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Good morning! A vacation sounds wonderful 🙂 No worries about multiple posts, I look forward to it!
Are was great here! You didn’t post the shaping of it but whatever you did totally go the point of the game to her 🙂 She was driving in really nicely and you were using just the right about of motion: slow enough to help her get it, but also you kept moving so she was seeing the cue in motion which is exactly what it will be on course. Super!
2 little details for the next session:
On the send to the wing, remember to emphasize connection more and arm pointing less. She had a question at about :40 when you looked forward and pointed forward at the wing, which caused your shoulders to pull away from the line so she thought you wanted her to go to the wing of the jump (not the single wing). Compare it to :53, where your arm cue was softer and lower, showing more connection and she zipped right to the wing. Yay!The other thing is also about shoulders: Your position relative to the jump was really good in terms of running line and feet 🙂 The only other thing to add is an upper body rotation towards the jump, so the center of your chest points to the center of the bar or even a little back towards her (and your dog-side arm goes back so it ends up parallel to the bar). Then hold that position with the upper body while your feet do the same running line – feels weird, yes LOL! But the open upper body position helps the her see the come in and go out cue while you are adding more speed 🙂
And speaking of speed – she did really well, so in your upcoming sessions, you can start moving faster and faster 🙂
Great job here!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyI agree – holy cow, look at her speed!!! Is she going to be in my height class? Now I am scared! Eek!!!
She did great here too, even with you lateral. Yay!!! So a couple of things you can add:
Run really fast like you do with Sport and Jedi, no more walking. Wheeee! Fun!
Add more driving ahead by sending around the wing, running straight to the tunnel so you can touch it, then run right before she exits – see if she will drive ahead to find the jump.
And – add some balance: on some reps, about 3 feet before she gets into the tunnel, do a front cross and give a left or right cue to remind her that sometimes she needs to listen for a turn cue on the tunnel exit.Great job here!!! She is a rocket!!
Tracy
Hi!
>> And…when I use 4 wings. Do I have to start up by the 4th wing? Or start at 3?
Start at 3! That will get you running!
Speaking of running, holy cow she liked this game haha!! She did a great job finding the jump no matter where you were. Yay! My only suggestion is you can start your Go verbal sooner, before she gets into the tunnel, so she for sure knows to go straight.
As for the get it versus the yea for the toy: yes, ideally you would use ‘get it’ but the Go verbal implies that the reward is going to be thrown out ahead on the line, so that is why the yea works too. I mean, we are not going to yell GO GO GO then reward back by the house LOL! So try to say get it but don’t torture yourself about it if you are using the Go cue 🙂I think you can add more motion here and also add more distance between the jump and the tunnel.
Onwards to the next video 🙂
TracyHi!
>> And…when I use 4 wings. Do I have to start up by the 4th wing? Or start at 3?
Start at 3! That will get you running!
Speaking of running, holy cow she liked this game haha!! She did a great job finding the jump no matter where you were. Yay! My only suggestion is you can start your Go verbal sooner, before she gets into the tunnel, so she for sure knows to go straight.
As for the get it versus the yea for the toy: yes, ideally you would use ‘get it’ but the Go verbal implies that the reward is going to be thrown out ahead on the line, so that is why the yea works too. I mean, we are not going to yell GO GO GO then reward back by the house LOL! So try to say get it but don’t torture yourself about it if you are using the Go cue 🙂I think you can add more motion here and also add more distance between the jump and the tunnel.
Onwards to the next video 🙂
TracyHi! Just ot be sure I am seeing the same thing you are seeing: you are referring to him not being able to bend into the entry on your left side (and a little on the right too)? If so – yes, I see it too! He seems basically fine on the straighter entries and then he got better on the right side angles but the left was definitely harder.
The first thing I suggest is, if it is possible: get him checked by a chiro vet if there is one in your area. He is moving a bit differently in this video than in the others, so he might be ‘out’ or tight somewhere – either in his mid-back to lower down. Usually an adjustment and a day of rest and the dog is back to perfect weaving 🙂 If there is no chiro, let me know where you are located and I can try to find a good one near you, or a trigger point therapist. (Now that my young dogs are beginning to weave, they are all getting seen by the folks who take care of my adult competition dogs: a PT vet, a chiro vet, and a massage trigger point person. Totally worth it!)
Separately from exploring a chiro vet, you can open up the entry so poles 1-2 are a little wider than the rest of the poles. I would give him a day of rest (nothing other than laying around the house) because he might have gotten himself sore doing normal young dog things 🙂 so a day or two of rest might resolve it, followed by revisiting with poles 1-2 a little wider open than the rest of the channel.
