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Hi!
>Pattern games are so helpful for keeping her focused and working far enough away when a dog turns a corner, etc., so she can stay engaged and not worry.>
I agree, pattern games are helpful for that plus also great for outside the ring at trials!
>I currently use dig dig to mean left or right wrap. But I swear with this dog, I am actually going to teach left/right and transition that into our turn and burn games, etc.>
Perfect! Ideally, you will want a wrap-left, wrap-right, soft-left, soft-right for the front side of the jump.
>Back is a backside wrap.Do you also have a backslide slice verbal?
>Spot will be her 2o2o dog walk, aframe Bang will be 4 on teeter.>
Perfect!
>I still need to pick a forward focus word and start teaching it. I will probably use look.>
>Tunnel soft turn – soft name call (not taught yet) Tunnel tight turn HEY HEY (not taught yet)>I have found that with tunnels, I can use the same verbals as jumps (such as left or right) and the dogs totally understand it. As long as they hear it before they go into the tunnel, they know exactly what to do. And that means one less set of verbals to train!
>We don’t do too many threadles in AKC trials since I don’t do Premier but we atually do quite a few in my seminars. I haven’t named them as I don’t use them that often but I keep saying I want to do more UKI.>
We start naming them here and it is easy enough, but they are not a super high priority for now.
Strike a pose is going really well! She is driving in to the target hand nicely – you can look at it (instead of her :)) to get even more direct drive. You had your “X” marker going too which is great – just try to say it before you move the hand. You can also move to a toy as the reward, and if she is happy with that you can work on getting the toy to the ground as the reward.
>I can’t see on the first side but on the second side I’m clearly moving my arm towards her instead of staying stationary. Video catching me again.>
Video sees everything LOL!! Yes, keep that left hand stationary 🙂 I think your right hand (first side here) was stationary.
Nice work!
Tracy
Hi!
I think the game changer in the potty department is going to be doing first-thing-in-the-morning walks: out of the crate and into a long walk to potty elsewhere. It might be a pain in the butt but will be worth it! And you might even want to take her on an overnight trip where you can do the first thing in the morning walk in an entirely new location. Hotels might be challenging but maybe someone has a guest room you can stay in?
T
Hi!
He worked beautifully here in the snow! Eek!
He was definitely working to sort out the rear crosses. You can start the session by having him go straight past the prop (no RC) just to get him driving ahead, which makes the RC easier (and mix in some straight reps throughout the session to maintain the driving ahead).
When adding the RCs: You can get the info to him sooner by staying closer to him at the beginning (no need to step away laterally because it puts you further from the line). Then as he starts moving forward to the prop, you can cut behind him and keep moving forward. That way he sees you on the new side before he arrives at the prop. On the early reps here, you were waiting til he was at the prop before cutting over. But on the last few reps you were staying closer and cutting in behind him a lot sooner – that last rep in particular was spot on and he got it! Yay!!!!
Nice work here!
Tracy
Hi! The turn and burn game is off to a great start here! For this game, you can use his toy (or frisbee) to get him really excite to chase you when you do the FC.
For the next session, add the line on the ground (can be a leash or something similar) at the exit of the wrap – when he gets to the line, you can do the FC and run 🙂 Then the line and progressively move bit-by-bit around the barrel back towards his starting point, which means you can do the FC earlier and earlier.
Nice work here!
Tracy
Excellent question! The easiest way to do it will be to get you low enough to the ground that Briny can touch your hand then go to the toy. But we don’t want you to be bending over to do this (so your back doesn’t get angry 🙂 ) The easiest thing to do might be to get something low and comfy to sit on. I have used things like a low ottoman, or one of those inflatable balance donuts, or a hard plastic cooler that carries my snacks and drinks to trials LOL! Eventually you will be standing without having to bend over, but for now we don’t want the jumping up so a comfy sitting position is the best bet.
Tracy
Hi!
You and
Scholar did great here!! He is a strong tugger and easily focused forward on the toy. Perfect! He didn’t seem to mind your movement at all which is great!!You can use a longer toy so you don’t have to lean over as much 🙂 as well as have a 2nd toy available to whip out in case he takes off with the first one.
>It was short and he got away from me in the end. I will be working with him in short sessions multiple times a day>
The length of the session here was PERFECT. At his age, going much longer than this can tire their brains out! Your plan of doing multiple sessions spread throughout the day is spot on.
Great job here!!
