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Good morning!
Glad the foot is healed!!! I have found that my girls can work nicely when they are in season, and it looks like Eden did too. Yay!On your serps – I think the hardest part was convincing her to send to the first jump when she had to take it and turn right in the first part! A little more connection to her eyes and then waiting one more heartbeat to leave will help get the commitment. She was much better when you switched sides and you sent her so she turned left – it is possible that she is just stronger turning left for now on these types of sends.
I don’t think you held your serp arm for too long at all; in fact, with a youngster, I would hold it til she lands from the serp jump so that you get the turn to the jump after the serp jump (there was no jump there here, but you can still ask for the turn). That will help her read that the serp is come in and go back out.
I think she did GREAT job driving right into you for the serp. So many dogs (including mine!) want to run parallel and NOT come in when the momma starts running, and she was perfection: driving directly to you on both sides. Happy dance!!!
The tunnel – wrap game is looking really good, you really got into the groove on the rep starting at :55. The wraps cues that started when she exited the tunnel at :58 were lovely – perfect transition promoted independent commitment and a nice tight turn, and then great connection as she came around the wing.
>>suddenly she slowed way down (not on film). I think it may be me disconnecting, too much repetition or maybe not balancing it with some straight running. Just tossing ideas. Also I’m still not leaving and showing a lot of decel.>>
Possibly! Too much decel will cause that. Right at the very end of this clip, at 1:03, you got to the wing really early so she didn’t see a lot of acceleration to commit, so she decelerated a lot. I think it was similar to what happened at :36 (first rep of the wraps on this clip) where you were too decelerated so she stopped early.
You can set up more acceleration opportunities but changing this set up a tiny bit: straight out the tunnel and squish it a little so it is not that long, and put the wings out past each end as far as possible. That will get some serious running going. If she still slows down on that, let me know and we will figure it out.Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! It was just posted this morning:
https://agility-u.com/course/au-027-fantastic-contacts/
I aspire for my blue merle dog to have that lovely rear foot hit that Jordan’s blue merle dog is doing in the photo LOL!!!!Tracy
Good morning!!! She is doing really well on both games here!!! They are pretty hard 🙂
On your serpentine games – these are going really nicely!!! A couple of ideas for you:
I think she will do a bit better if you can help her differentiate by using different releases: ‘you’re free’ is for the serp, and tunnel is for the tunnel (no ‘you’re free’ needed before it). Otherwise she will have to wait to make a decision which will cause errors because she is not going to wait when she is that close to the obstacle. Sometimes you used both “you’re free” and then “tunnel”, sometimes not. In this situation, the ‘you’re free’ release should mean serpentine.I can see how the reward presentation at :34 would look like a ‘get out’ cue to the tunnel! We have taught her that arm motion 🙂 So you can use a marker like ‘get it’ or cookie or something so you don’t have to move away from the tunnel. Your position and line of motion on that rep was really good, so resist temptation to move towards the other end of the tunnel – stay as parallel to the bar as possible.
She was all in serp mode when you wanted the tunnel a 1:07 and 1:20 – she probably needs a little more obvious cue to reach across in that moment, as her arousal level was coming up which makes it harder to hear and process. So you can exaggerate the physical cues for now to help her process them through the excitement and arousal.
Wrap game:
She did well here! You were pretty much #TeamChill and using food, which helped. She did have an error at 2:31 when arousal was coming up and on the new side, but I think you worked through it really nicely! Arousal is going to be the biggest distraction for her, so you will definitely want to incorporate it. Start each new game with treats and being as calm as possible. If she can do two high success sessions, keep using treats as rewards but start to add arousal – you can do this by tugging a bit before you start, or getting her barking beforehand.>>We did the wrap drill a few days earlier at sotc, she couldn’t do it. Was so high, and I was using a toy which puts her at an even higher level. >>
I think because arousal is so hard, you can start all the new stuff at your home base, get it going there, add arousal there… then take it on the road where the environment adds the arousal. And, use food in the new places. I guess a good formula would be: if she is very successful with toys as the reward at home base, you can take it to the new place but use food there to get it started.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyOMG that first rep cracked me up – he thought about coming in, changed his mind, took the tunnel, then came back and serped LOL!!! The very slight change in your shoulder position really helped him see the difference between the tunnel cue and the serpentine. And the grocery list of foods before the release actually got him to pay *more* attention to the verbals, because he had to listen for the release which means he was listening for the release versus the tunnel verbal. Aha! I love that! So feel free to keep doing the shopping list, or praise, to get him in the listening mode before the release. You might have been doing it to help with the stay (which is a good think) but I think it helped the other elements as well.
