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Hi there!
>>As far as verbals, there were definitely some “less is more” people. Here are some examples:
– Using more generic turn cues (get back) for both backside wrap and backside slice.
– No distinction between degree of turn; one cue for “turn left” and “wrap left” OR one cue for turn and one cue for wrap.
In all cases, the handling is to support and clarify the verbal.>>That is a discussion I have had with lots of folks recently… young fast handlers with small-ish dogs who are relying on verbals to clarify the specifics of the turns, like on the backside. And I would say they are able to ‘get it done’ a decent amount of the time. But, they are also finding that they are getting eaten alive on the courses where they just can’t be in position – and those courses are showing up more and more. And I am not just talking UKI crazy courses here – these are folks who focus primarily on AKC courses.
>>On the other hand, there were times when a case was made for a distinct cue and it was supported. For example, one word (e.g. zoom) for a tunnel threadle instead of “come tunnel” which is not really a tunnel threadle cue but a ‘come’ cue (with head check) followed by a redirect to the tunnel.>>
I agree with this too – separate cues here. Having to redirect to the tunnel, using the same cue that would indicate the end of the tunnel that I don’t want? Eek! That requires an reliably perfect timing and position… nope, not one of my strengths LOL!
The arguments about *not* having all of the verbals are either:
* I don’t need them, I can always be there
or
* I can’t remember them when I am runningI can make convincing arguments to counter both of those LOL!
>>There were some excellent points: I have a list of 40 words Enzo is familiar with but only 10 to 15 are truly fluent (proofed and well understood). The list also includes non-agility words so I can keep track of the noises he knows and, if I need a new one, it won’t be too similar to one he already knows.>>
That is fine, though – he is still young enough that we are still proofing/teaching, plus dogs are brilliant at context. I use “get” as the first word of 2 different verbal cues (get it and get out) but my dogs, thankfully, know contexts well enough that they appear to have no questions. Whew!
>>Also, I have overlaps: (left/right for 90 degree turns; check/dig for wraps; AND a turn away cue “switch”). In my head, I understand when I use the directionals and when I use “switch” but I wonder if I could eliminate switch if I could depend on the others. But I LIKE switch. >>
Switch is super specific AND he is great at it… I think it falls into the ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ category and it should stay in the toolbox 🙂
>>It will be interesting to see which cues survive showing. I may have a totally different list at this time next year.>>
Agreed! Between prioritizing, trialing, and course design trends, we might have different ideas in a year. But that is part of what makes it fun!
T
Bonanza! HA!! Love it!
>>n other news we did a few short sessions of the verbal arousal and determined that Sit is a very strong behavior that he can do with me jumping and flailing arms in place. His flip/turn (spin left and right) isn’t as strong but it’s good with moderate movement on my part.>>
Having one very strong behavior and one almost strong is great! It is a lot better than him looking at you like you are nuts!
>>Currently raining hard which is good for the grass and dropping the temps out of the 90s, but bad for actually training outside.>>
Fingers crossed for clear, cool weather ahead!
Tracy
Hi! Emmie did really well here too – and her skills on the teeter and the weaves are looking great!!!
On the opening –
I loved that you didn’t step in to get the backside at 3. If you keep your arm back and make more eye contact as she lands from 2, you’ll have it perfectly! Your arm came up and forward, which turned your shoulders a bit. Plus, you also were actually a bit too far ahead (I know, sounds crazy LOL!) so as you were giving the backside cue at :05 you also had to pull away so as to not run into the jump. Leading out less will actually help because you can remain more parallel to her line and then just slide past the exit wing of 3.Good reward on rep 2! And you got it nicely on rep 3 – note how much further ahead you were getting around the wing of 3 so she had the line all to herself there. You didn’t trust her as much on the next time through there at :45 so she had a wider line, waiting for you to clear the path.
A little oopsie on the first weave cue at :26 – keep your arm back and eyes on hers and move parallel to the weaves til she has them then pull away – you fixed it nicely at :32!!!
Nice position on the tunnel after the weaves! And yes, too much go and not enough jump at :39 🙂 But you adjusted it really well and it was really nice at :56! The go cue was also calmer and quieter there, so she didn’t extend away as much.
