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Hi!
>>For his target behavior I guess I never really solidified a behavior. Usually it was just a treat target in control unleashed classes or when we did baby agility when he was young.>>
That might be why he got frustrated sometimes… not enough clarity about exactly what you wanted him to do. Border Collies like to know all of the details and exactly what they need to do, or they get angry LOL!!!
>> I’ve noticed in his control unleashed classes the past six months he”s been offering a foot target and tried to pivot since the target was on the floor. I thought that was hysterical and very creative – the teacher of that class didn’t find it that funny since he was the demo dog a few times lol!>>
Ha! I think that is pretty funny too! I crack up when demo dogs change the game LOL!
>> So I’m fine with a foot target especially since we are working on foot targets with the fit pods.
Perfect, clarity will help!!
>>I did try having him back up onto a folded yoga mat and then the Cato board to make sure he actually has this skill. It went well so I’ll try it in the flat teeter next.
Great! You can transfer the concept by laying the yoga mat over the end of the teeter and see if that helps him do it.
On your bang game video:
I think it went best when you started out low and in front, like you did with the middle rep – he was much less frustrated (no squeaking!) And he did well!! You can reward in position then release to get a cookie off the side, then reward again for getting back into target position, then release to get off, and so on. For now just use cookies but at some point we can add more arousal with the toy!>> Lots of distractions during this one as my son was trying to get I to the backyard and my other dog was not having it when I told my son to put him inside. I was happy the Chapter noticed the issue but then offered the behavior instead of leaving work.>>
It is perfect to work with high success with distractions! It helps him when he goes to trials, because he will be used to having to focus through distractions. He did well!!!
On your wrap games – he did really well here again with the distractions!!! I mean, you can incorporate the kids and have them walking around or running around as Chapter is doing simple training, the kids might like that LOL!!!!
He is committing really nicely and your connection looks LOVELY. That really contributed to the race track and transition to the wraps – SO NICE!!!! On the 2-in-a-row moments on the wraps, you can add in more transition to make it easier and smoother. It looks like you were running fast then slammed on the brakes/rotated on that first rep, so he didn’t commit. Add in a decel before you rotate: run fast as he is rounding the previous wing, then decelerate but keep moving to the next wing – and as he is passing you, rotate. Stay connected like you were, it really helped. I think adding in the decel will help you be able to get the commitment AND sort out the foot work – the slamming the brakes tends to feel awkward, and the decel then rotate should feel a lot smoother and more natural 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! These looked lovely!
I realize that he thinks that starting on a wing is a little stupid, so you can always have him start on a tunnel and then do the sequences on these!
The GO lines and the wrap-to-go line at the beginning looked great. And I am thrilled about how well he did on the rear crosses! You can see his head already turning the new direction while he was going through the tunnel – and it was not a fluke, because when you balanced it without the rear crosses, he nailed those too! So the understanding seems to be really getting strongThe only tweak I have for you is to start with the tunnel on these drills because there is no real lead out option and he thinks starting on a wing wrap is stuuuuuupid LOL!!! That will add challenge for you because he will be blasting right away rather than rolling his eyes for a moment then going fast LOL!
Great job!!!
TracyThanks for letting me know – something went wonky with the upload. I fixed it (I think :)) Let me know!
TracyHi!
>I feel so far behind. The two weeks of Christmas have left me struggling just to try and go back and begin to catch up. Is anyone else in the same boat? I’m afraid that the class is going to be so far ahead of me for the next seminar. Our weather isn’t cooperating!
No worries, I think everyone feels that way! And the weather has been gross here too! The next seminars are on the weekend of Jan 16, so if you need to pick and choose what you have time to play with – focus on the concept transfer games with the jumps and tunnels. You will be in a great spot for the live seminars, and we will of course tweak any of the challenges to the needs of the dogs and handlers 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
>>curiosity would not be easier to learn to ride down by adjusting the teeter teach it?
I think that riding the teach it down is VERY valuable… but the true learning to balance comes from the Bang Game and the games we add to it, because the dog has to do it instantly and basically from a stand still. It is hard but very useful. And, we also teach end position with the bang game right away in a way that the teach it does not. I look at it as many pieces of the puzzle that come together for an amazing teeter 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
>>The list is slightly modified from the one I gave you last summer. I think my thinking about verbals is about the same.
