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Hi Linda!
OMG Freestyle looks SO FUN!!! And heck yeah, these mental prep routines are perfect for freestyle – I see a TON of applications. Because you are already using music and you must time your cues, visualization is a key element! And because it is a performance, all of your nerve-reducing techniques can come into play as well. Very cool!!!!
T
Hi Mary! That is a great application in tracking! Love it!!!! I don’t know much about the sport but I do know that we humans really have to trust and watch the dogs!!
T
Hi Mary, happy Thanksgiving!
>>Thanks, I think they are adorable but I always figured it was because I was bias..
No bias, they are completely adorable.
>>ooohh Buddy if its not about greeting everyone its about the food. lol Which I was really shock that he didn’t go visit. I guess he knew the camera was on and wanted to perform. HEE heeE.
Ha!! You were really showing him the line, so he clearly didn’t feel the need to go visit 🙂 Visiting might be a coping mechanism for when the line is unclear?
Keep me posted 🙂
Tracy
Good morning, Happy Thanksgiving!!
>>Never have seen this as a first before?
That is odd, I have never seen the triple first before either – I guess we all need to add it to our visualizations in case we see it again LOL!
>>Someone from behind me said my name. It took me by surprise so I thought I needed to hurry and go but, hadn’t heard the timer. So I guess I rushed and didn’t really pay attention to my dogs footing. She had a difficult time taking off in the dirt and knocked that first bar. (My dog has never knocked a bar before)
All sorts of distractions were in play here! It is a great opportunity to add to the list of things to remember for runs – wait for the timer, stay focused even if you hear your name, etc.
>>That being a little disappointing, I moved my focus on the run to working on our goals of speed and distance.
It is awesome that you could immediately recover from the disappointing moment and carry on for a great run! YAY!!!!
>>10 years ago I quit smoking using affirmations which were a big part of that success. So I know they really help. I still feel like a Novice handler. Even when we have a really good run I have to admit that there was some luck involved.
Ah, this is where you can definitely improve your self-talk. When you have a really good run, it is because you simply had a really good run! You executed your plan, you communicated with your dog, and it worked beautifully! Most of us make a lot of excuses for when things go well – but you can re-wire your self-talk and affirmations to let yourself acknowledge that it went well because you did it well 🙂 Yes, sometimes there is luck involved, but that is when a jump bar bounces up and then lands back in the cups, for example. A winning run is not a lucky run – a winning run is the product of your planning and execution. In your self-talk, allow yourself to give yourself credit and compliments.
And when someone says to you, “Nice run! Congrats!” the best thing to do is say “thank you!” and maybe add something you really liked about the run! Don’t add anything “yeah, but” or “it was lucky”. Just say thank you and accept that you did well 🙂
You can add “I am a Masters Handler” to your affirmations 🙂
>> I do know that I am getting better so I can say that and believe it. I also know that I am the best partner for my dog! We will keep working because good things do seem to be happening for us.
Yes to all 3 of these 🙂
>>> Our Standard Run at the Trial was our best and fastest run this year and we even took 1st Place. We do seem to run better on dirt than on turf.
Congrats!!!! You nailed it! And yes, I find that many dogs and handlers do better on good dirt than on turf.
>> We have another trial this week on turf so that I can see if it really makes a difference. Although the site we are going to just replaced their turf and people are saying that some dogs are slipping.
it might be a bit slippery, so plan to help the dog as needed and to stay away from any negative chat among handlers.
Keep me posted!
TracyGood morning, Happy Thanksgiving!!!
This was a great session! Nice job with all elements of it: high value toy, good transition, creating the right amount of ‘suspense’ and opposition reflex when you tossed it! He was really into it! And that is good to know for time when he isn’t as into the tugging – you can throw the toys around a bit to get him into chase more for the play. Or tie the toy to a lunge whip so you can swing them so he can chase.
The drive to the toy is looking great, so you can start to add a tiny bit of your motion in terms of moving forward. Keep the toy play as the top priority, so don’t add too much motion or pressure as that can distract him from the play.
Great job here!
TracyGood morning and happy Thanksgiving!!!
