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Hi!
The sessions here went well! The bump looks shorter than a bar, which adds challenge (she seemed perfectly fine with that). And using different “wings” were great too, because it helps generalize the behavior.She did super well on the variety of angles in both sessions here. It looks like only one angle made her ask a question:
At :52 and once more after that on the first video, the angle was super hard and she was reading it like a threadle going the other direction. Interesting! I think it was your foot position being a little ambiguous – pointing at her and to the wing, rather to where the reward would be. When you did the hard angle on the other side, your feet were pointing to the correct line (towards the reward) and she had no questions. Andf also at 2:58 in the 2nd session, your feet were pointing to the reward line and she almost came in for the threadle but then put herself back out to serp. Good girl!! So definitely keep your feet pointing to the reward line (exit line of the serp).
>Once you get to having the toy on the ground, when do you cue them to get it?>
For the placed reward, you can cue your ‘get it’ just before she arrives at your hand. We are looking for the definite intent to come in for the serp, and marking her before she arrives at the hand can also get the turn away for the reward
> In the first session she was stepping on the jump bump a bit, which I presume is fine at this stage? She didn’t in the second session but there was also less speed.>
Yes, no worries about touching the bump for now – she has a lot of mechanics to sort out, plus her legs are probably slightly longer every day haha! When the in-then-out movement is more established and the reward is on the ground, she is not likely to be touching the bump.
> the other this afternoon in a small entryway at another agility training facility where I was seeing a patient.>
It is great that she gets to practice her games in so many different places!!
Great job here!
TracyHi! He did really well here!!! The hard barrels are much better because he is not tempted to smack them 🙂
>Hew was quite wound up – so nice to see he could also process a bit. >
Yes! He was excited but still paying close attention. Super!!!
As you get ready to cue each wrap, the eye contact on the exit of the previous barrel is key. If you can keep your hand pointed back to him, and look at his eyes, you will have a smoother time on the sends. He had some questions because there was a lot of hand and not enough connection with your eyes:
>Seems like he’s looking for the toy when he comes around the barrel – esp. the first one?>
That was not a toy question, those were disconnection moments. Bearing in mind that the big connection (Hallmark moment :)) is when he can see your eyes (and not if you can see him peripherally), at :35, :40 and :43 – as he exited the previous barrel, he could not see your eyes so he stayed on the line he was on and did not read the side change info. The toy happened to be in that hand, but he was not distracted by the toy – he just never got the connection cue. You can see that same question at 1:15 and 1:40, where he looked up at you for more info.
You kept your hand down low longer which got him to find the correct side but making a clearer eye contact with your hand back to his cute nose will be the clearest info for him (and he won’t look at the toy :))
Great job here!!
TracyHi!
Yay for latent learning!!
She did well with the strike a pose game here with the jump!! She did a really nice job of coming to the target hand then turning to the reward hand, creating the in and out line we want on serps. Super!!!!
>I asked for one too many stays 😞 The good thing from that was it forced me to work out my mechanics to be able to do this from a thrown treat.>
Quite possibly! Or, you can add more action between reps – tugging, for example, so it doesn’t get boring for her with all the stays and cookies 🙂 Or you can mix in asking for a stay with starting by tossing the treats. You were really good about releasing after you got into position (and NOT at the same time you put your hand into position) so I think that it was not an anticipation thing and more of a ‘more action please’ thing 🙂
One suggestion:
Even with a rather large puppy, you will want to be close enough to the jump that you can touch the wing. That will get her to turn before takeoff rather than after landing. You can see here you were far enough away that she could jump straight to you without turning.
She looks ready for the next step which is to have the reward on the ground. It can be an empty food bowl placed on the ground under your reward hand, or a toy (which might be harder :))
Great job here!!
TracyHi!
Watching the video, I don’t see anything that would worry me – she was pretty calm and watchful in a normal way, in a challenging environment.
> In the kennel she tucked her head to sleep.
The clip of her in the kennel with her ears pinned was the only time I thought she was not comfortable in the environment, so a crate cover and crating further from the action would be helpful.
You can give her other tools to handle the environment too – when she is on a cot for example, give her a snuffle mat to help with decompression and resilience (or a lickimat or a bone to gnaw on). Watching the world is good in small pieces, but adding the other tools will also help.
