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Hi! This is looking good! And she LOVED it when you took off, hootin’ and hollarin’ 🙂 We don’t need much speed on the back and forth yet, the speed will come when you take off like you did. You can build on this by trying to rotate earlier and earlier. On these, you were starting to rotate away as she was just arriving at the barrel/wing. Nice! Since she is doing so well, 2 more steps to add:
– rotate away when she is one foot (approx) from arriving at the barrel or wing
– if that goes well, rotate away when she is just past you! If this is hard, you can spread your barrels out a little more so you are running into it more to help support commitment.Great job!
TracyHi there!
The lap turn is looking really good! You might need to reward directly from your hand a few times mixed in like you did at :29, when you are close to the prop – just to maintain the value of coming to the hand compared to going to the prop. His turn Aways are looking really good! Loved the quick transition to the prop on the other side of you, that was a slick way to switch sides! One small mechanics detail – don’t move your leg back until he is just about at your cookie hand, maybe an inch or two away. If you move your leg back too soon like at 1:16, you might feel awkward or sideways, because it is hard to draw him back through the turn if your leg is already back. Your timing at 1:30 with the leg step was perfect!
Tandem turns – you might have to reward him from your hand a few times mixed into these sessions on this one too, to help keep convincing him to go past the prop LOL! He went to the prop on the first one and at :39 and gave you the whippet judgemental look on some of the other reps haha! So rewarding for coming to the magic cookie hand will help him remain convinced (and be less judgey about it LOL!!!) The turn itself looked terrific! And he is going right back to the prop on the line, very nice!!!!
Serp game: you did a really nice job of being as stationary as possible while still dropping the treat into the bowl. Will he start from a stay (or a mat or Cato board) and allow you to already have a cookie in the bowl? That will make it easier. The ready treat will make it MUCH easier because you won’t have to move at all 🙂
He is showing us that he is beginning to understand the in-then-out chain and I am really happy to see that!!! yay!! So the next step is to fade out the actual touching of the hand. You can take the target out and when he gets close to touching the hand (but not quite touching it yet) – click the ready treat 🙂 That will develop more of the in-then-out and you will be able to start motion when he is happy with that.On the toy-treat games… yes, toy mechanics are hard! I agree! But totally worth it to hash it all out 🙂 What type of food are you using? You can go to lower value treats. And also try this just after a meal so being hungry isn’t a factor. A couple of ideas for you to consider –
You don’t have to reward the out with a cookie, you can reward it with more tugging!
You can do one rep of cookie to toy, and end the session.That way you have 100% success 🙂
When you do go back to the toy after cookies, make sure your hands are empty and also you should probably not have a bait bag on. That might be toooooo challenging because of all the food smells. You can have the boring cookies up on a shelf or something, give him one – then run to the other side of the room and drag the toy around (make tie 2 toys together so you can really swing it around). Being away from the cookies will make it easier to tug because he won’t be surrounded by yummy food smells. When I was working this with one of my dogs, I ran down the hall to a different room to get away from the food smells 🙂 Then when I would get tugging, I would run back to the other room for a cookie. It was a great workout LOL! And it worked nicely to get the tugging to cookie to tugging transitions going. And I gradually worked up to being closer and closer. You might not need to run down the hall haha! But the other side of the room with no cookies in your hand is a good start!Let me know how it goes – great job here!
TracyHi! Poor little paw, I am glad he is feeling better!!!
The power of the prop made the get out very easy, I am glad you added the verbal and motion. All of the stationary stuff looked great. When you added motion, on the first rep he assumed prop because you moved and released at the same time. On the other reps you were generally in motion before the release so he could see the difference between the get out and the balance reps. It was easy to do the get out and move at the same time, but much harder to do a balance rep and move at the same time because that prop is so valuable 🙂
He seems ready to have you add a little more distance here, laterally away from the prop! And you can add more motion by starting from a cookie throw back too, so you are both moving up the line (rather than starting from a stay).Rotated sends: I loved your roller audience on the couch LOL!
