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Hi!
One thing to consider with the waits is that you will want to use a station or something all the time for now, to establish a wait behavior before any and all sequences, so she doesn’t get too used to starting with you right next to her. A station can be very clarifying for her!T
Hi!
>Since I mainly use an iPad, I thought it would be better to start a new one for us.>
Yeah, at some point when a thread gets big enough, iPads and iPhones give errors messages. Weird!
>We had 2 days of trialing this past weekend. On Friday, I was pretty discouraged after our 1st 2 runs because he was so disconnected and running to check everything out. Then he came out on the 3rd and last run of the day & laid it out there.>
He might have needed a day to settle into the environment? Hard to know with young dogs, so maybe the next trial, enter him in only one class that runs in the afternoon, and make it a really simple FEO course, and see how it goes.
If he gets distracted in the ring, don’t stop your running – you can keep running and handling an invisible dog. At some point he will catch back up to you 🙂 It is more fun for him that way and will help him stay focused.
>Here’s his Novice FAST FEO run so you can see what he did or rather didn’t do.>
This one is listed as unavailable, can you reset it to unlisted?
>Here’s his Nov JWW FEO run later, as in MUCH later, that same day. i decided to bring him back down the line of jumps after the tunnel rather than heading to the weaves.>
I loved this run!! He was thinking hard and did a great job 🙂 It think it was a GREAT decision to not ask for weaves are the hardest, most complex obstacle and he was telling you in the other runs that they are too hard for now in the trial environment. If you get him comfortable in the environment, it will be easy to add the weaves back in 🙂
>Here’s his Nov Standard FEO run after that. I just altered out line off the teeter for this run & took him to the DW rather than on to the weaves.>
This one is also listed as private.
>If you would prefer to have all the runs in 1 video, please let me know!>
Posting them individually is great, and probably easier than editing them together.
When is your next trial? Have your classes or league started back up?
Great job here :)
TracyHi! Why were there 2 judges in the ring? Weird! Stalkers! LOL!
I think this also went well.
>I think working her start line on the last run of the weekend was asking a lot of her – although she did really do a good job.>
It looks like she got it right twice! Yay! And she was generally finding the lines really well – and the spots she missed jumps were legit questions from her 🙂
After the release, you just needed to more specifically cue jump 2. On both passes through there, you were pointing at it with an extended arm perpendicular to your shoulders – that blocked connection and turned your shoulders & feet away from the line, so she didn’t take it. Keeping your arm back and stepping to the jump will get her to take it on that type of line.
The jump after the tunnel that she missed at :46 was the same lead change away as on the previous run. It was also a moment of you running really fast without a lot of connection, which pulls her off the line. So prioritize connection over getting way ahead on course for now.
>by the time we got to #7 and I was asking for a wrap turn, it wasn’t going to happen.>
After that FC wrap, you can use exit line connection to tell her which side to be on, rather than running away with the toy in your hand. She really liked the chase 🙂 but didn’t know where to be in term of which side of you, so the turns were wide through there.
Overall, all of these runs went well! And we can see what helps her (clear connection and not running very fast) versus where she loses the line (running super fast without connection).
In the interest of keeping you connected and not getting too far ahead for now… you should plan some rear crosses 🙂 Not only are they a useful tool, but you won’t need to try to get way ahead and risk disconnecting.
Great job on these!
Tracy
Hi!
>Although it was missed in the video, I did have my friend hold her at the start line again. She was pulling away from my friend and went around all the jumps so I reset>
Was she eager to start, or uncomfortable being held, or both? It is OK to not have a holder – it will give you motivation to add the stay to the runs 🙂 You can bring stays in with very short stays and throwing rewards back in the NFC runs. You can also use a station at the start line in UKI NFC.
She did really well here too, found the lines really well! I think there was one jump missed at :44 – it looked like that jump needed a lead change away to get to it, so a ‘get out’ cue and more motion to it, even an opposite arm, will help. That is a place you can keep going rather than stop and give her the toy. We don’t want to punish her for missing it, but we don’t want to specifically reward it with the toy either 🙂
On this run and on the previous run, you had large chunks of the course that went beautifully – both of those sections had great connection and you were moving but not running really fast. Keep that in mind for future runs!
T
Hi!
