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Hi!
I have found a lot of young dog workshops to have a TON of hard international elements that are not necessarily what young dogs need! So a few ideas for you:
>1) Distance sends (lateral and forward); Tarot is not as obstacle focused as Tribute so if I send from too far away she will refuse>
This is where you can work on the parallel path games a lot here, and the sends to the barrel with connection. And to build up more distance: lots of thrown rewards! And at a seminar, have the instructor throw the rewards to increase distance.
>2) Backsides (specifically sending to a backside/Threadle Wrap
More of both of those coming soon here! Backsides are parallel path skills, so the parallel path to the front of the jump will be super useful for that. But if you see a lot of backsides and threadle wraps at a seminar, ask the presenter if you can help the pup out by placing the reward, or just using a wing, or even just going to the front of the jump 🙂
>3) Reverse Spends (very popular these days)
We definitely work those here! Think of them as a cue combo: you do a front cross turnng towards the pup then after you finish it, you do a blind cross. That will also keep you moving rather than feeling like you are spinning in place 🙂
>4) Focus Forward / commitment
These are linked to the sends – and that is where throwing rewards on the line or having the instructor throw them will really help!
>I suppose I should put startline stay on the list. Tarot has a decent leadout (most of the time!) but Tribute is just getting started.>
Yes, keep building it up! But for a seminar, it is perfectly good to bring a mat or platform if that is easier to hold a sit. Or if the pup doesn’t mind someone holding him, you can have someone hold while you do a lead out.
>The course was tough (for us) and we could only do four or five obstacles at a time.>
That is also great! Break it down to get the elements and reward a lot 🙂
Keep me posted! Everything on the list is either already in progress, or coming up very soon here 🙂
Tracy
Good morning!
> but a very decent session.>
It was way beyond decent – it was excellent! Yay! Super job emphasizing the connection, while staying in motion and using your verbals. You can really see the connection helping support the lines, like at the exit of the spin move at :41 and all of the other spins!
>I left in some of me walking the course…>
That was super fun to see you sort out the connection on the walk through then nail it in the run at 1:38. When you first started walking it, you were sorting out the ‘moves’ then you added in the connection to the invisible dog – then you added the real dog and it was perfect.
And then when you had a small handling blooper at 2:22 (good job being sure he still got a reward for the new dance move 😂) – you re-walked that section and nailed it. That was great!!!!
>He stumbles out of the tunnel at 00:30. From slo-mo, it looks like he’s fallen onto his right front shoulder close to the exit. I didn’t think he was particularly concerned about it. >
Welcome to the obsessing about what happens when they fall! He did not seem concerned at all – adrenaline and endorphins were ruling the moment there 🙂
> Is this a puppy move? Anything I should be particularly attuned to when setting the tunnel to avoid potential issues?>
Definitely not a puppy move – it looks like he slipped in the part of the tunnel that didn’t have a bag on it and couldn’t save his footing so ended up falling. The tunnel bag at the exit was a little far forward – ideally, the straps sit a couple of inches behind the outer edge of the tunnel so it is a little more secure (more like where it was at :37). You can also add a couple more tunnel bags so the tunnel moves less when he is in it. Yes, you can purchase more but also, you can make your own: I have used bags of playground sand put into trash bags and then tied at the top – one on each side of the tunnel with a bit of rope holding them together across the top. It is NOT pretty 😂🤣but it is cheap and the tunnel won’t move.
And sometimes, even with perfectly secured tunnels, the dogs slip and fall when going fast. Keep an eye on how he is moving, and you can even try a little light massage on his back, necks and legs to see if he is more sensitive in any areas than usual. Dogs are not likely to show us pain in the moment unless it is catastrophic, so usually later that day or the next day is a good time to check him out. If it looks like a really bad spill, you can stop the session because he probably won’t stop. One of my dogs had a tunnel spill at a big event (the bag at the exit was too far forward and it caught him, ouch) and came out on 3 legs and continued on the course – he continued on up the dog walk until the judge and I could convince him to stop. Thankfully, it was not a major injury (he whacked the leg and maybe felt it was best to just use the other 3 in the moment) but it was a good example of how the dogs are not going to stop running.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hello!