Lovely session here! Your exuberant rewards brought my dogs running over LOL!! Demi did a great job holding the stay even with all of the excitement of the game – yay!!! Two little tweaks here:
Use your release word 🙂 you were so happy with her that you were using yes and yay rather than a clear release. So remember to use ‘break’s or whatever your word is (standing still, then she moves, then the toy party can proceed).
The only other little detail is to let her get the toy more before you whip it away… but I agree that we don’t want hard tugging because of the potential pain. So you can drop the toy, let her get it, dance with her (praise, clap, etc) then give tje the Mine cue and restart.Poor girl has had a rough start with all of those physical issues!!!! It sounds like she is doing better and she really looks good on this clip!!
Nice work here 🙂
TracyGood morning and happy Thanksgiving!!!
Some ideas for you:
>>It’s really hard to get her to do anything but sit for a split second in this mental state. If we are going in a store, I can’t get much focus at all out of her.>>
I feel that! One thing we’ve learned is that rather than try to get a sit or focus in these situations, it is better to just create a coping skill. She is so excited she can barely control it, so we will teach her how to cope. That would be a good time to present that stuffed kong or bully stick or a snuffle mat, so she can cope, settle, then be able to make decisions on sitting or just standing still.
>>One of the things that still concerns her is if Ti alarm barks about something. If we are out back and he runs towards the fence barking like that, she will run to me and sometimes stand between my legs
That is a comfort-seeking behavior, and that’s great! Providing comfort (touch, food) will help her have a positive response to the alarm barking. Of course, we don’t want her to join in, so comfort (touch and feed) then move her away so she isn’t as close to the alarm barking.
>>She gets spooked at night by people. If they start talking to her, she is totally fine.
Totally normal behavior – strangers at night spook me too 🙂 When Export was a puppy a million years ago, he had this same concern. So, I named the situation – when a stranger would appear, I would tell him that it was a Go See (and go see what his permission cue to say hello to people, because, like Josie, he loved people). So when he would notice someone at night or in the distance or both, I’d say “it is a Go See” and then engage the person (as you described). Export immediately got happy because I would say it before he could really get deep into a fear response. The Go See was paired with much happy-making stuff, so the entire situation became happy-making (walks a night, strangers appearing, etc) and helped immensely. It sounds like Josie is similar so you can try it out!
Also, the Go See cue was added so he understood the parameters of when it ignore his human friends and when to pummel them with his love haha! Your little one will need that too, from the sounds of it, but we can’t add it til after she can cope and chill better in the situation.
Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning and happy Thanksgiving!
This was same great session – nice transition to the novel object from the tugging, it was your transition that got the behavior. That first paw touch might have been incidental but the click was spot on and her lightbulb turned on immediately. So fun! And I like how you stayed close to it at first, then got a little further away and she still showed value for it. Also lovely tug breaks.
Since this went so well and because you’ve already done a nice amount of getting on things, you can turn the suitcase over, with the lid open, and shape her to get in it (I’m sure that will take a total of 2 seconds for you and her) and then for added fun… either shape her to close the lid or have one of your other dogs close it 🙂 That creates a more complex scenario but I believe you can do it!!! It is a harder challenge with the benefit of being super cute 🙂
She is doing well with the out of the toy, just remember to keep your hands still with both the out and the get it elements so she doesn’t cue off movement.
Great job!!
TracyYou are more than welcome!!! Puppy training is part science, part art, part support group LOL!!! If you are lucky enough to catch a struggle on video, definitely post it!!! That way we can put our heads together and sort it out. There is never any judgement here, just support and problem solving 🙂 And you most definitely did not break your puppy. He is a cool dude AND he loves da momma so much!!!
And I TOTALLY understand the losing sleep and breaking the puppy thing LOL!! I have felt that about every single puppy in the last 15 years. I am getting a puppy today, and lost sleep from excitement and worry. I just keep reminding myself to trust the process, trust my instincts, and trust my ability to find support and info when I can’t figure out the answer on my own. We are all in this together! And part of the adventure is screwing up and then learning new things to put it all back together 🙂
T
Interesting! Glad you posted about it!
I think we can add in some coping skills for her to help with the outside stuff – it all makes sense and it is all pretty normal.
