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Good morning!
You made great time getting home! Feels like a month flew by! I bet you are glad to be out of all of that bad weather.This was a really nice session of backing up to get him back into the groove of your training sessions. He was backing up brilliantly on the flat! When the board was a little less angled at the beginning, he was also easily able to step back onto it. His form changed when the board got higher – it was harder to get his back feet all the way up. It also shifts a lot of weight into his shoulders at that height, which we should avoid at this stage (shoulders are delicate flowers LOL!) So you can keep the board lower but add challenge by giving him something low to step over on the way to the board. What are the guide poles made of? They are the right size to have him step over, if you have more of them.
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
>It was going really well, until it wasn’t ;). A couple came through the confined area we were in and rode their motorized scooters within about 2 feet of us. Absolutely their right, but Macklynn flipped out. It took us a while to reset, calm down, and get a few positive reps in before leaving.>
Yikes, that sounds so hard! I think MOST dogs would have had a BIG struggle with that. All of my adolescent dogs would have freaked out too – surprise and noise and weird moving things. Poor Macklynn!!! I am glad she was able to reset.
The get out game went really well! She was really good about going to it on cue and NOT going to it when you didn’t cue it. The balance reps were really funny because while she didn’t change her lead to go to the prop, she definitely did look at you like you had forgotten to tell her to go to it LOL!!
On the reps where she was cued to get out, she did really well with changing her lead and you were good about maintaining the criteria of hitting the prop. Super!
The shpile was great – the pile itself was had all sorts of different stuff and was a bit unstable. Perfect! It had enough challenge that she had to think about getting her hind end on without being too hard.
She did well staying coordinated and offering behavior, even with the added arousal of all the toy play breaks. SUPER!!! And I love love love when a Border Collie can eat treats and play tug in the same session. That can be a challenge for a lot of BCs and she is great with it! For future shpile games, you can keep switching up the pile and adding more things that move.
Yay for backing up! Definite progress here!! You have been working it in small increments and that really shows – she is doing really well! The good reps (there were plenty of good reps!) had lovely form so you can keep gradually moving away from the mat to add more distance while maintaining the form.
>I may need to bungee my hands to my sides so I stop accidentally asking for a ‘sit’ >
Ha! Yes – I think keeping your hands by your knees will keep her from looking up. And when she looks up, it shifts her weight into her rear more, which stops the movement and produces the sit. You can lean over to keep your hands there, or sit on something 🙂
The rocking horse game went great! I think both of you like getting to move more! During the in-between moments after a reward and before the next rep, I think she didn’t know what to do with herself so she was pacing around a bit. You can ask her to line up at your side (a cookie will work for that) so you can have a clean smooth start. Nice job fixing the little connection bloopers – when you were not quite connected, she ended up on the wrong side of the barrel. And she really loved the ‘turn and burn’ exits where you ran away with the toy!
>Very slowly adding distance on this – I initially added a bit too much and she didn’t want to play.>
Yes, keep adding distance. She was happy to play here, so if she turns off for some reason, add more connection and you can also add more motion of running towards the barrels a bit – I think that will be fun for you both!
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi –
>s the wing a game to level one lol I just skipped it because I figured it was too easy. Ha ha.>
ha! It is actually really hard – you have to be at the tunnel exit and send to the wing with one step. And the timing of the FCs plus the exit line connections are hard!
Thank you on the sits.
>It tends to be more on the lateral lead outs so is there something I can do to help him with that like let’s say he does move his feet what is my best response to help him with that without being punitive and causing stress on his start line. >
The number 1 rule is: Don’t fight with the dog.
So with that in mind, for the lateral lead outs – play with what works better for him. Leading out straight then moving over? Or moving over, then leading out up the line? Either way, glue your eyes to his feet and throw the reward back before he moves. And if it is an on going thing, change the position to one where you won’t fight with him about it 🙂
And always watch his feet on the lead out so you can be consistent with feedback about foot movement.
Let me know how he does!
Tracy
Hi!
