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Good morning!
First rep – all good until there was a chicken in her landing spot, soooooo….. good choice to NOT land on the chicken, Demi LOL!!
Good job rewarding the following reps that were chicken-less 🙂 She has a little bit of trouble on the 3rd jump (the last one before the tunnel), so you can move add distance unevenly: the jump after the tunnel can start to move further away, the pinwheel jump can creep further out… but the jump after the pinwheel jump (before the last tunnel) and stay in a little closer until she is more confident driving to it all the time.Massive bummer about the rain and snow. Argh!!! Hopefully it melts super fast so you can play with the handling of the pinwheels and the big grid. Stay warm!
TracyGood morning!
On the grid:
>>From #3 to #4, Enzo added a stride. Then I backed him up one position but he didn’t take away the stride.>>Yes, something was settling him back into collection there. It was hard to know exactly what was causing it – be sure that you and the reward are together 15 feet or more past that last jump (on a couple of the reps, you were stationary and what looked to be halfway between the last jump and the reward, which can encourage collection.
Also – to open him up (I believe he can do this all as one stride) a couple of ideas:
Starting at your #2 position, do the grid on a 12 inch bar. Let the wind whistle through his ears and ruffle his mane 🙂 If he one strides it (and I think he will) – move the oxer away 1 foot. If he one strides it… move it back to position 1. Easy! If he one strides it… move the oxer to position 3. If he one strides it… move it to position 2. Still a one stride? Move it to position 4. Still a one-stride? Move to position 1 🙂If he at any point adds a stride – go back to 2 positions before where he added the extra stride, to a wind-whistling position. So if he adds a stride at position 4, the next rep should be position 2, then position 3, etc.
And keep the bars lows for now until he is one-striding at position 5 LOL! Then we can play with getting him more comfy on the bigger bars – a 20″ oxer can be cause dogs to be careful! If he continues to be careful and add a stride, we can use a single jump.
Also, what type of reward are you using? He does not appear to be careless, so you can consider a more exciting reward out ahead to encourage him to loosen his tie a bit 🙂
The pinwheels are looking really good – he has really lovely commitment understanding and was a super good boy when you asked for the 180 instead of the pinwheel (surprise! LOL!) I see a difference in his speed based on your speed. When you are a little ahead as he exited the tunnel to head into the pinwheel, he ran at a nice speed. But when you sent and ran away, calling him – totally picked up a new gear 🙂 With that in mind, because he is familiar with pinwheel concepts: I want to always work him at that gear, so agility becomes a game played at that speed. To do that, run deeper into the tunnel (send less) so that you are scrambling and maybe a bit panicked as he exits – then drive hard so he can pass you into the pinwheel – then send and run run run like you are being chased by a bear 🙂 When you sent but didn’t really run away, he only drove hard after you tossed the toy.
I am not worried about the tightness of turns on the pinwheel jump – he did a great job and I am sure he will sort it out even if he is a little wider at first. So, think of it as drive-in, drive-out. I personally can’t maintain that energy for very many reps so I do one or two then take a break – because if I do too many in a row, I end up relaxing the driving and then so does the dog.Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>Today I did the progressive grid. I think maybe I set him too close to the first jump?? He took a stride in between 1 and 2 a couple times.
I think your set up spot on the 3rd & 4th reps was really good – rep 2 might have been a tiny bit too close, but it was fine. Rep 1 was too far away but a little bit. I think the spacing on the ladder element of the grid was probably too wide for now -it should be 6 feet but it looked bigger from the camera angle, so try it at 5 feet and see how he does.
>>The footing is a little loose so that may also be part of it – might not be getting as good of a push off as he did before.
Could be? But I would try the shorter distance first to see if that helps.
>>then did 15, 18 and 21 for the 4th jump. This is all but 1 rep. It was very similar to the second rep. I had a manners minder on the ground about 20′ past the last jump, but he didn’t actually go to it. Just ran to me not looking at it as I stood next to it.
For the MM as a target, you can try getting down low to it. You can also use a toy or ball, that might be more interesting 🙂 I think he was striding pretty nicely on the various distances, but something more exciting will help him really power through it.
>>I think the good thing about just showing up and doing things right away is he has some energy, the not so good thing is he’s really excited to be there and his brain isn’t settled yet (he and Wager get out of the car and bark and celebrate getting to play, then Wager runs the outside of the course). I’m not discouraging Wager most of the time because I never get to train with other people/dogs so it’s my only dog distraction. I’ll ask him to stop running if Spot can’t stay with me, but most of the time it’s not an issue.>>
Yes! We get a fresh look at what the pupster is doing 🙂 Excited is fine, because he will be excited at trials 🙂 When showing him something new like this grid, I think reducing distraction will start – he was definitely distracted by Wager (looking right at him on one of the reps) so let him read this grid a few times before Wager gets to run around (sorry, Wager! LOL!) Spot was physically with you but couldn’t quite split his focus in terms of reading the grid with Wager running around. You can add the distraction back to things he has more experience on, and I am sure he will be ready to see the distraction on this grid soon too.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Anyway, here’s our progressive grid first attempt.
