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Hi there!
The downhills are going well – he was really quick on the back and forth parts of it, running straight through the tip to the end on each side. He didn’t seem to mind when you added more tip (he was liking it so much he mushed your fingers trying to get back on!) so now you can formalize it into the downhills by always starting at the top (table) and having him go downhill to the teach it. Did you get the food tray with the teach it? If so, add it on so the rewards can be there. If not, you can tape a target or spoon to it, to place the cookies in – the cookies placed in there will get him driving to the end and you can do all sorts of handling challenges to create a lot of independence. Then I think you can add more tip! He seems to really like the downhills!!
On the backing up – this is hard but he was totally getting it! I think the long jump boards totally helped him. He was very into it when it was not tipping… but then when you added tip, he was not as interested in offering the backing up (his tail was also not in the usual happy place). It might be possible that the backing up onto the moving board is not currently happy-making, so we can add an intermediary step: the disc! Since the disc has breakfast value, you can first put it in front of teeter board in this setup, then under the teeter board. That way there is movement and difficulty, but in a way that he is comfy with and without as much slam. Then we can fade the disc out (either by gradually sliding it out or by deflating it LOL!!)
Great job!!! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
I think it is smart to do these short fun high value sessions when tired, rather than try anything new! 3 great reps for peanut butter deliciousness? Emmie says “Yes and THANKS!” LOL!! I think the more you do this, the better – she is still a little bit thoughtful on the first rep. But each time she comes out, that first rep is better and better! So, it was a smart training moving to make this your entire session 🙂 then onwards to relaxing 🙂 Hope the herding clinic was fun!!!
TracyHi! I think she is getting the idea of the down on the end of the board! She does seem to be cuing off your position, though, and so her front feet are near your leg, which means the down is a bit further up the board and not right at the end. I think a simple target can help get her all the way to the board and also get her looking straight – a long strip of tape across bottom of the plank, right at the very edge of the board, maybe with a thin strip of cardboard under it – she can focus on that, drive ot he very end of the board and put her feet on it to lie down. That way she is looking straight, at the end of the board, and it will be independent of your position. And it should also solve the problem of getting out of the down to get the treat, because she will remain in the down as you deliver the cookie. Let me know if that makes sense! Plus it is very different than the 1RTO training so it will be easy to discriminate 🙂
Let me know if that makes sense! Safe travels to Tulsa – have a great trip with great runs 🙂
TracyHi!
Sounds like he did really well at the trial! Yay! It is so great to be able to start exposing him to those environments!!The downhill game is going really well – like you mentioned, tip and noise don’t seem to bother him at all! Yay! The main thing here was sorting out the end position – he did sort it out aftr the first minute of the video, but I think he was trying to figure out how to make the MM go rather than how to down on the end of the board, if that makes sense. The setup encouraged the 2o2o, so you can make it easier by adding his target to the end of the board. That way he will be able to run to the target and not be as focused on the MM. We want the MM to keep his head straight, but I think he was using it as the object to shape on (as in: run to the board and lie down in front of the MM). The target on the teeter should take care of that and then he can go full speed down the board, and then we will fade the target 🙂
He did really well with the backing up! Yes, opinions were shouted haha but he is doing a lot better about backing up straight and keeping his whole body on: it is NOT easy and he is doing so well!! There is nothing I would add to this in terms of distance or more tip – it can go into the training rotation as something to revisit to keep his balance and core strength in tip top shape 🙂
Great job here!
TracyHi!
He is doing well with the poles straight now! This is exciting!!
He is also moving faster, so your mechanics will need to be quicker – have the cookie ready to throw and practically moving as he does so he doesn’t look back (you can probably use a verbal yes rather than a click, as clickers often get the dogs looking back at us.Your line ups were clearer here so he was not trying to anticipate which side as much. Nice! On the line up – give him a cookie when he gets back to you so he waits for permission and also so you can line him up straight – that will also get him to explode to the weaves more, which will be useful down the road when he is doing them on course.
Next straight poles session can have more of your motion with you working up to jogging. Also, are you able to get a session or two in on grass? AS we add more speed, the grass will help him dig in even more 🙂 Fun! And if that is no problem… onwards to adding poles 3 and 4.
Great job!
TracyHi! She did a great job here! Weaved when asked, tunneled when aske – a really nice balance! Yay! That will bode well for the future on course when the weaves and tunnel are right next to each other!
>> If it’s a no no to go back and forth from one end to the other, please holler. I don’t think I’ve done any permanent damage if it’s all wrong, but don’t want to fall into the habit, either.>>
Definitely no permanent damage done LOL!!!! I avoid it on short sets of poles (2 and 4) for 2 reasons: it is harder to establish the reward line, so the dogs end up looking at us more, and also because we tend to not cover all the angles in favor of the easier angles on the back and forth. I suggest holding off on the back and forth until we have 6 or more poles, as the fuller set of poles will provide the reward line so the dogs don’t look up at us as much 🙂
Nice work 🙂
TracyIt is a hard code to crack sometimes! Usually I find that watching the other dog work is helpful for raising arousal (there is actual science about this). I also save the high value toys for the hard stuff and only do one or two reps. And when using food, lots of mixing in toys right after a cookie helps too! Play with letting him watch Callie then doing just 2 reps, and see how it goes!
