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Welcome back! It looks like you had a great time!!!!
The plank work was a perfect way to get back into the swing of training. She didn’t know she was supposed to go past you, so you can keep moving and also have a visual target (like a bowl) at each end to trot to.
To get her turning around, you can use a hand cue for her to follow (you added one at the end) – I think that will help stabilize the right turns too
I think she is ready for you to elevate the plank – do you have blocks or something you can put under the ends and the middle? That way you can also add hopping off the middle!
On the sending video:
>>Discovered she finds it very hard to line up at the tunnel exit but was able to do it with a treat lure.>>
Yes, it is WEIRD lol!!!!! A cookie lure was perfect 🙂
The one step sends at the 6 foot distance was no problem in either direction. The miss on the left turn wrap (first rep that direction) was more of a neighbor dog distraction than anything else.
When adding the middle jump, you can move to the first wing more and do the send to the middle wing, which should feel smoother than sending to both.
She had a question on the wraps to her right at 2:25 and 2:40 and 3:03 – you sorted it out that it was more connection needed plus a later send. When she turned to her left, there was not very clear connection plus the send happened while she was still in the tunnel.
You had better step timing at 3:03 (later, so it was more visible to her) and then perfect connection AND timing of the send on the last rep 🙂 Lovely!Her left turns seem stronger (which seemed to be the case on the plank too) so the extra emphasis on the right turn lines really helped her sort out the mechanics.
Great job!! Let me know what you think.
Tracy
Good morning!
>>Venture has a trained back up to feet on raised object (like a 2o2o). Is it ok to ask him for that when we play the game?>>
Absolutely! If he is used to doing the onto things that don’t move, you can brace the wobble board (and eventually the teeter) so it doesn’t move at first then add movement back very gradually. We don’t want him to be surprised by movement.
>>Question about the motion game. I don’t have a wobble board but I do have a 3′ rubber board that tips. Ven isn’t really phased by motion so do you think it’s ok to just use that rather than a true multi direction wobble board?>>
Yes, it sounds like this will work well!
I think the video is going better!! he had a lot of success here. You are both better at this connection and commitment when he is on your right, When he is on your left (turning to his right), he is not as clear about the commitment and you tend to turn your arm high and forward more like t :50 and 1:07. That looks like the beginning of a blind, which is why he would end up behind you there. If that happens, and you lost track of him, just throw the lotus ball to keep him moving so he doesn’t freeze up thinking he was wrong.
>>I don’t think I’m getting the left arm back far enough but I’m not totally sure that’s why he kept missing the second jump coming out of the tunnel going clockwise. Am I diagnosing it correctly?>>
Yes – it is a good camera angle to see the left arm coming up high and forward, so from behind it looks like a side change starting.
>>Should I be rewarding more often, life maybe after 2 obstacles, before we lose the connection?>>
Yes, but also do fewer reps 🙂 If you get a good one, call it a day and do something else 🙂 Sometimes we are great on the first rep then things get shaky LOL!!!
>>For rewards, I’m throwing the lotus ball on the line which just isn’t very far away >>
I think it is fine for now, and will also work well in bigger spaces!
>> Is there a way I could mark and send him away to a manners minder to get his reward? I was hesitant to try that because I can’t really put it on course without it becoming a predictable source/place to get reward.>>
Probably not an effective way to have it off to the side and still reward commitment, so the lotus ball is going to be best for now. And it provides an opportunity to ignore your hands and look for jumps.
>>I’m thinking almost like the beginning of working in the ring and then going back to the setup to get the reward.>>
That is a great thing (remote reinforcement) but it doesn’t necessarily transfer to line finding. So you can keep going with the food rewards – lotus ball or giant pieces of visible food 🙂
You can totally move forward from this setup now – it doesn’t need to be perfect 🙂 The concepts will transfer to the next games and that way you and Ven don’t get bored with the same set up 🙂 Also, remember that latent learning is magic – give him a few days off from handling to let his brain cement the learning and I bet he comes back with no questions. It works the same for us humans 🙂
Nice work here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>>Huge wins include
Yay for huge wins!
>> (1) less shoe biting attacks (though still happens);
When does he bite your shoes?
>>((6) really nice sofa cuddles (newest and bestest).
