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Good morning!
>>Session at lunch I used food and toy for the evening session. He had trouble doing a spin but that is a harder trick. He offered a sit after each time. Last night I tried this inside with food and he could only offer a down (even when I asked for a sit). I have to edit those sessions down before I post them.>>
The spin is harder especially with the toy, I think because the pups need to turn away and they can no longer see the reward. He will figure it out, though 🙂
Interesting about the down inside! You might have been leaning into him a little bit? Or sometimes the added stimulation results in a down with herding dogs.
Porridge heating looks good – he has lots of good tricks that you can totally build into an eventual start line routine. One suggestion with food – use it more like a toy 🙂 Have him chase you for it (run a few steps then deliver it) and/or have him put his front feet up on you to get it. That is very stimulating, which helps get engagement especially in new locations. He was caught in a bit of a crumb search or odor pool when the cookies were stationary, which means he was *almost* in the perfect porridge zone but not completely.
Minny Pinny looks good! He seems to be pretty equal in left and right, in terms of bending and being able to bounce them. He is alternating between bouncing and trotting so you can tighten the distance maybe 6 inches to see if you can get more frequent bounces.
On the toy porridge moment – this got him ready really well! No cookie odor distractions and I think the minny pinny after it went better (nice bending and more bouncing). It might also have been a cooler time of day, which helps too 🙂 It looks like you widened the distances a little and it took him a couple of reps to get the bounces going again, but he did! Yay!
Great job on all of your minny pinny reps with your placement of reinforcement, it really helped continue the bending! I agree that he was more comfy bouncing with the bumps in a little closer together, but he was able to sort out the bounce very quickly at the bigger distance, so you can leave them at the bigger distance at this point.
Great job!
TracyGood morning! Looks like you made the most out of your practice time!!!
Minny Pinny: There is so much I like about this session! He is bending really nicely and has sorted out how to bounce and not add additional strides. He also seems to be going into the minny pinny on the left and right verbals as the CUE and that is exactly what we want. Yay! You added additional countermotion challenge and he did fine until you got a bit too far ahead while moving quickly.
Here is an additional challenge for you – mainly a flexibility training element for him:
start him in the same position he ends in on the reps without countermotion, where he is parallel to the pinny. The difference is that you will be in between him and the wing, as opposed to the ending where he is between you and the wings (let me know if that makes sense). But starting him parallel to it (same as the ending) you are asking him to bending into that first bar/wing too. When we start the pups straight on, the bend is not as challenging but it looks like he is ready for more 🙂Serp exits are going well! He had one rep where you were a little too far past the wing so you opened up your arm too much, it looked like a fancy threadle and that is what he did LOL! The rest were awesome – great commitment! Nice job with your connection too!
>>I noticed that I released too early once I watched my videos.
I thought you were fine, actually – because you kept moving. So he heard the release right as you were passing the exit of the wing and then you were clearly on takeoff side when he approached it (allowing him to commit AND set up a nice exit turn).
I am super happy with this and think your timing was good! To put it in perspective, Voodoo didn’t get good at this commitment until he was 4. Years, not months. LOL! Stark is doing beautifully!
You might have done this, but be sure to run all the way around on some reps but don’t release – instead, go back and reward him for that awesome stay.
Using the tunnel is great fun! You can also drop the toy and drag it for a good chase on the exit too.Great job!!!
TracyGood morning!
He did really well on the 3 wings! They are not too big 🙂 And trooting is what to expect at the stage – he is thinking about bending his body and that is much better at a trot for now than at a gallop. Before adding the verbal, add in the jump bumps or low bars – the verbal is attached to the act of going over the bump/bar, so we want to be sure he is fine with those and then you can add the verbal. I think he will be fine with it, so you can probably add the verbal in pretty quickly! Fun!The rocking horses are going really nicely too!
