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Good morning!
Bending – he is doing well! He seems to think the 3 wing set up is a little odd, but that will go away when he sees it a few more times. Yes, you can run out of it to get him to accelerate and chase (I love running in these games!) but also let him drive around without you moving – an ‘all of the above’ approach (because there won’t be much handler motion in the next stages of the game). He is definitely ready for part 2 with the bars added in!!Set point: He is getting the concept nicely, so we can add challenge and and let him extend his stride a bit. A couple of tweaks for you to do this:
– move the pet tutor further away – it should be one full extension stride past landing so he lands and takes a giant stride (he is taking a stride here, but it is a collection stride). I didn’t say that in the instructions, sorry!! So it will be more like 15 or 18 feet past for him.And when you stand near the pet tutor, don’t face Robie – be facing the direction he should travel (yes, look back to him, but generally facing forward and not him) . He has a great stay so it should be easy to do this.
The cross bars can be opened up a little so he has more like a 6 foot distance to the first bar – you can take a wingless jump and use those uprights to get the cross bars a little further away. And for now, keep the 2nd bar lower – I would put it at 8 inches for now, to get him lower and more forward. These tweaks are designed to get a little more length in the stride, more forward and not as much up and down. He seems ready for these added tweaks, as he overall seems to have nice control of all those legs LOL!!!
Nice work here!!
TracyHi there!
She was totally pumped up, how fun!!!!
I agree that you can add in more countermotion, leaving before she is in. And also adding in more verbal turn cues.When you cue the tunnel, be sure to cue with connection and arm back, taking one step – at :45 when she took the end you didn’t want, it was kind of cued because you were looking a little too far forward and movign away as you cued.
The last rep had terrific challenge – you sent and left, and she nailed it! Good girl 🙂 Yes, keep building on that. So fun! Well done!! It makes me happy to see her so happy <3
Tracy
Hi there!
>>I combined multiple sessions here and realized after spending time editing that I should have split it into 2 shorter videos so do with it what you will…either speed thru parts you don’t particularly need or want to see or just watch half of it one day and half the next or…whatever. I will pay closer attention next time. This one still keeps me under the 6-8 min total for the entire week. By the way, are we going Tuesday to Tuesday for the videos? Each Tuesday we reset the clock and have 6-8 min total?>>
Don’t worry too much about it – the time limits are general guidelines so we don’t over-work the puppies. I don’t really keep tabs on it, and you don’t have to post or monitor it that closely. Combining videos like this – that is fine 🙂 If I think you are training too much or going way over the time limit suggestions, I will let you know to dial it back LOL! Otherwise, you can kinda keep track to avoid over-training and don’t need to worry about it. If you are posting 20 minutes a week, well, maybe that is a bit much. But 10 minutes over the week because there was an issue or you didn’t edit stuff in between? No worries. The week resets on Monday or Tuesday, depending on how your life is going at the moment – again, I am pretty chill about it – I keep general tabs to make sure puppies are not getting drilled but I don’t count time limits to the second and you don’t need to either 🙂
>>Part 1 is getting some tricks and engagement prior to approaching the “ring gate” where I begin the “stay tour” using the gate, a jump and the tunnel. Notice he also “offers the jump” when I’m trying to set him up (I’m probably too close to the jump but he does like to offer that…I’m thinking I need to figure out a way he doesn’t take the first jump at a trial when he’s not supposed to yet). We are not trialing and don’t plan to for awhile.>>
I love engagement and tricks prior to any sport training, such a great thing to include in your routine!! And setting up ring gates – that is a good visual. Build in TONS of rewards for it, food and toys – he did a lot of this engagement without food or toys (or it was delayed) so he did some climbing on you. At his age – it should have basically a 100% rate of reinforcement. When he is closer to trialing, we fade it but for now, he needs a reward for each trick, every single one.
Also, watch for signs of readiness because you ask for a sit. That includes how quickly he responds to cues, how solid the responses are, and where he is looking. On your first go-round here before the first sit, he wasn’t really ready – not as quick as he can be in his responses, not as precise and when you asked him to sit, he looked away. So to improve this, make the tricks and rewards more active: ask for a hand touch, for example, and when he does one (even if it isn’t perfect), go wild with the cookie or toy, run around, jump around, etc. Do several in a row (with tons of reward) until he is fast and accurate in his responses and can’t take his eyes off of you.On the second go-round, he was tugging nicely and yes, I agree that he wasn’t sure what you wanted. As he is tugging near an obstacle, try facing him and using your verbal sit cue – without a physical line up cue. When you were trying to use your hand and leg to line him up, you stepped to the jump (1:32) and that is the cue to take the jump… so he was correct. So work the verbal without any body motion, and facing him is a good way to start (as long as you aren’t bending over or leaning into him – just stand up casually but don’t move towards the jump).