He is beginning to get the idea here, so you can definitely add in motion. Motion for Potion! Ha! Because motion makes the serpentine harder, you can tweak his angle so he is facing you and the bar little more and facing the tunnel less directly to begin with success, before progressing to facing the tunnel again.
Great job!!!
TracyHello and welcome!!! How did he get to be 18 months already? I love it! He looks fabulous 🙂 And opinionated LOL!!
You are off to a great start:
Because he is a youth, he definitely found it easier when you helped with a bit of body language 🙂 So when you cued the tunnel with one step to it, that helped soooooo much! And when you cued the wrap with a little bit of rotation: also super helpful. Then you were able to fade it out by the end and he did a great job. Have you noticed if he was a lefty or a righty (probably would see this if you have started your flyballing with him?) He appears to be a righty here – note that in the 2nd half of the video, he was more easily able to set up the wraps to the right. Now, that could be because he is a little stronger going to the right… or that it was the second part of the session and he figured out the game 🙂 So on the next session, start with him on your left (turning to his right) and see how it goes.
Love that you have your verbals going, they are VERY distinct and that will be so helpful! He is a speedster 🙂 I am excited for you!!!! Great job 🙂
TracyHi Rosalie!!
>>We have been dealing with rain issues.
Ugh! Fingers crossed for good weather. But no worries, we have plenty of time and there are always several extra weeks at the end in case weather (or life :)) gets in the way.
Tees did a *great* job here!!!
>> She’s being purposeful but I’m more concerned with understanding than speed. Your thoughts on this?>>
I completely agree that being purposeful and having understanding is the top priority. I have two Staffy mixes right now (one is 2.5, one is 12) and I started agility with a Staffy rescue – both of those older girls were go-fast first, think-about-it later. So that led to problems. My younger thinks first then piles on the speed when she ‘gets it’ – and she is sooooo good one course 🙂 So if Tees wants to think first, and go fast when she fully understands: PERFECT! That is my favorite thing in an agility dog.
I also think that terrier dogs (all types of terriers) have to really think about collection and bending. So if she wants to think about it on these games – good girl. And that is what she was doing here: bending. Loved it! She was not fast going to the tunnel because you set up a great challenge: your physical stance looked to be just about the same as the physical stance for the dig cue, so she really had to listen to the verbals. All you would need to do to get more speed is support it with a little bit more body cue. But I give her a big gold star for NOT needing that support and for listening to the verbal. GOOD GIRL!
So for your next session, you can add more motion as a challenge and keep the toy hidden until she makes the complete decision (you had the toy presented before she was finished with the wrap). You can add more motion by starting further back and running into it, and also fast rotations (because speed = speed and sometimes the dogs only see the motion and don’t read the rotation or hear the verbal0.
And you can totally do the tunnel and then wrap as a mini sequence, that will add challenge too!
Great job here!!!
TracyHi!
Great session here! Very nice transitions between the ready and the send! I think she did better on the sideways sends when you did the arm next to the prop like at :22 (rather than across your body). Your foot step was very clear and also the ready game kept her engaged with you until you were ready – and that made it VERY clear as to when you wanted her to start. Plus it looks like she thought it was fun – look at her engagement, wagging tail and speed when you sent her. It was a really fun high energy session. Love it!
You might have to give her a cookie for sticking with you when you say ready, she was having a good time and starting when you said ready LOL!!You can definitely transfer this to your barrel or wing now, I think she is ready 🙂 And that way you can also add in leaving a little sooner each time, so she continues her commitment even when you are moving the other direction.
Great job!!!
TracyHi!
Wow, this is going well! I don’t mind that she would sometimes turn before the prop because she was hitting the handles and turning the correct direction. Very cool! And she was driving ahead like a pro. Super!!!!
I think you did indeed show the RCs a lot sooner on most of the reps and she did a great reading it both directions! Happy dance! On the reps where she didn’t make the turn, you were either a little too late (like at 1:45) or started off too parallel to show it in time (like at 2:01). She is very young so that means she is very honest – she will be able to read them and do the RCs without you needing to be perfect when she is a little older and more experienced.When you were close to her and earlier on the RC cues… perfect! The last 2 reps were examples of that! Very nice!!
