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Hi!
I am excited to see Bazinga here too!> I take her out every morning using the same leash and she doesn’t care about it at all, but in the context of agility, she wants to TUG!>
Context is a very powerful cue!!! And tugging on the leash is like having a reward in the ring – very useful!
>I have not committed to teaching her to tug & out. I seem to be paralyzed about that. Maybe because I’ve never taught it before and mostly because we’ll have to go to a room by ourselves to do it. But I need to commit to teaching it.>
I will help support you! Here is the easiest, laziest way to do it (and this is how I have taught all of my recent dogs): get the tugging. Then after a short while. relax your tug arms, say out, and literally put a treat on her nose, then when she lets go of the leash she can eat the treat 🙂 I think she will trade the leash for a treat! And you don’t need to set up specific traning sessions – you can just do it when you train other things. And then at the start line, you can take the leash off and see if that becomes a context cue to let go of it and line up. This is all stuff we can play with in your yard and figure out.
The pattern game looks great, she is a pro! You can even bring bowls to the trial as part of the mental warm up!
The tricks went well and she understands the context cue of going through the gate and grabs the leash. That might be her way of coping with the arousal change, so you can let her do it. It is her way of self-regulation. It looks like when you dropped the leash, she let go! Yay! The sequence looked great and she was also wonderful about letting you put the leash on (then pulling you to the rewards LOL!!)
So this game just needs to go on the road, where we can get feedback from her about what she needs in different contexts. Doing it at league or in class will help!
Home sequences – she was very excited and had trouble lining up then broke the stay. You can reward this with the remote reinforcement – get a short stay then mark and run to the treats. Of course you can reward if you have treats with you, but my guess is that treats are a context cue for stays (they are for many dogs!) so you’ll need to reward it when you don’t have treats with you. *Not* having treats is a context cue for the release from the stay for many dogs 🙂
The sequences went great! She is reading lines really well (and going REALLY fast!) and your connection looked really good too!
Adding the serp-to-blind to the 5 jump: you can send to 4 from further away so it is easier to get across the 5 jump while also showing connection to the landing side. She got the jump at 1:00 because you were not as far ahead. I thought your position at 1:14 was better (in terms of being ahead) but you were looking ahead so she took that as a cue for layering. You can get her to do the serp while you move to the blind by looking at the landing spot as you fly through (your serp arm can also point back to it).
On the class video – that is a great challenge and a fun jump-tunnel discrimination!! It looks like she was heading to the 3rd tunnel then at :11, you said tunnel again and she looked at you – then decided it must be the jump. When you got into the frame at :12, it looks like you were already turned so my guess is that you were turning your shoulders too soon and needed to run forward for longer. A Go verbal can help there too!
Great job on these!!!! Let me know what you think.
Tracy
Hi!
Yay! We are excited to see Frankie here!!
She did great with the pattern games! Thinking about the trial environment: you can use the pattern game outside the ring to help her not feel so shut down – back and forth where she gets to move, then a bit of up and down in front of of the ring as you are waiting. Then tricks right before she goes in.
She gave you a little bark… does she bark on cue? Can you get more of that going? It is the best volume dial game ever!!!! Sorry/not sorry about all the noise LOL!
For real!!! You can see the back of her brain take over: freeze!! Then the front of her brain takes control again: she has a quick sniff and then moves through the gate. Yay!!! Fascinating to see, especially at home!
You can mix in marking that moment where she comes through the gate by running back to rewards! Make it variable and random mixed in with marking various spots on course. She totally knows where the treats are! Her brain is probably split: thinking about the treats and thinking about the agility. You can do this variable schedule of running out for rewards at trials too: run out just for entering the ring! I recommend UKI or USDAA for that, much less expensive LOL!
Getting her to bark and spin and do that stuff as she moves into the ring withut needing to see treats in your hands will also be very valuable. Treats can be the cues for those behaviors, so we want to be able to get the behaviors without treats in your hands or pockets.
