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Welcome! She is adorable 🙂 I am sure the terriers will teach her all the things she needs to know LOL!!!
About how often to play… I try to do one training session per day with a 10 week old puppy. However, with that in mind: it is VERY simple stuff because they are soooooo young! Set a timer for 2 minutes and shape something simple. Or just play with tug toys and cookies. The beginning games are pretty simple and so they are a great place to start. Be sure to quit while things are going well, have a really high rate of success, and don’t push forward too quickly (you have plenty of time as she grows up :)) If you want to see another really young baby pup, check out Teak the Whippet! She also start super young.
Have fun and keep me posted!
TracyHi there!
1st run:
1-2-3 looked great!
He was moving realy fast so this might be a good spot to do the RC on 4 – you can have the FC (or a BC) as Plan A and then decide based on where you are when he is approaching the tunnel. You were roughly parallel to him as he was approaching tunnel 3 so the FC caused him to have to wait to get past you.At :21 and :29, you were not as early on your FC rotation as you were on the first rep, which is why he didn’t come through the gap at :22 and was wide at :29.
O nthe 2nd rep, you did the RC – definitely smoother! You can move in deeper to the tunnel so you can stay in motion, which will help keep him powering through as well.He was definitely convinced that tunnel 5 went back to 1. I think it had to do with your shoulder movement when you said “push” – you pulled your shoulder forward, which is very similar to how you set the RCs on the flat like at 1:22. So when you were calling him, he was fine. And when you cued the backside without pulling your shoulder: also fine. But when you rolled your shoulder forward to the backside (with or without the push verbal :)) he said “I know this! Turn away!” So the best option is to call his name then deliver the backside cue with an open shoulder, rather than pulling it forward.
On the 6-7 line, you had a bit of extra convergence the first 2 times through there so then when you were being careful not to do that and trying to get the serp, he was in a backside vortex abd it was hard to convince him otherwise.
2nd video: This went well! Timely rotation on 2, nice RC 3-4-5, and you kept your shoulder open on the 6 backside until he was definitely coming to the backside 🙂 And great job connected and clearly telling him that it was the front side of 7 🙂 And then great job getting him to the 8 backside. Nice!!
Sequence 2:
1-2-3 looked great! As he is rounding the entry wing of 3, keep yoru chest facing the bar as you move to 4 (try not to turn your shoulders forward) – that will smooth out his line to 4. You turned a little forward there so he considered the front side of 4.
The rest looked pretty great! You can play with sending and leaving at 5 one step sooner, and then calling him more on the tunnel exit (#6), he seemed to have a tiny hesitation there trying to see where you were.Great job on your distractions with the jump before the tunnel, he ticked the bar but was otherwise fine on the single jump. You can try the single jump with you further ahead as that seems to be a big challenge for him.
On the set point – yes, that was hard! How far apart were the 2 jumps? I do give him a gold start for creativity when he basically weaved them LOL! To help him out on the difficulty of the set point, you can have the 2nd jump lower for now until he gets more comfortable with the added challenge of it in front of a tunnel and with you moving. Maybe 6″ on the 2nd jump?
Tunnel to jump – nice distractions 🙂 He did look at you like you were nuts but he did a great job on the jumping 🙂 This is also a place where you can play with being further and further ahead.
I think the backsides after the tunnel looked GREAT to start! You were able to convince him to really leave for the backside. We found the threshold of where his understanding breaks: when you are closer to the far wing, and not using an pressure – he will take the front. But when you are moving to the center of the bar and/or use one tiny step of pressure- he gets the backside every time. YAY! That is already a lot of progress, wow!! You can keep working on getting further across but this is already in great shape. Nice work!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyYou are very welcome!!! It was great seeing you and Tokaji work. The depth of your skills and teamwork was really amazing, and it was so fun to see you develop new superpowers!!!
THi!
Yep, sounds like it might be a “dirt is icky” issue, so your idea of dragging 2x2s or channels to a dirt arena is exactly what I was thinking. A couple of sessions with super high value rewards should be all he needs 🙂 If it doesn’t improve or if the skill also deteriorates elsewhere, get him checked out to make sure nothing is ouchy. When are the trials?
THi!
Yep, sounds like it might be a “dirt is icky” issue, so your idea of dragging 2x2s or channels to a dirt arena is exactly what I was thinking. A couple of sessions with super high value rewards should be all he needs 🙂 If it doesn’t improve or if the skill also deteriorates elsewhere, get him checked out to make sure nothing is ouchy. When are the trials?
THi there!
Great job on all of these courses! Soooo much good work here!
