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Good morning!
She did well on the 12 poles on the right side! One thing to add when she is weaving all 12 is to move away from her more (moving laterally) – your tendency is to converge into her at the 12 pole which she is fine with, but it allows her to watch you more – adding the lateral motion will be super useful on course and she will not be able to watch you AND weave 🙂
On the left side entries, there are generally 2 reasons why the dogs struggle more on those: the entry is ‘softer’ in that she has to go between 2 things and not wrap that first pole, so it is harder to do. Or, she has to look away from you in order to stay in, which is also hard. Or both 🙂 I like your idea of breaking it down to 4 poles so you can add the motion distraction – she is pretty strong without the motion distraction but she will be seeing them with motion on course for sure. You can also isolate the entry with a marker, so you can mark the exact moment she gets into that left side entry – when I do this, I open up poles 3 through 6 so they are easy – then I click the entry (which is still a little closed) and drop the reward at pole 6 – having poles 3-6 easier is so that she can get the reward easily after making the hard entry as you move, if that makes sense. When she has a high rate of success with that, you can close them up again.
>>>>I can switch you over: did you want a working spot? << Yes – I would to love to have a working spot for Yowza – thanks>>
Sounds good, I will swtich over and send the invoice (the CAMP class is has more to it so the working spot costs more, if that is OK)
Great job here!
TracyHi!
>>We definitely did exactly this. What I did not do is bring Sizzle. We did the weaves at the very end when we were leaving. We took chill breaks, he drank water rolled in the grass and got some great belly scratches.>>
Great – fewer reps on the teeter with high levels of excitement will help get even more drive across it (calmness is overrated haha!!)
>>I will definitely bring Sizzle next time.
A little bit of jealousy can go a long way 🙂 You can also do this at home: Sizzle gets one rep, Stark gets one rep, Sizzle gets on rep, Stark gets one rep. You can have someone standing by with leashes (cough cough Kevin cough cough) so you can just swap them in and out without too much effort.
>>Also I’ll set up straight approaches.>>
Perfect – don’t let him think about how to get on 🙂
>> The discs only come out for disc class and the teeter. I actually haven’t seen him love one toy over the other but the discs are special.>>
Also great! It might be the only agility spot he sees a disc, or giant meatballs or anything mind-blowing (does he like hoses or pools?)
Have fun!
TracyWow, he looked great! He seems like he really really really liked the trial environment: you had to HUSTLE LOL! Great job though! The little oopsies looked like all stuff that will smooth out when he is more experienced. Very cool! And it is amazing that he did 12 poles!!!! Good boy – it is rare that dogs can do so well in the trial environment in their first outing, but it seems like he really got both pumped up AND really focused. YAY!! I am thinking your trips to the park to train really helped him. Hopefully Get Rev’d does more UKI so you can keep playing and do more and more trials!
Tracy
Good morning! He did well here, the poles are basically straight. At this point, I think the behavior needs to percolate without any changes to the poles setup (one change to the reinforcement, see below). That way he has some time to sort out his striding and you can add in more of your speed (which will help him get into the rhythm because it will be really exciting :))
>>Accidentally threw too soon the first time. Whoops.>>
I feel this pain 10,000%! I have done the same thing because it looks like the dog is going to do the last gap but then we twitch a muscle to do the throw, which pulls the dog out. It really only happens when the dogs are on the left of us in that last gap – because they have to turn their heads away and look away from us to do it. And the frisbee-loving beasts struggle with that. I think they are trying to sort out how to both get that last gap AND watch us throw the friz. So, I changed the friz placement but over-compensating the throw, to encourage the dogs to NOT look at us in that last gap on the left side. When the dogs were weaving on my left, I threw the frisbee to the 4 or 5 o’clock section of the clock, so the friz placement ended up on the other side of the poles.
That way, they would look away from me because that is the fastest way to get to the friz: it developed a response cost for looking at me (takes longer to see the friz because it is going to be on the other side, and NO friz coming if they look at me and don’t get the last gap – eek!)
In your setup here, he would be weaving on your left side and your throw would be towards the house, rather than on that straight line where the other weaves will be eventually.That change in placement fixed the pop out really quickly. I still throw the reward on the straight line when the dog is on my right because they don’t have that same problem on that side 🙂
Let me know if that makes sense! A couple of sessions on the 6 basically straight poles will get him back into the bouncing. For now, shelve any of the Find Em games that require a lot of thinking, until he is blasting through 6. Then when he is blasting, it will be easy to do boxcars and then get 12 straight.
Great job!! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
The line up cookies worked really well here – she was almost 100% successful when you used a cookie to line her up and then give a clear cue. When you didn’t use them, she tried to send herself and that didn’t go as well 🙂 So definitely do them on every rep to keep fostering that high rate of success!