Question:
Does she like being carried? Have you played with mixing in carrying her into the ring?For the next 2 trials, you can experiment with different things outside the ring: patterns, tricks, etc and see how the run goes! And do short easy fun runs, so she gets her groove back 🙂
Also, since she was very shut down in the last 2 trials, you can consider getting her looked at by a soft tissue vet or chiro – maybe something hurts? And you can look at maybe putting in a probiotic, to help her system handle the stressors of trials. For example, one of my young dogs is on Purina Calming Care probiotic and he is very confident!!!!! And we added folic acid to my girl Hot Sauce’s diet and she is also a healthier happier dog now (there is actually a test for B12 and folate levels in dogs!)
Congrats on Westminster! My dogs are not AKC agility eligible but we did try to get into the flyball event – they only took 15 teams and about a gazillion applied… and we didn’t get in 🙁
But you can expect Westminster to be crowded and busy. Are you flying or driving? You will want to leave a buffer for her to get some decompression. Does she like a snuffle mat or a chew bone? Those can help, even right inside the event area! And we can make a plan for Westminster based on what she tells us at the next 2 trials.
Great job with her here, and I am excited to see more!
Tracy
Hi!
>Our instructor did say we needed to start doing things in class like having people be ring stewards, running with no treats, etc. >
Great!!!! I am sure she will have plenty of fun ways to help make it feel more like a trial 🙂
>I used. Toy the first day we trialed FEO. He was interested the first run but not after that so I haven’t taken one in since then.>
You can try it again – he might be more interested in it now that he is getting more experienced in that environment.
>>Unrelated question, my older pug & I are going to compete in the Westminster agility trial. They are having a fly all tournament in the same area. Are you going to be there for either agility or flyball? Would love to meet you in person!>
Darn it, I wish I was going!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You will have a blast!!! My current competition agility dogs are not AKC eligible (intact mixes) and we did try to get the flyball team in… but it was a random draw and they only took 15 teams, so we didn’t get in 🙁 I wish I was going, I would love to meet you!!!!
Tracy
Hi! The last day is February 25th. I am hoping that we get through the cold and snow coming tomorrow and next week… then it warms up fast!!!
T
Hi!
Lots of great work here with the serps! He had very few questions and a ton of success. The stay is one of the hardest parts of this – great job rewarding it and trying not to let him break when you moved your hand!!
When you are in serp position, I think the best reps were the ones where your serp arm was a little more extended away from your torso. That is when it was really visible to him, like at :38 and :50.
When you were doing cookie toss starts, he had a lot more speed and at :52 you were late showing the serp hand so he didn’t see the cue. On the others that started with a cookie toss, you were earlier with the cue but it was still harder for him to see, so you can shake the serp hand a bit to make it more visible as he is running towards you.
The rest of the session was from the stay – that was much easier for him and he was super successful. Yay!!! And the hard angles were no problem for him. Super!
Based on this session, he is ready for you to try the threadle slices!
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
Only 8 months, she is doing GREAT!!> Today, I’ll work on advancing into the threadle. >
Perfect! Have you looked at the advanced level, where we show the dog the serp versus the threadle in the same session? She is ready for that.
>I’m also going to go back and work on the mechanics of the rear cross. She isn’t understanding that very well. She is reacting and guessing still.>
The trick is to get to her other side really early, so she can see you clearly and turn the correct direction. Definitely get it on video – that allows us to see if you were on time or not 🙂
Tracy
Hi! These games are looking really strong!!
Very nice rocking horse session! I think the added connection made a difference. The only time he had question was at :39 – you were a little ahead of him, meaning your looked forward and pointed forward before he had fully finished the wrap. On the other reps, like at 1:00, you were more connected as he exited the wrap, then you didn’t start the send to the next wing til he was finished with the wrap – and it looked great! Yay!