>We had some really cold weather again and I was not going outside.>
For real! It was brutal for a bit there!!!
The lateral distance game went really well! He was correct on almost all of the reps. The MM was super useful! He had one miss near the beginning – that was very informative for him! You can see him process it then was very successful afterwards. Maybe he missed because there was a tiny bit of pressure towards him when you were passing the wing? He was was going SUPER FAST and missed – either way, it was useful to him to realize that it was finding the jump that caused the MM to pay 🙂
He had only one more miss at 1:27 – that was more of a handling question. You were a bit turned away from the line and not connected so I can see why he came to you there. You were more connected on the last rep and parallel to the line which really helped. Having your dog side holding the MM remote was part of what blocked the connection. You can have it in your hand and that way you can have your hand back and towards him, which will make it easier to connect.
for the next session: you can go really close to the tunnel and wait for a heartbeat before moving up the line, to challenge him to find the jump by driving ahead of you. And you can mix that up with sending to the tunnel from miles away 🙂 so you are way ahead of him: can he find the jump from behind you?
He was such a good boy with the motion override! It was really hard and there was steam coming out of his ears! Even fast marching was hard for him to process the sit verbal so it overrode the motion.
The fastest sit was at :24 – that also had a distinct hand cue where you hand was down by his nose and lifted up when you said sit (very similar to the last rep which was also pretty fast). So it is possible that the hand cue (cookie hand on his nose then going upwards) is the more salient cue for him and t he verbal is not as salient. That would explain why it was hard to do it with less hand cue or no hand cue as you added motion.
To help get quicker sits without the hand cue needing to be right at his nose, you can see if he can do it without any movement at all – but no hand movement. Then add in the slowest possible shuffle without hand movement and just the verbal cue to see how he does.
Two other options:
– rather than a sit, you can cue a stay! He can just do a stand stay (or any position he chooses) to help him figure out how to stop moving when you keep moving, which is a good first step to getting a specific position.– does he have a sit platform from his conditioning work? You can use it here – slowly walk towards it, cue the sit without a hand cue, then keep moving (marching slowly to shuffling). That van help him transfer the concept into quicker sits.
Keep me posted! Nice work here!
Tracy
OMG!!!! I am so glad she is doing OK! What a nightmare. She will probably be bruised more in the next couple of days, but that is still a great outcome. I am sure you also need some time to recover, it must have been horrifying. I am so glad she is pretty much normal, what a relief!!!!!
Thank you for letting me know, I will be thinking of you both!!!! I am so glad she is ok!
T
Good morning! Excellent work with the games here!!! You were showing a heavy emphasis on mechanics and that is exactly what we want at this stage.
>I didn’t intentionally throw the toy to Casper. It worked out that way sometimes.>
Perfectly fine! All of the throws were from the correct side with great connection, and it provided incentive for him to really drive through the blind. And it was probably safer for your fingers 🙂 Feel free to throw like you did here!
The first couple of reps indoors were perfect 🙂
Outdoors also went well! Single blinds looked fabulous.
>We struggled a bit with the two BC in a row on the flat but made that happen with a longer lead-out.>
Yes – the first 2-in-a-row was a little late but the 2nd one was great! But more importantly: you were connecting and he was finding the new line immediately. Keep focusing on the mechanics because every now and then on this video the toy ended up in the wrong hand, so keep reminding yourself.
And since the flatwork went great… add in jogging and running to simulate th mechanics you’ll need on course.
>Casper is SO WIDE just doing the 2 wing wrap exercise that trying to slide a BC in is quite an adventure. >
No worries at all about that! It matched the timing of when he saw the new connection after the blind. As a dog that is relatively inexperienced with tight blinds, he is not going to be able to predict a blind is coming (not yet) and turn tight even if you are late. But these games will help season him so he will see the head and shoulders begin the cue – and he can turn without waiting to see the full new connection like he is now.