She got the backside wrap at 1:06 but was careful like Kip was – too much leaning forward pressure there from the position – that upright sideways position should help. And also – the slice is the winning line there (more on that coming in Games Package 3 :))You had a little bit of pulling off at 1:10 to layer the jump on the way to the weaves – it was a strong physical turn cue on the tunnel exit but she was almost able to go back out and get the weaves. Good girlie!!!! Good adjustment to start the running line through the layer at 1:18 from much earlier so there were no changes in the line. So nice!!!! Good weaves too!
>>At the end I got a little confused as to what I was doing so did a fake out of a BC.
Ha! I watched it 3 times, I was like “did she just do a double blind there?” LOL!!! Dog-on-right worked nicely there, she was lovely!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! Kippy did really well here and also gave you useful info!!
Some ideas for you:
On the opening, he was finding that backside at 3 perfectly so you didn’t need to step to it: just stay connected like you did and say the verbal. The step made you late getting past the wing at :06 and :26 so his line was a little wide going to 4 – this is a small detail but can eat up time on course.Nice line 4-5-6! Nice position on the tunnel while he was weaving!
>>but I realized through the little training we did in there I was not telling him to jump. >>
Ha! In my notes when I watched it, I wrote down “maybe a jump verbal would help him” LOL!!! Yes, there was a little too much GO – and if go doesn’t imply that they should also jump, you can just use the jump cue. And also, there is a soft collection on that jump after the tunnel, so I might say go once but then immediately switch to jump and a name call to get the turn. At 1:01 you had more of a jump cue and he looked good!
After the teeter, you did the backside wrap at 1:27 – he was a little wide coming around to the backside, so you can be more sideways (your right hip practically touching where the wing meets the bar) and standing upright so he drives directly in – you were facing forward and leaning forward so he went wide there. You had a little too much of that pressure at 1:46, so he pushed off the wrap. He got it at 1:52 but was being careful because of the pressure.
The other thing to play with there is the slice to his left – I believe it would be a faster easier line there 🙂
The ending line looked really good after the straight tunnel (DW replacement :)) except you can run it out all dog-on-right and push him to the last tunnel. The blind cross caused the bar to fall at 2:05 and then pulled him off the tunnel when you pulled away.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! He did really well here!
>>Is the bit about making sure the treat is tossed on a surface where the dog can easily find it for the learning stages?
Yes, it is helpful if they understand the routine of grab the treat and then look up rather than look for more.
>> I regularly have him find a dropped treat in the grass when we are walking and another dog is approaching. The grass is mowed for a decent stretch off the path) It takes him a while to find it and then I toss another and pretty soon the dog has gone by and he’s still happily finding treats. >>
In the surprise situation you mentioned, you can toss a handful and give him a cue to just find them all (I tell my dogs “have at it!” lol!). In other situations, you can go to the one cookie toss and wait for him to offer the looking up.
>>I tried the game this morning which basically meant waiting for him to look back at me before giving him the toss cue and dropping the next treat. Worked really well as long as I got him off the path and at a distance (10-15ft) from the approaching dog. A few times he had to stare for a while before he could look back at me but he did it all calmly.>>
That is GREAT! Didn’t take him long at all apply the game. I don’t mind if it takes a few seconds or more before he can offer looking at you or towards you – calmly is great! He will continue to get better and better. And you can start the game as soon as you see there is a dog approaching – toss the treat even as you are moving off the path.
>> He’s not advanced enough that he can do this if we are surprised by an approaching dog and don’t have time to get a bit of distance.>>
That can be a fistful of treats and a ‘have at it’ moment 🙂He did really well on the video! By then end, he was offering the looking at you so quickly he barely looked away for the treat. Yay! My only suggestion is to remember you can start the game the instant he enters the environment with a treat toss – you don’t need to wait for him to look at you before that first toss. That toss becomes the engagement cue, after a while – then after that, the presence of the distraction becomes the engagement cue.
Great news about his trial experience! Doing it in all that heat – fabulous! Things will be much easier when the temperatures cool down or when you are indoors in the a/c 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi there!
>>Another mistake I think I made …. “Git it”, often refers to a ball, or anything I want them to retrieve. I think I totally confused them. 😫😫. Can’t believe I made it so difficult for them!
Good catch! That is why we mess around with the games at home first, and on video. So it get it might refer to the balls or retrieving, use something else for this game. Maybe something like “snacks!” LOL!
