[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! He did really well here! A couple of ideas in general then we can plot the next sessions 🙂

Definitely add more motion, be moving on almost all the reps and definitely be moving before he makes the entry (so he learns to handle the motion as he is trying to find the entry). You had this happening at the end of the session more and he definitely needs to keep seeing this – no more standing still 🙂 You don’t have to move fast on the harder angles, as long as you are moving. And you are welcome to move faster on the easier angles : )

I think he was tracking the toy throw on some of the reps, and so popping out when you started to throw. So you can play around with that: when you are focusing on harder angles or more running, keep the toy throw delayed until after he has finished. But with easier angles or less motion or slightly more opened poles, feel free to swing the toy around early to challenge him to stay in 🙂 That way you only have one difficult variable in play at a time.

OK, plotting the next sessions 🙂 The angle of the poles here was challenging and he did well – but the angles are in the awkward position where he is not running but not bouncing. So- Let’s get the footwork going first then we come back to the other challenges.
For the next session, use the 2x2s and 4 poles. Angle them a little tighter than they were here – let’s see if that produces the bouncing (he was bouncing at tighter angles previously so I think he will do it again pretty easily). The poles will both be at about 1&7 for a session, or 12:30 and 6:30 haha! I looked back to the last 4 pole session you posted (April 6) so the poles can be tighter than that. If that produces the bounce striding, you can do the Find Em from the wings while he also has to stride through the 4 poles. Get them as tight as needed to get the bouncing 🙂

When that goes well, the next step is to finish up getting the 4 poles straight: pole 1-2 goes straight or almost straight and poles 3-4 stay at 1&7 or 12:30&6:30

After a couple of sessions of that, move to 4 straight poles with 3-4 a bit further away at first, then if that goes well – move them together.

Then we go to 6 poles – at which point we can go back to the Find Em.

I suggest doing it this way rather than channels for 2 reasons – you have 2x2s at home and not channels, plus the 2x2s are great for getting the bounce striding.

Let me know if that makes sense! Based on trying to get in a session every other day or every couple of days, then you will probably get into the 6 poles in about a week or so. And we might do some troubleshooting to perfect the striding as the poles get straight, which is fine! Exciting times ahead 🙂
Great job!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
I think you might not be seeing how good the turns are 🙂 I watched it in slow motion to see where she was looking when she exited:
Your timing was good on the right turns and she was coming out turned! That is the line we want on the left/right turns, the shape of an “L”. The turns at :05, :19. :48, :57 were really good. I think the turns at :13 and :26 were GREAT! If you put the rest of the jump on the wing after the right turn, you will find that she has a perfect line to it. Your cue at :42 was too early – she was not yet committed to the tunnel.
The left turn cues were also really good – she might be slightly better at turning her head on the left turns so they were more similar to her right turns at :13 and :26 but the general lines were the same. Yay! So cool!

If we want her to exit tighter, it becomes more of a wrap – which requires her to see rotation before she enters. Let me know if that makes sense.

The other good thing I am seeing: look at how tight she is on the wings! On the wing after the go, she is getting REALLY tight there! Yay!

So keep playing with these at this timing, but you don’t need to obsess too much – the turns are looking sooooooo much better!!!

Great job 🙂 Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi there!
The videos looked good here – I didn’t see anything sluggish or too sheep-focused, but you might have seen it in other reps. So you can try to ‘rest’ her on days when she is going to train, with a couple of hours of nap time so she has plenty of energy. But – think she looked great here, I suggest this only because you mentioned it 🙂 And of course, training first thing in the morning is great but not always possible 🙂

On the videos:
I think the ladder grid looked the best it has looked! She is MUCH more organized here and you were spot on with how you organized the session: nice close line up to jump 1, long lead out (look at that fabulous stay!!), and you let her work through it without motion from you. Perfect! She is MUCH more balanced and organized here, compared to the last session. She is still growing so it is possible that this distance is a tiny bit too wide for her age: for you next session, move the distances closer by about 6 inches and let’s see what she does. Ideally, she will put her front feet right in the center of each gap. She was balanced here but her front feet were closer to the bump and not as centered. So we can change the distance for now to get the centered balance, then as she matures we will spread them back out again.