I agree! This went great!!! The entire second part of the course from 8 to the end was AMAZING!!!>I had my friend come in and hold her at the start line which didn’t work great>
I think she was being held pretty far from jump 1, and you were not connected enough before the release and pretty far away so she just didn’t see the line. So the holder can have her closer to jump 1 so she can see the line better. And you don’t need to be as far up the line for now, because she needs you to support the line – there is a lot going on at the start of a course 🙂
One thought on these runs:
Rather than stop and tug when she goes around something, try to just keep going and reward her for finding the line or get her on a line that you want to work by circling back around over other jumps. We want lots of reward for finding the jumps, rather than for going around them. And since finding jumps after tunnels is hard, you can throw the reward for that!
T
She did well here! And it was a really nice course for young dogs! I am glad you were not too nervous 🙂
Doing the FC 2-3 pulled her off the line to the tunnel. I think your verbal said tunnel but your physical cues said no tunnel.
There were a couple of disconnection moments in the 2nd half of the course – you were moving fast but not really connected so she was chasing motion but not seeing the specifics of the cues. That will go away as you both relax into the trial environment 🙂And nice ending!!!
T
Hi!
>I was able to FINALLY get Lu in a class for the next couple of weeks. It is a skills class for UKI – but I know the instructor and she is going to break down things for Lu’s level. >
Perfect!!!!!
>Other items we are working on is a jump grids class>
Great! You can start adding full height on some grids, like the set point. Be sure to add your motion as early as possible so she can learn good mechanics while you are moving.
> and finally starting to train our dogwalk through an online course. We haven’t done any work on the dogwalk because I felt like she needed to mature more. She still does 🙂 but I think it’s a good time to start now. >
Agreed!
>Obviously, I’d really like to improve my handling with her as well but I think that is just going to have to wait some more until spring/summer but at least we have some class time. >
The class and the upcoming seminars will really help with that.
> We also got our first official measurement which we did a lot of prep for prior to it. She did a really good job and the judge made it really easy for us. Official measurement is 21 inches :-O Big girl LOL. >
Perfect height for UKI!!!!!
>One thing I’m not sure how to address, is moving her up in height. I think she is still learning how to move her body on new surfaces. >
Yes, different surfaces can make a huge difference. You can start moving the height up on surfaces that she is familiar with, and that have enough grip that she won’t slip. I start with easy jumps (like straight lines) then go to harder jumps (like wraps) and eventually do REALLY hard jumps like backside/threadle slices and backside/threadle wraps.
If she hasn’t seen full height yet then yes, I think the next trials should be 16S too.
Onwards to the runs!Tracy
Hi!!
The stuff you were doing while waiting outside the ring looked good – hard to see all of it but looked like patterns, tricks, maybe some chill. He is definitely better about ignoring the exciting dog in the ring than I have seen in the past!
>What would have helped me here – some more tricks or hand touches at the line He definitely had the Pwd on his mind, went selectively deaf on me for a moment.
>Was he looking over his shoulder at the other dog walking past while he was on the start line? He released well on the 2nd release cue and was SUPER fast!!!
Yes, you can ask him to do another thing or two or three as you set him up, just before the leash comes off and before you cue the sit stay. That can help re-orient him to you. You got very quiet and calm as you entered the ring, and it be the opposite: get big and exciting! He was REALLY good about releasing to you and not heading to the dog though. That was excellent practice for trials!
>For his last couple of classes, I”ve broken out the course challenges and worked on them as short sequences -limiting disconnects and upping the ROR.>
I noticed that here! You worked on the handling with smaller skills mixed in with bigger lines. Perfect!
What happened at 3:00 – the cue was unclear so he zoomed to his right. Did he come right back?
One thing that has been wildly effective is when the dog leaves… the handler keeps handling as if the dog is still there (running the course, verbals, etc.) There is no stopping and no calling the dog back… just keep going as if you are running Cody 🙂 If needed the instructor can gently interrupt Coal, but you should ignore him leaving and keep going. What we are seeing is that the dogs return VERY fast (and get rewarded somewhere later in the sequence) and soon enough they stop leaving in the first place.
Yes, you will feel weird handling without the dog. But it is fun and effective!
>He’s got the end of run part down pretty well – knows where the jackpot is and is towning me back there LOL>
Yes, that part he is fabulous with!! Yay!
