[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! I understand the whole ‘getting slammed’ thing! Glad you got these posted, he is doing well!!!

On the first video – easy peasy, right? He found all of the angles no problem. After he gets the MM cookie, call him back to you around the poles so he doesn’t always try to come back through them (I don’t mind if the dog does that sometimes, but he thought it was part of the game and that will actually put too much value on the poles LOL!)

2nd video, adding motion – he was totally ready for that. You can present higher value reward when you want him to come back – he was looking for obstacles so you can add more value for driving-to-handler by having a toy or really good treat on you. He was fine with the motion, and Lisa was coaching really well to, to help move sooner and not towards the poles :). I put a leash on the ground sometimes to help me start straight 🙂

3rd video – I think the poles angled but the MM moved too? So the angle was a little different but not that much different. You can leave the MM in the same spot for all the reps, and the poles will move.

he found the entries here really nicely too! This was the left side angle (Lisa was good about reminding you to move after each rep) and the next video was right side angles – also really good! He is doing a really great job about finding the entries. On right side video, I think you were doing the best job so far of calling him back to you, lining him up, then sending on cue. He had a tiny bit of trouble on the 4 o’clock angle but you worked through it. Yay! It is normal that one angle is hard 🙂

So overall, he is doing AWESOME 🙂 Start to add more motion, as I think motion will be harder for him. And if he is fine with the motion, you can do more angle on that first base.

Do you have access to channels? Those are super useful for adding motion too!

Great job here!!!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! Yes, that sums up the progression – as one variable gets harder, the other one goes back into an easier position for a bit so the dog only has to process one new variable. I have found it to make things happen faster than how I used to train 2x2s (where all variables got harder, all the time, and my dogs failed more). And while it might seem like it takes longer, I actually got to straight up poles in fewer sessions than with previous critters 🙂

On your session – this is going well! You were able to move through the variables pretty quickly while maintaining a really high level of success and excitement. He had an oopsie of distraction, I think? But was otherwise perfect. And Nemo was a great addition. You can try it without the PT entirely and only Nemo and see how he does!

You are officially in ‘onwards’ mode here – start the next session where you left off here, and if he starts off with no problem…. add angle to one of the variables 🙂 (probably second set a little tighter to 1&7) You’ll be seeing real weaving at this point, which is good news (yay! Weaving!) and bad news (yay, weaving, so fewer sessions because it is much harder on the body). As soon as I got real weaving (even before the poles were closed), I went down to 3 sessions a week for the dogs, to save their bodies from over-work. That is the good news/bad news of excellent progress 🙂 But you can do other stuff with the open ‘channels’ because there is no real weaving there yet.

Great job!!!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! It was good seeing on CH, it is pretty fun so far!
he is doing really well here, especially is this is a new set of poles for him!
Good job working the various angles. He was doing well finding the entries on the left side sends! The right side entries were a little harder – possibly because the tempting teeter was right there LOL! But by the end he was getting those hard right side sends and the rear crosses too. Yay!

One thing to tweak in the sessions with the sending: either be moving the whole time, or not moving at all 🙂 On the harder angles, you were staying pretty still til he got the entry and then moving. And he did well! But now we want him to be able to find the entries while you are in motion the whole time, so when you send him – start to walk down the line of poles immediately rather than wait til he has the entry before moving. I suggest walking to start because if you take off and run, he might struggle to find it.

So think of it like this: as soon as he starts to move towards the poles, you also start to move down the line. That way, he won’t come to rely on you being stationary until he hits the entry, you can be moving the whole time on course (he is fast, there will be much moving on course with him LOL!)
If walking is too easy… you can add more speed. And mix in sends where you don’t move at all, or go the other direction 🙂 I think he is ready for that too!

Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! I am excited for you about the in-person class! Talk about PERFECT!!!!! Please provide a full wrap up LOL! And the Clubhouse stuff is a good break – because no one can see me, it means that I can be doing other things, wandering around, and wearing pajamas hahahaha

Great job with the find ‘em game here! And doing it under the dog walk is good too, because the whole weave/tunnel/dog walk setup is a thing we are starting to see too! He did really well and your weaves were SO CLOSE to the tunnel – in the first part of the video, you could see his eyes widen LOL!!! But he got it right beautifully and also was bending into the entry beautifully. GOOD BOY!!! When you came back to it in the second part of the video, he owned it, no more shocked expressions LOL!