And the 2 wing game is REALLY hard for the humans as we learn the mechanics – as you get quicker and more comfy with it, you will be able to do it sooner and so the turns will automatically tighten up. That is why I used Ramen as the demo dog: fast young dog that is not yet highly seasoned with tight blinds. Nothing tight about his turns in this game, as compared to what he can do on course, because of my timing and his current understanding.
You did throw in a couple of accidental spins, so it is a game to keep reminding yourself to turn away from him, not towards. I personally think the 2 wing blind cross game is probably the hardest thing you will do this week and maybe in the whole class LOL!
>Despite the poorness of the 2 wing exercise, >
It was not poor! Being hard is different from being poor 🙂
>I moved on to the 90 degree turn because it seems like it might be the most useful. >
Yes! You will definitely use these in context on courses. The 2 wing game is more of an exercise. It is like the difference between learning to play a song on the piano (the 90 degree turns) and learning to play the scales really fast on the piano (the 2 wing madness LOL)
>It was really easy to watch you but I had a bit of trouble.>
You are doing great! Any feeling of trouble was more about the mechanics not being 2nd nature yet. But the practice will get them there. I think you and Casper are 100% on the right track with these foundation games – they are a lot harder than they look.
>I’m trialing this weekend so I may not be able to get to the tunnel until next week.>
Sounds good, the tunnel game is probably the simplest one and is a nice warm up for the other games coming your way.
Have a great weekend!
Tracy
Good morning!
This went really well! And he ignored the other dog brilliantly – that was a nice mental challenge for him. Just enough challenge that there is another dog present, but nothing overwhelming. Super!
He was able to find the threadle side of the jump really well from all the angles, even with having to ignore the beloved Manners Minder. He seems to definitely have figured out that the way to get to the manners minder is to ignore it LOL! Good smart boy!
Since this went so well, a couple of ideas for next steps:
>I probably should work to move my target hand less so the verbal becomes the primary cue.>
You will always be able to use your threadle arm, so you don’t need to fade it out entirely. But what we do want you to do is not have it moving simultaneously with the release verbal (close). Ideally, you walk to your position with your threadle arm out the whole time – I tell myself to pretend that I am holding a cup of coffee in the threadle hand, fully extended away from the body with the elbow locked. Then when you get to position, you can pause (hand is still out) then release him with the close verbal. That way he doesn’t think the hand movement is the release – and it pumps up the understanding of the verbal cue.
Eventually on course, the threadle arm will swing back when you are running but for now, it can be locked and stationary.
And then other next-step is to show him the threadle position (and verbal) in the same session as the serpentine position and verbal (regular release cue). For both of those, you can walk into position with your arm extended so the arm doesn’t move wit the release.
And you can put the MM in a ‘neutral’ position, parallel to the wing of the jump & the jump bump, and a couple of feet away, so you don’t have to move it between reps.
Great job here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
The big cone and towel/bar setup worked great!
The first couple of reps went really well in terms of getting to the backside, but he seemed to think it was weird LOL!! Then when connection was a little softer or the cookie bounced behind you a little, he offered going to the towel (:26, :29). No worries, the other side was more obvious and the line to the towel is a visual draw compared to the ‘nothingness’ past the cone. I think it was hard for him to realize you wanted him to not go go the “bar” aka towel 🙂 You can hear him huffing about it for a couple of reps when you cranked up the connection like at :58. It was like he was saying “ok fine this is odd but FINE I will do it” LOL!!
But then he caught on and it was easy! The other side was really easy for him too – maybe left turning is his preference on this skill because he was happy to get super closer to the wall to slip into the left turn here! And he picked up a lot of speed doing it. Yay!