>>Sometimes he can get a little sticky with committing to go around the wing, but he did well here>>
Did you see anything sticky in this session? I think of sticky as him stopping near the wing and not continuing around it, and I don’t think that happened here. He was slowing down a tiny bit to make the turn, but that is a good thing 🙂 If you are seeing him stop in front of the wing, you can keep the balance of value by throwing reinforcement out past the wing on a few reps. The reinforcement here was generally near you, so he might be wanting to stick closer to you. The spin look good! And the connection is looking good too. Yay! A couple of different ‘next steps’ to keep building this: if the weather is good, add more distance outside so he can feel the wind rushing by and get more speed going 🙂 That can allow you to turn and leave sooner too!
And, without more speed and indoors… keep working to bring the toy play into this (without food present at first). You might start with one or two wraps, but then you can gradually build it up to a toy-only game (eventually, no rush on that :))Speaking of toy play – I typed the above stuff before I read your next paragraph LOL!
>>He is doing great from going to training with treats to toy play! >>
Yes! Happy dance!
The toy play definitely looks like play, he is doing really well with playing and handling the arousal of it all.
Yes, you were a tiny bit twitchy on that first rep but it was actually a great opportunity to see how he does after a small error – and he didn’t get chompy or frustrated! It looks like he sniffed your hand for a treat and then did a good wrap. Yay! That is great! The 2nd wrap also looked really good- you can slowly move away sooner so that he doesn’t hit the wing when you give the ‘chase’ cue – but I love how he was able to play, be explosive AND be accurate all with the toy. Very exciting!!!!>>Also, I see there is another class after this one, yay! Would you say it’s okay to take that class even if we haven’t done the advanced version of all the exercises in this class yet? I have followed this class pretty well, but I know there are a couple games I didn’t do at all. Just want to make sure I won’t be behind for the next class…>>
Yes, you are totally good to go for the next class! We have a few weeks before it starts and then you can always hit the advanced games as that class goes along. There will be games in there (the jumping foundation and the proofing games) that are completely unrelated to the games here – new and different 🙂 And I can also give folks reminders of which games ot brush up, in advance of anything new we add.
Great job on these, he is doing really well!
Tracy
Good morning!
>> I have just signed up for the next Max pup session – very excited about continuing.
Yay! It will be so fun!
>>Could you let me know when the current session finishes?
September 15th is last day for videos 🙂
>>– I am taking a trip back to New York for a couple of weeks, so probably won’t be able to do much training – so might be too late when I get back 🙁 – but we’ll try to catch up before the next session starts…..>>
Hopefully you will get some time in, if not – no worries! You can catch up later on and the next session has stuff that is totally different too 🙂
Have a great trip back to NY!!
Tracy
Awww thanks! It was so fun to see Demi develop into a big time agility BEAST this summer! Go back and look at your first videos and compare to the recent ones…. wowza!!!! So much progress – she is a really fun teammate 🙂
Hope to see you soon in person or online!
TracyYay! This worked, thank you 🙂
She is still so little! I love it!This was a REALLY nice session: she is showing really excellent commitment to her ‘job’ of going to the wing and wrapping all the way around, even on hard angles and as you were moving forward with a ton of countermotion: excellent!!!!! Have you thought about verbal wraps cues for her? I suggest a cue that means wrap-left and a different cue that means wrap-right. She is ready for you to start adding them. I also think you can start the rocking horse games: the wing wraps are really looking good!
(Apologies if you were using a verbal, the sound on my computer is bad and I couldn’t hear it 🙂 )>>There is time she want to offer to do it without me asking her. Is there a way to make sure she works with me instead of doing it without my verbal ?>>
I see what you mean, like at 1:24 when she went behind you to restart or at 2:00 when she wanted to be sent to the wing and you wanted her to come to you. Two ideas for you:
you can reward her for coming back to you. It is easier & faster to reward with a quick cookie (if she likes them :)) and then go back to the toy to reward the wraps. Now, if she doesn’t love cookies OR if the cookie might cause her to lose interest in the toy, you can reward with the toy for both coming to you and for wrapping the wing. That is a lot of reward but she will love every minute of it 🙂
Also, on the last rep at 2:24, you did a short, gentle restraint before you sent her to the wing – she seemed to like it and did a great job on the wing. You can add that in on each rep: reward her for coming to you, then gently restrain her, then send her.
