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Happy Inauguration Day!
I had to watch this a couple of times, I was distracted by your jacket (jealous!!)
He did well here!! Driving up to the top of the contact then moving through to the yummies. Perfect! And making the visual easier might prove to be helpful – hard to tell here, but a couple of sessions will let us know. So here is what I think is next: he is driving up *almost* the whole length of the board. If we can now start to add in the end position: boom! Mission accomplished. I think he drives almost to the end and then since there is nothing else to do, he shifts the board then goes to the cookies. He is not stopping in the middle of the plank.
With that in mind, let’s schedule out his teeter training 🙂 Instead of daily mountain climbers, do a daily bang game where the value of his target position gets sky high with both clear criteria and amazing rewards. And do mountain climbers every couple of days to maintain current status, but no real need to add a lot more tip at this point (because he doesn’t have a real destination to drive to, other than a cookie plate_. The goal is, in the next month or so as he approaches a year old, to meld together the mountain climbers and the end position games and a couple of other games into a fabulous seesaw. He is right on track.
For a dog doing 2o2o, I think the emphasis has to shift away from the mountain climbers at this stage because the real drive across the board comes from the love for end position. And for the bigger dogs, with a 2o2o destination, we shift our focus to that for a bit then morph it all together.
Great job! Let me know if if this makes sense!Tracy
Yay! He is doing really well! I think he enjoyed the ball chasing 🙂 That actually adds value to the movement because he moves through the board tipping to chase the ball! And it looks like you were pretty convincing with the rewards at the end of the board LOL! He is looking for the tip a little on that first rep but that will go away as we add more and more end position. He looked pretty confident driving ahead of you too. Happy dance! I am adding a new game later this week to help with controlling the tip of the board, I think that will help too.
Speaking of end position: how is the bang game going? That will also help him balance the tip of the board.Great job here!
TracyHi!
Behold the power of the magic cookie hand! LOL!!! All of the dogs had a VERY easy time of this, I am super thrilled! She was fabulous. You can play with starting the FFC one step earlier, just as she arrives at the commitment line.
This was a really good set up for these, because the tunnel was both temptation and reward 🙂 Although, she never looked in the wrong place. Happy dance! I think she was quite brilliant on both the regular FFCS and the throw backs. On the throwback exits where you took her to the far end of the tunnel: perfect! The girl is a GREAT turner! You can try stepping forward one step earlier as you throw her back, to play with just how early you can leave position. The spin on the exit of the throw back put her into the tunnel entry on your left, I am not sure if that was the one you wanted but it was correct on her line. If you wanted the same tunnel entry as the front cross exit, you can delay the blind cross element and also move more directly to that end of the tunnel.
Great job here!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
This is going really well!! Tunnel – to – lap turns looked great! It is not easy to get into position and turned on time so you might have felt like you were scrambling and not in perfect position… but she is SO FAST that I think it is great that you got it done perfectly each time at the beginning here!! True, you can try to get closer to the wings BUT it is more important to time it correctly than to be in perfect position.
On the first couple of tandems you got to the other side of the tunnel (makes it a little harder for you LOL!) but that is fine 🙂 On a few of them, you used the dog-side arm opening back and then at :34, you used the outside arm – to help keep it clear for her, I suggest using the dog-side arm opening back for threadle slices (where she would keep going) and use the outside arm for the tandem turn – which involves that rear cross element (also known as a threadle rear cross).
On the bigger sequence when you added the race track: at :44, I think this was an example of motion being the strongest cue. You were in motion (backing up) near the wing on your right – but as she arrived at you, you tried to lap turn her to the wing on your left. Motion won! It was a little hard to see your shoulders there too, but it looks like the right shoulder was a little forward so she was correct to read coming to you right. You can reward those moments – when the dogs do that, they are 99% of the time reading us correctly 🙂
At :51 you were in the middle between the two jumps and not moving – but too early on the lap turn. Be sure to hold your position and arm stretched towards her, until she is just about at your hand – and then turn her away. This is especially important when you are a little further from the wing.