She did not appear sound sensitive here, but there is a lot of sound in the environment so nothing in particular stood out. She might be more sensitive to loud sounds in an otherwise quiet environment, and that is where you can do things like pair the sound with something amazing. For example, an isolated loud bark can get you to throw her favorite toy or something fun! That type of associative learning can help her not be concerned about the random loud sounds.
let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
The collection sandwich went really well! Driving to you and driving forward after the turn looked super! Yes, the decel and get a tighter turn, but I think it needed to be sooner to get that. She has gotten even faster now, so you will want to start the decel basically as soon as she has taken one stride towards you. You can be moving while she is eating (just walking, so she doesn’t choke on the cookie) , then when she finishes eating it, you can run then almost immediately decelerate.As you decel, try to be a bit more upright with your knees straighter. You were crouching a bit and that was getting a lean forward, which might read as a bit of a ready/set/go, causing her to not decelerate as much.
Advanced Rocking Horse: Great job here, establishing the connection she needed!
You can add more connection on that very first send. If you freeze the video at :06, you will see you were looking forward and that turned your shoulders to the other side of the barrel so she was not sure where to be.
She figured it out at :10 but that was by process of elimination LOL the connection will help her get it right on the first rep.Compare to :20 when you sent her on the other side – much better connection and she knew exactly where to go. Yay!
On he FC from your right to left, you didn’t show the connection long enough at :22 and :33 so she as not sure where to be on those reps. Much clearer at :44 and :59 and 1:09 – excellent adjustment and she had no questions.
Very nice connection at :31 and :43 and she zipped directly to the barrel even with the toy right there in your hand! So nice!!!!
You had some good countermotion going on the last several reps too! So definitely keep the connection as clear as you had here, including during the send. Looks great!
On the ‘push’ foundation – this was a great session because she had to take her eyes off of you to go to the prop, which resulted in better mechanics to the prop. When you were doing the parallel path motion on the prop at the beginning, she was sorting out how to watch you and go over it, resulting in some kangaroo acrobatics LOL! But adding the get out changed the picture and she did really well! There was one moment on your right side when she didn’t get it (1:01) but it might have been a bit too far for the first rep on that side – you adjusted and moved in closer, so she did great!!
>Not sure I have any sort of cue for this currently with my dogs? But I’ll give it a go with at least teaching the foundation.>
My other name for this cue is the “UKI Life Saver” because we can get a lot of the subtle lead changes required on those courses, without having to actually run to the line with the dogs. Makes it a lot easier to handle the big courses.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
>Ok I remember asking for some hand touches and I got bites lol.>
When working in high arousal, ask for something that allows her to move her whole body (not just her teeth 🤣) and see how she does.
>Basically Lindsey and I went back and forth. Since only Lindsey was there it was harder for me and Julee bc Lindsey is like a Border collie and she didn’t have anyone to distract her.>
Ha! I heard her talking and I thought she was talking to someone else… was she talking to you the whole time? LOL!!!
Looking at the barrel wrap video:
>So I’ll leave it all for you to help me weed through all of it because it was “the best worst training ever”.>
I don’t think this was a bad session at all! I think the left turn barrel was a little too far away for her current level of left turn understanding – being closer and connecting more on the send will help that. You kept the rate of reinforcement high but not allowing too many failures and using reset cookies.
When you took the toy out of the picture…
It wasn’t the toy’s fault 🤣😂 it was distance and connection to the left turn barrel. Putting the toy outside the ring was distracting for now, so you can have it in a pocket or under your shirt.Also, on the left turns, give her a stronger physical cue – rocking horses are verbal and physical. At 1:02 on the 2nd video, for example), you said the verbal and let go… but both of your arms were in the air and you didn’t step to the barrel so she was like “what do you actually want me to do”. She wrapped when you slowly walked forward, but compare to the next rep at 1:2 when you gave a clear step to the barrel and she was perfect.
Adding motion and rotation to the right turn barrels worked well here in the 2nd video! She got the right turn with countermotion at the end of the session. Nice!
>think I need to start with wraps to the left first bc I don’t do them enough as it is and if I start with the easier side she just wants to do that side and its causing the same errors.>
Yes, this 🙂 because it will help build up the left turns too if you actively plan them and work them. And you can be closer to the left turn barrel (the whole set up and be closer together if you are doing 2 in a row). I think when adding the bigger physical cues, you all see the left turn gets easier and you can then add more distance, motion, and countermotion.
Great job here!
TracyHi!