I ask these questions a lot: what are your verbals and what exactly do they mean? It helps us plan 🙂
>>Verbals are under constant pressure: which ones am I going to teach and use? Are they truly fluent or do they require support by motion?
I agree – verbals are hard to teach, dogs are better at reading physical cues 🙂
>>To my shock, obstacle names are NOT fluent and, without handling support, are not much better than 50-50.
That is interesting and thought-provoking. I definitely want my tunnel cues to be fluent, so I can leave for the next line and trust the dog will do the tunnel. And I guess I also want to have contacts and weave pole cues to be fluent too, especially weaves and the RDW where it is important that we don’t need to be there and also those obstacles are often seen in discriminations nowadays.
Thinking about simplifying things and getting the quickest responses:
Most of the cues are very distinct. Dogs do well with distinct sounds!
I see a potential question:
Jump — jump in extension
Jump-right — jump and turn 90 degrees right
Jump-left — jump and turn 90 degrees leftThese are entirely different behaviors that all start with the exact same sound (jump). That would require him to wait to hear more, delaying the response. Or, some dogs don’t wait, they make a decision on the first sound so he has a 2 out of 3 chance of being incorrect. Something to consider is having “go” be the extension cue for the jump, and left and right being the 90 degree turn cues. Or, Jump as the extension cue and left/right as the turn cues. Food for thought!
>>I wanted to add “Tight” (wrap tightly from a lead-out push) but I forget to train it and use “Easy” instead; I think I’ll just ignore for now and see if I really, really need it (after we start trialing).>>
For any verbal attached to a specific handling scenario, you can keep it low on the priority list. The only time he will see a lead out push is when you are in a lead out push position, which means there will always be a TON of physical support… so I think easy (or whatever existing directional fits) will allow you to have one less thing to need to train.
>>I see that you have a separate verbal for taking the far tunnel entrance (what’s yours?).
Tunnel = tunnel entry on your line
Get Out – move away from me to the tunnel entry
KissKissKiss – threadle in towards me for the ‘non-obvious’ tunnel entry>> I have been using my threadle verbal (IN) for this but I will admit that it doesn’t support speed.
I used to use my ‘close’ threadle verbal until I accidentally set up a course at a seminar that was basically impossible to run clean without 2 separate verbals for jump threadle and tunnel threadle. And these folks had nicely trained dogs! So now I have 2 separate words, and train it differently. If you like, we can add games for that here too! We now teach it so that the dog never needs to look at us to wait to be cued to the tunnel.
>>On the other hand, with limited training time, which verbals are the best pay off?
Great question! I think it comes down to priorities based on goals. Goals can relate to the venue you compete in and the level of competition.
One of my dogs is 15 months old today. So, because he is likely going to compete in UKI at the Novice level later this year (much, much later hahaha), my priorities are strong understanding of GO verbals, left/right (because these help my rear crosses and serpentines too!, tunnel, tunnel threadle, and wraps. I am also playing the baby dog foundation games for contact/tunnel discriminations because I will need those for whenever I get the contacts trained up.
On the backburner: backsides, jump threadles, etc – I won’t need those to be actively or solidly in place for a year or longer. I mean, maybe he will get to run at the US Open in Speedstakes next November when he is 25 months old, and I still won’t need those cues for that class.If I was planning on doing AKC and USDAA and other venues – I would have the same goals for verbals for Novice & Open. I feel that we often focus on the fancy stuff (it is fun!!!!) without as much focus on the necessary stuff.
Let me know what you think!
TracyGreat news here! I have added a Contacts Discrimination section to the class, because you and some other folks seemed keen to play those crazy games too 🙂
Hi! The break week is week 3, and the new stuff from Friday is Week 4 (which I originally posted as week 5 which is the week the other puppy class is in LOL!) sorry for any confusion!!!
THi! Glad to hear the teeter is going well! The bang game is important, especially for our smaller dogs who have to learn to ride the motion down. My Elektra was doing what you describe – trying to run to the top LOL! So I just called her back, gave her a cookie and showed her that it was a different game. So you aren’t really telling him that he is wrong, he is still getting his treat – but you are telling him that it is different 🙂
TracyHi!