Looking at the layering: I think the new trend on courses in UKI, ISC, etc is for the dog to choose the far line (and layer) unless very specifically asked to come in. So I think for Lift and Kaladin you can almost overbalance these so the extension line is the default unless you give super big cues for coming in like for the serp. A year ago I would have said it was more of a 50-50 balance, but I think it is more like 75-25 in favor of the extension line now.
So on Lift’s video – she found the layered line really well! I think there was only one little blooper and that was when the cue. To stay out was a little quieter than the other reps. And you can start to fade out the ‘out’ cue too (verbal and arm!) in favor of her just assuming to stay on the big extension line when there is no lead change away.
Then, for the coming in to serp: as she is approaching the start wing, you can be giving really big cues for “do NOT stay on the big extension line” LOL!!On Kaladin’s video:
You can overbalance into the layering with him too! With both dogs, you can use bigger more urgent verbals to get them to come in on the line – you were pretty quiet 🙂
>He knows “switch” is flip away and layer in extension. >
I love this cue! It has saved my butt several times 🙂 He nailed it! You said & did the ‘out’ cues after he was already on his way to the extension line.
>And then the rep where he thought I meant serp but the eyes of desperation and the get out got him to turn back out again.>
On that one, it was hard to hear the verbals on the wings – both dogs might think that quiet voice is the cue to come in to the serp? So when you were quiet there, Kaladin thought serp! Then he was a good boy to immediately respond to the out cues. Yay! The out cue was a little late on the next rep but he got it – the timing was spot on for the last rep, and he nailed it!
>the eyes of desperation>
I think the next time I do a connection seminar, I will be adding “eyes of desperation” to the agenda because it works for well hahaha!!!
>Question on the inside open arm threadle slice. What is the difference for the dog between that and coming in over a serp? >
The verbal and position on course are different, of course, but the arm cues are different in terms of movement: for the threadle, I swing my arm back. Jenny Damm calls it “open the door” and I love that! For a serp, my arm is extended but locked and doesn’t swing back.
Speaking of the dog-side arm winging back: that is was happening on the backside video reps where he took the font side (like at :05 and :22). As he exits the wing, the first thing he saw was the dog side arm swing back, so he came in towards the front of the jump.
When the dog side arm was more relaxed/didn’t swing back and the opposite arm is pointing to the exit wing, he got it really well (like at :29 and :45)!
When your dog side shoulder was so relaxed that it blocked connection, he was not as sure (1:27) but he knew to NOT take the front side.
OMG the snow is Lift’s video! Ugh!
>The last one at 1:20 was better where you can see the opposite arm extending across and in front of me pointing to the entry wing.>
Yes! That is the key: when your outside arm pointed to the entry wing, she found the backside nicely!
She had more questions when the outside arm was pointing to the exit wing – with you moving away from the camera, we should actually be able to see it sticking out ahead of you. The rep at 1:20ish was the best one in terms of that!
She did find the backside well on plenty of other reps – those also had a bit of convergence towards the backside which helped too.
>The rep where she shot way out of the camera frame was where she thought it was a get out and that I wanted her to go wrap the 2 wings I’d pulled off to the side from the previous layering exercise.>
Awwww good girl!!!
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
Super nice one step sends! The first video went really well, she was finding the line to the wing really well.On the 2nd video, she investigated something off to the side on the first rep but no worries – the post turn handling kind of shows that line to baby dogs 🙂 She was perfect after that!
On the FCs on the wing – nice job with the timing!!
When you added the middle wing, she found it really well so you can also add in earlier FCs by moving up the line to the wing after the tunnel then doing the one step send to the middle wing. And when she locks onto it: FC before she is halfway to it.
The plank confident looked great! You can break it up with tugging after every couple of reps, that will both keep her thinking a about her feets in higher arousal and keep her excited so she doesn’t visit the videographer 🙂
You can elevate the plank a little more to add more challenge too!
She really understood the assignment with turning around and worked her butt off to keep all 4 feet on the board! Good girlie!! Having her move slowly really helped because she didnt rush the footwork. Thus is something to keep revisiting here and there on a low plank, til it is easy peasy and she can do it fast 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
> It’s frustrating as I asked our vet, when we went in for the X-rays to assess with her laying down, and the vet insisted that her physical exam (with Jazz standing) was sufficient.>
Yes, frustrating! But also, the OFA exam for patellas is a standing exam… so Hot Sauce would have had clear, good patellas according to OFA. But the reality is that Hot Sauce was grade 2ish on her left side and grade 1ish on her right side.