Course 1 – I really loved your run on this course! You had the right combination of connection, good handling choices, and trusting his job as you did your. YES! The opening looked great – I could see you pushing the limits of your trust by moving past 3 so nicely, he had no trouble! Same with jump 8, the backside after the 2nd tunnel – connection and strong cues, and a lot of trust. He nailed it! That allowed you to set a great line 8-9-10. And really nice ending after the poles!
Only 2 little tweaks for you – you can try setting him up further back from jump 1, it sounds like he ticked it. And on the 13 bar (bummer that it came down!) that is more of a threadle rear cross to set the line. You handled it as a ‘normal’ rear cross, so he was slicing it and tried to adjust in the air but couldn’t quite get it done.2nd video (course #3):
Also super lovely!
The opening looked great – you are connected but also trusting him so nicely 🙂
One small detail on 2-3 – you can stay closer to this line on the wing of 2 towards 3 to tighten it up a tiny bit. You were laterally away from the line, so he landed a little wide and had to use an extra stride to push back in.He seems to have super nice weaves, so you can use that be be further ahead when he exits – that way as soon as you see him look at the backside, you can start the blind. You started it as he was in the air at :18 so he pulled the bar. You can also check out the jump proofing skill set in the custom skills sets – sometimes we humans are late (but only sometimes hahaha) so we reward LOTS when the dogs keep the bars up when we are late 🙂
Being further ahead will also make the threadle to the tunnel sooner.
And if you think his weaves are strong enough, you can leave him in them entirely and run to the landing side of 8 to serp/push him to the tunnel – that will replace having to do 3 moves (BC then Threadle then rear cross)The rest of it went really nicely. The RC at 10 got you ahead again, the threadle to 13 looked really strong. You can leave the ‘get around’ at jump 15 even sooner – you were helping him more than needed there by decelerating, which made you late for the blind and he ticked the bar. Then you pulled up right before the last jump so he pulled up (he is very honest LOL!!)
3rd video (also course 3) –
the opening looked good again! Yay! You can see how being a little later on 2-3 affected how he took the jump at 3, he was still adjusting for it as he lifted off.
The BC at 7 went a lot more smoothly and you then did the threadle sooner too so got a nice turn at 8! But then you pushed into the RC too early and he didn’t take 9. I think leaving him in the poles to run to the landing side of 8 will be so much easier 🙂
Middle section looked lovely again!
You drove through the ending line brilliantly! You were on takeoff side of 15 at the same time he was (:40) and that got you a great turn AND you were way ahead for the ending. NICE!4th video (course 2):
1-2-3-4 looked really good! You did the wrap on the inside of 5, and it went well as a threadle-wrap! But…. it will be faster to find the slice 🙂 (I know, I am a pain in the butt hahaha!) Exiting on the line you had him exit 5 was perfect, so pushing him to the other side of 5 to enter will create a nice fast slice line there.I also think you can slice the other way over 7 – in this section, start by finding the exit line that works best to show 8-9 (that would be the wing more towards the center of the course) and then you can look at the slice going into it – you can push him around the far wing to create that slice to the exit wing. When in doubt, look for as much of a race track line as possible. If you find yourself doing 2 threadles in a row, you can consider the other line to see if it is faster.
I will definitely be a pain in your butt on the 11-12-13 section LOL!! You 11 was well done at :32, really nice commitment and you were in a great place! It will be faster and easier on him if you then pushed into the gap with a convergence line to get the backside of 12 (which will then land him facing 13). The FC to take him to the far wing of 12 for a wrap is more yardage for sure and also that wrap is harder, physically, then the slice would be. It is also harder to handle, because you almost sent him into the tunnel on the FC 🙂
The rear cross on the flat on the ending line seemed like the best option! Doing the RC between 16 and 27 might have pulled him off the line based on the angles, and it might not have been possible to get far enough ahead for the blind. He read the RC well and drove ahead nicely.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! I totally feel your pain about downloading and editing and so on!! It takes a lot longer than the actual training 🙂 Hope your work settles down and stops being so crazy!
