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Not a silly question! That arrow is to show the turn to the outside (to the dog’s right) on the 5-6 line rather than wrapping to the inside of the course.
T
Hi!
>> I think I may have tried to squeeze in too much training too soon for Arty this evening. She had about 30 minutes in the AC between sessions and both sessions were about 8 minutes total but this one you’re about to see was much harder for us.
It is possible that she was mentally fatigued or hot, but I have some other ideas too!
>> We got stuck in the beginning with just the first jump and wrapping back around.
I think a couple of things might have been contributing: you might have been a bit too far from the jump, plus the high value reward in your hand and tunnel behind you definitely had her attention. Also, you can be more connected to her eyes on the one-step sends: your arm was coming up and you were looking forward, which rolled your shoulders away from the jump (particularly with the toy in your other hand and tunnel behind you) – try to look more her in the eyes to send and keep your arm lower. Turning away from the course is really hard, so exaggerate the cues. Look at the last one you did – nicely exaggerated, great connection at 2:26 and she nailed it.
>> She got stuck similarly last week in our in person class where I was queuing a rear cross with direction change back toward the takeoff side of the jumó and she just wanted to change direction on the flat. Maybe I need to work more on my jumó commitment and one step sends? Or am I just behaving differently as I try to get ready to run back toward that tunnel and not supporting enough.?>>
Do you have video from the class? I can probably give you a better answer if I can see it 🙂
The handling of the blinds is going well, especially with a big off course tunnel clearly in view – finding the right timing is not easy with young dogs but I think you were getting it here! The Blind at :37 was too early – you were almost done with it when she landed from the pinwheel jump, so she was correct to turn and not take the jump. When she lands form the pinwheel jump, that is where you should be cuing the next jump then starting the blind. You nailed it at 1:15: she landed, you cued the jump then did the blind. NICE!
>>Then you’ll also see her starting to cross behind me in an odd way that doesn’t happen often for us.>>
I think you are referring to when she went behind at 1:27 and 1:54 to take the backside when you were wanting the front side – is she a lefty? I remember we had figured out what her side preference was in the last class, but I can’t remember and will need to go back and look 🙂 It looks like she was working hard to be able to turn to her left 🙂 One of my dogs used to do that too (and yes, he is a really strong lefty LOL!) so really really exaggerate the right hand turns with massive conenction and arm back, and big step, to help support the harder turn for her. It gets easier with more experience (he doesn’t do it anymore :)) When you switched sides to send her to the left after that… no problem, that left turn was super nice!
She had one other moment of ending up behind you, but that was handling error: The BC at 2:15 was late by about a stride – she read your line of motion to the correct end of the tunnel but your connection was not clear so she ended up on the wrong side of you (if you watch your upper body after the BC, you pulled your arms forward to change hands with the toy, so from behind she could only see your back and not your connection – she was guessing on which side to be on). So after you finish the blind, reach your dog side arm (left arm) back to her nose and look her in the eye – that will clarify it and she will make the side change. Compare it to your upper body on the exit of the BC on the next rep, right at the end (2:35) – your right arm was back and you were looking her in the eyes, she had no questions 🙂 Perfect!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>> teeter training for down behavior, I did less shaping and more queuing of it. Is it obvious?>>
It wasn’t obvious, but I didn’t see a target and her down was a little delayed – I have found that using a target helps get the dogs understanding how to do it more independently and faster too 🙂On the video – the sequence work is going really well!! And opening it up for more running is great 🙂
Beginning section – the turn and go looked really good! She is nice and tight on the wrap. Be sure to keep moving – don’t decelerate to help support commitment to the middle jump, because that causes her to collect (you can see it on the 2nd rep) – stay connected like you did and run run run 🙂 You stayed in acceleration for the others and she looked great!
The blinds look really good!!! You can play with starting them even sooner – when you see her land from the jump after the tunnel, keep moving like you did, tell her to jump and then start the blind – the motion supports commitment so she should still commit and that way you’ll get the blind finished even earlier.
