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Hi Patrice!
Yup, those are the top distractions for most of us!!! I recently had a pepperoni pizza distraction: entering the ring for a flyball race and 2 folks were sitting 3 feet away, on the floor, eating pepperoni pizza. There were no ring gates and the flyball rules allow this, so I had to put the distraction away and trust the training! (I was distracted, but my dog was not. He did his runs without even looking at the pizza!)
Maybe start with an easier distraction or move one of the distractions on your list further away in your visualization. You can also add a distraction like an annoying song being played or someone finishing their MACH or something right before you. These are minor distractions and might be easier to work through at first.
T
Hi Patrice!
>>How long do you use the song you have selected!… When do you change up?… Is it When you change up speed? … As in when your dog increases in confidence and in speed, or do you change up when you change events?>>
Both! As my dog’s speed increases, and I will change for events. I might have the same song for a couple of local events, then change for a bigger event or special occasion. Or I might just change it when I get a little sick of it 🙂 or find a better one 🙂
>>I have my song stuck in my head a week later, sometimes when I go to sleep!! Hope that’s normal (lol). I have been practicing visualizations with music in my thoughts when I do laps at the pool, or in the middle of store line when everyone is chatting.
Either it is completely normal, or we are both weirdos hahahah!! Same thing here – I dream the songs and visualize at odd hours and in weird places with the music 🙂
T
Hi! This is a difficult topic, right?
A few ideas for you:
>>I’m not sure I can imagine a situation from “others perspective” if they are hurtful or mean. I think I just have to practice to let that type of thing go and walk away because I honestly can not relate to that as standing in their shoes.>>
I recommend 2 things for this:
Yes, letting go! Put the hurtful comment in a room in your brain and close the door to it. You can revisit it later… or not!
There’s a line in a funny musical that I like. This part is beautifully sung, about imagining your brain is filled with tiny boxes, find the box that has the hurtful comment…
This part yelled: AND CRUSH IT! Ha!
It makes me laugh every single time lol. So I CRUSH hurtful comments 🙂As for empathy… I do sometimes think about how much pain someone must be in, inside their own head or heart, to have such horrid things spew from their mouth. That doesn’t mean that I accept or tolerate their meanness, but I makes it easier to walk away and forget it.
About picturing failure… this is more about recovery than actual visualization and is done away from a trial. For example: I might work through the feelings of failing in public, in a big run, hearing comments… and practice my recovery, affirmations, etc. This is done at home, away from the dog, etc. That way the tools are ready in case I need them.
At a trial itself, and in most practice outside of trials, all visualizations are done positively and without failure 🙂>>t, but why dig up the neg emotions if you don’t need to
Because I need to dig them up in order to sharpen the tools to deal with them when they try to pop up. That gives me sharp tools to squish them very quickly 🙂
And yes, at a trial (and in class etc), avoid getting into other people’s head space and avoid letting them pull you into a negative place. But taking a few private moments at home to explore it will help deal with being around it, which makes it less exhausting and also helps it roll off you very easily.
And when you see someone struggling… I totally avoid them sometimes too, I get it!!! If I saw the run, I try to drop in a “wow, great blind at 5!” Or something, but then I move away – in those moments, folks want to discuss the negatives so I don’t stick around for that (unless it is a friend or student, then I stick around to stop the negative and turn around their thinking).
If you haven’t seen the run, you can sometimes say something like “I feel you!”, smile, then walk away. A moment of sympathy after a bad run can go a long way for all of us.And yes, it is exhausting to keep smiling after a long day! Be sure to rest, give yourself some private time… then it will be easier to stay upbeat and smiling. I personally make sure that I have eaten during a long day – it is hard to smile when I am hangry!
Let me know what you think!
TracyThat’s great!! Your detailed routine is a stress-reliever which sets an excellent tone for the weekend 🙂
TracyHi there!
On the motivated stay clip – she is really a lovely tugger and also when she was in the sit, she did a great job holding the sit – so I think we can add a layer to this game for her: rewarding her for *not* jumping for the toy as you move it away from her mouth to transition to the next part of the game.
On a couple of the reps, you helped her a little but holding her but as soon as the toy moved, she would leap for it. It is a similar behavior you’ve seen in other places, so we can help her here. This is what I suggest:
Tug tug tug (that is easy hahaha) and then relax your hands, give an out cue if you have one, and wait. Let her back off the toy, release it, relax herself. Don’t touch her face/neck/collar.
At first, when she releases it, don’t move the toy: just take a breath, let the toy there, then tell her to get it 🙂
When she can do that, you can go to the next step of: after she releases it, slowly move the toy away (to the side) then release her to get it). Then you can add in moving it up – at this point, she can be in a stand or a sit – but I bet she starts to offer sits pretty quickly.
