[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
I use the Manners Minder for this (and UKI because they are much more chill about in and out of the ring). The MM is the ‘anchor’ for this ‘go get your reward’ cue. And when the dog works away from it in the ring, I give the cue and we run back to it together. Initially, it is in the ring and very visible during training. When that procedure is firmly established, I move it into a food reward box in UKI (or just outside the ring gate). When it is in the food reward box, I can go in and out. When it is outside the gate, going to it ends the training run but that is fine. It gets gradually built in. Then when it is firmly established, I can leave it outside the ring, 30 feet away, and show it to the dog… run the course, then out to the reward.

The procedure must be firmly established through the baby steps in training though, which is why you won’t want to try it this weekend at a real trial. My guess is the trial this weekend will be the same as usual and then we can work on adding the different procedure for different trials.
T

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

First up, sequences with Fusion: She did well here!! Good commitment!! Good connection from you especially around the wing wraps!! She is a tight turning dog especially on the wing wraps! You’ve done a great job with her handling foundations, this was lovely work especially from such a young dog!

The main suggestion here is that you give the info on the tunnels sooner: you were sending her in straight and forward on all of them and then giving the exit/turn info as she was exiting. Ideally all the info is delivered before she goes in, so she can set up the exit line without you. She naturally turns tight back to you (especially with the MM there 🙂 ) so not giving the turn info before hand was fine on the tight turn exits because that is what she wants to do anyway. However, it made the slightly wider exits a lot harder because if you were not there, she had a question about where to go (like at :31 and 1:37 and 2:10 and 2:26 we get a clear view of her question) Plus, on those big NZ courses, we really prefer her to want to go straight on the tunnel exits for now and not turn tight back to you.

At :41, she did miss the tunnel but to be honest, I think that was a handling error and not a Fusion error LOL! When you sent her around the wing, her real path was right past the tunnel to the backside of the tunnel, GOOD GIRL – she would need a threadle to come in and take it. Young dogs are very honest and don’t save us in those moments LOL! You used a physical cue to pull her in on the next rep (and on later reps) and she was great.

On the around/send to the wing at 1:19, yes that high arm turned her to the tunnel so she was unsure. When you took one more step at 1:28 AND the arm was low: perfect! You also did this on the following reps and it looked great on all of them

On the wrap at 2:11, she pulled the rail – the wrap rotation was late. You had the verbal going (yay!) started rotating when she was taking off. Try to start the rotation when she is still a meter or two away from the jump so the info comes sooner. She kept the bar up at 2:27 and 3:00 because you were actually a bit later (turned when she landed from the jump) but ideally we want you to be turned and running up the next line before she takes off, especially when the bars are at full height.

So let me know what you think – mainly getting the tunnel info in sooner (and rewarding out past it for when you want her to drive out of it straighter and earlier wrap cues (we work more on this in July too).

Veloz might benefit from doing this with 2 leashes – one really light one that you hold the whole time, and the normal leash that you take on and off. The reason for the 2nd leash is so that you can get rewards in REALLY fast without him leaving when you take leash #1 off. We worked on this a bit back in Jan 2020 but it is something to keep working on to countercondition his impulse to move away when the leash is off. He is already much improved so I think this is going well! He doesn’t naturally love being right next to us humans so the more we can pump him full of reward, the better he will feel about it. He seemed to do well with the leash as a toy!! And he was releasing it well too. He was very engaged! I definitely recommend using the leash as part of the transition to trial game because it will basically be like taking a toy into the ring.

Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

So much good stuff here! Lots of things that I think we can play with the dog training element, and then some handling things that will help smooth out where he had questions. Yay!

First up, the teeter! He did really well here! You were good about adding some challenge by not also having a ton of motion so he could think it through: enough challenge to have to think about it and grow the skill without failing dramatically. Question: what is his teeter criteria? 4on? I noticed that he was doing a 4on til released but stopping a little higher on the board than we want him to. It might be that he was not used to you being behind him or fading laterally, and/or that he really hasn’t worked the teeter in a while. Rewarding out ahead with the MM helps. To get the criteria right at the end of the board as much as possible (because it is clearer/easier to maintain and also faster :)) – did you originally train him with a target? You can put it out again for these drills. Let me know how you originally trained him and we can figure out a way to get him right to the end of the board.

On the sequences:
He is doing well here too! There are mainly 3 things to tweak – and you saw those 3 things several times in these sequences, which is why he had some questions.

And yes, the threadle/wrap cue is above the pay grade of these sequences; we will get to them later in the summer LOL!