Same at :59 – you were close to the other wing and moving backwards near it… so she committed to it. Good girl 🙂
You held it longer at 1:05 and she got it. Yay!I think something that will help on this also is if you face her more directly (turned and feet pointed towards her nose as she exits the tunnel) as that will draw her right into you and she won’t be thinking about committing to a wing until you send her. You were a little sideways at 1:05 and 1:15 so she was not sure where to be, exactly. Compare it to :08 and :13 when she exited the tunnel and you were facing her – she totally knew where to be on those.
She did a good job reading the tandem turns and the turns back to the tunnel! Based on the angle there, doing a little pull/threadle to the tunnel was definitely useful to her. And also at 1:50 when she ended up going back to the wing before the tunnel, that was you driving in with motion – a threadle would be helpful there (and also the reps where you did the outside arm to set the turn was tighter and clearer for her).
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi again 🙂 The Forced fronts are looking really good too!
It was interesting to se that she was faster on the forced fronts than she was on the in in on the lead outs – with the in in, you are facing her longer so she reads that as a rally strong decel cue. On the forced front, she is ‘chasing’ you more, especially when you started to leave earlier at :18 and :48 – she had really good commitment AND whipped around the wing into the turn. Perfect!
You can add in running out of the FFCs as soon as you start to turn, to challenge her to commit to the jump bar even as you leave.
She also did nicely on the throwback reps- nice collections! On those, you can throw back and then step forward even before she gets to the bar. That is harder, so be sure to drop the reward on the landing side of the jump as you move away.
And the balance reps of the lead out pushes were easy 🙂 She seemed to have no questions at all about which side to go to.Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>You recommended ditching the MM as reward for the seesaw entries and suggested I go back to running with her and rewarding on the target location by hand.
Yes – rewarding her for targeting to help convince her to shift her weight back. You can reward from your hand or toss it back to her whe you move past or have it there already – I would mix it all in to really convince her to lower her head and shift her weight 🙂
>>Since she seems to like diving off the table, I figured this was a good time to stop rewarding that.
Totally agree LOL!!! Back to rewarding target position and holding it 🙂
>>I will get rid of the table – it’s only at 4 inches, and I don’t think we need since she was doing the seesaw without it until we added the MM.
I agree with this too! You can fade out the line up boards too. She is doing really well with these different angles of entry!
At this stage, I think the main priority if placement of reinforcement on the target to keep getting the weight shift.
And one more thing that I add at this stage – a small weight on the board (under it) so I can change the speed of the tip. I have bungeed a 1 lb weight underneath (and also duct taped it haha) and move it slightly every now and then – so sometimes it is the normal tip, sometimes it is a little faster, sometimes a little slower. That way, bit by bit, you can generalize the teeter without having to leave home. So many teeters have slightly different speeds that you can start showing it to her now 🙂
Great job!
TracyGood morning! These are looking really good!!
1st run: nice job with the line from the tunnel to 3! You can give her a bit of a verbal cue on the tunnel entry here so she is a little tighter – I think just a name call before she enters will be all she needs. You can decelerate sooner on the wrap at 5 so she sees that the wrap is coming
2nd run
The decel into 5 was earlier so the collection is better! Take one more heartbeat to connect to her eyes strongly as she comes around the wrap on 5, so she doesn’t drifting looking for the new line at :28She had a little question at :31 on the way to the tunnel (looked up at you) – try to have your arm back for more connection and don’t turn your feet
Blind on landing of 8 looks good!3rd run – the early FC on the entry of the tunnel got a really nice turn on the exit! And you were able to get WAY up the line for the 3-4 line!! Good turn on 5, especially with the connection on the exit. And you had a better running line to the #7 tunnel too!
Good job on the RC at :59 on 10!
4th run – another good FC on the tunnel entry and position on the line 3-4-5! The RC on 5 went nicely, you can play with a tiny bit more decel to see if she can collect even more. The decel on these wraps is a timing thing, that will change a bit as the bars go up as she matures.
At 1:12, this is the line where she takes the jump and not the tunnel. What happened here was that that RC on 5 puts the dogs strongly turning to their left on the way to 6. And we humans get a little caught behind the wing of 6, so when you pulled away to not run into the wing, it strengthened the left turn over 6 (you can see her turning left as she lifts off at 1:13). Then at 1:14, you looked forward and pointed forward before she was past you, which turned your shoulders and chest to the red off course jump…. which is where she went.
