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Hi!
>>I think I should have rotated more quickly for the spins – I was busy watching her go around the barrels>>
Understandable, she is really fun to watch 🙂
Yes, you can do the blind cross part of the spin sooner but it worked out just fine, because her commitment is REALLY lovely and you did the FC right on time and kept moving. So you were able to watch her wrap the barrel AND still show her the BC in a way she could read it, especially at :39 and :48. Nice!At :18 and :54 and :58, she ended up on the wrong side of you – she was not cheating LOL!! If you watch it in slow motion, you had connection for a moment as she rounded the barrel – then before she could get ot the new side, you looked forward and turned your left shoulder forward: which reads as a blind cross to the dogs, so she changed sides (good girl). I think I left a moment of this in the demo video when I did it, and my big pup slammed me in the butt trying to do read what he saw as the blind LOL! It is important to not mark it as an error when that happens, because it is not an error (or, not a DOG error hahaha!) and want the pups to feel confident driving to the new side if they think it is a blind. I just reward or keep going, making a stronger connection.
So – make the connection as you did, keep moving as you did – but maintain that connection strongly and don’t turn forward until she is passing you. You did more of this at :25 and 1:06 and 1:15, for example and she was perfect!
All of the turn and burns looked great!! And great job adding in the verbals on this too. I am really excited about her understanding of these 🙂
Tracy
Hi! Yes, you are doing it correctly! You can choose to use the opposite arm on the threadle if you like (or not :)) it can be done either way. She appears to want you to help by moving towards the correct end of the tunnel – and it did help her for sure, she was starting to find it and turn herself into it more and more during this session. Yay! So now the next step would be for you to move parallel to the tunnel (not towards the entry of the tunnel) while doing the cue and she should then independently put herself into the tunnel. This is hard, so move slowly and also be pretty close to the tunnel to start with. You can also mix in some ‘regular’ tunnel sends to the normal (non-threadle) entry, using your plain ol’ tunnel cue 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi! This also went really nicely – I love how she is coming in very directly over the bar, even as she got to the harder angles (and closer to the Treat n Train!!) 2 little tweaks for you as you progress this skill:
– Start your motion before the release (so you will be moving for a few steps while she is staying) and don’t release til you are just about at the exit wing. You were at entry wing or center of the bar on the releases, so she came over the bar but didn’t read the turn back out as well as you would get if you were a little further across the bar.
– Because she is doing so well, she doesn’t need to touch your hand at this stage. You can click the TnT when she comes in then turns away.Great job!
TGood morning!
Nice job on the head turns! Good clicks!!!! She is figuring out it is a head turn – yay! I am not sure she is figuring it that it relates to the upright yet – so stay very close to it now (adding distance draws her back to you) and you might find it easier to use your the same hand you sent her on to turn her back away to it – so if she starts on your right side, ‘grab’ her attention with your right hand (almost like a lap turn) and have her follow your hand to the turn near the upright – then click a tiny bit later, when she turns her head AND looks at the upright – probably one step later. That will help her relate it to the upright.
360s look really good!!! Be sure to start her from a clear cue – the only questions she had were when you were waiting on her to start, she was not sure if she should start, LOL!! When you clearly cued the to start with a little step and a little arm, she did great and you were able to move straight up the line and even add more motion! NICE!
TracyHi!
>> I could tell I was just starting to get frustrated, so I ended it with a treat scatter. >>
Any time we humans start to feel frustrated, it is always the smart thing to break off the session 🙂 I didn’t think that he looked frustrated, and that is good! I also don’t think that he was in a vortex of *not* threadling then getting a cookie, there was a significant enough break before the re-start cookie. I think that the angles got too difficult too quickly, so that combined with the cookie toss was leading to him trying to make decisions quickly (and that meant directly back to the ready treat). So 2 ideas for you:
with the cookie toss, keep the angles easier and only really do the slice angles until you are able to get 2 high success sessions in a row. With the cookie toss, he doesn’t have time to assess the set up before he moves, so when he is on the harder angle he is skipping directly to the end of the chain. On the easier slice angles, he will have more success with the full chain.And, before moving to the harder angles – get a stay going, either on the flat or on a mat or cot. That way you can assume the position, he can take a second to assess it – and *then* you release. That will lead to much higher rates of success for now because he will be able to assess before he moves. Eventually it will all be done while he is in motion but for now, starting him without his motion will be helpful.
Let me know how it goes!