Blinds: Mechanics of tight blinds are hard at first but then when you get it feeling comfy…you will love them, trust me LOL! You are almost there with getting them spot on: Good connection after the blinds, she was reading that well and drove right in to your new side. Yay! And you had good mechanics and nice low arms. So, now that you have the mechanics and connections, we can look at timing to get them tighter: start them just as she is reaching the wing. You were starting them when she was finished with the wing wrap, which is why they felt wide. Try it like this:
Put yourself in the middle of the space between the 2 wings, and send her to the first wing and trust her commitment (you can move towards that first wing, it doesn’t have to be a standstill send). Just as she is arriving at the wing, start the blind and reconnect quickly so you see her exiting the wing 🙂 That will make it nice and tight! Let me know if that makes sense 🙂

Great job here!! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
She was a little distracted on this side, for some reason – she was looking at something over by the neighbor’s house. As you saw, when you got eye contact before the release: she still was perfect! Good girl! The error on the tunnel was just that she was thinking about something else when you released her. On the other reps, you got connected and she was perfect 🙂 Adding motion also looked good! This is going well, and she was showing great focus on processing each different cue 🙂
No worries about the one grab-the-toy moment LOL! That is a great toy, and you had turned you back on her, so she had a little crime of passion LOL!!
But overall – fabulous!!!! You can try the threadle stuff too now, as well as the harder angles with more motion.

Great job!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! Yes, this went great!

Great job with the reward mechanics (LOVE the new toy, it might be better than Santa!) and great job with the connection before the release: you are correct, that totally helps her. Stay super close to the jump on all the reps (serp and tunnel) so she comes in nice and tight even when you are very close. You moved away from the jump a little so now we can try it with you super close, giving her only enough room to fit her body in 🙂

Her starting position was great! You can add challenge by changing her position to different spots ‘around the clock’ so she gets closer and closer to the tunnel, making it harder to come in for the serp 🙂
Great job!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>>Everyone is like…WOW…..lol.

Yes – that is what I am like when I watch your videos too! Wow!!

>> I have decided to use ‘Push” for the BS wrap and stick with “Back” for the BC serp. That’s going to work good.

Perfect!!

>>Maybe even retrain Jedi.

My Voodoo is almst exactly the same age as Jedi, and he has all the new verbals too – mainly because I can only remember one set of verbals so he HAS to hear the same ones as the youngsters 🙂

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!

>>We have been doing lots of short simple reps with the three wing Zig Zags and I feel that it is all coming together for Kip.

Totally agree! I think he has the idea of the pattern we were looking for – he is nice and tight to the wings, shifting back and forth nicely, and you’re not having to work too hard to get him to do it 🙂 YAY!!

The next thing to do is the send’n’serp game which has an emphasis on slice jumping – starting at walk then building to a run 🙂 It will be a good application for him to transfer the skill and will help us figure out what he needs for serpentine understanding as you add more motion 🙂

>>Interestingly I ran my other two experienced Agility dogs on this exercise and it also took bit of work to get them to take the trailing arm cue since they had been trained with an outside threadle arm cue.>>

That makes sense – the trailing arm on threadles is entirely trained as I don’t think it has a lot of natural motion to it that makes it intuitive for the dogs. The cross arm threadle is a little more naturally intuitive.

>>Am I correct in my understanding that by training this slice serp/theadle with just the trailing arm cue allows the bent threadle arm cue to be used in addition to the trailing arm when a stronger cue is desired?>>

There are a LOT of opinions on this in agility-land LOL!!!! On serpentines, it is now widely accepted that all you need is the trailing arm (although it is possible that the Derrett system and OMD system both still use the cross arm on serps? I admit to having fallen a bit out of touch with both of those systems).
For threadles… so many opinions! Some folks only ever use the cross arm, some never use it, some use each in specific situations. It will come down to the needs of the dog and how the handler feels about it 🙂 For me, I fall more into the British/European style of the trailing arm (open door) style of threadle is how I start training it and then I use that on the easier threadles and when I am in a good position. I also teach the dog the cross arm threadle and it is on really hard threadles and especially when I am behind or out of position (or both haha). But the verbal is the same regardless of which arm I use – the verbal names the dog’s behavior, not my behavior 🙂

And I use a cross arm serp on all tunnel threadles (and a verbal that is different from the jump threadles).