The other thing I do on stay tours with my dogs that love to offer is to build the leash into the routine – play and move towards the obstacles on leash. Get the sit – reward reward reward THEN take the leash off (during the sit). This can allow you to add in a physical line up cue (but add in any physical cue that might look like a step to a jump really far from a jump so he doesn’t get confused).Also… be less concerned about exactly what angle he sits on for now… just reward sits. He did figure out what you wanted and sat and then you tried to move him into a better position. I would just reward that sit, release, ask for another one maybe closer to you, reward, release, and so on. Otherwise he does a whole lot of work with very little reinforcement, so the start line becomes a place of stress and not of fun. Also, be consistent with what the cues mean – when you were in front of the jump, you were slapping your leg and I thought it was meant to be part of a line up cue… but then in front of the tunnel, you were slapping your leg and it was more of a ready cue before a send (no stay). So that can also contribute to confusion, as it might mean 2 different things.
The tunnel turn work is looking good, he is committing beautifully and turning nicely on the exit! Yay! You can mix in some straight exits too, yelling GO! and then taking off straight, throwing the toy out ahead on a straight line.
>>I feel we have a good toy play relationship but he takes great joy in doing a few laps before he will bring it back.
Some dogs do have fun running around with it and it takes longer to get the retrieve. A few ideas – does he have the opportunity in life, not in training, to just run around like a crazy man with toys, no retrieve required?
I have also found that dogs do laps during training when there is too much pressure – so make sure your rate of reward is super high, and also give permission for the laps (I tell my dogs to go for a run). Cheer for a lap then trade him for something else – either a cookie or a different toy to take on a run. Also be sure that when he *does* bring the toy back in these situations that you let him win it again or give him another one – don’t take it away or put him right back to work/training, as that can cause the dogs to avoid bringing it back.
>> For this video, since he was just doing his own thing no matter what I tried, I walked into the garage as if I was going back inside and then he came to me and we had a party and continued on.>>
My guess is that it was too much about the work, too much pressure, and not enough about the toy party. I stay with the dogs if they need a pressure release and I don’t bother calling or trying to trade if there is simply no way. I don’t leave or hide anymoe (I used to) because then the dogs learn to stay away til I leave. He is really young, so as you keep an eye on a super high success rate, letting him blow off steam and have more running opportunities with his toys (including the training toys) and keep making it rewarding for him to bring it back, the victory laps will go away.
Nice work here!!
Tracy
Hi there!
Looks like it is drying up nicely there!
Rocking horses are looking good 🙂 Good connection, you are really making sure you are connected and she can see it. Try not to switch the toy from hand to hand, it will end up delaying your handling when you add in the running. Plus I think she was seeing it moving and anticipating the throws. In a couple of spots, you were looking a little forward and pointing forward, connection was not as clear – so she wasn’t as ure. An example is 1:06 and then 1:27 and 1:37. Compare it to the reps where you held your connection as you sent her to the wing, like the reps at 2:00 ish and you can see how much better she commits even with all the distance added in.
I love how she went and took a wing when you aksed if she was ready: she said heck yeah!! LOL! Loving her commitment and value.On the lazy game – nice job building value and letting her offer. She seemed like a very happy camper LOL! Just be sure you keep moving forward for another session or two – when you tried to rotate too soon, she came back to you and didn’t go over the jump. As value builds, you will be able to add that back but for now, keep moving forward to help her.
Very nice work here, she is becoming the Commitment Queen!
Tracy
Hi there!
Good boy on his wing wraps, he is doing really well! Try to maintain eye contact as he comes around the wing, resist the temptation to glance forward to the next wing. You looked ahead on the first couple but then had perfect connecton at :14 and he turned really nicely! There wasn’t enough connection at :20, so he just came to you. Eye contact is important for baby dogs, to show them the side we want and also direct our shoulders to where we want their line to go next. It was much clearer at :25 and he nailed it 🙂 You did some blind cross (spin) moves on these, keep them to FCs for now to get the connection really perfect and we will be adding the spin/blind exits soon 🙂Tunnel fun: sending forward was great! Yes, the rears were too hard – I start rear crosses on short straight tunnels, so you can re-visit them by crunching up the tunnel (but they are a low priority, because they get much easier when he has had more value time. And yes, you did a few too many reps with errors, so remember the 2 failure rule – if he fails twice, you need to make it much easier or do something else. So on the tunnels, add value using the sends and then do increasingly early front crosses – let him learn that you might leave by sending then front crossing when he is about 3 feet from the tunnel entry. We can add all that and verbals before going back to the rear crosses.
