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Hi! This is a really good list, you have covered just about all of your bases!
>>My big issue is the “wrap away from me I guess”. Maybe I just need to add a verbal and Dig,dig,dig just stays the same>>
There are 2 options to consider:
You can add a verbal that means ‘turn away’ – a lot of folks use “switch” for that.
Or, you can keep ‘dig dig’ to mean wrap left and add a different verbal for ‘wrap right’ – and then it is not about towards or away, it is more about which direction to turn – which also covers towards and away.
>>“Back,back,back” is my back side. Go to the back, take the jump.>>
I recommend having 2 distinct backside verbals: one for slice and one for the circle wrap. I use back for the slice and dig for the full 360 degree circle wrap. I will come in handy later on so she knows really early if she needs to do a lot of collection for those difficult circle wraps.
With the baby dogs, I am also doing a jump threadle and a different tunnel threadle verbal.
Food for thought! Let me know what you think!
TracyHowdy!
>>I really can’t wait for more daylight. Granted I need more sleep but not having it pitch black as much would help too.>>
Yes and yes to all of this. We are in the midst of an ice storm here, not fun at all – dark, grey, icy and the dogs are soooooo bored LOL!
>>Should I be saying target or just letting him offer it?>>
Yes, you can get the distraction going then say target. You can also get the distraction going and start him on the side, so he leaps on and into position from the side (kind of like the bang game).
He was wildly NOT distracted here LOL! You’ve put a foundation of “if you want it, look at your task” on him so he thought this was easy peasy. What a good boy, it is almost as if the distraction was the cue to get to work. Love it!
I snorted at the double sheltie party on the board LOL! Min was *hysterical* LOL!!!!
You can also switch out cookie distractions into something better… swinging toy? And if he can do that… start to go to distractions that potentially stimulate other behaviors. For example. with Contraband, the frisbee stimulates him to want to run run run so in order to earn it, he has to sit and stay. So for this behavior, we are asking Kal to look down and step briskly into a 2o2o. The Nemo ball stimulates him to want to freeze til you kick it… so that might be a great high level challenge (Nemo From Heaven haha) – Nemo goes overhead and when he gets into the 2o2o (Kaladin, not Nemo), you release and throw the ball 🙂
Let me know if that makes sense!
>>However he recently moved out of sports foundation and in to beginning agility when a spot opened up so he got to play the bang game on a new (and clattery) teeter tonight. His ears twitched the first time but he rocked it even with me sending from more lateral distance. He also got to hang around and do tricks and get treats when other dogs banged it.>>
This is awesome! I love that he is getting that exposure. He is a level-headed dude so I don’t anticipate that we will see any anxiety behavior, but it is good to be able to get him into these different environments.
Great job!
TracyHi! This is a really good start – she was a little uncertain at first of why we would want her to tug AND stay on the thing LOL! So getting her to tug and stay on is a great start – the more you do this, the better she will feel about shifting her weight back. You can also work the weight shift back on the ground next to the board, then build the 2 skills together.
The step is a really good platform for this but I think the angle of it was a little too high for now – you can use it flat like you had it for the cookies from heaven game, and have her in her 2o2o position. That can provide enough of an angle. The tippy board was a great option – now that she doesn’t think you are tooooo crazy for asking her to tug on it, you can do the 2o2o on this one too and see if she will keep her front feet on the carpet and back feet on the board.Nice work here!
Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! She was great here! Completely on task, except for one small glance over her shoulder – probably when your husband entered the room. What a good girl! So…. add some challenge 🙂 Start with her with all four feet on her platform – be a little extra crazy and wiggle the cookies right above her nose, tempting her… then cue her to move into her 2o2o position. That way she will be a little more distracted and tempted, which will challenge her to focus downwards on her ‘job’ when the distractions are a little wilder 🙂 The moving into position is the hardest part, so this can start to work that skill before she needs to do it on contacts 🙂
Have fun!
TracyGood morning!
