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Holy bananas, look at that commitment!! THAT is the best thing ever: he gets on his line and makes you hustle. I freakin’ love that!!! And nice job on the lead out push, especially with the tire! It was nice to see him be able to do that on new obstacles in a different place, after doing at home on Sunday.
Have you gone shopping for those shoes with wheels? You might need a couple of pairs. Ha!!!!!!
Nice connection on these, and really nice hustle from you. Does he seem to change in the new place, in terms of arousal? Meaning – does he get too high or distracted? I have not found that to be the case with BorderWhippets in general, they can maintain a nice balanced arousal in any environment. It will be fun to see the BWHaps develop, especially since they are pandemic pups.And yes, tables are stuuuuuuuupid, I have no argument with that. I guess if you are going to do AKC or USDAA with him, he needs to learn the table though LOL!!!!!!
Great job; exciting times ahead!!!
Tracy
Ah! THIS is where we see the progress from the mountain climbers. Yesssss! Happy dude, back and forth, leaping on and slamming the board down with far more confidence than we saw a week or two ago. And having Spree in his area grubbing for treats certainly helps hahahaha Perfect! You can play this relatively chill but super helpful game every day or so. Question: he is 2o2o on the end or 4on? I think at this stage, we can start isolating exactly what you want to build value through the roof for it. On these back and forth moments, you can have a target at each end to help him out (I definitely like targets to get his head down). He seems to know if it *something* about staying at the end but I am not sure if he knows it is 2o2o or 4on independently of your motion. We can get that rolling here on the bang game.
Great job!!!
TracyGood morning!
Her stays look good! When you mentioned disconnecting right away, do you mean on the lead out? Some dogs do fine with that, some dogs prefer that we don’t watch them as we lead out (my youngest dogs don’t want me watching them – too much pressure or excitement? LOL! As long as they hold the stay til released, I am happy) She looked good on her stays here and let you reconnect before the release. She broke at 1:08 but I think that was a baby dog moment and not a disconnect moment because you were chatting hahahaThe lead out pushes looks good when you are a little further across the bar, closer to the exit wing. At :30 you were a little closer to the other side and she read it as a forced front/threadle to the backside. She was perfect again at :55 and also 1:28 when you were closer to the other side and next jump. She was fast and bending nicely on that opening! Yay!
She was accurate on the GO at the end of the sequence in terms of commitment when you were near her, but did not want to leave you in the dust yet. Maybe it was the need to poop? Or a bit of loving the momma and the toy 🙂 But that is a good element to focus on! She was fast on the openings where she could chase you, and then on the closing after the tunnel she caught up to you and then matched your pace. You can get her to enjoy leaving you behind more by going closer to the tunnel and then as she exits, cuing the go and running: and throwing the reward very early. As soon as she looks ahead, throw the reward as far as you can and run run run 🙂 She doesn’t have to take the jump t get you to throw the reward, she just has to start moving to it and leave you behind. Don’t worry if your throws are not accurate or if she misses the jump because of a wild throw LOL! It is more about getting her to feel comfy driving ahead and the accuracy of finding the jump is in place enough that we don’t need to worry about it right now 🙂
Great job here! let me know what you think!
TracyWow, you have made fabulous progress!!!!!! Yay!!!
About the hot dogs, 2 ideas for you:
First, when we start this, I put the hot dog on the feeder tray so it is there before the pup goes up the board. So you can change that by having Merlin goes across the board without the hot dog there… and as he arrives at the top, run over and put the hot dog there. Don’t make him wait too long in a hot-dog-free zone, though LOL!!!Second – we start to add in an ‘end behavior’. He is small so I am guessing you want him to do a 4-on behavior at the end of the board? If so, we start to train it on a plank on the ground or on a low wobble board (the early contact games here will help that get going, if you haven’t started it yet)
Then you can meld the end position into the mountain climbers, so the hot dogs come as rewards at the end rather than being there before he starts.
L:et me know if that makes sense 🙂
TracyHi! He is totally terrific! I am not sure if he has less drive, it might be that he operates differently in a training session. He was completely on board here: thoughtful and precise but also moving plenty fast for what we needed here. What a cool little guy!!!!
His sends are looking great! Very clear front foot smacks 🙂 Good clicks and rewards placement from you! He is not yet able to tear his eyes away from the cookie hand, but that will come when you add more distance on the sends (which I think he is ready for a little more distance).