I don’t think you are using wrap verbals here, so definitely add them 🙂 And keep the connection nice and clear… and add more distance between the wings 🙂
Threadle wrap – nice job keeping your feet straight as he was arriving to your hands! He was turning away and finding the barrel brilliantly. Yay! Next step – when you turn him away, keep your feet straight and don’t turn the same direction he is going to 🙂 When you turn and face the direction you are throwing the toy, you are doing a tandem turn. So to make is a threadle wrap, your feet would be facing the camera here the whole time. I think you will find that easier when you are moving, so feel free to go to the next rep and add movement forward 🙂
>One thing I wanted to talk about is that I naturally am saying “let’s go!” which I also say when running my other dogs when I’m ahead of them to encourage them to speed up and catch me (not that they really need it). BUT that’s the cue we discussed using as the remote reinforcement cue. I’m no stranger to dog’s being able to understand context, but would you say this is a problem? Is it OK to continue using the “let’s go” cue even though I naturally blurt it out in other contexts?>
Ah yes… I think this context is too similar. If you might say it when you are ahead on a line, and might say it to mean let’s go to the reward, it can be confusing (especially at the end of the course). And it will dilute it if he hears it in the agility context and it means something else. So I think a different phrase would be better for the marker. It can be anything you like! My ‘let’s go’ is a bit boring, some other folks use things like “happy hour!” Or “Party!” Or “snacks!” LOL!!
Turn and burn was a great choice! He definitely liked chasing you!!! You can add your wrap verbals to this game too – start him closer to the barrel, gently pulling back on his collar and saying the verbal…. Then let him go to the barrel. You were saying go and we want to save that for the big extension lines.
>Another observation is I tend to look ahead to where I am going, likely because the yard isn’t THAT big and I want to make sure I don’t run into the fence.>
It is valid to not want to run into the fence! You will want him to see side info and connection though, so you will want to make sure you look back at him. Also, when you were not connected and took off, he was hitting the barrel – he seemed to have to switch his focus from a clean barrel wrap to looking at you to see where you needed him to be. So the connection will help support his clean mechanics too!
If have found that if I look downwards to the dog while connecting and running, then my peripheral vision field if wider and I can see anything ahead (so I don’t run into anything). You can also put a cone on the ground that you can see as you run connected to him – the cone can indicate something line “you are 5 feet from the fence” to prevent a collision 🙂
Great job!!!!
TracyHi!
Hope you are having a great weekend!I can’t believe he is only 5,5 months, he is doing so well with all of these games!!!!
The Sturdibag video was adorable. Anything for a cookie LOL!!!
>For the last couple days we’ve also played around with arousal dialing with tugging, working on a “nose boop” (nose touch to my fisted hand) and spins both ways, and trying to learn to trot, instead of bounce, in left handed circles (lol, conformation showing practice).
>Perfect! This is a game to revisit as his brain matures, and also to add it before other games to get him learning to how work in higher arousal (trial prep!)
Nice job with the head turn video! It is perfectly cool to put the cookie in the magic cookie hand – but on the first side, the questions were more about your hand cue being a shade early and fast. You were cuing the turn away before he finished the first wrap. So waiting til he has fully finished the wrap and then slowly drawing him through the turn away.
I think having he cookie only in the non-turning hand was a distraction on the other side too – he kept stopping to pick up his drive through order at your left hand rather than following your right hand through the turn LOL! You can use a cookie in each hand so he knows where to focus and so you can toss it like you were doing after the wrap.
Backside slice is going really well! He as going really fast (“I GOT THIS MOM!!”) so you were moving faster too – and he was still great! Excellent job with your connection and line of motion here. You were almost at the center of the bar, so you can check out the advanced level here!
While I am thinking of it – you can help generalize the wrap concept by making your barrel look different each time. It can be easy – stuff different colors of towels in it to make it solid-looking, or laundry 😂🤣.
The threadle wrap is going really well too – this is another skill where the hand movement is slow (even when he is running full international courses, the hand cue is slow :)) That will help get the turn away very smoothly each time especially as you add motion (he is ready for you to add your motion).
>didn’t quite get the “and then go around the barrel” part- not sure if it was me not cueing correctly or just he needs some time to sleep on it? (or both!)>
Yes, I see what you mean – he was turning away then waiting for more info early in the session. You responded correctly with fast tosses of the reward to the other side of the barrel. That was so helpful for him! You can try putting a bowl out there on the other side (3/4ths of the way around the barrel) to help jump start the turn away) and then drop the treat into the bowl. Then after a few reps, you can go back to tossing treats and gradually toss later and later, to let him wrap more and more.