This is going well!>> I have found that she likes toys best when they are thrown or I’m running with them. Otherwise, treats are tops. Tugging in a relatively stationary space works, but is not high on her reinforcement list. >>
This is good to hash out now, as it will make it easier when you get into new places. Things might change in different environments but this is a good foundation. It doesn’t really matter which we use (toys or treats) as long as we can get her into the right state of focus for the environment she is in.
She did really nicely with the game! I think she was looking at your closed right hand on a couple of reps (“where’s the food, mom??!” LOL!) and also she didn’t totally realize that she could go with you to get the treats – she looked so surprised and stayed where she was. Ha! But this is a great foundation for entering the ring and going to the start line. Fingers crossed for an easy and fat end ot the winter so you can start getting it all back outside. The more she can see the concept of working with the treats somewhere else, the easier it will be to transition to the trial ring. You can also track which tricks put her into a higher state, and which are calmer – so that way you can adjust according to the environment. When you are working indoors at home, you can add in other distractions like your husband, other dogs, etc. to see how she does!
Great job 🙂
TracyYes – time and patience will help, and quick reinforcement when he relaxes his jaw and lets go of the toy 🙂
Tracy
Yes! Make a list of what you already have for verbals, and what you would like to add! That helps to prioritize things and set training goals too 🙂
Tracy
Hi Joni!
This was an interesting session – totally agree that she was much better turning to her right than to her left, and I think that was caused by her just being better turning to her right at the moment 🙂 I scrolled back to see what her side preferences have been: when we started, she was a lefty. But now it looks like things have shifted and she is a righty. Interesting! But good to know. On the next session, you can use that to your advantage: start her on your right so she is turning to her right – then switch to the other side so she is turning to her left – the right turns will give her a good warm up for the left turns. The other thing you can do is make the tunnel more obvious by NOT having the MM as obvious, either not using it at all or putting it inside the tunnel – so the tunnel is the only visible option. When the MM is really visible, she was trying to turn to her right to get to it LOL! With my littlest pup, I had the MM literally inside the tunnel for a while 🙂And on the right turns, you can keep adding more and more distance to add challenge. The left turns might take a little more time to add distance, which is fine 🙂
Nice work!!
TracyGood morning! This is going really well!
The wraps on the wings and the drive back to the tunnel on the ‘yes tunnel’ moments looked great!
When you wanted her to NOT take the tunnel:>.When she avoided the tunnel, she sometimes sneaked in the wrong side of me – probably my fault, >
Yes 🙂 LOL! It was subtle: when you kept your shoulder open and big connection until after she got to you and past the tunnel entry, she was perfect (:14, :30, :48, :57). But when she was still behind you and you turned to point forward and indicate the wing on the other side of the tunnel – boom! Tunnel. She read it as a blind cross on the flat (:09 and :44 where she almost went into the tunnel are examples). It was the matter of one or two extra steps but those made a big difference.
When you added the bigger sequences, the same thing happened – when you were a shade too early to indicate forward (1:20 and 1:59), she ended up in the tunnel. Compare to 2:25 – perfect! Great connection for the correct amount of time. So keep that super clear connection and arm back until she is passing you.
She did well finding the tunnel entries on the left turn entries (coming from your right arm). It was harder when she had to turn to her right (coming from your left arm) so be sure to wait til she lines up (like you did at 2:29) to make the turn to get in on that side. She was totally starting to get it!
>> I kept throwing the toy out ahead of the tunnel, when I should have been rewarding her after she turned back toward me>>
Yes, keep rewarding on the turn line to support the positional cue. You kept catching yourself throwing too long LOL!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>maybe not later at night. (but my usual lunch time training session got bumped due to walking them then instead of at oh-dark-30 with the neg 20 windchills (only about neg 10 windchill in the middle of the day but at least it’s been sunny!)>>
Funny, I was just thinking about how nice it will be when we have a few more hours of daylight in the morning and evening! It will make things easier. Doesn’t even have to be a lot warmer, just daylight would be nice (although warm would be GREAT).
>>so I let go on just the slightest pull back. >>
That was good! Also, you can double check that he knows that he can pull it out of your hands on the flat – we might be taking for granted that he knows that pulling hard on it can lead to a win and a victory lap LOL!
