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Hi! Nice session here! It is perfectly fine to help her, either with the toy being visible or with a front cross. She got the idea very quickly then did a great job!
This game (and the set points) are big workouts for the brain, so she might have been mentally tired (she started making mental errors towards the end of the first part, before you switched sides). You can start on the other side next time when she is fresh to see how it goes. If she does well, you can get her more excited with more tugging and also do the advanced games. She looks great!
You asked about the toys – I often train with 2 toys or a toy and good cookies. I throw a toy as a reward, then turn and go the other way and whip out a treat or another toy when she starts to come towards me (she doesn’t even have to get all the way to me :)) if she won’t come towards you, train the game separately- put the toy on a long-ish leash so that she can’t take off with it, then you can work the exchanges up close and personal. 🙂
Great job here!
TracyHi! She was definitely feeling the wind in her hair here! She was happy to show us her speed 🙂 Your path was good, it was parallel enough 🙂 As you add more distance, you can move the wing over a bit so it is easier to run without accidentally running into the jump. A couple of ideas: be sure to mix in some reps where you are lazy, so she focuses on the line without you having to run as much. You were running here, which is fine but we want her to also go without you. Also, now that the wing is a good distance away, start the wrap with you very close to the wing, so that as you exit the wrap, she will learn to drive ahead of you to the jump. If y send to the wrap, you will be parallel to the jump so by starting next to the wing (close enough to touch it) she will learn to look ahead when you are behind. And as you build the distance on that, you can throw the toy sooner, so she continues to look ahead as she approaches the jump. (We might play with the timing of the toy throw a bit, to help her not touch the bar with all the motion and the moving toy – if you throw early and she touches the bar, try leaving the toy out ahead (advanced level) if she still gets excited and touches the bar, we can try throwing later, when she has landed, and see what she does :))
Great job here!
TracyHoly cow, that must have been so scary!! I am so glad she is back! Whew! It give me grey hairs just thinking about that.
She did well on the set point! Most of it was basically getting her to see what the set up was about, then by the end she was totally on it 🙂 For the next session, remember to add in the stay rewards. The only other thing I suggest to tweak is your position. Put yourself right by the Manners Minder, so she can go in extension to it. She was trying to take the 2nd jump based on your position (good girlie!) so she was turning a bit when you were too close to the wing. We don’t want to discourage that, so it is easier to have you right next to the MM. You can also use a toy instead!
Great job 🙂
TracyHello and welcome to Part 2 🙂 fun times ahead!
Great job with distinct verbals, and also keeping the swing as a turn away (certainly can be useful!) A question: what is your extension acceleration cue? I use Go. If you also use Go, you mught find that Go and Gauche sound too much alike? (I pronounce it Gohsh, unless I am pronouncing it incorrectly?)The session went really well, he was keen to both wrap AND find the jump. Nice!! You made an excellent connection on all of the wrap exits, that really helped. Yes, you can add speed before distance, but he was basically adding speed for you LOL! So on the next session, start at that distance and add more speed, then even more distance. Yeeehaw!
Yes, I see those little head checks you mentioned – he was over the bar and asking ‘what’s next?’ . So, you can throw sooner – after the wrap, when he is locked on the jump (looking at it and taking a stride towards it), throw the reward. That way it lands before he gets between the uprights and he won’t look at you.
Great job here! Onwards to more distance and running. 🙂
TracyHi! Excellent work here, she looked great on both games!
The wrap to the jump wind-in-your-hair game looked really good – you had great timing on the reward and she terrific with driving straight to it and not looking up at you. She looked a little more comfy turning to her right (1st part of the session) than turning to her left (2md part of the session) but she ended up turning left then looking ahead really nicely. You can totally add more speed now, and then (probably in the same session) add more distance between the wing and the jump. She looks totally ready for more.
Your hubby was a perfect holder – she didn’t seem icky about it, and he was very casual so she was not too ramped up (we don’t want her too ramped up for jump grids LOL!). You did a lovely job progressing through the steps and she had really nice form when you did both jumps: head low, nice curve of body, bouncing. Yay! This is great. Keep working the stay separately and I am sure you will be able to incorporate it at some point soon.For the tunnel games – as you train the tunnel, you can do the smiley face with 3 wings/cones/barrels 🙂 It will get you running!
