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OMG that is actually really cool to hear that she was trying to get on the teeter in the warm up area haha! At our UKI trial, we are allowed to put contacts in the warm up area so the young dogs get to train on them a bit – very cool!!!! And I am glad that the lessons are helping to generalize the behaviors, as that is the hardest part! And I am also glad that there is more UKI coming into your area because I highly recommend that the first in-the-ring experience come at a UKI trial with a toy in the ring 🙂
Have fun!
TracyYay, this went well! She seems to prefer the mountain climbers game over the teeter tables game, for whatever reason. It is fine, I think it is a hard game and she is doing well! Nice work getting her recognizing the setup before asking for blast 🙂
One other thing in the ‘think less teeter more’ department is that you can do agility before and after a teeter rep – so with this and with the teeter table game, you can do a tunnel and some jumps, reward, party… then do a teeter rep, reward, party, then agility. For some of her cohorts here, they are doing the tunnel then up the board to the mountain climbers. Wheeee! So you can add some more tip here and also see if you can incorporate it into a little more wildness 🙂 It is hard to use a toy at the end 🙂 but you can try for toy play before and after 🙂Great job!
TracyHi! She did look thoughtful here, meaning that she was trying to sort out where the board was tipping but not actually stopping in the middle. It looks like the weight shift was coming right at the top of the contact zone. So to get her to blast past it, I think we have officially entered “Think less, teeter more” zone LOL!!! If possible, working outside will help because the outside environment is stimulating and she can run around like a wild thing between reps 🙂 And I suggest getting a toy involved (without food, if she can’t alternate easily) so she can run across the board, get her favorite to, run around the yard, then try again. You will get fewer reps this way because toy play takes longer… but she will be thinking about the movement of the board less (you’ll see me using a frisbee with one of my dogs in the demos to get the ‘think less, teeter more’ and it helped turn him into a teeter lunatic LOL!!)
You can use any toy that you think will get her wild and happy. Food tends to foster thinking, so we can shift into the toy lane for now – she is ready for it. 🙂
Nice work!
TracyHi! He is doing really well here! It looked like he was watching you a bit as he drove up the board – if there was a treat there and he was really quick about Slurping it up, you can go to something higher value and sticky, like a dab of peanut butter or cream cheese or squeeze cheese, so he drivs to it more. If there wasn’t a treat there, keep putting it there as you add the variations of position, especially when sending him (that when we was really being sure that you were coming LOL!!!). I don’t think the watching you was concern about the board, I think it was concern about where the cookies were and when they were arriving LOL!! The additional tip was great and he was working through it really well 🙂
Great job! The teach it will help make the changes even more easily, but I am glad that he didn’t seem to mind any of the wiggling of the setup.
TracyHi! How fun that you got to go to a seminar!!! Love it! He is doing really well here, jumping into position with no issues about the movement or noise. Yay!
About the position – I personally prefer the 2o2o for the clarity. And taught with these games, it is also incredibly fast. My BorderJack and BorderStaffy spent their careers doing a 2o2o on the teeter and they are similar in size to Potion. And Hot Sauce is also similar in size and doing a 2o2o. So, I like it! And if Potion prefers it, even better because it is easier to convince him to do it that way LOL! He looked lovely here, especially considering it was a new behavior.
For the targeting – I am a strong proponent of the weight shift and my dogs end up targeting with their head in neutral position like you had here (I start with the target on the ground then when the target gets faded, they keep their heads down and weight shift but don’t tap the ground). The low head position is part of the weight shift (low, a little back, looking down and straight). I have had no problems with my dogs or student dogs shifting forward when starting with the target on the ground The neutral position you had here is where his head will likely end up, maybe a little lower, so it is a good picture of what the final detail would be! Yay! But question… what did MaryEllen say about getting it out of your hand? We can’t leave it in your hand because they makes the behavior body dependent on you. So the next step is getting it out of your hand so you can work the independence of the end behavior – before fading the target.