The exam was done by a board certified Orthopedic vet who also does high level dog sports. She was shocked to hear that it was a patella and now examines dogs on their side, not standing.
It might not be a patella issue at all, but all of the sports vets tell us that if there is a weird soft tissue ouch in a young dog that is not a traumatic injury (like falling off a dog walk), then it might be the knee or something else.
>She doesn’t seem to have any hesitation about running across this. >
No hesitation at all! She was very confident and when you went fast, she got even faster. FUN!!!
Question – have you decided if you want running or stopped contacts on her dog walk? She wad going fast and leaping off the end, so i figure we should start contact training soon to show her what you want on the end of the board.
Also, you can elevate the board a bit, if you have blocks that can keep it stable and a few inches off the ground. That will help turning around on the board, because she will really feel the difference between stepping off the board and staying on it. You can move your hand really slowly for now with the turning around.
> I considered using one from my DW but I think there would be a gap on each end due to how the DW is constructed. Is that OK? Should I stuff something in there?>
I think the plank you used here is great, or you can use a DW plank because we are going to elevate it a little which should take care of the gap issue? If there is still a gap or any spot where she might get a foot or toe caught, you can stuff a towel in it or even cover it with duct tape.
>We also played with the teeter bang game – no video here as I clearly need to go back to backing on a board.< Maybe her psoas was bugging her and inhibiting backing up? Have her just hit it with front feet for now, without the board moving, and let's see what she says. >Additional challenge is that my treatment will most likely be in San Diego (4-6 weeks) and her treatment is in Sacramento. >
Are you staying in San Diego, maybe bringing her with you? Maybe she can get treated there? But I’m pretty sure the first part of her treatment will be fine and still very helpful if she has limited physical activity – you can add “at home” stuff like a PEMF bed or assissi loop. Your treatment first, then her treatment!
>What treatment did you follow with Hot Sauce?>
Bearing in mind that this was happening during the covid lockdown in 2020:
Rest, limited movement to rest the psoas, lots of leash walks (and a patella repair because the patella was the underlying cause)Meds! I think NSAIDs and a muscle relaxer but I will have to dig up the records.
Laser!
PEMF and assisi loop (i did these at home)
Massage 🙂
Therapeutic ultrasound
We didn’t do Shockwave (maybe we did it once?) but that was only because it was a brand new modality and my rehab vet was just getting into it as Hot Sauce was finishing her treatment. I’m sure we’d use it now if she needed it nowadays.
And a lot of it was guided remotely by Dr. Leslie Eide, a sports vet who also does agility located in Washington State. She was amazing!
Keep me posted!
Tracy
Excellent!! She figured this out really quickly!
Your timing of the clicks were really good, getting more and more of her back feet on.
And the placement of the manners minder was an added bonus: she had to wobble to board more to go get it 🙂The next step is to move it to a floor where it might make a little noise when she moves it…to keep her happy with it, stuff towels under it at the beginning so we introduce more sound with it being too startling.
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
She did great with the lazy games!!
She had lovely commitment on the first one, without you needing to do much at all 🙂 I was going to bug you to remember to use “get it” for the cookie throws, but then you used it in the send video so I won’t bug you lol
The sends on the 2nd video were terrific! She was committing really well AND she was sorting out the striding to make a tight turn. At one point you sent with the “wrong” leg but she got it anyway – that’s why we train these games for commitment, so we don’t need to be perfect 😀
She was terrific with the 3rd level, adding the tunnel. You were so funny – it was going well so you added in going fast! She was like HECK YEAH and went to a new level of speed while maintaining her commitment and striding. SO FUN!!!
Great job! You can add more distance but also, new handling games are coming soon so you can look at the wing games too.
Tracy
Good morning!
The lazy game went really well! Your connection and verbals were all spot on. Her line finding was great! She was having a little trouble with the soft turn on the pinwheel jump- ticking it. She had one rep to her left where she hit it but I think she just slipped in the dirt.
