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Hi there!
He definitely caught on fast to the concept! And I think the jumping over 8″ is no problem, either for his age or in general terms for him, as long as you don’t do a zillion reps 🙂 One thing I would like him to do it look up at you less and down at the MM more – he is looking up, which inverts the jump style. So, 2 ideas – when you release him, be facing the direction of travel (not facing him) and maybe even kneeling by the MM or trigger the MM just after you release him so he takes the line with his head really looking down to it. We can start with the early trigger then fade it out eventually. Second idea – be stationary for now – you were moving and you were interesting to watch, we need you to be quite a bit more boring for now hahaha!!! We will be able to add your motion back pretty quickly, but stand still for longer before the release and I think the early trigger/not-facing-him will work to get his head down.For the stays – with the youngsters, as soon as I see value for jumps and tunnels starting to come up, I assume that stays will deteriorate 🙂 so in any training where the pup has to stay in front of a jump or tunnel – I add in rewards for stays on a 2-1 ratio. I throw back a reward on 2 reps, for every 1 rep of the release to the jump that the dog gets. So if I do 5 reps of the grid, I throw back 10 rewards spread out during the session. I tend to edit these out but I can leave them in if you want! So, more throw back rewards will help him or leaving a reward behind him and cuing him to get it.
If he does break, the game stops like you were doing – then I like to reset the whole thing from the beginning – line up at my side, etc. On the 2nd break, you helped him into the sit by facing him over the jump and using his collar, which si not as preferred as working through the whole line up process again. For me, the stay begins with the process and not just the actual sit. I also will give away a cookie to one of the other dogs if the working dog breaks the stay 🙂 As long as the dogs don’t fight or squabble, a bit of jealousy is a helpful thing LOL!
Nice work!
TracyAh! Got it. That would make sense, that she wouldn’t be focusing on the toy in order to help herself stay in the stay 🙂
OK, I think it is GENIUS to use your kitchen to help build the turns on a serpentine. GENIUS!! Plus it is funny 🙂 LOL!!!!! I wonder if on the field you should hold the toy in the non-serp hand then drop it when he arrives? Or throw it? He likes motion when it involves jumps so driving into you when you are stationary is not that stimulating.
And yes, Voodoo was pokey as a youngster. I remember at his first trials, folks would say he was so beautiful… which was another way of saying “not fast” hahaha! I used to think he would be a medium-speed dog and I would be able to Q a lot and be great for DAM teams. Yeah, well, he matured, the switch flipped, and now he wins his classes by an average of 2 seconds. Well, at least he does when I can run him clean – not so easy when he goes that fast! I think Spot reminds me a LOT of Voodoo as a youngster. The big difference is that we have a MUCH better understanding of how to build the foundation now than we did 6 years ago. Spot will know a heckuva lot more than Voodoo did, so you will have fast AND accurate! Wheeeee!
Hi!
These are going really nicely!!!! One tweak for you that I think will answer a question she is asking:
did you notice that when you sent to the wing, she would hesitate/bounce up for a heartbeat? I think your send arm was blocking connection, so she wasn’t entirely sure of what to do. So, as you play with these, try making more eye contact with her as you send, and keep your send arm really low and very small in motion. What I mean by that is don’t really let your hand move past your knee, nice and low, so she can see your eyes more. The eyes control where your chest is pointing, which is what she is reading. The bigger send arm blocks all that (especially with the smaller dogs) so it might be why she was not 100% in those moments. Let me know if that makes sense 🙂
Nice work!
THi! She is finding it easier to pull from the front than to rock into her rear, thus the extra big jumping LOL!!! Using the 4 foot grid at the 4 foot spacing, try back chaining it:
Place her in the last gap before the reward, then release so she jumps the last jump.
Then place her in the 2nd to last gap, release so she jumps the last 2 jumps.
Then place her in the 1st gap, then release so she jumps the last 3 jumps.
Then try all 4.
If at any point she tries to skip a gap, start in that gap to show her the mechanics.
