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Hi there, good work on these!
On the mini pinny – work work from him! It is not unusual for dogs to offer a backside on these because it is easier than driving in nice and close 🙂 For a jumping challenge, you can move the outer jumps in about a foot closer so he bounces rather than strides. You can definitely add verbals to this – maybe something like ’round or swing? One note about left and right for wrap verbals – Jenny Damm suggests using them so they sounds different from each other in pattern and emphasis – something like Lehft and rightright rather than leflefleft or righrighright. I thought it was a solid suggestion!
Your rocking horses are also looking great, his wrap commitment is getting really strong 🙂 And you can spread the wings waaaay out if you want a running workout and less tiptoe motion LOL!
1st rep looked great, gorgeous emphasis on connection. 2nd rep also great til he didn’t commit on 360. You will probably have to slow down a bit and let him turn more before moving forward on the 360s, then throw the reward in behind you. I think you were just moving with too much speed (running too fast lol) for his commitment at this stage.
You can also start your verbals sooner- as soon as he rounds the previous wing, even before you send him – it trains you to be early and it trains him to predict the wrap will follow the verbal cue.
Poor guy at the end! That is exactly why you will want to slow down so he figures it out LOL! Ouch!On the serps – was that steam coming out of his ears? Good boy!!! Very very challenging exercise but he did really well. It was wise to keep it simple for now. One suggestion – you can have him come in and do a hand touch for cookies right on the hand or a surprise frizzer because I know he loves his frizzer! And for border collie types that need to learn to drive hard into the handler, you can also throw a reward directly behind you a few times after he moves towards your hands.
Nice work!!!
TracyHi there!
You did a really nice spin on that first rep! Perfect!
On the 2nd rep, at :12, I think you wanted him to stay on your right side – he just needed more eye contact there, you looked forward a little too soon. You nailed it at :15! His commitment on the 360 was great!
On the 3rd rep, it was a nice blind but indeed a blind LOL! Still, good to practice all the moves! On the last rep, you did a spin then another blind (super fancy!) so if the reward across the body is messing you up, focus just on getting the spin – then we will add the reward across the body back to it. You walked it perfectly without him, it will get easier with more practice 🙂 The reverse spin and the Jaakko are very similar moves. You can think of them that way as long as you are moving forward out of them (like you did here) and not spinning in place.His commitment looked really good on all of them!
On the mini pinny – setting them closer towards the end of the video was getting the bouncing, yay! I think that is the good starting point. If he hits a bar, he gets a calm quiet boring cookie. If he doesn’t touch any bars… big party using his favorite rewards. Woot!
About the height:
>>Raise the bar so he needs to put in more effort? I did that to the set point this morning by 4 inches, and he really started to think and not be so bored, but then he knocked the bar twice out of three. He got it the last time. I then lowered it again. I don’t he realizes he needs to push off with his rear.>>I agree, I don’t think he knows he needs to push from the rear. More work on the bars where they are (super low) will help, with some differentiation in reinforcement. Asking for more effort is not a good idea when he doesn’t know how, as you saw when he it 2 of 3 this morning. So keep the bars low for now until he almost never touches them.
Nice work!
TracyHi there!
On your mini pinny – yes, he is hitting that middle bar, so we can work a bit on that! Try moving the 2 outer jumps in closer to the center jump, so he bounces rather trots. It will probably end up being a distance of 4 feet from center of each bar to the next one, but feel free to play with it to get the correct distance. And stand still for now, give only enough motion to give him permission to go through it. I am sure he will sort it out once we get him bouncing and using his hind end. Then all of the motion and verbals will be easy to slap on 🙂 Don’t start to pull them out until we have him bouncing and not touching the middle bar for a couple of sessions.He was *Awesome* on his tunnel rear crosses! I think he has figured it out! You can add in distance (starting further back) and angles to these as well. He is a big boy – he seems taller than the tunnels LOL!
About slowing down the video – on YouTube videos, you will see a “cog” in the lower right corner of the video – if you scroll over it, you will see it says “Settings” . Click on it, then click on Playback Speed and then you can slow it down.
