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Hi!
Looking at both of the threadle videos, she is doing really well! I think she is really getting the concept of in-then-out, and that is the most important part. Yay!!!
She is definitely ready for you to add the threadle verbal here, so use it instead of the release word. And if that goes well (I am sure it will!) then you can add in more angles. She did well with the angles you presented here (especially on the 2nd video) but you can add in slightly harder ones too 🙂
I think the hardest part for her was when you wanted her to line and and sit 🙂 All of the reward was coming from the MM, so you can help her line up with a cookie for sitting (Pizza!) and that will help. She wanted to move from the stay when you put the target hand in position, so you can toss a reward back for those stays too, but that is not important as the rewards for getting her into the sit. She did a great job when you tossed the cookie away rather than asked her to sit, so you can totally keep mixing that in.The only other detail is that, like with the serpentines, you can fade out the target in your hand and you can point your feet to the MM more. That feels super weird standing still, but I think it will be much easier when you add motion. If she can be highly success like she was here for another session with some angles added, then definitely add in motion with you moving very slowly 🙂
Have fun! Great job here!!!
TracyHi! It was gorgeous yesterday, with another gorgeous day coming today! YAY!!!! I am excited for no more snow and ice. Sorry about the mud though – ewwwww!!!
He is doing well with his teeter work! I am looking forward to the official start of teeter class!! There were some things that went REALLY well and there are some things here that I am totally going to bug you about LOL!
At the beginning – bang game: he is REALLY showing some excitement and enthusiasm for the bang game and doing a great job with the targeting! This is great!!!! During your sessions, 2 things to remember:
– be ready to reward offered behavior near the board (and if you are not ready, have him wait for you on a mat or hold him or just reward if he catches you by surprise). During the bang game session, he offered a ton of great leaping on and you were not ready, so you did not reward… which is, in effect, a punishment. Since we are not asking for stimulus control yet, not being ready/withholding reinforcement reduces the rate of success. We want him to be somewhere around 95% for these games and he was working the bang game session at about 60% (yes, I counted, I have had a LOT of coffee hahaha). The rate of success is not just based off of behavior we cue, it is based on everything that happens in the session. Stimulus control will happen later on down the road but he offered some great behavior as you were getting ready… reward it (and then hold him or ask for a stay on a bed or something til you are ready). The overall effect on training will be cumulative and progress will be faster 🙂
– turn up the heat on your challenges much more slowly rather than change it on each rep or add a lot of motion. Bearing in mind that he was not totally confident on the teeter, turning up the heat slowly will help protect that high rate of success. We will turn up the heat on challenges away from the teeter first (where we don’t need to protect confidence as much) and then it becomes wicked easy to add to the teeter.I am obsessed with protecting high rates of success 🙂 (as a side note: when training stuff where this is no confidence issue to work through, the high rate of success is important but not critical. When building confidence, high rate of success is the most important thing).
On the back and forth games – he is doing really well especially on the downhill elements! He was also happy to recall back to you across the board. Yay!! I really loved what he was doing when there was minimal tip – running straight through the tip to the end. Nice!
As with the bang game, resist the temptation to turn up the heat too quickly – the change in tip of the board made it a lot harder for him. As there was more tip, he is not weight shifting back into his read when there is a lot of tip downhill – he was forward on his shoulders. That was probably uncomfortable so he compensated by slowing down across the board and was looking for the tip more and more (he weight shifts in the tip, but he is slowing himself down to find it).
So for now, keep the tip very minimal – we will gradually increase it inch by inch. Separately, you can work on the weight shift while a board is moving under him, first by tugging on the wobble board and then using the tug toy as a reward on the bang game (in position). Have you played with the “Pull You Off” game on the wobble board? That also makes for a great weight shift 🙂 The weight shift will start to come more naturally when we add in more target position as well as more tip in very incremental tiny bits, like boiling a frog: he won’t even notice LOL!
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! I am sorry to hear that you still have snow 🙁 Spring is coming – we had 60 degree weather here today, and I am sure the warmth is creeping north!
The Out And About class sounds great – this generation of pups will need all they help we can give them when life goes back to normal-ish, hopefully soon!!!!
She is having so much fun with this tunnel game!!! You can totally train your tunnel threadles without ever having to leave the house LOL! I bet you can even sit on the couch and do it. The look on her face was cracking me up: she is VERY SERIOUS about this game and about getting her toys LOL!!! So fun!
