitely onwards to the next steps in your new channels 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
This session went beautifully! Cowboy was perfect, no surprise there. Starting with the last set up you had here – add the harder angles (3-4-5 and 9-8-7)… and based on how he feels about that, you can either stick there for another session or two, or you can move to poles 1 and 2 straight and poles 3 and 4 at 3 and 9. The other thing to add in – a little more excitement while the poles are still easy, so he can find them even when he is wilder. You can do that with chatter, something like ‘ready ready ready’ and a crouched, game on body posture before the send. Or, you can add more motion, faster running. Or a toy or ball or something he really likes 🙂 I like to add in arousal early on, so that the dogs can still find the weaves even when they are really jazzed up.Great job here!
TracyHi!
His accuracy here is looking good in terms of hitting his entries, so we can look at the adjunct behaviors for the setup and sends.>>In the first rep I tried to do a kind of restrain and send. As you can see in the video Chapter does not like that. I’ve actually never filmed it so it was interesting to see how much he doesn’t like this.>>
That is really interesting and important to work through… but away from the poles so he doesn’t associate it with the poles. You can do gentle restraints followed by fabulous prizes, like his dinner or favorite toy or frizzer 🙂 It can start as one finger in his collar or a hand on his chest, then build from there 🙂
As for the weave starting – you can do a bunch of things to help him know when to go and when to wait. Your line up between the feet worked really well! And then you can take a second to get yourself ready, look at him, maybe give him a little “ready, set…” then cue him to go to the poles. And you can totally reward him for waiting 🙂
Other things you can do: does he know a chin rest? You can reward him for putting his chin in your hand while you get ready, then send him. You can also use line up cookies to get him to your side (these can totally be a lure :)) Will he tug in this situation? You can use a tug game to bring him to the next starting point too.
Going behind you worked but use it sparingly, and by permission only – so he doesn’t start vortexing around you and sending himself. It is not a behavior we want to see a lot of in agility, so use it very sparingly (but you can totally use a disc as a reward! I just did a session with Contraband with 4 discs and 4 poles LOL!!)
About the sends – you can add even more motion now, I think he is ready! And harder angles – if he is happy with one more session the 2 straight poles, onwards to 4 poles! And it is perfectly fine if you want to do the threadles with the poles a little more “open” to help him find them – each challenge can proceed at different rates in terms of closing the poles 🙂
Great job! I love your attention to the details of the dog training!
TracyOooh GEESE! Good boy, he didn’t seem distracted 🙂
This is a really strong session, good boy! And you did a great job mixing up the challenges. It was fast and fun!
When you are behind him and he has finished the poles and gotten his cookie, call him off to the side so he doesn’t back-weave 🙂 I guess he is really enjoying it!
The challenges of those extreme rear crosses, distance/hard sends, and moving away laterally all looked really easy for him. Superstar! So, you can ‘up’ the challenge:
you can start moving sooner on the hard sends – be walking the whole time – send and move away rather than stand still til he gets to the entry. If walking is easy? Keep increasing your speed.There were a couple of challenges that were harder, and that is fine (we don’t want to get bored with perfection hahaha):
The countermotion was hard, so start on easier angles closer to the entry for a session or two, and move slowly 🙂 Same with the threadle-side entries – start closer to the entry on easier angles (they are a lower priority, we will tackle them again soon :))
He had trouble with your speed when you were way ahead, I love how you broke it down on the last rep! Yay! So pick up from there and keep working up to speed when you are ahead 🙂You can also start to add in toys as rewards, as toys will bring excitement which is a whole ‘nother set of challenges – you can leave the MM there as a focal point but throw a toy as a reward.
Great job here! He looks fabulous!
Tracy
