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Good morning!
>I’m not sure if I need to worry more about how spooked she gets with things that might be in a room. >
I don’t think we need to worry, but we can definitely acknowledge her concern and help her out! It is normal for pups to point out things that concern them, especially early in adolescence when they have bigger reactions to things.
Side note: I hate the vacuum cleaner too 🙂
Some ideas for you that can end up being a training progression and a plan for helping her when she points out things that concern her:
Most importantly, don’t make the scary thing the focus of the training session. Emphasizing it more will not help her relax 🙂 but we can teach her how to ignore it and be relaxed around it.
Before thinking about adding scary things, get the pattern game incredibly fluent at home or in the training building with happy distractions and using incredibly high value food and toys. The happy distractions will ‘train’ her brain to notice things in the environment and then ignore them. The high value food (human grade stuff, like cheese/chicken/meatballs) will make the game incredibly motivating. And you can also play this game with two toys! With my BC/Whippet cross, I used a 2 frisbees when he was young because he would tug on a frisbee in my hand and he loved those frisbees more than anything in the world.
So adding simple happy distractions will accomplish 2 things with the pattern game:
– teaching her the game and the framework for ignoring distractions
– Making the pattern game VERY exciting and motivating – best game ever!!(Side note: if the game is only really used for scary things, then the game becomes associated with scary things… so starting the game will actually *increase* anxiety rather than help her relax).
When she is just loving the pattern game with happy distractions and motivating reinforcement, you can start to sometimes use it with scary things – but not ALL the time and also, don’t make the scary thing the focal point.
When you are playing the pattern game with a vacuum in the room, for example:
– toss the treats away from the vacuum, not towards it. She doesn’t want to go near it, so trying to convince her to go near it can backfire. You can see in the video here she was going to get her treats but was getting more and more concerned and getting closer to you (and asking to leave) instead of getting happier about the vacuum. If she is reluctant to get her treats, that is a sign that you are too close to the scary thing.
– keep the sessions super short (3 or 4 cookies, so she can be successful and leave happy) and also use distance as your friend: don’t get close to the scary thing. And if you are accidentally too close, move away from it.
This can also be used in real life situations! I remember when one of my young adolescent dogs suddenly became terrified of a fire hydrant that had been in the same place for his whole life 🙂 So to help her out, always have fabulous treats or toys with you when you are out and about. And if you notice something scary or if she notices is it: move her a little further away and start the pattern game… then get her out of the environment pretty quickly.
Getting her out of the environment pretty quickly is really important – even if she is doing well, young dogs have a limited mental ‘bank account’ for working through scary things. So she can go from ‘this is fine’ to ‘OMG THIS IS TERRIFYING’ in one rep (pretty typical adolescent dog behavior LOL!). So if she is having a hard time and asking to move further away? Move further away until you find a spot where she is doing better. And if things are going great? End the session 🙂
Adolescent dog brains do weird things in terms of identifying things as being scary. Then they take twice as long to bounce back after a stressful event, compared to an adult or even a baby puppy. And definitely don’t punish her or get mad (you were NOT mad here 🙂 ) or get her to come closer to the scary weird thing – all of that can be perceived as punishment and adolescent dogs are far more susceptible to stress from punishment than they are to building behavior through reinforcement.
Adolescence is a crazy time LOL!!! But I appreciate when the pups tell us what they are concerned about, and I take it as a cue to help them out. Resilience can be built! And adolescence can be survived, thankfully 🤣😂
Let me know what you think and keep me posted about how she does!
Tracy
Good morning! So much to be pleased with here!!
It was a really busy distracting environment: noise, people, dogs, etc. She was terrific!You can now flip the script: you were cueing her to engage with the cookie catching and sits 🙂 and she did great! So now you can let her choose to engage without as much help from you. The back-and-forth pattern game will accomplish that: you can throw a treat to the say (cue her to get it) then after she eats it, wait until she re-engages with you. Try not to help her at all, other than holding the leash 🙂 And when she looks back at you, toss a cookie to the other side of you. That way you can build up her choice to engage with you in a hard environment (while she processes the challenge of the environment and begins to ignore them) without you asking for engagement.
Great job!!!
