Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Wheeee! Great job! He seemed very happy and yes, remember to use your target cue LOL! That might be why he hesitated a little: is she catching it? Are we targeting? Timing of the target cue might be best when he is center of the board, something to play with.
What was the food reward? One thing to play with also is one great reward popped into his mouth at the top of the board, then countdown then target: and immediate release when he lands in position to chase his toy.
One more thought – to get Hot Sauce to the end, I did a lot of reps of catching the board very high and rewarding way up in the air before the countdown (rather than letting it drop and catching it halfway or lower). That built a lot of value for driving to the very end.
I bring up all the little things to play with because basically now the progression becomes repeating this type of session several times a week: at first, one full teeter like you did here and then add on 2 or 3 more reps after it of crazy elevator game and big rewards at the top of the board.
Then gradually the ratio of crazy elevator to full teeters will shift, and he will do more full teeters than crazy elevators (with target fading in there too, but that will be easy). But we can take the whole month of May for that gradual shift to more teeters and fewer crazy elevator games. I am thrilled with his progress here!!!! Great job!!!!!!!!
Tracy
Hi there!
>>I loved how happy Cowboy was to move across the board, even with the additional tip.
I agree! I love how he was all like “this is easy and fun!” That will make the full teeter so much easier 🙂 Nice!!
>>In addition, I am using a target plate on the lower table and have the Manners Minder about 8′ away (off-screen)However, I do have a question regarding the exact criteria for the game. Should the emphasis be on running across the board (and continue running) or should it be on moving into the end position? I would like to try this again but want to make sure I am doing this correctly.>>
Yes, we can set this up differently to get more speed across the board and the weight shift. The criteria for this game is simply “run to the end” and there is no end position criteria so we can separate the teeter elements. Plus, the board going to a table doesn’t require the 2o2o, because the definition of 2o2o is 2 front feet on the ground, 2 rear on the board. And since the board here doesn’t go to the ground, we don’t ask for the 2o2o criteria.
However, we do want to rehearse the stopping and weight shifting on the end of the board, and we can do that with the rewards. You can put the MM on the table to replace the red target entirely – this is the one time I would use it at the end of the board because we are not looking for any end position criteria, we just want to reward running across the board. The other option is to put a big cookie right on the table so he can eat it when he arrives there 🙂 That way you can reward independent running across the board but you don’t have to ask for or maintain a 2o2o position (he was doing it sometimes here, but he was not sure where to be exactly so he was a little confused).
We do add the 2o2o end position when the lower table gets faded out so the downhill game does eventually go to the ground. At that point, the empty red target is there and we will be asking for the run across the board and the 2o2o (he is almost there, he needs a couple more sessions of the downhill to the low table).
For the downhills between the tables, one other suggestion to get more speed and better weight shift: have him get up on the higher table and stand there and wait – then you can send him down the board or run down alongside him. There are 2 reasons for that:
– if he stands still for a moment and then goes down the board, he will be able to focus on the one weight shift at the end of the board. If he jumps on and then has to immediately go down the board, he has to focus on 2 weight shifts: the first one for jumping on and the 2nd one at the end of the board. That first weight shift slows him down and then he doesn’t quite get speedy enough to get the 2nd one, so having him be on the table already before moving down the board can add speed and correct weight shift.
– if you have him stand still on the taller table, you can use that moment to get him excited, or change your position, or run alongside him, or lead out to the 2nd table… all of which ask for the weight shift at the end and add more speed 🙂Based on his confidence, I would say he is ready for more speed here 🙂 Nice work ! Let me know if the ideas make sense 🙂
TracyHi!
>>Yes it does feel odd probably because I don’t handle like anyone else so sometimes it’s hard to translate… and he seemed so slow and bored….>>
He didn’t look bored, it was more like he was trying to figure out the rear crosses. And feel free to tweak things to fit your normal handling 🙂
>>I think I would feel better if I could have some wisdom in a 15 minute or so call to discuss…. Happy to pay let me know if you are free in future…>>
Maybe we can do a class zoom call later this week, I think we are due for one in this group!
>>If I wanted to use a ball and the PT I assume I could chuck ball at tutor and rotate between food and toy reward? I thought the ball might encourage less thinking.
Yes, you can totally do that, and it helps us begin to fade out the PT.
Tracy
Here it is, step 10 aka 6-and-4s 🙂
https://agility-u.com/lesson/2x2s-track-step-10-6-poles-plus-4-poles/
Hi!
>>For the next few sessions to solidfy is bounce, keep just sending without jumps or wing wrapping before?>>
You can do the wing wraps before, I think he liked those!
>>And I need a back yard extension to throw the frizzer further. I am worried about him crashing in to the garage as he’s chasing it!>>
You can try rollers, so the disc is moving low and he can chase it – and he won’t run into anything LOL!
Hi!
