Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
She did an awesome job here! So serious!! Her little tail… GAH! it was distracting LOL!
I couldn’t see your head on the sends, but on some of the reps she wasn’t as fast or head-checked for a moment (:50, 1:02, 1:07 for example) so it is possible that you were not as connected (shifting connection to the target) as you sent. On other reps (before those and then again at 1:17 and 1:40, for example) you sent and left nice and early and she had no questions – so keep working that connection.
One other thing to consider, because you mentioned her front feet earlier – in the transitions after the reward and back into the next send, she has her front feet in the air a lot 🙂 If that is something you would like to avoid (or accidentally reinforce with the next send) you can help her not do it and also still get the tight turn/drive back understanding by tossing the reward past you as she drives back rather than feeding from your hand. That way she stays down on the ground, drives back, gets reinforcement, and it buys you a bit of time to reset. Now if you don’t care, perfect LOL! I don’t mind it with the littles and my littlest, Elektra, does a similar front feet thing which I have put on cue (“Baby Bear”) because it is cute. I have personally not found it to be a problem in training or on course or in life, other than some offering of baby bear cuteness when she wants part of my dinner LOL! (And I of course give her some, because, I am the WORST lol!!!)Collection sandwich video – there is a lot of cuteness happening here too, it is distracting. LOL!
The start station has a lot of value right now so she is not driving off of it on the release with as much speed as I know she will have eventually – she did get progressively faster and faster on these though, so it is already percolating nicely – then she was starting to smoke you, so be sure to get your blind cross started basically as soon as she leaves her station.
You might have stepped in a little towards her – but she didn’t seem to be bothered and was happy to drive to the collection cue.
On the mechanics of the blind – give her one more heartbeat of the cross-body connection before you go to the collection hand. The collection hand was in play before she had made the side change, so she didn’t see the connection as crisply – and the line behind you had a bit of zig zag. I felt like I had both hands in play for a moment with the pups here: cross body arm to get connection and the dog-side arm to get into the collection. That is fine and will help her see the side change sooner.No worries about the bending of the line a little on the GO! There were 2 strong visuals out there – the station and the tunnel – PLUS the additional layers of putting it all together adding more challenge… and she was still able to go to the toy, which was a little harder to see in the grass. AND she was able to bring it back, head up, each time – VERY cool to see that!!!!
Great job on these! Le me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>So would the verbal here would be the one for a tight left and a tight right, correct?
For wing wrapping? Yes, it would be tight left and tight right.
I can’t wait to hear the full story about E and Sly 🙂
I like Port and Star!!!! Star might sound a little like Sly or even Target if you use that word.
I use left and right for the soft 90 degree turns, and noises for the wraps:
sisisisi for left wrap
choochoochooo for right wrapHi!
I like when we find out what the dog needs in order to create training progressions to help him out! Yes the clicker session on the sends looks good but he left for the kennel on both the ready (:10) and on just the clicker (:56). So I think it has to do potentially with some clarity of behavior as well: when you were closer to the pillow, he did fine and had no questions. The leaving all happened when you were further from the pillow (plus the interactions with it that were not as accurate). The home session was also plretty close to the pillow and he was at his happiest when you were about an arm’s length away. When you got a little further – (like 2 arms lengths away) the behavior was not as crisp.
So I think that the question he has is more about adding distance too quickly – keep the next several sessions to no more than an arm’s length away from the pillow. I don’t think you have poisoned anything, I think he is preferring the clarity of proximity for now – we can add more distance much more gradually 🙂Separately from this – do add a ready word (or any similar word) because a word like that is just so darned useful for getting engagement! But add it without the dancing – just pair it with great things: say ready thn throw a ball. Say ready then give him his dinner bowl 🙂 I use it conversationally all the time with my puppies and right before something fun is presented (toys, treats, activities) so they are pairing it and getting a positive conditioned emotional response. We can add in body language later on after the CER is in place.
Collection sandwich: This is looking terrific! Also, he did well with the toy on the first few reps! Cheese is delicious so I am glad he played with the toy. Your mechanics were terrific (this game has a need for 65 arms). When using all treats, you can have an empty food bowl out ahead – start with a cooke in the bowl to send him away, then toss a cookie into the bowl so he can drive to it as his destination.