Let me know if that makes sense! Keep me posted!
TracyHi! Good question about the tab! Any gentle restraint that he is happy with is perfect: a tab, a harness, or even a soft hand on his shoulders as long as he likes it. If he doesn’t like his collar being held or dug out from under his mane 🙂 then yes, use something that he is happier with 🙂 We want it to be a fun and exciting part of the process.
T
Hi! I feel the pain of trying to get things done without over-doing it! At one point when the 3 pups were 6 months, 11 months and 2 years old (yes, I have 3 puppies, I am insane haha) I had a calendar in my office where I literally mapped out what would get trained on each day – and it was just a little bit. And if it didn’t happen because life got in the way of the weather was crappy, I just shifted the task to a different day. I got through it and now it is much easier (plus I set a timer on my phone, or play a song and I finish the session when the song is over :))
And yay for a job offer!!! You will still be able to get great training in – but yes, it will suck to not be with her all day 🙁
>> Can you tell Indy to stop acting like an adult that knows stuff already?>>
For real! She is so smart and amazingly mature, it feels like she is a small adult… until her brain & body gets tired then I remember she is still so young LOL!!!!
You are doing a great job with her!!! Have a great weekend 🙂
TracyHi! I think this is already greatly improved! I think this particular challenge is simply not intuitive for the pups – lead changes on the flat are not something most of them do naturally (I added it to the puppy curriculum because my adult dogs struggled with it so I decided to teach it very early on :))
The other thing that is hard is that there is a lot of strength involved – it is built off of a fitness exercise from a sports vet 🙂 So it builds both the understanding and the strength that gets used for the semi-sideways jumping on serps, backside slices, etc. – that is all the stuff that adult large dogs in particular struggle with.So if he feels a little less responsive, especially when you are trying to get him to shift away: yep, I would agree LOL! And it isn’t just him – he is trying to go fast and figure out how to use all of his feets to feet the line that you are cueing. But he is really coming along nicely here! He is already getting the pattern much better than just a few days ago.
On the first rep, you were a little late with the push away cue and pointed a little too far forward so he was late shifting away and didn’t get into the gap. Compare it to the push away cues at :18 and :27 and also on the last 2 reps – you were earlier and more connected, so he got it really well! I think he is also beginning to recognize the pattern, which really helps so your handling won’t need to be as precise.>> Am I correct in thinking that we are trying to teach/establish the come in/ go out behavior as somewhat situationally habitual as we move forward with his agility training?>>
Yes – we are building the understanding and strength to use his body in that context, and getting him used to the sideways approach to the wing and bar that he will see in a variety of situations that involve slices (backsides, serp, threadles, etc). It gets simpler for the handler pretty soon 🙂
Great job!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! yes, he is doing really well targeting now!!! Good boy 🙂 Nice work! And no worries about the foot pawing, that is normal and fine LOL!
I love his confidence on the teeter – so cool to see!!!So now that he is happy to offer the position and seems to have a good grasp on what to do with all the feets and his head 😁: Now we formalize the bang game to be able to build on it. The goal is that he leaps right on the very end of the board, all 4 feet, and into position with no added steps down the plank. So this is 2 part process that will move very quickly, totally focused on mechanics:
First, starting on the plank to familiarize him with the mechanics and concept:
start him next to you, right at the very edge near the target end of the board, with him between you and the board (the target is in position too). Gently hold his collar is you need to, so he does not start without you LOL! Give the target cue, let him jump into position – the plop the reward in right on the target. For now – there are 2 “Don’ts”: don’t move and don’t click 🙂 Those will get him looking at you and we want him to look at the target.
If he can easily do that for a session or two, you can start to add challenges like walking past, etc: but the starting position is always the same.The second part is easy: you reproduce the mechanic you used on the plank, but on the teeter 🙂 Starting with him jus was you did on the plank, with him right at the edge: gently hold him, give the target cue, and let him leap into position. This should be an easy transition after he learns the mechanics on the plank.
Now when you get to the teeter, start it with a lot less tip then he had here – he was losing his back feet often enough that we want to reduce the tip so he never steps off the board and so he can learn the weight shift.
So as with the plank, this gets formalized and very specific: which means don’t let him offer without you and also don’t send him from any position other than you being lined up at the side, at the very end – that is so he gets into the habit of the weight shift. When he was approaching more from the front, he was getting on with his front end then putting his back end on, so the line up at the side really emphasizes his back end and the weight shift.
Because of his confidence and speed, we will definitely be emphasizing the weight shift 🙂Great job here! He is moving through these really quickly, it is so fun to see!
