Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Good morning!
>bailed because I just didn’t want to.>
Haha I relate to this and “I just didn’t want to” is a perfectly valid reason not to go 🙂
Social learning with Ella – he got right on the tug. Yay! He looked super happy.
>I have to laugh at which dog got distracted>
She appears to really like kids. She looked at the kids, yes, but in a happy way so he glanced at them too and then went right back to tugging. That is still VERY valuable social learning. They have different interest levels in kids, but neither dog was worried about it. Ella modeled “Kids are so cool” and Chaser was like “are they? Ok, that is fine, I will just ignore them.”
>I could feel his vibes >
What were his vibes?
>I went for some IF but>
The tugging and wrapping on the barrel looked good here (it is not instant focus because of all the toy play leading up to it. Instant focus has no visible reinforcement and no interaction before the ‘work’ – it is simply come into the environment and do the thing (then the toy comes out).
But this is still incredibly valuable and he did great!!
Feel free to ask him to eat a treat here too sometimes: toy, barrel, treat, toy, barrel, toy, barrel, etc – getting more food interaction as part of work is valuable for getting food to be more exciting (pairing it with tugging and barrels and running :))
The LOEO looked strong on the first and 2nd videos: You can run even more when you give him the toy – he will like that a lot: engaging with the momma gets her to run like a crazy person LOL And you can mix in immediate toy play rather than waiting for engagement.
You can also change up the Instant Focus object. For a dog like him where the work might be the actual reward, then we need to make sure we have different ‘work’ – it can be a plank or a foot target or anything that has been separately shaped to have really high value. This simulates agility: MANY behaviors 🙂
>I unconsciously cheated by walking him more to get attention before I loeo. I>
He did really well but next time… don’t cheat to get attention beforehand because that changes the classical conditioning of the LOEO. This game sits squarely in the classical conditioning realm and not operant conditioning/choices.
If the environment is really hard (like you think he might go visit Bella) then you need to be in full on classical conditioning mode: starting further away, walk in and immediately take the leash off (doesn’t matter where he is looking) and run like a wild person to get him chasing the toy. No decision needed – the classical conditioning will be both more powerful than that, and will produce the ‘decision’ to engage (which is actually the automatic response produced by classical conditioning.
If you think the distraction has a high probably of him leaving to investigate it, use 2 leashes. One is looped over your wrist and you take off the other one. That prevents hi from leaving as you work on the pairing. But don’t let him drag a 2nd leash, because if he leaves you will be tempted to step on it – and that results in a leash correction to his neck which is absolutely not the pairing we want.
In a couple of the videos, you said ‘who are you’? And I am guessing you were meaning “wow, you are really fired up and engaged”. If so, I think that means we are shifting the needle the direction we want it to go: happy relaxed pumped up engagement without any worries from him and without any meh responses. Let me know what you think!
Great job here 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
>reviewed the tight turn out of tunnel and tried moving into it and deceling. This seemed to go well. >
It looked really good! Lovely!
>I think I did better with positioning for the backside jump? >
Yes, those turns looked really good too – the decel into them and your positioning set up really nice turns. You can see him turning nice and close to the wing/over the part of the bar that points him most directly back to the next line. And I felt like you didn’t need to use much handling to get the line to the tunnel after it.
>He seemed to have trouble figuring out his striding for the straight jumps at first.>
Yes – he was definitely sorting it out and I chuckled as his offering of running really fast past all of them LOL! Part of that might have been the position of the tunnel exit (you changed it after that) but also part of it might have been sorting out striding while jumping towards the fence with the other visual challenges out there. He ws definitely processing it all – even with him knowing the food reward was out there after the first rep, he was still a bit head-up and trying to do the striding math. He is sorting it out well, though, nothing to add to it other than re-visiting straight lines to maintain the skill.
Yes, you decelerated at :14 relevant to the middle jump on the line – the decel started as soon as he landed from the jump after the tunnel. Good boy to read it!!
