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Good morning!
>My question is regarding backsides of jumps and threadles. With Lennan, I have a backside slice, backside rounded, threadle slice, and threadle wrap.>
These basically indicate entry (jump between you and dog, or dog between you and jump) and exit on the jump (enter & exit on the same wing, or enter & exit on different wings).
> I’ve been seeing some discussion recently where people are teaching backside directional cues that are specific to the side of the jump the dog must approach and then the direction to exit. >It seems these cues are then used for both push backs and threadles with the explanation of them being dog dependent backsides instead of handler dependent. I’m wondering what your thoughts are on this?>
Stuff like “backside circle to the left” versus “backside circle to the right”. Based on the current state of agility course design and the trends we see developing… I think they are redundant. There is an element of all of this already built into the existing cues, and also the bar indicates which way the dog should turn (context cues like bars are extremely valuable!). I have never seen a course map or exercise where I was convinced of the need to add an additional set of verbals – that would be 8 verbals cues for the ‘other’ side of the jump and I think it is not needed. If you have seen a course map or exercise where they are absolutely needed, send it my way! I am not against it if there is a need – currently no need and no examples of where it would be needed.
The barrel games are going really well! When you make the new connection after the blind, point your arm back to him more so he can see the new connection more clearly – you can see there was a slight delay on his side change when your new dog-side arm was at your side, blocking connection. You can see it mostly on the early reps (like at :27) where you did the FC more separately from the blind – when you did the FC and BC closer together as a spin, he had no questions because he was never really driving to the FC side.
He did well with the pivot at the end! You can decel as soon as he exits the barrel, so he can collect even sooner.Retrieves: He definitely liked chasing you with the toy! Yay! Good boy! And he was great about bringing it all the way to you to either tug with it or switch to the next toy.
He seems ready for the reverse retrieve where you send him to get it while you run the other way – it is a pretty easy extension of this game.Parallel path to the jump: he did a great job finding it! You can use a cookie toss start (cookie on a towel so he can find it in the grass, or a manners minder) so you can see if he will find the jump with you ahead of him, and even further away laterally. Starting with him got some lovely moving ahead of you to the jump setup. You can also add more of your motion in the form of jogging to help him find the jump with the excitement of more motion 🙂
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
>We can’t really move on as we aren’t proficient at the basics yet.>
From what I have seen, she has the basics in a position where you can be adding to them, progressively. She is working on turn and burn, and the games from that week and beyond, so you are in a good spot in terms of progress!
>Suddenly, she can’t function in the backyard as she’d rather eat hackberries and run away from me with leaves in her mouth. >
That is definitely something that can stall progress, and you can set things up so you can train and make progress without her running off. The berries might be very high value and easily accessed in the environment.
The first step is to set up the environment to be more structured so there is not unlimited access to eating the berries. If they are only in one spot in the yard, an xpen or landscape fencing (the cheap plastic stuff) can block it off when she is outdoors. If they are kind of everywhere in the yard – then she can be on leash (long light line is useful for that) to play the games and potty – to limit access to eating the berries. Yes, this reduces some freedoms in the yard but it helps build behavior you want so those behavior can build value to eventually outweigh the berries.
>Plus, she’s back to wanting to be up at 10:30 at night.>
When she wakes up at 10:30, does she potty when you take her out? It might be linked to the berry eating because it changes her GI tract) or too much water late in the day, or not enough decompression/running around in the early evening puppy ‘crazy hour’ or all of the above, none of the above. Definitely something to track so you can change schedules if needed, or so you can ignore barking in the crate if she does not need to go to the bathroom.
The pattern game here on the video looked great! She was able to ignore the berries, on leash. Perfect! High value food and a framework for ignoring them helps a lot. You can also use more food in training outside for now, in case the toy is not high enough in value to maintain engagement during those ‘in-between’ moments. The toy play might be a little lower in value at the moment because she is teething.
Let me know what you think! I know there are frustrating moments but she is doing well overall!!
Tracy
Good morning! Lots of great stuff here!
