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Hi!
>> So more 1 rep sessions
Yes – super high value, highly successful, short sessions on games you think he will like.
>>If I start session and he refuses to go to near teeter what is my response… just don’t try that session and train something else?>>
If he refuses, he is showing a concern about the environment. I would immediately move him further from the teeter and work on engagement, which is basically tricks for cookies and tugs. I wouldn’t necessarily go do other agility obstacles because I think the issue is more about how to get him comfortable in an pressure-filled environment, and engagement/play is the key to that.
>>He is my challenge as I’ve never experienced this kind of behavior>>
Yes, it certainly is a totally different training track. I am “lucky” in that I experienced it with one of my dogs so I learned a lot about handling it. Then he went on to have a great teeter for the next 10 years of his career 🙂 That taught me a whole lot about that whole conditioned response thing.
T
Hi!
The wing wraps at the beginning went well, with you rear crossing the poles. He did look at you like you were a little nuts but he did the poles correctly, which is great! And rear crossing the weaves is a useful skill so keep working it. I think you did a great job sending him around that first wing, I am not sure why you thought it was bad other than maybe it was weird feeling? But it looked good!!!
On the speed entries…. on the first couple of misses, I think he was looking up at your right hand – it was moving up and down, and hand something in it (PT remote?) so he was drawn to it (perhaps thinking it was a reward?). He was able to get those entries when you had less movement. So on the next session, don’t lead out as far – be maybe halfway between the jump and the weaves when you release him to the jump. Then move slowly up the line so he can figure out the collection into the entry. His speed is a separate variable from your speed, so you can walk as slowly as possible til he can nail it. Then we add back your speed so he can nail it when you run too 🙂
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!!!
TracyHi!
Yes, nice session here! 8 poles was no problem at all. He can do 8 here and 6 at home, it is all fine either way.
We want to stay on track for the 90% success for another session or two to pump up the average success rate – but then we need to start tightening the poles because his striding here is still a little in the awkward in-between stage. And it is not him, it is the channel width. He is swimming but with his head up, so his reach is shorter. If he gets one more 90% Or above session, the next session should be the ‘find the proper striding’ session where you tighten the poles down to 1.5 or 1 inch width and see if he gets the full swim, head low, legs reaching.I think that is also why he was double tapping at pole 5 here and there – partially due to more poles, partially due to it being hard to find the rhythm at that width.
>> Is there a point at which I should throw in any of the find ’em challenges – or still just focus on getting 90%+ in the next few sessions?
>>You can throw them in at any time, with the goal being to maintain the 90% success – you might notice that I did the harder Find Ems with poles that were easier and more open than I had been doing when I was working only on the poles 🙂 The variable change is the handling challenge, so I made the poles easier. The only one I did with straight poles was the very last one, which is ideal on straight poles but is also great with open/easy poles 🙂
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! Nice work here! I think the early toss is not helping him take poles 5-6, it looks like he was going to do them anyway – but the early toss does keep him looking forward! One thing about the frizzer, from someone who uses the frizzer a LOT now as the weave reward: throw it really long 🙂 Try not to let it land that close to the weaves, let it still be airborne so he can chase it before it lands after he exits. I think he will LOVE that 🙂
The angles you ended at here were causing him to think about his footwork (I swear, he is Hot Sauce in a Sheltie suit!!! Same exact progression!). So stay at this exact set up now, for as many sessions as needed until 2 things are happening: you can RUN (he will also love that :)) and he can bounce without having to think about it.
It might happen in 2 sessions, or 4 or 5 or 6 sessions – that’s fine, because as soon as he gets the bounce here, everything else comes together REALLY quickly 🙂 Yay!
Nice work! Let me know what you think!
TracyGreat! This looked like he had the bounce going really nicely in the poles! He is sorting out how to get into that, watch his front feet LOL!!! He was like “this foot leads no wait this foot leads no wait this one” LOL!!! But that will probably be sorted by the next session – he was going fast and doing the striding so now he just needs to practice that. Onwards to 6 and 4!!!! You can do them a tiny bit open like this set is.
Tracy
Hooray for striding! Hooray for the AC repair guy!!! And hooray for the birdbath for cooling off LOL!!!!
Nice session here, it all looks good! Weaves, wraps… happy dance! So one word for you: tighter. Let’s take a couple of sessions to focus on tightening the poles up. Keep throwing early like that to keep his head down. You might have to do easy entry sessions each time the poles get tighter but let’s really work to get them to be almost straight.