TPerfect! Yes, we are adding in the verbal backside cue now too, with the end goal being that the verbal is the main part of the cue 🙂
Hi! You can try making the angle on jump 3 easier than the other angles, and the bar a little lower. You can just turn the jump so it is easier to approach (but jumps 1, 2, 4 can still be hard angles). Let me know if that makes sense, and let me know how it goes!
TracyYay! In in is looking really good!! Your feet were perfectly forward the whole time and you were moving right up the running line, relying on the verbal! You can add more of an arm cue if you like but you don’t want to add a lot otherwise it might cause your feet to turn. Good job being patient with letting her find the ‘back out’ element – she wanted to look at you after she came in, but you didn’t help her go back out (other than staying in motion): perfect! We don’t want her to rely on you having to cue that.
Now, next challenge (you might already be doing this): alternate reps of staying out on the 180 (or serping) the ‘obvious’ side of the jump with reps of the in in. Some dogs get themselves into a threadle vortex where all they can do is threadle, so keeping the 180 fresh in their minds is helpful.
Great job here!
TracyHi! Nice job on these – very clear connection and you were super fun & encouraging even in the heat! She definitely liked the race tracks! She got some serious speed on those in both reps! Because her race track/post turns are faster, you can build more speed into the crosses by reversing the order: do a race track/post turn around both once or twice to get the speed up, then do a front cross or spin (then a turn and burn exit :)) That can help her feel the wind in her hair through the crosses too!
Looking terrific. Stay cool!
TracyHi!
Yes, something with running is a great balance to the extreme-thinking needed for dog and handler in threadles 🙂 I like to do stuff like parallel path to the front of the jump, which is easy and doesn’t involve thinking, or rocking horses or tunnels 🙂
The threadles are going well, he did a great job finding them from various angles where he could clearly see the reward & the front side of the jump. Yay! You can really see that decision point at 1:04, for example! No worries about where your feet were pointing, it will get easier to point them to the reward when you are moving (I think he is ready for you to add movement in the next session). One thing to be careful of: stay super connected until he is over the bar. When you closed your shoulders and looked forward at :06, he read it as a blind cross and went behind you. Compare that to :39, for example, where you maintained connection and he was perfect. And if he does end up behind you – no need to stop him, you can just call him back (no big deal if he gets the cookie from the bowl). Generally when the dogs end up behind us it is a handling error (disconnection) and he was really put off when you dove on the bowl (kind of like when you stepped on the toy in the previous video) and was tentative on the next rep. So if he ends up behind you and get the cookie, you can call him back (rather than the usual party) and connect more on the next rep and then have a big party 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi!
He did really well here on the serps – both coming in and turning, and going to the toy on the verbal. Yay! You did a great job of being pretty darned stationary 🙂 Little details – when you are going to feed from your hand, feed across the body like you did at :57 so he does the ‘back out’ turn with your upper body in position. And also yes, he definitely felt it was a little ‘extra’ when you stepped on the toy LOL!!!! He was offended in the moment and then got his toy and left on the other reps – it made me laugh, he has big opinions LOL!! But yes, if he is incorrect. you can tell him he is being a nut but no need to step on the toy – he can get it but there is no party and I just take it back from the pup when that happens.Based on how well he did especially with the angles where he was starting next to the toy, you can start to add movement on these. Your upper body stays frozen just like here, it is the feet that will be going all the work.
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
It was great fun seeing you work Presto on Saturday!! You both did a great job.Rocking horses:
The FC warm ups looked good! And the blinds looked good – You got a little too fancy and you were doing normal blinds when we were trying to have you do spins 🙂 I take the blame on that – I clearly put too much emphasis on the BC element LOL!! Kristie did the same thing 🙂 But the blinds are harder for commitment, so it was good for him 🙂 I think you only did one tight blind, the others were spins and they looked really good especially your last rep – fabulous! Yes, he saved you on one late on but that is why you give him such good toys and treats LOL!