Ah yes, these are so nice 🙂
>>The not-so-good and most puzzling: JP has started chasing his tail WITH catch and hold to tear at it. I feel utterly helpless with this one. >>
Hmmmm, this could be a number of things but definitely worth getting checked out – check him out physically because it could be a pain issue causing it, and also it could be the tip of an OCD behavior so it might be worth checking in with a behavior specialist. BCs are known to have the potential for some OCD behaviors so we definitely want to take a look at it before it gets more frequent.
>> I am broken again, making extra duty difficult.>>
Oh no! Feel better!!!
>> I think this is attention-getting behavior, but I’m not really sure.
Possibly? But definitely something to look at from a behavior perspective, If he gets a lot of stimulation (exercise, attention, etc) and the behavior increases rather than decreases, that could be a sign that it is not attention seeking.
>>Balancing boredom against his need to relax and get puppy rest. Any suggestions or experience with this would be most welcome.>
Mental stimulation is always a good one – food games, chew bones, eating meals from food puzzles or kong or Toppls, and routines for physical exercise. I also have xpens or use leashes to keep the dogs with me when I am sitting down or at a table/desk for when I am in the house and the pup needs to relax without being in a crate. That helps with some of the at home behavior with active young dogs – I use food rewards to help them settle down and not need to be busy.
Looking at the videos:
The lazy game is going well! He totally got the idea. You can spread the jumps out a bit and also move on to the week 2 games which use a very similar setup. I think you were using a marker for the treats (it got clearer as the session went along), so be sure to say the marker before throwing it. When using a toy – throw the toy too 🙂 so he doesn’t start to look back at you on these lines.
The toy from your hand works well for the tight FC wraps because on those we do want him driving back to you.
When you are ahead of him on the sends (like at 1:03, 1:11 and 1:24, for example), be sure to connect back to him rather than point ahead. When you point ahead he was tending to go a little wide (looking for connection). He took the wing nicely because yo were next to it, but the connection will be really helpful when you are not as close to the wing.
Those were when he was on your right. When he was on your left, you look to be very connected when he exited the tunnel and his turns were tighter, because he knew where he was going sooner 🙂
You were pretty quiet here – so now add all the verbals 🙂 They include the wrap verbals, the tunnel verbals, and the left/right verbals for when he goes from the wing after the tunnel to the middle wing. That will help the verbals become second-nature for you!
The plank game looked really easy for him! Yay! Doing the elevated plank indoors was great because he is ready for it – we want to be able to elevate the long plank as well, so do you have blocks or something you can put under it when you are on the grass?
Using the bowls kept his head straight so you can keep using the bowls – and you can move them to slight angles (on an arc towards you) so that he can practice entering the plank on a slight angle.Elevating the plank is the next step (6 inches or so is great) – and then when it is elevated, you can add on turning around in the middle as well as hopping off from the middle, so he learns how to get off if he loses his balance (rather than falling off).
He did well with the mountain climber game too! After the first introductory reps, he was more than happy to run up to the target YAY!! (Thank you to the helper who are loading the target in advance! When you are working on your own, continue to load the target in advance so he does not watch your hands for the food (he was beginning to do that). And with the food loaded on the target, you can then add some of the small handling moves like you driving ahead, or a rep cross.
Great job here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
This went really well!
>>I left all the yucky stuff in. Not gonna hide my crap dog training or frustration with the starts at this point. I can’t even hold her collar bc it makes her nuts>>
Funny, I was thinking these were some of the best start stays I have seen from her!
She was on fire and tossing her head LOL!!! Sure you can probably pretend you are chill as she gets a bit wild and don’t say things like ‘stop’, or release sooner on the stay, but she did her stays and didn’t check out. I agree she was not loving the collar hold, so your decision to line up and not hold her was the right decision. Some dogs do not like to be touched when they are teetering at the top of arousal, so we don’t touch them.You can mix in some stays and line ups with some filing & go just to keep everyone’s arousal level down, and so it is not all about the start of the sequence.
>>the layering went really well but I am wondering if it’s simply because it’s a tunnel.>>
I agree! She did really well with the layering! And yes, having the tunnel as a big piece of that probably helped but that is a common element of layering anyway, so it is good to work on 🙂
She seemed to find all of the lines after the tunnel really well too!
>>If you say that my handling cues match what the layer should look like yay! If she’s just zooming to a tunnel what do I do?>>
I don’t think she was just zooming to the tunnel, because you didn’t have to work that hard to get her to NOT take the tunnel on the last 2 reps. She came to the backside pretty easily! So I think the handing was indeed sending her to it correctly.
