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Hi!
Both trial runs looked really good! You can try for some more blinds in JWW instead of rears đ But connection overall looked lovely!
>but when he popped out of the weaves(JWW) I didnât respond fast enoughâŚso he rehearsed all the bad behaviors.>
Does he have a âfreeze!â behavior? You say a cue and he just stands there? For something that has criteria maintenance involved, a freeze behavior might ward off the jumping up so you can reset.
Also, how often does he pop out of weaves at class or trials?
>I am doing most of your recommended activities (pattern games & tricks) for pre-run routine. >
How do you feel he is doing with these? The video starts with him already in the stay and he looks great!
>I definitely need a better strategy/routine for the end of our runs. I am not sure when/if that is part of your syllabus for this classâŚ.but this is definitely a problem area. I would do FEO but not sure how to leverage that to practice this.>
Yes, we totally tackle it later in the class. One recommendation for him is to NOT celebrate or praise at the end of the run – just keep running to the leash a if it is an obstacle. And praise or celebration is bringing him directly towards you.
I would recommend teaching him to target his leash and go get it đ And for NFC, we can look at leaving the toy with the leash, so it is even easier to target!
Nice job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
>âthis is stupid and boring, where is the action?â
I can definitely switch to higher value food as this was done with kibble.>That makes sense! you might not need to go much higher in value at home, but for sighthoundy dogs at trials – super high value treats are best at first.
>But I could modify it for her and do higher value food for warm up, then toy right before going in.>
Yes – try it and see how it goes! I have found all of my sighthounds (at the beginning of their careers) have worked great with high value food the whole time before the run then the toy in the NFC run. Then as they mature, it can be a mix of lower value food and toy. She might be similar to that.
Keep me posted!
Tracy
Hi!
>Anastasia who thought Grace was the best chi sheâd ever seen,>
Of course!!! Good girl, Grace!!!!
The sequence work is looking really good!
Seq 1:
You can try a BC 3-4 instead of the FC. The FC looks really good, but it would be good to see if you can also get it on the blind in case you needed to get even further ahead of her.
My only other suggestion is to use your wrap verbal on 5 – you were saying âgoâ so she was a little wide.Seq 2: The BC in the opening went great! You can lead out with her on your right rather than on your left, which would eliminate the need to change sides before the release. On the 3rd rep, the dog-on-left lead out push to 3 worked great!!
Nice wrap verbal on 3 and nice turn! The 3-4-5 section was the only hard part:
After the nice turn on 3, you lost connection so she didnât take 4. The next run had a great opening and nice connection 3-4 but then you broke connection turned forward to the tunnel which pulled her off the line to the tunnel.The last rep was spot on!
Sequence 3 ran really well! Super nice connection! You did the BC and the RC on the 2 jumps before the tunnel and both worked really well đ You left out the number 3 jump (the one on the other side of the tree) – that would use a big send but it would make the BC even easier.
Great job!
TracyHi!
>I donât do much of this type of thing on leash, so thought I should practice for trial situations.>
Yay for practicing on leash! You will totally need this for trials!
>Iâm also still working out if she needs toy or food for this sort of thing.>
Truthfully – you wonât know for certain til she is a year into her trial career. Things move around a lot and change in the early stages. I tend to use both food and toys, and work out rituals and timing as the dogs get more experienced.
>And just as this clip starts, she sensed I was transitioning from that game to something else and she started to head for the toy, I think hoping we would start something more interesting and do some sequencing.>
So the looking away was during the pattern game? Do you think the pattern game was a little dull (game or value of food perhaps) or maybe she was morphing it into a bit of a âlook at thatâ?
>She seemed more engaged AFTER the work for the food, but Iâm pretty sure she was just anticipating that I was going to send her to the toy?>
Maybe, or it is possible the âworkâ engaged her nervous system differently and activated her HPA axis differently so the engagement came from a higher arousal state.
> I definitely âhad herâ more when I did it for the toy,>
Yes – the toy was the FUN part for her!
