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Good morning!
It was great fun seeing you work Presto on Saturday!! You both did a great job.Rocking horses:
The FC warm ups looked good! And the blinds looked good – You got a little too fancy and you were doing normal blinds when we were trying to have you do spins 🙂 I take the blame on that – I clearly put too much emphasis on the BC element LOL!! Kristie did the same thing 🙂 But the blinds are harder for commitment, so it was good for him 🙂 I think you only did one tight blind, the others were spins and they looked really good especially your last rep – fabulous! Yes, he saved you on one late on but that is why you give him such good toys and treats LOL!
If you do disconnect and he ends up on the wrong side, no worries, but reward him anyway because he was correct in how he read you (the disconnection look like the beginning of a blind cross)
He was being pretty good about not jumping for the toy here, you might have taken out the naughty parts LOL! You can start with a small boring toy squished up in your non-dog-side hand then move it to your dog-side hand – then repeat the process but with a more exciting toy 🙂 Also, be super connected: I find that the toy-grabbing happens when my connection is weak – just because I can see him doesn’t mean he can see the connection. So, in those moments, I ramp up connection and it always helps 🙂Wing wraps at TCOTC: this looked good in terms of his commitment, concept transer to the wing, and general happy attitude 🙂 What do you think was causing him to not be as motivated? Environment? I like to keep track so we can play with it and help him out. He did really well here! I think the ball was his favorite reinforcement, so you can save the ball for TCOTC use only 🙂 He also liked it when you ran. With the games where he was checking out, were they more stationary games? In different environments, we can add high energy games to start with so he gets comfy in the different places. I think with the pandemic, our pups have not gotten to as many new locations as they might have in normal times, so we might see a delay in their development in different environments. I am not concerned, though, they will catch up easily 🙂
Head turns – wow, by rep 3 he was offering the slithery head turn around the post. Good job going to clicking the first one on the post! He was totally getting the idea of leading with his head – smartie!!! On one rep, he didn’t do it but it sounds like there was a plane or something overhead. The barrel also looked good! You can warm him up on the barrel with a couple of doubles too, to get the head-turned approach right away as well. I think he is ready for you to start moving to the 360s!
Great job here!
TracyHi!
>> perhaps its time for a little retraining during this “quiet” time so that all the dogs have a true tunnel treadle cue…or at least one situation where Presto’s training may vary from the girls.
I agree with your assessment – sometimes what we are doing to threadle the dogs is cuing each individual part (come here then go back out) as 2 distinct cues. That adds extra timing and handling needs (one more timing thing for me to be late on hahahaha) so I have moved to teaching the threadle (and serp) cues as chains: come in then go out (all on a single cue).
T
Good morning!
>>I move away from him often during play, and when it’s not in a training session, he very reliably returns with the toy. But I guess it’s possible in that moment he would have preferred i not drop the toy and move away.>>
It is possible that the toy going dead when you drop it is not as reinforcing as some interactive play in that moment, rather than a retrieve. Definitely worth it to experiment with and see what he likes the best 🙂
Serp video – I think he is really showing some great understanding: note how much faster he is doing it!! The next step would be to show him motion before he makes a decision about coming over the bar, so you are moving sooner (but on the same Team Chill, you were nicely chill here LOL!)
How are your stays going? I think starting from a stay might help get success on that first rep (he was moving fast and didn’t quite realize what the set up was til he was past it. So at this stage, a stay would be helpful for at least the first rep, to basically say “we are doing serps” lol.
Also, getting the stay involved will allow you to show motion before he is approaching the jump – timing it is really hard when you are waiting for him to grab the cookie
You can use a mat or cot for him to stay on to get started. We have another stay game coming on Saturday 🙂The rocking horses in the park looked GREAT! Look how focused he was, immediately transferring the skill to a new environment AND ‘remembering’ what to do on wings – both are difficult for puppies and he rocked it! Yay! You were very chill and very connected, which was perfect to set him up for success especially with massive distractions nearby. You should totally be super pleased, he looked great!
Tracy
Good morning!
>>I cam also see that I am “helping” a bit more than I should. When I went back and watched your video with CB again, you really are letting him find the entrance without showing it to him. I think I did some showing when I did this with Pi.>>
It is really hard to NOT show them when the voice in your head is telling you to help LOL!!! Or maybe that is just the voice in my head. It is difficult being on Team Chill when I am naturally suited for Team Over-Help haha!!