Stays: I agree, catch is a fun word and it find it so entertaining when the pups do actually catch it LOL!! I do use this game when I begin to put the dogs into the ring (and a variation on this game) – it transfers brilliantly to NFC/training runs early in the pup’s career by giving the pup a framework for amazing stays and teamwork off the line, even as yougnsters. It creates happy relaxed stays – and he did awesome!!!! Having the foundation of a solid stay really helped too. You can also add the advanced level of the game (we didn’t do it in the live class, it is on the video :))
Great job!
TracyHi there! There are SO many good things happening on these videos! Happy dance!
Wing wraps – looking good, he is totally in the groove here. Yay! Next session: warm up for 2 or 3 cookies just like this (or however many it takes until he is in the groove) then move the wing out a few inches to add challenge. Try to do keep it to maybe 10 treats before you throw the party 🙂 Then take a break and come back after a minute or so for 10 mire treats. That will keep him in the right working state without him losing his train of thought.Toy To Treat – this is a great game to help him learn to modulate his internal arousal, which will help if he gets frustrated! He did a great job here! You did a nice job of have those ‘frozen moments’ and basically rewarding him for being a bit patient when there were no active treats or toys! He was terrific! Yes, keep playing this game: add different places, different values of toys and treats, etc – and even a bit of you turning away where he might have done a butt chomp on the past – start a fake, minimal turning away and then toss the rewards for him waiting patiently.
Sends with Opposing Motion – yay, he is doing a great job here! Try to move away less quickly for now – early yes, but not as fast. Motion (especially fast motion) causes a lot of behaviors to break down, so as you move away, you can be very casual and slow about it – especially as you add more distance.
No worries about the 2 misses – you caught them and adjusted and he didn’t feel any frustration or pressure. Part of the game is to train us to see that and adjust… and you did that beautifully! I’d say that after another session or two like this, you can add more distance which will allow you to leave even earlier (but slowly LOL). This is where you might find the biggest difference between whippet training and RR training: motion! Add the motion in very gradually and casually with the pointy dog 🙂 I have found with RRs that we could add motion in right away in agility because it got them really excited! Let me know if you have also had that experience 🙂Speaking of motion – your first rep of your collection sandwich handling combo looked GREAT – the perfect level of motion for the task at hand at this moment. He picked up speed on the next reps, but you don’t need to. The blind and the turns looked good. You lost a little connection at 1″29 so he ended up behind you, but you made the right decision to reward and carry on 🙂
You can add in a little bit of toy play on rep or two of this and see how he does:
Do a blind and reward with a toy, then a cookie toss, blind and reward collection/drive to you with a treat. That way we can build up to adding the GO at the end.The parallel path session looked great! You did a nice job of gradually adding distance but then you found the threshhold – you were a little too far so he had 2 failures out of 3 reps and he let you know he was frustrated at 1:00 but jumping up, I think what will help is as you add distance laterally – when you change sides, take a heartbeat to connect with him, then move – that way he doesn’t lose the rhythm and just follow you (and miss the target).
He is definitely getting the idea, the foot hits had some real intent – but adding distance definitely increases challenge! You can also tweak the placement of reinforcement for a few reps each time you add distance: click then toss the treat to the pillow case. Then, call him to you, reward, start again. After a few reps, he is likely to be ready for you to throw the reward out on the line again.And yes, do a few more sessions on this before adding the RC. But, with the RC, there is no lateral distance, so I bet he will pick it up faster than you think!
Great job here, you are both looking terrific!
TracyHi!
>> I don’t think there is any one way to train a dog anymore, I think you have to train the dog in front of you and every dog is different so you better prepare to adapt!! >>
These are the absolute truest words that I have heard in a LONG while. Whenever I get arrogant enough to think I know what I am doing, one of the dogs steps up and reminds me that I have a lot more to learn and that I’d better pay attention LOL!
>>I’m ok at adapting but I could be better at it, ug, oh well.
I feel that – it is really hard to set aside what we think we know in order to learn what we *need* to know. Constantly working that skill!