>Long lead outs like I needed here = abandoning him at the line. Add more talk more connection? I needed the lead out to have a chance at getting the blind in after 4. even with it, I didn’t make it there in time – he may be a bit faster than I am>
A couple of ideas:
You can stay connected and use some quiet praise to help keep him connected to you. I also think mixing in lots of randomly throwing the lotus ball back to him as a reward can keep his eyes glued to you (because he will never know when the prize is coming!)Something else to try is jogging to your lead out position rather than walking – that is exciting and can override the excitement of the other dog 🙂
In a trial setting, courses are not likely to be as complex yet so you won’t need a long lead out yet – so definitely stay closer and talk to him to help him stay connected.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyOMG that first rep was HILARIOUS!!! Good for her for sorting it out, good for you for letting her sort it out. She needed to see the framework then the rest was really strong. Brilliant! I mean, she did make it to the threadle side of the jump for a heartbeat before going back around the wing to the toy LOL
Then the wing tried to fall on her but she was resilient to that weird moment 🙂
I loved your exuberant celebrations when she got it right – it was a wonderful balance to the calmness of the rest of the rep.
It is time to add your threadle wrap verbal, either on the release from a stay if you use one, or as soon as she gets to cookie on a cookie toss start.
And when you have that verbal added, you can go to the advanced level where you are showing her the serp versus the threadle in the same session.
>(finally an exercise that didn’t make me feel like I’ve never trained a dog before!)>
Ah yes, puppy training is all about making us humans feel like we are brand new to this training thing LOL I can relate!
The backside slice game went great too!
>Indeed my jump bump is very short, only 3’ which is very evident in this exercise but I think fine while there’s very little speed coming in.>
Agreed, it was fine for this session. She was adding her own speed 🙂 but seemed to have no questions about the bump. And your reward placement was spot on, which totally helps. Do you have a second bump, or even part of a foam wall jump or foam long jump? You can put that next to this one to create a long bar/bump 🙂 A longer bump will give you more room to add more distance as you move your line more and more to the center of the bar, and past it. That will also make going to the advanced level easier too.
Only one suggestion: You can start moving up the line sooner, just before she grabs the treat, so you are not stationary when she first looks at you. This will make adding lateral distance easier because your motion will be showing the line before she even moves.
It sounds like you were adding the verbal for the backside – perfect! It will help you add the more advanced skills and it will also help you show her the difference between the backside slice and the cue for the front side.
>If she was a pony of a BW (like CB size) it might be too easy to skip it, but I think it’s ok given her current small size (not yet 18” tall).>
She is about 6 months old, closer to 7 months? She might top out at around 20”, which is a really nice size. My CB is 20.5” which is small compared to the flyball BWs who can get up to 23” and 24” tall (affectionately known as gigantalopes). CB only looks big because I am so short haha!
Great job here 🙂
TracyHi!
The threadle wraps are definitely on the right track now!! He is coming to the correct side then looking at the bump/MM. Watch his pointy ears, and you can see him turning his head to the bump and not looking past it 🙂
The second side was stronger here (as usual for him :)) so on the first side, don’t move the MM back as quickly – leave it close to the bump longer. It was a little too far back on the last couple of reps on the right turn side, so he was not turning his head to the bump as well. The 2nd direction (left turn) looked great!Let this behavior rest for a bit (aka, do not obsess on threadle slices LOL!) so that latent learning can work its magic. Come back to it in a 3 or 4 days and see what he knows 🙂
He definitely loves the backside slices! He gets to run 🙂 Nice session here! You were further across the bump for sure, and he seemed to have no questions. You can keep moving further across the bump so you are eventually where the exit wing would be. You will also want to do this in a larger space, so you can balance with cues for the front side and so you can do the advanced level of the game too! You might have to start with the simpler levels (you being closer to the entry barrel) in a new place, but I think he will sort it out very quickly and you can add the new challenges too.
Great job!!
TracyGreat job with the rear cross – this is definitely a hard skill! You can make it easier to appear on the new side sooner by staying closer to him. As you moved to the other side, you were also adding lateral distance. So you were visible on most but not all of the reps 🙂 and he turned the other way on a couple of the reps. You can get there for all of the reps by walking forward on the same line he is moving on (heading towards the camera, using the setup you had here). That way you can get ahead of him on the new side very easily and he will read it correctly each time.