The sit part of the game is going brilliantly! So we can look at the transition element where we get her to stay all feet on the ground as the toy moves out of the picture and as you go into “game on” posture or she can immediately offer the sit as the toy moves away (as opposed to offering the jumping up for it :))The puppy class recalls were terrific! What a perfect opportunity to play this game with distractions. I like how the instructor is building in distractions for her while teaching the other dogs how to chill. Yessssss 🙂 And of course Lanna was a super star 🙂 We will be building on these recalls shortly.
Well done here!!!!!
Tracy
Hello and welcome!!!
I am looking forward to figuring out how to help him love to tug all the time 🙂 And seeing the shaping! Both the videos are marked private, though, so I can’t see them yet. Can you change the privacy to unlisted? Thanks 🙂Tracy
Hi there!
>> wish I would have gotten from start to finish in the shaping of this. I wanted to shape something he has never done so we worked on figure 8s around my legs.
I think he did a great job here!!!! He seems to be definitely figuring out. This is a useful skill – a great focus trick, a great physical warm up, and you can use it as a line up cue too! Yay!
>> Today after a good sleep he totally is figuring it out.
I agree! Latent learning perhaps? Yay!
>> He has not gotten the full continue in a figure 8 but he is definitely getting the idea.
I think better reward placement will give him the final pieces. On most of the reps, you were rewarding him dead center for coming between your legs, then he wasn’t quite sure what to do next. You can praise or click that, but toss the reward off to where he has to chase it for the next part of the figure 8 – which would generally be behind your knee. You did this on some of the reps and when yo did it, he was perfect in finding the next part of the figure 8. So – no more cookies delivered dead center – always toss the rewards to the next area you want him to go to.
>> After the restrained recall suggestions I worked with Sue Y yesterday and i would tug then make him calm and feed him for being calm then give him over to her. He immediately goes over the top, not as bad when I pass him to someone. One point he jumped and was biting my hand when I was trying to let go of his collar and walk away. I basically told him knock it off in a nice kind of way still in sue hands and he came back to earth and worked nicely. I am trying to correct him in a nice and appropriate way as I dont want to do anything to ruin his love to work.
Hmmmm…. yeah, he is really frustrated about something in the restrained recalls, and it could be a general “mom’s leaving” anxiety (my Hot Sauce is not a fan of restrained recalls either for that reason). And we definitely don’t want to correct him, as that will add anxiety. So – try a quick hand off and an immediate recall (don’t walk away – run and call immediately). Also, in the hand off, are you ‘making the introduction’ where you deliver him, he can have a cookie from the new person, then you go?
You can also do it all with food.
And, takes out anything in the recall that might frustrate him, like the 360s or front crosses or go cues – just do very straightforward, high rate of success recalls so it is really easy.
Let me know if that makes sense.>>Would you cut out the tugging in between the exercise and passing him off and only feed him as a reward.
Possibly, but that won’t necessary solve the issue of the arousal. You can start it with food only then bring the toy back in eventually.
>>I am not too concerned with how he is right now but I dont want to get him much higher and then it’s out of control. I love his drive and love to work. When we are not working he is the sweetest most cuddly boy with a great off switch.>>
I am not too concerned about it (a year of flyball has given me all sorts of new tools haha!) but you can add in a ‘go say hi’ cue to make the hand off and use longer toys that you can drag on the ground to help him focus on the toy and not on your flesh if he is jumping up at all. And short, fast-transition recalls will help too!
let me know if that makes sense. Nice work here!
TracyHi!
He was such a good boy in this video! I have a couple of ideas for you to build on all of the successes here!On the recalls – you can make the transition into running as soon as your holder has a good grip – take off as soon as the hold has him 🙂 And, drop the toy in and let the toy drag when he is halfway to you. The reason for these two is that he, in typical BC style, wants to flank out a little bit rather than drive right to you. So, but running sooner and dropping the toy in sooner, he will drive straighter and faster to you. The toy was an excellent choice! So you can just present it (as you keep running) and let it drag as a focal point so he drives to you even more.
On the sit tug sit – I guess all you needed to do was get the camera rolling to help him understand the game? LOL! Good boy 🙂 My only suggestion here is to use your release word (rather than ‘yes’) and move the toy away from him when he releases, not towards.
Now about being sticky when the camera isn’t on…
It might be a body language thing? On this video, you were pretty perfect in your transition – get the toy, stand up, wait. That is a body language that encourages the sit. You might have been leaning over in previous sessions?But, it was also highly likely some BC baby dog arousal stuff 🙂 So yes, keep working this game but also you can add the toy in as a visual distraction in your other sit games. When you do the sits for cookies, you can be holding a toy. Then build to dangling it, then swinging it, etc. The toy is just there, not a reward, but it will certainly be stimulating. Or you can do a bit of tugging, then some sit-tug-sit for cookies then back to tugging. That will gradually incorporate the toy more while keeping him from getting too locked onto it. And incorporating the toy into shaping will help too, because he will learn to offer lots of behavior even with the toy right there.