Think of the spinny moves on the rocking horses as being a front cross like you’ve been doing – then, as you are moving away from the FC, you do a blind cross by turning your head.Yay, this looked great! Ah, neighbors LOL the barking dogs are actually a GREAT prep for running agility trials 🙂 My neighbor always chooses my video times to mow his lawn and yesterday his son was practicing pitching on their front lawn when I let the puppy out for a run (no fences here LOL!) The son is a minor league pitcher so the balls were moving fast, thankfully the puppy didn’t really see or he would apply to go live with them 🙂
The video looked really good – the FC sections were really strong. Using cones here is fine, they are big enough to be meaningful to him. He did best when you had fast motion then a little decel then you rotated – excellent powering through and commitment! When you weren’t moving as much, he got a little “hoppy” which is his version of asking a question. He still committed but needed you to move a little more.
On the FC/BC – I think you are trying to do them too fast (especially the first one) – think of them as 2 separate moves, done one then the other with a step or two or 3 in between. So as he is approaching the cone or wing, start the FC (just as you did here). Move away doing the FC for a step or 2, as you did here in the beginning of the video. Then, as he is rounding the cone/wing, keep moving forward and just turn your head to your other side for a blind cross on the flat. The FC is done relative to the cone, the BC is done on the flat. It will feel a lot slower and easier, hopefully (slower for you, not for him LOL!)Overall, his commitment is looking great which is why we can noodle around with the exact mechanics of the FC/BC. Great job!!
Tracy
Wheee! These are also a good handler workout LOL! This is going well.
One overall theme for the dog training side of things: mix in rewards tossed back to the wing pretty regularly. She is still learning her commitment and asked a question on each of these games – so start each game with a reward tossed to the wing (as you leave) and then mix in the running rewards (you did really nicely on those!!)Adding spinny moves: This went really well! Definitely toss some rewards back to the wing so you can leave earlier and earlier. You did all sorts of good moves – but I don’t think you did a spin on them LOL!! You did FCs, a post turn or two, and some tight blind crosses (NICE!) so on your next workout, add I n the spin by thinking of it as doing a FC then continuing to move away, then as you see her commit to the wing, turn your head to the other side for the blind. But your tight “regular” blinds looked really good!!!!
Step backs – they might have felt awkward but they are looking good. The single step backs looked really solid! And she knew you were about to run the other way, so it is a great spot to toss rewards back to the wing. As you drill yourself on these, remember to run less: you will be stepping back to send, then turn and face her then step back/send with the other leg. No breaking a sweat on this one, even when you add distance to it LOL This is really more of a dog training exercises (because you hopefully would never be completely stationary on this cue) so you can totally mix in throw rewards.
The 360 wraps at the end – nice!!!!!!! What a good girlie! She had a question on the first one (I think her question was something like “wtf??” Haha!) so you can start each round with a reward tossed to the wing. But then her commitments were really fabulous! I was going to suggest that you turn the wing so it is ‘flatter’ so she can see it better – but based on how she did after the first rep, I believe she doesn’t need that, she was nailing it on that angle.
Very nice work!!!!!!!
T
Yay, this is looking good! It might be easier to sit on your bum? Whatever feels easier – it is an awkward position for us humans 🙂 The only other suggestion is to leave your target hand closer to the steps, so she stays in the stand and doesn’t accidentally come off the steps – the hand was a little far and that is what you were getting those. Next question – have you added in a plastic target of some sort? I think she is ready! Adding the target is followed by getting it to the ground, then eventually we fade you out from being in front.
Have fun!
TracyGood morning! Hope all is well!
>> he doesn’t wear a collar, wears a harness and would probably be horrified if I grabbed it. He’s not much of an opposition reflex guy.>>
Yep, that is why I asked 🙂 Not every dog likes it! Some downright think it is gross. And we don’t want to associate something icky with agility!
On the go session – he did really well! You can start as close to the cone as possible to really get him driving waaaay ahead of you. You can also mix in some turns cue on the jump, so he wraps back to you (and gets rewarded from your hand. That will give you a lot of training opportunities without having to run – should help save the Achilles from more pain!!!
Set point: also looking good! I think the reward is helping to round his form. In the next session, you can add a bit of motion (walking) by leading out halfway between the jump and the reward target, release then walk. You can also stay in the parallel plane to the reward as you did here, but add challenge with lateral distance! I suggest holding off on another set of jumping games for a day or two, we don’t want to jump the dogs every day (even on low bars), so you can add those challenges later in the week.