At :45, she took a backside on the first jump when you wanted the wrap – be sure to reward that 🙂 It is a common error when we humans stand on the dog’s line and move in on the send a little. The pressure reads a a backside cue, which is what happens here, so it is a rewardable behavior. Lining her up on more of a slice and moving your position to more of the outer wing will help (which is what you did at :19).
The motion override game is really hard and she definitely was looking at you like you were nuts LOL!!
Try not to change your motion at all – no decel, no stopping – so that means be moving very slowly, the whole time 🙂 And the other thing you can add to help her think we humans are less nuts is to reward on the very first motion of sitting (throw the reward back) – she was starting to sit when you were moving and that is a rewardable approximation. Even though it is not the full behavior, rewarding that little bit will get her feeling comfortable with the game, so then you can add more and more speed to it.Nice work here! Onwards to the next video 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
I think for the most part, you covered all of the exercises here 🙂 There is room for improvisation, because it is more about concepts than specific sequences.
The FCs on one wing at beginning looked really strong – good timing and connection and she was tight in her turns!
The second part was all about the spins to the other side of the tunnel: you can start your rotation sooner – it is a FC before she gets to the wing so the blind is done before she exits the wing. Your best one there was at :37, that had the blind done nice and early so she had clear connection and a smooth line back to the tunnel. Yay!
On the circle wraps, a couple of ideas for you:
– you can use a lot less upper body, and I think that will help smooth things out! You can cue her to go to the wing with your dog-side hand – but then as soon as she passes you, you can just move forward to your next spot. No need to continue to support her line with your arm or by turning your shoulders: once she is past you, you can move forward and change your connection for whatever exit you want. The foundation training to finish the wrap will take over, so you won’t need to help with your upper body (your arms can stay low and tight, and that will make the quick connections feel much easier. I thought she was really 100% about finishing her commitment to the wing when you cued it, even as you moved forward! Good girlie! If she ends up questioning commitment as you move forward, we can look at the timing (be sure she is past you) and also change the placement of reinforcement to reward her behind you (tossing it back to the wing as you move forward).
Turning your upper body to the wing can also cause questions when we have the full jump there, because that upper body turn also cues the slicing rear cross on the backside – upper body facing forward if what cues the circle wrap over the bar.
– you can show her more of the wing, try not to get on her line or block her view of the wing. There were a couple of times she had to go around you.
– reward more! She checked out after the 2:00 mark because you stopped rewarding (or delayed the reward for long enough that it was not in the editing), so the rate of reinforcement really dropped (plus she had already done a bunch of reps in the heat). It looked like she did a good job at 1:32, 1:45, 2:00 but there was no toy reward following her effort. I think you were thinking about what you wanted to do, but make the engagement and reinforcement the top priority and then she will stick with you.
Note how when you went to 3 wings, you started reinforcing again, the rate of reinforcement came back up, and she was a happy camper even though she was hot. So be sure to reward, reward, reward 🙂
Nice work here!! Let me know if the idea about the upper body makes sense.
Tracy
Hi! Compressed will make it harder for timing because everything will happen so fast 🙂
I’m glad he is feeling better!!Hi! Thanks for the update, I am very glad to hear everyone is ok now!! Looking forward to seeing your videos 🙂
Oh no! Did they xray her toes? Looks like toes or wrist… did you check that her nails are fine, pads fine, nothing embedded? Poor girlie!!
Hi Deb!
Charlee looked great here – she was pretty perfect with letting you go *anywhere* while she did the teeter. NICE! You can definitely add more motion (jogging then running) and more challenging lines (like you moving away at a 90 degree angle).The next part will be fading the Manners Minder from the picture… depending on how she has been trained in the past, you can either replace it with a target of some sort (like a plastic lid) or move the MM further and further away from the teeter so it is still a focal point but less easy to see.