The main thing that was happening here was that I think his tunnel commitment can be stronger. You were trying to turn before the tunnel (I think what you did at :15 was spot on in terms of timing and rotation… but that is when he did not take the tunnel). So we can work on getting him to commit better to the tunnel – when he didn’t commit to the tunnel at :15, you ended up facing forward for longer, so he was going wider on the exits and then he picked up the rhythm of the sequence and came out looking for you even with you facing forward. So a great skills set is to take a short straight tunnel and have the MM out ahead and toys to throw: and with more momentum going into it, work on the tunnel commitment with rewards out past the tunnel so you can get your cues in before he enters (ideally, he sees the rotation while he is still at least 3 feet before the entry).

On sequence 1, some ideas on the handling:
On the jump after the tunnel, he sometimes ended up behind (:24 and :41, and later on at 1:29) you even when you did the cross really early and you were on your left arm before he approached the jump. A TON of connection to his eyes (staring as his eyes as you move away will really help that) and you can also reward some good old fashioned recall-to-heel games where he has to fit himself in between you can the jump (it is hard!) You had great connection at :49 and it really helped him out.

The other thing we can work on is the timing of the turn cues (I think you and Carrie were working on that here, I could hear her helping with the verbals) – because of his stride length, you’ll need to decelerate when he lands from the previous jump (facing forward but slowing down) so he can cue off the decel and also so you can rotate sooner. Ideally the rotation is finished and you are moving away before he takes off for the jump and the deceleration really facilitates that. So on the turns where he was wide on the wraps (like at 1:47 and 1:59 and 2:24 and 2:51) it was just a matter of adding that decel transition into it so he could see it coming sooner. No worries, we obsess on turns in Games package 2 AND 3 LOL!

And the other thing I see is a training thing: he has a little trouble setting up for the ‘soft’ turns (moderate collection, not wraps) so he was a little wider than needed and the bar came down a lot on those especially to his right (like on reps 1 and 2 of sequence 3). You mentioned the ground was a little soft and it was hot, so that indeed contributes. You can also decel/cue and leave sooner on those (you were using a jump cue, is that your soft turn verbal?) and we can also look at using a brake hand (which is gently using the opposite arm to help him collect a little).
Those soft turns are actually the hardest, imo! We can also show him the zig zag grid – I can’t remember if we showed him that? If we did, you can refresh it as it will help a lot with that moderate slice jumping. If it doesn’t ring a bell, let me know and I will post some videos for you 🙂

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
I am jealous that you get to run UKI this weekend! So fun!

>>Yes, my verbal is “get it” which I use to mean “get it” i.e. get the toy/treat on the floor. Should I be using a unique command for this exercise only?>>

I do recommend something totally unique so it is really specific. I use get it for when I am sending the dog to something on the ground out ahead, and let’s go for when they have ‘permission’ to go get the reward outside the ring or behind them in the ring.

>>>I don’t know if you remember but she becomes “frozen stiff” when we go to set up in the ring and I am not able to get her to engage in a simple trick or play. She acts like she is in a trance and inches forward until she can’t hold it any longer.>>

Yes, the joys of arousal LOL! Some dogs are all business and can’t do tricks. I do use the send back to the leash for those dogs – the leash is a bit of an ‘anchor’ for them and so they sit next to it or near it, and sometimes they get released forward onto the course, and sometimes I use the verbal to turn them back to it. In UKI it can also be a toy, because it is legal to bring a toy into the ring with the leash on every run! Yay UKI!

>>This exercise seemed to help her a lot. Shall I continue to do what I did today but put it in the context of a sequence in preparation for Saturday?>>

Yes, a short sequence but it is probably a bit too soon to do big sequences with it at a trial. before putting it into a trial, I would get her happy to turn back to a toy or leash after you have lead out past a jump. You can do it with food too, but that usually won’t be easy at a trial – but we can talk about how to use food in the trial setting like this! I do it all the time LOL!

T

[Tracy Sklenar]

Awwww very cool about the foxes!! They are so fun to watch – what color are they? They looked almost grey (or blue Merle LOL!)

>> Will there come a time when you proof that later when the training is more solid for those unforeseen things that happen at trials?>>

Yes and no…. I add duration and praise before the release, but I am not the type of do everything that looks like a release and with the rhythm of a release, and then say something like “Oklahoma” or “Breakfast” or twitch or something. I feel like I am setting up the dog to fail and it is rude to the dog LOL! I mean, they put up with my handling when it is crappy, so I try not to be rude to them on the start line. If something happens after I lead out and I can’t run (like a timer malfunction, for example), I will either release and praise and then go get their leash or cookies, or just use my reward word to send them back to their leash.