More proof that she was listening and not just zooming around was at 2:45 – you were over-turned so the send was not as clear as it was at 3:01 and the previous reps – so she took the line you turned too rather than the pinwheel jump. Yay!
Nice push to the backside, especially after the ‘go tunnel’ reps! She had no trouble reading the different cue and not going to the tunnel to 3:04. Yes, get out of the way sooner for the blind – as soon as you see her looking at the backside, start sliding away while looking at the landing spot to support commitment, and I think she will be just fine finding the bar without potentially hitting you 🙂
On the last rep you added her name after the push – was it because she was looking straight? You can try the reverse – say her name then say the push cue to see if she turns a bit sooner.
Great job here!!!
Tracy
Hi!
I think the brake arm sequences here went really well! You had strong connection throughout and great job with the verbals!Only have subtle details for you…
I think almost all of the questions/bloopers were because you went too close to jump 2, which made the layering hard to get to because you had to get past the layered jump – so either she saw you pulling away and that changed the line, or you decelerated on the send to the tunnel and that also changed the exit line.
When you led out less, you easily got ahead of her at the tunnel and could she see the info really well!!
The brake arms worked really well for the 180 turn on sequence 1! It will be even easier with a lead out where you don’t go past the layered jump so you can show the brake arms from ahead of her when she gets out of the tunnel.
You can also play with showing the brake arms and turning away from her rtaher than towards her on these 180/post turn lines.
For the ’in in’ threadle at the end – keep moving and cue a turn on 5 (after she lands from 4) to set up the threadle line, then go to your threadle verbal and arm for 5 before she takes off for 5. You had a bar down at :13 because you stopped moving then moved forward again. And on the threadle exit, remember to keep your arm back on the threadle til she looks at the correct side of the jump, that is part of the cue (the ‘go back out’ part after coming in towards you to start the in-then-out threadle 🙂 )
Seq 2:
Nice job on the wrap!!! You are getting really good collection, so remember tp stay connected after the FC side change so she can see the next line clearly. You had a bar on first rep when you took off without connection.
As you were working out the timing of the wrap on 4:
You were a little late at 1:41, got stuck behind the layering jump due to a lead out that was a little too long. Then I think you were sorting out the timing of the send to the layering, and you were a little late leaving 2 for the tunnel send (bar down).Then you switched it up at 2:47 and you were too early on the rotation (this was also due to getting a little stuck behind the jump layering, so you’re overcompensating perhaps by hitting the brakes and rotating sooner). The decel with the brake arms will work well so you don’t need to rotate that early.
Last rep was SUPER nice, great timing on the FC wrap and lovely connection to show her the backside at 6!! YAY!! That was the sweet spot of timing and connection 🙂
>>. Although I did a slice on 6 and not a wrap. Not intentionally – I just forgot that it was a wrap.>>
No worries! The challenge was to get her to 6, so the exit (wrap or slice) was not that important.
Great job here!!
TracyHi!
>> I don’t know why I can’t get the reward placement thing down when I’m running my own dog! I see the right placement when other people are running, haha.
I think that it is because we humans are not great at multi-tasking 🙂 Plan the reward placement when you train alone, so you don’t need to think about it. And when you are training with other people, hand them the reward so they can throw it LOL!!! Remember to throw the toy miles away here too, lots of reward was dropped near you.
On the video:
>>I have never really used brake arms purposefully before, so it felt a bit awkward to run with my arms out, lol.>
It feels a bit weird at first, yes, but you will love the results! There was a bit of Goldilocks action here: too much, not enough, and plenty of just right 🙂
One thing with the brake arms is that they are lower, for the smaller dogs. Just above nose height is the general guideline. Too high, and they might block connection. You started out with them a bit too high (like at :09) but they got lower as you worked and ended up in a good place, maybe belly-button level 🙂 You don’t think you need to pump your opposite arm though – you were doing that at the end of the session a bit and that was causing her to look at you.