The blinds are good but I think you need a little more room, maybe outside or if you have a hallway? That way you can be moving away as he gets the cookie and do the blind before he gets to you. He had no trouble reading the blind here, so I don’t foresee any issues – and more room will add more speed 🙂How is his tugging? Definitely incorporate toys into the training so we can keep the toy play strong even as we use all the cookies 🙂
Great job here! Has Trish’s ear stopped bleeding?
Tracy
Yay for perching, it is such an important skill for awareness and later on down the road for strengthening. Great for keeping that darned psoas in a happy place 🙂
Yes, try some duct tape to keep the thing from rolling 🙂 He was ‘looking’ for it under his feet but he was not quite getting the foot over it.
One thing to tweak in the perch work set up, based on rehab vet info (I have had waaaaaay too many talks with rehab vets in the past 12 months):
when you want hind end movement, use a lower perch. I would say no more than 3 or 4 inches tall for him. When the perch is high, he has no choice but to shift his weight to his hind end, which makes it harder to freely move his hind end which results in either more sticky behavior or compensations in form. This is especially true when we want him to step over something with the lateral motion. With a lower perch, the weight distribution is more equal and perhaps a little more on his front end: which is perfect for perch work because he strengthens the shoulders while the hind limbs have freedom to move about and work the psoas, quads, hammies, etc.Separately from the perch work, keep him understanding how to put his paws up on this current perch – that is a separate conditioning exercise to isometric strengthening (again, from the rehab vet people lol) that gets built on as the dogs get older. My dogs do this ‘paws up’ behavior on a taller perch (or unstable surface) and they do perch work on a much lower perch (and eventually an unstable surface when they are physically mature).
Let me know if that makes sense! Great job here!!
TracyHi! I see what you mean here! He was definitely hitting it more on your right side. Separately from this game, balance out being on your left both on leash and off leash – play the easier games a little more often on your left side 🙂
On this game: I think part of what was happening was that your angle and line on motion when he was on your left was harder and required more lead change than when he was on your right. On your right, you were more parallel to it and on your left it was a different angle of approach and then you were curling away a little bit. So, on your right where it is easier: add some challenge by being further away, laterally, so he has to really diverge from your path to get to the prop. You will see him take a couple of steps away to get it as you continue moving straight.
And on the left, make your line easier so it is more parallel – and also start closer. He seemed to not really know that we wanted him to lead change to hit it on that side (when he did hit it, he was turning around to hit it).
So start in a line: prop – WM – you.
Without motion, and he is on your left. And cue him for the get out so he only takes one step to his left (lead change) rather than turn around to it. And if he passes it, don’t send him back to it as that reinforces the turning around – just reset and do an easier rep.The other thing that can make it easier is if you elevate the target. Back in the olden days, I would take a nice thick phone book and duct tape a target to it (taping the whole thing so it wouldn’t move). Since we really don’t have phone books anymore, you can use a text book or piece of wood or a brick – anything small enough to be easy to hit and also easy for you to move. That can give a more salient visual as you add your motion.
Let me know if that makes sense! It is normal for different sides to progress at different rates, so you can work the harder concepts on your right and the easier ones on your left 🙂
Tracy
Hi! His joyous leaps to the toy were adorable 🙂
This looked great! No problems with distance or added angles. Yay! Three things to add (because tunnels are fun and easy):
– more speed from you. Sometimes pups get distracted when we humans really get running
– more difficult angles on the threadle sends so he starts further back nearer to the exit, between you and the tunnel (which will set us up perfectly for next week’s tunnel threadle game :))
– on the regular sends, add some curve to the end of the tunnel so it is more ‘blind’. A small gradual curve is perfect, then you can curve the entry. No need to do a ton of it because it is hard on their toes, but you can introduce the concept of “you can’t see the exit” and see how he doesI am confident that he will be great with all of these. Yay!!!!
TracyGood morning!
This was interesting indeed, with regard to the MM. It almost looked like a little avoidance, like when it clicked and he looked at it but didn’t go to it. But when it was on the Other side of the jump: no problem. Hmmmm. So it might have been that he was not comfortable moving to it in close proximity to to the Dog Walk? Or that he is on a bit of a ‘I don’t like the MM today” moment that he got over when you switched sides. I don’t think it was him being overly thoughtful because he has gone to it on a number of occasions and in different scenarios. The next time you try this, try it without the DW nearby and see if that changes things? And maybe try it without the beep on the MM but I don’t think that was it.Anyhoo, on the threadles: yay, no problem coming to the threadle side, good boy!!!! You were using your cross arm (which is a good choice for a threadle arm) but the cross arm makes it hard to point your feet towards the reward (which is the direction of travel when we get you moving). You ended up in more of a forced front cross position and then turned when he got to the backside.