T

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! These looked really good, his independence is getting REALLY strong on the teeter!

Overall, the handling looked really strong on all of the reps: nice connection and timing, and his turns were lovely! So we can obsess on the teeter performance 🙂

His teeter on the 1st sequence was great! And the fast release was a good reward before he could think about it too much. On the 2nd sequence, his 1st teeter was great too… and then he stopped short on the 2nd teeter as if he was asking “where’s the beef!” Interestingly, that teeter was the one that did not really have an independence challenge, so my guess is that he is not used to doing 3 teeters in a row without an immediate reward. So, you can reward every other teeter with treats thrown ahead or tossed to the target, or two teeters in a row get rewards… and we can gradually stretch that out so he can produce the great teeters without by the 3rd one asked where his treats are LOL!

On the 3rd sequence, you rewarded a great teeter performance. Yay! As I mentioned above, you can also have the reward out ahead so he doesn’t think about where you are.
On the 4th sequence and last rep on the teeter – these were good executions! He stopped a tiny bit shorter than he did on some of the earlier reps, but it was still a really lovely independent teeter performance!

Nice work! Let me know what you think of the ideas about how to reward and how often 🙂
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! Yes, the lateral walking is totally helping, he did a great job here. You can keep adding more and more difficult angles now working up to being able to move away at a 90 degree angle.
One thing I notice is that his first teeter is AMAZING and then when he realizes you are going to run in and reward at the target, he stops further up the board by the 3rd rep. Hmmmmmm…. since the placement of reinforcement shifts his behavior so quickly, you might consider rewarding that first amazing one in position but then all the others should be rewarded out ahead, with a thrown treat or toy (and it can be planted out ahead like his reward targets were). That should keep him from starting to think about where you are on these and keep him driving to the very end.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
That is good to know about the lead outs at trials! It probably means he finds the environment a bit stressful. He was pretty perfect here in this video… so we can start to make a game plan for trials. He did tricks here and he also tugged on his leash. How comfortable is he doing either or both of those on the start line at a trial? Some dogs need the tricks and/or tugging to get in the right head space. Some dogs are all business and prefer to just go to the start line and get into their stay position.
Either way, we can expand this game into something useful for trials! Let me know 🙂
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! Great to see you here!!!

Good question about the weaves issue:

>>Do you think I should stop correcting her entries and instead always let her go to the last pole before bringing her back? >>

Possibly… but then she might be wondering why she doesn’t get rewarded or comes back, if she completes them successfully. The other option is to use a very specific marker to reset her and keep moving (don’t stop).

>>Or maybe not bring her back to retry them at all if it’s part of a sequence or a full course? She knows her entries pretty well.

Does she get stressed if you restart her? You might consider doing a quick re-training project: how was she trained initially? You can go back to slightly open poles with a reward target out ahead, and retrain the skill where she weaves even if you stop or something 🙂 It won’t take her long at all, and we train it differently now than we did when she was a youngster (with apologies to our 7 and 8 year old dogs LOL!)

>>Her handler just makes mistakes sometimes.

I feel this LOL!

Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! She did really well here! This is definitely a game to do with Journey too, because having the understanding of how/when/where to earn the reinforcement is great for building confidence.

What is your verbal, it hard to hear it – is it ‘get it’? That is a good verbal as long as you don’t use it anywhere else (I use it in lots of other situations LOL!). She did really well with the cookies and tricks and stays! It is something really easy to transfer into trials – I also use the Manners Minder for this and have it planted outside the ring (I have also used it during NFC runs in UKI).

The leash will be even easier to use as a reinforcement in the ring… as long as she likes it LOL! She only kinda sorta seemed interested in tugging on it and was checking out at around the 1 minute mark when you were trying to get her to play with it. Is she normally more interested in the leash tugging? Or maybe you need to get a fancier tug leash and introduce it as a toy first before it becomes a leash. If you can get her on the leash as a fun toy, it can ‘anchor’ her stay and then you have your reward *right there* in the ring, all the time. You can also do that with a real toy because UKI will allow you to bring a toy in the ring even on ‘real’ runs – so the toy can be behind her (or the leash) and you can sometimes use it as the reinforcement you send her to with your ‘get it’ cue.

Great job here! When is your next trial opportunity when we can transfer some of these to the ring?