TracyGood morning!
True confessions: I am impressed with your knees being able to take you from sitting to squatting to standing! My knees were jealous LOL!!
>This might have gone on a little too long. I wait for him to sort some things out, though.>
I don’t think it was too long of a session for his age – his questions were more about how quickly you were changing the variables. The session went from squat to stand to significant distance away from the cone in less than a minute. That was causing him to stop and look up and wait for help because things kept changing.
He did work through it, but he was also cueing you to help him by stopping or going into a down 🙂 To keep him offering and working at a higher success rate, you can introduce the variables more slowly.
So for each session, try just one variable change and get a number of reps at that stage (like standing to one step away from the cone). Then break things off, have a tug party or cookie party, come back a few minutes later: start with the last variable he saw (standing one step away from it) and after a couple of successful reps – add one more variable (like moving two steps away from the cone). Get several successful reps, then take another break. And then the next session (a few minutes later, or next day) can add another variable.
I think that adding the variables more slowly will speed this progress because he won’t have to watch you as carefully 🙂 and he can just keep wrapping the cone. Think of it as gradually fading in the challenge so he barely notices 🙂
His wrapping is definitely strong enough for you to add the turn and burn game! That game does not need much distance away from the cone – and it was the distance away from the cone where he had his questions here. So feel free to play that one – I think he and you will both find it super fun 🙂
Great job here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Is it important for me to show her where the ending station is? With Kaladin, I’m in the habit of showing him his meatball container on my chair or the treat counter as we leave to head to the ring, but that’;s habit and I”m not sure how important it is.>
I think it can help the dog in terms of making the environment more predictable: yes, your reward station IS here. Is there scientific evidence about it? Nope 🙂 But the dogs do well and it certainly doesn’t hurt, so I still do it 🙂
Agility is really an unpredictable game, so the more we can help make it predictable, the better for the dogs imo.
I loved your at-home-agility-ring! It helps show her what the pattern is: leave the cookies, enter the ring, do a thing, get a YAY! 😁🤣😂 then exit for the rewards.
She was pretty chill about it all but that is to be expected in the basement. It will get more exciting and maybe harder in the class environment. I do really love how snappy her sit was after the leg weave and then she was pretty darned explosive on the release to the jump on that last rep! Yay! (See, I said YAY too hahahaha)
As she recovers from the spay, this is a good game to take on the road (can she do it between Kaladin’s runs at a class, maybe?) so the framework of it is in place before adding it to courses.
And definitely get ready to bribe/beg people to be casual ring crew when she is doing anything, even if it is just back and forth pattern games. I think back to her expression when the instructor was very close and you were asking her to go into a tunnel (I think it was under the a-frame) and she was like “WHY IS THERE HOOMAN RIGHT HERE” lol!!!! So the bribe/beg approach will really help 🙂 You can start with Dean – the person added doesn’t need to be a new person, and adding a familiar person can ease the transition to strangers being in the ring.
Great job here!
Tracy
Eventually I just say “stay”. And the dog freezes in whatever position they choose in fhe moment, then I lead out 🙂
Hi!
> Did way too much! He was fried 1/2 way thru Sunday. Crated him out in the car, it was warm enough. Took him for a decompression walk after each run>
Yes, 2 full days can be hard on young dog brain (and on my old human brain haha!) How did the first day go?
He did really well with his pattern games and volume dial outside the ring here!
>> volume dial in the ring was hard for him all weekend
He did his hand touches nicely on the first run you posted here!
And when he got going in that run, he did GREAT!
I think the hardest part for him was being in such close proximity to the crew in the ring. On the first run, he did stay-release- jump-tunnel PERFECTLY. Then as he was exiting the tunnel, the leash runner was moving to get your leash… so it was *her* motion he locked on to for a heartbeat then he got all febuddled – he realized it was the wrong motion, got a little stressed, went to the ring crew person in the chair… I think if the leash runner had not been moving, he would have had an easier time.
But that shows us the area he needs more experience in: ring crew in close proximity in the ring. He is fine with the judge and instructor! It is the other people right there or moving that he doesn’t quite know what to do with. You can see it a little in the 2nd run too – going to the tunnel right past the people on the other side of the gate was SO HARD! He did it and got rewarded, which is great!