So for the soft turns – she is definitely sorting out the striding but we can help! When she is taking the jump after the tunnel, do everything you were doing and add in cueing with both hands. The outside arm is a brake arm that adds a touch more collection cue, and is very useful for these soft turns.And you can play with adding more distance between obstacles 🙂 more games coming soon!
Super nice job with the wingin’ it games! Yay! She did well finding the wing on the one step sends, and also had great commitment on the wraps & soft turns.
Because her commitment looked so strong, your FC timing can be earlier. On the soft turns (FC on the middle wing), you can send her to it more as you also decelerate. Then you can begin the FC when she is halfway to that wing. And if that is easy for her, you can start it when she exits the previous wing and locks onto the middle wing.
For the FCs on the wraps, you can decelerate as you send her, then rotate when she is maybe halfway to the wing too. You can keep getting earlier based on how she commits.She was surprised by the first tunnel threadle then got it really well on the next rep. Yay! You can use a wrap verbal on the wing before it – is think you were using the soft turn verbal? And then keep moving to tunnel entry you want and let her flip herself back to it, so you won’t have to worry about timing that cue 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
He did great here with the parallel path!! He was pumped up to find it!
When he was on your left .moving away from the camera, it is possible that he needed more connection/eye contact. On the reps where he missed the jump, it looked like you were looking forward so he was just moving with you (as if going back to the starting spot and not realizing you wanted the jump). So try a bit more connection and we will see what he says!Since he did so well, you can replace the clicker with a “get it” marker to keep him looking forward.
You can also take it outside for a couple of reps with more space.
The rocking horses went great too!
This was funny: at the very beginning then towards the end, there were 2 reps where he was not quite ready for the send forward but when you swooshed your arms back to line him up: he totally thought it was a backwards send hahahaha good boy!He was a little stronger on the left turns here but it is possible that it was because he could see that barrel better. Try being a little further from the barrels so he has a clear view.
You can definitely add more distance here as well as try a rep or two outside – but bring him inside before he gets hot – leave him wanting more!
> I did some reps with Bazinga while he watched before his turn. Hahaha>
Abuse! hahahahaha I’m sure it pumped him up!
Nice work here!
Tracy
Hi!
She is doing great with the rocking horses! And your connection and verbals are spot on. Super!>. To get her back focused on me I said Get It and did a couple throws of the back & forth game, but I really need something better than kibbel for those times! She needs to see it & make it worth her while, no?>
Yes- birds are a big distraction so the pattern games was an excellent choice!! And also yes, to higher value cookies when the environment is harder.
And also – she’s ready for you to use more toys and tugging here! That might be all she needs to overcome the bird distraction. You can add a little more distance between the barrels, add on the advanced level, and tug more to make it really exciting.
Lots of good work on the strike a pose videos!!!
When you were holding or throwing the reward/lotus ball, she was pretty much perfect from any position. Yay!The lotus ball on the ground was definitely harder! I think she was seeing you put it down which kind of enhanced it for her, drawing her focus to it.
So we can switch the order of festivities:
Have the empty lotus ball or food bow in the reward spot the entire time. Then put her in the stay, lead out – and when you release her you can look at your hand and even shake it. That should draw her focus to it more and away from the reward on the ground (hopefully 😉)Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
> I did some similar things with her. I was wanting to work on jump commitment so I had practiced a three jump pinwheel and actually did it with out my hands too because I wanted to work on looking toward her and her, letting her find the jumps, and not having her be distracted by my wonky hands and arms. I also did it with a tunnel as the 4th obstacle, and practiced doing some wraps without my arms. So in the video I wasn’t very good with throwing the treats because she was moving along>
It went great! Having previous experience helped for sure. She was happy to find the jumps without needing a ton of help from handling. Super!
You can definitely move on to parts 2 and 3!The wing games looked really strong too: she was flying out of the tunnel to the wing! There was one rep (:37) where you were looking forward at the wing and not at her, so she stopped and looked back at you. Compare that to the previous reps and the last rep after it: you connected to her eyes when she exited the tunnel and that was a big part of the cue to go to the wing. She’s ready for more of these games too and you can expand the distances as well.