He looks great on the videos!
With the bowls – he definitely was happy to wait for the food to hit the bowl at first, but then I was REALLY happy to see him getting into the groove of offering the back and forth on his own. YESSSS good boy! We will be able to progress this very quickly now: over the course of a couple of sessions, if he will let you push the upright to about a foot away (revealing the possibility of cutting in between you and the upright) then you can add challenge. You can working on standing up, and separately you can work on adding something bigger (see the game I posted on Saturday – something like a laundry basket. I use a pop up crate). You can work on these separately, with the end goal at this point being that you can both be standing AND having him wrap something bigger that is a foot or two away from you.On the Blinds video: wow, the mountains behind you look like a movie panorama! Gorgeous!!! I was distracted haha!
On the blinds – very nice! He is a big fan of the stronger connection. The 2nd and 3rd reps were perfect examples – on the 2nd rep, he was coming towards you but did not commit to a side or to adding speed until you made the extra connection by showing the toy across your body. Then, watching the 3rd rep step-by-step: he actually stayed on your original side (right side) until the toy came across at :13, then he changed sides and drove to the new side (and the toy). The toy pushes your ‘new’ dog side arm back, so at :13 he could see your eyes/upper body better. Compare it to :12 when you had your head fully turned but your left arm was parallel to your side (nice and low but parallel) and the toy was not yet across your body) – he was still looking at the right side of the body). Great camera angle to see it!
So I don’t think he is waiting for a toy as a lure – I think he reads the connection as the side change cue and needs to see your eyes/upper body – and the dog-side arm back reveals that. More experienced dogs will know that the head turn predicts the rest of the cue so they will make the BC side change sooner, but youngsters do for sure rely on the full picture. Let me know if that makes sense!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! I am so glad you are having fun!!! The working spots are all full though 🙁 We ill give you first dibs on any spots in the next class!!
T
Hi!
Ha! Chilling out on cue is HARD work and very exhausting LOL!Great job on the games here. His sit stays looked good. Try to the sit without any physical pressure towards him – on some of the reps you would lean into him a bit, and that can be off-putting for dogs when they are in a more ramped up environment or more stimulated state of arousal (BCs get really sticky in those moments, slooooowwww to sit when there is pressure :))
The stays themselves looked great! You can add in doing them in front of something stimulating – a toy on the ground, or a tunnel (he has experience there) or anything exciting! You can also add more speed to your departure – jogging away.
You can also add in the advanced level with tugging before and then as the reward – challenging him to still hit and hold the position, even when things are really exciting!Parallel path games – a bit of rewarding for effort is fine, but you can also slow down your motion to get more accuracy. He had more trouble on your right side (for whatever reason) so you can walk VERY slowly when he is on your right and only a little slowly when he is on your left 🙂
When he is highly accurate with you moving slowly, you can start to work back up to normal walking (which is what you were doing here).Countermotion sending – he definitely got the hang of it and was happy to let you leave earlier and earlier! Yay! He was definitely faster driving back to you for the reward than he was when driving to the prop – so for the next 2 sessions, do everything the same except after the click, toss the reward out to the prop. Then we can switch back to reward on you, when we see if the speed is getting equal both sending and coming back to you.
Good job sorting out the various mechanics needed for the collection sandwich without needing to attach a 3rd arm! You did only try to hit the camera person with the toy once LOL! On the cookie toss – it is taking him a while to find the treat on some of the searches (or he is smelling good smells) and then he might have been skipping the treat – hard to tell. But it wasn’t crisp in that moment, so you can use an empty food bowl out on the grass with a cookie in it to send to – just to make a more obvious target. The rest of it is very crisp and fast! He likes the ‘bread’ part of this sandwich (drive to handler and drive ahead) so you can add some more reward to the ‘meat’ (collection) by rewarding with the toy on some reps for driving into you. Your timing was fine but the excitement of the extension was overpowering the collection – I think toy rewards will help balance that out. Also, you can help him to NOT anticipate the go line by turning in a full 360 so he doesn’t whip around you, ready to leave: you can keep turning (or even do 2 circles) and reward with the toy. Just don’t get dizzy or fall over LOL!!