Good work on the courses! These are great training courses for her, putting together a lot of different skills! Two suggestions for how to approach them, given her youth and inexperience on courses in general:
From the handling side of things, focus on finding the critical connection spots – places where it connection is the key to success. Your 2nd runs on both were better than the first, because I think you had a better idea of where you needed to connect more. So you can add in finding those connection spots to your walk through, so your first run is as good as your second run! That will be more important than handling choices for her because connection (even if you have to exaggerate it because she is young :)) will help her pick up the lines. After that, you can work on timing – but for now, you can be late on your timing in favor of great connection.From the training side of things – try to increase the rate of reinforcement rather than run the big sequences start-to-finish. There are two ways to approach it:
– surprise her with a reward on course when she has chained a couple of good things in a row (and keep going after an error like you did on the first run, adding more connection then rewarding)
– don’t stop as much to restart if she misses something, it ends up being mini time outs. Then when you revisit it, reward and have a big party when she gets it right, rather than continue.On the opening – it was a bit of Goldilocks hot-cold-just right for the blind 🙂 On the first run you were a little late but not too much – it was more of a connection error that caused her to bypass 3 (baby dogs practically need our eyes inside their skulls on course LOL!). You continued and it was a good choice. On run 2, you were too early on the blind so she was correct to not take 2 (you can reward that). 3rd run – nice! You really helped her see the line to 3 – definitely worth rewarding.
The 4-5-6 to the backside after the tunnel looked great on the first run! Finding the bar on the backside at :17 was hard, you can slow down to help her. Sending her back to it was also good (and that is a reward spot, to help put value on it.) On the 2nd run, she was also great on 4-5-6 but added speed so it was harder to make connection on the tunnel exit to get the backside at 1:36 – but she did a GREAT job of taking the bar this time! I think it might have surprised you, the connection broke a little but then you got it back on track
On the FC before the next tunnel at :22, you were a little late which is not a big worry, the oopsie was more about her not seeing enough connection after landing to pick up your right side. That is an important connection point – you can do a trick for a cookie, then start back on the jump to see if you can smooth out the line to the tunnel. Nice connection at 1:44 to get it on run 2!
At :33 she just needed more connection on the go as well there. Note the difference in the connection at 1:46 and how it helped her read the line – NICE!!!!
Course 3:
Your whole opening 1-2-3-4-5 was LOVELY – perfectly connected so she found the line really nicely (and 1-2-3 is a complex line!) You were a late on the FC at 5 so ended up in an off course tunnel but that is a fine error 🙂 You kept going, stayed connected, she continued to drive. Yay!
The backside at :20 is hard – a more intense connection will help! It was good to carry on then reward after a good line.
The middle section also looked really good!! You can catch her in the act of doing the right stuff with a reward in there 🙂
On the RC at :56 – it is a bit of a RC on the flat, so you can use your hands to ‘grab’ her attention then turn her away to the next jump, like a tandem turn. Good job with the verbal there!
She went into a bit of handler focus after that and you were also turning a little away from the last jump at :57, so she missed it. It is a little offset so you can drive to it more after the RC.The opening on the 2nd run was even better than the 1st run opening (and I thought the first one was super!) Even more connected and you had a MUCH better FC on 5 to get the correct tunnel. Yay!
That all made it much easier for you to connect to the exit of the 2nd tunnel to get the backside, then you had great connection on the hard convergence line there too. Nice!
You can get the FC started on the red tunnel a 1:51 before she enters to tighten up the turn on the exit a bit but it was really nice overall!
She had the same little question on the RC at the ending, so we can efinitely play with adding in more RC on the flat practice. You did a great job of showing her that last jump not only with connection and verbal, but also but moving to it more. Yay!Skill sets: these look really good!! She had no problem reading the difference between the 180, the serp, and when you called her past it and didn’t want the 2nd jump. The hardest part might have been convincing her to bring the toy back LOL!! She had one little error at 1:46, I think perhaps she was reading it as a threadle cue based on her position and your position? Your connection on all the reps looked really strong here! My only suggestion is that on the convergence to the backside at 2:59, your feet were perfect and so you can start moving in towards the gap even sooner, before you release her 🙂 That will make it even tighter 🙂
Great job!! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! She did really well on this, you were able to quickly add distance away and start the serpentine exit. Yay!! When you did the serpentine exit on the barrel w/ the bar, be careful to reward her for coming back over the bar – you will probably have to drop the toy in behind you. The bar is not as obvious there so the toy placement needs to be more obvious. When you had the wing and the low bar, you did a perfect job with rewarding for coming back across the bar when you were doing the serpentine exit line like at :47 and :53. Yay! The default to always take the jump on the backside cue is so important, so the good placement will really help.
>> The right side was a bit tougher for her, and I didn’t get as much distance apart on that side. I know she was getting tired of the exercise, so that may have been part of it, but I also know that we have to work more on the right side in exercises because that seems to be her “weaker” side.>>
It is entirely possible that she was on the weaker side on those, they did seem stickier than the other side. You can structure the session with one or two to warm up on the ‘strong’ side, then go to the harder side for a couple of reps while she is still ‘fresh’. Then go back to the strong side to do harder reps and then end on the strong side with an easy rep or two before she gets fatigued.