And yes – add the real weave cue if you are pretty sure he will be successful.
>> I have a weave related question for Callie. I find that in competition, her weaves are SIGNIFICANTLY slower than in practice. My suspicion is that it’s due to delay of reinforcement in addition to ring stress. Would you have any guidance on how I could improve her speed in trials by practice at home? This one has been a head scratcher for me because I can’t replicate the scenario. Even in FEO or a match with a toy- blazing fast weaves. She’s a two foot strider and usually hits her entries 99% of the time. If she’s stressed or sore, she may pop and I usually have her seen by the chiro and it resolves.>>
It is probably ring stress, as you mentioned. How does she do, otherwise, in the ring? Confident?
For FEO in the ring… don’t let her see the toy in advance. Surprise her! I hide toys on me all the time for FEO. Or have a helper throw it (UKI allows this for sure, possibly USDAA. AKC would probably not like this lol)
At home – remember the game where we had the dogs weave away from the Manners Minder? She needs to start there. Then add the reward further and further away. Then build up to adding pressure in the environment. That can really help!
Let me know what you think! Stay cool!
TracySounds good! We have the luxury of time now – decent weather ahead and plenty of time to get her to 6 and 12 poles. The hard part is finished, now we just let it all settle in 🙂
T
Hi! Hope all is well!!
For that game – you can put the toy out once or maybe twice if you want… but not as a lifestyle 🙂 I prefer to do this game entirely without the toy lure placed before the dog makes a decision. The goal is to get the dog looking for the jump and driving to it, rather than driving to the toy lure. The trick to get this is to be connected as you run and as soon as you see him lock onto the line and choose the jump, throw the toy to reward that choice. We want to mark and reward the decision to drive to the jump. Don’t wait to reward til he has taken the jump, as that will cause him to look back at you or decelerate. Let me know if that makes sense!
Tracy
Good morning!
Congrats on handing in your resignation!!! Fun times are ahead for sure 🙂
I am glad you got to go out and grab a few minutes! It is always a feel-good moment to play with the dog AND get some training done 🙂 This session looked really strong too, which makes it extra nice 🙂 She had the one baby-dog blooper of running around the tunnel but was perfect on the rest! Nice!!! Your position was super clear and the difference between the serp and tunnel cues were also super clear. My only suggestion is to move to the serp position with your upper body already rotated and showing the serp arm, then release when you get to the serp position. If you do both at the same time (release and move the upper body) she is going to think the body movement is part of the release. So you might feel a little dorky walking with your serp cue showing 🙂 but it will help keep the release from the stay very distinct.
And, I think she is also ready for you to release while you are moving, to simulate what she would see in the middle of the course.
Great job here!! Have fun!
TracyHi!
Yes, this was a MUCH higher success rate! Yay!! And good job ratting yourself out with the incorrect verbals haha!!!
I think this is looking super good, he is starting to get lower and even faster! And some of the entries were really hard, like when he was coming from the tunnel and you were on the right hand side of the weaves – but he got it! Nice! And good job adding in your motion 🙂I think the weaves need to tighten up one more notch – just an inch for the next session. He was trying to swim here – it was great, it was fast… but I don’t know if he is big enough to swim when the poles are straight. There is only one way to find out… get them tighter LOL!! You can leave poles 1-2 where they were here and tighten up poles 3-4 to the ‘almost but not quite straight’ line – and repeat this challenges you had here. Let’s see what he does with his striding.
Great job here! Can’t wait to see the next session!
TracyHowdy!
>>I’m ready for that bottle of wine now.
Red, white or rose’?
Looking good here!!!!!! Yay!
Question: are you going to use a ‘teeter’ cue or just the bottom cue? If you are adding a teeter cue, slap it on now. If not, call his name just for giggles.So this is what I want you to do in the next session (I am feeling VERY bossy today hahahaha):
Get him when he is hungry and WILD. Bring his best treats (like steak or something) and favorite toy. Set the teeter on a straight line exit from the tunnel so he blasts up the teeter from the tunnel.
– run him through a tunnel or two, and tug tug tug
– Do one (and only one) warm up of the elevator game (normal elevator, not crazy elevator). Deliver massive animal parts as the reward.
– run him through a couple of tunnels, tug tug tug tug
– run him through the tunnel to the teeter for Crazy Elevator: big cookie at the top, countdown, target cue, release to the thrown tug toy.