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi there! Lots of good work here!!! Here are some thoughts for ya:

First Course:
Opening looked good, weaves were very independent – a little hoppy in the middle maybe because she was all like “WHERE ARE YOU GOING MOM” haha! Not sure what they normally look like when you run with her but she was a good girl to stay in them! That set up a great line on the jumps before the teeter (easy peasy!) and the teeter was also beautifully independent, which made getting to the next line easy too!

Ah yes, on that 12-13 line: don’t say “go” unless the dog is looking the correct direction at :35 🙂 I have learned that the hard way LOL!! Also I don’t think you need to step in as much there – you can just slide through a serp there and let your position and motion show her the line, rather than have to pull her in then do a big step out. That extra step in is what helped set up the accidental Go push.

Her teeter looked AWESOME on the next rep! She had a bar down on the jump after it at :41 – you closed your shoulder and took off there, which is what likely contributed (not jumping high enough also contributed lol) so with such an independent teeter, you can keep your shoulder open and connection on her for longer to help support the bar there.

She wrapped at :46, I think you wanted the slice? The slice is the better line. It looked like you got the wrap by stepping in too much and making it looked like a RC there.

Did you want wrap at :51 on jump after frame? I *think* you wanted the wrap there too, but your feet said slice and your upper body supported the slice (facing the slice landing spot and leaning forward). If you want the wrap, be more rotated so your butt is facing the wing and your feet are almost facing back to the a-frame. However, it is possible the slice is faster there!

Because you were a little behind there, the tunnel to DW line after it needed more of a GO GO GO to get her to go straight to the DW and not curl in (you got quiet there). And I think she was supposed to stop on the DW? You might need to repeat the stop verbal as she is at the top of the down ramp – what are your verbals for the stop versus the run? You had great position there at :58!

Course 2:
On the wrap versus slice at 3, it looks like you were blocking the win on the slice so she got real mad at you 🙂 Let her see the whole wing, so position yourself where the wing meets the bar until she is passing you.
Also, I would bet you that slicing to her right on 3 is faster – it sets a better line, no really collection, and the yardage will be same or similar. I know that small dogs can sometimes be faster on the wrap than on the slice, but I don’t think this is one of those moments – the wrap here has a ton of collection and does not set all that good of a line to 4 or to the weaves. You were in a better position there at 1:26 so the wrap itself was prettier… but it still sets wider line 4-5 than the slice does. If you get to play with this course again, try it both ways and we will time it.

I think the BC at 1:14 while she is in the poles is a perfectly fine handling choice! But it was a little too much for now – definitely worth training on though, but just starting it slowly and while moving along a parallel path. It will be a totally useful skill!
You had plenty of time to do it on the next rep, you were able to get so far up the line that you had to actually wait for her to finish weaving LOL! That made 6-7-8 really easy. She went wide over 8, looking at the a-frame: a stronger ‘brake’ arm can help (having your upper body a little more rotated and outside arm more obvious) or even do a spin there – she doesn’t need a lot of spins, but this might be a good place for it.
Teeter looked good!!! You can reset after the reward by sending across teeter again to then continue on for the rest of the sequence. Video ended there, boohoo, was there more? It is like a cliffhanger!!!

So overall, I am really liking the obstacle independence and where it is getting you on course! Let me know what you think about the handling ideas. Great job!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Howdy!
Great job on these, I am really liking his teeter performance! He is driving allllll the way to the top, especially when he was on your left – and he did it without you needing to run your *ss off. Life is good! The target being visible and food reward are totally helping.

Sequence 1 (teeter on your right) looked really good! The camera had the back view of the teeter but it looked great from here and you seemed happy with it too 🙂 He was not super tight on the jump after the teeter release at :06 and :24 (and also on the other side at :50 and 1:07). I think it was because of your line of motion – your running line was past the wing and setting a slice line, plus you were on landing side – so he was turning more on landing than before takeoff. Try staying more on takeoff side of that jump and decelerating and not going past the wing, to see if that helps him collect there (his turns on the wing wrap and the backside jump all looked great – was he at 16″ here?)

One thing to keep an eye on – He is leaping onto the teeter (rather than running up it) a little like at :08 :21 and :53 – it might just be a silly young dog thing so we will keep an eye on it 🙂

One note to bug you about: let him settle into position every time and come to a complete stop – try not to quick release (like at :29, he hadn’t fully stopped yet).

The teeters when he was on your left later in the video looked even better, wowza! It is fun to see him really building up more confidence on the teeter!