The other thing that might have been happening is that you were saying “ok” before the backside cue on that side, but you were using the backside cue only on the other side – it might be possible that the ok then the backside cue is confusing her so she was hesitating. She was quite smooth on the reps with just the backside cue.
And, for balance, be sure to mix in front side cues (just turning and calling her name) in each session – you might already be doing this and editing them out 🙂Great job!!
TracyHello!
Smart dog – by rep 3 he was already offering up the head turn as he was approaching the cne for the first wrap when turning to his right. And he pretty quickly started getting it on his left turn too! I am sure your good mechanics and clicks helped too 🙂 Nice session, he was turning really well! One the next session, you can cue the 2nd wrap quicker – what I mean by that is you can turn him away sooner with him not getting all the way to your hand. You can see if he will follow an empty hand too. And, mix in some c/t when you see him offer that lovely head turn as he approaches the cone – and toss the treat the rest of the way around, so he doesn’t end up coming back to you for it.
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
>>He REALLY was not happy about either of those things…and he certainly let me know, especially with the toy.
Yes, he has the BEST facial expressions LOL!!
>>As you said, he’s definitely got some pretty strong opinions about some things. One of the things that I really do like about him is that unlike Mags who when I do something that she doesn’t think is “fair” she sort of melts and we have to take a break from whatever we are doing and do something else until she’s OK again. I like it that Sly continues to play…just adjusts the rules. He’s going to teach me a lot>>
Yes, it was too funny: “OK then, I will get that toy but just not bring it back.” LOL!!! They always keep us on our toes. I figure that I am going to make a ton of mistakes in training, so the mistake of rewarding too much is always better than rewarding not enough – it is easier to recover from too much reward 🙂 That decision came after waaay too many sessions where I withheld reinforcement for what I thought was incorrect on the dog’s part… and then when I watched the video, I realized that either the dog WAS correct, or I was the one who was wrong, or both. Eek! So now, unless it is REALLY obvious and I would bet $100 on it being something the dog chose incorrectly, I just reward it and assume it was my fault LOL!
Rocking horses looked really good! Commitment was super strong and he was turning beautifully. Your connection looked *awesome*. This was all especially great to see, considering you had a lot of distance and speed going!
>> Anyway….question on the Rocking Horses….. I think I was mixing up Backward Sends and Forward Sends and I’m thinking this is meant to be an exercise with Forward Sends or does it matter?
When you are running, it becomes more of a transition exercise where you run forward, decel, rotate so you are showing him the backwards send as he is arriving near the wing/barrel. You were pretty much doing that and he had no trouble at all with commitment. My only suggestion is that you can decelerate moving forward a few steps before rotating: you were really emphasizing the backwards sending, so you went from fast to rotate which might slam on the brakes too much 🙂 So you can go fast, then slow down as you move forward, then slide into the rotation.
If you are standing still in the middle, then yes you can totally just do forward sending and not run 🙂
His commitment on the turn and burn session looked fabulous! He really loved the chase exit and that helped create the super tight turns. You can mix in throwing the reward to him at the wing as he gets to it, to help balance the value and get even more speed heading to the wing.
>>Another thing I’m discovering about Sly is that he seems to be a dog that “runs hot” and heats up quickly. >< It turns out that this rocking horses game is GREAT for building up what the performance vets call anaerobic threshold! One of my dogs is in a return-to-sport program after a slight injury, and this figuring 8 stuff (and the stuff I add next weekend) is part of the recommended program to help condition the endurance and heat tolerance. It was certainly easy enough to add because it is already all set up LOL! The suggestions were for limited reps to start (between 4 and 10 in each session, depending on the dog - so I do 4 with my 5.5 month old pup and 10 with my 10 month old pup, based on their reactions, and 4 with the rehabbing dog). And only 2 times per week for this particular thing (other exercises are used on other days). Nice work here! Tracy
Good morning!
I will get a course map of the tunnel/jump threadle discrim – it is a fun one!
On your tunnel work here – he was doing super nicely! I think the reason he was not driving to the cookies or even to the toy that well had to do with your foot position before he entered. He was entering beautifully but the last thing he saw was your feet rotated… so he exited, turned. GOOD BOY! That is what we want when the dogs see that rotation before entering (we wouldn’t want them to exit in full straight ahead extension) so I believe that is why he was coming back to you rather than the reward.