Nice work here!!
TracyThis is some pretty impressive planing, I love it! And yes, I understand the whole I-95 in Virginia thing LOL!
Do you feel like the packing/pre-trial routine is stressful at all, or smooth and easy? Sometimes it is stressful, in which case we would streamline it. But if the pre-trial routine actually makes things less stressful, then it is perfect! Visualizing the drive is great because I totally understand how it is to lose sleep over the whole ‘getting there’ thing in the morning. I love that your routine is so detailed!Tracy
Hi Diane!
I love this – a kindness crusade!! How fun! and it sounds like you are able to surround yourself with people who are joining your crusade. Yay!!! It really does change the whole day at a trial, right? And yes, I agree that the nasty comments can be so hurtful but with smiling and kindness, you will find that the positive people join forces to make it a great time for everyone. I am totally on board with the Kindness Crusade!!! Agility needs more of this!!!!!!Tracy
I love that you are putting it into practice!!! Mental prep is an up and down road, so take note of what is immediately effective and what you will want to keep working on. Looking forward to hearing more!!!
Tracy
Hi there!
For the Any Toy game, I think you can be standing and moving more to get more excitement on the tugging. She really seems to like it when you are moving the toy a lot, so long toys swooshing around while you are standing and moving a bit can make the tugging really get wild 🙂 You can tie a couple of her toys together to get that long exciting toy. As you are running, using these ultra long toys swooshing on the ground will also help protect your flesh from betting tooth hugs as she comes in to the tug LOL!
And, since you are working on tugging, you don’t have to do much with cookies in between tug – maybe one cookie if you are going to tug in the same spot, or multiple cookies but then run to a new spot to tug (this will get her really pumped up 🙂
And one other thing – no need to put ‘control’ on the tugging until after she is a die hard tugger. That means you don’t need an ‘out’ or any offering of polite behavior to get the toy – you can just take it out of her mouth or let her be naughty to get it 🙂Toy races – good girl driving ahead! She likes to hop to the toy – are you planning on training a running dog walk? If not, no problem. If so, let me know and we will make adjustments 🙂
As you mentioned, she also looks like she might want to run off with the toy – you can help her by running the other way when she gets to it and encourage her to drive back to you by calling or tapping your leg. If she turns her head to come to you, you can reward with a 2nd toy.
Also, on the last rep, we see she didn’t want to have her collar grabbed as you mentioned: two ideas for you – this is a place where I *would* use a cookie: toy, collar grab, cookie, then right back to toy races.
Also, when you do get her by the collar, don’t move her around by it – she might find that unpleasant and be avoiding it. So whichever direction you are facing when you get her collar, just start the toy races facing that direction.Sit Tug Sit is off to a good start here! It took a couple of seconds to get her into the groove – you can split the initial behavior in a new place into just standing still then release then play, so she can get right into the game before offering the sit. This can also help avoid the down – stand then release rather than waiting too long.
Have you considered shortening your release? “You’re free” if kinda lengthy for the quickness of the game 🙂 and she is releasing on the “you’re” part of it – so maybe consider a one word release instead of 2? It looks like she is releasing on the word alone and not motion, which is great!
Now start to add a bit of duration – quiet praise and a longer time before the release. And maybe a bit of motion too!
Nice work here!!!
TracyHi there! I love the progression you have done to build up the toy races! Great job using food while you were building toy drive and convincing him to run ahead and not under your feet 🙂 The toy races here look great, he is FAST! You’ve already added nice distance and he is driving ahead beautifully. My only suggestions are on the restrained part right before you let go… he isn’t too careful with his body, so try to keep his front feet on the ground (don’t’ lift from the collar, or lower him if he tries to come up) and when you push him back, be more gentle (like you were at the end) and don’t push too hard – your early push back in the video sent him toppling LOL!! You were trying to cheat a bit to win, which is great, but he doesn’t quite know how to use all of his legs at top speed yet LOL!
Nice work here!!!!! Looking forward to the shaping!
TracyYes, start by the box. And then, using the MM, you can change your position so she leaves you to go through the box to the MM – great foundation for weaves and RDW!
Tracy
Hi!
Yes, this all sounds good! To help continue solidifying the retrieve after the toy race, you can even expand it to countermotion – as soon as she gets to the toy, you are turning and running the other way. And if that goes well, you can turn and run the other way just before she gets to the toy (this will work really well when you have a lot of distance between you and the toy).
Have fun!
Tracy
