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Hi Tom!
This section fits nicely in your yard!Rep 1: Lovely backside push!!! And he read the check nicely – you might be able to do it one step sooner but he had a nice turn. At :15, the blind was indeed a little late 🙂 but also I think this might be a better spot for a front cross – you are decelerated there (appropriately) so the FC will turn your feet to the last jump sooner and easier to execute than the blind here (the blind turns your feet to the off course first, so you have to do it much faster than you would need to do the FC here).
Rep 2: Another great backside push, the connection was terrific there. And the wrap after it was really nice too! It is fun to see your training paying off here on the sequences.
The BC was earlier and therefore tighter. Nice! But I still think a FC will be easier/tighter too 🙂Rep 3: Ooh the pull through with the threadle arm was really nice on this one! You can start it even sooner – give a little decel as he is exiting the wrap, so the arm and the verbal can be started when he is still about 5 or 8 feet from takeoff.
Rep 4: yes, at 1:09, you rotated too early, too much slam on the brakes of the sports car 🙂
Rep 5: You had one more step forward to the wrap jump then deceled and turned: perfect! I think all of his wraps were great here.
And, every backside send was also terrific, you are really owning that skill now.
On this threadle – to bring him in and turn him away, keep him on your left hand (threadle hand): it is both the come in and go back out hand – it might feel like you are drawing a check mark with your hand. And, stay a little closer to the threadle jump – you were pulling away so he was not sure if he should come with you or go back out to it. The combination of motion towards it and the left arm “flicking” him back out will get it done nicely.Great job here!~ I am loving the backside pushes, they looked fabulous!
Tracy
Hi Khamsin!
Wheeee rabbit holes are fun!
Video 1: she thought you were disconnected on the first rep – her head came up and she was looking at you like “DUDE!!!!!” Hahaha And then she didn’t wrap the wing. The 2nd rep was much better, she was better able to look at the line. Your disconnection was lovely LOL!
Video 2: She is having a little trouble with the default behavior of coming in to take the jump on the backside, so you are compensating by rotating towards her to get it… but then you are turned the wrong way and it is hard to get out of there. So, we can totally train the default! I will put it into the skills sets for monday (gotta get home to do the video, I am on the road and only have puppies with me :)) but in a nutshell, it will be similar to what you were doing towards the end of the video where you were moving forward correctly (lower body) but throwing the toy in to the landing spot (like at 1:04). But one slight tweak: don’t wait for her to take the bar to throw it. Instead, think of it as well-placed reinforcement for her choice to go to the backside: as she is heading around the backside entry wing, you will keep running forward but throw the toy in behind you to the landing spot (and you can tell her to get it). The goal is to create a default of taking the jump by helping her predict that the backside cue will be rewarded on the landing side, so she can giddy up and take the jump even when you leave 🙂 Let me know if that makes sense 🙂
Video 3: ah! This is basically what I was describing just throw the toy sooner. You were a little late, perhaps waiting for her to commit – you don’t need to wait for commitment to the jump bar here, you can just throw the toy (that will allow you to move away even sooner.
The circle wraps looked good here!!!!Video 4: The push to the right went a little better… but I think you were helping her more by slowing down to hope her come in. You had more speed and countermotion when you switched sides here, so it was harder. But, you were NOT turning your feet, so that is awesome! We are going to train the default with the early toy drops and then it will be easy peasy 🙂 I think she will figure it out really quickly.
Video 5:
This video has the funniest title LOL!
She did well here! But if you freeze the video at :04, :11 and :17, you were in the picture on the landing side – that is helping cue the jump right now. You aren’t needing to turn your feet here, yay! But our goal this next week will be to teach her to allow you to add the countermotion to this, so you can be passing the exit wing as she is coming around the entry wing, and she will take the jump. For now, if you had a trial this weekend: handle this challenge exactly was you did here. And in the next couple of weeks, we will built it up! It is a perfect skill to work as your knee recovers, because you can move but you don’t need to run.Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
For Sandy’s question… I did this video for the opposite arm class, which is why I was only using the opposite arm. I do train it with the dog side arm initially and I use both.Which brings us to Mary’s question: I do use both types. It really depends on the individual dog, but my general rule for myself is that I use the dog side arm on threadles where I am on the right line and ahead, and for the simpler threadles. I use the opposite arm on the harder threadles and when I am behind 🙂 My dogs appreciate the extra wallop that the opposite arm packs on the threadle… But I run slower when I use it (because of the rotation) so I try to not use it all the time .