Let me know what you think! This is looking great 🙂
Tracy
Ha! I understand about the shoe. With Elektra, I used an old sun hat that I never wore. It can even be a random box, anything that is easy to carry.
Good morning!
>> I have often used the off side arm on a Serp, but only when I’m ahead of the dog and want to be sure they know to come in over the jump.>>
Yes, in the rare moments when I am way ahead 🙂 I might put up the off side arm to help guarantee it because it adds that extra bit of chest rotation. The dogs just roll their eyes at me because they understand their job LOL!
>>>On the Rocking Horse set, I realized I was pushing her and giving all the “go on” signals that I shouldn’t have. Yes, not only is she honest, she’s keeping me honest. 😊. I still may try a switch of barrel location to see if the equipment makes any difference to her. So interesting to see what does and does not click for different pups.>>
Perfect! Sounds good!!!
>>On the pinwheel, I wondered if narrowing the gaps would help her bounce, so we’ll give that a go.
Keep me posted on how she does with that!
T
Hi there!
These were fun to analyze, so much good stuff!Lit’l Bit:
I like the way you executed rep 1 and rep 2, but I think the blind cross 3-4 at :25 really drove her! On the first rep 4-5, I think you can get more speed if you run into the tunnel so you are almost behind and out of position, I think she likes chasing you like that. When I timed that section, the wrap to the inside was about 3/10ths faster. That can be a product of more speed because of the blind, plus the shorter distance. It is possible that the slice line can end up faster if you push her harder but it was cool to see the wrap and shorter distance be so fast!!! She wraps really well so the wrap to shorter distance is something to look for on her courses for sure.Seq 3:
On the first rep, it as a good blind at :42 but it looks like you were maybe one step off the line so she read it as a backside. I think the blind is a great option there, so one step further over should get it. The rear cross looked good but probably not as fast as the blind would be. When I compared the RC to the outside line to the wrap to the inside line… as with the first sequence, wrap to the inside (shorter) line was about 3/10ths faster – at least she is consistent LOL!! That is good to know, because in this scenario, it was probably easier handling too! It doesn’t always work out that the easier handling is also the fastest line, but it is certainly great when it does work out like that 🙂Wilder’s turn: Seq 1:
On the slice reps, I liked how you drove him 3-4 on the first rep, it was really nice! You helped more on the 2nd rep and it caused him to look at you. But, speaking of helping: on the first rep you got ahead on the way to the tunnel and he pulled the bar. You waited for him as he rounded the wing of 4 and had more connection on the way back to the tunnel on the 2nd rep – and nice jumping, no bar. So that definitely goes in the plan: wait for him on those big lines so you are 10 feet ahead or less and can show connection strongly.
When I compared the timing of the slice to the outside versus the wrap to the inside – the slice to the outside was faster (opposite of Bit!). When you wrapped to the inside, you held onto him longer – is that a post where he might back jump if you left early like you did with Bit? That was where the time was lost, the wrap might be as faster or faster than the slice if you can leave and not hold onto him. But… if he needs the help to NOT back jump, it is better to slice 🙂 I think I heard you say something about getting out of there on the video, maybe that is what you meant 🙂 He turned really nicely on the jump so it is worth it to see if he will continue around if you move out of it sooner.Seq 3 : looking at the #5 bar, the time he dropped it on the video was when you sent to 4 and left, so he went into chase-da-momma mode. On the next rep (FC) and the rep after it (RC), you waited longer til he was around the wing of 5 and he had no trouble jumping it (and lots of speed). So that is a biggie for him – waiting for a heartbeat before moving up the next line.
