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Hi!
>> her case both- she has decided that she should round up sheep. >>
Ha! She is half border collie, after all LOL!
>>will now work a little for high quality food if not too much pressure.>>
This is great! You can build up food value by doing something simple like running around a wing, then asking her to eat a piece of cheese or chicken or something…. then giving her a toy or sending her into a tunnel. The eating is a behavior here, not a reward, but it quickly becomes a reward because it is associated with such great stuff like tunnels, toys, and running.
>> I also stuggle clarity and timeliness of cues – she is not very forgiving when I am wrong as often happens.>>
She is REALLY fast and REALLY small… that is a hard combo to handle at first. You will get it, I am confident of that! As you are sorting it out, don’t let her think anything went wrong. Either reward immediately or keep going – even if you make something up. We will tackle teaching her more patience with handler error too!
>>she likes snuffle mats. also the side to side game, have done less with updown game. but also done abit with novel and exciting and doing stuff in different places.>>
This is great! You can add toys in here: use great food then after every treat or two, play tug. That makes the food so much more valuable.
>> But unlike my other dogs I dont feel as if I have the same intensity of wanting to do it that I have with my othr dogs I dont know whether that is because she is still young or whether we dont have the same reinforcemnet intensity built up or whether it is that the reinforcement isnt as good as it is food. >>
Do you mean the intensity of wanting to do the pattern games? If so, I think it is because the food value is not as high as the toys. If you have a great “out” of the toy on a verbal cue, you can also do pattern games with 2 toys. But I think if we mix toys in more with the food, the food value will really blossom.
>>We did alot with tricks when she was younger but need to bring it back- life has been abit full on in last few months and her training has not progressed as much as would like for this reason.>>
Yes, life keeps us busy sometimes and that is all good. I bet she remembers her tricks!
Keep me posted!
Tracy
Hi and welcome! He sounds adorable!!! And he sounds like a sensitive little dude who will totally benefit from the toolbox games!!!
The sequencing will be fun too, of course, but it sounds like he is doing great on course when he is comfortable.
As you work on the toolbox, keep me posted and we will bring it into the other environments to help him in all of the new situations. Get the games into a really happy place at home first, then it will be easy and fun to transfer that to other places 🙂 I am guessing his is motivated by food? Does he like toys too? And it sounds like moving really helps get him pumped up, based on how he enjoys running over th contacts 🙂
Keep me posted!
Tracy
Hi! I am glad to see you and Obi here!!
>>We recently started taking a fundamentals class at a proper turf facility which also holds trials every weekend (Canine New England) and I can see a big difference in how he feels there (more hesitant) than in our regular High Fidelity spot or outdoors/back yard. So I’m sure the series will help with that>>
Hooray for a big ring with turf! And yes, it makes sense that he would be less comfy in a new place. The games in the A.R.E. toolbox will totally help that. The pattern games would be a great first step to help him get more comfortable there.
>>We had a slow agility training summer because of melting heat and life (not in a bad way, just super duper busy), but that’s ok and in the meantime we picked up fitness and Obi loves it. He’s a total gym rat >>
It is totally ok! He is young and large and male, so taking it slow is better 🙂 And the summer was CRAZY hot! It cracks me up that he is a gym rat, I can totally see him loving it 🙂
One thing you can do is begin to bring him into different environments with the pattern games and volume dial games – and if he is happy to tug in those environments, then you can totally enter him in UKI NFC at a lower height like 12″!! All you need to do is email the trial secretary and they will put you in the low height. It is a great way to gain experience as the other things come together, like building up to the full height jumping. One of my whippets is doing his first trial next weekend: He measures into 20″ for real, but will be jumping 12″ NFC because his full height jumping is not ready, but I want him to play a bit in the ring and have a grand time 🙂
>>It’s cool to see so much of Obi’s style also show up in Breck’s (and Allie’s) runs … genetics!!!>>
Yes! They are the COOLEST dogs and you are going to have a great time with him in the ring!!!!!!!! Genetics ar so wonderful when they work in our favor, which they do in the case of Obi and his amazing family 🙂
Have fun!
TracyHi!
That sounds like a fantastic trip!!! So fun!!!
>>I don’t think the issues we are trying to fix are due to stress or lack of confidence. If anything Coal probably has way too much confidence – over arousal is not our friend.>>
I agree that it is all falling under the umbrella of arousal regulation and trying to help him not tip into overarousal (it is definitely NOT our friend LOL!!!) But with overarousal comes stress, especially when things are not 100% clear – and that is where dogs do things that look like confidence (like focusing on other dogs, for example) but are mainly ways to regulate arousal and relieve stress. So we will focus on making things super clear and helping with the arousal regulation.