You were doing it right – we are exaggerating the handling to help the dogs bop back and forth over the bars. She was much better on the first side – I just think it was an easier side for her. You had nice exaggerated handling and that was great. Be sure to reward the stays a lot – either with a catch throw or a pizza delivery – she was breaking a bit!
On the other side, I think she was juts having trouble figuring out the coordination of that shift to her right. So you were correct to break it down – keep it broken down, just working the first jump, until she finds it easier – then you can progressively move yourself back down the line like you did on the other side.
Nice work here!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi again! This went well too! Looking at it in each rep:
– rep 1 – nice transition! You can turn sooner for the FC so she can chase you for the reward – then she will get even tighter on the turn when she realizes the reward will be back at you
-2nd rep – you deceled and rotated all at once, so she pulled off the commitment. A few steps of decel before the rotation is going to help with the commitment.
– 3rd rep – this one was harder to tell why she didn’t commit, I think maybe she didn’t see enough connection coming around the wing so just went into handler focus there? So keep the connection you had on all the reps and use the verbals.
– 4th rep – this was a good one!!! You were a little late on the decel, probably trying to make sure she committed
– 5th rep – this was similar to what happened on the 2nd rep, where she came off the jump (same as 2nd rep) – you deceled and rotated at once, so she needs a few more steps of forward facing rotation.
– 6th rep – nice!!! Good job with very clear parts of the transition!
– 7th rep, first one on the other side. Was she looking at something out ahead? I thought you were good! But she was convinced she should go straight somewhere LOL!
– 8th rep – good commitment! Nice transition even with you behind her! You can turn and run away on the FC sooner to get her to chase you back around the jump more immediately.
– 9th rep, also strong! Yay!!!!!
– 10th rep, other side, also good like the previous reps were (verbals totally helping here too!)
– 11 rep – also good!!! Now you have it 🙂The key is the connection coming around the wing, and also making sure the decel and the rotation are separate. Well done!!
TracyHi there!
This is a hard skill and I think it is going well! A couple of ideas for you to help smooth it out so you don’t have to move into the jump as much – and that will also add more distance (which, with her speed, we will totally need :))And, speaking of speed: when she sees you moving fast and being exciting, she wants to go fast too and was not seeing the upper body cue – which is why she wasn’t getting it unless you stepped in a little towards the jump. So, to get this smoother, slow down your motion and walk for now rather than run. That will allow you to show her the line without having to step in towards the jump. Plus moving a bit more slowly will give you more time to figure out the arms and stuff 🙂
And when you give the get out cue with the outside arm, don’t swing it back and forth: leave it up, pointing to the exit/furthest wing of the jump, until you see her leave you to go take it. And look her square in the eyes when you do it, to really exaggerate it. I think swinging the arm back and forth was too exciting so she just chased you 🙂
>>. I think I am thinking, what hand to throw the toy with then. And had the toy in the get, get hand. lol.>>
I think it worked best when you had the toy in the dog side hand and cued with the empty outside hand, then tossed the toy with the dogside hand.
This is off to a good start! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! This was a really strong session – super upbeat even when she had questions. She was working hard to read it all correctly 🙂 You might get a laugh here, but you were actually early on most of these reps 🙂 and that is why she was a little sticky. What I mean by early is that you were moving your arm and leg back when she was still a little too far away so she was questioning if she should continue to come in for the lap turn or go out to the other side of the wing.
So being on time on the lap turns will actually feel delayed here: extend hand to her and hold it there, keeping your feet together and also stationary: until she is 3 inches from your hand… then you can draw the hand back and step back to cue the lap turn 🙂 It might feel late at first because you will need to stand still but the turn itself will be lovely 🙂When you add in the moving and the other wing – you can use your send more to the other wing so you don’t have to back up or run backwards, you’ll already be at the lap turn wing . Or, you can run forward to the lap turn wing and then turn to face her. more like what you did at 2:47. She liked that! It was really speedy! You just needed to be one heartbeat sooner on the rotation to face her to get your arm and feet into the position. Lap turns definitely have a ‘hurry up and wait’ element to them LOL!!
She really liked the figure 8s and race tracks, so keep playing with those! Wheeeee! And try the tandem turns too, I think you will be more comfy with them because you can keep moving.
Nice work here! Have fun!
TracyGood morning! You did not anger the training gods today hahahahaha!!!
Good work here on the elevator game – mechanics look good and he is looking forward, shifting his weight and also seems very confident! YAY!!!!
I do think he needs the visible target for this game. He was trying to figure out the target position based on your foot position on the first couple of reps. So you can leave the target in to start, a nice big one (a bit of a billboard LOL!) and then fade it out later on (I leave the target in on the elevator game until after the dog can do them complete teeter without the elevator game.Towards the end of the session, you started to drop the board then use the target cue – remember to reverse that by giving the target cue then drop the board. Eventually he will know to just target not matter what, but for now it is helpful to do it in that order.