Nice work here!
Tracy
Hi! He definitely loves his barrels! Yay! You might have to reward him for lining up so he doesn’t start without you LOL!
The forward, sideways, and backwards sending all looked GREAT!! Pretty perfect!
Have you decided what you want you wrap verbals to be? You can definitely add them to his barrels by saying them as you cue him to go to the barrels, he is ready!
You can now move forward to the rocking horse games! And I believe he is ready for you to use a toy as well.
Great job!
TracyHi!
She did well with her runs here, she was really trying to focus on the course and ignore all the distractions. Super!!!
Looking at your list, we can prioritize things for you to work on to get even more success at trials. I think they need to go in this order:
– start line waits
– BIG distances with her staying on her line with you 5m away (or more!)
– driving ahead at the finish to her bagThe other stuff is good to work on, but less important. And if the list is too long, it is hard to get it all done.
The waits are SUPER because without them, it is nearly impossible to show the opening line, then you get far behind too which impacts everything else.
Have you tried teaching the wait concept on a platform? Crate games? We need something easy to help her and you get the teamwork on longer waits, so you can be far ahead facing forward when you release her.
And for the distance/driving ahead – you can use fewer obstacles in training and spread them out a LOT, to simulate what she will need to do in competition 🙂
Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Hi!
>It’s the counter motion and if I toss food she just starts running forward. Can I put a cookie on it like 2 times? Even I hate doing that but I have not attempted any prop stuff beyond sends and a few parallel lines.>
Toss food towards you? I am confused LOL
Yes, you can totally place the reward on the prop, or even use it as a lure to jump start the behavior! All good!
T
Good morning!
The GIF is hilarious!!!!
I hope you are feeling better!!!
>I I’ve made a spreadsheet recently to help me track more easily what stuff I have done and what skills I need to put more thought into.>
Spreadsheets are life! I don’t know how we can remember anything without them 🙂
Remote reinforcement: This went well! He was happy to move away from the cookies and dog whatever you asked him to do. Down was harder, but it might be harder in general – he got it on the 2nd cue! He has the concept here so the next steps are very tiny so we can protect this skill by not moving it along too fast.
Your mechanics were good! At this point, you might want to consider a marker that you will use at the end of the run. “Dish” is perfect for the dish, but might not be what you use at the end of the run. That also means you can use other things – cookies from a bag, or a toy. The end-of-run marker can be for any of that because the bigger meaning is that he exits with you to get the reward.
You can start asking for more than one trick in each rep – ping pong your way to asking for multiples 🙂 Ask for 1, then 3, then 2, then 1, then 4, etc. Should be fun!
And you can also move this game from room to room. For example, leave the treats in the kitchen and you move into the next room to do a trick or two. Then mark and run back to the kitchen to reward 🙂 That can help solidify that the rewards will be in an entirely different space and potentially out of the line of sight.
Parallel path: He was finding the jump really well, looking ahead nicely (not at you) thanks to good reward throws!!
Only one suggestion is about connection: as you move up the line, you can look at him more. The dog-side arm can be pointing back to him so he can see your eyes very clearly (this also lines your shoulders up to the line you want him to take, which is actually what the pups cue off of). It is this connection that provides the side information to the dog (which side of you to be on). When they don’t get it, they tend to look at us more or end up on the ‘wrong’ side of us.
For example at :14, when you are heading away from the camera, we can really only see your back (he is too low to the ground to see your eyes above your shoulders). That was happening too on the other side, and can contribute to the misses like at :20 and :28. Without clear side info there, he might have been migrating to his more comfy side on your left. More connection will take care of that very easily.
>I assume the next step is to slowly add more distance?>
Yes – add more lateral distance and also vary your position: you can go all the way to the cookie with him and let him eat it, so you start moving forward from right next to him (so he drives ahead). Or, you can throw the cookie and get waaaaay ahead to challenge him to find the jump from behind you. Remember to use big connection on all of it, always looking at him pretty directly as you move up the line.
Get out:
This went great! He is a hat maniac LOL!!