On the first video:
<
> He did well with his crate release! I think the mat and the targets for the pattern game were too close to each other… he couldn’t quite relax because he seemed unsure of if you wanted a mat behavior, or the pattern game engagement. So you can separate them more, with the mat near the crate and the targets either in your hand, or further away so you can be very clear about when the pattern games starts versus when he should chill on the mat. He did have some stress behavior there (full body shake off, scratching) but that was likely because he wasn’t sure if it was mat time or pattern game time.
When he is on the mat, you can look around more so he can relax and not offer behavior, and that will add more chill to his mat behavior 🙂 On the 2nd video, you sat in the chair and that was great for relaxing! No need to look at him intently during relaxation moments – looking at him might accidentally cue him to offer behaviors LOL! You had a nice long stretch of watching the ring and letting him chill on the mat- that was great 🙂
When you cued him to get up and down a few times, I think it might muddy the meaning of the mat and delay the chill 🙂 What I mean by that is the mat should only really indicate one thing: relax. We don’t want Coal to think that the mat might also mean offering other behaviors or responding to other cues – so you can release him from the mat when you want him to move around and get more amped up.
These are looking good, so we can move to the volume dial game and tricks! What kinds of fun moving tricks does he know?
Great job :) Tracy
Two different terriers, but all terriers are perfect so it will be a blast! Yes, I have a definite bias towards terriers LOL!!
Tracy
Hi! I am excited to see you this week!!!! And I am glad you are all healed up 🙂 It sounds like he is doing really well, and 15 months is a great age!!! I am looking forward to seeing him in person and here online 🙂
Tracy
Good morning and welcome back! This will be fun!!!!
I agree that the spins are her favorite trick 🙂 and they are one of may faves too, because they have a lot of motion and can be done in a small space. Perfect!She did think then pivoting with you was kind of weird LOL! Will she weave through your legs? Some dogs like that. Or backing up on cue. Does she boing up and down? And high fives are good too!
One thing about volume dial with food-driven dogs: rather than have her come to your hand for a ‘snacks’ delivery, you can get the food to be more active and more toy like, which really helps to optimize arousal. You can do it by having her chase you for a few steps for it, or toss it to her if she likes to catch food 🙂 She was a little slower driving into your hand for it, so we can make the delivery a little wilder 🙂 You know all of the talk about ‘clean’ training and loops and all that stuff? This game is kind of the opposite LOL!! Wild and dirty LOL!!!!
Great job here 🙂
TracyHello and welcome back!! The pattern games are going well!
Back and forth: Looking strong! Just be sure to let Indy look up at you before you throw the next treats – on some of the reps, you were tossing before he looked at you (he was happy about that LOL but the looking at you will help with engagement).
Up and down looked pretty perfect! Love it!
So now yes – both games can have leash added and back and forth can include you moving back and forth too 🙂 You can add a ‘get it’ marker to back and forth if you like. And try to take these games to different places too and see how he does.
Great job!!!
TracyGood morning!!
>>1) Going back and retraining soft turns -She commits so early to obstacles and stays on her line. I think this is a big missing link for us to execute sequences.>>
It might be a matter of how it is cued (and when). She is fast and powerful, so will likely need a ‘brake’ arm style of cue: the dog side arm AND the opposite arm cue the soft turn, rather than sending on the dog side arm only.
>>2) Soft turns out of tunnels and how to break this down better>>This is probably also a cue style (brake arm) and timing – with her speed, probably no later than 6 feet before the tunnel entry.
>>1) Plan ahead for my training sessions. If I’m having an issue, go back/review video, and be able to pivot my training. This is a hard skill for me >>Yes – timing the sessions will help, and the 2 failure rule especially in handling. If you get to the 2nd failure? Stop and look at the video. I also play music when I am training: my rule is that when the song is over, the session is finished (usually around 3 minutes).

>>2) Keeping Lu happy and her confidence up. I think she is a lot more sensitive than I first thought when she was younger. >>She is an adolescent, and that is a sensitive time period. Plus, based on what I am seeing in the video below, she is VERY good at responding to the handling (as in, SUPER good – all the handling bloopers were handler errors, she read you perfectly). So if you tell her that *she* is incorrect, she gets confused and slows down. So… take credit for all the bloopers and either keep going or reward her (so far, she has not had any errors LOL!). Don’t tell her she is wrong in the sequence work, because that is going to make her more sensitive (and adolescents are more sensitive to punishment anyway, aka being told they were wrong).
