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What a fun session!! The tunnel was definitely a little distracting (rate of success is lower, especially on the right hand sends) but he worked through it really nicely! This is definitely something to show him again, then add more of your motion. He gets a gold star for not actually ending up in the tunnel LOL! We are starting to see this challenge pretty regularly so I figure we should train it really early on in the progression.
>>Mostly he didn’t care about the tunnel, but with a bit of speed on, I wonder if he would think the same…. When I do turns of the dw with him, he can do it without speed, but as soon as we are in full flight across the dw he eyes up the next obstacle and can’t do a tight turn. It’s quite frustrating and shows a hole in my training!>>
The tunnel is very stimulating especially when the dog is in high arousal! So he was ‘calmer’ here but we could still see the bit of distraction happening (which will also happen when the dogs need to stay in until they finish pole 12 but want to pop out at pole 10 :)) For my RDW training (currently in progress with my 3 young dogs, I am a GLUTTON for punishment hahaha) I added the distractions VERY early on (currently sitting on the floor and whacking toys on the ground while the dogs do their mat work LOL!) as well as when the behavior goes on the DW. I think in the past I subscribed to the “finish the obstacle then introduce the distractions” theory but my dogs have struggled with that, so I reversed it with this younger generation: “handle the distractions at every stage”.
Let me know what you think! Great job on your sessions!
TracyHi! This looks great! He had very few questions – yes a little question on the threadle on the hard angle, but we will be adding a cue on those shortly to help clarify what we want. He had one question about bending into the entry on a hard angle from your right side – but then got it on the next rep.
So for the next session – warm up with a couple of reps here at 1-7 with more of your motion thrown in (on sends reps, you can leave the threadle reps alone for a bit) and then in that session – straighten the poles. Yay! He is progressing very quickly!
If you have channels, or can make channels out of the 2x2s, you can also have some fun with the challenges to get him to stay in the poles 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi!
These are all good questions:
>>He was trotting along smelling the flowers with the Pet Tutor (but getting the entries right) and he picked it up when spiderball got tossed in.
He likes his treats, but it looks like it will be toys to train the weaves! And that is fine 🙂 And if he is on the same track as CB, then toys on the RDW too.
>> I ended on an easier entry since he was really running for it. Should I be swithing back to the PT if he starts turning his head back on exit? Or should that not be an issue if I’m tossing the ball early enough?>>
Bearing in mind that his progress will guide us… I think you can introduce new concepts with the PT and then quickly go to the toys. Also, you might find that the PT to reward weaves then the ball for coming back and lining up… that is what I am doing with Elektra at this point, you’ll see it in next week’s demos. It is basically all about figuring out what produces the right balance of thoughtful/accurate and woohoo/giddy up!
About the looking: if he exits the poles and then looks back at you, yes throw a little earlier but more importantly: throw further. If he is looking at you *while* heading towards the poles or while weaving, we will go back to the PT.On the video:
He liked using the PT more when you were running but then after the 2nd rep with the ball, it was much more GAME ON!!! Perfect! What other throwing toys does he like? Frizzers? On mats, you can also go for giant meatballs, he won’t be sad LOL! But overall he was NOT looking back at you while heading to the poles and also while in the poles, so I think this was great. Keep working the various angles with the toys and then onwards to straight poles here (they are almost straight anyway) 🙂 He is looking strong!Great job!
TracyHi! Oopsie on me, I posted that too early (it is coming in the next games package on Monday) but yes: the dog will be learning to weave *away* from the MM. Stay tuned (but ignore for now, the discussion and demo video comes on Monday :))
T
Good morning!
I am sure she was happy to participate in getting rid of that extra cheese haha! And the home channels will be really fun to add to the games!Great job on this session, she was terrific! She is beginning to really show a strong understanding – you can see it at :43 when she was heading past the entry and directly to the MM, then fixed her line to get into the entry. GOOD GIRL!!!!!
She is still sorting out the harder angles (3-4 o’clock and 9-8 o’clock) so keep working those in, but you can start her closer to the poles(especially on the 1st rep on each side) on those so it is easier to get into the entry and harder to curl in past it.
You started to add motion here – it was no trouble at all, so keep adding motion and build up to jogging 🙂
The 1 and 7 angle at the end? Easy peasy. Yay! So pick up there next time: poles at 1 and 7 with more motion, and working in more angles too. Give that a session or two, see how it goes – and either keep it there, or proceed to straight poles. Lanna’s rate of success will let you know when to go to straight poles. My guess is 2 short sessions at 1 and 7 will be all she needs.Great job!!!!