What have you done so far to help her? It seems it is helping because the behavior is reduced.
First, how far away do you think she was when she started noticing the distractions outside? That is about where I would offer up a snuffle mat or treats in the grass or some type of sniffing game. And if you feel she is unable to fully attend to the sniffing, move her further away so she can give herself completely over to sniffing.
And, lots of long sniffy walks will help too!
The behavior being more pronounced as it gets darker makes sense too… harder to discern things in the dark, plus there is an element of depletion/fatigue that comes into play so there is less self-control. So the coping skills can be more important, and further away – always be prepared for that random person to appear in the dark at a hotel or something by either scattering treats around or presenting a stuffed Kong, while moving her away.
For the proximity – does she like being touched or petted in a certain way? For example, when my Hot Sauce was hesitant as a pup, she would either climb in my lap or asked to be picked up for a full body hug! And that morphed into standing on her back legs with her front legs wrapped about my arm while I scratched her chest. I decided easily on to give her the comfort she was asking for – what a difference it made!One last thought – how are your other dogs in these situations? Another decision I made early on was to let my 2 most stable dogs be the models for behavior for her, and to separate her from any of my others who might model behavior I didn’t want. So my 2 younger males (Voodoo and Nacho) are really comfy in almost any environment, so she spent a lot of time on leash walks with them! My oldest female can be sharp and reactive to other dogs on walks, so HS never went on walks with her LOL! Same thing with noises: Export is incredibly sensitive to noise, Matrix is sensitive to thunder… so HS never hung out with them during those times. She only hung out with Voodoo and Nacho, who didn’t give a hoot. And i would introduce her to other dogs who could also model confident behavior. Just food for thought!
Let me know what you think!
TracyHi there! I am super glad you posted this!
In my mind’s eye, when you said he was freezing, I was picturing the Border Collie glazed-over stalking frozen-ness from over-arousal. He does NOT seem to be doing that! In fact, he seems to be in a nice level of arousal and not glazed over. I think he is just not sure what you want and is waiting for a cue/help and/or a toy throw. Good boy!
So, a few ideas for ya!
I think the advice to keep moving and not let him freeze was more if he was in that glazed-over state (scientific term haha) but in this case, since he is not glazed, you don’t need to keep moving. In fact, I think the little bit of motion is actually causing him to possibly predict that he should wait there because you might be about to deliver a cue or throw the toy. So, no need to keep moving like that because it isn’ as helpful as it can be.
However, we can indeed help him! He was trying to figure out what you wanted and he did offer up some attempts at the “just gimme the darned toy” behavior hahaha It is also possible that he thinks that the presence of food is the cue to offer behavior and the presence of the toy is a cue to tug or wait for a throw. This can come from repetitions and context – dogs are brilliant at figuring these out and letting us know what they think it is LOL! Plus, we will be adding in some stealth self-control so he can offer a behavior in the presence of the toy rather than just want to party with the toy toy 🙂So here are some ideas:
* In your regular training/shaping with treats, choose a behavior that you think is really easy for him at this point in terms of offering, maybe with a prop. SOmething like, feet in a box? Anything easy that you think he stands a solid chance of doing and he seems to enjoy.
Do your normal routine of play with the toy, then switch to treats – but using this simple behavior, keep the toy visible! Have it in your other hand, or tucked under your elbow. This will help ease into the toy being present during offering and not just play. It seems that so far, in his experience, the toy is not present during offering, therefore he does not yet have an association between the toy and offering.* Does he know how to do a hand touch (nose to your hand)? This is a way to get the toy involved in the offering stages by helping him with a cue: party with the tugging. Get the ‘out’ then present your other hand with the palm open for a hand touch. Be sure to make the toy as small as possible in the other hand, and also be sure that you look at your open hand for the hand touch (not at him!). When he gives you a hand touch, even a crappy one -back to toy party. A crappy hand touch is fine to start because at least it is an offered behavior rather than watching the toy. And he will have to take his eyes off the toy in order to do the hand touch – so hard!!!!!