You can add a little more motion (going faster up the line) when you are close to him and also a little more lateral distance away from the cone – still on a line parallel to his and still connected like you were here, but a step or two further away
Great job!
Tracy
Welcome back!!!! I am excited to see the Whippet crew here 🙂 You’ll see Ramen Whippet helping with a lot of the demos too. Have fun with Kishka and Biscuit!!! Fingers crossed for good weather ahead.
Tracy
Oh no!!!! Poor Venture, poor you!!! Hopefully it is an easy healing process. There are a bunch of extra weeks built in here, so starting late is perfectly fine 🙂 Keep me posted!!
Tracy
Good morning!
He is doing well with finding the correct side of the jump to get to the backside – yay!
He was having a bit of trouble finishing the full 360 wrap (he was coming back over the bar) so a couple of ideas for you:
– work him through the first level of this game where you are working on the full turn and isolating his head turn (getting 2 wraps in a row) until he can easily do the full wraps without needing a lot of help from you. This is more of a dog training game and not a handling game, so it will isolate the understanding of going allllll the way around the upright 🙂 And you can do it on a cone or single upright so there is no bar to come back over.
– when you come back to the handling: as you send him, keep moving forward and toss the treat behind you to the landing side. That will help build up the countermotion: you go one way, he goes the other way 🙂 That way you won’t also be on the landing side with him or need to help him with the toy or hands – it will help build up a lot of independence.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
His teeter rep looked great! Seemed pretty confident and it looked very much like the reps before he had the whip session. Click/treat to you for resisting temptation to do more!
The end of the board setup: brilliant! Love it!!! Very clever way to get the target where you wanted it.
This might be a big ask, but a great way to help him do the teeter everywhere is to move your teeter to different places in your yard. I know it is a pain in the butt with all of the tunnel bags… but dragging it to a slightly new place every couple of days will go a long way to helping him generalize the teeter behavior. We basically repeat the same games (like mountain climbers without the board moving) in a few new places until he is happy with it everywhere. This helps avoid him having a great teeter… in only one spot in the yard.
Nice work here!
TracyGood morning!
>Ventured out this morning after the podcast to see how our Counter Motion (Wing) was doing. >
Thanks for joining us!!! It was really interesting to listen to the section where Dr. Canapp and Dr. Murphy discuss their patella cases, how they came to their findings, and how it changes behavior, etc. Fascinating!
>Appreciated this morning’s podcast – I’m definitely in major cognitive overload!>
That is totally understandable! Feel free to delegate stuff to decrease your cognitive load. I am happy to reach out to people and get info on their programs for you! And I will pass along anything I see in your area or in Seattle that would be fun for you and Jazz.
>I was unable to get her interested in the tug toy at all which surprised me as she is always into a game of tug in the house and usually in the yard. >
God job sorting out that food was best in that moment. It is really hard to know why she was not in a toy mood – the weather can play a role (along with being a teenager). Changes in pressure in the environment on a rainy day can definitely change behavior in young dogs. Food for the win!
I do admit to laughing out loud at the judgement in her face when you dropped the treat hugger and she looked up at you 😂 😆
>Much more responsive to the left wraps than the right.>
She did seem to have an easier time on the left wraps at first but there were plenty of good right wraps in there too! I think her main question was about the countermotion – it is definitely a challenge for the baby dogs! But she did have a lot of good reps!
Stopping at the wing might have had more to do with her needing a little more forward motion into it, especially the right turns at first. She got it beautifully later in the session with the food reward though – the food was more motivating for her to sort out this weird new game LOL! So when you revisit it, you can spread the wings out a little more so you can run forward for a few steps then rotate into the countermotion.
She also did well with the race tracks, seeing this version of it for the first time. She was perhaps wondering when you would be cueing a wrap, but when she sees it again, I am sure she will whip around the outside nicely.