On the video –
he was great about finding the tunnel on the regular sends, even on the harder angles! I see what you mean by helping – he was coming to the new side really nicely but then was waiting a bit for the hand and foot cue to turn away, kind of like a rear cross on the flat. Welcome to Team Chill now 🙂 – keep moving very slowly parallel to the tunnel entry and you can even use your tunnel verbal to help him – but don’t turn arm or feet until after he has turned (SO HARD hahahaha!) I think he will be perfectly fine with it 🙂 You can replace the tunnel verbal with the threadle verbal eventually, but for now you can get him to turn himself away with the tunnel verbal.
The other thing to play with here is to do your front cross on the ‘regular’ tunnel send (1st part of the double whammy) so he gets used to seeing cues before he enters (great for tunnel commitment!), and so he turns tighter on the exit. I think he looks ready for this added challenge!>>See you tomorrow evening for class. (This has become the highlight of my week. 😊)
Same!!!!! So much fun seeing all of these pups grow up, and it is really uplifting to see how smart they are, and how all of the mommas and dads are such terrific trainers!!! I admit to being surprised as how well we can train the pups in that live format but yet, thanks to the insanity of 2020, here we are and the pups look great!!!
T
Sorry to hear about your Grandmother 🙁
And yes, it is absolutely fine to come play on Saturday instead of Tuesday!Tracy
Oh no!!!! I am sorry to hear this!! Hopefully it will heal quickly. We will be looking at videos til mid September so maybe you still jump in. If not, we can figure out a make up of some sort. Fingers crossed for speedy healing!!
Good morning! I think we are seeing that even a slightly late blind is faster than a rear cross where you have to slow down to send the dog ahead. The chase element of the blind overrides any of our lateness LOL!! I see that in so many dogs! The rear cross is perfect for situations where you can drive through it.
>>Are you offering more Handler Toolbox classes this year?
I am sorting out the schedule this week! I am thinking of a Crazy Commitment Part 3 which will be small sequences with commitment challenges 🙂
T
Perfect! I am glad to hear he is off restriction! And I agree – don’t keep testing until something breaks, that becomes unfair. When you revisit it all, be sure to disconnect 🙂 Young dogs drop bars when we disconnect and so I like to pay them LOTS to ignore my errors and keep the bar up 🙂
Tracy
Hi! These were fun to see – I pulled out the stop watch that goes to the hundredths to really dig in and see 🙂
For Wilder:
>> I am pacing myself for his jumping on #5 as he has been consistently hitting this bar – when we go past 18 feet he has issues. Keeping my mouth shut and staying connected.Smart! That will help him find the line and sort out the jumping without having to multi-task and figure out where you are too.
I looked at all 4 of your options, and the inside wrap option was fastest by over half a second (timing from landing of first jump to landing of last jump). The distance was a tiny bit shorter plus he had fewer lead changes here – those combined made it faster. When I looked at the options turning to the left, your first one was actually the fastest of those (with the BC – he liked chasing you there!). The rear cross options were very close to that, but they were all a lot slower than the wrap to the right. And you can get the wrap to the right even faster by leaving one step sooner – you stayed and praised him which caused him to look at you and go a little wide 🙂
For Lit’l Bit:
this tells a different story! Interestingly, when I timed to the hundredths, the first rep with the late blind was the fastest – she likes chasing you there a LOT 🙂 So you can lead out more, and be done with the blind before she exits the tunnel, which should make it even faster 🙂 She did well reading the rear crosses, but she had to think her way through them – so she was slower. My guess is that as she gets more experience, she will be able to power through those and then it will be much easier for her, and possibly as fast or faster than the blind. I couldn’t get the exact time on the wrap to the inside because that rep started in a different place, but it was not going to be faster than the blind cross rep – interesting! You can do another go-round, getting the BC in sooner and starting from 1 on the right wrap and we can compare! I bet the BC to the left is still faster 🙂Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>I started by putting the cookies in a little sooner and she was so focused on the task of eating the cookie in the bowl she didn’t seem to notice the sound of the other cookie. Once I waited for her to refocus a little then she was able to hear the other cookie and start the back and forth better.>>
Ha! Chewing is important business. I feel that, I often cannot think of the next thing while I am chewing. My husband has learned to wait for me to refocus LOL!