On the 180s at the beginning:
>>When I was trying to get the 180 or the wrap out of the tunnel, I got a few refusals (a couple are not included).>>
Most of those were due to you getting a little too far ahead and decelerating on the tunnel send, which created a turn on the tunnel exit. When you did a shorter lead out (so you could layer without having to decelerate) or you did not layer: no refusal questions 🙂
You were playing with different timing to get the 180s and wraps, so the best 180s were when you kept moving forward with a little decel. On the wraps, more decel worked better like at :38 and 1:13, but the reps at 1:33 and 1:44 were great! Those were just the right amount of decel and brake arm to get the turn. Be sure to connect to her eyes to cue the backside send to 6 at 1:36 and 1:40 rather than point forward (that was sending her to the front).
Tunnel exits looked great so did the sequence that added focus forward!! Especially 2:30 – 2:41!!! That was really fantastic.
>>. I didn’t intend to do a front cross on the very last rep for the wrap instead of the tunnel exercise since that sort of defeats the purpose of the exercise, but it was too hot to run it again>>
No worries! You got a nice turn there! And it was smart to take it and be finished, she worked beautifully! So we will keep getting you comfy with the brake arms and then sort out where to use them – she read them really well 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
Yes, the heat today is a LOT!!! I want to get the whippets & lurchers out to train or at least run a bit, but the heat is a bit dangerous here!
Hi!
I am glad her shoulder is feeling better!The lazy games are going well! I agree – her forward focus looks super! YAY!!!
Since her commitment is also looking good, you can use your tunnel verbal sooner: as soon as she lands from the middle jump and looks down the line to the tunnel, you can start cuing the tunnel. You don’t need to stay jump then tunnel.Remember to use your markers for the thrown rewards, so she is continuing to look forward. You did sometimes but add them all the time 🙂 And I am glad you started using toys too! That amps up the excitement and she got to practice bringing the toy back and getting rewarded too 🙂
On the FC wraps – you didn’t quite have enough decel on the first one at 1:11, but your decel at 1:44 was lovely and timely, so her turn was great! You can totally add your wrap verbals, I don’t think you were using them here.
Speaking of verbals 🙂 nice job saying the verbals to her and having very clear connection!!
On the Fluffy blinds – good timing starting the blinds!!! The first one was good and 2:40 was good…. 2:19 was GREAT!!!
So since your timing was good, why was she so wide on the landing and even missed the side change at 2:41? It is the exit line connection 🙂 Both of your girls need to see more connection by getting your dog-side arm back.
Here is are some screenshots of the exits of the blinds. You can see that she doesn’t really see connection at all, and she sees your back. So she follows your line, not being sure which side to be on, until either the next jump is visible or you show more connection:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BfVmUU0zcVSa9Fhxgbml1kx_WyXREaJgr4djohh_AtA/edit?usp=sharing
So as you are working the BCs (and FCs too) – work the exit line connection by having the toy in the dog side arm before the cross. Then as you do the cross, that arm comes across you to what is now your dog-side hip – so as she lands, your opposite arm is on your dog side hip. That will help push your dog-side shoulder back – and your dog side arm on the new side should be extended and pointing all the way back to her nose, as you look for her eyes.
Ideally, when she lands, she will see at least half of the front of your torso. Think of it as getting your dog-side arm pointing to where she is (behind you) rather than where you want her to be (next to you). And your eyes are looking back to the landing spot of the previous jump.
If she ends up on the wrong side of you after a blind, reward her immediately if you can’t keep going (she did eventually get the toy there) Assume that your connection or timing were off, so she couldn’t read it. Then go watch the video 🙂
The blind was better at 3:00 because you did look back at her and she was able to see some of that. It will be even better if you get your dog-side arm back to her nose
Her only other question was at 2:23, where she came off the line partially because you closed your shoulders away from it, and partially I think she was really hot at this point (this is her first real summer of heat!) Great job continuing and rewarding success!
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
>>Ahh I love the screen shots. These are super helpful! >>
Yay! I like visuals. And you can re-create screenshots in the moment by looking at the video between runs. You can freeze the video in the moment she makes a decision, and see what the handling was showing. Is it a small pain in the butt to have to watch the video? Yes. But does it make your entire session more successful and efficient? Double heck yes!!!! And that leaves more time for snacks and beverages.
>>I do feel like working with someone in the moment to fix my sloppy handling really needs to happen because it’s just these minor tweaks that are causing the issues.>>
Yes, working with someone in the moment helps. Virginia is just a short commute away LOL!