Question about the food: what type of treats were you using? In harder environments, you might need to go higher value: string cheese, meatballs, etc
> but in that moment of assessment after the toy play was done, she kind of went flat.>
It is possible she as like âwhy are we just standing hereâ hahaha. I think that she will recognize the end of the toy play as the step before something really fun happens, so she wonât go flat.
>I have noticed in our training sessions she can sometimes disengage after I ask her to give up the toy. Not huge, but itâs been consistent. So not sure which one is actually more effective.>
This is all really fantastic information! I am curious to see how her engagement is if you go to high value foods (my pointy dogs had chicken nuggets as their treats today :)) The disengagement might be a value question from her.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
>I now use a treat to get the toy to avoid teeth to skin contact.>
You can toss the treat off to the side rather than hand-deliver it in the transition from the toy to the line up, so you donât any tooth contact.
>I did notice that she does a lot better when I line her up before sending rather than doing it on the fly.>
100% yes! lLning her up and taking a moment to connect then send produced the very successful reps!
Sending her to the left turns without that was when she would hit the barrel – you were a little sideways to it so she was not always sure of that. You can put yourself right in between the barrels sp she can see it better.
The right turn wraps seemed to be the easier side for her, so you can start with that side more often (you had a lot of left turn wraps). That will keep the success rate higher.
A suggestion for the left turn wraps: use an empty bowl as a visual target to get her moving around the barrel. It can halfway around to start, then 2/3rd of the way around ,then all the way around – that might bridge the gap between the earlier games and this one. It is just a visual aid, so you donât need to reward in the bowl – you can still reward with the toy!
And then for each send, have the send hand empty and give her a TON of eye contact/connection as you step to the barrel . That will help too!
For now, be super methodical with the mechanics: send her around with big connection, connect, reward⌠line up then send to the next barrel. For 2 in a row, it is just as methodical: line up, send, FC, connect. And when she is jut about arriving at your side, do a very connected send to the next barrel. And you can totally have the empty food bowl out there on the left turn barrel or both barrels đ
>Iâm not sure why she is jumping up on the hamper. >
She was trying to figure out what to do so had some creative offerings đ
> tried having the toy on the ground to encourage her to go around it, but she did a grab and run. >
I think she was sensing your frustration and was moving away because of it there.
You can also do a food reward after each wrap, then break off for tugging so you can have the full fun f the tugging – but the food lets you be more methodical in these early stages.
>Wanted to finish on a good note so kept trying one more time.>
Since I love nerding out on the science: the science tells us it is OK to end without a successful rep. Partial that is because we might need to let latent learning work its magic on whatever we were trying to teach, so we donât see the learning in the session. Also, more reps can lead to a lower rate of success and we want to keep that high.
So if things are going sideways in a session, I might try switching sides to see if the pup needs to turn the other way? Or I end the session with some play and send the video to the classroom đ Training whippets has taught me that I might not see ANY of the behavior I want in the session but it will show up in the next day or two, after they sleep on it đ
Nice work!
Tracy
Hi!
>However, it took a few tries to actually eat the food.>
Definitely interesting! Could be that the box was really interesting/slightly weird, or he is teething so his mouth feels differently today, or that as an early adolescent, we are seeing normal variations in value or all of the above LOL!
The session was really good though You were able to get him doing a nice back and forth through it with all 4 feet by the end! You can add a little bit of an angle fr the start cookie and reward, so he can offer finding the box on a bit of an arc.
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
>Question regarding the parallel path with the jump. How much distance laterally should I be working towards? Specifically wondering how will he know the difference between when I walk forward past the prop with distance and donât indicate that he should move with me and not go to it, but when I move forward past the jump when I am a distance away, he should still take it? I expect he will figure out the difference easily right now with each of the different props, so I guess itâs really me that needs to understand the difference, >
Eventually we will want 6 meters! But for now, 2 meters will be good đ
My belief on it (especially in this age of BIG distance and the dog needing to stay on the parallel line: If it is on the dog’s line and there is value – he should take it, even if we are pretty far away. Not on the line? Don’t leave the handler to take it. You will see that in the get out versus don’t get out game đ
And I am pretty sure he already knows the difference between the props LOL!! It is like the difference between a jump, a tire, and a tunnel, etc- easy for the dogs to sort out.