>>Keiko does think I’m strange, but I have a feeling she thought that before this exercise anyway.>>
Ha! Yes, I bet all of our pups think this at some point, but thankfully they forgive our strangeness and keep playing with us 🙂
Stay warm! I hope to see you back outside soon!
TracyHi!
This is looking really good! She needed that first rep to remember it (that toy is tempting!) but then she had it. She was pretty darned perfect about driving in to the serpentine even with the toy on the ground. She also did well as you added the angles of her set up, which made for more collection. Your position near the jump was great. Remember to turn your feet to where the reward would be so your feet are not facing her- but that will get easier when you add motion.
She was very strong with the self-control of holding the stay and watching the toy go to the ground and still coming in for the serp! You can use a manners minder for this too, but I love how well she did with the toy. She was very excited but did not mess up. YAY!!
Remember to add in a couple of ‘catch’ and ‘pizza’ reps to reward the stay, especially as you bring the toy to the ground.
You can move on to fading the target out of your hand, and then to adding motion to this. You will see the ideas on how to add motion in the Week 11 games 🙂 She seems ready!Great job! I am looking forward to the threadles!
Tracy
Hi!
Actually, I think there were some pretty strong reps here! And you were asking for a slower, more methodical behavior (the rehab and conditioning vets do NOT want the pups flinging themselves around this with a ton of speed – she was moving slowly and that is perfect).
A couple of ideas to make it even stronger. Question: how does she do with the perch work, without the bar on the ground? If she is not that strong with it yet, you don’t have to add the bar. If she does really well, then you can keep the bar in.>> I supposed I have to go back and have her offer the turning? But she don’t like the pole there.
You can let her offer more, but also reward a lot more frequently. You can reward for the getting on the perch, and for every effort of stepping over the bar. There were some really good reps that did not get rewarded (like at :12 and :32) so then she was not as sure of what you wanted.
You can also release her after each reward, then play then ask her to hop up again. She definitely had trouble getting the reward then going the other direction, so you can separate them a little bit with the play break in between.
>>And then she wasn’t having it.
I think this had to do with the rewards – the idea to reward more will help, plus reward lower – have the cookies down by your knees, so her head stays lower. I think with the cookies up high, she was looking up and then that shifts the weight into her rear: so she was offering sits. If you let her see the cookies down by your knees (I leave my hands there the whole time) then she will lower her head, weight will shift forward – and that should free up her back feet for more movement. So the cookies can stay in front of her by your knees the whole time, then you give her one for moving her back feet. The cookies act as a focal point to help her keep her head down.
Let me know if that makes sense! I think that can help her figure out the whole picture 🙂
Have fun!
TracyGood morning!
>>The idea that serps are hard for young BCs due to the flanking issue makes total sense to me.>>
Yes, serpentines are counterintuitive for a lot of BCs (as well as any breed/individual that can be motion-sensitive or go into chase mode), so that is why we keep the angles open for a bit longer 🙂
The decel work is good for him! He wants to scope running out on a line so driving back to you without a lot of handling help (for now) will be really useful! I think he figured it out really well – my only suggestion is that you give a little more connection to him as he exits the tunnel – he was not entirely sure where to be so had little zig zag line going.
I agree that he was a little wider to his left than to his right – might have been because you did the left side first and then he got the idea? Or might be that he is more of a righty then it comes to tight turns. Either way – he did well on both sides! When you add more motion, try to ‘cheat’ a little so you can get into position sooner and show the decel earlier (for now) but sending him to the tunnel from further away so you can cut across to the wrap jump more quickly. You can totally work that left turn a little more to help him sort out how to turn tight to the left and to build the value for the extra effort. He definitely seemed to like the chasing after the turn, and that will really help him drive to the turn – making ti really fun and exciting like that helps convince the dogs that collection is fun 🙂
FC/BC video:
first rep with the wrap looked really good!!2nd rep (BC) – on these fluffy blinds, you can keep moving through to position rather than decel and send to the middle pinwheel jump. Motion/connection/verbal will support the pinwheel jump – when you deceled into the send, it ended up making you late for the BC because the decel delayed your arrival between the jumps.
The wrap to the ending line looked great!