>>She did it but finagled her body around and I got scared she was going to hurt herself (pretty sure I said something like OMG when she did it). We’ve done a few since then and she’s been very hesitant on the third jump (adding stutter steps, going around it outside of the grid). >>
Has she seen a chiro or soft tissue person since then? She might have something that needs attention and causing her to be a bit careful.
>>We took a break from grids for a few weeks but started back yesterday. And we just worked on very low jumps, adding motion, and lots of rewarding to build her back up. She’s not 100% but I would have never guessed something like this would affect her.>>
Something scary or painful can indeed be one-event learning (unlike the running dog walk, which is more like 3,000,000,000 event learning LOL!!!) so moving the location of the grid to a different place entirely, and doing very different grids will help too! And if something weird happens (all the time with whippets), I have found that giving them a really long hug for comfort and just breathing with them for a couple of minutes helps overcome the scary thing (strange but true!)
>>Is the 5 minute threshold for each sequence or all the sequences combined?>>
Each session, so you might get a couple of sequences in or just one. Then the next session can be another 5 minutes, until you get them done.
On the video:
Nice connection overall! And as I mentioned above: she is FANTASTIC about reading the handling 🙂 YAY!!! So – if something goes wrong, don’t tell her that she is wrong because when you did (like on jump 1 or when you were trying to sort the timing for 3), she started to get confused/worried which caused her to slow down.On that #1 jump – you started off really well, giving her plenty of room to see the line and she was very successful at the beginning! Yay! I could not hear what your release verbal was, so you can use your wrap verbal if you are not already using it. You can also line her up on more of a slice, so only the front side is visible and the backside pf the jump is not.
Later in the session, at 2:32 and 2:39 – make sure she is done tugging and lined up facing the correct side of 1 before you send. Otherwise she is going to take her line to the side of the jump you send her too (the backside in this case). She was correct 🙂 If that happens, don’t mark it as wrong or re-start her. Just keep going 🙂
At 2:49 you had a cleaner send but she was still on the line to the backside , you were blocking the line to the front. So lining up on the slice will really help. Also, you can add more of the forward focus to the jump before the release – will she look at the jump when you point at it?For the FC at 3: I think you had really good timing at :18 and 1:48, those were my favorites: she exited the tunnel and saw you facing forward and decelerating then rotating. Really nice! She was turning on as she jumped. Yay! She was a little wide on landing finding 4, but that was more about the exit line connection. If she lands and cannot see the front of your chest and eyes, she will not be entirely sure of where to be and drift a little. That is what was happening here when you were picking her up on your dog side arm. Try to keep that arm back to her nose and even show her the toy in your hand across your body, so she can really see the connection.
As you were working out the timing, you were too early at :52 so she correctly turned on the tunnel exit (and got rewarded). The identical thing happened at 3:03 and 3:22, but on those you marked her as wrong and stopped her, so you can see her flanking and slowing down. Remember that off courses or refusals are handler error, so keep rewarding like you did at :52 and go watch the video 🙂
What was happening there was that the rotation was finished as she exited the tunnel, so there was no countermotion cue or commitment cue to 3.
Compare to 3:42 where the rotation was later and she got it – she is VERY good abut reflecting the handling 🙂The turn on 4 is a soft turn – that is where you can bring up the opposite arm to join the dog-side arm, so as she is exiting 3 she sees the brake arm and adds collection while you keep moving (:19 and 1:52).
The ending looked great! WOW! Nice line finding!!!!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyWelcome back! Great to see you here!!
>>I love my border pap but she is testing me.>>
LOL! She is not testing you 🙂 She is seeking reinforcement, which is totally normal. So if she is doing things you don’t want her to do, then we will need to focus on reinforcing what we do like 🙂
>> She is super fast and smart with the princess pap gene.>>
The thing about Paps is that they are Spaniels and most definitely not herding dogs. So are they independent? Yes. Do they seek reinforcement differently than herding dogs? Oh totally yes LOL!!!
>> She has strong opinions and ot much tolerance of a handler who is slow. She is super aroused with toys, loves fast active stuff. less keen on slower or more technical stuff.>>
That is all reinforcement, then – you will probably need to expand the reinforcement toolbox so you can have thrown toys to create more distance, as well as toys/treats from your hands to build value for tight work. That, plus clarity of information, will really help! Keep things simple as you work it out – there is no need to do very technical stuff into the reinforcement techniques are in place (then the technical stuff is soooooo much easier!)