>>Both dogs looked at my cookie hand, not my eyes.
Not a problem at all! It is better than looking at distractions and it is the first step towards looking at your face. You can try them both on your right side – there might be value on your hand from any heeling you might have done? But looking at your hand is not a problem at this stage.
On Demi’s session:
She picked up on the basic game really quickly! Then by adding 2 balls with her right on top of them, you went from step 1 to step 257 LOL! You were correct to restart the game further away, and with one ball. She did MUCH better with that. You can also use easier distractions such as a random chair or flower pot. Then a ball in the distance (distance away from the distraction is our friend in this game!)And remember, when you add the distraction: the game still starts with the tossed snack when she enters the environment – you don’t need to wait for her to engage and then toss it to get started. That first tossed snack is the cue to engage that the dogs recognize when they are experienced with this game.
Wilson did really well here – he is more experienced plus he only had one tennis ball to ignore LOL!!! So you can also add different distractions for him.
As you plan for more of this: what kinds of things distract them (particularly with Demi, because she is the ‘baby’ dog)? And what other environments can you take them to, to begin this game?
>>I don’t believe I have a good moving activity. She does hand touches. Spins are lured. She can “back”, but that seems counterproductive. Can I use hand touches?
Can she do a ‘back’ on a verbal cue with no physical help? That would be GREAT because it simulates having to engage her hind end for things like tight turns or weaves, even while there is a lot of motion from you! Hand touches probably won’t work, because your hands will be flying all over as you add distractions. Can she do spins with a minimal hand cue, and is there a verbal attached to those too? That can work!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Lots of ideas for you here!>>This training session just wasn’t great but I’m posting anyway because they can’t all be great.
The polished perfect sessions are fun to post, but it is the imperfect sessions that give us the most helpful info. Thank you for posting it!
And yes I agree that they can’t all be great in terms of accomplishing whatever our training goals were or running the course… but I am going to change your mindset a bit here: they CAN all be great in terms of rate of reinforcement. If you obsessively keep that rate of reinforcement way high – every session will be great – and then the things you want to improve in your handling or in his skills become much easier to improve.
And true, you might leave a sessions thinking to yourself, “well, that certainly didn’t go well” in terms of whatever you wanted to accomplish, you can totally leave it knowing you still got a high rate of reinforcement going.I am not really concerned about the skills and handling, so we will look at that in a minute. The main thing with a young dog is going to be convincing him he is right, that he was correct, and that each reward is a big party, even if you mess up or he is not quite right. On a lot of the moments here, you were stopping after an error and then handing him a reward or dropping the reward down into the grass… I am not sure he considers that a reinforcement LOL! (The reinforcement recipient gets to decide whether the offered thing is reinforcing or not :)) So if something goes wrong in the handling, like you were in the way on the blind – wheeee! Awesome! Run and tug! Woohooo! Be engaging with the reinforcement as if it had gone exactly to plan… and less contemplative about how to get it to go to plan. Go wild with the reward first, then take a moment to figure out/discuss what to do better or differently. I think the reverse was happening here: something would go wrong, you would say something like “oops” then stop, get contemplative (which turns your attention away from him, which is a negative punishment), then hand him a reward that was not moving much and also delayed – but he did not find that reinforcing and was checking out.
So you might still leave a session without the skills or handling being closer to what you wanted, but you will leave the session knowing that you will have a very engaged dog ready to work the next session 🙂
For the weaves – dogs will pop out if they go into sequence too early without the frame of reference brought over from the training, that might be happening here. So you can have the poles open (I think they were here) and support with handling and have a reward target out ahead. Having them open but in sequence was causing the reward to come from your hands on the next line, so I am not really sure if the reward correlated to the weaves or to the line to you.
>> I find myself getting frustrated with his weaves because I don’t feel like there coming together.
The other thing to consider doing when the weaves just aren’t coming together is getting a thorough workup from a sports soft tissue person and also an ortho vet – there might be something that is holding him back.
On the backside pushes – that is a hard line! You can break it down by giving yourself more of a lead out to be way ahead to show the line. And, you can also work on getting it from behind him by using just the wing – the bar is a big tasty distraction so you can work on the pass cue without the bar available, which allows you to work it from behind and more realistic positions.