Great job here!! And thank you for your insights about the various words for reinforcement in the chat on Saturday – I think it was helpful for folks to hear how helpful it was for Lennan to have those clarifications in his world!!
Tracy
Hi!
This was hard! This is the first time was have asked her to do a line without connection, so clearly it was really hard!! Eeek!!! Glad that only the jump wing seems ouchy afterwards. The 2nd video looked much better – you were a tiny bit connected rather than completely disconnected, and that was a smart choice. I think we can change this up to show her the concepts without challenging her so much that she hits the wing or your leg. I think your set up was good but the challenge made her brain steam!
So – showing it to her from ahead of her more will help. The best way to do that will be starting from the tunnel, sending her to it, then getting way up the line so she can chase you. And, on the line heading towards the tunnel, try it on one jump at first (wing to a jump to a tunnel) or even from a stay in front of the jump to the tunnel, giving yourself a nice juicy lead out so your motion and verbal can support from further ahead. Let me know how it goes! When she is happy with that, we can add more challenge 🙂Tracy
Hi!
I think the frustration was mainly because the backside slices and threadles are trained skills, which makes them really hard to just hand AND run LOL!!The disconnected GO lines looked really good in both directions- you were a little far from the wing to start going towards the tunnel so she wasn’t as sure, but the jumping lines looked good (she seemed to enjoy the speed!!)
I feel the pain the ipad falling over!!!!
So she was getting to the backside very nicely (it will be even easier if you put wings on the backside jump) but she doesn’t fully understand the default of ‘take the jump’ – so you ad to stay there and help with a blind cross – in order to get you to be able to run past the backside , we will train the default behavior. Stay tuned for the skills sets coming today!!Same with the threadle to the backside – you were using physical cues like rotation to get her to the backside and send her back out, and that relies on the perfection of your handling cues. When you tried to move through it forward, she took the front of the jump. So, instead, we will train it 🙂 I posted the threadle how-to i the forum late last week (I will bump it back up) so you can start with that, then later today I will add the other skills sets. The threadles and backside slices are all dog training skills – and when she understands it more fully, the handling will be very easy 🙂
Let me know what you think as we get the skills sets underway 🙂
TracyHi!
Thanks for resetting the listing!Video 1 (Course 3)
The opening line looked strong! At :10, when he land from 4, at that point you can make a transition into the wrap turn on 5: decel then rotate your feet, and move forward to the weaves when he passes you. You might not be right near the wing of 5, but that is fine, you don’t need to be near it. You kept moving forward for longer than needed there and turned and faced the bar at :11 – then cued the wrap – so he pulled the bar,
Nice job with the 2 blinds after the teeter! You can push the timing up and test his understanding: just before he gets to the entry wing of the backside after the teeter, do the blind then take off. You did take off at :20 but you waited one stride longer than I think you need to for him 🙂 And leaving 8 sooner will let you get the BC at 9 sooner – I am sure he can handle that.
Good job on the turn info before 10 (the straight tunnel) – I couldn’t hear what you said, exactly, but he knew to turn = you can try cuing that threadle even sooner to smooth out hte line from the tunnel exit to 11.
He read the straight line after the 13 tunnel really nicely and you get the name call in, so he exited 14 looking directly at 15. Yay!
On the 15 jump at “32 (the last wrap) you can switch to the left arm sooner and turn your head to leave for 15 before he takes off. You were supporting more than he needed: as he was in the air, you were still helping him commit – you can be blinded and off to the next line at that point 🙂Video 2 (Course 2)
Nice job on 1-2-3, getting the name in at the right time before the tunnel so he turned beautifully to 3!
You were a little off the line 3-4 (too far over towards 3) and the blind was a little late (happenign while he was in the air at 3) so he hit the wing of 4 at :12 trying to adjust to get the line. You can start the blind as soon as you see him exit the tunnel (as long as he is looking at 3) which will help with the jumping at 4 – also, stay connected a little while longer there – you looked forward as he was adjusting and that contributed to the bar as well.The 5-6-7-8 line looked good – to set up the RC with a tighter line, remember to call him before he goes into the tunnel (I bet you can send more and get a blind before the 9 jump too!)