Yes, he needed more physical help with the tunnel, partially because it is a layering skill to go past the weaves, and partially when you asked for the first tunnel, he had done a lot of reps on the weaves so he was in weave mode. You can totally give him a step or two to the tunnel to help out, and mix in that cue earlier in the session so he understands that it could be either 🙂

I agree that the pendulum of processing verbals swings back and forth for a while with young dogs especially as we add more speed and physical cues. Revisiting the games to help him ‘hear’ verbals while you are moving is perfect! Then he might be overly verbal for a while, as it swings back and forth, all totally normal 🙂

Great job here! More of these tunnel discrimination games coming soon 🙂

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! If you are feeling that this game has a lot of mechanics, you are correct… we humans really need 3 arms for it LOL! You can put the TT out ahead to sometimes release to as the reward, and sometimes reward from your hand (dropping or placing) then release forward to the TT to get him off the board.

I think he is understanding that it is get on the end of the board… but it is easy so he looks at you immediately which might be why it feels like he is curling in and also why it feels like it is hard to get the reward in fast (because he is looking at you while getting into position).

So yes, the TT out ahead will help that because it gives him a focal point. But also – the behavior might be too easy for him. If we add layers to it, he will have more to do and therefore look at you less! Smart dogs need complex behaviors so we can add to it. My 4on dog has that little scratching behavior. Some of the 4on dogs are doing a down. So you can add something and I bet it helps things feel easier.

I know it is counterintuitive to say a more complex behavior is easier, but it is LOL!! Because he has to think more, he won’t be as quick to curl and look at you so you will have more time to get reinforcement in and also to sometimes release him to the TT.

Let me know if that makes sense! You are on the right track for sure!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! We generally choose positions based on size and structure of dog, plus what is really clear to the dog because any ‘grey’ areas lead to more arousal and they are harder to teach and maintain. I have found the 2o2o to be the clearest to teach and the easiest to maintain 🙂 And Summit is big enough that the position will be easy for him.

It is totally possible to have different positions on different obstacles – I have running dog walks, running frames, and stopped teeters going with the dogs and they have no problem. With the low platform for the RDW… it might start as all 4 on but I am pretty sure it will progress quickly past that to involve moving? I use a mat and some other props for the RDW where we get all 4 feet involved but then get the dog moving through with all 4 feet, and I imagine the platform has a similar progression.

So if you want a 2o2o, we would use different things, like a target on the ground and a longer plank so it looks different than the RDW platforms, plus different cues to help Summit understand what we want in each moment 🙂 Let me know if that makes sense!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
He is being a good little scratcher 🙂 He didn’t quite use his hind end on the first rep but then was beautiful on the 2nd rep! Try to start him a little lower to the end. Of the board so he can leap into position and not take any steps down – it is a fine line so he doesn’t cheat and skip his hind end use LOL! But you did have some really good reps where he got right into position and did use his rear. Yay!
As you add your motion in, he might hit position but not scratch immediately – you can reward that and then wait for scratching, and reward again. You did that really well at the end of the video. I have found that the scratching will increase pretty naturally as you build it in, and we need to reward that first moment in position as we add new variables so he doesn’t think about it too much.
You can add a little more height here! I think he is ready for that. Great job!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! He is doing really well here, that is a significant tip! Super!!!
And I agree, it will get even better when it can get outside: the environment and the use of toys will get him pumped up so you can fade your motion. For now, there is nothing wrong with using motion as a stimulator as long as we also look at fading it when there is more room.

>> Do you think it’s better to give him a day or two off on uphill to do some downhill and end position stuff just to let this sink in more before I try this again to confirm it wasn’t a fluke before adding an inch to the tip?>>

Yes – I like to do 2 days between teeter sessions for this reason unless it is a one hit wonder – then I Weill do one rep in the morning and again the next morning. We are getting to the stage where we will have to take a ‘less is more’ approach on the teeter because there is a lot of concussion on the dogs’ bodies as we add more tip and more end position. I’d say that your 2nd rep here let us know if wasn’t a fluke 🙂 So give him a couple of days for latent learning to work and then revisit. And fingers crossed for great weather because it will be fun to get all this outside 🙂

Nice work!!!!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! The elevator game is one of the pieces that will put it all together in coming weeks (and also a good arm workout, although Contraband is not as heavy as I thought he was, thank god for whippet bones haha!)

I was thinking about the down – yes we will want him to do a nice quick down but when I think about the entire teeter performance, he won’t be in a down while the board is still all the way up in the air – when he arrives at the top, he will be weight shifting as the board drops and then as the board is maybe a foot off the ground, arriving in the down. Part of that will have to do with the speed at which the board will fall coupled with the mechanics of weight shift and moving into the down – part of that is he won’t be able to balance when the board is that high so he will be riding it down for that heartbeat then shifting into the down just before/as the board hits the ground.
So on the mountain climbers… he is doing well and I would add a bit more tip to it and definitely play on other teeters like you mentioned. He did really well on this video – and I don’t think we need to ask for a faster down in this game. The place to emphasize the down is on the bang game, to convince him to be shifting as the board is falling and arrive in the down just before or simultaneously with the board hitting the ground. Let me know if that makes sense 🙂
So yes, keep adding some tip on the mountain climbers but since he is very confident, the emphasis should shift into the bang game with more height, and the rebound and elevator games too 🙂
He is doing great! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