TracyHi!
No more snow allowed!! We have dogs to train! Mother Nature is not behaving and needs a time out.This is also going well! It looks like the angled poles were not a problem at all. I think her only question was on the physical cue – when you pointed to the poles, it turned your shoulders away so she was questioning if she should go to them (or not) – she is very literal! So you can set the threadles (and all the sends) up on just a verbal: hold her collar or have her stick to your side with a little engagement (I use ‘ready, ready’) then just use the verbal don’t step or point. This is a great way to strengthen the verbals too! You can start closer for now too.
You added some motion here too – it was easy for her. Great job!!And yes, you can start the ‘Find ‘Em’ game pretty early, basically as soon as she is really strong on the 2&8 or 1&7 entries – the tunnel is just a distraction 🙂
Have fun!
TracyGood morning! Great job on the first threadle session here!
One thing totally worth mentioning: you are really good at setting up fun,, systematic, efficient and highly reinforcing sessions here!! She is getting a weave experience that is filled with reinforcement without any unanswered questions – that is going to make for some incredibly weave performances!!! Click/treat to you!These are going really well. She seems perfectly happy to find the entry regardless of your position. That is terrific! It was a really strong session, so normally I would say to move on to the next angles and also to add motion – I see 2 & 8 is posted below, so I will take a look there in a moment.
One thing to start thinking about: whether or not we will want a separate threadle verbal that is specific to the weave poles. We have a threadle verbal for jumps, we have one for the tunnel – both tell our dogs which side of those obstacles to take. Do we need one for the weaves? I have never needed one or trained one in the past, but the sport is evolving (plus my dogs are faster and I am slower haha!) so I am currently grappling with whether or not I want to have a 3rd threadle verbal or not (and rely on physical cues and/or use the same threadle verbal as on jumps).Food for thought! But, until we all make the decision for ourselves – on the threadles, let’s not go past 4 or 8 angles for now (because at that stage she is directly facing the , otherwise it messes up going straight the other way – more on that coming next week). If you get on Facebook, I am conducting some polls to see what the agility community is doing. I am leaning towards using the same verbal as my tunnel threadle, but we will be deciding in the next week or so.
Staying close on one area to build it up while progressing faster on other angles is perfectly fine and pretty normal, I think!
Great job!
TracyHi!
He is a weaving maniac! LOL!!! He did great here on the various angles at 1 and 7 and your motion was not a distraction at all. It was smart to straighten the poles out and he did a great job here too! So exciting!!! (You can reward when he weaves back to you if your line presents the weaves between you and him).
Now about that starting without you LOL!! You should totally add in line up cookies. You might need 3 arms but you have great mechanics, I am sure you can pull it off: one cookie in the throwing hand, and the clicker and the line up cookie in the other hand. I use a stick of string cheese (or a tug toy) as the line up cookie – when the dog gets back to me, I let him chew/lick the end of the stick of cheese (or tug on the toy) while I get him into position for the next send (and get myself ready :)) That should smooth out the process and also give you a moment engage with him -I like to get the dogs a little wild with a bit of ‘ready ready ready!’ and then send them.
Great job here! Go back to 1 and 7 and do a session of the threadle side entries on that slightly easier entry (and then close the poles straight if that is easy). And do the same with the Find ‘Em game in front of the tunnel – easy poles at first, then hard poles if he finds it easy. Keep adding motion on all of the games.
You are perfectly on track for the next games being added on Monday!!! YAY!!
Great job!Hi! He is doing a great job, of course – he has so much experience shaping that I figured this would be easy for him. Yay! And you read my mind – I was watching, thinking that you will be able to switch to a toy really early in the progression because he was finding the cookies to be a big yawn LOL! And there ya go, with the toy.
Question – has he had weave experience before? He was offering a weave behavior on the poles and that is often just an artifact of previous weave experience when we go back to starting with the poles at this angles. No worries – he doesn’t need to see the poles at this angle again, you can move right into the poles at 2 & 8 and then 1 & 7, with all sort of angles around the clock and also with your motion. You might want to have the PT there to establish the reward line and keep him from looking back at you, but then you can go to the toy. When I use the toy, I leave the food reward device out there on the line to maintain the forward focus on the line, and I throw the toy towards it (you’ll see more of this with Contraband, because he find the Manners Minders very boring LOL!)
Great job! You will be able to fly through the progression!
TracyHi! This looked great! She did really well sending from your left side. And also really well on your right! You were able to add even more motion on the right side angles and she had no trouble at all. Yes, you had a bit more support on the really hard angles but that is fine for now! You can also get really close to the poles and stand perfectly still so she finds the entry (but you are only 3 feet away so it is easier to be correct).