TracyAh! He totally wears his heart on his sleeve 🙂 That is good info: for the elevator games, change how you do the sessions:
one hit wonders with super high double whammy rewards: one massive reward on the target, then a thrown toy to get him away from the board. Then no more reps until the next day. For example, my BorderWhippet HATED the elevator game until I did one hit wonders: meatball on the target then I threw his frisbee 🙂And if you do it in class, just do it once then release to the rest of the course 🙂
T
Yes, that can all help! the attention noise will only work if it is associated with a very fast reinforcement.
Hi!
>>I also tried to make sure I was moving slowly. I do have a tendancy to run at things. >>
Yes, and they like to go fast fast fast! So there is a bit of muscle memory to unwire to tighten the turns up, but she is getting it!
I watched this video and froze the screen every time you said the left or right verbal. Most were when she was about a metre from the tunnel entry… which I think is too late for her. My favorite was at :12 – she was a solid 2 metres from the tunnel on that one and I think that was also her best turn!
One other thing about the verbal: say it more that once. Tunnel tunnel! is very exciting and propels her forward. So the left and right should be lower in energy (riiiiight riiiiight riiiiiiightt) and I suggest saying it several times so she can process it before, during and after the tunnel 🙂 That will really help!One more thought about tight turns: from now on, let’s have her get all turn rewards from you hand (or right near you): by throwing the toy out on the line, she is not exactly looking for a turn, she is looking to stay on the big line for the toy 🙂 So – after the left or right, run away on that approximate line and get her to chase you for the toy. Yo can be calm in the motion until she is in the tunnel: then take off and run for her to chase you for the reward. That way she will shift to looking for your new line and not looking ahead for the toy. Let me know if that makes sense 🙂
Nice work here!
TracyGood morning!
>>Fancy Gap upload speeds make me crazy.>>
I feel this deeply, to my very core LOL!
On the video, lots of good reps but we can totally get rid of a lot of the errors here too! 2 main things:
First thought is about handling mechanics of the serp (and eventually, the threadle too): keep your shoulders in that open position until after he arrives at the MM. You are closing them forward as he passes your leg, which is too soon. Think of the MM as the next jump in the serp, which is cued by the open shoulders on the serp. If you close your shoulders too soon, he will run right past the next jump of the serp line. He won’t run past the MM because, well, cookies 🙂No worries about the early MM beep at :32, it marked the intent to come in. In a perfect world he would have continued to come in, but the click still marked that decision to come towards you 🙂
The other thing has to do with the misses:
>>I’m not seeing another explanation for his not coming in there, but you probably will>>
I think the tossed treats to get the behavior started are actually doing more harm than good, in terms of the efficient line up for the next rep. A couple of things were happening – he was sniffing a bit (understandable, gotta get the treat!) and then after getting the treat, he didn’t have that moment to see and process the cue of the upper body versus the lower body. And when he was very quick to get the treat and come back into the rep, you were a little late showing the serp cue – by the time you got it going, he had already made a decision which didn’t happen to match what you were looking for (examples of this were at :51, 1:14, 1:21, 1:28). When he could see and process the cue before making the decision, he was consistently accurate and fast.
So… time to install some type of stay to start it 🙂 This will raise the rate of success! It might mean a backtrack on the level of difficulty (no MM in the picture, just a reward from your other hand) and lots of rewards for the stay. You can make the picture smaller by just having a wing there or even nothing at all, just a lead out. And you can make the stay easier by using a mat or a cot or something. But the distinct start position and also the cue to begin the rep will make the process more efficient and more successful, with the side benefit of getting the stay going before the jump 🙂
If he is anything like my dogs, you will probably spend a few sessions on just the ‘stays are AWESOME FUN’ behavior near a wing or on a mat, then it will click into place and you can take it back to the jump.Let me know if that makes sense! I know stays are not always the most popular way to start reps because we are all worried about making them fun and not getting stress – so take it away from the serp stuff for now (because when he sees the serp cue, he nails it) and make it a super fun game in front of the jump. He is doing well on the wing for the zig zags so I think you will be fine here too 🙂
Great job!
TracyGood news about being in touch with Leslie too! And I believe Tricia also worked with Dr. Karen Overall, who is one of the pioneers in the behavior field and has been soooo helpful.
About the a-frame – I apologize for being the fun patrol… but you should block it off so she can’t run up and down it LOL! Two reasons to block it off: first, young dogs do silly things like leap off things and hurt themselves, so we need to make sure she doesn’t hurt herself.
Second, all of the running up and down it are rehearsing behavior that you don’t want when you will want her to do it for real (she will have a distinct criteria, like stopping in 2 on, 2 off at the end). So, better to block it off for now , sorry Ria haha 🙂Tracy