And you can develop a library of “when I do this, she does this” type of thing. For example, when I point forward on the backside push and my dog is behind me, the younger ones will take the front side. So if they take the front side, I know that I was probably being too pointy and can make the adjustment on the next rep. Another example: if the dog does a rear cross when I was cuing a front cross wrap (or spin), it is always because I am stepping in and putting too much pressure on the takeoff spot. No need to look at the video, I can keep going and fix myself on the next rep 🙂 But if you don’t have that library or are not sure what happened: video if your best instructor in the moment.
>>I’m having a hard time with Sahweet balancing RUNNING FOR MY LIFE BECAUSE SHES FAST AS FUCK versus slowing down and using decel to handle. >>
Entirely relatable! She reminds me of Voodoo when he was young, or my Border/Staffy, Matrix (I don’t think you ever got to see her, she was born in 2008). Those dogs COME AT YOU AT 10,000MPH and BIG WHITE TEETH FLASHING lol!!! I did a lot of pretending I was calm by running with an open water bottle in my hand, to smooth out my flinging arms and clarify connection.
>>When you mention demanding a turn, what would that look like? >>
For Sahweet, it will be a brake arm towards her like a stop sign, with perhaps even a little more intensity than this by shifting your connection very directly to her eyes:
You can do it while you are moving too, without rotating the lower body. You can see it on the live class demo videos from live class 1.
>>She’s amazing but I don’t want to push her too hard because I want her to stay fast. >>
Yes, she is looking great! She also reads you REALLY well so if you are tempted to tell her that *she* was wrong… remember to keep going and reward something because chances are that *you* were wrong 😁
>>Also re the 3/4 1/4 mongrel. I’m totally sold on the part whippet breeds. She’s so snuggly. Her ability to hear her words and listen at speed is incredible. >>
Yay! People ask me ALL THE TIME what the whippets bring to a Border Collie and why the mix is so cool. One of the things the whippet brings is the ability to execute with precision and process verbals, at super high speed. The other thing they bring is the ability to turn (better than BCs!!). They can turn and land facing the new direction at top speed, with minimal effort. I mean, whippets are murderers so it makes sense that they will murder things better when they can turn better to chase them LOL!!!
Oh the 3rd thing they bring is the incredible latent learning – the training session can be mediocre but the whippet brain sleeps on it, and comes back knowing the behavior and also knowing the next 5 steps to the behavior. I have never seen anything like it (my full whippet is INSANE with this ability – he basically learned the full flyball run by sleeping on it for a couple of nights).
One of the things the BCs bring a bit of tolerance for our human silliness, in ways that a whippet would roll their eyes at us LOL!!
>>I’ll have her while Courtney is at EO so she will likely join in again. But running dog walk has also been my summer assignment >>
Fun! One thing with whippet mixes and RDW is to consider more of a front foot target behavior and not a split rear foot target. Their stride length is different, their shoulders and different, their rears are different, and their forelimbs in particular are different from BCs… that makes the split rear feet awkward at best. The whippety dogs do better with front foot targeting. Food for thought.
Have fun!
Tracy
Hi!
Yes, definitely on the right track! Yay!
The first couple on just the two jumps were a little harder, because sending to the backside then trying to get the blind then the threadle wrap made the cues a little late. You got it sorted out after :43 – you were also moving away laterally which can help but we don’t want the dogs to rely on that (see below about ending up on his line).
On the full sequence – you can send him away to the line sooner so you can then get to the BC sooner and be running towards the threadle wing – at 1:35 and 2:05 you are converging towards the bar of the BC jump which puts you on him landing line and makes the threadle wrap cue late (he is looking at you there).
The decel on the last rep at 2:05 was the best of all the reps here! NICE!!! That also really helps set up the threadle wrap.
And remember to reward the threadle wraps with a toy throw back to the landing side – you were placing them forward past the jump for most of these, and the landing side throw as you keep moving will help solidify the cues (especially the verbal).
The next step is to balance the threadle wraps with some going straight and some threadle slices, all in the same session. Great job here!!
Tracy
Hi!
>>I’m not sure about the spacing. Is there a picture somewhere? I couldn’t remember how far over the Klimb was.>>
I posted the video, it is here:
Recording Of Special Guest Instructor Live Zoom with Stefanie Theis!
That way you can get the visual and the explanation for different sizes.
Tracy
Hi!
>>Ok awesome sauce put things in perspective!!! Thank you for that. Your mixie is obviously part kangaroo!>>
I figured you would be feeling better after you saw my baby Kangaroo mix LOL!!! She is now 6 years old and there is no leaping on her RDW (which is a good thing because I am waaayyyyy too lazy to retrain LOL!!!)