Tracy
Hi!
>>>That should be on the list, too. But I consider them different. I have a different verbal cue for tunnel discrimination and I want my threadles to mean come off the line, but then turn away. I think you do the same thing.Yes, same thing. 🙂
>Avoidance….that’s my handling style. My timing on the double blinds with her is not good and unlike Lever who commits 1 mile ahead and so I have to be EXTREMELY early,
Ha! You are cracking me up! New handling system: avoidance lol! Have you tried spreading the jumps way out so you have more time?
>> Pose is a normal dog (and young) so she pulls off of the obstacle easily.
Bwahahaha a normal dog LOL!! But yes, I know what you mean completely.
>>Okay, so I need to add another item to my list…you aren’t helping me here – 🙂 😉 I’m adding to my list!!! LOL
Haha! Ok as much as I love double blinds, they are indeed a low priority (Hot Sauce doesn’t know them either lol)
>At least I checked off my BIG avoidance handling in teaching rear crosses. I think Lever learned it finally when we got to Masters. We didn’t start Novice/Starters with rear crosses and that’s where we needed them the most. Pose has a rear cross now.>>
Yes! Rear crosses… soooo important with the speed that Pose and Lever bring to the table.
Have fun!
TracyHi!
Omg, sorry, there is a missing word: toy! I was typing too fast, oopsie!!
Yes: toss it, play, offer treat, repeat 🙂
Both videos looked really good here! He had very nice hits on the sideways and backwards sends, yay! For now, don’t add more distance – we want more reps at each distance, rather than adding distance after every couple of reps. I think on this video you found the threshold of his current distant boundaries away from the prop ,so start a little closer and inch away more gradually.
The wrap shaping looked AWESOME. He was totally in the groove, fast and focused, and in the right state of arousal: super!!! Give him at least one more session just like this and then if it goes well, move the wing out a tiny bit (while maintaining the super high rate of success like you did here.)
Great job!
TracyHi!
>>Toys….so one of the things I realized/learned/confirmed when doing this last drive ahead session was that his favorite toy is the one he has! He’s always had a bit of a tendency to not want to give up “his” toy. I did a fair amount of swap/feed/give back, etc. etc again when he was younger, guess we need to do a lot more. He turns 9 months today and I’ve had this feeling for a few weeks now that he’s feeling out his “big boy pants” so I’ll definitely put lots of retrieve/play/swap/give back etc. games back in the training rotation.>>
I think he is doing well with his toy play! Don’t put toooooo much concern into the retrieve because his toy play is strong, and we want to protect that. So I allow some naughty to get great toy play, then we fade it out later on 🙂 On some games, work the retrieve, but on others, he can totally have victory laps or you can tie the toy to something so you can reel him in to play.
>We’re in Katarina’s RC Young Dog Foundations class and she’s suggesting 5 distinct cues for DW exits….straight ahead, soft left and rights and tight left and rights. And then I need verbals for tunnel exits and who knows what else! >
If you have separate verbals for all the turns on jumps and on tunnel exits and on the DW exit… that is going to be a whole lotta words! I have trained the verbals to mean “take the thing and exit this direction” so I am happy with being able to use the same verbals (such as left or right) on the obstacles. And the dogs tell me it makes sense because the y are successful and fast 🙂 it might be something to consider!
>>Seriously….I have decided that his soft left and right are going to be left and right. We’ve started that training and I think I can use that for both his dogwalk and tunnel exits? >>
That is exactly what I do and teach. The dogs are fine with it.
>>I haven’t decided what I’m going to use for “tight” exits or tight turns on jumps. Can I use the same for both “exits” and jump turns or do you think they need to be different?