Hi! I think the easiest way is at the top of the forum page, click on the gold link that says “Welcome To Agility University” right under “Grizzly Grin And Bear It” – that will take you to your courses. I generally have 2 tabs open if I need to go back and forth quickly.
T
Hi Anne!
This game is so hard for the handler LOL!! Standing still… so hard LOL! I feel your pain 🙂 She did really well – it looks like she easily drove to the jump after the tunnel on each rep. She had a little trouble on the middle pinwheel jump on your right but did not have that same trouble with the middle jump on your left. Interesting! And you gave a nice subtle cue on the left. So – when she is doing it on the right, bring that middle jump in a little closer, and throw reinforcement out past it on a lot of the reps. You can have it a little further away when it is on your left. Nice job here – she is really zipping around this little course!!!T
Very nice here Peggy and Demi!!!! Great job moving but not really moving (SO HARD, right??!?) and also great connection. I LOVED how she zipped around the pinwheel without needing to look at you. Also, click/treat to you for rewarding in a different place on each rep – it is a great way to spread the value out everywhere on course. Yes, move the jumps a little further apart. If it is too hard and she isn’t zipping around, reward more and bring them in closer a little – we want to keep it looking like it did here!
And wow, that was great tugging with the chickens everywhere LOL!!Tracy
Perfect, I love to help dogs feel the wind in their hair LOL!!! The lazy pinwheel and the jump grid are more about precision, so the giddy up plan can be applied to the regular pinwheel. Feel free to put a tunnel in front of it to start it, then send to the middle jump, then run away (with connection, of course :)) so he chases you over jump 3 for the reward. Wheeee!
And you gave me an idea to add to the week 2 package to help build more speed and let the pups loosen their ties – thank you, I will put it together!
Enzo sounds like my Voodoo (big dog) and Hot Sauce (medium terrierish dog). Thoughtful early in their career, lots of knowledge. Not speedy lol Then we add in a dash of giddy up and a ton of speed develops without losing the trained skills. Fun!!!!
THi Nelci!
Sorry for the delay, I just saw the question!
>>, I am confused about how to follow the video rules “please submit a maximum of 4 reps total for each game and each training session”. If I do one circle to the L and one to the R to begin with, that is already 2 reps. Then I can only move the jumps once for another two reps (L and R), for a total of 4 reps. Or can I do a bit more for this game as in your video? I would not train more than 4-5 mins with Griz anyways. Forgive me but I am very literal (as you already know
It is amazing how quickly the number of jumps adds up on these short little drills, so the 4 rep limit on the submissions helps us not accidentally drill the dogs. So you can do more than 4 reps, but I want to see the first one, the last one, and a couple in the middle – which also discourages folks from running it over and over til it is perfect haha!! And if you only get 4 or 5 reps in, that is also fine – save his body & brain, we have lots to play with 🙂
The lazy game is looking good! You can give your verbals sooner, as he is over th eprevious jump or for the line to the tunnel, you can say it as he is landing from the pinwheel jump (“Jump tunnel tunnel tunnel!”)
He read the closer distances really nicely – speedy and also turning. As the distances got bigger, he slowed down a bit and was collecting a bit too much, especially on the jump after the tunnel and heading to the pinwheel jump. So I would leave the distances in closer for this game (they don’t need to be moved out in one session) each time you revisit it over a few weeks, only make one adjustment in the distance – that will help keep him powering through it and not over-thinking it.
Nice work here! Let me know if that makes sense!Tracy
Hi there! You are off to a lovely start!
You can totally use your verbals in the lazy game 🙂 I think the dogs would sell us on eBay if we were not moving AND we were silent hahaha!!He did well here for a first time on this crazy thing! Yay! Try to praise a little less – he would look at you when you did, which drew his attention away from the line. Instead, reinforce more frequently – randomly toss it out there every 2 or 3 obstacles. And if he misses one, definitely reward when he gets it the next time around – like when he missed the jump after the tunnel then got it on the next time through – yay!
For now, keep the distances in relatively close- he will let you know when to spread them out yby going really fast, not touching the bars, and not looking at you like you’ve lost your mind hahaha!!!!>>Was able to do both exercises in one session without losing his interest too much.