He definitely thought tugging on the bosu was not his favorite. It might be that it was a little too small of a playing field for all 4, and too high to do it on a 2o2o? You can try it next to a small table or something that he can put his front feet onto for more balance. When the ball was balanced with the curve side up, he did pull back with his front feet on it, and that is a good start.
When you are doing it on the Cato board, he was definitely asking some questions LOL! So you can let him win just for taking the toy in his mouth, then build up to the weight shift – I think this is what you did at the very end of the video.
One other way to jump start it is to use a bully stick or pig’s ear or something he can really grab like that – gross, I know, but very effective to get weight shift LOL! As long as he doesn’t resource guard, you can use it instead of the tug 🙂
I think the sand granules might be fine as long as his feet are dry, and he might be comfortable with the height of the wobble board?
Keep me posted! We can convince him that this is fun LOL!
TracyHi!
The yes tunnel – no tunnel games are looking good! He is reading the BCs on the flat back to the tunnel really nicely! He was super tight on the line at :08. He was a little wider at :26 but that was more of a reflection of your running path – you were moving away from the tunnel then back towards it, so he was chasing the line correctly.
On the backside tunnel exits – a little something to obsess on LOL! I think the wrap cues are better suited for this because he is wrapping the exit, coming all the way back past the tunnel plane, more than a left or right exit which is 90 degrees-ish. He was turning nicely but this might help him find you more easily on those.
On the threadles on the wings –
>> So I added the cue and of course he didn’t come inside the wing the first time. At 1:17 I can see my outside arm is up but my shoulders aren’t really opening to him so he probably just saw my back and went around.>>
I think it was more a matter of him just needing to learn the threadle skills more – we haven’t really emphasized them yet, it has been a lot about ‘get on yer line!’. I think your handling was very similar as on the later reps (maybe you were moving faster on the first ones) so it was not about handling but more about helping him pick it out of the motion and process the cue. He got it with the stationary reminder and with his name added and less motion – probably needs to see that on each context change. When he was in full motion, he didn’t process it so when you reminded him, he was great! But then when you changed the sequence, he needed to see the reminder again. So you can use the first rep as the reminder rep and then gradually add more speed.The race track moments looked great – he liked running around the backside of the tunnel and was super good about not considering cutting you off to grab the tunnel! And the last rep looked good too, fast and fun!
More verbal obsessing:
>I was going to use In In In for both his threadle wrap and threadle 360 cue since they both involve a threadle and a collected jump. I was thinking my motion forward or back could happen soon enough that he would know whether to accelerate out of a 180 wrap or continue curving around for a 360.>>If I am understanding this correctly, I agree – and in in is different from his threadle slice, and we use threadle slices soooooo much more often than threadle wrap/360s. I will re-read this after more coffee lol
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
He is reading the FFCs really well! Following them with a fast line is really helpful because he generally does NOT need a lot of pressure to turn – so he wondering why you are standing still for so dang long LOL!!! Even leaving early was still a lot of standing still for him so you can have the ball with you and when he arrives at you, fling the ball for him to chase. It is a good skill for him to know even if you use it rarely because he turns so well. The connection on the turn and the exit on both of the first 2 reps looked really good!!He didn’t commit to the tunnel at 1:05 – it looks like you got a little too far ahead, no place to go so you stopped and then turned your shoulders away too much at 1:05 so he was looking at you.
RC at 1:14 looked good!!! You can play with getting onto the RC line even earlier but he powered through it nicely here!
At 1:31 you had a little shorter lead out and more connection til he committed to the tunnel so he had no questions. And the RC at the end of that rep at 1:33 was great – it looked like you were on the RC line a little sooner than at 1:14, and plus he was turning into the wall – and the info was clear enough to convince him to do it, NICE!!!
>> I really like the last one to the left where he chipped in a stride to collect more right before his turn.>>
I think this was a combination of the verbal, being on the RC line a little sooner and a little decel at the end of the RC diagonal. Really nice!