If she is still asking the question, we can spread her out to 6 or 7 foot spacing, to tell her that striding in the gaps is what we want (even if it is an extra stride, no worries) then we can gradually tighten the spacing 🙂
Let me know how it goes!Hi again!
I really like how he is bending/driving around the wings, very slithery! Nice! Commitment is going well and great job with your verbals. He seems to be better on the right turn wrap commitment than t he let turn commitments, so hold your ground a little longer on the step backs to the left wrap. I think by 1:35 he was tired out – it is a lot of running for them and not for us LOL!
Because understanding is looking good, 2 things to add:
spread the wings out more so there is more running
incorporate more running rewards – so after a wrap, you take off and sprint out for the reward.
This will help him drive harder because it pairs running with it all – and he does love the chase element of agility!
Nice work!
TracyGood morning!
OMG he reminds me of baby Voodoo on these serps… so much drama about driving into you from a stand still LOL!!!! Having him come in from the tunnel definitely added excitement and you were quick to get into position, Yes, add in the hand touch, I think that will help too! (For the record, I worked through the drama with Voo and he is fine, and I know Spot will be fine and we will chuckle about how he was so unimpressed with serpentines at first LOL!!!)
The rocking horse rep looked good! He just seems to think that it should be all chase, all the time – so when you are mot moving much (like here on the step backs or on the serp) that it is boring LOL! But on this one you rewarded by running and rewarding, so he totally perked up! So keep adding motion into the reward and I think he will get happier to drive through things when you are not moving as much. Yay!
Nice work!
TracyGood morning!
>>Are you crossed eyed from all the computer stuff with the online seminar?!
Ha! Not crossed eyed, actually pretty excited that we can get the tech to work even more smoothly for future training! It adds a whole new dimension to what we can do in coming months (because everything will be cancelled) as well as after that when things return to normal (I hope…)
>>I didn’t realize you had responded on the height so I used the jumps I made which are 6″ I believe.
No problem! It worked fine. 3 and 4 jumps looked good. He did get a little ahead of himself on the 2nd rep of 5 as you noted – I like to ask for the same thing again, no changes, to see if the dog adjusts. My goal in that is to basically say “how did that feel?” and if the dogs says “it felt weird, let me try this instead” – that is a good thing 🙂 And if they try something else that is good, I will jackpot. If they try something worse/crazier or they don’t make an adjustment… then I will step in and help LOL! The idea is to help the dog be responsible, where possible, for making his own adjustments with minimal help from me. He did better after the rep with the toy help, but if he gets ahead of himself again, just repeat the rep and help less. From what I can see, he is a talented little athlete and also, he isn’t isane – so I think he can sort himself out really nicely! I think he did well on these reps. What were the distances here? If he can do the 5 jump grid with balance at this height and distance for another session (maybe Tuesday or Wednesday, give him the day off from jumping today) then I would like to give him more room on these for some true power striding. I believe he can do these on medium-dog distances. Yay!!
Nice job, let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
Mini pinny – I just love how she is getting so good at offering the stuff with jumps and wings! Good girlie! Then she had to say to the daddy lol!
She was pretty perfect except for when you backed up rather than just turned.
And also it was hard when you said RIGHT oh wait LEFT! She actually went and turned right after the first cue, GOOD GIRL! Love her!So on these loose turns, keep your handling quieter so she isn’t trying to chase you, and also the verbals can be longer and softer : riiight, riiiight rathr than rightrighright – she does MUCH better that way!
For the next session – I want to see if we can convince her to bounce now that she is familiar with the set up. You can try moving the 2 outer jumps in closer to the middle jump (so the center of each jump bar will be approx 5 feet apart) and put the bars in the 4 or 6 inch cup, and see how it goes! That will help her bend her body, which is good for when she gets up to the big courses 🙂
On the targeting – good job with the plank outside! Remember to release her and play after every couple of treats. Also, keep placing treats right down on the target and not into her mouth (so we can begin to move you away from the target, more below)
Why was she in a down? Could be she was trying to REALLY weight shift, paired with you really leaning over her (dogs tend to down when we lean over like that, there is a lot of pressure – you were leaning before the target cue).