On the end position isolation game, it is always a good idea to revisit that! It showed us that he definitely will still benefit from the target being visible. So, keep the target in and to emphasize his head position, you can throw the reward back while he is looking at it as he moves into position and also to emphasize holding position, you can mix in some hand-delivery. It is like a ping pong game, we are responding to his behavior choices by tweaking the reinforcement placement to help him understand what he needs.
But those are small details. His overall confidence and relaxed attitude towards the training are looking GREAT!!!!
I think with the bigger target visible, you can warm up the elevator game on the next session then try a couple of crazy elevator reps.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyWow, there is a LOT to love about this session! The bang game warm up looked great and so did the crazy elevator with all the motion! I think he indeed enjoyed watching you scramble to get to the top of the board in time to catch it LOL!!! The first rep of the crazy elevator game doesn’t tell us much… it is the 2nd rep and the ones after that. Happily, he was even better on the 2nd rep and all the others and he did not seem worried at all about it. And this particular teeter has a lot of side-to-side whip especially as you were trying to run and grab it: he seemed completely cool with it 🙂
I see the ball in your hand – did you do lots of ball throws between reps?So since this looked great, I think you can move the next session of the crazy elevator game to adding the tunnel before the teeter. YAY! Fun times! We are so close to the full obstacle!!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
The billboard target seemed to really help with the motion! She did MUCH better stopping here. You can use the billboard on the other games where you will have motion too, like the elevator game. Just be sure it stays nice and close to the board, she likes to push it – so you might have to reset it for each rep 🙂
Before your first rep – remind yourself of the reward and release words. You got them going later in the session, but the first couple of reps were vague and I think that confuses her
One thing to add now: since you are a musician, I think this will make sense: you are in a rhythm that is predictable of tee-catch-ok. It is almost a 4/4 rhythm 🙂 Sometimes there is a 5/4 too. We don’t want her to anticipate the reward or release, so try to change the rhythm of the catch and ok on each rep – mixing in some praise is something that can help: tee! Gooooooood…. catch.The crazy elevator game is going well! Be sure to warm up the insanity with normal elevator especially with motion – I think when she broke position it was more about seeing your hands move to get ready to throw the treats. Dogs see EVERYTHING lol!!! So keep your hands totally normal until after you give the reward marker.
Overall she is doing really well here, I am especially happy that she is thinking about the weight shift at the end and not trying to leap. Yay!!! So go ahead and add the wing wraps before the board now, I think she will be fine adding the additional layer of speed 🙂Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning! Nice session here!! You did a great job catching the board!
You might notice that he was a little better on your left side than on your right – that was mechanics and cookie placement. When he was on your left side, on most of the reps you caught the board with your left hand (dog side) and rewarded out at the end of the board with your right hand, so he was straighter and closer to the end.
When he was on your right side, you also caught the board with your left hand (which is now the opposite arm) and rewarded from your right (dog-side hand) so he was further back and curling a bit because that is where the right hand cookie placement was.
So if possible, try to catch the board with the dog-side arm on both sides, and reward with the opposite arm to maintain the straight drive to the end of the board (I had to actively think about this before each rep when I was training to make sure the cookie was in the correct hand :))He was perfect with his riding down and staying in position! And he seemed perfectly happy when you added moving away after the paw cue at the end. So for the next session, start with the mechanics and also add your motion right away. Then in the middle of the session, just give him the paw cue as he gets on and keep moving slowly past the board, so he does the full teeter and you don’t catch it – then reward, even if it is not perfect. Then do a few more crazy elevator reps 🙂
Nice work here!! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
I think this session went well!!! I like how he responded!!! And OMG they started a daycare…. eek! But it is a great distraction for him 🙂So on the session, he did really well here even with the added height. Your mechanics were strong and I agree that he did focus ahead better when you cued the target and then dropped the board (rather than at the same time).
Only one thing to add to it: be more consistent with using the yellow target. We are keeping it there for the forward focus it brings, but it will lose value if you don’t have reward on it. So you can reward in position and then release and toss a reward to it. Then you can fade out rewarding in position and just release to the reward on tossed to it. You can see him looking around a lot here: look at mom! Look at cookies! Look at target! Look towards daycare! So using the yellow target will give him a very very sterling focal point.
I think he is ready for more variables and since this is mostly review with just a change in when we want the down – you can move through the variables quickly. Begin with adding motion to the crazy elevator game – everything the same as you did here except you get to move as you drop the board.
And then I think you can easily go to the crazy elevator game, with the tweak that he goes into the down when he arrives at the top, reward, then do the countdown. This would start without your motion just to establish it.
And this can probably be done in one session – the normal elevator as the warm up then a couple of reps of crazy elevator. Of course, if he struggles with normal elevator then don’t go to the crazy version, but I think he will be just fine 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