Mini pinny – he is doing a great job of performing this independently! Good job adding the verbals in, try not to say go before the first jump though because we don’t want extension on it 🙂 Starting with the left or right cue is the permission cue here. One tweak now is to reward on the angle of the turn after the 3rd jump, so the last left or right cue gets the turn on jump 3 as well. And as you expand the distances, good job rewarding ut after jump 2 – I think he was asking questions (“should I go this far away??”) so the rewards will help build the confidence 🙂
>>I thought I was remembering everything, then realized you wanted the original stage to be a bounce. So, I messed that part up since this was set as a traditional 180 degree pinwheel and ends up being 1 stride between each jump when he takes it on the innermost part (where the distance is the shortest).>>
No worries! This game covers both the bounce-bending and also the add distance. You can revisit it where the bars are super low and he bounces rather than strides, and mix in spreading it out so he can add striding. He will be bending on both challenges, just different kinds of bending skills. As with the set point and other games – give him a day or two off from jumping work, then revisit it later in the week. I like to save their bodies by not asking for jumping (even on low bars) every day.
Nice work here!!
Tracy
Hi! Yes, slowly is the right way to go!! It takes time to transfer the skills to new places, so he wasn acting pretty normally 🙂
THi!
Yes, I figure ring rentals will go away and Mother Nature is not cooperating, so we will just extend the class as needed. It will work out better for the pups if we slow down anyway, and the entire situation is beyond our control. I will be home for the next 5 weeks, so it is not like I will be rushing to be finished with anything hahaha! Plus, I know you are busy at work – take your time, I am happy to watch any video at any time 🙂I agree, nice set points from Miss Lanna! Also note how she is looking ahead more before the release. That isn’t a requirement but it shows good understanding of what is about to happen. You’ve added in some motion, which is a good thing. You can revisit this over the coming weeks in 2 ways:
Leading out to where you were on this video, releasing and jogging then build to running
or
Lead out less, release and walk forward til she gets to the toy. You’ll eventually be able to work up to leading out maybe one step before you release and walk forward.
Then eventually we build them together – minimal lead out and running on the release. (or running before the release!) That will take a while, because we want her to be able to maintain her good form 🙂Mini Pinny sessions – she did the best reps when things were a little boring, like on rep 3 on the first video (to her right) and first & second reps on the 2nd video (to her left). So I don’t think she is having a side preference on these, I think she responds to excitement level by trying to go bigger/faster/wider LOL! That is great for the GO games! When you gave a bit of REady READY on the first video, it was too exciting and she exploded into it 🙂 On these games, stay super chill and don’t move a lot yet – and your left & right verbals can be quiet and long (leeehft, riiight) and repeated. That will help her think about her mechanics until it becomes second nature to bend really tight even when excited 🙂 We will eventually be able to get her excited and she will be abe to execute it, she just needs more experience.
Nice work on these! Keep me posted and stay safe out there!
Tracy
Good morning!
Hi! The GO! is GO-ing well, pun intended hahaha! He appeared to be looking ahead the whole time. His hea was lifting a little bit, but that will go away when there are more obstacles out ahead and it isn’t as much about the ball. The ball appears to be SUPER high value, which is terrific! Keep that in mind if you take him back to trials, I recommend doing UKI with a ball in the ring to make trialing a very happy place – the UKI NFC options are so helpful for dogs to learn to love trials 🙂
Another layer to add (which will save you some running and hopefully your Achilles can heal fast!) is to NOT run – instead, start by holding his collar and begin saying the GO GO GO cue. When he is totally pumped up, let go of him, keep saying it, throw the reward as he heads to the jump… and you don’t have to move 🙂 Yes, on course, you would ideally be running. But an advanced application of these verbals is that the dog responds no matter what we handlers are doing 🙂Starting the bending without a verbal was to make sure we had good behavior to name, before we named it 🙂 So a little bit of help with a body cue or non-specific verbal is fine! He did offer it pretty nicely! And I do a TON of offering of obstacles with dogs who are learning drive for the game in every environment (very little stimulus control) because I want them to see obstacles and have little hearts appear in their eyes and birds sing love songs overhead, like a Bugs Bunny cartoon hahaha!
Since the bending went well, you can add n the next layer – the bars and the verbals. I use left & right on these. You can use your around verbal if it matches the behavior as well!nice work here!
TracyHi again 🙂
Yes, you can throw sooner 🙂 But starting further back (like you did at :25ish) will help give you time to start moving and throw all before she reaches the jump. She isn’t looking back at you and is driving ahead and that is exactly what we are looking for!
Something REALLY cool happened on rep 3, though (:13) – she wasn’t really facing the jump, you said GO! and she immediately turned and took the jump straight. YESSSSSSS! She is beginning to show understanding of the verbal!! Woot!