T
Hi! She looks great here! She is very consistently finding her entry, and you were able to add plenty of motion: no problem. Yay! When she is on your left, on a couple of reps you sent her before she was lined up – and she missed on those. When you lined her up, she was perfect. So, be sure to line her up so she can nail those hard left side entries. You were really good about lining her up on your right side and she did a great job on those! You can add more difficult right side entries too, moving down towards the 4-5-6 o’clock areas.
Because she is doing so well, you can totally move on to the next steps of the 2x2s posted today!! Have your channels arrived yet?
Tracy
Hi! These sessions went well!
On the tunnel versus weaves session: the left hand side went really nicely, I don’t think he had any trouble at all with that! The right side sends were harder – on the first rep, he was indeed distracted by the tunnel but than I think the tunnel was not the distraction… I think it was the Manners Minder! He had trouble ignoring it to go alllll the way out to the entry 🙂 One thing I notice is that when you line him up then take a heartbeat for him to look at it before sending him, he was consistently better. But when he spent a heartbeat looking lovingly towards the MM, he would consistently miss LOL! So for now – line him up and let him focus forward, then send. Start at the 4 o’clock spot and then gradually get closer and closer to the MM at 6 o’clock.
The straight poles look really good here too! He was finding them very consistently here, including the really hard ones! You can add more motion to these now – send and get moving before he arrives at the poles. If he can handle the motion (building up to jogging), then onwards to the new games posted today. Yay! Great job here!
TracyHi! He did really well here too – Most of it was quite perfect but he did have a couple of pop outs when the toy moved before he was in the last set of poles. He saw you getting ready to throw and decided to help make it easier for you haha! When you delayed til he was in the last base, he was fine so a couple of ideas for you on that:
Add the PT back in as a visual focal point for him, so he is less locked onto the squirrel movement. You can still toss the frizzer but the focal point will help reduce pop outs – that will really help when you add the crazier handling that is coming in today’s game with the channels 🙂And on easy lines of entry, you can be wiggling and flapping the toy a little bit, to help him understand to ignore it til he is finished weaving. You can also do this with the 2x2s, because there are fewer poles and therefore easier to be correct 🙂
For really hard stuff on the channels, you can delay the throw til he is in the last base, but we also want him to be able to ignore the frizzer if you twitch it a little early 🙂
You can add that in with some simple sets with the 6 poles and then onwards to the harder stuff! Yay!
Great job here!
TracyHi! He did great here on the straight poles! Almost all of the entries were really solid and he was fine with motion. He also seemed to be perfectly happy with the ball mixed in. The only hard entry was that 3 o’clock entry – that is hard for a lot of the dogs! My Elektra was really having trouble with it, so I did a clicker session right up near the straight poles, clicking for getting into the entry from that angle (and harder angles on that side) and dropping the cookie right past the entry. That really helped, so it might be something to try with him too.
Because this went so nicely, onwards to the new games! You’ll see the announcement shortly 🙂 He doesn’t need that 3 o’clock entry to be perfect to start the next steps, so you can work those and also isolate the 3 o’clock entry.
Great job!
TracyHi!
>> I have been trying to call her back to me with the treat and that works well, but you are right, she more often than not takes off without the cue. I just started using a sound to cue her.>>
>>How do you recommend I get her to wait for my cue? Make her sit/stay at every hour of clock?>>She loves to work! And that is great. If calling her back for a treat is not super high value and she might still start before the cue, you can call her back for a toy 🙂 If weaving is high value, then the reset reward can also be high value.
Plus, that helps to maintain the balance of value for obstacles and handler, so she is happy to drive to an obstacle or drive to you when cued.
I think asking for a sit between each rep might be a bit boring LOL!!!! And also, she might not want to sit, then the two of you will potentially argue about it LOL so I vote for line up cookies or toys to make it more fun to hang out with you. Then, to clarify the send cue, I do something that I call the ‘ready dance’ – I face the dog a bit, wiggle back and forth and say ready ready ready to get her to look at me… then send to the poles with the arm/leg/verbal. It is goofy but works quite nicely 🙂
>>My son was treating her in both videos but for some reason she started looking back, don’t really know what that was about. I had to encourage her to go to Alex for her treat.>>
Border Collies sometimes prefer action over food rewards, so maybe that was it? We can use toys! You’ll see me using toys with my BC/Whippet mix in some of this weeks videos. He likes food but LOVES toys 🙂
>> I placed the frisbee at the reward line, which I have done before, working by myself. It’s really a bad idea because she gets more excited about that than a treat. But she will leave it at the reward line and runs to it. But since she loves the frisbee even more than treats, she was going through many, many times without me asking to get to the frisbee. On the positive side, she’s choosing to do it! But I get it, I need to be in control.>>
>>So, recos for making her wait for my cue? No reward at all if she goes through without my asking?>I don’t think that was a bad idea at all! It was a great idea! If I am understanding it correctly… she was pretty accurate going through the weaves but was starting without you?