Sooooo much to obsess on LOL! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
I feel the pain of the video editing LOL!!! He is doing well here 🙂

The jazzed up downhills looked really good! No worries about overrunning the cookies on 2 of the reps, those were just little crimes of passion LOL He is getting a lot of speed on a game that doesn’t usually elicit a lot of speed but he is also shifting his weight really nicely on most of the reps and that is GREAT! Yay!

The next step here is to get the board to the ground… but that also requires him understanding how to go to the target with no cookies on it with the bang game. I looked back at the April 14 bang game video and he looked good! On that session, you were stationary or sending him ahead. So before you go to the full downhill, warm him up with a few reps of the bang game with you walking a bit. If that goes well – onwards! Do the downhill with some walking, just to introduce it and then we can add more motion 🙂

Wobble board – there seemed to be a bit of frisbee staring at the beginning! This is a GREAT game to work through the visual of the frisbee with a behavior that is opposite of the running that the frisbee elicits. You can just use a plank and hold the frisbee – a great opportunity to work through how to earn the high value reinforcement 🙂

On the session with the MM – yes, there might have been a bit of lumping 🙂 One thing that will help is if the MM is even further, so it is a more distinct decision: stop in target position, or go to the MM which is several strides away. It was close enough here that he could kinda reach it while sorta targeting, so I think it was grey at the beginning. He was totally getting the idea at the end! So you can flip the order of festivities in the next session: with the MM 8 feet away or so, warm up the behavior by sending him (from the side) then from behind the board. Then if that is all good… add in walking forward.

Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
Both games here went well!
He was much more successful with staying in position when you were on his left – breaking it down to get more success helps a lot! And when he had a little question at :25 and on the next rep, you split the motion into smaller steps and he was successful again. Yay! Very nice. Remember that he is just at the beginning of this end position learning, and he is doing really well!
Releasing to the MM worked nicely. When you throw back a reward, yes: he has to leave position to get it but he is moving back behind him to get it (which builds value in NOT stepping forward out of position, which is what he wants to do). So basically the throw-back rewards act to counter-balance the urge to step forward by making stepping forward inefficient, because the reward will actually come behind him 🙂
So keep doing this type of session for a while longer: before adding more, we will want to have 2 sessions in a row of about 90% success (which is going to be 1 error or less). Then you can add in more motion, gradually. I think once he gets that understanding on both sides, things will move very quickly!

The elevator game is looking REALLY good too! He stopped noodling, just did a little tap dancing hahaha So now – you can add a little more height by raising the board a bit more after he jumps on it, then do the countdown and target cue. I am sure that will be fine, so then we will be able to add motion to this one too.

Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!
He was such a good boy with the elevator warm ups here – he was adorable with his ball 🙂 And he totally had his game face on – didn’t look concerned at all. He looked happy happy happy and engaged. And yes – weight shifting!! Woot!

It looks like the food was on the target on all of these reps. So for the next session, structure it just like you did here (elevator game to start and when he was happy, the downhill runs across the board) but without the cookie pre-placed on the target. That means you will either need to be close to the board so you can get there fast to get the reward to him, or you can release him forward to a toy. Now that the board is hitting the ground, we can fade out the use of the pre-placed cookies on the target but maintain the high rate of reinforcement with speedy delivery 🙂

In your on-the-road session (tomorrow I think) you can start with one elevator for a pre-placed cookie. Then if he is happy, go to one rep without a pre-placed cookie. If he is happy, go to downhills: first rep is with the pre-placed cookie, then if he is happy: shift to speedy delivery and not pre-placed cookies 🙂 Basically, read his expression: happy game face, like this video? And success? You can move to the next step. If at any point he either looks concerned or he fails – take it back a step to get him happy and successful.

The rebound game also did not appear to be a concern for him at all. In fact, he just looked at you and shifted his weight: WHAT A GOOD DUDE!

About calling the teeter something… because he is getting on from the table, no need to call it anything yet. You have your target cue going and that is perfect for now! When we add games next Monday – we will install a teeter cue as well. More on that coming soon.

Great job here! Let me know how he does tomorrow!

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning! Great job here!