>>Most days I can handle all the limitations of not having my own training space but today I felt super rushed to try to get everything done and should have been better for Fever.>>
That is relatable!! If you think of it more as a mathematical challenge: increase the percentage/rate of reinforcement – it will matter less if you are feeling rushed or the skills are not coming together. There are little red flags and warning bells in my head every time I do *not* reward with excitement (or do not reward at all) and that keeps me on track even if the rest of the session is poopy <---------- scientific term 🙂 It also keeps me from getting my emotions involved if I just think about number of rewards and delivery of rewards. Let me what you think! Tracy
These look good!!! I am trying to think of any that you might consider – do you have an ‘out’ cue for a simple lead change away (different than a ‘turn’ which is rear crossy)
And something to consider eventually: a weave threadle (same concept as a tunnel threadle, but for weaves).Do you have ‘soft’ collection cues, like lefts and rights?
TFun! They can be open only wide enough to get the swimming, then we will close them in microscopic increments 🙂
Hi!
Work on these too!
Course 2:
One thign I notice here and also on Course 3 is that she generally comes in to you on the threadles but doesn’t automatically go back out. So while you work on getting more independence on going back out (by helping with position closer to the jump and placement of reinforcement on the landing side), you can help her with the cue to go back out – on the first rep you were a little too far away and didn’t step to the jump. When you used the other hand at :25, it helped her a lot not because it was the other hand, necessarily – but because you were more helpful but staying there and using the threadle arm to send her back out.Really good blind on the tunnel exit and nice cues for jump 5-6!!
When you have a big positional advantage on course, keep moving – for example, at :37 as you cue the tunnel after the weaves, keep moving as you do it or she catches up to you very quickly LOL!
You had much better timing on the blind at :40! And she was able to collect a bit. A little more decel and turn verbals and it will be perfect 🙂 this is a type of turn that really is not going to be a wicked tight turn on that line unless she slows way down (which we don’t want) – but a little decel will help. Also, you can be closer to the wing and don’t back up after the blind, keep moving forward to help set the line.
You can be sooner at :48 on the blind 12-13-14, and then do a decelerated send to 14 to make it a little tighter. Very nice ending line!
Course 3 –
Jump 2 should be a backside on the opening, that changes the line significantly 🙂On the line to the weaves – you were too close to the tunnel entry for the RC, so she turned pretty tightly on the exit almost didn’t get the weave entry – you can set a sweeter line there by being closer to 4 to set the line to the tunnel and then you will be able to cue the weave entry better
That is a spot to reward those weaves – she saved your butt a bit on the entry and stayed in while you ran away – good girlie!!Then you disconnected at 1:16 (note the head turn so she was correct to have a question there) You can would reward that as well – she is really paying attention. You can better connection cuing the tunnel at 1:38, try to keep moving as you do it so you can stay waaaay ahead of her 🙂
To get a slightly tighter turn on 9, you can start the verbals when she lands from 8 at 1:40.
She was totally correct at 1:45 – you didn’t turn her over 11 then said tunnel which is a forward cue, so she was right to get on the line – another spot to reward. Having the ball at the end is useful in some moments but in the big training courses, if was causing you to withhold reward too often – she was a little frustrated at this point so was getting sticky. Yo ucan
reward her then reset – if you keep going, she gets a little frantic and sticky and it leads to more errors like at 2:07 on the throwback and the threadles after it. So you can leave a ball down by the end, but bring reinforcement with you as well to reward out on course so she gets well-paid for her work 🙂
Great job on all of these! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Nice work here too! Little details in the opening: I recommend the BC between 2-3 because it is easier and quicker for you!
Then you can call sooner at :18 & 57 before tunnel #4 to get a better turn (she didn’t really know where you were at :19) and keep moving through the serp – standing still puts you a little behind the next line.Since we are talking about the weaves – I would reward weaves at :28 and 109 with you all the way out past the tunnel – reward by throwing the toy to her to really establish the independence. She did really well on those!
Coming down the line after the weaves – you can call her before she enters the tunnel #10 and give a jump cue for 11 so she finds the line – she lost you the first time through because you got quiet 🙂 You called her after the tunnel on the next rep and she found the line a lot better 🙂
On the ending line: yes, to the Goldilocks analogy LOL! Too early at 1:12 and 1:55, too late at 1:36 and 2:02 (good job catching her with connection though, to complete the turn!)