One thing you can do it have a raised target – put the target up on a holder that sits in the right position, placing the target where your hand was here – so he targets with that head position and you can move all around. That way he can be independent and doesn’t look at you as you add complexity 🙂let me know if that makes sense! The coffee is just beginning to kick in 🙂
Tracy
Wow, Fast Forward Ruby was great here too! Look how focused she was with the wind and being outdoors! She was SUPER pumped up with the toy but also really accurate on the wraps. Happy dance! She seemed to have no questions. So… you can be a little evil and do tunnel and then instead of the wrap, send her into the tunnel AGAIN (her eyes will pop out of her head hahaah) and then do the wrap. That will keep her honest LOL!! But seriously, she is doing a super job on this game, and I am very happy with her speed AND focus. Great job!!
TracyHowdy! I totally see a big difference in the stay, well done! And I see him looking forward too… Also a yay! Super! About him landing short to the 2nd bump: it could be that he is a baby dog and not powering enough yet (because… baby dog). So yes – bring it in a little bit closer so he can get a more even arc over the bumps. It could also be your position was more of a decel position (that is where you would be positioned to wrap the 2nd jump) so he might have been laying back because of that and not powering, even with the MM there. But you were positioned there because you were working the stay – so no worries, better to move the jumps in now and get money in the bank on the stay. You can also have someone hold him so you can go out by the MM and see what he does, that will be the truest picture of whether this distance is comfy or not – we can try it this weekend! Yay!!!! His general form looks really good, so it is more about finding the correct distance for his baby body 🙂 And whatever we settle on for now is going to change, so the focus on form and the stay is a much better focus.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyStructurally, the bounce is better/faster for a lot of Aussies and also more comfy 🙂 I am looking forward to hearing what Keiko says about it!
Hi! I feel your pain about the weather, it was gross for a while there!
He is doing really well here! Those threadle entries are HARD and he was getting them from crazy angles.
Question. – is slalom going to be your real cue? Is so, hold off on using it here for a while longer, til we get more weaving behavior on 4 poles – just use more of a noise or interim cue here. The reasoning is that he isn’t weaving yet so we don’t want to name the behavior yet.I think he had no problem with any of the challenges you showed him here. Good boy! You can keep adding more motion to the various angles, but you can also do that on the next step with these 2 poles straight 🙂 That moves you closer to getting to 4 poles, and he is totally doing well that if the session on 2 straight poles goes well like your session here did, you can add poles 3 and 4 on the session after that.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! She is doing really well with these! There is always going to be at least one hard entry, we would be bored if there wasn’t, right? Ha! Yes, you can spread them out and click for the bend and drop the reward right in. Or revisit it in a day or two to see if latent learning did its magic (based on your follow up tonight, I think that you will likely find that she has it next time you try it).
One thing that I do notice is that she is waiting for you to run in order for her to go fast too. When she hits the entry and you then start to run, she picks up speed – this was on a variety of entries, not just the hard ones. So, we want to convince her to run even when you don’t 🙂 And also to be accurate on the entries and exits when you are already running. So – on the next session, you can alternate between sending and moving before she gets into the entry so she sees motion the whole time (which will challenge accuracy) and sometimes not moving at all, standing still (but throwing the reward really really early). It might take her a session or two to lock that into place and chang it up from the current rhythm (where you are letting her hit the entry then running) but when she has it, I think it will be clear sailing as you tighten the poles up.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyYou can definitely lower it and then raise it for the uphills. I don’t think you will need to for the downhills and bang game, because we can change the tip & height pretty easily without changing the full teeter.
I is probably a pain in the petunia to to raise and lower the teeter especially in different places, so I think we should look at the bang/elevator/rebound and downhills with the teeter here and see what he does 🙂 Let me know what yo think!Hi!
Yep, I think she REALLY liked this, holy wow she is fast! Ha! She had no trouble wrapping the wing (that was supposed to be the hard part LOL!) and it was fine to start her by holding her collar… she could have totally ignore you when you let go and run to grab the toy – and she chose the wing every time. Excellent! It looks like the only question she had was about which side of you to be on after the wrap – so over-connect and really insist she come to the correct side before you give her the Go cue. For example, compare :21 where you were not as clear and she was on the side you didn’t want, to :29 where you were SUPER clear and she was perfect.
