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Hi!
He did really well here!>I see I was supposed to toss the treat before he took the jump, not after.>
Ha! Yes – the treat toss should be when he is locked onto the jump and before he gets to it, so he looks straight. I think the main tweak here is that you don’t need the clicker anymore: the click tends to get the pups looking at us, which we don’t want here. So you can just use your ‘get it’ marker and throw the treat.
>The left side was harder. That is probably from lots and lots of RZ zone on that side.>
Totally agree! He does a little better on your right here than on your left – it might be a bit of value balance if you have been working obedience, etc on your left – he will want to be closer to you. So be sure to add lots of value for moving away on your left too 🙂 I don’t do a lot of specific RZ work in agility anymore because the game has evolved and we don’t want the dogs defaulting to driving to us: stay on your line, dog! And we use decel and other cues for turns. So you can shift the balance by doing lots of thrown rewards in agility when he is on your left.
Great job!!
Tracy
The tunnel game is going well!! She is finding the tunnel nicely and seems to be having a good time too 🙂
The beginning was the hardest part, getting her going: you can start on an easier angle so she sees the entry very clearly right at the start, then work back to harder angles. You can do the same thing on the other side too – the first couple of reps are easy then build to the harder angles.
On that first rep, you can reward her when she came back to you through the tunnel – it is not what you planned but it was a tunnel LOL!!
>I purposefully didn’t do any collar restrains, instead lining her up as best I could with a cookie.>
Lining up at your side with a cookie went pretty well! Try to take a moment before sending her, so you are sure she is lined up and ready to look for the tunnel. And you can add in touching (but not holding) her collar or harness while you deliver the line up cookie. This can all build up to being held over a series of sessions – and doing it in the fun tunnel game can help her not think about it at all.
>She gets her final vaccine today (rabies) so may be a bit sore for a day or two.>
Hopefully it goes smoothly 🙂
>I saw the notice for Max Pup 4. I’m hoping that there will be a Max Pup 2. If so, do you know when that would start? >
Yes, that MaxPup 4 is for the pups who were in MaxPup 1 Class of 2024 🙂 We have Max Pup 1, 2, 3, 4 and then everyone is ready for CAMP. The MaxPup 1 Class Of 2025 will have a MaxPup 2 that begins in January (exact date coming soon) then MaxPup 3 will be in the late Spring – and MaxPup 4 will be September 2026, probably.
Great job here!!
TracyHi!
So happy to see you here!!>This course may be a bit advanced for us but Djinn is a very eager and quick learner.>
Djinn is fabulous and we will meet her where she is, and move forward from there 🙂
>She is very motion sensitive so we will have to see how that goes with getting closer to trials!>
That is pretty normal for adolescent dogs 🙂 Is she sensitive to your motion, other dogs’ motion, or all of the above?
>not many fenced areas and cows>
Cows! So cool!!! But yes, that adds a little challenge.
I am sorry to hear her tummy is having an off day but her tugging looked great here! You have really fun tricks in the volume dial game here: spin, touch, down
She tugged really well except for when you were tapping her – she was letting go a lot when you did that, so you can try without tapping and see how the tugging goes.
>apparently we need to work on her letting go of the toy>
When her GI is back to normal, you can trade for a treat if she will go back to tugging when food is around.
Also, you can let your hands go passive (one on each side of her mouth, so she can’t keep tugging) and wait: when she releases the toy, you can reward that by giving it back to her 🙂 Here is a visual:Since this went so well, you can take it outside – since cows might be accessible, start as far as possible and have her on leash, and see how she does with this game!
Great job! Keep me posted!
Tracy
Welcome back and thank you for your questions and video!
>Will have tons of questions about jump height and jumping form as this is my first big dog,>
Since you are the expert in conditioning and rehab and all of that awesome stuff… how do you feel about her physical development? If you feel she is balanced and muscled up and strong, we can begin bringing up the heights. I like to show the dog a new height with the set point that we did in earlier MaxPup classes, then some one jump extension stuff, then that accordion grid… the tools are all in place and I think it will be a straightforward process with her.
>And Pick is showing inklings (maybe?) of being able to handle himself in trial environments. There’s been some back and forth about whether he has a new home, but I guess he’s staying (also said with a huge ?)>
I am excited to hear that he is doing well! You can totally do all of this stuff with him too 🙂 I really like him and want him to also be a super agility dog like his merle sister will be 🙂
T
Welcome back! I can’t believe he is 2 already! Great seeing you last night in the zoom chat!!!
Tracy
Welcome back to you and the BEST CHIHUAHUA EVER!!! I am very excited to see Grace do the grown up stuff! Have fun with Anastasia!
