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Hi there!
1st rep looked good! On the 2nd rep, she didn’t know which side of you to come to at :13 and :20. This was a conection break, meaning she could no longer see your eyes so she thought maybe it was a blind cross starting, or not sure of which side to be on. So to fix that, keep your dog-side arm low (like it was, yay!) and back – and make a moment of eye contact with her as you turn. The arm back plus eye contact will give her the connection to know which side to be on.
At :28, you show her a cookie and that helps, but compare the :13 and :20 connection with the connection you had at :32 (getting her on your left) and then getting her to your right at :45. Those were really good and she knew where to go.
She did well here on the commitment – she wasn’t quite ready for you to leave really fast, so keeping to smooth for now will allow you to build up to the fast 🙂Jumping shaping:
She loved it! Good girl! And no worries about the big hello to the paparazzi LOL!!! She was also happy to let you expand motion in the lazy game. You can add challenge to this now in 2 ways:
1 – note the 2nd jump out there – you can do a 2 jump in a row lazy game by walking by both of them – rewarding each sometimes, rewarding only the 2nd one sometimes.
2 – you can do the lazy game by starting her on an angle with you a couple of feet away (I like to hold the collar and the let go as I start to walk) and see if she can pick up the jump from angles!Nice work! Have fun!
TracyHi! The arms are fine for this beginning stage because it will feel really unnatural to not use them 🙂 So as long as your leg and arm move together, and your arm stays relatively low, it is fine 🙂 Just use as much of a soft arm cue as the dog needs, without making it feel bizarro or stilted 🙂
T
Yay! He is the perfect age to start layering in these games. Fun!!!!! Can’t wait to see him in action.
Tracy
Hello and welcome!! This will be fun!!!!We can add challenge if anything is too easy 🙂 Fun times ahead!
Tracy
Hello and welcome! Let’s look and see how he does in the commitment games and then figure out what to do about bars. You can have a low bar in the lazy game and see what he does! Lazy game will be key (and I am pretty sure we didn’t do it in MP3 last year LOL!) Running around jumps is generally a commitment question and not a jumping question, but we will figure it out! Plus we have specific jumping skills coming too 🙂
T
Hello and welcome to you and Robie Kenobi!!! So fun to see you here. Looking forward to seeing him in action!!
Tracy
Happy 10 month birthday, Lanna! Welcome! Games will be posted shortly 🙂
Please check out my tunnel question below and let me know 🙂
T
Hellooooooooo! Welcome back – 10 months already, but also only 10 months old. This will be fun.
Please check out my tunnel question below and let me know 🙂
Tracy
Hi there!
These all went well – good job with the mechanics and she was all on board with offering the wing wrapping 🙂 Your cookie placement/rewards were strong throughout, I think the early ones and the late ones were good! Most of all, she was driving in and out of the cues – to your hand then away from you hand, which is exactly what we want. Nice!!!!!!!! You can also use a toy or a ball instead of treats, or an empty hand to draw her in (cookie in the other hand).
Well done!
TracyPerfect! Aaron’s method is turning out a lot of seriously amazing flyball dogs! He is an expert dog trainer, I knew him a while back in agility when I spent more time in Canada, and it has been fun to see him again in flyball. He bred my BorderStaffy.
I’m totally looking forward to MP 3, this group is amazing! MaxPup class of 2019 is turning into some seriously amazing agility dogs, and I have better training ideas this year. The MaxPup Class Of 2020 is going to be fabulous!!!
TI totally agree, you two are becoming a fabulous team!!! I’m honored to be able to watch him grow up 🙂
Hi there!
Yay for the RDW training! And yes, if you are using the mat training for the flyball box turn, I agree that it needs to look pretty different. But we do mark similar things – back feets even though the rest of the body is different. On the video, reps 1 & 2 were clicked for front feet so she nailed rep 3 as front feet… but didn’t get clicked. The next reps had a bit more confusion because of that but then you got several rear feet clicks in a row so the session ended up strong. So for the RDW, you can stare at the mat to obsess on rear feet only, then either call her back to you around the mat (not over it) for a tug toy moment, then reset & restart, or let her play a bit of back-and-forth and reward good hits as she is coming towards you. The back and forth over the mat is a fun element (I clicked her rear feet on the mat even when she was coming towards me, either with a clicker in my hand to reward near me or with the MM and she went back to it) but I didn’t use a mat in flyball for the box turn (only used it for the RDW).wrap blinds:
these are hard, they feel so weird at first LOL! Everyone wants to do them as spins which is what you did on the 1st rep. But then you got it nicely! It helps that her commitment is really strong so you can turn away and do the blind. As you got more comfortable, you started doing the blinds earlier. My favorite was at :53ish, when you started it just as she was arriving at the wing. You can even start them sooner, when she is one stride from the wing (throw a reward back to her at the wing if she questions commitment). The earlier you start, the better her turn was and also the sooner you can leave for the next line 🙂Slice blinds: going nicely too! Nice emphasis on your exit line connection too, she could immediately read the blinds. As with the wrap blinds – as you gain more and more comfort, you can push the timing up to start the blind as early as one stride before the wing. You were starting it as she was maybe halfway around the wing. Her commitment looks really solid, so I bet starting sooner will be easy (motion supports commitment on these) but you can also throw rewards back to her at the wing if she asks any questions.
Really nice work on these!!
Tracy
Hi!
Shaping sessions can go on for a while when the dog is doing all the work, so remember to set a timer so you can keep it to 2 or 3 minutes. Or limit the number of treats you bring to the session so you end it when there are no more cookies (maybe 20 treats). This was a 5 minute session, but I didn’t get the sense that it went on too long – he didn’t get tired or give up. So throwing in a longer session sometimes seems to be just fine with him, during these “thinking” games where he has to solve the puzzle to get the treats.Sitting directly in front of the plank (giving him just enough room to get on the board) will smooth him out and straighten him out on the plank. He doesn’t need to play this with you off to the side – I think your position was why he was a bit sideways. And being in front of the plank will also help him realize you want the plank – off to the side leaves too many options. Also, try not to help him out with verbals or hand motions – that will direct his focus to things you don’t want his focus, so be quiet and stationary (so hard, I know!! LOL!)
And he did a nice job sorting it out – He was definitely happy to get the target & cookies going, so he really was able to think about where to put his hind end and front feet , even with you off to the side. Good boy!!!! He persevered all the way through the session and was a super clever boy!
Good job getting some toy play between reps! Not so easy with all the food right there but it went really well. Nice work!
T
Yay! You are getting it! Nice! On the 2nd and 3rd reps, you started the blind really early (before he got to the wing) and that made it work really nicely. You were pretty late on the 1st rep (you made sure he was all the way around before starting it) so it wasn’t as smooth. Keep on with your mechanics of the 2nd and 3rd rep – trust his commitment so you can start nice and early 🙂
T