My only suggestion is don’t say “go” to get her started, as that will mean something different on jumps (straight versus turn). But since I totally understand the need to say something, I suggest a goofy interim verbal that won’t mean anything else, like a silly noise, or maybe “hit” or something. That way you can have verbal energy and a start cue but protect the meaning of your Go verbal for the future.
Great job!
TracyHi!
>> And Jedi’s Generation has more than what Sport had. 🙂>>
OMG this is so true – with the Sport and Export generation, I think the only verbals were “tunnel” and their name. LOL!
>>At this point we say the “catch” (and click) and then throw the treat. Is the “catch” the release word? Eventually the “catch” means like stay…and then you are going to get the treat? And when do you use “Break”?>>
The click is what marks the behavior, meaning “thank you for putting your butt down” and then it builds into clicking when you want to end the stay – so you would not click for her butt hitting the ground, you would click right before the release. “Catch” is a marker that the reward is coming behind the dog – so it is also a release in that way because the pup is allowed to move backwards to get it. So the order of events is:
sit – click – ‘catch’ – toss the treat.then when you want to add duration, you delay the click. So it is
sit ————- click – ‘catch’ – toss the treat.
The click and catch come pretty close together 🙂She did well here! A couple of little suggestions –
Let her offer it, don’t cue the sit – that will actually make it stronger because it was all her decision LOL! And when you throw the treat, throw it directly behind her like you did at :31 so she turns backwards to get it (not off to the side) – this will help keep her in the stay as you move away from her when we add the lead out.
You can start adding duration between the sit and the click. So it would be sit, wait a few seconds, then click and toss the treat (catch!). The click happens just before the treat toss, at the end of the stay. If that goes well, it will be easy to add motion!>>And when do you use “Break”?>>
Break gets adding in when we want her to release forward to us, to engage with us. On this game, we don’t need that yet 🙂 We want her to love love love the stay before she realizes how much fun it is to drive forward 🙂
Great job!
TracyHowdy!
The idea of a new prop is good one if the other was smacking him! This dot worked really well!! It was easy to transfer the value, which is a nice testament to all of the shaping you’ve done with him.
He did just about perfectly when he was on your left but not as well when he was on your right. It could have been that you were closer to the prop on your left (more distance laterally on your right side on the reps were he didn’t hit it) or just that he is stronger on your left at this moment in time. So, stick a little closer on your right and I think he will even out nicely.
I loved that he was adding speed yet still hitting it nicely! YAY!!!!>>Do you think I need to work on adding distance before I try the “get out” game?>>
The ‘get out’ game is more of a send game, so I suggest doing a session or two of forward sending to the prop, as well as a bit of sideways and backwards sending. That way he can get the value transferred for the ‘smack’ style hit. On the parallel path here in this video, he did beautifully and produced the correct style of prop hit, which was more of an extension run over it.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi again!
Lots of good stuff here with the running contacts –
you and WM got into the groove nicely at about :20! Resist temptation to offer any physical cues to help at this point, the entire focus of the RC progression is to have the behavior to be completely independent of any motion so don’t even turn and face the new direction LOL! I know, I am such a pain in the butt. Standing still is incredibly hard but you will be able to get moving pretty soon on this (but in a way that adds challenge more than it adds help). He is starting to really get the hang of the skill on the box! Now, as you progress through this, a guideline that you might find helpful: get 2 sessions in a row of 90% success or higher before you change anything. So, 2 sessions of facing the box, not moving, about a foot away from the box, where he goes back and forth and you click & throw. That will build a lot of value and also give you a mile marker for when to move on and add or change something. At :53, you moved away by a couple of feet, and the distance challenge was too much too soon, as he let you know. When you moved back in closer, he immediately got back on track. Yay!You can also add the MM to the box, as well as the angles of entry! I think he is ready for that.
On the mat – The box being for the A-frame is a slightly different game (I like front & back feet through a box, like we want on the frame) so on the mat, I think he is ready for you to shift your focus to clicking for back feet only. That is the dog walk criteria – but even if you are not planning a running dog walk, it is an intense trainer challenge and will hone your eye for what he is doing more than anything else. He looks to have good value for the mat, so you can now make that change- but start close to the mat so he doesn’t look at any distance yet. 2 hints for the back feet stuff: stare at the mat the whole time, don’t look at him at all. And, use a light-colored mat or towel so it is easier to see the little black feets 🙂
Nice work here!!