The reps at :30 & :44 looked good in terms of timing (he knew which jump you wanted the collection on).
>First time he turned pretty wide.>
He is collecting really well on the takeoff side but wide on the landing of all the left turn wraps. Was it because you were further back so he couldn’t see the exit line connection there, so he was widening the line to see what was next? Or maybe turning left is the harder side? Or a bit of both?
For the left turn wraps, you can send to the tunnel from further away to get closer to the wrap jump to show him the exit line connection to tighten the exit. And you can even do a ‘turn and burn’ exaggerated wrap there and reward the turn.
When you turned to the other side:
The BC looked great! And the wrap went well too there! Your timing was really good and he collected really well.
That was at 1:01 and also that rep looked like the best exit line connection so far – as he exited the wing, you were pretty close to the wing and also you were looking pretty directly back at him. You can keep exaggerating the exit line connection even when you are not close to the wing, to show the next line.
The RC on the last rep went really well too! Super nice!!!!
On there 3rd video:
>was not at all in time for the first serp!>
Yes, he smoked that line really well 🙂 Plus he had seen it in a straight line context a lot so he was not expected to be pushed away like that.
On the next rep, you sent to the tunnel from much further away and got the serp easily – and that is something to do when you want the wrap on the end of the line too 🙂
One thing you can do to get through that serp line is to converge directly to it: as soon as you see him locked onto the tunnel, head directly to the serp jump rather than square up your running line to the jump after the tunnel, then head to the serp. That will get you there sooner (and past it sooner). And it will add a little challenge for him to still be able to take the jump after the tunnel and come in for the serp.
I think you were dialing back the motion to the next jump so keep powering through more like at :41 when you broke it down and 1:39 in flow.
For the blind, the convergence will also help get it sooner:
At 1:11 you had a few steps straight up the line after you send to the tunnel, soy were just passing the wing of the jump who he was halfway to it at 1:13. Going very directly to the blind cross line will get you there sooner so you can start the blind when he exits the tunnel at the latest.The ending line was tricky getting to the tunnel that was turning away from the line! He was figuring it out really well, especially if he had a tight turn on the jump at the beginning of that line. If you see him coming towards you, you can give him a ‘get out’ cue (and even an outside arm) to help shift his leads back out to the tunnel.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
He did great with the serp versus tunnel versus threadle here! The tunnel cues were perfect, he had no questions about the serps, and did the threadles really well too! Only one suggestion:
For the threadle – try not to turn your feet to him, try to do it with your feet still pointing towards the tunnel (which is the line you would be going to next) and your arms and position near the entry wing telling him it is a threadle not a serp.
You can start adding motion to this: rather than lead out and release when you are stationary, you can lead out a little less and release while you are moving. This is a little harder but I think he is ready for it.The rear crosses had a lot of success here! On the first few reps on your right side, he drove ahead to the jump nicely and that made it easier to how the RC line.
He did not drive ahead as well when you switched sides to have him on your left – maybe he needed more ‘go’ reps mixed in on that side? Or maybe it is a little cue confusion: you were walking, dog on left, so maybe he confused it with heeling if you have out value into heeling lately (1:47). So that made it harder to show the RC on that rep and he turned to his right.
But as soon as you threw the reward and also when you moved a bit more, he drove to the jump better and the RCs at 1:55 & 2:03, he drove ahead and you were able to get the left turn info sooner and got the RC. Super!
So for the rear crosses especially when he is on your left – do a couple of ‘go’ reps to remind him to drive ahead, and also you can give a verbal cue to indicate he should drive to the jump (a left or right cue would work here, because they mean “take the jump and turn left/right”.
Great job!
Tracy
So fun! I love that it was a problem solving game because Vibe had no problems LOL! It looked to be a really nice ‘trust the line, go find the thing, don’t take the tunnel just because it is there’ series of concept games 🙂 Fantastic!