She started off a bit excited and distracted by your human manners minder, but when you switched sides she had a bit of a lightbulb moment and then she had a ton more success! Yay!!! Also, good work adding motion and some more angles, she did well too.Keep working the progression with this set up, adding angles and your motion with some type of reward target out ahead (human manners minder is both helpful and a great distraction for her to work through :)) One think I was thinking of is as you continue to tighten up the poles bit by bit, you can also move that last set (poles 5 and 6) further away like you did when you added poles 3 and 4 – if she has any questions about how to find them, that can help answer them.
I am really excited by her progress!! I see actual real weaving happening, and it won’t take long to finish closing up the poles.
Great job!
TracyHi! The last day is tomorrow – it is amazing how fast the time went!
I am glad you had fun – thanks for sharing Emmie’s adventures 🙂 You did an amazing job of making the teeter fun for her!!! And I am very excited to be able to see you in June – it will be a blast!Have a great weekend 🙂
TracyHi! I think he did really well here! A couple of ideas for you for future tours:
The bang game looked great on both sides. He was definitely in food mode, which is fine (he is not lacking in toy drive, so with teeter training it is good to go with whichever the highest value reward is in the moment: is there a toy that makes his head explode? If so… only use that toy for teeter training in new places).
On the crazy elevator games, he preferred it when the board dropped a little more and then you caught it. He did not seem to be a fan of that first rep when you caught it high and then started it lowering it before the countdown (note how he was backing up and lifting his head).
The last reps with the raw food were good, including the full teeter – but I think the angle of approach was causing him to have to think too much and slow down (he was coming in from a 180 turn on a jump so note how he slows down, lifts his head, and swings wide to find the teeter entry – that affected speed across the board).
The other thing is that since we want to make the teeter really exciting and minimize reps, we can structure the tour session differently:
So for his next teeter tour, I would first acclimate to the environment in general with a little short fast fun sequence, jumps and tunnels, yeeeehaw!!! When he is acclimated (which will happen pretty quickly) show him the teeter with a bit of bang game for nice big rewards, just one rep on each side.
Then take a break while he is still high and before he settles in (and don’t do any other stuff, just let him chill. Then after a break (ideally where he watches Sizzle do something, let him get nuts watching her for a couple of minutes) then you go for a full teeter from a very easy straight, fast approach: think less, run more 🙂 A wing wrap or tunnel is great to set up the approach, with you running but not too far ahead, and also with the target still visible (because it helps and is easy to fade :)) And you jackpot it even if it is less than perfect) with the entire bowl of raw if he is hungry & working at mealtime, or his favorite toy if he is working for a toy.
For example, Contraband did his first ever sliding seesaw yesterday… except he slid past the end position and stopped with his 4 feet on the floor. Oops! But I still partied with him, because it took a massive amount of confidence to produce the slide. I know I can get the 2o2o when he is confident.You can also skip doing full teeters in any new location if he shows any signs of concern about anything, and also if the teeter is new/weird/different than what he has seen before (play end games on that but don’t ask for the full teeter). My guess is that he will NOT show concerns about new locations and there are very few weird teeters that you’ll run into 🙂
Let me know if that makes sense! Onwards to the next stop on the tour lol!
Tracy
Good morning!
>>Oh! I found video footage of you telling me to use clear verbal markers for the 1,000th time:
>>Bwahahahahahaha!!!! Bear in mind that I tell myself to plan and use clear verbal markers only about 10,000 times a day an that “YAY!” is not actually a real marker hahaha
>>Do you have any advice for revisiting running contacts while also teeter training? I am concerned that both behaviours will degrade once I try to put them back together.>>
I lean towards chocolate in these situations, to help temper the stress.
Oh you meant a *training* idea hahaha. I train all the things concurrently, so it helps me keep me eye sharp for criteria and habits strong for me and the dog. The dog walk versus teeter versus a-frame can eventually go into speed circles: jump-frame-jump-teeter-jump-dog walk. That way you can reward the specific behavior on each one and River gets to practice seeing them in a sequence.
>>I don’t remember if I told you before, but I model all of my feedback to my high-schoolers after your feedback style. >>
Wow, thank you for that! I model the feedback on what I learned from music teachers when I was a student, and from when I was teaching music too. So I owe a lot of the music teachers of the world – there are sooooo many similarities 🙂
>>I am looking forward to seeing you in person again some day. Can’t wait for the next course.
Same here! Someday the world will get back to more normal and the borders will re-open and we can meet for training and ice cream 🙂 Can’t wait!
Great job with your girl here – she is going to have quite an amazing teeter in the trial ring!Tracy
Hi! He was a good boy on these, they are really hard. I am happy with how he found that entry from so far away from you! Yay!! One suggestion for the exits: that last bounce to the last gap between the poles requires him to NOT look at you (and not look at the toy :)) so you can help him out in the early stages by tossing the toy back to where he would need to exit, rather than reward from your hand. The toy in your hand is more of a ‘proofing’ challenge, which you can go to after he has a higher success rate on these. The toy through back to where he needs to exit will help you add more motion because he won’t look at you as much. Then you can easily add it back to coming from your hand as a proofing game.