3rd rep (FC) – same thing about not needing the send on this one (:40) – just keep moving. It becomes more obvious with the FC because of all the rotation. You were not moving in slow motion 🙂 but what happened was you decelerated to send, then had to scramble to get back up to speed and then do the FC… so he didn’t see it in time to make the turn. However, he drove right in as soon as he saw it (good boy!) and the wrap to the ending line was again lovely! Yay! He didn’t get flustered about late info and that is REALLY great.
4th rep (FC) – you drove in more here and did a smaller send – so you position on the FC was much better (1:03) The send did delay the FC rotation so you were a little late, but the better position made a big difference for him already! Nice! And that ending line looked great again – it was really lovely that he could nail it in both directions, every time. Happy dance!
So on the FC, you can work the line after the tunnel more laterally, so you are still in motion and able to get to a good position to start the FC before he decides how he wants to take off for the pinwheel jump. For the blind, you don’t need to be as lateral (because it is quicker to make the cross happen) but definitely keep moving.
>> On a good note -my husband decided he should take out the trash while we were training which is right next to the yard. Chapter found this VERY interesting but I was able to work on keeping his attention and letting him look but reward for engagement back to me. He didn’t leave work which was huge. He was able to focus pretty well despite the distractions. >>
That is HUGE!!!! I mean, I am happy when my hubs takes out the trash even if I am training the dog hahaha but to have Chapter be able to ignore it – fabulous! Feel free to encourage all sorts of distraction things from your husband, it is really helpful! And great job rewarding Chapter for sticking with you 🙂
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
This is looking really good 🙂 The confusion on the first rep might have been the standing on the board before the cue, or the cookies moving around over his head, or both. I mean, COOKIES! HA!
On the 2nd rep and all the others, the cookies were not as much overhead, they were more out in front. His body position looked good here and his drive into position looked really good (simulates what he will do on the teeter bang game). And he didn’t seem to have any trouble when you were standing. Yay!
For your next session, a few ideas to increase challenge: keep going with the leaping on from the side, but try the cookies right over his head (not out in front as much) and see what he says 🙂 And you can also mix in more toy play to see if being wilder/more stimulated is harder for him (probably not, but it will be fun to see!).
The other thing you can do is prop up the back end of the plank a little, so there is more ‘downhill’ angle to the target position – you can prop it onto something stable at first so he ‘sees’ the change for a rep or two, then prop it onto something less stable – I have been propping it onto a fitbone so it moves a little but not a lot, you can also use a pillow (sorry Kevin! Ha!) or a balance disc.Great job!!! He looks great!
Tracy
Good morning!
The handling video looks really strong! There were clear differences between the GO lines, the wrap, the backsides and the RCs. Nice!!! I think everything was very obvious for him so I only have one small detail to consider: on the wraps, try not to pull your shoulders towards the wrap wing (:20) as it delays the rotation and looks like a post turn. He should be able to read it if you face forward towards the exit line of the wing and transition in and out of the wrap. Really good job on the backsides – that is harder with young dogs but he got it easily because you made sure to be very clear with position and connection! Yay! Also, these were pretty strong independent sends too because you really did not have to go past the center of the bar for the FC rep there. And the timing on the FC was super nice, you were FCing as he was hitting the commitment plane before going around the wing – he seemed to have zero questions about any element of that. Also, the 12″ bar did not seem to be an issue and he was really driving! Since this is looking comfy, you can raise the turn bar to 10″ perhaps on the next session?
>>I also discovered that toys are single use 😉 He was happy getting rewarded once with a toy, but then the next rep needed a new toy (unless I use the food filled toys). Bringing out a little stronger toy drive is important to me since that’s really the only reward tool I’ll have when I start doing some NFC/FEO runs to test out skills in competition environments (not anytime soon though!).>>
I agree that adding more toy drive will be really helpful! Does he have absolute favorite toys? Those can stay hidden until you are working a sequence at the club. That might help him want to use it more than once. And you can try a session alternating between 2 toys. I also found that a bit of watching will keep his arousal high and you can get more toy reps that way too: doing one rep for the toy, then he can watch as his sister runs it, then coming back out for another rep with the toy.
On the paw targeting video – this was a cool session and he added a twist to it that I never even thought of: hooking his front feet over it. But I like that, because it gives him even MORE reason to drive to the end of the board!