But also… he probably just needs to sleep on it. It is a hard skill and it is one of the newer skills here. He is doing great!
The threadle slice looked strong too! You had really clear threadle mechanics so he was super successful. Doing this session without the bowl was fine to introduce the skill and your motion to toss the treat was pretty minimal. But yes, add in the bowl or target so he can go find the bar by himself. And after a couple of reps of that (he won’t need a lot of reps) you can go to the advanced level, where you show hi the threadle and the serp positions in the same session here.
>Also time flies, MaxPup 1 is ending soon right? What will I do without you?!>
For real!!!! We have plenty of time here – 3 more weeks of stuff and then several week more for folks to do as much as they like. Then a break…. Then onwards to MaxPup 2!!!
Great job here :)
TracyShe seemed to like the cold weather, though! She was on fire!
And yes, I can hear the buzzing – weird!!! Probably something vibrating on the tripod or near it? It doesn’t seem to be something she pays attention to at all but it would be good to know what it is!
T
Hi!
This went really well – the left turns were really strong as you noted, and the right turns will catch up soon too (I bet she sleeps on it and then she has it in a day or two). Plus, she seemed to like the cold weather and was feeling SUPER SPICY in a good way LOL!!!
>The one rep towards the end when she spun in a circle and tried to go in the side was actually pretty funny- she was trying so hard!>
Yes – I was like DUDE YOU CANNOT GET IN THE TUNNEL FROM THERE and I think she had the exact same thought LOL!!
For the right turns, being closer to the entry totally helped (like at 4:18) and you can even start her at a 90 degree angle to the entry, so the right turn is easier for her to organize for now.
>It also went better when I was patient about waiting for her to turn and look at the tunnel before releasing- go figure. >
Yes! That was the key processing moment for her – having you repeat the cue until she looked the correct direction, then affirming that by letting her go. It not only gets more success on the skill itself, but that also reinforces the head turn the correct direction (as well as keeps you connected, because you have to be looking at her in order to see where she is looking). All good!
>She was also struggling with the collar grab, I think it was when I had the toy in my hand. I tried to make the collar grab VERY brief and that still didn’t help.>
Yes, I could see some of her avoidance especially earlier in the video. “Look ma, I can do the tunnel, why do I need the collar grab!” So she would offer the tunnel rather than come in for the collar grab/line up.
There were probably 2 things happening there:
– she was in higher arousal (cold weather, toy play, tunnels are fun, the great outdoors, etc). Dogs like BCs and Whippets, when in higher arousal, tend to not enjoy being touched. I can literally feel my whippets vibrate when I touch them during higher arousal sessions.
– she doesn’t like being moved around by the collar (which is why you saw more avoidance in the early part of the session, where the context cues indicated you would likely move her by the collar). She might not love that in general, and add in being in higher arousal – being moved by the collar is extra-touchy, so can be extra-ick. (Scientific term hahahaha)>But in looking at the video if I got rid of the toy, she could do it. Which goes along with what I found when I tried the volume dial game the other day. >
These both fit into the arousal state as part of the reason there was some avoidance.
So what to do? Because yes, we need to be able to touch them and eventually move them by the collar if needed, regardless of arousal state. Here are a few ideas:
You can do snappy cookie lineups at your side for the next rep, so she is fully lined up before you take her collar (and there is no moving by the collar for now, that can slide in later on in training).
It is like the inverse of a lap turn – extend a magic cookie hand with the cookie in it towards her, lead her through a turn but turn her towards you, the feed her, then take her collar, then immediately start the next rep. You were doing some stuff similar to this at the end on the right turns, and those were her best collar hold moments!
Here is an example (from MaxPup 2, I think) – you can gently put a hand on her collar rather than cue a sit for games that begin with a collar hold like this tunnel game:
It is easy to fade the cookie from the hand cue here and then it becomes a line-up-at-my-side cue.