The first video was retrieving and she did great! She LOVES the big sheepy toy 🙂 So that is a good one to use as a reward for bringing the first toy back! Super!
On the rotated sends: super nice job shifting your connection back to the barrel on the sends! You were using the wrap verbals really well – a couple of “Go!” verbals snuck in, so try to convince yourself not to use go 🙂
As she exits the barrel, add in connection before feeding her from your hand. If you can practice the connection, it will be much easier to connect while you are running and adding the other games here, which will help her know which side of you to be on when she exits the barrel.
Strike a pose:
Looking super from all the angles! He was doing great with driving in and collected to turn. You might see her starting to side-swipe the target as she comes in then turns, and that is perfectly fine because it means she knows where she is going next 🙂She is ready for the next steps here: using a toy as the reward instead of a cookie. And then gradually getting the toy to the ground (or using a cookie bowl) so she can do the in-then-out without needing a reward from your hand at all.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
Omg perfect music for this video!! I listen to this all the time!
OK back to dog training 🙂 The wrap game is going really well – he is understanding the back and forth and got very motivated to do it when you were adding a little praise and excitement when he did it. I LOVE how he came in to sniff your hand then backed himself up to make the barrel wrap. Super!!
Since he likes things a little more exciting, you can try higher value food as well as the praise.
I was going to suggest adding turn and burn and you did! Yay!
He was figuring this out really well – excellent patience from you to let him work it out! He was trying to watch you AND watch the barrel, so we can give him a focal point: You can stay closer to the barrel for now, and to help him have a focal point put one of his bowls from the previous game out on the line you have on the ground. And as he wraps towards it, you can then take off and run with the toy reward. This will help him wrap and also fade out the bowls.
Great job here! And thanks for the good tunes!
Tracy
Good morning!
Parallel path:
This was really easy peasy for her on your right side, she was driving directly to the jump. It took her a moment to figure that out on the left side at the beginning (she might have been asking if it was a heeling game initially) but your clicks were spot on for saying “it is the jump thing!” And that helped her find the line. And once she was on the line? You were able to add a lot of distance which is GREAT!!!Since this went so well, we don’t need to a do a ton of it because she is so young 🙂 It can go on the shelf for now and come back out when we need it for upcoming decel games.
Rocking horses w/ 2 barrels: oooh, I think she liked this one a LOT! She was committing beautifully, turns looking great, on both sides! Plus to includes more running and she was happy with the action 🙂 Your connection looked really strong so she always knew where to be, and you were patient on the sends to let her commit before rotating. SUPER!!!!
You can add the advanced level to this game, and a little more distance too!
And as we build up this game, we can add your wrap verbals. What would you like to use for front side of jump wrap verbals? We would add them by having you say them during the sends here.
For the backing up – Looking at the end of the video first: backing up on the flat from between your feet is going well! Yo can try to toss the treat even further back between her front feet so she keeps moving backwards. That will mean keeping your hands lower, down by your knees, s she doesn’t immediately look up and stop moving when she steps out from under you.
With the target – it is indeed possible that she was avoiding backing up onto the cato. It might have been too short so she was concerned about stepping off the back/feet falling off, and/or having to crunch up too much. Do you have a low dog bed that is pretty big, or even a low mat? You can give her a bigger playing space and that will make a difference for the backing up: the back up target can be enough for her to get all four feet on standing comfortably. Then you can lure her front feet off and she can offer stepping back onto the 4 feet on position. That can jump start the backing up because then you can lure all 4 feet off – and reward for back feet stepping on. When she ‘trusts’ the target (as a place where she can put her feet without falling off the back of it), I bet she will back up onto it right away.
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
This went great – what a fun session!! I think she really liked the big distance between you and the start cookie because she could really run run run (and she definitely likes to run :))
Lap turns went great! For tandems went great too – you can add more moving on these by getting closer to the mat for the start cookie and when she is going to get the cookie, start walking up the line towards where you were doing the tandem – that way she is seeing motion into it and will die back to it as well.