The forward and sideways sends looked easy! The backwards send is indeed much harder – something that helped him was when you shifted your connection to where you wanted him to go. You watch your eyes on those – at :24 and :32 you were looking behind you more than at him, compared to 1:09 and 1:19 when you were looking right at him
On the second session, he had that backwards send all figured out!! Very nice!! He just had to think it over a little LOL! When his paw is back to 100%, definitely try the rocking horses 🙂Threadles – Almost perfect! He is driving in beautifully!! I don’t think you are changing your position to help him, I think you were just relaxing your position too quickly, right after you clicker the MM. So, do everything the same but keep your upper body frozen until after he arrives at the MM and eats his cookie. You can also start to fade the actual targeting: click the MM right before he gets to the hand to help create the in-then-out threadle behavior. And you can take the target out of your hand, he is ready for that too! No worries about the one time he didn’t take the jump – your position was a little further over so it was a little harder. You can wait a little longer now for the click of the MM – rather than clicking for arriving at your hand, you can click when he turns his head back to the bar for the ‘go back out’ part of the threadle behavior.
Great job here! Let me know what you think.
TracyGood morning! Great job in class last night!
I admit that I am a little jealous that you get to go to class!!!!
And I love that you brought your barrels. – brilliant way to help him generalize the behavior!!!
Loved your connection on these. He really lies on the connection. And you can use your arms a little more for a little added swoosh but don’t sacrifice your brilliant connection – it rocked here!
He did best (in terms of focus) when you were a bit wilder with the toy 🙂 So, only do 2 barrels in a row for now – tug before and after. Those moments when you exploded away and he chased you for the toy – that was awesome! I think doing 3 or 4 in a row without much action and for cookies is a little too calming for him, so he has some “ooh, what’s that?”moments and loses a little focus. But if you tug, then do a couple, then tug – perfect! You can also now spread the barrels apart and add more running (like we did last night :))
He did a fabulous job focusing with all of the people in the room, and I am sure there are a million good smells too. Great job!!!Tracy
Good morning!
About the sideways and backwards sending, 2 angles on it for you to consider:
– showing the pups the sideways and backwards sends helps prepare them for the (ideally) correct timing on front crosses and spins and such. If we are correct in our timing, the dogs will be approaching the jump while we are already sideways or backwards to it and moving away. Facing the jump while they are taking off for it on a FC or spin would be late timing, but if the pup doesn’t understand commitment then we are dooming ourselves to be perpetually late because we will always have to face forward to get commitment before peeling away in the next direction.
Also, if the pup understands sideways and backwards as commitment cues, then we will have more flexibility to be early and also to be imperfect – sometimes we accidentally slam on the brakes and rotate too soon. If the dogs understand how to commit *anyway*, then we are fine! Being perfect is pretty impossible, so I like to train the pups to allow us to be not-so-perfect sometimes 🙂– I do use a backwards send on certain things, such as a throwback after a forced front cross or on wrap cues when giving a strong cue or a reverse v-set.
I used to be overly-obsessed with keeping things consistent, never teaching the dogs to go behind my back, etc. It turns out that the only times the dogs go behind me when I don’t want them to is when I am really disconnected.
So the sideways/backwards sends allow for less-than-perfect execution (yay!) with no fallout from inconsistencies (DOUBLE yay!!) and you will end up facing sideways or backwards as part of any FC or spin, if you make a good transition into a FC or spin (I start talking a little about transitions in the Rocking Horses video, stay tuned for more in coming weeks!). And you will definitely want to use the sideways or backwards sends on things like throwbacks, reverse v-sets, etc. Let me know if that makes sense! I can gather video of my adult dogs doing it as part of ‘regular’ handling 🙂
On the video: he did really nicely with the rocking horses!! You can use your arm a little more, let them move naturally 🙂 I made everyone obsessive about arms now hahaha!!! Lovely connection! And he did well with going on one step. Yes, if you are going to reward, you won’t want to step to the next barrel because it makes it harder to step after the reward.
He did the double wrap at the very beginning – interesting, I didn’t think you cued it there at all. So be sure that if you do multi-wraps that you totally cue it and he doesn’t just do it on his own LOL!
He is ready for more action here – add some more distance and more running in and out to begin the transitions! Great job!Tracy
Hi! Screwing around sounds so FUN!!!