Comparing the handling choices – the FC was in a good spot and he did not look at the backside of 4 at all 🙂 You can probably also try a blind there with him, it might be easier/faster than the FC? Or the FC might be the most connected, which he might find helpful with the bar on 3. Definitely worth playing with it because the FC was the fastest option – but not by much 🙂 the wrap to the inside was the 2nd fastest – and can be faster if you can leave sooner and trust him not to back jump (if you think he will back jump so you can’t leave sooner, the choice would be the FC to the slice :)) The RC to the slice to the outside looked really good, but was the slowest of the 3 options. Now, they were all within a couple of ticks (maybe 3/10ths total) so they were almost all as fast as each other – it becomes a matter of choosing the one that helps support the jumping without slowing him down.Great job on these! The hardest part for you is that Lit’l Bit and Wilder are pretty different – for example, on these, Bit is wrap to the inside and run run run. Wilder is slice to the outside, wait for a heartbeat, then go. I keep lists of each dogs’ needs when I am running more than one dog – it is too much of a brain fog for me to keep it all straight without writing it down. I review the lists before training and trialing (the lists are on my phone :))
Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>>I like the let’s balance the ball on the back while we spin truck, going to have to see if I can train that.>
I was confused by this til I saw the video – holy cow! Hysterical!!! Totally train it then onwards to America’s Got Talent LOL!!!
Cody did well here, both on the ‘regular’ reps and the ones that started with the backsides. I am impressed by his ability to execute this because it is probably one of the hardest jumping exercises that I know of – and he is a big dude! He is double tapping his front feet on some of the intervals, which means he is still trying to figure out how to get organized and use his hind end. So an idea – The next time you play with this, start with the angles a couple of inches ‘open’ so he can bounce each interval. Then on each rep, make the interval one inch tighter (ideally he continues to bounce and not double tap). The goal is that he can bounce even when the grid is straight, and started with a rep that is open can help remind him and then each rep will be slightly harder. If he starts to double tap, you can open up that interval by an inch, as it might take more than one session to get the grid back to flat.
And bonus points if he can balance the ball on his back while doing it LOL!!!
Great job!!!! Hope you enjoy the holiday weekend!!
TracyYESSS! Good boy 🙂 He looks so serious up there on his cot! I love it! Great job here! The serps look good too. You might already be doing this – be sure to go back and reward him on the cot too 🙂 I think you can start adding in the motion and also using the station for the other games where the stay makes life easier 🙂 Nice work!
TracyHi! I can’t get the share to download, is there a way to put the clip on YouTube or Vimeo? My iCloud doesn’t want to talk to your iCloud LOL!
>>There is time she want to offer to do it without me asking her. Is there a way to make sure she works with me instead of doing it without my verbal ?>>
If she is sending herself back around, you can reward the wrap, then break off for a tug, reset (you can hold her collar as you reset)… then send again 🙂 I am a big fan of resetting and rewarding for NOT going 🙂 I play a ready game near the wing – I say ready and reward the pup for looking at me – and then after the reward, I might say ready again (and reward again) or send to the wing. That helps get rid of the self-sending 🙂
Let me know if that makes sense 🙂Tracy
Hi! And congrats back to you on your great runs and your Gold Medal!!!! So cool!!! I was exhausted only running Speedstakes, I can only imagine how exhausted your crew was doing all those classes and all 3 days. And you got in puppy training time? You are my hero!!!!! I will send my pups to you for training LOL!
On the videos:
You mentioned noticing HERE as a crutch on your videos… I noticed on my videos that I random spew out some verbals with Voodoo too LOL!!! The Papillons only really know their names and GO and tunnel, but Voodoo has all of these ‘words’ and yet sometimes I would ask myself why I wasn’t using them in the heat of the moment LOL!!!!! We will do better with our youngsters for sure 🙂On the tunnel threadle: you were being good about the correct verbal 🙂 You did get a little far from the tunnel entry for when you were standing still, so you can stay in motion – but when you are moving, be moving straight forward and try not to use your threadle arm or feet to turn him to the tunnel entry. Stay on a parallel line to the tunnel entry until he turns his head to it. Your threadle arm can be towards him, your feet facing forward – you were wanting to point your arm and feet to the tunnel entry. He is doing really well, so I think you can just walk straight parallel to the entry and let him find it himself (and then you can turn and party :))
Turn aways – very clever to use a disc as cookie holder! The turn aways for the lap turns really good – he was “helping” in that he didn’t need a lot of help to turn away, so you didn’t need to do a big motion and you could do a quick hand flick – but he was also *not* turning away until you cued it, which was perfect. Yay! And he did well hitting the prop afterwards too! On the tandem turns, these were a little harder – you can slow the hand movement down so he can follow it and not jump up as much. He got better and better on these and also was seeing the difference between driving to your hands versus going to the prop. Nice!! Definitely looking good!