Tracy
Good morning!
OMG sorry for the delay – I saw your post and answered in my mind⌠but clearly never posted it. SORRY!!!!
The get out game went really well – she has a ton of value for the prop so it was the easiest thing even. And you also had nice clear cues to get her to your side who you asked, so that was super easy too.
Since this went so well, time to add motion (and the verbal if she is happy with the motion element)! A line on the ground (like a leash) will help you move straight so your feet donât accidentally turn to the prop. And you can experiment with exactly how high your arm needs to be – towards the end it was pretty high, above your shoulder-level, so she had a question on those. You can try having your arm at shoulder level or just below it and see what she says đ
Threadle wrap foundations: She did great with the u-turns on both sides. Super easy! Yay!
Since these went brilliantly, you can fast- track this: for the next session, so the circles and if she is happy with those: add the motion of you moving and cueing u-turns and circles.Rocking horses: she also did great here! When you were really connected and not pointing forward til she was past you, she as pretty perfect. When you were not as connected, looking a bit ahead/pointing ahead, your shoulders turned away from the barrel a bit so she had questions (like at :37 and :54 where she offered a spin on the flat). You wonât always have to be perfectly connected but it helps for now đ The last set of wraps was perfectly connected and she nailed it!
You can add more toy breaks – she was losing a bit of engagement here and there and that might have been a product of too much cookie and too much of the same thing đ So you can do a wrap or two, then a tug break, then a couple more, then a tug break.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
He is also doing well here – it is possible that he is a lefty for this game (as he offered right at the beginning) so it will be interesting to see if that side is easier for him.>At 1.30 ish baby checks out, I think i didnât pay him enough when he did some problem solving, so I did a couple of easy hand targets when he came back.>
A couple of reasons for why he might have left for a moment –
If it was the 3rd of 3 sessions, he might have been a bit tired and needed a longer break. Also, all 3 sessions were food rewards, so he might have been a bit full of treats in the belly and not really wanting to run đ Plus, the treats were kind of calm – the is a good game for a toy! You can use a treat to line him up or reset him at your side, but then reward with a toy when you do the front cross and run. I think that all be very exciting!Let me know how he does in the other direction!
>Curse his getting confident getting on planks, he jumped up on my see saw which he hasnât done before (thankfully the bottom half so it didnât move!) â thatâs why i say break at the start of this video>
Ha! Yes, wedge it and block it off so he doesnât start teaching himself the contacts LOL!
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
He did really well here and has a ton of value for the prop! That will transfer really well to jumps and other obstacles when he is older!!>i see my feet were in the wrong position>
Yes your mechanics were good and also yes – the hardest part of this game is getting our feet to go straight LOL!! I use a line on the ground (like a leash) so my feet can be pointing the right direction, especially as we start moving.
And you can totally start moving now – he was able to do it from a standstill so now you can be moving up a line parallel to the prop. Sometimes cue the out, sometimes donât cue it so he moves with you and doesnât go to the prop.
Nice work!
Tracy
Hi!
The hardest part of the running contact box session was finding the darned cheese. When he found it, everything else was easy! In this session, you throwing it before he offered behavior on the box which got things moving. So for the next session, you can wait til you see his back feet in the box, then mark and throw the treat.
Nice work!
T
Good morning!
Serps:
I think the hardest part was him finding the start cookie LOL!! You might need big white pieces of cheese or something. He was good about coming into the target hand (he can sideswipe it at this point, doesnât need to directly touch it) but I think he will come in even faster if you look at the target or even shake it.
What is your marker for the toy in your hand? I hear yes, get it, and bite among others LOL! So try to be super consistent for when that toy is available.
You can move to the next step where the toy or a bowl is on the ground!
Lap turns! The prop has a ton of value now (yay!) so I think making the hand cue more obvious was the most helpful: shaking it and looking at it can drive him right to it, past the prop.
Once he got to your hand, your mechanics of turning him away were lovely and he hit the prop really well! Yay! Onwards to the tandem turns!