Another option is to train a between-the-feet line up, which is SUPER fun for the dogs to drive in close to you:
I include adding a collar hold here:
>when I tried the volume dial game the other day. With a toy in my hand she really can’t respond to quite a number of cues that I would have thought she was fluent in. Thoughts on working through that?>
That is exactly WHY we do the volume dial game starting at this early age – arousal regulation and processing! Fluency in dog sports means she needs to be able to do it in high arousal – so cues are important for this game, and I also use volume dial for proprioception games too.
A question for you: what *could* she respond to in higher arousal? The simplest behaviors are often the starting point. That can be a hand touch, if that is an easy behavior for her. Getting her tugging, and seeing the toy in your hand make it a lot less easy 🙂 So you can reward even a “meh” hand touch – in the early stages, I get a hand touch that might be a nose bop to my arm, and that is still good for the volume dial game! The accuracy improves when the arousal regulation improves.
The other thing you can do is give her a visual aid: a station or a foot target (the prop games have an arousal regulation element built in) or something to do involving an object of some sort. That visual aid can enhance the cue in a good way, and help her brain work through the arousal.
And if you cue something and she can’t do it? You can maybe ask for it one more time. Still can’t do it? Ask for something else – maintaining the arousal is key for that game, it is more important than the actual behaviors.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
>The wing nearly falling was her stepping on the leg, and I think she did eventually put 2 and 2 together to realize that was her bad (not bad as in naughty, but meaning I think she realized she was in control of it, and was just a whoops, not a random thing falling on her) but yes, I liked her pretty chill response to it.>
I thought maybe she had stepped on it! LOL!! And that was a good learning moment for “don’t touch the wings”. Whippety types really don’t enjoy hitting things, so this will probably be single event learning and she won’t need any convincing to NOT touch wings on backsides or threadles. It looked like she processed it, noted it, filed it into the “Don’t Do That Again” category, and moved on happily 🙂
>I have two of those jump bumps, so yes, she can have a 6’ bar for the exercise next time! Or should I place them side by side so it’s still like a 5’ bar?>
I think a 6 footer is fine, and all you can play with making it a 5 foot bar. Showing her slightly different bars at this stage is a good thing!
>>And I would totally have guessed CB to be 22”+!>
Well, I am pretty short so maybe he looks big 🤣😂🤣. But actually, 20.5” is a fantastic height for UKI, USDAA, AKC. So if Beat ends up in that range, you’ll love it! My Whippet is more like 22” tall and towers over CB and my other whippet-mix pup, but looks really little because he is so fine-boned. The length of stride on a 22” whippet is not great for smaller distances like AKC and some USDAA, so I am guessing his career will be limited to UKI (totally fine with me :))
T
Good morning!
This session looked lovely!
She totally nailed the circle wraps!! Especially the 2nd one – she was so fast that you had to run a bit LOL!!
The slices were harder because the jump bump has value and adding lateral distance makes it visible! She was great about figuring it out and I loved the rep where she almost took the front then fixed it and found the backside. Great patience from you!
What are you verbals here? It sounds like they are different words (wrap and back, but perhaps I need more coffee to be sure LOL) but the style of delivery is similar (fast, short, repeated) so they sounded alike. So you can make them a bit more different: the circle wrap verbal can be short and fast like you had it here. And the backside slice verbal and be more extended. So if it is “back”, you can make it sound more like Baaaaaack baaaaack instead of backbackbackback. The variations in delivery also help the dogs process the cues, so we can make them as different as possible.
If they were the same word, we will want to choose different words because they are different behaviors. And even though she is tiny, she is going to be FAST so we need all the different words to get the info to her.
If you want to play a bit with these: you can use the same setup with the barrel and bump. And on some reps, cue the slice using the parallel path line and connection, like you did here. And on other reps, you can mix in the circle wraps, using the motion, connection and verbal you did on. the first couple of reps (adding the bump for her to go over as she does the wrap).
Great job!
TracyGood morning! Congrats on your new job!! That is great!!!!
>I have not really started a stay.