I really think all of the other pieces are in place and this is the final frontier 🙂
So what to do about this final frontier? Beg and/or bribe your classmates to sit in inconvenient spots in the ring and be a little in your face as the leash runners in class. He really needs to experience that and get rewarded for ignoring it (lotus ball at first, remote reinforcement later on). Classes and seminars are a bit too ‘sterile’ in that regard – no one is sitting in the ring or walking past a tunnel exit. You might have to bribe people (they are food motivated LOL!) or even bring your own people. But it is truly the last piece of the puzzle for him, so many other pieces are looking fabulous.
Yes, build up the volume dial skills but I think finding a way to introduce ring crew into the picture will be more important. Do you have classes or seminars or ring rentals between now and the January trial, so we can plan for getting ring crew in there?
Great job!
TracyHi!
Poor dude! I am glad he is feeling better!I love how his confident great here to drive ahead of you! At first he was looking at you like, “ok, if you want it that badly, you can have it” then by the last toy race he was driving directly to it and leaving you in the dust. YAY!!!
Good job building up the tugging! You can actually meld these games: get him pumped up with the tuggin, then toss is so he can chase it and win the game (you can deliberately move slowly to let him experience the thrill of victory :))
>We’re gonna play catch-up as fast as we can now! Usually when we get behind in online classes it seems discouraging to try to keep up and then we drop off. I’m trying not to let that happen this time….>
No pressure! Everything is in bite-sized chunks that builds on the previous bite-sized chunk 🙂 I personally thing the wing games are the most fun, so you can revisit the wrap foundations and then get into Turn And Burn (SO FUN). That will basically get you caught up in that game LOL!!
Great job here!
TracyHi!
Sending sideways and backwards to the barrel is going GREAT!! Yay! And click/treat to you for using your verbals! She can commit really well when the cues work together to support the line – her only 2 questions here came when there were conflicting indicators: part of the cue said one thing, the other part of the cue said something else 🙂
You can see this on rep 1 at :01 – your upper body (right arm) and verbal said barrel but the rest of the body was rotated away and moving the other direction while she was still relatively close to you (as opposed to close to the barrel).
Compare to 1:06 and the reps after that, when you held your position long enough to see her commit, then you moved away.
Her other question was also a conflicting indicator question: at 1:24 you were pointing to the barrel but facing and moving (leaning forward) to the white wing long before she got to the barrel, so she was not sure if it was the wing or the barrel. Compare to at 1:28 and 1:56 where you held your send position longer til you saw her locking onto the barrel, then you moved away.
So for now, she needs you to support until you see her getting close to the barrel, before moving away. She can do that at any of the distances you asked for here, which is great! As she gets more experienced, you will be able to move away sooner but we will still want to avoid conflicting indicators.
>She is quick to just offer what ever and have begun to tell her “that’s not it”>
You can use reset cookies if it is a possible conflicting indicator issue – if you were cuing one thing and she does something else, a reset cookie can cover you in case she was correct 🙂
If she is trying to start without you and offer all the things 🙂 you can ask her to line up and wait for a moment, to help get her focused on the task.
She was having a bit of trouble letting go of the toy as the session went along, so you can build in trading for another toy or treat – that will make things more efficient by getting the toy back more smoothly and can help her regulate the arousal of he toy play.
Great job here!!
TracyHi!
Three suggestions for you:
– she is definitely wary pf the movement of the wobble board, so you need to change it to make it a happier place for her. I suggest turning it over so it doesn’t move at all, and she can just walk around on it. Then when she is happy to do that, you can turn it back over like it was here, but stuff towels/mats/beds all the way around it so it doesn’t move at all. This one looks like it will move so we want to take that factor out
– use much bigger, high value treats. These were small and probably tasty… but certainly not as motivating as a 3 inch chunk of rotisserie chicken, or a piece of an egg mcmuffin LOL!! What you will want to do is get one or maybe 2 reps, total, with a mind-blowing food reward – then be done. If she wants to do more? Don’t do more 🙂 The incredibly high value food (human grade stuff, no dog treats LOL!) with very short sessions will make a big difference.
