Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Hi! I bet the concert was a BLAST!!! So fun!!!
Chapter looked great here – driving right up to the end regardless of what you were doing. Yay! He was that “just right” combination of super drivey and thoughtful/focused. Perfect! Since it went so well, the only thing to change is to add a tiny bit more to, bit by bit.
And if possible, drag the teeter to a different part of the yard so he gets the experience of a “new environment” pretty regularly. It is a royal pain in the butt but so useful to drag it around 🙂
All of his games are progressing really well! I’m excited for you!!! Grrat job 🙂
TracyIt is good that you are challenging him! Also good that he came right back for more training. I’m excited about his progress!
Hi! Good news! He loves the teeter. I block the upramp with a jump wing when i don’t want a young dog to leave me for it. And I also do lots of recalls past it, to remind the dog that the teeter is a “by permission only” obstacle lol!!!
Good morning!
She is doing well here!
1&7 sessions both look good! She is recognizing the routine and really digging in to make the turn in the entry! Yay! On the first video – yes, the wings made her head explode a bit haha! But she was also vortexing: coming back but self-sending without really lining up. So, add in more line up cookies after the MM reward – it will end up being click for weaves, MM cookie, come to momma for a cookie and let the momma line you up – then send 🙂 That will give you a moment to get her going in the right direction when distractions are around. When you revisited that side in the 2nd half of the video, you had her come to you more to set her up – and it was immediately more successful because she took a moment to look at the poles and not just run to the MM or grab a wing 🙂 I am confident she will happily eat another cookie haha!!!
Motion here was no trouble, and on your right side sends where you had a ton of room: those entries were VERY independent! Love it!!!! I was going to suggest adding even more motion but I see you did that on video 2 🙂
Video 2 – it was hard to see where you were and I think on the 1st 2 reps, she had to see the motion and find the weaves. And she did, after that it was clear sailing and you were moving a good amount! Nice! She was completely focused on the reward line – perfect.
So on both of the sends at 1&7, since her angles of entry are strong and you can add motion: close up the poles to 12 and 6 for the sends and motion.
The threadle side entries are actually harder for the dogs with previous experience with weaves, because they will want to weave on a send entry and not necessarily recognize the reward line. My 2 blank slate dogs have zero trouble. My 2 year old dog who has some weave experience did the same as Lana: try to weave as if on a send and not a threadle. But, Lanna figured it out and then she had it nicely! She had to figure it out again when you switched sides, but she did. It was a good session! For now, no need to go past 3 and 9 on these threadle side entries – in games package 3, we will add a way to make it super clear for the dogs about whether we want the send entry or the threadle entry. So you can leave these alone for now in favor of focusing on getting the poles to 12 and 6.
You can totally do a bit of threadle side entry on the channels, though! That gives more of a visual clarification. Treat pole 2 of the channels as if it is at 3 or 9 (rather than the center of the channel) and that is a good clock to work around for threadle side entries there.Great job here! She is moving forward beautifully on these!!
Tracy
Hi! These went really well! A couple of overall things –
Yes, I think teaching this skill while they are still practically pre-natal is better than waiting until after an off course at a big event hahahaha! Export’s generation didn’t even see it in training, the first time he saw it was in the finals at IFCS in Italy (yes, off course to tunnel, along with all the other dogs except the Russians and one Canadian who managed to get her Border Collie to lie down so she could get up there to block the tunnel LOL!!). And in the Voodoo/Min generation, I think we showed the challenge to them but *after* the weave training was finished and also after the tunnel had a TON of value. So…. off courses. LOL!With the puppies? Let’s do it before they give a hoot about the tunnel. That is why it was actually kinda hard to get him into the tunnel here just on a verbal – but no worries, that will sort itself out when he starts running courses and the tunnels take on a natural value.
I mean, if he needs us to reward more tunnels, then we will of course. But I just don’t think we need to right now 🙂
The other thing I was excited about was how he went back and forth to the toys and food – I think there were 4 different reinforcement styles being used: ball, tug, PT, cookies from hand. And he participated in all of them when asked, no moment of obsessing on any one over the other. Yay for good dog training in place!!!!!! That balance of reinforcement is more helpful in the long run than any weave poles at the moment, so great job there!!
About the weaves – they look great! I think the tunnel distraction did set him back a little especially on that first session of the near side weaves – I saw steam exiting ears, he did it but he could not do it fast yet. That is normal for him, and it bodes well: do a session where he thinks and processes, then he “has” it and the speed increases exponentially. Yay!
On the off side video, I think the speed was already coming up! But he had more errors so maybe the processing was different there – but that is fine too, because an error here and there is important to help them learn what happens when we call them back after a miss: he did a trick for a treat (very happy making) and then got to try again and got it right (also happy making). Since the rate of success was super high, the occasional error is actually helpful (thinking ahead to if/when he misses an entry in the ring and you want him to try again, he will have experience in the joys of trying again!)Great job here – since you have covered all of the challenges on slightly open poles, the next challenge is the sending/motion on straight poles at 12 and 6. Then let him percolate on that because we build on it starting tomorrow. Yay!!!
Tracy
Awww, perfect boy, FizzLin! Yay! He is really doing a great job finding his entries. I think the toy is more fun and the PT provides a nice destination spot for the two of you 🙂 I LOVE how he was bending his body on the entry here, that bodes well for the bending needed for future sessions. Also, it was super fun to watch you train: a really great combo of precise with line up, send, reward and also quiet when he needed to think about the puzzle and super fun and happy when he got it right. Science plus art! Super fun to watch.