And ending with the sequence was super nice – fast and flowy, with all sorts of exposure to things he might see at a trial.
I am so glad you & Vibe are having a blast!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Lennan is actually feeling better already after 3 doses of doxy. I suspected the anti-inflammatory effect as well, especially as his wrist was quite sore and then suddenly wasn’t.>
Wow, I am so glad to hear this!! I do suspect the antibiotic is part of it too – I did a pain trial with Ramen (carprofen) and it made no difference.
> He won’t be back to working until the wrist is cleared. I have been practicing walking courses for him in the meantime though!>
Smart!! And I bet some of the weird things you saw this spring will not be happening again – these dogs might have been feeling the effects of this for a long time. I think Ramen started showing symptoms as far back as February or earlier.
>He actually is intact and we haven’t specifically checked for prostate issues but he did have a urine test to go along with the Lyme testing and that came back with everything perfectly normal.>
That is good news in a lot of different ways. I think exam and urine test as the 2 ways to look for it.
>Everyone told me to watch for decreased appetite with doxy, but so far his appetite is up and it wasn’t down before. >
Interesting! I haven’t been told that about doxy – only that it might upset his stomach a bit (not an issue LOL).
>It may not be the medication actually causing increased appetite, but it certainly isn’t decreasing it so far. This has happened before when Lennan has been on restricted activity that he starts focusing on food more, which is extra challenging as he really shouldn’t have extra due to the decreased activity! He is normally respectful of the cat food but so far has stolen the cat food twice already!>
Poor starving Lennan! LOL! I am thankful that he feels good enough to steal cat food 🙂
T
Hi!
>There was an air gun nailer going off quite frequently at the house on property so he was skittish first run. >
Yikes! Poor buddy, a lot of dogs would be nervous about that!
>my coach advised to do simpler handling moves to keep him from having to think too much. Also, to keep things simple on the other side of the dog walk I had him go straight over jump 19.>
This was good advice: keep it fast and fun when something in the environment was scary. It looks like he was a little tentative at the beginning but then really kicked into high gear after the weaves.
The opening looked great! Especially the super right line 8-9-10-11! But really, it all looked really good – connected and clear!
The blind cross after the wrap on 13 (before the weaves) went well. You can also keep him on your right to flip away at 15 and layer 16, so get you down the line sooner for the BC 16-17 and the crazy backside on 19 :). Staying closer to him and not layering might have been a choice made on keeping you close and giving him a ton of confidence with the air gun noise, and it worked really well!
>We worked on getting the backside from both sides of the dog walk. >
That was a really good session! He knew it was *something* with coming into the other side of the 19 jump, but didn’t know to go back to it with you at a distance. You can keep adding more and more distance away from it, working up to being on the other side of he DW. And you can take out the 20 jump for now, so the visual draw of the off course jump is not part of the picture as he figures out going back to 19.
The other option here, based on how the course was built – you can send him to the other side of the 19 jump to create a backside slice from 19-20! That would be fu to work on at a bigger and bigger distance 🙂 That doesn’t look like a good option on the map but the course was built beautifully to allow it!
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
Looking at the first video: overall, this went really well!!!! You were more connected with low arms (maybe because the goal is to keep going) and both of your were more relaxed: no biting!Interesting that she went past the jump at :07 – she might have read it as a layering cue due to the convergence to get to the backside on the next jump? Great job continuing there 🙂 You had less convergence at :28 and there were no questions from her. Your handling was even better at :50, so she had no questions and no trouble getting the backside after it. Yay!
One other handling detail:
On the backside, you did a FC at :53 & 1:18 but that put you on the wrong side for the next line. You did the rear cross but it will be easier to just keep her on your right side. You can get the backside then serp her in over the bar, to take out the FC then rear cross for the next line.
On the 2nd video: this went well too! The threadle lines here were hard for sure but you kept her moving so there was no frustration.