Good job on the jump games, he is showing really nice commitment so far! Yay! Yes, ideally, Slider isn’t getting in the way but I understand the whole old dog thing 🙂 I like that you have a series of different verbals for the wraps and the backsides – this will be incredibly useful in the future (plus we will be adding in GO very soon too 🙂 ) When you are playing with these, we really want to build a lot of value for taking the front – so think about the ratio of front side to back side of the jump. I suggest 10% or less on backside training at his age. So say that, over the course of a couple of sessions, you do 20 wraps or front side stuff… 2 or less of those should be backsides. There reasoning behind that is two-fold:
first, in his career, he is going to need amazing commitment to the front side in a ratio much higher than he will need to the back side. So I like to make sure that is in place then adding the backside is relatively easy and we have plenty of time for that.
Second, backside jumping (even over a bump) is the most physically demanding so I do very little of it with the baby dogs.
You did very little of it here, which was wise! So keep it at a low ratio and keep putting excellent value on your fronts.Nice work!!
TracyHi!
For now, it doesn’t matter 🙂 We are not really asking for a specific striding effort, we are looking to teach the bending concept for now and we will add striding later.T
OMG that is the cutest tiniest tunnel ever! She is doing a great job of learning to drive through it – it is all about value building at this point. She is doing best on the curved tunnel when you stay on the inside of it. She had a little more trouble when you started on the outside and did a rear cross (starting at :15) – you can start that skill on a straight tunnel, then easily go back to the curved tunnel.
I’d say within another session or two, she will be smoking you and driving away to the tunnel – at that point, you can add in leaving earlier and calling her before she enters, to give her the turn cues.Great job!
TracyHi there!
It looks like you are doing a great job with the toy play! And holy cow, Mochi is totally on board with driving to the jump – yes!!!! She picked up speed VERY quickly here (and that is a VERY VERY GOOD thing haha!) so you can time your reward throw to come sooner. On the first rep, you tossed the toy as she was heading to the jump, before she looked back at you: perfect!
As she got faster, you were a little late on the throws and she was looking at you. So, you can anticipate her drive to the jump and toss the toy out ahead as she is on her way to it, so it lands out there before she looks back at you.
Also, she appears to love the toy most when you are moving it around, so you can tie it to a long line – then when it lands, you can start moving it around so she can chase it and grab it.Nice work here, excellent value!
Tracy
Good morning!
First, some answers:>>So I do have a question on the sends when I am leaving early…related to the feet forward stuff I did with CAVU where we changed our lower body early to indicate the lead change for the turn….I’m thinking that is what you mean by rotating 3-4 feet before he reaches the wing? Also, when we are doing the running with opposing handler motion, do we still send with a step or keep our motion going and use our motion to send the dog?
When things really get moving, you will feel it as a transition – you will be moving forward, slowing down, then rotating. So there won’t be a big step forward like we are doing in these early stages, but there will be motion towards the wing/jump to indicate commitment. Eventually, you will be rotating and leaving as he is passing you, or earlier!
>>Also, so as not to overdo with repetition for the sake of the dog, how many short sessions are advisable for exercises…especially wrapping with tight turns? I keep the reps low per session. Twice a week?
I try to spread out the games and do one thing every day – one different thing. So maybe 2 minutes of wing wrapping, then leave it alone for 3 or 4 days – mixing in a shaping game then a tunnel game, etc, each on different days. Or, if you are going to a training facility – do a minute or so of each game, then leave it alone for a few days. We have time on our side so there is no reason to do a ton of reps. For my youngsters, I do fewer than 10 wraps and then don’t repeat the game for a day or two.
On the video: really nice drive to the tunnels!!! Good boy! Nice toy play too. When you are getting him revved up before you start (ready ready ready), no need to poke him with your fingers – it caused him to bark at you and turn towards you with teeth a bit… we want the youngsters to be a bit calm & boring at this stage LOL so no need to get him aroused towards your hands. On your next tunnel session, add in exit info when he is about 3 feet in front of the entry: either call his name (or use a left or right cue, if you have been adding those) when you want a turn. Or, yell GO! for a straight exit. And match your physical location and placement of reward to the verbal – you were doing a great location/reward for the nice tight turns here, so you can add in running straight and throwing the toy for the Go! exits.
Nice work here, he is SUPER fun!!!!