>>I think with the toy I used the one toy we use only for MaxPup and special reward play after training that is a favorite and the other was a little ratty scrap of an old mink stole of Patrick’s grandmother’s that the dogs find irresistible. She had never seen the mink scrap before so she had a hard time switching to her old standby favorite.
Ah, that makes sense 🙂 I still think she did a wonderful job, even more so now considering that it is a piece of mink!
>> It is amazing to see how much she has grown and changed in just a month! The whole way her brain works is evolving.
YES! Part of what we all need to wait on with the babies is simply in the realm of brain development. It is so cool to see her growing!
>> She is such a cool little pup.
1000% yes 🙂
>>But yes, impulse control is tough. And she is hyper focused on some things, which is absolutely perfect for a whippet, honestly. As you know, they are supposed to ignore all distractions when in the pursuit of their objective, so I expect this one to be hard for her. I am excited that she is moving forward.>>
Yes – I find the working whippet brain to be an amazing thing, and honestly different from any other breeds/mixes I have owned or trained. My Contraband is VERY whippety and his brain astounds me (and then he starts to run fast and I get scared hahaha)
>>Also, I can’t find the mat I was using for our object so I am starting over AGAIN but now that she knows the paw touch on the target behavior, I think she will generalize fast to the new object.
That is actually a good thing – generalize to something new and then the games will flow. She is at a great age for the next steps on the prop!
Have fun!
TracyHi!
Wheee she loved the FC warm up! So fast!!!>>Personally, my biggest issue is being sure I do a BC and not a spin. I have used reverse spins a lot in the past, so when you refer to the motion in this set as a “spin”, I have to translate it to “blind cross” in my head. You’ll notice in the video that I did goof and do a spin once>>
Sorry for any confusion!!! Yes, it is a reverse spin (I discuss them as a FC on the wing then a BC on the flat in the video, so maybe I emphasized the BC part too much – sorry!!)
You were correct to do the reverse spins – your muscle memory took over 🙂 They looked good and Keiko was fine, of course. What you did on the other reps was a blind cross (a normal one :)) and that is also perfectly fine because we use those tight blind crosses and they are actually *more* challenging to the pup for commitment than the reverse spin. So, it was actually hard to do the blind cross on the wing because you have to turn earlier and quicker, so her commitment has to be stronger. She was perfect!
So, feel free to do the harder blinds here as well as the reverse spins 🙂 Great job!
TracyI like to keep the single post work in the training rotation so that the pups don’t lose the skill as they learn all the other things – I like that turning ability to be strongly in the muscle memory 🙂
Hi! This is all looking good!
On the first video:
The warm up looked good and so did the spin on one barrel. You can start the FC sooner (before he arrives at the barrel) so it is smoother to do the FC to the BC, more like at :45.When you get into the mini sequences: Remember not to point forward to the next barrel when he is still behind you, like at :58 and 1:07 – it breaks connection and looks like a blind cross when you do that, so he is correct to change sides (I reward the dog when that happens, it is never the dog being naughty :)) He totally got mad after that, he felt he was correct (I agree LOL!!) He wasn’t going for the toy, he was doing a nice blind cross. On the demo video, I did that same thing by accident and Contraband ran right into my ass trying to change sides (so I wasn’t even on time when I accidentally cued a blind LOL!) and he still got rewarded 🙂 Compare it after that when you maintained connection all the way through on the reps after that, it looked so much better and he understood which side to be on. You can point forward, but only after Kal has passed you to move ot the barrel – that maintains connection. On some of the reps, he was a little sticky on the sending because you were pointing forward right before he passed you. On the best reps towards the end, you had a low arm and TONS of connection, and he was able to commit smoothly and picked up a lot of speed. YAY!
The FCs and Spins all looked good – both were super smooth and you did a lovely job of connecting so he knew which side to be on.
He really liked the Turn And Burn at the end of the mini sequences 🙂 You made those super fun!The race track is looking good! We are all so used to doing crosses that this post turn stuff is weird feeling, but you did a nice job of going from the FCs to the race track, and he was perfect about staying on his parallel line. Good boy!! You generally had nice connection, and keeping your arms low and back becomes super important here:
“I find it hard not to look ahead to the next barrel and I think I must be doing that a bit too soon because that’s when he slips behind me.”