Barrel wraps: He did well going to the barrel with you rotated.! Be sure to let him see you shift the connection from his eyes (during the ready moment) to the barrel (on the send) especially when you are backwards. You can make it super obvious so he doesnât think it is a line up đ
Bear in mind that he is beginning to have value for other things so there was a lot of visual âclutterâ here that caused him to be a bit wide on his wraps especially at the beginning of the session. You can clear the environment more so he can pick out the barrel more and drive around it.
>I do not know why or what I was trying to accomplish mid way when I like touched him or held his chin?>
That was right before he did the leg weave – it might have interrupted his chain of thought or it might be that he needed more of a connection shift back to the barrel? But yes, he ws like why are you holding my chin LOL đđ
You can definitely move to the rocking horse games now!
Nice work!
TracyGood morning!
Fingers crossed for a dry weekend so Sprite gets to run!
The game outside here is looking good! Getting her to chase and play all went really well. It is a fun way to hang out in the yard – she was even on her way to you a few times before you called her. Yay! My only suggestion is to play for longer each time she gets to the toy – it seemed like you were getting her on the toy then moving to your next start spot right away. You can take 10 or 20 seconds in that spot where she got to the toy to really play and swing the toy around and make things super exciting for getting to you.
Great job!
TracyHi!
>We are at Pendleton and there is a lot of activity especially by the start jumpâŚas there always seems to be a ring crew person there plus the leash runner. The next ringâs start line is right there alsoâŚ.tough for young novice dogs!!!!>
He seemed to do pretty well! You can see if he can line up quicker so you can get outta there quicker đ Stays looks good!
>We had a little issue at the practice jump. There isnât any fencing around the practice jump and another handler & dog came upâŚ.which Ringo felt compelled to go say hi. No dog-dog issues but I think I will skip the practice jump or at a minimum be more watchful for who is in the area!>
You can probably skip it and just warm him up on the flat. No need to navigate through random traffic if there might be greetings đ
The runs overall look good and yes, his stride is big! So info needs to be earlier and sooner but you were connected and doing a really lovely job!
On the standard course:
I donât look at the maps until after the runs because I like to see if the handler can show me the course đ
So at the beginning, both Ringo and I thought the far side of the tunnel was correct. It was not a big stride issue⌠it was exactly what you cued. Here is a screen shot:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1tk6-nzEfMYpQqQrQkStawKJQkpD4AJ5cRp2oOwjgGDA/edit?usp=sharing
You did get your left arm pointed to the entry you wanted but it was late and did not override all of the other cues (position, shoulders, feet, motion, etc)
He jumped at you when you stopped – and he jumped at you when you stopped after the off course after the a-frame. To get a tighter turn off the frame, he will need to see turn cues before he gets to the top of the frame (the cues were subtle and late here, so I can see why he stayed on his line). Earlier shoulder turn, using 2 hands, and a ârightâ verbal can help get the turn.
But more importantly⌠if there is an error: do not stop! Assume it was handler error (because it was) and keep going no matter what – or he is going to rehearse jumping at you in the ring. So after the off course tunnel of 3, you can do a FC and put him back into the tunnel then carry on. On the line after the frame, just keep moving to the next obstacle. That will help solidify teamwork and he wonât get frustrated/jump up.
Also – you can use FEO/NFC to work on teeter criteria đ He doesnât seem sure of where to be. In UKI, you can put a target on the ground during NFC runs!
I thought the JWW run went really well!! You were super connected and that really helps!
I think perhaps a little convergence towards him at 2:29 caused the left turn? But you were connected and got him right back on track – he didnât jump up there because you kept going đGreat job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
This setup was nice and tight between the jump and tunnel, which is perfect for his level of experience. He was basically perfect when you were connected. The 2 bloopers (:24 and :32) were when you disconnected. Aha!!
The failures can really guide us in the training here:
He might be relying on your connection to get these right on courses, which is GREAT! Except that none of us can be perfectly connected all the time LOL! So this is a perfect starting point: since he did great with the connections and had trouble when you were disconnected but giving the verbals, you can slow your motion down a lot and be pretty disconnected – letâs see if he can process the verbal without as much motion distraction. And when he can do that, we will add back more and more motion!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