> I have worked on this all week and all she will do is sniff it. I’m waiting to try to get more to see if she will put a foot on it again.
– you might be putting too much pressure on a behavior she is concerned about. So, do far less with it – once rep, once every few days, of the wobble board turned over or fully propped so it does not move… with a giant chunk of meatball as the reward 🙂 That will really turn the tides here!
Let me know how it goes 🙂
TracyHi!
>Florida Trials!!!!! OMG – super fun!!!!!!!
I can make the USDAA trial mid January! What days are you going? I can do Sat & Sun for sure and can even see if I can get Friday off.>Sadly I can’t go that weekend – I have a commitment in Virginia on the 18th 🙁 But I am going to ask around and see what other trials are coming up that haven’t been posted yet. I might be down there for a full month so fingers crossed we can find something for the Baby Boston and Baby Whippet Trial Tour LOL!
>the one entry that is hard for her is the “easy” entry of 11 oclock for on-side weaves.
That soft-sided entry is often the hardest!! You can put a wing of a jump on pole 2 to help her see it:
>We haven’t done any obstacle/wing to weaves or weaves to an obstacle yet and I’m still using the MM so we may not be quite ready to try them in the ring but I will start working on those pieces.>
Definitely add a wing before the weaves now, and you can ‘hide’ the MM behind another wing to start fading it.
Could I ask some questions about the weaves progression?
>When we go to the next step of the 2x2s – 6 poles & add 4 poles, is it ok if I use my regular (non-2×2) 6 weaves for poles 1-6 and use the 2x2s for poles 7, 8, 9, 10? I only have 1 set of 2x2s. If I do use the regular weaves for poles 1-6, I’ll give her a session or 2 of 6 poles only on the new weaves so she is familar with them.>
Absolutely!
>Also, I need to go back and do some of the ‘Find Em lessons. When I do, should I make the weaves easier & angle to 2x2s to match the lessons or should I stay where we are now with the weaves & add in those challenges?>
Do a session with the poles a little easier (because other variables have gotten harder). And if she is fine? You can make the next session back to where her weaves normally are.
>Is there an advantage to try again with the channels and see if I can work both track simultaneously again?>
There is no advantage – I find that the dogs all choose their method by this point 🙂 She has chosen the 2x2s and that is great!
>>We tried the Releases with Volume Dial & All Business. I think she’s going to be a combo. Volume Dial on the way in the ring (it’s fun and it doesn’t seem to put her over the top) and All Business at the startline.>>
These went great! The look on her face during the volume dial lead outs was HILARIOUS! So intense and maybe a little bit of “mom is nuts” ha!!
Since she did well with both, you can use both and see how it goes. My guess is in the trial ring, volume dial will be toooooo much 🙂 But you can do it in training to simulate the internal state of high arousal she will feel in the ring! Then as you suggested, do it on the way to the start line but then be all business on the lead out 🙂 It might change as she gets more experienced, but I think that is a great plan!
Tracy
Thanks for the maps! Nice courses!
So if I have this straight:
Jmp to tunnel was a happy thing – even if it was up close to the gate and the people & dogs.
But the 2 jumps through that box to the teeter was icky? It was kind of a weird start, not a lot of flow.That is good to know for planning – the main goal is to get him moving as soon as possible, towards obstacles he likes (tunnel, contacts). At trials for now, skip any jump-jump-jump openings that turn him to the crowd… or maybe anything that doesn’t immediately lead to a favorite obstacle. Let’s build up his love for being in the competition ring before tackling the icky starts 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
>I had not intention of sending her backside but that’s apparently exactly what I did. 🙂
The good news about Lu is that she does pretty much exactly what you cue her to do… at 1000 MPH. So be really precise about your line up positions so she knows where to be. Also, you can consider releasing her with a jump verbal or directional so even if she is not lined up perfectly, she still gets it right. For example – if my dog is facing the wrong line but I say the front side left wrap verbal, he will most likely go for the front side left wrap.
Thanks for the map!