Rear crosses:
>> She opted in for each rep and I stopped before she opted out.>>
YAY!!! That is great 🙂
A disclaimer: rear crosses are like threadles. They are not natural or intuitive, and need a lot of training. So if you feel like they require more work… you are correct 😂🤣
One piece of it is getting her driving ahead as you move. So on the straight lines, you need to accelerate rather than stand still or decelerate and throw. Keep running until she arrives at the reward. Getting her used to seeing your running is a big piece of the picture, so she drives ahead as you accelerate. You were tending to decelerate an throw, so she was going straight but it was based off the toy throw more than the phyiscal cue.
The RCs are going well! The number 1 thing here is: don’t say go 🙂 I thought your physical cue on the RC at :15 was strong, but you said GO which means go straight rather than turn on the RC. So she went straight (especially since she had just done that a few times). A jump verbal is fine to use there, or a directional like “right” in this case would be best because it means take-the-jump- and-turn-right.
The RC info at :27 was a bit too early s she didn’t take the jump, but she read the RC well at :38! Yay!!!!
>>The mat lesson was so “do what tracy says first… “ excited to have the wing there next time.>>
Ha! And the rep at :52 where you clicked her for leaping over it entirely is totally relatable LOL!!!! I have done that, but you said ‘oh my god’ and I definitely used curse words LOL!!!!!! Ah, the joys of running dog walk training 🤣😂🤣
The reps with the wing went well! You can ‘hide’ the MM around the wing more, so she has to wrap the wing a tiny bit to get it. I tuck it in next to the wing, behind the feet of the wing. You can also add a temporary marker like “hit it” so she knows when to move to the mat. And you can add more of your movement! No need to spend too much time with you stationary because you will almost need be stationary with this behavior.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
I was hoping you would get a bit of relief from the humidity. Sounds like Beryl didn’t deliver that refreshing rain, unfortunately.The lazy game with connection went well – use your leg to step to the jump if you are doing a wrap or send to the tunnel. If you stop and your feet are together, he is not as sure
Now add running as you do this – I think that walking is good for you but not as motivating for him 🙂 he really liked it when you added running and the blind at 3:08 and the sections after that!
And if he doesn’t take a jump (like at 2:35 and 3:29 and 4:10 and 4:28) – don’t stop or fix, just keep going and reward somewhere else. Amplifying connection when that happens will help.
Remember to point your dog-side arm back to his cute little nose (nice and low, because his nose is not much higher than your ankles) At 3:29 – the cue looked like a blind to him so he changed sides. Your eyes were back towards him but he didn’t see that, due to your arm being at your side. Use your dog side arm to point all the way back and down to his nose, so he can see the connection
Compare at 3:49 when your shoulder was more back towards him, he got the line immediately. Yay! Nice!!!
One other suggestion that I think will help: for the next few weeks, try to have no rewards near you or from your hand when sequencing, even at the end of a sequence or when something goes wrong. There is a lot of reward for being near you (because it is hand-delivered or tossed nearby) so when in doubt, he is sticking near you.
We can shift that value: when in doubt, fling the cookie/lotus ball or toy as far as possible so he is always looking for something out on the line and not gravitating towards you. His turns are really lovely, so I am not worried about getting turns. The reward flinging can get him to default to staying on a line when things are not as clear, which should make it all easier for you 🙂
>>I see the differences but making my body do the things is a struggle.>>
Two things to help:
I posted up the run-with-a-drink connection game with this week’s games – this will be perfect to use on this setup or any setup and will help keep you cool too. And, did I ever show you the magnet fingers tip? Using magnet fingers will help keep the dog side arm/shoulder open to him, which helps a lot with commitment:
You can also see some things from the perspective of a small/medium dog n this video, in terms of what they see from behind us.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
OH NO, YOUR POOR KNEE!!!! OUCH!!!! That sucks. I am glad the surgery is scheduled soon, that means recovery will be soon too. We can use the time to get some pretty impressive skills and distance work going, so when you are back to running, she will be ready to roll!!>>If you have any suggestions I would appreciate it.>>
We can tweak all the games to find ways where we can protect your knee while building high level skills! We have done that for los of handlers here, so I will give you ideas on that looking at this video so we can get started on that right away.