>> When Stark was on my left with the teeter, I noticed he jumped up at my hand after the jump. My toy was in the hand so I swithced it for hte next forund. The next time I did it, he jumped and barked again. I noticed that I gave a verbal pretty late so maybe that is why??>>

I saw it happen at 1:07 (your hand was empty there). Usually that happens when the dog is frustrated, so maybe more connection is needed there, where you make a lot of eye contact and really lock your arm back so he sees your face? But I think it could also be arousal/frustration
– he was mad about the wide turn and came at you like a Malinois LOL!!! I think this litter gets a little aroused and when they are aroused or frustrated… they get chompy. Elektra was aroused yesterday (not frustrated, just PUMPED UP TO BE DOING A THING) and so she jumped up and bit my arm. They are bitey little buggers sometimes! So try adding more tons more connection, over-connect – and reward from the opposite arm so if he needs to bite something, it is the toy not you LOL! Let me know if that helps! We will work on those turns too, which should reduce the arousal/frustration as well.

Great job here!! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

She was a really good girl on these, especially because it is such a hard skill for young dogs! She was not entirely convinced she should leave you to get in the weaves, but she did 🙂 And the weaves themselves looked really good: rhythmic and fast!

On the 2nd sequence (2nd rep) I think she back-weaved because as she was exiting, she was looking straight. Then you turned your back on her to point forward at :22 before she saw which side to be on, so she read it like a blind cross (clever!!). Compare it to the first rep at :08 where you were connected more and she turned tighter, so she could see to come to your right side.

3rd rep – she questioned it a little because the 2nd rep had gone sideways lol but you helped and you were a lot more connected on the exit, so she got it. Good girl! And great dog training to go with her on the last rep. YAY!!

When she is driving ahead of you standing virtually stationary or leaving laterally on the other sequences, you can also leave her toy out on the ground past the weaves or toss it, to keep up the value for leaving you for the weaves. The handling is the easy part, so I am not too worried about that.

>> You said you wanted them limited to 2 per exercise. Does that mean 2 different videos for all the set ups in the sequence section or 2 videos per set up i the sequence section? My guess is 2 video for the sequences, period.

I would say it is kind of a mix and match – so if you do a working session on all the weave sequences (there are 4 of them, I believe), that can be several reps of each. And it can be spread out over a couple of days. Then you can post those up as the Round 1 – it would have a good number of reps, even if you stick to the 4-per-sequence guidelines. Then we discuss, and you can either re-do them as round 2 or do a different set of the sequences for the round 2. These are weaves so you can do more weaves or do the teeters 🙂
If you split them up, the round 1 can basically cover all of the sequences in the set even if you submit them separately like you did above – so if you do the other weave sequences, that is still round 1. Let me know if that makes more sense or if I need more caffeine LOL!

>>If that’s the case, I’ll wait until we’ve done a few of the different exercises so I can include a clip from 3 or 4 of them.>>

Yes, and it can be multiple clips from 3 or 4 of them, I consider each sequence separately. We are just trying to avoid doing a 1000 reps LOL because there is a lot of content and we don’t want to fry the dogs 🙂

>>I don’t know how you’re doing it – this class has over 30 participants, and I bet this is not the only class you’re teaching! Take a breather once in a while…..:)

Ha! Caffeine helps! And also time management LOL! The next puppy class starts in a week, so I will be a little busy starting next week 🙂

T

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

Oh yes, the target helps a lot! The teeter reps with the target there looked rally strong! And yes, for now, he needs the target in this scenario as you saw in the one rep when it was not there. The thrown treat word is perfect: ZING! LOL! You only need the zing word – you don’t need ‘yes’ or ‘ok’. Zing will do all the work of the praise and the release 🙂 I am personally trying to stop saying “yes” as a marker when I am about to reward because it is causing my dogs to look at me too much. And the ‘ok’ release will also get more looking at you – so using just the Zing will keep his head straight on these. And then we can gradually fade the target by making it smaller and smaller.

>> So for progressing to the sequences, should I use the weaves only or do you think I can do the teeter with a target for that?>>

Both! You can use the weaves for the sequences and also do the teeter sequences with the target in the picture. I think he is ready for those.

Wager did well here on the transition game: the way to go is a fun marker and also sounds like something we would all say at the end of a run.
He was totally focused and also offering a stand stay. If there is a struggle with getting a sit at a trial, you can go with the offered stand stay! He responded beautifully to the sit cue here but sometimes home life and trial life are different 🙂
I like how he did with the ‘get your leash’ moments too! Now if way to go is the cookies and get your leash is the leash, try to have them in different locations so he doesn’t have to try to run over the leash to get to the cookies.