– – run him through a couple of tunnels, tug tug tug tug
– run him through the tunnel to the teeter for the FULL teeter, no catching the board – say his bottom cue right after he gets on – you can be moving and a little ahead of him, but decelerate so you end up near the end of the board, similar to crazy elevator game). When he lands into target position – jackpot. I don’t really care if his target position is not perfect, I want you to still jackpot. Your jackpot can be releasing him, throwing the toy and then delivering an entire side of beef, medium rare.
And if he accidentally flies off the end of the board? Reward the effort anyway. He is not the type that is going to fly off teeters, so I want his first full teeter experience to be a guaranteed reinforcement.And then you go inside and drink wine, no more teeter. And then you send me the video 🙂 He only gets 3 times on the teeter:
– normal elevator
– crazy elevator
– full teeterThis is exciting! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>I still feel real awkward on this, I think especially with the single wing and bar scenario. >>
I know, it is weird LOL! But think of it less as a handling exercise and more of a dog training exercise: we are teaching her how to use her body on the sideways jumping she will need for slices, serps, and backside slices. It doesn’t turn into any real handling, but the jumping skill will be very useful when the bars and heights go in.
>>Parts she read well and then we also had a few good opportunities to practice staying upbeat in the face my bad handling! I didn’t crop out the boo boos for that reason. >>
Yes! You rocked it! You had a chuckle and just tried again. The stay was probably the hardest part for her, you can totally add in throwing rewards back for the long distance stay.
On the video – she was really good with her striding here! She was better going to her right on the first gap. Going to her left on that first one was easy when you were on the left side of the screen and much harder when you were on the right side. It might have been that she was a little further from the wing on that side, or that angle was harder, or both 🙂 It was very smart when you helped her how out the last rep and got in a little closer. You can start there next time and see if she can do it or if she still has questions.
>>We got a little stuck in the last video>>
I only see one video, or did you mean last part of the video? I don’t want to miss anything 🙂
>>Was just checking out the third installment of this class! We did not do first but it seems like that would be an appropriate next step?>>
Yes, you are totally appropriate for that one 🙂 It will be fun!
Tracy
Hi! This also looks great!
She is still figuring out the balance of jumping on, so keep on rewarding. I am really happy with how she is moving into the position before you even do the target cue – that is what we want (getting into position with the board in the air rather than waiting til it is on the ground).
We are going to want her to look at you less on this game too. You can have the MM several feet out in front here too so she has it as a focal point (and doesn’t look at you or the cookies). That will also make it easy to get to the next step of you adding motion!Let me know if that makes sense! I think when she has the focal point, it will be very easy to add your motion and then also very easy to go to the Crazy Elevator Games 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! She has made really lovely progress! Tons of confidence on the end of the board and also when doing the downhills 🙂 Yay!
Looking at the end position: I like that you went to a MM to get her to not look at you – that was my main comment on the earlier part of the session, that she was looking at you a lot so perhaps a MM would be a good idea LOL! The MM instantly got her looking ahead and doing the end position. Yay! Having it that close to the board is a starting point and we can build on it. She was looking ahead really well when you were moving past the end of the board towards the end of the session – but that still counts as looking at you LOL!! Her position was great though.
So to get her looking ahead the whole time even when you are behind or parallel, I think moving the MM gradually further and further out can help that a lot! She will still have to choose position, but the MM can be a focal point where you can release to for the reward (or sometimes toss the reward back to her). You can start it 4 or 5 feet away then it will be easy to fade out later on. Let me know if that makes sense! Onwards to the elevator game!Tracy
Hi! Sorry to hear that work is so stressful, I can’t imagine how hard it is to be a teacher nowadays! How long til the summer break?
Maple did really well on these videos!!! Hopefully you had fun with the training!
Wind in your hair – looking really good! I was just about to type that you could add more distance between the wing and the jump… then you did it. Great minds think alike LOL!!! She was great with the distance and added more speed 🙂 Yay! So the next thing you can do is start closer to the wing wrap (stay there til she exits) and then run forward: this will get her learning how to drive ahead of you (which will set you up for the rear cross games). You can also play with the backsides and wrap transitions too!
The serpy zig zags are also going nicely! One suggestion: Try not to turn your feet as much, just use your upper body to push and pull her through the little setup. The next step is to go out to the 3rd wing and face her, standing still – see if she can do it only on upper body cues! She is getting the in-and-out rhythm so I think you can add challenge here too.
Great job!!! Keep on carving out the time for these little games, she looks great and hopefully it will distract you from the stress of work!
Tracy