>>For this week I was training at home and I don’t have a tunnel so I used a jump and a wing to simulate a tunnel, hopefully, that is ok.>>
Of course! Using a jump-wing combo makes things go faster – less time for us handlers LOL!
>I love to run with my dogs so this is tough for me.
Yep, that love of running with them shines through in your videos! Your natural movement is pretty dynamic… and your knee rehab docs will of course tell you that movement is off limits for a while. So let’s approach training in general and a setup like this from the viewpoint of NOT needing to be dynamic, in terms of pushing off the new direction or hustling. I am thinking your knee docs will not want you pushing off any time soon.
Yes, keep your verbals dynamic, but start moving less – just strolling along the inside curve and rewarding her TONS for driving around the jumps without needing you to also hustle. For example, at 1:08 to 1:13 she is already working pretty far from you… so now use *less* motion so you are further and she propels herself on the line (lots of thrown rewards out on the line as you start this will help, so she doesn’t question why you aren’t running hard).
And with the wraps, we can work on getting her driving in and out of them without you at the wing. You can start the wrap timing at the same time, but just decel slowly and turn VERY slowly (FCs are hard on knees!) from wherever you are, no need to get to the wing. That will challenge her to get the collection mainly from the verbal – and that is a super useful skill to have in your toolbox, even when your knee is back to 100%!
We can also work the timing more: The decel and verbal for the wrap should start when she is in the air over the previous jump, or no later than exit of the tunnel (or exit of the jump-wing combo). That way she can commit independently of you being near the wing or having a dynamic decel/rotation.
You were a bit early with the rotation at 1:14 on the wrap. You hit the brakes hard and rotated towards her, so she didn’t commit. Remember to use deceleration as one of the biggest elements of the cue, so a few steps forward as you slow down will cue the wrap and then you can rotate slowly as she passes you. Decel rather than fast rotation will also make your knee doctors happy 🙂
You added decel at 1:27 and she committed really well and had a great turn! When you are working on the decel, add in an open bottle of water in your hand. If you hit the brakes too hard, you will spill the water. If you decel smoothly, the water will not spill.
You were throwing the rewards really well – as she retrieving pretty quickly? It looks like she was. That will be super helpful for building up more distance and independence when you are not able to run as much for a bit.
You can also add in throwing rewards to the landing side of the wrap jump, to get commitment to the wrap without you being at the wing for the wrap.
The blinds at 1:42 and 152 look good – nice decel at 154 to set up the nice wrap exit!!
The last section had the BC to the ‘tunnel’ 😁 The timing was a little late in the warm up (ideally it is before takeoff for the jump) and also late at 2:57 – you did it when she landed and that might have gotten an off course if there was a tunnel.
MUCH better timing at 3:17! You started it after she landed from the middle jump – that made for a much better turn and line!Try to send to the middle jump more to make it easier to get to the BC – she might have been a little hot or tired here and was not committed with as much speed.
On the start jump on that last section, be careful to line her up on an angle to the front of the jump and then move away so you are not right there. At 2:37 and 2:47 and 3:05 – you were on her line and she was set up looking at the backside, so the release pushed her to the backside – reward her then reset, rather than mark her as wrong (she justifiably got mad about it). Those types of openings are getting really popular now, so letting her see the line clearly will make them very smooth.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
>>I seriously thought these were gonna be a walk in the park, but they were not.>>
These are easy with an experienced dog at 20 feet distances. They are wicked with a baby dog at shorter distances 🙂 But there is a lot of dog training that happens and that is useful!
One thing I see in all the videos is that he is looking at you during the rewarding, and that is bleeding over into looking at you on the Iines rather than forward. That has to do with the placement of reinforcement. 2 ideas for you:
– With the food or the toy as reward: Use a marker for the thrown reward. Yo uwere using praise like yes or good boy, which was getting him looking at you. Ideally, you would use a ‘get it’ marker of some sort so he continues to look ahead.
– When you throw the reward, throw it far far away 🙂 so he is not getting it anywhere near you (where he can also look at you). That will really help build up his ability to drive the lines!Looking at the videos:
I agree, he is doing a great job finding the jumps and lines on the 2 lazy game videos here! Yay!!!Sending to middle jump was most effective (he didn’t look at you) when you were one step past the previous jump, like at :31 and :48 on the first video. As you send, make sure you let your hand travel with his nose and not ahead of it as that might cause issues as you add more speed.