Doing the opening on your left and not your right definitely makes more sense for the opening – great job keeping her moving as you sorted it out. You can also send her to the other side of the first jump so you can get further ahead up the first line.
For the threadle at :45, the foot rotation brought in between the jumps but then stepping back to the jump pushed her to the backside – being further away at :50 & :57 helped show the front side better. That is good to know – being too close to the jump can read as a backside cue, so being further away helps show the front side.
Sending to the backside after the tunnel from further away will also help to get you back down the line for the next threadley line. Being just a bit ahead makes a lot of difference to her so you can use your distance to set that all up.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
>I will look at getting a supplement for Lennan.>
I use a human grade supplement from the local grocery store. No other ingredients and super inexpensive!
>Aelfraed says he’s a rule creator, not a rule follower.>
ACCURATE.
> I’ve told him a few times that shelties are supposed to eat everything. He says he doesn’t care. He is also definitely like someone who doesn’t want different foods touching on the plate!>
He can do whatever he likes and we will figure out how to follow his rules LOL
>I hope Ramen will be feeling better soon!>
Thanks! 2 doses of doxy on board and his appetite has come roaring back – he ate a real meal of his actual food without any help for the first time in almost 2 weeks. And he was a BEAST in training this morning. But doxy also has an anti-inflammatory in it, so I am guessing the good feelings are coming from that. The tick panel is not back yet, but vets here are quick to prescribe doxy. The vet also prescribed a med for a possibly enlarged prostate due to finding some red & white blood cells in his urine but no bacteria – I figured that is a good one to pass along in case Lennan is intact also (a friend told me to ask the to check prostate also).
We will get these dogs figured out! Keep me posted on how Lennan is feeling!
Tracy
Hi!
>He was less impressed when I started with the jumps individually but once he was running from the tunnel, he figured it out pretty quickly.>
I am pretty sure I heard him say “Backchaining is for losers” or something like that 🤣😂
He did really well though – the croissants made it all worthwhile 🙂 When he went around jump 3 at :29, I think that was just him realizing he was going fast and not quite organized enough for a proper takeoff, so he aborted mission and went around the jump. I MUCH prefer that over a potential splat on the jump, so he was a good boy there. He had it sorted out for the next reps, no problem.
I think he wants to take 1 big stride in that last distance but needed to prepare to stop at the food target so needed to add one more stride. When you are training with someone else, they can drag the croissant attached to a leash? Or you can have the reward target another 3 or 4 strides away from the last jump so he has room to extend if he wants to.
When you added the straight line to the full sequence, he was a much happier dude LOL It looked great! He was a little wide on the landing of the backside in the opening, but that was because of your position: if you get closer to the backside wing and do the FC right on the tightest possible line, he will tighten up the line there nicely 🙂
You can see that spot better on the 2nd video: your position in the FC was more on the center of the bar so he was correctly jumping to that line (:06 & 1:06). If you get right up to where the jump cups meet the bar, that will set the tight line back to the tunnel.
For the tight turns: he was sorting these out nicely too! As you build it up and add more distance and speed, you can show it to him even sooner. His tunnel commitment is looking pretty fabulous, so you can be decelerating on the send to the tunnel and showing him the foot rotation while he is still 2 meters away from the entry.
That will help him turn tighter – he wants to come blasting out of the tunnel which is great, because he will need that skill to get out of Novice 🙂
The rear crosses looked great, especially after all of those Go lines! And he went back to the straight line really well. Yay!
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
>The school started back up and I have been exhausted with work! >
I was thinking of you this week, figuring it was a very busy week!
>Slacked off on the training from games package 3 quite a bit. >
It is not slacking off at all! School starting back up is hard!
>But the last week or so, we have been actively working on the Leash Off Engagement On game so that she still engages with me when her leash comes off. I am also using the exact same leash as I use on her for trials.>
Perfect! Keep playing that game – it is fun and creates a really great behavior. I play it all the time, even with my experienced dogs!