>Also running away with the toy proved to be irresistible for her.
That was a fantastic moment! She was weighing her options but you were SO FUN that she joined in the game. Love it!!!!
>No prop victory laps>
This is HUGE because she really does think that prop is also a super fun toy 🙂
> and I think she really understands the cues. On one of the tandem turns to the left I used the dog side hand for turning away and I think that is why I got the jump into the air.>
I agree – your smooth tandems happened when she was able to see a bit of your outside arm along with the inside arm. They looked lovely!
>Need to get another laundry hamper for the Rocking Horse – that looks like a lot of fun!>
I think you and Jazz will really love it!
Great job here :)
Tracy
Good morning!
Good job getting set up before the first cookie toss! He is doing well overall with the concept and the challenge that made it hard was adding the jump – on both videos you might have been a shade too close to the jump for him to be able to come over the bar – he seemed to know to come in to the hand and turn, Burt was not fully comfy getting in between you and the jump. Being about 6 inches further away from the jump would probably be the sweet spot – close enough for the turn, far enough that he can slide in between you and the jump.
You were a little further away on the 2nd side and he seemed better able to get in between you and the jump.
When you were shaking. The target hand, he drove in better and we can add having you look at the target hand so he knows exactly where to go.
>he was more interested in the pile when we started the game than he was to engage with the toy so I had to take a bit to build up the arousal in the beginning. >
The pile was probably a hugely different visual and he was like WHAT?!?!?! Good job getting him on the toy because yes, we do need the higher arousal level! He did a great job offering to walk all over this stuff 🙂 He might have liked the plank the best because it was the most stable object out there. He interacted with everything out there – it was mainly front foot interaction in terms of holding feet on something. He did walk across stuff and included his back feet too, so when he gets back from his big adventure you can reward lots of keeping his back feet on stuff as he stands on the more unstable stuff.
Great job here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
The handling combo is overall going well! It provides us humans with info about what is connection and what is not connection, according to the pup. The pup gets to decide 😂😝
The first bunch of reps with spins all looked good and connected!
When you added the decels and pivots: the decel was really good! There were a couple of connection breaks at :54 and 2:12 – you turned too fast on the pivot so the other shoulder got engaged and he thought it was a blind.Compare to 1:23 and 2:40, when you pivoted more slowly and maintained connection and he was perfect.
The only other blooper was 1:45 where you decelerated with no connection so he didn’t know where to be and ended up on your right side. You can play tug with that, he was still working hard to figure it out. If a pup ends up on the ‘wrong’ side, it is safe to assume a lock of connection and reward as normal, then make better connection on the next rep like you did.
Lap turns:
These looked great! They did not look like paint drying LOL! But there is not a lot of speed in this particular game = mainly because it is just cookies and we are facing the pup. But everything looked really good for what we need at this stage!Tandem turns: I think these will be easier if you are moving the whole time. As soon as you starting moving forward a little and facing forward, it made a lot more sense to both of you. If you were standing still too much, your feet were kinda rotated to him so it looks like it was a little awkward. But the moving reps were smoooooth so you can toss the treat, start moving, then as he is arriving to you, decelerate and start the tandem turn.
Both the lap turns and the tandem turns are ready for the next step of adding the props in!
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
You might not have been playing sports games but what a fantastic trip for a pup!! Look at him being wonderful with the kiddo!!!!! That is fantastic. What a good boy, such a great temperament. The video is ADORABLE!! Seems like he had a grand time! And loving children will serve him well in life AND sport.
He did really well with the barrel game at the park. Sounds like there was tennis or something in the background? Good boy to ignore that! And he did really well driving ahead of you to the dead toy on cue after the barrel wrap. You can add the decel and pivot to this game as the next step.
>Partway through he noticed some people exiting their vehicle so we played some pattern game.>
Perfect! He was able to re-engage pretty quickly in a relatively challenging environment and did great getting back into the game and tug.