>Think maybe I’m pushing things and we need to focus more on the strengthening exercises.>
I think we can do a combo – the strengthening stuff can get on a calendar to rotate through because we can’t do all the things every day 🙂 One thing you probably can do every day is a posture exercise of a stand-stay like a stay, for 30 seconds at a time and building up from there. That is a crazily effective thing for core strength, like a human plank. And a good one to do regularly are tight sits too, on a small platform.
And you can also do the fast-and-fun games that are relatively low-impact for now. And we can tweak all the games to get that! I think for her, mentally, the stuff that involves running around will be really helpful to burn off extra energy.
>I’m trying to identify online rehab and get a program in place for her. I’m following up with Leslie Eide (The Total Canine) in Seattle. She does online as well as in person consultations so that could work for us.>
A combo of online AND in person would be amazing!! That opens up the possibility of also adding the modalities (laser, shockwave, therapeutic ultrasound) that can help clear up any hip or psoas ouch she was experiencing while you build up the quads.
And Run Wild is a really nice dog sports facility up near Seattle, if you wanted to do any sporty stuff while you were up there.
For online only stuff, I think Bobbie Lyons is a good option too. She is not a vet but has done all of the rehab for all of the top vets too. I’ve sent folks to her and I’ve attended a seminar she taught – really great!
Back to videos:
She is indeed fearless on the teeter! Try to convince her to *not* turn around fast at the top, that is when her back feet were slipping off a bit sometimes. You can food lure her to turn slowly, or just pick her up at the top unless she really hates that 🙂
Placing the treat at the top will help her get her eyes off of you. You can let her see you place it up there and then have her walk with you to the start spot, before sending her up the board.
You can use her stay to put yourself at the end of the board, then we will start changing your position so she can drive to the end with you anywhere.
>Given the questions that came up with the morning wing wrap session I decided not to add the wing wrap before the teeter until I’m more confident that she isn’t having discomfort when wrapping.>
That was smart! And also, we won’t add tip or movement of the board downward until we get a vet clearance to do it. One thing I learned in my own patella adventures is that the teeter is probably the worst obstacle for knees – that slam has a lot of impact! So those games can wait for now but there are tons of other games to play 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
Nice job trying to sort out helping him find that 2nd jump! You read my mind – after a couple of misses of jump 2, I was curious to see what he would do if you used a food reward. And that is exactly when you switched to a food reward. That did help but he still was running past jump 2.
You were trying to help with handling, but I want him to find the line without extra handling help so you can trust the line and run. A couple of ideas for you on that:
– for the next session, warm up with some backchaining where you start him in front of the last jump and walk then job up the line. But then instead of going back to the takeoff side of the other jump, go to the landing spot of the other jump so it is a more gradual backchaining.
Then take the bar out of the jump after the tunnel and sit him between the wing of the jump. Then leaving the bar out, keep gradually backchaining until he gets to the tunnel exit (at some point you can put the bar back in the jump after the tunnel.
I think a food reward is best for this, for now, then when he finds the jump more regularly you can switch to a toy.
– Lots of stay rewards 🙂 He had some stay trouble, so throwing a reward back to him will help with that.
– I think part of the running past the jump is an anticipation of the reward throw. So we can take that out and have a placed reward for now. When you are training alone, you can use a manners minder or large bowl for him as a focal point. That can help take out the run run run anticipation behavior elicited by the thrown toy.
When you are training with someone else, you can have a big toy on a line that can be dragged. Station the person a few feet after the 2nd jump and as he starts moving, they start dragging the toy forward as a focal point. The toy needs to be in motion til he gets to it, to help him not splat himself when he gets to it (he is moving fast!)
>>Also, did you see the earlier post?>
Yes, I put thoughts on it above – they are all in the same post. It is in the middle of all the words LOL so here it is again:
Looking at the first video:
The first rep was very good with jumping finding – the tunnel entry bloopers were handling timing and position, so he was correct on all of the. On the first rep, the blind was late at :18 and there was definite motion to the wrong end of the tunnel… reward that anyway, he was a good boy! Your connection was earlier at :26 but your motion and position all indicated the tunnel entry he went into… reward! Stopping and withholding reward indicates a punisher so while he will keep working, his arousal state will change and we will see other behaviors pop up – and we did indeed see that. He started focusing on you way too much and skipping jumps. That led to even less reinforcement – so it became a bit of a cycle and overall had a low rate of reinforcement.