At 2:20, you led out, stood still, connected… all the things that precede some type of release. And then you turned and moved forward again at 2:23 with a quick movement: looked exactly like a release but you did not give the verbal. He released and get a negative marker. Since he saw all the antecedents to the release, try to then always give the release and don’t do anything that looks like a release but isn’t a release – it sets him up to fail and that failure will lead to more failure. My philosophy is that a release has a series of antecedents and really is not just a verbal cue – so I try to only show all the antecedents if I am going to release the dog. And if I screw up 😂 then I will not mark it as wrong and just reset with a cookie. He was definitely more cautious on the way to go on the following reps because he was not trusting the antecedents as much.

He seems to prefer the leash as reward here (is he like that at trials too?) so definitely keep working that in! His stays were solid with the leash in play there, so that is definitely something you can use!

Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!

>> I understand what you mean about get my arm way back, I still don’t think it was far enough but I tried rewarding with my right hand to turn my body further.

I think the arm back plus the reward across the body really helped!

>>How do I help him more with this even though I was giving a tight turn cue? Is it a matter of actually just doing lots of tight turn cueing on a wing with good connection so that he understands what that cue means when I can’t be there to help the turn with my body?>>

Part of it is giving the turn cues sooner and also supporting with earlier body cues. And part of it will be proofing it and figuring out exactly what is the best turn from him (we will be looking at this very specifically in packages 2 and 3!)

On the video: the weave challenges all look great!! Yay!

The turn reps at the beginning – the arm back and rewarding across your body are definitely helping him turn better there. Also, running out of it and setting the line more clearly to the next jump (stepping in a bit) will make them perfect :))
On the ‘softer’ turns at :13 and :29 – the verbal was a little late but I also think he needs needs more physical cues to support the turn you want: we can add a ‘brake’ arm to tighten up the soft turns there, where you add a little outside arm to gently get a better turn. And we will also be working that skill specifically while adding more motion next week.

The tighter wraps at :17 and :33 will benefit from a bit more transition into deceleration, so you can rotate your feet more before he passes you. The turn at :33 was the better of the 2, just give one more step in towards the next jump to set the line. Also these lines are likely to be faster if you slice him to the outside rather than wrap to the inside 🙂

Seq 2:
The countermotion you used on jump 1 really helped tighten the turns on the first couple of reps. Nice!
Yes, at 1:01 you turned too soon away from 2, so he went to the weaves – that one extra step to 2 when he lands is something he needs for commitment. It almost happened again at 1:17, but he figured it out. You did a lovely job cuing that line at 1:08 and 1:36!
I think the wraps at 1:13 and 1:31 were looking strong, so no need to worry about the tightness too much for now – we will be looking at it on the bigger courses too. If you get a chance to play with these again, try the slices there instead of the wraps and we can compare which is faster 🙂

Teeter session:

>> Yes, I want it to be ultimately, but in the interim I think I need a release cue, otherwise she just does flyers in the ring.>>

I agree – it should be a ‘wait til released’ and then in the bigger events, you can release a little earlier LOL!

The stopping short of the end of the board might be a product of the hit and go criteria, but also I think she is a bit dependent on your body position as she was stopping parallel to you here on each of these stops here. That body dependence will really show up when we hang back – she didn’t stop parallel when you were way behind her but still a little short of the end. And that would explain the flyers when she is more excited and you are running harder – she might be cuing off your body position.

So to help that, 2 ideas for you:
For the teeter, let’s make the reward more remote and very forward so it has nothing to do with your position but is also contingent on a release to it. So she drives to the end and gets a verbal release forward to the reward (MM or a ball on the ground or something) and never gets it from your hand so it is not about you at all 🙂 But she needs to wait for the release or you risk more flyers 🙂

Also, it is possible that the 4on criteria is too simple so she needs something that brings her all the way to the end and gets her to want to stay there. It can be something like scratching the very end of the board like Hero or a nose touch to the end. And only release her which she is actually doing that secondary behavior: stopping is not good enough, she needs to stop AND do the thing at the end and then you can reward with the MM. It is like running to the door AND ringing the doorbell in order for the door to open 🙂 It sounds counterintuitive to add more criteria to strengthen the behavior, but it works like a charm 🙂 And that is also good for Hero – both he and Ruse like to look for you so this will give them something else to do and keep their heads forward to the end of the board.

let me know if this all makes sense! Nice work here!
Tracy

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