If so, I recommend 2 frisbees 🙂 One for the reward line, one for coming back to you. If she will tug on a frisbee, she can tug with you – then you send her through the poles to the other frizzer, then you play with the one she got – then place it again, get her to play with you, then send again. Or any combination: for one of my dogs, I do a frisbee as the reward, then cheese as the line up cookie, then the frizzer reward… he really likes that 🙂 Let me know which 2 things she likes and we can use those!
I think getting a toy involve will really help because with the cookie, she was very quick to eat the treat and then go weave LOL! Smartie!! That way the poles are all about play play play and cues, and you don’t have to withhold reward or tell her she was wrong if she starts without you.>>I haven’t done the throwing the treat into the bowl as I think she’ll look back at me. But think it’s worth a shot, if I can find a big enough bowl for my very bad aim. >>
Another foodie option is a lotus ball or treat hugger – that way your aim doesn’t need to be great and the food is more interactive.
Cracking the code of reinforcement strategy for each dog is the hardest part – but totally worth it.
>>Lastly, I think, I was doing the forward motion? I thought I was. By that I was walking down the reward line. Or do you mean adding a hand cue as motion?>>
You can add more challenge by going faster – you were moving up the line, but now see if you can job or run! I don’t think it will be a problem for her, she is very focused on the job 🙂
New games posted today! Great job on these!
TracyHi! This was super! She was fast, focused on her line, and pretty darned accurate. You had lots of angles and lots of motion and she was fine with it. I think you can probably do more sends where you are completely stationary from the 10-11-12-1-2 areas and she has to go alllll the way without you 🙂 But I think she will be fine. The MM as target seemed to help her stay straight, so you can leave it there (maybe move it back a tiny bit so she has more room on the exit).
Because this went well… onwards! The new games are posted (you have already done one of the challenges on 6 poles here, which is driving way ahead). We take significant steps forward on both the 2x2s and channels, it will be fun! Great job 🙂
TracyHi! He did really well here on the straight poles! He was looking at you a little when you were stationary, especially when you were at the 12 position – but I think that will go away as we add poles 3 and 4. Also, when you use only toy, you can still have a MM or something out there as a focal point for now so he doesn’t look back at you at all.
He did have a little trouble on the right side hard entries at the end – I agree that he might have been tired, so you can try those early in the next session.>>And I added some movement and tried to do it slow, but starting right away. That didn’t seem to be a factor in this session (except maybe in the last couple of reps), although it will be interesting to try with channels since there are more ways to “fail” there!
>>And I added some movement and tried to do it slow, but starting right away. That didn’t seem to be a factor in this session (except maybe in the last couple of reps), although it will be interesting to try with channels since there are more ways to “fail” there!>>
The movement went really well! I think he will be fine in the channels because you can click when the left shoulder gets to pole 3 and that helps keep him in (we delay the click a little later in the progression). When you send and move, you can add challenge with more of a ‘split step’ away on the line, meaning send with one leg and the other leg steps immediately down the line. You were rounding the corner with him a little, so now you can raise the stakes but splitting your step and getting outta there even sooner 🙂
>>One question I have is about how to structure the session. I tend to kind of “popcorn” around on sides and angles. But then I end the session and feel like I missed something important. Is it better to be more structured and work systematically around the clock, maybe starting at noon and working back to nine (or further) and then back to noon and around to 3 or so? Or, is it ok to be a bit more random and assume that over several sessions you’ll end up covering enough of the clock? >>
On a session with new challenges, I tend to start on my left at 9 or 10 o’clock to make it recognizable and to get the dog starting on a bend into the poles (there is more info about that on today’s games). I like it to be recognizable for youngsters to set them up for success (we can randomize it later in the training). Then, after you get things rolling, you can pick how you want to progress – step by step around the clock, or popcorn. I personally am a bit of a popcorner too – but what really matters is that we keep the rate of success high AND we make sure we show the dog ALL the things at some point. I use the field guides as trackers to make sure I am covering all the bases before moving forward to the next step. Popcorning all over keeps me pretty engaged (not sure if the dog cares LOL!)
But also, I don’t assume that I have covered all of my bases because we humans are creatures of habit – and I can guarantee that without tracking it, I would miss the 4,5,6 right side entries and not get them done til I figured out it was a big training hole. So, tracking it either right after the session or from the video will help it all get done.Onwards to the next set of games! They are posted in the Course Syllabus section.
Have fun!
Tracy