Excellent! Less is indeed more!
He is doing well on the pinwheels! Be careful of your verbals – it isn’t really a go because we don’t want extension on the middle jump, we can a moderate collection – so maybe just over or a jump cue.
He was at his best when you went one step past the first jump to the pinwheel jump, then sent. When you were parallel to it, he went (good boy!) but not as fast – when you hung back (:44) and didn’t really step, he didn’t go. You fixed it nicely on the next rep with a good step and being omre more step past jump 1. So keep doing the one-more-step 🙂 It is setting you up nicely! Great job with your verbal markers when he commits to the middle jump! When you makr it, I bet he would love it is you then ranso he could chase you for the reward – his favorite thing (except maybe for gopher digging haha). You can also mix throwing a reward out past the middle jump as you move away.Nice job here!!
Tracy
YAY!!!! Always great to have you in class 🙂 I see Enzo has been doing well with the UKI home trials!! Any particular challenges that you found he struggled with? I am changing up the curriculum and it would be fun to add new things 🙂
T
Hi there!
I think hashing out the reinforcement will make the lazy game much easier – you can throw a charley bear or something obvious then call him back to you to get another treat to reset, that can help. It is also possible that the challenge was set up with a little too much distance to start with (considering the lack of motion :)) so that is what was causing some of his hesitation:
Video 1 – This is a really good start, especially the first rep. Keep turning your body, feet too, not just your shoulders – your feet were getting a little stuck, probably from trying to stay in the box 🙂
Video 2 – I think the struggle here had more to do with the rewards, he was predicting that the rewards would come in that one spot LOL! Probably because they had come in that spot already and he could still smell them. Pulling the the middle pinwheel jump in closer will really help too, it reduces the challenge a tiny bit.
Video 3 – In terms of the movement, you are a bit too sideways so I think he was confused about whether to go or to turn – keep turning your feet and I think he will find it easier. He definitely had questions on the middle pinwheel jump but I think it had to do with you being perpendicular to the jump rather than continuing to move.Video 4 – great job turning your shoulders and feet here on these reps, he was great! I think these distances are a couple of feet too spread out though, he is still not entirely sure. The continued turning of your feet and shoulders made a massive difference, though!!
Grid: I agree, this was hard! He was less comfortable on the tighter distances (15 and 18) and settled in at 21. He changed up how he approached the last jump on each rep, so we just have to show it to him again 🙂 He had some really nice jumping efforts in there and I don’t think the toy was too stimulating (he was balanced in the ladder element of jumps 1-2-3) – so at some point later this week, show him the exact same session, no changes. We are basically teaching him to read – he did a good job on this first session, but needs to see the book again 🙂 I bet he is much smoother on session 2 🙂
Nice job! Let me know what you think!
THi!
>>Question: is the second pinwheel exercise dependent on the first, or can that be worked on separately?
I think the 2nd pinwheel will be much easier of the lazy pinwheel is looking good – and it did (above) so you can try the real pinwheel 🙂
On the video:
He is doing a great job figuring out how to one-stride the big distance!! He had a little trouble on the ladder element of it (first 3 jumps) – dropped the bar on the 2nd jump (1st rep) and ticked it later on as well – so when you revisit this, if he hits or ticks a bar, do the exact same rep again. If he is clean in the jumping, you can consider changing something. If not, ask the question of the same grid one more time – and if he still has a question, make it easier (lower bars are the easiest way or less exciting reward). On the rep where he dropped the oxer – I think you were too exciting, urging him on like a racehorse LOL!! It distracted him – so be pretty quiet for now. And you can ask the question again by doing the exact same grid again – and see what happens. If he drops it again, then yes, lower the bar.Nice work here!!
Tracy
Hi there!
Yes, it is so easy to do too many jumps and drill young dogs (any dogs) so the posting guidelines will help make us all more efficient 🙂
Nice job on the lazy pinwheel – you can actually move a little more, as long as you are not too helpy 🙂 I thought your arms were fine here. The 1st rep, 3rd rep and 4th rep all looked great – note your connection especially on the send to the tunnel. Compare it to rep 2: you disconnected and said tunnel to the tunnel… which turned your upper body to exactly where he went 🙂 Calling him back, sending to the tunnel and rewarding was fine. Remember to always say the cue to him and not the obstacle 🙂 You did it perfectly on the others reps, YAY!! Nice job!
TracyThis is a perfect place for your question!
For the striding grid, let’s leave the oxer at 6″/8″ until we see what he wants to do with striding. Then we can play a little with height – no need to build up height for a couple of weeks and even then, we will take it slowly. He is so young and we can challenge him with striding puzzles rather than height for now 🙂