Since he is doing well here, and by the tunnel (training that discrimination early now rather than waiting til we start getting off courses at a big event haha!) and you have played with the channels… onwards!
These poles looked to be somewhere close to 1 and 7? You can tighten them a little more now, and also add more of your motion so he gets used to seeing you run while he is weaving. My guess is that he will get that all in one or two short sessions (and you can also add motion to the channels if you haven’t done so already).
Based on what is coming up in the next pack of games, if you can get the 2 poles straight within the next couple of sessions, you will be more than ready for the next steps (there is no rush, but also this is very doable for him based on what he is doing so far). And with the 2x2s, you might already be doing this: get the angled entries out onto grass or dirt so he can really grip as he shifts his weight to get into them, to let him sort that out at this stage (again, based on what he is already doing, it will be easy :))
Separately from the straight 2x2s, let him see some of those threadle side entries (no need to go past 3 and 9 on the clock for now) while the poles are still angled.
So to sum up – add a little more motion to to the channels and 2x2s with you moving down the line, and do some threadle side entries on 2x2s and see if you can get the poles straight or close to straight. The next step of the 2x2s that we start this week is relatively simple so there is no rush to get to it, as these steps are really good for preparing.
Let me know if that makes sense! he looks great!
Tracy
Hi! She looks great here! And one error is actually useful, because we do need to teach the dogs what happens when they miss (that is, they come back, try again, no biggie!) The good news is that you didn’t click that (like I have done on more than one occasion haha!!) and she got it right immediately afterwards. I thought for a moment that she was stress sniffing after the miss (which surprised me) but then I remembered your note about the lotus ball and then she did it after a correct rep: so she was not stressed, she was just looking for the treats that fell out LOL!!!!
The cones seems to be working well – she is looking straight down the reward line even when you move, and wrapping the cone to start is fine too haha!
Onwards! Next session can have straight poles. Wheee! Try it with the same procedures – sending from all sorts of points around the clock and then adding movement.
On these open poles, you can also take a moment to do some threadle side entries (no need to go past 3 and 9 o’clock). So maybe since the poles are easy at this stage and we can do a lot more reps – start the session with some of the threadle side entries with the slightly open poles, then go to regular sends with totally straight poles. Let me know if that makes sense, there are only 3 sips of coffee on board so I cannot be held responsible for my writing hahaha!
Have a great day!
TracyThat is exciting!!! I found a photo of one of my dogs captured in the moment on a teeter where he did not know he needed to shift his weight back – it is a really exaggerated example of what some of the dogs here are trying to figure out! I will post it and you will have a good chuckle LOL!
Yay! I love these short, high value sessions (I was out in the field in my pajamas with a dog, a tub of cream cheese, a frisbee and the teeter to do a couple of high value reps this morning LOL!!). She is still sorting it out but doesn’t look worried about it. She looks like she is trying to figure out how to keep the weight in her front, so she has to slow down to do it. You can jazz her up at the top of the ramp so she heads down the plank with more speed – and with peanut butter there, she is more likely to shift her weight back. I think once she gets the feel of that, it will be super fun for her and we will be seeing it everywhere.
Great job!
TracyYay, this looks really good!!! He was even adding a lowered head along with the foot target, which will lead to a nice crouch on the end of the board. Excellent!
It looks like he was driving directly to the target and not looking for you until after he arrived there. Very nice! It was definitely harder – he was not as fast (no cheese lure, so he had to think harder) and at the beginning he had to take a moment to consider taking himself for a run – he seems to do that when he has to really thinking through a puzzle. So, because it was harder – do a couple of sessions just like this one. Add in the various challenges (running past, hanging back, adding crosses, etc) but mainly look to maintain criteria and make that spot rich with reinforcement. When he is back to full speed on it, we can build on it very quickly.
Great job applying this so quickly!!!
TracyHi! He is so clever, I could see him working the puzzle here of where the feet had to go to trigger the MM! Yay! I think the MM needs to be further away but a foot or two, so he doesn’t end up in 2o2o – he hits 4on and then the MM beep is the release to leave the board entirely. I think he was really figuring it out nicely here!!! You were hanging back which is great, because that is where he wanted to stop short. You can add in the other challenges like running past too, because the MM might add more temptation to leave position there 🙂
I see you posted a teeter video below – onwards!Tracy
Yay! I am excited to see you there – it gets really exciting with bigger games now that the pups are old enough 🙂
Hi!
About those line up cookies… the dogs do get treats from the Manners Minder, then they get another bite of cheese for coming back. They get a lot of cookies LOL!!! So that way we get a nice balance of drive through the poles to the MM, then hurry back to me to start the next rep 🙂T
Hi!
This is a good start to the bang game with the target! A couple of ideas for you –
I think he might be targeting the strip of green tape across the board – if possible, take it off so that he only looks for his target.
About the target – you can elevate it on the board a bit but also – don’t move the magical cookie until he hits the target now 🙂 He was delaying his target hit because he was watching the cookie – so now, no cookies move until he hits the target. And then you can deliver the cookies. As you go in to deliver the treats, you can place them right down on the target, not in his mouth, so he continues to look directly at the target.I think with those tweaks, he will get really good at looking at the target and not at you 🙂 You can do this on a plank on the flat too, the more the merrier in terms of targeting practicing.
Great job!
TracyWow, he is so fast up the board even with all the movement underneath him! This game can stay where it is, you can revisit it sometimes to keep the value high for the skill. But he mastered it amazingly fast!!!!
For this game, the lure can remain there forever 🙂 See above about adding the target into the downhills! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