>>And I also have to remember to start working on his post run routine. I’ve done pieces of it off and on but should use it more in his training so that he sometimes has to get leashed up and then get his reward. >>
Yes, sometimes for sure! I don’t think he will need it a lot, he is not looking around for reinforcement elsewhere.
>>I also did teach him to jump in to my arms but am not sure if I will use that at the end of runs or not. The extra 10lbs he has compared to Min has an exponential force impact as he’s running up my leg.>>
I always admire and fear for the people who do that with big dogs LOL!!!
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
>>Ever had one of those moments where you type all your stuff in, just to realize that the site had timed out and nothing got saved. Y>>
EEK! I feel that pain. I have not had a time out issue on this site but I have had the crappy satellite internet go out when I hit “post” and lose things – I find that the back arrow usually recovers it. And thanks to Facebook, I generally type the reply on a post it then copy & paste – things get lost on FB all the time, so annoying!
Good news about the physical clearances!!!!
Teeter video:
The hardest part will be getting the down while you are running, as you can see at the beginning of the video and at :49. So you can do tons and tons and tons of motion override with the down position on the fkat- it will transfer really easily to the down on the teeter.
When you were walking he was doing well – interestingly, he couldn’t down until you were past the end of the board, so I wonder if it was either a matter of taking a moment to get the weight shift, or if there is a positional cue element to the down?
So you can play with sending him ahead of you to something to down on, like a target on the floor – so he starts shifting back to the down while you are still behind him. And you can have the MM out ahead so he doesn’t curl back to look at you.>I’ve been doing it with tugging – when he wants to tug>>
You can ramp the tug up separately, he might just be associating some of the skills work with food rewards.
You can also use a bully stick or something to get him tugging on it and weight shifting (as long as he doesn’t resource guard).
Tunnel threadles – good job mixing up some big fast lines in there!
double whammys are going well, I think you were clear about your arm and feet.
When you moved to the jump, the arm was great and just keep reminding your feet to keep moving 🙂 – at :36 you were a little stationary.
Looking at :50 (where he didn’t read it) versus 1:00 (where he did), I think it is mainly about your line, there was a subtle difference in your line of motion: on the miss, you were moving a sideways so your feet/line were unclear. At 1:00, you were more turned to the wall and moving that way which seemed much clearer for him. So you can rotate more so you are moving parallel to the path you would like him to take. It will get easier when the verbal is more solidly understood.Decel video:
This makes my heart do a happy dance! I don’t think his collection could be any better – it was really tight AND we were (on purpose) not really helping other than decelerating. Any more collection will just end up being slow. So now you can add back the transition: decelerate then rotate and see how it goes especially on the reps where perhaps you aren’t perfect (consistent perfection is impossible, but consistent clarity is totally possible and the decel adds that clarity). I thin he really drove out of the turns to chase you – ad the balance of the big fast lines looked great too! Every time you raise the bars, revisit this game so he can look at what he needs to do to collect or extend on the higher bars.Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
No such thing as quarantine thighs – I think of it as “survival pounds” because we made it through 2020 🙂
His soft turns on the wing are looking GOOOOOOOD! He is collecting soooo nicely! Thinking back to the collection games from the beginning of the class, I think he has made enormous progress with collecting before the wing on these and is asking far fewer questions. There was the one oopsie at
:18 – you had a lot of acceleration and a tiny bit of lateness so he didn’t read it (he could have read it late, but the distraction jump grabbed him instead). But then at :23 you were clearer and he was paying good attention – then after that he was able to process the cue when there was more motion and even if you were not perfect with timing. Some of the reps were perfect, some of the reps were less than perfect (not as early, but not quite late) and he was fine, turning nicely on all of them. Now, you don’t need to be perfect with timing if he understands how to respond quickly and listen to verbals. Perfect timing is impossible to do consistently, so I love that he processing things and not insisting on perfection. Good boy! He was *particularly* awesome with the blinds!
The next step would be to replace the turn wing with a jump and see how he does, gradually raising the height of the bar.Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