Turn aways:
These went great too – the lap turns looked smooth on both sides and he easily found the prop when you turned him away. He also did well with the tandem turn – when using the dog-side arm, you can make it look a little different by dropping your shoulder and straightening the arm as a ‘heads up’ for the tandem coming. Without the slight difference, he might miss the tandem turn cue when things are going fast 🙂 And that straight arm/shoulder dip will build really nicely in the threadle wrap cue!>You can see one walk across in the video but there were actually 2 other dogs in different directions that Aelfraed was also noticing. I had just run out of cookies so I let him keep the toy instead and he was so good and just settled down and watched.>
Yes, he was great there – a bit of world washing, interested but not over-aroused or running over to him. He is really displaying so many beautiful life skills and personality traits!!!!
Nice work here!!!
Tracy
Good morning! She is looking great and so fun!!!
Rocking horses:
Great job adding your verbals! The FCs looked great, nice connection!!! She had questions about the spins (FC/BCs) – I think that was because you were not as connected so she didn’t know where to be and was getting leapy. So on the spins, start the FC a little sooner (as she arrives at the barrel) so you can be finished with the BC and showing connection as she exits (keeping your rm back will help her see the connection). It might also help to add a little more distance between the barrels, which will give you more time to finish the BC.
Rear crosses: I think you were emphasizing your arms as part of the cue but was really getting her to see the RC was when you got to the other side just before she got to the prop. You can see that at :09, :28, :31, :35. Starting a little further back from the prop can give you even more time to get to the new side.
At :12 & :38, when she turned back to the original side it was because you had not gotten to the other side when she hit the prop. So she is reading your physical cue really well! The earlier you can get across, the better she reads it.
Handling combos:
She is dog g great with the impulse control and reading the FC perfectly! She had a question about the spin you did on the first rep – not enough connection was visible so she jumped up. That is good communication from her: jumping up when there is unclear connection 🙂 So be sure to connect back to her with your arms and keep the dog-side arm back so she can see it.
One other suggestion is to try not to stay ‘go’ before your check check cues – Go will mean straight ao we don’t want to dilute it.Retrieve is going GREAT! What a good girl!!! Nice timing of calling her back to you!
Rotated sends: these were harder for her! You can throw the reward back to the other side of the barrel to help her commit with you rotated and moving away – the rotated body language is a powerful cue to stick with you but the reward placed out towards the exit of the barrel can help her drive to it and away from you.
It was hard to see where you were looking on the video, so be sure you are looking at the barrel and not at her to help support the wraps when you are rotated (in case you were looking at her cute face :))Great job here!
TracyHi!
>All groomed up and ready for delivery to the handler tomorrow.>
I am sure you will miss him!!!
He did great with the rocking horses! Nice job starting with slow, precise mechanics. Then it was easy to get him to do 2 in a row – nice!!! And the sideways sends (advanced level) was pretty easy too. Super! When he comes back from his adventure we will add even more motion and distance between the 2 barrels.
Question about verbals: use are using ‘tight’ for both right wraps and left wraps. You should consider having separate verbals for left wrap and right wrap, for when you are not ahead of him and he is relying on verbals.
The get out game also went well! He seemed to have no questions about moving away to hit the prop when you were standing still or when you were moving. You can add the verbal cue at this stage. Also, be sure to do balance reps where you do *not* cue the get out and he should move up the line with you without going to the prop.
And he was doing great retrieves at the end!! Super!
Nice work here!
TracyHi!
>Any other ideas to get her Go going?>
I think she did well with the toy races here! She was driving to the toy really well. The more the toy moved, the better! She did look a little distracted by the back of the building like you mentioned, but she did drive forward really well.
>I swear she acted like there was something at the other end of the bldg (the ghost of Samantha, LOL!!!) >
Ha! Samantha was checking her out LOL!! It was smart to let her check it out. The other games went well!
For the RCs – she was a little distracted here, so on a few she was not driving ahead as well as she normally would. When you got to the other side before she arrived at the prop, she read the RC really well (like at 2:53).