You did clarify the handling and he got several good reps by the end of the session but we want to clarify and reward right from the start. The reward is what builds the behavior, so reward lots and lots as you fine tune the handling position and timing.
In the 2nd part – be sure to move more, so motion can support the line too. Standing still and sending to each jump was hard for him to read if your connection was too far forward (like at 5:40) so he was missing the jump there.
For example, at 8:12 you didn’t connect so he was correct to not take the jump based on what he saw. That was rewardable!Nice work!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Working on the verbals sounds is another good reason to practice agility without the dog >
Yes, doing it without the dog is one of the ways I choose & practice the verbals. Lots of running around the field, saying the verbals. My neighbors think I am a nut haha!
> I’m ready to embrace a week without jumps. >
It is good for everyone to spend quality time NOT jumping 🙂
>I appreciate double-dipping, as working on stopping/positions out of motion is on my agenda (for rally obedience). >
Haha, same! That is why I use a tennis ball a lot in training: train the agility and the flyball retrieve all at the same time LOL
He was figuring out that is was something with stopping and doing a thing at the beginning of the motion override here – and I agree, it was 1000% hilarious when he was watching your marching band technique LOL!! I think a slow shuffle march in place is going to be ideal for the next session, then a slow shuffle walk. He is off to a great start with a really hard game!
Looks like the teeter has a tiny bit more tip to it? He did great! The only delay in offering more backing up was because he was chewing LOL! But he was offering some really brilliant backing up into the 4-on position and I love the photos at the end ❤️ What a good boy! You might be able to add a tiny bit more tip as long as he doesn’t have to lift his back feet up tooooo high to get on. We will be adding more soon.
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
The teeter setup looks good – the exercise band is brilliant! We will probably move it a shade up the board so it is right at the end
I am super happy with the one rep on the video. He looked pretty happy and drove up mostly to the end! You can stick to a one rep session for now: tug before, use insanely high value rewards at the top, then lift him off and throw the toy like you did. I bet he will be fully happy again very quickly 🙂
The wing session looked really good!!!
>Personally, I hardly ever do spins. I did practice with Benni first to get my spin mechanics better. >
You might not need a ton of spins on course, but you will probably need them here and there in the next year or two. Regular AKC is adding more and more international-style discrimination challenges where the spin is the best option (and a post turn shows the off course).
And you did GREAT with the spins!!! They were mostly perfect. And you were really emphasizing your connection!
There was one blooper on a spin at 1:17, but it was not a spin issue. You did the spin perfectly and showed awesome connection as you exited it at 1:18. He picked up the correct side. But then at 1:19 you disconnected and pointed forward… which he correctly read as a blind cross cue so he did a blind to the other side of the tunnel. A big click/treat to you for rewarding him! You said something to him about making an assumption 😂 but when you watch the video, you can see the moment you accidentally cued him. He is an honest little dude 🙂 Compare to 1:31 (the next rep) where you maintained connection and he got the tunnel entry you wanted.
You can move more on that spin moment towards the tunnel – it is stopping to send which is causing the disconnection. You can also see his question at 2:36 where you were not really moving to the tunnel entry you wanted, so there was a moment where he was reading your position as the other end of the tunnel. But your connection showed the line so he ended up correct. Yay!
Compare to 2:54 where you did the spin, nailed the connection, AND ran more to the tunnel entry you wanted – lovely!
More good rewards at the end of the session, both when you had a confusion moment and when something in the environment caught his eye. All the reward kept him in the game so yo could work on the handling even though it was a windy day.
Great job here!!! You can totally move on to the next game 🙂
Tracy