This is the hardest game for mechanics and you are doing really well! At this point, I think it will be easier to not use the squeeze cheese can (sorry, Nuptse haha) because it takes up so much room in your hand! So when he hops on, you can now move to giving just one cookie and then start the countdown – that will take out the visual of the cheese can (again, sorry, Nuptse :)) so he can focus forward to the target during the countdown. He was starting to do that here REALLY nicely! And he was better when you did not have the cheese can right there 🙂

His target position looked great! So now you can move to the next step:
Using not quite as much tip as you had here, do everything the same except after the countdown and the paw cue and you let go – start to walk forward to challenge him to hit and hold the target position – then either run back and reward or release forward to reward.
Like with the bang game, keep walking forward for 2 or 3 more steps after you are sure he is definitely stopped in position to avoid accidentally decelerating or stopping with him (and so he doesn’t rely on you stopping to get him to stop).
If he is fine with walking after a couple of reps? Add some crosses! Add some speed! It is basically the same progression of adding motion and distractions that you have already done with the plank and the bang game 🙂

Great job here! He is lining up perfectly for the next set of games!!!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
The downhills look really strong too. He is definitely the epitome of progressive value building: he is a wild man for the teeter now!!! After each rep, keep working/luring/bribing him to get him to NOT try to jump on in random places or start without you hahaha!! You can use a tab if you have one, to save your back from bending over the whole time 🙂

Because the dogs start from a standstill, we don’t get a lot of speed here but that is intentional because we don’t want them to fling themselves off by accident 🙂 By he end of the session, the downhill was definitely going uphill too – super! He is still thinking about it a bit so do a couple more sessions like this, picking up where you left off here in terms of angle/height of the board. That will bring us directly into the next set of games which he is going to be fully ready for: EXCITING!!!!

Other than continuing to reward this like crazy, one tweak for you: now that you are adding motion, try to keep moving for 3 steps more after he stops. You were in the rhythm of stopping with him (also might have been a good effort to not run into the wall haha) so you can add challenge with continuing to move for several more steps AND maybe toss in a blind cross or two 🙂
Great job here!!!!
Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi! He did really well here! The ball replacing the MM was higher stimulation but not a problem… YAY!!!! He was still really successful which is very happy-making 🙂 And no worries about the throws not being perfect, he knew to look straight (my youngest dog just keeps running forward looking straight and up, because she knows my throws are crap but will land out there *somewhere* LOL!!!)
Two little suggestions –
on your very first rep, don’t run as hard. Let him warm up for a heartbeat so that he can remind himself how to use his hind end so he doesn’t get tangled up in the poles. After a ‘calmer’ rep or two, then you can add back more motion – he was great with all of that after the first rep here where he caught his back end.

The other thing is that you don’t need to be restricted to using the wings as entry points – yes, you can use them but you can also send from the harder entries around the clock, so he can hit and hold the weaves from anywhere 🙂

You can add those in on the next steps, which I think he is ready for 🙂

>>Do you think we are ready for the 6 and 4 game?>>

Almost but not yet. Since he was on 4 poles here (I think by the end they were completely straight) – Next step can be adding poles 5-6 for a couple of sessions til they are basically straight as well. Then do the Find Em 3 game for a couple of sessions to make sure he can find the entry and stay in, with the temptations of the tunnel and the motion 🙂 That game requires 6 poles, but the poles can be a little open (don’t need to be straight).

Then when he is proficient at both of those for a couple of sessions each… onwards to 6-and-4 🙂 6-and-4 is easy for the dogs so getting 6 poles great and also the Find Em is more important: I figure you will get to the 6-and-4 game next week at this time because now that the poles are straight, a session every other day so we don’t overwork his body puts us into next week. But that is perfect, because 6-and-4 easily builds to all the straight poles.

Let me know what you think! Great job here 🙂

Tracy

[Tracy Sklenar]

Good morning!
Things are going well here! Some ideas for you:

first, with both sessions, the frisbee is both a great reward and the biggest distraction. It elicits that ‘run out’ behavior because he is used to it being thrown. So in order to be able to use if more effectively as reinforcement, you can change the way you play with him for it. Ask for thoughtful, control, tight-to-you behaviors then reward with the throw. For example, leg weaves, or chin hold, or even a stay. One of my dogs is completely insane for discs so the routine is that he offers a sit stay, I lead out, I release him and do a short throw. That way he gets the joy of frizzer without any of the flanking or running wide without thinking about behavior other than “WHERE’S THE FRIZZ” LOL! I have not taught him to go around me and then run in anticipation of the disc throw, even though the disc instructors want me to teach that haha!
So take a look at how you play with him with the disc and we can change that so it becomes more effective as a reinforcement but still have a great time with discs.