Yes, I believe that wrap verbals can be applied to different obstacles 🙂
>> I think the thing I miss the most about not trialing is the “training discussions”….so much good thought provoking discussion amongst a pretty big group of us up here in New England….really miss those!
So true!! The New England crew is a great bunch!!
>> But I need to be realistic about my ability to train, remember and use them timely.
Your ability to train them is not in doubt. You totally can! But say you need to train 5 different exit cues (more like 7) now multiply it by 3….. eek! Then yes, remembering them all. It can be done, you can do it! But it doesn’t need to be done so you can put your energy elsewhere. It is not a question of ability, it’s a question of whether it is needed.
>> I think I’d be better off to have a few well trained, well executed ones that a whole lot of them that I just get confused with!
Yes! Prioritize them – which are most important? Train those first. Then over time you can add the others, one by one.
Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! It wasn’t painful LOL!!! It actually is good in that you’ve really built up food drive – I don’t think these pups came with the food app installed LOL!! So, outdoors was definitely a distraction (on the races too) so in the great outdoors, don’t add so much distance quite yet because he is slowing down/loses track of where the toy is.
For the food to toy keep it shorter in distance and delay the sprint away: throw the cookie, stand still til he gets it… then as soon as he swallows it, run run run and show the toy. That will get quicker responses to your cue, plus he will eat it faster knowing the game is starting 🙂
On the blinds, yes, you can be sooner but it was hard to judge the timing – so if you delay the run until he has the food, it will be easier to turn sooner. And be sure to make conmection: at :57 he didn’t see which side to be on because you were not really connected (toy was out, but you didn’t have a connection) so he ended up on the wrong side. Reward that anyway, he had to guess and he just guessed the other side LOL!!!
On the toy races – yay little guy, outruns da momma! Wheeee! 2 tweaks for you: you don’t need as much distance for now – yes, he was going but he was slowing down, which generally means he wasn’t totally sure. And when he wasn’t sure on a couple, he pushed away from your feet 🙂 we want him to be happy about feet, so keeping it to 10 or 15 feet will help.
Because he is so young, he doesn’t fully have to toy scoop sorted out so he was pile driving a bit as he was grabbing the toy. Do you have a big hollee roller? That will help him scoop it up without slamming 🙂 if you don’t have one… shopping! Wheeee!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! Great job on both of these sessions, Fizz is so fun!
I like the unedited sessions better because we get a fuller picture especially if the dog has questions. And I am glad you had good weather; working outside provided some new distractions but he did really well!On the target video, nice warm up! Are you saying Brava? Is Fizz a girl? Lol! Great marker word.
She is showing strong hits to the target, especially at 1:20 and after. Two things that will help:
Start with your dog side leg back then as you cue the target, let her see you step forward with it. That will add more oomph to the cue and help guide her especially as you add more distance. Your leg was forward before the send, so she didn’t get the benefit of the little bit of motion the leg adds.
Also, try to have your treats ready in your hand so the reward gets presented sooner from the hand (and so she doesn’t look up at the treat pouch). It will make upcoming games easier, plus it provides a nice little self-control element to the game 🙂 you had the toy off to the side which was hard but Fizz did well!
On your bowl work – the back and forth worked best when Fizz saw you dropping the treat. You were great about using a nice noisy one but the sound didn’t seem to help her as much as the visual of the treat did. So, on the next session, delay the drop til she can see your hand moving. That will be easy to fade out when she gets the groove of it (which she was, by the end of the game).
Nice work! Let me know what you think! I’m looking forward to the blind cross videos 🙂
TracyHi! Really nice sessions here! With the Nemo ball: you did have interactive play, it was just a different style of play 🙂 It wasn’t tugging but it was play and it was reinforcement! Yay!!! The ball is definitely high value and the bopping it around is high value too 🙂 He had more speed and giddy up to it than to the cheese bowl, but that makes sense 🙂 with the Nemo ball, start to add your motion forward. You can be running to it and that will help make the play happen even faster 🙂
He had great forward focus on the cheese bowl! At this stage, there’s no need to get a lot of duration on it, you can let him move to it on the first look. He was starting to offer it naturally at about 1:10! And there were a few reps after it where you waited too long, so he looked back at you (“mom, what’s the deal?” LOL!!)