Tracy
Hi there
Rocking horses – his commitment is looking good, and good job with the verbals! I can see where he was starting to lose his oomph – heat is a factor for sure, and you can also throw the reward out past the wing too as they get further apart. 2 more ideas-
he was game to go, so if he starts without you, call him back cheerily and start quickly. I think he was told nope a few times and that burst the bubble a little. The other thing to do to keep it exciting is to run when you reward, which makes it more active.Jump value – I think at this point you can reduce back and forth over the one jump, he is showing really good value. Building it to a couple of jumps is a good extension of the lazy game (something that we will be adding an encouraging). It should not be confusing, only helpful 🙂
Tunnel sends:
He seems to be liking his tunnel, yay! Fun exciting rewards too! You can definitely add more distance on the sends, which will also give you more time to cue a turn on the entry. You were a little late because you were starting close, but better to start close to build the value 🙂Stay tour – looking good, especially near the jumps! We want him to love the stay most of all right now :). When you go to the food reward, be sure to get all the way back to him then put the food in his mouth. You were leaning and extending, so he wanted to move his feet. When you release to the tunnel, be a little closer to the tunnel entry so he knows exactly where you want him to go.
Nice work on all of these!!
TracyYay, I see toy found the thread starter!
He looks great, such a cool pup!The rocking horses are going well! On the first rep, he did a great job committing. As you ramped up the timing to leave earlier, he wasn’t as sure of which side of you to be on as he came around the wing- he would only see your back til he was almost at you, so he drifted a little wide. To help that, keep your arm a little further back and make a bit more eye contact as he comes around the wing, to really clarify which side to be on. Your arm was beautifully low and your lower body was perfect!
His commitment as you added distance was great!! And he really liked when you were running on the last rep. I think the occasional barks are just excitment 🙂
Now… you can try to leave even sooner! You were rotating just as he was arriving at the wing. So build it up to where you are rotating when he is 3 or 4 or 5 feet from the wing… then build to where you are rotating as he is passing you. Hard but fun!!
And great news about the tricks and the stays. He is doing great!!!
Looking forward to seeing more 🙂
TracyHi there!
Her stays are looking really good! She has so much lovely drive for the game that putting all this value on her stays at this point… totally great investment in the future 🙂 definitely something to keep maintaining – she should almost look like she’d rather stay than run at this point LOL! And the more you can include her favorite people and dogs, the better 🙂Tunnel sends: definitely nice value on the Tunnels and I am glad you mixed in stays as well. She had a little trouble with her friends coming in but that is great to work through. She was great about letting you turn and leave – you almost pushed her off one LOL! The timing of the physical cues looked good (before she went in, so she could totally see the cues). The only thing I’d tweak is the verbal: you were generally using her name at the exit (the last rep was right as she entered) so try to time the verbals to match the physical cue, which is about a stride before she enters. And if you’re working on left and rights, you can use them here too because she is reading the physical cue so nicely. I like to say the cue one stride before entering, then I keep saying it so it is easy for the pup to locate me at the exit :).
Nice work!
TracyHi! Welcome! Perfect job with the video, she is adorable!!!!!
On your rocking horses – because of her small size and inexperience, I think keeping your send arm lower and softer, along with more eye contact as she comes around the wing, will help build even more commitment.
For example, at :02, :12, :20 :29 and :34, you had a low arm and good connection and she really committed and drove around the turn. Compare that to the higher arm and you looking forward more at :05, :16, :28 and :31 – she had more questions on those, in the form of slowing down and looking up at you. So lots of low arm and eye contact throughout will help! Your lower body was perfect.
Well done!!
TracyHi Sandy and Benni! Welcome! If you scroll down to the bottom of all the threads in the Forum page, you’ll see where you can start a new thread. Also, you can read more about how the new site works in the User Guide on the Course Syllabus page.
Have fun!
TracyHi! This looks terrific! The first warm up rep was good but you can see how pointing forward isn’t as clear as rotating early as you did in the the next reps! She slipped a little on the forward facing rep, but had the info earlier and set up really nice turns on the earlier reps. It is a Classic example of why we need to rotate nice and early! Yay!
Her commitment looks great and your connection is strong. The squeaking is just an added bonus lol!
So two ways to increase challenge:
1- you stay in the middle the whole time, doing one step sends and rotating early, but not running towards any wings. Hard! Move the wings in close again to start this.
2- have a tunnel randomly sitting out there, as a distraction, and play the rocking horses game as you did here. You can add in sending her to a tunnel as a reward too 🙂
Nice work!!!
Tracy