Tracy
Welcome! We are happy to see you here! The pace of the class means you will have plenty of time to catch up.
The 2nd and 3rd windows in the thread were blank, let me know if you had anything posted in them.
Thanks,
TracyGood morning!
>this time is was my fault he had a beef cheek to chew on when we visited with some friends at a brewery. >
Ah yes, that would do it. I am glad he is feeling better!
>What should I have done differently then? He normally is very big into coming back with the toy.>
He might be teething so you can tilt towards games that are easy for you to use a long toy and pick up the other end to get engagement and help him come back. You can also use toys that are made of harder materials so they are easier to bring back and less tempting to chew (but those toys might not be great for tugging)
On the video – the get it is going well 🙂 You can encourage him to bring it back. When you praised him, he brought it back faster than when you were quiet. You can even add a ‘bring it’ cue to help maintain the retrieve.
When mixing food in, you can slow down the transition back to the toy: you were quick and he didn’t always swallow the treat. So you can toss the treat, praise, wait a few seconds to be sure he ate it… then go back to the next part of the game.
You might notice that he starts shredding the toy at about 2 minutes – that is probably an arousal regulation/decompression moment which indicates he needs a little break. 2 minutes straight can tire his brain out!
The tug it marker is going well too! Using it when rewarding after he retrieved worked nicely. Adding the tug marker to the reward for the send to the foot target went great too!
>It’s hard for me to drop the YES sometimes. >
TOTALLY relatable! We all do it when we get excited so this is more of a human training game to use the markers instead of ‘yes’ – it is hard! LOL!
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
>Crazy that you are in FL experiencing this cold right now – I assume you are just visiting? >
Yes, spending about 8 weeks here to avoid the cold haha!! It is definitely warmer there than home, though.
>I would love to learn more about agility training venues that you recommend in Central Florida. I live in Orlando and goto a practice facility on the East side of Orlando (Practice Makes Pawfect). But would like to expand to other venues that are in the area (both for diversification of environment and to learn from experienced trainers). >
The place I am at has classes and seminars, you can find more on the Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1399743951063718I will see if I can find links to other fun places!
He did really well with you sitting! I can see him looking up at you and processing it, then he got into the groove really well! Going under the chair was pretty hilarious – clever! It probably indicates a side preference, meaning he is more of a lefty than a righty because it was easier to turn left and go under the chair. He did not go that when the left turn was what we wanted. No worries, it is good to know about his side preference! For the next session, sit on something he can’t go under or behind you 🙂 When he can go both directions, you can add standing up and see how he does with that.
He also worked through the distraction of the other dogs barking – that was hard!! Good boy!
The trail setup was great! And I agree. – food works better for this. When the toy was in play, he was thinking about chasing the toy so there was a little bit of leaping around LOL But the food basically asks him to offer behavior – I don’t think you even need to lure him. You can move along the trail slowly and let him hop on and walk along it. And you can toss a treat off to the side after every few steps so he got to get it then gets back on the trail. You had more of this happening in the later part of the video and he did great! Tossing the treats will keep his head low and looking forward rather than looking up at you (which makes it harder to balance).
You can change the setup and add different things (pillows, inflatables, etc) to keep it new and exciting.
Nice work here!
Tracy
Poor little girl! Teething hurts! You can totally stick to soft treats and games that don’t need a lot of tugging.
T
Good morning!
Finding the jump went great! The setup worked well – he only had one question:
His little question at the beginning and at :36 (turning right and not finding the wing immediately) was because he thought you wanted the jump that was right there and because you were blocking the line to the wing 🙂 Moving over to be sure he sees the wing will resolve that.
You can use more verbals, such as a GO verbal before the tunnel and you can use go or jump as he exits – you did have a jump verbal going but you can add more and be louder with them so he gets used to the energy of it 🙂
>What was cool was there was another tunnel about 25 feet from the jump off camera. I did it as sequence and he nailed it!!! >
YEAH! He was flying!
>Let me know if I totally messed this up and I will redo.>
Not messed up at all! The only thing I would suggest is to change th reward delivery. It looks like the reward ws placed out on the line here, so for the next session mix in most of the rewards being thrown as soon as he looks at the line. We don’t want the placed toy to b the cue to get on the line, we want the verbal and motion to do that 🙂 Apologies if you were throwing the toy and you were very stealthy about it 🙂
On the 2nd video:
I agree that the collar grab was no issue. Yay!>Wanted you to see how he regrips and jumps up… ideas??? >
I totally see what you mean. OUCH! It doesn’t make it fun to play tug! When he touches you with teeth, have you ever done a high-pitched yelp and stopped playing? I would definitely stop playing when he bites you for the toy like that, even if it is just walking away and going back in the house. That makes a statement.