On the teeter session – he was nice and calm! Nice session! You can get lower (sitting on the ground, or crouching – that will help keep his head down and might encourage more backing up. About the backing up on to the board… Can he back up onto a wobble board or a dog bed? We might need to start him there to build it. The teeter might be too narrow so he is wisely choosing to look at it to get on it.
>>We also tried the lazy contacts game. He wants to do a foot touch with the target- probably because we’ve been doing shaking to get in fit pods. So I went with that behavior.
I think a foot target is fine! What was your original behavior? If he wants to do a foot target and it gets him into the position and he is relaxed and not over-stimulated… perfect 🙂 I think he did really well here!!! Got up on the board, did his targeting, did not get nutty LOL!
>> I had some logistical issues with timing of the target, placement and the fact when he pawed it,it fell off the Cato board. By the end of the session I think I got it together.>>
That is why it is good to start on a cato board or plank, so both human and dog can sort out the mechanics. I discovered that duct tape was required for my 4on behavior to keep the target from falling off 🙂
>>In terms of having the target behavior at the end of the teeter-I know eventually we will fade the target but will the target hpbehavior still happen at the end? For instance- when your dog who scratches has a completed teeter- will the dog drive to the end of the teeter and scratch at it all the way down? I’m trying to make sure I understand what the end picture looks like.>>
Yes, in general, we try to not fade the criteria. The criteria will fade a bit through the dog’s career, but we don’t deliberately take it out. For example – with my oldest dog, I taught him to do a 2o2o with a repeated nose touch for his teeter behavior. He did do the nose touch for the first couple of years, then the actual nose touch faded out a bit but he was still fully in the right weight shifted position, went into a great 2o2o and his head was nice and low the whole time. The nose touch became and almost touch and he had a great teeter for his whole career. So with my scratch girl 🙂 I imagine it will be a similar trajectory: her full teeter will have the scratching (she loves to do it and decided to do it all by herself lol) and I am sure she will scratch for a while in trials – then it will probably fade but she will still have the position I want.
The extra behaviors fade when we get into the ‘bigger’ runs and I release them the instant the arrive in position, or as soon as the board hits the ground – so they don’t really have time for the extra behaviors (because I am not maintaining them in the ring). But plenty of people do maintain the extra behaviors for the dog’s whole career 🙂Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! She is doing really well!!
On the tunnel-pinwheel set up:
Your connection is looking really strong overall, especially on the tunnel exits throughout the session!
On the rep where she did not take the wrap jump – I think more of a transition will help her commit. You were moving then slammed on the brakes as you rotated at :05. Compare that to :15 where you decelerated then rotated and she nailed it. You were a tiny bit past the jump at :15 but I don’t think position was the issue, I think it was the missing decel in the transition at :05.She was a little sticky on the tunnel sends at :20 and :27 and :40. That is pretty normal young dog stuff, my 2 do the same thing sometimes if I am a little too gentle in the cue LOL! So when she lands from the jump, look very directly at her and move to the tunnel until you are sure she will take it, more like what you did at :44 and 1:03 and 1:19. You were very clear on those! Plus she might be a little better your left to the tunnel than on your right, so be extra sure to drive her all the way in when she is on your right side (my youngest currently requires me to practically jump into the tunnel with her when she is on my left – it improves as they get more experience and rewards 🙂 )
She turned the wrong way at :36, it might just be the line up? She was perfect on all the other turns there, on both sides.
When you added the BCs – Good connection on the tunnel exit at :55 and 1:11! You can start the BC sooner by being more lateral, or spread out your pinwheel so you have more room to get it done 🙂She was a super good girl on the serps!!! And extra cool that it was away from home, she looks relaxed as if she is in her own yard. She had trouble when you started adding more speed for the middle jump (normal baby dog stuff :)) so when you send her to jump 1 and you are going to move a bit more, add in an angle the middle jump so she can see the bar a lot more clearly at first and it is more of an easy commitment. Then as she comes in, you can gradually angle the jump back to that ‘flat’ position. You were good about getting her to take it if she ran by, but the angled jump will make it even easier for you to run through the serps.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! He looked really good here! 2 inch bang? No problem!