Great job – I agree that she looked like she was happy and having fun. Yay!
TracyHi! Lots of good work here, she is growing up so nicely! Great job with the stay – she seemed just fine to hold the sit to get cookies tossed back to her, even with the Pet Tutor out ahead. With the jumping – I think the head-up you were seeing in the jumping was more about your position than the distance between the jumps. She is definitely long in body enough that 4 feet might be the best distance (or 3.5 feet :)). When you lead out, go all the way to the Pet Tutor, standing right next to it. I think you were a step or two away from it on most reps so she had to pass you – and that made her ask a question about how to stride. So if we put you right next to the PT and facing forward (not towards her), I think you will see her head get lower again. Also, the PT and Manners Minders as reward targets tend to create pretty thoughtful behavior, which is what we want for now. You can try switching to a toy if you think that will get her head a little lower for now – and be right next to it.
She is looking organized and balanced, and that is what we want! yay!!
Great job! let me know what you thinK!
TracyHi! Sounds like a really fun weekend with Loretta!!
he did really well on the discriminations – the wing was just far enough away from the tunnel and also when you are facing the wing, the body language is more of a turn cue… so it does make total sense that he needed a bit of a step to the tunnel. But he figured it out really quickly and did really well with minimal body cues needed! And yes, he was perfectly fine to cut directly to the tunnel on the right side, it was a tunnel, after all LOL! The toy play was looking good – it looks like he was very engaged but not leaping for the toy. Yay! You can work the wing in closer to the tunnel to add more challenge 🙂
On the Smiley Face games – using a wing instead of the barrel is perfectly fine 🙂 And ideally we use verbals AND physical cues – sometimes I was quiet because I was so focused on trying to start connected that I forgot to spit out the words (baby dogs need sooooooo much connection!)
We didn’t do the Smiley Faces in the live class, so you won’t see it in the recording lol 🙂
On the video – so much good work! Great job working your connection and also great job adding the verbals (almost all correct ones too :)) I left in a glorious moment of the completely wrong verbal, I just consider it training the pups to deal with us humans LOL!
The wraps look good – I think if you spread it out to give yourself more room to run, it will actually be easier to get commitment to the wings – keep making that good connection when he is exiting the tunnel. And the left/right race track stuff *is* hard for the pups, there has been sooooo much conditioning to wrap but the race tracks are useful to teach them when to NOT wrap. He did well! And also he did really well ignoring the toy until you presented it: that is a big deal! Yay! Great job – add more distance now, both to get easier commitment and more speeeeed for both of you 🙂
TracyHi!
>> I’ll have to visit a park to work on this week’s games, as I can already tell my basement will be too small lol! I think we can do the Set Point game down there, but otherwise will need more room.
You can also do the proofing with a squished up tunnel 🙂
>>If we are right by the wing and can use physical cues to indicate a wrap, should we still use the wrap verbals?
Yes, for two reasons –
First, because the more info we can give to the dogs, the better 🙂 Give every possible cue.
Second, to get us in the habit of using verbals, so that ti becomes second nature and then it will be easy to do when we really need them (when the physical cue might not be as strong).>> And what exactly do “left” and “right” mean? In what situations would you want to use “left” and “right”?
My left and right cues are for mild collections, approximately 90 degrees where I want the dog to turn parallel to the bar but NOT wrap the wing.
>>And when do you start saying the verbal and does it mean turn and take that obstacle? Or just turn?
Everyone defines things differently, but my verbals also imply commitment, meaning: take the jump and wrap (as an example). So I start saying it at the exit of the previous obstacle or earlier, depending on the line.
>>The only “left” and “right” we have done is with Minny Pinny – do you think there are in between steps he needs to understand what it means in the context of the Smiley Face Game? Like should I isolate the verbal with just one wing at first?>>
You can warm it up on a wing. Then you can handle it without verbals… and if you can handle it and produce the turns, add in the verbals to name the behavior 🙂
let me know if that makes sense!