If you do disconnect and he ends up on the wrong side, no worries, but reward him anyway because he was correct in how he read you (the disconnection look like the beginning of a blind cross)
He was being pretty good about not jumping for the toy here, you might have taken out the naughty parts LOL! You can start with a small boring toy squished up in your non-dog-side hand then move it to your dog-side hand – then repeat the process but with a more exciting toy 🙂 Also, be super connected: I find that the toy-grabbing happens when my connection is weak – just because I can see him doesn’t mean he can see the connection. So, in those moments, I ramp up connection and it always helps 🙂Wing wraps at TCOTC: this looked good in terms of his commitment, concept transer to the wing, and general happy attitude 🙂 What do you think was causing him to not be as motivated? Environment? I like to keep track so we can play with it and help him out. He did really well here! I think the ball was his favorite reinforcement, so you can save the ball for TCOTC use only 🙂 He also liked it when you ran. With the games where he was checking out, were they more stationary games? In different environments, we can add high energy games to start with so he gets comfy in the different places. I think with the pandemic, our pups have not gotten to as many new locations as they might have in normal times, so we might see a delay in their development in different environments. I am not concerned, though, they will catch up easily 🙂
Head turns – wow, by rep 3 he was offering the slithery head turn around the post. Good job going to clicking the first one on the post! He was totally getting the idea of leading with his head – smartie!!! On one rep, he didn’t do it but it sounds like there was a plane or something overhead. The barrel also looked good! You can warm him up on the barrel with a couple of doubles too, to get the head-turned approach right away as well. I think he is ready for you to start moving to the 360s!
Great job here!
TracyHi!
>> perhaps its time for a little retraining during this “quiet” time so that all the dogs have a true tunnel treadle cue…or at least one situation where Presto’s training may vary from the girls.
I agree with your assessment – sometimes what we are doing to threadle the dogs is cuing each individual part (come here then go back out) as 2 distinct cues. That adds extra timing and handling needs (one more timing thing for me to be late on hahahaha) so I have moved to teaching the threadle (and serp) cues as chains: come in then go out (all on a single cue).
T
Good morning!
>>I move away from him often during play, and when it’s not in a training session, he very reliably returns with the toy. But I guess it’s possible in that moment he would have preferred i not drop the toy and move away.>>
It is possible that the toy going dead when you drop it is not as reinforcing as some interactive play in that moment, rather than a retrieve. Definitely worth it to experiment with and see what he likes the best 🙂
Serp video – I think he is really showing some great understanding: note how much faster he is doing it!! The next step would be to show him motion before he makes a decision about coming over the bar, so you are moving sooner (but on the same Team Chill, you were nicely chill here LOL!)
How are your stays going? I think starting from a stay might help get success on that first rep (he was moving fast and didn’t quite realize what the set up was til he was past it. So at this stage, a stay would be helpful for at least the first rep, to basically say “we are doing serps” lol.
Also, getting the stay involved will allow you to show motion before he is approaching the jump – timing it is really hard when you are waiting for him to grab the cookie
You can use a mat or cot for him to stay on to get started. We have another stay game coming on Saturday 🙂The rocking horses in the park looked GREAT! Look how focused he was, immediately transferring the skill to a new environment AND ‘remembering’ what to do on wings – both are difficult for puppies and he rocked it! Yay! You were very chill and very connected, which was perfect to set him up for success especially with massive distractions nearby. You should totally be super pleased, he looked great!
Tracy
Good morning!
>>I cam also see that I am “helping” a bit more than I should. When I went back and watched your video with CB again, you really are letting him find the entrance without showing it to him. I think I did some showing when I did this with Pi.>>
It is really hard to NOT show them when the voice in your head is telling you to help LOL!!! Or maybe that is just the voice in my head. It is difficult being on Team Chill when I am naturally suited for Team Over-Help haha!!
On the video –
he was great about finding the tunnel on the regular sends, even on the harder angles! I see what you mean by helping – he was coming to the new side really nicely but then was waiting a bit for the hand and foot cue to turn away, kind of like a rear cross on the flat. Welcome to Team Chill now 🙂 – keep moving very slowly parallel to the tunnel entry and you can even use your tunnel verbal to help him – but don’t turn arm or feet until after he has turned (SO HARD hahahaha!) I think he will be perfectly fine with it 🙂 You can replace the tunnel verbal with the threadle verbal eventually, but for now you can get him to turn himself away with the tunnel verbal.
The other thing to play with here is to do your front cross on the ‘regular’ tunnel send (1st part of the double whammy) so he gets used to seeing cues before he enters (great for tunnel commitment!), and so he turns tighter on the exit. I think he looks ready for this added challenge!>>See you tomorrow evening for class. (This has become the highlight of my week. 😊)
Same!!!!! So much fun seeing all of these pups grow up, and it is really uplifting to see how smart they are, and how all of the mommas and dads are such terrific trainers!!! I admit to being surprised as how well we can train the pups in that live format but yet, thanks to the insanity of 2020, here we are and the pups look great!!!
T