>>At first I stay close to the target because as I move back, you’ll see he tends to drive a little over the target and drop back.
I think that will go away when it gets added to the end of a board (a plank or wobble board, at first) because there is a more definite edge.
>> I think a little bit of the issue is that the target is a little wobbly (which is why I added the cardboard). I was trying to use something (the wide blue yoga mat) that I could then transfer easily to other surfaces and the teeter. If the wobbliness is a problem, I also have a raised wooden carpeted foot target that’s a little longer than this target, but I could maybe attach the target too for now so he feels more secure hitting that with his paws.>>
Hmmm, he will guide us regarding the wobbliness but my guess is that he is going to want to slide into position (which is good) so you might consider the more secure target.
The concept is well underway, though, so I think the next step is to change your position – off to the side and also standing. I am excited for where this is going, great job with it!!!!
Lovely work here, let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi! His serp skills are looking really good on the flat line here! Yay! This will be fun to open up and put into courses when the snow melts and you can get to bigger places 🙂
Threadles are good to add in – I was thinking the other day that threadle skills had been a little neglected with the youngsters. We don’t need a ton of the threadle skills at the moment but they do need to be brushed up 🙂
He was a good boy and was paying attention, particularly in a set up he has seen before that was all about serps. Try to make your threadle running line the same as your serp running line – straight up the line parallel to the jumps, without stepping sideways or rotating. I think on some of the reps as you opened up your threadle arm, you were stepping sideways and we don’t want him to read that as part of the cue.
He did better on the reps where you gave a turning cue as he approached the jump before the threadle so he was already turning and ready for more. When he had the errors, you didn’t have the turn cues and the threadle cue was after he had landed and locked onto the next jump.
Nice work here!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>> Sometimes I can get 1 stride at about 13 or 14ft but he doesn’t extend enough so takes off long, overjumps and then scares himself a bit so chips on the next rep.>>
I think he did a one stride on the 1st rep at 14 feet then the other one stride reps were 12 feet. So on the next session, you can start at a bounce distance as a warm up (9 feet?) then go to 12 feet and then rather than move it out a foot at a time in the session, leave it at 12 feet, low bar, with you really running so he doesn’t settle back. In the adjustable grids, he *is* adjusting… but we want to convince him to adjust differently LOL!!!
>>Yesterday I didn’t like how he wa turning his head to me in anticipation of the thrown toy so I used the Pet Tutor today. He stayed focused forward but wasn’t as good with extending his stride.
You can throw the toy sooner, as he is over the previous bar. I think the moving reward was the most stimulating for him.
>>I’m not sure how much is a confidence thing vs conditioning vs feeling like it’s not worth his while to stretch out more.
All of the above? Plus footing, there is not as much grip on mats as there is on grass or dirt so dogs add strides (to avoid slipping).
>>I’ll go back to a thrown toy and before he takes off to ses if that convinces him it is worth using his rear more.
I think the thrown toy will also be stimulating enough that if he does something uncomfortable, he is likely to forget it quickly because the ball is very fun.
And, don’t do many reps at all in case conditioning is a factor (might be, it is the dead of winter and he is a baby dog) – that way fatigue is not a factor.
>>What do you think of the One Jump work that vets them to arc over the jump more? I have always just done the Salo set points and grids but the One Jump stuff is popular at Agile Canines.>>
It depends on which one jump work? The popular one jump thing that I see a lot is a definite no for me because it lands the dogs squarely on their shoulders and is highly repetitive. The dog is expected to push off with all that force and they land really close, while also turning their heads to get rewarded close: with no room for hind end to power out and help with the shoulder impact. The vet surgeons and rehab vets I’ve spoken to absolutely cringe to see that. And since shoulder injuries are currently all over the place, I avoid that exercise. If it is a different one, let me know (or send a video) so we can obsess – oops, I mean *analyze* hahaha
I also thing that young dogs go slower and add strides for a bit and then they realize they can go fast. So just making these grids super fun and NOT challenging at all will really help that – less thinking needed and more wheeeeeeeeeee! He is not doing anything incorrectly, we would just like him to open up on the ground a bit more – but that will come with time and experience, plus I think getting out on grass will make a BIG difference (and being in bigger spaces).
Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! He is doing well with the distractions here! And he kept targeting as you got the rewards into him, that is good too!