She did a great job on the plank! She’s a big fast dog but still knew where to put here feet, both when she was going back and forth, and when she was turning around.
For the turning around – if you have access to a really low dog walk, you can have her hop on in the middle , turn around, hop off.
For moving across it, you can ask for more speed before we increase the height but throwing the treats further, or throwing a toy 🙂
>Side note because it’s embarrassing, the reason I have a ton of ugly sandbags in my yard is that we had flooding from rains that happened after a wildfire in the mountains a couple years ago>
Not embarrassing at all! They served an important purpose and are now leading a 2nd life as tunnel bags! Brilliant!!
Great job here!
TracyHi!
>. Since Ella I swear I still can’t send to the top of a pinwheel. I either just run the circle so to speak or launch my arm out and shoot the dog off!>
Most of the pinwheels here were good! The last few were weird – possibly a combination of fatigue, a little extra fling from you, and he might have been thinking you were throwing the toy out there (which was probably mental fatigue too).
But overall, he did great! Finding the lines, turning, etc. My only suggestion is to say the left/right verbals softer (like a quiet question) and a few times. That will help them contrast with the GO and also help right not sound like bite (sounded identical to my old ears LOL)
The next handling gets posted soon and he is ready. In the meantime, try the wingin’ it games! Interestingly, no one has done them yet 😆
>I have a challenge that’s bugging me. Chases stay is good but the lurching is starting and/or he will cross a pay leaning towards me.>
Based on what he did here, it is a non-issue. He was really solid. You can let his feet settle before leading out (there was one rep where he moved a front foot) but the leaning is not bad at all and his is not moving a muscle on almost all of the reps.
He did a weird jumping effort when you were weird about the sit – you were leading out and you said sit in a I REALLY MEAN IT voice and he was like… huh? I am sitting? And then was distracted from the bar.
It is entirely possible that he doesn’t even realized that he is a tiny bit crouched. He is holding the stay really well and not leaning forward too much.
> I do not want this!! I would like him to sit up with good posture like a good boy and like every one of my dogs ever have done lol!< What's that old song - "You can't always get what you want" hahaha On this video, his stay is focused, engaged, ready for action, but solid too! It is what i want my dogs to look like! So yes, if he moves a foot after you've started leading out? Sure, talk to him about it. But nit picking about a leaning is going to cause stress because he will have no idea what you are correcting. >Sometimes I wait a little until he settles but I don’t really love that. I think it sets him up to possibly break out of wondering why I’m just standing there.>
Exactly. Don’t do that, it is confusing
😆>Sometimes I go back and ask for a hand touch to lift him ( not literally).>
He’s probably like, ok that’s weird, wtf.
So don’t do that either lol>I’ve considered a prop>
If he is not moving his feet after you let him settle into position or breaking a stay… no props needed.
>Suggestions?>Since you asked… maintain the criteria of “don’t move your feet” and mix in lots of thrown rewards back to him… and otherwise give him the agency to sit how he likes 🙂 He is doing great!
Tracy
Hi!
He was a go0d boy here too!
Interestingly, the reps after the alerted to the voices were the best reps in terms of smacking the board. It was probably because he was more aroused… and thinking less about the board moving 😀 It makes sense though- even though distractions were causing the higher arousal, it did help optimize his engagement with the board.So with that in mind – use more tugging to get him into that higher state. Then do a cookie or two for board slams… then back to tugging. I bet he gets really into slamming it LOL!!! Arousal is definitely our friend in this case 😀
Great job here!
TracyHi!
This was a really cool session to watch – he started out with some questions so he was pushing away wide to get a better view of the i fo. Then he began to solve the puzzle and was finding jumps brilliantly! Good boy!The first jump was the hardest, especially when he was on your right. The reps that went the best were when he was a little behind you (like with a cookie toss start) – that way he could see the info and find the jump really well.
He also did well when the jumps got wider, but there was also some fatigue happening. You can do a minute then add more room then another minute then as more room, etc. That way the sessions stay at 3 or 4 minutes to prevent fatigue, but you also make really good progress!
You can add Parts 2 and 3 as well!
Great job 🙂
Tracy