> In both, I did FEO and NFC runs prior (at least 1-2 runs before these ones shown).>
Great! How did those runs go? Got video?
>I know in Games Package 2, you discussed using the snuffle mat as decompression. I have been using that with her before entering the ring (last week — our first trial back after about 4 weeks)…first we did all our warm up exercises, then we did bit of snuffle mat…and when we were about 2-3 dogs before entering, we went back to doing volume dial games. Is this okay? Seems to work for us.>
Yes, this is an excellent order of festivities. Keep track of how the runs went, so we can see what helps her the best 🙂
Looking at the runs:
>I was super happy with her focus, drive, and overall state>!
Yes! The opening was great – she had to turn towards the crowd and completely ignored the people, working with speed and precision. And she was *right past* the judge a few times and ignored her completely too. SUPER! And the weaves looked great too!
One suggestion: if the handling goes wrong or there is a fault: don’t react to it and especially for now: don’t fix it! That was where we saw her slow down or show concern. So just keep going as if everything was perfectly according to plan (the bloopers on this run were handling bloopers, so reacting or fixing are going to stress her out).
>In the UKI Masters Agility one, she was a bit stressy there at the start as you can see…the scratches! >
Yes – as soon as she realized your were leading out, the scratching started. There was no stress scratches in the other run – it looks like you did a ready-set-GO start on that one!
So suggestion for now to help alleviate start line stress: do stays only in NFC runs, and reward a lot in the ring. And in any real’ runs, only do ready-set-go starts for now. Combining those two things will ultimately result in a great happy stay 🙂
When you went back to her and did a bit of a ready set go… she was happy again 🙂
And also in UKI, if you want to do a ready set go/ no-lead-out start but need to get ahead, you can ‘slingshot’ her to the backside of jump 1! That allows you to get ahead of her while be super motivating. Side note: you can’t do that in AKC 🙂
This is important because it took her a while to shake off the start line stress – she did the opening but was not running, then visited the ring crew. Remember in that moment: run Spike! That keeps you moving and will get her back into the game 🙂
Going back to fixing or adjusting bloopers… on this run there was an almost blooper where you called her hard (toward the end at 1:01) but you kept moving so she was not sad about it at all.
I noticed when you stopped moving to get the weave entry -she got stressed. Nothing had gone wrong at all, but you were setting the weave entry without motion. This is VERY good to know and would explain why she got stressed in the previous run when you stopped moving to fix stuff.
So the top priority is to keep moving, keep moving, and also keep moving 🙂 In the weave scenario here, I bet you can cross the other side of the weaves just to stay in motion.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
>I remember how fun it was to get to run with you in person after having done online classes with you when Ripley was a puppy.>
That was so fun, back in the baby Ripley days!!!!
> I tried to pick some classes for him that were really foundational and just jumps and tunnels to avoid any weirdness with obstacles we don’t do yet. >
That was smart!
>I’m letting each instructor know my goal is for him to have fun and think he’s perfect even if he gets anything wrong and that we’re not really here to learn new skills as much as we are wanting to just create super happy feelings. >
Perfect! Happy feelings are the MOST important thing, and the everything else can be built on top of those happy feelings 😁
>“Speed lines for confidence” with Stacie Kwik. I didn’t sign it up for the speed lines one due to lack of confidence, but just because it sounded like something that would give nice flowy sequences and let him go fast without too much super technical handling that we’re still building towards. >
Perfect! I would do the same thing. These ‘speed line’ seminars are SO fun for dog and handler at every level.
>She did have some nice layering options, and so we tried those and he did great. She was really thoughtful about backchaining through the sequences, which worked really well for Vibe and let him have a really high rate of success.>
Fantastic! And the handling all when well but more importantly: he was amazeballs in that challenging environment. In that very first run, there was a dog going super fast in the other ring (:06) and he was driving towards a dog running in the other ring too. I know we as handlers focus on the handling a up close engagement but the ability to do all that *in this environment* is so wonderful! I remember many. Many young dogs struggling with the environment!