Yes, that makes it hard! At :55, for example, you pointed forward a bit and that is when he thought it was a blind. You can reward that and then re-start to smooth it out. My general rule of thumb with the puppies is that is they blind cross me, it is because my connection is too weak either by looking ahead or pointing ahead too soon.Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! He is doing really well with leading with his head on the pool noodle! I can see him really thinking about it and starting to ‘slither’ around it. The head turning he was doing really sets up the whole turn differently!! Super happy with that! Keep the pool noodle head turning in the training rotation to revisit often, so the ‘slither’ skill gets into his muscle memory – he is going to be such a nice turning dog!
When you added the 360 work to the sherpa bag – if you are going to do the 360s, I think you don’t need to click – you can just drop the treat in. The click might cause him to look back up at you too much? Also the crumbly treats might have made it hard but he definitely was figuring it out!
On the big barrel – this went REALLY well! As soon as he figured out what you were doing and where the treat was, he was really terrific about finishing the job and slithering around the barrel. YAY! You had great reps at :56 and 1:09, where you moved right up behind him and he finished his job perfectly. Be sure to always do it like that, resisting temptation to stay back as he begins to move or shift your weight to the side by taking one side step before moving forward (like at :04 and :44). I think you can gradually start him further back, which will allow you to also begin layering in more speed as well on the 360s 🙂 Yay!
And, you can transfer the 360s to a jump wing – I bet it is easier for him than the big barrel 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi!
>> this time wrapping the big tub. It started out pretty well (you can see he did bite the toy between my legs LOL, but then went back to business), but then lost interest in the toy completely. >>
It is hard to tell if he was thinking about food or not, so we can only observe what happened right before he stopped engaging. He did well offering the wrap – then during the toy play, you were running away from him and then crouched down – that is when he stopped engaging. Try to continue the tug game, letting him win when he pulls back, rather than dropping the toy and moving away. It is possible that he doesn’t perceive the moving away from him as play.
If he freezes, try asking him for a trick or something else to get him moving again and see what happens.>> I feel like I’ve kind of dug myself into a hole with using only treats for training for a good chunk of time, but not sure I had an alternative with how chompy he was around the toys. There wasn’t any food in the room, or on me, but this is how he acts when I try to switch between food and treats in the same session, so that’s why I think he wants food here.>>
I think part of the normal learning process with each new pup is sorting out how to play, how to alternate food & toys, etc. It takes a while and value swings back and forth. He is learning to modulate his arousal on the toy (don’t bite the momma!) so you can keep the toy play very short – one rep with a toy, play, then switch to food before he freezes up. Then maybe a bit of toy play at the end.
>>Then we tried another wrap and he sorta stopped being able to think. I cued the wrap, but he was kinda frozen and then got sharky.>>
In that moment, I ask the pup, “what *Can* you do?” If the pup can’t wrap, maybe he can do a hand touch? Or a different trick? Something that I can reward. And if he can do 2 reps with a toy, that is great! Limit the next session to 1 or 2 reps with the toy, quit before asking for rep 3 and quit before he freezes up. Then you can gradually extend the # of reps he does with the toy.
He did well on the threadle game! At :34 you can see a real moment of understanding where he fixed himself and threadled. Yay! The first side went pretty smoothly and he did well. When you switched sides, it was harder probably for 2 reasons: the first rep was on a slightly harder angle, which you fixed later on. And, as he was coming to your hand, you were ever-so-slightly turning your shoulder forward (more so than the other side) which was pushing him back out. On the last 2 reps, you exaggerated leaving your shoulder in position (even pulling it back!) and he did really well. Nice timing on your clicks!!!! Have you decided on a threadle verbal yet? I think he is ready for you to add it: after he eats the cookie, start saying the verbal and shaking the threadle hand. Start on the easier angles to get the high rate of success.
He transferred to a wing perfectly! So cool to see!!!! And yes, Turn And Burn looked good except yes, you were very exciting on this game LOL! But he did really well. At :43, you were toooo exciting physically. Think of moving away like you are holding a full, hot cup of coffee (you’d be careful and smooth) rather than exploding away or pumping arms. Be boring LOL!! Also as you leave, you can toss cookies back to him at the exit, to keep a balance of the value partially on you and partially on finishing the wrap.
>> I’m supposed to begin moving away SLOWLY, and then once he’s cleared the wing, I can start running, correct?
You – moving away holding the full hot cup of coffee, carefully LOL! Team Chill is hard, you and I both are on Team Twitchy LOL!!!!
Great job on these!
Tracy