The backside wrap at 11 worked icely (:25) and I LOVE how independently you handled it!!! YAY!!! I do think a slice will be faster there though, always try to replace wraps with slices wherever possible on the backside. You can have him come into the backside the same way and exit it on the other side, that will work nicely based on this set up.He turned a bit wide ouf ot 12 at :28 – mainly because even though you were decelerated and giving a verbal and arm cue, your motion was still forward – and forward motion of any sort if king 🙂 So give the cue and move away laterally more.
At :30 for the FC 14-15: trust his commitment and turn sooner. He jumped wide because the turn started when he was in the air. When he lands from 14 and looks at 15, turn and go on the FC. That will help keep you closer to the perfect path line – which will also help tighten the line. He found the line to 16 beautifully!! On the exit of 16 – based on how you set it, it looks like you can send him back out to the last jump even sooner – you pulled him in then turned him away, but you can probably show him the turn away on the exit fo the 16 tunnel to create an almost-straight line to 17.
Video 3 is the ending line of course 1 – the outside arm being up as he exited the tunnel helped set up a really nice turn on the FC at 13! You can start the rotation and do the turn itself before he takes off (you waited til he was in the air, maybe trying to get past the wing?) but the outside arm prepared him that a turn was coming.
Video 4 (Course 1) – very nice blind in the opening! The 4-5-6 line is really hard – if you lead out more, release in motion and execute the BC further ahead, you will then be closer to 4 to get into the gap and do the FC when he lands from 3. At :05, you were a little behind so the FC started when he landed from 4 (so he was wide there).
The rotation on 5 looked really good! You can use your left arm there to do the throwback, which saves some rotation and gets you outta there sooner.Very nice lateral distance on the weaves! When you do the BC from 8-9, two ideas to help tighten it up a bit:
First, trust him more and start it sooner. You started it at :15 as he was taking off, so he had to land long then adjuts after landing.
Second – the line you started on was good for the perfect path! You can get a little closer to the wing of 8 to start it, that way you are running more forward through it and not as laterally across it.
Great connection at :16 to help him get to the new side!!
Nice sprint down the line to the tunnel! At :23 you had a bit of pointing forward so he was unsure and hit the bar, then a bit of pointed forward so he didn’t take the last jump. The redo on the previous video looked great on this section.
You can also play with layering to get down there sooner: you can do the blind a little closer to the jump 8 after the pooles, then send to 9 and use verbals to support his line to the 12 tunnel while you layer the 3 jump (or even the straight tunnel) to get all the way down the course to 13 🙂Overall, this all looked really good! The main theme is to trust him more and do the turns/crosses sooner – he understands his commitment so you can show the cross and leave, all before he takes off. Great job here, let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>I have been totally thrilled with Enzo’s coursework!
As you should be – he looked fabulous! It is easy to forget how young he is!!!
>> There are no places where I think “Oh, this will be hard for us.”.
That is awesome!!! And, you have put in the time to train the foundations, so it makes sense that things are coming together really nicely 🙂
>>He does not turn as tightly as I would like but I think a lot of that is that I am learning how to “cue and leave” in a way that communicates best to him.>>
Yes, part of it is his youth – the two of you are still sorting out the cue-and go thing. And also, as he matures, he will also get stronger in core and hind end, which tighten turns as well. He is young and male, so not yet at full strength 🙂
T
Good morning!
On the first video:
>>I liked the last run: spin on #5 and I did the best job of being out of the way on #6. But it was the slowest, I assume because of the threadle.>>I agree! Your #6 was GREAT here and he also had the best jumping effort over #6 (balanced and fast, no possibility of hitting the wing or bar). I do think the threadle contributed to it being the slowest by a tick mainly because the yardage is longer by a little going that way, but also take a slightly obsessive look at the spin: when he was taking off at :28, you were just starting the rotation and you were at the wing of the jump after a brake hand to cue the collection. When he landed at :29, you were not yet connected and said something (hard to tell what it was exactly) before the around cue – so he took a stride in to the front then had to take another stride to get to the backside. Those extra little strides will add up to be somewhere around a half second of extra time on the clock. So, you can do the spin earlier on 5 so you are reconnected when he lands and also use the around cue sooner. It is Monday so we can be obsessive, right? LOL!