>My plan was to run 1-7 then reward. I thought we might have an issue 6-7 but nope LOL. Then start with a wrap like I did in the video at 8 and continue out to reward at the end. So really not to plan much but she ran it perfect.>
Nothing ever goes perfectly to plan with young dogs but I think you did a great job supporting her and making her first trial experience in a fabulous one 🙂
>I”ve been trying really hard to stay extra connected with her but I’ll also have to walk it better telling her what she needs to do before she goes in the tunnels.>
The other thing to do is plan to NOT run as fast and get as far ahead up the big lines. That is hard for her in practice, so in a trial setting you will really want to be closer to the line so she can see the connection more clearly. It is a hard balance because you like to run fast (and you are good at it) plus she is fast – so you will need to fake being slow for a while as she gets more used to bigger courses. You will be able to go at normal Chaia speed soon 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
The first run on this video had the opening line to the blind – this is another good spot for exit line connection – you can see him jump up on the exit of the FC at :09. And you can send to the tunnel from much further away to get the BC , more on that below 🙂>We really need to work on tightening up that wrap in sequence 4. It did improve with repetition. I need to learn how to keep the forward drive while cueing collection for a tighter turn.>
The trick is going to be starting your deceleration sooner and keeping it separate from the rotation. Ideally, as he is over the jump before the wrap jump, you start to slow down but keep moving forward/facing forward. Then when he collects, you rotate and exit with big exit line connection back to him. If you decel AND rotate at the same time, he is likely to pull off the jump.
What was happening on the first couple of reps at :22 & :38 was that the decel was late – you ran really accelerated until he was more than halfway to the wrap jump, so he thought (correctly) that he should jump straight. The turn cues started after he made a takeoff decision, so he coudln’t turn til after landing.
Then as you exited the FC, he could not see connection so he drifted really wide waiting for more info to see where you wanted him for the next line.
He did start jumping tighter at :57 and 1:15, but adding the decel much sooner followed by the exit line connection will get a nice tight turn each time 🙂
>Sequence 5 showed me how far ahead I’d need to be to get in a double blind cross at 3-4 then 4-5 then again from 6-7. Ugh that was hard!!!>
OMG yes, the double blinds are so hard! You can send to the tunnel from further away, and you can also show the blinds quicker by keeping your arms in tighter to you (bent at the elbows rather than fully extended) so you can make very fast connections (it is not the arm change that gets the side change).
>The nicest line might have actually been the blind at 3-4 with the rear at 5. It still gave me time to blind 6-7.>
I agree! That was very smooth!!!
Going back down the big line to the tunnel, to drive him ahead: look down towards him (connect to his butt LOL!) and not up and ahead. Looking at him even if you are behind will support the line and he can see a lot of it peripherally.
>Then I got creative and thought it would be fun to test his send to the backside of 6 in sequence 4.>
Easy peasy!
The backside at the end of the long line looked great – you had clear position and connection, and he had no questions. Super!!Great job here!!!
TracyLooking at the handling stuff 🙂
Great job with the MM on the end of the line! He drove ahead really well. The next step is to fade the MM – get it further and further away, and go to a thrown reward.
The opening of run 1 looked great! It seemed odd that he came back out of the tunnel on run 2? But he didn’t do it again, so no worries 🙂
After the backside FC on 3, make a big exit line connection so he knows where to be – he jumped up at you at :27 because the connection was unclear so he didn’t know where to go.This happened a few times on this video and in the next one, so here is what I mean by exit line connection:
The dogs don’t cue off of our hands on the side changes – they cue off seeing the connection and the front of our chest. It is important to keep our hands out of the way and to let them see our eyes 🙂
Nice hustle up the big lines! You can add more connection on those too – Running the go line with bigger connection will help with the bar (2nd run). When you are ahead, run with your head turned back to him. Even if he is ahead of you, connect to his butt 🙂 He can see a lot of that peripherally so it helps support the lines
3rd run – Using a bigger exit line connection and earlier tunnel verbal at :40 and 1:00 will help so he doesn’t jump up. Great job setting the line from the tunnel exit when you were handling on the right – you can go even closer to the tunnel exit to get him onto the line sooner, so you can accelerate up the line sooner as well!
Changing sides to handle from the left on that sequence didn’t get the exit of the tunnel set as well, so the line was wider. He did a great job figuring out the line though!!
Nice work here!
Tracy