What, no tunes? LOL!!!Backing up to target is going really well! He is finding his target super nicely – very nice for such a young dog!!! You can give him a little less space to go sideways but doing this in a more narrow hallway if you have one that is narrow enough to fit the target but not a lot of room on either side of it. Or you can put a cato plank or something on its side, on each end of the target to make a bit of a channel just to keep him a bit straighter.
For now, having your hands a little lower can get even more steps backing up: if we can keep his head in a neutral position (chin parallel to the ground and not looking up) the freedom of and end movement will be easier for him to balance. So for now your hands can probably be just about at your knees or just above, which is a few inches lower than they were here. I keep saying “for now” because he is growing and you won’t need your hands that low for much longer 🙂
Strike a pose is also going great – he figured out how to target the hand and not just go directly to the treats 🙂 Onwards to the next steps! I figure he will fly through the next steps, so here are a couple:
– replace the click with a marker for the reward in your hand – a cookie-in-hand marker for cookies, and toy in hand for when you add the toy instead of cookies 🙂 The click can get a bit more looking at you than we need for this and a marker will help direct the turn nicely.
– speaking of the toy… replace the cookies in hand with the toy in your hand.
– then replace the cookies/toy in your hand with the reward on your ground, basically below where the reward hand is now (can be an empty food bowl that you drop treats into, or a toy on the ground
You can also start the concept transfer with a jump in between you and him. This can be started while the reward is in your hand, but after he has seen a jump setup with the parallel path concept transfer game. I can’t remember if he has seen that yet (with a baby dog bump and not a real jump) and couldn’t find it scrolling up – so that is a good one if the weather is good enough enough to try it outside.
Lap turns – these also went really well when you got your leg involved. And tandems went well too – pulling him a little past you with your outside arm helped him the most, which is great because the outside arm can be part of the cue.
For both the lap and tandem turns, add the advanced level of going past the prop and then turning back to it. This adds the threadle element! And separately, you can teach him to turn away in the full circle without you turning your feet… so we can get the threadle wrap rolling too 🙂
>He was definitely feeling some pressure from the cabinet on the one side.>
Yes – that was a little harder for him and he would hesitate if you turned your feet a little too early. Overall though, he was great! You can check if it was cabinet pressure or left turn, or both 🙂 by going the other direction so the left turns are on the side opposite the cabinets (and the right turn is on the cabinet side). I think working with a little pressure is great especially for breeds that are naturally going to process spatial pressure (Border Collies :))
Great job here!!
Tracy
Hi!
>If I give a “chute”, I want him thinking about me. This can mean that it’s anything from a minor turn to a 180. >
Based on what we are seeing in course design evolution in terms of the number of turns required on the tunnel exits, plus the distance required, plus handling cues not always being salient with the dog miles away from the handler 🙂 I think you can differentiate minor turn versus 180 versus 45 degrees. So chute can be a minor turn, gentle arc. 180 (L-shaped turn, for example) can be a soft turn cue (I use left and right for this, about 8-10 feet before the dog enters the tunnel, works like a charm), and my wrap directional (same timing) for the wrap back exits. Tunnel exits are a hot trend right now, so the clearer the directionals, the better for 2025 and beyond.
> I think it’s super hard to get both the speed and accuracy that I want when my dog is blind to me in the tunnel.>
Agree!!! That is why I am using a variety of directionals and saying/showing the cues well before the dog is in the tunnel. Once the dog has entered the tunnel, I can only cross my fingers and hope my timing was decent LOL!
>“Hup” is keep going straight but keep an eye and an ear on my handling. I will use it for jumps where I want him to wind up turning a bit (think like a gentle curving line like you often seen at the end of a speedstakes course), but where there aren’t other reasonable options so I’m fine with him figuring out his own line.>
Perfect – most people don’t have this as a cue and I think it is important! It is a very gentle arc, stay on the same lead, but not flat out extension.
>I’ve been using my “out” as a way to turn away on the flat.>
Turn away as in a rear cross on the flat where you both do a U-turn and head back the other way? Or as a lead change shift away to pick up the line in the same direction? If it is the U turn, and since you do UKI… I recommend adding the lead shift too. It is a UKI life saver!
Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
I think this was all good! Good for you for setting up a class for your girls 🙂 It was a bit of a distracting environment but didn’t seem overwhelming for her. She did great!