Get out: First, about the tugging… do you think his toy drive is pretty strong in that he will generally engage with a fun toy, in different places? If so, yes to adding a bit of impulse control. If not… let him be a bit wild but we can change the mechanics of it so you don’t get pummeled.
And yes, the start line game is a little about the start line and a LOT about getting the optimal state of arousal 🙂
Have you done any shaping games with a tug as a reward? Such as the oldie-but-goodie getting in a box – but click/tug instead of click/treat? That is a good way to begin getting self-control on the toy without adding conflict or pressure. I do a lot of that, along with tug-sit-tug (or, tug- don’t pummel me – tug) and also tug-hand touch- tug.
On the video – get out with a cookie with you moving looks terrific! You can repeat the verbal (get out get out get out for example) to help support the distance as you are adding more distance and motion.
With the toy: I notice you are more ‘hands on’ with the toy (like at :59) so you might want to touch him less with the toy as the touching/rib smack is stimulating (not in a bad way, but a little too much for now along with the toy). So when the toy comes out, you can go into Ultra Team Chill. I am on that team with Contraband because he finds tugging really stimulating too 🙂
I think the toy thing will be easy to channel into play without pummeling – I would start with tricks/shaping/hand touches with the toy as reward and it will really help transfer the skills.Rocking Horses:
These look good! You are not making them harder at all, I think they were great! And he was definitely stimulated by the toy but made excellent choices of the non-pummeling variety 🙂 timing looked good, commitment looked super good too! Happy dance! My only suggestion is to make a little more connection to his eyes on the FC exits. You had better connection on the spin exits than on the FC exits. Turn and Burn looked great on all of them! I think you can definitely move to the race tracks now 🙂Minny Pinny:
He did really well on the wings – leading with his head and bending nicely in both directions
from what I could see (maybe a little better to his right than his left?) it was fine to add the bumps/bars in. Don’t worry about the ticking – I think he was trying to multitask on a lot of things: the bending, your motion, the reinforcement, etc. So for the next session, take out some of the stuff to multitask: just send him through without you moving, and for the first couple of go-rounds, try to drop the reward in between the uprights/bars so that he is looking at them more and less at you. Try a session like that and then let him process – then the session *after* that will probably be easier so you can add back your motion (he doesn’t need your motion to help him because you’ve done a lovely job teaching him how to commit independently :))
And you can add in your left/right verbal on the next session, he looks ready to hear the words attached to the behavior 🙂And yay for success on the serps/threadles with motion (boo on phone batteries LOL!!)
Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! I agree that there was much to be happy with about your day 🙂 And I saw River’s videos, she looked awesome too!
I have found that, oddly enough, it is totally normal for toy driven dogs to not want to/be able to play in the trial environment at first. And, they often prefer something like cheese (when food is really NOT normally a high value thing, right?) No worries, we just go with the flow haha! And it sounds like you did that. My Voodoo (big black BC-ish dog) is VERY similar to Lennan. He was a toy-driven dog at Lennan’s age and would generally spit out food (his was 6 years ago and I was not yet all that good at building food drive – I have improved LOL!). But then when he was ringside in those earlier trial/pre-trial days, he simply couldn’t tug and was all about cheese. Huh? I was fine with that because I was happy to see some food drive! It all evens out, and now he is happy to play with toys, eat food, etc. Lennan is on a similar path but also Lennan has a better foundation.
I think that the pandemic has made some of the dogs think harder about being in groups of people or dogs – almost like it is a skill that needed to be maintained and got “rusty” in the craziness of 2020. It sounds like you are doing all the right things by being on Team Chill, allowing him to find his way in that environment, no pressure! And he is then relaxing and doing beautifully (even chilling beside you in a down, and also not losing his head at all with the motion near the ring – yessss!).
And good for you for sticking with your plan to just go in one time. Things go badly very quickly when we humans get greedy when things are going well. Ha! I am really excited for the future of Team Lennan and I hope there are more of these matches in your area soon!
T