Funny you should mention that watching the videos can be sobering – I think each new pup might remind us that we have lost some of the edge to mechanics – I TOTALLY see that in my training LOL!! But as you mentioned – Fizz was happy 🙂 He had a high rate of success and LOTS of reward. He didn’t seem to be lacking in clarity and I saw no frustration in him, so it is all good 🙂 Yay! And that is why we train these silly games away from equipment – so we can sharpen up then put it all on the fancy stuff LOL!
This session is looking good! Lots of good reward in position. Something caught his nose and interrupted his tasing of thought after the first bravo moment, but then he got right back into it. You don’t have to train it in a loop like this, if there might be good smells around – you can reward, bravo it up, then call back to play a bit of tug (or have a dance party, like at 1:26) to keep him offering more. That can help him come back faster after a reset cookie. I also reset with a tug or dance party – cookies in position, then release to tug (or dance :)) with me, then back to offering (the cue to get back on the prop is when I get quiet and take the toy back or stop dancing, and go into the ‘international position for offer me something’ near the prop). I also use this to help the pups lear to modulate their own arousal – they alternate between a bit of a mosh pit and a stationary chill behavior 🙂
You can balance this out with the faster moving games like the parallel path and the turn and burn for wrapping! We will be looking at videos until well into September, so you are not behind at all 🙂
Have fun!
TracyHi! This is also going well, adding the Come verbal is perfectly fine because you have the behavior, so it is good to name it 🙂 We are going to be adding motion to this very soon, so you can start to change your foot position: rather than have your feet together, separate your feet as if you are in motion (but not really in motion haha) – that adds a tiny bit of challenge because more of your body will appear between the uprights, tempting him to *not* threadle. The only other suggestion is to keep your upper body frozen until he get to the cookie bowl – resist temptation to point your shoulders forward when he gets to your hand target. After he hits the hand target, just use your get it cue but keep your threadle arm back and shoulders not moving – that is to promote the in-then-out independently, so he doesn’t wait for you to point forward to cue the jump or cookie bowl. On course you will be running and own’t have time to point forward LOL!!
Great job here!! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! I am loving the trumpet background music! I was singing along. Is he doing the solo from Penny Lane?
Kaladin was *totally* getting the ‘get out’ cue. Nice session – everything looked good in terms of mechanics, going to the prop, etc. So…. onwards to motion! Remember to start him behind you (stay or cookie toss) so you can move up the line and give the cookie while he is still behind you. Also remember to do some balance reps where you just have him come parallel to you and not to the prop. Keep me posted, I am sure it will be easy peasy 🙂
T
Hi! I am loving the trumpet background music! I was singing along. Is he doing the solo from Penny Lane?
Kaladin was *totally* getting the ‘get out’ cue. Nice session – everything looked good in terms of mechanics, going to the prop, etc. So…. onwards to motion! Remember to start him behind you (stay or cookie toss) so you can move up the line and give the cookie while he is still behind you. Also remember to do some balance reps where you just have him come parallel to you and not to the prop. Keep me posted, I am sure it will be easy peasy 🙂
T
Hi! This video was tunnel fun 🙂 It looked great of course 🙂 Can you repost the strike a pose video? Thanks! 🙂
Hi there! Turn and Burn is looking great!! Her commitment is lovely and you were connected and running on a tight line – excellent!!!! Two little details to add now (they are related details) – on the send, your eyes can follow her around but your arm does not need to at all. As you send, your arm can give a little push forward but you don’t need to do any following of her line with your upper body, you can just relax the arm. The following of her line causes an extra rotation that will slow down your running (and you will need every ounce of speed with this punster, she is going to be faaaaast!) Which brings me to the next detail: start her a little further back, and start to leave even sooner 🙂 You were doing the FC as her nose was arriving at the barrel and she was great. So now you can leave before her nose gets there, when she is about a foot away from it. That will mean rotating sooner, which is why you don’t want your arm following her at all. Let me know if tat makes sense 🙂
Rocking horses looked perfect! Great start!! There was one little miscommunication when she came back after a cookie but I don’t think that was anything to worry about – the other reps were perfect. So now you can spread your two fancy barrels further apart 🙂 And add a little more speed, turn a little sooner and run a bit – it will challenge her commitment and your connection.