I will also point out that some of the lines would have been easy for him to run around jumps but he was super about finding the Iines. This is all very exciting!!
Great job here! Keep me posted on how the rest of camp goes!
Tracy
Hi! The Go and the backsides looked lovely here! He had no questions about where to be. To get more speed on the backsides, you can start close to the wing so you are showing more motion up the line there.
The rear crosses are coming along too! I think the main thing that was happening on the rear crosses was that you were actually too far ahead, so it felt awkward to push the line because he was still behind you (especially at :43). You were running a good line, so to make it smoother you can start really close to the start wing, and stay right next to it until he is done wrapping it and almost next to you. That is when you can start jogging up the line to the center of the bar – that should cue him to go past you and to turn the new direction for the rear cross.
Nice work here!
Tracy
Hi! I agree, this session went GREAT!
Using 2 toys worked really well – she did not seemed to be overly focused on the toy in your hand or on the toy on the ground. And were you throwing a treat to help with the lineup? If so, she seemed happy to eat it too. All good! And the toy placement for the straight line and the turn on the RC looked good too.
>I also raised the bar to 10”.
>Not a problem for her at all! You can try 12” next time 🙂
>I’m wondering if starting with an actual stay might help out start. Getting the toy out, and getting her straight and focused is a challenge and moreso when she turns left.>
The reps here looked good – she doesn’t have to be perfectly straight at your side, but you were good about getting her facing the wing before sending her to it. You can have her in a stay facing the wing if you like and if it feels smooth. We don’t want her in a stay facing the jump, because it gives you less time to show her the handling (dogs generally assumed the release means to go straight).
My only suggestion is about the verbals: use the Go early and often for the straight line reps. But on the left/right rear crosses, you can use the left/right verbal only. It means ‘take the jump and turn left/right’. Using the Go cue first could lock her onto the extension line and might dilute the turn cues, or vice versa (teach her to ignore the go straight cue).
Great job here! You can totally move to the advanced level with the backsides now!
Tracy
Hi!
Sorry for missing this! Totally my fault for not scrolling up.>OMG I bet you got the looks at him humping the leash. How long are they teenagers?>
Hopefully the humpy stage is very short-lasting 🤣😂
>That makes total sense he him thinking it was threadle for those couple. Did I handle it ok?>
Yes! And you made it a little easier and clearer to get more success on the skill you wanted.
>I should have known he wouldn’t stay with how crazy he was being. He is bored and has to spend more time alone when I am busy with work. He behaves well but I see the energy after. >
You can start training sessions with some high energy stuff like running through a tunnel or anything where he can be a bit wild without needing a stay or anything like that 🙂
>I think I understand your next challenge for the serp but maybe a drawing?>
Let me know if this makes sense:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1VcOviwXuytfqNEbycpz5WL_uIlfXlebYQi96CShtv28/edit?usp=sharing>I apologize for comments. Was odd mood in class. >
It keeps things spicy! LOL!! The session went well 🙂 Your timing was good and he is learning the different exits. That was a nice big distance!
And I agree that we want him looking ahead more on the GO reps, so you can enlist someone else to throw it so your ankle isn’t doing too much right now. Having it placed on the ground is great! But also you can enlist the instructor or classmates to make it a moving target where, as soon as he exits the tunnel, they start running forward dragging the toy. That way they run a lot and you don’t need to 🙂 and it makes it easier to fade out having it placed there.
The first left cue got the GO probably because he had just done a bunch of fun Go reps, and your verbal was big and loud like your Go verbals were. So you can be nice and quiet on the left verbal before the tunnel, more in a casual conversation volume. That will help so that you don’t have to decelerate (he is fast so ideally you don’t decel on stuff like this :))
Great job!
Tracy