>> It was set up to practice a nice threadle exit.>>
Semantics: it is technically a serpentine exit. Replace the last weaves with a jump bar laid perpendicular to the set of poles and it will make more sense as a serpentine. Agility people like their names and words, after all haha!! The threadle is more about the entries: when he is facing one end of the poles (like the backside of a jump) and you need him to squeeze himself between you and the *other* side of the poles to get the entry (like coming in to take the front side of a jump on a jump threadle).
Nice job here! It is really cool to see him nailing 12 poles so that you can work on fancy handling 🙂
Tracy
Hi! I like to warm up the dogs before training with a bit of trotting/jogging for a few minutes, then some active stretching, then some explosive behaviors right before they work. It depends on what I am going to be asking them to do, so the warm up is more intense if the work is going to be harder.
Tracy
Good morning!
>>How is she doing on this? I have been more focused on the entries and getting her through. I am not doing channels because I don’t have any.>>
She seems to be doing well with the striding! You will see it more when the weaves are straight and closer, so that she has to stride in the sets pretty rapidly.
>>At a place where I can rent the ring, the poles are stuck into the turf. This is not my usual training facility. Why do they stick them into the turf?>>
Do you mean it is a normal looking metal base that is nailed into the turf, or taped down? That is standard practice because larger dogs can move the weaves when they go through them. I will either nail the poles down if they are on dirt or grass, or use heavy duty carpet tape to keep them in place on artificial turf.
There are ‘stick in the ground’ poles that don’t have a metal base, but I don’t use them because they can be too flimsy and easily moved for the big, fast dogs.
>> Do they work any differently? I didn’t look closely the first time I was there, but am assuming I can pull a couple of poles out of the turf? I only have 6 poles with which to work.>>
If they are stick-in-the-ground, you can pull them out and move them pretty easily. It is harder to move poles that are nailed in or taped down.
Tracy
Good morning!
>>When she missed the entries, I didn’t think I should give her a treat when I called her back to me.
Think of it as a treat to get her lined up for the next send – not a treat for the missed entry 🙂
Getting her lined up will really help boost success because she will have a smooth transition into the weave entry.T
Good morning!
I am glad you enjoyed the class! It was really fun to watch you train Cowboy and see him sort it all out 🙂 He is SO FUN!
And I love the video – he is turning into a great agility dog. I love your connection to him on course – just lovely! I am looking forward to seeing you two on course at trials someday 🙂Hope to see you soon!
TracyHi!
Hope you are having a good holiday weekend!>> I assume the sequences on 6 poles you mention here are the ones under the “Find ’em Track: 2×2 heading?>>
The most recent ones with the straight poles in sequence are here:
https://agility-u.com/lesson/find-em-track-2x2s-game-5-mini-courses/
and can eventually be expanded to 12 poles too!Have fun!
TracyGood morning!
>>I hadn’t noticed the difference in left and right turns or lack of head turn.
That is the joy of being able to stare at the video a few times in a row LOL!! It is hard to see in the moment for sure, and then sometimes when editing videos of my own dogs, I don’t really see things as well either.
>>is the head turn game where you were word as soon as they turn away from you on a barrel or cone or wing?
Correct – it is the double wrap where you cue the 2nd wrap and c/t as soon as he turns his head. It is different from traditional multi-wraps where the dog keeps offering (the dogs don’t ever really turn their heads on that) – the cue is what elicits the behavior for us to click, then we reward it and then we reset it. Eventually you click the head turn on that first approach and fade out the double wrap.
>>it’s funny because I did just revisit the baby steps of rewarding circling a cone and marking when he turns head away but I’m thinking maybe there was another game that you know of that I missed?
Do it on a wing now, rather than a cone – it is entirely possible that he does it on a cone but needs you to generalize it to a wing. I found that my bigger pup targets the inside edge of the wing as he approaches it, to be able to turn his head and bend into the turn.
>>I will definitely go back to just using wings and not the jumps Because the low jumps aren’t really teach him anything about how to jump anyway.>>
There is a lot of value when using low jumps and he can learn a lot about jumping… plus the low jumps also tell us what he needs to learn more about (like collection) while saving his body. So I agree that getting the behavior first on a wing is the right way to go, but then put it back onto low jumps before going to taller jumps.
>> the next question is do I also continue with some of the other games that don’t involve collection and transitions?
Yes, keep working the other games that involve speed and extension. We are looking for a good balance and that takes literally years to achieve. If you only work on collection, you’ll only get collection and then it is harder to get extension and speed. If there has to be a skew in balance right now, I am happier when young dogs skew towards extension and speed 🙂
T