For the next steps: When you go into the bang game, the challenge becomes getting into position with more angle and speed, so the target can already be there. If he falls off the side of the bang game, you can pull the target, bring him to your side, replace the target, start over – kind of like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YORZ2kX8doE(I was adding arousal here, she was a little further along in the game than the baby dogs here)
Elektra’s target was on the board when she did the bang game (Contraband will do a 2o2o but is not yet ready for this because I am a slacker haha). And this next step of having the target there as he gets on will help him stay straight, move right to position and not look up at you. I think he is definitely ready for that!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! Nice job adding challenge to the goat games with the wobble board and plank!!
On the wobble board – this was harder than previous games! But you had a really strong session, shaping him – I like the cookies tossed out onto the board for this like you started doing, it got him looking down at the wobbler and engaging with it more. You can also toss them to the other side so he gets off to get it, then runs back to it on the way back to you – that can add excitement so he will get his hind end up without thinking about it as much. Plus, if the pup is thinking hard about getting on the wobble board, I like to get them off so there is a bit of ‘relief’ then they can run back on so it is not all about staying on it. And then pretty soon, he will want to stay on it and will leap on with all 4 feets 🙂
Plankrobatics: He was a good boy, getting right up on the travel plank!!! He got really mad when you did not reward 3 feet but he worked through it 🙂 He has strong opinions LOL! You can also toss rewards off the side for this one, so he can get right back on – that is good for balance too. When he did have all 4 feet on – He was putting himself into a sit to balance, I think – he was more comfy in a stand with 3 feet on. He couldn’t quite stay on yet with all 4 feet to turn around (3:35 was a great example of him turning around with all 4 feet) so you can double up the planks for now – put this one side by side with another one if you have one, or anything that widens the playing field – even the wobble board would work! He is probably still growing and so every morning he wakes up to his legs longer and feet in a new place – so the extra wide playing field will help build a ton of value for all 4 feet on more easily.
Backing up – He was offering some good backing up but I agree that he had some questions 🙂 I think one tweak will help this! OK, 2 little tweaks but they are related LOL!
When you bend down to put the jumpstart cookie between your feet, stay bent with your hand there to be able to both instantly flick the cookie to him when he backs up, then drop in the next jumpstart cookie between your feet, as soon as he swallows the reward cookie. That way, he will come right back in between your feet and then will back up again. If bending over is painful for too long, you can also do this sitting in a chair! But I think the key will be keeping your hand there and not standing up – that will speed reinforcement and reset him, and he will be less likely to look up at you. Even if the backing up was poopy, you can reset him with the jumpstart cookie between your feet. I think he will find that helpful, because his question here looked like he didn’t know what to do when you didn’t reset him and when you were upright. So think of it as jumpstart cookie, reward for backing up, jumpstart cookie (to reset), reward for backing up, and so on. My back only allows me to do this for about 30 seconds LOL! but you can sit in a chair and give him enough room to get the jumpstart cookie.Let me know if that makes sense! Nice work here, he is so fun to watch and you are doing a lovely job with him.
TracyHi!
Here is the Turn and Burn, it is in the Week 4 package of games:https://agility-u.com/lesson/wing-wrap-foundations-part-3-turn-and-burn-2/
Have fun!
TracyHi! The MM is definitely a delicious distraction 🙂 He did really well ignoring it!!! Good boy! His commitment to the wing is looking good! A couple of ideas for you:
– do this on a ‘naked’ wing (no bar, no 2nd wing) so he can isolate the behavior and also so he won’t accidentally roll a foot on the bar as he runs over it.
– also, since he hit the wing on 2 of the reps here, 2 ideas to help him understand to not tough the wing: first, you can wait longer to start the “burn” party and chase – let him get all the way around the wing for now, not touching it, then burn and party 🙂 Also, as he learns to not hit the wing – do this game on a barrel or a non-agility item so we can sort out the no-touching rule before it goes back on a wing. We don’t want him to desensitize to the feel of the wing as he runs by putting him on wings too early.
Since he just turned 5 months, file this game into the once-a-week-maximum category because it has so much bending. It is a really fun game and you only had 5 reps here which is PERFECT, so keep it as a low priority on the training schedule for now 🙂 He is showing really strong understanding so there are no worries about the commitment concept – YAY!!
Great job!
Tracy