My only suggestion here is that you don’t need the ‘yes’ marker on the treat tosses – you can use ‘get it’ so he stays on his line and looks ahead. This will be very helpful when you add movement.Speaking of movement – he is ready to see you moving up the line. You can be a bit further away from the hat for that, so you have room to add in NOT asking for the get out and letting him come to you. You have room in this space to add it indoors, then take it outside 🙂
Threadle wrap foundations – this game is mainly to make sure that the pups know how to turn away from the handler which is harder than it sounds for many of them! He did great with each step here – he was driving into your hand cues nice and tight, and turning away in both directions with no trouble (including when you were moving).
The next steps to this were added yesterday 🙂 and it looks like he is ready for it! The next steps add the barrel to wrap after turning away, and there are 4 levels of it (2 levels will make more sense to him if you have done the rocking horse games).Hind end awareness – you’ve made great strides with this one! Yay! The wings helped and you can absolutely leave them there at the start of each session (or when you add new things) to help keep him straight.
One thing as you work through different levels of this: the pups actually fatigue pretty quickly on this game, so one suggestion is fewer reps in a row (2 or 3, tops), then release him to move around freely and play with a toy. You can see the first few reps were pretty straight, then the next few were sideways and/or not as precise even with the wings there. The precision overrides the number of reps, so building in fewer reps is the way to go.
You can start to gradually move yourself further from t he cato plank now, to get more steps of backing up. Doing this as a ping-pong rather than adding more and more steps will be better for him (and also doing only a few reps in a row then letting him take a break.
Rear crosses:
This went a lot better than I expected it would, after having read your intro of it LOL!!!>But, I didn’t feel like he was connected with me at all. Maybe it was the day, he was hungry, he was tired, or Mercury was in retrograde. But Blast just didn’t seem to feel this one.>
If Mercury was in retrograde, that would explain my week LOL!!!
I think he didn’t quite realize you wanted him to snatch up the treat then drive to you. So he was plenty accurate but a little low finishing the treat then driving to you (especially on the 2nd side). Perhaps he thought it was a parallel path moment? But, yo got every single rear cross, so I still score the session a win!
> He spent so much time focused on the tossed cookie, it was like that extinguished the behavior and he shut off his brain. Just a lot of waiting and idling while he munches and considers his next move.>
It might have felt like an eternity, but it wasn’t that long LOL!! However, a couple of tweaks can bring more snappiness to the game:
– use a lower value treat (if there is such a thing :)) as the ‘go find it’ treat, and the higher value treat or a toy for driving to you. That can help direct his energy into getting the treat more quickly and then running to you.
– that low value treat can be something small and/or soft that he can just kind of slurp up and not need to chew.
– I think part of the question here was that while he found the treat easily, the smells there were interesting so he was not immediately lifting his head up to find you. You can start with a treat in a big bowl – put the treat in the bowl (holding his collar), and move him back (this can big up excitement for driving to the bowl). Then send him to it, do the RC, and call him to yo and a toy or great treat.
Leading With The Head: this one is all about handler mechanics to make it happen, so a couple of ideas for you:
I think the cone is a bit too short for him! He is getting tall!
So if you have a wingless upright, you will see more of the head turn and he will have a better understanding of the goal.For the mechanics: each rep should start with him at your side, facing forward to the upright. Then the send hand sends him forward, and that same hand draws him through to turn him away.
>It just doesn’t seem to flow>
You were looping it a little more, meaning starting the next rep when he finished the reward cookie – so he was coming in from different angles and turning away, which muddied the mechanics and probably made it feel like it was not flowing. So after the reward throw, you can reset him at your side to send forward into the next rep.
>it I feel is that he’s seeing my hand and looking for a tossed cookie,>
For the rewards: the send hand/turn hand can be empty – and the other hand can toss the treat the rest of the way around the wrap. That should help him understand that he is following a cue rather than following a cookie 🙂
And to really isolate the head turn, you can mark it with a clicker. This is a great game for clicking! You might need 3 hands 🙂 The clicker can go in the cookie hand, and the cookie hand can have just one treat in it so there is room for the clicker. Then while he is off eating the cookie you have tossed, you can line him up at your side and reset the cookie in your reward hand for the next rep.
Since there is so much mechanically in this game, slowing down the mechanics between each rep will allow you to reset and set up the next rep.
Great job on all of these!!! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