TracyGreat to see you here, you and Fizz are so fun to watch!
Working backwards on the video: that last rep was perfection, look at how he can use his body! Yessssss 🙂 I think he was sorting out how to leave the reinforcement early on (the toy makes it harder, as you mentioned) so you can pull the barrel in closer so the option of coming to your front in not really possible. You can also do that by straightening your legs out so the barrel is between your knees. I figure he just needs to see this set up with the verbal one more time, then he will own it and you can add more distance and challenge.
The scenery behind you is gorgeous!
And you can also start the other games I posted 🙂 have fun!
TracyHi! I have found that Vs are very clear about how they are feeling LOL!!! And I appreciate that 🙂 They are also the ‘complete package’ in many ways: loving companions, incredible athletes, and amazing teammates. And smart! I really like the breed 🙂
She looked great here! She can bend really nicely. I think your position was really good – just far enough away to challenge her a bit (one oopsie) but also close enough to help her be very successful 🙂 strong session!!!
Onwards to the new games, they should be visible in the Course Syllabus section. Great job!
TracyLovely session here! Nice transitions into the collar holding (great job rewarding the collar hold moments), the wraps looked strong with the added distance, and he even did the whippet head toss a couple of times when he heard the verbal: “let me go, I know what it is!” Haha!!
He also really seemed to like the cookie game you played in the middle! Yay!
Onwards to the new games, he is ready 🙂 have fun!
TracyThis looks great, Lori! Perfect! You can move the upright even further away now, to add some challenge (I think he will still think it is easy :))
And the video posting worked 🙂 double yay!!! He is ready for today’s games for sure, I am looking forward to seeing him in action 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi! Great job with the verbals (I like how distinct they are) and she is terrific with her wrapping! I feel your pain about sometimes forgetting to use the verbal, or using the wrong one LOL!! It gets easier with practice 🙂 and it is definitely worth it.
I see what you mean about the collar grab – it doesn’t look like you were choking her, but she definitely thought it was weird LOL!! She totally wears her heart on her sleeve 🙂 So, a few ideas – with each touch of the collar, give an immediate cookie. It is also something you can do randomly throughout the day. That can help make holding the collar into a super happy thing in this context. You can do the progression of collar touch – cookie – wrap – cookie (she will hopefully like all the cookies :))
Now, because she thought it was a little weird and we don’t want any feelings of weird things happening to bubble over into the games, I suggest doing the game and the collar touch/hold for cookies a few different ways to reduce the weirdness factor (you were not being weird, but she did think it was weird):
– a very quick touch/hold for the cookie then quickly into the wrap
– a gentle touch to her chest to hold her back as you start the cue – she will let us know if she likes it or if she thinks it is weird 🙂 I sometimes use a harness for the pups who think the collar holding is weird
– you can start the game with your hand near the collar or barely touching it (not actually holding it) then quickly send her into the wrap. That can introduce the hand near or on the collar as the thing that happens right before the fun begins, which can help make the collar touch/hold more fun too.
Let me know what you think!
TracyHello and welcome! He is already 7 months… and only 7 months LOL!!! He is doing great! A break for vacation is a beautiful thing – hope you all had a great time! And revisiting these games with Sole will be fun too, she is going to enjoy the puppy stuff and you can make it more challenging for her too 🙂
Good choices on verbals! They are pretty distinct. Plus they will make you chuckle: loop loop loop said quickly starts to sound like plooplooploop (makes me chuckle) and row row row makes me want to sing row row row your boat. LOL! Maybe I am just nuts.
He did really really well here! Since he is understanding it so nicely, I think you can move him to a wing – mainly so you can start to differentiate the no-touching reps from the touching reps. He is far less likely to want to push the solid wing than the soft barrel, so moving him to a wing will let you say “great job for not touching it” with big reward parties and “please don’t touch it” with either less exciting reinforcement or just praise 🙂 I don’t think he touched the wingless upright at all, so I am guessing he will not touch the PVC wing either. He is turning his head beautifully on all of these.
Great job!! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