He did well with he lazy game as you were moving more in the 2nd video! Yay! We definitely want to keep adding more and more motion.
As you do that, add in carrying the toy – we want him to be able to ignore the toy and find the jumps, so the lazy game is perfect for that. Yes, it might take longer to get the toy back 🙂 but it is worthwhile at this stage.
>>And wouldn’t you know, I couldn’t figure out which word to say when. >>
You will need to walk and rehearse the plan without him 🙂 Don’t try to run him, connect, handle, and remember the words without practicing it a couple of times beforehand. We humans are not great at multi-tasking LOL!
On the video – try to add a clearer lead out, even if it is only one step. At the beginning here, you looked at him for about 10 seconds then released and turned to the jump at basically the same time. That can pair movement into the release, causing movement to *become* the release – creating confusion with the stay. Same at :34 and 1:00 and 1:25 – he is releasing on motion there. Leading out a bit, saying the release word, *then* moving after he moves is going to help clarify the stay behavior.
Also, you need to be past that first jump to get the good send to 2 (:13 where he didn’t get it versus :19 where he did).
He did have a question on jump 3 when going to his left. He missed that jump several times. At :38 and 1:02 and 1:28 you can have your dog-side shoulder open back to him and fingers pointing to his nose to support the line. The connection was better at :43 but your shoulder still a little too closed forward with you that far ahead. Try to reward that jump too to help him find it even if connection is not very clear.
I think your shoulder was more open at 1:07 and he still missed, so being that far ahead was also harder for him.
These all got rewarded which was good – they were valid and legit questions 🙂 An application of the 2 Failure Rule is that if the dog fails twice (in this case, missing the jump) you can still reward but the next rep needs something to change to help the dog get the behavior we want, otherwise things get weird if we decide we don’t want to keep rewarding the dog. That is what happened at 1:30 –
At 1:30 you marked him as being incorrect (stopped, no reward, verbal indicating it was not correct) – that seemed confusing to him and he deflated and got a little sniffy. You changed the handling at 1:47 (staying closer to the jump) and he got it.
So for the 2 Failure rule – if he has a question (like missing the same jump twice) you can either make a bigger adjustment to help him get it, or stop and watch the video to see what he is seeing. That way he doesn’t have that many failures (ideally no more than 2 in the entire session, even if they get rewarded).
Wrap video:
This is a hard send on jump 1 at the very beginning, which actually mirrors what we are seeing a lot on corse nowadays: taking jump 1 away from the course. You moved away too quickly at :10 and were more patient at :14 so he got it nicely! And definitely patient with the cue and allowing him to commit at 1:09!At :32 you stepped backwards before he was really committed to the right turn (watch your right leg) so he correctly read it as a rear cross 🙂 Reward before you reset! Assume that all bloopers are caused by him correctly reading the handling, so it is all rewardable behavior.
>>He did need the turn cues, especially going to the right – he carried out a bit in that direction.>>
That was happening 2-3 on this video at :16 and also at :39 ish. Part of it is reward placement: looking at you as you move down that line especially if you move your hand towards it (:56). Using the marker and more thrown rewards will help smooth that out.
(On this video also, be careful to lead out more even if it is only one step, stand still, release, *then* move on the stays so he is not releasing on motion.)
For the BCs, you can add exit line connection with your opposite arm across your body (for example at :51, your right arm would come across to your left hip, which pushes your dog-side shoulder back and makes connection super clear).
At 1:29 and 1:44 and 2:04 his wideness was not because you were late starting the blind, that timing was pretty good particularly with a baby dog!! But as he landed from the BC jump, all he saw was your back and sideways motion. Yes, your right hand was out and you were looking down at where you wanted him to be… but dogs tend to not read that as a clear exit of a BC. Ideally, your left arm would be on your right hip there, right arm pointing back to his nose and eyes on his eyes to get the tight turn.
The visible connection and shoulders is what the dogs read as the BC exit, so think of it as looking at and pointing at where he is in the moment, rather than where you want him to come to.
Stepping backwards at1:47 was also confusing – you can wait until you see his feet up over the bump before you move away like you did at 2:06 And also just reward… when you withheld the reward to try to get him to do it again, he said “no thanks” and didn’t move for a bit. So be sure to keep going or reward if something goes wrong – and then if you are not sure what happened, watch the vide before the next rep so you can smooth out the info.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