OMG that is actually really cool to hear that she was trying to get on the teeter in the warm up area haha! At our UKI trial, we are allowed to put contacts in the warm up area so the young dogs get to train on them a bit – very cool!!!! And I am glad that the lessons are helping to generalize the behaviors, as that is the hardest part! And I am also glad that there is more UKI coming into your area because I highly recommend that the first in-the-ring experience come at a UKI trial with a toy in the ring 🙂

Have fun!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Yay, this went well! She seems to prefer the mountain climbers game over the teeter tables game, for whatever reason. It is fine, I think it is a hard game and she is doing well! Nice work getting her recognizing the setup before asking for blast 🙂
One other thing in the ‘think less teeter more’ department is that you can do agility before and after a teeter rep – so with this and with the teeter table game, you can do a tunnel and some jumps, reward, party… then do a teeter rep, reward, party, then agility. For some of her cohorts here, they are doing the tunnel then up the board to the mountain climbers. Wheeee! So you can add some more tip here and also see if you can incorporate it into a little more wildness 🙂 It is hard to use a toy at the end 🙂 but you can try for toy play before and after 🙂

Great job!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! She did look thoughtful here, meaning that she was trying to sort out where the board was tipping but not actually stopping in the middle. It looks like the weight shift was coming right at the top of the contact zone. So to get her to blast past it, I think we have officially entered “Think less, teeter more” zone LOL!!! If possible, working outside will help because the outside environment is stimulating and she can run around like a wild thing between reps 🙂 And I suggest getting a toy involved (without food, if she can’t alternate easily) so she can run across the board, get her favorite to, run around the yard, then try again. You will get fewer reps this way because toy play takes longer… but she will be thinking about the movement of the board less (you’ll see me using a frisbee with one of my dogs in the demos to get the ‘think less, teeter more’ and it helped turn him into a teeter lunatic LOL!!)

You can use any toy that you think will get her wild and happy. Food tends to foster thinking, so we can shift into the toy lane for now – she is ready for it. 🙂
Nice work!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! He is doing really well here! It looked like he was watching you a bit as he drove up the board – if there was a treat there and he was really quick about Slurping it up, you can go to something higher value and sticky, like a dab of peanut butter or cream cheese or squeeze cheese, so he drivs to it more. If there wasn’t a treat there, keep putting it there as you add the variations of position, especially when sending him (that when we was really being sure that you were coming LOL!!!). I don’t think the watching you was concern about the board, I think it was concern about where the cookies were and when they were arriving LOL!! The additional tip was great and he was working through it really well 🙂

Great job! The teach it will help make the changes even more easily, but I am glad that he didn’t seem to mind any of the wiggling of the setup.
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! How fun that you got to go to a seminar!!! Love it! He is doing really well here, jumping into position with no issues about the movement or noise. Yay!

About the position – I personally prefer the 2o2o for the clarity. And taught with these games, it is also incredibly fast. My BorderJack and BorderStaffy spent their careers doing a 2o2o on the teeter and they are similar in size to Potion. And Hot Sauce is also similar in size and doing a 2o2o. So, I like it! And if Potion prefers it, even better because it is easier to convince him to do it that way LOL! He looked lovely here, especially considering it was a new behavior.

For the targeting – I am a strong proponent of the weight shift and my dogs end up targeting with their head in neutral position like you had here (I start with the target on the ground then when the target gets faded, they keep their heads down and weight shift but don’t tap the ground). The low head position is part of the weight shift (low, a little back, looking down and straight). I have had no problems with my dogs or student dogs shifting forward when starting with the target on the ground The neutral position you had here is where his head will likely end up, maybe a little lower, so it is a good picture of what the final detail would be! Yay! But question… what did MaryEllen say about getting it out of your hand? We can’t leave it in your hand because they makes the behavior body dependent on you. So the next step is getting it out of your hand so you can work the independence of the end behavior – before fading the target.
One thing you can do it have a raised target – put the target up on a holder that sits in the right position, placing the target where your hand was here – so he targets with that head position and you can move all around. That way he can be independent and doesn’t look at you as you add complexity 🙂

let me know if that makes sense! The coffee is just beginning to kick in 🙂

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Wow, Fast Forward Ruby was great here too! Look how focused she was with the wind and being outdoors! She was SUPER pumped up with the toy but also really accurate on the wraps. Happy dance! She seemed to have no questions. So… you can be a little evil and do tunnel and then instead of the wrap, send her into the tunnel AGAIN (her eyes will pop out of her head hahaah) and then do the wrap. That will keep her honest LOL!! But seriously, she is doing a super job on this game, and I am very happy with her speed AND focus. Great job!!
Tracy

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