Lap turns also looked good – remember to extend you rhand all the way to her to draw her to you. Then after turning her away, if the prop is there, just walk forward like (rather than point at it) That will get her driving forward to the prop even more.
I think she will read the tandem turn more smoothly if you use both hands: make the dog-side hand more obvious so she sees bother hands move. She has the idea of it, but it was a little hard to see the opposite arm so using both hands might be easier for her to see
Nice work here!!
TracyHi!
Strike a pose is going really well! She did have a little trouble with the start cookie so you can put a towel out to toss it onto – that should help her find it.
She is driving in really well! My only suggestion is to be closer to the jump – close enough to reach out and touch the wing with a relaxed arm, so she turns on the takeoff side rather than after coming over the jump.
You can move to having an empty bowl on the ground a a reward target – the dead toy was not that exciting to her but I bet a food bowl would be! You can then plop the treat into the bowl after the comes in to do her serpentine.
>Didn’t think I should make a big deal of not hitting the target since we will be fading it anyway.>
Correct! She can side-swipe it or not touch it now, as long as she is doing the in-then-out serp behavior.
>Still not excited to get on the toy when cheese has been in the picture>
Cheese is life! Dragging the toy for her to chase will really help her get back on it, moving away from the cheese location. The chase plus being further from the cheese smell should help her transition back to the toy easily.
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
The parallel path concept transfer went GREAT. She was completely on board with finding the jump independently. Good girlie!!! The next step is to take the setup outside, where you can add more and more lateral distance – you can either throw the reward straight like you did here and you are further away, or throw it closer to you (you are lateral) and she has to go back out to find the jump – that is harder but I think she can do it.
Barrel wraps: these are going really well!!! She is going to the barrel really well – kind of lost her rhythm towards the end but I think you were pretty far from it, so she didn’t really lock into where to go. But when you moved in a step or two closer? No problem! Yay!!
>I think we are making progress, but not sure if we are ready for the other barrel wraps coming up?>
For the progression – you can add a bit of toy play to this barrel, and introduce a 2nd barrel using food so she gets comfy wrapping that one two. Give that a session or two and when she is happy with wrapping the new barrel: onwards to the rocking horse game posted last night 🙂 That one starts off with obsessively careful mechanics to set up understanding… then it gets wilder as we build it up over the next few weeks 🙂
>Running contacts… yes we plan on doing a running contact with split rear feet as the criteria. I was planning on following Katarina Podlipnik, so I just enrolled to audit in her latest foundation class. We followed her last time and I’m very happy with what I got. I’m not sure what you will have in this class, but should I still include videos if it’s the same topic?>
Perfect! The stuff here’s very very basic because the RDW classes will fine tune the rest. I believe Katarina’s class is a split rear foot target, so on the basic mat foundations, start marking that and then you will be ready for when Bokeh is able to train it.
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
Thanks for your great questions in the live class – it is always fun to have you there!!!
>How long of a leash would I put the toy on? >
I’d say 6 feet for in the house, maybe 10 feet for outside the house? A lot of folks use those very thin biothane lines that work great.
>Every day is a new guess as to what she’ll tug on. If it’s too plushy, then she just wants to chew on it. But, it’s it’s too hard she won’t grab right now and hold on. It’s Goldilocks choices daily!>
Yes, teething is a hard time! I usually get through it by making the toy wild and something they want to chase, so they don’t really notice their potentially touchy gums.
Parallel path the with prop looks really good! And the backwards sending is looking great too! Her only questions were a little bit on the left side for a forward send, but she might have been looking for a cookie in the hand (even if it was empty) and also it might have been the reps where you wanted to send with the hand closer to the prop. But then she got back on track really well. Super!!
Since this went well – when it stops raining, do the parallel path outside and we will get her driving head to it… then onwards to RCs on the prop! Yay!
Strike a pose looks good too! You can move to the next steps here: toy reward in the reward hand, food bowl on the ground under the reward hand (you would drop the cookies into it after she hits the target) and then when that is going well, we get the toy on the ground 🙂
Great job here!!
Tracy