Wiggling the toy is not a big distraction and having it out ahead when you are next to him is not biggie either. The only moment, as you noted, was when the spider ball above his head caused a bit of a curl then he figured it out and it was not an issue either. Good boy!
>> He does tend to look back at me after the first touch if I am behind him. Not sure if that is an issue or not since he did go in to hitting the target first.
I don’t see it as an issue because when you had the ball out front, he was straight AND very fast into position at the end. If he hits into target position then looks to see where you are without leaving position – fine and dandy 🙂 because when you hang back like that and you are not moving, you will almost never release him forward (unless it is a gamble but most would have you moving along a line).
>>I haven’t been organized enough to get it on video because meal time is a bit chaotic, but he can nose touch my hand near the ground while I hold his dish of raw food above his head.>>
Perfect! The next distraction would be to also have you moving towards the distraction and/or moving and wiggling the distraction.
>>I haven’t done much with it, but so far I haven’t gotten much more tug/pull back on a wobbly surface. I thought the bully stick would work well but he didn’t want to grab it. That may have been because it was later at night and I think he thought it was almost bedtime. I did confirm that he knows he can pull the toy away from me but he doesn’t always really tug hard unless he has just finished a sequence so I think I’ll work a bit more on that without the bosu or wobble board first. >>
Yes, work it on the flat, even if it is just a shaped trick like pulling on a rope attached to something low (because we want his head to stay down and not above his back). It is also a great warm up trick to get him to pull back!
>>I may also see if the rented space has something wobbly I can use so I could do a sequence, get him tugging and transition to the wobbly thing.>>
Yes, if he is more stimulated he might do it. And also you can try the concept of the game with a cookie lure challenge – putting a cookie in front of his nose and slowly drawing it forward, challenging him to maintain being on the board. If he stays on the board – he gets the cookie. If he steps off, no cookie 🙂 That can help get the challenge going as the tugging gets built in as well 🙂
Nice job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Serps look really good in both directions! You can add a turn verbal on the tunnel exit but everything else looks great! The 10″ height did not seem to be am issue at all.
2 ideas for you as you do more serps – in this set up, get a little more ahead and see what he does! The other thing I would do with this is add more distance between the jumps to challenge understanding a bit more (with the jumps still slightly angled).
Then… flatten them all out 🙂 Wheeee!On the jump grids: I think that he is looking balanced here! Hard to see from the angle if he was lifting his butt but I think it looked easy and balanced. Yay!
At this stage, before more height gets added – let’s convince him to do more one-stride reps in the bigger gaps. I think the key to get that going is the thrown reward, not the placed reward. When the reward was placed, he was adding a stride before the last jump. When you were throwing the toy, we were starting to see the one-stride (1:11 and 1:27 – 2 hits of the front feet). So let’s keep going with that, both with you moving and then with you standing still but still throwing the toy. The balance parts of the grid look good, so I think we just need to get him to loosen his tie and feel the wind through his hair, first with you moving and then without you moving. Then the bars can go up pretty easily.>>He was jumping with his butt up in the air a bit in his class on Thursday (at 10in), but I think it might have been him still getting used to the footing (it’s that pelletless “turf” so new to him). >>
That is entirely possible, because that turf definitely has a different texture that might be weird 🙂 Plus it has a different ‘dig’ than mats versus dirt versus grass, so he might just be hashing out how to work on it 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
Pizza!! I just love that, it makes me smile EVERY time 🙂 Especially the way you say it – SO FUN!
Great job on this one – your mechanics were really strong (arms, feet, rewards, etc. – there is a LOT in this game LOL!). The body position and the reward are the two most important parts and you were great.
Also, nice job working her on the different angles (no problem, says Miss Ruby!) and you were nice aqnd close to the jump. Her only oopsie was when she almost broke the stay and then the cookie hand was moving around.
You can add more challenge by getting closer to the exit wing like yo were at 2:06, and being less in the middle of the jump. You can also show her motion moving into it, like you would be doing on a serp in the middle of the course: set her up in her sit, you walk around the jump the long way and get into position, then release her. That will be the first step to adding motion through the whole thing.
The next thing to add is the reward on the ground – a toy or a manners minder or an empty food bowl to toss the treat into. That increases challenge because it is SO distracting, but she is ready for you to work up to that.
Great job!!
Tracy