* For the sitting in the presence of the toy:
Is he really good at offering sits in the presence of food? If so, great! Food is a definite cue for pups to offer stuff like sits. Using food (and without a toy present for now) – shape him to get on a big mat or chair or kLimb or something then shape him to sit on that mat/chair/klimb. We start this without a toy present for him, because I think he would have a hard time offering it if there was a toy.Then we proceed the same way as above with the easy behavior – food is still used as a reward, but the toy is present and visible. (If being in your hand or tucked into your arm is too hard, then it can be visible on a table or something).
Then eventually we proceed to shaping sessions that are all toy-based, only using the toy and no food – mat-tug-mat, then mat-sit-tug, etc.
Let me know if this makes sense! It will be SUPER useful to get him to understand to offer in the presence of the toy, because we shape a ton of agility behaviors with a toy reward. And, offering behavior also involves self-control on the toy, which is NOT easy! That is why I suggest starting with something like a prop to help get it rolling, as well as having the toy visible/present in other sessions.
Have fun!
TracyGood morning Linda and Mookie!
>>For the run that didn’t go well, I didn’t know how to handle 2 sequences on the course and therefore did not really rehearse or visualize. I was in the first group in so could not really watch others.
Ah yes, understandable and valid! Was there anyone at the trial who knows you and Mookie that you could have asked about how to handle it, to get ideas before the walk through? Crowd sourcing ideas is perfectly fine as long as you only ask positive people and only ask people who know you and your dog pretty well.
>>It was my first time in Premier Standard and a fellow exhibitor told me that it was the most complicated course she had ever seen and was not a good one for my first time.
This is the kind of comment that should kickstart some of your mental prep processes – affirmations to say that you CAN totally do it, blocking out negative comments, etc. I am sure the comment was well-intended but it is pretty negative and is exactly the type of comment that can mess with your focus and confidence.
>>I have since recreated the 2 sequences and figured them out.
Yay! That is the perfect thing to do. And I am sure you will see those challenges again and you will nail it.
>>I have been practicing what we have missed in runs which has shown me what cues I have to give for those type of sequences.
If we see these sequences again (with bi-directional jumps and skipping a jump in a serpentine line of jumps) I now know how to handle it.So perfect!!!! Yay!
Sounds like you and Mookie are doing GREAT!!! Looking forward to seeing you in December!!
Tracy
The videos came through! Yay!! Both of your dogs are so cute, it was distracting to me haha!!!!!
I think your memorization process was really solid – you didn’t have to look ahead or hesitate or figure out where the next obstacle was, you were able to stay really focused on the boys. Nice!
I think one thing can really help them both – and it is not mental prep related at all! A handling thing that helps small dogs is to have your dog-side arm further back (almost by your butt) and look at their eyes more as you move around the course). When you use your hand/arm to point to the line, it turns your shoulders a bit away from the line and blocks their view of your shoulders and eyes. And, it turns out, that the dogs are reading our shoulders and not our hands – and so that is why both boys had questions for you on this course. It will feel weird looking at them a little more with your hand back, but it will point your shoulders towards the line more as you move so they will commit better and they will see connection better. Now, don’t stare at them haha!! Look at them and keep moving – that way they will go fast AND commit. Buddy really let you know that the connection had broken a little – especially at the end when he went around the last jump and went to cookies haha!
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi there!
These are good!!!!
>>– Keep reminding myself that there are no failures, all we are doing is exposing new learning opportunities
Yes, that is part of the reframing process.
>>– It may be a bit ritualistic, but I take the course maps for NQ runs and crumple them up and toss them in the trash
Ha! This is actually a recommended mental prep ritual, lots of folks in sports do something similar to toss away failures 🙂
>>– I don’t look at NQ video’s until I get home – keep the demons away
It might be worth it to look at them between runs, in case there is something you see that can help you on the very next run too.
>>– there is always something good that happens in any run, that’s what I think about and visualize
Yes! And also a bit of gratitude – we are all really lucky to be able to be out there doing this game with our dogs, even when it goes totally awry 🙂 Many folks would trade places in a heartbeat!
>>– And I keep reminding myself that he’s just messing with me – every single time I start getting discouraged, he says it’s time to show Tom some brilliance, sucking me right back in.
Ha! This is a great release valve… Cody is the ultimate slot machine! He lets you win the jackpot often enough to keep you hooked 🙂
T