Great job!
TracyHi! Definitely do the package 4 walk through stuff first on the sequences then on the courses. – it is harder for the human than for the dog (perfect for now!) and it should be helpful in learning how to run the Red Rocket 🙂 I figure we all be looking at videos at least until after Labor Day, so no rush 🙂
T
Hi! Sorry to hear the weather has been so hot, it certainly shortens the summer in unexpected ways.
The skills sets went really nicely 🙂 Your ‘regular’ slice seeps (front side and back side) all looked good! The first convergence rep was a tiny bit late showing it to him at :25 (the convergence should be in progress as he is making a takeoff decision, which would be before the release on this rep). The next one at :33 (and later at 1:00) was spot on, he saw it as he was rounding the backside wing! Same with the convergence to the blind at :45 – the running path was early so he read it really clearly. And big happy dane for the normal slice after the convergence reps, some BCs like to ‘self-diverge’ and send themselves to the backside when the handler is not cuing it, but he was perfect. Nice!!
Onwards to the sequences:
Both tries looked good. The slice at 2 on the first rep ate some time up, he didn’t collect that much in front of the jump. I broke out the 2 timing spots to see exactly what was making such a big difference – the turn at 2 had a slight edge of about .15 on that lovely right wrap you did on the 2nd run (it was niiiiiiice!!! but only a tiny bit faster to the tunnel – if you can tighten up 2 on the left wrap, maybe with a stronger brake arm on takeoff side, it will be faster. The 4 jump was the make-or-break: the left turn wrap was the clear winner by about half a second there. Also, you drove him a tiny bit more on the 2nd part of the sequence (5-end) so that was overall about 4/10ths faster too – so the difference in times was spread out. I think the ‘which is fastest’ lesson is about getting the highest quality turns, straight lines to the tunnel, and driving him as hard as you can on the other sections 🙂 (The wrap on 2 might be slightly easier on grass, easier to grip coming around the turn with more extension).That turn on 4 is a clear winner, which is good to know (and surprising :)) When I filed it with Voodoo, I was quite sure his ground speed turning to the right on 4 would make it the fastest – especially because I had to handle the left wrap as a RC which is not necessarily the strongest cue for me. But, as with Enzo… they both turned brilliantly AND smoked the next line, with the shorter distance and fewer turns on the tunnel entry making a big difference. Good to know!!
Seq 2: this one was more about the convergence 3-4 🙂 I agree that the slice line ‘decision’ jump was the clear winner, but it is fun to see that the other options are close! he is getting good at wrapping!!!
On the convergence lines – you can converge more on 3 to get him turning to the 4 backside sooner there. Your first rep had your best convergence, you were right into the gap and he had an almost straight line. On the next rep, you were one or two steps later, so he turned after he landed – a subtle detail but it can also contribute to the overall time, because it requires you to take one more step to guarantee the backside at 4 before leaving for 5. The last rep was pretty similar to rep one. So, if you converge more immediately, you can also leave sooner for the 5 jump. Something to play with is doing it from further away – cuing the backside from closer to the tunnel and still showing convergence – but from more of a distance to see if you can get him turned away to 4 and then it is easier to get to 5 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyOh yay! She is really getting it now!!!! Three ideas for you to expand the skill, now that she is solving the puzzle:
-with this set up, lead out a little and add just a little bit of walking (everything else is the same – motion is a big distraction)
– with the same spacing, put the start jump at 4 inches and start her closer, so challenge her to come in right off her rear and not tap her front feet on the ground in front of the first jump. The easier height will make the plyometric element more palatable – then that first bar can move back up when she understands to push from the rear. You’ll probably need to experiment with exactly how close to start her to get that – maybe play with it on one jump before putting it into the grid.
– going back to the sequence where she had trouble with the slices on the backsidey jumps, you can revisit those parts of it (even if you don’t set the whole thing up again) – do a warm up of the grid for 2 reps, then the sequence for one rep, then the grid for 2 reps – let’s see what she thinks of that version of the puzzle 🙂
Keep me posted!
Tracy