T
Hi!
This went a lot smoother! Yes, the food in your hand was a bit distracting so you can have the big pieces in your pocket and maybe one small piece in your hand for now – we can add back carrying more as she gets more fluent in this game.
Also, disconnection is causing the leaping up – at :23 you got a big leap when you turned your shoulders forward and pointed ahead. But compare to all of the reps where you didn’t get leaping: you were very connected! Yay! You can use your hand to send, but think of it as following her nose and not pointing ahead. And if she leaps up to shoulder height… take it as communication that you can connect more 🙂
>also she bounces a lot like Gitchi and Roulez and Voulez>
Yes, the genetic component is real 😂 but that is why we want to teach her at this early stage to drive to the barrel and not jump up.
Nice work!!
Tracy
Wow, he is confident on that tall plank!! Nice job balancing and turning around! The sit looked awesome too! Because of the height, you will want to avoid too much jumping off at this age while his joints are still developing – you can lift him off, or put a table next to it so he can hop off with less height.
>me realising i hadn’t bothered to teach him a down yet, so couldn’t get him to down on the plank. haha>
HA!! That is so funny! I am sure he will learn down easily then he will be able to do it on the plank 🙂
Great job!
TracyHi!
>He was unwilling to sit, >
I think sitting in the presence of the prop was challenging, because of the value of the prop! No worries, we work on that specifically very soon. And if you use the sit, be sure to use a release word separately from the hand movement (not simultaneous at all) so the release stays clean.
He did well finding the prop with the opposite arm here! The only question he really had was when you were sending forward to the prop on your right side, so be sure that you are parallel to the prop (but ahead of him). Things worked better when you used a start cookie toss, so for the next step definitely start with the cookie throw – that way we can add motion of you moving up the line and giving the cue (along with he balance of sometimes *not* giving the cue so he does not go to the prop).
Nice work!!
Tracy
Hi!
It might have just been that being outside was the challenge for that game, so starting with a bowl on the line to help direct his focus can help! And lots of rewards for that in the more challenging environment!T
Good morning!
>I didn’t know I had verbals for both all the way and soft turns. 😉>
Ha! Yes, so many words LOL!
The parallel path game looked really good here in the garage! He had an easy time finding the line to the jump, even when coming in at an angle.
>. First, I tried it in the backyard, with me running a little. It didn’t go so well.>
He was on fire for the toy in the outdoor session! And adorable with his hops 🙂
So why wasn’t he finding the jump?
If I had to guess at why… the toy was eliciting the response of running out, anticipating that you would throw it, so he was moving away to where it would likely be thrown. It looked like the same behavior we might see when just playing fetch in the yard, or throwing a frisbee. So the presence of the toy, if that toy (or a similar one gets thrown for fun games), elicited the running out response because that is his learning history with the toy in the yard, perhaps. And the presence of the toy doesn’t indicate that he should offer behavior (like find the jump), it indicates get ready to chase the throw 🙂
>Would you handle the running outside the jump standards as I do here?>
It was GREAT information about how he sees the presence of the toy! Behavior is communication and he definitely thought this session would be about throwing the toy 🙂 You handled it well, trying to help and not getting mad at him 🙂
>And maybe my shoulders are pointed to the outside of the jump standard?>
It was not your shoulders – it was the conditioned response to that toy in that environment.
It is worth trying to use it for shaping because he definitely loves it 🙂 So to be able to use it for shaping, a couple of ideas:
– you can start with a cookie toss away from the jump so you are ready and moving, before he starts moving
– throw a food reward then have him come back for playing with the toy
– bring the toy into the garage and use it for the game because he might not have the same conditioned response to the toy there. And if that goes well, bring the toy back outside and see how it goes.
I also look at where conditioned responses come from. For example, my dogs LOVE frisbees and tennis balls! But one of the youngsters has a conditioned response to a tennis ball where he just runs waiting for it to be thrown (and not offering behavior). Looks exactly like what Skiz did here LOL!! Same with the frisbee and a couple of the other dogs. So if I want to use those toys to reward or shape behavior, I make sure I don’t spend a lot of time throwing them without getting offered behavior, until the dogs can recognize the different context: the presence of the jump means offer the jump, not just obsess on the frisbee for example 🙂
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
She is doing really well with her rocking horses!!!
The right turns were harder for her here – it might be that you were pulling away a little (like on rep 1 and at 1:00) so stay close to the barrel and keep facing it til she gets to it.And be sure to connect between the wraps – make the BIG eye contact and keep your hand low, then as she catches up to you, you can use a soft arm send to cue the next barrel. At :38 you did not make the big connection (all she could see was your back, not your eyes) so she had a question.