So, let’s move to the next step – she is on the plank, you are now on the side, target is on the ground (you can hold her collar so she doesn’t move to the target til you are ready). Have your treat ready, be standing up (no leaning), give her a ready-set- TARGET! then let go. Reward when she steps into target position by plopping the treat on the target, then release, and play. Let’s do a couple of those and see what she thinks 🙂
Nice work!!!
TracyGood morning!
Sorry that I didn’t see your questions til this morning!!! But I think you generally sorted them out.Mini pinny – good work here! He had a little trouble coming in with more speed and from different angles, he was adding some strides and trying to sort out his lead legs. Pretty normal stuff 🙂 Try this exact same session again (or maybe twice more) until you see he can bounce it the same way he could when you were up close and not moving much. After that, we can add more steps! I am confident he will sort it out, he just needs to see the puzzle a few more times 🙂
Answering yesterday’s question: “what height should I put the bars for the mini pinny?”
Leave the bars where they were in this video, for now. They will get raised first in the jump grid wirk then in this when there is a more reasonable distance and more experience.Nice use of verbals, and he was lovely toy drive here too!
Serp –
“So pretend there is a second jump out there and place the reward on the “landing side?” ”
Yes, your placement was spot on, it just made his head explode 🙂 the high value toy out there is a little hard LOL! He is so funny, so expressive 🙂 I think you can help him out by using a lower value toy or empty food bowl (then tossing the treat in it) – or the Pet Tutor! The Pet Tutor might be easiest because he is already learning how to offer behavior in order to make it work its magic LOL! You can start by having it out where you put the ball, then have him come touch your hand – then when he does, click the PT to dispense the yummies. That will help him get the concept before you go back to the toy. The toy is basically as exciting as a tunnel will be in the future, so we do need to work with the toy there… but we can teach him the concept and then add it back.Go – the toy out there in advance can totally help! I think your early reps were really good (on your left). He never took his eyes off you on that first right side rep, so the throw was going to be late no matter what you did haha! Then he was doing the BC multi-tasking of running forward while looking at you LOL!
So to answer that question from yesterday:
“And third question is can I have someone else throw the toy on the “Go?””
Yes! As long as the thrower-in-chief (Shane?) throws really early, and also changes his position so Robie doesn’t target him. It takes a village to attempt to outsmart a BC 🙂Nice job!!
TracyGood morning!
She is looking good here, looking pretty comfortable striding through the grid! And it was definitely a smart idea to put some value back into stays LOL!!! We like stays haha!
She was looking up at you a bit, so we want to convince her to have a more ‘head down’ approach to this. You can either squat by the reward, or go to a reward she might drive to more? One way to do it is to lead out – drop the toy and release immediately (before she might break) – she would probably follow (visually) the motion of the toy dropping, which will help her focus on it through the grid. After that, it will be super easy to build to 4 and 5 jumps!Have fun!
TracyGood morning!
The mini pinny looks great!! He was using his body really nicely and bouncing the distance. You can give him a little more bar to go over! And if that goes well, you can move the middle jump out a bit. The new turn cues are great choices, To keep you obsessing… one thing I do with my verbals is make them distinct in terms of pitch, tone and volume. GO and backside pushes are really long and loud, basically yelled. The wraps are very quiet and repeated, so the dog really has to draw in to hear them (which helps get collection!). The loose turns are medium volume and longer. So instead of “turn” or “swing” it can be “tuuuuurn” or “suhwing or “swiiiiiiing”. Food for thought because I think we will have plenty of time on our hands for thinking about it LOL!
Serpentine – he is getting really good at driving in. Yay! It got harder as you added more pressure in terms of the harder angle (:27) but he sorted it out at the end! So next step – move the reward back to where he has to turn away to get it (closer to the exit line where the next jump would be on a serpentine). And you can actually be a tiny bit further away from the bar – a fully extended arm’s length. And feel free to reward him at your hand if he loses any of the joy of driving in 🙂
OMG the GO was hysterical, I love how he just turned and stalked the toy when you hit the wing LOL! Ah, Border Collies LOL!