Does she have a harness, or does she feel fine when you hold her collar? We can add another layer: holding her by a harness or collar, you can hold her and start the GO Go Go cue… and when she is pumped up, you can THEN let go and keep saying GO! to help her really accelerate ahead of you 🙂 If you use a harness, just make sure it is one that does not restrict her shoulders from moving. If she HATES being held like that, don’t do it LOL! but you can have your hand on her chest and see if you can hold her longer as you start the go cue.
Nice work on all of these! Well done!
TracyHi there!
The mini pinny is going well! Good job adding the verbals! You can keep it close together for now, with the 2 outer jump moved in a little closer to the middle jump, with the goal being that she bounces between the bars rather than take a stride. She is pretty small (and CUTE lol) so the outer jumps might end up being pretty close, maybe 3 feet distance between the centers of each bar. This will work both the verbals and the bending jump grid.
The only other tweak now is to reward back at you after jump 3 to encourage her to continue to bend over jump 3 as you add the verbals (rather than throwing the reward straight).Nice work!
TracyGood morning!
Great job lining her up, that will be useful at trials too!
I like what she is doing here with the food bowl as the target – LOVELY rounded form, nice low head, super fast. She is only about 9 months old here, so it is a bit too early to add more height to the bar. So, keeping the bar low, you can add a bit of motion. Lead out in a walk like you did here,, and release when you are halfway between the jump and the bowl, then keep walking forward. If that goes well, you can release when you are passing the jump. The bowl is out there the whole time as the target. The goal is to encourage her to maintain her form while we add motion. If that is easy, over the course of several sessions, you can build to jogging after the release!
TracyGood morning!
>> As you know, that is NOT the typical way agility people do things (most drill daily or multiple times a day) but I want to do right by my dog
I model my views after 2 things:
* what produces long-term soundness, drive, and understanding in agility (DEFINITELY not drilling or daily agility or multiple sessions a day!)
* what top level athletes in other sports do to create brilliance (there is a significant amount of cross training and rest built in – Olympic medalists and pro athletes most definitely do not drill their sport every day)So, in agility, just because we want to or because the dogs would accept it, doesn’t mean we should work and work the dogs in agility.
>>How often do you do set point or is that something that once the dog shows understanding you don’t need to to it anymore?
Early on, I will revisit it every time I want to add challenge in terms of jump height. So maybe once a week or once every 2 weeks with dogs learning to bring bars up to full height, or as a warm up every few days when I am in the process of adding height to the bars. But I really do limit the amount of jumping the dogs do. With adult dogs that are theoretically “trained”, I might whip it out every now and then as a conditioning game and reminder tool.
>>For the video on set point where you want his head lower – I was out of the video frame standing stationary and facing forward looking back at him. Manners minder was much further out per previous instruction. I will try it with me kneeling down and send another video to see if that looks better to you. >>
I don’t think there was anything wrong with your set up, per se… I just think he wants to look up at you so we need to get his head a little lower 🙂
>>On a side note, how do you teach weaves for dogs built upright to encourage head low? Someone told me they wouldn’t do 2 x 2s for that reason…I’ve never done 2 x 2 method but the instructor I have now for pre-novice uses them. Just curious.>>
Any weave method will work, if the handler has good timing and placement of reinforcement. I taught my dogs 2x2s for about 15 years, it worked fine with all of the different structures (Dalmatians, terriers, Papillons, Border Collie-ish) because I obsessed on timing and placement of reinforcement. With Hot Sauce (terrier mix), I used channels and a Manners Minder because I was in the mood for a difference challenge and it has been a blast! Highly recommend!
>>For wing wrap to “GO”, I was saying “go” the whole time…LOL…can’t get those darn verbals right. So next time I try it, I will say “tight” and then “go”.
Ha! Darned words! We all do that – start yelling GO when we really should be cuing a turn LOL!!! Same here! Oopsie!
>>Ah lumping…yes I tend to try to do the whole assignment so I can get feedback and then repeat the training with the suggestions for improvement. So I will go back to the tight mini pinny in a day or two.
The way this class is structured, there are usually multiple layers to each assignment, for several reasons:
– to allow the handler to see where it is going
– to give more experienced pups the next steps
– to be able to cover more in the class 🙂So, if a game is new, start with the first layer or two then get feedback, then build to the next layer, and so on. For example, today’s game has several layers but you can split them out over several days of work.
Stay well!! Talk to you soon!
Tracy