>>Moving on to sequence 2. Of course, the beginning was the same. I handled the ending two ways; once as a serp and once with a FC. The FC required a threadle entrance to the tunnel which felt very, VERY slow but the whole thing was only a bit slower.>>
OK, since Mondays are for obsessing… at :05 as he landed from 5, you were not yet reconnected from the spin and so you got the zig zag of extra strides 5-6. At :22 when he landed from the spin at 5, you were reconnected and delivering the around cue – he did not have the extra strides to the front then back out to the backside of 6. The earlier reconnection definitely helps!
On the ending line – The threadle to the serp on the first rep was a tighter line – but I think the exit of the threadle was a little wider (he landed then turned) so that added time – you can get a tighter turn with the wrap cue and moving away to the serp as soon as he turns his head to the jump after the threadle. The FC created a VERY nice turn and a lot of speed! He just needed you to cue the turn on the jump before the tunnel sooner: a right directional and decel then threadle – he was FLYING! That might even end up being faster for him there…
>>Then there was sequence 3. I ran it twice, the second time using the correct verbals in all places. I was very pleased with how this one went.
This looked really nice, especially the 2nd rep! Yay for the great use of verbals!
1-2-3 was strong on both. On the BC 4-5: You can be sooner on this: anticipate the tunnel exit so as soon as you see his head exit, you can start the blind. At :06 the BC stared as he as over the bar so he had to adjust when he landed. At :22 it was earlier, about a stride before the bar so the reconnection happened sooner and he had less adjustment when he landed – but if you can start it when he exits and have it finished before takeoff, he can power through there even faster. And finishing the blind sooner set up a better backside at 5 on that 2nd rep too.
The serp at 6 looked good both times!On both reps, he exited the tunnel looking at the front side of the bar (:13 and :29) and then had to push back out. You can start your around cue while he is entering the tunnel (and say it again before he exits, and then again after he exits) to see if he can exit the tunnel facing the backside line and not do t he little zig zag after the exit.
On that backside jump (8) at :15 and :30 – this is another spot to disconnect and move through without helping him on the bar, It can actually be even more important on this one, because staying there and helping sets up a really tight turn and you don’t need a tight turn to get to the last jump. So as soon as you see him heading to the entry wing on the backside – disconnect, move through the line and get to the BC side 🙂>>I find that I can leave much earlier in training than when I’m running a course.
Do you mean that is it easier to do it on smaller set ups, or easier to do it on course in training versus at a trial?
Great job here!!
TracyHi!
>> If not for that little tunnel issue, he could have Qd if we were doing competitive runs! That wasn’t the point but nice to think about…he ran a whole course!
Yes! So fun to think about that he read and understood the handling well enough on the rest of it that it would have easily been a Q with a fast time.
>Can you tell me if you thought the dig cue was appropriate for that part of the course though or maybe overkill? It wasn’t exactly a wrap back on the course.
Yes, I think it was probably a bit of overkill on that course (hard to tell without seeing the exact angle). I only use wrap cues (especially with the smaller dogs) when the dog immediately has to come back around the exit of the jump or tunnel – and if they don’t have to do it immediately or if they don’t have to do it at all, it is a left or right verbal.
>>Anyway….maybe the Pumi didn’t work out for agility but holy smokes is he an amazing nose work dog. We are competing now towards our Elite 2 title (earning points) and he not only took 1st place overall but got 3 placements out of 4 searches AND got “pronounced” from the judges in ALL 4 SEARCHES! That’s a special acknowledgement judges give for exceptional technique and/or team work! I’m just thrilled.>>
Yay! Congrats!!! He is an amazing dog – his body did not make agility an easy thing (too much injury happening, right?) but he was phenomenal in agility (not easy – but a phenom!). I think it is so fabulous that he can show his brilliance in nosework!!! Such a cool dog!!
Fingers crossed for cooler weather! Feels like the desert here LOL!
T