To get it just right, a few ideas:
use your verbal collection cue (left cue), and a little bit of decel as she is landing from jump 11 – then do the blind relatively close to the wing of jump 12. Those will help make it really nice! You had a lot of acceleration and I think only her name as the verbal cue, so she didn’t know the turn was coming.Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Good work here too!
On the video:
The opening looked good – I suggest moving a little sooner after you release so that you can show the turn 2-3 sooner. At :04 and :36 you were stationary for too long so she landed from 2 then turned. When you moved forward a little sooner on the next rep through there, the turn was better!About the weaves:
Yes, this is a particularly difficult weave challenge 🙂>>When I brought the ball up by the weave poles and we surprised rewarded it with her just 1 time, you’ll see the change in value for weaves.
I don’t think you overbalanced, I think there was some info you can change to help her out. I liked having the reward out at the end of the poles (with Julie throwing it or with you throwing it) a lot better for now than the delayed reinforcement of having to run across the field to get it. The delayed reinforcement can happen for simpler challenges or when you bring the weaves into trials. These were wickedly hard weave challenges, so immediate reinforcement was the way to go.
One thing to smooth it out is to have different cues: if you say ‘get it’ or something, that means ‘reward is out there’ versus calling her name, which means keep going to the tunnel.
And after the teeter, I think the verbal cues were very forward and propelled her in extension over the jump – I think you were saying ‘tunnel’ but the style of delivery (very loud, very long, repeated) and your physical cue were all very forward, so off she went in big extension which presents the weaves 🙂 In that section, a left or a name call on the jump then a quiet tunnel cue would keep her on the line you want, plus a send-and-leave for the physical cue. And placement of the toy from you and nearer to you more often will help keep her tracking your line and not looking out on lines when you don’t have anything with you.
>>Just wondering if you have any other ideas on smoothing the value transition with the ball potentially after the weaves and her knowing the ball is after the end of the course. I am seeing this issue with weaves at trials.>>
What is her trial behavior? Popping out? I recommend training in the ring at trials to solidify them – UKI and USDAA allow you to throw the toy but AKC does not, so a toy on a leash will allow you to toss it out to her and stay within their rules of not letting go of the toy 🙂
A couple of other little details:
Nice serp line! after the straight tunnel!On the jump after the a-frame at 2:35: it was hard to see where you were looking but she had a big question there – when you are stationary, you can see if looking back to the landing spot for her (rather than looking at her) will help – she is a tight turning dog so you don’t need to gt more collection by looking at her eyes. You can also try it by indicating with left hand there while looking back to the landing spot, not with the right hand across the body to see if that gives her a clearer line.
Nice independent DW at 2:43! She was unclear about the release – it looked like you started to release by turning your head but you didn’t say the word, so be sure to be super consistent with the release cues. I know we all want the release to be a verbal cue only… but the reality is that we have built in a physical cue too (your releases off the teeter a-frame had physical cues attached to them) so we want to be careful so the dogs don’t fail.
And about the weave value that you were seeing after the teeter – based on your position after the dog walk: the weaves were very close but your position helped her to not even look at it. That is part of why I think the cue for the jump after the teeter was more of the root of the drive to the weaves there than the value shift. You were in a great spot after the DW, she never even looked at the weaves and had a great ending line 🙂
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! So fun to be able to be back out and working in different places!!! She did really well here 🙂
>>I also love the idea of her knowing where her ball is!!! That seems to help her settle in really nicely.>>
Yay! Glad it is going well! You don’t have to use it like that all the time in training – for most training runs, you can have the reward with you to throw for an in-the-moment reward (like to the end of the poles or for getting the backside here). The dogs need to understand the concept of working without the reward in your hand… but they don’t need to do it all the time 🙂
Be sure to reward her a TON in the sequence – even if she is ‘wrong’, reward her immediately with the toy in your hand or pocket, because she is probably not wrong hahaha! She did a lot of things right here, but there didn’t seem to be a lot of rewards within the sequence before the video shifted to the next rep (which meant a really delayed reinforcement) – ideally, you have the reward and are tossing it out to support the cues she responded to. The reward left back behind the start line can be more occasional.