Forced fronts are great to work on too! For the threadle in these early stages, start it with the dog side arm, like the serps, so you can keep your feet pointing to the reward (and future next line). When the verbal goes on and we fade the spoon (very soon, I promise haha) then you can introduce the cross arm. I use the cross arm on a LOT of my threadles (all tunnel threadles and many jump threadles) and the dogs are happy to see this get added a few steps down the road in training. By waiting til we fade the spoon and get the verbal on, you will be able to present the cross arm and have your feet going the right way.
I think you will be able to get the verbal on pretty quickly! This is a good start to it 🙂 Great job – let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
I most definitely saw steam exiting his ears here! I admire how he was working to make the choices, though – the difficulty of the challenge was very high and he was offering behavior! This is better than being frustrated and offering tooth hugs! I *think* the backside behavior either comes from the backside skill being presented in ways where there is pressure, so he might associate the backside with high level of challenge. Or, he might have been “Border Collie-ing” and the challenge was causing him to flank out a bit. Either way: he was working and trying even when the rate of success was not super high. YAY!!!! So the session was very successful in that you got to figure out how to help him here, and he got to practice resilience. You were really good when there were errors, which supported him trying to figure it out.
And that backside tunnel was brilliant. Good boy! “Mom said TUNNEL, I am in a tunnel.”So, what helps? A little motion. For now, try giving him one step to help support the verbal. If he can’t do it with one step, give 2 steps.
And also – you can do this with motion throughout by adding a wing in front of it: do a wing wrap to the tunnel or wrap on the jump. This will help him process the verbal when things are really exciting and moving, which is what you’ll encounter on course.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
I most definitely saw steam exiting his ears here! I admire how he was working to make the choices, though – the difficulty of the challenge was very high and he was offering behavior! This is better than being frustrated and offering tooth hugs! I *think* the backside behavior either comes from the backside skill being presented in ways where there is pressure, so he might associate the backside with high level of challenge. Or, he might have been “Border Collie-ing” and the challenge was causing him to flank out a bit. Either way: he was working and trying even when the rate of success was not super high. YAY!!!! So the session was very successful in that you got to figure out how to help him here, and he got to practice resilience. You were really good when there were errors, which supported him trying to figure it out.
And that backside tunnel was brilliant. Good boy! “Mom said TUNNEL, I am in a tunnel.”So, what helps? A little motion. For now, try giving him one step to help support the verbal. If he can’t do it with one step, give 2 steps.
And also – you can do this with motion throughout by adding a wing in front of it: do a wing wrap to the tunnel or wrap on the jump. This will help him process the verbal when things are really exciting and moving, which is what you’ll encounter on course.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
This also went well, I think the hardest part for her was going to the toy when she could smell cookies near the target. My guess is that she associates the target with treats, so she would hit it really nicely and then she was confused when you offered the toy not treats (Bit Mom we get COOKIES for this hahahahaha)
But she figured it out and then it shifted a little into going to the toy and not hitting the target as well. No worries, though: holding the target further away will make it easier for her to see it (you can also shake the target so it is more obvious when the toy is there).>> Sit stays are going not too bad. >>
I was just going to say the same thing: yay for the stay!!!!! I liked how she did!!!!
Great job here, onwards to the jump! And do you have a manners minder or remote feeder? You can use that on the jump too 🙂
TracyHi! When my Export was 6 months old (he is 15 now) I had no toy retrieve and ZERO recall lol! So i did a lot of go for a run and kept sending him for a run til he got bored of it… then I would do a recall or a retrieve and had a party. It made a world of difference and he started coming back sooner and sooner 🙂
THi!
This went really well 🙂 you have built good value on the target which makes it easier. It is fine to say yes when she hits the target, then present the treat in the other hand like you did.
Only one suggestion: you can hold the target hand/serp arm further away from your body. You had it down by your knee, but it will be more obvious if you have it way out to the side – and that is also more like where the hand would be when you are running. I think when it was too close to your knee, she didn’t always see it and that is why sometimes she went to the cookie hand.This went so well that you can transfer it directly to the jump. Yay!! Great job!
Tracy