> honestly julee massive love for humans I thought maybe just tugging with some hand touches dispersed would be easier. I did break out pattern games to regulate a bit with the tugging bc she tugged wildly since I think it was so hard to focus. Is that reasonable?>
Yes, she seemed to be tugging harder than usual. One thing you can do is to ask her to do something a little more elaborate when she is aroused like that (a barrel wrap for example) so you can see how the added arousal affects her: does it make her struggle? Does it sharpen her focus? Does she bite you? 🤣😂 It might actually end up being the optimal state! So it is worth it to see what happens next after the higher arousal tugging. And the pattern games were easy for and she was great with those.
Since she did so well here, you can add in more games when the people are around and see how she does.
Great job!
TracyGood morning!
He is doing well with the get out here and SUPER well with the focus in a new environment!!
>the 2-towel setup – I think it really helps him drive ahead (maybe so much so that he loses track of the props between?).>
Yes, I think he was tending to target the 2nd towel when he was on your left in particular (moving towards the camera). So you can use 1 towel as the start towel and throw the toy as the reward, then go back to the starting point for the next rep (rather than back and forth).
To get a bit ahead you can also start further from the towel (halfway between the towel and the prop) and toss the cookie back to it (sending him back to it). That can allow you to show the get out cue from a little ahead which can make it clearer too.
He is doing well with his hula hoop too 🙂 This is also a game where you can send him to cookie on the towel so you are ahead as he starts moving forward. Starting next to him is getting you to run, which he likes a lot! But it is also getting him to look up at you. So being ahead will allow you to all up the line past the hula hoop, and mark him going through it and throw the cookie or toy to the next towel before he looks up at you. This is no easy thing with a small fast dog (getting them to look forward) so something we might add is a manners minder so he will look forward because the reward is not coming from you.
Speaking of small and fast 😁🤣 the blind crosses definitely required that head start of sending him to the cookie on the towel away from you. Anything where you started next to him caused him to catch up to you very fast, making the blind late. If he is happy to be picked up, you can hold him while you place a treat on the towel, carry him 10 feet away from it, then send him to it. As he gets the treat from the towel, you can take off and run, starting the blind as soon as he exits the treat towel. That should give you time to make the new connection on the other side.
>Skizzle laid down on the towel after the last rep – which made me think he was pretty tired and we should take it a little easier for the next day…which we did.>
He might have been tired indeed. But if you have been working on downs on a mat, he might have been offering that? It looks like his brain was still really engaged and ready to play, but less is more is always a great approach.
Looking at the hallway rear cross: excellent timing of being visible on the new side! That allowed you to get every single rear cross, on both sides. He was catching on really well so grabbing the treat even faster to make the turn – but you were still very visible on the new side setting up the RC. Nailed it! Super!!!!!
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
>tried your idea of the 2 Cato Boards; well 1 Cato Board and 1 exercise step and not sure exactly why but if I didn’t stand up she didn’t seem to understand to move away. Sometimes she’d take a step but my timing on throwing the treat “under” her was really inconsistent and it just didn’t seem to be helping her get the idea.>
It is possible that this was a bit of latent learning in action – she might not have appeared to have sorted it out in the session, but then had a better concept of it after sleeping on it.
Plus, combined with having her target her back feet on various things, you now have a really nice backing up going! YAY!! Backing up to a rear foot target is the next step to the game anyway 🙂 so this worked perfectly. The mat you used here was great: big enough for her to target to but as you mentioned – didn’t slide around. Her backing up is looking really strong!
Yes, this is the progression – you can get further away bit by bit to get more stepping back over more distance. As you do this, shorten up the session because backing up is fatiguing (hard on the quads and hamstrings, plus there is a core strength element). When the pups get physically tired, they shorten their steps or they go sideways, which is what was happening here. So you can do 5 cookies/reps then give her a break and do something else that involes moving forward 😁 to let the muscles recover a bit. Then you can do another 5 reps of backing up.
>Concept Transfer with the Strike a Pose Game…..you’re using a none wing jump. Is there a reason for a non-wing and not a wing?>
I start with a wingless so the pups can see me better – strike a pose has a lot of arm/foot/rotation info and a wing jump can hide it. So, a few sessions on the wingless helps get things going by letting the pup see everything clearly.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
Super strong sessions here!! She was fabulous driving around both stacks and also seemed to be having fun doing it! Fast and tight! Sounds like you had your wrap verbals going too which is great rehearsal for future games and eventual course running too.>I realized on that last session that my position needs to be more visible to her as she comes around and also off of her line more. >
Yes – I think you worked out the line and position beautifully and she had no questions about that, and also no questions about which side of you to be on when exiting the wrap. Nice connection!