On this line, I ‘felt’ the left turning happening in the run with Contraband when I ran him and used a ‘get out’ cue and a super strong connection to get him out to the tunnel.
Ideally, you would be a little further back cuing the RC on 5 so you can set the line from further ahead on 6-7 but the get out cue works nicely too (and I use the outside arm for that so th dog dos *not* cut me off LOL!!) A ‘go’ verbal won’t work as well because ‘go’ means to stay on the line she is looking at… which is exactly what she did 🙂 The ‘get out’ means to lead change away.
Being further back for the RC to put yourself further ahead for the line to the tunnel worked like a charm on the last rep! Yay! That way you can set the line with motion and position.
Great job running these!!
Tracy
Hello and welcome!!! I am so glad you joined in 🙂
And I understand the verbal paralysis – we were just talking about this in puppy class last night. I suggest adding the ones you feel are important and most useful for the venue you love to trial in, or for any instances on course that you think Titan needs the most info. For the other verbals, we can put them lower on the list (ranging from “later” to “never” haha!) and you can use motion for the proofing or name calls.The videos look really good!! Titan is really cool, I am enjoying watching him work!
On the wrap video: you mentioned that the wrap is the stronger skill in this game at the moment, and you used motion to support the tunnel. That looked really good here: your motion was just a bit of a lean and the wraps needed no help. Nice!!!! That little lean for the tunnel is perfect. And I am glad you added the mini sequence at the end, he is ready. You can add motion to that – have him do the tunnel then meet him at the end and run into the wrap – that is more challenging because the movement forward might get him thinking about the tunnel 🙂 Or, you can meet him at the end of the tunnel and try to send him into the next tunnel and *not* wrap 🙂 Keep using the new verbals, they are going really well! And now you can add more motion challenge to it.The serp game is also going really well!! He finds this a little harder because the handling position is similar. When you are standing still, you can turn your dog-side shoulder a little more forward towards the tunnel. And with the serp, you can have your dog side arm back and shoulders more open to him – that will help him drive in even more. You can also add motion to this but walking (then jogging forward into it – and sometimes release to the tunnel as you move, sometimes serp him in over the jump as you move.
Great job here!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
She did really well here! Good girl! Her stays are coming along very nicely. Love how she offered it to get it started again – we want her to love stays! Nice distance and duration on these – be sure to “ping pong” the rewards by adding in some really early/fast catch rewards for the first step or two away. I am not sure what she was looking at towards the end, something caught her attention? But then she ended with a good one. Yay! Definitely take this on the road to help her do it everywhere.
>>It’s hard to do it at the barn because the treats get lost in the dirt.>>
That is true! You can totally use a toy instead of treats, or a ball – or use treats in a lotus ball or treat hugger.
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
>>Team Chill. Geez, Why can’t i remember that. Calm. Don’t be too exciting for stays!>>
Fake being calm 🙂 She is excited, so you don’t need to be. If she was NOT excited, then you would have to get really excited about it 🙂
(BTW, I did have pizza last night in your honor – but a really small frozen diet pizza hahaha)
On the retrieve video:
This is a good game to for you to be exciting! She did think it was a little weird to be close to tug and stand on you to tug on the first part – but being close is good, it helps make it fun to bring the toy back!
On the second session – great job setting it up so that she was ‘retrieving’ (also known as you having really fast hands as she tried to get past you on the first couple haha!!) But then things changed and I think she was legit bringing it to you!!!! YES! She was retrieving, good girl 🙂
You did a great job in this session of quickly throwing the toy again after you take it away from her and also being exciting in your play. Plus, letting her win a lot is great! I agree that she was interested when you hit the ground – it brought her back to you but without the toy at first haha! But that is fine, you handled it perfectly: you stayed playful, sent her back for the toy, and she got it. YAY!!