>> we are working hard on resilience and calmness but not sure it is working well.>>
It depends on how you are working on it 🙂 What are you doing for calmness?
Have fun!
TracyGood morning!
>>>> I definitely need lots of help with figuring out how to get that optimal arousal and help to learn what will make it a fantastic experience for him specifically. I can’t crack the code for that in 90% of our agility situations.>>
I was thinking more about this – clarity also really helps confidence blossom, meaning he knows what to do and is almost always correct. So the 2 failure rule might end up being the 1 failure rule in the class setting, along with a TON of effort rewards and reset cookies. And avoiding complex sequences and sticking to “go fast have fun” will help too.
>>He loves toys, frisbees, tugs, etc. AT HOME. But not so much in class.>>
Will he chase and enjoy a tennis ball? Or empty lotus ball? I found a fur-covered lotus ball (from Clean Run, I think) that my food-motivated rental whippet LOVES. And UKI can also have the food box for NFC runs, check with the local trials to see if they are doing it (and if not, ask them to do it :))
>> Food is ultimately the top reward for him at all times, but at home he can get extremely jazzed about the toys. And he gets extremely excited about chasing and biting my sleeves (ouch! I need a bite suit!) It just doesn’t transfer to the rest of life.>>
Keep playing at home, it will eventually transfer when he is more comfy and more experienced in the class or trial environment. For now it is FOOD!!! And use insanely high value food – dog treats won’y cut it LOL!!!
>>Reacher is so serious and polite and a thinker I just wish I could give him a few strong drinks to loosen the boy up in public!>>
The equivalent will be action tricks (spinning, barking :)) and amazing food 🙂
>>I have agility class Monday nights during the live chat so sadly we’ll like miss all of those. I’ll watch the recordings though! I did video at class tonight so have some material to share soon!>>
That is a bummer! But keep sending questions and we will get them answered 🙂
Tracy
Welcome back!!!
I hope he recovers from his respiratory bug ASAP! Poor guy!>>Ven really struggled in a number of sessions at Fenzi camp weekend before last. Couldn’t take treats, couldn’t do anything he knew.>
Those types of events are really hard for young dogs – a ton of travel, a lot of people/dogs, weird locations, lots of pressure, multiple rings, not a lot of decompression, etc. And adolescent dogs don’t always adjust quickly to it. What type of treats was he able to eat, and what type of treats did he not eat?
>> If you think it would be helpful, I’ll pull some of the video of his turns.>>
Sure! Especially if you have any of the moments before his turn.
>>I think he’s just at a tough age because he recovered quickly after each turn, played on the sidelines and had a grand time in the hotel room.>>
It is a challenging age for sure! And also, we will be doing things that will help a whole lot (the A.R.E. pyramid games will help!) The first thing will be to sort out what the highest value food is for him. For example, knowing that my 2 year old whippet was going to be asked to run in a 6 ring mosh pit 🙂 I came prepared with rotisserie chicken and meatballs – highest value food for him (higher value than cheese or regular treats and higher value than the frisbee!). So we need to sort that out for Ven too, so the motivator matches the challenge. I don’t use rotisserie chicken at home or in regular training LOL!!
Keep me posted!
Tracy
Hello and welcome!! How is your knee feeling?
>> However, in her crate if she can see out in a trial or seminar setting with dogs she doesn’t know if they come close to the crate or walk by she will bark reactively at them. >>
It is probably due to a combo of frustration (being in the crate and not being out doing things) and anxiety (being in a small confined space with no way to move away and strangers coming up to her) and arousal (the environment is stimulating!!). It is not a unusual behavior at all, and we can help her out.
>>I am not sure what to do besides keeping crate covered to not have her do this. Wondering if you have any suggestions that I could try.>
A crate cover can totally help. I also use cardboard blockers with the crate cover, so dogs cannot walk right up to the crate. Crate her as far away as possible from “traffic” and ideally, crate her in a different room or even in the car if the weather permits.That way she can relax and even sleep between runs, rather than be vigilant about the dogs walking by.
Let me know how she does!
Tracy
Good morning and welcome!!! I love terriers 🙂
>>the zoom call has me really thinking of all of the things I should have done with my other dogs.>>
All of this is from what we have learned over the years from our other dogs, as well as all of the new understanding of neuroscience and behavior. Totally nerdy and SUPER fun (and effective too!)
>>And I will surely have lots of questions as I will see you in IL at two workshops- on Wednesday with my older dog and Thursday with Lark.>>
So… tomorrow? YAY!!!!!! I am looking forward to it. Bring all the questions!
Tracy