And we can use the disc to raise the value of the MM – carry the disc with you but reward with the MM on most reps, then he can have the disc after eating the cookies. That helps balance arousal and will also help him love the MM more because it is paired with the disc. And you can ‘up’ the value of what is in the MM by mixing in stinky delicious stuff with the treats – I mix in stinky cheese with the kibble so the kibble smells/tastes a little better 🙂

On the weave sessions – the setup for the channels was good, I think you can tighten them even more 🙂 And the MM can be a little further away so he can take a couple of extension strides to get to it after leaving the poles. Because he has a harder time on your left side than on your right when arousal comes up – start the sessions on your left as he tends to be less aroused at the start, then move to your right side when he is more stimulated later in the session. That can help you get a higher rate of success!

2 other things that can help make the success rate even higher:
Move on all the reps at this point (here and in the 2×2 games too), no more standing still 🙂 He is getting used to you *not* moving so we need to be sure that he sees moving all the time now, because you will be moving 99% of the time while he weaves. Slow moving, and carrying the frizz but rewarding with the MM. And be otherwise pretty calm 🙂

>>Chapter was running wide to the right when he was anticipating the frisbee throw and ended up weaving the three poles on that side of the channel.>>

I think he was vortexing a bit, meaning anticipating the throw so popping out and then trying to resend himself. So after a success, you can reward with the MM then have him come tug on the frizzer or do a short throw or grab. And after an error, call him back and reset either between your feet or with a chin rest or trick – then reward with a cookie from a pocket. That will help him balance the arousal which will raise the rate of success overall too 🙂

On the 2×2 session:

>>This was also a new location and direction for him to weave in.>>

Great! And the angles were good too!!! We are starting to see real weaving here!

A couple of ideas:
As he is balancing the arousal with the frizzer and learning the tighter poles, you can clarify the line ups and sends – when you are on the 1-2-3-4-5 side of the poles, make sure you start on your right not on your left for now. Same on the 11-10-9-8 side – start him on your left on those. He is confused when you send from between your feet or on threadle entries and fails on almost all of them. So, since the variable is tighter poles and also motion, we don’t need to worry about the threadle side sends, those can go back in later on.

At this point, move on all reps 🙂 No more sending and being stationary 🙂 Send and start walking up the line so he gets used to the movement – and if he struggles, not worries: don’t take out the motion, you can open the poles up a little for a session or two.

And as with the channels – build a routine of line up, send, MM, frisbee tug, line up, send, lather rinse repeat 🙂 And if there is an error, skip right into the line up/reset and give a cookie so he can maintain the state of arousal and doesn’t try to fix it without you sending him 🙂

I think for now that this routine will help: he is getting the poles when you throw the frisbee and you don’t really move… but I think we need the opposite where you are moving a lot! So for now, just carry the frisbee (that is plenty stimulating) and reward from the MM then he can have a little frizzer moment with you.

Let me know if that makes sense! I am excited to work out the reinforcement here because it will help him learn to weave but more importantly, it will help you figure out how to balance his arousal and that will transfer beautifully to trials!!!

Nice work 🙂
Tracy

MM then disc will raiset he value ofthe MM

[Tracy Sklenar]

Hi!
She looked great here! This is exactly what the goal was: get her going fast TO the poles and not thinking about it at all. Yay!

I think the angle of the poles should stay the same as they were at about :23 for now. She was blasting towards them. When you got them straighter like at :42, she trotted. Since we don’t want any rehearsal of the trotting or thinking hard… I suggest staying with the slightly open poles like at :23 and just throwing them into a sequence for multiple sessions over the week. It can be straight line sequences like this, or curved sequences – anything where she can recognize the poles and blast to them. If we are getting repeated blasting… the next step would be to add poles 3-4 at the same angle. But the main thing is to let this percolate without changing any variables that might make her think about being accurate 🙂 Depending on weather and schedule, I recommend 4 sessions similar to this over the course of the next 6 days or so. Then if we like what we see… poles 3-4 can go it. We already know that she is fine with the angles of entry and staying in, so we can isolate the drive to the poles and let it percolate before adding back the stuff she already knows 🙂
Let me know if that makes sense! I love her speed here!!
Tracy

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