Does she like to run around with the toy? If so, you can put it on cue and let her have a runabout. I cue “go for a run” and the pup takes a victory lap 🙂
You can also reward her by tossing a second toy when she retrieves the first one, if you have a toy that is equal in value (the toy on the video was pretty amazing looking!)Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
Nice work on the videos here! On the discrimination game: I agree, this is really hard – the kennel and other ‘place’ behaviors have a ton of value because we started them earlier. Also, we started them without motion – and I think the tunnel cues have a lot of motion built into them. Changing to his cot was clever – high value but not quite as high as the crate. He did really well, and it was really fun to see him thinking about it and trying to figure out which was which.
The other thing that has been helping is a to raise the value of the option of the tunnel – but having the Manners Minder out past it. Many youngsters have found that to be life changing LOL!!!
So you can use the cot and have the MM out straight past the tunnel – suddenly, that tunnel option is looking REAL GOOD. Ha! And then you can move the MM to be more center, so it can be the reward for both the tunnel and the cot (this is a brain scrambler). The MM has enough value for most pups that I think it will also work well when the crate is there!Lap & Tandem turns:
>>These are essentially another way to call to a backside, right? So, for the dog, are these like a backside wrap, except you are setting yourself up for a different exit line?>
The lap turn is kind of a threadle/RC move so yes, it would be a backside from the dog’s perspective – but the threadle backside not hte push away backside. I am trying to think of a front side only option for the lap turn where it is not a threadley move, but I can’t think of one (might need more coffee haha) The tandem turn can be used to cue the backside but is also used a lot on the front sides, in the form of a rear cross on the flat. They are flexible tools.
Lap turns on the video – there is a pretty significant delay on the timing of the arm & leg cuing the jump – on the very first rep, you were too soon, he hadn’t committed to the ‘threadle’ element of coming between you and the wing, so you were a shade too early on the movement. You were pretty perfect on the rest of the lap turns, waiting til he was just about at your hand before starting the turn cues.
You did a great job on the tandems, he is reading those consistently well too! You were a shade early stepping into the line at :46, he was not past you yet so it pushed him to the other side.
The only other oopsie moment was at 1:40 – maybe he didn’t see the outside hand enough or you were leaning back in? You held the cue for a heartbeat longer on the last 2 reps and he was great.One thing he is doing here which is really good is that as soon as he sees that it is the lap or tandem, he is setting up the turn on his own. So the cue to come in to the side between you and the wing is the most important element – he doesn’t need a lot of help in the turning away element.
>>because he can really slide into a down like a baseball player when he wants >>
Yes! We want him to do the home plate slide as the teeter is moving to the ground LOL! Perfect visual!
Tracy
Hi!
This is great! Excellent use of pillows 🙂 Thanks Kevin for the video LOL! And having Spree! be all like GIMME THE COOKIE will actually raise his interest in doing it (jealousy in dogs is a real thing, he more likely to offer behavior because the jealousy/food competition causes him to forget any concern other than getting the food. You can also do this with the MM so he runs back and forth (running is arousing) and also do it with toys, like tossing balls as the reward.>>Maybe lower the teeter to the ground and do this outside as well>>
One of the things on my teeter training agenda is the teeter tables game. Do you have a low table or two tables or anything that can approximate 2 tables? You start by having the dog walk back and forth on the plank between 2 tables, then gradually add tip there too. The teeter can be lowered but the tip is minimized by the tables (and we change the height of the tables more than the height of the teeter).
Great job!
TracyHi!
>>I feel discouraged because I don’t feel like we have advanced at all.>>
I guess because I only see the videos here and there, I see a big advancement 🙂 He is driving up and moving the board. Sure, he is stopping a little short at the top with the movement but he will work it through in a couple of sessions. He was a good boy here! The other thing that might be causing a question is the visual of the set up – he might be waiting to see where the board ends, exactly, because the PVC holder is turned around and might be creating a visual that makes it harder to see exactly what the end of the board is? I am not sure if this is a thing or not for him., but worth it to see if there is a way to set up a little tip and make the visual same as it was when there was no tip.