Lots of good work on the sequences! And great connection throughout 🙂 A couple of ideas for you and one theme (see below):
When you are hanging back, you can call her sooner or give her the next cue sooner, so that she can turn to the new line as soon as she exits. That cue can be while she is still in the poles, like at :10 – if you are calling her just before she finishes, you can eliminate that little hesitation when she tries to find you.
Good blind 3-4 on both reps! Yay!
The questions she had on the backside after the poles bring up the big theme – keep moving, turning towards the line you want, rather than remaining stationary, facing forward and using a verbal. This happened a couple of times during the session and it is an easy fix 🙂 Moving and turning that extra step will give her the understanding of which line the verbal cue is related too – otherwise it is not clear and she might be guessing.
On this backside – At :26 – you stopped short and faced forward, so the lalala backside cue didn’t reference any of the jumps in particular, which is why she looked at you like you were nuts haha! She is very expressive LOL! So, keep moving one more step and face the jump that the lalal is for and she will pick up the line. And remember to turn your feet to the line you want her to take – when you were cuing the backside your feet were facing forward so she was not sure if she should run across your feet, or head out to where they were pointing.
One other thought on the backside – I don’t think you need the outside arm there, just motion to show her which jump. You can save the outside arm on the backsides for moments when she had a lead change away to get the backside.
Some other little details:
You had a little bit of convergence towards the weaves on the entry at 1:21 – she saw it before the entry and it got her thinking it was a RC exit, so she turned left there – you can pull away laterally even more and call her before she exits to help set hte line to her right.At 1:27 yes, wrong verbal (I was doing that this morning too, clearly more coffee was needed LOL!) but also you were on the center of the bar and in her way, which was setting the rear cross line she took. (I was working through myself doing the very same thing this morning LOL!)
At 1:31, she didn’t go out to the jump but I think it was part of the theme of take one more step and face the line you want. You said the “go jump’ but you had decelerated sharply and turned – so she went and did the jump you were facing. I consider that correct and would reward it 🙂 Note the difference on the reps at 1:45 and 1:59 – you were MUCH clearer with a little more motion and facing the jump line you wanted.
Looking at the slice jump after the weaves that she had a little trouble on… it was timing 🙂 after cuing the weaves, you can move away laterally to get into a good position for the cross. At
1:40 you were near the weaves for too lon so you had to foot race her to get into position for the BC – she won the foot race but dropped the bar because the cues were late. Same at 1:52, where she ticked the bar.
You were earlier at 2:09 and she didn’t touch it and had a nice turn! Yay!On these reps, she had really nice collection on the left wrap turns – nice job with the verbal and handling!!
On the last sequence – she had a little trouble figuring out where to go after the left, and I think it goes back to the theme of using more motion and handling to show her which line.
At 2:19 – the left verbal was clear and timely but your body position didn’t support the line you wanted – you were facing the line she took, and you can see her glancing at you – she was asking if the jump was next because that was out there on the left turn line where you were facing.
At 2:28 and 2:43 you added a little decel and she definitely turned better – but then you can keep moving to get her to see the line to the weaves. She had weave errors on these reps because she was trying to figure out the line. On the last rep, you turned more and kept moving up the line – that helped her read it much sooner, and she nailed the weaves. YAY!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! This was a great road trip!
It looks like he picked up the rhythm of the game at home because he was able to pick it up pretty quickly in the new places. The towels were great! I think you will be able to fade them out too, as you add your movement of walking.
One thing to bear in mind is that when he enters the new area, you don’t have to wait for him to offer engagement – you can show him the goodies as he comes into the area (gets out of the car, in this case :)) then immediately start the game with the first ‘get it’ toss. That can actually speed up the game because he can go right into it, rather than taking a few minutes to check things out. Also, start a little further from the distracting areas- for example, at Home Depot, start on the pavement to be further from the grassy area, then as he gets into the pattern you can move closer.
It was hard to hear what you were saying – I couldn’t hear if you were using a ;get it’ cue of some sort – so if not, remember to use one LOL!! And praise is not the end of the world, we all get excited and praise the dogs – and it is fine as long as you remember to toss the reward and tell him to get it. The main thing we don’t want is to call the dog or try to use praise to engage them – and I think here you were only praising as part of the cookie toss, which is great 🙂Do you know of any local trials where you can just show up and play this game in a trial environment? Or training schools or classes? Taking it into the agility environment will help him as we transfer it to the ring 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