With the poles at this angle, keep adding motion for another session or two. Also at this angle (or a slightly easier angle), she looks ready for you to work the threadle side sends and also the poles near the tunnel (Find ‘Em! Game :))
And then… onwards to straight poles! Fun!!Great job!!!
TracyHi!
This also looks good! Did you edit out the too much motions reps? I think this was ‘just right’ in terms of the amount of motion on the left side (11, 0, 9, etc). Your right side reps were all pretty much sends, and she also did really well on those, so you can add more motion into them. About the harder angles (4 and 5 o’clock positions), I think there were a couple of things going on:
At 2:05, you clicked early (she had not gotten her right shoulder to pole ) and so she got clicked for going past the poles… then offered that behavior a few more times. I have done the exact same thing (more than once lol) and it is astounding how quickly they go to offering NOT weaving and just running past LOL!!! So rather than let the dog continue to fail because I set up the failure with my bad click, I have gone to just doing an apology rep – this is when I have done a bad click so on the very next rep, I reset the correct behavior from the angle by getting closer and ‘helping’ the dog by putting my cookie hand in between the poles to get her to come through.
In other words… as an apology for my poopy click, I lure the dog through on the very next rep to get the correct behavior. Then the dog seems to ‘forget’ the poopy click and they don’t keep offered the unwanted behavior that I accidentally clicked 🙂 I figure that the bad click is not the fault of the dog LOL! So I don’t want to set them up to fail more by continuing to offer a behavior that I just clicked 🙂
When she offered the incorrect behavior after the bad click, she got a little confused so offered a cone wrap 🙂
You can work that one angle (4 o’clock) from closer and also be patient to let her right shoulder get to pole 2 before you click. At one point I had to put down the MM remote and just throw treats because I kept clicking too soon LOL!
Onwards to the next video 🙂
TracyHi! I totally believe you, I have done the same thing! Ugh! Forgetting to turn the camera on does guarantee a great session, though 🙂
This session looked really good here! All of the left side areas around the clock looked strong! And so did all of the right side areas. She did have a question at around 2:50 when you are near the MM – I don’t think it was a weave question, but more of a “wrap the cone?” question plus there was some noise in the environment there too. So, you might have to take the cones out so she doesn’t try to wrap them LOL! I am guessing that when you are 3 or 4 feet from the poles that the cone was not in play, so she was more locked onto the weave entry. So, getting rid of the cone should fix it 🙂
Great job! I would normally say to move on to the next step, but I see more videos below so I think you did move on. Yay!
TracyWow, that is impressive – you were able to run and tug with a dog toy and hold a bowl of food with spoon in it all at the same time! He also showed good focus with another dog a little up in his grill LOL!
He did really well on this video, tons of fun before and after, and very high value rewards! Doing a new game with the teeter in a different location on the floor was really helpful and I am excited that he did so well!
But take your time adding tip, I think it was too soon to add more tip for a new game in a new location – he did a couple of reps nicely but he was still getting comfy and not quite driving yet. So he didn’t quite drive across with more tip. Try to do at least 2 full sessions (or until he is running hard across the board) before you add tip. We have the luxury of time, so remember to ‘boil the frog’ and add it so gradually that he barely notices 🙂
Nice work here!!!
TracyHi!
Training in a new place on a new teeter is perfect!!>>He was a bit tentative at first so I did a couple of really short sessions.
He was not as driven to the end as he is at home, but it was overall a great session! He seemed confident to do it, which is what we want.
>We when I started to add a wing wrap he gained momentum and looked more confident but jumped off the end!>>
Was it the rep where he ate his cookie then jumped off towards you at 1:18? Or did he dive off the end of the teeter at some point without attempting to stop? I think using peanut butter or something similar that he has to lick lick lick will help in two ways:
the smell will be paired with stopping so he is less likely to leap
it will buy you time to get back to him and prevent leaping 🙂 If he knows you are coming back and will be delivering more rewards, he is going to figure out to just stay there 🙂>>The second session didn’t go too badly, but I am glad I didn’t add tip. I can see I will have to do a bit more of this. Club also has a seesaw that is the new length, but it’s too hard to get out on my own, so I will have to rent a buddy to go use that one.>>
I think it went well! He was more thoughtful for sure, but not worried and he continued to drive to the end. Definitely keep going to new places, as it is great to transfer the earlier levels of all of the games into as many places as possible.
Great job!
Tracy