The other thing I do is just let the dog walk up the board, no speed, no wing wrap, no running from me, I just let the dog choose the pace. When Contraband was all like “NO WAY THIS IS STUUUUUUPID” (even before he board moved at all!) I just walked up with him. Then when I added movement, I went back to letting him choose the pace. He figured it out and now runs up with movement. The more I asked him to do it, the less he wanted to do it. The more I was like, “whatever, do what you like” the more he started running up the board. Hmmmmm. Dogs. LOL!
So keep plugging away, it is moving along! He is still miles and miles ahead of where Export was at this age on the teeter, so I am know we will get him to love it 🙂 We will also be balancing with other games, so he learns the joys of all teeter things too.
T
Good morning!!
>>(how did I manage to get my fastest dog at this point?)>>
I *totally* feel this haha!! You got your fastest dog with a combination of choosing a great puppy and putting in a foundation that made it super fun to play agility: that equals a dog that is fast AND accurate. Yay!
I am not sure what possessed me to get a BorderWhippet but yet, here we are HA! Since I am not getting any faster, I am thankful that we are all much better at training independent commitment and verbals. So Keiko is really fast – but I don’t think it will be a problem because her understanding of verbals & commitment is already well ahead of what many adult dogs understand.On the video:
The first blind cross looked really good! There is a ‘hidden’ challenge on the blind cross 2-3 in the form of the tunnel out ahead. If we are really late, the dogs will pick up the tunnel but so far I think they were all perfect! Keiko thought the timing and line of the first BC was spot on.>>You’ll notice on the first sequence that in our second set, Keiko was faster and I was partly in her way for the blind cross jump. Since this is bound to happen in real life (how did I manage to get my fastest dog at this point?), especially if there is no lead out, do you have any suggestions about how to handle this type of situation?>>
I think the rep you are talking starts at :10 on the video – you didn’t lead out as far so the blind cross started a little late (she was lifting off) and you were just getting to position. So, she had to jockey in around you, and she did 🙂 I give LOTS of cookies to the dog for saving me in those moments! If this was a lead out, I just remind myself to lead all the way out. If this was in the middle of the course and I find myself a little behind, I use verbals to cue the #2 jump so I can try to start the BC as best as possible – even if it is a little late. And if I am REALLY behind in the middle of a course and I have a BC planned, I will switch gears to a rear cross.
I have found that the dogs are fine with us being a little late, and they prefer it to us freezing up – the dogs get frustrated when we freeze up. The more experienced dogs will see us beginning the blind and they will adjust sooner, so it looks like we are not late (my 7 year old dog makes me look good, despite my latenesses :)) But baby dogs need to see the full cue, so they adjust a little later. So I only switch to the rear cross in those moments where I am sure that I can’t even show a late BC, and where I can make the RC look like I planned it haha
She is reading the FC/throwback lines really well, both on the lead out and and running into it. Very nice collection! I soon as you see her committing to the jump, step away from it and head to the tunnel. You stayed there for a bit too long, so she had to slow down to go around you rather than chase your line to the tunnel entry.
The go lines look good! She picked up her line when you were way ahead. Perfect! You can also deliberately go very close to the tunnel so that she drives ahead of you to the last jump on the Go (simulating those wide open Novice courses!)
The RC is going well, you add a little deceleration as she is passing you, to tighten it up for when you add the turn to drive back down to the tunnel. And balancing it with the right was great! She seemed to have no questions.
>> My husband came out to watch the first left turn run. Keiko loves him, and he was a huge distraction when we first started working. She is much more ready to keep working when he watches, but we continue to work on using him as a distraction since I know they’ll happen when we finally get to attend an “in person” agility class. This little girl has only had online and home schooling for agility.>>
She ran the left turn line with the biggest distraction there? She did really well!!!! Perfect!!!!!
>>I know many folks are in the same situation.>>
So true! We are going to have to all take these youngsters on road trips as soon as it is safe to do so!
Great job on these!
TracyOMG now I think I need pizza for dinner and I am supposed to be in a diet LOL!!
>> Maybe I use it TOO much now.
I don’t think you use it too much… but I do think you are exciting! And she is excited. So to get her on Team Chill for the stays, you need to pretend to be very very calm 🙂 Don’t be too exciting LOL!
And I can’t remember if I stepped over the jump in the demo, but probably, because I am lazy LOL!!