>I assume at this stage it’s perfectly fine to just swap hands that you carry the toy in so you aren’t trying to send them with the hand you have the toy in? I feel like ideally we get there, but probably too much for a puppy?>
Yes, but also no 🤣😂. Switching hands can draw her focus to your hands, and also leaving the toy in the dog-side hand gives us a great opportunity to teach the self-control of passing the toy, and the ‘don’t grab the toy til you hear the toy-in-hand marker’. It shifts the value a bit more to the ‘work’ and less on the focusing on the toy. That marker is hard for us humans because we get excited and praise while delivering the toy instead of using the marker before delivering the toy (I am guilty as charged on that what, but I have gotten a lot better about it LOL!!)
With that in mind, she actually had very little trouble ignoring the toy in your dog-side when your leg supported the send until she was arriving at the barrel. Those reps were super successful.
She had a couple of moments where it appeared that she was looking at the toy in your hand, but she was not – she was watching your motion shift back into the FC too early (before she arrived at the barrel, as she was passing you). You can see this at 1:29 when she hesitated and almost pulled off the wrap.
You can see it at 1:47 for sure, when your leg stepping back was too early and she did come back to you.
Those both had the toy in the dog side hand, but at 3:11, the toy was in the opposite hand and you stepped back too early, so she came off the wrap (then went for the toy, possibly anticipating your motion to indicate it was available, or possibly having a small mad that the info was not clear?)
So for now, hold the send leg forward to the stack until she is past you and arriving at the barrel. You can also move the barrels even further apart and add the advanced level – which involves more handler motion (and earlier rotation). Adding more motion will help you be able to step back into the FC sooner because the motion will propel her forward more.
Great job here! Hopefully you are not getting any of that big storm coming through so you can keep working outdoors.
Tracy
Hi!
This was really strong!!! He was great about driving right into the target hand!! And nice job with the reward placement from the other hand. Super!>Strike a pose, my dog is too little and I do not bend well.
>The good news is that since he is doing so well, you don’t have to bend as much 🙂 You can add in a bowl to drop the reward into (on the same side of you as the reward hand, with your toes pointing to the bowl). Then you can start to raise the target hand, so he comes in towards it but doesn’t need to touch it. Instead, he can turn to the reward bowl and that will create the in-then-out line we want for serps.
And then you can do the concept transfer, adding a jump! He is moving along very quickly 🙂
Great job here!
TracyHappy New Year!! Can you send some of your hot weather here? If we take a little of it, you will have less heat and we will have less freezing LOL!
>to the barrel but the latter disappeared or wasn’t filmed after all. >
I can totally relate – usually I have accidentally deleted it. If the barrel sending is going well, you can start adding the rocking horse games!
She was so cute at the very beginning when you went to get treats and she took herself over the jump – then she looked shocked when she didn’t get rewarded LOL! You can have treats in a pocket for a faster transition into the training.
The parallel path went great – he definitely likes her jump! You can switch the clicker out for a verbal marker now: as she is approaching the jump, you can say ‘get it’ and toss the treat. That will keep her looking ahead even more.
She is ready for you to add more motion to this – that might he hard indoors, so you can try it outdoors if it is not too hot (maybe early in the morning). That will require a bit of sorting out how to deliver the reward (tiny treats might be hard to find). So you can try it with a thrown toy. Or you can use a treat holder of some sort like a treat hugger or small lotus ball. That will also help us get her ready for running bigger games in the grass 🙂
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
The serps went great! He got it from a variety of angles. He had on error (3rd rep) but I think you were too exciting on the release – the ‘break!’ had more energy and your change in movement was bigger. The other reps were more chill and that worked better 🙂
When you try this again, let’s get a toy involved – definitely tugging between reps to keep the excitement high and help him read the cues when he is more stimulated. And then the toy can replace the food bowl on the ground. You can come back to the game in a few days, to let latent learning wire it into his brain (and so he doesn’t get bored with the repetition).
The remote reinforcement is going well. I love the ‘candy’ marker! Walking away from it was so easy for him that he seemed surprised that it was THAT easy LOL!! But surprise is good! And keep mixing things up – you added some sits and he was great. You can add tricks, you can add a line up cue (similar to how you will eventually want to line him up at the start line), you can take the leash off and mark his choice to stay with you, etc. Keep mixing things up and adding more. And, replace the treats with a toy too (can be the same marker because it is a concept of ‘head to reward station’ and the dog has seen the reward station) or a different marker if you want.
Great job here! Stay warm!
Tracy