When you did make good connection, she was great about finding the new side and the next send. Yay!
Get out – yes, it feels weird when we are standing still but she seemed to totally understand it on both sides!
You can add more movement now – start her behind you with a cookie toss so you can be walking forward. Sometimes cue the ‘out’ before she gets to you, and sometimes just move straight without cueing the ‘get out’ so she does not go to the prop. Be sure to give yourself a ton of room though, so she doesn’t see motion towards the prop as the cue to go to it (this is what was happening at the very end of the video :))
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
>Just an FYI I am going to be getting a partial Knee replacements on my left leg Nov 14 and right leg Dec 19.>
It is going to be a busy time for your knees!!! Thinking ahead, I bet it will make a big difference when PoweR starts doing real runs and sequences – and as you recover, we will work on getting more distance skills and verbals because those are definitely needed nowadays!!
>I have no idea what I’ll be able to attempt training wise with PoweR but hoping you will help me modify as best we can.>
100% yes! We will modify so you can rehab the knees after surgery and keep moving forward with his training.
The rocking horses with the rotation/countermotion looked GREAT!! And yes, you did get a really good rhythm going and he was great about moving past you on the send even when you were already rotated.
>As per his usual, going counterclockwise produced more barking and slower performance.>
I totally see what you mean! He did a lot of good reps but also it does look harder.
On those left turns/counterclockwise turns, you can shift your connection to the other side of the cone (‘landing’ side) as you send and as he passes you. Don’t look at his cute face the whole time LOL And you can also toss a treat or lotus ball to the other side of it too, to build more value for the left turns.But he did have a lot of good left turns, so I am really happy with how this went!
For the next session – start where you left off here then add a little more distance (but not more running – see if he can send to the cones). And you can add wrap verbals too!
Great job :)
TracyGood morning!
I am glad you two had fun with the shpile game 🙂 It is a flyball game, actually, because flyball relies on the dogs being able to have amazing body awareness and collection ability.
Jazz did great here! She seemed perfectly happy to walk all over the stuff, all 4 feet, offering sits, making stuff move…. PERFECT!!! You can alternate delivering from your hand with dropping treats on the pile – it is likely that dropping the treats will get her offering more movement and handing her treats were getting more stationary/balance behavior, so we can mix in both!
It was a really good pile – all sorts of textures and movement. And you did a great job breaking it off and playing to keep arousal high. She was so funny, leaping back onto the pile at 2:25!!!
>She didn’t seem to want to leave the pile until I gave her release word (Break), then she was totally into chase and tug. Would it have been better to use a reset cooking rather than the release word?>
I think she was having a grand time earning rewards for partying on the pile and was offering a stay (in the hopes of more rewards on the pile, perhaps). The release word was great to use and it seemed clear for her – so releasing from the pile to play tug worked beautifully.
You can revisit this game maybe once a week or so as she grows, so maintain this confidence and body awareness. She is looking great!!
Tracy
Good morning!
Welcome back from Cyno!!
>Thank you for cheering for me at cyno! That run was a dream! Promise and I have worked so hard and you’ve been a huge part of our journey! I got tears when we won!!! Thank you!!!>
I know how hard you’ve worked and I was screaming for you!!!! It really was a great run – so connected but also you were really going for it. That weave entry!!!!!! And the cool thing is that she is still young and you are really only at the beginning! SO FUN!!!!!
And it sounds like Quill was a good member of the support team 🙂
>he was having a great time attacking and rolling the barrel but not going around it. I was just about to go buy to large traffic comes when I decided to give it one more try! Wow! I think he’s getting it!!!>
Latent learning can be magical! And sometimes taking a short break from the behavior can make all the difference when we go back to it.
The session looked really good here – you were very precise with your connection and handling, and using food rewards was a good choice.
Left turns are definitely harder for him here – the smash moment he had was on a left turn when you tried to move faster. That was harder for him so he did the smash thing 🙂 On the other reps, you were smoother and a little slower into the left turns and he did great!
I was going to recommend starting with left turn wraps when doing 2 in a row – but you did that towards the end of the session and that went GREAT!!!! Starting with the harder side (left turns) often means our mechanics are clearer so the pups are more successful – then the 2nd wrap to the easier side is usually successful because the pups don’t need us to be as perfect with connection and mechanics and speed 🙂
For the next session, start where you ended here (with the left turn wrap then the right turn wrap) – if he is as smooth as he was here, you can add a little more distance and also a little more speed, cueing the wraps a little faster (but stay connected like you were here).
Great job!!
Tracy