T
Hi! Happy Friday!
He did really well on the tunnel sends here! On the ‘normal’ sends, you can add movement now – everything is the same except when you let him go, you will also walk forward. That will either be really easy and you’ll see no change in his behavior, at which point you can add in more speed! Or, it will prove to be incredibly distracting and he will just look at you… at which point you can walk v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y. I *think* the motion will not be distracting but ya never know 🙂The accidental threadle was hilarious! LOL!! Good boy 🙂
>>A couple of reps later, I tried for an intentional threadle. By this point, I realize in hindsight that I’d let the session go too long, and he was losing his concentration.>>
Now, normally with puppies I am all like “yeah, session was too long!!” but in this case I don’t think that was it. When you asked for the threadle at 1:02, you were all the way at the other end of the tunnel. That starts the challenge at the hardest point, so he had to bypass the obvious entry. He tried but didn’t really know what you wanted. When you start the threadle, start right next to the tunnel entry making it super obvious, then as his success rate goes up, you can start working back to the harder sends.
And yes, definitely start those on the next session, hopefully you don’t have too much snow. Great job!
TracyHi! She was a really good girl here, this is a hard game! She was actively trying to engage her back feet, which is super. It looks like she had little eyeballs on her feet, looking for the teeter LOL! The barking was probably frustration due to the difficulty of the game. I think she did best when you let her start with all 4 feet on, then lured her off then let her back up from there. She didn’t need to do that on the last rep, but you can let her start the session that way to get her rolling with it. You can also get a little lower (crouch or bend) to help her keep her head down, which will allow her to move her hind end more easily.
Great job!!
TracyGood morning! Your serps are looking good and I am jealous of the building!!!
1 jump reps – great job with all of the stay reinforcement, that is critical when we add in moving starts 🙂 She did well!! The serps looked great, it looks like she was making the turn before taking off. Your position was a little too far from the jump, be close enough to touch it so that she is landing already turned and not jumping quite as far out towards you. It is a subtle thing but will help to get the turns even tighter.
On the 2 and 3 jump reps, there was a little too much close up on Yowza on the camera so it was hard to always see what was happening in relation to handling 🙂
Some of the 2 jumps some were more like 180s because you were not ahead in serp position , but when jump 1 was the serp jump I think she did well! I couldn’t really see what you upper body position was doing, so I will assume perfection LOL!
She dropped a bar at approx 1:30 and I couldn’t really see why (we could hear it more than see it). But she might be slipping on the turf? At 1:39 we had a nice wide view as you sent her to jump 1 – she slipped on takeoff for the first jump on the send. I didn’t see a problem with the handling and I didn’t see a problem with her decision (she was collecting nicely) it just look like she slipped as you moved away with speed. The bar didn’t fall but it did rattle. She didn’t slip in that send spot on the other reps and the bar was fine.
She did well on the 3 jump reps too! When she ran by the jump at 1:44, it was a connection issue – the connection was a little too soft for a young dog, so she didn’t really know to push away to get the last jump. So, as she lands from the middle (serp) jump, look back and make a VERY hard connection to her eyes, and maintain that until you see her turn away to the next jump. That hard connection will point your shoulders/chest to the line to the takeoff of the last jump 🙂
It was clearer at 1:52 but you were not as far ahead there, and using your arm a bit more. It was good to be really far ahead at 1:44 🙂 so I think the bigger connection will fix that.
You can see it on the other side too – at 1:56 you were looking forward on the way to the last jump so it took her an extra stride to turn back to it. I think that you were positionally in a good spot (near the jump) and that helped, but we do want to keep you as far ahead of this speed demon as possible LOL!!!
Great job here!!
TracyHi! I am beginning to see the weight shift happening! So the lower closer placement is working – she was much more weight shifted on the first several reps. She lost it a little at about :24, but then regained it towards the end. Consistent placement of reinforcement will continue to solidify that. I think the 2-3 inch location was probably the best one to get he 2o2o with the weight shift. To keep her from looking at you and so you don’t have to stop with her or near the board… you can drop the reward on the target as you go past. That way you can keep moving or be behind her, so she drives into target position and only looks at her target. I call that “cookies from heaven” when I drop them from above LOL!!! And you learn to have pretty good aim… plus she learns to hold position even if the cookie bounces away, so it ends up being a great little proofing game too!
Nice work! Fingers crossed for more snow-less days!
Tracy