And you can definitely add in the sequences too! She looked great here!Nice work 🙂 Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Great job on these! On the first run – keep working “turn and go” as a theme: turn and go when she lands from 1, send and leave when she is approaching 4 – see how early you can do both so that you are fully facing the new direction before she makes a jumping decision rather than rounding the curves with her (which causes you to end up facing forward too long, and that is why she dropped #2)Yes, I liked the blind too!! One little detail – as she exits the 5 tunnel, you can be positioned closer to the 8 jump – then you can send her to 6 & 7 from a more lateral position so you don’t have to run all the way to back 8 – with a bar there, that motion of running back to 8 might open up a slice to the wrong end of the tunnel. Your position is good there with the blind, but sending to 6 and 7 from more of a parallel line will let you move directly ‘downstream’ to the blind rather than running on a slice line to it.
seq 3:
One small detail at the beginning – most of our dogs are locked into the front side of a line as we do leads out, so you can start the “in in” cue sooner by getting your hand position ready before you release her so you can immediately do the in in cue, before she even takes off for 1. You started it after the release, and she landed from 1 looking at front side of 2, then came to backside at :30 and :44 (there was a little zig zag). It was really subtle but getting the cue in sooner will make it a straighter line and also help when she is in higher arousal, like at a trial.Good timing on push to 5 after the tunnel – she looked at you a little but that is probably just lack of experience with backsides after tunnels.
>> I am using my verbal turn cue before she goes in. I could try a physical cue as well since she still seems to be blasting out.
I could hear it clearly and early on the 2nd rep – not sure if you did it on the first rep too where you didn’t cross? The physical cue totally helped on the 2nd rep but also the early verbal was great too.
The spin on 10 looked great – lovely turn and you got far ahead on the ending line. Yay!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyYay! He did well here! He had the one oopsie at the beginning when you added the verbal but didn’t really show him the hand cue yet – that hand cue really helps for now.
Based on how well he did here and that you could already add motion – you can move to the last part of the game where you show him the 3 different cues: the send to the other wide of the wing (the ‘normal’ wrap), the ‘dig dig’ threadle wrap, and then the ‘take nothing’ to just follow your motion.
Great job!!!
TracyHi!
Good list of verbals! It all made sense to me.
>>Do the weaves need their own theadle cue?)
Yes, I think they will need that – but it is a lower priority at the moment. We might need it for US Open?
>>Uh and the generic “yes” that is confusing my dogs but that I feel compelled to “mark” good behavior instead of just reinforcing it by cueing the next behavior.>>
Yeah…. I feel that. It is a human self-control and human re-training moment LOL!
Tracy
Hi!
>>I find it easier to time the crosses earlier when I am FC-ing vs BC-ing so I think that is what is making the FCs faster for me.
Double FC – 4:89
Double BC – 5:11That could be a good reason for it! For the first blind, you would basically have to take a leap of faith 🙂 Also, I think the outside line on the 2nd blind made the difference – you set that line with a lot of acceleration and you ran a wider line than the FC, so she was wider. If you can do the first BC and then decelerate into the 2nd one, right on the line of the wing – I bet it gets faster. And the FC can also use a bit of decel and getting right on the wing. #Obsessing LOL!
>>Jpg 3 –
Late BC – 4:96
FC to left (less late and tighter line because I was better at sending on the lala – 4:68I think the key here is not the FC or BC… it is how far away you can be and send to the backside. The further away you can get the send, the easier the FC and BC both become in terms of timing.
>>Question on the Instant Focus game in Games 3. I used a baseball cap as my prop for get-outs in MaxPup. Can I use that again if I would like the behavior to be a foot target or should I get a new prop?
Sure! I used a different one because I thought it would be a good challenge for me to start from scratch with something new.
T
Hi! Good start here, this will be a good behavior and good prop for this game!
If you don’t want him to pick it up and you just want him to touch it -you can hold it in your hand for longer (rather than put it on the ground) and click sooner, so you can isolate the nose and prevent him from picking it up. Also, changing the placement of reinforcement can help – have it either from your hand or toss it up high to him, so there is a response cost for picking it up (in terms of delay in being able to get the cookie).
But, for this game – any behavior that is happy-making and high value is perfect! So when you take it to new locations and he picks it up, reward anyway 🙂It looks like the behavior has a lot of value, so you can definitely start the next step where you take it on the road!
Keep me posted, great job here!
Tracy