Let’s get one started! You can use the Cato board for it, and also practice it on the flat. Don’t exclusively use a station because the concept also needs to be transferred to the flat so he doesn’t rely on a station. You can start it here:
>I think he would be fine with someone holding him but he’s a big strong boy. Also, loves people and face smashing. I think he’d be fine if he was focused on me.>
Yes, we don’t want face smashing 🙂 so it might not be comfortable for him or them to do it as a restrained recall. That makes training the stay even more motivating 🙂
>We have open ring tonight so I’m going to do some ‘strike a pose’ on a low jump. I’m not sure what else. Maybe some basic things with a toy to get his arousal up.>
Yes, hopefully you got some toy games going! Strike a Pose is a stationary game, which is fine, so you will want to balance with fun things that involve movement – that can be the barrel wrap games or handling combo games.
Looking at the rear cross video:
>He’s good turning left but turning right he didn’t get.>
I think it was mainly a timing thing to the right, plus he needed more balance for driving ahead so it was easier to get to the other side.
After every RC rep or two, mix in several parallel path rewards for going straight to the prop on both sides, to keep him driving ahead to the prop. And when you toss the treat, to prep for the rear cross you can go all the way to the cookie with him and wait there til he eats it. Then move forward and he will drive ahead of you to the next tossed treat. That way you can sometimes change sides, with the goal being that you get to the new side before he has to decide which way to turn.
For example, the timing on the left turn RC at :25 was good! You can see you were fully on the new side as he lifted his head from the prop, so getting the left turn was easy there. Yay!
On the right side reps, he was not driving ahead as much (lots of reward from your hand plus not enough balance for driving ahead of you), so you were still on the original side of him when he finished the prop and turned to his left towards you. On those reps, you can still toss the treat because it will encourage him to look at the line rather than at you 🙂
Adding more driving ahead to the prop should make the RC timing a lot easier – let me know how it goes! Nice work here!!!
Tracy
Good morning!
I think she really liked the tunnel threadles 🙂 and yes, she seems to be really understanding it! Super!!
So the next step with the tunnel threadles now is to keep your feet moving forward so you don’t need any additional motion cues or rotation towards the tunnel entry. That will require her to process the verbal and the hand cue only (which is what will be most useful on bigger courses, like UKI and ISC). You did this at :46 (feet facing forward and she had to go find the correct entry with the verbal and arm only).
>Last week she was introduced to a low bar, so I’m going back and forth with the barrel and the wing with a bar. >
Great! Be super careful about adding bars at this stage (she is not quite 8 months, right?) The brain development at this age is a little immature in terms of processing mechanics, and so if her body (soft tissues, etc) and so she is going to potentially do things with her body and learn it in a way that is not what you will want as an adult dog. Note of caution: dogs using jumps too early, even low bars, can get injured as young dogs because they are using young dog mechanics in adult dog contexts.
So with that in mind, using a low bar in a jump grid is fine and a great way to introduce proper mechanics, or on very simple lines such as the GO – and with the GO lines, you can either throw the reward out on the line ahead of her or place it there in advance so she doesn’t collect back to you (like at 1:30 and 1:39). At this stage, we protect those jumping mechanics skills like GOLD 🙂 so be super careful (even slow!) about introducing bars everywhere.
>It seems like she jumped ahead this week in her understanding on many things.>
Yay!!! She is very smart and athletic! And you are doing a great job with her. You will find it will be relatively easy to put the skills together, which is why I am fine with holding off a bit longer on jump bars until her brain development & muscle development catch up to her desire and joy in doing agility 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi!
He did great when yo were stationary next to him and sending with the out. And when you were moving up the line, he had a LOT of distance on the out cue! LOVE IT!!!!
He had questions when you were trying to get him past the out – by starting with him, he thought you were doing the parallel path game so kept hitting the prop. Good boy! He was able to do it when you were heeling him past it, but we want him to be able to drive more freely without as much help with ‘stay with me cues’. What will really help him understand to stay on the line with you is if you are ahead of him:
You can use a stay to get ahead of him (and past the prop, about 6 or 8 feet laterally away from it) or use a cookie toss to send him back away from you so you can be in that position before he moves towards you. I think that will help him understand when to stay on the line with you. And you can also do the ‘get out’ cues from that position ahead of him.Great job!
Tracy