But seriously, she was so fast, I had to check to make sure the video was not playing in fast forward. So fun!! I am just going to start calling her Fast Forward Ruby 🙂
>>I just had her regular store bought treats. Hmm…that seemed to keep her more wanting the toy. I think there will be a fine line between having really good treats to keep her off of the distractions in the environment and too good of treats that she don’t want the tug>>
I totally agree, it is a fine balance that swings back and forth. It changes based on value, environment, type of activity, which way the wind blows hahaha but you are doing the right thing and experimenting with what works best! It all evens out soon enough.
Great job here!!!
TracyHi Jill!
I am jealous that you are in shorts!!! I am ready for some warm weather LOL!He is looking really good here!
On the set point videos:
Having the jumps a little wider apart is fine to start, so he can learn the setup before we ask for jumping form. He did really well, so I think you can now go to the 4 foot distance and because he is not a baby puppy – add a little height to bar #2.
About the stay – I thought it was quite genius to distract him with a treat and then you were standing still at the MM when he looked up. Perfect! It was like a stay! So you can do that as you keep building the stay. Other ways to work this can be having him stay on a mat if he likes to do that, or in a crate if he likes crate games – anything fun so he can play the game while being successful on the start line.
You can also send him through the grid ahead you – so you can be at jump 1 with him and click the MM then send him.Wind In Your Hair video –
>>Should I not be using the manners minder as a target? In the video it says I should throw something. >>Correct, you can throw something (lotus ball is perfect for this) so he targets the jump and not the MM 🙂
He did really well here – his commitment to the jump looks fabulous (chasing da momma is his FAVORITE thing!) I don’t think he loved the collar hold before the wing wrap, so you don’t need to use it – you can have him stand next to you and then send him. Just be sure to stay connected as you move up the line after the wing wrap – on the last one, you ran away really fast so it looked like he was going to wrap but when he saw you leaving that fast, he changed his mind and chased you instead (but still found the jump, good boy!!) I think he is ready for more distance here so you can move the wing further away from the jump. Question – I heard you using a cue for the wing but I couldn’t tell if it was “go” or the wrap cue. If it was the wrap cue: perfect! If it was go – switch to the wrap cue there and use the go go go on the jump.>>he’s not quite going through the tunnel by himself, with me not on the other side, consistently, but he’s almost there, maybe another practice session or 2. So we’re practicing that presently, and once we get that, we’ll do the discrimination part of the exercise.>>
Perfect! You can use the MM on the other side of the short tunnel and reward the wing wrap from you hand when you add the two together. Not sure if you had a video (I don’t see one here).
Great job on these!! Let me know what you think!
TracyThese are true words – and basically sums up agility entirely 🙂 The dogs are almost always doing exactly what we have cued them to do LOL!!
Hi! This is going well too! This particular game is more about handling than dog training 🙂 And it is also all about getting connection.
The wing to tunnel moments at the beginning look good! AS the game adds more, try to move more and point less. My challenge to you (and everyone :)) is to see if you can spread the wings out even further apart and run and connect… but don’t point.
For example, as you exited the FCs at :47 and 1:05 – you were beautifully connected to her eyes, she knew exactly where to go, and you didn’t need to point. YAY!!
When you were pointing forward, she was having more trouble – for example, when she was exiting the tunnel on the right hand side of the screen, you were pointing forward so she was cutting to the inside (rather than staying on the outside, which is I think what you wanted? So make connection to her eyes as she exits the tunnel and keep moving, keeping your arms low and back – and I bet she picks up the line perfectly. You were clearer with the connection on the tunnel exit on the left hand side of the screen here and she was really strong with finding the correct side of the wing 🙂
At the very end, the jump was little too tempting and close, plus when you pointed forward it actually presented the jump and not the wing 🙂 So that is another good spot to exaggerate the connection 🙂So the next time you try this – she is ready for more room (yay!) and you can try to run it just with your eyes and motion, no pointing 🙂
And also – great jump adding in your verbals!!!! The more you practice them like you did here, the more they become second nature 🙂
Nice job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