Now, you could of course work the PT and toy cue to the point that he drives to it even when you are rotated, and use the cue before he enters.Or, you could start a little further away (which he is ready for) and let him see you turn and move towards the reward before he enters. The timing would be as soon as he turns his head to the tunnel, you turn and accelerate. And when you don’t turn and your feet remain rotated, you reward him for driving to you because we most definitely want to maintain that excellent turn skill that he is offering 🙂
The serpentines are looking really strong!!! He is driving right in and does not appear to be considering bypassing the jump at all. Yay! So, move to the next step which is simply moving up the timing of the toy cue to before he touches your hand, so he starts to anticipate the go-back-out-element of the serp. When he is doing that, you can add your motion in.
I think his threadles are going fine – the mistakes he is making are similar to several of the other pups here – and I was trying to figure out why my pups were not making that mistake. I am confident that it is NOT because of better training skill LOL!! So what was the difference? I think I figured it out – the mistakes are similar to the mistakes I am seeing with the other pups with the cookie toss starts – they are getting the cookie and driving back fast, but they don’t really have the time to assess the handler position or process the verbal when coming in from the harder angles, so they are almost always ending up taking the bar as a serpentine not a threadle. Basically, it adds pup motion in too early in the process. When I get to this point in the threadles with adding the angles, I almost always start my pups in a stay so I can get my butt into position, show them the cue, let them process for a heartbeat… then release them to do it. That extra moment appears to be what helps them say “AH! *Not* a serp.” Using reset cookies or a ‘loop’ does not help the pups in this case. So, to help him out, use a stay behavior of some sort: it can be a traditional sit stay, or a station behavior on a cot or something, or anything where he can successfully hold position then process the cue. The cookie toss starts still work really nicely when the pups are coming in on an easier slice angle so the serpentine choice would be harder. Let me know if that makes sense!
Nice work here!!
TracyHi there!
Overall, this is looking really good. Turn and Burns are perfect, the spins look lovely, his commitment looks great! He is keeping you honest about the connection for sure though LOL!>> Watched that video and realized I was good about looking at his eyes as he came around the barrel but then closed my shoulder while still looking at him and then took eyes off him before he passed me.>>
Yes, that is what happened at :23, :52, 1:09 for example. You can reframe your plan to not just convince yourself to connect and keep your shoulder open, but also to hold the connection til he reaches the next barrel. You don’t suck at this – baby dogs really hone our connection skills (at least he didn’t barrel into your butt like Contraband did :)) The rep at 1:27 was cool to watch: You started to disconnect, he started to blind cross to your other side, you caught it and reconnected, and he went to the side of barrel/tunnel that you wanted. Yay! So keep working that connection – yes, you can try to stay closer to the barrels so he passes you sooner, but that might not let you off the hook with maintaining the connection. Think of cuing the barrel with your arm way back and eyes on his eyes, you’ll see the barrel peripherally so you won’t run into it 🙂
Nice work!!
TracyHi! I love the work outfit LOL!!
He did think this was a little weird at first indeed! But he figured it out really quickly and then his speed picked right up. I wonder if (at this stage) the PNU or wing have more value so he might get the behavior even faster? Second session went nicely, he had some latent learning happening, plus you were moving faster. Plus an agility t-shirt, so maybe he thought it was more real LOL! I think you can get this onto the wing – he is not the type to hit the wing or barrel (or so it seems LOL!) so you can move to the wing and then name it the lalalala cue (which is the backside slice, right?)
Great job!
TGood morning!
Good stuff here on the wraps and 360s!
He is doing well on the head turning/upright wraps – my only suggestion is to reward away from you if you are rewarding the first turn rather than back in front of you: you can mark that first head turn then reward by tossing the treat either to the other side of the wing or all the way back around the PNU so he does a bit of a 360 on it. We don’t want him to directly look at you at all so all rewards are away from you 🙂 I think he was doing well with that, especially on the wing. Yay! Feel free to sometimes do a second one to keep the skill very fresh as you add more and more motion in the 360s 🙂
The 360s on the wing are looking really strong, truly putting together a ton of the work you have done with him: commitment, independence, countermotion, the slithery head turn, all good! He had one question at 1:24 – it was because you started on an angle and he was headed to the wing straight, so it totally did look like a RC cue (GOOD BOY!!). The other reps before it and the last one after it were better, but more room makes it easier to be straight on the line and not accidentally pressure in like a RC 🙂 You had more room in the outdoor session on the squished tunnel so your lines were easier to move on! He did seem a little stickier going to the barrel/tunnel, so perhaps it was the stimulation of the toy as you mentioned. That is GREAT to work through, though, because he is learning to work in a higher arousal and that is perfect for his age now. You can start that indoors and switch to food, then build it up to entire sessions with this tug toy.
Great job!
Tracy