On your next go session, a couple of ideas for you:
first, start further back – he is ready for more of a commitment challenge plus it will give you more time to throw before he looks back at you.
second – throw before he looks back at you 🙂 For now, you might have to throw as soon as he starts moving! And you can do a couple of reps with the toy already out there.
And one other idea – hold his collar like you were, and instead of saying ready, start saying “go go go go” and when he is looking forward and maybe pulling, release him, run, keep saying go, then throw. That will get even more explosive acceleration. Yay!Nice work here! Have fun!
TracyGood morning!
Rocking horses:
Great emphasis on really connecting with her! These games are harder than they look because there is so much speed LOL! At :47, you hit a common error where we handlers look forward to soon on the send and it looks like a blind to the dog (so she confidently went to the other side of you). Excellent fix at :54 with more connection. And nice job on the running rewards! When these are more comfy, add in your wrap verbals!Send backs:
She is just such a happy particpant!! SO fun to watch. Good job onthese, great reward placement to get both the commitment and the turn back. Keep using the connection behind you as you step back (shifting to look at the wing), it really help as will holding the step back position. It looks like she was coming off the commitment when you didn’t hold quite long enough (you were beginning the first muscle twitch of moving away LOL!) So hold still til she is at the wing and then reward and move away. That will build into countermotion easily after a few sessions.Serpentines: Backyard training will be the norm for a while but that helps us work through distractions!
On the serp – you can be a little bit further from the wing, one extended arm’s length (gives her a bit more room). And, you can open up your upper body to be more of a full serp position – in this case, your left shoulder points at the wing, your right shoulder points where the other wing would be, and your serp arm (right arm here) is open way back to where the other wing would be. You were pointing to her and that was causing your shoulders to close – which will make a difference when we add motion to this. Then when you have that position – hold your shoulders completely still til she gets to the reward – turning them forward closes things off and can cause her to go around the wing rather than come in over the bar, like at 1:37. Changing the reward position helps her understand to come in over the bar, and shoulders open will help too (open shoulders help cue the next jump/turn away when we are running :))As she got to the slice line (2:44) you had more open shoulders, and that is the position for all of the serps, even when she starts on different angles.
Let me know if that makes sense! Nice work on these!
TracyGood morning!
>>Question on the ladder jump exercise….do all the jumps need wings? I have simple 6″ fixed jumps that I made for when I took the Salo course with CAVU. I used those for the jump grid exercises at that time. I’m assuming they will work or I can just use my regular jumps set at 4″ or 6″ whichever you prefer. I actually have done a bit of this with him before so should I just start with 4 or 5 jumps are still start with 3 then 4 then 5?
Has Benni seen 6″ bars? Those might be a little high for a starting point for him (he is smaller than CAVU, I believe) so maybe start at 4″ and then we can see – the fixed jumps should work for a lot of it, I just want ot be sure we start in the right place. Do a rep or two with 3 jumps and if it looks good, move to 4 and 5 jumps.
>>first I did the FC/BC too fast, now I don’t do the BC soon enough. I’m gonna get that right one of these days! He sure does love when I run away from him so he can catch up!
Yes, he loves the chase which is great for agility! And your mechanics are good so now we can do the “go faster” reps LOL! Nice work!
Tracy
Yay, this ended up strong! I think the first couple of reps were more about her just wanting the cookie and taking the most efficient path to it LOL!! A handler tweak – open up your upper body more. Your shoulders should be parallel to the bar, with the right shoulder pointing to the exit wing and left shoulder pointing to where the other wing would be, and center of chest pointing to center of bar. It is easiest to do this by extending your serp arm further from your body, almost pointing it to where the other wing would be, rather than pointing it to her. This keeps your shoulders more ‘open’ like they will be on full running serps. You were pointing more to her, which closed your shoulders and makes it harder to cue the serp. When she got out onto the slice line towards the end of the video, your arm was more extended and shoulders more open – that’s the position for the serp, even when she is not on the slice line. Let me know if that makes sense 🙂
Once she realized how to earn the reward, she did a great job on the come-in-then-go-out serp behavior!!! Nicely done!
Tracy