He isn’t as fast to the cheese bowl yet but that will continue to build as he develops the game. Great job here!
TracyHi! Glad you are having fun 🙂 it is so fun to have you here!
yes, new games are every Saturday afternoon, after the live class 🙂
THi! Yes, you can totally use food to build the driving forward, especially as you add motion and distance. Separately, you can play with the toy: will she pick it up but not bring it back? If so, cool, tie it to something for now so you can engage with her to play 🙂 if she will drive to it but not engage if it is stationary, you can also have it tied to something – and when she get *almost* to it, start moving it so she can chase it. Let me know if that makes sense 🙂
TracyHi! Quote of the day: “toys are hard!” Omg so totally YES!!!! But,I was SUPER pleased that there were no bites in those in between moments when his mouth was not otherwise occupied. Yay!
I think the difficulty was more about the food value versus the dead toy, so leaving you for the dead toy was not as exciting when there was a possibility of food right there. Let’s focus on the food to toy for now and then the driving ahead game will be easy 🙂
For now, have a low value treat in your hand, and toss the close and keep it moving – if he engages with the toy, yay! Play! Then give the treat. We will be able to fade the toy movement when he understands the back and forth more.
And, in those moments of “hmmm, now what?” it was very smart to toss some treats so he could settle and be busy while you thought about what to do. It produced a toothless sessions 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! She did really well with the decel game here, she drove in nice and tight!!! Great job getting the rewards in low, it sure isn’t easy with such a small pup! You can do this game sitting on your butt at the stage or on your knees, if your knees won’t get mad about it lol! You can toss the cookie away and have her drive back to you for it with you already low.
When you added movement, she definitely likes the recall aspect of it! Nice! Because she has more speed, you should decelerate sooner, so she has more time to process the slowing down element (she is still learning how to use those new legs of hers lol).
About the wrapping foundation – yes, totally wait on it for now. In the meantime, work on the reward mechanics of ‘eat a cookie here, then eat a cookie there’ (easiest game on the planet haha! And you can also do that with 2 toys, back and forth – I also like to do toy-to-cookie-to-toy with the baby dogs at this age, just to get all of the reinforcement in place. Then you’ll find the wrap shaping is super easy (and all shaping in general too :))
Great job here!!! Let me know what you think 🙂
TracyHi Estelle! Skylar was awesome here!!! Because he is a little older, you’ll find that he might progress through some of these games very quickly – and this is what happened here 🙂 so I might give you more advanced things to do 🙂
Great job establishing the back and forth then adding the cone. He had a little trouble when the cone got really far, but I LOVE how he thought his way through it and went out and found the cone 🙂 yay!!! Resist the temptation to help while he is thinking, it will feel like an insanely long 5 seconds but wait for him to sort it out. If he doesn’t, move the cone in a little closer and that should help kick start it.
If he likes toys, you can try this with toys too 🙂
An additional thing to try with this game is using different objects in place of the cone – laundry basket, garbage pails, anything you have that is easy to move and go around. That will help generalize the skill.
Great job here!!!
TracyGood morning! He looks great, glad he was enjoying the snacks lol!!!
He didn’t seem to have much trouble at all when the toy was out ahead. You were very decelerated, which was perfect for that – double gold star for him eating the treat when the toy was out ahead, plus turning so nicely!
My only suggestion is to now add your acceleration when you give him to the cue to get the toy: cue it and run forward so he sees your physical cue match the behavior.When you added speed, you were a little early on the turn, so connection broke and it read like a blind to him. You can wait until he is almost at your hand and then turn, while also giving more eye contact. Try to lower your hand on this too so he comes in with his head lower.
The toy races and sits in front of the toy looked great at the end! The down was more surprising to him but I think he was expecting the sit. I’m super happy with how he did with those, they are hard!
Blinds looked great too, just be sure to make connection on the original side before the blind, rather than look forward then blind.Great job here!!!! More games coming tomorrow 🙂
Tracy