The main regripping seems to happen when the toy gets high. When you are pulling out a treat, no problem – it happens when there is no treat. So a couple of ideas for you:
Yes, sometimes pull out a treat to trade for the toy. If I am trying to train something else, you can avoid the rehearsal of leaping up: trade for a treat and throw the treat so you can put the toy away and do the next rep
You can keep the toy low and keep him pulling back on by gently tapping him near the ribs with your foot as he is tugging.
Most importantly, we have to teach him that as the toy moves: do NOT regrip AT ALL. It is an impulse control game, so you only need the toy:
Get some tugging, then say out and let your hands be passive. When he releases the toy, wait for a second (keeping the toy stationary) then if he doesn’t regrip: mark that he can grab it again.
When he can do that, we start to slowly raise the toy. He can choose to stand or sit or down, as long as he does NOT regrip the toy. Impulse control on it gets you to mark and give him the toy for more tugging or to run around with. Do it in tiny increments so he can be successful.
If he regrips, jumps up, and grabs you: game over (insert sad trombone sounds). There are a lot of ways to end the game but one can be having him on leash when you do this – if he grabs your hands, pick up the leash, let go of the toy, back into the house. If it hurts you can use and OUCH or yelp – that can be useful info – as long as you don’t do more than that (no yelling at him LOL!) but also we don’t want him to regrip by leaping up, get a cookie, then keep playing.
This needs some sessions separately rom trying to train anything else to get the impulse control going.
Here are two videos that show it:
This one shows the pup learning to offer a sit to get the toy back, instead of grabbing for it:
And this one shows me working to slowly be able to raise the toy up and the pups learn to NOT jump up for it:
Let me know what you think and how it goes!
Tracy
Hi!
He started off super happy and hungry here. You are 100% correct that after you tossed the treat off to the side, he did not come back with the same joy. His movement was ‘off’ as if something was hurting. So I watched the first part in slow motion to see what happened, and I think he hurt himself.
>I thought that when I reviewed the video that I would discover that the board had pinched one of his back feet but couldn’t find the evidence.>
You were correct but it happened really fast and probably not visible at normal speed.
If you want it in slow motion – at :24 you will see his right hind toes get crunched under the board as his front end stepped. And the floor is slippery so at :29 you can see a bit of splay/twist on his right front.
I lean towards thinking it was the toe crunch at :24 that hurt then he slid on that foot when chasing a cookie.
He came back strong though! Good job keeping it fun for him!!!
So for the next session, use super high value food and encourage him to step on from the part of the board only that is touching the ground. If he steps on from the elevated part, he might crunch his toes again.
You can also do the next session in a different area, just in case he remembers the ouchy!
Nice job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
The collar grabs on your right side looked great. She seemed very happy to let you take her collar there!
I see what you mean about her wanting to come to your right hand! Are you a righty? Maybe there is more reward history on that side. For the next session, start on your left hand and see if it has anything to with the side you start on.
If she still says the left side is hard, you can have her follow a cookie into a line up at your side, then take her collar. That might make more sense to her.
The SSC games are going great! The object was very obvious but she was easily able to ignore it. Super!
You can play any of the games she really likes and add random novel things into the environment. We build on this soon!
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
Looking at the wobble board video:
The sound startled her at first – she was able to eat the treats and get her front feet on, but she was being a little careful. We can bridge the gap and add more sound more slowly by sticking a few towels under it so she can still move it to make noise but it won’t be quite as loud. And the treats for this should be the Best.Ever. 🙂 Favorite high value food will really help her want to slam it around 🙂
One other thing you can do is use a fun toy to chase or a ball: when she slams it, throw the ball away from the wobble board, so it is like a hit-and-go. That can be super fun and she will come charging back to slam it again for another toy throw 🙂
The folding it in game went really well too! You got the bowl pretty far around the cone!
As the bowl moves further around the cone, you can delay the ‘get it’ until after she is at the cone. Otherwise, get it does mean to come directly to get the reward so she would not be wrong if she went directly to it 🙂 So instead of ‘get it’ when you let her go to start moving, you can use your wrap verbal.
Nice work here!!
Tracy
